Harvest Church Arroyo Grande: Recent Episodes

Harvest Church

Audio church services from Harvest Church Arroyo Grande, CA.

Stephen's final sermon wasn't designed to win applause—it was a bold call to repentance. In Acts 7:23–60, we see the tragic pattern of humanity rejecting God's messengers while discovering the unchanging faithfulness of God. This passage challenges us to ask an uncomfortable question: Am I resisting God's voice, or responding to it with a softened heart?

Whether you've faithfully followed Jesus for years or you're wrestling with questions about faith, this message reminds us that God's grace continues to pursue people who have rejected Him.

Stephen defends himself against accusations by walking through Israel's history, showing how God's people repeatedly rejected the very leaders He sent to rescue them. Through the lives of Moses, the temple, and the Law, Stephen reveals a deeper problem—not ignorance, but hardened hearts resisting the Holy Spirit. This sermon explores the progression of spiritual resistance and the hope found in repentance before our hearts grow cold.

Even as Stephen is rejected and ultimately martyred, he reflects the heart of Christ by praying for those who are killing him. His life points us to Jesus, who bore our sin on the cross, offered forgiveness to His enemies, and remains faithful even when humanity rejects Him. The invitation of the gospel is still the same today: repent, believe, and receive the grace God freely offers through Christ.

If you're looking for a church home, we'd love to welcome you to Harvest Church in Arroyo Grande. Join us as we grow together through God's Word, worship Jesus, and experience authentic biblical community. We'd love to have you worship with us.

If you're looking for Bible teaching, verse-by-verse study, expository preaching, and a Christ-centered Christian sermon that helps you grow in following Jesus, we invite you to join us Sundays at 9am & 11am. Learn more about Harvest Church at www.agharvest.org.

Truly following Jesus is to be Akin to him.
Akin = family, closely related, aligned.
In Acts 7, Stephen stands before the Sanhedrin and, instead of defending himself, boldly points to God's faithfulness throughout Israel's history. His message reminds us that following Christ means choosing truth over comfort and belonging to Jesus above all else.

Pastor Scott Goodman walks through Acts 7:1–22, showing how the lives of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses all point to Christ and call us to trust God's Word, keep moving in faith, and become more like Jesus.

If you're looking for a church home in Arroyo Grande, we'd love to welcome you to Harvest Church. Join us as we grow in God's Word, worship Jesus, and build authentic community together.

Harvest Church is committed to Bible teaching, verse-by-verse study, and expository preaching that helps people grow in following Jesus. Join us Sundays at 9am & 11am. Learn more at www.agharvest.org.

Trouble is inevitable wherever people gather—even in the church. Misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and conflict can threaten unity if they aren't handled biblically. In Acts 6, we see that the early church faced both internal challenges and external opposition, yet God continued to work powerfully through His people.

In this message, Pastor Steve Henry shows how believers can respond to conflict in a way that honors Christ, preserves unity, and keeps the mission of the gospel at the center.

Acts 6 records a complaint within the growing church as widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. Rather than ignoring the problem or allowing division to grow, the apostles responded with wisdom, appointed qualified servants, and remained devoted to prayer and the ministry of God's Word. The sermon also follows Stephen's faithful witness as he faced false accusations and persecution, demonstrating what it looks like to honor God even under intense opposition. Together, these events teach us three biblical principles: expect trouble, work through it, and honor God as you navigate it.

Because of Jesus Christ, the church has hope even in seasons of conflict. As we submit to the Holy Spirit, pursue reconciliation, and remain faithful to God's Word, He can use even difficult circumstances to strengthen His people and advance the gospel.

If you're looking for a church home, we'd love to welcome you to Harvest Church in Arroyo Grande. Join us as we grow together through God's Word, worship Jesus, and experience authentic Christian community. We'd be honored to have you worship with us.

At Harvest Church, we are committed to faithful Bible teaching through verse-by-verse study and expository preaching that helps people grow in following Jesus. Join us Sundays at 9am & 11am, or learn more at www.agharvest.org.

Opposition doesn't always mean you're on the wrong path. Sometimes faithfulness to Jesus leads directly into conflict, requiring us to decide whose voice we will ultimately obey. In Acts 5, the apostles face growing persecution, yet their response reminds us that God's calling is greater than the fear of man.

As the early church continues to grow through miraculous healings and bold preaching, the religious leaders become consumed with jealousy and imprison the apostles. After God miraculously frees them, they don't run or hide—they return to the temple and continue proclaiming the gospel. This message explores what it means to obey God rather than men, why believers have been rescued for a purpose, and how God calls every Christian to boldly share "the words of this Life," even when it comes at a cost.

Jesus not only forgives our sins—He frees us from the prison of sin and gives us a new purpose. Like the apostles, we are called to be witnesses of what we have seen and experienced in Christ, trusting Him to strengthen us as we faithfully follow wherever He leads.

If you're looking for a church family in Arroyo Grande, we'd love to welcome you to Harvest Church. Join us as we grow together through God's Word, worship Jesus, and build authentic community centered on the gospel.

Whether you're looking for faithful Bible teaching, a verse-by-verse study through Acts, expository preaching, or a Christian sermon to encourage you in following Jesus, we pray this message strengthens your faith. Join us Sundays at 9am & 11am. Learn more at www.agharvest.org.

Following Jesus requires more than appearances—it calls for wholehearted devotion. In Acts 5:11–16, we see how God protected the unity and witness of the early church, producing reverence, bold faith, and continued gospel growth.

In this verse-by-verse study, Pastor Curtis Henry explores the aftermath of Ananias and Sapphira, the fear of the Lord, and the powerful work God continued to do through the apostles. This message challenges us to let go of the world, cling to Christ, and live fully surrendered to Him.

If you're looking for a church home, we'd love to welcome you to Harvest Church in Arroyo Grande. Join us Sundays at 9am & 11am as we grow in God's Word, worship Jesus, and experience authentic Christian community.

For more information, visit www.agharvest.org.

Deception has been Satan's strategy from the very beginning. In Acts 4:32–5:11, we see both the beauty of a Spirit-filled church marked by unity and generosity, and the devastating consequences of believing lies instead of walking in truth.

Pastor Steve teaches through the account of Ananias and Sapphira, showing how Satan fills a person's heart through lies that lead to compromise, destruction, and broken fellowship with God. This passage calls every believer to live with integrity, humility, and wholehearted obedience to Christ.

If you're in the Arroyo Grande area, we'd love to welcome you to Harvest Church. Join us as we grow in God's Word, experience authentic community, and worship Jesus together.

For faithful Bible teaching, verse-by-verse study, and expository preaching that helps you grow in following Jesus, join us Sundays at 9am & 11am.

Learn more at www.agharvest.org.

When opposition comes, how should followers of Jesus respond? In Acts 4, the early church faces threats and persecution, yet instead of fear, they respond with confidence in God's sovereignty and a prayer for greater boldness.

In this verse-by-verse study of Acts 4:23–31, Pastor Curtis examines how the believers trusted God's plan, prayed for courage rather than comfort, and depended on the power of the Holy Spirit to continue proclaiming Christ.

This passage reminds us that opposition is not a sign that God has abandoned us—it is often part of faithfully following Jesus. As we trust Him, our perspective, prayers, and dependence on God are transformed.

Harvest Church is a non-denominational church in Arroyo Grande, California, committed to teaching God's Word and helping people grow in authentic relationship with Jesus. Join us Sundays at 9am & 11am.

For more information, visit www.agharvest.org.

This Christian sermon is part of our verse-by-verse study through Acts and is rooted in Bible teaching, expository preaching, and practical encouragement for following Jesus in everyday life.

Religion can produce outward appearance, knowledge, and tradition, yet still leave people enslaved to anger, hard-heartedness, and fear. In Acts 4, Peter and John stand before the religious leaders of Israel and boldly proclaim that true salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone. Their courage reveals the transforming power of a life surrendered to Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit.

Following the healing of the lame man in Acts 3, Peter and John are arrested and questioned by the very leaders who opposed Jesus. Rather than shrinking back, they faithfully declare that the miracle was accomplished through the power of the risen Christ. This passage highlights three marks of faithful discipleship: trusting Jesus to deliver the victory, boldly declaring the truth, and refusing to compromise when pressured to be silent.

The same Jesus who transformed fearful disciples into courageous witnesses is still saving and changing lives today. Forgiveness of sins, new life, and lasting hope are found in Him alone.

We invite you to join us at Harvest Church in Arroyo Grande as we grow together through God's Word, authentic Christian community, and worship centered on Jesus Christ. We would love to welcome you to one of our Sunday gatherings.

If you're looking for Bible teaching, verse-by-verse study through Scripture, expository preaching, Christian sermons, and practical encouragement for following Jesus, we invite you to worship with us Sundays at 9am & 11am. For more information, visit www.agharvest.org.

Who are you turning to when life becomes difficult? In Acts 3, Peter points a crowd away from human strength and toward Jesus Christ, the only source of lasting hope, forgiveness, and transformation.

Following the healing of a man who had been crippled since birth, Peter boldly proclaims that the miracle was accomplished through the power of Jesus. He calls his listeners to give God the glory, embrace the truth about Christ, and respond with repentance and faith.

This message explores Peter's challenge to the crowd and the blessings that come from turning to Jesus: forgiven sins, spiritual refreshment, freedom from judgment, and a life increasingly transformed by God's grace.

If you're in the Arroyo Grande area, we'd love to welcome you to Harvest Church. Join us as we grow in God's Word, experience authentic community, and worship Jesus together. Service times: 9am & 11am.

Harvest Church is committed to Bible teaching, verse-by-verse study, expository preaching, and helping people follow Jesus. For more information, visit www.agharvest.org.

Brokenness is something every person knows. Whether it's physical pain, emotional wounds, past failures, or ongoing struggles, we all have places in our lives where we need God's healing touch. In Acts 3, we meet a man whose life had been defined by helplessness for over forty years—until Jesus changed everything.

As Peter and John encounter a lame man at the Beautiful Gate, we see the transformative power of Jesus Christ. What the man expected was temporary relief, but what Jesus offered was complete restoration. This passage reminds us that Christ meets us in our deepest need and brings hope where we see none.

Ultimately, this miracle points beyond physical healing to the greater healing Jesus provides through the gospel. Through His death and resurrection, sinners can be forgiven, restored to God, and made whole in Him.

If you're in the Arroyo Grande area, we'd love to invite you to join us at Harvest Church as we grow in God's Word, enjoy authentic community, and worship Jesus together.

Sunday Services: 9am & 11am
For more information, visit www.agharvest.org

This message is part of our verse-by-verse study through Acts and reflects our commitment to Bible teaching, expository preaching, Christian discipleship, and following Jesus through God's Word.

What does authentic Christian community actually look like in a world marked by loneliness, division, and self-centered living? In Acts 2, we see the birth of the first local church—and discover a Spirit-filled community radically shaped by devotion to Jesus and love for one another.

In this message, Pastor Curtis walks through Acts 2:42–47 and explores four characteristics of a healthy church community: a learning church, a loving church, a worshipping church, and an evangelistic church. As modern culture grows increasingly disconnected, Scripture gives us a vision for genuine community rooted in truth, sacrifice, worship, and Gospel witness.

After Pentecost, thousands turned to Christ and publicly identified with Him through baptism. But their new life in Jesus did not stop at conversion. Luke gives us a picture of what happened next: believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, cared for one another sacrificially, worshipped God with glad hearts, and boldly lived as witnesses to the saving work of Christ.

This passage reminds us that healthy Christian community is not built on convenience or personal preference, but on devotion—to God’s Word, to one another, and to the mission of Jesus. In an age increasingly shaped by artificial connection and distorted truth, the church is called to offer something real: authentic relationships, genuine love, and the unchanging truth of the Gospel.

Most importantly, this message points us to Jesus Christ—the One who gave Himself for us so that we could be forgiven, made new, and brought into the family of God. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus removes our sin, guilt, and shame, and calls us into a new way of life marked by devotion, worship, and love for others.

We’d love to invite you to join us at Harvest Church in Arroyo Grande as we grow together in God’s Word, worship Jesus, and walk in authentic Christian community. Whether you’ve followed Christ for years or are simply exploring faith, there’s a place for you here.

Join us Sundays at 9am & 11am.
For more information, visit www.agharvest.org.

In Acts 2, Peter stands before the crowds in Jerusalem and boldly declares that Jesus is both Lord and Christ. The same Jesus who was crucified has risen from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and now calls people everywhere to repent, believe, and publicly identify with Him. This message confronts every heart with the same question: What is keeping you from bowing the knee to Jesus?

Whether you’ve resisted surrendering an area of your life to God, struggled with doubt, or kept your faith private and comfortable, this passage reminds us that following Jesus is more than intellectual agreement. Christ calls us to repentance, obedience, and wholehearted submission to His rule and reign. The good news is that His kingship is not oppressive—it is good, life-giving, and full of mercy for all who call upon His name.

In this verse-by-verse study of Acts 2:22–41, Curtis Henry walks through Peter’s sermon at Pentecost and the birth of the Church’s witness in Jerusalem. Peter first proclaims the truth about Jesus: that His miracles authenticated Him as the Messiah, His crucifixion happened according to God’s sovereign plan, and His resurrection proved that death could not hold Him. Peter then turns to the Scriptures, showing how King David prophetically pointed forward to the resurrection and exaltation of Christ. Finally, the sermon culminates in a clear invitation: repent, be baptized, and publicly identify with Jesus as Lord and Savior.

This passage points us directly to the hope of the gospel. Jesus Christ died for sinners, rose again in victory, and now offers forgiveness and new life to all who trust in Him. Repentance is not merely feeling bad for sin—it is a change of mind that leads to surrendering ourselves to Christ. Baptism becomes the outward declaration that we now belong to Jesus and His Kingdom.

We’d love to invite you to join us at Harvest Church in Arroyo Grande as we grow together in God’s Word, worship Jesus, and build authentic Christian community. Whether you’re exploring faith, returning to church, or looking for a church family committed to Scripture-centered teaching, we would love to welcome you. Service times: Sundays at 9am & 11am.

Harvest Church is committed to Bible teaching, expository preaching, and verse-by-verse study through the Scriptures so people can grow in following Jesus and living under His lordship. For more information about our church, ministries, and upcoming gatherings, visit www.agharvest.org.

Motherhood is filled with unseen sacrifices, quiet faithfulness, and the constant burden of wanting to guide your children well. In Proverbs 31:1–9, we’re given a powerful glimpse into a mother’s loving instruction to her son—a message filled with wisdom, warning, and deep spiritual care. On this Mother’s Day, we honor the God-given role of mothers and the lasting impact of faithful counsel rooted in truth.

Whether you’re a mom seeking encouragement, a parent navigating the responsibility of raising children, or someone wanting to grow in wisdom and maturity, this message reminds us that God gives grace, strength, and wisdom for the calling He places before us.

In this verse-by-verse study through Proverbs 31:1–9, Pastor Steve Henry walks through the counsel given by King Lemuel’s mother and highlights three areas of wisdom every believer needs. First, we see relational wisdom—the importance of choosing relationships carefully and recognizing the influence others have on our walk with God. Second, we see judicial wisdom—a warning against living carelessly and the call to lead with integrity and self-control. Finally, we see societal wisdom—the responsibility believers have to speak up for the vulnerable, care for the hurting, and reflect the compassion of Christ in the world around them.

This passage reminds us that biblical wisdom is not merely information—it is truth applied to everyday life. God calls His people to live differently: to pursue purity, exercise discernment, lead faithfully, and love others sacrificially. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, believers are strengthened to walk in wisdom and reflect the character of Jesus in every sphere of life.

If you’re in the Arroyo Grande area, we’d love to invite you to join us at Harvest Church. We are a church committed to teaching God’s Word faithfully, growing together in authentic Christian community, and worshiping Jesus wholeheartedly. Whether you’ve followed Christ for years or are simply curious about the Bible, you are welcome here.

Harvest Church meets Sundays at 9am & 11am. For more information, visit www.agharvest.org.

What does it actually look like to live a life empowered by God—not just in theory, but in everyday reality? Many believers wrestle with a sense of spiritual inconsistency, longing for deeper faith and lasting fruit but unsure how to get there. Acts 2 shows us that the Christian life was never meant to be lived in our own strength.

In this passage, we see God move powerfully at Pentecost, filling His people with the Holy Spirit and launching the mission of the Church. This message walks through Acts 2:1–21, highlighting three key movements: being filled with the Holy Spirit, responding to God with humility, and becoming convinced that your life has a real Kingdom purpose. As the crowd witnesses the miraculous and wrestles with what it means, Peter stands and anchors the moment in Scripture, pointing to the fulfillment of God’s promises and the beginning of a new era.

At the center of it all is the promise that “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The same God who poured out His Spirit then is still at work today—calling people to repentance, filling them with His Spirit, and sending them out with purpose.

If you’re looking to grow in your understanding of God’s Word and walk in the power of the Spirit, we’d love to have you join us at Harvest Church in Arroyo Grande. We are committed to teaching the Bible faithfully, building authentic community, and worshiping Jesus together. Service times: 9am & 11am.

This message is part of our verse-by-verse study through Acts, rooted in Bible teaching and expository preaching, helping you grow as you follow Jesus and live out your faith. For more information, visit www.agharvest.org.

What does it actually look like to live a Spirit-empowered life? Many people feel stuck—wanting growth, boldness, or deeper faith, but unsure how to move forward. Acts 2 shows us that the Christian life was never meant to be lived in our own strength. God doesn’t just call His people—He empowers them.

In Acts 2:1–21, we see the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise as the Holy Spirit is poured out at Pentecost, empowering ordinary believers to proclaim the mighty works of God. Through the imagery of wind and fire, we’re reminded that the Spirit brings life, purifies, and equips God’s people for His mission. This message centers on a clear truth: God’s people are supernaturally empowered to live a new life of faith and fruitfulness as they are continually filled with the Holy Spirit—walking in obedience, growing in boldness, and relying on His strength to carry out the Great Commission.

If you’re in the Arroyo Grande area, we’d love to invite you to join us at Harvest Church. Come grow in God’s Word through verse-by-verse teaching, experience authentic community, and worship Jesus together with us. Service times: 9am & 11am.

This message is part of our ongoing Bible teaching through the book of Acts, rooted in expository preaching and a commitment to studying Scripture in context. Whether you’re exploring faith or committed to following Jesus, this Christian sermon will help you understand the role of the Holy Spirit and how to live a Spirit-filled life. For more information, visit www.agharvest.org.

What do you do when God has given you a promise—but not yet the next step? The in-between seasons of life can feel uncertain, quiet, and even disorienting. Yet Scripture shows us that these moments are not wasted. God often does some of His most important work in us while we wait.

In this passage from Acts, we step into a rarely discussed moment between two major events—the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit. It’s the calm between the mountaintops. And in this space, the early church models how to walk with clarity when direction feels limited.

In Acts 1:12–26, we see the disciples return to Jerusalem and devote themselves to prayer as they wait on the Lord’s promise. Peter leads the group to anchor their decisions in Scripture, recognizing God’s sovereign plan even in the betrayal of Judas. Then, as they move forward, they faithfully steward what has been entrusted to them by appointing a new apostle. Through this, we discover three essential practices for navigating life’s in-between seasons: being devoted to prayer, leaning on God’s Word, and stewarding faithfully what’s in front of us.

Ultimately, this passage points us to a deeper trust in God’s timing and His authority over every season. Even when clarity feels distant, Christ is present. And for those who have not yet trusted in Him, the invitation is clear—Jesus offers forgiveness, new life, and a restored relationship with God through His finished work on the cross.

If you’re in a season of waiting, uncertainty, or transition, we’d love to invite you to join us at Harvest Church in Arroyo Grande. Come grow in God’s Word, experience authentic community, and worship Jesus together. Service times: 9am & 11am.

This message is part of our verse-by-verse study through the book of Acts and is rooted in clear, biblical teaching. If you’re looking for a Christian sermon focused on expository preaching, Bible teaching, and learning what it means to follow Jesus, visit www.agharvest.org for more information.

What does it really mean to be a witness for Jesus? Not just in theory—but in real life, with real people, in real conversations. Many of us feel unqualified, hesitant, or unsure of what to say. Others are eager but try to move ahead in their own strength. In this passage, we’re reminded that being a witness isn’t about personality, intellect, or effort—it’s about the power of the Holy Spirit working through ordinary people.

In Acts 1:1–11, Luke introduces the continuation of Jesus’ work through His followers after the resurrection. Jesus presents Himself alive with many proofs, speaks about the kingdom of God, and gives a clear command: wait for the promise of the Father—the Holy Spirit. The disciples wrestle with their expectations of God’s timing, but Jesus redirects them to their mission: to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. This sermon walks through the purpose of Acts as an apologetic, historical account, the role of eyewitness testimony in proving the truth of Christianity, and the calling of every believer to testify to what Christ has done.

At the center of this passage is the promise of power—not human strength, but the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus ascends, not to abandon His people, but to continue His work through them. The same is true for us today. We are called to bear faithful witness—not perfectly, but truthfully—pointing others to the risen Christ who saves, transforms, and reigns as Lord.

If you’re in the Arroyo Grande area, we’d love to invite you to join us at Harvest Church. Come grow in God’s Word through verse-by-verse teaching, experience authentic community, and worship Jesus together. Service times are listed below—we’d love to meet you.

Join us Sundays at 9am & 11am or visit www.agharvest.org for more information.

This message is from Harvest Church's annual Easter in the Park service at Heritage Square Park on April 5th 2026

What if the resurrection of Jesus truly changes everything—not just historically, but personally? Because Jesus is alive, fear can give way to peace, guilt to forgiveness, and despair to real hope. This message invites you to consider how the risen Christ still transforms lives today.

In this Easter message, we see three key truths: the resurrection restores hope, reassures us that Jesus is who He claimed to be, and offers life and purpose to all who believe. Through the empty tomb and Jesus’ gracious response to His fearful followers, we’re reminded that He meets us with peace, not condemnation.

Jesus died for our sins and rose again so we could have forgiveness and new life. Because He lives, we can be born again to a living hope that begins now and lasts forever.

Join us at Harvest Church in Arroyo Grande as we grow in God’s Word, walk in authentic community, and worship Jesus together. Sunday services at 9am & 11am. Learn more at www.agharvest.org.

We welcome ministry partner and special guest Cyril Gordon as he breaks down the Passover Seder and shows how every element—matzah, the four cups, and the removal of leaven—points directly to Jesus Christ and the gospel. This powerful teaching connects Jewish tradition to its fulfillment in Christ and highlights the meaning behind Communion.

Also included is a recent update from Cyril’s Venice Beach ministry, where he shares real stories of evangelism, salvation, and gospel outreach in a spiritually challenging environment.

Learn more about Cyril and the ministry he is doing here:
https://savethejews.org/cyril-gordon/

We’d love to invite you to join us at Harvest Church in Arroyo Grande. Come grow in God’s Word, experience authentic community, and worship Jesus with us. Whether you’re new to faith or have been walking with the Lord for years, there is a place for you here.

Join us Sundays at 9am & 11am, and learn more at www.agharvest.org.

What does it really mean to belong to the church? For many, church is something we attend—but Scripture reveals it’s something far deeper. In this message, we’re reminded that being part of the church is not about a building, a title, or a role—it’s about being brought into the family of God through Jesus Christ.

If you’ve ever wrestled with your place in the church, felt disconnected, or wondered what your role truly is, this passage brings clarity and encouragement. God doesn’t just save us individually—He calls us into something bigger: His people, united in Christ.

In Acts 2:36–41, we witness the birth of the church at Pentecost. Peter boldly proclaims Jesus as both Lord and Christ, and the people respond with repentance and faith. From this moment, we see that church membership is not earned—it is a gift given through salvation. From there, the message unfolds in three clear movements: church membership is a gift, church members are called to unity, and church membership involves active participation. Drawing from passages like Ephesians 4 and Romans 12, we see how humility, love, and spiritual gifts shape the life of every believer within the body of Christ.

At the center of it all is the gospel: Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, who forgives sin, fills us with His Spirit, and brings us into His church. Our identity is not found in a role or title, but in being children of God—saved by grace and called into His family.

We’d love to invite you to join us at Harvest Church in Arroyo Grande. Come grow in God’s Word, experience authentic community, and worship Jesus with us. Whether you’re new to faith or have been walking with the Lord for years, there is a place for you here.

Join us Sundays at 9am & 11am, and learn more at www.agharvest.org.

What attitude do we bring when we come to church? Do we arrive expecting to receive something, or ready to serve and love others? In this message, we examine how our mindset toward the church reveals what we truly believe about it. The Bible presents the church not as a place built around preferences or personal benefit, but as a living body where every believer matters and every member is called to love and serve one another.

In 1 Corinthians 12–13, the Apostle Paul addresses a church struggling with division, pride, and personal preferences. While the Corinthian believers were active in spiritual gifts and ministry, their attitudes toward one another were damaging the unity of the body. Paul reminds them that the church is like a body with many parts—each member necessary and designed by God. No one can say they do not need others, and no one should believe they have nothing to contribute. At the center of Paul’s correction is the “more excellent way”: love. Without love, even the most impressive spiritual gifts and acts of service amount to nothing.

This passage calls believers to examine their hearts and attitudes toward the church family. Biblical love is patient, kind, humble, and enduring. It seeks the good of others rather than insisting on its own way. When the church lives this way, unity is protected, the enemy’s schemes are resisted, and the body of Christ becomes effective in advancing the mission of the gospel. Ultimately, our unity flows from the cross of Jesus Christ, where every believer finds the same identity—deeply loved, completely forgiven, and fully accepted by God.

If you’re in the Arroyo Grande area, we would love to invite you to join us at Harvest Church. Our desire is to grow together in God’s Word, worship Jesus sincerely, and build authentic Christian community as we follow Him.

Harvest Church meets Sundays at 9am & 11am. For more information about ministries, service times, and upcoming events, visit www.agharvest.org.

What does it really mean to belong to a church? In a culture where people often choose churches based on preference or feelings, the Bible calls us to something deeper. Church membership is not simply about attendance or convenience—it’s about shared convictions, shared mission, and a shared commitment to follow Christ together.

In this message, we begin a three-part series on what it means to be part of a healthy church body. Before committing to a church, there are essential biblical foundations that must be in place. When believers are aligned around these foundations, the church can flourish as God intended.

In Part 1 of this series, we explore the prerequisites of being a church member. Scripture teaches that a healthy church body must share three key pillars: beliefs, mission, and leadership. We examine core doctrines of the Christian faith—such as the Trinity, the authority of Scripture, salvation through Jesus Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit—along with the mission Christ gave His church to make disciples. We also look at the biblical structure of church leadership and the call for believers to walk in humility and submit to godly authority when leaders meet the qualifications laid out in Scripture.

Along the way, we consider how the Bible speaks to the times we are living in and why believers are called to stay alert, faithful, and grounded in God’s Word. As followers of Jesus, our hope is not in the shifting circumstances of the world but in the promises of God and the coming redemption found in Christ.

If you live on the Central Coast, we would love to have you join us at Harvest Church in Arroyo Grande. Our heart is to see people grow in God’s Word, build authentic Christian community, and worship Jesus together. Whether you’re exploring faith or looking for a church home, you are welcome here.

At Harvest Church we are committed to clear Bible teaching and helping people follow Jesus through faithful study of Scripture. Join us for a Christian sermon rooted in the authority of God’s Word, where we practice verse-by-verse Bible teaching and expository preaching that helps believers grow in their walk with Christ.

Sunday services are at 9am and 11am. For more information, visit www.agharvest.org.

After failure, hesitation, and regret, what does restoration look like?

At the end of the Gospel of John, Jesus meets Peter on the shore and asks him a piercing question: “Do you love Me?” It’s not meant to shame him. It’s meant to restore him. In this final passage of John, we see that following Jesus without hesitation begins with an honest look at the condition of our hearts.

As we conclude our 18-month verse-by-verse study through John, we are reminded why this Gospel was written: that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in His name (John 20:30–31). In John 21:15–25, Jesus confronts Peter’s three denials with three loving questions. He distinguishes between a natural, brotherly love and a supernatural, self-sacrificing love. Peter answers honestly, and in that honesty, Jesus restores him and recommissions him: “Feed My lambs. Tend My sheep. Follow Me.”

This passage presses three critical questions into our lives:

What kind of love do you have for Jesus?
Will you follow Jesus if it costs you everything?
Are you growing in your love, capacity, and commitment?

Jesus not only restores Peter, He tells him that following faithfully will eventually cost him his life. And Peter follows anyway. The man who once denied Christ becomes the preacher of Acts 2, boldly proclaiming the Gospel as thousands are saved. He becomes the shepherd who exhorts others to care for the flock of God. Restoration led to growth. Growth led to fruitfulness.

The same is true for us. Jesus is patient with our failures, but He calls us forward. He invites us to stop comparing our calling to others and to focus on one simple command: “You follow Me.” A fruitful life is found not in hesitation, but in wholehearted surrender.

If you are in the Arroyo Grande area, we would love to invite you to join us at Harvest Church as we continue growing in God’s Word, worshiping Jesus, and walking in authentic Christian community. Whether you are new to faith, returning to church, or looking to go deeper in your discipleship, there is a place for you here.

Join us Sundays at 9am & 11am.
For more information, visit www.agharvest.org.

This message is part of our ongoing Bible teaching ministry at Harvest Church, where we are committed to verse-by-verse study, Christ-centered preaching, and clear expository preaching that equips people for following Jesus faithfully in everyday life.

Do you hesitate in your obedience to Christ?
What is on the other side of your obedience?

In this message, Pastor Curtis explores what it means to follow Jesus without hesitation as he takes us through John 21:1-14, a fishing story where a resurrected Jesus encounters his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.

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We’d love to connect with you:
Website: https://agharvest.org

Join us in person:
Sundays • 9:00am & 11:00am
Harvest Church
Arroyo Grande, California

In John 20, the risen Jesus appears to His disciples and repeats a simple but powerful phrase: “Peace be with you.” The disciples were afraid, confused, and uncertain about the future—yet Jesus offers them peace.

Many Christians know about God’s peace, but still live anxious, frustrated, and restless lives. In this message, we look at the encounter between Jesus and Thomas and discover how the resurrection gives believers a kind of peace the world cannot offer.

We explore three essential aspects of living in God’s peace:

Peace Within Yourself – freedom from guilt, anxiety, fear, and the inner turmoil that steals our joy (Philippians 4:7; John 14:27; 1 Peter 5:7).

Peace With Others – becoming peacemakers in our homes, relationships, and daily lives, trusting God with justice and choosing good over evil (Matthew 5:9; Romans 12:18-21).

Peace With God – the foundation of all peace, made possible through faith in the risen Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1-2; John 20:31).

The peace Jesus gives is not dependent on circumstances. It comes from the certainty that Christ is alive, our sins are forgiven, and our eternity is secure. When we walk in that peace, our lives become a powerful testimony to a frantic and anxious world.

If you are struggling with worry, guilt, conflict, or spiritual uncertainty, this message is for you.

Scripture: John 20:24-31 (ESV)

Join us as we learn how to protect, pursue, and live in the peace Jesus died and rose again to give us.

After the resurrection, Jesus’ first words to His fearful disciples were simple but powerful: “Peace be with you.”

In John 20:11–23, we see anxious followers hiding behind locked doors, Mary Magdalene weeping outside the tomb, and hearts overwhelmed by confusion, grief, and uncertainty. Into that fear, the risen Christ steps and speaks peace.

This message explores why Jesus offered peace then — and why He still offers it today.

We all experience moments like the disciples: fear about the future, disappointment in our circumstances, and questions about what comes next. Yet this passage shows us that the presence of Jesus changes everything. Mary’s tears turn into testimony, the disciples’ fear becomes gladness, and their confusion becomes calling.

In this teaching, we learn:

• Jesus offers peace when we are scared and uncertain

• Jesus offers peace that replaces fear with gladness and joy

• Jesus offers peace, fills us with His Spirit, and calls us to a greater purpose

Biblical peace (eirēnē — similar to shalom) is more than calm feelings. It is wholeness, security, and confidence rooted in the presence of Christ Himself. God’s peace is not found in perfect circumstances — it is found in a living Savior.

God’s peace is followed by God’s purpose.

Scripture: John 20:11–23

Join us as we discover the peace that only the risen Jesus can give.

On this special Say Yes Sunday, we reflect on what it means to live a life that leaves a lasting legacy and to respond faithfully when God calls us.

Rooted in 1 Peter 4:7–11, this message reminds us that every believer has been gifted by God and called to steward those gifts in love, service, and faithfulness—for His glory and the good of others.
We celebrate the countless ways people at Harvest Church have said “yes” to serving, giving, praying, and loving others, and share important news about an upcoming leadership transition at Harvest Church.

In this message, you’ll hear about:
• The power of saying “yes” to God’s calling—at any stage of life
• A heartfelt celebration of the many volunteers and servants at Harvest Church
• An important announcement regarding the upcoming transition of Lead Pastor leadership:

After 23 years of service, our Pastor Steve(Lead Pastor) shares how God is calling him into a new assignment, continuing to serve Harvest Church as Pastor Emeritus while also supporting pastors in the U.S. and abroad through Poimen Ministries. With the unanimous support of the elders, Curtis will step into the role of Lead Pastor as part of a thoughtful, prayerful transition. This transition will happen slowly over the next 9-10 months. When the transition of leadership is complete, it will be formalized on a Sunday morning with ceremony and celebration. Following the “passing of the baton”, Steve will, upon recommendation from trusted mentors, take a leave of absence for three months so that Pastor Curtis can begin to lead.
We invite you to pray with us, celebrate God’s work among us, and consider where He may be calling you to say yes and step into service.

Thank you for being part of the Harvest Church family.

What really happened on the morning Jesus rose from the dead—and why does it matter so much today?

In this message from John 20, we look at the climax of Jesus’ biography: His resurrection. Unlike every other life story that rises and falls, Jesus’ story doesn’t end at death—it explodes into resurrection, ongoing ministry, and eternal reign.

Together, we explore three essential truths:

The Event – What the Gospel accounts actually tell us happened at the empty tomb

The Evidence – Eyewitness testimony, historical sources, and physical evidence that support the resurrection, including discussion of the Shroud of Turin

The Effect – How Jesus’ resurrection changes history, reshapes our faith, and offers new life to every person who trusts Him

The resurrection isn’t just a theological idea—it’s the foundation of Christianity and the turning point of human history. If Jesus truly rose from the dead, then everything He said is true… and it demands a response from all of us.

Whether you’re confident in your faith, wrestling with doubt, or simply curious about the truth, this message invites you to do more than glance at the resurrection—to consider it carefully and let it transform your life.

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

In John 19:31–42, we are brought face-to-face with the reality of Jesus’ death—and the question it demands of every heart: What impact does the death of Jesus have on you?

As Jesus’ body is removed from the cross and laid in a borrowed tomb, Scripture reveals both fulfilled prophecy and exposed hearts. John records these events so that we might believe, and as we walk through this passage, we see three distinct responses to the death of Jesus:

Some who witnessed His death decided to believe in Him. 
From the fulfillment of Scripture to the piercing of His side, the evidence pointed clearly to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Others continued in their unbelief. 
Even in the face of undeniable truth, hardened hearts chose to remain unmoved, blind to what God was clearly revealing.
At least a couple were moved to make their faith in Jesus public. 
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus stepped out of the shadows, risking reputation and position to openly identify with Jesus through a costly and honorable burial.

This message explores the theological and personal significance of Jesus’ death—His role as the Passover Lamb, the meaning of the blood and water, the fulfillment of prophecy, and the call to repentance and belief. But more than information, this passage invites reflection.

Does the cross still move you? Do you mourn over your sin? Are you willing to come out of the shadows with your faith?

“These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:31)

We continue our study through the Gospel of John with John 19:16b–30, where we witness the crucifixion of Jesus and hear His final words from the cross: “It is finished.”

Jesus finished His life well.
The question for every one of us is simple—and unavoidable: How will you finish?

In this message, we see that finishing well doesn’t happen by accident. From Golgotha, Jesus shows us what a faithful life looks like all the way to the end. As He carries His own cross, fulfills God’s plan, cares for others even in suffering, and completes the work the Father gave Him, we are challenged to follow His example.

Together, we explore three essential truths:

Jesus carried His own cross; we must carry ours — dying to self and living fully for Christ.
Jesus knew His assignment; we must know ours — discovering God’s purpose as we walk closely with Him.
Jesus finished His work; we must finish ours — remaining faithful to Jesus until our final breath.

God had a plan for Jesus’ life, and He has a plan for yours. The way we finish is shaped by how we live today. May this message encourage you to deny yourself, follow Jesus wholeheartedly, and commit to finishing your race well—for the glory of God.

Building on last week’s reminder that God hears our prayers and meets us with comfort, this message from Hebrews 10:19–26 calls believers to live with confidence, conviction, and committed fellowship because of what Jesus has done.

Through Christ’s sacrifice, a new and living way has been opened. The barrier that once separated humanity from God has been torn down—not by religion or effort, but by the finished work of Jesus. Because of Him, we now have bold access to the presence of God.

In this message, Pastor Scott Goodman walks us through three essential exhortations from Hebrews 10:

🔹 Draw near to God with confidence in His forgiveness
Because of the blood of Jesus, we are invited to approach God with full assurance of faith—not fear, shame, or distance.

🔹 Hold fast to your confession of hope
Trials, grief, criticism, and loss will come—but our hope remains secure because He who promised is faithful.

🔹 Stay committed to fellowship in the fear of God
We are called to stir one another up to love and good works, to remain engaged in community, and to encourage one another as the Day of Christ’s return draws near.

Along the way, this message explores the powerful imagery of Psalm 22, the symbolism of the torn veil, the beauty of Christ as our Great High Priest, and the serious warning against treating the sacrifice of Jesus casually or willfully walking away from truth.

This sermon is both an encouragement and a sober reminder: the Christian life is not passive. We are in a race, a battle, and a family—called to walk closely with Christ and closely with one another.

As we conclude with communion, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes, celebrating together the salvation we’ve been given through His work on the cross.

📖 Scripture: Hebrews 10:19–26, Psalm 22, Isaiah 1:18, Matthew 22:37–40, 2 Corinthians 13:5

How are you helping others draw near to God, hold fast to Jesus, and stay engaged in the fight of faith?

How do we please God?

That question was asked during our Christmas Eve service—and Scripture gives us a clear answer. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. But what does real, biblical faith actually look like in everyday life?

In this message from December 28, 2025, we begin our study in Hebrews 11:1–2, discovering how faith is demonstrated—not just believed.

Faith is not blind optimism or wishful thinking. It is a confident trust in the character of God that shapes how we pray, worship, serve, and obey. Scripture shows us that genuine faith always produces visible fruit.

In this sermon, we explore three ways faith is demonstrated:

1️⃣ By our assurance and conviction about things unseen

Faith believes God hears our prayers, receives our worship, and is present even when we cannot see Him.

2️⃣ By how we live

The people of old were commended because their faith caused them to live differently. True faith changes our priorities, actions, and daily decisions.

3️⃣ By our obedience to God’s Word

God’s Word is our roadmap and our mirror. Biblical faith responds with obedience—being doers of the Word, not hearers only (James 1:22–25).

As Warren Wiersbe said, “True biblical faith is confident obedience to God’s Word, regardless of circumstances or consequences.” And as Oswald Chambers reminds us, faith is trusting God’s character even when His ways are not fully understood.

As we reflect on the year behind us, we end with an important question:

How have you demonstrated your faith in 2025?

📖 Scripture References: Hebrews 11:1–6, Psalm 34:17, Psalm 66:19, Psalm 145:19, Matthew 25, Colossians 3:23, James 1:22–25

🙏 If this message encouraged you, consider liking, sharing, or subscribing—and join us as we continue learning what it means to walk by faith and please God.

Christmas is more than a season—it’s the moment hope stepped into our darkness.

In this Christmas Eve message, we celebrate the birth of Jesus and the unshakable hope found in Him. Through the Christmas story and a powerful reminder that light matters most when the world feels dark, we’re reminded that Jesus did not come into a perfect world—He came into a broken one, bringing light, life, and salvation.

This message explores three reasons we can confidently place our hope in God:

God is always on time — Jesus arrived exactly when the world needed Him most (Galatians 4:4).
God cares about ordinary people — The first announcement of Jesus’ birth was given to shepherds, reminding us that no one is overlooked by God (Luke 2:8–16).
God always keeps His promises — He sent a Savior just as He said He would, proving His faithfulness and love (John 3:16).

Jesus is the Light that shines in the darkness—and the darkness has not overcome it.

📖 Scriptures Referenced:

John 3:16

Galatians 4:4

Luke 2:8–16

Hebrews 11:6

Romans 5:5

🎄 Recorded during our Christmas Eve services at 2:30pm & 4:00pm.

If this message encouraged you, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who needs hope this Christmas.

Love isn’t a feeling — love is sacrifice.

This Christmas message from Philippians 2:3–11 shows us how Jesus demonstrated His love, not just in words, but through what He gave up for us.

In “Love Is Born,” we look at three sacrifices Jesus made by being born:

He emptied Himself of privilege and power
He took on our humanity
He humbled Himself, even to death on a cross

Jesus left glory to enter our broken world.
He lived our life, carried our sin, and gave everything to rescue us.

This message invites us to see the depth of Christ’s love and respond to it — allowing His love to transform hearts, heal relationships, and change lives.

Love is born when sacrifice is made.

This is the season when we celebrate the birth of Jesus—the Savior of the world. But the Gospel of John reminds us that Jesus was born with a purpose: to endure the cross.

In John 19:1–16, we see what Jesus willingly endured—betrayal, denial, scourging, rejection, and crucifixion. Though Pilate found no guilt in Him, Jesus was beaten, mocked, and delivered to be crucified. He knew what awaited Him, and He went through it anyway.

Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him. Because He loves you.

In this message, we look at:

How Jesus endured the cross so that we might find healing

How His suffering brings life instead of death

Why Jesus endured the cross so that He might be your King

Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter 2 remind us that by His wounds we are healed—spiritually, physically, and relationally. The cross was not an accident; it was the plan of God to redeem humanity.

The question remains for all of us:

Is Jesus your King?

📖 Scripture: John 19:1–16a (ESV)

Hear from Daniel Kinda and Stephen Goble about their recent trip to Uganda; an engaging discussion led by Pastor Steve. Pray for our missionaries!

In this message, we return to the Gospel of John with a powerful passage in John 18:28–40, where Jesus stands before Pontius Pilate.

From a human perspective, Jesus has been betrayed by Judas, arrested unjustly, and denied by Peter — His closest followers have faltered, and the crowd is about to reject Him. Yet behind every setback is a deeper reality:

Nothing is falling apart. Everything is unfolding exactly according to God’s plan.

In this moment of pressure and opposition, Jesus shows us:

Boldness over fear

Commitment over confusion

Mission over comfort

Jesus doesn’t defend Himself to protect His life — He surrenders it to secure our salvation. His Kingdom is not of this world, but His rescue mission was for this world, for humanity — for us.

This message calls believers to move:

From fear → to faith

From apprehension → to Spirit-filled boldness

From comfort → to Kingdom calling

Hear testimonies from the November 2025 Mazatlán Missions Trip, a joint effort of Harvest Church and Five Cities Vineyard.

This week, Pastor Steve Henry continues our journey through the Gospel of John as we examine Peter’s denial of Jesus in John 18:12–27. Though Peter’s moment is famous, Scripture shows that we too deny Christ—through compromise, silence, fear, and living for our own comfort.

Pastor Steve walks us through three reasons Peter denied Jesus:

He wasn’t willing to jeopardize his comfort.
He was afraid of people.
He let emotions—not the Holy Spirit—govern his commitment.

But Peter’s story doesn’t end in failure. He repented, he was restored, and he lived a bold, sacrificial life for Christ. His transformation invites us to ask: Does my life demonstrate repentance? Am I confessing Christ or denying Him?

Join us as we learn from Peter’s mistakes, embrace true repentance, and rediscover what wholehearted discipleship looks like in a world that often prefers comfort over conviction.

When life feels out of control, can we still trust that God is in control?

This week, Pastor Steve continues our study on God’s Sovereignty, exploring what it truly means to trust God when life doesn’t make sense.

From Job to Joseph, Scripture reminds us that nothing happens apart from the counsel of God—and yet, God doesn’t cause everything to happen. We live in a broken world, but we can choose to:

1️⃣ Worship God when we don’t understand,

2️⃣ Believe there’s something bigger underway, and

3️⃣ Be patient and faithful as His plan unfolds.

As we abide in Christ and trust His love, plan, and justice, we can rest in the truth that our Sovereign God is always in control.

📖 Key Passages: Psalm 115:3, Jeremiah 32:17, Romans 3:10–26, Galatians 6:7–10, John 15:1–5

🎧 Watch Part 1 and more messages at agharvest.org

or on our YouTube channel.

Hear a powerful and encouraging message from guest speaker John Wagenveld of Multiplication Network, sharing from Revelation 21:1–5 on God’s beautiful redemptive plan revealed through the grand narrative of Scripture—Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation.

Multiplication Network is a church-planting ministry that Harvest partners with and supports. Their vision is “to see a healthy church representing the Kingdom of God in every community” and “to equip leaders with the tools to strengthen and multiply healthy churches.”

🔗 Learn more: multiplicationnetwork.org

📖 Key Scripture: Revelation 21:1–5

🎙️ Speaker: John Wagenveld

📅 Recorded: November 2, 2025

📍 Harvest Church, Arroyo Grande, CA

This Family Sunday, Pastor Steve Henry pauses our Gospel of John series to focus on a powerful truth: Nothing can happen to you that doesn’t first pass the counsel of God.

Through the stories of Job, Joseph, and King David, we’re reminded that even in seasons of suffering, betrayal, and uncertainty, God’s sovereign hand is still at work. His wisdom is higher, His plan is greater, and His love is unchanging.

In this message, we learn three important responses when life doesn’t make sense:

1️⃣ Choose to worship God—especially when you don’t understand.

2️⃣ Believe there is something bigger underway.

3️⃣ Be patient and faithful as God’s plan unfolds.

Join us as we find rest in the same truth that comforted the saints before us: God’s sovereignty is the pillow upon which we lay our heads.

📖 Key Scriptures: Job 1:13–22, Genesis 50:20, Romans 8:28, Isaiah 46:9–10

🎙️ Speaker: Pastor Steve Henry

📅 Recorded: October 26, 2025

📍 Harvest Church, Arroyo Grande, CA

In this powerful message from John 18:1–11, Pastor Steve Henry walks us through Jesus’ betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane and reveals how we can respond when betrayal comes into our own lives. Before the cross, Jesus modeled three key principles:

Worship — keeping our eyes fixed on God
Stay humble — trusting God’s higher purposes
Face your challenge with faith — surrendering to God’s will

Betrayal is painful, but in the hands of God, it becomes an opportunity to reflect Christ.

📍 Recorded at Harvest Church Arroyo Grande

📅 October 19, 2025

📖 Passage: John 18:1–11 ESV

Betrayal #John18 #Jesus #Worship #Faith #HarvestChurch #BibleTeaching #SundaySermon

If you belong to Jesus, He is praying for you.

In this powerful passage from John 17, Jesus prays His high priestly prayer — not only for His disciples, but for you. He prays for your protection, your growth, your unity with other believers, and your eternal future with Him.

Key Points:

Jesus prays for your safety — protection from the evil one as we live out the gospel mission.
Jesus prays for your sanctification — setting you apart for His holy purposes.
Jesus prays for our unity — so that the world may believe.
Jesus prays that we might join Him in heaven — to see His glory.
Jesus prays that we may know the Father’s love and walk in closeness with Him.

💬 “Christianity is not about duty; it’s about relationship.”

📖 Scripture: John 17:14–26

👤 Speaker: Steve Henry

📅 Date: October 12, 2025

HarvestChurchAG #John17 #JesusPrays #Sermon #SteveHenry #BibleTeaching #Gospel #ChristianLiving #ChurchOnline

“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” - John 17:4

This Communion Sunday, we continue through the Gospel of John and come to John 17—often called “The High Priestly Prayer.” Here, Jesus lifts His eyes to heaven and prays to the Father, revealing the mutual glorification between the Father and the Son. Through His suffering, obedience, death, and resurrection, Jesus glorified the Father and accomplished the work He was sent to do. Can you also say — with Jesus — that you’ve glorified God on the earth and accomplished the work He gave you to do?

In this message, we look at:

• How Jesus set His mind on glorifying the Father, no matter the cost

• Why we can have confidence in God’s plan and purpose for our lives

• What it means to partner with the Father in accomplishing His work on earth

📖 Scripture: John 16:29–33, John 17:1–13, Isaiah 53, Romans 5:10, Romans 8:29–30, Ephesians 1:5, Hebrews 7

🙏 If you need prayer or made a decision for Christ today, let us know at www.agharvest.org/prayer

This week, we pause to reflect on the powerful lives of faithful leaders who have recently gone home to be with the Lord—Voddie Baucham, Charlie Kirk, John MacArthur, Phil Robertson, and James Dobson. Their bold witness reminds us that even in seasons of loss and hardship, God is still at work drawing people to Himself.

In John 16:25-33, Jesus tells His disciples plainly that trouble is coming—but He also gives them the promise of peace: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

In this message, we look at:

The assurance of direct access to the Father through Jesus Christ
The reality of trials, persecution, and cultural opposition to the gospel
Why fearing God more than man gives us courage to stand firm
How to welcome and disciple those God is bringing into His family right now
If you’ve been wrestling with fear, pressure, or uncertainty, this message is for you. Jesus is our peace in the storm, and He has already overcome the world.

📖 Scripture: John 16:25–33, Matthew 10:16–28

🙏 If you need prayer or made a decision for Christ today, let us know at www.agharvest.org/prayer

In this message, Pastor Gunther unpacks Jesus’ words to His disciples about sorrow being turned into joy. Just as labor pains give way to the joy of new life, so too does anguish in following Christ transform into unshakable joy through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We are reminded of our suffering brothers and sisters around the world, the gift of the Spirit who guides us into truth, and the assurance that our prayers in Jesus’ name are heard by the Father. Though the world may rejoice while believers weep, Christ promises a joy that no one can take away.

Be encouraged that even in anguish, God is at work bringing forth life, hope, and joy by His Spirit.

—
📖 Scripture Reference: John 16:16-24
🎙️ Speaker: Pastor Gunther Kriwinski
📅 Date: September 21st, 2025

In this message, Pastor Steve continues our study through John 16, where Jesus prepares His disciples for the world’s hatred and the reality of persecution.

This week’s message is especially heavy as we reflect on the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk, a man who boldly proclaimed his faith in Christ. His life—and his death—remind us that the world is not our home and that following Jesus comes at a cost.

From John 16:1-15, we see three truths in Jesus’ words:

His warning prepares us so we do not fall away.
His warning reminds us that we have work to do as witnesses of the Gospel.
His warning reassures us that the Holy Spirit will equip us to endure life’s challenges.

The Spirit of God convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment—and empowers believers to live boldly for Christ, even in the face of suffering.

May Charlie’s legacy and Jesus’ words remind us to live with eternal purpose and to trust the Spirit’s power in our lives.

—

📖 Scripture Reference: John 16:1-15

🎙️ Speaker: Pastor Steve Henry

📅 Date: September 14th, 2025

In John 16:1-4, Jesus warns His disciples about coming persecution and prepares them so they won’t fall away when opposition arises. Pastor Steve Henry continues last week’s theme from 2 Corinthians 4:17.

Looking at the example of Stephen’s martyrdom in Acts 7, Pastor Steve contrasts empty religion with true Christianity. Religion is man’s attempt to reach God through outward works, but true Christianity is God reaching out to us through Christ—saving us by grace through faith and giving us new life.

Even when persecution comes from within the church, Jesus reminds us that we belong to Him, and He has already warned us so that we may stand firm in faith.

—
📖 Scripture Reference: John 16:1-4
🎙️ Speaker: Pastor Steve Henry
📅 Date: September 7th, 2025

In John 15:18-27, Jesus shifts from speaking about love to warning His disciples about the world’s hatred. As followers of Christ, we are reminded that this world is not our home, and that opposition and persecution are inevitable for those who live by a biblical worldview.

In this message, Pastor Steve Henry unpacks three key truths:

The hatred of the world reminds us that this world is not our home.
The hatred of the world reminds us that we belong to Jesus.
The hatred of the world reminds us that we are not alone—the Holy Spirit empowers us to endure and to bear witness to Christ.

Even in the face of hostility, we hold fast to the eternal perspective:

"For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." (2 Corinthians 4:17, ESV)

—

📖 Scripture Reference: John 15:18-27

🎙️ Speaker: Pastor Steve Henry

📅 Date: August 31, 2025

The return of Jesus Christ isn’t just a distant hope—it’s a reality that should shape the way we live today. In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul reminds us that the Day of the Lord will come suddenly, like a thief in the night. For believers, this truth is not meant to bring fear, but to stir us to watchfulness, faith, love, and hope.

In this message, Pastor Scott unpacks what it means to live as children of the day, ready for Christ’s return. We are called to encourage one another, walk in faith and love, and be rich in good works toward others—because Jesus is coming back. The question is: are you ready to see Him?

📖 Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5
🙏 Key Themes: The Return of the Lord, Living in Readiness, Faithful Relationships, Hope of Salvation

Walking with Jesus -- True Christianity -- is the most challenging, yet rewarding path you’ll ever walk. In John 15:12-17, Jesus commands us to love one another as He has loved us—a love that is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit.

True Christianity:
1. Requires Humanly Impossible Love
2. Requires Humanly Impossible Obedience
3. Produces Humanly Impossible Fruitfulness
Only God can make these impossibilites possible in our lives.

In this message, Pastor Steve Henry unpacks how abiding in Christ fuels our faith, empowers us to forgive, and transforms our lives into lasting fruit for God’s glory.

📖 Scripture: John 15:12-17 ESV
🙌 Speaker: Pastor Steve Henry
📅 Date: August 17, 2025

In John 15:1-11, Jesus calls Himself the True Vine and urges us to abide in Him, promising that apart from Him, we can do nothing. In this message, Pastor Steve Henry unpacks what it means to remain connected to Christ—our source of life and fruitfulness. Discover how abiding shapes our desires, produces spiritual fruit, and fills us with love and joy. Staying connected to Jesus is the only way to live a life that glorifies God.

📖 Scripture: John 15:1-11 ESV
🙌 Speaker: Pastor Steve Henry
📅 Date: August 10, 2025
📍 Harvest Church – Arroyo Grande, CA
🔗 https://agharvest.org/

HarvestChurchAG #John15 #AbideInChrist #PastorSteveHenry #TrueVine #ChristianLife #Fruitfulness

In a world where everything changes, Jesus remains unshakably faithful. In John 14:22-31, we see His promise to never leave us, to empower us through the Holy Spirit, and to one day take us home to be with Him forever. Pastor Steve reminds us that God’s faithfulness calls us to be faithful in return—living out our love for Him through obedience and trust.

📖 Scripture: John 14:22-31 ESV
🍞🍷 Communion Sunday Message – August 3, 2025
📍 Recorded at Harvest Church, Arroyo Grande
🔗 https://agharvest.org

Pastor Scott opens with a tender reminder — we need God's nearness like a sick child needs their mother — and then walks us through John 14:15–21, unpacking how Jesus equips us with wisdom and life. Drawing from the wisdom books (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job), he shows how true wisdom begins in the fear of the Lord, how love for Christ is expressed by keeping His commandments, and how the Holy Spirit (the Parakletos) is our ever-present Helper and strength. This message calls us to patient endurance (hupomone), to live as temples of the Spirit, and to rest in the gospel: the cross paid the price so we might be made righteous and secure in God’s love.

Key takeaways:

A wise life requires patient endurance (hupomone) to remain with Jesus.
If you are in Christ, you are a temple of the Holy Spirit — He is the fulfilling life.
The gospel proves God’s holiness and love: the cross is real payment, and we are truly justified and secure.

📖 John 14:15–21 NKJV
📍 Recorded at Harvest Church, Arroyo Grande
🔗 https://agharvest.org/

In this message from John 14, Pastor Curtis invites us to journey through one of Jesus' most powerful declarations: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” While there isn’t a single theme throughout the passage, each verse offers rich encouragement—like a walk through the woods where beauty is found at every turn.

Jesus speaks words of peace to His disciples, assuring them that even though He is going away, He will return to bring them to Himself. More than a promise of a heavenly place, it's a call to long for the presence of a Person. Pastor Curtis unpacks what it means to follow Jesus as our Way, know Him as the Truth, and experience Him as our Life—now and forever. We are also reminded that through the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to participate in God’s greater works here on earth.

📖 John 14:1–14 ESV

📍 Recorded at Harvest Church, Arroyo Grande

🔗 https://harvestag.org

JesusIsTheWay #PastorCurtis #John14 #HarvestChurchAG #TheWayTheTruthTheLife #Sermon

Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday July 13th, 2025

“Jesus Is All About Love” — drawn from John 13:31–38 — highlights one of the most powerful themes of Jesus' ministry: love demonstrated, commanded, and sustained. After Judas departs to betray Him, Jesus turns to His remaining disciples and gives them what He calls a new commandment: "Love one another, just as I have loved you."

In this message, Pastor Steve Henry explores how Jesus' love is more than a feeling or phrase — it’s action. It’s selfless. It’s sacrificial. It’s enduring. And it’s what sets His followers apart in the world.

This sermon walks us through:

How Jesus’ love is proven through His obedience and actions
How we are called to love others with that same Christlike love
How Jesus’ love remains constant, even when we falter

Jesus’ love took Him to the cross.

Jesus’ love met Peter’s denial with grace.

Jesus’ love still pursues you today.

📖 Key Scripture: John 13:31–38; Philippians 2; James 2; Romans 8

🎙️ Speaker: Pastor Steve Henry

📍 Date & Venue: July 13, 2025 at Harvest Church

❤️ “By this all people will know that you are my disciples — if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday July 6th, 2025

“Jesus Is All About Redemption” — drawn from John  13:18–30 — takes us into one of the most sobering and revealing moments in the Gospels: the betrayal by Judas. In contrast to Jesus’ example of humble service, Judas represents pride, secrecy, and ultimate rebellion. Yet even toward Judas, Jesus extended grace.

In this message, Pastor Steve Henry reminds us that Jesus knew Judas’ heart — yet He still washed his feet. He still offered the bread. He still extended a chance to repent.

This sermon walks us through:

The contrast between Jesus’ humility and Judas’ betrayal
The prophetic fulfillment of Psalm 41:9
God’s ongoing invitation to choose life and redemption

🔔 Jesus models what redemption looks like:

• He serves those who don't deserve it.

• He loves those who betray Him.

• He offers new life to all who turn back to Him.

You’ll also explore the redemption stories from Luke 15 — the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son — to see how deeply Jesus values every soul.

📖 Key Scripture: John 13:18–30; Psalm 41:9; Matthew 27:1–5; Deuteronomy 30:15–20; Luke 15 🎙️ Speaker: Pastor Steve Henry 

📍 Date & Venue: July 6, 2025 at Harvest Church

🙌 “Jesus is all about redemption — until your last breath, the invitation remains open. Choose Him today.”

Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday June 8th, 2025

“We Follow Jesus by Following His Example” — based on John 13:12–17 — invites us to reassess true greatness in God’s kingdom. In this sermon, Pastor Steve Henry shares how Jesus didn’t just teach humility and service — He demonstrated it by washing His disciples’ feet.

Pastor Steve breaks down three core truths from Jesus’ example:

Jesus Modeled with words and actions (v. 12–14)
Jesus Modeled humility and servanthood (v. 15–16)
Jesus Modeled the pathway to a blessed life (v. 17)

This message reminds us that:

Serving others is central — not a burden, but a kingdom priority.
True joy and blessing come through service, not being served.
Our faith must be active, living out the gospel in real ways.

You'll also be challenged with 10 practical ways to serve — from listening compassionately and offering help to forgiveness and hospitality. Whether you’re just starting your walk or have been on the journey for years, this teaching will ignite your heart toward action, humility, and deepened joy.

📖 Key Scripture: John 13:12–17 (ESV)

🎙️ Speaker: Pastor Steve Henry

🙌 “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” — John 13:17

Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday June 22nd, 2025

Missionaries Daniel and Solveig Kinda of Light of the World Aid International share a moving testimony of God’s healing power and faithfulness in this special service at Harvest Church. After nearly a decade in Uganda and ongoing work in Greenland, their journey has been marked by both hardship and miraculous restoration.

🕊️ Daniel recounts how God healed him after near-total physical disability

🌍 The Kindas reflect on their calling and life between two mission fields

🙏 Be challenged to trust God's strength, even in seasons of weakness

📖 Key Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:7–10

🎙️ Speakers: Daniel & Solveig Kinda

🌐 Ministry: Light of the World Aid International

📍 Recorded at Harvest Church, Arroyo Grande, CA

This testimony will stir your faith and encourage you to say yes to God — wherever He sends you.

Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday June 15th, 2025

"For God So Loved the World" | John 13:1–11

In this powerful message, Pastor Steve walks us through John 13 and the unforgettable moment when Jesus washes His disciples' feet. More than just an act of service, this moment is a vivid picture of the Gospel. We explore three truths:

Jesus loves you and has a plan for your life and eternity.
Unless Jesus washes you, you have no inheritance in Him.
Jesus explains the believer’s need for sanctification.

Through this humble act, Jesus reveals His love, His mission, and the cleansing work only He can do. This message challenges us to receive His grace, walk in holiness, and follow His example of servant-hearted love.

Gospel #JesusLovesYou #John13 #Sanctification #HarvestChurchAG #Sermon

Faith is Essential to Believe in Jesus | John 12:35–50

By faith, you must believe that Jesus is the Light of the World.
Believing requires faith; we walk by faith, not by sight.
Believing in Jesus is rewarded with salvation.

Jesus performed signs, fulfilled prophecy, and spoke truth straight from the Father—so why did so many still not believe? In this message, we unpack why faith is essential to truly believe and follow Jesus. Evidence matters, but faith is what brings it to life. If you've ever wrestled with doubt or wondered what it really means to trust Jesus, this message is for you.

Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday June 1st, 2025

Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday May 25th, 2025
Guest speaker Brad Dacus from Pacific Justice Institute brings us a message of hope that tells of God’s ability to use us in our brokenness and our weakness, as he did Esther.

Brad Dacus is the founder and president of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), a nonprofit legal organization dedicated to defending religious freedom, parental rights, and civil liberties across the United States. Since establishing PJI in 1997, Dacus has led the organization in providing pro bono legal services through a network of affiliate attorneys, aiming to support individuals and institutions facing challenges related to their faith and constitutional rights.
Find out more or give to his organization at https://pacificjustice.org/

Harvest Church in Arroyo Grande, California, is a Christ-centered community committed to impacting lives with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.
Find out more and get connected at https://www.agharvest.org/

Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday May 18th, 2025

Jesus was faithful to his purpose; you can be faithful to yours!
1. Your purpose is to glorify God the Father.
2. Your purpose is to point people to Jesus so they avoid God's judgment.
3. Your purpose is to disciple people into a new life in Christ.

Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday October 29th, 2023

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Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday October 22nd, 2023

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Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday October 8th, 2023

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Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday August 20th, 2023

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Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday July 30th, 2023

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Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday June 25th, 2023

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Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday June 18th, 2023

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Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - Sunday April 30 2023

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Harvest Church Arroyo Grande - 12/04/2022

0 (2s): Good morning. Welcome. Good morning. Welcome. I cannot believe it is Thanksgiving week. Happy Thanksgiving week. Oh my goodness. How many of tra, how many are traveling for Thanksgiving? Any travelers where he has headed Livermore. Livermore. Why? Oh, okay. That makes sense. There's, okay, good. Nothing about liver. I I, I Liver. Nice. All right. Never been so I can't, it just doesn't sound great. Liver anything has to do with liver. Doesn't sound very good. Livermore. Who wants more liver? Not me. Okay, good, good, good. Liver's bad for you. Who's traveling out of state? 0 (42s): Where are you guys going? Arizona. Arizona. Who are you visiting in Arizona? All my side. Oh, your clan. Cool, cool, cool. Who's going farther than Arizona? Where you going? Hawaii. Hawaii. That's, I'm gonna say that that's gonna be better than Livermore. Yeah, 1 (1m 2s): We're following up. 0 (1m 4s): Okay, good. Who's going? Go ahead. I raised 2 (1m 8s): My kids in Livermore. It's a great town to raise, 0 (1m 11s): Right, right. I'm not picking on Livermore, just don't the name I'm picking on the name. I guess who's going beyond Hawaii? Who's going outside the country? Nobody. All right, good. We've got family here from Colorado Nephew. He was here, first service and we've got family here from North Carolina. My sister-in-law, so got clan here as well, traveling. And so happy Thanksgiving. What I'd like to do is just pray and we're gonna just offer up a prayer Thanksgiving to the Lord. And so I'm gonna say what I'm thankful for, just in a word. And then as you feel led, just speak it out. Speak it out loud enough so everybody can hear and, and then we'll just agree. 0 (1m 53s): And so, Lord, I I'm thankful. I'm thankful for my family. Let me get clear. Lord, I love all my, all my kids. I'm so thankful for my grandkids 1 (2m 11s): Health, 0 (2m 12s): Health 1 (2m 13s): Harvest church. 0 (2m 15s): Okay? Thank you Jesus. Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. I'm 2 (2m 20s): Thankful for my great 0 (2m 21s): Grandkids. Great guy. You're showing off. That's nice. There we go. 1 (2m 26s): Hope in the midst of this 0 (2m 28s): Dark, amen 2 (2m 31s): That keeps all of his promises. 0 (2m 34s): Hallelujah. 1 (2m 35s): Thankful 0 (2m 35s): For you. 1 (2m 41s): Thankful 3 (2m 41s): For all volunteers who up early make this happen on Sunday. 0 (2m 48s): Me too. Thank you Lori. 1 (2m 50s): Wife of 0 (2m 51s): My youth. Ah, the wife of my, 1 (3m 1s): He 0 (3m 6s): A couple more. 1 (3m 9s): I'm thankful for Brad's strength to see us through. 0 (3m 13s): Yeah, 1 (3m 15s): Thank you. Uss So's team. Yes, he's unchanging. I think before my church family. I'm thankful for my 0 (3m 27s): Mom. Yeah, me too. 1 (3m 31s): Thank you that our thank 0 (3m 38s): And one more 1 (3m 49s): Thankful for community. 0 (3m 50s): Mm. For community. Thank you Lord. We have so many amazing things to be grateful for, thankful for Lord. And as we just stop, as we just take an inventory of our lives, amidst all of the challenging and hard things are so many wonderful things to be thankful for. Thank you Lord for giving us a heart of gratitude. Help helping us to appreciate life and appreciate the blessings of life. Lord, I pray that that attitude would just be welding up in our hearts and minds and lives all throughout this holiday season, through the balance of the year and into the new year, Lord, that we would just have a heart of gratitude. 0 (4m 35s): Thanksgiving. Lord God, we love you, Lord. We're thankful for your grace, your kindness, your love, your faithfulness, your perseverance, your power, your patience. We love you Lord. We thank you for your goodness. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Behaving like believers. Part four, it's a very convenient title. Curtis kicked it off, my son kicked it off four weeks ago with behaving like believers, part one. And it's just so easy to continue with this series each week. So I'm not sure how many times we'll be talking about, well, as long as the Bible's, as long as it makes sense in the word will continue to do it. 0 (5m 17s): So behaving like believers, part four, we'll be in first Peter chapter three verses 13 through 22. But to kind of give us a reminder and some context for what we're gonna be studying today, I wanted to go back and reread some of the things that we covered last week. And so some of this will sound familiar and if you'd like to know how we unpacked these passages, these verses last, last week, then go ahead back and, and watch it on YouTube or on our website or whatever and you can get there, get that there. So I'm gonna read first Peter three verses eight and following. It says, finally, all of you should be of one mind, sympathize with each other, other love each other. 0 (5m 58s): As brothers and sisters be tenderhearted and keep a humble attitude. Don't repeat, don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate When insults, don't retaliate with insults. When people insults you, instead pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do and he will bless you for it. For the scriptures say, if you want to enjoy life and to see many happy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn away from evil and do good search for peace and work to maintain it. 0 (6m 39s): The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do rights and his ears are open to their prayers, but the Lord turns his face against those who do evil. So God is clearly calling us in a scripture to be a people who do good. This is throughout the old and the New Testament. We see that God has called us to do good. So as we look at one Peter three 13 through 22, we get some clarity about what these verses mean. Verse 13 says, now who will want to harm you if you are eager to do what was written just prior to this verse, if you're eager to do the good that God has called us to, who will want to harm you? 0 (7m 32s): Number one, in our messages week, believers are eager to do good. I almost wrote, believers should be eager to do good. But the reality is, is that when we've had a born again experience in Christ, when the Son of God pays the penalty for our sin and gives us new life and we're filled with the Holy Spirit, there's a transformation that actually takes place in our lives. This transaction brings about a transformation in our lives. And so it's not about shoulding, you know all of that type of language, but it's about the reality that believers are actually eager to do good. 0 (8m 14s): Why? Because God has actually put a new mind in us, a new heart in us. He's given us a new purpose and a new idea of what it means to live this life. So last week we talked about honoring God's plan for the family structure. In that study, among other things, we covered the verses about wives submitting to their husbands. And I was told after the message that we need to let wives know that submission is required unless, unless wives, you should submit to your husbands unless what he's asking you to do is unbiblical. 0 (8m 57s): If your husband is leading you down an unbiblical path because your first allegiance is to the king of all kings and the Lord of all lords, you need to honor the Lord and submit to him and not do what is unbiblical and biblical thing that your husband might be asking you to do. So men, as spiritual leaders in your home, I I challenge you never, never lead your wife down a path that is unbiblical, that is, that is ungodly, that is not right spiritually. Make sure that is the spiritual leader of your home, that you are leading in a biblical way in your marriage and in your family. Also, if what your husband is asking you to do is unethical, you do not have to submit to his leadership. 0 (9m 44s): You submit to your husband as he submits to the Lord. And so as he submits to the Lord, he will not be leading you down a path that is either unbiblical or unethical. So men, we have this profound responsibility to lead in a way that is biblical and ethical, such that our wives are happy to follow our lead. And so if he's leading you down a path that is unbiblical and ethical or illegal, you don't have to do it. If he's asking you to go down a path that is immoral, you don't have to do it. So men, make sure in your leadership that you are biblical and ethical and moral and legal. 0 (10m 29s): Make sure that you're leading her even as Christ leads the church. Make sure you're being Christ in your family Jesus with skin on. So just to clarify, if your husband's asking you to do something that is unbiblical, unethical, immoral or illegal, you're free not to do it. But make sure that if you're not gonna follow his lead, it's for one of these reasons because God has clearly said that the the husband is the head of the family even as Christ is the head of the church. And that wives must submit to their husbands in everything is unto the Lord. 0 (11m 10s): So part four, in our study behaving like believers, number one, believers are eager to do good. So let's with greater clarity, understand what exactly does it mean that we are eager to do good? What is good? And in a culture where the world would say good is evil and evil is good, black is white, and white is black, and everything else is just kind of gray. In a world where what we believe in our culture is contrary to the word of God, what does it actually mean to do good? How do we define good? In his commentary, John MacArthur wrote, good refers generally to a life characterized by generosity, unselfishness, kindness, and thoughtfulness toward others. 0 (11m 57s): Believers' lives are actually marked by these characteristics. We could say that believers' lives should be marked by these characteristics, but the reality is that the fruit of a believer's life is actually characterized. It's not something we should have to compel you to believe or to live or to do. It's the natural result of a life that is fully submitted to God. Believers lives are by the power of God because of the grace of God, because of the life transformation of God. They're actually marked by these characteristics. And this is true because, well, this is God's design and we see that this is God's design. In the Old Testament, in the New Testament, Psalm 37, 3, the psalmist wrote, trust in the Lord and do good, then you will live safely in the land and prosper. 0 (12m 49s): So there's direction and then the affirmation of that direction is the promise of reward that you will, that you will live safely in the land and prosper. Ephesians two 10 and the New Testament says, for we are God's masterpiece, he has created us a new in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. So you are God's masterpiece created for good works that God has planned for you long ago. Colossians one, nine and 10, Paul writes, so we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 0 (13m 37s): Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. So when we have a proper knowledge of the will of God and when we have developed spiritual wisdom by the grace of God in our lives and we have proper understanding about who God is and what he's created us to do, then then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord. And your lives will produce every kind of good fruit, all the while you will grow, as you learn to know God better and better. And so in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, we see God's plan for his people is to do good. 0 (14m 19s): Let's take a look at Titus chapter two, verses 11 through 15. It says this, for the grace of God has been revealed bringing salvation to all people. Better, better way to understand that versus making salvation available to all people. And we as saved people, those who have experienced the salvation of God. Verse 12 says, and we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God. And when we live in this world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, we will naturally out of the natural flow of that decision, out of the fruit of that kind of lifestyle, we will actually do good while we look forward verse 13 in Titus, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ will be revealed, he, he gave his life to free us from every kind of sin to cleanse us and to make us his very own people totally committed to doing good deeds. 0 (15m 31s): And so Paul told Titus in verse 15, you must teach these things and encourage the believers to do them. You have the authority to correct them when necessary. And so don't let anyone disregard what you say. So Paul is telling Titus, and really he's telling every spiritual leader down throughout history, every Christian spiritual leader, that we have this responsibility, we have this responsibility to communicate this truth to the people we have in our lives. So these verses and Titus point to in the beginning, it points to the person of Jesus which represents the grace that has been made available in the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the earth. 0 (16m 14s): And that grace that Jesus brought with him and distributed after the course of his resu, his crucifixion and resurrection, that grace compels believers to live good lives as we wait for the return of Christ. And so we've got book, our lives are book ended by Jesus. Our new lives in Christ have been book ended by the the first arrival of Christ when he would come to die for the sins of humanity, then he was crucified, buried, and resurrected on the third day. And when he ascended, he gave us responsibility in the earth. And we are to be about our father's business. We are to occupy until he arrives, until he arrives at his second coming. 0 (16m 59s): So our lives are bookended by Jesus and our lives are meant to be all about Jesus. Our lives are have been given to us so that we might represent Jesus here in the earth. So even as Paul instructed Titus, how to lead God's people, Christian leaders everywhere and teachers especially pastors, have the responsibility to do the same. We have the responsibility to challenge people that the grace of God has actually made us, born again, has actually given us new purpose in the earth. And that purpose is to do good for God's glorious purposes in the earth as we occupy, as we wait for his glorious return. 0 (17m 40s): Back to one Peter chapter three, verse 14. It says, but even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you. So don't worry or be afraid of their threats. So believing, behaving like believers, part four, number one, believers are eager to do good. Number two, believers are willing to suffer for doing good. Believers are willing to suffer for doing good. Verse 14 again. But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don't worry or be afraid of their threats. Notice there is no promise of protection. 0 (18m 19s): God doesn't promise to protect us from difficulty. God doesn't promise you protect us from suffering. However he does promise, reward, reward. What does that reward looks like look like? Well, I think it's, we see it in this life when we by God's grace stand firm and decide that we're willing to suffer persecution for the good that God has called us to do. There's something that happens within us that builds us up at our most holy faith. It strengthens us as believers and we have a confidence in God. We have a confidence in who we are in God. We've got clarity about who we are in God. And so there's that reward of clarity and confidence, that clear conviction that we are born again. 0 (19m 5s): Our lives are not our owns. We've been bought with a price in our lives here on this earth as we occupy our met to be embarked by goodness as we follow Jesus example, as we do what God has called us to do. So there's the reward of just what we experience from a, from an obedient life here in the earth. But then there's also the bema seat of Christ or the judgment seat of Christ the day that we stand before the Lord and give an account for the way that we've lived our lives as believers. The other end on that book end is Jesus, his return, the judgment of God, the bema seats, the judgment seat of Christ is what every believer will experience. 0 (19m 49s): Every one of us will have our day before the Lord to give an account, to give a reason for the things that we've done in this life and for the ways that we have spent our time in the earth. People outside of the church will stand before the great white throne judgment. Their lives won't be evaluated for rewards or not. They're standing before the great judge of all the earth and they will be sentenced to eternal separation of fiery hell reserved for the devil and his angels. This is what will happen. And so this is why God is so serious about book, ending our lives with Jesus and Jesus and in the middle we're about our father's business. 0 (20m 35s): We have a a job to do. We have work to do and we will each give an account for the way that we have lived our lives. We live in a sinic world where people, the people of God will at times suffer even when doing good. And so believers are willing to suffer for doing good. Sometimes when we're suffering for doing good, we're com we're confused by it, we're perplexed by it. We're like, I thought that if I did good that blessings would follow. But our idea of blessings is temporal. It's earthly. The blessings will flow and there's nothing that that will be better than that. But often the blessings that will be flowing are eternal and in the next life. 0 (21m 19s): And they're not looking like a new car on the driveway or a new house or a vacation or anything like that. Jesus Christ went about doing good and the crowds wanted to kill him. John 10 32, Jesus said, at my father's, at my father's direction, I have done many good works for which one are you going to stone me? Jesus at the father's direction went about doing good works. Now they didn't stone him then, but they crucified him later. They killed him. Why? Because they hated his good works. They hated his life and everything that he stood for. 0 (22m 0s): And John 1518 through 21, it says, if the world hates you, remember that it hated me first, the world would love you as one of its own if you belong to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? Jesus continues. A slave is not greater than the master since they persecuted me naturally they will persecute you naturally. You see that word naturally. So we shouldn't be surprised when we suffer for doing good. We should. We should expect it because it's a natural process. 0 (22m 41s): When we're doing good as believers of Christ, the world will hate us and they will try to help make us suffer for our doing good. And so if we just change our mind about it, cuz sometimes what happens is we begin to suffer for doing good and we're perplexed and we're confused by it and we give up on on our good works. But if we just change our minds about suffering, and if we just expect it, then when it happens, we're like, Hey, I've been kind of expecting you to show up in my life. You're not like an unexpected person guest you. I've been waiting for you to show up because my life is marked by goodness. And so naturally, if I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, I will suffer for what I am doing. 0 (23m 25s): Sometimes the enemy's gotta believing lies and we, we don't think that we will suffer any kind of persecution in this life. But that is clearly not what we see in scripture in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, through all 66 books of the Bible, it is made clear to us that we are living for a moment in this life. And when it's all said and done, we will go to be with the Lord forever and ever. Amen. Or we'll be cast into fiery darkness for the unbeliever. Do you remember what I told you? 0 (24m 5s): Slave is not greater than the master. Since they persecuted me naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. They will do all of this because of me. For they have rejected the one who sent me. They rejected Christ because of who he was. They will reject us because of who we are. Less. Of course, we don't actually belong to Jesus, we belong to the world. If that's the case, the world will love us. But if we indeed belong to Jesus, we should expect that the world will hate us. And we shouldn't by any means, be surprised by it and be derailed by it. 0 (24m 45s): But we should just like the disciple said, thank God that he counted me worthy to suffer for his name. Like they were stoked about it. They were celebrating the fact that they were suffering persecution from the name of Jesus. We need some good old fashioned, first century disciple minded people in the 21st century, don't we? We need to like change our mind. We live in a way too comfortable culture, which I'm all too grateful for, but it makes it way too easy just to kind of go along and not want to upset the apple cart and not want to do anything that might make our worldly neighbors have any issues with us at all. 0 (25m 30s): Peter reminds his readers in one Peter three 14, don't worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. Behaving like believers. Part four, one, believers are eager to do good. Number two, believers are willing to suffer for doing good. So we're eager to, to do good and suffering will not dissuade us from doing good. Suffering is expected as believers, as we do good honoring Jesus, pointing people to Jesus. 0 (26m 12s): We should expect suffering and persecution. So don't worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. Number three, believers are ready to explain the reason for their hope. So they've been doing good, they've been willing to suffer for doing good, and now they're ready to explain the reason for their hope. Because we're living all together different than those in the world. And so people in the world who are watching our lives are perplexed by the way, way that we're living our lives. And they then begin to ask questions, why are you living your life this way? Why are you different than the rest of the world? 0 (26m 57s): And in that moment, we're ready. Ready to explain the reason for our hope. How? How? How can you remain ready to explain the reason for your hope? How? How do we remain ready? The scripture outlines it for us. Very helpful. First Peter three, 14 and 15. Instead of worry and fear of what might happen again, expect it. And then that just kind of eliminates the worry and the fear. You're like, it's common Lord, like make me ready Lord. But I don't wanna be worried and fearful about it because as I'm worried and fearful, that's all I'm thinking about. My focus is on the wrong thing. 0 (27m 37s): Instead of having my focus on Jesus, my focus is my worry and my fear about what might happen is I try to live my life for Jesus. It's perplexing and weird, isn't it? Instead of worrying, fear of what might happen, the verse says, you must worship Christ as the Lord of your life. That's the answer. So what? What I'm not saying is showing up on Sunday morning only worshiping Christ is part of everything that we do on Sunday morning. But it's a 24 7 decision and declaration that I will worship the Lord Christ with all of my life. 0 (28m 16s): 24 7. He is my priority. Try this as you're driving down the road, instead of listening to talk radio or whatever you're listening to, try turning off every distraction and just begin to praise Jesus. Just begin to thank Jesus. Just begin to worship Jesus and begin to bring Jesus into your daily commute, into your experience. As you go about your day to day life, you'll begin to train yourself to worship Jesus in spirits and in truth, in good times and in bad. When you're upset, when you're angry, when you're happy, when you're sad, you will just bring Jesus into the middle of everything that you're experiencing. You will begin to worship Christ as the Lord of your life. 0 (29m 1s): Worshiping in spirit and in truth means that we are worshiping him because he is the Lord of our lives. That means we declare him to be the leader, the most important, our priority. The first person in our life. He gets everything that he wants out of us. Mind will, emotion, body, soul, spirit. He gets it all. He is the Lord of our lives and we worship him as such, as we do this, as you worship Christ, as the Lord of your life, you will you. You will then have the right mindset and the right heart condition. We struggle when difficulties come and we struggle to share our faith because our minds are not in the right place and we've got a poor heart condition. 0 (29m 52s): Listen, if you begin to worship Jesus as the Lord of your life all day long throughout the course of your life, God will begin to change your mind and fix your heart. The Bible says pray without seing. So that means never, ever stop, like never, ever stop worshiping the Lord. Never stop praying to the Lord, never stop talking to the Lord. If you do this, your mindset will be fixed. You'll no longer be fearful. You'll no longer be anxious, but you'll be ready for the calling upon your life. You won't be consumed with fear. Instead, you'll be focused on your assignment here in the earth. You as a believer, have an assignment here in the earth and your assignment is book ended by Jesus. 0 (30m 35s): It begins with Jesus and it ends with Jesus. And everything in between has to be about Jesus. Your assignment as a believer is to do good no matter what it costs you. And part of doing good is communicating the reason for the hope that you have in Christ. How do we communicate the reason for our hope? Verse Peter three, verse 16. Do this but do this in a gentle and respectful way. Like we're not trying to cram the gospel down people's throats like we're doing it in a loving and respectful way, a graceful way. 0 (31m 15s): We're asking the Lord to prepare the hearts of those that we want to share the truth with so that their hearts are ready, their minds are ready, their lives are prepared for the gospel message that God has for them. Much like our hearts and minds and lives were prepared when we decided by God's grace to believe the message of the gospel, God went ahead of time in our lives and prepared our hearts and minds and lives so that we might receive what God has for us. So we do this with a gentle, in a gentle and respectful way, keep your conscience clear. If your conscience is unclear, if if you're entertaining sin you got junk in your life, you'll you, you won't do what the Bible says. 0 (31m 55s): So keep your conscience clear. It's just the reality. If you got junk in your life, you're not gonna do what God's called you to do. So get rid of the junk, worship Christ as Lord of your life, and then you'll be happy to do what God has called you to do. But if you got junk in your life, you don't wanna do what God has called you to do because you want what you want in your life. So when we worship Christ as Lord of our lives, then we're ready. We're actually eager to do good no matter what it costs us. We want to do what God has called us to do. And then we want to tell others what God is doing right? We wanna do what God is calling us to do and then tell others what God is calling us to do. So do it in a gentle and respectful way. 0 (32m 36s): Keep your conscious clear then if people speak against you, which they will, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live. Because, because, because, because you belong to Christ. Remember, it's better to suffer for doing good if that is what God wants than to suffer for doing wrong. Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the spirits. So he went and preached to the spirits in prison. What does that mean? What does it mean that he went to preach to the spirits in prison? 0 (33m 20s): In the days of Noah, demons had intercourse with human women on the earth. This was Satan's attempt to corrupt the human race. He failed. Let's take a look at Genesis chapter six. You know that the enemy loses, right? You know these already defeated foe, right? Jesus went declared that in the abyss to the fallen demons who rebelled. Genesis six. If you guys read this for a while, here we go. Verse one, then the people began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them. The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted sons of God. 0 (34m 3s): These are demons. They took any that they wanted as their wives. Then the Lord said, my spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for their only mortal flesh in the future. Their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years in those days. And for some time after giant nephites lived on the earth for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, whenever demons had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times. The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth. And he saw that everything, everything they thought were imagined was consistently and totally evil. 0 (34m 48s): So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them. And he put and put them on the earth that broke his heart. And the Lord said, I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yeah, yes, I will destroy every living thing. All the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them. But Noah found favor with God. He found favor with the Lord. Verse nine says, this is the account of Noah and his family. 0 (35m 30s): Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on the earth at that time. Isn't that crazy? So God sees Noah of, of all of the people populating the earth, God sees Noah. He's the only righteous person on the earth. And so he tells Noah, God tells Noah, build a boats and I'm gonna flood the earth, destroying everything. And every one old and New Testament, God has called his people to do good in spite of persecution, suffering, you think Noah suffered persecution and difficulty as the only righteous man on the earth. 0 (36m 22s): So ungodly was the land that God sent a flood to destroy every living creature. He suffered persecution as he's building a boat, he's suffering persecution. What are you doing, Noah? I'm obeying the Lord. So when people ask you, what are you doing? I'm obeying the Lord. We say it with all humility, but with conviction, knowing that God has called us to do good and to do good, even in our, as we suffer. And then as people asks, what are you doing? Then you tell 'em about Jesus and they will ask, what are you doing? 0 (37m 2s): They will, they will ask because they will be perplexed about your lifestyle. So after his crucifixion, but before his resurrection, Jesus went down into the abyss and he preached to the demons that disobeyed the, the demons. He went outside of their bounds. And even in their wickedness, they went outside of that. And he didn't go to preach to them for salvation, but he went to preach to them the victory that he accomplished. As he went to the cross, as he overcame the enemy, he went to the abyss and said, you have lost. 0 (37m 44s): You have lost. And the victory is mine. And then he's resurrected and he goes to the right hand of the Father. First 20, first Peter three, those who disobeyed God long ago waited patiently while no is building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. And that water's a picture of baptism, which now, which which now saves you not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience that's effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, Christ has gone to heaven. He has seated in the place of honor next to God and all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority. 0 (38m 30s): As Jeremy was praying this morning, he was talking about if we do not worship the very rocks and the stones, the the floor tiles and the chairs will cry out. Why? Because the presence of God is so powerful and so pure and so awesome that it requires a response. It requires that we fall as dead people before him in awe and adoration, that we worship him and in spirit and in truth. And if we refuse the very rocks and stones, they will be compelled to cry out because the king always demands an answer. The king always requires a response. 0 (39m 11s): And when we come into the presence of the king, our response is worship. That we would do good as he has called us to do good in spite of suffering. And that out of that experience that we would tell people about Jesus. Why? Because as our lives are booked by Jesus, we will stand before the Lord to give an account for our lives. And so he's made it crystal clear in the scripture, old in the New Testament that we have a r a responsibility. We have an assignment, we have a job to do, and we will all stand. If you are a believer, then you will stand before the beam of seat of Christ, the the judgment seat of Christ. And you will give an account for your life, either for rewards or missing out on re rewards. 0 (39m 52s): Remember the parable of the talents when God got, I think you got five talents, and another guy got three talents. Another guy got one talent, the master went away and came back and he talked to the guy with five talents. Hey, what did you do with those five talents that I gave you? He said, man, I went out and earned five more talents. Well done. Goes to the guy with three talents. What did you do with those talents that I gave you? Man, I went out and got three more talents. Well done. He goes to the guy with one talent. He says, what did you do with the talents I gave you? He said, nothing. I just buried it. I was fearful. So I buried it. He wasted his life. He's wasted his life. It's an example, it's a picture force. 0 (40m 32s): What will you do when the Lord asks you, what did you do with the talents that I gave you your time? What did you do with your time? Your your treasure? What did you do with your treasure? What did you do with the talents that God has given you? And you will stand before the Lord naked, everything exposed all by yourself. And you can't blame it on your husband or your spouse or your kids or your grandkids or your job or anybody else. You will stand before the Lord and give an account for your life. I am going to stand before the Lord and give an account for my life. And so lord's gonna say, what did you do with those talents? I wanna be able to say, Lord, I did what I thought I was supposed to. 0 (41m 14s): I I feel like I was by your grace Lord, I I feel like by your, because you were good. Not because I was good, but because of your grace. Lord, I I feel like I, I think I did what I was supposed to do and I've increased those talents. There's not gonna be any arrogance there. We're not gonna be able to say, oh, look what I, I tell you, if you've got your chest poked out at the bema seat, you are done. You're smoked because it just is an indication that your whole life was wrong. Everything that we do, the good stuff that God has called us to do is because of his grace and his mercy. Because he's good, not because we're good and we need, we need to know that as we stand before the Lord, we're gonna give an account. 0 (41m 56s): So I, I need to know that when I stand before the Lord, every time I preach, every time I've had the opportunity to live my life before people that I've done my best. Cuz I don't want to hear, why didn't you just tell them the truth? And you're gonna get that same question. Why didn't you just tell people the truth? Why didn't you just tell your, your friends and your neighbors the truth? I mean a gentle and a patient in a gracious way? Why didn't you tell 'em the truth? It's what the whole wide world is desperately to desperate to understand and to know They wanna know truth. In a world that is filled with lies and deception and and partial truths, the world needs to know the truth. 0 (42m 39s): And so we do good. Our lives are book ended by Jesus. And so in the middle is what we do with our lives as they're book ended by Jesus. Jesus died giving us grace and mercy so that we can live our lives as a result of that grace and mercy. And then one day we'll stand before the Lord to give an account for our lives. And then for those of us who know Jesus will spend eter with the Lord. And for those who don't, he will say, depart from me. I never knew you. And they will spend eternity in darkness, fire and hell prepared for the devil and his angels. 0 (43m 26s): That's where people will spend eternity. So there's only two paths, path to life, path to death. You get to help people figure that out. And so now when the Lord asks you on that beam of seat at that judgment sheet, what did you do with your life? I think my, my, my hands are clean because I've told you. Have I not told you? Have I told you? Yes. All right. So what are you gonna do with it? What truth, what are you gonna do? Speak truth. Speak truth. To who? To those who need it. Who who needs it? Everyone. Everybody. So who have you not spoken truth to that needs to hear it? 0 (44m 6s): Like at Thanksgiving? Oh, I believe me, I do. Grandpa said Jesus crap was a Jesus freak. I love it. So we, we go into a, a gathering with our family, and we've been prayerful. We're like, Lord, so and so needs to hear the gospel. I don't know if they're gonna be here next year when I've got this opportunity. So Lord, I I don't know how to, I don't even know how to bring it up, Lord. I I don't know if they want to hear it. But God, would you, would you prepare them, their, their mind, their heart, their lives? 0 (44m 49s): Will you prepare the circumstances of their lives so they might hear and respond to the gospel and give their lives fully to you? And so you go into every circumstance with that perspective. You go into a meeting and say, Lord, I don't know if this person I'm having lunch with with today knows you so Lord, I wanna make sure that they know you. And so, Lord, would you show me what that looks like? And that doesn't mean you're gonna share the gospel with everybody that you come in contact with, but you're praying every time you're coming in contact with someone for the opportunity. And if it's the Lord's right timing in that person's life, then you're gonna just begin to share with them. And they may hate you for it. They may despise you for it. 0 (45m 29s): They may love you for it. You don't know what you're gonna get, but you have to do good in spite of the possible persecution. And when you live your life like that, you'll never be the same. You'll never ever be the same. Who who do you need to be praying for? Who do you need to be praying for in your sphere? Neighbors? Who? Neighbors. Neighbors. You know their names. Okay. There's others. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Who else? 0 (46m 10s): Extended family. Extended family. Who else? Brothers, coworkers, brothers, coworkers. So you just make it your priority to pray. Lord, I pray for so and so. God, I, you might not even like the person, but you know they need Jesus. You're saying, Lord, I don't even like this person, but they're in my life for a reason. Would you help me to like them and to then to love them and to demonstrate my love for them by going out on a limb and sharing the gospel with them. You don't want to go through your whole life and not having shared the gospel with the people in your life. Some of you are here today and you're like being Christians forever, but you've never shared the gospel. 0 (46m 54s): It's time to make a change. You, you have to share the gospel if you're born again. It's the natural thing that you do if you're not naturally just wanting to tell people about your life in Jesus. I'm wondering if, I'm wondering if you're even a Christian, because behaving like believers means believers are eager to do good. Not, not because we necessarily feel guilty if we don't, or compelled if we don't. We just have something that has been this transaction in our lives that has changed the way we think and change the way we live. And if that transaction hasn't happened, maybe we just need to repent. 0 (47m 36s): I wanna know that if I step out the road and get hit by a Mac truck, which I'd be totally cool with that all these that I've done my job. And you wanna know the same thing you do because when I say we all want to hear a well done right? Cause we all want to hear a well done, we all want to hear it. And so we want to know that if we step off the curb and get hit by Mac truck, it's all good. Because up to that moment, we've lived our lives for Jesus. We've done the good that he's called us to do. Our lives are book ended by Jesus. We have grace because of Jesus. We have a great life, a calling purpose in Jesus because of him. And we're gonna be with him forever and ever. Amen. 0 (48m 16s): It's a very brief little window, very brief little moment. So what I don't know, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do differently? Let's go ahead and stand up and invite the worship team. Lord, what am I gonna do differently as a result of this message? I, I know there's people in my life who need to know Jesus. And, and I know that I've skirted around the issue Lord at times, and I've not been very clear other times, Lord God. And I've had some fear, and I don't, I don't even understand my own life sometimes, Lord God. But I, I know that there are people in my life who I have the responsibility to tell about you. 0 (49m 5s): And so, Lord, I want to pray. I want to know what my assignment is. And I want to do what you've called me to do. I want to complete the assignment in Jesus name. Lord, as we worship, help us to worship in spirit and in truth. And this is just the beginning of a week long worship experience, a month long worship experience. Lord I lifelong worship, experience that we be all yours, all in completely committed. We want our lives marked by goodness. Help us to Lord, help us to live that way because we've allowed our, our, we've allowed ourselves be filled with you. 0 (49m 53s): Thank you Lord. We love you. It's worship Jesus name. Amen.

0 (1s): Alrighty. Come on back. Come on back. I know it's late for to honor those who are veterans in our house, but I want to say thank you to our veterans, those who've served in the armed forces. How, how many in the house have served in the armed for US armed forces? Raise your hand. Raise your hand. One. Okay, raise your hand. Good. Good, good. There's a few. Okay. Oh, Ken, right? Good. Good, good, good. Thank you guys very, very much in the back here. Thank you. Whoa. Right on. There we go. All right. I don't think most people heard me. So how many in the house have served in the US armed forces? Stand up. There we go. There we go. 0 (41s): There we go. Lord, I bless these men, these women, Lord God bless them in Jesus' name. Thank you for the sacrifices. Lord, I'm so thankful for the sacrifices that they have made to make this world a better place. We honor them today. We're thankful, Lord, in Jesus' name. Hey Ma. Hey ma'am. Mike, you served as a Marine? Yes, sir. Vietnam, what year 1 (1m 6s): In Vietnam? 69 0 (1m 8s): To 70. 69 to 70. When you enlisted, you enlisted 68. In 68, Did you know that you were gonna go to Vietnam? Yes. Yeah, you knew. Okay, so you enlisted intentionally to go to Vietnam. You knew that your destiny was in the hands of the, the, the Marines, right? Yes, sir. Sfi. Good man. You know, there's something powerful about enlisting or becoming a part of something bigger than we are. There's something powerful about that. I was watching, looking at some pictures this morning of my brother when he, he looked like he was about 14 years old, skinny little guy. But he was, had finished bootcamp and was being presented with his graduation, and he was standing so straight and so proud and saluting with such integrity and honor. 0 (1m 57s): You look at that and you're like, Man, this is so important for young men and for young women to find a sense of purpose. And there's something powerful about submitting your life to someone other than yourself. And really that's what Christianity is all about. It's a, it's a recognition of our life. It's, it's a commitment of our lives to someone other than ourselves. And I've watched as people do this in my own life, it just gave me a sense of purpose. I never served in the armed forces, but when I gave my life to Jesus, it gave me a sense of purpose. It gave me clarity and direction for my life. 0 (2m 37s): There's something powerful about submitting yourself to something, someone bigger than yourself. And so we're talking about that today. This is part three of behaving like believers. Part three, we're gonna be in one Peter chapter three verses one through 12. So most of the verses will be up on the the screen. But I would encourage you to bring your Bible and make it your priority to figure out how to turn to first Peter. Where's first Peter? Old or New Testament? Anybody know? New. New? Okay, good. Sometimes if we only rely on what's on the screen, we may never actually know where first Peter is. And so we need to be able to say, Oh, there's first Peter right there. She's just, Oh, I'm almost there. 0 (3m 18s): And there it is. Okay, good. We got first Peter. So we need to be able to do that. And so bring your Bible and then make that your priority to turn with me. Behaving like leaves Part three. First one opens with the words in the same way. Why does it say in the same way? Well, when we come across a sentence like that, a statement like that, we just have to look at the context, the immediate context of the passage that we're reading. And we can look back at chapter two and Peter's writing to the church about submitting ourselves to the governing authorities. 0 (4m 1s): And so there's a theme there in chapter two. We are to submit ourselves to the governing authorities. We're to submit ourselves to our masters or our employers. And now, God, he's, He's outlining something for us regarding the family. God's actually got a plan for the family. There's actually a structure, a God breathed, written structure in the Word of God. First Peter three, one says this, in the same way you wives must accept the authority of your husbands, then even if some refuse to obey the good news, if you have, if you've got a husband who doesn't know Jesus, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. 0 (4m 52s): They will be won over by observing your pure and reverent lives. Number one, behaving like believers. Number one, we honor God's plan for the family structure. Now, some people shy away from this text because it's just uncomfortable to talk about a wives responsibility to submit to her husband. But I don't know about you, but I look around in the world and the condition of married couples in the world, in the in the world, and I, when I say the world, it's people outside the church. The divorce rate's over 50%. When I look inside the church, the divorce rate is over 50%, maybe even higher in the church. 0 (5m 36s): And so when I see something that is broken like that, and when I open up the word of God and see the prescription to fix the brokenness, I get excited about reading it and understanding it and communicating that without, without shy. I'm not shy about it because I know that God who created us, who sustains us, who knows us, who understands relationship, he has spoken this, communicated this to us so that we might have wonderful, wonderful lives. Now, most people in the room have been divorced. I came from divorced parents and divorced grandparents, my wife, her side of the family, kinda the same scenario. 0 (6m 18s): Divorce parents, divorces everywhere in our culture. Thank God for second chances. Amen. Or third chances or fourth chances. God's grace is sufficient. So his grace is sufficient if you've been through it. But how much better if we can figure out God's game plan and then begin to live that out and model that to future generations? That's kind of what we're talking about in this first point today. So we're gonna be talking to the wives, to the women in the room. We're gonna be talking to the husbands, to the men in the room. And then we're gonna be talking to the kids as we look at honoring God's plan for the family's structure. 0 (6m 58s): So the apostle Peter writes about the family structure right here in one Peter chapter three, and then the apostle Paul writes about it in Ephesians chapter five and six. So we understand scripture as we read scripture. Scripture interpret scripture. So let's see what Paul writes in Ephesians 5 21 and 24 he says, And further verse 21, Submit to one another out of reverenced for Christ. We often, we kind of gloss over that, but we actually have a responsibility to mutually submit one to another. But ultimately a wife's role is to submit to her husband. And so we'll unpack that as we go along. 0 (7m 40s): It says, and further submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Why does it say that? Because this is his idea. It's his plan for our lives. For wives, this means verse 22 says, For wives, this means submit to your husband's as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife, as Christ is the head of the church, He is the savior of his body, the church, as the church submits to Christ. So you wive should submit to your husband in everything that may be a kind of a tough pill to swallow, but it's a picture of the body of Christ. 0 (8m 27s): We as believers are part of the body of Christ. And Jesus is the head, He's the leader. So in your marriage that you becoming one, the husband is the head, He is the spiritual leader of his family. So wives, please be prayerful for your husband. If you got a husband, pray for him. Pray that he would lead as a godly man with integrity. Pray for him because it's a big job and it's a job for which he will stand before the Lord and give account. The Lord will will interrogate him and ask him about his life. 0 (9m 10s): He will stand before the Lord to give an account for the way that he has led spiritually in his family. So wives, you should be praying about how to submit to your husband and husbands, you need to be prayerful about how to lead well because we are to lead even as Christ led. We are to be the heads as men, even as Christ is the head of the church. And so we've got really big shoes to fill, really challenging shoes to fill. But I believe this, I believe, I believe if I believe if we lead well as men, that our wives will have no problem submitting to us. 0 (9m 52s): So what does it mean to lead? Well, right? I think that was where the women were supposed to clap. Michael Mike's going for it. He's like, Yeah, most of the time, if husbands are doing what we're gonna talk about here in just a moment, the wives find it very natural and even easy to submit back to one Peter three, three speaking to women. Peter said, Don't be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourself instead with the beauty that comes from within the the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. 0 (10m 42s): So what is the writer saying? I don't think he's saying that women shouldn't get dolled up like, like you shouldn't spend some time, you know Macon, you know yourself, look presentable. I don't think that's what he's saying at all. But I think what he is saying is that most of our attention or most as women, most of your attention should be focused on the internal beauty in your life. And so if you're spending all of your time on the external beauty and little time on the interior internal beauty, then you're missing God's design for your life because all that exterior stuff, it begins to fade, right? Has anybody experienced that? Have you ever looked back at, found running to people in from your high school days and you're like, Man, do I look that bad? 0 (11m 26s): Right? You're like, I hope I don't look like that. But sure enough, they're probably saying the same thing. Do I look as bad as that person? So that external beauty begins to fade, but the internal beauty is what lasts. No matter what's going on externally, you got this internal beauty and that's what God's encouraging his ladies within the church to develop within their lives. So we're gonna be encouraging you guys to do that. And part of the encouragement is to be at this Friday night thing, be at this Friday night women's gathering, because in that women's gathering, you're gonna be praying together, you're gonna be worshiping together, and it's gonna be really powerful as women to come together and be encouraged as godly women. 0 (12m 10s): So don't spend so much time on the outward beauty, but on the inward beauty, verse five says, This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They put their trust in God and accepted the authority of their husbands. For instance, Sarah obeyed her husband Abraham and called him her master, or Lord, you are her daughters when you do what is right without fear of what your husbands might do. So this is probably a reference from Genesis 1812 where Sarah called her husband Lord and Lord is another term for husband. 0 (12m 52s): Now, not in my family, but when Ron d Pastor Ron, when he was your first service, he, he always reminds me that in his house, DJ calls him Lord small L Lord Bec, is that a good I? Now, if we're gonna follow Abraham and Sarah's example old, is that not acceptable? Why is that so unacceptable? It was much funnier, first service. But Sarah, much like DJ had deep respect for her husband Abraham and the authority he carried first. 0 (13m 34s): First Peter three, seven, We've been talking about women, let's kinda zero in on the men now just to level the playing field in the same way you husbands must give honor to your wives, treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker, meaning physically weaker, and that's not always the case, But she may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God's gift of new life. Treat her as you should, as you should. So your prayers will not be hindered. So your wife is to submit to you, but you as men are to lead like Jesus would lead. 0 (14m 20s): And in your leading you are to honor her even as Christ would honor her. Your wife may be physically weaker, but she is your equal partner in the faith. She is your equal in the kingdom of God. Galatians 3 27 and 28 tells us that says, for you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus and all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ like putting on new clothes. There is no longer you or Gentile, slave free male or female for you are all one in Christ. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. 0 (15m 2s): You are his heirs and God's promise to Abraham and God's promised Abraham belongs to you. So first Peter two, seven, again, it says, She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God's gift of new life. Treat her as you, as you should. So your prayers will not be hindered. Sometimes we gloss over that. So what the scripture's telling us men is that if we don't honor our wives, God will not hear our prayers. If we are disobedient in God's design for our married life, then God will not hear our prayers. Why is God so serious about this? Because the women, those are her, his girls, right? 0 (15m 43s): They're his daughters, right? And what man, what dad isn't protective of his daughters? Well, we all are right? I remember when Caitlin started dating Logan. Well, Caitlin, my oldest daughter, she never had a boyfriend. She never brought a boy home. And so this boy Logan shows up and I don't know Logan from Adam, and so I'm a bit skeptical, a bit interested in this young man. So I said, Hey, Logan, let's go get some coffee. So we sat at in's and I said, Listen, this is the deal. Caitlin is my daughter. She is as pure as the driven snow. She's never had a boyfriend, and I expect you to honor her. 0 (16m 23s): And this is the deal. I got a shotgun and I got a shovel and I got five acres. If you mistreat her, I will bury you and no one will be able to find you. That's the reality of the situation. We take serious, our responsibility as fathers with our daughters right now, now that I've known Logan, they've been married for 10 or 11 years and they've given us five amazing grandkids. They were all lined up over here for service. Man, I know now that that conversation was never necessary. I didn't know it then, but I know it now. 0 (17m 5s): Logan has honored Kaitlyn for these last 10 or 11 years of marriage. She has been so good to her, and I'm so grateful for that gift that he is to our family. He's been a great dad, a great provider, just a great man of God in our family. So I honor him today and so and so thankful. So knowing now what I know about him that wasn't necessary. But man, as a man, you are concerned about your kids, especially your daughters. And so God is the same way about his daughters. And so dudes, guys, if you mess with God's girls, he's not gonna hear your prayers. You have a responsibility to be obedience, to heed the the word of the Lord and to do what God has called you to do and to live in that relationship the way that God has called you to live in that relationship. 0 (17m 56s): Otherwise, he will not hear your prayers. He will turn his ears away from you and he will not answer your prayers. So maybe you've got some unanswered prayers. It could be that there's some things going on in your marriage that need to be addressed. So get 'em addressed, repent, apologize, Start living differently as a man of God, you have a responsibility and you will stand before the Lord all by yourself and give an account for the way that you've lived your life. The apostle Paul gives some instructions to men in Ephesians 5 25 and 33. It says this, 5 25 through 33. 0 (18m 36s): It says, For husbands this mean loves your, this means love your wives. Just as Christ loved the church, we know how Christ loved the church. Christ loved the church sacrificially with tenderness and strength and grace and truth. He led with great integrity. He gave up his life for her. Verse 26, to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. 0 (19m 16s): Instead, she'll be holy and without fault in the same way husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. That's interesting, right? For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. Well, what does that mean and what does that look like? I tell you what, if I've offended my wife, there's like a chill that settles in the whole house. There's like a chill that settles in my bones. I'm like, I know something's off. And so I look at her and she's not even trying, like she's not trying to make me squirm, but I promise you I am squirming because I know that she is unhappy with something I have said or done. 0 (20m 2s): And so I am doing everything I can to make sure that I am making amends. Because if I love my wife, right, it's gonna go better for me. Happy wife, happy life. If mom might happy, Jolene would say that If dad's not happy, nobody's happy to you, which may be true, but I tell you what, there's a chill that happens in the house until we get things squared away. So guys, we will have much better marriage as if we just decide sacrificially to serve our wives the way that Christ has served the church. 0 (20m 42s): Ephesians 5 29, no one hates his own body, but feeds and cares for it just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body as the scripture say, a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one, the two, the two become one. And in that relationship, the man is the head. And so in that relationship, wives, as you submit to your husbands, you've gotta honor him as your lead, as the leader in your home who will give an account before God as the spiritual leader and as the leader in general of your home. 0 (21m 22s): So I would encourage you to make sure that your husband is your priority. And man, I'm gonna speak to you as the two become one. You need to make sure that your wife is your priority. Sometimes men kind of want their mama to be their priority, right? Mamas don't let your babies grow up. No, that's the wrong song. Moms don't allow your your boys to do that. Sure, you want that. And but their responsibility is to their wife. And so when the two become one, now for husbands, their wife is their priority. And for then the opposite for husbands, for wives, husbands. 0 (22m 5s): So we have this model for us, this picture for us in the scripture about what marriage is supposed to look like. And so if we will just follow the prescribed way that we see in the scripture, our marriages will have the best possible, the best possible chance for success. The man is the head. Now, some would say that the man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn that head wherever she wants. And there's probably some truth to that. But it's not you wives. It's not you who will stand before the Lord to give an account for the way things win. 0 (22m 46s): It will be your husband. So be a blessing to him as he does his best to lead first 32. This is a great mystery, the two becoming one. But it's an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again, I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. So a woman's greatest need among all of the needs is that she would feel loved. A man's greatest need above, above all of the other needs is that he would feel respected. So this is good truth for us to remember all the days of our married lives, men need to feel respected in order to lead well. 0 (23m 27s): Wives need to feel loved in order to submit. So that means with that love, it's a, it's a place of safety. It's a place of security. It's a place of trust. I know that I can trust my husband and trust is earned. And so we have to live in such a way that we're earning the trust of our spouses and women. You need to live in such a way that your husband feels like he's really got the capacity to lead. And like you're really submitting to his leadership. And when that's working out, there's the best possibility for marital bliss. 0 (24m 8s): Now, some are here and you say, Man, my husband's not as spiritual as me. And that might be true, but it's still his responsibility to lead. And so pray for him. And dudes, if your wife is more spiritual than you, get on it, dog on it, right? Like get into the word and begin to grow as a believer, as a spiritual leader in your family. So open up the scripture every day, read and pray, and ask the Lord to help you with wisdom so that you might lead effectively in your home. Because it is absolutely unequivocally your responsibility. Doesn't matter what the culture says, the word of God tells us that it's the man's responsibility to lead. 0 (24m 53s): Now, let's talk about kids. We're done with marriages. You guys. Deep breath. Let's talk about kids. So we honor the family structure, children obey your parents. This is Ephesians six. Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord for this is the right thing to do. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise. It's the fifth commandment, but it's the first commandment with a promise. If you honor your father and mother, things will go well for you and you will have a long life on the earth. Fathers do not provoke your children to anger. So as you deal gently with your spouse, you need to deal gently with your children. 0 (25m 36s): Now, you need to set parameters because there's safety within the parameters, but there's a level of respect that you need to give to your kids, even if they haven't fully earned it. But there's something that needs to be, You need to show them that you're leading by example and that you're wanting the very best for them. And so you're honoring them in that relationship, not making them angry at the rules that you're setting down, but you're sitting with them and saying, These are the reason for the rules. These are the reasons for the parameters, because I, I love you and I want the very best for you. 0 (26m 16s): Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger. I heard this all the time growing up. It's my mom here. She's around here somewhere. Why should I do that? Because I told you to, right? We've all heard that, right? It's that old school parenting, I told you so. And that's what you need to do. If you don't like it, go. We gotta switch off the willow tree, right? Do you guys ever have to get a switch off the tree? Oh yeah. Holy cow, Right? That's the worst short in the world. You get a thin one, it's gonna sting like crazy. You get a thicker one that might break something. So you gotta find that happy little medium in there. And then you gotta go in there and drop your britches and you're leaning over the bed and you're, you're so, I don't know if you should spank with a switch, leave that up to you. 0 (27m 2s): But the scripture does say if you beat them, they won't die. I didn't write it, but that's what it says. Fathers do not provoke your children into anger by the way you treat them. Rather bring them up with a discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord. We want to minister to our kids, raising them up. So when they, when they get older, they want, they want to follow our leads. Spiritually, they they, they may not understand it now, but as they get older, they're gonna be able to look back and say, Man, I know now why the parameters. I know now why my parents did what they did. They were trying to honor the Lord and trying to protect me. All right? Behaving like believers, part of three. 0 (27m 43s): Number one, we honor God's plan for the family structure. And really quick, we're gonna get through points two and three. Number two, we work at getting along with others in the body of Christ. And so now we're talking to everybody. We're talking to everybody in first Peter three, eight. And following it says, Finally, all of you should be of one mind. What does that one mind mean? Because we've all got different opinions about so many different things. And so being of one mind, when Peter's writing to the church, he's saying, Listen, this is what your mind should be set on. I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm going to live my life as a follower of Jesus Christ. 0 (28m 29s): If we can agree on that, we are united, we are of one mind. And if that's the primary building block in our lives, all of these other secondary and tertiary things, those things can be just love covers a multitude of sins. So Peter's saying, Hey, if you're gonna be effective in the church, if you're gonna be salt and light in the church, you need to be of one mind. And then he says, Sympathize with each other. Love each other. As brothers and sisters. Be tender hearted and keep a humble attitude. Don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate with insults. When people insult you, instead pay them back with a blessing. 0 (29m 13s): That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you this blessing. So this little paragraph here, it seems impossible, right? To do what Peter has outlined under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit for us to do. But everything that God asks us to do requires that we are filled with the power of God, which is the Holy Spirit of God. The power of God will fill us and give us the grace to do what he's asked us to do. So every time we come across something difficult in the scripture, we simply say, God, in my natural ability, I don't want to do this in my natural ability. I can't do it. But by your grace, and as you empower me, I'm able to do this. Number three, behaving like believers. 0 (29m 54s): Part three. Number three, we enjoy life the way God has designed life to be enjoyed. We enjoy life the way that God has designed life to be enjoyed. Isn't that cool that God has designed life to be enjoyed? Now he's got parameters for us in the way that we enjoy life. And so he lays this out for us in the scriptures, for the scripture savers 10, If you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, how many want to enjoy life and see many happy days? Like all of us, right? None of us are saying, Nope, I want a terrible stinky life. No, we want a great life. 0 (30m 34s): We want to enjoy life. I think we're designed to enjoy life. And that all throughout eternity, we're gonna enjoy life and enjoy the goodness of God and we'll see many happy days. So if you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, and this is true no matter what, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies. So we gotta put a guard on our mouth because we can do so much devastating danger, destruction with our tongues that it can ruin our lives. And so you say, Hey, keep your tongue from speaking evil in your lips from telling lies. 0 (31m 16s): And then he said, Turn away from evil and do good search for peace and work to maintain it. Paul said, when it's possible, when it's at all possible, be at peace with everyone. So it requires some effort and some work. And so within the body of Christ, we need to work toward peace because there's gonna be things that we disagree on. You get two people together, there's gonna be things that we disagree on. You get hundreds of people together, there's gonna be things that we disagree on. So we need to work toward harmony within the body of Christ, search for peace and work to maintain it. The eyes of the Lord, watch over those who do right and his ears. 0 (31m 57s): Here we are again and his ears are open to their prayers, but the Lord turns his face against those who do evil. So if we follow God's prescribed way for living our lives, he will hear our prayers. If we do not follow God's prescribed way for living our lives, he will not hear our prayers. We see, we've seen this twice in this text. The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do rights and his ears are open to their prayers. So that tells me that if his ears are open to our prayers when we're obedient, they are closed to our, His ears are closed to us when we are disobedient. 0 (32m 47s): Now, I'm gonna let the Lord sort all of that out, but we can be sure that our life and the way that we live our lives impacts God's ability to hear us and answer our prayers. We see it over and over again in the scripture, but the Lord turns his face against those who do evil. So maybe you're reading, you're hearing this and you're like, Man, I've been guilty of some of this stuff. Just repent. If you haven't been a good husband, repent. If you haven't been a good wife, repent. If you haven't been a good child to your parents, repent. Make amends, fix things. 0 (33m 27s): I spent the last few years of my dad's life just trying to get things squared away cuz there was something in that relationship that I just wanted to see healthy. Cuz we'd spent over 50 years in a not very healthy relationship. But I, I longed for health in that relationship. I, I think that's true in our lives. As much as we might fight it, as much as we might resent the idea because we've been hurt, work toward peace with those people. If you've not been a good parent, hey, I haven't been a very good parent. Maybe your kids are grown, you go back to them and say, You know what, I, I wasn't a very good parent. 0 (34m 9s): Would you forgive me? I made all kinds of mistakes. Will you forgive me? And I, I almost guarantee that your kids are just longing to hear that and longing to reconcile with you and longing to have those wounds healed and mended wherever you have fallen short. And we all fall short in every arena of life. And so we need to maintain a humble, broken, contrite attitude and just keep short accounts with people. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Now you say, but then don't keep doing the same mistakes. 0 (34m 51s): And if you do, just say, I'm sorry, I'm trying. I'm trying. But just talk about it. Talk about it. God wants the family of God and the family within the family of God to be healthy and filled with life and light and joys with that. Let's go ahead and stand up. I'm not sure how long this behaving like Believers series will go on, but we might be behaving like believers, Part 42 here before long. So number one, we honor God's plan for the family structure. Number two, we work at getting along with others in the body of Christ. And number three, we enjoy life the way God has designed life to be enjoyed. So thank you Lord for who you are. Thankful God, we're thankful God, that you are faithful to us, that you are patient with us. 0 (35m 33s): We need you to be patient with us Lord. So thank you that you are God. We just want to say yes to your plans. We wanna honor you Lord. And as we honor you, I know we will honor one another. We'll be better husbands, better wives, we'll be better leaders, we'll be better followers, Lord. Life will just get better as we submit to you, to your plans and purposes. So help us to do that, Lord. There's plenty of grace, but there's also plenty of work to do so that we fight the good fight of faith, doing what you call us to do. So strengthen us in our times of weakness. Strengthen us when we need it. Give us the grace and strengthen to do what you've asked us to do. 0 (36m 14s): We love you Lord. We bless you Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. It's worship.

1 (2s): Harvest. 2 (3s): Judge, how's it going? Welcome to the 10:00 AM service. Just psych. No, someone in my ear seems like it's nine. I know. It was cuz of the time change. What's up guys? It's so good to see you all. Would you stand with me as we get to worship? Our dear Amanda is, she's, she is, she's arrived in the States, but she's, she's not quite here yet. So thankfully I'm, I'm getting the opportunity to fill in for her this morning. So excited to be here with you guys and I'm excited to worship with you. So let's, let's do that. 1 (1m 6s): Let worship can, let us bow at his feet. Oh, he has concrete. See what our savior has done. See how his, he has done 0 (1m 29s): Great things. 1 (1m 32s): He has done 0 (1m 33s): Great 1 (1m 39s): Of heaven. You conquer the, you free every captive and break every shame. Oh God, you have done we the freedom 0 (1m 55s): The 1 (1m 56s): Life. Oh Jesus, I your name lifted God. 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And you have we on Jesus to I save you your name. I, oh God, you have some, Oh God, you have some. 1 (4m 53s): Okay, let's out for shout chairs our lawyers in the place. It's morning to be 3 (5m 19s): At where Me's But he and his love 1 (5m 31s): For me. 3 (5m 34s): Oh his love. 1 (5m 42s): Always 0 (5m 43s): Free D 1 (5m 47s): Ah, 0 (5m 47s): Job. Yeah. 1 (5m 56s): Lasty 0 (5m 57s): Has ransom His grace. I was tooth in Jesus for He died. For the sun says is free is free. God's a for me, I'm the show God. 0 (6m 45s): Yes am I am not for again, I say I am. You are for me, not against me. I'm say I'm, I'm chosen. Not for again, I'm, I'm you are for me. Not No I against me. I'm who You say. I'm whom? Who. 0 (7m 25s): I'm Who? The free. Who Free. I'm a God in my father's is house. There's a face for me. Yes. In mys house, there's a place for me. 0 (8m 13s): Yes. 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You'll never gonna up. Youll never up. You never give up on me. You never give up. You never give up. You never give up on me. I never give, give up. You give on love. Never give you on you love never to up. You me. 0 (18m 34s): I know Jesus's me. You doing a you for all you need a new thing. You a new thing you love. Have give, give up. You never give up on you. 0 (19m 15s): Loves never gonnai. You love never gonna up. You never you never up on me. I know, I know Jesus Done with me. You're doing new things. You're doing things all. I easy you, you doing, you too. 0 (19m 58s): You doing a movie? Hey man, 5 (20m 9s): Come on up Jeremy. 0 (20m 10s): Hi. 5 (20m 12s): Let's pray. Let's pray. 6 (20m 14s): Heavenly Father, we thank you Lord that you that began a good work in us Lord, will not stop until you've completed it. Lord. Lord, you're a God that never gives up. Lord, we thank you for your unending love, your unending grace, your unending mercy. Lord God, you are so good. Thank you for this time to worship you, Lord, just to take, Take a break from the, from the thoughts and cares and concerns of this world and just lay them at your feet and worship you Lord God cuz you're so high above all these things, Lord. So we set you, you on. Hi Lord this morning. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thanks y'all. Let me take a seat. 6 (20m 55s): Thanks worship team. Well, hello, my name is Jeremy. I'm the youth and family pastor here. Normally Curtis is given the announcement, but he got a little under the weather today, so that's why I brought my cheat sheet up here. But welcome to Harvest. If this is your first time joining us, we're so glad you're here. We have a info center in the back that we'd love for you to check in and fill out a communication card. We wanna find out more about you and find out how you can plug into Harvest Church is just a great family, a great body of believers. So we're glad that you're here. This, this week's a pivotal week. We have elections coming up on Tuesday and, and many of you have maybe already pre-read or prevo, you know, sent in your ballot that came in, but some, some of you haven't. 6 (21m 38s): And so we want to take and acknowledge just how important this voting is. It's a, it's a privilege that our country has and so we wanna encourage you to get out and vote your biblical and Christian values. Biblical worldview is, is the way that we see the world through the frame and through the understanding of the Bible. And we at Harvest Church, we wanna encourage you to have a biblical worldview. Let let the Bible shape how you interact with the world around us. You know, the way that we spend our money, the way that we give our time, where we put our time in our, the things that we value in our lives. 6 (22m 18s): All those things can be framed within our biblical worldview. And so there's just some, I mean there's definitely some propositions that California is facing. Proposition one being one of those where we are called to vote whether abortion should be made a legal right. And, and the law is, is written in a way where it's, it it could be at any age that that baby could be terminated in pregnancy up. And two, the point of birth. That's a scary, scary thought that our, our our our state is leading the, the nation with this making abortion a right. So let's get out and please vote your biblical worldview. 6 (22m 60s): We have a few ways to, to find out more about the different laws. There's, there's a lot of stuff, stuff. I don't have time to research every single candidate in every single proposition. So what we have in the back is there's a QR code and you just go scan that QR code and it takes you to Cal Matters. And I pulled it up my phone. So it's just a non-partisan voter guide. It's what you need to know and it kind of gives you a brief, like this is what you're voting for if you vote for this candidate or, or that proposition. So it's just a good resource. Another resource we wanna point you to is Shannon Kessler. She's in back over there by the info center as well and she's, she's definitely done her homework, done her research. So she's a great person to go to just to find out more about how to vote your biblical worldview. 6 (23m 42s): So with that, definitely voting as a freedom and so, or privilege. So definitely take that on. We wanna say thank you to all the people that you donated Candy that volunteered for our Harvest or Carnival Festival. It was a great, great turnout if you weren't here, we had, I I, I approximate at least 3000 people walk through these doors. 3000 peoples. It was phenomenal. We handed out over a thousand gospel tracks and invitations to our church along with, you know, lots of candy, but it really was an amazing, So we have a quick video to show you, just a recap and I'll, I'll pop back up after that. 6 (25m 7s): So thank you to everyone who voted, I mean or first voted everyone who came through and helped out, you know, from the greeters at the door, just smiling and handing out tracks to the popcorn. You know, makers who couldn't keep up with the demand for the popcorn. Thank you all, It was a great, great event. So real quickly we have a little more, a few more details on the Harvest Women's Gathering. That will be Friday, November 8th from six to seven 30 18th, 18th, 18th. Okay. 18th, sorry. Okay. November 18th, six to seven 30 in the chapel. And that's all women. So junior high and up, please come join all the women in the, in gathering a job in the chapel. 6 (25m 47s): It's been a great time. And you're asked to bring a finger food, finger food, not fingers, bring a finger food and share and to share and to bring a friend as well. So there's that Hurricane Ian relief is still going on. We're still gathering money. I think last count was over $22,000 our church raised to help out those who are hurting, that is still going. You go to the info center. And then last but not least, Operation Christmas Child boxes will be due next week. So that's November 13th and we're asked to bring $10 to help with the shipping costs for that. And then, and then if you want to go above, beyond just making a few boxes if you're interested, there's gonna be a packing party down there at the operation Christmas Child Packing Center and that'll be December 9th. 6 (26m 34s): And so our church is leading, taking a team down there as well. More info at the info center. And last, but at least we have one more video to show you or video. 7 (26m 45s): Upon entering the processing center, a greeter will meet you inside the entrance doors and check in your group. Everyone in your group is encouraged to complete their volunteer waiver online to accelerate the check in process. Once your group is checked in, you'll be assigned a place to serve. The majority of our volunteers will be placed at a shoebox processing table where boxes are inspected and prepared for shipping. If placed at a shoebox processing table, you may be an Inspector Taper scanner or carer. Every step in the shoeboxes journey is important, as is your role at the processing center. If you are placed on a processing team, your team coach will provide instructions and more details for each volunteer position. 7 (27m 28s): Often these instructions change yearly, so getting updates from your team coach is very important. We also have a number of other important volunteer positions. So we appreciate your flexibility as every position is vital to processing. Other volunteer roles in the processing center may include serving in a support role for the processing teams in areas such as the shoebox hospital or providing filler items to the team. It's critical to the mission for you to keep your appointment. However, if something does come up and you cannot find someone to take your place, be sure to communicate with your team leader as soon as possible so that they can reduce your numbers in the online reservation system. 7 (28m 9s): Updating the reservation allows us to get you through the check in faster when you arrive at the processing center. It also helps us to organize our onsite systems to process shoe boxes in the most efficient way possible. Finally, your group leader will be receiving an electronic information packet that will provide additional information such as parking instructions, hotel options if needed, and other important information. We look forward to seeing you this processing season. Be sure to check our website for the latest information about Samaritan's Purse and Operation Christmas Child. Thank you again for your partnership in bringing good news and great joy to children all over the world. 6 (28m 49s): Yeah. All right, so just a great way to help serve. That'll be December 9th I believe, down in Fullerton or down that area. So a great way to just grab a team from Harvest Church head down there and serve the world. Really. So now's a great time to say hi to someone around you. We're gonna take a little time to meet and greet and we'll gather back up in a minute. God bless you guys. 8 (29m 11s): Hi 0 (29m 37s): Over 9 (29m 38s): Of mountains, Ens River runs with love. Hence I will love up my heart and let the heal of I'm happy to be the, I will lift my hands. I can see you, I can see I can you s in the seat with love. 9 (30m 21s): Nce I will up my heart and let the I'm to I will my hands. 9 (31m 21s): It's 10 (31m 22s): On. 0 (32m 41s): Good. I like it. 11 (32m 52s): On, we're on. Good morning. So many amazing things that are happening. Just so many opportunities for us Harvest Church. So overwhelmed by the Halloween outreach last week, holy cow, 3000 people coming through and at one particular booth, the Good News club booth, the leader of that booth, actually, from what I understand, she, she was prepared for 800 students to come through and each student that came through was told the gospel message before they could play the game. And so she personally shared the gospel with 800 kids. 11 (33m 36s): And so we praying for those young people. It feels like my microphone's a little hot Tim, so be praying, Thank you for that. Be praying for those seeds that are planted. The scripture says Paul planted Apollos watered, but the Lord brought the increase. And so we all have a role to play in planting seeds and watering seeds, but as God who brings the increase. And so let's be faithful to pray that God works through those gospel seeds that have been planted in those young people's lives. And for the over, I think it was over a thousand gospel tracks, that those tracks aren't just tossed in the circular file, but they're actually, that they find a way to stick around in the people's homes so they stumble upon them and have the opportunity to read those things. 11 (34m 23s): So be just be mindful, there's a lot of work after the work, you know, just spiritual work that needs to take place. And so be praying for those things. Hey, a lot of you been asking about my Hume Lake trip and so I had a great time up there for about 16 hours, I think it was 16 hours total from the time that I left here and got back here. It's about 16 hours. I get up there and I get up there, it's dark and I can't find the cabin, it, it's pitch black up there. And so I finally locate the cabin and settle in, have some dinner and go talk to my wife, go to sleep next day, get up and my wife calls and says, Hey Marvs. And going into the hospital. So my father-in-law was struggling and so he was get gonna get picked up and by the ambulance and go to the hospital. 11 (35m 7s): So I loaded everything back up in my truck and came home. And so had a delightful drive up and a delightful drive back. And so it's been, it's been interesting, but I feel refreshed. I, even though I didn't have the four days that I planned to be up there, I still feel totally refreshed and so grateful. And Curtis, Pastor Curtis did a great job filling in last week and he just did a, just a wonderful job bringing the word outta first Peter. And we're gonna be picking up where he left off. He talked about be behaving like believers. And so we're gonna be talking about the same thing today, behaving like believers Part two. So we're gonna be picking up in first Peter chapter two and we'll, we'll kinda go start, gonna go back from verse nine all the way hopefully through the end of the chapter. 11 (35m 52s): So with that, let's pray. Lord, we just invite you to God, just speak to us as we open up your word. Lord, we just, we want to be available and God, we just wanna have ears to hear. And so we pray that you'd speak to us, we pray that you would reveal your truth to us in ways that we can get it and understand it in our season of life. Just wherever we are in life, Lord God, people are just dealing with all kinds of stuff today, good stuff and hard stuff. And so we just pray your grace would be upon our lives as we sit here in honor of you and just longing to worship you. And also just be encouraged by your word and by your spirit and by your people. So be glorified, we pray. 11 (36m 33s): We love you Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. So kind of a recap. First Peter chapter two verses nine through 25. Peter is writing to believers. And so if you're a believer here today, he's writing to you. And if you're not a believer today, God is wanting you to become a believer. He loves you, God loves you and wants you to know him and wants you to follow him and wants you to serve him. So Peter's writing to those who believe in Christ. And, and the truth is because we belong to Christ, we belong to one another. And so it's so beautiful for us as a church to gather each Sunday and throughout the week really we, there's dozens of groups where people are gathered throughout the week and homes and on the campus here where people are just gathering for prayer and for fellowship and for bible study and all kinds of stuff. 11 (37m 24s): And so it's just great to know that we're part of something bigger than just ourselves. We're part of the believers, the the family of God who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as we read through this opening portion of first Peter chapter two, we, we begin to see how Peter, what Peter writes about who we are in Christ. And I think it's understand helpful for us to understand who, who we are in Christ. What if we're gonna be behave like believers? We need to understand who we are so that we can begin to behave like believers. There's something empowering about understanding who we are. So first and foremost, we are called chosen people. 11 (38m 7s): We'll read the verse here in just a moment, but we're called chosen people. How does it feel to be chosen? It's a pretty good thing. Like I remember growing up in school, you know when teams were being picked and it was always like the athletic kids or the intelligent kids or the popular kids who were getting chosen first. And you're just hoping somewhere in there that someone's going to choose you. Like, and then if you don't get chosen, like there's odd numbers, you're like the last one standing there and you're like, ah, just go play with that team, right? Someone will just kind of grab you out of you know, obligation, right? You have to be. So the good news about the gospel is, is that we have been chosen by Christ. 11 (38m 47s): He is, he sees value in us because we're created in his image because he loves us because he just longs to lavish his grace and his truth upon our lives. So in, in Christ we are chosen in Christ, we are part of God's people. We are God's chosen people also in Christ. You are called royal priests. Now it just keeps getting better like we are chosen, but now we're elevated in stature we are called royal priest. Priests are those who represent the person of God. But the word that we get priesthood, the word that we get priesthood, the word that is derived from actually doesn't mean it doesn't mean like vocational pastors. 11 (39m 33s): So we think priesthood, we think pastors, but this is not the, what this word means. It's actually means all of the people of God who have been washed by the blood of the lamb who are in Christ or actually priests of God. We are the priesthood of God. In Revelation one, the the second half of verse five and six, it says all glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us, He has made us a kingdom of priests. Isn't that sweet? We have this special relationship to the king and we represent to the world our king. 11 (40m 14s): We are priests of God. He has made us a kingdom of priests for God, his father, all glory and power to him forever and ever. So in Christ, you are part of his kingdom. You are chosen, you are called, you're another definition describing who we are is we're a holy nation. Isn't that interesting? We're a holy nation. As a holy nation. We are a people called to reflect the character of God in the way that we live our lives. And so we're chosen, we're priests, we've been, we've been called a holy nation. So we're a part of something bigger than just our own little lives and the way that we live our lives. 11 (40m 59s): We're a part of something bigger. I think that's helpful for us as believers to know that we're not in this alone. We're chosen with all of God's people that we're, we've been given responsibility as the priesthood of God and we're a holy nation also in Christ. You are your god's. Very own possession. Isn't that neat? Now God owns everything. So doesn't seem very special, but it speaks, it kinda gives us a picture of eastern kings. Eastern kings. They had the wealth of their nation, but they also had their own own special treasury to be used for their own purposes. And so as we think about being God's very own possession, it's really a sweet thing in Christ, we belong to God and we are his special possession. 11 (41m 47s): We are put aside for his own special use. So we've been chosen, we've been given a, a priest to it, we're part of a holy nation. We're a prized possession of God. There's just something powerful about getting a, a solid understanding of who we are in Christ. In Exodus 19, five through six, exactly two months after Israel left Egypt, Moses went up to Mount Sinai and he heard from the Lord, Exodus 19 five and six says, Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure. 11 (42m 32s): So we see this in the Old Testament, we see this in the New Testament. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The gospel truth in the old and the New Testament is the same. Now, if you will obey me and keep my covenants, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples of the earth. For all the earth belongs to me. And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation. This is my message you must give. This is the message you must give to the people of Israel. So as God spoke to Moses, he was given this message and this message was to be communicated to the people. And that message still needs to be communicated to us this day in Jesus Christ. 11 (43m 13s): So again, throughout the old and the New Testament, we hear God's well. We hear his thoughts toward us. We are given a new and important identity. We are new in Christ. We don't just, when we become Christians, we don't just kind of add that to our lives as something else. Like I'm a plumber and I'm a Christian, right? We don't add it to our lives, but it's like, it's like a transformational process that takes place. We're actually called, it's actually called being born again. So we're got new life, new identity, new responsibilities, new possibilities, amazing strength and grace is available to us in Christ when we recognize who it is that we are and who it is that we serve. 11 (44m 1s): So for those who have made Jesus Christ their Lord, we have a God given identity. Let's take a look at first Peter two, nine again, it spells it out for us again, but you are not like that and we kind of jump in. So what is the writer saying? He's not like, he's saying you're not like that. The disobedient, if you read the context of the text, what the writer is saying, he's saying you're, you're not the disobedience. That's not who you are in Christ. This is who you are because you've trusted me. This is who you are for. You are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession as a result at, because all of this is true, you can show others the goodness of God for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. 11 (44m 54s): And we, boy, we can think about our past, whether that was yesterday or last year, 10, God rescued us out of darkness, depravity, a place of sin and selfishness, a place of lostness where we didn't know God and he rescued us and he brought us into a place of light where we can see our desperate need for him and be grateful and live a new life in Jesus Christ. Verse 10 says, Once you had no identity as a people, now you are God's people. Once you receive no mercy, now you have received God's mercy. So in light of all that has been written up to this point, and in light of all God has done in our lives as believers, believers, we are given direction for our lives. 11 (45m 45s): We're given kinda marching orders like, and these are exciting things because it's eternal things. They're fruitful things. There are things that God is calling us to that will last forever. They will stand the test of time and stick with us and go with us through all eternity. So we'll see three areas of life where God is calling his people to behave like believers. So we've hadd the message behaving like believers. Part two, one Peter two 11 through 25 says, Dear friends, I warn you, this is Peter writing. And this is Peter who had an encounter with God and, and then kind of backslid and struggled with his faith when Jesus was arrested and being pers a persecuted and getting ready to be hung on a cross. 11 (46m 37s): Peter struggled and, and then he woke up and realized that God had still put a call into his life and a purpose into his life. And so maybe you're here today and you need to wake up to the reality that though you've struggled, God still got purpose for you. You believe in Christ, though you struggled in your words or thoughts or deeds. God will give you the grace to get victory there and to move forward in Jesus Christ as those who, as those who believe and who are being transformed to your friends. I warn you as temporary residents and foreigners to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very soul. 11 (47m 25s): So number one, behaving like believers means we refuse to adopt this world's way of living. So there's the, the world's way of living and then there's God's way of living. And so believers actually behave differently than people in the world. We're actually called to a better way of living, a more holy way of living. And God gives us the grace through the presence of this Holy Spirit. He fills us with this Holy Spirit empowers us with the, with the presence of God so that we can do what he's called us to do. 11 (48m 5s): So this first talks about how we are temporary residents and foreigners here. So we're just like passing through. The King James version says, We are strangers and pilgrims, temporary residents, strangers refers to those whose home is somewhere else. And in this context it refers to those whose home is heaven. So we know that we are just passing through and this place is not our home. And that's hard for us to get and really to live in the day to day because we feel, I mean in the natural, I mean this is our home. We're building lives and careers and we're buying homes and we're building lives and families here. 11 (48m 50s): And so it's hard to keep that perspective that this place is not our home, but we're, we're here for a season and for some that season is longer than others, but this is not our home. We are actually just passing through. We are foreigners and pilgrims in reference to heaven as our native country, our forever home May a foreigner or pilgrim is one who sojourns or visits on the way somewhere else. If you ever had a very long layover at an airport years ago, Pastor Ron d and i, I think it was on our first trip to Israel, we, we had this layover and we were in Zurich for hours and hours and hours and hours and you know, I just thought, hey, you stay here, I'm just gonna go walk. 11 (49m 37s): And, and so we eat lots of good food in Zurich, but you can only eat so much food until you're just ready. You're just like ready to go home finally. Right? And that how it feels here. You're like, man, life has been so good here, but I am just so ready to go home. I just want to be home. There's no place like home. It's like when you go on vacation and you have this amazing time, I dunno about you, but it's always so refreshing just to be at home in your own place with your own pantry and refrigerator in your own bed and all your comforts of home. There's just no place like home. So this is like a, a very long layover here. We got, you know, we got stuff to do in this layover and things to enjoy and to experience. 11 (50m 22s): But we gotta remember that this, this life is not our home. There are are things that we endure here. Loss, death, sickness, great disappointments and difficulties. And it's helpful in those moments to remember that, hey, we're passing through and while we go through difficult things and we go through glorious things here on the earth, we are just passing through. So we need to be, behave like believers while we're here. Meaning, meaning we need to refuse to adopt this way, this world's way of living. In our statement of faith as a church, I talked about our core values and kind of what we're all about, our purpose statement. 11 (51m 8s): Then I said, we're gonna kind of go through our statement of faith. And so what I decided to do is just kind of unpack our statement of faith as I teach through the, the scripture as we move forward week to week. And so I, I will highlight different things. And so part of our statement of faith is a topic called the church. And it's important for us to kind of understand that God's perspective about the church, and this is what our statement of faith says, the church, the universal church is the living spiritual body of which Christ is the head. And all regenerated persons are members. We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. 11 (51m 51s): So again, it points to the fact that while we gather here at Harvest Church in this space at 1 0 2 West Branch Street, in the village of Aro Grandi, others around the globe, our meeting as well. And I remember going to New Zealand a number of years ago, 2014, my son was there going to school and they were having a pastor's conference in New Zealand. So it was a, it was a win-win. I get to go see my son and go to the pastor's conference and I just, I I knew when I was there that I was, I was representing the family of God. I I know the mission of the organization that he was with at the time and they wanted to see all of New Zealand evangelized and come to faith in Jesus Christ. They've got a, like a bigger than average, bigger than normal expectation for God to do something radical in their nation. 11 (52m 39s): So I, I carried that with me when I was there. I thought, man, everything I do has got to reflect what they're trying to do. So as a Christian, I'm part of the church. And so while I'm here, I wanna make sure that everything I'm doing is supporting the work of the gospel in that nation, in that community and in that nation that I was visiting. There's something, something big about what we're a part of that is a bit weighty, but it also keeps us steered in the right direction, moving in the right direction in Romans 12, four and five. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function. 11 (53m 20s): So it is with Christ's body, we are many parts of one body and we all belong to each other. So we all belong to each other and we all belong to Christ. And so as we pray for the work of Harvest Church, we're also praying for the work of God in churches in our community and in our county and in our state and in our nation and in our world. We're praying in big ways for God to do big things and prayers that we won't see answers to until we get to the other side. When we're in eternity with the Lord, we're gonna be able to see the fruit of those prayers. And this is why we partner with organizations who are trying to minister regarding Ian and regarding the Christmas boxes that we're trying to get to people all around, we realize we're partnering linking arms with like-minded people who are trying to be gospel focused and do something fruitful for the kingdom. 11 (54m 17s): So because we belong to Christ, this place is not our home. And so we need to be thinking constantly, Lord how am I making this place my home and not thinking properly about my real place, my real destiny, my real home, which is heaven as temporary residents and foreigners, you are to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very soul. The scripture says worldly desires are those sinful fleshly desires that actually do harm to our souls, our souls, our mind will and emotion, those things that damage us as believers. And so we need to be careful that we're not part participating in things that are actually damaging our soul. 11 (55m 0s): Galatians five 19 through 21 helps us to understand what those things kind of look like and we get this list of things that Paul writes about in Galatians that really nail down for us what those sinful things look like. And so we'll just read Galatians five 19 through 21. It says, When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear. Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties and other sins like these. 11 (55m 59s): Let me tell you again as I have before that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. And so as we look through what Paul writes in Galatians, we ask the question, How do I avoid, how do I avoid these things? So we just read Galatians five 19 through 21. And so as we look at the warnings there, it's important for us to understand how we avoid these things. And so I'm just going to kind of go through an exercise with you and I'm gonna open up to Galatians chapter five because it helps us, I gotta know which direction to go in my Bible here, Galatians chapter five because the context of a particular verse will help us to understand the verse, but it'll also help us to understand how to live out the verse. 11 (56m 54s): And so there's the immediate context of what is written here in Galatians five that will be helpful for us to understand how to do what God has asked us to do. And so in I'll just so I read verses, this is just a little exercise here that you can all do. So I was reading verses 19 through 21. Everybody understand what I'm doing here? So I wanna understand now I just read this, sometimes we read stuff and we're like, Lord, what do I do with this? Well we just have to go to the scripture because the scripture will help us to understand what we do with this. Scripture interprets scripture as we understand scripture, we understand what to do with scripture. 11 (57m 34s): So I wanna back up because the immediate context would be verses like a few verses before and a few verses after roughly. So we start, we read verses 19 through 21. I'll read verse 16. It says this, I'll just read right up to it. It says this, So I say let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The the sinful nature. Nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two desires are constantly fighting each other. 11 (58m 17s): So you're not free to carry out your good intentions, but when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. Whoa, what does that mean? We're not under the, I don't know, let's take a look. So in my study Bible, it's just a thin line study Bible. Here I'm looking at verse 18. So I'm gonna go to my notes down here in the middle, in the center there. Oh, and there's a verse. So these verses in the middle help help us to understand what Galatians five 18 means. And so I'm gonna look at just the first verse. 11 (58m 58s): It says Romans six 14. So I'm gonna go back to Romans six 14 because it's helpful to understand the scripture from the scripture. What was it again? Roman six 14. Thank you. Thank you. See if I can find it in here. It's really small writing. I've got new glasses coming, but these are gonna have to work here. Way too many people identify with what's going on right now sin. So again, this is Roman six 14. Sin is no longer your master, huh? 11 (59m 39s): For you no longer live under the requirements of the law. What is the law given to us? To a what? What's the law for the law is given. So we might recognize how sinful we are, right? We we're given the law in scripture so we realize our desperate need for God, right? So sin is no longer your master for you. No longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God's grace. Well then since God's grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not. It says right there, of course not. Don't you realize not my words, God's words? 11 (1h 0m 19s): Of course not. Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever sin which leads you become a slave to sin, which leads to death. Or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God once you are slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey his teachings. We have given you now you are free from your slavery to sin and you have become slaves to righteous living. Right? Isn't that good stuff? So we, regulations five 19, it's like this heavy list. Like what do we Lord? But when we allow the Holy Spirit to control our lives and realize who we are in Christ, that we're free, that we're no longer slaves to sin, but we're free because of God's goodness in our lives, we can live differently as a result. 11 (1h 1m 12s): And so when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, we do the things that please the Spirit. When the Holy Spirit's not controlling our lives, we don't do the things that please the spirit. So when we talk about just kind of living differently and behaving as believers, it's, it's just very practical stuff. I was at the hospital recently with my mother-in-law and she needed a CT scan and an mri. And so I take her in and she's in a wheelchair, you know, so I gotta help get her on the table and that sort of thing. And, and so I'm just kind of talking with the MRI specialist, the the guy doing this. And he said, Hey, why don't you come in and you can watch as we take pictures while your mother-in-law's in her in the mri. 11 (1h 1m 59s): And so I'm in there and I'm like, this is incredible. Have you ever seen an mri? I mean like behind, like, and, and it's amazing. Like you get to see all of the brain and vertebrae and everything. I'm like, okay, this reinforces my belief that we are, there's an intelligent designer who actually designed us like this can't just happen, right? There's intelligent intelligence behind our design. I just felt like I needed to say that just to maybe plant a seed to the guy. Cause I don't know if he's a believer or not, but I, I know that I gotta at least say, Hey, this is not because of a, you know, a big banger. 11 (1h 2m 44s): This is not chaos coming into order. This is just God's good plan and design. And so anyway, we finish up and Margaret comes out and we get her back in her chair. And I, I asked the technician, I said, Hey, real quick question. I noticed that when we were scanning my mother-in-law's brain, it was very, very small. And I just wonder, is that normal? And she's, she's looking at, and the technician went right with it and he said, Well, that's something the doctor's gonna have to talk with her about. And he knew I was joking, and of course Margaret knew I was joking. But is if you're gonna harass anybody in your life, you know that you gotta harass your mother-in-law because it's expected and she fully expects it. And she, she looks all innocent, but she dishes it out as much as she takes it in. 11 (1h 3m 29s): So let's get back to one Peter chapter 2, 1 12. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior and they will give honor to God when he judges the world. And so we have, as citizens of heaven, as believers, we have this responsibility to behave properly. And God outlines that force in just about every book of the Bible, probably every book of the Bible. There's instruction for us, for our behavior. And then God empowers us to do that. And then we need to realize that people are watching and they're looking at our lives wanting to see, I think just maybe wanting to see if what we believe is genuine and if it's really life changing, they're wondering if this is something that would be good for their own lives. 11 (1h 4m 23s): And so they're watching our lives. And so we have the opportunity in just the day to day living as believers to be salt and light in our world, pointing people to Jesus, behaving like believers. Part two, number one, behaving like believers means we refuse to adopt this world's way of living. And number two, behaving like believers means we respect everyone, love the family believers and fear God. And we get that from chapter two, verse 17. But before we get there, verse 13, for the Lord's sake submit to all human authority, whether the king as head of state or the officials he has appointed for the king has sent them to punish those who do wrong and to honor those who do right? 11 (1h 5m 8s): And so we see in these sections of scripture that we are to submit. And that word keeps showing up. And it's not a fun word, right? Like nobody, nobody really wants to submit, right? Like I can submit to God halfway, okay, most days, but I don't wanna really submit to, but my flesh resists it, right? But God calls us to submit and the word submits or submission has the literal meaning of stationing oneself beneath someone else. And so regarding the other person as superior to one's self. So believers are to submit to governing authorities. 11 (1h 5m 48s): We have this responsibility to submit to governing authorities. But I love the scripture because in this scripture it shows us that even though we have this responsibility to submit to governing authorities, we're not to submit to the point of being, you know, like a doormat where we're being overrun, having our liberties trampled upon. That's just not my opinion. But that's what we see in Acts 25, where the apostle Paul, he's actually falsely accused. And so we'll see what the apostle Paul does in reaction, in response to this. And we'll kind of jump in the middle here. Acts chapter 25 verses six through 12. 11 (1h 6m 28s): Again, Paul is falsely accused. About eight or 10 days later, Feist return to Caesarea. And on the following day, he took his seat in court and ordered that Paul be brought in. When Paul arrived, the Jewish leaders from Jerusalem gathered around and made many serious accusations they couldn't prove, Paul denied the charges. I'm not guilty of any crime against the Jewish laws or the temple or the Roman government. He said, then Fes wanting to please the Jews asked him, Are you willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there? 11 (1h 7m 13s): But Paul replied, No, Like he's standing up for his lawful rights. No, this is the official Roman court. So I ought to be tried right here. You know very well, I'm not guilty of harming the Jews. If I have done something worthy of death, I, I don't refuse to die. But if I am innocent, no one has the right to turn me over to these men to kill me. I appeal to Caesar so fastest conferred with his advisors and then replied very well, You have appealed to Caesar and to Caesar you will go. And so Paul's very respectful, but he is also very aware of the fact that they're trying to railroad him. 11 (1h 7m 60s): And so he's saying, Listen, lawfully, this isn't lawful. I haven't done anything wrong and so I'm not gonna just roll over so that you can do what you want with me. And so we have a responsibility to respect governing, governing authorities, but we also have the, the opportunity. And it's not rebellion rebell in scripture, if we do it right, it's an opportunity to stand up for what is right lawfully in our lives. Let's continue one Peter two, verse 15. It says, It is God's will that your honorable life should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you, for you are free, yet you are God's slaves. 11 (1h 8m 41s): Isn't that a paradox? You're slaves of God and yet you're free. Listen, I'd rather be a slave to God than a slave to sin any day because as a slave of God, I'm free from the power of sin in my life or you are free, yet you are God's slave. So don't use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. Respect everyone is where we get that second point. Respect to everyone and love the family of believers, fear God and respect the king behaving like believers. Number three, and we're gonna wrap it up here quickly, behaving like believers means doing good, even if it means suffering justice Christ suffered for you. 11 (1h 9m 25s): Interesting. So in the Christian life we will experience suffering, persecution, difficulty challenges to our lives as believers and increasingly so as times go on. And it's interesting in the scripture, Paul addresses slavery and he's challenging the people within the context of the first century. The slavery's been a part of humanity's history forever and ever. Hey man, this is what he says, You are, you who are slaves must submit to your masters with all respect. And some would say, well you kind of look at this in light of employers and you can do that. 11 (1h 10m 7s): But most employers aren't gonna beat you if you do wrong. They maybe like to beat you if you do wrong, but they're, they actually are not gonna beat you. So there's a, there's a connection there. Like we can look at this in light of employee, employee relationship, but this is a slave and a slave owner kind of scenario. Here you are, slaves must submit to your masters with all respect, do what they tell you, not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel. So only one point in scripture does Paul say, Hey, in first Corinthians 7 21, he said, Are you a slave? 11 (1h 10m 48s): Don't let that worry you. But if you get a chance to be free, take it. Right? So if you get a chance to be free, take it be don't you know volunteer, get a chance to be free. Take it now there, there's good and bad slave owners throughout history, right? Some will treat their slaves well and others and even as part of the family and others will treat them poorly. So Paul saying, Hey, if you get a chance to be free, be free. But if you can't, then this is how you're actually supposed to live in relationship for God. Verse 19 is please win conscious of his will you patiently endure unjust treatment? Of course you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. 11 (1h 11m 33s): But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. So I don't wanna overstate it, but it's a, a passage that challenges us to live right? Even in unjust circumstances, like we don't have the respons or the freedom to be acting un unjustly or un righteously even at the circumstances. Now we can stand up for our legal rights and do all of that sort of thing and follow what Paul did and follow his example. But if we're stuck, we, we actually have to do what the scripture says and submit to that authority. 11 (1h 12m 14s): Verse 21, For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, justice Christ suffered for you. So now we kinda bring it full circle. So we are believers in Christ in the finished work of Christ. And we are believers because Christ suffered unjustly for us to welcome us into the family of God. He, he died in our place so that we could be forgiven so that our sins could be forgiven. So Christ suffered unjustly so that we might have eternal life. And so he's saying, Listen, if you need to suffer in this life, suffer as I suffered for God called you to do good, even if it means suffering just as Christ suffered for you. 11 (1h 12m 57s): He is your example and you must follow in his steps. He never sinned nor ever deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when he was insulted nor threatened revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God who always judges fairly. So again, we may experience some mistreatment here in the earth, but this is not our home, we're just passing through. And so we endure it to the best of our ability. If we can get into a better scenario, we do. But in life there are just difficult circumstances that we must walk through and we must honor the Lord. We must behave like believers. As we were walking through those difficult things. 11 (1h 13m 38s): Verse 24, He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right by his wounds. You are healed once you were like sheep who wandered away, but now you have turned to your shepherd, the guardian of your souls. And that's where Peter wraps up chapter two. And so we're challenged with difficult things to honor the Lord and behave like believers in difficult circumstances. But God will give us the grace to, to do that and actually will reward us if we choose to do that in His grace and by his power. So with that, let's go ahead, ahead and get ready to take communion. And so communion is done the first Sunday of every month. 11 (1h 14m 19s): And communion is a, a remembrance of Christ and his death on the cross 2000 years ago that we're told in the scripture to do this as often as we remember. So I'm gonna be reading outta one Corinthians chapter 11, and it's just a refresher for us each month so that we can make sure that we're remembering who we are and why it is that we are who we are. We are who we are as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ because of the sacrificial work that Jesus accomplished on the cross. So if you need elements, they're being passed out now. Who needs them? Anybody? Way back. 11 (1h 14m 60s): Way back. So I've got a couple, I could probably chuck 'em over to you Who needs them? Oh really? So there we go. There we go. Now Ro row, you need one, right? No, I got you got one. I 12 (1h 15m 16s): Kinda 11 (1h 15m 16s): Like this throwing. I know, but I, some people think it's disrespectful. I can't throw that far, Dave. So somebody get Dave back there. All right, First Corinthians 11, before I pass on you, what I received from the Lord himself on the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Don't take the the elements yet please. We're gonna do things a little bit differently today. 11 (1h 15m 56s): In the same way he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people. And agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it. For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. So before we take the elements, let's just do some business with the Lord. So Lord, we take the elements, remembering what you did for us on that cross as our substitutionary atoning sacrifice. 11 (1h 16m 38s): You died in our place taking the sins of humanity, my personal sins upon yourself, and you died for me. For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, my Lord. So if you're here today and you've been distant from the Lord, and I would just challenge you and encourage you, don't, don't take the elements. Don't remember this sacred moment without coming clean before the Lord. Coming clean before the Lord means simply repenting of your sin and word, thought or deed, your You've. 11 (1h 17m 24s): You're repenting of actions that behaviors that don't reflect who you are as a believer. Maybe you're here today and you've never given your life to Jesus. You've never accepted the sacrifice of Jesus. You've never welcomed the blood of Christ over your life. I just encourage you, if that's you today, don't take the elements until you give your life to Jesus. And if you're not ready to give your life to Jesus, please don't take the elements, Just let this moment pass. But I would encourage you that in Christ there's new life in Christ. 11 (1h 18m 5s): There's forgiveness of sin, mistakes, past failures in Christ. You were born again in Christ, You were adopted into the family of God. In Christ. You are chosen. You are a royal priest in Christ. In Christ you have, you're part of a holy nation. In Christ. In Christ, you are a brand new person. So if you're here today and you want to give your life to Jesus, you just simply do it this way. You say, Lord, I I invite you into my life. I'm, I'm not even sure exactly what that means, but I invite you. I know that I need forgiveness, Lord I, I believe what Pastor Steve is saying, and I believe that your grace is sufficient. 11 (1h 18m 54s): I believe that the word that is written in the the Bible is accurate. And I, I believe that your, your, your grace is sufficient even for my needs, Lord. And so would you come into my life? Would you be Lord and leader of my life? Would you save me And, and then begin changing me and sanctifying me? Lord, would you make me more like you? I just want to give you my life, all my life, all every part of it. I just give it to you, Lord. Thank you Lord. Let's invite the worship team up and we're gonna take a moment and as they arrive, just when you're ready, open up the elements and take them in a spirit of prayer and submission to the Lord and gratitude for what he's done. 12 (1h 19m 46s): Thank you Lord. Thank, thank you Jesus. Oh, there you are. Thank you 1 (1h 20m 7s): Jesus. Thank homeowner works fall short. 1 (1h 22m 36s): I've got nothing thing new. How could I, Oh my gratitude good's. I could see knee songs as I often do. Every song must end, end and you'll so how, 0 (1h 23m 12s): Mind 1 (1h 23m 14s): You and I now, No, it's not much. But I'm except heart singing you don't, we stand as we sing this next, I've got response. 1 (1h 24m 1s): I've got, I'm stretched. Praise 0 (1h 24m 19s): You again and 1 (1h 24m 26s): Is the 0 (1h 24m 37s): Know it's not. 1 (1h 24m 39s): But I'm nothing else for except for suc. Come on my soul. Don't you get shot? It's your soul. You've got a, you did of those. 1 (1h 25m 19s): Get up and the Lord come on my soul. And don't you get on's. You've so He, 2 (1h 26m 33s): I'm so well through again and again that I have 0 (1h 26m 44s): Is a laja Hijas 2 (1h 26m 56s): Much. I'm nothing else for 0 (1h 26m 59s): King 2 (1h 27m 3s): Heart, our singing, 0 (1h 27m 9s): Ajah, 2 (1h 27m 24s): It's Jesus. That is our cry this morning, Father. Hallelujah. It's simple. And it's a song. It's a declaration, Father of worship unto your name. So, Lord, we just, we thank you. We want to say thank you for this time, Lord, that we could just come before you. Tyler, we could gather as a family Jesus. And so as we leave this place this morning, Father, be with us. Father, pray that you would just fill us from within. Lord, as we walk out into this world, Jesus, that we would just be your vessels, Father, That we would just be light in this dark place. Jesus, we love you and we thank you for this time, and we just pray these things in your precious and your holy name, our Amen.

1 (3s): Good morning. Let's all stand together, worship Lord, we invite you here this morning. We've come to worship you Lord. And we honor this time. We give this time to you. Jesus name. 2 (35s): I have been saved by the grace of God, man, been raised to, and I set 0 (48s): Eyes. 2 (50s): I'm 0 (51s): And loyal. 2 (54s): Who 0 (54s): One, 2 (55s): Who's life I'm in. 0 (1m 4s): My hopes in Jesus 2 (1m 9s): Love 0 (1m 10s): That 2 (1m 15s): Youe. Now 0 (1m 18s): Jesus, 2 (1m 22s): Through the all my joy is 0 (1m 29s): Dream 2 (1m 33s): One Jesus, place the of God. I'll be named when the saints go marching on. He's the 0 (1m 53s): Bride 2 (1m 56s): Salvation. That my song I'm on Jesus, 0 (2m 11s): Jesus 2 (2m 15s): That never you for is now 0 (2m 22s): Jesus. 2 (2m 26s): Faithful 0 (2m 27s): Through 2 (2m 28s): The be the glory who is able to do more than we could ask. 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What I will all you, I will exalt you. 0 (18m 56s): Ill exalt you God. 8 (19m 11s): We exalt you Lord. Isaiah 40 31 says, But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Thank you God, that you are a shelter, that our strength is in you. That we don't stand on things of this world we don't hope and things that we can take care of. 8 (19m 53s): But our hope is in you. Our hope is in you this morning. Father, 9 (20m 11s): How great is our God? 0 (20m 17s): And greatly is he to be praised. That's 8 (20m 43s): Your holy Lord. Your holy. We exalt you, we exalt you. We exalt you. All right. We love you Lord Jesus. Name we pray. Amen. Amen. I think you worship team. Thank you. You guys may be seated. Yeah, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Harvest Church. I want to give you a personal welcome. 8 (21m 23s): My name is Tim and I'm doing your announcing this morning. Yay. Yeah. Oh no. But if it's your first time here, or maybe you've been here a bunch of times, but we have coffee on the patio, I'd like to invite you to get a cup and enjoy. And if you haven't filled out a communication card so we can get to know you a little bit better, please take a moment and do that. This morning we have communication cards in the, in the chair backs and pens and just drop that off at the info center back there. I'm gonna be pointing to the info center a lot during this. So if you want to, everybody just crane your neck back there. It, it, it's back there. There's a couple of nice gentlemen back there to answer all your questions. 8 (22m 6s): They have all the info that's the center for the info. I just have a little bit of info. They have all of it. So what is happening this coming week? It's kind of a big deal. We do it every couple years. No, it's the week after, huh? We're voting right, Right. Tuesday, November 8th. Okay. So we as Christians need to vote for things for laws and things in our government that align with our biblical and Christian values. If we don't vote, other people will, and they'll vote in things that we don't agree with. So just a little plug here about, about that. 8 (22m 49s): We wanna encourage you guys to get out and vote. Exercise that, right? You have, if you need information about what's to vote for, who is standing for what and whatnot. We actually have some resources at the info center for you, some nonpartisan voting resources there. There's a QR code you can scan that will take you to kind of a side by side on all the issues and give you some information on that. I know I'm gonna be doing that. And so I'll see you guys at the polls voting on Tuesday, November 8th and yeah, cool. So there's also something really huge happening. 8 (23m 29s): I can, I just say it's really cool to be where we're at in the village, right, on this main drag. So with that, a lot of these community events happen right here. And we get to be right in the middle of 'em and a part of them. And one of those is tomorrow we have this, they're doing a trick or treat in the village tomorrow from three to 5:00 PM and we are going to have a big carnival in here. So we're gonna clear out all of the chairs and we're gonna set up all of these kind of canopies and tents. And we're gonna have carnival games going for kids and all that candy you donated, we're gonna be handing it all out the thousands of children. And so thank you for donating candy if you did. But we also need volunteers for this. So that's happening tomorrow from three to five today. We need people after the 11, 11:00 PM service, 11:00 AM service, excuse me, from 1230 to 2:00 PM we are gonna be clearing out all of these chairs and getting some stuff set up for that. 8 (24m 17s): And if so, if you wanna stay after that, that would be amazing Tomorrow. If you wanna help set up before the event, show up at 2:00 PM here and then if you'd like to help put everything away after 5:00 PM is the time you wanna be here in the, in the building. So, so that's that. The Hurricane Ian relief is still happening. We set a goal to raise $50,000 and I still think we can reach that goal. We're we're, do we know, do we have a number? We're at 20,000. That's awesome. That's almost halfway. Come on. Woo. So, so that's still happening and we are, so please navigate to our website or go to the info center if you'd like to donate money to that or also talking, throwing around the idea of actually sending a team there in partnership with the Salvation Army to help with the relief effort. 8 (25m 11s): So if you want to get involved with that, again, head to the info center and let us know the operation. Christmas Child boxes. You guys did so good. We ran outta boxes last week, so pat yourself on the back. But good news, we have more this week, so please, if you want to be a part of the operation Christmas child, if you don't know what it is, we fill a box. You, you fill a box with all kinds of goodies and it gets sent off to a child in need in another country. So yes, and we're actually throwing around the idea of actually sending a team to on December 9th to their packing facility in Southern California. So if you're interested in getting involved in that trip, head to the info center. 8 (25m 52s): And that's all I have for you At this time. I'd like you to stand up and look around you and find somebody that you don't haven't talked to yet, or maybe don't even know. And go introduce yourself and meet them. 7 (26m 13s): The life you're the, the, the, you're the word. The only Jesus, only Jesus 12 (26m 46s): Trouble throw on 0 (26m 51s): More 12 (26m 56s): Feel must 0 (26m 57s): Have thought 12 (26m 58s): I was. Faith is, but it came for my 0 (27m 2s): Heart. 12 (27m 6s): Z I got a song that never die. I know in love. Reason I'll 0 (27m 17s): The I'll sing, I'll sing a today. Tell me in the end, enemy, enemy 12 (27m 51s): Panic as you took the Christ. 0 (27m 59s): Tell 12 (27m 59s): Me, darkness crus, it's back. 13 (28m 11s): Good morning everybody. Welcome. So glad to see all of you enjoying the fellowship. If you want to come on back and find your seats, that would be great. Come on back and find your seats. All right, my name is Curtis. If we haven't met before, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm gonna be bringing the word this morning and we are gonna be talking about first Peter too, and it's gonna be really great. I'm excited about what we have this morning. But first off, I just wanna say the reason I'm up here is cuz my dad is outta town. He's refreshing, he's at Hume Lake and he's getting a chance to, you know, get some refreshing time in nature, go to some, go see some services and stuff like that. 13 (29m 1s): So he's, he's refreshing over there. And so he told me on Tuesday afternoon that I was gonna be preaching today, and it's been a while. So I'm, I'm excited and I think it's gonna be really great. So the Lord is good and he's got this. So we're gonna pray and then we'll jump in. Lord, we love you so much. We're grateful for your presence in this place. I'm grateful for each and every person who's here. I just pray that you administer to each person. You know exactly every, every person's needs. You know what's in our hearts, you know what's in our minds, and your Holy Spirit is the only one that can speak to every heart in here. 13 (29m 42s): And so we just ask that you would do that. I submit myself to you, I am totally dependent on you, Jesus. And I never want to grow out of that in Jesus name. Amen. All right, so in, in 2015, I had the opportunity to go to Turkey and to Aza by Jean. And on that trip it was incredible. Turkey was kind of thrown at the last minute, but the whole goal was to go to Aer Bajan to basically visit some of these hill country tribes. They were kind of minority groups that were tucked into the mountains who didn't have the, the Bible in their language. So if you were here a few years ago, we, but just leading up to that 2015 trip, we were raising money to get the Bible translated into that, that language, it's called Hoori. 13 (30m 32s): And so I went basically on like a scouting trip beforehand, before the gospel got there and we were able to just minister to people and travel around and it was a really powerful time. So during that time, we, we land on the ground and we meet with a couple of different people, then we all pile into this little van and this little white van that's like, looks like it's gonna fall apart if you hit a speed bump, you know? And so we start going back into these mountains and about three hours into that drive, we're just bumping along, you know, there's no paved roads. And we finally get to this place we're going and we all pile out of the car and it's this little white house. 13 (31m 16s): And basically we were going to the church that meets in that house, and it was a church of about 10 people. And they're all, you know, they've all been persecuted for their faith. So all of them have lost their families. They've lost their friends, they've lost their jobs, they've lost their homes, they've been in prison, they've been beaten. Every single one of them have experienced all of these things. And you know, me sitting there, I felt like, you know, if Augusta Wind came through the window, my faith would blow over in the midst of these amazing people. And they were just so inspiring. And I think one of the most powerful things about them is they really understood the value of the family of God because they lost their own family. 13 (32m 1s): They don't have any, any stability around them. They're clinging to the family of God. And I think in Western Christianity, we really don't understand the value that is found in the family of God. And so we're gonna be talking about that today in First Peter two. But I'm gonna give a little bit of context because we, my dad taught on first Peter one a while ago now. We took a break to do the identity series and we did a couple other things. And so now we're just coming back. So I'm gonna give us some context for that also. Babe, would you mind grabbing me in my water right there? Thanks. So yes, thank you. 13 (32m 48s): So in first Peter one, basically Peter is speaking to, in all of first Peter, he's speaking to this group of Gentiles. He wrote this letter to the churches in Asia Minor, which is modern day Turkey. And he wrote this letter to these gentiles who have been saved, but they're immature in their faith. And so he's writing this letter to encourage them and give them some context for what faith they've joined. Because at to this point, you know, they've, they've become Christians. They said they, yes, I believe in Jesus, but they don't understand all of the backstory that we see through the, through the new or through the Old Testament. 13 (33m 30s): You know, Israelites, when they came to Jesus, they understood all of the history. And so Peter is, is his primary go mission. Initially when he was evangelizing, was to Jews. So he understood the whole context. And so here he's gonna be helping these gentiles to understand where they stand in the family of God. And all of these gentiles as well, they've, they've been persecuted, they're suffering, they're in hardship. And so Jesus or P Peter is encouraging them and telling them, Hey, you belong to a new family. So he talks about how they're the chosen people of God. 13 (34m 11s): And first Peter one, he says that through Jesus, he's our cornerstone. And now we're a part of the family of Israel. He says they're misunderstood, much like Abraham was misunderstood. And he's the father of Israel. So he's connecting these different things that they would've been experiencing. You know, he's, they're experiencing this lack, they're experiencing this misunderstood feeling of like, we're in a world that doesn't accept us. They're feeling mistreated, all these things. And so basically Peter's saying, You're not alone in that. Also Abraham and the Israelites experience that same exact thing. So you're, you're in good hands then in first Peter one, three it says that they have a new identity, a new hope, and a new family. 13 (34m 56s): Then in first Peter one 13, it says, just like the Israelites, the Gentiles are called to gerd up their loins and leave behind their former way of life. Then in one Peter, one 15 through 16, they're called the holy people of God in the wilderness, just like Israel was the holy people of God in the wilderness, they're called the New Exodus. And that they have this new form of a Passover. That's through Jesus. His blood on their lives is what would, what would set them free and save their, save their lives. Then they're called the people of the new covenant. And first Peter 1 22 through 25, they're called the new temple, which is what we're gonna be talking about today. 13 (35m 37s): This new temple built on the foundation of Jesus. And they're also called the new Kingdom of priests. So we're gonna be talking about those two things. The new temple built on the foundation of Jesus and the new kingdom of priests. And that's found in one Peter two, one through 10. So first Peter two, one through three says, therefore laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking. So clearly this was happening for these gentiles or else Peter wouldn't have said it. So laying aside all those things as newborn babies desire the pure milk of the word. So as so he's saying, as newborn babies, you should be desiring the pure milk of the word as often as a newborn desires milk. 13 (36m 23s): Has anybody had a newborn in here? Do you know how often newborns desire milk? Like that's roughly every three hours. So, you know, we should be desiring the word as often as newborns desire milk. So if you have a newborn and every time they desire milk, you should be like, Oh wait, I need to read the word too. You know, good, good reminder, you know, maybe while you're feeding your baby, I don't know, but, and then that you may grow there by, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Isn't it interesting that it says that you've tasted that the Lord is gracious? It really speaks to the fact that our faith is not just an intellectual understanding, but it's a experiential thing. 13 (37m 8s): It's, it's not just intellectual. We experience it as well in that first Peter two, three, it says, tasted that the Lord is gracious. Then in Psalm 34, 8, it says, Oh, taste and C, that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. So it's not just intellectual, this belief is not just intellectual, it's experiential. And basically what I'm get getting to today, the, the title of our message is behaving like believers. And that's what we're gonna be talking about because through this inter interweaving of talking about our position in the family of God, it's really to understand where we belong. Because it's one thing to believe, to be a believer, it's quite another thing to behave like you're a believer. 13 (37m 52s): And I don't know if you all have been in the same boat, but for me, I did not always behave like I was a believer. I ha I believed, but I didn't always behave like it. And I think a lot of time that stretch is, is a big gap to leap. Like I'm, yes, I believe, but Jesus, how do I behave? And I think in the middle is this, this sense of belonging. So it's believe then belonging and then we behave. So that's what we're gonna be talking about today, is this sense of belonging within the family of God. Once we get ahold of that, once we get ahold of belonging to Christ, once we get ahold of belonging to God's people, we belong to each other, then we can behave like Christians. 13 (38m 37s): So first Peter two, four through five says, coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also as living stones are being built up as spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ Jesus. So there's this theme of rejection kind of woven through, and I think it's just another way that Peter's saying, No, you're not the only ones who have been rejected. You know, when you're going through a difficult situation, you feel like you're the only one there. You feel like nobody else is struggling with this, nobody else is going through this. I think they felt that exact same way. 13 (39m 18s): You know, we have it harder than everybody else. Nobody else knows what this is like Peter is saying, No, you're not the only one that's been rejected. Jesus was rejected as well. And John one 10 through 12, it says, Jesus, He, he Jesus was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. Jesus, He, Jesus came to his own creation. He came to his own creation and his own did not receive him. So Jesus came and, and we did not receive him. So Jesus was familiar with rejection as well. And then it taught this in, in that same verse verse Peter two, four through five, it talks about how we are living stones being built up a spiritual house. 13 (40m 5s): So we are all living stones a part of a spiritual house that God is building. Construction in that day was very different from how it is today. You like, we have these poles and I-beams and stuff like that. It was not that way. We, I don't know if you knew that. Am I shocking anybody by saying that? No. Okay. So the way they would do it then is they would find a cornerstone, and the cornerstone was a big square stone that was as, as square as they could find that was strong and sturdy that they could put at the corner of the house. And then all of their other measurements, all of the other stones were shaped around that stone measured off of that stone to create a sturdy house. 13 (40m 52s): So can I get a volunteer? Does anybody want to come up here? I'm not gonna tell you what it's for until you come up. No. Yes. Come up here, man. What's your name? John. Eric. John. Eric, right. Sweet. Come up here. So we've got this Jenga right here. If you ever play Jenga before I have. Okay. Okay. So what I want you to do is grab a few of the, of the pieces from here and, and place 'em on top. Okay? It's a, it's a new game. It's brand new, so they're kind of sticky. It's making it hard. 13 (41m 44s): Nice. Wow. Wow. Okay. Okay, let's give him a hand. Thanks. All right, so just like when you're taking out these Jenga pieces, the, the whole structure becomes shaky, right? It starts to move. What if I was to tell 'em to take out all these bottom pieces, like all three of the bottom ones? What do you think would happen? The whole thing goes right and just like that, if we don't have Jesus as our, as our cornerstone, as our foundation, the whole thing tumbles, right? And just those top pieces, those are us. Those are us. Those are the believers, the living stones that, that need to be a part of the family of God. 13 (42m 30s): If we're not a part of the family of God, then the whole thing becomes shaky, right? So we, we need to occupy our proper space within the family of God. Adam Clark, he's a, he wrote Clark's commentary. He had this, he had this quote about this verse. It says, As stones of a building are of, of no use, but as they occupy their proper places in a building and rest on the foundation. So our job is to occupy our proper place in the building, this spiritual building, the family of God. And then our job is also to rest on the foundation, which is Jesus. So in first Peter two, five, it says, You also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 13 (43m 20s): That holy priesthood is also talked about in Exodus 19 six, it says, You should be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. So priestly duties in the Old Testament were basically two things. They were to atone for the sins of Israel and they were for the priest to draw near to God. So now, today in the new covenant, it is Jesus's job to a, a tone for the sins of Israel. And it's our God, our job to draw near to God in the new, in the new covenant. So those spiritual sacrifices that he's talking about to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, we're not in the sacrificial system anymore in the Old Testament. 13 (44m 6s): So what are these spiritual sacrifices supposed to be? Romans 12, one says, Therefore, I urge you brothers, on account of God's mercy to offer up your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what is good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but think of yourselves with sober judgment according to the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, not all members have the same functions. 13 (44m 52s): So in Christ, we who are many are one body and each member belongs to one another, each member belongs to one another. So from this, we learn two things that we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God. We are the living sacrifice to God. And that we need to realize that we belong to one another. I think this is an area that we really struggle with as the church, and I'll get into that a little bit more later, but in first Peter two, six, it says, therefore it also contained in the scriptures. Behold, I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone, elect precious, and he who believes on him will by be no me, by no means be put to shame, therefore, to you who believe he is precious. 13 (45m 40s): But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone and a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense. They stumble being disobedient to the word to which they were appointed. It's that whole space in the middle, right? We can believe all we want, but how do we actually act like we're Christians? How do we behave like we're Christians? If we don't have Christ as our cornerstone individually, we cannot, It's gonna be a lot harder for us as a church in general, to have Christ as our cornerstone. 13 (46m 22s): We all need to each individually have Christ as our cornerstone. And then if we don't all occupy our space within the family of God, the house becomes shaky. So we are reliant, not we, we are, we have a responsibility not just to God, but to one another. So just like in Jenga, if you take away Jesus, the house will fall. If you remove the the pieces, the house becomes shaky. So what are you trusting in? I think, you know, oftentimes today, you know, we, if somebody says, Hey, what do you do? Who are you? What are you up to? You know, you'll say something like, Oh, I do this for work and I do this for fun, and oh, I'm a hunter. 13 (47m 5s): I'm a architect, or I'm a football player, or whatever, whatever your identity might be found in. And I think that our, our prior, our priority, our first identity is who we belong to in the, in the family of God. So our first thing that we should say is when somebody asks who you are, you should say, I'm a follower of God. That's, that's number one. That's number one. So Luke 10 20, the disciples in Luke had come to Jesus and they were very excited about all the things that they were doing. The disciples had just been on a tour basically of doing miracles all over the place. 13 (47m 45s): And they had done incredible things, cast out demons, seeing miracles, people healed all this stuff. And, and then they're telling Jesus all the things that had happened. And in Luke 10 20 it says, nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. What Jesus is saying is that don't rejoice in what happens, what you do, what you're associated with. Don't rejoice in what you do, even if it's spiritual things. Even if you have this amazing spiritual gift that you're exercising, don't rejoice in that. Rejoice because your names are written in heaven. 13 (48m 26s): Rejoice because you are a child of God. Rejoice because you're within the family of God. The biggest miracle is that Jesus has saved you, redeemed you, brought you into his family. That's the biggest miracle. So our identity must be found completely in Jesus as our cornerstone, our, the way that houses were built because the cornerstone was there and then everything else was measured off of it. If Jesus, you can't have like a little bit of Jesus in your spiritual house because Jesus is the cornerstone on which everything else is measured off of. So if Jesus isn't the cornerstone, he's not in the house, He he's not, you can, you're not measuring off of anything. 13 (49m 12s): So we need to make sure that Jesus is the cornerstone of our houses individually and corporately is your, is every part of your life measured off of Jesus Is every part of what you do, every priority that you have, every thing that you're working toward, measured off of Jesus. See, God wants us to believe in him. He want, but he wants us also to understand that we belong to him and that we belong to the fellow believers so that we can behave like believers. 13 (49m 52s): It's similar to when you get married. I recently got married and so I go straight to this analogy, but, but when before you're married, you can live one way. Like, okay, so with my Turkey trip, all I did was I just planned and I went and I, and it was pretty short timeframe. Like I just ended up going, you know, pretty, pretty quick. And then I was gone for two months. So with, with my marriage, Clark would not appreciate it very much if I came home and I said, Hey, I'm going to Turkey tomorrow, I'll be gone for two months. See you later. And would not, I can tell you right now, that's because I can't live like I used to live when I was single. 13 (50m 35s): Just like that. We cannot live like Jesus is not the cornerstone and say that he is. We can't live the exact same way, have the same goals, have the same priorities and everything else, and just slap Jesus's name on it and call it good. Like we, Jesus is the thing that we are measuring off of, or he is not in the house at all. Okay? So I found this out the hard way. I, for most of my Christian life, I did not know how to behave like a believer. I would try really hard, that's for sure. I would give it my best and I would always fail. 13 (51m 18s): And I still fail right now. But I'm saying that once I understood that I need to belong into in the family of God, that when I joined a men's group, that's what changed it all for me. I had accountability, I had motivation, I had people keeping me in line and telling me, Hey, you need to clean this up, or hey, you really did this. Well, great job. You know, you keep moving in that direction. When you have people around you who are, you're completely vulnerable with, you can say anything to them and they're gonna take that and they're going to set you on the right path. I think that is, that was the key for me that moved me from just a belief and experiential intellectual belief to this, being able to actually walk it out. 13 (52m 6s): So if you're in that place, do something about it. Don't, don't. It's on you. You are the one who has control over this. You can join a group, you can be vulnerable with the people of God. There's, it's, it's so frustrating to me to see, you know, people can go around the same cycles of emotional high, it's emotional low and they're, they're all over the place and wishy-washy and all this stuff in their faith for years. And I was there, I've done that. And then, you know, the key is, is just to belong in the family of God. Like actually be vulnerable, be with other people, allow them into the fight. 13 (52m 46s): Like let people in. So verse nine, it says, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and a holy nation. So he's just hammering home their identity. So this is for us as well. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light, who once were not a people. You once were not a people, you once were just people scattered around. I, I once was just a, just a guy trying to do my best. 13 (53m 26s): But now we are the people of God. We're the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but now we have obtained mercy. We need to behave like this. We need to behave like we're a chosen generation, that we're a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a special people, that we're the people of God. We need to behave like it and we need to belong to the family of God to behave like it. So back in verse one, it said, we behave like it by reading. The word is often is newborns desire milk. And then in Romans 12, five, which we read, it says that we need to take responsibility, that we are members of the body, we belong to each other. 13 (54m 12s): This isn't like a ex external thing or something that we can throw away to the side. If you want to be a follower of Jesus, he's gotta be the cornerstone. And we, the way that the rocks would have to intermesh together, there's like, to make the building secure, the rocks have to be touching, they have to be in contact. We've, we've, we are the living stones. We've gotta be gaining support from one another. We've got to, there's, there's just no option. We belong to one another. So in Acts two it says, Acts 2 42 through 47. 13 (54m 56s): And this is just a great example of what a church looks like that's fully measuring their lives off of Jesus that's fully invested. So it says, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. And then fear came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now, all who believed were together and had all things in common. Does that sound like they were kind of, you know, rocks scattered about? No, these people were one spiritual building. They had all of this in common. They sold their possessions and their goods, They divided them among them all as anyone had need. 13 (55m 36s): So continuing daily with one accord, one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the church daily, those who had been saved. We belong to one another. We can't do it. We can't do it alone. There's no, I heard a pastor say, there's no lone ranger Christianity. There's not, there's not, You can't, you can't be out there doing it on your own. People say all the time like, Oh, I don't believe in organized religion. If you want to call this organized religion, but whatever you wanna call it, it's what the word says. 13 (56m 20s): So what are you gonna do with that? Like you can say you don't believe in organized religion all you want, but when Jesus calls you to do it, are you gonna do it? Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's be a house that's built on the cornerstone of Jesus. Intermixed, intertwined, loving on each other, growing with each other and spurring each other on. So I'm gonna pray for us and then we'll, we'll have the worship team come up. Lord Jesus, this is not some external thing, some peripheral thing that, that we can take or leave Jesus. But we are meant to be living stones within a spiritual house. 13 (57m 5s): And I just pray that you'd remove the ideas that we need to conserve our time or that we need to give our efforts to other things. Jesus, if we're not giving our efforts to the things that you tell us to, what are we doing? God, we love you so much. We want to obey you. We wanna serve you. We want to be those living stones that are completely reliant on you. Help us to be dependent on one another. Help us to learn the value of being dependent on one another. Jesus, you're incredible. 13 (57m 45s): You've given us an amazing blueprint for how we can follow you and be successful doing it. So Lord, I pray that we would not be people who just believe, help us to be people who behave like followers of Jesus and that we would belong in the family of God. In Jesus name. Amen. 3 (58m 30s): Who else were rocks cry out to? Who taught the to shine? Who has creation? Moms to have the words to 0 (58m 49s): Sing. 3 (58m 52s): But this joy is 0 (58m 54s): Mine. 3 (59m 2s): Wen your you, the honor and the praise for Jesus, this song is forever 0 (59m 17s): Yours. 3 (59m 19s): A thousand Halle Louis's at the and 0 (59m 39s): What 3 (59m 40s): Else would die? Those resurrection means 0 (59m 49s): Our eyes. 3 (59m 53s): There is a to sing a I have turning to 0 (1h 0m 4s): Drive with a 3 (1h 0m 11s): We magnify your, you the gro. 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We pray for all of us, Lord, that you give us the power and the strength to walk with you 0 (1h 4m 17s): This week. 1 (1h 4m 18s): Holy Spirit, lead us, guide us, give us, heres the hear, 0 (1h 4m 24s): Give 1 (1h 4m 25s): Us strength to walk the path you want us to 0 (1h 4m 28s): Walk. 1 (1h 4m 30s): Thank you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

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The more I 0 (9m 58s): Put my 2 (9m 59s): Jesus, He's faithful. So I would, He 0 (10m 17s): Won't. He won 2 (10m 27s): Het, He give him a 1 (10m 48s): Revelation 21, 5 and six says, He who is seated on the throne said, 2 (10m 54s): I 1 (10m 54s): Am making everything new. Then he said, Write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. He said to me, It is done. I am the alpha and the omega. The beginning and the end to the thirsty. I will give water through water without cost. From the spring of the water of life. He who is seated on the throne said, I am making everything new church this morning we're gonna sing a newer song for us called New Thing. And may that be true for us. He has new things for you. No matter what season of life you're in, he has new things. Would you sing this with me? 2 (11m 55s): These's are the days that we prayed for a story. Being of faith has begun and I'm seeing so much still, I'm that the best is not yet come. 0 (12m 21s): Jesus 2 (12m 23s): Not done with me. You're tub a new, you're tubing anything away proceeded 0 (12m 46s): Praise 2 (12m 53s): To Jesus and all thes. Jesus not 0 (13m 5s): Done with me. You're doing anything you're doing. I get up. You 2 (13m 45s): Never up you get up. You up on 0 (13m 50s): Me. 2 (13m 51s): Your is get up. You get up. You never give up on 0 (13m 58s): Mes gonna give up. Never give 2 (14m 3s): Up. I 0 (14m 11s): Your 2 (14m 12s): Is up. You never gave up. You never give up on me. You is never gonna up. You never give up. You never 0 (14m 23s): Give up on me. Never gonna give up. You never, you never give. No. Jesus' 2 (14m 40s): Not 0 (14m 41s): Done 2 (14m 42s): With me. You're 0 (14m 45s): A new thing. You're 2 (14m 48s): Doing 0 (14m 49s): A new thing. I Im baby. You're doing a new, you're doing. Love is never, you never gave up. You never give up on me. You never gonna give up. You never gave up. You never give up on me. Give up, never up. Never up. 0 (15m 31s): I know. Done with me. You're a new thing. You're doing a new for all. You're doing a new, you're doing a new. 3 (16m 2s): Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you that two who began a go to work in us. Thank you Lord. Still working, Lord still working on us. And you're, you're sanctify us. You're bringing us in that process of being made holy and holy day by day. Lord, you set us aside, Lord, you're calling us into a new thing, Lord, the new heavens and the new earth that will someday be Lord. But yet we're looking forward to that day. And while we're still here, Lord, we're calling and inviting others into your family, the family of God, and into a great and grand inheritance Lord. So remind us of that new thing that you're doing, that thing that you have for us yet keep our heart set and our mindset on your kingdom. 3 (16m 45s): Lord Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. 4 (16m 51s): A good Mor 3 (16m 54s): Almost there. 4 (16m 55s): Hello. Good morning. And welcome. It's not working. Is he going? There you go. There we go. Is it okay? There we go. There 3 (17m 5s): We go. Thank you. 4 (17m 6s): Technical difficulties. Good morning and welcome. It's Family Sunday again. We are just so glad you guys are back. As you can tell from the name, it's Family Sunday. We are all together here today. We got all the kids in, so we are just so glad we have donuts and it's just gonna be a great time to listen to the message today. Yeah. Yeah. And 3 (17m 29s): You're 4 (17m 29s): Brier. Oh yes I am. Brier. This is Jeremy. 3 (17m 32s): Jeremy. My name's Jeremy. I'm the youth and family pastor here. And this is not my son and he's not related, but my wife got us confused this 4 (17m 39s): Morning. I don't have any 0 (17m 41s): Positions here 4 (17m 42s): Yet. 3 (17m 44s): So yeah, we're so glad you're joining us here on Family Sunday. It's exciting day as well. We're having, having child dedication right after this. And so it's just a great day to, to be together as a family. We've got a few things coming up. So we also, last week we, we were challenged to help give towards Hurricane Ian relief. And so that was the challenge put out. I don't remember, I don't know how much was raised last week, but we're gonna keep raising that $10,000. We raised $10,000. That's amazing. So that is just a, a generous gift that we're gonna be sending out to Hope City Church out in Florida to, to support them and their, and their kind of regrowth effort building up efforts. 3 (18m 27s): So that's some there, if you still wanna help give towards that, you can write a checkout to Harvest Church or age, you know, on the website and just put in the memo hurricane relief. And, and that's on top of your regular giving church. You've been just an amazing church to, to continue giving. It's been just a great growth in our, the season of our church. So thank you so much. 4 (18m 50s): Also, we are going to be on October 31st or Halloween. We typically don't like Halloween. It's a little 3 (18m 59s): Bit dark. 4 (19m 0s): Yeah, it's a dark, it's it's a dark holiday. Yeah. So we wanna make it much more family friendly. Friendly. So we are going to be having an outreach during Halloween where we're gonna have like a mini carnival in here. So there's gonna be candy, it's going to be great. You can donate candy back at the info center. Yeah. And it's gonna be three to 5:00 PM three to 5:00 PM on October 31st. So 3 (19m 28s): Yeah, open the doors to the community. It's gonna be a great time just to share the gospel message with them in just a tangible way. So it's gonna be awesome. And gals wanna want you to mark your calendar for November 18th at 6:00 PM We're gonna be having a gals event. And this is just like put it on your calendar. We don't have all the details yet, so details are to come, but that'll be November 18th on a Friday night, 6:00 PM 4 (19m 50s): Also for the winter season, we are going to get ready for operation Christmas Child, if you don't know what this is, you take a little like shoebox and you fill it with a bunch of toys and stuff and then it gets sent across the world to a child that's not gonna be able to celebrate a normal Christmas. Yeah. And so we just want to bless these kids. So you can pick up your operation Christmas child box on the back and make sure you drop it off by November 13th so that it can be shipped out on time. 3 (20m 20s): Awesome. And you said your family's probably done 30 to 40 boxes over your 4 (20m 24s): Lifetime? Yeah, quite a few. Okay. They've done, yeah, we've done quite a 3 (20m 26s): Few. Awesome. Well we got a video for Operation Christmas Child. Let's check that out. 5 (20m 38s): At the count of three when children opened the shoe boxes, they're so excited. 6 (20m 43s): I mean, it's just been incredible. 7 (20m 46s): Kids are so excited giving them a gift. Do it in Jesus name. And that's what this is all about. 8 (20m 52s): Jesus loves you. 9 (20m 56s): It's a gospel opportunity is the chance for the children to change the entire life. 10 (21m 2s): The word of God is spreading. The gospel is 9 (21m 4s): Advancing, 11 (21m 6s): It is impacting children, it is impacting families. It is impacting the world greatly. 7 (21m 13s): Thank you for praying. Thank you for giving. God will bless and God will use your gift to touch the life of a child and to be able to do it. Jesus name. So thank you, thank you for being a part of it. God bless each and every one of you. 3 (21m 32s): All right. So just what a great way to impact our world for the life-changing mess of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So get your boxes in the back of the Info center right now. We're gonna have a, a time of meet and greet. So say hello to someone around you as well as I'll invite up to the stage those, those families that are dedicating their children today. So say hi to someone around you. We'll be back in a minute. 0 (22m 8s): We all 8 (22m 13s): Loves 0 (22m 14s): Us 8 (22m 18s): When we're so 0 (22m 21s): No 8 (22m 22s): Matter what we 0 (22m 23s): Do to, 8 (22m 26s): This is great. There's nothing better. Didn't 0 (22m 32s): You? We And in this fucking Mr. 0 (23m 20s): Prevails, 8 (23m 22s): I hope his Jesus God never fails matter. What we do. He loves is the 0 (23m 34s): Kids 8 (23m 36s): Is 12 (23m 46s): I'm 0 (23m 48s): Ladies. 3 (24m 6s): All right. You guys will. All right. Welcome everyone. Child dedication Sunday on the side. Yeah, can go on the side. Yeah. All right. Come on up. Come on up. Schwartz is what exciting day shows our, our church is growing, not, you know, from, from the youngest up. 3 (24m 51s): So it's, it's, it's great to see your families up here. It's all right. So I get to introduce everyone first. So over here we have Logan and Caitlin Weiss, and we have their whole family, but today they're gonna be dedicating Theodore, Theo, and Willow. Let's see. And and Theo was born July 13th, 2022. And Willow was born August 17th, 2019. And Emmett back here was born December 21st, 2016. All right. And over here we have the Schwartz family. 3 (25m 33s): We got Joel and Caitlin and Gwen. And today they're gonna be dedicating Laurel. And she was born on January 19th, 2019. I got the date right. Okay. And then also Juniper, who was born on October 21st, 2020. So you just had a birthday. That's exciting. So today it's, it's, it's, it's a great day cuz first and foremost, it's the parents that we're dedicat are dedicating their lives to the Lord and the raising of their children in to nurture and discipline in the admonition of the Lord. 3 (26m 13s): New living translation says the discipline and instruction of the Lord. And so I wanna read a passage from Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy six, verses four through seven says, Hero Israel, the Lord our God is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. And these words, which I've commanded today shall be in your heart. So first and foremost, it's, it's the parent's relationship to God. That's the most important. And it it starts with the parents in their walka Lord as they're loving and obeying him and drawing closer to, to the Lord in humble obedience. So I brought up a triangle because I think in a way this is the, our relationship with God is the best pyramid scheme. There it is out there, okay? 3 (26m 54s): It's the good pyramid scheme. And so at a on a triangle, you have three different points. And you have God of top, cuz God is the rock, he's unmovable. But as the husband and wife begin to draw closer to God, and they began to come closer and closer to God, you can see they also, Dr. Come closer to each other. And so as your relationship individually grow and, and, and become closer to God, so too will your relationship with you as spouses grow closer to each other. And then what that does is Paul says that, follow me or imitate me as I follow and imitate Christ. So as you are going closer and your walk, the kids are gonna see that and they're gonna replicate that. 3 (27m 36s): So that is the triangle. But it also says, and Deutero, it says, You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk to them when you sit down at your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. It's, it's a lifestyle of raising these kids up and teaching and nourishing. And it takes full efforts. A hundred percent right? A hundred percent. Psalm 1 27 says, Behold children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward like the arrows in the hand of a warrior. So are the children in one's youth. And it says, Happy is the man who has e quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with their enemies at the gate. So the Bible says that children are not only a heritage and reward, but they're also arrows in the hand of a war. 3 (28m 22s): Parents, you're warriors, we're raising dragon slayers in the time of dragons. I like that Facebook post that came out during 2020. You see, arrows are not just meant to be to stay in the quiver, They're meant to be shot out, they're meant to be released. They're, they're, they're meant to be sent out. And it takes time, it takes focus, it takes effort, it takes concentration. So that's what parenting is. It is preparing your children to be released out into the world and accomplish what God has for them. So I'd love right now to just to to, for the church body, you're a part of this community, to, to help raise these kids, to love on them. So why don't you raise your hand for to just be as we just pray over these two families. 3 (29m 6s): Jesus, we thank you for these two families, Lord, who are here saying that they're here to dedicate their children into the Lord. We thank you for each of the individual personalities of these children and all that you want to accomplish in and through them Lord. And so Lord, draw the parents closer to you, God, and closer to each other, Lord, so that their relationship might be strong and that that love might trickle down into the lives of their kids. And that kids witness Lord, your, their obedience to you Lord. So Lord, we dedicate these children unto the Lord. We dedicate them to you. God. We say, Lord, that good work that you started in them, we complete it, Lord, yes, we thank you Lord. 3 (29m 47s): In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Love you guys. Love you. All right, Steve. 13 (29m 60s): Yeah, I'm up. 14 (30m 3s): Thanks Jeremy. Thanks guys. I remember 31 years ago, roughly we dedicated sweet KK to the Lord. And, and really it is a dedication of the parents, as Jeremy said, We're actually asking parents to make a commitment of their lives, to raise up godly offspring. And we're talking today about impacting our community and our world with the life changing message of Jesus Christ. I tell you, as parents and grandparents, we've got the greatest opportunity to impact our nation, our world, our community, and our world with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. 14 (30m 46s): So sometimes when we're busy, you look at my, look at these young families, there's so much going on, there's so much activity and so much drawing and pulling on these young families, and I just want to encourage parents and grandparents and grandparents. But that the greatest thing that you can do is, is impact your little kids with the gospel message of Jesus Christ. And watch how that will change the culture and will change your family and will change the dynamic of the, the nation and the world. Good and wonderful things happen as a result of that investment. And it's an investment, right? It's like a lifetime of investment, but it's got the best return possible. 14 (31m 31s): It's just the most amazing thing. And so with that, let's pray as we get into the message today, We're gonna be in First Corinthians chapter four. And Lord, we just want to invite you, Lord, we're so thankful for the opportunity to set time aside in the service, to challenge people, to challenge families, to raise their kids the way that the scriptures inform us to raise our kids. And so, Lord, I pray that there would be strength around that focus and commitment around that focus, Lord, that there would be a lifetime of dedication around that focus, Lord, that we as your church would make it our priority to pray for the next generation, to disciple the next generation Lord God, to instruct and to model to the next generation what it means to be a servant of yours, a follower of yours, Lord God. 14 (32m 22s): So in our conduct and our words and our thoughts and our deeds, God, that they would see and want to emulate and model that in their own, in their own lives, Lord God. So we pray Jesus, that each week as we gather that we'd be built up on our most holy faith, that we would, would receive instruction and encouragement to do what you've called us to do in your Word. And so part of that, and a major part of that Lord, is that we might impact those around us, impacting our community and our world with the life changing message of Jesus Christ will help us to do that. We pray, Lord, thank you for your grace in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. How many can remember, you guys seem a little quiet today? 14 (33m 5s): How many can remember our core values? Four core values on which we move forward together on, I'll give you the first word of each core value and then you fill it in. We are committed the Lord to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We are confident in the word of God. We are created to serve God and others. And we are called to love all people, right? Do me a favor, write it down as my, some of us just need, we need core values for our own lives, right? Like we need to adopt core values for our lives that help to shape us and mold us as we move forward. 14 (33m 48s): And so use these core values because they are applicable, they are transferable, they work for a corporation, the, a corporate gathering of people like a church, but they also work for individuals and for families. And so, and then part of that is a purpose statement. What is your life gonna be like? Well, as a church, I hope and I pray, and our goal and our focus is that we would be impacting our community and our world with the life changing message of Jesus Christ. And so that's kind of what we're talking about today. But before we get to that, I got something for pastor appreciation that I'd like to share with you a couple weeks ago was pastor appreciation week. And so we received, you know, encouragement and gifts and that sort of thing. 14 (34m 29s): And one of the things that I did receive was a, a free joke. I got a free, I didn't have to pay five bucks for this joke. It was a free joke. And so this is the joke. What did the buffalo say to his son when he dropped him off at school? Bye son. I think I'm actually used that before, but it worked again. I got it. I had to use it. So anyway, hey, we're in First Corinthians chapter four. We're going to do our best to walk through all of First Corinthians chapter four. Do I have a calendar counter up there? Boy, I can't hardly see that. 30 Oh my glasses, I got like 45 minutes. Is that what they are? Is that what I have? 45 minutes. Thanks Amanda. Thanks. 14 (35m 10s): I might take 45 today impacting our community and our world life changing message of Jesus Christ. How do we do that? How do we do that? I mean, we gotta have steps to accomplish the goal. We gotta have things that we can do that help us march down that path, that intentional path that we've set out for ourselves. And so as we look at first Corinthians chapter four, the apostle Paul Apollos and Paul, our, our speak, Paul, especially through the, the anointing of the Holy Spirit is speaking to us about what our lives should look like. And he's speaking to a church, he's speaking to the church at Corinth, he's speaking to believers, people who are like you and I, who are just trying to figure out what it means to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. 14 (35m 56s): And so, number one in your notes, how do we, how do we impact our community and our world with life changing message? We gotta live our lives for God and not man. So number one, live your life for God and not man. You think we see that in the scripture? We see it all throughout the scripture, right? We can probably unpack any book of the Bible, any chapter of the Bible, and we'll see kind of this underlying theme in there that we are called to live our lives for God and not for man. First Corinthians four, one says, So look at Apollos and me as mere servants of Christ who have been put in charge of explaining God's mysteries. 14 (36m 39s): So this first kind of levels the playing field. Paul reminds us of his role as simply a servant of God. What does that word servant mean? Is if we get a word picture, it's actually the under rowers in the bottom of a ship. The under rowers are the, the least envied servants on the boat. They're underneath at the bottom of the boat and they're rowing and they're pushing the boat, they're moving the boat through the waters. It's, it's a thankless job. And they're underappreciated, but they're doing a job moving the ship. I'll re under rowers indicating the lowest galley slaves, the ones rowing on the bottom tier of the ship. 14 (37m 21s): They were the most menial un envied and despised of slaves. So when Paul talks about his role as a servant, he really has got a clear perspective of his role. This is the Apostle Paul who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. He could be boasting about his role within the kingdom, but instead, instead he doesn't, He realizes that he is a servant of the living God. And he communicates that throughout his epistles, as he writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He says, Hey, every person in the kingdom of God is merely a servants of God. And that word could be understood as, as an employee, maybe that's an easier word for us to understand where employees of God were actually working for God. 14 (38m 8s): Were employed by God here in the earth to do the work that he's called us to do. We're employed to do God's work in the earth. So every the servant of God is directly answers to God. Every one of us will give an account and stand before the king and give an account for our lives. Why? Because we're employed by him for a purpose to do, do the work that he's called us to do. So Apollo and Paul, they understood, hey, we're simply employees of God. They were put in charge of explaining God's mysteries. And so they were servants of God. 14 (38m 49s): Paul Apollo and Paul were servants who knew their job in the kingdom. So we're kind of getting some pieces and we're starting to put it together. Apollo and Paul, they were servants and they understood their role within the kingdom. And so there's some things that we can grab a hold of as believers here in the 21st century. We can get a better understanding, a clearer understanding of who we are. We are servants, employees of God with responsibilities. And it's our job to figure out what that responsibility is. Paul continues to challenge us in the next verse, verse two. Now a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful. 14 (39m 33s): So Paul's brings something else to the table that helps us to understand who we are and who we have been created to be. So we are simply servants of God. We're employed by God with responsibilities and we must be faithful in those responsibilities. So there's a little three many, three point service sermon within a sermon. These are things that God has called us to do. We can unpack the scripture and get point by point. We can get step by step the plan that God has for us. And Paul's outlining it for us. We are called to be servants. And so nobody in the kingdom is, is more important than another. 14 (40m 15s): We're all just servants of the living God, employees of God. And we've got responsibilities. And it is our responsibility to figure out what our responsibility is. And then once we've figured out what our responsibility is, then we must be faithful with our responsibility. This is indeed how we impact our world, our, our community, and our world. The life changing message of Jesus Christ. We get very serious about who we are. Not in a unhappy way, but in a, I don't know about you, but when, when a person figures out what they're on the earth to do, they, it, it, it just fills that person with a sense of purpose, a sense of duty, a sense of responsibility. 14 (41m 4s): Like I know what I'm here to do. A lot of people go out through throughout life and they've never quite settled in, in their identity and figured out who they are. And so they're running from thing to thing, accomplishment to accomplishment, trying to fill that void. And that void can only be filled in Christ Jesus when we realize that in Christ we are servants of God. Jesus modeled that for us. He said, I didn't come to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. And so Paul, in the early church followers of Jesus Christ understood this. And they lived their lives in that way. Nothing's changed in 2000 years. This is what God has called us to do, to understand that we are simply servants, employees of God with a purpose and we must be faithful. 14 (41m 55s): It's a life and death situation. Spiritual life and spiritual death. And so this is why we charge families to disciple their young people. That's why in our church we're focused on discipling every generation that comes through. Because we want people to understand who they are in Christ. They are servants of the living God given responsibility, purpose in the earth. And they must be faithful. Three very important ingredients. Things that we must get our hands on and our hearts around and must fill our minds. This reality that we, we have purpose, we work who directly for who, Right? 14 (42m 39s): What was the second one that I said? Faithful. Faithful Faithful's. Three. What was the second one? You've got responsibility. All right, so first one, we are servants, employees of God. Number two, we have responsibilities. And number three, we must be faithful. Right? It's life and death, right? So make that, you know, stick in your heart and in your mind. Let that really settle into your soul and, and shape the way that you live your lives and the way that you make decisions. I am a servants of God, an employee of God. I have responsibilities and it's my job to figure out what that responsibility is. 14 (43m 24s): And then I, I must be faithful. If you're a, if you've got kids, your primary responsibility are those kids is your job. We will partner with you in Sunday school and in youth programs and all kinds of stuff. But it is, it is your job. You will stand before the Lord and actually give an account for the way that you've parented your kids. And so it's your responsibility to make sure that you are discipling your kids. And then as your kids grow and then as you have grandkids, it's your responsibility to invest in those grandkids because you are in their life for a purpose. My kids are amazing in so many ways because of their grandparents, because of the way their grandparents have spoken into their lives and for the countless hours that their grandparents have prayed for them and spoken life into them. 14 (44m 18s): So we have this amazing responsibility. Colossians 3 23 says, Work willingly at whatever you do at whatever you do ministry, vocation, parenting, all responsibilities, work willingly at whatever you do as though you are working for the Lord rather than for people, right? We're working for the Lord and it's to the Lord that we will ultimately give an account for our lives. We are working for God as number one servants. Number two, people with responsibility. And number three, as people who must be faithful. This is, this is probably all I need to say today, but I got a few more pages of notes here. 14 (45m 3s): So let's continue to go through Colossians 3 24. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward and that the master you are serving is Christ. Over and over again in scripture, we see that the one that we serve is not man, but God. As we work for the Lord, it makes very little difference what others think about our work. As long as we are satisfying the Lord. As an aside, if you're not satisfying your boss, you're probably not satisfying your Lord in general terms. So everything that we do must be un is unto the Lord. 14 (45m 44s): And I, I can make this promise to you, If you are serving your earthly boss, as you are your heavenly boss, your earthly boss will be more than satisfied. Why? Because people who serve God faithfully are people of integrity. They don't lie, steal, cheat. They are people who are responsible and reliable and honorable. And so if you're living your life that way at work and in your home, you are pleasing your heavenly boss. And I promise you, everybody else in your life kinda like that triangle that Jeremy had, God at the top man and woman, as they get closer to God, they're getting closer to one another. 14 (46m 25s): As, as you in your life get closer to God, you're pleasing those in your life because you're, you're a better husband, you're a better father, you're a better wife, you're a better mother, you're a better employee. You're, you're a better everything. You, you fill in the blank. Everything is better. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything else will be added onto you. So make God your priority and everything else will fall into place. But you gotta, you gotta get that done first. You gotta make God your priority in every area of your life. Paul continues in verse three s for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. 14 (47m 6s): I don't even trust my own judgment at this point. Why is Paul making this statement? Paul makes this statement about people's evaluation of his ministry because people are always changing their minds and their basis for evaluation and their basis for evaluation isn't always God's basis for evaluation. So Paul saying, Hey, I just gotta make sure that I'm honoring the Lord and as I honor the Lord, I'm trusting that he's going to do what he wants to do through me. So Paul's not worried about externals, he's not worried about what people are thinking. He's not a people pleaser, He's a God pleaser. Why? Because he's an employee of God with responsibilities and he must be found faithful. 14 (47m 50s): Paul understood his life. We need to understand our lives, what we're here for. We need to get a hold of our purpose in the earth where we're here for a kingdom purpose and we got jobs and we've got, you know, hobbies and things like that. But those all take, those are all secondary and tertiary. They're all like way down the list compared to, compared to the reality that we are slaves of God, servants of God, employees of God, and we have responsibility and we must be found faithful. So Paul's not worried too much about what people think about his ministry. And that's really the best way to go about ministry. My ministry may be great for some, but it may put others to sleep. 14 (48m 34s): It really doesn't matter. I need to be about my father's business. And I, I tell you, it might put others to sleep because I watch people sleep during my sermons sometimes. And the craziest thing is sometimes they're right on the front row. I'm like, Holy cow, are you kidding me? You're asleep right now. Maybe preaching one of my best messages and you're asleep. Or I'm speaking to a chair cause there's nobody there. But I'm like, wake up. We had a guy years ago when I was an associate pastor and I was preaching and this guy was snoring right in the middle of my sermon. He was like 34 rows back and he's just sacked out completely. All right, listen, you can't sleep through sermons and expect to get anything from the Lord, right? 14 (49m 18s): So get some sleep at night and then come ready to go. Most of you know what I'm talking about. What does God think about your ministry? What does God think about my ministry? That's the most important thing. Now we can learn from other people's, from people's critiques, people's encouragement. Some of in my life, some of the hardest lessons that I've had to learn have been through super uber critical people. And the temptation is to say, Oh, they're just jerk star mean. And even if 95 or 99% of what they're saying is mean spirited and inaccurate, there just might be a nugget of something in there that I need to hear. 14 (50m 2s): There just might be something in there. Get a get through all the flesh and all the ugliness of how it was communicated. There might be something there. And so the Holy Spirit will use all kinds of things. Mostly his word and his spirit will speak to us. But also through people. We will get a chance to kind of evaluate our lives. But we can't live our lives for people. We can't, we we can't minister to please people. Proverbs 29 25 says, Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety. So what are you called to do? And don't do it to please people. Don't fall into a, a, a role of responsibility because you think others think you should be in that role or responsibility. 14 (50m 47s): When I wanted to be a senior pastor years ago, somebody said, Well, you're just a kid. You probably should just be a youth pastor. I said, Well, maybe you're right. But I'm called to be a senior pastor and that's what I feel like I'm supposed to do. Right? The world wants to shape who we are, right? When we planted a church, well, you've never planted a church before. You shouldn't plant a church, right? What is it that the world is telling you you shouldn't do? Because you shouldn't do it in their perspective. Amen. Right? Like you, you shouldn't do what? Because you've never had what? The experience, the training, the education. What is it that you feel cold in your soul to do? 14 (51m 27s): But others are telling you you can't do? Maybe what? God, I'm back. Not maybe at all. For sure. What God has called you to do is fulfilling his kingdom purpose in your life. And so you as a servant of God, a lowly servant of God, get to settle in. Amen. And do finding out your purpose and maybe you're not finding out your purpose because you're trying to please everybody around you. Listen, you'll never be able to figure that out. You'll never please everybody cuz soon as you please one somebody else is mad at you because you're not doing it the way they thought you should do it or thinking the way they think you should be thinking. So figure out what you're in the world to do. You're first and foremost a servant, an employee of God. 14 (52m 10s): So let's get that settled. I'm just a, a lowly under rower, right? No prestige, no honor, really. It's just an under rower, right? And then I've got responsibility and that I must be found faithful. Paul tells us in verse four, My conscience is clear, but that doesn't prove I'm right. It's the Lord himself who examine me and decide Paul's conscience is clear, but he understands that he might be missing something. Paul's saying, Hey, we can't even really trust our conscience now we need to work toward clearing our conscience of known discrepancies in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. 14 (52m 50s): But even then, only God can judge us and come to an accurate conclusion. And so we need to be constantly checking in with the Lord. Lord, what am I doing? Is, is what I'm doing in line with you and you, you can't accurately hear from the Lord on the fly. You gotta like settle in and just take some time. You, you gotta spend time with the Lord and it can't be, Hey Lord, you know, speak to me throughout the day. I mean God will do that for sure, but you, you just probably just need to get with the Lord and spend some uninterrupted time. Turn off your phone, do whatever you gotta do. Get alone. Do whatever you gotta do to hear from the Lord and then do that on a regular basis. 14 (53m 31s): Otherwise you'll get way off track. It's easy to get off track. You gotta do what you gotta do to hear from the Lord. And you gotta do it on a regular basis. Lord, how's the ministry going? This ministry that you've called me to, Am I doing okay as I read the war, Lord? Is what I'm doing properly reflected in your word? Lord? Does it look like what you've called me to do? Does it look like what you've called the church to do? And Lord, am I being faithful? Am I being faithful? Last night, about six o'clock, I told my wife, I said, I gotta go for a walk. And I, cuz I, I go walk in and I pray. And that's just how I spend time. 14 (54m 12s): I, I'm just out there by myself and I can, I'm a probably a little bit so I can't sit cuz I'll get distracted by a thousand other things. So I just walk and I pray and, and I came back and I told only, I said, you know, I, I feel like I've been praying to an iron dome lately. I, I can't break through. Like, I, I, like, I I don't, I feel like when I'm praying I can't get through. And, and I realize, you know, we're, we're called to walk by faith and not by sight and emotions sometimes rob us of the joy of just doing what we know that we're called to do. And so don't, don't rely on emotions, cuz some days you're gonna have a great day, other days you're gonna have a bad day. Some days you feel like, Oh, I, I got a direct line to the Lord. And other days you're feeling like I can't even, I can't even touch heaven, right? 14 (54m 54s): So just keep doing what God has called you to do. Get up, figure out that you're a servant of God, that you've got responsibility and that you must be found faithful. Just trust the Lord. One Corinthians chapter four, so many judgements about anyone ahead of time before the Lord returns for he will bring our darkest secret secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due. The new Bible commentary states, it is Christ, it will expose attempts to cover up misdeeds and will judge not merely actions but motivations. So Paul's saying, Hey, don't look on the outside and elevate one person over another. 14 (55m 37s): I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollo, I'm of Peter, I'm of Christ. You know, we, we look on the outside and we, we misjudge just do worry about yourself, right? Amen. Where are you? Right? Don't worry about what I'm doing or what your friends doing. What, what are you doing? Verse six, Dear brothers and sisters, I have used Apollo of myself to illustrate what I've been saying. If you pay attention to what I've quoted from the scriptures, you won't be proud of one of your leaders at the expense of another. So here, Paul reiterates what he's already said, and he challenges the factions in divisions within the church. 14 (56m 20s): One Corinthians one 12 says, Some of you are saying, I am a follower of Paul. Others are saying, I follow Apollos, or I follow Peter, or I follow only Christ. Paul's talking about the distractions that are happening within the church. Well, I'm a part of this faction, or I'm part of that faction, I'm part of that group or that that person or that whatever. What has God called you to do? Or called the team up together as a church and be part of the kingdom work that God's called us to in the earth. But what, what is God calling you to do? Right? So often we're focused on what others are doing or are not doing in their lives and in their ministry and how we are disappointed by that. But what is called you, what is God called you to do? 14 (57m 4s): So Paul, in a sense, is challenging at superstar mentality, right? Where we're elevating people and it's just so unhealthy, right? So if, if we're elevating somebody on the platform to at the expense of our own ministry that God has called us to, if, if we're missing the point of what God has placed us on the earth to do, then we're missing it all together. We are of Christ, period. We are of the Lord. I was at a church years ago and the one of the leaders in the church was introducing their pastor as the star. 14 (57m 46s): He said, Hey, there's our star. And there's no stars in the kingdom except Jesus. I mean, only God is He's he, He reigns in rules. Supreme. We need to live our lives for God and not men. Not trying to please men, not trying to become men who people are impressed with, or women that people are impressed with. It's none of that stuff matters. Our goal shouldn't be, I want to be impressive. My goal should be, our goal should be, I want to be invisible, man. I just wanna be a servant of God, an under rower. 14 (58m 27s): Like I don't care. I I I need to do what I'm called to do and be faithful. And that's what all is gonna matter in the, at the end of, at the end of the day. So impacting our community and our world with life changing message of Jesus Christ. Number one requires that you live your life for God and and not for man. And then number two, remember that your life and all that you have is a gift from God. In our culture where we've got plenty, we forget that all we have is a gift from God. Verse seven, For what gives you the right, Paul goes on First Corinthians chapter four, for what gives you the right to make such a judgment. What do you, what do you have that God hasn't given you? And if everything you have is a, is from God, why boast as though they were not a gift? 14 (59m 9s): You think you already have everything you need. He's challenging the carnality within the church. People who have resources or political power, he's challenging them because they feel like they've already arrived. We, we have to be careful when we've attained a, a level of success to remember that it doesn't matter how much we have or how much we've succeeded in this life. We are only and always still a bond servant and a servant, an employee of God in Jesus' name. That is our call. And that will keep us humble and that will keep us grateful. Every everything that we have is a gift from God. And so God has gifted some and it allows those people to become prominent and, and were to use those prominent gifts and talents to impact the kingdom that we might make a difference in the world. 14 (59m 57s): You think you already have everything you need. Paul said, You think you're already rich. You have begun to reign in God's kingdom without us. I wish you really were reigning, but then we'd be reigning with you. It's like, hey, you've, you're not even realizing that we're in a battle. You're celebrating well prematurely, but you're also celebrating the wrong stuff. We're not here in the earth to build a kingdom ourselves, a place of sanctuary for ourselves. We're in a battle for the kingdom. We are under rowers servants, period with responsibility, Period. 14 (1h 0m 39s): And we must be faithful. Period. Verse nine, He says, instead, I, I sometimes thank God has put us as apostles on display like prisoners of war at the end of a victor's parade condemned to die. We have become a spectacle to the entire world, to people and angels alike. Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools. But you claim to be so wise in Christ, we are weak. But you are so powerful. You are honored. But we are ridiculed even now. We go hungry and thirsty and we don't even have enough clothes to keep us warm. We are often beaten and have no home. 14 (1h 1m 20s): We work weirdly with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. We appeal gently when evil things are said about us. Yet we are treated like the world's garbage. Like everybody's trash right up to the present moment. And we can turn on TV and watch health and wealth messages all day long until cows come home and everybody's telling you, you should be healthy, wealthy, and wise. That's not what Paul's experience was. 14 (1h 2m 1s): The church is delusional if that's what we think we're here to experience into a accomplish. Now. God is good and he blesses and he takes care of his church. But most of the church around the world is not healthy, wealthy. And why They're in the early church experiences. Paul experienced this. We go hungry and thirsty. You turn on some television preachers, teachers, and they're telling you that this should never happen. Well, it happened to Paul, it happened to the early church. 14 (1h 2m 43s): We gotta change our mind about the kingdom. It's not about us. It's about the king. We will never impact our community in our world with a life changing message of Jesus Christ. If it's always about us. Just amen. I'm not writing these things to shame you, Paul said, But to warn you as my beloved children, verse 14, verse 15, For even if you had 10,000 others to teach you about Christ, you only have one spiritual father before I became your father in Christ. When I preach the good news to you. So I urge you to imitate me. Paul said, so I urge you to imitate me, right? 14 (1h 3m 23s): So Paul say, Hey, follow me as I follow Christ. Right? That's a bold statement. It's a statement that we should be able to make to our friends, families, and neighbors. Hey, follow me. I'll show you what it means to be a follower of Christ. Right? Paul's not arrogant, but he is certainly confident in who he is as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to have that same confidence. Why? Because we understand that we are servants of God, slaves of God. We are here with purpose and we are laser-like focused on that purpose because we will be held accountable and we must be faithful. And so with that clarity and with that confidence and with that conviction, we move forward as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. 14 (1h 4m 13s): And we do what God has called us to do. We live in the power of the resurrected Jesus Christ, and we impact our community and our world with life changing message of Jesus Christ. It happens really one person at a time. You impacting another person, you impacting someone else, One person impacting another one at a time, at a time, at a time. Paul wasn't confused about his life. We will be confused about our lives. If we deviate from the scripture, we will be confused about who we are, about how we should spend our time, our talent, and our treasure about everything alike. 14 (1h 4m 58s): We will be confused walking around in a cloud, confused about what success looks like, confused about what our purpose in life is, confused and never knowing whether we've actually made a difference in the earth. But if we figure out that we are servants with a purpose and we must be faithful, then we will no longer be confused. Paul wasn't confused about his life. He knew that his life and all that he had was a gift from God to be used for God. And that God could give him a gift to him or take from him whatever. And whenever, and Paul was ready for it. Philippians four 12 and 13 I, I know Paul's rights. 14 (1h 5m 38s): I know what it is to be in need. I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I I can do everything through him who gives me the strength, right? I can do everything right. So don't get discouraged if you're in a hard spot in life. Welcome to humanity, right? Financial stressors, physical stressors, relational stressors. Don't get down on God because you think he's not living up to his end of the bargain. His end of the bargain is I say to you, you serve me. 14 (1h 6m 18s): That's it. Right? I redeem you by my grace and through my blood, and you serve me all the days of your life because I've give you, I've given you purpose. I've adopted you into my family, given you purpose. You get to serve within the kingdom to impact your community and your world with life changing message of Jesus Christ. That's what it's about. If we think it's something different, we've missed the gospel completely. If we somehow think that we're important within the kingdom, you're important as much, as much as you've been given responsibility. And if you don't do it, if you don't find yourself faithful, God doesn't find you faithful, then you've blown it. It's a bit, Did you hear me? You have blown it because you got your whole life to figure this out. 14 (1h 7m 3s): And God is so faithful and gentle and good. He continues to remind us and teach us. And maybe that's what he's doing today. He's reminding us, He's teaching us, He's instructing us. He's trying to get our attention in a world that's filled with distraction, filled with priorities that have nothing to do with kingdom filled with hindrances to what God has called us to. Paul said, Hey, imitate me. Do what I'm doing. Follow me as I follow Christ. Paul is discipling these believers in genuine Christianity. 14 (1h 7m 44s): Genuine Christianity. Genuine Christianity is what we see in the pages of scripture. Genuine Christianity. The definition of discipleship goes beyond just being a good student of a teacher. Discipleship requires that we imitate our teacher. Follow me as I follow Christ. Paul is urging these followers of Jesus Christ to follow him as he follows Christ. Verse 17. That's why I sent Timothy my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of how I follow Christ Jesus. 14 (1h 8m 24s): Just as I teach in all the churches, wherever I go. Some of you have become arrogant thinking, I'm I, I will not visit you again, but I will come and soon if the Lord lets me. And then I'll find out whether these arrogant people just give pretentious speeches or whether they really have God's power. Because there's people within the church who are rising up and they're influential and they're speaking a godless, biblically void message. And there it's all about people exalting themselves. And Paul is there to challenge it. 14 (1h 9m 4s): He said, I'll come. I'll come. Listen. I'd rather have a dude come and shake me by the, by the neck and get my attention than standing before God. So I'm the dude today, and I don't make light of that. I, I am calling us. I am pleading that we would understand who we are, that we would get it at the core, that we would live it in Jesus Christ impacting our community and our world with life-changing message of Jesus Christ requires that all believers remember that your life and all that you have is they get from God. 14 (1h 9m 60s): And that we need to live our lives for God. There's a British rock band called Queen, great song that still played today great in the eyes of the world. What's her song? I want it all. I want it all, and I want it now. Freddie Mercury just belts it out, right? He wanted it all. They wanted it. That's the theme of the world. And if we're not careful, it's the theme of Carl Christians like we want it here and now. 14 (1h 10m 42s): We want our rewards. We want to live life. We want it all. Now, the fact that Freddy Mercury died of complications with AIDS at AIDS 45 isn't lost on me. This world doesn't offer what we're longing to experience as created beings in Christ, where we're called to serve the Lord, to give our lives to God. He said, Freddie, Mercury people, do you hear me? 14 (1h 11m 24s): Just give me the sign. It ain't much. I'm asking if you want the truth. Here's to the future for the dreams of youth. I want it all. Give it all. I want it all. I want it now. I want it all. Yes, I want it all. I want it all. Hey, I want it all and I want it now. I mean, it's just over and over and over again. This could be the theme of your life, like I'm working to get it all. Cuz we, we think somehow that that's what it's gonna scratch the itch or fill the void. He said, I'm a man with a one track mind so much to do in one lifetime. 14 (1h 12m 9s): Do you hear me? People not a man for compromise and wears and wise and living lies. So I'm living it all. Yes, I'm living it all and I'm giving it all. And I'm giving it all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. This is the theme of the world. Freddie Mercury died in 1987, but his songs are still going, impacting our community and our world with life changing message. Jesus Christ. Number three, remember that the kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk. 14 (1h 12m 53s): It is living by the power of God. By God's power. Where did I get that? Where did I get that? There's 20. The Bible. Okay, If I'm up here preaching something that's not in the Bible, don't listen to me. But if I'm up here preaching what is in the Bible, listen, the kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk, but it's living in God's power. Verse 20, first Corinthians chapter four, For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk, it's living by God's power. God spoke it. 14 (1h 13m 33s): This is what we believe as believers. This is what we live for as people who are living for Jesus. It's not just talking about it, but it's living in the power of God. I say it all the time. Everything that God calls us to requires that we live in that power, that we're empowered to do what God has called us to do. We cannot see what God is asking us to do. We cannot hear, we cannot do unless we're living in the power of God filled with the spirit of God. Which do you choose? Paul Road, Verse 21. Which do you choose? Everything comes down to choice, right? 14 (1h 14m 15s): Which, which do you choose? Should I come with a rod to punish you? Paul says he understood his authority within the church and his job to bring correction. But it wasn't his hard to be people up. It was his hard to disciple people to raise them up, but to encourage them to do what God had called them to do. But he's willing to bring a rod of correction if that's what will awaken the church, which you choose. Should I come with a rod to punish you or should I come with love and a gentle spirit? What do we need? What are we choosing? I mean, do we, do we want to stand before the Lord after reading passages like this and hearing sermons like this and say, Ah, I didn't take it serious. 14 (1h 15m 7s): You say, Well, I'm old and I haven't been living my life like this. We'll start now. Say I'm young and my life is just getting started. Get going. Now. Think about it now. Say, Well, I haven't raised my kids the way this, that you're been talking about. We'll start now. Repent and apologize and start now. Say, Hey, I've tell your kids, Hey, I didn't raise you the way I should've raised you. Forgive me. I'm going to, by God's grace, begin again in your marriage. Maybe you've not been honoring your spouse the way you should begin again. Say, Hey, I haven't been the best spouse. 14 (1h 15m 49s): Forgive me. I, I'd like to begin again and begin again. Don't be discouraged by a message like this, but let it light a fire in your soul. We were had a campfire. We had our grandkids over Friday night and couldn't wait for grandpa to get home because I was gonna build a bill campfire, you know, they wanted to help me build a fire. You know, we got this little fire area in the back of our property and like, Grandpa, we wanna, we wanna gather sticks so we can help you build the fire. Like, okay, go grab up the sticks. And we start building this fire. 14 (1h 16m 29s): And it's just really small. At first, I said, just wait. It's going to, it's gonna get bigger. So I, I had built this TP of a structure around this, and it was just a matter of time before that fire just grew and grew and grew and then caught. And before you knew it was just tall and we're just, we're roast of marshmallows and having to be careful cuz we're getting too close to the fire. But it was exciting when there's a, a fire burning, it's an exciting thing. Some of us are just barely embers ember. We're just barely, barely alive. There. Stoke it. I got real close to the fire and started blowing on it. 14 (1h 17m 9s): I said, Watch this, guys. Watch, watch. When I blow life into the air, into this fire just begins to get hot and big. Let God blow some life into you. Amen. Because what God can do in a moment is, is wonderful and supernatural to bring life and light to your, your walk as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, your purpose. And you'll, you'll never find greater joy, greater peace, greater fulfillment, and greater satisfaction than when you're doing what God has created you to do. 14 (1h 17m 52s): Everything else pales in comparison to that. Everything else pales in comparison to that. So forget about the big points. What are the three small points? Number one, 0 (1h 18m 7s): Servants, 14 (1h 18m 8s): What is it? 15 (1h 18m 9s): Servants, Employee of 14 (1h 18m 10s): God. Oh, servants, employees of God. What does that mean to you? 15 (1h 18m 19s): My life? I'm here to do what 14 (1h 18m 23s): He wants me to do. You're here to do what he wants you to do. Yeah. Employed by God, we've all been employed by somebody in life, right? Right. What do you, how do you know that you're doing a good job when your boss is saying, Hey, great, great job. When you know you've got a good clear job description and you're doing the job, be a servant. Figure out what you're called to do and then do it faithfully. Go ahead and stand up, Lord, as we wrap this sermon up, Lord, we thank you for who you are and for your grace. And we love you Lord. And we know that you love us and that you've given us purpose and we will be held accountable for that purpose. 14 (1h 19m 8s): So, Lord, I pray, I pray that that's what happens here at Harvest Church and everywhere where we have influence God, that we would, we would model this and live it and we stumble. We'd be quick to repent and get back to it. In Jesus' name for all the days of our lives. In Jesus' name. Lord, thank you Lord. Thank you Lord God. As we get ready to worship again, I pray that we'd be worshiping with a clear conscience, knowing that we are settled from this moment. 14 (1h 19m 58s): We are settled and we are committed from this moment to march forward in Jesus' name, to build your kingdom, to impact our community and our world with life changing message of Jesus Christ. One person at a time. We are your servants. We have responsibility and we will be faithful. Thank you Lord. In Jesus name. It's worship 0 (1h 20m 29s): Jesus. You're doing on, you're doing ah, A you're doing a Never gave up. You never gave up, you never up on you never give up. 0 (1h 21m 11s): You never gave up. You never gave up on me. You gonna give up. Never gave up. Never gave up. I know Jesus. Not done. You're doing, you're doing a new, you're a new thing on your life. 0 (1h 22m 1s): You never gonna give up. You gave up. You never gave up. You never gonna give up. Never give up. You never give. Gonna give up, never give, never up, done with me. You're new. You're doing a new Hoo. 0 (1h 22m 51s): You're doing a new, You're doing a new. So come do a 1 (1h 23m 11s): God. That is our prayer this morning, that you would do something new within us, that we wanna be complacent, but that we would live to our eyes toward heaven. We would ask what our assignment is for the day. And God, we would just walk moment by moment, day by day with you. We thank you for your presence. We thank you for your truth. We love you. It's in your precious name we pray. Amen.

1 (1s): Good morning Harvest Church. Let's stand and praise and worship the Lord Jesus this morning together. Amen. I have been saved by the grace of God. Amen. I been raised to a loyal sing. 1 (42s): Jesus, Jesus, 0 (52s): Love you. 1 (1m 1s): She's i a in the, you won't. 1 (2m 28s): That's who that is. The 0 (3m 14s): You She. 1 (4m 24s): There's, that's the power name. Just giant strongholds. And there is, that's the, 0 (5m 24s): There's 1 (5m 25s): A hope. There's a hope that courage, the c expectation giants fall. 1 (6m 6s): That's, 0 (6m 10s): It's, 1 (6m 40s): I see you taking ground. I see you press hand. Your power is dangerous. The enemies can. Yeah. You still do miracle. You'll do what you, you've always sing it. Your kingdom, 0 (7m 19s): You still do 1 (7m 21s): Miracles. 0 (7m 22s): You'll do what you, 1 (8m 49s): How could I 2 (8m 57s): Sing this out? Sing. And you never with your hands, don't you get lift soul, You lie inside. 2 (11m 34s): Praise the sing it 0 (11m 41s): On. 2 (11m 43s): Don't you get, 0 (11m 48s): You 2 (11m 48s): Gotta 1 (12m 31s): Raise you again and again. All that I have is and knows I'm set for singing. 2 (15m 30s): You 0 (15m 31s): Are my. 2 (16m 54s): Yeah. Let's declare that together. 0 (18m 50s): I 3 (19m 20s): Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that perfect love, cast at all fear, Lord. And because your presence is here this morning, Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus, you'd cast at all fear. Fear does not belong in this place. Lord. Lord, your perfect love would just envelop us, Lord God, 0 (19m 42s): That 3 (19m 42s): We be, we just feel a tangible presence of your love this morning, and that we would then after this service to be able to go out and share your love with the world. Lord, we invite you here. In Jesus name you pray. Amen. You can take a seat. Well, good morning, Church is so good to see you. My name's Jeremy. I'm the youth and family pastor. And on Sundays I also double as a parking lot attendant. So I'm sorry if I'm the first face that you see in the morning, you know, chasing away from parking spots. Be gracious with us and with our neighbors, they've, they've kind of requested a few of their, their spots on a Sunday morning. So if you're looking for different places to park and that parking lot's full, we have a bunch of spots over here, right behind Clawdy Parts Pizza. 3 (20m 30s): And you just get a free voucher that'll let you outta the gate for free. There's some across the street, if you have family, the great spot to park is over by the kids minutes back there. So there's a lot of spots. Park right behind our church on the freshly re paved spot. And then in, in, right in front of Anderson Burs. Those are all available to you, but they get filled up fast, especially if, if you're a little on the later side. So just, just putting that out there. And a few announcements for you this morning is next week is a really exciting week in the life of our church. We're having child dedication. It's, it's a way that our church is growing. And so next week so far, we have five children being dedicated. 3 (21m 10s): And what that is, is it's not, we're not baptizing them. We're not sprinkling them. We don't believe in infant baptism here at Harvest Church, but we do want to dedicate these children. And it's, it's less to do with the child as, as it is with the parents and the, the family and the community. So we pray over these children, over the, over the families that the families will just raise these children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So that's gonna be next week. If you haven't yet sent me an email to have your child dedicated that day, then just do that and join the, the, the fun. And then another way that we can love our community is next week for Halloween, we're gonna be opening up. We're gonna take all the cheers out of the sanctuary and we're gonna be opening up and having a number of game booths. 3 (21m 54s): And we're gonna be inviting the community into the, into the sanctuary and have them have some fun at some different booths. Now, some of the children that are gonna come will have never stepped foot in a church. And some of the parents will maybe never have set foot in the church. So it's a way of opening up our sanctuary, letting them see that it's not strange in here. It's a really cool building and inviting them in to to, to have a little love and to be loved on, and maybe hopefully invite them back to church and join our community. So it's gonna be a great, great time to serve. We do need people to help out with volunteers. So it's, it's an afternoon Halloween. It's, it's a Monday, I believe. So sign up back at Info Center. 3 (22m 36s): It's a great place to do that. And then thirdly, I don't know if many of you remember, but Dust and Chelsea, they served here at, at Harvest Church for a long time. And I think I might have a picture there We are, Dustin and Chelsea. And they were just great volunteers around here. They, they, Chelsea helped out with the kids' ministry. They both helped out with the youth. And earlier in this year, back in May and May 1st they felt the calling to move to Florida we're like, Okay, you go. So we prayed them out for our youth group. I know we, we, we, we just prayed for them as they went for our staff team as well. They went out to Florida, they got hooked up with a church there and started volunteering right away. 3 (23m 18s): And they happened to move to Fort Myers, Florida. And so that was May 1st. They, they were there for not very long, got really involved with their church. And then September 1st they felt like, Man, Fort Myers not, may not be our place. They were right on the coast. So September 1st, they got a new place in Naples. And so the end of the month, as many of you remember, and, and some of it's, this is kind kind of in the rear view mirror, but Hurricane Ian came through and, and, and wiped out Fort Myers, Florida where they were living now, Dustin and Chelsea won, say they're doing great. God protect 'em. God put them in this little bubble right there in Naples. 3 (23m 60s): They're a little bit inland. And so they said the only damage they had on their, the house that they're renting is tornado damage. Like who would've thought, you know, a hurricane of flight comes to and they had a little hurricane or a little tornado, They never lost power, They didn't lose water. But they're, they know a lot of friends and a lot of people in their community that are hurting. And so we want to partner with Hope City Church and that's the church that they're volunteering at that they're involved in. Hope City Church has a video about how we can help partner and help love on our brothers sisters in Christ in Florida. So can we roll that video? 3 (26m 15s): So a number of years ago with my old church, we, a year after Hurricane Katrina, we got to go and help out rebuild homes and, and, and get involved in the life of people that had been just demolished by that hurricane back then. So I, speaking with people being in their homes even a year after the fact, the the damage is lasting. So this joining with Hope City Church is just a great way to partner with our brothers and sisters in Christ that are hurting there. You can go back to the info center to find out more about how you can donate or you can give to help that church and their, as they're going out to reach people for the gospel in a tangible way. So just a great way to get involved in that way. So right now we're gonna have a time of meet and greet. 3 (26m 55s): So say hi to someone that's around you and yeah, God bless you guys 5 (27m 5s): Life and in your love and kindness raise me up with Christ and made me righteous. 0 (27m 16s): You have of remain love, 5 (27m 26s): Love 0 (27m 33s): Save, love 5 (27m 37s): You that broke the you soul. When I am ho if ever I forget my true identity, show me who I am in. Help me believe you 0 (28m 6s): Have grand chance of your amazing and love 5 (28m 16s): Made. Love 0 (28m 46s): My 5 (28m 46s): Sadness being 0 (28m 47s): Raised. 5 (28m 51s): I'll never be 0 (28m 52s): The same You 5 (28m 58s): Back. Love made love with love by your Grace House. Save 0 (29m 13s): You have love 5 (29m 23s): Made. Love with. 6 (29m 58s): Morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome. I love that video. The opportunity for us to partner with my microphone is on fire. It is. Okay, good. So I wonder, in the spirit of generosity, I wonder if in just a way to love people who've been impacted by Ian, the hurricane there, I wonder if there's a way for us to set a goal. 6 (30m 49s): I wonder if we should set a goal, you guys game for a, like a financial goal that we can bless that part of the world with. I mean I think we need goals, right? I think it's important for us to, to love our community and our world with the life changing message of Jesus Christ. And, and so what do you think? Do you think we could raise $25,000 to send off? Is that possible? Do you think? Okay, if if I just occurred to me, I we didn't have, I haven't had any conversation with anybody about this until now. So is it unrealistic to do $50,000? 6 (31m 31s): No. No. Who said no? Who said 50,000? Everybody 7 (31m 39s): Gave a hundred. 6 (31m 41s): Oh, okay. So if everybody gave hundred bucks. So I think we, we put a ton of money into this building and renovations and we are always putting in money into our facilities and our community and that sort of thing. But how cool would it be to, I mean, can we do, I mean if we all pitched in a hundred bucks, both, you know, all the people in our church, every family. I mean, I think, I think we could do that. How many families do we have at Harvest Church? You think so? Yeah. Per family. 6 (32m 22s): Per family. Okay. So let's try to do that 50 grand, right? I mean it's, I think it's, I think it's doable. I'll pitch in a couple hundred bucks and you'd, so, I mean I'm just, this is just kind of coming right now. Thanks. I'm not gonna put you on the spot cuz I don't want you to feel like you gotta raise your hand. But who's got real faith for this kind of thing? Josh, You got some faith for it? Josh, come on up and pray for us. Can we get a microphone and I think, yeah, come on up. 6 (33m 3s): And this is Josh Erman. He's gonna pray that the Lord would just open up the windows with heaven through us so that we could send them off a blessing. And I don't know what $50,000 will do in the scheme of things, but I think more important than the $50,000 I think is just the, the, the church coming together. Amen. And us you know, us thinking outside of our own 8 (33m 26s): Little, just realizing one, that the fact that we can gather together here free, we can gather together with warm water and, and Lord and sends money through tough times. Their faith is challenged. We at work, Thank you so much. Our church can be there in present giving hugs and encouragement. And may we as a church just brighten their light of faith, funnel money over to that church and seeing your kingdom grow. Lord God, I pray that each person here, their face would be, their faith would be increased with the opportunity to serve. 8 (34m 12s): Maybe not everyone here has the, the ability or time to, to fly over and be there and be directly your hands and feet, but through just modern technology and the, the ability to send our finances over Lord may, may that be multiplied. Yes. May the the the money that we we send have so much more of an impact than it would be with what we were to do in our own neighborhoods. Lord, I pray for encouragement. I pray that there would be excitement and that this would be an opportunity for us as a body here locally to, to grow and to, to get that fellowship where all of us can contribute and serve together in a unique way outside of the, the traditional ways of helping Lord Godda, may you be glorified in our time together in Steve's message. 8 (35m 2s): And I just am encouraged in his spontaneity and challenging us. I mean we all rise to that and make you proud. Your name I pray. Amen. 6 (35m 13s): Amen. Thank you brother. Appreciate it very much. Yeah, the back. So I, I just, I don't know about you guys, but are you about looking at Shelly because we were ask the Lord what would do and then the 9 (35m 54s): Pray 6 (35m 59s): Again. And so then their faith was, I think sometimes we make commitment. We've heard from Lord about this 50,000. But I just think that, that God's honored when we're generous with the resources that he's blessed us with, helping those who will never pay us back, they'll will never even know who they are, this side of heaven. But imagine the other side. When we are in the presence of the saints and the presence of the living God, and we meet people who've we've helped, we didn't even realize we, we, they're gonna come up to us somehow we're gonna know and there's gonna be a connection there. 6 (36m 45s): So think there's something eternally minded, connected to a drive like this. A a desire to help people. So do whatever you feel like you want to do. Just make out your check or do whatever and just put in what, what should we put Ian? Or hurricane or hurricane? Hurricane Relief. How's that sound? Good? Okay. Sounds good. Sounds good. Thanks for that. How many, you're gonna jump in a little bit. I gotta get you a little bit of a commitment, right? I'm not asking you to jump in with how much, but if you've got money or even if you don't have, I think sacrificially giving, I think it's just the way we're talking about love today. So this is a great example. We're really, I mean this is like the rubber meets the road kind of way to love people who will never be able to love us back. 6 (37m 30s): This side effect, we'll never get, like, you know, it's not like you're helping your neighbor across the street who will someday maybe help you back, right? Like, hey, here's, you know, some help. We'll never get it back. Never, ever. I think that's the most beautiful way to give to sacrificially. Give unselfishly. So anyway, we'll be receiving those gifts over these next couple weeks. It'd be great if we could get it done in a week. You think we can get it done in a week? You think we can get it done in a week? It'd be really good. This has nothing to do with church except for we get to help. So I'm not, you know, we're just gonna see what we can do. See what the Lord will do. 6 (38m 12s): Yes. If you need to borrow 200, yes, that's fine. I don't know who's gonna give it to you, but yeah, somebody will loan it to you. Who's got 200 bucks for Keith over there? Hey, thank you so much for honoring us. The pastors last week at Pastor Appreciation week. We, Jeremy and I are the only two pastors right now. Well up to that, up to last week. And now Curtis is on the team. So yeah, we wanna, we're so thankful. Just want to, if you weren't here last week, we, where did he go? He disappeared. He, he went out anyway, so we ordained my son Curtis, who has been serving in the church initially as a volunteer, then slightly paid staff and then just kind of grew in his role and his graduate. 6 (38m 58s): So we've, you know, besides the graduate studies, besides all of the most important stuff is what we've just seen in Curtis's life. The way in which he's grown. His character, his love for people, his love for the ministry. So we're just so grateful. And so, hey, so Jeremy talked about if you get here late park across the street, I got here late this morning, so I was, I parked across the street and so the way you get a free way out of there is you go back to the info center and get a parking pass. What's it called? Validation. There we go. So there's lots of parking around here actually. There's lots and lots of parking around here. So it's just literally like right across the street. 6 (39m 39s): So at the Century 21 parking lot there. All right, so we're, I, I got 17, so how can I be down to 17 minutes? Alright, I gotta be 17 cause I spent a lot of time doing other stuff here, but I'm gonna try to wrap this up here in 17 minutes. Our core values we're committed to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Confident in the word of God. Created. Oh, good, good. And called to love all people. There we go. There we go. We'll be in First John four, seven through 21 today. So these core values that we've been talking about, these are kind of the wheels that we roll forward on. And if one of those wheels is slightly flat, I got a flat tire recently. I don't believe in karma. 6 (40m 19s): You know why? Okay, thanks for asking. Because everywhere I go, like when I'm walking or running, if I see a nail, I will pick it up. In fact, I intentionally look for nails because I, it's a bummer to pick up a nail in your tire. So karma would say that because I pick up nails, I will never get a nail in my tire. I get nails in my tires all the time. Karma doesn't work. But I still, anyway, so I, I'm noticing my tire is, is low. And then the next morning I wake up and my tire is just dead, just dead flat. And so it, like, I aired it up and it, it goes flat within like 30 minutes. 6 (40m 59s): And so, so the idea is that you gotta keep some air on those tires and those are the tires that you roll forward on and you get better traction, you get better, all kind. You just, you're able to do what you're meant to do. So we're gonna be talk, we're, this is the last study this week or the last sermon on the core values called to love all people. And so we're talking about the love of God. I love, I love talking about the love of God because I know, we know, we know if you've been a Christian for any amount of time, you know that it's the love of God that keeps us, that draws us, that calls us in Jesus name. A friend of ours who's passed now, Cheryl Hancock was a missionary in Israel for decade couple, I don't know, 20 years or so. And I would, I, Ron d and I went over there to visit her a couple times and, and just did some ministry with her. 6 (41m 46s): And I asked her, what makes your ministry so effective? I mean, why, why are Muslims and, and Jews, why are they giving their lives to ge? I mean, why, why are they converting to Christianity? Says, she said, it's because of the love of God. It's foreign to them. And when they experience the love of Christ through Christians, they're just, they're excited about that. They, they get excited about that. So I I love talking about the love of God. It's important, it's crucial. It's, it's the identifier for us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are known the world will, will know that we're disciples of God because of our love, one for another. 6 (42m 28s): So I first wrote this, we first as a staff leadership team and elders, we got together, I think back in 2014 and wrote out these core values. And we, we said, Hey, what identifies us? Not what do we hope to be? What do we or what what we're striving to be, but who, what who are we really today, right now? And, and so we identify these core values and we just know that we're, we're called to these things and that God has given us purpose as we live out these core values and we're hopefully gonna be impactful as we live out. These core values we're called, literally called. So it's, it's not just like something we should do, but it's actually a calling upon our lives as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. 6 (43m 12s): If you are in Christ, then you are called to love all people. When Jesus walked the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he called his disciples one by one, just like he called you. When you came into the faith as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, he called them, He calls us to a new life, a new way of thinking, a new way of living, a new way of being. It's like we're born again. And that's what the Bible says to we're actually like born again. John three, three we're born again. It's your new way of living and thinking and being. We're called. We're called. And the core values don't say we, we should love all people while we, while we should love all people, but we are actually called, It's, it's, it's not just a, a should an assignment, but it's actually part of our DNA as believers. 6 (43m 60s): It's actually part of our spiritual makeup. So it's not something that we do outwardly necessarily. It is outwardly, but it's, it's birthed out of the core of who God has called his people to be. As believers we're called, we are called to love all people. Why? Because we're new believers in Jesus Christ. So, so God has called us to do wonderful and supernatural. He's put it within our DNA to do this. A visitor to one of Henry Ford's auto plants met Ford after a tour of the factory. The visitor was in awe of what he had seen. 6 (44m 42s): And he said, it seems impossible. The visitor told Ford, it seems impossible that a man who started with nothing could accomplish all of this. You say that I started with nothing. Ford replied, But you are wrong. I started with all that I needed. He Ford had an understanding about who he was. He had a God given ability to envision and then accomplish something most don't even consider. So because of our new birth in Christ, we have everything that we need to do what God has called us to do because the spirit of God has filled us, taken up resident in our lives. 6 (45m 27s): We actually have, by the grace of God and the power of God, the spirit of God, we have the ability, the strength, and the grace to do what he's called us to do. And so we have within us, by God's grace, because of his filling, because of our adoption, because of our new life in Jesus, we have the capacity to love all people. Do you? Is that, do you, do you believe that? Yes. Okay, good, good, good. We talked about this first last week in Jesus, two 10. For we are God's handy work created in Christ Jesus to do good works. And so if we're doing all kinds of works, but it's not out of the love of God, we're just a noisy going and a clingy symbol. 6 (46m 14s): But if we're doing all kinds of busy things, but we're not actually loving, we're created to do great works with the heart of love, with the, and part of those great works is obviously love for we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. So let's jump into our main sex this morning. First John four, seven versus seven through 21 says to your friends, Let us continue to love one another. So John the apostle is writing to the church, He's writing to believers and he's challenging them. And he is challenging us, challenging us to continue to love because it's hard to love. 6 (46m 56s): And sometimes we don't wanna love and sometimes we give up on people because we just, they're just too hard to love. But John is saying, Hey, brothers, sisters, family of God, dear friends, let us continue to love one another. For love comes from God. And anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God for love comes from God. Anyone who loves God as a child of God. So he's telling us, reminding us of our responsibility and really the privilege, it's a privilege to love people. It's a, it's a privilege because what we get to do in loving the unlovely people in our lives, it's easy to love people who love us back is really hard to love people who don't like us at all. 6 (47m 47s): Right? But the privilege is we get to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We get to be Jesus with skin on. And that we get to love people who don't love us back. And we get to confound them by God's grace and his love and do what the world doesn't do and choose to love in the face of hatred. And when, when somebody hates you and despises you, we, we get a chance to, I say this all the time, everything that God requires of us requires his power, his supernatural grace at work in our lives. And so there's people in your life that you're like, I can't love that person. You don't have to like everybody, right? 6 (48m 28s): You don't have to agree with everybody, but you gotta, you gotta love them. And and that maybe just means that, Hey, I'm not gonna hold a bitterness darkness in my heart toward this person. I don't agree with them, I don't like them, but I'm gonna pray that God, you know, God would bless them and help them and speak to them. Doesn't mean we have to hang out with everybody cuz we're not gonna do that. There's just some people who great on us, right? Anybody else have people and we all do. Right? Okay, good. And so, but the important thing is that we would express the love of God to them and that we're gracious by God's grace. 6 (49m 10s): I, a couple weeks ago I was in the back here and it was Sunday morning and this couple had come through the parking lot. And this person, one person in the in particular was just really harsh a number of years ago. And I was surprised at my reaction to them. I was like, Hey, are you guys coming to church? I was like, where's this coming from? You know, like afterward? And they said, Oh no, we've already been to church. We're just coming for lunch. I said, Hey, I, I love you. And they were like, Oh, thanks. And afterwards I thought, where did that come from? It wasn't like contrived. I, I didn't like think about it. 6 (49m 51s): It just came out. I just decided to love them. It doesn't matter what they've done. And I probably might have to decide that again. If something else happens or if I see them in I'm in a bad mood or something, I might have to decide I gotta love them, right? Right. We got to love. So the John is right. He's telling us, reminding us of our responsibility and privilege to love others. John reminds the church that love actually originates with God and we demonstrate that we belong to God. When we love like God, when we love like God, we actually demonstrate that we belong to him. 6 (50m 32s): So the result or the result of a true confession of faith is the indepth dwelling spirit of God that enables us to love. So this verse is saying that the ability to love the way God calls us to love can only happen when his abi, when his abiding presence is with us. So everything that God asks us to do, that when you serve, give, do whatever. It's all a result of the grace, the abiding presence of the living God within us versus anyone who loves as God calls us to love. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. So we can't love like the world loves cuz the world's love is very conditional. 6 (51m 14s): Like if you do A, B, and C, I will love you. If you do 1, 2, 3, I will love you. That's not the kind of love that God has called us to love each other with. And it's not the kind of love that God loves us with. He actually loves us with this unconditional love God. I got called Agape. It's this unconditional love and it's a love that we actually can't earn and a love that we can't keep by our own actions. We, we never, we can never earn the kind of love, the unconditional love that God gives to us. And it's interesting that he gives us that love so that we can experience it so that we can choose by God's grace to love others. 6 (51m 57s): Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God, but anyone who does not love does not know God. For God is love. Wow. Interesting. Anyone who does not love anyone who does not love does not know God for God is love. So maybe your challenge this morning about how to love, who to love, why to love if there's a certain person in your life that you need to forgive, maybe that person is already passed and you're struggling to forgive what happened, You're struggling and it's just wearing you out, right? 6 (52m 38s): I mean, it's just like thrashing you internally because you're going over the pain, you're rehearsing the incident, you're going over in your life, what has happened and it's just wearing you out. Say, you might have to say, God, I, I wanna forgive that person. I want to, Well I can't express love in the, in the sense, but I can, I can release this person and allow the true, We can't have love and unforgiveness and bitterness in our heart. They, they, they cannot share the same space. And so we will not be able to love until we let go of bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment. We will not be able to do that. So maybe you're struggling. How do I love? Begin with just letting go of things that are taking up space in your heart. 6 (53m 22s): Let let that stuff go. Then you'll find that there's of room and plenty of capacity to love the way that God has called you to love. What does love look like? Jesus said in Matthew 5 43 through 48, You have heard the love that says, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Love your enemies. Love your enemies. Did did Jesus have any experience in this? Maybe, right? I mean of course he did. Right? 6 (54m 3s): So he's not just speak, it's not just hypothetical, right? In Jesus' life. It's not just, oh, this is a good idea. I think I'll share it with my followers. This is who he is. Verse 45. In that way, you will be acting as true children of your father in heaven. 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 corrupts 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. 6 (54m 43s): And that word means mature even as your father in heaven is perfect. So we need to allow our lives to mature in this area, to be, to grow in perfection in this area. We're called to love. We're called to love. Number one, as God's people, we cannot get away from this call, this call to love. And there's nobody outside of, outside of that call. We, we, we have to love all people. Again, the the action of love is distinctive to us as believers. 6 (55m 25s): It distinguishes us from all other people in the world. Our ability to love it distinguishes us. And if we don't have that distinguishing characteristic in our lives, it's probably a demonstration that God needs to do some, He needs to do some heart surgery on us. Love is part of the evidence that a person is actually born. Again, the ESV footnote remarks, the person who lacks love shows himself to be unchanged at the core of his being by the gospel message. 6 (56m 10s): John is not saying that God is only love, he has numerous other attributes, nor that love is God a statement for which there is no scriptural support. God is love means that God continually gives of himself to others and seeks their benefit. Whew, that's a strong statement. Let me read it again. God is love. Quotes means that God continually gives of himself to others and seeks their benefit. So this type of agape love that the scriptures are talking about is, is a selfless, supernatural love that can never be generated out of our natural flesh, but can only be generated out of the spirit of God. 6 (56m 57s): I'm gonna just skip down to the last part of my message because we got 40 seconds left here. But I wanna talk about the different types of love because it helps us in contrast to contrast the kind of love that we're talking about compared to worldly love. There are great different types of love in the Greek language. Here are a few. A aeros is one of the words for love. It describes all emotional love, the feeling, the feelings of love. It's where we get our word erotic. So aros love is that insatiable desire to be near the target of this love. 6 (57m 37s): The exciting, passionate, nervous feelings that sweep over people in the appropriate circumstances. This is the love that says, I love how you make me feel. Interesting, huh? I love how you make me feel. Then there's fee loss, fee loss, love or brotherly love. Friendship, love is the next kind. We'll look at fee loss describes the love between two people who have common interests and experiences or fondness. For felo steadily grows like a building, being constructed stoned by stone. For this reason, when close friends are separated for a while and united, they will often say it's like we picked up exactly where we left off. 6 (58m 25s): Felo is half about the circumstances and half about the commitment of two people to one another. It says, I love who we are together. Or in a case of a non-person, I am fond of this food feel loss love generally grows over time, except in the case of some kind of betrayal. And there's storey love. Dogie is the love one house for a dependent. It's an emotionally, it's a commonly called motherly love. So there's different types of love. So we say in our English language, I love hot dogs, I love my wife, I love God, right? 6 (59m 11s): So there's a great hot dog place in the poem. You gotta go. It's like a, I dunno if it's like, anyway, it's, it's on the east side, you get off test street, turn left. It's, it's a Chicago hot dog place. Anybody know what I'm talking about? What's it called? Peppers stuff on. Oh, there it is. Yeah. So it's So you go there, yeah, you go there and you get this hot dog, it's all beef and it's got pickles and onions and peppers and you can build that thing, right? So this is, this is a type of love, right? I love, like I went yesterday cuz I was really wanting a hot dog and they were closed. I didn't love that at all. 6 (59m 52s): Right? We're not talking about hot dog kind of love. We're talking we're, we're not. That's not the kind of love that got, I mean it's like, you know what I'm saying? Let's jump into Agape kinda love. Agape love is entirely about the one who loves and it's nothing whatsoever to do with the one being loved. Wow. So sometimes we're like, Ah, I'm not sure I let my wife today, she didn't make my eggs just right, Right? We're like, Ah, I'm kind of put off right? As got love says, it doesn't matter if she burns my eggs, which she never does. 6 (1h 0m 32s): But if just hypothetically, if she burned every meal that she ever could, I'd still love her, right? Because my love for her has nothing to do with anything. Just a decision. It's a decision on the person who is loving has little to do with the one being loved. It got beloved in its purest form, requires no payment or favor in response. So when we're sending off this money to the Hurricane Ian victims, we're, this isn't agape kind of love. We're expecting. No repayment requires no payment or favor in response. The most common word for God's love for us is a go babe. And it gives lists. 6 (1h 1m 13s): The love we are commanded to have for one another is this type of love. It's the kind of love that First Corinthians 13 talks about. It's kind of love that John's talk first John, for talking about, it's like every time God calls us to love, it's this type of love. It's this type of love. And so when we talk about we are called to love all people, we're, we're called to love people who disagree with us theologically. Yeah. We're called to love people who differ with us politically. You're like, Oh really? Yep. We're called to love people who disagree with us, philosophically, socially, just in every way we're called to love people, right? 6 (1h 1m 56s): We don't have to agree with everybody, but we gotta love. We've actually got to love everybody. It's commanded to us in the scripture that we'd love God and love others. And so with that, I'm gonna invite the worship team up and we're gonna worship some more. And I gotta learn to write shorter sermons. That's I gotta learn to do. Let's go ahead and stand up. Ah, thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Let's just in the quietness of our own hearts and minds, ask the Lord. 6 (1h 2m 36s): And I'm not gonna call anybody out on anything today. I'm just, let's just ask the Lord. Lord, who do I need to love? And Lord. So that's the first question. Who do I need to love? That's probably someone that we're having a hard time loving. And then Lord, we're asking this next question. Lord, how do I love better? Show me how to love better within a agape kind of unselfish kind of love. Lord, I pray that as a church, that we'd be unselfish in our love. That we would, God, that we would love unconditionally seems really hard, Lord God, that we would love the way that you love us, which is unconditionally, Lord. 6 (1h 3m 30s): So help us to realize that, that we have the power by your grace and strength within us to do these things. And so help us to do it, Lord God. So day to day, throughout the course of this week, we pray that you remind us to love. Remind us to love. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship 0 (1h 4m 34s): You. Hi 2 (1h 6m 39s): To to 10 (1h 6m 49s): You. 2 (1h 6m 58s): To 0 (1h 7m 16s): You 2 (1h 7m 16s): Are, 10 (1h 7m 22s): Thank you, Father, that you are our God, Thank you that we can exalt you, Lord, we choose to exalt you even when we don't feel like it. But I pray that you would give us the courage and the strength to love and to love. Well this week, Lord, would we hide scripture in our hearts? Would we call on you in our times of need? Would we exalt you and lift you high? Thank you for being our present help. Thank you for being our comforter and our healer and our provider. We love you and we praise you. It's in your preciously we pray. 10 (1h 8m 3s): Amen.

1 (3s): Good morning, 2 (6s): Let's all stand together in worship. 1 (37s): He has to see what a savior has. See how his love overcomes. He you conquer the be every and break every, Oh God, you have to great. We, you in. 1 (1m 18s): Oh, you have done, you'll, you, you conquer the A. 0 (3m 8s): You've 1 (3m 9s): Great 0 (3m 12s): Hero. 1 (3m 13s): Heaven. You conquer the you every captive, and oh, the faith can. 1 (4m 27s): The s lets we with expectations. Waiting here for you, waiting the Lord. And still, everything you promised, your faithfulness is 3 (9m 13s): You just to come into the presence of a creative God and know that you love us, that you busy yourself without every step. You care about the ups and downs of our lives, and you carry us through. Father, we just honor you this morning. Jesus name. 5 (9m 41s): The Lord looks upon you and he is pleased. He loves you with an everlasting love before the foundations of the world. He sings over you. Lord, you are a pleasing sound to his ears. He is near you, near than you think. And he delights in being near you. Call out to you and peace and grace and truth to yours 4 (10m 18s): And the Spirit. Spirit and the bride. Say, Come and let him who hears say, come and let him who first come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life free. Or I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of his book. If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the flags that are written in this book. If anyone takes away the words of the book of this prophe, God shall take away his part from the of life, from the holy city. And the testifies to things says surely. Amen. 1 (11m 17s): Praise God from praise him creatures. Praise Father. Son. 1 (11m 59s): Praise the praise. Praise the spirit. Every mom praise 0 (13m 17s): Us. 1 (13m 19s): Praise the Spirit every moment. Praise God. Praise, praise. 0 (13m 37s): Praise us. Praise 1 (13m 41s): Us Spirit. Praise God who died, Who? 0 (14m 38s): Praise. 1 (14m 39s): Now, praise the spirit. 0 (14m 55s): Now, 1 (14m 58s): Every moment, all our praise, praise, praise. We praise you, 0 (15m 12s): Son. 1 (15m 13s): We praise you spirit. 0 (15m 16s): Now, 1 (15m 19s): Moment, all our God, praying, God praise, God, praise God. Praise, praise. 1 (17m 44s): Every dark is your name. Is the, your name is shouts. 1 (20m 2s): Jesus, the holy name Jesus. Shout Jesus. Darkness is healing. 1 (21m 46s): The Jesus I, 6 (22m 9s): Yeah. Look, we praise your name, Lord. We come here today in, in response to what you've done, Jesus, what you've sacrificed for us. You paid the ultimate price so that we can walk in freedom and joy and peace, and so that we can approach your throne without hesitation. Jesus, you give yourself to us over and over and over again, Lord. And so I just pray that each heart would be encouraged this morning, that each heart would be challenged this morning where we need to be challenged. And Lord, I just pray that we would as a church, glorify your name this morning, God, because that's the greatest act that we can do in response to what you've done, Lord. 6 (22m 51s): So we bring our hearts, we bring our minds, we bring our attention to you this morning, and we're so grateful for you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right, You can take your seats if you'd like The beautiful time of worship. My name is Curtis. I just wanna welcome you all here today. If you have not been here before, if this is your first time, we've got coffee and tea out on the patio and restrooms down these hallways here, so you can find your way there if you need it. And also, if you're new here, we have communication cards in the seat backs in front of you. So they, they're double-sided. There's notes and communication cards. So if you'll take that communication card and fill it out with your information, we'd love to reach out to you, get to know you and connect with you in that way. 6 (23m 37s): So please do that. If you're new or if we have outdated information, you can do that as well. Also, we had a Bonko for Babies event this last week, and it was incredible. It was an awesome time. The ladies showed up and they were super generous. We have a gift, or we have a photo of all the gifts. They brought all these to donate to Lifeline Pregnancy Center. And so hopefully that'll be a huge blessing to the community and those who have unplanned pregnancies. And then also, we have a child dedication Sunday coming up. So if you're a parent and you want to dedicate yourself to raising your child in the faith, then you can do that October 23rd. But let us know. 6 (24m 18s): Go sign up at the info center, and we'd love to get you signed up for that. The last thing is that we've got Halloween outreach happening here at the church. If you haven't heard about it, basically thousands of kids are gonna be coming down this, this street right in front of our building, and we wanna be able to bless them and load them up with candy and just love on them. So we're gonna be opening our doors. We're gonna have a carnival in here, free carnival for the kids. It's gonna be really sweet. So if you'd like, you can get involved in two ways. You can bring candy, donate candy for us to give out, and then you can also sign up to serve at this event. It's gonna be really great. So we encourage you to do that. 6 (24m 59s): And then after, so after this, right at the minute, mingle, the youth are gonna be dismissed. But first we're gonna bring up Jeremy, Pastor Jeremy, Pastor Steve, and the elders, and we're gonna, we got a little something for you. So, Yeah. 8 (25m 32s): Yeah. Good morning. So as you know, this is Pastor Appreciation Sunday, and so we're here to pray for our pastors. But first I want to give a little bit of introduction, little bit of, not introduction, but their background, background background. So I'm Steve, probably already know Steve and Jeremy, so I don't need to introduce them. But Steve started serving in church when he was a teenager. And then by 17, God told him that he wanted him to be a pastor. So after he finished high school, he went to numerous bible colleges and, and has a master's in Pastor Pastoral leadership. 8 (26m 17s): And so that was his beginning into ministering. He's served as a youth pastor. He served as in street ministry in homeless ministry. He was a chaplain for the county jail. He's Sunday school teacher worship on the worship team and all that. And, and youth, youth pastor. I know worship, that's probably life was 9 (26m 46s): Off, I'm sure 8 (26m 48s): Youth pastor and then associate pastor. Oh yeah. And then God spoke to him again and said, You know, you need to go plant a church. Steven know how to plant a church. But he was following God's direction. And so out to Lopez, we went, this is when I got involved with Pastor Steve about 20 years ago. And what we've been doing as a church following Steve's leadership is we first moved from Lopez, then to the West campus, the sanctuary, which is now the chapel. And then we started acquiring more and more buildings. We were renting them all. And then finally it came up for purchase. 8 (27m 30s): And so we decided to purchase. Now the thing is, following Steve's leadership, it's, it's always do, can we do this? And, and the answer's no by ourselves. Yeah, yeah. But with God, we can do these things. And so our budget increased every year. Every year when we do the budget, do we wanna put this much extra in? And we go, Well, God's always been faithful to meet our budget, so maybe we oughta set it like, No. But Steve also is the pastor of the area. 8 (28m 11s): Pastors meet once a month for a, a praying and leadership and lunch. And, and Steve's involved in that. He actually runs that, heads that up. And so I just wanna say that it's been a blessing for Becky and me to serve along with Pastor Save. He's my friend. He's, I look up to him. He's my pastor, and I'm just so grateful, so thoughtful. And so we're looking for another 20 years. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Or more or more. As long as, until Jesus comes back. 10 (28m 53s): Until Jesus, every, 8 (28m 55s): So Pastor Jeremy, Pastor Jeremy, a little known fact. He was born in China. I lived there for all of one year. One year. One year. So he is not fluent in Mandarin? Nope. So after Jeremy and his family, he, he was born in China because his parents were missionaries. They were serving there. And after a year, they came back to the States and Jeremy did the high school thing, and he, and he went to U csb straight to high school. Yeah. Graduated U C S B. He's a brilliant man. He didn't have to mess around with grade school. 8 (29m 37s): And yeah, he was straight, just high school. But then about four years ago, Jeremy was working in construction, and him and his family started attending Harvest. And a little bit later than that, we were in the need for a youth pastor. And so Jeremy came to mind. So we, we interviewed Jeremy and I got to know his heart and his passion for, for the youth. And I thought, Okay, we need to hire this guy. There was no doubt in my mind that, that we needed him. So we offered him a job and, and accepted, thankfully. 8 (30m 18s): And so now Jeremy's, he's doing the youth Wednesday night meetings and teaching youth on Sunday mornings high junior high and high school. And that's why there's so many not empty seats now because of the, Jeremy hasn't taken all the youth away. And so those of you that are sitting, are sitting and waiting for a seat, you'll, you'll find a seat pretty soon. So he's, he's been thank serving graciously, humbly, thankfully, and is such a tremendous influence on our youth. And it's, it's good for me. 8 (31m 4s): And I, and I love seeing this. I'm also, many of, you know, I'm a teacher. I teach at high school level. And so we kind of have the same goal in mind because the youth is our, it's the next generation that we're raising up. And if, if we don't raise up the, the youth, then things are going to go downhill. And we don't want that. So we're, we're grateful for Jeremy. I'm glad that he came on board. He's a team player and of asset to harvest, and we love you so much. 8 (31m 45s): Right? 13 (31m 49s): Why do you have a sticker on? Why do you have a stick? Neil and Jim, if you could go grab your whatever it is a way of honoring our pastors, throwing our appreciation from the children's ministry, the kids' ministry grades first, second, third, and fourth have created something that I would like to narrate, which will be their way of honoring this one over here is, is honoring Pastor Steve. That's why I have the stick, if anyone gets out of line, I have a stick. And this will be honoring Jeremy. And so I'm gonna start right over here. All right. I'm just gonna read it to you. 13 (32m 29s): Hopefully you can see what we got going on here. So again, Pastor Steve, this is for you. Heartfelt from the children. Our pastor is a rock star and a sweet tart for everything he does. We wanted to take five to thank you. He is always there to pick up the pieces. He makes us snicker and chuckle at his jokes, which he happens to buy from the children. By the way, he deserves a hundred grand every payday. 13 (33m 15s): Jim, we gotta raise a budget. You are m and ms, which means mighty manager of our church. The higher please. Neil, thank you. You have made mounds of difference in our lives as we journey down the rocky road of life and a lifesaver for many. You will be in our hearts now and now and later. Now and later. Thank you, Neil. All right. Tell you what, let me stand right over here for this one. 13 (33m 56s): Okay. Pastor Jeremy, Heartfelt from the children. You ready? Yeah. Ready. Okay. You are truly Mr. Goodbar. You are such a, a sweet tart and go the extra mile for our youth. You bring so much. It says Almond joy, Joy to so many. You are m and ms, which means mega mellow man. You give us airheads, you give us airheads advice and guidance and a lifesaver when it comes to helping our youth over the rocky road of life. 13 (34m 38s): You always make sure we have donuts. You are a rockstar with youth. Little higher dare Jim. Thank you. You are a rockstar youth minister and a, a outrageous baptizer, Okay? No big kisses to you for all you do for our church. We love you two pieces. 13 (35m 22s): So what we'd like to do now for, for Steve and Jeremy, is we just like to pray for them. And so we would ask you to, you know, pray along with us, agree with us, Neil, we're gonna start with you, 10 (35m 34s): Right? Good morning. 13 (35m 36s): Just so, 14 (35m 37s): So glad I said at first service, and I'll say it again, that these men said yes to serving and also just wanna share a little story. Got to church early this morning to prepare for this, and Jeremy was out in the parking lot with a little broom sweeping up cigarette butts that were out in the parking lot. So I just, I just, it just illustrates the preparation that goes into this morning. You know, that last song we sang, you know, I just wanna speak the name of Jesus. You just, you just need to know that, that that happened in prayer before we all met this morning that happened with the worship team back in the green room this morning before we all gathered that you really are prayed in every day. 14 (36m 24s): You really are looked after in a special way. And these two men lead the way. And it's just an honor to serve with you guys. Father God, we ask your blessing, Lord, on their sacrifice of service, Lord, on their family sacrifices. Service Father would pray Your wisdom and grace and your Holy Spirit would fall in a powerful way, Lord God, all the days of their lives, Lord, instructing and motivating for them to reach and teach all of us, Lord God, to bring the word, Father God, to bring their wisdom and their insight, Lord God, and their willingness, Lord, just to say yes to you. I thank you and praise you, Father. And we ask in Jesus' name. 15 (37m 6s): You know, the Bible says, Jesus says that the greatest in the kingdom of heaven is the servant of all. He was a servant. He came to die. He came to lay down his life. And he said, And I will give you shepherds after my own heart. And truly, these men are shepherds after God's own heart. They care about you, they pray for you. They're there when you need them. If you want to some counseling or prayer. And they study. They give hours in studying the word of God so that they don't miss giving you the whole council of God from cover to cover. 15 (37m 49s): These are mighty men in God's kingdom. He looks at them as his soldiers, as his servants, as his fellow heirs. And we honor them today. We bless them in Jesus name. And we're so thankful that we don't have to worry when they open the word of God, cuz we know they're gonna teach it and not just talk about it. So let's just pray and, and again, give thanks for them. Father, we thank you for these men of God and Ron too, Lord, even though he's retired. And Lord, we thank you for all that they've done in this fellowship, all that they continue to do. 15 (38m 33s): We pray, God, that you would continue to feed your flock through them. Raise up others who will be able to go out and do likewise. We commit this church into your hands, and we thank you for their faithfulness. In Jesus' name. Amen. 7 (38m 53s): Okay, 8 (38m 59s): So, Lord, thank you so much for these, Ben. I know I've said a lot about 'em and talked about their background, but what's most important is they follow you. They desire to be your servant, Lord. And we, we thank you that they have a servant attitude, and it's easy for us to follow them the way they follow you. It's easy for us to follow Jesus just the same, because they set a good example for us to follow. Thank you Lord for these two men. And Ron, who just recently retired, was our pastor here for a number of years. 8 (39m 40s): And we just honor honor them today. We, we, we just thank you and praise you and give you, give you all our love and devotion, Lord. And for these men, it's in your precious name. Amen. 7 (39m 57s): Amen. Amen. 13 (39m 59s): And Lord, we trust that you're gonna fill both Steve and Jeremy fresh with the power of your spirit. Lord, without you, they can do, they can't do anything, but it's through you. They can do all things through Christ who strengthens them. Lord, we know we're all in a battle, but especially our leaders are in a battle, a spiritual battle. And we, we know we have an adversary. We'd love to take them down and take them out. Lord, we pray for them. We lift them up to you to lift up their arms in the battle, to give them strength in the battle, encouragement, confidence, knowing Lord, that all they are able to do really comes directly from you. So let bless these two guys, bless these men. I pray for their families, for their marriage, that their, their marriages would continue to grow stronger and stronger, and their children would be blessed. 13 (40m 44s): Pour out your spirit upon their families. We pray we commit these to godly men, to you, and we thank you for your faithfulness. In Jesus name we pray, and all God's people said, amen. Amen. All right, Yeah, there's one more thing we wanna do before we let Steve preach. And what it is, is actually one of the most wonderful things that we get to do as a church body. And that is we're going to set apart, pray for and orain another pastor for Harvest Church. And so Curtis, I'd like to invite you to go ahead and come on up here. 13 (41m 30s): Hi, Clark. Yeah, go ahead and stand right in the middle there. So we're, we're gonna talk about, about you just a little bit. So personally, I've known Curtis since, I think he was about five years old. He went to school with one, one of our kids as well. And, and most everybody on the stage here has known Curtis for a long, long time. This is Clark Curtis's wife. We haven't known you quite as long, but she, she hails from Alabama. Got that right. Go tide. Go Crimson Tide. Yeah. Yeah. So we've been meeting with Curtis for, for a number of years and we've been trying to determine a few things. 13 (42m 10s): But one is, a pastor's role is not like any other courier pursuit. It's a calling. And so what we did in our meetings with Curtis is we wanna affirm the calling that's upon his life. And part of that come, comes with, you know, really difficult questions and really giving him, you know, a run through to make sure that you know that he's prepared and equipped. There's no perfect pastor, you guys know that, right? But God calls a man and equips the man to do the work of a shepherd. And we have multiple pastors because we, we want to shepherd the body of Christchurch Harvest Church really well. So wanna read a scripture to you, Curtis, that you know very well. 13 (42m 52s): It's from Ephesian chapter four, verse 11 and 12. Now, these are the gifts Christ gave to the church, Apostles, prophets, evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. So again, by definition, the role of a pastor, the job of a pastor is to be a shepherd. You know, the Bible talks about us being sheep, right? And, and that's not really a compliment. I don't think that we're called sheep by God, but sheep need shepherds. Now, Jesus is the chief shepherd. We, we know that, we understand that, but he's appointed shepherds that we can relate to. 13 (43m 37s): And again, as I said, you know, none of these men up here, perfect men, we all deal with the same things that, that hu humans deal with. But God has still chosen to, to use men to, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. So being a pastor is, as I said earlier, it's not a career path that you would choose. It is simply a calling that is upon your life. And as, as we've seen Curtis on this journey, again, we, we wanna affirm you, Curtis, that God's call is upon your life. And by him being up here, for all of us that know Curtis, this shouldn't be a surprise. This should be like, Well, of course Curtis is being set apart for the work in the ministry because he is been doing it all along and we see God's hand upon your life. 13 (44m 20s): And so we're just in agreement with what he's doing. Curtis simply said, yes. He said yes to God's calling upon his life. And so with that, some of Curtis's qualifications, in addition to, if you want to read through first Timothy chapter three, there's kind of a list of qualifications there for church leaders. But in addition to that, Curtis' qualifications are as follows. He attended Bible college in New Zealand for a year to study ministry. He completed a master's degree in pastoral leadership. He has served on the Harvest staff team in various areas for the past seven years. And he started out doing, these were his original jobs. 13 (44m 60s): He did landscaping, cleaning, and facility maintenance. So one of the ways that we determine if somebody actually has a shepherd's heart, a servant's heart, and they'll say, Hey, I wanna do ministry at Harvest Church. We say, Well, you know, we've got some bathrooms that need to get cleaned and we've got some, you know, stuff to do on the property. And it, and it shows a lot about a person in your heart in particular, Curtis, because you've been eager to do anything and everything that you've been asked to do unto the Lord. And so we wanna affirm that again. And also, Curtis is currently serving Harvest Church in these following areas. He leads our young professionals group, He's in charge of our facility maintenance team. So apparently you're never gonna get away from that one. 13 (45m 41s): Curtis. Yeah, Yeah. He also leads our welcome team, which is greeters and the info center here at church. Maybe most importantly, he leads our coffee team. Okay. Pretty, yes, he o he oversees our missions. And so these would be, he, he's our primary contact for our missions effort locally and throughout the world. He's over our marketing and branding. What does that mean? Well, he's over the website, the app, and all the kind of digital media stuff that goes out there every week. So in the future, Curtis will be taking on more responsibilities in the area, mainly of pastoral leadership. 13 (46m 21s): We're talking about teaching, counseling, shepherding, and basically, you know, caring for God's people. And so we're gonna lay hands on Curtis right now in, in the scripture. That's what we see is the model is as for example, the Apostle Paul, when he would plan a church in a new community and it would get established, he would raise up leaders for that local church and they would lay hands on the leaders and basically set 'em apart for the work that got us calling them to do. So we ask that you would agree with us as we pray for Curtis, and we ask that you would encourage him, that you would support him in the work that God is calling him to do. So we're gonna pray for Curtis right now, and Neil, I'm gonna have you go, go ahead and start 14 (47m 8s): Heavenly Father, lift Curtis and Clark up to you or God, and thank you Father, that they've said yes Lord God. Father, we thank you for the sacrifice, Lord, that they know they're gonna make along the way, Father God. And your word says, Your grace is always sufficient, Father God, it underpins everything, Lord. Father, I'm just, I'm blessed to lead with this man and to be led by this man, Lord God. And we thank you and praise you, Father, and just pray your Holy Spirit would empower every day, Lord God, there would be grace every day, Lord abundantly applied Lord in his marriage with his kids, Lord God in his ministry here. Father, we thank you and praise you. 14 (47m 48s): We asking Jesus name. 15 (47m 55s): Father, I just thank you also that I have had the privilege of seeing Curtis grow up from a little boy to a man of God. He's following in his father's footsteps, Lord. And you've called him, you told him, I want you to be my servant. I want you to be a pastor. And Lord, we thank you for giving him Clark a godly woman Lord, as I've seen so far, and I know God, that she loves him dearly and she wants to walk beside him every step of the way. Whatever you call him to we pray, Father, that you would just continue to add to his ministry, enlarge his borders, just use him and both of them, Lord, in a mighty way, reaching the generation that they're from, as well as younger, younger kids, Lord. 15 (48m 47s): And we pray God, that you would continue to give them a hunger and a thirst for your word and power in their lives, Lord, as they watch you make them the man and woman you want them to be and use in your kingdom. We commit them into your hands, Lord, in Jesus name. Thank 8 (49m 4s): You Lord. Amen. 16 (49m 7s): Lord, thank you for the character that you've developed and built up in, in Curtis through the good times, through the struggles and the hard times, Lord, that character is, is how you laid upon your calling upon his life, Lord, that he responded and said yes to the colon of, of, of stepping into church ministry, Lord. And he said yes in a number of different ways. He said yes, by mowing lawns, by, by cleaning toilets, by doing all those things just under and and out of sight of everyone else. Lord, He did that because he was doing it unto you Lord. So thank you for the, for him saying yes, the calling Lord. And, and thank you Lord for the com, the chemistry that harvest Church staff has Lord, and how we work together as a team to, to, to carry forth your mission and your vision for harvest Church and our community as well as in around the world, Lord. 16 (49m 54s): So thank you. That's that. All those, those three things, there Lord are, are there in Curtis. Lord, thank you Jesus. Thank 8 (50m 1s): You Lord. Lord, what a blessing it is to lift up Curtis and Clark today. This is a special day for him. Lord witnessed Curtis grow physically, academically, and spiritually over this last 20 years or so. But what's most important is, is his maturity in act in spiritually where we see his desire to honor and follow you. We thank you for the, the servant's heart that he's given, Curtis, thank you for the His being ready and willing and able to do what you want him to do, Lord, because he's following your call. 8 (50m 46s): Lord, we see a humble spirit in Curtis pray that we continue to see that as they grow and mature in their marriage, in raising kids and everything that this life has to offer Curtis, but mostly keep his eyes focused on you. Lord, that's the most important and Jesus name we pray, 13 (51m 13s): Lord, we know that every passer feels inadequate in one way or another, but Lord thank you that you have said that whom you call you also equip. So Lord, in the areas where Curtis might feel inadequate or unqualified, Lord, I pray that you would build him up, that you would speak to him, that you would work through him, Holy Spirit, that you would not only enable him, but empower him to do things that are way beyond what he thinks his normal scope of ability is. And so, Lord, we, we just pray for the two of them in particular, they're one flesh. They're walking this journey together. So Lord, as these other men of God have prayed, I agree, Lord, that you would use these two specifically to strengthen the body of Christ here at Harvest Church. 13 (51m 57s): Encourage us, use him as your instrument to take us, you know, to the next level and that he would have certainly a key influence on the young people of our church. 17 (52m 11s): Thank 13 (52m 11s): You so Lord, we just, again, we just affirm and agree with the calling that is upon Curtis's life. Bless him and use Him for your glory. Glory we pray in Jesus' name. 17 (52m 20s): Thank you Lord, thank you for this amazing couple and so blessed to have, watch Curtis grow up as his dad and so grateful for the blessing of Clarky and his life and his sweet son, Emerson. Lord, we just bless them, his family, His calling, their calling upon their lives. Lord God, they would just trust you all the days of their lives, Lord God. God, they would just, they would just be a humility that marks their life, an integrity, godliness, faithfulness. So Lord, bless him, we pray, Lord we love him. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. 17 (52m 60s): Thank you guys. Alrighty. Over here. Yeah. Oops, sorry. Ah, thanks guys. Thank you very much. Thanks Gary. As these guys make their way off the platform, thank you so, so much for honoring us today. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much. It takes so many people to do what we do. And so I just wanted to talk about our elders just for a moment here. 17 (53m 41s): So Jim, as he said, he's been with us, Well, he came, he didn't come the very first day of the church plant. He said he wanted to see if it would make it. And so he made, he came the second week and he is been with us ever since, ever since. And so he is just been a faithful, faithful man, just a brother, a friend, just an incredible encourager and faith man, faith filled man. Gary Tucker was my youth pastor in junior high school. I talk about him a lot. He's just was in my life during my formative years. And he came to the church in the early, early, I think first year. And it's just been such a huge blessing. Neil, Neil has been an incredible addition to our team. 17 (54m 24s): I think it's been 5, 6, 7 years, it's been a while now. And he's just been incredible. Just a man of integrity, a man of great wisdom and wit and, and just, he's just been a great, great friend over the years as well. And then of course, Pastor Ron d who just retired this year, we honor him. He's, he came on the team and joined our staff team about 15 years ago in a time when I really, really needed an associate and someone to just partner with me and with us. And so Ron's been on and off the elder team over the years currently serving on. And so I just wanna say thank you to these guys. And apart from that, we've just got an incredible staff. So again, Jeremy, so Jeremy been here three years and has been a rock star. 17 (55m 9s): He, not just because he does what he does so well, but he's just a godly, humble, hardworking, faithful guy. Whatever you ask him to do, he's on it. You don't have to even think about whether it's the job is gonna get done, It just gets done. And so it's just an amazing, he's talked about just the, the, the synergy and just the closeness of our team. He's a big part of that. Who else do we have up there? We've got Curtis Henry again. So yeah, Curtis, Curtis asked me a number of years ago, he said, I feel called to the ministry, should I go to another church to walk out my call? He, he didn't want to presume or assume anything, he just wanted to do what was right. 17 (55m 56s): And I told him, absolutely not. You gotta stay here. And it's such an honor. A lot of the staff members are family members and it's just such an honor that I was thinking about the folk Rods up here leading worship, Jim Folk, Rod, I've known Jim since we were young and yeah, Violet and Levi and Jack all up here playing music. Those are all his kids that he taught how to do the, the work of the ministry. And so we're so grateful for that type of a heritage and dynamic that we get to experience within the church. And so we're getting to experience that here as well. Leslie, my youngest, she's 27 years old, she joined the kids ministry team 10 years ago as an assistant. 17 (56m 37s): She actually has been teaching since we planted the church for 20 years. She's been a teacher or a teacher's helper, and then she was the children's ministry assistant, the director's assistant for five, six years. And then she went off to college, finished a, a psychology degree up in northern California, came back and at that point Christie Swo, who was the director, said, Hey, I want to change positions within the team. And I said, Well, who do you think would be a good fit for your job? And she said, without hesitation, she said, Leslie. And you know, I just said, Hey, don't, don't just name Leslie because she's my daughter, but make sure she's the right person. And, and she's definitely the right person. 17 (57m 17s): She's amazing. Amanda Henry, my daughter-in-law, she wasn't my daughter in-law, she started coming to the church. But my son was wise, Steven was super wise in snatching her up. And so they've been married now for the last eight months or so. And so she's the creative director. She spent five years in Australia learning training to be a worship leader, a songwriter. And then she came back a number of years ago, continued the work of ministry just as a volunteer. She finished her psychology degree about year or two ago, and she's been on the team now for the last year and a half as our creative director. 17 (57m 58s): So, so thankful for Amanda. Who else do we have here? We have Tim Mo. Tim, I like that Stash. Dude, what happened? You shaved off the stash. Anyway, so Tim Modern feels like he's part of the family. He's been with us for a few years now, and Tim did training in New Zealand in the audio video world there at a large church and then came back and joined Harvest and began to volunteer and be a part of what we're doing and then finished his degree just in this last year or two. And so he'd been an amazing part of the team and we're so, so grateful. Abby's sitting next to him. I'll talk about Abby. Abby's actually an intern right now working on her degree in film. 17 (58m 41s): And so she's working behind the scenes and putting stuff together and making us look really, really good. So thanks Abby. Appreciate that very much. All right, who else we have up there? Carson, what can we say about Carson? Where is she? Is she in here? Yeah. Carson, what? Raise your hand, Carson. Is she hiding? Carson's amazing. So this is the story behind Carson. Carson was here during her high school years. Her family moved out from Nebraska and they were attending church here and, and she was super impacted by the youth ministry here at Harvest Church. And then she went off to Grand Canyon University and finished a degree in entrepreneurship. And then she came back and she's here at church serving everywhere. 17 (59m 23s): And the team came to me and said, Hey, we need to hire Carson. I said, Well, what is Carson gonna, Why do we need to hire Carson? What, what is he gonna do? And they just, everybody was like trying to convince me to hire Carson. So I said, do this, draw up her job description, draw up the number of hours that she'll work and what we'll pay her and submit that to me. And then if it looks like we've got a position for her, then we'll interview her and go, you know, go through the whole process. Well, Carson's been a rockstar. She's just amazing. She works with kids and youth as an assistant. She is the, the administrative genius behind all kids and youth stuff. And so we just love her. She's been a great part of the team. 17 (1h 0m 4s): Who else? Who is that beautiful lady? Jolene. So let's all sing that song to Jolene. No, you guys know what song I'm talking about? Okay, nevermind. We gonna do that. So Jolene's really does not like that. Her pictures up there, she really does not like to be up front at all. She'd rather serve behind the scenes. And so for 32 years we've been married and been doing ministry together. And when we planted this church, she said, Listen, I'll, I'll go along with this little plant here, but I don't want to do the typical pastor wife thing. You know, I play piano and lead women's ministry and that sort of thing. 17 (1h 0m 45s): And I said, You don't have to do anything that you don't want to do, just do what you're called to do. And so she's been doing that. She loves being behind the scenes, she's in the office administrating everything that happens there, working just hand in hand with us every day and just doing an amazing job. So thank, thank you, Jolene. It's such a sweet thing to see what God will do in bringing the right team members to the church. And you guys are all a part of that. It literally takes like hundreds of volunteers to minister to the people that come to Harvest Church. And so you guys are a part of that. And I want to just say thank you for all that you do to volunteer to make everything happen that happens every week. 17 (1h 1m 27s): There's a lot, a lot, a lot that happens. And if you'd like to be involved, we've got this flyer called Get Plugged in with Great Service Opportunities. So that's the front of the flyer, it's back on the info center and on the back there's just lots of opportunities listed. So if you'd like to be a part of what we do, there's entry level things all the way up to not so entry level things that, And so we encourage you to check out the list, figure out what you want to do, sign up and be a part of it, and we'll be happy that you did. All right with that, we're gonna take about a 32nd break and then I've got about 15 minutes, 15 minutes to do a sermon. So this will be my shortest sermon ever. So go ahead and stand up, greet somebody and then we'll reset for the sermon 18 (1h 2m 24s): And 0 (1h 3m 18s): It will be 17 (1h 3m 42s): All righty. Come on back, come on back. We're going over our core values, those core values that the Ministry of Harvest Church kind of rolls forward on. So the first one is committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The second one is confident in the Word of God. The third one is created to serve God and others. And the fourth one is called to love all people. So we're jumping right into number three. And so really we've kind of demonstrated what it means to be created to serve God and others. We just talked about all of the amazing ways in which people here are serving and just giving of their lives. 17 (1h 4m 26s): And really it's what we are created to do, We're created to serve God another's. Another, another, another way to say it is we are created for good works. My microphone sound sounds really hot right now. Is it hot? Thanks Steve. We are created for good works. The Bible in the old in the New Testament declared this to be true. Abraham declared his faith, demonstrated his faith in the good works that he accomplished. Rayhab the prostitute demonstrated her faith by her works. Noah, we can go through and list all of the patriarchs, the, the leaders in the Old Testament who demonstrated their faith with their works. 17 (1h 5m 13s): They proved that their faith was real by the things that they did. And the New Testament is true. Mary, Martha, Peter, Paul, John, Ringo, all of these guys, not Ringo, sorry, take that out. All of these people demonstrated their fa, Ringo. Is anybody missed that joke? Beatles? Think the Beatles. Okay, nevermind. We'll just let that one go. People, The old people got it. Thanks Mike. All of these people demonstrated their faith by their good works. Good place to start. Your good works is at home. 17 (1h 5m 54s): You thought I was gonna say church, didn't you? It's actually better to get it figured out at home. And then out of that overflow of that ex, that joyful experience of serving you get a chance to do it with others. So this guy, this story about this guy who he just, he was fed up with his marriage, wanted to divorce his wife and wanted to cause her as much pain as possible on his way out. And so he talked to a psychologist and this, he told the psychologist what he wanted to do. And so the psychologist said, Okay, do this. Go home and listen really, really well to your wife. Take her on romantic getaways, feed her breakfast in bed, write her love notes, read books with her, spend just a lot of time just in quality, quality time with your wife. 17 (1h 6m 47s): Do that for about two months, the psychologist said. And then at the end of two months, just pack up and go. She'll be devastated because of the change. And so the guy's like, ah, this is, I'm gonna do it. It's exactly what I'm gonna do. So he, he did all of the things the psychologist told him to do. She treated, he treated his wife like a goddess and fed her breakfast in bed and brought her flowers and sent flowers for no particular reason. Took her on romantic weekends, read books with her, spent time with her, and just did all of these amazing things. Well, at the end of two months, the psychologist calls the guy and says, Hey, have you done it? Are you happily unmarried? 17 (1h 7m 28s): Are you a bachelor again? Did you break it off with your wife? And he said, What? Are you crazy? She's a goddess. She's the best thing that's ever happened to me. I can't imagine this is the happiest I've ever been in my whole life. This is a great story, right? Like if we're struggling at home, we need to, instead of doing the opposite, the thing that we kind of feel like doing and kind of pulling away, shrinking back, getting quiet, what would happen if we just started serving each other? Like looking for ways we're created in Christ Jesus for good works? Why, why shouldn't that start at home where we have the best opportunity to love on our spouse, to love on our, our families, to love on our kids. 17 (1h 8m 17s): And then through all of that experience, get to see the beauty and the blessing of it, and to begin to do that with others that we come into contact with it. It's a great recipe for just an amazing home life if we will decide, I'm going to serve, start with your spouse, serve them, love them, treat them like royalty and watch what God will do to turn things all around. Some of you are doubting, just try it, right? And you can even tell your spouse, Listen, we're gonna try this out. It's gonna seem a little pushed or unnatural, but let's just try it out. And so maybe you say, Hey, let's just find one way, one way to serve each other. 17 (1h 8m 59s): And then, and they just surprise each other with that service. I, I promise you, I I promise you it'd be, it's gonna be so good for your marriage. Everything's gonna get better. You were, your communication will get better. Are there kids in the room? Your sex life is gonna get better. I'm serious. Like everything is gonna get better if you just humble yourself and begin to serve the people in your life beginning with your spouse if you have one. Ephesians two 10 says this, For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in then. 17 (1h 9m 41s): So God has given us purpose in the earth that we would be people who demonstrate the good works that God has created us for. So if you're a married person, those good works need to start at home. So don't be nice to everybody else but not your spouse. Start there and out of the abundance of that experience, you'll be able to love others and serve others. Hebrews 10 24 and 25 says this, And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more. As you see the day drawing near, what is that day that the writer is talking about there? It's, he's talking about the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord's return. 17 (1h 10m 26s): It's the last day of this present church age. It's the beginning of the newness that will enjoy all throughout eternity. It's the, it's the return of Christ from heaven where he will raise the dead, where he will hold the final judgment and perfect his kingdom. So we know that we're all, if you're in Christ and well if you're, even if you're not in Christ, we're all headed to that day. And so if we keep that in mind and realize that we're actually created for purpose to do good works, and if we keep that end part in mind, we'll actually be more encouraged and motivated to do what God has called us to do because at one point we will give an account for our lives and an answer for the way that we've spent our time. 17 (1h 11m 11s): James two 14 through 17 says this, What, what good is it my brothers? If someone says he has faith but does not have works, can, can that faith save him? Can that kind of faith save him? In other words, the question is, is faith without works saving faith at all? Is faith apart from works? Is that saving faith at all? If, if a person states that he or she believes all of the right doctrines, but their life does not show obedience to Christ, what good is this type of faith? 17 (1h 11m 54s): The the answer which is implied? The question is, well, it's not good faith at all. It's not real genuine faith at all. Just like love without external work works is meaningless. It's like rain clouds that that give no rain. There's a proverb says Proverbs 25 14, like clouds and wind without rain is a, a man who boasts of a gift he does not give. It's like a promise without follow through. So, so his faith apart from works, it's actually worthless. So what a good works look like. 17 (1h 12m 34s): We can look in the old, in the New Testament and decide and figure out what good works look like. This is kind of what it looks like. It's what we are created to do. But back to James two 15, it says, If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. So it's a one point message today. Point number one, our faith is meant to be evident in our daily lives. 17 (1h 13m 15s): It it's meant to be obvious to onlookers people within our sphere of influence. Our faith is to be obvious to those who know us. Why? Because we are known for our good works. We're demonstrating our faith by our good works. I love Matthews chapter 25 because it helps us understand how everything's going to wrap up at the end of time. In my Bible, this is titled The Final Judgment. Let me just read it. It says this, But when the son of man Jesus, when he comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 17 (1h 14m 2s): He will place the sheep on his right and the goats at his left. Then the king Jesus will say to those on his right, Come, come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you, you invited me into your home. I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me. Then these righteous ones will reply, Lord, when? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink or a stranger and show you hospitality or naked and give you clothing? 17 (1h 14m 52s): When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you in the king Jesus? This will be his response. And the king will say, I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you are doing it to me. And so we've got this amazing opportunity and responsibility to serve others. And in our serving others, we're actually serving God. We're doing what God has created us to do. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. This is what you are here for. You are here for good works, to build up the kingdom, to let people know about Jesus and to serve in the kingdom work that God has called you to serve in. 17 (1h 15m 37s): This is exactly why you're here in the earth. When God is done using you in this way in the earth, he will take you home. So if you're warming a seat and have a pulse, you've got purpose. So what is your purpose? What is your purpose? What has God called you to do? The verse goes on, the chapter goes on verse 41, then the king will turn to those on the left and say, away with you, you cursed ones into the eternal fire prepared for the devil. And as demons, for I was hungry and you didn't feed me, I was thirsty, and you didn't give me a drink, I was a stranger, and you didn't invite me into your home. 17 (1h 16m 23s): I was naked and you, you didn't give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn't visit me. Then they will reply, Lord, when in when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or stranger or naked or sick or in prison and not help you? And he will answer. I tell you the truth, when you refused, when you refused to help the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me. And they will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous will go into eternal life. 17 (1h 17m 6s): And the only difference between the sheep and the goats is what they did and didn't do. So we're saved by grace through faith. We prove that we've actually been saved by grace through faith in the way that we live our lives. We've got three orange trees on our property and they're all three planted. And they're all three these, There's amazing three different types of oranges, one's like little cuties and a couple different types of oranges. And they're just so good. 17 (1h 17m 46s): So you go around and pick 'em up and eat 'em and just eating all kinds of beautiful stuff in the garden. You know, I've never actually seen those trees stressed out. Like I've never seen 'em like doing this, trying to push out the fruit. It's like they're never like, we've planted a tree recently. What's it called? Acher Moya. I'll never get that. I'll never remember what that tree is called. It's acher Moya tree. And we're, we've planted it in another part of the garden and we've got it on drip system in good soil, it's planted where it needs to be with a little bit of shade, little bit of sun. And that tree, because of where it's been planted, we'll just naturally produce fruit in, in time. 17 (1h 18m 32s): It will naturally produce fruit. So when you and I are abiding in Christ, when we're planted in Christ, when we're connected to the vine, we will naturally produce fruit. And so the, the natural part of it is that a part of abi abiding in Christ is just listening to him throughout the day, opening up the word of God and allowing it to speak to you. Just being filled with the Holy Spirit. And then the natural overflow of that kind of life will be fruitful. Fruit, The spirit of his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And then in the scripture, we see all kinds of ways that we've been gifted to use our talents within the kingdom so that we can be fruitful, so that we can demonstrate what we believe by the way that we live. 17 (1h 19m 23s): If we don't demonstrate what we believe by the way that we live, chances are we actually aren't saved in the kingdom. If there's been no transformation, no sanctification, no real life change and fruitfulness, then we just need to ask ourselves what has happened. A good tree can't actually produce bad fruit in a bad tree can actually produce good fruit. So a good tree will produce good fruit. A bad tree will produce bad fruit or no fruit. So where are we today as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ? 17 (1h 20m 5s): Some of us been like brand new in the faith. Others have been doing this for decades and decades and decades. And we're always called to be fruitful as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your your life will change and your fruit will look different. But you are always called to be fruitful. I was talking with this gal, Granny Frida Moroni Fria, when we planted the church, we'd do these potlucks and she would make spam cobbler. Bear had spam cobbler. No, you haven't missed anything. So Fria grew up and was super poor during the depression and she, she loved her spam cobbler. 17 (1h 20m 45s): So if for every potluck she'd bring spam cobbler, and so poor Fria got, she just kept getting older and older and older. And she's like, Why isn't the Lord taking me home? And so she got put into a home and I'd go visit Fria. And she would ask me that question, Why is the Lord not letting me go home? And I say, It's because you still have work to do. God has given you life so that you can pray for people so that you can love people in this home that you are in. But so don't waste. Don't miss out on what you are here to do, but pray for your family. Pray for your loved ones, and pray for the nursing staff here at this hospital. 17 (1h 21m 29s): And when the Lord's ready, he will come take you home. And then after years, I, I can't remember how old she was, but she was like in her nineties and just she was. And then finally she passed and we were able to celebrate her life. So part of the beauty of being a believer in Christ is that we die and then we get to celebrate what God has done in that person's life. And we Bible says we don't grieve like those without hope, but we have a sense of appreciation for this life and for what is waiting for us. On the other side, you are created in Christ Jesus for good works. 17 (1h 22m 10s): You're created to serve God and others. What does that mean to you guys? I just kinda open it up a little bit here. What does it mean that you're created to serve God and others? And then with the refreshing of this information, maybe the first time you're hearing it, what is it gonna do to change your life? Who wants to go first? I can't call you. I can. Who should I call on? You guys are scared to death right now. Aren't you all in the back? Speak loud so we can hear you. You. 17 (1h 22m 52s): That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Someone said in first service that if you can get through your day and not only think about yourself, but think about others and how you might serve and bless others, that that's just an amazing way to be fruitful. Just be mindful of others' needs and be thoughtful of others' needs and be prayerful about others' needs and watch what God will do. Mikey, 20 (1h 23m 18s): I think serving is another way to die to 17 (1h 23m 20s): Yourself. Ah. Serving is another way of dying to yourself. 20 (1h 23m 24s): So the more we do that, the more we build with this joy. Especially if you're not feeling joyful. 17 (1h 23m 29s): Yeah. 20 (1h 23m 30s): And it's just a good way to just serve, but also that prayer is not an undervalued way to serve people 17 (1h 23m 37s): As well. Yeah. Prayer is not an undervalued way to serve people. Yeah. So I 20 (1h 23m 42s): Think a lot harder on, it's harder for me to serve people and loving people face to face right now, but it's a lot easier for me to do. So I think that I was feeling adequate in that part. That you confirm that it's not 17 (1h 23m 54s): Inadequate. Yeah, it's not. It's not. It's powerful when we can pray for people. I'm driving down the road sometimes and I'll feel like the Lord put it on my heart to pray for someone. And I just pray. I pray for their whole clan. I pray for everybody they touch. We get saying, I just, I just believe for great things because I feel like if Lord called me to pray for them, and then I'm gonna pray for big stuff. Richard Harrison, what do you think? You wanna talk or should I talk to Kathy? You can talk to, All right. Kathy, what do you think? What does that message mean to you 21 (1h 24m 22s): About serving others? 17 (1h 24m 24s): Yeah. 21 (1h 24m 25s): Well, I think that you have to be close with the Lord to know which direction he's gonna 17 (1h 24m 29s): Take you. Okay. So you have to be close to the Lord to know what direction he's gonna take you. I love, I love it. True. 21 (1h 24m 34s): And I think that once he leads you, that he opens the door, like with us in counseling, you know, we, we've been doing this for over 20 years. Yeah. He just said, Lord, you could stop us at any time. We don't advertise. God just keeps bringing, hurting people to us. So it's being available, it's caring, and it's giving them the Lord when you counsel them. Just not advice. 17 (1h 24m 59s): Ah, good, good, good, good. So these guys did pastoral ministry for years and then God moved them into marriage ministry. And so now they're ministering to couples who are in trouble and, and others, but they're just doing a wonderful job giving people hope through Jesus Christ. So it can look in a thousand different ways. What is God calling you to do with that? Let's go ahead and stand up, and we're gonna invite the worship team forward, and the next week we'll get to our last core value. Thank you Lord for who you are. Thank you Lord, for the opportunity to worship you and to honor you with our words, our thoughts, and our deeds. And so, Lord, awaken us to areas that we're maybe not even thinking of, ways that we might be able to serve you, encourage, and serve and love people. 17 (1h 25m 45s): So, Lord, you've called us to good work. Show us what that looks like in our personal lives. We love you. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship 0 (1h 26m 4s): The So Made, made, made the, and there is 1 (1h 29m 22s): So, Make me a vessel, Make me an offering. Make me whatever you want me with all you. New wine, 22 (1h 30m 2s): Lord. Daughters, our prayer this morning that you'd fill us and then you'd use us even in a new way. Thank you for your word this morning. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for leading us, being here with us. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

0 (0s): Morning. Good morning. Please 1 (2s): Come find a seat and, And please stand as we get ready to worship the Lord this morning. Before we get going, I'd like to share a scripture in a moment. Thank you. Revelation one, eight says, I am the alpha in the omega, says the Lord God. Who is and who was and who is to come The Almighty. It just speaks to the magnitude of God. He was before He is now and he will forever be. And that's what we're gonna sing about this morning. So let's just prepare our hearts to worship the Lord this morning. 1 (43s): He is so amazing and worthy of our praise. 0 (60s): We worship the God who was we worship the God who is we worship the God who evermore will be. He opened the prison doors. He parted the raging sea. My God, He holds the big story. Join the house of the Lord. Join the house of the Lord today and we won't we shout your praise. Join the house of the Lord our God is in and we won't be crying. 0 (1m 43s): We shout out your praise. We sing to the God who heals. We sing to the God who saves. We sing to the God who always makes away cause he hung up on that cross and he rose up from that grave. My God, still rolling stones away of the there's house of the Lord. 0 (2m 24s): And we won't. We shout your praise. There's the Lord. We shout and we were the backers and now we're royalty. And we were the prisoners. And now we're running free. We are forgiven. Accepted redeem by his grace. Let the house of the Lord sing. 0 (3m 4s): Praise. We were the now we're royalty. We were the praise. Now we are forgive reads in by his grace. Let the house of the Lord sing praise, Sing next joy. There's joy in the house of the Lord. There's joy in the house of the Lord today. And we will be quiet. We shout out your praise. There's of Lord our godly in this place. 0 (3m 47s): We won't. We shout praise. There's joy, the of Lord. We won. Be we shout face. 0 (4m 38s): Let's sing a 1 (4m 39s): Jesus. If you're excited about Jesus this morning, can you just shout his name? 0 (4m 44s): Jesus. We're not 1 (4m 46s): Ashamed in this place tonight, this morning. We're not ashamed to praise Jesus this morning. 0 (4m 54s): He is our Lord. 1 (4m 55s): He's our Savior. 0 (4m 57s): And 1 (4m 58s): We worship him. We worship you Jesus. Thank you Lord. 0 (5m 21s): When Christ is my foundation, rock, which I stand with everything around then I booed my faith in Jesus. He's never let me down his faithful. So I would he fail now He, He. 0 (6m 9s): I've still got. I've got peace that makes no sense. So I'm not held by own 2 (6m 27s): Feel. 0 (6m 29s): Jesus. He 2 (6m 36s): Faithful 0 (6m 37s): Every season. So when Blue, my house was built on you, I'm safe with you. 0 (8m 51s): I'm gonna make it through. Ray came blew, my house was built on you. I'm with you. I'm going make it through. Hey win. My house was built on. 0 (9m 37s): Was built on. Cade stand is strong on with everything around me is I've never been more black. 0 (10m 24s): I put faith Jesus, he won't. Won't, he won't. 0 (11m 17s): No he won't. 1 (11m 44s): Church, we're just gonna rest for a moment. 0 (11m 48s): We're 1 (11m 48s): Gonna rest in that church. I mean in that, in that truth, 0 (11m 51s): That 1 (11m 52s): He's not gonna fail us. Doesn't matter what we can do. Doesn't matter how far we go. He's the rock on which we stand. I wanna invite those. If you feel led by the Holy Spirit to bring a word or speak out something encouraging that God has put on your heart as you feel led. Let's do that right now as we continue to worship. 3 (12m 33s): When our eyes are set upon the Lord, peace just comes overflowing beyond our understanding and praise. This world is such a chaos, a spiral downhill faith. The to us down Christ, Jesus, God, peace, the rock I stand all otherness sinking sand. 2 (13m 14s): Jesus 3 (13m 14s): Name. Amen. 4 (13m 24s): Father, we thank you that this is your universe and you will do what you're gonna do. And you've written it all down for us, Lord. And we have no need to be afraid or fear be seen, our country even falling apart from the top And the things going on in the world. Wicked or wickedness. And yet you are in control. And Father, you said in the last days will be a great falling away. And we don't want to be those people, Lord. We need to just remain focused and stand whatever currently said in 1924, fear not. These things must be. 4 (14m 5s): And so Father, that's my friend today, that we as your body here, Lord, we will stand, we will be focused, we will trust you. Whatever the wave bring. Lord, we stand upon the rock. We thank you that foundation you always have been and you always, Jesus 5 (14m 31s): One night, brains do not be terrified. You 6 (15m 42s): Sing that again. Let's all to you, Hi all to you my hiding please the place, the king and this thing because vehicle, deal 2 (17m 36s): With me, 6 (17m 41s): Car deal 2 (17m 43s): With me, 6 (17m 48s): Car deal with 2 (17m 50s): Me. 6 (17m 54s): How will 2 (17m 55s): Not 6 (18m 8s): Hoo 2 (18m 29s): My 6 (19m 21s): I will to you? I think, 7 (19m 55s): Lord, we praise you Jesus. You are so good Lord. We know that you're here in our midst, Jesus, where two or three are gathered, you are there in their midst, Lord. So you're here right now. Lord, we thank you that you're the friend that sticks closer than a brother. We thank you Jesus for all the things that you are. Lord. You are so great and so amazing. Lord, I just pray that every heart would, would come to you in humility today. Lord, you give you, you give grace to the humble Lord. 7 (20m 40s): You resist the proud, but you give grace to the humble Lord. So Jesus, I just pray that each heart would come to you in humility today. Lord, we're all coming on common ground. We're all sinners in need of a savior Jesus. And so we are so grateful for that savior that you are, Lord, we come to you with hearts of contrition, with with humility, Lord. And we just ask for you to move in our midst. Lord, we ask for you to do your will today. Lord, we just worship you for who you are and for nothing else. Lord, we lift up your name in this place, Lord. And and and it's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, you can take your seats if you'd like. Thank you worship team. Thank you Jesus for being here. 7 (21m 21s): Can't do it without em. Wouldn't want to. Alright, so just wanna welcome you here today. My name's Curtis. If you're new here, there is coffee out on the patio there and there are restrooms down these hallways. You can follow the signs also. We've got an info center at the back. And if you need to sign up for anything, want to get further connected to the church, just want to meet a friendly face, you can head back to the info center. We'd be glad to welcome you there. Also, we've got a couple of great things coming up. One of those is a worship and prayer morning that we're starting. It's gonna be at 8:00 AM on Tuesday. And this hopefully will turn into a monthly thing. 7 (22m 1s): We're, we're trying it out once and seeing how it goes. But the goal of having a 8:00 AM is the hope that you can come before work or before you drop the kids off at the school and just come and worship the Lord in prayer and just start your week off in that way. It's gonna be really beautiful, an amazing time. It's gonna be right here, 8:00 AM on Tuesday. The next thing is, if you have a child that hasn't been dedicated to the Lord, we're doing baby dedications on October 23rd. So if you wanna sign up, you can head back to the info center. Just a great way to dedicate your child and just say, Hey, I wanna raise this child in the house of the Lord. We want to raise this child as a Jesus follower. 7 (22m 43s): And it's also, it's kind of more for the parents to like commit their lives. Like, Okay, I'm gonna raise this child for the Lord. And, and so kind of doing that in public saying, Hey, you guys can all keep me accountable. So it's really good. So we encourage you to do that. Also, pastor appreciation is next Sunday. It's just gonna be a great way to honor our leaders and our pastors. So if you would like to bring a little gift for them or a card or something, you can do that and drop it off at the info center. Some people already did that this week and they get extra credit. So yeah, they did great. But yeah, if you wanna bring a gift next week, you're welcome to. 7 (23m 22s): And then the last thing is that we've got another outreach coming up and it's for Halloween in the village. And we don't love the, the event of Halloween or the holiday of Halloween, but, but we do want to take advantage of all the kids coming by. It's a great, great way for us to reach out to people, have a positive impact in their lives. And so we're gonna be clearing out all the, the chairs in here and making like a mini carnival in here. And then just be welcoming kids to come in, have a great time. We're gonna give 'em, load 'em up with candy. It's gonna be super fun. So it's, yeah, it's gonna be great. So kids are gonna be walking by and we're gonna be, you know, just loving on 'em. 7 (24m 2s): And so if you want to be involved with that, it's gonna take a lot of manpower to do that. So please sign up at the info center if you wanna serve at that event. So with that, we're gonna have a minute mingle time where you can hang out and talk to people and we'll be back in about a minute. So thanks so much. 8 (24m 23s): I need to, I've been taking almost a z pressing the boundaries, fighting off these feelings that pressing the drown. I get what I want, but I don't be what I need. 2 (25m 1s): Oh, 8 (25m 2s): My friends are changing. Maybe I was lost, but maybe I'm bound to be, all my friends are changing from maybe count the cost or maybe don't learn from me. Life is what happens in the between. I just want be waking dream. I don't need to just means, I just want, I just want be awake. Dream. Dream. 8 (25m 45s): Always lose the you. Maybe the, the maybe time. The maybe start the 10 (27m 23s): This down guy up here. I'm moving my lips but nothing's coming out and he's freaking out back there. It's probably not a good idea to mess with the sound people, but it is fun. Oh, come on. I knew I had a feeling that was coming. Kudos. Touche. Good job. I would've been bummed if you didn't catch that opportunity there. Good morning. How was everyone? Hey, we're in our identity series. How many do you remember what our identity series is all about? So last week we talked about our core values. Core values, right? No cheating. 10 (28m 3s): Close up your notes from your memory. What was the first core value that we talked about last week? 9 (28m 13s): Lordship. 10 (28m 14s): But what? The whole thing. 9 (28m 17s): The 10 (28m 17s): Lordship. Jesus. What is it? Did you, what is it? Confident 9 (28m 21s): In the 10 (28m 21s): Lordship of Jesus. Confident in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. What's the second one this week? 9 (28m 26s): Committed 10 (28m 27s): Or confident? Yeah, you're throwing me off. You're committed. Yeah. That was a test, right? We got 'em. What is it committed to? The lordship of Jesus Christ. I knew it didn't sound right. Committed. What's number two? 9 (28m 37s): Confident in the word. 10 (28m 39s): Confident. Confident in the word of God. What's number three? Sheila, You should know these. Come on. We've been talking about 'em for weeks here. What is it? All right, what's the other one? Got another good, good, good. And what, what's our mission statement or purpose statement? What is, it's a focus here. Okay. It's all right on the screen out or it's right on the, the sign out there. So it says Jesus 9 (29m 8s): To the 10 (29m 9s): Community, right? What Taking 9 (29m 11s): Jesus 10 (29m 12s): Out to the community. That's, that's it a nutshell. What I do in a nutshell. Oh, it's okay. Good, good, good. Impacting our community. So it's a big word. Impacting intentional, right? Impacting our community and our world with life changing message of Jesus Christ. That's what we're all about. So we're talking about core values and purpose statement. Mission statement. Because the core values are kind of what we kind of roll forward on. And as we understand our core values, we decide on ministries direction. We remember our purpose through those things. And so that's what we're gonna be talking about for the next few weeks. The rest of our core values, and then our mission statement. Then we'll kind of unpack a little bit what we believe kind of. 10 (29m 55s): We don't have time to talk about everything that we believe, but we talk about that every week. So with that, Lord, we just invite your presence. We thank you, God, that you are here and that, and when we gather, we gather in your name and you promise that we're, we gather two or three, gather in your name that you are there, Lord God. So we love you. We thank you Jesus for who you are and for what you're doing. Speak to us. Teach us we pray. Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Confident in the word of God. We'll be in Psalm one 19. We'll be going through about the first 20 verses or so. First service. I didn't get through the last point, so probably will not get through it, this service either. So, but I'll, I'll share that last point with you. 10 (30m 34s): Psalm 1 19, 1 0 5 says, Your word is a lamp and to my feet and a light into my path. And so we can find confidence in God's word because it actually lights up our feet and our path so we can move forward in wisdom with clarity, with confidence, with joy, and with peace. We know how to move forward because God's word is there to instruct us, to direct us. And it says that it actually illuminates lights up our path. So we've got this garden in our, in our in front of our house. It's called the secret garden. And it's super dark at night. And so over the years we've put in more and more solar lights and there's sensor lights. 10 (31m 18s): And so when you walk through the garden just starts lighting up. And so, you know, like when a coyote's out there or a stray cat or straight dog or or a stray person out there, we know when somebody's in the garden cuz everything's beginning to light up. And so we're like, hey, somebody must be in the garden. And so the word of God is like that. It just kind of illuminates it's light. It's it's light for our path so that we can kind of get clarity about moving forward. So I dunno about you, but how, how many have been reading the Bible for a year? How many have been reading the Bible for five years? 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. 10 (32m 1s): Rich here. Just keep your hand up. 40 years, 50 years. Harrison, you're old. 60 years. 60 years. Holy cow. 60 years Harrison's. Anybody older than Harrison's. Oh what about 70 years? So, well, right around there. I wonder, as you guys have read the Bible for decades, do you always get stuff out of it? Yes. Always. Yeah. Okay, good. So like, like you've read the same thing over and over again. Do you ever get stuff out of it at this? Like in your, Richard, I'll keep it to you in this ancient stage of life that you're in, you're still getting, you're still getting, you're still gleaning stuff All the time. 10 (32m 44s): All the time. Yeah. That's great. No, that's cool. Cool. Hey, there's a, a gold mine in Australia and they've been mining gold out of this gold mine for close to 50 years. And about 45 years into this gold mining, they, the miners discovered the biggest rocks of gold that they've ever discovered. 45 years of mining. They're pulling gold outta this place all the time. 45 years later they're getting like hundred plus pound boulders of gold worth millions of dollars. I I love this story because it communicates the value of continuing to mind truth out of God's word. Cuz I bet, I bet the longer we're doing it, the more gold we're gonna be able to mine. 10 (33m 28s): Out of that, we've got greater understanding and who, who knows if we quit early, if we're gonna miss out on those major big boulders of gold that God has for us. And so the encouragement is to remain confident in God's word, to continue to open it up all the time. And then just see what God will do with questions that you might have, concerns that you might have, fears that you might have. God has a way of revealing truth to our lives. This is not on the screen, but in Psalm 12, 6, 12 6 it says, And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified and a crucible like gold refined seven times. 10 (34m 13s): So this, the word of God that we're talking about today, the Bible, what we're talking about today, has great, great value so that we think about the, the word of God, we need to understand well what is, what is the word of God? And and why do we have such confidence in the word well taken from an article titled, Why Do we Believe the Bible is Actually the Word of God by Dr. Jim Dennison, PhD. He said, Well, the Bible claims to be the word of God, but this fact does not settle the issue for us because the Quran claims to be the word of aah. 10 (34m 54s): The Book of Mormon claims to be the revelation of God. The writers of the Bible were convinced that what they wrote were inspired, they were spoken, breathed by the living God. The Apostle Paul was convinced that, well all scriptures God breathed and is useful for teaching rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Second to Timothy three 16, what scripture, What verse what? What part of the Bible was he talking about? Referring? Well, in the first entry, all they had was the Old Testament. So he's saying the Old Testament books of the Bible that scriptures God breath in is useful for teaching rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 10 (35m 39s): Jesus believed his words to be divinely inspired. In fact, he said, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. His words will never pass away because they're divinely inspired as the eternal wisdom and word of God. And so having an earthquake passed away, but the words of Jesus will never pass away. Speaking of the totality of biblical revelation, the writer to the Hebrews claims the word of God is living and active. Have you experienced that? Like not in a creepy way like it's alive, but but like it's alive. Like it's got the capacity to speak to us, right? 10 (36m 22s): In our season, right in this moment, right where we live, right where we struggle, God's word has a way of speaking to us because it's what's living in active sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and it attitudes of the heart. Hebrews for the word of God is powerful, right? J Packer said the Bible is God preaching. So like God speaking, communicating truth to us. That's what the Bible is. It's God preaching to us to bring us into new life with him. 10 (37m 3s): Augustine described it as love letters from home. So it's just this powerful revelation that we have in the 66 books of the Bible and the pages of scripture. We've got this powerful truth that God has given to us. So there's strong evidential reasons to believe the Bible's God's word, but the best test comes from, well from personal experience. So the challenge to us is, hey, try living the Bible. Try what does it mean to live the Bible? Like read it and do it. Read it and obey it. Read it and do what it tells you to do. Living the Bible will give you the best possible experience and opportunity to realize that it is alive and it's active and it's sharp and it's it, it brings about what we need in every season of life. 10 (37m 55s): Except it's savior as your savior. So don't just read about the savior of the world, but make Jesus your savior and just see what God will do in your life. Over and over again, throughout history, people have tried to disprove the scripture. And a lot of times when people are reading and studying and investigating the scripture, they become converted. They don't disprove it, but they become converted in their, in their lives. They, they accept the Lord Jesus Christ make its principles, it's guideposts the guiding direction for your life. So we're talking a lot about the Bible and Christianity, but what about, what about other beliefs? 10 (38m 41s): What about other religious systems? I mean, can't we all just like get along, aren't we after all of the same things, don't we believe basically the same thing? I see this bumper sticker all the time on people's cars and as I sit there, I'm studying the different religious symbols and I realize we're also different. So can we all get along? Absolutely, we can all get along, but we certainly do not agree. 10 (39m 26s): We certainly do not agree. Conventional wisdom these days debates or dictates that the various religions are just different roads up the same mountain, kind of like all roads lead to Rome. We're all on the same path. And so that's what conventional wisdom would tell us. They say it doesn't matter which God you trust because they are all the same. Different name, same God. People say things like this, Ala is Jehovah and Buddhist and Hindus seek the same God that we worship. People also say different holy books are simply religious. Well, they're simply religious diaries. And who's to say that your diary is right and mine is wrong? 10 (40m 11s): Such an approach to world religions and their writings feels, it feels tolerant and even hopeful on some level it feels like, boy, we can all gather around and sing kumbaya together and be one big happy family. So there's that warm kind of fuzzy as we think about possibly all getting along. But is it true? Is it possible? Is that a reality that we can all gather no matter what we choose to believe in, sing kumbaya together? Is it true? Do other religions agree? Do they agree with this characterization of their faith commitment? 10 (40m 55s): In a word? No. In a word they do not agree. Buddhist beliefs. Buddha taught that there is no God despite the fact that a lot of his followers worship him. He instructed his disciples to avoid all material desires that they might cease their suffering. Hindu beliefs. Hindus believe in thousands of territorial deities. But no, no Lord of the universe. Brahman is the divine force that sustains the universe not a personal God to be worshiped Muslim beliefs. 10 (41m 41s): Muslims believe that ala the Arabic word for God is the one supreme ruler of the universe. That Jesus was a prophet but not the divine son of God. And that salvation comes through obedience to theran. This book is all as self revelation through his prophet Mohamed. They believe all other, they believe all other. They believe all other holy books are inferior to it for its pages, Its pages alone contained the very word of God. Can't we all just get along? No one thinks we could all just kind of get along Jewish beliefs. 10 (42m 21s): Jews believe that Yahweh revealed himself through the laws and the prophets of their scriptures. And I would agree, but they also believe that Jesus was was not the Messiah. That the New Testament is not the word of God. They base their hope of heaven on the mercy of God in response to their lives of obedience and morality. Mormon beliefs, Mormons believe that God revealed himself in the Bible, but also in their book of Mormon, a history of the early peoples of the Western hemisphere. Joseph Smith translated the book from Golden Plates that he claimed to have received from the angel. 10 (43m 1s): Morona doctrine in covenants contains further revelation received by Joseph Smith from God. The pearl of great price contains more writings of Smith. They picture God as an eternal being, a flesh and bone who had physical relations with Mary to produce Jesus. So just barely scratching the surface of what they believe. We know that it's contrary to scripture, contrary to what we believe is the truth from the word of God. Salvation and heavily rewards come through obedience to these revelations they go on and teach. 10 (43m 44s): So, so if any one of these religions is right, the others by definition are wrong. We can't all be right if any of these other religions are right, then by definition all others are wrong. If we believe what the Mormons believe, then we cannot believe what born again Christians believe in so forth. And in fact, none, None believe that other religions are equally correct or divinely inspired. 10 (44m 26s): None of no real believer in any of these religious ex experiences or whatever these other religions believe that other religions are equally correct or divinely inspired. I at my house, I get people knocking on the door. Joe's witnesses, Hey, I'm a Christian pastor, but what do they want to do? Well, if we're all Christians, why do they want to convert me? Because they know that I'm not one of them. Right Mormon, right? Same deal, right? So we can all say, hey, let's kumbaya thing and get along and do it, but we just believe differently. 10 (45m 7s): And so it makes a huge difference in the way that we live our lives. The, the scriptures at the various world religions trust do not describe different paths of the same mountain, but very different mountains. So choose, choose wisely. I wanna say thank you to Dr. Dennison for his article. A lot of what I've been talking about here in the last 10 minutes has been information from his article. It's just helpful to, for us to get our heads around truth. At Harvest Church. At Harvest Church here at Harvest Church, we are confident in the word of God, the Bible, that that's all we have. 10 (45m 54s): People show up and they say, Well, you, you teach outta the Bible. I'm like, What else in the world? What do we teach? Even if I knew something else, I wouldn't wanna teach it because anything else's gonna take us up the wrong mountain, down the wrong path. Jesus said, I'm the way that's truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through, through me. Pretty clear Jesus is declaring that he is the only way that Christianity is the only way. So we have confidence in the word of God because of what we glean from the word of God, but beyond the fact that we just know that as it is, God breathed that he spoke it. 10 (46m 40s): But, but my experience and the scriptures declare that when we read the word of God, there's incredible joy. That is the experience. There's an incredible joy that we experienced as readers and doers of the word of God. So at Harvest Church, we, we are confident in the Word of God, the Bible. Why? Because God's word brings joy to those who follow it. Is that, has that been your experience? It's been, it's been my experience. Now, I reading about God and his work with humanity on the earth always fills me with hope and with joy. 10 (47m 25s): Because if God can work through the people and the pages of scripture, I have hope. And that he can work through me. And that gives me great joy. And it should give you great joy as well. This almost understood this. Psalm 1 19, 1 says this, Joyful are people of integrity who follow the instructions of the Lord, joyful, blessed, happier people of integrity who follow the instructions of Lord, how do we get to that place of integrity? We follow the instruction of the Lord. Integrity flows out of our obedience. And so we become people, man, women, young people, old people of integrity. 10 (48m 6s): When we do what God has asked us to do, Ne Maya got it. He said, The joy of the Lord is our strength. The joy of the Lord is our strength. Where do we get that joy from just doing the will of God? It fills us with just this great deal of joy and confidence because we're doing what God has called us to do. And accompanied the fruit of that obedience is joy. What's the opposite of that? Disobedience brings what? Turmoil. Turmoil. Right? It it just kind of causes angst in our souls. Like I see, Lord, I see, but I, I'm not interested, right? So, so there's this inward internal battle as believers and I, we re we really experience it every day because, I dunno, most people I know get up in the morning and that's when they have their devotional time. 10 (48m 53s): Others do it at night and that's great. But this is the reality. We wake up in the morning, everything's got our attention, right? Like I gotta get my first cup of coffee, right? Because Lord, I'm not gonna be able to really pay attention to what you're saying until I get my first cup of coffee. Well, Lord, I I really need to gotta wake up. So I need to see what's going on in the world. So I click on the internet and I see what's going on on my, you know, homepage. Oh, interesting, interesting. Another cup of coffee that would be helpful, right? Lord. So I'm gonna get another cup of coffee and get my second cup of coffee and oh, I got some emails or, or text messages that are, I mean, they've been waiting all night. 10 (49m 35s): I gotta, I gotta get to 'em eventually, right? So I jump onto that, right? So I probably use a third cup of coffee. I, I have, I mean, after all, I do have three cups of coffee every single morning, right? So it's important that I get my third cup of coffee. And so right within, something pops up, I'm on social media, I'm like, well this is pretty interesting, right? So before long it's been hour and a half and I'm just trying to wake up. Well, so now I'm ready to work. I got like very little time to get ready to go. So, hey, let's pick it up at lunchtime, Lord. Lunchtime rolls around. Oh, I'm so hungry. Let's go in and out. Let's get ourselves a, that's what a hamburger's all about, right? 10 (50m 16s): I mean, you gotta, you gotta eat, right? We're watching this show called Alone. If you guys seen it, it's a great show, right? Custom language. So forgive me for that. But it's a great show, right? So these people are alone on an island and they're trying to survive off the land and they're like, they're 30 days and 40 days and 50 days and, and they're like getting, they're losing. Wait, one guy went on the show and he, he put on like a hundred extra pounds so that on the show he could lose a hundred pounds and still be okay. Like, he's like, I'm gonna chunk it up or I'm gonna, I'm gonna put on some weight. So he's there for, I was watching, I think it was last night, and he's lost like 68 pounds, but he still got some, some love on him. 10 (50m 58s): Like he still can lose some weight. And so, and so he's prepared, he's like going into the, this competition with some chunk on him so that he can survive, right? I'm thinking this is what we need to be doing as believers, like going into the competition, which is the battle, which is life. Like we need to get fated up for the battle, right? Spiritually get a little fat on you, right? Get a little, like, don't just get enough for the moment. Like get enough for the day and, and then get up the next morning and just gorge yourself on some food. Cuz you might get out there in the day. And then you're having to do what these other poor people do and they're eating these mushrooms and these roots and, and snails and mice and right? 10 (51m 54s): So we kind of do the same thing. We resort to things that are just kind of, it's not, it's, but it's not a sign of beef, right? I mean, like God's word is, I mean, I'm thinking of poorer house. Sorry. If you're, if you're a vegetarian, I'm sorry, but I'm not. I never will be. So just like a big old fat poor us. But we gotta we gotta make it intentional. We gotta be intentional. So the joy that the scripture talks about, the joy of the Godly is the reward for godliness. Those, those people on the show, they're all cranky. 10 (52m 34s): Why? Because they're hungry. So they're hangry, right? So when you're not filled up with the word of God and the truth of God, you can get the same way, get spiritually kind of hangry, right? You'll, but when you've feasted well on the word of God, you've got the capacity to have the joy of God. If you don't feast on the word of God, your capacity to have the joy of God is greatly hindered. That's just the way it is. That's why we've talked about this in the wilderness, the people of Israel, they were given man a daily, right? And if they took extra for the next day, fearful that God wasn't going to provide for them, it turned stinky and filled with maggots, right? 10 (53m 19s): And so God said, Hey, trust me, get enough for the day and eat. So get it in, fill it up, and then do it again tomorrow. It's the design every day we're meant to get the word of God, the manner of God. Joyful. First two, joyful are those who obey his loss and search for him with all their hearts. So what we're talking about actually takes effort. Joyful are those who obey that obedience always takes effort, right? We gotta make a decision. I'm going to obey, I'm going to do what God has asked me to do and search for him with all their hearts. And so it requires effort to do what God has called us to do. We, we, it would be so much easier if it was just, well, if it was easier, right? 10 (54m 3s): I texted somebody years ago and we're having coffees and they're like, Man, this Christian life is so hard. I just want it to be easy. I'm like, were you reading the same book that I'm reading? Like I'm not sure that you're reading the same, It's not gonna be easy. We have moments where it's less hard and there's plenty of joy along the way. But we are in a, a spiritual battle in the chapel up the road, we used to have this gray door that, you know, the big four foot wide door if you've been in that building. And we put that door in there and it came in gray. I'm like, that's perfect. It doesn't match the decor, but it's like battleship gray. 10 (54m 44s): Like it reminds us that we're on a battleship but not a cruise ship. Like if we're here, it's because we've got positions of responsibility. We realize that we're in a battle. And so we kept it battleship great until somebody pinned it off white. Didn't that just perfect? Like it went from battleship great like call to action and then to off white. I don't know what happened there, but we lost our vision there for a moment. And, but this is the reality is that we're called to action. It's not always gonna be easy. In fact, most of the times it's gonna be hard work. But the joy of the Lord is our strength. 10 (55m 24s): First three, they do not compromise with evil. This is so back to verse two, Joy floor, those who obey the laws and search for him with all their hearts. So this takes effort, the result, the results of the effort, the fruit of the effort. Verse three, they do not compromise with evil and they walk only in his paths. This is the result of just heartfelt dedication to Jesus, to follow him and to do what he's called us to do. They do not compromise with evil. Maybe you're struggling today with compromise, with some form of evil. You fell in the blank. The world is full of all kinds of evil things that were can be tempted to be running toward. 10 (56m 7s): If you're tempted, you need to stop and get into the word and open up the word of God and just inform your spirit and make a decision in your heart and mind that I am going to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and not compromise with evil, but only walk in his paths. You have charged us, verse four, to keep your commandments carefully. So if you pull that word apart, command mince. It's not suggest mince doesn't even sound very good to say. Let me give you some adjustments, right? 10 (56m 48s): Like it's silly, right? These are words of instruction that God has given to his people. Commandments are commands keeping the commandments or the precepts. Teaching guidelines and principles of God are not optional, actually they're commanded by God. And the whole Bible is a book of instruction and it's kind of pointless to read it and not do what it says. And this almost agreed, he said, Oh, that my actions would consistently reflect your decrees that interesting. 10 (57m 29s): All my actions would consistently reflect your decree. So the writer of Psalms in Psalm one 19 uses eight different words to describe God's word. God's law. He uses eight different words and we don't have time to unpack them today, but each of the words help with a little bit more information, a little more. They give us a little more clarity about what the writer is talking about. So we see law words and then laws. It's actually a different Greek word in the text with a diff slightly different meaning that gives it more better nuance. And again, we don't have time to unpack it, but I would encourage you as homeward to go unpack it and see what you learn. 10 (58m 14s): Laws word, laws, statute, command, decreed, precepts, word or promise. Although my actions would consistently reflect your decree, this was the desire of the writer of the Psalms. He, he probably had an experience where he wasn't doing what he's writing about. And the result was, well, it's everything that we know because we're all guilty of falling short. We know the result. It's, we get lethargic spiritually. We get kind of luke warm spiritually. We get a little less convicted about sin spiritually, where we kind of allow ourselves to be drawn into things that are unhealthy forest spiritually. And so there's a whole host of things that will happen and God knows what will strengthen us. 10 (58m 58s): And the enemy knows what will trip us up. God knows that his word will strengthen us so that my actions would consistently reflect your decrease then I will not be ashamed when I compare my life with your commands and ashamed. That's a word that we can identify with, right? Because we've all felt some shame when we've not aligned our lives with this precepts. We've all felt the cringe of shame. The Lord doesn't want us to feel shameful. So he gives us the antidote here, the remedies that just do what I've called you to do. So the word of God, like a mirror, we talk about this a lot. So we hold up to our lives so that we can kind of see how we're doing. 10 (59m 41s): Lord, how's my life? In light of the word, we hold it up and we say, Yeah, I, I'm not doing that very well, but I, I'm grown here. And so we can kind of discern how we are doing then I will not be ashamed when I compare my life with your commands as I, as I learn your righteous regulations. I will thank you by living as I should. I will obey your decre. Please don't give up on me. This Thomas is so real, right? Because he's like most of us, we're like wanting to honor the Lord with our lives. We're wanting to see God with our whole lives, but we stumble and fall short. 10 (1h 0m 22s): And so the writers saying, Hey, don't, don't give up on me. I wanna make you promise that God will not give up on you. He, he loves you if you stumble, get back up. Anybody have ever, have you ever had to do that before? Many times. Once or twice, right? Like all the time. Like you stumble, right? So you, you don't just stay there in the gut, you get back up, you get back up. And God promises never to give up on you when you say, Lord, I'm, I'm wanting to live my life. I'm doing it imperfectly altogether, but I want to honor you. So this is a humble and accurate prayer for all of us. Lord, my heart and my desire are to honor and obey you. 10 (1h 1m 4s): But please don't give up on me when I stumble. Number one, God's word brings joy to those who follow it. Number two, God's word brings purity to those who obey it. So joy and purity are the results of people who will press in honor and obey God's words. Al 1 19 9 says, How can a young person keep, stay pure? How can a young person stay pure by obeying your word? Good for young, good for old, right? Young and old. How can a person stay pure by just doing what God's word says by obeying your word. 10 (1h 1m 48s): A pure life is the result of obedience. If you're struggling with your personal purity, it's because you're struggling with obedience to the word. And the simple answer is open up the word every day and say, I am going to be obedient by your grace and in your strength. And just begin to walk that out. The internet's the worst place in the world to try to live in personal purity, right? Because things pop up. I was doing an internet search, I shared it with Neil, one of my elders here. And I said, Hey, I was doing this internet search and this all these sites came up. I'm like, Holy walk ole. And I was sitting right there in the sound booth on a Friday, last Friday. I'm like, goodness gracious, I didn't think this search would bring those opportunities, you know? 10 (1h 2m 29s): So they didn't populate the screen, but they certainly populated my options to click on. And I told Neil, I said, I'm so grateful that I've got covenant eyes on my computer so that my wife sees everything on my iPad, my laptop, my phone, So that even if I'm tempted, didn't want to click, I'm afraid to death to do it right? So there's some really good practical things we can put into place to help us not to stumble, right? 10 (1h 3m 10s): So we heard a couple weeks ago that Jeremy talked about the age, I think it's age, right around age 6, 7, 8 years old is the time when little boys and girls have their first, first exposure to hardcore pornography. Hardcore stuff. So what are you gonna do about it? Like you gotta put safeguards and parameters on your devices, right? Dudes. It's not like going to your uncle's house and finding a playboy in his shop. You're carrying the junk with you all the time. 10 (1h 3m 51s): So you're not gonna just possibly stumble onto it. You're going to stumble upon it. So you gotta personal purity is, it's in your hands to figure it out. Pure life as a result of obedience. I've tried hard to find you. If the writer says, Don't let me wander from your commands, Obedience requires effort. Purity requires effort. You gotta decide. I'm not looking at that, I'm not doing that. I'm not participating in that. I'm not doing it. 10 (1h 4m 32s): And then don't do it. Hm? I've hidden your word of my heart that I might not sin against you. We are out of time. The last point is about the wisdom that is available to us. God's word brings wisdom to those who desire it. So part of joy and personal purity and the wisdom is, is engaging your heart, your life, your mind and the word of God. And it's true for people who are brand new in the faith. And it's true for people who've been walking with Jesus for decades, forever because the battle is never over this side of heaven. 10 (1h 5m 18s): It's a battle. We need to get some, Oh, we kinda have some battleship gray on these chairs. But anyway, you get the point. What have you learned and what will you do with what you've learned? What will you, what's your takeaway? What are you gonna do? Spend time with the word, Spend time with the word. How's that different from what you're doing now? Okay, good. What else? Some of you need to get covenant eyes on your computer, All of your devices, all of them. What else? Walk in the spirit. Walk in the spirit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's too obey. 10 (1h 5m 58s): Hmm. Choose to obey Jews. Yeah. What do you, when you stumble though, what? What do you do when you stumble? Pass, Forgive forgiveness. Ask God for forgiveness. Keep going, right? Yeah. Gary. Trust in obey. Trust in obey Jesus. So practically speaking, Gary, so you've been walking with Jesus for, I don't know, hundred years probably. Gary is my youth pastor in junior high school. And so we go back a couple years. And so Gary, in all of your years as a leader, as a believer, as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, all of these things sound good, right? 10 (1h 6m 40s): In principle, we, we want the joy. We we, we want the purity, we want the wisdom. But it kept, come up here, Gary, for a moment, come up here for a moment. I never do this. And I started last week and I might just keep going. We'll see. So Gary, let's invite the worship team up as well. Cuz we're gonna worship and we're gonna take communion. And so I'm putting you on the spot cuz I know that I can, Hey Gary, you want me say, I don't know. So I mean these are, you know these are good. Theoretically they're good and and truth, they're solid. But what happens when you're having a bad day and you say something, do something regret a decision. 10 (1h 7m 29s): What? I mean how do you get back? I mean what do you do to, can you, can you alt? Can you overcome that altogether? 11 (1h 7m 37s): I don't think you can over, excuse me, I don't think you can overcome it all together, this side of heaven. But when we fall we have to rise. We have to keep running. The Christian walk is not a sprint or a hundred yard dash. That's what I've learned. It's a long distance race, a marathon. And Jesus promised to always be with us. 10 (1h 8m 2s): But your wife left you. 11 (1h 8m 4s): Yeah. 10 (1h 8m 5s): What does that, I mean, how does that settle? 11 (1h 8m 9s): That was one of the hardest things I've ever had to face in my life. But it wasn't my doing, it wasn't my fault. It was like a, a boat drifting away from the dock. I could see it. And before long she didn't wanna walk with Jesus anymore. And I was one of the elders in the church. She didn't wanna be with me anymore. I have some good friends that I stayed with for a little while cuz I was kicked outta the house and every morning I would get up and I would read my Bible and my friend's wife said to me, Carrie, how can you do that with what you're going through? 11 (1h 8m 50s): You just continue to read the Bible. And I said, Because it's the only thing I have. The word of God is truth. There is no other truth. And it kept me going because I kept listening to what God said, Put one foot in front of the other, Love your children, be there for them and continue on. After seven years, God gave me a wonderful new wife, my Nelly, and she loves the Lord with all of her heart. 11 (1h 9m 31s): Sometimes I think she loves him more than I do. She knows how to reprove me in a way that I receive it. When I mess up, I ask her forgiveness and she forgives me. When she messes up, she asks my forgiveness and I forgive her. It takes two forgiving people to make a marriage work. All I can say is the word of God has been my rock, my strength, my daily necessary food. That's what David said. I have esteemed your word more than my daily food. Yeah, it's like Steve was saying, do you get up and eat breakfast first? 11 (1h 10m 13s): No. Sit down and read the word of God. Even if it's just five minutes, meditate on a verse. The art of meditation is a lost art. And what David meant was to let it roll around in your mind until you're muttering it. That's what the ancients used to do. The Earl Amen of God, Tozer Spurgeon, you could go on and on. There were so many, they relied on the word of God every day and they didn't take a step without it. And that's all I can say. 11 (1h 10m 53s): That's what helped me for 50 years now I've been walking with the Lord. September 20th was 50 years and he's never thank you. 3 (1h 11m 20s): Psalm 2 (1h 11m 22s): Says 3 (1h 11m 23s): That says that the Lord magnifies its word. Even 2 (1h 11m 28s): That's, that's 10 (1h 11m 30s): Very powerful. We're gonna take communion and so it's a good time to examine your hearts and maybe it's time to re rededicate, recommit. Maybe you've been through a hard path like Gary and like some so many of us and you've been angry with God. You've been harboring bitterness, resentment. Well at this time of worship and remembrance, be a time where you get set free. Paul wrote in first Corinthians 1123, For I receive from the Lord what I also delivered to you. 10 (1h 12m 13s): That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's take the bread. 10 (1h 12m 56s): In the same way, He also, he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you, you proclaimed the Lord's death until he returns. Let's go ahead and take the cup. Thank you Lord. Thank you for your word. Lord, thank you for Giving us joy. 10 (1h 13m 40s): Joy is so available to us. It's promise to us. Thank you for purity. It's available to us and promise to us. 2 (1h 13m 55s): Thank 10 (1h 13m 56s): You for wisdom, Lord. It's available and promise to us, we love you. We need you. Thank you for your grace Jesus name. Let's go ahead and stand up and worship 6 (1h 14m 29s): To you, my friend and all to you. 6 (1h 16m 18s): Sing it out and declare this truth. I all to you, I all to you are my God. One more time I to you are my Father. 6 (1h 17m 8s): We could just 12 (1h 17m 9s): Stay in your presence all day. Thank you for the honor that it is to exalt your name. Thank you for your scriptures. Thank you for your word that never returns void. Lord, maybe we wake up in the morning with a desire to open our Bibles. May we wake up with a desire to get your word in our spirits and on our minds. Thank you that you are faithful. Thank you for your love. Would you go before us this week? 12 (1h 17m 51s): It's in your precious name we pray. Amen.

1 (2s): Good morning 2 (3s): Everyone. We're so happy to see you here this morning and seeing the kids in here is Family Sunday. What a joy it's gonna be to worship together as a whole body of Christ. Just invite you to stand with us as we sing. 1 (24s): Who am I that the highest? Oh 0 (2m 4s): You. 0 (3m 2s): Yes. 1 (3m 10s): There's a 0 (3m 11s): Place for 1 (3m 18s): God. 1 (3m 60s): All these pieces broken and scattered in mercy. Gathered I've, I can see yourself. 0 (5m 20s): Oh, 1 (5m 42s): You said your, So take this Lord, I'll be oh. 1 (6m 35s): Oh. I can see the love your eyes laying yourself. 0 (7m 25s): Amazing. 1 (8m 25s): I The 3 (8m 51s): We praise you, Jesus, We praise you in this place this morning. 0 (9m 8s): Come 1 (9m 9s): On. We sing together. If faith can s lets move. We come with the expectation waiting here. You're the Lord of our creation. Still know my found from, We're waiting here. 1 (10m 42s): You everything promised your, 0 (11m 3s): We're 1 (11m 4s): Waiting 0 (11m 4s): Here. 0 (12m 32s): We're 4 (13m 15s): Lord, we love you so much. We can't do anything without you, Jesus. And we don't want to. We love you. And we just want to glorify your name this morning. We're waiting here for you. Holy Spirit. You are the one that we are waiting for because we can't do anything without you. Jesus, we just want to honor you this morning. We just ask that each heart and each mind would be open to you this morning, that we would be sensitive to your spirit this morning. That, that we would have soft hearts to hear the message that you have for us this morning. Jesus. 4 (13m 55s): It's a challenging one. It's, but it's one that we want to absorb. It's one that we want to live up to Jesus. And so we're, we're here for you. We're waiting here for you. Jesus, we love you so much. Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All right, you can go ahead and take your seats. My name is Curtis and we've got 5 (14m 16s): My name's Greger Wade 4 (14m 17s): Greger, we're glad to be here with you this morning. If you're new here, we just wanna welcome you and let you know that we've got coffee and donuts out on the patio. So check those out. We've also got bathrooms behind the stage. While you can head down these hallways here and find those. Yeah, I think 5 (14m 38s): One second before we get into the announcements, if we have a seat next to us, could we squeeze in a little bit? We're all part of the body of Christ. We should all be comfortable next to each other, right? 4 (14m 48s): Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Jump squeeze in, you know, move to the middle if you need. Is anybody at the back looking for a spot? 5 (14m 56s): We got a few seats in the middle up here. 4 (14m 59s): Yeah, we got some 5 (14m 60s): On 4 (15m 0s): That row. Yeah, yeah. Come on, come on up. Got a couple people coming down if you wanna raise your hand, if you've got an open seat by, Yeah. Cool. 5 (15m 14s): Well welcome. Today is Family Sunday. Everyone first grade and up will be in the sanctuary here today with our family. This happens one every four Sunday, four Sunday of every month actually. So it's really special to just have the youth come in and be able to hear a message from Steve and just learn with their parents what their parents are learning. It's really nice and it's just a great way to grow in the faith. So, 4 (15m 44s): Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And learn from your parents and they can set an example for your kids and it's just an amazing thing. We really value that around here. If you need anything, if you're new here, we've got an info center at the back and two lovely people there who would love to help you. So yeah, Jo, head back there if you need anything at all. And then also we've got a worship and prayer night coming up. So that's not this, or not night, it's a morning. I did the same thing Jeremy did. Usually worship and prayer happens in the evenings, right? Am I just is it just comes out as a night. It's a morning. Okay. 8:00 AM is not the nighttime. That's the morning. So worship and prayer next Tuesday, not this coming Tuesday, but it's October 4th. 4 (16m 29s): Come check that out. It's gonna be really sweet. Just a great way to, you know, kick off the week, the second day of the week and it'll be really good. Yeah. 5 (16m 37s): And then on October 9th we have Pastor Appreciation Day. I messed this up. Last service. So glad I got it right this time. So we are going to be celebrating our pastors here and everything they've done for us, we thank you for Steve and Jeremy. So just give them some love in a few weeks on the ninth. Just appreciate them. Yeah, 4 (16m 59s): It's gonna be good. Yeah, bring a gift, you know, if you feel so led or a card or something, they're great. They've, they've been amazing. So also, the last thing is that we're gonna have Darren from Child Evangelism Fellowship come up and he's gonna share a little bit about what they're doing in their ministry and it's gonna be great. So let's, let's give Darren a warm welcome here. 7 (17m 26s): Hey, thank you so much. I just wanted to start out by just thanking you for all your, your support and partnership and reaching the children of the central coast for Jesus Christ. And that's what we're all about and helping people do that. I wanted just to share a little story with you this morning, and it really just starts with a couple who loved the Lord very much. They had a son and they tried to point him to Jesus. They tried to raise him up the way they thought God wanted him to do, but he made some decisions in his own life to, to not let God be a part of it. And that was just a heartbroken thing, you know, as a parent, that's the, the hardest thing you can have happen is to have your child reject the one that you love so much. 7 (18m 9s): And so he grew up, he got married, he had two wonderful girls of his own. And those parents, now, grandparents' hearts went out again because they're seeing these two precious girls be raised up, not even necessarily being pointed to the Lord at all. And so they started having some conversations with their son just asking, Is there any way we can bring the girls to church with us? And every time they brought it up, it was a point of contention and every time they brought it up, he said, No, but more time passed. The girls got a little bit older and they brought it up again. They said, You know, there's this, this program that's going on, it's called Good News Club. 7 (18m 52s): And would it be okay if the kids went to that? They will learn about the Bible and they will learn about God, but would it be okay if we picked him up each week, took him to that program and brought him home and they gave the green light. They said, Yep, you know what? We're okay with that. You can take him to the Good News Club. And those girls came, an older one in particular was just super eager to learn. Every week in Good News Club we're sharing a Bible story, something right out of God's word, that the stories turn into lessons. And because God's word is meant to instruct us, and there's a little memory verse that they'd learn every single week where they actually hide God's word in their heart. And there's, there's songs that, that are based in biblical truth that the kids get to learn. 7 (19m 34s): And so why I'm sharing you with this this morning is I got a little snippet into something I wouldn't normally get to see, but it's so exciting and encouraging to know that God's working in ways that we can't plan or make happen on our own. And the, the grandparents were invited over to dinner one night and they're there at the, the dinner table with their son, his wife, and two daughters. And they've been coming to Good News Club for a little while. And the interesting thing was, this wasn't even a song that I normally even teach in Good News Club. So I know God was doing something, I, I don't think I was just feeling nostalgic. I think God just said, Hey, let's do this. This week. 7 (20m 15s): And out of nowhere this little girl turns to her dad and looks at him and she sings, Oh friend, you love Jesus. This is his little girl. He loves her. He cares about her. He doesn't want her to feel rejected and he knows the song cuz he was raised learning it. And he got kind of red according to the grandparents. And then he kind of muffled out, Oh yes, I love Jesus. And his daughter jumped right on it. She says, Are you sure you love Jesus? 7 (20m 55s): And, and there's dad and it's a awkward, but he is like, Unfer, I love Jesus. And then the song goes on and she didn't miss a beat. Why do you love Jesus? And here he goes, because he first love me, right? And then there's a whole chorus and they sing it all together as a family at this table. Half of them believing what was sung and half of them not. But that was still God at work in a way that I could never plan for or make happen. But the Holy Spirit could do mighty and incredible things. And so that girl put her trust in Jesus Christ in Good News Club. 7 (21m 36s): And a couple years later, her younger sister did the same thing. And we kept in contact for years and they came back and would visit the club even as teenagers and came back and asked for tools and resources on how to share their faith with their peers when they got older too. And so there was just a a really cool ongoing thing. I got to see them grow up and and embrace God with their whole hearts and lives. And so that's why we do this. That's why we were out there because you know, those two girls and so many others don't get to decide whether or not they're brought to a wonderful place like this on Sunday morning. They don't get to make the choice on whether they go to Sunday school or sit out in a congregation with their parents. 7 (22m 18s): Like so many kids are here today, they're, they're stuck at home, not because they want to be there because they're not allowed to come. And so that's why we're taking the good news to them. That's why we're trying to take Sunday school to the public school and have a little Bible class right there where they are because so many parents are willing to let their kids go to that club, but they're not willing to bring them here on Sunday morning. But the good news is God's not finished when they receive Christ. They go home and they start bugging them to come to a place like this on Sunday morning. And we've seen that happen. Our whole families end up in church because of one child receiving Christ and God working through that child's life and the lives of their families and the lives of their parents. 7 (23m 0s): But on those school grounds, we, we want take the gospel to kids, but we also want to give the kids that are there that know Jesus an opportunity to share their faith with their unsafe friends and invite him to a club that they'll be more likely to attend. And so we appreciate your prayers and support. If that's something you'd like to actively get involved with, I'll be back there at the table in the back. If you feel God's calling you to help make that happen and move that forward, let us know. You don't have to be like this incredibly skilled Bible teacher. We need people that can walk kids to the bathroom and serve snacks and hand out prizes. So we come alongside you, we equip you, we give you everything you need because God's given all of us, everything we need. 7 (23m 41s): He's given us himself. So we thank you for helping us to share him with others and for being a part of it in whatever way God has called to. 8 (23m 49s): Thank you. 4 (23m 51s): Thank you Darren. Appreciate it. Appreciate you. All right. Yeah, if you wanna get more information from Darren, yeah, he'll be at the table at the back like you said. And now we're gonna be dismissed to get up and mingle with people around you. And we'll be back in just a minute. Thanks. 0 (25m 9s): The in Jesus the you 9 (28m 7s): Come on back. Come on back. Hey, welcome. It is Family Sunday. You know what that means, don't you? That means young people share with me their jokes and I have the privilege of sharing with you the jokes. And so this is from Olivia Harvey and she says, What has nobody and no knows, nobody knows. Nobody knows. So I owe Olivia five, but I actually gave, where is she here? 9 (28m 47s): Somewhere I gave, there she is. I gave $10 away already today. Cuz the deal is I pay for jokes for little guys, you know, little kids. I gave 'em five bucks per joke. So I, I owe Olivia. So come see me next week. And there might even be interest involved. There might be, I don't know, I can't make any promises, but I got another joke that I actually paid 10 bucks for cuz now he owes me a joke. I only had a $10 bill. He said, why was the diver embarrassed? Because he saw the oceans bottom. That'd be embarrassing. There's just no question. It's be embarrassing. 9 (29m 27s): It'd be embarrassing. Hey, I just wanna say thank you to a few people. I wanna say thank you to Jeremy who's just been doing a great job last couple Sundays. I don't know where he is, but yeah, you provide you some great messages. Wanna say thank you, say thank you to so many Harvest Church people who, like dozens of people volunteered for the Lifeline Bank. We had filled up three tables and then dozens of volunteers helping to serve and kinda make that night possible. And I'm so just in a humble way, so proud of you all and so thankful that Harvest Church. You're just people that just want to serve and take care of business and I'm so just so thankful and so grateful to be a part of who we are and what we're doing. 9 (30m 7s): Yeah, Paul 10 (30m 8s): Set the banquet. 9 (30m 9s): Yeah. 10 (30m 10s): Not only did Leslie and Carson set it all up for all the volunteers, it was on volunteer-wise it was probably 80% Harbor's church. Wow. And 20% the rest. Yeah. So big, big thank you to all of 9 (30m 27s): Them. Wow. Yeah. Thank you. 80% of the people. Yeah. Kathy, go ahead. I guess we're sharing. Go ahead. Kathy. What's this for? This for? For Olivia? Yes. What about the interest? I did very interested. No, no, no. I said that I would give her interest. Who else has got a $5 bill? Olivia, come on up here. Your 10 (30m 48s): Mother. 9 (30m 49s): Who else has got a five? This I promised interest. Anybody else got fives? Nobody's got five bucks. There it is, Olivia. Thanks Amanda. Best for you. Thanks for the joke. You're amazing. Thank you Olivia. I love giving kids money. It just makes their whole day, they're so happy about it. They can go to in and out and buy a hamburger. They can go buy whatever they want. It's just so much fun. Hey, also, thanks to everyone who came out yesterday for the Harvest Festival. We haven't had the Harvest Parade, the festival for a couple years and so things are kind of back to normal. 9 (31m 32s): And I, as I walked around the parade route, talking with people, everybody was so happy. Everybody was like so grateful to be back outside and nobody was wearing masks, everybody was just enjoying each other. And so thanks to everyone, we had dozens of people coming out for that, gave out hundreds of bottles of water and hundreds of balloons and, and we were just, just engaging the community and just loving on people and so much fun. So thanks to everyone who is just a part of what we do around here, you're having an impact in wonderful and supernatural ways, ways that we won't even be fully understanding until we get to the other side and, and, and have experienced an encounter and conversation with people who've been touched by what you've done. 9 (32m 15s): So thank you very, very much. Hey, we're taking a little break from our study and first Peter today taking a break from that and it just makes sense. Jeremy took a break from it for the last couple weeks. And so we're in what is called the Identity series. Our identity series. And so in this identity series we're gonna be talking about our core values. We're gonna be talking about our mission statement, our purpose statement. We're gonna be unpacking a little bit, not all of it, but our statement of faith. And the idea is just to kind of remind us, the last time I talked about these things were back, it was back in 2014. So it's important that we kind of revisit these core values from time to time. We're actually working on getting the core values posted in here. 9 (32m 56s): We just haven't done it since we've opened this space. We've got our mission statement on the window out there that says, impacting our community and our world with life changing message of Jesus Christ. That's just what we're all about. And so as we talk about our core values over these next four weeks, the core values are kind of what they act as the wheels on which we move forward as a church. And so who knew, who remembers the first core value? Mike Ferris We're committed to the lordship of Jesus Christ, right? We, what's the next one? Confident in the word of God. This is gonna be like rote here pretty quick. 9 (33m 37s): Confident in the word of God. What was number three called? Love All people. And number four created to serve God and others. And so they're all sea words in the beginning. So it just kind of helps us to understand what got us called us to. And the, again, these are kind of the wheels that we move forward on. We've got an old trailer at the house and we've had this trailer for years and it's just a small trailer, but we used it for making dump runs and just moving stuff. And we realized just in the last, I don't know, couple month or so that the wheels are really getting bad, the tires are just pretty worn out. And so we're actually gonna be loaning it out to a guy who's gonna take it down to Southern California. 9 (34m 17s): And we're like, we gotta get new wheels on this thing. If we don't, if you don't put new wheels on the trailer's gonna become pretty worthless, right? And then what happens with the trailer kind gets put to the side of the property and it becomes kind of a catch, it becomes worthless. It's not really being used for what it has been created for. And so we have to be careful as the church that we're doing what God has created us to do, that we're, that we're completing the work that God has called us to complete. And so if we don't keep focused by moving forward on truth, that truth helps us to make wise choices about how to move forward in ministry. Because as you know, there's probably a thousand different things that we could be doing in the ministry, but these core values help us to decide is this the right thing? 9 (35m 3s): Does this align with our core values? Does this keep us moving forward with our purpose and our mission and what God has created us to do some 20 years ago, almost 20 years ago? And so we're gonna be talking about core values for the next four weeks, again taking a break from the series, and I think it's just gonna be really, really good. And so we're gonna be in Roman chapter 10. I plan first service to get through all of the message. I just could not, I got 28 minutes and I just will, I will get through one point if it's turned out to be like first service. So that's all right, then we'll make the point and God will have his way. So with that, let's take a moment, pray and then we'll jump in. Thank you Lord, thank you that you are faithful to speak truth to us. 9 (35m 43s): God, we want to be faithful, to have ears to hear and eyes to see God. We wanna listen, we want to hear, we want to see, we wanna respond in Jesus name. So Lord, teach us, Lord help us to honor you with our attitude, with our response, and with our lives. Lord, we love you. We bless you Lord. In Jesus name, Amen. Committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 10, genuine Christianity begins. It actually begins and ends with the simple and sincere acknowledgement of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. This is where it all begins and ends. 9 (36m 25s): Where is Jesus in our lives? Does he hold the place of authority? The position of authority in our lives is Jesus the Lord of our lives. This seems like a small thing. This attitude though represents the greatest of all miracles. It's a supernatural thing for us to realize that we have a desperate need for the Lordship of Jesus Christ. While it cost, while it cost God nothing to become Lord of creation over creation, it cost him greatly to become your Lord. He died on the cross so that he might become your Lord. 9 (37m 7s): He sacrificed himself so that he might become your Lord. And so it cost him greatly to become your Lord. And he's challenging us today in the scriptures really of in the old and the New Testament. It's all the same message. It's all the message of Lordship and leadership as God in charge of our lives. And are we allowing him to be in charge of our lives? I was talking to a guy, young guy, 22, 23 years old after first service. And he said, You know, I've heard this message about Lordship a lot, but I don't, I don't understand it. What does it mean? 9 (37m 47s): You know? And that's a great question. I thought, Well, where in your life do you think that Jesus is not the Lord? And so he began to think and he's like, Oh yeah, I can think of some areas. I said, Well, so what are you gonna do about that? I, I said, You know, life is about deciding that Jesus is, you know, the Christian life is about deciding that Jesus is Lord and then getting up every day and doing something about it. So in your life where you are pretty sure that you're not following the Lord, you just make a course correction. 9 (38m 27s): You open up the scripture, the word of God, and you allow the spirit of God to direct you. And you say, Yeah, this is not actually, as I read the word, it's not properly reflecting my actions, my words, thoughts, deeds, I, there's actually some things in my life where I'm not following Lord. So I challenge this you man, I said, Well, so if there are things in your life, Lordship means that you're saying yes to the change. It's just that simple. It's not, yes, I said, You don't have to get up and pray about what socks you're going to wear. I said, You can do that. But that's not what we're talking about, right? We're not talking about that. We're just saying, Hey, in the arena of your life, does God get to direct you? 9 (39m 7s): Does he get to lead you? Is he the Lord of your life? And he said, Okay, I'm starting to get it. I said, Well, what are you gonna do about it? It's like, well, I guess I'm just gonna begin to let the Lord lead in every area of my life. And that's all we're talking about. We sometimes compartmentalize God and we say, Well, God can be Lord leader over this area, but not the other areas. Is is Jesus. Is Jesus the Lord of your life? Is Jesus the Lord of your life? Does Jesus have first place and first priority in your life? 9 (39m 51s): In a scene from CS Lewis's spiritual allegory, the Chronicles of Narnia, a young girl named Lucy is sent on a great mission by the Christ figure, Aslan the lion. As she travels by night, she notices this great beast sitting on a hill illuminated by a full moon excitedly Lucy runs to him and throws herself into his soft and silky Maine. Aslan rolls over and Lucy finds herself flying between his past looking up into his large face. 9 (40m 34s): Aslan, your bigger, bigger. Lucy says, In close proximity, you're really, really big. The me majestic creature answers that is, well that's because you're older. Little one Lucy confused by this remark asks, Not because you are not, because you aren't bigger. As Lynn assures her, I am, I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger. Isn't that interesting? 9 (41m 14s): And that is just a powerful reality. It so the part of the process in our lives as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ is this process of sanctification where we become more and more like God and less and less like our old selves. And so in that process of sanctification, we realized, recognize evaluating your lives that hey, God's not got Lordship in this area of my life. And so as we grow in faith, trusting Jesus over the course of our lives, believing God over the course of our lives, we have a greater capacity to see the bigness of God. And so in seeing the bigness of God, we have the capacity to trust him and allow him to be the Lord of our lives in a more significant way. 9 (42m 0s): And so every time we're made aware, an area of our lives where he's not the Lord, we're able to say, Hey, I think maybe in days or weeks or months past, you didn't have the grace or the faith for it. But now you see the bigness and the capacity and the strength and the power of God. And you're saying, You know what? I know that I can trust Jesus with this area of my life as well. And in that area of your life, you're able to grow in, in maturity. And the lordship of Jesus Christ becomes more obvious and more evident in your life. You may be struggling to believe that God is big enough to be Lord. 9 (42m 44s): Maybe in some areas he's big enough in your mind and understanding, but in other areas he's not big enough. You don't think highly, you don't have a great, a clear perspective on about who he is. I, I would just encourage us, and it's all part of the process for every single one of us that we would grow into a place of maturity whereby we're able year after year to trust him more and more too. Allow him to be Lord, maybe it's Lord of your marriage, finances, time, hobbies, relationships. 9 (43m 28s): You pick, there's probably thousands of things that we can kind of evaluate in our lives and ask this question Is, is Jesus Lord? Is he Lord of this area of my life? Is he Lord of that area of my life? Is he Lord of every area of my life? And so when Jesus is the Lord of your life, there's an amazing piece that follows that decision. You know, the world's trying to sell us all kinds of ways, you know, to find peace or joy, contentment, happiness, and it's all dead end roads. It's all a distraction to keep us from really trusting the lordship of Jesus Christ. 9 (44m 9s): The Bible says there's a way which seems right to a man, but the in there of is the way of death, right? So if we're not careful, we're following the wrong path, the wrong way. And it's gonna take us down a path of destruction. So when Jesus is Lord of our lives, we begin to experience all of the things that the world is trying to cram down our throats, convince us that will make us happy and satisfied and content. We have peace, we have direction, we have joy, joy, unspeakable, and full of glory. I've been talking with a few people this week who have lost a loved ones in their lives and yet they still have the joy of the Lord and the peace of God and the confidence in God. 9 (44m 57s): There's a sadness for sure. But the Bible says we don't weep as the world weeps without hope. We have, we have hope. And so there's problems that will come. There are circumstances that are gonna be unfavorable in our lives, but when Jesus is Lord, we can trust him because we're not in a bad place, because we made a bad choice. We're in a bad place just because it's life and bad things happen. If I'm in a bad place because I made a bad choice, then I'm just beating myself up. I'm like, ah, whatever. But if I'm in a bad place just trying to follow Jesus and I'm like, Lord, this is your deal. I'm gonna trust you. I believe you. You're the Lord of my life. And so what do you want to do with this? What do you want to do with this? 9 (45m 37s): There's just a great confidence that a company's not arrogance. There's no place in the kingdom for arrogance, but there's plenty of space in the kingdom for confidence. Confidence in who God is and what he's all about. When Jesus is the Lord of our lives, we can have a great deal of confidence. So without Lordship, we, we kind of act as a a maverick. We're kind of on our own. Last night, Joel and I were watching this Alaska. I love these outdoor shows. You know, these guys, all these people there, they're trying to create like a community in, you know, deep in Alaska, 200 miles from civilization. And it's all of these people trying to come together and they're all trying to work together for a common good to create a place where they can live. 9 (46m 23s): And so they've got a hundred days before the winter sets in. And when winter sets in in Alaska, you can't be like in a pub tent, right? You have to be like prepared. Like you don't want to be in a lightweight little bag and a pub tent because you will, you will freeze to death, right? And so they're trying to work together, but there's this one maverick guy who's just, just irresponsible and he's only working for his own gain and for his own purposes. And, and it's so frustrating to watch because you know, winter's coming. You got a hundred days to get ready for winter. And if you're a maverick separated from the Lordship of Jesus Christ separated from the body of Christ, when winter comes, you're gonna be all alone. 9 (47m 4s): So we were watching this, frustrated this guy, we're like, Dude, get a clue. Right? But we do the same thing in the church. We're like, act as mavericks independent spirits. We want to do our own thing. We don't want submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ. We don't want, we don't wanna be a part of the body of Christ because we kind of gotta figure it out until we wanna do our own thing and we don't want somebody else to tell us what to do, right? That's just humanism. Human natures the root of all sin, right? Don't tell me what I gotta do. Jesus asked in Luke 6 46 appointed question, He said, Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do what I tell you to do? 9 (47m 54s): Right? Jesus can ask those hard questions, right? Why do you call me Lord if you're not gonna do what I tell you to do? It's the fundamental essentials of our faith. If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead, if we shall be safe. So the the gateway to our faith, to our understanding is followers of the Lord Jesus Christ is lordship. We can't move forward as believers without lordship. We will stagnate and we will backslide and we will get Luke warm and we will follow away. If Jesus is not the Lord of our lives, this is the only way forward. Now we can look religious and do all kinds of things that look pious, but if Jesus is not the Lord of our lives, it's, it's, it's a pointless journey. 9 (48m 40s): It's an empty pursuit. Without lordship, we are left with a system with without salvation. And this is what Jesus was up against in the first centuries. We read Romans 10, we see that Jesus was immersed in a system where religious activity was happening all around him. But the salvation that came through Christ, the Lord was, was not being experienced by the religious people of his day. Paul Wrotten, Romans 10, one, Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to goddess for the people of Israel to be saved. 9 (49m 22s): I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it's misdirected zeal. So if you travel anywhere in the Middle East and go to Israel, it's just a very religious part of the world. And so you walk around, you see religious activity happening all over the place. People have religious hats and clothes and beards and sideburns and and decorations on their bodies there. There's religious activity happening all throughout the Middle East. Lots of praying, lots of religious activity, lots of is of enthusiasm and zeal. 9 (50m 3s): But as Jesus confronted the religious leaders of the day who were much like the people in the 21st entry in Israel in the Middle East, there was a lot of enthusiasm in ze. But enthusiasm and zeal don't lead to salvation. Enthusiasm is zeal it. It leads to dutiful religious activity due to full religious activity. Like I'm just wanting to kind of be looking religious, but I don't want my life changed because in order to get my life changed, I need to submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ. And that seems like a big leap. 9 (50m 44s): And so we fall into this trap of dutiful religious activity and we measure our spirituality by church attendance and by giving and serving. And those things are all okay as long as they're put in their proper order. So if we're going to church and giving and serving because our lives have been transformed because we've been born again because Jesus is changed us and saved us and redeemed us, then, then that's the right path. But if we're trying to put the cart before the horse and try to go to church and give and serve because we're trying to get the favor of God within, we've just got it all backwards. We've got a system of religion without salvation. 9 (51m 25s): None of these things apart from Christ lead to salvation. They may be good, but they can't save you. In fact, some of these religious things that we end up doing can actually keep us from a right relationship, the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. Because we're looking at things backwards. We're like, Wow, I'm, look at all the good things I'm doing. Look at all the activity, look at all my busyness. We say, Well that's good enough. And so we miss like the first century Jews, we miss what Jesus was trying to communicate. The good news says, My grace is efficient. You can't actually earn your salvation. 9 (52m 7s): We'll see that here in just a moment. So the truth is, salvation comes to those who recognize their inability to impress God or gain his favor through their own works and then come to God through the finished work of Christ. And even as I think about that and communicate that any burden to perform is lifted, right? Because we're not here to perform. We're here to live in relationship with Jesus where he gets to lead and be Lord of our lives. 9 (52m 52s): So God has prescribed a way of welcoming people into his kingdom. And his name is Jesus. It's just Jesus. Jesus told Thomas and John 14, six, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the alive. No one comes to the Father except through me. Back to Romans 10, Verse three says, Were they the Jews? They don't understand God's way of making people right with themself, refusing to accept God's way. They clinging to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law refusing to accept God's way. 9 (53m 37s): They come up with their own way trying to get right with God. There's only one way to be right with God. And that's through the person, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. James two 10 reminds us, for whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble at one point is guilty of it. Also, if you keep one through nine but don't get 10, you're guilty of breaking the whole law. So the law was given so that we would recognize our desperate need for grace. Romans 10, four, For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God. So what's the purpose of the law? 9 (54m 17s): Romans three 19. Obviously the law applies to those to whom it was given. It's purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world, the entire world, the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God. By doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. So take the 10 commandments off your wall and get it in your heart. The greatest commandment, love God and love others. It's all of the commandments, the law and the prophets. 9 (55m 1s): Hang on these love God and love others. So God first and out of your love for God, you will love others. Really, really so much, so much, so much better for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So without Lordship, we are left with a system without salvation. So Jesus came that we might have the fullness of abundant life. A religious system apart from Lordship is a broken system. And brokenness always begets brokenness. 9 (55m 43s): So we can't rely on a broken system to bring healing and wholeness to our lives. A broken system will always spring brokenness into our lives. So where in your life is Jesus not Lord? Where is Jesus in your life? Not honored as first and priority king leader, The one who can declare to us the way forward. Where in our lives sometimes we compartmentalize God and say in this area, God, I trust you, but not in this area. So what are you gonna do about that revelation when you realize it's in this area that I haven't been trusting him to be? 9 (56m 25s): Lord. Well I'll tell you to do what this young man, I told this young man to do after first serve. I said, just, just get up in the morning. Open up the Bible, right? Like open up. I said, because you'll get the same message in the old, in the New Testament, 66 books of the Bible with one message. And that one message is pointing us to Jesus. Same God in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament, not two separate Gods, one God, eternally existing in three persons of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. His truth is immutable, God is immutable. 9 (57m 5s): He changes, not he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So what is the Old Testament telling us about Lordship? Well, we can look at Moses life and say, well, Moses was a stutterer. Yeah, God called him to go to Pharaoh and to deliver the people of God out of Egypt. That just doesn't make any sense, right? Moses was adopted into Pharaoh's household. He had the riches and the wealth and the power and esteem, prestige of, of royalty. And yet he chose to honor God and to be a, an instrument in the hands of God. 9 (57m 52s): So what do we, what can we glean from that? Well, God uses broken people. Huh? Good. All right. Is that today? Is that true? Today? You better be. I'm not up here because I got something going on. I'm broken all together. What else can we learn about that? He equips What else? Go ahead. I'll just let somebody else speak up. Go ahead Neil. He equips. He equips. So who equips? Oh God, He equips, right? So Moses is a stuttering guy and shepherd. So what happened? God equipped and released into the work of ministry. What about Joseph? When he is in prison falsely accused, right? 9 (58m 33s): Falsely ac accused of inappropriate behavior. And so he's in jail because he's been falsely accused. So where's the, how do we see Lordship in that scenario? What did Joseph do when he was falsely accused sitting in a jail sale for no fault of his own? What did he do? Well, we know that he honored the Lord and, and every responsibility that he was given, he like cream rises to the top. He did it with excellence. And he was given authority over the jail. Jail. And he just kept a tender heart, right? When things were unfair, he kept a tender heart could have gotten hardened up. So what can we learn in the Old Testament? 9 (59m 15s): Lordship tender heart keeps us usable. Applyable heart makes us capable of being used. My God, what about the fishermen? The on the sea, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, They're fishermen. These guys are blue collar fishermen. They're untrained, uneducated. And Jesus walked by and said, Come and follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. What do they do? Why did it make any sense? Often we're trying to make sense of what God's calling us to do. We're making our decisions out of here instead of out of here. We're deciding on what will do for God based on what we can calculate or understand or make sense of in our brains. 9 (1h 0m 2s): Instead of asking this question, Lord, is this what you're calling me to do? And out of that awareness and out of that clarity, Because when Jesus is Lord of our lives, we get clarity about things that we've never had clarity about. And so when we sense it calling and an urging in our soul, we, we can press in and say, Lord, is this what you're calling me to do? Is this what you're asking me to do? It makes no sense. He didn't make any sense for Jesus to call the 12 that he called. He just made no sense. Who did he call though? He called those that were willing and he equipped and he sent them out. 9 (1h 0m 43s): And we're still talking about them. 2000 years later. Some 6,000 years. We're still talking about 'em. Why? Because they didn't, they didn't decide to make a what about Abraham? Abram? God said, Hey, I'm gonna take you somewhere you've never been before and you're gonna become a great nation. FM said, Well, I don't have any kids. I'm getting old. I don't really want to leave because I'm pretty comfortable here how things would've been different here in the 21st century. 9 (1h 1m 24s): We gotta get out of what we can't do and our limitations about what we're capable of doing. And just in our soul and our guts do what God has asked us to do. It's called Lordship. It's called Lordship. There are plenty people who told me I couldn't plant the church cuz I didn't know how and I didn't. And they were absolutely right. But I said, Well, if God's doing something, we might just try it, right? We might just, why not just try it? Why not? What is call God calling you to, to right now that you're calculating in your head? 9 (1h 2m 6s): Get outta your head, right? Like get, get outta your head. It will trip you up and stumble you all the days of your life. Cuz you'll read the scripture and you're like, Yeah, I, I don't think I can do that. And you're right, you can do it. And that's the whole idea. Lordship declares that he will do it through you and in spite of you, that's lordship. That's, that's the gospel. That's, that's what we see in the old and the New Testament. God using regular people, some very smart, The Apostle Paul was brilliant but broken, Incredibly smart, but on the wrong path. 9 (1h 2m 48s): Knew more than anybody else in the room but knew nothing about God. So he takes smart people and he takes dumb people. So I'll be on the dumb end and Paul will be on the smart end. And then everybody in between God will take dumb people and make 'em pretty, pretty brilliant. Others, not me. He will take. But this is the reality of who God is. So what, what are you not doing with your time, talents and treasure that you know that God has called you to step out and to do? What are you, what are you not doing? 9 (1h 3m 28s): And then why not? So get up. I'll tell you what, I told that 22 year old and I'm outta time in 10 seconds. Get up tomorrow. Now don't start tomorrow cuz you might forget it. Like do it right now. You say, Well does it make sense? I've got a plan for my time. I've got a plan for my talent and I've got a plan for my treasure and I like my plan better than God's plan. If that's your perspective, then just acknowledge Jesus is not the Lord of my life. Right? But don't lie about lordship and betray yourself and betray the don't, don't say just be intellectually and spiritually honest. 9 (1h 4m 21s): Think God's got, you know, he's got something to work with. But don't say, I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's my Lord and savior. But there's no such thing as a butt except for in my joke where the diver was embarrassed because he saw the bottom ocean's bottom. Is that what it was? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jojo's the man. He got the 10 bucks today by the way. So what have, what have we learned? We're kind of wrapping up here. What have, what have we learned and what are we gonna do about it? So it's a twofold question and maybe you're like, I've heard this before, but I've like never done anything about it. So what are you gonna do about it? 9 (1h 5m 2s): How, how is this challenge your perspective? Who wants to go first? I can pick somebody. I mean, it's not hard. I actually don't mind putting somebody on the spot. 11 (1h 5m 15s): Just kind not 12 (1h 5m 18s): Fill my calendar with all these things I have to do and then make room. 9 (1h 5m 23s): Yeah. You 12 (1h 5m 23s): Know, to do what I should do. 9 (1h 5m 26s): Yeah, just let God fill your calendar. I mean, there's things we gotta do. You gotta buy groceries, you gotta do whatever. You gotta get your car serviced. And so you're not saying, Lord, should I get my car service? You're, you know, like I, maybe you're saying, Lord, is this a good day or whatever. But you know, there's just regular response. We're not, it's not mystical. It's like, you know, you gotta take a shower, you know, you gotta eat. You know, you gotta, you know, do all of those things. So, Lord, what, what is it that you want to do with my day? And so if you've got people in your calendar that you've gotta connect with, connect with them, but then say, Lord, I don't wanna just operate outta my own understanding or wisdom. Lord, if there's something that is life giving that you want me to speak to this person, would you just show me what to speak? 9 (1h 6m 7s): And then by faith I'm gonna step out and say that, or pray for that or whatever. But Lord I you're leading. So I just wanna follow, See you doing it. I want to do it. Hear you saying it. I wanna say it. So it's not mystical, it's not hard, it's just, but it does require that we submit that we submit. Who else? Jolene, what have you my beloved. Just putting her on the spot again. Second service. What have you learned and what will you do about it? 12 (1h 6m 40s): Yeah, well I think for me, like the default is always fear. You know? Cause I like to be how I know they're gonna be and be predictable and be prepared for what's coming. And so I think just laying down that, that fear the lie that that God's plan is something for, to be feared when all he's ever done is be faithful to me. When I step out. He always shows up. It's the most exciting and awesome and powerful, amazing place to be. And yet I think the enemy just turns it around. Oh no, it's scary, it's different. It's gonna be, you know, it's not the same as it was last time. And so, you know, I'm stepping out of this different way in faith. 12 (1h 7m 21s): And so I think just acknowledging, I don't want agree with the enemy. He's lying to me and saying, this is a scary thing when God has never been anything but someone I can trust someone who has the best plan. I'm gonna miss out if I don't step out and walk in with this plan has, 9 (1h 7m 40s): You know, who the most godly person in our household is, is Jolene. She's the reason, that's the reason I fell in love with her right there. The fear in our culture dominates our decision making and our process. We, we are fearful about everything. And so we allow that fear to dictate to us what we will and will not do. So remembering that God has always been good, he will always continue to be good. And when things are hard, because things always get hard in different seasons, He will be faithful. 9 (1h 8m 25s): He will be faithful. 13 (1h 8m 31s): Just being obedient to when the Lord is putting on your heart, just step out in faith is what I found the biggest. And I've seen opportunities when I felt the timing of my from the Lord and I missed out because of fear. And then I see how what came to pass a bit. And the Lord could have used me for that, but yet I didn't. So the biggest thing is when the Lord, and if you step out in faith and it doesn't, you don't see anything but you, you are obedient to the Lord. And that's just what he wants from you. The but wants. 9 (1h 8m 60s): Yeah. Yeah. We walk by faith and not by sight. Heather, 10 (1h 9m 7s): I can second what she's saying. Okay. I think you're called something and you do it. There's blessing Yeah. Out. 9 (1h 9m 17s): Hmm. Yeah. There's blessing in it, right? Yeah. So when you're called to do something and you step into it, there's blessing. Yeah. Jim Kessler, you Oh, 10 (1h 9m 31s): I was trying to hide behind 9 (1h 9m 33s): You got a bald guy hiding out of all guys. It's not good. 10 (1h 9m 40s): Oh gosh. You know what? I sitting next to my wife, but I, I gotta let the Lord be in control of my attitude towards my in-laws. 9 (1h 9m 54s): That's rubber meets the road reality, right? Yeah. Yeah. 10 (1h 9m 60s): I, I don't, I can't go in detail right now, but we don't 9 (1h 10m 5s): All like resonate, right? 10 (1h 10m 7s): I just daily. Yeah. So, 9 (1h 10m 11s): So lordship doesn't give you permission to harbor a bad attitude towards your in-laws, right? Yeah. Nailed it. Okay. Steven? 10 (1h 10m 37s): No, I think the first come 9 (1h 10m 39s): Up here does, Do we have a microphone? Yeah. Get get a microphone from your wife there. There we go. This is my MiniMe here, but he's actually bigger than me. You're a little whiter. I'm a little whiter. Yeah. Whiter. Yeah. Like w h I t Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one. Just call me fat in his own loving way. All right, go ahead. Tell us what you've learned and what you're gonna do about it. 14 (1h 11m 6s): I think it's weird being up here. I think, I think the first thing that you talked about when you talked about Aslan in, you know, the Narnia books and CS Lewis, I was thinking about how Lucy went up to Aslan and that, what I remember about Lucy in, in those books is that she was very, she was like the most committed to Aslan and the most believing in the strong, Her faith was the strongest in Aslan as that symbol of Christ in the books and the movies. And I think, you know, when ASN was like, Oh yes, I'm, I'm bigger because you're older, But she was older and and wiser and she had grown in her faith. 14 (1h 11m 46s): And so I think that that growth in her faith had allowed Aslan to grow in her life. So God was bigger in her life because her faith had increased. And, and so I think, and inverse of that would be, you know, like letting that fear take hold and not, and then I guess submitting to the fear rather than submitting to God. And, and, and then that, you know, as land within shrink and become smaller and, and so I think, and then it can be harder and harder to hear the Lord and to feel that conviction of, hey, this is what, this is what God's calling me to do. 14 (1h 12m 26s): And so I think just even those little things like you were saying over here about, you know, whether if you feel like God's calling you to do something, you'll be fearful of it and, and step out in faith because you could use it and you could see the, the rewards down the road and, and not doing it in, in seeking that blessing or seeking that reward, but doing it out of, out of that love for the Lord in that, you know, faith without actions. Is that 9 (1h 12m 52s): So, Yeah, that's, I'm enjoying this. What, what else in this season of your life, being married for the last seven, eight months, this wonderful lady over here and in transition a little bit with your, what, where's the Lord, Lord of your life and all of this decision making? 14 (1h 13m 11s): Yeah, It's been, as, as many of you who have been married and on an outside of marriage, we know the communication aspect has been very difficult. What's 9 (1h 13m 22s): Been, what's been difficult? Marriage, Sorry, go. I'm not, 14 (1h 13m 27s): Yeah, the communication aspect has been really tough cuz we're, we're very different people. We're like, we're pretty much exact opposites and so, and the way that we just communicate in daily life, so it can be like the simplest thing, but it's just, we, we see it in complete opposite ways. So getting to that conclusion of like, oh, this is how I see it. So then it's just like, Lord, we need your help. And, and just the simple day to day stuff, like how, like even what time to do the dishes, you know, it's like just all the little things like every, every, every little part of life. And so that's what, and then, you know, moving students, finding a new, new place to live. Just, just every little bit of our life, we're just having to continually over and over again be reminded. 14 (1h 14m 10s): It's like we need the Lord in this, this part of life is, all of life is difficult all of life. There's decisions to be made that affect the rest of your life every day. So have being able to submit those things to the Lord and, and, and say, hey, this is, you know, this may seem small, but it's going to affect us down the line. And so in that communication thing, being able to, you know, not let anything slide by or ignore things and, and just be on top. 15 (1h 14m 39s): Do it alone. Do it alone. Go ahead. 14 (1h 14m 40s): Yeah. Okay. So I'm gonna invite the worship team up. 15 (1h 14m 50s): Gonna 14 (1h 14m 50s): Go ahead and pray this out for the day, 15 (1h 14m 54s): Otherwise 14 (1h 14m 54s): My dad will just keep asking me questions. So thank you Lord, for this day, for this time, this awesome message that Pastor Steve has brought today. We're so grateful to be able to listen and learn and just take away all the little nuggets of wisdom and all the literal alliteration in the, in the, you know, circling back to the jokes about the ocean's bottom and just all, all the little things. They, they, they seem literal, but they, they keep our attention and they keep us focused on the message and focused on what, what we're learning through it. And so we just pray that throughout this week we just, our focus would remain on you, Lord, that that would be the first and foremost most important thing. 14 (1h 15m 40s): In that way we encounter those people that need to hear about you and you are telling us and urging us to communicate with them and to reach out to them. We pray that we would respond and be faithful and, And to, and just remember to love you. And then when we get that voice in our ear that's telling us, Hey, this is weird, or this is awkward, or this is, you know, this isn't what society does today. Like why, why would you do that? You're gonna be judged and they're not gonna appreciate it Cuz the reality is people love being loved and people need to be loved and we need to be love and light for the Lord, for Jesus cuz he sacrificed it all so that we could be that for him. 14 (1h 16m 27s): So I pray that we be that this week, Lord and Jesus, thank 0 (1h 16m 38s): You. Stand as we worship. 1 (1h 18m 34s): The song is. 3 (1h 19m 34s): Thank you Father, that this is just the beginning. This is just the beginning of saying your name, of praising you and lifting you high. Thank you for the authority we have in you. You never leave us and you never forsake us. 0 (1h 19m 55s): Would 3 (1h 19m 56s): You go before us this week? Would we remind ourselves to call on you at any moment, at any time? 0 (1h 20m 6s): It's 3 (1h 20m 7s): In your precious and holy name we pray. Amen.

1 (2s): Good morning 2 (3s): Everyone. We're so happy to see you here this morning and seeing the kids in here is Family Sunday. What a joy it's gonna be to worship together as a whole body of Christ. Just invite you to stand with us as we sing. 1 (24s): Who am I that the highest? Oh 0 (2m 4s): You. 0 (3m 2s): Yes. 1 (3m 10s): There's a 0 (3m 11s): Place for 1 (3m 18s): God. 1 (3m 60s): All these pieces broken and scattered in mercy. Gathered I've, I can see yourself. 0 (5m 20s): Oh, 1 (5m 42s): You said your, So take this Lord, I'll be oh. 1 (6m 35s): Oh. I can see the love your eyes laying yourself. 0 (7m 25s): Amazing. 1 (8m 25s): I The 3 (8m 51s): We praise you, Jesus, We praise you in this place this morning. 0 (9m 8s): Come 1 (9m 9s): On. We sing together. If faith can s lets move. We come with the expectation waiting here. You're the Lord of our creation. Still know my found from, We're waiting here. 1 (10m 42s): You everything promised your, 0 (11m 3s): We're 1 (11m 4s): Waiting 0 (11m 4s): Here. 0 (12m 32s): We're 4 (13m 15s): Lord, we love you so much. We can't do anything without you, Jesus. And we don't want to. We love you. And we just want to glorify your name this morning. We're waiting here for you. Holy Spirit. You are the one that we are waiting for because we can't do anything without you. Jesus, we just want to honor you this morning. We just ask that each heart and each mind would be open to you this morning, that we would be sensitive to your spirit this morning. That, that we would have soft hearts to hear the message that you have for us this morning. Jesus. 4 (13m 55s): It's a challenging one. It's, but it's one that we want to absorb. It's one that we want to live up to Jesus. And so we're, we're here for you. We're waiting here for you. Jesus, we love you so much. Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All right, you can go ahead and take your seats. My name is Curtis and we've got 5 (14m 16s): My name's Greger Wade 4 (14m 17s): Greger, we're glad to be here with you this morning. If you're new here, we just wanna welcome you and let you know that we've got coffee and donuts out on the patio. So check those out. We've also got bathrooms behind the stage. While you can head down these hallways here and find those. Yeah, I think 5 (14m 38s): One second before we get into the announcements, if we have a seat next to us, could we squeeze in a little bit? We're all part of the body of Christ. We should all be comfortable next to each other, right? 4 (14m 48s): Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Jump squeeze in, you know, move to the middle if you need. Is anybody at the back looking for a spot? 5 (14m 56s): We got a few seats in the middle up here. 4 (14m 59s): Yeah, we got some 5 (14m 60s): On 4 (15m 0s): That row. Yeah, yeah. Come on, come on up. Got a couple people coming down if you wanna raise your hand, if you've got an open seat by, Yeah. Cool. 5 (15m 14s): Well welcome. Today is Family Sunday. Everyone first grade and up will be in the sanctuary here today with our family. This happens one every four Sunday, four Sunday of every month actually. So it's really special to just have the youth come in and be able to hear a message from Steve and just learn with their parents what their parents are learning. It's really nice and it's just a great way to grow in the faith. So, 4 (15m 44s): Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And learn from your parents and they can set an example for your kids and it's just an amazing thing. We really value that around here. If you need anything, if you're new here, we've got an info center at the back and two lovely people there who would love to help you. So yeah, Jo, head back there if you need anything at all. And then also we've got a worship and prayer night coming up. So that's not this, or not night, it's a morning. I did the same thing Jeremy did. Usually worship and prayer happens in the evenings, right? Am I just is it just comes out as a night. It's a morning. Okay. 8:00 AM is not the nighttime. That's the morning. So worship and prayer next Tuesday, not this coming Tuesday, but it's October 4th. 4 (16m 29s): Come check that out. It's gonna be really sweet. Just a great way to, you know, kick off the week, the second day of the week and it'll be really good. Yeah. 5 (16m 37s): And then on October 9th we have Pastor Appreciation Day. I messed this up. Last service. So glad I got it right this time. So we are going to be celebrating our pastors here and everything they've done for us, we thank you for Steve and Jeremy. So just give them some love in a few weeks on the ninth. Just appreciate them. Yeah, 4 (16m 59s): It's gonna be good. Yeah, bring a gift, you know, if you feel so led or a card or something, they're great. They've, they've been amazing. So also, the last thing is that we're gonna have Darren from Child Evangelism Fellowship come up and he's gonna share a little bit about what they're doing in their ministry and it's gonna be great. So let's, let's give Darren a warm welcome here. 7 (17m 26s): Hey, thank you so much. I just wanted to start out by just thanking you for all your, your support and partnership and reaching the children of the central coast for Jesus Christ. And that's what we're all about and helping people do that. I wanted just to share a little story with you this morning, and it really just starts with a couple who loved the Lord very much. They had a son and they tried to point him to Jesus. They tried to raise him up the way they thought God wanted him to do, but he made some decisions in his own life to, to not let God be a part of it. And that was just a heartbroken thing, you know, as a parent, that's the, the hardest thing you can have happen is to have your child reject the one that you love so much. 7 (18m 9s): And so he grew up, he got married, he had two wonderful girls of his own. And those parents, now, grandparents' hearts went out again because they're seeing these two precious girls be raised up, not even necessarily being pointed to the Lord at all. And so they started having some conversations with their son just asking, Is there any way we can bring the girls to church with us? And every time they brought it up, it was a point of contention and every time they brought it up, he said, No, but more time passed. The girls got a little bit older and they brought it up again. They said, You know, there's this, this program that's going on, it's called Good News Club. 7 (18m 52s): And would it be okay if the kids went to that? They will learn about the Bible and they will learn about God, but would it be okay if we picked him up each week, took him to that program and brought him home and they gave the green light. They said, Yep, you know what? We're okay with that. You can take him to the Good News Club. And those girls came, an older one in particular was just super eager to learn. Every week in Good News Club we're sharing a Bible story, something right out of God's word, that the stories turn into lessons. And because God's word is meant to instruct us, and there's a little memory verse that they'd learn every single week where they actually hide God's word in their heart. And there's, there's songs that, that are based in biblical truth that the kids get to learn. 7 (19m 34s): And so why I'm sharing you with this this morning is I got a little snippet into something I wouldn't normally get to see, but it's so exciting and encouraging to know that God's working in ways that we can't plan or make happen on our own. And the, the grandparents were invited over to dinner one night and they're there at the, the dinner table with their son, his wife, and two daughters. And they've been coming to Good News Club for a little while. And the interesting thing was, this wasn't even a song that I normally even teach in Good News Club. So I know God was doing something, I, I don't think I was just feeling nostalgic. I think God just said, Hey, let's do this. This week. 7 (20m 15s): And out of nowhere this little girl turns to her dad and looks at him and she sings, Oh friend, you love Jesus. This is his little girl. He loves her. He cares about her. He doesn't want her to feel rejected and he knows the song cuz he was raised learning it. And he got kind of red according to the grandparents. And then he kind of muffled out, Oh yes, I love Jesus. And his daughter jumped right on it. She says, Are you sure you love Jesus? 7 (20m 55s): And, and there's dad and it's a awkward, but he is like, Unfer, I love Jesus. And then the song goes on and she didn't miss a beat. Why do you love Jesus? And here he goes, because he first love me, right? And then there's a whole chorus and they sing it all together as a family at this table. Half of them believing what was sung and half of them not. But that was still God at work in a way that I could never plan for or make happen. But the Holy Spirit could do mighty and incredible things. And so that girl put her trust in Jesus Christ in Good News Club. 7 (21m 36s): And a couple years later, her younger sister did the same thing. And we kept in contact for years and they came back and would visit the club even as teenagers and came back and asked for tools and resources on how to share their faith with their peers when they got older too. And so there was just a a really cool ongoing thing. I got to see them grow up and and embrace God with their whole hearts and lives. And so that's why we do this. That's why we were out there because you know, those two girls and so many others don't get to decide whether or not they're brought to a wonderful place like this on Sunday morning. They don't get to make the choice on whether they go to Sunday school or sit out in a congregation with their parents. 7 (22m 18s): Like so many kids are here today, they're, they're stuck at home, not because they want to be there because they're not allowed to come. And so that's why we're taking the good news to them. That's why we're trying to take Sunday school to the public school and have a little Bible class right there where they are because so many parents are willing to let their kids go to that club, but they're not willing to bring them here on Sunday morning. But the good news is God's not finished when they receive Christ. They go home and they start bugging them to come to a place like this on Sunday morning. And we've seen that happen. Our whole families end up in church because of one child receiving Christ and God working through that child's life and the lives of their families and the lives of their parents. 7 (23m 0s): But on those school grounds, we, we want take the gospel to kids, but we also want to give the kids that are there that know Jesus an opportunity to share their faith with their unsafe friends and invite him to a club that they'll be more likely to attend. And so we appreciate your prayers and support. If that's something you'd like to actively get involved with, I'll be back there at the table in the back. If you feel God's calling you to help make that happen and move that forward, let us know. You don't have to be like this incredibly skilled Bible teacher. We need people that can walk kids to the bathroom and serve snacks and hand out prizes. So we come alongside you, we equip you, we give you everything you need because God's given all of us, everything we need. 7 (23m 41s): He's given us himself. So we thank you for helping us to share him with others and for being a part of it in whatever way God has called to. 8 (23m 49s): Thank you. 4 (23m 51s): Thank you Darren. Appreciate it. Appreciate you. All right. Yeah, if you wanna get more information from Darren, yeah, he'll be at the table at the back like you said. And now we're gonna be dismissed to get up and mingle with people around you. And we'll be back in just a minute. Thanks. 0 (25m 9s): The in Jesus the you 9 (28m 7s): Come on back. Come on back. Hey, welcome. It is Family Sunday. You know what that means, don't you? That means young people share with me their jokes and I have the privilege of sharing with you the jokes. And so this is from Olivia Harvey and she says, What has nobody and no knows, nobody knows. Nobody knows. So I owe Olivia five, but I actually gave, where is she here? 9 (28m 47s): Somewhere I gave, there she is. I gave $10 away already today. Cuz the deal is I pay for jokes for little guys, you know, little kids. I gave 'em five bucks per joke. So I, I owe Olivia. So come see me next week. And there might even be interest involved. There might be, I don't know, I can't make any promises, but I got another joke that I actually paid 10 bucks for cuz now he owes me a joke. I only had a $10 bill. He said, why was the diver embarrassed? Because he saw the oceans bottom. That'd be embarrassing. There's just no question. It's be embarrassing. 9 (29m 27s): It'd be embarrassing. Hey, I just wanna say thank you to a few people. I wanna say thank you to Jeremy who's just been doing a great job last couple Sundays. I don't know where he is, but yeah, you provide you some great messages. Wanna say thank you, say thank you to so many Harvest Church people who, like dozens of people volunteered for the Lifeline Bank. We had filled up three tables and then dozens of volunteers helping to serve and kinda make that night possible. And I'm so just in a humble way, so proud of you all and so thankful that Harvest Church. You're just people that just want to serve and take care of business and I'm so just so thankful and so grateful to be a part of who we are and what we're doing. 9 (30m 7s): Yeah, Paul 10 (30m 8s): Set the banquet. 9 (30m 9s): Yeah. 10 (30m 10s): Not only did Leslie and Carson set it all up for all the volunteers, it was on volunteer-wise it was probably 80% Harbor's church. Wow. And 20% the rest. Yeah. So big, big thank you to all of 9 (30m 27s): Them. Wow. Yeah. Thank you. 80% of the people. Yeah. Kathy, go ahead. I guess we're sharing. Go ahead. Kathy. What's this for? This for? For Olivia? Yes. What about the interest? I did very interested. No, no, no. I said that I would give her interest. Who else has got a $5 bill? Olivia, come on up here. Your 10 (30m 48s): Mother. 9 (30m 49s): Who else has got a five? This I promised interest. Anybody else got fives? Nobody's got five bucks. There it is, Olivia. Thanks Amanda. Best for you. Thanks for the joke. You're amazing. Thank you Olivia. I love giving kids money. It just makes their whole day, they're so happy about it. They can go to in and out and buy a hamburger. They can go buy whatever they want. It's just so much fun. Hey, also, thanks to everyone who came out yesterday for the Harvest Festival. We haven't had the Harvest Parade, the festival for a couple years and so things are kind of back to normal. 9 (31m 32s): And I, as I walked around the parade route, talking with people, everybody was so happy. Everybody was like so grateful to be back outside and nobody was wearing masks, everybody was just enjoying each other. And so thanks to everyone, we had dozens of people coming out for that, gave out hundreds of bottles of water and hundreds of balloons and, and we were just, just engaging the community and just loving on people and so much fun. So thanks to everyone who is just a part of what we do around here, you're having an impact in wonderful and supernatural ways, ways that we won't even be fully understanding until we get to the other side and, and, and have experienced an encounter and conversation with people who've been touched by what you've done. 9 (32m 15s): So thank you very, very much. Hey, we're taking a little break from our study and first Peter today taking a break from that and it just makes sense. Jeremy took a break from it for the last couple weeks. And so we're in what is called the Identity series. Our identity series. And so in this identity series we're gonna be talking about our core values. We're gonna be talking about our mission statement, our purpose statement. We're gonna be unpacking a little bit, not all of it, but our statement of faith. And the idea is just to kind of remind us, the last time I talked about these things were back, it was back in 2014. So it's important that we kind of revisit these core values from time to time. We're actually working on getting the core values posted in here. 9 (32m 56s): We just haven't done it since we've opened this space. We've got our mission statement on the window out there that says, impacting our community and our world with life changing message of Jesus Christ. That's just what we're all about. And so as we talk about our core values over these next four weeks, the core values are kind of what they act as the wheels on which we move forward as a church. And so who knew, who remembers the first core value? Mike Ferris We're committed to the lordship of Jesus Christ, right? We, what's the next one? Confident in the word of God. This is gonna be like rote here pretty quick. 9 (33m 37s): Confident in the word of God. What was number three called? Love All people. And number four created to serve God and others. And so they're all sea words in the beginning. So it just kind of helps us to understand what got us called us to. And the, again, these are kind of the wheels that we move forward on. We've got an old trailer at the house and we've had this trailer for years and it's just a small trailer, but we used it for making dump runs and just moving stuff. And we realized just in the last, I don't know, couple month or so that the wheels are really getting bad, the tires are just pretty worn out. And so we're actually gonna be loaning it out to a guy who's gonna take it down to Southern California. 9 (34m 17s): And we're like, we gotta get new wheels on this thing. If we don't, if you don't put new wheels on the trailer's gonna become pretty worthless, right? And then what happens with the trailer kind gets put to the side of the property and it becomes kind of a catch, it becomes worthless. It's not really being used for what it has been created for. And so we have to be careful as the church that we're doing what God has created us to do, that we're, that we're completing the work that God has called us to complete. And so if we don't keep focused by moving forward on truth, that truth helps us to make wise choices about how to move forward in ministry. Because as you know, there's probably a thousand different things that we could be doing in the ministry, but these core values help us to decide is this the right thing? 9 (35m 3s): Does this align with our core values? Does this keep us moving forward with our purpose and our mission and what God has created us to do some 20 years ago, almost 20 years ago? And so we're gonna be talking about core values for the next four weeks, again taking a break from the series, and I think it's just gonna be really, really good. And so we're gonna be in Roman chapter 10. I plan first service to get through all of the message. I just could not, I got 28 minutes and I just will, I will get through one point if it's turned out to be like first service. So that's all right, then we'll make the point and God will have his way. So with that, let's take a moment, pray and then we'll jump in. Thank you Lord, thank you that you are faithful to speak truth to us. 9 (35m 43s): God, we want to be faithful, to have ears to hear and eyes to see God. We wanna listen, we want to hear, we want to see, we wanna respond in Jesus name. So Lord, teach us, Lord help us to honor you with our attitude, with our response, and with our lives. Lord, we love you. We bless you Lord. In Jesus name, Amen. Committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 10, genuine Christianity begins. It actually begins and ends with the simple and sincere acknowledgement of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. This is where it all begins and ends. 9 (36m 25s): Where is Jesus in our lives? Does he hold the place of authority? The position of authority in our lives is Jesus the Lord of our lives. This seems like a small thing. This attitude though represents the greatest of all miracles. It's a supernatural thing for us to realize that we have a desperate need for the Lordship of Jesus Christ. While it cost, while it cost God nothing to become Lord of creation over creation, it cost him greatly to become your Lord. He died on the cross so that he might become your Lord. 9 (37m 7s): He sacrificed himself so that he might become your Lord. And so it cost him greatly to become your Lord. And he's challenging us today in the scriptures really of in the old and the New Testament. It's all the same message. It's all the message of Lordship and leadership as God in charge of our lives. And are we allowing him to be in charge of our lives? I was talking to a guy, young guy, 22, 23 years old after first service. And he said, You know, I've heard this message about Lordship a lot, but I don't, I don't understand it. What does it mean? 9 (37m 47s): You know? And that's a great question. I thought, Well, where in your life do you think that Jesus is not the Lord? And so he began to think and he's like, Oh yeah, I can think of some areas. I said, Well, so what are you gonna do about that? I, I said, You know, life is about deciding that Jesus is, you know, the Christian life is about deciding that Jesus is Lord and then getting up every day and doing something about it. So in your life where you are pretty sure that you're not following the Lord, you just make a course correction. 9 (38m 27s): You open up the scripture, the word of God, and you allow the spirit of God to direct you. And you say, Yeah, this is not actually, as I read the word, it's not properly reflecting my actions, my words, thoughts, deeds, I, there's actually some things in my life where I'm not following Lord. So I challenge this you man, I said, Well, so if there are things in your life, Lordship means that you're saying yes to the change. It's just that simple. It's not, yes, I said, You don't have to get up and pray about what socks you're going to wear. I said, You can do that. But that's not what we're talking about, right? We're not talking about that. We're just saying, Hey, in the arena of your life, does God get to direct you? 9 (39m 7s): Does he get to lead you? Is he the Lord of your life? And he said, Okay, I'm starting to get it. I said, Well, what are you gonna do about it? It's like, well, I guess I'm just gonna begin to let the Lord lead in every area of my life. And that's all we're talking about. We sometimes compartmentalize God and we say, Well, God can be Lord leader over this area, but not the other areas. Is is Jesus. Is Jesus the Lord of your life? Is Jesus the Lord of your life? Does Jesus have first place and first priority in your life? 9 (39m 51s): In a scene from CS Lewis's spiritual allegory, the Chronicles of Narnia, a young girl named Lucy is sent on a great mission by the Christ figure, Aslan the lion. As she travels by night, she notices this great beast sitting on a hill illuminated by a full moon excitedly Lucy runs to him and throws herself into his soft and silky Maine. Aslan rolls over and Lucy finds herself flying between his past looking up into his large face. 9 (40m 34s): Aslan, your bigger, bigger. Lucy says, In close proximity, you're really, really big. The me majestic creature answers that is, well that's because you're older. Little one Lucy confused by this remark asks, Not because you are not, because you aren't bigger. As Lynn assures her, I am, I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger. Isn't that interesting? 9 (41m 14s): And that is just a powerful reality. It so the part of the process in our lives as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ is this process of sanctification where we become more and more like God and less and less like our old selves. And so in that process of sanctification, we realized, recognize evaluating your lives that hey, God's not got Lordship in this area of my life. And so as we grow in faith, trusting Jesus over the course of our lives, believing God over the course of our lives, we have a greater capacity to see the bigness of God. And so in seeing the bigness of God, we have the capacity to trust him and allow him to be the Lord of our lives in a more significant way. 9 (42m 0s): And so every time we're made aware, an area of our lives where he's not the Lord, we're able to say, Hey, I think maybe in days or weeks or months past, you didn't have the grace or the faith for it. But now you see the bigness and the capacity and the strength and the power of God. And you're saying, You know what? I know that I can trust Jesus with this area of my life as well. And in that area of your life, you're able to grow in, in maturity. And the lordship of Jesus Christ becomes more obvious and more evident in your life. You may be struggling to believe that God is big enough to be Lord. 9 (42m 44s): Maybe in some areas he's big enough in your mind and understanding, but in other areas he's not big enough. You don't think highly, you don't have a great, a clear perspective on about who he is. I, I would just encourage us, and it's all part of the process for every single one of us that we would grow into a place of maturity whereby we're able year after year to trust him more and more too. Allow him to be Lord, maybe it's Lord of your marriage, finances, time, hobbies, relationships. 9 (43m 28s): You pick, there's probably thousands of things that we can kind of evaluate in our lives and ask this question Is, is Jesus Lord? Is he Lord of this area of my life? Is he Lord of that area of my life? Is he Lord of every area of my life? And so when Jesus is the Lord of your life, there's an amazing piece that follows that decision. You know, the world's trying to sell us all kinds of ways, you know, to find peace or joy, contentment, happiness, and it's all dead end roads. It's all a distraction to keep us from really trusting the lordship of Jesus Christ. 9 (44m 9s): The Bible says there's a way which seems right to a man, but the in there of is the way of death, right? So if we're not careful, we're following the wrong path, the wrong way. And it's gonna take us down a path of destruction. So when Jesus is Lord of our lives, we begin to experience all of the things that the world is trying to cram down our throats, convince us that will make us happy and satisfied and content. We have peace, we have direction, we have joy, joy, unspeakable, and full of glory. I've been talking with a few people this week who have lost a loved ones in their lives and yet they still have the joy of the Lord and the peace of God and the confidence in God. 9 (44m 57s): There's a sadness for sure. But the Bible says we don't weep as the world weeps without hope. We have, we have hope. And so there's problems that will come. There are circumstances that are gonna be unfavorable in our lives, but when Jesus is Lord, we can trust him because we're not in a bad place, because we made a bad choice. We're in a bad place just because it's life and bad things happen. If I'm in a bad place because I made a bad choice, then I'm just beating myself up. I'm like, ah, whatever. But if I'm in a bad place just trying to follow Jesus and I'm like, Lord, this is your deal. I'm gonna trust you. I believe you. You're the Lord of my life. And so what do you want to do with this? What do you want to do with this? 9 (45m 37s): There's just a great confidence that a company's not arrogance. There's no place in the kingdom for arrogance, but there's plenty of space in the kingdom for confidence. Confidence in who God is and what he's all about. When Jesus is the Lord of our lives, we can have a great deal of confidence. So without Lordship, we, we kind of act as a a maverick. We're kind of on our own. Last night, Joel and I were watching this Alaska. I love these outdoor shows. You know, these guys, all these people there, they're trying to create like a community in, you know, deep in Alaska, 200 miles from civilization. And it's all of these people trying to come together and they're all trying to work together for a common good to create a place where they can live. 9 (46m 23s): And so they've got a hundred days before the winter sets in. And when winter sets in in Alaska, you can't be like in a pub tent, right? You have to be like prepared. Like you don't want to be in a lightweight little bag and a pub tent because you will, you will freeze to death, right? And so they're trying to work together, but there's this one maverick guy who's just, just irresponsible and he's only working for his own gain and for his own purposes. And, and it's so frustrating to watch because you know, winter's coming. You got a hundred days to get ready for winter. And if you're a maverick separated from the Lordship of Jesus Christ separated from the body of Christ, when winter comes, you're gonna be all alone. 9 (47m 4s): So we were watching this, frustrated this guy, we're like, Dude, get a clue. Right? But we do the same thing in the church. We're like, act as mavericks independent spirits. We want to do our own thing. We don't want submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ. We don't want, we don't wanna be a part of the body of Christ because we kind of gotta figure it out until we wanna do our own thing and we don't want somebody else to tell us what to do, right? That's just humanism. Human natures the root of all sin, right? Don't tell me what I gotta do. Jesus asked in Luke 6 46 appointed question, He said, Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do what I tell you to do? 9 (47m 54s): Right? Jesus can ask those hard questions, right? Why do you call me Lord if you're not gonna do what I tell you to do? It's the fundamental essentials of our faith. If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead, if we shall be safe. So the the gateway to our faith, to our understanding is followers of the Lord Jesus Christ is lordship. We can't move forward as believers without lordship. We will stagnate and we will backslide and we will get Luke warm and we will follow away. If Jesus is not the Lord of our lives, this is the only way forward. Now we can look religious and do all kinds of things that look pious, but if Jesus is not the Lord of our lives, it's, it's, it's a pointless journey. 9 (48m 40s): It's an empty pursuit. Without lordship, we are left with a system with without salvation. And this is what Jesus was up against in the first centuries. We read Romans 10, we see that Jesus was immersed in a system where religious activity was happening all around him. But the salvation that came through Christ, the Lord was, was not being experienced by the religious people of his day. Paul Wrotten, Romans 10, one, Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to goddess for the people of Israel to be saved. 9 (49m 22s): I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it's misdirected zeal. So if you travel anywhere in the Middle East and go to Israel, it's just a very religious part of the world. And so you walk around, you see religious activity happening all over the place. People have religious hats and clothes and beards and sideburns and and decorations on their bodies there. There's religious activity happening all throughout the Middle East. Lots of praying, lots of religious activity, lots of is of enthusiasm and zeal. 9 (50m 3s): But as Jesus confronted the religious leaders of the day who were much like the people in the 21st entry in Israel in the Middle East, there was a lot of enthusiasm in ze. But enthusiasm and zeal don't lead to salvation. Enthusiasm is zeal it. It leads to dutiful religious activity due to full religious activity. Like I'm just wanting to kind of be looking religious, but I don't want my life changed because in order to get my life changed, I need to submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ. And that seems like a big leap. 9 (50m 44s): And so we fall into this trap of dutiful religious activity and we measure our spirituality by church attendance and by giving and serving. And those things are all okay as long as they're put in their proper order. So if we're going to church and giving and serving because our lives have been transformed because we've been born again because Jesus is changed us and saved us and redeemed us, then, then that's the right path. But if we're trying to put the cart before the horse and try to go to church and give and serve because we're trying to get the favor of God within, we've just got it all backwards. We've got a system of religion without salvation. 9 (51m 25s): None of these things apart from Christ lead to salvation. They may be good, but they can't save you. In fact, some of these religious things that we end up doing can actually keep us from a right relationship, the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. Because we're looking at things backwards. We're like, Wow, I'm, look at all the good things I'm doing. Look at all the activity, look at all my busyness. We say, Well that's good enough. And so we miss like the first century Jews, we miss what Jesus was trying to communicate. The good news says, My grace is efficient. You can't actually earn your salvation. 9 (52m 7s): We'll see that here in just a moment. So the truth is, salvation comes to those who recognize their inability to impress God or gain his favor through their own works and then come to God through the finished work of Christ. And even as I think about that and communicate that any burden to perform is lifted, right? Because we're not here to perform. We're here to live in relationship with Jesus where he gets to lead and be Lord of our lives. 9 (52m 52s): So God has prescribed a way of welcoming people into his kingdom. And his name is Jesus. It's just Jesus. Jesus told Thomas and John 14, six, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the alive. No one comes to the Father except through me. Back to Romans 10, Verse three says, Were they the Jews? They don't understand God's way of making people right with themself, refusing to accept God's way. They clinging to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law refusing to accept God's way. 9 (53m 37s): They come up with their own way trying to get right with God. There's only one way to be right with God. And that's through the person, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. James two 10 reminds us, for whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble at one point is guilty of it. Also, if you keep one through nine but don't get 10, you're guilty of breaking the whole law. So the law was given so that we would recognize our desperate need for grace. Romans 10, four, For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God. So what's the purpose of the law? 9 (54m 17s): Romans three 19. Obviously the law applies to those to whom it was given. It's purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world, the entire world, the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God. By doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. So take the 10 commandments off your wall and get it in your heart. The greatest commandment, love God and love others. It's all of the commandments, the law and the prophets. 9 (55m 1s): Hang on these love God and love others. So God first and out of your love for God, you will love others. Really, really so much, so much, so much better for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So without Lordship, we are left with a system without salvation. So Jesus came that we might have the fullness of abundant life. A religious system apart from Lordship is a broken system. And brokenness always begets brokenness. 9 (55m 43s): So we can't rely on a broken system to bring healing and wholeness to our lives. A broken system will always spring brokenness into our lives. So where in your life is Jesus not Lord? Where is Jesus in your life? Not honored as first and priority king leader, The one who can declare to us the way forward. Where in our lives sometimes we compartmentalize God and say in this area, God, I trust you, but not in this area. So what are you gonna do about that revelation when you realize it's in this area that I haven't been trusting him to be? 9 (56m 25s): Lord. Well I'll tell you to do what this young man, I told this young man to do after first serve. I said, just, just get up in the morning. Open up the Bible, right? Like open up. I said, because you'll get the same message in the old, in the New Testament, 66 books of the Bible with one message. And that one message is pointing us to Jesus. Same God in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament, not two separate Gods, one God, eternally existing in three persons of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. His truth is immutable, God is immutable. 9 (57m 5s): He changes, not he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So what is the Old Testament telling us about Lordship? Well, we can look at Moses life and say, well, Moses was a stutterer. Yeah, God called him to go to Pharaoh and to deliver the people of God out of Egypt. That just doesn't make any sense, right? Moses was adopted into Pharaoh's household. He had the riches and the wealth and the power and esteem, prestige of, of royalty. And yet he chose to honor God and to be a, an instrument in the hands of God. 9 (57m 52s): So what do we, what can we glean from that? Well, God uses broken people. Huh? Good. All right. Is that today? Is that true? Today? You better be. I'm not up here because I got something going on. I'm broken all together. What else can we learn about that? He equips What else? Go ahead. I'll just let somebody else speak up. Go ahead Neil. He equips. He equips. So who equips? Oh God, He equips, right? So Moses is a stuttering guy and shepherd. So what happened? God equipped and released into the work of ministry. What about Joseph? When he is in prison falsely accused, right? 9 (58m 33s): Falsely ac accused of inappropriate behavior. And so he's in jail because he's been falsely accused. So where's the, how do we see Lordship in that scenario? What did Joseph do when he was falsely accused sitting in a jail sale for no fault of his own? What did he do? Well, we know that he honored the Lord and, and every responsibility that he was given, he like cream rises to the top. He did it with excellence. And he was given authority over the jail. Jail. And he just kept a tender heart, right? When things were unfair, he kept a tender heart could have gotten hardened up. So what can we learn in the Old Testament? 9 (59m 15s): Lordship tender heart keeps us usable. Applyable heart makes us capable of being used. My God, what about the fishermen? The on the sea, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, They're fishermen. These guys are blue collar fishermen. They're untrained, uneducated. And Jesus walked by and said, Come and follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. What do they do? Why did it make any sense? Often we're trying to make sense of what God's calling us to do. We're making our decisions out of here instead of out of here. We're deciding on what will do for God based on what we can calculate or understand or make sense of in our brains. 9 (1h 0m 2s): Instead of asking this question, Lord, is this what you're calling me to do? And out of that awareness and out of that clarity, Because when Jesus is Lord of our lives, we get clarity about things that we've never had clarity about. And so when we sense it calling and an urging in our soul, we, we can press in and say, Lord, is this what you're calling me to do? Is this what you're asking me to do? It makes no sense. He didn't make any sense for Jesus to call the 12 that he called. He just made no sense. Who did he call though? He called those that were willing and he equipped and he sent them out. 9 (1h 0m 43s): And we're still talking about them. 2000 years later. Some 6,000 years. We're still talking about 'em. Why? Because they didn't, they didn't decide to make a what about Abraham? Abram? God said, Hey, I'm gonna take you somewhere you've never been before and you're gonna become a great nation. FM said, Well, I don't have any kids. I'm getting old. I don't really want to leave because I'm pretty comfortable here how things would've been different here in the 21st century. 9 (1h 1m 24s): We gotta get out of what we can't do and our limitations about what we're capable of doing. And just in our soul and our guts do what God has asked us to do. It's called Lordship. It's called Lordship. There are plenty people who told me I couldn't plant the church cuz I didn't know how and I didn't. And they were absolutely right. But I said, Well, if God's doing something, we might just try it, right? We might just, why not just try it? Why not? What is call God calling you to, to right now that you're calculating in your head? 9 (1h 2m 6s): Get outta your head, right? Like get, get outta your head. It will trip you up and stumble you all the days of your life. Cuz you'll read the scripture and you're like, Yeah, I, I don't think I can do that. And you're right, you can do it. And that's the whole idea. Lordship declares that he will do it through you and in spite of you, that's lordship. That's, that's the gospel. That's, that's what we see in the old and the New Testament. God using regular people, some very smart, The Apostle Paul was brilliant but broken, Incredibly smart, but on the wrong path. 9 (1h 2m 48s): Knew more than anybody else in the room but knew nothing about God. So he takes smart people and he takes dumb people. So I'll be on the dumb end and Paul will be on the smart end. And then everybody in between God will take dumb people and make 'em pretty, pretty brilliant. Others, not me. He will take. But this is the reality of who God is. So what, what are you not doing with your time, talents and treasure that you know that God has called you to step out and to do? What are you, what are you not doing? 9 (1h 3m 28s): And then why not? So get up. I'll tell you what, I told that 22 year old and I'm outta time in 10 seconds. Get up tomorrow. Now don't start tomorrow cuz you might forget it. Like do it right now. You say, Well does it make sense? I've got a plan for my time. I've got a plan for my talent and I've got a plan for my treasure and I like my plan better than God's plan. If that's your perspective, then just acknowledge Jesus is not the Lord of my life. Right? But don't lie about lordship and betray yourself and betray the don't, don't say just be intellectually and spiritually honest. 9 (1h 4m 21s): Think God's got, you know, he's got something to work with. But don't say, I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's my Lord and savior. But there's no such thing as a butt except for in my joke where the diver was embarrassed because he saw the bottom ocean's bottom. Is that what it was? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jojo's the man. He got the 10 bucks today by the way. So what have, what have we learned? We're kind of wrapping up here. What have, what have we learned and what are we gonna do about it? So it's a twofold question and maybe you're like, I've heard this before, but I've like never done anything about it. So what are you gonna do about it? 9 (1h 5m 2s): How, how is this challenge your perspective? Who wants to go first? I can pick somebody. I mean, it's not hard. I actually don't mind putting somebody on the spot. 11 (1h 5m 15s): Just kind not 12 (1h 5m 18s): Fill my calendar with all these things I have to do and then make room. 9 (1h 5m 23s): Yeah. You 12 (1h 5m 23s): Know, to do what I should do. 9 (1h 5m 26s): Yeah, just let God fill your calendar. I mean, there's things we gotta do. You gotta buy groceries, you gotta do whatever. You gotta get your car serviced. And so you're not saying, Lord, should I get my car service? You're, you know, like I, maybe you're saying, Lord, is this a good day or whatever. But you know, there's just regular response. We're not, it's not mystical. It's like, you know, you gotta take a shower, you know, you gotta eat. You know, you gotta, you know, do all of those things. So, Lord, what, what is it that you want to do with my day? And so if you've got people in your calendar that you've gotta connect with, connect with them, but then say, Lord, I don't wanna just operate outta my own understanding or wisdom. Lord, if there's something that is life giving that you want me to speak to this person, would you just show me what to speak? 9 (1h 6m 7s): And then by faith I'm gonna step out and say that, or pray for that or whatever. But Lord I you're leading. So I just wanna follow, See you doing it. I want to do it. Hear you saying it. I wanna say it. So it's not mystical, it's not hard, it's just, but it does require that we submit that we submit. Who else? Jolene, what have you my beloved. Just putting her on the spot again. Second service. What have you learned and what will you do about it? 12 (1h 6m 40s): Yeah, well I think for me, like the default is always fear. You know? Cause I like to be how I know they're gonna be and be predictable and be prepared for what's coming. And so I think just laying down that, that fear the lie that that God's plan is something for, to be feared when all he's ever done is be faithful to me. When I step out. He always shows up. It's the most exciting and awesome and powerful, amazing place to be. And yet I think the enemy just turns it around. Oh no, it's scary, it's different. It's gonna be, you know, it's not the same as it was last time. And so, you know, I'm stepping out of this different way in faith. 12 (1h 7m 21s): And so I think just acknowledging, I don't want agree with the enemy. He's lying to me and saying, this is a scary thing when God has never been anything but someone I can trust someone who has the best plan. I'm gonna miss out if I don't step out and walk in with this plan has, 9 (1h 7m 40s): You know, who the most godly person in our household is, is Jolene. She's the reason, that's the reason I fell in love with her right there. The fear in our culture dominates our decision making and our process. We, we are fearful about everything. And so we allow that fear to dictate to us what we will and will not do. So remembering that God has always been good, he will always continue to be good. And when things are hard, because things always get hard in different seasons, He will be faithful. 9 (1h 8m 25s): He will be faithful. 13 (1h 8m 31s): Just being obedient to when the Lord is putting on your heart, just step out in faith is what I found the biggest. And I've seen opportunities when I felt the timing of my from the Lord and I missed out because of fear. And then I see how what came to pass a bit. And the Lord could have used me for that, but yet I didn't. So the biggest thing is when the Lord, and if you step out in faith and it doesn't, you don't see anything but you, you are obedient to the Lord. And that's just what he wants from you. The but wants. 9 (1h 8m 60s): Yeah. Yeah. We walk by faith and not by sight. Heather, 10 (1h 9m 7s): I can second what she's saying. Okay. I think you're called something and you do it. There's blessing Yeah. Out. 9 (1h 9m 17s): Hmm. Yeah. There's blessing in it, right? Yeah. So when you're called to do something and you step into it, there's blessing. Yeah. Jim Kessler, you Oh, 10 (1h 9m 31s): I was trying to hide behind 9 (1h 9m 33s): You got a bald guy hiding out of all guys. It's not good. 10 (1h 9m 40s): Oh gosh. You know what? I sitting next to my wife, but I, I gotta let the Lord be in control of my attitude towards my in-laws. 9 (1h 9m 54s): That's rubber meets the road reality, right? Yeah. Yeah. 10 (1h 9m 60s): I, I don't, I can't go in detail right now, but we don't 9 (1h 10m 5s): All like resonate, right? 10 (1h 10m 7s): I just daily. Yeah. So, 9 (1h 10m 11s): So lordship doesn't give you permission to harbor a bad attitude towards your in-laws, right? Yeah. Nailed it. Okay. Steven? 10 (1h 10m 37s): No, I think the first come 9 (1h 10m 39s): Up here does, Do we have a microphone? Yeah. Get get a microphone from your wife there. There we go. This is my MiniMe here, but he's actually bigger than me. You're a little whiter. I'm a little whiter. Yeah. Whiter. Yeah. Like w h I t Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one. Just call me fat in his own loving way. All right, go ahead. Tell us what you've learned and what you're gonna do about it. 14 (1h 11m 6s): I think it's weird being up here. I think, I think the first thing that you talked about when you talked about Aslan in, you know, the Narnia books and CS Lewis, I was thinking about how Lucy went up to Aslan and that, what I remember about Lucy in, in those books is that she was very, she was like the most committed to Aslan and the most believing in the strong, Her faith was the strongest in Aslan as that symbol of Christ in the books and the movies. And I think, you know, when ASN was like, Oh yes, I'm, I'm bigger because you're older, But she was older and and wiser and she had grown in her faith. 14 (1h 11m 46s): And so I think that that growth in her faith had allowed Aslan to grow in her life. So God was bigger in her life because her faith had increased. And, and so I think, and inverse of that would be, you know, like letting that fear take hold and not, and then I guess submitting to the fear rather than submitting to God. And, and, and then that, you know, as land within shrink and become smaller and, and so I think, and then it can be harder and harder to hear the Lord and to feel that conviction of, hey, this is what, this is what God's calling me to do. 14 (1h 12m 26s): And so I think just even those little things like you were saying over here about, you know, whether if you feel like God's calling you to do something, you'll be fearful of it and, and step out in faith because you could use it and you could see the, the rewards down the road and, and not doing it in, in seeking that blessing or seeking that reward, but doing it out of, out of that love for the Lord in that, you know, faith without actions. Is that 9 (1h 12m 52s): So, Yeah, that's, I'm enjoying this. What, what else in this season of your life, being married for the last seven, eight months, this wonderful lady over here and in transition a little bit with your, what, where's the Lord, Lord of your life and all of this decision making? 14 (1h 13m 11s): Yeah, It's been, as, as many of you who have been married and on an outside of marriage, we know the communication aspect has been very difficult. What's 9 (1h 13m 22s): Been, what's been difficult? Marriage, Sorry, go. I'm not, 14 (1h 13m 27s): Yeah, the communication aspect has been really tough cuz we're, we're very different people. We're like, we're pretty much exact opposites and so, and the way that we just communicate in daily life, so it can be like the simplest thing, but it's just, we, we see it in complete opposite ways. So getting to that conclusion of like, oh, this is how I see it. So then it's just like, Lord, we need your help. And, and just the simple day to day stuff, like how, like even what time to do the dishes, you know, it's like just all the little things like every, every, every little part of life. And so that's what, and then, you know, moving students, finding a new, new place to live. Just, just every little bit of our life, we're just having to continually over and over again be reminded. 14 (1h 14m 10s): It's like we need the Lord in this, this part of life is, all of life is difficult all of life. There's decisions to be made that affect the rest of your life every day. So have being able to submit those things to the Lord and, and, and say, hey, this is, you know, this may seem small, but it's going to affect us down the line. And so in that communication thing, being able to, you know, not let anything slide by or ignore things and, and just be on top. 15 (1h 14m 39s): Do it alone. Do it alone. Go ahead. 14 (1h 14m 40s): Yeah. Okay. So I'm gonna invite the worship team up. 15 (1h 14m 50s): Gonna 14 (1h 14m 50s): Go ahead and pray this out for the day, 15 (1h 14m 54s): Otherwise 14 (1h 14m 54s): My dad will just keep asking me questions. So thank you Lord, for this day, for this time, this awesome message that Pastor Steve has brought today. We're so grateful to be able to listen and learn and just take away all the little nuggets of wisdom and all the literal alliteration in the, in the, you know, circling back to the jokes about the ocean's bottom and just all, all the little things. They, they, they seem literal, but they, they keep our attention and they keep us focused on the message and focused on what, what we're learning through it. And so we just pray that throughout this week we just, our focus would remain on you, Lord, that that would be the first and foremost most important thing. 14 (1h 15m 40s): In that way we encounter those people that need to hear about you and you are telling us and urging us to communicate with them and to reach out to them. We pray that we would respond and be faithful and, And to, and just remember to love you. And then when we get that voice in our ear that's telling us, Hey, this is weird, or this is awkward, or this is, you know, this isn't what society does today. Like why, why would you do that? You're gonna be judged and they're not gonna appreciate it Cuz the reality is people love being loved and people need to be loved and we need to be love and light for the Lord, for Jesus cuz he sacrificed it all so that we could be that for him. 14 (1h 16m 27s): So I pray that we be that this week, Lord and Jesus, thank 0 (1h 16m 38s): You. Stand as we worship. 1 (1h 18m 34s): The song is. 3 (1h 19m 34s): Thank you Father, that this is just the beginning. This is just the beginning of saying your name, of praising you and lifting you high. Thank you for the authority we have in you. You never leave us and you never forsake us. 0 (1h 19m 55s): Would 3 (1h 19m 56s): You go before us this week? Would we remind ourselves to call on you at any moment, at any time? 0 (1h 20m 6s): It's 3 (1h 20m 7s): In your precious and holy name we pray. Amen.

0 (0s): Good morning harvest church. Let's 1 (3s): Come together. Let's stand and worship our Lord and savior Jesus Christ this morning. Amen. 0 (31s): Worship hockey. Come let bow his feet. He has John Gray things. 2 (45s): See 0 (45s): What a savior has done. See how his loves. He has done great things. 2 (58s): He 0 (59s): Has done great things. D oh, hero of heaven. You conquer the you free and cat and break every, oh God, you have done great. We, your you've been faithful through every store. 0 (1m 49s): You'll be faithful forever. You have great beans. You conquer the great, you free recap and break every chain. 0 (2m 30s): God, you have to, we, oh God, you have done great things. Sing. Hallelujah, 2 (2m 56s): Hallelujah. 0 (2m 58s): Above it. Hall hall. You done great things. Great things. And hall it. God shakeable you have done great things. You've done great things. Oh, hero of heaven. You conquer 2 (3m 36s): The great you 0 (3m 38s): See and break every chain. Oh God, you have done great days. We, your freedom alive. Oh Jesus. I save lived. Oh God, you have done great. Oh of heaven. You conquer. And, and 2 (4m 10s): Every, 0 (4m 11s): Oh God, 2 (4m 13s): You, 0 (4m 21s): Oh, savior, great. You great things. God, you, 2 (4m 47s): Oh, great 3 (4m 52s): Church. We're gonna sing a song called new wine. And this week, as I have been meditating on the lyrics, I've been in Matthew, Matthew nine, where talks about how you can't have new wine and old wine skins. And you can't have old wine and new wine skins. You have to have new wine and new wine skins. And I don't know about you, but I know that God wants to bring new wine out of my life. And I know he wants to bring new wine out of your lives as well. So would you sing this with me 2 (5m 43s): In the, 0 (5m 57s): To 2 (6m 30s): You 0 (6m 42s): The, in the soil 2 (7m 17s): Make me 0 (7m 18s): Your 2 (7m 24s): Make me, 0 (7m 37s): Me, 2 (7m 39s): Jesus, 0 (7m 50s): Outta out being 2 (8m 18s): A, 0 (8m 44s): Do five sing. Make me, so make me your, make me, me, whatever you want to. But all 2 (9m 14s): You 0 (9m 15s): Have given me Jesus out me. Jesus, 2 (9m 31s): Jesus. 0 (9m 55s): Out your spirit out your, we need your love. We need your love church. If you feel comfortable, would you just raise up your voice and sing out a song to a word in this moment? Love leg, your 2 (10m 40s): Me 0 (10m 41s): And me, whatever you want me to be. God, the Jesus out me. Jesus, Jesus out. 0 (11m 46s): And could not hold you the on before you 2 (11m 53s): You sign and the you, your what name? 2 (13m 3s): Name? The you're hitting. 2 (14m 21s): So what, what 0 (14m 56s): A, what a, 2 (15m 36s): The, 0 (15m 50s): Do you have? No. The what? 2 (17m 13s): Powerful name? Powerful name. What a powerful name, name? 0 (17m 48s): What 4 (18m 0s): We praise Jesus. You're so good. God, nothing compares to you. You have no rival and you have no equal Jesus. You are incredible. We lift your name high. We praise you in this place Lord. And when the world is chasing after this thing or that Lord in this house, we praise the Lord. We praise the Lord above all else. Jesus, because we realize our hope is in you, Lord. You are so, so, so good. And Lord, I just pray over every person here, the circumstances in their lives that they're coming in with Lord, you can address them. 4 (18m 44s): You can heal them. You can pour your love out on them. Jesus, your holy spirit is the great, the wonderful counselor. Jesus, you are the wonderful counselor. And so Lord, I just pray that you would counsel each person in this room. Lord, I just asked that each person would open their hearts and open their minds because you want to speak to us this morning. Jesus. And we want to hear from you. God, you are so good. We humble ourselves before you. We just exalt your name this morning. Jesus. We love you so much. And it's in his name. Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. 4 (19m 25s): All right. You can take your seats and thank you worship team. Thank you, Jesus. Let's give Jesus a hand. Woo. So good. All right. Well thank you for being here this morning. My name is Curtis. It's great to have you all here today. If you are new here, we've got a couple things for you. We've got coffee and tea out on the patio. We've got bathrooms down these hallways and water back there as well. So make yourself at home. We're we're really glad that you're here. We've got some stuff happening around here and we just encourage you to connect. So one of those things is that to be able to connect with you, we have to have your information. 4 (20m 8s): We have to have some way like your email or your phone number or something. And we would love to that. We would love for you to do that. And that's just a way for us to be able to get you on the email updates and all of that. So you can connect with life groups and really just so your walk with the Lord can continue to grow. So we wanna empower you. We wanna walk with you in that. So if you'd like, and you haven't done it yet, or if it's been a long time, since you've given us your information and maybe it's outdated, you can head back to the info center and fill out your info there. And we'd love to connect with you in that way. The next thing is that we've got a outreach happening this next Saturday. 4 (20m 47s): The harvest festival is gonna be happening. Lots of people right outside this building that we get to love on and just encourage. So at the harvest festival, we are gonna be out front, handing out love first and foremost. And then also we got water bottles and balloons for the kids and stuff like that. So if you want to come by, we're gonna be here from 8 45 to noon and just to love on the people coming by, they're coming right to our front doors. And so how can we pass that opportunity up? It's gonna be great. So we'd love for you to join us. Also, we've got our Bonko for babies event. This is gonna be to support lifeline and all of the unexpected pregnancies, the, the young girls and young boys, young men who are having unexpected pregnancies. 4 (21m 32s): If you wanna support them, head back to the info center and, and learn more about how you can get connected to that event. It's gonna be awesome. The last thing is that the Christian ethics class that I announced last week, apparently I did a really bad job explaining it. So, so these are some of the questions that we're gonna be talking about in the Christian ethics class, Dr. Stacy, Harmon's gonna be leading it. And it's just gonna be a powerful time to kind of dig into some of the harder questions in our lives. So if Sarah live today, we should get an IVF. Did Sampson commit suicide and our frozen embryos alive and have a soul. So these are just some of the questions that they'll be discussing. And it just kind of helps you dig into your faith a little bit and get some, get some Bible behind you. 4 (22m 16s): So if you wanna do that, it's gonna be on Thursdays at six 30 in the loft. So you can sign up at the info center for that. And then in just a minute, we're gonna be having Jeremy come back up and he's gonna share. The second part of his series of the veil is getting thinner and it's gonna be really great. But right now we're gonna have you get up and meet somebody you haven't met before. And we'll be back in just a minute. Thanks. 6 (24m 10s): All right. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. So glad to see you all fellowshiping. What a great Sunday morning I, I gave the children's ministry. That, that, that heads up that I'm gonna go a little long. Alright. So I guess we need every bit of 35 minutes and plus more to get through the content for today, but I'm excited to be here. 6 (24m 56s): I'm I'm, I'm grateful for Steve who gave me once again, another privilege to come and share this. It seems like it's resonating with a lot of you. So that, that encouragement encourages me. I, I hope that you're digging in hope. You've looked at those passages. I hope you continue to do that. I, I, I hope you never just take, you know, a preacher's word for it. I hope you go back and really study and find it in the word of God. So that be principle from acts chapter 17, but I'm glad to be here sharing this message. Once again, we're talking about the veil is getting thinner and, and this and this, this thing that we're seeing and witnessing and around our world about the supernatural getting mixed or, or getting mingled with the natural realm. 6 (25m 44s): So what's what last week we really dug into like, what's, what's going on? What, what is, what is this, why are, why is the government releasing all this UFO stuff? Now? Why, why is this stuff happening? So we, we dug into that a little bit last week. If you missed that message, I would really encourage you to go back after this and, and listen to that, dig in steady. But so as we dig in, let me just give you the answer. Jesus is the answer. Okay? Jesus is the answer. Let's pray and we'll dig in heavenly father. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the complexities in it. We thank you that my daughters, a seven year old, a 10 year old can read your Bible and know it and understand it and coming to a saving knowledge Lord, but we're also thankful for a lifetime of study. 6 (26m 36s): Could never mind the depths of which your holy scriptures have Lord and what they, how they speak into our life and our culture, our context, the things that we're going through Lord. So we pray Lord that we would have the wherewithal to have to dig into the meat of the word of God, to be able to chew on these things. Lord. So Lord to God, as we open up your scriptures, Lord, speak to us in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Let me tell you about three rebellions in the Bible. Because to the, the, the, to the biblical authors to the, the first century Jews, there was, there was three main rebellions that they understood that we've kind of lost sight of. 6 (27m 16s): We, we UN we know the first rebellion. That was the rebellion that happened in Genesis Genesis, chapter three, with the fall of man, kind of the fall of Adam, that sin that was passed on through Adam's sin of, of disobeying God, he, the sin that came upon him and the death, that how that was passed on through Adam to us. Now, we understand that Jesus came to undo and to pay for the penalty of that sin by dine on the cross, thereby giving us life. We understand that as Western Christians that is accurate, but what we missed is that they're actually in the old Testament, there was two more divine rebellions that happened. 6 (27m 56s): And it all goes back to the Genesis chapter one through 11, the more you understand, the more you dig into what was happening in Genesis chapters, one through 11, the more the, you will unlock the different complexities of the Bible of the word of God. Revelation will become something that you'll understand more greatly. As you understand the context of Genesis chapters, one through 11. The second rebellion is what we really talked about last week, the rebellion of the sons of God, see God made man in his own image and the image, God, he created the male and female. He created them. God made man in his own image and he placed his own code into us, but then the sons of God and their rebellion and, and, and justice, chapter six, they came and they tried to implant their own image on humanity. 6 (28m 43s): That's what the whole thing was. There was the mixing of the sons of God with the daughters of, of, of men. And so that was Genesis chapter through this, the second rebellion, these angels, these sons of God, rebelled of God's natural habitation for them and Jesus in his ministry was became not only to undo the fall of our sin of Genesis chapter three, but he also came to, to reclaim and to undo the sin of these sons of God. That's why Jesus so often, and throughout the scriptures, we see that Jesus came against many demons like March chapter one, verse 23. It says now there was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit. 6 (29m 25s): Whoa, wait a second. There's a church. And there's a man with an unclean spirit, a demonic spirit within him, a church that still happens today. But that man began to climb out, you know, who led us alone? Who have we to do with you? Jesus of Nather. You did you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You're the holy one of God. And Jesus cast him out. He rebuked him, caused him to be quiet because Jesus came to undo the fall of the sons of God. And not only that, but all three gospels record that Jesus went up onto a mountain and was transfigured before his disciples and then was joined by Moses and Elijah. That is because Jesus was showing himself to be greater than these sons of God. 6 (30m 9s): He was showing not only his disciples, but he was showing the evil, spiritual realm that he was God in flesh. And he was coming for them. The third rebellion that we find in scripture is the rebellion at Genesis chapter 11 at the tower of vowel, God blessed no one, his sons. And he says, go out and be fruitful and multiply. But one of those sons decided that they were not gonna do that. They were gonna then gather up the nations into one and they were gonna build a tower, remember to try to get above the flood as well, but to build a tower, to, to get to the heavens. And so they were building this tower. They gathered the nation into one place under the leadership of one person into one government. 6 (30m 56s): And not only that, but they Satan led this merging technology, human centered ATIC religion and a global government. All that was found in the, the supernatural rebellion in Genesis chapter 11. This is what Todd Hamson who wrote the book, the nonprofits guide to spiritual warfare. It has, if you look at the book, the front of the cover, it's corny, but it's really in depth. So I, I recommend this book at the parable bookstore, the nonprofits guide to spiritual warfare. This is what he said about Babylon. Babylon means gateway to God or gateway to the gods. Several times in scripture, phone angels are referred to as lowercase G gods at the tower of Babybel man and evil entities were attempting to work together through the veil that separates the scene and the unseen realms in open defiance against the Lord, knowing that with that, they would, that rebellion would incur God's judgment. 6 (31m 55s): That's what was happening at Babylon. So how did Jesus undo that? Well, you see at babble, the languages and the nations were divided. Deutero 32 that says within that division, Deutero 32 versus seven through nine says, remember the days of old consider the years of many generations ask your fathers and he will show you your elders. And they will tell you when the most high gave the nations, their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples, according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob, his allotted heritage. 6 (32m 38s): So I said, when God divided the nations, not only to divide the languages and he sent out nations, is that he also put over the, these different nations, supernatural powers, these divine, these sons of God, these divine beings. And he gave them over the ch that's why we see a Daniel. When Daniels in Persia, the, he, he, his prayers were withheld by the prince of the, the prince of the Persia. He was withheld by the spiritual force that was overseeing that nation because God had given that nation to that according to D 32, but God claimed for himself is Israel and Jacobs allotted heritage. 6 (33m 18s): That's why in Jesus' ministry. Jesus first sends out his 12 disciples. That's who his important ministry was to reclaim the, the nation of Israel, what they were called to be the light of the world. He sends his 12 disciples out, and then when they come back, they bring good report. And then later on, we see Jesus sends out the 70, have you, any of you ever wondered why Jesus sent out the 70 disciples? We understand the 12 for the 12 tribes of Israel, but the 70 correspond back to Genesis, chapter 10 and 11 Noah shaman and Shaham and Jacob Noah's three sons were sent out and they were divided up into 70 different nations. 6 (34m 0s): Go back to Genesis, check that out. So when Jesus sends out the 70, what is he doing? He's saying I'm not only the God of Israel. I am the God of the world. And I am reclaiming these nations for myself, showing that I am superior to that. Isn't it interesting that God's a nationalist. God believes in the rights of sovereign nations because sovereign nations hold power back from each other, help us keep back the evil at bay. You think of when we went in and invaded Iraq, how all of a sudden Iran came to power. When we took Saddam hue out of power, we didn't realize that all of a sudden Iraq or Iran would come to power within the region. 6 (34m 45s): There was a withholding of the powers there. God is a nationalist. He believes in nations, God design nations. So Jesus having sent out the 70 and seeing the result back when he says that I saw state and fall like a, like fall out of heaven. He now says ILOs chapter two, verse 13, through 15 of what Jesus did over all these supernatural entities was this. He said, and you being alive in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him having forgiven you all trespasses having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. 6 (35m 27s): And he has taken it out of the way. Having nailed it to the cross. You know, that God is a God of justice. And he's a God who believes in the legal system. God has a legal system that he's worked out for the salvation of us. God can't extend out of that because God keeps within his own legal boundaries. He's there's handwritten requirements that were, that were against us. But after he did that, having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed the principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them and triumphing over them all. That's why Jesus is the answer. That's why Jesus is the answer. He is the name above every name. 6 (36m 7s): So that's where we leave off this week. But let's, let's remember where we left off last week. And that last week we talked about the diff or we left off with the difference between angels and demons. So let's get into that. Now, first of all, there's a number of different types or classes of angels. There's types, kinds hierarchy within the angels, angelic realm. There's the Sarah F in the chair of him. Those are normally found around the throne room of God. We have the arc angels who are these kind of warrior angels that are given much power, much authority. We have messenger angels, guardian angels, and then over 70 different types of angels are described in the book of revelation. There's a guy who recently wrote a book on 70 angels in the book of revelation, but we don't have time to jump into those guys. 6 (36m 53s): Those are, I'll leave those for further study for you. But what, where we were at last week was the sons of God. That statement the sons of God, the sons of God in the old Testament were direct creations of God, okay? God directly created the sons of God. So if I were gonna get onto a tangent, which I'm going to, because it relates to you and I today, the tangent is that in the old Testament, they're called the stone of God. What about now? What about in the new Testament? And that's where the genealogy is really interesting. Interesting. Both Matthew one and Luke three have different genealogies for Jesus. One follows the lineage of Joseph. 6 (37m 34s): One follows the lineage of Mary Luke's lineage follows Mary Luke and Luke chapter three, the genealogy, we see it all the way down from, from Mary's, from Mary. Her, her father is that we fall that all the way down. The son of the son of the son of, until we get to Adam, the son of God, why was Adam called a son of God? Because he didn't have a mother or father because God directly created Adam. So how does that relate to us today? Well, that's, that's, what's encouraging about the new Testament says second Corinthians five says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 6 (38m 14s): The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Or what about Romans eight versus 12 through 14? Paul says, therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. But if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you are put to death, the deeds of the body you will live for as many as are led by the spirit of God to these are called the sons of God. Isn't that interesting that we, by believing in who Jesus Christ has have been given the rights to be called the sons of God, John one also says, but as many received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name. 6 (39m 4s): First John three, one behold, what manner of love the father's bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. We, because of Jesus can be called the son or the child of God, because we've made a new creation in him. And that means that we are co-heirs with Christ, But we don't become angels. We don't become angels because we're a new creation. We're still humans, but we've been made in the image of God angels. When a person dies, they don't become an angel. Can I dispel that the Bible does not teach that? 6 (39m 45s): Okay. We will be humans. Humans will be humans. And these divine beans will continue to be that. So back to angels, supernatural, divine beans that dwell in a realm above ours in an unseen realm, you see, we have arch angels, messenger angels, guardian angels, angels unaware to us. In fact, the, the one thing that separates angels in the Bible is angels ability to manifest into our world and even disguise themselves as humans. Isn't that interesting angels are able to manifest into our world into our seen realm. 6 (40m 26s): Hebrews 13 chapter 13 verse two says, do not forget to entertain strangers for BISO, doing some, have unwittingly entertained angels. Isn't that interesting that person you bump into on the street, they might be an angel. He was just be careful. You might, you might be that might be an angel that because angels are able to manifest into our scene realm, and that didn't just happen. He's not just warning in, in Hebrews or, or message in Hebrews. It's also in the old Testament in Genesis 18, we see that yawe himself and two other divine beans met with Abraham in the flesh and they ate a meal together. 6 (41m 13s): These angels met with lot and ate Genesis 19 that says those two angels had to physically grab lot and pull him out. That means that angels were able to manifest into our existence into a physical substance and pull lot out of that city. And though even the townsmen of those of that city of Sodom and Gamora thought that those two angels were men it's because the angels are able to manifest Genesis chapter 32 says that Jacob arrested with a man in that text also described as Elohim or Hebrew for God twice. 6 (41m 54s): They had a physical struggle that left Jacob injured for the rest of his life. Matthew chapter four verse 11 says that angels came and ministered to Jesus after 40 day fast Jesus in the wilderness fasting, then, then net by Satan to, to try to deceive him, to try to make him worship God. Jesus was tired after that 40 days, how was he ministered to, is the question, was he just kissed on the cheek by a bunch of butterflies as they kind of like floated around these angels beans that were unseen? No, I think they brought him food. I think they brought him water. 6 (42m 33s): I think they brought him maybe even a pillow or a place to rest. They ministered to his physical bodily needs because they were able to manifest in acts chapter five. We see that angels can open doors. We also see angels appear in speak to shepherds in the field. By speaking, we know that sound waves came out of their vocal chords. So these angels manifested into our existence and were able to speak there by creating vocal, creating these sound waves, which those shepherds were able to hear angels hit the disciples or smacked Peter around to wake them up in acts chapter 12, physically able to manifest into our world. 6 (43m 19s): And it's interesting that the angels throughout the Bible always given in the masculine gender they're, they aren't sexless. There's a book that was written in 1830. It's called flatland by a, a, a minister who was also kind of dabbled in hobbies of, of science and, and physics and stuff. And he wrote this book called flatland, where there was a, he explained and, and brought, made to life a whole world that lived in two dimensions. So the squares or the triangles were female or males in the squares were females. And they, they, he shows how they interact until one day, a three dimensional, a higher being interrupted and, and, and got involved in that two dimensional world. 6 (44m 9s): And it blew the mind of the, the guy that was the, the triangle, how this extra dimensional bean could then intercept and add in. And I wonder how our three dimensional world can be intercepted in, in Why, why, why don't we see four or five or six or 10 dimensions? Like there's theories of science that show because angels are able to manifest. So what about the fallen angels that we talked about last week and the really fallen angels? Let's talk about that. Both Peter and Jews say that both angels who rebelled at the time of no were cast away until the judgment, those angels, that specifically rebelled were cast away. 6 (44m 55s): So what that does is that leaves us two groups of fallen angels. There are those that are bound in chains or locked in tarter. They left their natural habitation, had sex with women, thereby breaking what God had designed them to do. And those, those ones are bound in chains, but there's also a group of angels of fallen angels that are still free to roam. They're the ones that rebelled with Satan, but didn't leave their natural habitations. So what does that mean? It means that some angels, some fallen angels are still at work in our world today. Galatians one eight is the warning, but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you, then we have preached to you, let him be a cursed. 6 (45m 43s): Don't listen to it. Don't listen to another gospel. Even if it's some supernatural being, if it, whatever it is, don't listen to it. Let him be a cursed. Ephesians six reminds us of what we're struggling with or what we're wrestling with for, we do not wrestle against the flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heaven, places, those are different boundaries in hierarchy. What about in our history? What about our world's history? Have you ever seen or heard of fallen angels come in contact with humans? 6 (46m 22s): What about the prophet Muhammad? The so-called prophet Muhammad 40 years old, he's in a cave near Mecca and he's, he's, he's praying to his God. And in that cave appears what he called the angel Gabriel. Now we know the state that they're a liar, so they can say who they want to be. But this angel grabbed Mohamed and threw him up against the wall and said, he said, read or recite. And Mohamed said, I, I, I don't, I don't know how to read. He was illiterate. He could not read. And he slumped down and the angel, then again, picked him up and threw him against the cave once again, and said, read or recite Muhammad slumped down again. 6 (47m 4s): Once again, after holding them there for a while, thought thinking that he's gonna lose his life. He let him down again. Muhammad was like, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't do that. I, I, I don't have that skill. And the angel once again, the third time threw him up against the cave wall until Muhammad thought he was gonna die and said, read a sight. And then finally let him go. He went back to his home, back to his wife and hid under a blanket, not knowing what he had just dealt with. And that's how he come, how we get the message of Islam, an angel throwing him up against the wall. Or what about Joseph Smith and his dealing with angel Morona this angel that, that then gave him special golden spectacles and a golden tablet and said, there, this read Christianity is not correct. 6 (47m 50s): This is the true religion. And, and, and this is what you're gonna do. That was the angel moron fallen angels involved in our world. Today. You see Dr. David Jeremiah said this. He said, fallen angels don't prevent us from worshiping. Instead they changed the object of our worship. Something other than the almighty God Prevent us. They don't prevent us from worshiping. They just change the object of our worship. That is why it's my personal opinion. I brought this up last week of what UFO are. I believe these are fallen angels distracting us, preparing us in the world for when Christians suddenly disappear. 6 (48m 33s): And I'm talking about the great rescue, the great snatching, where, where we will be caught up in a moment where those who believe in Jesus Christ will be snatched up and, and just gone just off the face of the world. How is the world gonna explain that? Well, they're gonna, they're gonna use these UFO site and these fallen angels that, oh, well, the angels had to take them. New age has a belief that the world will not enter into full piece until those people who resist that are taken away that's within the new age. Belief says my belief that these things are conditionings for what to come. There's a law of prophecy that says future events, cast their shadows ahead of them. 6 (49m 18s): Future events, cast their shadows ahead of them. Turn on discovery plus, and you'll find a whole channel loaded with the paranormal, Go to the history channel. You'll have all this, all this supernatural things there. It's becoming normalized in our culture. So if angels and fallen angels are able to in manifest into our world today, what about demons? What's up with them. And this is what Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 12. Jesus taught that demons are disembodied spirits. 6 (49m 58s): Demons are disembodied spirits. Matthew chapter 12, verse 43 to 45. Jesus said when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest and find none. Then he says, I will return to my house from which I came, which he, and when he comes, he will find it empty, swept, and put an order. Then he goes and takes it with him, seven other spirits, more wicked than himself. And they enter and they dwell there. And their last state that man is worse than the first shall. So it shall be with this wicked generation. Notice the language that Jesus has using there says unclean spirit goes out of a man out of a man. 6 (50m 42s): And then later on, he says that the Demonn says I will return to my house. That because the Demonn wants to find a place of rest of Possession as a son of missionaries to a third world country. I, I remember hearing some of these stories very early on about how my parents would once in a while, once in a while, come across these people. And, and, and they would try to exercise the demons because this little girl, young age would from her would come the weirdest and most guttural noises and sounds and speak in, in, in horrible things. And that those demons would try to hurt that girl. 6 (51m 22s): And so my parents spent time casting out these demons. I heard that from a young age. So what is going on? Well, Jesus spoke that these demons are disembodied spirits. They seek to find a body and there is levels of wickedness within the demons themselves. You see that demon didn't like whether it left or whether, if it was, it was cast out of that, that man, that person, that body, that it was in, it says, well, I'm gonna return there. And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept and put order. And he says, oh, I'm gonna take seven more, more wicked than myself so that we won't be cast out again Out of a man. 6 (52m 6s): I'm gonna return to my house. So where do these disembodied spirits come from? Be the question we should ask, where do these disembodied spirits come from? And that goes back to Genesis chapter six, Genesis chapter six, verse four says there were giants on the earth in those days. And also afterwards, we'll, we'll leave that. We'll, we'll set that aside for another time. Another discussion there were giants on the earth in those days when the sons of God came into the daughters of wi of men and they bore children to them. And these were the mighty men who were of old men of renowned that were giants is the Hebrew word for Nephem. 6 (52m 50s): There were superior beings because they were half angel and half man that Hebrew word ne ne is, is a compound word it's it's Neal, which means fallen one. See, this was another reason for the flood because the spiritual wickedness that had intercepted the human race, the human seed human DNA, and that the promised Messiah of Genesis chapter three verse 15, would, could not therefore have Satan seed within it. It had to be a pure strain. That's why the Jews were so interested in their genetics, in their lineage, their family lineage. 6 (53m 33s): And as weird as that sounds to us, the technology today is increased in increasing. We have this technology called the CRISPR technology, gene splicing technology, where we're able to split apart the human DNA and there, and put into DNA, other blocks of DNA. Now, that sounds good. When you think of how, how it could be used for cancer, if there's a, if, if, if a person has a, a, a genetic disposition that, that, that caused them to have cancer, well, you think well going in and removing that chunk of DNA, that causes, that could be a good thing, but it also can be used. Very nefariously. 6 (54m 14s): China has openly said that they're working on Chimera, they're working on and they have worked on, and they have created a live pig monkey hybrid. Please fact, checking on that because they eventually want to make super soldiers. They want to take human DNA and mix it with pig DNA. So you get these transhuman soldiers. They're working on that. As all comes down to transhumanism that we can become something greater than God. We, we could become a hybridized at the, at the fall at that second divine fall, where the sons of God came into the Dodge as a woman, they were trying to make their man and their own image. 6 (55m 3s): And that is now continues to gate today with the technology that we're at. So that's why Noah was chosen. Noah was found perfect in his generations, in his Tolo dot because he hadn't his genes hadn't been mixed. And it's interesting to look back at the mythology from all around the world, every culture, even here in the native Americans here in the us claim to have some half human half man demigod and every culture around in the, in the world also has a global flood story with one family surviving it, where these lowercase G God's coming into human women and creating hybrids. 6 (55m 48s): Superpowered beans, Gilgamesh, Hercules, a Achilles, all those speak to this demigods. But what happened to those? NELI those superpowered those half human half spiritual beans. What happened to them? Well, that's why Genesis six over and over again, says that God wiped everything out. A global worldwide flood. They all died. Jesus talks over and over again about that flood and how it wiped everything out. You see the understanding is that the, the Def the Neum, their bodies died, but their spirits lived on their bodies died in the, in the flood, but yet their spirit has been left here to Rome first or second Corinthians five, one through eight. 6 (56m 44s): Talk about how our bodies are home to our spirit. That's why when people have, or claim to have these near death experiences where their spirit is detached from their body, it's because their bodies are home to their spirit. I'm told by another pastor. And I have not been able to verify this. So don't take this as, as, as word, but I'm told by another pastor that the common name for demons at the time of Christ was Timon Neal or dead NELI. So if you can find that source that let me know, please, but that's what I'm told. And it seems to be that this was the accepted view during the time of Jesus, that demons are the disembodied spirits of the neph limb that were killed during the flood. 6 (57m 28s): And they look once again to inhabit an animal, an object, or a body. They want to have a body again, which makes sense with Jesus, talking about them being disembodied spirits. So a couple facts on demons, demons. Also, like we said, it would vary in wickedness and Inkin remember Jesus and Matthew 12 says seven other spirits, more wicked than himself. And then later on in mark, chapter nine versus 28 through 29, his disciples could not cast this certain Demonn out. And when they had Jesus privately, they said, when they'd come into the house to discipled, asked him privately, why could we not cast it out? 6 (58m 10s): So Jesus said to them, this kind can only come out by nothing but prayer and fasting, Prayer and fasting is what, how that kind would come out. You see demons seek to oppress and enticed people to sin. And if possible, to possess a person, which is the, the work that's still going on today, why? Because they want to get a body again. They want to use human vocal chords to speak. If you look at mark chapter five in Luke, chapter eight, we've we, you hear of the, the Legion, the man who had many who was naked, who was wandering the two living in the tombs. 6 (58m 55s): Jesus comes and simply cast them out. But he, but he says, he, he, he allowed those spirits to talk to. I don't know why, but he allowed those spirits to then say, Hey, can we go on those pigs? And those pigs ran off the cliff. And once again, those pigs died. Does that remind you of the flood story? 7 (59m 11s): There's 6 (59m 12s): A connection. The good news is a Christian. A Christian cannot be possessed by a, when they're filled with the holy spirit. That's pretty good. Come on. More amens on that one. Thank you. First Corinthians six says this, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit? Who is in you, whom you have from God. And you're not your own. You are bought with a price, therefore, therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are gods. Your body is the temple of the holy spirit. You've been made a new creation. You cannot be filled or possessed by a Demonn. 6 (59m 55s): Now demons have many different kind of names. I encourage you to, to look up unclean spirits, familiar spirits Diablos or devils. We don't have enough time to go into that today, but not everything can come down to well, the devil made me do it. Okay. We battle against a world system against our, our own flesh. And we battle against the devil, the world, the flesh, and the devil, but what are with specific ways to open the doors, to demonic oppression, or for those who are not believers possession, let's talk about those first one would be worship of other gods or idols, worship of other gods or idols. 6 (1h 0m 37s): Deuteronomy 32 says when they provoked him to jealousy with their foreign gods with abomination, they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons and not to God, to God's. They did not know, knew God's new arrivals that their fathers did not fear. That's backed up in, in the new Testament with first Corinthians 10, when he says in verse 19 and 22, what, what am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything rather that the one things at which Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. 6 (1h 1m 19s): That is that's. Yeah. You cannot partake at the Lord's table and the table of the demons, or, or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he see by worshiping things made out of hand, the Demonn can then occupy that object. They, they were what they thought were, they were just worshiping just statues or idols. They were actually sacrificing and worshiping demons. So why you gotta be careful when you, when you, when you move into your house or if your front lawn has a Buddhist statue, a Hindu statue, get that thing outta there. 6 (1h 2m 2s): That's no right in a Christian's life. And even then we still need to be careful of what we bring into our houses. My wife loves the thrift store, the thrift shop. And she brought maybe, maybe she, yeah, I didn't ask her if I could tell the story, but she brought home this plate and it was really pretty, it was a decorative plate. It was kind of made outta her bra and it had some really cool inscriptions and it, but it had this, this kind of almost writing that went around it. And I, and I, I wasn't sure about it. And we had it in a, a house for a number of months. And, and I remember just, just, I never, I just never felt good about that thing. Never. 6 (1h 2m 42s): I just, just felt wrong. And during that time, my, my wife was having dreams and even kind of just strange stuff going on in the house. And I was like, honey, I think we gotta get rid of that plaque. Oh, but it looks so nice. No, it just needs to go. So she ended up throwing away and I never followed up with it a few months ago passed. So a couple months later, a few months ago, she's like, Hey, you remember that plate? And I was like, yeah. She's like, you know, all those things that was like experiencing, they went away. When I got rid of that plate, I was like, weird Worship of other gods right now. We never worshiped the plate. We did not do that. Okay. What about involvement in the cultism oui boards, TA cards, Palm readers, talking with the spirits of the dead witchcraft, spells movies shows even the new thing right now, crystals. 6 (1h 3m 40s): These all have their foundation in the cultism. You can all bring those all the way back to the Babylon, to Nimrod. These are things that we need to be careful of, and we think we should not have any involvement. They open the door to demonic oppression or possession D on the 18 says there shall not be found among you. Anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire or one who practices witchcraft or so there, or one who interprets omens or a sor or one who conjures up spirits or spells, or a medium or a spiritist or one who calls up the dead for all these things are an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations, the Lord, your God drives them out from you before you, these things are, do not belong in the life of a, of a, of a, a Christian. 6 (1h 4m 28s): What about alcohol? Especially too much of it. Where can you find alcohol in a store? You can find it in the spirits section Ephesians five, eight says, or five 18 says, and do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. What is that saying? That you're gonna be either filled with the spirit or you're gonna be filled with the holy spirit, or you're gonna be filled with this unclean spirit spirit. Be careful with that. Jesus warns about worshiping. Mamon what we think of money and our wealth and holding onto it too tight, trusting too much in it is the way we open up ourselves to, to the demonic realm. 6 (1h 5m 17s): What about sexual sin and perversion? We open the door to of our life, to these unclean spirits. We give them footholds in our lives. They are filthy and perverted first Corinthians six says this, please sexual sexual immorality. Every sin that man does outside his body is outside of his body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body, his own, the, the temple of the holy spirit and that word for I immorality, or is fornication. And the Greek word is pornea sexual sin. 6 (1h 6m 2s): It's perversion I'm told the average age currently is between six and eight years old. That if boy sees his first pornography, Six to eight years old parents be very careful with the technology that you allow your kids to have six to eight, open that door into the, the demonic realm where clean UN unclean spirits filthy perverted. The Bible also says that sexuality is anything outside the boundary of one man. 6 (1h 6m 45s): And one woman in a married relationship. Hebrews 13, four says the marriage bed is undefiled, but anything outside that is defiled. That includes transgenderism. Beastiality homosexuality, adultery pornography. All of that is outside the grounds of biblical marriage. And that does not belong in the life of a Christian in college. As I was dealing with my own struggle in this area, remember there was a night when my, my college roommate wasn't home and I woke up in the middle of the night with temptations from a deep sleep. 6 (1h 7m 27s): I didn't share this first service woke up from a deep sleep and there was next to my bed, a bean. And it wasn't there. There wasn't, it was, it was real enough to be not physically there, but there was a spiritual being in my room that was hovering over me. And I couldn't get a word out. I was like, pinned, locked my room. All I knew, I knew that I needed to say the name of Jesus. I knew that I needed to cast that thing out. That the thing had no right to be in my room. And I struggled for a minute. So to try to finally get the words out and that finally, that, that Jesus, that unlocked it in this beam that had a faith that was standing over me. 6 (1h 8m 10s): I somehow molded and just walked away out into where into, into the, where my roommate's room was about 15 minutes later when I got the courage and finally jumped outta bed, I ran and I made sure all the doors and the windows shut and sure enough, everything was locked up. There was a demonic bean in my room that was trying to get me to thin. What about drugs as an opening to the demonic realm? We sometimes think of these things as harmless. Just a, just things that we do once in a while, but drugs in revelation 19 night, sorry, revelation nine verse 20 through 21. 6 (1h 8m 52s): But the rest of mankind who are not killed by those plagues did not repent from the works that the hands that they should not worship demons and idols of silvers, brass stone and wood, which can either see, nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent from the murders of the, or their Soaries or their sexual immorality or their Thefts. That that word forestries is an interesting word because in the Greek, that word forestries actually is the word PIAA PIAA. And that in the context of the new Testament is mind altering substance for a long, long time throughout the century's pagans have used in their worship ceremonies, different plants and different medicinal things to get high. 6 (1h 9m 37s): And once they're high, they're in the altered state, they're in a higher state and they're able to communicate with outside extra, extra dimensional beans. You're giving your Liberty for these demons to enter your life. As you do these mind altering drugs, I'm gonna show a clip. I promised it last week of VI of Joe Rogan. He's a, a world famous podcaster, one of the most listened to podcasters, and he's gonna talk about his experience using a drug, but this, and using this drug, he enters into something that he feels is more real than real. 6 (1h 10m 21s): And from that place where he feels more real than real, he he's getting outside wisdom. So let me just play this clip and we'll go from there. 9 (1h 10m 29s): I have one way of looking at it that I always describe. This is what I say to people. I say, if there was a thing that you could do like a door you could go through and that door would take you to another dimension where you would communicate with Some entity beyond your wildest imagination, that's constantly visually changing and communicating with you telepathically and knows everything about you sees all your, and is trying to impart some ideas that will help you with your life. Cuz it's a God-like experience like you're experiencing like some sort of Uber, powerful entity, some more Uber, intelligent entity, something beyond any, if we just looked at humans and thought of the hu the evolution of human one day, we'll get to this. 9 (1h 11m 19s): We're not gonna get to that. That is a different, it seems like it's so beyond the body. It's so beyond the, the human monkey body, this is what I tell people. I go, if I could give, if you would open a door and you would go there and you'd have that experience, would you do it? And most people are like, yes, I would do it. If I gave you a drug that gave you that experience, you still have the exact same experience. It's the exact same experience. You've just decided it's not real. And you've decided it's not real because you're putting into this category of hallucination. Like what does that even mean? What does that even mean? You're actually having that experience. I don't know what it is 6 (1h 12m 1s): There. Joe Rogan is talking about how he's opening up in a door and that goes back to Genesis, right? Kane soon is knocking at your door and it seeks to master you here, here, Joe Rogan is staying. I, I I'm, welcomely opening this door into my life with this wisdom from outside to come in and give me insight. He's opened himself to demons because demons, if they are the bodies of the distant bodies, spirits of the LAN, they have been around for thousands of years and they've witnessed, they know Joe Rogan's tendencies. They know each of our tendencies, they know what we're our proclivities are. They know what we're what sins draw us. 6 (1h 12m 42s): Everyone has different sins that they're drawn to. And so these demons he's through this drug, he's allowing becomes more real than real. He's allowing these things to speak into 'em He's wrestling with that. Is that more something that's more real than real is because we are being conditioned in this culture into this day and age, that that the veil is getting thinner. The normalization of this supernatural is a trick of Satan to, to steal line from the of great movie, the usual suspects. He says that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was trying to convince the world he didn't exist. But one of the other tricks, the devil pulls is just to get you okay with the humdrum of life like CS Lewis, the screw tape letter, just, just let them kind of do their thing. 6 (1h 13m 28s): They're okay. Because as we watch more and more and more and more come down the forest, the UFOs, the movies, the TVs, the news, the cold we're gonna be, be getting this. So we need to get back to our supernatural biblical worldview because the world needs it. The Bible has the answers. So how do we do that? Well, one, we, Jesus, Jesus, the name of every other name. We claim the name of Jesus. If you have not claimed the name of Jesus, if you have not become a follower of Jesus Christ, you need to do that today because either Jesus will influence you or these, the unseen realm will be influencing. 6 (1h 14m 12s): You Need to remove that veil from our eyes, realize that there's an unseen realm around us and that we rest will not against flesh and blood. Then for some of us, we need to close the door to the demonic strongholds in our life, drugs, alcohol pornography, those things, those doors need to be closed in the name of Jesus Christ. And those spirits cast out. We need to pick up our spiritual armor and the weapons that God has given us. He's given us directions of how to fight how and to do that. So let's do that. Go to Ephesians six, to look up your spiritual armor that God has given you. And we need to fight by getting on our knees in prayer fast. 6 (1h 14m 53s): When you, when God calls you to fast, pick up your Bible, we need to pray and speak out against our, against the demonic strongholds in our community. Our families in our country, these things are real pray. Jesus, we'd lift up your name higher than any other name, your God in the flesh who came to save sinful man to save us. So we bow our knee to you. God, cuz you've paid the price. 6 (1h 15m 41s): Jesus, we need you. We need you to fight this fight. We need to be equipped for the battle, but help us to dig into what you have for us. For Jesus. Then we pray. 2 (1h 15m 56s): Amen. 0 (1h 15m 59s): Church will you stand as we worship. So make me in offering, make me whatever you want me to be. God, I came here with nothing but all you have given me, Jesus, bring new wine out. Me, me, your 2 (1h 16m 42s): Me 0 (1h 16m 42s): In with nothing 2 (1h 16m 55s): At 0 (1h 16m 55s): All you have given me. Jesus, bring new wine outta these Jesus spring, new wine Jesus, where the is your freedom? Lay down old. 6 (1h 18m 18s): See the fight got brought to me. It became really personal. We bought an old house as a, it's a house that was built in 1934 in Santa Maria. And after moving in and we started, there's strange things happening. My daughter was saying, dad, I'm really afraid at I it's like I see something in the corner of my room. I'm like, that's what do you see, honey? And she described a Grotes old woman in the corner of her room. And I was like, well that's that's really okay. Well let's pray. Let me give you the tools. I use the name of Jesus. If you, if you sense something in your room, use the name of Jesus. Say Jesus, help me, Jesus be here. And that thing will have to flee well, talking to then after that, talking to my next door neighbor, who's a Christian as well. 6 (1h 19m 3s): He's like, I've seen that exact same old Haggard woman as well. I'll be alone in the house and I'll see her peek out, out the corner of the room and then another neighbor. And then my wife all reported three different people, independent of each other, knock talking all reported to seeing this, this abarition. And so we prayed and they, I gave them the tools I gave them that fight guard brought to me. So I said, no, there's either. I'm either run from this or I'm gonna fight it. And we chose to fight and we fight in the name of Jesus Christ. We fight in the power of God, but there is a power. There is Power in the name of Jesus Christ. Come forward. If you need prayer, come forward and deal with that. 6 (1h 19m 46s): Come forward to submit yourself and, and to yield to Jesus today. Thank you. 0 (1h 20m 0s): So make me whatever you want me to be. God, I came here with nothing, but all you have given me Jesus new one out of me. 3 (1h 20m 27s): One more time. 0 (1h 20m 30s): Me your thank me an me. Want to God, nothing at all you have given me, Jesus, bring new wine outta me. Jesus, bring new wine outta me. Jesus, bring new wine out of me. 3 (1h 21m 13s): God, that is our prayer this morning. But the old would fall away that we would step into the new God that you would bring new wine out of our lives, that any bad habits or mindsets, but that, that those would end today. God, thank you for your spirit. Thank you for your power. Thank you for your love in your precious name. We pray. Amen.

0 (0s): Good morning harvest church. Let's 1 (3s): Come together. Let's stand and worship our Lord and savior Jesus Christ this morning. Amen. 0 (31s): Worship hockey. Come let bow his feet. He has John Gray things. 2 (45s): See 0 (45s): What a savior has done. See how his loves. He has done great things. 2 (58s): He 0 (59s): Has done great things. D oh, hero of heaven. You conquer the you free and cat and break every, oh God, you have done great. We, your you've been faithful through every store. 0 (1m 49s): You'll be faithful forever. You have great beans. You conquer the great, you free recap and break every chain. 0 (2m 30s): God, you have to, we, oh God, you have done great things. Sing. Hallelujah, 2 (2m 56s): Hallelujah. 0 (2m 58s): Above it. Hall hall. You done great things. Great things. And hall it. God shakeable you have done great things. You've done great things. Oh, hero of heaven. You conquer 2 (3m 36s): The great you 0 (3m 38s): See and break every chain. Oh God, you have done great days. We, your freedom alive. Oh Jesus. I save lived. Oh God, you have done great. Oh of heaven. You conquer. And, and 2 (4m 10s): Every, 0 (4m 11s): Oh God, 2 (4m 13s): You, 0 (4m 21s): Oh, savior, great. You great things. God, you, 2 (4m 47s): Oh, great 3 (4m 52s): Church. We're gonna sing a song called new wine. And this week, as I have been meditating on the lyrics, I've been in Matthew, Matthew nine, where talks about how you can't have new wine and old wine skins. And you can't have old wine and new wine skins. You have to have new wine and new wine skins. And I don't know about you, but I know that God wants to bring new wine out of my life. And I know he wants to bring new wine out of your lives as well. So would you sing this with me 2 (5m 43s): In the, 0 (5m 57s): To 2 (6m 30s): You 0 (6m 42s): The, in the soil 2 (7m 17s): Make me 0 (7m 18s): Your 2 (7m 24s): Make me, 0 (7m 37s): Me, 2 (7m 39s): Jesus, 0 (7m 50s): Outta out being 2 (8m 18s): A, 0 (8m 44s): Do five sing. Make me, so make me your, make me, me, whatever you want to. But all 2 (9m 14s): You 0 (9m 15s): Have given me Jesus out me. Jesus, 2 (9m 31s): Jesus. 0 (9m 55s): Out your spirit out your, we need your love. We need your love church. If you feel comfortable, would you just raise up your voice and sing out a song to a word in this moment? Love leg, your 2 (10m 40s): Me 0 (10m 41s): And me, whatever you want me to be. God, the Jesus out me. Jesus, Jesus out. 0 (11m 46s): And could not hold you the on before you 2 (11m 53s): You sign and the you, your what name? 2 (13m 3s): Name? The you're hitting. 2 (14m 21s): So what, what 0 (14m 56s): A, what a, 2 (15m 36s): The, 0 (15m 50s): Do you have? No. The what? 2 (17m 13s): Powerful name? Powerful name. What a powerful name, name? 0 (17m 48s): What 4 (18m 0s): We praise Jesus. You're so good. God, nothing compares to you. You have no rival and you have no equal Jesus. You are incredible. We lift your name high. We praise you in this place Lord. And when the world is chasing after this thing or that Lord in this house, we praise the Lord. We praise the Lord above all else. Jesus, because we realize our hope is in you, Lord. You are so, so, so good. And Lord, I just pray over every person here, the circumstances in their lives that they're coming in with Lord, you can address them. 4 (18m 44s): You can heal them. You can pour your love out on them. Jesus, your holy spirit is the great, the wonderful counselor. Jesus, you are the wonderful counselor. And so Lord, I just pray that you would counsel each person in this room. Lord, I just asked that each person would open their hearts and open their minds because you want to speak to us this morning. Jesus. And we want to hear from you. God, you are so good. We humble ourselves before you. We just exalt your name this morning. Jesus. We love you so much. And it's in his name. Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. 4 (19m 25s): All right. You can take your seats and thank you worship team. Thank you, Jesus. Let's give Jesus a hand. Woo. So good. All right. Well thank you for being here this morning. My name is Curtis. It's great to have you all here today. If you are new here, we've got a couple things for you. We've got coffee and tea out on the patio. We've got bathrooms down these hallways and water back there as well. So make yourself at home. We're we're really glad that you're here. We've got some stuff happening around here and we just encourage you to connect. So one of those things is that to be able to connect with you, we have to have your information. 4 (20m 8s): We have to have some way like your email or your phone number or something. And we would love to that. We would love for you to do that. And that's just a way for us to be able to get you on the email updates and all of that. So you can connect with life groups and really just so your walk with the Lord can continue to grow. So we wanna empower you. We wanna walk with you in that. So if you'd like, and you haven't done it yet, or if it's been a long time, since you've given us your information and maybe it's outdated, you can head back to the info center and fill out your info there. And we'd love to connect with you in that way. The next thing is that we've got a outreach happening this next Saturday. 4 (20m 47s): The harvest festival is gonna be happening. Lots of people right outside this building that we get to love on and just encourage. So at the harvest festival, we are gonna be out front, handing out love first and foremost. And then also we got water bottles and balloons for the kids and stuff like that. So if you want to come by, we're gonna be here from 8 45 to noon and just to love on the people coming by, they're coming right to our front doors. And so how can we pass that opportunity up? It's gonna be great. So we'd love for you to join us. Also, we've got our Bonko for babies event. This is gonna be to support lifeline and all of the unexpected pregnancies, the, the young girls and young boys, young men who are having unexpected pregnancies. 4 (21m 32s): If you wanna support them, head back to the info center and, and learn more about how you can get connected to that event. It's gonna be awesome. The last thing is that the Christian ethics class that I announced last week, apparently I did a really bad job explaining it. So, so these are some of the questions that we're gonna be talking about in the Christian ethics class, Dr. Stacy, Harmon's gonna be leading it. And it's just gonna be a powerful time to kind of dig into some of the harder questions in our lives. So if Sarah live today, we should get an IVF. Did Sampson commit suicide and our frozen embryos alive and have a soul. So these are just some of the questions that they'll be discussing. And it just kind of helps you dig into your faith a little bit and get some, get some Bible behind you. 4 (22m 16s): So if you wanna do that, it's gonna be on Thursdays at six 30 in the loft. So you can sign up at the info center for that. And then in just a minute, we're gonna be having Jeremy come back up and he's gonna share. The second part of his series of the veil is getting thinner and it's gonna be really great. But right now we're gonna have you get up and meet somebody you haven't met before. And we'll be back in just a minute. Thanks. 6 (24m 10s): All right. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. So glad to see you all fellowshiping. What a great Sunday morning I, I gave the children's ministry. That, that, that heads up that I'm gonna go a little long. Alright. So I guess we need every bit of 35 minutes and plus more to get through the content for today, but I'm excited to be here. 6 (24m 56s): I'm I'm, I'm grateful for Steve who gave me once again, another privilege to come and share this. It seems like it's resonating with a lot of you. So that, that encouragement encourages me. I, I hope that you're digging in hope. You've looked at those passages. I hope you continue to do that. I, I, I hope you never just take, you know, a preacher's word for it. I hope you go back and really study and find it in the word of God. So that be principle from acts chapter 17, but I'm glad to be here sharing this message. Once again, we're talking about the veil is getting thinner and, and this and this, this thing that we're seeing and witnessing and around our world about the supernatural getting mixed or, or getting mingled with the natural realm. 6 (25m 44s): So what's what last week we really dug into like, what's, what's going on? What, what is, what is this, why are, why is the government releasing all this UFO stuff? Now? Why, why is this stuff happening? So we, we dug into that a little bit last week. If you missed that message, I would really encourage you to go back after this and, and listen to that, dig in steady. But so as we dig in, let me just give you the answer. Jesus is the answer. Okay? Jesus is the answer. Let's pray and we'll dig in heavenly father. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the complexities in it. We thank you that my daughters, a seven year old, a 10 year old can read your Bible and know it and understand it and coming to a saving knowledge Lord, but we're also thankful for a lifetime of study. 6 (26m 36s): Could never mind the depths of which your holy scriptures have Lord and what they, how they speak into our life and our culture, our context, the things that we're going through Lord. So we pray Lord that we would have the wherewithal to have to dig into the meat of the word of God, to be able to chew on these things. Lord. So Lord to God, as we open up your scriptures, Lord, speak to us in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Let me tell you about three rebellions in the Bible. Because to the, the, the, to the biblical authors to the, the first century Jews, there was, there was three main rebellions that they understood that we've kind of lost sight of. 6 (27m 16s): We, we UN we know the first rebellion. That was the rebellion that happened in Genesis Genesis, chapter three, with the fall of man, kind of the fall of Adam, that sin that was passed on through Adam's sin of, of disobeying God, he, the sin that came upon him and the death, that how that was passed on through Adam to us. Now, we understand that Jesus came to undo and to pay for the penalty of that sin by dine on the cross, thereby giving us life. We understand that as Western Christians that is accurate, but what we missed is that they're actually in the old Testament, there was two more divine rebellions that happened. 6 (27m 56s): And it all goes back to the Genesis chapter one through 11, the more you understand, the more you dig into what was happening in Genesis chapters, one through 11, the more the, you will unlock the different complexities of the Bible of the word of God. Revelation will become something that you'll understand more greatly. As you understand the context of Genesis chapters, one through 11. The second rebellion is what we really talked about last week, the rebellion of the sons of God, see God made man in his own image and the image, God, he created the male and female. He created them. God made man in his own image and he placed his own code into us, but then the sons of God and their rebellion and, and, and justice, chapter six, they came and they tried to implant their own image on humanity. 6 (28m 43s): That's what the whole thing was. There was the mixing of the sons of God with the daughters of, of, of men. And so that was Genesis chapter through this, the second rebellion, these angels, these sons of God, rebelled of God's natural habitation for them and Jesus in his ministry was became not only to undo the fall of our sin of Genesis chapter three, but he also came to, to reclaim and to undo the sin of these sons of God. That's why Jesus so often, and throughout the scriptures, we see that Jesus came against many demons like March chapter one, verse 23. It says now there was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit. 6 (29m 25s): Whoa, wait a second. There's a church. And there's a man with an unclean spirit, a demonic spirit within him, a church that still happens today. But that man began to climb out, you know, who led us alone? Who have we to do with you? Jesus of Nather. You did you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You're the holy one of God. And Jesus cast him out. He rebuked him, caused him to be quiet because Jesus came to undo the fall of the sons of God. And not only that, but all three gospels record that Jesus went up onto a mountain and was transfigured before his disciples and then was joined by Moses and Elijah. That is because Jesus was showing himself to be greater than these sons of God. 6 (30m 9s): He was showing not only his disciples, but he was showing the evil, spiritual realm that he was God in flesh. And he was coming for them. The third rebellion that we find in scripture is the rebellion at Genesis chapter 11 at the tower of vowel, God blessed no one, his sons. And he says, go out and be fruitful and multiply. But one of those sons decided that they were not gonna do that. They were gonna then gather up the nations into one and they were gonna build a tower, remember to try to get above the flood as well, but to build a tower, to, to get to the heavens. And so they were building this tower. They gathered the nation into one place under the leadership of one person into one government. 6 (30m 56s): And not only that, but they Satan led this merging technology, human centered ATIC religion and a global government. All that was found in the, the supernatural rebellion in Genesis chapter 11. This is what Todd Hamson who wrote the book, the nonprofits guide to spiritual warfare. It has, if you look at the book, the front of the cover, it's corny, but it's really in depth. So I, I recommend this book at the parable bookstore, the nonprofits guide to spiritual warfare. This is what he said about Babylon. Babylon means gateway to God or gateway to the gods. Several times in scripture, phone angels are referred to as lowercase G gods at the tower of Babybel man and evil entities were attempting to work together through the veil that separates the scene and the unseen realms in open defiance against the Lord, knowing that with that, they would, that rebellion would incur God's judgment. 6 (31m 55s): That's what was happening at Babylon. So how did Jesus undo that? Well, you see at babble, the languages and the nations were divided. Deutero 32 that says within that division, Deutero 32 versus seven through nine says, remember the days of old consider the years of many generations ask your fathers and he will show you your elders. And they will tell you when the most high gave the nations, their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples, according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob, his allotted heritage. 6 (32m 38s): So I said, when God divided the nations, not only to divide the languages and he sent out nations, is that he also put over the, these different nations, supernatural powers, these divine, these sons of God, these divine beings. And he gave them over the ch that's why we see a Daniel. When Daniels in Persia, the, he, he, his prayers were withheld by the prince of the, the prince of the Persia. He was withheld by the spiritual force that was overseeing that nation because God had given that nation to that according to D 32, but God claimed for himself is Israel and Jacobs allotted heritage. 6 (33m 18s): That's why in Jesus' ministry. Jesus first sends out his 12 disciples. That's who his important ministry was to reclaim the, the nation of Israel, what they were called to be the light of the world. He sends his 12 disciples out, and then when they come back, they bring good report. And then later on, we see Jesus sends out the 70, have you, any of you ever wondered why Jesus sent out the 70 disciples? We understand the 12 for the 12 tribes of Israel, but the 70 correspond back to Genesis, chapter 10 and 11 Noah shaman and Shaham and Jacob Noah's three sons were sent out and they were divided up into 70 different nations. 6 (34m 0s): Go back to Genesis, check that out. So when Jesus sends out the 70, what is he doing? He's saying I'm not only the God of Israel. I am the God of the world. And I am reclaiming these nations for myself, showing that I am superior to that. Isn't it interesting that God's a nationalist. God believes in the rights of sovereign nations because sovereign nations hold power back from each other, help us keep back the evil at bay. You think of when we went in and invaded Iraq, how all of a sudden Iran came to power. When we took Saddam hue out of power, we didn't realize that all of a sudden Iraq or Iran would come to power within the region. 6 (34m 45s): There was a withholding of the powers there. God is a nationalist. He believes in nations, God design nations. So Jesus having sent out the 70 and seeing the result back when he says that I saw state and fall like a, like fall out of heaven. He now says ILOs chapter two, verse 13, through 15 of what Jesus did over all these supernatural entities was this. He said, and you being alive in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him having forgiven you all trespasses having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. 6 (35m 27s): And he has taken it out of the way. Having nailed it to the cross. You know, that God is a God of justice. And he's a God who believes in the legal system. God has a legal system that he's worked out for the salvation of us. God can't extend out of that because God keeps within his own legal boundaries. He's there's handwritten requirements that were, that were against us. But after he did that, having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed the principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them and triumphing over them all. That's why Jesus is the answer. That's why Jesus is the answer. He is the name above every name. 6 (36m 7s): So that's where we leave off this week. But let's, let's remember where we left off last week. And that last week we talked about the diff or we left off with the difference between angels and demons. So let's get into that. Now, first of all, there's a number of different types or classes of angels. There's types, kinds hierarchy within the angels, angelic realm. There's the Sarah F in the chair of him. Those are normally found around the throne room of God. We have the arc angels who are these kind of warrior angels that are given much power, much authority. We have messenger angels, guardian angels, and then over 70 different types of angels are described in the book of revelation. There's a guy who recently wrote a book on 70 angels in the book of revelation, but we don't have time to jump into those guys. 6 (36m 53s): Those are, I'll leave those for further study for you. But what, where we were at last week was the sons of God. That statement the sons of God, the sons of God in the old Testament were direct creations of God, okay? God directly created the sons of God. So if I were gonna get onto a tangent, which I'm going to, because it relates to you and I today, the tangent is that in the old Testament, they're called the stone of God. What about now? What about in the new Testament? And that's where the genealogy is really interesting. Interesting. Both Matthew one and Luke three have different genealogies for Jesus. One follows the lineage of Joseph. 6 (37m 34s): One follows the lineage of Mary Luke's lineage follows Mary Luke and Luke chapter three, the genealogy, we see it all the way down from, from Mary's, from Mary. Her, her father is that we fall that all the way down. The son of the son of the son of, until we get to Adam, the son of God, why was Adam called a son of God? Because he didn't have a mother or father because God directly created Adam. So how does that relate to us today? Well, that's, that's, what's encouraging about the new Testament says second Corinthians five says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 6 (38m 14s): The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Or what about Romans eight versus 12 through 14? Paul says, therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. But if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you are put to death, the deeds of the body you will live for as many as are led by the spirit of God to these are called the sons of God. Isn't that interesting that we, by believing in who Jesus Christ has have been given the rights to be called the sons of God, John one also says, but as many received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name. 6 (39m 4s): First John three, one behold, what manner of love the father's bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. We, because of Jesus can be called the son or the child of God, because we've made a new creation in him. And that means that we are co-heirs with Christ, But we don't become angels. We don't become angels because we're a new creation. We're still humans, but we've been made in the image of God angels. When a person dies, they don't become an angel. Can I dispel that the Bible does not teach that? 6 (39m 45s): Okay. We will be humans. Humans will be humans. And these divine beans will continue to be that. So back to angels, supernatural, divine beans that dwell in a realm above ours in an unseen realm, you see, we have arch angels, messenger angels, guardian angels, angels unaware to us. In fact, the, the one thing that separates angels in the Bible is angels ability to manifest into our world and even disguise themselves as humans. Isn't that interesting angels are able to manifest into our world into our seen realm. 6 (40m 26s): Hebrews 13 chapter 13 verse two says, do not forget to entertain strangers for BISO, doing some, have unwittingly entertained angels. Isn't that interesting that person you bump into on the street, they might be an angel. He was just be careful. You might, you might be that might be an angel that because angels are able to manifest into our scene realm, and that didn't just happen. He's not just warning in, in Hebrews or, or message in Hebrews. It's also in the old Testament in Genesis 18, we see that yawe himself and two other divine beans met with Abraham in the flesh and they ate a meal together. 6 (41m 13s): These angels met with lot and ate Genesis 19 that says those two angels had to physically grab lot and pull him out. That means that angels were able to manifest into our existence into a physical substance and pull lot out of that city. And though even the townsmen of those of that city of Sodom and Gamora thought that those two angels were men it's because the angels are able to manifest Genesis chapter 32 says that Jacob arrested with a man in that text also described as Elohim or Hebrew for God twice. 6 (41m 54s): They had a physical struggle that left Jacob injured for the rest of his life. Matthew chapter four verse 11 says that angels came and ministered to Jesus after 40 day fast Jesus in the wilderness fasting, then, then net by Satan to, to try to deceive him, to try to make him worship God. Jesus was tired after that 40 days, how was he ministered to, is the question, was he just kissed on the cheek by a bunch of butterflies as they kind of like floated around these angels beans that were unseen? No, I think they brought him food. I think they brought him water. 6 (42m 33s): I think they brought him maybe even a pillow or a place to rest. They ministered to his physical bodily needs because they were able to manifest in acts chapter five. We see that angels can open doors. We also see angels appear in speak to shepherds in the field. By speaking, we know that sound waves came out of their vocal chords. So these angels manifested into our existence and were able to speak there by creating vocal, creating these sound waves, which those shepherds were able to hear angels hit the disciples or smacked Peter around to wake them up in acts chapter 12, physically able to manifest into our world. 6 (43m 19s): And it's interesting that the angels throughout the Bible always given in the masculine gender they're, they aren't sexless. There's a book that was written in 1830. It's called flatland by a, a, a minister who was also kind of dabbled in hobbies of, of science and, and physics and stuff. And he wrote this book called flatland, where there was a, he explained and, and brought, made to life a whole world that lived in two dimensions. So the squares or the triangles were female or males in the squares were females. And they, they, he shows how they interact until one day, a three dimensional, a higher being interrupted and, and, and got involved in that two dimensional world. 6 (44m 9s): And it blew the mind of the, the guy that was the, the triangle, how this extra dimensional bean could then intercept and add in. And I wonder how our three dimensional world can be intercepted in, in Why, why, why don't we see four or five or six or 10 dimensions? Like there's theories of science that show because angels are able to manifest. So what about the fallen angels that we talked about last week and the really fallen angels? Let's talk about that. Both Peter and Jews say that both angels who rebelled at the time of no were cast away until the judgment, those angels, that specifically rebelled were cast away. 6 (44m 55s): So what that does is that leaves us two groups of fallen angels. There are those that are bound in chains or locked in tarter. They left their natural habitation, had sex with women, thereby breaking what God had designed them to do. And those, those ones are bound in chains, but there's also a group of angels of fallen angels that are still free to roam. They're the ones that rebelled with Satan, but didn't leave their natural habitations. So what does that mean? It means that some angels, some fallen angels are still at work in our world today. Galatians one eight is the warning, but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you, then we have preached to you, let him be a cursed. 6 (45m 43s): Don't listen to it. Don't listen to another gospel. Even if it's some supernatural being, if it, whatever it is, don't listen to it. Let him be a cursed. Ephesians six reminds us of what we're struggling with or what we're wrestling with for, we do not wrestle against the flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heaven, places, those are different boundaries in hierarchy. What about in our history? What about our world's history? Have you ever seen or heard of fallen angels come in contact with humans? 6 (46m 22s): What about the prophet Muhammad? The so-called prophet Muhammad 40 years old, he's in a cave near Mecca and he's, he's, he's praying to his God. And in that cave appears what he called the angel Gabriel. Now we know the state that they're a liar, so they can say who they want to be. But this angel grabbed Mohamed and threw him up against the wall and said, he said, read or recite. And Mohamed said, I, I, I don't, I don't know how to read. He was illiterate. He could not read. And he slumped down and the angel, then again, picked him up and threw him against the cave once again, and said, read or recite Muhammad slumped down again. 6 (47m 4s): Once again, after holding them there for a while, thought thinking that he's gonna lose his life. He let him down again. Muhammad was like, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't do that. I, I, I don't have that skill. And the angel once again, the third time threw him up against the cave wall until Muhammad thought he was gonna die and said, read a sight. And then finally let him go. He went back to his home, back to his wife and hid under a blanket, not knowing what he had just dealt with. And that's how he come, how we get the message of Islam, an angel throwing him up against the wall. Or what about Joseph Smith and his dealing with angel Morona this angel that, that then gave him special golden spectacles and a golden tablet and said, there, this read Christianity is not correct. 6 (47m 50s): This is the true religion. And, and, and this is what you're gonna do. That was the angel moron fallen angels involved in our world. Today. You see Dr. David Jeremiah said this. He said, fallen angels don't prevent us from worshiping. Instead they changed the object of our worship. Something other than the almighty God Prevent us. They don't prevent us from worshiping. They just change the object of our worship. That is why it's my personal opinion. I brought this up last week of what UFO are. I believe these are fallen angels distracting us, preparing us in the world for when Christians suddenly disappear. 6 (48m 33s): And I'm talking about the great rescue, the great snatching, where, where we will be caught up in a moment where those who believe in Jesus Christ will be snatched up and, and just gone just off the face of the world. How is the world gonna explain that? Well, they're gonna, they're gonna use these UFO site and these fallen angels that, oh, well, the angels had to take them. New age has a belief that the world will not enter into full piece until those people who resist that are taken away that's within the new age. Belief says my belief that these things are conditionings for what to come. There's a law of prophecy that says future events, cast their shadows ahead of them. 6 (49m 18s): Future events, cast their shadows ahead of them. Turn on discovery plus, and you'll find a whole channel loaded with the paranormal, Go to the history channel. You'll have all this, all this supernatural things there. It's becoming normalized in our culture. So if angels and fallen angels are able to in manifest into our world today, what about demons? What's up with them. And this is what Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 12. Jesus taught that demons are disembodied spirits. 6 (49m 58s): Demons are disembodied spirits. Matthew chapter 12, verse 43 to 45. Jesus said when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest and find none. Then he says, I will return to my house from which I came, which he, and when he comes, he will find it empty, swept, and put an order. Then he goes and takes it with him, seven other spirits, more wicked than himself. And they enter and they dwell there. And their last state that man is worse than the first shall. So it shall be with this wicked generation. Notice the language that Jesus has using there says unclean spirit goes out of a man out of a man. 6 (50m 42s): And then later on, he says that the Demonn says I will return to my house. That because the Demonn wants to find a place of rest of Possession as a son of missionaries to a third world country. I, I remember hearing some of these stories very early on about how my parents would once in a while, once in a while, come across these people. And, and, and they would try to exercise the demons because this little girl, young age would from her would come the weirdest and most guttural noises and sounds and speak in, in, in horrible things. And that those demons would try to hurt that girl. 6 (51m 22s): And so my parents spent time casting out these demons. I heard that from a young age. So what is going on? Well, Jesus spoke that these demons are disembodied spirits. They seek to find a body and there is levels of wickedness within the demons themselves. You see that demon didn't like whether it left or whether, if it was, it was cast out of that, that man, that person, that body, that it was in, it says, well, I'm gonna return there. And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept and put order. And he says, oh, I'm gonna take seven more, more wicked than myself so that we won't be cast out again Out of a man. 6 (52m 6s): I'm gonna return to my house. So where do these disembodied spirits come from? Be the question we should ask, where do these disembodied spirits come from? And that goes back to Genesis chapter six, Genesis chapter six, verse four says there were giants on the earth in those days. And also afterwards, we'll, we'll leave that. We'll, we'll set that aside for another time. Another discussion there were giants on the earth in those days when the sons of God came into the daughters of wi of men and they bore children to them. And these were the mighty men who were of old men of renowned that were giants is the Hebrew word for Nephem. 6 (52m 50s): There were superior beings because they were half angel and half man that Hebrew word ne ne is, is a compound word it's it's Neal, which means fallen one. See, this was another reason for the flood because the spiritual wickedness that had intercepted the human race, the human seed human DNA, and that the promised Messiah of Genesis chapter three verse 15, would, could not therefore have Satan seed within it. It had to be a pure strain. That's why the Jews were so interested in their genetics, in their lineage, their family lineage. 6 (53m 33s): And as weird as that sounds to us, the technology today is increased in increasing. We have this technology called the CRISPR technology, gene splicing technology, where we're able to split apart the human DNA and there, and put into DNA, other blocks of DNA. Now, that sounds good. When you think of how, how it could be used for cancer, if there's a, if, if, if a person has a, a, a genetic disposition that, that, that caused them to have cancer, well, you think well going in and removing that chunk of DNA, that causes, that could be a good thing, but it also can be used. Very nefariously. 6 (54m 14s): China has openly said that they're working on Chimera, they're working on and they have worked on, and they have created a live pig monkey hybrid. Please fact, checking on that because they eventually want to make super soldiers. They want to take human DNA and mix it with pig DNA. So you get these transhuman soldiers. They're working on that. As all comes down to transhumanism that we can become something greater than God. We, we could become a hybridized at the, at the fall at that second divine fall, where the sons of God came into the Dodge as a woman, they were trying to make their man and their own image. 6 (55m 3s): And that is now continues to gate today with the technology that we're at. So that's why Noah was chosen. Noah was found perfect in his generations, in his Tolo dot because he hadn't his genes hadn't been mixed. And it's interesting to look back at the mythology from all around the world, every culture, even here in the native Americans here in the us claim to have some half human half man demigod and every culture around in the, in the world also has a global flood story with one family surviving it, where these lowercase G God's coming into human women and creating hybrids. 6 (55m 48s): Superpowered beans, Gilgamesh, Hercules, a Achilles, all those speak to this demigods. But what happened to those? NELI those superpowered those half human half spiritual beans. What happened to them? Well, that's why Genesis six over and over again, says that God wiped everything out. A global worldwide flood. They all died. Jesus talks over and over again about that flood and how it wiped everything out. You see the understanding is that the, the Def the Neum, their bodies died, but their spirits lived on their bodies died in the, in the flood, but yet their spirit has been left here to Rome first or second Corinthians five, one through eight. 6 (56m 44s): Talk about how our bodies are home to our spirit. That's why when people have, or claim to have these near death experiences where their spirit is detached from their body, it's because their bodies are home to their spirit. I'm told by another pastor. And I have not been able to verify this. So don't take this as, as, as word, but I'm told by another pastor that the common name for demons at the time of Christ was Timon Neal or dead NELI. So if you can find that source that let me know, please, but that's what I'm told. And it seems to be that this was the accepted view during the time of Jesus, that demons are the disembodied spirits of the neph limb that were killed during the flood. 6 (57m 28s): And they look once again to inhabit an animal, an object, or a body. They want to have a body again, which makes sense with Jesus, talking about them being disembodied spirits. So a couple facts on demons, demons. Also, like we said, it would vary in wickedness and Inkin remember Jesus and Matthew 12 says seven other spirits, more wicked than himself. And then later on in mark, chapter nine versus 28 through 29, his disciples could not cast this certain Demonn out. And when they had Jesus privately, they said, when they'd come into the house to discipled, asked him privately, why could we not cast it out? 6 (58m 10s): So Jesus said to them, this kind can only come out by nothing but prayer and fasting, Prayer and fasting is what, how that kind would come out. You see demons seek to oppress and enticed people to sin. And if possible, to possess a person, which is the, the work that's still going on today, why? Because they want to get a body again. They want to use human vocal chords to speak. If you look at mark chapter five in Luke, chapter eight, we've we, you hear of the, the Legion, the man who had many who was naked, who was wandering the two living in the tombs. 6 (58m 55s): Jesus comes and simply cast them out. But he, but he says, he, he, he allowed those spirits to talk to. I don't know why, but he allowed those spirits to then say, Hey, can we go on those pigs? And those pigs ran off the cliff. And once again, those pigs died. Does that remind you of the flood story? 7 (59m 11s): There's 6 (59m 12s): A connection. The good news is a Christian. A Christian cannot be possessed by a, when they're filled with the holy spirit. That's pretty good. Come on. More amens on that one. Thank you. First Corinthians six says this, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit? Who is in you, whom you have from God. And you're not your own. You are bought with a price, therefore, therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are gods. Your body is the temple of the holy spirit. You've been made a new creation. You cannot be filled or possessed by a Demonn. 6 (59m 55s): Now demons have many different kind of names. I encourage you to, to look up unclean spirits, familiar spirits Diablos or devils. We don't have enough time to go into that today, but not everything can come down to well, the devil made me do it. Okay. We battle against a world system against our, our own flesh. And we battle against the devil, the world, the flesh, and the devil, but what are with specific ways to open the doors, to demonic oppression, or for those who are not believers possession, let's talk about those first one would be worship of other gods or idols, worship of other gods or idols. 6 (1h 0m 37s): Deuteronomy 32 says when they provoked him to jealousy with their foreign gods with abomination, they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons and not to God, to God's. They did not know, knew God's new arrivals that their fathers did not fear. That's backed up in, in the new Testament with first Corinthians 10, when he says in verse 19 and 22, what, what am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything rather that the one things at which Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. 6 (1h 1m 19s): That is that's. Yeah. You cannot partake at the Lord's table and the table of the demons, or, or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he see by worshiping things made out of hand, the Demonn can then occupy that object. They, they were what they thought were, they were just worshiping just statues or idols. They were actually sacrificing and worshiping demons. So why you gotta be careful when you, when you, when you move into your house or if your front lawn has a Buddhist statue, a Hindu statue, get that thing outta there. 6 (1h 2m 2s): That's no right in a Christian's life. And even then we still need to be careful of what we bring into our houses. My wife loves the thrift store, the thrift shop. And she brought maybe, maybe she, yeah, I didn't ask her if I could tell the story, but she brought home this plate and it was really pretty, it was a decorative plate. It was kind of made outta her bra and it had some really cool inscriptions and it, but it had this, this kind of almost writing that went around it. And I, and I, I wasn't sure about it. And we had it in a, a house for a number of months. And, and I remember just, just, I never, I just never felt good about that thing. Never. 6 (1h 2m 42s): I just, just felt wrong. And during that time, my, my wife was having dreams and even kind of just strange stuff going on in the house. And I was like, honey, I think we gotta get rid of that plaque. Oh, but it looks so nice. No, it just needs to go. So she ended up throwing away and I never followed up with it a few months ago passed. So a couple months later, a few months ago, she's like, Hey, you remember that plate? And I was like, yeah. She's like, you know, all those things that was like experiencing, they went away. When I got rid of that plate, I was like, weird Worship of other gods right now. We never worshiped the plate. We did not do that. Okay. What about involvement in the cultism oui boards, TA cards, Palm readers, talking with the spirits of the dead witchcraft, spells movies shows even the new thing right now, crystals. 6 (1h 3m 40s): These all have their foundation in the cultism. You can all bring those all the way back to the Babylon, to Nimrod. These are things that we need to be careful of, and we think we should not have any involvement. They open the door to demonic oppression or possession D on the 18 says there shall not be found among you. Anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire or one who practices witchcraft or so there, or one who interprets omens or a sor or one who conjures up spirits or spells, or a medium or a spiritist or one who calls up the dead for all these things are an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations, the Lord, your God drives them out from you before you, these things are, do not belong in the life of a, of a, of a, a Christian. 6 (1h 4m 28s): What about alcohol? Especially too much of it. Where can you find alcohol in a store? You can find it in the spirits section Ephesians five, eight says, or five 18 says, and do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. What is that saying? That you're gonna be either filled with the spirit or you're gonna be filled with the holy spirit, or you're gonna be filled with this unclean spirit spirit. Be careful with that. Jesus warns about worshiping. Mamon what we think of money and our wealth and holding onto it too tight, trusting too much in it is the way we open up ourselves to, to the demonic realm. 6 (1h 5m 17s): What about sexual sin and perversion? We open the door to of our life, to these unclean spirits. We give them footholds in our lives. They are filthy and perverted first Corinthians six says this, please sexual sexual immorality. Every sin that man does outside his body is outside of his body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body, his own, the, the temple of the holy spirit and that word for I immorality, or is fornication. And the Greek word is pornea sexual sin. 6 (1h 6m 2s): It's perversion I'm told the average age currently is between six and eight years old. That if boy sees his first pornography, Six to eight years old parents be very careful with the technology that you allow your kids to have six to eight, open that door into the, the demonic realm where clean UN unclean spirits filthy perverted. The Bible also says that sexuality is anything outside the boundary of one man. 6 (1h 6m 45s): And one woman in a married relationship. Hebrews 13, four says the marriage bed is undefiled, but anything outside that is defiled. That includes transgenderism. Beastiality homosexuality, adultery pornography. All of that is outside the grounds of biblical marriage. And that does not belong in the life of a Christian in college. As I was dealing with my own struggle in this area, remember there was a night when my, my college roommate wasn't home and I woke up in the middle of the night with temptations from a deep sleep. 6 (1h 7m 27s): I didn't share this first service woke up from a deep sleep and there was next to my bed, a bean. And it wasn't there. There wasn't, it was, it was real enough to be not physically there, but there was a spiritual being in my room that was hovering over me. And I couldn't get a word out. I was like, pinned, locked my room. All I knew, I knew that I needed to say the name of Jesus. I knew that I needed to cast that thing out. That the thing had no right to be in my room. And I struggled for a minute. So to try to finally get the words out and that finally, that, that Jesus, that unlocked it in this beam that had a faith that was standing over me. 6 (1h 8m 10s): I somehow molded and just walked away out into where into, into the, where my roommate's room was about 15 minutes later when I got the courage and finally jumped outta bed, I ran and I made sure all the doors and the windows shut and sure enough, everything was locked up. There was a demonic bean in my room that was trying to get me to thin. What about drugs as an opening to the demonic realm? We sometimes think of these things as harmless. Just a, just things that we do once in a while, but drugs in revelation 19 night, sorry, revelation nine verse 20 through 21. 6 (1h 8m 52s): But the rest of mankind who are not killed by those plagues did not repent from the works that the hands that they should not worship demons and idols of silvers, brass stone and wood, which can either see, nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent from the murders of the, or their Soaries or their sexual immorality or their Thefts. That that word forestries is an interesting word because in the Greek, that word forestries actually is the word PIAA PIAA. And that in the context of the new Testament is mind altering substance for a long, long time throughout the century's pagans have used in their worship ceremonies, different plants and different medicinal things to get high. 6 (1h 9m 37s): And once they're high, they're in the altered state, they're in a higher state and they're able to communicate with outside extra, extra dimensional beans. You're giving your Liberty for these demons to enter your life. As you do these mind altering drugs, I'm gonna show a clip. I promised it last week of VI of Joe Rogan. He's a, a world famous podcaster, one of the most listened to podcasters, and he's gonna talk about his experience using a drug, but this, and using this drug, he enters into something that he feels is more real than real. 6 (1h 10m 21s): And from that place where he feels more real than real, he he's getting outside wisdom. So let me just play this clip and we'll go from there. 9 (1h 10m 29s): I have one way of looking at it that I always describe. This is what I say to people. I say, if there was a thing that you could do like a door you could go through and that door would take you to another dimension where you would communicate with Some entity beyond your wildest imagination, that's constantly visually changing and communicating with you telepathically and knows everything about you sees all your, and is trying to impart some ideas that will help you with your life. Cuz it's a God-like experience like you're experiencing like some sort of Uber, powerful entity, some more Uber, intelligent entity, something beyond any, if we just looked at humans and thought of the hu the evolution of human one day, we'll get to this. 9 (1h 11m 19s): We're not gonna get to that. That is a different, it seems like it's so beyond the body. It's so beyond the, the human monkey body, this is what I tell people. I go, if I could give, if you would open a door and you would go there and you'd have that experience, would you do it? And most people are like, yes, I would do it. If I gave you a drug that gave you that experience, you still have the exact same experience. It's the exact same experience. You've just decided it's not real. And you've decided it's not real because you're putting into this category of hallucination. Like what does that even mean? What does that even mean? You're actually having that experience. I don't know what it is 6 (1h 12m 1s): There. Joe Rogan is talking about how he's opening up in a door and that goes back to Genesis, right? Kane soon is knocking at your door and it seeks to master you here, here, Joe Rogan is staying. I, I I'm, welcomely opening this door into my life with this wisdom from outside to come in and give me insight. He's opened himself to demons because demons, if they are the bodies of the distant bodies, spirits of the LAN, they have been around for thousands of years and they've witnessed, they know Joe Rogan's tendencies. They know each of our tendencies, they know what we're our proclivities are. They know what we're what sins draw us. 6 (1h 12m 42s): Everyone has different sins that they're drawn to. And so these demons he's through this drug, he's allowing becomes more real than real. He's allowing these things to speak into 'em He's wrestling with that. Is that more something that's more real than real is because we are being conditioned in this culture into this day and age, that that the veil is getting thinner. The normalization of this supernatural is a trick of Satan to, to steal line from the of great movie, the usual suspects. He says that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was trying to convince the world he didn't exist. But one of the other tricks, the devil pulls is just to get you okay with the humdrum of life like CS Lewis, the screw tape letter, just, just let them kind of do their thing. 6 (1h 13m 28s): They're okay. Because as we watch more and more and more and more come down the forest, the UFOs, the movies, the TVs, the news, the cold we're gonna be, be getting this. So we need to get back to our supernatural biblical worldview because the world needs it. The Bible has the answers. So how do we do that? Well, one, we, Jesus, Jesus, the name of every other name. We claim the name of Jesus. If you have not claimed the name of Jesus, if you have not become a follower of Jesus Christ, you need to do that today because either Jesus will influence you or these, the unseen realm will be influencing. 6 (1h 14m 12s): You Need to remove that veil from our eyes, realize that there's an unseen realm around us and that we rest will not against flesh and blood. Then for some of us, we need to close the door to the demonic strongholds in our life, drugs, alcohol pornography, those things, those doors need to be closed in the name of Jesus Christ. And those spirits cast out. We need to pick up our spiritual armor and the weapons that God has given us. He's given us directions of how to fight how and to do that. So let's do that. Go to Ephesians six, to look up your spiritual armor that God has given you. And we need to fight by getting on our knees in prayer fast. 6 (1h 14m 53s): When you, when God calls you to fast, pick up your Bible, we need to pray and speak out against our, against the demonic strongholds in our community. Our families in our country, these things are real pray. Jesus, we'd lift up your name higher than any other name, your God in the flesh who came to save sinful man to save us. So we bow our knee to you. God, cuz you've paid the price. 6 (1h 15m 41s): Jesus, we need you. We need you to fight this fight. We need to be equipped for the battle, but help us to dig into what you have for us. For Jesus. Then we pray. 2 (1h 15m 56s): Amen. 0 (1h 15m 59s): Church will you stand as we worship. So make me in offering, make me whatever you want me to be. God, I came here with nothing but all you have given me, Jesus, bring new wine out. Me, me, your 2 (1h 16m 42s): Me 0 (1h 16m 42s): In with nothing 2 (1h 16m 55s): At 0 (1h 16m 55s): All you have given me. Jesus, bring new wine outta these Jesus spring, new wine Jesus, where the is your freedom? Lay down old. 6 (1h 18m 18s): See the fight got brought to me. It became really personal. We bought an old house as a, it's a house that was built in 1934 in Santa Maria. And after moving in and we started, there's strange things happening. My daughter was saying, dad, I'm really afraid at I it's like I see something in the corner of my room. I'm like, that's what do you see, honey? And she described a Grotes old woman in the corner of her room. And I was like, well that's that's really okay. Well let's pray. Let me give you the tools. I use the name of Jesus. If you, if you sense something in your room, use the name of Jesus. Say Jesus, help me, Jesus be here. And that thing will have to flee well, talking to then after that, talking to my next door neighbor, who's a Christian as well. 6 (1h 19m 3s): He's like, I've seen that exact same old Haggard woman as well. I'll be alone in the house and I'll see her peek out, out the corner of the room and then another neighbor. And then my wife all reported three different people, independent of each other, knock talking all reported to seeing this, this abarition. And so we prayed and they, I gave them the tools I gave them that fight guard brought to me. So I said, no, there's either. I'm either run from this or I'm gonna fight it. And we chose to fight and we fight in the name of Jesus Christ. We fight in the power of God, but there is a power. There is Power in the name of Jesus Christ. Come forward. If you need prayer, come forward and deal with that. 6 (1h 19m 46s): Come forward to submit yourself and, and to yield to Jesus today. Thank you. 0 (1h 20m 0s): So make me whatever you want me to be. God, I came here with nothing, but all you have given me Jesus new one out of me. 3 (1h 20m 27s): One more time. 0 (1h 20m 30s): Me your thank me an me. Want to God, nothing at all you have given me, Jesus, bring new wine outta me. Jesus, bring new wine outta me. Jesus, bring new wine out of me. 3 (1h 21m 13s): God, that is our prayer this morning. But the old would fall away that we would step into the new God that you would bring new wine out of our lives, that any bad habits or mindsets, but that, that those would end today. God, thank you for your spirit. Thank you for your power. Thank you for your love in your precious name. We pray. Amen.

0 (0s): Church worship this morning. God, we're grateful to be in your house. We thank you that we can lift your name. There's no, our, 1 (3m 4s): Our, our thank 0 (4m 2s): You that 1 (4m 3s): You're here. 0 (4m 10s): I'm on the God of 1 (4m 16s): Jacob's 0 (4m 19s): And oh God, my God, you things are I'm 2 (6m 6s): But I've got 1 (6m 18s): You. Oh 0 (6m 36s): God, my God. Oh God, my God need 2 (7m 15s): Heard your, you hear your children. Now you are the same guide. You are the same guide. You answered prayers back then any you'll answer. Now you are the same guide. You are the same God 1 (7m 42s): You're providing 0 (7m 44s): Men. 1 (7m 45s): You're providing 0 (7m 49s): You're the 1 (7m 50s): Same God, you're the God, 0 (7m 58s): God 1 (7m 59s): Moving power. 0 (8m 1s): Now 1 (8m 2s): You 0 (8m 2s): Are the same. 1 (8m 4s): God, you 0 (8m 5s): Are the same. 1 (8m 7s): God, you are heal. You are the you, 0 (8m 19s): The, 1 (8m 21s): You 0 (8m 23s): Save. 1 (8m 25s): You're save you. God, you, I, 2 (9m 54s): You free the can is then you are freeing hearts right now. You are the same God, you are the same. God, you touch the, feel your touch, right? You are the saying the I'm dear river, 3 (11m 25s): Holy spirit and, and, and dying and so dark. And what is going on in this world? Spirit within this flow untouchable, the hearts of 5 (12m 1s): Lord knows and there's power to, 4 (13m 38s): I have been by the grace of God. I have been raised, do a future without I eyes on a true in loyal friend. The one whose life I'm hidden. The 1 (14m 15s): Love 4 (14m 19s): Us, you for us, Jesus of, oh, 1 (14m 52s): In the family of my God will be named when the saints go marching on he to the glory who glory is people shouting victory through generations. 1 (16m 31s): Jesus, Jesus, Jesus love she's 6 (17m 20s): Lord. We honor you this morning. God, we just invite your presence here. Jesus. We ask that you do what you want to do this morning. God, we are submitted to you. God, we are absolutely desperate without you, Lord. We look at the world around us and we know that your only hope so God just, I just asked that you'd fill this place that you'd fill each heart. Fill each mind, Lord that you would align us to your spirit, that you would align us in ways that we've come off. Course Lord, in our mind, in our, our hearts, God just align us to yourself. And we just ask that we would be faithful and that we would be obedient to, to listen to you. Jesus, we love you so much. 6 (18m 0s): We just wanna honor you this morning in Jesus name. Amen. All right. If you'll take your seats, that would be great. Eight. And also if there's some seats around you, we've got some people in the back that are coming in that still need to be seated. So if you want to come up, if you've got like a couple seats around you, you can raise your hand. We've got some seats down here. Yeah. So just filter in. Don't be shy. So I just wanna welcome you all to harvest church. We're glad to have you here. Oh, if you wanna sit on the front row, there's some spots up here too. Yeah. It's great to have you here. I'm Curtis. And just wanna extend a special welcome to you. If you are new here for the first time, just wanna let you know that there's an info center at the back. 6 (18m 43s): There's a really beautiful woman Manning the info center. She's my, my wife. So she'll take good care of you. 7 (18m 51s): Yeah. 6 (18m 55s): We just got married. That's why that's yeah, we don't. That doesn't happen every time, but I'm expecting it from now on. So Yeah. So we've also got coffee out on the patio there and then bathrooms down these hallways. You'll see the signs there. That'll lead you right to 'em. We've got a few things coming up. The first thing is the Bonko for the baby's event. This is really special because the whole purpose of it is to bless lifeline pregnancy center. We've supported them for a long time. And so this is another great opportunity to do that. The registration for the event you'll need a sign up online or at the info center, but the registration is bringing an item to donate to lifeline. 6 (19m 36s): So it's gonna be a big blessing for them and for a lot of moms and young, unexpected pregnancies in the area, we just wanna bless them. So if you want more information on that, head back to the info center, that's gonna be on September 30th. Also we have our harvest festival parade outreach this every yeah, the last few years we haven't had it. The harvest festival has not been here and we thought it might never return, but here it is. And we're stoked about it. So we are gonna be handing out balloons and free waters to people coming up and down grand just to bless them, make a connection with them. And yeah. So if you wanna be a part of that, you can also sign up at the info center. 6 (20m 16s): And then just one more thing. We've got a new life group that's joining on a little bit late, but it's gonna be amazing. Dr. Stacy Harmon is leading this life group and it's about Christian ethics. He's a medical doctor. He's got great insight to these things and it's gonna be on Thursday. So if you want more information, you wanna sign up for that. You can head back to the info center. We'd really encourage you to do that. So now we're gonna just get up and meet somebody you haven't met before fifth and sixth grade is gonna be released at this time. But junior high and high school are gonna be in cuz Jeremy's gonna be preaching this morning. So let's get up and mingle and Jeremy be back in just a minute. 9 (23m 34s): All right. Well good morning, everyone. Welcome. Welcome. I love it. Y'all rowdy this morning. Huh? That's great. Yeah, it was a surprise to see. First service was really rowdy as well. I don't know if it's the weather or what, what it is, but glad to see you guys awake as well. It's gonna be a great message. Pastor. Steve had a vacation this week and so he was gone. And so he asked me to come up and teach today and, and I showed him my outline earlier in the week. And he said, that sounds like it's a two-parter. 9 (24m 14s): So this, this will probably, well, this is going to extend into next week. So instead of one week, he got me two weeks. Sorry about that. Steve will be back after that. But my name is Jeremy. I'm the youth and family pastor. Hence the youth are staying in service. I'm glad to have them here. I, I realized the weight of, of today. I remember what I was doing 21 years ago. It was my college roommate's birthday and the phone was ringing off the hook. We, we, we thought that she was simply just trying to get ahold of him to wish him a happy birthday. When he finally picked up the, the phone and the kind that was attached to the wall, or we, we realized that the world had changed. 9 (25m 1s): And I spent that day with eight of my other college roommates staring at the TV, wondering how this would change the, our, what would this would change. And it did our, our, our world. Our nation has not been the same ever since on that day, the twin towers were attacked using our own commercial aircraft. The Pentagon was attacked and then flight 91 crashed in a field because of some brave men and women who decided they were gonna sacrifice their lives to bring that, that plane down to field and not into our capital building or into the white house. 9 (25m 46s): So that would start all this, this, this morning and with a, with just a moment of silence, as we, as we remember the, the brave men and women who rushed into those buildings that were on fire, the brave women, men, and women that stopped the airplanes from going where they were intended. We can remember them right now. 9 (26m 25s): Well, we thank you for the sacrifice those men and women paid to at least attempt the saving of li other lives. Lord, we think of that day that our world changed forever. When over 3000 people on American saw were, were, were killed because of the acts of a, a few evil people and how that's marked our world ever since Lord, where we thank you for those brave men and women that that kept evil at bay. 9 (27m 8s): We remember them now, Lord and Lord. Ultimately, we look to you, Jesus, because you, by your death and given of your life gave us freedoms in ways that we do not deserve Lord. So Lord, thank you for this morning, pray that we would open up your word and, and receive some truth. Lord Jesus made me pray. Amen. So we're taking a break, a short break from Peter this morning, and we're gonna look at, and we're gonna get ready for some verses that are to come in. 9 (27m 48s): Peter and that's maybe today is a little bit of a warmup for that, a little bit of, of getting ahead of the curve, but I'm gonna, I am gonna recommend that you get a note card out. I'm gonna be thrown out a lot of verses for you to mole over this week. Some passages to write down, to think through. And I want you to be like the BES and acts 17. You see the BES, Paul praises them because they heard what Paul had to speak. They heard Paul preach and then they went home and they searched the scriptures themselves. So some of the things I might say this morning might be new to you. 9 (28m 29s): It might be a little strange. And so I'm gonna encourage you to take what I have to say. Don't just take it from my word. Look at the scriptures. Look at these passages, look at our culture and we'll go from there. I also wanna do recommend that this, that there is some mature content in this morning's message. So I've tried to keep it a junior high level and above, but it, there will be a little bit of mature content, but I've labeled this message as the veil is getting thinner, you know, and when they unveil a new car, any car fans out there, you either go to the shows or, or, or, or you watch online and, and, and they're gonna be showing this new car. 9 (29m 10s): And so they have this veil covering the car, and then they, they say like, like the Tesla, the cyber truck, they pulled back the veil on that thing. And you're like, oh, what is this thing? It's, it's, it's it's crazy. Or that veil that was on my 13th, I think it was my 13th birthday bike. You see, I was getting into mountain biking and the Kmart huffy white Hawk was no longer doing the job. And I really, really wanted this Bianchi NA bike, but it was a little bit out. My, it was outta my price range and a little bit stretched to budget for my parents. 9 (29m 50s): And so that morning I woke up and there there's my birthday present. It's underneath this sheet. My parents had put a sheet over it and I'm like, oh man, is it gonna be another K-Mart bike? Or is it gonna be the Italian stallion, the Bianchi Nala? And because the sheet was thick, I couldn't see through it. But then my parents, they pulled it back and there was my dream bike, the Bianchi Nala, which I have some good, painful stories to tell on that bike. But had that sheet been any thinner I could have seen right through it. And I wouldn't have need to that veil wouldn't have need to be pulled back. I would've just known what it was. And I believe that in our culture, we're, we're, we're starting to see that the veil is getting thinner. 9 (30m 32s): We're starting to see a mixing of strange, strange things, a mixing between the natural and the supernatural in, in ways that steams like strange bed bedfellows, you know, movies. We think about when movies first came out and even movies in my childhood have changed a lot to movies. Now you think about all the supernatural movies that are coming out, you can think of even child children, children's movies like Moana. Right? Great movie. I was, I, I enjoy watching that, but what is it about it's about a demigod, a half band, half God being who comes and rescues the world, or he stole something. 9 (31m 16s): He guys put it back, or you look at the Marvel movies and how intense they're getting and how much superpower, superhuman strength. These, these things are being given. And, and it's, it's, it's getting strange to me. Our culture is being warmed up to the fact of this supernatural. And that makes sense because as we get closer and closer to the second coming of Christ, things will get more warmed up and more warmed up. The veil will become thinner and thinner. If you think about revelation, chapter 11, and that's maybe a verse to go back and or chapter to go back and look at revelation, chapter 11, we have the two witnesses in Jerusalem at the temple. And these two Jerusalem, these two witnesses were given the power that if anyone wanted to attack them, fire can come out of their mouth. 9 (32m 4s): They're given power over the water that they can either cause droughts or they can cause the water to turn to blood. That's weird. How do we go from right now where we're at in our culture, in our world to that to two men who can have fire come out of their mouth and not bat an eye, the world, doesn't take that into account the world. Doesn't like, oh my goodness, people gonna shoot fire mouth and, and, and repent. Or what about revelation 14 where there's three different angels flying in the, in the, in the heavens and the skies proclaiming different messages. And the world seems they turn a deaf ear to it. 9 (32m 47s): They're proclaiming the gospel. They're proclaiming the watch out for the mark of the beast. And yet the world's still marching the same way. How do we get to that place in the future? Where the people can be. So insensitives to these angels flying in the heavens. And that's because I think over the centuries, we've lost our supernatural biblical worldview, right? We think of angels and demons, but really Those are just cartoons, right? Those are those little things on the shoulders that get like speak into our ears. Is that really what angels and demons are? 9 (33m 28s): Or what about my friend's house? Who his mom had these chubby baby angels everywhere. Nothing to be fair. They were plastered everywhere in their house. Really cute, but I don't think that's a biblical angel. I don't see that picture and think, oh my goodness. And, and, and wanna fall down and this, whoa, I'm not, I shouldn't be here. The Shepherd's out in the field when that single angel comes to proclaim them a message. They all were just fallen down with fear. And the angels have to say, don't worry, don't fear. So much of our worldview right now is spent trying to explain everything naturally that we've lost the ability to understand and see what's the world around us. 9 (34m 15s): And as Christians, we're called to be a light to a broken world. And so how do we look at the world around us and bring the gospel? We see weird things are happening, weird things are happening. One of my favorite places growing up as a kid was the Woodlake hardware store. And it had a long history of being there. And I've, I, I think the employees must have thought we were CRA. We would go there days on end and just wander the aisles, just to look at every knife, every BB gun, every, every rope, every, just we as a kid. 9 (34m 55s): And I still do. I still do this every day. I walk into a hardware store. I just kind of catalog in my mind where things are at, if the, okay, if the faucet home breaks, this is where I can go to get that part. I just, I love wandering the aisles of hardware stores. And in a way I feel like that's kind of what I'm doing now is, is you look at culture and you start to pick up clues. Like what, how does this fit in with, with the Bible? What about this? Why is our government releasing data on UFO sightings by our military government report admits true UFOs. Aren't manmade. That's weird. 9 (35m 38s): That's weird that these, these airplane pilots, these military airplane pilots are reporting these things that, that forest surpass anything, any speed that we're capable of as humans, anything, any technology that we've ever made, and the ability for these, these crafts to be traveling super fast and then make these right hand turns out of nowhere without slowing down without curving, without any. And then these CRE they've they've reported in some of these, these reports that these crafts have either flown above, or they go under the water into the ocean. They're just, they're just, we it's weird. If you really dig into these things, how does that fit in with the Bible? 9 (36m 19s): Or what about stories of, of people who've come back from near death experiences? You know, those experience, those, those times where somebody dies on a ho operating operating table, either from a heart attack or something, and they report going to someplace and seeing something or having an out of body experience, Or what about those? Like those, those stories where people seem to come out of their body, hover over their body, hover over the operating table while their people are working on them, operate, look around in the room. They're, they're witnessing all these things going on to their own body, but yet their soul is detached. And yet, while their soul is attached, people have come back and reported that they've can remember, or they can retell the serial numbers on the back of the machines that were in that operating table or operating room knowledge that they had no prior understanding beforehand. 9 (37m 12s): Or what about the person that came back from this near death experience, this death, where they, their heart rate was dead and they came back and they said, well, I saw sh there's these shoes up on the hospital. There's so there's certain colored shoes up on the top of the hospital. How, how do we explain that as Christians strange? What if you encounter someone on the street who says that they've lived three previous lives and they can explain those things in detail and they explain in a way that's very historically accurate. Are they outta their mind? See, I think the Bible, I think we have a way in our Bible of explaining these things and that's what I want to kind of get at. 9 (37m 57s): But those are strange things out in the world. What about the strange things in the Bible? There's some strange passages in the Bible. Yes. Let's look at a few. And these are maybe just, we're just gonna, I'm just gonna highlight a few, throw a few at you kinda like spaghetti on the wall. Look at Genesis chapter six, when you get home, write that down. Genesis chapter six. And we're gonna break that down just a little bit more later on Genesis chapter six caused about talks about the sons of God and the NELI, the giants, the mighty men. That's strange Daniel chapter three talks about a hand of God coming and writing on the wall. 9 (38m 38s): And it wrote me. Faron was Daniel chapter three, Daniel chapter 10 has these dueling superpowers in the heavens that Daniel started praying. And for 21 days, he kept praying and fasting, praying, and fasting. And he got no answer from God until an angel finally came and said, I was held up by the prince of the kingdom of Persia in the heavens. And it wasn't until Michael, the arc angel came and released me fought against that superpower, that king kingdom, prince of the kingdom of Persia and released me. So I can come bring this to you now, Daniel, 10 (39m 16s): That's 9 (39m 17s): Strange. What about first King's 22, the prophet Makaya, and yawe having a council or a cohort, and then aligned spirit, a spirit coming forth and, and saying, I will be a lion spirit in the mouth of those 400 priests and Macias stood apart from that that's weird Reed, first Kings 22 this week, or then you get to sections like Psalm 82, where it's like God and his divine council Elohim stands in the council of the mighty, the L. 9 (39m 57s): And he judges amongst the El hems, the gods that's 82. Isaiah 14 is a strange one as well. Is it a, is Isaiah 14, a prophecy against a king? The king of Babylon? Or is it a prophecy against Satan? It would almost seem like both because he's talking at one point to the king of Babylon, but then another point he says that you were in the garden beforehand and you were a mighty chair up. So is he talking to the king of Babylon or is he talking to Satan? What about Ezekiel 28? Same thing, human king of tire, or is he talking about Satan? 9 (40m 37s): Then we have passages in the Bible that we so often just, just floss over like the, the, the Virgin birth of Jesus. That's a supernatural thing. What about Jesus' dealings with the demons? How, where do we categorize that? Where is that to be put? Or what if finally, about the, what about the resurrection from the dead Lazareth called out of the grave? After three days, four days, three days, he stumps. He stunk. He stunk by that time called out of the grave or Jesus. When he died the streets, they said the tombs were opened and men began to walk about the streets. 9 (41m 22s): That's weird. These things are weird, but if the Bible is strange, what about the world around us as well? Thing, weird things are happening. As we all know, science is, is, is stuck in chasing after this philosophy of the, or this theory of the big bang, the theory of how we came into bean 13.8 billion years ago, there was a sub atomic particle and it blew up. And then this whole world came into, into be well, right now in se Switzerland is one of the largest machines in the world. 9 (42m 3s): It's called the large Hadron Collider. It's a sub sub atomic Parto particle Collider. And what it is, it's a 17 mile tunnel underneath the ground, about 300 feet under the ground. And it shoots out subatomic particles at near the speed of light. And these, these particles that what they're trying to find is how the universe was created. So they're trying to figure out how these things collided and how the big bang happened. Okay, They're looking for this, God particle the Boston Higgs particle, but strange things are there because it's not just science. You see, in between those buildings, you can find a bronze sculpture of the Hindu God Shiva, the Hindu God of destruction. 9 (42m 53s): And that is said, that is balancing unifies, ancient mythology, religious art, and modern physics. Why do you need a picture or a depiction of the Hindu God Shiva in the middle of a very, the world's biggest science experiment, where the scientists are saying that weird things are apparitions are happening as their, as these particles are colliding. In fact, there's many atheist scientists that were, that were calling up great warnings. We do not know what we're doing by colliding these things. One of those guys names is Neil Tyson. Degos another was Steven Hawking. 9 (43m 34s): They're like we are messing with things with forces, with powers, with things that we do not know, but going back to that, That sculpture, why, why have a sculpture of the Hindu God Shiva? This is what a postdoc student working there. His name is Aiden Randall Conde. He wrote this speaking about that statue. So in the light of day, when CERN is teaming with life, Sheva seems playable reminding us that the universe is constantly shaking things up and remaking itself and is never static. But by night, when we have more times to contemplate the deeper questions, Sheva literally cast a long shadow over our work. 9 (44m 17s): A bit like the shadows on Plato's cave. Sheva reminds me that when that we still don't know the answer to one of the LAR the, the biggest questions presented by the universe. And then every time we collide the beams, we must take the cosmic balance sheet into account. They're looking for something beyond science and they're finding it. What about if that is looking at the most ultimate, smallest particle and trying to find the origins of that? What about the, the galaxies recently, we just launched the James web space telescope, and it was a, it's an upgrade to Hubble. And this, this looks into the deepest universe, as farther than we, we can ever see. 9 (45m 0s): And if the images that are coming back are pretty phenomenal, but their discoveries are not matching their data or what they predicted or what they thought they would say. It's caused a lot of panic among scientists going there's things that we're witnessing or that were seen out there that we sh we, we didn't think we, we have to kind of rewrite the, go back to the drawing board in some sense, it's because there's trying to track down this big bang theory. So those are strange things. What about athleticism? What does athleticism have to do with worship? 9 (45m 41s): You see every, every two years, or it's held every four years in between the Olympics, there's this thing called the Commonwealth games. And this year was held in Britain. And at this opening ceremony, it was one of the strangest open ceremonies that you, you could ever imagine. I'd recommend going back and watching that. But here's a cl this is a, a, a still image from that Commonwealth games, athletic games. And what you see is a woman holding a fallen star. And that phone star is the way that she can then communicate with that beast. This, this bowl that is being shackled. 9 (46m 25s): At one point, the woman then gets to ride the beast. And if that doesn't give you a revelation, prophecy, it's, it's just wild, but she can communicate with the bowl because she has a fallen star. She then rides it. That's weird. Why, what does worshiping a bowl have to do anything to do with the athletic games? What about building projects? You think building a physical thing would just be just doing that, just building a physical thing. Well, in Switzerland as well, they built one of the large largest, longest tunnels in the world. 9 (47m 5s): It's called the Gohar tunnel and the Gohar tunnel as well. And the opening ceremony was one of those bizarre things you could watch in which there was a Satan, a, a literal Satan that showed up And they were dancing and worshiping this, this Satan. It goes a lot back to the, the, the history of the area, but it was it's strange. I don't recommend watching it creepy stuff. What does it have to do with building a tunnel, going back to what, what, what is our government, why is our government releasing this UFO and how the most important question is, how do we look at this from a, a biblical worldview? 9 (47m 49s): There's four different worldviews as I see it. So I made this, I made a little quadrant in the top left. You have this supernatural, a biblical worldview. So they are against the Bible. They do not believe in the Bible, but they believe in the supernatural. And those are people like that, that you would find in ancient mythology. The ancient mythology believed that there was gods and they created the worlds and they, they, they, well, you can, you can study mythology. Mythology will, will give you a supernatural, a biblical world view. 10 (48m 30s): It's 9 (48m 31s): Strange that even scientists are starting to head in that direction. Richard ha Richard Dawkins. One of the, a staunch atheist is now looked at the probability and, and more, more research that comes out about the, about our world that we know, and the probability that life could not happen without some outside force now says that he believes that aliens might have seated the, our, our race here on the world, because he's not willing to believe in a God, Jesus. He has to go and believe that maybe aliens seated our planet. So that's strange, but in the bottom left the naturals, a biblical world, you would, you would have your, a, your evolutionary believers that things have always continued as they were. 9 (49m 15s): Nothing's really changed. There's no God to just dance to your DNA down at the bottom, right? We have men like Charles Darwin who had a, who held a degree in theology. He tried to have a biblical worldview, but he looked around and tried to make it like it was a natural progression up on the top, right? As I, I believe the view of the, of the biblical authors and the view, I'm trying to steer us towards the supernatural biblical world view. And often that starts right in the beginning of the Bible, Genesis one through 11 Genesis, one through 11, not viewed as poetic, not a story, but a literal account of the things that happen. 9 (50m 7s): How did Jesus view Genesis? And I would question you, do you have the same view of Genesis that Jesus did see our biblical worldview includes this supernatural, like things like God calling into the universe, calling the world and universe into existence, created from nothing bar, nothing. And our biblical supernatural worldview hinges on two passages. The first I'd like to go to is Genesis three, Genesis three. And if you look at Genesis three, we'll look at 4, 3, 14 and 15 God handing out the consequences of the fall to the serpent. 9 (51m 2s): He says, because you have done this, you are cursed more than the cattle and more than every beast of the field and on your bell, you shall go and you shall eat of the dust all the days of your life. And I will put nity between you and the woman between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So in the same way that Isaiah 14 talks about a human king, but also Satan, who's controlling that human king the same way as Ezekiel has talked about another human king, that's being controlled by Satan. God is now addressing first, the serpent and then the power behind the serpent. 9 (51m 46s): So addressing the power behind the servant, he's talking about a cosmic battle that is to come. I will put enmity. I will put war between you, between the serpent between Satan, between you Satan and the woman between your seed Satan and between her seed. He shall bruise your head. So the coming Messiah shall bruise your head, serpent, Satan, but you shall be allowed to bruise his heel. That is the first message of the gospel. It's called the proto Evangelion, the first message of the coming Messiah. 9 (52m 27s): And that was the start of the cosmic battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan. Now, as time goes on, we've come to another big event in the Genesis narrative. And that is found in Genesis chapter six, after giving the genealogy in Genesis chapter five, the Tola dot of Adam. We now come to this strange passage in Genesis six, about a worldwide flood and the need for it. And the flood was accepted up until the mid 18th century. 9 (53m 8s): It was a man by the name of George Von, who, who then looked at the world. And he said, well, things have always consisted. And they began to weed out that a global flood happened and they began to explain, like, things have always just continued the way it is. And so even George Beon got away from the world, a biblical worldwide flood, but going back fur further before him, the early church fathers, the biblical writers, they all believed in a worldwide flood, a global worldwide flood. Jesus himself believed in a global worldwide flood. Matthew 24 says, but of the day an hour, no one knows not even the angels in heaven, but my father only, but as the days of Noah were so also the coming of the son of man will be for as in the days before the flood, there were eating and drinking Marion and given marriage until the day that Noah entered the arc and did not know until the flood came and took him away. 9 (54m 10s): So also will be the coming of the son of man. Jesus is looking forward to some coming events, but he's using that. And he's looking back at the story of the flood as the days of Noah. He didn't say as in the days of the stories of Noah, Noah, as in the days of Noah, that's what it's gonna be like before my second coming Luke 17, he also says this as well as it was in the days of Noah. So it'll also be in the days of the son of man, they ate, they drank, they married wives and were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the arc and the flood came and destroyed them all. 9 (54m 50s): If it was a regional flood, God could have just told Noah to move your family out of the area. I'm gonna flood the area there's wickedness there, but God didn't, God had him put into a safe place, had him made an arc. The only way of salvation in an arc that would then float above the waters during this time of global upheaval in which all were destroyed. So that's what Jesus believed. What do you believe? Genesis six is one of the strangest verses in the Bible chapters in the Bible, Genesis six, read the, we will read through one through four. 9 (55m 42s): We'll spend some time breaking it down a little bit this week, and maybe next week as well, Genesis chapter six, one through four says in now it came to pass. When men began to multiply on the face of the earth and the daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful. And they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, my spirit shall not strive with man forever free is indeed flesh. Yet his days shall be 120 years and there were giants or Neelum on the earth in those days. And also afterwards, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them, those were the mighty men of old men of renowned, strange verses might be about the strangest verses in the whole Bible. 9 (56m 34s): So we have to ask ourselves who is this group of beans, who is the sons of God? And I'll tell you there's been three major theories throughout 10 (56m 47s): Christianity. 9 (56m 51s): First is that they're fallen angels. The second theory is that their royalty that their, they took multiple wives and had hers. The third theory is the, is the Sethy theory theory. And that there's the descendants of the lineage of Seth marrying with the ungodly lineage. Those are the three main theories, but I'm not interested in theories. I wanna know what the Bible has to say. That's where we look at hermeneutics, the study and the art of interpreting the Bible. The most important is that scripture always interprets scripture. 9 (57m 31s): So we have to go and we have to look at where else this phrase, sons of God is, is used in the old Testament twice. It's used here in Genesis six, and then twice more it's used in the book of job. So job chapter one, verse six, he says that there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came with them. Also, we know that job was brought up in that conversation. God said, look down at my people. And they found job as an excellent man. Once again, they, they, they corral back up job chapter two, verse one. And there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them to prevent, present himself before the Lord. 9 (58m 22s): So we see that these sons of God come in a way to God, they're able to present themselves. And it says that strangely, that Satan came also. So you look at other passages of scripture and you see that Satan was a fallen angel as well. And so here we have a little, a little bit of knowledge, but let's look at job chapter 38. This is the last time it's used. God is then questioning job in job chapter 38, Joe job, you know, struggling with why he's doing all this. Why, why is all happening to him? 9 (59m 4s): And God begins to then ask questions to job. In, in this section in chapter verse six and seven, he's asking, asking them specific questions about creation. So in verse seven, he says, what are when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, Joe were there when the, the stars sang together. When I created the world and the stars began to sing. And it's, and, and were you there when all the sons of God shouted for joy? So we see that the sons of God, and this, this section are used as angelic beans, divine beans that were there witnessing the creation of the universe. 9 (59m 46s): And they were there shouting for joy. So what we deduce from those passages and that is that the sons of God actually refers to angels. In Genesis six case. We look at the sons of God, refers to fallen angels, and we'll get to that in a bit. This whole thing about the sons of God becoming, becoming were descendants of Seth was a, a later theory in the early church, the early church always all believed that the sons of God were angels or angelic beans. But that then that the, that, that theory that the sons of God were the descends of Seth was introduced by Julius Africanists and later codified into the Catholic church by St. 9 (1h 0m 35s): Augustine, they took a natural biblical worldview. Now I know there's some pushback on this fallen angels theory in that, you know, there's a passage in mark chapter 12, when Jesus is talking about what the resurrection will be like, remember the stages he were arguing about, well, you know, Jesus, this, this brother dies. And the, his, his wife has to marry the next brother and that brother dies. And the wife has married her. He goes down, which, which husband is, is she gonna be married to in heaven? And so Jesus answered mark 12 and says for when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. 9 (1h 1m 21s): And see that's the angels in heaven. Doesn't say they cannot, but what, they don't see the angels in heaven, obey God, the fallen angels have left their place. And I have new Testament evidence for that as well. See, we pray in our Lord's prayer Lords here on earth. Like it is in heaven in heaven. God has his will. God has his way, but here on earth, we're praying. And we're called to give the gospel. We're called to pray that God's will be done here on earth. There's also some pushback because Genesis chapter six, when the new king James says, they took wives for themselves, it actually should be more like took women for themselves Because that word in the Hebrew word, that word Esau, it could be for a woman married or single. 9 (1h 2m 14s): So these sons of God took and that it took is a euphemism for sex. It's that same Herman word. You can study. Humanics. Judah took his wife, took his sister Tamar as in, he raped her. These angels left their place and they took women for themselves. That's weird stuff. So why do we need to know this? And you're probably asking me that question. Why do we need to know this? Why are you bringing this up? Because we're gonna be coming up on some strange verses in the new Testament, some strange ones coming up in first, Peter, and then in Jude, I love Steve pastor. 9 (1h 2m 59s): Steve. He's been, we've been working our way through, through the new Testament and we're in we're normally we've been in first, Peter, and we're gonna get come to these verses. In fact, first Peter three, we can look that up first, Peter three 18 through 21 says for Jesus also suffered once for all sins, the jest for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the spirits by whom he also went and preached to the spirits in prison who were formally disobedient when once the divine long suffering waited in the days of Noah while the arc was being prepared in that, which a few that is eight souls were saved through water. 9 (1h 3m 43s): You look at 20 verse 21 is a strange one as well. There is also an anti type, which now saves us baptism, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but an answer of a good conscience towards God through the resurrection of Jesus. So the question is in first, Peter three, who are these spirits that were held in prison? We know they were disobedient when the divine long suffering Waited in the days of no. While the arc was being prepared, those 120 years that God said, my, I will not strive with man for this. I'm gonna put a limit to his days that wasn't a limit of years of life because their Abraham lived longer than 120 years, but it was the limit that God would put on the way that humanity was headed in 120 years, God said, I'm gonna bring the global worldwide flood. 9 (1h 4m 37s): And the only people saved would be those aboard the arc. So God had divine patience, divine long suffering, while he was waiting for Noah to complete the arc that his Noah and his family who were perfect, who had good DNA waiting for them to be saved. And there was only one way of salvation during the flood. And that was on the arc. What about second Peter chapter two verses four and five. It says for God, do not spare the angels who sin, but cast them down to and deliver them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment. 9 (1h 5m 22s): And he did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah. One of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly. So God sent a global worldwide flood and only saved Noah and his one of eight people. But before that, there were angels who sinned. Well, who were those angels who sinned. Those were those angels from Genesis chapter six that took women for themselves. They deliver them in a special place of chains and darkness to reserve for judgment. What about Jude chapter one, verse six or Jude six, cuz there's only one chapter, right? 9 (1h 6m 6s): Jude six says the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode. He has reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness for the judgment of the great day, those angels who left their proper domain, the angels, the sons of God who came in and took women, thereby creating a superhuman race, giving us the myth, the legends that we have in Greek mythology, Roman mythology, strange things, but it's biblical. 9 (1h 6m 54s): Now next week, I'm gonna get into the difference between angels and demons because there's very, very difference. It's a big difference and what I didn't do first service, but maybe I'll try this service is, is, is there any questions so far? I I'll be open to a couple questions. I know we're a little bit over time, but are they, is anything just pressing so far that I've said Things to study. I want you to take these things home to study. Don't just take my word for it. Go and study these things. But I think there's, if there we are wrestling, not against flesh and blood is what Paul said. 9 (1h 7m 38s): And that's why God is talks about Ephesians. Why God gives Paul the instructions that put on our full armor of God. And as I look at the full armor of God, I always, I always question, maybe you have to the boots. Why does somebody's feet need to be shawed with the preparation of the gospel of peace as a Roman soldier would put all their armor on as they're ready to go out to battle. They've been trained, they've been prepared. They would put on their last thing. They put on their boots. Boots. Things seems to be a strange thing for me in my mind that that Paul had mentioned. But then once you begin to learn what boots are to the Roman soldier, you learn that these boots not only had protection had covering, they had these two inch spikes in the bottom. 9 (1h 8m 23s): And that was, if you were in town, if you were like in your, in a parade, you'd wear these boots that had two inch spikes in the soul. But when going to battle, you would wear these spike. These spikes, your shoes that have were up to six inches long. And that's because the Roman soldiers viewed their, their shoes as a weapon. It was offensive thing because the Roman soldiers wanted to be, they knew they had to be hand to hand tight combat. They had shorter swords so they could swing them easier. They wanted to be up close in person. And one of the things they want on the tactics that they want to do to their enemies is they want to knock 'em to the ground. And then you just take a spiked boot right into their body. 9 (1h 9m 7s): To us. We hear the, the, the preparation of the gospel piece. That sounds so nice to us. Oh, wow. Yeah. I want to, I want my feet to be beautiful, like up on the mountains, like Isaiah talks about, but you have to remember from the perspective of the enemy, when we have our feet, shawed with a preparation of the gospel, peace that's peace to us and we wanna bring peace to others, but that peace comes at a cost to the enemy. The enemy know what that means and saying. So we have an enemy, Like Elijah said, when he, when he looked at his servant, a servant came in, gave him a report, oh, we're surrounded by the armies. Elijah's like, oh Lord, open his eyes. 9 (1h 9m 48s): Let him look up. And he saw above him a multitude of the heavenly host, just waiting to go to battle lately. I just finished the book, the pie in this darkness by Frank Peretti and this pastor who was just on his knees and prayer and the, and the, the damage, the, the darkness that was unfolding on the town, around him. As I wonder what that darkness is in the spiritual realm, around our church, around our community. Right now we need people who know what they're headed, the kind of battle that they're headed into and are prepared for that. So the more we know about our enemy, the more we can be prepared to fight that fight. 9 (1h 10m 31s): Dday was not one by sending one ship or two ships sent by rose and rows and boats and boats and lives and lives to storm that beach and to win it. It's because they knew the fortified city, the fortified beats that they're headed into and there came of cost. Next week. We're gonna jump into the difference between angels and demons and how those things influence us even now. And just as a precursor, I didn't give this to him. I'm gonna give you guys a clip of Joe Rogan next week. And I'm gonna show you how he has opened himself up to demons and how those demons are communicating with him. 9 (1h 11m 19s): That'll be next week. Let's pray, Lord. I know by your word that we are facing a battle, we are facing an enemy Lord. And there, there are people souls around us that are being held captive by the evil hosts, the evil armies, Lord, God, you have given us a, a gospel. That is good news. It is good news to us because we've believed it and we've taken it Lord, but is not good news to our enemies. 9 (1h 12m 1s): Lord, put on us the full armor of God that we may be able to fight against the wilds of the devil that we can go to battle for you. Lord, help us to understand the enemy and that what we're, what we're up against Lords. That was we, we love. And we preach the gospel to those around as family members, neighbors com people in our community, people in our schools that we can know that we are up against What you came to save and deliver from the darkness Lord. So we thank you Lord for this morning, Jesus name, we pray. 9 (1h 12m 43s): Amen. 4 (1h 13m 13s): Oh, my words, for sure. I can nothing new. How could I express? Oh my gratitude. I could sing these songs as I often do. Every song must praise you. 4 (1h 13m 58s): It, it's not much for singing. I've got, I've got one. 4 (1h 14m 54s): You and 11 (1h 15m 49s): Don't you get, I'll be lifted up lifts. Cause you got 4 (1h 15m 54s): Lie inside of those and praise the 1 (1h 16m 0s): Lord 4 (1h 16m 9s): Lift because you got my praise you again and again, he said for, 12 (1h 17m 46s): We just lay everything before you're thrown this morning and worship you, Lord, fill this with your spirit, shine through us. As we go about our week minister to our hearts, Lord, as we glorify you in Jesus name, amen.

0 (0s): Church worship this morning. God, we're grateful to be in your house. We thank you that we can lift your name. There's no, our, 1 (3m 4s): Our, our thank 0 (4m 2s): You that 1 (4m 3s): You're here. 0 (4m 10s): I'm on the God of 1 (4m 16s): Jacob's 0 (4m 19s): And oh God, my God, you things are I'm 2 (6m 6s): But I've got 1 (6m 18s): You. Oh 0 (6m 36s): God, my God. Oh God, my God need 2 (7m 15s): Heard your, you hear your children. Now you are the same guide. You are the same guide. You answered prayers back then any you'll answer. Now you are the same guide. You are the same God 1 (7m 42s): You're providing 0 (7m 44s): Men. 1 (7m 45s): You're providing 0 (7m 49s): You're the 1 (7m 50s): Same God, you're the God, 0 (7m 58s): God 1 (7m 59s): Moving power. 0 (8m 1s): Now 1 (8m 2s): You 0 (8m 2s): Are the same. 1 (8m 4s): God, you 0 (8m 5s): Are the same. 1 (8m 7s): God, you are heal. You are the you, 0 (8m 19s): The, 1 (8m 21s): You 0 (8m 23s): Save. 1 (8m 25s): You're save you. God, you, I, 2 (9m 54s): You free the can is then you are freeing hearts right now. You are the same God, you are the same. God, you touch the, feel your touch, right? You are the saying the I'm dear river, 3 (11m 25s): Holy spirit and, and, and dying and so dark. And what is going on in this world? Spirit within this flow untouchable, the hearts of 5 (12m 1s): Lord knows and there's power to, 4 (13m 38s): I have been by the grace of God. I have been raised, do a future without I eyes on a true in loyal friend. The one whose life I'm hidden. The 1 (14m 15s): Love 4 (14m 19s): Us, you for us, Jesus of, oh, 1 (14m 52s): In the family of my God will be named when the saints go marching on he to the glory who glory is people shouting victory through generations. 1 (16m 31s): Jesus, Jesus, Jesus love she's 6 (17m 20s): Lord. We honor you this morning. God, we just invite your presence here. Jesus. We ask that you do what you want to do this morning. God, we are submitted to you. God, we are absolutely desperate without you, Lord. We look at the world around us and we know that your only hope so God just, I just asked that you'd fill this place that you'd fill each heart. Fill each mind, Lord that you would align us to your spirit, that you would align us in ways that we've come off. Course Lord, in our mind, in our, our hearts, God just align us to yourself. And we just ask that we would be faithful and that we would be obedient to, to listen to you. Jesus, we love you so much. 6 (18m 0s): We just wanna honor you this morning in Jesus name. Amen. All right. If you'll take your seats, that would be great. Eight. And also if there's some seats around you, we've got some people in the back that are coming in that still need to be seated. So if you want to come up, if you've got like a couple seats around you, you can raise your hand. We've got some seats down here. Yeah. So just filter in. Don't be shy. So I just wanna welcome you all to harvest church. We're glad to have you here. Oh, if you wanna sit on the front row, there's some spots up here too. Yeah. It's great to have you here. I'm Curtis. And just wanna extend a special welcome to you. If you are new here for the first time, just wanna let you know that there's an info center at the back. 6 (18m 43s): There's a really beautiful woman Manning the info center. She's my, my wife. So she'll take good care of you. 7 (18m 51s): Yeah. 6 (18m 55s): We just got married. That's why that's yeah, we don't. That doesn't happen every time, but I'm expecting it from now on. So Yeah. So we've also got coffee out on the patio there and then bathrooms down these hallways. You'll see the signs there. That'll lead you right to 'em. We've got a few things coming up. The first thing is the Bonko for the baby's event. This is really special because the whole purpose of it is to bless lifeline pregnancy center. We've supported them for a long time. And so this is another great opportunity to do that. The registration for the event you'll need a sign up online or at the info center, but the registration is bringing an item to donate to lifeline. 6 (19m 36s): So it's gonna be a big blessing for them and for a lot of moms and young, unexpected pregnancies in the area, we just wanna bless them. So if you want more information on that, head back to the info center, that's gonna be on September 30th. Also we have our harvest festival parade outreach this every yeah, the last few years we haven't had it. The harvest festival has not been here and we thought it might never return, but here it is. And we're stoked about it. So we are gonna be handing out balloons and free waters to people coming up and down grand just to bless them, make a connection with them. And yeah. So if you wanna be a part of that, you can also sign up at the info center. 6 (20m 16s): And then just one more thing. We've got a new life group that's joining on a little bit late, but it's gonna be amazing. Dr. Stacy Harmon is leading this life group and it's about Christian ethics. He's a medical doctor. He's got great insight to these things and it's gonna be on Thursday. So if you want more information, you wanna sign up for that. You can head back to the info center. We'd really encourage you to do that. So now we're gonna just get up and meet somebody you haven't met before fifth and sixth grade is gonna be released at this time. But junior high and high school are gonna be in cuz Jeremy's gonna be preaching this morning. So let's get up and mingle and Jeremy be back in just a minute. 9 (23m 34s): All right. Well good morning, everyone. Welcome. Welcome. I love it. Y'all rowdy this morning. Huh? That's great. Yeah, it was a surprise to see. First service was really rowdy as well. I don't know if it's the weather or what, what it is, but glad to see you guys awake as well. It's gonna be a great message. Pastor. Steve had a vacation this week and so he was gone. And so he asked me to come up and teach today and, and I showed him my outline earlier in the week. And he said, that sounds like it's a two-parter. 9 (24m 14s): So this, this will probably, well, this is going to extend into next week. So instead of one week, he got me two weeks. Sorry about that. Steve will be back after that. But my name is Jeremy. I'm the youth and family pastor. Hence the youth are staying in service. I'm glad to have them here. I, I realized the weight of, of today. I remember what I was doing 21 years ago. It was my college roommate's birthday and the phone was ringing off the hook. We, we, we thought that she was simply just trying to get ahold of him to wish him a happy birthday. When he finally picked up the, the phone and the kind that was attached to the wall, or we, we realized that the world had changed. 9 (25m 1s): And I spent that day with eight of my other college roommates staring at the TV, wondering how this would change the, our, what would this would change. And it did our, our, our world. Our nation has not been the same ever since on that day, the twin towers were attacked using our own commercial aircraft. The Pentagon was attacked and then flight 91 crashed in a field because of some brave men and women who decided they were gonna sacrifice their lives to bring that, that plane down to field and not into our capital building or into the white house. 9 (25m 46s): So that would start all this, this, this morning and with a, with just a moment of silence, as we, as we remember the, the brave men and women who rushed into those buildings that were on fire, the brave women, men, and women that stopped the airplanes from going where they were intended. We can remember them right now. 9 (26m 25s): Well, we thank you for the sacrifice those men and women paid to at least attempt the saving of li other lives. Lord, we think of that day that our world changed forever. When over 3000 people on American saw were, were, were killed because of the acts of a, a few evil people and how that's marked our world ever since Lord, where we thank you for those brave men and women that that kept evil at bay. 9 (27m 8s): We remember them now, Lord and Lord. Ultimately, we look to you, Jesus, because you, by your death and given of your life gave us freedoms in ways that we do not deserve Lord. So Lord, thank you for this morning, pray that we would open up your word and, and receive some truth. Lord Jesus made me pray. Amen. So we're taking a break, a short break from Peter this morning, and we're gonna look at, and we're gonna get ready for some verses that are to come in. 9 (27m 48s): Peter and that's maybe today is a little bit of a warmup for that, a little bit of, of getting ahead of the curve, but I'm gonna, I am gonna recommend that you get a note card out. I'm gonna be thrown out a lot of verses for you to mole over this week. Some passages to write down, to think through. And I want you to be like the BES and acts 17. You see the BES, Paul praises them because they heard what Paul had to speak. They heard Paul preach and then they went home and they searched the scriptures themselves. So some of the things I might say this morning might be new to you. 9 (28m 29s): It might be a little strange. And so I'm gonna encourage you to take what I have to say. Don't just take it from my word. Look at the scriptures. Look at these passages, look at our culture and we'll go from there. I also wanna do recommend that this, that there is some mature content in this morning's message. So I've tried to keep it a junior high level and above, but it, there will be a little bit of mature content, but I've labeled this message as the veil is getting thinner, you know, and when they unveil a new car, any car fans out there, you either go to the shows or, or, or, or you watch online and, and, and they're gonna be showing this new car. 9 (29m 10s): And so they have this veil covering the car, and then they, they say like, like the Tesla, the cyber truck, they pulled back the veil on that thing. And you're like, oh, what is this thing? It's, it's, it's it's crazy. Or that veil that was on my 13th, I think it was my 13th birthday bike. You see, I was getting into mountain biking and the Kmart huffy white Hawk was no longer doing the job. And I really, really wanted this Bianchi NA bike, but it was a little bit out. My, it was outta my price range and a little bit stretched to budget for my parents. 9 (29m 50s): And so that morning I woke up and there there's my birthday present. It's underneath this sheet. My parents had put a sheet over it and I'm like, oh man, is it gonna be another K-Mart bike? Or is it gonna be the Italian stallion, the Bianchi Nala? And because the sheet was thick, I couldn't see through it. But then my parents, they pulled it back and there was my dream bike, the Bianchi Nala, which I have some good, painful stories to tell on that bike. But had that sheet been any thinner I could have seen right through it. And I wouldn't have need to that veil wouldn't have need to be pulled back. I would've just known what it was. And I believe that in our culture, we're, we're, we're starting to see that the veil is getting thinner. 9 (30m 32s): We're starting to see a mixing of strange, strange things, a mixing between the natural and the supernatural in, in ways that steams like strange bed bedfellows, you know, movies. We think about when movies first came out and even movies in my childhood have changed a lot to movies. Now you think about all the supernatural movies that are coming out, you can think of even child children, children's movies like Moana. Right? Great movie. I was, I, I enjoy watching that, but what is it about it's about a demigod, a half band, half God being who comes and rescues the world, or he stole something. 9 (31m 16s): He guys put it back, or you look at the Marvel movies and how intense they're getting and how much superpower, superhuman strength. These, these things are being given. And, and it's, it's, it's getting strange to me. Our culture is being warmed up to the fact of this supernatural. And that makes sense because as we get closer and closer to the second coming of Christ, things will get more warmed up and more warmed up. The veil will become thinner and thinner. If you think about revelation, chapter 11, and that's maybe a verse to go back and or chapter to go back and look at revelation, chapter 11, we have the two witnesses in Jerusalem at the temple. And these two Jerusalem, these two witnesses were given the power that if anyone wanted to attack them, fire can come out of their mouth. 9 (32m 4s): They're given power over the water that they can either cause droughts or they can cause the water to turn to blood. That's weird. How do we go from right now where we're at in our culture, in our world to that to two men who can have fire come out of their mouth and not bat an eye, the world, doesn't take that into account the world. Doesn't like, oh my goodness, people gonna shoot fire mouth and, and, and repent. Or what about revelation 14 where there's three different angels flying in the, in the, in the heavens and the skies proclaiming different messages. And the world seems they turn a deaf ear to it. 9 (32m 47s): They're proclaiming the gospel. They're proclaiming the watch out for the mark of the beast. And yet the world's still marching the same way. How do we get to that place in the future? Where the people can be. So insensitives to these angels flying in the heavens. And that's because I think over the centuries, we've lost our supernatural biblical worldview, right? We think of angels and demons, but really Those are just cartoons, right? Those are those little things on the shoulders that get like speak into our ears. Is that really what angels and demons are? 9 (33m 28s): Or what about my friend's house? Who his mom had these chubby baby angels everywhere. Nothing to be fair. They were plastered everywhere in their house. Really cute, but I don't think that's a biblical angel. I don't see that picture and think, oh my goodness. And, and, and wanna fall down and this, whoa, I'm not, I shouldn't be here. The Shepherd's out in the field when that single angel comes to proclaim them a message. They all were just fallen down with fear. And the angels have to say, don't worry, don't fear. So much of our worldview right now is spent trying to explain everything naturally that we've lost the ability to understand and see what's the world around us. 9 (34m 15s): And as Christians, we're called to be a light to a broken world. And so how do we look at the world around us and bring the gospel? We see weird things are happening, weird things are happening. One of my favorite places growing up as a kid was the Woodlake hardware store. And it had a long history of being there. And I've, I, I think the employees must have thought we were CRA. We would go there days on end and just wander the aisles, just to look at every knife, every BB gun, every, every rope, every, just we as a kid. 9 (34m 55s): And I still do. I still do this every day. I walk into a hardware store. I just kind of catalog in my mind where things are at, if the, okay, if the faucet home breaks, this is where I can go to get that part. I just, I love wandering the aisles of hardware stores. And in a way I feel like that's kind of what I'm doing now is, is you look at culture and you start to pick up clues. Like what, how does this fit in with, with the Bible? What about this? Why is our government releasing data on UFO sightings by our military government report admits true UFOs. Aren't manmade. That's weird. 9 (35m 38s): That's weird that these, these airplane pilots, these military airplane pilots are reporting these things that, that forest surpass anything, any speed that we're capable of as humans, anything, any technology that we've ever made, and the ability for these, these crafts to be traveling super fast and then make these right hand turns out of nowhere without slowing down without curving, without any. And then these CRE they've they've reported in some of these, these reports that these crafts have either flown above, or they go under the water into the ocean. They're just, they're just, we it's weird. If you really dig into these things, how does that fit in with the Bible? 9 (36m 19s): Or what about stories of, of people who've come back from near death experiences? You know, those experience, those, those times where somebody dies on a ho operating operating table, either from a heart attack or something, and they report going to someplace and seeing something or having an out of body experience, Or what about those? Like those, those stories where people seem to come out of their body, hover over their body, hover over the operating table while their people are working on them, operate, look around in the room. They're, they're witnessing all these things going on to their own body, but yet their soul is detached. And yet, while their soul is attached, people have come back and reported that they've can remember, or they can retell the serial numbers on the back of the machines that were in that operating table or operating room knowledge that they had no prior understanding beforehand. 9 (37m 12s): Or what about the person that came back from this near death experience, this death, where they, their heart rate was dead and they came back and they said, well, I saw sh there's these shoes up on the hospital. There's so there's certain colored shoes up on the top of the hospital. How, how do we explain that as Christians strange? What if you encounter someone on the street who says that they've lived three previous lives and they can explain those things in detail and they explain in a way that's very historically accurate. Are they outta their mind? See, I think the Bible, I think we have a way in our Bible of explaining these things and that's what I want to kind of get at. 9 (37m 57s): But those are strange things out in the world. What about the strange things in the Bible? There's some strange passages in the Bible. Yes. Let's look at a few. And these are maybe just, we're just gonna, I'm just gonna highlight a few, throw a few at you kinda like spaghetti on the wall. Look at Genesis chapter six, when you get home, write that down. Genesis chapter six. And we're gonna break that down just a little bit more later on Genesis chapter six caused about talks about the sons of God and the NELI, the giants, the mighty men. That's strange Daniel chapter three talks about a hand of God coming and writing on the wall. 9 (38m 38s): And it wrote me. Faron was Daniel chapter three, Daniel chapter 10 has these dueling superpowers in the heavens that Daniel started praying. And for 21 days, he kept praying and fasting, praying, and fasting. And he got no answer from God until an angel finally came and said, I was held up by the prince of the kingdom of Persia in the heavens. And it wasn't until Michael, the arc angel came and released me fought against that superpower, that king kingdom, prince of the kingdom of Persia and released me. So I can come bring this to you now, Daniel, 10 (39m 16s): That's 9 (39m 17s): Strange. What about first King's 22, the prophet Makaya, and yawe having a council or a cohort, and then aligned spirit, a spirit coming forth and, and saying, I will be a lion spirit in the mouth of those 400 priests and Macias stood apart from that that's weird Reed, first Kings 22 this week, or then you get to sections like Psalm 82, where it's like God and his divine council Elohim stands in the council of the mighty, the L. 9 (39m 57s): And he judges amongst the El hems, the gods that's 82. Isaiah 14 is a strange one as well. Is it a, is Isaiah 14, a prophecy against a king? The king of Babylon? Or is it a prophecy against Satan? It would almost seem like both because he's talking at one point to the king of Babylon, but then another point he says that you were in the garden beforehand and you were a mighty chair up. So is he talking to the king of Babylon or is he talking to Satan? What about Ezekiel 28? Same thing, human king of tire, or is he talking about Satan? 9 (40m 37s): Then we have passages in the Bible that we so often just, just floss over like the, the, the Virgin birth of Jesus. That's a supernatural thing. What about Jesus' dealings with the demons? How, where do we categorize that? Where is that to be put? Or what if finally, about the, what about the resurrection from the dead Lazareth called out of the grave? After three days, four days, three days, he stumps. He stunk. He stunk by that time called out of the grave or Jesus. When he died the streets, they said the tombs were opened and men began to walk about the streets. 9 (41m 22s): That's weird. These things are weird, but if the Bible is strange, what about the world around us as well? Thing, weird things are happening. As we all know, science is, is, is stuck in chasing after this philosophy of the, or this theory of the big bang, the theory of how we came into bean 13.8 billion years ago, there was a sub atomic particle and it blew up. And then this whole world came into, into be well, right now in se Switzerland is one of the largest machines in the world. 9 (42m 3s): It's called the large Hadron Collider. It's a sub sub atomic Parto particle Collider. And what it is, it's a 17 mile tunnel underneath the ground, about 300 feet under the ground. And it shoots out subatomic particles at near the speed of light. And these, these particles that what they're trying to find is how the universe was created. So they're trying to figure out how these things collided and how the big bang happened. Okay, They're looking for this, God particle the Boston Higgs particle, but strange things are there because it's not just science. You see, in between those buildings, you can find a bronze sculpture of the Hindu God Shiva, the Hindu God of destruction. 9 (42m 53s): And that is said, that is balancing unifies, ancient mythology, religious art, and modern physics. Why do you need a picture or a depiction of the Hindu God Shiva in the middle of a very, the world's biggest science experiment, where the scientists are saying that weird things are apparitions are happening as their, as these particles are colliding. In fact, there's many atheist scientists that were, that were calling up great warnings. We do not know what we're doing by colliding these things. One of those guys names is Neil Tyson. Degos another was Steven Hawking. 9 (43m 34s): They're like we are messing with things with forces, with powers, with things that we do not know, but going back to that, That sculpture, why, why have a sculpture of the Hindu God Shiva? This is what a postdoc student working there. His name is Aiden Randall Conde. He wrote this speaking about that statue. So in the light of day, when CERN is teaming with life, Sheva seems playable reminding us that the universe is constantly shaking things up and remaking itself and is never static. But by night, when we have more times to contemplate the deeper questions, Sheva literally cast a long shadow over our work. 9 (44m 17s): A bit like the shadows on Plato's cave. Sheva reminds me that when that we still don't know the answer to one of the LAR the, the biggest questions presented by the universe. And then every time we collide the beams, we must take the cosmic balance sheet into account. They're looking for something beyond science and they're finding it. What about if that is looking at the most ultimate, smallest particle and trying to find the origins of that? What about the, the galaxies recently, we just launched the James web space telescope, and it was a, it's an upgrade to Hubble. And this, this looks into the deepest universe, as farther than we, we can ever see. 9 (45m 0s): And if the images that are coming back are pretty phenomenal, but their discoveries are not matching their data or what they predicted or what they thought they would say. It's caused a lot of panic among scientists going there's things that we're witnessing or that were seen out there that we sh we, we didn't think we, we have to kind of rewrite the, go back to the drawing board in some sense, it's because there's trying to track down this big bang theory. So those are strange things. What about athleticism? What does athleticism have to do with worship? 9 (45m 41s): You see every, every two years, or it's held every four years in between the Olympics, there's this thing called the Commonwealth games. And this year was held in Britain. And at this opening ceremony, it was one of the strangest open ceremonies that you, you could ever imagine. I'd recommend going back and watching that. But here's a cl this is a, a, a still image from that Commonwealth games, athletic games. And what you see is a woman holding a fallen star. And that phone star is the way that she can then communicate with that beast. This, this bowl that is being shackled. 9 (46m 25s): At one point, the woman then gets to ride the beast. And if that doesn't give you a revelation, prophecy, it's, it's just wild, but she can communicate with the bowl because she has a fallen star. She then rides it. That's weird. Why, what does worshiping a bowl have to do anything to do with the athletic games? What about building projects? You think building a physical thing would just be just doing that, just building a physical thing. Well, in Switzerland as well, they built one of the large largest, longest tunnels in the world. 9 (47m 5s): It's called the Gohar tunnel and the Gohar tunnel as well. And the opening ceremony was one of those bizarre things you could watch in which there was a Satan, a, a literal Satan that showed up And they were dancing and worshiping this, this Satan. It goes a lot back to the, the, the history of the area, but it was it's strange. I don't recommend watching it creepy stuff. What does it have to do with building a tunnel, going back to what, what, what is our government, why is our government releasing this UFO and how the most important question is, how do we look at this from a, a biblical worldview? 9 (47m 49s): There's four different worldviews as I see it. So I made this, I made a little quadrant in the top left. You have this supernatural, a biblical worldview. So they are against the Bible. They do not believe in the Bible, but they believe in the supernatural. And those are people like that, that you would find in ancient mythology. The ancient mythology believed that there was gods and they created the worlds and they, they, they, well, you can, you can study mythology. Mythology will, will give you a supernatural, a biblical world view. 10 (48m 30s): It's 9 (48m 31s): Strange that even scientists are starting to head in that direction. Richard ha Richard Dawkins. One of the, a staunch atheist is now looked at the probability and, and more, more research that comes out about the, about our world that we know, and the probability that life could not happen without some outside force now says that he believes that aliens might have seated the, our, our race here on the world, because he's not willing to believe in a God, Jesus. He has to go and believe that maybe aliens seated our planet. So that's strange, but in the bottom left the naturals, a biblical world, you would, you would have your, a, your evolutionary believers that things have always continued as they were. 9 (49m 15s): Nothing's really changed. There's no God to just dance to your DNA down at the bottom, right? We have men like Charles Darwin who had a, who held a degree in theology. He tried to have a biblical worldview, but he looked around and tried to make it like it was a natural progression up on the top, right? As I, I believe the view of the, of the biblical authors and the view, I'm trying to steer us towards the supernatural biblical world view. And often that starts right in the beginning of the Bible, Genesis one through 11 Genesis, one through 11, not viewed as poetic, not a story, but a literal account of the things that happen. 9 (50m 7s): How did Jesus view Genesis? And I would question you, do you have the same view of Genesis that Jesus did see our biblical worldview includes this supernatural, like things like God calling into the universe, calling the world and universe into existence, created from nothing bar, nothing. And our biblical supernatural worldview hinges on two passages. The first I'd like to go to is Genesis three, Genesis three. And if you look at Genesis three, we'll look at 4, 3, 14 and 15 God handing out the consequences of the fall to the serpent. 9 (51m 2s): He says, because you have done this, you are cursed more than the cattle and more than every beast of the field and on your bell, you shall go and you shall eat of the dust all the days of your life. And I will put nity between you and the woman between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So in the same way that Isaiah 14 talks about a human king, but also Satan, who's controlling that human king the same way as Ezekiel has talked about another human king, that's being controlled by Satan. God is now addressing first, the serpent and then the power behind the serpent. 9 (51m 46s): So addressing the power behind the servant, he's talking about a cosmic battle that is to come. I will put enmity. I will put war between you, between the serpent between Satan, between you Satan and the woman between your seed Satan and between her seed. He shall bruise your head. So the coming Messiah shall bruise your head, serpent, Satan, but you shall be allowed to bruise his heel. That is the first message of the gospel. It's called the proto Evangelion, the first message of the coming Messiah. 9 (52m 27s): And that was the start of the cosmic battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan. Now, as time goes on, we've come to another big event in the Genesis narrative. And that is found in Genesis chapter six, after giving the genealogy in Genesis chapter five, the Tola dot of Adam. We now come to this strange passage in Genesis six, about a worldwide flood and the need for it. And the flood was accepted up until the mid 18th century. 9 (53m 8s): It was a man by the name of George Von, who, who then looked at the world. And he said, well, things have always consisted. And they began to weed out that a global flood happened and they began to explain, like, things have always just continued the way it is. And so even George Beon got away from the world, a biblical worldwide flood, but going back fur further before him, the early church fathers, the biblical writers, they all believed in a worldwide flood, a global worldwide flood. Jesus himself believed in a global worldwide flood. Matthew 24 says, but of the day an hour, no one knows not even the angels in heaven, but my father only, but as the days of Noah were so also the coming of the son of man will be for as in the days before the flood, there were eating and drinking Marion and given marriage until the day that Noah entered the arc and did not know until the flood came and took him away. 9 (54m 10s): So also will be the coming of the son of man. Jesus is looking forward to some coming events, but he's using that. And he's looking back at the story of the flood as the days of Noah. He didn't say as in the days of the stories of Noah, Noah, as in the days of Noah, that's what it's gonna be like before my second coming Luke 17, he also says this as well as it was in the days of Noah. So it'll also be in the days of the son of man, they ate, they drank, they married wives and were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the arc and the flood came and destroyed them all. 9 (54m 50s): If it was a regional flood, God could have just told Noah to move your family out of the area. I'm gonna flood the area there's wickedness there, but God didn't, God had him put into a safe place, had him made an arc. The only way of salvation in an arc that would then float above the waters during this time of global upheaval in which all were destroyed. So that's what Jesus believed. What do you believe? Genesis six is one of the strangest verses in the Bible chapters in the Bible, Genesis six, read the, we will read through one through four. 9 (55m 42s): We'll spend some time breaking it down a little bit this week, and maybe next week as well, Genesis chapter six, one through four says in now it came to pass. When men began to multiply on the face of the earth and the daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful. And they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, my spirit shall not strive with man forever free is indeed flesh. Yet his days shall be 120 years and there were giants or Neelum on the earth in those days. And also afterwards, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them, those were the mighty men of old men of renowned, strange verses might be about the strangest verses in the whole Bible. 9 (56m 34s): So we have to ask ourselves who is this group of beans, who is the sons of God? And I'll tell you there's been three major theories throughout 10 (56m 47s): Christianity. 9 (56m 51s): First is that they're fallen angels. The second theory is that their royalty that their, they took multiple wives and had hers. The third theory is the, is the Sethy theory theory. And that there's the descendants of the lineage of Seth marrying with the ungodly lineage. Those are the three main theories, but I'm not interested in theories. I wanna know what the Bible has to say. That's where we look at hermeneutics, the study and the art of interpreting the Bible. The most important is that scripture always interprets scripture. 9 (57m 31s): So we have to go and we have to look at where else this phrase, sons of God is, is used in the old Testament twice. It's used here in Genesis six, and then twice more it's used in the book of job. So job chapter one, verse six, he says that there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came with them. Also, we know that job was brought up in that conversation. God said, look down at my people. And they found job as an excellent man. Once again, they, they, they corral back up job chapter two, verse one. And there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them to prevent, present himself before the Lord. 9 (58m 22s): So we see that these sons of God come in a way to God, they're able to present themselves. And it says that strangely, that Satan came also. So you look at other passages of scripture and you see that Satan was a fallen angel as well. And so here we have a little, a little bit of knowledge, but let's look at job chapter 38. This is the last time it's used. God is then questioning job in job chapter 38, Joe job, you know, struggling with why he's doing all this. Why, why is all happening to him? 9 (59m 4s): And God begins to then ask questions to job. In, in this section in chapter verse six and seven, he's asking, asking them specific questions about creation. So in verse seven, he says, what are when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, Joe were there when the, the stars sang together. When I created the world and the stars began to sing. And it's, and, and were you there when all the sons of God shouted for joy? So we see that the sons of God, and this, this section are used as angelic beans, divine beans that were there witnessing the creation of the universe. 9 (59m 46s): And they were there shouting for joy. So what we deduce from those passages and that is that the sons of God actually refers to angels. In Genesis six case. We look at the sons of God, refers to fallen angels, and we'll get to that in a bit. This whole thing about the sons of God becoming, becoming were descendants of Seth was a, a later theory in the early church, the early church always all believed that the sons of God were angels or angelic beans. But that then that the, that, that theory that the sons of God were the descends of Seth was introduced by Julius Africanists and later codified into the Catholic church by St. 9 (1h 0m 35s): Augustine, they took a natural biblical worldview. Now I know there's some pushback on this fallen angels theory in that, you know, there's a passage in mark chapter 12, when Jesus is talking about what the resurrection will be like, remember the stages he were arguing about, well, you know, Jesus, this, this brother dies. And the, his, his wife has to marry the next brother and that brother dies. And the wife has married her. He goes down, which, which husband is, is she gonna be married to in heaven? And so Jesus answered mark 12 and says for when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. 9 (1h 1m 21s): And see that's the angels in heaven. Doesn't say they cannot, but what, they don't see the angels in heaven, obey God, the fallen angels have left their place. And I have new Testament evidence for that as well. See, we pray in our Lord's prayer Lords here on earth. Like it is in heaven in heaven. God has his will. God has his way, but here on earth, we're praying. And we're called to give the gospel. We're called to pray that God's will be done here on earth. There's also some pushback because Genesis chapter six, when the new king James says, they took wives for themselves, it actually should be more like took women for themselves Because that word in the Hebrew word, that word Esau, it could be for a woman married or single. 9 (1h 2m 14s): So these sons of God took and that it took is a euphemism for sex. It's that same Herman word. You can study. Humanics. Judah took his wife, took his sister Tamar as in, he raped her. These angels left their place and they took women for themselves. That's weird stuff. So why do we need to know this? And you're probably asking me that question. Why do we need to know this? Why are you bringing this up? Because we're gonna be coming up on some strange verses in the new Testament, some strange ones coming up in first, Peter, and then in Jude, I love Steve pastor. 9 (1h 2m 59s): Steve. He's been, we've been working our way through, through the new Testament and we're in we're normally we've been in first, Peter, and we're gonna get come to these verses. In fact, first Peter three, we can look that up first, Peter three 18 through 21 says for Jesus also suffered once for all sins, the jest for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the spirits by whom he also went and preached to the spirits in prison who were formally disobedient when once the divine long suffering waited in the days of Noah while the arc was being prepared in that, which a few that is eight souls were saved through water. 9 (1h 3m 43s): You look at 20 verse 21 is a strange one as well. There is also an anti type, which now saves us baptism, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but an answer of a good conscience towards God through the resurrection of Jesus. So the question is in first, Peter three, who are these spirits that were held in prison? We know they were disobedient when the divine long suffering Waited in the days of no. While the arc was being prepared, those 120 years that God said, my, I will not strive with man for this. I'm gonna put a limit to his days that wasn't a limit of years of life because their Abraham lived longer than 120 years, but it was the limit that God would put on the way that humanity was headed in 120 years, God said, I'm gonna bring the global worldwide flood. 9 (1h 4m 37s): And the only people saved would be those aboard the arc. So God had divine patience, divine long suffering, while he was waiting for Noah to complete the arc that his Noah and his family who were perfect, who had good DNA waiting for them to be saved. And there was only one way of salvation during the flood. And that was on the arc. What about second Peter chapter two verses four and five. It says for God, do not spare the angels who sin, but cast them down to and deliver them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment. 9 (1h 5m 22s): And he did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah. One of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly. So God sent a global worldwide flood and only saved Noah and his one of eight people. But before that, there were angels who sinned. Well, who were those angels who sinned. Those were those angels from Genesis chapter six that took women for themselves. They deliver them in a special place of chains and darkness to reserve for judgment. What about Jude chapter one, verse six or Jude six, cuz there's only one chapter, right? 9 (1h 6m 6s): Jude six says the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode. He has reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness for the judgment of the great day, those angels who left their proper domain, the angels, the sons of God who came in and took women, thereby creating a superhuman race, giving us the myth, the legends that we have in Greek mythology, Roman mythology, strange things, but it's biblical. 9 (1h 6m 54s): Now next week, I'm gonna get into the difference between angels and demons because there's very, very difference. It's a big difference and what I didn't do first service, but maybe I'll try this service is, is, is there any questions so far? I I'll be open to a couple questions. I know we're a little bit over time, but are they, is anything just pressing so far that I've said Things to study. I want you to take these things home to study. Don't just take my word for it. Go and study these things. But I think there's, if there we are wrestling, not against flesh and blood is what Paul said. 9 (1h 7m 38s): And that's why God is talks about Ephesians. Why God gives Paul the instructions that put on our full armor of God. And as I look at the full armor of God, I always, I always question, maybe you have to the boots. Why does somebody's feet need to be shawed with the preparation of the gospel of peace as a Roman soldier would put all their armor on as they're ready to go out to battle. They've been trained, they've been prepared. They would put on their last thing. They put on their boots. Boots. Things seems to be a strange thing for me in my mind that that Paul had mentioned. But then once you begin to learn what boots are to the Roman soldier, you learn that these boots not only had protection had covering, they had these two inch spikes in the bottom. 9 (1h 8m 23s): And that was, if you were in town, if you were like in your, in a parade, you'd wear these boots that had two inch spikes in the soul. But when going to battle, you would wear these spike. These spikes, your shoes that have were up to six inches long. And that's because the Roman soldiers viewed their, their shoes as a weapon. It was offensive thing because the Roman soldiers wanted to be, they knew they had to be hand to hand tight combat. They had shorter swords so they could swing them easier. They wanted to be up close in person. And one of the things they want on the tactics that they want to do to their enemies is they want to knock 'em to the ground. And then you just take a spiked boot right into their body. 9 (1h 9m 7s): To us. We hear the, the, the preparation of the gospel piece. That sounds so nice to us. Oh, wow. Yeah. I want to, I want my feet to be beautiful, like up on the mountains, like Isaiah talks about, but you have to remember from the perspective of the enemy, when we have our feet, shawed with a preparation of the gospel, peace that's peace to us and we wanna bring peace to others, but that peace comes at a cost to the enemy. The enemy know what that means and saying. So we have an enemy, Like Elijah said, when he, when he looked at his servant, a servant came in, gave him a report, oh, we're surrounded by the armies. Elijah's like, oh Lord, open his eyes. 9 (1h 9m 48s): Let him look up. And he saw above him a multitude of the heavenly host, just waiting to go to battle lately. I just finished the book, the pie in this darkness by Frank Peretti and this pastor who was just on his knees and prayer and the, and the, the damage, the, the darkness that was unfolding on the town, around him. As I wonder what that darkness is in the spiritual realm, around our church, around our community. Right now we need people who know what they're headed, the kind of battle that they're headed into and are prepared for that. So the more we know about our enemy, the more we can be prepared to fight that fight. 9 (1h 10m 31s): Dday was not one by sending one ship or two ships sent by rose and rows and boats and boats and lives and lives to storm that beach and to win it. It's because they knew the fortified city, the fortified beats that they're headed into and there came of cost. Next week. We're gonna jump into the difference between angels and demons and how those things influence us even now. And just as a precursor, I didn't give this to him. I'm gonna give you guys a clip of Joe Rogan next week. And I'm gonna show you how he has opened himself up to demons and how those demons are communicating with him. 9 (1h 11m 19s): That'll be next week. Let's pray, Lord. I know by your word that we are facing a battle, we are facing an enemy Lord. And there, there are people souls around us that are being held captive by the evil hosts, the evil armies, Lord, God, you have given us a, a gospel. That is good news. It is good news to us because we've believed it and we've taken it Lord, but is not good news to our enemies. 9 (1h 12m 1s): Lord, put on us the full armor of God that we may be able to fight against the wilds of the devil that we can go to battle for you. Lord, help us to understand the enemy and that what we're, what we're up against Lords. That was we, we love. And we preach the gospel to those around as family members, neighbors com people in our community, people in our schools that we can know that we are up against What you came to save and deliver from the darkness Lord. So we thank you Lord for this morning, Jesus name, we pray. 9 (1h 12m 43s): Amen. 4 (1h 13m 13s): Oh, my words, for sure. I can nothing new. How could I express? Oh my gratitude. I could sing these songs as I often do. Every song must praise you. 4 (1h 13m 58s): It, it's not much for singing. I've got, I've got one. 4 (1h 14m 54s): You and 11 (1h 15m 49s): Don't you get, I'll be lifted up lifts. Cause you got 4 (1h 15m 54s): Lie inside of those and praise the 1 (1h 16m 0s): Lord 4 (1h 16m 9s): Lift because you got my praise you again and again, he said for, 12 (1h 17m 46s): We just lay everything before you're thrown this morning and worship you, Lord, fill this with your spirit, shine through us. As we go about our week minister to our hearts, Lord, as we glorify you in Jesus name, amen.

1 (2s): Morning, 2 (4s): Welcome to harvest courage. Let's all stand together for Lord. We invite you here. Lord. Be with us. Lord. We commit this time to you honor and worship you. Jesus. 1 (42s): We, 0 (1m 23s): You do not 1 (1m 53s): The, I hope our, you can't the, you give, give hope you restore every that's shop in, in our, so we pour 0 (5m 9s): Pour out 1 (5m 11s): Your, in our 0 (5m 14s): Love. 1 (5m 16s): So we pour to you, you. 1 (6m 17s): So we put 0 (6m 20s): To 1 (6m 22s): It's pours. So all the earth will, our hearts will cry. 1 (7m 11s): These bones will sing. 0 (8m 4s): It's 3 (9m 26s): Praise God, creatures the praise. 3 (10m 21s): Now God praise, praise. 0 (11m 22s): Praise 3 (11m 23s): Him. Soul 0 (11m 31s): Praise, 3 (11m 34s): Praise the all our God. Praise God. Praise, praise the praise. The spirit praise brave God. 3 (12m 27s): One, the one who died. Big jewelry. Now for the, the, where the spirit now with 0 (13m 17s): Us 3 (13m 21s): All our days, God, praise God. Praise, praise you. Praise you. Praise spirit now. And our days, God praise God, praise God, praise God, praise, praise God, praise, blessing. 3 (14m 35s): Praise him, heavenly son 0 (14m 50s): And holy 5 (15m 25s): Feel free. 4 (15m 46s): Lord. We just thank you, Lord that you stood before pilot Lord silent for us not speaking so that we might be given a voice to speak. Lord, Lord, you lay down your life that we might have life. You empty yourself that we might be filled. 0 (16m 11s): Yes. 4 (16m 13s): Thank you Lord, for your sacrifice. So now I will say this Lord, as the word says, let the poor say I am rich. Let the blind say I can see. Let the weak say I 1 (17m 58s): About history. The, the spring in season from I'm standing. I, I see the, you 0 (19m 17s): Always 1 (19m 40s): All over because of you. 1 (20m 21s): The 0 (20m 48s): I, yes. 0 (21m 51s): Dance is here. 7 (22m 2s): Thank you, Lord. That your, your goodness is abounding Lord. Yes, but that we witness the evidence of your goodness every every day. Lord, thank you for the evidence of your presence right now. Lord, I think the evidence of your word written to us, Lord, thank you for the evidence of the fellowship of the brother and the saints. Lord your people. Lord, your body and action, Lord God. 0 (22m 31s): Thank 7 (22m 31s): You for this morning, Lord Jesus. Name me. Pray. Amen. Well, good morning, everyone. Take a seat. I'm gonna welcome up breaker, cuz breaker's gonna be helping with announcements. Welcome. Welcome. Brager forgot 8 (22m 46s): To give you my microphone earlier. 7 (22m 48s): Well you did just, you disappeared. I was right. 8 (22m 51s): I was right 7 (22m 51s): Back there. Okay. All right. Here's back there. Well, good morning and welcome everyone. Welcome to harvest church. My name's Jeremy. I'm the youth and family pastor. And this is 8 (22m 59s): I'm burger Wade. The more handsome Curtis as we designated last week, 7 (23m 5s): He's he's gonna call you on that when he gets back, which is this week. So watch out Well, Hey, so glad to see you guys. You know, each week I seem to see new faces or faces. I haven't said hello to or met. We, we like, we wanna know if you're here and if you're joining us. So we'd love if you made your way back to the info center. If you're, if you're, if you're like, this is my home church, we wanna be able to put you on a newsletter. Keep communicating with you, find out more about you. So the info center's the best place. Fill out a communication card so we can know a little bit more about you and get you plugged in as well as you there's other options. You can go online. You can hit the connect through our website and there's even an app. 7 (23m 45s): We have an app. Do you have the app on your phone? 8 (23m 48s): No. Oh 7 (23m 49s): No. He's he's gonna do that in between services. Not right now. Your phone should be off, but we're after this, you're gonna, 8 (23m 55s): Okay. I'll do that. 7 (23m 56s): What else is happening? Greger? 8 (23m 57s): Also, we have our fall life groups kicking off the September. So we've already started our college group that has started off. Great. But we also have men's women's couples groups. We've got home groups. We've got groups for pretty much everyone. If you wanna join one, we have all the information back on the info center. Very helpful. And also we have M six coming up on September 12th, but to it'll be a special M six because it will be an M and w six for the men and wives. 7 (24m 27s): Yes, men and wives. And that's when? September 12th, 8 (24m 30s): September 12th. Okay. 7 (24m 32s): 6 30, 6 36, 6, 6, 6 M six, M six, M six starts at six. Yes. I should remember that starts at six and there's a great dinner. It is a, it is a fundraiser. So they're trying to raise support. It'll go towards the dinners that they have each, each year or each, each month as well as 17 strong, I believe. Yes. Another. So there's a fundraiser. It's $150 per couple. So with that, I think that's the last of our announcements, right? That is. So we're gonna practice a mingle time right now. We're about ready to release you to mingle time. Breer my name's Jeremy. My name's Greger. Oh, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Breer what's your, how long have you come to church here? 8 (25m 14s): Three years. Three years. Okay. I think two years, actually. What's 7 (25m 17s): Your favorite verse? 8 (25m 18s): My favorite 7 (25m 18s): Verse. Yes. On the spot. This was not 8 (25m 20s): Practice Ecclesiastes. Nine 11. 7 (25m 22s): Okay. And 8 (25m 24s): Oh, I'll have to think about it for 7 (25m 27s): A second please. Yes. Nine 11. Okay. Thanks. All right. Well say, say hello to someone around you and we're so glad you're here. God bless. 0 (25m 45s): Hello. Oh God, God will. 0 (26m 36s): God, God up. 9 (27m 22s): Yes, my God. It it 3 (27m 36s): Right 0 (27m 36s): Now. 3 (27m 40s): He's working right 0 (27m 42s): Now. 3 (27m 45s): He's working right 0 (27m 47s): Now. 3 (27m 50s): He's working right 0 (27m 52s): Now. 3 (27m 55s): He's working right 0 (27m 57s): Now. 3 (28m 0s): He's working right 0 (28m 2s): Now. 3 (28m 4s): I know it. I know it. He's working right now. I believe his 0 (28m 12s): God 9 (28m 13s): Is working now. 0 (28m 28s): Oh God is working. 9 (28m 31s): Come on. Just 3 (28m 32s): Sing it one more time. Sing it out. 0 (28m 34s): God 9 (28m 36s): Is working 0 (28m 37s): Now. 10 (28m 39s): Alrighty, come on back. Come on back. Did everybody get communion elements? Did everybody get some elements? These are our COVID friendly elements. So if raise your hand, if you didn't get those. Cause I think they're going around with them right now. Where's dab. Does she take off? Oh, Paul's got 'em in the back. Raise your hand really high. If you, if you didn't get your elements, cause we're gonna be taking communion today. Sherry's got those as well. Welcome. Welcome, welcome 11 (29m 13s): Gasket sealer and a gasket. Hmm. The gasket sealer and a gasket with it. 10 (29m 19s): Gasket, sealer and gasket. It's not a gasket sealer and gasket. Doug. It's very, very much the, the, the elements that we will take hecklers in the crowd. I love it. It does kind of taste like a gasket. So when you take the elements, you want to get some saliva ready and cuz you really, it will get stuck otherwise. So Hey, we're gonna be in first Peter chapter two verse, we're only gonna cover three verses today. First Peter chapter two versus one through three, we're talking about growing into a full experience of salvation and you know, this really touches deeply the DNA of who we are as believers. 10 (30m 11s): What, what are we counting on as believers? I've been thinking about this a little bit differently this morning, even since I wrote the message these last few days. I mean thinking about, cause I I've been feeling like, okay, there's a block spiritually. Have you ever felt like man, there's just something blocking my, my fellowship with the Lord. I, I grabbed a chair and sat in the closet over here as, and I just had my head down as I'm just thinking, okay, what is happening, Lord? Just trying to figure out what was blocking it. It didn't really occur to me until I was worshiping. And then, then the Lord highlighted a conversation that I had with another pastor in town, I don't know, a week or so ago we were talking about church stuff and, and I, I made a comment that was arrogant and I didn't even really think about it at the time. 10 (31m 1s): Although I, it kind of grabbed me a little bit, like maybe I should shouldn't have said that, you know, when you say something and you think I probably didn't need to say that, but I said something that was kind of arrogant and about what about the church or something like that. And, and as I was worshiping this morning, it occurred to me that, so I, as I thought about what I said, I thought, why did I say it? Why did I need to say that to this person? What was happening in inside of me? I thought, you know, there's something in me that is validated by what I do. And I think that's maybe true for all of us and that's okay to be fine fulfillment in what we do as believers when we're doing ministry and that sort of thing. 10 (31m 47s): But what we really, I, I think the more fulfilling and a mature way to think about who we are in Christ is that I am complete in him because of what he's done, not because of what I have done now, what we do as we're empowered and given spiritual gifts to use within those are all very important things. But I don't think we can attach our value to those things. Years ago, I heard a buddy of mine say, who was a Christian leader? He said, you know, I feel like I could walk away from all of this and just be totally fine. And he was a Christian actor on, on big screen. And that sort of thing. He said, I could, I could just walk cuz I don't find my value in that. 10 (32m 28s): I thought, oh, that's an interesting thought. I never really thought about that. Last year, a friend of mine who was pastoring in the north county AF after like 35 or 40 years, he resigned and somebody asked him, was it hard for you to walk away from this ministry that you've been leading for 35 or 40 years? And he said, no, I never really felt like I owned it or that it was mine. I just felt like I was here for a season. And so he was able to walk away from it and not have it impact his sense of self worth. It didn't matter to him because his self worth was founding Christ in Christ alone. 10 (33m 9s): So sometimes we find ourself worth in external things that can really trip us up in hinder us. So I know I'm here for a season, but when I walk away, I, I don't want my self worth to be impacted. I wanted to know that my self worth is solely found in Jesus. Amen. In Jesus. You know, that, that has very little to do with what I'm doing, although that those are all important things. God's, you know, we talk about this all the time that God has called us and equipped us for such a time as this, that he's given us gifts to be used within the kingdom of God, to expand the kingdom, to glorify God, to point people to him. And so those are all wonderful things, but at the end of the day, our value should be found solely in Jesus. 10 (33m 51s): And so if something happens and we're no longer able to do the things that we've always been doing for Jesus, we're still in Jesus and experiencing intimacy with him and closeness with him because that's the proper foundation that we just build our lives on Jesus. So as we talk about growing into a full experience of salvation, we gotta start there. The very basics that we find our life in Jesus and in him alone, sometimes we get saved and we get real busy. We start doing all kinds of stuff and that becomes the substitute, but we need to just find our full experience of salvation in Christ and live out of that and be obedient out of that. 10 (34m 38s): Sometimes we're doing the stuff that we're doing to please people or to look good or to whatever the foundation of growing in a full, into a full experience of salvation begins with just you and Jesus. What did Jesus save you out of? What did Jesus rescue you from? What has Jesus done to give you new life? We're gonna be celebrating communion today, remembering what Jesus did 2000 years ago, so that we could experience have a full experience of salvation maybe to put it in simple term. But what, what does that mean to have a full experience of salvation? Well, if you ever been to an amusement park, most of us had been to an amusement park. I remember when I was just a little guy, my mom took me to an amusement park magic mountain. 10 (35m 24s): We went to magic mountain and I don't know if you're older. I don't even know if they still have the rev is the magic mountain still even open anyway, the revolution, remember that ride that takes you upside down. So I was scared to death of that ride. I was like, I I'll go on pretty much even the Colossus. I was fine with the Colossus, but the revolution. No thanks. So my mom just kind of talks me into it. She's like, Hey, you're gonna be okay and you're gonna be fine. And so we get on the revolution and I'm scared to death, but we do it and I get off and I'm like, can we do it again? You know, like it was so much fun sometimes. I think we're afraid to have a full experience of salvation because we've never done it before. 10 (36m 5s): We don't know what to expect. We're not sure how it will turn out. But when we decide to do it, throwing caution to the win, we decide just to go for it in Christ and just have fun with Jesus doing what he's called us to do, living the way that he's called us to live. We can't get enough of it. There's something powerful about it. It's like, can you imagine going to the grand canyon and never really stopping to look at the grand canyon? I mean, imagine driving by and so somebody can ask will ask you, Hey, I've been, have you been to the grand canyon? You're like, yeah, I've been to the grand canyon, but you haven't really been to the grand canyon because all you've done is drive by you. Haven't been to the grand canyon until you're looking over the edge into the vast beauty of the grand canyon until you've hiked in the grand canyon until you've suffered along those many miles of trails and trying to climb back out. 10 (36m 57s): I mean, you haven't really had the full experience until you've had the full experience. And so you can say, yeah, I've been to the grand canyon, but you haven't really experienced the grand canyon. Some of us say that, Hey, we're, I'm a Christian, but we haven't really experienced the fullness of what it means, the full experience of salvation. And so today we're gonna be talking about the full growing into a full experience of salvation. Cause I, I think some of us are just kind of scratching the surface. I'm a Christian, but you know, somebody asked what faith, most Americans, even now we'll say I'm a Christian, but do most Christians really know what that means? 10 (37m 38s): Are we having as a nation, a full experience of salvation, let's just see what Peter has to say about it. Because Peter he's lived his life with, in a full expression of salvation. He understood what it meant to follow Jesus when things were good, Jesus is working miracles and doing supernatural things, but he also understands what it means when Jesus is arrested and crucified and buried. And in that moment of a crisis of faith, he's trying to figure out what does it mean? And then God gets a hold of his heart and truth is revealed to him. And then after the resurrection Peters filled with the holy spirit and he preaches to the multitudes and his life has forever changed. 10 (38m 22s): He is, he's a leader in the early church. He writes these books for us, these letters to us so that we might understand what a full expression of our faith is really all about full experience of our salvation is all about. So first Peter chapter two versus one through three, the first word in this first verse is the word. So, so why, so why does Peter begin with this word? So maybe your Bible says, so then, or therefore, or where for, why does Peter begin this verse, this chapter with this word Peter's about to give he he's beginning with this word, because he's about to give some pretty straightforward instruction and he wants us to reflect on what he's already said. 10 (39m 17s): So therefore, therefore, so because reflecting, reminding us of what he's already said all through chapter one, he's prepared us for chapter two, by writing chapter one, Peter's asking us, he's challenging us. He's leading us down the path of sanctification, this path of sanctification, what he calls a full experience of salvation. So the salvation is wonderful in that we've got new life in Jesus, but it's just the beginning of a new life that God has given to us. We're given salvation, but we're then called and filled and equipped to do wonderful and supernatural things. 10 (40m 2s): But then also live out the course of our lives, through all of the ups and downs, the Hills and valleys through all of the challenges and victories we're called to trust Jesus. And so if we don't have that full experience of salvation, then we're gonna waffle, we're gonna backslide. We're gonna slip back. We're into our old ways and we're gonna miss out on the very best that God has for. So Peter's asking us, he's challenging us. He's leading us out of his own experience. Like I've watched myself. Peter could say, I've watched myself vacillate and waffle and backslide because of a lack of the full experience. But then as the holy spirit works on on him and sanctification takes place and over the course of his life, wonderful and supernatural things, Peter's at the end of his life here. 10 (40m 48s): And he's writing to the church. He's writing to us to encourage us. I, I love that this is what we read about Peter. This is what Peter wrote at the end of his life. When you're getting to the end of your life, you, you get very serious about all kinds of things you begin to think differently about your life and how to finish well. And Peter wanted to finish well. So he's asking us, challenging us, leading us down the path of sanctification, a full experience of salvation. So with all of that, are we having a full experience of salvation? I mean, does God like have our attention 24 7 or does he just have our attention on Sunday morning or when we take five minutes to crack the Bible, what are we having a full experience or are we having kind of a spotty kind of, you know, you know, just kind of weird experience with God. 10 (41m 44s): That's not the full experience. The apostle Paul describes this experience this way. This is kind of what he would would prescribe for us. Ephesians 4 23 and 24 says instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. This is the process of sanctification, the steps toward full experience of what it means to be saved. And so let your spirit renew your thoughts, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes put on your new nature created by to be like God, truly righteous. And holy, I love what he wrote in Ephesians four 30. 10 (42m 27s): He said, and do not bring sorrow to God's holy spirit, by the way you live. Wow. Do not bring sorrow to God's holy spirit, by the way that you live. So God is calling us, he's raising the bar in our lives saying, Hey, the I've got more for you out of this intimacy that I desire to have with you. Remember he has identified you as his own. So that's who you are. He has put a seal on you, his seal on you guaranteeing that you'll be saved on that day of redemption. So what's the, so therefore what is the, so therefore I'm actually gonna give you 16 reasons for the so, and it's all found in first Peter chapter one. 10 (43m 11s): So actually Peter is gonna give you a 16 reasons actually to be perfectly clear, the holy spirit who's inspired. This word is gonna give you 16 reasons for the, so why is the, so there we have to take serious what the word of God says. Sometimes we might just gloss over the, so what, I don't know why it's there. If you go back and look at the context of the word of God, then we begin to understand why the, so is there. So all from first Peter chapter one. So because you are, God's chosen people and all, all I did was go through chapter one and just make notes of all of the reasons that were called into this full experience of salvation, because you're, God's chosen people. 10 (43m 57s): Number one, number two, because the heavenly father knew you and chose you. Number three, because his spirit has made you holy number four, because you have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Number five, because you've been born again, number six, because we live with great expectation in Christ. We, we should live with great expectation. Why? Because we serve a great God with great power and great capacity and, and great there's great possibilities for us in Christ Jesus, because we live with great expectation because we have a priceless inheritance with the Lord because God is protecting you by his power. 10 (44m 41s): Speaking of his connection to you and his, his plan to watch over you and his purpose in using you in the earth, got us protecting you by his power because there's wonderful. Joy ahead. So because of these reasons, now Peter goes on to say, even though you have to endure many trials. So we talk about the joy that is ahead. He also understands that the many trials, but he says these trials will show that your faith is genuine. So praise God for the trials. Like we don't pray for trials. Like if you're foolish, you'd pray for trials. But if you're wise, you don't pray for trials. You just know that they're coming. 10 (45m 21s): But when the trials come, we begin to understand that they prove the genuineness of our faith when we're able to hold firm and still believe and not give up to continue to trust and to continue to move forward as a follower of the Lord. Jesus, there's joy. Great joy ahead. In spite of the trials, the trials should be seen as part of God's plan to enrich your life and to strengthen you and to give you the full experience of salvation. Because if, if trials derail your faith, then you're not having the full experience of salvation. There's a deeper work that needs to be taking place in your life. 10 (46m 1s): What else? What your faith is more precious than mere gold? Oh, this is in first Peter chapter one. You love him, even though you've never seen him. So speaking of our faith, we love God, even though we've never anybody ever seen God, we love him. Even though we've never seen him though, you do not see him. Now, you trust him. The reward of, for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. Number 14, because you have placed your faith and hope in God. Number 15, because you are cleansed from your sins. Number 16 because your new life will last forever. So that's the, so because of all of this truth, that Peter records in chapter one, because of this reason we can press on and have the full experience of salvation. 10 (46m 53s): So these 16 reasons are why Peter began with the word. So because of all of these reasons, Peter challenges, the believers, because of everything that he wrote in chapter one, we can have confidence and move forward as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So we have 16 reasons listed in one chapter covering 25 verses. So there's a, a lot crammed into, I'm trying to make a point. There's a lot crammed into one little ver chapter and with 25 verses, there's a lot of chapters in the Bible there's hundred and 89 chapters in the Bible. 10 (47m 34s): So a lot has been crammed into this one chapter, all of the reasons that we should need, but then if, if we were to go through and unpack all of the scripture, like read all of the old and the new Testament, we'd find, I don't know, maybe hundreds of reasons to press in and to have a full experience of salvation to, to want to be fully sanctified as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when this one chapter there's 25 verses throughout the whole context of scripture, there's actually, I wrote it down here, 31,102 verses with 23,000, 145 verses in the old Testament and 29, 2,957 in the new Testament. 10 (48m 23s): You know, there's like over three quarters of a million words in the Bible, over 783,000 words in the Bible. There's a lot there for us. And we find all of these. We find 16 reasons to, to have a full experience of salvation in just one small chapter in one small book of the Bible, all that to just kind of hopefully encourage you to open it up. The word is full of promises and truth that will help us and will educate us and encourage us as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So let's take a look of what it means, kind of experiencing the full experience of salvation. 10 (49m 10s): Growing into a full experience of salvation requires actually commitment. Like, first of all, you, you, you get saved by grace through faith, but then you just need to open up the word and do maybe what I did today. Just really look at it and really evaluate it and really take it in and really soak it up and see what God will do. So let's take a look at what part of this commitment looks like. We see it in verse one. So there's the, so, so why is this? So there go back and reach one. So get rid of all evil behavior, ah, be done with all deceits, hypocrisy, jealousy and all unkind speech. Who's Peter talking to the church then, and now he's talking to us. 10 (49m 57s): Why? Because we obviously have a problem here. There's obviously something going on within the body of Christ that needs to be addressed. So he said, get rid of it. In first, Peter, two, one in the contemporary English version, it says, stop being hateful. I just stop being hateful, quit trying to fool people and start being sincere. Don't be jealous or say cruel things about others. What, what do we, we do with that? How, I mean, how do we understand what we're to do? Well, first of all, we need to understand what those words mean. 10 (50m 38s): One of the main principles in hermeneutics, which is a study of the general principles of Bible interpretation, is that we need to understand what words mean. I mean, does that make sense? Like if we're gonna understand any given text, especially the Bible, we need to understand what words mean. We need to understand a little bit about Bible interpretation. So the first thing we need to know is what do these words mean? So I would encourage you to get a Greek and English or Hebrew English lexicon. Lexicon is basically just like a dictionary for Bible study. So get it, or, or you can get on blue, how many use blue letter Bible, it's a great resource. 10 (51m 24s): It's a free resource and you can get on there. And the blue letter Bible will help you define words, figure out what the Greek or the Hebrew meaning is. It will help you understand what the Bible's saying when we read the Bible. So as we read the scripture, the old Testament was mainly written to a Hebrew audience. And so there's Hebrew information and understanding that we need to have, that we can get from these study resources. Now they, new Testament was mainly written to a Graco Roman culture. And so our cultures are different than the Hebrew and the Graco Roman culture. And so we need to have some understanding, you know, most English translations are very thorough and if we read what they write, we can usually take it to the bank, but to get some greater understanding about what we're reading, it's helpful just to do some more digging. 10 (52m 13s): So if you're trying to understand what a word means within the Bible, it's helpful to just read other translations. And so, you know, we, I typically read out of the new living translation, but if I'm struggling with what a word means, I'm be able to look at the king James or the NASB or theb and see how those translators translated that word so that I can fully understand what the writer is saying, because it doesn't really help us if we don't understand. And so how do we understand? We just begin to employ these Herman tactics so that we can understand what the scripture is all about. So the first rule of Bible interpretation is the rule of definition. What does the word mean? 10 (52m 53s): I think it makes total sense. What does the word mean? So let's check it out and see what the word means. So get rid of all evil behavior, be done with all deceit hypocrisy, jealousy and unkind speech. So what I did is I just simply opened up the blue letter Bible, write that down because it's very helpful in your Bible study, blue letter and Bible, and the first kind of word there is evil behavior. Get rid of all evil behavior. 10 (53m 35s): The king James version says this way, where for laying aside all malice and all Gail and hypocrisy, the word for evil behavior in the king James version is malice. And as you dig deeper, you can see that it means evil and wickedness. And so there's malice, there's evil and wickedness being communicated in being it's happening within the body of Christ. And so in acts 8 22, we see that same Greek word being used here. And it says repent. Therefore of this like wickedness, that Greek word for malice is, or evil behavior is wickedness. 10 (54m 18s): It's malice it's. So what is God telling us to do? We said, get rid of all of that wickedness, evil behavior, malice, wickedness. What? So we look at our lives and say, what Lord is there anything in my life that's wicked. You can only answer that. You gotta listen. If we're not availing ourselves to the truth of the word of God, then we're not fully experiencing salvation. The way that God, we're not having the full experience of salvation, we're not being sanctified the way that God would have us be sanctified. So if we're looking at so way to look at the word is like a mirror. So you read it and you say, I'm reading about wickedness, malice, all this kind of stuff. 10 (54m 58s): Is there wickedness in my life. I keep dealing with couples who are dealing with hard things in infidelity, lying. Boy, the list goes on and on and on. I think how can people sit in the church and be dealing with, you know, be allowing these kinds of things in their lives, addictions and infidelity and lying and cheating and stealing. And it's because we haven't taken serious. The word of God to eliminate from our lives, all wickedness. We, we just kind of give ourselves a pass or something. I don't know, but we're not paying attention to the scripture. 10 (55m 42s): Cuz the full experience of salvation requires that we do some house cleaning that we get rid of some junk out of our lives that we do it quickly, that we have short accounts with the Lord. And so if you've got addictions or inappropriate relationships, those things just have to stop by God's grace evil behavior. What about the word deceit? That word means Gil subtlety, secretly craft or craftiness in mark 14 one in the king James version for context. So we understand what's being said here. It says this after two days was the feast of the Passover and of unle bread and the chief priest and the scribe sought how he might sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death. 10 (56m 36s): So they're the religious leaders of the day are trying to figure out how to trick with trickery, get Jesus, get him arrested and have them crucified and put to death. So deceit, Gail trickery subtlety, there it's a manipulation. It's it's just an unhealthy way of living life. And so Peter says, get rid of it all deceit and Gail, then they use the word hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is actually the word used for a stage actor, someone who's on a platform, pretending, acting out a role. 10 (57m 21s): It's someone who is looking like one person, but is actually not that person. We, we do that in church. All the, we do that really well in church. Like we show up like, Hey, everything's good, everything's good. Everything's great. It's not great. It's not great for everyone. And so not that we need to share all of our junk with everybody, but we need to share some of our junk with somebody. We need to get it out to somebody who's safe and we'll pray and walk you through with good godly counsel. But there's hypocrisy going on in, in Matthew 23, 28 and the king James version that says, so you also hourly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 10 (58m 12s): Whew. So Jesus called the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his day. He called them whitewashed tombs with dead men's bones inside. Why did Jesus say that? Cuz he's mean no, because he knew of their hypocrisy. They looked good on the outside. They were all whitewashed and looking pretty, but dead men inside. So Jesus called out their hypocrisy to bring about conviction, but also to bring about life change. And so when the scripture or when a preacher, when somebody calls out your hypocrisy or our hypocrisy, we need to be humble and say, yeah, you're absolutely right. I've been play acting. I've been pretending. 10 (58m 53s): It's just not the way to, to live our lives. God has called us into a full experience of salvation. Whereby we are changed through the process of sanctification where God has an opportunity to manage our lives into change our lives. Then there's the word jealousy and could be, could be the word Envys could be used. And we see this in mark 15, 10 for he knew that the chief priest had delivered him for envy. The chief priest had delivered Jesus because they were jealous of him, jealous of his influence, jealous that he was drawing people away from them. 10 (59m 38s): And so out of envy, they did what they did delivering him to be crucified. So jealousy and Envy's we, we need to not allow these things to take up space in our head, in our hearts. And then there's unkind speech or evil speakings. Second Corinthians 1220 in the king. James says this for I fear Le when I come, I shall not find you such as I would in that. I shall be found unto you, such as you would not. This is why I don't read the king James version anymore. 10 (1h 0m 20s): Like so in my earlier days, that's all I had was a king James version Bible. I had a big old dates, king James version Bible, and I really knew how to read it, but I haven't really read the king James much like devotionally or in study for a long time. So I don't, it's old king James. We, we, we don't speak old king James, unless there be debates Envys rafts stripes, stripes. And, and then he uses the word instead of unkind speech or evil speaking. Use the words backstabbing or back. Bitings interesting back bitings does that happen within the church? 10 (1h 1m 4s): I don't know. Apparently it does. I mean, Peter, who was a leader in their first century church, he, he knew something, something was obviously happening and he's addressing it. There was backbiting in the early church. Is that healthy for the church? Is that healthy for a new relationship? And it's just poison, right? It's completely unhealthy. And so Peter's addressing it. Why? Because he wants the church healthy. He's addressing it because he wants the people within the church, healthy. He wants our relationships to be healthy. He wants us to be unified committed to the purposes of God, focused on doing what God has called us to do. We can't be doing all of those things if indeed there's this type of behavior within the church. 10 (1h 1m 46s): If her back biting and mean spirit and complaining and doing all of those things. So how do we, how do we move from move away from all of this? You say, man, I've, this has just been the way I've always dealt with things. I've always been a complainer, a back biter of gossip. I've always been a hypocrite. How do you get away from all that kind of stuff? Well, that's the full experience of salvation that we're talking about. It's the sanctification process that we're talking about. God saved you, but he doesn't wanna leave you the way you are because he loves you too much to leave you the way you are. So he takes you through a process. It's a lifelong process. I'm in it, you're in it, we're all in it. It's a process called sanctification. It's in that process. And through that process that we have a full experience of salvation. 10 (1h 2m 28s): If we don't go through the process, we're driving by the grand canyon, but we're not stopping. We're going to the amusement park, but we're not getting on the rollercoaster, right? We're just kind of having a disconnected experience. It's not what God's design. It's not God's design. It's kind of this religious kind of experience, but it's not God's design for our experience. So verse two helps us to understand what, what will, what we can do to, to, to move beyond this kind of way of living and kinda get delivered out of it. We just, we need to get delivered out of it, but we'll never get delivered out of this type of lifestyle until we just look at it, head on and just take serious the sin in our lives. 10 (1h 3m 13s): And so he said like newborn babies in verse two, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Try out for this nourishment. Now that you have had a taste of the Lord's kindness. So growing into a full experience of salvation requires commitment, commitment, number one, and this will probably be a two or three or four, 10 week series. I don't know what it's gonna be, but we'll see commitment. Number one, we have to be willing to grow. Hence the title growing into a full experience of salvation. We actually gotta be willing to grow. And so maybe some of you have been in church for five years and you grew for five years, but, or maybe you've been in church for 10 years and you've grown for the first five years, but then you've just been on, on autopilot for the last five years. 10 (1h 4m 0s): It's not God's design. You gotta be growing all the days of your life. So that next year, this time you have greater understanding, greater capacity as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, greater strength, greater victory, greater ability to overcome in Jesus name, a greater ability to have joy in face of difficulties and trials, greater strength. When you're tempted, you're able to say no when maybe in the past you said yes. And so you have greater capacity in Jesus to stand firm and move forward, but you gotta be willing to grow. How do we grow? Well, verse two, again like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation cry out for this nourishment. 10 (1h 4m 42s): What happens when a, a newborn is hungry, man, right? They're screaming, right? I've got a newborn grandbaby. And when he is hungry, what is he doing? Like, you can be holding him, but if you're not mama, you can't give him what he needs. And so you hand him off, right? You're like, I can do a lot, but I cannot meet this need because he's craving milk. Right? There's a picture there that we can get a hold of because we've all been that crying baby wanting something of nourishment. So this needs to be our attitude regarding the word of God. And sometimes our attitude about the word of God is I gotta do it. I gotta read it like it's spinach or something. 10 (1h 5m 25s): Or you fill in the blank. Like it's mushrooms, mushroom first meal I had at Jolene's mom's house. You know, you're trying to put your best foot forward because your, your in-law your future in-laws plays not, I don't know. They weren't even, we hadn't. We were just dating. I show up, Margaret gives me this big old play to spaghetti. I love spaghetti. But on top of it was this black thing, this black piece of food, apparently it was food. I said, Margaret Mar I don't, I don't mean to complain. Well, what is this thing? She said, oh, it's a mushroom. I'm like, why what's what's the point? 10 (1h 6m 7s): It's fungus. It grows outta stuff. They should, we, we don't need this. Right. And so I push it aside and she thought she was doing me a favor because she loves mushrooms. Right? Reminds me of another story about this couple. Who'd been married for years and years and years. And the wife making breakfast every day for years always gave her husband the heel of the bread. Well, he hates the heel, but he never says anything. He's just kind of grumpy about it for years, you know? And so finally he's like, why are you giving me the heel? She said, oh, that's my favorite part of the bread. And I wanted you to have it. 10 (1h 6m 49s): We gotta change our perspective about things. And as we open up the word of God, we need to realize that it's life to us and grace to us and strength for us. It's what we need. Quit looking at it. Like it's a mushroom or something that we don't want, or that we dread or that we have to do. It's like newborn babies. We need to cry for it. We need to crave pure spiritual milk. What? So the word of God is pure spiritual milk. I love install 19 versus seven through 11. It just helps us. How much time do we have I'm overtime? I need more time. Here we go. Psalm 19 says the instructions of the Lord are perfect. 10 (1h 7m 31s): Reviving the soul that might change our perspective about the word of God. The instruction of the Lord are perfect. Reviving the soul. You need your soul revived. Open up the scripture. You want your life in Jesus revived. You gotta open up the scripture. It says the decrees of the Lord are trustworthy making. Why is the simple? You need some wisdom. Open up the word, man, just keep opening up the word and read it and keep reading it all the days of your life. Make it your priority. The first thing that you do, not the last thing you do when you're trying to stay awake at night, you're trying to get through a passage. 10 (1h 8m 13s): You gotta just make it your priority. It'll order your steps and give you wisdom for the day. The commandments of the Lord are right. Bringing joy to the heart. Oh, joy. You like joy. Open up the scripture and just allow the word of God to refresh you and fill you with joy. The word of God is like pure spiritual milk for us. It's what babies are crying for. It's what we should be craving as believers in Jesus Christ. Like I need the word. Like if you skip the word for some reason in the day, you should be feeling it. Like I'm craving it. Like, I can't believe I went without it. Like, if you missed breakfast or your ice cream after dinner, you like, or if you miss your coffee, there you go. 10 (1h 9m 1s): If you miss your coffee, everybody gets that one. Like, man, I wish I had my coffee, right. But if you can develop people, develop an appetite for what they're fed, right? So if you begin to feed on the word of God and drinking that stuff in, you're gonna develop an appetite for it. You're just gonna crave it. But you won't get the appetite for it until you just get after it. So get after it, the commands of the Lord are clear giving insight for living. Ah, what does God want me to do? What's the right decision. I'm gonna open up the word because I know that somehow God is going to communicate. It's a living word. 10 (1h 9m 42s): It's a living word. Reverence for the Lord is pure lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true. Each one is fair. So we can have confidence in the word, true and fair. They are more desirable than gold. Even the finest gold, they are sweeter than a honey. Even honey, dripping from the comb. They are a warning to your servant to get a great reward for those who obey them. I can't get into it. But did you know the longest book of the Bible is all about the Bible. It's pal one nineteen, a hundred seventy six verses. It's all about the Bible. So go through and read what the Psalmist wrote. 10 (1h 10m 24s): We're not sure who the Psalmist is, probably David, but go back and read what the Psalmist wrote about the word of God. There's a 176 ch verses in chapter one, 19 chapter one, 19. The Psalms that we can glean from. So Psalm 19 in Psalm one 19, read it and see what the Lord will do to refresh your soul. You, you won't have a full experience of salvation without getting into the word of God. You will be diminished in your spirit. You will be unable to stand firm. You'll be weak against temptation. You'll be prone to sin. 10 (1h 11m 3s): You will fall short, continually, and constantly apart from the word of God, it's exactly what you need. You have to eat, you have to eat my doctor. I was struggling with some stuff. And he said, and I told him, I said, I'm doing this intermittent fasting. He said, well, stop doing intermittent fasting. You might actually have some energy. So I started eating eggs in the morning. I'm like, oh yeah, kind of. I kind of feel better. You know? So if you're struggling spiritually, because you're, you've got this kind of weird intermittent fasting, like I'll open up the word, you know, one day outta three or one, you know, on Sunday morning when it's being, that's like, you're gonna be dying of starvation and you'll be powerless spiritually. 10 (1h 11m 47s): Just the way it works. God's design. We're gonna take communion. I wanna invite the worship team up. And as the worship team comes forward, I just wanna ask a question. What, not just, what have you learned, but what are you going to apply as a result of this message? And so let's go ahead and stand up and we're gonna worship and take communion. But as you stand up, what have you learned today? And then what are you going to apply? Because it doesn't, it's just an academic exercise. If we come to church and listen, but don't apply. So let's just not make this an academic exercise, but let's make it a real life changing sermon. So who do I do? 10 (1h 12m 27s): I need to call on somebody or should, should you guys just speak out? Yeah, I'll be kind until somebody doesn't speak up and then we'll, we're 13 (1h 12m 39s): Gonna apply what you we've heard from you 10 (1h 12m 42s): What's that we're 13 (1h 12m 43s): Gonna apply. We've heard from you 10 (1h 12m 45s): From the word, but what do you, what does that mean for you though? 13 (1h 12m 48s): For me, it means to stay in the, in the word every 10 (1h 12m 51s): Day. Okay. We gonna apply it. Yeah. So stay in the word and apply it. Stay in the word every day in apply it. How, how long have you been a Christian? 13 (1h 12m 58s): Since I 10 (1h 12m 59s): Was six. Six. And so now you're like 46, right? So for 20 years, so 40 years or so plus you've been a Christian. Why do you need to keep reading the Bible? Because I failed. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. Remember the man and the wilderness, when the Israelites are wandering on this 40 year trip, that should've taken them 40 days, but because of their sin and wickedness and rebellion took them 40 years, what did God give him every day? Give man just enough for the day, because he wanted them to have faith that he would provide it the next day. So the word of God is like manna to our souls. 10 (1h 13m 39s): We need, we need it every day. We're gonna read it and then we'll need it the next day. Because if we rely on the mana from yesterday, what happened to the mana from yesterday to the people of Israel and the wilderness, right? It turned stinky and full of maggots right now. God's words never stinkier full of, but the idea is that we need fresh manana every day. And so every day we go back to the word of God every day. That's just, God's design for having a, a fullest experience of salvation. What else? Word of God. Oh, hold 14 (1h 14m 15s): Word of God. Every day is not your mother reaching out his hand to 15 (1h 14m 22s): You, ah, saying, 14 (1h 14m 23s): Hold onto me. 15 (1h 14m 25s): Wow. 14 (1h 14m 26s): And I will take you where you should 10 (1h 14m 28s): Go. 15 (1h 14m 28s): Yeah. 10 (1h 14m 30s): Yeah. Reading the word every day is God, your father reaching out his hand to you showing, Hey, I will show you. I, I will lead you. I will take you where you need to go, Doug. 16 (1h 14m 39s): So I just heard God saying that. He just says, who do you say I am? 0 (1h 14m 46s): Who 10 (1h 14m 46s): Am I? Yeah. 16 (1h 14m 48s): What principles have I given you to live by your salvation and me? 10 (1h 14m 55s): Hmm. 16 (1h 14m 56s): Is worth more than anything in the 15 (1h 14m 59s): World. Yeah. And 16 (1h 15m 1s): To listen to the wisdom 15 (1h 15m 3s): Yeah. 16 (1h 15m 4s): Of the word of God he's 15 (1h 15m 6s): Given us. Yeah. 10 (1h 15m 8s): Yeah. 15 (1h 15m 9s): Hmm, 10 (1h 15m 11s): Lord, we thank you for your word. And we're thankful for the opportunity just to dive a little deeper and grow a little more and get a little more serious about who we are and you, and we're thankful for the opportunity to take communion today. And it's a reminder That new life is available to us, that you died on a cross and shed your blood so that our sins could be forgiven. If you're here today and you've never accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, you, you can receive the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, by recognizing your desperate need for him. 10 (1h 15m 52s): It's not about a word formula. It's about a life change and transformation. It's about a decision that says, I'm, I'm, I'm not gonna lead my own life anymore, but I'm gonna submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I'm not gonna live the way that I've always lived, because I know that it's not been God's desire and it's not honored God. And so you're saying, Jesus, I wanna honor you. Bible says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised. And from the dead, then you will be safe. So there's a, a belief, a transformational belief that we're stepping into. It's a life transformation. It's a, it's a, it's a process where we're saved. 10 (1h 16m 33s): And then we go through the rest of our lives, pursuing Jesus, hungry for Jesus, doing what God has called us to do. It can't be about a formula because God's never been about formulas. It's been about relationship. And so in sanctification and transformation and new life in Jesus about being born again. So if you want to make that decision, just explain to the Lord and proclaim to the Lord, gotta I'm yours. I, I just, I don't wanna live without you. I need your grace. I need your love and your, your forgiveness come into my life. Lead me, guide me, direct me something along those lines. 10 (1h 17m 14s): And you're at the starting line of a lifelong race that Paul says that we're to run the race, to win the race with all, all of our strength, with all of our might. We just run with everything we got pursuing Jesus. Anyway. So if that's you give your life to Jesus, communion is about remembering what Jesus has done. So if you haven't given your life to Jesus don't don't yeah. Don't take communion. It's it's it's for believers who believe and are pursuing Jesus. But if you want to trust Jesus and give your life to Jesus, then do that. And then let's take communion. 10 (1h 17m 56s): Paul road. Before I passed on to you, first Corinthians 1123, before I pass on you, what I received from the Lord himself on the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's go ahead and take the bread. The wafer. 0 (1h 18m 30s): Thank you Lord. 10 (1h 18m 34s): So thankful God. So thankful Lord. 0 (1h 18m 39s): So, 10 (1h 18m 40s): So thankful 0 (1h 18m 40s): Lord. 10 (1h 18m 42s): In the same way, he took the cup of wine. After supper saying this cup is the, it's the new covenant between God and his people do this to remember me, as often as you drink. And for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Let's take the juice. Thank you, Lord. Ah, it's good to remember, Lord. It's good to rejoice. It's good to celebrate. It's good to worship God as we worship at this moment, closing out the service. 10 (1h 19m 24s): And as we make time for prayer at the end of the service, Lord, I pray that you be glorified. God help us to take serious. Your word, the application of your word. We love you. Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship 3 (1h 20m 1s): Long to breathe. Pain is gone. Immersive those to look the one you glad to save me and walk with him for will a 0 (1h 20m 32s): Day, will 3 (1h 21m 13s): We sang 0 (1h 21m 36s): A day? 3 (1h 22m 10s): We join the resurrection and stand side. The heroes of the face with one boy, a thousand singy is the lamb who was save. And that day 0 (1h 22m 56s): Generations 3 (1h 22m 59s): Worthy 0 (1h 23m 24s): Save 17 (1h 23m 48s): The holy holy holy to receive all glory holy long for that day. 17 (1h 24m 38s): When we just, or saying that all the time, it's in your presence, God, how amazing is that gonna be? And Lord, I've pray that as we go out in this week, we will desire and seek that full experience of our salvation Lord. Thank you father, for your love and your amazing grace and Jesus name. Amen.

1 (2s): Morning, 2 (4s): Welcome to harvest courage. Let's all stand together for Lord. We invite you here. Lord. Be with us. Lord. We commit this time to you honor and worship you. Jesus. 1 (42s): We, 0 (1m 23s): You do not 1 (1m 53s): The, I hope our, you can't the, you give, give hope you restore every that's shop in, in our, so we pour 0 (5m 9s): Pour out 1 (5m 11s): Your, in our 0 (5m 14s): Love. 1 (5m 16s): So we pour to you, you. 1 (6m 17s): So we put 0 (6m 20s): To 1 (6m 22s): It's pours. So all the earth will, our hearts will cry. 1 (7m 11s): These bones will sing. 0 (8m 4s): It's 3 (9m 26s): Praise God, creatures the praise. 3 (10m 21s): Now God praise, praise. 0 (11m 22s): Praise 3 (11m 23s): Him. Soul 0 (11m 31s): Praise, 3 (11m 34s): Praise the all our God. Praise God. Praise, praise the praise. The spirit praise brave God. 3 (12m 27s): One, the one who died. Big jewelry. Now for the, the, where the spirit now with 0 (13m 17s): Us 3 (13m 21s): All our days, God, praise God. Praise, praise you. Praise you. Praise spirit now. And our days, God praise God, praise God, praise God, praise, praise God, praise, blessing. 3 (14m 35s): Praise him, heavenly son 0 (14m 50s): And holy 5 (15m 25s): Feel free. 4 (15m 46s): Lord. We just thank you, Lord that you stood before pilot Lord silent for us not speaking so that we might be given a voice to speak. Lord, Lord, you lay down your life that we might have life. You empty yourself that we might be filled. 0 (16m 11s): Yes. 4 (16m 13s): Thank you Lord, for your sacrifice. So now I will say this Lord, as the word says, let the poor say I am rich. Let the blind say I can see. Let the weak say I 1 (17m 58s): About history. The, the spring in season from I'm standing. I, I see the, you 0 (19m 17s): Always 1 (19m 40s): All over because of you. 1 (20m 21s): The 0 (20m 48s): I, yes. 0 (21m 51s): Dance is here. 7 (22m 2s): Thank you, Lord. That your, your goodness is abounding Lord. Yes, but that we witness the evidence of your goodness every every day. Lord, thank you for the evidence of your presence right now. Lord, I think the evidence of your word written to us, Lord, thank you for the evidence of the fellowship of the brother and the saints. Lord your people. Lord, your body and action, Lord God. 0 (22m 31s): Thank 7 (22m 31s): You for this morning, Lord Jesus. Name me. Pray. Amen. Well, good morning, everyone. Take a seat. I'm gonna welcome up breaker, cuz breaker's gonna be helping with announcements. Welcome. Welcome. Brager forgot 8 (22m 46s): To give you my microphone earlier. 7 (22m 48s): Well you did just, you disappeared. I was right. 8 (22m 51s): I was right 7 (22m 51s): Back there. Okay. All right. Here's back there. Well, good morning and welcome everyone. Welcome to harvest church. My name's Jeremy. I'm the youth and family pastor. And this is 8 (22m 59s): I'm burger Wade. The more handsome Curtis as we designated last week, 7 (23m 5s): He's he's gonna call you on that when he gets back, which is this week. So watch out Well, Hey, so glad to see you guys. You know, each week I seem to see new faces or faces. I haven't said hello to or met. We, we like, we wanna know if you're here and if you're joining us. So we'd love if you made your way back to the info center. If you're, if you're, if you're like, this is my home church, we wanna be able to put you on a newsletter. Keep communicating with you, find out more about you. So the info center's the best place. Fill out a communication card so we can know a little bit more about you and get you plugged in as well as you there's other options. You can go online. You can hit the connect through our website and there's even an app. 7 (23m 45s): We have an app. Do you have the app on your phone? 8 (23m 48s): No. Oh 7 (23m 49s): No. He's he's gonna do that in between services. Not right now. Your phone should be off, but we're after this, you're gonna, 8 (23m 55s): Okay. I'll do that. 7 (23m 56s): What else is happening? Greger? 8 (23m 57s): Also, we have our fall life groups kicking off the September. So we've already started our college group that has started off. Great. But we also have men's women's couples groups. We've got home groups. We've got groups for pretty much everyone. If you wanna join one, we have all the information back on the info center. Very helpful. And also we have M six coming up on September 12th, but to it'll be a special M six because it will be an M and w six for the men and wives. 7 (24m 27s): Yes, men and wives. And that's when? September 12th, 8 (24m 30s): September 12th. Okay. 7 (24m 32s): 6 30, 6 36, 6, 6, 6 M six, M six, M six starts at six. Yes. I should remember that starts at six and there's a great dinner. It is a, it is a fundraiser. So they're trying to raise support. It'll go towards the dinners that they have each, each year or each, each month as well as 17 strong, I believe. Yes. Another. So there's a fundraiser. It's $150 per couple. So with that, I think that's the last of our announcements, right? That is. So we're gonna practice a mingle time right now. We're about ready to release you to mingle time. Breer my name's Jeremy. My name's Greger. Oh, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Breer what's your, how long have you come to church here? 8 (25m 14s): Three years. Three years. Okay. I think two years, actually. What's 7 (25m 17s): Your favorite verse? 8 (25m 18s): My favorite 7 (25m 18s): Verse. Yes. On the spot. This was not 8 (25m 20s): Practice Ecclesiastes. Nine 11. 7 (25m 22s): Okay. And 8 (25m 24s): Oh, I'll have to think about it for 7 (25m 27s): A second please. Yes. Nine 11. Okay. Thanks. All right. Well say, say hello to someone around you and we're so glad you're here. God bless. 0 (25m 45s): Hello. Oh God, God will. 0 (26m 36s): God, God up. 9 (27m 22s): Yes, my God. It it 3 (27m 36s): Right 0 (27m 36s): Now. 3 (27m 40s): He's working right 0 (27m 42s): Now. 3 (27m 45s): He's working right 0 (27m 47s): Now. 3 (27m 50s): He's working right 0 (27m 52s): Now. 3 (27m 55s): He's working right 0 (27m 57s): Now. 3 (28m 0s): He's working right 0 (28m 2s): Now. 3 (28m 4s): I know it. I know it. He's working right now. I believe his 0 (28m 12s): God 9 (28m 13s): Is working now. 0 (28m 28s): Oh God is working. 9 (28m 31s): Come on. Just 3 (28m 32s): Sing it one more time. Sing it out. 0 (28m 34s): God 9 (28m 36s): Is working 0 (28m 37s): Now. 10 (28m 39s): Alrighty, come on back. Come on back. Did everybody get communion elements? Did everybody get some elements? These are our COVID friendly elements. So if raise your hand, if you didn't get those. Cause I think they're going around with them right now. Where's dab. Does she take off? Oh, Paul's got 'em in the back. Raise your hand really high. If you, if you didn't get your elements, cause we're gonna be taking communion today. Sherry's got those as well. Welcome. Welcome, welcome 11 (29m 13s): Gasket sealer and a gasket. Hmm. The gasket sealer and a gasket with it. 10 (29m 19s): Gasket, sealer and gasket. It's not a gasket sealer and gasket. Doug. It's very, very much the, the, the elements that we will take hecklers in the crowd. I love it. It does kind of taste like a gasket. So when you take the elements, you want to get some saliva ready and cuz you really, it will get stuck otherwise. So Hey, we're gonna be in first Peter chapter two verse, we're only gonna cover three verses today. First Peter chapter two versus one through three, we're talking about growing into a full experience of salvation and you know, this really touches deeply the DNA of who we are as believers. 10 (30m 11s): What, what are we counting on as believers? I've been thinking about this a little bit differently this morning, even since I wrote the message these last few days. I mean thinking about, cause I I've been feeling like, okay, there's a block spiritually. Have you ever felt like man, there's just something blocking my, my fellowship with the Lord. I, I grabbed a chair and sat in the closet over here as, and I just had my head down as I'm just thinking, okay, what is happening, Lord? Just trying to figure out what was blocking it. It didn't really occur to me until I was worshiping. And then, then the Lord highlighted a conversation that I had with another pastor in town, I don't know, a week or so ago we were talking about church stuff and, and I, I made a comment that was arrogant and I didn't even really think about it at the time. 10 (31m 1s): Although I, it kind of grabbed me a little bit, like maybe I should shouldn't have said that, you know, when you say something and you think I probably didn't need to say that, but I said something that was kind of arrogant and about what about the church or something like that. And, and as I was worshiping this morning, it occurred to me that, so I, as I thought about what I said, I thought, why did I say it? Why did I need to say that to this person? What was happening in inside of me? I thought, you know, there's something in me that is validated by what I do. And I think that's maybe true for all of us and that's okay to be fine fulfillment in what we do as believers when we're doing ministry and that sort of thing. 10 (31m 47s): But what we really, I, I think the more fulfilling and a mature way to think about who we are in Christ is that I am complete in him because of what he's done, not because of what I have done now, what we do as we're empowered and given spiritual gifts to use within those are all very important things. But I don't think we can attach our value to those things. Years ago, I heard a buddy of mine say, who was a Christian leader? He said, you know, I feel like I could walk away from all of this and just be totally fine. And he was a Christian actor on, on big screen. And that sort of thing. He said, I could, I could just walk cuz I don't find my value in that. 10 (32m 28s): I thought, oh, that's an interesting thought. I never really thought about that. Last year, a friend of mine who was pastoring in the north county AF after like 35 or 40 years, he resigned and somebody asked him, was it hard for you to walk away from this ministry that you've been leading for 35 or 40 years? And he said, no, I never really felt like I owned it or that it was mine. I just felt like I was here for a season. And so he was able to walk away from it and not have it impact his sense of self worth. It didn't matter to him because his self worth was founding Christ in Christ alone. 10 (33m 9s): So sometimes we find ourself worth in external things that can really trip us up in hinder us. So I know I'm here for a season, but when I walk away, I, I don't want my self worth to be impacted. I wanted to know that my self worth is solely found in Jesus. Amen. In Jesus. You know, that, that has very little to do with what I'm doing, although that those are all important things. God's, you know, we talk about this all the time that God has called us and equipped us for such a time as this, that he's given us gifts to be used within the kingdom of God, to expand the kingdom, to glorify God, to point people to him. And so those are all wonderful things, but at the end of the day, our value should be found solely in Jesus. 10 (33m 51s): And so if something happens and we're no longer able to do the things that we've always been doing for Jesus, we're still in Jesus and experiencing intimacy with him and closeness with him because that's the proper foundation that we just build our lives on Jesus. So as we talk about growing into a full experience of salvation, we gotta start there. The very basics that we find our life in Jesus and in him alone, sometimes we get saved and we get real busy. We start doing all kinds of stuff and that becomes the substitute, but we need to just find our full experience of salvation in Christ and live out of that and be obedient out of that. 10 (34m 38s): Sometimes we're doing the stuff that we're doing to please people or to look good or to whatever the foundation of growing in a full, into a full experience of salvation begins with just you and Jesus. What did Jesus save you out of? What did Jesus rescue you from? What has Jesus done to give you new life? We're gonna be celebrating communion today, remembering what Jesus did 2000 years ago, so that we could experience have a full experience of salvation maybe to put it in simple term. But what, what does that mean to have a full experience of salvation? Well, if you ever been to an amusement park, most of us had been to an amusement park. I remember when I was just a little guy, my mom took me to an amusement park magic mountain. 10 (35m 24s): We went to magic mountain and I don't know if you're older. I don't even know if they still have the rev is the magic mountain still even open anyway, the revolution, remember that ride that takes you upside down. So I was scared to death of that ride. I was like, I I'll go on pretty much even the Colossus. I was fine with the Colossus, but the revolution. No thanks. So my mom just kind of talks me into it. She's like, Hey, you're gonna be okay and you're gonna be fine. And so we get on the revolution and I'm scared to death, but we do it and I get off and I'm like, can we do it again? You know, like it was so much fun sometimes. I think we're afraid to have a full experience of salvation because we've never done it before. 10 (36m 5s): We don't know what to expect. We're not sure how it will turn out. But when we decide to do it, throwing caution to the win, we decide just to go for it in Christ and just have fun with Jesus doing what he's called us to do, living the way that he's called us to live. We can't get enough of it. There's something powerful about it. It's like, can you imagine going to the grand canyon and never really stopping to look at the grand canyon? I mean, imagine driving by and so somebody can ask will ask you, Hey, I've been, have you been to the grand canyon? You're like, yeah, I've been to the grand canyon, but you haven't really been to the grand canyon because all you've done is drive by you. Haven't been to the grand canyon until you're looking over the edge into the vast beauty of the grand canyon until you've hiked in the grand canyon until you've suffered along those many miles of trails and trying to climb back out. 10 (36m 57s): I mean, you haven't really had the full experience until you've had the full experience. And so you can say, yeah, I've been to the grand canyon, but you haven't really experienced the grand canyon. Some of us say that, Hey, we're, I'm a Christian, but we haven't really experienced the fullness of what it means, the full experience of salvation. And so today we're gonna be talking about the full growing into a full experience of salvation. Cause I, I think some of us are just kind of scratching the surface. I'm a Christian, but you know, somebody asked what faith, most Americans, even now we'll say I'm a Christian, but do most Christians really know what that means? 10 (37m 38s): Are we having as a nation, a full experience of salvation, let's just see what Peter has to say about it. Because Peter he's lived his life with, in a full expression of salvation. He understood what it meant to follow Jesus when things were good, Jesus is working miracles and doing supernatural things, but he also understands what it means when Jesus is arrested and crucified and buried. And in that moment of a crisis of faith, he's trying to figure out what does it mean? And then God gets a hold of his heart and truth is revealed to him. And then after the resurrection Peters filled with the holy spirit and he preaches to the multitudes and his life has forever changed. 10 (38m 22s): He is, he's a leader in the early church. He writes these books for us, these letters to us so that we might understand what a full expression of our faith is really all about full experience of our salvation is all about. So first Peter chapter two versus one through three, the first word in this first verse is the word. So, so why, so why does Peter begin with this word? So maybe your Bible says, so then, or therefore, or where for, why does Peter begin this verse, this chapter with this word Peter's about to give he he's beginning with this word, because he's about to give some pretty straightforward instruction and he wants us to reflect on what he's already said. 10 (39m 17s): So therefore, therefore, so because reflecting, reminding us of what he's already said all through chapter one, he's prepared us for chapter two, by writing chapter one, Peter's asking us, he's challenging us. He's leading us down the path of sanctification, this path of sanctification, what he calls a full experience of salvation. So the salvation is wonderful in that we've got new life in Jesus, but it's just the beginning of a new life that God has given to us. We're given salvation, but we're then called and filled and equipped to do wonderful and supernatural things. 10 (40m 2s): But then also live out the course of our lives, through all of the ups and downs, the Hills and valleys through all of the challenges and victories we're called to trust Jesus. And so if we don't have that full experience of salvation, then we're gonna waffle, we're gonna backslide. We're gonna slip back. We're into our old ways and we're gonna miss out on the very best that God has for. So Peter's asking us, he's challenging us. He's leading us out of his own experience. Like I've watched myself. Peter could say, I've watched myself vacillate and waffle and backslide because of a lack of the full experience. But then as the holy spirit works on on him and sanctification takes place and over the course of his life, wonderful and supernatural things, Peter's at the end of his life here. 10 (40m 48s): And he's writing to the church. He's writing to us to encourage us. I, I love that this is what we read about Peter. This is what Peter wrote at the end of his life. When you're getting to the end of your life, you, you get very serious about all kinds of things you begin to think differently about your life and how to finish well. And Peter wanted to finish well. So he's asking us, challenging us, leading us down the path of sanctification, a full experience of salvation. So with all of that, are we having a full experience of salvation? I mean, does God like have our attention 24 7 or does he just have our attention on Sunday morning or when we take five minutes to crack the Bible, what are we having a full experience or are we having kind of a spotty kind of, you know, you know, just kind of weird experience with God. 10 (41m 44s): That's not the full experience. The apostle Paul describes this experience this way. This is kind of what he would would prescribe for us. Ephesians 4 23 and 24 says instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. This is the process of sanctification, the steps toward full experience of what it means to be saved. And so let your spirit renew your thoughts, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes put on your new nature created by to be like God, truly righteous. And holy, I love what he wrote in Ephesians four 30. 10 (42m 27s): He said, and do not bring sorrow to God's holy spirit, by the way you live. Wow. Do not bring sorrow to God's holy spirit, by the way that you live. So God is calling us, he's raising the bar in our lives saying, Hey, the I've got more for you out of this intimacy that I desire to have with you. Remember he has identified you as his own. So that's who you are. He has put a seal on you, his seal on you guaranteeing that you'll be saved on that day of redemption. So what's the, so therefore what is the, so therefore I'm actually gonna give you 16 reasons for the so, and it's all found in first Peter chapter one. 10 (43m 11s): So actually Peter is gonna give you a 16 reasons actually to be perfectly clear, the holy spirit who's inspired. This word is gonna give you 16 reasons for the, so why is the, so there we have to take serious what the word of God says. Sometimes we might just gloss over the, so what, I don't know why it's there. If you go back and look at the context of the word of God, then we begin to understand why the, so is there. So all from first Peter chapter one. So because you are, God's chosen people and all, all I did was go through chapter one and just make notes of all of the reasons that were called into this full experience of salvation, because you're, God's chosen people. 10 (43m 57s): Number one, number two, because the heavenly father knew you and chose you. Number three, because his spirit has made you holy number four, because you have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Number five, because you've been born again, number six, because we live with great expectation in Christ. We, we should live with great expectation. Why? Because we serve a great God with great power and great capacity and, and great there's great possibilities for us in Christ Jesus, because we live with great expectation because we have a priceless inheritance with the Lord because God is protecting you by his power. 10 (44m 41s): Speaking of his connection to you and his, his plan to watch over you and his purpose in using you in the earth, got us protecting you by his power because there's wonderful. Joy ahead. So because of these reasons, now Peter goes on to say, even though you have to endure many trials. So we talk about the joy that is ahead. He also understands that the many trials, but he says these trials will show that your faith is genuine. So praise God for the trials. Like we don't pray for trials. Like if you're foolish, you'd pray for trials. But if you're wise, you don't pray for trials. You just know that they're coming. 10 (45m 21s): But when the trials come, we begin to understand that they prove the genuineness of our faith when we're able to hold firm and still believe and not give up to continue to trust and to continue to move forward as a follower of the Lord. Jesus, there's joy. Great joy ahead. In spite of the trials, the trials should be seen as part of God's plan to enrich your life and to strengthen you and to give you the full experience of salvation. Because if, if trials derail your faith, then you're not having the full experience of salvation. There's a deeper work that needs to be taking place in your life. 10 (46m 1s): What else? What your faith is more precious than mere gold? Oh, this is in first Peter chapter one. You love him, even though you've never seen him. So speaking of our faith, we love God, even though we've never anybody ever seen God, we love him. Even though we've never seen him though, you do not see him. Now, you trust him. The reward of, for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. Number 14, because you have placed your faith and hope in God. Number 15, because you are cleansed from your sins. Number 16 because your new life will last forever. So that's the, so because of all of this truth, that Peter records in chapter one, because of this reason we can press on and have the full experience of salvation. 10 (46m 53s): So these 16 reasons are why Peter began with the word. So because of all of these reasons, Peter challenges, the believers, because of everything that he wrote in chapter one, we can have confidence and move forward as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So we have 16 reasons listed in one chapter covering 25 verses. So there's a, a lot crammed into, I'm trying to make a point. There's a lot crammed into one little ver chapter and with 25 verses, there's a lot of chapters in the Bible there's hundred and 89 chapters in the Bible. 10 (47m 34s): So a lot has been crammed into this one chapter, all of the reasons that we should need, but then if, if we were to go through and unpack all of the scripture, like read all of the old and the new Testament, we'd find, I don't know, maybe hundreds of reasons to press in and to have a full experience of salvation to, to want to be fully sanctified as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when this one chapter there's 25 verses throughout the whole context of scripture, there's actually, I wrote it down here, 31,102 verses with 23,000, 145 verses in the old Testament and 29, 2,957 in the new Testament. 10 (48m 23s): You know, there's like over three quarters of a million words in the Bible, over 783,000 words in the Bible. There's a lot there for us. And we find all of these. We find 16 reasons to, to have a full experience of salvation in just one small chapter in one small book of the Bible, all that to just kind of hopefully encourage you to open it up. The word is full of promises and truth that will help us and will educate us and encourage us as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So let's take a look of what it means, kind of experiencing the full experience of salvation. 10 (49m 10s): Growing into a full experience of salvation requires actually commitment. Like, first of all, you, you, you get saved by grace through faith, but then you just need to open up the word and do maybe what I did today. Just really look at it and really evaluate it and really take it in and really soak it up and see what God will do. So let's take a look at what part of this commitment looks like. We see it in verse one. So there's the, so, so why is this? So there go back and reach one. So get rid of all evil behavior, ah, be done with all deceits, hypocrisy, jealousy and all unkind speech. Who's Peter talking to the church then, and now he's talking to us. 10 (49m 57s): Why? Because we obviously have a problem here. There's obviously something going on within the body of Christ that needs to be addressed. So he said, get rid of it. In first, Peter, two, one in the contemporary English version, it says, stop being hateful. I just stop being hateful, quit trying to fool people and start being sincere. Don't be jealous or say cruel things about others. What, what do we, we do with that? How, I mean, how do we understand what we're to do? Well, first of all, we need to understand what those words mean. 10 (50m 38s): One of the main principles in hermeneutics, which is a study of the general principles of Bible interpretation, is that we need to understand what words mean. I mean, does that make sense? Like if we're gonna understand any given text, especially the Bible, we need to understand what words mean. We need to understand a little bit about Bible interpretation. So the first thing we need to know is what do these words mean? So I would encourage you to get a Greek and English or Hebrew English lexicon. Lexicon is basically just like a dictionary for Bible study. So get it, or, or you can get on blue, how many use blue letter Bible, it's a great resource. 10 (51m 24s): It's a free resource and you can get on there. And the blue letter Bible will help you define words, figure out what the Greek or the Hebrew meaning is. It will help you understand what the Bible's saying when we read the Bible. So as we read the scripture, the old Testament was mainly written to a Hebrew audience. And so there's Hebrew information and understanding that we need to have, that we can get from these study resources. Now they, new Testament was mainly written to a Graco Roman culture. And so our cultures are different than the Hebrew and the Graco Roman culture. And so we need to have some understanding, you know, most English translations are very thorough and if we read what they write, we can usually take it to the bank, but to get some greater understanding about what we're reading, it's helpful just to do some more digging. 10 (52m 13s): So if you're trying to understand what a word means within the Bible, it's helpful to just read other translations. And so, you know, we, I typically read out of the new living translation, but if I'm struggling with what a word means, I'm be able to look at the king James or the NASB or theb and see how those translators translated that word so that I can fully understand what the writer is saying, because it doesn't really help us if we don't understand. And so how do we understand? We just begin to employ these Herman tactics so that we can understand what the scripture is all about. So the first rule of Bible interpretation is the rule of definition. What does the word mean? 10 (52m 53s): I think it makes total sense. What does the word mean? So let's check it out and see what the word means. So get rid of all evil behavior, be done with all deceit hypocrisy, jealousy and unkind speech. So what I did is I just simply opened up the blue letter Bible, write that down because it's very helpful in your Bible study, blue letter and Bible, and the first kind of word there is evil behavior. Get rid of all evil behavior. 10 (53m 35s): The king James version says this way, where for laying aside all malice and all Gail and hypocrisy, the word for evil behavior in the king James version is malice. And as you dig deeper, you can see that it means evil and wickedness. And so there's malice, there's evil and wickedness being communicated in being it's happening within the body of Christ. And so in acts 8 22, we see that same Greek word being used here. And it says repent. Therefore of this like wickedness, that Greek word for malice is, or evil behavior is wickedness. 10 (54m 18s): It's malice it's. So what is God telling us to do? We said, get rid of all of that wickedness, evil behavior, malice, wickedness. What? So we look at our lives and say, what Lord is there anything in my life that's wicked. You can only answer that. You gotta listen. If we're not availing ourselves to the truth of the word of God, then we're not fully experiencing salvation. The way that God, we're not having the full experience of salvation, we're not being sanctified the way that God would have us be sanctified. So if we're looking at so way to look at the word is like a mirror. So you read it and you say, I'm reading about wickedness, malice, all this kind of stuff. 10 (54m 58s): Is there wickedness in my life. I keep dealing with couples who are dealing with hard things in infidelity, lying. Boy, the list goes on and on and on. I think how can people sit in the church and be dealing with, you know, be allowing these kinds of things in their lives, addictions and infidelity and lying and cheating and stealing. And it's because we haven't taken serious. The word of God to eliminate from our lives, all wickedness. We, we just kind of give ourselves a pass or something. I don't know, but we're not paying attention to the scripture. 10 (55m 42s): Cuz the full experience of salvation requires that we do some house cleaning that we get rid of some junk out of our lives that we do it quickly, that we have short accounts with the Lord. And so if you've got addictions or inappropriate relationships, those things just have to stop by God's grace evil behavior. What about the word deceit? That word means Gil subtlety, secretly craft or craftiness in mark 14 one in the king James version for context. So we understand what's being said here. It says this after two days was the feast of the Passover and of unle bread and the chief priest and the scribe sought how he might sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death. 10 (56m 36s): So they're the religious leaders of the day are trying to figure out how to trick with trickery, get Jesus, get him arrested and have them crucified and put to death. So deceit, Gail trickery subtlety, there it's a manipulation. It's it's just an unhealthy way of living life. And so Peter says, get rid of it all deceit and Gail, then they use the word hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is actually the word used for a stage actor, someone who's on a platform, pretending, acting out a role. 10 (57m 21s): It's someone who is looking like one person, but is actually not that person. We, we do that in church. All the, we do that really well in church. Like we show up like, Hey, everything's good, everything's good. Everything's great. It's not great. It's not great for everyone. And so not that we need to share all of our junk with everybody, but we need to share some of our junk with somebody. We need to get it out to somebody who's safe and we'll pray and walk you through with good godly counsel. But there's hypocrisy going on in, in Matthew 23, 28 and the king James version that says, so you also hourly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 10 (58m 12s): Whew. So Jesus called the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his day. He called them whitewashed tombs with dead men's bones inside. Why did Jesus say that? Cuz he's mean no, because he knew of their hypocrisy. They looked good on the outside. They were all whitewashed and looking pretty, but dead men inside. So Jesus called out their hypocrisy to bring about conviction, but also to bring about life change. And so when the scripture or when a preacher, when somebody calls out your hypocrisy or our hypocrisy, we need to be humble and say, yeah, you're absolutely right. I've been play acting. I've been pretending. 10 (58m 53s): It's just not the way to, to live our lives. God has called us into a full experience of salvation. Whereby we are changed through the process of sanctification where God has an opportunity to manage our lives into change our lives. Then there's the word jealousy and could be, could be the word Envys could be used. And we see this in mark 15, 10 for he knew that the chief priest had delivered him for envy. The chief priest had delivered Jesus because they were jealous of him, jealous of his influence, jealous that he was drawing people away from them. 10 (59m 38s): And so out of envy, they did what they did delivering him to be crucified. So jealousy and Envy's we, we need to not allow these things to take up space in our head, in our hearts. And then there's unkind speech or evil speakings. Second Corinthians 1220 in the king. James says this for I fear Le when I come, I shall not find you such as I would in that. I shall be found unto you, such as you would not. This is why I don't read the king James version anymore. 10 (1h 0m 20s): Like so in my earlier days, that's all I had was a king James version Bible. I had a big old dates, king James version Bible, and I really knew how to read it, but I haven't really read the king James much like devotionally or in study for a long time. So I don't, it's old king James. We, we, we don't speak old king James, unless there be debates Envys rafts stripes, stripes. And, and then he uses the word instead of unkind speech or evil speaking. Use the words backstabbing or back. Bitings interesting back bitings does that happen within the church? 10 (1h 1m 4s): I don't know. Apparently it does. I mean, Peter, who was a leader in their first century church, he, he knew something, something was obviously happening and he's addressing it. There was backbiting in the early church. Is that healthy for the church? Is that healthy for a new relationship? And it's just poison, right? It's completely unhealthy. And so Peter's addressing it. Why? Because he wants the church healthy. He's addressing it because he wants the people within the church, healthy. He wants our relationships to be healthy. He wants us to be unified committed to the purposes of God, focused on doing what God has called us to do. We can't be doing all of those things if indeed there's this type of behavior within the church. 10 (1h 1m 46s): If her back biting and mean spirit and complaining and doing all of those things. So how do we, how do we move from move away from all of this? You say, man, I've, this has just been the way I've always dealt with things. I've always been a complainer, a back biter of gossip. I've always been a hypocrite. How do you get away from all that kind of stuff? Well, that's the full experience of salvation that we're talking about. It's the sanctification process that we're talking about. God saved you, but he doesn't wanna leave you the way you are because he loves you too much to leave you the way you are. So he takes you through a process. It's a lifelong process. I'm in it, you're in it, we're all in it. It's a process called sanctification. It's in that process. And through that process that we have a full experience of salvation. 10 (1h 2m 28s): If we don't go through the process, we're driving by the grand canyon, but we're not stopping. We're going to the amusement park, but we're not getting on the rollercoaster, right? We're just kind of having a disconnected experience. It's not what God's design. It's not God's design. It's kind of this religious kind of experience, but it's not God's design for our experience. So verse two helps us to understand what, what will, what we can do to, to, to move beyond this kind of way of living and kinda get delivered out of it. We just, we need to get delivered out of it, but we'll never get delivered out of this type of lifestyle until we just look at it, head on and just take serious the sin in our lives. 10 (1h 3m 13s): And so he said like newborn babies in verse two, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Try out for this nourishment. Now that you have had a taste of the Lord's kindness. So growing into a full experience of salvation requires commitment, commitment, number one, and this will probably be a two or three or four, 10 week series. I don't know what it's gonna be, but we'll see commitment. Number one, we have to be willing to grow. Hence the title growing into a full experience of salvation. We actually gotta be willing to grow. And so maybe some of you have been in church for five years and you grew for five years, but, or maybe you've been in church for 10 years and you've grown for the first five years, but then you've just been on, on autopilot for the last five years. 10 (1h 4m 0s): It's not God's design. You gotta be growing all the days of your life. So that next year, this time you have greater understanding, greater capacity as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, greater strength, greater victory, greater ability to overcome in Jesus name, a greater ability to have joy in face of difficulties and trials, greater strength. When you're tempted, you're able to say no when maybe in the past you said yes. And so you have greater capacity in Jesus to stand firm and move forward, but you gotta be willing to grow. How do we grow? Well, verse two, again like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation cry out for this nourishment. 10 (1h 4m 42s): What happens when a, a newborn is hungry, man, right? They're screaming, right? I've got a newborn grandbaby. And when he is hungry, what is he doing? Like, you can be holding him, but if you're not mama, you can't give him what he needs. And so you hand him off, right? You're like, I can do a lot, but I cannot meet this need because he's craving milk. Right? There's a picture there that we can get a hold of because we've all been that crying baby wanting something of nourishment. So this needs to be our attitude regarding the word of God. And sometimes our attitude about the word of God is I gotta do it. I gotta read it like it's spinach or something. 10 (1h 5m 25s): Or you fill in the blank. Like it's mushrooms, mushroom first meal I had at Jolene's mom's house. You know, you're trying to put your best foot forward because your, your in-law your future in-laws plays not, I don't know. They weren't even, we hadn't. We were just dating. I show up, Margaret gives me this big old play to spaghetti. I love spaghetti. But on top of it was this black thing, this black piece of food, apparently it was food. I said, Margaret Mar I don't, I don't mean to complain. Well, what is this thing? She said, oh, it's a mushroom. I'm like, why what's what's the point? 10 (1h 6m 7s): It's fungus. It grows outta stuff. They should, we, we don't need this. Right. And so I push it aside and she thought she was doing me a favor because she loves mushrooms. Right? Reminds me of another story about this couple. Who'd been married for years and years and years. And the wife making breakfast every day for years always gave her husband the heel of the bread. Well, he hates the heel, but he never says anything. He's just kind of grumpy about it for years, you know? And so finally he's like, why are you giving me the heel? She said, oh, that's my favorite part of the bread. And I wanted you to have it. 10 (1h 6m 49s): We gotta change our perspective about things. And as we open up the word of God, we need to realize that it's life to us and grace to us and strength for us. It's what we need. Quit looking at it. Like it's a mushroom or something that we don't want, or that we dread or that we have to do. It's like newborn babies. We need to cry for it. We need to crave pure spiritual milk. What? So the word of God is pure spiritual milk. I love install 19 versus seven through 11. It just helps us. How much time do we have I'm overtime? I need more time. Here we go. Psalm 19 says the instructions of the Lord are perfect. 10 (1h 7m 31s): Reviving the soul that might change our perspective about the word of God. The instruction of the Lord are perfect. Reviving the soul. You need your soul revived. Open up the scripture. You want your life in Jesus revived. You gotta open up the scripture. It says the decrees of the Lord are trustworthy making. Why is the simple? You need some wisdom. Open up the word, man, just keep opening up the word and read it and keep reading it all the days of your life. Make it your priority. The first thing that you do, not the last thing you do when you're trying to stay awake at night, you're trying to get through a passage. 10 (1h 8m 13s): You gotta just make it your priority. It'll order your steps and give you wisdom for the day. The commandments of the Lord are right. Bringing joy to the heart. Oh, joy. You like joy. Open up the scripture and just allow the word of God to refresh you and fill you with joy. The word of God is like pure spiritual milk for us. It's what babies are crying for. It's what we should be craving as believers in Jesus Christ. Like I need the word. Like if you skip the word for some reason in the day, you should be feeling it. Like I'm craving it. Like, I can't believe I went without it. Like, if you missed breakfast or your ice cream after dinner, you like, or if you miss your coffee, there you go. 10 (1h 9m 1s): If you miss your coffee, everybody gets that one. Like, man, I wish I had my coffee, right. But if you can develop people, develop an appetite for what they're fed, right? So if you begin to feed on the word of God and drinking that stuff in, you're gonna develop an appetite for it. You're just gonna crave it. But you won't get the appetite for it until you just get after it. So get after it, the commands of the Lord are clear giving insight for living. Ah, what does God want me to do? What's the right decision. I'm gonna open up the word because I know that somehow God is going to communicate. It's a living word. 10 (1h 9m 42s): It's a living word. Reverence for the Lord is pure lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true. Each one is fair. So we can have confidence in the word, true and fair. They are more desirable than gold. Even the finest gold, they are sweeter than a honey. Even honey, dripping from the comb. They are a warning to your servant to get a great reward for those who obey them. I can't get into it. But did you know the longest book of the Bible is all about the Bible. It's pal one nineteen, a hundred seventy six verses. It's all about the Bible. So go through and read what the Psalmist wrote. 10 (1h 10m 24s): We're not sure who the Psalmist is, probably David, but go back and read what the Psalmist wrote about the word of God. There's a 176 ch verses in chapter one, 19 chapter one, 19. The Psalms that we can glean from. So Psalm 19 in Psalm one 19, read it and see what the Lord will do to refresh your soul. You, you won't have a full experience of salvation without getting into the word of God. You will be diminished in your spirit. You will be unable to stand firm. You'll be weak against temptation. You'll be prone to sin. 10 (1h 11m 3s): You will fall short, continually, and constantly apart from the word of God, it's exactly what you need. You have to eat, you have to eat my doctor. I was struggling with some stuff. And he said, and I told him, I said, I'm doing this intermittent fasting. He said, well, stop doing intermittent fasting. You might actually have some energy. So I started eating eggs in the morning. I'm like, oh yeah, kind of. I kind of feel better. You know? So if you're struggling spiritually, because you're, you've got this kind of weird intermittent fasting, like I'll open up the word, you know, one day outta three or one, you know, on Sunday morning when it's being, that's like, you're gonna be dying of starvation and you'll be powerless spiritually. 10 (1h 11m 47s): Just the way it works. God's design. We're gonna take communion. I wanna invite the worship team up. And as the worship team comes forward, I just wanna ask a question. What, not just, what have you learned, but what are you going to apply as a result of this message? And so let's go ahead and stand up and we're gonna worship and take communion. But as you stand up, what have you learned today? And then what are you going to apply? Because it doesn't, it's just an academic exercise. If we come to church and listen, but don't apply. So let's just not make this an academic exercise, but let's make it a real life changing sermon. So who do I do? 10 (1h 12m 27s): I need to call on somebody or should, should you guys just speak out? Yeah, I'll be kind until somebody doesn't speak up and then we'll, we're 13 (1h 12m 39s): Gonna apply what you we've heard from you 10 (1h 12m 42s): What's that we're 13 (1h 12m 43s): Gonna apply. We've heard from you 10 (1h 12m 45s): From the word, but what do you, what does that mean for you though? 13 (1h 12m 48s): For me, it means to stay in the, in the word every 10 (1h 12m 51s): Day. Okay. We gonna apply it. Yeah. So stay in the word and apply it. Stay in the word every day in apply it. How, how long have you been a Christian? 13 (1h 12m 58s): Since I 10 (1h 12m 59s): Was six. Six. And so now you're like 46, right? So for 20 years, so 40 years or so plus you've been a Christian. Why do you need to keep reading the Bible? Because I failed. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. Remember the man and the wilderness, when the Israelites are wandering on this 40 year trip, that should've taken them 40 days, but because of their sin and wickedness and rebellion took them 40 years, what did God give him every day? Give man just enough for the day, because he wanted them to have faith that he would provide it the next day. So the word of God is like manna to our souls. 10 (1h 13m 39s): We need, we need it every day. We're gonna read it and then we'll need it the next day. Because if we rely on the mana from yesterday, what happened to the mana from yesterday to the people of Israel and the wilderness, right? It turned stinky and full of maggots right now. God's words never stinkier full of, but the idea is that we need fresh manana every day. And so every day we go back to the word of God every day. That's just, God's design for having a, a fullest experience of salvation. What else? Word of God. Oh, hold 14 (1h 14m 15s): Word of God. Every day is not your mother reaching out his hand to 15 (1h 14m 22s): You, ah, saying, 14 (1h 14m 23s): Hold onto me. 15 (1h 14m 25s): Wow. 14 (1h 14m 26s): And I will take you where you should 10 (1h 14m 28s): Go. 15 (1h 14m 28s): Yeah. 10 (1h 14m 30s): Yeah. Reading the word every day is God, your father reaching out his hand to you showing, Hey, I will show you. I, I will lead you. I will take you where you need to go, Doug. 16 (1h 14m 39s): So I just heard God saying that. He just says, who do you say I am? 0 (1h 14m 46s): Who 10 (1h 14m 46s): Am I? Yeah. 16 (1h 14m 48s): What principles have I given you to live by your salvation and me? 10 (1h 14m 55s): Hmm. 16 (1h 14m 56s): Is worth more than anything in the 15 (1h 14m 59s): World. Yeah. And 16 (1h 15m 1s): To listen to the wisdom 15 (1h 15m 3s): Yeah. 16 (1h 15m 4s): Of the word of God he's 15 (1h 15m 6s): Given us. Yeah. 10 (1h 15m 8s): Yeah. 15 (1h 15m 9s): Hmm, 10 (1h 15m 11s): Lord, we thank you for your word. And we're thankful for the opportunity just to dive a little deeper and grow a little more and get a little more serious about who we are and you, and we're thankful for the opportunity to take communion today. And it's a reminder That new life is available to us, that you died on a cross and shed your blood so that our sins could be forgiven. If you're here today and you've never accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, you, you can receive the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, by recognizing your desperate need for him. 10 (1h 15m 52s): It's not about a word formula. It's about a life change and transformation. It's about a decision that says, I'm, I'm, I'm not gonna lead my own life anymore, but I'm gonna submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I'm not gonna live the way that I've always lived, because I know that it's not been God's desire and it's not honored God. And so you're saying, Jesus, I wanna honor you. Bible says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised. And from the dead, then you will be safe. So there's a, a belief, a transformational belief that we're stepping into. It's a life transformation. It's a, it's a, it's a process where we're saved. 10 (1h 16m 33s): And then we go through the rest of our lives, pursuing Jesus, hungry for Jesus, doing what God has called us to do. It can't be about a formula because God's never been about formulas. It's been about relationship. And so in sanctification and transformation and new life in Jesus about being born again. So if you want to make that decision, just explain to the Lord and proclaim to the Lord, gotta I'm yours. I, I just, I don't wanna live without you. I need your grace. I need your love and your, your forgiveness come into my life. Lead me, guide me, direct me something along those lines. 10 (1h 17m 14s): And you're at the starting line of a lifelong race that Paul says that we're to run the race, to win the race with all, all of our strength, with all of our might. We just run with everything we got pursuing Jesus. Anyway. So if that's you give your life to Jesus, communion is about remembering what Jesus has done. So if you haven't given your life to Jesus don't don't yeah. Don't take communion. It's it's it's for believers who believe and are pursuing Jesus. But if you want to trust Jesus and give your life to Jesus, then do that. And then let's take communion. 10 (1h 17m 56s): Paul road. Before I passed on to you, first Corinthians 1123, before I pass on you, what I received from the Lord himself on the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's go ahead and take the bread. The wafer. 0 (1h 18m 30s): Thank you Lord. 10 (1h 18m 34s): So thankful God. So thankful Lord. 0 (1h 18m 39s): So, 10 (1h 18m 40s): So thankful 0 (1h 18m 40s): Lord. 10 (1h 18m 42s): In the same way, he took the cup of wine. After supper saying this cup is the, it's the new covenant between God and his people do this to remember me, as often as you drink. And for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Let's take the juice. Thank you, Lord. Ah, it's good to remember, Lord. It's good to rejoice. It's good to celebrate. It's good to worship God as we worship at this moment, closing out the service. 10 (1h 19m 24s): And as we make time for prayer at the end of the service, Lord, I pray that you be glorified. God help us to take serious. Your word, the application of your word. We love you. Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship 3 (1h 20m 1s): Long to breathe. Pain is gone. Immersive those to look the one you glad to save me and walk with him for will a 0 (1h 20m 32s): Day, will 3 (1h 21m 13s): We sang 0 (1h 21m 36s): A day? 3 (1h 22m 10s): We join the resurrection and stand side. The heroes of the face with one boy, a thousand singy is the lamb who was save. And that day 0 (1h 22m 56s): Generations 3 (1h 22m 59s): Worthy 0 (1h 23m 24s): Save 17 (1h 23m 48s): The holy holy holy to receive all glory holy long for that day. 17 (1h 24m 38s): When we just, or saying that all the time, it's in your presence, God, how amazing is that gonna be? And Lord, I've pray that as we go out in this week, we will desire and seek that full experience of our salvation Lord. Thank you father, for your love and your amazing grace and Jesus name. Amen.

1 (2s): Good morning. Welcome to harvest. Why don't we all stand together? Let's worship, Lord. We hear this morning with two or more gathered. Dedicated this time. 2 (8m 21s): he? he . He was 3 (8m 55s): Where's your heart to pray. 5 (10m 53s): Lord, help us remember to being passionate and especially passionate to our families. 4 (11m 7s): Or thank you for all these loving waivers or your 6 (18m 7s): Lord, thank you. That we rest in that promise that you will not feel 7 (18m 27s): Well, good morning. And welcome back to harvest church. You may be wondering two things real quick. Why is Curtis already back in why's he more handsome than he was before? Well, it's because I'm not Curtis. I am I'm burger Wade, and this is Jeremy. He is our student ministries leader 6 (18m 49s): And a few other things, 7 (18m 51s): A few other things, 6 (18m 53s): But yeah. Well, welcome here. So this is family Sunday and we just, yeah, we value that our church is multi-generational. We, I love looking out and seeing the young young kids, as well as older folks and just everyone in between it it's we really value that our church has this kind of broad spectrum. So family Sunday, we celebrate petty. The fourth, Sunday we have each month, we celebrate that by donuts. We've got donuts out there, but we also asked if the kids remain in service first grade enough. So if, if you're, if you're a little kid, a little loud, it's okay. I have great memories of bothering their parents in church as well, being a nuisance. But you know, those are fond memories that I hold on to, of getting to worship with my parents and seeing them worship. 6 (19m 38s): So it's yeah, it's, it's a great thing. So we celebrate that today for, with family Sunday and there is donuts out there as well as coffee, not for kids. It's probably shouldn't have the cost. You're gonna have donuts, right? 7 (19m 50s): Yeah. They can have the donuts. So we also have life groups starting up. So we've got our men's women's home groups, couples, and we also have a college group just in case you want to see more of me and you're in college, does anybody? So 6 (20m 10s): I do 7 (20m 11s): Thank you. But we've got all that information on our wonderful info center. You can pick up any flyers, you can sign up for life groups back there. It's just a really great resource to have. 6 (20m 21s): Yeah. And then lastly, as far as announcements go, we, we encourage the men in our church to every month go to . That's our men's monthly gathering at a thousand Hills ranch this year, this month, September, the month of September is gonna be a little different. It's actually MW six. And that is because the men are supposed to bring their wives. And it's also, it's a, it's a fundraising events for M six as well as 17 strong. So that's going to be September 12th out at the ranch and that's from six to seven 30 and it's a fundraiser. So it's $150 a couple, but it's a great time of worship testimony and just great delicious food. I mean, if, if the food for the men is good, I'm just, I think it's going to be the next level. 6 (21m 5s): So there's that. And finally, this is, we want to take this day, we're partnering with mothers in prayer and we, this is bless our school Sunday. So we want to emphasize that there's this amazing international ministry that, that, that happens at our church as well. It's called mothers in prayer and that's partnering women together, mothers who pray over their kids, pray over the schools. There's lots of different ways to do that. So Shannon Kessler has been leading that for almost 14 years now. And she's back at the info center would love to give you more details on mothers and prayer, but also we just want to bless our school. So what I want to do now, before we go into our meet and greet time is if you are a school teacher, if you are work at school, you're part of the admin staff, any anything having to do, and also students and graduates once you they'll stand up. 6 (21m 55s): So we can pray for you this morning. Can you do that now? And that is homeschool parents as well. So please stand up also students. Yeah. Let me some students breakers already standing. Yeah. So let me pray. Let me pray over you right now. Heavenly father, we thank you Lord, for what these, what does, what does, what the, the people that are standing in Lord this morning signifying that they're, they're part of the education system of educating the next generation. Lord God, whether they're part of the educators or being educated themselves. So are we, we know that the schools can be difficult Lord. 6 (22m 37s): And so we just pray your blessing over the teachers as they lean on you, as they lead and guide these children and just their light into, into those classrooms, Lord and pray for the homeschool parents as well, or is it difficult? Job, Lord. And so we just blessed those moms and dads who are, who partaken in that Lord. And we thank you for the students that are being missionaries out in your schools, whether it's on the college campuses or in the high schools or elementary schools, Lord, we just pray that they would be a light to their students and a light to the teachers that are there. Lord. So we thank you, Lord. We play you just your, your blessing over this schools and our school district. Lord, God bless them in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. 6 (23m 18s): All right. So why don't you take us a minute to meet and greet somebody around you? It's a good time to kind of find some empty chairs and squeeze in. God bless you guys. 9 (25m 9s): My soul is cold gray. saw the glory as it broke God of mercy in light. 9 (25m 56s): Brilliant sales. You globe awakens my soul. 10 (26m 2s): Hey, good morning. All right. Good morning. Welcome. Am I on? I shouldn't be on think I'm on A real quick, real quick. How many understand the purpose of meet and greet? How many understand the purpose of meet and greet? All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna bust some of y'all. So I'm walking around and I'm noticing some of you are glued to your chairs. You're like, I'm not getting up. 10 (26m 43s): I'm not crossing the aisle. I'm not meeting nobody today and that's not what meet and greets all about. So we're doing it again. It's a do over. So the rule you got to peel the glue off your backside, stand up and go meet somebody that you have never ever met before. I mean, you got to get out of your eye or your row, one side of the building to the other go That is a meet and greet right there. 10 (28m 34s): The obvious answer to this question is how many who met somebody that they've never ever met before? Mary nice. There we go. That's the meet and greet. There we go. So that's the standard by which all future meet and greets will be judged. So welcome. Welcome. Welcome. It's good to be back. Appreciate all the love and just the support, the prayers a couple of weeks ago, during first service I preached during second service, I went to the ER and anyway, just stuff was going on. So I'll give you kind of an update and it's really all kind of dumb and mysterious. 10 (29m 16s): Like, you know, nobody's got real good answers, which is always frustrating. I saw Levi appear with a bro or Jack with a broken arm. And you're like, you can explain that you've got a broken arm, right? Like I got a cast. That's obvious that what's going on. I, these things that happened to me are just weird, strange and UN describable. So, so after like, I don't know, we spent the night in the hospital and next morning, like six doctors come in and just start talking to me about stuff. And, and finally a guy said, we think there's something going on with your vagus nerve and vagus nerve, like controls all of your vital organs and look it up. 10 (30m 1s): It's interesting. I had never, never heard of a vagus nerve until they told me mines ain't working. So then I checked it out and I need to go to Vegas. Yeah. That's not the first time I've heard that joke. Yeah. I hear that all the time. So then I go to my general doctor, doctor what's his name's Fellini. Thank you very much that my doctor for 20 years, probably, I don't know. Anyway, Dr. Sweeney said, Hey, I'm not sure it's your vagus nerve. So I'm thinking, I'm thinking, thanks doc. I had an answer and now I have no answer. So anyway, Dr. Sweeney is going to be doing some more work. I'm going to be meeting with him in a couple of weeks again, and we'll just see what happens. 10 (30m 42s): I don't know. So what happens basically is I, blood blood pressure drops. My heart rate drops. I feel tingling in my extremities. Don't Google all this stuff. Cause you'll, you'll just get run on, you know, I'll get all these emails. Well, you think it's have you tried. And I appreciate all that, but it's, it's it's we got good people working on it and we'll see what happens. So anyway, you just kind of feel lightheaded. My, my heart rate drops into the thirties and then goes way high. And it's just kind of weird stuff. So I don't know what's going on. I just know that when I'm feeling it coming on, I just have to rest, hydrate and take care of myself. 10 (31m 22s): And so that's what I'm going to do. I don't know how often it'll come around, but in the meantime, I'm just going to, we've all got stuff, right? We're all dealing with something in our physical bodies. These all tents get a little tattered over a lifetime and we just need to patch them up from time to time and just wait for the new tent. That's common, this new, new body, that boy, oh boy, the older you get, the more you're looking forward. You're like bringing a Jesus. Yeah. So anyway, it's, it's common. So that's my help health update. Continue to just pray that the doctors get some clarity about things and maybe there's medication. Maybe there's a lifestyle change. 10 (32m 2s): I don't know, but there's something going on my heart. My desire is just to keep doing what I'm doing for until death do us part. I mean, that's my heart and my desire just to be here, loving people, serving Jesus, teaching the word what's going on with my mic, pull it away from it. Other. So at some point, your beard gets a little long. So you wake up and you don't just have bedhead, but you got beard ahead as well. Beard. Yeah, bed, a bed, beer. That's what it is, bed beard. So anyway, so now they're whatever I, it, so I'm gonna let my beard gear along. I saw a buddy of mine. We were at a wedding last night. 10 (32m 43s): This is all part of the message by the way. And it was like old home week. We were at a wedding with friends that we have known for decades. And I, I was thinking about it this morning. I think he's going to be like heaven. Cause you gather for a celebration and you get to see people that you haven't seen for so long and you get to love on people and just enjoy conversation getting caught up. And there was this couple there, Jack in the water Hurley. He who have been so good to me my whole life and Jack was officiating his granddaughter's wedding and we were there and I got to just love on them and just tell them how much I appreciate them and how much I just honor them for their influence in my life, their grace, just the blessing. 10 (33m 29s): And, and, and it was just really sweet. I think, I think Kevin's going to be a lot of that. We're going to have reunion where we're just able to just speak and love on each other. And it was quite a celebration which heaven will be quite a celebration. So that was last night. The week, last week we were doing my son's wedding. Curtis got married and Clark got married and it's a man and a woman Curtis in Clark. You gotta be clear about these things in this 21st century, there was Curtis married to a woman named Clark. And so we had that amazing celebration. We have the married out at our property and where we married our other, our oldest daughter 10 years ago. 10 (34m 13s): And the six months ago, these two got hits. And so it's been a wedding season, a wedding celebration, and it's just been really, really fun and good. And so before we get to the title of the message that ties into all of that, do you guys want to hear a joke it's family Sunday after also, you want to hear a joke about a piece of paper now you really don't. It's terrible. It's terrible. T E a R a bull tear. It's a terrible joke about paper. It's terrible. When you got to explain it, what did the clock do when it was hungry? 10 (34m 57s): It went back for seconds. Four clock, four seconds. Clock was hungry. Went back four seconds. Is that working? Sounds good. We titled the message today. Let the celebration begin. Let the celebration begin. We're in first Peter chapter one and it's just going to be really good. So in light of all of the celebrating that we've been doing around in our family, and we just sent off family that were here from back east, just Georgia and South Carolina, North Carolina, and my wife and I argue about this. We think our net, I think my nephew's from New Mexico. 10 (35m 38s): She thinks he's from South Carolina. Now he's in the air force and I'm right. I'm not Leslie. You agree, Stevie, where does Jake live right now? South Carolina. Hmm. He is so polite. Jake. My nephew is captain in the air force, by the way. I'm very proud of that little guy, little guy. He's a captain in the air force and he's a little guy to me, but I'm talking about his home in New Mexico and he never corrects me. He's been out of New Mexico for a year. My wife tells me so anyway, so lots of celebration and you know, we know how to celebrate people and events. 10 (36m 18s): We know how to celebrate big things that are happening in our lives and in the world. We're, we're, we're a culture that loves to celebrate. So weddings, we're eating great food. We're laughing, we're dancing, we're doing all kinds of things that allow that celebration to really take shape. And so, as we think about the word of God and what God is teaching us in first, Peter, we've got lots and lots to celebrate. We've got lots to celebrate. So we're going to be taking a look at that today. First Peter chapter one verses 19 through or verses nine through 25, it says the reward for trusting him. Who are we talking about? 10 (36m 58s): Jesus, the reward for trusting Jesus will be the salvation of your souls, salvage. I mean, you think about the other end of that. And you're, you can get pretty excited about the salvation of your souls. Verse 10, this salvation was something even the prophets, even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this. Grace gracious salvation prepared for you. So the prophets of old that wrote about this great salvation, they wrote hundreds of years ahead of time. God gives them a revelation about the salvation of God made available to the people in the earth. 10 (37m 39s): And they were, they were curious about, they wanted to know more about it. They wonder verse 11, what time or a situation the spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ's suffering and his great glory afterwards. So God, because he is good and faithful, he revealed to the prophets hundreds of years ahead of time, his plan of salvation for humanity to prepare us to prepare humanity, God speaks and he communicates, Hey, this is what's coming. The profits were intrigued and interested. Maybe even, probably even perplexed about how and when these events would unfold, the messages of salvation through Christ, the Lord reminds us. 10 (38m 28s): It reminds us that the old Testament is tied directly to the new Testament. In fact, the new is the fulfillment of the old Testament. So as you're reading the old Testament, you'll begin to see the connection. You'll be begin to see how it is tied together, how the new Testament fulfills, what God wrote in the old Testament. The old Testament is speaking about and describing the same God and plan. Some would say all the old Testament, God is different than the new Testament. God, that's not true. We just need to understand who God is in their perplexity of who he is. And they just grand this. If who we is, the old Testament is speaking about the same God, the same plan of salvation that is being discussed in the new Testament. 10 (39m 17s): In fact, there are at least 855 times in the new Testament where the writer is quoting or eluding to the old Testament, at least 855 times as many as 900 times, there's only four books in the old Testament that aren't quoted or alluded to in the new Testament. So Obadiah, how many have read Obadiah lately? Good, wonderful Nahum Zephaniah and asked her. So those are the four old Testament books that aren't quoted or alluded to in the new Testament. 10 (40m 1s): How many old Testament books are there? There's 39, 39 old Testament books. So that means 35 of the old Testament books at a 39 were quoted or alluded to in the new Testament. So the new Testament is filled with information and revelation and connecting, connecting truth. That makes the word of God old and new Testament. The 66 books of the Bible. It begin to make it very, very clear to verse 12 day. The prophets were told that their message is we're not for themselves, but, but for you. And now this good news has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the holy spirit sent from heaven. 10 (40m 45s): It's also, so it's also a wonderful that even the angels. So we talked about the prophets, intrigued, interested, perplexed about what is going on and when things go to unfold. But now the angels are being called in into the text here and I'll just read it again. They, the prophets were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this good news has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the holy spirit from heaven sent from heaven. It's also so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen. Isn't that interesting? The angels, these powerful servants of God, these powerful ministers, these ministering angels are curious. 10 (41m 32s): They're looking on their watching. I mean, this is such good news, such soup. We're talking about the salvation of God, such good news, supernatural news, profoundly important news that God's angels are eagerly watching these things happen. So some of these, these things that we sometimes are just kind of haphazard, kind of half-hearted about, ah, it's kind of old news I've been saved for so many years that angels of God are eagerly watching the profits of old Isaiah, Jeremiah, these prophets of old, they were writing about this time in this place that we're enjoying and experiencing now. 10 (42m 14s): And they were intrigued and perplexed and curious about what God was going to do. Now we get to live in that and the angels get to watch as God's plan unfolds in the universe, let the celebration begin. Amen. We've got some stuff to celebrate, man. If we, if we can't read what God is doing, reading what God has read about what God is doing in the Bible and think about what God is doing in our lives and in this crazy culture that we live in. Boy, there's something wrong. We need to ask the Lord to stir us up again. We need to renew our vigor for the Lord. 10 (42m 54s): Find a new joy in Jesus and begin to walk that out. How do we celebrate? Number one, we rejoice over the things that heaven rejoices over this isn't important. We need to rejoice over the things that heaven rejoices over. Do you remember that parable of the lost coin in Luke 15 verses eight through 10, it says this, or suppose a woman has 10 silver coins and loses one. Won't. She light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it. And then when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin in the same way. 10 (43m 42s): There is joy in the presence of God and the presence of God's angels. When one sinner repents, isn't that sweet. So when you repented the heavens rejoiced, there's a celebration when even one center sinner, repents, there's a celebration rejoicing by the angels of God, because they've been waiting, they've been watching, they've been, they've been paying attention to what's going on in the earth. And they, so they erupt with celebration. There's joy in the presence of God angels when even one sinner repents. I, this is why when we do baptisms and we are at the beach or in some body of water and people get baptized. 10 (44m 25s): When they come out, we are, we just erupt with celebration because it's an indication that a life has been changed. It's a death to the old life and resurrection of the new, it's a powerful thing. There's something within us as believers that just wants to celebrate that. Even when we watch videos of what unfolds at these baptisms, we just can't help. But celebrate. We rejoice. We rejoice over the things that heaven rejoices over. I'm going to be teaching through revelation here in a few more months. People keep bugging me about it. We're going to get there. There's a process to teaching through the new Testament and you got to do one book after the other, but I'll give you a little taste in revelation, chapter four and parts of five revelation. 10 (45m 14s): One, it's this introduction, John, the apostle he's exiled to the island of Patmos. Maybe he's feeling like maybe God's done with me, but God's never done with us. As long as we've got a pulse, my pulse is banging right now. You got to pull, spill it. Go ahead. Wow. My doctor told me to get one of those apple watches. Cause it tells me my heart rate and that sort of thing. But so I told my wife, I got to get any watch doctor's orders. Doctor's orders. He just, she puts up with me. 10 (45m 56s): Thank you, Lord. This is what revelation says in verse chapter one, verse three, God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church. So I'm going to get a blessing for reading the words of this prophecy to you. I'll take it. Also. He blesses all who listen to its message and obey. What it says for the time is near. So you get a blessing when you listen and obey and pay attention for the time is near the time of the end, the time of the second coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It's coming. So as you get past chapters, two and three, and the messages to the seven churches, you get into chapter four and we get a vision of heaven. 10 (46m 38s): So if we're going to rejoice over what heaven rejoices over, what's happening there. So John gets a vision. He gets that a picture. God is so good to give John a vision and God tells him to write it down so that we can read and understand what God is up to in the earth. This is what he wrote. Chapter four. Then I, as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, come up here and I will show you what must happen after this. And instantly I was in the spirits and I saw a throne in heaven and someone's sitting on it. 10 (47m 22s): The one sitting on the throne was as brilliant as gemstones, like a Jasper and carnelian and the, of an Emerald circled his thrown like a rainbow, Hey, Genesis to revelation. God owns the rainbow. Maybe God owns the rainbow. Let's take it back. Right? My 24, the throne surrounded him and 24 elders sat on them. They were all closed in whites and had gold crowns on their heads from the throne came flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder. And in front of the throne where seven torches with burning flames. This is the sevenfold spirit of God in front of the throne was a shiny sea of glass. 10 (48m 4s): Sparkling like crystal in the center and around the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes front and back there. The first of these living beings was like a lion. The second was like an ox. The third biker had a human face and the fourth was like an Eagle in flight. Each of these living beings had six wings and the wings were covered all over with eyes inside and out and day after day and night after night, they keep on saying, holy holy, holy is the Lord. The God, the Lord, God, the almighty, the one who always was, who is and who is still the calm. 10 (48m 50s): This is what's happening in heaven. Whenever the living beings give glory and honor, and thanks to the one sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever the 24 elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, and they lay their crowns before the throne and say, you are worthy. You are worthy, oh Lord our God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and they exist because you created what you pleased. I'm not going to read all of chapter five, but I just want to jump to a point here. 10 (49m 35s): Verse nine, chapter five. And they sang a new song. With these words, you are worthy to take the scroll. We'll unpack all of that. At a latter time, you are worthy to take the scroll and break it seals and open it for you are slaughtered. And your blood has ransomed people for God, from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have caused them to become a kingdom of priests for our God. And they will reign on the earth. Then I looked again and I heard the voices of get this thousands and millions of angels. How many is that? More than you can count thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders. 10 (50m 24s): And they sang in a mighty chorus. Can you that noise, but it's not going to hurt our ears. It's not going to be unsettling in our hearts and minds and souls. It's going to be soothing and powerful and life changing worthy is the lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor, and glory and blessings. And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, they sing blessing, blessing, and honor, and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne to the lamb forever and ever. 10 (51m 14s): And the four living beings said amen. And the 24 elders fell down and worshiped the lamb. Now, listen, this is just a warm up for the things to come when we worship on Sunday morning or singing or that time of pause this morning. Wasn't that just the sweetest thing. I thought, man, this could go on the rest of the service and we'd be okay. We, we, we would have had shirts, right? It was just a sweet Salem moment. So often we don't get those moments in our day, our week or month or a year. We just don't slow down and allow the spirit of God to minister to us. I tell you what, if you slow down, if we will slow down, let the spirit of God minister to us, we will have greater strength, greater clarity, greater capacity, greater ability to do, to do the supernatural and wonderful things that God has called us to do to live the way that God has called us to live. 10 (52m 11s): But we got to take a moment, a sale, a moment where we're just sitting before the king and we're just acknowledging his Lordship, his goodness, we're rejoicing over the things that the heavens are rejoicing. It's, it's a, it's a celebration. You can have your own personal revival. When you're doing that. You will have a revival that just doesn't just impact you, but will impact your friends and your family. And people would be like, what is going on with you? You've got joy and peace and you just got this fullness about you. That's just beautiful. 10 (52m 53s): That comes from those moments of just intimacy with the creator of heaven and earth, where we just stop and wait praise and thank applauding his goodness in our lives. We can get our minds in all kinds of the negative stuff. Don't let yourself go there. Just in the midst of the storm, say thank you, Lord Lord, for whatever you're doing for whatever you're going to teach me. Thank you. As I was talking to my friends, Jack in the water Hurley, he, we had a rough patch 20 years ago and they said, you know, almost always been a blessing to you, but there was that. 10 (53m 37s): And I knew what they were alluding to. I said, you know what? It was like a dip in the road. It's not important, but we can make those dips in the road. They get, we can allow them to derail us for all the days of our lives. Instead by God's grace, we can let it go be free in Jesus name from all of that baggage, all of the stuff that we're holding on to you just let it go. And boy, so we hugged and loved on each other for like dang 20 years. It's been just a little bit uncertain how we feel about each other. 10 (54m 18s): But when I got a chance to grab a hold of them and love on them and just tell them how good and what a blessing they've been to me, Lawanna said, man, that really, that really touches my heart. And I'm like me too. And God wants to do wonderful things within our lives, within the body of Christ things that will unite us, bring us back together. But we got to let God do what God wants to do. We can say all kinds of stuff, but we can say, but God, but God is capable. He's gracious to give me the strength to do so that we can celebrate what God is doing. 10 (54m 59s): It's hard to celebrate what God is doing. If we're bound up with all kinds of unforgiveness and resentment or sin or anything like that, it's hard to celebrate because we're distracted and hindered and double-minded. And do you want other stuff that just kind of mess with us the celebration? You're not always celebrate rejoiced over the things that haven't rejoices over. If you're having a hard time doing that, I get in the word and ask the Lord. I need help rejoicing over the things that you rejoice over that heaven, rejoice over. And then number two, be ready to spring into action for God. And this, these things go hand in hand. When you reach choice over the things that God rejoices over and they haven't rejoices over, you're ready. 10 (55m 40s): It's like, you're primed you. You want to do what God has called you to do. And you're just, you just got this hunger and this thirst and this desire to please the Lord and to honor the Lord. And so they go hand in hand. You really can't have one without the other. You say I'm kind of ready, but I'm not sure it was a call to holy living in verses that follow in the verses that follow you follow verse 13 says to prepare your minds for action. James said, faith without works is dead. Faith without works is dead. So we got faith. What does God want us to do with that? Get busy springing in two action. So prepare your minds for action and exercise. 10 (56m 21s): Self-control put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you. When Jesus Christ is revealed to the world, the expositors Bible commentary says this about preparing your mind for action. This is what it says. It presents the figure of a man gathering the folds of his long garments and tucking it into his belt so that he can run, move freely and quickly doing what God has called them to do. We're in we're encumbered by too many things. So when God tells us to spring adaption, we got to get unencumbered. We got to grab up our garments and tucked him in our belt and be ready to go. 10 (57m 2s): What's encumbering you. What's keeping you from springing into action. There's probably things that are encumbering you and keeping you from springing into action. God wants to set you free from that mid part of that is just letting you know, kind of bringing awareness to your life. This thing is hindering you, you can't spring into action. As long as this thing is attached to your life, got to get rid of it. Remember in first Kings 1846, then the Lord gave special strength to Elijah. We've read this right? The Lord gave, we need to hear that the Lord gave special strength to Elijah. So when God calls us to spring into action, it is not in our own ability and strength. 10 (57m 44s): God gives us special strength. He talked to his cloak, get the same picture, right? He tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of a Habs chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel. So he grabs his clothes and tucks them in and he runs supernaturally. So, and this is part of God's plan in his desire. We see the same thing in Jeremiah, one 17, where it says the Lord told Jeremiah, get up, get up, prepare for action. We serve the same God in the new Testament we did in the old Testament. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. He's a turtle. This his it's his message. 10 (58m 24s): Get saved. Get sanctified, get filled with God and go get up and prepare for action. Go out and tell them everything I tell you to say, do not be afraid of them, or I will make you look foolish. I loved the next few verses. Love the next few verses. I love that verse. I love all the verses first 18 foresee today. I have made you strong, like a fortified city that cannot be captured. So we, we look at ourselves, take a personal inventory and you say, I can't spring into action. And he's got nothing to offer. Good. Got nothing to offer. 10 (59m 5s): You're right. Yeah, nothing offered, but God, but God, he's got plenty to do. Plenty to offer plenty to offer. But God, part of the backstory with Jacqueline Lawana is just the transition out of my old church into this church. And they had watched me grow up, you know, since I'm, you know, just 14 years old watching me grow up. Yeah. A lot of you have watched me grow up, right. Coleen was working at our wedding and putting things together. We went, we honeymooned at your cabin up in Tahoe. 10 (59m 45s): Right. Remember that? Yeah. And so when you see somebody grow up, you just, you're not sure about what God wants to do with their lives, right? And so there were some of that. And so we talked last time and they said, look, what got us down right? In their lives, in our lives. It was a TIFF difficult season. But what the enemy intended for evil God intended for good. So don't let your many, many flaws hold you back because we all have many, many flaws. But, but God for see today I have made you strong, like a fortified city that cannot be captured like an iron pillar or a bronze wall. 10 (1h 0m 30s): You will stand against the whole land. The Kings officials, priests, and people of Judah. They will fight you, but they will fail. Not because you're good, but because God is good now because you're strong in your own strength. But because God is strong on your behalf, wait, God is calling us to spring into action. They will fight you, but they will fail for, I am with you and I will take care of you. Okay? Let's get that internalized a little bit. 10 (1h 1m 11s): I'm with you. And I will take care of you. God says spring into action. Spring high, the Lord I've spoken. Let the celebration begin. How do we celebrate? We need to rejoice over the things that heaven rejoices over and then be ready to spring into action for God. And then number three, we need to live. Like we belong to God. We are according to John, three, three, born again, born again, creates new creation, a new creature in Christ Jesus. 10 (1h 1m 52s): So we need to begin to live as born again. Spirit filled believers in the Lord, Jesus Christ in watch. Watch what he will do. We need to live. Like we belong to God. What does that look like? Well, I I'm so grateful for the word because it always helps us with information that we need in revelation. So you must live verse 14 as God's obedient children, that don't S don't back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better than like in your BC days. You didn't know any better. 10 (1h 2m 32s): And so you lived like a child of the devil, but now, now who do you belong to? You? You belong to the king, that king of all Kings. I'm a father, the God of creation. That's who you belong to. So now verse 15. Now you must be holy and everything. You do everything you do. How do you do anything that God asked you to do to deal with the spirit of God powered by the word of God? The clarity that comes from the word and the spirit and the strength that comes from, from what God provides for us, allows us. 10 (1h 3m 16s): I'm going to reading and Leviticus Leviticus in there over and over again. God is telling the people of Israel. You must be holy because I, the Lord, your God am holy, holy above reproach. We will never be perfect in our own ability, but our goal, Lord, I want to, in every word thought, indeed, I want to live above reproach. So we laid hands on Joe. A few weeks ago. I challenged him, Joe, cause we, we gave him, we, we licensed and we recognized his role as a leader in the community and as a leader in the church. And we said, man, you have to by God's grace live differently, but that's not just true for Joe. 10 (1h 4m 2s): And for guys like me, it's true for every one of us, the people of God got us said, be holy because the Lord, your God is holy. Be holy in everything. Justice. God who chose you as holy for this scripture say, you must be holy because I am holy. So the writer is for smoke-free speaking about what is written in Leviticus and other parts of the old Testament. So an example of a writer in the new Testament, Peter referencing quoting, alluding to truth. In the old Testament, they go hand in hand. They're incomplete on their own. 10 (1h 4m 44s): You must be holy because I am holy. And remember that heavenly father, to whom you pray, he has no favorites. He will judge or rewards you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent. Fear of him during your time here as the temporary citizens, second Corinthians five 10 says for, we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. This is not a judgment on this, about salvation. 10 (1h 5m 27s): This is a judgment of your lives as believers and followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Your life will be judged and you will receive rewards or not based on the way you live. Your life. Faith without works is dead. I don't think you can have faith without works, because if you've got faith without works, it means that your faith is dead probably as well. Because out of the abundance of what God is doing in your life, you must step up. You must live differently. You must point people to Jesus. It's not optional. It's your permanent calling and vocation to point people to Jesus. 10 (1h 6m 13s): Couple Sundays ago, I was before when I had to go to the hospital, did I already say this? I don't think I did, but I had my, I love Jesus talks on Mike and Linda Herbert gave me those socks and I told them I was wearing them. And we were in a prayer meeting. And before the service start and Mike was in there and I showed him, I love Jesus socks. I said, Mike, I don't like to wear these on Sunday morning because we, I, you don't need to see my, I love Jesus' socks. I want to wear my, I love Jesus socks in the marketplace so that people, but for whatever reason, I put on my, I love Jesus socks for Sunday morning. So I get to the hospital and what do I have on? They take my shoes off. And I got my red and black. I love Jesus socks sticking out of my pant legs. 10 (1h 6m 55s): And so I'm thinking, this is why 14 (1h 6m 59s): I've got my, I love 10 (1h 6m 60s): Jesus socks on because somebody needs to know about Jesus. And so, so many people commented about my, I love Jesus socks. They're like, 14 (1h 7m 9s): Like we had a room full of 10 (1h 7m 10s): Doctors and they all come that day. Nice socks. 14 (1h 7m 12s): We liked your socks. 10 (1h 7m 18s): I got to share with them how much I love Jesus. This is what we're here to 14 (1h 7m 24s): Do. This is why I don't wear my, I love Jesus 10 (1h 7m 26s): Oxen church because I don't. I know, you know, I love Jesus. And with people at the coffee shop to know the people at Marion, ER, to know, I love Jesus. He's my king. He's my savior. He's my Redeemer. He's the one that has radically wrecked me and changed my life forever and ever. Amen. Verse 18 for you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ. 10 (1h 8m 7s): The sinless spotless lamb of God, did you catch it? It's not paid with mere gold and silver, which lose their value. He knows we're in like a little bit of a dip, a little bit of a recession, maybe a big recession coming. You're a gold and silver. They're going to lose their value. Anything that you're holding on to you in this life is losing value. By the moment don't make that stuff. Your God, you will be very sad that you did not do not make the stuff that you got. Your God made Jesus, your God. He never loses value. I've been 53 years of, you know, market swings and all kinds of things in my life. 10 (1h 8m 53s): And Jesus is the same yesterday, today. And for ever, he was the precious blood of Christ. The sinless spotless lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom. My ransom long before the world began began. But now in these last days, he has been revealed for your sake. God has a plan for your life. Do you believe that? Do you believe that If you sins tells us in chapter one verses four through eight, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 10 (1h 9m 41s): God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family. By bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do. And it gave him great pleasure. So Jesus didn't come reluctantly. He didn't give his life reluctantly. He said for the joy set before me, I will endure the cross for the joy set before me. I will endure the cross. This is what he wanted to do. And it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace. He has poured out on us who belong to his dear son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his son and forgave our sins. 10 (1h 10m 21s): He has showered us, his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and under standing, wrapping up first, Peter, 1 21 through Christ. You have come to trust in God and you place your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. You were, you were cleansed from your sins when you obey the true. So now you must show sincere love to each other. As brothers and sisters love each other deeply with all your hearts. Part of loving people deeply is just giving them Jesus, given them the truth of the gospel. 10 (1h 11m 2s): Because without Jesus, they, they die and they suffer judgment. They go to hell. They go to hell the w it's not popular to talk about hell, but that's, it's not popular. The enemy doesn't want to talk about hell, but that's the result. We get a choice in Christ while we welcome his grace. So we've got to live. Like we belong to God. I think we're confused and perplexed. Sometimes we like to live like we're living. Like we belong to the world and the world system. We don't belong to the world, to the world system. We belong to God. And so we need to let the word of God and the spirit of God frame our lives and our decisions and point us in the right direction. 10 (1h 11m 49s): The world won't get you that. So you live like you belong to God. This is what we've read. So far. Show sincere love to each other. This is what it means to live. Like you belong to God. Show sincere, love to each other. As brothers and sisters love each other deeply with all your heart. You can't do this stuff in your own strength and your own strength that you want to slap your neighbor. Right? I am my own strength. I want to slap my neighbor. Sometimes I turn your music down, right? I guess I'm alone. 10 (1h 12m 31s): Live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back. This is what we've read so far. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You must be holy in everything you do just as God who chose you is holy. Why? Why live like this verse 23 for you've been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal living word of God is the scripture. Say people are like grass. They're beauty is like a flower in the field, the grass Withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord remains forever. 10 (1h 13m 19s): And that word is the good news that was preached to you. So let the celebration begin. Seriously. We need to rejoice in the things that haven't rejoices over. We need to be ready to spring into action and live like people who belong to God with that, I would like to invite the worship team up and we're going to sing and we're going to celebrate and we're going to give God every part of us in Jesus name. So Lord, we thank you. As we stand up, go ahead and stand up. Holy holy holy is the Lord Donald mighty. 10 (1h 13m 58s): Holy holy, holy Lord. We love you. We bless you. We praise you. We thank you Lord for who you are and for what you're going to do. God, thank you for your word. Thank you. That it wrecks us in the best possible way. We love you. Let's worship now in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 16 (1h 16m 52s): Thank you, father. That we can cry. Holy, holy holy. Thank you for your holiness. Thank you for your presence. You never leave us. You do not forsake us. So this morning we give you our worship. We give you our praise, have your way in our lives. Jesus name. Amen.

1 (2s): Good morning. Welcome to harvest. Why don't we all stand together? Let's worship, Lord. We hear this morning with two or more gathered. Dedicated this time. 2 (8m 21s): he? he . He was 3 (8m 55s): Where's your heart to pray. 5 (10m 53s): Lord, help us remember to being passionate and especially passionate to our families. 4 (11m 7s): Or thank you for all these loving waivers or your 6 (18m 7s): Lord, thank you. That we rest in that promise that you will not feel 7 (18m 27s): Well, good morning. And welcome back to harvest church. You may be wondering two things real quick. Why is Curtis already back in why's he more handsome than he was before? Well, it's because I'm not Curtis. I am I'm burger Wade, and this is Jeremy. He is our student ministries leader 6 (18m 49s): And a few other things, 7 (18m 51s): A few other things, 6 (18m 53s): But yeah. Well, welcome here. So this is family Sunday and we just, yeah, we value that our church is multi-generational. We, I love looking out and seeing the young young kids, as well as older folks and just everyone in between it it's we really value that our church has this kind of broad spectrum. So family Sunday, we celebrate petty. The fourth, Sunday we have each month, we celebrate that by donuts. We've got donuts out there, but we also asked if the kids remain in service first grade enough. So if, if you're, if you're a little kid, a little loud, it's okay. I have great memories of bothering their parents in church as well, being a nuisance. But you know, those are fond memories that I hold on to, of getting to worship with my parents and seeing them worship. 6 (19m 38s): So it's yeah, it's, it's a great thing. So we celebrate that today for, with family Sunday and there is donuts out there as well as coffee, not for kids. It's probably shouldn't have the cost. You're gonna have donuts, right? 7 (19m 50s): Yeah. They can have the donuts. So we also have life groups starting up. So we've got our men's women's home groups, couples, and we also have a college group just in case you want to see more of me and you're in college, does anybody? So 6 (20m 10s): I do 7 (20m 11s): Thank you. But we've got all that information on our wonderful info center. You can pick up any flyers, you can sign up for life groups back there. It's just a really great resource to have. 6 (20m 21s): Yeah. And then lastly, as far as announcements go, we, we encourage the men in our church to every month go to . That's our men's monthly gathering at a thousand Hills ranch this year, this month, September, the month of September is gonna be a little different. It's actually MW six. And that is because the men are supposed to bring their wives. And it's also, it's a, it's a fundraising events for M six as well as 17 strong. So that's going to be September 12th out at the ranch and that's from six to seven 30 and it's a fundraiser. So it's $150 a couple, but it's a great time of worship testimony and just great delicious food. I mean, if, if the food for the men is good, I'm just, I think it's going to be the next level. 6 (21m 5s): So there's that. And finally, this is, we want to take this day, we're partnering with mothers in prayer and we, this is bless our school Sunday. So we want to emphasize that there's this amazing international ministry that, that, that happens at our church as well. It's called mothers in prayer and that's partnering women together, mothers who pray over their kids, pray over the schools. There's lots of different ways to do that. So Shannon Kessler has been leading that for almost 14 years now. And she's back at the info center would love to give you more details on mothers and prayer, but also we just want to bless our school. So what I want to do now, before we go into our meet and greet time is if you are a school teacher, if you are work at school, you're part of the admin staff, any anything having to do, and also students and graduates once you they'll stand up. 6 (21m 55s): So we can pray for you this morning. Can you do that now? And that is homeschool parents as well. So please stand up also students. Yeah. Let me some students breakers already standing. Yeah. So let me pray. Let me pray over you right now. Heavenly father, we thank you Lord, for what these, what does, what does, what the, the people that are standing in Lord this morning signifying that they're, they're part of the education system of educating the next generation. Lord God, whether they're part of the educators or being educated themselves. So are we, we know that the schools can be difficult Lord. 6 (22m 37s): And so we just pray your blessing over the teachers as they lean on you, as they lead and guide these children and just their light into, into those classrooms, Lord and pray for the homeschool parents as well, or is it difficult? Job, Lord. And so we just blessed those moms and dads who are, who partaken in that Lord. And we thank you for the students that are being missionaries out in your schools, whether it's on the college campuses or in the high schools or elementary schools, Lord, we just pray that they would be a light to their students and a light to the teachers that are there. Lord. So we thank you, Lord. We play you just your, your blessing over this schools and our school district. Lord, God bless them in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. 6 (23m 18s): All right. So why don't you take us a minute to meet and greet somebody around you? It's a good time to kind of find some empty chairs and squeeze in. God bless you guys. 9 (25m 9s): My soul is cold gray. saw the glory as it broke God of mercy in light. 9 (25m 56s): Brilliant sales. You globe awakens my soul. 10 (26m 2s): Hey, good morning. All right. Good morning. Welcome. Am I on? I shouldn't be on think I'm on A real quick, real quick. How many understand the purpose of meet and greet? How many understand the purpose of meet and greet? All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna bust some of y'all. So I'm walking around and I'm noticing some of you are glued to your chairs. You're like, I'm not getting up. 10 (26m 43s): I'm not crossing the aisle. I'm not meeting nobody today and that's not what meet and greets all about. So we're doing it again. It's a do over. So the rule you got to peel the glue off your backside, stand up and go meet somebody that you have never ever met before. I mean, you got to get out of your eye or your row, one side of the building to the other go That is a meet and greet right there. 10 (28m 34s): The obvious answer to this question is how many who met somebody that they've never ever met before? Mary nice. There we go. That's the meet and greet. There we go. So that's the standard by which all future meet and greets will be judged. So welcome. Welcome. Welcome. It's good to be back. Appreciate all the love and just the support, the prayers a couple of weeks ago, during first service I preached during second service, I went to the ER and anyway, just stuff was going on. So I'll give you kind of an update and it's really all kind of dumb and mysterious. 10 (29m 16s): Like, you know, nobody's got real good answers, which is always frustrating. I saw Levi appear with a bro or Jack with a broken arm. And you're like, you can explain that you've got a broken arm, right? Like I got a cast. That's obvious that what's going on. I, these things that happened to me are just weird, strange and UN describable. So, so after like, I don't know, we spent the night in the hospital and next morning, like six doctors come in and just start talking to me about stuff. And, and finally a guy said, we think there's something going on with your vagus nerve and vagus nerve, like controls all of your vital organs and look it up. 10 (30m 1s): It's interesting. I had never, never heard of a vagus nerve until they told me mines ain't working. So then I checked it out and I need to go to Vegas. Yeah. That's not the first time I've heard that joke. Yeah. I hear that all the time. So then I go to my general doctor, doctor what's his name's Fellini. Thank you very much that my doctor for 20 years, probably, I don't know. Anyway, Dr. Sweeney said, Hey, I'm not sure it's your vagus nerve. So I'm thinking, I'm thinking, thanks doc. I had an answer and now I have no answer. So anyway, Dr. Sweeney is going to be doing some more work. I'm going to be meeting with him in a couple of weeks again, and we'll just see what happens. 10 (30m 42s): I don't know. So what happens basically is I, blood blood pressure drops. My heart rate drops. I feel tingling in my extremities. Don't Google all this stuff. Cause you'll, you'll just get run on, you know, I'll get all these emails. Well, you think it's have you tried. And I appreciate all that, but it's, it's it's we got good people working on it and we'll see what happens. So anyway, you just kind of feel lightheaded. My, my heart rate drops into the thirties and then goes way high. And it's just kind of weird stuff. So I don't know what's going on. I just know that when I'm feeling it coming on, I just have to rest, hydrate and take care of myself. 10 (31m 22s): And so that's what I'm going to do. I don't know how often it'll come around, but in the meantime, I'm just going to, we've all got stuff, right? We're all dealing with something in our physical bodies. These all tents get a little tattered over a lifetime and we just need to patch them up from time to time and just wait for the new tent. That's common, this new, new body, that boy, oh boy, the older you get, the more you're looking forward. You're like bringing a Jesus. Yeah. So anyway, it's, it's common. So that's my help health update. Continue to just pray that the doctors get some clarity about things and maybe there's medication. Maybe there's a lifestyle change. 10 (32m 2s): I don't know, but there's something going on my heart. My desire is just to keep doing what I'm doing for until death do us part. I mean, that's my heart and my desire just to be here, loving people, serving Jesus, teaching the word what's going on with my mic, pull it away from it. Other. So at some point, your beard gets a little long. So you wake up and you don't just have bedhead, but you got beard ahead as well. Beard. Yeah, bed, a bed, beer. That's what it is, bed beard. So anyway, so now they're whatever I, it, so I'm gonna let my beard gear along. I saw a buddy of mine. We were at a wedding last night. 10 (32m 43s): This is all part of the message by the way. And it was like old home week. We were at a wedding with friends that we have known for decades. And I, I was thinking about it this morning. I think he's going to be like heaven. Cause you gather for a celebration and you get to see people that you haven't seen for so long and you get to love on people and just enjoy conversation getting caught up. And there was this couple there, Jack in the water Hurley. He who have been so good to me my whole life and Jack was officiating his granddaughter's wedding and we were there and I got to just love on them and just tell them how much I appreciate them and how much I just honor them for their influence in my life, their grace, just the blessing. 10 (33m 29s): And, and, and it was just really sweet. I think, I think Kevin's going to be a lot of that. We're going to have reunion where we're just able to just speak and love on each other. And it was quite a celebration which heaven will be quite a celebration. So that was last night. The week, last week we were doing my son's wedding. Curtis got married and Clark got married and it's a man and a woman Curtis in Clark. You gotta be clear about these things in this 21st century, there was Curtis married to a woman named Clark. And so we had that amazing celebration. We have the married out at our property and where we married our other, our oldest daughter 10 years ago. 10 (34m 13s): And the six months ago, these two got hits. And so it's been a wedding season, a wedding celebration, and it's just been really, really fun and good. And so before we get to the title of the message that ties into all of that, do you guys want to hear a joke it's family Sunday after also, you want to hear a joke about a piece of paper now you really don't. It's terrible. It's terrible. T E a R a bull tear. It's a terrible joke about paper. It's terrible. When you got to explain it, what did the clock do when it was hungry? 10 (34m 57s): It went back for seconds. Four clock, four seconds. Clock was hungry. Went back four seconds. Is that working? Sounds good. We titled the message today. Let the celebration begin. Let the celebration begin. We're in first Peter chapter one and it's just going to be really good. So in light of all of the celebrating that we've been doing around in our family, and we just sent off family that were here from back east, just Georgia and South Carolina, North Carolina, and my wife and I argue about this. We think our net, I think my nephew's from New Mexico. 10 (35m 38s): She thinks he's from South Carolina. Now he's in the air force and I'm right. I'm not Leslie. You agree, Stevie, where does Jake live right now? South Carolina. Hmm. He is so polite. Jake. My nephew is captain in the air force, by the way. I'm very proud of that little guy, little guy. He's a captain in the air force and he's a little guy to me, but I'm talking about his home in New Mexico and he never corrects me. He's been out of New Mexico for a year. My wife tells me so anyway, so lots of celebration and you know, we know how to celebrate people and events. 10 (36m 18s): We know how to celebrate big things that are happening in our lives and in the world. We're, we're, we're a culture that loves to celebrate. So weddings, we're eating great food. We're laughing, we're dancing, we're doing all kinds of things that allow that celebration to really take shape. And so, as we think about the word of God and what God is teaching us in first, Peter, we've got lots and lots to celebrate. We've got lots to celebrate. So we're going to be taking a look at that today. First Peter chapter one verses 19 through or verses nine through 25, it says the reward for trusting him. Who are we talking about? 10 (36m 58s): Jesus, the reward for trusting Jesus will be the salvation of your souls, salvage. I mean, you think about the other end of that. And you're, you can get pretty excited about the salvation of your souls. Verse 10, this salvation was something even the prophets, even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this. Grace gracious salvation prepared for you. So the prophets of old that wrote about this great salvation, they wrote hundreds of years ahead of time. God gives them a revelation about the salvation of God made available to the people in the earth. 10 (37m 39s): And they were, they were curious about, they wanted to know more about it. They wonder verse 11, what time or a situation the spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ's suffering and his great glory afterwards. So God, because he is good and faithful, he revealed to the prophets hundreds of years ahead of time, his plan of salvation for humanity to prepare us to prepare humanity, God speaks and he communicates, Hey, this is what's coming. The profits were intrigued and interested. Maybe even, probably even perplexed about how and when these events would unfold, the messages of salvation through Christ, the Lord reminds us. 10 (38m 28s): It reminds us that the old Testament is tied directly to the new Testament. In fact, the new is the fulfillment of the old Testament. So as you're reading the old Testament, you'll begin to see the connection. You'll be begin to see how it is tied together, how the new Testament fulfills, what God wrote in the old Testament. The old Testament is speaking about and describing the same God and plan. Some would say all the old Testament, God is different than the new Testament. God, that's not true. We just need to understand who God is in their perplexity of who he is. And they just grand this. If who we is, the old Testament is speaking about the same God, the same plan of salvation that is being discussed in the new Testament. 10 (39m 17s): In fact, there are at least 855 times in the new Testament where the writer is quoting or eluding to the old Testament, at least 855 times as many as 900 times, there's only four books in the old Testament that aren't quoted or alluded to in the new Testament. So Obadiah, how many have read Obadiah lately? Good, wonderful Nahum Zephaniah and asked her. So those are the four old Testament books that aren't quoted or alluded to in the new Testament. 10 (40m 1s): How many old Testament books are there? There's 39, 39 old Testament books. So that means 35 of the old Testament books at a 39 were quoted or alluded to in the new Testament. So the new Testament is filled with information and revelation and connecting, connecting truth. That makes the word of God old and new Testament. The 66 books of the Bible. It begin to make it very, very clear to verse 12 day. The prophets were told that their message is we're not for themselves, but, but for you. And now this good news has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the holy spirit sent from heaven. 10 (40m 45s): It's also, so it's also a wonderful that even the angels. So we talked about the prophets, intrigued, interested, perplexed about what is going on and when things go to unfold. But now the angels are being called in into the text here and I'll just read it again. They, the prophets were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this good news has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the holy spirit from heaven sent from heaven. It's also so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen. Isn't that interesting? The angels, these powerful servants of God, these powerful ministers, these ministering angels are curious. 10 (41m 32s): They're looking on their watching. I mean, this is such good news, such soup. We're talking about the salvation of God, such good news, supernatural news, profoundly important news that God's angels are eagerly watching these things happen. So some of these, these things that we sometimes are just kind of haphazard, kind of half-hearted about, ah, it's kind of old news I've been saved for so many years that angels of God are eagerly watching the profits of old Isaiah, Jeremiah, these prophets of old, they were writing about this time in this place that we're enjoying and experiencing now. 10 (42m 14s): And they were intrigued and perplexed and curious about what God was going to do. Now we get to live in that and the angels get to watch as God's plan unfolds in the universe, let the celebration begin. Amen. We've got some stuff to celebrate, man. If we, if we can't read what God is doing, reading what God has read about what God is doing in the Bible and think about what God is doing in our lives and in this crazy culture that we live in. Boy, there's something wrong. We need to ask the Lord to stir us up again. We need to renew our vigor for the Lord. 10 (42m 54s): Find a new joy in Jesus and begin to walk that out. How do we celebrate? Number one, we rejoice over the things that heaven rejoices over this isn't important. We need to rejoice over the things that heaven rejoices over. Do you remember that parable of the lost coin in Luke 15 verses eight through 10, it says this, or suppose a woman has 10 silver coins and loses one. Won't. She light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it. And then when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin in the same way. 10 (43m 42s): There is joy in the presence of God and the presence of God's angels. When one sinner repents, isn't that sweet. So when you repented the heavens rejoiced, there's a celebration when even one center sinner, repents, there's a celebration rejoicing by the angels of God, because they've been waiting, they've been watching, they've been, they've been paying attention to what's going on in the earth. And they, so they erupt with celebration. There's joy in the presence of God angels when even one sinner repents. I, this is why when we do baptisms and we are at the beach or in some body of water and people get baptized. 10 (44m 25s): When they come out, we are, we just erupt with celebration because it's an indication that a life has been changed. It's a death to the old life and resurrection of the new, it's a powerful thing. There's something within us as believers that just wants to celebrate that. Even when we watch videos of what unfolds at these baptisms, we just can't help. But celebrate. We rejoice. We rejoice over the things that heaven rejoices over. I'm going to be teaching through revelation here in a few more months. People keep bugging me about it. We're going to get there. There's a process to teaching through the new Testament and you got to do one book after the other, but I'll give you a little taste in revelation, chapter four and parts of five revelation. 10 (45m 14s): One, it's this introduction, John, the apostle he's exiled to the island of Patmos. Maybe he's feeling like maybe God's done with me, but God's never done with us. As long as we've got a pulse, my pulse is banging right now. You got to pull, spill it. Go ahead. Wow. My doctor told me to get one of those apple watches. Cause it tells me my heart rate and that sort of thing. But so I told my wife, I got to get any watch doctor's orders. Doctor's orders. He just, she puts up with me. 10 (45m 56s): Thank you, Lord. This is what revelation says in verse chapter one, verse three, God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church. So I'm going to get a blessing for reading the words of this prophecy to you. I'll take it. Also. He blesses all who listen to its message and obey. What it says for the time is near. So you get a blessing when you listen and obey and pay attention for the time is near the time of the end, the time of the second coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It's coming. So as you get past chapters, two and three, and the messages to the seven churches, you get into chapter four and we get a vision of heaven. 10 (46m 38s): So if we're going to rejoice over what heaven rejoices over, what's happening there. So John gets a vision. He gets that a picture. God is so good to give John a vision and God tells him to write it down so that we can read and understand what God is up to in the earth. This is what he wrote. Chapter four. Then I, as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, come up here and I will show you what must happen after this. And instantly I was in the spirits and I saw a throne in heaven and someone's sitting on it. 10 (47m 22s): The one sitting on the throne was as brilliant as gemstones, like a Jasper and carnelian and the, of an Emerald circled his thrown like a rainbow, Hey, Genesis to revelation. God owns the rainbow. Maybe God owns the rainbow. Let's take it back. Right? My 24, the throne surrounded him and 24 elders sat on them. They were all closed in whites and had gold crowns on their heads from the throne came flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder. And in front of the throne where seven torches with burning flames. This is the sevenfold spirit of God in front of the throne was a shiny sea of glass. 10 (48m 4s): Sparkling like crystal in the center and around the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes front and back there. The first of these living beings was like a lion. The second was like an ox. The third biker had a human face and the fourth was like an Eagle in flight. Each of these living beings had six wings and the wings were covered all over with eyes inside and out and day after day and night after night, they keep on saying, holy holy, holy is the Lord. The God, the Lord, God, the almighty, the one who always was, who is and who is still the calm. 10 (48m 50s): This is what's happening in heaven. Whenever the living beings give glory and honor, and thanks to the one sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever the 24 elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, and they lay their crowns before the throne and say, you are worthy. You are worthy, oh Lord our God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and they exist because you created what you pleased. I'm not going to read all of chapter five, but I just want to jump to a point here. 10 (49m 35s): Verse nine, chapter five. And they sang a new song. With these words, you are worthy to take the scroll. We'll unpack all of that. At a latter time, you are worthy to take the scroll and break it seals and open it for you are slaughtered. And your blood has ransomed people for God, from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have caused them to become a kingdom of priests for our God. And they will reign on the earth. Then I looked again and I heard the voices of get this thousands and millions of angels. How many is that? More than you can count thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders. 10 (50m 24s): And they sang in a mighty chorus. Can you that noise, but it's not going to hurt our ears. It's not going to be unsettling in our hearts and minds and souls. It's going to be soothing and powerful and life changing worthy is the lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor, and glory and blessings. And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, they sing blessing, blessing, and honor, and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne to the lamb forever and ever. 10 (51m 14s): And the four living beings said amen. And the 24 elders fell down and worshiped the lamb. Now, listen, this is just a warm up for the things to come when we worship on Sunday morning or singing or that time of pause this morning. Wasn't that just the sweetest thing. I thought, man, this could go on the rest of the service and we'd be okay. We, we, we would have had shirts, right? It was just a sweet Salem moment. So often we don't get those moments in our day, our week or month or a year. We just don't slow down and allow the spirit of God to minister to us. I tell you what, if you slow down, if we will slow down, let the spirit of God minister to us, we will have greater strength, greater clarity, greater capacity, greater ability to do, to do the supernatural and wonderful things that God has called us to do to live the way that God has called us to live. 10 (52m 11s): But we got to take a moment, a sale, a moment where we're just sitting before the king and we're just acknowledging his Lordship, his goodness, we're rejoicing over the things that the heavens are rejoicing. It's, it's a, it's a celebration. You can have your own personal revival. When you're doing that. You will have a revival that just doesn't just impact you, but will impact your friends and your family. And people would be like, what is going on with you? You've got joy and peace and you just got this fullness about you. That's just beautiful. 10 (52m 53s): That comes from those moments of just intimacy with the creator of heaven and earth, where we just stop and wait praise and thank applauding his goodness in our lives. We can get our minds in all kinds of the negative stuff. Don't let yourself go there. Just in the midst of the storm, say thank you, Lord Lord, for whatever you're doing for whatever you're going to teach me. Thank you. As I was talking to my friends, Jack in the water Hurley, he, we had a rough patch 20 years ago and they said, you know, almost always been a blessing to you, but there was that. 10 (53m 37s): And I knew what they were alluding to. I said, you know what? It was like a dip in the road. It's not important, but we can make those dips in the road. They get, we can allow them to derail us for all the days of our lives. Instead by God's grace, we can let it go be free in Jesus name from all of that baggage, all of the stuff that we're holding on to you just let it go. And boy, so we hugged and loved on each other for like dang 20 years. It's been just a little bit uncertain how we feel about each other. 10 (54m 18s): But when I got a chance to grab a hold of them and love on them and just tell them how good and what a blessing they've been to me, Lawanna said, man, that really, that really touches my heart. And I'm like me too. And God wants to do wonderful things within our lives, within the body of Christ things that will unite us, bring us back together. But we got to let God do what God wants to do. We can say all kinds of stuff, but we can say, but God, but God is capable. He's gracious to give me the strength to do so that we can celebrate what God is doing. 10 (54m 59s): It's hard to celebrate what God is doing. If we're bound up with all kinds of unforgiveness and resentment or sin or anything like that, it's hard to celebrate because we're distracted and hindered and double-minded. And do you want other stuff that just kind of mess with us the celebration? You're not always celebrate rejoiced over the things that haven't rejoices over. If you're having a hard time doing that, I get in the word and ask the Lord. I need help rejoicing over the things that you rejoice over that heaven, rejoice over. And then number two, be ready to spring into action for God. And this, these things go hand in hand. When you reach choice over the things that God rejoices over and they haven't rejoices over, you're ready. 10 (55m 40s): It's like, you're primed you. You want to do what God has called you to do. And you're just, you just got this hunger and this thirst and this desire to please the Lord and to honor the Lord. And so they go hand in hand. You really can't have one without the other. You say I'm kind of ready, but I'm not sure it was a call to holy living in verses that follow in the verses that follow you follow verse 13 says to prepare your minds for action. James said, faith without works is dead. Faith without works is dead. So we got faith. What does God want us to do with that? Get busy springing in two action. So prepare your minds for action and exercise. 10 (56m 21s): Self-control put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you. When Jesus Christ is revealed to the world, the expositors Bible commentary says this about preparing your mind for action. This is what it says. It presents the figure of a man gathering the folds of his long garments and tucking it into his belt so that he can run, move freely and quickly doing what God has called them to do. We're in we're encumbered by too many things. So when God tells us to spring adaption, we got to get unencumbered. We got to grab up our garments and tucked him in our belt and be ready to go. 10 (57m 2s): What's encumbering you. What's keeping you from springing into action. There's probably things that are encumbering you and keeping you from springing into action. God wants to set you free from that mid part of that is just letting you know, kind of bringing awareness to your life. This thing is hindering you, you can't spring into action. As long as this thing is attached to your life, got to get rid of it. Remember in first Kings 1846, then the Lord gave special strength to Elijah. We've read this right? The Lord gave, we need to hear that the Lord gave special strength to Elijah. So when God calls us to spring into action, it is not in our own ability and strength. 10 (57m 44s): God gives us special strength. He talked to his cloak, get the same picture, right? He tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of a Habs chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel. So he grabs his clothes and tucks them in and he runs supernaturally. So, and this is part of God's plan in his desire. We see the same thing in Jeremiah, one 17, where it says the Lord told Jeremiah, get up, get up, prepare for action. We serve the same God in the new Testament we did in the old Testament. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. He's a turtle. This his it's his message. 10 (58m 24s): Get saved. Get sanctified, get filled with God and go get up and prepare for action. Go out and tell them everything I tell you to say, do not be afraid of them, or I will make you look foolish. I loved the next few verses. Love the next few verses. I love that verse. I love all the verses first 18 foresee today. I have made you strong, like a fortified city that cannot be captured. So we, we look at ourselves, take a personal inventory and you say, I can't spring into action. And he's got nothing to offer. Good. Got nothing to offer. 10 (59m 5s): You're right. Yeah, nothing offered, but God, but God, he's got plenty to do. Plenty to offer plenty to offer. But God, part of the backstory with Jacqueline Lawana is just the transition out of my old church into this church. And they had watched me grow up, you know, since I'm, you know, just 14 years old watching me grow up. Yeah. A lot of you have watched me grow up, right. Coleen was working at our wedding and putting things together. We went, we honeymooned at your cabin up in Tahoe. 10 (59m 45s): Right. Remember that? Yeah. And so when you see somebody grow up, you just, you're not sure about what God wants to do with their lives, right? And so there were some of that. And so we talked last time and they said, look, what got us down right? In their lives, in our lives. It was a TIFF difficult season. But what the enemy intended for evil God intended for good. So don't let your many, many flaws hold you back because we all have many, many flaws. But, but God for see today I have made you strong, like a fortified city that cannot be captured like an iron pillar or a bronze wall. 10 (1h 0m 30s): You will stand against the whole land. The Kings officials, priests, and people of Judah. They will fight you, but they will fail. Not because you're good, but because God is good now because you're strong in your own strength. But because God is strong on your behalf, wait, God is calling us to spring into action. They will fight you, but they will fail for, I am with you and I will take care of you. Okay? Let's get that internalized a little bit. 10 (1h 1m 11s): I'm with you. And I will take care of you. God says spring into action. Spring high, the Lord I've spoken. Let the celebration begin. How do we celebrate? We need to rejoice over the things that heaven rejoices over and then be ready to spring into action for God. And then number three, we need to live. Like we belong to God. We are according to John, three, three, born again, born again, creates new creation, a new creature in Christ Jesus. 10 (1h 1m 52s): So we need to begin to live as born again. Spirit filled believers in the Lord, Jesus Christ in watch. Watch what he will do. We need to live. Like we belong to God. What does that look like? Well, I I'm so grateful for the word because it always helps us with information that we need in revelation. So you must live verse 14 as God's obedient children, that don't S don't back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better than like in your BC days. You didn't know any better. 10 (1h 2m 32s): And so you lived like a child of the devil, but now, now who do you belong to? You? You belong to the king, that king of all Kings. I'm a father, the God of creation. That's who you belong to. So now verse 15. Now you must be holy and everything. You do everything you do. How do you do anything that God asked you to do to deal with the spirit of God powered by the word of God? The clarity that comes from the word and the spirit and the strength that comes from, from what God provides for us, allows us. 10 (1h 3m 16s): I'm going to reading and Leviticus Leviticus in there over and over again. God is telling the people of Israel. You must be holy because I, the Lord, your God am holy, holy above reproach. We will never be perfect in our own ability, but our goal, Lord, I want to, in every word thought, indeed, I want to live above reproach. So we laid hands on Joe. A few weeks ago. I challenged him, Joe, cause we, we gave him, we, we licensed and we recognized his role as a leader in the community and as a leader in the church. And we said, man, you have to by God's grace live differently, but that's not just true for Joe. 10 (1h 4m 2s): And for guys like me, it's true for every one of us, the people of God got us said, be holy because the Lord, your God is holy. Be holy in everything. Justice. God who chose you as holy for this scripture say, you must be holy because I am holy. So the writer is for smoke-free speaking about what is written in Leviticus and other parts of the old Testament. So an example of a writer in the new Testament, Peter referencing quoting, alluding to truth. In the old Testament, they go hand in hand. They're incomplete on their own. 10 (1h 4m 44s): You must be holy because I am holy. And remember that heavenly father, to whom you pray, he has no favorites. He will judge or rewards you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent. Fear of him during your time here as the temporary citizens, second Corinthians five 10 says for, we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. This is not a judgment on this, about salvation. 10 (1h 5m 27s): This is a judgment of your lives as believers and followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Your life will be judged and you will receive rewards or not based on the way you live. Your life. Faith without works is dead. I don't think you can have faith without works, because if you've got faith without works, it means that your faith is dead probably as well. Because out of the abundance of what God is doing in your life, you must step up. You must live differently. You must point people to Jesus. It's not optional. It's your permanent calling and vocation to point people to Jesus. 10 (1h 6m 13s): Couple Sundays ago, I was before when I had to go to the hospital, did I already say this? I don't think I did, but I had my, I love Jesus talks on Mike and Linda Herbert gave me those socks and I told them I was wearing them. And we were in a prayer meeting. And before the service start and Mike was in there and I showed him, I love Jesus socks. I said, Mike, I don't like to wear these on Sunday morning because we, I, you don't need to see my, I love Jesus' socks. I want to wear my, I love Jesus socks in the marketplace so that people, but for whatever reason, I put on my, I love Jesus socks for Sunday morning. So I get to the hospital and what do I have on? They take my shoes off. And I got my red and black. I love Jesus socks sticking out of my pant legs. 10 (1h 6m 55s): And so I'm thinking, this is why 14 (1h 6m 59s): I've got my, I love 10 (1h 6m 60s): Jesus socks on because somebody needs to know about Jesus. And so, so many people commented about my, I love Jesus socks. They're like, 14 (1h 7m 9s): Like we had a room full of 10 (1h 7m 10s): Doctors and they all come that day. Nice socks. 14 (1h 7m 12s): We liked your socks. 10 (1h 7m 18s): I got to share with them how much I love Jesus. This is what we're here to 14 (1h 7m 24s): Do. This is why I don't wear my, I love Jesus 10 (1h 7m 26s): Oxen church because I don't. I know, you know, I love Jesus. And with people at the coffee shop to know the people at Marion, ER, to know, I love Jesus. He's my king. He's my savior. He's my Redeemer. He's the one that has radically wrecked me and changed my life forever and ever. Amen. Verse 18 for you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ. 10 (1h 8m 7s): The sinless spotless lamb of God, did you catch it? It's not paid with mere gold and silver, which lose their value. He knows we're in like a little bit of a dip, a little bit of a recession, maybe a big recession coming. You're a gold and silver. They're going to lose their value. Anything that you're holding on to you in this life is losing value. By the moment don't make that stuff. Your God, you will be very sad that you did not do not make the stuff that you got. Your God made Jesus, your God. He never loses value. I've been 53 years of, you know, market swings and all kinds of things in my life. 10 (1h 8m 53s): And Jesus is the same yesterday, today. And for ever, he was the precious blood of Christ. The sinless spotless lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom. My ransom long before the world began began. But now in these last days, he has been revealed for your sake. God has a plan for your life. Do you believe that? Do you believe that If you sins tells us in chapter one verses four through eight, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 10 (1h 9m 41s): God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family. By bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do. And it gave him great pleasure. So Jesus didn't come reluctantly. He didn't give his life reluctantly. He said for the joy set before me, I will endure the cross for the joy set before me. I will endure the cross. This is what he wanted to do. And it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace. He has poured out on us who belong to his dear son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his son and forgave our sins. 10 (1h 10m 21s): He has showered us, his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and under standing, wrapping up first, Peter, 1 21 through Christ. You have come to trust in God and you place your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. You were, you were cleansed from your sins when you obey the true. So now you must show sincere love to each other. As brothers and sisters love each other deeply with all your hearts. Part of loving people deeply is just giving them Jesus, given them the truth of the gospel. 10 (1h 11m 2s): Because without Jesus, they, they die and they suffer judgment. They go to hell. They go to hell the w it's not popular to talk about hell, but that's, it's not popular. The enemy doesn't want to talk about hell, but that's the result. We get a choice in Christ while we welcome his grace. So we've got to live. Like we belong to God. I think we're confused and perplexed. Sometimes we like to live like we're living. Like we belong to the world and the world system. We don't belong to the world, to the world system. We belong to God. And so we need to let the word of God and the spirit of God frame our lives and our decisions and point us in the right direction. 10 (1h 11m 49s): The world won't get you that. So you live like you belong to God. This is what we've read. So far. Show sincere love to each other. This is what it means to live. Like you belong to God. Show sincere, love to each other. As brothers and sisters love each other deeply with all your heart. You can't do this stuff in your own strength and your own strength that you want to slap your neighbor. Right? I am my own strength. I want to slap my neighbor. Sometimes I turn your music down, right? I guess I'm alone. 10 (1h 12m 31s): Live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back. This is what we've read so far. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You must be holy in everything you do just as God who chose you is holy. Why? Why live like this verse 23 for you've been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal living word of God is the scripture. Say people are like grass. They're beauty is like a flower in the field, the grass Withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord remains forever. 10 (1h 13m 19s): And that word is the good news that was preached to you. So let the celebration begin. Seriously. We need to rejoice in the things that haven't rejoices over. We need to be ready to spring into action and live like people who belong to God with that, I would like to invite the worship team up and we're going to sing and we're going to celebrate and we're going to give God every part of us in Jesus name. So Lord, we thank you. As we stand up, go ahead and stand up. Holy holy holy is the Lord Donald mighty. 10 (1h 13m 58s): Holy holy, holy Lord. We love you. We bless you. We praise you. We thank you Lord for who you are and for what you're going to do. God, thank you for your word. Thank you. That it wrecks us in the best possible way. We love you. Let's worship now in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 16 (1h 16m 52s): Thank you, father. That we can cry. Holy, holy holy. Thank you for your holiness. Thank you for your presence. You never leave us. You do not forsake us. So this morning we give you our worship. We give you our praise, have your way in our lives. Jesus name. Amen.

1 (1s): Good morning harvest church. Let's stand and worship the Lord together. Did you feel them? Bow tins, tram. Did you hear the oceans? Well, when the people rose to seeing Jesus Christ, the , did you feel the tremble? 1 (48s): Did you hear the scene when the law speak and to see Jesus Christ, the CV, and we can see that God mighty river through the nations when young and Walgreens. Jeez, please. Why do you have Oh, dance, dance upon in justice. 1 (2m 11s): Did you feel the talk? All the seeds. all the streams as to wash away our broken and here we see that. God you have it be prepared. 1 (4m 5s): streets. Three sound with singing upon and justice. 1 (4m 48s): Did you feel, did you hear the oceans? When the people rose to seeing Jesus Christ Everyone needs compassion. 1 (6m 9s): Everyone needs for kids. The kindness, the save you Jesus conquered. 1 (7m 10s): All my fears and failures. I get in my life to fog everything. I believe now. 1 (9m 15s): Jesus . 3 (10m 44s): As we continue to worship, I was reading Romans eight, Chuck chapter 8 30, 8 39. And it says, I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love neither death, nor life, neither angels, nor demons, neither our field, our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow, not even the peop the powers of hell can separate us from God's love no power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed. Nothing in all creation will ever separate us or ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus, our Lord Jesus, as the object of our faith and worship, this is the God we worship this morning. 3 (11m 40s): We come to church on Sunday morning after being gone through a week of trials and tribulations sickness, death, uncertainty that we come here this morning to worship the God that never fails is the same yesterday, today and forever. Let's just continue in worship. As God leads. You pray out of prayer, speak a word that he lays on your heart, but let's continue to focus on the Jesus that never fails. 4 (12m 51s): we pray for our loved ones on the road. 4 (13m 4s): 1 (15m 6s): then Jesus. I do not wholly trust and G My whole then Jesus. 1 (15m 50s): I do not. With trumpets. 1 (18m 58s): 5 (19m 24s): Lord Jesus. We thank you. That because of what you did for us in the cross, our sin laid upon your death, burial, and resurrection. We can stand before you God, and we can approach your throne of grace boldly. Lord Jesus. Thank you for this time of worship, Lord God, we just gathered here to lift up your name, Lord, thank you Jesus. For this morning, Jesus name we pray and then, Well, good morning, everyone. You can take a seat. My name's Jeremy I'm the youth and family pastor here. And just want to say a welcome if you're joining us for the first time, or if you're, this is your a hundred 50th time. 5 (20m 8s): So glad you're here. It's a special place it's for me, it's always felt like family. So, so I hope you feel that way as well. Just a few announcements for you today. Fall life groups are going to kick off in September and we will have the brochures for you available next week. So next Sunday, look for the available full life groups. We'll have those back in the info center, as well as we'll be announcing those things. But we do have a brand new life group and we're starting our new college life group starting up. And there'll be September 1st. And that's, that's actually a first for harvest church. We're really excited about launching this new college group. It's going to be meeting six 30 on Thursdays from six 30 to eight 30. It's going to be at the house. 5 (20m 49s): Curtis is going to be leading that. And we're just really excited that that the, the students that have graduated high school have a place to go and to fellowship and to grow and grow in the word. So that's going to be kicking off September 1st. And lastly, you might be wondering what about Steve last week? I know he, he, he, he was a little bit off during first service. We prayed for him. He, he, he lasts the whole first service, but he ended up going to the hospital between services. He, he got checked out, end up staying up overnight there and everything checked out. Okay. It seems like there's a few dietary and liquid things that he needs just to kind of change, but he's doing really well. 5 (21m 31s): In fact, if you were here at Curtis Curtis's wedding yesterday, Kirsten Clark got married yesterday. Steve was cutting the rug out here. So he was, he was there. He was. And, and so he was back to Steve. So the whole Henry family, because their family and friends are in town. They're taking this this week off. So he's not here. If you don't see any of their Henry family, they're, they're out enjoying their family and friends. So today we're going to have Ron bringing the message and say happy birthday to Ron. It was his birthday yesterday, as well as Todd's it was Todd's birthday yesterday. You're you're, you're not, you're not happy that I'm saying happy birthday, but it was Todd's birthday as well. So we just think that God has brought you guys here and it's exciting times. 5 (22m 16s): So we're gonna take a minute to say hi to someone around you and yeah, we'll see. Do assess do that. 6 (23m 59s): Find a place to sit. Good morning. Good morning. Hey Dale. Good morning. Good morning. So great to gather together. Once again, Sunday morning, you know, we're just keeping this tradition tradition that was started on the day of Pentecost that we would gather together weekly. We gathered together more often than weekly, but you know, Sundays are day. And, and again, the reason we gather on Sunday morning is because that was the day of the resurrection. And so it's been this amazing thing that God has done that would encourage us to gather together. In fact, there's an interesting verse in Hebrews, where he talks about, you know, don't forsake the assembling the gathering of the saints together as some are, but he says, but so much the more as you see the day approaching. 6 (24m 54s): In other words, we need each other more and more as the last days come upon us. And so how wonderful it is to gather together this morning, we're going to be continuing our study in first, Peter. So if you want to turn in your Bibles, or if you want to pull up your device, that the scriptures I'm going to be using will be up on this screen. I like to teach out of the new king James version. So it might vary just a little bit from what you might be used to. Let's pray, Lord, we look to you because ultimately Lord, you are our teacher, holy spirit. You're the one that gives us understanding and clarity and revelation about the things that are declared in the, in the scriptures. And today we're going to look at the words of Peter, the apostle Peter, who was dear to your heart, who walked with you three and a half years in the flesh. 6 (25m 44s): And who now is an older man. He's, he's talking to those Christians in the world that were being persecuted and had been driven out from Jerusalem into all other cities because of their faith. And so Lord, we inherit that mantle. The holy spirit now is upon us. And so Lord, we want to carry and be faithful to what you call these believers to know and to do and where we want to be faithful to know and do those things, same things by the work of your spirit in us. So Lori commit this time to you in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. All right. So both Steve and Jeremy touched on the first opening verses a first Peter, but in order to get the full context, I'm going to go back and look at them. 6 (26m 30s): And then we're going to look at a lot of things. So as we look at the book of first Peter, again, written by Peter, and there's just so much there. So bear with me again. We, we expect the Lord to be the one that's going to be teaching us. So first Peter chapter one, beginning with verse one, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Mathenia elect according to the foreknowledge of God, the father in sanctification of the spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace be multiplied blessed, be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has gotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 6 (27m 19s): There's again, a lot going on there is Peter opens up this letter and the main point, I think the main theme that he's trying to get across here, it's it's Peter's intention is to call our attention to something that is so profound. So, so wonderful. So exceedingly glorious, he calls it a living hope. In fact, I want to read it again. First Peter one verse three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has gotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 6 (27m 59s): So what is a living hope? The simple, simple definition is this. It is the joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation. A living hope is the joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation. So what I want to do this morning, I'm going to use five W's and one H to try to open this up so that we can get a good handle on it. So I'm going to use who, what, when, where, why, and, and how so I'm told that, you know, researchers and those who are trying to determine what is being looked at or talked about or research that these are the questions they commonly ask. 6 (28m 42s): So that's what I want to use today. So in proper context though, Peter's actually, he's talking about future events. So the, the event that he's talking about has not happened yet, not fully and yet. So therefore we are still waiting for the fulfillment of the living, hope that he's talking about here. So let's begin with who. So when I go through the who, what, when, where, why and how I'm going to change the order. So it kinda makes sense. I'll hopefully. So who is qualified, first of all, who is qualified to receive the living hope that Peter's talking about? So in verse one, backing up a little in the new living translation. 6 (29m 22s): This letter is from Peter and apostle of Jesus Christ. He says, I am writing to God's chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bethenny up. So who is qualified? So that's the question. So according to Peter here, he says, God's chosen. People are qualified. And then he, he mentions five provinces. And he says that these are the provinces where Christians have been dispersed abroad because of persecution that began in Jerusalem and was occurring all over the Roman empire. So I want to make this as personal as I can. 6 (30m 5s): I'm going to rewrite Peter's words just a little bit. I'm writing to God's chosen people who are living in the five cities he's writing to us. This is a future event hasn't happened yet. So I have a trivia question for you to kind of make it more personal. Here's here's a trivia question. Can you name the five cities that make up the five cities? Sometimes that question comes up. Yeah. I live in the five cities. Okay. Well, what are the five cities? Hmm, let me think about this. Okay. So I did a little Google search historically. So that term five city has been around for quite a while. 6 (30m 47s): So historically that term five cities represents a row, Grandy Grover city. You know the name change Wabag Halcyon fair Oaks. And if Houma, yeah. See, you're walking away with something this morning that you didn't know before. So I always get what'd you learn at church today. I learned some history about the five cities, but those cities have kind of grown into each other. So currently the five cities are a row grand, a Grover beach, Pismo beach, Oceana, and Nipomo. All right, there you go. 6 (31m 27s): Trivia for the week. All right. So back to the who Peter is saying, I'm right into, God's chosen people and who are God's chosen people. God's chosen. People are those who have chosen him. God's chosen. People are those who have chosen to believe the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God's chosen. People are those who have been born. Again, those who have experienced his new birth, those who have been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ, those who have received Jesus as their Lord and savior. Those are the chosen ones that he's talking about. 6 (32m 8s): So my question to all of us this morning is have you chosen him? That's where it begins. Have you chosen him? You're going to have opportunity today to choose, to believe and follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior. So we see the who now, why, why, why is God doing this for us? The things that Peter's talking about, why is God doing this for us? Why are we receiving the living hope that he's talking about here? So again, back to first, Peter verses two and three, he says grace to you and peace be multiplied. Blessed would be the God and father of our Lord. Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has gotten us again to a living hope. 6 (32m 50s): So we mentioned three things there, and this is the why, why is God doing this for us? And the three words he mentioned, our grace peace and mercy. Now you probably know this already. So might be a little bit redundant, but grace, what is grace? Grace is God's unmerited. Undeserved favor. God has chosen to give us something that we don't deserve. And it is his favor. And others were accepted by him and is something he has just chosen to give us as a free gift. Secondly, we also receive, and this is why I got us doing this for us. It's because of the peace that he's given us peace with God, another way of putting it. We have been again, accepted by God. 6 (33m 32s): And therefore we have peace with him. Romans five one says this. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So how amazing we are. We have his grace, we've received something we don't deserve. And we have peace, literally friendship relationship with the living, God. And then finally the word he uses there is mercy. He says, according to his abundant mercy. So mercy as, as grace is something that is unmerited that God has given to us. Mercy is the fact that God has chosen to withhold something from us that we actually deserve. What do we deserve? 6 (34m 12s): We deserve judgment. Grace, peace and mercy acts chapter 1731. God has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness, by the man whom he has ordained. And that man is Jesus Christ. So why is God doing this for us? Because of God's great love for you. And for me, because of his abundant grace and peace and mercy that he has chosen to lavish upon us. So we've looked at the who we've looked at the why, and now I want to go back to Peter's main point. 6 (34m 56s): How, how did God make a way for us to receive the living, hope that he's talking about here? So the simple answer is he made a way through the gospel, but more specifically, he made a way through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Again, back to verse three, blessed, be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has been gotten us again to a living hope. There it is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So this is sort of a side subject, but I have an interesting question for you who raised Jesus from the dead and the simple would be, well, God did raised him from the dead. 6 (35m 41s): Well, interesting as we look at a few verses acts chapter 13, beginning with verse 29, it says this. Now, when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning him concerning Jesus. They took him down from the tree, from the cross and they laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead. Seems fairly obvious who raised Jesus from the dead God did well. There's another interesting scripture in, and Jesus is speaking to here in John chapter 10. He says this for 17. He says, my father loves me because I laid down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. 6 (36m 25s): I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it again. Hmm. Okay. I guess Jesus raised himself from the dead. Another scripture. I want to have us think about this morning, Romans chapter eight, verse 11. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in. You seems like the holy spirit raised Jesus from the dead. So who raised Jesus from the dead? Well, well, God did, or they all did, or, or God is three in one. 6 (37m 7s): And here what we see as another example of the Trinity or the, the unity of God who raised Jesus from the dead, the father, the son and the holy spirit did. So the clear teaching of the Bible is that Jesus rose from the dead that's, that's the fact that we want to embrace this morning. And because Jesus rose from the dead, he has promised that we will also rise from the dead John chapter 11. I love these verses verse 25. I am. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. 6 (37m 48s): He who believes in me though, he may die. He shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. And then he says, do you believe this? That's a question we need to answer today. Do you believe this? And then Paul expounds on this in first Thessalonians, chapter four, beginning with verse 13, because there was his concern about those who had died, believers that had died. And some of them, there was this rumor going around that the resurrection had already happened. And they were confused. Paul says, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died. 6 (38m 32s): So you will not grieve like people who have no hope for, since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life. Again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him. The believers who have died, we tell you this directly from the Lord, we who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the Archangel and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves and then together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. 6 (39m 21s): Then we will be with the Lord forever. He says, so encourage each other. With these words, he, he is talking about a future event as well. It hasn't happened yet. So that's part of our living hope. We're looking forward to that. How did God make a way for us to receive the living hope that Peter is talking about? He made a way through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that's, that's how he did it. So we looked at who, why and how, and, and now I wanna look at what, so what is it that we're preparing for? What are we waiting for? What are we waiting for and preparing for, to receive and what is called it? 6 (40m 4s): We're waiting for our inheritance back to first, Peter and I'm looking at verses three and four. Again, blessed would be the God and father of our Lord. Jesus Christ, who according to his at mercy has gotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away. And it's reserved in heaven for you. So we have an inheritance that is waiting for us in heaven. And as Peter says, here is it's reserved in heaven for you, which is exactly what Jesus was thinking about or talking about. When he was speaking to me in Matthew chapter six, verse 19, he says this, he says, don't store up treasures here on earth, where MAs eat them and rust destroys them. 6 (40m 56s): And where thieves break in and steal store your treasures in heaven, where moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves do not break in and steal. So we're waiting for this inheritance. What is the inheritance or waiting for while some might say, we're waiting for our salvation, the fullness of it. We're waiting for the rewards that God has promised to us. We're waiting for eternal life. We're waiting for God himself. We're waiting for heaven. We're waiting to see Jesus face to face. I think we're waiting for all these things and all those things combined. That's our inheritance. You know, there's a lot of talk these days about making wise investments, you know, inflation so high and interest rates are crazy and, you know, stock, market's going up and down. 6 (41m 44s): So here's a question we often ask are the value of my investments going up or down. So Jesus encourage us, encourages us to store up our treasures. That would be our investment in heaven. Peter is telling us that our inheritance, our investment in heaven is there they're incorruptible, they're undefiled. They won't fade away. In other words, your inheritance, your investment in heaven is secure and it will pay eternal dividends. So Peter goes on to say that our investment in heaven, as I said, it's, it's not only incorruptible. It's undefiled that won't fade away. 6 (42m 24s): In fact, our inheritance is actually kept or guarded by the power of God. The truth is everything we know and love here on earth is going to burn up figuratively and literally, phew, phew, read revelation. I mean, literally, I mean, when we think about saving our environment and protecting everything for future generations, and that's all, that's all good. We're a steward of the earth. But if you read through revelation, the events of the last days, most of it's going to burn up. And most of the living creatures in the sea are going to die. 6 (43m 7s): So we have to have God's perspective about these things. The truth is everything we know and love here on earth is going to burn up because it's corrupted, it's been corrupted. The only thing that will survive the fire of God's judgment is our eternal salvation. God will transform that, which is corrupted into that, which is incorruptible. Paul speaks about this in first Corinthians 15 beginning with 15 verse 51, behold, I tell you a mystery, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed for this corruptible must put on incorruption. And this mortal must put on immortality. 6 (43m 50s): So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass. The saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ, our Lord in that grade. That's good news. So we looked at the who, the why, how and now, and the what now I want to look at when, you know, when is this going to come to pass? When will we receive our inheritance? We will receive our inheritance at the revelation of Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Back to first Peter one verse four. 6 (44m 30s): He says our is it's incorruptible. It's undefiled in it. It won't fade away. It does not fade away. It's reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God, through faith for salvation. And here it is ready to be revealed in the last time. So we will receive our inheritance when Jesus Christ returns to take us home, Jesus was surrounded by those who are looking to him and he wanted to encourage them about these things in John chapter 14, he says, let not your heart be troubled. 6 (45m 11s): We look out at things are going on. The world today is pretty troubling. There's a lot of confusion and mayhem and in the world. So Jesus is speaking to us. He's saying, don't let your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me, in my father's house are many mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not. So I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. And I will receive you to myself, that where I am there, you may be also, and where I go, you know, and the way you know, Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going and how can we know the way Jesus said to him? 6 (46m 0s): You guys know it. Well, I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me. So right now we're kind of in this holding pattern, we're in this, we're just waiting. Jesus said, you know, God says occupy until I come. In other words, we're, we're being steadfast unmovable. We're continuing to believe and, and just stay faithful to the Lord until these things, until these things happen, occur are fulfilled right now. We're simply in a holding pattern of waiting mode. We're patiently waiting for the imminent, the promised return of Jesus Christ, revelation chapter one, verse seven behold. 6 (46m 50s): He is coming with clouds and every eye will see him. Even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. Why will they mourn? Because they rejected him. They chose not to believe in him. The only way of salvation, all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him even so amen. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning, and the end says the Lord who is and who was, and who is to come? The almighty. We looked at who, why, how, what? 6 (47m 30s): And when the last w is where, where are we going to go when Jesus returns again, I'm looking back at first, Peter chapter one, again, verse four. He's again, talking about this inheritance. That's incorruptible undefiled that does not fade away. He says, it's reserved in heaven for you. Who are you, who are kept by the power of God, through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. So where are we going? When Jesus returns simple answer, we're going to heaven. We will be in the kingdom of God. We will see Jesus face to face. 6 (48m 16s): A few days ago, I got a text from our oldest daughter, Jamie, and she was passing on a question that our grandson, David who's eight. Jamie, can you ask Papa this, these two questions? So these are the two questions he wants answered. What is it like in heaven? And the second one, the second question is how old is the earth? I'm going to leave the age of the earth one till another time. But what is it like in heaven? I mean, that's a good question, right? Because again, the reason is where, where are we going when Jesus returns, we're going to be with him in heaven. 6 (48m 58s): What's heaven. Like, so here's the problem. Here's the problem. We tend to use our experiences here on earth. As we try to imagine what heaven will be like. We tend to use our experiences here on earth. And we try to imagine having through the lens of our experiences here on earth, we can't, we can't do that. In fact, Paul talks about this in first Corinthians chapter two, verse nine, he says, he says, as it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered in the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him. 6 (49m 41s): And so with that, we think, well, then we can't fully know. And, and we can't fully imagine what being in the presence of God and being in heaven will be like, and that would be true, but then he closes ACEs, but God has revealed them to us through his spirit for the spirit searches, all things. Yes. The deep things of God. So can we think about an, imagine what heaven might be like? Yeah. We can through the, through the holy spirit, through the lens of the holy spirit, through the pages of scripture, but not through our world's experiences is, and so we know it's radically different, that's for sure, but it's radically better. You see, sometimes we get to the point where we think about heaven. 6 (50m 21s): We go, well, you know, I don't, I don't really want to play a harp on a cloud somewhere, you know, for eternity. This is doesn't sound fun to me. Just imagine this, imagine anything and everything that really brings you joy and fulfillment and happiness upon this earth. And imagine it exponentially magnified in heaven. We're going to be, we're going to be, I want to say useful. There's an economy in heaven. There's fulfillment in heaven that we can't even imagine truly on this earth. 6 (51m 5s): It will be wonderful beyond our imagination to the point that we're gonna, we're going to want it to let, let it go on for eternity. And it will. Our living hope is in heaven. Our living hope is heaven. Our living hope is Jesus Christ himself. Our living hope is to be in the presence of the living. God who created all things. Another verse first Corinthians 13, 12 for now in this present situation we're in for now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. 6 (51m 46s): Now I know in part, but then I shall know him just as I also am known by him. There's going to be this amazing revelation that occurs. We're not fully going to, it's not fully going to be revealed to us until we are standing face to face with the Lord. Jesus Christ. That's our living hope again, the joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation. So we've got this living hope and as compared to, I'm going to compare to a false hope. So there's a lot of things in life we could hope for and say, well, I wish it were this way. 6 (52m 27s): Or I hope for this. That would be a false hope if it's really not, it's not going to happen. There's no way that's going to happen. You know, for example, I want to give you a few examples. False hope is, is hoping that something that absolutely will never happen. That's a false hope. I'm going to give you a couple examples. I hope I will grow my hair back someday. That's never going to happen. I'm not going to go to Bosley, hair treatment, whatever. That's a false hope. How about this one? I hope I will grow another seven inches so that I can be six feet tall. It's not going to happen. That's a false hope in life is full of false hopes, but a living hope it's based on God's promises and God cannot lie. 6 (53m 18s): Titus one, two in hope of eternal life. What Peter's talking about here, which God that cannot lie promise before the world began Hebrews chapter six, verse 18 by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. And he's talking about this hope again. We might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that is set before us. And this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil, literally into the presence of God himself. 6 (54m 2s): Our living hope is not false. Hope. It is not a pipe dream. It's not based on our own wild imaginations. It's based on the promises in God's word. And it is confirmed by the witness of the holy spirit, Hebrews 11, one faith. What we're talking about are living hope. It is the substance of things hoped for it is the evidence of things not seen. God is faithful. The holy spirit is faithful to, to open up the pages of scripture, to us, to speak into our heart, our mind, our soul, our spirit, and end to tell us and affirm to us. This living hope that you're holding on to continue to walk in that, continue to believe in that Romans five, five hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the holy spirit who's been given to us Titus chapter two, verse 13, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ. 6 (55m 4s): I want to continue my, my goal this morning is to make it through verse, verse 12. How are we doing? I have, okay. I've got four and a half minutes left. Let's jump back to first. Peter verse six, chapter one, verse six in this, in this living. Hope you greatly rejoice though. Now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials that the genuine genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold. That perishes though it is tested by fire. It may be found to praise honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. 6 (55m 47s): And though, now you do not see him yet believing you rejoice with joy, inexpressible, and full of glory. Receiving the end of your faith. The salvation of your souls stay strong. Stay strong in the Lord. Don't lose hope, endure hardship. As a soldier of Jesus Christ, place your faith in him. He has promised that he will never leave you and he will never forsake you. In fact, you are kept by the very power of God and he is worth the weight. 6 (56m 27s): Jesus Christ is returning very soon. Matthew chapter 25, verse 34, Jesus speaks. And he says, the king will say to those on his right hand come, you blessed bless it of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So we see this is not a new idea. This is not a new thing. The profits of old have been waiting for the fulfillment of the things that God had previously revealed to them. 6 (57m 7s): Again, back to first Peter, picking it up in verse 10 of this salvation, this living hope that he's talking about here of this salvation, the prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come to you searching what or what manner of time? The spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when he testified beforehand, the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow to them. It was revealed that not to themselves, but to us, they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the holy spirit sent from heaven. 6 (57m 48s): Things which angels desire to look into. I want to go ahead and invite the worship team to come on up at this time. So the truth is Jesus Christ is coming back again. He's coming back soon. The question we have to ask ourselves is, will we be ready? Will you be ready? When he returns? Jesus was talking about his return in Luke chapter 21, verse 25. He said this, and there will be signs in the sun, in the moon and in the stars. 6 (58m 34s): And on the, on the earth, there's going to be distress of nations. Sounds familiar with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring men's hearts will be failing them from fear and the expectation of those things, which are coming on the earth for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now, when these things begin to happen, look up, look up and lift up your heads because your redemption draws near, you know, Paul and Silas, they went from place to place preaching the gospel. 6 (59m 16s): They happened to be in the city of Philippi. The message wasn't received very well. They wound up in, in jail, in prison and there they were, it was the middle of the night and they're just worshiping God, thanking him that they could be worthy to suffer persecution for the sake of Christ. And they're just praising and worshiping. And suddenly there's an earthquake. And the shackles that were holding them bound up, fell off the doors of the prison, flung flung open, and the head jailer thought everybody, all the prisoners had escaped. He's about ready to kill himself. And so this is what Paul and Silas said to him. The jailer in acts 1630, he says the jailer brought them out. 6 (59m 60s): He brought them out and said, SIRS, what must I do to be saved? So that that's such an important question. So Paul and Silas, this was what the response they gave to the jailer. They said, believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ. And you'll be saved you and your household, you and your family. That message is the same today. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ. And you will be saved. And as you have influence on your family, there'll be saved to the writer, John, in his letters. 6 (1h 0m 43s): He wanted to help the believers to know, you know, there's this question that goes around. Can I lose my salvation? Am I really saved? You know, you have to be convinced of that. But to the question of, can I lose my salvation? I would say, this is just abide in Christ and you're going to be you're safe. But this is what John said in first, John chapter five, beginning, verse 11, he said, this is the testimony. This is the record that God has given us eternal life. And this life is in his son. He has the light, sorry. He who has the son has life. He who does not have the son of God, does not have life. 6 (1h 1m 24s): These things I've written to you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the son of God. So naturally my encouragement to all of us today, if you are walking with the Lord, remain steadfast, grow in your faith, continue to open up the scriptures daily and let him encourage you. As you walk with him day by day. Those of you that you know, you, you can look back and think, well, you know, there was a time that I really loved the Lord and was walking with him, but not so much anymore. Today's the day you want to recommit your life to Jesus Christ. He's coming back soon. So reaffirm, reaffirm your commitment to him. 6 (1h 2m 7s): And for those of you that say, you know, I've never, I, I don't know if I believe I've never really thought too much about it. Today's a day of your salvation and you don't have to have all the answers. I promise you this. If you would just open up the door of your heart, the one of your heart, just a little bit and say, God, I don't know, but I'm willing. I'm willing to allow you to come in and reveal yourself to me. I'm willing to give Jesus a chance in my heart and my life. And if you will do that, I will promise you this. God will reveal himself to you in a profound way that you can, that you can affirm and say, Jesus Christ is the Lord. 6 (1h 2m 48s): Lord. We just want to thank you today that we can be encouraged. Even as Peter was trying to encourage the believers in his day, where we're so encouraged about the living, hope that you have reserved in heaven for us. Lord, help us to maintain that, that perseverance, that endurance that we need in this life. Lord, I pray that all of us would be opening up our heart, opening up our life to you to receive all the wonderful promises that you have for us. Jesus, we are so grateful that you went to the cross on our behalf. And we just want to say, thank you in Jesus name, we pray. God's people said, amen. 6 (1h 3m 28s): Amen. Go ahead and stand with me. We're going to continue to worship the Lord. 1 (1h 3m 34s): Grab that. Thanks spirit. Come to get And Renae dumb. 1 (1h 4m 26s): Don't let your car don't feed 0 (1h 4m 38s): Because 1 (1h 4m 39s): Your eyes on fruit, God is badly and take her told on the strong. Remember where But the price go up as the walls come down. 1 (1h 6m 51s): his name is Jesus. 1 (1h 7m 11s): his name is Jesus. 1 (1h 8m 37s): Come down. I'll create geez. 0 (1h 9m 11s): Geez. 8 (1h 9m 27s): Yes. Let your kingdom come. Jesus father, I thank you that the praises of your people break down walls. It's like Paul and Silas. They break chains. They open the prison doors and set us free. Father. I pray that as we go out this week, we would go out knowing that we have a living hope in Jesus, and we know that he is returning, his kingdom will come and we will get to spend eternity with him in heaven. How awesome is that going to be? Thank you. Jesus. Jesus. Same name.

1 (2s): Good morning harvest church. When you stand, as we worship the Lord this morning, we worship the God who was, we worship the God who is we worship the God who ever more will. 1 (42s): He opened the present doors. He parted the God, pulls the victim victory, and we sing the God who heals. 1 (1m 29s): We sing to the God. We sing the God who that 0 (2m 1s): In the 1 (2m 10s): Shout we were the, we wear the P there, joy in the house of the Lord. 1 (3m 5s): There's joy in the house of the Lord today. And we won't be quiet. We shout outta your joy in the house of the Lord. Got it. Won't be we shout outta 0 (3m 23s): Your enjoy 1 (3m 26s): Lord. 0 (3m 27s): Enjoy the 1 (3m 31s): Won't. 1 (4m 19s): God, you are all powerful. We to your name this morning, there's the I've seen its battles right in there's that I've seen his praise. 1 (5m 10s): And that's the power of your name. Just mention makes a wave giants falling strongholds break. There is healing. That's the power that I claim. It's the same, the grave. There's no power. Like the there's a hope that calls our courage in the furnace. 1 (6m 13s): The kind expectations that every prayer I made is on an empty that's the power of that's that's 0 (7m 2s): There's 1 (7m 2s): No pav. Come on church, sing this out. I see you taking ground. I see you. Pressa head you. Power is danger to the enemies camp. You still do miracles. You will do what you said for your the same God. Now, as you've always been spirit, spirit breaking out your kingdom, moving in your big tree, claims the ground at the enemy had you still do miracles. 1 (7m 53s): You do what you for that's it's the same. 0 (8m 21s): There's 1 (8m 36s): Like, 2 (8m 47s): God, we're so grateful Lord for your power Lord. As we ponder the power of the living, God, I, I pray God that we would ponder what that means in our lives, in our relationships Lord, and especially heavy on my heart today or marriages, Lord. So as we take a kind of a Salo moment and just pause, Lord, help us to grab, grab hold of that power for our marriages and for the marriages of those, the people in our lives, Lord God that we love and care for. 2 (9m 37s): So deeply Lord, as we take a moment of pause and I'm gonna stop talking is as you feel led, if you feel like man, God's given you something to pray for a verse word of encouragement, go ahead and speak up loudly so we can hear and agree with you. And we'll just take a moment just as you feel led just as you feel LA 3 (10m 25s): Father, I thank you for your power. I thank you Lord, for your strength and for the strength that you give us father, I thank you father for the relationships in a marriage Lord that you bonded and that you've set forth to be a family father. I thank you, God, that you give us wisdom through your power, that you give us strength through your power and that God that no enemy can stand against us. Father. I just thank you, Lord, that God, in this place, that father, the freedom for you to come to this place and to freely speak Lord and to freely father lead us and guide us. 3 (11m 15s): I thank you, Lord, that God that you open the windows of heaven, that you pour out your spirit on those in this place, that God that you teaches the truth of your word and that father, you give us hope where there is no hope and you give us help. Father. When we feel helpless and father, I just praise your name, that God that we come here to worship you and that we're allowed to do that. And that God that without you, we have nothing, Lord, there's nothing. This world has to offer God without you. So I just praise your name and I worship you. 3 (11m 58s): And I thank you on this day, Jesus and Jesus name. 4 (12m 9s): And I thank you Lord for marriage father. I just pray that we would not look to our spouses as God's father, that we would look to you. We would not expect them to be perfect, that we would not expect them to be anything except for what would happen to. We ask fathers that we see them just as we see ourselves as flawed beings so that everything they bring to the table would be a blessing father because our whole dependents will be upon you and not upon men. And we thank you for our father. We pray for your holy spirit that you deny us strengthen us us because we know that father in the breaking down of the marriage comes to breaking down the country. 4 (12m 56s): We see that happening all over. So I asked father, did your help us stand strong? And I thank you for so to 3 (13m 4s): Thank pray for strength for S for healing, the grace would be extended. God. There would just be 2 (13m 18s): Exceeding health and kindness and grace for one another. Lord, God that we would live together in harmony as husbands and wives, Lord God extending wonderful kindness and grace, God, we're not being kind. Lord. I, I pray that you would challenge us and give us the grace to be kind. When we want to do something different, we want to lash out. We want to say something that will only further harm Lord God. So give us the grace to love unconditionally supernaturally. So everything that you ask us to do in this life requires a supernatural power of the holy spirit, the, the word and the will of God through us to do what you've asked us to do. 2 (14m 6s): So I pray God that we would have greater capacity to believe greater ability to understand what that looks like and how to walk it out. And then just greater fruitfulness as a result of just allowing that to flow and intentionally just moving forward with that grace and power, doing the stuff that you've called us to do. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We're gonna sing another song. And for those tuning in online and watching this service, we know that there's a bit of silence on your end and I would just encourage you to take that silent opportunity just to worship and just to be present with the Lord. 2 (14m 52s): I would encourage you not to be put off by that or be distracted by the silence, but just to be present with the Lord during that time, and for us who are gathered, we can't always hear what's being prayed or said or communicated and that's okay. The people around those who are speaking, they hear it. And so we just need to be patient with that process and okay, with that process that God's doing stuff. And even if we can't fully hear by God's grace, we can just be in a worship full place and agree and just see what the Lord will do as we just humbly wait during this time. So we're gonna be doing this Sundays and as part of an act, our active worship toward the Lord. 2 (15m 39s): And so I'm going to step down now we're gonna sing another song and then we'll, we'll keep moving forward. Amen. Let's let's continue to worship 1 (16m 15s): Who's I know that you one who to the, for I got, I need you. 1 (16m 58s): Oh God, my God. I need you now. How I need you now I know with you all things are awesome. 1 (17m 48s): I'm calling on the God. David who made courage. Oh God, my God. 0 (18m 10s): I need you. 1 (18m 11s): Oh God, my God. 0 (18m 13s): I need you 1 (18m 15s): Now. I need you now on standing. Oh, you heard your children and you hear your children. 1 (19m 20s): Now you are the same God, you are the same. God, you answered prayers back then will answer. Now you are the same God, you are the same God you are providing that. You are providing. Now you are the same. God, you move in power. Then God move in power. Now you are the same God, you are the God you 0 (20m 8s): A healer. 1 (20m 10s): You 0 (20m 11s): Are a, 1 (20m 13s): Now you're the same. 0 (20m 16s): God, 1 (20m 17s): You're the same. 0 (20m 19s): God 1 (20m 20s): You savior that. You're the, 0 (20m 31s): The the God, 1 (20m 34s): Oh God, my God 0 (20m 35s): Need 1 (20m 36s): You. Oh God, my God, I need you now need you rock, rock standing. Oh God, I 0 (22m 20s): You're 1 (22m 20s): Afraid the is. Then you are freeing heart trying. Now you are the same. You touch the, then I feel your touch right now. You are the same. You the same calling on the holy spirit. 1 (23m 21s): Almight here ever come. Yeah. 5 (23m 49s): Today, Phyllis, this morning, we just asked that your, your holy spirit would fill this place. Lord, we're here for you. We're in awe of your goodness this morning, God, we just asked that your will would be done in this place. We, we lift up our hearts to you. We offer our hearts to you. We ask that whatever you wanna do in and through our lives, whatever you wanna do in our hearts, whatever you wanna do in our minds, Lord, we, we just give ourselves to you completely, fully, totally Jesus. Because that's the only way we can experience freedom through you is just giving ourselves totally to you. So Lord, we relinquish our rights to our minds, our bodies, our souls, our hearts. 5 (24m 31s): And we just give it to you. Lord, we just ask that you would do your work through us. You'd work in us in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Alright, you're welcome to take a seat. If you'd like my name's Curtis. It's great to have you all here this morning. First, before I get into announcements. I just wanna say that it's Tim Tim's birthday here. Yeah. It's Tim's our tech director here playing base today. No, no, he's not 17. He's no, it's a bit older than that. Anyway. I won't divulge how old he is anyway, but yeah, he's doing amazing things to the tech and obviously you can, he's scheduling all of our team members and stuff and doing a great job. 5 (25m 18s): So thank you Tim. Doing amazing. So yes, also. So we've got some life group signups happening next week. So stay tuned for that. We've got some amazing life groups coming up. If you want to get connected into the church, if you're new here or if you just don't know very many people, please join a life group next week. We'll we'll have a life group flyer available for you. You can look through 'em and pick the best one for you. We're just, we offer these so that you can get connected. And so that you don't feel like you're on the outside and oftentimes it can be easy to just be a spectator at church. We want you to be involved. 5 (25m 59s): We want you to get to know people. All right. Sound good. All right. So sign up next week for those also we've got a new college group starting up, so it's great because we've had kind of a gap between high school and then young professionals. And so now we've got a college group for you. If you're, if you're in the college age, feel free to join. That starts beginning of September. So if you want more information, you can head back to the info center with that. And if this is your first time here, or if you're newer as well, we would love to just get to know you. And so if you'd like head back to the info center and get a communication card, we'd just like to get to know you a little bit better and figure out a way to connect with you and make this church feel a little bit smaller, more connected. 5 (26m 46s): So do that. That'd be great. Thank you also, we've got a minute mingle coming up, but first we've got a baptism or a, a video recap of last week's beach bonfire, baptism barbecue. And it was incredible. We had 17 people baptized and so cast your eyes on the screen, check it out, 0 (27m 21s): Warm to praise. Praise. 5 (28m 44s): All right. Yeah. So it was an awesome time. If you want to get baptized, please head back to the info center and let us know. We'd love to have you get baptized. So now we're gonna get up and mingle with one another. Get to know somebody you don't know, and we'll be back in just a minute. So thanks. 7 (30m 42s): I love is 0 (30m 45s): Why 7 (30m 47s): Sing. 0 (30m 52s): I'll sing. 2 (30m 55s): Alrighty, come on back. Sing. We're gonna be in first, Peter, just for the first couple verses today and come on back Lord, as we get ready to open up your word, we thank you, God, that your word speaks to us now, as it has over this over the, the millennial Lord, God, you have just, you continue. You continue to speak to us and reveal truth to us. And so God, we invite you to do that today. We invite your will to be done. Thank you Lord. For your grace. We love you in Jesus name. 2 (31m 36s): Amen. Well, something weird was happening to me when I was sitting over there. I got like this weird equilibrium thing going on. Is that the right word? Equi. Lack of equal. You've been through that. Yeah. So pray Jan, why don't you pray for me? This is pastor jam. By the way, guys, I'm gonna let Jan pray for me here. I just feel like something's Amis here. Breathe. Ready? 3 (32m 7s): God. We pray for our pastor. Yes. 2 (32m 10s): You've given him 8 (32m 11s): A word for the day and you've opened up your scriptures to him and he stands here. Ready to speak for you and speak for the congregation and help your holy spirit. Roll down on holiness road down and worship. Roll down today. Thank 2 (32m 32s): You. 8 (32m 33s): So bring holy spirit power. Holy spirit power in this man. Thank you. And clear up his ears. Yes, Lord. Give his ears heal. Whatever is giving him this sense of being off, knowing that you are on. Yeah, that's right. And you were here and you were here before we asked you to show up. And Lord, we just asked that you would be with our pastor here. Thank you, Lord. Let him be to us. Matthew and mark and Luke and John and KFO. Rocky. Peter. Yeah. Yeah. Let him be for us your word today. 8 (33m 14s): Thank you 2 (33m 15s): Lord. 8 (33m 16s): So Lord bless him. Hold him close in your hand. Thank you, Lord. Give him the wisdom and knowledge that deep pool that Proverbs tells us runs deep. He's been storing up your word in his heart and there's no lack of faith here. Thank 2 (33m 31s): You, Lord. 8 (33m 31s): There's overwhelming openness to your spirit. So healing and strength for the day. Yes, Lord your grace sufficient for every need and pray in Jesus name. Jesus name. Holy spirit come. Thank you, Lord. Amen. 3 (33m 47s): Thank brother chair. 2 (34m 2s): So pastor Jan has been a pastor for decades and decades and decades. He was at the Grover beach Presbyterian church for a long time while I was an associate pastor at crossroads. And then when we planted this church and he resigned in 2008 to do other stuff and to take care of his wife. And so thank you Jan, for praying for me. Appreciate you brother. Thank you very much. So good to see you here today. So very good. Hey, first Peter chapter one, greetings from Peter, as we said last week, Peter is this, you know, the guy who was kind of gruff and tough and always putting his foot in his mouth, always kind of out of step, just a little bit with God's plans until until God really got a hold of him and filled him with this spirit and then wonderful and supernatural things began to take place in Peter's life. 2 (34m 51s): And part of which we see in early in acts, where he preaches and the multitudes come to faith in Jesus. And then we see Peter following Jesus decade after decade after decade, trusting him believing the gospel message and ultimately giving his life for it. As we mentioned last week, crucified, upside down, giving himself to the kingdom because he, he believed it through and through. There was nothing that was going to rattle his faith early on his faith was rattled a bit, but there was something that God did in him. And maybe that's something that God needs to do in us. Maybe you're in a place where it doesn't take much for your faith to be rattled and you need, you need God to do something deeper and more significant and supernatural in your lives. 2 (35m 38s): If you need God to do that, just invite the holy spirit into your life, to do that work and to work, make that work of sanctification real, that work of holiness real in your life. And so we're reading first, Peter today, a man who had waffled a man who was kind of gruff and stuck his foot in his mouth and did things he regretted at times. But then God, but God, and that's, isn't that just the beauty of knowing God we can say with Peter, but God, he rescued me. He sanctified me. He filled me with his power and his grace to do the work that he's called me to do. 2 (36m 20s): He's given me the ability to bounce back and God wants to do that with you as well. If you've struggled, give God the grace allow God's grace to just fill you and wash over you so that you too can bounce back. This letters from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ called by Jesus. Jesus said to Peter, come follow me. And I will make you fishers of man. I'm writing to God's chosen people who are living as foreigners in the province of poncho Galatia, captia Asia. And Bethia again, these are Roman provinces located in what now is called Turkey. 2 (37m 2s): It's a place called Turkey. And we have a, a missionary in Azure by Jean, which is near Turkey. And we pray for him. And we talked about him last week and I encourage us to continue to pray for Igar in that work in by John. He is working to seek and to save those who are lost, but not just to seek and to save those who are lost, but to equip and release workers into the harvest field so that people might come to faith in Jesus. So I just love it that God has had his focus on that region, that part of the world for thousands of years now, Peter wrote this and now down through this, century's got us still working in that region. 2 (37m 43s): So God is so patient. And if you think God's been patient with you in your life, he, well he has, but this is just his nature and who he is, he's patient with us. So that more would come to faith in him, but also so that we would be sanctified set apart for his kingdom work. It's it, it's a process, a lifelong process that got us faithful and patient to accomplish in our lives. So this is who Peter's writing to verse two, it says, God, the father knew you and shows you long ago as his spirit has made you holy as a result, you have obeyed him and have been claims by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace and peace. 2 (38m 26s): So who is Peter writing to verse? One says I'm writing to God's chosen people. And we touched on this last week that we wanted to get through the whole message last week, but we weren't able to with everything else, everything else that was going on, good stuff. But we, we get back to it and we're gonna get through the whole thing this week, who is Peter writing to he's writing to God's chosen people, your Bible might say to God's elect. And again, who are the elect of God? The elect of God are those who have been chosen, right? So if we participate in an election, we make a choice. We cast our ballot for a person that we long to see elected. 2 (39m 6s): We choose that person. That's essentially what the election of God means that it means chosen. And by God to abstain salvation through Christ, Christians are called the chosen or the elect of God. And so it brings us to this question, did we choose God? Or did God choose us? Did we choose God? Or did God choose us? We tend to think in Greek ways of thinking, as opposed to a kind of a Hebrew thought, we have this kind of linear process for understanding truth. And we're, we tend to be a little more black and white. We want black and white answers for the theological questions that we have really for all of the questions that we have in life and Jeremy, our youth and family pastor gave me this book recently, it's called the forgotten Jesus, how Western Christians should follow and Eastern rabbi. 2 (39m 60s): And so there's a great portion of script writing in here and I'll just read it to us. It says, and again, this is kind of contrasting Hebrew mindset, Hebrew thinking versus Greek mindset and Greek thinking. They Hebrews and Greeks think about things all together differently. And so as we get a taste or a glimpse into a Hebrew way of thinking, we begin to understand scripture with greater clarity. We have better understanding about the culture in which this truth was communicated and preached and taught and understood. It says here in page 28, the ability to hold multiple options, intention may be why many Western readers of the Bible struggle with paradoxical concepts. 2 (40m 49s): We long to have a single answer to a question or a problem, and we apply this approach to doctrines such as divine sovereignty versus free will the kingdom of God being future versus present and election versus man's responsibility. But these seemingly contradictory doctrines may be congruent. They may be congruent in the Jewish cultural framework that gave birth to Christianity. So if you ask a Jewish man, did God choose you? Or did you choose God? 2 (41m 29s): He will likely say yes. So that's kind of a, a little bit of a backdrop for us to help us understand the complexities of some of these things that we study in our Western culture. We, we just want, we, we wanna see things kind of in a linear way. We want to one plus one equals two, one. We, we just, we want to understand it in that type of a way, but there's paradoxes in scripture. And if we don't understand that there are paradoxes in scriptures and that truth is paradoxical, then we will miss some of the deep truths that are in scripture. So sermon title, did we choose God or did God choose us? 2 (42m 13s): So we're gonna be looking at Arminianism versus Calvinism today. And so we're gonna be looking at the five points of Calvinism and kind of their counterpart, the five points of Arminianism. And we're gonna do our best to try to understand what the Bible talks about when he talking about election. When he's talking about four knowledge, when he's talking about sovereignty, when he's talking about predestination, all of these things. So the five points of Arminianism from Jacob Armen, he was a theologian who lived from 1559 to 1609. Is that better? 2 (42m 54s): Can you guys not hear me? How's that channel? Oh, there we go. Thank you. So this is my tech team over here. Thank you very much. And you guys hear me now. So the five points of arm mini and our Arminianism, the five points of Armen of Arminianism from Jacobus. Armenians are in contrast to the five points of Calvinism. So Calvinism is a theology and often we hear about Calvinism versus Arminianism and they're both they're Theo. They're, they're the theological positions that are created by theologians who have studied God's word and who just happen to come up on two different sides of an argument. 2 (43m 40s): Can we have fellowship with Calvinists as Armenians? Can we have fellowship with Armenians as Calvinists? We better be able to have fellowship because we'll be spending eternity with them forever and ever amens. So sometimes we can get a little dogmatic and say, Hey, I can't as a Calvinist, be a friend with Armenian, or I can't as an Armenian, be a friend with a Calvinist, but man, we have to all fellowship together in any given fellowship, there might be people landing on both sides of the aisle. So Calvinism is a theology. It can be explained simply using a five letter acronym tulip. And so we're gonna unpack tulip today and help us to understand just with greater clarity who God is and what it is that we understand about him. 2 (44m 28s): The set of religious principles is the work of John Calvin. Again, 1509 to 1564, a French church reformer who had a permanent influence on several branches of Protestantism. So Calvinism and Armenians both have five points, right? Let's compare the two, the Armenian five points are human free will. And we'll just take one at a time and just kind of compare the two. And then you can arrive at your own conclusion at the end of it all. And I'll introduce actually a third perspective as well today, just to muddy the waters just a little bit more for us, human free will this states that though a man is fallen. 2 (45m 12s): He is not incapacitated by the sinful nature and can freely choose God. His will is not restricted and enslaved by his sinful nature. So that's kind of, I feel like I need to get back on track here. So as we talk about that, let's understand something called common grace. The term common grace is not found in the Bible, but it's a term that is used to put a label on an aspect of grace. Like the word Trinity is not found in the Bible, but it's helpful in describing who God is. And so common grace refers to the goodness of God. The blessings that flow from God that is, that are common to all people, whether they are believers or UN believers. 2 (45m 60s): So do we understand common grace? So there's blessings and I've got a verse that help us understand it, but there's blessings in this common grace arena that fall on believers and unbelievers. So not all of God's blessings only go to God's people, but there's blessings that we all enjoy. A great example of common. Grace is Matthew 5 43 through 45. It says you have heard the law that says, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you in that way, you'll be acting as true children of your father in heaven. And here it is for, he gives sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the, just and on the unjust alike. 2 (46m 45s): So there's the blessings of God that flow sunlight and rain on the good and the evil, the just, and the unjust alike. The five points of Calvinism can be remembered using the acronym tulip. So T stands for total depravity. So an Armenian would say, Hey, we can choose God. We have the capacity to choose God T for the tulip stands for total depravity. It's the belief. The belief in total depravity takes the view that sinfulness pervades all areas of life and human existence through the fall of man. 2 (47m 26s): Humanity is stained by sin. In every aspect, heart emotions will mind and body. And this means that people cannot are unable to independently. Choose God. They cannot save themselves. God must intervene to save people. And as an Armenian, we would believe that that's true. Cause I tend more toward Armenian than Calvinism. So we would agree with some of the statements that Calvin makes, but we also would take issue with some of the things that he says, Calvin Calvinism insists that God must do all the work from choosing those who will be saved to sanctify, sanctifying them throughout their lives until they die and go to heaven. 2 (48m 16s): So Calvinists cite numerous scripture versus supporting humanities, fallen in simple nature. And we're gonna look at some of those. And we, we agree across the board. If you are a believer in the Lord, Jesus Christ. If you are an evangelical believer, we believe that men are sinners, all have Sinn and fall short of the glorious standard of God, the grace of God. So we, we all fall short of God's standard. Matthew 7 21 says for, from within out of a person's heart and this kind of illustrates the evil of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, less full desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 2 (49m 3s): All these VI things come from within. They are what defile you. So we agree together, whether you're on whatever, whatever side of the aisle you're on. We agree that we are sinners in need of profound, the profound grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So again in Armenian would agree that while this is all true, man is indeed of sinner in need of God's saving grace. God's common grace and the world allow men to make good decisions. So that common grace that we experience in the world allow men and women to make good decisions. So to illustrate that we've all known people who don't know Jesus, but who are good as the world would de describe and define good. 2 (49m 48s): We know people in the world who don't know Jesus, but who are kind compassionate, faithful, generous. All of those things. We could all point to people in our lives who don't know Jesus, but who, who are really, they have a lot of good character qualities in their life. The common grace of God allows a sinful to pray person to choose God because of that common grace there's, there's a work of God in the universe that allows people to even in their broken sinful, to prove, recognize their desperate need for God and able to make a choice. Again, if you wanna look at another theological perspective, you can investigate Molan there's another, a theologian came up with this term or this perspective it's named for its 16th century, Jesuit Louis D. Molina. 2 (50m 45s): So these are arguments that the church has been or debates, arguments, debates that the church has been going around and around about for hundreds and hundreds of years. So when we get to heaven, we'll have it all straightened up for us and cleared up for us. Mullin is a system of thought that seeks you reconcile the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. The heart of Molan is the principle that God is completely sovereign. And man is also free in a libertarian incense. Molan partly seeks to avoid so-called theological determinism. The view that God decrees, who will be saved or damned without any meaningful impact of their own free choice. 2 (51m 28s): Today's highest profile defenders of Molan are William William Lane, Craig and Alvin plant GU. So if you wanna look up those guys, that would be on you. So human free will versus the total depravity of man. We would agree that man, we are totally depraved. Calvinists would say, because of that depravity, we don't have the capacity to choose God Armenian and Armenian would say, well, we believe that we're depraved, but because of the, the grace of the Lord, the common grace of God in the world where we have the capacity to choose, all right, let's take a look at conditional election versus unconditional election. 2 (52m 12s): The Armenian position, conditional election, God chose people for salvation based on his four knowledge. How many believe that God has? There's four knowledge that there's God is so four knowledge I'll just read. The definition is the awareness for knowledge is the awareness or knowledge of something before it happens or exists. My theology says that God knows everything before it happens. He doesn't need to look down to discover something, look down. He just, he understands it all before the foundation of the world. He understood and he knows all truth. 2 (52m 54s): So God has four knowledge of everything. So that, so that nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing surprises him. God knows who will respond to the gospel message. God knows. Before we are born, before we are created, God knows who will be his and who will refuse him. People are elected. They're chosen when they choose or elect God, people are chosen. So you, you wanna know if you're the elect, do you choose God? Then he chooses you. You're the elect you've been chosen by God, God knows who will choose him. So they are elected. 2 (53m 35s): God is not surprised by anything. He knows all things. It's called the omniscience of God. God is mission. He knows all things, nothing surprises him. There's nothing that he doesn't know. And anytime in history, throughout forever and ever eternity passed and eternity future, there's nothing that God doesn't know and understand a completely grasp in the tulip of Calvinism. U stands for unconditional election. The Calvinist view says, God chooses, who will be saved because people are dead in their sins. 2 (54m 15s): They are unable to initiate a response to God. In eternity, past God, elected certain people to be saved. This saved people are called the elect and God picks them based, not on their personal character or, or merit. So God chooses them not based on their personal character or merit, but out of his kindness and sovereign will. It also means that election for salvation is not based on God's fore knowledge of who would come to faith in him in the future. So Calvinists believe since some are chosen for salvation, others are not. 2 (54m 60s): So what's the opposite of salvation would be damnation. So Sal Calvinists would believe that some are chosen for salvation. Others would be chosen for damnation. Those not chosen are the damned destined for an eternity in hell. So some would argue that God is not fair. And, but that, that perspective is not fair, but I don't, I don't, I don't like the word fair. It's not a good theological word, but the word just is the word just describes the eternal character of God. He is just, he is faithful. 2 (55m 42s): And he is just so theology is the study of the nature of God. If we want to know who God is, we need to know his nature. And part of his nature is that he is just and Calvinists and Armenians both believe that God is just, we just kind of interpret things a little bit differently. First, John one nine. But if we confessed our sins to him, he is faithful. And just to forgive us, our sins and to cleanses from all wickedness. So what do we mean when we say that God is just that word has meaning and it has weight. 2 (56m 23s): And as we understand the meaning and the weight of that word, we begin to clarity. We begin to get clarity about who God is and how God functions in the world to, to, to be just means that he is perfectly righteous in his treatment of his creatures. He is perfectly righteous in his treatment of his creatures. God shows no partiality. And if you're taking notes, you can write down acts 10 34 that God shows no partiality acts 10 34. He commands against the mist treatment of others. 2 (57m 3s): Zacharia seven, 10, and he perfectly executes vengeance against the oppressor. He perfectly executes vengeance against the oppressor. Second test one six, Romans 1219 God is just in meeting out rewards, meaning God is not unjust. He will not forget your work. The love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. Hebrews six, 10, he's equally just in meeting out punishment. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs. And there is no favoritism IANS, 3 25 justice and a righteousness. 2 (57m 51s): We cease from Psalm 89, 14 justice and righteousness. It's always where hand in hand are the foundation of God's thrown. So let's throw out the word fair because it's kind of Lucy goosey term. It's not a theological term. Let's use the word just is God. Just of course, God is just, he's not God. If he's not just now let's compare universal atonement with the L in tulip, which stands for limited atonement met limited atonement. Armenians believe in Armenian believes in universal atonement. 2 (58m 34s): So there's universal atonement versus limited atonement. There's gonna be a test by the way, at the end. How many, know what the tulips stands for right here? Okay. Universal. Atoma the position that Jesus bore the sin of everyone, whoever lived that's universal atonement. That's not universalism. Meaning that everybody goes to heaven. We're not talking about universalism. We're talking about universal atonement that God for God. So love the world that he gave. His only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And so we're talking about universal atonement versus limited atonement, which was the Calvinist believe limited atonement is the view is the view that Jesus Christ died only for the sins of the elect. 2 (59m 24s): According to John Calvin support for this belief comes from verses that say, Jesus died for many such as Matthew, 2028, Hebrews 9 28. I'll just read those verses and you can see how someone might arrive at this position. So Christ Hebrews 9 28. So Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly, eagerly, waiting for him. So the many there trying to understand the context, the immediate context, the wider context, and the complete context of the scripture speaks to those who give themselves to Jesus. 2 (1h 0m 10s): Those who are the saved and not everybody has given themselves to Jesus. So Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of those who have, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him, Matthew 20, 28, even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So this point is one of the more controversial beliefs of Calvinism. So some, some would say, I'm not a five point Calvinist believing in all of the tulip, but I'm a four point Calvinist, which is fine in some levels. We're probably some of us might be two point Calvinist, three point. 2 (1h 0m 53s): We might be zero point it's. You know, these are things that we have to sort out. So those who teach four point Calvinism believe Christ died, not just for the, just, but not just for the elect, but for the entire world. And they cite certain verses that we know. And I just did John three 16 for God. So loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And so the atonement of God is for the world. That's 2 21, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved first enemy two, three, and four. This is good. And it is pleasing in the sight of God, our savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 (1h 1m 38s): And first John, two, two, he is the propitiation for our sins and not four hours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. So we've got these conflicting kind of ideas are, are many as Armenian people believe are they saved? Would if, if you're an Armenian, you know, holder of Armenian theology, would you say that you're saved? Yes. Okay. Would you say that if you're a Calvinist holding to Calvinist theology, would, would you say Calvinists are saved? Yeah. We're all part of the same family, right? Molan if you kind of have that moralistic perspective, would, would that person be saved? 2 (1h 2m 21s): Yeah, we're saved by grace through faith. And as we sort out these differing theological perspectives, that's why there's a thousand different churches and denominations in the world because we all have different perspectives. All right. Let's talk about resistible grace versus irresistible grace, the eye and the tulips stands for irresistible grace, resistible grace though, the teaching that the grace of God can be resisted and finally beaten. So as to reject salvation and Christ, so resistible grace versus irresistible grace irresistible grace is the belief that God brings his elect to salvation through an internal call, which they are, which they are powerless to resist the holy spirit supplies, grace to them until they repent and are born again. 2 (1h 3m 18s): So irresistible grace would say that God is so determined and extends his grace so strongly that it's ultimately irresistible. Now there's arguments within the church. Can you lose your salvation? Irresistible. Grace would say, no, you can't because the grace of God is irresistible. And even though you may backslide or fall away for a moment or a time, you will come back because of that irresistible grace, some would say, because that is true. You can't lose your salvation, but others would believe. Yeah. Yeah, you actually can fall away. Some would say, though, if you fallen away, you actually weren't saved in the first place. 2 (1h 3m 58s): So there's all kinds of, kind of gray around this idea. Can you lose your salvation? I've vacillated on this, honestly, theologically over the years, I've vacillated on this. Can you lose it? If you can. It's very hard because God is tenacious to come after us tenacious to forgive us tenacious, to love us unconditionally. So if we can lose it, it's pretty hard. It's pretty difficult, but I, I'm not gonna say you can't lose your salvation. If you walk away from God and you know, kind of bring stuff, the question was Judas saved. 2 (1h 4m 40s): I guess we'll find out when we get there. Calvin is backed this doctrine with such verses as Romans nine. And so we're just gonna go through Romans nine, 10 through 33, and we're gonna try our best to kind of unpack things in the next minute or two. And I'll just make this statement. God's for knowledge allows him or allowed him to buy a sovereign tea, direct the affairs of men, Romans nine, 10. And again, if you're a Calvinist here, or if you're Armenian, we'll have great conversation about it. 2 (1h 5m 20s): We'll find out someday. This son was our ancestor eyes kind of jumping into the middle of the chapter here. When he married Rebecca, she gave birth to twins, but before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. This message shows that God chooses people. According to his own purpose. He calls people. He calls people, but not according to their good or bad work, she was told your older son will serve your younger son. So the context of this passage, I mean, again, we look at the immediate context, the what's happening within the verses around the verse that we're trying to understand in the wider context what's happening within the book that we're studying, and then the complete context what's happening, you know, in the total story of the word of God, what is God's message to us? 2 (1h 6m 10s): So the context in this scripture seems to be talking about not a calling into salvation, but a calling into kind of position or role or responsibility. He calls people, calls people context. This calling is not talking about salvation, but not according to their good or bad works. And so this person wasn't called according to their good or bad works, but for God's purpose, God had a purpose for this person. So your older son will serve your younger son in the words of scripture. I love Jacob, but I rejected or I hated Esau. I love Jacob, but I hated Esau. 2 (1h 6m 53s): That's what the king James says. I think the original language speaks to that hatred. Why? Because Esau rejected. God, did God know that Esau was going to reject him? He did. He absolutely did. And so God, in his foreknowledge and through his sovereign, he was able to shape the events of history and the unfolding of his story history, his story, because he understood with fore knowledge, what everybody was gonna do before they were ever created. He knew. And so he was able to fashion things according to that fore knowledge and in his sovereignty unfold things, as he desired, are we saying verse 14, then that God was unfair. 2 (1h 7m 43s): Of course not for God said to Moses, I will show mercy to anyone I choose. And I will show compassion to anyone I choose. So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can either choose it. We can, we can either choose it nor work for it. Interesting. We can either choose it nor work for it. The salvation of God we is given as a free gift. It says here, we can either choose it nor work for it. So those are some difficult passages that we kind of have to wrestle through, but let's continue on here. So what is God who decides to show mercy? We can either choose it or work for it for the scripture, say that God told Pharaoh, and this is a great and interesting kind of picture. 2 (1h 8m 32s): But as we go back and read in Exodus chapter five, when Moses showed up to Farrow Farrow's response, Moses told Faroh, Hey, I'm gonna, we need to take, I need to take the Hebrew people and go worship the Lord. And Farrow said, who's the Lord that I should fear him or obey him. We get a glimpse into Pharaoh's heart, that it was already hard. It was already disobedience to the Lord. And we see as he goes on, it interacts with Moses that God gives him over to his sinfulness and uses his hard heart to further his purposes. 2 (1h 9m 18s): And so he takes his hard heart and even hardens it even more to accomplish his great purposes in the earth. But Pharaoh already had a hard heart. So God uses that to further his kingdom go back and read Exodus 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 for the scripture say that God told Pharaoh, I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth. So you see God chooses to show mercy to so, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others. So they refuse to listen. Now, if as a Calvinist, we believe that God can harden hearts, then that's, God can do whatever he wants to do. That's the part of the point is that if God's creed humanity, so not to diminish anything of God's power in God's sovereignty, in God's ability, he can do whatever he wants to do. 2 (1h 10m 9s): And it's just, and righteous if God's doing it, but we need to be careful not to misunderstand what God is doing and call calling something just when it's unjust or righteous. When it's unrighteous, we just need to be careful that we're understanding the totality of the word of God or the new Testament, with a clear picture of who God is, the character and the nature of God. So when we look at scripture, we need to ask ourselves a question, is this, my understanding of this scripture is it match the character and the nature of God does it match the story of the scripture? The complete message, the, the context of scripture, the immediate, the wider, the complete context. 2 (1h 10m 50s): We need to understand how to ask these questions. When we study the scripture for the scripture says that God told Faroh, I've appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth. So you see God chooses to show mercy to someone he chooses to harden the hearts of others. So they refuse to listen. So God's fore knowledge allows him to know what people will do do. And out of his fore knowledge, he acts gly in the earth. He's a just God. Well then you might say, why verse 19? Why does God blame people for not responding? Having they simply done what he makes them do? And the writer says, no, don't, don't say that. 2 (1h 11m 32s): Who are you? A mere human being to argue with God? So the thing that was created by the say to the one who created it, why have you made me like this? When a Potter makes a jar out of clay, doesn't he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage in, in the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. He does this to make the riches of his glory, shine, even brighter on those, to whom he shows mercy, we were prepared in advance for glory. 2 (1h 12m 13s): Are we among those whom he selected both from the Jews and from the Gentiles concerning the Gentiles. God says in the prophecy of those who are not my people, I will now call my people. Why weren't they as people because they're Gentiles. They're not Jews. They're not part of the chosen nation, but because they responded to the grace and the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Now they are his people. So as we think about Calvinism versus our meaning, the question for Calvinists a lot is, Hey, why do you evangelize? If it doesn't matter what we do, we're gonna be saved or not saved. And they talk about human agency. John Piper, especially talks about human agency, that God doesn't work outside of human agency. 2 (1h 12m 57s): So if people are to get saved, it's usually through the human agency of a preacher or missionary. So there's a, in my mind, it contradicts what they believe about salvation because human agency obviously is not capable in our own humanness. We're not capable of choosing, but yet God uses human agency. Those who are preaching the word of God to reach us. It for me, it's, there's a conflict there. It's hard for me to, to, to settle that kind of discrepancy or that, that confusion in my heart and mind and when we are. 2 (1h 13m 39s): And when we are among those whom he selected both from the Jews and the gen tells concerning the gen tells, we read that let's go to verse 26. And then at the place where they were told you are not my people there. They will be called children of the living God and concerning Israel. I say the prophet tried out though, the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore. Only arrant will be saved for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth quickly. And with finality. And Isaiah said the same thing in another place. If the Lord of heaven's armies had not spared a few of our children, we would've been wiped out like Sodom destroyed like Gamora. 2 (1h 14m 20s): What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God's standard, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. How were they made? Right with God like Abraham, they were made right with God, by their faith, their own human agency. And Calvinist would say, well, God saved them outside of their own Involvement because he wanted to save them. But we know from scripture, the old and the new Testament that the righteous are justified by faith were saved by faith. 2 (1h 15m 3s): And so there's a faith element that makes people, allows people to come into the kingdom of God. They were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. But the people of Israel who tried so hard to get right with God, by keeping the law never succeeded, the law was a mirror put up in front of the people so that they recognize their sinfulness. It wasn't to be kept for righteousness sake. It was to be acknowledged. God is so righteous and pure and set apart that I could never measure up to him with my own good works. And so I must receive his mercy and his grace for Jews and Gentiles alike, verse 32. 2 (1h 15m 50s): I think that's where we are. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. All right. So human, the human part of salvation is faith and trust. We, we are presented in my opinion, presented with salvation, for God's to love the world. And we have to decide, are we going to have faith? And are we going to put trust in who, in the gospel message in the person, the work of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 (1h 16m 34s): All right, let's skip the rest of those verses here for the sake of time. All right, finally, we get to the end of the argument. Armenians, believe a person can fall from grace. The, the P and tulip stands for the perseverance of the saints. So Calvinist would believe that even again, even if you backslide or fall away, that the perseverance of the saints will allow a person to persevere and, and walk with God all the days of their lives. Whereas a person, according to Armenian theology can fall from grace. 2 (1h 17m 17s): Let's just take a look. Calvinism teaches that the elect cannot lose their salvation because salvation is the work of God. The father, Jesus Christ, a savior in the holy spirit, it cannot be thwarted. None whom God has called will be lost. They are eternally secure, technically. However, it is God who perseveres, not the saints themselves. I don't think that bears witness with the rest of the scripture Calvin's doctrine on the perseverance of the saints is in contrast the theology of Lutheranism and the Roman Catholic church, which hold that people can lose their salvation. 2 (1h 17m 58s): Calvinist supports eternal security with versus such as John 10, 27, 28. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. In first Corinthians 10, 13, no temptation is overtaken. You accept what is common to mankind, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but you are tempted. But when you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can endure it mean T private total privative man. 2 (1h 18m 38s): Good. You unconditional ion unconditional atonement. L 11 (1h 18m 45s): Limited 2 (1h 18m 46s): Limited. What limited? I wrote it down. You wrote it down. And so 12 (1h 18m 56s): Unconditional 2 (1h 18m 57s): Election, unconditional election was, yeah. You okay. Good. Unconditional election L limited atonement. I IR irresistible irresistible grace and P perseverance. Perseverance of the saints. So did God choose us or did we choose God? Yes. I think it's both. I think it's both. We choose God and God chooses us. God chooses us. And we choose God in marriage. Did I choose my wife? Or did she choose me both? Right. 2 (1h 19m 37s): Even in an arranged marriage, if you look in the old Testament, you look at some of the patriarchs. They, they had a wife chosen for them, but ultimately they were also, their wives were given the choice to them. So I chose my wife and thankfully she chose me now who chose who first? Well in this relationship, I chose her first. And then she chose me. But in relationship with God who chose, who first, what came first, the chicken or the egg, I think God chose us. And then we chose him, but we have a choice to put our faith in him and to trust him or not. 2 (1h 20m 26s): That's my perspective. Now, if you disagree, that's okay as well. I there's lots of verses. We could go and go through and read, but we're already over time by 14 minutes. And so I'm gonna invite the worship team up. I used to be grateful for the clock. Sometimes I'm not so grateful for the clock. Let's go ahead and stand up. And Lord, I, I pray that I haven't confused people more than they were in the beginning. I pray that there's at least a kind of a, an, an excitement to kind of look further into it and to kind of consider all of these things. When we're reading the scripture and trying to understand the character and the nature of God, I pray that Lord, we would just be able to think deeply about the things of God and arrive at healthy conclusions, godly conclusions that fit the context of scripture. 2 (1h 21m 20s): So Lord, help us help us, Lord, help me. Thank you, Lord, for your grace in Jesus name, let's worship. Amen. 1 (1h 21m 51s): All my words, brochure. I got nothing express as I often do with every song. Must and again, have it's except for singing. 1 (1h 23m 10s): I got one. I've got just one. We worship 0 (1h 23m 25s): You. 1 (1h 23m 28s): So, and don't don't you up? 1 (1h 24m 29s): Your, you gotta lie songs. 0 (1h 24m 37s): Praise, Lord. 1 (1h 24m 45s): Don't shy on me. Lift up your song. You gotta lie songs, get 0 (1h 24m 55s): Bad. 1 (1h 25m 6s): Your song, praise you did I 0 (1h 26m 5s): Except for hot singing hall. 13 (1h 26m 28s): Thank you Lord for your faithfulness. Thank you. That you never changed. Thank you for choosing us. 0 (1h 26m 36s): Why don't we 13 (1h 26m 39s): PHIS with your spirit, with your go with us through the rest of the week. As we proclaim you to the world around us, our friends and family and everyone we meet in Jesus name. Amen. The.

0 (0s): Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Would you stand as we worship the Lord this morning? Thank you, Jesus. For your presence. Thank you that we get to worship you this morning. We drown out any distraction. 0 (3m 33s): This morning. I have faith to believe that I am. He says I am. So this morning I prayed for you that you would have faith to believe that you are, you are his child's 4 (6m 8s): Strange. 4 (6m 18s): 5 (16m 41s): You're so good. She's the sweetest. I want to acknowledge and stand in the greatness that you have or that you are Jesus. You are so amazing. Lloyd. You're the only one that can set us free from our sin. You're the only one that can give us salvation. You're the only one who can bring us into right relationship with God. And that's the greatest gift that we could ever receive. Jesus, you're so good. 5 (17m 21s): God, we would be absolutely lost without you and Jesus. We have such amazing hope and faith because of the sacrifice that you made. We love you father through name in your name. We pray. Amen. All right, well welcome everybody. Welcome to harvest church. It's great to have you here. You can take your seat if you'd like, if you're new here, just want to welcome you. And just for your information, we have coffee and tea out on the patio, and we've also got water behind us here behind this stage wall and then bathrooms back there as well. 5 (18m 4s): Also, if you're here again, if you were here first service, you may have noticed that I'm wearing different pants, this service don't, don't tell second service people that I spilled coffee all over them and had to run home and change. Okay. I'll just be our secret. Don't tell everybody online too, who are watching right now? Yeah. So it's great to have you here. We've got a few things coming up that you should know about the first of which is the men's breakfast. That's coming up. It's this coming Saturday. We're gonna have breath, breakfast testimony, awesome time with, with, with the guys. So come out, it's going to be on the west campus. 5 (18m 45s): So please join us over there. It's going to be a great time. Also. We've got a family movie night happening on this, on this baby right here. It's going to be pretty sweet. So come check that out. We also have a pretty amazing sound system, arguably better than the theater. So, you know, I don't want to cast any shame on them, but it's, it's pretty sweet. So do you want to come for that? That's on the 29th and we've got a little show that we're going to show for the kids first, and then we're going to have a movie after. So if you've got kids that have bedtimes, you can come for that portion and then take them home and put them to bed. So six to nine. So we'd love to have you here for that. 5 (19m 26s): And then we've got an amazing beach baptism coming up. That's on August 7th, right? August seven. Yeah. So that's, I don't know if you made it to the last one, but we had like 200 people at the beach. A bunch of people got baptized, even somebody who is walking by decided to get baptized. So just incredible stuff it's that God is doing. And so we're really excited to get back out there and do that on August 7th. The last thing is that if you have a kid fifth grade and up, they're going to be released to their classes right now as well. So everybody get up and meet somebody that you've never met before. Say hi to somebody right now. 5 (20m 8s): Yeah. Yeah, let's do that. Okay, good. Thanks. 1 (20m 12s): today. 8 (22m 2s): Good morning, James chapter four verses one through 10 today. We'll get about halfway through James today, James chapter four, and then a rest of it next week. And we'll pick it up, but so many amazing things are happening around here. It's crazy. Crazy. Great. Hey, real quick, real quick. Just in case you didn't know, the men's breakfast is eight o'clock at the loft. So Curtis told you the day and the place, but it's going to be at 8:00 AM and we'll be doing great food and testimony and song. It'd be really, really fun. So at the loft, how many know where the loft is at the other campus? Every or most of us know where the loft is. Cool. So that'll be happening then. So show up and if you want to help just get there early, get there like seven 15, if you want to help, if you want to help more than that, get there at seven o'clock. 8 (22m 50s): You want to run things, get there. 6:00 AM just getting welcome. So I w this feels like springtime to me, there's so many amazing things happening. We've been harvesting all of this fruit off of our trees yesterday. In fact, we've got a Tangerine or a nectarine tree that is the limbs literally are so full with fruit, that the branch is just broke apart. And, and our peach tree, we got this yellow peach and this white peach tree, the yellow peach tree is so loaded down with fruit that we had to put lumber like two by six under to support the branches. There's so much fruit. I called my sister yesterday. I said, man, you got to get over here and gather some peaches. And so we've given so many peaches away and then I've got this dead spot in my lawn. 8 (23m 34s): So I don't know, a week or so ago, I put some seed down and put some nice dirt down, some nice fertilizer down. And I saw him in water and you got a water like two or three times a day in order for it to grow. And so yesterday I'm out there watering it and I'm like, man, nothing's growing here. And then I watered again, like four or five hours later. And all of this, all of these grass shoots if come up through the dirt. I mean, I bet if you like stopped and just watched it, you could see the grass come up. It was pretty amazing. So anyway, also the best news ever was that my daughter had a baby. Let's throw a little Theo up there. There we go. Theodore J why say never tell us what the baby's name is until the baby is born. 8 (24m 19s): And so we know that we've got little Theo, so it's theater J we're not sure if he's going to be Theo or TJ or Theodore. I don't know, but at the same day, so my daughter, she was doing the first gay birth, Wednesday, the 13th. And then my niece also had a boy that same day, within a few hours of each other. She actually said, my niece, Jenna, Jenna was early and my daughter was late. And so we've added two new boys to the clan. And so we're pretty stoked about that. So really good stuff. When he came out, Theo was like this big blown up, you know, his lips were all, you know, my, my daughter said he had Kardashian lips, you know, big old lips. 8 (24m 60s): And he came out and he was just, you know, he looked all black and blue, but within 24 hours, he looked like that beauty little guy there. So anyway, so we're so, so thankful. And, you know, I have the day off yesterday and my wife was gone running errands all day. And I was just at home. I went for a little walk and a little run, but I was just at home and all day, just really enjoying just the, just the peace at our home. And it was just so refreshing. And it reminded me, cause you know, we can jump online or watch the news and be pretty discouraged, right? Give me pretty discouraged by looking around and what's going on in the world. But I was reminded yesterday that God is so faithful. And if we can get our eyes on that reality and keep that truth in front of us, then we will be encouraged. 8 (25m 47s): We'll have greater peace in our hearts and God will be glorified in our lives. We've got to keep our eyes on him. Don't be fearful. Don't worry about tomorrow. Just keep your eyes on him, watch what God will do. Hey, I wanted to give you up to date on this. Many people have been asking about this worship center and they ask, do we own it? Are we leasing it? What are we doing? So we are in a five year lease with the option to renew on this space. We've talked to the owner, John Hayashi, and John said, Hey, I'd love to sell the place to you. So when the time's right, we'll have the opportunity to buy it. But for now we're in a lease. And just as a reminder for like 12 years, when we were next door, we leased for 12 years before we ended up purchasing that place. 8 (26m 33s): And so when the time's right, if it's the Lord's will, will own it. I mean, I love to own it. It's a beautiful space. We put a lot of money into it and, and so the Lord's will be done. So in the meantime, we're just grateful to be here and we'll see what the Lord does. So somebody people have been asking, do we still contribute to the financial expenses? And yeah. Yeah. There's still the expenses. Like we just had the back lot pages. You got to see the paving back there. So people are asking Shui still. Yeah. There's still bills to be paid. Yeah. So Apadaca where are the Apadaca here today? Did an amazing job on that parking lot. And anyway, so if you get a chance to see David and Mike and Margaret Apadaca, there's lots of Apodaca here, but tell them thank you. 8 (27m 17s): But they did a wonderful job. So anyway, there's lots of expenses still happening. And so if you'd still like to give we'll happily rejoice and take them, people have been asking, what are we doing? The chapel? The chapel is our old worship center. We were in there for 17 years. And so our plan is if we need it and going into the fall summertime, it's always a little sparse and a little, not so full, but in the fall, if it looks like we need to open that up for overflow, then we, we may do that. But in the meantime, we're using it for weddings and smaller Memorial services, prayer groups, midweek, Bible studies. There's a lot going on still in that, in that space. 8 (27m 58s): So anyway, that's just kind of the update. If you have any other questions, just let me know. And I'll try to address those. We can talk to myself or any of the staff or elders, and we'll try to answer those questions for you. So enough of that, let's jump into James chapter four with the, with the question, how do we live at peace with others? How do we live at peace with others with that question? And with that thought, let's pray, Lord, we just invite you to speak to us. We really want to live at peace with others. And we know that your word through your spirit, the revelation of your word and the power of your spirit, we can, we absolutely can live at peace with others and your word, Paul Paul wrote when, when possible live at peace with everyone. 8 (28m 42s): So Lord, we, we want that. We know that it's possible. And so I pray that you instruct us through your word and that God we'd be able to grab hold of stuff, grab, hold of revelation and truth from your word and be listening to the holy spirit as he is speaking to us and God that we would get ahold of a nugget of truth that would help us to live at peace with the people in our lives. Lord spouses, kids, family of neighbors, coworkers, Lord, we just want to be at peace. So Lord, show us how to walk that out. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. So how do we live at peace with others? Maybe a good way to answer that question is to ask this question. 8 (29m 23s): What is, what is causing a lack of peace in our relationship with others? I know that for me, when I met with, at a lack of peace, it's usually because I'm just being selfish. I want something that I'm not getting, right? If I'm honest, I'm uptight because I'm not what I think I should have. There's a lot of selfishness involved in this lack of peace that we experience in relationship with others. And so James, the half-brother of the Lord, Jesus Christ challenges us with revelation and truth. Remember, he's speaking to believers here. James is speaking to people who believe what we believe. 8 (30m 4s): They're followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. They believe what we believe about the Lord. They have the holy spirit dwelling in them, and yet there's still stuff going on that needs to be addressed. And so James, he does what he does, man. He takes the bull by the horns and he just goes forward and he begins to speak truth to us speaking the truth in love so that we might not. So we might feel beat up, but so that we might align ourselves properly with God's plans and purposes for our lives. So the word of God has spoken for our, our, our edification that we might be built up in our most holy face. So we might understand who God has created us to be in the power that's available to us to live out the life that he's called us to live. 8 (30m 45s): So James four, James four one says, what is causing the quarrels and fights among you? That's the what's causing this. Like you speaking to the church, there's obviously some quarrelling and some fights what's causing it. He said, don't they come from the evil desires at war within you there's or there's something going on in the hearts of people that he's addressing in our hearts as well. There's something going on in our hearts that needs to be a duress. They come from the evil desires at war within you. What, what evil desires is James talking about while evil would indicate that the desires within us are not good. 8 (31m 27s): They're unhealthy, they're sin, they're sinful desires desires would indicate that it's something that we're hoping for longing for wanting to have, but we don't have it. So we've got these dark desires for things that we don't have. It it's a bad place to be. It's it's, it's an unhealthy place to be. It's a place that causes problems when we're in this place. We have problems when, within our relationships. So this could, you know, James could be speaking to those who are coveting, you know, covet don't there seems like there's a commandment about coveting. Like we shouldn't covet what others have. It's an unhealthy thing for us as the body of price. 8 (32m 10s): So mean cavity. We want something that belong to others in some way, position, status, influence possessions. We want something that others have, or we want someone's attention or someone's affection could be. I just want my way and I'm not getting it. You ever been there? I want my way and I'm not getting it. So there's tension in the relationship there's there's problems. There's there's, there's, there's, there's something that's unsettled in our souls that needs to be addressed quarrels and fights. They come from the evil desires at war, within you. That wars that's a strong word. 8 (32m 51s): We're familiar with war. There's a lot of war around us. And so we're familiar with the destruction that death, the problems surrounding this idea of war. And it, James is saying, there's this war happening within you? If you're not careful, if you're not careful to live and think the way that God has called us to live and think that we're going to have this battle forever within our lives. So Peter warns and we'll get to the verse here in just a moment. He said, keep away from worldly desires, that wage war against your very soul. So we have this battle with the world, the flesh and the devil. We, we have to be aware that this propensity for, for wanting our own way and for wanting our own will to rise up within us. 8 (33m 40s): So Peter would James keep, keep away from worldly desires, that wage war against your very soul. We'll see that full verse in just a moment. So the reality is that there can be no peace with others when we allow this type of evil desire to run roughshod in our lives. And so if we want peace in our relationship with, with others, but also with God, we've got to do some business here. We've got to pay attention to what the Lord would be speaking to us. So, number one, how do we live at peace with others? We need to learn to be content with what we have learned to be content with what you have. My wife reminded me of, of a story of a friend of ours who was having a really hard time with contentment. 8 (34m 20s): She struggled with contentment. And so she made this commitment. She said, I'm not going to go shop for clothes for a full year. Can you imagine, like I'm not picking up any articles of clothing for a full year. So she went the full year and she learned something about herself. I mean, so often we're running to get stuff, to meet a need within our lives. Like she had plenty of clothes, most likely and plenty of shoes. And I, if I were making that commitment, I'd go load up first, get some shoes I load up and then I've got, I'm good for the next year. Right? She just made the commitment, how I'm going to learn something about this area of contentment that I'm lacking in my life. 8 (35m 7s): And so she made this hard decision and she honored it. As far as I know, she went a full year without purchasing anything. How do we live at peace with others? We need to learn to be content with what we have with contentment comes peace with contentment comes joy. It's interesting that Paul talks about contentment, but he said, it's a learned behavior. Contentment is learned. It's a decision. Listen to the words of the apostle Paul in Philippians four, 10 through 14. He said, oh, I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you've always been concerned for me, but you didn't have the chance to help me. 8 (35m 47s): Verse 11. I love what he writes here. Not that I was ever in need for. I've learned how to be content with whatever I have. Not that I was in need, Paul he's his life is on the line. He's under house arrest and he's not sure if he's going to live. He's not sure what tomorrow holds. And yet his perspective is I've got no needs. Paul said for me to live as Christ and to die is gain. So his perspective was, Hey, I'm living for God. And so whatever God wants to do with my life, I'm okay with that. And so he's like, I really don't have any needs. 8 (36m 30s): I'm fully met. All my needs are fully met under house arrest of his faith and uncertain whether he will live, live or die. This is Paul's perspective and attitude in verse 12, he says, I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty with plenty or little for, I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength even. So you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty. So there's difficulty, but disrespective as for me to live is Christ to die is gain. 8 (37m 11s): So whether I've got a full stomach or an empty stomach, I mean, sometimes we kind of get a little upset with the Lord when we're, we don't have enough to eat. I would get a little hand Curry, right? We get we're like, what is going on Lord? Cause we, but sometimes the Lord will take us through a season of drought for things that we might think we need so that he can teach us a greater truth. There's something that Paul understood about the Lord that he would be faithful. Listen to what Paul wrote to Timothy first Timothy six, six through eight, yet true godliness with contentment is great wealth. And then he says what we all know after all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world and we can't take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. 8 (37m 54s): He's saying with the very basics of your life, when those, when they're, when they're met, just be content with that, learn to trust the Lord with that. But it's a learned thing. We have to learn to be content. How do you learn to be contents? Well, we must decide to love the right stuff. If we're loving the things of the world, we'll never find that place of contentment. But when we're putting our hearts in the right place and loving the right stuff, we will be good. Hebrews 13 five says don't love money. Be satisfied with what you have for God has said, I will never fail you. 8 (38m 34s): I will never abandon you. We know from scripture, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. So plenty of times, we've all been in circumstances where we've known somebody that passed away. And then there there's feuding over the inheritance. I mean, inevitably, unless it's like a supernatural experience that the family has, there's feuding over like microwaves and sofas and houses and people, people who otherwise really love and are committed to one another begin to battle over things. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It causes all kinds of problem within culture, within family, within society, James Fort continues. 8 (39m 16s): You want what you don't have. So you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can't get it. See a fight and wage war to take it away from them. You don't have what you want because you don't, you don't ask God for it. Even when you ask you, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong. You want only what will give you pleasure. So how do we live at peace with others? Number one, we need to learn to be content with what we have. Number two, we need to discover pleasure in eternal things. And that's a battle. We need to discover the pleasure of eternal things that the temporal pleasure that we find earthly things, whether it's possess whatever it is, they're there they're temporary at best. 8 (40m 7s): You get a new car and all that fun kind of begins to dissipate. When you got to wash that car, right? Get a new house. And it's great until you got to start making that new mortgage payment, right? It's like there's a cost to all of the things that we try to possess. There's blessing. When we find contentment and pleasure in eternal things, eternal things produce lasting pleasure and peace. I love CS Lewis. I quote him often. He says, if I see us Lewis said, if I find in myself a desire, which no experience in this world can satisfy the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. 8 (40m 52s): He understood something about who he is and what he was created for. I temporarily we're here. Like we've got work to do, and God's gracious. And he includes us in his kingdom work, but this is not our home. We are passing through in a best, we'll get 80, 90, a hundred years. But we have to remember that we are just passing through. And Peter understood that. Dear friends, first, Peter two 11 and 12, dear friends. I warn you as temporary residents and foreigners, temporary residents and foreigners to keep away from worldly desires, that wage war against your very souls, be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. 8 (41m 38s): Then if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior. And they will give honor to God. When he judges the world. One more CS Lewis quote, CS Lewis in the weight of glory dated June 8th, 1942. He declared this. It would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition. When infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum, because he, he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea, where we're far too easily pleased. 8 (42m 30s): We are easily satisfied by the things of the world that fade and are temporary when God has eternal pleasures available to us that never fade they're eternal. They're called eternal because they stay with us for all eternity. Adrian Warnock wrote, he said the Westminster catechism asks, what is the chief and of man? And the answer is we most, most of us know to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. He goes on. If any man, pleases God, he does that. Which conduces or helps to bring about most to his own temporal and eternal welfare man cannot please God, without bringing to himself a great amount of happiness. 8 (43m 22s): You see, there's a connection when we're pleasing God, there's great. Joy, happiness, and peace within our own lives for if any man, pleases God, it is because God accepts him as his son. And we begin to think about eternal things. We're beginning to understand what eternal things we're talking about, where we've been accepted as God's eternal children. We are his sons and his daughters. God accepts him as his son gives him the blessings of adoption pours upon him. The, the bounties of his grace makes him a blessed man woman in this life and ensures him a crown of everlasting life, which he shall wear. 8 (44m 6s): And which shall shine with unfading luster. When the Reeves of Earth's glory have all been melted away. While on the other hand, he continues. If a man, if a man does not, please God, he is inevitably. He inevitably inevitably brings upon himself sorrow and suffering in this life. So we've got a choice. We can find pleasure in eternal things by really valuing what God has done for us. And that's hard sometimes because we think, man, he turned 80 so far off. He turned it. He's not that far off. Their eternity is not that far off. Some of you are much older than I am. So you can kind of get that better than others. But I mean much older than I am some, but then the younger, you know, it's just harder. 8 (44m 51s): You know, sixties, not as old seventies, not as old as it used to sound, right? It's just not 80. Sounds like it's not too far off from the desiring God website. I found a brief article. Title. Joy is not optional. It's essential. Joy is not optional. It's essential. And there's kind of a interesting title here. It's there begin to talk about Christian hedonism. Christian hedonism is the conviction that God's ultimate goal in the world, his glory and our deepest desire to be happy are one and the same because God is most glorified in us. When we are most satisfied in him. When we think about hedonism, we don't really get this perspective. 8 (45m 31s): As a side note, Christian hedonism does not condone the pursuit of worldly pleasure. Rather it encourages seeking God as the highest pleasure back to the article. Not only is God, the Supreme source of, and we need to hear this of not only is God, the Supreme source of satisfaction for the human soul, but God himself is glorified by our being satisfied in him. Therefore, our pursuit of joy in him as essential is just part of the Christian life. Christian hedonism claims that the Christian life should be the pursuit of maximum joy in God joy, both in quality and quantity, fullness of joy enjoy forever more are found only in him. 8 (46m 17s): Powerful self king. David, I think got it. King David wrote in the Psalms about this very thing. It's all of David Psalm 16 verses one through six key. He say, keep me safe. Oh God. So he knows that God is his protector. God is his place of safety for, I have come to you for refuge. That place of protection. I said to the Lord, you are my master. So David understood something about the person of God, where God would be as place of safety as protector, but also God would be his Lord. His leader is king. I said to you, I said to the Lord, you are my master. Everything. Every good thing I have comes from you. 8 (46m 58s): Every good thing I have comes from you. The godly people in the land are my true heroes. I take pleasure in them. Troubles, multiply for those who chase after other gods, I will not take part in their sacrifices of blood or even speak the names of their gods. Lord, you alone are my inheritance. My cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine. The land you have given me as pleasant is a pleasant land. What a wonderful inheritance. So David understood about taking in eternal things. He knew the gifts and the grace that God had extended to him. And that's where he found pleasure. 8 (47m 38s): He had things all around him that could have offered a temporary pleasure. We have things all around us that if we allow, we, you know, they'll offer a temporary pleasure, but they all leave us wanting an empty, but God, he brings us gifts, eternal things that we find pleasure. And that will always be a source of pleasure for us. Galatians five explains how we discover pleasure in eternal things. Galatians five 16 through 17 says, so I say, let the holy spirit guide your lives. We challenged people to do that all the time. We challenge ourselves to do that all the time to allow the holy spirit, to guide our lives. We encourage you to read the word, open it up every day and allow the spirit of God to speak to you, instruct and then invite the holy spirit to constantly come in and lead in every circumstance. 8 (48m 29s): In every scenario. And Paul saying the same thing, let the holy spirit guide your lives. Then if you do that, you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. So if you're struggling with constantly doing what your sinful nature craves, you got to give the leadership of your life over to the holy spirit. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves for 17. The simple nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants. And the spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other. So you're not free to carry out your good intentions. 8 (49m 8s): So dropping down to verse 22, Galatians 5 22 and 26, a familiar passage, most of us to all of us, but the holy spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. And we see love and joy and peace and patience and kindness. Goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, there's no law against these things. In verse 24, he says those who belong to Christ. Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. So in Christ, we've given ourselves to Jesus. We've confessed our sin. We've nailed those things to the cross taking up, but the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ that has been imputed to us. 8 (49m 51s): And now we live as John three, three says we live a new life, a born again, experience in Christ, filled with his spirit. Since we're living by the spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Let's not become conceited or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another. So how do we live at peace with others? Number one, we need to learn to be content with what we have. Number two, we need to discover pleasure any eternal things. I just, for me, when I need to figure that out, I just open up the word and just allow the spirit of God does speak to me. I mean, there's no, there's no substitute for God's word. 8 (50m 38s): We absolutely need it to be speaking into our lives. Number three, much like the first point of last week's message. Number three, we must decide, are we living for God or the world? We got to decide who, who are we living for? When we figure that out, when we decide how I'm going to live for Jesus, it kind of clarifies a lot of things in our lives because a lot of times we're kind of wishy washy lukewarm on the fence about things. And so our world is pretty, pretty difficult to live because I remember when I was 17, I showed the story all the time. 17 I've given my life to Jesus, but not all the way like king Josiah, you know, he had the word of the Lord read to him and, and he humbled himself repented. 8 (51m 26s): He ripped his clothes because he heard in their head. We haven't been doing everything that the Lord has asked us to do. And I realized, man, I hadn't been doing everything the Lord asked me to do. And so I had to decide at 17, am I going to serve the world or the Lord? I got to decide I'm not helping in the church. I love the church, but I'm not happy there because I'm so involved in the world and I'm not happy in the world because I'm so involved in the church. And so I had to do something and by God's grace, he led me to choose him. And that's, what's been going on for the last few years of my life. And so I'm thankful. We must decide, are we living for God or the world? Again, this letter is written to the church. So there's bickering in the church among the believers to remind us James four, two through three says you want what you don't have. 8 (52m 12s): So you scheme and kill to get it. You're jealous of what others have, but you can't get it. So you fight and wage war to take it away from them. You don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it. And even when you ask you, don't get it because your motives are all wrong. You want will only give you pleasure. So James is challenging, very carnal behavior in the church, among the believers. He's challenging, very carnal behavior behavior. That is completely contrary to the way God's people are called to live in this world. There are worldly problems in the fellowship of believers because the believers are acting like, well, they're acting like unbelievers. 8 (52m 58s): And so when we're acting like unbelievers, we bring problems into our relationships. One to another. Why are the believers acting like unbelievers? Because they're torn between God and the world. And they got to decide, we got to decide. We got to make God, God in our lives or not. We got to decide that we, we got to decide, are we living for God? Or we live in for the world. A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. When a person is undecided there, their lives are reckless and unsettled. And, and, and, and, and in trouble, James, one, five through eight, if you need wisdom, ask if you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. 8 (53m 45s): He will not rebuke you for asking, but when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone, do not waiver for a person with divided. Loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea. That is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world. And they are unstable in every thing they do. Do you know what? God calls people like this. He calls them adulterers right. And then right in the word here, James, four, four, you adulterers don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God. 8 (54m 29s): I say, I say it again. If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate. That the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. And he gives grace generously as a scripture, say, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So humble yourself before God resist the devil. And he will, he will flee from you. Come close to God and God will come close to you. Wash your hands. You sinners, purify your hearts for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. And he said, because this is true. 8 (55m 10s): Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter and gloom, instead of joy, humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. So again, Josiah, he hears the truth and he rips his garments and he's mourning because he's come face to face with the truth. With the reality of his condition, we've not been doing everything the Lord has asked us to do. And so he's broken, humble repenting for his sins of omission. There's sins of commission things we do that we shouldn't do. And their sins of omission things we don't do that we should do. 8 (55m 54s): Just, I understood that he was, he was missing something and he humbled himself and repented. How do we live with peace with others? We must, we need to learn to be content with what we have. We need to discover pleasure and eternal things. We must decide, are we living for God or the world? And so where are you at? Where's your heart? Are, are you all in? Are you just feeling unsettled in your soul? Because you're kind of lukewarm and not all the way in, not all the way out you liked church, but you like the world. You like God, but you also like everything. The world off of what, where's your heart. This is a challenge. It's an opportunity. 8 (56m 34s): God said in his word, if you will draw close to God, if you will come close to God, he will come close to you. So let me just inviting you to come close to God today, draw close to him, make your decision to follow him. Everything in your life will become so much better at your relationships. You'll you'll have peace with one another because you're not living in competition, anxious, you know, wanting what others have, but you're just going to be at peace with who God has made you to be. And with what God has given you, you'll be satisfied with the eternal pleasures that God has made available. That you're, you're adopted into his family. 8 (57m 14s): Your sins are forgiven. You, you become his child. He's given you eternal things to be grateful for. So I just want to challenge us today. We've got to decide, who are we? What will we do? Will we live for God? Or we live for the world without it's going to stand up. I'm gonna invite the worship team up and Lord this week, consider those questions. And as we consider the scripture that we've been reading and talking about Lord, I pray Jesus, that you would, God she'd show us where we've maybe been undecided and like Josiah Lord, we will humble ourselves and we will repent. 8 (57m 56s): And we will confess Lord God, or thank you that when we confess our sins, you're faithful. And just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, you bring us face to face with truth for our edification, for our good and for your glory. So Lord help us to be grateful that you bring us face to face with truth so that we can align properly, align ourselves with you, lining our lives with your word, being filled with your spirit, experiencing the peace of God and the grace of God and better relationships with one another and an incredible relationship with you. So we invite you to do that. Lord, as we sing, God, help us to ponder and meditate and make decisions. Today. We pray in Jesus name. 8 (58m 37s): Amen. Let's worship 3 (59m 11s): perhaps creation long. So you have 0 (1h 3m 48s): Thank you. Jesus. Thinking that we get to see in your name a thousand times, thank you that we get to lift your name high here on this earth and forever in eternity, you are the king of Kings. You reign on the throne. We honor you, and we love you. It's in your precious name. We pray. Amen.

1 (2s): Psalm 1 45 says that he is trustworthy and he has faith. He said this morning, we worship you this morning, father, we praise you. 1 (4m 25s): We lift your name. Hi, this place 2 (4m 45s): Bad. And you see oh God you make 0 (9m 51s): You 2 (9m 51s): Make Hi. I'm move. 2 (11m 53s): You make giants. You use songs of praise to shake. I will speak. I will preach them by 3 (12m 53s): Love you so much. You're so faithful. You're so faithful. What a great song to sing on grand opening Sunday, Lord, that we can declare your faithfulness to us as a church and us individually. Lord, you are so faithful and Lord, even in the hard times and the good times that you're faithful, no matter what's going on around us. Jesus, you're so good. We love you so much, Lord, we just give this whole Sunday to you. We celebrate you today. It's all about you, Lord. It's not about this building, but it's about what you want to do with it. It's a tool for your kingdom and for your glory and for your good and for our good as well. 3 (13m 33s): Jesus. And so we love you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. All right. You can be seated. Welcome. It's grand opening. Let's give the Lord a round of applause. Yeah. My name is Curtis, and I'm glad to be doing announcements with you guys today. But before that I'm going to invite all of the high schoolers who are going away to camp up to the stage. Come on up, come on up. Let's go. You're going to camp. Come up here. We're going to pray for him. 3 (14m 13s): It's going to be really good. So I just encourage you to extend a hand. You can come up here, come right up here, right up in the front. Yep. File in. Yeah, we can skip this way. If you guys would, we got to have the people online. They got to see you too. Your beautiful faces. All right. Yeah. So if you could extend a hand to that would be great. And Lord Jesus, we just thank you so much for, for all of these students. We thank you for what you want to do while they're away at camp and Lord, no matter what their motivation is, if it's a girl or a boy or one that they don't know, Jesus, we know that you want to get ahold of their hearts. 3 (15m 1s): And so Lord, I just pray that you administered at each individual who's on this stage, Lord. We just want to come into alignment with what you have for their lives. We love them so much. We've, we're so grateful that you've entrusted them to this church. And we just want to lift them up to you, just be with them. Holy spirit, guide them and minister to them as they go in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you guys. Yeah, you guys can go now if you want. Thanks. All right. Awesome. 3 (15m 42s): Well, we've got a couple of announcements going on. If you haven't heard, we have a barbecue and a celebration happening after this service. So at 1230, meet us over at the west campus on our patio on the west campus is not as far as it sounds. It's like one minute walk. So don't be afraid. You can do it. If you need a map to get there, it's at the info center. So check that out. Also, we've got some men's events coming up and want to make you aware of that because a lot of times men don't want to get connected into community. So if you don't want to get connected into community commit right now to going and plug in, because it'll be a great decision for you. 3 (16m 25s): Okay? So we've got two things we've got M six tomorrow night at six o'clock, which is always awesome. They got food. They've got a testimony worship. It's a really great time. And then also on the 23rd, we've got a men's breakfast. So that's here at harvest. It's going to be amazing again. There's going to be great food and testimony. Really good. So come to that. If you're a man, if you're a woman, there'll be other things. Sorry. This is going to be something else. Okay. All right. Yeah. So that's all I got for you. If you're new here, we have restrooms in the back behind this wall and we've got coffee and tea out on the courtyard area. So that's all I got for ya. We've got an amazing legacy video to kind of recap the history of harvest as we're celebrating this big milestone. 3 (17m 11s): So direct your attention to the screen 7 (17m 29s): Started making plans and we didn't have any money. We didn't have any equipment. We didn't have any backing. We just had a few families for the 12 people and, and seven of those people were kids. So we had, you know, it was 12 of us, you know, which is good number. And so we just started making plans and thinking about where we could meet and that sort of thing. And we in landed, we ended up thinking about Lopez high school. It's just down the road from our house and we contacted them and they gave us permission to start meeting there. And so we just kind of picked a date and we didn't like have a lot of big vision or anything for what we were doing. In fact, I remember, I don't know, month or two into it. 7 (18m 13s): A family came by to visit the church on a Sunday morning and they wanted to take us out to lunch. And so we went to lunch and they said, you know, what's your vision for harvest church? And we're like, I don't know. We just want to have church. And we just want to teach the Bible. And we just want to, you know, love people. We don't have much of a vision other than that right now. And you know, things have developed of course over the years, but that was kind of the, you know, the, the very rough kind of beginning. 8 (18m 40s): We really had a heart for a specific type of church culture that was very inclusive. That felt like home for people that felt like a place that they could plug in and be involved and feel a part of the family. And that was something that was really important to us. And so we just felt like maybe other people will enjoy that too. So let's just start moving in the direction of starting a church and see what God does with that. And, you know, if it fails, it fails, then no harm, no foul, you know, we tried and, you know, maybe if we create a culture that we enjoy, that we feel passionate about, maybe other people will enjoy that too. And so that's kind of, you know, maybe the, the roots behind it is that we kind of always had sort of a passion and it was just normal to be involved in the life of a church of our church, whatever church we're involved in 7 (19m 31s): And kind of our belief is that, and it's scriptural that God gives his people gifts to be used. And so we just felt like that's what we were trying to do. Just use our gifts and talents that God had given to us. And, you know, just to bring glory to him and, and invite others to do the same thing so that they could find fulfillments in life and joy in life and, and fulfill God's plan and purpose for their lives. So we wanted to do create something that allowed people to just be free and who they were as Jesus and point people to Jesus and serve Jesus and kind of along the way, you know, thinking back to that original conversation with that couple, that we're, we're, we're curious about who we are and what we're all about. 7 (20m 21s): And we didn't really have a lot of words to describe that. And, but over time we identify some core values that, you know, we're called to love all people. I think that's obvious in scripture, old and new Testament, we're just, God is a God of love and we're called to love all people were committed to that. The Lordship of Jesus Christ, You know, without Jesus, as we've kind of talked about without Jesus kind of guiding and directing everything, we, we don't have a story, you know, and without Jesus, we don't have new life and the purpose that we have, you know, so we're committed to not just Jesus, but the Lordship, the leadership of Jesus Christ. 7 (21m 12s): I, when we need him, want him and depend on him to lead and guided direct, direct to what we're doing. So we're confident in the word of God, that's another core value. So that's what we teach just every week. We just, and throughout mid we Bible studies and youth and young adults and college and home groups. I mean, our goal is just to teach the Bible men's groups, women's groups, you know, and we're, we're confident that God's word is meant to guide us and direct us and give us wisdom and speak to us about the plans and purposes of God. And so we're, we're confident in the word of God, call to love people, committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and we're called to serve. 7 (22m 3s): We're called to serve people. And so we've, we've done that. I think that's what we strive to do and try to do is serve the community by opening our doors and inviting people in serving people in the community, but also serving people within the church. You know, we're, we're called to serve people. That's Jesus said, Hey, I didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. And so we just trying to do what Jesus modeled for us and instructed us to do. We're just, we're we're we want to serve people 8 (22m 39s): Part of how we've attempted to love and serve our community is through a lot of outreach over the years, we've kind of always felt like it's intimidating for people to walk into this four walls of a church building, but if we can get out and love on people and be a blessing in our community, that that really speaks volumes to people and helps kind of make it less intimidating to enter into the walls of the church. 7 (23m 2s): Sort of, it's mostly about just being faithful in the season, faithful in the moment. And, and, and we've had to learn how to do that 8 (23m 11s): Really at the core of it, you know, it's like the disciples said, like, where else would we go? You know? I mean, what else is there? You know, it's to be a part of furthering the kingdom, helping people along in their walk with Christ. There's nothing else like it. 7 (23m 59s): Let's pray. Thank you. Thank you so much, Lord. We are humbled by what has happened over these years, these 19 years, we're grateful for your constant goodness toward us, the favor that we've received and the provision Lord, there's just been amazing. Goodness, Lord. And we're so, so thankful for your amazing goodness. It we've experienced it every day through the challenging days and through the glorious days, your goodness has been consistent. And so we praise you for that Lord, as we have the celebration service today, thank you for the opportunity to gather in this new space. 7 (24m 40s): He's just part of our story. Like so many other spaces leading up to this. So this is just part of the story. So we praise you, Lord, we thank you for who you are. We bless you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Well welcome. Hey, it is a family Sunday, although it's not typically a family Sunday on this day in the month, but because it's family sending cause of the celebration, I've got some jokes. Jokes are always part of family Sunday. So this is when I heard, I already paid five bucks for this one today. Cause I just got it. But so the rule is that if you're a kid, no adults qualify, but if you're a kid and you give me a joke that I use and I'll give you five bucks. So that's the deal. So I think I still owe a little girl five bucks anyway. 7 (25m 22s): So, so the joke that I heard this morning was what do you say to a gorilla with headphones on anything you want? He can't hear you just heard that this morning. I got an, I've got another one. What's the joke. I'm trying to remember it now here. What, how did the cell phone proposed to his girlfriend? He gave her a ring. You gave her a ring. All right. Enough of that, as you can see from the video, a lot has changed over the years. We all looked just a little bit younger back in the day. And, but it's fun to kind of look back a couple decades and just kind of see what God has been up to and just to appreciate who he is. 7 (26m 8s): And I'm now going back really 20 years ago, when we first had the idea to plant a church, people asked us, you know, why in the world do you want to plant a church? And you know, we've got plenty of great churches here on the central coast. I said, I know there's amazing churches here on the central coast. And others said, you know, I'm not sure that you actually will. You know, that you've got what it takes to be a senior pastor. I said, I know you're probably right about that. And others said you don't have any resource or backing any people, any facility, any kind of church stuff that you need. I said, I know I totally get all of that, but we just got to have this sense that this is what God is up to you. So if we kind of made a list of all the pros and cons, we probably never would have planted a church. 7 (26m 53s): We never would have done anything. We'd just gone off doing what we think we should have done. I don't know what we did none, but, but when I think about pros and cons, I kind of have a different kind of perspective, a different kind of filter. I think about pros and cons differently because over 45 years ago, my mother-in-law Margaret Miller. She was dating a guy by the name of Marvin Miller. So Margaret was dating Marvin and they were just in this dating relationship. And one night Margaret was coming home through Guadalupe and she got run off the road by a drunk driver and, and she became a quadriplegic. 7 (27m 34s): So she's in traction at cottage hospital down in Santa Barbara and she's in a striker bed. She's got bolts into her head to keep her head from moving. And she's her life is forever and tragically changed as a result of this gnarly accident. And so Marvin Margaret, again, just dating at the time, they decided to make a list of pros and cons. Do we move forward with this relationship or not? They made a list of pros and cons and their cons weigh out, listed the pros. And so they said, you know, we're just, it's not possible for us to move forward. 7 (28m 15s): Like this it's just impossible. So Marv went home and he was at home one night and he felt like the Lord speak, spoke to him and said, Hey, you need to go and be by her side. And so he went to the hospital and knelt down by her bed or she's face down. So she had a mirror I believe. And so that's how she could see who was in the room. And so she said, he said, you know, I don't know how, I don't know what the future looks like for us, but I, I know that I'm supposed to be by your side. And every day for the last 45 years, Marv has been by her side, serving her and faithfully loving her. 7 (28m 57s): And they've just served and loved each other for decades and been an amazing example to my wife and our kids and our grandkids. And so when I think about pros and cons, I've got a totally different filter because I think most things in life that seem impossible, you can make a list and talk yourself out of it like right now, but if God's in it and if God's spoken and I've got us leading, then all of a sudden you've got the courage to do things that don't make a lot of sense. That seem, it seems like a bad idea unless God, unless God is in it, it's a bad idea. 7 (29m 37s): So when we took a made a list, you know, or heard all the reasons why we shouldn't plant a church, we didn't, you know, we said, you know what? All of that is true. It's, they're all true. But that doesn't mean that God's not calling us to do it. And so we just decided to do it. And so in March of 2003, we planted harvest church again with three families, five adults and seven kids. And we just started having church. We just set a date on the calendar and I was, I had never been a senior pastor before, never preached weekly at, at a church service. I'd done other ministry, but I'd never done that type of ministry. 7 (30m 18s): Like full-time lead pastor type stuff. And so I, I didn't, you know, we, we just had, we really had no idea what we were doing. He never planted a church, never any, all of the above. We had never done it before. So it was just this big kind of step of faith. I, I talked to another guy in the area who was getting ready to plant a church around the same time. And he's like, man, I got a hundred sermons in the can. Like he had like a hundred sermons ready to go. And I heard that. I'm like, dude, I don't even know what I'm going to say. Our first Sunday, when we gather, I have no idea. He had all this backing, all of this money. He was being planted by this church planting network. And so they had resource out the, out the ears and they were just going for it. 7 (31m 1s): I'm like, holy cow, Lord, what are we doing? We've got none of the above. But we just, by, by God's grace just decided to just take it a day at a time and do what we felt like God was calling us to do. So in 2003, we started meeting at Lopez high school. Two years later, we had this amazing conversation with Amanda Lambert. Who's sitting here on the front row with us. We had been praying that God would give us an opportunity to move from the Mesa. I don't know if you know where Lopez high school is, but it's up on the Mason. And so if people showed up, we were always surprised. We're like, how did you know that we were meeting here? You know, cause we had the sign up for like two hours on Sunday morning and you know, it was just a miracle if anybody showed up. 7 (31m 44s): And so we knew that we wanted to be in the village of a Ray granny where we could have a bigger impact. And, and so we just began to pray and just ask the Lord. And I was driving through the village and I see this big four foot by eight foot sign out on the lawn of 1 24 west branch up the road here about a minute. And I just pulled over and went in to talk with Amanda. I don't know. I can't remember if Clem was there, but you were there for sure. And clam probably. And I said, Hey, I'm Steve. I pastor this really small church, you know, and we, we have this desire to move into the village of a rear grand day. And we noticed that you've got this church that's for lease. Would you be interested in leasing it to us again? 7 (32m 25s): And she'd been using it as her decorate her, her, her store or storefront for her decorating business or interior design business. And there's the word interior design. And, and, but she was, you know, ready to kind of scale back a little bit and moved back to the back of the property a little bit. And so I said, you know, we just started that conversation. And, and just really just in that moment on kind of a handshake, we decided to move forward. And, and so we started the renovation and come and Amanda helped us with renovation. We had to put in fire sprinklers and all kinds of stuff. Anyway, we, we, we just moved in, in 2003 and during the time that renovation, we were actually meeting outside on the lawn behind the parsonage was just up the driveway at the west campus. 7 (33m 8s): And so, you know, we, we grew from like 60 people to 180 people while they're meeting outside on the lawn and we we'd be outside and be cold and drizzly. And we'd like, why are people coming to our church? We've got we're meeting on the lawn and it's cold and wet. And all these people kept coming up the driveway. I say, who are these people? But God just kept bringing people. And, and it was just this sweet, sweet thing. So 2005, we started meeting here, there, and then we purchased one 20 heart lane, which is the house next door that our friend neighbor Mark Miller had for years and years. And so we just kept having church and slowly but surely we take over more and more of that space. 7 (33m 49s): There's a bunch of buildings behind the chapel, the sanctuary and little by little, we just kind of take, you know, started taking them over. And then in 2015, 2017, we bought it from the Lamberts. And so the circumstances worked out. We bought the house at one 20 Hart lane in 2015, we bought the church property in 2017. And then, and then we just have been having church. And as we've needed to, we've just been praying that God would give us some more space we've we just needed some more space. And so we looked around and we actually had looked at this space like 10 years ago, John Hayashi is the owner of this property. And 10 years ago, I called John and said, Hey, would you be interested in leasing us your space or selling us your space? 7 (34m 33s): And he said, absolutely not. He was like, he didn't want a church here. He didn't want, I don't know what was going on in John's life, but he was not interested in leasing it to our shirts. But fast forward, 10 years, I called him up and said, Hey, John, where, you know, the place is empty again, can we lease your space? He's like, Hey, I'll meet you down there in 15 minutes and we'll talk and really on a handshake, he opened the doors for us to, you know, to, to, to get this place. And so, you know, it was just over a year ago, it was March last year, we made the decision to move in here and took 59 weeks or so to get it renovated, you know, everything around, it had to be changed. And so here we are, and we're just, we're just excited about what God is doing and what he's up to. 7 (35m 17s): And so we just wanted to celebrate in kind of a special way today and just invite people to be a part of what we're doing. There's, there's a lot to celebrate and we're so thankful for what God is doing. So again, we, we planted not because we had a plan, not because we knew what we were doing, but because God had called us to do something. And so I just want to encourage you in your life. Maybe God is calling you to do something. We challenge people all the time to listen to what the God the Lord is saying. And then step into those supernatural plans that God has for you. And just maybe just, maybe God will do something wonderful in your life. 7 (36m 1s): It's a day at a time adventure. So I shared this last week, but recently we were having a lot of like church challenges. I don't know if you've ever experienced church, challenging circumstance. Have you ever been in church where you had like challenging circumstances? Just me. Okay, good. Just me. So I'm not walking, I'm a hundred prayer walk and I'm like, Lord, what's going on? There's some hard stuff going on. And I felt like Lauren said, do three things. Number one, keep your eyes on me. Okay. I can do that. I can just cause you know, the temptation is to see everything that's going sideways in your life and get your eyes and focus your attention on that. So I knew that I needed to get my attention back on the Lord. And then the Lord said, don't be fearful. You know, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of sound mind. 7 (36m 41s): So the temptation to say, watch everything be fearful about what might happen and then just kind of freak ourselves out. But God said, no, just keep your eyes on me. Don't be fearful. And they just take it a day at a time. The Bible says, don't worry about tomorrow. Today's worries are an F for the day. So those three things that's been kind of our, our focus, although I just kind of felt like the Lord reminded me recently, but that's really been our focus for these last 1920 years is that we would just keep our eyes on Jesus, not allow ourselves to get fearful, but just take it, take things a day at a time and watch what he will do. And that's been kind of our story and, and that's kind of continues to be our story and it will always be our story. 7 (37m 25s): Recently this last week I had a chance to speak at our youth group midweek Wednesday nights at six 30, our junior high and high school are actually our club five, six gathers as well, but it was just junior high and high school this week. And Jeremy, our youth and family, pastor got sick. And so we talked and you know, we talked about canceling it, canceling the meeting mid-week I said, no. I said, how about if I speak? I I'd love to speak to the young people. So I volunteered to speak. And I, I love young people because in when, when we were, when I was in that season of life, so many amazing things happen to me. Number one, I got saved, gave my life to Jesus. I felt a call to ministry. When I was in high school, a lot of transformational stuff. 7 (38m 8s): I met my wife during our high school years and 32 years, we're still going and still going strong. And so a lot of amazing things happened for me when I was in high school. So any opportunity that I have to speak to our young people, I do it. And I it's so, so fun to watch what God is doing with our young people. So I spoke to them and I challenged them with choosing the right path. And the title of the message Wednesday night was how do you choose? How do you choose the right path? I want to share with you kind of what I share with them. I'll fill it in a little bit more and give you some more information. I've already done that, but I want to talk to you about choosing the right path. 7 (38m 51s): It's, it's a challenge for young people, but it's also a challenge for people of any age throughout the seasons of life. We're always wrestling with what is the right direction? What is the right path for my life? How do I move forward? And so we're going to look at a king Josiah in second Kings chapter 22. And we're going to look at the scope of his life because we get kind of to jump into his life at age eight. And then we get to see his life lived out as one of the Kings of Judah. So Josiah was one in a long line of Kings in his family. 7 (39m 32s): And that's an interesting place to be your granddad, great granddad, your granddad, your dad were Kings. You know, you're going to be king. And then your generations that follow will be Kings. And so we're gonna learn something about Josiah, his heritage and why he chose what he chose. So Josiah, his great grandfather was king has a Kiah and he was a godly man. You, you, as you read through the Kings about the Kings of Judah and Israel, it'll mention a king. It will say this king did what was pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, or it'll say this king did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. 7 (40m 15s): Every king had a choice. Every person has a choice. How will we live our lives? Well, Joseph is great. Grandfather king has a. Kyle was a godly man. It says in second Kings 18 three, he did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight, just as his ancestor king David had done. So just as king David was a man after God's own heart has a Kaia was also a man after God's own heart. Josiah's grandfather was king Manasseh, but he did not follow the footsteps of his father. Instead, second Kings 21 2 says he did what was evil in the Lord's sight. 7 (40m 55s): Following the detestable practices of the pagan nations that the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israel. So as the people of Israel were heading into the promised land, God drove out all the pagans in the land, but when the people settled, some of the Kings misled, the people doing some of the very things that they drove out, the former inhabitants for, they drove out the previous inhabitants of the land of Canaan because of their wickedness. Now the Kings of Judah are leading the people to do the same thing. Josiah, his father king Ammon in his brief two year reign as king second Kings 21, 23 22 says this. 7 (41m 37s): He did what was evil in the Lord's sight, just as his father Manasseh had done. He followed the example of his father worshiping the same idols. His father had worshiped. He abandoned the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and he refused to follow the Lord's way. So Josiah's dad and granddad did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Let's take a look at what Josiah will do. Second Kings 22 verse one says this Josiah was eight years old. When he became king, he imagined being king at eight year olds. We have any eight year olds in the room. Eight year olds. Yeah, we got an eight year old. Imagine you're ruling everything like you're in charge like your parents, your grandparents, all your siblings, all your friends, they get to do what you tell them to do. 7 (42m 25s): So that's a big responsibility, right? As an eight year old w the kingdom is mine, right? But Josiah, he was a tender little eight year old, just say I was eight years old when he became king. And he reigned in Jerusalem 31 years, his mother was jetted up the daughter of a Daya from Bose cough. And verse two tells us he did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight. He did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight and follow the example of his ancestor. David. He did not turn away from doing what was right. So how do you choose the right path? Number one from Josiah is example. You must decide, you must decide, will I serve God or the world? 7 (43m 8s): So we're not sure why Josiah chose the path that he chose, but maybe just, maybe he watched his dad and he watched his granddad lead and lead the nation into sin and destruction. Maybe, maybe just, he watched that example. And maybe he heard stories about king David and other righteous Kings, who, who led the people to honor the Lord. They pleased the Lord with their lives. And so somewhere along the line, he was persuaded that it's better to please the Lord with my life. And so at eight years old, he made the decision to honor the Lord with his life. 7 (43m 52s): So I did that at about 17 years old. I gave my life to Jesus when I was in junior high school, but kind of waffled in my faith. I was trying to decide, am I really going to serve God? Or am I going to serve the world? Am I going to go headlong into serving Jesus? Or I'm going to go headlong into the world? I can't do both. I got to decide, right? So at 17 years of age, I decided to give my life to Jesus. I had seen enough of the world and enough of the church, then enough of godliness and ungodliness that I decided at 17 years old to give my life to Jesus. We, we actually have to make that decision. And apparently you're never too young to make that decision. 7 (44m 33s): And the truth is you'll make that decision. And if your decision is to serve, Jesus, you'll need to continue to make that decision all of the days of your life. Like you're going to come up against difficult challenges, temptations hard things in life. And it's in those moments that you're going to have to decide. I'm continuing to put my trust in Jesus. Like I'm going to keep my eyes on Jesus. I'm not going to be fearful. I'm going to take this a day at a time. I'm not going to worry about tomorrow. I'm just going to be faithful today. We have to decide, and really in decision is a decision not to serve Jesus. 7 (45m 14s): We, a decision to serve. Jesus requires that you be intentional and that you're serious about that commitment to follow Jesus and be a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. When Jesus called his disciples, he, he called them into something. He said, he said, come and follow me. And I will make you fishers of men. God's calling us to follow him. And so whatever challenged Josiah to make that decision, he decided against, against his suppose, the world, the flesh and the devil, the same foes that we face today, the world, the flesh and the devil that is trying to draw us away. 7 (45m 55s): He, he refused his foes and it appears from his life that we read about in this chapter that he continued to choose to follow God. And to please the Lord with his life. It says in verse three, second, Kings 22 in the 18th year of his reign. So now we're in 18 years, king Josiah, son of Azalea and grand set of the court secretary to the temple of the Lord. And he told him, go to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money. The gatekeepers have collected from the people of temp at the Lord's temple in trust this money to the man assigned to supervise the restoration of the Lord's temple. 7 (46m 40s): Then they can use it to pay workers, to repair the temple. So if you look back at the previous generations, his dad and his granddad, Josiah is a parent dad and granddad. They would probably have taken that money and used it for selfish gain for whatever they chose to use it for. Because after all, they were setting up idols within the temple of God, they would set up Asher, a pole Astro was a female goddess. She was worshiped. She was a fertility God. And so the people would worship her to maybe in hopes that they would become pregnant, that they would be able to have children. 7 (47m 24s): And so they would worship Asherah, but also bale and tradition says that Asher was actually, Asher was the mother of bail and bail was at fertility God, but they would worship him in hopes that their crops would be fertile and that they would have great crops. And so we're told in, I think in second Kings chapter 18, that that the people of God were not to have any type of idols in their lives. So it's interesting that the Kings struggled and the people of God struggled, mostly with idolatry, they struggle with idolatry. God spoke to them specifically about his plans for their lives in this area, so that they would be strong and resist, but instead over and over again, they fell into this trap of idolatry. 7 (48m 12s): And so we see a change in Josiah, his heart in previous kingdoms, his dad and his granddad, they would desecrate, they desecrated the temple and set up idol worship within the temple. But Josiah's heart is to restore the temple. And so he's saying, Hey, give these these resources that have been collected to the craftsmen so that they might honor the Lord by restoring the temple. So Josiah made a decision and his decision is being reflected in his life. In verse six says they will need to hire carpenters, builders, and masons also have them buy the timber and the finished stone needed to repair the temple, but don't require the construction supervisors to keep a count of the money they they received for. 7 (49m 1s): They are, they are honest and trustworthy men. So Josiah had godly, honest, trustworthy people around him, people that he could give work to do. And he trusted them to do the kind of work that would honor the Lord. Now, how do you choose the right path from Josiah is example number one, you must decide, well, I serve God or the world, and we're all faced with that decision now. And throughout the course of our life, Josiah shows to honor the Lord with his life, but also number two, your life must reflect your decision. This is how you make right choices. You decide that my life will reflect my decision to make God priority. 7 (49m 46s): And so now we look at Josiah's life and instead of desecrating the temple setting up idols within the temple of God, he is restoring the temple. He's using resources and dispatching men to restore the temple, honoring the Lord with his decisions. Your life must reflect your decision. This is how you will find the right path in life. You'll discover God's law in verse eight, it says Hilkiah. The high priest said to Schaefer and the court secretary, I have found a book of the law in the Lord's temple. Then Hilkiah gave the scroll to shaven and he read it. So imagine the temples in this order, it's it's in disrepair, but when they go into restore it, they find this law, they find this scroll the word of the Lord. 7 (50m 36s): So shape and went to the king and reported your officials have turned over the money, collected the temple of the Lord to the workers and supervisors at the temple. Shaven also told the king he'll Kaia. The priest has given me a scroll. I'm gonna read it to the king. And when the king heard what was written in the book of the law, he tore his clothes in despair. So our seeing Josiah respond to the word of the Lord. His life is reflecting his decision. He's hearing a word from the Lord and he's in despair. Let's find out why he's in despair. Then he gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, ah, cam son of son of McCaya chef and the court secretary. 7 (51m 23s): And Asya the King's personal advisory said go to the temple and speak to the Lord for me and for the people. And for all Judah inquire about the words written in this scroll that have been found for the Lourdes. Great anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this scroll. We have not been doing everything it says we must do. So he's hearing the word of the Lord and he's realizing we're not doing everything it says we must do. So Josiah is all in. He's made his decision. My life will be pleasing to the Lord. And I'm going to make sure that the actions of my life reflect that and reinforce that reality that I am a follower of God in my life will reflect that. 7 (52m 10s): So he's realizing that they're not doing everything right. He says they must do first 14. So Hilkiah, the priest went to the new quarter of Jerusalem to consult with the prophet holdup. She was the wife of Shalom son of Tikvah. Son of has the keeper of the temple wardrobe. She said to them, the Lord, the God of Israel has spoken, go back and tell the man who sent you. This is what the Lord says. I'm going to bring disaster on this city. And its people, all the words written in the scroll that the king of Judah has read will come true for. 7 (52m 51s): My people have abandoned me and offered sacrifices to pagan gods. And I am angry with them. For everything they have done. My anger will burn against this place and it will not be quench. But he said go to the king. She said, go to the king of Judah who sent you to seek the Lord and tell him, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says concerning the message. You've just heard. You were sorry, and humbled yourself before the Lord. When you heard what I said against the city and its people. So God is recognizing the contrition and the humility of his servant and Josiah that'll keep happening by the way. 7 (53m 44s): So God is wrecking. That's the good news of the gospel is that we need a savior. We need Jesus, the Lord to forgive us of our sins. And so when we recognize our need for God, and we are sorry for our sins, not just sorry that we got caught or sorry, because we've got to deal with the consequences, but sorry, like Josiah ripped his clothes because he was in anguish about the disobedience that his people were involved with. Even though they didn't realize that he rent his clothes because he knew he knew there was work to do. You were sorry, and humbled yourself before the Lord. When you heard what I said against the city and its people that the land would be cursed and become desolate. 7 (54m 29s): You tore your clothing in despair and webs before me in repentance, I have indeed heard, you says the Lord. So maybe you're here today. And you're like, man, I feel like I keep confessing the same thing over and over again. Listen, if you've confessed your sins, the Bible says that God is faithful. And just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. So maybe you did something yesterday or last week or last year or 50 years ago, but you're still carrying that baggage. God's grace is sufficient. If you will confess your sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, why? Because DOD sees the contrition, the brokenness, the humility of his people. 7 (55m 11s): And he responds. I have indeed heard you says the Lord, so I will not send the promise disaster until after you have died and been buried in peace, you will not see the disaster. I'm going to bring on this city. So they took her message back to the king. So how do you choose the right path? Number one, you must decide. We got to decide, are we going to serve God or we're going to serve the world? And then you must, your life must reflect your decision. And the truth is that if you've really made a decision to serve Jesus, it's a life transformational decision. And so your life will begin to reflect that decision. 7 (55m 52s): The fruit of that decision will produce good fruit in your life. But at times you just have to decide, I'm going to make sure my life reflects my decision. And then you must say contracts and humble. You got to say contract. So the word contract just means, I'm sorry. It goes hand-in-hand with a broken this brokenness. And contrition is what God requires of his people. When we're made aware of our shortcomings and our sins. We just simply say, Lord, I'm so sorry. Not because I got caught now because of the consequences, because I sinned against you. And as we stay humble and contract, God will be able to direct us and guide us and lead us. 7 (56m 38s): I tell you there's been a, 1,001 questions that we haven't had answers to over the course of the planting and this life of this church. And we've made mistakes and we've done things that we wish we hadn't done. But at the end of the day, we've tried to stay just humble about it. Say Lord, that we don't have any idea what we're doing, but we're asking for your help. And Lord forgive that misstep. We didn't realize what we were doing and, and we just watch God lead us and guide us and direct us. It'll be true for every one of our lives as we just stay broken and contract before Lord and stay super humble that this is the, the design of God in the old and the new Testament. 7 (57m 19s): We say, God, blessing, contrition and humility and the old and the new Testament it's God's plan for our lives. So as you're trying to figure out the right path, maybe you've got a decision in front of you. Take it a day at a time. First of all, keep your eyes on God, keep your eyes on God. Not the circumstances. Don't allow yourself to get fearful and then just take it a day at a time and then make a decision. I am choosing to honor the Lord. I want, I don't know about you, but when I stand before the Lord, I want to hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant. I want to have people writing about us as a church that their lives pleased the Lord. 7 (57m 59s): So choose today, make that your choice today to make God your priority and then make sure your, your life aligns with that. And then just stay contract and humble and watch what the Lord will do to direct your path. And so with that, let's just go and stand up and we're gonna invite the worship team. And at the very end, we've got one more video to show you, but let's pray and get ready to sing a couple more songs. And then we'll wrap up the service here shortly Lord. Thank you for who you are. Gotcha. Thank you. That when we're curious about the path to take you, show us you, you make it clear to us and you're faithful to do so, Lord. So thank you, Lord. I pray for anybody. Who's got decisions as in front of them today, Lord, I pray that you give them wisdom. 7 (58m 43s): Lord, I pray. If there's anybody here that needs to say yes to you to make that decision to follow you. I pray that they would do that today as well. So if you're here today, you want to make a decision to follow Jesus. You simply acknowledge your need for him. There's no formula or, or word that you can say. You just have to with humility and contrition, just make yourself available to the Lord. Say, God, I confess my sins. Thank you for your grace. I want to stay humble, Lord. I want to choose you. And I want my life to align with that decision. And I want to, I just to follow you all the days of my life, making sure that I always stay contract and humble as you do that, as you sincerely make that your aim and your commitment, God will meet you. 7 (59m 32s): He'll hear you. And he'll respond to you. If you made that decision today and you give your life to Jesus at the information booth after service, you can grab their Bibles and things like that. We'd like to give to you. And so Lord, thank you for this day. As we worship be glorified. We thank you for your grace in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 2 (1h 3m 7s): Are you ready to go out some songs of praise We worship the God who was we picked God, we were this giant in the house. 2 (1h 7m 35s): We seem to the God who saves. We seem to and the house there's joy in the house. 2 (1h 8m 35s): We shout out house. 2 (1h 9m 28s): The house of the Lord. Shout out. Y'all pray this joy in the house of the Lord. God, we won't be quiet. We shout out in the house 0 (1h 9m 53s): In 2 (1h 9m 53s): The house. We won't be quiet. Please shout out your in the house. We won't be quiet. We shot it out of your 7 (1h 10m 42s): One last time Glenn, have a seats and then we're going to watch a quick video. But as you have a seat, when everybody's seated, everybody's seated. All right. Now, if you were involved in this project on any level, if you prayed for this project, this renovation of this building, go and stand up. If you prayed at all, go ahead and stand up. There we go. There we go. If you gave financially this project, go ahead and stand up. Now, stay standing, stay standing. Everybody stay standing. If you helped on a cleanup day, if you showed up for a cleanup part of the day, you go out and stand up. If you are a contractor on this project, go ahead and stand up. 7 (1h 11m 25s): If you work in the village for the city of Rio Grande day and you help get this project pushed through, then go ahead and stand up. Cool. Well thank you so much. We're actually going to watch a quick video and it'll just kind of show kind of what happened. That'll lead of credits. Everybody who participated. So good job guys. Watch your video and then we'll come right back. 7 (1h 13m 4s): Lauren. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. For all that you accomplished in the last 59 weeks of getting this building ready to go. We are so thankful for all of the amazing people that participated people who prayed and gave and worked and, and, and worked tirelessly to get this project across the finish line. So we thank you, Lord, pray, blessing upon each person. Lord, pray, blessing upon the city of Rio Grande day. They've worked so well with us. We're so thankful Lord bless them. We pray Jesus and Lord, as we get ready to go have some lunch and celebrate with some food, we praise you. Bless the food to our bodies. 7 (1h 13m 46s): Thank you for the opportunity to celebrate with food. We love you. Thank you for this day presence. You continues to minister to us throughout the balance of this day until we meet again in Jesus name. Amen. Hey man.

2 (6s): It's good to be in his house. Amen. Scared to praise his name. 0 (15s): Beautiful. You see? I'll walk through the shine. 0 (2m 45s): Oh my every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of 2 (4m 48s): Thank you, Jesus. For your 1 (4m 49s): Presence. 2 (4m 52s): Bring your worship as you take it as an offering. 0 (6m 23s): Hi, . Hi, and praise you again. 0 (7m 37s): Come on, man. Don't you get shy on me. Lift up yours. Cause you got Come on. Don't you get shy on Crazy. 0 (9m 14s): Nothing else. 4 (16m 8s): Well, we declare this morning that you are good and that you do good Lord. Thank you, Lord, that you returned us to the back to the heart of worship. Lord, I thank you for this morning in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. You may take a seat. Well welcome. My name's Jeremy I'm the youth and family pastor. I'm not Curtis who normally gives announcements. It's exciting to be here giving announcements this morning. So welcome if you're joining us for the first time. We're so glad that you're here. And if you want to find out more information, we have an info center right back there. There's some people there that would love to chop talk with, talk with you as well as you can fill out a communication card, if you want to find out more about harvest church. 4 (16m 54s): So we have that great info center. It's a great spot to go, just to find out more. We are having as well offering. If you want to know how to, how to give to harvest church, we have a few spots you can give online to the app. We have a giving spot right there in the info center, as well as a box in the back of the sanctuary. But those are just a few ways to give next week exciting. We're going to be celebrating our grand opening of, of being in this building. So I know we've been in here a few weeks now, but we want to like let the community know that we're having a grand opening service. So that will be next week, July 10th, both services, both nine and 11 o'clock. And we're going to be after that, we're going to be gathering up on the patio up on the west campus and we're going to be having a barbecue there. 4 (17m 42s): So we're going to have hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, and most importantly cake to celebrate the grand opening. So we still need a few volunteers for that as well. So if you want to help us set up during first service or kind of break down after that, that'd be much, much needed as well as we're still need some potato salad. So if that's your specialty sign up in the back of the info center, so it's a great time info centers, a place to go. You can sign up for different things back there. So info center, as well as you might've noticed, we're, we're, we're changing up when we do communion service. So if you didn't grab the elements for communion, this, this as you're on your way in, you can grab those during the meet and greet time. 4 (18m 24s): So as well as fill out a ways to get involved. So thanks for being here. It's a great time to turn around and say hello to someone and bless those around you. And then after that, w youth will be meeting right now, right over here, and we're going to head up to the other campus. So fifth and sixth grade and up youth will be a meeting and heading up. So God bless you guys. 5 (19m 14s): And break a half day and hopefully rise. We speak German. Name lifts our eyes to now harness into new bead where we walk, they be with sane is blazing out she's will glow forever bride feel glories breaking through then not 6 (20m 53s): Alrighty. Welcome back. Come on back. Happy 4th of July. You guys ready for a big celebration tomorrow? No, just gonna it's just another day. I can't believe it's the 4th of July. Again, we always have like a family gathering and do barbecue and fireworks on the back patio and it seems like we just did it and now we're doing it again. It feels like that's just kinda how the years were on just faster and faster and faster. Like we'll be Christmases like next week, right? I mean, it's like, it will be that quick. Hey, welcome. We're going to be taking a break from our James study today and we're going to be in Deuteronomy chapter six, talking about why we do family Sunday and talking about wholehearted commitment to the Lord and that sort of thing. 6 (21m 39s): But before we do, I want to bring up David Salamanca, David, who has give David a round of applause here. David is the third young person that we've sent out on mission in the last, I don't know, month or so. So Jacob and Eva now, David, David's going to Kona, Hawaii to the, get it out of your system. I know 4 (22m 4s): There's a missions aspect as well. 6 (22m 6s): There is a missions aspect as well. So he's going to be joining the Y wham base on Kona, Hawaii, and being trained and will be there for six months to do some ministry and some work there. So we want to bless him and send him out. We've been talking about his work for the last few weeks and we've had flyers on the back info center. And so if you haven't received a flyer yet, make sure you grab one of those. He's halfway to raising the about $10,000 that he needs to raise, right? 4 (22m 32s): Yeah. So the Lord so far has raised about 5,500, $6,000 tend to get there and I believe he's going to do it cause I leave in three days. Yeah, 6 (22m 42s): Yeah, yeah. This week. So, so we're believing God Gyra. Yeah. So we do this with all of the missionaries that we are sending out. If you would like to participate in support financially, besides prayerfully the work that David will be a part of, you can put a mission check in the box and we'll make sure we get that to him before he gets out of town. And so I just wanted to bless you, David. You've been a part of our youth group members talking theology with you as you, when you were a young man and you've been just busy, just seeking the Lord. And so we want to honor your life and thank you for being responsive to what God is asking you to do. 6 (23m 25s): Thank you for being humble as you move forward. And we just believe that God's going to do continue to do great stuff in you and with you and through you. We believe in you. We believe in what God is doing. So let's lay our hands. I wouldn't use just extend your hand. We're gonna bless this young man, this man of God, Lord, we, we pray for David Salamanca. We pray God that you would watch over him. Lord in Jesus name, thank you that you have been watching over him as he's committed to serve you and to follow you all the days of his life. Lord, we pray that as he takes this next step in his journey, Lord, as he goes off to Kona, Hawaii for six months, training at the wild wham base that we pray that you would teach him what he needs to know academically in his mind, but also what he needs to know in his heart. 6 (24m 12s): Lord God. And I pray that there would be a beautiful marriage of the two, the information, the revelation that the, the, the wisdom that he, that he will glean and that he needs for the life and call upon his life. Lord God. So we just bless him. Lord, we bless him. Pray God that you would provide form abundantly. So richly. So God that he had have everything that he needs in Jesus name, body, soul, and spirit financially and in every way possible. So bless our friend, God, we commit to pray for him as he is gone for these next six months. We bless him. Lord, God. I want to pray for Eva as well. And Jacob who are off doing their own mission stuff currently, Lord, we're so thankful for them, for the ways in which you've called them and the ways in which you are using them, bless them. 6 (25m 2s): We pray. We also want to pray for Shane Shane Koch, who just left to go to Southern California to go to Bible college. Lordy kind of left in our, in a hurry and didn't get a chance to pray him out, but we bless him. Lord God, we pray blessing upon his life as he is pursuing you by training in Bible college for ministry. So Lord, we're so blessed to be able to be wind in the sails of these young people who just want to do what you've called them to do. So bless them, encourage them, keep them all the days of their lives. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Love you. Yes. You want to say something 4 (25m 39s): Just for a little clarification? So it will be two months of training in Kona, Hawaii, and then two months of training actually on the north island of New Zealand. And then the rest two months, it's going to be focused in the Pacific islands, going from island to island, French Polynesia, Malaysia, potentially Samoa, and these different places going and hiking into these villages to minister, to those people, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. So 6 (26m 5s): That's wonderful. Yeah. Good job. Thanks for that clarification. I appreciate that very much. We're praying for you. All right. Love you, man. Yeah, it's just a great reminder for us to be praying for these young people that we're sending out on these short terms missions, but for all of our missionaries who are around the globe doing the kingdom work that God has called them to do, we have the privilege of supporting missions work around parts of the world. And so we're so thankful that God has given us the opportunity to do that early on. When we planted the church 19 years ago, we prayed that God, we pray that God would give us an opportunity to get behind some world mission stuff and to support some people on the ground, doing the work, the kingdom work that they're called to do around the globe. 6 (26m 46s): And so God has graciously given us the opportunity to do that and to be a part of a wonderful stuff. And so we're so super, super thankful that God blesses us with the opportunity to bless others as they go do what God has called them to do. Amen. So don't forget to pray for our missionary short-term and long-term missionaries, and God will just do a wonderful things as we continue to trust him to do so. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. One more time. Lord, as we get into Deuteronomy chapter six, Lord speaks to us, teach us, Lord, show us what we need to hear and understand and to know, and to live out, Lord, God help us to honor you with our lives, body, soul, and spirit, and every part of who we are, God, that you would build us up and teach us and release us into the kingdom work that we're called to you. 6 (27m 32s): Lord God in our families and our vocations in our communities, Lord, with our hobbies and, and all the stuff that we're involved with. Use us mightily. We pray, we need you. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. So last week was family Sunday. And I said, last week that this week we'll be talking about why we do family Sunday. And so today we're talking about why we do family Sunday. Really family Sunday is part of the core of who we are going back to the beginning. And when we planted the church, we, we were hopefully heating and I believe heating what Jesus said, talked about a Matthew 28. Jesus came and told his disciples in Matthew 28, 18 through 20. 6 (28m 13s): He said, I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit, teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and be sure of this. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And we have this promise in Proverbs 22 6 says direct, direct your children onto the right path. And even when they're older and when they're older, they will not leave it. So what does it mean to direct our children onto the right path while we're going to be looking at the Bible in the old and the new Testament, Deuteronomy chapter six and then Hebrews chapter 10. 6 (28m 58s): I think one of the slides is wrong. It says Hebrews six, but it's actually Hebrews chapter 10 when we get there that you're not confused about that. So Deuteronomy six and then Hebrews chapter 10, give us instruction that if we follow by God's grace, now we know that all people have a freewill young people and old people. So there may be exceptions, but I think if we take serious the call upon our lives to raise up the next generation, we'll talk about what that looks like when we take serious our call to parents and grandparents. Well, the generations that follow, then we will see, we will see young men and young woman's women stay in the church, stay as followers of Lord, Jesus Christ, all the days of their lives and then lead their future generations to do the same thing. 6 (29m 45s): So let's take a look at Deuteronomy chapter six on a title of the message today, a call for whole hearted commitments, a call for wholehearted commitment, because I feel like as a church, this is what we are all about. This is what God's church is meant to be doing all the days of our lives. We're calling people to a whole hearted commitment. And in my Bible under Deuteronomy six, it says a call to wholehearted commitment. So it was a very easy sermon title. Your Bible may say the same thing. So that was the heading on Deuteronomy chapter six. And we decided to make it the title for the message today in Deuteronomy chapter six. And we often use this passage in Deuteronomy chapter six to encourage people when we're dedicating babies to the Lord. 6 (30m 29s): When we do child dedication services, we will actually use parts of Deuteronomy six to encourage, to instruct young people, young parents, how to raise up the next generation. This is what it says, Deuteronomy six one. These are the commands, decrees and regulations that the Lord, your God commanded me to teach you. You must obey them in the land. You are about to enter and occupy. So if we go back to chapter five of Deuteronomy, we see that Moses has given the law and we see that the commandments are given on the tablets of stone. And so now he's saying these are the commands decrease in regulations at the Lord. Your God command me to teach you. 6 (31m 9s): You must obey them in the land. You are about to enter an occupy. So the law has been given to them. And he's saying, as you get ready to enter two into the promised land, these, this is the way you are to live your life. So number one, I call for wholehearted commitment. We must teach our young people that commands decrees and regulations of the Lord. We must teach our young people that commands decrees and regulations of the Lord early on in this ministry. Leaders would ask me when leading or attempting to lead ministries within the church, what is your vision for Sunday school? What is your vision for youth ministry? 6 (31m 51s): What is your vision for this group or that group? And my answer would be the same whether for an younger group or an older group, male or female, the answer is always say, let's make disciples. We want to train people, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit, teaching him everything that God has given us to teach them. So our goal with every age has been to instruct with righteousness and with wisdom. And so the Sunday school teaches Thiel, theological truths to our young people. We're instructing them with the truth of God's word so that they understand how to follow Jesus all the days of their lives in our fifth and sixth grade group, our club five, six Connie, actually teaching apologetics to fifth and sixth graders. 6 (32m 44s): So apologetics is the defense. They're learning how to defend the faith. They're learning how to communicate, what they believe, they're understanding what they believe. And then they're there. They're learning how to communicate that truth to their peers, to the people in their lives. Jeremy is teaching like I do on Sunday morning. He just teaches through books of the Bible. Most recently he taught through Genesis and now through revelation, he's teaching the students in junior high and in high school, both how to study the Bible, but also helping them to understand what the Bible says as he teaches them through the books of the Bible. 6 (33m 26s): And then he's got a core group where he gathers young people who are interested in taking extra steps and learning more. And he's taking them through through theologically sound books that have been written by people who understand truth so that they might grow in their understanding of doctrine in theology so that they might grow in their understanding of who they are and what they're called to do and what God is doing in the earth. And God's purpose for creation in all of the above. And so our effort is to disciple the next generation, to help them with information and revelation so that they might know how to follow Jesus. And so family Sunday is go, goes hand in hand with the purposes of harvest church. 6 (34m 10s): Going back to the beginning, we must do what Jesus directed us to do. We must make disciples. Discipleship is a call to wholehearted commitments from an article titled 70% of teens quit church after high school. Here's why the author posted this first in March of 2018. The article appeared originally on mark five soulless.com and the author writes, this is his, his, what he's discovered as he's interviewed young people who are post high school in college and have left the church and the author writes this isn't a negative bead up on the church post. 6 (34m 58s): I love the church and I want to see American evangelicalism returned to the gospel of repentance and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, not just as something in our, what we believe page on our website, but as the core, the core of what we preach from our pulpits to our children, our youth and our adults, the facts, the statistics are jaw droppingly, horrific 70% of youth stop attending church when they graduate from high school, nearly a decade later, only about half return. 6 (35m 38s): So a great number of young people after high school are walking away and then never coming back. And then about half of those, who've walked away, end up coming back to church. Let's I mean, that's a huge number. So as a church, especially in the 21st century, we have a huge responsibility as parents and grandparents in the 21st century, we have a huge, significant responsibility to make sure that we're training our young people, equipping them to live the life that God has called them to live. There's no easy way to say this, but the American evangelical church has lost, is losing and will almost certainly continue to lose our youth. 6 (36m 21s): One of the reasons, one of the reasons they never really attended church to begin with from, and this is continuing to read that article from a Noah's Ark themed nursery to jumbotrons summer campus kids, church, to pizza parties and rock concerts. Most evangelical youth had been coddled in a, not quite church, but not quite world hot house. They've never sat on a pew between a set of new parents with the fussy baby senior citizen, with an oxygen tank. They never experience the church. And so part of our desire is to help them experience the church. 6 (37m 2s): And so when people show up and they say, Hey, can my kids sit in church with me? The answer is always yes, of course your people can. They don't send this was an option, but they can sit in church with you. We want young people involved in the work of the ministry here at harvest church when they don't, they don't see the full life line of the gospel for every season of life. They're not watching older people or people just ahead of them in, in, in seasons of life, kind of working out their faith and figuring out what it means to be a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. If we, if we isolate our kids, they never get a chance to grow up and understand what it means as an adult to follow Jesus. 6 (37m 52s): Instead, we've traditionally dumbed down the message, pumped up the volume and then act surprised when they, when they walk away. Number one, we must teach our young people, the commands, decrees and regulations of the Lord. This is a teaching, both taught and caught. And so I don't think it's one or the other. It's both that we need to teach it. That means we actually need to understand it ourselves and communicate it. We need to speak the truth to our young people so that they begin to understand what it means to be a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 6 (38m 34s): But then they need to also see it represented in our lives. If we simply teach it, but don't live it. The teaching will have no power. In fact, they will just see us as hypocrites and they will walk away from the church forever stating that the church is just full of hypocrites. If they only see that we're trying to model Christ and try to live for Christ, but don't give them the information. Then we're only doing half our job. The thing that God has called us to do is to both teach it and model it. It's both taught and it's caught. They hear the truth, and then they see us living out the truth. 6 (39m 16s): And none of us will do that perfectly. I'm just let me raise my hand as the first one to say, none of us will do that perfectly, but it's our opportunity to live the faith life in front of them. And when we do fall short, because we will all fall short wills, we need to go to our young people and say, Hey, that wasn't actually a proper response to that scenario. Would you forgive me as your dad? I misled you or I reacted, would you please forgive me? We need to be giving this information and then living it in the real world before our young people, my grandkids who were all in, you know, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 years old, they, they built a Fort and in their Fort, in the backyard, they put a cross on the wall and they wrote under the cross. 6 (40m 6s): Jesus died for my sins, my holy cow, that does a grandad and a pastor a lot. I mean, I just blesses my soul that they understand at a young age that Jesus died for them, that he died because of their sin because they fell short, Jesus died for them. And they're owning that and understanding that, and they're displaying that on the walls of their forts. So this teaching is both taught and caught. W you know, when I was in junior high school and in high school, growing up in the church, there wasn't actually an opportunity for junior high or senior high youth group, nothing against junior high and senior high, easier about Sunday morning. 6 (40m 55s): I think we're doing a really good job with our junior. So you see your hires, but we didn't have that option. So we just showed up to church with the adults and did everything that the adults were doing. My job was to flip the overhead, remember the overhead projectors. And so I'm kind of dating myself, but you would, you would flip the overhead, you know, the transparent slides, some of the younger kids were like, I have no idea what he's talking about, but, but Mo but most of you know what I'm talking about. So my job was to sit on the front row here and flip the slides on the tray, on the overhead projector. And, and, and then, you know, we were teaching Sunday school. We were a part of public ministry and teaching kids, and we were a part, all kinds of stuff. It was, if there was a work day, we were just at the Workday, whatever was going on, we just joined in the work that the adults were doing. 6 (41m 43s): And I tell you, so we got a chance to rub shoulders with those who were doing the, the work of the Lord. And we got invited into it. Remember we, we had a, when we were building a mature, a new church facility, we are meeting in the theaters over at fair or not fair Oaks, but the theaters that tend seated theater over there are 10 screen theater. And we would set up lights and stereo equipment, all this stuff, sound equipment for church in the theater. So we just involved ourselves in the work of the ministry. It was just natural and normal young people need exposure to adults in the faith. They need to know, and to know how to interact with adults in the faith. 6 (42m 27s): They need to know how to sit through an adult sermon. They need to serve alongside other adults. They need to be treated like young adults and not like uncapable children were making a terrible mistake. If we dumb down the message, the message of the gospel, diluting the truth to somehow make it popular or palatable for our young people, listen, they can handle the truth. And when they get into college, past high school and college, rather than dumbing down the message, the agnostics and the atheists will treat our youth as intelligent and challenge them. 6 (43m 10s): They will challenge their intellect. They will challenge their intellect with, with questions and deep thoughts about who they are. They will be challenged on a deep level to think about their lives and what they believe and why they believe what they believe. And so we need, we absolutely must prepare our young people to defend the faith, to understand why they believe what they believe in. So family Sunday is an opportunity to welcome young people into. And I tell this to all of my department heads, to everybody in leadership at harvest church. I said, we don't have to wait for family Sunday to involve young people. 6 (43m 50s): We should be involving young people in the work of harvest church all of the time. And so we have young people on the worship team on the tech team. We have young people doing all kinds of stuff, and the encouragement is, Hey, you are part of us. You are us. You're not in a different category. You're not less than you're actually called to do what God has called you to do. You're not less of a person, less important. In fact, you're probably more honest. They're more important. I, during first service, before first service, I sat with a couple that I've known for decades. And so going back 40 years, we used to go to church together and they hosted a home group in their home here in a row grand day. 6 (44m 39s): And so my mom and my brother and I used to go to their home group and they would teach Bible studies to us when we were in their home group. And so fast forward, 40 years now, they attend this church and they have for a while and I get to shepherd them and pastor them and teach them. But it all began 40 plus years ago. And I'm sitting under their leadership, understanding what it means to serve God, by opening up your home, teaching people, helping them to understand who they are in Christ Jesus. So they might live a life that glorifies him. And so there's this process whereby we have the responsibility as, as adults to usher in our young people, to love our young people in such a way that they, we give away opportunity. 6 (45m 28s): I remember preaching my first sermon. I was 17 or 18 years old, and I got invited to preach my first sermon. Why? Because I had shown interest. I'd been involved in the church for a long time. And so that the pastors and elders said, Hey, let's give them a chance to, to preach. And I did a terrible job. I am sure of that, but that wasn't, that's not the point. The point is that I was given opportunity. And out of that opportunity, things began, the ball began to get rolling. And if the door was always closed to me, who knows what my life would have turned out to be like, maybe I would have never pursued the gospel, but we have an opportunity to open the doors for young people and for people of all ages, but especially young people, we need to be loving them in such a way. 6 (46m 15s): And honoring them in such a way that we give them opportunity. We open up the doors for them. So they might do the work of the ministry. So again, in college, rather than dumbing down the message, the agnostics and atheists treat our youth as intelligent. Why? Because they are intelligent and challenge their intellect with deep thoughts of questions and doubt. Many of these questions and doubts that our young people will be faced with have been answered. They've been answered in great depth over the centuries of our faith. As people that have gone before us have wrestled with the same questions, they've answered those questions. 6 (47m 1s): They found the truth, and we get to help our young people with that information. However, if we're not careful, if we're not careful, we will send our young people into the world. Ill-equipped to live as believers in Jesus Christ, ill equipped without information, without, without understanding, without a solid foundation of revelation of the word of God and understanding of the truth of God's word will, we will send them out totally ill-equipped to do what God has called us to do. And let's be honest. Most of our churches are sending youth into the world, embarrassing embarrassingly, ignorant of our faith. I mean, how could we, not most churches are not teaching young people what we believe and why we believe what we believe. 6 (47m 46s): Just not happening. Mostly as one writer put it, we've jettison, catechesis, sold them on deeds, not creeds and encouraged them to start the quest to find God's plan for their life. And so our faith in this culture becomes all about us. What does God want to do to bless me to take care of me, to use me becomes very inward and self centered. We lose sight of the great commission, the great commandment and historical truth of the gospel that we've been. That's been handed down to us. 6 (48m 27s): He goes on, yes. I know your church has a what we believe page, but is that actually being taught and reinforced from the pulpit? He said, I've met evangelical church leaders, pastors who didn't know the difference between justification and sanctification leaders in the church. You don't know the difference between justification and sanctification. He said, I met mega church board members who didn't understand the atonement. It's a sad commentary on the church today. But when we choose leaders based upon their ability to draw and lead, rather than to accurately teach the faith, well, then we w we don't teach the faith surprise. 6 (49m 13s): And instead of the Orthodox Storic faith, we give our young people, hand me downs. We give them, I don't know about you, but when I received hammy down, I'm like, eh, not great, right? Not great. We've tried our best. We tried our best to pass along the internal subjective faith that we feel. And we really, really, really want them to feel it too. But you can't hand down this type of subjective faith with nothing solid to hang their faith upon and with no historic creed, to tie them to centuries of history, without the physical elements of the bread, wine, and water, their faith is in their subjective feelings. 6 (50m 4s): And when faced with other ways to feel uplifted in college, the church loses out to things with much greater appeal to our human nature, and they find it. Our kids are finding it all kinds of sinful. Debauchery is the result. So this is part of the reason that 70% of our young people leave the church after high school and most never return. We've not given them the instruction found in Deuteronomy six and in the rest of the pages of scripture. So we're going to be looking at Deuteronomy six old Testament, Hebrews 10 new Testament. We're going to see that the message is consistent from the old to the new Testament, that God has a plan for his people. 6 (50m 48s): He's got a purpose for his people, and we need to understand what that is in order to properly live it out. And so in Deuteronomy six two, it says this and you and your children and your grandchildren must fear the Lord, your God. As long as you live, if you obey all his decrees in combat and command, you will enjoy a long life. And so we're being instructed by God, through Moses, we're being instructed and you and your children and grandchildren must fear the Lord. There's a dearth of fear within the church. We don't have a fear of the Lord, a proper fear of the Lord. For the most part, we, we are flippant about God and we pick and choose what we will believe about God as we read the scripture and we will move forward hearted in our walk with God. 6 (51m 34s): If we are not intentional, listen closely. Verse three says, Israel, be careful to obey. Then all will go well with you. And you will have many children in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors promised you. So this is when it's timeless and transferable truth that God spoke to Moses and to the people of Israel, it's timeless in transferable truth. That God is speaking to us, communicating to us so that we might know what it means to follow him. Verse four, listen, oh, Israel. The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. So there's a declaration that we serve. 6 (52m 15s): One, God, we're not going to be impacted by the gods of the nations around us. We're not going to be drawn away by other things, because it is the Lord who is our God and the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength. So that the picture is, Hey, we're we're to love God with every part of us, every bit of us, body, soul, and spirit. Every part of us, we are to love the Lord. This is the call that God has placed upon our lives. That we might love him. Whole heartedly, then all will go well with you. And you will have many children. 6 (52m 55s): You all, many children in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors promised you that there is a truth that is being communicated. There's blessing that is available to us. If we will obey what God is asking us to do, verse four, again, listen to is your, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to commands that I'm giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. So the, the statement means that we must constantly communicate this truth to our young people. 6 (53m 37s): It's not one and done. It's not, Hey, I've given them truth. And so I've done my job. We are to continually reinforce communicating truth to them, repeating it to them again and again. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road and when you're going to bed. And when you're getting up, like all of the time, make this a part of your conversation with your kids, tie them to your hands and wear them on your foreheads. As reminders, write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Then verse 10, the Lord, your God will soon bring you into the land. He swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 (54m 17s): So now we're seeing this storage will evidence that this is not just this generation or going back a few years or even a hundred. This is going back thousands of years, speaking about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our forefathers, the fathers of the faith who heard the message and by faith moved it forward to us in Jesus name, verse 10 again, then the Lord, your God will, will soon bring you into the land. He swore to give you when he made a vowel to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it is the land with large prosperous cities that you did not build. We live in a culture where Christians want God's blessings without the hassle and the work of obedience, discipline and sanctification. 6 (55m 8s): Listen, hear me. God definitely wants to bless his people. It's in his heart to bless his people. You can see in the scripture that God desires to bless his people, but it's contingent upon obedience, faithfulness, righteousness. It's contingent upon some things that God is calling us to. God definitely wants to bless his children. We see in verse 11, the houses, speaking of this, this new land that he's taking them into the land of Canaan, the houses will be richly stocked with goods. You did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns. You did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and all of trees. You did not plant. 6 (55m 49s): When you have eaten your fill in this land. Again, God wants to bless his children. He's a good father, but he's not a, he's not a flimsy God. Sometimes we think he's just kind of flimsy and easygoing. He's not a flimsy God winking at sin and lowering his standard of holiness. He is the righteous and perfect God who has called us to live our lives above reproach. And we do that by his grace and in his power. I say this all of the time that everything that God has called us to do in scripture, and he's calling us to do a lot in the scripture. We are called to do it, and we're able to do it by his grace and in his power. 6 (56m 31s): As we yield to the power of God, allow ourselves be filled with the holy spirit of God, allowing the word to direct our steps. We will be able to do what God has called us to do. So it sounds overwhelming as we look through all of these expectations in scripture. But as I was praying a few days ago, I was had a lot on my mind. And I'm just thinking about all this stuff that needs to get done. And I felt like the Lord said, just do three things. Number one, keep your eyes on me. Ah, I can do that. Alright. I can do that. What does that mean? I think it means just to like keep my eyes on Jesus. I think that's what it means, because what we tend to do is we tend to get our eyes on all of the problems. 6 (57m 11s): Like all of the challenges, all of the issues in life, whether we're sick, we're going through hard times, relationally or whatever it may be. We're looking at all of these things. And God just said, he just look at me like I'm your source and your resource. Number one, keep your eyes on me. Number two, don't be fearful. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. And often we're compromising or making bad choices and bad judgment because we're fearful. We're fearful of all kinds of things in the world. The world is a fearful place right now. And so he said, just don't be fearful. And then he said, don't worry about tomorrow. 6 (57m 53s): Today's worries are enough for the day. We can be all kinds of fearful about tomorrow, about what's coming tomorrow. Like, I don't know how to handle what's happening tomorrow. Listen, none of us know how to handle what's happening tomorrow because none of us know what's happening tomorrow. And so we just worry about today. Today's worries are enough of the day. So we keep our eyes on Jesus. We don't allow ourselves to get fearful. We just take the day and trust God. So as you get up in the morning, say, God, there's a lot that I want to see happen with my family. There's a lot that I want to see happen with my kids and my grandkids and the future generations. There's a lot that I know that you want to do with me. And in me and through me, you can say like me, it's just overwhelming Lord to think about all of those things. 6 (58m 40s): But I know is that I keep my eyes on you as I look to you and not to all of the challenges in life. And as I refuse to be filled with fear, but instead be filled with faith and confidence in ULA God, then, then I can take today's worries. I can take those on because you're going to meet the grace to do so. And I'm not going to worry about tomorrow. When I wake up in the morning, we'll start the process all over again. So the scripture is full of challenging things for us to be doing. God promises that he will give us the grace to do it. As we just keep our eyes on him, refuse the fear that so easily wants to well up us. 6 (59m 22s): And then just take it a day at a time by his power. And because of his grace, we will be able to do what Deuteronomy six says back to Deuteronomy six verse 12. It says, be careful not to forget the Lord who rescued you from the slavery, from slavery in the land of Egypt. You must fear the Lord, your God and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name. You must not worship any of the God of the gods of the neighboring nations. And so there's a temptation around us all the time to be drawn away by the world, the temptations of the world, the distractions of the world. There are pseudo gods, fake gods all around us. 6 (1h 0m 4s): And God's saying, Hey, keep your eyes on me, serve me. And only me for the Lord, your God who lives among you is a jealous God. His anger will flare up against you and he will wipe you from the face of the earth. So you read through the Kings and Chronicles. You read the stories about the Kings of Israel and the Kings of Judah. Most of the Kings were evil. Some were good. And you see the destruction of the people of Israel down throughout history. 6 (1h 0m 45s): Because most of the time their leadership was bad and they fell into exactly what the scriptures tell us not to fall into God's heart is to bless his people. But if we fall into sin depravity and, and become worldly, like the rest of the people around us, then we will not receive the blessings that God has for us. Number one, we must teach our young people, the commands, decrees, and regulations of the Lord. And number two, our young people must understand the full character of God. Our young people must understand the full character of God. God is love. We can all agree. Part of God's character is that he is love God. 6 (1h 1m 25s): So loved the world for God. So loved the world that he gave. His only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So God is love. God is good. And God is merciful. All of us are here because God is good and merciful, but God is also holy. And we needed Jesus to die on the cross because we are unholy born in sin centers by birth and by choice, we are separated. But because of our unrighteousness, we are separated from the most righteous of all the Lord, Jesus Christ. He is holy and got us to be worshiped. And God is to be feared. In fact, in Hebrews 10, that says it's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living. 6 (1h 2m 6s): God, it's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living. God. Now let's read the context of what the writer is talking about in Hebrews chapter 10, as we get into Hebrews chapter 10 verses 26 through 31, it says, dear friends, if we continue sending after we've received knowledge of the truth, there there's no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. And I unpack that verse when we taught through Hebrews 10. So you can go back and re look at the archives of that message and find out what that actually means. There's only the terrible expectation of God's judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies for anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 6 (1h 2m 50s): Just think, just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy as if it were common and unholy and have insulted and disdained. The holy spirit who brings God's mercy to us for, we know the one who said, I will take revenge. I will pay them back. He also said the Lord will judge his own people. And then we read in verse 31. It's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living. God. So we need to understand all of God's character, the wonderful stuff. 6 (1h 3m 31s): That's easy for us to hear, but also the difficult stuff that challenges us to live our lives, to deliver our lives above reproach, to be holy, even as Christ is holy to live in such a way that we're honoring God all the days of our lives. How do we do that? Well, we just simply get up every morning and say, God, this is my desire. I'm going to keep my eyes on you. I'm not going to be fearful. I'm just going to take the challenges of th of the day, trust you with them and move forward. As a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, Deuteronomy six 16. You must not test the Lord. Your God, as you did, when you complained at Massah, you must diligently obey the commands of the Lord, your God, all the laws and decrees he has given you do what is right and good in the Lord's sight. 6 (1h 4m 20s): So all will go well with you. Did you hear that? Do what is right and good in the Lord's sight so that all will go well with you. Then you will ensure an occupy, the good land that the Lord swore to give your ancestors. You will drive out all the enemies, living in the land, just as the Lord said, you would in the future, your children will ask what is the meaning of these laws and decrees and regulations that the Lord, our God has commanded us to obey? What does it mean? All of this stuff? Number one, we must teach our young people to commands decrees and regulations of the Lord. Number two to our young people must understand the full character of God. 6 (1h 5m 0s): Number three, our young people must know the backstory and the blessings about our faith. Our young people must know the backstory and the blessings of our faith verse 21. Then you will, then you must tell them we were slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand. And so you have the opportunity to share your story with your children so that they don't think mom and dad have always been Christians, but they see that there's a backstory where once they were lost and now they are found. So when it's age appropriate for your young people, you can begin to tell them your backstory. 6 (1h 5m 45s): I waited for a years before sharing my whole backstory with my young people, because it wasn't age appropriate. They, they couldn't process what life used to be like before Christ. They just couldn't understand it. But as they've gotten older, now they can, they've lived some life. And so now they can process the information. So when it's age appropriate, they begin to see the depth of our lives. We haven't always been followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, but God brought us through a process where once we were lost and now we were found. And so in this story, we can look at Egypt as a picture of the world. What has God done to deliver us out of Egypt? Verse 22, the Lord did miraculous signs and wonders before our eyes dealing terrifying, blows against Egypt and Pharaoh and all these people. 6 (1h 6m 31s): So imagine you're a young Jewish boy or girl, and you're hearing your parents recite the story that God delivered them out of the slavery and the bondage that they endured in Egypt. And they get to see the power of God that delivered them and set them free. He brought us out of Egypt so he could give us this land. So he bled, he brought us out of slavery so he can bless us with abundance. He brought us out of Egypt, so he could give us this land. He had sworn to give our ancestors in the Lord. Our God commanded us to a bay, all these decrees, and to hear him so he can continue to bless us and preserve our lives as he has done to this day. And so we get to tell them stories about how God has been faithful to preserve us and to take care of us and to bless us every step of the way for we will be counted as righteous. 6 (1h 7m 21s): When we obey all the commands, the Lord, our God has given us. So if we're not intentional about these things, we will fall into the cultural norms. The cultural norms are not a good thing to fall into the evangelical church. Isn't catechizing or teaching our kids. The fundamentals, the fundamentals of the faith were simply encouraging him to be nice and love Jesus. We're not giving them really anything to live their lives by be nice and love Jesus. That's the depth of it. It was, we jettisoned abandoned the gospel. Our students are never hit with the full impact of the law, their sin before God and their desperate need for the atoning work of Christ. 6 (1h 8m 4s): And so we've traded a historic objective faithful gospel based on God's graciousness toward us for a modern, subjective, pragmatic gospel based on based and focused upon achieving our goal by following life strategy. So rather than being faithful to the foolish simplicity of the gospel of the cross, we've set our goal on being successful, ending growing crowds, our kids have become well. They become lost in the world. They're confused about who they are confused about what they believe and when challenged by others, they don't have answers. 6 (1h 8m 46s): Our job is to make sure that they have answers. One of our pastors, one of our associate pastors was interviewing this young lady who at 21 years of age, she had lived her whole life in church, not here at harvest, but other evangelical churches in the world, in the community. And so he said, Hey, tell me your story. What's your faith journey been like? What, what do you believe about God? And she just kind of rambled on with miscellaneous information about God saying, well, God loves me. And I'm basically good person. So I'm okay. 6 (1h 9m 27s): 21 years in the church. And she's giving random thoughts about God concerning her faith. As someone who spent 21 years in the faith. There's, there's no foundation of understanding. There's no understanding of who she is and what God has done to make salvation available to her. I know that God loves me and I'm basically a good person, was her answer to her faith journey. After 21 years, we know that we are saved by grace through faith. We know that we are all sinners by birth and by choice. 6 (1h 10m 11s): And so we're actually not welcomed to the, into the kingdom of God because of our goodness. We know that all have sinned and fall short of the glorious standard of God and that by God's grace and his grace alone, that we are entered into that we were able to enter into the plans and purposes that God has for us. We, we got to do better, I guess is the point. We gotta do better to prepare our young people, to know God and to know why they believe what they believe. This happens in community is young people rub shoulders with the whole cross section of the body of Christ. Young people need to be served this way. And young people also need to learn to serve this way. 6 (1h 10m 51s): And so if they're growing up in this and they're understanding through their experience, both being taught and caught what it means to be a disciple, a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ will be easy to replicate that as they grow up, they will be able to do what has been done with them. This is essentially what Jesus did with the 12. He discipled them so that they could disciple others. And that's, what's been going on for 2000 years. Jesus called his 12, the 12 disciples, the others, and it's just blown up. And for 2000 years, people have been following Jesus man called the Jesus. 6 (1h 11m 32s): You're here today because someone called you to serve Jesus. Someone gave you the opportunity to hear the gospel message and you made a decision to follow Jesus. Jesus made a call to whole hearted commitments. He said, come follow me. And I will make you fishers of men. Bible says in John three, three, that unless we're born again, we won't see the kingdom of heaven. We must be born again. We were given a new life called into new life as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We're going to commemorates what made all of this possible as we take communion here in just a moment. 6 (1h 12m 12s): So I'd like to invite the worship team up just as quick review a call for wholehearted commitment. Number one, we must teach our young people, the commands, decrees and regulations of the Lord. Number two, our young people must understand the full character of God. And number three, our young people must know the backstory and the blessings of our faith. And so, as we are seated here, my hope is that everybody has communion elements. If you do not have communion elements go and raise your hand and we'll make sure we get you some communion elements. I actually need some. So use it for service. Thank you so much. You're amazing. 6 (1h 12m 54s): So we have a song. It's a communion song that we're actually going to meditate on as we get ready to take communion. And then afterwards, Hey Kathy. Right up here. She likes it. When I call her Kathy, it's actually my mom. So mom, right up here, here we go. All right. So Lauren, as we get ready to take communion, as we think about this song, as we ponder this truth, Lord God, I pray that we would have a fresh understanding of what we're about to do, worshiping you as we remember what you did to accomplish our salvation and to adopt us into your family and to usher us into kingdom, the kingdom of God. 6 (1h 13m 34s): So thank you Lord, for who you are. As we sing this song, be glorified. We ask. Amen. 6 (1h 18m 54s): Thank you, Lord. That on days like today and every day that we choose to Lord, we are able to be refreshed in the truth of this act of worship called communion. We read from first Corinthians 1123, and Paul said for, I pass on to you, what I received from the Lord himself on the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you do this to remember me. So before we take the bread, Lord, we just, we remember you and we thank you for the sacrifice that was offered on the cross some 2000 years ago. 6 (1h 19m 42s): And before we take the elements. God, we want to take it properly Lord. So we, we want to make sure that we've confessed our sin, that we've decided to again, today to follow you, to recognize your Lordship in your leadership in our lives. So if you're here today and you're not ready to do, just let this opportunity pass, use this as an opportunity for people who remember and recognize the significance and the power of the cross. And so we take communion to honor the Lord. And so with that, let's take the bread. 6 (1h 20m 39s): In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people in agreement confirmed with my blood, do this to remember me, as often as you drink. And for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. So anyone who eats this bread or drinks, this cup of the Lord is an unworthy is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. This is why you should examine yourselves before eating the bread and drinking the cup. So Lord having examined ourselves, we've taken the bread and now we take the juice remembering what you did for us. 6 (1h 21m 24s): Thank you, Lauren. Thank you Lord. For the opportunity to worship you, to remember you, to take the opportunity to examine our lives before you, God, we dedicate our lives to you to follow you, to serve you all the days of our lives Lord. So day by day, as we look to you, as we refuse to be fearful. And as we take one day at a time, knowing that today's worries are enough for the day, we need not worry about tomorrow because you are God of tomorrow. 6 (1h 22m 4s): And so Lord, we trust you. We worship you. We thank you for this time. Let's go ahead and stand up. We're going to sing some more as we head out and as we wrap up the service. So Lord, thank you for this time. 0 (1h 22m 18s): How can he, the, there is a table for all who would come for all who sees now and see there is a table for all who wait for all, who would say 7 (1h 24m 43s): Raising or you see Ronan Nevin trailer that you'd be seated on the throne of our lives. Thank you for the privilege that we have and the freedom we have to gather as a family, worship you as a family of believers, take that for granted, go with us. As we celebrate the fourth tomorrow with our friends and families, fill us with your spirit. Lord. We love you. He's a state.

0 (0s): As you can see where we're doing something a little bit differently this morning, there are only three of us up here. We just have a guitar and we're actually only going to be singing hymns this morning. So in Ephesians five, it says we're going to sing Psalms hymns and spiritual songs. So that's what we're going to do on my cheetah. Stand with us. 2 (29s): Come now from every bus to my 1 (35s): Heart, to 2 (37s): Seeing nine grade streams of the sea, never ceasing call for 1 (46s): Songs, 2 (50s): Teach me Fixed up now. and I hope by good safely 1 (1m 31s): To 2 (1m 36s): Geezer 1 (1m 37s): stranger 2 (1m 41s): Laundry 1 (1m 42s): And all the 2 (1m 47s): from danger, Andrew crashes. to be, find my 1 (2m 22s): One dream 2 (2m 24s): Car to the Prone 1 (2m 32s): To the 2 (2m 37s): Here's my heart Lord take and see 1 (2m 48s): here's 2 (2m 60s): My heart. 3 (3m 50s): I see the stuff to Dre. 3 (4m 29s): how, when and I'm on a CRA yeah. 3 (5m 27s): how prey, how we in Christ? 3 (6m 10s): We need to shout then I shall we and then day how great, how great, how great 4 (7m 53s): Meditate on the Lord. Display the object of our praise and worship. Give him the glory. Surrender your hearts before. Put your focus on 2 (8m 37s): Was I see And gray. 2 (9m 18s): My chains. My God. My 1 (9m 27s): me. 2 (9m 46s): Amazing. to me, his 1 (10m 4s): Word, 2 (10m 6s): My whole And as My chains, My God. 2 (10m 44s): the Chelsea snow. we'll be . 2 (11m 38s): You are my chainsaw. My God. 2 (12m 26s): My God. 2 (16m 33s): Madigan. 5 (17m 19s): We bless you. We thank you for the incredible blessing. It is to surrender everything to you, surrender everything we have to you, God, I just pray that there would be that every heart in this room would open themselves up to you. God, we pray that as we surrender all, we know that we know that you will, that you'll guide our lives, that you are a trustworthy and good father. And so we surrender everything to you. God, this room is full of people who are surrendering everything to you. Jesus. And so pray for those who have not surrendered all to you, that they would see the incredible beauty that it is to surrender to the king of Kings unto the Lord of Lords. 5 (18m 9s): Thank you, Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Worship team. Awesome. Give him a round of applause here. All right. Yeah. So I am Curtis. My name is Curtis and I'm going to be inviting Brager up. He's going to help me out with some announcements today. So, and yeah, so we just, it was awesome to spend some time in some hymns this week, just to reflect on the heritage of our, of our faith and also just to the richness of, of the songs and the lyrics and everything. So beautiful. So yeah. 5 (18m 50s): W it's it's we're glad to be here. Right? Right. Beggar. We are. Yeah. Take us away. Breaker's got some announcements for us. So 6 (19m 1s): Why? Hello there I am burger Wade. I do not have a job here. Unlike most of the other people doing announcements. So that's a bit of a twist. So today's family Sunday where everyone first grade and above will be in here with their parents. We will be going over a great message with pastor Steve. It's just a great time for the family to learn about God. Also, if you are new here, we have some welcoming in information back at the info center by Jeremy. Raise your hand. There we go. 6 (19m 40s): And also we are having an open house on Sunday, July 10th. Yes. There'll be barbecue and cake. And it's also another family Sunday. So everyone first and up will be in with their parents. 5 (19m 57s): Yeah. It's going to be fun also today because it's family Sunday. We've got donuts out on the patio. So help yourself to that. We're gonna greet each other and have a, have a minute mingle. So everybody get up and greet somebody. Yeah. 5 (21m 47s): Great job everybody. Excellent. Mingling. Great mingling. All right. If you want to find a seat, head back to your seats. Yeah. We're gonna have pastor Steve bringing us the word today. So let's give him a warm welcome and prepare your hearts for the word. 8 (22m 11s): There we go. Thank you. Thank you, pastor Curtis. So it's all this formality. This is my kid. You know, my, my daughter, Leslie, she will, she refuses to call me dad. She calls me Steve or pastor Steve. I don't understand. I thought I raised my kids better than that, but they, but the truth is I don't ever answer the dad, but she says, Steve, then I listen. Right? So I pay attention. So Hey, welcome to family family Sunday. It's good to be back. My wife and I, and not just us. I mean, so many people have had COVID so many people have been sick with stomach stuff. 8 (22m 51s): I think I'd rather have COVID than stomach stuff any day. I mean it's anyway. So there's been a lot of sickness going around and so glad you're here. That means hopefully you're feeling healthy. If you're not feeling healthy, you shouldn't be here, but it is family Sunday. And then a ton of people are just traveling on vacation. I know like a dozen families right around there who are traveling on vacation right now. So it's just, it's been kind of a crazy season, but it's summertime. So here we are. So family Sunday. So the, the promise every family Sunday besides teaching is that we'll give a, some jokes. And the, the, the deal is that I pay five bucks to kids who give me jokes. 8 (23m 32s): And so my grandkids heard the five bucks and of course they wanted to make sure they got in on that deal. So they gave me some jokes and I've got some other jokes from another little precious girl, Tessa. And so Levi and Jen, they were here first, but they, they made sure I got some jokes and of course I needed to give them five bucks now, but they said some of these jokes, they made up others, they just found. But first one is what are you, what do you call a chicken cross with a monkey? Chunky chipmunk makes no sense to me. Either chipmunks chip, mark chipmunks. I don't know. I think he has one. They made up, it didn't make any sense to me, but it wasn't the grass say to the earthquake. You crack me up. 8 (24m 14s): What is a winch put on his, her bagel scream, cheese scream. She's screamed. Ah, good, good, good, good. So from middle Tessa, Emma ass, Ken, February, March, Leah said no, but April, may John said, I am really bright. And Jane asked, well, how bright are you? And John said, I'm so bright. My mom calls me son. There you go. There you go. Hey, next week, we're going to be talking a lot about why we have a family Sunday. 8 (24m 54s): I was going to talk about it today, but then I thought, nah, it's more appropriate maybe to talk about family Sunday when it's not family Sunday. So next week, we're going to be talking about why we do a family Sunday at harvest shirts. So come back next week for that, I've got, I'm going to fast forward through all my notes regarding that. So I can just teach through James chapter three today. And so we're in James chapter three, we're talking about the power of the tongue with that. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your grace Lord. Thank you that you've given us this little muscle called a tongue Lord and we know that it can be used for great, good. And so Lord help us to use it for great, good. 8 (25m 36s): We pray. Thank you for the ability to speak words of life, to speak words of encouragement. It's you speak words of truth, to speak words of love, Lord God. So help us to do that and not tear people down with our tongue to speak harshly to people, to be critical Lord, but help us to love people. The words that we speak, God, knowing that out of the abundance of our heart, the mouth speaks. Lord, help us to have, keep a tender heart. Lord, thank you for your grace and your love in Jesus name. Amen. Did something happen on the Supreme court recently? 8 (26m 17s): What happened? I guess right now a lot of us are really happy about that. Some people will write me an email and tell me I shouldn't be talking about politics and church and that sort of thing, but that's okay. It's a moral issue, not a political issue. So let me just tell you that much. Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world. Psalms tells us on 1 39 and tells us that we've been knit together in our mother's womb to have been fearfully and wonderfully made. And so thank you Lord for life in Jesus name, thank you for life. 8 (27m 1s): The power of the tongue. It's got power for great, good and great evil this morning. When I walked in before first star, I walked in and we were worshiping and somebody next to me, looked at me big smile and said, are you feeling okay? I'm so glad that you're back. And you know that those words of love and grace and affirmation, they just, they can just fill you up. You know, another friend walked in and he put his arm around me. He says, Hey, sorry, I'm late. You just gave me a big smile. And he came to the front row and just sat there or just worship from there. And I thought, man, that's the, the beauty of the power of this little muscle that we have in our mouth. 8 (27m 45s): I've got the power to build people up in their most holy faith to encourage them. When they're discouraged, you speak life. When they're devastated to encourage with truth. When people are struggling with hard stuff, there's an old song. Maybe it's familiar to you. Oh, be careful little tongue. What you say? Oh, be careful little tongue. What you say for the father up above is looking down in love. So be careful little tongue. What you say? Somebody said, you learn everything you need to know about life in kindergarten. 8 (28m 26s): So when we sing little songs like this, they're true when we're five and they're true when we're 105. And so I just want to challenge us today to make sure that we're speaking from a tender heart, from a broken and contrite heart from a gracious heart when we're communicating with people. So number one in your notes, be careful, little tongue. What you say, it's easy to let things just flow. I've noticed too. It's easier to be critical and harsh through a text message or through an email. 8 (29m 6s): Cause we can just kind of vomit through our keyboard, right? We just kind of get everything out and yeah, it feels good for about a minute. And then we hit Sandy and we're like, oh no, maybe I shouldn't have said all of that because I found that we won't say nearly as many critical things when we're face to face, because now you see the person in front of you and there's the humanness of that interaction. And so I tell my staff and team, I say, Hey, if you're ever going to have a hard conversation with somebody, don't do it over email or text message, just get with them because they won't be able to hear your heart. They won't be able to see your countenance and a further step. 8 (29m 49s): If I'm ever going to have a hard conversation with somebody, I'll make sure I've got a, an associate with me and elder with me so that we've got accountability for the way that we're communicating things. And so we make sure that we communicate with grace and with truth and with, with real love that our words are seasoned with grace. We often will just speak harshly out of anger, out of frustration. And those words that we speak are never healthier, never redeeming, be careful, little tongue. What you say, James three one speaks specifically to people in my role in the church and people who teach in the church. 8 (30m 34s): And so that's speaking to Sunday school teachers to small group leaders. It's speaking to anybody who is proclaiming and teaching the truth of God's word. James writes, dear brothers and sisters. Not many of you should become teachers in the church for we who teach will be judged more strictly we, you teach will be judged more strictly. So we have to be careful that what we're teaching is accurate and consistent with the word of God, but also accurate and consistent with the heart of God and the intention of God when he's communicating this true, sometimes truth can be communicated in a harsh way. 8 (31m 20s): Sometimes truth can be communicated in an unhealthy way. And we just need to make sure that the way we're communicating would reflect the author. So often I'll say, Jesus, will you help me to teach with your countenance? Would you help me to teach with your hearts with your mind? I wanna, I wanna teach this passage like you might teach this passage and none of us could ever do that perfectly because we're not Jesus. But if our heart is hopefully in the right place, we'll at least maybe get in the ballpark. Right? And could we will stand before the Lord, as teachers, as leaders and give an account for what we've communicated. 8 (32m 6s): And I don't think it's just the words that we communicate, but it's the attitude and the hearts behind what is communicated. I think Jesus, anytime we'll read some times in Jesus' life where he had to challenge people with very hard words, but as he did, his heart was for truth to be communicated so that a person might be reconciled to him. So they might hear the truth, repent of their sins and come into right relationship with Jesus. Do brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church for we who teach will be judged more strictly recently, somebody said, Hey, I want to, I want to start teaching in the church. 8 (32m 50s): I said, are you sure? I said, why? I said, you know, the truth is you don't want to jump into that prematurely because it's your number one. You're gonna be held accountable by God for what you teach. And, and you're just entering into the fray. I mean, it's just a spiritual battle that you're entering into when you choose to do that type of work. And so I try to discourage people who want to go into the ministry and less, less, they know for sure that they've been called by God to do a specific work. If they don't feel called specifically, I just tell them to stay, put, stay where you are and just keep honoring the Lord with your life right now. 8 (33m 32s): It's like when you're about to marry somebody. And, and I did some premarital counseling with a couple of years ago and they came into my office and my goal is to talk people out of getting married. It's hard work, right? I mean, I've been at for 32 years, my wife, we were talking about it yesterday. Like this is hard work. It's like just hard to stay on the same page to keep loving each other decade over decade and just, you know, all of that stuff. And so I'm always trying to talk people out of it. So I I'm doing premarital counseling with this couple and they're like so angry at each other. I looked at him. I said, you guys don't even like each other. Why do you want to get married? They're like, what are you talking about? I said, you guys bicker and complain and fight about everything. 8 (34m 12s): I said, it's better that you don't get married. And that was the one and only session that I had with them. And they broke up and they didn't get married. And I'm so grateful that I did my job. I did my job to keep them from getting married and further wreaking havoc in their own lives. We need to be careful that we use our words to challenge people in the right way to speak the truth in love. Sometimes we're tempted just to go along with people because it's easier. We're tempted to just kind of agree with people's plans because we don't want to be confrontational or tell them that what they're doing isn't healthy or right. 8 (34m 53s): Or a good godly direction. And there's sometimes where we just have to stand on the truth of the word of God and speak the truth in love. I didn't tell him not to get married. Cause I was mad at him. I told him, man, you're, you're entering into world war three right here. If you do this, I mean, it's gonna be bad for you, right? It's going to be really, really bad. You're not even married yet. You're fighting like cats and dogs. So we just have to be careful. Verse two says, indeed, we all make many mistakes for if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. Isn't the hardest thing in the world that control this little muscle in our mouse. I mean like we so often watch a react out of anger or commits out of excitement or whatever it may be stopping and thinking and praying and giving opportunity for whatever emotion you're dealing with does settle down a little bit. 8 (35m 46s): Sometimes we're just filled with anger or excitement. If we over commit under what we do, all kinds of stuff, we all make many mistakes. We all make. But if we can learn to control our tongues, we can control every area of our lives. And it's illustrated here. We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. So you can be out on this huge horse, but you got a its mouth. You can just move that thing wherever you want it to go. Right? Because it's just a little tiny thing in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go. Even though the winds are strong in the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. 8 (36m 31s): We have to be careful what we're saying, that we're speaking words that are seasoned with grace that are honest. We're even talking about lying here in a moment, but we we've got to make sure that what the words of our mouth are filled with integrity and truth. Then we can only do that as we just allow the holy spirit to fill us in, to speak through us and to minister through our lives. A tiny spark verse five continues, but a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire and among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness corrupting your entire body. 8 (37m 16s): You can set your whole life on fire for it is set on fire by hell itself. Very strong warnings that James is giving us today that we need to be very cautious about the words that we speak. Once they're out, we can not get them back. And it's a whole bunch of work to make amends, to apologize, to get back into a good relationship with somebody who has been hurt by the words that have been spoken. And so we're told in James one 19, understand this, my dear brothers and sisters, you must all be quick to listen quick to listen, slow, slow to speak and slow to get angry. 8 (38m 3s): Human anger does not produce the righteousness or the justice that God desires. And so we're given very clear instruction. Just listen quick to listen, slow to speak. Just slow. Just listen, listen. Sometimes when we're listening, we can hear the intense more than the words. Sometimes we don't communicate very well and we say dumb things, but if we just listen, sometimes we were able to get past the hurtful things. If we can just hear the heart of the person, communicating it, if we just stop and listen and not react out of anger and frustration and disappointment, but just listen often. 8 (38m 46s): My wife and I, well, we don't, we're not at odds very often, but sometimes we're at odds and she'll say, Hey, we're on the same team. I'm like, ah, that's right. We're on the same team. She's she's got great wisdom for me. So, so it reminds me that she's not my enemy and it needs to remind us within the church that we're not enemies of one another we're brothers and sisters in the Lord. So it's best to give the benefit of the doubt in your relationships with your kids, with your spouse, with people within the church and the ministry ministry can get messy and you know, people get their feelings hurt, but we just need to give each other the benefit of the doubt, praying for one another, loving one another, making sure that our reactions are godly, that our words are seasoned with salt, with grace and filled with the love of God. 8 (39m 37s): You must be quick to listen. We've got to listen and slow to speak often when we're speaking, it's out of anger because we're allowing our emotions to get the best of us. And we're just reacting and responding in an unhealthy way. So be careful, a little tongue. What you say, number one, number two, be careful to bless people with your words. Be careful to bless people with your words. You've got the power to bless people with your words. You've got the power to encourage people with your words. We nobody knows what we're all going through in this room. But if, if we make it our effort to bless with our words, speaking, grace and kindness and truth to one another, it just builds us up and encourages us and reminds us that we're among the family of God. 8 (40m 31s): This is a safe place. It's a good place. It's a place that we want to be. And so if we can model that to our kids and model that to our family members and our friends, if we can just love one another through the words that we speak, James, three, seven through 12 says people contain all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one contained the tongue. It's a, it's a restless, it's restless and evil, full of deadly poison. So James is telling us, Hey, you're not gonna be able to control it. But I, I remember making this point when I was about 17 years old, re PA preaching this first passage for the first time and remember making the statement that I didn't fully understand them, but I've kind of getting it now that we can not control our tongue, but the holy spirit can control our tongue where we're given the power of God through the presence of the holy spirit. 8 (41m 23s): And through that power and presence, we're able to operate with self control, allowing God to control the words that we speak. And it makes sure that we're operating and communicating in a way that honors the Lord. No one contained the tongue. It's a restless, it's restless and evil, full of deadly poison. And this is what happens. Sometimes it praises our Lord and father, and sometimes it curses. Those who have been made in the image of God. I mean, isn't that curious? Something like where sometimes it's your silently praise. The Lord, we're all sincere. We're very sincere in our worship, right? We're all sincere. But then we step out and we get bad service at a restaurant. We're like, no, we're just like chewing the ear off of the server because we got bad service, right? 8 (42m 6s): Sometimes we're out, you know, we come away from a prayer meeting or whatever worship session church or whatever it is. And we get on the road and somebody cuts us off and we give them an inappropriate wave, right? Or we say something that's inappropriate, right? We, we act out of the carnality of our flesh instead of extending grace to the people who have been made in the image of God. So we need to be careful that our expression, the things that come out of our mouth are consistent and that they're godly as we move forward. So blessing and cursing comporting out of the same mouth. Surely my brothers and sisters, this is not right. 8 (42m 46s): I mean, does that spring? There's a spring of water bubble up out with both fresh water and bitter water. No. Does a fig produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? No. And you can't draw fresh water from a salty spring. So what makes a salty spring? What is the spring of our life? It's our heart, right? This is from this heart of ours is the spring. And depending on what's going on with our heart, it will, it will dictate what's coming out of our mouth. How do we know that? Because Luke tells us that the good person, Luke 6 45, the good person out of the good treasure in his heart produces good. 8 (43m 32s): And the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil for out of the abundance of the heart. His mouth speaks. So whatever is going on in here will come out of here. So maybe you're having a bad day and you're just mad at everybody. You can just stop. You can pause and say, Lord, why am I mad at everybody? What's going on in my heart? You know, because I know if I'm angry and worried and angry words are coming out, there's something unhealthy in my heart. And so we can say, Lord, I, I, I feel angry at so-and-so. I want to forgive that person. I want to just let that go. And then all of a sudden, our countenance changes our hearts, different, our hearts, more tender it's molded into the image of God's will. 8 (44m 19s): And we're able to speak words of life, speak words that give life, instead of words, that cause pain, Proverbs 4 23 tells us, keep your heart with all diligence. I did that first service to keep your heart with all what's the word vigilant. Thanks. I don't know why I'll read stuff. And my wife said, that's not what it says. I'm like, what are you talking about? She, you, you you're read it and that's not what it says. So I go back and read it again. I said, yeah, it's not village ins. It's vigilance. Keep your heart with all vigilance for, from it flow the Springs of life. And that's why the Psalmist rotes let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. 8 (45m 8s): Oh Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. So sometimes we have to say hard things to people. Jesus did. And we're going to read about a portion of scripture in Matthew, where Jesus spoke some hard things. He said, you brood of Vipers. In other places, he called the Pharisees. He said, you're you're you're whitewashed tombs with dead men's bones inside. Now he probably didn't say it with a smile. You brood of Vipers. You're you're dead means you're whitewashed tombs with dead, dead, dead men's bones. I think he said, you are a brood of Vipers cause he wanted to get their attention, right? 8 (45m 51s): Why did he want to get their attention? Because they were a lost in their understanding about who God is about who Jesus was as the Messiah. And he wanted to get their attention. So they might accept the grace and mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So they might come into a real relationship with God. And so they needed some hard truth. And so he said, you brood of Vipers. How can you speak good? When you are evil for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good. And the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every careless word they speak. 8 (46m 42s): We talk about standing before the Lord and giving the account for our lives. Every careless word that is spoken is recorded. And we will give an account for that. I don't know what that looks like, but we will give an account for that. For your words, you will be justified for, by your words, you'll be justified. And by your words, you will be condemned who think it matters. What we do with this little muscle in our mouth, man, it matters. And it's got eternal consequence or eternal blessing depending on how we use it. It's a tool. It's a muscle that we can use for God's glorious purposes. 8 (47m 22s): Or we can be used as a tool of the enemy and speak all kinds of vile things. This almost this he said, create in me a clean hearts, oh God. And renew a right spirit within me. This was, this was the heart of the Psalmist. David he's create. Lord created me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me. He understood the power of a pure heart and the result of a pure heart, his life would be different. It would be blessed. It would be, it would be an inspiration to be good. It would be wholesome and good and godly if he would just make sure his heart was right, Ephesians 4 29, Paul challenges us. 8 (48m 8s): Let no corrupting talk, come out of your mouse. So whatever is corrupt, don't let it come out of your mouth. Whether it be harsh words or bad jokes, let no corrupting talk, come out of your mouth, but only such as is good for building up for edifying. The body of Christ for edifying people as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. If we can just be committed to make sure that the words we speak are seasoned with grace and love and kindness, God will use what we say to encourage people, to challenge people, to bring people along to disciple people, to help them know what it means to trust and follow Jesus in John 8 44, addressing liars says you are of your father, the devil and your will is to do your father's desire. 8 (49m 16s): He was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him when he lies. He speaks out of his own character for, he is a liar and the father of lies. And so we'll talk more about lies in a moment. But when we lie, we are agreeing with the devil. We are speaking his native tongue. So I was at that landfill yesterday. I had a bunch of cardboard that I was trying to get rid of. And then I realized I had this little mini fridge and I needed to get rid of that. It was broken. So throw all the stuff in the back of my truck and cover it all up. And then I get to the landfill. I'm reading in line, I'm reading the charges for all of these things. 8 (49m 58s): And they said, cardboard, $5, no five basket, right appliances. I think it's at $27 or $37. I'm like, oh man. So I got to pay 20 so that whatever, the, all this money I, you know, it's all covered up. I could just tell him I got cardboard, right? They're not going to know the guys in the guard house over here. And I'm going to be driving over here out of sight. He's not going to know. Right. So, so I could say, oh yeah, we just got a bunch of cardboard and, and just pay the five bucks and move on. He's just a little white lie. It's not, it's no big deal. Right? It's no big deal. It's a big deal. So I told them I got cardboard, ND mini fridge. 8 (50m 42s): He said, you know what, I'm just going to charge you for the cardboard five bucks. I gave him the five bucks. I said, really, thank you so much. And I gave him the five bucks and I pulled around and he said, yeah, just take your little mini fridge and throw it in the aluminum Sprite pile over there and we'll call it good. I'm like, well, thank you very much. So instead of telling that story today, if I would have lied, I would have been, I'd be confessing right now. So I went to the landfill, lied about what I had my truck so I could get a deal. And, but instead my conscience is clear. You know, when we lie, we got to remember what we said, try to recount it later on. So somebody asks us, you know, a month later, Hey, what happened that day? You got to do, what did I say happened that day versus what really happened that day? 8 (51m 25s): If you just tell the truth all the time, you never have to remember what you said, because all you're doing is recounting the truth. That's a lie. It's just so much easier to just tell the truth. Yeah. We lie about all kinds of stuff. We, you know, we get pulled over for speeding and the officer says, well, how fast were you going? 55 officer. He said, I actually had clocked you at 75. Impossible that I was going 75. Why don't you just say, yeah, I was kind of in a rush. I was going 75. I'm sure. At least 75, maybe even 80. Right. And so I really apologize that I was running late. So just go ahead and write me a ticket. Why don't I just do that? 8 (52m 6s): Just take, take your lumps. You know, it might be so refreshing to the police officer that he just let you off with a warning or he may write you a ticket. You can't be sure what's going to happen, but I can guarantee you that if you just take your lumps in the moment, let the chips fall where they may, then you'll be much happier. You'll be much more. At peace years ago, I filed my taxes and there was a error on the taxes and some interesting things that happened that year. And there were some error on the taxes and I had to come clean about it the following tax year. And it costs me $8,000. So I had to pay $8,000 for my honesty, but that's a cheap price to pay for a clear conscience, eight grand it's cheap, right? 8 (52m 57s): Some of us will lie about a couple of bucks though. You know, some of us will lie about all kinds of stuff. And so we just need to be careful that the words that we speak represent the truth, that they are the truth in any, and every circumstance Jeremiah 17, nine says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick or wicked who can understand it. So don't let your heart guide you. Your heart is deceitfully wicked sick, right? Your heart will say, Hey, you can get away with it. Or, Hey, it's not that big of a deal. Just let the word of God direct you. And you'll have a clear conscience. You'll be able to move forward. And even if it cost you a few bucks, it's worth it. 8 (53m 39s): It's worth it. The hardest deceitful above all things and desperately sick and wicked who can understand it. Jesus said, it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person. So the lies that we speak, the partial trues, the anger that bubbles up out of us, that defiles us and it hurts people deeply. So Paul tells us in Philippians four eight, this is how you kind of remedy that. Think about the right stuff. He says, finally, brothers, whatever's true. Whatever's honorable. Whatever is just, whatever is pure. 8 (54m 22s): Whatever is lovely. Whatever is commendable. If there is any excellence, there's anything worthy of praise. Think about these things. We can't put this into practice of our lives are filled with compromise. If we're lying and cheating and speaking harshly, if we're not living our lives above reproach, we will never be able to think about these things because we're always thinking about how we might get out of what we've just lied about or avoid being found out about what we've just said or lied about or have done. 8 (55m 4s): I love what Peter said to Anna. Niaz remember Anna niacin Safira and acts five, three, Peter said an IAS. Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the holy spirit and to keep back for yourself? Part of the proceeds of the land. So Anna Naya, since the fires, they sold some, some land and they were going to give the proceeds, but they decided to lie to the holy spirit, lie about what they had taken in and only give a portion of what they committed to give what happened to Anna niacin. Safira all right. We don't understand the judgment of God at times, but they both fell dead under the judgment of God. 8 (55m 52s): You think God cares about what we say? Like he's very serious about what we say think is very serious that we pay attention to the words that come out of our mouth and make sure that we're not just speaking flippantly because every careless word we'll be judged. Every careless word will be judged. So let what you say be simply yes or no. Matthew 5 37. Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes evil. So if somebody asks you, were you speeding? Yes. I had to go on at 75. Now it's probably going 80. 8 (56m 33s): Right? You just speak the truth in love. Just say yes or say no, but just leave it at that in our own strength. Again, we don't have the capacity, the strength, the power to do to control our tongue. But Galatians five says the fruit of the spirit is life and joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness gentleness. And the last one is control, right? So through the power of the holy spirit, the presence of the holy spirit, we are able to have self control, controlling those words that come out of our mouth, controlling what we say, how we say it, speaking the truth in love king. 8 (57m 18s): David understood this and he understood the power of the word as it impacted his life. Psalm one 40 verses one through three, he says, oh Lord, rescue me from evil. People, protect me from those who are violence. Those whose those who plot evil in their hearts and stir up trouble all day long. They're their tongues sting like a snake, the venom of a Viber drips from their lips. Then that word interlude or say lie. It means to ponder, to think, to pause and to think about what has been said. There are tongues, they steam like a snake and the venom of a Viber drips from their lips. 8 (58m 0s): It's deadly, it's dangerous. It's hurtful. It's divisive the words of our lips. Some sometimes. So be careful, be careful. Number three, be careful never to boast or lie. And we see that in the balance of James three, 13, and 18, we've talked about lying. We'll talk about us some more. James 13, 3 13 through 18. If you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the, with the humility that comes from wisdom. 8 (58m 40s): So, so appreciate Ron's message. From last couple of weeks, as he went through James chapter two, he's talking about works faith and works. How without works. Our faith is dead. Like the body without breath is dead without works. Our faith is dead. So James is challenging us to make sure that our faith actually means something in the way that we live our lives and the way that we communicate with one another, our faith should form show it, inform our minds and the way that we speak and communicate with people. If you're a wise and understanding God's ways, privet by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 8 (59m 28s): But if you are bitterly jealous, and these are the, some of the things that we get harbored in our heart, bitter jealousy, we allow ugly things to take root and to camp out in our lives. And it's never ever a good idea, but if you're a bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your hearts, don't cover it up with the truth. Don't cover up the truth with boasting and lying for jealousy and selfishness are not. God's kind of wisdom, such things are earthly. This. We need to hear this because there are things that we entertain and allow in our lives that are not from God. 8 (1h 0m 8s): They're not anywhere near what God's plan and desire for our life is these things are they, they are earthly. They are of this world unspiritual. And then he says and demonic. So sometimes we've got stuff going on in our hearts, unforgiveness, jealousy, selfish ambition, all of these things where we're allowing to be in our hearts and their earthly unspiritual, and they're even demonic. They are not from God. And so we need to allow those things to be challenged in our life. We need to arrest those things and not allow them to control our lives. And I know a lot of us have been through really hard stuff and I get that and it's a process to begin to let all that stuff go and you can't let it go without the power of the holy spirit in your life. 8 (1h 0m 57s): I say it all the time. We can not do anything that God asks of us or expects of us unless we've got the power of the holy spirit at work in our lives. And so it's a, it's, it's a futile attempt to try to rid those things of our lives without the power of the word of God, the power and the grace of the spirit of God, that the goodness of God welling up within our lives, jealousy and selfishness are not, God's kind of wisdom there. So those things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic for wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition. There, you will find this order and evil of every kind, but the wisdom from above is first of all, pure pure. 8 (1h 1m 43s): It is also peace, loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It's full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. And I want that second part. I don't want the first part. I don't want all that ugliness in me and I don't know some days how to get out of it or get away from it. But when I begin to open up the word of God and be real with God and say, am, I've got some stuff in my heart. 8 (1h 2m 24s): That's not pretty, I don't know what to do with it. Would you just help me and just begin to pray through it and read through the scripture and just allow the holy spirit to minister, to me, there's healing and grace that washes over and I'm able to have a wholly different perspective. My words become more tender. My countenance, more sincere. The actions of my life are good, but when I'm filled up with all this junk, all this darkness, all this evil, all this demonic stuff, it's just the opposite, but we've got a choice. We've got a choice to leave. God's not going to come along and make us get rid of it, but will he'll make us miserable. Why w while we're hold on to it, that's kind of a blessing to us to help us realize that you got to get rid of that junk, right? 8 (1h 3m 7s): It's like, if you got, you know, fishing the trash overnight and you wake up the next morning, you're like, holy cow, this house smells right. Why does the house smell? Well, we got fish from the night before that never got taken out, right? So a lot of us are carrying that fish, that stinky little fish smell around, and we don't even realize, and we wake up the next day. I'm like, whoa, Matt got a smell. God wants you to just get rid of that. It's take out the trash, take out the trash. The apostle Paul wrote in second Corinthians, 1130. He says, if I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am. 8 (1h 3m 48s): Wow. Is in his weakness. God's strength is made perfect. And he knows everything of his good works. It's like dung, it's like dirty rags, filthy rags, and compare it to the righteousness of God. There was nothing that he wanted to glorify in that he did. And he did it a lot, but he said, you know, I'd rather just boast in my weakness. It's just better that way. No, we got social media in our world. And I've said from the beginning, it's a big fat waste of time, right? Like when Facebook first came out, I said, don't waste your life on Facebook. What happens on Facebook or Instagram or all these places? You know, you have a great meal. 8 (1h 4m 29s): And so you take a picture of your steak or your lobster or whatever. And you know, it's all look what I'm having. Where are you on vacation? You're like, aren't we just perfect. Just having the greatest time for our life. And we're posting all this stuff. And people never post the hard stuff in their lives. They want to just boast about all the good stuff. And so I, this happened to me a number of years ago, and this couple, they came to me and their, their lives were just in total disarray, but you'd never know by their social media because I'd go back and look. And I'm like, they seem like they're all good, all this perfect family stuff, you know, it's just a big lie and a big facade, right? 8 (1h 5m 13s): So spend your time doing something else. Read a book, read the Bible, go for a walk with your spouse, go on a date with your, with your spouse, turn off your phone. I was at the beach yesterday, a couple of days ago, doing a prayer walk. I like to go on prayer walks before I get ready to preach. So I'm on this prayer walk in Pismo. And you know, there's all, it's overcast and cold and all, but all these valley people are over there and having a great time and bless them. I wouldn't want to live where they live. They come over here to enjoy our beaches, even if it's overcast and cold, they're having a great time. So I'm like, wow, that's awesome. But this guy is standing in the water up to his ankles and he's got his phone and he's just like on his phone. 8 (1h 5m 56s): And I'm just watching him for the longest time. He's just on his phone the whole time, leave your phone, leave it in the truck, leave it in your car and just go enjoy life. We, we need to be careful how we live our lives and how we spend the time. And, and ultimately how we speak and communicate. It's the, the tongue has the power of life and death. Be careful, a little tongue. What you say, be careful to bless people with your words, and finally be careful never to boast or lie. That's enough to get us thinking for the rest of the week. And so with that, why don't we go ahead and stand up and I'm gonna invite the worship team up and we're going to sing some more and worship some more. 8 (1h 6m 40s): And if you've been challenged today, which I know I get challenged every time I preach a message. Every time I read the word I get challenged. So if you've been challenged today, use it as an opportunity to just go before the Lord and clear your account and just say, Lord, I, I want to keep short accounts with you. And I know I've had some bitterness. I know I've said some things, whatever it may be, just say, Lord, forgive me, Lord, heal my heart and help the words of my mouth. Honor. You glorify you and build people up at a five people all the days of my life. So Lord, help me to do that. 8 (1h 7m 21s): I pray in Jesus name. Just get, go before the Lord and do that. Let's worship. 2 (1h 7m 49s): I have to follow. Jeez, jeez. I have to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning no, no 10 3 (1h 9m 14s): Cheese, cheese. I have 2 (1h 9m 23s): Decided to phone , 4 (1h 9m 40s): But we've decided to follow. We don't take that lightly. That claim would Lord let that be the prayer of our heart. Every day as we get up in the morning, we decide to put aside our will our desires. Look, we surrender our thoughts to you and seek for you to fill us with your holy spirit. Well, I do that as we go about our, we learn, fill us with your spirit so that we can share you in your love and your grace with everyone around us. 4 (1h 10m 24s): Jesus name, Lord let's. Let's sing that one more time. I have decided 3 (1h 10m 29s): to follow. Jeez. to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No 2 (1h 10m 51s): Turning 4 (1h 11m 0s): Glorify you. Jesus. Amen. Have a good week. Prayer. Please feel free to come up front. We love to pray with you.

2 (3s): Morning, everybody. Good morning. Happy father's day to those of you who are fathers. Welcome. Come off. You've all stand up with us. We're going to worship the heavenly father. 0 (3m 55s): Oh yeah. Oh my I've been from the moment that I wake up. God You have been so 1 (5m 21s): I've 0 (5m 21s): Known you I know no kiss, no power. 0 (10m 58s): No, 4 (12m 14s): Lord Jesus. We thank you so much for what you're doing in our hearts. Jesus, we thank you. That it's a father's day. I just pray a blessing over each father who's in the house today. Lord, we just know that it is a blessing and a responsibility to be a dad to lead your family. And so father, I just pray that you would equip each, each dad in the room to be able to do that effectively for your kingdom. Jesus, Lord. We just submit ourselves to you. We thank you that we can come here and worship you in spirit and in truth this morning. Jesus you're so, so good. And you're so worthy of praise in Jesus name. 4 (12m 58s): Amen. Amen. All right. You can take your seats. My name's Curtis. It's great to see you all. Hi. Hello. Hello. Hi. Thank you. Yeah, so today's father's day. If you didn't know, hurry last minute, write a card, dear dad, and hand it to them or something. But yeah, we're super glad to have you here in the house of the Lord worshiping as DJ said, the greatest father, our heavenly father, and we love him so much. So if you are new here and you want to get connected, we have communication cards in the seat backs in front of you or at the info center. 4 (13m 39s): So if you want to get connected, just fill one of those out. You can drop it in the collection box we have at the info center or on your way out in the hallway, back back behind us, behind me also, we're going to be having a grand opening celebration, July 10th. So I know we're in here. We know that we're here, but not everybody knows that we're here, right? So we're going to have a big celebration. It's a great opportunity to invite friends, family, anybody who may not know that we're here and it's going to be really fun. We're going to have a barbecue. We're going to have, I think we're going to have cake. If we, if we're not having cake, then I'm sorry. 4 (14m 19s): We should have cake, right, Ron? We should. Yes. Okay, cool. Yeah. So it's going to be really fun. That's July 10th. So that's coming up and just log that in your brain invite somebody that you see in your daily life. And also we've got a father's day video. And after that, Ron's going to come up and give us the word. So we're going to cue that video now. 6 (17m 47s): Good morning. Just want to make a few comments about the video. So one of the things, the opening statements was fathers are one of the most powerful forces in the universe. You know, we live in very interesting time now in, in our culture of today, where there really isn't assault on family and an assault, especially on, on fathers and, and godly fathers. And the points that were brought up there is to pray for fathers who work long hours, fathers, who are now grandfathers, pray for those who have lost their father. And for those who grew up with an absent father, pray for single and divorced fathers and for fathers who have have children with special needs and also for fathers who have lost their children, a lot of circumstances happen in life, in, in families and with fathers in particular. 6 (18m 42s): So Lord, we do want to take just a moment, you know, what the needs are, godly men, fathers, where we so desperately need your touch and your wisdom and direction on our life. And so Lord, for those fathers in particular that are really struggling, really dealing with the challenges that they're, that they're facing Lord, that they would feel really encouraged and empowered by you and that you would bring answers where they're needed and, and direction in life, where it's needed. And, and, and to help us as fathers, to really stand firm and to be as much as possible, a godly example to our children and to our families and to those around us. But we commit our lives to you as always in Jesus' name. 6 (19m 24s): We pray. Amen. Amen. Hey, as we continue to side note, a cell phone was turned in and it made its way over to the info center. You found a home for it. Okay. We found a home for the cell phone, any cell phones out there at the doughnut homes. Okay. Take them over the info center. Hey, just in case, you're wondering, because this is the second Sunday that I'm up here and not pastor Steve is because Steven Jolene have COVID. And so this is day 10 of their whole COVID experience. And I talked to Steve on Thursday, he's, you know, they're doing fine. They're just kind of exhausted and congested and you know, the whole thing. 6 (20m 6s): And so I do expect that Steve and Jolene will be back this, this following Sunday. So I just want to pray for them as well. Lord, we lift up pastor Steve and Jolene to you, Lord, thank you for just their, their godly example to us. Lord, thank you for their leadership and Lord, we do pray for them, spirit, soul, and body that you would encourage them, touch them, heal them, give them the strength that they need, the healing that they need need to yeah, just to start feeling good again, normal again, and be able to get, you know, jumped back into normal life. We pray, Lord bless them. We love them. We thank you for them in Jesus name. 6 (20m 45s): Amen. Amen. So once again, I didn't know it before, but I'm teaching a series from, from the, the book of James. So if you want to turn in your Bible or whatever device you use, we're going to be looking at the last section in James chapter two. So James chapter two, we're going to be looking at verses 14 through 26. And so the series, the title of the series is healthy church life. So we think about the life of the church. We're talking about, you know, the gathering of the saints believers. We, we come together, we worship together. We grow together. We live life together and we want to make sure and do that in a really healthy way. 6 (21m 26s): So healthy church life part two, that's the title. So last week when we looked at healthy church life, part one, we were looking at verses one through 13, and this had to do with showing favoritism. You remember that and partiality and respect of persons in the church and the issue. There was just really an attitude, a bad attitude of the heart, which would prefer one person over another in the church community. And that came from James chapter two, verse nine, where he says there, if you favor some people over others, you're committing a sin and you're guilty of breaking the law. So it's a serious thing, that idea of showing favoritism. So in, in last week we looked at James and it was what not to do don't show favoritism. 6 (22m 13s): And he gave us some challenges about that. This week is also going to be what not to do slightly different subjects. We're looking this week verses 14 through 26. This has to do with the topic of a faith, professing faith without works without actions, without anything to back it up. Good deeds. For example, the issue here is motivation. So what, what motivates us? What motivates you as a confessing believer in Jesus Christ? So that's really the question, what most of what I'm going to be talking about today. I want you to take it personal and really focus in on the things that James is talking about and look at it from a very personal lens. 6 (22m 55s): What motivates you? What motivates me? So are we, am I motivated by the holy spirit and the work that God is doing in my life? And therefore things that flow out of my life come from that motivation, or am I motivated by my own selfish ambitions? And, and that can be a real, a real clash at times because we all have ambitions. Some of them are godly ambitions and some of them are not. And so we have to think about the things that motivates, motivates us in our life. James is encouraging us to take a good long look in the mirror and ask ourselves this question. 6 (23m 39s): Am I truly saved? We're going to talk about that and, and open it up. Try to answer that question. So look with me now in verse 14, where James begins, he says, what good is it? Dear brothers and sisters. If you say you have faith, but don't show it by your actions. Can that kind of faith save anyone? So let's see. We could find, we could find out the answer to this question. I'm sure we all know a Christian, somebody who professes to be a Christian, a believer in Jesus. And yet, if we look at their life, their life shows almost no transformation. 6 (24m 23s): Almost no change from their former life as an unbeliever virtually no good works, no actions that would validate their confession of faith. So it's easy to look at other people and, and kind of judge them and conclude where they are at. But we're not going to do that today. We're not going to look at others at all. We're going to look at ourself. So let me now, just to be clear, James is not encouraging us to judge another person's salvation or motivation or anything. That's not what this is about. What James is trying to get us to do is to look in the mirror and, and judge, I'm going to judge myself. Am I truly in the faith? Am I truly born again? 6 (25m 4s): Am I truly saved? So I want to pose that same question. I just want to reword it just a little differently. If you say, if you say that you are a Christian, but your actions don't show it or affirm it, are you really safe? Are you really a Christian? So that's what we're going to be looking at today. So we have to start out by thinking about, well, what is, what does genuine faith look like? What is genuine faith? And here's what it is. It is a conviction about what the Bible declares to be true. So it's a, it's a conviction. It's not an opinion, or even a belief system. It's a conviction. So genuine faith is the conviction about man's relationship to God from the new Testament perspective. 6 (25m 49s): What does that mean? It means that man's relationship with God is exclusively found through a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's what the Bible declares. That's the truth that is being declared in the scripture. And so we, our convictions flow from that. So remember the time Jesus is speaking with the crowd and he's talking about this very thing in John chapter 14, verse six famous words, he says, Jesus says, I am the way you can say it with me. I am the truth. And I am the life. No man comes to the father except through me. It's pretty exclusive, isn't it? 6 (26m 30s): And yet that's what the Bible declares to be true. So genuine faith is a conviction about this, about this truth. So now let me make it personal. So for me, I am so convinced of the truth that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life and that I have no access to the father except through him. I'm so convinced of this truth that I will never be the same again. My life is, is, has been radically changed since I concluded and believe that truth. And I'm convinced of that truth. So again, just to repeat from verse 14, James, again, he's saying, if you say you have faith, but don't show it by your actions. 6 (27m 11s): Can that kind of phase save anyone? So pastor Steve began James chapter one, a few weeks back and in James chapter one, verse 22, this is what James says there. He says, don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise you're only fooling yourself. Jesus in sort of pressing this point home again, he's speaking to the crowds and those who were following him in Matthew chapter seven, verse 21, he said this, he said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father in heaven. 6 (27m 56s): So we see the connection there. There's, there's gotta be some, some action behind what we say we believe. So the apostle Paul touches on this same subject as well. He's talking to Timothy in the letter, sorry, actually to Titus. Sorry about that. Titus chapter three, verse eight. He, this is what he says to Titus. This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. So it's not like, okay, I'm I guess I have to do good works or actions because, because I'm supposed to it. 6 (28m 37s): It's not that at all. It's not a work's kind of theology or belief system. Again, it's, it's, we're so convinced and moved by the holy spirit that we almost, we can't help, but reach out to people and, and, and be a blessing to others because we're compelled to do that. So it has nothing to do with, with something I have to do. It just flows from our life with Christ. In fact, you were created for this. I love this verse in Ephesians two 10. He says for, we are his workmanship God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. 6 (29m 18s): Now, one of the unique things we're going to find out here is that the good works or actions that he may have you do could be quite different than the ones that, that I may do. Because again, he is, sir, God prepared beforehand. And so you're a unique person you've been uniquely gifted and created as God's workmanship. So I think the best way to kind of put this to practical uses, what are the things that you just you're really passionate about? You're really good at gifted out. You just find so much joy in helping other people in these areas. It just seems to kind of flow from you. And we're going to look at that in just a minute. As we look at somebody that's mentioned in the new Testament. 6 (29m 58s): So as I mentioned earlier, James, he's challenged us to examine ourselves to look in the mirror and he continues in verse 15. He says, suppose you see a brother, sister who has no food or clothing and you say goodbye, have a good day, stay warm, eat well, but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see faith by itself isn't enough unless it produces good deeds. It is dead and it is useless, pretty strong words there. Now we, we assume something. When we look at this challenge by James it's presumed here, that number one, that we have the resources to help this person. 6 (30m 43s): We have the resources to help this person, but instead of helping them, we refuse to help them. And just to be clear, we're not talking about the guy on the street corner, holding up a sign, saying that he needs food or money or whatever. We're not talking about that guy. What we're talking about is a brother or sister in Christ. Someone that we know, we have relationship with them and they have a legitimate need and we have the resources to meet the need, but we're unwilling to help them. That's what James is talking about here. 6 (31m 22s): And also just so you know, this is not just a new Testament model or teaching. We find it in Proverbs chapter three, verse 27 in the old Testament, he says, do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in the power of your hand to do so, do not say to your neighbor, go and come back and tomorrow I will give it you to you when you have it with you today. Now we live in a time right now where things are super tight. I mean, everything's more and more expensive. We always feel like, I feel like I don't really have enough. So you might be thinking I barely have enough to meet my own needs. 6 (32m 4s): How can I be, you know, involved in meeting others people's needs. Well, first of all, let me, let me say this. God knows your need. And he has promised to meet your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. So, you know, we think, well, I don't have enough to help someone in need. That's just simply not true. God knows your need. He's promised to meet your need. And not only that would you like to be used by God as a, as a vessel, as a funnel, as it were to be a blessing to someone else so that God can then give you more resources so that you can be a blessing to others. 6 (32m 45s): That's actually how it works in the kingdom of God is we think to ourselves, I'm not sure I have enough. You give, anyway, God says, I'll meet your need. Don't don't even worry about that. Don't be anxious about it and no I'll meet your need. And so we give, and God gives us more resources to meet more needs. It's amazing thing. In fact, we see this in Luke chapter six, verse 38, Jesus was talking about this very thing he says give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your bosom or like fall into your lap for, with the same measure that you use or give. 6 (33m 28s): It will be measured back to you. So if we think about it this way, if we, if we'd like to have more resources than we should give more, right? It's not the opposite. Sometimes we think, well, I need, I need to keep all I have. So I have enough, it doesn't work that way in God's kingdom. So the apostle John, he kind of talking about the same thing in first, John chapter three, verse 16, he says by this, we know love because he, Jesus laid down his life for us. So we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him. 6 (34m 11s): How does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but indeed. And in truth, as I mentioned before, there's a great example in the new Testament. It's actually in the book of acts. There's a gal there. I assume she's an older gal, but you know what she loved to do. She was really good at making clothes. I mean, maybe she would knit so seamstress. I'm not exactly sure all she did, but her name's Tabitha. There's a whole section of the book of acts talking about Tabitha and how generous she was. In fact, I'll read it to you in acts chapter nine, verse 36, there was a believer in Joppa named Tabitha. She was always doing kind things for others and helping the poor. 6 (34m 54s): About this time, she became ill and died. Her body was washed for burial and laid in an upstairs room, but the believers had heard that Peter was nearby at Lydda. So they sent two men to beg him, please come as soon as possible. So Peter returned with them. And as soon as he arrived, they took him to the upstairs room where Tabitha lay the room was filled with widows who were weeping and showing him the coats and other clothes that Tabitha had made for them. But Peter asked them all to leave the room. And then he knelt and he prayed turning to the body. He said, get up Tabitha. 6 (35m 35s): And she opened her eyes. When she saw Peter, she sat up, he gave her his hand and helped her up. And then he called in the widows and all the believers. And he presented her to them alive. The news spread throughout the whole town and many believed in the Lord. That was a noodle notable miracle. Tabitha was dead and now she's alive. But, but the impact of all that or the, the reason all those people were gathered together and wanted Peter to come is because of the kind things that Tabba Tabitha had done for them making clothes and giving to the poor. So James continues this question, verse 18. Now someone may argue, some people have faith and others have good deeds, but I say, how can you show me your faith? 6 (36m 20s): If you don't have good deeds, I will show you my faith by my deeds, my good deeds. So what we see here is that faith and good deeds, they go hand in hand there, they just come together. They're they're inseparable. In fact, as we help others, this is a, a mystery as we help others, we're actually helping Jesus. We're serving Jesus. We're giving to him. What do I mean by that? So interesting parable that Jesus talked about in Matthew chapter 25, and he uses this term, the king, the king he's talking about is actually himself. 6 (37m 1s): The king will say to those on his right come. You who are blessed by my father and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world for I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you invited me into your home. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me. Then these righteous ones will reply. Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink or a stranger and show you hospitality or naked and give you clothing. When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you? 6 (37m 45s): And the king will say, I tell you the truth. When you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me. It takes on a whole different impact. When we think about the fact that as we, as we help others share with us with meet the needs of others, bless others. We're doing it as unto the Lord and actually to the Lord. And apparently there's reward in heaven for this kind of thing as well. So James continues verse 19. You say you have faith for you. Believe that there is one God. And he says good for you. But even the demons believe this. 6 (38m 27s): And they tremble in terror. Now, why would James bring up demons in the conversation? I mean, what does that have to do with anything? Well, he tells James is giving us, he's giving us sort of a severe stark example here for those who know the truth, but they refuse to act upon the truth. Those who know the truth, but they refuse to act upon the truth because you see demons, they know the truth, but they refuse to believe. They refuse to act upon the truth. Now we can't understand fully the mystery that occurred in the, in the angelic realm, how a third of the angels rebelled against God, but they know the truth, but they refuse to act upon that truth. 6 (39m 10s): So on occasion, Jesus would come in conflict with demons. So in the one occasion is in Matthew chapter eight, verse 29. It says, suddenly the demons cried out saying, what have we to do with you? Jesus, you son of God, have you come here to torment us before the time. So to see they know there's going to come a time when they're going to be judged for their rebellion. In fact, we see a glimpse into the judgment in revelation, chapter 20 verse 10, it says the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. 6 (39m 50s): So I think James, again, he's trying to get us wake up a little bit. This is a serious thing. If you say you have a confession of faith, that you're a believer in Jesus. There's, there's gotta be, there's gotta be some good actions. Good deeds, good fruit coming out. A result of that. So James is going to answer that question that was asked earlier, the question he gave to us, verse 20, he concludes how foolish can't you see that faith without good deeds is useless. That's that's pretty powerful. 6 (40m 32s): So now James, what he's going to do is given, give us two examples of a man of faith and, and a woman of faith. He's going to use Abraham as the, the godly example, a man of faith. And he's going to use a woman named Rahab as a woman of faith. Interestingly, if you think about these two, so Abraham is, is the hero of the Jewish people. He's the patriarch, he's the beginning of the, of the nation of Israel. They look to Abraham as their founding father, as it were and rehab who's rehab. Well, she's not Jewish. She's a Canaanite. She was living in a town called Jericho and the Israelites came in and began to possess the land. 6 (41m 16s): And so she did something pretty profound. And he's going to talk about it here in just a minute. So he begins in verse 20. He says, don't you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God, by his actions when he offered his son, Isaac on the altar. Now go back and you remember the story. God had told Abraham through your seed, all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed. And he was talking about Isaac. So Abraham had had one legitimate son. His name was Isaac Isaac. And so Isaac is growing up now he's he's, he's a young man, 13, 14, 15. We don't know for sure, but he's a young man and God told Abraham, Abraham, I want you to take Isaac. 6 (41m 57s): And I want you to take them up on top of that hill, right over there. And I want you to sacrifice him to me. So Abraham didn't delay, he took Isaac up the hill, even made him carry the wood for the sacrifice. And as Abraham is getting ready to pull out the knife and kill his son of promise, of course, God stopped. And we know we know the end of the story, but Abraham would have done it. You see that, that faith coupled with the obedience to God is why he's being used. As, as an example here, you see his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. And so it happened just as the scripture say, Abraham believed God and God counted him as a re as righteous because of his faith. 6 (42m 43s): He was even called the friend of God. So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do and not by faith alone. So now James is going to move from Abraham as an example of faith to rehab. And we see it in James chapter two verse 25, Rahab. The prostitute is another example. She was shown to be right with God by her actions when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road, just says, the body is dead without breath. So also faith is dead without good works. So there's, Rayhab living in Jericho. 6 (43m 23s): She's a, she's a Canaanite and she hears, she hears rumors of what is going on with Israel, their deliverance out of Egypt, and they're heading, they're heading their direction. And sh what does she choose to do? She, she chooses to reject the gods of the Canaanites and embraced the gods, the God of the Jews. And so to the proof of that is when these two spies came into Jericho to see what was going on in the city. She, she received them and she hid them. And so she's honored here as a woman of God, as a woman of faith because of her good deeds. And he concludes concludes here, justice, the body is dead without breath. 6 (44m 4s): So also faith is dead without good works. I'm reading now from Joshua about that story, Joshua chapter six, verse 25, Joshua spared, Ray Hab, the harlot, her father's household and all that she had. So she dwells in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. So one of the unique things about the people of Israel is they were told to embrace outsiders, to embrace foreigners and bring them in and, and treat them as fellow Israelites. So here's Ray Hab. She got a lot of things going for that are, that are not great. 6 (44m 46s): She's, she's a, Canaanite, she's a prostitute, but she saved those two spies. And the result of that was her whole family was saved. And it says she'd Wells in Israel to this day. So not only is she welcomed into the people of Israel, but she actually is included in the lineage that it would eventually flow to Jesus Christ. And we see that in Matthew chapter one, verse five, where he's talking there about the lineage, and it says here, Salomon was the father of Boaz whose mother was, was rehab. So think about this rehab now is part of, part of the Jewish community. 6 (45m 26s): And she marries Salomon and they have a son and their son is named Boaz. You've heard that name probably before from, from the book of Ruth. So Boaz now was the father of whose mother was Ruth. So now Boaz, the son of, of Rayhab now follow me. I won't get too complicated here. So Boaz now marries Ruth. So Ruth isn't the Jewish Israelite either. She's a Moabite, Moabite us another story book of Ruth. And so they get married and they have obit. That's the name of their son and open obit was the father of Jesse. And Jesse was the father of king David. 6 (46m 6s): Isn't that amazing because of her faithfulness in bow to believing in God and to, and to show good works by hiding these spies. Now she's in the lineage that leads to Jesus Christ, our savior. All right. I want to try to wrap all this up. I want to go and invite the worship team to go ahead and go ahead and make your way up to the front. That would be great. So James is encouraging us. He's encouraging you and me to take a good long look in the mirror and ask yourself this question. Am I truly saved? Am I a bonafide believer in Jesus Christ? Is he my Lord and savior? 6 (46m 48s): So if you're still not sure about your salvation today, I want to help you to be sure about it. By asking as one asked four questions. So question number one is this, do you remember a time when you deliberately invited Jesus Christ into your life to be your Lord and savior? Do you remember a time now? The challenge can be sometimes is, you know, when let's say we've been involved, we grew up in a church in a Christian family. And so it's kind of, sort of inbred in us part of our DNA. And so you ask, sometimes kids have, you know, a Christian family, they'll say, you know, when, when did you come to know Jesus? Well, you know, I kind of always grew up in the church and you know, my, my parents are Christians and you know, and, and it's kind of vague, but even, even for kids that grew up in a Christian family, there has to be a deliberate time in your life where you invite Jesus Christ personally, to be your Lord and savior you, you can't, you can't trust others with your own salvation. 6 (47m 54s): And so here's a Romans chapter 10 verse nine. If you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, again, there's other groups of people while I've attended church, my whole life. I'm, you know, are you a believer? Well, yeah, yeah. I go to church. I go to church a lot and it's, it's still vague. It's not good enough. There has to be a time in your life where you look back and go. That is, that is the day. That is the time. That is the event when I gave my life to Jesus Christ. And I'll never be the same again. So question number two. Do you bear witness to the fact that the holy spirit is now living in you, you see something supernatural and wonderful happens when we make that confession of faith. 6 (48m 40s): Literally the Bible says that our bodies become the temple of the holy spirit. You were spiritually dead, and now you're spiritually alive because of the work of the holy spirit. And that's where that term being born again comes from born from above. So John talks about this in first, John four 13, he says by this, we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. He's given us the holy spirit. And then the Paul brings it this way. He says in Romans eight, 16, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So there's this, this witness, this bearing witness that we can honestly say, Jesus is my Lord and savior and the holy spirit lives in me. 6 (49m 26s): And he confirms that to me on a daily basis. Really literally. Now question number three, are you becoming more and more grounded and mature in your walk with Christ? Are you becoming more and more grounded and mature in your walk with Christ? You see our walk with the Lord. It's kind of an interesting thing. You're either growing in your relationship with Jesus Christ or you're backsliding in your relationship with Jesus Christ. There is no middle ground. You there's no coasting. And so are you growing Galatians 5 22 and 23 says this the fruit of the spirit, or we would say, you know, the manifestation of the holy spirit in our lives, the fruit of the spirit is love. 6 (50m 10s): Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And so what we discover is as we're being transformed is the character. Literally the character of God is now becoming the character of us, of me by that maturing process. And he concludes, it says since we are living by the spirit, let us also follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Last question, fourth question. Do you have a desire to serve others as you serve Christ? And that's kind of what this whole thing is about. Do you have the desire to serve others as you serve Christ? John chapter 15, Jesus said this. He said, greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. 6 (50m 56s): You are my friends. If you do whatever I command you. I mentioned earlier that whatever you're gifted at whatever you're passionate about, whatever you just love to do that, let that be the focal point of serving others, helping people, maybe you're a person with a lot of resources and means, and money and, you know, wealth then use that find joy in that there's a lot of joy in giving as we do it as unto the Lord. So I want to close with this. So we began looking at this. Actually, we began with the father's day video. You remember that? So the father's day video, this was the statement that was made. Fathers are one of the most powerful forces in the universe. 6 (51m 38s): So I want to add to that statement. And here's what it is, what I want to say. Men and women who have made a confession of faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior men and women who have been sealed and filled with the holy spirit, men and women who are filled with the love of God and are living out their faith with a life of action and good works. They are the most powerful force in the universe because they represent the Lord Jesus Christ in the world today. That's you and that's me. And that's us. Lord. We ask you to affirm, affirm in us, even now, Lord give us that witness of the holy spirit that we truly are saved and born again, bonafide believers in Jesus as our Lord and savior and Lord equally. 6 (52m 31s): So if there's anyone among us, that's not truly saved. Lord. I pray today that they would be so convinced of the truth. The Tate today would be the day that they make that decision to fully confess and give their lives over to you. Lord, thank you that you're so gracious and kind, you, you meet us exactly where we are, you know, the struggles and trials that we all deal with in life. And yet Lord, in the midst of all that you want to, you want to give us something profound and, and rich and deep and good. And Lord, we do wanna impact the world for you or by serving others. 6 (53m 11s): Thank you that they actually were serving you. And there's rewards for that. We thank you for that so much. So Lord, we just want to give you thanks for all these things. We pray in Jesus name and God's people said, amen. Amen. So I've invited the worship team up. They've been waiting a long time, but I got one more thing I want to show you. Okay. All right. So coming into our new space here, that worship center, we wanted to make a little bit more deliberate effort to help those that are new believers to begin to get plugged in and grow in their, in their walk with the Lord. So we've created this little packet right here. Isn't that cool. 6 (53m 52s): We didn't do printing on one site. We did printing on both sides. Yes. Says you open up this little packet for new believers. What you're going to find a number of things. First of all, you're going to find it's a card that basically says these are the, these are the times that we meet little invitation to church. And on the bottom of it, there's a QR code. Now I didn't know til yesterday, what QR actually stands for. I know what it does because I've used it before you take your phone, you know, and you put the fo you know what? It is a QR code, but yo y'all know what a cutie, what QR stands for. 6 (54m 31s): Quick response. Yeah. QR quick response. So you put your phone on that QR code right there. It's going to take you right to our website. You're going to see all the things that we offer in ways that we want to encourage you. As you walk with the Lord. And then we've got another card in this packet, and this is for new believers. So on the front, it's got a QR code. Again, you do that one. It's going to take you to a site where you'll be able to sign up, to get baptized. If you haven't been baptized yet, since you place your faith in Jesus Christ, go to that location on our website, sign up. We're going to be having a baptism. I believe it's going to be towards the end of summer. We're going to have a barbecue down on the beach bonfire. 6 (55m 12s): We're going to have a baptism. It's going to be super fun. Okay. And then on the backside of this same card, it has four QR codes for events, growth, track, life groups, email updates. Just to, again, a way to get you started, get you plugged in, get you going. And then also there's another card. And this one is a reading day plan for a hundred days. So if you follow this reading plan in a hundred days, you can get through the whole Bible cover to cover. Okay? And then there's two more things. The next one is you will get a sticker, a harvest sticker. Now, in case you're wondering, what does the vertical arrows mean? So the top of the arrow is God. 6 (55m 54s): The bottom of the arrow is me. So it's our vertical relationship with God. And from there, the other arrows meaning our relationship with others because of our relationship with God, we were able to impact the lives of others. And then the last thing in the packet, most important of all is a Bible. So you'll get a whole Bible old and new Testament. And my encouragement to you is read the Bible every single day. And you will always be growing in your walk with Jesus Christ. Thank you. So let's go ahead and continue. What is it? Let's stand. Shall we? 0 (56m 55s): The father defender for the prison we see in his home 7 (1h 1m 18s): There is none higher, none greater, none more loving than her gracious. And then more kind, none stronger than our God and father. I pray that we would go out in that strength this week to do the things that you have called us to do. I thank you that you will give us the strength. You will empower us to do the things that you have called us to do. Thank you, father. Thank you. That you are the ultimate heavenly father. Just want to pray a blessing on all the fathers today. Thank you for the godly men in this church and how they lead their families. Thank you. In Jesus name. Amen. If you would like prayer, please come forward. We'll have people to pray with you. 7 (1h 1m 58s): Oh, Ron's got one more thing. 6 (1h 2m 1s): I forgot to mention one thing. If you are a new believer and you gave your life to Christ today, you can pick up one of these packets at the info counter, right back there. Feel free, head back there when we're done. There you go. 7 (1h 2m 14s): Okay. So now if you would like prayer, you can come forward. If not, we'll see you next week.

0 (0s): Good morning church. 2 (3s): Let's stay on to worship this morning, but your coffee's down. We're in the house of the Lord. Let's worship. 3 (3m 25s): We worship you in spirit in truth this morning. 0 (3m 44s): breadth need a And see, we can hear the wind 5 (15m 59s): Jesus. You are so good. I'm just going to invite you all to close your eyes. I'm going to, I'm going to, I just want you to envision, this has we're worshiping this morning. It says before the throne, this revelation four before the throne, there was a sea of glass like crystal and in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures, full of eyes in the front and the back. And the first living creature was Elian. The seventh, the second living creature was like a calf. And the third living creature had a face like a man. The fourth living creature was like a flying Eagle, the sick, the four, four living creatures, each live living six wings were full of eyes around and within. 5 (16m 44s): And they did not rest day and night singing. Holy holy, holy Lord. God almighty, who was and is, and is to come whenever the living creatures give glory and honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne who lives forever and ever the 24 elders fall down before him and S who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne saying you are worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things. And by your will, they exist and were created. Jesus, you are so good. 5 (17m 25s): You are worthy of all of the songs we have. You're worthy of all of our expressions of worship. Jesus you're you deserve it all. And so much more. Jesus, we thank you for just being with us. We thank you for who you are up on your throne, And that is such a powerful image. God, we thank you that you are so high and that you care for us and you love us so much. Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All right. You can take your seats. My name's Curtis, by the way. Hi. Hello. Hello. Just want to welcome you all here today. 5 (18m 7s): If it's your first time here, we just want to extend a special welcome. And like I always say, if it's your second time here, your third time, or you come all the time, we want to extend a special welcome to you as well. So everybody gets a special welcome. Does everybody feel good about that? Okay, good. Good. All right. So I've only got one announcement for you today. Okay. And it's because it's really important. So men, we have M six tomorrow. If you have not been to an MSX event, you're missing out, it's a thousand Hills ranches at six o'clock tomorrow. It's an incredible event of worship testimony and just a beautiful time. And there's also amazing food too. So there's that? 5 (18m 46s): Yeah. So definitely check this out tomorrow, six o'clock thousand Hills ranch with them and invite Jeremy up and he's going to help us celebrate our graduates a little bit. 6 (19m 4s): All right. Well welcome. My name's Jeremy. I'm the youth and family pastor here at harvest church. And today is promotion Sunday. So if you are graduating from sixth grade, eighth grade high school or college, I want you to come up in a line up in front of the stage here, and we'll start with our sixth graders down here. And our college graduates up here. Yep. Amanda, come on, Amanda. Amanda graduated college, come on command at. So today we really celebrate and honor these students. Who've, who've done the hard work put in the time and are graduating their grade. And you know, we, we don't know much about Jesus's childhood, but we knew that at 12, they said he grew in wisdom and stature. 6 (19m 50s): And so that is our heart's cry for the youth of this generation. They would grow in wisdom stature among their peers and amongst the church. And, and really, we have a, we have a gift for you guys to, to give you guys some Bibles, but we're so thankful for you. So what I'm actually going to do is I'm gonna pass the mic and you're going to say your name, what you're graduating from. And yeah, we'll just do that name graduation. 2 (20m 16s): I'm Amanda and I'm graduating with a bachelor's in psychology. 7 (20m 24s): I'm Nathan and I'm graduating from sixth grade 1 (20m 30s): And I'm moving into ninth grade. I'm Tyler and I just graduated high school. 8 (20m 38s): I just graduated high school, 1 (20m 42s): I'm burger weight. And I had just 9 (20m 43s): Graduated with Megan from high school. 1 (20m 46s): I'm 10 (20m 47s): Tyler to Blau. I just graduated from edgy high school. I'm Mikael. And I just graduated from eighth grade. 11 (20m 56s): I'm Jack and I graduated from sixth grade. I'm Catherine and I graduated eighth grade. I'm kinda in, I graduated from eighth grade 12 (21m 6s): I'm violet and I graduated from eighth grade I'm Celeste and I graduated from eighth grade 6 (21m 20s): So now we're just going to get a time to pray for these students as they're moving on into the next sphere of their lives. Next, next thing. Some of you are going far away for college. Some of you're staying here close by, but if you want to just reach out your hands, as we pray over these students, Lord Jesus, we thank you for these students, the Lord, and just how they've been a light and a witness amongst their peers on campus or at each of the schools, they're going to Lord. We pray that as they enter into their next Next school, that they would bring you with them or that they would be a light in that place, Lord God, that they would just light up the campus. 6 (22m 2s): So Jesus, thank you for how the areas that they serve here around church and, and do the things that maybe none of us recognize in the kid's ministry safety team. I've I've seen some of these students step up and play a part in this church source. So we thank you for them. Lord, Lord, go with them and help, help them to reach the nations for you. Jesus. Thank you then in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. All right. Thank you. 10 (22m 27s): All right. So we're 6 (22m 28s): Going to have a time, a meet and greet time. Now while all the students gather up over here and we're going to head on to our classes. So if you are fifth grade and up, we're going to be leaving now for, for class. You can stand up and say hi to someone around you. 17 (24m 29s): Christian fellowship is so fun. Don't you agree? Christian fellowship the best best there is. So my name is Ron. I serve as one of the pastors here and it's my privilege today to share the word with you. I have Steve and I pastor Steve and I are identical twins. You probably are wondering why, you know, I looked so much like him, so I just want to make that differentiation. So let's go ahead and, and let's pray one more time, Lord, we look to you today. Holy spirit, you are our teacher. You're the one that, that impacts our spirit, our soul, our body, our mind, our will and emotions. You're the one that helps us in those deep places of our life, where, where we seem hopeless to help ourselves. 17 (25m 16s): Lord, thank you that you, you, you love to bring transformation. You love to bring healing. You love to implant, you know, joy and, and contentment into our lives, where we're lacking those things. So Lord, we ask that you would speak to us today in the, in the very places where we have need Lord, you know, our needs even better than we do. And so Lord, we commit our time to you and we just give you thanks in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Amen. So if you want to turn on your Bibles or maybe you have a device or whatever you use to follow along, we're going to be in the book of James today, James chapter two, I'm going to be picking up where pastor Steve left off last week and I'm going to be using the new living translation just because I like the way that it flows is we're going to be hopefully looking at verses one through 13 in James chapter two. 17 (26m 7s): So last, last month I shared a message that was titled that I titled healthy church leadership. And it was from the book of Hebrews chapter 13. So today I'd like to talk about a similar topic, which is healthy church life. And it's from James chapter two. So we talk about the life of the church. We're talking about the, the gathering of the saints, the community of believers. It's like what we do, not only here at harvest church, but in the broader Christian community on the central coast. And so in James we're, we're talking about that healthy church life healthy church has been put in place by God to help set the course for healthy church life they're interconnected. 17 (26m 53s): So that's my title for today. Healthy church life. As the apostle Paul was writing to Timothy, remember Timothy was, he looked at Paul as his mentor. He became the pastor of the church at Ephesus. And so Paul was, was helping teach Timothy about the role of the church in the world. And this is what he said in first Timothy chapter three, verse 15, he says, I'm writing to you Timothy so that you may know how to, how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. So that word ground implies foundation. 17 (27m 33s): So pillar, we think of maybe Roman pillars that gave stability to a structure that's built on this foundation. And if you go to Rome and various places in the world, you'll see these structures that are still standing because of the firm foundation and pillars that make up that structure. So what Paul is telling Timothy that the church of the living God that's us is the pillar and the foundation of truth in the world today. Healthy church life is super important because the church as Paul declares, Timothy is the pillar and the foundation of the truth in the world. 17 (28m 20s): It is the church's responsibility. So it's our responsibility, responsibility to accurately represent the Lord Jesus Christ to the world today. So we think about the church said, well, the church was born on the day of Pentecost, the new Testament church. And, and fast-forward the holy spirit is, have worked in generation through generation. And now the holy spirit, God is working in our generation. And so we have have taken on that mantle, that responsibility of being the pillar and the foundation of truth in our world today, it is the church's responsibility to accurately represent the Lord Jesus Christ to the world today. 17 (29m 7s): You know how it is a lot of people, they don't know the Lord. They may have heard about Christianity. They may have heard the name of Jesus, but then they meet you as a coworker, as somebody who moved to the neighborhood and they, you know, people find out, oh, those, those are the, those are the Christian people stay away from that guy. And so we have that responsibility to represent Jesus Christ, to people that don't know him. As we talk about church life from James' perspective in chapter two, he's actually going to come from the perspective of what not to do in terms of a healthy church. 17 (29m 51s): This is what you should not do. And so look with me now and James chapter two first one, my dear brothers and sisters. How can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord? Jesus Christ. If you favor some people over others. So James starts out by identifying a problem within the church of his day. The problem is this favoring, some people in the church over other people in the church. And so the problem, there's a problem here and it's showing favoritism some other translations, use a word partiality. In other words, I'm, I'm partial to you as opposed to you having respect for one person over another, or sometimes the word is, is even used as discrimination or prejudice, prejudice, meaning I'm pre-judging you based on usually your outward appearance. 17 (30m 45s): So we hear a lot about discrimination and prejudice in our day. In fact, I think there is this. If we want to call it a demonic conspiracy to divide and conquer, to bring about so many barriers and hatred between people, groups that it's like, we can never get along. We can never come together. That's not God's plan. It is. It isn't always will be a problem within the human race, this idea of discrimination and prejudice, but we should not give place in the church. We should not give place to Dem discrimination or prejudice or favoritism or partiality in the church of Jesus Christ, which is again the pillar and the foundation of truth. 17 (31m 26s): So I want to give you a little bit of context here where James is coming from. So this letter was written by James and, and as you guys know, James is the half-brother of Jesus. So why is he the half brother? So James, his dad was Joseph. His mom was Mary. So Jesus' mother was Mary check-in with my brain who, who was, who was the father of Jesus. God. So see they're half-brothers because God, the father was the father of Jesus. And so it's this letter here is believed to be the earliest letter of all the letters in the new Testament. So James wrote during a time when the ancient world was filled with prejudice and hatred based on class and ethnicity, nationality and religious background, just so many reasons to divide people in that day in the ancient world, people were routinely and permanently categorized because they were Jew or Gentile. 17 (32m 28s): So again, when we speak of a Jewish person, we know they're, they're Jewish by birth. That's our ethnic background. A Gentile is basically anybody that's, that's not Jewish. People were categorized because they were Jew or Gentile slave or free rich or poor Greek or barbarian or whatever else. In fact, a significant aspect of the ministry of Jesus Christ was designed to break down the walls that divided people and to bring forth one new race of people to bring oneness in him in Christ. So again, back to the apostle Paul, just for a moment, I'm just kind of laying the foundation for this. 17 (33m 11s): He's speaking to the church at Ephesus, where Timothy was the pastor in Ephesians chapter two, verse 14, he says for Christ himself has brought peace to us. He United Jews and Gentiles into one people when in his own body, on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself, one new people from the two groups. And then Paul continues talking to the believers in the city of Glacia Galatians chapter three, verse 26. 17 (33m 55s): You are all sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ. Jesus, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. So that's why Jesus came to bring about this oneness, this unity in him, the unity and the oneness of the early church actually was in stark opposition to the ancient world of the day. But this unity, it did not come automatically. 17 (34m 36s): So we can imagine the early church and after the day of Pentecost and it was predominantly Jewish people at that time. But gradually we had others coming into that community Gentiles, non Jews, Romans, and all other ethnic backgrounds. And in Christ, those early church members were meant to receive them, let them in show genuine Christian Love to anyone that wanted to come into the church community. As this command from James shows us the apostles had to teach the early church to never hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with favoritism, partiality discrimination or prejudice. 17 (35m 19s): As we think about this, this is not a new, a new idea. This is not just a new Testament model that Jesus is establishing it. Actually, this was God's plan from the beginning. If we look at Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 17, it says for the Lord, your God. So God is speaking to Moses, to the people of Israel for the Lord. Your God is the God of gods and Lord of Lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God who shows no partiality there's that word and cannot be bribed. He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. 17 (36m 1s): So you too must show love the foreigners for you. Yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. And that theme is repeated throughout the old Testament. As we read through the books of the old Testament. So imagine the Jewish people were in Egypt for about 400 years and they became slaves in bondage under the Pharaoh of Egypt. And so they cried out to the Lord and God sent a deliverer, sent Moses, and you know that the 10 plagues and God was showing not only to the people of Israel, but to the people of Egypt as well, that God, the father, the creator of the heavens and the earth is superior to all the gods of Egypt. One by one, he broke down and overshadowed the gods of Egypt. 17 (36m 45s): Now imagine you're, you're in Egyptian. You're not a Jew. And you're, you're witnessing all these things that are happening in the plagues that are coming. When the day of Exodus came, roughly 2 million Jews exited Egypt and I'm imagining, and I know there was a large group of Egyptians that said, we want to go with you. We want to become part of your community. We want to worship God with you, not the gods of Egypt, which we have known. And so through this, God has basically setting the stage to the Israelites, to the Jews. I want you to bring in the foreigners, let them worship among you, let them be circumcised with you, let them become part of the community of Israel and don't leave them as outcasts. 17 (37m 32s): So James is going to give us here as we continue in James, a real life example of what this might look like in the church. So James chapter two, verse two, he says, for example, can the example is favoritism, partiality discrimination and prejudice. So for example, suppose someone comes into your meeting, dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry. And another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. If you give special attention and a good seed to the rich person, but you say to the poor person to the poor one, you stand over there or else, sit on the, you can sit on the floor. 17 (38m 13s): Well, doesn't this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives. So this, this was happening in the ancient world, in the early church. And so just as a side note, I want to give a little commentary in Roman society. The wealthy wore rings on their left hand in great profusion. I'm just quoting here. It was a sign of wealth rings were worn with great Austin station. There were even shops in Rome where rings could be rented for special occasions. People come in, they want to come into the church. They're, they're interested in and, and, and I'm, I'm going down to the renter ring store and I'm looking at my best because I want to now I'm coming to the church. 17 (39m 6s): And, and how does the church receive, you know, this person and why is this such a big problem showing favoritism or, or partiality preferring? In this case, a rich person over a poor person, the guy who can't afford to go down to the soar and rendering the guy who can barely feed himself to support his family. So the problem is this, I'm going to give you three points. Number one, to show partiality. Your favoritism shows that we care more about the outward appearance of a person than we do the heart of that person, the inner person. And as we see through scripture, God looks on the heart man looks on the outward appearance. 17 (39m 52s): That's a problem. So number two, to show partiality or favoritism shows that we assume that the rich person is more important to God or more blessed by God. And thus, we put too much value on the material, riches, the material world, and the other problem. Number three, to show partiality or favoritism shows a selfish streak in us. Usually we favor the rich person over the poor person, because we believe that we can get more from the rich, they can do favors for us that a poor person. Can't I, I know, I don't know. 17 (40m 33s): Maybe it's a human dilemma or maybe it's just me. But oftentimes when I meet a person, I want to get to know them. I was like, you know, what's your name? What's your, what? What's the name of your family? What's your last name? And, and what's your occupation and where do you know what I'm doing is kind of sizing them up. And the evil part of me is thinking, can I benefit from this person? Should I get to know, should I make the investment in getting to know this person? Because maybe it will benefit me. Have you guys ever thought that when with people besides me, I know you have, I know you have because okay, rich person, someone with influence, they can do favors for us that the report person just can't. 17 (41m 20s): So now I want to, I want to look at this more in a, in a modern contrast, in, in today's situation, modern context. What if we had two people start showing up at a harvest church, both of them wanted to get involved, want to become a part of what God is doing here. One, one of the persons, one of the persons is named Elon Musk. The other person, I don't know his name, but he kind of smells. And I think he's living in his car. Would we, the church of Jesus Christ who represent the pillar and the foundation of truth, would we honestly treat both of them equally, treat them the same? 17 (42m 6s): Would we show genuine Christian Love to each of them in a similar way? I think God tests us with this sometimes in our life, you know, bringing people maybe into our circle or maybe into our church to really challenge us and see, you know, you talk about this, but will you really embrace this person? So James is, he's continuing with this line of thinking and James chapter two verses five through seven. He says, listen to me, dear brothers and sisters hasn't God shows him the poor in this world to be rich in faith. Aren't they, the ones who will inherit the kingdom, he promised to those who love him. 17 (42m 50s): But you dishonor the poor isn't, isn't it. The rich who oppress you and drag you into court? Are they the ones who slander Jesus Christ, whose noble name? You bear now grantees. He's kind of painting a broad brush here. The poor don't cause you any problems, but the rich, they have the resources to take you into court and bring accusation against you if they choose to. But again, he says, hasn't God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith. So why do you suppose God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith, perhaps, perhaps it's because a poor person has nowhere else to turn except to God to have their needs met. 17 (43m 33s): And for a rich person, it's easy for the rich person to trust in, in their riches, rather than to trust in God to meet their needs. I know you guys would never do this, but sometimes when I'm in a pinch, I'm like, how can I figure my way out of this situation? Do I have enough money to buy my way out of this situation? And when nothing else works, then I say, Lord, can you help me in my situation? Because we have resources. A lot of people, they have nothing. They only have God, if you've done much traveling, especially in some of the third world countries where people are are so living day to day, trusting that somehow they'll have enough to, to feed the family. 17 (44m 17s): And yet what you find when you're in those circumstances, there, they're so wonderful and warm and, and, and happy and blessed. They're looking to God to meet their needs literally every day. So you see poor, a poor person has nowhere else to go, except to God. It's not so much that God chooses the poor is that the poor are more likely to choose him because their needs are so great. So James continues in James chapter two, verse eight. He says, yes, indeed. It is good. When you obey the Royal law as found in the scriptures, love your neighbor as yourself. But if you favor some people over others, you're committing a sin and you are guilty of breaking the law. 17 (45m 1s): So this is a serious thing to God. And again, as we think about our responsibility to represent Jesus in our community, we have to look at this in our own lives personally, and in our church life corporately. And again, this is, this is not a new, a new idea, a new concept. This is something that's been in place since the beginning. In fact, in Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 34, it says the stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you. Part of the family. And you shall love him as yourself for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God. 17 (45m 42s): So Paul brings us into the new Testament context as well in Galatians chapter five, verse 14, he says, for all the law is fulfilled in one word. Even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So when we talk about, when we say, I love Jesus, I love the Lord. And if we are, if we show favoritism towards people and we're partial, we discriminate and we show respect for one over another. We're actually violating God's law and we're believing something. That's not true that we love Jesus. 17 (46m 23s): When in fact we're not really loving him fully James chapter two, verse 10 for the person who keeps all the laws, except one is as guilty as the person who is broken. All of God's laws for the same God who said, you must not commit. Adultery also said, you must not murder. So if you murder someone, but do not commit adultery, you've still broken the law. It's interesting. He's quading equating something like, okay, I'm showing favoritism towards this person over the other. And he's equating it with, with murder and adultery, but they're all violating God's law. Here's the bottom line showing favoritism or partiality is sin. 17 (47m 8s): It violates God's command to love your neighbor as yourself. It is just as serious as committing murder or adultery by God's evaluation. So you might be thinking that I don't get that. How can, how can those be equated? You know, in the same realm of breaking God's law. So Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 13, verse nine, he says, for the commandments, you shall not commit adultery and you shall not murder. And then he adds to it. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet. And if there's any other commandment, here's the, here's the key, all are summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 17 (47m 50s): So they'll they'll come together. So James continues verse 12. So whatever you say, or whatever you do remember that you'll be judged by the law that sets you free. There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you. Wow. So Lord, are you saying, if I Harbor, you know, prejudice and discrimination and favoritism and partiality towards, towards, I'm not showing mercy to that person. And when I stand before the judgment seat of Christ, so you're not going to show me mercy because I, I didn't show mercy to them. 17 (48m 37s): That's exactly what he's saying here. So obviously the, the incentive pot, what Paul's getting at James is getting, as we just need to love people. We need to show mercy and grace and forgiveness to everyone and anyone that God brings into our circle, whether it's here at church or out and about wherever we are, we have no freedom to, to prejudge in other person because God ultimately, he wants us to look at people through the eyes of God. And that is, we tend to look at the outward appearance. God doesn't do that. He looks through the outward appearance to the heart of a person, what I've found, and maybe you've experienced this too, is sometimes when I prejudge somebody and maybe they're new to the church. 17 (49m 26s): And, and I kinda, you know, I kind of evaluate their situation. And as I get to know that person and just open up my heart to them and really begin to love them and get to get to know more than just what I see on the outside. I am amazed at how, how beautiful people are on the inside. If we would just look through the exterior and, and let them into our heart. So this is serious. When I stand before the judgment seat of Christ, I want mercy. Do you want mercy? I know you do. This is serious. It means a lot to God that we show unconditional love to everyone, especially to those whom we might consider maybe less important or more lowly, or maybe the outcast or some, a ditch really quirky. 17 (50m 19s): Somebody that's really nerdy. Somebody who just doesn't seem to quite fit in. Then it's our job to help them fit in, to bring them in. Now, as we would expect, when people in the world, when they come into the church, they've got, they've got a lot of baggage, a lot of issues, a lot of bad sinful habits and things. That's okay, God can work with all that. So we bring them in and then we introduce them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the holy spirit is the one who begins to make that transformation process. So we don't have to get bound up on all the things that they might believe or caught up in their lifestyle and all that. 17 (51m 1s): It doesn't matter. That's God's business. So our responsibility, our business is simply let them in. So if you find this difficult, you're not alone, you know, the PR I think part of the problem is we grow up with, in inbred, in us, prejudices comes from our family. Maybe our parents taught, it, made our community, the place we live, we grow up with these things and they just become part of our, you know, our, our DNA. And it's hard to break through that. It is difficult, but consider what again, Peter, this is the apostle Peter. He said in, in second, Peter chapter one, verse five in this, this has to do with, as we grow in maturity, as we walk with the Lord, he says, for this very reason, because the struggles that we have in life, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge self-control to self-control perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness. 17 (52m 3s): That's what we're talking about. And to brotherly, kindness, love for, if these things are yours and they abound, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ. What he's saying there is we're growing. We're maturing. We're a disciple of Jesus. We're walking and growing in all these things that he mentioned. And then lastly, one of the FA my favorite verses in all the new Testament is found in, in Philippians chapter two. I love this verse because it implies that if, if we're willing, if our heart is open to what God wants to do in our lives, God will gladly do what he desires to do with us in our lives. 17 (52m 43s): It's, it's Philippians two 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. It's God working in me. It's God working in you to do the things that are well pleasing to him. So, one, one more thought, do you know the sign of a healthy church, a healthy church, I believe is filled with all sorts of people, all kinds of people, all ages of people, all assortments of various ethnic backgrounds. The church is meant to be a very diverse, very diverse group of people, loving the Lord, growing together, genuinely loving each other in spite of our differences, not allowing those prejudices and, and, and discriminations and partiality is not allowing those things to divide us, but rather to bring us together, I want to be a part of that church. 17 (53m 43s): Do you want to be a part of that church? That's what we want for harvest church. We want to be that genuine sanctuary, a place where people can come and genuinely encounter the love of God through Jesus Christ, the Lord, through his people. All right. I want to go and invite the worship team to come up at this time. And I want to close with, I want to close with the gospel. So every time Steve teaches or maybe I teach, or Jeremy, whoever who's ever teaching, we, we weave the gospel into the message, but sometimes, you know, it's not absolutely totally clear what the gospel is. 17 (54m 28s): So the gospel that word gospel is simply means good news. And it's the good news that through Jesus Christ, we can be saved and we can have a relationship with God through him. So Paul talked about this in first Corinthians chapter 15, he said this moreover brethren, I want to declare to you the gospel, which I preach to you, which also you received and in which you stand by, which also you're saved. See we're saved through the gospel. The good news, if you hold fast, that word, which I preach to you, unless you believed in vain for, I delivered to you. First of all, that, which I also received now, here's, here's the gospel. 17 (55m 9s): It's kind of summarized into three points. I also received that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures, If you don't know the Lord, Jesus Christ, and you would like to know him, here's how you can know him. And it's actually quite simple. In fact, I, I borrowed this from another guy, but it's basically the ABCs of salvation. It's helpful to remember it. Now, you know, a acknowledge acknowledge that there is a God in heaven who exists, that who created all things and admit that you have sinned against him, that you've, you've sinned against a holy God believe, believe that God sent his only son, Jesus Christ into the world in order to take the penalty of your sin upon himself. 17 (56m 14s): And he did that when he died on the cross, confess, confess your need for God in your life. Confess that Jesus died for your sins personally, and ask Jesus to save you from your sin and invite him into your life. And if you do that, if you acknowledge God and invite Jesus into your life, you will receive the holy spirit and he will fill you. And it's so simple, Lord, we just want to come to you today and we just want to give you thanks that you've given us that, that way of salvation through Jesus Christ, the Lord, Lord, I pray for anyone in our midst today that doesn't know you, that they would today make that decision. 17 (57m 8s): Invite Jesus in, invite him in. You simply open up your heart to him in prayer. Just there's no special words, no formula. It's just saying, God, I need you. I believe your son died for me. And I desire you to be in my life in my heart. Holy spirit. I welcome you to fill me in and bring the transformation that I need in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's stand. We're going to continue to worship. God bless you all. Thank you so much. 20 (59m 1s): Churches. We finished our service this morning. We can go out with some singing, the joy of the Lord. Now, bring it some, some, some noise. 4 (1h 1m 7s): Because we were the bag. Now we roiled C and we were the press. And now we run in free and we offer By his trade. 4 (1h 1m 54s): The house 20 (1h 2m 45s): Yes, Lord. That is just our declaration. This morning of we shout out your praise this morning in this place and Lord in our lives father, we thank you. We thank you for this time, Lord, we thank you for the message that we were able to say here today, father may it sink deep into our hearts. As we leave this place, father, it would be with us and walk alongside us this week. And one of the, the trials that we go through, father me, we just look to you in every circumstance when we love you. And we worship you. We praise you father. We pray these things and all of God's people said, amen.

1 (0s): this morning. How good is it to be in the new worship center? Woo. It's good to be in his house this morning. It's good to meditate on his word. It's good to be together to praise his name. Thank you, Jesus. That you are here. 0 (19s): God, we worship the God who Wiz. We worship the God who ever more be. He opened the freezer. He haughty the raging sea Baca holds the big . 0 (1m 29s): We seem to the God who said we seem to to God always. Cause he hung up on that cross and he rose up from that gray good. 0 (2m 20s): Now we now running free. We offer care except by his grace that the house and we won't be quiet. 0 (3m 11s): We shut out joy in the house. We won't be quiet, please. Shout out. 0 (3m 24s): 2 (4m 16s): Hey everybody. Hey, welcome. Wow, everybody's looking beautiful. Looking amazing. We've got like a gap over here. If you're looking for a spot anyway. Great to have you all here today. Turn and give your neighbor a high five. Yeah, both. Both of them. All right. Well we are, we are in the new worship center. I don't know if you realize that when you came in, but here we are. 2 (4m 56s): If you're unfamiliar with this building, we've got restrooms here in the back, right behind me. We've got more restrooms up the stairs, handicapped restrooms downstairs, and then more restrooms up the stairs in the back. We've got water as well. There's water drinking fountains right behind me here and then coffee out the patio right there. So check that out. We've also got some parking available. I don't know if you have found a spot, but check out the, the Klondex parking lot is available. It is paid parking, but we can validate your tickets at the info center. So don't be shy about that. And then all the other spots around the village are also welcomed. 2 (5m 39s): So, so glad you made it here. It's such an exciting day to be here such a long time coming. We've been working on this space for a year and it's just amazing to see it. So we're going to pray also. Oh, sorry. If you've got fifth grade and up kids, they're going to meet up the, in the back here, meet the teacher after a worship and they'll walk them over to, to their classes. So without let's pray and we'll jump back into worship. Jesus, we love you so much. This whole space, this new building. We just want to worship you Jesus, because that's what this is all about. It's all about making room for more people to experience you more people to come into a relationship with you and Jesus. 2 (6m 25s): We just want to do that. We just open ourselves up to you right now and we just pray that you administer that you'd be with us and God just be worshiped in this place today in Jesus name. Amen. 0 (6m 45s): to perhaps we will see I don't know. 0 (12m 16s): big songs of praise to shake. the truth. 0 (12m 58s): Mitch please. 0 (14m 47s): 3 (15m 32s): Yeah, 4 (15m 33s): God, you are faithful. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your faithfulness, Lord God. Thank you for your power Lord. We are so honored to be in your presence today, Lord, we bless you. We thank you for meeting us here that we're two or three are gathered together in your name that you are there in their midst. Lord God that we celebrate you. We're thankful for you. We lift up your name, Jesus, and we celebrate and we worship you today. Lord. So thank you for this first Sunday in this new worship center. God hallelujah. We thank you, Lord. We bless you, Lord God. You've been faithful all through the process and Lord, we know that you will be faithful moving forward. 4 (16m 18s): So we, we bless you, Lord, we thank you for blessing us Lord and we just, God just wants to give you praise and say, thank you, Lord, God, Lord use this place for your kingdom. Work in this community. Lord God that we might be salt and light Lord to more and more people that we might see people saved and delivered, filled with the holy spirit transformed in Jesus name. Lord, give a new life, a new purpose in Jesus' name. So Lord God do something so wonderful and supernatural something beyond our expectations. We pray. We invite you Lord. We say yes, Lord Lord. 4 (16m 59s): We're committed to saying yes to you. Yes. To your plans and yes, to your purposes, we bless you, Lord. We love you. We're all in. We're so grateful that you indeed are all in with us. We love you because you first loved us. So we bless you, Lord. Thank you for this time in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Turn to greet your neighbor. We'll come right back. 4 (19m 18s): Well, I tell ya, I feel like a little kid on the first day of school. I, I didn't quite give myself permission for service to like be too excited because there's just like so many things that are happening all at once. And so as I'm worshiping, I'm like, oh, I feel like it almost feels like the first day that we planted our church and back in 2003 where you're like, is anybody going to show up? Is everything going to go? Well, like what's going to happen? You know? And cause it's been a long, long time. April 9th, 2021 is when I first took a picture of the, for lease sign that was on the outside of this building. And going back 10 years ago, we tried to get this space 10 years ago and the timing was just not right. 4 (19m 60s): And so when I called John Hayashi, who owns the building on April 9th, 2021, I said, Hey, John, we're interested in your space. He said, I'll meet you down there like 15 minutes. And we met down here and on a handshake, it was hours. And we did, you know, the whole, you know, agreements and rental agreements and lease agreements and that sort of thing. But it was just so cool. So roughly like 59 weeks later, here we are. So it's been a lot, a lot of work. And so what I'd like to do is just kind of take you through some slides to show you I'll stand over here and just show you, this is kind of, hopefully I'm not blocking. You're fine. Okay, good. So how's that better? 4 (20m 40s): Okay, good. So this is when the building, before we got it, it was a, a antique store. And before that it was a clothing store called the wardrobe and many of us remember that. And so they had these pole posts were all built out with these, these boxes for, you know, putting shirts and clothes and that sort of thing for merchandising things. And so we got to get rid of all of those things. Let's go to the next slide there. And then we got to get rid of the drop ceiling. So the drop ceiling was a huge project because at first sight it looked like, oh, it's just some panels and some, you know, T-bar but there were like three panels deep of, you know, just the, the, the ceiling tiles. And so we took out truckloads and truckloads there's piles of insulation on top of the, the, the ceiling tiles and the T bar. 4 (21m 23s): And so it was a huge, huge undertaking and a there's de Bedford, the rockstar of the show. I'll talk more about Dave in just a moment, but he was here all the time. And then this picture represents the prayer nights that we had here in this space where we just decided to pray and give this space to the Lord and just really honor him and say, you can see on the back in the back there, there's pictures of people's names that are on that sound booth wall there. So over the course of the year, we just re recorded people's names that we're praying for. We want this person to get saved, this person getting healed, whatever it was. And then throughout the space, we wrote Bible verses on the concrete floor before the floors went in on the framing and all, all around. 4 (22m 8s): So Bible verses and promises of God. So this is kind of what it looks like before as the, as the place is kind of beginning to take shape. And so was just, as you can see, it was just a ton of fun. So keep going there. And so this is the nursery. So in the nursery required quite a bit of work. And so this is the kids' space in the back. So if you haven't seen that yet, go check it out. It's really been transformed. Here's the, the courtyard. And so beginning next week, let's leave that up for a minute beginning next week, we're going to have it like an 80 inch TV out on the courtyard. So if you're drinking coffee, sitting out on the tables, benches out there, you can enjoy it out there. But that, you know, we had to completely renovate this whole space, Stripe stock, a reset, go clean, just everything up. 4 (22m 50s): And so that was a labor of love to say the least next, Hey, there's my son and my wife, they're planting trees. You know, putting those trees out front just to soften the front next, Hey, there's our friend. Jim, Jim helped Aaron with polling on thousands of feet of cable to make all of this work. You know, so Jim was here, he built, built out the tech room in the back with desks and all that sort of stuff. Jim, Jim was here with Stephanie, like every Friday, Saturday for months and months and months volunteering their time to get so much of the infrastructure, the electrical infrastructure, and just donated hundreds and hundreds of hours to get this project done. 4 (23m 33s): Perry too, has been here nonstop and doing all kinds of electrical stuff as well. Just doing whatever we needed him to do. We call them up, Hey Perry, can you show up today? He's like, I can show up and he'd be here. And just taking care of stuff. Noah has been just constantly around here as well, doing all kinds of cleanup and there's been a ton of cleanup that is needed to happen. And so thanks Noah for that next slide there. Yeah. This is the floors going in. So obviously a lot of space here. So a lot of laminate flooring went in and so it's just beginning to take shape the paints in the floors, going down and starting to feel like a, a building, but we're still months away. Like we're still months away from being able to move in. So let's keep going. 4 (24m 13s): Is that the last seven? Okay, good. Good, good. So what I'd like to do, we could have shown you like a thousand pictures, but you kind of get the point, right? You kind of get the point. So what I'd like to do is just honor my name, those people who have donated their time and treasure and talent to get this thing done. And so I'm going to start with where it all begins with our elders. I'd like to honor Jim and Gary and Neil and Ron, because when we propose projects like this, it's a big project. We have to have the buy-in and the agreement with the elders. And I just want to honor our elders today. The guys that serve, they've been serving with me for a long time. 4 (24m 54s): They are men of faith, men of character, men of prayer, and they are so ready to do what God has called us to do. And they just go for it with Gusto because they believe in God's big plan for harvest church and for the gospel that he wants us to communicate. So I want to thank my elders. I want to thank John Hayashi. I texted John yesterday. He owns the building and I said, Hey, John, I've been giving him updates. You know, I said, Hey, John, tomorrow, we're having our first service in the new space. I just want to say, thank you so much for taking a chance on us and with us, his brother Howard is my doctor. One of my doctors and I had been to see Howard recently. 4 (25m 35s): And so I just said, Hey, John, your family that the high ashy claim has been such a blessing to our community. And I just want to say, thank you. And so this big, long taxed, and John's such a man of few words, all he responded was congratulations. So like I'll text him all this stuff and you'll say thanks or great. And, but John's been awesome. I want to thank the Pacific justice Institute. Initially, when we wanted to make this building a church, the city said, no, I don't think we want a church in the village. Downtown core. I said, is that, is that legal? And Patrick said, I think so. I said, I said, I've got a letter from the Pacific justice Institute saying that it's actually not legal to keep us out of the village downtown core. 4 (26m 18s): He said, really? He said, send it over to me and I'll run it by our city attorney and just see what he says well, within a day or so he emails me back and says, Hey, congratulations, let's move forward. We can't keep you out. And we want to bless you as you move forward. So it was like, the Lord just changed their hearts as I mean, because we never wanted to be like hard charging. We just want to do what we do with grace and with tenderness and with just faith that God's opening doors and we never want to kick a door down. So I just want to thank the Pacific justice Institute for what they did. And you saw the picture of Dave Bedford. Dave has been a part for 19 years of projects around here. We've been, we started at Lopez high school on the Mesa. We were there for a couple of years and we've been in this space next door for 17 years buying space and renovating space all along. 4 (27m 0s): And so when I talked to Dave about this space, he's like, I'm in, you know, I'm your guy. And so he's been here tirelessly to get the job done. And so I'm so thankful for Dave Bedford, Steven, Julie Schumann from SoCo data and they print, they print up all of our principals, everything that's in print is printed by those guys free of charge. They don't charge us a thing. So God bless Steve and Julie shoe Schuman of slow code data. Aaron looters, who's been a part of every project. I think for the last like 17 years has been just a blessing to us installing all of the, all of the sound, audio, video stuff. He's, he's one that's been behind all of that. Rich brown. One of our plumbers, we've had a few plumbers in here, but rich has done so much of the finished stuff. 4 (27m 44s): And so much of the infrastructure stuff regarding plumbing, my brother, Larry and another guy, Alex, both in charge of painting. So everything has been painted. Those guys did that painting. And so we're blessed to have people like that at our disposal, Sammy, Quavis the dry wall guy. We didn't originally plan to take out all the drywall, but the drywall was in such bad shape that Sammy said, Hey, let's just pull it all off because I could float it all. But it's going to take me twice as much time and let's just tear it off and start over. So that's what he did. And so Pete Kurzy, he did all the stucco repair around the building. See Mondello did all of the heating and air conditioning. It takes so many people to get a project like this across the finish line. 4 (28m 25s): So see, Mondello been a friend of mine since high school. He's done all of our HVAC stuff throughout all of the buildings. And he just did a wonderful job. Doug Wilson did the check valve and the trenching for all the, to get water to the building so that we could power these fire sprinklers. And so Dave's been, or Doug's been busy with that paradise plumbing. Travis white was also involved in the process. We had a bad sewer line here that he discovered because before we got here, he said, I was always here because they always had backup toilets. So we said, let me scope the line to tell you if the line's in good shape. So he scopes the line and the, the sewer line was completely gone. I mean, the, the bottom of it was complete. So all that sewer was running in. 4 (29m 5s): So we had to cut an 80 foot trench replaced the sewer line. And so Travis was all part of that. We had electrical engineers, we had architects, obviously. I'd like to think my friend, pastor Mike Sparrow, because Mike's been a friend of mine for decades, but we were at a crossroads in need of an architect. And Mike just happened to be walking through the community of the, our pro our property recently back going back about a year. And he had an architect with him and I said, we actually need an architect. And, and so we've, we're blessed with that introduction that Wayne's Stewart worked with MW Mike peachy and Wayne Stewart, who own MW architecture gave us a tremendous discounts on the work that was done here. 4 (29m 53s): And our project manager, Derek Carter has been just priceless for us. He's been on the he's. I called, I texted him last time, Derek, we're going to have our first service. He's like I got COVID. I can't go so brave for Derek, but so many, so many amazing people. Chris outlined with the floors of wood herb, with Cal flooring to the carpet, the sign shop guys did all of the sign, the printed signs that are in here, Ronnie and Janet . Janet told me this morning, she said, this is, this is the third building I've been in with you because she was in the beginning with us at Lopez high school, and then over here and now here. So running and Janet did the, the new fence and rod iron stuff out there. 4 (30m 36s): They've been so amazing chase with alpha, the whole team. We have so many electricians to thank because this project required so many electricians just to get it across the finish line. So alpha, they were great. They came in exactly when we needed them to come in to get us across the line. Corey sole Meyer, all the lights. He get consulted us with about all the lights and everything got her in here. So thank you, Corey, Larry and Carrie D I don't have my glasses on LD termites. Anyway, we had some termite issues. I should wear my glasses once in a while, but I just don't like those things. So anyway, the termites we had the windows tinted. Jim Schmidt was our tech assistant, built out the tech desk. 4 (31m 18s): Steve Henry built the wheelchair. He didn't build it, the lift, but he assembled the wheelchair lift. So you look at that thing, it looks pretty straight forward. It's not straightforward. It took weeks to get that thing assembled. And then we have the painter come in and paint, paint it. Cause it was all white. Like the back of it was anyway. Thank you, Stephen. An amazing, just he's an amazing man. So Luke and Aaron with Frank's lock and key, they have been so good. They've been such good friends to us over the years. They take such good care of us with this building and every building that we've ever had. Aaron and Luke have been amazing. I want to say, thanks to Patrick Holub, who is our planner or assistant planner on this project? 4 (31m 59s): He, he just did an amazing job, actually emailed the, the, the mayor, Karen Ray Ross, some says, I just want to say, thank you for your team, Karen. And I go back to high school. We've known each other for a long time. I said, man, your, your team just did a great job, including bill Robinson. And so they did a wonderful job walking us through the process process. I'd like to think our CBO and building inspector, Mark Myers, and his wife, Nancy and their team. They've been so good to us. The inspectors. I mean, they've done their job, but they've been so gracious and kind to us. And so now volunteers, again, Jim Owen, you saw Jim in the picture. Jim volunteered with Craig and Stephanie, his kids, countless hours of electrical work in this place mat lists, but they built the cabinet over the info center. 4 (32m 47s): Lynn Colette, who built the cross at the chapel in our old space. He also built the cross here. And it's just interesting how the Lord brought him by just at the right time. It's actually at the entrance. When you come in now, since then they've moved. I think theirs have moved. Now they're gone. So God brought him just for a moment. So we can have him build the cross Perry Lupin and his friend, Chris, again, tons and tons of electrical work. Cory, Joseph, my brother and his girlfriend AC they did tons. They rescued us at a moment when we needed some expertise with our panel back there, they came in and replaced the panel and just did a amazing workforce. Would not charge us. 4 (33m 27s): Chris Lacey, again, more electrical work. Sean D bull and Noah Clark did tons and tons of cleanups. Seth McMillan did the courtyard design and the install Maggie Sutherland was in charge of the design elements throughout, upstairs and downstairs just did an incredible job. Mark towns in a professional camera operator, worked with us to get cameras set up and ready to go. Jerry Shaw design drawings, Dan Hennessy, graphic design, Mike Ferris. He's been working tirelessly to get these windows cleaned up. And so Mike's a teacher, but he used to have a window cleaning business. Well, we couldn't get anybody to come out and clean windows we call and people wouldn't return the call. 4 (34m 9s): So I said, call Mike Ferris. So Mike came out on his own time and diamond and got our windows cleaned and did a great job. Steve rice, what can I say about Steve rice? He is always here. He's always, always here working behind the scenes. He's in the booth right now, working behind the scenes to make sure everything is working. And so I love that guy. Shannon Kessler with century 21, God has connected with Jack Hardy who gave us permission to use the century 21 parking lot over there. As Curtis mentioned, you can park over there. We'll validate your parking. So when you leave, you don't have to pay. That is a gift to us from century 21. And now the new owner of century 21 has agreed to the terms and is happy to help us. And so God bless those guys. 4 (34m 50s): Thank you, Shannon Kessler, for all of your hard work, making that happen. Anderson Burton, the construction company behind us, same deal. They gave us a parking agreement and they've been so, so gracious with us. And we're so thankful. Workday volunteers we've had many work days. There's too many volunteers dimension. I would miss people. And so I'll just say thank you to everyone who came out on workdays to get this place squared away and cleaned up and ready to go. Thank you to the people who prayed. We showed pictures of prayer meetings that happened in here. People prayed and people believed God for what he might want to do in this space. And it was the prayers of God's people and the grace of God that got us across the finish line so that we could sit here today and have shirts. 4 (35m 33s): So thanks to you prayed to those who gave financial gifts to make this happen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Also, I don't want to forget my staff. We we've got such an amazing staff team. When I say staff, I mean paid staff, people who work here pretty much, all these people work full time. They are all like my elders, like the elders. I say mine because I just feel such ownership around them. But like the elders, th these guys and gals are so filled with faith and excitement about what God wants to do. They're willing to jump in and go. The extra mile to moderate was here until like 10 o'clock last night, just putting the finishing touches on everything. Working seven, eight hours on Saturday, the day is his day off. 4 (36m 14s): And so it's just to speak. Generally, the team has been working so hard. What's going on? You guys. So Tim, Tim mater, Curtis Henry, Jeremy Sutherland, Amanda Henry Jolene, Henry Carson, Lacey, Julie spill, or Leslie and Ron. So thank you guys for being the team that you are doing this 19 years. I'm so blessed to have the team that I have staff and elders and volunteers. You guys, we did this together. My God's grace. 4 (36m 54s): Amen. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. All right. Let's get into James chapter one, but before we do, let's go and stand up. I just feel like it's time to pray again, Lord. It's good to pray. That's really good to pray. So we, we praise you Lord God. And we say, thank you, Lord. Thank you for every person. And for those that we may have missed, ah, we're so thankful. And Lord forgive me for missing somebody. If we did Lord, Lord, thank you for who you've brought together and how you've knit us together for common purpose and common goals. Lord God. And I pray that you would continue to do that. You would knit our hearts together, that you would keep us unified and strong in Jesus name, powerfully declaring and proclaiming the gospel that people might be saved and sanctified and filled with the holy spirit and live new lives in you being born again and set free in Jesus name. 4 (37m 46s): So do what you want to do through us and with us, Lord God, we are yours and we are in your hands and we are your conduit. So work through us and administer through us. We pray, Lord, thank you for your grace. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Go ahead and have a seat. We're going to be James chapter one verses one through 18. I'm pretty amped up there. So I'll start a slow down here. Hey, the title of the message. Faith that is tested is faith that endures. And so we're gonna be talking about testing the testing of our faith today. And I love that James, the half-brother of the Lord, Jesus Christ writes this epistle because he communicates something of power and something of clarity to a people who need power and clarity in their season of life. 4 (38m 34s): So James, the half-brother same mother, different father, Jesus had half siblings, same mom, obviously different father. So James writes this text for us as a believer in the Lord, Jesus Christ. We're going to unpack his story a little bit. As we talk about this person, James, who God used to pen these words in the book of James, it's encouraging for us to know his backstory a little bit because, and knowing his backstory, we realized that God worked wonderfully and supernaturally in his life to give him a kingdom gospel story. 4 (39m 14s): He took what was broken in James' life. What was faithless in James' life. And he did something wonderful and supernatural to bring about eternal kingdom fruit that no one could ever have expected. James one, one through 18 verse one. The first part of verse one says this letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. So James, the half-brother of Jesus could have said, James, the half-brother of Jesus James, it's the half brother of Jesus speaking, but he says, no, I'm going to do loss. We're talking about do loss. Last week, I do loss as a servant, a slave, a bond servant of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 4 (39m 57s): And I love a friend of mine pointed out earlier, or last week she said, she said, what's beauty beautiful about that term do loss. And that term servant or slave is that these people who are the bond servants that do loss of Lord Jesus Christ or serving at a free choice. So the backstory is that if a slave was released from his duties, but wanted to stay serving in the household of his master, he would be, he would get his ear pierced and you'd have a ring put in his ear. And it indicated that he was a bond servant by choice because his master was so, so good. And that's really our story, right? 4 (40m 37s): We, we are choosing by God's grace because our master is so, so good. We are choosing to be bond servants, slaves of the most high God. And so this is James. He is a bond servant, a slave of God, choosing to serve the Lord Jesus Christ because his master is so good. It's a half-brother they had the same mother, but different fathers. This is the same James that Jesus intentionally revealed himself to after his resurrection. So Jesus resurrects. And he goes after and finds his brother James to reveal himself so that he might know so that James might know that what has been said about his brother is true. 4 (41m 22s): Paul writes about it in first Corinthians 15 seven. It says then he, Jesus was seen by James and later by all the apostles. So after his resurrection, he was seen by and later by all of the apostles, many believe that it was in this moment, let James gave his life to the Lord and believed that Jesus indeed was the Messiah. Imagine growing up and your older brothers, you're being told that your older brother is the Messiah, right? Oh yeah. Your older brother, he's the Messiah. You're like not in this life. Like never, I can't believe it. I've watched this guy grow up, you know? And, and so James is having a hard time coming to grips with the reality as brothers, indeed the Messiah, until, until the resurrection, he watches his brother, be crucified and then buried and then resurrected from the dead. 4 (42m 13s): So many believe that it's at this moment that James became a believer until this resurrection, Jesus brothers did not believe he was the Messiah. I love that. Jesus seeks out his brother because I feel like he seeks everyone out individually. He goes after us, out of his great love for us in a great commitment to us. He seeks us out, revealing himself in wonderful and powerful ways so that we might believe he did the same thing then, and he's doing it now. He seeks us out by his grace and because of his abundant love is unconditional love. He seeks us out in our brokenness so that we might know his grace, his kindness, his love and his compassion. 4 (42m 56s): So again, even Jesus' brothers struggled with believing in John seven five in the new living translation. It says even Jesus brothers did not believe in him. And in mark chapter three, Jesus families didn't know Jesus family didn't know what to think about him in mark three 12, the second part there says he's out of his mind. They said, he's out of his mind. Maybe somebody has said that about you. And, and you're going to identify right now. So Jesus' family didn't believe him for the most part. They thought he was just a bit off and a little bit out of his mind. So James, the half-brother of Jesus, one who maybe like a lot of us struggled to believe that Jesus is who he claims to be one who after experiencing the resurrected Christ he chose to believe. 4 (43m 51s): And we all have that opportunity before us, will we choose to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the savior of the world, will we choose by God's grace to be followers and disciples of the Lord? Jesus Christ, James one who after experiencing the resurrected Christ chose to believe he James chose to believe what, what I believe the holy spirit of God was trying to convince him of all along. Maybe you're on a journey of your life, where you feel like God's been trying to get your attention. Like the spirit of God has been trying to reveal the power of God and the grace of God to you. But you've been struggling to believe it into receive. 4 (44m 32s): It's the holy Spirit's always working in our hearts and lives to draw us to the savior and to draw us into a deeper respect and admiration and adoration of the Lord that we might know him and follow him. So I'm convinced that the holy spirit of God was working in James to bring him to a place of brokenness and repentance, acknowledging that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. James became a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, James, along with the rest of his brothers, the brothers of Jesus were with the apostles at Pentecost, according to acts chapter one. 4 (45m 12s): So they're present and they believe in are they're beginning to follow Jesus. According to acts chapter 15, James became a major leader in the church and the church of Jerusalem. So we see James who goes from a doubter, this place of doubting unbelief, questioning wondering about this, Jesus is he the Messiah. He goes from this place of doubting into a place of believing into a place of influence into a place of kingdom fruitfulness that is eternal. That's the beauty of what God will do in our lives. If we just say yes to him and submit to him and allow him to work through us and use us, he will do something radically to transform our lives. 4 (45m 60s): Often we, or sometimes we can minimize our effectiveness as Christians because of our past. But if we look throughout the scripture, everyone, that God got ahold of how to pass. And then everyone that God got ahold of had the opportunity to be used powerfully by God and was used powerfully as, as the Lord director. So if you've got a pass today, I've got to pass today. Anybody else got a past, thank God for our past, because we can learn from it, but let's never let our past hold us back. But let's say thank you Lord, for our past. Thank you. That you've cleansed me, forgiven me. That you've set me free and you've set me on a brand new path in Jesus name so that I can believe be all in and be a kingdom, a soul-winner for you, Lord Jesus. 4 (46m 43s): So James goes from a doubter to just a great man of prayer. It said that James prayed so much that they called him camel knees, camel knees, because his knees were worn out from prayer because he prayed so much. One of his nicknames was James. The, just according to anybody who knew him, he was the most righteous man who ever lived. He was a man of integrity, a man of intense discipline. He loved Jesus, loved the gospel, loved what God had done in his life and was all in camel knees. James, the just again, as far as people were concerned, no one was as righteous as James. 4 (47m 29s): And so we see his backstory and I love that these men and women of God have a backstory because as we sit here today, again, we all have a backstory, but God is able to, in spite of our backstory and because of our backstory use us and work through us wonderfully and supernaturally. So James, according to historians was martyred in the year 80, 62, he was taken to the temple Mount the top of the temple Mount at the pinnacle of the temple Mount. There are the pinnacle of the temple, which is about a three-story building. And the Pharisees were so angry with his message and his conviction and his commitment to Jesus that they said, we will throw you off this. 4 (48m 11s): Three-story building. If you don't recant your faith, if you do not deny Jesus, we will throw you off from the pinnacle of the temple. This is the same place. By the way that the devil took Jesus to tempt him, took him to the same place. And so it's the same place that James has an opportunity to stand firm and Jesus come life or death. He was going to stand firm. So they throw off, they throw them off, but it didn't kill him. Listen, God's not gonna allow you to expire until he's done with you. So he gets down, it gets up, he's begins to begin to intercede and pray for his is the people that had thrown him off. 4 (48m 53s): Those people who were persecuting him, begins to pray. And they're so distraught. They go down there and they finished them off by stoning him to death. But all the while James is faithful, he is faithful. He was at first one tells us a slave of God and of the Lord, Jesus Christ. What else does James? One, one tell us, it says, I'm writing to the 12 tribes, Jewish believers, scattered abroad, greetings. He's writing to the church. It's not just to Jewish believers, but he's writing to Gentile believers as well. 4 (49m 37s): He is speaking to the family of God, but just because you're born Jewish, doesn't actually make you Jewish spiritually. We'll see that in the scripture, you can be born a Gentile, but then be grafted into the family of God because of his grace and because of his mercy. And so if you're a Gentile, a believing Gentile today, meaning you're not a Jew, but you believe in the finished work of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that Jesus is your savior. You have been both adopted into the family of God and then grafted into the family of God. Let's take a look at some verses here in Romans 11, 17. It says this, but some of these branches from Abraham's tree, some of the people of Israel had been broken off. 4 (50m 17s): Why? Because they're N believing they've been broken off. And you Gentiles who were the branches from a wild olive tree had been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing. God has promised Abraham and his children sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God's special, all of tree. Isn't that neat? So at one point we are outside of the family of God. When we chose to believe and receive the grace and mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ, he's adopted a sin and he's crafted a sin. I don't know if you've ever tried to graph two fruit trees together where you're trying to get multiple fruits off the same tree. You can successfully cut off one branch in and grafted into the next one. 4 (51m 1s): So you begin to grow fruit, a different of a different kind in that tree. This is essentially what God has done. He's grafted us into his family tree, Romans 2 28 and 29 says this for you are not a true Jew, just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. So this is, this is what God is examining in our lives. He's examining our hearts. You say, well, my parents are Christians. And so I'm a Christian or my grandparents are Christian. So I'm a Christian it's in my heritage. So of course I'm a Christian. 4 (51m 42s): I was talking to one of my doctors recently. It's an, a guy that I just met. And at the end of the consultation, I just felt compelled. I said, Hey, do you know Jesus? Are you, are you a believer? And he laughs. He's like, of course I know Jesus. He's laughing at me, you know? And he said, well, that's kind of a convoluted story. I've got a, you know, Catholic background and blah, blah, blah. So there was more, there's more to this story. And I said, ha, I dunno why I just felt compelled to ask you that question. He said, that's your job. He knew I was a pastor apparently. And he's like, I get to ask you if you're a smoker, you get to ask me if you know, Jesus, I'm like, Hey, good. I've got permission now. 4 (52m 22s): I'm moving forward with that. So anyway, so we have to decide on our own. It doesn't matter what our background is. If we haven't made a personal decision for Jesus, then we're not in his family. And so you and me, our kids and our grandkids in our nieces and our nephews need to know Jesus. And so take the opportunity. It's apparently your job, right? You're a Christian. So you're supposed to be telling people about Jesus and then leading people into a place of salvation. No, true jewelers, 29 says is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law. 4 (53m 4s): Rather. It's a change of heart produced by the spirit and a person with a change chart, seeks praise or receives praise from God and not from people. So there's a heart transformation that God wants to accomplish in our lives. And I've seen firsthand and too many people, heart transformations for God just works powerfully and wonderfully and supernaturally. So when people are yielded, when people are yielded, God just works in and through their lives. In spite of their past, in spite of their mistakes, God is faithful. All right, let's continue James one, verse two. Do your brothers and sisters, when trouble of any kind comes your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 4 (53m 48s): Is that your first response when trouble comes? Woo. Thank you, Lord. Right? That's the first thing that's just naturally flows out of our mouth. It's not actually what naturally flows out of our mouth, right? And Romans five, three, Paul says we can rejoice too. When we run into problems and trials, why for, we know that they help us develop in Durance faith. That is trusted is faith. That endures number one, in your notes, your faith must be tested if your faith is to endure. So the testing of your faith is actually part of the process that builds within us. The endurance that we need to face life, to face the next test to build us up. 4 (54m 31s): And our most holy faith. I like saying it's like building rebar into the foundation of our faith, that tests that we endure and go through, build us up, cause us to be strong in Jesus. So we might endure what God has asked us to endure on Wednesday morning, this past week, my son Curtis, and my son-in-law Logan, we all went on this backpacking trip, the three of us, and it's about seven miles in and we've been on this backpacking trip before. So we knew we could do it, but it was so hot that day. We'd never hiked that trail when it's been like the mid eighties. And so, you know, it's super hot, dry wind. And so you're just, you're just winded the whole time, first mile. 4 (55m 11s): We're like, oh, that was easy. You know? And then you get into the second mile where you're really beginning to climb and you're feeling the heat. And man, it was a test of endurance. Would we really make it like many of us have been through spiritual tests before and we know we can make it, but it seems like with every test with every new test, there's just a slightly different elements like that throws a curve ball into the scenario. Like I've been through this before kind of, but not exactly like this. So it causes us to dig deeper by God's grace to find the strength and the wisdom and the energy to do and to succeed in this test to get passed the test. 4 (55m 52s): So anyway, we, we were really, really struggling. I, I was, you know, I'm the old guy out there, so I'm struggling more than anybody. And, but I knew that I wasn't going to be the guy to throw in the towel because it was like, you know, there's like six or seven campsites before we get to the narrows where we were headed seven miles in. So we get to stop at a mile or two or three or four, but there was no way that we were stopping. And I think that's the beauty of the fellowship of the church. We spur each other on like, I'm not quitting because I know others are counting on me. Please don't quit because there's people around you who are counting on you. Don't be the person who throws in the towel because God will give you the grace to accomplish what you need to accomplish, to get through to the place that you need to get through to. 4 (56m 40s): So we're on this trail and seriously, we're sucking down so much water. We got to stop like every five minutes just to take a breath and get our legs back under us. Cause it's just a climb all the way. It's a climb. It's actually uphill both ways. It's kind of a weird deal, but it's not really, it makes the story better anyway. So it's not, it's not, but on the way to the trail and on the way to the, into the campsite, it's so, so much work. And so we just had to decide that we weren't going to give up there. You know, there's so many parallels in life in, you know, the work that we do, the hobbies that we have, the relationships that we have, there are so many parallels that can help us to understand spiritual truth. 4 (57m 24s): If we'll just listen and pay attention. And so there's, so somebody parallels, you know, you're hiking, you got 35 pounds on your back and you, you know, you can hike so much easier without 35 pounds on your way. There's so many things, the backpack and represent sand or you know, different things. We just need to be aware that in the test, whatever it is in life, God is building something of endurance in our lives. So that the next test we'll have endurance for this, for that, for the next test. So our faith wasn't tested in this scenario, but our stamina certainly was, everybody gets tested in many ways, but people who put their faith in Jesus will certainly certainly experience victory. 4 (58m 9s): So my challenge to us, when we're facing tests, let's get our eyes on Jesus. Often we're focused on the task, the test, the difficulty. But if we'll just shift and say, God, I know that you're going to get me through this by your grace. I'm going to develop something even Durance endurance that I've never had before in preparation for the next test or for the next thing that you asked me to do. So Lord build within me, whatever is needed so that I might have endurance James. One, three tells us for you know, that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow back to James. 4 (58m 49s): She had his faith tested when he was told to recant or die. His faith was a life and death decision for him. I am convinced that along the way, in preparation for that faith test, there were many faith tests that built his endurance so that when it was a life and death scenario, he could say by God's grace and in his strength, I'm going to stand for him. And I will never recant my faith in Jesus Christ. So there was something, a preparation. We don't know what the future holds, but we know that there's preparation in our lives, building endurance in our lives so that we might stand firm until death in Jesus name, verse four, James one. 4 (59m 36s): So let it grow. Endorse. Let it grow for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete needing nothing. Isn't that the goal perfect, complete needing nothing. Jesus told us that is the goal. Matthew 5 48, but you are to be perfect. Jesus said, even as your father in heaven is perfect. So this is what God is trying to develop within our lives. Perfection. That word means mature. It means to be finished. It means to be complete. God is working in our lives so that we might experience perfection in Christ, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that we might be mature and finished and complete. 4 (1h 0m 16s): We'll never be perfect in our own works or own righteousness. That's why Jesus went to the cross, but there is a standard. And I think it's important for us to understand that there is a standard in Jesus. Sometimes we get a little loose with the grace of God and the unconditional love of God. And we kind of get loose with our living, but this is the standard James tells us, and Jesus tells us, but you are to be perfect. Even as your father in heaven is perfect. Perfect, mature, finished, complete in Jesus name. So verse four describes the results of the testing, that, that we would be perfect and complete needing nothing. So this is the result of what will happen when we allow endurance to grow in our lives. 4 (1h 0m 60s): And we decide to stand firm and decide to follow Jesus. First five gives us the steps to get through the testing so that we may become perfect and complete needing nothing. So verse five helps us to understand how do we accomplish this faith that is tested is faith. That endures, number one, your faith must be tested. If your faith is to endure and number two, your faith will be tested, but God will give you what you need. And we're encouraged in verse five, James one, if you need wisdom, if you need it and you will need it, I need it. We all need it every day with every test, with every circumstance and scenario, we need the wisdom of God. 4 (1h 1m 40s): So James tells us, I'm sure out of the function of the anointing of the holy spirit, but also just out of his own experience. If you need wisdom, ask our generous, God, I love that. He throws that in there that God is generous. Sometimes we see God as heavy handed and angry or whatever James is saying, ask your generous God, and he will give it to you. And he will not rebuke you for asking. He won't say, you'll keep asking for wisdom. Can't you just get it through your head. He's not going to say that. He's like, oh, you need wisdom. Let me help you with that. Right? He's just going to bless us with what is needed. He's a good, good father. But when you ask him, so you're asking for wisdom there's criteria here. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. 4 (1h 2m 23s): God is your plan. A and there is no plan B like Lord, I'm fully needing your wisdom and I'm not looking to the wisdom of the world or to the wisdom of my friends. I'm looking to the wisdom of your word through your spirit, that you would speak to me, guide lead and direct me. And that is my plan. And so Lord, if you don't speak, I'm not moving. I don't have a plan B. So you gotta just speak. We need to be completely devoted to him. And when you ask, be sure that your faith is in God alone, do not waiver for a person with divided. Loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. So maybe you're feeling unsettled today. 4 (1h 3m 5s): It may be because you're divided in your loyalty. And so we always need to be checking in with ourselves and my fully committed to you, Jesus. Or am I committed to you in this area, but not to you in this other area. I'm counting on your wisdom for this, but I got it figured out over here. Listen, we come to Christ by faith because we need his wisdom. But way before that we need salvation. We need just grace. We need his kindness because we have botched our lives apart from him. And when we come to faith in him, come to him by faith, he, he rebuilds restores, heals, sanctifies, delivers, fills he's about doing wonderful and supernatural things in our lives. 4 (1h 3m 53s): But we have to be careful for a person with divided loyalty. It's like that person who was just lukewarm, like I not quite all in kind of in, I'm not quite sure, lukewarm unsettled, divided, divided loyalties. That person is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. You know what happens when you're fully committed to Christ? You know what happens? Peace. You're settled in Jesus because you know that Jesus is the Lord of your life. And you're committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. No matter what test or temptation comes, you're settled. 4 (1h 4m 36s): And if there's a stumbling in the journey, you're quick to say, Lord, that's not my life. I do not want to do that. I'm repenting. And I'm getting right in alignment with you. There's just something of confidence. A holy spirit given breeds confidence, not arrogance because God opposes the proud, but it is a confidence is I'm a follower of Jesus. And so Jesus is the Lord of my life. In every arena. Every season, I'm going to trust him and follow him and believe him. There's just a peace and a confidence and a reassurance that comes when we make Jesus, the Lord of our lives. So don't waiver and quit wavering for a person with divided. Loyalties is as unsettled as the wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 4 (1h 5m 16s): Such people get this such. People should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Wow. Like he's like, it's challenging us. You really want my wisdom or you just want a quick fix. Do you really want what I have to say already? You just trying to find the easy way. Or do you have a plan B that you're going to be kind of comparing a, well, God judge this, but I've got to think this, or God says this, but you know, so-and-so says this, God says this, the world says this. What is your plan? Plan a God, no plan B no plan C nothing else. God is your priority. Those people should expect to receive whatever they need from the Lord. But people who are double double-minded first aid, their loyalty is divided between God and the world. 4 (1h 6m 3s): And they are unstable in everything. They do. You want stability in your life, stability like shakable stability in your life. Just make Jesus, the Lord of your life. Open up the word every day, allow the spirit of God to fill you the word of God to direct you be obedient. No plan B. My plan a Jesus is you. Everything else is submitted to that. I'm moving forward. You will find such stability in your life, such grace for your life, such peace in your life. Such joy such can temperament such God godliness. I mean, there's just so much joy and wonder that comes out of that. 4 (1h 6m 44s): Undivided loyalty to God. Faith that is tested is faith that endures your faith must be tested. If your faith is to endure, your faith will be tested, but God will give you what you need. Number three is we get ready to wrap up your faith tests will come in many forms, but God is the one who will reward your endurance. So beyond just the reward of peace and confidence in Jesus and, and assurance that God is with me and filling me and leading me and directing me in that. He's my Lord. He's my king. He's my everything. And in spite of it, in addition to all of those blessings, there's rewards coming for those who put their trust in the Lord. 4 (1h 7m 31s): First-time believers who are poor, have something to boast about for God has honored them. And that interesting for believers who are poor, have something to boast about for God has honored them. That's an interesting statement. The word poor is tapped by nos in the Greek. It's, it's a word that describes a person's state describes who the person is in their soul. It's it's also described a low li poor is described or defined as lowly in Matthew's gospel. Jesus uses that same word, tap by Nasir for himself. 4 (1h 8m 13s): He describes himself in this way in Matthew 1129 in the king James version, it says, Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for, I am meek and lowly. Tap by nasi. Jesus is describing himself as meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest on to your souls and Matthew 1129 in the new living translation. That same verse says, take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I'm a humble and gentle as heart. You will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear and the burden I give you is lights. 4 (1h 8m 53s): So there's a blessing for those who are poor tap by nice type tap ins. There there's a poor in spirit that God blesses because it speaks of dependence on him. Appreciation of him, a love for him. And Jesus has come to me because I'm the same and I will lift your burdens. I will bless you in second Corinthians, seven, six. We see it again, says, nevertheless, God that comfort with those that are cast down comfort. If us by the coming of Titus tap a top. I know. So it uses that word, tap on ice there, comfort to minister, to the people of God. 4 (1h 9m 36s): And so we see that there's a blessing for those who are lowly, who are poor in spirit verse 10 says, and those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. It's so backwards, right? From our thinking. We think if you're poor in spirit report financially, that that you should be sad. And if you're rich, you should be happy, right? But the gospel turns the world's philosophy on its head. And he says those who are rich boast Shabbos, that God has humbled them. They will fade away like a little flower in the field. So the temporal nature of our riches and our wealth will fade verse 11, says the hot sun rises and the grass Withers, the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away in the same way. 4 (1h 10m 19s): The rich will fade away with all of their achievements. And it's talking about worldly achievements, things that we've used our money to, to, to enrich our lives and to, to bless our lives instead of for the kingdom. So wealth can be a test and a temptation that test, this is the test around wealth. Will I trust God or will I trust my wealth? So that comes back to being double-minded person. Are you a single-minded that your trust is only in God doesn't matter how much wealth, much or little that I have is my trust in God, or as much my trust in my resource, the temptation while I serve God, or will I serve money? The Bible says you can't serve God and money. 4 (1h 11m 2s): So the temptation is what am I going to serve? What is going to be my priority? Am I going to protect my resource at all costs so that I have what I think I need for the future, or is God on throne of my life. And I will do whatever he asked me to do with my resource. You can't serve God and money. So a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways because there's a mix-up in that person's life about who is on the throne of his life. Sometimes God, sometimes money, sometimes relationships, sometimes whatever you fill in the blank, sometimes something else is on the throne of my life. And it's causing me to be unstable in all areas of my life and it's wreaking havoc in my life. And so we need to decide to be single-minded in our focus and our devotion, making Jesus, the Lord and the king of our lives in every arena and scenario with everything in our lives. 4 (1h 11m 54s): God Wes that verse 12, God blesses. Those who patiently endure testing and temptation afterward, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember when you are being tempted, do not say God is tempting me. God has never tempted to do wrong. And he never tempts anyone else. What does that temptation come from? Right? You're right. We're always tempted by something. This is where it comes from. Temptation comes. I love it. When the Bible answers our questions for us temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. So you can't say, well, the devil made me do it because the devil, the world, the flesh and the devil is using the raw material that is in your life to entice you in a drag you away. 4 (1h 12m 39s): So if you've got unresolved sin or unresolved issues or unresolved, whatever in your life, the enemy is going to use that raw material to entice you and drag you away. So we have to be constantly doing business with the Lord, allowing him to examine our hearts and take, and we need to take a personal spiritual inventory. Lord, what is going on? What keeps getting my attention? What keeps tempting me to look away or tempting me to go a different direction. It's coming from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. 4 (1h 13m 20s): That's the process, right? We have to take captive every thought into the obedience of Christ. We have to recognize what's going on, going on in our hearts. And we have to repent. Hold short accounts. God, I'm struggling in this area. I need to bring it out into the light, confess it, get somebody around me who can help me walk with integrity in this area. And then you're not giving the enemy any raw material to work with because these desires, if we are not careful, these desires will give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ. Jesus. Our Lord, I know is his grace and his mercy are sufficient. 4 (1h 14m 1s): So don't be misled. Verse 16 says my dear brothers and sisters, whatever's good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God, our father who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow his. So he's the same yesterday. And today and forever, his ways are the same yesterday, today and forever. We get out of the testing. We get through the testing and we get out of the temptation the same way by surrendering to him not being double-minded but saying, yes, Lord, I want purity. I want integrity. I want honesty in my life. As a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, verse 18. He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. 4 (1h 14m 41s): And we out of all, creation became his prized possession, good stuff. Worship team come forward here, wrapping up faith that is tested his faith that endures your faith must be tested if your faith is to endure. So go through it. Allow God to strengthen you with endurance. Number two, your faith will be tested, but God will give you what you need. So just call it to the Lord. Number three, your faith test will come in many forms, but God is the one who will reward your endurance. And so with that, let's go and stand up and we're going to pray and we're going to worship some warm. So Lord, we stand up. We pray. And we thank you, Lord, for the message of truth. 4 (1h 15m 23s): Spoken to us out of James chapter one, we're grateful for what you will do as we unpack the rest of these five chapters, Lord, we, we, we commit to say yes and amen to whatever it is that you guide and direct us. And Lord do say yes and amen to your plans and purposes yet to say yes and amen to your Lordship and leadership in our lives. We want to be stable. Knots tossed to and fro but stable in Jesus name. So we trust you, Lord. We love you, Lord. Thank you for giving us insight into how to endure testing and temptation. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. 4 (1h 16m 2s): Amen. 0 (1h 16m 11s): his song is . 0 (1h 18m 3s): Yeah. 1 (1h 18m 30s): First. We're going to go out with a song of praise. If you feel comfortable, would you clap along? 0 (1h 18m 48s): Y . 1 (1h 21m 54s): Thank you, Jesus, for your presence. Thank you that we get to sing to you. We only want to sing. Thank you for this new worship center. Getting to be in your house this morning in your name, we pray. Amen.

2 (3s): Hello. Hello, welcome. Welcome. Good to have you all here. Wow. This is kind of surreal our last Sunday of, of being doing churches. We've done it for a long time. And so next Sunday, we will be in the worship center, just down the road. Yeah. So we got our permitting to assemble and everything this last week. So we are all good to go. So very exciting stuff just for the parents. So zero through 23 months, we have kids classes over at the worship center and then all the kids up from that next, this is next week. All the kids up from that are going to be still in their same classes here. 2 (47s): So, but today is family Sunday. So kids first grade and up will be in service with their families. And then, yeah, so first grade and up, we'll be in service with your families. And we've also got donuts out on the, by the patio there. So definitely go check those out and that's all I got for you. So we got a video here and we'll get that going. 4 (1m 40s): God brought me to this school and this school brought me to gun. 5 (1m 43s): I like her school because it's a lot easier to connect and grow closer to God. 6 (1m 46s): I have teachers and Christian friends at this school that I can talk to 7 (1m 49s): For once. I feel like I belong. 8 (2m 9s): I like CCS because I feel accepted as myself. 9 (2m 12s): I'm here because I get to see other people connect 10 (2m 15s): With God. I like how the school gives me good influences. 11 (2m 18s): This school has shown me how to love God and not follow the world. 12 (2m 22s): The teachers are always open to talk about God and problems. He with 7 (2m 25s): You can feel his presence all over this place. Jesus picked me, chose me and loved me for a reason. And being here has made that reason more clear. 10 (2m 40s): I'm excited to build a better relationship with God. He's like my best friend. 13 (2m 45s): He's going to love me no matter what I've done, he does 14 (2m 47s): Keep his promises, any promises, good things. 13 (2m 50s): I want to show others the way he moved to me so they can see that he's real and he's there and he can change your life just as much as she's changed mine. 15 (3m 4s): Well, good morning. My name is Tom . I'm the head of school here for coastal Christian school. And I just appreciate so much that your church has been a great supporter of our school and a partner with us. And many of your people here have been a part of the work that God does at coastal Christian school. And that video that was just made how was filmed during COVID, which means kids can still have fun out there in this world. And even during that time of the craziness, but it shows you that our school just isn't a kind of a normal Christian school is more of a Christian experience. There's other ministries that kind of feed into what we do. There's a church influence. Obviously we have chapels and Bible classes. 15 (3m 45s): We have a camp kind of influence when we go to spiritual emphasis. And, and so it's, it's a Christian experience. And so during these, these years here, it coastal Christian, we're celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. Yes. And it's really a celebration of God's faithfulness to that work. And I define Christian education this way. It's I define it as having truth and wisdom, saturating their knowledge and truth is obviously Jesus. He is the way the truth and the life. And so we want God's word to just permeate. What, what they're hearing in, help them develop a biblical worldview, where they're actually taking the word of God and creating that as the lens to see the world, because you guys know education's not neutral anymore. 15 (4m 33s): There's an agenda at everything. I have an agenda. I want these kids to know Jesus and be able to have a personal relationship with him and be able to go forth into this world, knowing their mission and, and be able to think well and everything. So we're kind of like a think of our school is like a five legged stool. There's there's we have our mission, our philosophy. We have really our, our academic program. We have our kind of business model that we operate out of there. We have our strategic planning and then we also have a, a kind of a community that we want to nurture. And so we've grown, we've added another campus. We're actually renting from new life. 15 (5m 14s): We have a trail that goes up the hill for us that connects the two campuses. We've seen performing arts grow. We're using the Clark center to do some performances there. Sports have grown because the Lord has just blessed the school during this time, in this last year to illuminate what we're doing in a lot of families have said, you know what? I want to have my kids be a part of that. And so if you're interested to learn more about our school, I'll have a little table out back and just connect with you. Be able to share with you some more information about our school. Cause I'd love to be able to have you guys come on campus to see this goal for yourself and experienced coastal Christian. So thank you so much for the time. 2 (5m 56s): Thank you, Tom. Awesome. All right. Well, I'm just going to go ahead and pray and we'll get into worship. So if you'll stand with me, that'd be great, Lord, Jesus. We just want to come before you this morning and we just want to open ourselves up to you. We want to worship you this morning. Jesus. And so you're the reason we're here. We just pray that, that you would fill this whole place that you'd fill every venue where people are meeting and the people who are meeting online. Jesus, we, we are here. We avail ourselves to you. And we just ask that you would fill us that you would minister our minds, hearts, souls, body, spirit, every part of us. Jesus. And we just come before you Jesus name. 2 (6m 38s): Amen. 17 (7m 7s): We worship the God. We worship the God. We worship the God who ever ball. He open the prison doors. 17 (7m 21s): We see the God. 17 (8m 8s): We see the God On that cross that he rose up from that gray And we were the bag. 17 (8m 56s): Now we were the press. Now we all forget, except his friends, that the house of the We are forgiven by his grace, the house There's joy in the house, just in the house. 17 (9m 45s): We won't be quiet In the house. God is shot. We won't be quiet. You worship you this morning. 17 (10m 55s): Jesus. There's a name that metal smell Comes out high. We used to see, I've seen it's powered Rob of bad. I've seen his praise and rabid right off the giant falling strongholds. 17 (12m 11s): Greg DASA palate. she Oh, Oh Nothing else. 17 (20m 8s): 21 (20m 28s): Or we're so humbled by your presence today. And we thank you that we've had the opportunity that we've got the opportunity to gather in this place that has been our church home for the last 17 years and will continue to be our church home, but it's bitter and sweet that we're gonna be moving next week into new worship center and solar. We just want to say thank you for the many miracles that we've seen over these last 19 years, but especially here the last 17 that we've been just on this campus. And now Lord, as we expand, we pray Lord that our ability to be salted lights is the only reason for expansion as kingdom people is that we might have a broader reach, a greater reach, deeper reach in the kingdom and in the world that you've called us to bring your kingdom to. 21 (21m 23s): So Lord God, we, we realize Lord that if you've given us more space, Lord, it is the expansion of your kingdom and all for your glory and for your purposes and God, you get all the credits. And we say, thank you, Lord, God, you've been so faithful. As we've been working on that project for these last 55 weeks, Lord, you have been so good to us. And Lord, we just, as we get ready to launch that next week, we pray God that all of the little details we get wrapped up and all of the little things we get finished and that as we move into that space or that our ability to disciple people, to see people come into the kingdom and see people baptized and see whole family lives and families and generations be impacted with the gospel or we pray. 21 (22m 16s): That would be the case. Lord, we thank you for the, the growth that coastal Christian school has experienced in these last couple of years, Lord, you've taken this crazy COVID thing and you've made it a blessing in so many ways, Lord to that school. And it's been hard and yet good. And it's just all of the above Lord. So we just pray blessing upon CCS Lord upon their, their effort to partner with families, to see their people, their young people discipled, and to become strong leaders and followers of followers of you first and strong leaders within the kingdom, within the community. Lord God. 21 (22m 56s): So strengthen their work. We pray where Jesus, God, I'm so grateful for the young people who are going out to think about Eva. Kessler is going to be on mission this summer. And I think if Jacob Erdman who will be on mission this summer, he's already gone. And so we bless those young people or God, we bless them as they, as they sacrifice in a sense, air quotes sacrifice their summer so that they can be equipped and to release into the culture, to make a difference, Lord God, to be salt and light. So bless, bless them. I pray that this experience would transform their thinking and their understanding about you and about their role in the culture and that they would have new found purpose Lord as a result. 21 (23m 43s): So bless Jacob and Eva and others. She would be traveling this summer to do missions work, bless them. Lord God. We pray blessing upon our dear friend, Darlene Buchanan, who has been with us for these last 10 years or 12 years or so, whatever it's been, it's been so glorious. Lord God, she gets ready to move to Washington states to be closer to family and friends. Lord bless her. Lord, bless her. We are so thankful for her. We love her so much, Lord God. And we've walked through a lot of hard seasons as she's lost her husband. 21 (24m 28s): And we've just as a church have done our best to come alongside her. So bless Darlene Lord. As she transitions, we will see her again. You're there or in the air. We will see her again, Lauren, and think about Andrew and Stephanie who were moving to Idaho and the Martins, Lord blessed the Martins or God and so many people in transition. Lord God, I just, we just pray blessing upon your family here at harvest church, whether we're here or somewhere else in the world, Lord, we just pray that we would take the kingdom with us, the gospel with us, and that we'd be salt and light wherever we go or Jesus, thank you, Lord. For who you are. Lord, we pray for the health of People like David Rue. 21 (25m 10s): She was just battling cancer. People like candy welt shoes, just recovering from heart surgery and Shaun bath. My cousin who's recovering from surgery and is in a deal, did great deal of pain. We pray blessing and grace upon these people, Lord, for all, I know that we could spend an hour just naming people or God. And so we just pray God for the health Of our people here at harvest church, your grace upon our lives or God that you would bless families. Lord God, especially those who are struggling right now that you would strengthen them and bless them and help them and encourage them more. 21 (25m 52s): God got to remind us that prayer is so powerful. Lord, it's not a last resort. It's a first resort. It's what we have the privilege to do and the opportunity to do, to enter into times of prayer for the people in our lives for our loved ones. Lord God. So thank you Lord, for this time, pray God that you would be ministering to every soul in this place. And every buddy gathered on this campus and everybody tuned in online, Lord God, we pray that just a release of healing power know so many people deal with chronic pain and sickness and we just pray God for your divine grace, upon our bodies, Lord, that healing would be just experienced and enjoyed. 21 (26m 35s): And there be a blessing of healing, physical, physical healing, Lord God, upon our bodies that mental and emotional and spiritual in every way, Lord, that we'd be experiencing your grace in a fresh new way. So Lord do wonderful and supernatural things. As we gather, Lord God, give us grace and faith for the seasons that we enjoy and endures both or it. And so Lord help us. We pray bless this time. As we open up the word as we've worshiped, as we've fellowshipped, as we prayed, Lord, continue to move powerfully in our midst Lord, we ask Jesus name Jesus name, amen, turn and greet someone. That's you have never ever greeted before. 21 (27m 17s): And we will come on right back. 21 (28m 34s): Good morning. There it is. Hey, did everybody receive communion elements as you came in, we're going to be taking community's family Sunday. So for Sunday, the month donuts and communion, all of these things to enjoy and as well as kids jokes, we've got some kids jokes today. Look at this. I came into my office Monday, I think. And I had these two little envelopes in my stackable there where I received my mail and I said, well, what are these to receive some jokes from Tessa? And she said, dear, pastor Steve, my name is Tessa. 21 (29m 17s): I go to church with my grandma, Tracy. Here's some, here's some jokes for, for Sunday sermon. So I'm going to be using some of Tess's jokes. And if Tesla's here as promised, I do have a $5 bill for her. Sometimes you just gotta pay for resource. You know, you've got to pay for resources. So I'm willing to do that. If you're, you know, you know, under 18, if you're over 18, then you just got to get them to me free. And, and that that's all right too. So we're taking, we're done with Hebrews. And so we were going to start a new series today in James, but it seemed more, more appropriate to start that James series in our new worship center. 21 (30m 2s): So interesting story in 2002, before we planted this church, we were in prayer about what to do with our lives as a family. Cause we just wrapped up a tenure stint at another church. And so we were just prayerful about what Lord wanted us to do. So we, we were just having a small Bible study in a friend's home and, and as a precursor to planning this church, I was teaching through the book of James. And so it's really interesting that, and I've taught through James since then as well, but it'll be really interesting to and fund as we kind of experienced maybe a little bit of a rebirth in our new space to teach through James again. 21 (30m 44s): So I'll touch on it a little bit today, but mostly we'll get going on that in the next week or two. And so it'll be really, really fun, but they were in Matthew chapter seven and we'll be looking at some passages. They're just kind of a topical message we're teaching through the scripture there, but title of the message today, the making of a true disciple of Christ, kind of on the heels of what we learned last week and really all through our Hebrews study and really kind of in preparation for James, James is going to get our attention and it will challenge us in ways that maybe we've not been challenged in a long way. 21 (31m 29s): So get ready for that. I would encourage you is five chapters. I would encourage you to read ahead. And you just, as a primer for the study, just read through all the five chapters. It won't take you very long. You can get it done and you know, 30 or 40 minutes, but read through that. And, but before we go there, let's say this, let's do this. What did the horse, why did the horse cross to the cross? The street? I'm trying to remember. I'm trying to read the writing, pour a little test. Your, what did, why did the CRA horse cross the street To visit his neighbor? 21 (32m 12s): Here we go. Jim said, I want to build a gigantic boat, but I'll need some help. Bob said, well, I just happened to know a guy. I love kids jokes. I've got more. I'm going to save them for next family Sunday. And if I use them again, if I use her jokes against you, you get five bucks next family, Sunday as well. So the making of a true disciple of Christ, what does a disciple? What, before we kind of get into this topic, it's helpful for us to understand what a disciple is. It's kind of old language. 21 (32m 52s): We don't use it in our culture per se. We're not Jewish. So we don't fully understand some of us are Jewish, but we don't fully understand discipleship and what that terminology is and what that means for us as Gentiles. But Jesus said, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit. So what is he asking us to do? What is a disciple of Christ? A disciple is literally a learner. Someone who follows the teachings of another saved or unsaved, we are all disciples of someone. 21 (33m 33s): So we're all learning. And in that respect, emulating, copying the behavior of others around us, whether it's celebrities or, or sports stars or teachers, or just people that we admire or respect, we're emulating, we're copying the behavior. We're learning from others and then imitating their lives. When we give our lives to Jesus, we become Christians term really is little Christs. We often talk about being Jesus with skin on meaning we're to represent him in the flesh in this world, in our culture and our lives were to represent Jesus, the Christ. 21 (34m 16s): We, this is the transition that takes place when it would be when we become born again, we literally are born a new we've got new purpose, new life, new focus, and a new power to do what God has called us to do. So when we give our lives to Jesus, we become Christians, little Christs to denounce the teachings of this fallen world system and adhere to the instructions found in the Bible. So it's a total transition that takes place. That's meant to take place. When we give our lives to Jesus, our, our lives are meant to be focused completely on something different disciples or followers of Jesus who learned from him, how to live and love and lead others to him. 21 (35m 3s): So when we're called to be disciples, we're actually called to go out and help others to follow Jesus. They are imitators of their teacher, mimickers of their master, the Lord Jesus Christ, Easton, Bible dictionary, Easton's Bible dictionary defines a disciple of Christ as one who believes his doctrine. So as we come to faith in Jesus, we declare that we actually believe what he taught. We believe his doctrine. We rest on his sacrifice. We fully trust that the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross at Calvary is it was, it is. 21 (35m 48s): And it will always be absolutely sufficient. So we, we rest on his sacrifice. Eastern goes on to say that person imbibes his spirit. We don't use that word. Imbibes very much, but it means to drink or to absorb. So we're to drink in or absorb the spirits of the living. God, we're promised that when we come to faith, that we are filled with the spirit of the living God. And then that spirit is in us to convict us of righteousness, to teach us, to instruct us, to comfort us. The spirit is the comforter and the convictor. 21 (36m 29s): He's the one who is within us, constantly in us. And we're to drink him into soak, absorb the spirit of the living. God, Ephesians five talks about continually being filled with the holy spirit of God. So we have this responsibility to continually invite God in. So we're saying spirit filming, overwhelming. I want to drink you in. I want to absorb you and your life. And then we're to imitate his example. So as, as disciples, we're to imitate Christ's example in John 8 31, the king James version, it's not on the screen, but it says, this then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on him. 21 (37m 12s): If you continue in my word, then are ye my disciples in deed. So there's a way to determine whether or not we are disciples. If we continue in his word and understanding and applying and obedience to his word, then indeed we are his disciples. So we need to examine our lives and evaluate our lives all the time. And I love to do that. As I open up the scripture every day, I say, okay, Lord is my life in alignment with your word? And what I'm reading is it, does it reflect who I am? I want to be a proper disciple, a follower. 21 (37m 52s): And once you mimic who you are and what your word says, the disciple of Christ is not simply a believer in Jesus, but one who actually obeys what Jesus says, disciples embody the message. James can Fe conveys to the elders of the, of the church there. He said, be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves, sorta be hearers and doers, be doers of the word. So we hear it. And we could argue that we're not actually hearing if we're not actually doing so, we can hear something go in one ear and out the other. 21 (38m 38s): But we demonstrate that we've heard when we do what God has asked us to do. So be doers of the word, not hearers, only deceiving your own selves, James 1 22. So let's get into our text here in Matthew, chapter seven, verses 21 through 29, Jesus said in the sermon on the Mount here, he said, not everyone who calls out to me, Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only those who actually do. And here it is, again, only those who actually do the will of my father in heaven will enter that. Interesting. Let me read it again. Not everyone who calls out to me, Lord, Lord will actually enter the kingdom of heaven. 21 (39m 19s): Only those who actually do the will of my father in heaven will enter. So number one, in your notes, true disciples of Christ. Do the will of the father. It's it's it's in the definition of what a disciple is that we are actually to do the will of the father, Matthew 7 22 on judgment day. And we talk about this a lot. When we will stand before the Lord and give an account for our lives. Jesus talks about this in Matthew 7 22 on judgment day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name, but I will reply. 21 (40m 8s): I never knew you get away from me. You who break God's laws. None of us want to be in that position. We want to hear well done, enter into your rest. This is what we want to hear when we stand before Jesus, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your rest. We will do that as we've trusted Jesus for our salvation. And as we become genuine disciples of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So it's separates in a sense, the sheep from the goats, from those who declare but live differently from those who are lukewarm or just playing the Christian game. 21 (40m 54s): I played that for a number of years, got saved, I guess, in junior high school. But then I kind of, I've shared this story before, but I I've asked slated and I didn't really know what to do with my faith. And so by junior year of high school, I was still doing the same thing. And one day I felt like the Lord drew a line in the sand and said, you have to choose, will you choose me or the world? And it was like, the Lord was saying, you can no longer live your life this way. You have to choose. And by God's grace, I chose to follow him. Not perfectly, none of us do it perfectly, but that was the decision. And so maybe you're here today and you're at that same crossroads where you're saying, I just, I am done teetering and having a foot in the church and a foot in the world I'm done with being confused about who I am and about what God has called me to do. 21 (41m 50s): And I just know that I need to follow Jesus. How would encourage you to choose Jesus today? You become a disciple. Maybe you're struggling and vacillating and feeling lukewarm because you've given your life to Jesus, but you haven't understood what God is actually calling you into. He's calling you into a new life of servitude. I've following him. Jesus said to his disciples, come follow me. I'll make you fishers of men. Leave, leave all of that previous life behind and come and focus on something completely different. I never knew you. It speaks to the desire that Jesus has to have an intimate connection, knowledge and knowledge of his followers in an intimate relationship with us in all of our brokenness, his grace is sufficient and he calls us into intimacy with him. 21 (42m 44s): I never knew you get away from me. You who break God's slob, breaking God's law is actually the opposite of true discipleship. If we follow Jesus example, we will do what the father calls us to do. We will obey the laws of God and John five 19. So Jesus explained, I tell you the truth. The son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the father doing whatever the father does. The son also does. So he's establishing who he is. 21 (43m 26s): I am the son of the father, and I will only do what I see the father doing. I will only say what I hear the father saying. I'm so intimately connected to God's plan and purpose for my life. I will emulate and follow him. And I will only do those things that I see him doing. George Mueller wrote. There was a day when I died, died to self my opinions, preferences tastes and will died to the world it's approval, or since your died to the approval or blame even of my brethren or friends. 21 (44m 21s): And since then, I have studied only to show myself approved unto God. Mueller's speaks of living his life before an audience of one, not disregarding others' opinions, his own desires, his own plans, whatever, what others thought of him. And he said, I will do the will of the father. I have studied only to show myself approved unto God. So he's looked at the scripture and said, I'm going to do that. I he's filled with the spirit of God. And he's determined by God's grace to do the will of the father back to Matthew seven, verse 24. 21 (45m 6s): It says anyone who listens to my teachings and follows it is wise. Jesus said like a person who builds a house on a solid rock. So the person who listens to what Jesus is speaking and communicating and his word and follows it, that person is wise like a person who's building their house on solid rock. So we're all building our house on something. We're all establishing our lives on something. Jesus said the only way that you're actually going to build your lives, your house on solid rock is by listening and obeying everything else is like building your house on the sand. 21 (45m 49s): You know what happens when the St you build your house on the sand, the waters come and erodes the sand. There's no solid or permanence about that. There's nothing solid or permanent about them. The foundation of sand is shifting constantly. And so it's constantly moving. You can't build your life on something that is that unstable. Anyone who listens to my teachings and follows it is wise like a person who builds a house on solid rock. So what's the foundation of your life and of your spiritual house. What is the foundation of your spiritual life? What are you building your life upon? God calls us to build. 21 (46m 29s): And we obviously play a part in this. We build on a solid foundation by listening and obeying by hearing what Jesus has called us to do, and then just doing it. I tell you, it makes life a lot simpler. If we're not wrestling all of the time with what God says, if we're not constantly evaluating and deciding, am I going to do, am I going to do the will of the Lord in this area of my life or in this area of my life or in this area of my life? If the answer is always yes, Lord, that it just simplifies life. And it, it clarifies the life and it, and it makes life so much easier to live because we know that we're just going to do the will of the father. 21 (47m 11s): And so when we are confused about the will of the father, God's been so gracious to give us these 66 books of the Bible, 39 old Testament books, 27 new Testament books, books that communicate the heart and the mind of God so that we know what we are to anyone who listens to my teachings and follows it is wise like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Number one, true disciples of Christ. Do the will of the father. Number two, true disciples of Christ are able to endure storms. Well, their foundation is solid rock, right? 21 (47m 55s): Solid rock. They're able to endure storms because their foundation is firm. It's not shifting. It's not questionable. It's, it's filled with integrity because God's word is filled with integrity. And it strengthens the, and builds into the foundation of our life. Something of strengthened and something that will not shift. Sure. Disciples of Christ are able to endure storms. I've watched it over and over again in the church. People who are solid in their faith, things come difficult, things come, and they just endure year after year, decade after decade, a friend of mine, Benny Katz, who I've known for a better part of 30, 40 years, he's home taking care of his wife. 21 (48m 42s): They've been coming to this church for years and Ethel's got hip issues and she can't walk very well. And so, but they're watching, they're probably tuned in right now watching, Hey, Benny, Hey Ethel. So we, we go back decades. And when Benny came to church to visit, I don't know, probably six weeks ago, man, there was just something about his countenance and his character. I just w I had to pray with him. You know, I just wanted some of that to rub off on me. And so we do the parking lot by his car, and we just prayed together. And man, I tell you the anointing of God, the power of God on that guy's life, the presence of God on that guy's life had carried me the rest of the day. 21 (49m 31s): I was just, I came into the office. I'm like, I just pray with Benny man. It was just the greatest thing. It was just the most powerful thing. And so there's something about godly people who carry godly character and intentionality, they're determined to do the will of the father. And they endure storms, physical storms, financial storms, relational storms, whatever they may be. They just endure. And they continue. We a year after year, decade after decade to stay focused on Jesus. I, I think about men like that, women like that who have invested their whole lives to follow Jesus and they carry something. They may, they carry something that's, that's attractive and contagious and strong and wonderful and something that we all absolutely can learn from. 21 (50m 22s): True disciples of Christ are able to endure storms. Why, why do they endure again? Because they build their lives on a solid foundation of hearing God and responding with obedience to God. So it's not like I'm reading the word and I'm deciding, am I going to do this? Now you read the word and you say, oh, I'm not doing this. I'm going to do this. It's not optional. Right? It's like, I'm just going to align my life with Jesus and his word. They have built their lives on a solid foundation of hearing God and responding in first, John two, three through six says this, and we can be sure that we know him. 21 (51m 5s): If we obey his commandments, if someone claims, I know God, but doesn't obey. God's commandments. That person is a liar. It is not living in the truth. But those who obey God's word surely show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. So John, the apostle wrote this brief book first, John second, John third, John revelation. 21 (51m 47s): So they tried to kill John because they didn't like his message. He didn't like what he stood for. So they try to kill him. What do they do? They boil him in oil. Hm. He survives. If God's not done with you, they cannot kill you. And so they can't, they don't know what to do with John. So they exile him to an island and he endures hardship as a faithful faithful man of God. And while he's on that island and angel, the Lord appears to him and speaks to him, gives him the book of the revelation. 21 (52m 34s): So he's exiled, but he's a man of integrity. He's able to endure hardship. And in the midst of hardship, do incredible and wonderful things for God, because he's just figured out how to endure because he's a disciple, a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Those who say they live in God shall live their lives. As Jesus did, Jesus was faithful and was able to endure the storms of life. And his 33 years of life endured, obviously the last three years, especially he endured some hardship. 21 (53m 18s): If he was faithful and enabled and able to endure the storm storms of rejection, maybe you can identify with some of these storms, storms of rejection storms of Tim Taishan says he was tempted in every way, but without sin, he endured the storm of temptation storms of ridicule, storms of false accusations, storms of abandonment, storms of pain and humiliation. 21 (54m 0s): Finally, the storm of death, he went to death as a faithful, as a faithful servant of God. He on the cross, he's told one of the thieves hanging next to him today, you will be with me in paradise. He was always about the father's business because no matter what was thrown at him, he was able to endure because his life was built on a solid foundation. So no matter what is being thrown at us, we have a responsibility and opportunity, a even an obligation to make sure that God is glorified in the midst of the storm. 21 (54m 42s): If we can only glorify God when things are good, are we really his disciples that we really built on a solid foundation? If, if our good works are the fruit of our life is only dependent on the good things that are happening in our lives. And we're, we're not really demonstrating a solid foundation. We're demonstrating that anybody can do good when things are good. What do we do when things are bad? When really things are really bad, we endure because of the solid foundation. If we haven't been able to endure, we need to go back and look at our foundation. What is the foundation of our lives? Is it Jesus, his word? Is it obedience to Jesus? 21 (55m 22s): And to his word, Jesus was faithful and was able to endure the storms because he was here to do the will of his father. He was here to do the will of his father. Maybe we're not here to do the will of our father. And so our ability to endure during the storms is questionable. But if we understand what our purpose in life is, as believers in Jesus Christ, then we are here to do the will of the father. And to only do the will of the father. Now God blesses us with the ability to do other wonderful things, but foundationally speaking, our role as believers in the Lord, Jesus Christ as disciples, is to make disciples, to make sure that our lives reflect that priority in every arena of our lives, that we are building a solid foundation of understanding that we are here as God's kids with God's purpose, with God's understanding and power to do the things that he's called us to do. 21 (56m 30s): So we have to figure out how to endure. The only way we can endure is by having a solid foundation. The only way we can have a solid foundation is by just constantly being in the word of God, by constantly praying. So we pray without ceasing. I don't know if you've tried that lately, but it's really powerful. It's like, really? Life-giving, it's really good. It's just, you're just walking around whatever you're doing, you're driving your work. And you're just praying, always inviting God in always asking for the power of the holy spirit in your lives, always seeking the wisdom of God, availing yourself to the word of God so that you can do the will of God. This is just what God has called us to. He's called us to be in constant communion, intimacy with him, availing ourselves to his plans and his purposes. 21 (57m 12s): No matter what, if we do that, we will endure the storms back to Matthew seven, verse 25, though, the rain comes and the rain always comes. If you're not in a rain storm right now, you will be soon. It just always comes as part of the fallen nature of the sin sick world that we live in, though, the rain comes and torrents and the flood waters rise and the winds beat against that house. It won't collapse because it is built on bedrock. It's built on bedrock, Matthew 7, 26, but anyone who hears my teachings and doesn't obeyed is foolish. 21 (57m 57s): Like a person who builds a house on sand. We watched these old repair shows. And last night we were watching shows about these old a hundred year old houses that you know, all over the country and people are wanting to restore these old houses. You know, these houses have survived the, the, the decades and even more than a century because they built, been built on a solid foundation. There there's something of stability and strength in the foundation of these houses that allow them to stand after a hundred or 200 years. And these people are able to come through and refurbish and rebuild and fix so that they last another hundred or 200 years. 21 (58m 44s): There's something about the stability of a good foundation that each of us need. And when we don't have it, we're always vacillating. We're always confused. We're always lukewarm or always half in and half out. We're always just marginal in what we believe in. And our convictions are marginal and our obedience is marginal and it's dependent on what's going on externally instead of the decision that says, no matter what's going on externally, I'm just going to make Jesus my priority. I'm going to be obedient to his word. This is what Jesus has called us to when the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, the house built on Santa will collapse with a mighty crash. 21 (59m 26s): We don't want that because storms are promised in this Christian life storms are promise. We will experience storms. And so we might as well get ready by building our foundation on bedrock on solid stone. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowd were amazed at his teachings. People were always amazed at what Jesus said, because he spoke. He spoke with such wisdom when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teachings for, he taught with real authority, quite unlike their teachers of religious law. 21 (1h 0m 11s): Why did Jesus speak with authority? Because he knew what his purpose in the earth was, what he was called to do. His mission was to make disciples to die for the sins of the world. Go to be with the father and forever, make intercession for the saints. Number one, shoe disciples of Christ. Do the will of the father. Number two, true disciples of Christ are able to endure storms and number three, true disciples of Christ submit to God's authority. We cannot be true disciples of Christ. If we're not willing to submit our lives to God's authority, what does submitting to someone's authority look like? 21 (1h 0m 59s): Let's take a look at Roman Matthew eight, the faith of a Roman officer. You probably read this story before Matthew eight, five through 10, when Jesus returned to Capernaum, may Roman officer came and pleaded with him. Lord, my, my young servant lies in bed paralyzed and in terrible pain, Jesus said, I will come and heal him. But the officers said, Lord, I'm not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are. And my servant will be healed. I know this because I under the authority of my superior officers and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need you say, go. And they go or come. 21 (1h 1m 40s): And they come in. If I say to my slaves, do this, they do it. This Roman soldier understood something of about authority. And Jesus said, Matthew, eight, 10. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him. He said, I tell you the truth. I haven't seen faith like this in all of Israel and all Israel. When, when God is our authority, when God is your authority, he oversees every arena and area of our, he is our authority. 21 (1h 2m 23s): His plan is what we follow is just he's our authority. So we follow his plan. His purpose is now our chief purpose. The word slave do loss in the Greek is the, in this verse is the word the apostles use for themselves that the apostles understood that they were slaves of God. They were bond servants of God. They were do loss. They were slaves. And so, because they understood their place, they had no problem doing the will of God. Sometimes we forget who we are. We are sons and daughters, but we're also bond servants. 21 (1h 3m 4s): We have decided to come under the authority of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We have that responsibility, that calling to be not just sons and daughters, but slaves of God to do loss is a slave of God. If you don't want to be God's slave, you have signed up for the wrong God, because old Testament, new Testament, this is the message that we are called to be servants. I do loss of God, Romans one, one. This letter is from Paul, a slave. 21 (1h 3m 47s): I do loss, a slave of the Lord, Jesus Christ, James. One, one. This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord, Jesus Christ, Paul and James. They understood their role, their purpose. And it wasn't a, it wasn't even like a demeaning thing. It was like a life giving thing. Like I've got purpose. I'm here to serve the king. I know what my life is about. I'm not confused about my purpose and my calling. I know who I am and to whom I belong. And so I will serve Jesus with joy and with peace and with gratitude and appreciation. There's nothing oppressive about it. It's life-giving and good. What's oppressive is when we're trying to balance our affairs with God's affairs. 21 (1h 4m 32s): And we're trying to figure out who it is that we're serving Paul and James and Peter. Second Peter, one, one, this letter is from Simon Peter's slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, Jude Jude. One, one. This letter is from Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James and revelation. One, one, John writes, this is a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants. His do loss, the, the events that must soon take place. So John understood. 21 (1h 5m 13s): He was writing to the church, the people of God who are the servants of God, the do loss of God. We are bond servants. We have decided. And if we haven't decided to be the bond servants, the due loss of God, then we haven't decided to follow Jesus. That's the reality. If we haven't decided to be a servant of God, then we haven't decided to serve Jesus where to do what Jesus did. You just said, I didn't come to serve or to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. So do we understand the authority of Jesus in our lives? Do we submit to his authority in our lives? 21 (1h 5m 55s): And if not, where in our lives are we not submitted to the authority of God? And what are we going to do about that? We will constantly be made aware of the areas where we're not submitted to his authority. And the answer is, yes, Lord. I want to submit, I want to align. I want to fix repent of and follow you Lord. There was a blind spot in my life, in my understanding, in my experience and Lord, I am seeing clearly now that you would have me to be a servant, and that means every arena of my life. It's all under your authority. Lord, I submit to you in all things, whereas Jesus authority not recognized in our lives. 21 (1h 6m 40s): What are we doing about that? We can't really see clearly on this. We just open up the word all the time and avail ourselves to the truth of God's word. Be students of the Bible and that you can't call yourself a student. If you're just showing up here and listening to me, teach or going to a Bible study where somebody else is teaching or where you're tuned into a podcast or to a radio station or to a TV station to let somebody else teach you. You're a student of God's word. When you open up the word yourself, when you decide I'm going to learn the Bible, I'm going to figure out what God has communicated through the pages of scripture. 21 (1h 7m 24s): And I'm going to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. So you just have to open up the scripture and just see what God will say. Maybe you're not a very good reader. I tell you you'll become a great reader. If you just commit yourself to reading the scripture, maybe you don't know how to read it all, just get Bible on tape or whatever it is. There's plenty of that. Just figure out how to get that word in your soul and your heart. And in your mind, are we disciples of Christ or do we just go to church? Are we disciples of Christ or would he just kind of keep Christ marginalized in our lives? 21 (1h 8m 6s): The making of a true disciple of Christ, true disciples of Christ, do the will of the father. So we ask ourselves this question, am I a disciple? We all need to ask ourselves this question. Am I disciple? Do I follow? Do I do the will of the father? Am I able to endure storms? Because my life is built on a solid foundation or my wishy-washy and lukewarm and tossed to and fro constantly confused, disappointed, frustrated in sin, doing the wrong stuff because my life is built on sand. Only. You can answer that question. Sure. Disciples of Christ are able to endure storms. Number three, true disciples of Christ submit to God's authority are we submitted? 21 (1h 8m 51s): And if not, let's get submitted, we're gonna take communion. And so hopefully everybody received their elements. I'm going to be reading out of first Corinthians 11. So listen, communion is a celebration of the cross and what Jesus accomplished on the cross 2000 years ago, Jesus died on the cross for your sins and for my sin. So we celebrate communion. We break bread as it were. We drink juice. We do this in remembrance of Jesus. So if you are a disciple of the Lord, Jesus Christ take communion today. 21 (1h 9m 33s): If you are not, please don't take communion today. Communion is for believers, disciples of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so maybe it's a moment for people in the room who have figured out. I'm not really a disciple, but Lord, I want it to be a disciple. So maybe this is your prayer. As we bow our heads, Lord, I, I haven't been a very good disciple. I, your, your word, the teaching this morning is, has helped me to see that I've been about my own agenda. 21 (1h 10m 15s): Fill with my own desires, following my own lead and doing the stuff that I shouldn't be doing. I, I haven't been submitted to your authority. I have I'm wishy-washy I, I, the storms blow me around. I'm not really doing what you've asked me to do Lord. So God, I repent. I I'm changing my mind about how I'm living. God. I give my life to you. I want to do this. I want it to be a disciple, a true disciple of yours, Lord God. So if that's your prayer today, maybe you've prayed that prayer for the first time. Maybe you've prayed for a thousands of time. God hears the humble, broken and contracts. 21 (1h 10m 58s): Prayers of people. He, he hears in his heart is to help you to do what you're created to do and belonging to do as a result of his, this understanding of what it means to be a disciple. So have you here today and you are a disciple of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Let's go ahead and take communion. Paul wrote in first Corinthians for I pass onto you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which has given for you. 21 (1h 11m 39s): Do this to remember me. Let's take the wafer. Thank you though. You allowed yourself to be beaten, crucified pierced, Because I am a sinner in need of redemption. Thank you for the redemptive work on the cross. 21 (1h 12m 21s): Thank you Lord. In the same way, verse 25, he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Let's take the cup. 21 (1h 13m 1s): Thank you, Lord. For the juice that represents the blood, that was spilled because I'm a sinner because I need your forgiveness. Yeah, we are centers. We have missed the mark. The Bible says there's none righteous. No, not one. So Lord, thank you that on the cross, Because of the cross, because Of your body and blood, God, you've imputed righteousness to us. 21 (1h 13m 46s): Our sin was imputed to you and your righteousness has been imputed to us. That means we have become the righteousness of God and Christ Jesus. When we are covered by your blood and filled with your spirit and adopted into your family and called servants of the living. God. So thank you, Lord God, that you've imputed your righteousness to me and to those who have come under your authority and Lordship and leadership. So Lord we say, thank you. We honor you today. We bless you today. We're so humbled by your presence and your grace and your love. Florida's we get ready to worship, pray God that you would just be glorified by our hearts. 21 (1h 14m 27s): Lord, let us worship in spirit and in truth. And then as we go over to the open house, the new worship center, I pray that it would be a time of celebration and just thankfulness Lord. So thank you for who you are. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's go ahead and stand and we will worship some more. 25 (1h 15m 10s): Speed. speed. To speak the name of Jesus, Dark addictions Declaring there is hope and there is free speech. 17 (1h 16m 2s): Your name is Your name is your name. 17 (1h 17m 30s): shine through this Jesus. Jesus for my family. High speed the whole day. 25 (1h 19m 30s): In the name of Jesus. We have hope we have peace. We have love, we have power. We have authority. And I just pray that we would just go this week with the name of Jesus. Ready on our lips. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Holy spirit for your sweet presence here this morning In Jesus name. Amen.

1 (2s): Good morning. Welcome to church. Will you stand as we worship this morning, it's good to be in the house of the Lord this morning. Would you raise your faith? Would you lift your voice as be safe? we thank you for your presence. 2 (4m 24s): All right. Hey church. How's it going this morning? All right. Awesome. Awesome. That's great to see all, all of your faces here. Love you guys, and just got a couple of announcements for ya. My name's Curtis, by the way, so glad to have you here. If you need anything at all, the info center is the spot for you. So it's just up the driveway. Go check that out. If you want to sign up for anything again, more connected. Otherwise we do have a quick parking update that next door we've had some parking issues with other businesses and stuff. So just know that if you're parking behind these businesses over here, you can only park in the something different or the Anderson Burton spots. 2 (5m 7s): All the other ones are our businesses are using the on Sunday mornings. And we just want to be conscious of that. In addition to that, we've got right now media, we subscribe to it as a church for each and every person who wants to, to watch the videos and grow in their faith and their amazing discipleship videos, or just learning platform for anything that you can imagine in our Christian walk. So if you'd like to get connected with that, you can sign up on our website, just fill out a connect form and give us your email and just let us know that you want to sign up for that. Or you can stop by the info center. So with that, let's pray and we'll get back into worship. 2 (5m 47s): Jesus. We love you. We're so grateful for the opportunity to worship you this morning. We just pray that that your holy spirit would penetrate each heart. That's here in any building and every space that the people of the Lord are captured on this campus. Jesus, we just pray that that your word would penetrate through bone and marrow and Jesus that we would just focus on you wholeheartedly this morning. So God, we love you so much and we love worshiping you Jesus' name. Amen. 0 (6m 29s): The word . Now what a beautiful name. 0 (7m 16s): nothing. 0 (8m 12s): with my 4 (15m 32s): Lord. Thank you. 0 (15m 34s): God, 4 (15m 39s): God, that our praise would be fit for a king in Jesus name, God that our lives, The content of our lives, God, that there would be fit for a king Lord, that there would be God that our lives would speak of our adoration. Speak of our Love for you and our commitment to you. God, that we would be anxious To fall in line with your plans and purposes for our lives. 4 (16m 21s): Lord God, to say yes to you, Lord God that we'd be hungry For your will and for your word, Lord God, that we would, that we would long for your presence. God, not just on Sunday morning and when we gathered corporately, but God that we would long for your presence every day, Lord, every moment of the day, God, that we'd pray without ceasing Constantly in your presence Constantly checked in with you and looking for your leadership and your wisdom and your counsel. God, that would be we'd be filled with the peace of God and the joy of God that we'd be hungry, hungry for the things of God. 4 (17m 8s): So Lord, as we gathered today, We thank you Lord, that we have this freedom and this opportunity and this privilege to gather as the church and Lord for everybody gathered here on this campus or for those watching online Lord, I pray that you would reveal yourself and just tangible and powerful and profound ways. Lord God, for those who have been distant from you, I pray that you would reveal yourself to them, your plans, your purpose, your grace, your love, Lord God, that we're where we need to be challenged in our souls and our lives. 4 (17m 50s): Lord, we just avail ourselves to you. God, we say convict challenge, speak, teach lead guide, Phyllis, Lord God, to overflowing. I got to help our lives or every part of us Lord, to just align with your plans and purposes. God. So do you do something supernatural in us that maybe, maybe we've been trying to break get breakthrough in the natural in the flesh. Maybe we've been trying to get a victory over addictions or a bitch will sins. Lord, I pray God that supernatural, you would just do a work Lord God. And that the desire for those things would just be gone because of the work that you're doing in us. 4 (18m 37s): And because of the love that we have for you, God, that love would overshadow and make our love for those other things seem like hatred that we, we, we would just love you so much that those things would seem like what? How could we ever be distracted by those things, Lord God. So Lord do what you want to do today. Lord, I'm convinced that you're up to something good and powerful. And so your will be done. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Greet somebody. We'll come on back in a minute. 0 (20m 32s): Jesus Cruz. 4 (21m 60s): Alrighty, come on back. Let me fix this really quick. Something happened there. Thank you. Oh, welcome. How is everyone doing? Good. Good. I've got to figure out what to do with this bottle here. I need like a little cup holder or something, I guess. Ah, man, it's been a, it's been a good week. I had most of the last like week off or so. And man, it was really, really refreshing in some ways, in some ways it was just a challenge, but we're getting ready to go on this. 4 (22m 44s): I don't know why I want to talk about this backpacking trip, but we're getting ready to my son and my son-in-law. We're getting ready to go on this backpacking trip. And so I spent most of the day yesterday kind of getting my backpack ready to go for my birthday in April. I got this really light backpack. Remember the first time we went backpacking, I carried like 50 pounds. I'm like, this is net you can't backpack with. I mean, I can I, so the next time it was down to like 40 pounds and then 35 and yesterday I packed everything in there except some water and a couple other little things. And I'm at 20, just under 25 pounds. So I'm getting, getting there and it got me thinking about life a little bit and just wondering, what are we packing around? 4 (23m 26s): You know, how much do we pack around in our lives? It just kind of weigh us down and wear us out and make really the journey. So, so much more difficult because we're just loaded down with stuff. And I feel like, I feel like in our culture, we're loaded down with all kinds of stuff, just culturally speaking. And then life, life is challenging for so many people. Life is glorious for others and, but there's just, there's just heaviness that we carry. So my prayer for us as a church is that we would leave all of those heavy, heavy burdens just at the foot of the cross, know that we would just offload those things. 4 (24m 16s): And the, the result of that is just a greater capacity to, to, to do what God has asked us to do. It's it's a greater joy. I don't know when you're, when you're carrying around all this stuff, it's hard to have the joy of the Lord and the peace of God. You just feel this burden all of the time. So my prayer is that we would live in such a way that we would recognize when we're starting to get weighed down and burdened down and just get that stuff dealt with, confess the sin, whatever it is, deal with that heaviness that burden the enemy is always trying to heap condemnation on us. 4 (24m 59s): I woke up a couple of days ago what's today, Sunday. So I woke up on Friday and I was just feeling kind of out of sorts with the Lord. I said, Lord, I didn't, it took me like 24 hours to figure out to, to pray, you know, cause I'm just trying to figure it out, you know? And, and then sad, I think it was yesterday, maybe it was Thursday or Friday. I don't know whenever it was, but I I'm like Lord, I finally just awaken to the reality that God is, God, God can do something about this. You know, sometimes we live our lives and we forget that actually God's got the power to lift burdens and speak clarity and give us victory over things. And so I said, Lord, I don't know what I'm sensing. 4 (25m 41s): I'm trying to figure it out. If I've, you know, whatever I said, Lord, if this is from you, then show me if it's not, then just let it get away. You know, just, I rebuke it in Jesus' name and just immediately was gone. And I don't know how many times I've done that throughout the course of my life, but it's enough. And I was surprised that it took me like 24 hours to figure out, Hey, I just need to go to the Lord with this. So encouragement to you, to us, to always just, just be going to the Lord, praying without ceasing and just watch it with the Lord will do. We're talking about practical faith living today. 4 (26m 21s): The, the faith life is, is supernatural, but it's also very practical and we do the practical things that God calls us to do as he empowers us supernaturally through his word and through his spirit. And we actually can't do the practical things that he called us to do without the power of God at work in our lives. We just can't do it. We can muster it for a day or a moment, but we can't do it regularly and throughout the course of our lives. So that those practical faith things that we're talking about, mark our life and we're identified, we've known, we're known for those things. We can't muster it. And really why would we want to win the power of God to give us the grace to do what he's asked us to do is so present and available to us. 4 (27m 11s): We just have this power that is supernatural and wonderful. So we've talked and as we kind of looked at Hebrews chapter 13 and week one, practical faith living, we talked about loving each other and more specifically loving strangers, loving the forgotten, loving our spouse. And in all of that, we said, love all of these things, but don't love. Don't love money. Don't love money. Don't live in fear and, and then love your leaders was the seventh point there. And then week two, two weeks ago, more practical faith living. We said, keep focused on the changeless perfection of Jesus. 4 (27m 55s): And we said, live boldly and be willing to look the fool for Jesus. And then number three, we said, demonstrate faithful allegiance to Jesus. And this week as we look at the end of Hebrews chapter 13, and I know Ron preached the end of the same passage last week, but I, as I was trying to figure out where to go, I was going to be going into James. And I just kind of felt drawn back to Hebrews chapter 13, to wrap it up. He, Ron did a phenomenal job. I think he talked about me way too much last week, but, but he did a phenomenal job teaching through the last part of Hebrews chapter 13. And I was super honored by the way he taught that and what he communicated. 4 (28m 39s): But I, I want to go back and just kind of relook at it, not to correct anything that he said, but just to look at it from a different angle. So this will be Hebrews chapter 13, verses 17 through 25. Again, I promise you, Ron did a better job than I will ever do with this passage, but I'm going to give him my best shot here. So this week, even more practical faith living and we see in Ron talked about spiritual leaders last week, but number one, support your spiritual leaders. And so Ron talked about me a lot last week and I'm so blessed and honored that he did. And I was embarrassed as I was watching it at home, the first service last week. And Ron and I had been working together for 14 years and we've known each other for longer than that. 4 (29m 23s): And for him to say what he said was very, very, very humbling. And I appreciate it. So we'll talk about supporting your spiritual leaders today. What does that look like as we get into Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17, the word says this obey Hebrews 13, 17, the first part there says obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say again. So Ron said is probably more appropriate for him to speak that truth. And for me to speak that truth, but I want to broaden that a little bit and broaden the, the thought of spiritual leadership. Just just a little bit, but, but first of all, Hebrews 13, 17, obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say. 4 (30m 8s): Why, why does the writer of Hebrews challenges readers to do this while their work, the verse says is to your spiritual leaders, their work is to watch over your souls. And they are accountable to God who as a big deal, right? I mean like our work as spiritual leaders is to watch over your souls and we are accountable to God. So who, who is the spiritual leader? Well, obviously pastors and elders, they're spiritual leaders, but beyond pastors and elders, we have other spiritual leaders in our lives. 4 (30m 59s): I, I didn't have this in my notes until this morning, but I like to read Ephesians five 15 through 33 because it broadens for us. This thought about spiritual leaders. I think the most, probably some of the most important spiritual leadership is, is in the home. We relegate spiritual leadership to people who are in spiritual leadership at church and that sort of thing. And that's all very good and appropriate, but, but the best opportunity to be spiritual leaders that we have is with our family, with our kids and with our grandkids. 4 (31m 40s): And so Hebrews chapter or Ephesians chapter five talks about the responsibility of especially dads, fathers, dads have a significant and, and a much more, much more opportunity than like pastors or elders. Cause you guys, you live with your kids. For those of you who have young kids. And for those of you have older kids, you, you have lifelong access. Like I've had lots of pastors in my life and I've got relationships with most of them still, but they don't speak into my life like they once did. But as a dad with my four kids, I ever raised four kids, two are, men are in the thirties already. 4 (32m 25s): So, and then I got grandkids. So my spiritual responsibility as a father continues and will continue all the days of my life. We've got that spiritual responsibility. And so it starts when the kids are young, but it continues. And so I, I just want to challenge us with Ephesians chapter five, verses 15 through 33. I'm just gonna read about half the chapter and it's not on the screen cause I just added it this morning, but I think it's pertinent. I think it's important. I think it's powerful for, for, for our understanding that we, that we hear this and that we apply it to our lives. 4 (33m 6s): It's just so it says, so be careful how you live. We could preach a whole sermon series on that one little line, be, be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. So don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life instead, be filled with the holy spirit, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves and making music to the Lord in your hearts, that powerful making music to the Lord in your hearts. 4 (34m 1s): So there's something very personal and internal. It, it's not just about what comes out of our mouth, but it's about what comes out of our hearts. We, we have this responsibility to worship the Lord from our heart and that's from a place of sincerity and honesty. And it's, it's, it's really the deepest place in our lives. And this is the place that we're meant to worship the Lord from and give thanks for everything to God, the father in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. And then we get into verse 21. 4 (34m 41s): It says and further submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. What does this mean? Husbands and wives for wives. This means submit to your husbands as to the Lord for a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He's the savior of his body. The church has the church submits to Christ. So you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. So that's a heavy statement for men, for husbands and for wives for husbands be because you've got to live. We, we have to live in such a way that we have the ability to lead spiritually in our homes. 4 (35m 22s): I mean, this is what Paul is telling us as men, that we are the spiritual leaders of our homes. And that, that means we as men are going to stand before the Lord and give an account to God, the way that we've spiritually led in our homes. So how, how are we doing in that regard? Now I know there are women here who don't have husbands who are men of God and, and the scripture teach, teach, you know, speaks to that. And in some cases, women, by default, they just have to be the spiritual leader because that's just the way it is. 4 (36m 5s): But man, we have this profound responsibility to be leading. And so that's a 24 7 responsibility that we will give an account to God for. We will stand before God and we will give an account for our lives. And he will look at how we've led in our homes spiritually. We, he will examine our lives and look at how we've been leading in our homes spiritually. So for husbands, what does spiritual leadership look like? 4 (36m 46s): This means love your wives. Just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean washed by the cleansing of God's word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church, without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead she will be holy and without fault in the same way. Husbands ought to love their wives. As they love their own bodies for a man who loves his wife, actually shows love for himself. And no one hates his own body, but feeds and cares for it just as Christ cares for the church. 4 (37m 28s): And we are members of his body. So a woman submitting to her husband actually is it won't be difficult when the man, when the man is loving his wife, as Christ loved the church, just the way it works. God, God has put it in the hearts of men and women to live in this way. And so man, if you're loving your wife, as Christ loved the church and serving her as Christ, serve the church and giving yourself to her as Christ gave himself to the church, your wives will have no problems submitting to you by and large. 4 (38m 13s): I mean, there's always a, you know, exceptions to the rule, but we, we have this profound opportunity to lead. I th I think about past generations, I've thought about this a lot lately, the, the impact of past generations, we are, we were watching a show last night about this ranch family. They've I don't know why this speaks to me. So, so, so much so impactfully. So, but so eight generations ago, this land was deeded or given to this family. 4 (38m 53s): Eight generations go thousands and thousands of acres in long poke in the Lompoc valley there. And eight generations later, they're still working the land and still do so. My point is that something happened generations ago. That's still blessing the families today. So I think about our opportunity and responsibility as men, men of God, to impact future generations, by the way that we live our lives today, we often think in, in terms of the here and now, but when we think about 50 years from now, if we, if we think about 10 years from now, 30 years from now, 50 years from now, a hundred years from now, how will our impact in this earth impact our family for generations to come? 4 (39m 44s): I pray almost every day that every future generation that that's coming out of me will, will serve Jesus every future. So like until Jesus returns like every future generation. And so we have this opportunity to invest in the future generations. This is more important than your job guys. It's more important than your hobbies. You're going to be on your death bed one day and you're not gonna, you're not gonna have regrets about anything other than your family. If you don't get that right, you're not going to say, oh, I wish I would have played more golf. And you've heard this before. I'm I wish I would've gotten more trips when we're on our deathbed guys, we're gonna think back missed opportunities. 4 (40m 32s): Did I take advantage of every opportunity? You, you are spiritual leaders and this is your first and foremost priority. So you can drop your kids off to Sunday school and we will do our best to partner with you. You can drop your kids off to fifth and sixth grade, high, high junior high high school. You can do it, but if you are not taking this serious responsibility of discipling your kids, there's nothing. There's not much we can do as a church. Our job is to help reinforce and partner with you to disciple the next generation. We're doing our best to make that happen, but we need to reevaluate everything. And this goes for women too. 4 (41m 12s): We met wives. We, you have a profound opportunity to disciple the next degeneration of kids and boys and girls that are coming up in your home. I, I, I don't think we talk about this enough. We get so busy in our culture. We're, we're busy taking our kids to soccer and baseball, all of these extracurricular activities. And we're barely, barely investing in them spiritually, maybe praying before meals, but are we really speaking life and truth and grace into our kids? Are we, are we like communicating hard and good trues with our kids? 4 (41m 53s): We, if we don't do it, they won't get it. And so we have this profound. So when we talk about spiritual leadership, it doesn't just fall on my shoulders. Thank God for that. It falls on all of our shoulders. And if we're not, if we're not even just talking about our kids, we're talking about other people who see us as spiritual leaders, people that are in our Bible study groups, people that are in our neighborhoods, we all have spiritual leadership responsibilities because we're all called to go and make disciples of all nations. We're all called to go and make disciples. 4 (42m 35s): Meaning we go and it's our responsibility to exercise with grace, our spiritual leadership and people's lives. And we will stand before the Lord and we will have to give an account for the way we've spent our time. What does I talked two weeks ago about our allegiance? What do we, what are we by our lives demonstrating our allegiance to, is it to the culture? To I, we could fill in the blank with a thousand distractions, A thousand distractions that are keeping us from doing the one thing that Jesus told us to do to go make disciples of all nations. 4 (43m 20s): So this begins with our kids and it continues with our grandkids and our great-grandkids. And the job is never ends until we stop breathing. Brisbane's this means, love your wives. Just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean washed by the cleansing of God's word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish and said she will be holy and without fault in the same way, husbands ought to love their wives. 4 (44m 4s): As they love their own bodies for a man who loves his wife, actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body, but feeds and cares for it just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body as the scripture, Sabres 31, a man leaves his father and mother, and is joined to his wife. And the two are United into one. This is a great mystery, but it's an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again, I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself. And the wife must respect her husband. 6 (44m 41s): Hm. 4 (44m 45s): Spiritual leadership falls on all of us. So what are we doing as spiritual leaders to make sure that those following our leadership are getting a good example and seeing what they need to see are, are we modeling for them integrity in the way that we speak and the way that we live and the way that we respond to God and act in response to his word, we just have to examine our lives because God will examine our lives. 4 (45m 26s): When it's all said and done our lives will be examined. God's keeping record. He's keeping everything is Before the Lord. How do we support our spiritual leaders by, by obeying them? We are to bear spiritual leaders according to scripture. What w how, what does that even look like? So as a spiritual leader, 6 (45m 55s): If, 4 (45m 56s): If your spiritual leader is telling you something that isn't aligned with the word of God, then you should obey your spiritual leader. If your spiritual leader is telling you to do something, that's contrary to the word of God, you're off the hook, because our first allegiance is to God. God's given us his word as an outline, a plan for life. And so our first allegiance is to God and God's put spiritual leaders in our lives to help us navigate life. And so we're to walk in obedience before our spiritual leader. So you, you have actually the responsibility to discern and to be knowledgeable of the word of God, so that when you're hearing something from me or from other, another spiritual leader, you say, was this aligned with the word, but it doesn't align with the word you're off the hook, but if it aligns with the word, then your responsibility is obedience. 4 (46m 54s): Just like my responsibility to my spiritual leaders is obedience. I've got elders in the church who are my spiritual authority. And if I come with the great idea that I think is a great idea, and they say, no, then we just abandon it. We There's there, there has to be authority in all of our lives. Men especially need that kind of authority, spiritual authority, cause we can become, and women, we all need that spiritual authority, people that were Hearing from and learning from and growing as a result of the apostle Peter under the inspiration of the holy spirit, wrote some words of wisdom for church elders. 4 (47m 41s): So now it's moved back to pastors and elders and because it helps us as spiritual leaders to understand that kind of our role and our responsibility. First Peter five, one through five says, and now a word to you who are elders in the churches. I, I too am an elder and I witness and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I too will share in the glory when he is revealed to the whole world as a fellow elder, I appeal to you care for the flock that God has entrusted to you care for the flock. So you imagine cheap. We were in, we'd been in Israel a couple of times and we see there are still shepherds in the fields watching over their flocks. 4 (48m 24s): And that's just their job. Their job is to live and to watch over and to care for their flocks, protecting them from bad water that they might drink from predators that might try to eat them from bad food, bad scenarios, dangerous situations. So our responsibility as spiritual leaders is to care for the flock care for the flock that God has entrusted to you watch over it willingly, not grudgingly, not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God, don't Lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example. And when the great shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of never ending glory and honor in the same way you younger men must accept the authority of the elders and all of you serve each other in humility for God, opposes the proud, but favors the humble. 4 (49m 16s): So place a spiritual authority is never about hierarchy. It's never about lording over. It's never about any of that stuff. It's about tender care with humility, recognizing our responsibility, doing what God has called us to do with the power of God and the spirit of God and the grace of God. So that people under our leadership don't have any problem obeying what we're asking them to do. So supports your spiritual leaders through obedience, Hebrews 13, 17 B again, their work is to watch over your souls and they are accountable to God support your spiritual leaders through obedience, but also be gracious to them. 4 (50m 6s): Hebrews 13, 17, the third part says, give them a reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That was certainly not be for your benefit. So that just simply means as we're under spiritual authority or spiritual leadership, we just need to be humble and teachable. And as spiritual leaders, we need to be humble and teachable, and we'll never get people to be humble and teachable. And unless we're humble and teachable, we do people will model or will live their lives and follow our example. So we have to be humble and teachable as we submit to authority. 4 (50m 51s): And then how else can we support our spiritual leaders? We can pray for them. Hebrews 1318 says, pray for us. Pray for us. For our conscience is clear and we want to live honorably in everything we do. And especially pray that I will be able to come back to you soon. So you can hear the, the heart of the writer to the Hebrews. He, he needs prayer. He's acknowledging his need for prayer. So he's being humble and he wants to be back with people. Why? Because it's his responsibility to care for the flock. And so he wants to be with them. So pray that your spiritual leaders stay spiritually strong, pray for your spiritual leaders, protection, pray, pray that God protects them. 4 (51m 35s): I, I pray all the time that people are praying for me. And I asked you all of the time to pray for me. Pray, pray, pray. It's a, it's a job, right? Pray that your spiritual leaders stay spiritually strong and pray for God's protection over them and pray that they would have God's wisdom for leading. I was been reading in the old Testament and been in first Kings and Solomon prayed for wisdom to lead the people of Israel. He said, man, who, who am I demonstrating his humility? He found that humility and saw that humility and his father, David David was a humble man is a Solomon saw that and emulated that he said, who am I? 4 (52m 24s): And God gave him the wisdom that he needed so desperately. And you see throughout the course of Solomon's life, for the most part, he, he was a godly man, stumbled, but godly in his approach to his leadership, pray that we'd be healthy and humble and kind and tenderhearted filled with the joy of the Lord. Faith filled and obedient to the Lord. These are all things that you can pray for your spiritual leaders. So support your spiritual leaders. Number one, number two, even more practical faith living allow God to equip you. So all of these things that we're talking about require that God equipped us. 4 (53m 6s): First of all, with the desire. First of all, maybe before that the knowledge that we have a responsibility, maybe you're here today. And for the first time, you're really waking up to the reality that you've got a spiritual responsibility as a spiritual leader in somebody's life, your kids, your coworkers, your employees, your family, yeah. You have a spiritual responsibility and this can start really at any age. It doesn't have to start when you're 25 or 35 or 50, you, you carry a mantle of spiritual leadership when you're just walking humbly before the Lord. 4 (53m 52s): And it starts you, you can actually see it on people's lives when they carry that, that mantle, that spiritual authority, that, that mantle of authority. And so whatever your age is, you're not too young. You're just not C and you're not too old. So just begin to walk in that, begin to be that man, that woman, that God has created you to be, because we're all called to go make disciples of all nations. So allow God to equip you say, I'm not prepared for what you're asking me to do. Well, none of us are prepared ever until God equips us. 4 (54m 36s): And then by his grace, he gives us the boldness and the, the ability to do what he's asked us to do. But there's an equipping process. Our whole life is about equipping growing. Tell my leaders around us at the staff level all the time. I say, guys, we're never done growing. And if we're, if we're done growing, we just need to get out of the ministry because we're just going to get set and we're not going to be all that effective. We've got to constantly be growing in grace, growing in truth, learning how to love people, learning to obey God, learning, how to lead people with tenderness and, and, and passion and conviction. So it's, it's a, it's a learning it's it's. 4 (55m 20s): I was reading in first Kings this morning and I, I was late to church because I, I just was, I was, I didn't want to stop reading Kings because I'm learning from what Solomon was doing as the second king of the people of Israel. And I, I just think this is what God has called us to do. Equip, allow God to equip you. So we see the benediction here in Hebrews 13, 20 and 21. And now may the God of peace who brought up from the dead, our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep and ratified in eternal covenant with his blood. 4 (56m 1s): May he equip you with all you need? And so we read all through Hebrews and really the scriptures of the old and the new Testament. And we see that God equips people to do the work that he calls them to do. What is the equipping as for the verse goes on for doing his will, he's equipping us for doing his will because his will is above and more important than any other agenda, or will your, will your agenda it's it needs to be submitted to God's will and his agenda. So God equips us to do his will and we're to live our lives, perpetually doing the will of God perpetually you don't get a vacation from it because it's just something that God has perpetually doing in us. 4 (56m 54s): And through us, it's just, it becomes a lifestyle. So Christianity, isn't some appendage that we attach to ourselves. Some thing that we do on the weekend or something that we do part it's, it's an all-consuming born again. Life changing life altering forever. Never. You'll never be the same. So allow God to equip you for doing as well. Once while Francis of Assisi was hoeing his garden, he was asked, what, what would you do if you suddenly learn? What would you do if you suddenly learned that you were to die at sunset today? 4 (57m 38s): Hmm. He replied, I w I would finish hoeing my garden. Why would he say that? I mean, doesn't, he have things to do like important things to do. I think Francis of Assisi was able to say that because he'd been busy doing all of the important things. He'd been busy as whole life doing all of the important things. So if I die at sunset, I'm going to hoe get this part done. Cause I reading into it a little bit. I no regrets. I, if the news that you were going to die today at sunset, radically changed the way you thought or acted, then there's some things that need to be changed right now. 4 (58m 29s): Often we're S we will say, ah, I want to wait until I get out of high school or no, I'm going to wait until I get out of college to do what God wants me to do. Cause you know, I want to play. I'll wait till I have kids before I kind of get serious about the Lord, because then, you know, I got some responsibilities there. And then, you know, one excuse leads to another, excuse, leads to decades of lost opportunities. Instead We can right where we are right in the here and now begin to do what God has asked us to do, allowing God to equip us to do his will. 4 (59m 9s): So what is his will for your life? Are you going to wait until tomorrow? Because if you're going to wait until tomorrow to do his will for your life, you're probably going to put it off longer than just tomorrow. I'd probably wait until next week. Next year, we're half about halfway, the year 2020 to mid may. We're halfway through another year of our lives. I've been doing this long enough. I know that there are some in the room who won't make it till the end of the year. He just won't. Some will be dead because that is the journey of life. We it's appointed once for man to die. And then the judgment. 4 (59m 50s): And so somebody in this room will be dead. Maybe many will be dead. I don't know. Maybe I'll be dead. I don't want to die. Nobody wants to die, But you're going to die and I'm going to die. So are you ready to die? I mean, I want to go be with Jesus, right? I, But I, 6 (1h 0m 23s): I 4 (1h 0m 24s): Want to do what God's work is for me here and now. So if you knew that at sunset, you were going to be dead. What would you do differently? And why not just do that anyway? Is there somebody that you need to make amends with? Well, why not just go make amends with that person? Is there a step of obedience that you need to take? Why not? Why not just do that? You're gonna be dead soon, physically dead soon. You will. 4 (1h 1m 6s): You're going to be dead soon. What do you want? What in the world are we waiting for? We're going to wait for Retirement. Are we going to wait till what? What's, what w what is the excuse that you're using right now? And why not just eliminate that to do what God has called you to do, you know, this time next year, another year will have gone by and how will your life be different? Why not make a different right now? I mean, what's the harm and just saying, I'm doing this now, and then just stepping into it. 4 (1h 1m 47s): And maybe you're, maybe you're afraid to you. You sh you shouldn't be afraid to do anything that God calls you to do without his equipping. You should be afraid because you're not. You're up to your eyeballs in that's good. It's a good place to be, to be up to your eyeballs in your unpreparedness, because God will prepare you to do what he's called you to do Love your neighbor, serve God, making, manage, share the gospel. What do you need to do? God's desires to equip you for, to please him. Hebrews 13, 21 continues. May he produce in you through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that pleases that is pleasing to him, that's not, that's not really interested in your agenda besides that while he's not interested in your agenda or my agenda, because his agenda is just better. 4 (1h 2m 44s): It's like when your kid says, you have like, you know, whatever, you're like, you know, I've got a better plan for you than that, right? But we've got this limited, the kid perspective. What pleases God, well, first Timothy two says, praying for others, pleases God for some of the five taking care of elderly parents, pleases God for speed or for suffering. Sometimes pleases God. If you're suffering for the right reasons, God desires to equip you to glorify him. Verse 21 continues all glory to him forever and ever. 4 (1h 3m 26s): Amen. This is what, this is what Christianity is all about doing his will for his glory period, doing his will for his glory period. If you're not willing to do his will for his glory period, you've gotten into the wrong faith. Leave Christianity, because you're not actually living proper Christianity. And that's not meant to be critical. It's just a statement of fact, if your life isn't meant for doing his will for his glory, then you've, you've totally missed it. When Jesus called the disciples, he said, come follow me. I'll make you fishers of men. Like leave everything and follow me, leave it and follow me. 4 (1h 4m 10s): I don't know what that means in your life, but there's some things that probably need to be left so that you can follow him. Practical faith, living number three, pay attention to God's written instruction. Hebrews 1322. I urge you dear brothers and sisters. You pay attention to what I've written in this brief exportation. So the writer of Hebrews is referencing all of Hebrews and on a larger scale, he's referencing all of God's word, the scriptures of the old and the new new Testament. So paying attention means actually doing, I mean like you can hear, we can hear all day long, but we're not doing, we're not actually paying attention. 4 (1h 4m 58s): We need to be doing what is written and following the instruction. The word of God has written so that it's like, it's like a mirror held up to our face and the fool reads it and walks away from it. And there's no change and no transformation. Verse 23. I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released from jail. Why is he in jail? Doing the will of the Lord for the glory of God and suffering, being willing to suffer. If he comes here soon, I will bring him with me to see you greet all your leaders and all the believers there. 4 (1h 5m 43s): The believers from Italy send you their greetings. May God's grace be with you all. Let's go ahead and stand up and invite the team forward. What I don't want to happen today is I don't want us to leave and do nothing. That would be a tragedy. 4 (1h 6m 26s): That would be a tragedy Lord. I pray that we would do and live God. The very breath of our being would be to do your will. And to glorify you, God, that we would be saturated in that desire. And as a result, Lord, I just know that we'll be transformed. And the things of this world will begin to fade and pale in comparison to doing your will for your glory. 4 (1h 7m 10s): Lord, God, wake us up, wake me up, wake us, Lord, God, God. We've got to people all around us culture, all around us. You who don't know you, Lord, I pray that we would start helping people to know you, that we use our spiritual gifts for the edification of the body of Christ. Lord God. So that people might be encouraged to, to know you and to, to walk with you, Lord, I don't know what you want to do, Lauren, but I know that if we will avail ourselves to you every day and every moment of the day that we would pray without ceasing, that we would stay in the spirits and listen that you will direct our steps. 4 (1h 7m 60s): You will cause us to pray for our enemies and love those who have been hard to love. You'll give us a hunger for the souls of people and a desire to minister it'll. It'll come out of the overflow of our lives. Lord God, thank you, Lauren. We are spiritual leaders to someone pray that we'd be spiritual leaders. The way that you've called us to be spiritual leaders. Lord, thank you for your grace Lord. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. You can leave it up. There is. 0 (1h 9m 2s): How has I've got a one with my aunts. 0 (1h 10m 24s): 1 (1h 13m 20s): Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. That we are here. Singing holiday. Thank you that we are here listening to your word. God, we want to go deeper. We want to grow in faith. We want to grow in our, in our spiritual walks with you. So we worship you. We give you things, you deserve all of our gratitude. You deserve all of our worship, all of our moments, all of the minutes in our days. So we surrender again. 1 (1h 13m 60s): We reminded of the cross. We are reminded after your salvage of salvation, God, your death and resurrection. We love you. Jesus is in your name. We pray. Amen.

1 (4s): Good morning harvest church. We're so excited that you're here with us today. We invite you to stand and wish a very happy mother's day to all you moms out there. 2 (4m 13s): All right. Awesome. Welcome to church everybody. How are we doing? Good. All right. Awesome. Well, I just want to say thank you so much to all the moms out there, and we love you and all that. You've all that you've done in our lives. It's just such, it's such a example of the gospel, I think, and selfless giving and love constantly, even when you don't get it back sometimes. And so we love you guys. Thank you so much. Also we've got M six coming up tomorrow night for men. So if you want to join us for that, it's out a thousand Hills range at six, and then we've got email updates. 2 (4m 54s): So if you want to keep up to date with just things that are happening around the church, you can sign up for email updates by going by the info center or signing up online at the connect tab. And a final thing is that we have a exciting update about the worship center, an opening date next week. So you want to be here next week to hear about when we're going to officially be opening. So, so stay tuned, you know, so come back next week and you'll hear about it. All right, Jesus. We love you so much. Thank you for just the season that we're in and thank you for the mothers that are in the house today. We just pray a special blessing on them. 2 (5m 34s): God, we just ask that you would bless them with more energy and favor and just the ability to minister to the kids and the people who are like children to them in their lives. Lord, we just love them so much. I just pray that your holy spirit would minister today over each, each person here. God, we we're here for you. We want to hear from you and Lord. We want to, we want you to change our lives. We want you to minister to us in Jesus name. Amen. 3 (8m 50s): The 4 (10m 52s): Cherish this morning. We're going to sing a newer song that talks about the power of the name of the Lord. He is so powerful. He is so much He is present. When we call on his name. 3 (11m 54s): Right off the That's the power of your name? Just and your power is . 0 (13m 58s): Can you 3 (14m 0s): Still do you do, why do you use For your, the same now as you 4 (15m 22s): You are all powerful and you are all good. We worship you in this place. We love you in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Church. You can go ahead and have a seat and direct your attention to the screens. We have a mother's day video. 7 (15m 40s): Just give me one second. Sorry. 6 (15m 43s): Hey. Hi, 7 (15m 45s): Two minutes. Thank you. Hi, good afternoon. Sorry about that. 8 (15m 56s): Hi. Nice to meet. 7 (15m 57s): Nice to meet you as well. You ever done one of these interviews over the camera for now? Let me tell you a little bit about the job to get started with. It's not just a job. It's sort of probably the most important job. The title that we have going right now is director of operations, but it's really kind of so much more than that. Responsibilities and requirements are, are really quite extensive. First category for the requirements would be mobility. This job requires that you must be able to work standing up most or really all of the time, constantly on your feet, constantly bending over constantly exerting yourself a high level of stamina. 9 (16m 37s): Okay. That's a lot 10 (16m 39s): For how many, like for how many hours? 7 (16m 41s): 135 hours to unlimited hours a week. It's basically 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 11 (16m 47s): Sure. You'll have a chance from time to time to maybe just sit down here and there. Yeah. 7 (16m 51s): Oh you mean like a break? Yeah, no, there are no breaks available. 8 (16m 56s): Is that even legal? 7 (16m 58s): Yeah, of course. Yeah. 8 (16m 59s): So like no lunch. 7 (17m 0s): You can have lunch, but only when the associate is done eating their lunch. 9 (17m 7s): I think that's a little intense. No, 7 (17m 9s): No, no 6 (17m 9s): Past. 7 (17m 10s): Now this position requires excellent negotiation and interpersonal skills. We're really looking for someone that might have a degree in medicine in finance and the culinary arts. You must be able to wear several hats, associate needs, constant attention. Sometimes they have to stay up with an associate throughout the night and able to work in a chaotic environment. If you, if you had a life, we'd ask you to sort of give that life up. No vacations. In fact, Thanksgiving, Christmas, new year's on holidays. The workload is going to go up and we demand that with, with the happy disposition. 12 (17m 42s): That's almost cruel. That's almost a, a very, very sick twisted, 11 (17m 47s): But when there's time to sleep 7 (17m 49s): Or oh, no time to sleep. 13 (17m 52s): Yeah. All encompassing 7 (17m 53s): Almost. That's exactly right. 14 (17m 55s): 365 days a year. Yes. No, that's that's inhumane. 12 (17m 59s): That's, that's very insane. 7 (18m 1s): The meaningful connections that you make and the feeling that you get from really helping your associate are even measurable. Also let's cover the salary. The position is going to pay absolutely nothing. 4 (18m 15s): Excuse me. 14 (18m 16s): No, nobody's doing that for 7 (18m 19s): Yeah. Pro bono completely for free. What if I told you there's someone that actually currently holds this position right now? Billions of people actually moms. 0 (18m 34s): Yeah. 7 (18m 35s): Yeah. Moms. That's awesome. And they meet every requirement. Don't 16 (18m 51s): Are the best. 10 (18m 52s): Yeah. There's no pain there. 24 hours always there. 17 (18m 56s): Now I'm thinking about my mom. 7 (18m 57s): Yeah. And what are you thinking about her? I'm thinking 17 (18m 59s): About all those nights and everything. 12 (19m 1s): Thank you so much for everything you do. I know it doesn't seem like I appreciate all of it, but I definitely do. 14 (19m 7s): So mama want to say thank you for everything that you've done. I love you very much. You've been there through thick and thin. My mom is just awesome. She's awesome. 19 (19m 32s): So when I first saw that video, kind of like you guys, I'm thinking, you know, I'm not, I'm, I'm not really tracking with this. And, and then of course he has, he gets into it and go, oh, okay. I understand now. And so I know Curtis prayed for moms just a little bit ago, but I want to make a couple comments on a pray for moms as well. And especially for moms that as the gal mentioned, that are in the thick of it. So think of it. Meaning you got little ones that are at home right now and they outnumber you. And so my wife and I, so one child was, you know, doable, two kids, pretty challenging three kids. It's out of control by the fourth. 19 (20m 14s): It's I gain I, yeah. They're they outnumber us. So it doesn't even matter anymore. But so a couple months ago, I don't know how long ago I was going through heading home, going through the radio dial stations. And I came across this country, Western song. I don't listen to a lot of country, but this friend really captured my attention. And it's by trace Atkins. And the name of it is you're going to miss this. And of course, having been through the child, rearing and mainland, I'm talking about my wife predominantly and, and looking back. So our kids are all grown now. And, and you know, so to moms that are in the thick of it, you're going to miss this. 19 (20m 58s): I know right now it's, it's overwhelming. There's, there's no question, but I do want to say this, the investment that you're making in your kids, it is any eternal investment that will bring about phenomenal rewards and, and getting through this time in life where the kids are little and, and it seems to be just getting through one day at a time is, is just monumental. Not only will you miss this, but in the, in the course of time, you're making investment that that God will reward. 19 (21m 37s): And the fruit of your labor is, is going to be, it's going to impact not only your kids, but, but other people, you know, we're, we're really investing in the next generation. So that's what you're doing. Moms you're investing in the next generation. And so good job, keep up the good work. God will give you all that you need as you're going through this time. And so Lord, I, I disagree with Curtis that you would indeed just pour out your spirit upon moms in particular, especially those that have little ones at home right now that just are struggling to get through each day, wondering, am I doing this right? 19 (22m 24s): Or feeling like I'm failing at motherhood, Lord, breathe into them. A fresh confidence of fresh, just understanding that you are with them. And, and you are the one ultimately that is, that is investing in those kids through, through the mothers, through moms. So Lord bless them, give them all that we need. We just stand in agreement with, with you. And we bless you. And we thank you, Lord, in Jesus name. God's people said, amen. So good morning. My name's Ron. And it's my privilege to share God's word with you today. Pastor Steve is away for a little bit getting, I guess I can tell you this, he's not out of town, so that's, that would be considered staycation. 19 (23m 13s): Right? Okay. So what I want to talk about today, we're actually gonna, gonna finish up the book of Hebrews. So if you want to turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, we're going to be in chapter 13. So pastor Steve ended up last week in chapter 13, verse 16. So I'm going to pick it up in verse 17. And so if you have your, your physical Bible with you, if you want to turn to it on your tablet, whatever device you choose to use. So the subject, the main topic of what I want to talk about today is healthy church leadership, healthy church leadership. And there's really two verses that I want to focus on and sort of bring out this idea of healthy church leadership and they are verses 17. 19 (23m 56s): So he was 13, 17. And then we're going to jump back just a little bit 10 verses, right before that in verse seven, I want to look at those two verses primarily and, and look and see what, what the writer of Hebrews has to say about healthy church leadership. And so Lord, as we open up your word, as we dive into the scriptures where we expect you to teach us to instruct us, our hearts are open to you. We desire to grow and to mature and to become the men of God, the women of God that you desire for us to be in Jesus' name. Amen. Hey, just a PS. I was struggling with a cold earlier this week. 19 (24m 38s): I'm not contagious. Okay. So, and I took a COVID test. I don't have COVID. And so bear with me. If I, if I seemed just a little congested, that's why, so Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17 says this, obey those who rule over you and be submissive for, they watch out for your souls as those who must give account, let them do so with joy and not with grief for that would be unprofitable for you. And then the verse it coincides with that. If you go up just a little verse seven, remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow considering the outcome of their conduct. 19 (25m 25s): So again, we're talking about church leadership today, those who rule over the, over us, those who lead us, you know, at first glance looking at this, it might seem a little bit self-serving. So what do I mean by that? So the writer of the book of Hebrews is himself, a church leader, and he's challenging the church church people to submit and obey church leaders. So it's almost like, in fact, I'm glad Steve's gone today because now I can talk freely about him as, as our lead pastor. In fact, I think it's, it's more appropriate that I would talk about this rather than, than him, because it might seem self-serving that he would be talking about, you know, obeying and submitting to church leaders. 19 (26m 15s): And so I don't mind talking behind Steve's back today. Maybe that's not the right words, but you know, he can, he can watch it. He might be watching it right now. I don't know. He can, you know, it's archived, he can go back and watch it, watch it later. So I want to talk about church leadership. And in, in light of this, a couple of things we have to think about first of all, Before Jesus went to the cross just very soon before he went to the cross, there's this prayer that's recorded in John chapter 17. And he prays for a number of things. He's praying for the disciples that he'd spent over three years with, but he also is looking down through generations through human history. 19 (27m 1s): And he's actually praying for us as well. This is what he says in John chapter 17, beginning with verse 20. He says, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, talking about the disciples word, that they all may be one as you father are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that you sent me. And so everything that we're going to talk about as far as church leadership, it has to do with the oneness that, that Jesus prayed for. There there's meant to be a unity in the body of Christ. 19 (27m 43s): That is so supernatural. So desirable that even, even as unbelievers who don't know Jesus experience, what we get to experience in a community of believers, it is compelling in and of itself to want to become a follower of Jesus Christ. So number one, church leadership is God's idea. So this isn't something that, you know, people put together and said, okay, we got this church thing going on now. And beginning with the early church, let's see how we can figure out to, you know, create some sort of hierarchy leadership model to do this church leadership it's God's idea. 19 (28m 25s): So if we look at Ephesians chapter four, beginning with verse 11, you guys are probably very familiar with this verse. It says he himself. So God himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers it's for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So when we talk about church leadership, number one it's God's idea, and number two, in terms of, of what church leadership looks like, we need to look to Jesus as he laid out for us, this style for leadership or, or the responsibilities for those who lead the church. 19 (29m 9s): So in Matthew chapter, sorry, in mark chapter four, they were having this conversation, the disciples and they're, and they're walking they're together, spent a lot of time together. And they're having these conversations about various things and it was not uncommon for the disciples to sorta, you know, banter among themselves and say, well, you know what, I'm, I'm going to be the main leader. I'm going to sit next to Jesus in his kingdom. You know, I'm going to be a button. You know, there was this, this challenging one another about who's, who's going to be the best, the best leader. And Jesus called the disciples together, mark chapter 10, verse 42. And he said to them, you know that the rulers in this world, Lord it over their people and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. 19 (29m 56s): But among you, it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many. So what do we see here while secondly, we see that that a church leader is first and foremost, a servant leader. So the church then talking about this idea of leadership in the church, it's not meant to have a corporate structure where the pastor is at the top and everyone else is below the leader. 19 (30m 46s): The pastor, the pastor is supposed to serve the church as an example of how Christ laid, laid down his life for the church. So a church leader is a servant leader. So what does servant leadership look like? So picture this it's it's the last supper, it's the last meal, the last Passover celebration that Jesus is spending with his disciples. It's, you know, a precious time. He knows right after this meal, he's going to go to the garden. He's going to be betrayed into the hands of sinful men. 19 (31m 29s): He's going to be beaten and scorched, and he's going to go to the cross and give his life for the world, the sins of the world the next day. And so in that upper room experience in John chapter 13, beginning with verse four, it says Jesus got up from the table and he took off his robe and he wrapped a towel around his waist and he poured water into a basin. And then he began to wash the disciples feet, drying them with the towel that he had around him. And after washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, do you understand what I was doing? You call me teacher and Lord, and you're right, because that's what I am. 19 (32m 12s): And since I, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet. Give I've given you an example to follow and do as I have done to you. So he's speaking to his disciples, which would go on to be initially the leadership within the early church. He's talking to church leaders here, future church leaders, and he's giving them this example, which was in that culture in that day, the only one that would wash someone's feet when they come into their home would be a slave would be a servant. It was like the lowest of the low. 19 (32m 55s): And so he's giving them this example of servant leadership. So as we think about this, Christian leaders are called by God to serve, not to be served. Church leaders are called by God to take the very lowest position and not the highest position. And again, all this kind of seems counterintuitive. And I don't know how long you guys have been around churches in various churches, in your, in your walk with the Lord. Often we experienced all kinds of church styles of leadership in various churches. It might not look anything like this, but I'm just, I'm giving us, this is, this is biblical church leadership. 19 (33m 42s): So now let's talk about pastor Steve. So I've served with Steve. I've been on staff here for 14 years. And so I've had a chance to spend a lot of time with Steve. We, we, we, you know, we serve together. And in fact, sometimes there's this question about, about title. So pastor Steve goes by the title lead pastor I'm. I have the title of associate pastor, and then, you know, sometimes. So if you ever wonder, what's the difference between, you know, the lead pastor, the associate pastor and assistant pastor. I mean, I don't understand. So basically an assistant pastor is someone who's kind of in training a pastor in training, who's assisting those who are leading and associate pastor, which is what I am. 19 (34m 30s): And, and we have others on staff that are associates as well is we're basically sort of at the same level as, as Steve, but we're, we're, we're assisting in the ministry at the same level because one person can't do it all. And so pastor Steve, as the lead pastor, he's the main, the main leader that we look to as we talk about servant leadership. So before I started working at harvest church 14 years ago, I knew Stephen Jolene quite well because our kids went to school together at coastal Christian. And he was serving another church in the community as, as, as I was. So we got to know each other in different pastor gatherings. 19 (35m 11s): And, and I always, I always liked Steve. He's always a friendly guy, but you know, when, when you're friends with someone and now you're working for this person, it's not always the same. Right? Fortunately, my experience in working with pastor Steve has really been phenomenal. It's been wonderful. So pastor Steve has set a good example for me. He set a good example. I feel for us. And, and we talk about, as I mentioned earlier, church leaders are called to serve, not to be served. Church leaders are called by God to take the very lowest position and not the highest position. Here's how, here's how Steve operates. If something needs to get done, he just gets it done. 19 (35m 54s): If he's walking around the property and he sees, you know, there's some trash that spilled out over here, whatever, he just gets in there, he picks it up and he gets it done. Some of this is so I don't know commonplace, but you know, if a toilet overflows he'll get the plunger and he'll plunge it. Okay. If someone needs visiting, if someone's hurting, he's there for them. As much as he, as, as he can be, whatever the need is, pastor Steve takes care of it. So what that has done for us as a, as a, as a team, as a church staff, is it set a good example for us in that we're, we're just working together. 19 (36m 35s): We're serving God together. We're serving God's people and whatever needs to get done to serve God's people. That's what we're going to do. And we help each other, you know? Yeah. We, we each have job description, but, but our job description when it's all said and done is we're just helping serve God's people together. We're willing to do whatever it takes In Romans chapter 12. There's this picture past that, that the, the apostle Paul is giving in Romans chapter 12. He says, I want you to rejoice with those who rejoice. And I want you to weep with those who weep be of the same mind towards one another. 19 (37m 18s): Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble and do not be wise in your own opinion. I think that's a good example of pastor Steve. He is approachable. He is, he's not full of himself. In fact, a lot of times when he shares things from the pulpit, I'm like, why are you talking about that? So Steve keeps some things private. He just doesn't do that. He's not full of himself. He's he's, he's one of us. So what that means is yes, we, we see the position that God has put on pastor. See, but he's very relatable. 19 (37m 59s): You can, you can come up, you can talk to him. He's one of us. And what you see is what you get. I've traveled all over the world with Steve, been to Israel, number of times, with them in different, different ministry times and things. And you know, what you see is what you get. He's just the same in public as he is in private or in private as he is in public. So again, I'm looking at Hebrews chapter 13, verses 17, and then verse seven, again. So back to verse seven, for a moment, it says, remember those who rule over you has spoken the word of God to you, whose faith, you should follow considering the outcome of their conduct. 19 (38m 42s): So those was spoken the word of God to you. Again, I'm talking about church leadership, number three, a church leader among other things is primarily a Bible teacher. What is the Bible teacher? It is one who affirms and reaffirms the things that God has spoken in his word that would be in the old Testament. And in the new Testament, they, they rightly divide the word of truth. They help make sense of what the scripture says so that it's understandable to us. It's relatable to us. We see how God's word applies in our lives personally, in thinking about this. 19 (39m 22s): So the apostle Paul, one of his people that he was a great mentor to was Timothy and Timothy actually was a pastor himself, a church leader leader at, at the church in Ephesus that Paul founded. So he's talking to Timothy here in second, Timothy chapter four. And he says this. He says, I charge you Timothy before God. And the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Here's what he says to Timothy, preach the word, Timothy, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince rebuke exhort with all long suffering and teaching. 19 (40m 7s): So a church leader among other things is primarily a Bible teacher. And so in thinking about that, a couple of comments, if your pastor is a man of God who is teaching the word of God, then you are to obey the word of God as he has given it to you. Another comment a Bible teachers should teach us to submit to God, not to himself being a pastor, a church leader. It's kind of a dangerous thing because you know, you're typically in front of a lot of people and you can get a lot of influence and you can get in this place where it can be Lord, I'm building my kingdom. 19 (40m 50s): You know, these are my people. That's not what it's about at all. Again, we're talking about leadership. A Bible teachers should teach us to submit to God and not to himself. So back to verse seven, again, whose faith you should follow. So number four, church leaders should be an example to those. They are leading church leaders should be an example to those. They are leading. And again, Paul's exhorting Timothy. Who's the pastor of the church in Ephesus. He was a young man and he's got this big responsibility there in first Timothy chapter four, beginning with verse 12, he says this to him. He says, be an example, be an example to the believers in word in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity, he says, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine and do not neglect the gift that is in you, meditate on these things, give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all take heed to yourself and to the doctrine, continue in them for in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. 19 (42m 13s): So the one another thing I really appreciate about Steve is he's, he's intentional about growing in his maturity, in his understanding of the Bible. And in fact, you know, not that many years ago, I don't know. He decided, you know, I need to get my, my Bible education finished. He hadn't finished it up up to that point. And so he went back to Bible school and he got his degree in, in ministry, in, in theology. And then, and then he followed it up with a master's I believe. So why, why was he doing that? He was doing that for himself, but he's also doing it for us. So that kind of like Paul's telling Timothy so that your progress may be evident. 19 (42m 58s): So imagine, so pastor Steve and Jolene, they planted the church 19 years ago. And you know, as a pastor and you're up in front of people a lot, you kind of say, you can repeat yourself a lot. And he, if he's not growing in the word and in his spiritual life personally, it's like, he doesn't really have a lot of fresh stuff to give to us, but because he's intentional about growing in his own personal walk with the Lord, it's like, there's, there's more that comes out. There's more depth to him. And he gets to continue to help us grow. Even those of us that have been under his leadership for decades. And that's a wonderful thing. 19 (43m 38s): And so Peter, he's also on the same point first Peter chapter five, verse two, it says, he says, speaking to leaders, he says, shepherd, the flock of God, which is among you serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly nor as being lores over those entrusted to you. But being an example, being examples to the flock. Now, granted, pastor Steve he's, he's not a perfect example. He's got flaws, just like we all have flaws, but he's honest and open about those flaws, which I really appreciate appreciate about him. 19 (44m 23s): He's a work in process, just like we're a work in process, right? And that's why he's relatable. Oh, he's just like me going through trials and struggles and you know, ups and downs in life. So again, back to verse seven and in verse 17 as well, it says that we are to obey them. We're we're to obey church leaders and to submit to them. So obey and submit. Those are tough words. Again, the writer of Hebrews, I want you to obey them and I want you to be submissive to them. So what is he talking about there? So both these words can be difficult. 19 (45m 3s): What does this mean? And why should we obey and submit to church leaders? Well, what that really means is this that we're called to listen to them, you know, give attention to what they're saying. Not only in their word, but in their life, in their example, we're to listen and we're to yield. I hear what you're saying and I, and I want to do what you're doing. I want to follow. I want to follow your lead. One of the ways I believe you can really tell a good a church leader is, is people are following them. Don't have to follow them, but they are following them because there's something there that they desire to follow about them and about their teaching, about their life. 19 (45m 44s): So to abandon and submit really means I want to follow your leadership. I want to submit to your leadership. And again, back to verse 17, why? Because it says church leaders, they watch out for your soul and they must give an account to God for their leadership. So number five, church leaders are watching out for your soul. So what does that mean? Well, Jesus, you know, is commonly described in the Bible as a shepherd. In fact, he's often called the chief shepherd and church leaders. If you really think about it, what they are they're, they're under shepherds. Jesus is the head of the church. He's the chief shepherd church leaders just fall underneath that. 19 (46m 25s): They're under shepherds. What does a shepherd do? A shepherd cares for the flock. A shepherd cares for God's people watching out for them, watching out for the flock, protecting the flock, loving the flock, pouring their lives into God's people. The flock A little bit about this and acts chapter 20 verse 28. It says, therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock. Again, he's talking about God's people among which the holy spirit has made you overseers. 19 (47m 6s): So this is a work of the holy spirit in the leader to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. I think about the responsibility of that. Jesus shed his blood to set us free from the law of sin and death. So we're free in Christ. And now these under shepherds come along and they are too nurture us and help us grow in that walk where God has purchased us with his own blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord. So again, a church leader in, in our kind of day and age is, is commonly called the pastor, but actually a better translation of that word in the scripture. 19 (47m 51s): The word pastor is the word shepherd. In fact, there's only one occasion in the new Testament where, where the word is translated. Pastor everywhere else in the new Testament is translated shepherd. So that's what a church leader does. They shepherd us, they shepherd the flock. They watch out for your soul and they must give an account to God for their leadership. Number six church leaders must give an account to God for their leadership. In other words, church leaders, church leadership. It is, it is a stewardship, a stewardship. What do I mean by that? So in Titus chapter one, beginning with verse seven, he's talking about a Bishop. 19 (48m 36s): Now a Bishop is an overseer, a church leader. It says a Bishop must be blameless as a steward of God. Not self-willed not quick tempered, not addicted to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable a lover of what is good. Sober-minded just wholly and self controlled. Those are big shoes to fill. So that's the, the qualifications of church leaders. And it's as a stewardship, a steward of God in another place. 19 (49m 17s): Paul talks about those. He says, moreover, it is required among stewards that a man be found faithful. Paul talks more about this in second Corinthians, five, 10. He says for, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Every one of us that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. So a church leader, who's someone who's called to that position to lead God's people. The flock of God, pastor Steve has to give an account for his leadership. Any, any church leader has to give an account to God for their leadership in verse 17, let them do so with joy and not with grief. 19 (50m 4s): So to some degree, I don't know how much as pastor Steve stands before God and gives an account. We somehow play a part in that. Have we made his leadership, you know, easier, or have we made his leadership much more difficult? Number seven, a church with godly leadership should be a place that is filled with the joy of the Lord. The love of God. And it is a profound blessing to be a part of this church churches with good godly church leaders. 19 (50m 46s): Again, Paul speaks to this in first Thessalonians chapter two, he says for what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing. It is not even you in the presence of our Lord, Jesus Christ at his coming for you are our glory and joy. So Paul, the church leader, he's looking ahead and he's saying, you know, when, when we stand before God, when we are in his kingdom, you know what part of my crown of rejoicing is going to be, it's going to be you guys, because I got to lead you. And you, you listened, you submitted, we all grew together. 19 (51m 27s): We're growing together. And now look at the reward that we have together in, in God's kingdom. So for those of you who are new, newer to harvest church, or maybe you're thinking about, do I want to get plugged in here or not? Or maybe you're here and you've decided harvester is your church home. Here's what you should expect from those who lead us. This is sort of the culture, the culture of our church. Number one, we teach the Bible. Number two, we all serve together. So whether it's people that are on staff, the staff team, the volunteer team, those who are leading life groups or, or whatever function you may have part you may have at harvest church, we're all serving together. 19 (52m 14s): There is no hierarchy where someone, you know is higher than we're just serving God together. We strive to honor each other to love each other, to show grace towards each other, patients towards each other. We take serving God very seriously. While we try to have a lot of fun doing ministry together, think about serving God and the impact we have on people's lives. That's a serious thing, but, but we got to have a lot of joy and, and fun doing it at the same time. And lastly, at harvest church, we make it our aim to properly represent Jesus Christ to our community. 19 (52m 58s): That's so important as harvest church. You guys probably know this already, but as, as we're out and about in the town and the community, and we go to restaurants, we go to work, we go out and about doing our thing. And peop people watch us. They watch you. They go, oh, I know them. Yeah. They, they go to harvest church and then, and then they're thinking they will never say this probably. But if I ever wanted to be a Christian, do I want to be like that person? They want to know? Are we representing Christ well in our community? 19 (53m 38s): And we can have a lot of impact on people who make that distance. Like, you know what? I liked them. I loved them. I like what I see in them. I want to be a Christian, like they are. So, and finally kind of trying to wrap up, wrap all of this as first, first Thessalonians, chapter five, verse 12, he says, we urge you brethren to recognize those who labor among you talking about church leaders and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very, very highly in love for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves. So one of the, the side benefits, so the evidence of good church leadership is there is what he calls peace among yourselves. 19 (54m 19s): You know, nobody wants a church full of drama and you know, problems, you know, just being a peace with one another, loving each other, enjoying what we get to do together as fellow believers in Christ. And he concludes this is Hebrews chapter 13, verse 18 and 19. He concludes here the writer of Hebrews. He says, pray for us. If we are confident that we have a good conscience in all things designed to live honorably, but I especially urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner. So he's saying apparently he was someplace, maybe in jail, maybe in prison, he couldn't get back to the believers he's writing to. 19 (55m 2s): He says, could you pray for me because I want to get back to you. And he's, he's what he's suggesting is their prayers actually have the, the power or the authority to get him out so that he could come back and spend time with his friends. So the writer of Hebrew briefs believed that the prayers of God's people would open doors, open doors and bring down obstacles. You believe that today the prayers of God's people will open doors and bring down obstacles that are in our way. So again, the writer, he was, he's going to close out by. He wants to speak a blessing upon these people that he loves so much, he's praying for them. 19 (55m 46s): And I want to say this prayer, that, that he's going to pray for them. It's for us as well. It's for you and me. Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20 and 22, 3 22. Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do his will working in you. What is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And I appealed to you brethren bear with the word of exhortation for four. I have written to you in few words. And lastly, he closes no that our brother Timothy has been set free with whom I shall see you. 19 (56m 32s): If he comes shortly, greet all those who rule over you in all the saints, those from Italy, greet you, grace, be with you all. Amen. So I want to invite the worship team to come up at this time. As, as I get ready to close, I just wanna Let you know about a conversation I had with somebody on Easter. So I'm on ago, month ago, already Easter time, There was a gentleman there who I'd seen at church a number of times, And it was just a good opportunity before the service got started. I saw him, I said, Hey, I got a question for you. Have you made the decision yet to give your life to Jesus Christ? 19 (57m 19s): And he said to me said, well, no, I haven't. He says, I'm, I'm what you would call an agnostic. So an agnostic is somebody would basically say by debt. I don't know. I don't know if there is a God, I don't know, but I'm open. He says, I'm really kind of waiting to have this kind of like burning Bush experience. I just want to have some big sign that God would, you know, where I can, where I can, I can believe in him. And I said, well, let me, let me give you a suggestion instead of doing that, why don't you do this? And instead just say, God, I want to believe. And so I'm going to open up my heart to the reality that Jesus Christ is the Lord and that he went to the cross for me. 19 (58m 5s): And so Lord, I'm going to open up my heart to you so that you can reveal yourself to me. Now he didn't respond to that. He didn't say, yes, I'll do that or whatever, but here's where I want to go with this today. So I don't know where you are in your walk with the Lord here in the sanctuary or in the loft or the patio, or maybe streaming in online. But here's ultimately what, what I want to encourage you to do. And that is to number one, admit to God that you have sinned against him, Acknowledged that there is a God Who is righteous and holy and you've sinned against him. 19 (58m 46s): And then you, what you do. In fact, the word is repent. I want to turn. And secondly, believe that God has sent his son Jesus, as the Messiah to take upon himself, the penalty for your sin. That's what the gospel is all about. That's why it's called the good news that God sent his son into the world to go to the cross and die and take upon himself, our penalty, our judgment. And then the last thing I want to encourage all of us to do. But those of you who have not done it yet is to confess to God that you have chosen to believe in the gospel. 19 (59m 29s): And that is again, that's the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ the Lord. And if you would do that, if you would acknowledge him and believe in him and confess him, even if you have areas in your life where, where you you've got unbelief, or I just need some proof, or I don't know about this yet, I believe in my experiences has been a few open up your heart to him. He will come in and the holy spirit will, will begin to take root in your life. And, and your eyes will begin to be opened. Your spirit, your soul will begin to be open to the things of God and he will show you that he indeed is the Lord Lord. 19 (1h 0m 13s): We so thank you for what we get to experience as part of the church family, the church community, the flock of God, Lord, thank you. What a privilege it is to be part of your kingdom, to be part of this church harvest church. Lord, we pray for Steve. Those who lead us, Lord, I pray for Steve that you would just continue to give him encouragement and strength and confidence and, and just that ability to endure and to just continue to be excited about the place that you have in the role that you haven't been. As, as our leader, Lord, help him, help us to honor him, help us to lift up his arms in the battle, help us Lord as just a gathering of believers. 19 (1h 0m 56s): Lord, we want to, most of all, we want to honor you. Lord help us to do that. Lord, what a joy and privilege it is to walk with you every day in Jesus name God's people said, amen. Let's go ahead and stand. We're going to continue to worship the Lord this morning. 3 (1h 1m 20s): Used to do all the same. God. Now Your spirit breaking out your kingdom movie. 3 (1h 1m 51s): 4 (1h 3m 13s): Thank you Jesus, for your power. Thank you that you are mighty. Thank you that you are holy God. We thank you for leadership. We thank you for church leadership. We thank you for your scripture. That gives us direction and your holy spirit. That gives us insight. We love you, Jesus. And it's in your name. We pray. Amen.

1 (1s): Welcome to churchy stand. As we worship this morning, how beautiful it is to be in the house of the Lord. 0 (14s): Finding the nine. She Oh, to him. 0 (1m 35s): And before the I stand complete, Jesus died. She To him. 0 (3m 11s): I see. And have that to cramped and stayed. He watched Jesus, paid it 2 (3m 27s): All 0 (3m 28s): To him. I 2 (3m 31s): See 0 (3m 32s): Dan had left a crazy insane. He watched, he washed, he washed it a wide as, 3 (3m 52s): Hey, everybody. Welcome to harvest church. My name is Curtis and I just got a couple of announcements for you. But first you should know that the info center is like the hub around here. So if you want to get connected, then that's the way that's where you should go from here. You just go up the driveway. If you're in the patio, you go down the driveway. If you're in the left, you'd like to the left. You'll you'll figure it out. It's got big signs. Can't miss it. So if you want to get connected with any life groups, there's life groups for men and women, recreational groups, there's every kind of group you can imagine. So please, if you want to get further connected, you can join a life group there. Let's say, if you want to give, you can give in here at the collection boxes in every venue at the collection box or online at the gift task. 3 (4m 37s): So with that, let's just pray. And also if you have kids sixth grade and up visit six fifth, and they're going to be released after worship. So just be aware of that. So Lord Jesus, we just thank you so much that you paid it all. Lord, you paid it all on our behalf. Jesus, and you have given you gave everything so that we could have life in you so we can have relationship with you. And so that we don't have to feel condemnation because of her sins because of her doing so Jesus, we are so eternally grateful for setting us free for giving us new purpose in you and God. 3 (5m 21s): So we just want to worship you with everything in us. And we just, we just praise you, Lord Jesus name. Amen. 1 (5m 35s): Where should you this morning? Jesus. We are expecting God. You are here. You are. So this morning we, we don't waste time depressing. We know that you were the king of Kings and the Lord 0 (6m 4s): The people see The people. 2 (6m 38s): See 4 (10m 54s): I just want to speak the name of Jesus, Every heart and every mind. Cause I know there is peace within your breasts. I speak G I just want to speak the name of Jesus. Every God Declare me there is hope and there is free. 4 (11m 38s): I speak G Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. 4 (13m 36s): In the dark, every yen I fam I span the whole 5 (15m 14s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you for the power. That is the name of Jesus. Goodness. I think we forget sometimes Lord, the power of your name to break through strongholds Lord. As we speak the power with the name of Jesus, the person and the work finished work of the Lord Jesus over our lives and families. Lord there's there's hope. There's the ability to endure Lord God in your name. Jesus. So Lord God, give us a glimpse of your power. The resurrection power of Jesus that heals the sick and raises the dead and sets people free. Thank you, Lord God. 5 (15m 54s): We're wherever we need to be healed in Jesus' name. We pray that your power would just touch our lives. Lord God, I think about pastor Rick at Calvary chapel in Nepal, Mo and Cheryl are missionary to Israel. Lord, both of them battling cancer right now, we just got, we just ask Lord God that you would release your power in their bodies. Lord God, for the host of others who are dealing with chronic illness and pain and discomfort in their bodies, Lord God cancer and sickness and disease. Lord, I just pray in Jesus name God that you would work powerfully and intentionally in our lives. Lord God, there would just be a healing outpour of your power and your grace. 5 (16m 35s): Lord God. So minister, Lord to minister, to our friends and family who are in need today. Bless pastor Rick Jenkins, Lord touch every spot in his body. Those five areas that he's got cancer. We just pray that you would touch him and heal him. God, that you would encourage his wife, Tina encourage their congregation. I'd pray their church in Nepal Mo bless them with hope and encouragement, guidance, provision, and direction. Lord for Cheryl Lord as she's she's been so faithful Lord to preach the gospel, to proclaim the good news in Israel and everywhere she goes, Lord God. We just pray to God that you'd bless her Buster with healing and grace and power for what she's needed, what for what she needs in her body. 5 (17m 22s): Lord God do wonderful and supernatural things. Lord things that only you can do, God, God, we call out to you for things that only you can do. And we ask that you would do that now. Lord, thank you for your grace. We love you, Lord. Thank you for loving us in Jesus name. Amen. Turn to greet your neighbor. We'll come right back. 8 (18m 38s): The words 5 (19m 47s): Alrighty. Welcome back. Yeah. I had to get a little throat lozenge. My throat was I'm not cooperating and the while I'm back there, my son's on the, on the command central back there and he gave me just this amazing little massage just now. So that's why I was taking a while. He's like, let me get it. He's just digging into me. Have you ever gotten a good back rub, whatever We're in Hebrews chapter 13 today and the title of the message. More practical faith livings. We talked about practical faith living last week. We're talking about even more practical faith, this, this week more practical faith living and kind of be covering some verses. 5 (20m 31s): So Thank you Lord. 9 (20m 38s): Yeah, I feel like we should, 5 (20m 39s): Again, Lord, we just invite your presence. God, God, that we've, we've all kind of greeted and worshiped and prayed together Lord, and we're praying together some more Lord. I just pray that you would have opened our hearts to you. God, I, I just know that you're going to speak something to us and encourage us and challenge us. And we want you to do that. Lord. We want you to do all of those things, building us up in our most holy faith Lord. So God do what you want to do. Lord will, will be submitted to that. Lord harvest church is your church and where your people. So we want to hear your, your, your word today. So bless us as we do in Jesus name. Amen. 5 (21m 20s): More practical faith living Hebrews 13, eight says keep focused on the changeless or excuse me, Jesus. That's the first title. Go ahead and put it up there. First point. Keep, I just preach this message. Do you think I'd have it like down right now, but I got, I think I got distracted from that neck rub. So I've got to get focused again. Number one in your notes, keep focused on the changeless. Perfection of Jesus. Hebrews 13, eight says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. I grew up in a Foursquare Foursquare church for about six years. And that's like their theme verse as Hebrews 13, eight, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He's immutable. 5 (22m 1s): He doesn't change. He is faithful. He is reliable. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He's our past sacrifice for sin yesterday. Like he died for our sins past present and future sins. He is our present intercessor today. Like he's at the right hand of the throne of God, constantly making intercession for us. He's praying for you. He's praying for me. So he's died for us, cleansing us of our sin, removing sin from our lives and then he's interceding for us. And he is our future forever. 5 (22m 43s): He is the purpose of our lives. Not before we know him, but when we come to faith in him, we realize that he is the purpose for our lives. He saves us out of darkness and he plants our feet on a solid foundation who is Christ the Lord. And then he gives us purpose in the earth. When we come to faith in Jesus, we begin to realize that whatever it was before, it's not it now, whatever our focus and our priorities were before now, Jesus takes the throne of our lives and he is our priority and our focus. And honestly he makes everything else better. So if you're your family was your priority for make Jesus your priority, your family will be better than ever. 5 (23m 24s): If your marriage was your priority before make Jesus your priority and your marriage will be better than ever. If your vocation was your priority before make Jesus your priority. And you'll bless that area of your life as well, seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything else, everything else will be added unto you. The scripture says, so we need to keep focused on the changeless perfection of Jesus. So the writer of Hebrews is challenging the people to stay focused in a world that is full of distractions. Then, and now we have to constantly be thinking about Jesus, making him our priority, keeping focused on the change of this perfection of Jesus. 5 (24m 7s): Jesus Christ is changeless and perfect in every way. His sacrifice on the cross is the only answer to man's sin. So he met our needs. He, he is constantly interceding for us on our behalf and he's got this incredible eternal plan. Jesus, his sacrifice, intercession, his plan. It's all about Jesus. And it's all because of Jesus, his plan, his purpose, his way. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. He's immutable, eternal and final. He is the judge. He's the bedrock of our faith. And so we always need to come back to Jesus, right? 5 (24m 47s): We never graduate and beyond Jesus, we never moved beyond Jesus. We're always in this state of dependence on him, where we need to forever make him our priority and the foundation of every area and arena of our lives in a culture that says you're the most important person in a culture that says your needs are the most important needs in a culture that says you are your own little God. We confront that culture with the reality that Jesus has God in Jesus is Lord of our lives. And when we come to faith in him, scripture says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead. You will be saved. 5 (25m 29s): And so we're talking about Lordship leadership. I mean, he gets to tell me what to do. He gets to tell me how to do it. He gets to tell me how to spend my life, gets to tell, tell me how to spend my time, my money, everything he gets to tell me whatever he wants to tell me, because I've submitted my life. I've come under the authority of the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ. I wonder if we fully grasp our need for Jesus and his gospel or is Jesus and the gospel something we've just kind of added to our lives. It's an appendage. We carry it around with us or has it been all consuming? Has, has Jesus made himself so real in our needs? So of him so real that we've just, we've taken him in and breathed him in and we've consumed him and we've allowed him to consume us. 5 (26m 14s): If we haven't done that, then we probably are missing the reality of the situation that we are desperately lost without him. We are not good at all in a culture that tells us we're good. The Bible says there is none righteous. No, not one, not even one. John Calvin wrote only those who have learned well to be earnestly dissatisfied with themselves and to be confounded shame at their wretchedness, truly understand the Christian gospel. We don't like the word shame, but, but as we look at the sinfulness of our lives, we need to be ashamed of that. 5 (26m 58s): We need to, we need to have a humble disgust Discontentment with our lives. I'll read that again. Only those two have learned well to be earnestly dissatisfied with themselves and to be confounded with shame at their wretchedness, truly understand the Christian gospel next verse, Hebrews 13, nine. So do not be attracted by strange new ideas then. And now the church has to be challenged, not to be attracted and distracted by strange new ideas. The enemy will always try to attract us to strange new ideas and the enemies pretty. 5 (27m 43s): I was actually reading this recently. The enemy is actually pretty good at delivering on his promise for a moment. Like if you do this sin, that will feel good and he's right for a moment. Right? But, but we don't see the full cost of that decision because the enemy is not going to show us that I was reading a story about a pastor who had many, many affairs extramarital affairs. And you know, the temptation is if it feels good, do it. And it feels good for a moment, whatever it is. But the price tag is unbearable. 5 (28m 26s): So for that guy, the price tag was his marriage for that guy. The price tag was his children for that guy, that price tag was his grandchildren for that guy. The price tag was his church and his ministry and his life as he knew it. And so the enemy will deliver on his promise to please you for a moment. But we got to remember the wages of sin is death. The penalty is always death. There's always a price to be paid. What are we willing to pay? So, Nope, don't be attracted by strange new ideas. Your strength comes from God's grace, not from rules about food, which don't help those who follow them. So let's look at these two, this verse in two sections, the first part of this verse. 5 (29m 10s): So do not be attracted by strange new ideas. First of all, there's nothing new under the sun. So everything that we're being tempted with today, the enemy has been tempting. People for generations, for thousands of years, strange or new stranger, new would be anything contrary or foreign to God's plan of salvation, anything different than the good news that Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross provided that Jesus provided the means of forgiveness and eternal life. If we're beginning to build our lives on anything else we're missing the mark, the enemy will always try to introduce subtle changes to sound doctrine. 5 (29m 50s): Why? Because if your doctrine can be corrupted, then your conduct can be corrupted. And if your conduct can be corrupted, your lives can be destroyed. And that's the goal is to steal, kill, and destroy. That's his purpose in the earth is steal, kill and destroy the apostle Paul address. This problem in gold, in the Galatians church in Galatians one six through eight, he wrote, I'm shocked that you are turning away so soon from God who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. They began to fall back into their old ways of relating to God and maybe earning God's favor that they begin to move back into the old covenant way of thinking the old law way of thinking and Paul so surprised, but I kind of get it. 5 (30m 47s): You know, we can kind of manage the law in our, you know, when we're delusional and think we can actually keep the law. The Bible says, if you break one part of the law, you're guilty of breaking all the laws. So the reality is that we can't keep any of the law, even if we're good in one area, we broken the other. And so we're guilty of breaking the whole law. So, but we, we kind of come up with this convoluted idea that I can do a, B and C one, two and three. And so the enemy gets us focused on those things, but in doing so where we've divorced ourselves from our need for Christ, whose grace is sufficient, who said, Hey, because you weren't or enabled to keep the whole law because you weren't able to attain righteousness in your own works. I came and it became your sacrifice. 5 (31m 28s): Your final sacrifice, you were following a different way. Paul said that pretends to be the good news, but it's not the good news at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. And this is the reality. Every other faith, every other religion under the sun will always twist the truth about who Jesus is. So they describe him and define him in a lesser way than this. Holy scripture is define and describe him. They will always limit him. He will always be less than what the scriptures declare him to be. 5 (32m 10s): So he's not the king of all Kings. He's not God incarnate. He's a God. The Jehovah's witnesses will say, he's not the king of the eternal one. He's the spirit brother of Lucifer Mormons will say new agers will say that he was a good teacher, that he was an enlightened leader, but that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says he is king. That is eternal. And that he is the one way to the father. Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life. And no man comes to the father except through me. Every other faith in the world, humanism secularism in any ism will, will define and describe Jesus in lesser terms than what the scripture describes and defines Jesus. 5 (32m 55s): And so this is why we always go back to the scripture. We always find our theology and our, our beliefs about who God is through the word of God, not even internal sources, although some external sources will help us understand the word of God, but that's the word of God that ultimately speaks to our understanding. Galatians one continues, let God's curse fall on anyone, including us, or even an angel from heaven who preaches a different kind of a good news than the one we preach to you. I say it again. What we have said before, if anyone preaches any other good news, then the one you welcome. Let that person be cursed because that person is leading people astray. 5 (33m 42s): God's coming, that we might have life and life abundantly. People preaching a different gospel. Once you lay heavy burdens on us and distract us from the life that God has called us to live. Second part of verse nine says your strength comes from God's grace, not from rules about food, which don't help. Those who followed them. Paul explains to Timothy in first Timothy four, one through five. Now the holy spirit tells us clearly that in the last times, in the last days, some will turn away from the true faith. They will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. 5 (34m 22s): So I'm going to say something it's unpopular. Every other faith in the world that isn't about Christ is demonic. It's it's, it's, it's, it's in their religion and their experiences. Four is informed by the enemy of our soul. It's demonic. Even those who seem like they're doing some incredible work. It is. It's an invention of Satan. It's a counterfeit, it's demonic. And this is what we see here. I'll read it again. Now the holy spirit tells us clearly that in the last times, in the last days, some will turn away from the true faith and they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. 5 (35m 8s): These are people, these people are hypocrites and liars and their consciences are dead. They will say it's wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain foods, but God created those foods to be eaten with. Thanks by faithful people who know the truth, since everything God created is good. We should not reject any of it, but receive it with thanks for, we notice made acceptable by the word of God and prayer. So there's this temptation to become a POS state, to begin to move away from the truth of the gospel, to begin to dilute and to redefine what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. And we begin to mix in like, it's our option to mix in new age philosophies and ideologies and thinking and other religious and worldly things we get. 5 (35m 56s): We think we can kind of mixed all that in and serve Jesus. When the reality is that we need to examine our lives, eliminate everything that is godless and new age and contrary to the scripture and eliminate it and just make the word of God, our focus and our priority. So there's this apostasy, this kind of falling away. We see it. More people just begin to slip, begin to compromise, begin to change, begin to fall away from the truth. It's demonic. It's this apostasy is falling away. It's demonic, it's deceptive. And it's distorted in its origin. 5 (36m 38s): These deceiving spirits are evil and work in individuals to promote chaos and to seduce them into believing false doctrines concerning God, Jesus concerning the church concerning the Bible and especially the way of salvation. So the enemy is constantly trying to confuse us about the truth. And so we just need to be constantly opening up the word of God. Every time I open up the Bible old or new Testament, I get clarity. No matter what I'm dealing with. If it's an old Testament passage or a new Testament passage is I open up the scripture and just avail myself to the word of God, my heart, my mind, my spirit. I just get clarity about things. I get clarity about who I am in Christ. 5 (37m 20s): I get clarity about who God is and about what he's doing in the world. I get peace. I get, I get joy. I get clarity because of the truth that is spoken to me. So our spiritual strength comes from God's grace, which is communicated to us through God's word, not from religious rules, that demand conformity, but lack any ability to spiritually strengthen or give eternal life. I mean, that's what the religious elite in Jesus' day were all about. The Sadducees and the Pharisees. They were about he being expectations on the people, never lifting a finger to actually help them work called as the body of Christ to use our gifts, to Edify, to build up the church, to build people up in their most holy faith. 5 (38m 0s): And so God has called us to do what he's doing. He's speaking to people to lighten their load. Jesus said, come to me, all you who labor and every lady I will, I will give you rest of your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So anything that's contrary to scripture, maybe you're feeling experiencing it. If you're, if you're feeling the weight of something on your, your shoulders or in your soul, you need to figure out what it is. Maybe the Lord's trying to convict you. Sometimes conviction and condemnation seem very similar. But the difference is that when we ask the Lord, what's going on, am I feeling convicted? Or am I condemned? And the Lord will show us, he'll show you a sin that you're being convicted about, or he'll show you that it's the enemy of your shoulder trying to condemn you. 5 (38m 43s): And so if it's the enemy of your soul, trying to condemn you, then you just need to cast that out in Jesus name. I just say, Lord, would you get rid of that in Jesus' name? That's not from you. I don't want to carry that around. And if it's a conviction for a sin or something, I've in word thought or deed, I've done. I say, Lord, forgive me. And then we just move forward. I always encourage us to keep short accounts with Jesus, keep short accounts. If you stumble, acknowledge it, admit it, repent of it and move forward. That's the gospel. That's your whole life. You'll be doing that until you go to meet Jesus until he arrives until he takes us home, we will be doing that same thing. Get used to it, get humble about it. Get excited about it. 5 (39m 23s): Because when we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, our spiritual strength comes from God's grace that is communicated through his word and his, the reality of who we are in Christ, Romans 14, 17 says this for the kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the holy spirit. When you're walking with Jesus, the way that God has invited us to walk with him, this is what you'll be experiencing life of goodness and peace and joy in the holy spirit, goodness, and peace and joy in the holy spirit. And that our aim like I wanna, I wanna experience that. 5 (40m 6s): Well, w the way you experience it as just by honoring Jesus, by walking with Jesus, to just be with the Lord, constantly be praying with, without ceasing. You're just, you're, you know, I was out in the garden yesterday, pruning things, and I'm just praying the whole time. And I, it just, there's just something about that lifestyle. Yeah. I don't do it perfectly, but there's something about it that brings goodness and peace and joy in the holy spirit. Verse 18. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, in that great news. We're always wondering how do I please, God, right? This is how you please God living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the holy spirit. 5 (40m 49s): If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God and others will approve of YouTube verse 19. So then let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up harmony in the church when we're operating out of any other priority, out of any other motivation, there's going to be pride in our lives. I don't know about you, but well, pride I'm con I'm like harsh with people and critical of people think I'm better than I really am. And then God gets my attention. Then I realize, and then all of a sudden, out of that reality, that truth I'm I I'm able to extend grace and I'm able to do what God has called me to do in my life. 5 (41m 30s): Not just as a leader, pastor, but as a father, husband, grandfather, all of us things let's continue. Continue in Hebrews 13, 10. It says we have an altar from which the priests in the tabernacle have no right to eat. Why? Because that old system, that old religious system is dead. It's obsolete. Jesus has made it dead and obsolete. So the writer's making a clear distinction here, the old and the new system, Jesus has called us into this new covenant, whereby we are saved by grace through faith, and that he has offered himself as the final sacrifice. 5 (42m 13s): And so these priests who are stuck in the old system have no access to this. Alter the priest under the operating under the old system, have no access to the altar of the Lord. Jesus Christ. When we're operating out of works and trying to please God through our good works, we've got no access to the grace of Lord Jesus Christ. We're saying, Hey, I'm choosing works. We need to choose Jesus Christ offered his life on the altar of sacrifice once for all time, making final atonement for the sins of man once. And for all the old covenant is obsolete. Hebrews 1311 says that under the old system, under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the holy place as a sacrifice for sin. 5 (43m 1s): And the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. Under the old covenant, constant sacrifice was needed to atone for the sins of the people. Hebrews 7 23 says this. There were many priests under the old system for death, prevented them from, from remaining in office. But because Jesus lives forever. He's eternal. His priesthood lasts forever there for, he is able once and forever to save to save. And that word means to save completely. The word is so Zoho. It means to save completely, to make whole and to heal. This is the power of the salvation that's available to us in Christ. 5 (43m 44s): He's able to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. Hebrews seven continues. He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven. Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did. They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people, but Jesus, but Jesus did this once for all. When he offered himself as a sacrifice for the people's sins, as we serve God, it's imperative that we keep focused on the changeless perfection of Jesus. 5 (44m 30s): There's a thousand things that try to distract us. Why do we need to stay focused on the changeless perfection of Jesus? Because our strength comes from his grace. Our strength comes from the reality of who he is and the reality of who we have become as followers of Jesus. Hebrews four 16 says, so let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There, we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it. Most. Number two more practical, faith living number two, live boldly, and be willing to look the fool for Jesus, Live boldly and be willing to look the fool for Jesus. 5 (45m 13s): Most of us aren't willing to do that. We're uncomfortable even bringing up the name of Jesus. If we're honest, most of us would have a hard time even telling somebody that Jesus loves them, let alone look the fool for Jesus, but really that's what he's called us to do to live completely devoted and committed to him, Willing to say, do, go wherever, whatever the Lord would have us to do. Verse 12 says, so also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood. So Jesus is crucified out side. The city, a picture may be of his separation from the old religious system. 5 (45m 57s): Normally the priests Could eat, whatever was left over after the sacrifice was made. But on the day of a Toma, the leftover sacrifice is taken outside the city to be burned. Jesus' atoning work was accomplished outside the city, outside the religious system of the day. So verse 13 says, so let us go out to him outside the camp and bear the disgrace. He bore. What disgrace did he bear? He hung naked on a cross 9 (46m 27s): Scorned, 5 (46m 28s): Beaten, pierced Crucified for my sin. He hung there naked in front of everybody dying for my sin. And I'm afraid to even tell somebody about him. 9 (46m 43s): There's 5 (46m 43s): Something's got to shake loose in us, Whereby we decide in Jesus' name, that we're not going to be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ whereby we're. We're going to stand firm as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And we're going to point people to him. We're, we're declaring to the world, to our friends, with our family, with, with tastes, but with kindness and love and with conviction, we're declaring that Jesus is his Lord. So let us go out to him outside the camp and bear the disgrace Gracie board. We should be willing to at least emulate the one we follow. Maybe this will change your mind. The Bible says here in verse 14 for this world is not our permanent home. 5 (47m 26s): This world is not our permanent home. We are looking forward to a home yet to come. And yet we're so settled in into this life. We're trying to make this life so comfortable and so amazing. We're not even thinking about the world to come. So we're not thinking about our friends and family who will die one day apart from Christ and go straight to their judgment straight into the fiery pits of hell. We're not thinking about that because we're just trying to, we're just trying to make this life comfortable. We're just trying to make investments so that we can retire someday and travel and do all of the things that we want to do. Not once thinking about the people around us, I was talking to a friend of mine over lunch on Friday, and he was saying, my dentist, that I've been going to for 25 years passed away. 5 (48m 12s): And I realized when I heard that he passed that I had never once shared the gospel with him. And I'm thinking to myself, I've never once shared the gospel with my dentist. You know, we've got these people in our lives and we compartmentalize them. Like I'm here for a checkup. I'm not going to bring Jesus into the conversation. I'm just here for this or my gardeners here to cut the lawn. I'm not going to bring Jesus into the conversation or my coworkers, or I've been working with them for decades, but I'm not going to bring Jesus into the conversation. I don't want things to become awkward. I don't want things to be come uncomfortable. The gospel is awkward. 5 (48m 52s): It's uncomfortable. It confronts our sinfulness and it needs to confront our sinfulness. I'm so glad that the gospel was communicated to me. It radically changed my life forever and all my descendants forever. It's changed my life. So glad somebody decided to broach that uncomfortable conversation. Tell me that I'm a sinner in need Jesus. We want to soft pedal it. Jesus will make your life great. And you give your life to Jesus is going to be like one of the hardest things did you ever do? Trying to walk that out, trying to remain faithful, opening up the word every day. Praying constantly. I'm reading the scripture in the old Testament king David, before he's anointed king, but he's not there yet. 5 (49m 35s): He becomes king at age 30, but as he's working his way there, he's praying at every turn about battles about confrontations, Lord, what do you want me to do? It's just, it's this life of surrender to God where we're saying, God, is this what you want for my life? Is this the path? Is this the conversation? Is this the confrontation? Whatever it is, Lord, I w I'm willing to do that. So we can't soft pedal it because soon as things get difficult for people like we know it gets difficult for people. Is it ever been difficult for you as a follower of Jesus? Absolutely. So don't say it's going to be easy and all you're going to receive as God's grace. I mean, that's, you'll receive God's grace, but you're entering into a battle. That's worth it. It's like you've got enlisted into the Marine Corps and you're going to the front lines. 5 (50m 20s): So we need to be honest about the truth of what's going on. Hey, you need Jesus. He died for your sins. Give him control of your, and he will radically change your life forever. That's really what it's all about, right? It's not about just showing up to church on a Sunday morning, click in that box. And it's about giving your life to Jesus. If you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord, how do we miss that Lord over everything. My time, my talent, my treasure, my whole life. Jesus. I'm surrendered to you. My whole life belongs to you. Nothing is withheld. That's that's the call. Jesus said to his disciples, come and follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. 5 (51m 2s): Leave your boats, leave your family, come and follow me. And I will give you a whole new purpose in life. We had Christianity like it's an appendage or like something in our tool belt. Like it's something, you know, and we totally miss it. And I wonder, we've never felt passionate about sharing the gospel with people. It's, hasn't really impacted our lives very much. When Jesus begins to impact your life, you'll start telling people about him. Cause he matters to you. He's transformed your life. I was talking to a friend of mine earlier this last week and she was talking about a pastor in north county. His name is pastor Pete. Before he got saved. 5 (51m 42s): His name was pistol. Pete. Not because it's cute, but because he had 15 felonies on his record and he earned his nickname, pistol, Pete. Now they call him pastor Pete, because his life has been completely transformed. I don't think that needs to be. That's not like the rare thing. That's like the thing. This is what God does. He trans forms our lives. And if he hasn't transformed your life, you've got to go back to the drawing board. Yes, he got I'm I'm coming back because I don't feel like I'm getting it. My life has not been transformed. I'm still watching the same stuff. I still talk the same way. I still entertained by the same things. 5 (52m 22s): I'm still having sex outside of marriage. I'm still lying on my taxes. I'm still cheating my employer. I'm still doing all these things. My life hasn't changed. Go back to the drawing board and confess and just let Jesus know that you've missed it because you have, you can't do those things and follow Jesus. You can't do those things and follow Jesus. It's oxymoron. It's your swimming up. There's two separate places you're trying to go. And you're gonna just be miserable For this world is not our permanent home. 5 (53m 3s): God will bless us with places to live and roof and all of those things, but that's not the priority. Jesus. And the kingdom is his priority. I was reading in second Samuel chapter six recently. And in this chapter king, David is bringing in the Ark of the covenant back into, into Jerusalem. And he's so excited. He's so excited that the presence of God, the Ark represents the presence and the power and the blessing of God. He's so excited that the arc of the covenant is coming back into Jerusalem. He's dancing and celebrating as the arc is ushered in. 5 (53m 44s): This is the king of Israel, but he realizes he's not the king, but Jesus is the king. He's the king of Israel, but God is the king of all Kings. And he will be submitted and live his life before the Lord. David's wife was embarrassed by his adoration of the Lord. Why was she embarrassed? Because she didn't know God, she'd never been touched and encountered the God of king David. So she said in first 16, first Samuel six, it's not up there, but it's an Ark of the Lord to enter the city of David. Michael, the daughter of Saul looked down from her window. And when she saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she was filled with contempt for him. 5 (54m 30s): That's, that's what the world will think about us for a while, till Jesus shows up and they're going to think completely different about us. And if we haven't shared the gospel with people, with love and grace and conviction and, and truth and compassion, w w w David was, was willing to live boldly and he was willing to look the fool for Jesus. Number three, more practical faith living demonstrate faithful allegiance to Jesus. It's kind of what we've been talking about. 5 (55m 12s): Demonstrate faithful allegiance to Jesus. Therefore, first 15, let us offer through Jesus. A continual sacrifice of praise to God proclaiming our allegiance to his name. Our praise should proclaim our allegiance. It has to be focused and our praise should be committed to the focus and the allegiance of Jesus or a love for him. Verse 16 says, don't forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please, God, person's greatest need salvation. 5 (55m 53s): Everything else is secondary and temporal. Person's greatest need is salvation. They need the gospel. Everything else is secondary and temporary. The gospel is what is primary and eternal. Our actions should proclaim our allegiance. The way that we live should demonstrate that our allegiance is to Jesus. And yet we live as if our allegiance is our retirement accounts. Our next vacation, our family, our kids are animals. 5 (56m 34s): Our hobbies are sports, anything but Jesus and people look at our calendars and they see church from nine to 10 on Sunday morning that doesn't demonstrate allegiance to Jesus because the other hours of the week are focused on everything else. It's not to be a condemning message. It's just to wake us up in this culture. What is our allegiance to is our allegiance to Jesus, or is it to everything else in our lives? Does Jesus get to decide what we do with our lives? With our time, our talent and our treasure? Does Jesus get to the side or are we just deciding and hoping he blesses it? 5 (57m 14s): Does Jesus get to the side is again, as David would go into battle before he would even go into battle, he'd say, Lord, is this the direction that you would have me to go before I move into a town? Lord, is this the town that you want me to go before? I have this conversation? Is this the conversation that you want me to have? And you let God be God, and you let him direct. You you'll save yourself a whole lot of heartache. If you let God be God in your life, you've come to Jesus. I've come to Jesus because I can't be God in my own life. I've messed it up from start to finish. Jesus comes in and everything gets put in his proper place. And don't forget to do good and to share with those in need. 5 (57m 54s): These are the sacrifices that please God. So our actions should proclaim our allegiance. Our words, thoughts and deeds should demonstrate our faithful allegiance to Jesus. The use of our time, our talent and treasure should demonstrate faithful allegiance to Jesus time. I don't know what the statistics are at harvest church, but everybody should have a ministry in their lives. God has equipped each of us with a, a talent that's to be used for the kingdom. So maybe it's work within the church. Maybe it's work within ministries like lifeline or whatever it is, but you've gotta be using your gifts for kingdom work. 5 (58m 40s): And so none of us should be here without being a part of it. Like every one of us should have a job, like a responsibility within the kingdom, within the body of Christ time, reflecting our allegiance to Jesus. We spend our time doing everything else, making time for everything else, except for Jesus time talent using our gifts to do what Jesus has called us to do our treasure. What are you doing with your money? 5 (59m 21s): Is it demonstrating your allegiance to Jesus? Where is it demonstrating your allegiance to your next vacation, your retirement? What's your priority with your resources? I, from the earliest time I talked to my kids about tithing giving 10% of your income. I was show them, check, see, this is what tide looks like. Here's my paycheck. Here's my tie. That's 10% at least of what I make I'm giving to the work of the kingdom, because I want to disciple my kids in truth. So many young people are growing up and they're not giving their time, talent or treasure to the kingdom. So many old people are living life, not giving anything of their time, talent, or treasure to the kingdom. 5 (1h 0m 2s): It demonstrates your allegiance to the world. When you live like that, it doesn't demonstrate your allegiance to Jesus. What are you doing with your time, talent, your treasure? Does it reflect your allegiance to Jesus time? Are you investing yourself talent, using your talents to expand the kingdom? We pray every, every day, every morning, Jolene and I pray and we pray that everything we do, we would just expand the kingdom that we would use our gifts and talents to expand the kingdom. We've been praying that not just for, since we've been in vocational ministry, but since we've been married for the last 32 years, we just pray this all the time. We want the kingdom to be expanded. Not because we're professional ministers, pastors, not because I'm a pastor. 5 (1h 0m 42s): I've done this my whole life. Since I knew Jesus. Since I've known Jesus, we're all called to do what God has called us to do. What has God called you to do are using your time talent? Your treasure ties means 10%. So if you make a thousand bucks, a hundred bucks goes into kingdom work. That's how that works. 10%, not 1% or 2% or 3%, 10%. That's just, that's what the ties means. Say, well, I don't believe in the tithe. Well then you don't believe in the Bible. Not saying it God's bus. Do what you want with this information, but I hope I've at least triggered something in your soul that helps you to realize, helps me to realize that Jesus, I, every part of my life needs to be reflect my allegiance to him. 5 (1h 1m 34s): So I could preach a softer message that would fill seats. But you don't want to hear that. I don't want to preach that kind of stuff. My job is to preach the gospel. And if you get mad at me, it's okay. It's probably good. I got kicked out of puppet ministry when I was in high school. Junior high school. Yeah. I joined the puppet ministry cause Jolene was in a puppet ministry, but my life wasn't quite squared away with the Lord. And so I was partying on the weekends and doing all kinds of stupid stuff. And my youth pastor said, you can't do puppet ministry until you get your life squared away. 5 (1h 2m 15s): And I was mad about it. It's like, you can't do that. And he's like, I just did. All right. We need people to yank our chains from time to time. It's not gonna do any good. If I just stand up here and both smoke, you need to hear the gospel need to hear the truth and your life needs to reflect your allegiance. So don't leave here and just go back to life. As it is, go back and reflect and think, how is my life reflecting? Jesus. We've got work to do. I don't want to do it alone. I know I'm not, but what has God called you to do? What has God called you to do with that? Let's go and stand up and invite the worship team. 5 (1h 2m 56s): More practical, faith living Lord, if we need it, thank you for it. Lord convict us where we need conviction. Encourage us, where we need encouragement, help us, where we need help. Lord, forgive us where our faith is. Small. Forgive us for our lack of belief. Our lack of obedience. God, we repent in Jesus name. Repent means I'm not doing that anymore. So I pray God from the youngest to the oldest, everybody would use their gifts, their time, talent, and treasure to honor you to reflect the allegiance. Thank you, Lord. Proper allegiance. 5 (1h 3m 37s): Amen. 0 (1h 3m 45s): Jesus paid it 2 (1h 3m 50s): All 0 (1h 3m 51s): To him. I see it had led to cribs and Steed. He washed . She says 1 (1h 5m 44s): Thank you, Jesus, that you have washed our sin away. Thank you that you have made us clean. Thank you for the cross for salvation That we get to have a hope in eternity because of your son. Thank you. That we got to be in the house this morning and worship your name In Jesus name. We pray. Amen. If you would like prayer this morning, we have a prayer team at Fred, so you can make your way forever forward. Otherwise have a wonderful day and we'll see you next week.

1 (2s): Happy Easter. What'd you stand as we worship marking this morning. 2 (2m 23s): I give my to this by the lamb who was 4 (4m 44s): All right. Good morning. Good, welcome. Welcome to Horace church outdoor Easter service. Hey, my name is Jeremy. I'm the youth and family pastor here at harvest church. And we just want to say welcome. Thank you for joining us. And there's been a long standing tradition in the church that is to say he is arisen, and then you respond with, he is risen. Indeed. Can we do that? All right. So he is risen. Amen. That is the, that is the day that we celebrate today. The risen savior. So, so welcome. Hey, just a few announcements this morning. We've got some great stuff on. Normally we meet at 1 0 2 west branch street right there in the village, and that's our normal service, but sooner agree, moving to 1 0 2 west branch. 4 (5m 28s): The something's different location. That's be our new worship center will be in there shortly, but we're excited about that. Just to let you know the lay of the land. We have the info center back here, and you can get all the find out all about CA harvest church and ways to plug in. We have our coffee and water over here as well, as well as the bathrooms are right back there. So you want to know where those things are. That's where they well, that's where they are. But we just want to say thank you. If you're joining us for the first time, feel free to go back to the info center and fill out a communication card. We'd love to find out more about you and ways to get plugged into harvest church. And for those kids that are here, we're so glad you're here in, in service with us. 4 (6m 11s): Normally we have an amazing kids program, but this morning, it's family Sunday. What a great day to celebrate Easter with a family. So kids are in service parents. If you just keep an eye on your kids, that the service has been amazing, but the kids afterwards, we have a special egg hunt for you guys. So there'll be more on that in a bit. And then lastly, Hey, we're going to be having some baptisms today. We're believing that there's going to be some people who are going to make their decision to follow Jesus for the first time this morning. So after service, pastor Steve is going to give the, the invite and we have a baptism tank right over here. We can baptize you today, fully immerse you in water, just like Jesus was. 4 (6m 51s): And it's going to be an exciting Sunday. We already have a bunch of people signed up. So it's going to be a, it's going to be an incredible day to see, see that that take place in the life of the, of the believers. So we're going to have baptisms after service. And if you're thinking, well, I didn't bring my shirt. I didn't bring shorts. I didn't bring a towel. Put those things aside because we have all those things ready for you. We got, we got stuff to go. So if you've never been baptized and you believe in the Jesus as your Lord and savior, we want to baptize you today. So amen. Let's say he is risen. Amen. Let's worship again. 2 (7m 52s): The stars just shy. They're half screen moms to have the words to see There is it time to see Jesus. 2 (12m 24s): This song is food. 6 (12m 55s): I cast my, my two Cauvery with And Todd for me, I see his, his hands, his fee. I say, if you're corsetry His body and dressed, and two, they laid him down and Josephs to the streets. 6 (13m 39s): You buy Haffey stone. 6 (15m 27s): In robes of why the blazing shall Pierce. The hand-eye will ride among the same. My gaze transfixed on Jesus. 7 (17m 55s): We are so grateful. So grateful for sunshine and overwhelmed by your goodness. Every time we do an outdoor service, you just make things happen for us. Thank you, God, that you are in charge of the weather and overseeing all things in life for God. And so we just invite your presence. Lord, we invite you to eat to us, to continue to move among us. God, every person's in a different season of life, dealing with different challenges and struggles. And as we've gathered, Lord, you've got the capacity and the desire to speak to each of us, to minister, to each of us. 7 (18m 39s): And so we invite you to do that and just a powerful and profound way. Do what only you can do work supernaturally in every soul gathered Lord, we prayed. We are so thankful for your love. So, so thankful for your goodness. We bless you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Hey man, he is raised in say seated. He is risen. He is risen. Indeed remain standing. And we're going to read from Matthew 28 drinks. Yes, sorry. Please stay on Matthew 28 verses one through seven. It says this early on Sunday morning as the new day was dawning Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. 7 (19m 23s): Suddenly there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord, came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone and sat on it. His face shown like lightning and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him and they fell into a dead faint. Then the angel spoke to the women. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. He said, I know you're looking for Jesus. Who was crucified. He isn't here. He is risen from the dead, just as he said, what happened? He has risen from the dead just as he said, what happened? 7 (20m 4s): Come, come see where his body was lying. And now go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you? The angel said, don't be afraid. He has risen from the dead. Amen. Amen. Turn and greet somebody. And we will come right back in just a moment. Say hello to your neighbor. We'll come right back. 7 (21m 10s): Alrighty, come on back. Come on back. I'm going to met somebody new today. Somebody, anybody being in a brand new. Good, good, good. That's the idea. Welcome. So I've got a joke to kick us off here as we kind of get things rolling again. I'm told that everybody loves my jokes. And so here we go. Did you hear, did you hear about the Jewish guy who sold his family tomb? His wife was furious with him. This family tomb had been in the family for generations and she assumed rightfully so that she would be buried there, that her husband would be buried there. 7 (21m 51s): And that generations following would be buried there. So she asked him, who did you sell the family tomb to? She said, he said, well, it was this guy named Jesus, but he told me that he only needed it for three days. That's as good as it gets research. Sorry guys, we're talking about hope today. Hope resurrected in order for something to be resurrected, someone or something to be resurrected. And obviously it has to be dead first. So when we talk about hope being resurrected, we're talking about something that has been dead, a person, a plan, a purpose, something has died. 7 (22m 38s): And we're here today to talk about the resurrection power of the Lord, Jesus Christ. As we talk about the resurrection of the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the historic person, Jesus Christ. We're also talking about the resurrection of the hope that he is. He is the hope of the world. He is absolutely the hope of the world. So we're talking about Jesus, who is our hope being resurrected from the dead, but we're also talking about the hope we can experience in light of the reality of Christ's resurrection. So hope is a noun and a verb. We have hope and we exercise hope. 7 (23m 19s): We have hope in the person and the work of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And we exercise hope. We put our hope in him. Those who know the Lord, we already have hope. And for those of you who are here today, and you don't know Jesus, if you're here, just kind of checking things out, you can know Jesus, you can choose hope today. Have you ever felt hopeless in your life? I felt that times, maybe my earliest memory of feeling hopeless was in 1980, in 1980, I was 11 years old and we were visiting friends in Ventura. And on the day that we were supposed to leave to come back to this area, my mom sent me off for a quart of milk at the storm. 7 (24m 5s): And so I go to the store. I find my way there. I get the milk and I've got a terrible sense of direction. So I come out the wrong door and I had the wrong direction. And I spend the next 12 hours looking for the place that I'm supposed to be returning to. The street that I was looking for was Amherst. The street that I thought I needed to be heading toward was I, I thought I was heading toward Ash. So if you look on a map, Ash street in Amhurst and Ventura is about four and a half miles apart. So I spent the day wandering, looking for the wrong place. I was looking for the wrong streets. 7 (24m 48s): And when did it occur to me that I could probably find my way back by remembering the store that I had gone to initially I began to have some hope. So I began to ask the question to people around me, Hey, how do you get to this market? I can't remember the name of the market now, but I began to ask, how do I get back to this market? And they said, are you sure you want to go to that market? That's like way across town. I said, no, that is that's the spot I need to get back to that market. And so over time I made my way back to the markets. And from there made my way to my friend's house, where we were staying. And 12 hours later, I made it home. And, but I was completely hopeless until I realized the direction that I needed to head. 7 (25m 32s): And once I had that direction, I just felt revitalized in my hope. And I, I knew that I was moving in the right direction and I knew eventually I would make it back to the place I started. How is hope resurrected in our lives? I believe hope is resurrected in our lives. And we have clarity about the direction of our lives when we're lacking clarity about the direction of our lives. We lack hope. We're not sure what tomorrow brings. We're not sure how to move forward. We're not sure who we are and what we're supposed to be about in this life. Especially given these last two years with COVID, it kind of wrecked the world and we're all kind of wondering and scratching our heads and trying to figure out how does this thing end. 7 (26m 14s): And here we are two years into it. And we're grateful that we can gather as a church, the people of God, people in the community on Easter service. But, but we, we, we, we needed in the midst of all that, to know somehow that this was going to come to an animal. We're so grateful that it's kind of wrapping up hope resurrected when Jesus was born and lives and was crucified and buried in that tomb, his followers were utterly hopeless. They had given everything away, they've sold everything. They had abandoned everything so that they might follow Jesus. 7 (26m 57s): Jesus would call them on the shores of the sea of Galilee. And they would say he was a common follow me. I will make you fishers of men. Like I'm going to change your whole life. Like, I don't want you to focus on what you've been focusing on up to this point. I want you to follow me and I will change your life. And even though Jesus had told them, listen, I'm going to die. And then on the third day, I will be resurrected. When it, it actually happened. His people were confused and lost and even angry. I would imagine. And just distraught at the reality that this Jesus that they gave everything for and were following for three years was dead. 7 (27m 40s): He was crucified unjustly, so and wrapped and put into a tomb. I mean, that's pretty final, right? It's, it's pretty final unless we're talking about God, unless we're talking about God. If we're talking about God, then nothing is final until God says it is final. When, when Jesus came out of that grave, hope was restored when they saw him. And the scripture says that 500 plus people saw him after his resurrection. It's a historical fact that Jesus resurrected from the dead, his disciples, his followers held on to that reality of that truth and gave their lives for the reality of that truth. 7 (28m 24s): They would not buckle. They would not change course because they knew that their savior had been resurrected from the dead. And so they gave their lives so that others might hear that message. Maybe you're here today and you don't know Jesus. Maybe you've never heard a gospel presentation. The gospel presentation is just Jesus. This is it's. This Jesus loves you. God, God lavish you. He's absolutely in love with you. And he wants to forgive your sins and welcome you into his family. He wants to bless your life and challenge you to follow him all the days of your life. I often say it like this. 7 (29m 5s): It's God has made it incredibly easy to walk in new life with him as a believer, as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. But it's the hardest thing you'll ever do. As you follow him, the very, the rest of your life, his grace is a free gift, but walking after him is the hardest thing that you will ever have to do. But it's the thing in life that makes everything in life worthwhile. Maybe you're here today and you don't know who Jesus is. The good news is that you can know him and he wants to know you and he wants to come into your life. But who is this? Jesus let's understand first. 7 (29m 46s): Who is this? Jesus? Well, most people are familiar with the name. Jesus few people truly know who he is and knowing Jesus identity and his mission are important because there are ramifications that are eternal connected to what we know and what we believe about Jesus. The ramifications are eternal. It doesn't just touch this life. Although it touches this life, it touches all of eternity. So the best source of information about Jesus is in the Bible. And the Bible tells us that Jesus is God. 7 (30m 26s): He is not a God. He is the God. Someone say that Jesus was a good teacher. And I would agree with you, but he wasn't just a good teacher. He was the teacher, the very best teacher. He was a rabbi, but he wasn't just a rabbi. He was the eternal God. The magnificent one who has been there since, before the foundation of the earth. He's eternal. He's eternal. He's certainly not just to clear some things up. He's not the new age. Jesus. They just have a different perspective. New agers don't believe that Jesus has God all mighty. And the second person of the Trinity, rather new agers reduce Jesus to a mere man who attained spiritual enlightenment through a cultic activity and involvements new age G new agers reduce Jesus. 7 (31m 18s): And number him among the so-called masters. Like the Buddha who offer a way to offer a way. But Jesus said in John 14, six, he said, I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the father except through me. So Jesus is not just a way. And if we think he's a way, then we're missing the point all together. He is actually the only way to the father. So he's not a Buddha. He's not an enlightened wan. He's not an enlightened master. He is God, some have said, he's a good man, but he's not just a good man. And honestly, he's probably not a good man. If we don't believe what he says about himself, if we don't believe that he is God and he is claiming to be God, then he's probably a lunatic. 7 (32m 4s): So we got to figure out what we believe about Jesus. He is God. And that's who he claims to be. He's fully God and fully man in the incarnation. He is not at all. He is here. This, he is not at all the spirit brother of Lucifer. That's not, that's not who Jesus is. You never married. And he never fathered children. He just never did those things. We need to read. The scripture. Charles Spurgeon wrote discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It's knowing the difference between rights and almost right. So we need to open up the scripture and understand who this Jesus is because it's the Jesus that we celebrate on Easter is the Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas. It's the Jesus. 7 (32m 45s): This Jesus, you came into the world so that we might have new life. He is eternal. He existed before his physical birth. And even before time began, he is the creator of everything that exists. He is the perfect reflection of the invisible God we see in Colossians one 15 through 17. It says Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is Supreme over all creation for through him. God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we cannot see such as Thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world, everything was created through him and for him. 7 (33m 32s): He existed before anything else. And he holds listen. He holds all creation together. Jesus is God. Jesus is the eternal king of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is God. He has the power to forgive sins. And his followers worshiped him. He, he is worthy of worship. Think about, think about this. The all-powerful eternal son of God, coming to earth as an infant. Imagine him lying in a manger, built with trees that he created. Imagine him under the stars that he created in flung into space. 7 (34m 17s): He's reduced to an infant child so that he might come and that we might know him and be saved through him. Scripture makes it clear that he was no ordinary baby. He's the savior of the world. The Bible declares that there's only one way to eternal life. And that is through faith in Jesus Christ. As savior acts four 12 says this salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. Jesus was given so that we might be saved. 7 (34m 57s): God is working in the world today. And I'm so thankful that idea, that reality should give us hope that he's Supreme over all things in the earth. He is working in the earth and he's always been working in the earth. He is working to bring us to himself by faith. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. It's the assurance of things we can not see. Hebrews 12 two says this through their faith. The people in days of old earned a good reputation through their faith, the people have days of older and a good reputation. So let's talk about a couple of people from days old. 7 (35m 37s): We're going to talk about Abraham and Sarah for a few minutes. So there's a guy in the Bible named Abraham and his wife's name is Sarah. When Abraham was 75 years old, the Lord made a promise to him at 75. The Lord said to him, this in Genesis 12 two, I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous. And you will be a blessing to others. So Abraham is like, okay, but there's a problem, Lord. There's a problem. It's all about impossible. You see I'm an old man. And my wife is barren. She can't have children. 7 (36m 19s): So it's an impossible word from the Lord. But listen, nothing is impossible with God. And when he declares something to be true, it will come to pass again. Abram's wife was barren. She wasn't able to have children. So where with this, where this nation come from, we read in Romans four 18. It says even when there was no reason for hope, have you been there even like, there was no reason for hope. Abraham kept hoping, believing that he would become the father of many nations for God had said to him, that was good enough for Abraham. God had said to him, that's how many descendants you will have. 7 (37m 2s): God's promise of children. Resurrected is hope. Because up to this point, 75 years old, he's got no descendants, nothing that a nation could be built around or be established through. He's got no descendants before then because of their age and inability to have children, they had no hope of children of a future, especially that type of future. But because they chose to believe God, they chose against all odds. They chose to believe God, their hope was resurrected. So number one hope is resurrected. When we choose to believe God against all odds, hope is resurrected. 7 (37m 45s): When we choose to believe God against all odds, where do you need to believe God against all odds in your life? Maybe you're up against a physical infirmity. That seems impossible. Maybe you're in a relationship that seems like it's going to and, and, and not well, where do you need the Lord to speak a word, a promise to you from his word, where do you need to be built up? Where do you need your hope resurrected? I've watched God heal people against all odds. We've seen it happen over and over again. I've watched God restore marriages against all odds. 7 (38m 26s): We've seen it happen over and over again. I graduated from college and grad school against all odds. If you know me, that's a miracle, right? That's a supernatural miracle, but it happened by God's grace. I've been married for 32 years to the same woman. That's a miracle. Again. If you know me, you know, that's a miracle. That's just, that should not have happened. I pastored the same church for 19 years against all odds. And we've watched God do wonderful and supernatural things. Hey Abraham, he waited 25 years for God's promised to come to pass. It's a long time. Sometimes we're in this waiting season where we we've heard something, we felt the Lord leading. 7 (39m 9s): We know that God has spoken and directed, but we've been in a season of waiting. This is God's emo. And he's what he does. He, he speaks and in the waiting, he builds us up in our faith. He challenges us to believe and to continue to hope in him and Romans four 19, it says, and Abraham's faith did not weaken. Even though at about a hundred years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead. And so was Sarah's womb. So now he's not 75, he's a hundred and still nothing, but he never wavered. He continued to believe God. 7 (39m 49s): Abraham kept believing God against all odds. Verse 20 says Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger. Isn't that amazing? His faith grew stronger. And in this, he brought glory to God. Listen, if you wait in your season of waiting and believe God and allow your faith to grow stronger, you will, you will enjoy life more. You will honor the Lord. You will glorify God. And then you will get to see God do what he told you he would do. So open up the scripture and find out what the Lord has told you. 7 (40m 29s): He will do. And we're going to be talking about some of the promises of God here in just a moment. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. Verse 21. Are you, are you fully convinced? I think we, we need to get there. As people, as believers, we need to be fully convinced that God is who he said. He, he is that Jesus is who he said he is. And that he is going to do what he said he would do. We needed to be fully convinced how hope is resurrected when we choose, we have to choose to believe God against all odds. And so it's not easy. It's not an easy thing to do, but by God's grace, if we, as we continue to look to him and believe him and put our faith in him, hope is resurrected. 7 (41m 10s): Hope is resurrected. When we choose to believe God against all odds. Number two hope is resurrected. And when we, when we keep our eyes on God and on his promises, I, I noticed in my life that when there's problems, that's where I'm focused. Like I'm, I'm focused on the problems instead of the one who can bring the solution to the problem we were thinking about this service. We've been thinking about it for months, planning on it for months and, and inevitably, no matter what is happening in the weather, there's always rain like right around, right around the time that we're supposed to gather as a church outside the, you know, the one time a year that we gather outside. And so yesterday or Friday, when I'm writing this portion of my message, it was Friday at 1:29 PM. 7 (41m 56s): And I'm looking at the weather for Saturday because we got out here early yesterday and spent the day setting up and there was a 60% chance of rain. And so we thought, well, we're just going to go for it. And we're just going to pray. And we're just going to believe that God will bring out the sun and part the clouds and allow us to meet. And that's precisely what he has done. We've we believed God and looked to him as the, whether he's the weatherman. He can change the weather. He can do whatever it is that he wants to do. Friday 1 29, 60% chance of rain yesterday. So there's rain in the, in the early, early morning hours, and then we're setting up and then it starts to sprinkle on us. And we're like, you know what? 7 (42m 36s): It doesn't matter. We're just going to keep going. We're just going to keep going. And by God's grace, we set it up. And here we are. The temptation again, is to get our eyes on the problem, the obstacle, the battle, the, the need in front of us. We, we focus on that when we really need to get our eyes on God, who is able to bring solutions for all of those things, we were worried about the weather. We, we didn't get a promise. We didn't get a promise from the Lord that the weather would be good, but we sense that this was the right direction for us. And so we moved in that direction. We believe God not having a promise that the weather would be good, but believing that if God has called us out here, then he would make it plausible for us to have an outdoor service. 7 (43m 23s): So we moved forward. He trusted God for good weather, listen and believing. God doesn't mean we don't have doubts. It means we move forward despite our doubts, because we're all filled with doubt at different times. Like we're hearing something, we're reading the scripture, we're trying to move forward, but we've got doubts and fears and anxieties. So faith having hope is it doesn't mean we don't experience those things, but we have the grace and the strength to move forward. In spite of those things, hope is resurrected. Hope is resurrected. When we choose to believe God against all odds. Number one, number two hope is resurrected. When we keep our eyes on God and on his promises. Now let's look at some of God's promises to people of faith. 7 (44m 8s): Romans 4 22 says. And because of Abraham's faith, God counted him as righteous to be righteous, just means to be in right. Standing with God is not a good idea to like be in right standing with the creator and the judge of the universe and be like, I want to be in right standing with him. But I know in my own ability, in my own strength, in my own works, I can never get there. But by God's grace, he's imputed righteousness to those who believe. And so because of God and his goodness and not because of me and my goodness, because God, in his goodness, not because of you in your goodness, he will impure righteousness. When we believe because of Abraham Abraham's faith, God counted him as righteous. 7 (44m 49s): So again, to be righteous, it's just to be in right standing with God. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn't just for Abraham's benefit. It was recorded for our benefit to assuring us that God will also count us righteous. If we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus, our Lord from the dead. So, so what are we believing about God? Is it a belief that brings us humbly to a place of acknowledging our need for salvation, for the forgiveness of sins? What are we believing about Jesus? And are we believing in the right Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible. It's important that we understand Jesus from the context of the scripture that we have opened up the Bible and understand Jesus in light of scripture, Romans 4 25 says he, Jesus, he, Jesus was handed over to die because of our sins. 7 (45m 41s): And he was raised to life to make us right with God Romans five one, therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight, there's that word? Righteousness. Therefore, since we've been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God. So that is a promise. That's one of the promises that we can have as followers of the Lord. Jesus Christ. We can have peace. Now, if you've lived at all with any part of your life without peace, you w you really understand and value peace. A few years ago, I was really struggling with a lack of peace and I couldn't figure out what was going on in my life. I was, I just couldn't get happy. I couldn't get satisfied. He couldn't get fulfilled in, in any arena, Amy, any area of my life, I wanted to quit the ministry. 7 (46m 22s): I wanted to just do anything, but do what I was doing. I was just so unhappy. So my wife, with all of her wisdom, she said, Hey, do you have this symptom? And this symptom and this symptom and this symptom. And she went down a list of symptoms that she had downloaded from the internet. And I didn't realize, I thought, man, you've been paying close attention to my life. You know exactly what I'm going through. She said, no, these are just symptoms of depression. She said, I think you're depressed. I'm like, yeah, I think you're right. And so with some therapy and some prayer and some I'm medicated by the way. 7 (47m 4s): So little medication never hurt anybody, but I was able to get back to a place where I could put the full weight of my trust in God and believe him, there was something chemically going on in me. That was hindering me from doing that. So through the wisdom of my wife and doctors, I began to discover what was going on in and by God's grace, by God's grace. The hope of God, the peace of God, the grace of God just began to flow through my life. Once again, therefore, since we've been made right in God's sight, we've been made righteous by faith. We have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 7 (47m 44s): Listen, I don't care how many meds you're on. If you don't know Jesus as your Lord, you'll never have peace meds. Don't equal peace. It might be meds. Plus Jesus equals peace in my case, but you need Jesus. That's the, you need Jesus. And God is faithful to meet you and, and fill you with hope and to fill you with peace because of our faith. Christ has brought us into a place of undeserved privilege. That's another promise undeserved privilege. What does that look like? Well, we've been saved by his grace and adopted into his family when we, by faith, trust him. So we get actually adopted into his family. That's undeserved privilege where kids of the king, where we now stand and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. 7 (48m 29s): We understand where we're going. When it's all said and done, those are some of the promises of God. So number one, hope is resurrected. When we choose to believe God, it gets to all odds. Number two hope is resurrected. When we keep our eyes on God and on his promises. And number three, as we get ready to wrap up here, hope is resurrected. When we believe we are made right with God, by faith, maybe you're hearing you're wrestling. Cause you know, you're not right with God. If you will believe by faith and put your trust in God, you can have that sense of security. That sense of peace. That sense of joy, knowing that you're made right with God, Jesus was born. He lived, he died in resin, resurrected from the dead. 7 (49m 10s): So we might have new life so that we might be right with God so that we might have peace so that we can confidently enjoy fully, look forward to sharing God's glory. Whatever has you feeling hopeless God by his grace and goodness can resurrect your hope. Choose to believe God against all odds. Keep your eyes on God. And his promises believe that you can be made right with God by faith. No matter what you've done, no matter what you have done. If you, if you do these things, God will resurrect your hope. When Jesus died and was buried, his followers lost all hope. 7 (49m 54s): When Jesus resurrected, he restored their hope, their purpose and their joy. When I was lost as an 11 year old boy, my hope was restored. When I finally remembered where I needed to go, Jesus is calling you home. He's calling us home. What will you do with that invitation? That opportunity? Well, I want you to go ahead and stand and I'm going to pray you. And as we get ready to wrap up the service with some more prayer and song, I just want to invite you to do something with this invitation to receive the grace and the mercy of the Lord. 7 (50m 41s): Jesus Christ. Maybe you've heard the message over and over again. Maybe you've heard it here. You've heard it. Other places. Maybe you've been told the message, the gospel that Jesus loves you, that he died for you. That you might have new life in him. If you're here today and you want to say yes to Jesus, I just want you to pray this prayer and the quietness of your heart. You say, Jesus, I need you. Jesus. I welcome you into my life. Lord. I want you to be Lord and king and ruler of my life. I need you to forgive my sins. I need you to come into my life. And as you by faith, declare that prayer to the Lord, God hears. 7 (51m 22s): And he responds. He welcomes you into his family and he gives you new purpose for your life. It gives you new purpose, new identity, and he calls you like he called the original 12 common and follow me. That means you're gonna look at your life completely different from now on. You're going to be looking at your life through the lens, this lens. I'm a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ in my life is for him. If you've done that today, at some point after the service, if you've given your life to the Lord today, at some point after the service, I'm going to direct you over to the baptism tent. Not so that you can get baptized necessarily, but we've got a, we've got a new believers bag of information for you. 7 (52m 5s): But if you like to get baptized, as Jeremy said earlier, we've got t-shirts and shorts and towels that you can have, and we'll baptize you over there. So as we wrap up this part of the service, the band will be leading us. The band will be leading us. And as the band is leading us in worship, we're going to begin to assemble over there for those who want to be baptized and so make your way over there. And then the baptism will actually be on the screen as well. So Lord, with that, we just invite you. We invite you. We invite your presence. We thank you, Lord. We thank you for your goodness. Thank you for what you're doing. Lord in Jesus name. 7 (52m 47s): If you would like to receive prayer, there's, there'd be people over there ready to pray for you as well. People who love Jesus and who will love on you. So if you'd like to get prayer, receive a new believers pack. If you like to get baptized, head over there as we sing this last song. Amen. Let's worship. 9 (53m 7s): Let's sing this together. 6 (54m 42s): Yeah. Strange. His name is one It's a dome that you hoppy trouble. Hold your head up high. Don't feel the Big guys. 6 (55m 24s): 2 (1h 0m 12s): We To the Virgin came though. to that stone was moved forward for the land who was Yes, we magnify Jesus. 2 (1h 13m 46s): This song is a thousand hot and 9 (1h 14m 2s): Thank you Jesus so much for just a beautiful Easter Sunday morning, Lord. Thank you that you are saving us. Thank you that you sent your son Jesus to die a horrible death on the cross so that we could be right with you so we can have forgiveness of our sins. Lord, thank you for the resurrection. Thank you. That you're resurrecting hope in us today. And I just pray that as we go, would you just, would you just do that in, in hearts and minds today? Lord, in our communities and our families, Lord, would you be resurrecting hope where there might not be any? So we thank you for all this in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. 11 (1h 14m 47s): All right. Thank you all for joining us today. Happy Easter. Before you go, we have a for birth to four year olds and five to 10 year olds over here to your left. So be sure to head over there. We're going to be doing the acorns starting in a few minutes. So head on over, if you have kids that are birth to 10 years old, all right. Happy Easter. He is risen.

1 (2s): Welcome harvest 2 (3s): Church. Welcome this morning. Stand and worship with us. 1 (1m 48s): . 1 (3m 4s): I am who you say you are for me? Not against me. I am who you say hi. I am chosen show. Who's not foresee. Can you say you love for me? 1 (3m 43s): Not against me. I am who you say you love for the kids? 1 (4m 3s): 4 (4m 54s): Good morning, everybody. Go ahead and have a seat on no. Okay. Hold on a second. I'm good. I'm good. Okay. I was on, but I wasn't on whatever that means. So good morning. Welcome. Love to have you all gathered together today, a beautiful day out. So want to welcome you, those of you in the sanctuary, also in the loft and the patio, and those are tuning in online. So my name is Ron and I have a few pieces of information you might be interested in. So the first of which is today is, is what we call family Sunday. So the fourth, Sunday of each month, what we do is we encourage families to worship together. 4 (5m 36s): And so if you have kids that are first grade and up, they don't have class today. They're they're in with mom and dad with a family. And if you have kids younger than first grade, if you want to keep them with you in church, that's totally fine. We encourage that. But if you want to take them to class, we do have class for the little ones. So you'll feel, feel free to do that. Also on family Sunday, it's popular because we have donuts. So I head up the driveway, right near the info center. You're going to find a bunch of donuts, feel free to help yourself. There's coffee up there, and just a fun time to gather together and have coffee and donuts. But more importantly, today, we also have communion. And so towards the end of Steve's message, he will be inviting us to partake of communion and have communion together as, as the family of God. 4 (6m 22s): So we can look forward to that. If you're new to harvest church, we want to welcome you super happy to have you with us today. And if you have, if you'd like any information you need about harvest church, you can head up the driveway to the info center. There's some folks who would love to talk to you about what's going on here. Or if you prefer, you can go onto our website or our church app, and you can find out what's going on that way as well. So what we do three or four, three times a year, we have life groups that we start up. I should know this, right? If I'm making the album is I should know about this. So what we have is, is a new flyer. We put together about the different life groups that are coming up quickly. 4 (7m 2s): It beginning in may. So a life group is simply a small group of folks that gathered together in somebody's home may be here on campus, smaller venues during the week. And we w we really encourage everybody to get involved in a life group, a small group, because that's where you really get connected with people. And you really get into the, you know, the life of the church and make relationships and all that kind of good step. So feel free to pick one of these up there, up again at the info center, but just to let you know, we've got groups going on in a row grand day, we've got groups in Grover beach and a Pomo. We've got a couple of different men's groups that are happening. A bunch of women's groups that are happening as well. Probably the most important group of all. We've got a prayer group that meets on Thursday mornings would encourage you to be a part of that. 4 (7m 45s): There's a singles Bible study, and there is what we call recreational groups. So this is the good yarn club. So they get together and have fellowship and, and knit things, which is super fun. So check that out. Okay. What else is going on? So I want to update everybody on the worship center. That's just down the street at 1 0 2 branch. Okay. So here's, what's going on. We're getting close to Mo moving into the worship center. We will. I'm going to say we're definitely going to be in there in may. We're not exactly sure which Sunday in may, but we're, we're fairly positive about that final preparations are, are being made and getting, you know, getting the final permit on everything permission to occupy it. 4 (8m 26s): So we're gonna announce it in the future, the exact date, as soon as these things come together. So we're going to be shuffling around some different things. And with, with things like this comes some change. Okay. So sometimes change is a little difficult to, you know, get, get, get a handle on. Most of us don't really like change, but here's what's happening. Okay. So the new worship center is going to be called the east campus because it's east, this, this campus is going to be called west campus. And so here's a couple of other things. So the worship center is at 1 0 2. So whenever we talk about the worship center, that's what we're talking about. The east campus at 1 0 2 and over there, it's also, they're also going to have an outdoor courtyard venue where we're going to have coffee there. 4 (9m 12s): We're going to have some seating out there, some TVs to watch what's going on inside. It's a really cool garden area. If you hadn't had a chance to check it out. And also in the new worship center, we're going to have a nursery with his birth through two years. And we're going to have a mother's room over there as well. So at the west campus, we are actually changing the name of the sanctuary to our chapel. So we're going to have a chapel livestream happening here, right here in this venue. So if you prefer to hang out here, you're welcome to do so at the, the chapel live stream. So the, the kids' worship center is going to be moving into the loft. 4 (9m 54s): So again, the lock, which is right behind me is give me the new kids' worship center and kids classes, ages three, and up as well as youth classes are going to stay put right where they are currently. So that's, what's happening. As soon as we get to our, our new space. And as we open up the new worship center, we're going to need a lot more volunteers for various things that are happening because we're growing. So, for example, if you would like to get involved in, in the coffee ministry, greeting ministry, safety team, worship, team tech, team, kids, team, youth team, and many, many other things are going on. So what, when we get there, we're gonna have a better idea of all the things that we need to fill. So what you will find is if you get involved in a ministry team at church, it's super fun. 4 (10m 41s): You're going to get to know a lot of new people and, and it's a way to serve the Lord. So it encouraged you to get involved again, to, to volunteer for any of those things. You can go on our website and click on the connect tab, and that's what we're going to do. All right. So last Sunday, what happened last Sunday? Oh, that's right Eastern the park. We have a little clip. We want to share with you so you can see what, what went on last Sunday. Okay. You ready? Okay. 5 (13m 19s): And I invite you to stand in. As we continue to worship, we're going to introduce a new song this morning. It's called strong God. It's taken from verses in Psalm 68. And those verses are father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home. He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land. This has God in his holy place, 1 (13m 52s): Father to the fatherless 5 (13m 56s): Defender 1 (13m 57s): Of the weak Freedom for the prison. We see this is God in his holy 7 (20m 45s): God, you are surely great. And we're humbled your presence here today. Lord is so as we've gathered to pray, and as we've gathered to worship God, we've gathered for you to remember you, to worship you, to be in your presence. Lord God, as the family of God, we want to be with you, Lord God, we want to be in your presence, Lord God. And as we teach your word today, Lord, we want to take it in and believe it. So Lord God give us faith where we lack faith, give us clarity where we lack clarity, give us the help that we need. Lord God, to believe you, Lord, to believe your promises, to walk in those promises, Lord God, that our lives would be actually changed and transformed as a result of your word, your promises, your guidance, your direction. 7 (21m 36s): So Lord lead us. We pray. We humble ourselves before you today. We say, we need you. We say, we love you. We, so we say, we're so thankful, Lord God, that you've adopted us into your family. We think we're thankful that your grace is sufficient. Lord God. And so I pray that your grace would be extended all over this campus Lord, for whoever needs it, especially this morning, Lord, we all need it. But there are those who especially need just to an extra dose of your grace, Lord God, a truth to saturate their hearts and lives. Lord God. And so for those who are doubting fearful, unbelieving, Lord, we pray that you would reveal yourself in powerful and significant ways. 7 (22m 16s): God, that there would just be a move of God in each of our lives today, Lord all over this campus. And God, we just want to say thank you for our new worship center for what you're doing there. Lord, it's been a, it's been a long time in the, in the, in the making Lord, God, we're so thankful Lord for the way you've are bringing that to fruition and making that possible for us. Lord, we just continue to give that to you, God, for the expansion of your kingdom Lord. So we just want to honor you with that space. So be glorified Lord. Thank you for this time in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Turning green. Somebody will come right back. 7 (23m 44s): I got a feeling it's going to get 8 (23m 45s): Rowdy. 7 (24m 13s): Alrighty, come on in and grab your chair. How's everyone I'm blessed and no less is what I keep hearing. Hey, I'm so grateful for every person who came out last week to help us get that space set up. But when we were setting up the chairs and when we were cleaning up the chairs, I didn't think we would ever end. I mean, those chairs just continued. They were, they were just a ton of them. I'm not sure how many we had set up. It was almost 900. And so it was really, really good. And then the sound and audio video stuff. It's all, man. It all just came together. We were having so many technical challenges on Saturday. 7 (24m 55s): It was ridiculous. We didn't, we weren't sure what was going to happen, but, but our team got it together and I need a bigger podium is what I need. I've got all this stuff. Can we work on that? Like a four by just getting so thanks for that to everyone. Yeah. Great turnout. It was so good to be back at the, at the park. After two years through COVID of not being able to be out there. It was, I mean, we had a great time last year at our back lot back here, but we just love being in that park. Love the opportunity to be salt and light and in the neighborhood there in our community. And so we're just really, really grateful for that. 7 (25m 38s): And we're going to be in Hebrews 13 today kind of wrapping up in the next few weeks, our study through Hebrews. And we're just going to continue to March right through the rest of the new Testament. And so we'll be teaching through revelation here in a few months and I think it'll be really, it's really good timing, I think to get into a study through revelation and so wanted to let you know that that is coming. I, I taught last through revelation 15 years ago in that crazy. Yeah. I was looking at my old notes and I thought, man, it's been 15 years since I've taught through that. So a lot has changed in our world and last 15 years. So it's time for an update and the word of God never changes, but our culture, our circumstances certainly change don't they speaking of change, my son Curtis got engaged yesterday, go ahead and stand up. 7 (26m 30s): Curtis Curtis St. Clark. So we just did a wedding for Steven and Amanda a few months ago and our cup two and a half, three months ago or whatever it's been now. And, and so now we get to plan for another one. So the more the merrier. And so we're excited about that. So congratulations to you too. And you guys want to just get married now you want to just go, I happen to know somebody you can make that happen for you. So it would be zebra. I know, right? Get things done. What are the cupcakes say to the frosting? 7 (27m 13s): I'd be muffin without you. There we go. Told you, I'd tell you a joke on family Sunday. Hey, a lot of us, thousands of people throughout the state went up to Sacramento last Monday and Tuesday to, to lobby against assembly bill 2, 2, 2, 3. And I mean, it was just a huge outpouring of people throughout the states who showed up and, and people from other states. And so sadly the assembly health committee passed AB T T two three last week. 7 (27m 55s): So the bill will go next to the assembly appropriations committee before making its way to the assembly floor. So continue to pray, just continue to pray. It's re if you've done any research at all, you know that this assembly bill is, is heinous and it's, it's so grieves the heart of God to see this type of legislation making its way through and into, into, into law. I mean, it's not just California, there's other states who are trying to do the same thing. So anyway, take a look at it. We don't often talk about political things, but this is not just a political thing. It's a political thing, but it's a moral thing first and foremost. 7 (28m 36s): And so that when we're talking about moral things that contradict the word of God and God's direction for our lives, then we talk about it and we encourage action. So do some research, pray, pray, pray that this thing gets stopped in its tracks. And so we're going to just pray right now for that. And then we'll get into Hebrews 13, one through seven Lord. We do pray, God, God, we ask Lord God for it's just a supernatural intervention here, Lord God that she would stop this bill, this proposed bill or God that it would not become law. 7 (29m 17s): Lord God, that you would not allow it to become law. That born babies would not be allowed to legally be killed in our state Lord God. And as goes California as goes the nation. So it goes the nation, Lord God. And so we pray God that this would be stopped here. And then it would be a message to the rest of the nation that we, we don't, we don't want to stand for this kind of stuff and we will not stand for this kind of stuff. So Lord, I pray that the, the, the people of our nation be aware of what's going on, that these, this type of legislation is being moved forward. Lord, I pray that we would be alert. 7 (29m 58s): That'd be that we'd be wise to what's going on in our world and that we would be prayerful and lobby against things like this. It's our, our responsibility Lord. And so I pray God that we would take serious this responsibility, remember to pray and trust you, Lord God. So speak to those who will be deciding in this next step, Lord, God, speak to their hearts. Thank you Lord, for the opportunity to pray and to petition and to lobby against things like this, help us. We pray Lord in Jesus name. Amen. So last Tuesday we were walking through the buildings. We were out in front of the Capitol, on the lawn there. 7 (30m 40s): And then we were walking through and being able to, which we were trying to lobby the people who are a part of the part of the assembly health committee. And they wouldn't even open the doors for us. We would go knock on their door and they would say, Hey, we're not taking guests at the moment. And so just dozens and dozens of people would just pray outside of their doors in the hallways. And so we went to each office and just prayed and petitioned by God's grace, that, that things would change here. And so let's continue to do that and that we wrestle not against flesh and blood enemies, but we're in a spiritual battle. 7 (31m 23s): And so let's continue to fight against things like AB 2, 2, 2, 3. Amen. Hey, we're in Hebrews chapter 13, we're going to be looking at verses one through seven, the title of the message today, practical faith living. So it will be in Hebrews chapter three verses one through seven. The book of Hebrews is all about challenging your religious activity and tradition so that genuine faith life can be experienced and lived. And I think we need to do that all throughout the course of our lives. We need to be challenging religious activity, things that seem good, but are actually a hindrance to our intimate walk and commitment to Jesus Christ. 7 (32m 8s): So the book of Hebrews is all about challenging religious activity. It was written to Jews. This, we don't know who the author of Hebrews is, but it was written to Jews who had made a decision to trust Jesus as their Messiah. And they were breaking away from a religious tradition, a tradition of lots of works and that sort of thing. And so this book is written to this group of people, giving them practical insight. These are the things as we wrap up Hebrews, this, these are the things that we should be doing. These are the things that should mark the lives of believers, the lives of people in God's church. 7 (32m 53s): So Hebrews three 13 brings to light, very practical things that mark the life of a follower of Jesus Christ. And so as we look at the first seven verses of Hebrews 13, we find seven points that define for us practical faith, living seven points in seven verses. And so it's going to take us about three weeks to get through Hebrews 13. And, and then we'll, we'll just jump right in with number one, practical, faith, living, number one, love each other. We see that throughout the scripture that God has called us to love each other. We see that in Hebrews 13, one says, keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. 7 (33m 36s): And so the author saying, Hey, keep this up. You're doing it. The marks of a godly person is that we would continue to love one another. So love each other. The transliteration of the Greek word for love here is Philadelphia. The city of Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love, right? If you've ever been to Philadelphia, you have, I'd never been there, but I've, I've heard that it's not necessarily living up to its name. I don't know, but in 1994 at Gallup poll named Philadelphia, America's most hostile place. So maybe there's some truth to what I'm hearing. 7 (34m 17s): So good intentions only take us so far. So the founders of that city had great intentions. Let's call this place, Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love with the expectation that the goal that this place would be marked by brotherly love. And instead though it's become hostile and one of Philadelphia America's most hostile plays. So good intentions only take you so far. Have you experienced that? Like I'm gonna do better. I'm going to love this person better. And then we fall short, listen, we can't love people effectively unless we're filled with the grace of God, the presence of God and the power of God, because some people are just very difficult to love, but by God's grace, he gives us the ability and even the desire he refreshes our hearts and minds so that we actually have the desire to love people who are on lovely. 7 (35m 11s): How do we love each other? Romans 12, 10 says this love each other with genuine affection. So now we're kind of getting some action points here, genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other. So we're to love one another with genuine affection honoring each other. I would just reading in first Samuel this morning, and I was reading about the relationship between Jonathan, the King's son and David, the newly anointed king, who was yet to take the throne. But as we read through first Samuel, we see the, the, the love relationship that David and Jonathan had. 7 (35m 57s): There was, there was a sacrificial commitment to one, another to protect one another. And you can see how Jonathan over and over again, protected David from Saul's wrath. Saul was jealous of David and Saul was envious of David saw was, was, was angry at David. And so over and over again, Saul was trying to kill David and Jonathan would step up over and over again to protect him. He had, he had genuine love and affection for David and he honored him. And so there's, there's great examples in the scripture and there's great examples in our own lives. Maybe where people have loved us with genuine affection. 7 (36m 40s): And with honor, I can think back in my life about different people who have loved me. So well, my wife, for sure, being one of them for the last 32 years, she just loved me really, really well, genuine affection and honor. And I really do think that's part of like the recipe for longevity in marriage is that we would love and honor one another, a genuine affection can only come from a genuine heart. And so we need to regularly ask the Lord, God, what's going on with my heart. Why, why am I having a hard time loving this person? Maybe it's your spouse. You're having a hard time loving you. 7 (37m 21s): Say, Lord, what's going on with my heart because we can't love when we can fake it, but we can only love people with genuine affection. And honor, when we have a pure hearts, when our hearts are in the right place, we've, we've got to guard our hearts and make sure that we've confessed sin, that we've forgiven, that we're walking in purity and honor before the Lord so that we can lovingly serve others and love others with a genuine affection and honor. So genuine affection can only come from a genuine heart. And honor only comes from a humble heart. So we need to check ourselves. What's the condition of our heart. 7 (38m 2s): Are we being, are we being humble? Are we pure in our heart? Or are we do we have guile and unforgiveness and hatred in our heart brother and sister Lee love can only happen when we choose to extend grace from a genuine and humble heart. So part of doing what anything God has called us to do, what it requires that we're empowered by God, but that we always extend grace. If we think about our relationship with God, what is he always doing with us? I don't know about you, but he's always, always grace to me, right? I mean, I think about the person who loves me more than anybody who has the capacity to love me more than anybody that's God. 7 (38m 45s): And he knows all of my failures and shortcomings, but he genuinely loves me. And he genuinely loves you with affection. And he honors us in that relationship by loving us unconditionally. So in order for us to love, like, God loves us to love others. Like God loves us. We need to, we need to be constantly extending grace to the people in our lives. If you've been alive for any amount of time, you know that you need to extend grace to people constantly in work relationships and marriage, relationships and sibling relationships. And in every relationship, there's going to be opportunity for you to be offended or for you to offend others. 7 (39m 30s): And so there needs to be that constant extension of grace, constant extension of grace meets you. You to me, we, to each other, we just constantly extend grace. The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians four 13 for I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. So maybe you're here today. And you're like, this is like a really impossible thing. There's this person in my life that I just don't like at all. I don't respect this person. I don't like this person. This person gets under my skin every time I see him or her. And so Lord, I don't know how all things are possible. When we submit our hearts to the Lord, we can love people. 7 (40m 11s): I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. God will give you the strength to forgive great story. When the first missionaries arrived in Alberta, Canada, a young chief of the Cree Indians named Masco opportun, savaged, savagely, opposed them. But he later responded to the gospel and accepted Christ shortly afterward. A member of the Blackfoot tribe killed his father mascot. Batoon rode into the village where the murderer lived and demanded that he be brought before him confronting the guilty man. 7 (40m 51s): He said, you have killed my father. So now you must be my father. You shall ride my best horse and wear my best clothes in utter amazement and remorse his enemy exclaimed. My son. Now you have killed me. He meant, of course, that the hates in his own heart had been completely erased by the forgiveness and kindness of the Indian chief. This is the power of the gospel. When we've been touched by the grace of God, we, we find capacity. 7 (41m 33s): Expend extend that same grace to others. Even those who have done us rate great harm. God's grace, as we're filled with the spirit of God and the word of God, the truth that God gives us the capacity to extend grace to others in Luke 10 27, the most important commandment says this. You must love the Lord, your God with all your hearts, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind and love your neighbor as your self over and over again. We see this in the scripture. We see that God calls us to love others. The world. We will know that we are his disciples by our love one for another. 7 (42m 17s): So the love that we're exposed to be feeling for one another and extending to one another is constantly under attack. The enemy wants us to be at odds with one another, because then we're not properly representing the person of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Jesus was gracious in all that. He did. He extended grace and love to everybody. Even to those who executed him on the cross. Jesus tells us in his sermon on the mountain, Matthew 5 21 through 24, he says, you have heard that our ancestors were told you must not murder. 7 (42m 59s): If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment. But I say, if you were even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment. If you call someone an idiot, you're in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell. So if you verse 23 are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the temple. And you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar, go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and off your sacrifice to God. You think God is serious about what he's talking about in his word. He's very serious. 7 (43m 40s): He modeled it for us. He communicates it and the old and the new Testament, he's very serious that we would love one another. So that means we've got to constantly be forgiving, extending grace like 70 times seven. That means essentially that there's no limit to the number of times that we will extend grace and forgiveness. Number one, love each other. Number two, love strangers. So now we're getting a little more specific, loves strangers. We see that in verse two, don't forget to show hospitality to strangers for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it. That's kind of a neat thought, huh? Well, some, some of us have entertained angels without realizing it. 7 (44m 22s): Have you ever wondered about that in your own life? Like, was that an angel? I wonder like, was that a messenger of God that I just entertained? Like, I didn't know who that person was and I haven't seen him since. I wonder if that was an angel of the Lord, that text refers to what happened to Abraham to lot and to Gideon in the old Testament, Genesis 18 Genesis, 19 judges, six and 13, they all entertained angels unaware. They were ministering to angels as they reached out with love to these strangers. One of the best pictures of a person loving a stranger, seen of the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10 when Jesus was asked and who is my neighbor? 7 (45m 13s): So that's the question. I'm like, okay, if I'm supposed to love my neighbor, then who is my neighbor? Right? We're always looking for loopholes, right? Luke 10 30 says this Jesus replied with a story. A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and left him half dead beside the road by chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed by him. Also a temple assistant Levi gets walked over and looked at him, lying there, but he also passed by on the other side of the road, then a despised Samaritan. 7 (46m 1s): So Samaritans were half blood, half blood use. They were, they were a mixed race and they were despised by the Jewish people. Then despise Samaritan came along. And when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with all of oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an end where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, two silver coins to denari were essentially the wage for two late to two days of labor in the day. So he had an two days of work of pay to continue to take care of him, take care of this, man. 7 (46m 46s): If this bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I'm here. So this despised Samaritan served this stranger paid for his well and made sure that he was going to be taking care of until he was completely healthy. Now, which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits? Jesus asked the man replied the one who showed him mercy. Then Jesus said, yes. Now go and do the same. So we have an opportunity to, in a practical way, love those who we don't know as we see people in need. 7 (47m 33s): Now we can't help everybody in need, but we do have the responsibility to help people in need. So we need to pray as we know of people in need and say, Lord, what is my role here? What is my place with this person? How can I serve this person? How am I supposed to serve this person? And as the Lord leads, you, you can minister to that person, but we've got to be prayerful, listening, responsive obedience so that we can do the things that God has called us to do. So there are going to be people in your life that are going to require your love. People that you don't know, maybe people don't like, but God has given you an assignment responsibility to serve them. 7 (48m 21s): Being essentially Jesus with skin on practical, faith living involves loving strangers, but also number three, loving the forgotten, loving the forgotten verse three says, remember those in prison as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated as if you felt their pain in your own body. Often we think about people who are incarcerated. We think, well, they deserve to be there. Well, we, if the truth were told, if we all got busted for things that we have done throughout the course of our life, then we would probably be in there as well. 7 (49m 3s): Truth, be told we've gotten away with a lot of stuff over the course of our lives and found out we might all be in that same place. I often say that apart from Jesus, that I rather either be dead in prison or addicted to something. I mean, apart from Jesus that's, that would be my lot. I just know myself way too well. And I know my life before Jesus came in, remember those in prison. One of my first ministries was to those who were incarcerated. And so we had ministries at the county jail. We had three services on Sunday morning. We had a service for the men's side of the jail and then a service for the women's side of the jail. 7 (49m 43s): And then we'd go over to the honor farm and we would have a service over there. So Sunday mornings, we have three services over there and it was a pleasure to minister and to serve those who are incarcerated. And in my early sales life, as an outside sales rep for a company might part of my territory included me service going into and serving those in prisons. And so I would go in to, I think I had six or seven or eight prisons that I would go into on a regular basis. And what I realized with a few exceptions, most of the people that I was seeing in these prisons, they, they had just made mistakes and they serving their time. 7 (50m 29s): And the truth is they were, they were worthy of love. They were worthy of respect and what I treated them with love and respect that was returned to me. And now I know that's not the case across the board, but overwhelmingly. So that was the case. It's only went to San Quentin prison. San Quentin prison was an altogether different scenario. I walked in that place and it was dark and cold and scary. It was scary. I went in there. I spent about half a day at San Quentin prison once and I decided never to step foot in his hand, Quentin prison. 7 (51m 9s): Again, it was a scary place for me. I didn't want to go back and it was my choice to go in or not. And so I decided not to. So I continued to serve the other prisons, but at San Quentin, I decided to stay away. Now I've heard it's gotten easier at San Quentin, but all the same, I steer steer clear. So we need to remember those in prison. Sometimes we, we think, well, they're not, you know, they're, they're incarcerated. We have an incredible opportunity. Mike and Sharon do tra take their curriculum into prisons and jails all over the country. And they're having a huge impact inside the walls of jails. Now, people who are there, most likely they deserve to be there. 7 (51m 49s): They're not all innocent. Like they would probably say, but we need to take the opportunity to serve people who are forgotten. And remember, remember also those being mistreated as if you felt their pain in your own body, we need to with empathy, remember those who are being mistreated. And so that's why we stand up for bills against bills like AB 2, 2, 2, 3. We believe in life. And we believe that those who are born and the unborn deserve life. And so AB 2, 2, 2, 3 is just another step that eliminates life in our nation. 7 (52m 39s): We need to remember those who are forgotten. There's a young man in our community. He's a homeless guy and he we've known him for years and he doesn't work around the church from time to time. And we've helped him from time to time. And he came to me recently and he said, Hey, I'm trying to get my life back in order. Would you help me get to teen challenge? And so I said, absolutely, we'll get, we'll help you get to teen challenge. And so we gave him a train ticket to get over to Shafter, and we helped him to get there. And we it's important that we are for people who are trying to get their lives back in order. 7 (53m 20s): And so he wanted to go to this Christian program and get his life back in order. So we sent him over there earlier this month and I've been praying for him. And then I got a text from him yesterday. He said, I got kicked out for fighting. So he's out. But that doesn't mean we stop trying. I mean, often we'll try stuff. And in our estimation, from our perspective, it looks like it failed, but it's just maybe another step in the journey that people are taking. And we need to continue to give grace and extend mercy. So he asked me for a train ticket back to the coast and I told him, you are on your own. 7 (54m 4s): He got kicked out. So now the rubber meets the road and he's got to figure out his own path forward. And so we'll figure out, we gotta figure out with good boundaries and good grace, how to serve people, but not enable people. So there's a lot there. We could probably talk about it for a very, very long, a long time. So number three, love the forgotten. Number four, love your spouse. That's actually in the Bible of your spouse, mess something we should just do naturally. Right? We should just love our spouse. We get engaged because we're in love. We get, we want to spend the rest of our lives together because we're in love. And so why is it so hard for us to love our spouse? 7 (54m 44s): Well, typically people coming together to get married are completely opposite of for whatever reason opposites attract. And so there begins to be a rub. Maybe you've never experienced it. And then in your own marriage, but there can be a rub sometimes in marriage, right? I mean, you guys are brand new, married if you guys experienced any rub. Never. Okay, good. So Amanda saying yes. Even saying no. So there's going to be a rub. Whether you've been married for two days or 20 years or 40 years, there's always going to be some kind of an opportunity to love our spouse. When there's a disagreement verse four says, give honor to marriage and remain faithful to one another in marriage. 7 (55m 30s): God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery. So how do we love our spouse? Well, we give them honor. We honor them find different ways to honor your spouse. What is your spouse enjoy? What is your spouse? Not enjoy. Figure out those things, answer those questions and then honor them when the way that you live in relationship with them, speak with respects, with tenderness, with kindness, I've heard some men talk to their end vice-a-versa spot, talk to their spouse and very damning and hurtful dishonoring ways. 7 (56m 17s): And so those things need to be, we need to pay attention. Sometimes we can get comfortable in our relationships and we get sloppy about the way we communicate. We get insensitive about the needs of our spouse. And for as long as we're married, we need to be working on honoring one another. Speaking with tenderness, with respect, with kindness, with humility, and just watch what the Lord will do to heal up. Whatever's going on in your marriage remain faithful. So someone's heard this quote recently when a man says yes to a particular woman, he is saying no to every other woman out there. 7 (57m 5s): And that's true for women, either women too. When, when a woman says yes to a particular man, that means she is saying no to every other man out there. So that's part of the deal. We, we honor one another by loving one another and saying, faithful remaining, faithful to one another. Then you make your spouse, your priority, make your spouse your priority. Often in life, everything else becomes priority. The kids that becomes priority. But what happens when your kids grow up? Like your kids are all grown up and maybe you spent the last 20 years making your kids your priority. And then now you're just kind of stuck. 7 (57m 46s): Just the two of you, right? Like now what do we do with each other? Right. Often people get divorced after their kids are raised because they've spent the last 20 years making their S their kids a priority and really everything else, a priority. And so when it's just the two of them in the house, it's, it's like, what do we do with each other? I couldn't wait for my kids to get out of house. It just, the two of us, you know, my wife and I, we, we just, I love my kids, but at 18 it's time for them to go, right. We raised them to be independence. Self-sufficient relying on God, loving Jesus and getting out of the house. 7 (58m 27s): Like they can show up anytime they wanted, they need food or laundry done while they have to do their own laundry. But if they need, they can rate my cupboards. If they need money, I'll give them whatever I have, but they need to be out. Right. Because I just, I want to hang out with my bride. We got, we got married in 11 months and three weeks later we had Caitlin, right? So like, there's no honeymoon period. Like she got pregnant immediately. And then 14, 15 months later, Steven was born. And then like 16 months later, Curtis was born. And like two years later, Leslie was born. So I'm like, Hey, I've done my duty. 7 (59m 7s): Right. Lights out. Time to go. And so no Jolene and I can walk around the house naked. It's wonderful. She would never do that. Me on the other hand, I might buy the house is right. So let's enjoy. Let's enjoy what God has given to us. I forgot his family Sunday, but sorry. Lastly, my daughter's dying over there. He's like, we need to love our spouse. And like, like I, I believe, and like after decades of marriage, that the spark can still be there and be magical and wonderful. 7 (59m 52s): And it needs to be there. It needs to absolutely be there. And if it's not there, work on it, get it back, begin to date your spouse again. All right. Let's take a look at things that hinder our ability to love love of money will hinder our ability to love others. So number five, don't love money. Money is a terrible thing to love. It's it's a one way street. I verse five says don't love money. Be satisfied with what you have for God has said, I will never fail you. I will never abandon you. 7 (1h 0m 34s): When money is a person's focus. Inevitably God loses first place in that person's life. And when God loses first place in a person's life, everything else begins to diminish as well. Loving money is the ultimate selfish thing. I mean, it's, it's about making sure that I have what I need, that I have my safety, my provision. I have everything that I need. And so it's all about me and my money. And, and so then we're not allowing God to be on the throne of our lives. We're not honoring our spouse and others and loving others with our resources because it's all selfishly belongs to me. 7 (1h 1m 20s): The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It's the root of all kinds of evil. So don't love your money, money. This prob I think he's a proverb says, man, it's just like, takes on wings like an Eagle and just flies away. It's just, it's temporary. You can't take it with you. It doesn't bring lasting satisfaction. It's not helpful for most things in life. I mean, we can be thankful that, you know, we've got homes and food and things like that, that things that money buy, but man money can never be our priority. Our driving force, the kingdom of God has to be our driving force, doing what God has called us to do in the scripture. That needs to be our driving force, getting up every morning and making sure that Jesus is the Lord Lord of our lives. 7 (1h 2m 5s): That needs to be our driving force. Matthew 6 24, no one can serve two masters for you will hate one and love the other. You will devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. Love of money is the root of all kinds of evil money can be a blessing when handled properly. And it can be a curse. I've watched so many families over the course of my life and ministry get blown up over, over money. 7 (1h 2m 45s): Inheritances. They divide families, squabbling over possessions. I'm just, I, I, I'm sick to my stomach of the stories that I hear when money gets introduced into a family and there begins the squabble. It's like, oh, we love each other until money shows up and you're not getting mine, man. I tell ya, I I've been so blessed by my, my brother in Denver. He's my half-brother. So my dad passed away six months ago or eight months ago. It's been awhile now, number of months and six months before that, my dad's second wife passed away. 7 (1h 3m 30s): My step-mom. And so my brother who lives in Denver, where my dad lived is handling the estate. And he's been so completely gracious with the way he's handled everything. I, I just tell him all the time I'm so Shane I'm so thankful for the way that you're handling all of this, because the last thing we want is for our family to be blown up because of a few bucks, right? It's not worth it. Relationships. We, we need one another. Am I done with time? How far over am I? I still got like 14 points left. Here we go. 7 (1h 4m 10s): I got five minutes. Thank you very much, Amanda. Here we go. So don't let the love of money. Dictate whom you will love the antidote for the love of money is contentment. Contentment. Godliness with contentment is great. Gain our culture. We don't understand contentment. We see the next new shiny thing. We want it. We, we, we need to have that next thing and I'm can be just as guilty as the rest. So we need to learn to find this place of contentment. Verse five. Again, for God has said, I will never fail you. I will never abandon you. 7 (1h 4m 51s): So that's where our focus, our hope our priority is has God. He, he will never fail you. He will never abandoned. You'd often were hoarding money or save, hold on to stuff because we're afraid of the future and the world's a crazy place. And so we're afraid. And boy, if, if, if we just honor the Lord seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, everything else will be added on to us. Someone said, if you fear God, you've got nothing else to fear, right? Like fearing God means to obey him, to honor him to do what he's called us to do. We put that kind of priority in our lives. Everything else will be taken care of. 7 (1h 5m 30s): Everything else will be taken care of. Another hindrance to love is fear. Don't live in fear, verse six. So we can say with confidence and we'll wrap this up quick. The Lord is my helper. So I will have no fear what can mere people do to me. So the writer of Hebrews is writing to people who are under persecution, Jewish people who have said I'm breaking away from Judaism to honor Christ to enter into this covenant relationship with the Lord. Jesus Christ. I recognize that Jesus is the Messiah. Well, this was a threat to the church, the Jewish church. 7 (1h 6m 14s): This was a threat to the church. And so there was persecution, the Orthodox religious use of the days, guys like Saul of Tarsus before his conversion were persecuting the church, pressuring the people to follow the laws of Moses. And so they were feeling fear. And so the writer is saying, Hey, you've got nothing to fear in light of eternity, which is where we're going to be spending. Most of our time. This, this life here is a blip on the screen of eternity. It's just a blip. It's an important blip. Jesus died for this blip that we might live for him, that we might take as many people with us to heaven as possible. 7 (1h 6m 57s): So it's an important blip, but, but it's not the whole thing. We'll spend eternity with the Lord or not depending on how and what we choose in this life. 9 (1h 7m 11s): Ah, 7 (1h 7m 12s): What can I skip here? This is good. An adverse or number seven, practical faith living number seven verse seven says, remember your leaders who taught you the word of God, think of all the good that has come from their lives and follow the example of their faith. So how do we, how do we love our leaders? We've all got leaders. I've got to leaders, you've got leaders, we've all got leaders. And so we have this responsibility. I submit to my elders. I submit to their leadership in my life. 7 (1h 7m 54s): We all have people that we must submit to because we all have leaders in our lives. So how do we, how do we love our leaders? I w I would say guard against criticism. It's easy to get critical of leaders. Often. We don't understand what our leaders are going through. The decisions that they're facing, the expectations that are upon. So if we can just be careful to extend grace and avoid criticism, and if we can pray for our leaders, that's governmental leaders, that's church leaders. We need to pray, pray, pray for our leaders. Often I'll ask the church. Will you remember to pray for our elders, our staff, our, our church. 7 (1h 8m 34s): Would you remember to pray for me specifically when we praying for people praying for the operative word, they're praying for people, not against people like Lord help his car to crash into that telephone pole. That's not praying for that's bringing again. So don't pray for Lord that they would be blessed and walking in grace and experiencing your clarity. That's what we need to be praying for. People decide to extend grace, understand our human limitations. I think we need to be able to look back at the, of our lives and be able to speak well of people that have led us currently and in the past. And if there's things sticking in our crawl a little bit about past leaders, we need to pray for them and watch the Lord change our hearts. 7 (1h 9m 16s): And then we begin to see their human limitations and begin to see the things that they were up against. And we can extend grace so that we're living in harmony with those who are in leadership over us. I don't think we can honor our earthly leaders very well. Let me, how do I say this? I think we really are. We begin to honor our earthly leaders really well when we figured out how to honor our heavenly leader. When we figured out how to honor the Lord, there's just something that of a work of God in our lives that allows us to honor our leaders and really everybody in our lives. So love each other. Love strangers, love the forgotten and love your spouse. Don't love money. Don't live in fear and love your leaders. Hey, let's take communion. 7 (1h 9m 57s): So thankful for communion. I, once a month, we remember what the Lord has done, and hopefully often more often than that, but especially once a month on family Sunday, we remember. And even as I flipped my elements, I'm like, that was the wrong thing to do. So I don't mean to take it. Forgive me for that. I it's really, we need to honor what God has given us in this active worship that we would honor the Lord. So I'm going to read first Corinthians 1123. 7 (1h 10m 39s): And then as I get ready to read that, just get your hearts, pray that you get your hearts in the right place. And that be a time of confession, time of humility, time of brokenness and contrition that we would go humbly before the throne of grace and say, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for salvation for new life and forgiveness for I pass on to you. What I receive from the Lord himself, this first grand thing is 1123 on the night when he was betrayed, the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. 7 (1h 11m 22s): Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. It's taken away from Got I'm filled with joy, and I'm also perplex. Lord. I I'm grateful that you Allowed your body to be nailed to a cross. Allow your board, your blood to be poured out for my sins. Lord God, I'm perplexed. Lord God that you would love us me enough to do that. Lord, I, I, I don't have the capacity to understand why you would do that Florida, But thank you. 7 (1h 12m 10s): Thank you Lord. For your grace. It is sufficient Verse 25 in the same way. He took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Let's go ahead and take the cup. Thank you, Lord. 7 (1h 12m 51s): Thank you for your blood. Thank you that you poured out your blood for my sins. You took the wrath of God that belonged to me upon yourself. And you gave me an exchange. Your righteousness. You gave us an exchange, your righteousness. If you're here today and you need the righteousness of God in your life. If you need God to take that weight of burden from sins and mistakes and failures and shortcomings, if you need God to lift those things off you and you want to enter into a relationship with God, a saving a life, changing, born again, relationship with God you say, Lord, I, I need you to lift this burden of sin. 7 (1h 13m 32s): I need you to forgive me. I repent. I change my mind about the way that I've been living and I'm going to turn and live for you. I'm going to turn and follow you. I want you to be the Lord and the leader of my life. I will submit to you in all things. I will follow you in all things. And I will love you always Lord by your grace. So Lord come into my life, forgive my sin and help me to follow you all the rest of the days of my life. And as you do that, you, you began, you began a journey of being a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. It's not about getting sins forgiven. 7 (1h 14m 14s): And then you move on. It's about submitting your life to Jesus and following God, the rest of your life into eternity forever and ever. Amen. It's about allowing God to transition your life from what it was to new life in him. To allow you to be born again into the kingdom of God, adopted into his family. So Lord, this is a life altering transaction that we're believing you for, help us to walk in that life-changing way. We pray this way that you have designed for us. We love you Lord in Jesus name. 7 (1h 14m 54s): Amen. Let's go out and stand up and worship. 1 (1h 15m 22s): You give you a green light to the job 0 (1h 15m 34s): You 1 (1h 15m 35s): Restore and every house that is . It's your breath in? praise. Praise. It's your breath. You bring right John? 1 (1h 16m 33s): Oh, hi. That is Oh, the wish shout shoe tricks cry. 1 (1h 18m 20s): These bones 2 (1h 19m 51s): Lord. You are great. You are awesome. And mighty, we praise you this morning as we go about the rest of our week. Lord, we just pray that you'd be filling us with your holy spirit so that we can shine light to the rest of the world. And everybody we come in contact with. We can glorify you in everything that we do in Jesus name. Amen.

4 (9m 35s): Good morning church. How are we doing? Good. Everybody doing good? Yeah. Sweet. Sweet. I got a few announcements for ya if you're ready for it. So, you know, just hang onto your seats here. We got some good stuff here going on. My name is Curtis, first of all, and I work here at church. I do branding and design and stuff like that. So I'm very blessed to work here. And so this year we've got Easter celebrations happening next Sunday. It's going to be at 10:00 AM. And please, please, please. On your way out, grab a flyer, invite a friend, invite a coworker, invite a neighbor. We've got them at all the exits all the entrances. So please grab a flyer on your way out and invite somebody. 4 (10m 18s): I was actually at, I was going to pick up some faucets for the worship center about a week and a half ago, and the person who was helping me, I just had it on my heart that I should invite them. So I gave her a flyer and she was like so excited and so thankful to receive it. And so if you're, you know, if you're hesitant about it, just, you know, trust the Lord and he'll guide you, it's going to be really good. So also, if you want to sign up for serving for Easter on Saturday, set up or clean up or whatever you want to do, we'll have a QR code on the screen that you can scan and sign up there. Or you can sign up at the info center up the driveway. 4 (10m 59s): Also, if you'd like to be baptized on Easter, we'd love to baptize you. So you can also get more information on that, on the baptism tab, on the website or at the info center as well. And then we had an amazing, amazing cleanup day yesterday. So we had a great turnout, I think 35, 40 people or something like that and got a lot done there. That was great energy. It was super exciting and really fun and just a great time to connect together. So it went really well. And so we're excited about the progress that's happening at the worship center and yeah, it's all, it's all going great. And then M six men's gathering is happening tomorrow night at 6:00 PM. 4 (11m 44s): So a thousand Hills ranch. So if you're a guy and you want to connect with some other guys, it's a great, great opportunity to do that. So with that, let's worship some more 1 (19m 26s): You're faithful. God. We're so thankful Lord for your presence here today. And for the privilege that it is to gather as friends, brothers, and sisters in the Lord, the family of God. Yeah. We just pray that every person gathered would feel your presence. God, that each person gathered would just feel welcomed and loved by the people of God. But also you Lord, that people would just feel your love for them and your grace for them. Lord God. So Lord, we just invite your power and your presence. Lord, we invite you to do supernaturally abundantly above everything that we might hope or imagining Christ Jesus, Lord, that there would just be life changing worship today. 1 (20m 12s): Life-changing prayer today life-changing fellowship today. God, that you'd be glorified. God, we're so honored by your presence. And I pray God that you would fill every room on this campus, every space Lord inside and outside, Lord, God, God, that we would just experience your presence. God, that even as people walk by the front on the sidewalk, Lord, they would just be drawn by your spirit. They would just feel something of your power in your presence. Lord God, that would draw them by your holy spirit. And so Lord, for those who are wondering about you today, I prayed you would reveal yourself to those people in powerful and profound ways. 1 (20m 53s): God, that you would affirm and confirm your existence. Jesus, your love for them, your kindness toward them, your plan for them or Jesus. So bless we pray. Every person gathered young and old everybody. Lord, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Hey man, you may be seated. I'm going to cover a couple things and then we'll take a little break and then we'll introduce our speaker today. First and foremost, I just want to acknowledge Danny and Norma Gaddis. Can we get Danny enormous picture up there on the screen these guys have been serving. They are, they've been a part of our church for the better part of two decades. And they've been serving our community in the food pantry ministry for years and years and have served literally hundreds and hundreds of families. 1 (21m 44s): They're the people behind all of the baskets at Christmas and Thanksgiving. And they've been out there on Thursdays, passing out food at our food bank for literally years and years and years just they've been a huge blessing and it's their season now to kind of retire from that ministry. So we just wanted to honor them and bless them. It's actually being taken over by a pastor at grace Bible church. And so it's kept, we're seeing a little bit of a transition there. We'll see what happens here at harvest as we move forward. But pastor Mario over at tag grace Bible church is just doing a phenomenal job and providing food for people here and over in Guadalupe. 1 (22m 27s): And so we're really grateful for that partnership that we have with grace Bible and we loved them and grateful for what God has been able to do as we've collaborated together over the years, we wanted to bless them. Also, I wanted to just highlight something for everybody's. There's a new assembly bill that's coming out. It's called AB two, two to three. How many are familiar with AB 2, 2, 2, 3. So let's go ahead and throw up the first slide there. AB 2, 2, 2, 3, it's new legislation that's legalized as self abortion at any stage of pregnancy and it essentially legalizes infanticide in California. 1 (23m 9s): So this bill has been changed. They've been, they've added to this bill so that you can actually, it's going to be legal if it passes to kill your babies up to depending on how you define what they're talking about, but at least up to seven days. But some, some definitions speak of up to a year that you're able to kill your baby up to a year. So it was just as new language added to AB 2, 2, 2, 3 last week revealed that the, a tent, the proposed legislation would shield a mother from civil and criminal charges for any actions or omissions related to her pregnancy, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion or perinatal. 1 (24m 1s): So that's the word, perinatal death at word is defined differently depending on where you look, but it means, you know, the five months or so leading up to delivery and then up to depending on where it's defined and where you look up to a year after. So you can give birth and have a kid at your house for six months and decide you don't want the kid. You can kill the kid and there's no legal recourse or equal there. So, so what we're doing is we're just asking everybody to be aware of this. And if you would like to call, let's put up the next slide here, where it's at right now on April 5th, 2022, the bill passed the assembly judiciary committee. 1 (24m 44s): The next step is the assembly health committee and it's most likely going to be happening on April 19th. So that's this the Tuesday following Easter. And so a lot of people will be at the state Capitol, myself included. And a lot of our staff will be there at the state Capitol on Tuesday, the 19th to pray and to protest this horrific bill. And so let's go and throw up the next slide. I think it gives us a phone number on the next slide. Hopefully. Yeah. So Buffy wicks is a politician up in the bay area. Who's kind of offering this and driving this. And so if you can call and just express your perspective on this, I called yesterday and with great clarity expressed my disapproval. 1 (25m 34s): So if you would like to call and express your opinion, then please call that number (916) 319-2015. I'll have that number as well. So we just want to take a moment to pray and ask the Lord to protect our states. And this is kind of something is happening in New York. And I think, I believe in Washington and California, and then there's another state somewhere, but it's happening. So we just have to be aware. This is a moral outrage is what this is. The scripture is clear about the value of human life we're made in the image of God. And so we have as a church, as a, as believers, as people of faith have to stand up and oppose this type of legislation, these types of laws, they're, they're, they're insane. 1 (26m 20s): So let's go ahead and stand up and pray. And we're going to agree together. Lord, we just agree together in Jesus' name that you would not allow this assembly. Bill 2, 2, 2, 3, to be approved, Lord God, in Jesus' name, we pray God that you would protect kids, protects our, our state and our nation from this type of law being allowed. And so we, we pray in Jesus name and we break the powers of darkness. It's the enemy of our souls is Satan, who is trying to drive this thing through Satan, who hates life and us. 1 (27m 0s): We pray in Jesus' name God that you would be victorious in Sacramento on the 19th, God, that you would protect this state from this atrocity, from this terrible, terrible bill Lord. So we pray God that you would remind us to pray and remind us to participate in the process. Lord, that we might stop this type of thing from happening in our state. Lord God, that we would always pray that your will would be done in our state Lord God, that we would trust you God, for your divine plans and purposes in this state and in this, in this nation, we pray. Thank you Lord, for who you are. Thank you that we have an opportunity to express our opinion and to let governing officials know where we stand. 1 (27m 43s): So help us to do so with clarity and with passion. We pray. Thank you, Lord. Let us remember to pray. We pray every day. Lord, help us remember to pray every day throughout the day for this bill, Lord. And we love you. And we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So with that to go ahead and turn and greet your neighbor and we'll come right back here. And just a moment 9 (28m 57s): Oh, geez. Oh, geez. Oh, 1 (29m 42s): It's like, Cheryl's got some breakfast for us here. He's got a little applesauce. It looks like he's got some greens. Are you going to make us an omelet? Okay. There'll be a treat. Good, good, good. And so this is cereal. I'll stand down here with serum. So cereals he's been here. This is, I think Cyril's third time with this presentation or similar presentation and it's been five years or so 2017. Okay. So it's been a while since Xero's been here. And so he reached out to me and we talked in the last, I dunno, a few months and there's some music. I liked the music. 1 (30m 23s): Yeah, that's good. Yeah. That's not bad. Right? So we want to welcome Cyril and just, he's going to give us a Jewish perspective. He's a Jewish man completed you. He believes that Jesus is the Messiah. And so Cyril is going to give us his perspective and hopefully a little bit of his testimony I get got saved at USB, right? UCS beam. 11 (30m 45s): No, actually. 1 (30m 47s): Okay. You fill us in. Yeah. Yeah. I'm misremembering already. So let's pray for Sierra and then we'll let him go for it here, Lord. Thank you Jesus. For what Sierra role will bring to us today, we pray that it will enrich our Bible knowledge, our souls, our hearts and minds. Lord God that we would be enriched in every way. Bless our brother. As he brings this message in this word, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 11 (31m 11s): Hey man. Hey man. Thank you brother. All right. Am I coming in? Great. What a joy to be back here. I was so looking forward to this really. I love you guys. I missed you. It's been five years. I've been in the battlefield in Los Angeles, AKA Gomorrah, Who knows where sodomy is North San Francisco. That's right. Wow. Never thought I'd be speaking in churches. Coming from a Jewish background. I was born in France, grew up in San Francisco. We were the only Jews and an Italian Catholic neighborhood Went to UC. 11 (31m 54s): Santa Barbara got tired of the party scene by my sophomore year. I said, there's gotta be more to life. Started searching gut. But of course I went where you're not supposed to go as a Jew Eastern religion. So I became a Jew BU And dabbled in all that. Eventually went back to my Jewish roots. When I came to see that the Bible is truly of God. When I studied with rabbis in Jerusalem and became a modern Orthodox Jew from 1988 to 93. And in my search, I had a dream and assume me a vision of Jesus and a roadway to heaven and the desert back in Joshua tree. It's a long story, but basically in my search for after this vision, I kept getting the wrong Jesus for four years. 11 (32m 44s): You know that my rabbi said he was a revolutionary, the psychics I was going to said he was some ascended master books. I read said he escaped the crucifixion and went to Southern Europe and had a family. And his kids became the Kings of Europe. I mean just whatever. Finally though, thank God I met a true Christian here in the central coast and my brother was going to Cal poly and I was down here helping him move. And the lady he was renting from was a Christian. And we talked and I saw her Bible and I was looking through it and it had the old and the new Testament in it. I'm like, what's this Gentile doing with my Bible? 11 (33m 26s): And it was all written up. And, and you, I mean, she, it was a Bible and she, we went out to pizza and she shared the gospel with me. And I don't remember a word she said, but I do remember the spiritual piece that she had and I didn't, and I'm supposed to be from the koans and the Levites, I'm an Orthodox Jew something's missing. Anyway, I go back to San Francisco two weeks later, she sends me a big box of books and a five page letter. And I'm like, oh, she's got a crush on me, But I read the letter. And it, what it was was she saw that I was searching and I was thirsting for living water. 11 (34m 8s): And it was these books about the real Jesus evidence that demands a verdict by Josh McDowell, more than a carpenter. And I started reading these books. I was not against Jesus at this time because I'd had this vision of him. And then the next night I had this dream of visitation of a being in such that it is such glory and I's like welding torches. I couldn't even look at them. I thought it was going to die in his presence. It doesn't say anything, but he holds out this parchment with all this writing on it and I couldn't read it, but I knew in my spirit, it was my whole life up to that time. And in big bold letters and a bottom, it said it's time to come home. 11 (34m 49s): And I woke up and I said, something's going to happen to me. So I told my rabbi, who I was studying Kabbalah with. And he tried to give me some crazy answer and that's not it. I finally picked up the Josh McDowell books. And through that, I saw how Jesus fulfilled the many prophecies from the old Testament. These are hidden from my Jewish people, Isaiah 53, Psalm 22 is that gray night. I'm like, why didn't anyone show this to me? And I learned from this a book that you needed a blood of Toman for forgiveness of sin. My Jewish people are not taught this anymore. The rabbis teach, if you fast and pray on Yom Kippur, you're good to go for a year. That didn't work. 11 (35m 29s): So I went through the four spiritual laws, made sure it was okay that it was kosher. And I knew I was a sinner was not a problem. I was an Orthodox Jew. I, you know, I was face-to-face with my sins every day. And I prayed to receive Jesus as my Lord and savior by myself in my kitchen. And it was like a brick house lifted from me. I was a tangible darkness and I knew that I was white as snow, that I was completely forgiven finally. And I was so excited. I was on that phone. What some, you know, I was trying to call all the people I thought were Christians that I knew. And they, most of them thought I was nuts. 11 (36m 10s): Finally, I met one guy and he told me you've been born again. So that was the Lord just did a very quick work in me. I did a 180 didn't need to party anymore. I didn't need to chase girls anymore. I didn't need to take drugs anymore. Everything went out the window. Everything was Jesus. After that. And the Lord sent me to Hawaii, sold everything and got discipled out there for two years. You know, that's where God sends Jews to get discipled. The Lord gave me a passion for souls right away. And I just couldn't stop talking about Jesus. And soon after that, I went to Israel, became a citizen. 11 (36m 51s): Did Alia did evangelism, frontline evangelism out there for two years and came back here, did frontline evangelism in San Francisco. And for three years then got married and went to a Southern California where I've been since 2000. So it's been quite an adventure. If you like testimonies. My wife and I did write a small pamphlet called match by Messiah. And that's a, you get two for one, two Jews for the price of one. And my wife's extra Jewish. Cause she's from Brooklyn. Anyways, we did pass over every year in my house in San Francisco. 11 (37m 32s): My grandmother made the best lamb. I just loved it, but it was a tradition. We just did it because we were supposed to do it. But now that I've been born again, it's alive. It has, the meeting is so much richer. Like all the biblical holidays that the Lord gave my people, they are about reminding us who God is and what he's done, because the Lord knows how apt we are to forget and get complacent. That's why I actually love sharing my testimony. I'll share it every day. If I have to, because it reminds me of the mud ache I came out of. And I don't want to take that lightly. So Passover is a seven day holiday. It happens this time of year. 11 (38m 12s): I think it starts on the 15th this year and it revolves around 11. We're not allowed to eat any 11. We're only allowed to eat unleavened bread Motsa and we get very creative with this. You see 11 in a Bible, symbolic of sin because just as it's used to puff up cakes and cookies and breads sin puffs us up with pride, which separates us from God. And The first night of Passover is a Seder. When the whole family comes over and ushers in the Passover the week, and you cannot have a Passover. If you have any 11 in your house, you have to do a major house cleaning. It's a time of the year. When you clean all the places in your house that you don't normally clean the rest of the year under the fridge, under the couches and the, in the, you know, the pillow under the pillows and under the cabinets, wherever a crumb could be hiding, you got to get it, or you cannot have a Passover. 11 (39m 8s): In fact, you cannot have any bread cakes or cookies in your house during Passover. So we're supposed to take it and burn it. And if you go to Jerusalem before the Passover, it's not unusual to smell burnt toast in a year because people are taking their bread to the park and they're having a bread bonfire. But here in America, they don't do that so much. What they usually do is they bag up their cakes and cookies and they give them to their Gentile neighbors to hold. So after the Passover, I'm pretty sure that my grandma, she bagged it all up and stuck it in the freezer downstairs, but we're supposed to burn it once the 11 is out of the house, the whole family comes over and the head of the house is going to wear a special prayer shawl. 11 (39m 52s): If any of you been to a synagogue or a bar mitzvah, it's the men will wear these prayer shawls. They have tassels on the corners. It's a commandment of my Jewish people to remember the covenant we made with God at Mount Sinai. It goes over like this, But instead of wearing the usual yamaka or skull cap, as a sign of respect to God, the night of Passover, the man of the house is going to wear something a little more elaborate symbolic of a crown because the night of Passover, the main of the house is the king of the house. And in a, And in a Jewish family, it's the only night of the year that he's figured out. 11 (40m 43s): At least it's not an Italian family where he's never king of the house. And as the king of the house, he's going to guide his family through the traditional Passover Seder Seder means order. Cause there's an order to this using four cups of grape juice and a Seder plate that has six different food items that are going to help us tell the story of Passover. And he's going to do that. Using this book called a Haggadah, which means the telling, because it's all about telling a story. So the evening we'll begin with the lighting of candles. This is the honor and duty of the oldest woman of the house. 11 (41m 24s): She would light the candles. Where's my wife. And she will say a prayer and make this motion to welcome the holy spirit, the raw codec to the evening. And it's appropriate that the woman of the house light the candles because the Bible is very clear that it would be through a woman that the Messiah would come. And the enemy knew this. Look at the matriarchs of the Jewish people, Rebecca, Sarah, Rachel, they were all barren. The enemy said, Hey, got you. 11 (42m 4s): No Messiah is coming from here. Well, the Lord opened all those wounds. In fact, my wife, when we got married, the doctors said we would never have children. She had a condition ovarian syndrome and they said, you're never going to have children. We have three. So who's in charge folks. So the candles are lit at this point, the head of the house is going to lift up the first cup, the cup of sanctification. This cup sets the night apart from all the other nights, he'll hold it like this and say a Hebrew prayer that goes like this. hello? Hey, new fan, ah, man, which translates into Bless it. 11 (42m 58s): Are you a Lord? Our God king of the universe, creator of the fruit of the vine, the cup of sanctification sets quite apart from all the other nights. After that, the head of the house is going to move over to the Seder plate. And he's going to start to tell the story of Passover. And it starts with Jacob, the patriarch of the Jewish people. He lived in the promised land in Atlanta Cain, and he had 12 sons and his, his favorite was little Joseph, one of the youngest. And he wasn't shy about letting everybody know. This was very annoying to the older brothers, especially later on, Jacob sent Joseph to go and spy on the older brothers who were taking care of the sheep and the goats out in the fields. 11 (43m 40s): So when the older brothers saw little Joseph coming to spy on them, they were very annoyed. They seized them and they sold them to some slave traders and some on the way to Egypt, a couple hundred miles away, and then lie to Jacob and said, poor Joseph was killed by a wild animal. Jacob was devastated and went into a deep, deep mourning at would not be consoled. This wasn't bad enough for poor Joseph serving his master faithfully in Egypt for several years, several years later, the master's wife falsely accused them and he was sent to prison for life, but God was with Joseph and he gave him the gift of interpreting dreams. 11 (44m 23s): And it wasn't long before the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt had two dreams that nobody could interpret. None of his psychics or sourcers could interpret these dreams. And they tormented him. And he soon learned of Joseph's gift of interpreting dreams. And he called him out of prison and he asked him, can you interpret these dreams that are tormenting me? And he said, no, but my God will. And sure enough, he did. They were prophetic. They foretold of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of worldwide famine. Pharaoh saw that God was with Joseph. He made him his right-hand man, put him in charge of all the grain of Egypt. And God gave Joseph wisdom to stash away. 11 (45m 4s): 20% of the grain that came in during the seven years of plenty, for sure enough, when he eighth year hit famine, hit the whole world. And it wasn't long before peoples from all around, were coming to Egypt to buy grain. Well guess who showed up? After a couple of years, Jacob's brothers, Jacob sent them to Egypt to buy grain. They were starving and there they were in front of their brother to buy grain. Well, guess what? They didn't recognize it. He was dressed like an Egyptian. He spoke at , but he recognized that. So he decided to make him sweat a little bit. 11 (45m 44s): But after a while, when he saw that they were repentant for what they did, he couldn't hold back and he had to reveal himself. And he said, I am Joseph, what was the reaction? They were horrified. This is the brother they betrayed and sold into slavery. Now he was the right-hand man of Egypt. He could squish him in a second, but there was a forgiveness that was poured out. And the brothers were reconciled, kind of reminds me of when I came to faith and discovered that Jesus wasn't just a rabbi or an ascended master, that he was God in the flesh. I was horrified. I'd been using his name as a swear word my whole life, but the Lord's forgiveness was poured out and I was reconciled to God. 11 (46m 29s): So the brothers are reconciled. They have Pharaoh, Pharaoh has favor on the Hebrew people and he invites them to come and dwell in Egypt. God shows Jacob that it's okay, go to Egypt because one day I'll bring you back to the promised land. So Jacob goes, he's overjoyed to know that Joseph lives and that he has a couple of grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And so Jacob and his whole clan come to Egypt and there they dwell and prosper and multiply so much. So that later on, when the new Pharaoh takes over, who doesn't know Joseph, he decides to deal shrewdly with the Hebrews and make them slaves, not just for 10, 20 years folks, we're talking several hundred years of hard bitter bondage. 11 (47m 19s): And we remember this as we lift up the first item of the Seder plate, fresh parsley, symbolic of life, and it's dipped in salt water, symbolic of tears to make tears, to remind us that a life of slavery is a life filled with tears. After this, we move over to the second item, a horseradish root. This is a very bitter root, and it's a visual reminder of the bitterness of life. As a slave. The third item, my favorite fresh ground horseradish. 11 (47m 59s): We're supposed to eat a whole teaspoon of this stuff. You know what happens when you do that? Usually you turn red and start crying. Well, we cannot proceed with this Passover Seder presentation and we have three volunteers that are gutsy enough to try the horseradish. Who's ready for that. Come out, come on up. Young lady. Anyone else? We need two more. Come on. Or we're stuck here. Two more. Come on, go on. There's gotta be a brave soul in here. They'll come on up. Let's give him a hand. Okay. One more, one more. Come on up. Come on up. Okay. Fantastic. Now, since my Lord is merciful, I thought I'd be merciful and give it to them with some Motsa. 11 (48m 44s): Is that okay with you guys? No. Give it to him straight. Yes. Okay. Okay. All of you stand right in front here. We're going to set you up. Okay. There you go. Don't take it yet. Yeah. Okay. There you go. Right next to her. Good. Okay. All right. There you go. All right. All right there. Okay. Now this is supposed to be the taste of slavery. Does anyone know the prayer for last rights? 11 (49m 26s): Okay. On 3 1, 2, 3. . Thank you, my man. Good job. Thank you. Let me shake your hand. Thank you. Thank you. I knew there were some brave souls at this church. We can now proceed with the Passover Seder. After that the head of the house is going to lift up the fourth item. It's called . It's a sweet mixture of apples, honey cinnamon almonds. 11 (50m 8s): And it's supposed to remind us of the mortar or the cement that we were forced to make us slaves for many years in Egypt. But why use a sweet mixture for that? Well, we had the promise of God that he would bring us back to the promised land and that kept us going 17 (50m 25s): Rosa, 11 (50m 27s): Good. After that, the head of the house will lift up the fifth item, the huggy guy, or hard boiled egg. Now we have to understand about half of what I'm going to show you this morning. We believe that Jesus did that with the disciples in the last supper. There's everything else is traditions that came later like this, this came later because this is a symbol of mourning for the Jewish people. It reminds us of the temple in Jerusalem that was destroyed and burned to the ground by the Romans. Yeah. And it's placed over the fire to remind us that the temple was burned to the ground by the Romans in 70 Ady. 11 (51m 10s): And the Jewish people were dispersed all over the world. But for Jews, for believers like us, this is a symbol that reminds us that Jesus was a hundred percent accurate when it came to prophecy. You see, he foretold that this magnificent temple that took 40 years to build would come down and not one stone left on another and they mocked him. But folks that's exactly what happened. The huggy guy after this, the head of the house is going to move over to the second cup, the cup of plagues. And here we remember how God chose Moses to go to Pharaoh, to say, let my people go. But Pharaoh said, no, not just once, but 10 times. 11 (51m 50s): And every time he did, God had to pour out a plague on Egypt. We remember these plagues as the head of the house would dip his finger in the grape juice and let 10 drops fall on to his plate. As the 10 plagues are remembered anyone, remember what some of those plagues were Riverdale, blood frogs, flies, lights, lice, locusts boils, darkness, Hale, modifier to more Death of the firstborn. And finally the pestilence, the animals died, the Egypt in the Egypt, but the animals in the Jews didn't die. It's funny. 11 (52m 30s): It's really amazing. Whenever I ask people always say the frogs first and the pestilence lasts. It's amazing. What's interesting about this second cup is it reminds us that this was a showdown folks between the God of Israel and the false gods of Egypt. You see the Egyptians used to worship the Nile river. God made it useless, turned it blood. They used to worship the sun. God turned it off for three days. They used to worship the beasts of the field. They all died except for the ones in the of the Hebrew people. In fact, did you know that the Pharaoh was everyone, all the firstborn of Egypt were consecrated to worship Pharaoh as God. 11 (53m 14s): And when the last plague death of the firstborn, God did away with Pharaoh worship in one day, if he can't protect his only firstborn son, he's not God you see the goal of the Passover was to show not only the Egyptians, but the Hebrews that the God of Israel is the one true God cup of plagues. After that, the head of the house is going to move over to the last item of the Seder plate. There's ROA or Lambo. And here we remember how God made a provision to spare his people. Death of the firstborn was coming to Egypt and the Lord told the Jewish people to take a perfect lamb or go. 11 (53m 58s): You had to live with, live with it for four days. And after that, the poor thing had to be killed. And it's innocent blood placed on the doorpost for when death visited Egypt and saw the blood. It passed over those houses. And everyone that was in those houses was spared. That's where we get the name Passover. And this also reminds us of the three food items, items we're supposed to eat. A Passover bread, unleavened bread, lamb, and bitter herbs. There's ROA good. Well, that's the six items at the Seder plate. After that, the head of the house is going to move over to this pouch where there's three pieces of unleavened bread, but only the middle one is pulled out. We believe it's it's that it's because the three symbolizes the father, the son, the holy spirit, but the rabbis will say, it's symbolic of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 11 (54m 47s): But we believe it's the son because the son of God is the aspect of God that dwelled among us. It's taken out of the pouch, broken in half placed in a white pouch and hidden away because later on all the children are sent out to find it. They tear the house apart cause they know the one that finds it gets a big prize. When it's found everyone rejoices into pulled out of the pouch for everyone to see broken up and shared with everybody. And that's when the third cup is raised. The cup of redemption. Does this look familiar? This is where we get communion. Jesus ushered the communion in during the last supper with the third cup, because it's the cup of redemption and he is the Redeemer you see, before I came to faith, when sin came knocking on my door, I was like, come on in let's party. 11 (55m 38s): I couldn't say no, but now I got a big sign on my front door, says no soliciting. I can say no to sin. I'm no longer a slave. So Jews that don't know Jesus they'll think of Moses and how God used him to set us free from physical slavery. But Jesus took it and magnified and said, now you're going to remember with the new covenant, how God set you free from spiritual slavery cup of redemption. Amen. Now the matzah is unleaven just as Jesus was without sin, it's broken just like Jesus was broken. It's hidden in a white cloth. As he was wrapped in white linen. 11 (56m 19s): It's hidden away. God says you must be as a child to know me. The children are sent out to find it. When it's found everyone rejoices. When we're found the angels rejoice, it's pulled out of the pouch for everyone to see just as Jesus was risen from the dead. After three days witnessed by over 500 Jews, broken into pieces and shared with everyone just as Jesus is the bread of life. It looks like the gospel message to me folks. But my Jewish people don't see this. If you ask the rabbi, Hey, what's the deal with hiding the Matsa and the kids finding it, getting a prize. They usually say it's just a game to keep the kids occupied. We think it's a tradition that came from the first church in Jerusalem and got somehow mixed up with mainstream. 11 (57m 2s): Good will. After the third cup, the head of the house is going to lift up the fourth cup, the cup of praise, the cup of Hallel and here we praise God for his faithfulness to bring the people out of slavery and back to the promised land. The cup of Hallel good. Well, that's the four cups, sanctification, plagues, redemption, and praise. We run the home stretch folks. There's this fancy looking cup we haven't talked about yet. The cup of Elijah and at every Seder table, there's an empty place setting with this cup because the Jewish people know that before the coming of the Messiah, God would send a Lija to tell them who the Messiah is. So at the end of the Passover, the youngest child present center, the front door, everyone will look as he opens it. 11 (57m 46s): And they're hoping and praying that Elijah will come walking in to tell them who the Messiah is. So if you're driving around town the night of Passover and you see some doors go flying open, go on in, Have a seat. Tell them who the Messiah is. We know who Elijah is, right? John, the Baptist Jesus said he is Alijah. Who has come to prepare the way of the Lord. Amen. All right. Well, I'm going to give all of you a hand for surviving a Passover Seder And quickly, I'm going to give you a window into my world before we close. 11 (58m 29s): We got those slides. All right, we're going to just zip through this folks. Okay. This is me before I got saved, like I said, I was in bondage. Go ahead. The devil thought he had me, but thankfully I was set free by the power of the blood of Jesus. Go ahead. The Lord sent me to Venice. It's the enemy's camp. It's the second most visited place in California, behind Disneyland. Thousands of people go there every day. A lot of people don't know that. Go ahead. This is what go ahead. This is what Venice looks like. It's a walkway, a mile and a half long thousands of people just strolling back and forth. Go ahead. Here's another picture of the walkway. 11 (59m 10s): Go ahead. Another picture. Go ahead. The end of the road for a lot of people, folks, you know, people come to LA, they try to make it big and they get beat up and ended up homeless drug addicts, alcoholics, whatever. And they end up sleeping on the beach at Venice. Go ahead. And the enemies there every day, you got the tarot card readers. Go ahead. You got the marijuana. Go ahead. You got the Hindus. Go ahead. And you got the psychics. You know, I lived at Venice for three months when I was going to UC Santa Barbara. When I graduated, I was an artist. I did painting. I had a big show. There lived on a roof for three months and I was searching. 11 (59m 50s): I'd walk up and down that walkway never ran into a ministry or a Christian, but the psychics were there. Come on in. And I ended up getting deceived. You got the Krishnas. Are there, go ahead. You got the devil shows up now and then you got to rebuke him in the name of Jesus. Go ahead. You got the warlocks. Go ahead. You got the witches. This is not Halloween folks. You got the Colts. This guy's part of a black Hebrew, Colt Israelites. And they're very violent. There's a whole, I got whole stories about that. Believe me. Now I'm not going to be able to get into too, too, too much detail this morning. But if you want to be in the trenches, if you have a heart for, in California souls in California, you want to sign up with this clipboard at the back table and you'll be put in the trenches where all the action is at Venice beach. 11 (1h 0m 44s): My praise reports are short and sweet. There are no fluff. You're going to get the good, the bad and the ugly. Go ahead. Where are we at? Okay. Yeah, you cannot be like little Bo peep at Venice beach. You'll get beat up and you'll never come back. Go ahead. You gotta be like this guy. You gotta be ready for battle with your sword of the spirit, your shield of faith and your helmet of salvation. I love that picture. You he's not going anywhere. He's got his foot planted there and he's not going to run. Where are we there? Okay. Yeah. So here we are. We're at Venice beach with our Jesus loves you shirts and our show FARs. And when the enemy shows up, that's what we blow the show far. 11 (1h 1m 28s): Hallelujah. The Bible says in numbers, chapter 10, verse nine, he instructed Moses to say, when you go to the enemy and when you go into your land and the enemies harassing you, you blow your show far and I will fight your battles. And that's who we trust to fight our battles. Go ahead. We set up a canopy with a table with free English, Spanish and Hebrew, new testaments. And people just come to our table all day long. We don't have to go hog tie anybody. They are just coming all day long. We have a trained volunteer ministry team that comes out with me every time, Jews and Gentiles serving God together. We waive the Israeli flag so that Israelis know that it's a safe place and Israelis love going to Venice. 11 (1h 2m 13s): And they come by our table all the time. And a lot of Christians come by for prayer. Go ahead. We got these people came by for prayer. This lady was digging for cans and the garbage came back for prayer. Go ahead. Another guy came by for prayer. Go ahead. Prayer. Another woman for prayer. Go ahead another man for prayer. Go ahead another man for prayer. Go ahead. Prayer. Prayer, prayer, prayer. Go ahead. Another one for prayer. Go ahead. This lady was happy to get new testaments for her kids. Go ahead. The whole family came by for prayer and Bibles. Go ahead. A little kids. Get Bibles. Go ahead, kids reading Bibles. 11 (1h 2m 56s): Go ahead. The hippies. Come by now and then go ahead. And some people just ready to get into God's word. And we're doing that with this young man. Go ahead. Here's this guy came to faith named Aaron. Some people were just ready to give their life to God. We've calculated that 2,700 people a year will stop by our table. 1600 of them will take new testaments and over 70 will come to faith. I don't know where else you can get that kind of exposure. Go ahead. There's a Muslim that came by. Got the gospel. Go ahead. Here's a trans trans us transvestite. He came by his name's Eve. Jenny. He came by and got the gospel. 11 (1h 3m 36s): We've been praying for him for years. Go ahead. Israelis coming all the time. 12 to 24 every time. Go ahead. Another Israeli, getting the gospel. Go ahead. Another Israeli getting the gospel and the Bible. Go ahead. Another one. Go ahead. And my dog Moodles, This is rainy was ready to get into God's word and we're showing them the prophecies. Go ahead. Here's a local Jew. Getting the gospel. Go ahead. And a homeless Jew from Pennsylvania got the gospel and the Bible. Go ahead. So it's seeds, sowing, seed sowing. This guy was an Israeli tank battalion. He came by and got the gospels named Joseph. Go ahead. 11 (1h 4m 17s): Whole group of Israeli soldiers came by. They were so moved by what we heard. They heard that they asked us to pray for them and we blew the show far for them and they left with Hebrew new testaments. Go ahead. Orthodox Jew came by big animated discussion with him. Go ahead. And finally, this guy's name's Mandy. He was a guy who was struggling with sexual identity. He was on his way to get a sex change came by our table, gave his life to the Lord, left with the new Testament, showed up three months later. Go ahead with a beard. Amen. He canceled his operation. 11 (1h 4m 57s): Now he's reading his Bible every day. So praise God for Mandy. Go ahead. This was, we got teams from churches coming to Venice beach now getting trained, getting experience, and they're taking it back to their churches. Go ahead. Go ahead. And finally, this is a picture of my wonderful family. My wife, Rhonda, my daughter, Gabriela, Daniel, and Yossi. So folks never adult day serving the Lord. All right, well, we're going to wrap this up. If you have any questions, come see me at the table in the back. Don't forget to sign up for our praise reports. If you want to be in the trenches. And if you want to give, if God's moving you to help support this ministry and be a part of it, I did. 11 (1h 5m 38s): And, but you didn't come prepared. I can take credit cards at the back table. So God bless you. I'm going to say a prayer. As we close, I personalize the, our father prayer. And I want to share it with you because it means so much to me for me now, I don't know you to get to the part where it says lead me not into temptation. It always sounded like God was trying to tempt me, but God doesn't tempt us, right? The real meaning is this Lord don't let me give into temptation. So let's say the, our father together, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thank you for giving me my daily bread. 11 (1h 6m 21s): Forgive my sins. As I forgive those who sin against me, don't let me give into temptation, but deliver me from evil for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory. Amen. God bless. 2 (1h 6m 45s): Awesome. Church. Will you stand as we worship? I think it's only appropriate that we sing about our savior and we sing about his coming and his time on earth and how we get to praise his name. 7 (1h 7m 26s): . Hi, And transfixed all in cheese.

4 (14m 56s): Thank you, Lord. For your spirit, your power, your grace Lord. We need it desperately. We thank you that you meet us in those desperate places and you bless us with your spirits and your grace and your power. What? I pray that we would be refreshed in that today for those, especially who maybe have been struggling, trying to find their way. Lord, we just pray in Jesus' name. God that you would guide. Show yourself faithful. As you have in the scriptures of the old and the new Testament, you have shown yourself faithful. And as we study the people, those who have gone before us Lord, as we study their lives and remember how you work so powerfully in them. 4 (15m 43s): Lord, we have courage that we do can run the race, faithfully and fruitfully and long-term Lord till death to his part. Lord, we can run the race set before us. So Lord give us strength or give us stamina in Jesus' name. Give us desire in Jesus' name. Give us perspective in Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord God for your help right now in Jesus name all over the campus. Lord, we invite your presence all over the central coast, where people are gathered to lift up the name of Jesus. We, we invite your presence. Lord God, your grace, your protection, your help upon every person. 4 (16m 23s): Lord God. So minister powerfully Lord, we pray. Thank you for your goodness, Lord. We love you, Lord. We're excited about what you will do today in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Turn to greet somebody that you never have greeted before and we'll come on back. 4 (19m 14s): Hey, welcome back. It's a communion Sunday. So hopefully every buddy received their elements. If you did not receive your elements, go ahead and raise your hand. And pastor Ron will grab the elements. Somebody will deal. We'll grab the elements and we'll get those things to you. Do yourself a favor ahead of time. So there's a little piece of saran wrap on top. Work that up a little bit. Give yourself a chance to get, you know, stay with us because it's really sometimes very tricky. We started using these because of COVID and we're sticking with them. It looks like. So here we are. What's the difference between an alligator and a crocodile? 4 (19m 58s): What's the difference between an alligator and a crocodile one you'll see later the other you'll see in a while I know. Well I know these jokes keep getting better and better. So this is the deal students, not for adult students, only 18 and under students. Cause some of us have been, students are like our whole life, but I'm 18 and under. If you have a good we'll call them dad jokes. If you have a good dad joke that can be used on Sunday morning. And if I use it on Sunday morning, I'm going to try to have a dad joke for every family Sunday. I tried to do it every Sunday and it's just too much. I, I just don't have the material for that. 4 (20m 39s): So if you do, I will give you five bucks, but I got to use it and you got to get it to me during the week so that I a chance to think about it for Sunday. So don't show up to me on Sunday morning because I'm not going to use that morning probably unless it's really good. And then I will find a way then I will find a way, ah, running strong. We're talking about running today, running strong in light of what we've been studying. And Hebrews 11, as we've looked at all of the heroes of faith, men and women who have just been faithful, imperfect, but faithful. I think that's good news for us because we're a room full of imperfect people, starting with me where a room full of imperfect people, whom God has called to be faithful. 4 (21m 26s): And so God calls imperfect people to be faithful and we are allowed and enabled, empowered to be faithful by his grace, by his spirit, by his calling upon our lives. He's called us all into the work of ministry, whether it be in a secular, you know, environments or a church environment, we're all called to have an impact in our community. So I love talking about running because I was a runner growing up and I there's, it just resonates with me. I love the idea of running. I still run a little bit, but I don't run. Like I used to. And I just love the idea of running. I remember a number of years ago, I was running the strawberry stampede out here. 4 (22m 9s): I think it was a 10 K and I ran it for like three or four or five years in a row. And I've shared this story before, but there's this friend of mine, Kristen, she's on the city council. So Christian, if you're listening, this is anyway, Kristin's been a friend for years. And so she would always, she would always sneak up like the last half mile and pass me. And I was too worn out at that point to do anything about it. I would just have to watch her go by and I, I just, I stored that information away and then she, I forgot about it. And then she did it again the next year, two years in a row, she did that. So then I'm like, okay, next year, this is not, is not happening. 4 (22m 50s): Not going to happen. So half mile before the race is over, I look over my shoulder, who's there Kristen. And she's like pouring it on. You know, she's like trying to do three times in a row and she's already done to me twice. So I poured it on and I did not let her beat me. And I haven't talked to her since I think she might be a little, little, little hurt. I don't know. But anyway, she'll need to lose with grace next time. Not that I was losing with grace I'll I'll I was just getting kind of uptight, you know, anyway, we're talking today about running strong running with focused endurance is our first points. We, this is part of the deal. If you've ever competed in any sport running or whatever it is, you need to compete with focused Endura. 4 (23m 35s): And if you expect to finish well to compete well, if you expect to leave it all out there on the field or in the court, you need to, when you need to run or, or compete with focused endurance. And this is what we see in the scripture. Again in light, we just spent four weeks studying Hebrews 11 and just real quick, we didn't get to like the last five verses of Hebrews 11. And so my plan this weekend was to teach through those last five verses. And then Friday or Saturday, I can't remember. I think it was Friday. It occurred to me it's family Sunday. So we're going to have all bunch of kids in the services. And, and so the end of Hebrews 11 talks about the unsavory ways that some of the early church passed away. 4 (24m 15s): So I can't talk about, you know, how people got sod in half and that's where I just can't talk about that stuff in a sermon. So if you would like to learn more about that, I will teach on those verses another time or you can email me and I'll send you my message from that is prepared for that. And anyway, so we won't be talking about people getting ending their lives. That way. We're going to talk about it. The things we're gonna talk about running strong. So sorry, we didn't get a chance to preach on those last few verses, but go back and read it and you'll understand why the children's ministry director is very clear that I shouldn't talk about that kind of stuff. So here we go run with focused in Durance Hebrews 12, we're going to get through verses one, one through about first 15 eight, the first part of 15. 4 (25m 3s): It says this. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge, huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up and let us run with endurance. The race God has set before us with that. Let's pray for a moment. Lord, we just invite your presence. God, as we talked about running the race that is set before us today, Laura, we want to engage in your word and in your spirit with your spirit and we want to be instructed or what are those things that are hindering us, those weights, those sins, those things that are just tripping us up over and over again. 4 (25m 53s): Lord, we just invite you to speak to us about those things, Lord, and that we might hear. And as that, there will be evidence that we've heard Lord, because there's action. After we've heard Lord that we've not just hearing, but we're doing, we're responding. We're listening and responding, listening and obeying. So help us to do so. Lord, I just humbly ask that you would speak your message through me, Lord God, that it would just be what the people need to hear. I know it's what I need to hear. Every time I prepare a message, Lord, I'm like, ah, this is for me, but I know that you've got a message for the rest of us as well. So bless us as we open up the scripture and learn and grow as followers of yours, Lord, for those of the, for those people who are here, they're just trying to figure out, do I want to serve Jesus? 4 (26m 45s): What's this Jesus all about. I pray God that you would bless those people who are searching and still unsure, still doubting and prince. You bless them with your presence and with your grace and ultimately with salvation. Thank you Lord, for your goodness in Jesus' name, amen. Run with focused in Durance. It's an interesting thought that we've got this crowd. Your, your version might say cloud of witnesses, same thing. It's like these, this crowd in the cloud, people who have gone before us, people that we've been studying and reading about in Hebrews chapter 11, that those and many, many others, those who have gone before us who have run the race, those who have finished the race, those who hear as they stand before the Lord will hear and do hear well done. 4 (27m 35s): Good and faithful servants. We are to run within Durance this race that God has called us to. And I, I love that though. There are those who have gone before us who have showed us the way who have let us know that it is possible because there are days when I I'm afraid. It feels like we just, we can't go on it. Doesn't feel like we've got the grace and the strength and the capacity to continue to press on in this race. As we battle temptation and sin and the world, the flesh and the devil, all of these things, it's helpful to read the scripture old and the new Testament and be refreshed in the reality that it is indeed possible to run with endurance. 4 (28m 19s): So these people that we've been studying in Hebrews 11, they were imperfect people, but man, they did wonderful and profound in supernatural things, things that were worthy to be put in the pages of scripture so that we might throughout the generations that would follow that. We might learn something from them, grow in our understanding because of them and move forward with greater confidence with greater endurance because they did, they did it. And they were people just like you and me. People broken people in need of God's grace who received God's grace and then walked in that grace, as we understand their race, as we understand how they endured through the end, we, we, we, we, we bear witness to the reality that we to by God's grace can do what they did. 4 (29m 20s): As we understand their race. We compete with greater strength in our own race. That's really what the scripture is all about. That's what that the reading of the scripture is all about. That's what the preaching of the scripture is all about. That we might be built up in our most holy faith so that we could run so that we can run the race with endurance and finish the race that God has called us to. So we look their lives and we say, man, there, they're not perfect, but they were still counted among the faithful. That should give us all a reason to say thank you Lord, because none of us are perfect. But somehow God sees the incredible work that he accomplishes in our lives. And he's glorified in those things. 4 (30m 1s): And we can be counted among the faithful. How do, how do we run with endurance while we need to run unencumbered? The scripture says we need to run unencumbered. Verse one says we are to strip off every weight. If you ever tried to run with too much weight, I know there's people who run with weights. I see guys carrying weights and they're trying to try to build up their endurance, but in a real race, you don't run with weights. You're, you're stripped down, you've got shorts, tank, top shoes, and you're going for it because you want it to be unencumbered. You don't want to wear anything. It's going to slow you down. And so that's the analogy here. We need to strip off anything that will hinder our ability to run and to run effectively and to run fruitfully and to run the way that God has called us to run. 4 (30m 50s): So we're to strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And so we see two different things here that we're to shed that we're to eliminate from our lives, the weights and these things aren't necessarily sin. Although they can be, and they can become sin, but it may be like the love of pleasure. Like I, I'm having a hard time serving Jesus because I just love, pleasure. I love getting what I like and pursuing the things that I like. And so that's got me Duplessis in my perspective, I'm I want to do God's will, but I also want to do my will. I want to accomplish God's plans, but I also want to accomplish my plans. 4 (31m 32s): When you put your plans in God's plans together, there's a scripture that says seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything else will be added unto you. Like if you make God your priority, he will make sure that your life is filled and fulfilled. And in ways that you, you can never understand apart from God's will it's, it's more, it's brighter and fuller. It's more satisfying and life-giving than anything that we can pursue in the natural, in our own strength without God's grace. Maybe it's a love of pleasure. Maybe it's a love of comfort, love of security. All of these things are weights hindrances to our ability to really move forward as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ like unencumbered by God. 4 (32m 13s): I'm all yours. I'm not allowing anything of this life to slow me down to hinder me, to keep me from doing what you've called me to do to accomplish the stuff that you have called me to do. So we need to get rid of those weighty things. And then the sin, a sin that so easily besets us sin is direct violation against God's law. So anything that we see in scripture that we're told not to do, and we do it. That's a sin. Sin is falling short of God's plans and purposes and goodness, and all of the design that he has for us. When we fall short in a thousand different ways, we are sending against God and those things hinder us. They slow us down. 4 (32m 54s): I wonder what sins might be in our lives that are hindering our ability to have the grace to keep moving forward, to have the desire, to keep moving forward, the strength to keep moving forward. What are those things that continue to trip us up? And what do we need to do about those things? We need to deal with those things. We need to acknowledge they're real and repent and confess our sins, knowing that he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, we have the ability to connect with God, confessing our sin. When you sang a song about nothing standing between us, we have this mediator who is Christ the Lord. He was died on the cross for our sins. We're gonna be celebrating his death. 4 (33m 36s): When we take communion here in just a little bit, we need to confess those things that are hindering. So maybe they're sins of commission or sins of omission, sins of commission, things that we're doing, that we shouldn't be doing. Sins of omission, things that we aren't doing, that we should be doing. So we've got sins, both commission and omission. So what are we not doing that we should be doing? And what are we doing that we shouldn't be doing? And let's address those sin issues and move forward. Either type of sin begins to Dole us spiritually. And that's your experience as well? I know it is. I, I we've been at this too long. We know that sin doles, our spiritual life, it begins to affect negatively our ability to run as successfully. 4 (34m 26s): We are to run on encumbered. And so that means a constant inventory. Lord, what's going on in my life. Am I running unencumbered? Am I running faithfully? Am I doing what you've asked me to do? If I'm running encumbered, then I want to deal with that. If I'm running with trying to manage cinema my life, I don't want to manage cinema my life. I want to confess my sin. And that's often what we're trying to do. We're just trying to manage sin, trying not to get too close to it. Try not to let it consume too much of our lives. Instead of that, we just need to confess our sin and run from it to confess it. Repenting means to turn and run a getting away from that as quickly as possible, sorta where to run unencumbered. If we're to run with success, we're to we're running cumbered by keeping completely focused. 4 (35m 11s): We run unencumbered by keeping completely focused on God. Hebrews 12 two says we do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus. How do we get rid of those weights? And those sins? We keep our eyes on Jesus. The champion who initiates and perfects our faith. We were just singing there's there's another in the fire. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were in the fire under the judgment. And Jesus is walking in there with them. There's a there's in the water, holding back the waves, the water there's Jesus is there in the midst of the trial. He is present. We run unencumbered by keeping our eyes on Jesus, by remembering that he's the author and finisher and Perfector of our faith, Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. 4 (35m 58s): The verse says because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. So we need good run, completely focused on Jesus. So every day we get up and say, Jesus, this is a new day. Thank you that your mercies are new every morning. Great. Is your faithfulness. God, what do you want to do with my life today? That's the perspective. What do you want to do with my life today? And maybe it's a Sabbath day of rest. And Lord says, just rest, because we need times of rest where we're just resting in the Lord. I was telling my wife yesterday. I said, Hey, when this project is done, this new worship, the center, I need like two weeks off. 4 (36m 39s): She's like, where are you going to go? I said, I don't care. Wherever I can't be reached. Right? Like we just need those times of rest. So there's times where we're really pushing hard and accomplishing wonderful things for the kingdom, but then it's just time to rest so that we can go again so that we can continue to do those supernatural things that God has called us to. So there's time for rest. And maybe that's a good season of rest for a season or for you for a season. But now maybe it's time to get moving again because of the joy awaiting him. Who's the joy you me. He thought about us in our need for grace, salvation, redemption, healing, new life. 4 (37m 21s): And so, because we were on his mind, he endured the cross and all of its shame. And now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. We got to keep our eyes on Jesus. Why? Because he is the champion. He's the champion who already finished the race for the same reason that we read the scripture and read about those who have gone before us. There are champions in the faith who have finished the race. Jesus finished the faith race. Then he calls you and he calls me into that race. And then Jesus perfects us in that faith race. And so he calls imperfect people into this race and he's affecting us along the way as we stumble, he's working in our lives. 4 (38m 5s): As we doubt he's working in our minds. As we, as we get fearful, he's working in our hearts, she's working out his good and perfect plan in our lives. As we move forward, as we do the things that God has us to do because of the joy awaiting him here, endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. So even now Jesus cheers us on from heaven. Even now he's cheering us on like the cloud of witnesses, the crowd of witnesses they're cheering us on. He is seated next to the father forever making intercession for us, Hebrews 7 25. 4 (38m 44s): He lives Jesus. He lives forever to intercede with God on our behalf, on their behalf. He's praying for us interceding for us. He's cheering us on from that place that finished work, where you sit on the cross, it is finished. He finished the race. He finished his call and he ascended. And now he's given us responsibility and the great commission go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. That's why we highlight missionaries missions, organizations that we support and partner with once a month so that we can hear about what's going on. We know what's going on in our own community for the most part, but we need to hear about what's going on in other communities that we're having a part in, in, in, in other parts of the world that we're impacting. 4 (39m 27s): So we run focused on Jesus awning cumbered and we don't give up. Verse three says, think of all the hostility he, he endured from sinful people. Then you won't become weary and give up. So we run and don't give up. Jesus faced all kinds of hostility from angry people, false accusations, his friends abandoning him, foes all around him, but he kept his eyes on the father. He would often get away to the father because he needed to be refreshing as spirit as a man, as the God, Nan, he needed to get with a father and just have communion with the father. We can do the same thing we get with, with the father through Jesus filled with the holy spirit. 4 (40m 9s): And we get refreshed and renewed in our ability to run with stamina, with endurance, the race that is set before us, we run and we do not give up. Sometimes we grow weary and we want to give up because things aren't always going well, good indication that you're in the race. If things aren't going great, because anytime you're in a race, you're going to come across difficult. You're going to get tired and worn down. If you're not getting tired and worn down, you may not be in the race. You might be in the sidelines at present, you know, at the event, but you may not actually be in the race. And so expect your yourself to, you know, get tired and, and, and, and, and in need of God's grace to sustain you. 4 (40m 53s): It's just part of the deal. I mean, you run a race, you're going to get thirsty, right? You're going to get fatigued in your physical body. You're going to get fatigued. You're going to feel like you're in the race. Like you're actually doing something. And so we need to refresh ourselves and take times of rest and then get back out there. A number of years ago, my cousin was in this fundraising event where she was trying to raise money for cancer. And they were doing 20 miles a day, walking 20 miles a day for three days. And it's a lot of walking. So the second day she's like lying in her tent, trying to psych herself up because two days, 20 miles, a day, day three coming, another 20 miles. 4 (41m 39s): She had to psych herself up. Why? Because she's been exerting herself. She's been committed to this fundraising effort and she was not going to give up. She was focused on the finish line, on the purpose of the race. He was focused on why she was there and that allowed her to continue. And to go that third day, I'm psyching myself up. She said, I'm psyching myself up. Like I got to get ready. Like I I've got to finish. Like some days you're gonna wake up. And you're like, man, I, I got nothing. I got, I'm not sure I can do this again today, Lord, whatever it may be that God has called you to, would you say, Lord, I'm just, I can't, I can't give up. 4 (42m 27s): That's not an option. I don't want to give up Lord. That's that's not what you've called me to do to give up. I want to press on and never give up. And so you just like Paul, when I'm weak, God's strength is made perfect in my weakness. And I just rest in him and allow his grace to give me the endurance that I need. So we run with focused endurance. Number one, number two, we run with focus perspective, run with focused perspective, a quick perspective story. Dear Abby, our son was married January five months later, his wife had a 10 pound baby girl. 4 (43m 9s): They set the baby was premature. Tell me, can a baby. This big, be that early signed, wondering, dear wondering the baby was on time. The wedding was late. Forget about it. Sometimes we disqualify ourselves because maybe we fall in shorts. We've sinned. We haven't lived the way that God would have us to live. We haven't measured up to the, even our own expectations. Let alone God's expectations. If we were to take a poll in this room and ask that question, how many have fallen short of your own expectations? And don't raise your hand because that would be everybody. 4 (43m 49s): But, and then how many have fallen short of God's expectations, but our everybody's hands would be up, right? So with grace, we move forward realizing that his grace is sufficient, that when we mess up, the perspective needs to be that his grace is sufficient. If our perspective is anything other than that, we will quit. We will count ourselves out of the race. Don't allow your past mistakes to hinder you from running run with focused perspective. 4 (44m 31s): And part of that is run running even when you're struggling. So you're struggling with something, a friend of mine years ago, I don't even understand what he means by it, but it kind of communicates. He said, if I'm going to fall, I'm going to fall forward. Like toward the cross. I'm like, huh? I'm not sure how that works, but I get it kind of like I'm going to, I'm going to at least make progress in my falling. I'm not sure theologically if it's even sound, but I get his mind, you know, he's like, I just want to be close to Jesus. And if I make mistake, I just still want to be close to Jesus. I think was his point. I, I just want to fall forward toward Jesus. And that's what I would call all of us to. If we've blown, it just, just fall toward Jesus. Come to the foot of the cross and know that his grace is sufficient. 4 (45m 12s): He loves you unconditionally. He wants you to confess your sin to repent of your sin because he wants you to get that out of your life. He wants you to run from that so that you can run toward him and run with endurance. The race that is set before you so run. Even when you're struggling, after all verse four says you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin. Like we're still here. Got pulls. I haven't given my life yet. I may. One day you may, one day, we all may one day, but we haven't given up our lives yet. And so we have purpose to move forward, moving for even moving forward. Even as we struggle, I'm still alive. 4 (45m 54s): I might as well keep going. We talk about this all the time. If you've got a pulse, you've got a purpose. So keep going. Don't stop repent and go get clear. Get clear with the Lord, you know, come clean with the Lord and then just get moving. His grace is sufficient. Keep moving forward. Even as you struggle in your faith, run, struggling again is an indicator that you're actually in the race, the world, the flesh and the devil are coming against us in our run. If the world, the flesh and the devil is not coming against us, it means we're probably not running. We're not being effective. We're not really doing anything for the kingdom, but in the race that God has called us to, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit, using our gifts and talents that God has given us to be salt and light in the earth. 4 (46m 43s): If we're doing those things in whatever capacity that the Lord has given us grace to do those things, then we're going to come up against difficulties, hard things. So run when you're struggling run during times of failure, verse five says, and have you forgotten the encouraging words? God spoke to you as his children. He said, my child don't make light of the Lord's discipline. And don't give up when he corrects you. So if you're failing the Lord's going to correct you, he's going to discipline you. I, when I think about my kids, when they were young, I would discipline them so that they would learn how to live. Right, right. And hopefully it wasn't out of anger. I'm sure there was some of that as well in my human is, but you hope that you're disciplining them so that they stay on the right path. 4 (47m 30s): I threatened to discipline them now, but they're bigger than me. So I, I don't go there, go there anymore. I used to be able to take my boys. I got two boys there. Well, there's one right there, tall bearded guy there. And where's another one. There's another one wandering around with a camera. So I used to be able to wrestle them, like flinging them, like, you know, no problem. And there came a day when I couldn't do, I couldn't do that anymore. So I'm like, all right, time out. I gave up UN. And so I haven't wrestled with them like that because I'm afraid they're gonna hurt me. They, every time they get a hold of me now, they, they they're, they're bigger and stronger and rougher than I am. 4 (48m 11s): And so anyway, so you discipline them when they're young, because when they get older, you can't do. But for adults, God is bigger than all of us. Right? And he's, his grace is sufficient. He does disciplines us like a good father because he wants to show us the right path. My child don't make light of the Lord's discipline. And don't give up. When he corrects you. Sometimes we beat ourselves up. When God's not beating us up, he's just disciplining us. He's correcting us. He's bringing correction to our lives so that we can keep moving forward. That's his goal. It's not to condemn us. It's to build us up and to strengthen us in our holy faith, our most holy faith so that we can be strong doing the right stuff. 4 (48m 53s): We're not strong when we're doing the wrong stuff or we're weak when we're doing the wrong stuff. So we correct sin, disciplines, us out of his great love for us. You're his child. You're his child. He loves you. Of course, he's going to discipline you. If he doesn't discipline you, it means you don't belong to him. But because you belong to him, he going to discipline you run when you're struggling and run. When you're failing and run with confidence that God accepts you. He accepts you. Not because you're good, but because he's good. Not because you're faithful, but because he's faithful. 4 (49m 33s): Although he's called us to a life of goodness and righteousness and faithfulness, he doesn't love us based on our merit. He loves us based on his own, his own merit. His grace is sufficient. His power is what transforms our lives. He calls us to run and he empowers us to run with confidence that we're his we've been adopted as part of the it's part of the new covenant is part of the gospel message that we've been adopted into his family. When we come to him as children and recognize our desperate need for him, he forgives us and adopts us into his family. And he calls us his own for the Lord disciplines, verse six, those he loves. 4 (50m 13s): And he punishes each one. He accepts as his child, as you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own child, who, whoever heard of a child who has never disciplined by his father, if God doesn't you, as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn't we submit even more to the discipline of the father, of our spirits and live forever for our earthly fathers, disciplined us for a few years, doing the best. They knew how, but God's discipline is always good for us so that we might share in his holiness run with focused endurance run with focused perspective and run with number three focused faith run with focused faith. 4 (51m 7s): We've been talking about faith. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for a while actually happened. It's the assurance of things we can not see. So we have this call, this responsibility, this opportunity to run with focused faith, faith on Jesus, faith in Jesus, eyes on Jesus, trusting him to fill us, strengthen us, give us what we need to move forward. As followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ run with knowledge that God is helping you. We see that in the verse. No discipline is enjoyable while it's happening, it's painful. But afterwards, there will be a peaceful harvest of right living. This is God's desire. This is a person's desire, disciplines, their children, peaceful harvest of right living. 4 (51m 51s): Don't we discipline because we want our kids to do well in life. We want them to avoid pitfalls. Some of the same pitfalls that we fell into. We want them to avoid those pitfalls. So we discipline our children. God is wanting us to experience a peaceful harvest of right living. And when we are right with God, there is a peaceful harvest of right living. We just feel right with God. We feel at peace, confident, not in, not in anything, but God's grace to bring us to this place where we're choosing healthy things and righteous things and good things and blessed things. We have this peaceful harvest of right living. There's something powerful that happens. 4 (52m 32s): The opposite is true. We also, when we're not choosing those right things where we are, we are not at peace. We are anxious, fearful, filled with doubt. We are a mess, mind, emotion. Everything's just kind of out of, out of, out of sorts. And we're out of cahoots and we're just not feeling right, but there's great. Peace that accompanies right living. I think it takes us a while to figure that out right in the beginning we get saved and we're still wrestling. And I, this was my deal. I got saved in junior high school at a camp and I hadn't really know what to do with my faith. 4 (53m 14s): I got saved. I, you know, I probably have fire insurance, but that was the extent of it. And I didn't really know what to do as a follower of Jesus. I didn't know what it meant to be a believer. I didn't know what it meant to be a Christian. I just, I had heard the message over and over again. And I said yes to it. And then I just wrestled trying to figure out what to do next and how to live out this Christianity. Did I really want to live out this Christianity or did I want to go after the things of the world? And it was a difficult five years for me and four or five years. And then about my junior year of high school, I had experienced enough of this, like doing well with the Lord and experiencing that peace, just feeling right with things with the Lord and like, everything's good. 4 (53m 59s): Like I've got this piece and then I'd be a knucklehead and I'd go off and, you know, explore things of the world. And all of a sudden, because I had tasted the goodness of God, I was no longer able to have fun in the world. So it was appealing to me and drawing me because that's what sin does. It's what the flesh, just what the world, the flesh and the devil does. It's drawing is trying to draw us into this place of destruction. And so I'd go into that place. And I just feel gnarly. Like, what am I doing? I did this for like four or five years. I'm a very slow learner. Right? Very slow learner. And then finally, my junior year of high school, I knew I either need to go full blown into the world, or I need to go full blown following Jesus and thankfully, and not perfectly by any stretch. 4 (54m 46s): Just ask my mom. I have not done it perfectly, but I have tried to follow Jesus ever since. And you don't have to just ask them. You can ask my staff been imperfect. You can ask my kids been imperfect. You can have, oh my wife, of course you can ask her. That's my neighbor. Who else can you ask? You can ask. You can ask pretty much anybody. If you hang around long enough, you'll see my imperfections, thank you for your grace by the way. But we move forward as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, even as we struggle and, and, and make mistakes, we just continue to move forward. And we allow the peace of God to fill us. We allow the peace of God to direct us level. 4 (55m 29s): When people are praying for wisdom, for direction, Neil, you're famous for saying this. I'm going to follow the piece. I just want to follow the piece. Like God's going to show me the piece. And when people don't have the peace of God for a decision, then they, they, they know which direction to go. They know what the decision is. And we honor that. We bless that. So we need to run strong in the power of his might filled with faith. Verse 12 says, so take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. So the writer of Hebrews understand something of the nature of what it means to follow Jesus. 4 (56m 11s): It's going to be hard at times. It's going to be glorious and hard all at the same time. Sometimes it's going to be hard and then sometimes it's glorious. And sometimes there's a blend. So the writer knows from experience and from watching the church that people will get tired. And so he writes, so take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. You will get tired, expect it, expect it. Don't be dismayed by it. Think about running. I'm going to get tired physically and spiritually. So how do you take a new grip with your tired hands? 4 (56m 51s): How do you strengthen your weak knees by faith and by faith? We believe God, we follow God and we open up his word and we allow that word to speak to us. I was reading the word this morning and Proverbs four. And I came across these verses verses 18 through 27. And it spoke to the message. It's it's supports the message. And so it's not going to be on the screen because I just put it in this morning. But this is what it says. The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of Dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day. That it's just a beautiful picture of the way of the rice. 4 (57m 33s): It's late. It's like the first gleam of Dawn. It's just refreshing. It's life-giving but the way of the wicked is like total darkness. They have no idea what they're stumbling over. And that's the contrast, the way of the righteous, the way of the wicked beautiful lights, total darkness, my child pay attention to what I say, listen carefully to my words. Don't, don't lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart for they bring life to those who find them and healing to their whole body guard your heart above all else for, for it determines the course of your life. 4 (58m 24s): Avoid all perverse talk. Stay away from corrupt speech. Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you mark out a straight path for your feet, stay on the safe path. Don't get sidetracked. Keep your feet from following evil. So when, when not, if, but when you get tired, take a new grip with your tired hands, know that those who have gone before you have had to do the same thing, you're not less than you're not inferior to those who have gone before. Take a new grip with your tired and strengthen your weak knees. 4 (59m 4s): Do what the scripture tells you to do re refreshed with the word and the spirit Abraham and Sarah failed failed. It's shocking as you read through the patriarchs and the people that have gone before us, their mistakes and how God still able to work through them, Abraham and Sarah failed along the way, but they believe God and they received the promise. So they didn't quit. They continued even in light of failure, they just kept moving forward by faith that God had given a promise that they would receive the promise king David failed, but he repented and he's described in scripture as a man after God's own heart. 4 (59m 49s): Wow. Read his story. And you'll be surprised by that statement. Israel failed over and over and over and over and over. And we could do that until the cows come home and still not have enough overs that they just fail over and over again. But God still identifies them as his people. Hmm. I don't understand God's grace, but I appreciate it. And I need it. Don't be discouraged. Don't be fearful. Don't be too hard on yourselves. You know, some people are harder on themselves than God is then God is hard on you. So don't be a tool of the enemy in your own life by just resting and condemnation, confess your sin, move forward, confess your sin, move forward. 4 (1h 0m 38s): Confess your sin. Move forward. I think I got to do this. Like every single day, sometimes like multiple times a day. I'm like, Lord, I shouldn't have had that thought. Forgive me. I want to move forward, Lord. I shouldn't have said that. Lord, forgive me. Move forward, Lord. Sorry about that. You know, some guy cut me off up here and I was like, It turns out it was one of my kids' kindergarten teachers. So I'm like, Now what I wanted to do, I'm like, are you getting me right now? You just got me. Forgive me, Lord. I didn't, I should've been like, forgive me, Lord. I've just gonna move forward. Run the final point to this final point, run with other runners in mind. 4 (1h 1m 23s): You know that your life, my life impacts those that we encounter. People are watching crowd of witnesses, cloud of witnesses. People are watching in the heavens and in the earth, people are watching. So we need to run with other runners in mind. If, if I'm running, like Kristen just kept passing me up. She gave me the grace to just keep running, to dig deep. If everybody's quitting around you in a race, you're like, ah, maybe I can't make it either. And so you just kind of stop potentially First 13 says mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall, but become strong. 4 (1h 2m 3s): We're get living in peace with everyone and work at living a holy life. For those who are not, holy will not. Excuse me, work at living in peace with everyone and work at living a holy life. For those who are not, holy will not see the Lord look after each so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. So we have the ability to encourage one another. And that's my hope. Every time I stand up in the pulpit is to encourage us. I get encouraged as I prepare for the message. And my hope is that you would be encouraged that you would be challenged, built up in your faith, equipped to move forward as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, doing the things that he's accomplished or caused you to accomplish. 4 (1h 2m 44s): So run, run strong with endurance, with perspective and with faith, I'm gonna invite the worst of team up and we're gonna take communion. And so as they come up, we're going to pray and just ask the Lord direct our time and communion and that we would just humbly come before the Lord. So Lord, we humbly come before you. And we, we say thank you that you died on the cross. Your body was pinned to a cross. Your side pierced your blood flowed. You died a criminal's death for me. 4 (1h 3m 25s): You took my guilt upon yourself and you died for me. So that righteousness might be imputed to me and to the world to all who would say yes to you. So thank you for your sacrifice. We commemorates. And we remember your sacrifice. We thank you for your sacrifice. We humbly take communion today, having repented of our sins, having a recognized our need for you. And maybe if you're here today and you don't feel ready to confess your sins, you, you don't feel ready to Say thank you to the Lord. 4 (1h 4m 8s): If you're not, if you're not in that place, I just maybe just let this moment Pass you by for don't. Don't take the elements unless your heart's right with the Lord. You've said yes to him and you've confessed your sin to him and you've you've run to him. And now this is just a celebration of all of those things. And so thank you, Lauren. Paul wrote for, I passed on to you. What I received from the Lord himself On the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. 4 (1h 4m 49s): Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's take the wafer. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Jesus. First 25 says in the same way, he took the cup of wine. After supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. 4 (1h 5m 31s): Do this to remember me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. It's take the juice Got. Thank you for all of those years ago, God, that you saved me and got for whatever, whatever the time line is in our own lives. 4 (1h 6m 17s): Lord, we want to go back to that time and say, thank you. Maybe today's the time where you're saying I'm ready for God's grace. I'm ready for him to forgive me. If you're here today and you want to receive the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. You, you just simply acknowledge to the Lord, your need. You say, Lord, I, I, I need you. I, I, I need your grace and forgiveness in my life. I need you to come into my life and I want, I want to be adopted into your family. I want to run this race that we've been talking about. I want to have eternal purpose for my life and I want to have eternal life. I want to live with you God, forever and ever. 4 (1h 6m 58s): Amen. Lord, if there's anybody here today, I pray that they would make the bold step of accepting your grace And experiencing this new life that is in you and God that they would enter the race, Run with a Durance Lord, God run with endurance. Thank you Lord, for what you're doing. And in each of our lives, we trust God that wherever we are in our journey of faith or God that you are with us and directing us and helping us. So Lord help us to trust you and believe you, Lord. We love you. Thank you for this time. 4 (1h 7m 38s): As we get ready to worship, Lord, pray God that she'd be glorified in this final time of worship. And in the prayer time after be glorified, we ask him pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be. You may stand up 3 (1h 14m 53s): Thank you, Jesus. That we can re surrender every day that we can fall before you at the cross And that in your grace, you catch us. Thank you that we get to run this race with endurance Lord, you are the prize. We fix our eyes on you. You are the goal. So thank you for everyone in this room. I thank you for everyone watching online. Thank you for those on the patio, wherever they find themselves hearing this message this morning, I pray that something would resonate And ring true this week. God, We love you. 3 (1h 15m 35s): Jesus. It's in your name. We pray. Amen.

0 (0s): I mean, it's good to be in the house of the Lord. Amen. Good to lift his name. It's going to take time to sing and to praise 2 (24s): The passion Oh, With that to fulfill the law to Virgin came To 3 (9m 13s): This next song we're going to sing comes from the Apostle's creed. And in the apostles, creed talks about the Trinity, the father, the 4 (9m 20s): Son, and the holy spirit. 3 (9m 22s): And this song is a declaration of our faith 4 (9m 26s): To get 6 (13m 39s): Oh God. We believe in you. We believe that you're present with us, Lord, that you care about us, that you love us, that you've got plan and purpose for us, Lord, God, and God, we, we thank you. We know that you are with us. Lord. You are with Gideon and Joshua, Moses you're with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. God, you were with Your early church and you're with us Lord here with us Lord, and we welcome you tonight to the today. We welcome you, Lord God, to be in our presence and to speak and to move. 6 (14m 19s): And God, as we exercise faith by listening and obeying Lord, we pray that above everything else above anything else, God, that you would be glorified in our lives. We would honor you. And in our lives, we would point people to you. So Lord, thank you for who you are and for the things that you are doing and the ways that you empower us to do your work here in the earth. We need you. We need your power. We need your presence. We thank you for it in Jesus name. Amen. Hey man, attorney grease somebody and we will get back here in just a moment. 6 (16m 49s): Well, good morning. Good morning to those on the patio, those in the lofts, those online good morning and welcome. Welcome to our 11 o'clock service at harvest church. It's it's been, it's been a good morning. It's been a fun morning. So excited about what God will do this service. Interestingly, first service we had. So we bought this property from a family about, I dunno, how many years ago it was a while ago. Anyway, we, we moved in here 17 years ago. And so clam and Amanda Lambert and their family will not claim because he's passed, but Amanda and her family were here on the second row this morning. 6 (17m 32s): And so we got a chance to honor them because because 17 years ago we were driving through, I was driving through the village and I saw a sign up on the front lawn that said the place was for lease. And so we had been praying because our church had been a meeting at a high school up on the Mesa Lopez high school. So we'd been praying that God would give us a space in the village. And so I'm driving through. And so I I've lived in this community since fifth grade, but I'd never noticed this building, this church kind of setback. And so that day I drove through and I noticed there's a church in the village were actually praying that God would give us a church building in the village. And so I stopped by and met Amanda for the first time against he was here. 6 (18m 12s): Second, first service. And I said, Hey, Amanda, we're, we're just a small church looking to move from the Mesa into town. You've got this amazing facility here. Would you be interested in leasing it to us? And just in that conversation on a handshake, a handshake, she said, yes. And so we started the process and we raised the money to renovate stuff. And, and then one by one, we just kind of took over all these buildings and were able to buy them. So we're talking about faith this morning and it was just such a great illustration of what God will do with people who are just saying, being willing to say, yes, Lord being obedient to do what God has called us to do. And they were obedient. They, they, you know, we were a church of 60 people. 6 (18m 51s): We didn't have a lot going on in any way financially at all, but it was just a total faith venture. And I told her all of that and she said, well, it needs to be a church and we want to work with you. And so a lot of you are here back in the day. And a lot of you are hearing this story for the first time, but it was God working through the Lamberts to give us favor. And then God working through our current geishas to provide resource and everything that's been needed over these last 17 years that we've been here. And so God has blessed us. And now we're getting ready to add to our space over at 1 0 2 west branch, the new worship center there. I was just in there this morning and the painters just about all wrapped up and it's going to really start looking like something pretty quick. 6 (19m 36s): I mean, it kind of does, but it's just kind of messy right now, but it's getting there. It's getting there. So we've been discovering what faith looks like as we've studied through Hebrews chapter 11, the heroes of faith. And recently we, we said faith is obedience to God. We said, faith is trusting. God's timing for me. That's probably the hardest thing. Obedience is not as hard as trusting as timing. They're both hard, but trusting his timing is always been hard for me. So faith is trusting. God's timing that he will unfold his plan when he's ready to unfold his plan. And we can trust that. We can believe that God is good and that he's unfolding something wonderful for our lives. 6 (20m 17s): And so faith is trusting that timing. And then faith, faith is following your God-given destiny. So we believe that God creates people with purpose, giving gifts and talents. Every believer has a gift, a talent that God has given. Every person is created for purpose, that we might know God and walk in those eternal purposes that he has for us. So, so as we look at the rest of Hebrews 11, we'll get through the rest of Hebrews 11 today. We'll discover more trues about the faith. As we look at more examples, people that have gone before us real life, historical people who have gone before us, you've demonstrated faith, exercised faith. The title of the message today is faith in action. 6 (21m 0s): And really it could be faith equals action because faith without action is not faith at all. It's just a, it's just a word. But faith inaction is what God implied in mince and spoke and demonstrated through his people throughout the scriptures of the old and the new Testament early church. And up to this point in our lives today, faith is action. Faith inaction is what God wants to say. Faith equals action. So if we say we have faith, we must follow that faith with some actions, some things that God has called us to and has invited us into. 6 (21m 41s): So where does faith come from? Again? Romans 10, 7, 17 says, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So as we study the word, it's not just an academic exercise, but it's a spiritual exercise as well. So it's academic, but it's also spiritual. And it's meant to encourage us and form us, compel us to do what God has asked us to do. And following the examples of those who have gone before us do what they've done, because we've seen God be faithful in their lives and in their circumstances. So we believe that God will be faithful in our lives and in our circumstances because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. 6 (22m 23s): So as his attributes, haven't changed, she is a faithful God who calls his people to be faithful in response. So we're going to look at a lot of scripture today. Hebrews 1130 through 34 will kick us off here. It says it was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days and the walls came crashing down. We've a lot of us have read the story. You've heard the story in Sunday school or in sermons. And if we take a serious look at this, it seems crazy. The whole story. It seems like, God, this really, this is your plan, but by faith, number one in your notes by faith, Joshua believed God's promise. 6 (23m 7s): God made a promise to Joshua, to the people of Israel. What was that promise? We see that in Joshua six one and two, it says now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. They had witnessed what God had done for the people of Israel. And so they were afraid no one was allowed to go out or in. But the Lord said to Joshua, I have given you Jericho its king and all its strong warriors. So by faith, Joshua will believe God's promise the first generation of Israelites that left Egypt failed to believe the promise. 6 (23m 47s): And so they failed to receive the promise. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years until that whole generation of unbelievers died off. And after Moses died, Joshua became the leader of Israel and he was the leading. He was, he was the one charged with leading the people with fresh faith in God. I think we need that from time to time in our lives like Lord, I need fresh faith. I'm feeling tired or worn down, or I'm not exercising. The faith that I think that you've asked me to exercise. And so Lord, would you refresh my faith? And then God will begin to refresh our faith. Just supernaturally. Well, all of a sudden have courage for the stuff that we didn't have courage for in the past. 6 (24m 33s): We'll have energy for the stuff that God has called us to we'll have fresh faith for the things that God calls us into. So after Moses died, Joshua became the leader of Israel and he was leading the people with fresh faith in God, the first-generation again, failed to believe. And so they failed to receive the blessings of the promise land. The second generation shows that, and this is the decision that all of us need to make in every season and situation of our lives. We need to choose to believe God, we need to choose faith. The second generation chose to believe so they receive the blessing of the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey. 6 (25m 13s): This place of rest that God had promised his people. Interestingly, for 40 years, the people of Israel ate manna and this manna sustained them. They would get up six days a week and the man that would be there on the sixth day, they would grab enough for the next day. And they would gather enough to eat. And for 40 years, the Lord provided manna for them to sustain them. Manoj was used by God to bless the people, to sustain the people. But the fat of the land was to bless the people in the new promised land that God provided. So when the people of Israel moved into the promised land, the man is stopped and the people were able to eat from the fat of the land. 6 (25m 58s): So Manoj was to sustain the people. The fat of the land was to bless the people. Sometimes we're in a man, a season, sometimes we're in a man, a season where we get sustained by the Lord. But there's not a lot beyond that. We were kind of in this season of just kind of waiting, trusting, believing, obeying, believing that God's going to provide for us. And he does. So sometimes we're in that man, a season, other times, we're in the fat of the land season. Like everything is going our way. Financially things are flowing our way. We've got our health and our relationships and things are just amazing. 6 (26m 38s): So there's, there's a test to our faith in both situations in the manna season, it's a test. Will we continue to trust the Lord? He's met my needs today. I'm going to trust him to meet my needs tomorrow. And so it's a test of our faith. Where were we? Where are we putting our faith for our provision in the fat of the land season of our lives. It's also a test of our faith because often when we've got the fat of the land and everything's going well, we've got ample resource. We can get our eyes on those things and not on the Lord. And so it's a test of our faith is God, really our source in our resource, no matter what, no matter whether we have plenty or little, our focus is on God is our focus on God. 6 (27m 23s): And that's the, the tests. And that's probably been the test through most of our lives, different seasons. We've had plenty different seasons we've been lacking or just had enough. And it's been a test of our faith. What we continue to trust the Lord, no matter what's both seasons are a test of our faith. Number one by faith, Josh you'll believe God's promise. Number two by faith, Israel followed God's plan. So Joshua, their leader was hearing from the Lord and he was leaning them. But would the people of Israel would they rebel like they did against Moses or would they believe and follow their new leader? Joshua by faith, Israel followed God's plan. 6 (28m 5s): They decided to believe Joshua six, three says you and your fighting men should March around the town Jericho. That is once a day for six days, seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark. Each carrying a Ram's horn. On the seventh day, you are to March around the town, seven times with the priests blowing the horns. And when you hear the priest, give one last blast on the Ram's horn, have all the people shout as loud as they can. So this is God's war strategy, March around Ram's horn, and then shout. Alright, really Lord. 6 (28m 47s): Then the walls of the town will collapse and the people can charge straight into the town. What we see in scripture and what we probably would have noticed in our own lives is that God's plan. Doesn't always make human sense. Often his plan is counter intuitive. His plan is always a test of our faith. If his plan is not testing our faith, I would question whether it's his plan. His plan is normally counter-intuitive, it's not what we would come up with, but it always grows us in our faith. So God's plan for his people, needed it to be followed by faith. 6 (29m 27s): They did not want another wilderness experience. And maybe you're here today and you're thinking the same thing, man, I've been in a wilderness experience where I've had a wilderness experience and I do not want to see that repeated God by God's grace. As we yield to him, as we obey him, as we listen and believe and follow and trust, he will lead us into amazing things. Wonderful. Not that there won't be challenges along the way, because it's in the challenges that we have our faith tested and built up and challenged, and it's like a muscle, you know, you got to work it or else it gets weak. And so we work that faith muscle, God works that faith muscle to build us up, to strengthen us so that we can do what he's called us to do. 6 (30m 16s): So they didn't want another wilderness experience. So by faith, Israel followed God's plan. No faith is the only way someone can follow God's plan kind of alluded to that. But faith is the only way someone can follow God's plan that interesting without faith, it's impossible to please, God, right? So he's called us into this life of faith and it's by faith as the only way that we can follow God's plan back to Hebrews 1131, it says it was by faith that rehab, the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refuse to obey God for she had given a friendly welcome to the spice. You never think you'd see a prostitute in the hall of faith. 6 (30m 56s): So these are the powerful men and women in the scripture, in the history of God's people who have demonstrated faith. So Hebrews 11 kind of points out incredible people who have been people of faith. And so in our natural understanding, we would never think that God would point out a prostitute, but this is exactly who he points out in this, in this chapter. Number three, in your notes by faith, Rahab, trusted God's protection. Let's figure out what the story saying here in Joshua, two 18 to eight to 13, it says before the spies went to sleep that night rehab went up to the roof to talk with them. 6 (31m 37s): I know the Lord has given you this land. She told them we are all afraid of you. Every one of the land is living in terror. Why? Because they had seen what the God of Israel did to protect and deliver the people into the promised land. For, we have heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the red sea when you left Egypt. And we know that you, what you did to see on an awe that you Amorite Kings east of the Jordan river, whose people you completely destroyed now. No wonder our hearts have melted in fear. No one has the courage to fight. After hearing such things for the Lord, your God is the Supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below. Now, swear to me by the Lord that you will be kind to me and my family. 6 (32m 22s): Since I have helped you give me some guarantee that when Jericho is conquered, you will let me live along with my father and mother, my brothers and sisters and all of their families. So Joshua was six 17. Joshua told the people, Jericho and everything, and it must be completely destroyed as an offering to the Lord only rehab the prostitutes and the others in her house will be spared for. She protected the spies. I love that God is no respecter of persons. One of the 12 that he called was a tax collector, despised tax collector, a scoundrel, and a guy who would steal from his own people and was used to gather money for the enemy. 6 (33m 13s): And yet God chose Matthew Joe's fishermen who really didn't have a lot of understanding. A lot of education, a lot of political or religious clouds. He's no respecter of persons. Rehab. A prostitute is an example of faith to all people. Maybe you think your past precludes you from believing God and your past the things. If I went around the room, we'd see that every one of us have a past, right? All of us have a past that we wish we could go back and change things that we regrets are embarrassed by things that we wish we could get a do over with. 6 (33m 58s): But we, we, we don't get the do overs. In fact, I believe that God uses and we see it throughout our lives that God uses our past mistakes and failures to prepare us to minister, to others who might be going through the same thing. Maybe you think your past precludes you from believing God, don't let your past prevent you from living a faith filled blessed life. God is a God whose mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. If we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So if we're on a new path as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and we've got a past, let it go repent. 6 (34m 40s): If you haven't let it go, forgive yourself. If you haven't let it go and watch what God will do as you let that go so that you can hold on to God, move forward in those supernatural plans that God has for you. Believe that God's grace is sufficient back to Hebrews, Hebrews 1132. How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of faith, of the faith of Gideon Barak, Samson, Jephthah David, Samuel, and all the profits by faith. These people overthrew kingdoms rural with justice and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched, the flames of fire and escape death. 6 (35m 24s): By the edge of the sword, their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put a whole army the flight. And so we're going to kind of unpack these last verses here and talk about the faith of some of these people that did what the writer is about here. So number four, in your notes by faith, Daniel shut the mouths of the lions. My faith, Daniel shut the mouths of the lion. So king Derrius was tricked. King Derrius was a friend of Daniel, but he was tricked into signing a law that prohibited anyone for 30 days, from praying to anyone human or divine. If the law was broken, you would go into the lion's den. So typically people will be thrown into the lion's den. 6 (36m 5s): The lions would grab hold of them and consume them immediately. This is just the way it was. They were ravenous animals and they would destroy their victims quickly, killing them and eating them quickly. So if the law was broken off to the lion, Dan's you, lion's Dan, you go, Daniel, Daniel refused. He refused to submit to the law. That would hinder him from praying as was his custom. So the King's men tried to kill him. They wanted, they threw him into the lion's den. The king loved Daniel and was grieved by the law he had signed. And so he was up all night. He was tricked and his friend was now in the den of lions and the Daniel six, 19 through 22, very early, the next morning, the king got up, been hurried out to the lion's den. 6 (36m 59s): When he got there, he called out in anguish, Daniel servant of the living, God, where's your God whom you serve. So faithfully able to rescue you from the lions. Daniel answered he's alive, long lamb, the king, my God sent his angel to shut the lion's mouth. So they would not hurt me for, I had been found innocence in his sight and I have not wronged you, your majesty. So a real story, historical real God is able to protect his people. Do we believe that God is able to protect us? 6 (37m 43s): Not that we won't go through difficult seasons of life, but it's when it's in his purposes to deliver us and to protect us, he will deliver us and he will protect us. We have to believe this is true. God can, and he will protect his people. Is that was looking at this point and thinking about it. I, it reminded me of the spring of 1967 before I was born. By the way, most of you were around, but me, I was not born yet. And by the spring of 1967, following close to a decade of relative calm, Israel found itself poise for war against four Arab neighbors. 6 (38m 25s): So four Arab neighbors were getting ready to invade Israel, but God had a different plan. And it didn't matter if the whole world, which it seemed like the whole world against them, but it wouldn't matter if the whole world was against them. There were miracles in that six day war, eye witness accounts that demonstrate that God was with his people, protecting his people. So I'm going to read a few of those accounts to us today, just to remind us of God's faithfulness. This first one, this first eye witness account is titled 18 Egyptians against two IDF soldiers, yest rail, the cab driver, who was drafted to fight in the six day war as part of the paratroop unit assigned with conquering. 6 (39m 11s): The straits of Tiran told the following upon his return. So you got a cab driver, the Israeli soldiers didn't have to parachute out of the Nord airplanes, which took them into the Taran straights. They landed like spoiled tourists in the airport because the Egyptian regiment, which was on guard there fled before the Israel, Israeli troops were visible on the horizon. After landing, I was sent with another reserve, soldier and electricians. So you've got a cab driver and electrician there to fight the war, to patrol the area. When we had distance ourselves, two kilometers in Egyptian, half track appeared before us filled with soldiers. 6 (39m 54s): And now two with machine guns. On every side, we had only light weapons with a few bullets that could couldn't stop the half track of for a second. So we couldn't turn back. They said, he said, so we stood there in despair, waited for the first shot. And for lack of a better idea, aimed our guns at them two against 18 heavily, heavily outnumbered, and, and not able to defend themselves in the natural, but the shots they didn't come. The half track came to a halt and we decided to cautiously approach it. We found 18 armed inside sitting with guns in hand with a petrified look on their faces. 6 (40m 39s): They looked at us with great fears though, begging for mercy. I shouted hands up. Can you imagine this new found courage hands up as we are marked sitting am I had returned to a state of calm. I asked the Egyptian Sergeant next to me, tell me why didn't you shoot at us? He answered, I don't know. My arms froze. They became paralyzed. My whole body was paralyzed. I don't know why it turned out that these soldiers didn't know that the straights of Turan were already in Israeli hands. Why didn't they eliminate us? I don't have an answer. 6 (41m 21s): How can one say that? God didn't help us. Another story titled the finger of God idea of director of operations. Major general ESER Wiseman was asked by Mr. Lebanon, the father of a fallen pilot, how he explains the fact that for three straight hours, Israel air force planes flew from the one Egypt airstrip to another destroying the enemy planes. Yet the Egyptians did not radio ahead to inform their own forces of the oncoming Israeli attack. Easier Wiseman later, who, who later served as president of the state of Israel was silent. Then he lifted his head and exclaimed the finger of God, a secular newspaper, the Haaretz newspaper titled bottom line, following his blow by blow analysis. 6 (42m 14s): The military correspondent for the secular Haaretz newspaper summed up the six day war with the admission. Even a non-religious person must admit this war was fought with the help from heaven, the German viewpoints, the German journalists summarize nothing like this has happened in history of force, including a thousand tanks, hundreds of artillery, cannons, many rockets and fighter jets, and a hundred thousand soldiers armed from head to toe was destroyed in two days in an area covering a hundred hundreds of kilometers filled with reinforced outposts and installations. And this victory was carried out by a force that lost many soldiers and much equipment positions in vehicles. 6 (42m 59s): No military logic or natural cause can explain this monumental occurrence. So the whole world can fight against God's people, but if God's not ready for Israel will be taken out, then they won't be taken out. And so that's what, when people battle against Israel, it's just a losing scenario. And that's why it's important that America stays connected to and stays allies with Israel. Number five, by faith, three men quench the flames of fire Jewish guys, three Jewish guys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They quenched the flames of fire. These three guys refused about out a Kings navigate as a statue. 6 (43m 42s): The statue is 90 feet tall, nine feet wide. So imagine this ceiling's about 30 feet tall. So imagine three times this that's who, who needs a 90 foot statue, by the way, what kind of a person requires a night? I don't know. Never can ask her apparently. So the statue is 90 feet, tall, nine feet wide, and it was gold, solid gold. Well, these three guys refused about down to the Kings statue in Daniel three 19 through 25 says Nebuchadnezzar was so furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego that his face became distorted with rage. We're going to do some things as believers that make other people upset, uncomfortable, even angry, distorted with rage in our obedience to God, we're, we're going to be offensive to people, but our purpose in life is to be obedient to God and, and do what he's called us to do. 6 (44m 39s): And so that's what these guys did. He commanded that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than usual. Then he ordered some of the strongest men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into a blazing furnace, throw them into the blazing furnace. So they tied them up and threw them into the furnace, fully dressed in their pants, turbines, robes, and other garments. And because the king in his anger had demanded such a hot fire in the furnace. The flames killed the soldiers as they threw the three men in. So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego securely tied, fell into the roaring flames, but suddenly, suddenly Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisors. 6 (45m 23s): Didn't we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace. Yes, your majesty. We certainly did. They replied look, Nebuchadnezzar shouted. I see four men Unbound and walking around in the fire unharmed. And the fourth looks like a, a God. My faith is three men quench the fires, the flames of fire. And we read later in the story that they came out and didn't even smell like smoke. So I know when I walked by a barbecue, I'm picking up the scent and got home. My wife's like, Hey, you smell like a barbecue. Right? Imagine being inside this furnace and coming out unharmed and a while inside walking around and having fellowship with the Lord, you know, the Lord is with us in our times of trial. 6 (46m 11s): And we forget that. We, we think sometimes that we're all alone, but when we can believe, and we can know that God is with us, he gives us a great deal of courage and confidence to do what he's asked us to do by faith. These three men quenched the flames of fire up against impossible scenarios. God is faithful. Number six, by faith Gideons, a weakness was turned to strength. Maybe you're here today. And you identify with Gideon. You just feel weak and insignificant and unimportant and the wrong guy for the job, the wrong person for the job. I think those are the best people. Those are the kinds of people that God wants to use. 6 (46m 53s): Because as we'll see in Gideon's case, when using people like that, broken and humble and contract people, God gets all the glory. And so we will see what happened with Gideon here. Judges six, 12 through 16, says the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, mighty hero. The Lord is with you is getting like, you're talking to me. Do you know who you're talking to? Mighty hero? The Lord is with you. So God sees in us what we don't see in ourselves, right? So we need to learn to see what God sees in us and walk in those things by faith, walk in that identity by faith, giving glory to God, sir, Gideon replied. 6 (47m 39s): If the Lord is with us, why has all of this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn't they say, the Lord brought us up out of Egypt, but now the Lord has abandoned us and the Midianites. And sometimes we have that same sense. Lord, where are you? Like, why have you not come through? This was Gideon's perspective. He was struggling with his faith in the Lord, turned to him and said, go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you. So I love it. That the strength that we have with the presence of God brings the victory. 6 (48m 24s): So we don't feel like we've got a lot of strength in us. Naturally. We're feel like Lord, these battles are too big for us. These circumstances, whether way over my head, I don't, I don't know how to walk in this. I don't know how to believe you through this. I don't know how to trust you and honor you in my life right now. God says, go in the strength that you have. And I will be with you when God through Christ, who gives us strength. He is faithful to meet us and to lead us and to guide us and to protect us and to provide for us, go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you, but the Lord, but Lord Gideon replied. 6 (49m 5s): How, how can I rescue Israel? We sometimes look at our own lives and think, Lord, how can I do what you're asking me to do? Well, you got to get your eyes off of yourself and onto the Lord, we will never have faith for the supernatural things that God is calling us to. If we are watch looking at ourselves, watching ourselves, but if we keep our eyes on the Lord, he will lead us and he will go with us and we will have the victory. Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh. And I am the least in my entire family. 6 (49m 45s): The Lord said to him, I will be with you and you will destroy the Midianites as if you are fighting against one man. Long story short Gideon defeated the Midianites with 300 soldiers because God caused a panic in immediate and camp and they kill each other. So if we read the whole story, we see that Gideon started with 32,000 warriors, 32,000 men who are ready to go to battle. But God knew that if Gideon went to war with 32,000 troops, and if he got the victory, then he would take the credit for the victory. He would say, look what our strong men have done. Look what we have accomplished. Look, we have conquered. 6 (50m 25s): So it got whittled down the army whittled down Gideon's troops down to 300 so that when they did get the victory, they would recognize that it was God who gave them the victory. God won't share his glory with anyone. He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So when we, when we trust him and we're filled with his presence and his spirit, and we do the supernatural things that God calls us to do, it will be a mere, miraculous things happening, unfolding God's plan, unfolding God's plan happening. It's it's something that we just kind of get to go along with by his grace, trusting him, believing him and being part of that wonderful and supernatural plan that God has by faith. 6 (51m 15s): Joshua believed God's promise by faith. Israel followed God's plan by faith. Ray Hab trusted God's protection by faith. Daniel shut the mouths of the lions by faith. Three men quenched the flames of fire by faith. Gideon's weakness was turned to strength. Number seven, what will you do by faith? So we can read scripture and grow in our knowledge and our understanding of the word of God and the principles of God. But if we don't apply them, then it's been just an academic exercise and God's not interested in academic exercises. 6 (51m 56s): He's interested in life transformation. So what will we do by faith for God's kingdom? What is God calling us to do? Now? I think about that question corporately for harvest church. I think about that question individually for my life and for my family. And I, I challenge us to do the same thing. Each of you to do the same thing. What will you do by faith? If you can figure out and do ministry in your own strength, then you're not. You're probably not where God would have you to be. But if you're in over your head, that's probably a good indication that you're where God would have you to be. 6 (52m 42s): Because without faith, it's impossible to please God. And by faith, we follow God. And by faith, we believe God. And by faith, we trust God. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. It's the assurance of things we can not see. So by definition, faith requires faith, trust confidence in not ourselves, but in the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We, we, we need to humble ourselves and recognize the greatness of God that wants to work through us. And as we humble ourselves and recognize the greatness of God who wants to work through us, then he will do wonderful and supernatural things in our lives will, they will never be the same. 6 (53m 27s): They will never be the same with that. I want to invite the worship team up and invite you to stand. We're going to pray. And then we're going to worship two more and then we'll be dismissed into our mission field, where we get to do by faith, the stuff that God has called us to do. So Lord, we love you. We thank you for your word. I've got nothing to say up here without your word. So thank you Lord, for your word and for how it speaks to us and how you minister to us. Lord, we're humbled by your presence. Every time we gather we're humbled by what you will do with us and innocent through us. As we humbly obey and submit and trusting your timing and trusting your plan and your purpose, Lord God fulfilling the destiny that you put within us to fulfill. 6 (54m 16s): So Lord, as we worship, God, continue to stir us and to speak to us and to direct us and point us in the direction that we're supposed to go. God, be glorified. We pray as we listen and obey in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship. 9 (54m 43s): Bless you. And keep you Make his face shine upon face to And 3 (1h 0m 25s): Thank you, Jesus, that we get to say amen, over and over again. Let it be God, have your way in our lives. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your salvation. That is, that is new. Every day. God, I pray that we would be a people who seek you each and every single day that we would know your word and we would know your truth. God, that we would hide it in our hearts. So here, ready to fight the good fight of faith. Thank you Jesus. For your presence. We thank you for this house. It's in your precious name. 3 (1h 1m 5s): We pray. Amen.

We believe for victory by faith. We see victory Lord by faith. We know that you're at work in our lives. Moving in our circumstances, you're meeting our every need by faith. We believe that you will always meet our, every need. Our emotional needs God, for those, with real significant emotional needs today, we pray that you rest on them and speak to them and bless them. Lord, thank you that they're here in church, where they might receive the grace and the goodness of God and God's people or God, I pray that you'd minister to your people. For those who need a physical touch, emotional touch, just a spiritual touch, relational touch, Lord. 1 (15m 4s): Whatever's going on, Lord. We just pray that she'd be ministering all over the campus. Lord, for those who are watching online, we just pray God that you would be ministering powerfully. Lord God, thank you for who you are and for who we are in you by faith. We know that we are your adopted sons and daughters. If we've come to you by faith, we know that you take us in that your grace is sufficient. Your mercy is unending. Your love is unconditional. Your kindness is supernatural. Lord God, we just thank you Lord by faith. We just want to walk in all of that truth and that reality Lord will help us to do so today, Lord. And then as we kind of getting our heads around that and our hearts around that and our lives around that truth, Lord help us to walk in that all the days of our lives. 1 (15m 52s): Lord, thank you, Jesus, God, thank you for who you are and for what you're doing at harvest church and all over the central coast, wherever the name of Jesus is being lifted up all over the world. Wherever the name of Jesus is being lifted up. You're doing wonderful and profound things. So thank you, Lord God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your grace. For those struggling. We know we've got lots of brothers and sisters in the Ukraine, People just struggling right now. Lord, we just pray that you would strengthen them and help them to protect the innocent Lord and work supernaturally in that place. 1 (16m 37s): Like we already know that you are Lord. I pray that you would bring, bring the conflict to an end Lord, a peaceful and God that you'd be glorified, that we would see the supernatural hand of God quelling that and stopping that and ending that and bringing health and healing and freedom in Jesus name. So Lord God, we pray for your grace upon our world and our nation, our community and our church. Lord, we need you. Thank you for this time in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Turn and say hello to somebody that you've never ever, ever met. 1 (17m 23s): Excellent. And you just start first place. You just different place. Yes he did. I love Nancy. Thank you for that. Where did you see Nancy? Oh, Clark center. Oh, next time you see her, just give me a, give her a hug for me and just tell her how much I love her. 1 (18m 3s): And she does when she was Ron's assistant. I interacted with her. 1 (18m 49s): It's always hard to bring people back after the greeting time. It's easier just to let's just keep going. Right? Come on back here. People have been asking me why don't you take your glasses off when you get up to speak. And I really hate, I don't like hate is a strong word, so I'll use it. I hate these things. So what I did is on my iPad, the beauty of an iPad is you can make the font really, really big. So I'm going to set these here on the front row. Don't confuse those with yours cause you won't like trifocals as much, but Hey, we're, we're going to do some things a little bit different today. 1 (19m 31s): I'm going to preach and teach for a bit and we're talking about faith. And so as an illustration of faith, so last week we had Fred crop coming up and he came up and he spoke to us about one act of obedience, his book that he's writing and the things that kind of stir or spurred that on. And so as we teach through Hebrews 11, the heroes of faith, I think it's important that we think in the 21st century, in terms of what does it mean to be heroes of faith, people of faith who were just excited about doing the will of the Lord? I think that's really what heroes of faith are. There. They come in all shapes and sizes. 1 (20m 11s): And in fact, Don gainer, a lot of you remember Don gainer, but before he passed, he was writing a book about all of these unknown heroes of faith, right in our community. And some, maybe somebody will pick up the Baton and, and be able to complete that work. But it's so true. People are doing all kinds of incredible faith things behind the scenes. And most of us never hear about them, but those I'm, I'm convinced that those are the heroes of faith that we're going to be celebrating in heaven when we get there. And we're going to say, man, I had no, I D I what was going on the scenes. And so as we think about our lives, as people of faith in a, a religion, for lack of a better term of faith, where God has called us by his great grace to be people of faith. 1 (21m 4s): I mean, you think about it. We, by faith, we trust an invisible God for his grace to forgive us, to cleanse us, to set us free from the bondage of sin, we trust the invisible God who does visible work in our lives. But we attributed to him by faith, believing that he is omnipresent omnipotent, that he is everywhere, president one at once ministering in our very needs. And so we're talking about faith. I looked at Hebrews 11 in my notes and I taught on Hebrews 11, four weeks in a row back about a year ago. 1 (21m 46s): And as we were getting ready to go into 1 0 2, 1 0 2 is our new worship center. We should be in the next month. Maybe I say, you know, whole everything kind of loosely, you know, but our new worship center is up the road. And, and as we got ready to take on that challenge, I just thought felt it was important to talk about faith and build us up and our most holy faith. And, and then almost a year later, we're almost done with the project and we spent way more money than we expected, but God has been so faithful. And so by faith, we continue to get the project done and we'll be in there hopefully in April, but our whole lives are about faith. And so when we think about our faith lives, we're gonna be interviewing Shane here shortly, who just got back from Africa, spent six months in Africa. 1 (22m 31s): I don't know if you remember, but we prayed him out about seven months ago and he'd been back for a few weeks now. And, and I, I, it's easy to think, okay, I'm in Africa, I'm, I'm here to minister by faith and to do all of these things. And that's like one of our greatest fears right in the world, like, Lord, I want to serve you, but I don't, I don't want to go to Africa. Like, please do not send me to Africa. Right? But listen, if God sends you to Africa is because he's got work for you to do, and he'll prepare your heart and your life. And when you get there, it's going to be like a hand and a glove. It just fits who you are, your gifts set and all of that sort of stuff. So most likely, God won't send you to Africa. But if he does where then wherever he sends you or whatever he asks you to do in your neighborhood and your place of work, faith is a part of every response to God. 1 (23m 22s): As you're sitting here today, you're by faith asking the Lord, Lord, speak to me. I know you can hear me by faith Lord. And so you're believing God to speak to you. I was talking to a woman in between services and this is the anniversary of her husband's passing and her daughter's passing. And she's here in her brokenness, my faith, believing that God's going to minister to her. I talked with a woman as I was out in the U area and Kelly, Wade. She has her little bundle wrapped up next to her body. 1 (24m 4s): And it's this precious little girl that they brought into their lives by faith. I said, how many does that make? And she said, well, that's number seven, number seven. I said the number of completion. So, so maybe this or that, I don't know. Anyway, I think she's hoping for that. Anyway. So number seven she's by faith, just she and Tom had brought this precious little baby into their lives, hoping to make it a permanent thing, believing God for great stuff or that little, little, little baby. So on the macro level, on the micro level, we walk by faith doing what God has asked us to do. So we're going to answer the question today. What is faith look like part of the way that we grow in our faith just by being plugged in, in church and Bible study throughout the week. 1 (24m 52s): And there's lots of great stuff going on. So get involved in a small group, the journey groups are kicking off. I did the journey last year and spent nine months in that. And it was just an incredible opportunity to grow in my faith as a believer in the Lord, Jesus Christ to grow, to grow in my ability to just comprehend God on a new level. It's just, it was powerful. It was powerful. I've been hearing all of these testimonies about people going through the journey and just half of their lives have been transformed. And a lot of people just keep going through it over and over again. So there's, women's groups, there's men's groups. If you're interested in joining the journey group, just fill out a communication card, let us know. And we'll, we'll get you in touch with the right people. Sound good. 1 (25m 32s): Do you, do you do the necessary things to build yourself up? And your role is totally faith and watch what God will do powerfully in you. So we're going to ask you the question today. What is faith look like before we answer that question? Let's first define the word faith. And we define it right from the scripture in Hebrews 11. One where it says faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. It gives us a short sense about things. We cannot say it with me. See if we can see it. It doesn't require faith, right? But if we can't see it, that's when faith is required. And so everything about God and everything about his plan for us requires faith to believe him for things we can not see. 1 (26m 20s): And so we were to pray without ceasing, where to walk in relationship with Jesus, filled with the spirit and allowing God to direct our steps, to direct our conversation. So that by faith, we might do what he has called us to do by faith. We might speak the life-changing words that we need to speak by faith. We might pray the life changing prayers that need to be prayed over somebody's life. But where does his faith come from? Where does all this good stuff come from? This strong faith come from where it comes right from the scripture in Romans 10, 17, we're told. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so we're built up in our most holy faith. 1 (27m 3s): We're strengthened in our faith as we turn our attention to the word of God as we, and that's our hope, every time we teach or preach is that people will be built up in their faith so they can move forward as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ in their faith to encounter the world, to conquer the world for Jesus and to do great things for Jesus. And so faith, faith comes from it's like the reading of the word, like in Jack sass with faith and confidence in God, we read stories about the people of old, like Hebrews 11 talks about, we read stories about what those who have gone before us have done, and it builds us up and it gives us courage to do what God is asking us to do in the simplicity of our own lives and the complexity of our own lives. 1 (27m 53s): What is God asking us to do? So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So if you're struggling in an area of your life to have faith in an area of her life, if you're struggling with a relationship to have faith that God is working and reconciling healing and restoring, just turn your attention to the word of God and ask the Lord to speak to you. I still do this to this day. Lord. As I opened up the scripture, would you speak to me through your word? Would you, would you bring truth to illuminate truth to my understanding so that I might understand what you're saying to me and how I might apply it to my life. And then as I am able to do that, I'm built up. If I neglect the word, if I neglect time with, with, with my father, if I do that, my faith begins to wane a bit. 1 (28m 34s): I began to struggle, but when I come into relationship with him and read his word, faith is it's injected again. It's powerful. So what does faith look like? Number one. And I'm going to give you the first point to the message today. And we'll wrap up the rest of the points next week. Cause I want to leave time to have a conversation with Shane and the clock never got started. So it's may go along today because I have no idea how long I've been up here. Right? Has it been five minutes? Has it been 25 minutes? Do I have five minutes left? Do I have 25 minutes left? I have no idea. So we might have to order in some lunch fellowship around some food and take little naps. We'll get little blankets and that sort of thing. So what does faith look like? 1 (29m 16s): Faith is obedience to God. Faith is obedience to God, especially when God directs us to do something we don't fully understand. And it's been my experience that God usually directs us in a, in an arena, in an area to do something we don't fully understand. I don't fully understand preaching. If I'm honest, I think why can't people just read the Bible? What's the point of somebody expounding and preaching and leading in that way. I'm always perplexed by it. My Lord, it must be a supernatural thing. Cause I'm just a normal guy up here trying to teach and preach and trying to explain some things and God, for whatever reason does something with it beyond any of my capacity or ability. 1 (30m 5s): So there's all kinds of things that God does supernaturally. When we just surrender ourselves to him. Shane, we'll be talking about that today. So faith is obedience to God. It will be in Scott, especially when God directs us to do something. We don't fully understand God's plan. They don't always make human sense. Has that been your experience like Lord, I don't understand why you want me to do this. Like I've already got six kids. Why, why do I need a seventh kid? Right? Like, like I I'm getting older and I just want to chill right in this season of my life. Why are you asking me to do this uncomfortable thing? This thing that takes me out of my comfort zone or God, I'm just a kid. Why would you want to use me? I was having a conversation between services with a five-year-old and I asked him, I said, have you given your life to Jesus yet? 1 (30m 51s): He's like, no, I'm going to wait until I'm 12. I said, I said, why 12? And we talked about baptism or something like his plan is to get baptized at 12. I said, well, why don't you just accept the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ right now? And he said, ah, I will, when I'm 12, I said, do you know what the grace of God is like I, so I explain it to him. And I've known this kid since birth and now he's five. And anyway, so I'm just sharing the gospel with this guy. And he's listening patiently and being just polite with me probably. But, but I'm sharing the gospel with him. Cause I'm like, man, if you can get it at five years old, why wait till you're 12 years old? Like right now. So if you can get the gospel now in your season of life, why would you wait? 1 (31m 31s): Why would we wait to by faith? Just welcome the goodness and the grace and the kindness of Jesus. If you are beginning to understand the grace and the mercy of Jesus Christ, his welcome his message in his life, into your life and watch what will happen. God's plan. Doesn't always make human sense. It can be even counter-intuitive like, like this is not something I would normally do. Lord God's plan will always test your faith. God's plan, always tests our faith. We're gonna be talking about a man, Abraham, who is tested in his faith and who came through it with flying colors, by the way. And we're gonna learn some stuff from him and God's plan for his people always requires faith. 1 (32m 16s): So picking up or pastor Jeremy left off last week, we're in Hebrews 11, 17. We're just going to get through a couple of verses today. It says this in Hebrews 11, 17, it was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him, Abraham who had received God's promise was ready to sacrifice his only Isaac, even though God had told him, and this is a quote from Genesis 2112, Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted. So Abraham and Sarah received this revelation as child lists people, they received this revelation from God, go to this land that I will show you. 1 (33m 5s): And I will make you the father of many nations, like the sand of the seashore and the stars in the sky. That will be the number of your descendants. So their child lists, Sarah is barren, unable to have kids. And so time goes on and then Sarah's like, Hey, take my servant Hagar and go, you know, do the thing. And maybe God will provide a descendant through her. And so she was born that God reiterate, this is not the son of promise. So that's not as pro center promises, born supernaturally wonderfully. So Abraham was a hundred years old. 1 (33m 48s): Maybe your family time is maybe you got some more family. Sarah was 90. Abraham was a hundred. So if you're in that rate range, maybe you've got another kid coming. I don't know. I don't know. I don't pretend to know these things, but Isaac was the son of promise. And he was the only son that Sarah gave to Abraham. And so Isaac, the only son of Sarah and Abraham, God is being, is asking them to sacrifice him. Literally, literally speaking, literally sacrificing their son. And so they make plans. 1 (34m 28s): I love the story because it's a hard ask. Would you, I mean, maybe you've got asked you to sacrifice one of your kids. It wouldn't be so hard, but this was the son of promise, right? This was the son of promise. This was the son of promise. And so this was a hard ask and there, all right, so there's not like a plan B like we could try, but probably not going to have another kid. He's the son of promise. And so he had to decide, Abraham had to decide what, what am I going to do with this direction from the Lord? And he did what all of us should do with the direction of God. And we say, yes, Lord, because no Lord is not actually it's, it's, it's a contradiction in terms when we say no Lord, because Lord means Lord ship leadership priority. 1 (35m 27s): So if we say no Lord, it means he has no, actually no longer Lord, but something else is. And so he said, what he and all of us should say, yes, Lord, yes, Lord verse 13. This is what Abraham did or shoot me first, 19 Hebrews 11, 19 Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead. Why? Because the moment that God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac was as good as dead in his mind because the answer was of course, yes, Lord. 1 (36m 7s): I don't understand. But yes, Lord, I will do what you've asked me to do. Believing that God is supernatural by faith. Believing that God, if the son died, God could resurrect him from the dead. And so this true story, the historical account of what happened in the life of this family might remind us of another story in the Bible. This story points us to the reality of the sacrifice God made in sending his only son to die for the sins of humanity. There are similarities. Genesis 22 tells us that it was a three-day journey for Abraham and Isaac to get to the land of Moriah, the place of the sacrifice. 1 (36m 52s): And so immediately hearing the voice of God, the plan of God, the direction of God in Abraham's mind, Isaac was dead because that was the plan took him three days. So in his mind, Isaac is dead. Now for three days in his mind, because this is what God directed. You might consider it conclude that Abraham had walked in such obedience that his son was considered dead. And so after three days, when the sacrifice, the Ram caught in the thicket to sacrifice, to replace the sun, it was like a resurrection. It was like a life giving resurrection, even as Jesus was dead three days before the Rez resurrection, it was, there was something about this and we see old Testament stories. 1 (37m 39s): Pictures of that point is to Jesus in the new Testament. Really that's what the old Testament is all about. The old Testament is all about preparation, pointing people for 39 books, pointing people to Jesus, the resurrected Lord in the new Testament. We see the same example in the story of Jonah. When we read Matthew 1240, it says for, as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights. So will the son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. Faith is all about obedience. I want to invite Shane up right now and we're going to hear about his faith journey, his obedience and all of that stuff. 1 (38m 25s): So let's turn our attention to the front with Shane Shane. Why? Once you introduce yourself, let me give you a microphone first and 3 (38m 35s): Then you good morning, everyone. My name's Shane. 1 (38m 38s): Hey Shane. Yeah. Shane, thanks for, for joining us today. When you showed up. So three weeks ago, when, when Shane got back three weeks ago, I think it was three weeks ago today, right? So we're having church in. I know Shane's in Africa. I know he's coming back soon, but he just shows up and he's sitting over there and I'm like, what's going on? So he told me he flew 25 hours and then drove three hours from lax to get to church that morning. So if you had a rough day getting to church, it didn't require 28 hours of inflight and on the road travel. 1 (39m 21s): So welcome. I've been trying to figure out a way to get you up here because six months plus ago, so almost seven months ago, we prayed you out and we've been praying for you. And we've been excited to hear your updates. So tell us kind of your story. How, how did you end up experiencing this fear that we've all had about being sent to Africa? What, what did God do to present that to you and to get you there? What does that all look like? Sure. Let me 3 (39m 50s): Rewind back to 2018. When I started coming to harvest, I joined a men's group and Lou was actually in that group. Yeah. And Mike Maddie also, he started the bold faith journey, which is how I went to Africa, the door that opened. And so Mike started a S a zoom group that we would meet seven days a week for 30 minutes each day. And pray through the Bible. We would read a scripture and pray. I'm still doing that. And it's been three years, two years, two years. I've been on three years. That they've been all right. So, so how did that then? 1 (40m 31s): Yeah. What, when did you hear thus sayeth the Lord go to Africa. That's where 3 (40m 35s): That, that's how the Lord that happened. When I, when I read the scripture that it says to go and make disciples. Okay. 1 (40m 43s): And so to you, that meant go to Africa. 3 (40m 46s): Yeah. Well, to me that means my neighbor, you know, meant to be willing to serve wherever I am with whatever I have. You know, I think a lot of us think that we have to be educated or have to have something special. Yeah. But me, I, I can't even speak very good, 1 (41m 5s): Like Moses. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. 3 (41m 6s): Good. Yeah. But you know, I just wanted to get out of my, get out of my comfort zone and see the world, see what God's doing in the world. Yeah. Through me, it's not about me. It's about what God's doing. So yeah. 1 (41m 21s): Well, faith is all about obedience, surrender, all that kind of stuff. So what happened when you got there? Yeah. 3 (41m 26s): Yeah. I got to a village in Zimbabwe or a student Zimbabwe for four months and we share, we shared the gospel to a, a village of about 6,000 people. Only about 300 people would come. Okay. But 300, 6,000 people didn't have running water or electricity, sewage. So we would take them the gospel and, and water. So we call it a water ministry twice a week. We'd bring two, 3000 liter trucks full of water. They would line up their buckets and we'd fill them up. They would carry them home. And that's how they drank washed dishes, showered, anything. 3 (42m 10s): They lived out of a bucket. Yeah. 1 (42m 11s): What was the result if you didn't bring that water? How far did they have to walk? 3 (42m 14s): Probably a mile, mile and a half. Okay. Pretty far. All right. Yeah. Round, round trip to two miles. Yeah. Wow. 1 (42m 22s): So what did that do for the people when you met their most basic need for water? 3 (42m 28s): Yeah. Water is a blessing to them. They were really blessed and happy to do have that. And 1 (42m 35s): I love that you went not only to bless them spiritually, but to bless them in a real, tangible, and physical way as well. I think that's really consistent with what we see in the scripture and with what God has called us to that we're meant to minister to the whole person, body, soul, and spirit. And when we can do that, I think we have the greatest impact. So tell me about leading. How did you guys tell people about Jesus besides the water ministry? You talked earlier about going door to door and knocking on doors 3 (43m 6s): And that sort of thing. Yeah. Pastor shepherd would share. He's a, he was our shepherd, he was our name. He was our mission. 1 (43m 12s): So it's like pastor, pastor or shepherd shepherd. Right. Okay. I 3 (43m 17s): Should have a name like that. Here's our missionary family. And, and so he would teach and preach and yeah. And I would share a message once in a while to 1 (43m 29s): That's awesome. So when you knocked on the door, tell us about those cubes. Those, 3 (43m 34s): Yeah. So we had a Vanji cube. It's a little block and it's kind of the size of Ruby. Cute Rubik's cube. Yeah. And it would fold out and had images on it. And we would share scriptures with each image and explain a story. And it took about five minutes to go through and share the gospel. Wow. And before I would even finish, they would be ready to accept Jesus. And so it's called the Vanji cube. Huh. 1 (43m 60s): So if so, so simplistic, but yet so powerful. 3 (44m 3s): Yeah. They were very receptive. I didn't have, people are just open to hearing about the gospel of Jesus Christ. 1 (44m 10s): So we talked earlier and that's, that kind of got a little pre privy information, but Y so you talked about the intentional spiritual warfare. So talk, we'll talk about a couple of things. Talk about the witchdoctors that you encountered and kind of the culture spiritually in that place. 3 (44m 29s): So which doctors are kind like their preacher, their religion is ancestral worship. They believe in spirits. And so they would consult a witch doctor and they would perform spells if they wanted a spell cast on somebody, they could do that. The witchdoctors very powerful. They would could cause illnesses, death, and very oppression. Oppressed. Dark. 1 (44m 58s): Yeah. So what about the gospel do you think? I mean, cause they, they're obviously part of a culture where there's just darkness and oppressive spiritual stuff going on. What, what, what about the simplicity of that five minute presentation spoke to, 3 (45m 12s): We spoke to two witchdoctors while I was there. They were receptive to the gospel. I was so nervous more than I am right now. And I just couldn't believe that she, it was two, two women which doctors and they were just receptive to the gospel and I was, yeah. 1 (45m 35s): Yeah. So I think part of what makes people receptive is just the preparation and the spirit realm. So talk about the hour, a day. Prayer that I believe is what prepares people to hear the gospel message. 3 (45m 53s): Yes. We would go in or they would wait, I didn't always do this, but they would wake up and pray for an hour at 3:00 AM or 4:00 AM. Wow. And, and also, yeah, it was just to break the demonic spirits, the plans of the enemy each night. Cause the darkness spirits operate in the dark realms of dark also dark. Yeah. 1 (46m 16s): Yeah, absolutely. So they would, they understanding the culture and the spiritual battle. We wrestle not against flesh and blood enemies, but against principalities and darkness. And so they understood something about that. I think we can learn from what they're doing and their culture and their lives. They recognize now spiritual darkness here looks different than spiritual darkness there in their culture, but it's spiritual darkness, all of the same. And so there are generational things that we need to break through. There are things that we need to pray through and ask God for grace and strength and opportunity to share the gospel. And so that's essentially what these guys are doing. They're saying, Hey, because the enemy has got authority where he's been given authority, he's, he's able to possess what he's been given to possess. 1 (47m 1s): And so we need to break all of that in the spiritual realm and there's too much to go into it today, but, but there's really something that needs to be addressed in the spiritual realm that opens people up to the gospel. And so when we do that spiritual battle, God has an opportunity. We have the opportunity to speak life and grace. And so as you spoke to the witch doctors and they, what does it mean that they were receptive or responsive? What 3 (47m 27s): Does that mean? They listened to everything and then they wanted to accept Jesus. And so they're going to have the pastor, the local pastor there in that village. It was a very rural area. It took us about three hours to get to wow. And driving on dirt roads doesn't even look like a road. Yeah. And so the pastor there is going to follow up with them. Okay, 1 (47m 49s): Good. Yeah. Very good. Good. Again. What was your highlight? The highlight of your experience there? Oh, 3 (47m 54s): Do you have any do make it, yeah, just to everything that God planned for me, I, I didn't really plan anything and I always had somewhere to sleep and ate better than I've ever eaten. Yeah. And what do they eat there? A lot of corn maze. Yeah. And, and organic everything's organic beef. Okay. The cattle walk around the streets and grazed it's green. So they just eat grass everywhere. Yeah. 1 (48m 25s): So then when it's time to eat, they grab one of those cows and that's it. Yeah. There we go. Okay. Good. Good, good. And you've got some pictures and so let's throw some, the first picture up here and you just kind of talk us through and walk us through. 3 (48m 38s): Yeah. So the first week I got to, we went to PA I was staying with pastor ZQ. So after Zimbabwe, I went up to, I went to South Africa, then Tanzania. So this is Tanzania. We went to pastor ZKO, who was my missionary family in Tanzania. This is his in-laws. We went to their house and stayed for a week. And we would also, we would go to the third church six days a week and pray for an hour at 6:00 AM. And, and then at night we would eat dinner together and then pray and have a teaching, a Bible study. And then we would sing songs and it was just very centered around God. 3 (49m 20s): That was my initial initiate first week there. So it was very, 1 (49m 24s): I'm kind of, I'm got to stuck at the thought of staying with my in-laws for a week. 3 (49m 29s): It wasn't like that. They were it's when you're it's you're always with family there. Yeah. And it's not like, okay, when are they going to leave? That's kinda how I felt like I, you know, but yeah, but they don't, their family is everything to them. Yeah. Yeah. 1 (49m 46s): So they, the a stay for together for a week, pray and worship and just enjoy life. Let's see, didn't know 3 (49m 51s): The next picture here. This is where we set up Jesus, a Jesus film. It's a projector stand and we can project a movie on to it. So we would show Jesus film and they could learn about who Jesus was. This is in rural, rural, a rural area village. And there's about 200 people there that showed up for this one. 1 (50m 11s): Talk about the speakers that draw the people. 3 (50m 12s): Yeah. The speakers is a very loud, they can amplify and reach about two, a mile, a mile away. Very they're very loud. And so people just hear and they come curious, what's what's going on. And then they'll just sit and watch and then out yes. In their language. Yeah. And then people would get saved afterwards and it was just very powerful. 1 (50m 35s): Yeah. So how many pastors equals the one that plants all the churches, right? Yeah. 3 (50m 38s): Zip pastor's EQL has been planting churches for 20 years. He's planted about 27 churches. Wow, 1 (50m 47s): Incredible. Yeah. And there just seems to be such a hunger there. What do you attribute the spiritual hunger to? 3 (50m 55s): They just, they don't have anything they don't have, they don't know where their provisions are coming from. So they depend on the Lord and they believe in God, but they don't know about Jesus. Many of them don't. Yeah. 1 (51m 7s): Tanzania. Okay. So when you present the gospel to them yes. Yeah. Wonder how transferable that is in this nation and our town and our neighborhood. What in your, with your experience there and knowing the culture here, what, what can, I mean, what can we do? Can we expect similar, I mean responses or what's it going to look like for us? 3 (51m 30s): Sure. To go into Africa or just for us in 1 (51m 33s): This ring light to our neighbors in our community here in Asia. 3 (51m 36s): Yeah. Definitely. I encourage where wherever you are. You know, I, I have a short story to share that I sharing the gospel. I try to share it wherever I go. Yeah. Whenever I have a couple of minutes and I had just chaired my, with my tax accountant guy. Yeah. On online, I said, do you know Jesus? He said, yes. You know, so something so simple as that taking a risk, you know? 1 (52m 1s): Yeah. Just bringing Jesus into the conversation or the story. I think it was a week or so ago, a guy just given his life to Jesus and it was trying to find a job. And so he was at a job place and he walks in and says, Hey, I've just rededicated my life to Jesus. And I'm trying to find a job I'm like, that is so bold. Right. I mean, it was so bold. And so the gal was a Christian as well. And so she was grateful to hear that, but I think we miss opportunities to bring Jesus into the conversation. That's what pastor Fred was talking about last week. And I went to lunch with pastor Fred and Pam last week. And sure enough, you shared the gospel with the cashier and that's just because I was there and he's trying to display it or anything, but it was just because that's who he was and that's who they are. 1 (52m 42s): So I think we've got missed opportunities all around us, if we'll just slow down, pay attention. And if you would go back 3 (52m 49s): So win. When we first heard about Jesus, somebody was bold enough to share with us. Yeah. Like me, I'd heard about Jesus before, but nobody really told me about the gospel. And so 2017, I met somebody who was bold enough and, and then got me. Yeah. Just kept pressing and saying, Hey, check, you know, look into this. Yeah. 1 (53m 12s): That's awesome. Yeah. The 3 (53m 14s): Next, next slide. Yeah. A lot of the kids there hadn't had never seen a white person before. So they were, these kids weren't scared, but many times little babies or kids, young kids would see me and they would cry because they would be scared. I had that same effect on people. So what are they doing here? They're just what's happening here. Yeah. We were just playing. I spent about a few hours. I was there in this village for three days and I spent about three hours with them just playing. 3 (53m 58s): And they were showing me all kinds of little games that are simple without you don't need anything, but like with rocks and just, just so simple, how, how they have fun. That's obviously without a PlayStation. That's awesome. This is the youth group at the church. That's to meiny, which means hope in Swahili. And he was very good with the kids. He also led the Jesus film. He's a pastor as equals assistant. Okay. Okay. Next slide. This is how they get around on motorcycle for people on the next slide. 3 (54m 40s): There's me with his granddaughter and or with the guy in the motorcycle. That's his granddaughter. Next slide. There's me with as pastor Zico watching Jesus film on my phone next. And there's, we're praying for a lady. Next slide. We're just going to go through these kind of fast because a time next, this is me sharing with the college students at a university and pastor ZKO prepared a message or a teaching on a drug and alcohol. Next slide. There's where Buendia is. 3 (55m 20s): That's where we went for our three day trip. And then we went up to another town called meiny meiny, which is a mining town. Gold. They have a lot of gold there. And the Hills it's about two hours from where I was staying. Next slide. They're singing God. There there's none other like you. And I just thought their, their voice is so beautiful. The way you could start it over. If you can Hmm. 3 (56m 3s): You could play it again. Akuna come away. Way God. There is no So this church is a church that is eco planted on a hill of granite, no roads, all trails. And they carry up the bricks to my hand. Wow. To build any the houses and churches. Next slide, please. 3 (56m 44s): This is the village. One of the side streets. There's 4 million people in this town. Next slide. This is a little market where they sell beans and goods. That's oil in the, in the bottles, cooking oil. Next. This is when we were sharing the gospel and we were just going around. 3 (57m 28s): So you could go next slide. Next. This is them praying. We prayed for an hour in church and they just walked back and forth and pray or some lay down and pray. So it's a month. It's January is a month of prayer. And, and to prepare the next slide. Yeah. On the, on the buses there, they have a glory to God and Jesus. Yeah. So very God is very real. And, and for those who have, have heard Jesus there display it everywhere. 3 (58m 13s): So what's next for you? I would like to go back to Africa after I finished the job at it. Out of Diablo canyon. Yeah. Yeah. And what's, what's the longterm plan. I would just like to get, get equipped, go to a Bible college and get equipped and go back out to Africa and wherever the Lord sends me. Yeah. Yeah. Huh. What's the biggest challenge about going to a place like that? For me, it was just finances. I, I really pastor Zeke hill, his biggest obstacle was finances. Yeah. For me it didn't, I didn't, it wasn't about, I don't need the money. 3 (58m 53s): Yeah. I'm going to work so I can help as equal out. And he is just such, such a big vision and dream for a, what he wants to see happen in Africa. And I think finances is the only thing that's the obstacle, right? Yeah. So we're just waiting on God's timing. Yeah. He's faithful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a theme running through what we're talking about and just your, your, your surrender and your trust and your faith and just your availability and all that, that 1 (59m 21s): Sort thing. And I think that is transferable to us as well, surrender faith availability, you know, to our point earlier obedience, and then just watch what God does with all of that raw material. Like you said, you know, we've, we feel like we need to be S we have certain gifts or talents or abilities, but God really just works best with the raw material of an obedient, faithful, willing person. So thanks for being that person. And thanks for sharing your story with us really, really appreciate you. I want to pray for you as we get ready to release you here, Lord. So Jesus, we just want to pray for Shane. We thank you for what you're doing in his life, Lord and God that he's available. 1 (1h 0m 4s): And it's just holding onto his life loosely, ready to go, where you would call him to go show us how to do that. Lord, not all of us are single and able to do, you know, at the drop of a hat, what Jane's been able to do. Lord, show us Lord in our contacts with our kids and grandkids and jobs and responsibilities. Lord, show us how to do what you've called us to do to live by faith Lord. So thank you for the opportunity to hear this story and to be a part of this man's life bless. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. The battle belongs to you. Thank you that you have gone before us. Thank you for the faith that we have in you. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your protection. Thank you for salvation. Thank you that we get to be your hands and feet on, on this earth. God, and that the gospel gets to spread spread wide. We love you. Jesus. It's in your name. We pray. Amen.

0 (0s): Happy Sunday to you guys. Good to see you all. I'm filling in for Amanda. If you guys didn't know, she, she got married last week to, to Steven pastor. Steve is going to tell a story later about how him and his family want the dance off. Please don't believe him. He's lying. I was there. He doesn't dance as well as you think you can, but yeah. Excited to worship with you guys this morning. So let's let's think together. 2 (51s): Christ Jesus. Believe in the resurrection that we will arise. 2 (1m 34s): And And now we get that chance. 2 (8m 3s): The same swing wide. You heavenly gates is the people of the Lord enter into praise him. That's what we're here for this morning. Praise our Lord and savior. Let the praise go up as the walls. 2 (10m 42s): Oh, geez. Fred is king. 3 (11m 26s): We were waiting without hope without from him. There was You rose all of his breath to that. 3 (13m 46s): Stone was moved for good for land. And the dead was from there too. And just for the 4 (15m 46s): Got we bless you, Lord. Yes, Lord. We bless you, Lord. We love you, God. We're so grateful for your presence. Holy God, God fall fresh on us in a special and a profound, in a powerful way. We pray, Lord, we thank you God for your holiness. God, we thank you. God that you've imputed your righteousness. God you've made us the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, by your grace, Lord God, you filled us. You've overcome the world in us. God, you've obliterated the sin in our lives. Lord, God, we're so thankful. God, we invite you to continue that work of sanctification, that work of holiness, God that we would say yes and amen to everything that you want to do in our lives. Lord, God, we are so thankful for who you are. 4 (16m 28s): Jesus. So thankful. Holy spirit. Fill this place. We pray. Lord. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your grace. Thank you. 4 (17m 20s): Got for every, for every person gathered Lord, we just pray for got the touch that is needed. God, that you administer God, grace and healing and deliverance, encouragement. God that you would set people free today and welcome people into your kingdom. Lord God, the souls will be added to the kingdom as a result of this service Lord, this time of worship and prayer and time in the word and hearing testimonies, Lord God, we just want, we invite, you got to do supernaturally abundantly above everything that we might hope or imagining Christ Jesus, God, that we would just be surprised. 4 (18m 5s): And yet we shouldn't be surprised, but we will be surprised by your goodness, Lord God. So continue to surprise us and work in our lives in our church and God for every church that lifts up the name of Jesus here on the central coast here in this area, Lord, we just bless them. Lord, we bless them. We pray grace upon them. Lord God provision for them. God that the power of God would fall heavily and substantially Lord God and move wonderfully. So in the hearts and lives of our brothers and sisters and churches all over the central coast, Lord God, we bless your name, Lord God. We love you. We thank you for this time. Jesus, your name. We pray Lord. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. You may be seated. So we're going to do things just a little bit differently today. 4 (18m 47s): We're going to take communion up front before the service is preached. The sermon is preached. And so if you need elements, go and raise your hand. If you need communion elements, raise your hand. We have runners who will get those to you. So who are runners? We got runners. Good. Thank you. We might need another runner. We might need another runner. Levi. Why don't you do that? Once you be a runner Levi, you want to be a runner. Elements should be over there. There we go. And Jack thrown his brother under the bus. It's no fun. 4 (19m 28s): We're getting them. Keep your hands up. If you need them, keep your hands up. Here we go. Fourth, Sunday of the month we take him union remembering just the grace and the goodness of our savior. The Lord Jesus Christ. We've been singing about him all morning and we're going to celebrate him some more as we take in union. All right, did we get everybody? I think we got everybody. All right. Paul wrote in first Corinthians 1123 and following he says for, I pass onto you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. 4 (20m 16s): Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's take the way for the bread. Thank you, Jesus. We remember Lord, we remember our desperate, desperate need for your grace. 4 (20m 58s): If you're here today and you've never accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, but you know, you need it. I would just say, reach out, pray to the Lord. And he will come into your life. He will forgive your sins. If you simply say Jesus, I need you. I don't even know why I need you, but I know that I need you. I need you to come into my life and I need you to forgive. My sins. Need you to make me whole again, need you to guide and direct me to take over the leadership of my life. As you declare your heart to the Lord and the quietness of your own mind and hearts, God hears. And he responds and he, he runs to you as you run to him. So Lord, we just invite you to move today. And for those who have maybe been hesitant about accepting the grace and the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray that today would be the day of salvation God, over all over this campus, Lord God. 4 (21m 49s): And for those who watch online, Lord God, we thank you, Lord. We thank you, Lord God, thank you for salvation. If you've received the grace message, the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ and the blood of Christ has washed over your sins. And it's a peculiar, supernatural, wonderful thing that God does. We don't fully grasp it, but we can fully appreciate it and live in it. And so thank you Lord, for what you're doing. Thank you, Lord Verse 25, first Corinthians 11 in the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. 4 (22m 45s): Do this to remember me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Let's take these use God. We're so refreshed by your grace. It never gets old. The goodness of God, the grace of God, the patience and the forgiveness of God. 4 (23m 29s): It just never, ever gets old. And we never run out of need to have it Lord. And so we thank you that you are patient with us. She love us. Your grace is sufficient. Your love is unconditional. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Lord, help us to walk in the new life that we've been given and the power that we've been filled with with a grace that has washed over us. Lord, we love you, Lord. We bless you, Lord. Thank you for this time. And for the balance of this service we just gave you. We give you permission control authority. 4 (24m 12s): We asked for you to reign and rule Supreme in our space, all over the campus, online Lord in our hearts and in our lives. We pray. Thank you Lord, for your goodness. We love you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Now stand up and then meet somebody that you've never ever met before. And we'll come back and just a few minutes. 4 (26m 4s): And you met somebody new brand new. All right. So a third of a part of you did the job, right? Thank you for that. Welcome back. So my son and his wife are now married off. They've been married for a week and a day. So I tried to call my son yesterday just to check in on him, you know, right to voicemail, right to voicemail. So a few minutes later he texted me, Hey dad, everything. All right, what's up? I'm like, no, I'm good. I'm just checking in on you. He said, Hey dad, we're still in the honeymoon phase. So we're not taking phone calls. 4 (26m 44s): Like whatever, whatever do your thing while they're home now, they're home. Now. They went, they spent three nights in Cambria and then like four nights down in Palm Springs. And so they're back now. We had a wonderful time. And some of you, some of you may have heard of the dance off at the wedding. There's been a bit of a rumors going about, about this dance off. And so the, the tradition with the Coles, which is Amanda's family, they've married off for their, for their kids now I believe. And so every wedding, they have a choreographed dance and there's a dance off between the parents of the bride and the parents of the groom. So we got sucked into that. And, and so the results of the dance off, of course the Henrys killed it and we, they would tell you different, but we had a wonderful celebration last Saturday. 4 (27m 36s): It was just so, so good. So, Hey, remember to pray for our youth. There, there are 39 young people and six adults up leaders up in the mountains at a camp right now. I think there may be heading back today. So I remember God really supernaturally touching my life in junior high school is where I formerly gave my life. Formally, gave my life to the Lord and under Gary Tucker's leadership here and God's been faithful. So my prayer, every time youth go off is that they would just be slammed by God's goodness and filled with his presence and his spirit. And that God would do wonderful life changing life, altering things. And so life altering things alternating, probably not a word and altering things. 4 (28m 16s): So, Hey, today we've got a good friend of mine. Fred and Pam are they're here. They've been Fred and Pam, come on up for it. They've been in this area for in fact, Pam going to come up as well. These guys have been here since 2016. I remember the day that I met Fred at a pastor's gathering and we've been connected for the last 16 years. We met each other in Hawaii, a number of years ago and just connected there. And I was talking with Fred recently. I needed some counsel about some things. So I said, Hey, Fred, what do you think? And, and then we started talking and he wrote a book and he's going to tell you all about that. And the book really is about modern day heroes of faith. 4 (29m 2s): And we just went through the first half of Hebrews 11, talking about the heroes of faith. And next week I'll finish up Hebrews 11, finishing the stories there in Hebrews 11. But I thought in the middle, it would be a great idea just to have Fred come and share just 21st century stories about how God uses someone who's available just to do his work and his will to accomplish his plans and his purposes. So here we are, we've got Fred and Pam here. So I just want to pray over them, pray, blessing upon them. And why don't you extend your hand and just bless them. So Lord be blessed. These guys, we are so thankful for Fred and Pam Lord, and for who they are in this region. Lord, they love you. 4 (29m 42s): They've served you faithfully. And in this new season, a new life of ministry, we pray God that you would strengthen them, continue to give them clarity and vision and wisdom and open doors. We pray Lord open doors for a ministry all over the central coast, all over the state, all over the country and all over the world. Lord God. So we just pray blessing upon them. Bless this work. This book that has been written, pray that it would touch a million souls Lord. We wanted to touch a million souls, Lord God. So we just invite you to do that. Be glorified. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 5 (30m 30s): Well, we really love pastor Steve and Jolene, and they've been such good friends to us through all the years over here. We, we used to have a small group of pastors. We met for three years every week, getting together and this such a special, special time and really appreciate. And Hey, Hey, I was going to begin by telling you how great I was, but I decided not to waste your time and instead tell you about how great Jesus is, but I want to pray. And then the Lord has given me a word for someone here. 5 (31m 13s): And so let's just pray right now, father, we thank you again for the convenient. We just had celebrating what you did for us. We thank you for the power of the blood of Jesus and your body that was given so that we might be made whole. We thank you for that. We thank you. Holy spirit that you're here and we acknowledge you right now. Holy spirit, come on, everybody acknowledge him. He's right here in this room with us and holy spirit. There's some things you want to do. And some things you want to say, and we just submit to you and relinquish ourselves to you and have your way in our lives. Let my words be spirit in life to everyone that hears. I pray that in Jesus name. 5 (31m 53s): If you agree with that same man. Well, I got a word for this brother right here on the front row, in the middle. If we met before, okay. Would you stand up? What's your name? Noah. Noah. Well, there you go. I'm going to get in the boat with Noah. How about you Noah? I was just sitting over there and the Lord just highlighted you to me and gave me this verse of scripture for you. You may not be, you're probably not unfamiliar with it, but it's in found in second Chronicles, 16 verse nine. It says this. This is for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. 5 (32m 38s): It says seeking to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is holy. His and the Lord said to me that you're that man, that the eyes of the Lord, I have been searching all over the earth and his eye is on you right now. And, and I just see, I don't know what that means that I know it's going to be powerful through your life. God's really going to use you because he's found a heart in you that just wants to be his heart. Is that right? You want his, your heart to be in his heart. So I want to pray for you, Noah father. I thank you for Noah. And I see that you've been through a lot of hurtful things in the past, but God says, forget those things. 5 (33m 23s): Let them go. Forget the past because there's a new day ahead for you. And it's a big day. It's a powerful day. And because he's found his heart in you, his heart is wholly yours. Your heart is holy his, I mean, and so Lord, I pray a blessing over him and I pray for an increase in his life. I prayed that for a whole new ability. As you read the word of God, it's going to open up to you. Like never before. It's going to be like, you're reading the Bible and God's going to be speaking directly to you over and over again through the word of God. I pray that in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's give Jesus a clap for that one. 5 (34m 9s): Well, today my assignment is to talk to you. Not, I guess I did write a book, actually. I wasn't planning on writing a book. It started in March of last year, this last year I was being interviewed on a national network and they were just interviewing me. And I was just sharing stories. And I kept talking about one act of obedience, one act of obedience. And the person that was interviewing me said, you gotta to write a book about this. And I thought, yeah, I should. And then as I realized, oh, it's really the Lord telling me to write this book. 5 (34m 53s): So I began to write and it just flowed. It was just like easy to write and I'm writing the book and then I'm thinking, well, I'm going to publish this book. I have a daughter in Berkeley who is a novelist. So she's published some novels and so on, but I'm like, okay, how am I supposed to publish my book? And then I, all of a sudden, I come across an advertisement from Trinity broadcasting network TBN saying they looking for new authors and especially if it had to do with evangelism. And so I called him on the phone and I said, Hey, I'm writing this book. And they said, well, you know, we don't know if we want to publish your book or not, but send us a couple chapters and we'll get back to you. 5 (35m 34s): So I sent him a couple chapters and seven days later, they called me and said, we want to publish her book. And so it just went off to the publishing company just this week. Actually I was waiting to get acknowledgements, but pastor Steve wouldn't acknowledge me, but I'm like, okay, I'm sending it in anyhow. Now I'm just kidding. And so, and so it's off and the title of the book, I'm kind of debating there. I titled it one simple act of obedience, but the really the phrase God gave me was one act of obedience. And I'll show you where it came from. It's found in it's going to be on the screen here in Romans five verse 19, Romans five verse 19. 5 (36m 18s): Notice this, it says as by the one man's disobedience talking about Adam many were made sinners. So by the one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. Now the one man, some versions do it different. You know, the man is talking about Jesus through the disobedience of Adam. We all became sinners. We're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we were born into sin. Right, right. No, just checking. Okay. And, and so, but then it says through one man's obedience, which is Jesus, perfect obedience, many will be made righteous, but I got caught with the phrase one active obedience. 5 (37m 2s): I saw, you know, how many of you think we might be living in the last days? Three people. Okay. The rest of you are in for a surprise. Okay. And, and so the question should be for every one of us, what should I be doing? What should I be doing? Well, I don't think we even have to wait for the last days to know what to do, but what should I be doing for sure right now? And so my wife and I were in Israel in 2017 and it was, I've been in I've ministered in 41 different countries, but I'd never been to Israel. 5 (37m 42s): So we were in Israel. And while we were there, kind of give you a little background here. We had, we were just turning our church over to a young guy. And so we were stepping out of being pastors. We were pastors for 32 years and I traveled in ministry for a number of years, been in full-time ministry, whatever you want to call it for forty one forty two years. But we're in Israel. And while we were there, God said, I want you to call your ministry, that what you're going to do now, as you go ministries, as you go ministries now share kind of how that came about. 5 (38m 23s): And so I came back from Israel and while I was there, it's just like, if you've ever been to Israel, the land speaks to you wherever you go. It's just, you hear the voice of God speaking to you over and over and over again. And so I came back and I had a renewed desire to study Matthew 24. Now Matthew 24. How many of you ever read Matthew? 24, same three people. Okay. Now at the 24 is where Jesus disciples ask him, tell us what the signs of the end times will be before you come back, tell us the science. So you've probably, most of us here have heard this. 5 (39m 5s): Well, there'll be wars. Oh my gosh. And rumors of wars, there'll be earthquakes. Just had one yesterday. Bank-to-bank went all the way around the world. There was an earthquake that happened in multiple places around the world. There will be pestilence or sickness and diseases that will come. There will be, it says, people will hate one another. Don't look at anybody right now. People will hate one another. And here's another one. The science many will be offended. Come on. I'm about to offend you today. So you might as well get ready to forgive me ahead of time. 5 (39m 47s): May have you ever seen, at least in my lifetime, I'd never seen anything like how many people are so easily offended today. No matter what you say, you know, that offends me well, get over it, grow up, stop it. And so, and then Jesus, here's the last sign, this numbers at the end of the list, here's all the signs that are going to happen. And then he gives one more sign. And here's what it is going to be on the screen here, Matthew 24 14, Jesus said this and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations. 5 (40m 32s): And then the end will come. You all see that? And then so we're like, okay, what? We got the wars, we've got the rumors of wars. We got the sickness, we got the hating, one another, we got the people being persecuted. We got all these things happening, but the one thing that's going to end it all is going to be this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the nations and then the end will come. So I just got arrested. I come back from Israel and I'm just looking at Matthew 24. And I just landed on this verse, like God said, this is this. You got to get this. 5 (41m 12s): So, you know, throughout my history with the Lord, I've been, I got saved in 1970 on the side of the mountain and lake Tahoe, Nevada. I was a hippie drug addict and just had a sovereign encounter with the Lord. But all, you know, and by the way, do I have any ex hippies here? Any ex hippies? Okay. I got a couple of us hippie Christians when we got saved in 1970, we heard about this book came out called the late great planet earth, my hell, Lindsey. It was all about that. The rapture was about to come. So we were fixated on the end times I knew I was going to be raptured at any moment. I was afraid. 5 (41m 52s): I didn't know if I felt anything, got to shaking her though. I hope here we go. We're out of here. And, and so we were because of that, we were desperate about getting people saved. We believed that Jesus was coming back. We're going to be raptured and so on. And so throughout my years, as a pastor seems strange to me. I don't know if you do this, Steve, that I keep having to come back and to the gospel and say, do I really understand the gospel? And to keep asking my, I have to go back and say, okay, do I really get it? And so here in this passage, Jesus says the major sign of my coming back is that this gospel, not just any gospel of the kingdom, everybody say of the kingdom, this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed or preached in all the nations. 5 (42m 49s): And then the end will come. So I'm focusing on that and I'm like, okay, I got to get this Lord. What is the gospel of the kingdom? And the Lord led me to another passage, which is found, we're going to put it on the screen here in Matthew 10 verses seven, eight. So we might Pam and I have a ministry, the name of our ministry, what we're still, we still are, are part of our church. We turned our church over to a young guy three years ago and the church has moved to, to Santa Maria. It's exploded. We're there every week. I tell you, I didn't tell you this, but I think I told you this, you know, we have nine speakers that rotate at our church nine. 5 (43m 35s): I was talking to the pastor today. He only preached once this last month, we were like, we'll get back to you for a password right now. We're preaching and both men and women. And it's awesome. Anyhow, I don't know why I went there, but anyhow, so this gospel of the kingdom. So I had to go back and say, well, what is the gospel of the kingdom? And it's found in Matthew chapter 10, verses seven and eight. So Jesus is now assigning his disciples to go out and preach the gospel y'all with me. And so here's what he says. He says, and this is the name of our ministry. 5 (44m 17s): And as you go like, whoa, okay, as you go proclaim, the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal. The sick cleanse, the lepers raise the dead cast out demons freely you ever received freely give. And so my understanding of the gospel of the kingdom is that is, it is a show and tell, gospel a show and tell it's not just words, although words are important. I, I hear people quoting this quote all the time and I, it makes me angry actually, just to be honest with you, they're saying, you know, by all means, preach the gospel and if necessary use words, okay, that sounds really spiritual, but it's totally wrong. 5 (45m 2s): Totally unbiblical because the gospel is words. And then they say St. Francis of Assisi said it. And the fact is, he didn't say it. I don't know who said it, but they needed an, I do know who said it was actually a writer back in the early 19 hundreds here in America. And he was just telling Christians, you ought to act like Christians. And, and so that the gospel of the kingdom is a demonstration of the reality of the react resurrection of Jesus and the power of Jesus being manifest with the preaching of the word of God, of the declaration, that there is a kingdom and it's Jesus' kingdom, the God who was raised from the dead who's alive right now. 5 (45m 46s): And, and so, so I, you know, I'm just honing in on that. And, and then I began to kind of, when I started getting into this book, I realized that's kind of what God's been doing with me for many, many years. I began, I would demonstrate the kingdom. Not that I, although were sent out to, to do that. And I would demonstrate the kingdom and then see people get saved at the encounter they would have with Jesus. And it came in all different forms and different ways. And so on. Now, one of the things, this is last verse, I'm going to share as I just want to share some stories with you. So as I talk to Christians, let me back up here. 5 (46m 31s): Let me just tell you what's wrong in America. They may come on CNN, Fox news. Everybody's telling you what's wrong when America that I'm going to tell you the truth what's wrong in America is the, is the average Christian, whatever that means stopped sharing Jesus with people in America. We would not be in the situation we're in right now because the enemy saw the open door. The enemy saw, okay, the church is backing off. So I'm moving in and Hey, you know what? The first service told me that you guys were there like the on fire ones. 5 (47m 14s): I was just wanting to double check here. And so we it's actually possible for a Christian to get saved, born again, go through their whole life die and never share Jesus with anybody else. So God, when he says what's wrong with a nation, he says this in second Chronicles, seven 14. If my people that are called by my name will humble themselves, pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will heal their land and I will forget. So the problem in America is not the leftist or the rightest or the, any of that. It's the church it's us. 5 (47m 55s): We've got the answer. America was founded to be actually a nation that would be a Christian nation. And somehow I'm not, I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about all those other Christians out there. Somehow we have lost our way and for God about our responsibility to represent Jesus every day in our lives. So let me, so I was talking to one of my past friends years ago, and he's been a missionary in difference of the world and all this. And so we're talking on the phone just a week ago. And I was just talking about this thing about sharing Jesus with people and so on. He says, well, you know, I'm really not called to be an evangelist. 5 (48m 39s): And I'm like, what is, yeah, that's not my gift. I said, well, wait a minute, let's stop here. I totally disagree with you. Yes. You're not called to be an evangelist, but second Corinthians, let's put it on the screen. Chapter five verses 18 through 20 says this. And God has given who, okay. Turn to your neighbor and say, we as us, God has given us, ask us the task of reconciling people to him for God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. 5 (49m 20s): And here it is, again, case we didn't get the first one. He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation, this the gospel. So we are Christ ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ. When we plead, come back to God. Now, I don't know if you know this, I'm assuming you do. I'm trying to assume some things here. You know that the Bible tells us in Genesis chapter one, that all people were created in the image of God, in the image of God, they were created both male and female and God gave them dominion in the earth. 5 (50m 3s): So God's original intention was to have a people that represented him on the year. Ambassadors. An ambassador is someone that represents their country and they have authority and they have a responsibility to represent their country in a foreign land. In case you haven't checked lately, we're in a foreign land. If you're a born again, Christian, you're not of world. Come on, you are on another kingdom. We come from God's kingdom. We've been born into a completely new species of people. You know what I discovered the other day. Now you're even a while back that I believe in aliens. 5 (50m 47s): I pastor, if you taught on aliens, I hope you have. I believe in aliens. It's just that I believe that we are the aliens. We're not of this world. We're here to represent the kingdom of God wherever we go every day, come on and go tell your neighbor. Did you know I was an alien? And so understanding that then I, so in, as God gave us this ministry, as you go proclaim, the kingdom of God is at hand heal. The sick cleanse leper cast out demons, raise the dead freely, received freely. Give as God gave us that, I realized that what then God said to me, I want you to activate in America, 1 million Christians in lifestyle Christianity. 5 (51m 40s): Now, what do I mean by lifestyle Christianity? It's not going to church on Sunday. It's representing Jesus on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday. And yes, on Sunday, we are to a lifestyle. Christianity is Jesus is my life. Watch Bernie. If you've ever read any of his books, somebody asked him to define what a Christian is. And he says a Christian he's is Galatians two 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. 5 (52m 23s): A Christian is Christ. Living his life through my life are y'all with me. It's like, we can come to church for this. Yes you did. So what does that look like? So my book is simply a 22 chapters of stories of how that's happened through my life. Not that I've been perfect. I've messed up. I missed it. I missed all divine opportunities, all that. I don't want to paint myself as anything, but I'll just give you a couple of examples. How am I doing on time? 5 (53m 3s): Okay. I got another hour. Is that what it's okay. All right. Well, they didn't say that in the first service who give me five minutes, raise your hand. 5, 10, 15, 20. So just what happened to me. So it's not about me. It's about, so my goal is in this book, what I mean activate is that I want to get 1 million Christians in America who will do acts of obedience. They'll do acts of obedience. And the thing the Lord showed me is that it says through one man's active obedience, many will be made righteous through your act of obedience. 5 (53m 50s): It's going to make somebody else righteous. Come on. So well, are you telling me to go door to door and witness? No. Unless God tells you to do that. When I am telling you to do is to obey the holy spirit. Oh baby. I'll look for the opportunity. I'll explain all that. So let me give you an example. So I get saved. I know before I got saved, when I was in high school, before I was in high school, when I was a little kid, we had this neighbor friend, Amy Piedmont. She was the wildest one. She could have outdanced pastor Steve. She was the wildest woman in our neighborhood. She could, she could drink bourbon, smoke a cigar and Gantz all at the same time. 5 (54m 31s): That was wild back then. And my mom came home. They were friends with my mom and dad, and she came home one night, one day. And she said to me that Amy is no fun anymore. She's got religion, which was my mom's interpretation of Amy got saved. So I didn't think anything about it until I was in high school. Freshman year, I'm walking to school and I made the mistake. I thought of walking down Amy street, I'm walking down the street as I'm going past her house. Eight o'clock in the morning. Amy walks out of her house, walked into the middle of the street, grabs me by the arm. And she's trying to put some little booklet in my hand telling me I need God. And I looked at her and I shook her off and I ran down the street and I yelled back. 5 (55m 17s): Amy, you're a fanatic. And I determined to never go down Aimee street ever again. And I never did until at the age of 22. And I had an encounter with God on the side of a mountain. I got born again, folks, I got saved and I lost all my friends. I was part of a commune. Somebody, you don't know what that means. But then I was hippie drug addict that blah, blah, blah. And I get saved. And I lose all my hippie friends. They think he's had this God encounter. It's weird and stay away from him. And so I didn't know who to talk to. And then I remembered Amy Piedmont went over her house, knocked on the door. 5 (55m 58s): She comes to the door here. I am standing with buckskin clothes beads, you know, and I have a new added attraction. I'm wearing a big wooden cross hanging around my neck. And I said, hi, Amy. I'm a fanatic too. And she got a, took two steps back and count, looked up, looked me up and down. She will come in here and tell me about this. So I shared with her and she just started balling. She says, Fred been, you've been born again. You've you've encountered Jesus. And she became my mentor for the next six months. I was over her house every day after work. And she would pray with me. She would teach me, she would show me things in the Bible and so on. I'm totally indebted to an Amy Piedmont who did one act of obedience, like coming out on the street, taking that risk of being rejected, not caring about that. 5 (56m 49s): Loving me enough to risk her time, risk her life, risk her rejection to tell me that I needed Jesus in my life. I only had three people like that in my entire life that ever did that kind of thing. And so what we need is more Amy Piedmont's right. We need to realize that you are the supernatural answer to your neighbor's condition right now. She does. Jesus said this. He said, he said, the harvest is what harvest is not that good. No, he said the harvest is ripe. 5 (57m 29s): But the problem is there's few workers. There's not many workers willing to, to represent the kingdom of God. And so I'm on a mission. We're on a mission to activate people. And so you guys are the first victims this week and to activate us. So let me just tell you a couple more stories here. This one. So I have lots of these special, Steve would tell you I got a boatload of these, but so this happened several years ago. I was, I was in Wisconsin and I was teaching in churches and stuff in Wisconsin. And I was going to have went back to the airport in Milwaukee to go home. 5 (58m 12s): And it was only going to have like a couple of days at home. And then I had a fly out again and so on. So I get to the airport and the fog comes in and they keep announcing the plane is delayed till 12 o'clock the plane is delayed till two. O'clock the plane's delayed to four o'clock. So I started getting the idea that the plane isn't going anywhere. So I went to the counter and I just said, Hey, let's be honest here. We're not flying out of here today. Right? They go, right. I said, well, listen, I know what's going to happen. Everybody's going to be looking for a hotel room, get me a hotel. And so I went and stayed in a hotel and I was mad. I was angry with God. I was kicking the walls literally. 5 (58m 53s): And like, God, I only had a couple of days home. And now I'm stuck here in Milwaukee and I want to go home. And I, this is not fair God. And so, you know, I had my little tantrum and got over it, but so the next day I go to the airport, they start the same thing over again. Well, the flights written, I'm like, oh no. And then they go, okay, the fog is lifting. We're going to fly on like, oh, LA loo. And so I'm just so excited. I'm going to get to go home. And so I go get on the plane and I just go to my seat. I'm like, I'm so happy because I get to go home. And so I'm sitting there and there's nobody sitting next to me. 5 (59m 34s): And I happened to, you know, when you fly a lot, you look down the island, you just observed people coming in. Well, this big old guy comes in, looks like Paul Bunyan. You know, he's got the beard. He's just a huge guy, six foot seven. I don't know what and big and he's drunk. And he's literally banging his way down the aisle, bumping into people and talking really loud. And I'm watching this guy. And I think, man, I feel sorry for whoever that guy sitting next to him. Now you got it already. It was me. So he comes in, he gets on the plane. He sits next to me and I literally looking up at him and he turns around, he goes, I want to talk. 5 (1h 0m 18s): I'm like, oh. So he proceeds to tell me what a mean guy. He is, how he's beats up people. And he's talking about all this stuff. And he, he caught his wife at a bar with was, was there with two other guys. And he's telling me, I knocked one guy out with a cue ball, the other guy through the plate, glass window in the front of the bar. And he says, he's just going on and on about what a mean mad, terrible guy he is. And so I'm sitting there and his name is bill. And as he's going along, I said, well, bill, why are you in here in Milwaukee? And I sure heard a little crack in his voice. And he says, well, I'm my nephew got ahold of me and said, you know, uncle, bill, are you ever going to come and go fishing with me or something like that. 5 (1h 1m 3s): So I heard this little crack crack. And then, so then I'm sitting there. And then I think, I think I got to confront this guy. And so I turned to bill and I put my finger right in his chest. And I'm thinking I'm not ever going to see this finger again. I said, I said, bill, you need Jesus. And to my shock, I'm getting ready to like get pummeled. He breaks down and starts balling. And he said, you know, there's this guy at work. And he's been talking to me about Jesus. And, and he gave me a Bible and I've been reading this Bible and all that stuff. 5 (1h 1m 47s): And right there on that plane bill gets born again, received Jesus as his savior. And he, we get to the airport and Kansas city is where we're going to, we get there. He grabs me because my mom's coming here. He's razzing KV, mom, mom, look at this preacher guy, man. He just blessed me to Jesus. You know, he's all changes. He's got, she's shiny. And he's doing all this stuff. Now. Here's the significant thing about that. God changed the weather. God changed my schedule because of one person that he wanted to bring into the kingdom of God. 5 (1h 2m 27s): It was. Then I began to understand, whoa, this is a bigger deal than we ever thought about. God will move mountains for one person, but we've got to be on the move. We've gotta be what Isaiah one 19 says, willing and obedient so we can eat the good of the land now. So again, I have lots of these stories, but let me move forward. And I'll just tell you a current story I shared in the first service. So Pam and I, we lived in Nepal for the whole time. We've been here since 2006 and then three years ago, we bought a town home in Santa Maria and we moved to Santa Maria. All my Navajo people said, no, you don't want to go to Santa Maria. 5 (1h 3m 8s): It's a terrible place. You don't want to go there. And, but we've kept feeling God want us to go there. And by the way, eventually our church, we were pastoring moved to Santa Maria is now within a mile of where we live. And just so God set it all up. So anyhow, so we moved to this condo and then a little while after we're there, this young couple moves in next door with the adjoining wall on the other side of our are not Nakano, but townhome. And so, okay, great. This is exciting. We got this young couple moving in. The only, only issue was that they really liked music. I mean, they really liked music. 5 (1h 3m 48s): They liked for everybody in the whole block to like their music and we've got the adjoining wall and especially their base. And so I would be trying to take a nap, but the bed is vibrating from the base. You know what you call it, waves coming through the wall and everything. And then I thought, oh man, I'm going to have to say something. So having met him yet. So I go over, knock on the door, the young husband comes into the door and I said, Hey, welcome to the neighborhood. But I I'm not enjoying your music. Might as quite as much as you, I didn't say it that way. But I just said, would you mind turning the music down, which they did? 5 (1h 4m 28s): And they have was great. Especially when I had my gun strapped to my side of us. I knew that they would comply. I'm just kidding. So some time goes by and then I pull, our drivers are right next to each other. So I pull in one day and there's an older man standing in the driveway at which I later find out is the, is the young man's father. And he's got a brace on his knee. And so I get out of the car, I see him. And I go, I just yell across the driveways. Hey, what happened to your knee? He said, oh, I've blown my knee next week. I'm going in. And I'm having an operation on my knee. 5 (1h 5m 8s): And I said, well, how about if I just come and pray for you right now? And he's like, sure. So I go over into his driveway. I kneeled in front of the guy and I grabbed his knee and I just began to speak healing into his knee. Don't see anything dramatic happen. And that was it. So then I went on into my house and so a couple of weeks later, I see him, he's there in the driveway. Again, it doesn't have the brace on. I said, well, what, tell me, how's your knee doing? He says, oh, I went to get the surgery. And they said, you don't need any surgery. And he's fine. I'm like, cool, thank you, Jesus. 5 (1h 5m 50s): And so then period of time goes by. And now we're in 2020 during the beginning of the COVID situation, I was around November, something like that. I get a knock on my door. I go to the door and it's the, it's the son. And he's standing there and he goes, Hey, can I borrow an egg? I'm like, sure. I'll give you two. And so I go in and get a couple eggs and, and so I go out, I give them the eggs and he goes, well, he says really what it is. I need you to pray for me. He said, I've been in bed for over a month in depression. Cause I lost my job and all this and I don't know what to do. 5 (1h 6m 32s): And so I just put my arm around him and said, Hey, just like a dad would, you're going to be okay. This is no big deal. Yeah. We have things that happened, but you're going to be all right. And all that. He looks at me. He says, you don't tear in his eyes. He goes, you don't understand. God made me come over here for you to pray for me. And so no problem. I said, I got faith for jobs. And so I just laid hands on him. And I prayed that God would give him a great job and blah, blah, blah, blah. I didn't see him again for like three weeks. So three weeks later I see him and he, and he goes, I go, Hey, how you doing? Oh, he says, I'm so sorry. 5 (1h 7m 12s): I didn't tell you. He said the very next day I got offered three major jobs that I didn't even apply for. And I took them. I'm doing great. They even started paying me ahead to take care of us for this job. I'm like, cool. Then we'd come up to again, 2020. And we come up to December and here it is right at Christmas time again, another knock on the door. Here's the dad and the son standing at the door with a big gift basket and they go, Hey, we just, we just wanted to come over and give you this. We don't do this for anybody else, but we love you. 5 (1h 7m 53s): Now. They're coming to our church. Come on. And so you know, this, those are just a couple of examples and there's, and you, you gotta understand you're the miracle that then is waiting to happen for the people that around you. It doesn't have to be as dramatic as what I'm talking about. I threw some fairly dramatic ones out there. It could be a text. It could be I'm praying for you. Or it could be give them a little money. You're standing at the gas pump. Hey, can I buy your gas and all kinds of ways. But the key is one act of obedience. 5 (1h 8m 37s): You just obey. Now you say, well, as soon as God talks to me, I'll all day. Well, he doesn't have to talk to you. You can just be moved with compassion. I was in, I walked my neighborhood and pray over everybody there. And the other day I'm walking on and there's a lady in her garage and I noticed that she has a brace on her knee. So I thought, well, I don't want to like yell at, I'll take another lap around and I'll come back around. She's still there. I'll come back around. And she's still standing there and I go, Hey, killed this lady in her garage. Hey, what's wrong with your leg? She goes, I have cancer knowing that this has been the worst year of my life. This year, my parents died. My son died. 5 (1h 9m 17s): And they told me I had cancer. I said, well, can I pray for you? She said, yeah. So I laid hands on her. The next week. She went to LA for special clinic to get some tests done on her cancer and all that. So I didn't see her for a couple a week or so. And I see her and I said, Hey, how are you doing? She said, they tell me I don't have any cancer. So God's just looking for us. You don't have to have, I didn't have God speak to me. You ought to talk to that lady. I was just moved by compassion, seeing her situation, by the way, that's how God talks to us. Many times. He just moves our heart with compassion. So I want to end with this. I want to give you some simple steps that will help you to begin to activate one act of obedience through your life. 5 (1h 10m 2s): Here. They are there on the screen. Number one, acknowledge that it is our responsibility to demonstrate the kingdom of God. You don't have to be an evangelist. If you're a Christian and by a Christian, I mean, you have God living in you. It's your responsibility. It's my responsibility to demonstrate the kingdom of God. Number two, ask the Lord to fill you with love. For the lost gave you a heart for the loss. Number three, stay filled with the holy spirit. Ephesians chapter five says we are to be being filled with the spirit, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our heart for the Lord. 5 (1h 10m 43s): So it isn't just a one-time lay. I got baptized in the holy spirit or filled the holy spirit back in 1972. Now I need the holy spirit every day. I need to get filled. Why? Cause we all leak, right? We got to get refilled because it's really the holy spirit working through you. That's what's happening. Number four, present your body. This is Romans 12 one. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your body, right? Present your body, a living and holy sacrifice. God's not looking for dead people. He's looking for live people. One of my chapters, as I mentioned in the first service is the title is God wants your bod. 5 (1h 11m 26s): God wants your bod. Well, I gave him my money on Sunday. I gave him like, you know, an hour and 15 minutes on Sunday. I mean, c'mon no, he wants your body on Monday and on Tuesday on Wednesday and Thursday. And so on. God wants your body ever five walk around with the eyes of your heart open. We've got to break out of this. My world, my bubble, all I see is what's happening with me and we need to lift up. Jesus said, lift up your eyes and see the harvest is ripe, right? To told his disciples that twice, lift up your eyes and see the harvest is ripe. So we just need to walk through life with our eyes open and look around us. 5 (1h 12m 8s): There's plenty of need out there right now. Let me just tell you the harvest is super ripe right now. People are desperate for someone that will just look at him and say, you know what? You're going to be okay. I believe in you. I believe God's going to do something great in your life and you don't have to just go in there and blast them with the gospel necessarily. You're going to get to that, but you're you just want to approach them and say, how are you doing? Tell me your story. What's going on in your life. And then listen for the need and say, can I just pray for you right now? Number 6, 5, 6, be willing to take faith risks. So somebody said one time, how do you spell faith? 5 (1h 12m 50s): It's spelled R I S K. Faith is a risk. And you, you and I, if we're going to see God got by the way God works through moving objects, not through objects that are like, I'm immovable. I'm just going to heal. If God wants me, I'll be watching TV. He can get ahold of me. Now. He works through moving objects as we're w when we see the opportunity or there's a line in front of us. And on this side of the line, we're afraid, or I don't know what to say here, or I don't want to do it, or I don't want to take the time, or I don't feel like it right now, Lord. But if we'll step across the line, his grace will come upon us and his power will become off on us. 5 (1h 13m 32s): And we'll become a different kind of person. We'll be, we'll have a boldness we didn't know before. So let's all stand. I want to just end with this. I want to pray over us. I hope this message was convicting. If it isn't, then I'm in the right church. Come on. Then we need to get this message out to everybody else that needs to hear this message, right? That's all. I want to pray for us and pray for myself. You know, I just want to, you know, the Bible says we're to redeem the time for the days are evil. What is redeem timing? It means bringing natural time into time. 5 (1h 14m 13s): It breeds to bring natural time into kingdom time. It means it means to buy the word actually means to buy time, to buy back time. And so, I don't know how many years you have. I dunno how many years I have left, but I want to make sure I'm using the, doing the best use of the time while I have on this planet are y'all with me. How many of you say I'm in for that? Listen, if you're over 60 or 70, you're like, I'd better be into that. So father, I'm going to pray for you. If you want to receive prayer, just lift your hands to the Lord right now, father, I thank you for the precious people of harvest church, saints, people that know you and want to make you known God. 5 (1h 14m 58s): I pray for just your word says when we come together in Hebrews chapter 10, where to stimulate one another, stir up one another into love and good deeds. God, I pray for a whole new level of divine appointments. I pray for a whole new level of acts of obedience to be released upon the people of harvest church. I pray for a grace. I pray for a power of the holy spirit to come upon them. And they're going to have a new level of boldness and confidence, and they're going to be miracle workers. Lord, I decree that over them in the name of Jesus. If you receive that, say, amen, let's say you a shout. Amen. 0 (1h 15m 42s): And then what guys as we finish up this morning. Yeah, I left my phone over there and there was a thing I was going to have on my phone. There was deep and moving. I can't remember it now, but we did this, this, this, some we're going to finish with this morning is called fresh wind. And it was, you know, several relatable to what Fred was saying earlier. But the way that, you know, the worship pastors who wrote it when they were saying is they really feel like there is a time right now, I'm just in a world in our country that we're just dying, where we're calling out for this, this loyalty of the holy spirit in this new kind of wave of his presence, just to fall upon us. That's what this song is about. It's, you know, asking and it's declaring like, Lord, give us a fresh wind. 0 (1h 16m 23s): Give us a new, exciting opportunity to, to just to worship you. It's honor to have you in our, in our midst. So just think of that. As we, as we sing this out, as we worship to, to close up on 3 (1h 16m 55s): , As we repent and turn from sin revival And see 0 (1h 21m 37s): Father. That is our, not our prayer this morning that you would just pour your spirit out. Father, Lord, be with us as we, as we leave this place and go back into this as well, father, that would lead change. Lord, just knowing that we have just encountered the true and living, God has placed this morning. Lord Jesus, that we would go out into this are an unbelieving world largest as believers seeking to just enter your kingdom in this place. But the, you would just blow through this nation Lord low through this state, through this town father, the people who were once far from the Lord, which are close to you. 0 (1h 22m 18s): Jesus, we thank you. Thank you that you are a God of miracles. You are a God who wants to fill us father and Lord see your work and your kingdom. Come in this place. Jesus, on how fast you seek to further your kingdom. We thank you, Lord. Thank you for this time. Let me thank you just for, for a touch of heaven. They were able to experience this load. We just, we lift these things off and we give you thanks father, and your precious, precious name. Amen.

0 (0s): And I'm so excited to worship with you all this morning. I'm in Psalm 104, the where it says I were to enter his gates with Thanksgiving and enter his courts with praise. So I want to take a moment and let's just, let's just thank God for what he's doing in our, in our, in our lives. Whether it's big or small, just 2 (4m 49s): and call. They fall to our lives. All the, all the things we did at first, you're clearing out your cleaning out We are your people. 2 (5m 27s): You see all the nation call to pray. 2 (6m 52s): 1 (7m 9s): Your 2 (7m 9s): Hearts. Oh Lord. Our shepherd. You to all things. 2 (8m 51s): We come in. We're not, oh God, we need your service. come in. Not walking. God, we need me servant. God, we need reserves. 2 (11m 18s): So we re surrender your car. We're coming or not. We're running that. We need research. We research. 1 (12m 1s): I see. 2 (12m 3s): When I lock eyes with 1 (12m 5s): You, I feel you. 2 (12m 10s): I love to get 1 (12m 14s): Your, 2 (12m 15s): My obsession when I log. 1 (12m 28s): I see . 2 (13m 56s): I see 1 (13m 57s): I don't care. 1 (15m 22s): I don't care what it does. 1 (15m 26s): is you just, you just, 0 (17m 14s): Yes, Lord. Let that be our prayer and our worship this morning. We just love you, Lord. We want more of you and always sees all we need is your all we need to in this life, you you're you're you provide every extra thing that we ever could need in Florida. Your provider, your, You are a salvation. You are a God. We worship you. Jesus. 1 (17m 59s): Thank you, Lord Jesus in Jesus name. Amen. 3 (18m 9s): All right. Good morning. Harvest church. I am. My name is Jeremy. I'm normally the announcement guy, but this week I get to bring the word, be the, bring the word guy I got promoted. Hey, I could definitely use your prayer, huge prayer requests. Next weekend. I'll be trapped on a bus with 39 youth headed up to the mountains. Now the youth group is next week is headed. Next weekend is headed to Heartland Christian camp, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or rented a 48 passenger bus. We got 39 students going six liters, be praying for us that the goddess just, just reaches those students. 3 (18m 55s): During that time up there, it's a really neat testimony is one of the junior high boys that's going. His dad went to Heartland Christian camp when he was in junior high and gave his Lord to give his life to Lord at that camp. So it's going to be a special time. We're really looking forward to it. Been planning for months. So it's, it's, it's really neat to see the fruit of that coming out. We're going to be in Hebrews chapter 11 this morning. Steve's let me pick up right where he left off. I feel like the bases are loaded in a, in a sense. Everybody knows chapter 11, the hall of faith. So I'm going to bring, do my best to bring the word this morning, but let me geek out with you on a few things. 3 (19m 37s): I I'm a nerd. Okay. I used to be more of a math and science nerd, but lately it's been more literature nerd. I love these chapters. I love the word of God. I've grown in my just love of English, literature, poetry. And so let me just geek out first for a second with you. The word Smith there's wordsmithing that goes on in Hebrews is phenomenal. We know that it's God breathed. It's inspired by the holy spirit. God does use these authors to write this, but if you go back, think back really quickly to Jen, sorry. See Hebrews chapter 10. It starts out this way. Verse one for the law, having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things that the law, the old Testament was a shadow of things to come. 3 (20m 30s): And so I think we read through that so quickly. We just think, oh yeah. Shadow. Okay. Yeah. Think about it for a second. You're out on a sunny day. Not now because it's cloudy, but John was saying, Hey, and you look down and you don't see a shadow either it's noon and the shot, the sun is directly overhead or something's wrong, right. That shadowed. But that shadows are always following us around. And yet there, they don't have an actual substance. It's an outline of our, our bodies that are laid out depending on whatever the sun is. But you can deduce a few things from a shadow. If you, if you went outside and just walk up strangely behind somebody and look at their shadow, but don't actually look at who it is. 3 (21m 13s): You might be able to figure it out by their shadow, who it is. Especially if you know a few people around here, you might be able to do this, but it doesn't give their exact skin eye, hair color. There's no, all the details are lost. One of my classes at UCFB was a class on photo interpretation. And that's where they, these, these airplanes from above would take pictures over the ground. And then often there were times farmers use them within their fields of, for looking at crops and stuff. But also we got to look at some unclassified photos of area 51, and it was really cool. Cause we had like over the decades, we got to see like area 51 from the fifties and the sixties and the seventies. 3 (21m 59s): And you get to analyze like what's changed over time. So you get to see the runways that were lengthened. Like why, why an extra 5,000 feet on that Renu? Why do you need, you know, that's interesting or you get to see where buildings are are, are, are either buildings were built or whether they're added onto the, in their elevation and what you could. The beginning of the details that emerge from those photo interpretations was if you knew what time and what date that photo was taken. And he knew the elevation of that airplane that took that photo, you could find out actually a lot of details depending on the angle of the sun, as myth from the date and time you could say, well, the sun was at this angle that way, this shadow from the building cast a 60 foot long shadow. 3 (22m 47s): And at that angle, well that means that building is six, six stories tall. And so then all of a sudden these do, you can pull out little details, which help when you're looking at your enemies and trying to figure out, well, what do you, why, why do you have a missile? That's nine. You know, all these different things. You can pull out some details, but you'll never looking at area 51. You'll never know what's inside those buildings. You can figure out the height. Then you can figure out a few things, but you'll never, the details are lost. And the same with the shadow, the shadow of the things to come in the law, the outline is there, but there's the details were somehow lost. They were, they were just darkened. Compare that contrast chapter 10, with chapter 12, the next chapter we'll be looking at chapter 12, starts out with this. 3 (23m 34s): Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. So when from a shadows to now clouds, I love that the word play that's going on. The clouds are interesting because clouds can cast a shadow, but clouds can also block the shadows from happening and in a sense clouds or something, that's kind of a theorial there. They're real, but they're not. They're kind of they're there, but they're not. And this is, this is from this morning, driving into work. I live in Santa Maria. I was crossing the Santa Maria bridge, a, a car going about 90 miles an hour with Arizona license plate flew by me. 3 (24m 16s): And right after the bridge, there was this big fog bank. I don't know if any of you experienced that. There's this big fog bank and this, this, this Arizona licensed plated car, all of a sudden you can just see him hitting the brakes. He didn't know what to make of this fog. And he put on his flashers, like he needed to do that. I guess Arizona drivers don't know what Tulley fog is. You know, for those of you who've ever driven the central California as because there's, this fog was so thick and it was about, I had a, maybe a hundred yard visibility. It was a, it was a thick cloud. Or maybe it's like this when you're flying in one of those small passenger airplanes, you know, like the Cessna, you know, those little four-seater airplanes had a chance a year, a few years ago to go with a pilot and we're flying. 3 (24m 59s): And on our course was going to take us right through a cloud. And as you're approaching the cloud, you want to, I wanted to like, Ooh, you know, like we're going to, we're going to hit the cloud. We're going to have to go. And then all of a sudden the cloud, we just pass right through the cloud. It's there, but it's not. It's the strangest thing. So that is the cloud of witnesses that are cheering us on. They're in a sense, they're there, but they're, they're not, you know, so between the shadow of the things that come and the cloud of witnesses, we find ourselves in the hall of face, this chapter 11, living by faith between the shadow and the cloud chapter 10 ends with how to live by faith. 3 (25m 39s): And that's going to give us a number of examples of how patriarchs and how people from the past are ancient heroes. Show us how to do that, how to live by faith. Let's pray this morning, heavenly father, we thank you Lord, for your word of God. That's open on our laps. Lord. It's living, it's acting active. It's sharper than any two-edged sword Lord. So will you cut to the joints? And the marrow is a division that only you can do through your scriptures. Lord illuminate your word of God to us this morning in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. There's a number of different chapter titles that have been given to chapter 11. 3 (26m 23s): I I'll refer to it as the hall of faith, as in like, you know, baseball hall of fame, the legends of the sports, those, those people are kind of like solidified in there. You know, he got babe Ruth, Pete rose was, but then he wasn't right. And all that drama, but the different titles titles that have come out of this chapter, I like, it's just interesting to follow. So the new king James version says titles. This chapter by faith. We understand by faith, we understand the NIV says just simply by faith, newly living translation says faith and action. I kind of liked that this is how they showed their lived out by living in action by faith and action, the way mouth and older translation. 3 (27m 5s): He's he called it faith and his ancient heroes kind of like that one faith in his engine heroes. Cause I like picture books. Anybody else? Like picture books, love, picture books, even reading to my daughters, the picture books. It's fun as especially the beautifully illustrated ones. There's this fun to follow along. But recently as my girls have been good, getting older, we've kind of trans, you know, we're, we're still reading some picture books, but we're starting to get into some novels. So I've been recently reading the Chronicles of Narnia with my daughters. And I think we're on book four or five and it's so fun. And so my girls will be up in their beds and they're kind of playing with their dolls and doing different stuff while I'm reading out loud to them every once in a while, you as you're, as you're opening through the book or you're reading through the book, there's a little black and white sketch. 3 (27m 53s): And my girls are always like dad. If, if there's a picture, we want to see it like stop. Like just, you have to stop reading. We have to take this and show us the page because they want to know if what they're hearing is is, is, is what the art, the artist or the writer was portraying. They want to see that it aligns up. And that's why I love the old Testament. And that's why the Hebrews that he author is pointing back to the old Testament patriarchs because the old Testament is a picture book of new Testament truths. The old Testament is a picture book. It's, it's how it's lived out of new Testament truths. It makes tangible, it makes faith a tangible thing. 3 (28m 34s): It shows us encouraged us of examples, of those who have gone before us and encouraged us to live in that way. Now faith is verse one. What faith is now, faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. This chapter starts out with almost a working definition of what faith is. It's the substance of things. Hope for the evidence of things not seen. And another definition of faith would be what can be believed in a state of certainty with regard to belief. And this definition that the book of Hebrews gives is, is twofold. 3 (29m 16s): In relation to one, in relation to the future, faith is the substance of things hope for, so the things that are yet to come and in relation to that right now, the invisible it's the evidence of things not seen. That is what faith is and that word substance. It's an interesting word. It's almost like substance is something that you're able to tangibly grasp a hold and different translators translated that Greek word. That's only used five times. The new Testament is called Hoopa. Stacy's it's only translated five times. It's only in the new Testament five times and it's translated a little differently. Sometimes it's translated to assurance or confidence or reality and the biblical usage. 3 (29m 59s): It has this, this picture of a steadfastness from resolute much like the, like the foundation of a home. That's, that's how this substance is used. The substance of our faith. It's this foundation. So over the years, I've, I've loved doing construction. Most of my jobs have been remodeling. So kind of fixing what's already there. But my dream is to someday build my own home. And you start out with a blueprint. You, you design your home on a blueprint and then you take that page and then you, then you have the concrete foundation poured and is from that foundation that then you can walk on. 3 (30m 39s): You can stand on that foundation, begin to see all my walls are going to go here. The window's going to open up to that viewpoint. Okay? This is, this is where the different things are we, and it becomes really it's this it's the substance that's there. It's the foundation it's underlying of all the building that's going to take place next. And that's what that word substance speaks to is tangible. It's the reality. And it's the reality of things yet. Hope for you walk onto that foundation. You begin to see the things that you're hoping for, that this house to turn out this way, you can begin to see it in your mind's eye. Second Corinthians says that this is how we are to walk. We walk by faith, not by sight, walk by faith, not by sight. 3 (31m 23s): And then first Corinthians 13 says this now and now abide faith, hope, and love. And these three, but the greatest of these three is love. Why is love the greatest of faith and hope? 'cause when you're standing on that finished house, inside the finished house, as dry walled and furnished, you don't have to have faith that this is how, how the house is going to turn out. You don't have to have hope that it's going to turn out this way. You are standing within a Fe finished house on the foundation that you placed because it's it's there. You just do. You love your house. Now you don't have to have faith or hope in these things. 3 (32m 3s): And that is the foundation of we're called in our Christian life. Someday, when we meet Jesus face to face, we won't have to say, well, I hope I get to see Jesus. No, we will see him face to face. We won't have to say, well, I have faith that this is going to happen. No, we will be in the presence of God. That's why those faith and hope are just going to pass away and there's going to be love. They won't be needed. So it's the substance of things. Hope for, and as the evidence of things not seen, it speaks to future award. It speaks to a furnished proof. It's it's a police officer takes evidence, takes substance from a crime scene stores away. 3 (32m 46s): And then at the court trial later, when bringing it to court, he would produce that evidence. But you don't take an empty bag of evidence and say, well, this is my evidence. Now you have to have firm evidence. You have to have some kind of substance. And that's our faith, our substances, the things hope for the evidence of things, not seen the way Mount translation translates this verse this way. He says now faith is a confident assurance of that, for which we hope a conviction of the reality of things we do not see. Do you have that conviction for the things we do not see this morning? Verse two says for by it, the elders obtained a good testimony and those elders that is speaking of our, that chapter 12, those in the Coliseum that are surrounding us and saying, go go, you can do this. 3 (33m 36s): We were able to do this by God's grace. You can do it. Go in there. They're encouraging us on by faith. They have a testimony. Now they're here to cheer us on verse three gives us now, but what faith does, what does faith do? Faith verse three says by faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. So the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. So heavy verse faith understands is what faith starts with. Faith understands. Fifth understands that the worlds that all that we can see was framed by the world. 3 (34m 16s): God, that God created that. And if you've ever read the haul of this, this chapter and been like, man, I wonder if my story could fit in there or do I have the faith to be in Hebrews chapter 11? Guess what you do? Do you notice who that, that first, where it starts off the list, what faith does it says by faith, we understand who is that as us. If you believe that this whole universe, the ages that the worlds were made and created by God and for him that puts us right top and central into the hall of faith. I think that's amazing having not even been, been born yet when he rose was written, we, we are included in that list by faith because we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God, you and I, and that word worlds speaks of the Greek word, a on its universe, it's its ages. 3 (35m 16s): It's all that we can see. And it was all created in Quip. It goes back to Genesis one when God created the heavens and the earth, we are included in that list. And what I love about the Bible is it's not, it's not a science book, but when it speaks about science, it's a hundred percent accurate. No matter what the current thought is at the time of this was written. The understanding of what all matter was made of was very different and the different theories. And, and in fact, 500 years before the book of Hebrews was written, they said everything was one substance. That was their understanding 500 years before that everything was one substance. 3 (35m 59s): And then about 500 years before the book of Hebrews a philosopher came on the scene and he said, well, if you take a rock and you split that rock into, you have two halves, well, let's just take that half and split that in half. And then you have half of the half, and then, then you have that. And then all the way down until you have these small indivisible, polar particles, or little, little things, little tiny things that you can't quite see, but they're there. And that is an Adam. That's what we're made of these, the small indivisible particles. That was the thought. But if you dig into this, we in what we've come to know is that the Adam is not the smallest of things Adam's are made of electrons, protons, neutrons, and then those things are made of corks and matter. 3 (36m 52s): Anti-matter all of these crazy stuff. And yet at the core and Adam, if you, if you were to take an electron cloud of an atom, it has a radius 10,000 times greater than a nucleus nucleus follow me. I know you didn't, you weren't expecting a science lesson, but the electron has electron cloud, which is the electron is like the free floating negative charge. And that's floating around the knee, the nutrient, the nucleus, and the proton neutron to proton. And it has a thousand times greater radius than the nucleus. And that was according to Los Alamos national laboratory. So to make that into a tangible way, if the proton, if the center of the atom was the size of a basketball, the electron would be circling three miles away. 3 (37m 42s): That's a lot of space facts. There's more of nothing than there is actual substance in our world that we see. And we look at is what the Bible was saying. It has been saying all along, there's more of nothing than actual substance Genesis. One says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And he created that science says 13.7 billion years ago. There was a clump of mass that was so tightly compressed and it exploded. And that's what created all that we see. And it was some say the title, the size of a pinhead is what all that the universe would encompass if all that space was taken out. 3 (38m 24s): So the Bible says that all that we see is made from stuff that we cannot see, new living translation says this first it's translated by. It says, by faith, we understand the entire universe was formed at God's command. And that we now see, sorry, what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. ESV says by faith, we understand the universe was created by the word of God. So that it seen that what is seen is not made of things which are visible. Young's living translation from 1862 says this by faith. We understand the ages to have been prepared by a sane of God, in regard to the things not having the in regard to the things seen, having not come out of things that appeared Websters in 1833 S wrote this. 3 (39m 19s): He said through faith, we understand that the worlds were not framed by the word of God. So the things which are seen were not made of things, which appeared that is us. That is what we believe that God created the heavens and the earth. And if you look up the word Bible and in the Webster's English language from 1828, he was an amazing man. It may surprise you. This is what he wrote about. If you, if you read the entry Bible, this is what he said. He says the Bible, the book by way of eminence, the sacred volume in which are contained the revelations of God, the principles of Christian faith and the rules of practice, it consists of two parts called the old and new testaments. 3 (40m 6s): The Bible should be the standard of language, as well as a faith. That's what no Webster had to say in his dictionary in 1828. And he was also often called the father of American scholarship and education. Webster took 26 years to complete his dictionary in the process of learning 28 languages, including Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. And he knew so much after writing his dictionary, that he wrote his own translation. And five years later, the Webster's Bible in 1833. And he wanted the difficult king James version to be understood by schoolchildren. And it's one of the reasons why he wrote the dictionary in the first place. 3 (40m 47s): He felt inspired by the holy spirit to write the Webster's dictionary so that people could read the Bible and understand it. And he, in his own words, he said, education is useless without the Bible. And I think, man, how far have we come from from that? And now we're going to get into the exciting part. Sh the examples of the faith, not only are we on the list by implication of believing that God created the heavens the earth, but now it's going to give out how some characters in the Bible actually respond to that examples of the faith verse four says by faith, Abel offered to God and more excellent sacrifice than Cain through which he obtained witness, that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. 3 (41m 28s): And through it, through it, he being dead still speaks. So faith offers it's the Firth first encouragement is faith offers. And what did Kane offer Keene offered, but some of the fruit of the ground, and he'd worked for that. He'd worked for that fruit he'd toiled and pluck in the weeds and preparing the soil and all the hard work that went, that goes involved with farming, the sweat off his brow, the blood, and often his hands. You know, he has his, his labor, his work in his hand of his hands. His effort is what he offered to God as a sacrifice. And it wasn't accepted, but evil. 3 (42m 12s): What does evil offer? Well, he offered the first, the best in the bloodied. Why did evil offer sheep that time? Why was able even a keeper of the sheep at that time, man, it wasn't until after the flood that man be candy, eat meat. So why did Abel even keep sheep in the first place? Why did he spend all this time? Keeping sheep? Well, it would have been for covering you go back to Genesis chapter three, verse 21. We find this scripture that says this, you see, God had just laid out the consequences of the fall of man's sin and their choices thereof. 3 (42m 57s): And while they're still in the garden, it says, and also for Adam and his wife, the Lord, God made tunics of skin and clothed them. So they're in the garden before they had to leave the garden to protect them from eating the tree of life. God looks at their condition and they've sinned. They've messed up and they've done what's best. They took of some of the plant around them, the fig leaves. And they covered themselves with that. And fig leaves, if you know, they are scratchy and itchy, I could not imagine having fig leaf clothing, they would break apart. They would tear up, it would just be gone in no time, but that's what they use to try to cover their sin because they knew that they were naked. And so God says, I got something better for you, but God, in the garden of Eden says he made tunics of skin. 3 (43m 45s): I don't think God just called a tunic of skin and Vina. I think in that first temple on the garden of Eden, God took an innocent lamb and he sacrificed that lamb in a sense, and then took of the skin of that lamb and then covered Adam and Eve. So when Kane said, I need to make an offering for sacrifice, this is what God's called me to do. He knew the pattern already that the pattern of the bid set an Abel speaking, not only of the pattern that the covering of sin was, was made, that God had made the covering of skin and clothed them. That, that one days, someday soon he would look forward to the coming lamb of God that would come and sacrifice on his part. 3 (44m 28s): In honor of heart, he was looking forward to something and that still speaks. Abel looked forward to the sacrifice of the lamb of God. And we look back on it that still speaks back to Hebrews 11, verse five. We come to one of my heroes of the faith by faith. Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death. And he was not found because God had taken him. And for before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God, faith, pleases God, that was his testimony that he pleased God. He was just this strange guy that he, he walked with God. 3 (45m 8s): And then he was not for God, took him. He simply continued his walk, his journey with the Lord, forgetting about his contemporaries, keeping his eyes on God, just continue that walk of faith until he was raptured up, he was caught up into heaven. You see, he was a prophet of righteousness. Jude would say he was prophesied to his generation of the judgment. That was to come namely the flood that he would never have to see because he was raptured out of it. He was, he was walking to be above the ways of his fellow man, the culture around. And he chose to walk with God, not with his friends as the how Enoch pleased God by faith for six says the ness is the necessity of faith. 3 (45m 55s): It says by without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is. And that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. If you, if you take that into account, that's really serious. But without faith, it is impossible to please God, how do we please? God, only by faith, not our, at our works, not our attitudes, not the things that we can do towards or for him. It is by faith alone. Ephesians two eight says for by grace, you have been saved through faith and is not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. So not only is it impossible to please God, without faith. It also, we come to God in a certain way. 3 (46m 37s): For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder. And that of those who diligently seek him. So we believe that God is that he rewards and that we, he can be sought out. And as our God, maybe this morning, you want to be, you're building the foundation of your faith. If you're just starting to set that foundation. If you're reading the blueprint of the word of God and you say, I wanna, I want to start building that house of faith. A few resources, just from our church. Our provost wrote a 600 page book. He assembled it called what is your foundation for life? 3 (47m 17s): And in it, he pulls all these different science and mathematics and all these things to point that we have a good trader God and I have that available in my office. If anybody is interested, shin shin, Sharon Dutcher also wrote a book called new beginnings. She, she goes to our church and just on the foundations of faith, that's what you're building. Look, because God can be sought after so many atheists like CS Lewis, Lee Strobel sought to disprove God. They said, I'm going to disprove the Bible. I'm a disproved God. And in fact, they ha they ended up proving God and coming to God, love CS Lewis love his books. 3 (48m 2s): So we have these continued examples. Continue on in verse seven, we have the example of Noah. Noah listened. It says by faith being divinely warned of things, not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an Ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness, which is according to faith, faith, and listens. And he surfers out there. You ever been in on the water and you hear somebody yell outside. It doesn't mean that you're out of doors and you're just enjoying the outside. Outside means there's you are in the set waves currently, but there is a wave that's breaking and it's bigger than any other wave. 3 (48m 49s): And it's coming right at you. So you yell outside. And the thought is to warn everybody else that there's this big wave coming out. And if you don't start paddling out, out in PA, try to get past that wave. Then it's going to take you out. So y'all outside. And that was what Noah was doing to his generation. At that time, no one had ever seen rain. It had never flooded. And so God is listening to God and God warning him a things to come. He moves with godly fear. He yells outside to his contemporaries and begins building an arc. And he began building his arc for not only himself, but his first household. 3 (49m 33s): It cost him. Everything cost him. His reputation. People would have called him silly, dumb. What, what are you? This thing? That's that's coming. Rain sucking, arranged or rained. We have the do that comes other ground at waters. The grass, no, that's not going to fall from the heavens. That would be ridiculous. Building large ships was not known as occupation before that. So it cost him everything. If you think of the timeline and this, this, this, this gives me a little bit of curiosity. But if you think of the timeline, the Bible says in Genesis seven, that the floods came upon the earth. 3 (50m 14s): When Noah was 600 years old, Noah's sons were born to him when he was 500 years old in Genesis five, but Genesis six, verse three, we find this verse. It says, the Lord said, spirit shall not strive with man forever for he is indeed flesh. Yet. His days shall be 120 years now, does that mean the limits of us are only going to be 120 years old? I believe it was God speaking in 120 years because of the condition of mankind. I'm going to bring a flood. So if you do the math that puts the flood at when no one was that puts God warning, making that warning, making that call the prophecy that he was gonna be 480 years old. 3 (50m 57s): That's 20 years before his kids were even born. It was God giving him a prophesied. Noah, your don't have kids yet, but you are going to have kids. You're going to have sons. And if you want to prepare you, if you want to save you and your household, then begin building this arc begin preparing for the future. No heard that. And he moved with godly fear. He didn't wait. He didn't delay. Think we have an amazing example of how faith listens to God and moves. Verse eight says now Abraham obeyed, when he was called to go out of the place from which he would receive as an inheritance. 3 (51m 39s): And he went out not knowing where he was going. Abraham gives us the example of faith, obeys, faith, obeys, faith, obeys, the voice of God. And most likely he had an inheritance inheritance in his own land, in the land of earth, the Kaldi's and it was probably would have been a great inheritance. Early. The Kaldi's was known to be a place of a luxury living. It was a place where there's many temples to different gods. It was, it was a place where a lot was happening. It was a metropolis. It was a place where hot tubs were invented. God says, Abraham, I want you to leave your hot tub. And I'm going to bring you to this special place where you're going to live call to leave that place and go out faith, obeys and faith obeys. 3 (52m 27s): Even during that time, you don't leave a family. Moving was not something that was common in that culture. You would have to move away from your family, your land security, all those were tied up from where you were yet. Faith obeys, hearing the voice of God, not knowing where he was going. But once he was there, verse nine says by faith, he is an Abraham dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise for he waited for the city, which has his foundations, whose builder and maker is God, what example? 3 (53m 11s): Faith lives it out. He had to live it out day to day. He had to live in a tent. The rest of his life, traveling around. I go backpacking from time to time. Living in a tent is not a comfortable thing. He had to leave his, the wealth land of earth. And didn't now live in tense, waiting for that promise that God was going to give him in 1859. The third hottest temperature on record that we have on record was recorded in Santa Barbara, 133 degrees. 3 (53m 51s): You can fact checks me 133 degrees in 1859 in Santa Barbara. according to documents. And at it began to blowing this warm, warm air off the off from, from Arizona. And by the time it was four or five in the afternoon, it was 133 degrees. You can imagine there's a pre air conditioning. So people are trying to get out of this heat. And that was recorded on a schooner ship out in the Harbor, 130 to three trees on the water. So you can only imagine how hot it was on the shores. 3 (54m 32s): And people did everything to try to escape the heat. They, they, they, they tried jumping down their Wells and some people died down there. The, the, the trees were scorched on one side from this hot wind cattle died out, out in the, out in the pastures. It was a ho. It was, it was called the day that hell came to Santa Barbara, 1859. But a lot of people were able to survive because they went into their Adobe homes and those Adobe homes helped buffer the heat. And they were able to survive because they had those thick walls. And that was the same thick walls that Abraham had to leave and earth that he went to now live in a tent. And if you've ever woken up in the morning, out in a tent on the backpacking, you know that the second that sun hits that tent is blazing hot. 3 (55m 20s): So there Abraham and his sons are sitting in the shade of their tent and they're have their fans out in the heat of the day. And they're talking and his son says Abraham or dad, why can't we live in a house like everyone else? Why couldn't we build a house? We have the resources we're rich beyond measure. Why can't we build a solid house? And Abraham would have to remind them, no, these are our promises. God has promised us this, that we have a foundation we're waiting for heaven. There's something greater than building our home here. God is making a city for us, which has this foundation to builder and maker is God. And I look at the way that I try to raise my own girls. 3 (56m 0s): And I think of all the times they said, dad, why can't we watch this movie? Or why can't we go this place? Or why can't we do that? I'd have to say, well, that's because we need to listen, obey God for his plan for our life. Sometimes there's things we can't do. There's sometimes it won't do because we're looking forward to our future home for seven, by faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed. And she bore a child when she was past age, because she judged him. Faithful who had promised faith, receives faith, receives the promises of God. Sarah was 90 years old when she gave birth to Isaac. 3 (56m 42s): And yet she looked not to herself, but she looked to God as the promised her. So she received that, that, that blessing because she received that blessing. She was able to pass on to her husband and ultimately the world, therefore verse 12 from one man, and then him as good as dead were born. As many as the stars of the sky in multitude, in numerable is a sand, which is by the sea soar. He goes on to say in verse 13 and all these, they died in faith, not having received the promise, but having seen them afar off. And they were assured of them, they embrace them and they confess them. How do you embrace a promise where you believe it? You embrace it by faith. 3 (57m 24s): They embraced them in the confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things, declare plainly that they seek a Homeland. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come, they would have had the opportunity opportunity to return. They're looking forward to this country, the promises that God has, if they had a chance like, like lot's wife to look back and with wishful thoughts to go back to that place. And she turned into a pillar of salt, no, they kept their eyes forward. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they kept their eyes forward. They said, no, there's a better place, verse 16. But now they desire a better. That is a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for. He has prepared a city for them. 3 (58m 10s): Very much reminds me of a young missionary man named Jim Elliot, Jim Elliot, when he was 18 or 19 wrote in his journal, a quote. And I, my dad wrote in his Bible and I've since then re written it in mind, but it says this. It says he is no fool. This is from my dad's Bible. He is no fool who gives what? He cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Jim Elliot, as a, as a young man realized that there were things that in this world that he was not going to be able to keep. When you go to heaven, there's no limousine or all your, you whole stuff going with you, right? 3 (58m 51s): He's no fool gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. He looked towards heaven and all that was there waiting for him. And he went to down to south America, to a head hunting tribe and lost his life for the Lord because he said, what I have on this earth is temporary. It's fleeting. But what heaven offers is much far greater. These all died in faith because they desired something better. Do you seek that Homeland? I guess I look my bookshelf and I'm like, man, I, my, my, my balance is so off. I have probably 500 books in my office and only two books are on heaven. And my first thought of heaven and forgive me. 3 (59m 33s): But I think of chubby baby angels floating on clouds. My friends growing up, his mom loved to have these little baby chubby baby angels floating on clouds in her house. And that was what just always stuck. Okay. That's heaven. Okay. Heaven's a eternal worship service and my arms are going to get sore. But yet all these patriarchs of the faith will looked forward to heaven because it was so far greater. What are your thoughts on heaven? I think that will shape how you live now. How real is heaven to you? Is it a tangible thing? Every once in a while, I feel like God gives us those little glimpses. 3 (1h 0m 14s): I, and I can remember randomly being in the garage with my brother as a kid. And we were just tinkering replaying. There was just, we were just having the best time. I'm like, man, I wonder if this is what heaven's going to be like, maybe it's outside hiking or maybe it's in the water. Like what is, is cannot be so good. But why do I only have two books at a 500 on this topic of heaven? All these patriarchs. They, they show us examples by faith. They understood by faith. They offered by faith. 3 (1h 0m 55s): They please God, by faith, they listened by faith. They obeyed by faith. They lived out by faith. They received by faith. We can live as strangers and pilgrims and that's expressed by their, by their will and by our will, by the choices that we make, do we have that heavenly hope? Pray. The Lord, give that to us in Jesus name, let's pray. Or we desire that heavenly hope Lord for a place whose foundations will not crumble for a builder that has been building for thousands of years, this eternal home for us Lord, where this, everything of this world that we seem to know is just going to fade away the sin, the death, that pain, the cancer, the, the hurt caused by others. 3 (1h 1m 51s): All that's going to fade away Lord until we are in the presence of you in your immeasurable love in our resurrected bodies, in a physical place, thorn eating the best of foods or God just give us that hope of heaven that these patriarchs have. Lord Jesus name. We pray. Amen. 1 (1h 2m 24s): Oh, I has gone. Bursey feels this coupon Tuesday walk with there will be a day when all about we saved through job and on that day, we joined the resurrection stand beside the heroes with one invoice 0 (1h 6m 43s): Thank you, God, that you are holy. And we just look forward to that day. When we get to stand face to face with, with Jesus who died and rose again for us, made her made our way so we could be there. So we have that hope, that constant assurance, Lord, thank you for just the truth of your word and the hope that it brings Lord to our lives. Very helpless to walk it out and walk in faith as we leave today. Thank you for all this in Jesus name.

2 (15m 20s): Thank you God. For your power to save, to protect, to redeem, to heal your power, to sanctify, to make holy those things that desperately needs sanctification and holiness. Thank you that you've got the power to work in our lives and profound in wonderful ways. Thank you God, that you've got the power to teach us, to instruct us God, the power to live within us and live through us. Lord God, we invite your power in Jesus name. We invite you to do profound and wonderful things today. God, God, we invite you to surprise us by your power to surprise us by your presence. 2 (16m 4s): Lord God, that we'd be overwhelmed in Jesus name by your goodness and grace, God, that we would be touched like we've met. Maybe never been touched before, or maybe like we haven't been touched in a long time. God, that we would be touched by your spirit, by your word, by your power, Lord God, that we would be transformed by your grace and power in Jesus name. Lord, help us to know that there's power in your name. Jesus, there's real, real power in the name of Jesus. Lord God. I pray for our endurances today, Lord, that we would stand firm and stand strong in Jesus name God, where we're tempted to give up or throw in the towel or be frustrated or be anxious. 2 (16m 50s): I pray in Jesus name that we would grab, hold, grab, hold of you. Grab hold of your truth that we would determine by your grace to stand strong as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, God that we would take this love and this message of the gospel to our friends and family, to our community and that wonderful and profound things would happen as results. God, we invite you to work in this community. Jesus, we invite you to work among your people, God, to bring revival to this community, to point people to you in Jesus name, God, work through us to accomplish those things. We pray be glorified. We ask in Jesus name in Jesus name. 2 (17m 31s): Amen. You may be seated there. You may be seated. So speaking about the power, look at this girl lifting. This is a heavy, heavy pulpit, and Amanda just picks it up. Like I can barely move it, but she's just it like the said that she is, and she's getting married in six days. Where, where does she go? There's you know? Yeah, go ahead and stand up. Go on. Both of you guys stand up, Steven and Amanda, Stephen YouTube getting married. They've they've only known each other for about two weeks or so, but they're so excited to get married and move forward. 2 (18m 17s): It's going to be really, really good. No, I'm just kidding. But they, the truth is they on their wedding day on February 19th is the one-year anniversary of them actually meeting for the first time. So they just kind of knew, you know, you know, when you know, and you just go and that's what they're doing, they know, and they're going so congratulations you guys. And you know, speaking about the power of God before we get into Hebrews chapter 10 today, I got this email from this prayer ministry and they were sending it out just kind of an email blast to, I guess, Christians everywhere. And it was an encouragement to pray because there are these Satanist gatherings springing up all over the country and there's one happening in Arizona. 2 (19m 0s): There's in Washington state and they're just beginning to spring up all over the place. And what has happened is that when Christians have prayed, it's essentially nullified a lot of what they've, what they're attempting to do by gathering. They, they host these on, it's like an unholy nights where they bring people in and it's just this dark, demonic night of activity. I'll let you imagine what that's all about. And it's just, it's it's darkness and people show up to these meetings because they're intrigued, they hear about it. And so it's like a little hook, so they show up and then they're just overwhelmed by the demonic activity in there. 2 (19m 41s): It's so, so we've been challenged to just pray for our, for that, against that, and pray for against just the demonic activity in our world, but also to pray and press in for our communities and our civic leaders and that sort of thing. So I was doing that on a Wednesday and I was just really, really pressing it. Oh, it was Thursday. I'm sorry. I was really pressing and just praying like crazy. And, and I just feel like it's effective for us to just get like an assignment like that and pray, like we need to pray over our homes. We need to pray over our businesses over our church. And I've walked every building in this facility from front to back and anointed every door and prayed over every building over the years, over and over again. 2 (20m 25s): And I've done the same thing in my house. I think I need to do it again. There's just, we just need to pray. I was talking to a buddy of mine after first service and he was talking about, he lives up on the Mason. He was just talking about one night. He went out to go start his generator. It had gone off and he needed to add gas to it. And he got out there to the generator. He just felt this dark heaviness around him. He just, he just felt like this oppressive force was around him. And so once he got the generator started, he just yelled out. Jay's he just yelled out like in all four directions, you know? And it just felt like it just dissipated. And he went in the house and hung out with his family, but there's power in the name of Jesus. 2 (21m 5s): We have to remember that in realize that and walk in it and we will get victory over darkness. We will get victory over temptation. We will get victory over all kinds of things. When we recognize that the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ, his spirit lives within us, he has saved us that he might know us, that he might sanctify us, that he might deliver us, that he might set us free in Jesus name. And so we're not talking about much of that stuff today, but we are, we are talking about endure and sin. A lot of what we've been talking about is about in, during, through the difficult seasons of life in doing pressing in and pressing on and never ever giving up. 2 (21m 56s): I just learned this about, you know, the Monarch butterflies over here in Pismo beach. They gather in those eucalyptus trees, their migration begins in the Colorado Rocky mountains. And when it starting to get cold in the winter time, they migrate from Colorado to Pismo beach because it's nice here. I mean, if you look outside, right, it's so nice. Even the butterflies want to be here, right? So they come here so they can survive the winter. But imagine the work and the effort, I mean, it takes about 16, 18 hours to drive the distance. Imagine these little butterfly they're they're, you know, they're just going with everything they got. 2 (22m 38s): And I don't know if it takes weeks or what, but they get here with just sure. Endurance because they want to live. Right. And they want to procreate. They've got purpose. And so we, we have to learn something from these butterflies about endurance and when the difficulties come and we just determine I'm not quitting, man, I'm not giving up. I'm standing firm in Jesus on Jesus. I'm going to allow the spirit of God to fill me to minister through me, to live through me. And we're just going to press on in Jesus name. Amen. So let's talk about in Dewar and today, how do Christians, how do we as Christians endure persevere? 2 (23m 24s): That's the word actually? Sorry. How do we persevere as Christians endurance, same word. We have the power to persevere in Jesus name. We're going to see examples of those in the early church, they were going through exceedingly difficult times. This is why this letter to the Hebrews was written because of the persecution of this first century Jews who had made the decision to trust Jesus as their savior, going against culture, going against their synagogue, going against their rabbis, going against the leaders of their day, being ostracized from friends and family and community things that would happen because they decided to choose Jesus. 2 (24m 13s): And so in Hebrews, we're learning about how they are struggling with that decision. And maybe you're here today as well, struggling with that decision. What do I do with Jesus? I, I know him. I love him. I think I want to follow him, but I'm not sure how to do that. I, and we wrestle and vacillate in our faith. So I want to give us three principles from scripture. Things that we'll get right from Hebrews chapter 10, that help us to endure, to stand firm, to move forward as followers of the joy of the Lord, Jesus Christ, to persevere as believers as kind of a foundation before we get to those points. 2 (24m 55s): And before we really unpack it, I want to read through Hebrews chapter 10 verses one through 18, because it can, those that passage of scripture continues to talk about the new covenant, the new covenant versus the old covenant talks about our great high priest who has made a way for us. And so we've been talking about that for a number of weeks now, as we've been teaching through Hebrews. And so as just a refresher, before we move on to this new topic, I just want to reread Hebrews chapter 10 verses one through 18, just read through it, not comment on it much, but read it. And then we'll get into chapter chapter 10 verse 19 through the end of the chapter. 2 (25m 38s): And then we'll be in chapter 11 next week, next week, the heroes of the faith, the next couple of weeks, we'll be talking about the heroes of the faith in Hebrews chapter 11. We get to read about and kind of witness the lives of those who have gone before us who have persevered, who have endured in Jesus name. And so it's going to be an application really to what we teach on today, to what I'm going to be teaching on today. So how do we persevere as Christians before we get there? And it's kind of a foundation let's read Hebrews 10, one through 18. It says the old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves, the sacrifice, the sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. 2 (26m 33s): If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time. And their feelings of would have disappeared, but instead they're sack, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year after year for it's not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. That's why when Christ came into the world, he said to God, you did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings, but you have given me a body to offer you are not pleased with burnt offerings where other offerings for sin. 2 (27m 16s): Then I said, look, I have come to do your will. Oh God. As it is written about me in the scriptures, first Christ said, we're in verse eight. First Christ said you did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin. No, nor were you pleased with them though. They are required by the law of Moses. Then he said, look, I have come to do your will. He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect for God's will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ. Once for all time, under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. 2 (28m 12s): But our high priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins. Good for all time. Then he sat down in a place of honor at God's right hand there, he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet for by that one offering he forever made perfect. Those who are being made holy and the holy spirit also testifies that this is so for, he says, this is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds. 2 (28m 54s): Then he says, I will never again, remember their sins and lawless deeds. And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices. This is the message of the new covenant. This is the message of Hebrews. This is the challenge to the church to believe in the sacrificial toning work of price that it makes us holy, that now we become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, that the righteousness of God has been imputed to us. We have been made righteous and holy because of the sacrifice and the offering of Jesus on the cross. 2 (29m 35s): So how do we persevere as Christians, as we press into this truth? And as we try to figure out how to live life in a broken world, a fallen world, a corrupt world, how do we live as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ in a world that is filled with compromise and temptation and difficulty. There are actually things that we can do that those who have gone before us have done that have allowed them to remain strong, to persevere all the way until the answer. We're going to read about those guys, those guys and gals in Hebrews chapter 11. But we're also going to unpack and look at some of those people as we get toward the end of this message today, how do we persevere as Christians? 2 (30m 21s): Number one, we go boldly into the presence of God. We hear that we go boldly. Some of us are very timid. When we go into the presence of God, we're like, Hey God, are you home? Is this all right? Is this good timing, right? Can I talk to you now? And we go, we go kind of timidly into the presence of God when God has given us an invitation and invitation to his presence so that we can walk in anytime and boldly go into the presence of the living. God it's like when my kids come by the office and my grandkids and I'm upstairs in the office, they don't have to ask anybody. They don't have to stop thinking, run in head right upstairs and meet with me. 2 (31m 7s): No invitation needed because it's implied. They are my kids and my grandkids. So they're welcome any time when we're going to our family's house, we just, we just walk right in. We just, we're just we're we're we're together. We're family. It's not always the case that when I would go visit my dad in Colorado, I, we had kind of a different relationship. So I'd go to his door and knock, right. Is this a good time for me to come in? It's totally different with our heavenly father. It's totally, we got these imitations. Come on over, spend as much time as you want. In fact, I go with you. I feel you I'm with you all the time. So we go boldly into the presence of God. 2 (31m 50s): It says here in Hebrews 10, 19. And so dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly. Why? Because Jesus has made a way we can boldly answer. Heaven's most holy place because of the blood of Jesus by his death, Jesus opened a new and life giving way through the curtain, into the most holy place. We have significant privilege. Imagine having access to a president or a king, a great leader because of relationship. You just got access. Other people have to make an appointment, have to ask permission, but we who are connected to the king. 2 (32m 30s): We can just walk right in. We have significant privilege associated with our new life in Christ, under the old covenant, only the high priest, and only once a year. Could they go into the most holy place once a year and only the high priest, they would go in to offer sacrifices and they would tie a rope or something, a cord around his ankle. So that if he went in with sin, unconfessed sin, and he was judged and died in the presence of God, they could, they could pull him out. Otherwise he's got to stay in there for the next year. Then, you know, it could get kind of stinky in there. 2 (33m 10s): So they pull him out and cause nobody is allowed to go under the old covenant, into the presence of God, except for the high priest. And only once a year because of Christ's work on our behalf. We have access and we should access God with confidence, not in who we are, but in the all sufficiency of Jesus, it gives us confidence that we can go right into the presence of God. Our sins, if we are in Christ have been forgiven. As far as the east is from the west, they've been removed from us. 2 (33m 52s): We are completely cleansed from those things. We are the holiness of God, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, we have access and we should be boldly with confidence, not in us, but because he is good. Not because we are good. We have access and confidence to go into the presence of God for whatever the need is. 24 7. In fact, we're told in scripture to pray without ceasing, how do we pray without ceasing? If we don't have access, if we don't go boldly with confidence. But the reality is is that we have that access as believers, blood covered, spirit filled followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We have access and we can boldly go in. And so we pray about everything and anything, Lord, I don't know what I should do this morning. 2 (34m 36s): I'm driving to church and I'm tempted to speed, right? Because it's what I like to do. And so I'm about to pull out from this guy in the slow lane and go around him. And I felt like the Lord said, stay right there. I'm like, all right. So I stayed right there within a half a mile. We're coming up this hill and there's this CHP officer on a motorcycle with his, with his, his gay, you know, his, his, whatever, that thing is speed, whatever it is. And I'm like, I just told Jolie. I said, I was just about to pass this guy. And I would have been nailed right there. But the Lord told me, just stay still. Where's the Lord telling you to stay still. 2 (35m 17s): Maybe you're attempted to move tempted to run tempted, to react, tempted, to decide maybe the Lord just saying, Hey wait, it's the hardest thing to do. Right? Cause it's by faith, Lord. I don't know why you're asking me to wait. God knows why I don't see the future. I don't see what's coming. But God asks us, asks us to wait and just to trust and just to rest and just to relax, to believe that he is in control. So we have access 24 7 to pray without ceasing. We don't, we don't have to go into a certain place. I mean, it's wonderful for us to gather as the believers. 2 (35m 57s): And we'll talk about that as we get to Hebrews 10 25, it's wonderful, but we don't have to gather or go through a human a person to get to God as believers in the Lord. Jesus Christ. Our mediator is Jesus. And he gives us access to the father. And so we through Jesus because we've been forgiven, we go right into the presence of God. So no matter, no matter where you are, you go right into the presence of God. If you're fearful, you go right into the presence of God. You bring that fear to the Lord. If you're anxious, feeling tempted, discouraged, angry, just take it right into the presence of the Lord. If you're happy, just take it right into the presence of the Lord. And you say, thank you, God, thank you God, for provision, for your kindness, for your goodness, whatever's going on. 2 (36m 42s): You just go right into the presence of the Lord and give him praise or offer up your petitions with faith, believing that God hears us. And he responds to us and he's faithful to minister to our needs. Just pray with Diego this morning. You've been praying about a job for weeks or months or whatever it's been. And he just found out he got the job. And so we got a chance to pray for him and celebrate with him. He, he starts tomorrow on Valentine's day. So it was like this gift from the Lord, this Valentine's gift to Diego, he got his job and we're celebrating with him and he's been waiting and serving faithfully, just asking the Lord for this thing in his life. So whatever it is that God wants to do, just bring it to the Lord. 2 (37m 23s): Go boldly into the presence of God first 21. And since we have a great high priest who rules over God's house, let us go right into the presence of God. This is how we do it with sincere hearts, fully trusting him, sincere heart. So we get to check our hearts. Lord, am I fully trusting you? And my sincere in my pursuit of you, am I really going to do what you ask me to do? Or am I just wanting your 2 cents and my wanting your wisdom and direction? Or am I just wanting your input? So a sincere heart says, God, no matter what you tell me, I'm in the answer is yes. Before I hear the instruction, a sincere heart wants to do the will of God, no matter what the will of God is. 2 (38m 9s): And so we just surrender ourselves before we even go into his presence and we say, God, I don't know what's going on with my life right now, but I'm going into your presence. Sincerely wanting your wisdom, your counsel, your instruction, the next steps for my life. And we fully trust him that he is good and that he is faithful and that he will give us the desires of his heart, of our heart and that he will walk with us through every season of life. So let us go into the presence of God was sincere hearts fully, fully trusting him for our guilty conscience is have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean. And our bodies have been washed with pure water. So the essence, the truth there is that the cleansing is thorough. 2 (38m 55s): We have been thoroughly cleansed by God's grace. We have been washed by his goodness by the, by the pure water of his grace. We have been washed inside and outside by his goodness. And so, because that is true, not because we're good or because we've earned it or we've had a good stretch of, you know, victory. It's not, it has nothing. It has everything to do with his sufficiency and nothing to do with our insufficiency. Do you believe that? Oh, we got to believe it. We have to believe it. We have to drill deep into this truth and build our foundation on this reality because it is the reality for believers in the Lord. 2 (39m 38s): Jesus Christ. So number one, how do we persevere as Christians? We go boldly. I want you to practice that this week boldly not, not arrogantly because that's God opposes the proud his grace to the humble is to go in with a sincere heart, fully trusting God. I think it's going to be a hurdle for some of us and maybe for all of us, depending on the circumstance, sincerely, fully trusting God. And I, I, I bet you're going to be blown away and surprised by God's goodness and his response to you. So go, go boldly into the presence of God. Number one, and number two, we hold tightly to our hope. We see that right here in the text, Hebrews 10 23, let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 2 (40m 31s): So when things are difficult, what do we do? We hold on, right? It's like, you're hanging from a cliff to a rope. That is the difference between life and death. That's the seriousness, the intensity of holding on to the hope that we have. So when things are good, we're holding on when things or when things are bad, when things are good, what are we doing? Or still holding on, right? Sometimes when things are going good, we're like, ah, you know, bills are big. Relationships are good, I've got to cruising through life. And so we kind of let you know our, our passion, our intensity about Jesus kind of wane a little bit because after all everything's going good. 2 (41m 14s): And so we begin to let loose. And it's just a matter of time where things begin to drift our relationships, drift our relationship with the Lord. And then all of a sudden we realized we're not holding on at all. And then we're easy picking. Temptation comes, difficulty comes and we're swept away with all kinds of stuff. And so it's imperative that in the good times and in the bad times that we hold on equally, what are we holding on to hope? It's not some kind of a thing that's, that's hard to grasp or hard to get her mind. The hope that we're talking about is the person and finished work of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 (41m 58s): We're holding on to him and for, and for, and holding onto what he has accomplished for us. So our, our hope isn't fragile and unstable it's Jesus. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He's the solid foundation, the rock on which we build our lives, the unshakeable foundation that is ours in Christ. So he's not fragile unstable. It's not change our hope doesn't change no matter what circumstances, good, bad or ugly, our hope is always in Jesus. It's not elusive or vague or imagined. 2 (42m 42s): It's the person of Jesus Christ. Our hope is in the finished work of Christ. So party part of holding on tightly is, you know, about our own lives, thinking about our own struggles and circumstances. And so we're holding firm, but also being aware of what others are going through, thinking about others struggles and their needs and their troubles and their temptations, and, and then throwing a life vest to them, a lifesaver to them so that you might help them hold on for dear life, to the hope who is Christ the Lord. This is why we gather this is why it's imperative that we gather. 2 (43m 22s): We'll talk about that some more in a moment, but we gather so that we can be built up in our most holy faith so that we can pray together so that we can be encourage, but so that we might be able to encourage others so that we might step out of our own circumstances and recognize the struggles of others that we might encourage them to. Don't give up, don't quit, hold on in Jesus' name. And so people come all the time and they need prayer. And so we're praying for people. We're encouraging people, we're speaking life and truth over people. 2 (44m 5s): And that is every one of our job and responsibility. Every one of us have this responsibility to do that. If he's in four 11, says that we are called the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, our job, we are called to equip the saints. What are the saints? Anybody's in Christ, right? If you're in Christ, you're a Saint. So it's my job, our job to equip you to do the work of the ministry. So when people up you're up, you'll be able to pray for somebody so much more effectively than I can pray. Maybe because of your experience, your life has taken you down a certain path that is prepared. 2 (44m 45s): You equipped you to minister effectively to somebody who is going maybe through a similar circumstance. So you can pray with greater understanding, greater empathy and compassion, greater love. You can press in and, and just go walk the path with the person that you're this you're praying for and encourage them over the long haul. This is part of our job. And so we show up to church and we go to home groups and we do all that kind of stuff because we love each other and we've got great coffee. And on the fourth, Sunday of the month, we got great donuts and we're taking community. We're doing all this stuff, but at the end of the day, we're gathering to get equipped and released into the work of the ministry. 2 (45m 30s): So your job is to minister love on one another. Somebody asked me recently, they said, Hey, I want to go visit this person and minister to them. Do I have your permission? I'm like, you don't need my permission. Just go for it. You know, go have fun minister and do what God has called and equipped you specifically to do first 24, let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works so we can encourage, pray and speak life and truth and grace and let people know I'm with you. 2 (46m 12s): I'm for you. And God is with you and God has for you. And when we need to speak hard truth and challenge, sin or destructive decisions in lifestyles, we can do that with the grace and the truth of the Lord, Jesus Christ. As we're filled with the holy spirit, we can say, we can speak the truth in love and challenge a person say, amen, that the choices that you're making are destroying you. They're filling you with anxiety and fear, and they're wrecking your ability to have faith in Jesus. And so you say, man, can I, can I walk with you and show you a better way? Can I pray with you? And nine times out of 10, maybe you've been there and you're saying, man, I have been where you are. 2 (46m 54s): And God walked with me and sent somebody else to walk with me to minister through to me through that season of life. So let's think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. How do we persevere as Christians? Number one, we go boldly, say that with me, we go boldly into the presence of God. Then we hold tightly to our hope. And then number three, we consistently assemble. We consistently assemble. We consistently can assemble, gathered together in one place for a common purpose to be built up in our most holy faith to worship in a corporate gathering, lifting up holy hands to the Lord, declaring his greatness, his power, his majesty to come alongside like-minded people to, to move forward as believers in the Lord, Jesus Christ verse 25, Hebrews 10 says, and let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another. 2 (48m 0s): Especially now that the day of his return is drawing near every day. We're a day closer to the return of Christ. My father-in-law likes to say every day, I'm closer to death because I'm closer today than I was yesterday, right? We are closer today than we were yesterday to the return of Christ to the coming of his kingdom. And we have this wonderful opportunity to know Jesus now, and to point people to Jesus, to be disciples and to be disciple makers, to point people to the goodness and the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 (48m 42s): So let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another. Especially now that the day of his return is drawing near, we will persevere. If we remember and practice these things outlined in this chapter, if we fail to practice these things, our ability to persevere will greatly be hindered. The result of not persevering is actually back sliding and maybe even a pasta. See the actual denial of the faith. I, I can't tell you how many people, sadly, how many people that I grew up with in this area. 2 (49m 25s): People that I went to Bible college with seminary, people that I've known, people who have been teachers of the word leaders in the church, people who have known Jesus, and I've watched them because not practicing this person, these perseverance things, just watch them, let go little by little, get more and more distant walk away from the church, walk away from the Lord, walk away from God's purposes. And before you know, it they've completely walked away from all that God has for them. This is it's, it's, it's important that we persevere the result of not persevering is backsliding moving away from God. 2 (50m 11s): And I, again, I've just known too many people who have abandoned their faith. First 26 and Hebrews 10 says, dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after, after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. So imagine the context, historical context in the first century, these Jewish messianic believers, these Jewish people who had decided that Jesus is the Lord, that he is their savior. As they begin to question that and begin to deny that and begin to walk away from that, the writer of Hebrews is saying, listen, there is no sacrifice beyond Jesus that can cleanse you from your sins. 2 (51m 0s): You can not go back to the old way of living. It's it's an old covenant. It's an old way of relating to God. Jesus is the new covenant, the right way, the new way of relating to God. So you can't actually move away from Jesus and hope to have any eternal life. Any relationship with God Christ is the only all sufficient sacrifice that can cleanse people of their sins. If we reject Christ, we reject any opportunity to be saved from God's judgment. What is God's judgment? We don't often talk about God's judgment, but every time the Bible talks about God's judgment, we are talking about God's judgment. 2 (51m 40s): This is what it says as a warning to those who are vacillating beginning to backslide, beginning to wonder, beginning to question their faith. This is what it says in verse 27. There's only the terrible expectation of God's judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies for anyone who refuse to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled, listen to the language, trampled on the son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy as if it were common and unholy and have insulted and disdained. 2 (52m 33s): The holy spirit who brings God's mercy to us, the language does not get any more clear. It is crystal clear communication that the writer of Hebrews is, is as put into ink for us communicating this truth to us so that we are fully aware that if we choose to backslide, if we choose to minimize what God has done, essentially insulting the finished work of price. Disdaining the holy spirit who brings God's mercy to us. If we walk away, there is no salvation available for, we know the one who said, I will take revenge. 2 (53m 15s): Verse 30 says I will pay them back. He also said, the Lord will judge his own people. It's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living. God, unless you are hidden in Christ, think back. And so there's a challenge to think back on your early days when you were a follower and believer in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Think back on those early days, when you first learned about Christ, we can all do this, right? Remembering, remember how you remained faithful, even though it meant terrible suffering. So culturally in the day, if these Jewish men and women decided to follow Jesus, they were ex-communicated from fellowship in the synagogue. 2 (53m 58s): They were ex-communicated from their families. They were criticized and ridiculed. They were, they were, they were sentenced to separation from the rest of the Jews. Think back on those days, when you first learned about Christ, remember how you remain faithful, even though it meant terrible suffering. Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten. And sometimes you helped others who are suffering the same things. You suffered along with those who are thrown into jail. And when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. 2 (54m 38s): You knew, you knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever. Jesus warned in his earthly life and ministry. He warned his followers of, of this type of persecution. It happened to Jesus and it would happen to his followers. Jesus spoken Matthew 10, 16 through 18. He says, look, I'm sending you out. As she among wolves. This is the reality of what we are. We are sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd, as snakes and harmless as doves, but be aware for you will be handed over to the courts. 2 (55m 21s): And w we'll be flogged with whips in the synagogues. You will stand trial before governors and Kings because you are my followers, but this will be your opportunity to tell others, to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me. So persecution is an opportunity to be salt and light so that others might hear the reason that you're being persecuted in acts chapter five. After the high council flogged the apostles, they ordered the never again to speak in the name of Jesus. They were. So the people were so threatened. 2 (56m 2s): The religious leaders were so threatened by that powerful name of Jesus, that they did everything in their power to stop the apostles from teaching in that name of Jesus acts 5 41 says the apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer for that name of Jesus. In acts chapter seven, Stephen addresses the council, telling them of their own history and their rebelliousness and their hard-hearted. Hardheartedness toward a God in the spirit. As he communicates this truth to the religious leaders in acts 7 54 through 60, it says the Jewish leaders were infuriated by Steven's accusations. 2 (56m 50s): And they shook their fits their fists at him in a rage. But Stephen full of the holy spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God. And he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hands. I mean like the heavens must have opened up for Steve and as he's getting ready to give his life for his faith and he sees the glory that is awaiting him, he knows that all of this is coming to fruition. It's all coming to an end. He will give his life for his faith and he will stand before the Lord very soon. And he told them, look, I, I see the heavens opened and the son of man standing in the place of honor at God's right hand, then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. 2 (57m 38s): They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. And in acts chapter nine, Saul would encounter the living Jesus and in acts chapter nine, Saul would give his life to Jesus. And I bet you, God used this stoning situation. This incident in Steven's life to begin to awaken Saul of Tarsus, to the reality of the gospel. So even in our suffering, we have the privilege and the opportunity to point people to Jesus. 2 (58m 23s): First 59, as they stoned him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. He fell to his knees, shouting Lord. Don't charge them with this sin. And with that, he died and Hebrews 10 35, as we get back to our main text, it says, so do not throw away this confidence trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward. It brings you patient endurance is what you need now so that you will continue to do God's will then you will receive all that he is promised for in just a little while the coming one will come and not delay. 2 (59m 9s): And my righteous ones will live by faith, but I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away, but we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones. The writer reminds his audience. We are the faithful ones whose souls will be saved. We need to persevere and never give up. We need to not be ashamed of who we are, but bold in our faith. Declare with confidence in humility, the gospel of grace till the end, Saul became Paul Saul of Tarsus became Paul, the apostle, and he wrote two thirds of the new Testament. 2 (59m 58s): And in Romans chapter one verses 16 and 17, he wrote for, I am not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of this good news about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes that you first and also the Gentile, this good news tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the scripture say it is through faith that a righteous righteous person has life. So we live by faith. We're saved by faith and we endure and persevere. As we put into practice, these principles that we see throughout the scripture, we could go throughout the old Testament and the new Testament and find principles that will help us to persevere. 2 (1h 0m 46s): But we have to be people who put into practice those principles in order to endure, maybe you're here today and you've never given your life to Jesus. The gospel is the good news that saves us. That redeems us, that rescues us from the judgment of God and ushers us into the family of God. If you're here today, you've never accepted the grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ. You can do that in the quietness of your own heart, or you can come forward after the service and get some help praying. But this is what you do. You just simply say, God, I, I need your grace. 2 (1h 1m 27s): And maybe in your heart and mind, you're saying that even now I need your grace. Lord, I need your forgiveness. Lord. I need you to come into my life. I need you to forgive my sin and fill my life with your power and your presence and your spirits. I've tried it my way for way too long. I'm tired of stumbling. I'm tired of tripping along Lord. I'm tired of missing, missing you and not understanding life. God, I invite you into my life and I invite your power and your grace and your love and your presence in Jesus' name. Or maybe you're here. And you've been considering backsliding with everybody's eyes closed. Let's just, maybe you're here. 2 (1h 2m 7s): And you've been considering just kind of slipping away, slipping out the back door, slip it up, just kind of slowly, just kind of drifting away. God wants to challenge you in Jesus name, to hold firm, to purse SERVIR to put into practice. These things that we see in the scripture, he will strengthen you in the power of his might. He will fill you with his, his eternal spirit. He will give you a new hearts, a new strength, a new ability to press on in Jesus. But you've got to ask him, you got to boldly, enter into the presence of God and invite him in and then a whole lawn for the ride and see what God will do. And then get around believers. 2 (1h 2m 47s): Others who are like-minded in the faith and get around and, and, and encourage and be encouraged by the body of believers who are after the same thing as your after Is everybody stands. Lord, I just want to thank you for the challenge. Go ahead and stand up. Is it Lord, thank you for the challenge from your word. It speaks clearly pointedly specifically to us, to the challenges that we face to the challenges that were faced from the first century on Lord God, we invite you to continue to speak to us. We need you Lord. As we worship now in song, I pray that we would got, make some decisions today to stand firm, to persevere in Jesus name, help us to do so in the power of your minds in Jesus name. 2 (1h 3m 36s): Amen. Let's worship 3 (1h 8m 22s): We praise you. Lord. We praise you that you are the king of Kings. We come boldly before you today. We thank you for your word. We thank you that we get to worship you in spirit and in truth in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

1 (19s): I wasn't lost, but he brought me, you know, his love, oh, here's the book. Me who 0 (56s): Well, 1 (57s): I was asleep in Jesus. 2 (3m 11s): We worship you this morning. We praise you Church this morning. We're going to sing a newer song. And in first, Peter, two nine, the word of the Lord says that you are a chosen people, a Royal priesthood, a holy nation. God's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you were not just have not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So this morning, I want you to know that you are chosen people in a holy priesthood. We're going to sing a song that talks about surrender and research render. 2 (3m 51s): And so this morning, as we worship let's, let's sing that lesson. Let's declare that. Amen. Thank you. Jesus worship you. 1 (4m 9s): No, the tables. the things we did have. You Make us whole the, like you You see a holy nation, a chosen generation of people call to pray. 1 (5m 16s): So help us, God, please. You where all need. You can see every mall that are saying Ah, your people, you are our 0 (5m 37s): God, 1 (5m 39s): We are your temple. Make us holy. Like you. We are your children. You set us up. God, you . 1 (6m 35s): You do all things well, To Greece. We are your people. 1 (7m 19s): You make us holy. Like you are your children. 1 (8m 10s): We're coming dot balk. And God, we need the servant and comments. We're not walking. God, we need be servant. we're not walking. We're running. God. We need research to be research your call. 1 (8m 51s): Then we're come in. We're not blocking God. God we need Not walking. 1 (10m 33s): God. We need research. balk. God. Thank you. Jesus Spirits. 1 (11m 20s): Brushing fire of God. Holy. He goes very breath of God. Fantasy to the fragrance of spirit. 1 (12m 4s): Holly refine spot. Strengthen what mains. So we the church And see, we can hear the wind blowing we can hear the wind we can hear the and we need a fresh wind. 1 (14m 48s): The fragrance of and we need a fresh . 3 (15m 45s): Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Oh, I just wanted to keep singing. Thank you, Lord. God, we just, as we pray, we just continue to say yes to you to welcome you. We declare our allegiance to you. We say that you are our king and our Lord and our leader, our savior, our Redeemer, the one who forgives our sin and gives us new life salvation in you. Lord God, we thank you for this truth, Lord God, for the reality of those truths that we get to live here and now Lord and into all of eternity. 3 (16m 30s): Lord, thank you that your grace is sufficient. Lord. You are so good to us. Lord. I pray today that where we're struggling with faith, God, that we would get a fresh glimpse of your goodness, Lord God, that that fresh glimpse of your presence would drown out everything else that's pulling at us and causing doubts and insecurities or whatever. Lord God, we just invite you to do wonderful and profound and supernatural things. So Lord, as we open up Hebrews chapter nine today, as we allow your spirit to teach us, and as we avail ourselves to your truth, God help us to receive what you have for us to allow it to sink deep within our hearts and minds deeper within our understanding, and then help us to just live it out and, and by faith, believe God that it's all true. 3 (17m 28s): And it's all good. And it's all right. And you're good. And you're true and you're right, Lord. So build us up in our most holy faith. We pray. Thank you for this time in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Turn and greet someone that you'd never have greeted before you doing man. Carlos Please. 3 (19m 15s): Welcome. Welcome. Welcome, man. We just had the greatest time after the first service at the new open house summer, how many you remembered that we've got an open house after second service. It's gotta be so good. It's yeah, there's great progress being made next door after like 10 months of just working, working, working. But I, you know, I just talked with a gal who just, who works at lifeline crisis pregnancy center and they just opened up their new space in the, in, in Grover beach and they took two years to build that out. So if we're a year all total and this one, man, that's, that's, that's really actually pretty, pretty good and pretty quick. So check it out. I think all the dry walls just about done, they got to do a little bit of work, but next week the drywall will get primed. 3 (19m 60s): And then the trim will start. Doors will be installed, baseboards trim around the windows. And then once that's done, the paint will go and that will take a couple of weeks and then the floors go down and, and then we start just putting in all the lights that need to go up and switch plates and plugs and all that tech stuff, all this stuff, you know, it has to go up. And so we are making really, really good progress. So go check it out after a second service. And thanks for continuing to pray. I tell you it's been quite a journey since March last year, and we're just excited to see what God will do to bring that thing to fruition, everybody, anybody ready for that thing to be done? 3 (20m 44s): I know I am totally ready for that thing to be done, but it's like anything you just, you know, you do it, all these buildings we've had to renovate and they take months and, and then when they're done, you feel like, oh, it's kind of like childbirth. You forget all about it. It wasn't that bad. Right? It wasn't that hard. Let's do it again. Oh my goodness. Speaking of childbirth, my oldest daughter is expecting her fifth child. So Kaitlyn and Logan, they have three little boys and a little precious girl. They're all precious. But if you look at her, she's got this little Ponce right here. And so she's ready to pop in the summertime, I think July or so. 3 (21m 24s): She's going to be giving us our sixth grandchild. And so we're super excited about that. And it's just really good Jedediah that one of their kids just turned seven. This last week, we had a birthday party for him on Friday and he got a joke book. So that means, you know what that means. Right? You got a joke book. So that means I finally have fresh material. So I've actually got two jokes. I think I'll just say I'll do one this week because they're hard to come by. So then I'll do the next one next week. And then I don't know how long I'll have until I get another good one. But knock, knock Alaska. I'll ask the questions around here. 3 (22m 5s): Totally crazy. Kind of silly. But if you're seven years old, those kids go into a belly, laugh thinking about those jokes. So, oh mercy. So we're in Hebrews chapter nine. We're going to get through Hebrews chapter nine and then next week I'm going to do my very best to get through all the way through Hebrews chapter 10. And we're just going to continue to watch the Lord teach us. And today we're going to learn what does God's good and perfect. Will. What is God's good and perfect will. So we're talking about macro picture, big picture. What does, God's good and perfect will for humanity? What does he want for us as his church? And so we'll unpack that today. After this point, we've talked pretty extensively about the new covenant and Christ defending the superiority of the new covenant compared to the old covenant. 3 (22m 55s): Hebrews is written to a group of people who were questioning, whether Jesus was truly the Messiah. They had committed their lives to Jesus, but then just through cultural pressure life that hits us, they began to, they begin to question and doubt and, and kind of backslide into their old way of relating to God, their old way of living. And, but I think as 21st century Christians, we can relate to that. Sometimes we just go through hard staff. We begin to question Jesus question, his goodness question, the reality of his plan and all of those things. Then we begin to maybe backslide into things that, that are just not good for us. 3 (23m 36s): Just not healthy. I was going to share this later in the sermon, but I'll, I'll share it now as reading an Exodus 15 this morning and Exodus 15, this text where the people of Israel had left Egypt, they're on their way out. And they come up against the red sea and they're starting to get nervous. And Moses is like, Lord, what do we do? And the Lord said, just get moving. And so he lifted his arms in the red sea. The east wind began to blow and just created this opening and the red seas that they pass through on dry ground. And so these millions of Israelites are passing through the red sea on dry ground and they get to the other side and the Egyptians are following them. 3 (24m 19s): And, but even as the Egyptians were on the dry ground, in the midst of the red sea, God caused the water to crash down over them and drowned all their enemies and that sort of thing. And so the Israelites were so ecstatic, as you can imagine, they thought they were done. They thought they were dead and God rescued them. And so they celebrated. And as you read, they wrote songs to God about his faithfulness, about his power, about his goodness. And they're spending all this time, just glorifying God because of the, the, the miracle that just took place in the deliverance that they just experience. So then Moses leads them out into the wilderness. And for three days they can't find water. So on the third day, they're starting to grumble and complain wondering why God, why Moses did you bring us out here to die? 3 (25m 6s): And they just start grumbling and complaining. I thought this is human nature right here. One moment. We're so excited about God and we're celebrating his faithfulness and his goodness. And it doesn't take long, but just a few days may be of some challenging circumstances, difficulties. And we begin to question and we can begin to wonder, and God would just challenge us today to trust his plan. I think it's actually really helpful for us to go through difficulties in our life and we go through them, whether we want them or not, but it's important that we go through them because it reminds us of God's goodness and faithfulness and kindness over over the years, my wife and I, over 32 years, almost 32 years of marriage and four kids. 3 (25m 55s): And all of the things in life that you go through, we've had really good seasons and really difficult seasons, really prosperous seasons and really desperate financial seasons. And what we realize is that God has been faithful through all of that. We look back at the course of our life and we think we've always had a place to live. And I know that's not true for everybody, but just thinking about God's faithfulness, we've never had our lights or our gas turned off. I know that's not true for everybody, but we just look, we've always had food in the cupboard and we've always had resource to live on from day to day. And we might only have resource for the day, but we've got resource for the day. 3 (26m 38s): And over 32 years, we've just watched God's faithfulness. And so those lean times really caused us to be thankful, to reflect on the goodness of God in this church for 19 years now, we've been going and we've planted and we've done all kinds of stuff. And we've had really lean seasons financially and really profitably, you know, fluent seasons or whatever, where there's enough. And I remember years ago, the bookkeeper was saying, Hey, we don't have enough for payroll next week. I said, do we have enough for today? Like, do we have enough to keep the doors open and the lights on today? And she said, yes. I said, well, that's all God promised. So let's not worry about tomorrow. And we've never missed payroll or missed payments on anything. 3 (27m 20s): God's been faithful at these last 19 years. And we started seeing that at 1 0 2. And we're seeing that just in the day to day course of our lives as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He is faithful. So let's unpack his good and perfect plan for humanity humanity today. So again, up to this point, we've talked extensively about the new covenant in tryst, defending it superiority compared to the old covenant that that has ended. The old covenant has ended Christ's death, ratified confirmed and authorize the new covenant, the new covenant or the new Testament is the promise that God makes with humanity, that he will forgive sin, that he will restore fellowship, that he will be kind and gracious and good to those who confess Jesus as Lord, that he will love us and be with us for those whose hearts are turned toward him and whose lives belong to him. 3 (28m 20s): Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new covenant and his death on the cross is the basis of that promise. And we see that reality throughout the old Testament and in the new Testament in Luke 22, 20 after supper, he, Jesus took another cup of wine and said, this cup, Jesus is speaking. This cup is the new covenant, new covenant between God and his people and agreement. We read this all the time and agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you. So we look at those verses and we know that Jesus is speaking about what is, what is coming when he goes to the cross and pours out his blood, his life so that we might enter into a brand new covenant, a brand new relationship with him. 3 (29m 14s): As we learned last week, the new covenant was predicted while the old covenant was still in effect. The prophets, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, easier you'll they all spoke of what was to come. They were speaking about this new covenant. We talked about it last week. There were, there are roughly 300 prophetic words, messages in the old Testament that points to the birth, the ministry, the life, the sacrifice of the Messiah, Jesus, the Lord. We're going to be in Hebrews nine, 16 through 28 at the end of the chapter today. And we'll just jump in here in verse 16. It says this. Now, when someone leaves a will, it is necessary to prove that the person who made it is dead in that true. 3 (30m 1s): So like my kids, they can't kick me out of my house and take all my stuff until I'm dead. Right. They got to wait. They want, they want probably to do it sooner. Right. But they can't. They got to wait until I'm dead and then they can have my goods. Right? They can't do it ahead of time. Now, when someone leaves a will, it is necessary to prove that that person who made it is dead. So God's will, what is God's will God's will is God's new covenant. This is his will his plan. The word will in this verse can be substituted with the word covenant. And the Greek word is and that word means covenant. 3 (30m 43s): It means Testament. It means will Diaz. They came means covenant Tesmer well, and we'll see in the w we see this word over and over again in the, in the, this book that we're studying in Hebrews, but we also see it throughout the new Testament, this word, DF, they K speaking of God's covenant, his will, his Testament, his plans for us, his desires for us, he's got a plan and desires and a will for us and Hebrews 7 22. It says, because of this oath, Jesus is the one who guarantees this better dyadic, K, this covenant with God because of this. Oh, the Jesus is the one who guarantees this better covenant with God and Hebrews eight, six says, but now Jesus, our high priest has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood for a, he is the one who mediates. 3 (31m 36s): And we talked about mediation. He is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God based on better promises. So we see the old covenant, the old Testament, the prophets speaking for telling events that will happen hundreds of years later, thousands of years later. And then we see in the new covenant after the life work and ministry and sacrifice of Jesus, we see the writers writing about what happened. So this covenant is the will. This covenant is God's plan it's God's will. And his plan that has been fulfilled at the death of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And again, we see the same word used in our communion verses that we always use first Corinthians 1125 in the same way. 3 (32m 23s): He took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant will Testament Kay between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood, do this in remembrance of me, as often as you drink it. So in the old Testament, the saints of God were saved by the same grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ that we're saved by in the new covenant. The difference is that the saints of God in the old Testament were looking forward to what would happen as Jesus. The Messiah would come on the scene and make a sacrifice for the sin of all mankind. We in the new Testament and the new covenant, we're looking back and remembering what Jesus done. 3 (33m 6s): So it's the all of humanity, all of the Bible, all of the old and the new Testament, all it's all about Jesus, everything points to Jesus and the ultimate work that he would accomplish. And we're reminded about it over and over again in the scriptures. And it's pretty redundant because I think we need it. We need to be re re we need to be reminded over and over again about this covenant, this good news, this good plan that God has established and made a way for us to experience back to Hebrews nine, verse 17. It says the will goes into effect only after the person's death while the person who made it is still alive, the will cannot be put into effect. 3 (33m 50s): So it took the death of Jesus to activate the second covenant, the new will and plan, or the eternal will. And plan of God. Verse 18 says, this is why even the first covenant was put into effect with the blood of an animal for after Moses had read each of God's commands our commandments to all the people. He took the blood of calves and goats, along with water and sprinkled both the book of God's law and all the people using hyssop branches and Scarlet wool. Then he said, this blood confirms the covenant God has made with you. 3 (34m 30s): I would encourage you to go back and read Exodus chapter 24 to get the rest of the story. And then I would encourage you to read all of Exodus to get the whole story. Exodus speaks to us about this plan of God, to deliver us out of slavery, as represented by the people of Israel who were escorted by God's grace, out of their slavery, their Egypt, their captivity, their bondage call it what you will. He escorted them out so that they might enter into the promised land. So it's a picture of God's goodness with his people, escorting us out of bondage and slavery out of our old life, into new life in Christ. It's called being born again. 3 (35m 10s): But it's, it's interesting, even as I share that story out of Exodus 15, we, we often forget. And I think that's why the redundancy is so important. We forget. And we begin to question or maybe even backslid a little bit. And so God reminds us of his goodness of his faithfulness, of his kindness, of his plans, of his purpose, his good and perfect plan for our lives. So go back and read Exodus. It's just really good to refresh our understanding. In fact, I would you to read all of the old Testament, read all of the new Testament every year and just be refreshed in the truth of who God is. First 21, Hebrews nine says, and in the same way, he sprinkled blood on the tabernacle on, on everything used for worship. 3 (35m 53s): In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood for, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. That is why the tabernacle and everything in it, which were copies of things in heaven had to be purified by the blood of animals. But the real thing and heaven had to be purified with far better sacrifices than the blood of animals for Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now, before God on our behalf, I loved that last part. 3 (36m 38s): Those last words on our behalf, we forget that God has for us. And if God is for us, who can be against us, Jesus, the son is that the right hand of the father on our behalf, we've learned that he's making intercession for us. He's there for us, defending us as his sons and daughters, as those who have been adopted into his family on our behalf. Why? Because his purpose, his redemption, his purpose is to redeem us redemption defined is this it's the purchase back of something that had been lost by the payment of a ransom. 3 (37m 24s): And this is exactly what Jesus has done. Mark 10 45 says for this, says this for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many to give his life as a ransom for many, this is precisely what God has come to do too. This is part of his good and perfect plan. Number one God's will is to secure our redemption. Hebrews nine 12 says what the, with his own blood, not the blood of goats and calves. He entered the most holy place once for all time and secured our redemption for ever a few years ago, we were in need of some more cats around our property because our cats died or run away or something like that. 3 (38m 13s): So we have gophers and mice and rats and all kinds of stuff outside. And so we needed some more cats to track down the gophers and rats and mice and all that kind of stuff. So we went down to the humane society in Santa Maria, and there were two little kittens, the only two kittens that they had, and they were in this little cage and, and one was very skiddish. Very, did not want to be touched. The other one was very loving. It just wanted to be rubbed and picked up and held and that sort of thing. So we paid the price to redeem them out of their circumstance. They had been caged in this little room and we redeem them so that they could come live with us forever, as long as, as long as they wanted to hang around. 3 (39m 3s): It's a picture of God's redemption. We, we were in desperate need of redemption, even if we didn't fully understand that God in his goodness has redeemed us. Now, some of us maybe like Vick, the skiddish cat are a little bit nervous about, about God, or he was nervous about me. It took him a long time to warm up to me. I think we're alike a lot like that with God. We're, we're like, we've been redeemed. It's obvious, but we're still skiddish about God. We're still uncomfortable with God. We're sure we're still unsure about his goodness and about his plan and about the reality of our redemption. 3 (39m 46s): Is this real? Is this what God has done? Is this the reality of my life now? And so we've had Vic and Franklin now forever up to just about a month or so ago. Maybe two months ago, Vic just disappeared. Just, I don't know what happened, but we haven't seen Vic, but we've been able to redeem another cat. This is the story. So this little feral cat that's been hanging around our property, we call him or her. We don't know what it is. Bulls-eye because on the side of the cat, there's a big bulls-eye. So that's the name? We had a cat name, gray rock because the cat was gray and the kids that said he looked like, he looks like a great rock. 3 (40m 27s): So that's what the name was. So anyway, that was years ago. Poor. Gray's no longer with us. So now we've, we've been able to redeem this bulls-eye cat. He used to hide out underneath the car and I'd put food out and Franklin would co course come over and eat and Vic would wait until we disappeared. And then he'd come out and eat as well. Or excuse me, bulls-eye would wait. And then he'd come out and eat well over time. He's warmed up to us a little bit and we'll put out the food and now he's right there, but he's still skiddish of us. But sometimes he's so hungry. They'll just go right for the food. And we'll just get a little rub in here, right? And then he's like, ah, you know, and this is what God is wanting to do. He's wanting to show his kindness to us, but we get skiddish. 3 (41m 9s): And we're like, you know, we, we put up our defenses and we want him to stay away. God's desire is to redeem humanity, to rescue us and to give us a new forever home. That's his plan. That's his idea because he is good. Not because we are good. This is what God does for people. Verse 25, it says, and he did not enter heaven to offer himself again. And again, like the high priest on earth who enters the most holy place year after year with the blood of an animal, if that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. 3 (41m 50s): But now once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death and sacrifice. What has God's good and perfect will. Number one God's will is to secure our redemption. And number two God's will is to remove our sin, remove it like completely getting rid of it out of our lives, cleansing us from all unrighteousness says, but now once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death. As a sacrifice. I love Psalm 1 0 3, because in Psalm 1 0 3, David, he speaks and writes eloquently about the grace of the Lord and the goodness of God. 3 (42m 39s): And he writes about it in Psalm 1 0 3, verses three through 14. This is what David wrote old covenant, old Testament before Christ, but he was understanding something of the grace of God. He forgives all my sins. Verse three says and heals all my diseases. We all need to have that level of confidence, not in our own righteousness or goodness, but in the righteousness and the goodness of God, we all need to be able to say with confidence, he forgives all my sins and we're not all there. Some of us think while there's still a few that he's thinking about, right, is pondering. Whether he's going to forgive that because that was a pretty big deal. 3 (43m 20s): But the truth is he forgives all our sins and he heals all our diseases. And there's that word again? Verse four. He redeems me from death. If I didn't redeem those cats and nobody else came along to redeem them, they would have been euthanized. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. So David knew something about the redemptive power and plan and purpose of God. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the Eagles, the Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly. 3 (44m 4s): He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel. This is why I encourage, we got to read the old Testament. We got to understand how God was faithful to the people in the days of old. And when we study Hebrews 11 and we're going to read and study about all kinds of people that were faithful to God and who God was faithful to in the heroes of faith, he revealed his character to Moses. God is the same. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He's eternal. His character is the same. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. So the things that David writes about are things that we can grab a hold of and believe for our own personal lives. 3 (44m 48s): The Lord verse eight says the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Get this slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us nor remain angry for ever. We talked about conscience last week. Remember that we understand this truth that is written about in scripture. Our conscience will be clear, but the enemy is a liar and a deceiver. And he's always trying to weigh us down and wear us out with lies and condemnation and, and filling our conscience with all kinds of regrets. Jesus has forgiven all of our sins. 3 (45m 28s): That's his good and perfect plan for all eternity. Often when I preach on Sunday, I'll get into the week and either Sunday, afternoon, or Monday or Tuesday or whatever, I'll get, I'll get a tat in whatever area I was preaching about. So if I was preaching about love, it'll be really hard for me to love people that week. Speaking about grace is going to be really hard for me to be gracious that week. It's just things happen. And the enemy is just a scoundrel and always trying to mess with us. So on Monday and on Tuesday, I was feeling this heaviness like this condemnation of my soul and spirit, I was like, Lord, what's going on? And so I began to realize it, it was just the enemy kind of heap, heap and stuff on me trying to cloud my conscience. 3 (46m 10s): And I'm like, Lord, goodness, what'd you do battle on my behalf. And I just began to pray that God would lift that and that he would battle for me. And then my Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning, I can't remember which I just felt like I was like, oh, it's gone. You know, it's like we are, we wrestle not against flesh and blood enemies. We're in a spiritual battle. So the enemy is trying to rip us off all the time, lying to us all the time. And we've, we've got this God who fills us. The spirit of God fills us as believers. And we've got this power in us to recognize deception and lies and destructive patterns and thinking in order to move forward in victory. And so, as soon as I brought God into the equation, there was just clarity. 3 (46m 52s): And all of a sudden, I, the joy of the Lord was my strength. My strength is renewed. The grace of God was on me. And I was like, let's just move forward. You know, the enemy is a liar, enemies, a liar. Don't don't get sucked into his constant accusations because God says he will not constantly accuse nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins. Verse 10 says he does not deal harshly with us as we deserve for his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed to get that he has removed our sins. 3 (47m 33s): As far as the east is from the west. The Lord is like a father to his children, tendering, compassionate to those who fear him for. He knows how weak we are here. Remembers we are only dust created from dust. We will return to dust. So in the meantime, our body's wearing out or getting, if, if you looked at a picture of yourself five years ago, or 10 years ago, you looked a lot better than you do right now. Right? We were looking at old pictures and we've got a son getting married in a couple of weeks since we were looking at old pictures and thinking about just kind of reminiscing and thank you. I thought, man, we used to look a lot better than we do now. 3 (48m 15s): Jolene, my wife she's always looked amazing, but me, on the other hand, I, I had more hair back in the day. Holy cow, I, I, I, everything. I didn't have varicose veins. I got varicose veins. Did you know that guys can get varicose veins? I thought only pregnant women got varicose veins. And all of a sudden from all my running over there, I got varicose veins. I'm going to have to go see a vein specialist and get those things taken care of Paul, sorry, too much daring. Probably Paul caught called our bodies tents that are, that are just wearing out. You know, he describes us, you know, these are our tent or tabernacle that are just wearing out. 3 (48m 57s): But thank God in heaven, we have a new body coming, who new experience, new life, goodness is coming verse 27. And just as each person is destined to die. There it is once and after that comes judgment. So also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people, he will come again and we need to hear this, not to deal with our sins. Our sins were dealt with on the cross at Calvary 2000 years ago. So he's not coming back to deal with our sins. 3 (49m 39s): They have been dealt with in Christ. Our sins have been forgiven if we're indeed in Christ, but to bring salvation. That's what he's coming for to bring salvation to all who eagerly await his coming to all who are eagerly waiting for him. So what does God's good and perfect will not. Number one God's will is to secure our redemption. Number two God's will is to remove our sin. And number three God's will is to bring us into salvation. So there's a present salvation and there's a future salvation present. Salvation is us enjoying God right now, enjoying intimacy with God, enjoying his grace, his kindness, and his love, the fruits of his presence in our lives. 3 (50m 31s): The fruit of his goodness. So that's the present. The future is the same. It's connected to the present, but it just what it's going to look like in all eternity, when we're not dealing with the world, the flesh and the devil temptation and all that brokenness in this life and in this world, the future salvation is what will come to us at the return of Christ. When there's a new heaven and a new earth, I'll just read this. And there's a future salvation. The sum of benefits and blessings, which the Christians redeemed from all earthly ills will enjoy after the visible return of Christ from heaven in the consummated and eternal kingdom of God. 3 (51m 16s): I am looking forward to that more than I'm looking forward to 1 0 2 being done. I'm looking for like, like quick Lord, like today's mine. If we never get to 1 0 2 that's all right, I'm just ready to go. We can read in revelation 21. And I love this passage of scripture in revelation 21 verses one through seven. I read it at most Memorial services because it reminds people of the hope that we have in Christ and what we can expect as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It speaks of God's goodness and his perfect plan for us revelation 21, 1 through seven says this, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the old heaven. And the old earth has disappeared. 3 (51m 58s): And the sea was also gone. And I saw a holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, like a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. Her, I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, look, God's home is now among his people. He will live with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All of these things are gone forever. 3 (52m 38s): It's going to be a good, good day when that happens. This is the future salvation that we have to look forward to, but it all begins right now in the present. What does God want to reveal to you about his character right now? Where are you struggling right now? Where are you battling right now? God wants to reveal something of his character like he's been doing for thousands of years through the old Testament and the new Testament, something of his character, his goodness of his good and eternal plans for us is good and perfect plans for us. What does God need to reveal to you in your area of darkness, in your life area of doubt in your life area of struggle, temptation, weakness, whatever, allow God to shed his light, to bring his strength, to fill you, to overflowing with this spirit, to open up your heart and mind to his word so that you can be trained in instruction in righteousness and allow God to lift those burdens off of you. 3 (53m 40s): This is what he wants to do in this part of the spiritual battle that we're always in forever. And I just talked about what happened to me last Monday and Tuesday. That's part of the spiritual battle. We constantly need the light of God's grace, his word, and his truth to overshadow us, to cover us, to fill us and give us renewed hope. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. Every week. Somebody in the car creation has lost someone. Someone in our lives have passed every week. We go through the heartache of hearing of loss and difficulty and challenge. 3 (54m 23s): Man, that's such an earthly problem. It's a, it's an earthly problem that we will not experience in heaven. And in eternity, our future salvation glorious first five says, and the one sitting on the throne and said, look, I'm making everything new. And then he said to me, write this down for what I tell you is trustworthy and true. And he also said it is finished. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end to all who are thirsty. I will give freely from the Springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all of these things and I will be their God and they will be my children. 3 (55m 6s): So what does, God's good and perfect. Will our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins, salvation. That's in a macro sense. What life is all about? He's showing us who we are showing us our need for him leading us in the paths of righteousness. Maybe you're here today and you've never given your life to Jesus. You've never experienced redemption. You've never experienced the forgiveness of your sin. Never understood what salvation is all about. We come to faith in Jesus by simply acknowledging all of those things. 3 (55m 47s): I don't know, redemption is I'm not even sure I know what sin is, but I know I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. The Bible calls those mistakes sin. Anything that anything that doesn't meet God's righteous standard is called sin and work Bible says all have sinned, all false shorts. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. Our Lord says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so if you want that burden, that weight of sin lifted off of you. Just welcome God into the middle of your life and say something like this. Let's pray. Say, I need you. I, I don't even know all the reasons why I need you, but I know that I've got an emptiness in me that can't be filled by anything else in this world. 3 (56m 36s): And so I, I need you Lord to fill this emptiness, to meet me where I am to forgive all my failures and mistakes, my sin, I need you Lord with everybody's eyes still closed. As, as, as we declare that, as we make that reality known to God from a tender, sincere hearts, God responds. He's just responsive, caring, and gracious and good. And what he does is that he forgives our sin. 3 (57m 17s): Then he fills us with his presence. He adopts us into his family, redeeming us, removing our sin, and then giving us salvation new life in him. And that new life starts now it's called being born again. So if you need that today, just make that your prayer. If you need to talk to somebody after service, there'll be prayer teams up here available. Maybe you're here though. And you've done that before, and you've been struggling in your commitment to the Lord. You've been struggling just in life. 3 (57m 58s): God wants to welcome you and to restore you and to redeem you and to help you and to minister to you. So welcome him into your circumstance. Maybe you're feeling just gnarly and bad about life decisions and circumstances. Let God just heal all of that and restore all of that and fix all of that. Let them come into your life fully a hundred percent Lord as we hear your word and worship, you got to, we just want to re-establish connection with you and give our lives fully to you. 3 (58m 38s): God minister powerfully as we sing. And as we worship in Jesus name, amen, 1 (59m 25s): Through your holy spirit can see being Christ, Jesus And crisis. I believe in the holy spirit. God is three in one, I believe in the resurrection that we will rise. 1 (59m 58s): Ah, judge Cruz and give this Decent to darkness you Rosie . 1 (1h 0m 59s): I believe in the resurrection that we will rise In I believe in the safe, I believe in the resurrection that we will rise. 1 (1h 2m 58s): .

1 (17s): Going to see You take what the enemy meant? 1 (2m 13s): Can you turn it? You turn it. 3 (7m 1s): It says in Psalm 119, it's the swing wide. You heavenly gates. The people that the Lord may answer in and bring him praises, sing that that's all I do is doing and why the gates of heaven let the praise as the walls. again, swing wide. Here we go. 0 (7m 41s): jeez, his jeans. 1 (10m 24s): God. Through your holy spirit. Conceiving Christ. Jesus. Leaving. God. 1 (10m 49s): I believe in, I believe in the same. 1 (13m 26s): 4 (14m 32s): Thank you, Lord. For times in our corporate gathering, we can just sing with everything. We've got Lord and praise and honor, and adoration to our king, to our savior, our Redeemer. Thank you so much, Lord God, we just invite your presence. I think we've already done that Lord, but we will continue to invite your presence. We need your presence, Lord, in our corporate gatherings Lord, but we need your presence in our daily walk and just in everything that we experienced and encountering go through in life. Lord God. So fill us with your presence, your spirit, to overflowing God that we might live out of that reality, Lord God. 4 (15m 15s): So for those who are just kind of worn out today, Lord, I pray blessings and grace, Lord God of filling in Jesus name for those who are discouraged. God, we just ask God that you would encourage them in the spirit, in the natural, in every way possible, or build them up in their most holy faith in Jesus' name, Lord God, for those who need a physical touch of healing, we just pray in Jesus' name God that you would work a miracle in the lives of your saints here, gather all over and for anybody tuned in Lord God, we pray healing, power and healing grace upon their lives as well. We're thankful, Lord God, for what you're doing in our lives. We're thankful that Ken's back and healed up and do them better. Lord God, we just pray God. 4 (15m 56s): For all of those, he represents so many have gone through the fire and gone through sickness and all kinds of stuff. Floor beaches, pray Lord that you would just continue to work and minister and just do wonderful and profound things. God, we love you. We thank you for what you will do as you teach us through your scripture today. Anoint me. I pray, speak through me. I pray. I don't want to do it without you Lord. So anointed speak through me and then prepare our hearts and our ears. Lord God, to receive your message. We love you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Hey, turn around. Sail out to someone that you never have met before. 4 (18m 14s): To get some water. Come on. I had to get some water and a something to help my throat because I was singing sing. First service preach for a servicing. Second service, try to preach second service. Welcome. We're in Hebrews chapter nine and we're going to get through about halfway through it. I was thinking about my sermon yesterday as I was spraying Roundup, this weed killer. I sprayed up, I sprayed like 12 gallons of, yeah, maybe that's the deal. I should have wore a mask or something, but yeah, maybe that's the deal got to get out and get in on that class action lawsuit. 4 (18m 55s): That's going on anyway. Nevermind another story. But I was spraying that thing and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to have to come out and do this in about two more months because it's like soon as I spray it, it kills it, it rains, it suns comes out and I got an eight shines and everything just grows right back. I thought, I'm glad God's grace. Isn't like that. I'm so grateful for the atonement. Once for all time, Christ died for us interred that holy of holy places offered himself as our atonement, our forever sacrifice and died. And we don't, we don't have to go through all of that. 4 (19m 38s): Again. We're saved by grace, through faith once and for all time, God made atonement for us. And we're going to be talking about that today. God's ability through Christ to cleanse our sins, but also to cleanse our conscience. Because sometimes we, we realize that God on some level has cleansed our sins, but it hasn't allowed us to walk with a clear conscience. And so it's, it's like condemnation, heaviness, guilt. We're carrying around things that God never intended for us to carry. Jesus said, come to me, all you who are labor and heavy Laden, I will give you rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light, but some of us feel guilty about everything. 4 (20m 27s): We recount past mistakes, reliving past conversations, rehashing past relationships, reviving past decisions. And we kind of rehearse over and over again our past. And maybe, maybe that past was yesterday. Maybe that past was 10 years ago or 50 years, but we're constantly rehashing the past, right? Christ has the power to cleanse us from our sins and this conscience that is constantly getting worn out by pass, by thinking about the past, by regretting the past, by wishing we could go back and change the past and what I've realized. 4 (21m 9s): Cause I, I I've been there and there are still some things I wish I could go back and change. But what I've realized is that God uses all of those past experiences, all of that past brokenness, all of those past mistakes, he uses it in such a beautiful way to equip us for the incredible work that he's got for us today. So now, because of those mistakes and all of those imperfections, we have greater capacity to empathize with people, to feel the pain of others and what they're going through to identify with people and to pray with real sincerity, for those who are going through hard stuff. 4 (21m 58s): I tell you what, after COVID I prayed on a different level for people going through it because I had empathy. I was like, holy cow, I wouldn't wish this on anybody. Right? Those experiences in life, relational, spiritual, whatever they may be, God is in his wonderful and supernatural way. He is putting all of those ingredients together with his grace, his love and that transformational work that he accomplishes in us. And then he prepares us through all of those ingredients to go do the wonderful things that God has called us to do. So sometimes we think our past failures disqualify us. 4 (22m 40s): I think in so many ways they qualify us. They have prepared us. They prepared us for what God wants to do in us and with us and through us, I felt called to the ministry when I was about 17. And I thought, for sure, God was just going to usher me right in and blah, blah, blah. But he had a whole different path for my life. Put me into the business world for about 10 years before going into vocational ministry. And man, I learned so much through those experiences in sales and marketing and just doing business in the world. And, and those things have helped me. They've they've I said this recently, as much as Bible college and seminary has helped me, I would say that my business experience in the, in the marketplace has helped me in all of the things that God taught me about. 4 (23m 29s): People, about working with people about being reliable. So whatever God's got you going through right now, or whatever you're experiencing, just trust that what the enemy, if it's bad stuff, it's trust that if what's what the enemies is used for evil, God will use it for good. If it's just experiential stuff and your God is using all of those things to equip you for your incredible work and through all of that, he's wanting to use you anyway, no matter what your station in life is. So quit recounting past mistakes with such regret, quit reliving, past conversations and real past relationships and quit reviving past decisions and just trust the Lord moving forward in Jesus name. 4 (24m 12s): So we're going to be in Hebrews chapter nine today and Hebrews chapter nine talks about our conscience. And hopefully we fix the points. We had the word conscious instead of the word conscience. There's a difference. I don't know if you know that, but there's a difference. So somebody pointed that out, thankfully. So hopefully we got the points fixed, but we're talking about conscience and not conscious today. So as we wrapped up Hebrews eight last week, I love what Hebrews eight 13 says. It says this when God speaks of a new covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It's now out of date and will soon disappear. 4 (24m 56s): It's a beautiful statement. The old covenant did not have the power to do what the new covenant has the power to do God through this second covenant, this new covenant that it's been designed by Christ and upheld by Christ has the power to transform our lives. The new covenant in Christ has the power to cleanse people of their sins and therefore cleanse our conscience so that we no longer carry the burden of our sin. The first covenant was a shadow of things to come. The first covenant points to our desperate need for God, for his grace, it points out the reality of our sin. 4 (25m 40s): That's why the, the law was given so that we would recognize our desperate need for his grace. It wasn't given so that we'd somehow measure up. It was given so that we would realize, holy cow, I can never measure up and I need God's grace. So the first covenant was a shadow of things to come. The earthly tabernacle is a shadow of things to come. I just ask you, please don't get left in the shadow. Let's move into the marvelous lights of our glorious God and move in our understanding and grow in our understanding of his incredible grace. Let's examine the first covenant in light of the second covenant, Hebrews nine one talks about the first covenant. And this is kind of the theme, the priesthood of Christ it be the theme kind of through about halfway through chapter 10. 4 (26m 23s): So it's a bit redundant maybe, but I found whenever there's redundancy in scripture, it's meant to enhance and highlight and remind us because I don't know about you, but I need redundancy. I can read the same passage over and over again. And Mike, oh, that's right. I've read that a thousand times, but I needed a and one, right? They really get it to really have it sink in Hebrews nine one says the first covenant between God and Israel had regulations for worship and a place of worship here on earth, there were two rooms. And so now we're going to describe the earthly tabernacle. It's basically a tent and many say it was just kind of like the tents that the Israelites would carry and that they would live in. 4 (27m 6s): But these tents were, this tent was designed to as a place of worship and a place of offering sacrifice. So there are two rooms in this tabernacle in the first room were a lampstand, a table and sacred loaves of bread on the table in this room was called the holy place. So this is where the priests would go in and offer sacrifices for the sins of the people. Then there was a curtain behind this first room that took you as you go through that first curtain, you go into the second room and it says here there was a curtain. And behind the curtain was the second room called the most holy place in that room. We're a gold incense alter and a wooden chest called the Ark of the covenant. 4 (27m 49s): And we'll unpack the arc here. Just a moment. The Ark of the covenant, which was covered with gold and all sides inside the Ark were a gold jar containing Manoj errands staff, that sprouted leaves and the stone tablets of the covenant. So again, there's three things inside the Ark of the covenant. We're going to unpack those three things because they help us understand the purpose of the old covenant, the purpose of the old Testament. They help us to understand God's heart in the old covenant, hoping to point us to the new. So everything in the arc pointed to Israel's desperate need for God's grace, the manna manna, by the way means, what is it? 4 (28m 32s): So when the people of Israel woke up the first day that man has settled on the ground, there was all of this like Dew and they was sparkling and the people are like, what is it? So that's what the man is. And so the people would go out and they picked it up and they gathered under the instruction from the Lord gathered. I think it was two quarts per person per day. And don't gather anymore. Well, like most of us might be thinking, why not? If two quarts is enough, why not get three chords? We got a little extra for midnight snack or in the morning or whatever. Right. But what happened is whatever they gathered over, what was instructed, turned into maggots and had a wretched smell. 4 (29m 16s): And really it's a picture of what our disobedience looks like in our faithlessness looks like before God, they gathered extra because they were afraid they wouldn't have any for the next day. So God spoke to them about it. The provision of the man represented the provision of the Lord. And that reminder was also a reminder of Israel's fearlessness and belief. And so they've got manna in there to remind the people through the generations of Israel's disbelief in fearfulness, but also the Lord's provision. Exodus 16 says that the man was like quarry ant white coriander seed. 4 (29m 58s): And it tasted like honey wafers exited a 1633 sounds like good stuff. You know, kind of make a little breakfast and can make man of bread, ManTech, Kati, Manoj, whatever you want. I know, I know it's Keith Green, some are old enough in the room to know my reference though. The people of Israel complained to God out of fear that he had forgotten about them. And, and that's what the man represented. Aaron staff represent the represented the rebellion of God's people in the judgment of God. You can read about that story in number 16 and 17, go back and re read number 16 and 17 because it talks about God's judgment against those who rebelled against him. 4 (30m 49s): It says the earth opened up and swallowed the people and close back up and they were just gone judgment. Aaron staff represented the rebellion of God's people in the judgment of God, Aaron staff sprouted. This is interesting. So imagine I've got a staff in my office that somebody made for me, it's this tall eucalyptus staff and it's dead, right? Nobody expects it to do anything, but stand in the corner and I'll take it on a walks with me from time to time, but errands staff, because God was speaking his truth, administering his revelation is his staff sprouted and budded and blossomed and produced ripe almonds. 4 (31m 31s): Isn't that awesome. You see that number 17, eight. So Aaron staff representative rebellion of God's people and the judgment of God, the stone tablets represented God's law. And Israel's inability to keep the law, the stone tablets inscribed, what the terms of the covenant were written with the very finger of God. We know that from Exodus 31, 8 and a few other verses. So we look at the contents of the Ark of the covenant and everything in the, within this cut, this box represented Israels and humanity's desperate need for the grace of God. 4 (32m 12s): There are things in our lives today that remind us of our desperate need for God's grace. My wife will often tell me, you desperately need the grace of God. And I said, I know you've been telling me no, she never says that, but I know what she's thinking, but mistakes. And so she's actually never said that before to be clear, sorry, mistakes and sins from our past and our present, remind us of our need for God's grace. So the new covenant is God's response to that desperate need. The old covenant was good in that it was a shadow of things to come, but it was, it was incomplete to the old covenant, teaches us about sin and our need for God's grace and the old covenant points. 4 (33m 2s): Us. The old Testament points us to a promised new covenant. He would come through that would come through Christ Jesus, the Lord, Hebrews eight references. This passage in Jeremiah 31 that I'm going to read. So it will sound familiar to you because we just went through it a couple of weeks ago. It says this in Jeremiah 31 33 through 34, the day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel. So this is a six, 700 years before the time of Christ. The Jeremiah is writing this day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah, this covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors. When I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. 4 (33m 46s): They broke that covenant though. I love them. As a husband, loves his wife, says the Lord verse 33, but this is the new covenant. This is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel. After those days says the Lord, I will put my instructions deep within them. I will write them on their hearts and I will be their God. And they will be my people and they will not need to teach their neighbors nor will they need to teach their relatives saying you should know the Lord for everyone from the least to the greatest will know me already says the Lord and listen, this, I love this last part. And I will forgive their wickedness and will never again remember their sins. 4 (34m 29s): That's the promise of God that was fulfilled in Christ. I will forgive their wickedness and will never again remember their sins. So God has the capacity and the grace to forgive our sins and to cleanse our conscience. They should go hand in hand, but sometimes we get hung up and we feel guilty about stuff that we've already confessed, that God has already forgiven. And we're just thinking about it and rehashing it. And the enemy is using it to distract us and to wear us out and to wear us down and discourage our progress. Our forward progress as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So the Ark representing the old covenant is filled with reminders of Israel's failures, reminders of humanity's failures. 4 (35m 13s): The cross representing the new covenant is a wonderful reminder of God's grace, his love and his forgiveness, the arcs cover. There was a car cover over the arch and it was called the place of atonement or the mercy seat. And it's a picture of what is needed to cover or a tone for the sins represented inside the arc. So inside the arc is reminders of our sin, Israel sin, the arc, the arts cover. The mercy seat is a picture of the atonement that is needed. In other words, as one writer puts it, the arc by its contents, declare the divine holiness by which all stand condemned and by its form, especially the atonement cover declared the divine, redeeming mercy through the shed, blood old covenant, the shed blood of animals, new covenant once for all time, the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest who is our mediator. 4 (36m 14s): The one who is forever interceding for us, the one who loves us unconditionally above the arc, above the arch, where the cherubim of divine glory, whose wings stretched out over the arch cover the place of atonement. But we cannot explain these things in detail. Now the author says, I think he kind of already did, but maybe there's more. Anyway, the arc is a picture. It's an illustration declaring for humanity. God's holiness, man's sinfulness, and God's plan to redeem humanity through the shed blood of Christ on the cross. The old Testament speaks clearly about our need for God's grace. 4 (36m 54s): The old Testament also tells us, tells God's people of God's answer to our need in the person and finished work of Jesus, the Messiah. So in the old Testament, we have roughly 300 prophecies speaking about the coming Messiah hundreds, and even thousands of years before Jesus was born and Jesus was on the scene profits, God spoke to profits and they spoke about the coming Messiah. So they knew their desperate need for God's grace. And they were all, all of Israel and Judah were waiting for their Messiah. Why? Because they had read the prophets, they understood God's plan and they had been waiting. 4 (37m 37s): So it's perplexing to realize that when Jesus shows up on the scene and he's fulfilling the prophecies, that the people of Israel and Judah still mostly refused to believe, things changed as time went on and people in Israel are still believing to this day, putting their faith in the mercy and the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and an article written by Mary Fairchild. She writes the book of the old Testament. The books of the old Testament contain many passages about the Messiah, all prophecies, Jesus Christ fulfill. For instance, the crucifixion of Jesus was foretold in Psalm 22, 1 6 through 18, approximately a thousand years before Christ was born long before this method of execution was even practice. 4 (38m 30s): So this method of execution through crucifixion was not practiced when this was written after Christ resurrection preachers of the new Testament church began to declare officially that Jesus was the Messiah by divine appointment. We see that in Paul's writings in Romans one, one through four, Paul is servant of Christ. Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son who was descended from David, according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection, from the dead Jesus Christ, our Lord. 4 (39m 11s): So the apostle Paul who wrote two thirds of the new Testament pointing back to the prophetic words that were uttered in the old Testament, pointing to what Jesus accomplished in his earthly life and ministry. So again, some Bible scholars suggest that there are more than 300 old Testament, prophetic scriptures completed in the life of Jesus Christ, such as his birthplace prophecies about his birthplace, his lineage method of execution. These things were all beyond tryst control and could not have been accidentally or deliberately fulfilled. This is God's divine plan unfolding in the universe on a macro scale. 4 (39m 56s): If God can pull all of that together on a macro scale, we can trust him on a micro scale with our lives. We need to understand that God has a plan that is unfolding. We can trust his plan to bring it to fruition. He is completely capable, completely desiring to bring those plans to fruition in our lives. Let's talk about statistical probability or in probability concerning the fulfillment of these prophecies that were spoken in the old Testament fulfilled in the new Testament of the person and work of the Lord. Jesus Christ. The chance of just eight. 4 (40m 38s): So there's about 300, the chance of just eight prophecies being fulfilled. This is the kind of the math. It's one in the 10th, one in 10 in this two in the 17th power, one in 10 to the 17th power. So this is kind of what that looks like if you ever been to Texas. So I was driving back from Louisiana years and years ago, and we're driving long, long days. It took us two full days to get through Texas driving all day long. We thought we're never going to make it to the other side of taxes. 4 (41m 21s): This place is eternal, right? So it's a huge state. So imagine taking silver dollars and covering the whole state of Texas two feet deep, two feet deep. That's a lot, a lot of silver dollars. Now imagine marking one of those silver dollars and shucking it somewhere in the state of Texas, mixing them all together, and then imagine blindfolding someone and telling them they can travel anywhere in the state of Texas, but they have to grab that one silver dollar that has been marked and declared. 4 (42m 5s): This is the one, one the 10th 17 happened. I was saying that right, Jim, one in 10 to the 17th power. There we go. One to 10th to the 17th power. That is the probability of eight prophecies coming true. There were 300. This is evidence of the divinity, the Messiah ship. The reality of who Jesus was and is that he is the Messiah. He is the Messiah. So the mathematical probability of 300 or 47, or even just eight fulfilled prophecies of Jesus stands as evidence of his messiahship prophecies about him being born of a woman Genesis three 15, that he would be born of a Virgin Isaiah seven, 14, that he would come from the tribe of Judah. 4 (43m 11s): We talked about that in our Hebrew study, Genesis 49, 10, that his throne would be anointed and eternal Psalm 45, Daniel chapter two, there's a bunch of your Messiah would be rejected by his own people, Psalm 69, Isaiah 53, that he'd be a prophet that he'd be proceeded by Elijah, that he would be declared the son of God. That he'd be called a Nazareen. It goes on and on and on that Messiah would be a priest. After the order of Melchizedek. We studied that as in our study of Hebrews chapter seven, that he would be called king Psalm two, that he would enter Jerusalem on a donkey Zachariah 11, that Messiah would be praised by little children, Psalm eight, verse two, all of these specific things were spoken of the Messiah hundreds and even thousands of years prior to his arrival that he would resurrect from the dead Psalm 16 and Psalm 49, that he'd be seated at God's right hand, that the Messiah would be a sacrifice for sin, that he would return a second time and on and on and on these and many other old Testament verses about Israel's Messiah or fulfilled in the new Testament, in the new covenant, in the new Testament life of Jesus Christ collectively, they form the leading proof of his deity of Christ deity. 4 (44m 49s): As Jesus went about his ministry, he knew he knew that he was fulfilling these prophecies and he pointed, especially the religious leaders. You understood the prophetic writings, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. He pointed them to the old covenant, the old Testament, the writings of the prophets. And this is what he said in Luke 24, 25 through 27. And then Jesus said to them, you foolish people. You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the scriptures. Wasn't a clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory. Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the profits explaining from all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. 4 (45m 37s): He said in John 5 39 through 40 says you search the scripture, speaking to the religious leaders. And when he's talking about scripture, he's talking about the old Testament. You search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the scriptures point to me, Jesus said, yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life. Some of us have had so much evidence pointing to the reality and the goodness and the sufficiency of Christ. And yet we still refuse to believe what is it going to take for us to finally believe some of us have believed on the salvation, but a lot of us are struggling to believe that God is good in our day-to-day lives that God can sufficiently provide for us in our day-to-day lives. 4 (46m 25s): That God wants to cleanse our conscience so that we can move forward with peace and power and confidence, not in who we are, but in who Jesus is. When we understand who Jesus is, we can move forward with greater confidence, greater passion, with greater compassion because of what Jesus has revealed to us and has accomplished in our lives. Let's move out of the shadows and believe that God is capable. That he's all powerful. That he's omnipresent. That he's very good. And his love is unconditional. Let's move forward in our faith as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, where in your life do you need to move forward as a, as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 4 (47m 12s): Where's your faith life struggling, dry. Where do you need to invite God in so that you might walk with greater enthusiasm, greater confidence, greater surety, invite God in and watch what he will do. It will be supernatural, just like all of the works of God through the old and the new Testament, watch what God will do. What you got to invite him in, invite him in and watch what he will do. Let's get back to Hebrews nine. And we've got a few things to talk about before we wrap up here in the next few minutes, when these things were all in place, Hebrews nine, six, speaking of the tabernacle, the priest regularly entered the first room as they perform their religious duties, but only the high priest Everett entered the most holy place and only once a year. 4 (48m 3s): And he always offered blood for his own sins. And for the sins, the people had committed and ignorance. Isn't that interesting? So we all sin and word thought or deed daily, but then there are things that we do in ignorance and isn't it good that the grace of God is sufficient for those things that we've done in ignorance, a thought, a word, an action. God's grace is sufficient to cover all of those things by these regulations. The holy spirit revealed that the entrance to the most holy place was not freely open. As long as the tabernacle and the system at represented were still in use. This is an illustration. 4 (48m 43s): The writer says pointing to the present time then, and now first century and 21st century for the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the conscience of the people who bring them. So there was a covering, but it was incomplete. Christ has the power to cleanse your sins and your conscience. Our conscience is as you know, that inner feeling or voice, it's the guide to the rightness or wrongness of our behavior. Our conscience gives us a sense of right or wrong. 4 (49m 25s): And so we've got to be careful to guard our conscience because as we think about our conscience, the scripture tells us that we can be in a good place or bad place. First Timothy four, two, number one, our conscience can be dead or seared. Do we fix this? Oh, we fixed it. Good. He used to say conscious. Now it says conscience, here we go. Now we can move forward. Here we go. Hopefully the rest of the points are fixed as well. Our conscience can be dead or seared. First Timothy four two says now the holy spirit tells us clearly that in the last times, some will turn away from the true faith. They will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. 4 (50m 9s): These people are hypocrites and liars and their conscience is, are dead. So we can have a dead conscience and that we don't, we no longer feel what we used to feel regarding right and wrong. Maybe it's been seared or killed because we've ignored our conscience. One too many times, we've been rebellious against God when too many times we've allowed that same sin or the same, whatever in our lives over and over and over again, we've justified this somehow we've just seared our conscience. So we don't feel any anxiety, any approval. We don't feel anything around areas of our lives. So we need to be careful that our consciouses aren't dead or seared. 4 (50m 50s): And how do we fix it? We simply, we go to the Lord and say, God, my, I feel like my conscience in this area, or maybe just my conscience in general is seared. I, I, I barely feel anything anymore around my decision-making. I just don't understand right and wrong. And so Lord, I need you to restore my conscience. It's God's gift to us that we, that we use, that we have, that we operate with so that we can know the difference between right and wrong. And it works in collaboration with the holy spirit, through the word, as we understand truth and are filled with the power of God. And so we understand right and wrong, but sometimes we were so seared and dead in our conscience that we don't have the perspective and the capacity. 4 (51m 30s): So just ask God to heal your conscience, ask God to come in and just cleanse you. And to set you free in whatever area you need to be set free. Number one, our conscious can be dead or sear. Number two, our conscience can be defiled, right? Titus one 15 says everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure, but nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving because their minds and consciousnesses are corrupted. If you ever hung around somebody and you tell them a story, and they always coming up with the perverted, that perverted a part of the story, they're always trying to take it down a dark path, a dirty path. They're always trying to tell dirty jokes or tell dirty stories or, or their everything about their life has got this filter of uncleanliness there. 4 (52m 19s): They've got a polluted mind, a polluted conscience it's defiled. And so everything that comes through their filter is broken. We've. We've got to be careful that we hang around. People who build us up in our most holy faith, that Titus one 15 in the new king James version is not on the screen, but it says this to the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled or corrupted and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But even their mind and conscious conscience are defiled. Titus. One 16 says they, the corrupted and defiled, they profess to know God, but in works. 4 (52m 59s): They deny him being a balm, Annabelle, this obedient and disqualified for every good works we got, we've got to be careful that we're not allowing our conscience to be defiled through the things that we watch read encounters that we have close friends, that we keep, we need to be careful, bad company, corrupts, good character. So the people you spend time with that we spend time with either help our character or our character they're their, their help, our conscience, or corrupt our conscience. So our continents can be dead defiled. And number three, our consciousness can be guilty. And this is really what the whole message is all about. Hebrews 10, 21 and 22 talks about the conscience. It says in, since we have a high, a great high priest who rules over God's house, let us go right into the presence of God. 4 (53m 45s): With sincere hearts, fully trusting him for our guilty conscience is have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean. And our bodies have been washed with pure water. Listen, Christ has the power to cleanse our sins and to cleanse our conscience. The new system set up by God has the power to set us free from a guilty conscience. You guys believe in this stuff. It is absolutely true. Let's look at the last few verses. As we wrap up here, Hebrews nine 10 says for that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies, physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established. 4 (54m 27s): So Christ has now become the high priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered the greater more perfect tabernacle in heaven, which is not made by human hands. It is not part of the created world with his own blood, not with the blood of goats and calves. He entered the most holy place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. Under the old system, the blood of goats and bowls and the ashes of the heifer could cleanse people's bodies from ceremonial impurities. Just think verse 14, just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify. Our conscience is from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God for, by the power of the eternal spirit. 4 (55m 12s): Christ offered himself to God as a sacrifice for our sins. That is why verse 15. That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people. So that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance. God has promised them for Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins. They had committed under that first covenant. Isn't it great to know that Christ has the power to cleanse our sins and to cleanse our conscience with that. As we invite the worship team up, we're going to worship some more. I just encourage you to think about areas of your life, that need attention areas of your life, where there's confession needed, brokenness needed, contrition needed, and just invite God to work in your heart, to cleanse your sin and to cleanse your conscience. 4 (56m 7s): If you're here for, and you don't know anything about Christ, but you know that you've made mistakes. The Bible calls those mistakes sin and outlines it in the old and the new Testament. If you're here today and you want to be forgiven for your sins, Jesus will forgive your sins. If you confess your sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. So you simply let's close our eyes and prayers. We stand up. We simply say, Lord, forgive my sins. Go ahead and stand up, Lord, forgive my sins. I need your grace. I need your love. I don't understand who you are and what you're all about, but I know that I need to grace from you, the great high priest. 4 (56m 51s): So forgive me for my sin. Fill me with your spirits and show me your love. And as you pray, those things, what will happen is the holy spirit will come into your life. Your sins will be forgiven. And then you get adopted into God's family. You become a son or a daughter within the family of God, and you've just begun a new walk with God. The Bible calls it being born again. So you've got a new life and you're now going to follow Jesus. That's the goal. That's the plan that we recognize our need for him. We give ourselves to him. We follow him all the days of our lives. 4 (57m 32s): So Lord, as we do our best to follow you all the days of our lives, be glorified Lord. As we sing, help us to worship in spirit and in truth with great honesty and humility, we ask in Jesus name, amen, amen. Let's worship 3 (57m 46s): And mentioned it. So we're actually, we're going to do a new song as we close up and kind of how pastor Steve is talking about that. Just the confidence that we have in that new covenant is the confidence that we also have that, you know, we have a eternity to spend with our Lord and our savior. And this one, this song is called him of heaven. And it, it speaks to that. It speaks to, you know, just declaring our excitement about being with the Lord and just being surrounded by his glory. So yeah, the same listings one together guys. 3 (1h 2m 41s): Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly father, Lord, we thank you. That, that is our declaration this morning, father, Lord, we long to sing that with you father. We long to be in your presence and in worship alongside you, Lord Jesus, the spend eternity by your side, but whilst we're here on earth, father, Lord, we just pray for your, your protection loading for you for your goodness, just to be alongside of us Lord this week as we leave this, this place, Lord, you would just come alongside of each and every one of us, but give us confidence to be bold in your presence, to be bold in your name. Jesus Lord, we thank you. And where we, where should be father. Maybe you never forget that. Especially as we walk through our day-to-day lives father, when we just cling to the hope that we have in you, Jesus, we love you father. 3 (1h 3m 24s): We lift up your name and praising me. Where, why should we pray these things in your precious name, father? Amen.

0 (16s): don't let your job. your eyes on God is madly in love with you. 0 (1m 2s): Courage. Hold on. 0 (1m 7s): 1 (9m 50s): Whenever you're going through today, Join in this moment. We are here to worship Jesus. We set everything else aside. You need to lift your hands, lift your hands. You need to go on your knees, going to turn the patio of your home. Wherever you find yourself. Right now, you put Jesus first We worship you. 1 (14m 33s): Jesus. We thank you. How do we get to be here? Lift your name. Hi, 2 (14m 38s): Hallelujah. Or we are grateful, grateful for the victory. Lord, do you made a way for us finished work on Calvary makes it possible for AF for us to have access for us, to enjoy your presence, to worship you in spirit and in truth, Lord God, your life crucifixion, your death. Your resurrection makes victory possible for us and not just possible, but the outcome for our lives as we trust you and follow you, Lord God. 2 (15m 22s): So we thank you, Lord. I pray that we would connect with that and believe that Lord and walk in that truth. God, thank you for what you're doing. Lord God, as we open up your word today, and as we take communion, and as we baptize people, as we continue to pray and praise and fellowship, Lord, I just want you to be glorified. We want you to be glorified, Lord God, and a breakthrough into areas of our life. God, where we're dealing with fear or anxiety, doubts, anger, disbelief, unbelief, whatever it is, Lord God that we would allow a breakthrough in our lives. Lord God, that we would usher in a breakthrough by faith. 2 (16m 2s): As the gracious presence of the living, God will fill us and minister to us Lord. So we're where we've been holding you back. Lord, keeping you out. Lord, I pray that we would open up and allow you in Jesus name, that we would open up and allow your grace. Allow your love. Allow your goodness Lord to permeate every part of us. Lord God, to just blanket us. Lord. Thank you, Lord. You've done so much for us already and you continue to minister to us. 2 (16m 47s): You've seated. You've been seated at the right hand of God because your atoning work is complete, but you continue to minister you. You are our mediator. You are the one who makes all things possible. New life possible forgiveness possible. Grace possible. Thank you Lord. They give you thank you that you are a good priest, a good high priest. God, we worship you. You are a prophet priest and king. You are God incarnate the creator and sustainer of all things. 2 (17m 30s): You are Jehovah Gyra, our provider. You are our banner, our Lord. We surrendered submits you in all things. Lord, be glorified in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you, sir. We're in Hebrews chapter eight today. Thanks Barry. Hebrews chapter eight. Go ahead and turn. There. We'll have stuff up on the screen as well, but a Hebrews chapter eight and then we we'll be taking communion at the end and we'll be baptizing people at the end if you've never been baptized, man, if you're a, if you are a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, it is time to get, don't do this time to go into the waters of baptism. 2 (18m 17s): And so if you want to get kind of spontaneous, when I think of spontaneous baptism, I think about spontaneous combustion and it just kind of there's something I don't know. But if you would like to get spontaneously baptized today, we've got shorts and t-shirts and all kinds of stuff available to you. If you'd like to get dunked and I promise you will not combust. You will not spontaneously combust, but Hey, the title of the message today is Jesus completed his work and he continues his work. Doesn't that feel like life like we continue. We complete something and then we have still more work to do. It feels like that's kind of our been our motto for 19 years at harvest church, we complete a project. 2 (19m 0s): Then we move on to the next project because there's always work to be done. We're going to see in Hebrews chapter eight, that Jesus actually, he completed his work, but then he continues the work. Maybe it's like us with salvation. The work of salvation is complete in us, but God's called us to continue to press on and do the work that he has called us to do called us and equipped us to do so. The finished work of redemption has taken place, but then God calls us to move forward in the work that he's called us in equipped us for. So whatever's going on in your life? God's got, he's got redemptive work for you to partner participate in. And I just invite you into that. 2 (19m 41s): It's not always easy. In fact, most of the time, it's, it's not easy at all. It's, it's a challenge. It's difficult and it comes with all kinds of hurdles, but it is so worth it when we press in and press on and allow God to do what he wants to do. So Jesus completed his work and he continues his work Hebrews chapter eight. We're going to continue to talk about the priesthood of the Lord, Jesus Christ. The priesthood. This theme continues on into about Hebrews 10, 18. So for this chapter, a next chapter and halfway through Hebrews chapter 10, and we'll be talking about the priesthood of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Remember we're talking about the priesthood because the writer of Hebrews is pointing to the finished work of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the finished work of our great high priest. 2 (20m 29s): He's reminding people who are vacillating in their faith, particularly Hebrews in the first century, Jewish people in the first century who are vacillating in their faith about the Lord, Jesus Christ. Is he really who he said he is? And maybe we do the same thing in our lives as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We, we question is Jesus who he claims to be. Is he really has. He really accomplished all that he claims to have accomplished? I mean, he's just Jesus really real. And so that's first century issues that the church was dealing with. And 21st century issues that the church deals with, we wrestle with the goodness of God and the finished work of God through Christ Jesus. 2 (21m 16s): We, we wrestle with these things. And so we need to continue to come back to the word of God, allowing ourselves to be filled with the spirit of God so that we see the truth of God. And we're able to apply it to our lives as we study the word of God. So Christ is our high priest. The theme will be continued through Hebrews 10, 18. We covered this a little bit last week, but we'll cover all of Hebrews chapter eight this week in verse one, it says, here's the main points. I love that. It says that here's the main point is like, okay, pay attention, right? This is the deal. Like we need to pay attention to what the writer is about to communicate. Here's the main points. We have a high priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. 2 (22m 6s): So we have Jesus, Jesus. He completed his work and he continue his work. Number one, he is seated. What does that mean? That he is seated? Why did Jesus sit down? Well, it's kind of a recap of what we read in Hebrews chapter one, verse three, it says the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God. And he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven, Jesus sat down after he had finished his atoning work. 2 (22m 50s): After the work of atonement was complete. He sat down and he sat down because he finished the work necessary to redeem people, to redeem human beings, to redeem you and me. So if you're worried about the redemption, the power of God to redeem you, we need, you need to understand. We need to be reminded that Jesus sits down and he sat down because his work was complete. Hebrews 10, 11, and 12 says this under the old covenant, the priest stands. Why, what we're going to see. He stands in ministers before the altar day, after day offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. 2 (23m 40s): But our high priest offered himself to God. Jesus, our high priest offered to God as a single sacrifice for sins. Good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand. He sat down because his one and only sacrifice was sufficient for all sin for all times. So if you're wondering if your sin can be covered, can be forgiven. Hebrews tells us. Absolutely. Absolutely. So stop wrestling with past sins and then get victory over present sins know that God has given his life so that we might be forgiven, but that we also might get the victory over sin. 2 (24m 29s): So whatever you're struggling with God will give you the grace to get through it and get over it. Hebrews 12 two says because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross disregarding its shame. Now he is seated at the place of honor beside God's throne. If you're wondering if God wants to forgive you, you were the joy that was set before him for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. He wanted to see us forgiven and redeemed. 2 (25m 10s): It's always been a God's. It's always been God's idea to redeem humanity. We're going to read here just a little bit about how God it took the Israelites by the hand and led them out of Egypt. There's that intimate connection that God has with his people. Even in the old covenant, there's this connection, a heart connection that God has with his people. God wants to take his people by the hand and lead them out of, for the Israelites. Egypt represented slavery and bondage for us. Egypt represents our old life. Our old experience. God wants to take us by the hand. This is the beauty of this new covenant. 2 (25m 50s): This is why the, the writer of Hebrews is so impactfully communicating this truth so that the people who are tempted to drift back into legalism and the law, people who are tempted to drift back into an old way of relating to God, they can begin to see the truth again, and God can begin to draw them by his love and by his spirit, by his grace and by his goodness to come and follow him and to trust him, he, he is seated because he has finished the work of redemption. Some of us are still trying to work at getting that thing done in our own flesh. You know, we're, we're doing all kinds of stuff in the flesh, you know, doing, trying to earn God's favor and we're trying to figure out our God has you won't figure it out. 2 (26m 39s): There's a new covenant because people couldn't figure it out. They were broken in their sin, broken in their rebellion and God took them by the hand and ushered them out. God wants to take you by the hand, take us by the hand and assure us out because of the joy awaiting him. He endured the cross disregarding its shame, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne, Hebrews eight two, there he ministers in the heavenly tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands. And so we're beginning to see a contrast here. 2 (27m 20s): So Jesus is ministering in the heavenly tabernacle. As the people traveled through the wilderness, they erected a tabernacle, a place of worship. This place that the priest would offer sacrifices and it was to be built and constructed specifically, we'll get into that more next week, but it was to be built specifically to God's design. So we're beginning to see that this contrast again, where there there's this earthly tabernacle that was used for a moment, but it's just a shadow of what was to come now, Jesus, again, declaring the superiority of his ministry. 2 (28m 2s): He's ministering from this heavenly tabernacle that has been built by God and not by human hands. We're often trying to build something of a, of a religious experience by our own hands. And we're leaving God out of it all together by just trying to do all of the right stuff. And we're not connected. We're not connected at the heart to the living. God, we're not connected in our soul to God. We're just trying to, we've got all these external things going on, but it's not stuff that God is interested in. He's interested in, in an intimacy, a connection to a, a love relationship with him. 2 (28m 43s): He, he, that's what he's interested in. He, he continues to minister to, to that end, to draw us by his spirits. He is ministering, continually ministering everything and Hebrews points to the permanence of Jesus as our high priest. And it stands in contrast to the temporal ministry of the Levitical priest to the Levitical priests would minister to for a time they would die. New priests would come in. Jesus is our eternal priest forever. He ministers can end. He continues to minister as our high priest forever. 2 (29m 25s): What does his ministry look like? It's it gets interesting to me that that Jesus, Jesus, God, in the flesh, the incarnate eternal God, the creator sustainer of all things continues to minister. He's ministering to us. Eh, he's present with us in our lives. What does his ministry look like? Hebrews 7 23 through 25 says this. There were men again, comparing the old to the new. There were many priests under the old system for death, prevented them from remaining in office. But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. 2 (30m 9s): Therefore he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. It's pretty cool that God is interceding for us, that he is praying for us. I don't think we connect to that truth. Well enough to believe that God God knows us because it it's it's the indication is that if he's praying for us, he knows us so that he knows you you're you you've never been forgotten by God. You've never drifted so far that he's forgotten about you, that he, he knows you intimately in loves you intimately. 2 (30m 49s): And he's interceding for you, praying for you. God knows us. And he cares about us. There's this intimacy that, that we're believing from scripture and understanding from scripture and that he's willing to help us. He's he's we don't have to beg him to help us. A lot of our prayers come from a place of total lack of faith. We're saying, Lord, please. And we're begging God to help us when we don't even realize that it's his idea to intercede for us in the first place, into inter and to minister, to us out of his great love and connection to us, God is he knows us. 2 (31m 31s): He cares about us. He's willing to help us and he's and he's able to help. Plus, I mean, this is the, he is without he is without into his resource. And he's able to help us in the journey. It's a discipleship program for men and women in our church and really around the globe. We like to say, God knows God cares. And God is willing. And God is able. I mean, that's just the most simplistic way to talk about the intimate relationship that God desires to have with us. He knows he cares. 2 (32m 14s): He's willing. And that's where maybe we wrestle, you know, God are you really, are you wanting to help? Are you interested in helping? He's willing? And he's completely able to help. Prayer is a powerful weapon, especially, especially when Jesus is praying, especially. And we're not going to understand on this side of heaven, I don't think all of the theological implications of Jesus as praying to God, the father, let's just trust that there's power in it, but there's power in the reality that God is ministering to us. 2 (32m 54s): He's ministering to us in somebody's profound ways we pray and he's listening. That's ministry. Once you feel ministered to, and you're, you're pouring out your heart to someone and they're just listening, right? They're just listening. It's just, it's so therapeutic and spiritually so good when somebody just will listen, we cry out to the living God all of the time. And he listens because he cares. He cares about us. There's ministry happening when he touches our bodies or encourages our spirits or reconciles our relationship when he continues to forgive us and to cast our sin, as far as the east is from the west and choosing not to remember that against us any longer there's incredible ministry. 2 (33m 49s): So it wasn't one and done. I mean, in, in the sense that we were have been redeemed, the finished work of Christ happened, and that was one. But, but then he continues. He finished his work and he continues his work. He finished it and he continues it. Maybe, maybe you're here today and you kind of gave your life to the Lord at some point, but you haven't continued on in that relationship with the Lord, he's called you to a lifetime, an eternity of walking with him and trusting him. He Romans 8 31 through 34, kind of reiterate some and communicates powerfully that the truth that I've been trying to communicate, what shall we say about such wonderful things is as these, if God is for us, who can ever be against us since he did not even spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. 2 (34m 45s): Won't he also give us everything else who dares accused us, whom God has chosen for his own. No one for God himself has given us right. Standing with himself who then will condemn us. No one for Christ. Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us. And he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand pleading for us. Isn't that great news, right? We live under such heavy guilt and condemnation at times. And, and, and when we allow ourselves to stay there, it minimizes and diminishes the finished work of the Lord. 2 (35m 28s): Jesus Christ. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, if you're feeling guilty about perpetual sin, get that dealt, get that confessed, get move on from that by God's grace, be done with that by by God's grace and in Jesus name, but then allow the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to wash over you. Don't don't allow the enemy to fill you with condemnation and, and feelings of heaviness and guilt. Once it's dealt with it's still with verse three, it says, it says incense, every high priest. Again, this is a comparison to earthly priestly system and their heavenly priestly system. 2 (36m 10s): And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our high priest must make an offering to Dunn. You made did he is he is that done. Hebrews seven tells us Jesus offered himself for the people's sins. That is the sacrifice. But again, there's no comparison between the two that earthly priests continue to offer sacrifices. One year after year one, after the other, Jesus offered himself once. And for all, in fact, we're going to see that Jesus wouldn't even make it in the earthly system because he was of the tribe of Judah. And he wasn't he wasn't of the Levi tribe. It says here in verse four, if he were on earth, he would not even be a priest. 2 (36m 50s): Since there are already priests who offer the gifts required by the law, they serve in a system of worship. That's only a copy, a shadow of the real one and a heaven. It's it's not even a comparison. It's not even a comparison. What Jesus has accomplished in the new covenant, in the new system compared to the old there's no, it's the old system is a copy. It's a shadow. It's, it's a placeholder pointing us to what would come in Christ and what would be fulfilled in Christ. And so for working, if we're trusting God, believing God in some kind of with some kind of human effort to keep the law by trying to do everything just right. 2 (37m 33s): We've missed it altogether. If we, if we're trying to secure righteousness by keeping the law it's it's futile it's and, and this was the problem with the old system, keeping the law didn't make anybody righteous. Nobody was able to do it. They serve in a system of worship. That is a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven for when Moses was getting ready to build the tabernacle. God gave him this warning. Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern. I've shown you here, the mountain and, and access 25. You can read the next verse 25. 2 (38m 12s): God is giving Moses kind of the blueprint for the tabernacle and everything that was going to go into it. He said, be sure that you make everything according to the pattern. I have shown you here on the mountain. We'll talk more about the Tabernacles we get into Hebrews chapter nine next week. We'll kind of unpack that some more and the symbolism of everything that's in there, but Hebrews eight, six says, but now Jesus, our high priest has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood for he is the one who mediates for us at far better covenant with God based on better promises, I can't help, but think there, there might be people in the room who are operating in a human it through human effort, trying to connect to God, kind of our broken down old way of thinking, religious kind of way of thinking. 2 (39m 16s): There's there are people who are trying to connect to God that way. And Jesus has made it Uber clear that that old system, it was a placeholder. It was never meant to be the permanent thing. But we in the church, even though we get super legalistic about things and we get hung up on things and we, we want to relate to God, maybe in a way that is historically familiar with us, but we're not in all of that. We're not connected to the living work and the living person of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 (39m 59s): And this is what God is calling us to Hebrews eight, six, but now Jesus, our high priest has been given a ministry that is superior to the old priesthood for he is the one who mediates a far better covenant with God based on better promises. Number three, he's our mediator. He is our mediator. He is our go between. He's our go between during the civil war, a soldier was trying to get a meeting with Abraham Lincoln. He was trying to get permission, not to be enlisted into the armed forces, due to personal circumstances with his family. 2 (40m 46s): And so he made an appointment with the president and the day that he was scheduled to go have the appointment with the president, he went to the white house and, and they, I didn't have him on record or in the schedule. And so they turned them away. And so this young man went to the park nearby and was just sitting on a bench and, and he was dejected. He was sad. He, he missed his opportunity to speak to the president. Well, this little boy came up and noticed that he was sad and, and asked him what was going on. And so the guy just poured out his heart to this, this little boy and explained to him that he was supposed to meet with the, that he needed to meet with the president to get this waiver for service in the military. 2 (41m 39s): And he was just dejected. And Sadie said, Hey, the little boy said, Hey, come follow me. It's a little boy led him up to the white house around the back door, passing by security. And everybody, everybody just kind of waving at him and just letting him through. He walks into the white house and he walks right into the oval office. And there's the precedent. So this little boy walks up to the president and the president says, well, Hey tad, how are you? What can I do for you son? And he said, Hey dad, there's this guy who needs to talk to you. 2 (42m 22s): And that's what Jesus has done for us as our mediator. He, he gets us around all of the blue tape, all our red, what does it re red tape, whatever it's called. What's blue tape. Oh, blue tape is painter's tape. I was using, I was thinking blue tape because I was over at 1 0 2 and we were moving this vault door. So it's an old bank, right? And so there's this vault door that has been, we took it off nine months ago and it's been sitting in the middle of the room for nine months because it's 3,500 pounds, 3,500 pounds. So we finally get a forklift in and I did something. 2 (43m 2s): I cut my finger and I, I, I, we had to keep moving. And so I wrapped it with blue tape and that's what I was thinking, blue tape. So anyway, blue tape is not a good bandage, by the way, I was bleeding all over the place. And so a little tad gets this man right to the precedent. Jesus gets us right to the father. He's our mediator. We make it so complicated. And we got to do all these things. But if we just connect to the mediator, follow the mediator, we get right to the father. This is the power of the gospel, the simplicity of the gospel. 2 (43m 45s): We have access to the father through the son and it's because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. He died so that we might be connected, have relationship to and with and live eternally with the Lord. It's easy to convolute things and confuse things. And, and the enemy wants to make things very complicated for us so that we lose track and lose touch with the simplicity of what Jesus has done. 2 (44m 25s): First Timothy two five says for, there is one God and one mediator who can reconcile and humanity. The man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time. Hebrews eight seven says if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. But when God found fault with the people he said, the day is coming, says the Lord, I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. So this new covenant pastor David music describes is a covenant of grace and not of works. 2 (45m 13s): It's a covenant marked by believing and receiving instead of by earning and deserving. I think that's the point I was trying to make earlier. It's a covenant based on believing and receiving as opposed to earning and deserving. Hebrews eight, nine says this covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors. When I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. Again, it God's initiative. He delivered the people out of their slavery at God's initiative. He's wanting to take us today by the hand and lead us out of our old life. 2 (45m 55s): Verse continues. They did not remain faithful to my covenant. So I turned my back on them says the Lord, it sounds harsh. But a covenant normally involves the full cooperation of both parties. If one party defaults, the covenant becomes invalid. So this is virtually what happened to the old covenant. The Israelites did not continue in the covenant, which means that they broke away from its conditions. And when God says, I turn my back on, not on them, it's not to be understood as an arbitrary act of rejection or disinterest, but is as in the end inevitable consequence of his people turning their backs on the covenant that he made for their benefit and blessing. 2 (46m 42s): It was a broken system. So God brings a new system, verse 10, but this new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds. So this is the covenant he made with the people of Israel. I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts. What was the law before was on tablets of stone, external. Where is the law? Now it's internal. It's again communicating the superiority of this new covenant, the laws in our hearts. And in our minds, he's written them there. I will be their God and they will be my people and they will not need to teach their neighbors nor will they need to teach their relatives saying you should know the Lord for everyone from the least to the greatest will know me all ready. 2 (47m 29s): So God is changing the higher red, a hierarchical system where the people must rely on a priest or a scribe to explain to them the truth that God is putting that truth in their hearts so that they understand the truth of God. And now they can relate to God. One to one through the mediator, through the Lord, Jesus Christ, the finished work there they can connect with. And so it changes this old system of the law and moves it from this outward works-based system into this intimate connection with the Lord where he's putting this, this law in their hearts. 2 (48m 12s): So Jesus is our mediator. He's our high priest. He's our go between. He's our minister. And he is the one who completed the work of redemption for humanity. So he's calling us into this place and he said, and I will forgive their wickedness. And we'll never again, remember their sins. This is the covenant by which Jesus has the power to forgive sins. Never to remember them again. When God speaks of a new covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete and it's now out of date and will soon disappear. And that thing disappeared at ADC and 80 70, when the temple was destroyed, animal sacrifices ceased, it disappeared to this day when we were in Israel a couple of years ago, w our tour guide was a Jewish man in his they're talking about gathering materials to rebuild the temple. 2 (49m 10s): And he's hoping that he will be chosen to be one who goes into the temple to offer sacrifices. There they're disconnected from the reality. Choose not to believe in the reality that Jesus is the Messiah and that he finished the work and ushered in a new covenant. We need to stop striving in our flash and trust the finished work of the Lord, Jesus Christ, whatever that means to you as the Lord, where am I striving? Where am I lacking faith in that finished work? I know I'm striving when I'm really begging God for something. 2 (49m 54s): And I'm like, Lord, you gotta do this. I it's, I, I recognize that it's not prayers of faith, but it's prayers of desperation. And then I changed my prayer and say, thank you, Lord, for what you will do in this situation. Thank you, God that you're working in this situation. Thank you God that you know about this situation. Thank you, God, that you are doing something in this situation. Even if I don't see it. Thank you, Lord God, I pray that you would just give me peace as I walked through it. And then all of a sudden it just shifts everything. I'm no longer anxious, no longer angry, no longer frustrated, but I'm just trusting Jesus. 2 (50m 35s): Jesus completed his work and he continues his work. He's seated. He is ministering. He is our mediator. And today is family Sunday for Sunday of the month, we take communion. And so I'm going to invite Jean up. She's going to lead us in communion today. And then after the service, we're going to have baptisms available. So as Jean comes forward, we're going to borrow this microphone. Come on on Jean. So alive. Give that a try there and see if that's live. 3 (51m 11s): Hello. That's a bit too much, right? Good morning. I just want to talk a little bit about community. And this morning community in is one of two sacraments that was taught by Jesus. The first was baptism, which we're doing today, which is an outward sign of one's entrance into God's family, by your faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ God's son. And the second sacrament is communion, which denotes your sanctification to be sanctified is to be consecrated. The bow of the dictionary says to be dedicated, to be made holy. So this is a holy feast, a sacrament. 3 (51m 55s): Now the word sacrament was first used by the Romans. It was called sacramentum and it was when a Roman soldier pledged to serve his nation. He made a sacrament and we do the same thing. We pledge our allegiance to Jesus and to the gospel and to God's covenant promise, which we learned about this morning to us. So it's a serious remembrance that Jesus initiated at the last supper with his disciples before his death. When after breaking the bread, he said, this is my body broken. Feel, do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way after supper, he took the cup saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. 3 (52m 38s): So the last supper was a celebration of the Passover, which was a joyous remembrance of the saving of the lives of the Israelites. When the death angel passed over the land of Egypt, killing all the first born. So our death has also been passed over for a born into an eternal life. And this is the new covenant which Jesus made and which we celebrate each month. So we are also warned also not to take this feast unworthily, but to examine ourselves less, we participate and become sick. One Corinthians chapter 11. So there are five images to communion. 3 (53m 19s): The first is Thanksgiving to the father. And then that first century, right up and towards the end of the middle ages, which is around the 15 hundreds, communion was a joyful celebration. It wasn't the solemn thing that it became after that. Okay. Where are we? So we actually gave grateful things for the life that Jesus laid down to become the first fruits of God's family of which we are apart. The second is that we commemorate Christ as we remember just who he is and what he achieved through his death and resurrection, that he is the Lord that he never leaves nor forsakes us. That we are cleansed from all of our sins and our shortcomings. 3 (54m 4s): The third is that we sacrifice ourselves, which is our reasonable act of service. According to Paul in Romans chapter 12, we are made holy we've been cleansed for a purpose, fourthly that we love one another in acts 2 42 that says he steadfastly devoted themselves constantly to the instruction and fellowship of the apostles to the Lord's supper and prayer. We need to be participators, enjoy togetherness and care for one another. Lastly, this celebration is a foretaste of things to come. When we celebrate in heaven, the wedding feast of the lamb. When we, as Christ bride join in union with him, face-to-face forever. 3 (54m 49s): So before I invite you to take the elements and share the celebration with family, with friends or even somebody you don't yet know, I'd like to share a poem that the Lord gave me about communion. We gather here together to remember what took place to save mankind from death and hell has got offered us, his grace, his precious son, the holy Christ was part of God. You see? So it was also God, the father's pain that day at Calvary together, they designed and made this universe for man, but evil reared, its ugly head fouling up the plan. 3 (55m 29s): The father, God though sat and devised another way, chose Abraham to form a race known as the Jews today. Alas, the sinful nature kept its iron grip on man. And God revealed through profits that he had a better plan. They prophesied a Savior's birth to be in Bethlehem. Your shoer made his entrance son of God and son of man through the years that followed, he proved that he was God with teachings and miracles. No one else had done before and then embraced his destiny to Calvary. He came battered, bleeding, naked. He bore the awful shame. 3 (56m 10s): He died an agonizing death to appease the holy God, the punishment that we deserve. He took upon himself. The veil in the holy place, separated man from God was ripped from top to bottom, giving access to the Lord Jesus, death and resurrection made a pathway. We can tread and enter into life with him a life that has no end. So as we take this bread and cup with truly grateful hearts, let's stop. Be still and ponder the cost until I Lord and take this life. He's given us to focus on what's true to love and serve our precious Lord today and all life through. 3 (56m 53s): This is a celebration of the greatest sacrifice. The glorious son of God, most high laying down his life. Let's take the bread. As we just remember our laws, body broken for us And to compete. I holy feast, we, we take this a little bit of juice, but you know, it's it represents such a huge thing about it. Jesus Christ cleanses you from all your sin. 3 (57m 37s): As Steve mentioned this morning, God bless you all. 2 (57m 56s): Thank you gene. Thank you, Lord. Let's invite the worship team forward and this praise they come forward. And Lord, thank you for communion for the opportunity to be reminded where to take communion as often as we remember. So Lord, we thank you that we're reminded today of your, your great goodness, your great grace. We love you. God help us never to take it lightly, but see it as an opportunity. This act of worship taking communion Lord, that we would see that as an opportunity to refresh ourselves in you receive fresh grace, God, to recommit our lives to you. 2 (58m 55s): If you're here today and you've never accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, it's really a simple, yet profound and powerful thing that God calls us to. He calls us to recognize our sinfulness are all of our mistakes and failures recognize that we have missed the mark fallen short of God's glorious standard and that we need his forgiveness and his grace. The Bible says that if we confess our sin, he is faithful. 2 (59m 37s): And just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So if you're here today and you need the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ for your sin, if you need forgiveness, go and ask the Lord, ask the Lord for forgiveness, For his love and for his grace. And as you experience that forgiveness and his love and his grace, you also experience the adoption of God. You will be adopted into the family of God and you'll be no longer outside of the family, but you will be a child of God, a son or a daughter. 2 (1h 0m 19s): And then I encourage you. If you've made that decision, I would encourage you to get baptized today. Again, we will have shorts and t-shirts available in towels. And so that will be on that back patio right after service. And so Lord, we just pray God that you would just continue the good work Lord. Thank you for your grace. Thank you, Lord. I feel compelled if you are here today and you've given your life to Jesus, but you've never been baptized make today your day. Thank you for your grace. Jesus. Amen. Let's worship 1 (1h 5m 47s): Thank you, Jesus. That we get to praise your name. We lift your name. Hi, thank you for your presence in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. If you'd like prayer this morning, we have a prayer team, so you can make your way forward. If you'd like to get baptized, we have an info team out front, so you can make your way up there and sign up for that for today. Have a wonderful day.

0 (0s): Good morning if you're on the patio or you're at home, would you also stand as we worshiped 1 (21s): I 0 (21s): Was lost, but he brought me in no, his, his I was asleep to, since Jesus died. 1 (1m 4s): There's 0 (2m 59s): A place. Yes. 2 (3m 12s): Because as we worship you, we are your children. We thank you that we get to worship you this morning church. We're going to sing a new song this morning. And in that song, we declare that we believe in the word of God. We declare that he is true and that we sing this out with that. 0 (3m 37s): Do your speed. Can see being Christ. Jesus I believe in the resurrection that will, we will rise. 0 (4m 22s): Ah, I believe in resurrection when Jesus I believe in God. 0 (7m 5s): I believe in Christ 1 (8m 17s): we cry. 1 (10m 23s): We cry. 3 (10m 51s): Thank you, Lord. You are indeed. Holy And by your grace, you have imputed holiness to us. It's incredible. You have forgiven our sins washed us, made us as white as snow pure and your sites because of the shed blood of Christ on our behalf. We thank you, Lord, that you are holy and you have made a way for us to ensure into your holy presence by forgiving us, redeeming us. This promise, this process of sanctify sanctification. You're sanctifying us Lord. You're doing such wonderful and profound and powerful things in our lives. 3 (11m 37s): Lord God, I pray God that we would God find a firm foundation. God, for those of us who have been waffling questioning, wondering doubting Lord, I pray that we would set our feet on a firm. The, the firm foundation, who is Christ the Lord, and that we would stand firm, that the truth of the scripture would anchor our lives. Anchor our souls. Lord, the revelation of God would be sufficient for us for our lives. We love you. We trust you, God. We believe you. And we praise you in Jesus name. 3 (12m 17s): Amen. Amen. Hey, go and turn around and greet and neighbor and we'll come right back here in just a moment. I'll get it. I got it. 1 (12m 26s): my back. 3 (13m 53s): Come on back. Good morning. We're in Hebrews chapter seven. Today you can be seated and turns you Hebrews chapter seven. I'm just going to warn you up front. I got a ton of material to go through today. I got a ton of stuff. So for historical context, we'll be looking at well, we look well steady all the way through Hebrews chapter seven, but we'll be looking at chapter six, chapter eight and chapter nine as well, just to kind of lay some groundwork. But before that, we'll just kind of go through some information. And the title of the message today is Jesus is absolutely enough. 3 (14m 36s): He's absolutely enough. And we walk with Jesus for any length of time, whether we're brand new and cry in the Lord, or I've been doing this walking with the Lord for decades, we realize that Jesus is absolutely enough, but then, but then circumstances happen. Sometimes we begin to waffle in that we begin to wonder about that. We begin to question that. And so really that's why Hebrews has been written to reaffirm, to believers in the Lord. Jesus Christ, that he is absolutely enough. That station is to fall back into an old way of thinking old system of believing a way of working things out with the Lord where the truth is. He's absolutely not for this life. 3 (15m 17s): He's come that we might have life and life abundantly, but then also for our eternal life. So we have a hope in Christ for this life and for the next this life. And for the next it'd be a total bummer if we didn't have hope in this life as well. But God by his grace has given us a bundle of mercy and goodness and gifts and favor for this life. And then it just carries on into eternity. God is absolutely good. I just want to cover a few things before we get into our text today. Some of us wonder because of maybe background experiences, choices we've made is God sufficient. 3 (15m 58s): Is he absolutely enough to save me, to redeem me? And I just want to tell you, man, no matter who you are, God is absolutely enough. Jesus is absolutely enough to redeem you. He's able to cleanse you of your sins to make you a brand new person to sanctify your life so that you look, you look totally different in your new life than you did in your old life. He's actually made it possible for you to be born again spiritually with the implication, meaning that you're going to be a brand new person in the Lord. Jesus Christ. 3 (16m 38s): Jesus is enough to save us. Jesus, Jesus has by one sacrifice made perfect forever. Those who are being made. Holy, we read that in Hebrews 10, 14, Peter preach that there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. We see that in acts chapter four, verse 12, there is literally no one and nothing else that we could add to Christ to aid in our salvation. We are saved by grace through faith because he is good. 3 (17m 21s): Not because we are good. He finished the work on the cross. And what he did is enough to save us John 1930. So Jesus is enough to save us and that should set a foundation in our lives to build upon that informs our lives and encourage us. Us encourages us to believe that he is absolutely enough for every other arena of our lives. Jesus is enough to save us. Jesus is enough to provide for us. Paul wrote in Philippians four 19, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 3 (18m 6s): So Jesus is absolutely enough. He's absolutely enough to bless us as well. Paul said that God blessed us in interest with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, Ephesians one three, he didn't say a few spiritual blessings. He said every spiritual blessing. And since we can't add anything more to every Jesus is truly enough for every spiritual need we have. So we see that God is sufficient, absolutely sufficient, absolutely enough for every area of our lives. Jesus is enough to equip us. 3 (18m 46s): I say this all the time that God calls and God equips people to do the work in the world that he has for us to do at whatever level he's calling us. And he's equipping us. Jesus is enough to equip us. We have the promise that God's divine power has bestowed on us. Absolutely everything necessary for a dynamic spiritual life and godliness. Second, Peter one three says by his divine power, by his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. You wonder how to live a godly life. Stay close to Jesus. 3 (19m 27s): Be filled with the holy spirit, open up the word of God, allow it to inform you. You will live a godly life by his grace. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. So he hasn't called us into a religious system. He's called us into a relationship with him by which she pours out and bestows upon us. All kinds of amazing gifts here in this life and in the life to come, Jesus is enough to strengthen us. Maybe you're feeling weary. It's only halfway through January in the new year, but maybe you're feeling weary. God is actually able to strengthen you in whatever scenario that you're facing in your life for Jesus is enough to strengthen us. 3 (20m 16s): When Paul prayed three times to the Lord to remove the thorn from his flesh, the response was my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in your weakness. So when we are weak, Jesus' strength is enough to carry us onward. In fact, our weakness only perfects his power, which leaves no room for adding another power source. Jesus is all we need. 3 (20m 56s): There is nothing and no one to add to Christ his person and his work are perfect. He is the way he is the truth and he is the life. John 14 six. He is the only one who can save. He's the only one who can provide for us, bless us, equip us and strengthen us. Having faith in Christ involves trusting. This is the challenge for us. Having faith in God involves trusting in his complete sufficiency. Having faith in God involves trusting in his complete sufficiency for our salvation and for our life in the here. 3 (21m 39s): And now he's come that we might have life in life, abundance, you that he Hewitt wrote. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. There's something about that truth that should resonate with us as believers. If you're hearing this truth for the first time, you need to know by God's grace, he wants to come into your life. He wants to forgive you. He wants to set you free. He wants to lavish on you. The kind of love that you've never experienced before he wants to lead you through life leads you out of danger, leads you into eternal life with him. He wants to be your Lord, your king, your Redeemer, and your saver. 3 (22m 21s): Why? Because he's absolutely enough. Jesus is absolutely enough. So before we get into Hebrews chapter seven, that was just kind of get us, get us prepared for that to get some historical context. Like I said, we're gonna look at the last couple of verses of Hebrews chapter six. We're going to look at the first couple of verses of Hebrews chapter eight. And then we're going to look at a number of verses in Hebrews chapter nine because all of those verses is a lot, but all of those verses give us context, historical context to understand what's happening in Hebrews chapter seven, Hebrews chapter seven is it is a challenging chapter and some people skip it. And, but I just like to go through the whole text of scripture. 3 (23m 2s): And so we're gonna do our best to teach their Hebrews chapter seven today, before we do that, let's get into Hebrews chapter six. I feel like we should pray. Here we go, Lord, we're gonna pray one more time. There's a lot of information ahead of us. I pray God that we hang in there, that we don't glaze over and check out, but that we hear the truth that are, that we need to hear in our spirits Lord in our souls, in our minds, in our lives, God. And that we would hear it and not just hear it, but believe it, maybe at a whole new level, maybe for the first time, but that we would believe God that you are absolutely all that we need. Jesus. And so he works efficient, absolutely sufficient. 3 (23m 44s): So help us to believe that and hear that and see that in the passage of scriptures that we read through today in Jesus name. Amen. Here we go. Hebrews six, you guys ready? Historical contexts, Hebrews six, 19 through 20. You can just jot these down and look at them later, but there'll be up on the screen as well. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. What's the hope that we're talking about all of the hope that we've been talking about, right? I hope for eternal life in Jesus, new life in Jesus here on the here and now. So this hope is what we're talking about. And Hebrews chapter six, this hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It means when we are building our life on this truth, that anchors of the truth anchors us and keeps us from getting too far away from God and too far away from God's planet keeps us right where we need to be. 3 (24m 34s): It leads us this hope, this, it leads us through the curtain, into God's inner sanctuary in the tabernacle. There was the holy place and the most holy place. This is where the priests of God did business with God, where they offered sacrifices for themselves. And for the people of God who had sinned, they're offering animal sacrifices, old covenant, old Testament stuff. This is what was going on, but Jesus has already gone in there for us. And he has become our eternal high priest. In the order of milk has a deck. Let's jump to Hebrews chapter eight, skip skipping chapter seven for a moment, Hebrews chapter eight verses one and two says this here is the main point. 3 (25m 17s): So as you read through Hebrews 5, 6, 7, as you read through Hebrews, you get to Hebrews chapter eight. And it says, here is the main point when it says here is the main point. It's time to pay attention because this is the main point, right? So we want to pay attention. So if you're asking, what's the main point, here's the main point. We have a high priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. What does it mean that he sat down and we said it is finished, right? It is just right. Like the work, the sacrifice has been accomplished. 3 (25m 58s): It is finished. The work is done. So he sits down at the right hand of the father. There, he ministers in the heavenly tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands. We'll talk about that as we go through our study through Hebrew. So the fact that Jesus is at the right hand of the throne of God and he's interceding for us indicates that he hasn't called us into a religious practice. He's called us into a relationship with him. And some of us pay lip service to that relationship, but we never really maybe injured into it. 3 (26m 39s): Or we don't handle that very well. We kind of maybe keep God at a distance or we, you know, talk to them or pray to them on Sundays or when we're in trouble and that sort of thing. But he's actually called us into a close and intimate relationship with him. And he's, he's invested. He made the way for our salvation for just an amazing life here in the earth. Even with all of the difficulties that we go through, he is with us. He sustains us, he strengthens us. He provides for us. So he's done all of that to come that again, that we might have life and life abundance, but then also he's gone to the father. He sits there and he's interceding for us. So he's engaged with us. He's thinking about us, he's aware of what we're going through. 3 (27m 20s): So when we're going through stuff, we can go to him and bring our petitions to him. And he will intercede for us, strengthening us in what he has called us to do and what he's taking us through. There, he ministers and the heavily tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands. Jesus is absolutely enough. Number one, because he has completed the necessary work of securing our salvation. Wow. He has completed the necessary work of securing our salvation. 3 (28m 1s): He has pleaded the necessary work of securing our salvation. Some of us seem to understand that on a whole new level, like a transformational level, that changes the way that we think and relate to God and live in this life. It's Jesus plus absolutely nothing that equals salvation. So Jesus by his grace, because he is good. Not because we are good, he saves us. And then he takes us on this amazing journey. That's reflective of our connection with him, our intimacy with him. He takes us on this journey of sanctification. I was just talking to a couple of this morning after first service. 3 (28m 42s): And they said they were separated and they were distant from God. And then when they decided to get serious about their relationship with God, again, because they had drifted and backslidden God brought them back together and his reconciling their relationship, sanctifying their relationship, bringing them back together and together now they will follow Jesus together. This is what Jesus does. He's absolutely sufficient to save us. And then to take us down this path of sanctification, whereby we look totally different, totally different as we move forward. Then when we did, when we were younger, I did a Memorial service for my friend. 3 (29m 23s): I don't know, last year, sometime friend from junior high school. And so all these are all buddies from junior high and high school people that I've known forever. And a lot of them I haven't seen for decades, like since then know. So it's been a few that few decades. So when I get done, you know, bringing the message and talking about my friend who passed away, some friends came up to me who hadn't seen me since high school. They're like, man, you're totally different than you used to be my best. That's the plan, right? Like if I'm born again, but stay, if we're born again, but never grow. If we never grow up in our most holy faith in what's the point, God has designed us to mature and grow and be sanctified by his grace so that his work is constantly happening within us and changing us and transforming us Jesus plus nothing equals salvation that we go on this amazing journey called sanctification. 3 (30m 18s): Jesus is sufficient. He's completely enough. So this important information for the believers in the first century needed to be reiterated and communicated to them so that they might wake up because they began to backslide away from it begin to not believe it begin to fall away from this truth. And so this first century group of believers, Jewish believers needed to hear this information again. And I, I think down through the centuries, down through the centuries, we've all needed to be hearing this information again. So it's my job to bring this information, this revelation to us again, so that we have a firm foundation and an effective walk with Jesus, many people. 3 (31m 1s): We, we wrestle in our seasons of life with whether the truth is that Jesus isn't, we, we, we wonder is Jesus enough. And we need to be reminded by the scripture. This is why I'm always telling us open up your Bible, get to church, stay informed with the word of God. Hebrews was written to a group of people who were backsliding or struggling. We've all been in that place where we've been struggling with what we really believe. So Hebrews now to us is reminding us as followers of Jesus, that he is enough. This information and revelation are difficult for some to hang on to, but if we just continue to come back to it, we will be able to hang onto it. 3 (31m 43s): I think some of us get saved and we're distant from the Lord. And so we never quite experienced victory on this side of heaven. And so we're dealing with guilt and condemnation and there's something about there's something about in the first century, something about the religious experience that the people wanted to sometime somehow participate in their salvation, into their sanctification. So that's why they kind of drifted back into like the animal sacrifices where literally they would sacrifice the bulls and goats and, and the blood of those animals would, were meant to cover sin until a time all of that stuff was going on. But, and so we're disconnected from that. 3 (32m 23s): But the reality is, is that in the 21st century, we want Jesus. Plus my good works it's Jesus. Plus my Bible reading it's Jesus. Plus my giving my tithing, whatever it may be. It's Jesus plus something else that brings me into a place of favor with God. And that God wants to shake all that up. He wants to shake all that up. Not that he's not going to grow you and make you different, but it's Jesus plus nothing else that equals your salvation. Jesus is enough. Meaning no more beating yourself up for past mistakes. Jesus is enough. Some of us are thinking back to our life when they, oh Lord. 3 (33m 4s): Back in 1945, I did this right back in 2020. I did this last week. Lord, I did this. I got to say, my grace is sufficient. If you confess your sins, God is faithful. And just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. So no more guilt over past mistakes, no more condemnation because Jesus has forgiven your sins. We love the new system, but our flesh likes the old system. So we slipped back into a system of works. Paul addressed this issue to the church in Glacia Galatians one six. He said, I am shocked. I'm shocked that you're turning away so soon from God who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. 3 (33m 49s): You're following a different way. That pretends to be the good news, but it's not the good news at all. So let's look at Hebrews chapter nine because Hebrews chapter nine helps us understand the old system. This is what would happen in the old covenant. Under the old, in the old Testament before Christ came, this is what was going on. When these things were in place, the old system, the old covenant, the priests, the Levi priest regularly entered the first room, which is the holy place as they perform their religious duties. But only the high priests Everett enter the injured, the most holy place, which is behind another curtain in the tabernacle and only once a year. 3 (34m 33s): And he always offered blood for his own sins. And for the sins that people had committed in ignorance by these regulations, the holy spirit revealed that the entrance to the most holy place was not freely open. As long as the tabernacle and the system that old system is, is represented, represent represented. We're still in use right about that verse nine. This is an illustration pointing to the present time. So now we're talking about what God has done, what Jesus has done. This is an illustration pointing to the present time for the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciouses of the people who bring them for that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies, physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established. 3 (35m 32s): What is that better system that has been established Jesus, right? Christ the better system Christ is the better system. He's the perfect and final sacrifice. And so these people had believed the first century believers, Jewish believers had believed, but then begin to slip back into old ways of thinking. So that's why this letter is written verse 11 says, so Christ has now become the high priest language that they would understand over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 3 (36m 14s): So now let's get into Hebrews chapter seven. Is that clock set? Okay, good to set. I got to, I need to know how much time I've got left here. I just need to take a breath and what I need to do. So I'm trying to get a lot in here. I told my wife, I said, I'm not sure if I'll be able to get all of Hebrews seven in there. She said, we'll break it up. Of course I didn't break it up here. We are. So now as we get into Hebrews chapter seven, we're going to be learning about this mysterious person named Mel Kesa deck. All right. Again, the whole purpose of this letter is to inform and to encourage and to remind the Jewish believers that Jesus is absolutely enough. 3 (36m 57s): And so this person, Mel Kazakh interacted with Abraham. So we're talking 4,000 years ago, 2000 years before Christ Marchesa deck and Abraham are having this interaction. It was a setup 4,000 years ago to prepare the people, the Jewish people, especially, and as Gentiles, it was to prepare them for a better system that would be revealed 4,000 years later. So we will learn about this mysterious person though, because we've kind of hinted about him leading up to this point. So we're going to learn some stuff about milk as a deck and realize Marquez deck is greater than Abraham, but Jesus is greater than has a deck. 3 (37m 42s): Here we go, because the deck is both a king and a priest who foreshadowed Jesus. So the Levitical priests were just priest. They weren't Kings as well. They were just priest. So cause a king. He's the king of Salem, which is ancient Jerusalem. So he's king and priest, but we know that Jesus is a prophet priest and king. So he trumps milk has a deck and Marchesa deck trumps Abraham. So Jesus trumps them all. Here we go. Mel Kazakh prepared the Jewish people for a different type of priesthood. Something that would be instituted thousands of years later, God use mal Kesey deck. It seems as an example of what was to come in Christ. 3 (38m 24s): So mal Kuznick foreshadowed the work ministry and life of the Lord. Jesus Christ. We will see that now is greater than Abraham, but Jesus is greater than milk has it at Hebrews chapter seven one, shall we get into verse one? All right, here we go. This milk mill Cassa deck was king of the city of Salem, ancient Jerusalem, and also a priest of God. Most high when Abraham was returning home, after winning a great battle against the Kings milk, met him and blessed him. Then Abraham took a 10th of all. He had captured in battle and gave it to milk. Heza deck the name now Kesey deck means king of justice and king of Salem means king of peace. 3 (39m 8s): And so when we study this guy, Mel Kesey deck, we see that there's some similarities. Some people would say that milk Kesey deck was a Krzysztof mini, a an old Testament personification of Jesus. I don't believe that. I don't think that's the case. I think no deck was used. Maybe he was an angelic being who ruled over Salem, Jerusalem. I don't know who he is. We won't know this side of heaven, but we will meet him in eternity. Right? Cause he remains a priest forever. Like the Lord Jesus Christ. All right. We're looking at milk as a deck. There are plenty of similarities to Jesus, our great high priest, by the way, is just a priest and Jesus is the great high priest. 3 (39m 53s): All right, here we go. No charismatic is just says that he's just, and Jesus is just first John one nine. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful. And what just, he is faithful. And just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. So who is the one who is just unable to forgive? Well, Jesus is right. We see it in the scripture and ex or excuse me, John first, John one seven says, but if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin. So if you wonder if Jesus is enough, absolutely enough to forgive you and to save you. 3 (40m 39s): We we've got evidence from the scripture. Hebrews seven two says again, the name means king of justice and king of Salem means king of peace. So ML Kesey deck as king of Salem is also known as the king of peace. Who else do we know in the scripture is related to peace? Jesus, he's the prince of peace, right? Isaiah nine, six, a popular passage for Christmas time says this for a child is born to us. A son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince of peace, right? 3 (41m 22s): He's the prince of peace. Isaiah nine, seven. Speaking of Jesus says his government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and there it is again, justice from the throne of his ancestor, David, for all eternity, the passionate commitment of the Lord of heaven's armies will make this happen. So what else do we know about milk has a deck? Well, there's no record. This is interesting, right? Is there's no record of his father or mother or any of his ancestors, no beginning or end to his life. He remains a priest forever resembling the son of God. 3 (42m 4s): So that Greek word translated resembling in Hebrews chapter verse seven, chapter seven, verse three, it just simply means a copy or a facsimile. It means to be made like, or to render similar. So we see that milk has a deck is a priest forever resembling the son of God. I don't think he's across Christophe and at Christ often, if you think so, no problem. We won't have to talk about it after church, but I think he's probably just an angelic being or some somebody that God chose to use to point us to a new system, to the person in the work of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 3 (42m 48s): So there's no record of his family. Lineage is important. If you want to serve as a priest, you needed to prove that you were part of the right family, that you were indeed a Levi's. So we see begin to see a shifts. So God calls Melchizedek priest forever, but he's not a Levi. It only errands descendants. The it's could be priests. So we see a shift. We know that Jesus, wasn't a Levis, but he's called our great high priest. Jesus was of what tribe Judah. So that's a totally different tribe. Nowhere in all of scripture were people from Judas tribe priests. 3 (43m 28s): So we've got Mel Cassie, who's pointing people to a new system. Jesus is God using Melchizedek to point us to a new system pointing to something better that's coming. So he used the McKesson and 4,000 years ago to kind of foreshadow Jesus, you came 2000 year, goes years ago so that we get to hear about him today, 2000 years later, God's God's got this big picture plan that is unholy. So if you're worried about your life and what's going on in your life and you're like 30 years old right now, God's got it handled. Maybe you're a hundred years old. God is good. He's got it handled, right? He's not on this. Time-space continue. He's not worried. He's outside of time. He's got you handle. He's absolutely capable of handling your life. 3 (44m 9s): So there's no record of his family. We know who Jesus, father and mother are, but Jesus, again, our great high priest is not a Levi he's of the tribe of Judah. According to verse three, Mel and Jesus are both priests forever. I don't know how to work that out. Theologically. We'll figure it out when we get there. But according to the scripture, that's the case and they're priests forever. So typically a Levi would serve for a time they would die. And then a new Levi would come in and serve as priest. But Jesus is our great high priest for forever and ever and ever consider then how great this milk has. 3 (44m 52s): The deck was even Abraham. The great patriarch of Israel recognize this by giving a 10th of what he had taken in battle. So again, we're trying to elevate the reality that McKesson had good points is to Jesus is actually superior to father Abraham, the father of the Hebrew nation. He's been elevated as their father, spiritually and relationally. And, and, and through whom the promise of God has come, but there's something beyond that. And so the writers pointing this out, even Abraham, the gate, rape patriarch recognize this by giving him a 10th of what he had taken in battle. Now the law of Moses required that priests who are descendants of Levi must collect a tie from the rest of the people of Israel who are also descendants of Abraham. 3 (45m 37s): But now Cassa, DEC, who was not a descendant of Levi collected a 10th from Abraham and no Kesa Dick placed a blessing upon Abraham, the one who had already received the promise Genesis 12. And without question, the person who has the power to give a blessing is greater than the one who is blessed. Verse eight, the priests who collect ties are men who die. So Mel Kesa Dick is greater than they are because we are told that he lives on. In addition, we might even say that these Levi's and I, I love this rationale here, this, this language here. In addition, we might even say that these Levi's the ones who collected the ties, paid tied to milk has a deck when their ancestor, Abraham paid a tie to him for although Levi wasn't born yet, the seed from which he came was in Abraham's body. 3 (46m 28s): When deck collected the tithe from him, you have to think about that one. So if the priesthood of Levi in which the law was based could have achieved, this is important. Verse 11, if the priesthood of Levi in which the law was based, the old covenant, the old system could have achieved the perfection, God intended. Why did God needs? You establish a different priesthood with a priest in the order of instead of the, instead of the order of Levi and Erin, right? There's a transition happening. The old covenant was given the law was given. So we, we might recognize how desperately in need of God's grace. We are like obey the 10 commandments. 3 (47m 10s): Nobody could do it. Nobody could keep the commandments. In fact, scripture says that we break one part of the law. We're guilty of breaking all of the loss. So in every scenario with every person, we all need the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so the message throughout the scripture in the old and the new Testament points us to Jesus. Hebrews chapter points us to Jesus first wealth. And if the priesthood is changed, the law must also be changed to permit it for the priests. We are talking about belong to a different tribe whose members have never served at the alter as priest. What I, what I mean is our Lord came from the tribe of Judah and Moses never mentioned priests coming from that tribe. 3 (47m 57s): This change has been made very clear since a different priest who was like Mel Kesa. Dick has appeared. Jesus became a priest, not by meeting the physical requirements by belonging, to the tribe of Levi Levi, but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed as a Psalm was pointed out. When he prophesied you are a priest forever. In the order of Melchizedek, Jesus is absolutely enough. Number one, because he has completed the necessary work of securing our salvation and number two, and we'll wrap this left part up very quickly because he is a priest forever, and he guarantees a better covenant with God. 3 (48m 41s): So the old covenant was based on works obedience to the law Jesus and the new covenant guarantees by his sacrificial work on the cross. He guarantees a better covenant with God by grace. Are we saved through faith as nothing to do with ourselves, Ephesians 2 8, 9. It's all a gift of, of, of the Lord by grace. Are we saved through faith? Jesus guarantees a better covenant with God. Yes. The old requirement about the priesthood was set aside because it was weak and useless. Do you guys hear that? And this is what the people were beginning to slip back into. They were blinded to the effectiveness of what Christ had done, and they were slipping back into an old system for the law. 3 (49m 24s): Never made anything perfect, but now we have confidence in a better hope through which we draw near to God. This new system was established with a solemn oath. Era's descendants became priest without such an oath, but there was an oath regarding Jesus. For God said to him, the Lord has taken an oath and will not break his vow. You are a priest forever. So this will never change. This will never change because of this oath. Verse 22, Jesus is the one who guarantees this better covenant with God. You can't guarantee a better covenant with God through your good works. You can't guarantee a better relationship with God through your good works. 3 (50m 5s): You will enjoy maybe greater intimacy with God because of your obedience to him. You will enjoy a closer relationship with God, maybe because of your obedience, but you will never guarantee a better covenant relationship with him based on those things. Jesus secured that for you. Verse 23, there were many priests under the old system for death, prevented them from remaining in office, but because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. Therefore he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him, he lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. Jesus is absolutely enough. Number one, because he has completed the necessary work of securing our salvation. 3 (50m 46s): Number two, because he is a priest forever. And he guarantees a better covenant with God. Number three, because he is holy and blameless unstained by sin. He is holy and blameless. Imagine holy and blameless. The Lord, Jesus Christ. God who created the heavens and the earth took on human flesh in the, in the incarnation became a child raised, preached, taught, lived, died, raised from the dead all for you and me. 3 (51m 26s): Not because of his sin, but because of our sin, he is the kind of high Friess we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from centers and has been given the highest place of honor and heaven. Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins and first, and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all. Get this once for all. Don't keep going back, just receive the grace of the Lord. Jesus tries to, if you mess up, say, Lord, forgive me. I don't want to walk down that path, but don't go back from things that you've already been forgiven for. 3 (52m 7s): You're feeling guilty and condemnation about just, just receive the grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Maybe you're here today and you've never received the grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ healed. Jesus loves you. His grace is efficient. Receive it a fresh brand new today and watch what God will do in your life. The law pointed high priests who were limited by human weakness, but after the law was given God appointed his son with an oath and his son has been made the perfect high priest forever. Jesus has absolutely enough for your life now and for your eternity, build your spiritual foundation on that truth. 3 (52m 52s): And 2022 will be for you a time of amazing growth, spiritually amazing growth in the area of faith and confidence in trusting God and amazing things. Transformational things will begin to take place in your life, but we got to place our confidence solely in Jesus. He's absolutely enough with that. Let's go ahead and stand up and we're going to sing and worship a little bit more and then we'll get out of here. Lord. Thank you for this time. Thank you for your word for the historical context of your word. Thank you for speaking us. I pray God with all of that information. God that we would've absorbed something that builds us up in our most holy faith that we would have grabbed hold of something that will transform us and change us and encourage us Lord. 3 (53m 40s): So bless us. Help us. We pray Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship. 2 (56m 50s): Hi. Holy holy holy. And we cry. Holy holy today. And God we know that in eternity. We can cry. Holy holy, holy, thank you. That you are good. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your church. We love you. Jesus. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

0 (1s): Good morning. Would you stand and worship with us? If you're out on the patio, would you stand there as well? If you're at home, would you stand and would you rate lift your hands as we worship you this morning? God, we thank 1 (12s): You, father. Praise you. 0 (15s): And we lift your name. Hi 1 (17s): . 1 (4m 33s): Hi, the phrase go up. 1 (12m 30s): 2 (14m 13s): Thank you, Lord. It's a good day. It's a good day to be in the house of the Lord. And we bless you today. Thank you for the opportunity to gather with friends and family. Lord, we are so, so thankful for church and so thankful for where we live and for what you're doing in our midst. Lord God, it's a new year. And with new year comes new opportunity and hopefully a refreshing renewing of our hearts and minds, Lord, and we pray God that 2022 would be amazing. And God that we just continue to be grateful for all that you're doing in our lives. 2 (14m 55s): Lord God, as we open up to Hebrews chapter six today, instead of your word, we just pray God that your word would penetrate our hearts and minds. Lord that you gave me the grace to communicate truth. When your hearts and with your mind Lord, at the end of the day, Lord God that we would have heard something from you, receive something from you and that we'd be encouraged by you, Lord God, because you're good. And so thank you for this time. Thank you for this day in Jesus name. Amen. Hey, turn to Greg grease. Somebody next. See you before you sit down. Good job. 1 (15m 35s): Beautiful water. Beautiful. Jesus. 1 (16m 1s): 2 (16m 29s): All righty. Come on in. We will be wrapping up Hebrews chapter six. I was told that before we get into the message, I was told that I should re-introduce myself cause I've been gone for a couple of weeks. So my name is pastor Steve. I was told that some new people have joined the church in the last couple of weeks and they don't know who you are. So I am pastor Steve, one of the pastors here at the church. And so it's a pleasure to be back I, so three weeks ago for each I wasn't feeling good, but I took a COVID test and it was came back negative. And so I preached, and then a couple of days before our Christmas Eve service, I was feeling pretty lousy, again, pretty gnarly. And so I took another COVID test and it came back positive. 2 (17m 9s): So I decided that I would stay home and get better. And so I called Ron pastor Ron D and said, Hey, you're on for Christmas Eve. And so he preached on Christmas Eve and then I think Jeremy priests the next day or on the 26th and then last week Ron was scheduled to preach. So he preached and anyway, so I'm, I'm happy. So happy to be back. It feels, it feels like a long time, right? You Ms. Church and family and friends for two weeks and it's just really, really good to be back and I'm feeling so, so, so much better this real quick, what a year 20 well, 20, 20 and 2021 just crazy last couple of years. 2 (17m 52s): And now we're already in 2022 and we posted something on social media, just about all of the things that God did in 2021. And so I just want to recap that and just as a way to be reminded all that God had done and to appreciate our, our, our church, our staff, our elders pressures, it just takes an army to do all of the stuff that God has called us to do. And we're so excited. And so I just kind of going through my, we, we baptized 36 people last year. I don't think we've ever baptized 36 people in the same year. So that was incredible. 2 (18m 33s): We tried something new and because of COVID, we decided to just to have our Easter service, we always do an outdoor Easter service. And so typically it's out in the park and we're going to be back out in the park by the way, this year 2022. So we'll be back at the heritage square park there. And, but we did our Easter service on the back lot and it doesn't seem very big, but we set it up with tons of chairs and lots of people showed up and it was just an incredible Easter celebration. So that was fun, good stuff going on there. We had something, we did something that we'd wanted to do for a long time, but just haven't been able to pull it off. We had youth led services. So we did two of those where the youth did announcements helped with preaching, did music worship and all that sort of thing, ushers and greeting and that sort of thing. 2 (19m 14s): So that was incredible. We began the journey over at 1 0 2 in may. So we thought we would done we'd be done already, but you know, that was just my inexperience and optimism. Thank you very much pre optimism there. I was trying to think of a more negative word, but that it's optimism. Thank you. So, but we have made great progress at 1 0 2. In fact, I took a little phone video and we've, can we show that video really quick just to kind of, we can show you, maybe you'd never been in there, but this is kind of where it's at right now as a Friday, It's really coming together. 2 (20m 7s): So yeah, that's the video. So, you know, we spent months and months waiting on a permit and months and months doing work. And then finally we were able to call the drywallers in and, and now they're, they've got it all hung and now they're taping and texturing. And so hopefully by the end of the month, we'll be done with, you know, all the drywall work. And then there's a little bit of finished work that needs to be done and then painting and then floors. And then we're pretty much ready to go. So hopefully I'll put this kind of out loosely, I guess I've, you know, I've mistakenly said, you know, we're going to be in anyway sometime maybe sometime, maybe let's all hold the solution, maybe March. 2 (20m 46s): So that's hope, but Marx is going to be here before we know it it's our January. So anyway, this is going to be good. So a lot of good stuff, including one or two, we hosted our very first harvest fall festival on October 31st and just tons of people came out and just had a wonderful time. And it was the first time doing it. And man, so many people made that possible was wonderful. We saw growth in attendance within the church as a whole, but mainly with our kids with our Sunday school department, but fifth and sixth grade, that ministry has exploded as well as the junior high and high school tons and tons of kids show up here every week just to be part of the Bible studies and groups that we have going on. So we're super excited about that. 2 (21m 27s): They show up and pull out the basketball hoop every week. We just know they show up, they just show up and they own the place and we just, we think it's great. And so a lot of really good stuff there. We had multiple, multiple Bible studies going throughout the year, 20 home groups happening last year. I knew young professionals group multiple, as I said, multiple teen Bible studies and several other groups meeting on our campus throughout the weeks. I could have done any of this without your help. It takes, like I said, it takes an army of people just to pull it all off and to keep the place, you know, presentable and you know, people teaching and leading and all that sort of stuff. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 2 (22m 8s): So we so appreciate it. Thank you to you that staff, the elders, mostly just thank God he's been so faithful. It's been incredible to see what God did in the midst of, you know, pandemic and all of this stuff. That's been happening in our culture, in our community, in our world. We've just watched God just be faithful. It took on this project, had our biggest giving year ever a million, 1,000,400 thousand came in to cover cover expenses at 1 0 2, as well as just regular operating expenses. And I think the first year, so we're this year we're celebrating our 19 year anniversary and we had our first service in March of 2003. And so March will be 19 years. And is that right? Is that the right math? 2 (22m 49s): I think it's the right math. And so our first year, I think we brought in like totally for the year, like less than a hundred thousand dollars and we didn't need a lot. We had 12 people in the chairs back in the day, so we didn't need it. We rented a school and you know, we didn't need a lot. I was working full-time and, but we've, we've just watched God grow our budget, grow the ministry. And the budget just means it's just an indication of that. The ministries, you know, expanding and that sort of thing. So we're just, we're grateful for what God is doing. So I'm excited about 2022, how many is excited? About 20, 22. You're like ready to have 20, 21, 20 20 and in the rear view mirror and just ready to move forward. I'm super excited. I think God's going to do great stuff. 1 0 2 and with continually with the outreach and mission stuff that we do. 2 (23m 30s): And so I'm super excited about that. And so I just wanted to give you a brief update on kind of what happened in 20. I probably missed a ton of stuff, but, but that's, that's the deal. So we're, we're back to Hebrews chapter six and a. So if you want to turn there, we're going to get through the rest of Hebrews chapter six today. And we're seeing that, you know, much like maybe in the current culture, there was this difficulty in their life and it was causing them to the Hebrew people back in the first century, there was difficulty in, they were having a hard time continuing to trust that Jesus is the Messiah embracing their decision to believe that Jesus is Messiah. 2 (24m 12s): And so there's this encouragement from the writer of Hebrews to not give up, like never give up. They were waffling. And as often we do as believers, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ circumstances hit us. We begin to get a little unstable little waffling and our commitment and our faith. And God reminds us that we, we can trust him that we don't have to give up. We can move forward by his grace and in his strength. And so we've titled the message today. Never give up. It's just kind of the theme. As in the beginning, I think it was October, November. I started preaching and it was a similar title of messages for the first couple of weeks. You know, don't give up, Jesus can be trusted. 2 (24m 54s): And so we see the theme, you know, it's a theme, but it, it may be the theme. Like the biggest theme in all of Hebrews for all of Hebrews is never give up. And so we see the author continually encouraging the people, continually challenging the people. And so it's part of my job in the pulpit is just to continue to encourage and challenge and build us up, build people up in their most holy face that we can continue to March forward. Being the people that God has called us to be making the right decisions that God has called us to make. And so the challenge today never, never, never, ever give up. 2 (25m 35s): It's just one, never in the title, but you know, sprint is never give up, never give up. So revisiting Hebrews chapter six, verses 11 and 12, we covered this a few weeks ago. And last time I spoke, believers are encouraged to never give up. And so we, he, we read the Hebrews six, 11, and 12, and this is what it says. Our great desire is that you will keep on there. It is keep on loving others as long as life lasts in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. So in the Christianity, our, our hope is Jesus. And then God has given us a hope in this life and for eternity. 2 (26m 18s): So we put our faith and hope in Jesus. We hold on to this person who is Jesus, who is our, the, the, the source of our hope and who is our hope. And we hold onto him as we journey through the seasons of life, hoping that we will by God's grace never give up. And so it's interesting that the writer of Hebrews challenges, the people to love others, as long as life lasts, keep on loving others. As long as life lasts. I wonder why he focused his writing on challenging the people in the midst of their kind of waffling. Why did he challenge them to continue to love others? 2 (26m 59s): Well, that the Bible new Testament is the message. There is that we're to love God and love others. And so when we are loving others, we're not. So self-absorbed, I've noticed when we were self-absorbed. We, we think the world kind of revolves around us and we get easily frustrated because people aren't living up to our standards or whatever it may be. So the, the, the writer is encouraging the reader in the first century and all the way through the 21st century to love others. Again, loving others, keeps us from getting self-absorbed reminds us the world doesn't revolve around us, or reminds us of the plights of others when we stop. 2 (27m 42s): And just think about the plights of others, the things that people are going through and really begin to pray for people, loving them by praying for them. Boy, I don't know about you, but it changes my whole perspective. I'm like my, my problems though, they may be big at times they begin to come into perspective and I'm able to think about others' problems instead of my own problems. And, and I'm able to do what God has asked me to do as a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ, not just as a pastor, but just as one of his kids. You know, just like if you're a believer in Christ, you're one of his kids and he's called you to love him and love others. And in doing so, you keep your perspective fresh. You're able to have a tender heart before the Lord. So we going to keep loving others. 2 (28m 23s): Otherwise we become self-absorbed. So maybe cynical, angry, maybe a little bit selfish and also spiritually dull and indifferent. We see that in verse 12, it says, then if you're loving others, you will not become spiritually dull and in different isn't that just a subtle trap where you become spiritually doled during this COVID couple of weeks off that I had, and my mind was just not where it should be in order to really read and enjoy the scripture. So I try to read, get through maybe a few verses and I'd be like, forget about it. I can't absorb any of this stuff, you know? And I was just so tired. I just didn't. So for like, I don't know, like 10 days, I didn't read the scripture much, you know, maybe tried a couple of times, but I was so ready when my mind was refreshed, you know, to open up the scripture. 2 (29m 14s): And I just started reading the scripture. I'm like, oh my goodness, I've so needed. This I've needed to be refreshed by the word of God. I had become probably spiritually Dole because I've not been in church. I had not been reading the word and I don't think I was indifferent. I wasn't indifferent, but that's the slippery slope, right? You become spiritually dull and you become indifferent. And you're like, I don't care about what God wants to do. I don't care what God's calling me to do that. I, whatever, you know, take it or leave it, Lord. I don't really care. So the goal is that we would love others, love God and not become spiritually Dole. And in different verse 12, then you will not become spiritually adult and indifference dad instead. 2 (29m 57s): And this is important and said, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and enduring. So how do we hang in there? How do we never give up? What do, how do we resist the urge to give up? We've all experienced it and felt it, number one, we must exercise faith. And in Durance, if you're just coasting in your walk with the Lord and not really exercising faith and endurance, you're going to, you're going to begin to get spiritually Dole and indifferent. It's just the way it works. God's called us into this active relationship whereby we're active participants in this relationship with God, we're talking to him, praying, reading the word, actively involved, doing the stuff that he's doing in the earth, involved in the kingdom, work in the earth. 2 (30m 46s): And so we must exercise faith and endurance. We've got to have a growing faith. And if, if you're walking with God at all, and if you're reading the scripture at all, you see that God's always calling his people to, into an active faith. Like, like he's not, he doesn't want us to just rest on what we've done in the past. In fact, he won't allow us to do that if we're really paying attention, but he wants us to have an act of faith. Like what has God wants to do in my life today? It's a new year. What does God wants to do in my life this year? I don't want to just rest on my past accomplishments or experiences. I want to figure out what God wants me to do this year, without faith it's in possible to please God. 2 (31m 27s): And so he gives us opportunity to step into areas in our lives that require a great deal of faith. And we must learn to endure temptation testing and hardship. That's part of everybody's experience, right? Testing, temptation hardship. We, so we have to figure out how to endure so that we don't give up when we're being tested, because we will be tested when we're being tempted, because we will get tempted whenever there's hardship, we've got to figure out how to navigate those things so that we don't give up. The apostle. Paul is a great example. When he writes to us from a Roman prison cell in Philippians chapter three, and he writes these things, he said, Philippians three 14, I press on like, I'm never giving up. 2 (32m 13s): It doesn't matter that my circumstances are dire. I press on what to what's he doing to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus is calling us. So this is faith and endurance and action. He's like in a prison, right? Like unjustly. So he's there. He's like, okay, God, I'm here. What what's next? Right. Do you want me to do while I'm here? And because of his faith and his endurance, he's like, all right, some prison abyssal. So I'm going to encourage people who are outside outside of these walls and encourage them in their faith with the Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 (32m 59s): God promises that if we remain faithful and persevere, we will receive the heavenly prize of salvation. But beyond that, a life here in the earth that is so wonderful and fulfilling, it's rich and good. Not without 17 temptation trials and difficulty, but a life that is worth living a satisfying, rich and satisfying life. We're going to read about Abraham and here just a moment in his, how he died, having lived a rich and satisfying life. So Paul had this heavenly vision, a part of that heavenly vision impacted the way that he lived his life day to day. 2 (33m 45s): And part of that meant that, Hey, I'm going to do, I'm going to be about my father's business. I'm going to write these letters, these epistles, and I'm going to get them out to the churches so that they might be encouraged. Paul chose to have faith. And he chose to endure in the result. He had a faith and he endured victoriously to the end. So we have to make some choices in our life about what we're going to do with this faith in Jesus Christ. Are we going to have faith all the way to the end? Are we going to endure all the way to then we have to make some choices. It says, okay, in the face of hardship, I'm not quitting. I'm not giving up. I'm moving forward. Maybe things are unfolding the way that I think they should unfold ball probably didn't expect to be spending some time in jail, but he did. 2 (34m 30s): And so, Hey, it doesn't matter. God knows. He just decided to move forward. And he had great joy. And he had a host of other things that went along with his faithful in Durance. He just had this incredible joy. In fact, we read about it in Philippians four, four, he says always be full of joy. Always. He said, always, always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again, rejoice. And so there was something brewing in him, something of revelation about this life and the eternal life that he was heading toward and moving, moving forward in, he just, he trusted Jesus. He, and, and that trust in Jesus meant that he had joy. It didn't matter what was happening externally around him, even internally with his body, he had joy, any challenged, the church, listen to everything that God asks us to do or requires of us requires that we're filled with his holy spirit. 2 (35m 21s): It's a supernatural work of God. Maybe you don't feel like having joy. Say, Lord, the word says here, always be full of joy. Well, how do I have joy in this circumstance and situation? Would you do a work in me? Maybe just make this your prayer. Lord, would you do a work in me that my joy might be restored? That I might rejoice in all things? Not that we can't grieve loss. He's disappointed about some things in life and, and walk through some hardship that way. But at the end of the day, we need to say, Lord, I need you to restore the joy of my salvation, the joy. I want the joy of the Lord to be my strength. I want to have just an incredible joy. As I go through this season of life, he had joy and he wasn't worried, worry will kill faith and endurance, right? 2 (36m 13s): We, we don't have to be fearful. We don't have to be worried. We can be filled with joy and trust the Lord, Philippians four six says this. Don't worry about what, say it with me. That's that seems very hard to me, right? I can find a thousand things to worry about, but in the Lord, if I'm trusting him, if I'm exercising, faith and endurance, and I really don't have anything to worry about, I can trust that his plans and purposes are unfolding in my life and my kids' lives and my marriage and the ministry that God has called us to. Don't worry about anything instead, pray. This is what, what do you do with your worry? You, you pray about it. You just turn it over to the Lord, pray about everything, tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. 2 (37m 0s): So we're worried about something and say, Lord, I don't want to be worried about this. I can't carry this. All the worry in the world's not going to change anything anyway. So Laura, what do you want me to do about it? I don't want to be worried. A warrior is going to kill my Juul. I just want to trust you have joy, not be worried about anything. And then Paul was grateful. He was grateful. Gratitude will stoke the fires of faith and will give you endurance. So we have to choose to be filled with gratitude, even in a life that's not perfect. It's filled with imperfections in fact. And so we need to choose to be grateful. Listen to Paul, his writing to the church there in Philippians four. He says how I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. 2 (37m 42s): He could have been cynical, frustrated, upset, angry, because he's sitting in a jail cell and everybody else is out. You know, lollygagging around how I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you've always been concerned. See the optimism. He's like optimistic, believing that the people of God love him, that he's not in this alone, believing that God hasn't forgotten about him. That God's with him in the midst of his difficulty. I know you've always been concerned about me, but you didn't have the chance to help me. So Paul chose gratitude over grumbling, faith and endurance. All of these things play right into our ability to exercise faith and have insurance. He was content. This is something that we all need to grow in, right? 2 (38m 24s): But he chose contentment, even though he didn't have anything really in the way of worldly goods, family, as far as we know, might've been married at one point, but wasn't married while he was following Jesus. So he didn't have a lot, but he just chose to be content. And we know that he learned contentment and that's really probably the path for most of us. Most of us, we have to learn, learn some things. He learned contentment. I think part of the deal is he wasn't living for this life only, but he was living for eternity. So he's like, Laura, it doesn't really matter what I have here. I got rewards and riches in the kingdom. So you know what I need Lord. 2 (39m 4s): So I'm going to just be content with what you do. Give me, and then move forward in my calling in my life as a follower of Jesus Christ, Philippians four, 11 and 12, not that I've ever was ever a needy. He tells them thrive. I have learned how to be content with whatever I have, how many he had needs, but he decided to look at it through a different lens and said, I might be hungry, but I'm not gonna worry about it. God knows. And we'll see that here. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything I've learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty with plenty or little I, you just decided, Hey, I'm going to be content. 2 (39m 46s): I'm not going to be anxious and be worried. I'm not going to let it kill my joy. I'm going to just be content. The Lord is my provider, Jehovah, Jerry. He knows what we need. He knows what I need. All of this was possible because we know from Philippians four 13, that he was, Paul was strengthened by Christ. And this is how all things are made possible through our strengthened life. As followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We're filled with his presence. The holy spirit takes up residency in our lives. And we're walking with God, Philippians four 13 says I can do all things. I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. So again, everything that we're reading about in the scripture and everything that I'll ever teach about or challenge you to, it requires that we rest in the Lord, that we're filled with the holy spirit, that we walk in an intimate, close relationship with Jesus. 2 (40m 38s): So he, that he can give us what we need. So Paul had any eternal prize, the promise of the promise of eternity in mind, but he experienced a supernatural ability in the meantime, to just rest, if anybody should have given up, I mean, it should have been him. You know, he was stoned and shipwrecked and beaten and all kinds of stuff. You know, all kinds of hardship, Peaky. If anybody had, you know, the ability to you should can throw Paul. Yeah, you can throw in the towel, but he didn't, he didn't. And, and the early church didn't and for 21 centuries, now people have not given up on Jesus. 2 (41m 19s): The church is expanding all over the globe. And even in persecution around the world, the church is expanding people, just refusing to give up all of God's people have a price to look forward to. So if you're in, if you've accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, if you've accepted his message, his truth and welcomed dementia, you've got it. You've got a prize waiting for you. Something to look forward to you equally. True. All of God's people have a life of testing and trial. Just, just the reality. Nobody's surprised by that, right? Anybody surprised by that testing and trial and anybody gone like a day without testing a trial, maybe a day, right? 2 (42m 1s): But if you've gone a little bit without testing and trial, it's common. Just expect it. You know, don't be derailed by it. Just know that it's common and God will give you the grace for it and he'll help you through it. So, because that's true, all of God's people have the capacity in Christ to live above the fray and to never give up in this life. We have the power to press on and never give up as we grow in faith. And as we learn to endure hardship, so how do we never give up? We must exercise faith and in him and endure hardship and exercise, faith and endurance for number two, as we continue on our texts, let's look at, God's promised you Abraham, as we look at God's promise to Abraham, there's plenty of transferable principles to our life during the 21st century, things that we can learn from Abraham's experience. 2 (42m 58s): And so let's take a look at Abraham. Why? Because the writer of Hebrews points to Abraham as a great example of never giving up. So we already looked at Paul and now we're gonna look at Abraham Hebrews six, 13 through 20 says for example, there was God's promise to Abraham since there was no one greater to swear by God took an oath in his own name saying, I will certainly bless you. And I will multiply your to send this beyond number. Then Abraham waited patiently and he received what God had promised. So how do we never give up? Number one, we must exercise faith and endurance. 2 (43m 39s): And number two, we must wait on God patiently. That's never fun. I got called into the ministry at 18 years old and I thought, oh, I'm going to go right in. I'm going, I'm going, 12 years later, I finally entered into full-time vocational ministry. Got it. And it got so more to do in my soul and my spirit and my mind, everything. So it took, you know, 12 years, we, when we moved to this facility, we rented it and renovated it and poured all kinds of money into it. For 12 years, people would say, why are we pouring money into a building that we don't own? I said, we will own it. Just relax. And 12 years later, we bought it and own it. And then I'm now releasing one or two, and I'm pouring tons of money into that. 2 (44m 22s): And maybe we'll own that. I I'm hoping we will. I think the owner wants to sell it to us and someday maybe we'll get it. And we've been praying for years for this camp back that God would give us that as well. So yeah, we just have to wait patiently for God to unfold his plan and purpose in our lives. So Abraham or Abraham, as it was before he got his name change was 75 years old. When God first promised to bless him, Dennis is 12. So 75 years old, but you know, Abraham lived to be 175 years old. So it's got a middle middle-aged right? So maybe how many considered themselves middle-aged here? I don't answer that. But if you're middle-aged God, God's got some stuff you want us to do with you. 2 (45m 5s): If you're on the older end of things are on the younger end of things. God's got some stuff he wants to do with you. We're going to see that throughout the course of Abraham's life, God was working in him, giving him promise for providing for that promise, preparing him for that promise. So Genesis 25, 7 and eight tells us Abraham live for 175 years. And he died at a ripe old age. And I love this part. Having lived a long and satisfying life, but I want that on my appetite epitaph, he lived a long and satisfying life. I want to know that my life was purpose filled, that I honored my wife and my kids and my Lord in the ministry that God has called me to long and satisfying life. 2 (45m 51s): That's a great goal for all of us, no matter how young or old we are. We want to know that at the end of it all, whether we live to be 175 or 75 or somewhere in between that we lived along and satisfying life. He breathed his last enjoined, his ancestors in death, the versa has so Abraham middle-aged that 75 years old is given a promise, 75, the Lord promises to bless him. At this point, he and his wife are child lists. They don't have any kids. And then the angel, the Lord comes along and says, Hey, I'm going to bless you and give you descendants. So he's like, all right. So you know, and the Lord told them, Hey, leave your, everything is familiar and move to the land that I call you to. 2 (46m 34s): And he said he moves to cadence. So he's there with his wife for 10 years and 10 years in Abraham, Abraham and Sarah are both kind of like over it, 10 years in like, Lord, where's the promise. So they kind of take things into their own hands. And Sarah gives Abraham her servant and they have a baby together, Ishmael, but, but ish, my, he was not the son of promise, right? They thought he was a son of promise. They kind of took things into their own hands, but he was not the son of promise. And so 24 years after Abraham received the promise from the Lord, God shows up again. So now he's 99 years old. So now he's getting a little up there, right? He's still, he's still 80 years away from his earth, 76 years away from his end of his life. 2 (47m 17s): But he's getting up there. Genesis 17 when Abraham was 99 years old, God changed Abraham's name, Abram's name to Abraham. When he told him again of the promise to bless him. So he's 24 years in the waiting for this fulfillment. That's that's in everybody's calendar. That's that's a long time. Do you want me? I was talking with a guy after first service. He said, I've been waiting for this promise from the Lord for eight years. I said, well, that's not uncommon not to discourage you, but eight years, you know, just keep trusting the Lord and believing that God's going to do something. And you know, it's just, God's up to something in us. In our circumstances, he's growing us up, teaching us things, preparing us for whatever it is that he has for us. 2 (48m 3s): And so for Abraham, he had to wait 25 years, Genesis 17, one through six, when Abraham was 99 years old Lord appeared to him and said, I am El Shaddai. God almighty served me faithfully and live a blameless life. I will make a covenant with you by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants. So this guy's 99 years old now. And he's hearing this again. Like, God, the clock is ticking. What am I going to do here at this Abraham there, Abraham fell face down on the ground. Then God said to him, this is my covenant with you. I will make you a father of a multitude of nations. 2 (48m 46s): What's more, I'm changing your name. It will no longer be Abraham, which means exalted father. Instead, you will be called Abraham, which means father of Manny for you will be the father of many nations, verse six. I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations and Kings will be among them. So 24 years after the pop promise, God is back re communicating that promise God is God has spoken something to him and he's waited 24 years. But know this in the waiting. God is not been silent. He's not been absent. He's been at work in our lives. 2 (49m 25s): Preparing us when I got called the ministry at 18 and I had to wait 12 years. It was because there was a lot of work that needed to be done here before I was ready for full-time vocational ministry. So God is up to something. You got to believe that God is up to something in your circumstances in your life. And you can trust him. You can have faithful endurance and wait patiently for his timing. And so God is about to deliver on his promise to Abraham and Sarah. And, and so let's remind ourselves, what do we need to do to never give up. Number one, exercise, faith and endurance, exercise, faith, endures, exercise, faith, endurance, exercise, faith, and endurance, and then wait on God patiently. 2 (50m 6s): So what happened now that they've exercised faith and endures and waited patiently on God. What happened next? This is what happened next Genesis 21, 1 through five. The Lord kept his word. That's who God is. He keeps his word. The Lord kept word and did for Sarah. Exactly what he promised. That's the, that's the goodness of God. The perfection of God, the thoroughness of God, we can trust him. And we never, ever needed to give up. She became pregnant and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. 2 (50m 47s): This happened at get this just the time God had said it would. And Abraham named their son, Isaac eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham can circumcise him as God had commanded. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. Hallelujah. Twenty-five years of waiting, waffling a little bit, trying to make the promise happen on, on the, in their own strength. God's gracious through all of that and the promise. So you think after all of that Abraham and Sarah would, they'd be like on easy street, like we've conquered where Victoria is. 2 (51m 30s): We've got the promise, right? At a hundred. God's not done with Abraham at a hundred, or she'd be 90, I guess. I think that's an app say God's not done with Sarah. So we see that God is at work with people all the days of their lives of you're feeling old and tossed aside. You're not, you're not tossed society. You might be getting older, but you're not tossed aside. We're all getting older day by day. So in Genesis 22, because God was not done with Abraham and his promise to him, God asked Abraham to do something, to sacrifice his son, to sacrifice his beloved son Genesis 22, 2 God said, take your son. 2 (52m 22s): Your only son. Yes, Isaac, whom you love so much and go to the land of Moriah, go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you. Hm God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are way above our thoughts. Something happened in that 25 years of waiting. I mean, God was obviously a priority to Abraham. He moved out of his land and into Canaan and trusted the Lord and waited on the Lord. But there was something being developed in him. As he, as he waited, as he faithfully endured, as he waited on God's timing, there was something being developed in Abraham that allowed him to listen to the Lord and to be obedient, to do this very heart wrenching thing. 2 (53m 14s): He'd waited 25 years for this promise. And now God's saying, go sacrifice him. What does that even mean? God, what, what does that mean? And so he gets, his son gets the fire and the firewood, and they begin to head to the place of sacrifice and there's no animal to sacrifice. And so Isaac's like, Hey dad, you know, we got the fire and the bundle of what he said, don't worry, God will provide you. As you read Genesis 22, all of the chapter, you see that Abraham had a SIG sincere confidence that even if he sacrificed his son, that God would resurrect him. 2 (53m 55s): He knew that he was coming back with his son. There was no doubt in his mind. He, he didn't question God, he didn't. He just did what God asked him to do, because he knew that God had resurrection power to bring his son back to life. He knew that God had promised the son. He knew that this would be the, the through the son that he would become, you know, the father of many nations. I mean, there was a lot happening. And yet he had to faithfully do what God had asked them to do. So Abraham took Isaac. And even when he was about to offer his son as a sacrifice, praise the Lord, the angel of the Lord appeared to him. So he's, he's bound his son. He's on the alter. And he's about to do the deed. 2 (54m 36s): And it says the angel of the Lord told him, lay down, the knife do not hurt the boy in any way for now. I know that you truly fear God, you have not withheld. Even your beloved son from me. I didn't even know. I don't even know where to go with this because maybe, maybe the Lord has called us to sacrifice something in our own lives. And we're like, Lord, I've been working my whole life for this. I've been building my whole life for this. This is, and the Lord just saying sacrifice it. I don't know what it is. Cause I don't have like a word for thus sayeth the Lord. But I, I, I know that if God's asking you to sacrifice something for his kingdom and for his will, that it's, it's going to be difficult, but it's going to be okay. 2 (55m 23s): After Abraham passed this test, God told them he reiterated Genesis 2217. I will certainly bless you. I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. And so this promise comes so he's 75 years old. You're going to become the father of a great nation. Many nations tries, you know, 10 years later to kind of make things happen. It's not the right path. He thinks he's got the son of promise. When he's 99 years old, he speaks it again at a hundred. 2 (56m 5s): He finally sees the car. What are you, what are you waiting on the Lord to do in your life? What do you feel like the Lord has communicated to you? Don't give up never ever give up exercise, faith and endurance wait, and God's timing and just trust he will do. Let's get back to Hebrews chapter six. As we wrap up these last few verses and one final point, it says now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question, that oath is binding. God also bound himself with an oath. So that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure something about there's something, something of confidence that comes when we are faithfully enduring, waiting on God's timing, trusting him and believing in there's something about this surety that we can have that God wants us to have. 2 (56m 58s): The enemy wants to lie to us and tell us, oh, you're on your own. God has forgotten about the promise. He's not paying attention to your life. You're on your own. But the Bible and God communicate to us that he wants us to be perfectly sure and confident, perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence. We need to have great confidence in God, as we hold to the hope that lies before us, the hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor. And we need that in these difficulties of life, we needed something to anchor us to the truth, to the person of God. 2 (57m 44s): Something that won't allow us to drift too far or get too, too far away from what God has for us. We need to be anchored with that hope. And that happens through faith and Durance or just trusting God waiting on his timing. Therefore we who have fled to him for a refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain, into God's inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal Friess in the order of and number three, never give up. We must have great confidence in God. And I think where we fall short as human beings, myself included, is that we get our eyes on our selves. 2 (58m 28s): We get our eyes on our own capacity, our own ability, our own strengths, our own weaknesses. We get our eyes on ourselves. I know pretty much all the pastors in the area, just because we hang out together and that sort of thing. And every one of us is cut from a different cloth. Every one of us have different gifts, set, different strengths, different talents has different weaknesses. In fact, I went to high school with a couple of the guys at AIG, and if I look back at their lives and if they look back at my life and they say, there's no way that dude is cut out for, for, you know, pastoral ministry. And I'd say the same thing about them, but even more so about me is I look back at my life and my calling at 18 I'm like I was so ill prepared. 2 (59m 13s): And if I looked at my own weaknesses, I, I, I came from a broken family. I wasn't pure my early days as a young man, struggled academically until honestly halfway through college. When I finally figured out how to apply myself and I finished, you know, halfway strong. And, but you know, there were tons of, I had tons of insecurities, tons of insecurities. It was just, I was fearful of speaking in front of anybody. It was just not my thing. You know, I just, I didn't. So to imagine. So the problem is that we get our eyes on our own insecure, insecurities, our own insignificance, all our own problems, our own issues. 2 (1h 0m 0s): And we forget that God is the one who qualifies. God is one who calls people. God is the one who equips with spiritual gifts and empowers with strength and the holy spirit. God is one who does all of that stuff. And we're just vessels. We're like conduit, like, okay, Lord, just plug me in wherever you use me, wherever. And when, and then throughout the whole course of our life in ministry, we just continue to trust in the Lord. I was talking to a guy he's not a pastor in the area, but I talked to him a couple of weeks ago and he's like, I'm a great preacher. He told me I'm a great preacher. I'm thinking to myself, holy cow, I don't know any preacher would say that, but whatever, because I feel like I've been doing this for a long time. 2 (1h 0m 41s): And I feel like every time I get up in the pulpit, I'm like, Lord, you have to do something. Like, I feel like I'm prepared, but I don't want to do this in my own strength. You have to empower what I'm saying. You have to speak through me. You have to encourage the people. Am I, I can't imagine ever saying I'm a great, I would never, I just wouldn't do it. And, and I think there's a, there's a little bit of, there's probably a lot of danger around that statement because no matter what our position or what our gift sets or what we're called to, we just have to do everything with great humility, with great dependence on the holy spirit. We have to be filled with the love of God for God. And for people we have to just be, it's just a, it's a process where we just die constantly to our flesh, to our own capacity, to our own ability. 2 (1h 1m 30s): So, so we need to keep our confidence in God. And as we do that, then we will never give up. We will have faith to endure. We will trust God's timing that things are unfolding, where they should. And we will, we will have great confidence in God and not in us. As soon as we get our confidence in ourselves, we're just, we're doing worship rec problems are coming and it's not, not good. So, so with that, just take that all in and choose a fresh this year to not give up. What does God want to do in your life this year? And this in this new 20, 22 year, what does God want to do? 2 (1h 2m 11s): You're not too young. You're not too old. You're none of that. You're called and equipped by God. Do the specific thing that he's asked you to do. So what does he ask you to do? And then just begin to walk in that humbly depended on the Lord, knowing that you're not all that none of us are, none of us are, you know, perfect or without flaw. We all just move forward by God's grace doing the stuff that he's called us to do. So be prayerful. As we worship in this last song, let's get the worship team up. And as we wrap up, just be thinking, thinking about it, be thoughtful about that. In what area have you been tempted to give up? 2 (1h 2m 51s): Maybe it's your walk with the Lord, but just never, never give up Lord as we get ready to sing this last song and worship you. I thank you. That you've called us since you've adopted us and Lord, maybe there are people here who have just been kind of coming to church and hearing the preaching and part of things, but they, haven't never, they've never made that commitment to follow you Lord, and to become a child it's opposite child into your family. I pray that if there are people here today that have never accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that they would do that today. And if you're here today and you want to do that just in the quietness of your own heart, if you're ready to come into the kingdom of God, into the family of God, you do that simply by asking God for his grace, his forgiveness, you recognize your humanity and your need for salvation. 2 (1h 3m 49s): And you say, Jesus, I am imperfect in every way. Bible calls it sin. I'm a center Lord, but I know God that you will forgive me if I ask and that she want to forgive me. And so Lord, I ask that you would forgive me and you just say, Lord, I want to be in your family. I want to be filled with your holy spirit, even though I don't even know what that means yet, Lord, I want it. I want to walk with you. And I want you to walk with me. I want to follow you all the days of my life. And as you make that, the cry of your heart and your prayer to the Lord, God hears you. And he welcomes you into his family. And you begin on this journey. That's lifelong and into eternity and you get to follow Jesus and he gets to lead you and save you and redeem your life. 2 (1h 4m 33s): And so that's you here today, do that in the quietness of your own heart. But then after the service, sometime today, tell somebody that you gave your life to Jesus. And that you're a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And then at the end of the month, we're doing a baptism and baptism is a public declaration saying Lord to the world, to my friends, family, and everybody. I'm a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ and get baptized and move forward with your life with Jesus. So Lord bless those who need salvation today. We've all been there, Lord and bless, bless those who are just discouraged and maybe feel like giving up for they wouldn't pray. They would be faithful by your power and during with your power, trusting your timing in their lives, Lord, and keeping eyes on you. 2 (1h 5m 18s): So thank you for this time. We bless you Lord, as we worship, help us to worship in spirit and in truth, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand and worship. 1 (1h 5m 44s): Ah 0 (1h 10m 10s): Thank you, Jesus. Thank you that every battle belongs to you. Thank you that we are going to see a victory. God, I pray that your word would penetrate our hearts today that something would stick and with sink and God, and that we would leave this service today in remembering that you are good and remembering that you want to do something, a fashion each and every single one of us this year. So we love you and Jesus name. We pray. Amen.

0 (2s): Good morning. 1 (4s): Let's all stand together. Sing 4 (14m 19s): Lord. It is always a privilege and a joy to gather together as brothers and sisters in Christ. For the purpose of lifting up the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus. So Lord, we choose to just humble ourselves before you today, but we know that there's a lot more growth that we need in our lives personally. And we just want to be open to the voice of your spirit. Holy spirit, I pray that you would, as you are faithful to do all the time, just a touch our hearts, help us to understand and, and be touched by you. And Lord, we ask you father, just to rule and reign in our midst today in our lives today, we just counted a joy. 4 (15m 7s): We counted a joy to walk before you, and to know you in Jesus name, we pray God's people said, Hey, man, go ahead and please be seated. Thank you so much. Worship team. I Heather Hosanna. Good to have you guys here. So of course the first thing I have to say is happy new year. My name is Ron, and actually Steve asked me if I would share this morning, maybe a month ago or so. And so what I'm going to be sharing with you, something that's really kind of been on my heart for the last couple of months. And I, I want to tell you sort of ahead of time that parts of it are a bit serious. 4 (15m 52s): So maybe sobering, I guess, just cause of, of where we are and in time and in our nation. But I want you to know this. I am super grateful and thankful and joyful about all that God has done in 2021. It's been a great year that we just finished up and I am so optimistic and so encouraged by 2022, knowing that God has great things for us in our future. And so in the midst of, of sometimes what looks like challenging circumstances or trials and tribulations, or, you know, we face God is good all the time and he's going to press us in, move us forward, fill our hearts with joy and peace and just confidence in who we are in Christ and the things that he is doing in our lives personally, and, and what he's doing in the world, you know, in America and in the, in the world. 4 (16m 53s): So what I'll be talk about today, here's the title of the message. The title is love. God hates sin, love God hates sin, and it comes out of two scriptures. I'll give you the verses today. We won't be having the scriptures up on the monitors. Sorry about that. But I would encourage you if you have your Bible with you, go ahead and open up to the scriptures. I'm about to give you, or if you have a device, you know, get it keyed up. So we're going to be looking at Jeremiah chapter nine, Jeremiah chapter nine verses 23 and 24 and also Proverbs chapter six verses 16 through 19. So again, that was Jeremiah 9 23 and 24 Proverbs chapter six, 16 through 19. 4 (17m 35s): If you're a note taker, I'll be given out some various scripture references. Feel free to write them down if you want to. All right, Lord. Yes. We ask you to anoint your word today. Lord, your word tells us that you watch over word to perform it and it will not return void, but it will accomplish what you please thank you that your word is living. It is powerful. It is dynamic and we invite your word to have your way in us today. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. So as we grow in our walk with the Lord, we're on all on this journey just year by year, day by day, month by month, where, you know, kind of growing in our walk with the Lord and our understanding of who God is. 4 (18m 21s): One of our main goals is to learn more about the things that God loves and also to learn about the things that God hates. And in the process, we are meant to experience transformation. That's kind of that one word sort of explains the Christian experience. It's it's a life of transformation coming to love the things that God loves and hate the things that God hates. We're being conformed into his image. So I want to be very, very clear from the start. God does not hate people. God does not hate people. He loves people. God loves people. We know that, but God definitely hates evil. 4 (19m 1s): And he is against those who participate in and promote evil. What God truly hates is the destruction and the suffering and the bondage that evil brings upon people and upon nations. So today we will be looking at three things that God loves and we will be looking at seven things that God hates total of 10 things. We ready for this. Okay. So first of all, why would God loves certain things? He knows. 4 (19m 41s): God knows that these things will bring about goodness and blessing and joy into our lives personally and into our nation collectively. Secondly, why would God hate certain things? Because he knows that these things will bring about pain and suffering and destruction into our lives personally and into our nation collectively. And if unchecked, these things will bring about God's judgment as well. Israel, the nation of Israel, sort of a case in point of this as we'll look at in the future. So the interesting verse in Amos, chapter five, verse 15, it says this hate the evil and love the good as disciples of Jesus Christ. 4 (20m 30s): We are learning. We're learning to love God more and more. And so part of loving God more and more is knowing what we're going to be talking about today, knowing what he loves and knowing what he hates and then being transformed into his image. Someone has started out with the three things that God loves the word actually that she's in Jeremiah chapter nine is delights God delights in these things. So I'm reading from Jeremiah chapter 9 23 and 24. Thus says the Lord let, not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let, not the mighty man boast in his might, but let and let, not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this that you understand that it knows me that I am the Lord who practices steadfast, love justice and righteousness in the earth for in these things. 4 (21m 26s): I delight declares the Lord. So there we see in Jeremiah chapter nine, the things that that God delights in our loves God delights in steadfast, love God, delights, injustice, God delights in righteousness. We're going to be looking at those just to affirm this in Psalm chapter 33, verse five, it says, God loves righteousness and justice and the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. All right. So I want to talk about that first thing, steadfast, love it. It's defined in the Hebrew language and this is its actual definition. It's kindness. Goodness and faithfulness. 4 (22m 7s): Does that sound familiar to you? It should because it, it, it sounds like the fruit of the holy spirit. So when the holy spirit takes up residence in us, he brings about this transformation whereby the character of God is instilled in us in the believer. And so again, steadfast love kindness, goodness, and faithfulness sounds a lot like Galatians chapter 5, 22 and 23, but the fruit of the spirit is love joy, peace, patience. And here's those three words, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And because God is love. 4 (22m 47s): I mean, not only is this character love literally his, his personage. He is love. God is love. His default is always to invite us into his love. First John chapter four, verse 16, God is love. And he abides in love, abides in God and God in him. Interesting story. This was when Moses had this confrontation with God and God was revealing his, his character to Moses in Exodus chapter 34, verse six. It says the Lord passed before him, before Moses and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. 4 (23m 37s): So what impact should that have on our lives personally? Well, for me, it compels me to draw closer and closer to the Lord because I need to know his love. I need to experience his love and truthfully, the closer I get to him, the greater blessing that I get to enjoy my life personally, remember that Jesus was talking about, he was actually asked this question, what is the greatest commandment of all? You remember that in mark chapter 12, verse 30 says, you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 4 (24m 18s): So they come together. In fact, the truth is we can't actually love others until we have that love relationship with God. First, first, John chapter four, verse seven, beloved, let us love. One another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. So that's the impact on my life or our lives personally. What impact should this have on our nation as a whole? So in Psalm chapter 33, verse 12, the verse says this simply this blessed or blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. So God wants to bless us individually and corporately in our community. 4 (24m 58s): And our nation blessed is the nation whose God in the Lord whose God is the Lord in Psalm 1 44, verse 15, happy are the people whose God is the Lord steadfast love. Secondly, what else does God delight in? He delights in justice. What is justice? Justice is that, which is just and right, and true and lawful. So justice is based upon a foundation and the foundation is his rules and statutes and precepts and commandments and judgments and laws that were all revealed to the nation of Israel in Exodus and Leviticus in order to bless them and give them a foundation as a nation, as a people, Psalm chapter 19, love these verses beginning with verse seven, it says the law of the Lord is perfect. 4 (25m 60s): Converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure. Making wise the simple, the statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing. The heart, the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening. The eyes, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous all together. More to be desired, are they than gold? Yes. Than much fine. Gold sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb, moreover by them, your servant is warned and in keeping them there is great reward. 4 (26m 43s): I just so appreciate the fact that in God's word, he has revealed to us initially to Israel and to us as well. What justice is the foundation for justice, his, his laws, his precepts, his commandments. And, and so we base our life upon that foundation. In fact, this is what our American system of justice originally was supposed to be based upon. It is based upon God's justice. You may have heard it said that we are a nation of laws. Have you ever heard that before? We're a nation of laws and that justice is blind, meaning it is absolutely fair. There's an interesting statue. I believe of a, of, of a woman who has a blindfold across her eyes and she's holding a balance. 4 (27m 30s): And that balance is supposed to be an example of the justice of God. It's, it's blind it. In other words, it doesn't favor show favoritism towards one person over another. And when a new president takes, he swears in as an oath of office, what is, what does he do? He actually places his hand on a Bible and he swears allegiance to our constitution and our courts, the laws that give us a foundation, which ultimately come from God again, Amis chapter five, verse 15. I read it a moment ago. Hate evil love. 4 (28m 10s): Good. And then it says, maintain justice in the courts. So what impact should this have on our lives personally, or, or maybe as a nation? So we honor God by honoring and obeying his laws as they are revealed to us in his word in the Bible. And we honor God by honoring and obeying the laws of the land. To the extent that man's law does not supersede God's law. God's law is Supreme. So God delights in justice, which is why he has revealed his law to us. I don't know how familiar you are with the Bible, but my encouragement in 2022 is to make it your goal, make it your aim, to read through the Bible in a year and don't skip anything. 4 (28m 59s): In fact, when you get into Exodus and especially Leviticus, it's kind of overwhelming because God's very meticulous and deliberate about setting out what justice is, what his law is. And, and it will bless our lives. God delights in justice, which is why he has revealed his law to us. So we, then we are responsible to keep an obey his law, which is where righteousness comes into play. So remember I said, God, delights in steadfast, love. He delights in injustice and he delights in righteousness. So righteousness simply means righteous acts. As, as we've seen that justice is the foundation that God has. 4 (29m 41s): Righteousness is our response to the foundation that God has established. So Psalm 11 verse seven says this. It says the Lord is righteous. And he loves righteousness. As God was establishing the nation of Israel, he says to them and Deuteronomy chapter four, verse one, and now, oh, Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I'm teaching you and do them that you may live and go in and take possession of the land that, that the Lord, the God of your fathers is giving you. So the, the, the premises, this is that as we walk in obedience to God's law, his justice, we receive the blessing as a result of that. 4 (30m 31s): And also he says this to Israel and Leviticus chapter 18, verse four, he says, you shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord, your God, you shall never keep my statutes. And my rules, if a person does them, he shall live by them. I am the Lord. The Bible talks a lot about this abundant life that he wants us to experience, or part of that abundant life just simply comes from knowing and understanding what God delights in, and then simply applying that to our lives. So what impact should this have on our lives personally, Proverbs chapter 21, verse 21, it says whoever pursues, righteousness and kindness will find life righteousness and honor, Isaiah chapter 32 verse 17, the effect of righteousness will bring peace. 4 (31m 25s): And the result of righteousness is quietness and trust forever. How much do we need all those things? I want to live in peace and quietness. I want to trust in the Lord. And so this has all the effect of righteousness. Well, what impact should this have on our nation? Proverbs chapter 14, verse 34, righteousness exalts, a nation Proverbs chapter 16, verse 12 here, he's talking about leadership of a nation. The throne is established by righteousness. So we see not only the blessing on our lives, personally, as a result of walking in obedience to God's law, his word, but we see the blessing upon our nation corporately as, as well, Isaiah chapter 54, verse 14 in righteousness, you shall be established. 4 (32m 19s): You shall be far from oppression for you shall not fear. And from terror for it shall not come near you. You know, coming out of tap, coming out of 20, 20 and 2021. What would you say are main things that people are kind of walking in right now? I'd say they're walking in. What does he say here? We're walking in oppression. We're walking in a lot of fear and people are just terrified. I find by the things that are coming upon us of the unknown, God says, you know, as you walk with me in righteousness, he says, I'm going to establish you. 4 (33m 6s): I'm going to give you a firm foundation. So that you'll be far from oppression. You won't fear, and I'll keep you from terror. The things that would terrorize us. So the truth is God knows that we need help. We need help with this. So this is what he has done for us. So I love the fact that our relationship with God is not simply based on a book of rules. And that's how he chooses to reveal the truth to us. But what he's also given us, he's given us our savior, which is Christ the Lord to help us in this. He's given us the holy spirit that dwells within us so that we are able. 4 (33m 50s): So we have the power to walk in the things that I'm talking about this morning, Jeremiah chapter 23, verse five behold, the days are coming declares. The Lord, when I will raise up for David, a righteous branch, who is he talking about there? He's talking about Jesus Christ. Our Lord, the days are coming declares. The Lord, when I will raise up for David, a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. Now we're not fully fully there yet, but when Jesus Christ returns at his second coming, we're going to walk in that fully. 4 (34m 30s): But right now, we, as I said, we have the holy spirit. That's been given to us by faith in Christ to help us this. And this first you're very familiar with I'm sure, Isaiah chapter nine, verse seven of the increase of his government and of peace. There will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forever more. And once again, he's talking about Jesus Christ, our savior, all right. So I'm going to repeat myself just for a moment. God loves certain things. So God delights in certain things because he knows that these things will bring about goodness and blessing and joy into our lives personally, and to our nation collectively, remember, God is not against us. 4 (35m 23s): He's not against anyone. God is for us. God delights in steadfast, love justice and righteousness. All right? So here's where we transition, transition into some, some difficult things. God hates certain things. So why, why? Because he knows that these things will bring about pain and suffering and destruction and bondage into our lives personally, and into our nation collectively. And because God loves us so much, he has warned us about the consequences of heading down the path of these things I'm going to be talking about. All right. So what are the things that God hates prior to chapter six, verses 16 through 19, these six things the Lord hates, yes. 4 (36m 10s): Seven are an abomination to him. A proud look, allying tongue hands, that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies and one who sows discord among brethren. All right. So what does God hate? We're given a list of seven things here. He hates a proud look, allying tongue hands, that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift and running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies and one who sows discord among brethren. 4 (36m 51s): All right. So I want to look at these each individually. Proud look. So basically this reveals a prideful heart, a proud look, reveals a prideful heart. And, and I got to say, God hates pride. He opposes pride while why, why does God hate pride? Because pride is might sound a little odd. Pride is demonic. Pride will cause a person or a nation to stand in rebellion against God because the pride of man creates conflict and strife and the breakdown of relationships. And ultimately the breakdown of a nation. 4 (37m 33s): When I said a moment ago, that pride is demonic. Think about this. As we are told in Isaiah chapter 14, what the downfall was of Lucifer, Isaiah 14, for you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the Mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the Heights of the clouds and I will be like the most high. What, what a, what a picture of pride that is. So Proverbs 13, 10 pride we're told leads to conflict. 4 (38m 17s): In fact, I would say in my, in my life, in my experience, anytime I had really a, a difficult conflict with somebody is because either I'm, I was walking in pride, I was stubborn, unwilling to budge either that or the other person was stubborn and unwilling to budge. If he's basically saying the root of conflict is pride, Proverbs chapter 28, verse 25, he was of a proud heart stirs up strife. First, John chapter two, verse 16 for all the Jews in the world. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life is not of the father, but is of the world. 4 (38m 58s): And finally, James chapter four, verse six, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble as we go through these seven points, these seven things that God hates. I want to try to bring kind of where we are the current events of our day and look at this. So as a nation statistics show, in fact for decades, maybe, maybe a hundred years or more, we've kept track. There's been groups that keep track of the number of Christians that are in America. So as a nation, we are more secular than at any time in American history. 4 (39m 38s): So they measured. They measured that by interviewing people, asking questions, you know, do you believe in God, you believe in the Bible and they have all these criteria. Basically what we see is there's a, there's a downward spiral that we, as a nation, we are more secular than at any time secular, what do I mean by that? We are unbelieving. We are atheist. We are agnostic. We, we do not have faith in God to the degree we did in the past. So what does that mean? That means this basically every man does what's right in his own eyes. So who's who was to set this standard for justice or righteousness. If God has no place in the lives of the people of our nation, I get to determine, I get to determine my basis for righteousness and truth. 4 (40m 29s): So, so I see this is where pride has its root and brings out strife and confusion. All right. So the second thing that the Lord hates, it says a lying tongue. So this is lying with the intent, the intention to deceive. So we're not talking about, you know, a white liar. We're trying to maybe protect somebody from some, no, he's talking about lying with the intent. The intention is to deceive. So why does God hate lying? Well, I'm going to say it again because lying is it's demonic. And it undermines trust between people and it leads to confusion. And it leads to the breakdown of relationships and ultimately the breakdown of a nation. 4 (41m 15s): You remember Jesus was confronting the religious leaders of his day. And this is what he said to them in John chapter eight, verse 44, he said, you are of your father, the devil and the desires of your father. You want to do when he speaks, he speaks a lie because he speaks from his own resources for, he is a liar and he is the father of lies. Why does God hate lying again? Because it brings about division Proverbs, chapter 13, verse five, a righteous man hates lying. 4 (41m 59s): Ephesians chapter four, verse 25, therefore put away lying. Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor. We are members of one, another interesting as we look forward and as the prophecies within scripture kind of reveal, what's going to be happening in the last days in the future. There's this person who comes on the scene. Sometimes he's called the man of peace or the antichrist. When he comes on the scene, guess what? One of his main tactics will be lying in second Thessalonians, chapter two, verse nine, the coming of the lawless one, speaking of the antichrist is according to the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders, all right, what are we facing now? 4 (42m 51s): What is our current situation? You know, I, I just feel like in the last couple of years, it seems like we can't trust anyone. We, we can't trust our leaders. We can't trust the media. We can't trust, you know, the experts and what are we left with confusion and strife. We don't trust people anymore. Thirdly, God hates hands. That shed innocent blood. Why? Because it's murder that is to take the life of an innocent person. 4 (43m 31s): So why does God hate murder? Because it is demonic and it creates fear and confusion because murder is the destruction of human life, which is precious to God because we've been created in God's image because shedding innocent blood will ultimately bring about God's judgment upon the nation who promotes it. John chapter eight, verse 40 verse 44. Once again, Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders of his day. He said, you are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father. You want to do, he was a murderer from the beginning. 4 (44m 12s): And of course in the 10 commandments, Exodus chapter, 20 verse 13, you shall not murder. Now, when we talk about the shedding of innocent blood, I, I I'm sorry, but I can't ignore the fact that since 1973, this is from 1973 to 2017. They measure, they count the number of abortions in the United States of America. So in that period of time from tooth at 1973 to 2017, 62,000,502, 904 abortions have occurred in our country. I'm not blaming anybody. If I blame anybody, I blame myself. 4 (44m 53s): But th th this is not about politics. We have to face the reality of our current situation. Why should we hate this? Because it is the shedding of innocent blood that taking over human life. And we hate it because God hates it. Now, as we get to the end of these seven things, I just want you to know I'm going to offer some solutions. Okay? I don't want us to be overwhelmed by this list. It is over. I trust me when I was studying this, it's overwhelming to me. And I honestly really didn't want to share this message with you today, because it is hard to hear, but I feel like God, just wouldn't. 4 (45m 35s): He wouldn't let me go a different direction. What else does God hate? He hates a heart, the devices, wicked plans. So that is a person or a group who plots evil, a person or a group who plots evil. So these are carefully laid plans intended to bring harm or injury to another person or to another person's property, or to undermine the peace and the order and the safety of a society. So why does God hate devising wicked plans? Because devising wicked plans is you can say it with me, it's demonic. And because it leads to chaos and anarchy, violence, and suffering, and ultimately it can lead to the downfall of the peace and safety and order in a community and ultimately in a nation Ephesians chapter six, verse 11, why is it demonic? 4 (46m 31s): He says this put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. What are the Wiles of the devil wicked plans? There's a great example of this in the old Testament, in the book of first Kings chapter 21, this is a story of Ahab king Ahab, the king of Israel. And right next to the palace, there was a vineyard and it belonged to a man named Naboth and Ahab. Ahab really wanted neighbors. Vineyard was close to the palace. He said, Hey, boss, I'd like to have your vineyard. I'll, I'll buy it from you. I'll give you a better vineyard somewhere else. He says, I want to put a vegetable garden next to my palace. 4 (47m 14s): And they both said, no, no, I'm not going to do that. So Ahab went home to his palace, pouting and frustrated because neighbors wouldn't sell him or give him his vineyard. So then Jess Ebell comes on the scene. Joseph Bell says, I'll get you named boss vineyard. So she wrote number. We're talking about wicked plans. We're talking about devising wicked plans. So she wrote letters and they have his name, sealed them with his seal and sent them to the elders and other leaders of the town where they both live in her letter. She commanded call the citizens together for fasting and prayer and give neighbors the place of honor. 4 (47m 55s): And then see two scoundrels across from him who will accuse him of cursing God, and the king, then take him out and stone him to death. And that's exactly what they did to neighbors. So when Joseph Bell heard the news that named boss had been killed, she said, Hey, Hab, you know the vineyard Naboth, wouldn't sell you. Well, you can have it now because he's dead. So Ahab immediately went down to the vineyard of neighbor to claim it a person or a group who plots evil. So here's something interesting as we look to the future, once again, I'm going to be talking about this, this person that's going to come on the scene. 4 (48m 40s): He's called the antichrist. When the antichrist comes on the scene, guess what? Another one of his main tactics will be devising wicked plans. We see this in Daniel chapter eight, verse 23. And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise talking about the antichrist, having fierce features who understands sinister schemes. In other words, he devises wicked plans. So again, talking about sort of what we're facing in the world today, current events, one of the plotting of evil that's really grown significantly in recent years as human trafficking. 4 (49m 25s): For example, in 2021, there was a earthquake in Haiti, 200,000 people were killed in that earthquake. So the real result of the earthquake was that there were a lot of orphans, both their parents, both mom and dad were killed in the earthquake. And there's all these small children roaming the streets that have no parents. And so what these human traffickers did again, wicked plans, devising wicked plans is a set up a storefront. And the sign on the storefront said orphanage. And so good. Meaning well-meaning people would take these orphans, these children who lost their parents and bring them into this place that says orphanage on the storefront. 4 (50m 13s): And it was actually a ring for human trafficking. Another thing that God hates, feet that are swift running to evil that is creating mischief with an evil intent, creating mischief with an evil intent. So why does God hate feet? They're just swift in running to evil. You can say it with me because it is demonic. It creates anarchy destruction to people, destruction, to pop property. And ultimately it can lead to the downfall of a nation. 4 (50m 54s): Isaiah chapter 59, verse four, no one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and they speak lies. They conceive evil and bring forth inequity, their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity wasting and destruction are in their paths. Proverbs chapter 10 verse 23 to do evil is like sport to a fool. 4 (51m 34s): Proverbs 24 8. He devises to do evil shall be called a mischievous person. All right. Back to some of the current events that we're facing right now. I'm not exactly sure how the communication is done through social media, through an app or whatever, but you've seen it on the news where the word goes out. Okay, we're going to gather together at this store and we're going to break the windows in mass. We're going to break the windows. We're going to run in. We're going to break the glass. We're going to steal the jewelry or anything that is valuable. And then we're going to run out as quickly as we possibly can, is this mob mentality feet that are swift running to evil. 4 (52m 18s): We're witnessing looting and rioting and destruction and mayhem in many of the major cities across our country. Another thing God hates. Number six of false witness who speaks lies. So earlier we talked about lying, but now there's a different level. It is a false witness who speaks lies. So why is this such a bad thing? Because it is it's demonic. And because it can destroy a person's good reputation. And ultimately it will bring down a nation's sense of justice and a nation sense of security. 4 (52m 60s): Genesis chapter three, verse one, the serpent. So this was Satan in the garden, right? The serpent said to Eve, did God really say that you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? Of course we may eat. So she responded, of course, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. It's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we're allowed to eat. God said, you must not eat it or even touch it. If you do, you will die. The serpent replied, you won't die. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it. 4 (53m 42s): And you'll be like, God, knowing both good and evil, a false witness who speaks lies, Exodus chapter 20 verse 16, another one of the 10 commandments. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. So one of the interesting things we're facing now as a nation, current events, it's the same called cancel culture. You've probably heard of it, right? And that is it's designed to destroy a person's reputation to take them out. How did they do that? 4 (54m 23s): They'll do it for political reasons. They'll do it for ideological reasons. They don't want to hear what you might have to say. If your ideology is different from theirs. So they will expose you. They will spread lies about you for the purpose of destroying your character, destroying your reputation. Finally, number seven, a person who sows discord among their, and God hates this. A person who sows discord among their brother. And why is this such a bad thing? 4 (55m 2s): Because it's demonic because it undermines trust and unity. It creates division and discord in a family to a church, to a community, to a nation. I know we're just coming out of the holidays, Christmas and new years where families commonly get together. And invariably, there's some family member that just wants to create division in the family, right? Does create drama. And what does it do? It's sows discord within that family, James chapter three, verse 14, if you have bitter envy, and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 4 (55m 47s): This wisdom does not descend from above. It is earthly. It is sensual and it is demonic for where envy and self-seeking exist. Confusion. And every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure it's then peaceable, gentle, and willing to yield full of mercy and good fruits without partiality, without a policy. Now, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace, Amos chapter three, verse three, how can two walk together unless they are one of Satan's schemes or plans is to sow discord to create this unity, current events. 4 (56m 37s): So we're living in a culture of division. The division could be based on race, skin, color, political views, ideology, even vaccine status. Now is a point of division. And this is being promoted incessantly. And I believe call me crazy. I feel like it's by design it's it's demonic. All right. I want to bring a conclusion to all this because I know this is a, this is overwhelming. And yet this is the, this is what we're facing. And in 2022, as I mentioned earlier, as I began, I'm very optimistic. 4 (57m 19s): I'm filled with lots of joy as we face 2022. But, but in thinking about this and how we're impacted by it right now in our day, it is not only overwhelming, but how do we respond? How do we supposed to respond to this in John chapter 16, verse eight, Jesus is speaking. And he's speaking before the day of Pentecost, when the holy spirit was given, he says, and when he, the holy spirit has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. So how do we respond to the mayhem that we're facing right now? Basically we let God by the work and power of the holy spirit, just to bring that conviction, bring that sense of, of righteousness and justice that we're seeking. 4 (58m 9s): Just as I said in the beginning, God doesn't hate people. We don't hate people. I don't, I don't hate anybody. I'm trusting and relying on the fact that God is working in, moving in our midst to accomplish his purposes. Romans chapter eight, verse 31. How do we respond? If God is for us, God is for you. If God is for us, who can be against us? It, all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, acts chapter 17, verse 30. It says this God overlooked. People's ignorance in the past in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. 4 (58m 55s): You know, I've found as I've walked with the Lord 40 years now, there's really only one person that I can control. And that is myself. There's only one person I can judge. And that is myself. I, as I've grown with the Lord, I don't judge anybody. I only judge myself. And with that, I say, Lord, search me and know my heart and see if there's any wicked way in me and then lead me in the way of her lasting. So that's where this, this idea of repentance comes into play. So how do we respond to all these things? We trust the work of the holy spirit in our lives personally and in the world. And we just have this humble heart of repentance towards God every day. And then lastly, this is Paul's instruction and Ephesians chapter six, because honestly the things we face it truly can be overwhelming, but here's what he said. 4 (59m 45s): He said, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil for, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness. And they have any places, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand, stand, therefore having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace and above all taking the shield of faith with which you'll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. 4 (1h 0m 46s): I know there's a lot there in that verse, but that's what, how God would have us respond to our current situation. I'd like to go ahead and invite the worship team to come back out again. What I want to do now is I want to sort of respond to all this. And part of responding is if by chance there's anyone here in the sanctuary or in the loft or in the patio or watching online, you've never given your life to Jesus Christ before you don't know God, but you want to know him. God has really made it so simple. If we would simply admit that we have sinned against God, there is a God in heaven who created all things. 4 (1h 1m 31s): And we admit that we have sinned against God. And secondly, we simply believe the gospel. We believe that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. We believe, I believe that he went to the cross and died for my sins personally. And I know that I need him. I need Jesus to cleanse me and forgive me of my sins. And so how do I respond? I confess Jesus. I need you. I need you in my life. As my Lord, as my savior, I need to be forgiven. I need your salvation. I need the life that the abundant life that you talk about as we close with these songs, go ahead and stand. 4 (1h 2m 14s): Why don't you, if you've never done that yet, I would encourage to do that today. Invite Jesus Christ into your life to be your Lord and savior. And even while we're singing, just have this, have this conversation with God. So simple, Lord, we just thank you for the life that you've given to us in Christ. Lord, thank you that you are for us are not against us. Lord, thank you that we are more than conquerors in Christ. Jesus, thank you that you came to set the captive free and to open the prison doors, to those who are bound up. And so Lord help us to be as a positive, positive work for good in the world that we face right now. 4 (1h 2m 57s): Lord, as we see chaos and mayhem all around us, but help us not to be overwhelmed, but help us to be that force for good in the world. Help us to represent you well in the world today. Help us to love people no matter what they've done, who they are, what they believe, help us to love people in your name. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. 5 (1h 3m 29s): I sing praises to your Phrases, to your 0 (1h 3m 42s): Name 5 (1h 3m 44s): That so much. 0 (1h 3m 53s): Oh 5 (1h 3m 55s): To you. That's so great then on Your name? 5 (1h 7m 6s): Ms. Bins. oh, always flags me. 5 (1h 8m 43s): Hi. You are born in darkness. Cannot hide You crushed the Know who stands behind And goes. 5 (1h 10m 49s): B stands me. God of hate is always by my side. Cast me shot No goes before me. 5 (1h 12m 20s): I know who stands behind he is a friend goes before me stands. P .

1 (2m 12s): I give my whole life to honor this. Who was, say crown him for 0 (2m 35s): she . 1 (10m 54s): Jeez, His mercy and the Jeez, we cried the whole. 1 (12m 39s): Thank you God, for your holiness. Thank you for the gift Of salvation. Thank you for the gift of 0 (12m 50s): Just 1 (12m 52s): Covering for our sentence. Lord, I can be made right with you. 2 (13m 42s): All right. You may be seated. Well, good morning. Glad to see so many of you here. We had a debate among staff. How many people would come the day after Christmas? So it's glad to glad to see you all. I love about you, but why am I driving this morning? And just seeing the sun on the green Hills was just amazing. Anybody else see that and enjoy that. Nice to see that fresh grass, you know, starting to grow. And just seeing that as I was driving in, reminds me of the road trips that I used to go on. 2 (14m 24s): We haven't been able to go on as many road trips with our girls and they tend to get car six, where I'm looking forward to the age where we get to go on road trips as a family. I can remember all the road trips growing up, going to Yellowstone or driving out to Minnesota with a family. It was just a good time. And I think over the years, road SERPs have changed in my mind a little bit. They've changed because now we use Google maps or different or car navigation systems to get there. I can remember the day before the days when, when you had to write out the directions on a piece of paper or have a roadmap next to you. So you knew where you were going, which road to take or intersection or highway. 2 (15m 5s): And, and I think we've lost a little bit of the road trip. The fun that comes with that kind of a sense of adventure as you're going out there. And I think we were more focused too, because I can remember like, okay, need to turn on, need to turn on this highway and you have to be focused. Okay, don't pass that highway. Cause there's no, there's no nothing that pops up a red light that says, you've, you've missed your exit. You've missed your exit. And so I just, over the years, going on this road trips, you, you look for the intersections. You look for the fork road, the forks and the rows of the change in highways. And now we kind of set the program and our car just yells at us, which way to go and which way to turn if only life was that easy. 2 (15m 53s): If only there was a big right-hand turn right in front of us, that says, you need to go this way. Now, if only life was that easy, it also makes me think of something that was very, very popular twenty-five years ago, twenty-five years ago, the Christmas and Thanksgiving season that the tickle me Elmo doll was the hot ticket. Does anybody remember the tickle me Elmo doll? Yes. Okay. I was, I was in high school, so I, I didn't get a tickle me Elmo doll, but it's this doll that you, you, you, you touched her, you squeeze the nose and it would say Elmo would laugh. And he would make funny noises. 2 (16m 34s): It sold for 29, 28, 99 in the store. But for whatever reason, that year, 25 years ago, it went bonkers. They sold out nearly of the 400,000 Elmos that they made. And it's reported that that doll began to scalpers were selling them for $1,500. Each there's a report that in Denver, one was sold for $7,100. Over $7,000 was paid for this Elmo doll. It was the gift for that year's Christmas season, 25 years ago, there's even a report that on December 20th, there was a raffle charity that had one and it was purchased for $18,000. 2 (17m 20s): This is how hot the tickle me Elmo doll was a man at Walmart. Working at Walmart was injured by a stampede of 300 people trying to get to the tickle me, Elmo dolls, all for this doll that you squeeze his nose or tickle on it. And it laughs and giggles. And it's programmed to do that. The next year they made a doll that was called love me, Elmo. And you, what that Elmo does is when you squeezed it, when you push the button, it said, it would say your Elmo sweetheart, or Elmo loves you or hugs and kisses. That's what was programmed into this Elmo doll. If only life were that simple, where God says worship me and he pushes a button on us. 2 (18m 4s): And we say, we worship you God, but it's not right. It's not that easy. We weren't created that way. We weren't created with a button with which God pushes and we instantly respond in worship and adoration to him. That's not the way that we are. We have choices and we are, we weren't programmed by God. We're not programmed by our DNA. Our DNA will tell us if we're male or female or tell us our height or our color of our eyes, the color of our hair, but it won't tell us it won't give us directions on the choices that we have in front of us. And so this morning, we come to the text in Joshua chapter 23 in chapter four, and I titled it, choose for yourselves, choose for yourself. 2 (18m 51s): That was a choice that was put in front of the people. Let's pray. Before we open up the scripture Lord, we want to consider the year that is almost past us and consider 20 20, 20 22. That is at our doorstep. Lord. I pray that this, this text just from Joshua 23 and 24 would be our, really our guideposts, our, our, our, our signs posts telling us which way to go. Lord prayed. You speak to us each individual in this room, each individual who's watching online or in the law for, in patio. 2 (19m 32s): Lord, may your word go forth powerfully in Jesus name? We pray. Amen. So I, I often go back this time of year, as we're looking into the next year, you know, new year's is a time to think of your goals for next year and all the, the things that you want to do that you want to change in your life. And I always, I often come back to this text, consider 2022. And these are the words of 110 year old man. Who's on, who's going the way of the earth. He is at the end of his life. And he recognized that, and he has these things to say, I think we need to take them with some weight. 2 (20m 16s): Joshua 24 verse 29 says now it came to pass. After these things that Joshua, the son of nun, servant of the Lord died being 110 years old. And this is the Joshua that was born in Egypt as a slave. And he knew what it was to S to have to build idols or do things for the Egyptian gods. He, he, he was a slave in Egypt. He saw what the gods of Egypt required for those who worshiped him. That was his first 40 years of his life for the next 40 years of his life. He served at as Moses, his right-hand man, his assistant. 2 (20m 57s): He served Moses for those 40 years and he witnessed what the God of Israel would do and where the God of Israel wanted to take the people. And he saw the way that the, the people for those 40 years, as they wandered in the wilderness, continued to serve these other gods. The last 30 years of his life could be the most exciting. It was the 30 years as that he was the leader over Israel. After Moses had passed away, he was put in charge of the leadership. He was the one that was to bring the people into the new promised land. He was the one that was to go forth and, and fight these battles against the, the, the people that live in that land, those nations. 2 (21m 40s): And he has some very heavy words. And because these are his dying words, I think they have some weight to him. Now, just as a side note, we see that he dies at 110 and on his tombstone, if he had a tomb. So it would say Joshua son of nun, servant of the Lord. And this week I got to get coffee with a friend. And I, and I, and I asked him a few directive questions. What do you want your headstone to say, what do you want to read on your headstone? Because if you know how you want you at the end of your life to go, then you know, what path and what directions to take along the way. 2 (22m 20s): Joshua says servant of the Lord, Solomon and Ecclesiastes he's. He looks back on his life in that book. And he looks back on his mistakes and his failures, his, the vanities of life and the values that he, that he wanted to have the, he looks at pleasure and the practical wisdoms. And he says this at the end of . He said, let us hear the con the conclusion of the whole matter fear God, and keep his commandments for this is man's all for God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they all gave on blessings to their sons. 2 (23m 4s): As they're dying words, Jesus, on the cross, his dying words were, it is finished to tell a star there's a weight to that. So we come to Joshua chapter 23, and let's look at these verses. As we recognize that these are the words of a, of a dying man who served as the Lord, his whole life, Joshua 23 verses one through three. It says now it came to pass a long time. After the Lord had given rest Israel from all their enemies roundabout, the Joshua was old and advanced in age and Joshua called for all of Israel, for their elders, their heads for their judges and for their officers and said to them, I am old and well advanced in age. 2 (23m 52s): You've seen all that. The Lord, your God has done to all these nations because of you for the Lord, your God is he who fought for you. And as you go on in Joshua chapter 23 and 24, which we won't cover every verse this morning. So I would encourage you to read that maybe over the next coming days, as you look down at the new years, but Joshua 23 chapter, 20 days full of reminders and warnings for the people, Joshua had assembled a number of the leaders. And he said, these are the reminders that I want you to have. And these are also the warnings and Joshua in verse six of 23, he says, therefore, be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, Les, you turn to aside to the left-hand or to the right-hand or to the left, Joshua Joshua was reminding them to mind the crossroads of life. 2 (24m 46s): Keep those in mind, don't turn to the left or don't turn to the right, keep away from those alternative paths. You, the word of God is, is a straight and narrow path and we don't want, and Joshua is reminding them not to turn to the left to the right. Speaking of the GPS roadmaps a year, a number of years ago, I had a very, one of the firsts GPS is out there that gave directions and it was really rudimentary. And it was a little tiny scream about this, about this big. And I was on a Roach, a motorcycle road trip from here all the way out to Houston, Texas. I was going to go visit my brother out there. And it ended up being a very long day. 2 (25m 29s): I left Los Cruces, New Mexico at about six in the morning, ran out of gas in the middle of Texas, went through a rain storm. And as I'm pulling into Houston, Texas about midnight, this my GPS begins to give me directions and I wasn't paying close enough attention. It had given kind of two directions right in a row. And I missed the second one. And so it began to reroute me and I pulled me off the interstate and I'm going through, it's raining and I'm going. And I'm going in. I pull off into this neighborhood. And I later I found out that the, the GPS had taken me into a neighborhood. I should not have been at at nine o'clock or that late at night. And that section of town, my brother who lived there, it was like, that's not the neighborhood to be in because as I didn't mind the directions that were right there in front of me, we have to mind the crossroads. 2 (26m 17s): Joshua was saying Joshua 23, verse eight also says, but you shall hold fast to the Lord. Your God, as you have done to this day to keep the course, keep the course, a friend of mine in Santa Barbara. He, he he'd, he'd sailed to Hawaii. He got a little schooner and he'd sailed to Hawaii. He said, one of the things you have to do when you're aiming for an island, that's thousands of miles away is make sure that every day, your course is true. He said to miss Hawaii, by a degree or two would have been hundreds of miles and he would have altogether missed it. But so you have to keep the course hold fast to the Lord, your God, Joshua 23, verses 11 and 12. 2 (27m 3s): He says, therefore, Terek take careful heed to yourselves that you love the Lord, your God, or else. Indeed, if you will go back and clean to the remnant of these nations, Joshua was saying, if you don't devote yourself to the Lord, you'll begin to wander. You'll begin to stray from the path. You'll be go back into all the things that you were doing. All the things that the nations around you were doing worshiping these other gods verse 14 says behold, this day, I'm going the way of the earth. And you know, in your hearts and in all your souls, that not one good thing has failed. You not want a good thing has failed of all the good things, which the Lord, your God spoke concerning. 2 (27m 46s): You all have come to pass for you. Not one of them has failed. Josh was reminding them to remember that God is so good. God is so good. God keeps his promises. He promised them that they would have this land. He promised them that they would give God would give them rest over these other nations. As we come to chapter 24, Josh was going to give a proclamation at this place called Shekim. And whether these are two different speeches or one there's some debate. It, it they're, they're the, they're the last speeches. 2 (28m 26s): They're the last declarations of a dying man. So Joshua chapter 24 verse one says, and Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to check him. And he called for the elders of Israel for their heads, for their judges and for the officers. And they presented themselves before the Lord check him was a historical place. Check them is where Abraham having left or of the Kaldi's left his Homeland. God made him promises. And God called him out of that country to go into the land of Canaan, to give, go into land. A promised land and years of delay had, had, had kept him back until he entered into Keenan. 2 (29m 7s): The land of promise. And there, once Abraham was in where God had called him to go, God appears to him a second time. And after God appeared to him, Abraham set up an altar and worship God there and check them, check them is, is a historical place. It's where previously Joshua 30 years prior as they entered into the promised land that he had had them set up another altar there at Shekim. So at Shekem he is, he's going to give them once again, he's going to re remind them of God's goodness, in verses 12 or two through 13, we'll summarize it. And just say that God brings to mind all the things that God has done for them. 2 (29m 48s): He reminds them of his goodness. He reminds them of that. They were chosen people. He reminds them that they were taken to this special place. He reminds them that all that they were given in this land is good land flowing with milk and honey, a land where they didn't have to build walls. It was all there for them. He reminds them how they were delivered from their enemies, how God fought for them. And he reminds them of their history. And I think so often we forget our history too. We forget our own individual histories. Have you forgotten what God's done for you? 2 (30m 29s): Maybe as we look into 2022, we re remember all that God has brought us through this past year and years prior, God has done so much for us. And it's easy to forget those things. As you look in to the future, as you try to, as we try to look into the future, we forget all that God has done for us and with us and through us. I think that's especially true for, for those of us. Who've grown up in the church. I shared this with the youth group. I think we have to keep a sensitive heart. When you've grown up in the church, you forget all that God has saved you from and all that God has kept you from all the hurt and the pain, the loss Psalm 1 0 3 is an amazing song. 2 (31m 13s): It says this. It says, bless the Lord. Oh my soul. And forget not all of his benefits who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is restored or renewed. Like the Eagles, forget not his benefits, but after reminding them, Joshua now brings him to the place of the choice where Josh was going to say, choose for yourselves. It's going to be a charge as well as a choice in Joshua 24, verses 14 and 15, it says now therefore, fear the Lord serve him in sincerity and truth and put away the gods, which your fathers served on. 2 (32m 2s): The other side of the river in Egypt serve the Lord. Joshua has to say, put away those idols. Those idols are there in and amongst you put those away, get rid of those things. And I believe our culture today still saturates us with idols. No, not the little idols, as much as they, maybe they had back in those days, no longer little figurines or statutes or those, those are still around. We can still see those, but the idols are those things that we put so much identity in. I believe at our, I had our identity can become an idol. It can become a God that we begin to serve when it's something other than God, when our identity is identified or attached to something outside of God, when our identity, our identity is wrapped up in our political affiliation, it becomes an idol. 2 (32m 53s): When our social media following becomes our identity or our position at work or our abilities or skills or achievements, those things can become the idols of today. It became our identity. I remember when I was a swimmer at UCFB, I wore a sweater. I wore that shirt like almost every day or the sweatshirt. I walked around campus with that big UCS B swimmer jacket. I wanted everyone to know I was a swimmer. I identified as a swimmer. I was proud to be a collegiate athlete until the Lord began to show in my heart that you are, that is you become your identity. Tell the day that I had to go and tell the coach, the coach, I need to step down from the swim team. 2 (33m 35s): I want to get involved more with this group called campus crusade for Christ. And I took that sweatshirt up and I folded it up. And I didn't allow myself to wear that because I didn't want to be identified as that anymore. I wanted to be identified as a follower of Christ. Those things that we just begin to, I, they begin to become idols in our life. And they're, they're tough. They're harsh masters. When we allow those idols to rule our life, what about money or consumerism? Letting that become an idol? It doesn't matter how much money or if you have a lot of money or you're broke the pursuit of money in the acquisition of these things is an idol for many in our culture. 2 (34m 19s): Many people trust their money more than they trust God. And it's not that money is bad. We don't want to say that it's not, it's a tool and it's something to be used correctly. I quit. I guess the question I ask is, do you, do you have money or does money have you entertainment? I believe in, in our culture has become an idol. It's just, we're just obsessed with entertainment. And we have Netflix and all these different things, which we can just be entertained around the clock. I mean, I still remember the days where the TV went blank and I'm not that old. I don't think I remember the TV went blank at night and there was no program on here. 2 (35m 0s): What do I do now? But now we have around the clock, just a myriad of different things to entertain us. And not that that's bad once again, it's not that entertainment is bad, but it's when it's let, when we let it become all consuming in our lives is where we need to have some caution comfort. I believe is another one of those things. Are we seeking to make our lives as comfortable and safe as possible? When comfort becomes your idol, that's all you seek for. And these things, I don't believe they're evil in and of themselves. They're just the improper focus of time that we put into them. And we make these things become greater than they should be in our lives. 2 (35m 44s): Let's look at verse 15. Joshua gave the warning to put those things away. Now in verse 15, it says, and if, if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day, whom you will serve whether the gods, which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites whose land you live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I saw some of you of your mouth. That verse that's it's it's one of those verses that's memorized in me. It's it was, it was a plaque on my door growing up. It was a plaque that went to after my dad passed away. 2 (36m 25s): My mom bought a new house that went onto her door, and now it rests. And it's posted on our door as well. And Joshua gives the charges has choose for yourselves. He says, whom will you serve for Joshua? That choice was easy. Joshua had made that choice long ago in, in, in the English. We use the future tense to choose, to make that choice. Choose for yourselves. We, we, we say that's a future sense, but in the Hebrew tent has a fuller meaning. 2 (37m 9s): Francis Schaeffer said, he said it expresses a continuous action involves the future, but it also can point to the past. Joshua's undoubtedly affirming. I have chosen and I will choose Joshua had done that by the small and big choices that he had made along the path of 110 years of living. Joshua could make this statement because he had lived a life that continuously chose to serve the Lord. Joshua chose to fight against the Amalekites choosing when it might cost and everything, including his life. 2 (37m 50s): Joshua chose to reject the golden calf. Choosing when the flesh might be satisfied. Joshua chose to serve the Lord by serving Moses, choosing a humble place. Joshua chose to be believed. God's promises about the promised land choosing against the majority. Joshua chose to recognize the leadership of the captain of the Lord's army there on that bank, choosing to surrender to God and Joshua chose to take leadership of Israel to lead them into the land, choosing faith, instead of unbelief, those are the decisions that Josh Joshua had made. But now he says, but as for me and my house, and he was saying, I am willing to go alone. 2 (38m 37s): Are we willing to go alone? When the culture around us goes different directions, Joshua had made this decision. It didn't matter what others would choose to do. It didn't matter that if he and his house were the only ones that would continue to serve the Lord, a song came to mind as I was studying. That says, though, no, the no, the, no one go with me still yet. I will follow. We'll get to sing that later. Joshua and the decision had been made. He had put his hand to the plow, as Jesus mentioned, and he would not turn back. There was a guy named Mike rider, who, who DISA, discipled me throughout college and, and, and afterwards, and he called this a super decision. 2 (39m 26s): He called this a super decision as decisions. You, you, a decision you make once that you will not stray from, from Mike rider, the decision that he shared with us, one of those decisions was that he would have a daily devotion time with the Lord. Didn't matter if he had, you know, had to get on a plane ride at 4:00 AM, he would wake up early enough to have a quiet time with the Lord. That was one of his super decisions. One of his other super decisions that he shared with us was that he was going to be at church on Sundays, whether he felt like it or not, he was not going to let the circumstances affect him being at church and the fellowship. Good job, everybody. Christmas day after Christmas day, his other super decision was that he and his wife and his family would allow a college group to meet at his house every week. 2 (40m 17s): And he did that. They did that for about 15 years, even when their kids were little, until her kids were in college and pass college, he held a, a college group at his house in which with a lot of my me and my friends were discipled. Those are the super decisions that he had made. And I think about the super decision that these 40 martyrs of Sebastian made it back in 3 28 D there were a Roman Legion, which is now modern day Turkey, Turkey, and it was these 40 Christian soldiers. There were in the Roman army. And so the, the, the, the commander realized, Hey, we might have an Allegiant allegiance issue. Are these Christians gonna, you know, take this, take, which, which side are they gonna take? 2 (41m 1s): If things really go down. And so he said, we can no longer have these 40 Christian soldiers here in my army. I want you to bow down and pledge to Caesar is Lord the Caesar's God. And these 40 soldiers said, we will refuse. We are 40 Christian soldiers. So the commander had them beaten and scourged, they will not turn back. So he said, I will punish you then by putting on a frozen lake naked, it was 40 Christian soldiers saying a tune of 40 Christian soldiers for Christ. 2 (41m 43s): And they were there on that naked on that frozen lake, no one turned out. They were there huddled together, forties, Christian soldiers for God, surrounded by guards, not allowing them to leave. They decided to let's let's up the ante. So they put up hot tubs, they put up these tubs of hot water around it. So if you got too cold and you just want to jump out, you wanted to claim the authority of Caesar and renounce your Christian faith, and you can do that. And they made it easier with having these little hot tubs around. Well, for one of those soldiers, back in 3 20 80, it was all too much. And he, and he ditched his fellow soldiers and he ran, he jumped into a hot tub. 2 (42m 23s): And sadly, because of the temperature he died instantly, he was, he was overcome and they began singing the song 39 brave soldiers for Christ. What was all too much for one of the soldiers, one of the guards that was on the edge and hearing 39 soldiers for Christ. And he said, no, it needs to be 40. And he said, I once made that profession of faith to believe in Christ. And so what he did is he took off his, his uniform stripped off his clothes and he jumped back into and he jumped into those forties, 1 39 soldiers making it once again, 40 foot soldiers for Christ and those 40 soldiers for Christ all died in the ice that night, they took a stand. 2 (43m 12s): So Joshua brings us to this thing, or you have to choose for yourself, choose for yourself this day, whom you will serve. But he says, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, I guess, looking at 2022, what and whom will you serve the culture around? This is long departed from serving the Lord. It's becoming actually, serving the Lord. What will your choice be? You're not an Elmo doll. You're not an Elmo loves you there. God gets to push a button. And you said, Lord, I'm choosing to obey. You know, it's a free will choice. 2 (43m 54s): And it's a place this morning where we get to look back on the choices and where they've OLED. And to look into the, into the distant horizon and say, Lord, where do you want me to go? What choices do you want me to make this year? So who or what we choose to serve this year? So transition now to communion it's commune and Sunday, the fact is that none of us are strong enough. None of us are strong enough to live out this journey day by day. None of us have the wisdom that we need to even direct our own paths or our own lives. 2 (44m 38s): None of us have a lived or able to live a perfect life as Jesus did. That's why recalled to remember Jesus, his perfect sacrifice that he paid the penalty for our sin. We need to remember that the lamb of God's body was broken for us, that the lamb of God's blood was shed for us. Remember that by his death, we have been freed from the penalty of sin. Remember his resurrection and chew and choose to live in a way that speaks that he is coming back with that. We walk in freedom, righteousness, obedience, faith, hope, love. So with the elements in our hand in John chapter six, Jesus made the first of his seven. 2 (45m 25s): I am statements. And the first of his seven, I am statements. He said, I am the bread of life. And Jesus was speaking to all his disciples. He had a large group disciples outside of, outside of the 12. And Jesus said to them, assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink of his blood, you will have no life. Whoever eats of my flesh and drinks, my blood has eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day. Many of his disciples heard that eating his flesh and drinking his blood. And they were, they turned away. Many of his disciples, the larger group of disciples began to leave him. 2 (46m 9s): It was too hard of a statement to S to take. So Jesus looks at the 12 and John six, and he said this, he said, do you also want to go away? So do you also want to go away? What are you going to choose? You're going to choose to follow those others. You got to love Simon Peter, because he's the one who, who, who sings out and speaks to the 12. He says, Lord to whom, shall we go? Or to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And also we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the son of the living, God, that's what we do, but eating of the bread and drink of the cup. 2 (46m 59s): When we realize how good we have it to where else, or to whom else would we serve? Where else would we go? Let's take the bread. First Corinthians, Paul writes a letter to them and says for, I received from the Lord, which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed, he took bread. And we had given thanks. He broke. And he said, take eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Let's do this this morning. And remember it. So Jesus, In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is my new covenant in my blood. 2 (47m 58s): Do this. As often as you drink in remembrance of me for us, often as you eat this bread and drink of the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Let's pray. Lord, help us not to forget your benefits. What would help us not to forget your blessings that come along with serving you, Lord, oh God, you are good. 2 (48m 43s): And you do good. And you have paved the path you've gone before us Lord. And you were the light unto our feet and the light into our path. Lord would give us wisdom to recognize those things in our lives this morning that have become idols or, or gods help us to realize the path that they have taken the path that they have made a stray down. Let us renounce those things, Lord and get rid of those things in our lives. Lord, give us wisdom to recognize your goodness in the path that leads to eternal life, help us to make the choice. 2 (49m 29s): Lord that honors and serves you. Lord Jesus name. We pray. Amen. 1 (49m 47s): Did you all stand with me? I have decided to follow the cheese. I have to follow cheese. I have to follow the cheese. 1 (50m 15s): Still alive. 1 (51m 27s): I have decided to follow and cheese. I have these two follow on cheese. I have to follow the cheese. No attorney, no turning, no turning 0 (51m 56s): Back. 1 (52m 2s): No turning back.

1 (4m 54s): Jeez. 1 (6m 17s): When Christ was for 0 (6m 22s): Choose 1 (6m 41s): Is, is Fall on your knees. 1 (8m 38s): on 2 (9m 25s): Hello. We're so thankful that we get to gather together and honor, and acknowledge what you accomplished over 2000 years ago in bringing Jesus Christ, our savior, the Messiah into the world. And Lord, as we think about that, we pray that our hearts would be open a fresh to the, the living work that you're doing in us. Lord, we thank you that what you're doing in our lives it's, it's growing, it's constant, it's dynamic. And so Lord that each one of us here today, each one of us here tonight would just have our hearts open and ready to receive all that you have for us. Lord, bless our time together. Thank you that you promise it where we gathered together in your name that you are here in our midst, the Lord, we welcome you. 2 (10m 9s): And we thank you. And we bless you in Jesus name. We pray and God's people said, amen. Amen. Go ahead and have a seat, please. All right. So in addition to what Curtis shared earlier in welcoming you, I also want to welcome you because what typically happens either at Christmas and Easter time is a lot of people wind up coming to church that don't normally come to church. So if that's you, thank you so much for being here tonight and maybe a friend invited you a family member. We're just so delighted that you're here with us. We, we hope that you do really sense and experience the love of God in our midst. 2 (10m 53s): What I'm going to do tonight is actually actually going to read a, a children's book to you in just a minute. But before I get to that book, I want to introduce you to a good friend of mine. And so I gotta, I gotta go get him. All right. So here's my friend. All right, his name, his name. I'll pick it up so you can all see his name is brownie. I gotta get out of here where everybody over here. So I'm looking at the monitor up on the wall. So hopefully you can all see it and, and people online as well. This is brownie. So I'm going to give you a little background on brownie. You might think to yourself, well, why, why in the world would pastor Ron bring a bike with him to, you know, Christmas Eve service? 2 (11m 38s): The answer is it's a prop and it gets your attention and it makes you want to know why that, why did he bring that? Well, let me give you a little history on brownie. So, you know, in our family growing up, there's, there's four kids. And so it was my, my oldest sister, her name is Ruth and the year was about 1960. And my mom and dad figured, okay, it's time for my sister to learn how to ride a bike. So my dad went down to Ken's bike shop on Monterey street and found a used bike and the bike he bought his brownie. So that was right around 1960. So you do the math help me out here was that 61 years ago. 2 (12m 19s): And it was used then. So what, what's the history of, of brownie? So my, my sister Ruth learn how to ride a bike on brownie as well as my other sister, Trina. And I learned how to ride a bike on brownie as well as my brother, Gary. So somehow I wound up with brownie and my family. So DJ and I have four kids. So guess what? Jamie, Bethany, Leah and Seth all learned how to ride a bike on, on brownie right here. So Leah, our third daughter, she's kind of the personality where she thought in the neighborhood where we were living at the time, she thought, well, I'm going to teach all the neighborhood kids how to ride a bike too. 2 (12m 59s): So she'd gather up all the kids in the neighborhood that didn't know how to ride a bike and she would, would teach them how to do it. So think about it, parents, moms, and dads, grandmas, and grandpas. Think about it. Do you remember when you would get your child for the first time on a bicycle and you'd grab the seat and then you start running behind them and you're holding on holding on and you're encouraging them all the while you're saying something like, you know, you can do this and you got this and, and you're helping them get enough speed. And then, and then you let go and then they crash and burn, right? That's part of the process. 2 (13m 40s): Thinking about riding a bike though, what does it take? It takes three things. It takes a little bit of faith that I can do this a little bit of trust. I've seen other people riding bikes, so I know it can be done and some confidence, okay, I don't have it yet, but I have the ability to be successful in riding, riding a bike. So riding bike for the first time takes what it takes. Some faith. It takes some trust. It takes some confidence. So I know it's very simplistic, but help me out here believing in the story that I'm about to tell you requires some faith. It requires some trust and some confidence in God's story about the birth of his son, Jesus Christ. 2 (14m 28s): And I can promise you this, if you will place your faith and trust and confidence in Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, you will never regret that decision. And so I don't know where you are. You may have been walking with the Lord for a long, long time, and you might be a new, a new believer. You may not be a believer yet. My hope and my prayer for you is that you'd up your heart and life to see what, what God would have to say to you and believe the story about his birth. So this story that I'm about to read this children's book called crisis saviors born. This story has impacted every person who has ever lived in the past, in the present and on into the future. 2 (15m 12s): The truth is you can't ignore it and you can't get around it because God loves you so much. The story I'm about to share with you. It is not a myth. It is not a fairy tale. It is not wishful thinking. It is not fiction. It is reality. It is absolutely true and absolutely accurate. And it is the story about God sending his son into the world as savior of the world. So won't you join me now, the pictures are going to be up on the screen and I'm going to read to you this book Christ. 2 (15m 53s): The savior is born young Mary with Joseph felt time drawing near both knew God. The father was leading them here. They searched the whole town for a safe place to stay. But all that they found was a stable with hay, although all alone and most likely afraid they clung to God's plan as they trusted and prayed at just the right time and in God's chosen place. A new born soon cried in the parents embrace as bright stars shone down from the dark sky above Christ. 2 (16m 38s): Jesus was born. He's the gift of God's love. And then Mary wrapped Jesus at all, snugly and tight while angels in heaven, rejoiced at the sight. God wanted the whole world to hear his good news, but how should he tell them? And whom should he choose? He could have told Kings or the rich or the smart. Instead he picked shepherds the lowly of heart. The Lord sent his angels to dark fields that night, the shepherds fell down at the bright holy site. The angels announced, do not fear. 2 (17m 18s): This is true. Good news of great joy straight from heaven to you, Christ. The savior is born Jesus, the king Christ. The savior is born praises. We sing, they glorified God and gave praise to his name while shepherds on earth joined in all the acclaim. The shepherds found Jesus, as angels had said, all swaddled and loved and with hay for a bed, they knelt down to worship right there in that place. Then left to tell all of God's wonderful grace in all were amazed at the news. 2 (17m 59s): They were told by these joyful shepherds us stories, soul bold. Then out of the east, Wiseman came from afar. They followed a big, bright and beautiful star, gold incense, and myrrh at his feet. They laid down their gifts for the king born in Bethlehem town. They looked one last time at the Christ child sweet face and saw there for certain, the God of all grace. They left then for home on a bright starry night, perhaps they heard songs of God's angels in flights Christ. 2 (18m 40s): The savior is born Jesus, the king Christ. The savior is born praises. We sing great story. Jesus. The savior is born. You might be thinking, I don't know. I don't think I really need to save your life's going pretty well. Feeling good about myself. But reality is what we're going to discover is we all need a savior, no matter where we are in life, how good things are or even how bad things are going. Think about this for a moment. What if hypothetical? What if you inherited in your DNA, in your chromosomes, through your family line, a corrupted gene that will absolutely cause you to have a severe disability and will eventually cause you to suffer and die preset story, huh? 2 (19m 36s): And there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. You didn't cause it, you simply inherited this genetic defect and this defect is incurable. Unless, unless God intervenes this story that I just read to you, Christ, the savior is born. It's all about God's intervention into a human dilemma. Human problem. It's all about God's remedy God's solutions. God's way of saving you from a defect that you did inherit. See the defect is a sinful nature and you were born with this. 2 (20m 18s): I was born with this. All of the human race inherited this through Adam, this defect, the sinful nature and the sinful nature that we've inherited has corrupted our relationship with God. And the truth is that without Jesus, we are separated from God. From a human perspective, it is incurable. From God's perspective, he has provided the cure, the solution, the antidote, the vaccine, if you will, to completely restore and heal you from this defect, you see the reality is we are all in desperate need of a savior and his name is Jesus. 2 (21m 11s): The cure, the remedy, the solution, the antidote, the savior is Jesus. And that's what this story is about. God's solution for sin and a restored relationship with God don't know how much you know about Christianity or, or, or other religions. We tend to sort of group them all together. But the reality is Christianity. Following Jesus as Lord and savior. It's all about a relationship with God. It's not about ritual or religion at all. It's about a relationship. And yet you might be wondering how can a little bitty baby save the world. 2 (21m 55s): Now here's the part of the story. It's, it's a bit difficult to hear because you see baby, Jesus didn't stay in that manger. He didn't stay a baby, but he grew up and he became a man. And as a man, he fulfilled the purpose for which he came into the world to be the savior of the world, the Messiah. So how did he accomplish this? He did it by laying down his life as a ransom, as a payment for many, you see the sin of the world has the sin of the world was placed upon him upon Jesus. 2 (22m 38s): He died so that we can be freed from our sinful nature so that we can have our relationship with God restored through Jesus Christ. We are reconciled to God. That's the word? The Bible uses. It's a great word. We're reconciled to God. What that means is this. We are friends with God, the one who created all things that heaven in the earth, and we are accepted by God through Jesus Christ. Great verse in first Timothy chapter one, verse 15 in the Bible, it says this, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 2 (23m 26s): So difficult story. So I'm going to trust moms and dads, grandma, and grandpa. If your kids ask a little bit about what I'm talking about here, I'm going to let you fill in the blanks and broaden that story a little bit. So-so now I want to get back to the Christmas story, the fun and the joy of the Christmas story. Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus. I think it's a wonderful thing to gather each year. I've been doing this since the early eighties, and I always look forward to gathering together on Christmas Eve and hearing the story. Once again about Jesus' birth. Christmas is also all about giving gifts, right? I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning when I wake up and I looked down at the foot of my bed and guess what's going to be there a stocking, a Christmas stocking. 2 (24m 16s): I don't know where it came from, but there it is. Every year I want to open up my stocking and then I'll watch, want to watch my kids, my grandkids, you know, opening up their gifts. I love to give gifts. At Christmas time. We love giving gifts to one another because God gave to us the greatest gift of all eternal life through Jesus Christ. Our Lord, a couple more verses. One is in Romans chapter six, verse 23. It says this, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ. Jesus, our Lord, the beauty of the gospel story, the story of Jesus is all about a gift. 2 (24m 56s): It's not something that we earn or work towards or try to be good enough to receive. We just simply accept the gift that God has given to us through his son. Jesus, second Corinthians nine 15. It says this. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. And of course the verse that most of us know many of us know. In fact, if you know John three 16, I want you to go ahead and speak it out and say it with me, John three 16 for God. So loved the world that he gave. His only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 2 (25m 39s): John three 16, God so loved the world that he gave. He gave Jesus. He gave the gift of his son. The verse, right after that, John three 17 is equally as impactful. It says for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved to love story. Beautiful, beautiful love story. So here's my question to you today. Tonight, have you received God's gift of eternal life through his son? Jesus Christ. I hope that you have, as we get ready to close, as I close my part of the gathering tonight, the worship team is going to come up. 2 (26m 22s): In fact, if I could go ahead and invite the worship team back up to the front, but, and as we sing these last closing songs, if you have not yet invited Jesus Christ to be your savior, I would encourage you to do that. And it's so simple. God has made it so simple. It really can be boiled down to ABC a, an admit, admit that you have sinned against Scott. Just acknowledge it. And the way we do that is through prayer. It's it's through just a quiet conversation with God. There's no one way no right way to do it. 2 (27m 2s): It's just an honest acknowledging Lord, God almighty. I admit, I admit and acknowledge that I've sinned against you and now be believe that Jesus Christ God's son came and died as a payment, as a remedy for your sin and that he was buried and rose again the third day. So we simply believe what the Bible tells us about who Jesus is and what he accomplished for us on the cross. And finally see call upon the name of the Lord and you shall be saved. How do you do that again? 2 (27m 43s): It's it's just simply being honest with God, Lord. I have not yet done this in my life, but I, I want you to be in my life. I need your solution. I need your restoration, your reconciliation. I want to have a re my relationship with you restored. And if you'll do that, and again, as we have these last two closing songs, if you've not yet done that just while we're, while we're singing, just have that conversation with God and invite him in invite Christ, the savior to be your Lord and God will do amazing, amazing things. 2 (28m 23s): Lord, we are so thankful. The gift that you gave to us over 2000 years ago is still fresh and, and living and impactful Lord. It's a story that never gets old. So Lord, we are so thankful that you gave to us the gift of your son and Lord. My hope, my prayer is that each and every one of us would come to know you as Lord and savior and just walk with you day by day in that living relationship, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand. Shall we going to continue to sing a few songs together tonight? 0 (29m 2s): She had your candles. Let's go ahead and turn those on as well as let's sing silent night together. juicy. 0 (34m 48s): .

0 (22s): I was lost, but he brought me a book. Here's the book. thank you. 0 (3m 15s): That we are your children and that we get to wish like you, we love you, father. We thank you. 0 (3m 43s): . 0 (7m 2s): Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. That you say thank you for stopping that you are here. 0 (7m 34s): so that's 1 (11m 24s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Lord king of Kings. We worship you. We are gathered because of you only because of you. Jesus. Do we have the capacity, the access, the ability that desire for death worship you in spirit and in truth. God refresh us in that revelation. Lord God, that truth your word, Lord, help us never to get far from that truth, Lord God, but to keep it in our sites and build our lives upon it. Lord, thank you God. 1 (12m 5s): Holy God. Thank you for what you're doing today, Lord for you will do today as before we just avail ourselves to you. Holy God. You're king oh king Lord king. Lord. Help us to live as though you're the king submitted humble, grateful worshipful dependent Lord. Thank you, Lord God. As we get into your word today and Hebrews chapter six, God, we want to grow in our understanding of the word and our understanding of you. 1 (12m 48s): We want to take steps forward, build upon a foundation of truth and grace Lord, but beyond the foundation, Lord God, we want to build something of glory for you, Lord out of our lives. And so Lord give us the grace and the wisdom to do that. Help us. We pray. Lord. We love you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Go and say hello to your neighbor. We'll come back just a moment here, neighbor. Thanks Barry. Love you buddy. 0 (13m 48s): so 1 (15m 2s): It's refreshing to just watch the people of God connect and fellowship together and just smile and love on each other. So I didn't want to interrupt that. It's it's good. It's part of God's plan. That's why God tells us not to forsake the gathering together of the saints. We need each other. We needed that encouragement, that connection, that love that, that is shared. We need that. And we're going to see a lot of people potentially this Christmas season that we don't see for a while and that we don't see typically during the, the year. And, and so take that a little bit of that with you and just bless people with that fellowship and watch what God will do. 1 (15m 50s): We're in Hebrews chapter six and we titled the message today. Spiritual maturity is not optional. If you want spiritual victory, spiritual maturity is not optional. If you want a spiritual victory, the two go hand in hand, a little five-year-old boy was in his kindergarten, his Sunday school class. And they were in the class talking about the creation, how God created the heavens and the earth and sort of guy Johnny was particularly intrigued by the fact that he was created from one of Adam's ribs. And a few days later, a little Johnny was in his bedroom and he was laying down kind of rubbing, you know, holding his side. 1 (16m 36s): And his mom said, Johnny, what's going on? And he said that my side really hurts. I feel like I'm going to have a wife. Sometimes we just don't understand spiritual truth. We hear something and we'd go in all the wrong directions. And spiritual maturity is not optional. If we want spiritual victory, the end of Hebrews five, the writer wrote about spiritual maturity to his readers. You wrote to the Jews who had read it then. And he writes to us now he called the people and he was kind of car. She called them spiritually Dole, spiritually Dolan. 1 (17m 19s): He said, you don't just, you just don't seem to listen. They had been believers long enough that they should be teaching others, but instead they needed others to teach them again. The basics of the faith, the writer said that they're like infants still on milk. They'd never pressed on and desired spiritual meat, graduating to solid food because of their stunted growth, because of there's tons of growth. They lack the skill needed to know the difference between right and wrong. Did you hear that because of their stunted growth, they lack the skills needed to know the difference between right and wrong. 1 (18m 6s): And that's why we say spiritual maturity is not optional. If you want spiritual victory, maturity and victory go hand in hand, but maturity, spiritual maturity helps us to know the difference between right and wrong helps us to discern in the moment in the crucible, in the difficulty in the temptation helps us to understand the difference between right and wrong and then choose the right path. And Hebrews chapter six, we're going to be covering verses one through 12 today, just about half the chapter. It'll pick it up next time. The writer says in Hebrews six one. So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. 1 (18m 50s): Let's go on instead and become mature in our understanding. That's really what we're called to do. As believers, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ to move forward into mature understanding Jesus said, go and make disciples. Jesus said, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit, teaching them to obey all the things that I've commanded. He goes on. Surely we don't need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil really means dead works. Remember he's speaking to Jews who had converted to Christianity. 1 (19m 30s): They believe that Jesus was the Messiah. There was completely Jews, spiritual Jews are completed Jews. And so he's saying, Hey, we need to move from dead works and place our faith in God. Surely we don't need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds that works in placing our faith in God. Number one, spiritual maturity develops as we repent from dead worse and put our faith solely in God. Spiritual maturity develops as we repent from dead works and put our faith solely in God. Dead works are the works we do to gain God's favor. 1 (20m 14s): We have God's favor because of what Christ accomplished. He went to the cross, taking the penalty for our sin upon himself, paying the penalty so that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So we have favor with God because of Jesus. Not because of what we do. Dead works are the things we do in hopes that God will see us and then receive us based on the work we do. Now, there's a place for good works. And we're going to talk about that, but it's not to gain the favor of God or the acceptance of God. That favor and acceptance is solely because of what Jesus did on the cross. He was born. That's what we're celebrating this week. We're celebrating the birth of the Lord. 1 (20m 56s): Jesus Christ. See the incarnation came. We just were seeing about, he came as a child to bring a message to live among us, to become like us, to relate to us, to teach us ultimately to die for us and then to be resurrected and be seated at the right hand of the father. And continue that work from there did works are the teachings. We are the things we do in hopes that God will see us and receive us based on the work we do. That's why it's called dead works. Did worser called dead because that is precisely what they are. They're dead. They don't accomplish what they hope to be, do or accomplish what people hope they would accomplish. 1 (21m 42s): They don't give us favor with God. The blessing of the Lord, Jesus Christ gives us favor with God dead. Things don't produce anything. The Bible tells us faith without works is dead. Why? Because dead things don't produce anything. James, 2 26 in the new living translation says just as the body is dead without breath. So also faith is dead without good works. So there's a place for good works. It reflects our new life in Christ. It declares that we are new in Christ, but those words don't Krantz has access to the father. 1 (22m 24s): Jesus does dead faith doesn't result in salvation because dead faith isn't faith at all dead faith is faith without works. Dead. Faith doesn't result in salvation because it's dead. Dead works. Don't result in salvation either because salvation is a gift of God's grace, not of works. Lest anyone should boast Ephesians two, eight and nine in the ESP says for by grace, you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God. Not, not a result of work so that no one may boast. 1 (23m 4s): So spiritual maturity develops as we repent from dead works and put our faith solely in God. It changes our whole motivation. When we're putting our face solely in God, we're saying, God, I trust you for my salvation for my new life. But out of that new born again, life experience, I'm going to be living for you and doing good works for you. Demonstrating my faith by my good work so that my faith isn't dead because faith without works is dead good work. So the result of a genuine faith, let me say that again. Good works are the result of a genuine faith. We do good because we are in Christ. We follow his example in his earthly and ministry. 1 (23m 46s): Jesus went around doing good works. Supernatural works in power by the spirit of God. We're empowered by that same spirit. And so we have the capacity by God's grace to do good works from the motivation to bless God and to bless others is we're called to love God and love others. And so out of that, commandment out of that, that call by God. We do good works because he's good. And we want to reflect him and live a life of good works, demonstrating our faith. We do good works because we are in Christ. Dead works are just that. They're dead. Dead works again. It's all about motivation. What are, why are we doing what we're doing? 1 (24m 26s): Dead works are just that they're dead. They don't help us in our relationship with God because they're motivated to gain access or favor from God access to God favor from God. So that doesn't help us because essentially we're saying, Hey, forget about the finished work of Christ on the cross. I'm going to do my own thing. Well, the reason Christ came to die on the cross is because we couldn't do our own thing. We can't do enough good in our own righteousness and our own good works to get grant or to gain access to the father. So Jesus came. And so when we say we're going to try to gain favor from the father by doing our good works. We're essentially saying that the cross wasn't good enough. 1 (25m 6s): Jesus wasn't good enough. Dead works are just out there dead. They don't help us in our relationship with God. If anything, they take away from a genuine relationship with God, right? Cause they shifts the focus again, because the only way we can have a relationship with God is because Jesus made it possible. This is why we celebrate Jesus every Sunday, but especially at Christmas and on Easter because of what Jesus made possible through his shed. Blood on the cross, let's move on Hebrews six, two, you don't need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. 1 (25m 50s): And so the author writes about four different things, kind of foundational things you don't need further instructions about these things. One commentator wrote when we consider the rudiments or the basics, one by one, this that we see in verse two, it is remarkable how little in the list is distinctive of Christianity for practically. Every item could have its place in a fairly Orthodox Jewish community. Each of them indeed acquires a new significance in a Christian context. But the impression we get is that existing Jewish beliefs and practices were used as a foundation on which to build the Christian faith. 1 (26m 31s): And so these, this prince, these things are important. They're part of our foundation and our heritage, but we must move on. These four things listed in verse two are the foundation. We need to understand them, but beyond the foundation, what goes on top of a foundation? Imagine building a building, he put the foundation in and then just leave it there. What good is that foundation? If there's nothing built upon it, or you build a foundation because you want to build a building, right? You'd get the foundation laid so that you can build something on top of it. And that's really what our lives are meant to be doing. 1 (27m 11s): Building a found building on that foundation of truth, building a life that glorifies God, it honors the Lord. We need to have the foundation. We don't get away from the foundation. The foundation is essential. You don't even really see that foundation in a building, but you know, if it's not there, right? You know, if the foundation is not there because you try to build anything without, without a foundation. And as soon as there's, there's an earthquake or a storm, everything begins to fall apart. All right? So we need to have the foundation in our lives because if we don't have the foundation in our lives, these things that will impact your in just a moment. Then as soon as the storm hits our lives and everything will fall apart, our faith was shaking. 1 (27m 57s): We won't continue to believe God or trust God or worship God, we won't do any of those things because our foundation is shaken and we'll fall apart. This is the reason potentially that the Jewish people were were waffling. They, they, they, they, they had, they were trying to commingle their, their old life and their new life. They understood truth, but they understood it incompletely. And they wanted to move forward with that foundation. But under misunderstanding that foundation and not wanting to give their lives fully to Jesus, they begin to waffle and waiver. 1 (28m 37s): Maybe you're here today where you're saying, man, I want to go to church. And I know I need that foundation, but I also don't want to give up my old life. I'm not sure I want to do that. I mean, I don't want to get radical about Jesus. I, I, I know I need the foundation and I need all of that and I need fire insurance and that sort of thing, but I don't want to get radical about Jesus. And so there's this attempt to commingle. This is what the author is addressing here. This co-mingling of the old life, the old religious system that a lot of these Jews were entrenched in. They recognize that it was incomplete and that Jesus was the Messiah. So they moved to Jesus began to worship Jesus declaring him as God. But then they begin to waffle and then begin to lose their faith in God. 1 (29m 22s): And they begin to backslide as it were. And so they had maybe the foundation where they misunderstood the foundation. So we're going to look at the foundations and, and, and talk about those and unpack him and just see what God will speak to us about the foundation. So again, these four things, listen to verse two are the foundation. We need to understand the foundation so that we can build a building. We need to have that foundation solidly in place so that we can build a building on top of that. And so God willing, verse three, Hebrews six, we will move forward to further understanding. Again, further understanding applies a building on the foundation. It requires something of us. This faith requires something of us. 1 (30m 4s): That's why Jesus, when he called the disciples, he said, come follow me. I'll make you fishers of men. In other words, you're going to have to abandon that old, old way of living. Remember what happened after the crucifixion and the burial of Christ disciples said, Hey, I'm going to go fishing, right? I'm going to go back to the old life, right? 'cause they, they, they were shaking in their understanding and shaking in their faith. And what did Jesus do? He went after them, right? And then when they saw Jesus and fresh, they followed him. Number two, spiritual maturity develops as we move forward to further understanding, further understanding beyond the rudimentary teaching concerning baptism, the laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead and the final judgment to be thorough today, though, let's briefly recap these teachings that the writer of Hebrews is challenging his readers to move from. 1 (30m 59s): He's not telling his readers to forget about them because you can't ever forget about the foundation. It's essential, but he's saying from the foundation, you must build, you must build something. There must be something evidence, fruit of your faith. So he doesn't want them to forget about the foundation, but to move forward, to move from, to build onto, with further understanding. So let's unpack these four things, baptisms and notice the word is plural. The word in the Greek for baptisms, there is about T's most. It's not a hard word to remember, but it refers to ceremonial cleansing. 1 (31m 41s): It. Doesn't refer to the baptism that we read about when the believers of God get baptized in the faith. It's referring to a, a washing, a purification effected by means of water. So the people being tempted to slip back into Judaism and dead works, or maybe trying to commingled Judaism and Christianity, there it is again, but there's a difference between ceremonial washings prescribed by the mosaic law and Christian baptism. So they're using baptism baptisms in the plural. Speaking about ceremonial washings. Remember the religious leaders approached Jesus and said, Hey, we're, we're confused or offended that your disciples don't wash their hands. 1 (32m 28s): They don't follow this. The ritual of ceremonial hand washing before they eat. And Jesus challenged them and said, Hey, it's not what goes into a man that him, but what comes out of him, defiles him. And he's talking about all of the wretched things that are in a man's heart. So he said, Hey, it's not so much important that we be that we're careful about what goes into us, but it's what comes out of us. Some of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So there's a difference. There's the ceremonial hand washing was a traditional man. It was mosaic law. It was something that was external. What God was wanting to do through baptism was transformational. It was internal. It was the whole being God. 1 (33m 10s): The difference between ceremonial hand cleaning and baptism was completely different. But yet they're trying to, co-mingle the two trying to maybe get along with both camps. Have you ever tried to do that? You want to get along with the world, but you also want to get along with the church. This is what they're trying to do. They're trying to hold on to their old life and their new life and trying to co-mingle that you don't mix. It's like oil and water ceremonial washing. Doesn't do what baptism does. Let's look at first, Peter three 18 through 21. It says Christ died once for our sins and innocent person died for those who are guilty. 1 (33m 54s): Christ did this to bring you to God. When his body was put to death and his spirit was made alive first, 19 Christ then preached to the spirits that were being kept in prison. It's a whole nother sermon that we'll get to. Eventually they had disobeyed God while Noah was building the boat, but God had been patient with them. Eight people went into the boat and were brought safely through the flood. Those flood waters were like baptism that now saves you. But baptism is more than just washing your body or ceremonially cleaning. It means turning to God with a clear conscience because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead Christ is now in heaven, where he sits at the right side of God, all angels authorities and powers are under his control. 1 (34m 41s): So baptism reflects something of transformation that's happened in our lives. It's a declaration that we understand that Jesus died for us and has adopted us. And we are identifying as followers of the Lord. Jesus Christ. The significance is incredible. And so if you're here today and you know, Jesus, but you've never been baptized, you've never made that public declaration of your faith through the waters of baptism. You need to get baptized, not for salvation, but out of obedience, Jesus was baptized, right? John baptized him in the Jordan and he modeled that for us. 1 (35m 23s): So maybe that's going to be the thing that kind of decides for you or helps you decide or helps you to make the break, because maybe you've been a little incognito about your faith in Jesus Christ. Nobody maybe knows that you're a Christian, it's your workplace, or maybe even in your neighborhood or among your family members. Baptism is a public declaration. Ceremonial hand cleaning was just something that everybody did. If you were a Jew, right? Baptism indicated that you were now a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ, Hebrews nine 10 says for the old system deals only with food and drinks and various cleansing ceremonies, physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established. 1 (36m 15s): So the better system is Jesus. Jesus is the better system because he instituted a new covenants, baptism and water is part of that new covenant that God has called us into. So that's baptism or baptisms. Next is laying on of hands. We demonstrated that just this morning when we laid hands on Daniel and praying for them. So it's something that we see in the scripture. And it's something that we practice as the church. And it's something that was a foundational. And we'll see why in the early church. And, and to this day we lay hands number one to a point leaders, right? 1 (36m 55s): First time of the fire, 22 says, do not be hasty and laying on of hands nor take part in the sins of others, keeping yourself pure. So what that means in the context of that is when you're declaring a person to be a leader or announcing a person to be a leader, you lay your hands on them, kind of annointing them declaring them to be a leader. So this is one of the ways in which we use the laying on of hands for, for healing, the sick in mark, one 40 through 42, a man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. If you're willing, you can heal me and make me clean. He said, move with compassion. Jesus reached out and touched him. 1 (37m 36s): Now there's plenty of examples of Jesus healing people by just speaking it. But then there's other examples of Jesus laying his hands on people and healing them. Jesus reached out and touched him. I am willing. He said, be healed instantly. The leprosy disappeared. And the man was healed. So a lot of us need to remember that God has called us to lay our hands on people so that we might pray for them. So they might get healed. I was at work years ago and I'm in front of mine, was sick at work. And he was in the middle of everybody. And I said, Hey, can I pray for you? And I put my hands on him to pray for him. And I'm just agreed for God's healing and just did it in front of everybody. 1 (38m 18s): It didn't matter. It doesn't matter. Was it Andrew Annis this week? And we were, I was praying with a brother just in Johnny's Andrew, Andrew, and he's a brother and a gal that I just met. And we were holding hands, laying hands on each other. We were agreeing together. So the laying on of hands, it speaks of community. It speaks of agreements and acts nine. Remember on, on the road to amass, Saul of Tarsus got knocked off his, his horse and or his donkey or whatever he was riding or on the road. He got blinded. So, and, and I S went and found Saul acts nine 17. He laid his hands on him and says, brother saw the Lord. 1 (38m 59s): Jesus, who appeared to you on the road has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the holy spirit. So two things happen there and an isolate his hands on him and he received his sight and he was filled with the holy spirit. So that's another reason that we lay hands on somebody for the receiving of the holy spirit. We see that throughout the new Testament for the receiving of the holy spirit acts eight, 18 and 19. When Simon saw that the spirit was given, when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power. Let me have this power to, he explained so that I, so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the holy spirit. So Simon was misled in his understanding, but he saw something that happened that transpired when the apostles laid, the disciples, laid their hands on people, they received the holy spirit. 1 (39m 51s): Let me see the same thing. When the apostle Paul in acts 19, then when Paul laid his hands on them, the holy spirit came on them and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied. So there's the holy spirit came upon these people as a result of the laying on of hands. There's some kind of something happened. Supernaturally. When we lay our hands on people, people begin to speak in tongues and prophesied. They're filled with the holy spirit and the fruit of the spirit. They begin to live out of the, that new life where one person is filled with the holy spirit, more promised that salvation that will be filled with the holy spirit. We're also told to be continually filled with the holy spirit, because we constantly need to be filled with the holy spirit. So maybe you're here today and you need somebody to lay hands on you that you might be filled with the holy spirit again. 1 (40m 35s): Or maybe you just ask the Lord, God come. But if you don't have the faith of the grace upon you to believe that God will do that, come forward at the end of service, and we'll pray over you. We'll lay hands on you and pray that the Lord fills you with his holy spirit. Then all the fruit that he desires and is designed to come out of, you will begin to flow out of you. A lot of us are working in our natural manner, natural strength. I'm trying to do the work and the will of God. And what we really need is the holy spirit. We're frustrated because our lives are fruitless. We're trying to do all of these things in our own strength. And we, what we need is we need the power of the holy spirit. We need the power of the holy spirit. Earlier this week, I had thrown my back out and, and it was just hurting for days. 1 (41m 25s): And, and then I got a cold on Thursday and, and I'm talking to my elders. And two, two of the elders and their wives were both have been to the hospital and been sick and been dealing with all kinds of stuff. And I recognized that we were under a spiritual attack. And so we just began to pray. I reached out to some people and we just began to pray. And, and I took a COVID test yesterday. Cause I was thinking, man, if I got COVID, I can't go to church. I can't do it. You know, puts me out for the, to the end of the year. And I don't want that. So I took a COVID test and thankfully it came back negative. And so I just knew is I said, okay, Lord, I'm not feeling good in my back's thrashed. 1 (42m 10s): And I got this cold, am I supposed to press on? I felt like the Lord said, yeah, press on. So I just knew that the holy spirit was going to do something to, to restore me by this morning. And I'm feeling better this morning. I'm all doped up on medication, but I'm feeling better, got a cough drop in my mouth, you know? But so sometimes the Lord calls us when we're not feeling up to it physically to do the stuff that he wants us to do spiritually. And he will empower us to do that. He'll give us the grace to do that. So don't just give up if you're feeling weak or in capable in your natural man, press and say, Lord, what do you want me to do? 1 (42m 52s): And, and how do I trust you to move forward and just see what the Lord will do? Maybe you just feel inadequate and you say, Lord, I don't feel adequate for the, what you've called me to do or for the life that you called me to lead. Well, good. That's actually a good, humble thing. Place to be. None of us should feel adequate in our own man and our own strength. None of us should feel that way. We never approach ministry with, from our own adequacy. We always approach ministry from a place of brokenness and dependence and contrition and humility, approaching everything that God calls us to do with gentleness, with just a humble dependence on him and just leave the fruit up to him. 1 (43m 36s): So if you're feeling inadequate, don't give up, just ask the holy spirit to fill you. And when you do the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. All of those things and the spirit of God will work through you and a power. The power of God will begin to flow through you in ways that you don't even understand. You'll say stuff that you never thought you could say or thought you would say or thought, you know, that you'll say things that were never in your mind to say the things maybe you don't even understand that you're saying you'll begin to pray with a greater level of faith and confidence. You'll be able to act with greater obedience, all of those things. So that's baptism and laying on of hands. 1 (44m 16s): And there's the resurrection of the dead. We need to understand the resurrection of the dead. I'm never going to get through this message today. The resurrection of the dead first Corinthians 15 22, 12 through 23, just unpacks the, and then you can go to second Corinthians chapter five. I'll read a little bit from that as well, but we need to understand what happens after we die. It's part of the foundation of our understanding and faith that gives us confidence to live in the here and now for Jesus. We need to understand what God has in store for us. So let's just read some verses a scripture in first Corinthians chapter 15. But tell me this. 1 (44m 57s): Since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead for if there is no resurrection of the dead then Christ has not raised either has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then boy, all of our preaching is useless and your faith is useless and we apostles will be lying about God for, we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, but they can't be sure if there's no resurrection of the dead. And if there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised in your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. And in that case, all who have died, believing in Christ are lost. 1 (45m 37s): And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, that we are meant to be petty pitied. We are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been, he has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. Verse 21. So you see just as death came into the world through a man and we're getting to the good stuff. Well, it's all good stuff. Now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam. Everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life, but there is an order to the resurrection. 1 (46m 18s): Christ was raised as the first of the harvest that all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back, he's coming back, who I'm ready for that? Boy, I tell you, I'm ready for that. 42 through 44 first Corinthians says, well, let's go into 35 years, but someone may ask, how will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have? And this is something that we talk about in Memorial services all the time, but maybe it's something we should be talking about when people are still alive as well. What a foolish question. When you put a seed into the ground, imagine of literal seed, put it into the ground. 1 (47m 1s): It doesn't grow into a plant unless it dies first, right? And what you put into the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. Then God gives it the new body. He wants it to have a different plant grows from each kind of seed. So we are essentially a seed that will be planted and God will give us a new body resurrected and new life in the same way. Verse 42, jumping out of verse 42. It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live for ever. 1 (47m 43s): Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies will solve a body, but there'd be spiritual bodies. That'd be like Christ's body will have a natural human body. We're not going to be spirit bodies. That's a contradiction in terms, spirit bodies, where we're going to be spiritual bodies in heaven for just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies. 1 (48m 24s): So you're going to have a body in heaven. You'll be recognizable in heaven. If you die as a hundred year old, you'll probably have some would say that you'll have your body, the body of your most, your best life part of your life. Maybe when you were 35 or 40 or 52. I hope I don't have my 52 year old body. I want my 35 year old body could still run marathons and didn't hurt. And that'd be all right. I don't want to live for eternity in this broken thing, but I want my eternal body, my resurrected body. 1 (49m 9s): And then I will be happy, happy, happy to live forever and ever. Amen. Now let's look at eternal judgment. The last on the list of Hebrew six, there are two judgments. There's the Believer's judgment. And as we've been kind of alluding to this all along about building on that foundation, we will actually stand before the Lord, the believers judgment and give an account for our lives, whether we built on that foundation or not. And then we will receive rewards or not based on what we have built by God's grace in his strength for his glory, right? 1 (49m 49s): Doing it in our strength for our glory. We're doing it in God's strength for his glory, the believers judgment where believers will stand before the Lord to give an account for our lives. Our fruit will be judged. And then interesting. Second Corinthians five 10 says for, we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. So this is speaking to believers in second Corinthians, chapter five, speaking to believers, people who have come to faith in Christ, in Christ, we will stand before the Lord and give an account for lives. So we get saved. 1 (50m 30s): What have we done? And what's the fruit of our salvation. What's the fruit of our faith. What have we done with our faith in Jesus Christ that we'll get judged and we will receive whatever we deserve, not heaven or hell, because that's already decided by Christ, right? We're saved by grace through faith, but our works and the fruit of our lives will be judged. And we see that throughout the scripture, in the old, the new Testament, we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this early body. There's two judgments, the believers judgment, and then the final judgment or the great white throne judgment. 1 (51m 12s): This is for an believers we see in revelation, chapter 20, there's a judgment for an believers. These are people who have not excepted received the grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ. You're in one or two camps as a human being, you are a believer or you are an unbeliever. You are in Christ, or you are out of price outside of Christ. You're in Christ. You have eternal life. If you're outside of Christ, you do not. You will spend eternity in one or two places, either heaven or hell, depending on your decisions here in the earth. 1 (51m 53s): Revelation 2011 through 15 says, and I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it, the earth and the sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small standing before God's throne in the books, the books were opened, including the book of life and the dead were judged. According to what they had done as recorded in the books, the sea gave up its dead and death and the grave gave up their dead and all were judged according to their deeds, then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. 1 (52m 34s): This lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found recorded in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. So those are the two judgments, the believers judgment, where God will open up the books and read and evaluate and judge our life work. And there's the unbelievers judgment. Spiritual maturity develops as we move forward to further understanding. So we need to understand that those things, that's the foundation that allows us to build a solid life for Christ. 1 (53m 16s): So we, we, we drive around the only time you see a foundation without a building is because somebody ran out of resource, right? Something got shut down, somehow your resource by the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He will give you the resource, the strength that you need to build upon your life, but you got to do it his way. And according to his plans with his foundation, you don't want to get to heaven with just foundation, get to heaven. Great. But you don't want just a foundation. You want to have built something with your life. 1 (53m 56s): Spiritual maturity develops as we move forward to further understanding, I might stop right there. What time is it? Hmm, just take a look real quick here. Hang with me another five minutes or so. And we'll get through the rest of this. So again, spiritual maturity develops as we move forward to further understanding, meaning we need to understand this truth and then go on and the maturation process and grow in knowledge and application knowledge and application. So it's not just about learning information. It's about the application of that truth that we see in the rest of the Bible. 1 (54m 37s): Back to Hebrews six, four, it's impossible, verse four for it's impossible to bring back to repentance. Those who are once enlightened. Remember these people are beginning to backslide a bit. Those who've experienced the good things. These are believers who are beginning to backslide. It's impossible to bring back to repentance. Those who were once enlightened, they receive the light of Christ. Those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the holy spirit who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come and who then turn away from God. It's impossible to bring such people back to repentance, but by rejecting the son of God, they themselves are nailing into the cross once again, and holding up, holding him up to public shame. 1 (55m 23s): So again, this verse is speaking to believers. People have had a real encounter based on the scripture, based on the context. These are people who have had a real encounter with Jesus based on the text and the context of the whole of Hebrews and this chapter. These are people who've known. God, see this verse is speaking about, believe these verses are speaking about believers who have turned away from God who potentially have become apostate. And so there's a warning. The writer's giving to these people who are beginning to backslide, wanting to commingle their old life with their new life, because it's a slippery slope that will cause them to fall away from the Lord. 1 (56m 4s): Altogether. Apostate is a person who renounces religious belief. So this first is speaking of two Jews who are potentially rejecting the finished work of Christ on the cross, and then are returning to a system of law and of dead works. Part of that system of law and dead works is sacrifice the sacrificial system, the animal sacrifices that are part of the old covenant. So they would, as part of that, going back to the Jewish way of doing things, they would go back to animal sacrifices there by rejecting what Jesus has done as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He, he was crucified and gave his life as the final once for all finished and done sacrifice on the cross. 1 (56m 46s): And so by rejecting Jesus and going back to the old system that becoming a POS state falling away from the Lord. And, and this is what the scripture says about them. These people, speaking of the Jews would re would return to religious Jewish practices. Maybe it's like the people of Israel wandering through the wilderness. They been delivered out of Egypt. They are wandering through the wilderness. They continually complain against the Lord. They're rebelling against the Lord. They're building idols in to worship rejecting God is their leader and Lord and guide and king. And so he made them wander in the wilderness until that whole generation died off before they entered into the promised land. 1 (57m 31s): So these people, speaking of the Jews would return to Jewish religious practices like animal sacrifices to make it Tillman for their sands. You imagine. So it's a slap in the face to Christ because they're rejecting the sacrifice of the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. They're rejecting the savior of the world. The Messiah, John 1 29 through 34 says the next day, John, this is John. The baptizer saw Jesus coming toward him and said, look, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. John recognized that he was sent as a 4runner to identify, to prepare the way for Jesus. And then to identify him. He is the one I was talking about when I said, man, coming after me, who was far greater than I am free, existed long before me. And I did not recognize him as the Messiah, but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel. 1 (58m 18s): Then John testified, I saw the holy spirit, descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him. I didn't know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me the one on whom you see the spirit descend and rest is the one who will baptize with the holy spirit. I saw this happen to Jesus. So I testify that he is the chosen one of God. So John, this Jewish man declared that Jesus was the Messiah, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and these people who had once believed that are now rejecting that and going back to their old way of living. How does a person know if they're an apostate, maybe you're here today and you're worried that you might be an apostate. Maybe you've committed a sin, done something, and you feel like you might be an apostate. 1 (58m 60s): Maybe you've committed the unpardonable sin. If you're worried, if you're worried, if you're here today and you're worried that you might have sinned this way, you're probably, haven't why, because an apostate, somebody hardened their heart toward the things of God. And God can only cause people to come to a place of repentance through the good work of his spirit in their hearts, through a tender heart, through a broken heart, a contract hearts. So if you're feeling maybe on, maybe I've committed the unpardonable sin, you haven't because your heart is to confess your sin to the Lord and repents and apostate. It has a hard persistently unrepentant, heart Titus one 12 through 16. 1 (59m 43s): Speaking of the people of Korea, maybe this is a good example for us. We just studied Titus verse 12. It says even one of their own men at profit from creed has said about them. The people of Crete are all liars, cruel animals and lazy gluttons. This is true. So reprimand them sternly to make them strong in the faith. They must stop listening to Jewish myths and the commands of people have turned away from the truth. That's what's essentially happening here in Hebrews. Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure, but nothing is pure to those who are corrupted unbelieving because their minds and conscience are corrupted. Such people claim. They know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient worthless for doing anything good. 1 (1h 0m 26s): So Hebrews six helps us as we wrap this up here with a helpful picture for us, verse seven, when the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God's blessing. But if, and this again speaks of the building upon the foundation, but if a field bears, thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn the field and burn it. So it's a picture for us. If the field produces good things, it has God's blessings. But if the field bears thorns and thistles, it will be burned up. 1 (1h 1m 8s): Speaking of the final judgment, you will know a person by their fruit at the end of it all, we'll stand before the Lord and God will judge our fruit. So this passage is not speaking to someone who has fallen into sin, but has repented. It's not what this passage is. Speaking to a repentant person has a tender heart and unrepentant person. Their heart is very hard and unreachable Proverbs 24 16 says that godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked, the godly matrix, seven times number. 1 (1h 1m 50s): When Jesus speaking to Peter about forgiveness, he said, how much, how, how many times do I need to forgive? 70 times seven, essentially Jesus saying like me over and over again, my grace is sufficient. So if you're have struggled in your faith, struggle with sin, but have repented and continue to repent. Then this verse is not speaking to you. Hm I'll just read the last few verses here. Dear friends, even though we're talking this way, we really don't believe it applies to you. 1 (1h 2m 31s): Isn't that good news. He makes a point. The writer makes a point and then encourages them. We are confident that you are meant for better things. Things that come with salvation, the life of fruitfulness for God is not on Jassy will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts in order to make certain that you, what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually Dole and indifferent. That's what he's calling these people out of, challenging them to move from. 1 (1h 3m 14s): Then you will not become spiritually Dolan indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and endurance, faith and endurance. We're saved by grace through faith. That faith is demonstrated by our Endurant by our good works. We're saved solely by the grace of God, but that grace is demonstrated by our faith. And that faith is demonstrated by our good works, our endurance, our ability to trust God and believe God all the days for our lives. Spiritual maturity is not optional. If you want spiritual victory, number one, spiritual maturity develops as we repent from dead works and put our faith solely in God. 1 (1h 3m 55s): It's invite the worship team forward. We're going to sing another song here in number two, spiritual maturity develops as we move forward to further understanding and number three, spiritual maturity develops. When we refuse, when we refuse to give up, when we refuse to give up, I was talking to someone earlier this week about 1 0 2 and all of the challenges and hurdles one or two is our new worship center that will hopefully be hoping to March drywall starts this week. Good things are happening. But he said, Hey, you know how how's it been the pro I said, I said, when you just refuse to give up and continue to trust, God, God always comes through. 1 (1h 4m 41s): And so that is true for our lives. As believers in Christ, we need to not give a brief fuse to give, continue to move forward, continue to repent and move forward as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and then watch what God will do. Right? All the promises of God require patience endure. It requires that we wait on God and trust his timing and not our own that we don't, that we refuse to give up. Where have you given up, have you given up on your walk with the Lord? Have you given up on your marriage, have you given up on your kids, have you given up on your influence, your fruitfulness. 1 (1h 5m 26s): Don't give up, don't give up, let's go and stand up and worship. Lord. We refuse to give up. We refuse to give up Lord. So God, as I stretch out my hands and pray over us, Lord God, I just pray for endurance in Jesus name, strong faith in Jesus name, God that we would build on that foundation, that we would make sure that foundation is in place. And that we believe that the truth about who you are and about, about the di the proper doctrines that we're to build our lives and ministries upon Lord God, that we would move beyond that Lord. 1 (1h 6m 9s): Now that we would put those in place and then build in Jesus' name that we build in Jesus' name, we would build and not grow weary that we would never give up. So Lord help us to worship today in spirit and in truth. And as we worship, Lord God, let it be a declaration that says, God, I'm never giving up. Things may get difficult, but I'm not giving up. There's going to be 20, 22 is going to be a good year or because we haven't quit. We haven't given up corporately as a church and individually, If you need prayer during this last set of worship, be people down here who will be praying for you. 1 (1h 6m 50s): I'm not going to pray for you, cause I don't want to get too close to you with my cold, but there's others. You need people to lay hands on you so that you might be healed or filled with the holy spirits said you might be encouraged that you might receive from God, what you need then come on forward and people will pray for you. Let's worship. 0 (1h 7m 17s): the 3 (1h 11m 4s): starting today. We will praise your name. We thank you that we were here at church today, or sitting at home and watching that'd be thank you. That your presence you were with us everywhere. Somebody love you in Jesus name. We pray.

1 (3m 26s): We worship you. Jesus. We thank you that we will praise your name forever and we praise your name today. 2 (11m 33s): Gotcha. Thank you. That's your name is powerful Lord and yeah, we invite your powerful name to move in our midst, Lord, God, you've already begun and we just pray that that would continue. God. I pray that there were where, where there is a disconnect between us and you corporately or individually, Lord God that there would be in Jesus name. I pray God that we would connect to you in a fresh and powerful way where we need to repent of our sins. I pray that we would repent of our sins, God, where we need to acknowledge that we have separated God, that we would acknowledge that and draw close to you. God, that we would allow your spirit to dwell in us on hindered God that we would be convicted of sin and of righteousness, God of your presence, Lord God, that we would honor you all the days of our lives. 2 (12m 25s): God, that we would dwell in you and that you would dwell in us. God, thank you that you do inhabit the praises of your people. I pray that we would always be a people who worship you in spirit and in truth, God, that we would be available to you 24 7, God, that we would be humbled before you grateful for you. God, that we would always understand who you are and who we are in light of your grace in our lives. Lord DOD. So God keep us humble. Keep us filled with the love of God, the grace of God, the compassion of God, or give us, give us the desire to love people in our community. 2 (13m 5s): To love you wholeheartedly, Lord, God, God, we just invite your presence all over this campus Lord. And for whoever's watching online, God, we pray God that you would download grace and truth and supernatural power to us. God that we would be different as a result of this gathering, this corporate gathering of worship today, God, that we would be impossible for us to leave the same, but that there would be change and transformation in our lives because we've gathered, we've prayed together. We've worshiped together. We've looked at the word and studied the word together. We declared that we will submit ourselves to your spirit and your word, Lord God. 2 (13m 47s): So God to change me, change us, transform us where we need to be transformed. Lord God, be glorified in this process. We pray. Thank you for what you're doing. We love you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. You may be seated. We're going to be in Hebrews chapter five today. Hebrews chapter five. We'll be looking at the last part of Hebrews chapter four as well. Thank you, Amanda. And so we'll be in a couple of different chapters looking again at the last few verses of chapter four, but then unpacking all of Hebrews chapter five. So if you have a Bible and you would like to turn in your Bible to those chapters, that would be great if you don't and they're going to be up on the screen. 2 (14m 29s): So, so that's going to be really good. I'm excited about what God wants to do today. I was up around my property, walking and praying this morning. And as I was praying and walking, I came upon this, all of this debris up on the highway. We live on highway one up on, on the Mason and our house is down about 150, 200 yards off of highway one. And I, as I walked up to the highway, she's me not how be one, but Willow. As I walked up to Willow, I noticed all of this debris everywhere and I was up there to pray, but I see all of this debris. So it's like somebody took a newspaper and just chucked it out the window. And it just went everywhere as well as a bunch of other trash and I'm OCD. 2 (15m 11s): So anytime I see trash, I got to stop and pick it up. I don't like trash. And so I stopped to pick it up and I was reflecting on the trash. I was like, why, who would do this? Why, why throw your trash out on the road on somebody else's property? Who does that? You know? So I was just kind of, kind of frustrated in my soul. And I thought, you know, if I just spend a moment and clean it up, it will all be good. You know? So I took about five, 10 minutes or so, and just gathered up all the trash. I'm having to crawl under the trees on my hands and knees to get the trash from underneath the trees. And, but once I got it all cleaned up, I was able to look at it and I just, I found myself resting again. There was something, something about that trash that was interrupting my ability to pray and my ability to rest in the Lord. 2 (15m 57s): I thought there's a parallel here. I think we allow trash into our lives. Either people put trash into our lives or we bring trash into our lives, but somehow we get trashed in our lives and it interrupts our rest in the Lord. It interrupts our ability to press in as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that trash hinders us. And I got this clarity, this kind of revelation that if we'll just take the time, whether it's trash, somebody else has trashed our life with or trash that we have trashed our own lives with. If we will just deal with it. I think we have a disconnect in our walk with Jesus because of trash residue that we've allowed presence in our lives. 2 (16m 46s): Why don't we just clean it up? Why don't we just clean it up? How do we clean it up? If it's like trash baggage in our lives? Well, I find cleaning up means for me, extending grace to somebody who's trash, my life, choosing to love, choosing to extend compassion. And as soon as I begin to actually do what Jesus would do, as soon as I begin to act like Jesus would act and do what Jesus would do and speak like Jesus would speak all of a sudden, there's just the rest of God. 2 (17m 26s): The peace of God, the joy of God, it just, it just settles in me. And all of a sudden I've got clarity, any kind of anger or disappointment or disillusion. It just begins to dissipate and wonderful and profound things happen, but we have to be pro we have to be proactive. And so we have to identify, we have to be OCD about it. So it got, I don't, I'm not allowing this trash in my life. I'm getting rid of it. I'm going to clean it up. I'm going to confess it. I'm going to deal with it. I'm going to get it out in the open. I'm going to throw it away. I'm going to eliminate it from my life. We're talking about rest again this week, last week we said, God's rest is available to us. 2 (18m 9s): But even as I say that again, this week, it's just, it's such good news for us, especially in light of just this crazy holiday season that we find ourselves in it's December, it's almost Christmas again. And here we are, our trees are up. We did the live nativity. We did the, you know, Christmas tree lighting out front. It's been crazy. Lots of things happening every weekend and all throughout the weeks as we get ready to celebrate December 25th, the birth of Christ. And to remember that in the midst of all the chaos, the rest of God, the peace of God is available to us. 2 (18m 50s): How did you do this week? How did we do this week? Reflecting on the message last week, trying to apply it to our lives. How do we do? I did okay. There were moments where I forgot all about the rest. I forgot that it was even available. I forgot that I even needed it. I was just, I found myself uptight at different points. And, and then when I would return to the truth about who God is, that rest would just settle back on me and settle back in me. And it's, it's, it's, it's this supernatural work of the spirit that God wants to accomplish within us. It's really pretty profound. 2 (19m 31s): We've been waiting for six months, you know, kind of doing a ton of work over at 1 0 2 and trying to get a permit. And as I mentioned, I think I mentioned last week that we got the permit and that was like a huge load off, you know, and all through that process. I just had to keep going back to Lord and say, Lord, okay, you know the timing we're just going to trust you. And then when it happens, we're like, okay, thank you, Lord. We trust your timing. And then we had, we were able to call for an inspection. So when you get your permits, you gotta get to start getting a project inspected. So we had done plumbing and electrical and HVAC and Firespring all this different stuff. And so we needed to call for an inspection so that we could continue with the project can continue with the project until you get the sign off. 2 (20m 15s): So we had the inspection this week and Tuesday, we got the building signed off and they said, Hey, you can start insulating. And then you can start dry walling. And then you can start wrapping this thing up. And so there was such a joy. Yeah. There were such joy, such, such gratitude at, at God's goodness. You know, we get uptight about his timing, but as soon as he shows up and does in his timing, what he intended to do all along, well, we just were reminded God's he's not done here. 2 (20m 56s): He's not forgotten about us. He's not left us alone. He's got a plan that is unfolding. And so we need as Christians to stay in that place of rest when we don't understand his timing. And now we've got a few months ahead of us still, and I'm sure we're going to be back in this place where like Lord, what's going on and we're going to have to be reminded that God is still on the throne. And when it's right, we'll open the doors over at 1 0 2 and we'll begin to have church services. But in the meantime, we've had a couple of prayer meetings there. Oh goodness. And that place just got covered with black ink verses of scripture all over the walls. 2 (21m 37s): They're all covered up now, mostly. But man promises from the word promises from God that we're holding onto and recording on the walls of that building. We, we wrote names of people. I bet you there's hundreds of names of people that we've recorded in their names, that people, that people, that we're praying for, that God would touch them. They would experience the salvation of God, the rest of God, the peace of God, he, the healing of God. And so there's literally hundreds and hundreds of names that we've recorded there. And there's going to be another opportunity. We're going to open things up again. Soon. We we've had two prayer meetings and a lot of you have been there. We're going to do it again. 2 (22m 17s): And you're going to have an opportunity and you can stop by anytime during the week and just write names on wood. Don't write it on the dry wall, write it on the word, right? Write it on the wood. And it'll be there forever and ever. And, and just we'll, we'll just watch what God does. There's there's rest for the people of God. When we trust his timing, his plan, his purposes, and his provision. Last week, we talked about God's rest this week. We're talking about God's rest is again, what is the rest that we're talking about? 2 (23m 0s): Well, there's a temporal rest. Then there's the eternal rest. The temporal rest is for the here and now, like right in this moment. So if you're stressed out, anxious, angry, frustrated, resentful, God's rest is available to just scrub all of that stuff from your lives. I shared this story a couple months ago about the letter that I wrote to my dad forgiving him of a lifetime of disappointment. And I shared that when I wrote that letter and forgave, my dad, my soul was scrubbed. 2 (23m 43s): This is, this is the work of God that he wants do in our lives on a regular basis. But we've got to, we got to get rid of the rubbish. We gotta get rid of the trash. We have to address it, deal with it. Extend grace, ask for forgiveness and move forward in the grace and the goodness of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So that we can experience the temporal rest. That leads to the eternal rest of the living. God temporal rest means peace in the midst of the storm. It means faith instead of fear, trust instead of anxiety, joy, instead of worry, I shared these last week. 2 (24m 26s): And as I was getting ready to prepare the message for this week, I re-read this. And I thought we got to say it again. We forget. We got to remind, we got to say it again because I need to reminding, we need reminding about this temporal rest in what that means to us, temporal rest trust. God's his faithfulness, his provision, his love, his goodness, temporal Rast, trust the living God eternal rest, man, what is waiting for us? We get a taste of it here in the here and now. And we're meant to get a taste of it in the here and now we're meant to live in that rest in the here and now, but it takes us to this eternal rest, which means no more pain or sorrow sin or temptation sickness or death darkness. 2 (25m 12s): There will no longer be a curse on anything, but the grace of God rests on everything. Eternal rest means we will see Jesus face to face and we'll be in his presence forever more. So last week we said, this is how you get there. This is how you experience the rest of God. God's rest is available to you by faith. God's rest is available to you through obedience and God's rest is available to the tender hearted faith, obedience. And tenderheartedness that kind of leads us into the law. We're going to kind of relook at Hebrews chapter four, the last few verses verses 14 through 16. 2 (25m 55s): Then we're going to get into Hebrews chapter five and unpack the rest of that. And we're going to look at five points today that help us to understand how the rest of God is available to us. So let's reread Hebrews four 14 through 16. It says. So then since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. Number one, God's rest is available because we have a high priest who is victorious. The scripture says that we have this great high priest who entered having, how did he enter heaven? Why was he able to reenter heaven? 2 (26m 35s): Why? Because he had finished victoriously the work that God sent him to the earth to accomplish. He secured salvation for mankind. He entered heaven. Victoriously Jesus entered heaven. After completing the work he was sent to do securing salvation, he won the victory over sin and death for his people. So because of the victory of our great high priest, Jesus, the Lord, the rest of God is available to us. The Bible says there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus. Why? Because our sins are forgiven. And so the condemnation that goes to the, that settles on the unrepentant. 2 (27m 17s): Isn't for the believer, for those of us who have confessed our need for Jesus who have repented of our sins and who have drawn close to the Lord. So we have this incredible rest. Even when we mess up, we say, Lord, forgive me for that misstep for whatever it was and washed a fresh over me with your grace. And then as we allow, God's grace to wash over us. And at times when we need to forgive ourselves, sometimes it's harder for us to forgive ourselves and forgotten to forgive us. And so when we forgive ourselves and we allow God to forgive us, the rest of God, the peace of God, just settles on us. Jesus won the victory over sin and death for his people. 2 (28m 0s): What exactly does that mean? Let's take a look at first Corinthians 1554 through 58. The apostle Paul explains to us what this means since then, verse 54, first Corinthians 15. Then when our, our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies, that will never die in that sound good. This scripture will be fulfilled. And then there's a quote from Isaiah 25 verse eight. It says death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death. Where is your victory? Oh, death. Where is your sting for sin? 2 (28m 41s): Is the sting that results in death and the law gives sin its power. But thank God. He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. It means we get victory over sin. Doesn't mean we're not going to send any longer, but we'll send less and less and less as the sanctification process of the living. God at work in our lives takes place. As we trust to trust the Lord, as we yield to God, we sin less and less because we want to become more and more like the living God and we are becoming more in that sanctification process. We are becoming more and more like the living God. 2 (29m 22s): So my dear brothers and sisters verse 58, be strong and IM moveable. So we're studying Hebrews and the writer of Hebrews is speaking to a people who are not being strong, but they're being wishy-washy, they're second guessing their commitment to Christ. And maybe you're here today. And you've second guessed your commitment to Christ. You're not sure you're wishy-washy you're you're, you're, you're kind of, you're kind of in limbo a little bit. Maybe you're feeling a little lukewarm. You're not on fire for Jesus, but you're not obstinate toward him. You just don't know what to do. This truth in the scripture, in the Hebrews and in Corinthians is a reminder to us to stand firm, to be strong in the power of his might and be IM movable, always work enthusiastically for the Lord verse. 2 (30m 10s): The verse continues for you now that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. Jesus was victorious for us. He's given us new life, a brand new purpose. He's given us eternity to enjoy him. He has been victorious on our behalf. He has given us victory over sin and death. So we don't have to be slaves to sin. We don't have to be fearful about death because we just graduate from this broken down sick body that we encounter that we inhabit. And we graduate into a, a body, a, an eternal body that is no longer sick. 2 (30m 54s): I was talking with a gal last week after church and she said, I've got Ms. I had no idea she had Ms. But she been battling Ms for a long time. Now I talked to so many people or I got a text this morning from somebody who said, Hey, Mike, I woke up in my, I can't walk my hips out. I'm going to be watching church from home. I'm like, man, I can't wait until these bodies get swallowed up in victory. Right? Like I I'm so over him. Right. You know, even in our healthiest, I'm just, we're just over it. We're like, Hey, can we exchange, you know, trade up. Let's do that. But that would be good. Jesus' victory makes that great exchange possible that we, we trade up and we get glorious bodies moving forward in the new and the next life. 2 (31m 37s): And Hebrews four 14, the writer encourages his readers to hold firmly to what they believe. I think it's always so important for us to go back and be reminded. What is it that I believe what captured my attention when I first gave my life to Jesus, why did I give my life to Jesus in the first place? So that life can get hard, right? Challenging. We run into all kinds of problems, physically, relationally, spiritually, all kinds of problems. And sometimes we just need to revisit this where the writer is saying to the Hebrew people revisits. Remember what it is that you believe about Jesus. So what do they believe about Jesus? What is it that we in this 21st century world that we live in, what do we believe about Jesus? 2 (32m 21s): What we believe that Jesus died for our sins and praise God for that. And we can never get, we can never distance ourselves from that need, from that desperate need for the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Maybe we have a less of a need possibly than we did then, but we're still desperately in need because the Bible says, if we break one law, we're guilty of breaking all the law. So we're desperately in need of the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. They believe that Jesus, that he was the Messiah. They were willing to go against their, their, their Judaism, their Judaism, their beliefs. As Judy, as, as, as Jews, they, they, they were willing to go against their religious teachers and their families to decide and proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah. 2 (33m 9s): They took a big hit in their culture by believing and choosing and proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah. We've done the same thing we've said. I believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of the living, God, that he's the savior of the world that he was sent by God. They believe that. And we believe that we find rest in the Lord. When we continue to hold firmly to what we believe, we lose that rest in that peace and that joy. When we begin to waffle and doubt and question and move away from those foundational essential trues that brought us to Christ in the first place God's rest is available because we have a high priest who is victorious. 2 (33m 52s): Number one, number two, God's rest is available because we have a high priest who is compassionate. Oh, that's good news for us. Isn't it? He is compassionate. How many need some compassion from the Lord? Like we need it. We always need it right back to Hebrews chapter four, verses 15 and 16. It says that this high priest of ours understands our weaknesses for he faced all of the same testings we do yet. He did not sin. He has compassion because he knows exactly what we're dealing with in this life. So let us come. Boldly verse 16 says, let us come boldly to the throne, to the throne of our gracious God in there, we will receive mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. 2 (34m 40s): So it's when we need it. Most that often we're pulling back from God. Like when we need his grace and mercy, the most were, we find it difficult to press into him. But when you're needing it, the very most, that's when you need to press in the very most pressing into the grace and the mercy of the Lord at Jesus Christ. The Lord is compassionate and merciful. Slow to get angry and fill with unfailing. Love. The Psalm says the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Slow to get angry and fill with unfailing love and his earthly life in ministry. Jesus was a man of compassion and we can look at our own lives and see where God has been. 2 (35m 25s): So compassionate, gracious, kind, loving patient with us. His compassion it's incredibly broad and effective in lives, but we see it in his whole earthly life ministry. He, he, he demonstrated compassion. He modeled compassion so that his followers then and now, so that we can see how he lived in reality with others. He had compassion on the woman who was caught in the very act of adultery. While everybody around her wanted to see her pay for her sin. Casting stones at her Jesus had compassion for her. 2 (36m 8s): He showed compassion to the hungry, the sick, the needy, the sinful. This is what compassion is. Compassion is the deep awareness of the suffering of another accompanied by the wish to relieve it deep awareness and the desire to relieve it. Somehow I was talking with a guy this week, a guy from the community, and we were just right over here behind 1 0 2. And I was talking to him, I've gotten to know him a little bit. And I said, Hey, how are you doing? What's going on in your life? He said, you know, my, my life is getting worse by the day. 2 (36m 50s): It's like, it goes, it's going from bad to worse every single day. And he explained to me about his marriage and about his, his business and about his relationship with his kids and just how his whole world is falling apart. I said, man, God, God wants to and help you. And to restore you. And it wasn't like this preachy thing, but I was just like with such compassion. I was like, man, there's, there's hope. It's like somebody walking around in the darkness and you you're able to turn on a light for them and say, man, there's actually help. And, and a hope that's available to you. And I, I asked him, I said, what is, where are you at spiritually? What do you believe about God? He said, well, I used to go to church. And he mentioned a Christian Church in town. 2 (37m 32s): And he said, I used to go. But about six years ago, I stopped going. And I, I just have been kind of falling away. I said, man, if you, if you choose to just invite Jesus back into your life, I didn't know what it will look like, but he will begin to restore. He will reconcile. He will heal. He will we'll move powerfully and profoundly in your life. If you'll just avail yourself to him, just invite him back into your circumstance. Just watch, just watch what he will do. I say, Hey, I said, can I pray for you? He said, oh, sure, sure. You know, I've, I've found that if you will just ask, most people, let you pray for them. 2 (38m 12s): I was talking to a guy after service this morning and he was at a restaurant and he talked to me about all the people that he had just been praying for at the restaurant. He saw somebody who was taking, I pray for you and you pray for them. Everybody says, yes, everybody wants prayer. And so he prayed for them and they would just be encouraged and built up and, and whatever. And so I prayed for this guy out here and, and I just prayed. My hearts sometimes were maybe nervous with some praying, maybe for someone who doesn't know Jesus or his backslidden, or I just pray with them. Like, they're a believer like a brother. I just pray. Like they're all in, you know? 2 (38m 53s): And I just invite God to do whatever that is that he wants to do in their lives. And I just take my Liberty because they said yes, and, and God's got great stuff in store for him. So I just began to pray. And after we prayed, he said, oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate you. And so I just encouraged him afterwards. I said, man, God's got purpose and plan. He, the world needs the rest of God. The compassion of God. And we, as followers of Jesus were where Jesus was skin on. And we get to go out and reach people and love people, communicating grace and truth. And just, and when we get to watch what God will do, and we just humbly make ourselves available. 2 (39m 36s): Compassion is the deep awareness. Maybe you're struggling with compassion. Maybe you got jaded hard or whatever. Just ask the Lord to change your mind about that. He will change your mind. He will soften you up and he will give you compassion for people who are perfect strangers for people in your family, God will just begin to change your hearts. Jesus had compassion on the woman with the issue of blood. She just reached in the crowds and, and, and touched the hem of his garment and healing power went out and who, who, who touched me? He said, and the woman identified herself. And he blessed her. 2 (40m 16s): The lay man at the pool of Bethesda was healed because Jesus had compassion. Jesus resurrected, a widow woman's son and Lazarus at the fed, the multitudes all because he was compassionate, loving, and gracious. What is Jesus done for you? Where is Jesus being compassionate in your life? Maybe we need to revisit that truth. Revisit that revelation, that those memories of things that God has done, because in remembering that we will, we will well up with compassion. We'll well up with gratitude. We'll say thank you, Lord, for the ways in which you've been compassionate to me, Lord, help me to be compassionate with others. He's been compassionate and that he has forgiven you and he's forgiven me and he continues to forgive you. 2 (41m 0s): And he continues to forgive me. He's been compassionate and that he's constantly kind, he's loving and patient he's been compassionate and that he speaks the truth to us in love. So we might be arrested with that truth. Confess our sins, turn away from iniquity, sin, whatever it is. That's, that's a polluting our lives. See he out of his great compassion. He will speak the truth in love. Somebody said after first service, as I teach through Hebrews, he said, he said, I think Hebrews is more of a sermon than a letter. It's like that writer is preaching to these people. As I preach a Sunday morning to you, I it's, it's, it's a message that redeems and rescues and salvage is and, and speaks life in grace. 2 (41m 50s): It's meant to be in Jesus' name. What is Jesus done for you? You need Jesus to do right now. And you're in this moment. And what do you need him to do? Where do you need the compassion of God? Just invite him. Like I invited my friend to invite Jesus in. I'm inviting you to invite Jesus in. Maybe you're feeling distant, disconnected from the Lord. Don't you don't have to. Maybe there's some rubbish, some trash. She just needs to be dealt with confess. Forgive, let go, and watch what the Lord will do to restore the rest of God, to you. 2 (42m 33s): God, God wants to do something and he wants to do it today. And this was the reason for my prayer. I believe that God wants to address some of the stuff in our lives today. I don't wait for a new year's resolution. Don't wait for another day to make your decision to settle some stuff. Let's allow God to do what he wants to do in our lives. Now let's be ready and humble and teachable today and now, and just watch what God will do. You will, you will be changed. 2 (43m 14s): You will have this rest that we've been talking about. You will experience the grace of the living. God, the compassion of God God's rest is available because we have a high priest who is compassionate. Let's jump into Hebrews chapter five. We've got a few minutes to get through the rest of this message. Every high priest, Hebrews five one says this. Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sin. So number three, God's rest is available because we have a high priest who is our mediator. 2 (43m 57s): Another word for mediator is interceptor. He mediates on our behalf. He he's the go-between between us and the father. He made that inner, that, that mediation possible by the shed blood that he offered on the cross because he died for us. We have become, we've had righteousness imputed to us. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And so we've had access granted to us, to the father of Jesus. And now Jesus continually makes intercession for us. He intercedes for us. 2 (44m 38s): He's still connected to us, committed to us and he understands intimately. What we need first Timothy two five says for there is one God and one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity. The man Christ Jesus. We need that reconciliation work at salvation and all through the sanctification process. We need that reconciling work where by we come by faith through the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ into this relationship with God. And we stay there because of that reconciliation work, that ongoing work it's once and for all. 2 (45m 19s): And then continual it's it's it's you're saved once and for all. And then we're continually by God's grace reconciled by the, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has been big Torian. He's compassionate. And he continues to reconcile. He's reconciled to a reconciled us to the father. He he's involved in the, in the process. Ongoing is my point. He did it once and he continues to do it. He loved us then, and he continues to love us. Now he loved us then, and he will love us for all eternity. He is connected to us. He is our forever eternal mediator between us and the father. 2 (45m 59s): Speaking of earthly priests. Now see, we're seeing in comparison and in Hebrews five, a comparison between our great high priest, who is Jesus Christ, the Lord, and now in earthly priests, we're seeing the difference. Remember the writer's writing to Hebrews who understood Judaism. They understood the priesthood. And so he's making a connection between the earthly priesthood and the eternal priesthood of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And he is able to deal speaking of earthly priests, verse two, Hebrews five, and he's able to deal gently with ignorant and Weyburn people because he himself is subject to the same weakness. That is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as theirs. 2 (46m 41s): So we see the difference between the earthly priests and the eternal king of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus Christ. The great high priest is that he is sinless. Number four, God's rest is available because we have a high priest who is sinless. So he understands what we've been through and is endured the testing and temptations that we have. And yet he is been sinless. He is sinless. He's victorious over sin. And in Christ, we have the ability to be victorious over sin. And we'll get to a couple of verses that, speak to that here in just a moment. But Peter number, Peter, Jesus, I'll never leave. You. I'll never deny you a Peter. Actually tonight before the cockroach, you're going to die three times. 2 (47m 21s): As you know me, Peter said this about Jesus. Peter knew Jesus well, intimately. And this is what he said. Peter said, Jesus never said he never said nor ever deceived anyone. Jesus was pure through and through no matter what the world threw at him, he was pure. He was sinless through in, through Paul wrote in second Corinthians five for God made Christ who never sinned to be the offering for our sins so that we could be made right with God through Christ. First John three, five and six says, and you know that Jesus came to take away our sins and there is no sin in him. 2 (48m 4s): And I love verse six. It says in anyone who continues to live in him will not sin or continue to sin. Not that we will be sinless, but we will send less and less. Why? Because we're in Christ. If we abide in him and he abides in us, we will bear much fruit. Our lives will be fruitful. We'll become more and more like Jesus, less and less. Like our old man will be sanctified more and more will become more like Jesus sitting less and less. But it says, but anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. So if we're in a lifestyle of sin, maybe we don't even know him or understand who he is, what he came to do for us. 2 (48m 50s): What he came to complish he came as the sinless lamb of God to take away the sins of the world to offer us salvation in Christ so that we might not just have fire insurance that we avoid hell, but that we enter into relationship for now. And for all eternity with him and where our lives are just being transformed, where we're like, man, I don't even want to do the stuff that I used to do. It's not immediate. I just, I don't want it. It's not in me to want it. That's that's transforming. I see that happen all the time in people's lives are like, I don't even want my, what I'd used to do. It's not appealing. There's nothing about it. That's appealing anymore. 2 (49m 30s): That's the transformational process that God wants to bring us through verse four and no one can become a high, a great, a high priest simply because he wants such an honor. He must be called by God for this work just as Aaron was now, we're seeing a comparison between Jesus and the earthly priest, the Bruce sort of Aaron. That was why Christ did not honor himself. By assuming he could become high priest. No, he was chosen by God. Who said to him, you are my son today. I become your father. Or today I reveal you as my son. There was a work that God was accomplishing in the earth for us. And in another passage, God said to him, you are a priest forever. 2 (50m 9s): In the order of milk Hassidic deck, get some milk has a deck. And chapter seven will impact that. Man, we'll get to chapter seven. Number five God's rest is available because we have a high priest who is eternal. He's not going anywhere. He's the same yesterday and forever. He's alpha and omega the beginning and the end. He is eternal while Jesus was here on earth, verse seven, it says he offered prayers and pleadings with a loud cry and tears to the one who could rescue him from death number in the garden of . And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God, even though Jesus was God's son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered when he went to the cross and this way God qualified him as a perfect high priest. 2 (50m 58s): Perfect. And that he was sinless. He was a Taurus. He was compassionate. God qualified him as a perfect high priest. And he became the source of eternal salvation for all, who would all those who obey him and God designated him to be a high priest in the order of milk has a deck. So the writer of Hebrews is re-introducing revelation and truth about this Jesus, this Jesus that they chose to believe, but then he challenges them. He challenges. And I think the challenge speaks to the reason that they're waffling, that they're struggling in what they are believing in. And they're lukewarm and, and undecided verse 11 says there's much more. 2 (51m 41s): We would like to say, to say about this, but it's difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually Dole and don't seem to listen. There's a connection there. Unbelief was connected to their lack of ability to press in and grow as sons and daughters of God growing in grace and truth. You've been believers so long. Verse 12 says, now that you so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again, the basic things about God's word. You're like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. So again, this is the reason, or at least part of the reason of their way, wordiness for their waywardness in the faith. 2 (52m 28s): They just refuse to grow up and understand truth and to press in and understand what God speaks to us in his word and the pages of scripture from Genesis to revelation, they just refuse to engage into, continue to learn and grow. And they just grew stale and their connection to God and their commitment to God. And they began to get way word and, and they're they're tossed to and fro, and they can't decide. Verse 13 says for someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn't know how to do what is right. So he's saying, Hey, grow up, learn to do what is right. 2 (53m 10s): Grow up. Verse 14, solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skills you're recognize the difference between right and wrong. Often we miss the rest of God. The peace of God. We miss the blessings of God because we don't know that truth well enough so that we easily buy into lies. We believe lies that the world will throw at us, that the enemy will throw at us. A Bible says that Satan is the father of lies. So that's what he does permanently, constantly full-time as he allies to us. And if we don't know the truth, while I forgot to buy into the lies, and then we're going to get wayward in our faith, we're going to begin to doubt with the scripture, say, and we're going to get Luke warm and we're going to begin to grow distant from the Lord. 2 (53m 57s): We will never experience the rest of God in that place. So maybe you're brand new in the faith. And God's grace is on. You always be growing, always be growing. When I was first in the ministry here, full-time vocationally 22 years ago, I showed it to a pastors meeting. I'm the, like the youngest guy there. You know, I'm the youngest guy by like 20 years of that meeting. And I remember somebody said, Hey, the only cure for youth is just time. But I had to that it's time plus a commitment to maturity so we can grow older, but not real mature. 2 (54m 38s): And so the challenge from the scripture is that we would grow old and the grace of God and grow mature and the truth of God. And then all the days of our lives, we experienced that rest, that deep contentment and satisfaction that comes from trusting God, knowing God and believing God, that's what I want for me. That's what I want for us. That's what I always want for us. Moving forward as God does the good stuff that he wants to do through us in this village and in this community and in this world. Amen. Amen. Let's go and stand up and pray. And we're going to sing some more Lord as we pray. We thank you for your word. We thank you that it is more than capable to speak to us. 2 (55m 23s): Challenge us, bring us to a new level of trust in you, Lord, a new level of rest and confidence in you. I, I just want us to rest in you and that's, that's what you want. Lord. You want us to just find our rest in you. And so in the midst of the storm, we just have this confidence, this trust Lord, when things are going sideways, physically or relationally or emotionally or spiritually Lord, we just find this place of rest. So I just speak grace over every person listening, gathered in attendance, grace, or God help us to get the rubbish out of our lives so that we can arrest in you in Jesus name. 2 (56m 6s): Amen. Let's worship 0 (56m 11s): we have 1 (1h 3m 51s): We thank you, father that we get to be in your house today. We thank you for the word that was shipped. That'd be take time today to prioritize you. That'd be thinking that you love us, that we think you, that you sent your son to die for us so that we could live forever with you. God, in that we could sing glory. I got to Europe to you every single day. And so God, we love you and praise you. Thank you for being in church today. If you'd like prayer, we have an amazing prayer teams. You can make your way forward. Otherwise have a wonderful day.

0 (1s): It was a great celebration last night. How many made it last night? It was good. Good, good stuff. The live nativity, the tree lighting, the Christmas carols. We just had a wonderful time. Last night, I think last night was the 17th annual Christmas parade. And when that, that Christmas parade first started, it was so small that they didn't even close down the streets. And, and then it has just grown over the years. And for a number of years, pastor Mark Valdez, and I have been announcing the parade right in front of the church. And it's just been delightful to see God grow that thing. 0 (41s): And we pulled into town about three o'clock prayed, started at five. We got here about three and we see every, all the trees are lined with, or streets are lined with chairs and people getting ready for the festivities. It was just really, really cool hundreds and hundreds of people showed up. It was really, really fun. So thanks to all of our team who worked to pull everything off tech teams, children's ministry, youth, just everybody behind the scenes working to make it beautiful. And I'm always nervous. Yeah. When Santa does the countdown, 10, nine, I'm always nervous. First of all, we couldn't find Ron he's flipped a switch and a, so Santa is out there and I'm like, where is Ron? 0 (1m 22s): Ron is he's missing an action. You know? So it turns out Ron was right where he was supposed to be. So I was, I did, I forgot what I thought it was going to be switched somewhere else. So, so anyway, the countdown happening when we lit the tree and it was just delightful. So good job, everybody. It's been such a crazy holiday season, a crazy year. So far with everything going on at 1 0 2 and little update with 1 0 2 are, I want to choose our new worship center, just up the streets. That's about one minute walk from here. And we've been praying for a building permit six months into our project there. And on December 1st we got a Christmas miracle and we got our building permit. 0 (2m 5s): So that was really, really great. We've been working on it for six months. And so we've done all of the rough electrical, plumbing, mechanical, all that kind of stuff, new HVAC system, all kinds of stuff is in. So we, we called for an inspection. So Tuesday we'll get all of that inspected and hopefully we pass muster and they'd give us the permission to kind of begin to insulate everything and drywall everything and do all the, all of the finishing touches. So we had originally planned to get it done pretty quick. And then as these things go, they it's taken longer than expected. And so thank you for your patience. I, I think we'll be in by Easter. 0 (2m 45s): Of course, then we usually have an outdoor Easter service. So I don't know if we'll be in for Easter or not, but that's, that's probably the deal. So anyway, it's been super busy. And so we're, we're going to be talking about rest today. As we get into Hebrews chapter four, it's it's, it's timely for this seasoned. A lot of us were here late last night and then early this morning, getting ready for things. And with Thanksgiving events happening, it's just been a, it's been a, it's been, it's been very, very, very much a busy time of year. I, I got up earlier this week and I got up early to do some work and about nine o'clock in the morning, I told my wife, I said, you know, I think I need to nap 9:00 AM. 0 (3m 27s): She said, okay, go ahead. So I crawl in bed and in my defense, I had restless dreams at that night, all that night. I hadn't been fighting in my dreams. I haven't had a fight since like junior high school, but I was fighting in my dreams and I kept waking up and kept saying stuff out loud. And my wife was nervous. You know? She's like, Hey, are you okay? You're okay. But I was like in a real fist fight in my dream. You just had dreams like that. Fist fights. No. Okay. Whatever. I don't know where it came from. Either dreams were odd, but anyway, so I had got some pretty restless sleep in the night. And so, so at nine o'clock, I crawl back in bed for some more rest and woke up at 10 30. And of course my wife's on the phone with my sister. She said, you're not going to believe what your brother did. 0 (4m 10s): It's a good time for napping. Isn't it. So we're gonna be talking about talking about rest today. And the title of the message today is God's rest is available to you. God's rest is available to you when God talks about rest. It's a two fold rest. And as we said, he Hebrews chapter four, what kind of learn more about it? But it's a fold rest. There's a temporal rest here in the earth for those who trust in the Lord. And then there's this eternal rest where we will spend eternity with the Lord in heaven. And so it's temporal rests means that in the day-to-day rhythm and routine of our lives, we can find peace in the Lord, no matter what's happening. 0 (4m 54s): When we are intentional, we can find the rest that God has Forrest temporary rest means peace in the midst of the storm. We've had some storms this year and some difficulties this year, our good friend Jr. Passed away a couple of weeks ago. We just did a service yesterday. A lot of you saw on the prayer chain about a three-year-old little girl who drowned on Thanksgiving. And so we've known the parents since they were little guys and so difficult stuff. A lot of people just dealing with difficult stuff. And the reality of the gospel of our relationship with Jesus is that he offers us rest in the midst of the storm. 0 (5m 41s): Temporal rest means faith. Instead of fear, it means trust instead of anxiety, it means joy instead of worry, but we have to choose it. We have to decide to overcome our worries with the joy of the Lord temple rest trust. God's love it. Trusts God's forgiveness. His provision, his goodness temporal rests puts us in this place where we just have confidence in who God is. And so no matter what happens, we can just rest in the Lord. So that's the temporal rest that is available to us who trust in the Lord. And then there's eternal. 0 (6m 20s): Rest in eternal rest means no more pain or sorrow and we're sin or temptation, no more sickness or death. No more darkness. Imagine that no more darkness because the son of God will light up the heavens eternal rest means there will be no longer a curse on anything at the fall. There was a curse that covered the earth and to humanity and in the new heavens and the new earth and eternity, there will be no longer a curse on anything. Imagine not a curse on anything, not in your relationships, not in your personal physical bodies, not on the earth that is polluted and dying all around us. 0 (7m 10s): Imagine just life, life abundantly throughout the earth through this new heavens and the new earth eternal rest means we will see Jesus face to face and we will be in his presence forever. More. I'm looking forward to seeing Jesus face to face. I just cannot wait for that day. And for all eternity, when we get to see our savior face to face. Well, as we wrapped up Hebrews chapter three last week, we read that because of Israel's unbelief because they did not believe they were not able to enter God's rest. God rescued the nation of Israel out of Egypt. After hundreds of years of bondage and slavery, with the intention of leading them into their place of rest, the promised land, the land of Canaan, but because of their unbelief, they were not able to inherit the promise, the promised rest that God had for them. 0 (8m 6s): Imagine God working miracles to deliver the people of Israel out of this place of bondage and slavery and parting their red seas, giving them the access, helping them to escape from there, the Egyptians who were pursuing them and taking them on this journey and through all of that, just the subtle hardening of heart rebelliousness and sin developed. And they missed their opportunity to enter into God's place of rest. They failed to enter that rest. Why? Because they, again, rebelled, they sinned and they disobeyed God and therefore forfeited their blessings of God on earth and in eternity. 0 (8m 47s): So when the book of Hebrews talks about rests, it is referring to God's promise to grant his people ultimate in heaven, but Believer's also get a taste at temporal rests in the here and now. And that's really good news, right? I mean, it's going to be amazing in heaven, but isn't it amazing in the here and now that we can rest in the Lord, that we can experience his peace. And his joy has clarity that we can get wisdom for our circumstances for our lives. And we can know without a shadow of a doubt as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that the presence of God has taken a residency in us that the holy spirit lives in us in all of the blessings that go with that. 0 (9m 33s): All of the fruit of the spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. The fruit of the presence of the living. God allows us to rest even in the midst of very challenging and difficult life circumstances. So Canaan was the place of temporal rest for Israel. We are meant to have a Canaan type of experience with the Lord before ever going to heaven. Our Canaan experience is the place of faithful rest, where God has trusted. God is believed and where God is followed all the days of our lives. 0 (10m 13s): And from this place of trust and this place of faith and this place of discipleship, we experienced a supernatural and it's nothing short of supernatural. This rest that we're talking about that is available to us as believers, as followers in the Lord, Jesus Christ. It's nothing short of supernatural. I say this all the time, everything that God asks us to do requires is supernatural grace and power to accomplish that everything that God has done in our lives from salvation to filling us, to keeping us all of that as a supernatural work of God in our lives, taking care of us as his sons and daughters is from this place of trust and faith and discipleship. 0 (10m 55s): We experienced a supernatural ability to endure and enjoy life here in the earth. And there's plenty to enjoy here in the earth, but man, how much better is our permanent place of rest with the Lord? So for the believer earth is not our home. It's our temporary place of rest until, until we get to heaven, heaven is our place of permanent rests. So how can we enjoy God's rest here like today, and also in eternity that the chapter Hebrews chapter four helps us to understand how to attain that rest. You guys ready to Hebrews chapter four verse one says God's promise of entering his rest still stands. 0 (11m 41s): So we got to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it for the, this good news that God has prepared. This rest has been announced to us just as it was announced to them, their ancestors people in the wilderness experience, the good news of rest was communicated to them, but it did them no good because they didn't share the faith of those who listened to God. Some manuscripts read, they didn't combine what they heard with faith. And that's part of the journey as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We have to take in the message of the good news, the gospel. 0 (12m 21s): We have to read the Bible from, start to finish, take it in and then add faith to it, making the decision choosing by God's grace to believe what we're reading about and believe what God wants to accomplish in our lives. And so it's by faith that we move forward as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We come to come to Jesus through faith, but then we walk with him by faith for the rest of our lives and things don't ever change. We always walk by faith and not by sight. God's rest is available. Number one, God's rest is available to you by faith. This is how we experience it simply by faith. 0 (13m 5s): Verse three says for only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said in my anger, I took an oath. They will never insure my place of arrest. So we keep seeing Psalm 95 quoted in these couple of chapters that we've been studying three and four. It's a warning to the people of Israel and also a warning to all believers, everywhere that if we're not careful entering into this place of rest can be missed. If we don't understand the process of entering into that. So Hebrews 11 one says faith is the confidence. What is faith? It's the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. 0 (13m 51s): It's like last night, when we're getting ready to light the tree, I'm hoping the thing will light up. I had faith that it would eventually light up, but in the more serious things of life, we have these hopes and longings and dreams. And Ron talked about writing the names of people in 1 0 2 on the walls, believing we've got this hope that these people would get touched by the Lord that they'll come to faith in Jesus Christ, that they'll give them themselves to the Lord. And so we have these hopes. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. Even if it takes years, it will happen. As we put our trust in the Lord, it gives us faith. 0 (14m 32s): It gives us a shore. It's about things. We can not see faith walking by faith and not by sights. Hebrews 11, six says, it's impossible to please God, without faith, we can please God, by his grace. As we put our faith in, as we put our faith in him for salvation, for help in the day to day that we're, we're trusting that we're filled with his presence and with his power to overcome sin sickness, all of the things that come before us in this life, it's impossible to please God, without faith, Ephesians two, eight and nine says for by grace are you saved through faith. 0 (15m 18s): And so we're saved by grace through the faith that we put into that grace gift that the Lord has given to us and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. So the unbeliever, the unbeliever will never enter into this rest because we enter into it first and primarily through this thing called faith. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen is the assurance of things we can not see at all by faith. We worship an invisible God by faith. We show up on Sunday morning to worship and invisible God by faith we'd gather. And we pray for one another, believing that God is at work in the world by faith. 0 (16m 3s): We move forward as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, Hebrews four, three continues. Even though this, this rest has been ready since he made the world, we know it is ready. Be even though, so verse four, we know it is ready because of the place in the scripture where it mentions the seventh day on the seventh day, God arrested from all his work. And so God invites humanity into this place of rest. So after the creation account got arrested from all of his work, he got invites us into that place of perfect rest with him, verse eight. But in the other passage, God said they will never enter my place of rest. 0 (16m 45s): Speaking of the faithless. So God's rest is there for people to answer, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. So there's faithlessness and disobedience. Number one, God's rest is available to you by faith. Number two, God's rest is available to you through obedience. So we're not saved by our obedience. We're saved by grace, through faith, in the finished work of the Lord, Jesus Christ. When we believe that he died for our sins, we enter into this faith relationship with the Lord, this discipleship process, where we begin to follow him all the days of our lives. And so that's the process. 0 (17m 26s): We get saved and baptized. We get filled with the holy spirit. We get the blessing of walking with God and knowing that our sins are forgiven and that he he's adopted us into his family. So that's, that's how we are saved. But this place of rest is available. As we, as, as we choose to as disciples of a living, God be obedient to him. So we're, again, we're not saved by our obedience, but it is an indication. It's an indication of what's going on. Our obedience is an indication of our commitments, our faith, and our hearts toward God. Do we really follow him? Do we really follow him? 0 (18m 6s): It, it will be proven by our obedience. That question will be answered by our obedience or by our disobedience. Do we really follow him as evidenced by our obedience to him? Do we really believe him? That question will be answered by the evidence of our lives. Do we obey him out of our belief in him? Do we really believe him? Or are we just offering lip service? What do we think about this? Jesus, do we really love him? It's easy to say. I love you, Jesus. 0 (18m 46s): But Jesus had some things to say about what those words actually mean in John 14, 15. Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. If you let me will keep my commandments. Jesus is saying, listen, you will be obedient to me. If you love me, if you genuinely love me, you will be obedient. John 14, 21 says this. Jesus said those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. So those who accept and then choose to obey his commandments. Those are the ones who love him. 0 (19m 27s): And because they love me. Jesus said, my father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them in John 14, 22 and 23, Jesus replied all who loved me will do what I say. He just keeps driving this home. All who love me will do what I say. There's obedience naturally connected to our love relationship with the living. God, we can't be disobedience to God and still declare that we love him because if we truly love him, we will do what he's asked us to do. All who love me will do what I say. 0 (20m 8s): My father will love them and we will come and make our home with each of them is the promise in John 14, 22 and 23 verse 24 says anyone who doesn't love me will not obey me. He just continues to drive it home. Anyone who doesn't love me will not obey me. And remember my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the father who sent me. So there's a direct connection that direct correlation, obedience and love, love, and obedience. They go hand and hand in hand and the great in Matthew 28, 18 through 20 Jesus came and he told us his disciples. 0 (20m 53s): I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. And often we'll stop the quote there. We won't go on to verse 20 where it says, teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and be sure of this. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And so he's calling us to teach people to be obedient and he's promising his presence is ever present presence and help in our time of needs. When we're trying to be obedient to his commandments and all of the commandments, kind of the law and the prophets, they all boil down to the word. 0 (21m 39s): Love. God has called us to love him. And he's called us to love one, another everything in the old and the new Testament calls us to love. And so that's part of the obedience that God has called us into that we might love him wholeheartedly and that we might love others, whole heartedly. So it's a challenge, but God promises to be with us, giving us the ability and the grace to do the things that he's asked us to do. So rest is the result of faith. Number one, rest is the result of obedience. Let's take a look at what verse seven says for seven Hebrews four says, so God set another time for entering his rest. 0 (22m 21s): And that time is today. Now is the day to enter into his rest. Got announced this through David much later in the word's already quoted in Psalm 95. Today, when you hear his voice don't harden, your hearts. Number three God's rest is available to the tender hearted, had a young guy call me up this week. And he said, Hey, I'm thinking about the ministry. I'm thinking about going into full-time vocational ministry. He said, what can I do to get prepared, to begin, to get prepared for full-time vocational ministry? So we talked about a lot of different things, and I said, you know, probably the most important thing that will sustain you among other things. 0 (23m 4s): But one of the most important things is, is that you keep your heart tender. I said, it's a rough business. The ministry, it's a people business. And if you don't work to keep your heart tender, your heart will subtly kind of harden up. And I, I told him, I said, you won't be able to serve God or others if your heart is not tender. So you'll have to constantly be forgiving people, loving people, asking for the grace to extend to people. I said, I I've met. I know way too many people. Most of the guys and gals in my Bible college. And a lot of them in my seminary training, most of all of them have washed out of ministry over and over again. 0 (23m 47s): I I'm watching people wash out of ministry. It's a tough job. I told this young guy and I said, so I said, this is what I always tell people who are interested in ministry. If you can do anything else, go do that, right? Like anything else to do, if you can do anything else and be happy to do that. But if you can't do anything else and you still feel called to the ministry, then pursue the ministry and then God will give you the grace to do it. But you've got to keep your heart tender before the Lord so that you can minister effectively for the longterm so that you can do it for the rest of your life. God's rest is available to the tender hearted verse eight says, now if Joshua Yeshua has succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest. 0 (24m 37s): Still to come first eight points, two points, people back to Jesus. Joshua took the people of Israel into the promised land to enjoy temporal rest. But this verse I believe is pointing us to Jesus. Who's made a way for us to enjoy eternal rest in the Lord. And so this writer is challenging. These believers who are beginning to waffle in their faith about the Lord, Jesus Christ. Remember there are Jewish people who have decided to believe that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, and now they're waffling in their commitment to Christ waffling in their faith in Jesus. 0 (25m 18s): And so he's challenging them. He said, listen, they've Joshua could have done what was needed. Then Jesus wouldn't be needed or necessary, but we know that indeed Jesus was necessary for God. So loved the world that he sent his one and only son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So verse eight points the people back to Jesus. And that's really what a spiritual leaders job. A Christian leaders job is to continue to point people back to Jesus, to re re we need to be reminded constantly that Jesus he's the way the truth and the life. And no man comes to the father except through him. 0 (25m 60s): We need to be reminded that there's rests in the living Christ, that we can find peace in the living God that he is walking with us and that he sustains us so that we can endure and enjoy life. Jesus. He has secured an eternal place of rest and that's available to each of us. When we put our faith in the finished work of the Lord, Jesus Christ verse nine says, so now there is a special rest, and this is talking about a Sabbath rest, still waiting for the people of God. This Sabbath rest requires faith. It requires obedience and it requires a tender heart to experience. 0 (26m 43s): And we need to realize that Sabbath rest is actually an act of worship. We're deciding I'm going to take some time. I'm going to take the day and I'm just going to give it to the Lord as my act of worship. And so I could be busy doing a hundred other things, fixing the house, working extra hours at the job, running errands. I could be doing all of these different things, but I'm going to make sure that I have this Sabbath rest. God commanded us to honor the Sabbath day of rest, recognizing that we needed downtime in our lives margin in our lives. But we also needed that special day each week to reconnect with the Lord. 0 (27m 23s): And as believers we do that daily. We connect with the Lord on a regular basis as we walk with Jesus. And as he walks with us, as we abide in him and as he abides in us, we bear much fruit. So Sabbath rest is an act of worship. And we're called into this place of rest. How many times, how many times are we just running crazy, like burning the candle at both ends and God has, he's like calling to us rest, stop, settled down. You can trust me. You can rest in me and you don't have to kill yourself going crazy. 24 7. It's a, I think it's a trick of the enemy. 0 (28m 3s): Keeping everybody so busy and chaotic that we, we miss out on. God's very best for us. We're busy doing it, a thousand things and even seemingly good things or even seemingly spiritual things. But we're not taking that time of Sabbath rest, where we're connected to Jesus being filled by the holy spirit, being empowered to do what he's calling us to do so that we can move forward with a, a tank that is full and not depleted. God's wanting us to rest. He's wanting us to experience that temporal rest in this life so that we can move from this place into the eternal rest that he has for us. And he wants to take as many people with us. 0 (28m 45s): He wants us to take as many people with us as possible. That's why he's given us that great commission verse 10 says for all who have entered into God's rest have rested from their labors just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey, if we disobeyed God as the people of Israel did, we will fall. So another opportunity to listen to the holy spirit, through the inspired words of God, we have to be careful that we're living as obedient, sons and daughters of the living. God, it goes hand in hand with our commitment to love him and follow him for the word of God. 0 (29m 25s): Verse 12 says for the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two edge sword cutting between soul and spirit between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. This is why we encourage the church and we encourage one another to open up the Bible every day. Even if it's just for a little bit, I'm making a commitment to read a chapter or two or three in the day. Why? Because the word of God exposes the condition of our heart. And if we're not careful, our hearts will subtly grow hard calloused. 0 (30m 7s): And in that place where no good to God or to other people, it's hard to serve God or others with a calloused heart. And so as we open up the scripture, it's it begins to point out to us what needs to be fixed. Maybe you read a great faith story in, in the Bible, pick many. We're going to be going through a bunch of them and Hebrews chapter 11. But you, you read a face story and you realize, man, my faith is nothing like Noah's faith. I mean, he spent all those years building that boat. My faith is nothing like Moses faith. I don't have any faith like John, the Baptist. I don't have any faith like Mary. I just don't have. And you can look at those stories and be built up in your most holy faith and say, I want to be more faithful. 0 (30m 49s): Like Mary light, John, like Moses, like, no, I want to be more faithful. And then you are challenged in the right direction. So the word of God exposes the condition of our hearts and points out where we're being faithless disobedient and hard hearted verse 13 says nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. And he is the one to whom we are accountable. So God knows everything anyway. So why don't we just come clean and say, God, I'm struggling to be faithful in this area to have faith for this area. God, I'm struggling to be obedient in this area. 0 (31m 31s): God, my heart's hardening up in this area of my life. God, I need you to help me in every area so that I can be faithful and obedient and tenderhearted. And as you invite the Lord into your struggle, into your battle, he is there to help. And we see that in verse 14. So then since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. Hold firmly by the grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Our high priest is for us. It says that in the scriptures that he's forever making intercession for us at the right hand of the father, he says in verse 15, this high priest of ours understands our weaknesses for he faced all of the same testing we do yet. 0 (32m 20s): He did not sin. So we've got this challenge to call upon the living God, to make sure we're thinking properly about this Jesus that we're choosing to believe. This is the outline from last week that we're choosing to believe the truth about Jesus and that we're keeping our courage and remaining confident in all of these things require the supernatural work of the holy spirit in our lives. Verse 15. Again, this high priest of ours understands our weaknesses. That's really good news. He experienced all of the temptations and the difficulties in life. And yet he did not sin. He'll give us the grace to sin less and less as we call upon him. 0 (33m 4s): As we invite him into our circumstance, he's our great high priest. So let us come. Boldly verse 16 says, let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There, we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. So maybe you're here this season and really struggling to rest to be at peace. Maybe you're here and you're just, you're not able to exhale. There's just so much pent up, worry and frustration, whatever. 0 (33m 44s): It may be so much that you're holding onto you. God wants you to confess that to him, release that to him, be filled with his presence so that you can experience this temporal rest. And ultimately this eternal rest in Christ, it's available. Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There, we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it. Most I'm gonna invite the worship team up. I'm going to invite you to stand and what we're going to pray together. And I'm just going to lead us in a couple of prayers as we stand up. And so let's just as we stand, let's close our eyes and Lord, we just want to say, thank you for this rest that is available. 0 (34m 30s): It's temporal for the here and now and it's eternal for all of time and eternity Lord. So we thank you for that Lord. I pray for my friends who are listening, gathered for this message Lord and I pray that each of us would be able to rest, especially in this holiday season. If we can arrest, find a place, this, this place of rest during the holiday season, we can do it the rest of the year. So Lord help us to find that place of rest, where we're filled with faith, obedience and a tender heart. Lord, Lord, maybe there, there are people here who've never entered into that rest at all. 0 (35m 10s): There are people here who don't know you, Jesus. The one who makes that rest possible. Maybe there are people here who don't have a relationship with you at all. And I pray for those people. We've all been there. Lord, I pray that our friends who don't know you would come to faith in you. And if you're here and you don't know Jesus, or if you're listening to this message and you don't know Jesus, if you would like to get to know Jesus, if you'd like to receive the salvation, a gift of the Lord, Jesus Christ. You simply say, God, I need you. I need you to forgive me. I'm you, you say I'm putting my faith in you. 0 (35m 51s): God, I'm choosing to be obedient to you. I'm choosing to keep a tender heart before you Lord. So we come into my life and we forgive my sins. When you call me your son, when you call me your daughter, will you adopt me into your family? And as you declare before the Lord, your desire to follow Jesus, to make him your king and Lord, he will come into your life and he will lead you all the days of your life. He loves you. Thank you, Lord. Part of a decision to follow Jesus's baptism. It's a public declaration of one's faith to follow Jesus maybe, or maybe if you've been a Christian for a long time. 0 (36m 36s): And part of your disobedience is that you haven't been baptized yet. We'll baptize you any Sunday that you would like to get baptized. We can do it today. We'll fill up the trough and baptize you today. But if you've never been baptized, we encourage you to get baptized. If you're a brand new believer like today, you got, you became a believer and got saved. The Bible calls it. If you became born again and you would like to get baptized, you're basically declaring, I am a follower of Jesus and I would like to get baptized so that my solidify and declare my decision. Then we will baptize you and look forward to that. So if you'd like to get baptized, talk to a leader here or fill out a communication card and we will get you baptized. Amen. All right. Let's worship some more. Okay. 2 (44m 33s): You are holy God. You're you're so other than we are you're you're just greater than we can fathom. Thank you for thank you for the rest that can be found when we lay down our crowns Lord and we give it all to you. Jesus, thank you God, for a great word today. Thank you for this gathering of, of, of your people. And I just pray that your word would marinate in us as we leave and we just walk away changed, ever being sanctified, made into the people that you desire to your bride. 2 (45m 19s): Lord

0 (0s): Okay, man. Well, welcome. Welcome. My D who read the most recent headline. Did you guys read the headline that about the post Thanksgiving inflation? Did you guys read about it? It's mostly in the midsection, but it's, but it's definitely, definitely happening. Nobody else read about that? Just curious. How many eight, wait, how many ate way too much during the holidays? Holy cow. I'm still stuff from yesterday. We had Thanksgiving on Thursday, like most people and I'm at my in-law's house. And then we had a double birthday party at my house yesterday with two of my grandkids to my grand boys. 0 (41s): And then, huh, Friday, Friday. Thanks. And then Saturday I'll get it straight eventually. And then Saturday we were at my mom's house. If 30 people doing more food. And so I'm just totally stuffed. So I'm ready to stop eating for a few days. I probably won't. I mean, let's be honest. It's a good, but Hey, we're in Hebrews chapter three, I'll be reading out of the new living translation today. They were answering the question. What do we do with Jesus? What do we do with Jesus? I mean, that's really the challenge that the writer of Hebrews is issuing. He's challenging these believers, these are Jewish believers, beat people who are Jewish, but believe that Jesus is the Messiah. 0 (1m 29s): And yet in their belief, they begin to waffle and have a second thoughts and second guessing their, their decision to, to really serve Jesus wholeheartedly. And so we're, we're going to work today on answering that question. What do we do with Jesus? Number one in your notes, we're going to see this in Hebrews chapter three, verse one. I'm going to ask you to think carefully about him. Think carefully about Jesus. Why? Because in Hebrews three, one, it says this. And so dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and our partners with those called to heaven, the writer says, think carefully about this Jesus, whom we take glare to be God's messenger and high priest. 0 (2m 16s): So the writer again is speaking to believers. If you look at the English standard version or the king James version, it inserts the word holy. And so the writer is speaking to a holy group of people, brothers and sisters in the Lord. People made holy by the work of Jesus on the cross. And we're going to celebrate communion at the end of service today, celebrating that work that Jesus accomplished on the cross. He made possible for people to, he made it possible for people to be made holy by his sacrifice. And so the writer of Hebrews is speaking to God's people he's speaking to his church. 0 (2m 56s): So he's speaking to them then, and he's speaking to us now. So what do we do with this Jesus, he's admonishing us to think carefully about this Jesus, whom we declared to be God's messenger and high priest. Maybe some of us are here today, and we need to rethink about this Jesus about this person, about the work and miracles in life of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Maybe we need to rethink because maybe like he's Jewish believers, we're waffling in our connection to and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so maybe the answer for us is to rethink, to reevaluate, to reconsider who we believe Jesus to be last week, the writer of Hebrews instructed his audience and Hebrews chapter two. 0 (3m 49s): So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it Hebrews two one. So we've got to think and listen, and be reminded about what we believe about Jesus in the thinking and being reminded and listening to the truth. We will be refreshed in our spirits as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So in thinking carefully about him, we ask killies Jesus, who is Jesus, this person that we're going to celebrate here at Christmas time, the person that we celebrate at Easter, his birth, and then his resurrection, who is this Jesus. 0 (4m 31s): Well in our study, Hebrews chapter one actually outlines that information for us and tells us very clearly who this Jesus is. And so I just kind of made some notes as I re-read Hebrews chapter one, to remind us and to remind myself who this Jesus is. We read from Hebrews one that God speaks to us through Jesus, God speaks to us through his son. We read that God promised everything to the son as his inheritance. Why does Jesus get everything? Well? We know that Jesus created everything as we read through Hebrews chapter one. 0 (5m 11s): So we know because he created everything. He actually inherits everything. Everything belongs to him. It says through the son, he created, God created the universe through the son. God created through Jesus. God created the universe. So Jesus gets it all because he, well, he created it all. Verse three tells us that the sun radiates God's own glory. The sun radiates the beauty and the glory of the living. God also, Jesus sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. So he created it all and he sustains it all. 0 (5m 56s): We also see that Jesus cleanses the repentant of their sins. We know that he is seated at the right hand of the throne of a majestic God in heaven, we see that he is greater than the angels. We see that the angels actually worship Jesus. We see that God, the father declared this information, this truth, this revelation about the son and Hebrews one eight, God, the father said your throne, oh God, capital G God endures forever and ever. So the father is calling the son, God, your throne, oh God, in yours, forever and ever Hebrews one eight, the sun rules with a sector of justice. 0 (6m 41s): So we know that he is just, and we see that he loves justice and actually hates evil. Did you know, there's some things that Jesus actually hates. He loves justice, but hates evil. We see that the oil of joy has been poured out on him more than on anyone else. So imagine the most joyous person in your life. The most joyous person that you know, personally, the oil of joy has been poured out on Jesus. More than on any one else. He is filled with joy. We know that Jesus laid the foundations of the earth and made the heavens with his own hands, laid the foundations of the earth and made the heavens with his own hands. 0 (7m 25s): I don't know about you, but I'm getting a bigger perspective, a greater understanding about who this Jesus is. As I read through this one chapter Hebrews chapter one, we see that Jesus is eternal. He will remain forever. He is always the same and he will live forever. Use the same yesterday today and forever. Another verse says, God will make his enemies, his footstool. So every enemy of Christ will be made his footstool. In other words, Jesus is victorious over everybody and over everything. So who is Jesus? He is the king. He is the king of all Kings. 0 (8m 7s): He is the Lord. He is the Lord of all Lords. He is God. In the flesh. He is the great high priest. He is the savior of all who call on his name. He is the judge of the university is a victorious. He will have the last word. What do we do with this Jesus who the scriptures declare so powerfully that he is God and king and savior and Redeemer that he is judged. And the one who will have the last word we have to think carefully about him. Every time I opened the scripture and think carefully about Jesus, I'm built up in my most holy faith. 0 (8m 49s): I'm reminded of the glory of God through Jesus, the power of God through Jesus. The awesome wonder of God through Jesus. What do we do with this? Jesus think carefully. And maybe you're here today. As I said earlier, you need to rethink, maybe you need to reevaluate what it is that you believe about. Jesus. Maybe you've held him too loosely or have had him in a box in your life. Maybe you just haven't properly understood the person work of the living. God, I heard a sermon recently that was disturbing and disheartening at the same time, this gala was teaching or preaching and leading a service. 0 (9m 43s): And she was talking about the throne room of God, this place where the angelic hosts cry out. Holy holy, holy is the Lord. God almighty this place where there's adoration and praise going before the throne constantly. And she concluded that the angels around the throne room of God are probably texting each other distracted, just kind of doing what humans might do. She joked that they're probably having a farting contest in the throne room of heaven. It is unbelievable what people will say and declare, she said, got us a lot more fun than we give them credit for being. 0 (10m 36s): And this was her point it's it's. It is a gross injustice to talk about the throne room. That way to talk about God, that way with such little regard, for his holiness, for his power, for his authority, for who he is. And it's disheartening that in, in, in our culture, there are people who hold that understanding. And I don't know about you, but if I had that understanding or if I held that understanding, I would be very flippant about my faith. Very flippant about my purity, very flippant about anything having to do with my walk as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 0 (11m 18s): Because well, if that's what they're doing around the throne room of God, and God's not very serious, he doesn't take sin very serious. Doesn't take life very serious. We need to think carefully about Jesus. Number one, number two, we need to choose to believe that truth about him. We have to believe that truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that means we don't get our information about Jesus from popular culture. We get the truth about Jesus from the pages of scripture, the 39 old Testament books of the Bible and the 27 new Testament books, 66 books of the Bible from Genesis to the revelation. That's where we get our information about Jesus. 0 (11m 60s): This is where we get our information revelation about the one that has saved us and has redeemed us. We have to choose to believe the truth about him. We can only believe the truth. If we hear the truth and read the truth and work, to understand the truth. As we think carefully about him, Hebrews three, one again says, and so dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and our partners with those called to heaven, think carefully about this Jesus, whom we declare to be God's messenger and high priest. So the truth that we're beginning to see about Jesus is that he is God's messenger, that he is a high priest. 0 (12m 44s): A better translation for messenger is actually a possible apostle means sent one. We see that God sent Jesus, sent him into the earth in the incarnation, born of a Virgin. As a baby, came into the earth to live, to die, to resurrect and to ascend, to make atonement for our sins, John 17, 18, and Jesus' prayer to the father. He said, gee, just as you sent me father into the world, I am sending them into the world. Jesus was sent with a message and now he sends us as his messengers. 0 (13m 29s): As we get ahold of that revelation, that Jesus came with a message and has given us that message to proclaim. We realized that we've had great purpose in the earth. I was talking with a gal this morning who attend church here. And she was in a coma for six days and they thought that she was going to die. So they were going to unplug her and take her off of life support. And as she was hearing this in her coma, her eyes began to Twitter, a blink and, and shut her. And, and she, she awakened from her coma and they, when they took her off of life support, she lived and she was here at church this morning. There's there's purpose in our living. 0 (14m 10s): God has kept this woman alive. He has kept us alive, not just to warm a seat in church, but to do the supernatural and wonderful work that he has called us to. He has sent us. He is sending us into the world with his message. Hebrews three, two says for, he was faithful. Jesus was faithful to the father who appointed him just as Moses served faithfully when he was entrusted with God's entire house. Well, why does Moses come up? Why Moses is esteemed in the Jewish faith as the giver of the law. And so the people who have given their life committed their life to Jesus are now waffling and thinking. 0 (14m 53s): Maybe I should go back to Judaism. So there's a comparison. That's beginning to take place in the text here. And this is what it says. So we, we, we read about the faithfulness of Jesus alongside the faithfulness of Moses, but it says in verse three, but Jesus deserves far more glory than Moses. Just as a person who builds a house, deserves more praise than the house itself, or every house has a builder. But the one who built everything is God. We go back to Hebrews one, two again, and it says, it declares that through this Jesus, that God, it was God created the whole universe. So every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God we're speaking of Jesus there. 0 (15m 36s): Verse five. Moses was certainly faithful in God's house. As a servant, we're getting a clearer understanding of Moses role in his job in the earth. He was here as a servant. His work was an illustration. The verse goes on of the truths. God would reveal later. So Moses brought the law. The law was given so that we would recognize our desperate, desperate need for God's grace, because as the law was given, people realize never ever can we keep the whole law. In fact, the Bible says, if we break one part of the law, we're guilty of breaking all of the law. So it's impossible for us to find righteousness in a good standing with God, through the keeping of the law. 0 (16m 22s): The law was given so that we might recognize our desperate need for God. Moses had a role to play as a servant when doing the will of God. It's a reminder to the reader in the first century that the law did not actually originate with Moses. He was just a messenger to bring the law. Exodus 31 18 tells us that the law was written with the finger of God. God actually wrote on the stones of, on the tablets of stone with his finger, writing out the CA the 10 commandments. So Moses was a servant. That is all he is. He is not deity. So the writer's attempting to put Moses in his proper place so that the people might keep Jesus in his proper place. 0 (17m 11s): So Moses was a servant. That is all, he's not deity like Mary, the mother of Jesus. There's this effort to esteem Mary beyond her proper role. But Mary was just a servant doing the will of God. And she is not deity like John, the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ. He was there to prepare the way for Christ and for the new covenant, John declared about Jesus, John three 30, he must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. John understood his role as a servant, preparing the way for Jesus pointing his followers to Jesus, that they might find salvation in him. 0 (17m 54s): John went on to say, whoever believes in the son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. So John was pointing to the sun to Jesus, and he said, whoever believes in this son has eternal life. But then the language changes a little bit. He says, whoever does not, oh, bay, the son shall not see life. So the believing and the obeying go hand in hand, you can't really say, we can't really say we believe if we're not actually obeying our obeying indicates what we actually believe about Jesus and the word of God. 0 (18m 36s): If we really believe Jesus and the word of God, then it's followed by obedience. If there's no obedience, then there's no real belief. And so what is it that we believe about this? Jesus, what do we do with him and is, is our, is do our, does as our life reflects actual belief through our obedience, John understood that Jesus was the son of God, the savior of the world and that his job, his only job was to point people to Jesus, Mary and Moses also prepared the way for Jesus. 0 (19m 20s): That was their job, your job. My job is to point people to Jesus. We're not here to warm a seat on Sunday morning. As much as I love seeing all of your faces, we are here for purpose in the earth. What has God equipped you to do? Donald Guthrie wrote the mission of the servant. Great though. It was prepares the way for the far greater mission of the sun. So whatever your earthly mission in life is, the mission of the sun is far greater Supreme over anything else we might attempt to do Hebrews three, six, but Christ says the sun is in charge of God's entire house. 0 (20m 3s): And we are God's house. If we, we are God's house. If we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. So what do we, what do we do with this? Jesus? Who do we say that he is? Who do we believe that he is? Who do we declare by our obedience? That he is, what do we do with this? Jesus. Some have said, I'm not going to do anything with Jesus, but in declaring, you're not gonna do anything with Jesus. You're saying I'm ignoring Jesus and I'm not going to follow him. So in your non-decision, you've made a decision in your declaration to be middle of the road. 0 (20m 45s): You decided what will you do with Jesus? I would encourage you to think carefully about him. Your eternity hangs in the balance, what you do with Jesus, determines your eternal place and states, I think carefully about him. Number two, choose to believe the truth about Jesus. You want to know truth about Jesus. Read Hebrews one, read the pages of scripture, the 66 books of the Bible that declare the person work of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Even the old Testament points us to the person work in the and grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Number three. 0 (21m 25s): What do we do with Jesus? Keep your courage and remain confident in him. Keep your courage and remain confident in him. This is a battle for us. Isn't it to stay courageous as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, especially in our culture is becoming less and less. As culture is becoming less and less, God centered and more and more secular. And so it's harder to keep our courage because we're swimming against the tide against the culture. People don't understand Christians. They don't understand the Bible. They don't understand why we would serve Jesus. And so it's more difficult to keep courage and remain confident in him. 0 (22m 6s): So how do we keep our courage and remain confident? Let's look at the rest of Hebrews chapter three, because in there there's plenty of challenging statements, plenty of warnings that help us to see our courage and remain confidence. Hebrews three seven. That is why the holy spirit says, and there's a quote here from Psalm 95, 8 through 11. This is what the holy spirit says today. When you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts. Maybe you're here today and your heart is hardened a bit toward the Lord. Maybe you've been disappointed, frustrated, saddened by the things that are happening in the culture in the world. 0 (22m 52s): Maybe you're disappointed at God's response. Maybe you're disappointed in the way that God has handled. Your life has allowed things to happen in your life. And maybe there's a subtle hardening of the heart. It's a subtle thing. It's something that creeps in little by little and it's hard to even detect until we begin to realize that we're distant from the Lord that were angry with the Lord that were frustrated with the Lord. And the result of those things is a hardening of the heart. It's a, it's like a, a self protection Lord. I, I'm not sure if I can trust you so I'm not sure I want to let you in Lord. I'm not sure I believe you. 0 (23m 33s): So I'm going to protect my I self from you. And there's a subtle hardening of the heart. If you're there today, the only remedy for a hard heart is just brokenness and contrition where you're saying, Lord, I, I don't understand these things have happened. I don't understand why things have unfolded the way they have unfolded in my life. If I don't understand, but God I'm choosing to trust you. I talked with my sister sure. In Oklahoma earlier this week, last week and she's 41 and from birth, she's had physical problems. So for four decades, she's had physical problems. 0 (24m 15s): She's going in Monday morning, tomorrow morning at seven o'clock because they're trying to save her left eyes. She's already completely, mostly blind in her right eye. And she's pretty well blind in her left eye as well. And they're going in just to do what they can to salvage any site that she might have in her left eye. So she told me, she said, I just, I feel like, I feel like God's picking on me. I feel like I just want to give up. And it's hard for me to believe she just lost. You know, we, we shared the same dad. We just lost her dad. She was devastated by that. She lost her mom. 0 (24m 55s): And year before that it's been one hit after the other for her. And she's struggling with her faith. And I said, I don't understand why God's allowing these things. I don't have answers for you, but I know that God loves you and I'd like to pray for you. And so I just prayed for her. And I just asked the Lord's grace and mercy and, and help for her situation. And after I pray with her and she said, you know, my mom used to pray for me just like that. And would always encourage me. Thank you so much for praying for me. You know, we don't always have to have the answers, but we've got to hold on to our confidence, our faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Many things will happen in this life that we just flat do not agree with or understand. 0 (25m 41s): Be careful not your hardened your heart today. When you hear his voice, don't harden, your heart as Israel did, when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness there, your ancestors tested and tried my patients, even though they saw my miracles for 40 years. So the people of Israel watch God deliver him, deliver them out of Egypt, where they had been enslaved for hundreds of years. Now, he's taking them through the wilderness, into the promised land and that there for 40 years, because of their hard hearts, their rebellious attitudes and their, their, their inability to believe God. 0 (26m 21s): And so, even though God delivered them and showed them miracles by providing water and food and clothes that didn't wear out and shoes that didn't wear out as they walked around for 40 years, they, they, they weren't touched by the miracles of God, much like the new Testament, when God would through the work person, working power of the holy spirit through Jesus life, he would heal people, resurrect people from the dead, do all kinds of wonderful, supernatural things. They were people who just had a hard heart toward him and just flat refuse to believe him. So I don't think it's a miracle that we need in our lives that we'll change our mind. It's a decision to change our minds where we say, God, I don't understand, but I am choosing to believe I am choosing to walk by faith and not by sight. 0 (27m 17s): I am choosing to love you. I'm choosing to believe you. I'm choosing to be obedient. I'm choosing to follow you. Verse 10 says, so I was angry with them. God was angry with them. And I said, their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them. And we see the kindness of God throughout the old Testament, throughout the new Testament, the patience of God, the faithfulness of God, to his people. And it didn't matter. They continue to refuse him to refuse obedience, to refuse, to acknowledge him as Lord and as king. 0 (27m 60s): So in my anger, I took an oath. They will never enter my place of rest. And so because of their sinfulness, their disobedience, their rebellion, they wandered tell a whole generation of unbelievers died off so that they might finally enter into the promised land. He said, verse 12, be careful. Then be careful than dear brothers and sisters make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving turning you away from the living God. And so we have to be aware of what's going on internally. What's going on in our hearts, in our minds and our lives spiritually. What is happening? Are we keeping a tender heart and available heart, a humble heart? 0 (28m 41s): Or are we hardening up getting cynical? I know that I'm getting a hard heart when it becomes cynical or critical. My wife's like what's going on with you? Does she can read it like, you know, cynicism and criticism, critical spirit. She's like, what's going on? I don't know. I'm just having a bad day. And then I'll realize that my heart is hard enough about something. And I just need to confess and repent and yeah, she'll point out my furrowed brow she'll do, she'll do a furrowed brow. She'll go kind of look at me like that. Can you see him? I'm like, what are you doing? I'm like, oh, I know what you're doing. So I'm a furrowed brow. 0 (29m 21s): And she'll, she'll, it's an indication that I'm, you know, getting grumpy about something. And so she'll remind me in the most gracious way possible she'll remind me, be careful. Then dear brothers and sisters make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving turning you away from the living God. So we, to be careful, he said, you must warn each other every day, verse 13 while it's still today. So that none of you will be deceived. And that's the problem with sin and the heart hardening of a heart. There's a deception that's taking place. And when we choose to open up the scripture and allow the scripture, the truth of God's word, to inform our understanding, to inform us spiritually, then we can't be as easily deceived verse 14 for if we are faithful to the end, trusting God, just as firmly as when we first believed we will share in all that belongs to Christ. 0 (30m 21s): Remember what it says, verse 15 today, when you hear his voice, don't harden, your hearts as Israel did when they rebuild. And so we have this opportunity today to examine our hearts, examine our lives, to choose, to believe the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, to choose, to walk by faith and not by sight to refuse to be rebellious verse 16 says, and who was it? Who rebelled against God? Even though they heard his voice, wasn't it? The people Moses led out of Egypt, remember where God has brought you and she's not to be rebellious. And who made God angry for 40 years? Wasn't it? The people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness and to whom was God speaking. 0 (31m 4s): When he took an oath that they would never enter his rest. Wasn't it? The people who disobeyed him. So we see verse 19 that because of their unbelief, they were not able to enter his rest. Listen, you and I will never keep our courage. We will never remain confident in Jesus. If we allow rebellion, sinfulness disobedience, if we allow those things into our life, we will begin to suffer with unbelief. We will begin to suffer with doubts, with anger and all sorts of things that will draw us away from the goodness of God. 0 (31m 47s): We will instead fall into unbelief and ultimately be defeated at the very least deflated in our faith. So what do we, what do we do with Jesus? Think carefully about him. Choose to believe the truth about him and keep your courage and remain confident in him. As we talk about Jesus, we're going to take communion. Hopefully everybody received their elements. I think mine are there somewhere. If you do not have elements, go ahead and raise your hand and we will make sure that you get elements. So keep your hand up. We've got a couple people working on that right now, before we take communion, I want to challenge us if you're here today and you, you don't know Jesus, you, you, you haven't known what to do with him up to this point. 0 (32m 52s): I want to give you a chance to come to know him. I want to give you a chance to understand who he is so that you might think properly about him and respond properly to him. So if you're here today and you are saying, man, I don't know this Jesus, but I recognize my need for him is the elements of being past that. I just want us to close our eyes and we'll just pray for a moment. And so Lord, your word has gone out and people who have heard it may need to get saved and write with you Lord. And so I pray God that if there are people here today that need that Lord, that they would submit their lives to you, that they would say yes to you. 0 (33m 38s): And you're here with everybody's eyes closed. This is how you say yes to Jesus. You declare your need for him. You say, Lord, I need you. I need you to forgive my sin. I need you to come into my life. I need you to adopt me into your family. I need forgiveness and grace and love. And as you make that declaration of your heart to the Lord in prayer, he hears you. Scripture says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. So if you're here today and you need salvation, salvation from judgment, the Bible says the wages of sin is death, spiritual death, spiritual separation. 0 (34m 26s): We talked about that a lot last week, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord, if he needs salvation in the quietness of your own heart receives him. And then after the service tell somebody that you received the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Maybe you're here today and you've received him, but your heart has been hardened. And you've been filled with some rebelliousness and disobedience and you need to rethink think clearly about Jesus and then make some decisions based on truth about him. If you're here today and you felt distant from the Lord, I want you to consider reconsider re committing your life to the Lord and where that can be done just by simply acknowledging Lord. 0 (35m 12s): I've been distant from you. I, my heart's been hard. I don't know why I've been rebellious and disobedient, but Lord, I don't, I don't want to be rebellious and this will be any longer Lord, would you please lead my life? And I commit Lord to submit my life to you and to follow you and to love you and to allow you to love me. And so, as you declare your heart's intents to the Lord, he hears you. Bible says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So anything that has been committed, that is a sin can be forgiven as you confess those things to the Lord. And so if you're here today, I'm going to ask you before we take communion, not to take communion. 0 (35m 52s): If you haven't trusted the Lord for salvation, this is a believers' time to remember, to reflect on Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross. It says in first Corinthians 1123 for I pass on to you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's go ahead and take away from, Oh, thank you, Lord. 0 (36m 42s): Thank you for your sacrifice. You're willing sacrifice. You're obedient sacrifice. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for taking my place. Thank you for taking our place. Thank you Lord. In the same way, verse 25 says he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me, as often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. 0 (37m 26s): Let's go ahead and take the cup. Thank you for the cup Lord that represents the blood that was shed for our sins, that they might be cleansed in that supernatural transaction, that supernatural exchange or righteousness has been imputed to believers and the sin of those believers have been imputed to you and you took them and died. 0 (38m 6s): You died for all of the sins of the world, that whoever believes in you, you might be saved. Thank you, Lord. I pray that everyone who hears the message of the gospel, whether here or an Azerbaijan or an Africa or Mexico, or in Greenland or wherever we have people stationed for the gospel or God all over the globe, Lord God that people would hear and respond to the message of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Thank you for this. We love you, Lord. We bless you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Worship team. Come forward. We're going to sing another song and then we'll close things up. 2 (38m 56s): Just stand as we worship God, we worship you in this place. We thank you that your holy we think of that God has need us. 3 (39m 51s): your holy word. 3 (42m 32s): We thank you for your holiness.

3 (12m 37s): You are indeed the everlasting. God, God, you changed not your you're immutable. You're faithful. You're good Lord. Thank you for the opportunity to gather and worship your name, Lord, and that God has. We focus our attention on the word this morning. I pray that you would speak to us. Lord, you've got eternal truth that you want to communicate to us. It's it's eternal and yet pertinent to our lives today right now in this moment. So Lord, I pray that we would, that myself included that we'd just be open and available to your truth, Lord God, that he would encourage us and build us up and challenge us where we need to be challenged. Lord God, that it would just be strong truth for us today. 3 (13m 19s): Encouraging and gracious truth for us today. We love you, Lord. We thank you for this time in Jesus name. Amen. All right, turn around and greet somebody that you've never ever met before. I appreciate you brother. Thanks, sir. I appreciate you buddy. See you next round. Thanks Jim. Let me buddy. I wasn't sure if I was ready. 2 (14m 19s): Alrighty. 3 (14m 23s): Hebrews chapter two, somebody told me that I should tell the Hebrews joke about how, you know, the Bible tells us that it's the man's job to make coffee because of the book of Hebrews. But I said, I'm not going to tell that Joe is not going to do it for this response right here, because it's just not as funny as it used to be. So I'm not going to tell you the Hebrews Joe, we're going to skip that all together. Amen. Hey, we are in Hebrews chapter two, though. Somebody even said, you should say Hebrews too much coffee because you're in Hebrews two. 3 (15m 4s): And I said, no, I'm not going to tell that joke. I'm not going to go to that. I'm not going to go down that road. So I'm not going to talk about coffee and that sort of thing today, we're going to be talking about. And in fact, we've titled the message, a warning against drifting away, a warning against drifting away. For thousands of years, it's been a temptation of the followers of God to drift in their faith, to drift in their conviction, to drift as followers and become more and more like the world. Instead of like saintification, it's supposed to do is supposed to, we're supposed to become more and more like Christ and less and less like our old man, less and less like the world I was in Hawaii, about 10, maybe 12 years ago, something like that and flew in for a pastors conference. 3 (15m 49s): And I knew it was just going to be a crazy busy week. And so if I was going to get into the water, I knew that I needed to get into the water right away. So I get to the hotel, unpack stuff, go down to the beach and rent a board. And I go out surfing and I'm out there for probably, I don't know, maybe a couple hours, something like that. And it's time to come in. And I, I come into the shore from the water. I'm like, where am I? I, I was looking for the place to return my board, but it was nowhere, nowhere in sight. And so I'm asking, Hey, where do I return my surf board? And they're looking at all the boards are kind of marked with stickers or colors or something like that. 3 (16m 30s): So they can, you can identify where you return. It. There's a lot of places to rent boards down there. So I, I finally find out and they said, Hey, you're about a mile up the beach. You got, you you've drifted and you didn't realize, but you gotta, you gotta take that board about a mile up the beach. And somebody recommended that I get back in the water and paddle over. But for whatever reason, I decided just to walk it over. And, but it's interesting. That's how life is. If we don't have a point of reference, like for me, I should've kept an eye on a point of reference so that I didn't drift, but I didn't do that. I just got out there and I just was having fun and I drifted and didn't even realize it. So the same is true for us as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 3 (17m 12s): We actually have to have a point of reference so that we don't spiritually drift and get off target and forget who we are and forget what we believe and forget what God has called us to in this life. And so for us, the Bible is a reference point. It continually brings us back to truth. And so if you're struggling with something that you've heard about God or about the Bible, just go back to the Bible and read for yourself what the scripture says. And I, I find that to be extremely helpful, clear setup, a kind of misunderstandings or the false conclusions that that one might arrive at by just listening to someone else, teach or listening to the culture. 3 (17m 56s): I was listening to an interview by Oprah Winfrey recently, and she said that she was a Christian, but then she went on to define what it means for her to be a Christian. And she said, it means for me to be tolerant and loving and to be like a, a warm light or something like that, you know nothing about Jesus. So Oprah's Christianity has nothing to do with Jesus. And I'm afraid if we don't make the Bible, our reference point than our Christianity will become anything, but what Jesus defines it to be declares it to be. 3 (18m 36s): We need to make sure that the Bible, that the spirit of God through the word of God is defining our Christianity. She went on to say that I'm a Christian. If you want to be become a Christian, I can show you how to do that. But she said, I, I respect all religions. And again, just sending a totally confusing message to her audience about what Christianity is all about. There's a drift in the culture where we are redefining terms that we've always understood that to be the truth. What does it mean to be a Christian? When, what does it mean to be a follower of the Lord? Jesus Christ, culturally, what? 3 (19m 17s): There's a thousand things that we're trying to redefine in, in progressive Christianity, they're redefining Jesus. And the way to way to, to salvation there, they're saying now, progressive Christians are saying now that Jesus is not the only way to heaven, that he's not the way in spite of what the scripture says, that he's not the way the truth and the life and that no man comes to the father, except through him. They're saying that there's that in fact they would say progressive Christians would say that we're all little gods and you don't have to go far to find this type of teaching, that there are many ways to have in that we're all little gods. And that we're kind of the master of our own universe, sort of understanding of teaching. 3 (19m 59s): It's crazy because the, these, these are people who claim to be followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, Christians, but their message about crisis completely convoluted and contrary to the truth of what the Bible says. So we have to be careful that we're returning to our source of reference the Bible, the turtle, living God breathed, word of God, to understand what we are, who we are in Christ and what we believe we have to keep coming back to this source in this resource, Hebrews two, one in the new living translation says, so we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may, or we may drift away from it. 3 (20m 55s): So that the author of Hebrews is writing to Jewish believers in the Lord, Jesus Christ, Jewish people who have trusted Jesus, believe that Jesus is the Messiah. And so he's challenging them to pay close attention, careful attention to the truth that they had heard. What was the truth that they heard that Jesus is the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father except through him. That was the gospel. The truth was, they heard, they heard that they were are sinners. And apart from God's grace, there is no hope for eternal life. There's no hope to go into the father and they heard it and they may, they believed it and they received it and they began to walk in it. 3 (21m 43s): But then something happened. Something began to cause their faith to wane and change and shift. And they began to drift and they didn't really even realize that they were drifting. But over time they had drifted much like on the, in the, in the water. I, I, I drifted a mile, had no idea, no idea, no point of reference, no idea that I had drifted. So if we don't have a point of reference in the word of God, then we will drift and we will become more and more like our culture. Thank you more and more like our culture believing more and more like our culture and reject the gospel truth. The truth of the word of God. 3 (22m 23s): So how do we avoid drifting spiritually? Number one, we must listen carefully to the truth. So this is, this is why we always say open up your Bible every day. Like read your Bible every day. If you don't, you will subtly drift in your perspectives. Your understandings, your convictions will change. Your life will no longer line up with the word of God. If you don't make it your effort and your goal to open up the scripture on a regular basis, I just finished up nine months in what we call the journey. It's a nine month discipleship process. We're about 10 of us went through this nine month journey. 3 (23m 6s): And we had our commencement yesterday. We didn't call it a graduation because the commencement is actually a declares that, Hey, I'm not done. I'm actually just finished with this, but I'm moving forward. I'm continuing on in my journey as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So we don't call it graduation because on this side of heaven, we're never done pursuing truth and opening up the scripture and praying for clarity and wisdom that we might serve. Jesus. If we don't do these things, we will subtly drift. I don't know about you, but when I'm struggling spiritually, the last thing I want to do is open up the Bible. It's like nothing in me wants to open the Bible. 3 (23m 46s): I just want to kind of be in my own little pity party and feel sorry for myself and be angry or be whatever it is that I'm dealing, dealing with her going through. But as soon as I avail myself to the word of God, I soften, I get tender. I get broken. I get contract. I, I I'm reminded of God's faithfulness of his goodness and my heart is drawn back to him. And so this is why the enemy of our souls, his job is to steal, kill, and destroy. He's trying to distract us from the word of God, the truth of God, because he knows that it will build you up in your most holy faith. 3 (24m 26s): It will restore to you joy and peace, clarity, direction, vision, wisdom, all of those things. So how do we avoid drifting spiritually? We, we have to listen carefully to the truth. So if we go back thousands of years, this has always been the case with the followers of God. They've always had this temptation to drift to just slowly but surely drift away from the reality of the truth of the good news of the gospel. Listen carefully to the truth. Hebrews two, two says for the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm talking about when angels on Mount Sinai gave the 10 commandments to Moses. 3 (25m 12s): This is what he's referencing here. He's so we're going back thousands of years to 1500 BC when Moses received the commandments, he said for the message God delivered so that the 10 commandments through angels has always stood firm and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. So let me kind of give you some backstory here. As we listened to Stephen, who is about to get martyred in acts chapter seven, he's giving his defense to the Jewish council. He's talking about the history of the people of God and explaining to them what they've gone through and how they ended up here acts 7 38 through 43. 3 (25m 58s): It says Moses was with our ancestors, the assembly of God's people in the wilderness when the angel spoke to him and Mount Sinai. And there, there Moses received life giving words to pass on to us. So again, Mount Sinai is where the 10 commandments were given the angel of the Lord spoke. It communicated it. And this is what their response was, verse 39. But our ancestors refuse to listen to Moses. So they've been delivered they're on their way to the promised land and they're refusing to listen. They rejected him and wanted to return to Egypt, right? Egypt represents our old man, our old way of living our old life. 3 (26m 41s): And we're, we're tempted for everybody throughout history tent. We're tempted on some level to go back to our old way of living our Egypt. And that's exactly what was happening with the people of God. They wanted to return to Egypt. They told Aaron, make us some gods who can lead us for, we don't know what has become of this Moses who brought us out of Egypt. So they made an idle shaped like a calf and they sacrificed to it and celebrated over this thing they had made before. It's just a matter of things. We can erect something, something of our own design and worship it and allow it to be the focal point of our lives. 3 (27m 27s): And that's honestly what a lot of us do in this Western culture. We build a life for ourselves, erecting monuments, to the things that we accomplished in this life, removing Jesus from the throne of our lives and from the center, the central point of our hearts and lives. And we instead replace him with things that we declared by our actions are more important to us than Jesus. So they made an idle shaped like a calf and they sacrificed to it and celebrate it over this thing they had made. I'm sure none of you have made an idle shaped like a calf offered sacrifices to it. 3 (28m 10s): I'm sure none of you have done that, but what kind of idols have we created? Have we erected in our lives? What kind of idols, whether it be things or people or relationships, what kind of experiences? It can be a host of things. What have we erected as idols in our lives? We're, we're guilty often of the same things that people have been guilty of for thousands of years, verse 42, then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods in the book of the prophets it's written was it was it to me. 3 (28m 52s): You were bringing sacrifices and offerings during those 40 years in the wilderness. Israel was it to me that you were bringing those, no, you carried your pigging gods. The shrine of Molek, the star of your God and the images you made to worship them. So I will send you into exile as far as way as far away as Babylon. So we, we see that God judged the disobedience that, that drift last week, last week, we talked about not giving up in our faith as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. This week, we're talking about not drifting, not fading away, following fall, falling away from the plans and purposes of God. 3 (29m 38s): So this has been going on from the beginning, from the, until today for thousands of years, people have been drifting. So we just read about Moses and the people in the wilderness and their idolatry. So 1500 years later back to Hebrews chapter two, it's interesting that we're, we just read about something that happened 1500 BC. And now we're talking about reading about something that happened in the, just after the time of Christ and, and we're, we're here now 2000 years after the death and resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so human nature hasn't changed much in thousands of years back to Hebrews two. 3 (30m 20s): So verse three, what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself. So we're not talking about a message that was communicated from the angels to Moses, to the people. We're talking about a message now that was communicated through the son of God, but the second person of the Trinity God, in the flesh, he has come in the flesh to bring us the gospel message, the new covenant by which we are saved and, and understand God through this new covenant. So what makes us think if we can, that we can escape. If we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself, and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak. 3 (31m 8s): So the first, first disciples, the first followers, the first generation of believers heard the message directly from Jesus' lips. They watched his life in ministry. They watched him be crucified, buried in the resurrected. And now they're proclaiming that truth. Second generation to the next generation. They're proclaiming that truth. What makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself, and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak. And God confirmed this message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the holy spirit whenever he chose. So you can just bring the message, but he confirmed. 3 (31m 49s): It was signs and miracles and wonders. He, he healed people, resurrected people from the dead. He ministered life in grace, causing people to be delivered from demonic, oppression and possession. He did wonderful and supernatural things. And the truth is that God continues to do those wonderful and super natural things. I was just talking to a gal this morning, who she was, she broke her pelvis about a year ago. She stepped off a train, broke her pelvis and she was in a deep, deep, just a bunch of pain. And she just, she has prayed one day. She just said, Lord, I need you to heal me. And she just felt this warmth over her pelvis. And it just, she was healed in a moment. 3 (32m 31s): God is still working supernaturally. So if God chooses to work supernaturally in your life to bring you to a place of healing, great. But if it's not just the fact that you have turned your attention to him and recognize your need for him is the greatest miracle of all. Salvation is the greatest miracle of all. And when God fills us with the readiness to receive him and walk after him, there's a miracle that is unfolding right before our eyes. And so Jesus preaches his message. People hear it. And then they proclaim that message to the next generation. They talk about the signs and wonders in them. Wonderful, miraculous things that happen as the spirit gave the ability they're saying, listen, this is not something we have made up. 3 (33m 14s): This is truth that you believe because you saw the miracle working hand of God in Jesus life. And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the holy spirit whenever he chose. So how do we avoid drifting spiritually? Number one, we must listen carefully to the truth. Number two, don't ignore your great salvation. Don't ignore your great salvation. This is what these people were doing. They were ignoring what God had done for them, even though they had received it. At one point, they were now ignoring it going on as if nothing had happened living as if their lives had not experienced the living God going on as if they had never been forgiven of their sin. 3 (34m 10s): Don't ignore your great salvation. The writer saying this salvation was made possible through a great sacrifice. Jesus himself, God himself saw your need, your need. Every one of our need. He saw our need and made himself the sacrifice for your salvation. Yet many, many ignore it. We've lost our first love. Maybe we got saved a year ago or 10 years ago or 50 years ago. And we've lost. We've drifted where we don't feel convicted about sin any longer. We don't feel the, the call to share that gospel message with others. We don't feel the call and the responsibility to pray for people, encourage people and speak life and truth into people's lives. 3 (34m 56s): As we're filled with the spirit of God, out of the overflow of who we are as followers of Jesus Christ, we have a hard enough time just making it a church on Sunday. I don't ask me to read my Bible everyday because I can't do it. I don't have time to do it. Don't ask me to serve somewhere because I don't have time to do it. I'm busy with everything else busy with everything else. And so we ignore essentially, we ignore what Jesus has done. We've said that it's like old news. It's like that happened last year or last decade, or that happened when I was a child and we ignore it. Like it never happened at all. We take it for granted. We live as though nothing happened. Imagine being saved from a drowning scenario. 3 (35m 39s): I remember when I was a kid, I was in the ocean and I paddled or not paddled out, but swam out or got pulled out. And I was cleaning to peer piling. I was cleaning for my life. I, the water, the waves were coming up over my head and they'd go back down. I'd yellow water would come back up, cover my head. Water would go back down. I'm yelling. I'm just this little kid out there and I'm going to die. If somebody doesn't rescue me and this lifeguard grabs me, throws me on his board and paddles me in, saved my life. 3 (36m 20s): Imagine hanging from a cliff and someone saves you by lifting you out of that. Predicament. Those stories. Aren't even good examples of what Jesus has done. They're just not good examples. They barely scratched the surface of what Jesus has done. No, no. Imagine what Jesus has saved you from by his grace, because he is good. Not because you are good. Imagine no light, complete darkness. Imagine no hope. Only desperation. 3 (37m 4s): Imagine intense heat and constant thirst. Imagine you have nothing at all to quench your thirst, nothing at all, to ease your suffering. No opportunity to make things better. No comfort, no joy, no companionship, no end to your agony. No end to your anguish. No end to your torments. Imagine weeping and gnashing of teeth. 3 (37m 48s): Imagine the eternal smell of sulfur burning, sulfur and dark thick smoke that barely allows you to take a breath. Imagine total devastation, complete fatigue throughout your whole body with no remedy, no help in sight. The penalty for sin, the wages of sin is death. It's separation from God. His separation from all that is pure and right, and holy it's separation from it. Every good and perfect gift that God has poured out upon us. 3 (38m 32s): The separation it's devastation, it's spiritual death, but, but thank God. The free free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Our Lord to save us from eternal destruction that the Bible talks about in the old Testament, the new Testament. Imagine Jesus. The only one with the power to save. The only one with the power to save is Jesus. And he sees our desperate need before the foundations of the world. 3 (39m 12s): He knows our desperate need. And his plan is to save us, to re deem us not from a temporal death like drowning or falling off a cliff, but from an eternal separation, spiritual death that offers only desperation and helplessness and loss and agony and devastation. The only one who was able and was willing to take your place and pay the penalty for your sin was Jesus. Now imagine your gratitude. 3 (39m 56s): Imagine now being refreshing your soul and your spirit and your mind and your hearts of what Jesus has accomplished. We, we drift and we forget what, what Jesus did for us. Accomplishing salvation, extending grace and love to us. We forget, and we minimize it and we forget about it. And we drift from that reality. This is why we've got to open up the scripture, the pages of scripture every day, every day, so that we don't drift and take for granted and forgets what he's done. Imagine your gratitude. Now, imagine yourself ignoring what Jesus has done and going about your life as though nothing has happened. 3 (40m 50s): It's hard to fathom the condition of a heart of someone who just flat refuses to be grateful and to live differently. He rose to five and furthermore, it's not angels who will control the future world. We're talking about four in one place the scriptures say, and this is a quote from Psalm eight, four through six. It says, what are mere mortals that you should think about them or a son of man that you should care for him yet for a little while you made them a little lower than the angels and crown them with glory and honor, you gave them authority over all things. 3 (41m 45s): So initially this almost was speaking of humans, humans in general, humans made in the image of God, the ideal human, but then sin in the world took over. And the writer of Hebrews applies this Psalm to Jesus as does the apostle Paul, the apostle Paul also applies this Psalm to Jesus in first Corinthians 1527, where it says, God has put all things under his authority. Now, when it says verse eight, Hebrews two, all things, it means it means nothing is left out, but we have not yet seen all things put under their authority. You, what we do see is Jesus, who for a little while, was given a position a little lower than the angels in the incarnation, Jesus humbled himself. 3 (42m 41s): And because he suffered death for us, he is now crowned with glory and honor, yes, by God's grace, Jesus tasted death for every one that we all might come to faith in Jesus. If you confess your, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead. You shall be safe. You confess and believe and are baptized. You will be saved. Yes. By God's grace. Jesus tasted death for everyone firsthand for God, for whom and through whom everything was made chose to bring many children into glory. 3 (43m 21s): And it was only right, that he should make Jesus through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. How can we ignore that? Great salvation? How do we keep from drifting? I mean, it's, it's, it's a common thing to all believers. It's easiest stepping off the stage. It's just something that happens unless we're intentionally stopping the drift. How do we avoid drifting spiritually? Number one, we've got to listen very carefully to the truth. Number two, don't ignore this great salvation. Number three. Remember your supernatural adoption. 3 (44m 4s): You have been supernaturally by God's grace. As righteousness has been imputed to us. That's a supernatural work of God that imputation, that righteousness has been given to us Jesus taking on the sin of the world so that righteousness might be imputed to us. So we might be adopted into his family. So now Jesus, and the ones he makes holy have the same father we've literally been adopted God. The heavenly father is our father. 3 (44m 44s): That's why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters for. He said to God, I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people. He also said, I will put my trust in him. That is I and the children. God has given me verse 14 because God's children are human beings made of flesh and blood. The sun in the incarnation also became flesh and blood for only as a human being. Could he die being fully God becoming fully man taking on the sin of the world. The penalty of that sin dying on the cross, going into the tomb three days later, resurrecting from the dead. 3 (45m 24s): I mean, Jesus, his person that we celebrate coming up here in about five weeks, Christmas, it's, it's the we're celebrating the incarnation. All that Jesus did as he came in the form of a baby, a child for only as a human being, could he die? And only by dying, could he break the power of the devil who had the power of death all in this way? Could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. And yet we want to go back to Egypt where we have been enslaved or we have suffered in slavery spiritually. And in other ways we've suffered. And yet there's something about the drift. 3 (46m 5s): Something about forgetting something about growing kind of cynical and cold in our heart. That makes us to want to go back to that old way of living. We didn't get saved out of Egypt because Egypt was worth staying. And we got saved because it was desperate and empty and there was no life there for 16. We also know that the sun did not come to help angels. He came to help the descendants of Abraham, you and me. Therefore it was necessary for him to be made in every aspect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful high priest before God, then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. 3 (46m 55s): Since he himself has gone through suffering a testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested, he's able to help us. When we are being tested, we will be tested. I talked to a handful of people this week and every one of them are going through some form of testing, difficult times in their businesses and their family lives spiritually speaking difficult. In desperate times, I had a conversation with a friend in between services and just Monday, he lost his father on Tuesday. 3 (47m 38s): He lost his uncle. They two years ago, he lost his mother. There's just been blow after blow hit after hits difficulty after difficulty testing, after testing. And we can all tell our story about the difficulties of the last couple of years. We can all talk about how difficult and hard our lives have been. But we need to understand that it's not God who's abandoned by banning us in our time. It's but it's God. Who's reaching out to us in our time of need because he is able to help us into strengthen us and to give us courage in our time of testing. Listen, things are not going to get easier. 3 (48m 19s): As we move toward the second coming of Christ. Things are just not going to get easier. The days will get darker. Temptation will become worse. The culture will become more sinful, more dark, more antichrist. We will have to fight harder than we've ever fought. Be more focused than we've ever been. Stay in love with Jesus, through the thick and thin and not allow anything to cause us to give up or to drift from our faith. Because if we're drifting now, we're when things get worse, we'll never have the stamina to endure and to continue to trust God. 3 (49m 2s): And so we're called to listen carefully to the truth of the word of God. Do not ignore our great salvation. This life is temporal it's it's it's temporal. I shared last week that I keep hearing about friends of mine, people my age, younger, and even older and younger who have passed away. I just found out earlier this week that a friend of mine, 53 years old, passed away from a heart attack. So I asked my brother, did he know Jesus? 3 (49m 42s): And he said, no, he didn't know Jesus. So people are dying and we have to tell him about Jesus. We have to tell him about Jesus. We have to live, not forgetting truth, not forgetting what God has done for us, but remembering that we've been adopted. Save for such a time as this to stand firm. As followers of the Lord, Jesus tries to not give up when things get difficult, because things will continue to be difficult. As we try to stand for Jesus tried to be salt and light in this life. 3 (50m 24s): And in this earth, he will continue to be difficult. Listen to this story yesterday about a Muslim Muslim young man who grew up his whole life Muslim, but he heard something about Jesus. And he was interested in Jesus in the Muslim faith. Jesus is a prophet. He's nothing more than a prophet, but he, he was intrigued about this. Jesus and his friend invited him to a, a meeting called the crusade and Muslims said, you're, you're inviting me to something that is called a crusade. 3 (51m 4s): You know your history, you know, that's not a good thing. You said, oh, well, there's going to be free peace. I said, okay, I like free pizza. So he went and got free pizza and he heard the message about the Lord Jesus Christ and went home and read all through. He found a Bible. He had a Bible at the bottom of his closet somewhere, pull it out, read the gospel of Matthew, start to finish in one sitting. And he heard the gospel. He read the gospel. He responded to the gospel and he went to his dad and he said, Hey dad, I I'm a Christian. His dad said, no, you're not. You're a Muslim. You were born a Muslim. You'll always be a Muslim. 3 (51m 45s): You'll die a Muslim. He said, no, dad, I'm a Christian Bible says that if I believe on Christ, that I'll be saved. And I've done that. I've given my life to Jesus. And he said, if you choose Jesus, I reject you as my son. And in that moment he was rejected. He said, dad, if I've got to choose between you and Jesus, I have to choose Jesus. And he's been rejected from his family ever since there's a cost to following Jesus. It's not all kumbaya and rainbows and butterflies. It's theirs. There's a cost to it. 3 (52m 27s): No, there's plenty of wonderful things that happen as we follow Jesus, but there's a cost. And that cost is going to increase over time. A warning against drifting away, listen carefully to the truth of the word of God. Don't ignore your great salvation. Remember your supernatural adoption with that. I'm gonna invite the team back up and we're gonna pray and worship. And so let's go ahead and stand up and I'm just gonna lead us in prayer as the team comes forward. Lord, thank you for the challenge that you've issued to us. And it's, it's the same challenge that you've been communicating to your people from the beginning. 3 (53m 14s): God, I pray that we would never give up that we would not allow ourselves to drift in Jesus name. God. I pray that we would stand firm when we're being tested. And when difficult times are upon us, Lord God, financial, relational. When there's death, when there's disappointment, Lord God, I pray that we would draw close to you. God, that we'd find our greatest strength when we've got nothing left in the natural, but have to rely completely on the supernatural goodness and power and presence of the living. God that in our weakness, your strength would be made. 3 (53m 56s): Perfect. And when there is no reason for joy, we'd be filled with joy. When there's no reason in the natural to have confidence in you, God, that we would be loaded with confidence, believing faith. Faith-filled godly. People who decide no matter what the culture throws at us, no matter what life experiences we're walking through. God, we have this cited to follow you. Whatever that means for us, Lord, help us to be willing to walk through that. Gotcha. Thank you for truth. 3 (54m 36s): Thank you for salvation. Thank you for adoption. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship

Harvest Church 11-21-21

0 (0s): I get to lift your name. Hi, please seem to you this morning, world. 0 (2m 18s): Israel. 1 (5m 6s): . 1 (7m 15s): We can hear the 2 (15m 8s): Your name is powerful. Thank you. Lauren. Got to remind us of all of the ways in which we are reminded that you are powerful. You were resurrected from the dead to live forevermore. God, you, you are in our midst. Lord, God powerfully encouraging us and challenging us and moving in our lives. Lord God, you are a healer and a provider and you and you are indeed the soon coming king, Lord God. You're powerful, Lord God. So be powerful in our midst today, Lord, with the preaching of the word, you've already been powerful. 2 (15m 53s): Lord God, to just send the worship through song Lord, and as we pray and as we fellowship together throughout the day, Lord, God be, be powerful, Lord God, God help us to be a blessing and encouragement to one another and help us to be a blessing to you. Ultimately, Lord God, that we would be excited about you and grateful for you. God, move in the minister all over this campus, Lord, and then whoever's watching online. Lord, we just pray. There. Just be a blessing of grace poured out upon them. Lord God, each of us, Lord God would experience your power and your grace in a fresh way today. God, we love you. We need you. Thank you for your power in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 2 (16m 33s): You may be seated. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 2 (17m 16s): I was muted. Yeah, that was my fault. I clicked the button the wrong way. Sorry. So we're in Hebrews chapter one, starting over Hebrews chapter one, talking about not giving up. We got a five-point message. I started to give three weeks ago and we weren't able to finish it. So turn to Hebrews chapter one, we're going to get through this message today. Titled don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. And as we were singing this last song, I thought I thought the reality that we can trust Jesus is seen in the powerful move of God all over the earth. 2 (17m 59s): As from the time that he was born in the way that he impacted the first century, all the way through this 21st century that we're in. We've just see the power of God, the holding power of God in the universe where people trust him. And this, this letter is written to Jews who had believed that Jesus is the Messiah. They, they believed when Jesus came and taught and when he was crucified and when he was resurrected, they decided to believe they put their faith in their trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ. They believe that he is indeed who he says he is and who the scripture declares him to be. 2 (18m 40s): And so as they move along in their faith, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ in the first century, they're, they're experiencing persecution from family and, and others who don't understand their decisions, who don't understand why they've decided to follow Jesus. And so this passage in Hebrews one, and then throughout the scripture in Hebrews one, all the way through the end, it's about the declaration, that, that Jesus is God and that he is worth following and that he is worth everything that we endure to follow him from the first century, all the way to this century. And until he comes again. 2 (19m 20s): So don't give up, Jesus can be trusted. The enemy is always trying to get us to give up, to give up on God, to give up on our marriages, to give up on important things in our life. Somebody asked me recently, they said, how have you endured these last two decades of ministry? What, what do you do when you feel like giving up? How have you endured and stayed in the ministry for the last 20 years? I said, I just, I just keep showing up. I just, I keep showing up. I've realized, and I haven't always understood this, but if I just keep showing up it's number one, it's an act of worship and praise to the Lord. 2 (20m 1s): It's a declaration that I, that that is is it's it's me declaring that. I believe God. I believe that God has called me that he is in this, that he is working in our lives and ministry and that he's doing something good. Sometimes we want to give up and the answer is just giving it a little more time. I was running a yesterday as kind of an illustration and I wanted to give up, I, I was tired mentally and physically, and I just didn't want to finish my run. And I was wanting to give up, but I knew if I could just make it to the next corner, then that would have the energy to make it the rest of the run. 2 (20m 44s): There was something about this stretch that was difficult. It was, it was a hill. It was just a difficult stretch. But I knew if I just got to that corner and turn the corner, that things would get better. And that's exactly what happened. I got to the corner and was able to finish and actually add, added a leg to the, to the, to the run, just to make it a little extra longer. I think there's truth about just not giving up. If you want to, if you want a good marriage, just continue to show up in your marriage. If you want a great marriage, show up and figure out how to serve your spouse, get up every day and figure out to serve your spouse. You'll have a long marriage and you'll have a great marriage. If you want to have a long walk with the Lord and a great walk with the Lord, continue to show up and then figure out how to serve the way that God has called and equipped you to serve. 2 (21m 32s): But don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. Number one, Jesus can be trusted because he is God. And this is the declaration to a people who have experienced him as God. They've experienced him as Lord and savior, but they were doubting. They were in the face of a difficulty in their life. They began to doubt and who hasn't done that. We've all in the face of difficulty. Begin to doubt God's faithfulness. We doubt his existence. Maybe we doubt who he is. And so this text today, and as we teach through Hebrews is designed to build us up in our most holy faith. Jesus can be trusted. 2 (22m 12s): Number one, because he has God verse three, Hebrews one says this, the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God. And he, Jesus sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. This shows that the sun is far greater than the angels. Just as the name. God gave him as greater than their names. God is declaring that the son, Jesus is God. We see the same thing in Philippians chapter two, verses five through eight. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had though. 2 (22m 55s): He was God. He did not think of equality with God has something to clean to. Instead he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross. Jesus fully God, fully man, born of a Virgin lived taught, modeled, performed miracles was crucified and then resurrected from the dead. And now he sits at the right hand of the father forever making intercession for us. 2 (23m 36s): He is God. And he can be trusted in his death, Jesus and pukes righteousness. This is this, it shows the both the divinity of God, but also the goodness of God. He imputes righteousness to us and that he took our sin. So our sin was imputed to him. He became sin for us and he in exchange imputed righteousness to us. And so we become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, because of God's goodness. And because of his plan, when we begin to doubt his goodness and begin to doubt his divinity, we, we need to return to the gospel and return to the pages of scripture and be reminded. 2 (24m 17s): His righteousness has been imputed to us. Our sins have been imputed to him. Jesus can be trusted because he is God Hebrews one verse five says for God, never said to any angel, what he said to Jesus, you are my son today. I become your father. God also said I will be his father. And he will be my son. And when he brought his Supreme son into the world, God said, let all of God's angels worship him regarding angels. He says, he sends his angels like the winds, his servants, like flames of fire. But to the sun, he says your throne, oh God endures forever. 2 (24m 57s): And ever you rule with a Sceptre of justice. I wonder what Jesus' closest friends said about him. If you think about his life, he spent 33 years in the earth and he lived with people. He experienced relationship with people. He ultimately declared that he was God in the flesh that he was the Messiah. The son of God. I wonder what others around him thought about him. What his closest friends thought about it. And the people who knew him most while the beloved John, the apostle John declared this about Jesus. He declared Jesus to be a full of unfailing, love and faithfulness. 2 (25m 42s): John also said from his abundance, we have received one gracious blessing. After another John calls Jesus, the stairway between heaven and earth. In other words, Jesus is the way the truth and the life. And no man comes to the father except through him. This is what John declared. This is what he believed. This is what he understood. After walking with Jesus for a few years, watching Jesus teach and perform miracles, watching Jesus crucify, be crucified and resurrected from the dead. He calls me. He said, that's that man right there. He's a stairway between heaven and earth. He is the way the truth and the life. No man comes to the father except through him. 2 (26m 23s): These are strong declarations spoken to by a man who had walked with Jesus, watched him die. Witnesses. Resurrection then served him all the days of his life. Even through suffering and persecution. When they tried to kill John and they couldn't kill him. And they exiled him to the island of Patmos and then serve Jesus his whole life. And in his old age received the revelation. And he in the revelation saw Jesus and he spoke and wrote truth about the Lord. Jesus Christ. John didn't give up. He believed that Jesus was indeed living for worth living for and worth dying for. He believed he didn't give up. 2 (27m 4s): Even after they tried to kill him and exile him, he would not give up. John declared in the revelation, all glory to him, all glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us, he has made us a kingdom of priests for God, his father, all glory and power to him forever and ever a man. He goes on. Look, he comes with the clouds of heaven. There's something powerful about a person's testimony about the person and work of the Lord. Jesus Christ. You have a testimony of God God's working in your life into that. Testimony is powerful to encourage. Even as John is encouraging us this morning, look, he comes with the clouds of heaven and everyone will see him. 2 (27m 49s): Even those who pierced him and all the nations of the earth will mourn for him. Yes, a man. So John believed his that Jesus' earthly life and ministry was real and genuine. And he believed in Jesus plan to return again and come back to the earth. After time of the time of redemption and judgments, don't give up, Jesus can be trusted. He can be trusted because he is God. He is not a God. One of many gods. He's out of small G God. He is a capital G God, the creator and sustainer of all things don't give up. He can be trusted because he has God. 2 (28m 29s): Number two, Jesus can be trusted because he is just, we get that from Hebrews one nine, where it says you love justice and hate evil. What does it mean? That Jesus is just, it means that if Jesus tells you that your sins are forgiven, then your sins are forgiven because he is a, just an, a righteous judge. And he can't, he can't ally. He can't say things that aren't true. And, and, and try to make you believe that they are true. He is a just God who declares to you that your sins are forgiven. What does it mean? That he's just, it means he is perfect, perfectly righteous. 2 (29m 10s): He judges the wicked and grants mercy to the repentance. He can do no wrong. It's impossible for him to be unfair. It's impossible for him to be unfaithful. It's impossible for him to forget his promises to you. He is a just judge. You can always be counted on to do the right thing. If he makes a promise to you, he will be faithful where he directs. He will guide and provide. When he speaks, his words can be trusted. This is why we pray. This is why we read this scripture because we believe when we commune with God that he listens and he's responding to us, he's adjust and good God. And when he says our sins are forgiven and when he adopts us into his family and welcomes us into a relationship with him, it's true. 2 (29m 57s): And we can take that to the bank. It's a powerful truth. It's a powerful truth. We met over in 1 0 2, our new worship center on Wednesday night at six o'clock and about 30 people gathered. And part of the purpose of gathering was to write verses of scripture on the, on the framed walls, inside that new space, they're going to get covered up shortly. So we wanted to get in there with black markers and write out the promises of God on this, on the walls in there. So that they're forever in the framing of that building as a foundation, as part of the building, the strength of that building is the word of God being recorded on the studs and on the walls. 2 (30m 39s): In that space, we record promises because we believe them. We believe the promises of God. And so we write them and we also believe that God desires to seek and save the loss. And so we have this wall of faith where we wrote down. I wrote down, I think about eight names of people that have been on my heart. People that I'm praying for, believing God to save or to touch or to heal or to minister to in some way. And so we wrote their names down. If you missed last, this last week, we're gonna probably meet again in probably a week from Wednesday and do it again. You'll have the opportunity to come and worship in that space. You'll have an opportunity to come and pray in that space and record the promises of God in that space and write the names of the people that you're praying for and believing God for in that space. 2 (31m 29s): So when we gather in worship, we'll continue to pray for those people and pray that God ministers to the people that we have put the people in our hearts that we put on that wall, declaring that these people will be touched by the living. God, you can't do any of that stuff unless you believe that Jesus has God. And that he's a just God. And that he's faithful to minister. When we call out to him, it's his desire that he would minister to people that he would reach people. We can trust that he is just and faithful. When he speaks, his words can be trusted. Jesus is adjusts and righteous. 2 (32m 9s): God, if we have any other perspective of God, we're missing it. We're we're, we've got a, a reduced version of the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We need to allow not the world to define who Jesus is, not our imagination to define who Jesus is, but we need to allow the scriptures, the word of God to define who Jesus is. Then it becomes big again, in our perspective, he doesn't change ever, but he becomes big and our perspective and we've grown in our faith and we grow in our ability to trust him. Verse nine continues Hebrews one, therefore, oh God, your God has anointed. You pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on any one else. 2 (32m 50s): You know, that righteousness and joy go hand in hand. It says that the oil, the, the, the pouring out of the oil of joy is poured out on him more than on any buddy else. Jesus can be trusted. Number three, because he is joyous. Bible says, it's the joy of the Lord. That is our strength. I remember seeing a picture years ago of this joyful Jesus, this picture of Jesus. And he's got this big grin on his face. I thought this is an accurate, I think is an accurate portrayal of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Years ago, a friend of mine was in the movie and he played Jesus. It's it's called the Matthew movie. And Dennis Marciano was, or excuse me, Bruce Marciano. 2 (33m 32s): Dennis' brother was playing Jesus. And it was the word for word, speaking of the gospel of Matthew, and he declares true throughout the whole movie. And as he's speaking, you see this joy all over his face. You see, as he portrays the life and message and work of the Lord, Jesus Christ, he's got this joy filled face. It's not water that people in the regions were drawn to him. He had this presence about him that was magnetic. It drew people in, he had this countenance about him. That was not offensive, but it was, it was welcoming. And then he would minister to people and he was, he would speak truth. 2 (34m 13s): And even in his truth speaking, he did it in such a gracious and gentle way, much like he maybe does with us when there's correction that needs to come into our lives. He just, he speaks with such tenderness and gentleness. He is joyous. And even now, as I said, he's at the right hand of the throne of God. He's interceding for us wanting our wanting the very best for us. So he's not a, he's not a mean ogre. He's not a tire and Twitter. What's your picture. When you pray to Jesus, what are you seeing in your mind's eye? What are you seeing? What are you envisioning? 2 (34m 54s): What we envision will indicate how we pray or the faith with which we pray. If we see that Jesus is joyous and that he's loving and gracious and wants to be involved and is involved in the inhumanity. If you, if we see him that way, we will pray with greater expectation, with greater faith, with greater passion, with greater ability to believe in, see what God wants to do. We'll just pray with greater faith. But if we see him as a menial ogre, as a tyrant, then we won't pray much at all. What is your picture of Jesus? What is your picture of Jesus? You see a smiling Jesus, or do you see a sour? 2 (35m 36s): Jesus, he's our savior after all, he's our savior. After all, while we are sinners, Christ died for us in our desperate need. Christ died for us. I was up at French hospital on Thursday to visit a friend Jr Ramy, a guy that's been coming to our church for a lot of years. And he just passed away this morning. We had a chance to pray for him. We weren't actually able to get into his room, but we prayed as friends and family for him outside. And we just prayed for God's peace upon his life, because as you get to the end and he knew that his days were numbered, sometimes there's a fear and there's an anxiety, no matter how much faith we have, there's an anxiety around dying. 2 (36m 29s): It's maybe not being with Jesus so much, but it's about the process of dying. It's a scary and unknown thing. So people find, find themselves in a fearful place. I remember talking with Don gainer, he had the, you know, Donna been serving the Lord for 80 plus years and loved Jesus, but he's still the unknown. It was just unsettling for him. And so remember praying over and over again, throughout the course of my life in ministry, praying for people who are passing from this life to the next. And they're an, there's just uncertain. There are things that happen in this life also that just make us uncertain about the goodness of God. But when we can remember that Jesus is our savior and that he's redeemed us and he's got good plans and purposes for us that he's our friend and intercessor that he has for us and not against us. 2 (37m 20s): Then we can have a greater measure of peace. And so it was my prayer for Jr that he would just have the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. And sadly, I didn't get a chance to talk with him before he passed, but I got a text message this morning that said he had gone to be with the Lord. The text message said, he's gone. He is now with Jesus. And that's the reality. When all of our lives wrap up, we will one day breathe. Our last I was on Facebook. I don't have a Facebook account, but I stuck on my wife's Facebook account. And that was on Facebook and at a Ray Grady high school. 2 (38m 0s): They've got a, I think it's a Facebook page called fallen angels. And they list all of the different people who have passed away from graduating classes, going back, you know, from the beginning of the school. And as I looked through, I saw people from my people that I've known since junior high school, people that I went to junior high and high school with actually some back to fifth, sixth grade in the area, people who have passed away, people who are no longer with us, I felt life is so short. And we just never know how much time we have. We have to, in this brief time that we've got in the earth, we've got to be all in with God and believe that Jesus is who he said he is being fully present with him and allowing, be fully present with a Sherry's adjust judge, but his desires that we would escape his just judgment and receive his great grace. 2 (38m 59s): I did a Memorial service for a guy that I've known since I think sixth grade did the service for him earlier this year. And as friends gathered, it was tough to talk about our friend, Josh, who had passed away. It was tough because in the end, he's struggled. He knew Jesus, but he struggled the, he knew Jesus, but he struggled to believe and to follow wholeheartedly. But I know that he know, I know that. I know that. I know that he knew Jesus. I thought about Jesus, earthly, life and ministry. And he's. He was always going after those who were struggling, those who are sick, those who are outcast, those who were in need of his grace and healing, Jesus was always going after those people. 2 (39m 48s): And so I know that in the course of our lives, as we struggle, God is going after us. God is wanting to minister to us. God is wanting to bring his light and life to us. Hebrews one 10 says, he also says to the son in the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. They will perish, but you remain forever. They will wear out like old clothing. You will fold them up like a cloak and discard them like old clothing. But you are always the same. You will live forever. So point number four, we can trust Jesus and not give up because Jesus is eternal. Jesus can be trusted because he is a terminal. 2 (40m 29s): Listen, he's not going anywhere. He's always been any will always be. If we can imagine life in the earth, like a long parade. And Jesus is in the, the announcement, the announcement, a booth up top, and he's watching it from start to finish. He sees everything in the parade of life from start to finish. And so he's never perplexed by anything. Never confused by anything. Never surprised by anything he's eternal has always been, will always be. He's not going anywhere. He can be trusted. He's not surprised by anything because he's seen everything. And so anything that may be a surprise in your life is not a surprise to him. 2 (41m 10s): And so put the full weight of your trust in him. And when surprising things happen, because surprising things, well, they always happen and say, God, I didn't know this was coming, but you did. He promises never to leave us nor forsake us. Verse 13, Hebrews one. And God never said to any of the angels, sit in the place of honor at my right hand, until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet. Therefore angels are only servants. Spirits sent to care for people who will inherit Sal vation. Jesus is eternally working to bring people to salvation. Number five, Jesus can be trusted because he is our salvation. 2 (41m 51s): This is the heart of who he is. This is why the incarnation, why he came into the earth to live and to die and to be resurrected for us because he wanted us saved. Jesus wants what is best for us. Jesus made salvation possible. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for you. And for me, if he can be trusted to save us, Jesus can be trusted in every other area of our lives. Maybe you're here today and you just feel like giving up. Maybe you feel like giving up on your faith. Some things have happened that have discouraged you dissuaded. You have hindered your ability to trust and believe God, I would just say, give it another day. 2 (42m 35s): Sometimes we want to give up and we just need to give it a little time. Maybe you say, okay, Lord, I feel like giving up, but I'm going to give it one more day. I find that if I am feeling discouraged and I go to bed and I wake up the next day, what the scripture says, it's true. His mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. If you're here and you're tempted to give up on your marriage, or you're tempted to give up on your kids, you're tempted to give up on relationships or a job. I would say, just give it another day and then pray and say, Lord, I know that your it's not your will for me to give up. I want to press in and believe, but I need your grace. Everything that God asks us to do requires that we're filled with his spirit and with his power, with his truth and with his wisdom so that we can walk it out. 2 (43m 21s): Don't give up. Jesus can be trusted with Alex. Go ahead and stand up. And we're going to pray. And Lord, thank you that you are indeed our salvation. God, you are faithful to seek and to save those who are lost, Lord God, we give you praise for that. Thank you that you are eternal and that you are the same yesterday today and forever God, that means we can trust you and believe you and follow you wholeheartedly. So help us to do so. Lord, thank you that you are joyous. That is such good news. 2 (44m 2s): Lord, God help us to have a different perspective of you. God help us to think differently about you. Help us to believe you. We pray, Lord God, thank you that you were just thank you, God, that you are, God, God, we trust you and God in those moments where we are doubting and fearful, I pray that you would strengthen us now that you'd reveal truth to us and that we wouldn't the lies of the enemy. We wouldn't give into the difficulty of life, Lord God, but that we would keep our eyes on you continually and constantly. 2 (44m 42s): Thank you for this time. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to open up your word, Lord God, we just invite you to speak to us continually through this time of worship. Lord, help us to worship in spirit and in truth, we pray Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship 0 (50m 28s): Gabi pays you this morning. We worship you. We lift your name. Ha.

0 (0s): I get to lift your name. Hi, please seem to you this morning, world. 0 (2m 18s): Israel. 1 (5m 6s): . 1 (7m 15s): We can hear the 2 (15m 8s): Your name is powerful. Thank you. Lauren. Got to remind us of all of the ways in which we are reminded that you are powerful. You were resurrected from the dead to live forevermore. God, you, you are in our midst. Lord, God powerfully encouraging us and challenging us and moving in our lives. Lord God, you are a healer and a provider and you and you are indeed the soon coming king, Lord God. You're powerful, Lord God. So be powerful in our midst today, Lord, with the preaching of the word, you've already been powerful. 2 (15m 53s): Lord God, to just send the worship through song Lord, and as we pray and as we fellowship together throughout the day, Lord, God be, be powerful, Lord God, God help us to be a blessing and encouragement to one another and help us to be a blessing to you. Ultimately, Lord God, that we would be excited about you and grateful for you. God, move in the minister all over this campus, Lord, and then whoever's watching online. Lord, we just pray. There. Just be a blessing of grace poured out upon them. Lord God, each of us, Lord God would experience your power and your grace in a fresh way today. God, we love you. We need you. Thank you for your power in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 2 (16m 33s): You may be seated. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 2 (17m 16s): I was muted. Yeah, that was my fault. I clicked the button the wrong way. Sorry. So we're in Hebrews chapter one, starting over Hebrews chapter one, talking about not giving up. We got a five-point message. I started to give three weeks ago and we weren't able to finish it. So turn to Hebrews chapter one, we're going to get through this message today. Titled don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. And as we were singing this last song, I thought I thought the reality that we can trust Jesus is seen in the powerful move of God all over the earth. 2 (17m 59s): As from the time that he was born in the way that he impacted the first century, all the way through this 21st century that we're in. We've just see the power of God, the holding power of God in the universe where people trust him. And this, this letter is written to Jews who had believed that Jesus is the Messiah. They, they believed when Jesus came and taught and when he was crucified and when he was resurrected, they decided to believe they put their faith in their trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ. They believe that he is indeed who he says he is and who the scripture declares him to be. 2 (18m 40s): And so as they move along in their faith, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ in the first century, they're, they're experiencing persecution from family and, and others who don't understand their decisions, who don't understand why they've decided to follow Jesus. And so this passage in Hebrews one, and then throughout the scripture in Hebrews one, all the way through the end, it's about the declaration, that, that Jesus is God and that he is worth following and that he is worth everything that we endure to follow him from the first century, all the way to this century. And until he comes again. 2 (19m 20s): So don't give up, Jesus can be trusted. The enemy is always trying to get us to give up, to give up on God, to give up on our marriages, to give up on important things in our life. Somebody asked me recently, they said, how have you endured these last two decades of ministry? What, what do you do when you feel like giving up? How have you endured and stayed in the ministry for the last 20 years? I said, I just, I just keep showing up. I just, I keep showing up. I've realized, and I haven't always understood this, but if I just keep showing up it's number one, it's an act of worship and praise to the Lord. 2 (20m 1s): It's a declaration that I, that that is is it's it's me declaring that. I believe God. I believe that God has called me that he is in this, that he is working in our lives and ministry and that he's doing something good. Sometimes we want to give up and the answer is just giving it a little more time. I was running a yesterday as kind of an illustration and I wanted to give up, I, I was tired mentally and physically, and I just didn't want to finish my run. And I was wanting to give up, but I knew if I could just make it to the next corner, then that would have the energy to make it the rest of the run. 2 (20m 44s): There was something about this stretch that was difficult. It was, it was a hill. It was just a difficult stretch. But I knew if I just got to that corner and turn the corner, that things would get better. And that's exactly what happened. I got to the corner and was able to finish and actually add, added a leg to the, to the, to the run, just to make it a little extra longer. I think there's truth about just not giving up. If you want to, if you want a good marriage, just continue to show up in your marriage. If you want a great marriage, show up and figure out how to serve your spouse, get up every day and figure out to serve your spouse. You'll have a long marriage and you'll have a great marriage. If you want to have a long walk with the Lord and a great walk with the Lord, continue to show up and then figure out how to serve the way that God has called and equipped you to serve. 2 (21m 32s): But don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. Number one, Jesus can be trusted because he is God. And this is the declaration to a people who have experienced him as God. They've experienced him as Lord and savior, but they were doubting. They were in the face of a difficulty in their life. They began to doubt and who hasn't done that. We've all in the face of difficulty. Begin to doubt God's faithfulness. We doubt his existence. Maybe we doubt who he is. And so this text today, and as we teach through Hebrews is designed to build us up in our most holy faith. Jesus can be trusted. 2 (22m 12s): Number one, because he has God verse three, Hebrews one says this, the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God. And he, Jesus sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. This shows that the sun is far greater than the angels. Just as the name. God gave him as greater than their names. God is declaring that the son, Jesus is God. We see the same thing in Philippians chapter two, verses five through eight. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had though. 2 (22m 55s): He was God. He did not think of equality with God has something to clean to. Instead he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross. Jesus fully God, fully man, born of a Virgin lived taught, modeled, performed miracles was crucified and then resurrected from the dead. And now he sits at the right hand of the father forever making intercession for us. 2 (23m 36s): He is God. And he can be trusted in his death, Jesus and pukes righteousness. This is this, it shows the both the divinity of God, but also the goodness of God. He imputes righteousness to us and that he took our sin. So our sin was imputed to him. He became sin for us and he in exchange imputed righteousness to us. And so we become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, because of God's goodness. And because of his plan, when we begin to doubt his goodness and begin to doubt his divinity, we, we need to return to the gospel and return to the pages of scripture and be reminded. 2 (24m 17s): His righteousness has been imputed to us. Our sins have been imputed to him. Jesus can be trusted because he is God Hebrews one verse five says for God, never said to any angel, what he said to Jesus, you are my son today. I become your father. God also said I will be his father. And he will be my son. And when he brought his Supreme son into the world, God said, let all of God's angels worship him regarding angels. He says, he sends his angels like the winds, his servants, like flames of fire. But to the sun, he says your throne, oh God endures forever. 2 (24m 57s): And ever you rule with a Sceptre of justice. I wonder what Jesus' closest friends said about him. If you think about his life, he spent 33 years in the earth and he lived with people. He experienced relationship with people. He ultimately declared that he was God in the flesh that he was the Messiah. The son of God. I wonder what others around him thought about him. What his closest friends thought about it. And the people who knew him most while the beloved John, the apostle John declared this about Jesus. He declared Jesus to be a full of unfailing, love and faithfulness. 2 (25m 42s): John also said from his abundance, we have received one gracious blessing. After another John calls Jesus, the stairway between heaven and earth. In other words, Jesus is the way the truth and the life. And no man comes to the father except through him. This is what John declared. This is what he believed. This is what he understood. After walking with Jesus for a few years, watching Jesus teach and perform miracles, watching Jesus crucify, be crucified and resurrected from the dead. He calls me. He said, that's that man right there. He's a stairway between heaven and earth. He is the way the truth and the life. No man comes to the father except through him. 2 (26m 23s): These are strong declarations spoken to by a man who had walked with Jesus, watched him die. Witnesses. Resurrection then served him all the days of his life. Even through suffering and persecution. When they tried to kill John and they couldn't kill him. And they exiled him to the island of Patmos and then serve Jesus his whole life. And in his old age received the revelation. And he in the revelation saw Jesus and he spoke and wrote truth about the Lord. Jesus Christ. John didn't give up. He believed that Jesus was indeed living for worth living for and worth dying for. He believed he didn't give up. 2 (27m 4s): Even after they tried to kill him and exile him, he would not give up. John declared in the revelation, all glory to him, all glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us, he has made us a kingdom of priests for God, his father, all glory and power to him forever and ever a man. He goes on. Look, he comes with the clouds of heaven. There's something powerful about a person's testimony about the person and work of the Lord. Jesus Christ. You have a testimony of God God's working in your life into that. Testimony is powerful to encourage. Even as John is encouraging us this morning, look, he comes with the clouds of heaven and everyone will see him. 2 (27m 49s): Even those who pierced him and all the nations of the earth will mourn for him. Yes, a man. So John believed his that Jesus' earthly life and ministry was real and genuine. And he believed in Jesus plan to return again and come back to the earth. After time of the time of redemption and judgments, don't give up, Jesus can be trusted. He can be trusted because he is God. He is not a God. One of many gods. He's out of small G God. He is a capital G God, the creator and sustainer of all things don't give up. He can be trusted because he has God. 2 (28m 29s): Number two, Jesus can be trusted because he is just, we get that from Hebrews one nine, where it says you love justice and hate evil. What does it mean? That Jesus is just, it means that if Jesus tells you that your sins are forgiven, then your sins are forgiven because he is a, just an, a righteous judge. And he can't, he can't ally. He can't say things that aren't true. And, and, and try to make you believe that they are true. He is a just God who declares to you that your sins are forgiven. What does it mean? That he's just, it means he is perfect, perfectly righteous. 2 (29m 10s): He judges the wicked and grants mercy to the repentance. He can do no wrong. It's impossible for him to be unfair. It's impossible for him to be unfaithful. It's impossible for him to forget his promises to you. He is a just judge. You can always be counted on to do the right thing. If he makes a promise to you, he will be faithful where he directs. He will guide and provide. When he speaks, his words can be trusted. This is why we pray. This is why we read this scripture because we believe when we commune with God that he listens and he's responding to us, he's adjust and good God. And when he says our sins are forgiven and when he adopts us into his family and welcomes us into a relationship with him, it's true. 2 (29m 57s): And we can take that to the bank. It's a powerful truth. It's a powerful truth. We met over in 1 0 2, our new worship center on Wednesday night at six o'clock and about 30 people gathered. And part of the purpose of gathering was to write verses of scripture on the, on the framed walls, inside that new space, they're going to get covered up shortly. So we wanted to get in there with black markers and write out the promises of God on this, on the walls in there. So that they're forever in the framing of that building as a foundation, as part of the building, the strength of that building is the word of God being recorded on the studs and on the walls. 2 (30m 39s): In that space, we record promises because we believe them. We believe the promises of God. And so we write them and we also believe that God desires to seek and save the loss. And so we have this wall of faith where we wrote down. I wrote down, I think about eight names of people that have been on my heart. People that I'm praying for, believing God to save or to touch or to heal or to minister to in some way. And so we wrote their names down. If you missed last, this last week, we're gonna probably meet again in probably a week from Wednesday and do it again. You'll have the opportunity to come and worship in that space. You'll have an opportunity to come and pray in that space and record the promises of God in that space and write the names of the people that you're praying for and believing God for in that space. 2 (31m 29s): So when we gather in worship, we'll continue to pray for those people and pray that God ministers to the people that we have put the people in our hearts that we put on that wall, declaring that these people will be touched by the living. God, you can't do any of that stuff unless you believe that Jesus has God. And that he's a just God. And that he's faithful to minister. When we call out to him, it's his desire that he would minister to people that he would reach people. We can trust that he is just and faithful. When he speaks, his words can be trusted. Jesus is adjusts and righteous. 2 (32m 9s): God, if we have any other perspective of God, we're missing it. We're we're, we've got a, a reduced version of the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We need to allow not the world to define who Jesus is, not our imagination to define who Jesus is, but we need to allow the scriptures, the word of God to define who Jesus is. Then it becomes big again, in our perspective, he doesn't change ever, but he becomes big and our perspective and we've grown in our faith and we grow in our ability to trust him. Verse nine continues Hebrews one, therefore, oh God, your God has anointed. You pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on any one else. 2 (32m 50s): You know, that righteousness and joy go hand in hand. It says that the oil, the, the, the pouring out of the oil of joy is poured out on him more than on any buddy else. Jesus can be trusted. Number three, because he is joyous. Bible says, it's the joy of the Lord. That is our strength. I remember seeing a picture years ago of this joyful Jesus, this picture of Jesus. And he's got this big grin on his face. I thought this is an accurate, I think is an accurate portrayal of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Years ago, a friend of mine was in the movie and he played Jesus. It's it's called the Matthew movie. And Dennis Marciano was, or excuse me, Bruce Marciano. 2 (33m 32s): Dennis' brother was playing Jesus. And it was the word for word, speaking of the gospel of Matthew, and he declares true throughout the whole movie. And as he's speaking, you see this joy all over his face. You see, as he portrays the life and message and work of the Lord, Jesus Christ, he's got this joy filled face. It's not water that people in the regions were drawn to him. He had this presence about him that was magnetic. It drew people in, he had this countenance about him. That was not offensive, but it was, it was welcoming. And then he would minister to people and he was, he would speak truth. 2 (34m 13s): And even in his truth speaking, he did it in such a gracious and gentle way, much like he maybe does with us when there's correction that needs to come into our lives. He just, he speaks with such tenderness and gentleness. He is joyous. And even now, as I said, he's at the right hand of the throne of God. He's interceding for us wanting our wanting the very best for us. So he's not a, he's not a mean ogre. He's not a tire and Twitter. What's your picture. When you pray to Jesus, what are you seeing in your mind's eye? What are you seeing? What are you envisioning? 2 (34m 54s): What we envision will indicate how we pray or the faith with which we pray. If we see that Jesus is joyous and that he's loving and gracious and wants to be involved and is involved in the inhumanity. If you, if we see him that way, we will pray with greater expectation, with greater faith, with greater passion, with greater ability to believe in, see what God wants to do. We'll just pray with greater faith. But if we see him as a menial ogre, as a tyrant, then we won't pray much at all. What is your picture of Jesus? What is your picture of Jesus? You see a smiling Jesus, or do you see a sour? 2 (35m 36s): Jesus, he's our savior after all, he's our savior. After all, while we are sinners, Christ died for us in our desperate need. Christ died for us. I was up at French hospital on Thursday to visit a friend Jr Ramy, a guy that's been coming to our church for a lot of years. And he just passed away this morning. We had a chance to pray for him. We weren't actually able to get into his room, but we prayed as friends and family for him outside. And we just prayed for God's peace upon his life, because as you get to the end and he knew that his days were numbered, sometimes there's a fear and there's an anxiety, no matter how much faith we have, there's an anxiety around dying. 2 (36m 29s): It's maybe not being with Jesus so much, but it's about the process of dying. It's a scary and unknown thing. So people find, find themselves in a fearful place. I remember talking with Don gainer, he had the, you know, Donna been serving the Lord for 80 plus years and loved Jesus, but he's still the unknown. It was just unsettling for him. And so remember praying over and over again, throughout the course of my life in ministry, praying for people who are passing from this life to the next. And they're an, there's just uncertain. There are things that happen in this life also that just make us uncertain about the goodness of God. But when we can remember that Jesus is our savior and that he's redeemed us and he's got good plans and purposes for us that he's our friend and intercessor that he has for us and not against us. 2 (37m 20s): Then we can have a greater measure of peace. And so it was my prayer for Jr that he would just have the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. And sadly, I didn't get a chance to talk with him before he passed, but I got a text message this morning that said he had gone to be with the Lord. The text message said, he's gone. He is now with Jesus. And that's the reality. When all of our lives wrap up, we will one day breathe. Our last I was on Facebook. I don't have a Facebook account, but I stuck on my wife's Facebook account. And that was on Facebook and at a Ray Grady high school. 2 (38m 0s): They've got a, I think it's a Facebook page called fallen angels. And they list all of the different people who have passed away from graduating classes, going back, you know, from the beginning of the school. And as I looked through, I saw people from my people that I've known since junior high school, people that I went to junior high and high school with actually some back to fifth, sixth grade in the area, people who have passed away, people who are no longer with us, I felt life is so short. And we just never know how much time we have. We have to, in this brief time that we've got in the earth, we've got to be all in with God and believe that Jesus is who he said he is being fully present with him and allowing, be fully present with a Sherry's adjust judge, but his desires that we would escape his just judgment and receive his great grace. 2 (38m 59s): I did a Memorial service for a guy that I've known since I think sixth grade did the service for him earlier this year. And as friends gathered, it was tough to talk about our friend, Josh, who had passed away. It was tough because in the end, he's struggled. He knew Jesus, but he struggled the, he knew Jesus, but he struggled to believe and to follow wholeheartedly. But I know that he know, I know that. I know that. I know that he knew Jesus. I thought about Jesus, earthly, life and ministry. And he's. He was always going after those who were struggling, those who are sick, those who are outcast, those who were in need of his grace and healing, Jesus was always going after those people. 2 (39m 48s): And so I know that in the course of our lives, as we struggle, God is going after us. God is wanting to minister to us. God is wanting to bring his light and life to us. Hebrews one 10 says, he also says to the son in the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. They will perish, but you remain forever. They will wear out like old clothing. You will fold them up like a cloak and discard them like old clothing. But you are always the same. You will live forever. So point number four, we can trust Jesus and not give up because Jesus is eternal. Jesus can be trusted because he is a terminal. 2 (40m 29s): Listen, he's not going anywhere. He's always been any will always be. If we can imagine life in the earth, like a long parade. And Jesus is in the, the announcement, the announcement, a booth up top, and he's watching it from start to finish. He sees everything in the parade of life from start to finish. And so he's never perplexed by anything. Never confused by anything. Never surprised by anything he's eternal has always been, will always be. He's not going anywhere. He can be trusted. He's not surprised by anything because he's seen everything. And so anything that may be a surprise in your life is not a surprise to him. 2 (41m 10s): And so put the full weight of your trust in him. And when surprising things happen, because surprising things, well, they always happen and say, God, I didn't know this was coming, but you did. He promises never to leave us nor forsake us. Verse 13, Hebrews one. And God never said to any of the angels, sit in the place of honor at my right hand, until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet. Therefore angels are only servants. Spirits sent to care for people who will inherit Sal vation. Jesus is eternally working to bring people to salvation. Number five, Jesus can be trusted because he is our salvation. 2 (41m 51s): This is the heart of who he is. This is why the incarnation, why he came into the earth to live and to die and to be resurrected for us because he wanted us saved. Jesus wants what is best for us. Jesus made salvation possible. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for you. And for me, if he can be trusted to save us, Jesus can be trusted in every other area of our lives. Maybe you're here today and you just feel like giving up. Maybe you feel like giving up on your faith. Some things have happened that have discouraged you dissuaded. You have hindered your ability to trust and believe God, I would just say, give it another day. 2 (42m 35s): Sometimes we want to give up and we just need to give it a little time. Maybe you say, okay, Lord, I feel like giving up, but I'm going to give it one more day. I find that if I am feeling discouraged and I go to bed and I wake up the next day, what the scripture says, it's true. His mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. If you're here and you're tempted to give up on your marriage, or you're tempted to give up on your kids, you're tempted to give up on relationships or a job. I would say, just give it another day and then pray and say, Lord, I know that your it's not your will for me to give up. I want to press in and believe, but I need your grace. Everything that God asks us to do requires that we're filled with his spirit and with his power, with his truth and with his wisdom so that we can walk it out. 2 (43m 21s): Don't give up. Jesus can be trusted with Alex. Go ahead and stand up. And we're going to pray. And Lord, thank you that you are indeed our salvation. God, you are faithful to seek and to save those who are lost, Lord God, we give you praise for that. Thank you that you are eternal and that you are the same yesterday today and forever God, that means we can trust you and believe you and follow you wholeheartedly. So help us to do so. Lord, thank you that you are joyous. That is such good news. 2 (44m 2s): Lord, God help us to have a different perspective of you. God help us to think differently about you. Help us to believe you. We pray, Lord God, thank you that you were just thank you, God, that you are, God, God, we trust you and God in those moments where we are doubting and fearful, I pray that you would strengthen us now that you'd reveal truth to us and that we wouldn't the lies of the enemy. We wouldn't give into the difficulty of life, Lord God, but that we would keep our eyes on you continually and constantly. 2 (44m 42s): Thank you for this time. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to open up your word, Lord God, we just invite you to speak to us continually through this time of worship. Lord, help us to worship in spirit and in truth, we pray Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship 0 (50m 28s): Gabi pays you this morning. We worship you. We lift your name. Ha.

0 (2s): Every Sunday, every, every family Sunday here at harvest streets, we like to do one of the songs that the kids have been doing and their own worship services. And so this is one of them. And if the kids, if you're a kid in here and you know, the, you know, the hand motions, just do them anyways, take a long minutes. 1 (22s): you have rescued being she read out. Jesus says to cross the D gray, like you have one we understand that play last meeting face to face. 1 (1m 41s): I am yours. Jesus, you are 2 (4m 33s): Psalm 95. One says, come let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. 1 (4m 49s): we live for you. 1 (9m 37s): Jesus, the name Jesus with you and . 3 (14m 39s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord God. We're honored to be here to worship you, to turn our attention and offer a words of praise and Thanksgiving and adoration. Thank you, God that you hear our words of praise and adoration and Thanksgiving, you hear then Lord, and you're honored by those Lord. I thank you that we can honor you in this way. And I pray that our lives 24 7 would do that same thing that we would just long to honor you long to serve you long to give you first place in our lives or die. 3 (15m 27s): God help us never give up. God help us to stand strong. We feel like we're growing weary. Lord, God help us to remember promises. When we feel like help is distance and there's no answers in sight, Lord God, I pray God that you would spark our hearts and our minds and our spirits with your truth, Lord God that you would remind us of truth in Jesus name God, that we would believe it. And we build our life upon it would say yes and amen to your promises, Lord God. Yes. And amen to your goodness. Lord yesterday mentioned your provision, Lord God, that we would say yes and amen to all of the good things. 3 (16m 14s): And, and we would say yes and amen to the correction that you bring to our lives. Lord God, God, when we're convicted of sin and of Rikers has God that we would say yes and amen to that, God that we would just allow you to be Lord and leader God that we would indeed allow you to be in charge of our lives. You are the Lord and you're the king. You're eternal and you're forever and you're good. And you're just, God, help us see you. Believe you. And to trust you, we pray. Thank you, Lord. We need you. We need you to speak to us. God, everybody's in a slightly different place today. Some are rejoicing over the good things that are going on in their lives. 3 (16m 56s): Think about Cathy, Sally. Who's here after fighting COVID and being in the hospital or grief. We rejoice. Lord God, others are going through hard stuff. I think my little Scarlet, who's a couple of weeks old and in the hospital, dealing with sepsis and fighting for her life. And Lord, we just pray for her and for every person that she ever since we pray for healing and grace and help Lord God and encouragement in life. And Lord, we pray for those who are in need relationally and financially and spiritually. We pray that you'd bless and wash over. We pray for our shut-ins for those who are ill and in homes who are not able to be here, we bless them. Lord God, we bless them in Jesus name. 3 (17m 37s): We pray for those who are watching online and who are wanting to be here, but for reasons are not here and cannot be here. We just pray blessing upon them. Lord God, within everybody within earshot, Lord God, that's pour out your grace. Lord God, your truth, your revelation, your help. God, we, we need you more. God help us to build our lives on that truth of who you are, the truth of who we are in you. Jesus, and help us to stand firm in that Lord God and never give up. Never give up toward God, help us to never give up. We pray. Thank you for your goodness. We stand firm in you, Lord God, we stand firm in you. 3 (18m 17s): We love you. We bless you in Jesus name in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. Thank you very much. So as we get ready, look at the guns on this girl, by the way, she's just got, this is not a light podium. It's not light anyway. So it's a, she just handles it. She takes care of it. Thank you for the pastor. Appreciation the recognition, the gifts, the love that that you've communicated to us. There, there are so many people besides the pastors who are constantly working behind the scenes, there are about a dozen other staffers who are working faithfully behind the scenes. 3 (19m 6s): We're, we're S we're so grateful for our elders who serve are the parishioners, takes hundreds of people to do what we do each and every week to serve and to be a part of all of the small groups and the stuff that we do on Sunday morning and the mid week stuff it takes literally, I think we've counted up. It tastes like a couple hundred people just to get the job done. And so we're so grateful. You've noticed Tim and Amanda up here, we've never really publicly said, Hey, they're on the team. And they're a part of what we're doing. But Amanda who brought the podium here and Tim who was helping to lead worship this morning, they're on the team and the staff team. We're so grateful, Julie, Spillers new to the team. 3 (19m 46s): Good stand Julie Spiller. There she is. Julie's, Julie's actually been a part of the church almost since the beginning 18 plus years. And she was, she's just always done bookkeeping and HR stuff. And so when we were in need of a new HR bookkeeper person, cause Ron has been doing that. And then when Dave retired, we needed to put Ron into more pastoral duties. And so we called Julie and said, Hey, Julie, you want to come join our team? And she said, yes. So we got her. And so we're grateful. And so God continues to add to our team. And so we're so grateful for that. We're looking at Hebrews one today and we're going to spend the next few months in Hebrews kind of studying through Hebrews. 3 (20m 31s): And I've titled the message don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. So the author of Hebrews and we don't know who the author is, it could be Barnabas, Apollos, Paul. It could be Dr. Luke. We don't really know. And it's not really that important because all of the Bible is ghost written by the holy spirit. And so we know that the holy spirit has written. What we're reading about is studying in Hebrew. So we can trust that through the inspiration of the holy spirit, God worked through somebody to write to this audience. And we're not even totally sure who the audience is. 3 (21m 11s): Other than from reading through the text. It seems like the author is writing to Jewish people who converted to Christianity. So Jewish Christians, messianic Jews, people who decided to believe the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we see that they're writers writing to these people. Why is he writing to them? He's writing to them. It appears to encourage them because as you can imagine, as they transitioned from Judaism to Christianity, they probably endured some harsh criticism from family, from the culture, from the people in their Jewish community. 3 (21m 57s): But they saw something in Jesus where they realize that in Christ God was in their mitts, that he came in the form of a child born of a Virgin in the incarnation. He took on human flesh, lived, preached, taught, and died and was resurrected for our sins so that we might be called sons and daughters of the living. God, that message, that gospel message resonated with these people. And they adopted this faith in Christ Jesus. 3 (22m 37s): And so the author of Hebrews is writing. Hey, don't, don't give up. Have you ever wanted to give up in life? I I'll tell you a story about this. This goes back a number of years ago, I was running a lot and I decided I wanted to run a marathon, never run a marathon before I had run half marathons, five Ks, 10 Ks, all kinds of other races, but I'd never run a full marathon. So I was training for months for the event. I think it was the Ventura marathon that I was going to be participating in. So you train for, you have to train, at least typically you train three, four or five months to get prepared for something like that. And so I've been prepping for months. 3 (23m 18s): I've been running for years, but I've been prepping buds. And the preparation is you're, you're running long, long distances and just kinda getting your body conditioned. Well, my schedule changed and I was going to need to fly out of, I think I flew out of the country and wasn't going to be able to run the marathon and then get on the plane the next day and fly out of the country. Just wasn't gonna make sense to sit on a 14 hour flight after running a marathon. And so, so I decided to cancel the marathon, but I called my son Curtis, and I said, Hey, Curtis, I want to still run my own private marathon. I've been practicing and training and I don't want to have to go to waste. So I said, would you ride your bike? And just kind of be my support person, you know, giving me water and electrolytes and food and whatever I need for the run. 3 (23m 60s): And would you just help me to get this done? So we agreed and we set a date and I started running an Oceana and I run up, run up to San Louis. And on the way back from San Louis, I I've been eating and drinking a lot. So I needed to stop to go to the restroom. So I stopped at Avalon hot Springs there, and I decided I wanted to use their bathroom. And so I go to the bathroom and then, so I'm 18 miles into it. And then I start to try to run again and I get so cramped up. I can't hardly move. And so I keep trying to run, but I'm not able to run. My legs are, they've got a mind of their own. They're just, they're tweaking and freaking out. And I, you know, I put my body through a good amount of abuse and they're letting that they're not liking it, right. 3 (24m 43s): My legs are not liking and my whole body's just kind of resisting it. So I decided the only way to finish this race is actually this run is actually just a walk for the next eight miles. And so I walked the next eight miles back to Oceana where I had started and Curtis is next to me and we're just talking and, and just enjoying the eight mile walk, but I wanted to give up by, I, you know, I wanted to give up and there's been many times in my life where I've wanted to quit, wanted to give up, wanting to throw in the towel, but by God's grace in his mercy, he's shown me the path forward and been able to move forward. 3 (25m 24s): And so it's just been an incredible journey as a follower of Lord Jesus Christ. Well, last night I was invited to this banquet. Coastal Christian school celebrated their fifth year anniversary last night. Can you met 50 years? I can't believe since 1971. I know most of you weren't even born at that time, but that was a joke 50 years though, of ministry. So as they shared stories about their 50 year history, I was resonating a lot with what they were saying. So going back 50 years to 1971, they started this school and students started to show up, but things were at lean and they were in a rented campus. 3 (26m 7s): And then two rented campuses to how's their students and Pam quake and share this story. Last night, Pam quake has been like an administrator to school for decades. She's finally retired now, but she shared the story, how one particular paid period in the month, they weren't going to be able to make payroll. And so she said to the head of school, the principal, Hey, we're we, we don't have enough in the coffers to make payroll. And the principal being a man of faith said, no, don't worry. It will come. And just within a couple of days before payroll, somebody walked in with a very generous donation, a very generous donation that covered all the payroll and then some but things were still lean. And so the board of the school decided, Hey, let's cut everybody's salary by 10%. 3 (26m 50s): And that's pretty significant cut, but everybody believes so much in the school and nobody complained. Nobody quit. Everybody just kept right about their business, doing what God had called them to do. Teaching discipling young people in their academic pursuits. And over the years, things began to change for them. 40 plus years ago in their 50 year journey, somebody gave him 27 acres out on Oak park road and it took them over like 42 years before they could build on it. So for 40 plus years, they've been praying that God would give them the capacity, the ability the funds to build. 3 (27m 30s): And finally, so I had kids, all four of my kids go through CCS. And so we were praying for this building project for 14 years. And then my youngest graduates after my other three, graduated from high school, my youngest Leslie graduates. And then the very next year they get on the campus. So for 14 years, we're praying and believing that God's going to bring the camp. And then it was after my kids had gone that they got into the campus. So we're like, ah, we missed it, but we've been able to celebrate with them and be a part of the process. And so that was all part of their initial, just get on the campus deal and they've got modulars and that sort of thing, but, but phase one in their real construction there they've been raising money for it's a $13 million improvement that they, that they want to make. 3 (28m 16s): But the good news is that God has been faithful and they brought in $9 million up to last night. And then they got a $2 million matching fund that said, the donor said, Hey, if you can raise 2 million, I'll give you a $2 million for dollar. You know, you raised a million, I gave you a million, but if you raise 2 million, I'll give you 2 million. So last night I just got a text message this morning from the board chair. They S they raise almost a million dollars last night. So that will be matched to two millions and other at 11 million. And they still need just a couple of million to get started or to get their project going. But I just think about all of the faithfulness of God and all of the challenges along the way. 3 (29m 1s): And I was as Pam or Stan or anybody who was up there talking about the history I began to think about and reminisce about our almost 19 year history as a church here at Harvard harvest church. There's so many parallels where there've been plenty of times where we've been so lean. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to make payroll. And at times we'd have to wait for payroll an extra week or whatever, and, and God would provide. And then we started meeting out at Lopez high school for, and we were there for a couple of years, but we knew we wanted to move into the village of Rick, Randy. And so a lot of you have heard this story, but a lot of you haven't. So I'll just kind of recap a bit of our 19 year, almost 19 years of history. 3 (29m 42s): So we decide we had like 60 people in the church at the time. And, but we knew we wanted to have a greater impact in the community. And so we began to pray specifically. In fact, I think it was Wanda Hildreth. One has been gone home to be with the Lord, but she felt specifically that we should be in the village and we all resonated with that. And so we began to pray. We said, yeah, we agree with that. We want to get into the village. And so we began to pray that God would open up an opportunity for us in the village. Now the village is smaller. There's not a lot of church building opportunities here in this small little space, but this building became available. And I I'll be honest with you. I've I've been living here since fifth grade, and I've never noticed this church building up to that point, but I'm driving through the village. 3 (30m 26s): I'm clueless just telling me I'm closed. All right. But I'm driving through and I see this big four foot by eight foot sign that says for lease. I pull over and I come in and I meet Amanda Lambert for the first time. Never met her before she never met me before. I said, Hey, Amanda, we're, we've got a small church, 60 people we're trying to move into the village. Would you lease your space to us? And on the spot, she said, yes. She said, yeah, this place needs to be a church. She had other people who wanted to move in a yoga shop, wanted to move in attorney's group, wanted to move in, but she said it needs to be a church again. So on a handshake in that moment, she didn't know me. I didn't know her. We moved forward with that project. And so we got some estimations, what would it cost to make this place a church again? 3 (31m 8s): Because it was an interior decorating business and interior designers business. And that's what Amanda did. She was an interior designer. So we get some estimates and I'm told by contractors and architects that it's going to be about $35,000. So not a lot of money, 35,000 to renovate the space. And so we're like, okay, there's always overages in construction. So let's raise $50,000. So I go to the church, 60 people, I say, let's raise $50,000 for this renovation. So we can move into the village and have a greater impact in the community. So we ended up raising $55,000. So we have 55,000 that we'd raised. Plus we had about 30,000 in the coffers at the time. So we have 85,000. 3 (31m 48s): So we're ready to go. So we're, we start the project. And one thing runs into another leads to another. And we open up the foundation, the floor, the wood sub floor, and the whole building is sitting in the dirt on this backside over here, we ended up having to redo we floors. And we had to, the city was concerned that the building would slide down the hill. It hadn't moved in over a hundred years, but the city, he was concerned that they would slide down the hill. So we had to pour four foot by four foot by four foot, big concrete pads down there and tie helical anchors. 3 (32m 28s): He'll call anchors are these big screwed in anchors and connect it to the building in four different places. So the building went and move, and then we had to put in fire sprinklers and sound equipment, all kinds of stuff and thing leads to another. And it's not 35,000. It's not 50,000. It's not 85,000. It's an excess of a hundred thousand dollars. And so at one point we're like dead in the water because we're completely out of money. We're just out of money. And people begin to ask the city calls pastors in the community parishioners, Hey, when are we getting moving with our project? And I finally just had to say, Hey, we're out of money. So many overages we couldn't foresee. 3 (33m 8s): And so we're just waiting. We're just waiting for the Lord to provide. So we waited and I can't remember if it was a few weeks or a month or whatever it was, but over time in just a short amount of time, God gave us the rest of the money so that we could finish the project and move in. So we, we were so excited to rehab this old 1887 building. And we were so excited about that. We, 10 years later, we decided to buy an 1865 building. So we, you think we would have learned our lesson, but we're, you know, 10 years passes. It's like childbirth, I guess you kind of forget all the pain, right? And so you do it again. And so we buy this house, this old bed and breakfast next door, it built in 1865, older than the sanctuary in worse condition than the sanctuary. 3 (33m 55s): But we're thinking we can go in there. In fact, we had a Workday after we bought it, 60 or 70 people show up and we're having cleaned up the outside. We're cleaning up everything in the inside. We're thinking we're going to slap a little paint on this thing, like lipstick on a pig and it's going to be good to go, right? No such thing. We got into this thing. We ended up having to take it all the way down to the studs, replaced all of the electrical, the plumbing we replaced. We renovated both the bathrooms, put in new cabinets, new floors throughout. We ended up eventually putting on a new roof on the place. And so we spent in excess of a hundred thousand dollars there. 3 (34m 35s): So every time we turn around we're into these projects in these old buildings that we kind of have the impression that God has got us here in this, in the village to do two things, to renovate old buildings and to renovate people, to renovate people. They go hand in hand, we all need renovation, right? Old buildings need renovation old and young people. We need renovation. God's been working on me for a long time. I know he's not even close to being done cause I'm, I still need lots of work, but the renovation continues. So then all of these other buildings that we've been working on over the years, we, we, same thing. We get into the parsonage and there's all kinds of stuff that needed to get done there, cabinets and plumbing and bathrooms and all kinds of stuff. 3 (35m 16s): And we just continued on renovating old buildings. And then we get this great idea to rent this space. 1 0 2 west branch. That was it's a 70 year old building as well. So it is 70 year old building as well. So it's not quite as old as some of these other buildings, but it's an equally bad shape we discovered. So we think in the beginning, it's going to take 125,000 bucks to renovate this thing. Why do you guys, we bought all this sound equipment that we've been using outside. And in my naive thinking, I think we can take all of that sound equipment, move it inside, but I'm not a tech engineer. So I have no idea what I'm actually talking about. And so they tell me no, it's we can't actually use that equipment. We need different equipment and it's going to cost $150,000. 3 (36m 1s): Okay. So there goes that a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars budget. So then we say, okay, it's going to be double that then. So we think it's going to be $250,000, but then we run into sewer line issues. The sewer line was completely eroded corroded. It was sitting in the dirt. There was actually no sewer line on the bottom. All of the sewage was running into just into the dirt. So we have to saw cut in the building eight 40 or 50 feet just to get the old system out and put in a new system. And then we realized we need to add an a second handicap accessible bathroom. We need to put it in fire sprinklers. We're thinking with the walls, we can just paint them. 3 (36m 43s): And they're all good, but they're in such bad shape. The dry Waller said, you know, we can float it and make it smooth and make it look good. But we're going to spend so much time doing that. You might as well just rip out the old stuff and put in new stuff. So now we're like ripping out all the dry wall and we're down to bare studs and, and we need to insulate the ceiling. We did. I mentioned fire sprinklers. We needed to do all that. Every we realize every door, every exterior door is bad. Every the exterior, the windows are bad. So we're realizing that we're into this money pit and we're spending all kinds of money. And so last week, or maybe 10 days ago, I asked the bookkeeper, asked where's Julia, she's still there. 3 (37m 23s): Her size. Julia said, how much money have we spent so far? She's like about 300, $8,000. Oh, holy cow. I said, are you kidding me? And I might, I got to figure out how much it's going to cost to finish it. So I go to all the contractors and I say, okay, guys, help me out. What's it going to cost? Because everybody pretty much is doing time and material because you can't bid an old job, the building like that. So they go in, they're like, we're not sure what we're dealing with. So we'll do time and material. And they've been gracious. A lot of guys have discounted their, their hourly rate and they've helped us with material and that sort of thing. But we still are in this thing over $300,000. So I compile a list of everything from painting, plumbing, electrical flooring, all of the above doors, windows, all of that kind of stuff. 3 (38m 11s): And we realized we still need $200,000 to finish the project. My half a million dollars. This isn't, this is a lot of money, but I got with yellers this week and I said, Hey guys, this is the, this is the scenario. This is the dilemma. And they said, well, this is nothing new. Like, like this, this is par for the course with old buildings, every old building that we've ever renovated just takes a lot of money. And so I said, okay, well, what do you want to do? And they said, well, we talked about some things. And, and, but then as, as I was sitting at CCS as banquet last night, it occurred to me. 3 (38m 51s): I needed to just full disclosure, just bring this to the people and say, Lord, your will be done. So this is what I'm asking you to do. This is what I'm asking you to do two things I need to do. I need you to be praying and participating in two ways. Number one, we still do not have a building permit for that building. We're waiting out of one little hurdle. They sit in that, the city said, do all the work that you want to do, that you can do without shedding everything you want without closing it all up because we need to inspect it. So I said, okay, so we did $300,000 work without closing anything up. And, and, and we're about ready for inspections on electrical and plumbing and that sort of thing. But there's a question about the air flow in the building. 3 (39m 33s): And, and we upgraded the HVAC system. There used to be 3, 2, 3, 10 units on the roof, and we put 2, 5, 10 units on the roof to crease capacity and air flow and that sort of thing. So that's the final hurdle. So we've submitted to the planning department, our planned for that, and we think we've got it through, but we haven't received a permit yet. So pray, pray that God helps us over that hurdle so that we can get a building permit because our plan is to begin to call for inspections on all of the roughed in plumbing and electrical, so that we can begin to insulate the walls and dry wall the walls and get all the finished, done, and finished out the bathrooms and that sort of thing. 3 (40m 13s): But, but it's going to take another $200,000 to finish it. So I'm asking that you pray again, you guys have been so incredibly generous with your prayer and with your participation in this project. So many people have given labor at no charge have helped with cleanup days and helped with all kinds of stuff. But as it goes, we're still short $200,000. So I talked to the elders, they said, Hey, this is what we do know. We know that God led us into it. We know that he will lead us through it. He will provide for us. 3 (40m 53s): We know that it was the right decision for our church to be in that space. It allows us the expansion that we need for our kids and for our adults. And so we know that God's in it. We just need to kind of navigate together to figure out how to finish the project and get in the building. Our goal is to get in by Christmas, December 24th. So just over what's today, 24th, that's good timing. So in two months, that's what we got. We got two months to kind of wrap this thing up. And so we're asking you that you would pray and ask the Lord if he would have you to participate by giving extra to the building program. Now, I never want people to give, unless they feel the joy of the Lord around their giving. 3 (41m 39s): We've never been heavy pressure about giving and that sort of thing. I don't want you to feel compelled to give because of guilt or anything like that. But if you pray and you sense, the Lord says give, and that's what we would ask you to do and, and do it quickly because we're, we need to get the same time. So, so initially when I realized we were in this predicament, I called the elders and I said, Hey guys, we have to set the, the kind of the standard here. So I'm asking each of the elders to give sacrificially to this program. And every elder stepped up and gave sacrificially to it. And so now that the elders have led by being generous and by trusting the Lord and by giving, I'm asking the congregation to do the same thing. 3 (42m 27s): So as you pray, God will lead as you listen, God will provide. And by God's grace and his good plan, we'll hopefully be in by December 24th. So with that, what I'm going to do is have us all stand and pray. We've got 10 minutes left in the service. So we're going to get through the first point of Hebrews chapter one today, first, a five-point message, but it's just service kind of lended itself to this. Can we get this microphone on Todd? And then I'm going to pray. And then if you feel led to pray, I want you to come out and pray into the microphone so that everybody else who's on different parts of the campus can agree with us. 3 (43m 7s): And so Lord, we want to pray and we want to declare a God that you are Jehovah Gyra. You are our provider. We've, we've seen that for 18 plus years. You have always provided for us for all of our operational expenses, for our contributions to missions and ministry outside of harvest church. As we've sent missionaries all over the globe, Lord God, you've always been faithful to provide for that kind of stuff. With the purchase of buildings and renovations of buildings, you've always been faithful, but we always run into the same issue where we're in a building. That's just old Lord. So we just pray God that you would show yourself faithful. Once again, we will continue to ask and seek and knock and ask and just trust God that you're going to respond with provision for this space. 3 (43m 56s): So we pray your will be done. We pray for favor with the building, the planning department, Lord, that they would give us the stamp of approval and give us a building permit so that we can continue to move forward. We pray that that would happen quickly. Lord, I don't know if December 24th is my idea or, or your idea, but Lord, I know that this building is, is your idea. So whatever the timing is, Lord God. We want to get in there and, and get the, get, get going with that building. So help us with that. We pray. Jesus. Thank you. If anybody else wants to come up and just pray, the microphone is ready to go. 3 (44m 39s): Thank you. You do. But we want everybody to be able to hear you though. Yeah. Here, can you talk into that? There we go. There we are. 4 (45m 9s): Yeah, he always does. 3 (45m 19s): Nice Joanne. You're awesome. Awesome. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Yeah, there, there are creative ways to give, obviously to come up here and come on up. Obviously money is good, but we can also take stocks and we've had people donate stock and property and that sort of thing. So that's always an option as well. Here we come and help you. All right, Gary, 5 (45m 47s): That's great Father. We know that the book of Hebrews tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please you backyard. And we know father that you always honor faith. There's not a time in the Bible and the lives of the people there that you didn't honor, their faith. You came through in ways that they didn't even imagine. And God you're still the same today, yesterday and forever. We thank you father that you as Steve Perry or Hova, Gyra, God who provides, we pray father, that you would fill us all with faith that we would trust you, that we would give as you inspire us to give. 5 (46m 45s): And that blessings would flow Lord among your people, because we know we cannot give you. There's no way you always do more for us than we do for you. And we just commit this building into your hands and all those who are laboring on it, keep them safe, keep them strong and just have your way Lord in Jesus name. 3 (47m 9s): Amen. Thank you. Thank you. All right. You may be seated. Let's continue on. We'll get to a little bit of a steady and Hebrews. Thanks for listening. Thanks for praying. Thanks for believing God with us. We're not giving up title of the message don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. As we said, the writer to of this letter to the Hebrews is to encourage people. People who have converted to Christianity, but who are feeling a poll back to Judaism, to their old way of thinking. And they're being ostracized. Some of them by their families and they're being criticized and they're being persecuted by zealous people who don't understand their decision. 3 (47m 52s): So in Hebrews 10 verses 32 through 36, the writer encourages the people he says, think back. Think back on those early days, when you first learned about Christ, remember how you remain faithful, even though it meant terrible suffering. Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten. And sometimes you helped others who were suffering. The same thing. You suffered along with those who are thrown into jail. And when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things awaiting for you that will last forever. The scripture says, so do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. 3 (48m 36s): Remember the great reward. It brings you verse 36 patients in Durance is what you need now so that you will continue to do God's will then you will receive all that he has promised. So don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. Let's jump into Hebrews chapter one, verse one, it says long ago, God spoke many times. And in many ways to our ancestors, through the prophets. So God spoke his promises and his covenant to the Hebrew people. There's an intimacy about God, of the God, of the universe, speaking revelation and truth to humble people. 3 (49m 21s): God spoke. He spoke his promises and his covenant to the Hebrew people. God made a covenant with the Hebrew people. They would be his people and he would be their God. There's an intimacy that God is calling us into in the old Testament. And especially in the new Testament, God communicated his law so that his people and all people would know his standard. And that's where we get the 10 commandments. You must not have any other God, but me. The Lord declared, you must not make for yourself an idol of any kind. You must not misuse the name of the Lord. Your God. 3 (50m 1s): Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it, holy honor, your father and mother, you must not murder. He must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not bear false witness against your neighbor and you must not covets the law of God. If we could just keep the law, we would be faultless. How many of try that? Lailey the Bible says that if we keep the whole law, but stumble, and one little part of the law, we're guilty of breaking the whole thing. So why was the law given to us? If we could never be expected to follow it letter by letter Galatians three 19 answers that question. 3 (50m 44s): It says this Galatians three 19. Why then was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. This is the purpose of the giving of the law. It was given to show people their sins given alongside the promise, who is Christ the Lord. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. We're talking about Jesus in the incarnation. God gave his law through angels, to Moses who was the mediator between God and the people. And now God is speaking, not through Moses as a mediator, but he's speaking through the Lord, Jesus Christ, Hebrews one two says, and now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his son, capital S son, God promised everything to the son as an inheritance and through the sun, he created the universe. 3 (51m 41s): And so we're beginning to get a glimpse about who this son is. Jesus, the Lord coming in the form of the incarnation, living, teaching, dying resurrecting. But before all of that, he's been eternal. He's been eternally present in the universe. And before the universe has been eternally present, period, he's eternal. And that will beginning and know in and John one, one, it says in the beginning, the word already existed. The word was with God. And the word was God, verse two. He existed in the beginning with God and God created everything through him. And nothing was created except through him. 3 (52m 24s): Don't give up, Jesus can be trusted. Number one, in your notes, Jesus can be trusted because he is God, he can be trusted because he is God. And so we know all of the attributes of God that he is our provider, our healer, our soon coming king, that he is the one who stands with us. He's a friend who's closer than a brother. He's the one who recognized our desperate need for salvation. And in the incarnation, he offered himself to come as a living, sacrifice a substitutionary sacrifice on the cross so that our sins might be blotted out and forgiven. He decided to take the wrath of God upon himself because the Bible says the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. 3 (53m 12s): So sometimes we're tempted to give up or tempted to give in, but God is saying, don't give up. You can trust me to help you to navigate life. Maybe you're in a difficult place in a relationship and God is telling you don't give up. Maybe you're feeling attempted to drift from your faith. Your first love as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And Jesus would say, don't give up, don't lose heart. Continue to press in. Continue to believe me. You, Jesus can be trusted because he is God. It says in verse three, the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God. 3 (53m 53s): We know a lot about the character of God, just by reading the scripture about God we read in the old and the new Testament that God is just, and that he is good, that he is faithful, that he is reliable. That we, he is dependable that when his people trust him, he always, always comes through. I think about other people in the wilderness, as they travel to the promised land, they, they get desperate because they don't have any water and they get desperate because they don't have any food in God. It comes through and provides water. And Nana, he provides for them as they traveled through the wilderness, preparing them for the promised land, where they tested were always tested. 3 (54m 35s): There got to a point in the wilderness where they're like, Moses, did you bring us out here to die? We've got no food. We've got no water. What are we going to do? And Moses continues to turn the people to the Lord. Remember his faithfulness. He delivered you out of your old life. He delivered you out of Egypt with a plan and a purpose to deliver you into the promised land. Is, are there challenges along the way? Oh man, there are challenges along the way. I've had three or four conversations this morning. And what I thought were going to be lighthearted. Conversations turned out to be very difficult conversations with people, just going through very, very hard things. 3 (55m 16s): We look around and we think everybody's doing fine, but not everybody's doing fine. I'm thankful for the days in which we are doing fine, but there's always days in which we struggle. We struggle to believe God. We struggled to put our faith in him and to trust him. But every time we turn our attention back to him, he reminds us and reassures us. I've had to do a lot of prayer walks lately because I've been anxious about this building down the road. And every time I do, I'll go out and walk and I'll say, Hey babe, I'll tell Jolene I got to go pray. And I'll just go on a walk and pray. 3 (55m 56s): And I'll come back in about an hour, hour and a half later. And I'm just refreshing my soul because I'm reminded of God's faithfulness. I'm reminded that we've been here before and that God will get us through it again, because he always does that. I'm reminded that my attention and my focus needs to be not on the problem, but on the solution who is Christ the Lord. And so as I open up the scripture and remind myself about the faithfulness of God, and as I pray, press in and talk to the Lord here in minds, me by his spirit of his goodness. So don't give up, we're not going to give up moving forward. We got good stuff in store for us as God leads and guides and directs us. 3 (56m 36s): And we're confident that God's going to give, give us what we need for that building. And then beyond is there's more beyond, as we continue to be salt and light in this community with that, let's go ahead and stand up and we'll finish the next four points to this message here. When I get back to it, we're going to take communion. How many received your elements? Yeah, go ahead and stand up. And if you need elements, raise your hand and we will get elements to you, Jim, if you could make sure that people will get some elements, just keep your hand up in gym. We'll get elements to you. We're going to take communion. Why? Because communion reminds us, the Bible says do this as often as you do in remembrance of me. 3 (57m 20s): So we take communion because it reminds us of God's faithfulness on the cross. We take communion because it refreshes our soul because in doing so we say, thank you Lord, for forgiving my sins. Thank you Lord, for staying by my side. And for, and for walking this course of life with me first Corinthians 1123 is our passage that we typically read. It says this. So everybody has elements now, okay. These are our COVID elements. And so they're all sealed and ready to go. So make sure you know how to peel off the top layer to get to the wafer. And then the bottom layer to get to the juice. Here we go. 3 (58m 1s): First Corinthians 1123 for I pass on to you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's take the bread. Oh, thank you, Lord. 3 (58m 40s): Thank you for the reminder, Lord, we need the reminder. Don't we Lord. We need it. Lord. Thank you that you remind us. And as often as we take communion, we're, we're reminded. And so we thank you and thank you for your sacrifice for me, for us, for your church. We love you, Lord. We're so grateful. Verse 25 says in the same way, he took the cup of wine. After supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the death until he comes again. 3 (59m 24s): So let's take the juice. Oh thank you, Lord. I got them refreshed to my soul. When I take communion, refresh us, Lord refresh us in our soul. And our spirit Lord in our lives got refresh us with that truth of your grace. God, if any, any of us have been struggling with sin, Lord, I pray that you would refresh us with your, your plan to forgive us and to set us free and then do that good work. We pray, Lord God, do that. 3 (1h 0m 6s): Good work. Thank you for your patience with us, your kindness toward us. It's unfathomable your goodness in your patients. We don't fully comprehend, but we're thankful. We're thankful. Lord, if there's anyone here, who's never accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. If you're here and you recognize that you need your sins. Forgiven sins are just another words for mistakes faults, the breaking of the commandments. Falling short. If you're here and you know, in your soul and your life that you've fallen short and you've never accepted the grace message of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 3 (1h 0m 48s): You can simply accept him. Now. Bible says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead. You shall be saved. Confessing that Jesus is. Lord is a simple declaration, a powerful declaration, a profound declaration that says I no longer want to lead my own life. I want you to lead my life. I recognize you as Lord, as king as God. And I say, I submit to you. I give my life to you. I believe that you were born and you lived and you died. And you resurrected from the grave, conquering, sin and death, giving us the victory over those things. 3 (1h 1m 36s): You took my place receiving my penalty. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, the Lord. And so, as you recognize your need for Jesus and you and welcome him into your life, you're welcoming him into your life to be your Lord and your leader, your king, and the one who washes away all of your sin and adopts you into his family. So if that's you go ahead and do that in the quietness of your own heart. Maybe you're here today and you just need to reaffirm your commitment to follow Jesus. That's why communion is so important. We do this and often as often as we do in remembrance so that we might refresh ourselves in the Lord. 3 (1h 2m 16s): So Lord, we refresh ourselves in you. As we, as we, this final worship song, we just say, Lord, thank you. We love you. Your will be done with our lives in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship. 1 (1h 2m 33s): the way the was a close look at the space between I used to be. I had no standing next to the there wasn't holding back the C should I have a need? 1 (1h 3m 28s): How I've been set free. There is a cross. The best dad for being there is another C E .

1 (15s): one with your hidden . 1 (4m 36s): Now what a beautiful name. It is. What a beautiful name. beautiful name. 1 (5m 7s): . 1 (11m 38s): We can hear them. 2 (13m 6s): You. Jesus. Thank you Jesus. For your presence. God, we thank you for your power. We love you Jesus, in your precious. 3 (13m 21s): All right, you can go ahead and be seated. No better place to be than the presence of God and God's people. So I mentioned earlier that pastor Steve is down in Santa Barbara, helping out with Don Gaynor's Memorial service. And so we do have a guest speaker this morning, Mike and Jan Sparrow. They've been friends of ours since the mid eighties. I think so our kids and Steve and Jolene's kids and Mike and Jan's kids, they all kind of all went to school together at coastal Christian school. So we've known them for many, many years. 3 (14m 2s): And also Mike has served as pastor of a GABA church in San Louis for many decades. He'll tell you all about that, but Mike is going to be sharing God's word with us this morning. And so Perry, you want to go ahead and bring the podium up front. And so let's give a warm welcome to pastor Mike Sparrow. 4 (14m 23s): And there we go. Test. I am. I got your stuff. I'm using it for a second. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Good to be with you. Good to see you all see some familiar faces. And I was here, I don't know, several months ago and Steve actually invited me back. So Hey, something must have went, right? Maybe. I don't know, but it's good to be with you. I also have a twin and a, not quite like this and his name is pat Sparrow and because it was Halloween, I was tempted to open today with a slide of pat and I. This was a long time ago, 45 years ago. Actually it was the Halloween before we received Christ. Pat was dressed like a nun and I was dressed like a devil. 4 (15m 4s): Then we were dancing. And, and if you saw that picture, you'd say those two guys need to get saved and I'm, and I'm sure glad we did. It was, it was the Lord totally working on us in us. And so here we are, I, I got some things in my heart, Steve, when he asked me to speak, it was several months ago, he started setting up this date and he said, Hey, would you want to speak on that day? And I asked him, what do you want me to speak about? And he says, I don't know, whatever's on your heart. And so there's been lots of things on my heart because the season the church is in and what's going on with the big church, the big C church. And I am a regional director for our association. So I get to travel something as COVID opens up, talking to pastors all the time, I'm also helping to coordinate the pastors fellowship in San Louis. 4 (15m 52s): So I keep a tab on what's going on in churches and in the body of Christ at large. And so there's been a few things that just been stirring in me that I'm hoping to share today and that you'll you'll catch it, that you'll, you'll see it. And you'll begin to pray into it and the impact you and it'll impact your church here. Likewise, last time I was here, I talked a little about family care network. I'm a liaison for them helping to recruit foster kids where we can be. When I speak, I tell them I'll put a plug in for family care network where I can, and then I need right now because of COVID, there's a big need for re rescue homes or the emergency shelter homes. 4 (16m 37s): Sometimes the middle of the night for various reasons, the police are called the authorities come and that children need to be removed from their home sometimes at short term and as they get family or others, or the situation gets revolt, resolve to put the child back in the home. And so there's a great need for that. We had a 16 year old gal Spanish-speaking only a few weeks ago. Crises came into her house, a single mom, single parent situation. And for cause there was no homes for three days. She stayed in the offices with social workers. And that, that shouldn't be, there's a strong community here. We love families. We want to see families prosper. 4 (17m 17s): Amen. We want to see families be healthy. And most of them are children in our community. And they've had about 60 of them had to go out of the community recently because partially because of COVID parents have kids coming back from college, they're not staying on campus. They moved back in the house. Also. Sometimes there's a concern in the house for people coming and going. There's there's many reasons, but if you have a heart for that, or just want more information about that, we'll be at a table outside and just can fill you in. I know it's a calling. I can't persuade you to do that. And it's nothing that you can, you know, it, it's gotta be something that God puts in here. And every time I've presented it, there's been people that have come up to, God's been dealing with me about that for a long time. 4 (18m 2s): So if that might be you come see us at the table out there is that okay? Well, it's exciting to see, you know, hanging out with Steve, your new plans for the worship center, seeing that things are moving here and, and growing and getting back on track. And we find that in different places that even at our church at God bay, I'm no longer lead pastor, but I'm there probably half time. And I'm still speak once in a while. They're involved in ministry that this, this season we've been in is coming to a close in Jesus name. Amen. And, and yet you see people's hearts. You see some were saying where's so-and-so or where's this family, or where's this group of people. And, and we're, we're asking those questions and then talking to some people, I just seen their, their hearts disengage. 4 (18m 48s): They've just pulled back sometimes offense sometimes because this season we're in how many know it's a time of offense, things over politics, things, things around COVID mass, no mass, all the stuff that's been in the culture the last 18 months, two years has, has brought some division and divided the church. So people's hearts, I've met some, their hearts have grown called you probably never have right pastor. No. Okay. No comment. I'll take that as a yes. And so this is, so he asked me, what do I want to share on? And we, our last song was about it. That God, you would bring a revival that you would bring a renewing that you bring a refreshing. 4 (19m 30s): And I usually PowerPoint things. And so I'm usually a four or five point guy. I I've tried to do that. This is an exhortation. So just trusting, it's going to go into place that encourages and go in a place that gives you some insight. Is that okay if you have your Bible Psalm 85, it's a great one. It's from the sons of Cora and the sons of Korah were Levi's rights. And part of their job was to serve in the temple. And this is their prayer. They saw people coming and going every week to temple to they saw the spiritual atmosphere sphere around their temple campus. And here's what they prayed. Will you not revive us again? That your people may rejoice in? You show us your mercy Lord and grant us your salvation. 4 (20m 14s): I will, I will hear what God the Lord will speak for. He will speak peace to his people and to his saints. He said, revive us again. Oh God. And that's been our prayer. And I'm in a couple of prayer groups and we're praying weekly two times. And we have an all night prayer meeting coming up Thursday. We're praying God revive your church. God help us to be the people that you dreamed of in the season that you wanted a church without spot or wrinkle. You want a church United Jesus. You prayed in John 17. That we'd be one. And it seems like the gates of hell. They're the ones that are winning, but that's not the truth God's at work. Do you believe that? And so how many have ever been in a real revival? Like not just a good meeting, but in an extended time where God moved in a community or area or a country, any bin, but part of that, yeah, I I've had the privilege of being in a few of those places where when we pray for revival, it was more than just a good feeling. 4 (21m 11s): It was more than just an emotional stirring. There was a shift in the atmosphere. There was a shift in the community. There is a shift in the thinking of the people and how families related to each other. The biggest shift was hearts towards God. People's hearts turning back towards God. I I've been in the community will at one place in Kenya where we were working. It's almost on the village of Uganda. We started a partnership there in 96 and pastor shad, reco lo he came to Cal poly. We met through that relationship and we started working with him and there was a part of Kenya that nobody had been there for evangelism for a long time. There was any Piscal church there that was planted way back in the sixties. 4 (21m 53s): And so we rented a tent from the Methodists and we went to this community. But when we went in, they said, you're going to need armed guards. There's lot of robbery, there's thugs that are tormenting people. The atmosphere was just heavy. The people were oppressed and we went up, put up 10 up and we went for like eight or nine days. And in those eight or nine days, we saw God just move supernaturally. The village demoniac this guy literally was a crazy guy in the village. And I don't know if I touched on that when I was here last time I was speaking about compassion. This, this guy came forward in the tent just crazy. And we prayed for him. And I just, under the authority of the Lord, I pointed at him and said, God wants to change you into a different person. 4 (22m 34s): And he fell down on his knees and we prayed for him and the team got him some clothes and he hung around for a couple of days. And just, just something began to shift because God began to move. We baptized 150 people that week. And there was just this, something in the, in the community that changed the atmosphere that heaviness broke loose. And it was a true move of God. And I went back 16 months later and here comes this pastor and a friend across. And I said, who's that guy? They said, that's, that's David. He's the guy that got delivered. And now he's part of our, our recovery ministry here on the campus. And besides that, there's a teacher ran across the playground there, the, the soccer field. 4 (23m 15s): And she said, you don't know me, but since you guys came in, this church started, this whole community's changed. I went driving at night with the pastor and he said, you know, a year ago, we couldn't go out into these little town area. People are afraid. They're frightened. They're locked in. They're out shopping. They're out meeting with one another. Something shifted in the atmosphere. How many believe God can do that? Here? He's no respecter of places. He's no respecter of persons where people's heart are for revival to invite his presence into place where people position themselves and, and call on him. He will come and he will change and he'll move. And he'll, he'll renew marriages and families. I don't know about you. 4 (23m 56s): That's what I'm living for in these days. Amen. And I think that's what you're preparing for down the street, huh? Making room for God to move. If you have your Bibles, go with me and Malakai three 13, I've heard this from people. And at the same time that this time we're in right now, Matthew three 13 or Malakai three 13. Malakai's the last book of the old Testament. And Malakai's prophesying here, prophesying here about some challenges that he's facing amongst the people. And this is new living translation in three 13, he said, he said, God saying through the prophet, you have said terrible things about me. 4 (24m 37s): How would you like God to say that to you? You have said terrible things about me. And he's talking to who grew up in a group of people says the Lord, but you say, what do you mean? What have we said against you? Verse 14. You've said, what's the use of serving God. You ever heard anybody say that? What's the use of serving God, especially in the season we've been in. There's been lots of challenges. I've had pastor friends, deaths in their family. I have a good pastor friend. Now he was fighting cancer in the season. And then he had just retired from a secular job. And now his wife's facing early Alzheimer's and he's been in very, very tough situation. 4 (25m 16s): Used to be the strongest encourager. He would walk up to your, Hey, bless God, brother. How goes the battle? And just an encourage pouring out of him. But this season he asked me not too long ago, Hey Mike, pray for me that my faith wouldn't fail. I'm in the, I'm in the trial in my life. And so when we go through those things, sometimes that thought comes our way. What, what uses it to serve God? And then Malakai's gone. It goes on and said, you said, what's the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying his commands? Or by trying to show the Lord of heaven that we are sorry for our sins from now on, we call the arrogant, blessed for those who do evil, get rich. And those who dare God to punish them. 4 (25m 58s): They suffer no harm. He's saying there's people that sin, go ahead, God, if you're real, punish me since there's nothing happening to them, life just goes on for them. It's a crisis of faith. And he goes on and 16, then those who fear the Lord spoke with each other and the Lord listened to what they said. And his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and always thought about the honor of his name. So they're saying, there's a group here saying, what good is it to serve God? But God said, wait. There's people that still fear me. There's people that still honor me. And how many know God's a good accountant. God can keep track. God's a good listener. 4 (26m 38s): He knows what's going on. He said, there's a group of people that are still faithful to me. And I'm going to write a book and remembrance about them. I'm going to keep track of who they are, those names because they fear me and they honor my name. And then they will be, my people says the Lord of heaven's armies on the day when I act in judgment, they'll be my own special treasure. I'll spare them as a father, spares an obedient child. And then again, you're going to see the difference between the righteous and the wicked between those who serve God and those who do not now, right now, that might be confusing. It's so mixed up the parties and the agendas and all that. But God said here through Malakai, there's a day coming. You're going to see real clear. 4 (27m 18s): Who, who knows me, who fears me, who honors me and those that don't, I believe we're coming into that season. I believe there is a favor. That's going to come on the church once again to make a distinguishing distinguish between those who have a covenant or walking with God and those who don't give a rip about them. Those that don't care about them even to the farther side there's blast femurs around that are just undermining Christianity, attacking us, trying to intimidate the church. I just asked you, hold on and don't give up right now because there's things coming. There's I believe there's a tide turning John 1633. Jesus says these things. I spoken to you that in may, you may, you may have peace in the world. 4 (27m 58s): You'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've what I've come on. I've come on. Overcome the world. That, that word there. Tribulation is the Greek word. Litmus. It means pressure. Squeeze down, sit in the world. There's going to be a squeezing that comes. It's the same word they use to get oil out of olive oil, out of oils or out of all us when they would step and crush them, that that oil would come forward. The same word was used when you're squeezing grapes to get the juice out, flip us. There's pressure coming. But our good friend, Ron Salsbury had a word that I loved and it was perseverance. You remember what that word is? 4 (28m 39s): Anybody that knew him, Hoopa Monet. Remember I saw that. Joe, who, who? Pomona? It's the Greek word. That's just not patient endurance. Not like just, okay. I'm going to buckle down in the storm. And I wait this thing out. No squeezing comes, slip us, squeezes you down, but hupomone it lifts you up. It's a word for patient endurance. It's a word with about staying on course. It's the idea that if the storms coming, some sailors would say, pull down, pull down the sails, wrap it up, set the anchors. We're going to hunker down and wait this thing out. But this word Hoopa Monet means we're going to adjust our sails. We're not going to shut down, but we're going to adjust our sales. 4 (29m 20s): We're going to use this storm for an advantage. It's it's having an expected in it, seeing the finish line. So where we are right now with this thing's coming against the church. I encourage you. Don't give up there. There's a season coming. We're going to see a move of God. I totally believe that I've had promises about that. We hear that in different parts of the world where we're serving that God is at work. Is anybody excited about that? Just a little bit. Amen. How many want that in a waiting for that and position yourself for that and pray into that and believe God for that. Because some of us now are our words, our mouths, our hearts. I hear what we're speaking and help us Lord to be ready for what you want to do. 4 (30m 0s): Scripture says where there's no revelation or prophetic vision that people go unrestrained, but happy and blessed is Hugh who keeps the laws of God without a vision in our heart of what God wants to do with us and in our homes and our families. Without having that vision in us scripture says, we go unrestrained where we're just kind of tossed around. And there's a, another passage of scripture that I've gone through over and over through the years, it helped me just stay on course. And I want to share that with you, especially those that might think what, what purpose or what use is there to serve God. And it's found in second Samuel seven, it's about a thousand BC. David has become king. And after he kills Goliath, he goes through this whole series of things where he's anointed king, but doesn't come in to his rightful reign for a while. 4 (30m 49s): And as he's being positioned to rule all kinds of wars breakout in the Philistines and the surrounding enemies and even battles from within own family members contending for that, that, that place is king and David battles, all those things. Also the tabernacle of God, which is where God would manifest his presence that got captured. The Philistines have it stashed. And finally David gets it back and brings it to Jerusalem. It's rightful place and there's peace now. And he takes a walk up the mountain to this, this tent, and he tells Nathan the priest and prophet, Hey, come with me. I, I just want to hang out in his presence for a little while. 4 (31m 29s): And so in front of this tabernacle, Nathan and David have a conversation. And second Samuel seven one, it says now it came to pass. When the king was dwelling in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around the king said to Nathan the prophet, see, now I dwell in a house of Cedar, but this Ark of God, God's tabernacle. It dwells inside 10 curtains. He said, something's wrong with this picture? I've got my temple being built for me, my, my house. And yet I come out here to this tent and that's God's dwelling place. And then Nathan Nathan said to the king, go there, do all that's in your heart for the Lord is with you. 4 (32m 9s): But it happened that night, that the word of the Lord came to Nathan saying, go and tell him my servant, David thus says the Lord, would you build a house for me? And God starts challenging David through Nathan. He says, you know, I, I was in a tabernacle. I moved with the people of Israel through the wilderness for those 40 years, I was with them. And, and as we moved, my presence went with you. And now you want to build me a house. He's asking David in verse eight. He says this now, therefore you say this to my servant, David. I took you from the sheep fold from following the sheet to rule over my people over Israel. And I've been with you wherever I've gone and, and have cut off all your enemies from before you and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who were on the earth, wherever our point of place for my people, Israel, and when plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more nor show your sons a witness, oppressed them anymore. 4 (33m 6s): As previously, since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people, Israel and have caused you to rest for all your enemies. This is the point I want to make right here. And then God says, also the Lord tells you that he will make you a house years ago. I read that passage in context and I thought, well, this is the deal God wanted to make with David. He told David, if, if you build my house, I'll build your house. And something went off in me over that. And I've seen over the last 40 some years of ministry, God be faithful to that promise because I truly believe he looks for covenant people. And throughout scripture, he cut covenant with men and he cut covenant with families. 4 (33m 48s): And that Kevin is, I'll be your God. And I want you to be my people, but you're going to get involved with family business. You're going to help me carry out my plan and we'll and in. So doing, you're going to see my goodness. You're going to see my blessing. You're going to be a CMI protection. It's never, problem-free, there's always challenges. There's always opposition, but God said, I'm going to be with you and David, as you build my house, I'm going to build your house. And there's something right now that I have in my heart is like, where's the men and women that have a desire to build God's house. Not, not just the church, but a spiritual house. Where's the men and women of God who are, are as concerned about what God's dream is for this place than our dreams and our plans. 4 (34m 32s): When we walked by a school and we know the turmoil, some of the schools in do we ever look at a school and say, God, what's your dream for the school. Once you what's your dream, God, what do you want to see happen in my neighborhood? As I walk my neighborhood, there's, there's divorce, there's abuse in some of our neighborhoods. God, can we dream with you? What's in your heart. And God says, if we concern ourselves with those things, if we help putting our focus on making a difference there, the promise to David is you build my house and all build your house. Now I I'm, I'm going to share just some personal stories about this, but it's not bragging on Mike Sparrow. I'm a very, very ordinary guy serving a very extraordinary God. 4 (35m 14s): I'm serving a very good God. And, and years ago we got married in 1981 and I was already in the bay area. My degree was in geology. I was working in research and development for Sohio petroleum. And we, when we got married, we got involved with this church, hard to the bay. And in that church, there was a bunch of young couples. We probably had a dozen young couples plus or minus five years of age. And the pastors were dynamic and, and the church was exciting. We're meeting a multipurpose room and, and we were just excited to serve it. It became our life. We had services three, three days a week and our friends were there. But as young couple we were looking around and we said, and we were passing out flyers to something going on at the church. 4 (35m 58s): And I remember Jen and I were talking, gosh, it would be fun to have a house. And we don't have much money in the bank. I don't know how this could ever work, but I remember where we stopped and I prayed God, would you bless us some day with the house or show us how to get in one, we probably had 500 bucks in the bank and at Sohio petroleum, I had a bachelor's degree in us. Bachelor degree guys served the PhDs. They hired a new guy from Tulane university. His name was Mike and Mike came to work there and they gave Mike some money for a down payment on a house. He had one year to use it. And at nine months he came to me and said, Hey, Mike, I need to use this money within three months, or I'm going to lose it. 4 (36m 38s): And do you want to buy a house? And I'll give you the $10,000 and you buy the house. And when you can pay me back, the $10,000 you can, I just need to be on title for a while. Long story short, that was our first house. I didn't even know how to start, but I met a real estate guy and this older guy, Ray, and I remember going into Ray's office. I sit down and the phone rings when I'm in Ray's office. And we don't, we hadn't even seen too many houses that are, he hadn't really showed us anything. Phone rings, guys in a good neighborhood in San Leandro, little house he had on the market for 93,000. He said, I'll let it go for 82,000. I'll carry back some of the money ratio. Let's go look at the house. 4 (37m 18s): We looked at the house a day or two later, we owned a house that how in the world did that happen? God reminded me of his promise. You build my house. I'll make a way for you and your house. I'm not just talking about material things. We're just talking about houses right now. Right? So we, we left the bay area in, in 1986. My twin brother was down here and he called, said, we need a youth pastor. And we had gotten involved with youth ministry and my heart was going more towards ministry than geology. I went from Theo geology. I say rocks in the ground to theology rocks in the head and heart. I made a shift and we get down here. No, the church we left 55,000 a year. 4 (38m 0s): Those are $86 to come down here for 70 bucks a week for youth ministry. It was a really good economic deal. Jan's dad was thrilled. I made that choice and he was a professional us steel. And he, he came down, he was shaking his head. He looks at the church and he says, so when you, if you do good, you get one of these. He thought it was like a franchise or something like that. He had a different mindset. We came down for 70 bucks a week that we're renting a little house in shell beach at first, but I was at a home group meeting and Grover my twin. Brother's speaking on a Sunday night and I'm around this house during worship. And I felt in here, the Lord says, you're going to live in this house. And first I said, really, it's got shag green carpet smells like cats, these old Mediterranean style curtains, but it had an ocean view. 4 (38m 48s): And it, and it's here in Grover beach. And within a few months, the gal that was renting that house from our church, moved out, we were in, I helped buy through real estate, helped her buy a condo, made a little money there. And we're in this house. And then with just in a few months, the owner of the house says, Hey, do you guys want to buy this house? And we looked at each other. I said, you know, we just moved here. I don't have any real job established. I'm making 70 bucks a week. I told the owner w w we'll make a run at it. But in my heart, I felt like God said, yes, go for it. So what happened? I met a lender that just moved to town. He knew as I was a new realtor, wanted to start a partnership. And he got us a loan for the house. And to this day, I don't know how legal it is. 4 (39m 30s): I don't know how it, I don't know how it worked. It was an ugly loan, but within a very short time, we were in a house and God was keeping his promise, that house, you know, Grover beach on the hill, 98,000, we converted it and changed it. All that made equity that got us in the house. We're in now last house story. So we moved across this freeway. We made some equity in that house and our kids were growing up and we had a teenager living with a five or a six year old that wasn't working well. So we need an extra bedroom. And we looked across the freeway and there was a house there that seemed out of our price range. And again, okay, God, we're going to go in by faith. 4 (40m 10s): We made the offer and it, it it's on Irish way. And I was born on St. Patrick's day. And on my birthday, we moved into that house and we're coming down the street. I had the driving, the, the moving truck. And in my spirit, I heard God say happy birthday and moved into a house on Irish way. And I've seen the faithfulness of God. I'm saying this, not to brag on us. I been somewhat faithful. I've had mistakes and my share of just discouragement net, but I've seen the faithfulness of God when your heart is to Zuora. I want, I want to build your house. We've seen that on our children. When our kids were in tough times, God was always faithful to bring somebody, to encourage our kids. 4 (40m 52s): Both of my kids got into Cal poly with less than a averages. Now you have to have it like a 4.5. Both, both of them were like B plus students. Somehow God got both of our sons at Cal poly. I looked just about time after time, where we've seen his faithfulness. I've, I've never made a lot of money in ministry. I, I looked at my salary once and I said, it's somewhere between a prison guard and a teacher. That's probably real appropriate for a pastor. You're kind of balanced it out, but I've seen God be faithful time and time again. And it's, it's not about the money. It's just about the provision of God and feeling like God, I'm in the family business. I am, my, my heart is toward your house, my hearts towards your people. 4 (41m 34s): And when we're oriented that way, Jesus said, seek first, the kingdom of heaven in his righteousness and what happens, everything else gets added. And I, and I'm not saying it's all been smooth. We've had lots of challenges, but I've, I've found this when, when, when your hearts for God and you want to see God's people grow and you want to see God's people strengthened as you pour your life into them. He's always got people to pour life into you, as you want to, as you give out and you're serving, there's always people that want to come around side and support and encourage us. My older brother bill was on the streets because of alcohol for 20 some years. And he was down in Southern California. And I could do nothing about that from a distance. 4 (42m 15s): Sometimes we didn't even hear from him, but I know up here when we would help at our recovery ministry and I'd be talking to people that are struggling, the same thing, I would throw up a prayer. God help my brother, bill God delivered a brother bill. And it wasn't too long. It took several years. He ended up up here at a ranch, getting sober, receiving Jesus as Lord and savior. And I think God, you're just faithful. You're faithful. And as our hearts towards building his house, I promise you his heart will be towards strengthening and working in your house. Does anybody believe that this morning? Amen. Well, these are some quick things. What can we do to help build God's house? We're not building just a physical house. 4 (42m 57s): Ephesians two 19 says now, therefore you're no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ, himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom also you are a billing built together for a dwelling place of God's spirit. So we're not just talking about a building. Scripture says, now we are the temple of God, right? We are the temple of God. We house the spirit of God, God. He used to dwell in Solomon's temple. That's where they would go to encounter his presence. But after Jesus was crucified, the scripture says that veil was rent into the temple doors were open. 4 (43m 43s): And now the spirit of God lives in you and me. And so we're not just about trying to get God's presence to come here. Part of building up the body of Christ is encouraging people that God's presence is in them and help strengthen them and encourage them. And so when we're building up the house of God, I I'm talking about encouraging one another to use their gifts. And you know, I just got four quick points on, how do you build? First of all, Jesus said, my house, God said, my house will be a house of prayer. How do I build? I build with words, I build with prayer. We were in India in this village, we planted a new church or help plant and dedicate a new church in this village of India with Billy Graham Palouse. 4 (44m 25s): And I met Billy Graham's mother, but this other lady that came to that part of India, there was murdered going on. They said weekly, something was getting murdered. It was just a dark, dark area. And here we're dedicating a church and it's vibrant and alive and worship's going on. And I said, how did you guys transform it in such a short time from that to this? I said, we pray. We pray. Prayer brings breakthrough. Do you believe that the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much, one verse version says it makes tremendous power available. So when you and me pray, it makes a difference. Prayer is the key. I know I'm going quickly here. It's winding down. Number two, prayer changes things. 4 (45m 7s): Number two, determined to be an encourager life and death is in the power of the tongue. This season. I have met so many people that just need some encouragement. Somebody to say, you can do it. Somebody to lift them up, somebody to give them a word in season, just to help float their boat a little bit. Tell your neighbor, you can be an encourager. Come on and tell him that man, you guys don't believe that who you're sitting next to right now, holy mackerel, come on. You can be an encourager life and death is in your words. Do you believe that this season, you know, I don't even have time to go in the story. 4 (45m 50s): So what's over even the last couple of weeks, the times of just people coming that just need to be lifted up and prayed for, and our words can make the difference in how their day goes. Our words can help turn a life, can bring freedom to people. There's power. In your words, do you believe that church, I throw in another one here and especially the season we're in T to have, I think the most infectious thing and the most inviting thing. And the most life-changing things for people that don't know the Lord is to see someone live like they're loved. And when we realized that, that when we were yet sinners Christ died for us, I don't even have time to go into my testimony, but how God pursued me. 4 (46m 35s): When I was running from him, I, we, we got into the drug scene in the Southern California, my twin brother, and I, and things went, you know, it started out fun. And then that fun goes into the partying and the drugs changed. And it wasn't too long. A friend of ours got killed by a drug dealer. That was a wake-up call for me. And I remember praying, God, I only have one life to live Lord, and I don't want to mess it up. God, Jesus come into my life. And shortly after that, he did. And then the revelation through time because of guilt and shame from my past, I would struggle with this. God really loved me, but I was bringing a missionary back to the airport. 4 (47m 14s): And, and this is in Santa Barbara one day. And this happened years ago. And as I was coming back by lake Katoomba, I just felt this urgency to pull into this turnout. And I don't know why, but it was just so strong in me that I even passed it and went a mile down the road. And I came back to the turnout and then pulled in and nobody was there. And so I'm looking around and I'm saying, what was that about? And I was youth pastor then, and super busy just trying to make it all happen. And I was sitting on the wall. And again, you know, I say I heard God's voice only a few times in my life. Has it been that loud and clear that it's almost audible? And this was one of those times. And he asked me, why do you live? Like, I don't love you. 4 (47m 55s): And I argued with them. I don't do that. And, and he reminded me that you, you, you're struggling so hard just that you always got to provide that you always got to keep it together. And you're always just, just on this rush. It was like calm down and know that you're loved. And so now it's been years. And that idea that I I'm, I'm living like I'm really loved, not because of how special I am, but because how good he is, how wonderful he is. And when, when people see your life differently, as Malakai said, once again, I'll make a distinction between those who serve me and those that don't when we live like we're loved. And we truly believe that the God's for us, that he he's got a plan for us, then he'll never leave us nor forsake us. 4 (48m 41s): See, that's the, one of the things he said to David at the temple, my hands always been on you. David ever sent you, you were raised up as king. My hands always been on you when you believe that God's with you. And you know that, and, and you live that way in a confidence that no matter what's coming my way, God, you're bigger. You're bigger. No matter what's coming my way, God, you said you would provide a way of escape when we live that way, it's impactful to others. There's a couple of times in our family where people come, come to us and said, we want what you have. We want the God you serve because of how they see the goodness of God. And again, it's not us. I know it's the Lord in us. 4 (49m 21s): I know when Dean Braxton was here, I think it was here. He said, when you see a tortoise on top of a fence post, you know, it didn't get there by itself. And I can say that with God, what I have today and how I live today. I know it's all because of what Jesus has done. And when we live with that infectious faith and we live with that infectious joy, truly we can, we can build up other people. We can build that spiritual house. We can build this spiritual house. Amen church. Amen. Well, I think it's time to worship Ron. We got a couple more songs and I want to pray. And so worship team come on up and I have a few more pages of notes, but we'll just end it right there. 4 (50m 5s): It's one of those times where over the last season, my, my heart's been filled and, and stirred and father, I thank you for hungry hearts in this place. I thank you for a renewed desire Lord, to see your move, Lord God, in our families and homes, to see some things shift where they need to shift for joy to be restored Lord for your strength to come. I pray great grace Lord, over homes that are still in recovery mode and still struggling God, even from this COVID season businesses that are stuck businesses that have been damaged by this current culture. 4 (50m 52s): Lord, I pray God, just your great grace there. And Lord, I would confirm, I'd ask that you would confirm God in hearts, it's worth it to serve you. I pray that you would renew that, that you said when we come to God, it says in Hebrews six, you said, when we come to you, we must believe that you are. And that you're a rewarder of those that diligently seek you. And I've seen that in every culture. We've been able to go to Lord that you are a rewarder. And I, I pray that we do it out of love for you out of honor for you. We serve you for because of who you are, God, and how good you are. 4 (51m 32s): But I pray as we serve you that others see the fruit of it. And this season they'll see the fruit in our own life, the change in our own life and how you do indeed take care of our houses. And I lift up those that might not know you here, Lord, or have drifted away. And those that might be watching online that have been frustrated. And even in their own heads said, what good is it to serve God, I pray today, Lord, that you would just open their hearts and Quicken their minds again, God, and bring back remembrances and bring back understanding of when they did serve you or that hunger to get to know you or to surrender to you, to put you first and see what happens. 4 (52m 13s): Thank you for that Lord. Thank you. Holy spirit for filling your people as we worship in Jesus name. Amen. 1 (52m 59s): we were away without hope. 1 (59m 28s): We thought you . There was mercy to fill the law and draw two. If the Virgin came from it, throw new, then this glory to Cray Linda the creation. 1 (1h 0m 41s): You do not despise the Soundation Jesus save that you rose all that had spread and that stone was moved for good for the land had conquered Dan rose from Vanuatu's . 5 (1h 3m 24s): Thank you, Lord, for those truths. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for the power of what Jesus did on the cross for us. And you love for us. Thank you for, for sending us the helper for sending us the holy spirit to convict us of sin And for just your power in us, in our lives. So thank you. God, who would you just give us the power of encouragement as we leave today for others and for ourselves, Lord, encourage us in you.

1 (7m 49s): We are your children. 2 (12m 20s): Gotcha. Thank you for that gospel song that declares our sin is forgiven. Our debt has been paid Lord. We are so refreshed by that revelation, that truth God, as we open up the scripture today and we talk about forgiveness, or I pray that that truth would just continue to resonate in our souls and that we'd be so grateful. And then in turn, forgive those who need forgiveness in our lives. Lord God, that we would extend to those who have injured us, hurt us, offended us God, that we would extend the same grace that has been extended to us by our savior, that we would indeed be Jesus with skin on extending the grace and mercy that is so desperately needed in our lives in our culture. 2 (13m 14s): Lord God. So we just invite you to just do powerful and profound things through your word today. Thank you for what you've already done through just prayer and worship together and what you accomplish in the first service. Got we have great expectation that you're going to continue that good work for the second service Lord. And so God all over this campus and online, we just invite you to move to speak. God, I pray that our hearts would be tender and responsive and humble and ready, and God that we would do what you ask us to do. We love you. 2 (13m 54s): Thank you for loving us so well, we bless you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Hey, if you're in youth group, go ahead. You can be dismissed. Now kids can be dismissed and we're going to have the rest of the service. Thank you very much. Appreciate that Amanda. Hey, we're in Lima today, but before we go there, the guys had a camp out this weekend. We call it a camp out, but it was really pretty plush. It was, it was at this ranch, this 600 acre ranch out in called the sharp ranch and we call it camping cause we were intense and that sort of thing, but it was on this lush green grass. 2 (14m 38s): That was just incredible with a great outdoor kitchen and bathrooms and the whole, whole nine yards. And then we just had this incredible chapel to gather in out there at the sharp ranch. And so we gathered and got there Friday nights and had a, I taught through Hebrews 11 about faith. And then Ron on Saturday morning talked about endurance. And so worships talked about faith and enduring and worship some more. And then I said, Hey guys, go out and spend about 45 minutes and just pray and ask the Lord to speak something to you regarding what we've been learning and just what God wants to speak to you. 2 (15m 18s): Just go out there and listen to the Lord. And then we're going to come back and talk about it. So we did that. We came back and we talked about it and really the best part of the whole 24 hour period that we had out there was just the testimonies of God's faithfulness. And so if you missed it, man planned to be a part of what's going on when we do it again, we'll do it again, probably around this time. Next year we'll have another camp, but maybe sooner it was so rich and refreshing and it's just a time for men to connect. And we had great food. We had some amazing try to for dinner. And then just this amazing we had, we cooked up so much bacon for breakfast. I mean the guys went through and they took as much bacon as they wanted. 2 (15m 59s): And they came back for more. It was just, there was this abundance of bacon. You can never go wrong with bacon and try to get with guys and hotcakes and all kinds of stuff. It was just an incredible time, but God was on the move with our men, this, this last 24 hours. And I'm really refreshed by that and really grateful for it. And I think God wants to do something with us today. As we teach through files Lehman, finally, man is all about forgiveness. I've titled the message today. Forgiveness is possible. Philemon is all about forgiveness. The apostle Paul writes as he's in a Roman cell, writes this letter to his friend, Phi Lehman, his partner in the faith. 2 (16m 44s): And he affirms him and blesses him through the words that he writes. And then he challenges him to receive again, to forgive, to extend grace to his servant, this slave that he hadn't named. Onesimus when he said miss had done something to cross FY Lehman to break trust with him. And then he ran away and somehow we encountered Paul and Paul had an impact in Onesimus life, led him to faith in Christ and, and then Onesimus became this really helpful person in Paul's life as he was in the prison cell there. And so Paul writes this letter challenging. 2 (17m 29s): Oh nice for Lehman to forgive when he summits. And it's a, it's a powerful thing. We've been talking a lot about forgiveness recently. It's kind of a theme. Well, at least it's a theme in my life. As I shared my story about my journey, forgiving my dad and what God did to kind of scrub my soul and to free me up. And that's, I think that's what God wants to do. Supernaturally the things God wants to do in us as supernatural. It's like, we can't see it, but we can experience it and we can feel it. We can walk through it and experience the blessings of it. And so when we're able to walk in freedom by forgiving others who have offended us, because who hasn't been offended, right? We've all been offended. Maybe it's somebody who just cut us off on the freeway and we just have to say bless them or right. 2 (18m 11s): I forgive that person, but maybe it's a deeper offense and we just have to work through it. And like I said, a couple of weeks ago, our life is kind of like in again, as layers, peel back, things are exposed and we have to deal with those things again. And so some people are easy to forgive because it's slight offense, but other people are really difficult to forgive. Well, Paul is challenging his brother in the faith. Do what God has asked you to do extend grace and mercy and love to your new brother in the faith. Paul says he's no longer just a slave to you, but a brother in the Lord. 2 (18m 51s): And so Paul gave this pretty heavy, had this pretty heavy expectation for his friend, but he knew because of God's grace and mercy, that he could do it. And that's my confidence for us when God raises the bar in our life. I just know that we can do it by God's grace because he's working in our lives. We've surrendered to him. We've submitted to him. And when we've surrendered and submitted to him, there's just untold goodness that can flow into our lives and out of our lives by his grace. And so as we get into five Lehman, I just want you to kind of buckle up and just be ready to respond. Maybe the Lord has already brought somebody to your hearts, your mind. 2 (19m 35s): I need to forgive that fly. Can you guys see it flying around or is it just my imagination? Just my imagination. That's not the first time I've had that going on. So just avail yourself of male, yourself, to what God might want to do in your life and your relationships with your friends, coworkers, family members, neighbors, and see what he will do. Forgiveness is possible. I say this all the time, everything that God wants to do in us and with us and through us is only accomplished through the power of the holy spirit at work in our lives. And so we've got to be filled empowered by God to do what he's asked us to do. 2 (20m 17s): And so today the big ask is forgiveness. Will you forgive? Will you choose to forgive the person in your life or the people in your life that have offended you, forgiveness is possible in Christ. So this letter to Phi Lehman is all about that. It's all about forgiveness. This has been again, kind of a theme. And so it's interesting that God keeps bringing this to the surface in our church, in my life and in our lives as a congregation. So maybe the Lords preparing us for something else, getting us ready for this decision to forgive and to let go and to, in a sense, get our souls scrubbed because I tell you, when I forgave my dad, I felt like I didn't even realize, but I felt like I had been like polluted and dirty and my soul cause I've been harboring so much. 2 (21m 10s): You know, I didn't realize it until it was revealed to me. And maybe you're here in, God's going to reveal something of the condition of your soul. And he, he just, he wants to reveal it to you so he can scrub it and clean it and free it from all of that stuff. That's in your heart that you're harboring. And so this is Paul's desire to reconcile these two men to allow the spirit of God, to do a work in finally men setting him free, equipping them to do the incredible work that God has called him to do. So Paul is writing to his friend. Filey Lehman asking finally meant to forgive. Onesimus a runaway slave who has wronged him in some way. 2 (21m 53s): The first one there's only one chapter flip finally Lehman one, one. This letter is from Paul, the prisoner for preaching the good news about Christ Jesus and from our brother Timothy. So Paul he's in a prison cell. He could be having a pity party. He could be harboring his own bitterness toward those who are holding him or those who have falsely accused him. But instead he's seeing the big picture and he sees he's got work to do. He's got work, the work of encouraging the saints, the people of God to do the right thing. And he's, he's a perfect candidate to speak this truth because he's living in an unjust situation. Like he has been falsely accused and imprisoned for simply preaching the gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 (22m 38s): And so he's in this place and he could have a hard heart, but he chooses, he chooses to have a tender heart and to be led by the Lord. This letter is from Paul, a prisoner for preaching the good news about Christ Jesus and from our brother Timothy I'm writing to by Lehman our beloved coworker and to our sister of FIA and to our fellow soldier, Archie piss into the church that meets in your house. May God, our father and the Lord, Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. So Paul didn't just write this letter to fight Lehman. He and Timothy together wrote this letter to Filey men and to others around finally men and to the church that meets in their house. 2 (23m 22s): See what seem like this letter should be a personal letter friend to friend, but there was something going on that caused Paul to write this letter with Timothy to this group, this group of people, there was something happening in the congregation of believers. And so Paul writes to these people, he writes because number one of your unforgiveness negatively impacts God's family. Unforgiveness negatively impacts God's family. So it's not just about fire Lehman needing to forgive a runaway slave Onesimus is now a brother in Christ and the unforgiveness that's being harbored in fire. 2 (24m 6s): Lehman's heart is impacting those around and that's what happens. We don't just sin and I'm going to call it Sandy. Cause that's what the Bible calls it. Unforgiveness is sin. And so we don't just sit in a bubble, but our sin impacts the people who are in our sphere of influence. And so we need to understand that unforgiveness negatively impacts God's family. And so Paul didn't just write the letter to buy Lehman. Paul and Timothy wrote this letter to and to the church that meets in their home. And so it's a letter meant to be dispersed to more than just a Phi Lehman. His message was a message to fire Lehman, but its implications touch the body of believers at Colossi. 2 (24m 50s): So why? Because unforgiveness negatively impacts God's family. So verse four says, I always think my God, when I pray for you find Lehman, because I keep hearing about your faith in the Lord, Jesus and your love for all of God's people. So by Lehman had received forgiveness from God. And now he is growing in his faith as a believer, as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ and with growth and maturity comes greater ability and greater responsibility. As we grow in our faith and growing our understanding and growing the power of God comes greater ability. 2 (25m 33s): Meaning God gives us the ability to do things that maybe we couldn't do when we were in our before Christ days or when we were young believers. But as we grow in maturity, we grow, we there, it comes greater ability and responsibility. So Paul is calling Phi Lehman to this place of responsibility. You have to own this and you have to deal with it for six. And I am praying that you will put into action. The generosity that comes from your faith, as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ. So it's time for Phi Lima to put into action. What he's been learning and experiencing. 2 (26m 13s): He, he needs to now put into action. What he's experienced, he's experienced the grace and the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And then he's walked with God for a time now. And so now Paul is saying, Hey, it's time for you to do what has happened to you. You've been graciously forgiven by a good and faithful God. And actually now you have the responsibility to forgive others in your life. You get to be Jesus skin on forgiving. Those who have offended, you extending grace and mercy to those who do not deserve it. 2 (26m 54s): It's time for Phi Lehman to put into action. What he's been learning and experiencing. He gets to be like Jesus and extend forgiveness to the one who has wronged him. And it's a legitimate wrong something happened and it caused, and he said, Mr. Runaway, and in his running, he found Paul somehow. And in his running, he found a new life in Jesus. And God was beginning to put things back together for fire Lehman. His faith is beginning to cost him. The cost is now you buy Lehman are responsible. 2 (27m 34s): You've got responsibilities within the kingdom to work beyond yourself, beyond your own ability, beyond your own capacity, to trust and to be filled with the holy spirit and do what you are called and commanded to do. He was, it was going to cost him something to do what God had asked him to do, but his faith will also give him the ability to do the supernatural God work. And it's a God work. Isn't it. When we extend grace, we're just being like God, when we say I forgive you and I love you now, there's some people that we forgive that we see still keep a distance from because they're unsafe, but we must forgive. 2 (28m 16s): So we forgive and we keep them at a distance and we bless them from a distance. And then there's others like with Phi Lehman. And Onesimus Paul saying, Hey, you bring it back to yourself and love him and forgive him and welcome him back into your world. And so maybe there are people that we have to welcome back into our world. And by God's grace, we're able to do that by God's grace. We're able to extend that kind of mercy. And then there's others. We say, I forgive you from a distance. God bless you, but you're not safe. And we need to keep our distance. So I Lehman was called to the supernatural purposes of God. 2 (28m 57s): Paul said, your love has given me much joy and comfort. My brother see the kindness, the tenderness. This is a great example. Paul's a great example of challenging the body of Christ, challenging believers to do the right thing. He's affirming him and loving him and then raising the bar in his life. He's saying you're, you're growing my brother. I'm so encouraged by your growth. Let's raise the bar in your life. There's something more that God has for you. He's been doing amazing things as a believer, as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. But there's more, there's, there's this and dealt with issue in your life. And maybe there's an issue in our lives in your life that needs to be dealt with. 2 (29m 39s): You're like most of my life is good, but there's just this one thing. Maybe it's a person that needs forgiveness. Maybe it's a sin that just is not being addressed. Maybe it's an issue that you need to pray through. God would challenge us as believers, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. You get it all dealt with and to get it all handled, to do business with the Lord. Your love has given me much joy and comfort. My brother for your kindness is often refresh the hearts of God's people. I believe that God has been preparing for Lehman and probably preparing each of us to hear this message today about forgiveness by Lehman had been growing and, and been used by the Lord to refresh the people of God. 2 (30m 22s): And now the bar was going to be raised in his life. And he was going to have the opportunity to refresh someone who had hurt him deeply by extending grace and mercy. It's a supernatural thing. It's something that we cannot do that we can't even imagine doing in our own strength and our own human capacity, but God gives us the grace to do it. So God has been preparing for Lehman for this moment, as it's obvious, his loving kindness for others has been a source of refreshing to the people of God. He's going to now have the opportunity to refresh someone who has been at odds with it. Doesn't sound like by is a bad guy. Sounds like he's a pretty good guy. 2 (31m 4s): Just struggling to do the right thing in this situation. And in this scenario, it isn't, God's so good to point out these things so that we can do business with the Lord so that we can be freed up by his grace and mercy so that our souls can be scrubbed from the ugliness that contaminates us from this world and for sin and unforgiveness. And so the Lord saying, Hey, I want to free you up so I can clean you up. And so that you can be free in Jesus name, unforgiveness negatively impacts God's family. Number one, and number two, we need to realize as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, people who've received the grace and mercy of God. 2 (31m 45s): That number two forgiveness is not optional. It's not optional. It's actually required that we would forgive Matthew six, 14, and 15. Jesus said, if you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your father will not forgive your sins, man. I think what Jesus is saying is listen, when you've experienced the mercy and the forgiveness, the grace of our good God and savior Jesus Christ. 2 (32m 28s): When, when you've truly experienced that, and you understand it at your core, that once you were lost and now you've been found you were blind, but now you see God resurrected your life. He has saved you. He's extended forgiveness and grace. And now out of that experience, God is calling us to forgive those that we need to forgive. He's saying, if you, if you've really experienced that supernatural work of God in your life, then you will have the capacity by my grace to extend it to others. If you, if you cannot do it, then maybe you've missed out on the forgiveness of God. Maybe you don't really have the forgiveness of God and you need to do some business with the Lord. 2 (33m 10s): I think, I think if we realize what Jesus is saying, we need to take serious. This issue of forgiveness. It's not optional. So maybe you're sitting here today and say, man, I've, I don't know how to forgive this person. Well, God knows how he does. He does. I was thinking about my life and what a scoundrel I was. And before Christ found me. And then I think about my life and what a scoundrel. I still am even as a follower of Christ. And I think God has found a way to forgive me by his grace because his mercy is so abundant and his love is so unconditional. I think, man, if God can continue to forgive me, man, I, I, by God's grace can extend that to others. 2 (33m 51s): And so if we pray, we say, Lord, I don't know how to do it, but I want to do it. I don't have the capacity, but God make me capable. Lord, would you help me? And then we just begin to do what we say, Lord, I forgive that person. I released that person from their, their debts. I don't want to hold that against them anymore. And then what happens is that your soul gets scrubbed and you begin to feel free in Jesus name. You begin to feel the, the new life that is meant to be yours in Christ Jesus in Luke 17, three through four, Jesus said, so watch yourselves. If another believer, the Greek word is your brother. If your brother sins rebuke that person, then if there is repentance forgive. 2 (34m 37s): But if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asked for forgiveness, you must forgive. Like, Lord, Lord, are you crazy? Are you being serious? Like they keep hurting me. They keep offending me. And that's why sometimes we just need to forgive and distance ourselves. So we're not continually being hurt by the same person. So there's wisdom in that. We forgive them from a distance. We love them from a distance by God's grace, but we need to continue to forgive. And so maybe if you're in a situation where you're just continuing to get hurt, continually getting hurt by the same person, just maybe it's time to figure out a way to distance yourself, get some counseling with that person, with a counselor who can help you mitigate the problems and deal with the problems. 2 (35m 17s): But, but forgiveness is not optional. Jesus is pretty clear about the topic of forgiveness. It's not optional. Paul's appeal to an Islamist versa. That is why I'm boldly asking a favor of you. I could demand it in the name of Christ because it is the right thing for you to do. Paul saying, I, as an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ, knowing the, the plans and purposes of God, I could demand, but isn't it so much better when we can from the heart, allow God to change us. And from the heart begin to extend that grace and mercy, that's what Paul wanted for five Lehman. 2 (36m 0s): He knew that if he could appeal to his heart and get a heart change, that it would be a lasting grace and forgiveness. That can be, that could be extended. He said, but because of our love, I prefer simply to ask you consider this a request for me, Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner for the sake of Christ. Jesus. I appeal to you to show kindness to my child. Onesimus I became his father in the faith while here in prison. Onesimus is the name means useful and that's telling, and now this next verse goes, he, his name means useful. 2 (36m 43s): And so in verse 11 says, Onesimus, hasn't been of much use to you in the past, but now he is very useful to both of us. I am sending him back to you and with him comes my own heart. I wanted to keep him here with me while I'm in these chains for preaching the good news. And he would have helped me on your behalf, but I didn't want to do anything without your consent. I wanted you to help because you are willing not because you were forced. It seems you lost Onesimus for a little while so that you could have him back forever. You lost him as a slave for a little while, but you're going to have him back forever as a brother in Christ, living together with him forever and ever into eternity together with the Lord. 2 (37m 34s): And so you lost him for a moment. God wants to reconcile you back together, not as slave and master, but as brothers in Christ, you see at the foot of the cross, the level that the ground is level, we all come to Christ the same way in desperate need of his mercy. So whether slave or master, whether a parcel or whatever it may be, we come to the Lord desperately in need of his mercy and grace and people all around us desperately need that from us. They need Jesus with skin on maybe, and maybe just maybe your extension of grace to someone else will warm them up to the extension of grace from the living God, as they experienced it in the human realm, that they might experience it in the spiritual realm from the Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 (38m 24s): He is no longer like a slave to you. He has more than a slave for you as a beloved brother, especially to me. Now he will mean much more to you, both as a man and as a brother and the Lord unforgiveness negatively impacts God's family. That's why Paul is writing this letter, hoping for reconciliation. That's why I'm preaching this message today. Hoping for reconciliation, that grace would be extended across the aisle and to one another in the congregation of the saints, the believers at harvest church. And beyond that, we would extend this grace and mercy to the people we know and people who we don't know, but we'd be free. And Jesus, just to let people be forgiven and forgiveness negatively impacts God's family. 2 (39m 10s): Forgiveness is not optional. Number two, and number three forgiven people must learn to forgive others. Forgiven people must learn to forgive others in Matthew 1821 and 22. Then Peter came to him to Jesus and asked Lord how often is not a great question, how what's really required of me, Lord. How often should I forgive someone in the Greek? My brother? How often should I forgive? My brother who sends against me seven times seems generous. No Jesus said not seven times, but 70 times seven can continuously forgive your brother continuously. 2 (39m 58s): Forgive those who have sinned against you. We must as the body of Christ who have been forgiven by the mercy and grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We must learn to extend that to other people. It's the gospel work in the earth that God wants to accomplish. He wants the body of Christ to be United and merciful and gracious to one another and United and gracious and merciful to the world so that we might draw people to Jesus. So if you consider me your partner, Paul writes, what's the partnership having to it's the partnership in the gospel, right? 2 (40m 39s): He said, Hey, if we're taking this gospel message to the world, if we're taking it to our world, and yet we can't forgive one, another of what, where's the power in the gospel message. If that power, if that gospel message doesn't have the power to transform our lives so that we might forgive others. Then where is the real power? So if you consider me your partner, welcome him, as you would welcome me. If he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it. And I won't mention that you owe me your very soul. 2 (41m 21s): So Paul was instrumental in leading Phi Lehman to the Lord. Paul was instrumental in leading Onesimus to the Lord. And so now, as brothers in the Lord, he's working with them to help reconcile their lives together so that when the world, well, for a number of reasons, so that when the world sees us as the body of Christ, the world sees this United gracious group of people who are just trying to, by faith with endurance, serve the Lord together. And so that when they world sees that there'll be drawn in by that incredible and supernatural work of God that they're not seeing in the world and beyond just the impact that our ability to forgive others will have in the world, in the church, we get scrubbed of all of that junk. 2 (42m 14s): That's in our soul. That's holding us up and that's blocking us from really moving into supernatural life as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So Paul is giving five Lehman the big picture perspective, Hey, sometimes we can get so focused right here. So narrow and so focused on the wrong Stephan. And Paul's like, say, Hey, step back a bit and imagine what God might want to do. If you're freed up from all of this stuff, we sometimes feel justified and holding onto our unforgiveness. We want to hold on to it because it's a safe, familiar thing to us, but it's really cancer. 2 (42m 57s): And it's really eating away at us and destroying our fellowship and string our ability to trust God together and move forward together. Verse 20. Yes, my brother. Please do me this favor for the Lord's sake. Give me this encouragement in Christ. Paul's all in it. He's like I'm being impacted by this together. Let's work this out and, and find some resolution and some reconciliation. I'm confident as I write this letter that you will do what I ask and even more poly great confidence. And if I Lehman, and even as I preach this message, I have great confidence that God is working in this congregation of believers, that he's working in your hearts and minds, bringing you to a place of tenderness so that you might extend forgiveness to those in your life. 2 (43m 43s): And then with that tenderness and forgiveness, freedom in Jesus name re renewed joy and confidence in Christ, renewed passion for him, renewed love for people. When we let all that injury go and allow God to heal us where we've got capacity to love people. Again, we've got capacity to love God. Again, we've got people capacity to bring people close to us. Again, some of us have been so guarded because we've been so hurt that we've got people at a distance. We've got God at a distance and we're just trying to survive life. And God's got mad at, you said I got a better plan for you, better life for you, better purpose for you. Just let me just let me heal you in Jesus name. 2 (44m 24s): So I've got great confidence that as you listen today, and as we've read through five Lehman and going to finish up here in a moment that God's going to do profound things in our lives, I've been a testimony to it as I spoke a few weeks ago. And as I'm still feeling just the grace on my life because of the, the, the journey that God took me through and allowing me to see my need to forgive my dad. And it's just been incredible. He says, unconfident as I write this letter that you will do what I ask and even more. And one more thing you said is please prepare a guestroom for me, where I'm hoping that God will answer your prayers and let me return to you soon. 2 (45m 5s): So he says, Hey, when you deal with this thing, yeah, get, get a room ready for me. And you know what I like to eat. And you know what? I, you know, what I'm comfortable with. And so take care of that. For me, William Paul is giving five Lima, the big picture perspective, showing him how to live his life in the context of kingdom, life and perspective. And then he writes in verse 23, the pap us, my fellow prisoner in Christ. Jesus sends you his greetings. So do mark. Aaron Stark is Demas. And Luke, my coworkers may the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ be with your spirits. And that's what I will say over us. 2 (45m 46s): May the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, be with your spirits as you surrender to him and yield to God and allow the word of God and the spirit of God to direct you and to heal you and to set you free. There's great stuff in store for us. So with that, let's go ahead and stand up. We're going to worship. And so I would just encourage you to do business with the Lord. God has been speaking and he's got purpose in his speaking. And so allow God to finish the work that he's begun in your life and just watch what will happen. It's going to be good. All right, let's get ready to worship. Thank you Lord. As these guys get ready, Lord, we just, we thank you. 2 (46m 26s): We thank you, God that you speak to us and that you call us to greater purpose, that you don't let us wallow in our sin and our unforgiveness, but you call us by your grace and mercy to greater Heights and greater purpose and a greater life. And so Lord help us to walk in that by your grace in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's worship 1 (54m 2s): Your name is Terraform. We thank you for this moment that we get to sing to you. Jesus, that we get to lift your name. Hi, Thank you, father. You are good. And We thank you, father. You were faithful When we are faithless, you are faithful. So we love you. We praise you. It's in your precious name. We pray.

0 (0s): Good morning. 0 (6s): you cross says you wait for the 2 (15m 36s): Lord, we adore you. We worship and praise you this morning in Jesus name. Amen. 3 (15m 45s): Amen. Turn and greet somebody and we will have shirts here. We'll continue to have church. Look at those guns. 3 (17m 20s): Here we go. Welcome back. Hey, we're in Titus chapter three. Today, we're going to wrap up Titus chapter three a minute for the last number of weeks, a little break window. Jeremy spoke for a couple of weeks in a row and a little break from last week, but we are back in Titus chapter three, Titus chapter three. We've titled the message. All who trust in God should do what is good. All who trust in God should do. What is good? Where are we picking it up in verse and Ron Ron covered Titus three one. And so if you miss that message, you can look online@aigharvest.org, and you will find the message there. 3 (18m 1s): So will be entitled chapter three, verses two, and following. So w getting ready to leave this morning, and Jolene's got this sweater, Jolene's my wife. And she's got this sweatshirt on. It says, choose happy. And it has totally brightened my day, because she's been going through recovery from her surgery. She had surgery about 10 days ago, and, and now they, they think she might have a torn diaphragm. So she might have to go back in for that. And so she's got to been through a lot of pain and, and yet she's choosing to be optimistic and choosing to be happy and just choosing to trust the Lord. And I thought, man, that's really what we probably all need to be doing in our lives. Choosing to do the right thing when it's especially difficult to choose the right thing, I've had to do that because I don't know if you've noticed, but God has not given me the gift of compassion and empathy. 3 (18m 54s): It might be surprising to some, not so much to others. And so it's been my job to, with compassion and empathy, take care of my wife for these last 10 days and probably for the foreseeable future for the next six weeks or so, depending on what's going on with her, but because of my love for her, my desire to serve for guys to give me the, you know, I've been asking the Lord, Lord, would you give me the grace just to do this every day? Would you give me the grace to get up and take care of her and just serve her in her time of need? And so the Lord has been doing that and I thought, this is how really we are meant to live the Christian life, just completely dependent on the Lord, depending on him to fill us with the desire to do the things that he's called us to do. 3 (19m 36s): We've all been called for purpose. And part of that purpose is doing good. Paul writes to Titus here in Titus chapter three, and he explains that the people of God must learn to do good. And then he impacts some things, some areas in which we need to learn to do good. And so we're going to be unpacking that together. And I, as you'll be Kaleed, as I was challenged in prepping the message and thinking about the, the, the, the words that were written there that remember the context. So this letter is written to Titus, who is a spiritual oversee of the pastor of a bunch of house churches on the island of Crete. 3 (20m 17s): Crete is in, it's a group, a Grecian island, and it's, it's very corrupt. It's, it's a very dark culture. And in fact, in Titus one 12, it says everyone, even one of their own men. So even one of their own men who profit from Crete has said about them, that people of Crete are all liars, cruel animals and lazy gluttons. So that kind of gives us the backdrop. Maybe we can look at our own culture and say, man, we're dealing with a lot of the same type of stuff. The people of creed are all liars, cruel animals and lazy gluttons. And so God by his mercy rescues people out of a culture with the desire to save them, adopt them into his family, but then also to transform their lives so that they can be salt in light, salt, and light in their culture. 3 (21m 11s): And so God has done the same thing with us. He is he's rescued us. He has saved us. He has adopted us into his family, and then he has challenged us to be salt and light in our culture. And so that means that we must live differently than those in the culture around us. We have this responsibility, but not just this responsibility, but we've got the power of God that enables us to live differently by his grace. And because of his strength, he actually empowers us to do what we can not do in our own strength. He empowers us to want to do what we don't even want to do in our own strength, but he challenges us with truth so that we might examine our own lives and say, yeah, God, you're right. 3 (21m 58s): I, I need to live this way. I need to stop living this way. I need to think differently about my purpose in life. Why I'm here, why I've got a pulse, what's your purpose for me? Well, Paul helps us to understand our purpose, especially in light of a pretty dark culture, a pretty rough culture. Paul's instructing Titus to bring order to these congregations of believers all over the island. So to kind of recap, the first three chapters Titus was to appoint elders and the elders were supposed to help with instruction in governance over the local church, he was to confront false teachers in order to, to confront false seizures. 3 (22m 45s): You actually have to know theology. You have to know the Bible, you have to know truth so that you can discern truth from error. So part of Titus's job was to confront the false teachers, equipping the saints, the church of the living, God, to be able to do the same thing he was to promote right conduct in the household of God. In other words, how are we supposed to relate one to another? Within the household of God, Titus was to bring correction when needed. And finally Titus was to instruct people how to live in societies. That's kind of what we've been talking about. How do we live out our faith in society in general? 3 (23m 26s): What, what is our life supposed to look like? What is the order of the, from the Lord that he would have us to follow? As we follow him, Titus three, two, it says they, the believers must not slander in the Greek. It's the same word that we get our word blast theme from. I never really thought about blaspheming another person, but it literally means to rail on and to be critical of a person. And so it's clear that Paul is challenging something that he is most likely seeing within the church, something of the culture that is bleeding into the congregation of the saints, something from the culture that is impacting and, and bringing darkness on the name of Christ and the church. 3 (24m 20s): And so he's challenging the people, the believers, they must not slander. So I think in the flesh, we naturally slander when we've been hurt. We lash out with slander. When we've been disappointed, we lash out with slander when things don't go our way, we lash out with slander. We tend to use slander in as a way of kind of expressing anger and expressing disappointment and expressing frustration. But Paul's selling tidy some of the inspiration of the holy spirit. Believers must not slander. That means we've got to exercise self-control in the way that we speak and the way that we use our tongue, the Bible in James talks about the power of the tongue. 3 (25m 9s): It's got power to do great things and power to do great evil. And it all depends on how we use our tongue. They, the believers must not slander. They must not bless beam one another, any one must not blast seam or slander anyone and must avoid quarrelling. We must avoid quarrelling. Now, I'll be honest with you. I almost got into a quarrel with my neighbor recently. It was close call, but I exercise some self control. So my neighbor comes over and he's drunk and he's mad at me about something. And I'm, I'm not home. I'm at my neighbors, my other neighbor's house. 3 (25m 50s): And he gets into my truck and he's drunk. And he's laying on the horn until I come out to talk with him. And Jolene said, Hey, you need to get out of Steve's truck because he's not going to be happy if you, if he comes home and you're in his truck, I'm not getting out of here until he comes over. So, anyway, so I came over and after kind of getting my composure, because I heard what was going on. I, I had to make a decision. Am I going to physically remove him from my truck? Or am I just going to take a higher higher road here? And she used to be gentle and handle it, hopefully the way that God would handle it. And so the, the verse goes on here. 3 (26m 30s): It says, instead they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone. So did my neighbor D did he deserve gentleness and humility? No, he didn't. He deserved to be physically removed from my truck, but because of God's grace, I was able to show true humility and gentleness with him. Number one, in our notes, as we talk about this, this topic of right living, all who trust in God should do what is good. Number one, we must exercise self control. We've got to exercise, self control. And really the best way to exercise self control is to allow our lives to be filled and directed by the holy spirit. 3 (27m 17s): We're not meant actually to live life as believers and followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, apart from the power of the holy spirit. And so, as I shared last week, that I had a hard time connecting with the heavenly father because of my dysfunctional earthly father. Sometimes we have a hard time connecting with the holy spirit in all of these, of all of his mystery and, and, and just maybe with bad experiences in the past. But we are literally not meant to live life as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, without the power of the holy spirit within us. And so if you're reading the scripture and wondering why you don't have the grace and the power and the ability and the self control to do what God is asking you to do, it may be that you're lacking the presence of the holy spirit in your life. 3 (28m 1s): And so we're told in scripture to over and over again, be filled with the holy spirit. The spirit of God gives us the grace to be humble and to show gentleness with people. The holy spirit gives us clarity when we're in a difficult conversation, the holy spirit gives us counsel when we need counsel from the holy spirit, the holy spirit is our helper. He's our, he, he's the presence of the living God within us. So he's always with us, always there to help us and direct us. And yet we go through life often, not counseling with the holy spirit, especially when we need it. 3 (28m 41s): We need to get in the habit of calling on God in the good times. And in the hard times, if we call on God, if we choose and learn to call on God, the holy spirit in times that are good, we will naturally and most and more naturally call on him. When things get hard, we're told in Ephesians 4 30, 1 and 32 that we're to get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. We can't do any of that stuff in our natural man. Our natural human response is all of those things. It's rage and anger and harsh words. 3 (29m 21s): It's slander all of these things come out of us when we're not filled with the presence of the living God. But when we are filled with the presence of the living, God, when press the glory and the beauty of what God has done within us, we'll begin to come out and we're able to show gentleness and true humility to people who do not deserve it. Verse 32 and Ephesians four says instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. And so we need to live in relationship with others, expressing to them, loving them the way that God, by his great grace and mercy has related to us, he has continually faithfully, forever and ever forgiven us and has served us and is taking care of us. 3 (30m 20s): And he's given us the grace and the power to do the same with others instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. When you, when we begin to do that much, like I shared about my father and my relationship with my father and just the ability to forgive him, all of those things that I wrote down and shared with you last week, it was like the holy spirit just did a scrub, a work in my soul to cleanse me of all of this stuff. That was, that was there. It had been there for decades. It was, it was a work of the holy spirit that I have not been able to accomplish in my own strength. So exercising self control can only be done as we yield ourselves to the holy spirit. 3 (31m 6s): And one of the fruit of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit is self-control. And so if you're struggling today to implement the things that we read in the scripture and talk about on Sunday morning and the things that we discuss in Bible study it's because it you're, you may be lacking the power and the presence of the holy spirit to invite the holy spirit into your circumstance in life. It requires humility. It requires an emptying of yourself. It requires the decision that says, you know what? I cannot do this in my own strength. I don't want to try to do this in my, in my own strength. It's foolish for me to try and do this in my own strength. So holy spirit, give me the words, give me the grace, give me the help that I need in each and every circumstance. 3 (31m 50s): And as a result, you will have the self-control and the strength that you need in each and every circumstance. So Paul makes a comparison. He says, once we to verse three, once we too were foolish and disobedience, like we did all of these things before we knew Christ, we were misled and became slaves to many less and pleasures, our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other, but he said, but, but when God came and that's the, the big, but that we want to use every time we're up against a difficult situation, we want to say, but this is impossible. But God, this is beyond my scope, but God, I don't want to do this right thing, but God will give me the grace and the strength to do it. 3 (32m 39s): But when God, our savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us. Not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. So we've been saved by his mercy now because of our good works, he recognized our desperate need before we could do anything about it. And he rescued us, he washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and a new life through the holy spirit. So this is what we've been talking about. This new birth, meaning your old man has died. You've been born again. You have new life, new power, new focus, new ability in Christ because you've been adopted into his family. 3 (33m 19s): You've been given new life birth by the holy spirit, filled with the power of God to do the works and to live the way that he's called you to live. So, number one, we must exercise self control. But number two, we must remember who we are. I think sometimes we get, say, do we go about our business as if nothing has changed. We as if we haven't made the biggest decision in our whole life ever, we go about our business in our flesh, in our own strength with a human mind, instead of a spirit, a spirit filled mind. And God's saying, listen, you have been born again. Remember who you are because in that transformation, in that new life experience, I've got new purpose and a new life and a new plan for your life. 3 (34m 7s): We must remember who we are. We are spirit filled followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, unless we're not, maybe you're here today and you don't feel like you're spirit filled follower of Christ. Maybe you're here today and you don't even know Christ. The reality is, is that God will give you the grace to know him and to follow him. And he'll come into your life and save you and rescue you and adopt you into his family. To give you a brand new purpose for your life. And then you will become a spirit filled follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So I'll ask you this question. Are you a spirit filled follower of the Lord? 3 (34m 47s): Jesus Christ. If you're not, you simply do one of two things. Maybe you're a Christian here, but you've never been filled with the holy spirit. You haven't asked the holy spirit to come into your life. You haven't been dependent on the holy Spirit's. You haven't been waiting and, and resting in the holy spirit with your life, but you've been doing things in your own strength with your own desires, with your own plans, with your own purpose. So maybe you just need to avail yourself to the Lord. And I would say, do this all the time. Not just on Sundays, not just when you're going through a hard time, but get up every morning and say, God, I, I just need you to fill me with your spirit. Maybe by lunchtime. You're feeling like you're all empty. 3 (35m 28s): Again. You say, okay, Lord, it's lunchtime. And I need you to fill me with your holy spirit, because I want my life to reflect you. I want who I am to look like who you are. God, I pray that you would do a wonderful supernatural work in me. And so you just begin to avail yourself to the power of the holy spirit is become, it just becomes a normal part of your rhythm and routine as you pray. And as you seek the Lord, maybe you're here today. You don't know Jesus, and you've never been filled with the holy spirit because you've never been introduced to Jesus. Well, I'm introducing you to Jesus. He's the savior of the world. He died for your sins. He loves you unconditionally. He wants to adopt you into his family. And so if you've never accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ know that his grace is sufficient to cover all of your sins. 3 (36m 13s): Your sins are your mistakes, your failures, your shortcomings, the Bible calls them sin. He loves you. God loves you unconditionally. In spite of what you've done, he still loves you. And he wants to adopt you into his family so that he can give you a new life so that he can call you a son so that he can call you his daughter so that you can be spending eternity in heaven with the Lord that's God's plan. And if you would like to receive him, you just say, Lord, I, I need all of what pastor Steve is saying. I need you to come into my life and I need you to forgive me of my sin. I need you to save me. I need you to adopt me into your family. And as you do that, the holy spirit fills your life. And God rescues you and gives you new life and a new purpose in your life. 3 (36m 58s): It says in verse six, he generously poured out the spirit upon us through Jesus Christ, our savior. So he's not with holding. God is not withholding the goodness that he has for us, but he generously pours it out upon us. Generously gives it to us so that we might live the kind of life that he desires for us to live because of his grace verse seven, he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life because of his goodness, because of what he has done. He's given us confidence that we will inherit eternal life. So you give your life to Jesus. This side of heaven, you are filled with the holy Spirit's. 3 (37m 39s): You're given new purpose. You know, now why you're here in the earth. You know why you have a pulse and why you're still breathing. God has given you new purpose because you've been born again in him. And so now your life is all about serving Jesus and surrounded by Jesus in his plans and purposes. And so you you're confident in your future because of what God has said. You're confident in your eternity because of what Jesus has done. And so now you just move forward day by day, serving him. That's just what the Christian life is meant to me, Jesus, with his disciples on the sea of the sh the shore of the sea of Galilee said, Hey, come and follow me, come and follow me. So leave what you're used to and come and follow me. And I'll make you fishers of men. So there's new purpose when God calls us new priorities. 3 (38m 23s): When God calls us new direction, when God calls us verse eight, says, this is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote to doing good. And so part of what God's plan for our life is, is that we would devote ourselves to doing good. What is the good that God would have us to do, or to be salt and light in the earth, or to do what God has called us to do in the scripture, where to be humbly obedient in him with our time, talent or treasure, everything that we have belongs to him, everything, every resource that we have belongs to him, our whole lives belong to him, where to vote, to devote ourselves to doing good. 3 (39m 4s): And he said, teach these teachings are good and beneficial for everyone heard this story. Recently, it's an old story about a guy whose truck was breaking down and he was barely gonna make it to the gas station where he could get to the payphones before cell phones. And maybe he didn't have a cell phone. And, but payphones, everybody know what a payphone is, put your quarter in their dial. Okay. So he's a, I don't think they're even in existence anymore. Are they? I haven't seen a payphone for awhile. So anyway, so this guy creeps into the, into the gas station. 3 (39m 45s): He he's gonna call mechanic or a tow truck. And he realizes, he sees this woman who's really struggling. She'd come out to the gas pumps and she had fallen. And so he rushed over to help her. And when getting there, he realizes that her he's got dark bags under her eyes, she'd been crying. She was just having a terrible day. And he looks at her car's full of stuff. And she's got a few kids in there and they, they look desperate as well. And so he begins to just listen to her, her story what's going on. And she was trying to get from wherever she was to California, because she was in dire straits with her family. And she was going to be moving back in with her folks. 3 (40m 25s): And anyway, so he hears her story and he decides, Hey, I'm here for purpose. So I'm going to fill up her gas tank. I'm gonna get some food for her and for her kids, I'm gonna pray for her. And I just bless her as she makes her way out to California, wherever from wherever she was. So he got so busy serving this woman in her family, that he forgot all about his own needs. He forgot all about his truck. And so he was like, oh yeah, I gotta call somebody. So anyway, he tries to get back. He gets back to his truck and tries to start the truck. And the truck starts right up and didn't have any problems after that. And he just realized, Hey, God directed me to this place. So that I minister to this woman and to her kids in need. 3 (41m 9s): I think sometimes God allows things to happen in our lives to position us so that we might minister more effectively. He puts us in places so that we would be strategically where somebody might need us so that we might pray for them. So we might encourage them so that we might be a blessing in their lives learning to do good with everyone because it benefits everyone. Sometimes we get distracted though. And in verse nine, it kind of talks about distractions. And it says, do not get involved in foolish discussions about spiritual pedigrees. Like this comparison thing. Like, Hey, look at me. This is where I'm from. This is my background. This is my family. And we kind of get into this comparison thing, do not get involved in foolish discussions about spiritual pedigrees or in quarrels and fights about obedience to Jewish laws. 3 (41m 57s): These things are useless and a waste of time. Sometimes we think, oh, I'm doing so well. And I, you know, we get kind of puffed up that we're learning to obey the law or doing the stuff that God has called us to do. And we get puffed up and we get comparing. We begin to compare ourselves and we begin to see problems within the body of Christ. Number one, we must exercise self control. Number two, we must remember who we are. And number three, we must be United in Christ. Remember, he's speaking to people who he's rescued, not for the righteousness of their own, but because of his good plan and purpose for them, he's rescued them out of this culture because he wants to give them eternal life because he wants to change their life. 3 (42m 37s): But sometimes when we get rescued, we forget that we've been rescued because of no value of our, of our own because of no good works of our own. But, but because of God's grace and we get caught up in this religious kind of comparison game, where we begin to compare our lives with somebody else. And it's just a bogus game, because you're always going to feel better about yourself or worse about yourself, depending on where you end up in that comparison game, we must be United in Christ, helping each other. Do what is good verse 10 says, if people are causing divisions among you give a first, in a second warning. After that, I have nothing more to do with them. Interesting for people like that have turned away from the truth and their own sins, condemn them. 3 (43m 25s): So Paul final remarks and greetings here in verse 12, he says, I'm planning to send either Artemis or titch Agus to you. As soon as one of them arrives, do your best to meet me at a night, a night. Coppola's for, I've decided to stay there for the winter, do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos with their trip. See that they are given everything they need. Why? Because verse 14, our people must learn to do good by meeting the urgent needs of others. Then they will not be on productive. So God's given us a responsibility to meet the urgent needs of others so that we will not be on productive. 3 (44m 6s): Number four, we must be productive. This is part of what God has called us to in the earth. We must be productive as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We will all stand before the Lord and give an account for our lives. The things that we do for the kingdom are like precious metals that endure the fire, the testing of fire, that purifies and burns up everything that's impure in our lives. And so imagine, imagine your life is in a fire. And the only thing that's going to survive is the things that you've done for the kingdom. The ways that you prayed for somebody served somebody given of yourself for the kingdom work, serve the Lord sacrificially and faithfully. 3 (44m 52s): When you didn't have the grace to do it in your own strength, all of the things that you've done for Jesus will survive the burning, but everything that you've done selfishly, and for this world will be burned up. I wonder if we examine our lives in that light, what will be left? What will will anything be left in our lives? Or will everything have burned? We will each be judged according to the works that we've accomplished, not judged for salvation, because we know we're saved by grace through faith. That has nothing to do with ourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast, but the life that we lead after we come to faith in Christ will be judged. 3 (45m 37s): Did we live our lives for God's kingdom purposes or not? And we will be given rewards or not based on that. We must actually be productive. Now the apostle Paul was in prison when he wrote most of his letters, the prison epistles, and he could have said, Hey, I'm in a bad circumstance, best situation. I'm just going to sit back and let God work on getting me out of here. In the meantime, I don't have anything to do, but instead he said, no, I've got stuff to do while I'm here in locked down. And so I'm going to be productive with my time, encouraging the body of Christ. Maybe you feel locked down during COVID and you feel like you're off the hook that you don't have anything productive to do during this time. 3 (46m 20s): That is not the truth. You can be calling people and encouraging people. You can be praying for people. You can be in some way in whatever way God leads you. You can be salt and light in the earth, but we are called to productivity as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. God has given us spiritual gifts to be used within the kingdom of God, so that we might be partnering with God, cooperating with God, doing the supernatural things that he wants to do in the year. So what has God called you to do? How has he equipped you to do the work that he's called you to? And what are you doing about it recently, going through the journey group, which is, I talked about journey last week in this last session, we talked about our spiritual gifts. 3 (47m 7s): And so we all took a spiritual gift assessment. So a spiritual gift assessment is like a hundred questions or so that you answer that help you kind of dial in your spiritual gift. And so we all got a chance to figure out what our spiritual gifts are, so that we can figure out where we might be employed within the kingdom to do the stuff that God has called us to do. So, one of my gifts is giving I God's given me the grace to believe and give in the kingdom work that he's called me to give to he's given me faith. This is often why we take our take on these big, huge projects just by faith, believing that God is going to see us through. 3 (47m 49s): And so far. So good. We got is always seen us through every project. We sent out the letter a, this week about 1 0 2, which is our new worship center. And what's happening now is what has happened with every big venture that we've ever tried to accomplish. We're up against this testing time where we're asking the Lord to provide and take care of the needs. And it's just a testing time where we're just seeing God provide day by day, but we need more people to give and to, to be a part of that. So if you'd like to be a part of that than just give and be a part of it, I sent out a letter. If he didn't get a letter, I just said, Hey, just pray. And if you would like to give toward one or two, then give, and we'll use that to finish up the project. We really only have about two months worth of work to do, but we've got, we've got to raise about another $150,000. 3 (48m 30s): So I so many Sierra and they got $150,000. It would just make it easy. Just write a check and we'll call it good. So one of my spiritual gifts is a faith. And so that God uses that to challenge our church, to step into supernatural things that God has for us. And he's given my elders the same gift of faith and they believe that God is in it and we move forward together. What is my other spiritual gift I have? What is it teaching? Maybe I'm just trying to think of the one that was the top three. So faith giving and may have been leadership or something like that. Yeah. Maybe teaching, I don't know whatever it was, but whatever it is, it helps to know those things so that we can dial in what we feel like we're called to do. 3 (49m 17s): So what is it that God has called you to do? You can, I think we still have on our website, a spiritual gift assessment, if not, we'll get that back up, but you can go on that website, AIG harvest.org and take a spiritual gift assessment and figure out what it is that God has called you to do so that you can be productive. God has productive work for each of us to accomplish work within his kingdom work, the supports, the kingdom work that God has given us specifically to do. How many believe that God has given you specifically? Not generally speaking, but specifically that God has given you a spiritual gift. How many know what their spiritual gift is good. Okay. So a lot of us know what our spiritual gift is. That's just the place to begin, right? 3 (49m 58s): To take a test and figure out what it is. Maybe you've got the gift of helps where you just want to be behind the scenes, helping out wherever there's a need. Maybe you've got the spiritual gift of intercession and you just want to pray for people. And you just have this desire, this longing to pray for people. Maybe you've got the spiritual gift of administration where you just know how to organize people and things and projects, and you can get things done. Maybe you got the spiritual gift of leadership. Maybe you've got the spiritual gift of hospitality and you just like to host people. What is it that God has gifted you and equipped you to do? That's all he's asking you to do. You figure that out and then just use it, use it in his strength and by his power and grace, everybody here, verse 15 sends greetings. 3 (50m 44s): This is Paul saying, Hey, I'm not in this by myself. I'm not doing this by myself. I've got people around me with different spiritual gifts and they send greetings. And he said, please give my greetings to the believers. All who love us. He's saying, Hey, we're in this to gather as the body of Christ. So let's be United and let's be productive. As we work together to accomplish the things that God has called us to do. And then he says, may God's grace be with you all? So number five, as we wrap it up today, we must learn to extend the grace. Let's not misused grace or misunderstand grace, misappropriate grace. Sometimes we say, well, I don't want to do that. 3 (51m 24s): I'm not going to do that. But God's grace is sufficient. The sins of omission, sins of commission, things. We do what we don't want. We don't do what God has called us. And we don't do what we know what God has called us to do. And so we've commit sins of commission and sins of omission. And we say, God's, grace is sufficient. And that's true. God's grace is sufficient, but that's not the proper use of grace. Grace is meant to cover us, to cleanse us, to wash over us so that we can do and work within the kingdom of God that he has called us to do. So. Sometimes we say why I'll never get over that sin in my life. But God's grace is sufficient. 3 (52m 6s): Don't use God's grace as an excuse for your laziness, your sinfulness, your disobedience. And I'll say the same thing for me. I don't want to use God's grace as an excuse for my disobedience laziness and sinfulness. God's. Grace is such that he port poured out upon us, his mercy and his kindness when we were desperately in need, desperately broken, desperately needing his, his forgiveness. And he poured it out upon us. When we call upon him and he saved us by his great grace. So we need to appropriate grace properly and then extend grace to one another because we're all in difficult life situations. 3 (52m 46s): And so maybe you're going through a hard thing and you're struggling. And somebody comes along and extends grace to you, speaks life and hope to you. That is a proper use of a spiritual gift, right there. A gift of encouragement, a gift of grace extended so that the body of Christ can function together and help one another move forward. All who trust in God should do what is good. Let's invite the worship team up here. Number one, we must exercise self control. We must remember who we are. Number three, we must be United in Christ. Number four, we must be productive and five. We must learn to extend grace. 3 (53m 28s): And so with that, let's go ahead and stand up without Lord God, we just go to you in prayer. We desperately need you, Lord God. And we're calling out to you and praying that you'd fill us up with your spirit and give us the desire to do the things that are hard and difficult and seemingly impossible to do. Lord God help us not to be afraid to be used by you and to be led by you and to be filled with you and to be directed by you. Lord, help us just along for that, to look for that, to hunger for that Lord, as we are filled with you, God, that we would be ready, vessels, obedience, ready to do good at whatever turn wherever it is that you call us to do good Lord, help us to be faithful and obedient. 3 (54m 15s): God, we love you. And we know that you'll give us a strength for all of these things, because that's what you do. Bless us. Now we praise we worship in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship

0 (0s): Oh, dear Lord. We take this for granted so often that yet, Lord, this is something you call us to do as a, as, as your body of Christ to gather together, to worship you God, to lift you up and then to hear from you and your word Lord. So as we prepare for the time of the word, I pray that you just through these worship songs, just soften the soil of our hearts, that we might receive your, your word as seeds. And it may grow in, in our lives Lord. So Lord, may you be glorified lifted up in this time of worship in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Please stand with us. 2 (9m 4s): Ship you father. We thank you that we are your children and that we get to worship you this morning church. This morning, we're going to sing a new song and that chorus says, praise the father, praise the sun, praise the spirit three in one God of glory, majesty praise forever to the king of Kings. So this morning as we sing this new song encourages us to worship and praise the father. We love you. Jesus. We thank you that we are here and you're here to worship you. 3 (14m 1s): Got it. Pray for me. Pray for just a blessing upon our time together. Thank you for the time that we've had already fellowshipping. God's singing now praying as we hear the message today, Lord, we just pray God that it would just resonate with us. God, that it would set us free in Jesus name, God that she worked miraculously and supernaturally in our hearts and minds. Lord God, that she'd do surprisingly good things for us and in us and through us. Lord God. So Jesus father spirit come thank you for your presence here. We invite you not just here to our corporate gathering, but individually, Lord God, we just invite you into our hearts and minds. 3 (14m 46s): Lord God that you might speak to us. So be glorified God in the sanctuary, the loft, the patio, as people tune in online, we just pray blessing or God that the grace of God would just cover us all. We pray these things, Jesus in your name, amen. Amen. Turn and say hello to somebody. Meet somebody that you've never met before and we'll get back to it. 3 (16m 6s): Welcome. Welcome, welcome. So I just got back from Tulsa. Oklahoma was there for a few days influencers, which is a discipleship ministry that we're a part of at harvest church has a ministry for men and for women discipleship ministry. That we're a part of and have been a part of for a number of years. Now, a lot of our men and a lot of our women are going through this journey, put out buys it's curriculum, put out by Rocky Fleming. Who's the founder of influencers ministry. So they just had their 20 year summit, their 20 year anniversary. And so I was invited to go out with a group of guys from our church and I wasn't planning to go because I had other things on my schedule. 3 (16m 46s): And then my schedule changed. And then the Sunday before last I was invited and they said, Hey, we still have room. If you've got your, if your schedule is clear. And I said, well, this is the deal. My schedule is clear. If I can find a plane flight out last minute, then you know, I'll consider going. So talked to my wife and said, Hey, this is the deal. I, I want to go to this. I don't know if I'll get to be able to get a ticket, but she said, well, if we get a ticket, you go, if not, then you'll know. So we line and found a ticket. And so I went off to Tulsa with, like I said, there were about 126 guys gathered at this old salvation army camp outside of Tulsa. 3 (17m 28s): And that was just this delightful time. The opening night, Thursday nights, the founder, Rocky Fleming. So it was Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, come home Sunday. So I got home last Sunday at about six o'clock in the night's hand. And so Rocky Fleming opens things up after we have some worship and some prayer and he begins to talk about an orphan spirits. And I had heard of this concept over the course of time, over the course of my years in ministry. And just as a Christian and part of the journey curriculum is that you read a book called an orphan no more. 3 (18m 9s): And so I read that book probably twice and, and administered to me and resonated with me. And then, so, you know, moving on and Rocky's talking about an orphan spirit get on Thursday night. And so it really resonated with me. And so today I'm just going to kind of share my story in revelation 1211. It says they overcame him the accuser by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. I think there's power in obviously there's power in the blood of the lamb and there's obviously power in the word of our testimony. And so I'm going to just give word of testimony today. I'm just kind of sharing what the Lord did with me over these three days in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 3 (18m 57s): And I, I think it's, I think, I think the Lord's going to use it to minister, to our church and to the listener, wherever they may be. The accusers Satan, the enemy of our souls is always lying to us. He's accusing us. That's what one of his names is. He's the accuser of the brethren accuser of the saints. And so he's always trying to convince us of things that are not true. And it's so subtle that we don't even realize that we're being duped or tricked or that we're believing lies that the enemy has put before us. 3 (19m 40s): There lies depending on our circumstances in life that are pretty easy to believe. They're easy for us to buy. In fact, it's really difficult. It takes a great measure of faith for us to believe the truth that God speaks over us and speaks to us and speaks about us in the scripture. When we hear about the love of the father for us, sometimes it's hard for us to internalize that because we don't feel very lovely or we feel like we've done something to cause him not to love us. When we hear about the grace of God, we think, well, the grace of God is for everybody else, but nobody really knows how deep and dark my secrets are. 3 (20m 25s): And so that grace cannot be for me. When we talk about the mercy of God, we think it's mercy for others, or we think it's mercy for part of our lives, but not all of our lives. And so when we read through the scripture and we see God ministering through the old and the new Testament, we see his kindness, his love his grace and his mercy. And we see all of the, his provision. We see all of these things and yet the enemy will lie to us and tell us that in this circumstance or in this season of life, those things aren't true. 3 (21m 6s): And so we carry all kinds of fear, all kinds of anxiety, all kinds of doubt, all kinds of worry. We don't believe because we bought into the lies of the enemy. So I didn't realize that I was buying into some of these lies of the enemy, but as Rocky shared, kind of his little talk about the orphan spirit, I just felt like the holy spirit was telling me that this is who I am. And so I wrote down a few things and I'll just kind of unpack my weekend with you my Thursday, Friday, and my Saturday and my Sunday with you. 3 (21m 47s): I wrote, I have an orphan spirits. I have a root of bitterness because of unforgiveness. I need to forgive my dad. Now. I had thought that I had forgiven my dad, but when he died last month, it brought up all of this stuff. All of this baggage that I thought I had already dealt with, I thought that I had forgiven him for everything. I spent the last few years, calling him every week, visiting him number of a number of times, building that relationship, speaking life and truth into him. But when he passed away, like all of this junk, just surfaced and didn't realize it. 3 (22m 29s): But I was beginning to deal with anger again, regarding him, disappointment, frustration, all kinds of things. And what I didn't realize is that I was viewing my heavenly father, the way that I was viewing my earthly father. And we've all heard this stuff before, but this is what was going on with me. So I found it really easy to relate to the sun, to the spirits, but really had a hard time connecting to and relating to the father. And so when we sing songs like we were singing this morning about praise to the father, the son, and the spirit. 3 (23m 10s): It would be difficult for me to connect to that statement about the father. Really easy to connect to the son, my savior and the spirit, the one who guides directs corrects abides in me. So this is what I wrote. My orphan spirit is familiar. My orphan spirit is comfortable. My orphan spirit is cancer. I'm not sure I want intimacy with the father. I'm not sure I know how to relate to father. I'm not sure I know how to know the father. 3 (23m 50s): My orphan spirit is my friend. My orphan spirit is my companion. My orphan spirit is my safe place. I'm not sure I can trust the father. I'm not sure I can believe the father. I'm not sure I can love the father. So these were my brutally honest opinions about the father based on the pain, in my own experience with my earthly father. So as part of the weekend on Friday, so we got there Thursday. I had an session Thursday night, and then Friday, we were given two and a half hours to go out and just spend time with the Lord. 3 (24m 32s): And so in that two and a half hours, and some say about you would have hours long time, it goes quick. So the instruction was, listen to the Lord and write a letter to the father and then write a letter from the father to you. What do you think the father would speak to you? And so I had to listen to what I thought the father might speak to me and then write that down. And then I had to write a letter to the father as well. I'm trying to think which one should I write first? Let me read my letter to a father here. 3 (25m 12s): My letter to the father, father, if I'm honest, just using that word. Father sticks in my throat. I grimace and cringe at the thoughts. I relate better to the son and the spirit. I know you are one with the son and the spirit. I know that you are the same. I know there is one God, I'd rather you stay the silent partner. It would be easier to go along as I have. But I, I, I know that that is not true. I know you desire more. And so do I I've been missing out and I don't want that for my life. 3 (25m 57s): I don't understand the path forward, but I need it. It's strange to think that I've this big hole in my connection with you. I've been at this for decades. I, I lead and I don't understand. This is perplexing. You are beyond full comprehension. My understanding barely scratches. The surface teach me, show me, disciple me. Give me childlike faith, humility. To start again. Gratitude for the opportunity. 3 (26m 37s): Keep me from slipping into old patterns of thinking and lead me down the right path. Help me to see with fresh eyes and a tender hearts. I want to be free. I want to love, I want to feel your love. I want all of you yours in process, Steve, your son. So that was my letter to the father. This is what I felt like the father wrote to me. So this is the father's letter to me, my son. I am not like your earthly father. 3 (27m 19s): I am not abusive. I am not absent. I am not aloof. I am always present. I am always perfect. I'm always compassionate. I pursue you when you don't want to be pursued. I love you when you don't want to be loved. I forgive you when you don't deserve it. There is no catch. I don't love you because you work hard. I love you because of who you are. Mine. Forget all that you thought you knew about me. 3 (28m 2s): Remember all the times I have been faithful, choose truth. And let me heal your heart. Surrender to me. Trust me. Believe me. I am your eternal ABA. I am eternally yours. You are eternally mine. You love your kids better than you were loved. I am inconceivably better at fathering than you. My love for you is immeasurable. There is no end to it. Allow your heart to be healed. 3 (28m 45s): Stop trying to figure it out. Come to me with new expectations. Stop looking at yourself. Start seeing me and settle in. I have peace for you. You are forgiven no matter where you are. I am there. Your works good or bad. Don't affect my love for you. Your accomplishments or lack thereof. Don't change my mind about you. Your shortcomings. Can't alter my commitment to you. You don't disappoint me. 3 (29m 27s): You don't need to impress me. You don't take care of me. I take care of you. I sustain you. I love you unconditionally without withholding abundantly. So, so that was the truth. The father spoke to me. So during this three-day weekend, we had breakout sessions with groups of men as was an all men's group, all men's summits. And so I was in group nine with about eight or 10 other guys. And I shared because that was the intention of the group. 3 (30m 7s): So the reason for the gatherings is that we might share what the Lord spoke to us. And so I shared this information with this group. And one of the intercessors who is in the group, each group was assigned a facilitator and an intercessor and the intercessor and our group. I pulled me aside one time after dinner, he said, Hey, I'd like to share my story with you about my journey with my father, about my life with my father. And he shared a very dysfunctional, abusive experience that he had with his father and the fact that he had to ultimately forgive his father. And so after hearing his story, I felt like Laura was telling me, you need to forgive your father. 3 (30m 47s): So I wrote down a number of things that I choose. I choose to forgive my dad for. And again, I, I felt like I had done all of this before, but when he passed forgiveness, it's our lives are like layers of an onion. You know, it's like they, things peel back and things are exposed and you got to deal with them all for a fresh show. This is what I wrote about my dad. I said, I forgive my dad. I forgive his neglect. I forgive his selfishness. 3 (31m 29s): I forgive his anger. I forgive his expectations. I forgive his laziness. I forgive his cluelessness. I forgive his lack of love. I forgive his favoritism. I forgive his disfunction. I forgive his wasted life. I forgive him. And when I wrote all of that out, I didn't feel so much as a load lifted, but I felt like my soul had been scrubbed. 3 (32m 14s): Like God had taken the best of cleaner and just cleaned out my soul, you know, and just wash me a fresh, all of that. Ugliness, all of that darkness, all of that unforgiveness that I thought I had dealt with, but was revealed to me again, was just washed away. It was really just this incredible experience. And even as I read that list, things that I forgiven my father for, I realized there is no hint of anger. There's no hint of any kind of disdain. There's no hint of lingering feelings regarding all of this. 3 (32m 57s): I feel like if anything, the Lord has given me compassion for my father to share his story a bit. He was raised by a mom and a dad who were exceptionally dysfunctional himself. His dad was an alcoholic and was aloof and distant from him. His whole life, his mom, his mother, my grandmother never met her, was institutionalized when she was a young woman in her twenties or thirties, she was institutionalized because she went crazy and spent the rest of her life institutionalized in an insane asylum. 3 (33m 44s): So to say the very least, my dad grew up with a deep roots of dysfunction in his own life. And then he met my mom and as very, very young people, teenagers, they ended up having a family of their own. They were both completely unprepared for parenting my dad, especially, and after just a couple of years, they divorced. And then for the most of my growing up life, I never saw my dad again and talked to him a couple of times, but he was completely distant, unavailable, getting support didn't was just wasn't there. 3 (34m 34s): And so he was acting out of all of his pain and, and trying his very best. But without the spirit of the living God in his life without having known Jesus, his life was just perpetuating the mess that he had lived. So by God's grace, because he's good now because I'm good. I come to faith in Jesus Christ when I'm in high school or junior high school, and I try to start following Jesus. And then out of the course of that experience, God begins to work in my own life. 3 (35m 21s): And I'm by God's grace able to change the tide to redirect our family. That church trajectory that I should have been on was changed because of the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and I've was able to raise my family, raise my kids, stay married to my wife and serve the Lord. And so God has been Uber gracious, but I'm always surprised at what still needs to be done in our lives. After walking with Jesus for the last 40 years and being married for the last 31 years and raising four kids and being in full-time vocational ministry for the last 20 plus years, I'm never surprised. 3 (36m 14s): I'm always surprised. I should say, I'm always surprised at what God still needs to do in our lives as we move forward and get older. So I am sharing this story because I feel like it's the enemy's first priority to lie to us, to deceive us, to get us believing things that are not true about God. And so when we read the scripture or when we hear sermons, or when we hear testimony about the goodness of God and about the faithfulness of God and about the provision of God, we don't believe it's for us, but I just want to tell you, it is for you. 3 (36m 56s): It is for all of us. It's very much for all of us. Thank you for that. And so what I want to do is give us a chance today to just deal with some of those things that have been maybe hindering our relationship with God, hindering our ability to trust God, hindering our ability to believe God and hindering our ability to fully follow God. And so publicly or privately, you are invited to do some soul searching. 3 (37m 38s): I'd like to invite the worship team back up. I don't know if they're even around right now, but if you guys are hearing me, it's way early, but come on back and, and we're going to spend some time just praying and doing some business with the Lord. And so as the team comes back up, if you guys could just play some, play some music and just kind of be kind of create some, some music in the background, that'd be great. So I'm just going to pray and we'll let the Lord be Lord, I feel like it's been kind of like this revolutionary life-changing thought that God can be trusted and that crazy. 3 (38m 27s): It's interesting because splitting hairs, I know Jesus can be trusted. And I know the holy spirit is with me and fills me and convince me of standing and of righteousness and is always there. I know Jesus is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. I know that he's my savior, but I've always been disconnected to the heavenly father and I'm not anymore. And I'm grateful for that. And so I want, and God wants for you that same thing he wants, where, whatever disconnect, whatever lack of trust or hope or faith that you're dealing with, God wants to deal with that by revealing himself to you in profound ways. 3 (39m 10s): And so let's go and stand up and we'll just do some business with the Lord. We are here to take some time. We're here to pray And we ask Lord, we pray that you would show us what's lacking. What's missing. What's causing us to be faithless and not believe what's causing us to not trust you. 3 (39m 52s): Lord, what's causing us to walk in fear. What's causing us to be distant. Keep you at a distance Lord. What's causing that Lauren 1 (40m 35s): . Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. 3 (41m 18s): So just so that everybody on the patio and in the loft and online knows, we're just praying and we encourage you to do that yourself. We're just giving opportunity for people to pray. And so you feel led to pray out loud or for yourself, just, we're just going to take these next number of minutes and just let the Lord do some work in us. And so pray out loud, pray quietly. Let the Lord do what he wants to do. 6 (43m 21s): While we were worshiping, caught a vision Vision of a person, not in a good place, very dark place. Whenever I see that, I think of my own life, how the Lord delivered me out of a horrible pit out of the Myrie clay. And he set my feet upon a rock. You know, it's my choice to stay on that rock. Oftentimes we make bad choices and we step away from the Lord, but I've chosen to stay on that rock and build a relationship with my father, my heavenly father, And in my walk with Christ, I've gotten to know the father in many ways and had intimate conversation with the Lord. 6 (44m 22s): Oftentimes, the reason why he's building my relationship with him is so that I can minister to the body Christ. And what I'd like to say to you is that it's a good place to be on the rock. Not in that dark place. Believe me. When you step out of that dark place, the father is waiting with his arms open wide to greet you and bring you back into fellowship. 6 (45m 2s): I want to say that when you dabble in things, oftentimes they could hook you almost like a bear trap and you just can't get away. But fortunately, there's power in the name of Jesus. If you want to be set free from that thing. And I know it's there. I just love to pray for you because I've had many people pray for me to deliver me out of many things and where I'm at now. God, I don't want to budge. I just want to grow. 6 (45m 43s): And I have a wonderful pastor. I've been here over 15 years, growing in Christ and you can grow. And what does it take to grow? Sometimes it takes a step of faith to grow. Just to step out. You want to get away from something you want to be free from it. And then what's going to happen. God's going to use you to set people free. Why? Because the spirit of the Lord is upon you because he has anointed you to set the captives free. That's what we're to be doing. Setting captives free. So we as a body invite you to come forward so that we could pray for you so that you can grow in a relationship with the father, the son and the holy spirit. 3 (46m 35s): Thank you, Lord. Thanks. Unless you run personally, I was very resistant to allow God to do what he wanted to do in my life because I was fearful of it. I was more comfortable in my pain and dysfunction and willing until the Lord changed my heart to risk, to risk letting God in to do what he wants to do. 3 (47m 16s): And so if you're here today, I just want to testify that it's worth it. It's better. You will experience a purity of heart and soul that you didn't think was possible. Freedom in Jesus, that you've never experienced as just really good, which is really good. So do what the Lord is prompting you to do. 3 (48m 35s): Maybe you're here today. You've never actually given your life to Jesus because of well host of reasons. God has been patiently waiting lovingly patiently waiting, speaking to you, revealing himself to you. And today is the day to say yes to not be fearful any longer, to get rid of your pride and just to say yes to him. And so if you're here today and you need to accept the grace and the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ like to lead you in that. 3 (49m 17s): If you just say Jesus, I'm ready, Jesus, I'm ready to receive you ready to walk with you ready for new life. As you confess your readiness to him, he answers that with his presence, with his cleansing power, with his everlasting love mercy and grace, You confess your sins. He is faithful. And just to forgive you and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. So whatever's needing to be confessed, confess that to the Lord And then let him cleanse you and let him wash you as white as snow. 3 (50m 10s): Let him adopt you into his family. Today. Today is the day of salvation. Come to your father, 1 (50m 28s): Come to your father. He loves you. His grace is sufficient. I just hop up there. 7 (51m 1s): My parents and I Was faced with a ultimatum. Basically. They said, you choose God, you choose that man. You're out of this house. So I left my family and I went and I married my husband and I've never been welcomed into my family. So I know it's been tough. My husband stood by me all these years, but I've also watched the decay and the forgiveness destroyed my mom and dad and my family. 7 (51m 48s): It's been very difficult to be who I am in Christ. They've always judged me for that. Even the prayer this morning, just be strong and courageous and rise above. And yet I've always tried. And finally finding lane, I see a breakthrough and the breakthrough is the poison. That's been in my life, which is my stepmother. She just passed away, but we all see that she was pure poison and my family and she destroyed my family. And it's really difficult because my dad's always wanted to have a friendship with me, but she's never allowed it. 7 (52m 31s): And so now I'm ready to rebuild. His friendship with forgiveness has destroyed families. And the ways that you hold on to things that just aren't worth holding on to have grace have mercy, have forgiveness, let that bitterness get out of your spirit because it eats you up. It destroys you and allow it to be healed. Go to those who have not forgiven you. And just tell them in the name of Jesus, forgive me, whatever it is, confess that. You're sorry. Let the healing begin. Let the brokenness be, know how you feel broken in your spirit. Let it be known. Don't be afraid to cry out. 7 (53m 11s): Don't be afraid to have. Don't be afraid to say, I'm sorry. It hasn't been on your family. And I just thank you, Lord that you've given my dad back to me. 6 (53m 26s): We can rebuild that friendship and the healing can begin 3 (53m 30s): Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks Vanessa. We agree with that Lord. And we agree with that for Vanessa and her dad and for every relationship represented here in this room and on this campus for those listening in online, Lord God, we pray for healing, reconciliation, forgiveness, grace to flow. Lord God, other that root of bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, judgements, critical spirit Lord. All of that stuff would be dealt with and eradicated and put out of our lives by the power and the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, or we've been forgiven much help us to extend that grace to others, Lord and help us to receive that mercy from you, that grace from you help us to walk in the newness of that, that revelation, Lord God, that would be free, free to receive mercy and grace and goodness from you. 3 (54m 37s): Free to receive love and compassion and kindness from you. Lord God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord Jesus by 6 (55m 15s): No, I really, I really feel there's somebody that's shackled. You're at a place you don't want to be in. In other words, you really want to be effective with your gifts, with the power that God has placed in you, bro. I feel like there's something holding you back. I don't know what it is, but I've been there. I know what it is to be like who I am or I look at the color of my skin, my race or my education level. That that could be the thing that shackling you in. And when I, when I walk with Christ, I read the old Testament and I Lord Lord, I'm not even a Jew. 6 (55m 57s): I don't understand all of this. How can, how can I walk with you? And he makes it very plain and simple. I made you just the way I want you to be not a Jew. Not that person, not this person, but you are unique. And that's what you are right there. Standing there wherever you are, you are very unique. Be who God has made you to be and step out and use your gift. Don't be shackled by society, by economics, but whatever it is, I just want to say I've been there. But when you step out and you use your gift or praise God, you're going to see something happen that will impact your life forever. 6 (56m 46s): I've led people to Christ on an airplane in the workplace at musical events at family reunions. Why? Because I heard a small, still voice say, Dave, this person needs me. Will you minister to them? Now, now I have to make a choice. Am I shackled? Do I hold back? Or do I step out and minister that person? I led my sister-in-law to Christ. I led my father-in-law to Christ. Why? Because I heard the small still voice and there's timing and everything. 6 (57m 28s): It's time for you to step out of where you're at and be used of God, believe me. You're not going to regret it. 3 (57m 47s): Well, let's worship. And if you need prayer, people will be up here to pray for you, but let's just worship and see what the Lord does. 3 (1h 4m 6s): Are hesitant. It's like you're on the runway, but you're not ready to take off yet. I was on the plane on the way out to Tulsa and we were delayed. And so I wrote this poem that I just knew that delay, there was purpose of the delay. So I wrote this and I think it's it fits where we are. I titled this poem in flight, nearly sitting, shackled, waiting, wanting, looking ahead, longing. 3 (1h 4m 46s): Instead flight delayed feeling dismayed making progress. Moving ahead. Rolling. Bouncing roughs, stopping, sitting again, seeing nothing. Engine revs, eagerness mounts late takeoff, last plane. Ready now realizing somehow sin reduces selfishness. Confines Christ launches. Christianity loves flight possible. Motion. Inevitable. We decide whatever direction Jesus directs, joyous purpose. 3 (1h 5m 31s): God points. Grace extended moving now making progress in flights, internal delight abiding. Now aligning somehow peace, unexplainable path recognizable, fruitful, light, faithful life in flights, not nearly supernaturally. So Laura, I think there are some here who are ready to go. Maybe get going, stopping, fearing, doubting, getting ready to go again, but not sure how and Lord, I pray for those people who are in that precarious place. 3 (1h 6m 22s): Lord, I pray that you would give them confidence and trust in you that you can be trusted. We can lift off this runway and enjoy the life that the flights God that you have for us. So Lord help us not to be fearful anymore. Help us to trust you and have faith in you. And to believe you FSU today, I just want to pray for you. And so I pray for those who are just fearful, anxious, God, do a supernatural work. 3 (1h 7m 7s): God that frees people today. Yeah. That sets people free today. That gives people fresh grace today for fresh strength today. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Let's sing again and maybe see that last song again and just give the Lord a few more minutes here. 3 (1h 12m 9s): We thank you for what you've got today, Lord, and for what you will continue to do. And we ask this would just be the beginning and maybe it's not even the beginning for a lot of us. Maybe it's just a continuation of what you've been speaking and what you've been doing and the work that you've been accomplishing in us. And so we pray that, that we'd just continue. And so Lord be Lord over our thoughts, our hearts, our decisions, our minds, Lord, everything. Lord help us to abide with you and trust you fully. God, be glorified as we do. Thank you for this time, Lord and pray that as we get ready for service number two, Lord, that you would just work powerfully in that.

0 (0s): Good morning, harvest church. Welcome. We're so glad that you're here this morning. Let's pray as we go into worship, dear God, thank you that we get to gather here in your name and help us to focus on you as we worship and listen to Jeremy's message today, help us to take it throughout the week and not forget or lose sight of what you have for us. God, help us not get distracted by what's in the world. Just really help us to focus on what your plans for us are. Thank you. Amen. You guys can stand 4 (11m 51s): At this time we invite Jeremy up and have a sermon 5 (11m 60s): Much. Was that not powerful? I love youth led Sunday. It's awesome. It's awesome to see them stepping up and into things that there'll be taken over soon. Pastor Steve is in Oklahoma. He's at an influencer's national conference there, so you get, you get me for a second week in a row. If you weren't here last week, I, I started with maybe notice the Lord's prayer, the disciple's prayer, the model prayer found in Luke chapter 11 and Matthew chapter six and last week was very much the kind of ethereal portion where this week is going to be a little more practical. 5 (12m 46s): So I'm looking forward to that. But with that said, why don't we all just stand up and we'll, we're going to pray the prayer together and we'll go from there. I'll be from Luke chapter 11, our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom, come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our sins. As we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us, lead us, not in temptation temptation, but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Thank you may be seated. 5 (13m 29s): So last week was fun. I got to, to teach really on like this prayer that Jesus had his, you know, his disciples came to him and said, Hey Jesus, we see the most powerful thing that you do is this, this thing called prayer. This thing of talking to your father. So Lord teach us to pray as well, not teach us necessarily how to pray, but teach us to pray. They saw something important in the life of Jesus and they wanted that for themselves. And so the first part of that prayer, that Jesus then teaches them is really, if you're a CEO, if you, if you've ever started a business, you start with the mission statement and then you give a vision and then you give the core values like how the company does these things. So I see this, that in this prayer as well, see the mission is our father in heaven. 5 (14m 11s): How it'd be your name, that's what we want to do. We want to set God apart from any other. And that's the mission of, of, of Jesus and what he came to do. And then he gives us vision of your kingdom. Come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And now he's going to give really practical steps of the core values of how we practically do that in our day-to-day life. So that's why I'm excited to, to lead us into today. Last week we addressed, you know, when we come to God to pray, it's how we address God. We talked to him as the father. We talked to the father first about the father, and then we talk to the father about his kingdom. And then we talked to the father about his will for his kingdom, in a sense we want to let God be, God, let God be God. 5 (14m 58s): So that's the way we start the prayer. How do we continue that? How do we show that to others? How do we live this out? So we do that by one that we show others. We model others, that we have a heavenly who father, who cares about us and that we set apart our heavenly father, because we know he's, he's, he's, he's earned that he, oh, he has owned that. Then we do that by seeking out our lived out lives to bring his heavenly reign here to earth, by showing that by modeling that in our own lives. And then we live that out in our daily lives. A number of years ago, I got to go to Ethiopia to go visit some missionary friends that were, that were living there at the time. And part of the trip we've, you know, flew into ADIs. 5 (15m 39s): And that was like the main capital. And then we got, we got to go to the, do this trip of going out to these villages that were about a hundred miles from the Sudan border, like way out there. So like I think three days down a dirt road in a land cruiser, this is like my kind of adventure. So we're going down these dirt dusty roads, and we get to this, this kind of tribal region and think grass huts, Serengeti. It was just a phenomenal place to go visit. And there was a Canadian family that was living amongst these Ethiopian tribes and bringing them the gospel. And it was just funny to see the contrast of really these dark skinned Ethiopian people mixed with these white Canadian blonde haired kids and blonde hair parents running around. 5 (16m 28s): And they, and they were just doing an awesome job of bringing the gospel to these, these people. And in the midst of our stay, a few of the guys kind of emerged out of the Bush and there they were, they're carrying their bows narrows with him and he got to meet these four, these four guys. And, and those are bows that they'd handmade themselves. They'd taken spoons and made their own like tips for the arrows. I mean, they'd done everything and I don't know how it happened, but our tree contest popped up. And it was us as white boys against these, these, these guys. And, and of course they just annihilated us there. They hit the mark every time we, we, we tried, but that makes sense, right? 5 (17m 11s): Because their reality is that on the way to come visit us here at that missionary compound, they might see dinner running by and they might need to actually use those bows and arrows and get their food, their meal for their family on the way to, you know, on the way to visiting us or maybe on the way home that living out day by day, that hunting provide for their knees. And that's really been the story of most of humanity over the centuries. Most of humanity is relied on that day to day daily bread. That day-to-day needs. Sometimes when things like the Texas freeze happens, we realized just how susceptible our modern way of living. 5 (17m 52s): We haven't always had water in our, in our houses. We always haven't had a reliable source of electricity for our needs, but that day-to-day living it out. And the question, I guess, that we asked her that I asked scriptures, does God care about our physical frame or physical need? Does God care about that? And I believe from scripture, the resounding answer is yes, you see Jesus says in, in, in this prayer, he said, give us day by day, our daily bread. It's a request based on the character, the name of God, our father. And just prior to that, Jesus had said, Hey, if anybody among you lacks, if one, if one of your kids and you've been a father, they need some food. 5 (18m 38s): You don't give them a scorpion or you don't give them what they don't need. If they ask for food, you're going to give them food. Like that's requests based on the character of the father. And so we have a heavenly father who cares about us as well. Some have sought to like, just spiritualize this then saying, oh no, God doesn't care about our physical needs. He just cares about our spiritual needs. But I don't see that. I don't see that being the truth. God cares about our spiritual needs. And we'll get into that. But also God just cares about our day to day physical needs, da Carson wrote this. He said, it's a prayer for our daily bread, not a warehouse of bread. The prayers for our needs, not our agreed it's a one day at a time reflect, reflecting on the precarious lifestyle of many first century workers who were paid one day at a time. 5 (19m 27s): And for whom a few days, illness could spell tragedy, give us our daily bread. And do you notice how he says, Jesus, same, give us our daily bread. There's the us now that we're not solitary. We're not meant to be individuals. We're meant to be a community. Lived in community, lived as a big family, a big church family and a big family as, as under the, the having to heaven, the father and God knows that we have needs and often, and especially for me, and maybe it's something for us, men is that we see our needs as a weakness. I don't want to let other people know about our needs. We, we kind of try to shy away from that. We hate our needs because it communicates a weakness in them, in us. 5 (20m 10s): And we say, well, I don't want to let my needs hinder us from praying as though our weakness somehow stains that purity of prayer, do we bring our daily needs before our heavenly father? And what's amazing about scripture is that God knows our needs before we even asked them that didn't make sense. When you think of the sovereignty of God and all knowing God, he knows everything. But if we just saw our daily needs as something that God already knew about and he's going to provide for them, how do we walk? How do we walk that out and live in faith? Matthew six verse eight says, therefore, do not be like them as he's teaching his disciples to pray for your father knows the things that you have before you even ask of them for even ask him. 5 (20m 57s): He knows what we need. It was that way in the garden of Eden too, with Adam, you know, there he is. He's with God. He's, he's like, well, this is, this is pretty awesome. I I'm, I'm here with God. I've got a garden. This is awesome. But God knew that Adam was alone and he said, that's not good. And so God then gives Adam this job of naming the animals. And so the animals are paraded before Adam. He begins to name the animals. And at some point after the, I don't know how many Mr. Messes he named. He realizes, Hey, wait a second. Where's my misses. And that's where God allows him to put him, puts him to sleep and then creates his, that need for him. 5 (21m 37s): God knew Adam's need before he even knew it. And it speaks to our soul spiritual needs as well. In John chapter six, we find Jesus's first I am statement. John has six or seven. I am statements that he, that he, that he quotes of Jesus. And in the first I am statement was just that on the daily bread. And he read Jesus related back to the manner you see, what had just happened was the 5,000 people had just been fed that great multitude. God had multiple Jesus had multiplied the fish and the bread and he'd fed everybody. 5 (22m 19s): And now they're coming to Jesus saying, Hey, show us a sign. Jesus, show us a sign for just having fed them, show us a sign. And so he's he? He said, well, they said, sorry, Jesus, that Moses gave our fathers the bread in the wilderness. So what are you going to give to us? Give us a sign. And this is what Jesus said in John chapter six, verse 32. And Jesus said to them, most assured the, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but from my father who gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God, is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread. 5 (22m 58s): Always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. Are you eating of me? So the physical needs that we have very much speak to our spiritual needs and that's what Jesus is going to address next in his model, prayer, he says, and forgive us, our sins, forgive us. Our sins. Sin is what Adam did in the garden. And we've been really doing ever since the Greek word, sin is, is a translation from the Greek word and it's biblical usage throughout scripture is to miss the mark or a feeling to miss the target and to archery turn right. 5 (23m 44s): Or it's also being used to air or be mistaken to miss or wander from the path of her brightness and to honor and to do or go wrong. It's it's all a missing of the mark. And it's linked. Jesus has links this and forgive us our sins back to the, give us our day-to-day bread. It's a day to day our daily bread and forgive us our sins. So it's linked to that. That it's a request for our physical needs to be met every day, but also our spiritual needs and our, our need to, once again, confess our sins to our heavenly father, something over the years I've worked into my morning, devotions is I've, I've worked. 5 (24m 31s): First thing is to just my morning, confessions of art I've, as I can think clearly. And it's in the quietness of the day. I can think clearly about yesterday and the times that I air the times that I missed your mark. And I begin to work those into my daily confessions in the morning. And then that rolls into then eating of the bread, eating the word of God and, and, and my time in the scripture and the forgiven us our daily, since that this speaks of two things. One that we have sinned, Romans 3 23, says for all, have sinned and come short of the glory of God all have sinned. 5 (25m 17s): So we have to first recognize that we have sinned. And then we bring that to the need, to the Lord. And we say, Lord, forgive us our sins. And if we can ask, if Jesus said, ask us to be forgiving of sins. It means that our sins are forgiven. When we confess our sins, they are forgiven. That's amazing. Our greatest need, our greatest thing that separates from God a will be washed away, Romans 5, 28 or five verse eight says, but God demonstrated and own his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. I have a quote that, that it was not sure exactly who it's attributed to, but all I'll say the quote, and then I'll give you the name. 5 (26m 7s): It says this, it says, sin will take you farther than you want to go keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you wanted to pay. Lot. A lot of people will say that rabbi Zacharias, he quoted that if you know his story, you know, the tragedy that unfolded after his death, I'll say that once again, sin will take you farther than you wanted to go keep you longer than you wanted to stay and cost you more than you wanted to pay. I knew a gal at our old church in Santa who, who had been dating her high school boyfriend for seven or eight years. 5 (26m 49s): And this guy ended up passing away in a car accident. And upon that, all these details started to emerge from his life. The fact that he'd been having an affair since they started dating in high school with her best friend, some drug stuff came out, all this stuff that she had no idea of, of the guy that she was dating came out after he passed away. And she just, it just wrecked her. There's so much grief, grief, and trauma, and just anger. That was just like, where did this come from? It's those secret things that we begin to hide away that will cost us more than we wanted to pay As this week, as I was planning for the, the the message. 5 (27m 38s): And it was just realizing, man, is there any sin that I need to confess? And, and Lord like, yes. And then, and then new Lord's like, and then you need to do in front of everybody. You need to confess the sin. And, and that I had to of course confess it to my wife as well. But I, I, we have a joint account with my wife and I have my own personal credit card. And I began to use that personal credit card to buy a few purchases that I didn't let my wife know about. And this week I'd planned on purchasing a few hundred dollar thing that it was going to kind of sneak through and not let my wife know. And the Lord is like, you can't do that. That's stealing from your family, stealing from your wife. 5 (28m 21s): So first say, okay, you want me to do this in front of everybody, Lord. And you want to confess you on me. I'll confess it before you learned that was sin to plan to do this thing. And then I had to go to my wife and be like, honey, this is what I was planning on doing. Here's the credit card. I'm sorry. And confess that in front of her. I don't want upon my death for all this stuff to creep out, to find out that somebody that I was hiding, something that I wasn't living the life of integrity that I want to live when Billy Graham passed away or sorry. When Billy Graham was alive, he had this whole entourage of men that would go into every hotel room to make sure that there was nothing scandalous in there that nothing could distract him from the ministry. 5 (29m 3s): He never allowed himself to ride in a car with another woman alone. He had all these kind of gateways to protect himself and upon Billy Graham's death, guess what? There was no drama. There was no hidden sin. Same with Dwight moody. No, no, there was no drama. He said this. He says, the Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible on my death. I don't want any drama to come out. I don't want anything to be found under, under my mattress or hidden bookmarks on my computer. You see sin weighs us down and we can't effectively run with the, that God desires us to can't enjoy the course. 5 (29m 44s): Like our cross-country runner lays aside everything. That's going to ensnare them, everything that's going to like set them back and they want to run the race. They want to have the everything focused on running the race and running it. Well, this last, this a few months ago, I had a chance to go backpacking with some of our seniors in the youth group. And we took them up into the Sierras. It's an amazing time. It was just a small group of us. And, and one of them is a little bit of a jokester. Love him. And he started telling us about how his dad's a firefighter and how his dad would joke around with the other firefighters. And he would take these rocks and he'd get a Sharpie. 5 (30m 24s): And he'd write on the Sharky, sheriff on the rock with the Sharpie, thanks for the ride. And then he'd put these rocks in his fellow back back, firefighters backpacks. And I saw him and he put a few rocks on, on other backpacks of the other guys. And I thought that was pretty funny. They fell off. I was like, oh yeah, you're a prankster. That's hilarious. Well, at a certain point, the trail got really, really steep. And it was kind of like the last final push to get up and over. And then down into this like Alpine lake. And one of the students began to really struggle so much that like his legs were cramping up about every five steps. He could not carry the backpack up this hill. 5 (31m 5s): So I said, okay, look, we're going to get you over this hill. Let me just take your backpack. We'll put it on me. We'll get it. We'll get you up and over. Okay. And then everything's going to be good. So I took it backpack haired up and over, made it up. He almost killed my legs and we get into camp and like, oh, this is good. Okay. We made it. We're all good. And I began to unpack, we get to set up tents. And I realized, man, my, this is a really lightweight backpack, but it's really heavy. What? And I started taking things out and then I realized there's a rock. There's a rock. And I looked at this person might be in this room. He might've done announcements. And I began to Chuck the rocks at this person. 5 (31m 50s): How are we, how many rocks, how long have I carried these rocks from the Trailhead? I'd been carrying these extra rocks from the trail. And there was, yeah, there, there were some hindrance, but it's okay. I got rid of them. Throw them at him. Love him, love the jokes. But Hebrews 12 says this. It says, therefore, since we are so surrounded by so great, a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin, which so easily ensnares us, let us run with endurance. The race that is set before us looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 5 (32m 33s): So we need to do in our life, the daily confession, the daily of reminding God, I've sinned, I've messed up. Lord, forgive me, is that laying aside of the weights and the things that ensnare us and sin is first and foremost against God. When I was desiring to use that credit card for purchases to hide from my wife, that was first and foremost against God, but then also against others. And I think that's the, the hard part is that we have a tendency to, to judge our sin against other people. Well, I'm not as bad as that person. I'm not doing as bad as what they are. And we begin to point to others and comparing that. 5 (33m 17s): And I think that was one of my faults from growing up in the church. I began to look at my life and say, man, I got it all together. They don't have it all together. Wow. I'm doing so much better than others. And that is sin. And the Lord really confronted me on that. A number of years ago, see our church had gone to the year after hurricane Katrina happened, there was still a number of houses and churches that were still in disarray, still completely washed out by hurricane Katrina. And so our church sent a group, including myself and a few and a number of others. And we began to help rebuild houses and a few churches. And I was working there in a, in a church, sanctuary a small church down in Louisiana. 5 (33m 58s): And there's this guy that was working with me. His name was Mike Skiles and big guy like my height, maybe an inch taller than me, 70 pounds of muscle. More than me. He was had tattoos all over him. He was like, one of those guys that was just like, you would see him. And you're like, Ooh, I shouldn't be in this alleyway alone with him. And like, go the other way. Like you just had this. He was a, he lived life, a little rougher than I had. And I was just totally judging him by his outward appearance. And then he, I was like, Hey Mike, how'd you come to the Lord? What, what brought you to the Lord? He began to tell me his story. And his story was like, he'd been raised since seven or eight on the streets by himself. Both of his parents had been druggies. 5 (34m 39s): They both abandoned him. He'd he basically been raised by a biker gang, was jail in and out of jails in and out of prison, drugs, alcohol, you just name it? He'd he'd done it. I remember him tell me that. And in my head I'm like, Aw, man, he really needed Jesus. He, he really needed Jesus. And I was pointing the finger at him in my mind saying he really needed Jesus. And it was one of those times, the few times in my life where I felt like the Lord really spoke, speak to me in my head. And he's like, Jeremy, you as a little child needed me just as much as he needed. My sin is just as greatest as him and I at that moment, man, in my head, I just, Lord, I repent and dust Nash as I am sorry for those thoughts for judging my sin against him, because Jesus is going to leak. 5 (35m 33s): Now, forgive us, our sins with, for we also everyone who is indebted to us, it's a hard, right? It's a command. Forgive everyone who is indebted to us, but yet it's a command, but it's a call to action. It's how we effectively live out the gospel. If we're saying, if we're living out the gospel saying I've been forgiven of my sin, but I can't forgive you of your sin. Then that means the truth is not in us. The truth that we have been forgiven, Matthew 18 gives us an amazing parable. That constantly comes to my head. 5 (36m 13s): Peter asked Jesus. He said, Hey Jesus, how many times should I forgive my brother? How many times should I forget my brother? And, and now Peter says like seven times, right? Seven. That's pretty good. If I get my brother, forgive my brother seven times, that's good. Right? And Jesus is like, no, no, no. 70 times seven as in 490 times, like, I don't think Jesus meant exactly four nine, but just like you can't keep track, keep forgiving. And Jesus then gives a parable which speaks into that. He says Matthew 18 verse 23. It says, therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 5 (36m 53s): And the first servant came and, and he owed a debt. The king said, Hey, you need to come pay this debt. And it was a T a debt of 10,000 talents. And the man says, oh, please, please forgive me. I'll pay it back. Whatever I can do. The king said, you know what? I'm, I'm going to go ahead and forgive you that complete debt, 10,000 talents wiped off your record. And so that, that first serving then leaves the presence of the king having just been forgiven. And he goes out and he finds another servant, a certain, this servant owed him a hundred denari. And that man, that man said, the first servant says, Hey, you need to pay me. And the guy's like, I can't, I'll pay you back. Just give me time. Oh no, no, no. You're going to get thrown into prison. 5 (37m 34s): And he just throws him into prison. Well, the king finds out and this is what he says. When the king found out how the first servant had dealt with a second, he said, then his master, after he hit F he called him and said to him, you wicked servant you forgave. I sorry, you WCA, sir. I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have compassion on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you. Some of this is lost in translation because we don't understand what a talent is. We don't understand what a Dinara is. So let me break it down. 10,000 talents. One talent is equal to 6,000 deniera. 5 (38m 14s): That was about the rate of conversion. A Dinair. I was a day's labor. So what Jesus was saying was this in this parable is this, this first servant owed six 60 million days of labor, roughly 200,000 years worth of labor. You owe me. So on the conservative side at $15 an hour, 8, 8, 8 hours a day, that's $120 per day on the conservative side. That's $7.2 billion at the first servant had been, had been forgiven enough, $7.2 billion. I mean, what's he doing building towers in New York, some $0.2 billion. 5 (38m 58s): How did he even rack that? We don't know, but Jesus is speaking of this insurmountable debt that this first servant owes and what is the second servant O to the F to that first about $12,000 debt, but 7.2 billion compared with 12, not even close Jesus, isn't minimizing the debt that others do. When we, when we sin against others, he's not minimized, not he's not sweeping under the rug. He's just comparing it to the debt that we have been forgiven. Our sin against God is always greater and holding onto the sins of others against us and forgiven our debt that has been forgiven. 5 (39m 41s): It's the evidence of our faith of living out the gospel. When we forgive others, we're living out the gospel. We're saying, Jesus deal with me. As I have dealt with others and lead us, not into temptation, it's a stranger requests. You know, why, why ask Lord not lead us into temptation. God doesn't want us to sin. So why would we pray for protection from that? Well, maybe we could say it this way. Keep me from sin and its power. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness after 40 days. And he was 40 days of fasting. 5 (40m 22s): 40 days of not eating. And Satan came with him and said, Hey, turn this stone into bread. You can do that. You have the power, but yet Jesus responds with scripture. He said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, Psalm one 19 would say your word. I've hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against. You. See, God knows our frame that we're made of, but dust, he knows our weaknesses. Jesus, as the high priest was tempted in all things yet remained righteous. First Corinthians 10 verse 13 says this, no temptation has overtaken you, except that is common to man. 5 (41m 3s): But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you need be able to bear. It. There's a man who was watching TV and he lived in the south as well. And he was watching the TV. And you saw on the news that there was a hurricane approaching. It was kind of aimed right at him. And he sees this hurricane on the TVs like, Ooh, this is scary. He's like, okay, Lord, I'm going to pray, Lord, please save me from this hurricane. Well, here's honk outside of the door. And he opens the door and his friends and in his pickup and he said, Hey, there's a hurricane coming. Get in the truck. We're going to go, you know, go up north. And the guy's like, no, no, no. 5 (41m 44s): It's okay. G God's going to save me. Guy drives off. Later on. As the water begins to rise, his house is surrounded by water. The storms kind of come in through a guy that comes up in a boat motors in a little motorboat. He comes up to the guy's porch and said, Hey, get in, get in. I'll I'll save you. The guy's like, no, no, no, God, God's going to save me. It's okay. Find the water rose. So high that he's on top of the roof. And he's up there on top of the roof, just surrounded by water. And a helicopter comes, hovering by and the guy says, can we help you? Can we save you? He's like, no, no God's gonna save me. It's okay. 5 (42m 25s): Well, the guy dies, right? The water kept rising. The guy dies and he goes to heaven. He says, God, why didn't you save me? God's like, I sent you a pickup truck. I sent you a boat and a helicopter. God is in the business of rescue his kid. I love it. How often when we were attempted by sin, a thought, a call from your aunt Thelma that you haven't heard from in a years, an alert on your phone, a Bible verse that pops in your head. There's always these little things. He's a little out to the God provides to walk away from these temptations and to deliver us from the evil, but deliver us from the evil one. 5 (43m 6s): For, we have an enemy in the Bible as the power and God has the power to deliver us. First, Peter five says this, therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your cares upon him for, he cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that those same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. What it would have been like what the world would have been like if Adam and Eve had simply hearing the temptation of the serpent had just cried out to Lord, Lord help us. 5 (43m 49s): Is this true Lord? What, how different would the world be? Or now they hadn't eaten of that, that tree that they shouldn't have consequences of sin have rectal world. So deliver us from the evil one. Well, in a fusion six, we're told to put on the full armor of God. And these there's, there's a number of different things that we're told to put on. Don't just put on the partial arm of God, put on the full armor of God. And how do we do that? Well, we do that by walking those things out for the belt of truth, that's GERD around our waist. When we walk in truth, then the truth of the belt of truth is put on us. 5 (44m 31s): The full of God begins to put on us. Or what about going into the full promises of what God has for us? I liken it to this. There was as, as the nation of Israel was crossing over the Jordan and going to go into now, the promised land that God had been had had set aside for them. Moses had passed away. Josh was turned to lead the nation. Now over the Jordan and into the promised land, there was battles to be fought. There. There was things that were going to have to happen, but yet God was calling them into that. And there was two and a half tribes that decided to stay out the Reuben GAD in the half trapper tribe of Manasseh. They looked at the land on the east of the Jordan. 5 (45m 11s): They said, no, this is okay. This is a good place for us to lay. We there's a lot of good land for a cattle. We'll be okay. We don't need to cross over. And that was offensive to everyone else. I mean, they wanted to like wipe those tribes out in a minute instantly, but they said this, that this was what they decided, what they came up with. Okay. You guys can have that land on the east side of the Jordan. But what we need you to do is we need to send your, your, your soldiers across to fight the battles. We want you to continue coming to the feast once a year, because you're part of our tribe. You're part of the 12 tribes of Israel. This is the called nation. They did that. They kept their peace, but they stayed there on the, on the east side of the Jordan. And you know what? 5 (45m 52s): They were the first to fall into pagan worship. And they were eventually the first tribes of Israel to be captured by the Syrian army. They didn't enter into the fullness of what God had called them into. And they were picked off for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. See the kingdom, the power and the glory all belongs to the Lord, not to us. And I like this one when my old pastor said, Ricky Ryan said in the ministry, there's three things you don't touch. And he was talking to a few of us, pastors, three things, you don't touch, you don't touch the gold. You don't touch the gals and you don't touch the glory. 5 (46m 34s): Those don't belong to you in the ministry. And God is saying in my kingdom, we have to remember that this is God's kingdom. It's his power and his glory. We just get to join with him in our prayers, fewer to go win an R. If you were to go in an archery contest and you were to win that contest and you were to be one of the people to stand up on the podium and there would appraise you. It wouldn't be the bow and arrow that was on the, on the podium. It would be the Archer, the bow and arrow are the tools by which they won the contest. But the Archer is the one who did the work. And that's what I want to be. I want to be a tool in the hand of a living. 5 (47m 15s): God, I want him to bring about through me, his will and his purpose in his kingdom. So before we have our communion time, I'm going to have Tyler come up and give his, but nine times in these verses, it's our us in a, we it's the collective it's we as a body of Christ, we live and we grow in community and connection with the body of Christ. So Tyler's gonna come up and he's gonna talk about his time at youth group. 8 (47m 53s): Good morning. It's still morning. Okay. So I'm Tyler. , I've been coming to harvest since I was in like kindergarten and I'm a senior now. So been here a little bit, but I joined the youth group back in 2015. So I've been in youth group for like six years and it's changed my life dramatically. It's one of the most essential parts of, I'd say my spiritual growth and a big part of that is, is the fellowship. And I love that my friends will hold me accountable for things. One of my good friends came up after first service and he goes, you did great, good job. 8 (48m 33s): You said I'm 39 times. So I am going to try and say less. Don't know if that's going to be possible. Gregor's holding up. I've already said it twice. I had it again. But yeah, the, the community of, of our youth group is amazing. And throughout my youth group experience, I've had a lot of friends come in and unfortunately walk away from the faith because they didn't. Yes. Again, they didn't grow in that community. And they started hanging out with the wrong people who had the wrong influences and now looking at where they are in their lives. 8 (49m 16s): It's, it's really sad and hard for me to see the pain and the struggles that they're going through, just because they didn't bond with their friends. They didn't have that value for, for the community that our youth group has made. So fundamental. So with that, our youth group, now we meet every Wednesday. It's amazing people live paycheck to paycheck. I live Wednesday night to Wednesday night, like, okay, I just got to make it to Wednesday. If I can make it to Wednesday, I'm going to be good. And it's amazing. It's such a good spiritual recharge. It's you're seeing your friends. You're worshiping together. You're checking in on each other. 8 (49m 56s): The staff is amazing. The volunteers, they just, they love us so much. They care about us. They are always willing to pray for me with whatever I'm need prayer for. If things are going wrong, they're always willing to talk. It's amazing. It's really a helpful, if you are having just a rough day, I've called Jeremy multiple times with just random things. And he's always willing to talk. He's always there for me. And just knowing that I've got people to back me up as, as I walked through, this is amazing. So one of the things that kind of struggle with is pride. 8 (50m 40s): I've got a big ego and this, this fellowship as our youth group has grown and grown. We started with 15 and now some we've got, had like 70 plus kids a night. I've been praying like God helped me with my pride, helped me, you know, realize I'm not the best. What happens when you get 70 kids in a room that all have different skills is you're not the best at anything. Really. Nathan Thomas, one of my best buds, I used to be a cross country runner. I, there's no way I can run as fast as him. He can do a 5k in under 17 minutes and the worship team. I don't have any musical talents. 8 (51m 21s): I can't do what they do. And so there's all these little things that are just so humbling and so great for me to grow spiritually. Okay. How, how can I get better, Lord? What, what do you want, what are you calling me to do? I can't do what they wanted they'd can do. I kind of want to do that cause that's really cool. Can you help me to do that? Okay. That's not for me again. What do you want me to do? And just kind of finding who I am in him and walking with him the entire time is just, it's amazing. And the, like I said, the staff, the fellowship of the other, the other youth kids has just really blessed me and shaped me into who I am today. 8 (52m 4s): And I plan on staying on that path as long as I can till I die. Hopefully. But yeah. Thank you for letting me stand up here and talk about my experience with youth group. If you guys are looking for youth group or, you know, someone who needs to join youth group, send them to harvest. It's amazing. It'll it'll change their lives. It surely changed mine. So handing it back off to Jeremy. 5 (52m 37s): So, so within that living and growing and community, we're going to take our community. Now we'll take out our cuffs. We're what we're going to do yet. Before we open it fully is, is, is we're gonna actually have a time of worship. And during this time of worship, what I'm asking us to do is examine our hearts and our minds. It's a time where Jesus was examined before he died for his perfect atoning death. And, and it's time for us to look at before we take of communion to look at our own lives and look, look inward. So I'll read this from Corinthians and then the band will come up and do a worship song. 5 (53m 17s): First Corinthians 11 verse 27 says this, therefore, whoever eats of this bread and drinks of this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, but let a man examine himself. And so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup for you, eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body for this reason. Many are weak and sick among you and many sleep. Let's take time, Lord, this song to confess and maybe release forgiveness to others as well. I'll pray or thank you for this time. For this morning, Lord, I pray that we would be able to do business with you and maybe release the debt of others in our own hearts, Lord, that we might be free to just run the full res for the two you have set before us, Lord, we thank you for what you did on the cross you're sinless life for our sinful lives, or because you were died and rose again, we know that we can walk in that life as well. 5 (54m 24s): We can have victory over these things. Lord, thank you for this time. Lord, just help us to examine, bring anything to the surface that needs to be, be given up Lord in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. 4 (54m 43s): Thank you, Jenny. We're going to invite you guys to stand up with us and worship 5 (58m 29s): First received from the Lord. That which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus and the same night in which he was betrayed, he took the bread, which he had given. He gave thanks and he broke it. He said, take this. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's eat the bread together, The same manner. He also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this. As often as you drink in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat of the bread and drink of this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes partake together. 5 (59m 23s): You close with me with a prayer. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom, come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our sins. As we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us, lead us, not into temptation temptation, but deliver us from the evil for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Thank you. Service

0 (0s): oh, 1 (8m 32s): To Jesus. We worship you this morning. We are your children. We are here to see 2 (9m 16s): Where it used to be. I will never be There is no other name, but the name that is 0 (12m 11s): He, 2 (12m 11s): Who was and still is and will be through it Monday in the space between all the things I've seen and the striking. He, I know I will never be. 0 (12m 31s): I 2 (12m 32s): Know 0 (12m 36s): let's pray. 3 (14m 2s): Thank you for this time, Lord, as we spent time worshiping you and your name now, as we open up your word, Lord, that you would speak to us again, meet us here now in this place, Lord, in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. All right. You may be seated youth group. You guys are staying here the Sunday. So glad to be here once again. It's it's, it's a, it's a message that I've been kind of laboring and working through and really just been on my heart. It's it was fun for service to kind of bring it to the light Allister. 3 (14m 44s): Beg would say it was it's the closest he's ever felt to being pregnant and giving birth is, is you, you hope that's not offending, but it's this thing that for me, it's, it's just it Wells up and it's growing. And then it's, it's, it's amazing to see how it comes out. So I pray just, today's just a blessing. My, my brother and I growing up, and I know I've told a story in the past that wasn't true about the poison. If you're here for that one, this is it. This is actually a true story. So let me tell you about this. My, my brother, we had a lot of hobbies. We were always interested in trying to, we were always inquisitive about different things. So we would, hobbies would pop up, we'd see something on TV or in a book. 3 (15m 28s): And we're like, wow, we want to know more about this. So my mom, she would always, she would just take us to the library and we'd go look up whatever we wanted to. And it was fun to be able to research these things. And our tree was one of those things. I don't know where we inherited it from, but we found this red fiberglass, recurve bow, and my brother and I wanted to know everything about archery and we wanted to find out more. So that's what we did. We went to the library, he got all the books and began reading, studying, okay, how this is how you do it. Well, we also made a range in our backyard and we found, I don't know why we had it, just a random closet door, those kind of hollow core doors. And we set it up in our backyard as a target. 3 (16m 9s): And of course, boys, what do you want to do? You want to shoot at something real? So we set up, we drew an outline of a person like this on that door, and that was our target. And then after a while that just that stagnant target, we decided that we'll, let's, let's make this a little more realistic because when you shoot something that needs to die. So we tried to like prop up the door in a way that, you know, a little stick or something would hold it. Then when you, when it gets shot with the arrow would fall over, be a little more realistic. Well, that didn't work out too well. So we decided, well, the best thing is probably just to hold the door up and you can't stand behind the door. Cause every once in a while, the arrow will go straight through the door, you know? And so my brother, we just held it at arms length. 3 (16m 52s): We'll be okay. And we were my brother and I were really, we were good. We were good. We were good shots. You know, we'd a lot of practice. Once in a while, our friend Mike, he would come over and he'd he'd practice with us too, but he wasn't, he just hadn't been practicing as long. So it wasn't as good. Well, it was the nineties and Robin hood, prince of thieves came out and we we've loved that show. We love that movie, especially cause there was archery in it. And there was one scene where Robin hood, he draws his arrow and he flips around any shoots. And I think it was like through the trees or something, it was like this really cool movie shot and hits his target. So my brother and I are like, yes, we can do this. 3 (17m 33s): So in the backyard practicing and we started working on our Robin hood shot, you know, he turned around real fast, let the arrow go. It hits his target. Cause my brother and I were, we were decent. We were good. We were practicing. Well, Mike, he came over that day and he's like, wow, I want to try this too. I've seen this in the movies. I can do this too. Well, my brother was, it was his turn to hold the door, the target. And so he's kind of holding it at arms length like this. And Mikey turns around, flips round releases the arrow and it Nicks the edge of the door and goes in my brother's arm. So I have this image of my brother going as the arrows flopping around his arm. 3 (18m 15s): And we're like, Brian, you can't tell mom and dad. And he's like, my brother who has like the highest pain tolerance. He he's like, no, it hurts going to tell him I'm down. And I know, you know, we'll get into so big trouble because we had really, really wanted to get to the broad heads. Those like arrows with the razors on it. We thought that would be really cool to have those. My mom had said no, so I'm really glad she said no. So I was like, okay, I'm the oldest here. I will be the one to deliver the news to my parents. So I run around our backyard slide, open the sliding glass door. And my dad's there sitting on the couch, reading his newspaper and I'm my Brian's been shot. And my dad looks up the newspaper and he's like, is the BB still in him? 3 (18m 57s): I'm like, no, it was the arrow. And he lost his color for a split. Second only to jump up straight army through the door. I was standing at the door, just waiting for his response. He's straight arms me runs around the backyard, picks up my brother, lifts them up and then carries him into the house. So these are these images that are just stuck in my head. Well, fast forward to a few months. And I decided that I think I've matured a little bit that I won't, that I know my targets now. And so I've decided to, I got, I got up. I was able to buy a compound bow. All right. That was pretty exciting. I've been talking about it for a number of years. In fact, my middle daughter, her name is Posey Archer. So you can calculate her age and how many, how long I've wanted to get back into archery. 3 (19m 42s): So I got this compound bow and the guys at central coast archery have just become like my best friends. I've been down there. I taught a lot. They're like, teach me, okay, this is your target. Don't you know, all this safety, all that stuff, but I've been learning a lot. And so I have a little bit of background as a kid in our tree, but I realized I need to relearn a lot. And that's what I wanted to do with this morning. You see growing up in the church, I think there's a, there's a familiar, it's wonderful. It has way more advantages the disadvantages. But I think one of the disadvantages for growing up in the church, as you begin to be really familiar with the Bible and it becomes something that you just know. 3 (20m 24s): I remember in high school thinking, well, I know everything about the Bible I know about Noah. I just, it just became like I know about it. But for those who have been able to walk with this in their, in their new life of faith and their new trust of Jesus, having come from a, not a biblical background, I've seen this awe and wonder and just a refreshing like, whoa, what is the Bible teaching? What is it? And so that's why I want to approach this morning. Scripture of Luke chapter 11. It's a prayer that I know we've all maybe memorized that we've all looked at it, but let's this morning. Look at it with two staff, fresh sense of vision this morning. 3 (21m 5s): So Luke chapter 11, we'll be in verses one and two this morning. Sometimes it's it's, it's, it's been titled the Lord's prayers. I don't agree with that because of later on, but we'll call it the model prayer, the disciple's prayer, the believers prayer, but Luke 11, there's some Bibles in the back. If you want one of those, I love my youth group will say, I know I love hearing the Bible's turn. It's my favorite sound. So Luke chapter 11 verse one says now it came to pass. As he was praying in a certain place. When he ceased speaking about Jesus. And he's praying that one of his disciples said to him, Lord teach us to pray. 3 (21m 48s): As John also taught his disciples for the Jew, living in that culture, in that context, prayer was just a central part of what you did throughout the day. It was what you did. First thing, when you woke up, it was what you did right before you went to bed. It was just throughout the day, you just had these prayers and you just, it was just central in the life. But yet the disciples, they realize they witnessed something different in Jesus. When he prayed and they waited for him to stop. And then they approach him with a request. They said, Lord, teach us to pray. And I find it interesting that they didn't say Lord, didn't say, Lord, teach us to preach because Jesus was powerful. 3 (22m 36s): Preacher. He preached with authority. They didn't say, Lord, teach us to heal like you do. It's wow. These things that you're doing, it's amazing. They didn't say they didn't ask the question. Lord, teach us how to pray. They just said, Lord, teach us to pray. There was something remarkably different about the way that Jesus prayed and the disciples noticed that. And you see that. We often ask the best of what someone has to offer. We asked the best of what someone has to offer. If I want to know about golf and I go ask, you'd want to seek out a professional golf player. 3 (23m 20s): Archery has become one of my new hobbies. One of my new interests. I'm at central coast archery probably way more than I should be. Scott. Joel, what about this? What about that? Hey, can you look at my bow? Is it tuned? Right? Is everything okay? And they are their world-class archers. They're best of the best. Scott's been a worldwide Archer he's they have a gal that I think just graduated high school. That's shot for the women's team. They're like, they know what they're doing. They are a world-class. So we want to ask the best of what someone has to offer. And the disciples witnessed in Jesus that his vibrant prayer life was something special. It was the best of what he had to offer. 3 (24m 0s): And so they ask him. Now this prayer that we find in Luke chapter 11 is also found in the beatitudes in Matthew chapter six and Matthew chapter six. That was part of his sermon as he preached on this prayer. And that prayer was given before Jesus's disciples were all there. At that time, there was only about four disciples with him. It was Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and now Jesus is going to reteach it to all of his disciples. And so he says to them, when you pray, say this, he's not going to define prayer. Prayer was already defined in the life of the Jew. We would define it as talking to God, just like in the garden of Eden, Jesus walked. 3 (24m 46s): They heard the sound of Lord God, walking in the garden of Eden. When you walk with somebody, when that relationship is there, you walk and you talk and you share life and talking with God. Prayer is just that same thing in Matthew chapter six, Jesus would give warnings about prayers. Shouldn't be like, cause there was a lot of bad examples out there. So this is what prayers shouldn't be like in Matthew chapter six. He says, when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathens do for, they think that with, for, they think that they will be heard for their many words. It's not about how many words we use Jesus doesn't then teach them on the posture of prayer. 3 (25m 28s): You know, being in the church and the Sunday school you're taught. Okay. When you pray, you gotta put your hands together, close your eyes and bow your head. That's what you have to do. And I love that prayer because it keeps kids from being distracted, right? And sometimes me and that's what I need. That's the prayer posture that I need. I need to bow my head, close my eyes and put my hands together. But that doesn't always work because the Bible also says in first Thessalonians five, pray without ceasing. So if I'm supposed to only pray this way and pray without ceasing, the joke is we get in my car to drive, you know, go visit the cousins. And I said, all right, girls, we're going to pray before we go. Let's all bow our heads and close your eyes. 3 (26m 9s): And you know, as we're driving down the street and they're like, dad, don't close your eyes, don't do it. You know, you trick them. And I guess that would only work. If you had a Tesla, then you could actually bow your head, close your eyes and trust in the machinery. So scripture gives us many different ways. Sometimes we are called to bow the head. Sometimes we're called to look up into the sky, as Jesus would do up to the heavens. There's definitely many different postures. Sometimes you go into prayer closet. There's many, many ways of the external posture of prayer. But what the most important posture of prayer is that, which the hearts, posture of prayer. Can you agree with that? Our hearts, posture, prayer and Jesus teaches just that in this prayer, in that prayer that he, that the disciples were watching him do. 3 (26m 58s): And it doesn't seem that the prayer was recorded. Doesn't say if it was a short prayer, doesn't save. It was a long prayer. It doesn't seem how simple or elaborate it. Just that prayer that the disciples watch, the Jesus did made an impact on his disciples. And they knew that it was making a kingdom impact. Sometimes it's the simplest of prayers. George Miller, have you have you all heard of George Mueller? Great, great man of faith, great rate, man of God. And this story was related by another well-known evangelist named Charles Ingles on the prayer life of George Mueller. 3 (27m 40s): So Charles Ingle angles is he was crossing over to America and he was recounting this story of how he met this captain of a steamer. And he was saying, wow, this man, this captain is just, he's a man of faith. There's something different this man. And he, so he began to ask us this captain of the steamer. What, what marks, what, what marks the life of your faith? W what, what, what is this about you that's so different. He said, well, this is what happened five weeks ago. Let me share a story from you. About five weeks ago, he said it was the most incredible thing. He was saying that the captain said that I have, he was there, sorry, let me collect my thoughts. 3 (28m 21s): He was there at the helm, this captain of the steamer, they were crossing over from the Atlantic, by the Newfoundland coast. There had been 22 hours of fog, unrelentless, thick, thick fog. So much fog that he hadn't left the bridge in 22 hours. And all of a sudden he feels a tap on his shoulder and he turns around kind of frightened. And there is George Mueller and George Mueller simply says this. He said, captain, I've come to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon. And it was Wednesday on that day. The captain says, that's impossible. George Mueller replies very well. If your ship can't take me, God will find some other means of locomotion to take me. I have never broken an engagement in 57 years, George Mueller said, let's go down to the chart room and pray. 3 (29m 8s): The captain said, captain said, I looked at this man. And I thought to myself, what lunatic asylum could this man have come from? I've never heard of such a thing. Leave the bridge, go down to the chart room to pray like that. Prayer is going to make anything different. The captain said, Mr. Mueller, do you not know how dense this fog is? Mr. Mueller replied with George. Mueller said, no. My eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls every circumstance in my life, the captain said, well, he went down to his knees and he prayed one of the most simplest of prayers. 3 (29m 48s): He said, I thought to myself, that would suit a child's class where the children were not more than eight or nine years old. His prayer was basically saying, oh Lord, if it is consistent with your will, please remove this fog in five minutes. You know, the engagement you made for me in Quebec is this Saturday. And I believe it is your will. That was his prayer. The captain said when we had finished, I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. He said, sir, first, you do not believe that God will do it. And second, I believe he's already done it. There's no need for you to pray about it. I looked at him and George Mueller said this captain. I have known my Lord for 57 years. 3 (30m 30s): And there's never been a single day with which I have not gained his audience. Captain, get up, open the door and you'll find the fog is gone. The captain got up, the fog was gone and George Mueller made it to his appointment. What a, what? A mark of faith to have a simple prayer of faith, the simple believing faith in the God who did that, prayer changes us. And it changes around us. Jesus, didn't see the preparation for the prayer. As the preparation for the battle. Jesus saw prayer as the battle, as Jesus was in the garden of right? 3 (31m 15s): Leading up to his betrayal. He bled great drops of blood recorded in Luke 22. And he prayed and he said, Lord, take this cup from me, but nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. He didn't pray. He didn't bleed in pilot's court as he's being tried, but he bled in the garden in prayer. Jesus, didn't see that prayer was a preparation for a battle. Jesus saw prayer as the battle. So Jesus, after teaching us to pray, he tells us how we address God when we pray to him. And this is what he says to his disciples. He says our father in heaven. 3 (31m 56s): That's how he starts his prayer. Our father in heaven. Let me say father, that brings up a lot of thoughts about our own earthly fathers, but yet Jesus tells us that father is the most important way. The most important thing when approaching God and that word, father has a lot of connotation in the old Testament. It's only used seven times about God. It was a very old, old Testament. They saw where a witness God in a very different aspect, but you're now Jesus is telling his disciples. When you pray, say father 275 times, actually in the new Testament, see God uses many names in the scripture. 3 (32m 41s): But father I think is one of the most intimate of names that we can call our heavenly father. We can call God, there's a picture on my desk. And it was a good reminder of this week is some studying and prayed and working through this is my it's me. Six days old, just on the, on the, on my, my dad, my, my dad's chest. Just that simple. Like I am in need of everything. I can't control anything. And there's my father with me on his bosom. So often our view of God is shaped by our earthly fathers. Just like my dad picking up my brother after he'd been injured by that arrow carried him to safety. 3 (33m 27s): He carried him into the house and my mom wants to always treat everything with the bag of ice, right? Isn't that the way moms treat best the wounds she put on his, she put on his arm, a bag of ice and hope that would help it. You know, he just had a little hole in the skin. It didn't go all the way through. And a couple weeks later, my mom grabbed my brother and you know, Hey, come do this, come do that. And he flinched and he was like, ouch. My mom's like, oh no, is it still hurt? He's like, yeah, it still really hurts. So she took him to the house, took him to the, her doctor, his doctor and the doctor's like, Ooh, well let's, let's look at the x-ray. 3 (34m 8s): Let's check out the x-rays. So they get the x-rays of course my mom was so embarrassed to have to take my brother to the hospital. Cause he shot by an arrow that was like, just did not, she was avoiding him. It probably because of that. And as she takes him to the Haas or it takes him to the doctor and sure enough, the x-ray reveals there's a hole right there in the middle of his, his bone with little fractures going out. And my mom thought that was the worst knew she could not believe she was so ashamed. And the doctor's like that is, this is the coolest x-ray I've ever seen. This is like the cowboy and Indian days, he was all fired up. My mom was, oh, embarrassed. My dad carried my brother to safety on, on that aspect of asking others what's the best they have to offer CS Lewis, who I think we would all agree is one of the best authors out there. 3 (34m 59s): He looked and he spoke about his favorite author, another George and a guy named George McDonald, the Scottish writer. And he said this in his like opening to his book about George MacDonald, CS Lewis said this. We said, we have learned from Freud and others about the distortions and characters and errors of thoughts, which result from man's early conflicts were from his father. Freud has a lot to say about fatherhood and how that shapes and mold us. He said far off. The most important thing we can know about George McDonald is that his whole life illustrates the opposite process. He said an almost perfect relationship with his father was the earthly root of all of his wisdom from his own father. 3 (35m 44s): He said, he first learned that fatherhood must be at the core of the universe. He was thus prepared in an, in an unusual way to teach the religion in which the relation of the father and the son was the most central, something about the father that shapes our view of God. And then when he says, when Jesus says, we must say our father in heaven, he says our father, as in not just my father, not just father, but our father and that's the unifying call for the body of Christ to be United. When we pray, when we lift up our prayer requests, it's not just me. It's just as I it's, we as a whole, some of the greatest prayers in the Bible, I'm thinking like in, especially in Daniel, where Daniel includes himself in the nation's rebellion and he says, forgive us, our sins, forgive us, our trespasses. 3 (36m 37s): And there's not one marked sin recorded for Daniel, but yet he still includes himself in that it's that our father, Jesus is one of Jesus's last prayers in John chapter 17. He prays that there may be unity among the believers. He prays first for himself. He prays for his 12 disciples. And then he prays for all believers. We need to have unity in the church. And then he says, our father in heaven and heaven is that theoral place. Isn't it is that place where we're only a few have been able to just witness and how to had a key, whole image of, we see Isaiah has a throne room experience. 3 (37m 24s): ZQ Daniel. And then John later on in revelation, on the island of Patmos, they have this throne room vision of who God is. It's our father in heaven. So if we were to address him, if Jesus saying we are to address our heavenly, God is our heavenly father. He said to first start out by talking to the father about the father. That's how we pray. We talked to the father about the father. So how does he do that? He says, hallowed, be your name, how it is like a strange word. I had to look it up and Dixie dictionary to make sure it was there. And I have this dictionary, which is it's huge. 3 (38m 4s): It's like 1907. And this is his definition of Howard. It says to devote to holy or religious uses to consecrate, to reverence is sacred or to set apart. I know there's there's you have dishes in your house that are hallowed or set apart, right? So those dishes that your grandma gave to you at your wedding and you put them up in the cabinet with the glass counters and you only pull out for Thanksgiving for special meals for Christmas dinners. Those are the Hollywood plates. So those are the set apart only for specific uses. 3 (38m 44s): That is how Jesus that's how God's name is to be. We already keep his name as holy. His name is holy. The Jewish scribes had a way of doing that practically. As they copied the texts, they didn't have coffee machines, so they didn't have to copy out the texts. Every time they came to the hallowed name of God, Yahweh God, they would have to go cleanse the pen and they'd have to go take a bath every time they were to copy that scripture. So there they are. That was their way of keeping his name's holy to keep it set apart and names carry importance, right? Whenever I see a Jeremy on TV, I'm like, you better represent the Jeremy's cause I'm a Jeremy. You're a Jeremy. And we represent that. 3 (39m 24s): There's something special in a name, especially in the old Testament times. There's something special. Now there's something I want all the Jeremys to represent a good character, integrity. All those things. Names are important. They're linked to our character. Jacob was born, Jacob, his name meant he'll snatcher. God says no longer. We would call you Cobe, but I'm going to call you Israel governed by God. God would change Abrams named Abraham. He would change Sarah, his name to Sarah. He would change Saul to Paul. And then later on Simon to Peter, because God was speaking something into their character and he was changing their name in our heaven. 3 (40m 11s): In revelation. It talks about this new names that we will get it says, and we will give and revelation two 17 and we will get sorry. And I will give him a white stone. And on that stone, a new name written, which no one knows except him. Her receives it. God has a name that aligns with your character and who you are. The name character of you always to be set apart from any other God. Any other spiritual being his name is lifted up. Your name that your name quote in the old Testament is used over 119 times. Let me give you a few examples in his second Samuel seven, we have says, so let your name be magnified forever saying the Lord of hosts is the God over Israel and let the house of your servant. 3 (40m 58s): David be established before you second, Samuel 22 says, therefore, I will give thanks to you. Oh Lord. Among the Gentiles and sing praises to your name. Psalm 22 says I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly, I will praise you. Psalm 54 to the chief musician was stringed instruments. Contemplation of David. He says, is David not hiding among us? Save me, oh God, by your name and vindicate me by your strength. Psalm 63. I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name, David, and through the Psalms he's linking name to character. 3 (41m 44s): We don't worship a name. We worship God's character and who he is. And later on in the new Testament, Jesus, wouldn't give a blink blink check to us. When he says this in John 14, most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me the works that I do, he will do also and greater works than these will he do because I go to my father and whatever you ask in my name that you will do in the father will be glorified in the son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. There wasn't a blank check. That was, if you call upon the, will you call upon God to do something, he will do it within his character. If we ask something in the character of God, he will do it. 3 (42m 26s): The father son relationship is modeled just after that prayer. Look at me with me to Luke chapter 11, verses nine through 13, he's going to speak on the importance of a father, son relationship, a father, child relationship verse nine says who I say to you and I will be given to you. Sorry. I say ask. It will be given to you seek and you will find knock and will be opened them to you for everyone who asks receive. And he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone free, asked for a fish? Will you also give him a serpent instead of a fish? 3 (43m 7s): Or if he asks for an egg, will you, will you offer him a scorpion? If you then speaking of the earthly fathers, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children? How much more will your heavenly father give you the holy spirit? When you ask? I was asking in the character of God. So we talk then to the father about his kingdom. After talking to him about him, we then talked to the father about his kingdom and he says, this, Jesus said your kingdom come your kingdom come. And that's where this message has kind of been brewing on my heart. And maybe it's just something. Maybe it's just something I needed to hear. 3 (43m 47s): Maybe I need to preach to myself these last few weeks months they've been tough. There's been a number of situations in my life that just led me to just drop to my knees in prayer or teach me to pray. So I'm looking around, Lord teach me to pray prayed for the recall vote that didn't, that didn't go through, begin to feel anxious and concerned and worried for the future about what would happen if that wasn't, if welfare outcome is what it is now, begin to look around to the kingdom of now the kingdom around us. 3 (44m 31s): And it's, it's frightening, honestly, a year ago, I would have been thought that it'd be a conspiracy theory because I've thought that someday there'd be vaccine passports and mandates. I thought that's coming down the line a year ago, but here we are. And that's slowly becoming reality. They're talking about now a digital currency in the next two years, that will no longer have paper that everyone will have a digital concurrency. That lines right up with what we read in the book of revelation. So I love the lessons that God has been teaching me through archery and he'd can. And he does. 3 (45m 11s): So I got a little proud. I got a little boastful. My first couple of weeks of archery. You see, I went from a grouping at 20 yards of about a dinner plate and I got them down to about an inch and a half and a groupings. When you shoot multiple arrows at a target and they start getting closer, that means that you're getting accurate. You're like, you're working your skills. Well, I was getting really good. I started sending pictures to my friends like, look, look, look how good I'm doing. Look at it. This is awesome. They're like, oh yeah, good job. Wow. You're really, you're really getting this. And then one night they're in practice in the backyard and I got lined up. I'm looking at my, through my scope and it's so compound bows, have they have a little peep site that's on the string. 3 (45m 51s): And then, and then next you have the scope or the, the scope with the little target pins. All right. And you want to get your peep and you want to aim it at the target pins onto the target. Yeah. So that's kind of how, the way it lines up. And I lined up for the shot. I had it right over the target and all of a sudden I was like, this isn't my body just did this, like this like jitters. I was like, what was that? And my arrow actually went off and miss the target into the wall. I was like, what was that? Where did that come from? I've been really accurate. That was weird. So a few more shots. And it's like, my body is preparing for this arrow to be released. And it, and it just tightens up. 3 (46m 33s): I was like, what? In the world's happening? Like I've got, I've got my S my pin on my target. And all of a sudden, my body as is movement. I was like, I can't control. I'm like, what in the world is going on? So I went down to central coast, archery, and Scott was in there and I walk in the door and no one else is in the shop. And Scott and another worker were there and I'm like, Scott, I got target panic. He's like, oh no, you got target panic. He got target. Everybody gets the target. Hey, everybody knows about this target panic thing. Like, I'm like, well, I didn't know about it. Tell me about this. Like, oh yeah. It's like, when your body kind of is reacting to the shot before it happens and you start to get messed up and everybody deals with everybody. I was like, okay, well, you got to help me overcome this because I don't want to have target practice, target anxiety. 3 (47m 18s): This is not okay. So one of the things that Scott recommended was this. He said, what's your probably focusing on, we can only, our eyes can only focus on one thing. Okay. He says, one of the things that you want to work on is not focusing on the pins that are right in front of you. You want to focus on the target and see the target through those pins that are right next to you right there. And he talked about how he worked through his target anxiety. He was coached through it, and he was working on a target at 50 yards. And he said, this guy was like, just, just, just concentrate the target. You'll get it. And sure enough, Scott said he at 50 yards, he Robin hood in a Robin, Robin hood had eggs or egg Robinhood, an arrow. 3 (48m 3s): So he'd shot one arrow into the back of the other arrow. That's 50 yards. Cause he was focused on that target. It's kind of like mountain biking or biking. Anything. If you see a rock in the middle of the path and you start focusing on that rock, you're going to hit the rock. This is what happens. I don't know why it works that way, but that is. And so we need, and Jesus is reminding us your kingdom come. We need to focus on the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. But how do we do that? Because Jesus preached a lot about the kingdom that had arrived. And it was different than what his disciples or Jews are waiting for. At that time, you see the keynote, he, Jesus would say, the kingdom has come near to you. 3 (48m 44s): The kingdom has come upon you, but it doesn't let you look around. You're like that doesn't seem to be totally the way it is. I don't understand. And that's where we live in. We live in this tension of the already and not yet the already and not yet. It's a theological tension. It says by faith in Christ, all of these spiritual blessings are ours already. But the full enjoyment of these blessings is not yet ours. This is the life of faith. The assurance of things hoped for in the future and the convictions of things. Not yet seen in the present from Hebrews 11, this is life between the times. 3 (49m 24s): So if Satan tempted Jesus, all the kingdoms of the earth, when Jesus was being tempted out in the wilderness, how could Satan say all these kingdoms I'll give to you? If you fall down and worship me, Jesus, didn't say that's not theologically true. Actually, Jesus just outright rejected that. And he said away from me, I will worship the Lord. God alone. You see Satan has a kingdom. There are kingdoms in this world. There's the kingdom of now, but yet God has the kingdom of already. And not yet. Yes. Illustrate that with Daniel chapter five bell Schanzer was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, never could answer. 3 (50m 5s): He was the one that had this great image that he couldn't explain. That Daniel came later and explained the head of the head of gold, the arms and the chest of silver and bronze. And then clay mixed with iron all. He had that vision. And so Nebuchadnezzar kind of took that and ran, right? He made that big golden statue that everyone was to worship. And then the three other guys didn't want to worship that. Well, that was Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar's Keana was headed down to his son and his grandson. They, they were co regions and God had already weighed that kingdom in the balance. God already knew. So there was a feast that bell Shazard was going to throw that was in the kingdom of Babylon. 3 (50m 46s): Babylon was a Magnificant city. The walls surrounding Babylon were 17 miles long. The walls surrounding Babylon were 22 feet thick. You could re race for chariots on these walls. The walls of Babylon were 90 feet tall with towers that went another a hundred feet on top of that Babylon was so magnificent. Babylon had storage of food that could outlast there's people, years and years, they had the river Euphrates that flowed right through the center of Babylon. They gave them endless supply of water. They were good. So as they are being surrounded by the Medo-Persian empire, Belshazzar is like, we're going to have a feast. 3 (51m 33s): We're going to outlive this. We're good. Our kingdoms forever. We're good. And so what he did, what does he do? He calls for the golden instruments from the temple to come and be used it as feast. And it was then that up on the wall, the hand of God came in a wrote on the wall, wrote something that he didn't understand, wrote something that made his knees knocking. And he liked his lost strength. He couldn't do anything. This is bell Shazard and he couldn't do anything. So he began to call for all the magicians, the soothsayers. They couldn't say anything until Daniel was brought forth. And Daniel said, this is what it says many, many tekel who Farson, you've been weighed in the balance you've been found, wanting your kingdom has been weighed and has been found wanting why do I bring that up? 3 (52m 21s): Because I was one kingdom that was on the verge of collapse. You see, they didn't know that that very night, the Euphrates river had been diverted into a marsh and that the Mito Persian empire had entered into where the Euphrates river float. And they captured that city that night as he's feasting and think he's all good. That's the city was sacked and he, and he was killed that the king. And I bring that up because in Luke chapter 11, we find this interesting story that's linked and an interesting story because it's not, we don't understand the con the context to it. Totally. So let's check it out. Luke chapter 11 verses 14 through 23, it says, and he was casting out a demon and it was a mute. 3 (53m 4s): So it was when the demon got gone out that the mute spoke and the multitudes marveled note that note that the multitudes Marvel, but some of them said, he cast out, ruined demons by bells, above the ruler of the demons. Others tested him, sought him for a sign from heaven. But he knowing their thoughts said to him, every kingdom divided itself against itself is brought into desolation and a house divided against itself false. And if Satan is divided gets himself, how will this kingdom stand? Because you say, I cast out demons by bells above. And if I cast out demons by bells above to whom do your sons cast them out, speaking of the Jewish excersice verse 20. 3 (53m 47s): But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Jesus has relating this to the kingdom of Babylon. That was with the finger of God. The writing was on the wall. This is what we don't understand. This is what I've learned this last few weeks about the context around this, every time in the Bible, when Jesus casts out a mute spirit, the crowds Marvel, why do the crowds Marvel so much of this? There were other demons that were exercised. There are Jewish exorcists at the time that would cast out demons and their way of doing it was they had to find out the name of this, of this, of this spirit being, living inside this person. 3 (54m 29s): They would use that name in the incantations in different SANEs and using Proverbs or Psalms to cast this demon out, turn away, wrestle it out. Now Jesus comes on the scene and he is able to cast out the mute spirits. Why is that different? Because no one else could do that. Jesus, didn't say you have to find out the name to then call it out. Jesus has simply simply said, get out. The writing was on the wall that their kingdom, the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of now is being judged with the finger of God. Jesus said, I cast these demons out. So we're living in this already, but not yet. 3 (55m 9s): Jesus has done that, but it's not fully lived out. So then later we see that Jesus talks about, he said, we talked to the father about the will for his kingdom. Your will be done just like it. Isn't heaven. He says, you're a, will he wills in heaven? And it's done in our prayers. We must join with the character of what he wills to do. Even Jesus wrestle with that in the garden. He said, if it is your will take away this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours. Jesus says not your will, but your, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, the visible and the invisible realms, the kingdoms of this earth, the kingdom of heaven. 3 (55m 52s): These are where God reigns is there. It's a perfect harmony of what happens in heaven to what God wills in heaven. And that's what he's calling us to ask for. For prayer. You see, the more I focus in on those pins in the site, when I'm trying to shoot my archery, the more I focus on those things that are right there, the less I'll hit my target. But when my aim becomes my target and I just look through those things at that lens of the scope, I'll hit my target. We can only focus on one thing. So where is our focus this morning? 3 (56m 33s): Is it on the kingdoms of now? There's the kingdom of heaven, Daniel chapter seven. This is my last and I'm sorry, I'm over time. Dander chapter seven. It says this, this is Daniel's vision. He said, I was watching the night visions one and behold one like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him. Then he said to him then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all the peoples nations and languages should serve him. 3 (57m 15s): And his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. And his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed. That's why Jesus called himself the son of man in fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy. If I could summarize this first section of the R of this prayer, I would say this, let, let the Lord be the Lord. Let God be God in our prayers and our, in our will for what happens in around us, let God be, God let's pray. 3 (57m 57s): Laura, the kingdoms of the earth he knows of now are saying themselves against you. Lord. I'm thankful to have your word in front of us. That tells us the beginning from the end. It tells us, tells us that these nations have been judged by the finger of God. And someday you will come down with your full power, not just the finger of God. You will come down with might Lord. And the kingdoms of this earth will crumble and you will set up an everlasting kingdom. Lord, help us to keep our sites, our vision set on that future kingdom of God, Jesus name we pray. Amen. 0 (58m 42s): Please stand with us. what a beautiful name. 0 (59m 30s): 5 (1h 4m 30s): Thank you, Lord, For just the power of the name of Jesus. Thank you for just, just keep us focused on, on the kingdom of heaven. Lord, as we leave here today, I just ask you to just keep the kingdom of heaven in the forefront of our thoughts and our minds, and just the hope that we're aiming for that target Lord. And so I'm just thank you Jesus, for this day. 5 (1h 5m 14s): Thank you for, for what you're doing in our church, in our midst, in our hearts. Lord, I just think right now we should. I think it's, we should recite the Lord's prayer together. I think that's a good way to end the service this morning. So you could actually want to look it up. Ha ha. Cause everybody's got like a different, you know, I feel like growing up Christian, like I ha I, I like meld tons of different translations together. When I say the Lord's prayer. 5 (1h 5m 55s): Anyways, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us. Our sins forgiven you just not into temptation is the kingdom and the glory forever. Amen. Amen. 5 (1h 6m 35s): Thank you church. Thank you all for being here. Please come forward for prayer. Our prayer teams are waiting in discreet locations to pray for your, every need that you want to bring before the father today. So, but we'll see you guys next week. If you have any, if you're new here, don't forget to stop by the info center on your way out and get plugged in and see what's going on here.

1 (5m 14s): Way. When was the clues? When I look at the space between what I used to be and this record, I know I'm never be standing next to me. There was another in holding back the scene and shoot, I need reading of how I've been set free. There is a cross that bears the bird died for me. 0 (5m 60s): my dad left no, the name, the name that he who was and still is, and be may in the space between all I know would be, I know I'm closed all stuffing us. 0 (11m 49s): 2 (19m 28s): Yes, Lord. That is our aim today. That is our goal, as we gathered together, or thank you that you are Dan from the beginning, that Christians would gather for the purpose of worship. Lord, we worship you today for the purpose of being a witness to the world. How awesome, how mighty, how wonderful you are. Thank you. That you've put us here also to do good works and to be about your business. As we just desire every day, just to be filled by you, to love you, to serve you. And so Lord week, we give you our lives, a fresh thank you for meeting us here today. 2 (20m 11s): We are gathered together in your name. Your word tells us that you are here, you are with us in our midst, and we welcome you. We look to you for everything we submit to you, and we bless you in Jesus name God's people said, amen. Amen. Amen. So go ahead and have a seat. That would be wonderful. So just a little bit of background information, pastor Steve and his family, they, they try to take an annual trip to bass lake. And so they are gone for about a week. So pray Steve Henry and his, his clan. They couldn't go last year. 2 (20m 51s): Can you imagine why they couldn't go last year? Reason? None of us could go anywhere last year. So anyway, my name's Ron, I get to share with you today. So I want to welcome all of you in the sanctuary and also in the loss and in the patio and online, it's an amazing thing that we can really touch the world with the message of the gospel through technology, you know, and it's kind of an amazing thing. So as we begin this morning, as you know, yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the events of nine 11, the terror attacks of nine 11 being on the west coast, not on the east coast square at all took place. 2 (21m 33s): It's easy to be kind of disconnected, but just know this 2,977 people lost their lives on that day, 20 years ago on nine 11. What I've done this past week, just as a way of, I love history, but I want to know, I want to know what happened more fully be reminded about what happened 20 years ago on nine 11. And so I watched the documentary, it was done by national geographic and it's I think six episodes where they take you through day one. So it's just prior to, you know, the first Northern tower getting hit by, by the airline and then, and then it all unfolded from there. 2 (22m 21s): It, I think it's important to, to approach our lives and our world through a good sense of, of history of who we are, and not only 20 years ago, but certainly prior to that. And when we experienced something like that, it's becomes part of our lives. It's etched in our, our mind. Can you remember where you were on nine 11, 2001? Probably almost all of us can remember where we were, but out of that documentary, that documentary that I watched national geographic, it gave me such a overwhelming sense of appreciation for first responders, especially firefighters, and mainly because as everyone is pouring out of the buildings, they're rushing into the buildings to rescue people, to bring people to safety and not only the fireman, but also the medics and the police, you know, anyone that is a first responder. 2 (23m 24s): And it was so amazing to me to see their commitment to rescue people's lives in them, even in the midst of the potential of their own loss of life, but the, the comradery between them, between the firefighters. I, I've never known that the only I can even compare it to, and maybe, maybe the camaraderie that we share as believers in Christ in a moment of crisis. And so I'll tell you very quickly where I was on that day 20 years ago, DJ and I were actually, as it turned out, we'd spent a few months preparing for a fundraising event for lifeline crisis pregnancy center. 2 (24m 8s): And it was a fundraising event that we did for many years. It was a golf marathon. And so we were putting on this event and it landed on nine 11. And so we're all there at dairy Creek golf course up by quest college on highway one. And we got there really early, about five 30 in the morning because we had to get things set. And when you have maybe 30, 40, 50 people there golfers and, you know, raising money for lifeline and all the volunteers. And so we're in the cafe area, getting all the tables set up and the TV was on in this cafe area and a little after 6:00 AM, we heard some commotion and we walked in there and we see the Northern tower on fire. 2 (24m 48s): And of course, nobody really knew what was happening at that moment. And so we're sort of in awe, a shock and I guess, of, of what was going on. And then shortly after we see the plane going into south tower, and now this sense of soberness come, came upon us. And so, as we're thinking about what to do that day, do we cancel our event? Do we do, how do you do business as usual, knowing that on the east coast, 3000 miles away is this trauma, this tragedy that's unfolding that we, you know, we cannot comprehend. 2 (25m 30s): We weren't there. I wasn't there. And so what we decided to do, we gathered together for breakfast and to pray. So we prayed and we decided we're going to, we're going to go ahead and, and have our event. And we felt that in light of what was going on that raising money, raising funds to help save babies alive was important. But the strange thing about that day, there was roughly again, 30 or 40 golfers. So we go out on the golf course, we're all on a different, we all start in a different hole. We pair up, but it was this surreal feeling of we're playing golf, beautiful sunny day at dairy Creek, knowing the suffering that was happening in New York city and also at the Pentagon and also with flight 93. 2 (26m 24s): And, and one of the people in this documentary pointed out, you know, the, the terror attack was to bring about two things. It was to bring about an undermining of our freedom in America. And secondly, it was to establish a sense of fear among the people of America to undermine our freedom and to bring a sense of fear, to have us live in fear. So fast forward 20 years, I think we're still dealing with that feeling like we've lost some of our freedoms. Literally we have, and many people, not only from that tragedy, that terror event, but also what we're experiencing now. 2 (27m 11s): And so what I want to talk about this morning in a moment let's pray, Lord, we cannot fully understand the events that take place in human history. We can't fully understand what the people there experienced, what the first responders experienced and that they carried that with them after nine 11 and how it impacted them. And then with the events in Iraq and Afghanistan and in Florida, it's, it's almost too much for our us to handle, but Lord, we look to you. You're the one that makes sense out of things that don't make sense. 2 (27m 54s): You're the one that brings a sense of peace where otherwise there would be no peace. And so Lord, as we think about, even now, the people that are 20 years later are still suffering Lord, that you would give them peace, give them rest, Lord and father bless our first responders today. Lord, thank you that there are men and women, even in our midst that they're trained to go towards the danger to protect lives and save people. Lord bless them. We thank you for them in Jesus name. Amen. So what I want to look at today is we're going to be continuing where pastor Steve left off. 2 (28m 35s): So what we typically do at harvest church, as we go through books of the Bible and we finished one week, you know, go into the next one. So we've been going through the book of Titus. So if you want to turn to the book of Titus, we are in Titus chapter three, beginning with verse one. Now the way this typically works. So I knew that I was going to be speaking today about a month ago. And I, I wasn't sure where Steve was going to end off, but a few weeks ago he was his plan was to go through chapter two in one Sunday, but that didn't happen. And so he finished it last week. And so I'm looking ahead, I'm thinking, well, I'm going to be in five Lehman, which is the book right after Titus. So I realized, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to be in Titus chapter three. 2 (29m 16s): And I read verse one and I call Steve, Hey Steve, get your Bible out. Have you read Titus chapter three, verse one. So he reads it like, that's not fair, big. And I'll, I'll, I'll tell you why it's not fair and just a minute. Okay. And, but that's just the way it goes. And the beauty of teaching through books of the Bible is you have to hit everything. You can't, you can't say, well, I'm not, I'm uncomfortable with that. Or I don't understand that or be best to, you know, that's gonna make people upset or whatever you can, you can't do that. And it's a blessing. It's God's word. It's all. It's all good for us. So in the letter, this is a letter that Paul wrote to Titus. 2 (29m 59s): So Paul was a apostle. We know that everywhere he went, he's planting churches. So you spend some time on this island of Crete. It's a very big island. There's lots of cities, they're major cities. And so he's ready to leave. And he has left at this point and he appointed some people to be in charge of the churches that he planted. Well, one of them is this young man named Titus. So he's telling Titus, I need you. I need you to do a few things there to establish these churches, to help them grow, to become vibrant communities of believers. And so just by way of review, I'm looking at Titus chapter one, verse five, the scriptures will be up for you as well. So he says this to Titus. 2 (30m 40s): He says, for this reason, this is why I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking. So there's still some things that need to be done there. And I want you to appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. So church leadership is super important overseeing the work that God was doing. And so Titus was responsible to help establish leadership in these churches that were planted. And then, and then he continues in this letter. He says to Titus, Titus chapter two, verse one, he says, but as for you, so now he's speaking directly to Titus speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. 2 (31m 21s): Titus. I want you to focus on doctrine, teaching establishing a solid firm foundation for these believers. He's talking about teaching the Bible. Now they didn't have the new Testament in that day. So it was, it was the new Testament. I, sorry, they didn't have the new Testament in that day. They did have, they had the old Testament scriptures. They get that right. Second time. Okay. So they had the old, old Testament books of the Bible. And that was sufficient because the holy spirit was speaking life into the words from the old Testament and illuminating them to show how they transition and fit and establish what would become the new Testament and sound. 2 (32m 3s): Teaching sound doctrine is super important. And then it continues in chapter two, verse 11. He says for the grace of God. So now he's going to talk about a bigger picture thing for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust. We should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. So now he's talking really, I think to the, to, to the believers there through Titus believers, followers of Jesus, he says you've received salvation through the grace, but it teaches us something. 2 (32m 43s): And it taught them something specific 2000 years ago, roughly. And is speaking the same, the same thing to us today. What did he say? It teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly less. We are to live soberly. That is, we are to be, clear-minded clear thinking. We, we understand who we are in Christ. We are educated in the word of God in the scriptures. We are wise, we are discerning. We understand what's going on in their world. They understood what was going on. And in our world, we understand what's going on. 2 (33m 25s): And he also said, I want you to live righteously and godly in the present age. So we're going to fast forward because now we're, we're taking that. What Paul wrote to Titus is saying, this applies today, believers, we need to be thinking about this and applying this in our life as well. Living soberly, righteously, the righteousness of God and Christ, not our righteousness of course, and godly in our, in our present age. And then he sort of concludes that again, this is all just for intro chapter two, verses 13 and 14, w you know, why should we be doing all these things? Well, he tells us here looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ. 2 (34m 13s): Sometimes we get caught up in the muddle of, of just life and, you know, Christian life and day-to-day life. And, and yet he, he wants us to keep in focus, something that is promised to us that will happen. And he says, what is it? It's the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us, set us free from every lawless deed and purify for himself, his own special people who are zealous for good works. So again, one of the things I want us to take away from this this morning is that we have purpose in the world in which we live today. 2 (34m 58s): I like in, in a king James version of that same verse, you know, new king, James says a special people. King James says a peculiar people, and I can test you a peculiar bunch of people. Okay. But if you think about it, we don't fit in. You know, we don't w we kind of go against the flow of the world against the stream. We resist some of the worldly things that are being indoctrinated into the world system today. And, and part of the teaching is we don't have to accept all the things that the world is, is, is telling us. We have to comply to these things were we're set apart. 2 (35m 39s): We're special, we're peculiar. But one of the things that we all were all zealous for his good works, we're going to talk about that. You may remember there was a song. I think it was done by crystal Lewis. It was either the eighties or nineties, but the sermon title for today is, is the title of her song. The song title is people get ready. Jesus is coming. People get ready. Jesus is coming. It's inevitable. It is a fact is a prophecy that will be fulfilled perhaps in our lifetime. We don't know. So now we're jumping into Titus chapter three. So there's four words that we're going to look at this morning. 2 (36m 18s): The first two are things that, that, that we're being encouraged to do. And the last two are things we're encouraged to be, to be aware of. So the first one is remind, we need to be reminded of some things and, and also affirm the other, another word is affirm, affirms some things in our Christian life. And then the other words are avoid certain things we need to avoid. And other things we need to reject. Now, if things are consistent in second services, they were with first service. I'm probably not going to get to the things that you need to resist and avoid. So you're probably going to ask steady that on the, on your own. Sorry about that. All right. So look at me now, Titus chapter three, verse one, Paul is talking to Timothy to Titus, sorry, Paul talking to Titus. 2 (37m 6s): He says, remind them, remind the believers to be subject to rulers and authorities, and to obey and to be ready for every good work. Alright. So part of the reason that Paul wanted Titus to be reminded or to remind the believers about these things is because Crete, the people of Crete, they had a long standing reputation of being very corrupt. It was a corrupt society, a corrupt culture, corrupt leadership, even it was part of their culture, but their culture needed to change. You see wherever the gospel goes, we're not looking to westernize people. 2 (37m 47s): We're not looking to bring democracy to people. We're looking to transform their life and their culture, which is going to set them free. And so Paul is reminding Titus. This is what it's all about. They were corrupt society that needed to be transformed. So once again, he says, remind believers to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey and to be ready for every good work. So Paul talked about the same thing in other letters that he wrote, which I want to unpack just a little bit. The scriptures will be up on the screen for you. Romans chapter 13, beginning with verse one, it says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 (38m 40s): It's kind of a sober thought. Isn't it? Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God. And those who resist will be bring judgment on themselves for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. So here we have a little bit of a breakdown now of what leadership is supposed to look like. Even civil leadership. We're not even talking about godly leadership, civil leaders in a civil society. It says here, rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good? And you'll have praise for the same four. 2 (39m 20s): He's talking about whoever's in authority for he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid for, he does not bear the sword in vain for he is God's minister and Avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake for, because of this, you also pay taxes for their God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. So what thing are they continually this very thing attending, attending to what thing are they attending to continually? 2 (40m 7s): And again, it's for his God's minister to you for good render, therefore to all their due tax, their due taxes to whom taxes are due customed to whom customs and fear to whom fear honor to whom honor. So the premise here is that leadership is intended to give a foundation for a civil society and it rewards good people, and it has consequences for evil. All right? And he brings in there. He says, and also, I want you to do this for conscience sake. You see I've found in my life. When I violate the laws, pick a law. 2 (40m 49s): When I violate a law, my conscience says red light alarm. What are you doing? Stop? Because I say, we have this intuitive understanding that, okay, this is the law. And as a, as a good citizen, or we would say, as a godly Christian person, we obey the law. We want to do. What's good. Peter also talked about this in first, Peter chapter two, beginning with verse 13, he says this submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king, as Supreme or to governors as to those who are sent by him by the king for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. 2 (41m 44s): We see the same thing Peter's talking about encouraging good behavior and punishing evil doers for this is the will of God. That by doing good, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free yet not using Liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bond servants of God. And then he concludes with this honor, all people love the brotherhood, fear, God, and honor the king. So there's a bit of a hierarchy there. And both Paul and Peter talked about, Hey, the authorities that exist, God ordained these authorities for a certain purpose, but then he says, you know, honor, people love the brotherhood. 2 (42m 30s): I think he's talking about the community of believers, fear God, and honor the king. So what is our, what is our priorities in all this? And again, I'm kind of unpacking this to answer that question of Titus chapter three, and look at it, maybe in a more relevant way that you and I are facing right now. So remember Jesus, he was confronted by a religious ruler and you know, the religious Lew said, Hey, what, you know, what's the most important commandment of all, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses. So Jesus replied, you must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. 2 (43m 11s): The second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself, the entire law and all the demands of the profits are based on these two commandments. So Jesus is affirming that same thing. Number one, love the Lord, your God. Everything flows from that with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It is impossible to love our neighbors as ourselves, without first loving God and honoring him. So back to what Peter said, honor, people love the brotherhood, fear, God, and honor the king. And so if we want to prioritize all those things, fearing God is on the top. 2 (43m 51s): Loving the Lord with all our heart. Soul mind. Strength is on the top. Everything flows from that. So based on that verse, I read a moment ago, first Timothy three, remind them to be subject to sorry, Titus chapter three, verse one, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey, to be ready for every good work. First question of the day. Is it ever appropriate to disobey those who are in positions of authority? Is it ever appropriate to disobey those who are in positions of authority? So the answer is yes. 2 (44m 31s): Okay. When is it appropriate to disobey? When by submitting to and obeying those who are in authority, we're actually disobeying God. The Bible has a number of examples for us of this very thing. I'm not going to have the scriptures up. I'm just going to read them to you. And the first one is in the book of Exodus, chapter one, you guys know the story. So Pharaoh's the king of Egypt. He's like the dictator of all. He gave this order to the Hebrew midwives and it names, the midwives Shipra and poor. This is what he said. When you help the Hebrew women, as they give birth watch, as they deliver, if the baby is a boy, kill him. 2 (45m 19s): If it is a girl, let her live. So again, the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh has made this decree to these midwives, but because the midwives feared God, they refuse to obey the King's order. They allowed the boys to live too. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. Why have you done this? He come, he demanded. Why have you allowed the boys to live? The Hebrew women are not, this is their response. The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. The midwives replied they're are more vigorous and have their babies so quickly. The, we cannot get there in time. 2 (46m 1s): So not only did they defy Pharaoh's decree to kill the boys, they actually lied about it to what was the response. So God was good to the midwives and the Israelites continued to multiply growing more and more. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. He blessed them as a result of the fact that they refused to obey the command of Pharaoh. Another example, you guys know this one. Well, this is in the book of Daniel chapter three. And it's when Nebuchadnezzar had made this golden statue that I think was about 90 feet tall. And the command was given that everybody needs to worship this statue. 2 (46m 44s): He had created all the officials came and stood before the statue that came that never set up. And then a Herald shouted out people of all races and nations and languages listened to the King's command. When you hear the sound of the horn flute, zither Lear harp pipes and other musical instruments, bow to the ground to worship king Nebuchadnezzar, his gold statue, and anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. You know the story, there were three Hebrew, young men who, who basically said, we're, we're not doing that. 2 (47m 26s): Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied, oh, Nebuchadnezzar. So they're speaking to the utmost authority in the land of Babylon. At the time they said, we do not need to defend ourselves before you, if we're thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, your majesty, but even if he doesn't, we want to make it clear to you, your majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue that you've set up. 2 (48m 6s): You know, the rest of the story, similar situation. Now we're in, in the book of acts where the disciples, the apostles, they're going all over predominantly in Jerusalem at the time. And they're declaring what had occurred. That Jesus had been crucified that he'd been put in a tomb. And then he had risen from the dead. And they also blamed the religious authorities that they were the ones that actually put Jesus to death. So they brought the, the religious leaders, brought the apostle before the high council where the high priest confronted them. Didn't we tell you never again, to teach in this man's name. 2 (48m 49s): He demanded, instead you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death, but Peter and the apostles replied, we must obey God rather than man, or rather than any human authority on to say that again, Peter says, we must obey God, rather than any human authority. The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. And every day in the temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message. 2 (49m 29s): Jesus is the Messiah question. Once again, is it ever appropriate to disobey those who are in authority? The answer is yes. When is it appropriate? When by submitting to an obeying, those who were in authority were actually disobeying God, and why is this well? Because we ought to obey God rather than any human authority. All right. Remember the verse I read earlier, it was Titus chapter two. It says that we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age. So let's fast forward. 2 (50m 9s): Now. Now we're talking about real life. We're talking about the things that you and I face decisions. We make things that we're being told to do restrictions that are being placed upon us mandates that are being put upon us. And we have to make a decision. And I want to say, I'm not going to tell you today what your decision should be. I only know what my decision is and what I have discovered in my life, personally, something about my personality, my character, which I didn't really fully understand before. Is it the more I'm being told? What I must do? 2 (50m 50s): You must comply to this. You must, this is a mandate upon you. I find what I do is I just dig my heels in all the more, and I'm not trying to be obstinate about it or rebellious about it. But in my spirit, in my conscience, I'm sensing God does not want me to do this. And at some point I think it is our responsibility to push back. Maybe not about everything. And I'm going to talk about that in just a minute, but what I have here in my hand right now, it's a document and it's titled order. Number six of the county health officer requiring face coverings in all public indoor settings, attributable to the rise in SARS, cov two Delta variant. 2 (51m 35s): So this was put in place September 1st, what what's today? The 12th. So 12 days ago. So I'm going to read one paragraph. This order directs that face coverings shall be worn regardless of vaccination status over the mouth and nose in all indoor public settings, venues, gatherings, and workplaces, such as, but not limited to offices, retail stores, restaurants, and bars, fitness centers, theaters, museums, personal care services, family entertainment centers, conference centers, and government offices serving the public. 2 (52m 17s): So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to give you two things. I'm going to give you my personal opinion on some things. And I'm going to give you also the position that harvest church, the leaders of harvest church have taken concerning some of these things. And so I'm going to give you, first of all, my personal opinion, let me backtrack. So at harvest church, what we typically do is the elders gathered together. The elders of harvest church are Steve Henry, Jim Erickson, Nilo Hagen, Gary Tucker and myself. We take these things very, very seriously. So we, not just this, but we, we gathered together. 2 (52m 59s): There's a decision that needs to be made, something that needs to it's impacting our church and we pray. And we, we, we communicated about it and we, we attempt to always be unanimous in our decisions about what's best for harvest church. And just please know that whatever decision we come up with, it's something that we feel that God is having us do a direction to take a decision that's made for the benefit of the church. Now things may happen. And I'm sure in any church, things happen where we might not understand, or we might not agree, or why are they doing that? And I don't think they should do that and whatever, and that's totally fine. If you ever have a question about anything that we decision we make, but feel free to come and come and talk to us about it. 2 (53m 43s): But more importantly, please be in prayer for, for the elders of harvest church, because it's a, we have a big responsibility. We're responsible for God's people. And, and we want our church to have a solid foundation and we want all of us to grow and, and just be confident that as a, as a body of believers, we're, we're on the right track. So personally, back to the mask mandate, all right, personally, I don't have a problem wearing a mask. If a business establishment requires me to wear a mask, I will gladly wear a mask. I don't have a problem with that at harvest church. 2 (54m 26s): So now we're talking about our church in particular, we've chosen to leave the decision up to you. So the decision is up to you, whatever you feel is best for you. So I want to go backtrack this a little bit. Remember it was, I believe April and may of 2020, where we were told. In fact, I think all businesses, all churches, we are were told, you must shut down and everything came to a screeching halt. You guys remember that? And we complied. We stopped having church. We did everything online. We didn't gather our, our space was utterly empty. 2 (55m 5s): And so w w for a couple of months, we agreed to do that. But, but then we began to sense that God was wanting us to do something different. And so he began to meet again. Now we, we removed a bunch of chairs. We set up a big outdoor venue. We encourage people to sit outside, you know, wear a mask. If you want to have some distance between you. So back to if you'd like to wear a mask in any of our venues, we encourage you to do so. And that is perfectly fine. 2 (55m 46s): In fact, backtrack just a little bit when we were doing church outside exclusively, I think we did it for like about three months, four months. I remember I thought it was super fun, mainly because we lived on the central coast of California, where you can pretty much have our outdoor church all the time. You know? So I have fond memories of that. But at harvest church, our leaders have chosen not to mandate the wearing of masks and our worship venues. We leave that decision up to you see all along, our default has been. How about if we let individual people, individual families decide what they're comfortable with, what is safe for you, safe for your family and those around you. 2 (56m 28s): So in that regard, we are pro choice. We're pro choice. It's up to you, we're supporting a Christian's right to choose. So now back to my opinion, in my opinion, it's really not about the mask mandate. That concerns me. Perhaps you heard our president last Thursday, he is putting in place. I'm just reading from my notes here. He's putting in place vaccine mandates, not only for all federal workers and contractors, but also for all businesses with 100 or more employees. And again, to be clear, in my opinion, I don't necessarily have a problem with the vaccines. 2 (57m 12s): I do have a problem with our government potentially forcing us to get them. And by the way, by definition, they're not actually a vaccine. They are in fact gene therapy, which is a new technology, never been used before. A new technology that has no long-term data to determine its safety. In fact, a person who is fully recovered after having COVID has a superior immunity against the virus and all the variants compared to those who have been fully vaccinated. 2 (57m 59s): Again, that was my opinion. So ultimately what I personally have a hard time with is the sense that we are being manipulated. We are being lied to about many things. I have the feeling that we're being set up. And in my opinion, our leaders seem to be sewing and fueling division and discord within our country. I don't know if you guys are aware of this. There's the thing is called the Nuremberg code. The Nuremberg code was established prior at the end of world war two, when they were holding those accountable for the atrocities of the, the Nazis, the Germans, and one of the things that was being done during world war two is the Nazis were doing experiments, medical experience, experiments on Jewish people and, and others without their consent. 2 (58m 55s): So the Nuremberg code, which was established and voted on by the international community, this is international treaty in the Nuremberg code. It is said that you cannot, no nation can coerce or force its citizens to take medical procedures that they, that they do not want to receive. So it's international law and it's in violation of our laws as well. So it seems to me that our leaders are sewing and feeling division and discord within our country. Do you remember what Jesus said about this in Luke chapter 11? 2 (59m 38s): He said this every kingdom, every nation divided against itself is brought to desolation. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. Do you remember the, the two things that the terrorists, those who committed the terrorist attacks on nine 11, they, what they wanted to do is they wanted to undermine our freedom and they wanted to keep us in fear. I see that same thing, continuing, and, and maybe even being more impactful now in our day now, to be clear, I'm not ignorant of the seriousness of COVID. 2 (1h 0m 26s): In fact, about two weeks ago, one of our dear friends died from COVID and he's 58 years old, relatively healthy guy. So I'm not in any way saying that this isn't a serious health issue that we need to be dealing with and, and praying about and ask God how we should approach it. But again, the census that we're being manipulated and lied to my opinion, is that as much as we would all like things to get back to normal, things are never going to get back to normal. 2 (1h 1m 16s): Things are quickly moving in the direction of what the prophets foretold in the Bible. One world leader, one world government, a cashless global economy that is controlled in such a way so that a person cannot buy or sell without receiving a special mark on their right hand or on their forehead, back to Titus three, one, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey. But here's the thing I really want to focus on this morning to be ready for every good work, to be ready for every good work. 2 (1h 2m 1s): So as Christian men and women, we are all about being a godly and a good influence in our community and in the world. We're all about being ready for every good work I trust. God will give us the wisdom, the discernment, the ability to make these decisions as we need to make them. But we're all called in whatever area of life you live, whatever sphere of impact you have to be ready for every good work. In fact, actually, I would say this, you were born for this Ephesians chapter two verse 10 for we are God's workmanship. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. 2 (1h 2m 44s): You're born for this, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Perhaps we are here today for such a time as this, when I would pray, we would pray that people's hearts could begin to be opened up to the gospel message. Maybe such as never has happened before. Jesus talked about, you know, the fields there they're ready for the harvest. He said, but you need to pray for laborers to go out into the harvest and to bring them in. Jesus is returning that that is the first certain thing. We don't know when, but until he comes back again, I think our priorities should be bringing the gospel, taking the gospel to as many people as possible in our world and bringing them to Jesus who will give them that sense of living a life without fear, living in the freedom and the Liberty, where in crisis set us free. 2 (1h 3m 47s): Finally, this is the last scripture want to present to us today. And this is from Matthew chapter five, verse 16. Jesus said, this, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your fathers and head that isn't heaven. Lord, I pray father that you would instill in us. Lord a sense, not a fear, but a sense of victory. Lord, I pray that as there is this, I don't know if I'd call it a conspiracy, but this movement to undermine our freedom in America, undermine our liberties. Lord, I pray that you would help us understand that if any man is in Christ, that we are free, our freedom comes from you and Lord. 2 (1h 4m 36s): I also pray that as we are confronted with all the decisions, the mandates, the challenges, the forcings upon us, that comes our way. Lord help us to make the decision that is obedience to you, where we need to comply, help us to comply, where we need to disobeyed, help us to do that with humility and Lord, I know many of us in our workplaces, we're being mandated to do these things. And it's a difficult decision about either complying or, or losing our job. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to come to the conclusion that obedience to you is far superior than a job that you will provide for us, no matter what happens, no matter what threats might come our way or because we belong to you. 2 (1h 5m 26s): So Lord, we just look to you for everything. Build us up in our most holy faith, give us in this day, discernment like no other. And we bless you. We thank you in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand. We're going to continue to worship this morning. 1 (1h 10m 45s): I'd like to invite the prayer team up. I think now's a good time. And then if anybody would like to respond and just receive some prayer, what we're going to have, we're just going to have them up here during the last song. 0 (1h 10m 57s): Good morning. 1 (1h 14m 3s): Thank you, Lord, for setting us free. Thank you. That like true freedom from, from sin and death only comes through Jesus and we have it right here, Lord, I just thank you for the access we get through through Jesus.

0 (10s): . 0 (11m 48s): Bye God. 0 (11m 52s): you never stop. 0 (13m 49s): You never stop. Never stop. stop. Stop. Stop. 0 (14m 7s): stop. 0 (16m 13s): Stop, stop, stop, stop. Stop. 0 (16m 28s): promise in the thought that is a true story, Lord. 0 (17m 47s): That is who you are. You are always working in us 1 (17m 53s): With us and through us. And that we're so humbled by that heard a song this week that said, when everybody's running away, God is running towards you. Through failures, mistakes, dumb things that we say when people are moving away from us, God, you're moving toward us because you're working and your grace is sufficient kindness. 1 (18m 34s): Everlasting, your love unconditional hard to fathom. Thank you for it. Lord, God continue to move toward us in this service Lord and help us to move toward you as well. Lord, as we worship you, as we open up your word and receive instruction, Lord, we want to hear what you have to say to us, not just today, but every day, Lord God. Today's just the time that we gather corporately and we hear together what you want to say to the body of Christ, but Lord, every day, Lord, help us to remain in you, to abide in you, to be connected to you, to be filled with you. 1 (19m 16s): Lord God, I don't know about the rest of the group, the Lord. I can't do it without you. I don't want to do it without you. So thank you Lord, for your kindness to ride out the storms of life with us to be faithful when things are good. And when things are hard, you're faithful. God minister all over the central coast is people are struggling with illness and issues. Lord God, I just pray God that she bring healing all over the central coast. 1 (19m 58s): God, that people would know that you're alive and well because of the good work that you're doing. God, thank you more. Be ministering all over the world and places like Afghanistan, where they're just hard and horrific things happening, Lord God, we just pray for your grace, your sovereign power and presence all over the globe. Lord God that you be protecting people and rescuing people and responding to the hard cries of people meeting the physical needs and the spiritual needs of people all over the globe or God, God would just invite you to do wonderful and supernatural things locally and globally. 1 (20m 42s): God help us to be mindful to be prayerful and to be faithful. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Hey man, 2 (20m 49s): You can be seated. God bless you. God bless you. Thank you. Worship team. We've titled the message today. The PA the path to godly character in a fallen world and had a chance to be tested in this arena on, in, in a golf match that I was in this week, the path to godly character in a fallen world. One guy said I've given up cussing, unless I'm on the golf course. I didn't say that somebody else said that, but I might as well have said that. So the path to godly character in a fallen world. 2 (21m 30s): So money, money, where we were playing golf this week and, and we're excited, we're gonna go out and play 18 holes of golf. And, and we get out there and we get behind this, excuse me, but we get behind this geriatric couple, this very old couple and which is fine, but they were very slow as well. And I'm very, 3 (21m 51s): Very thoughtful about every shot and, and it just went on 1 (22m 1s): And on and on and on. And 2 (22m 3s): So finally, at one point we decided if we're going to just jump over this couple and go to the next hole. And then we ran into the same thing, another old couple who bless their hearts. They were very, just thoughtful about every shots. And, and so we get through the front nine and then we decided let's just go have lunch. Hopefully all of the slow people get, get ahead of us and move and get moving. And then we'll be able to get out and play. But the truth is we were playing such terrible golf, both of us from the first strike of the ball to the very last strike of the ball that we were completely discouraged with our golf game. 2 (22m 46s): And then we were, so it was just, we sat at lunch and we said, this was, this has been a, a lesson in patience today, the path to godly character in a fallen world and imperfect world. And so we were tested that day. We were so discouraged after nine holes and after lunch, then we get to lunch and we're at the counter for lunch. And then we get behind this other, I think it was one of the same couples that we were behind on the golf horse. And they were very thoughtful about every decision that they were making at the cafeteria there, the, the restaurant in and the service was really, really slow. 2 (23m 30s): So every moment we had opportunity to be, to find the path, to godly character in a fallen world, because you want to lash out you're right. You're like, w we, we wanted to say speed it, Alice, right? You want to just kind of yell it out there and get anxious. But, but we decided not to do that. And we just crumbled amongst ourselves instead, which is, you know, the high road, I guess in that situation, we shouldn't have grumbled at all, but we did. And so we just quit. We quit after nine holes and went home. We decided it was over. I was reading in Proverbs chapter three. It's not going to be up on the screen. But I was reading this yesterday in light of the message that I wrote this week. 2 (24m 14s): Proverbs three 15 through 17 says wisdom is more precious than rubies. Nothing you desire can compare with her. She offers you long life in her right hand and riches and honor in her left, she will guide you down delightful paths. She will guide you down delightful paths. All her ways are satisfying. And so I thought it was interesting that that word path was used in my devotional reading. After I'd written the message, there's an expectation that God has upon us. It's put upon us. And it is to be expected actually as believers and followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 (24m 59s): Why? Because we're filled with actually, we're filled with his presence. When we come to faith in Jesus, we're told that his spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the person of the holy spirit actually comes in, takes up residency lives in us. And so we're to live our lives as believers, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, reflecting that life that is within us. And we're told in John 15 to abide in Christ that he will abide in us and we will produce much fruit. And so out of that life of a biting remaining in Christ and being filled with the holy spirit, there's actually, there's actually a change of life that is obvious or should be obvious in us and with us, we're in Titus chapter two, but at the end of Titus chapter one, Paul wrote about the corrupt and unbelieving. 2 (25m 51s): He said, this is why they were corrupt and unbelieving. He said, they claim to know God, but they deny him by the way they live their lives. Isn't that interesting? So he said, they claim to know God, but they deny him by the way that they're living their lives. In other words, Paul could look at their lives and know that they're not, that they don't actually know God they're there. Their lives were actually in congruence. What they said, they believed didn't actually line up with the way that they live their lives. There there's a specific path, the path of godly wisdom that we must choose to develop godly character. 2 (26m 33s): And it's in doing so that our lives 3 (26m 36s): Arguing group, once we 2 (26m 39s): Live not perfectly, we can all raise our hands and talk about the struggles that we have followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, things that get us into trouble and things that that causes problems. So we're not talking about perfection, but we are talking about consistency. And, and we're talking about on an honest pursuit of God, God, and his plans and purposes for our lives and honest pursuit of the path of righteousness that God is calling us to live on. So there's a specific path. It's the path of godly wisdom that we must choose news. And it's something that I find I got to choose all the time. 2 (27m 19s): I got to change. I got to choose it like on the golf course, I got to choose it. What I'm doing just about everything. I've got to choose this godly path or else by default, I'm off, off the path and do thinking and saying, and acting like I shouldn't be acting. So if I don't choose the path that I'm off the path all together. So that of wisdom keeps us congruent in the way that we live our lives. So we, we, we actually begin to live in the way that God has called us to live. So Paul wrote to Titus this clear instruction regarding life and lifestyle and how to live. 2 (28m 2s): He said in verse one, Titus two, one is for you, Titus promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching. So he, Paul saying it matters. And we see it throughout the whole Bible old and the new Testament, whether Paul's writing about it or somebody else, we're seeing that it matters how we live our lives. As for you, Titus Titus, you're leading the people of God on the island of Crete, eat this godless place, this worldly place. I want you to promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching, make sure your living and your teaching line up. 2 (28m 44s): And this is a challenge for anybody like myself, who has a teaching role and responsibility, but it's not just about pastors and people upfront. It's about small group Bible study leaders. It's about youth leaders and Sunday school leaders and good news clubs, leaders it's about anybody who wants to proclaim with their lips, with their mouth, that they profess Jesus. We need to make sure that our living and our teeth Ching lineup Titus must live in such a way that his life models wholesome T teaching the teaching you received from Paul and the teaching. He gives day to day. 2 (29m 25s): So all of our lives should be, they should reflect the wholesome teaching we are receiving. So I get up on Sunday morning and I preach and teach and lead. And it's our job myself. First and foremost to take in what I say this all the time, I'm preaching to myself mostly. And if you get something out of it, then God bless you, but I'm mostly teaching to myself, you know, and all of us. And we need to make sure w what we're hearing as we listen to the teaching. And then as we open it of the scripture, because we need to be opening up the scripture to learn, to sell feed and, and, and teach and be taught by the holy spirit and, and be, and be learning all the time. 2 (30m 6s): As we look at them, the word of God, like a mirror held up to our lives. We say, oh, I'm actually not doing this. Yes, very well. And so Lord, forgive me for not doing this very well. I need to make sure that I'm doing this. So by your spirit and in your power, Lord helped me to do that. So we all need to reflect the wholesome teaching we're receiving. So that's a responsibility, right? It's a responsibility, the teacher, but also on the student, I need to be teaching and then making sure that my life is like coming up with what I'm teaching. And then the student must listen 3 (30m 41s): And then make sure their 2 (30m 43s): Lives are lining up with what is being taught. So the pupil and the teacher both have this responsibility that our lives accurately reflect the wholesome teaching of the scripture. So what does wholesome teaching look like? Your Bible might use the words like sound 3 (31m 2s): Doctrine. 2 (31m 3s): Your translation might say sound right. Doctrine sound doctrine is basically healthy doctrine. Healthy doctrine leads to a healthy, spiritual life. This contrasts with the disease. Remember we learned last week that the religious leaders, this church leaders in this, on this island of Crete were actually misleading. The people there were actually not godly people. They said that they knew God, but they denied him by the way they live their lives. So this contrast, this healthy doctrine, it contrasts with the diseased teaching of the religious leaders on the island in Titus one nine. It says that the elders are to encourage others with wholesome teaching or with sound doctrine, sound doctrine are the truths that we believe. 2 (31m 53s): They're the trues that we teach as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It's our Christian statements of faith. It's this doctrine that we hold, dear. It's the chews we teach and preach. We already are Christian believers. Titus must teach these truths to do a couple different things to combat godless teaching, right? Because we're always hearing godless things, things that are not godly and things that are not truth. And so the truth of God's word combats, that, and he helps us to think properly about it, but it also equips the believers for good works in Christ. When we have a proper understanding of biblical doctrine, godly doctrine, then we live out of that. 2 (32m 38s): We live out of our, if the information that we believe we live out of that, that, and then hopefully we're making wise choices and we're staying on the path that God would have us to stay on. So Titus my teach these truths, the most combat godless teaching and do equip the believers for good works in Christ. Verse two, he says, teach the older men to exercise self-control to be worthy of respect and to live wisely. They must have sound faith and be filled with love and patience. So the path to godly character and a fallen world, number one, step one, exercise self-control. So this is for the older men, but as we will see these characteristics for the men, the older men, the older women, the younger man, the younger women for slaves, all of the above, they apply to all of us. 2 (33m 31s): They apply to all of us. And so we're actually, we actually won't become older, godly people. If we don't begin the process now, 3 (33m 44s): Well, there's, we, you know, they're there, 2 (33m 47s): There are exceptions to that. Obviously people come to faith in Christ, late in life. I remember Jolene's grandpa came to faith late in life, and he was completely transformed. He was completely transformed by the grace message of the Lord, Jesus Christ, as he was filled with the holy spirit. And he became, as we reflect in, as we remember, cause he passed about 10 years ago or so maybe a little bit longer, but we reflect on his life. He was totally transformed, getting saved at about, I don't know, in probably 80 years old or so. 3 (34m 21s): So 2 (34m 22s): There, there are exceptions, but the best way to gain this, that kind of stuff has to begin when we're young and to live a lifetime exercising self-control. So the older men are to 3 (34m 35s): Understand and grow in this 2 (34m 36s): Area of self-control and then model it to everyone. But this truth is for every one self-control well, let's unpack that a bit. Self-control it's fruit or evidence of the holy spirit control in our lives. Self-control I think I'll be wrestling with this area of self-control for the rest of my life. So it's good that I start now or hopefully started awhile ago because it'll be something that will be a burden to me for the rest of my life. Self-control but it was really the fruit or evidence of the holy Spirit's control. 2 (35m 18s): It's evidence that the holy spirit is in us when we have self-control regarding our words, thoughts and deeds. It's not just about our deeds. It's just not about our words, but it's about our thoughts as well. That secret place where we can get out of control with a lack of self-control. And so God's concerned about all three, right? Because Jesus said, if you sin in your heart, you it's just like you've done it naturally or outward. So self-control all fruit or evidence of the holy spirit. So if you're lacking, self-control just ask the holy spirit, 3 (35m 59s): God, I need 2 (35m 60s): Self-control regarding my anger toward this person or regarding my attitude toward this person or regarding my responsibility in this circumstance. God give me self, okay. Control where they have respect. That's the next one self-control goes a long way in helping someone be worthy of respect. Think about the people that you respect in your life. Those people probably have self-control troll figured out. They've figured out how to control themselves and word thought indeed. And because they figured out how to control themselves and word that need, they are worthy of respect. You usually we respect people who are making wise choices. 2 (36m 43s): We respect people who are living their life, maybe the way that we hope to live our lives. And so we hold somebody in esteem saying, I respect that person because I respect the way that they're living their lives. Dave's who is respect again, people who make wise choices. And so I think about our, our, my life as a follower of Jesus Christ is my life worthy of respect. I do somewhat, some would say yes, some, some would say no way. Yeah, I, 3 (37m 12s): But my 2 (37m 14s): Audience is God, what does God think is my life worthy of respect? And thank God for his mercy. Amen. Who is worthy of respect. People who make wise choices. So it's a, it's a lifetime of, of, of kind of attaining this respect. It's a lifetime where throughout the course of a life, you look at somebody's life and you say, man, there's been consistency, but also we've known, we've all known people. Who've made mistakes who have repented of those mistakes. And they've lived consistently or people who are humble in the midst of their mistakes. And they're there. What is God working in your life? What has God want to get changed in your life so that you can become a person who is worthy of respect. 2 (37m 55s): Maybe you just need to speak differently to people. Maybe you need to think differently about your life. Maybe you need to act differently in relationship to your circumstances in life. None of us have a perfect life with perfect circumstances. So we have to figure out how to live as a person worthy of respect, no matter what we're going through. Difficult marriages, difficult kids, a difficult financial situation, difficult physical stuff. Are we living in a way that we're worthy of respect? This is the call that God has put upon older men, but it's something that all of us need to attain to. And it's only attainable through the power of the holy spirit when we yield God. 2 (38m 36s): And when we walk with God 3 (38m 40s): Being 2 (38m 41s): Filled with his presence and remaining in him the last couple of days, probably because of our journey group, we were talking about abiding in God. And that's kind of the whole abiding in Christ. That's pretty much the theme or the underlying theme of everything that we do in journey. So I've been thinking about a lot lately. So I I've been getting up in the morning and say, Lord, help me to abide in you. I don't think I've prayed that prayer much in my life I have, but not that much. And so lately, especially this week, I've said, Lord, help me to abide in you. Meaning I want my words, thoughts and deeds it's to reflect who you are. So if I'm up against a difficult situation, I want to make sure my words 3 (39m 22s): Reflect 2 (39m 23s): Who you are. I want to abide in you. And then hopefully out of that, there's there's wise choices and respect. Jesus said, yes, I'm the vine. You are the branches. Those who remain in me and I then will produce much fruit for apart from me. You can do nothing. 3 (39m 40s): John 15 there. So 2 (39m 42s): People who remain abiding Christ make wise choices. What else? The old men are supposed to have sound faith. The older men must have sound. Faith sound. Faith comes from sound. Faith sound. Faith comes from, how do you get sound faith while your faith will be tested to prove whether it's sound or not. There's just no other way around it. It will be tested. It's like building a boat. You've eventually got to put that boat in the water to see if it will float. If the float, if the boat doesn't float, it's not a sound boat, right? A boat is designed to float and to carry passengers and cargo. 2 (40m 25s): So if it doesn't do that, then it's not sound. And so what happens? The boat comes back out of the water and they go back to work on the boat, right? It's tested, right? So maybe you're pulled, been pulled out of the water so that your faith can be tested. And you're about to be put back in the water to see if your boat floats be okay, either way, be okay with it work because the work is done by the, the boat builder. In this case, the spirit of God, the person of God who wants to make you see worthy, you see worthy so that you can be effective doing the things that he's called you to do and living the way that you've called. 2 (41m 7s): He's called you to live so older. Men must have sound faith. And that again is developed over the course of life. Maybe you don't have sound faith right now, but you're saying, God, I want you to, I'm sinking in the water. And it take me out, put me on the rack and fix 3 (41m 24s): Me. All right? 2 (41m 27s): And you're saying, God, what does it need? What do I need to be fixed? Then you go back and maybe you're, you're looking at all these attributes that we're talking about today and tie this to you. And you're saying, I 1 (41m 35s): Need that. And I need that. And I need that. You're making a little 2 (41m 38s): Shopping list and let's let the holy spirit make that shopping list for you. He might say, yeah, you're doing great there, but you need this. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Self-control worthy of respect, sound faith. And the older man must also be filled with love and 3 (41m 55s): Patience, love and patience. I think 2 (42m 2s): Sometimes as we get older, we get a little less loving and a little less patient. That's the temptation, right? Little less loving. Cause we get a little more cynical. Right? Right. Cause we know things where we think we do. We've got opinions about things. And so we get a little less loving, a little less patience. So I think it's interesting that that Paul said to the older men be filled with love and patience. Jesus said in John 1334 and 35, it's up on the screen. So now I'm giving 3 (42m 33s): You a new commandment, love each other, love each other. How just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another 2 (42m 45s): Will prove to the world that you are my disciples. 3 (42m 48s): When we're loving each 2 (42m 50s): Other, like Jesus loves us. We're demonstrating that we belong to him, that we belong to Jesus because our love looks just like Jesus's love 3 (43m 0s): For the world. A new commandment 2 (43m 3s): Love each other just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. So that's the doctrine of love or to love, not just in 3 (43m 16s): Word. I love you. We should say that. We should say it often to the people that we love, but our 2 (43m 27s): Actions should reflect that statements. Just like our actions should, should support the statement of our faith. It's just support our love. So are we doing loving things 3 (43m 39s): Where we're just getting crotchety as we get old, 2 (43m 46s): The doctrine of love, this is what Jesus taught us about. Love and impatience. 3 (43m 52s): I think 2 (43m 52s): We should, as we get older, we should be the most patient people 3 (43m 54s): In the world. But what happens? 2 (43m 57s): We start aching everywhere. We start, you know, start feeling all the pains of life. And, and then we get impatient and we kind of justify our inpatients. Where's the, ah, I'm an old guy. Everybody, everybody should be patient with me. Right. And, and, but that's not what the Bible says. That's not what Paul is telling us. He said, be patient. The, the younger people in our lives should witness our patients and then desire that it's something that's is very difficult in this day and age. 2 (44m 39s): But it's a work of the holy spirits 3 (44m 42s): That makes 2 (44m 43s): Us patients. So be patient, the older men must be patient. It's a lifetime process. Right? So number one, exercise. Self-control number two. Choose to honor. God says in verse three, similarly. Yeah. That's always a hard word for me to say, similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God 3 (45m 8s): Teach the older women 2 (45m 9s): To live in a way that honors God. Paul's addressing the issues of the people on this Greek island called Crete. And he's fashioning a list of areas for men and women, old men, old women, young women, young men, slaves, he's fashioning a list of areas that need attention. So Paul was writing a letter to you. What might that look like? What might that list be? Mate, maybe you can kind of take a little bit from each and every area and say, yeah, this is kind of my, yes, this is kind of my lists teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. 2 (45m 52s): And then he just kind of unpacks that. He said, they must not slander others. The king James version says don't be a false accuser. In other words, your words should be seasoned with 3 (46m 10s): Grace. So 2 (46m 13s): Maybe you check with your self or check with the holy spirit. That's a better idea. So I got, should I say this? I think we should be filled so filled with the holy spirit that God has full access to our lives. So that when we're about to say something, because he knows that we're going to say, he knows what we're going to say before we say it. He knows what we're going to do before we do that. We give him full access so that we actually are so sensitive to the holy spirit that we hear him say, sheesh, like stop. Like don't, don't say that. All right. And then what w we say, yes, Lord. 2 (46m 53s): Right? We say, yes, Lord. Like I know what I was going to say. And you know what I was going to say, but I'm, I'm, I'm not going to say it. Or if we're about to do something and word thought or deed, and he says, stop, 3 (47m 13s): We have 2 (47m 15s): A sensitivity to the holy spirit. And so we, I think that's what God's desire for us and sending the holy spirit to do, empower us to live the kind of life that he's called us to live, to do the works that he's called us to do. But he's got to have close access to our hearts and minds that just with the still a smallest voice, he's got her attention and we do what he says to do. So maybe the next time we're tempted to, and again, this is not just for older women, but this is for all of us. All of this list is, but specifically there must've been an issue with the older women, slandering, falsely accusing. 2 (47m 56s): And so he's addressing yet. So maybe, maybe this is your issue. Maybe it's not your issue, but maybe the next time you're tempted to slander and we're all tempted to slander. Maybe you just say, God, 3 (48m 8s): I, I want to make sure 2 (48m 10s): That my words are seasoned with grace. I want to listen and then watch your behavior. And your words change as the holy spirit says, stop, don't be falsely accused or your words should be seasoned with grace. Speaking the truth in love. We're we're really good at speaking the truth. We're really good at that. Right? But speaking the truth in love so that our words are seasoned with grace, what does it mean to speak the truth in love? It means we want the very best for the person that we're speaking the truth to. We're not looking to be right. We're not looking to accuse. 2 (48m 52s): We're just speaking the truth in love and that we want to see that person built up in their faith and their understanding. We want to see that per person restored. We make sure that person is loved. And sometimes we say hard things, but it's done in love. 3 (49m 12s): We've done our part. We must 2 (49m 14s): Us to speak the truth, but we must speak the truth and love again, this is not just for older women, but all of us also it says, or be a heavy drinker. So older women must not be heavy drinkers and slaves to much wine. It says we live in wine country. So we have to guard against this. It doesn't say don't drink wine. It says don't be enslaved to much wine or be heavy drinker. So just be careful, be careful that you're not drinking 3 (49m 50s): Too much. 2 (49m 52s): Bible says, yeah, the fees is five. Don't be drunk with wine. It will ruin your life instead. Be filled with the holy spirit. So be careful. Some of us have Liberty to drink. Some of us don't have Liberty to drink. Some of us can drink a little in moderation and we're fine. Some of us can't drink at all because we won't be fine. So pay attention to what you're doing and make sure that you're fine. Make sure that you're good with the Lord. Maybe it's the holy spirit again, saying stop to that extra bit or two at all. Don't be heavy drinkers. Why? Because drunkenness leads to foolishness and foolishness is the antithesis of what we're trying to accomplish as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 (50m 39s): We want to be on a path, the path to godly character in a fallen world. Instead, the older women should teach others. What is good in word? And indeed so older women are to teach 3 (50m 55s): In word 2 (50m 55s): And indeed. So it actually doesn't do a lot of good just to speak. If there's not action, following the speaking, 3 (51m 7s): It actually 2 (51m 8s): Is pretty pointless to try to and give instruction when there's not 3 (51m 13s): Evidence that you're following 2 (51m 16s): That instruction yourself. So instead of the older women should teach others, what 3 (51m 21s): Is good? So not drinking to excess drunkenness, not slandering others, living in a way that honors God that's, God's call for our older women. I'm gonna stop 2 (51m 44s): There for this week because there's a lot more than I need to cover for this chapter. And we're just kind of getting out of time. So we will pick up the balance of this next week. Steps three, four, and five step three for next week, just to wet your appetite own the next generation. That's what we'll be talking about. Step four for next week. Being an example by doing good works will impact this next week. And step five, do all things as unto the Lord 3 (52m 21s): Lord. As we consider these things, imprint upon our hearts and minds, the truth that we need to hear and to give us the grace to be obedient. We pray 2 (52m 38s): In Jesus name. Amen. Hey, as the worship team comes up and kind of gets ready to go, I'm going to go over to the list of home groups that are available. Ron talked about all kinds of stuff that's going on, but there is so much going on. Christy covered it last week. But I asked Christie to give me a outline of everything that's happening so quickly. I'm going to go through the, I think 17 different opportunities that are before us to be involved. I think that's the number don't count because I could be wrong about that. Here we go. Home groups. This is under home groups. Brett's and Ann Harvey are hosting a group for families focused on those who have adopted children or foster care families, but all families are welcome. 2 (53m 19s): They will meet twice a month on Sundays at 5:00 PM. So that's a home group at the Harvey's. I believe they're in Nipomo. And so that if, Hm, no, it is an age. Okay, good. So all of this information is on our website. Also Jim and ginger Raman host a home group on Wednesdays at seven o'clock in a row Grandy Kurt and Andy Saltzman will be hosting a home group for parents of teens. They will meet on Wednesdays at the same time as youth group. So that's happening. Scott and Amy Goodman hosts a home group on Thursdays at 6:00 PM and a Pomo. They are currently setting through the book of Luke, Carol, Gary and Carol when hosts a home group on Thursdays at 6:30 PM in AIG, Matt and Stephanie list, we'll be hosting a group for families meeting twice a month on Sundays from four to seven for worship potluck, dinner, fellowship, and sermon discussion. 2 (54m 9s): Josh and Christine Erdmann will be hosting a group setting the Bible Bible school on wheels classes. So the, the stuff that we've been teaching through midweek for the last few years, they will meet on Tuesdays at six 30 for discussion study and fellowship. And they're in a Pomo. Seth and Carrie McMillan will be leading financial peace university. Ron already talked about that biblical money principles that teach you how to save for emergencies, pay off debt, spend wisely and save for your future. 3 (54m 42s): They meet in the Pomo. Our 2 (54m 44s): Foundations class. This session will be the survey. The Bible taught by Bruce Wilkinson. That will be Sunday mornings at nine o'clock. And then we have a weekly prayer group that meets Thursday mornings at eight o'clock in the loft. So that's home groups and the prayer prayer group. And then there's also men's groups. Jim Erickson leads a early morning men's Bible study, which meets Thursday mornings at six 15 currently studying the book of Philippians. So that's happening Thursday, six 15, Dave Workman leads a men's Bible study and prayer group. They meet on Tuesdays at 6:00 PM here at the church. The pure desire groups for men who are seeking sexual purity. 2 (55m 28s): They meet on Mondays at 6:30 PM, really all over this campus on Mondays age specific, the young professional groups, they call themselves the GoPros, the unprofessional group for ages 22 to 39 meets twice a month on Mondays at 7:00 PM. And we'll be setting through a book of the Bible. The college group meets on Friday evenings at 6:00 PM in various homes in the five cities area. So that's college and yo pros. And then you've got women's groups. Our morning, ladies Bible study has led by Jean and Nate. They meet on Thursday mornings at 10:00 AM and we'll be setting the book of second Peter. And they meet, I believe in the loft. 2 (56m 8s): Jen Hayden leads a young women's Bible study for those, between the ages of 25 and 40. The group meets on Tuesdays at 6:45 PM. And then the good yarn club meets for fellowship and yarn crafting on the second Saturday of each month, 5:00 PM also there's clubs, five, six for fifth and sixth graders. I think there were like 28 or so fifth and sixth graders this week. There's junior high and high school. There's all kinds of stuff going on. There's journey groups that are already happening. So they're not really open for newcomers at this point, but there's journey groups for men and for women that are also happening. And you'll be up to speed on those. When those restart soon, there's just so many opportunities. 2 (56m 49s): I'm guessing, I'm guessing. Did anybody count? I told you not to count. Good job. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. I was close 3 (57m 8s): 18. 2 (57m 10s): Plus the groups that are already going puts us probably close to 20 to 23 groups happening during the week. So plenty of opportunity for people of all ages, male and female, you guys are welcome to, to check those things out there on our website. Also, you can send them to be a part there's a kind of a little signup, fair outside. You can send it to be a part of ministries within the church. How many, how many I'm going to have you guys stand? How many are work have are working with kids in the church. If you're working with kids, go and stand up all over the campus. If you're working with kids. So that would be, that would be nursery through high school. 2 (57m 52s): All right. Nurses, your high school. What about the college and young adults? How many are working with colleges? Young adults. If you're doing that, go ahead and stand up. What about women's groups? If you're working with women's groups, go ahead and stand up. No, stay standing, stay standing. There we go. There we go. Sorry. I didn't make that clear also. Okay. What if you're working with men groups, go ahead and stand up. Jim. That would include you. Go ahead and stand up. 3 (58m 18s): There we go. There we go. 2 (58m 22s): Men's women's kids. Prayer. How many are involved in prayer? The ministry of the church. Go ahead and stand up. 3 (58m 30s): What about 2 (58m 32s): Para church ministry? Whether you're involved in a ministry outside of the church where you're involved in like jail or convalescent home, or you're involved in some kind of street ministry where you're involved in doing some kind of ministry throughout 3 (58m 47s): The week. What 2 (58m 49s): If you, there we go. Go ahead. Yeah. What if you take in little tiny babies and nurture them and love on them? If that's you go ahead and stand up. Cause that's a killer ministry. What if you're going to stand up? If you've got a foster your care ministry, there are so many things. What have I missed cleaning? What if you're a part of the cleaning team? Go, go ahead and stand up. Jolene cleaning. I knew I was, I should've made a list. If you're a part of the cleaning team, go ahead and stand up. If you're a part of the music ministry, go in and stand up music, meeting tech. So that'd be a tech team. You guys can stand up. If you're a part of the maintenance team here at harvest shirts, go ahead and stand up all over the campus. 2 (59m 35s): What else? Safety team. If you're part of the safety team, all of it, we make me list for a second service. Also, if you're a part of the coffee ministry of harvest yards, go ahead and stand up. Emmy. You should be standing up for women's stuff. There we go. Don't make me call you out. If you're a part of men's ministry, that would be you guys because you're, you're helping with men's breakfast stuff. Greeters. If you're a greeter, go ahead and stand up. If you're an usher, go and stand up. Info center. Sunday setup team 3 (1h 0m 13s): Jolene is my helpmate. She's better 2 (1h 0m 16s): Than I am smarter than I am. We're capable. She writes my sermons, just get it. She had to do that, all that to say there's a ton of people doing a ton of things all over. It takes literally a couple of hundred volunteers. Let's go ahead. Now, everybody stand up now. Thanks for standing. It takes literally like 200 to 250 volunteers. They do everything it needs to be done around the church. So even with all of these people signed up and serving, we still have more people in needed to serve. And so if you want to be a part of any of those things that we talked about, you can go out to the sign up, fair out there and be a part of that. So shall we worship some more? This is why I cut my message off a little early. 2 (1h 0m 57s): Cause I knew I'd be doing all of this. So Lord, as we worship be glorified, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Let's sing. 4 (1h 1m 4s): Now if you breathe, if you can breathe in here, please stand up. If you can breathe. 0 (1h 1m 42s): That is Jesus, God, we worship you in this place. 0 (1h 10m 12s): Lord, we thank you for the service this morning. God, I pray that as we go outward that we would find moments to honor you God, that we would find moments to pause in our day and just ask you, ask him, call on the holy spirit. Lord, we worship you. We praise you in your most precious name. We pray. Amen. If you need prayer, make your way forward. We have an amazing team of friends. Have a wonderful day.

1 (11m 53s): Us. Thank you. That your love is totally dependable. Lord. It's unconditional. So we can know, we can know of your love no matter what, Lord, it's hard for our, our human minds are finite minds to get ahold of the love of an infinite God. It's beyond our ability. Lord, all we can do is say, thank you. And we love you too, Lord God, thank you for just your goodness to me and to each and every one of us, we need your grace and your mercy and we just, we just need you all the time or so refresh us today where we need to be refreshed. 1 (12m 47s): I know so many people are struggling today with sicknesses and I've got people in hospitals and nursing homes and all kinds of stuff going on, Lord God. So many difficult challenges and yeah, it's on the other side of things. So many amazing things, so many good things, Lord God. And so I pray that you administer grace to those who are struggling and suffering today and encouragement to those and health to those Lord and, and God that you would also just bless those who are just so grateful today. We're grateful that you are faithful. Lord, thank you for who you are because we know all too well who we are and we need you. 1 (13m 33s): Jesus. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. This while everybody is still standing, I want to mix things up a little bit today. Why don't we take communion at the beginning of service instead of the end of service. So hopefully everybody's got elements that if not raise your hand and we will get those elements to you. I want us to stay standing. Just, this is a way to honor the Lord worship team. You guys can be dismissed. So as people grab their, okay, I've got elements. Thank you. 1 (14m 17s): So communion here at harvest church once a month, the family Sunday, fourth, Sunday of every month. And it's just a reminder of God's goodness, this, the sacrifice that he made for us, he reminds us through the scripture and we are reminded as we take communion that before the foundation of the world, God had a plan to bring salvation to us. We're going to be reading passages of scripture that communicate that truth to us. And so it's a bit tricky, but if you can peel off that top layer of cellophane on, there we go. Mine came off very easy that time. So I'm going to read and we're going to take communion. 1 (15m 1s): And I just want to encourage you if you're here today and you need to get yourself right with the Lord before you take communion, you simply do that by confessing your sins to him, acknowledging your need for Jesus, opening your heart to his love and to his life. And as you do that, the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ washes over you. The kindness of God is re is renewed in your heart and mind. And there's just beauty that follows. And so Lord, we thank you that your mercies are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. 1 (15m 42s): We thank you that your word we're thankful that your word speaks to us life and grace and truth. So Lord, as we read your word, as we take communion, as we pray, Lord, we just avail ourselves to you. We give ourselves to you. We say yes to you. Paul wrote in first Corinthians 1123 for I pass on to you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you do this in remembrance of me. So let's go ahead and take the wafer. 1 (16m 29s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, that you willingly went to the cross, allowed yourself to be nailed to a cross. Not because you were bad, but because I was mad now because you are a sinner, but because I, I am a sinner. So thank you for taking that, making that substitutionary sacrifice on our behalf, Lord, the same way. Verse 25, he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. 1 (17m 12s): Do this in remembrance of me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. So with that, let's go ahead and take the juice. Thank you, Lord. Thank you Lord. That when we're washed in the blood of the lamb, we are made white as snow. All of our impurities are gone in Jesus name. 1 (17m 54s): All of our failures have been forgiven. All of our sins are washed away in Jesus name. Thank you, Lord. That is such a refreshing truth. Lord God. As we talked about salvation and sanctification today, we're so excited for who we are in you and for the possibility of salvation coming to everybody that we know and sanctification coming to everybody that we know. And so Lord, we pray that you would make us excited about salvation and sanctification. Lord make us excited that we carry this message and that we've got something of life to offer people. 1 (18m 37s): So Lord help us to humbly do so excitedly do so. Bring that message to those in our world. We love you, Lord. We bless you Lord in Jesus name, amen. You can be seated. You can be seated. We're a brand new study today. We are in the book of Titus. We finished up Timothy and now we are in Titus and much like Paul's letters to Timothy. Paul has written a letter to this young man named Titus. He's a Greek believer in the Lord. Jesus Christ. Most likely the apostle Paul through his life in ministry led Titus to faith in Jesus Christ. 1 (19m 23s): And I want us to get this connection. I want us to make this connection to see that a life can be radically changed. And then through a process of salvation and sanctification can be used mightily by the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And so we see that Paul was instrumental in Titus's salvation, but then also instrumental in his discipleship process, equipping him to take the gospel message and to teach others the gospel well message. Titus traveled extensively with the apostle. Paul was involved extensively in his ministry. 1 (20m 3s): We read in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians that he, he lists Titus's name nine times over and over again. Titus is right there with the apostle Paul ministering, the administered together on the island of Crete, which is where Titus is assigned to minister to churches that have sprung up all over the island. And now we're seeing that the apostle Paul is passing the Baton. This is something that is part of the Christian faith. The Baton gets passed to us. Jesus passed the Baton. I shared this last week when he said, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit this week. 1 (20m 51s): Well, last Friday we baptized 14 people at the beach. And then I think it was a couple of days after that there was this mom and her adult son. They took a mutual friend of theirs down to the beach at nine o'clock at night because he needed to get that ties. And there's no better time than the presence. And so they took him down at nine o'clock at night and the sons videotaping the baptismal and the mom is taking this man down into the waters of baptism in Pismo beach about the same place that we baptized all those people the Friday before. And they baptize him. 1 (21m 33s): Isn't that cool? The Baton has been passed to us. Jesus said, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. So we're seeing people get baptized, get discipled in the faith, get saved first and then get baptized and discipled in the faith. And we're so excited to have that Baton passed to us. And so as we study Titus, we're going to see that Paul gave very specific instruction to Titus this young pastor who is going to help strengthen the body of believers that have sprung up in this Greek island to here. And so what I've done is I've downloaded this Bible project video. 1 (22m 17s): That's about eight minutes long, and this is something that we do from time to time when we're launching a new book of the Bible study, we'll take a moment and watch the video because the Bible project people put together an amazing video that just helps us to understand the purpose of the book of Titus, the chapters, the overall message, that conclusion and all of that. So before I preach through the rest of chapter one, before we, before I preach through the chat chapter one, we're going to take eight minutes and watch this video. So let's go and throw that up here. 2 (22m 53s): Can I sit here? Paul's letter to Titus. Titus was a Greek follower of Jesus who was for years, a trusted coworker and traveling companion of Paul's. He had helped Paul in a number of crisis situations in the past. And in this letter, we discover that Paul had assigned him the task of going to Crete, a large island off the coast of Greece to restore order to a network of house churches. Now creating culture was notorious in the ancient world. One of the Greek words for being a liar was created. So to be a cretin, these people were infamous for treachery and greed. Most of the men on the island had served as mercenary soldiers to the highest bidder and the island cities were known as being unsafe, plagued by violence and sexual corruption. 2 (23m 36s): However, the island of Crete had many strategic harbors and they serve as cities all over the ancient Mediterranean sea. And so from Paul's point of view, Crete was the perfect place to start a network of churches. Now we don't know the details, but somehow these churches came under the influence of corrupt cretin leaders. They said they were Christians, but they were ruining the churches. And so Paul assigned Titus with the task of going there to set things straight. And this letter provided the instructions. It has a pretty straightforward design. After a brief introduction, Paul gives Titus clear instructions about his tasks in the church. He then offers guidance about the new kind of household and then about the new kind of humanity that the gospel could create in these cretin communities. 2 (24m 20s): Paul then closes the letter with some final greetings. So Paul opens the whole thing by reminding Titus that his message as an apostle is about the hope of eternal life. That is the life of the new creation that is available starting now through Jesus, the Messiah and this hope was promised long ago by the God who does not lie. Now this little opening comment introduces an important theme underlying the whole letter. One of the problems in the cretin churches was that they had assimilated their ideas about Jesus, the Christian God, to their ideas about the Greek gods that they grew up with specifically Zeus, their chief, God cretin. People claimed that Zeus was actually born on their island and they love to tell stories and mythologies about Zeus's underhanded character. 2 (25m 7s): He would seduce women and lie to get his way. And Paul wants to be really clear. The God revealed through Jesus is totally different than zoos. His basic character traits are faithfulness and truth, which means the Christian way of life will be about truth also, which will be a real change for these cretins. So Paul then addresses Titus with a two-fold task. He says the first one is to appoint new leaders for each church community, a team of what he calls elders, mature husbands or fathers, whose way of life is totally different from cretin culture. They're to be known for integrity, total devotion to Jesus, for self-control and generosity, both in their families and in the community at large. 2 (25m 49s): And these new leaders are to teach the good news about Jesus and replace the corrupt leaders who need to be confronted that's Titus a second task. Paul identifies the teachers as those of the circumcision. In other words, they were ethnically Jewish cretins who said that they followed Jesus, but similar to the problems in glacier, these people demanded that non-Jewish Christians be circumcised and follow the laws of the Torah. If they really wanted to become followers of the Jewish Messiah. Paul says that they're obsessed with Jewish myths and human commands. And to top it off, they're just in the church leadership business to make money. And so Paul, in a brilliant move, he pulls a quote from an ancient cretin poet at the amenities who was very Frank and honest about the character of his own people. 2 (26m 35s): He said, Cretans are always liars, vicious beasts, and lazy gluttons. They blur the lines between true and false between good and evil and they're just in it for the money. And so while these leaders claim to know God, they're cretin way of life denies him, they have to be dealt with. And this leads Paul into the next section because of these corrupt leaders, many Christians in these churches now have homes and personal lives that are a total wreck and three different times. Paul highlights the result of all of this, the message about Jesus is discredited. Their non-Christian neighbors now have good cause to make evil accusations. And all of this makes the teaching about God, our savior totally unattractive, not compelling to anybody. 2 (27m 18s): So Paul paints a picture sure of the ideal cretin household that is devoted to Jesus. It would be elderly men and women who are full of integrity and self control. So they can become models of care, character to the young people. And the young women shouldn't be sleeping around and avoiding marriage as was fashionable and Crete at the time. But rather they should be looking for faithful partners so they can raise stable, healthy families. And the young men are to do the same they're to be known as productive, healthy citizens, Christian slaves on create we're in a unique position because we know that because of the gospel, they were treated as equals in Paul's church communities. However, there was a danger that they would use that equality as licensed to disrespect their masters and then become associated with slave rebellions, which would further discredit the Christian message. 2 (28m 6s): You can see Paul negotiating a fine line here. He believes that the gospel about Jesus needs to prove its redemptive power in the public square. If it's really going to transform, create and culture, and that's not going to happen through social upheaval or by Christians, cloistering away from urban life. The Christian message will be compelling to cretins when Christians fully participate in public life, when their lives and homes look similar on the surface, because after it closer look, their neighbors will discover that Christians live by a totally different value system out of devotion to a totally different God. And that's the difference that Paul beautifully summarizes at the end of chapter two, he says the value system driving the Christian way of life is God's generous. 2 (28m 52s): Grace, which appeared in the person of Jesus and will appear again at his return. This grace was demonstrated when Jesus gave up his life honor to die a shameful death on behalf of his enemies so that he could rescue and redeem them. And it's that same grace that calls God's people to say no to corrupt ways of life that are inconsistent with the generous love of God. Paul then zooms out from the Christian household to a vision of Christians living like new humans and credence society of all people. Christian should be known as the ideal citizens, peaceable, generous obedient to authorities. Yeah. Known for pursuing the common good, but this is really different from how cretins grew up. 2 (29m 35s): How are Christians it's supposed to sustain this counter-cultural way of life? And Paul believes the power source is the love of the three in one God announced in the gospel. And he explores this with a really beautiful pawn. He says, God's kindness and love are what saved us despite ourselves. So that through the holy spirit, God washed and rebirth and renewed people and through Jesus has provided a way for people to be declared right before him. And all of this opens up eternal life. That is a new future in the new creation. This living story is so powerful. It can produce new kinds of people. 2 (30m 15s): Paul convinced that spirit empowered faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus will declare God's grace all over the island of Crete and all over the world. Paul concludes by promising to send back up for Titus, either Artemis or tickets. And then he says hello to their common friends. And so the letter ends, the letter of Titus shows us Paul's missionary strategy for churches to become agents of transformation within their communities. It won't happen by waging a culture war or by assimilating to the Korean way of life. Rather, he calls these Christians to wisely participate in creating culture. They need to reject what's corrupt, but also embrace. What's good there. 2 (30m 55s): If they can learn to live peaceably and devote themselves to Jesus and to the common good Christians will, in his words, show the beauty of the message about our saving God. And that's what the letter to Titus is all about. 1 (31m 12s): Good stuff, good stuff. You can watch. Any of those videos, a video, I believe for every book of the Bible, how's that you think after all of these years, I would have that microphone figured out. Thank you, pastor Ron. Hey, we're looking at a, the title of the message today. The faith, the faith that saves and sanctifies that's really what Paul was talking about is, is what he's talking about in the letter to Titus. And that's really what we were just understood is that God is in the business of saving people from dark and destructive cultures. 1 (31m 60s): And then it's not just saving us out of our culture and out of our sin, but then sanctifying us as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so we're not just meant for fire insurance, where we just get saved and move on with our lives, but we're actually saved for the purpose of serving God and becoming more and more sanctified as we follow him throughout the course of our life. Now sanctification is a lifelong process. Salvation happens immediately when we trust Jesus for our salvation, but sanctification takes to the rest of our lives. And we have to be patient with that process patient with ourselves and then patient with one another, because every one of us are in a different place on that sanctification process. 1 (32m 44s): So let's take a look at Titus chapter one, verse one, we'll get through all of Titus chapter one today. It says this, this letter is from Paul. A slave of God ended up possible of Jesus Christ. So Paul out of the gate reminds everyone. Now he doesn't need to remind Titus who he is. He doesn't need to speak to Titus and communicate who he is. He's writing this for the benefit of everybody who will read this book after, or this letter after it's been dispersed to Titus into the churches. Or so even to this day, we're reading this letter, understanding who the author is and what the purpose of it is all about Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. 1 (33m 30s): He's a bond servant of God and an apostle taking the message of Jesus, the message of the gospel to those that he is called to take it to you. I've been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to change them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives. So there we have it in the first verse, we see the purpose of this letter. I had been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows, shows them how to live godly lives. So in this opening verse, we see the purpose of this letter. 1 (34m 13s): Faith brings us salvation and sanctification. Faith brings salvation and sanctification. Paul said, I have been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives. Number one, in your notes, faith in Jesus first and foremost saves simplistic, right? But we are here as followers of the Lord. Jesus, because our faith in the risen savior has saved us. Or we're here sitting in church this morning with the opportunity before us to receive this salvation that is made available to us because of what Jesus has accomplished. 1 (34m 57s): We, we can't jump over this point. We can't forget about this point. This is why we take communion on a regular basis because it reminds us constantly of our desperate need for the salvation that is available through our faith in Jesus, this expression, those God has chosen that he said I've been sent to proclaim faith to those. God has chosen this expression embodies. It embodies the true balance of the gospel that says God initiated salvation and then respond. There's a divine initiation where before the foundation of the world, God saw our for him before you ever knew you needed God before you were even ever born before the foundation of the earth. 1 (35m 47s): God saw you and saw that you needed salvation. And so he made a way through Jesus, this to offer you salvation, there's this balance. And so this, this divine work of God, God, coupled with our need to respond. And so we have this information, this revelation, this gospel message communicated to us. And then we get to choose what to do with maybe you're here today and you've heard the gospel over and over and over and over and over and over again. But you've never truly embraced the gospel message. 1 (36m 26s): You've never truly accepted that race message of the Lord. Jesus Christ. That message is before you again, today that Jesus loves you and he died for your sins. And he's welcoming you with open arms, into his family, wanting to, to forgive you, to save you and to say defy you. And you simply accept that grace gift by saying yes to Jesus. Some of us have said no to that grace gift because we don't feel like our lives are in order or because we don't feel like we can follow through on our commitment to follow Jesus. 1 (37m 6s): Some of us have a dozen different excuses for not saying yes to Jesus. Maybe we just don't want to surrender our lives to him. Maybe we just don't want to allow someone else to be in charge of our lives. Jesus, grace is there for you. What will you do with them? The Bible says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead. You will be saved the Bible. Doesn't say, get your whole life in order. Get all of your biblical questions, answered, figure out every dilemma in your life and then come to faith in Jesus. 1 (37m 49s): He said, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. There's this divine initiative and the human response that is before us. And I would just encourage you to accept the grace and the mercy of the Lord. Jesus Christ. I can't tell you how my life has been radically transformed since coming to faith in Jesus. My BC days are nothing like my AAD days, my, my after Christ days. And I'm so grateful for that. Verse two says this truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life. 1 (38m 30s): So Paul it's writing truth to those who have decided to follow Jesus. And this truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God who does not lie, promise them before the world began. So we're told in scripture that we're saved by grace through faith. And we see that throughout the old and the new Testament. And we can believe that we're saved by grace through faith because God does not lie. It's actually impossible for God to lie. So if God says that we're saved by grace through faith, and we have accepted that grace gift of his, then we are indeed saved by grace through faith. Some of us have a hard time believing that we're actually saved. 1 (39m 13s): And so we maybe confess our sins over and over again, come to, you know, make that prayer of declaration over and over again. And I think there's something great about confessing our sins to the Lord. If we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so I think we need to be regular confessors of our sin, but it's not for the sake of salvation over and over and over again. Once we come to faith in Christ, it's a finished work of the Lord, Jesus Christ. God can not lie. And if we can not believe God about our salvation, we're going to have a whole lot harder time believing God about everything else in our lives. We're going to have a hard time believing that God loves us. 1 (39m 54s): We're gonna have a hard time believing that God is a provider for us. That he's a healer for us. That he's a Redeemer for us. That he's good. And we're going to have a hard time believing all of these things that we sing and read about in the scriptures. Hebrews six 18 says this. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore he or we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. So in creating culture, Paul's communicating this message with Titus they're ministering on the island. 1 (40m 38s): They leave. And then Titus gets sent back to minister in this culture where Zeus has been there, prominent God, and he's a liar and a womanizer. And so they've got to go into this culture, explaining something about this new God who never lies and who is always good and who is always faithful. There, there, there needs to be a differentiation in their hearts and minds about that. True living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the three in one God, the God that God, the father, the son, and the holy spirit, they need to see the difference. And this is part of the reason that God saves us out of a culture and sanctifies us so that people can see the difference in the lives of believers, of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 1 (41m 25s): But it's also what causes people to hunger for something that they haven't experienced before that they are used to following Zeus and his role model as a liar and a womanizer. That's all, they know, people are hungry for something of choice, true religion, true faith in the living. God people know that this can not be a proper representation of who God is. And so the gospel comes in and as the gospel goes throughout the island of Crete house, churches are popping up all over the place because people are hearing of this real gospel. 1 (42m 5s): Good news message. And they're believing it. And they're beginning to walk in it. And they're beginning to abandon Zeus abandoned this small G God, who's not a God at all. Who's a counterfeit. Who's there just to distract and to hinder people from following their real Lord and savior Jesus Christ. And so people begin to see the reality of the truth of who God is. And they begin to follow that. Some of us have done though, what the Christians have done. And we've kind of married Christianity with, with pagan culture. We've blended the two in such a way that people are confused by the way that we live our lives. 1 (42m 47s): They see us calling ourselves Christians, but we, we engage in pagan, cultural type things that cause confusion and hinder our ability, our sanctity education as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so we're dealing in our culture, what the cretins we're dealing with in their culture. This temptation to bring our old life into this new life with Jesus and try to marry those things we've been saved by God's grace, so that we might be redeemed and delivered out of that old life and sanctified by his grace because he's good. Not because we're good. So our God is real. And God's plan of salvation was determined before the foundation of the world. 1 (43m 31s): So you think about zoos, he's a liar, he's a womanizer. He's all about Zeus, right? God, on the other hand, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the try, you and God, father, the son and the holy spirit. They're all about you and me. So before the foundation of the world, imagine the Godhead, they have this plan to create mankind, but they know because they know everything. He knows everything. I'll say he knows everything. When I say they I'm talking about Trinity is there it's, it's, it's a really, really difficult concept to, to fully internalize, but they, God had his, they speak among themselves being one God in three persons, father, son, and the holy spirit. 1 (44m 14s): They're thinking about how things will unfold. And they're saying, Hey mankind, we'll see. And God said, let's make a way of salvation for them so that we might know them and have relationship with them and bring them into fellowship with us. This is what it says in second Timothy, one nine for God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time and that interesting. So before you would ever sinned, before you would ever born, they made a plan. God made a plan for you to know him. And it happened before the beginning of the time to show us his grace through Christ Jesus, all right, Titus one, three. 1 (44m 56s): And now it just the right time. He has revealed this message through the Bible, which we announced to everyone. It is by the command of God, our savior that I have been entrusted with this work for him. What's the work that Paul's talking about. The writing of the inspired word of God, the proclamation of the gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ, right? Like on the road to Damascus, the apostle gets the Baton handed to him and he gets saved on the road and that the Baton is passed to him. And then he begins to take the message of the Lord, Jesus Christ, everywhere he goes. And then God uses him to write two thirds of the new Testament. 1 (45m 36s): And we're talking about the apostle Paul again, who, who persecuted the church and who was a hater of God and his people. And yet God redeemed him by his salvation. I am writing to Titus my true son in the faith that we share, may God, the father and Christ Jesus, our savior give you grace and peace. Paul's entails about what he's writing to Titus. This grace and peace that he's writing about is contrary to what the experience is of the church or the people who live or living in Crete. It's, they're not experiencing grace and peace because they're following false God. 1 (46m 16s): A false ideology. May God, the father and Christ Jesus, our savior give you grace and peace. So Titus working, create a title. So again, the faith that saves and sanctifies, number one, faith in Jesus saves. And the second point, the last point, faith in Jesus sanctifies, what does it mean to be sanctified? It means to be made holy or to be set apart, to be used for God's purposes, to be consecrated, to be dedicated to God. So Titus was set aside for his work on the island of Crete. I wonder what you are sanctified, set apart to do what work are you sanctified and set apart to do here in the earth? 1 (47m 4s): Because I always say this, I believe this is true. Then if you've got a pulse, you've got a purpose. If you're here in the earth, you've got work to do. And so the question is what is the work that God is calling you to do? Christie Suiza will be sharing a ways to get involved at harvest church here in just a few minutes. When I invite her up after I preach, she will talk about small groups that you can be involved in. And in those small groups, you can learn what salvation is all about, what sanctification is all about. And you can help lead small groups. You can be involved in the work and ministry of harvest church. As we get ready to move into 1 0 2 here in the next few months, we're going to need more people. 1 (47m 44s): It's another venue we're holding on to all of this venue, all of this, these buildings and location. And so we're going to need more people to be involved. Many of you are involved in para church ministries and organizations where you're ministering in the community, doing the things that God has called you to do, even as Titus was set aside for the work of God on the island of creed. I want us to figure out what we are set aside to do what sorry, serving opportunities are before you. How is it? The Lord has equipped you to do the work that God it has called you to do. So just be thinking of about that and be praying about that. 1 (48m 24s): And maybe as you hear Christi present today, all of the opportunities, maybe the thing will peak your interest and you'll say, Hey, I'd like to be a part of that. Or I'd like to be a part of that. And then just jump in with both feet and watch what we'll do Titus in verse five, I left you on the island of Crete. So you could complete our work there and appoint elders in each town. As I instructed you, I liked that. He said complete our work there because it means that Titus isn't in it by himself. Paul started the work. Titus has carry on carrying on the work, but others will be there with him supporting him along the way. 1 (49m 7s): You are not in this life. As a follower of Jesus Christ alone, others have gone before you, there are people who will support you in your journey, and then you will pass the Baton at some point in your life. I left you on the island of Crete. So you could complete our work there and appoint elders in each town. As I instructed you, an elder must live a blameless life. And now we're going to kind of get a snapshot of what sanctification looks like. And these are actually qualifications for those who want to serve as elders within the church of the living, God, there it's a high bar. This list of expectations and qualifications, for those who want to start as elders, it's actually very difficult, but by the grace of God, nobody would be able to manage this list and live up to it. 1 (50m 4s): So an elder must be a blame. A leader live a blameless life. Maybe your Bible says to you live above reproach. That means that somebody, because as if your lifestyle is not even able to actually use you, it's not that you get accused and acquitted it's that your life is so far above reproach that can even accuse you of doing wrong. That's the standard. Isn't that crazy? That's the, that's the standard. But this is by God's grace. What is capable for us as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. When we allow the sanctification process that God wants to accomplish in our lives. 1 (50m 45s): So an elder must live a blameless life. We see it here in verse six, and we'll hear the same qualification repeated in verse seven. Let's continue verse six. He must be faithful to his wife. That just means a one woman, man, someone who's married to one woman at a time and his children must be believers who don't have a reputation for being wild or rebellious. That's going to disqualify most of us, right? That's a tough one. She's children must be believers who don't have a reputation for being wild or rebellious. So part of the, the, the what's to be understood about that text is that we actually, as parents, as people who follow Jesus, have that responsibility to pass the Baton to our kids. 1 (51m 37s): And so it's not actually the church's responsibility, the Sunday school or the youth department. It's not our responsibility to make sure that your kids are saved. It's actually your responsibility. And we as Sunday school teachers or youth leaders come alongside what you are already doing, helping your kids to know Jesus. So that's part of that process. Salvation comes as your kids, see you model godliness in your life. And this will only happen if we allow the sanctification process happen in our lives. If we allow that sanctification process in our lives, then our, our kids will see something in us that they desire. 1 (52m 19s): They won't see perfection, but they will see on an honest pursuit of who God is and honored pursuit of God. And out of that, we get saved and sanctified, and our kids see something that is genuine. It's something that they want a child, a church leader and oversee, or a Bishop is a manager of God's household. So he must live there. It is again, he must live a blameless life. He must not be arrogant or quick tempered often when we're arrogant, it's because we're comparing ourselves to someone else. And we estimate that our lives are in better shape than somebody else's life. And so we become arrogant a few weeks ago, Dr. 1 (53m 0s): Stacey Harmon, when he was teaching and preaching here from the pulpit, he said the, he said, we need to remember that we are not the standard. Remember when he said that you said we are not the standard, meaning that my life is not the standard. Your life is not the standard God. And his word is the standard. And so we need to make sure that we're when we're comparing ourselves, we're comparing ourselves to God and his word and trust. All arrogance will go out the window. You want to have any room in your life for arrogance. If you're looking at the word of God on a regular basis and comparing your life to the word, you will eliminate all arrogance from your life. So you must not be arrogant or quick tempered. 1 (53m 42s): It must not be a heavy drinker, violent or dishonest with money. I think Paul's writing this list in light of the culture, in the island of Crete. He's writing this because he understands the culture that he's up against. And so he's writing about living a blameless life, not being arrogant or quick tempered, or a heavy drinker or violent or dishonest with money because he's seeing all of these things happen on the, in the creed and culture on the island of he's seeing the people do all of these things. He said rather, and then he gives a whole list of things that we should be doing. 1 (54m 26s): And again, these are things that we do as we allow the sanctification process of God in our lives. We can't do it in our own strength with our own willpower. Yeah. Make these things happen. We can do some of these things okay. For a while. But if we want to do all of these things well for the long-term, we have to be filled with the holy spirit, the power of God that gives us the ability to do what God has asked us to do. So we can't not do the things. And we can't do the things apart from the work of the holy spirit, sanctifying our lives, rather Mercede he must enjoy having guests in his home, speaking of elders and, and what they should be doing. 1 (55m 9s): He must have enjoyed having guests in his home. Why? Because that's where fellowship and relationship and connection takes place. That's where people are getting, getting a discipled in their faith and growing as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He must love what is good. He must live wisely and be just, or fair again, thinking about what's going on in the culture in that day and thinking about what's going on in the culture of our day, this is the list. This is the standard that by God's grace, we are able to accomplish. As we just allow that sanctification process in our lives, we must live a devout and discipline life. 1 (55m 56s): You must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught. So not a new believer, but someone who understands and believes wholeheartedly the message of the gospel and what the scripture teaches. Then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it, where they are wrong. So wholesome teaching is teaching that confronts. This is what essentially Paul doing. He's offering wholesome teaching that is confronting the culture of the day. Wholesome teaching confronts the unbiblical teachings of those who are confused about God's plan of salvation and sanctification. 1 (56m 41s): Okay. First Sandy goes on for, there are many rebellious people who engage in useless talk and deceive others. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. So he's saying, Hey, if anybody's saying it's Jesus plus anything else, and that's the gospel, they're wrong. They're confused about what the gospel is all about. So if we say it's Jesus plus tithing, that equals salvation. That's wrong. If we say it's Jesus plus serving we're wrong because it's Jesus plus nothing else that equals salvation. 1 (57m 22s): Now sanctification is the process whereby we come, we become more and more like Jesus and less and less like our old self, our old man, our old woman. So there's a sanctification process that begins to change the way that we live our lives, the way that we spend our time, talent and treasure. So they were Judaizers in the island there and they were saying, well, if you really want, like, we are here on the video. If you really want to be a follower of the Messiah, then you, you have to be circumcised. And the disciples had already put that dispel, that myth and said that that wasn't accurate. It's Jesus blessed, nothing else. 1 (58m 4s): That equals salvation. First of all, 11, they must be silenced because they are turning whole families away from the truth, from the truth, by their false teachings. And they do it only for money. So they were spiritual leaders within the church who were operating only for financial gain. So they were being dishonest, not doing the true work that God called them to do. And so we have to be careful that we're not being conformed to the culture in which we live, but that the Bible is shaping us and be, and we're becoming more like Jesus and the culture of Christian, true Christianity, even one of their own men, a prophet from Crete. 1 (58m 51s): He said about them. The people of Crete are all liars, cruel animals and lazy gluttons. You know, that's the culture that they were in. I wonder what could be said of our culture. What would be their little pithy statement that would be said about our culture? I don't know. No, I haven't taken the time to write it out, but, but there are challenging and desperate and sinful things about our culture that are trying to influence us and draw us away from the things of God. People of Crete are liars, cruel animals and lazy gluttons. 1 (59m 31s): This is the culture. Titus is ministering. Yeah. And it's helpful for us to know the culture that we're in. Let's just play a game real quickly. I'm out of time already. Anyway. So let's just play a game and you just go with that. What would you use as a word to describe our 21st century culture? Sure. In Western and the Western part of the world here in California on the central good G get, get specific to like to the central coast. What would you use as a word? What is it unfocused? Interesting. Very good word on the word is unfocused. What else could we do you use to describe the culture of the central coast, worldly, unfocused, and worldly. 1 (1h 0m 15s): So we're, we're, we're kind of getting close to this year. Where, what else? Unfocused and worldly, let's do one more. Oops. That was a bunch of them. Who, what was it? Fearful, depraved, fearful and depraved. So it's helpful for us to understand our culture so that we, number one, don't become like our culture, but number two, so that we understand what we're trying to, what we're trying to do to help what we can do to help people who are stuck in that culture. So think about the culture of your family. Think about the culture of your work. Think about the culture of your neighborhood, and then ask the Lord, Lord, how do I operate within that culture? 1 (1h 0m 57s): So that I might bring salvation to those who need salvation so that God, you might work too, brings sanctification to their lives. Here we go. Let's finish this up. This is true. So reprimand them sternly to make them strong in their faith. They must stop listening to Jewish myths and the commands that people who have turned away from the truth. So Jewish myths are Jewish laws and traditions that NOLA Phi and contradict the holy scripture. So anything that we're believing that either no Ify replace or contradict the scripture is something that we need to be, be wary of circumcision. 1 (1h 1m 38s): Hand-washing these, these are examples, extreme rules around the Sabbath. I, I D these are all things that were happening in the day. And these are things that not even Jews even knew how to honor and obey. Let's get to these last couple weeks. Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure, but nothing is pure to those who are corrupted and believing because their minds in common, the agencies are corrupted to the right. Everything is pure. Have you noticed that in your life, like when you're in a really good place with the Lord, like everything is pure. Somebody can tell you a story. And all you do is see the episode about the story. But when your mind is corrupt to the perverse, everything is, somebody might tell you the same exact story, but you can come up with this perverse conclusion about, about the story. 1 (1h 2m 28s): Maybe you're seeing someone of the opposite sex walking down the street, a man, or a woman. And you're attracted to that man, or that woman, someone who is pure, what might say that is a handsome person, right there. Someone who is perverted would say, let's take that a step further. And it's not just a handsome person. That's someone that they want to get with. And because their perversion is in their mind, everything that they think about ends in perversion, but to the pure, everything is pure. So you've got this culture where there's perversion everywhere. And then the culture is they're trying to shift the culture by bringing purity into the culture. 1 (1h 3m 11s): And this is what they're up against. They're trying to communicate truth and trying to live differently. And there's perversion in the culture. There's corruption in the culture, verse 16. So people claim, they know God, but they such people claim. They know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient worthless for doing anything good. So you see the value of sanctification sanctification actually helps us to be qualified. We're qualified by God's grace and through the process of sanctification to do the works that God has called us to do. And so there's a process there, the faith that saves and sanctifies, faith, faith, faith in Jesus saves and faith in Jesus sanctifies. 1 (1h 3m 52s): And we can't, we don't want one without the other. We don't, we can't be sanctified without salvation, and we don't want to be saved without sanctification. We need both. We need both. And that's God's plan for both for, for all of us in Jesus name. Well, we've already taken communion. That's the end of my message. I'm wondering if it's Christie Suiza here. There she is. Christie's going to talk to us today about opportunities to get involved, to get plugged in. And so this is Christie . Christie has been on our staff team for the last dozen years or so. Something like that long time, she's only 20, but she's been with us for a very long time. 1 (1h 4m 33s): Christie, your full attention. 3 (1h 4m 35s): Good morning, everybody. Don't worry. I'm not going to sing. Yeah. I'm the director of discipleship here at harvest, and I have some exciting ways you can get connected and get plugged in. I know many of you are newer to our church and looking for ways to build those relationships, grow deeper in your faith and have that community of connection outside in our driveway. On the right-hand side, you'll find a couple of tables today. One of them has a list of all of our life groups that are going to be launching here in September. We have a lot of different groups, something for everybody just to highlight a few things. We have quite a few home groups that meet in a Royal Grande date. We have some home groups this time focused on parents of teenagers, and that are focusing on family groups. 3 (1h 5m 19s): We have a couple that meet in the Nipomo area. We also have a young professionals group as well as a college group. So those are great ways to get plugged in with others, your age in the community. Here we have men's groups and women's groups, both daytime and evening for men. We have a morning, one for women and one for young women. And then we have a new financial peace university class that's starting up as well. So if you're interested in learning about budgeting and how to honor God with your finances, stop by the table, and we'll be able to answer questions for you there on those. So stop by pick up a flyer and ask whatever questions you have. We'll also be out there next week as well, taking signups and getting as many people plugged in as possible. 3 (1h 6m 4s): Our second table is for getting involved in an area of ministry here at harvest church. And ed is such a blessing to serve and be involved and connected with the heartbeat of what we do here at harvest. So if you're not plugged in to a ministry team, I really encourage you to pray about where God wants to connect you. We have so many ways you can connect children's ministry. Don't worry, not everyone is teaching. And children's. We have people that help people that serve behind the scenes, people that greet children. So there's lots of ways to connect there. We have a women's ministry team. We have folks that serve and our coffee bar ministry that make the coffee and keep that area refilled throughout our Sunday morning services. 3 (1h 6m 46s): Believe it or not. We actually have people that clean this place too during the week. And we love our cleaning team members. So if you have free time during the week and would love to help clean, there's a big need. There, we have folks who serve on our tech team, behind our camera's up here on our worship team and our prayer ministry as well. So we have so many ways you can get connected here at harvest. So pray about it. Stop by the table, ask questions, and we'd love to help you find a spot or the Lord can use you here in our body. So thank you. Please stand with us. We're going to sing one more song bursty inside. 3 (1h 7m 47s): Yes, we can surely see 4 (1h 11m 9s): Thank you for salvation, for who you are, Lord, and for just this place, you have us in our community. And I just, I just pray that our Holly ladies would be multiplied in, would just stretch out across our region and across our, our, our communities and our families. Lord, when people just be pointed straight to Jesus, because of it, because of the, the worship that we give to you. And thank you for today. And I see blessed. It says, we go, let us never be the same.

0 (1s): There, God has just brought you into the space. We just laid down everything that's said of us and we just put our eyes on Jesus. But horizon view right now, the author and finisher of our faith, I just argued. Jesus is our S Jesus, your savior. You are, are, you are the one who made a way for us to come into the presence of God. And so I just, that's just what we're doing right now is Jesus made a way for us to just approach his throne, just approach God's throne. And so, so God is asking to do what only you can do this morning. 1 (37s): Jesus, 0 (40s): We're going to sing an Oli, but it Katie to start it. And I want, this is like, we need some, some clapping. So like in time, you know, if you got rid of them, great. If you don't look to the person the next year, they might have rhythm one, two 1 (59s): . 1 (9m 33s): beautiful. Beautiful. 1 (10m 16s): 2 (16m 20s): That's terrible. That is terrible. I thought I turned that thing on. Oh, well I did. 2 (17m 3s): Yeah. Oh, because, oh, because my mic was off. Was it? Yeah. That's what he said. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's all right. Hey, they get me. They get the Rami, no matter what. So it's all right. It's all right. Hey, Michael. 1 (17m 31s): we'll go. 2 (17m 37s): Steven Agee harvest. Yeah. Sounds good. Welcome. Come on back. We're in second Timothy chapter four second, Timothy chapter four. So before we get to the second Timothy chapter four, if you look around on your chairs around you, there are information cards, info cards. If you did not fill those out last week, we're going to take a moment now to give you an opportunity to just go ahead and fill those things out. It's just helping to update our database so that we can get everybody kind of there and know who we're serving and ministering with and praying for. So it's, it takes typically three weeks to get everybody insurance to do something. 2 (18m 17s): So we talked about it last week and we're talking about it this week and we will talk about it next week. So I'm just giving you an opportunity to be a part of our database. So you can be a part of the communication that we send out weekly and be a part of what we're doing here week to week. Amen. So sometime during the service, if you can fill that out and then put it in one of the offering boxes here, there's offering box in the sanctuary on both wall to walls, and then I'm in the loft. There's a box and on the patio, there's a box as well. So good stuff, Lord, as we get into your text today, speak to us, lead us because so many of us are already doing this stuff that we're talking about, Laura, but there's there. 2 (18m 59s): I believe there's more to do by your grace as you call us and empower us Lord. So help us to do the stuff that you're calling us to do to be about the stuff that you're calling us to be about. Lord God, be glorified innocent with us. And through us, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. I titled the message today you have work to do so. I thought that's off putting right work is like a four-letter word. It's like, we think it's a curse word, right? It's like when we talk about work that needs to get done, we got to get all nervous about it and anxious about it. But really this is what we're put in the earth to do, to accomplish stuff for the kingdom work. Isn't something to be avoided. 2 (19m 40s): Work is something to be in. It's often where we find our greatest sense of purpose. It's where we get our provision from it's where doors of opportunity are opened up to us. Grow those new experiences. Some of us need to think differently, reframe work and think about it differently because God does his best work through us. When we're humble and submitted and obedient to do what he's called us to do. One coach said this hard work, beats talent when talent doesn't work, work hard. So some people are just gifted with all kinds of abilities academically or whatever it may be. 2 (20m 24s): But this is the case, hard work, beats talent. It beats that out when talent doesn't work hard. So even if you've got talents, you need to work hard to develop your talent, to develop your gift set and to develop who you are. As a person, Colin Powell said this, there are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation. hard work and learning from failure. We're all going to fail in life. We're all going to fail at work and the things that we attempt, but that is just part of the process. And I think sometimes we're afraid to fail. So we're afraid to step into those things that got us calling us into someone else said hard work, spotlights, the character of people, some churn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses and some don't turn up at all. 2 (21m 11s): So, so we're going to be talking about work today and what God has called us to do. And so again, we've held the message you have work to do. We all have work to do. This is what Paul told Timothy in his letters to Timothy in this letter. And specifically in this chapter, Paul told Timothy, you have worked to do this is what Jesus told his disciples, especially before sending to the father, you have work to do this is what the Bible is telling us from. Start to finish the old Testament, new Testament. The Bible tells us we have work to do so. Let's take a look at a second. Timothy chapter four. These are the last anointed words that Paul penned before his execution. 2 (21m 57s): So this is what Paul wrote right before he was going to be executed. And he knew that his time was short. He knew that he would be executed. And so imagine the urgency in his heart to make sure that he's communicating the right message before he expires and goes to be with the Lord. It was important to him that he finish. Well, a good friend of ours. That's been at the church here for the last six or seven years. Don gainer passed away this Tuesday. I don't know if everybody heard that Don was 82 years old. And he, I remember talking to him in the weeks leading up to his passing. 2 (22m 37s): He said, man, I just want to finish. Well, I just want to make sure that I finished well. And to him that meant he wanted to see some things in his family happened. He wanted to experience some things, but mostly he wanted to make sure that his life represented Christ and that he died as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ taking his last breath and then going to be with the Lord. And that's what he did. He was an incredible man, 82 years old, worked until the end to doing the work of the ministry that God called him to. He was in the process of writing a book. Didn't get a chance to finish that. But he also founded a grandparenting mist ministry here on the central coast. And now we're going to be hosting a grandparenting seminar here on the central coast here in the next couple of months. 2 (23m 20s): And so it's an opportunity for grandparents to be encouraged in the work that they have to do with their grandkids, helping to disciple the next generation, helping to be an encouragement to the next generation. So this is some of the fruit of Don's life. Very little bit of the, the fruit from 82 years of pouring himself into life and ministry as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He understood the value of hard work and now he's receiving his reward. Amen. So what Paul wrote, I solemnly urge you in the presence of God's will Paul wrote to Timothy, I solemnly urge you hear the urgency, the importance of his statement. 2 (24m 1s): I saw calmly urge you the seriousness of it in the presence of God and Christ Jesus in front of God and everybody. This is what I'm communicating. This is what you need to do. I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead. When he comes to set up his kingdom, he said, in verse two, preach the word of God, preached the word of God in Bible college, we'd go around saying, preach the word because we're learning how to preach the word, you know, and we, so we quote second Timothy four, two preach the word of God. And that was just something we did. And, and it was preparation for something that we planned to do for the rest of our lives. It's it's God's plan for each of us to be preachers of the word of God in our sphere. 2 (24m 44s): In our context, in the, with the people that we come in contact with, it's our job to communicate the gospel, to preach the word of God, be prepared. Paul said whether the time is favorable or not, and this is what you're supposed to do. Patience, correct? Rebuke and encourage. That's what Paul means. When you, when he says patiently preached the word of God, do build patiently with correction, rebuke and encouragement. Why did he say patiently? Because people change slowly, right? So I thought about this over the last 18 years of being pastor here at this church. And I thought, man, it's just, it's a long haul assignment. 2 (25m 25s): Like I changed slowly. People change slowly. And it's just a process of being consistent, teaching God's word and watching what the holy spirit will do in somebody's life to bring that person along, convicting them of sin and of righteousness and making them more and more like Jesus and less and less like their old man. So Paul understood, Hey Shanley, correct. When necessary. Correct. Every time I opened up the word, I feel like the Lord's correcting me or, or even subtly rebuking me for something that's going on in my life. Whether it be a thoughts, a word, an action, some kind of deed. And there's this loving correction and rebuke and then follow it up with encouragement. 2 (26m 7s): So we're not meant to just kind of beat people up with the word and with the truth of God's word, because God's word is filled from start to finish with God's encouragement for his people. There's correction, there's rebuke, but there's encouragement. Everything he does is to build us up to Edify us in our most holy faith. So preach the word of God, be prepared, be prepared. So just be prepared. How do you get prepared? We just, there's something about the Bible that you don't understand, begin to understand it. Take the time to open up the word of God and get some good commentaries, your good counsel about what you're struggling with and watch God open up your mind to the things of God. And as he opens up your mind to the things of God, watch the confidence. 2 (26m 50s): That's, you know, we're not talking about arrogance. That's not helpful, but confidence is good confidence in your ability to communicate the truth so that people understand what you're saying. And so, you know, understand. So you understand what you're trying to communicate so patiently, correct? Rebuke and encourage your people with good teeth aging. 3 (27m 7s): So Paul Timmy, this is like, I'm about to perish. This is what I'm telling you. Jesus. 2 (27m 14s): After his earthly life and ministry, after his crucifixion, his burial, his resurrection, and before he goes to the father in Matthew 28, he said something very similar. Jesus came and told his disciples. I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, 3 (27m 36s): Baptizing 2 (27m 36s): Them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit, teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and be sure of this I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. And so as Jesus was getting ready to ascend, what does he say? Go make disciples, right? Baptizing them. It was been, it was so exciting on Friday night. I don't know. I can't remember if Jeremy told this story, but there was this family you showed up from Southern California. Maybe he told a story. I'll tell it again, came up from Southern California. And they were just hop. These happened to be at the beach, you know, like, you know, by accident, right. No such thing. So they happened to be at the beach and they're seeing this group of people. And then they realize that people are going to get baptized. 2 (28m 19s): We're praying, worshiping, and we're heading out to the waters of baptism to baptize people. And so they've got this, their son chase who's 10 years old and they've been trying to figure out a way to get chase baptize, but they haven't had the opportunity yet. So they're like, Hey, let's get chase baptized today. So chase went out there with the crowd and of course we didn't know who he was. And we said, Hey, what's your name? Chase. Have you given your life to Jesus? Yes. Would you like to get baptized? Yes. And so we got a chance to baptize him and get, get, got to meet his parents and give them a shirt, a harvest church shirt, and a harvest church towel that would give out to those get baptized and really got a chance to bless him. 2 (28m 60s): You know, it's that type of thing that God wants to do when we, when we say yes to him, you know, at the beginning of this church service. Yes, yes, yes. Lord, the Lord will do so much. If we just say yes to him, we were challenged about a year ago that we weren't doing making baptism kind of a big enough priority. And so we began to think about how can we make a baptism more of a priority at our church, because it was used to be like, we do baptisms at Easter or special events, you know, two or three times a year, which was great. But ever since we started making baptism available, like pretty much anytime anybody wants to get baptized, we'll fill up the tank and baptize people. We've baptized almost 40 people this year already. 2 (29m 41s): So more than we've ever baptized in a single year. And we're only in what month are we in? Like August or September? What month is this? Is this still August losing track? It's summer's over. So when we're intentional about being used by the Lord and doing what he's asked us to do, fruitfulness begins to follow. And it's just a beautiful, beautiful thing. So Jesus, okay. As the living word and Paul is the guy who spent his life writing the inspired word of God, and then their last instruction to us was to preach the word of God. So Jesus and Paul, and they're like, Hey, we're getting ready to go to the Lord, preach the word. 2 (30m 22s): Paul was ready to go long before this, like when I say ready to go, like he was ready to go. Like he had been stoned memory drug outside of the city left for dead people gathered the believers, gathered around him. He got up, went back to the city. Remember he was shipwrecked at one point, remember he got snake bitten at another point, like he was, he has been through it in the earth. Like he had been suffering persecution for his faith. And he said, Hey, it's, it's, I'm ready to go. And Philippians 1 23 and 24, I'm torn between two desires. I long to go be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sake, it's better that I continue to live. 2 (31m 7s): Why? So that he could continue the work. That four-letter word, that word that got to call them to that work that we so often try to avoid because it's uncomfortable. And it requires something of us before leaving Paul had worked to do. And now in this passage, she is passing the Baton to us. Now we have, or to do number one in your notes, do what you're called to do. Now do what you're called to do now. Why, why must we do this work now? Because verse three says for a time is coming. When people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching, 3 (31m 49s): They won't have an appetite for it. They won't want to listen to it. The 2 (31m 56s): Same and wholesome teaching that brings correction, rebuke and encouragement. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. This is going to be the attitude and the perspective of people in church and people in the world. They're not going to want to hear correction, review and encouragement. So while we have the opportunity, we have this responsibility to preach the word of God, to correct rebuke and encourage with all truth filled with the holy spirit. As God leads, they will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 2 (32m 38s): They will reject the and chase after myths. This is what is happening in our day and age. Now it's going to happen with increasing normalcy. It's just going to be the thing for the next two weeks. We're gonna be talking about work and we're going to be giving you an opportunity to work within the church. Beginning next week, Christie Suiza will be up here and she'll begin to present work opportunities for people within the body of Christ. And then, because it takes a while for people to kind of think about it and sign up. We're going to do it the following week as well. And there's going to be opportunity for everybody to sign up for a particular ministry, whatever you're gifted or called or whatever you feel like you're led to do. 2 (33m 24s): I talked with a gal after service and she said, how can I get involved? I said, what do you want to do? I said, how about teaching Sunday school? She said, that scares me to death. I said, well, maybe that's a good place for you. Then she said, well, what else do you have? I said, well, how about if you clean, you want to clean the church. She sat in London and cleaned the church. So I said, well, go talk to Jolene and she'll get you on the cleanup list. And so there's going to be opportunity for a platform ministry where you're playing an instrument or helping to lead worship behind the scenes ministry, where you're at the computers or the soundboard doing that sort of thing, or doing live feed in another space. All together, you can clean, you can work with youth. 2 (34m 5s): You can work with kids. You can work with young adults. You can work with college-age ministry. These are all areas, fifth and sixth graders there. These are all different ministry opportunities. You can be involved in men's leadership, women's leadership. There's all kinds of opportunities for people to get involved with. So next week and the following week, there's going to be up opportunities. And so be ready to get plugged in as the Lord leads into the area of work that God has called you to be involved in. So do, as you're called to do now, like we tend to put off these important things. Maybe you're kind of your new year's resolution for 2021 was to get busy doing the work that God's called you to do. 2 (34m 51s): But now here, we're halfway through over halfway through and you still haven't done that. Now. It's an opportunity for you to be involved. It's really going to be very, very good, especially if you're new to the church, because you're going to get a chance to meet all kinds of new people, people that you can work with and be encouraged by and encourage. And it's just going to be really good. So number one, do what you're called to do now. Number two, do, as you were called to do without fear, this is what Paul wrote for a second, Timothy four, five, but you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don't be afraid. 2 (35m 32s): Don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the good and fully carry out the ministry. God has given you. As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. And the time of my death is 3 (35m 50s): Near. So Paul 2 (35m 52s): Works and Paul suffered persecution, but he didn't allow the fear of persecution to hinder his work. He worked fearlessly as a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. You and I most likely will not suffer for serving the Lord. Although we prayed for Afghanistan because the underground church is suffering persecution. This very moment, Christians are being killed and heard the story that the Taliban are going into homes. And if you have a Western phone number in your phone, in your contacts list, they will kill you on the spot, any connection to the west, which would be the us and you are killed on the spot. 2 (36m 37s): This is real stuff that's happening like right now today. And so Paul understood persecution. We don't understand it yet, but I have a few failing. We will be understanding it soon. Not to fear, put fear into anybody, but just the reality of the situation. It's not going to get better. It's going to get worse for the church in the west has, for me, Paul said my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is 3 (37m 5s): So don't 2 (37m 6s): Be afraid of stuff from persecution for the most part. Now, unless you go to another country or somewhere else where the persecution is real right now, but I would say you should be afraid of being 3 (37m 18s): Inconvenience. 2 (37m 20s): You shouldn't be. I should say you shouldn't be afraid of being inconvenienced. That's really the biggest obstacle to our serving is that we don't want to be inconvenience, right? We live 3 (37m 31s): In a pretty posh part of the country where 2 (37m 36s): We can much do what we want to do. And a big part of our freedoms here is just the conveniences that we enjoy. And honestly, when you sign up for, to serve, you're going to be inconvenienced, 3 (37m 49s): Right? And that's a pretty small price to pay, to 2 (37m 54s): Be a part of what God is doing here in the earth. So I'd say don't be afraid of being inconvenienced. Don't be afraid of the work involved. You can handle the work he can handle it. Don't be afraid of commitment. That's another big thing by sign up to usher or greet on Sunday morning. That means I have to actually be there at church on Sunday morning. And what if I wake up on Sunday morning and I'd rather go to the beach or I'd rather go to breakfast or I'd rather do whatever it is. If I'm committed, that means I've got to go. And so don't be afraid of commitment, embrace commitment, and know that God will bless you for doing it. And don't be afraid of failure. Either often we were afraid to up or commit because we're afraid that we won't do a good job. 2 (38m 40s): Well, that's all right. If you don't do a good job, go back and try again, right? We're not talking about rocket science stuff you were saying, do you want to clean? Do you want to change a diaper? Do you want to, whatever it may be, you know, keep them rounds cleaned. They're their opportunity. And often the enemy will say, wow, can't do that. Cause you, you know, you're not skilled or you're not going to follow through or whatever. Don't let, don't be afraid of failure. Don't be afraid of responsibility. Be afraid of missing out fearful Mo FOMO, fear of missing out. Don't be afraid of that. If you're going to be afraid of anything, fear, that's right. Be afraid that you're going to miss out and be afraid of falling short of fulfilling your potential, right? 2 (39m 22s): Be, be afraid of that. Like if you've got potential in life, you need to realize, you need to realize that potential. If you're old and you still haven't realized your potential, you need to be out there realizing your potential is one thing to say to a little guy. He is full of potential or she is full of potential, but to be older and still have unrealized potential man, don't let your life in that way. Be afraid of falling short of fulfilling your potential. She'll be afraid of not being fruitful. Be afraid of slipping into selfishness. Be afraid of disobedience. Be afraid of standing before God, one day and giving an account for your life. Or how about, how about not living with fear at all? 2 (40m 6s): How about God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. How about if we out of obedience to God live without fear because we know we're doing everything that he's called us to do. Like there's nothing that we won't say yes to. How about living that life where we say, Lord, whatever it is that you call me to do, I am saying yes to you. And with that kind of life, there's no fear because God is on the throne of your life. And you know, you're doing what God has called you to do before full obedience. Keep your conscience clear by saying yes, Lord, before I even know what the ask is, Lord, the answer is yes. 2 (40m 47s): Why wouldn't it be Lord? You're the Lord of my life. You're the king of my life. You're in charge of my life. I'm submitted to you. We all have work to do that was talking to a guy before a second service started. And he's like, Hey, there's this guy. I want to go minister to him. Is it all right? If I go minister to him, I said, yes, the answer is yes, go minister. But he didn't want to. He didn't want to step out. He didn't want to be out of line. And I said, listen, from here on for a minister to anybody that you want to minister to pray for people, encourage people. You are released in Jesus' name to minister in Jesus' name. 2 (41m 28s): Now, if you start doing weird stuff, we'll call you on it. But pray for people. Love people, work with people, encourage people, do the work that God has called you to do and do it. Number three, 3 (41m 41s): Faithfully, faithfully. So it just means 2 (41m 45s): Laura. I think you're calling me to do this. 3 (41m 48s): I'm going to go do this. And if 2 (41m 51s): You're not called to it, got to make that clear heal. If you've misheard, God we'll make that clear, but you I'd rather go down swinging and miss the ball. Then not swinging at all. When I played little league baseball and I'd strike out, my buddies would be all excited. Hey, where do you go down and swinging? I'm like, I struck out. They're like, but you didn't go down without swinging. And it began to, I began to realize it matters. The effort that we put into it. If we go down swinging, at least we went down trying, even if we missed the Aw it's okay right now, if you are playing golf and you miss the ball, that's not celebrated. 2 (42m 32s): That's just like, you lifted your head and you didn't keep your eye on the ball and you didn't do good. So there's some things we don't celebrate, but so do, as you're called to do faithfully. So this, I fought the good fights. I finished the race and I have remained 3 (42m 53s): Faithful. You know, you remain faithful. Just keep saying yes to God. Just keep saying yes, Lord. Yes, Lord do it now. 2 (43m 5s): Deal without fear and do it faithfully say yes, Lord. And now Paul wrote, right? And now the prize awaits me the crown of righteousness. This is all what, this is what we're all headed for right here, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me, but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. And then we see Paul's final words. And in his final words, we begin to see what keeps us from doing the work we're supposed to be doing fall. Paul was faithful, but others around him struggled with faithfulness. 2 (43m 46s): This is what he writes. Timothy. Please come. As soon 3 (43m 50s): As you can, Demas 2 (43m 53s): Has deserted me because he loves the things of this life and has gone to a festival. Annika creations has gone to Glacia and Ty, this has gone to Dalmatia loving the things of this life will keep us from doing the work that we're supposed to do. So there are things, real life obstacles to our success in doing the things that God has called us to loving the things of this life is part of it. Now I think we're supposed to love this life. I think we're supposed to love what God is doing in our lives. Love the people in our lives. Love the relationships, love the work and hobbies and all that kind of stuff. But if the love of world, the love of this life is hindering our ability to love God, fully being fully obedient, to do what God has asked us to do. 2 (44m 41s): Then our love is misplaced. We need to seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything else will be added unto us. So we need to seek first God loved first God and trust him with everything else. Verse 11 says only Lucas with me, bring mark with you. When you come for, he will be helpful to me in my ministry. I sent tickets to Ephesus. And when you come be sure to bring the coats I left with carpus at shero as also bring my books and especially my 3 (45m 10s): Papers, my parchment 2 (45m 13s): Alexander, the coppersmith did me much harm, but the Lord will judge him for what he has done. Be careful of him for. He fought against everything. We said something else that keeps us from doing the will of God. And the work that God has called us to do is opposition Alexander. The coppersmith was opposing Paul's work. He recognized that it was an opposition. He recognized that he was a problem and that he was trouble. He warned others about Alexander, the coppersmith and Paul went about his business, doing what God had called him to do often we're derail because there's opposition. There's always going to be opposition. 2 (45m 54s): When we're trying to do what God has asked us to do, whether it be real human opposition, a guy like Alexander, the coppersmith, or it's other opposition, relational opposition, time, confinements and restrictions. We might need to re assess our lives and do some other things less so that we can invest ourselves more in the kingdom. My daughter was super, they've been super busy lately. And I told Jolene my wife. I said, why does Leslie always so busy? 3 (46m 31s): And she's just, and she said, because she takes after you. 2 (46m 35s): I said, ah, that got hurt. But the reality is that we can get so busy that we can miss the best that God has for us. So what is it that we need to eliminate from our lives? Seemingly good things, busy things that are keeping us from doing the very best that God has called us to do. The enemy is really good at keeping us busy, doing, you know, 3 (46m 56s): Things but missing 2 (46m 58s): The very most important things that God is calling us to Alexander. The coppersmith did me much harm Paul Rowe, but the Lord will judge him for what he has done. Be careful of him for. He fought against everything. We said the first time I was brought before the judge, no one came with me. Everybody abandoned me. May it not be counted against them? I love Paul's heart. 3 (47m 23s): He's like 2 (47m 24s): I was abandoned by these people, but may the Lord not hold it against them? As I was worshiping the first service, I really felt challenged in my spirit that I was holding something against someone in my heart and I couldn't worship for service. I was like, Lord, why can't I worship? And I felt like Lord said, because of this. And I said, oh, 3 (47m 44s): I said, Lord, forgive me. I repent. 2 (47m 47s): I forgive. I extend grace. And it was like a load had been lifted off. We can never minister effectively. If our heart is not in the right place. If we're not being humble and extending the same grace that has been extended to us, to others, we can never minister effectively. And with longevity, the way that God has called us to effectively and fruitfully, unless our hearts are in the right place. And so whenever the Lord challenges your heart, don't be offended. Be humble. Say Lord. Yes, you're right. You're right, Lord. I don't want to be angry with that person or hold a grudge against that person or be disappointed with that person any longer. I just want to let that go. So there's all kinds of things that will keep us from doing what God has called us to do the work that he's called us to do in quitting quitting. 2 (48m 36s): When things get difficult. As part of that, that's what by me, Paul said, everybody's abandoned 3 (48m 39s): Me w may 2 (48m 41s): Not be counted against them. First time I was brought before the judge, he said, I'm being brought before the judge. And everybody left me when things get difficult, the temptation is to quit that by God's grace weekend, stay in the fights by God's grace. We can keep going by God's grace. We can finish well, but it's only done by God's grace. And so we've got to stay home. So 3 (49m 5s): Teachable available 2 (49m 7s): Well to God. And we got to stay in the word. We've got to be filled with the holy spirit. We've got to allow God to do what he wants to do in our lives. And then, and only then it will be, will we be able to do the work that he's called us to with longevity and with faithfulness? What will keep us from doing work? The work we're supposed to be doing? This one is common too, that we forget that God is the one who calls and strengthens his people for the work they are called to do. And I kind of been dancing around that tiptoeing around that first 17 Paul wrote, but the Lord stood with me now, everybody else abandoned me, but the Lord stood with me. 2 (49m 47s): You, you have this confidence, you have this assurance, you have this promise from the Lord that he will never leave you nor forsake you. He didn't leave Paul in his desperate times, the Lord stood with me and gave me strength so that I might preach the good news in its entirety for all the Gentiles to hear. And he rescued me from certain death. Yes. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil attack and will bring me safely into his kingdom, his heavenly kingdom or glory to God forever and ever. Amen. Then verse 19, give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila. So there were people that stuck with him, a bunch of people left, but now he's recognizing who are faithful. 2 (50m 29s): Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila and those living in the household of Odessa for us arrest the state of current than I left trophy trophy, miss at a sick at Melissas. I gotta slow down. I'm trying to say too much, 3 (50m 42s): Do your best to get here before winter, 2 (50m 46s): You Melissa sends you greetings and SOTA, poutines, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers and sisters may the Lord be with your spirit 3 (50m 53s): And may his grace be with all of 2 (50m 56s): You. These are Paul's last inspired pen words. He said, you have work to do, do it. Now, do it without fear and do it faithfully without let's go and stand up. We're gonna invite the worship team forward. We're going to sing some more and then we will have some fellowship afterwards, and then we can go have lunch and do all that kind of fun stuff. So thank you Lord. For this time, we love you. Lord, continue just to establish your truth in our hearts and minds, Lord, and as you establish that truth in our hearts and minds, Lord God, that we would be obedient to it. We'd say yes to it. Lord with big old smile on our face, we say yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes. Yes, Lord. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Amen. 1 (51m 45s): need that. 1 (53m 54s): God .

0 (4s): cross says food. 0 (9m 19s): Crown, the cherish Jesus. walk beside me. 0 (10m 0s): Lord, we praise you this morning. 1 (14m 4s): We thank you that you've made a way for each one of us to walk with you and have power over sin and death. We praise you and we ask that you would teach us this morning. Give us ears to hear what you're saying to each one of us. Give us power to walk with you in Jesus name. Amen guys. Thanks very much guys and gals. So 2 (14m 44s): Welcome. Hey, when everybody walked in, they probably saw an info card on their desk or on their seat there. Everybody get that. Oops, 3 (14m 52s): Everybody see the info card. So this 2 (14m 55s): Is going to be one of those awkward moments in the service where we ask everybody to take a moment and to fill out a card. And maybe you, when you arrived, you already filled it out. But what we're trying to do is update our database. And so we're trying to get updated information from everybody. So we're going to take a minute in the service to do that, just to take care of some Sheriff's business, and then we will get to the rest of the service. So fellas your name, if, if there's anybody, any, if there's been any kind of email changes or address changes or whatever, just go ahead and fill that out. And we promise to keep all of this information in house and it'll be really, really helpful to our team. 2 (15m 40s): So yeah, we've got few people. I think first service, I was the only one who filled it out. That's what it felt like. Anyway, I looked up and nobody's filling it out. So thank you for taking the time to fill it out when you are done. Hold on to that. And at the end of the service, as you walk out, the greeters will collect your communication card. Sound good? I feel like we should pray again, Lord. Thank you. Thank you for this time. We just continue to invite your presence Lord. And as we teach through second Timothy chapter three, today, we pray God that you would, as Jim said, God, that you give us ears to hear Lord that we would hear that we'd be excited and responsive and challenged and ready to move forward in Jesus name. So thank you for what you're doing in our lives. 2 (16m 22s): We love you. We bless you Lord. And for those going through hard stuff this week, a lot of people have been sick, have had surgical procedures. We lost a member of our family, our church, family, Andrew and Lord. It's just been a challenging week on a lot of different levels. And so we pray God that you administer your mercy minister, your peace minister, your grace Lord God, where healing is needed for people's bodies. God, we pray that you would minister in Jesus name, where people are needing encouragement spiritually and emotionally. Lord God. I pray that you build people up, encourage people and help people to continue to trust you, to continue to believe you and continue to follow you all the days of their lives. 2 (17m 5s): No matter what life throws at us, Lord, you are faithful and you give us the grace to walk, walk through it, Lord. So thank you for this time. Thank you for your goodness in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. A quick update on my dad. I asked last week, everybody to pray because I was going to be flying out to Denver. So last Sunday night I flew out to Denver, spent a few days in Denver with my dad and we made the tough decision to put them on hospice. Very, very difficult decision as a young guy, 72 years old. And so to put somebody at 72 on hospice, it's just a hard decision, but he's got some dementia going on. And so mentally he's not where he needs to be to be on his own physically. 2 (17m 47s): He's really not in a good place. It's hard there. They've detected some heart issues and he's not physically fit to even get out of bed. So thanks for praying for him. It was really a good week to be there and a hard week to be there. So I guess the good news is that my siblings and I, we were all kind of collaborating to try to figure out what to do. He doesn't have a will. So if you haven't gotten your, your end of life stuff squared away, get it squared away, especially if you're 72 or above. So that'd be really helpful before we get into first Timothy or second Timothy chapter three. 2 (18m 30s): Why do you, why do you need to knock on the fridge before you opened the door? Why would you need to knock on the fridge before you open the door? Well, the salad is dressing, so 3 (18m 39s): You just want to be careful. 2 (18m 42s): Yeah. Second Timothy hay, some very good. Usually people just blew at my jokes, but today I got some applause. All that does is encourage me. It doesn't encourage me. I'm encouraged. Thanks very much helping others avoid the dangers of the last days that we're, that's what we're talking about today. The last days include the entire period between the first century and the return of Christ. So that's kind of what we're talking about. We say in time. So when Paul is talking about the times he's talking about what's going on in his day and age, but then so what's been going on for the last 2000 years. So helping others avoid the dangers of last days last week, we learned how to gain God's approval. 2 (19m 29s): And these things, these things that we learned this week will actually help us to help. Oh, there's if we're doing the things that God has called us to do, it will actually equip us and prepare us to help others who God has put in our path. You know, God has given us, they met in the earth to make a difference and to communicate the truth and to love people side of heaven. So we said last week, how do you gain God's approval? Number one, be a good worker. And basically what that means is do the work that God has called you to do. We wrote about Paul told Timothy, be a good worker, be faithful to the work that God has called you to do. We're not saying work as unto salvation, but we're saying the work we're saved by grace through faith. 2 (20m 12s): It has nothing to do with our works, but our assignments have everything to do with our work. And we're actually going to stand before the Lord and give an account to God for the things that we have done or have not done in the earth. So essentially the challenge and the encouragement is to be a good worker. Then number two, turn away from evil. That's obvious. And then number three, do life with like minded people. We need each other. We gathered church to be encouraged, to gather, to pray for one another, to hear the word to worship together. And hopefully from there, we go into small groups throughout the week where we can gather and do the same thing where we're praying together and loving on each other. I meet with a group, like I said last week on Friday mornings at 6:00 AM. 2 (20m 53s): And then I meet with other pastors throughout the week and just for the purpose of growing together and praying together and loving on each other together. And, and then out of that, we're able to be filled up. We're filled up and we're able to overflow and bless others in the world that we come in contact with. And so it kind of, that's what it's all about. It's be a good worker, turn away from evil, do life with like-minded people. So this week let's revisit the last two verses from second Timothy chapter two, because they set up the passage for second Timothy chapter three, and the focus of this week's message. Second Timothy chapter two verses 25 and 26 says this gently instruct those who oppose the truth. 2 (21m 38s): Perhaps God will change those people's hearts and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap for they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants. A number of years ago, I was, we had a neighbor, you know, where the church office is now. So that house used to belong to Mark Miller and Mark Miller was our neighbor. And for about five years before mark passed, we would share the gospel with him. And probably once every, you know, once or twice a month, we'd go over there and share the gospel with him, have a cup of coffee and just kind of talk about things of the Lord. And before he passed away, I had an opportunity to go over there and, and, and when the final conversation and he prayed the sinner's prayer. 2 (22m 23s): And, but it was through gentle instruction over the course of a long period of time that finally opened his heart part to the work of the Lord. So Paul is instructing Timothy to help others. And we as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, we have this responsibility 3 (22m 44s): To help 2 (22m 46s): Others with gentle instruction 3 (22m 49s): In doing so, perhaps God will change 2 (22m 52s): Their hearts and they will learn the truth. I was talking to a gal earlier today during first service, before first service. And she was talking about how her dad passed away at about 86, 87 years old. And he had been an atheist his whole life, but the last like weeks of his life, she had the opportunity to gently instruct him in the truth and to share the gospel with him. And before he died, he accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, being an atheist for like 86 years. So God is up to good all the days of our lives. And if we will never give up, but continue to ask and seek and knock and pray for our loved ones and continue to gently instruct them in the truth. 2 (23m 35s): God will do amazing and wonderful things. I can't tell you how many people I've prayed for over the years. Family members and friends who some took 30 3 (23m 44s): Years praying for talking to 2 (23m 50s): Encouraging them in truth. And then finally at the end of their lives gave their life to the Lord. But the beauty of the Lord is that he takes us at our last day or anywhere, you know, in our lives. But man, the beauty of the Lord is, is when we choose him early, is that we get to walk with him all the days of our lives. We get to experience his peace. And we talked about the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self, to all of those things. That's free to the Lord working in our lives for the holy spirit, working in us. And we can experience all of those things if we just choose to honor the Lord now, today. So maybe you're here today and you said, man, I I've been putting this off. 3 (24m 29s): I haven't trusted the Lord 2 (24m 31s): Or, or maybe you're here today and you've been distant from the Lord. Are you backslidden and, and your heart's been far from the Lord. I would just encourage you today to refresh yourself and the grace and mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ. If you confess your sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. So confess your sin to him, acknowledge your need for him and watch what God will do to wash over your life. I think about the prodigal who left his father and when he decided he came to a census and came back, the prodigal was received with open arms. A party was thrown form. A ring was put on his finger rope on his back, great celebration. That's what God will do when you choose to return. 2 (25m 13s): And that's what God does when any center turns and repents. And so 3 (25m 17s): Don't lose hope. Don't lose 2 (25m 19s): Heart, continue to ask and seek and knock, continue to pray and watch, watch what God will do. Pause instruction Timothy, to help others in doing so, perhaps God will change their hearts and they will learn the truth. So what can we do to help others avoid the dangers of the last day? And we're going to talk about what the last days look like as we get into chapter three, it just unfolds it for us. Yeah. Number one, gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. So I gave my life to the Lord in junior high school, but I kind of vacillated in my faith for all my, all of my, most of my high school years, junior high and high school years. I gave my life to the Lord, but didn't know what to do with my faith. And so I, we go to church on Sunday and was even helping out in Sunday school. 2 (26m 3s): But when I was outside of the church that I was doing the wrong stuff, I was doing stuff that I shouldn't be doing. And so the problem with that is I had a guilty conscience. So I would tell my youth pastor, every time I did something wrong and at one point he said, Hey, Steve, until you kind of get this stuff out until you decide what you want to do with your life, whether you're going to serve the church or serve the Lord or serve the world, you need to, you need to take a break from teaching Sunday school. I said, you can't do that. At first, I was kind of mad. You know, he said, well, I just did. But the reality of his discipline and his instruction was, was, was helpful to me. And as I thought about it considered it, it was really an opportunity for me to make, make a choice. 3 (26m 48s): Will I 2 (26m 50s): Serve the Lord wholeheartedly or will I continue to vacillate in my faith, the rest of my life? And so challenge the instruction, the gentle instruction that I received, actually put me on a proper path and gave me an opportunity forward as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So there was no condemnation. He wasn't judging me necessarily. He just said, Hey, based on what you've told me, you need to take a break from your work in the Sunday school department until you just kind of figure out what you want to do with your life. So he said you can't serve in this area for awhile. And so it just challenged me and awakened me. Yeah. And it allowed me to make a 3 (27m 30s): Choice without, with, with, so 2 (27m 32s): I've heard of so many people who've been injured by the church. And I talked with a couple, couple of weeks ago and I said, why aren't you insurers? They said, well, we've been injured by the church. I said, well, who hasn't been injured by the church, right? I mean, the church is full of people and the church is full of broken people. So if you come to church, chances are, you're going to get your stuff, your toe stub and somethings get somebody going to say something or do something and it's going to be hurtful. Or, and 3 (27m 60s): So, you know, I I've had poor 2 (28m 3s): Treatment by a doctor that doesn't mean I stopped going to a doctor, right. I just keep going forward. So, so we, we need to, by God's grace lovingly instruct people, giving them an opportunity to move forward, not condemning them and not giving them a way forward. And we need to instruct in such a way that people have room to repent and a path forward in the church. It has God's kindness that leads people to repentance according to Romans too. So when you're tempted to be harsh, when you're tempted to be unloving, when you're tempted to be critical or remember your own struggle with sin, and that will soften. If we get honest about our own struggle with sin, our own struggle with temptation. 2 (28m 47s): If we get honest about what God has done to deliver us in the extent to which God went to deliver us, it will soften us. When we're dealing with people who are stuck in sin themselves. We can remember I'm giving my testimony tomorrow night at M six. It's a men's group that gathers a few hundred people. And as I, as I've been thinking about my testimony, I thought this is how I always instruct people to give their testimony. What is, what was your life like BC, like your BC days before Christ and then what triggered your life change and brought you to the cross. And then what has God done since the cross? And so that's kind of how I'm going to break it up. Three-part message tomorrow night about my story. And it just began to get me thinking about my story again. 2 (29m 29s): And we need to think about our, our path, our story, because it refreshes us in the grace and the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Maybe God's done a bunch of a Mar marvelous things, wonderful things, but it's been 10 years or 20 years or 30 or 60 years. And you've forgotten how incredibly good God is. His mercy, his grace, his kindness, his love, his patience, all of those things. So be refreshed in your own story. And then you can instruct people with gentleness and watch the fruit of that. I was talking to a guy, I mean services. And he said, Hey, my grandpa, Fred, he's got stage four, colon cancer. I'm going to go pick him up. 2 (30m 9s): And I'm looking for an opportunity to share the gospel with them. How do I share the gospel with my grandpa Fred? I said, well, just be, just be prayerful. I said, this is how we do everything in the kingdom. We're prayerful first. We're praying for God's opportunity to open up and we're listening and we're in tuned to what God is doing in the person's life. And I said, it's just like, anything else you're excited about? I said, well, I'm excited about golf and I'm excited about God. So in the course of any conversation, I might talk about golf or God, depending on the situation. So just make sure it's natural. Don't force it. Don't S you know, do a sales pitch. But when there's an opportunity, just begin to talk about the Lord, see what he will do to be clear. I'm excited more about God 3 (30m 51s): Than golf. 2 (30m 53s): I don't want anybody to be confused about that. Golf didn't save me, but it is awfully fun on a Monday afternoon to go play some 3 (30m 60s): Golf. So, 2 (31m 2s): Yeah. So remember your own struggle with sin. Remember what God did to rescue you. Remember the mercy and grace that you received then extend that same mercy and grace to others. We were struggling with somebody's sin because maybe it reminds us of somebody else or reminds us of our own past and our own sin. And it makes us jaded. And it hinders our ability to minister effectively, but most likely, that's the person that God has placed in your life to minister to effectively. So I said, this, I say this all the time, whatever it is that God has asked us to do, it requires that we be humble and dependent on God and fill with the holy spirit, reflecting his life and his word in everything that we do. 2 (31m 42s): And then as we do those, just things we're able to do, fruitfully what God has asked us to do. So it doesn't mean that we don't speak the truth, but we speak the truth in love, right? So sometimes we dance around the issues with the woman at the well, Jesus is at the well, and he addresses is the woman's sin and go get your husband. And he said, she said, well, I'm not married. And he said, yeah, you're right. I've been, you've been married five times. And the guy that you're living with now is not your husband. And what did she do? She ran into the city and she said, come meet the guy who told me everything that I'd ever done. Right? So she'd been confronted lovingly by Jesus about her sin. 2 (32m 24s): And then she was convicted by the power of the holy spirit. And she was changed and the whole city heard the gospel. What can we do to help others avoid the dangers of the last day, gently instruct extreme, instruct those who oppose the truth. And then number two, the season and the times we need to understand this season and the times in which we live, what are the last days look like? Luke 1256 in the new living translation, speaking to the crowd. Jesus said, you fools, you know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky, but you don't know how to interpret the present times. So we can look at the sky and say, ah, it's going to be a nice day. I think I'll go to the beach or no, it looks like it's going to rain. 2 (33m 7s): I should have my umbrella today. We're able to look at the signs in the sky and determine what the weather's going to be like, but we can't determine the signs of the times that we're living in. And sometimes we're blinded to it. Sometimes we're not paying attention to it, but we can be aware and we should be aware of the signs of the times. If you'd like help keeping up with what is happening in the last days, especially in the middle east, if you need help understanding the prophecies that are unfolding, you can download the app called 3 (33m 37s): Telegram. Thank you 2 (33m 39s): And follow Amir. Sarfatti on that. So telegram is a great, I just found out about it recently. And so Amir is a guy from the middle east who just stays on top of a biblical prophecy. That's unfolding in our lifetime and you'll get daily updates on what's happening in the middle east. And it's a hotbed for prophecy, and it's a hotbed for what God is going to be doing in the, in times and what he's doing now. And so if you'd like to know more about it, check that out. A mirror has about to be clear. There's counterfeit, Amir websites, Sarfatti websites, and so, or Instagram telegram accounts. And so he's got 125,000 followers. 2 (34m 21s): So you want to be careful to make sure that you're following the right guy. So find the guy that's got over a hundred twenty-five thousand followers, and that's who you want to follow. So that's telegram a mirror. Also. He's got to be hold Israel app and website. So you can check that out as well. Behold, Israel, Amir Sarfatti anyway, check it out. It'll just help you. It'll just help you day to day. And I'm so grateful for the resource and been reading it every day. So let's get into second Timothy chapter three, verse one, it says, you should know this Timothy that in the last days, there will be very difficult times, very difficult times. And so we're talking about for the last 2000 years, the church has had very difficult times, but leading up to the return of Christ is going to get increasingly different. 2 (35m 8s): You should know this Timothy that in the last days, there will be very difficult times for people will love only themselves and their money. So now we're going to see what this will look like. People will love only themselves and their money. People will be self-centered and narcissistic. It's interesting because Lucifer said, I will be like the most high God. So he was self-centered and narcissistic. So it's not curious. It's not, it's not surprising that he would attempt people in the area that he was tempted. He said, I will be like, imagine standing before God and say, I will be like the most high God, you gotta be pretty delusional about who you are, but that's where he was. And for the rest of humanity's history, he's been tempting people the same way. 2 (35m 53s): Colossians verse continue. Verse two continues. They will be boastful and proud scoffing at God disobedient to their parents and ungrateful, they will consider nothing sacred. So boasting is just an indication that there's pride internally. And so we need to be careful because whatever's going on out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so if we've got pride in our hearts, we will be boasting. We need to be clear that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. But this is a sign of the in times people will become increasingly proud and boastful scoffing at God. The words literally blaspheming God disobedient to their parents and ungrateful, they will consider nothing sacred. 2 (36m 38s): And we've noticed that even just in the 21st century with our church here, we used to have lots of weddings here at harvest church. It's a cute little chapel spot for people to get married. And so people would use the classrooms to, you know, dress and that sort of thing. And we, so he would say, Hey, please don't drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes in our buildings, simple requests, right? Almost inevitably, almost every time we would show up and people would be smash. And this is not always, but sometimes church people as well, and they'd be smoking and drinking in our rooms. And so you'd wake up Sunday morning going into the classrooms and what it would, it would smell like a bar in there, right? Cigarettes and alcohol. So we had to stop basically for the most part, having weddings here, especially for the public, because they were just thrashing our facility and they had no, they consider nothing sacred. 2 (37m 30s): We've had to set up video cameras all over inside and outside of the property, because this is a thoroughfare, which is great. We love that people come through, we invite kids to come and play basketball and our basketball courts, and we just love it. But inevitably people will. We've had people break into our facilities, stealing from us, vandalizing our property, doing all kinds of crazy stuff. And so now we have to have doors locked back in the day. Remember you watched these old films and the church doors are always open, right? So people can come in and pray. If we did that, the whole place would be destroyed and looted. And there would be nothing left for Sunday morning. It's just a crazy world that we live in. And so nothing is considered sacred in this day 3 (38m 14s): And age. And so we just, just, we have to 2 (38m 18s): Be aware of the seasons and the times and adapt, but keeping our hearts tender because we don't want to be hard-hearted toward the world. Otherwise we're not doing what God has called us to do. So we're to love those. We talked about this last week, love those who are difficult. We can only do these things as we're filled with the holy spirit and his word and allowing God to be God through us. First three, they will be unloving and unforgiving. Again, this makes sense. The very thing that defines the gospel God's love and forgiveness is what the enemy tempts people to resist. 2 (38m 59s): I've noticed that when the person hasn't received the love and forgiveness of God, they have a hard time extending love and forgiveness to others. So maybe it's been a while since you've experienced the love 3 (39m 10s): And the forgiveness of God, 2 (39m 13s): Refresh yourself in that truth. Rehearse that truth that God's love is unconditional. Maybe you're feeling distant from the Lord because you made it some mistakes. And you're feeling if the Lord doesn't love you, God absolutely loves you. His love is on 3 (39m 30s): Conditional. And so 2 (39m 33s): Whatever mistakes you've made, no, that when you confess your sins, he is faithful. And just know that his forgive, this 3 (39m 39s): Is for you. I have 2 (39m 41s): To remind myself sometimes at the gospels for me, 3 (39m 44s): Right? 2 (39m 46s): If I stumble how the gospels for me, if I say something, I shouldn't say, ah, the gospel's for me, right? I need you to remember that the gospel is free. That refreshes me in the Lord. It keeps me humble and it keeps my heart in the right place so that I might minister effectively to people in the church and people outside of the church. A few weeks ago, I challenged everybody a couple of weeks in a row to be taking the gospel to the streets as it were to share the gospel. And so I just want to continue to encourage you to do that as part of your job, your responsibility, as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ 3 (40m 21s): Love people. The 2 (40m 24s): Passage in second Timothy, that we studied last week, told us to be kind to everyone. And again, this is impossible. If one has not experienced the kindness of God personally, so no this season, this is the last days. And it's our time to gently instruct people who oppose the truth, right? Sometimes you just get from 3 (40m 42s): Straight in by the world's falling apart. Wow. The world's going to go into a pot. It is, it is, 2 (40m 51s): But as the world gets darker or light gets brighter. And we have an opportunity before us. And so love people by the grace of God, difficult people and see what God will do. Second, Timothy three, three continues. They will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends. Be reckless, be puffed up with pride and love. Pleasure, rather than good. 3 (41m 15s): They will act religious, but they will reject the power 2 (41m 21s): That could make them godly. Stay away from people like that. What's the power that can make us godly the holy spirits and the holy Bible. Those two things make us 3 (41m 33s): Holy. Now the holiness of God 2 (41m 35s): Has been imputed to us, but our lives 3 (41m 38s): Are made holy by our actions. So we 2 (41m 41s): Are w w we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, but the holy spirit and the holy Bible help us to help us to walk in that godly life that he's called us to live. So the holy spirit is there to it's a person, second or third member of the Trinity. The holy spirit is meant to convict the world of sin and of righteousness. So when we're struggling, he convicts us. When we need challenge, he challenges us. He speaks to us, he's taken a residency in our lives, but we got to invite him. Also, we got to say, holy spirit, would you speak to me? Would you lead me? Would you guide me as part of the, the abiding with God that we talked about last week, allowing the holy spirit to do what he wants to do the holy Bible. 2 (42m 23s): The last couple of verses that we'll look out today is verses 16 and 17. And I'll just read those really quickly. It says, all scripture is inspired by God. So we're talking about the old and the new Testament, the Canada, God, okay, inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true. And to make us real, what is wrong in our lives? It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good. So you can't do what God has asked you to do in the earth. Not for long. Anyway, you might be able to muster up some spiritual energy or something and do what God has asked you to do for a moment, but you'll know, never be able to do it longterm and with great fruitfulness and that kind of fruitfulness that God desires to produce in your 3 (43m 6s): Life. So be a person who is filled with the holy spirit, 2 (43m 12s): Right? Ask the spirit of God to speak to you, to minister, to equip you for the work that God has called you to. And then open up the word of God every single day, every day. I know I beat that like a drum, but that is the reality of the situation. You got to open up the word every day, I'm in a seminary level class, and I love it because they take you back to the basics in this class. And they say, go back and reread Genesis through the song of Solomon and do it over the next two months. And at first I was like, ah, this is a lot of reading it's going to be kind of, or, but then I changed my mind and this is what we have to do. We have to change our mind about the scripture. 2 (43m 53s): We often think it's, oh, it's a bummer. It's just going to take up time. It's not worth my time. It is worth our time. And so, instead of thinking about this as an assignment for myself, I decided added to think of it differently and say, you know what? This is an opportunity for me just to 3 (44m 6s): Be deep in the word and see what the Lord will speak 2 (44m 9s): To me as well as, you know, get my assignments done and that sort of thing. So now I'm reading, I don't know, 10, 12 chapters a day, sometimes 15 chapters a day just to get through that text. And, but I'm reading through it just kind of thoughtfully. Sometimes we rush through our devotional time, but the Lord wants us to just, it doesn't take that much extra time to read through it thoughtfully and make it a time of devotion where you're, what you're doing is you're examining your own life in light of the scripture. You're saying, God, speak to 3 (44m 39s): Me through this scripture, the culture and the context may be difficult for me to 2 (44m 45s): Grasp, but I know that you've got something to speak to me. The word of God is it's a, double-edged short, it 3 (44m 51s): Cuts and divides and reveals and communicates. 2 (44m 56s): And there's just something powerful about it. But we need to change our minds 3 (44m 59s): About the word of God and begin to think 2 (45m 4s): About it differently and open it up every single day, verse five, again says they will act religious. So Paul, isn't just talking about people in the world. He's also talking about people in the church. People who act religious godless, men and women who claim to know God, but our wolves in sheep's clothing. This is what they do. Verse six, they are kind, they are the kind who worked their way into people's homes. And when the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by various desires, such women are forever following new teachings, but they are never able to understand the truth. And so Paul is addressing something that is happening currently in the church at emphasis, but he's also addressing what godless people do in the earth. 2 (45m 48s): Those people who are wolves in sheep's clothing, they are pretending or acting pious, but they lack the power that can make them godly. So Paul is addressing occurrence in that day situation, but he's also addressing what's going on here. So we, we need to be careful if we are pious religious, but lacking the word in the spirit. We're always going to be off. We're always going to be missing the mark. We're always going to be misunderstanding what God has called us to do much like these women that Paul is talking about. They're forever following new teachings, but they're never able to understand the truth. And so that's why we say, keep going back to the truth. 2 (46m 29s): Keep going back to the truth, get a good Bible, get a good study Bible. Keep going back to it. I'll ask a lot of the holy spirit to fill you and to direct you. We just prayed out a couple who are moving to Arkansas. And I don't know why anybody would want to move to Arkansas, but apparently people are moving to Arkansas and Idaho and Oregon and all, all kinds of places. So we prayed 3 (46m 52s): Them out and 2 (46m 55s): They said, Hey, we're, we're living. There's 21 churches to choose from. I said, you know what? Pray and watch the holy spirit direct you to the right shoe. 3 (47m 3s): Cause you gotta be careful. So they're praying. They're believing 2 (47m 7s): That the holy Spirit's going to direct them. And then they will find a church that is good and Bible teaching 3 (47m 12s): And, and aligns with their values as followers of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Do you believe that stuff or is it just kind of like whatever? I 2 (47m 25s): Mean, do we believe that the holy spirit of God dwells 3 (47m 28s): In us in two Wells, this was 2 (47m 30s): In us richly and that gives us the wisdom instruction for life. It's part of the abiding walk with Jesus. We have to believe this kind of stuff. It's not Hocus Pocus. It's not magic. It's the real person of God living in us directing us. I mean, it's real stuff like you don't have to ask Lord what pair of socks should I wear? He, I don't think he cares about that kind of stuff. But if you want to ask, go ahead. It's that kind of relationship. I don't care if you ask God, what kind of socks to wear, but you can ask, Lord is, you know, what do you want me to do with this resource, Lord? What do you want me to do with this day? I get up every morning and say, God, this day is yours. I just want to honor you with the day. 2 (48m 11s): And sometimes I get it. Sometimes I miss it. But, but that's the intention. I believe that God wants to speak to us and direct us. So as I go to work, Lord, what do you want me to do? Would you help me to encounter the right people? Help me not to be distracted by the wrong people. How many get the work done that I need to get done and help me not to be worried about the stuff that I don't need to be worried about. Just watch what God will do. First aid. These teachers oppose the truth just as Janice and jam bris opposed Moses. They have depraved minds and the counterfeit faith who were Janice and Jamaris, we don't really know from scripture, but from a tradition, Hebrew tradition, Jewish tradition, these were most likely the magicians in Pharaoh's court. 2 (48m 57s): So you go back to Exodus 7, 8, 9 in there. 3 (49m 3s): There were a couple 2 (49m 4s): Of magicians who would do basically mimic the, the miracles that God would perform. And we read about here next exit seven, verses eight through 13. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron Pharaoh will demand. 3 (49m 16s): Show me miracle 2 (49m 19s): If we need it miracle. So miracles were given in the first century and they're still given today to help people believe the truth. But if your day-to-day life requires a miracle from God before you trust him, your, your faith is shallow and you're not gonna, you're not gonna make it. You're not gonna make it long-term. And when things get difficult there, I went to Israel a couple years ago, year and a half ago or so. And our tour guide was Jewish, but he wasn't a Christian, but he knew about all the miracles that Jesus performed. And he talked about all the miracles that Jesus performed, but he still did not know Jesus, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus' day. 2 (49m 59s): They saw him raise the dead feed. The multitudes heal the sick, do all of these amazing things. And they still refuse to believe. Pharaoh will see the miracle and he will refuse to believe, show me a miracle when he does this say to Aaron, take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh. And it will become a serpent. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did what the Lord had commanded them. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials. And it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers. And these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic. They threw down their staffs and I don't know how that happened and they became serpents, but then Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs and Pharos part. 3 (50m 45s): However, it remained hard. His heart remained hard. 2 (50m 49s): He still refused to listen just as the Lord had predicted. So if you're walking around and expecting a miracle and you're throwing around down your staff, like, oh, I didn't turn into a snake. I'm going to throw it out another one. Oh, apparently God, God 3 (51m 2s): Is not real. 2 (51m 7s): Put out fleeces before the Lord all the time. Lord, give me a financial miracle or give me a relationship. Miracle, Lord, give me a healing miracle or give me all of this stuff. And that's the expectation some of us have. And because God doesn't do our wish lists, we kind of hold them at arms length. The miracle that we need to be thinking about is the miracle on the cross, 3 (51m 32s): Where he died, 2 (51m 33s): The substitutionary death 3 (51m 35s): In my place, imputing righteousness to me so that I might know him and know him for eternity and escape, hell and death. That's the miracle. Jesus has done everything that he needs to do. And if 2 (51m 54s): He graces us with a miracle, praise the Lord, but I'm not serving him for the miracles. I'm serving him 3 (51m 58s): Because he saved me and he's called me and he is worthy. And so we need to get 2 (52m 8s): Out of that deal, making perspective and plan with God because he won't play your game. He loves you. But playing that game will keep you shallow 3 (52m 23s): And weak in your faith. As a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, 2 (52m 29s): Timothy three nine, but they won't get away with this for long someday. Everyone will recognize what fools they are just 3 (52m 36s): As with you they were 2 (52m 39s): Free pools because they refuse to believe Moses, even when science had been given. Why? Because they have depraved minds in counterfeit, faith, how has your mind, and how has your faith? We need to be careful to guard our minds. And that's why last week I talked about protecting what we allow in. We do, we do that by protecting what we see through our eyes on the internet, on the television. So there are different software programs that can be used. Covenant eyes is one that you can download on your computer 3 (53m 13s): And, and that will help 2 (53m 15s): Filter the stuff that actually doesn't filter, but you've got an accountability partner. So whatever you watch on line that your accountability partner knows. So that's pretty awesome, right? And so you need to be careful what you're you're doing. We have a video angel. Yes. Heard of it. Angel. It's just kind of filters all of the trashy stuff on TV programs and movies and that sort of thing. 3 (53m 37s): So anyway, 2 (53m 40s): No, the seasons of the times, number one, gently instruct those who oppose the truth. This is how we help others. We gently instruct them. And then we know the seasons and the time so that we're not taken aback by them. And then number three, we remained faithful. 3 (53m 51s): So we're able to help others. If we're not remaining faithful, we don't even have a desire to help 2 (53m 57s): Others. We don't see the need to help others. But if we're remaining, if we're remaining faithful, like Paul talks about in verse 10, then we will. But you Timothy. Certainly no I teach 3 (54m 8s): And how I live and what my purpose in life is. So we talk 2 (54m 13s): A lot about purpose around here. What's your purpose? What has God called you to do? And will Paul knew what Timothy was up to or Timothy knew what Paul was up to, what he taught, how he lived and his purpose. You know, my faith, my patients, my love and my endurance. Why did Paul need faith? Patients' love and 3 (54m 27s): Endurance. Why did he need 2 (54m 30s): Faith? Patients' love and endurance. He needed faith. Patients' love and endurance because his life was hard. His life was hard. You know, how much persecution and suffering I have endured verse 11. You know, all about how I was persecuted in Antioch. I conium and Lister, but the Lord rescued me from all of it. In those places. Mobs were incited against Paul. Like people gathered in incited mobs. And at one point they stoned him. They thought to death, they drug him outside of town to leave him there because they thought he was dead. The believers gathered around him. And as they gathered around him, he came to and what did he do after he came to, he went back into the town. 2 (55m 10s): Why did he get he's? He's got work to do, right? He's got work to do. And even stoning, even Stony, I was not going to keep him from 3 (55m 19s): Doing what God had called them to do. 2 (55m 22s): Do you know all about what I personally all about how I was persecuted Antioch. I, Tony, Melissa, but the Lord, this is an interesting statement that Paul makes, but the Lord rescued me from all of it. Moms were incited against him and he was stoned almost to death, but the Lord rescued me from all of it. What does that mean? We think the Lord's going to rescue us and take us out of all of our trouble. And we won't have any tribulation troubles or problems in the earth if we just trust the Lord. And we think if, if we're experiencing tribulation or problems that we've obviously disappointed. God, okay. Paul was able to say the Lord rescue me from all of it because God resurrected him after his Stony. 2 (56m 6s): Not that he was dead, but he healed him, got him up. I mean, the guy was left for dead. God actually absolutely had to heal him. He getting pelted with stones in the head and you're getting knocked. God had to heal him so that he could get back up. Doesn't say he was dead. So he didn't get resurrected, but he was, he had to get healed. So what Paul's saying is, Hey, the Lord was faithful to the Lord, rescued me and that he got me back up on my feet. So I can go back and do what God had asked me to do. Right? When God was done with Paul, they cut his head off. That's a pretty good indication that God has done with you. So keep going, keep going. And all they do the same, right? Keep going. Your head's still attached. 2 (56m 46s): Oh good. I got work to do. Yes. And everyone who is, who wants, oh, this is interesting and encouraging. Yes. And everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ, Jesus will suffer persecution. So this happened in Paul's day and what happened as the end time events unfold and as demonic opposition to God's people. 3 (57m 5s): And God's plan on fold. 2 (57m 11s): I'm told from things that I read, that there's actually more persecution of the church today in the 21st century than the previous 20 centuries combined. 3 (57m 22s): That interesting, not in our town, you know, 2 (57m 28s): Not much anyway. I mean, I don't know of anybody that's been stone lately or mobs incited, or had their head cut off. But in other parts of the world, Israel is a war zone right now, just Friday. 3 (57m 40s): Hezbollah dropped 19 2 (57m 44s): Rockets, shot 19 rockets at Israel and Northern Israel. And, and they've been in a war zone where they're God's people. And so for almost since the inception, the beginning of Israel's history, they'd been in a battle somewhere. Cause the enemy hates God's people who are God's people. Well, it's the Jews. But then if you know, Jesus you've been grafted in. So you're part of God's people. And so you're going to be under, under, in a battle zone and you're going to be up against 3 (58m 14s): Obstacles and you can be sure that Satan is interested in 2 (58m 18s): Just discouraging you. If you want to find out why Israel or God's chosen people just go back and read the pendant to go back and read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, numbers, and Deuteronomy, and watch the story of God unfold. It's still 3 (58m 32s): Unfolding today. And 2 (58m 35s): It's just helpful for us to go back and have that understanding. Sometimes we avoid the old Testament, but it's actually a foundation 3 (58m 40s): For the new. It helps us to understand the whole Bible as a whole back 2 (58m 45s): To the description of what the last days will look like. Verse 13, but evil people and imposters will thrive. 3 (58m 51s): They will flourish. They will 2 (58m 53s): Deceive others and will themselves be deceived, but you must remain faithful. Verse 14 says you must remain faithful to the things that you've been taught. You know, they are true for, you know, you can trust those who touch you. You've been taught the holy scriptures from childhood and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus, all scriptures wired by God and is useful to teach us what is true. And to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. So 3 (59m 29s): How can we help others 2 (59m 31s): Avoid the dangers of the last days, gently instruct those who oppose the truth. 3 (59m 38s): Figure out a way to do that. Lovingly 2 (59m 41s): Graciously mercifully 3 (59m 44s): Instructed with the truth, 2 (59m 46s): Know the seasons and the times don't let it freak you out, but let it prepare you and remain faithful. So you're able to help others with that. Let's go ahead and stand up all of us and we'll invite the worship team out. And we will worship some more with a couple more songs and, and we will wrap up this service Lord, thank you for this time. Thank you that you have been here through the worship, through the fellowship, through the times of prayer, through the teaching of your word, Lord, we thank you that your presence is obvious. And so we pray God that you would continue to speak to us as we worship you. God revealing God reveal yourself to us in wonderful ways. Lord God got to refresh our hearts and minds, bring conviction where we need conviction and do the work that you do in our lives. 2 (1h 0m 31s): It's the work that only you can do Lord. So thank you. Thank you for what you're doing in our church. Bless the work at 1 0 2 down the road. Lord, that new facility blessed that we pray. Thank you for providing for it. God, you know the obstacles in front of us with the electrical stuff that's in front of us and the plumbing stuff and all of the, all of the challenges. Lord, we just give those to you and trust you Lord. So thank you for your goodness and faithfulness through every season and project of life. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship 1 (1h 9m 50s): Lord. We pray that our praise would be pleasing to you. We honor you this morning. We humble ourselves confess that you are the one true. Holy God. Worthy of all praise. We asked you to give us strength, walk with you this week.

0 (0s): Each and every one of us as we enter your presence, Lord is you always, you always meet us there. So we just invite you. We become aware of you this morning in Jesus name. Amen. 1 (13s): clap. 1 (3m 8s): I hated rescue. My sin was heavy, but Shane spray, Catherine, raid of your clothes, I needed shelter. I was, you know, now you call me and says in her head, saving us worthy of every song. 1 (4m 43s): Seen Jesus. The name of Jesus, the only one who could we live Jesus, the name of Jesus. 1 (6m 44s): The only one you could ever say worthy of every breath, sing a song in your own words. 1 (8m 17s): Just it's just you and Jesus. Right now. It's just an opportunity to sit in his presence. Just tell him no worries. 1 (8m 55s): I read that's grease that has Google 2 (16m 51s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. For that song, it is our song. It's your song, the gospel, our testimony, what you've done and who we are and you are faithful Lord, and we are so thankful. So, so thankful Lord. I pray that for those who don't understand the amazing grace that we've been singing about, Lord, I pray that you would minister that truth to each person. Truth is we're saved from the penalty of our sin. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. 2 (17m 34s): And so the grace of God that has been extended to humanity is available to why wipe away every sin to cover every mistake and to welcome us into the kingdom of God. And so I pray that those who need to hear that message today, or to rehear that message today would be refreshed in that truth. And I pray that people will be added to the kingdom as a result of that gospel song that we were just singing Lord and God that people would respond with a yes to your grace and yes, to your love yes, to your, your, your plan for their lives. Lord God. So we just invite you to continue that good work that you're doing. God has people watch online and listen online and sit around this campus. 2 (18m 17s): Lord, we just pray your will be done. Thank you for your grace. We love you. We need you. We appreciate it. Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. You may be seated. Welcome. How is everyone 3 (18m 30s): Fabulous? Good to hear I'm back. I, I was gone for the last couple of weeks and I'm so glad to be back. I don't even know that I stepped foot in this sanctuary for the last two weeks. And so when I got here this morning, it was so refreshing to be back and just so good to be back in this place. I've been, I've been doing like a staycation, which has been great, been, you know, at, at the project a little bit, but not really at church much. And so it's been great to be. It's great to be back today as I was, as we were singing that last song, I couldn't help, but think about what's happening a week from Monday a week from tomorrow, a week from Monday week from tomorrow is , which is a group of gathering of bunch of men from all over the central coast to gather once a month to have great food worship together and then have a testimony. 3 (19m 17s): And a few months ago, I was asked to give my testimony a M six, this next time. So, or this in August. And so that is my plan. But for months I've been thinking, Lord, what is my testimony? What part of the test? My testimony do you want me to share? I just, I was, I've been kind of at a loss and what keeps coming back to me is that song amazing grace. And so it's really amazing that we were seeing that today. Cause I feel like the amazing grace of God, the truth is say he saved a wretch like me. I was lost and now I'm found I was blind. And now I see that our testimony, if we know Jesus, that is our testimony, right? 3 (20m 4s): And God is so faithful to meet us where we are to resurrect us and to give us new life in Jesus. And so I'm beyond that. I'm not sure what I'm going to share a week from tomorrow, but guys, if you want to come out and be a part of that, that'd be amazing. It's a thousand Hills ranch. It's going to be just a lot of fun. Hundreds of guys show up and great food is prepared and we just have a wonderful time. So how many I've been just praying every day for this one? Oh two. How many note 1 0 2 is 1 0 2 is our building, which is literally 45 seconds east of us. As, as we walk along the sidewalk there and 1 0 2 is a building that we have leased and we're praying about trying to buy and that sort of thing. 3 (20m 44s): But we're in this tenant improvement phase, which has been for two or three months now, three months I think. And we'll probably be going for three, four more months. And, but so far we've got most of the electrical roughed in. We've got most of the fire sprinklers in. We've got the HVAC system in. We are, we've done a lot of stucco repair. We're going to paint the exterior next week. We've picked out floors and colors and bought chairs and sound equipment and all kinds of stuff that's going in. So can I do, can I ask you what? I asked my staff to do the staff here at the church. I said, Hey, let's not forget to pray every single day for that project. 3 (21m 27s): It's a big undertaking for us as a church, but I know that as we gathered together and just make it a priority to pray every day for it, then God will give us the favor that we need with the city. And they've been amazing to us by the way, the city of ag has been really, really good to us, but prayed for continued favor there with our architect, with our contractors, with our suppliers, with everybody involved, pray for safety and provision at the beginning of the project, I challenged everybody. I said, if, if every family within the church, there's roughly 300 families. If every family gave $700 per family, not per person, but per, per family, then we could meet our budget over there. 3 (22m 9s): So, so far we've raised in excess of 170,000. And so God has been so, so faithful and you guys have been so amazing. So if you haven't had the opportunity to give yet, and you would like to give, just mark your check 1 0 2 and w w God told me this. I felt like the Lord said you will have the resources that you need as you move forward. And so far the money that we've needed has been there. Every bill that comes in gets paid right away and everything that's needed has been able to be purchased. And it's just been really, really good. So, so be continually praying. If you could just write it down somewhere where you see everyday, like maybe on your bathroom mirror, pray for 1 0 2 and just pray for those things that we've been talking about. 3 (22m 50s): That'd be amazing. Hey, we're in second Timothy, back to second Timothy chapter two today verses 15 through 26, I titled the message. How do we gain God's approval? How do we gain God's approval? Now we're not talking today about salvation. We are saved by grace through faith. It has nothing to do with our work, but we receive God's approval. We receive God's approval of our life and work by what we do. So there's a difference. And we're going to be talking about the difference today. Salvation by grace, through faith rewards, approval of God comes through the works that we do. 3 (23m 31s): So I child, if you've got kids or whatever, I, we raised our kids, but as they were growing up, we would discipline them out of our love for them. We love them enough to discipline them because at times their behavior wasn't acceptable. So we would discipline them so that they would learn what good behavior is. God says, the Bible says that God disciplines, those whom he loves. And the discipline actually demonstrates that we belong to God, that we are his adopted sons and daughters. And so we know that God has a standard and has given us each responsibility in the earth that I always say, if you've got a pulse, you've got purpose. 3 (24m 14s): And so do that real quick. 4 (24m 17s): My pulse is good. Pulse 3 (24m 20s): Equals purpose, right? So if you've got to pulse, that's good. Cause we don't have to call anybody to take you out, but you got purpose. So God has given each of us a spiritual gift to be used. And then at the end of time, at the end of our existence here in the earth, we're going to stand before the judgment seat of God and give an account for our lives. And so we will each stand before the Lord and receive rewards or not based on how we lived our lives here in the year. And so we're going to be talking about gaining God's approval steps to gaining God's approval so that when we stand before the judgment seat of God, Gary was talking about that we're at that judgment seat, we're going to receive crowns. But then after that, we just cast it before the Lord and worship worship to him. 3 (25m 3s): So as we look at this text in second Timothy today, we're going to just kind of unpack it a little bit or a lot of bit and find three points that will help us to gain God's approval. Number one, weed comes right from the text, be a good worker, be a good worker. A second. To me, the two 15 through 26 says this work hard. So you can present yourself to God and receive his approval, right? So it's kind of, if you've never thought about getting the approval of God, if you thought, well, not obviously approves of me, he saved me and I, it doesn't really matter how I live my life. 3 (25m 43s): That's not God's plan. And it actually matters how we live our life. He's actually placed us in the earth to accomplish the kingdom work that he's given us to accomplish. So Paul is telling Timothy, and he's telling the church at emphasis. There are 2000 years ago when he's telling us today here on the central coast in 2021, he said, work hard. So you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. So we have this responsibility to work in such a way. So point number one, be a good worker. Verse 15 continues, be a good worker. One who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth. So pretty specific communication there. 3 (26m 25s): What is Paul telling Timothy? How is Paul instructing Timothy to be a good worker? He's we need to know because he's instructing us to do the same thing. He said, be one who does not need to be ashamed. What does that mean? Well, we need to have a clear, we need to move forward as followers of the Lord, Jesus, having a clear conscience concerning the work that we do for God. We have been called to kingdom purpose, kingdom work, and we need to have a clear conscience that the work we're doing for God is what he has asked us to do. This week. I heard about a young lady who went to Cornell university, graduated from college, got a engineering degree, top 10 in her class. 3 (27m 11s): Amazing young lady started her engineering career doing great work, but she didn't enjoy it. It wasn't her passion. So she decided that she would quit her amazing engineering job that she got, that she had secured. And she decided I want to go back to school and get my teaching credential because I want to teach math. That's what she was passionate about. Right? So I think God gives us passion for our vocation, but then also for the work that he's called us to do in the earth. And it's that passion that gives us the ability to do the work that God has called us to longterm. When we're working out of the passion that God has put into us, then we're able to do for decades, what God has asked us to do so that at the end of our lives, we hear well done. 3 (27m 57s): Well done. Good and faithful 4 (27m 60s): Servant. So Paul is instructing 3 (28m 3s): Continuously to be a good worker by not being ashamed, have a clear conscience concerning the work you do for God, work with all your heart. As you do your work as unto the Lord, invest your life with passion into the work you are called to. So make sure that the life you're living as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ is not going to lead to your shame. Meaning sins of omission, where God has called you to do something, but you didn't do it. Or sins of commission where he just flat refuse to honor the Lord with your life. You're going to stand before the Lord and give an account. And you're going to have to give an account for every second minutes, hour, day, week, month, decade, your whole life, your whole life is being recorded. 3 (28m 54s): And you're going to have to give an account for your life. So Paul all told Timothy, be one who does not need to be ashamed. Also be one who correctly explains the word of truth or handles the word of truth. The Greek verb translated correctly. Handles really means cutting a straight road and suggests straightforward exit Jesus, exit Jesus. As the study of God's word, the understanding, gaining the understanding. It's a process to which you gain understanding and, and, and, and, and, and, and teach the word of God. In other words, don't read into the text. Something that isn't there, you need to understand how to XEG the texts. You need to understand how to open up the scripts. 3 (29m 35s): You know, basically what you do is you just let scripture interpret scripture. You open up the word of God and make sure that what's your about this passage is actually properly reflected in the rest of the scripture as well. There's a lot more to it, but you need to properly handle the word of God. So you know how to live it for yourself, but then also how to instruct it for others. You say, well, I'm not an instructor. I'm not a teacher. Every one of us teach teaches someone. Every one of us, I ran into this couple recently. And if you go back in their lives a few years ago, they were on fire for Jesus. They just loved Jesus. They started out their married life. 3 (30m 15s): That way they just love, love Jesus. And just over time, they've drifted and they have completely fallen away from the Lord. So I saw this couple recently and I said, they've had a couple of kids. And I saw one of their kids. And I said, you know what I said, do you know who loves you? And a little, little kid said, well, you do. And I said, why, no, I love you. And you know that, I love you, but do you know who, who else loves you? I said, Jesus loves you. And this little, little girl had no idea who Jesus was. She said, who is Jesus? I said, well, Jesus has God. And he loves you. 3 (30m 56s): She said, God's not real. That's not true. We're all teaching, instructing someone in our lives. Whether it be our kids, our grandkids, our neighbors, our coworkers, we're all instructing. And so we have to properly correctly handle the word of truth in order to effectively do the work that God has called us to do here in the earth. In other words, don't read into the text. Something that isn't there. I know a guy who was always giving me hypothetical's I, if you know me at all, you know, I don't like hypotheticals or whatever. I like just want the facts. Just like, give me the facts. I, if I'm in a meeting with my staff or my team, and they're wanting to give me all this information about, about what they're doing. 3 (31m 37s): I said, I don't, I it's not my place. I don't, that's not my job. We've got people in place for that. People, you know, tracking your goals and you know, all that kind of stuff. Just tell me what you need bottom line it for me, because you're going to lose me in about three seconds. If you don't bottom line for me. So I've got this guy who's always, and I've known many of these guys throughout my life. They're giving me all of these hypotheticals about God's word. Well, what if, why not? Could it be this type of hypothetical questioning to me yields only unhealthy speculation. And in my experience, now, this is just my experience. You can throw it out if you want. But in my experience, the fruit of that kind of conversation is a fruitless life. 3 (32m 22s): The people I've encountered over the years who talk like this and think like this don't ever grow up in their faith because their hypothetical questions are always getting in the way of them truly believing and being obedient to God's word that people have encountered over the years who like this, and think this like this, they don't ever grow, grow up. They remain childish and undisciplined, and un-involved insignificant kingdom work. They don't attend church on a regular basis, or they bounce from church to church. They don't get involved in long-term ministry. They don't give it. They don't give to kingdom work and they tend to cause problems in the church. So Paul is exhorting Timothy, and he's exhorting the rest of us. 3 (33m 6s): The one who does not need to be ashamed. In other words, don't make it excuses for not doing what God has asked you to do, do what God has asked you to do wholeheartedly with your whole life. Also be one who correctly explains the word of truth. What's the opposite of correctly explaining the word of truth. Well, back to our text, second, Timothy chapter two verse 16 says avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior. So these type of hypotheticals, these excuses that we make or come up with that hinder our obedience to God and our belief in God and our faith in God lead to godless behavior. 3 (33m 47s): It says this kind of talk spreads like cancer. That word literally in the Greek is gang green. So if you can get a good, a good picture of that, that's kind of disgusting growth thing to just a gross thing that kind of grows in your body when you're, when there's unhealth involved or when there's infection. And when it's unhealthy, this kind of talk spreads like cancer gangrene, as in the case of, and we get Hymenaeus and , they have left the path of truth, claiming that the resurrection of the dead has already occurred. I heard in this way, they have turned some people away, the faith. So how do we gain God's approval? Number one, be a good worker, not ashamed of the work you do rightly dividing the word of truth. 3 (34m 31s): Verse 19 says, but God's truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription. The Lord knows those who are his and all who belong to the Lord may turn, must turn away from evil. So what does that mean? What is the foundation stone? God's true. Stands like a firm foundation stone. What does that foundation stone? There's no slides actually for these next verses here. I put them in this morning. It says this in first Corinthians chapter three, verses 10 through 15. And Paul wrote first Corinthians as well. So he's speaking here because of God's grace, me Paul road. I have laid that foundation like an expert builder. So as an apostle, Paul would go around from town to town, preaching the gospel, laying a foundation of truth and understanding about who Jesus Christ is. 3 (35m 19s): And churches were born out of that work. And after he left that town, others would come in and build on the foundation that he put down. Now, other builders that can diverse continues in verse 10. Now others are building on it, but whoever's building on this foundation. It must be careful. No one can lay any foundation. Other than the one we already have Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials, gold, silver jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day at the judgment seat of Christ, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. 3 (36m 2s): The fire will show if a person's work has any value. If the work survives that builder will receive a reward, the crowns that we're talking about. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through walls of flames through a wall of flames. So I don't want to get into heaven that way, like barely like singed, like smoking, like barely in there. Like I want to get in there. Not because I'm good, but because God's good. But I want to know that my life has mattered and that my good works have not been burned up. 3 (36m 44s): That I haven't spent my life working in an unproductive way so that my good works are burned up. Second Corinthians five 10 says this for, we must for, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. So how do we gain God's approval? We gotta be a good worker. We have a responsibility. If you're here today and you don't know your responsibility, figure it out, ask God. Well, as I'm getting ready to leave to Denver afternoon to go visit my dad. He's in the hospital, been there for a couple of weeks and I've been vacillating all week about whether I should fly to Denver today to go see him, or if I should wait. 3 (37m 26s): And so finally late yesterday, my wife and I decided, yeah, it's going to be good for me to go. And I'm going to go and hopefully be an advocate for him as he's kind of not doing well. He's, he's got heart issues and dementia issues and all kinds of stuff going on. So, so as I was vacillating with it, I knew that the Lord would show me if I just continue to pray. If I just continue to think about the situation and pray about the situation, I knew that God would make it clear and he did make it clear yesterday. So we booked the flights and I'm heading out this afternoon at five 30. So, and all of that is to say that if, if you're really wanting to know what God wants to speak to you about your calling and your gift set and all that, he's got, she got for you here in the earth. 3 (38m 11s): If you just continue ask, ask, and seek and knock it, God will reveal his plan to you so that you can do the supernatural she'll work that God has called you to do gaining God's approval by being a good worker. Number one, number two, turn away from evil. How do we gain God's approval? We turn, turn away from evil. Second, Timothy chapter two verse 20 says any wealthy. Some utensils are made of gold and silver and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions and the cheap ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure verse 21, if you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. 3 (38m 58s): Your life will be clean and you'll be ready for the master to use you for every good work. Therefore 22 8 says run from anything that stimulates youthful loss instead pursue righteous, living faithfulness, love and peace. How do we turn away from evil? I'm going to share some good practices with you today. John 15 talks about abiding in Christ remaining in Christ. 4 (39m 33s): We, 3 (39m 35s): We away from evil. We turn away from evil by simply abiding with Christ remaining in Christ. If you go back and read John 15, you'll, you'll realize you'll see that. That's how fruitfulness happens. As we abide in him and he abides in us, we will have a fruitful life. In fact, Jesus said remain in me and I will remain in you. It goes with that verse. It says he'll never leave us nor forsake us. So as you remain in him, you will be able to turn away from evil and you will bear fruit. You will not be able to turn away from evil unless you're abiding in him. You might be able to white knuckle it for a little while and say no to the flesh, say no to the devil, say no to the world, but after you're done white knuckling, it you're going to give into it. 3 (40m 23s): But if you're abiding in Christ, walking daily with Jesus, you will have the strength and the ability to turn away from evil. This is the truth. You and I were. We'll never turn away from evil until we decide to abide in Christ. We will never bear fruit apart from a biding. Rocky Fleming from influencers, global ministries wrote this. Yes, it is actually Christ in us bearing fruit. It is his fruits and his characteristics that are at work without abiding in him. There is no fruit. However, bearing fruit is not our primary objective and that interesting. 3 (41m 4s): That's not our primary objective abiding in Christ is our primary objective. The fruit simply shows up when we are spiritually healthy. So how do we turn away from evil? We simply abide. And I say simply, it's not always simple, but it is the direction that God has given to us in the word. So if we abide in Christ and he and us, we will be able to turn away from evil, but we also need to do some other practical things that will us to do that. So protect yourself, protect yourself online. The internet is a wild wild west. First of all, kinds of information. Some of it's great. Some of it's not so great. 3 (41m 44s): So if you are having a struggle with the intranet, I would ask you to download on your computer. Something called covenant eyes, nice. Covenant eyes is a, the accountability process where you get somebody else to hold you accountable for the information that you're looking at and watching and reading on line, and that person will be communicated your con to the content of what you've been watching so they can help hold you accountable. So protect yourself on line it's way too easy to stumble by going on the internet. So protect yourself, protect your purity. In other ways, there's other ways to protect your purity. 3 (42m 25s): There's pure desire groups. We've got men's pure desire groups that meet here every Monday night here on the campus. There's dozens of guys who show up because they're trying to turn away from evil, doing the right thing. Also, you can grow in the knowledge and understanding of God through other Bible study groups that we have here on the central coast. In, in this, in this church. There's tons of opportunities for men and women and young people and young professionals and college, junior high and high school, fifth and sixth graders. There's all kinds of opportunities for people to grow in knowledge and understanding of God through the Bible study groups that we have available. Join a journey group, join a journey group. 3 (43m 7s): I'm a part of a 6:00 AM journey group on Friday mornings. It is a terrible time of the day to have a Bible study. I show up at six exam on Friday morning, the first time I'm like, what are you guys crazy? Who in the world has a Bible study at 6:00 AM? That means I got to get up at 4:15 AM so that I can be at the Bible study by 6:00 AM. It's a Riddick. It's the middle of the night. So for like four weeks in a row, I'm like, Hey guys, let's move it from six o'clock to say nine o'clock when God is awake. I'm not even sure God's awake at 6:00 AM. 3 (43m 48s): He is I'm kidding. But you know what? My point is, we're often to go do something or need to go do something that is inconvenient for us. Do it anyway. It has been such a blessing to be at that 6:00 AM group with those guys. I complained about it still, but it's the, the fellowship and the growth that we have experienced together has been nothing short of delightful. We're about halfway through our journey and you got another half way to go, but we're just really, really enjoying it. So it may be inconvenient a bad time, maybe somethings your kind of flesh resist, but do something to get involved in a small group so that you can to grow and believe and trust the Lord. 3 (44m 35s): So here we go. Here's some scriptural guidance for turning away from evil Galatians five 16 through 26. My Bible titles, this living by the Spirit's power. It says in verse 16, Galatians five. So I say, let the holy spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants. And the spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other. Have you ever experienced that? 3 (45m 15s): Yeah, me too. So you're not free to carry out your good intentions, but when you are directed by the spirit and that's, that's part of the abiding process, you're abiding with Christ. The spirit of God is in you and you're being directed by the spirit. As you abide with Jesus, the Lord and great things begin to happen. There's just there's transformation that begins to take place. There's great growth that begins to take place verse 18. But when you are directed by the holy spirit, you're not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear. 3 (45m 55s): Sexual immorality, impurity, less bill pleasure, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension division, I'll continue envy. First 21, envy drunkenness, wild parties and other sins like these like that. Wasn't conclusive other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God, but the holy spirit produces verse 22. 3 (46m 37s): This kind of fruit in our lives. Love 4 (46m 41s): Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, 3 (46m 52s): And self-control, I don't know about, she wouldn't want to read that first list of all the sin. I was getting anxious. I'm like all the gal is just such heavy. But when I started, when I started reading the, the, the fruit of the spirit, 4 (47m 3s): Peace, 3 (47m 5s): It's like everything settled down inside of me. Love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness. And self-control, this is the kind of stuff that God wants to accomplish and produce in our lives. We cannot experience this apart from a biting and allowing the holy spirit to direct our lives. First continues. There is no law against these things. Those who belong to Jesus verse 24, those who belong to Christ. Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. 3 (47m 46s): Since we are living by the spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. And so we abide with him. We simply remains true remain with him. So you're connected to Jesus. You're walking with Jesus. You're inviting Jesus into your path and your problems into your challenges. And you're asking for his wisdom and his grace and his strength. And so you're abiding with him and out of that, the spirit of God has access to your heart and mind and helps you to make wise choices and produce something of beautiful fruitfulness. And not just, God's a great plan that God has for us. I think it's a great plan. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to the cross and crucified them there. 3 (48m 28s): Since we are living by the spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Let us verse 26, let us not become conceited or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another. How do we gain God's approval? Number one, be a good worker. Make sure the work that you're doing is kingdom work, born out of a passion that God has given to you to do the work that he's called you to do a number two, turn away from evil. And then number three, do life do life with like-minded people kind of like what we're doing today gathered for church. The Bible says in our text, verse 22, enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts. 3 (49m 9s): That's part of Paul's instruction to Timothy, to enjoy the companionship of those who call him the Lord with a pure heart. Proverbs 27 17 says this as iron sharpens iron. So a friend sharpens another. So we have this opportunity and beyond the opportunity, we've got this responsibility and beyond the responsibility, we've got an obligation to sharpen one another in Christ. And so we're challenging one another. When we need to be challenged, we're loving each other through the difficult seasons of life. We're encouraging each other with truth. We're praying for each other. As we go through life. We're not just going to church together. 3 (49m 51s): We're not just hanging out with people who love Jesus, but we're living life in Christ to gather. It's not meant to be an external thing. Only like a facade. Like, Hey, everything's good. Sometimes you show up and like, Hey, everything's great. Sometimes we need to say that if, if there's no time to unpack it, but you can. It's okay to kind of get vulnerable with one another and say, Hey, you know, I'm really, I, I need prayer. Like you can pray for me this as I go up to Denver, please pray. I'm going to be talking with my dad. It's hard conversations. Talking with doctors, it's going to be difficult. It's going to be difficult. So pray for me. And so that's what we need to be doing with one another enjoying fellowship together as the church supporting one, another carrying one another's burdens, you know, Jesus, didn't have very fond things to say about those who thought they were religious, but who lacks real life change wrought by the spirit. 3 (50m 42s): He didn't have much good to say to the Pharisees. Those who were the religious teachers and leaders, but who hadn't experienced life change through Christ the Lord. This is what he said, Matthew 23, 27. What sorrow, what? Sorry. Sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees hypocrites for you are like whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside, but filled on the inside with dead people, bones and all sorts of impurity Christianity. And he was never about just, no, it was never meant to be just about kind of coming to church and even, even just reading the Bible or, or even just praying it's or even just kind of doing good deeds. 3 (51m 31s): It's it's, it's, it's all of it done out of a, a life that is abiding with Christ and filled with the holy spirit because as we abide with Christ and as we are filled with the holy spirit, we're able to do all of these things and thereby gain God's approval, living our lives in such a way that when we stand before the judge judgment seat of Christ, we hear well done. Good and faithful servant. And we received the crowns, the rewards that God has for us, knowing that we didn't spend our life in vain, but God is approving of our life. When it's all wrapped up. 3 (52m 12s): Just a second, Timothy chapter two, again, I say, don't get, don't get involved in foolish ignorant arguments that only start fights. This is interesting. A servant of the Lord who is a servant of the Lord. All right. If you're in Christ, you're a servant of the Lord, a servant of the Lord must not quarrel must be kind to everyone. How do you do that? How do you not coral? And how do you be kind to everyone? You do it simply by abiding, as you are abiding remaining in Christ. And he, and you, and the spirit of God fills you. You're able to do what the scripture asked you to do. We can only do what God asks us to do when we're filled with the holy spirit directed and led by the holy spirit. 3 (52m 58s): And when we're abiding in Christ, when we are doing those things, we're able to do these things. We're able to do not quarrel, be kind to everyone. And then it says be able to teach and be patient with difficult people, anybody. Yeah. Any difficult people in your life, like depending on the season, sometimes we do. Sometimes we don't, but God has got a plan for us when we're encountering difficult people. His plan for us is that we would walk through those seasons with those people, with grace and with love. Not that we don't have boundaries in our lives, but we have grace and love gently instruct those who oppose the truth. 3 (53m 38s): Verse 25, perhaps God will change those people's hearts and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap for they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants. Listen, if we're not abiding in Christ and fill with the holy spirit, we're easy. Pickings for the enemy were easy. Pray. The Bible says that Satan is like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He's prowling around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. So if we're not abiding in Christ and filled with the holy spirit, we're easy pickings. You'll be able to distract us, tempt us, get us down the wrong path. But God's plan is that we would produce that fruit of the spirit. 3 (54m 21s): Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control, all of those things that God wants to do, helping us to work as unto the Lord, as we abide in him. And as we're filled with him being good workers, turning away from evil, doing life with like-minded people so that we can help them be good workers so that we can help them turn away from evil so that we can do life together and get to heaven together and take as many people with us as possible. Amen. Amen. Let's go out and stand up. I wanna invite the worship team and we're going to worship. And if the Lord is doing a work in you and, and you feel like the Lord has got your attention about something, pay attention to what he's saying as we worship. 3 (55m 5s): And then after the worship, as we get ready to close up the service, we're going to have a prayer team up here to pray for you. So if you'd like to get prayer, that team will be up here after we worship. And so Lord, we just want to thank you for this time. Thank you for the worship team that leads us in song and in worship before your throne. Thank you for your word that instructs us. Thank you for your spirit. That guides us. Thank you for the opportunity to abide with you. As you walk with us, Lord, we love you. We thank you. We're so grateful in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship. 1 (56m 6s): amen. 1 (58m 43s): the same. God never fails will not fail me. Now you will fail me in the way the same guy is working. the same guy, never fails. 1 (1h 0m 1s): the same guy. God is working all things out. 1 (1h 0m 15s): I choose to 0 (1h 2m 19s): Thank Lord for a wonderful morning Lord, as we go, Lord, I just ask you to just keep in presence about us. I mean, your presence is with us Lord, but may keep us aware of, of what you're doing in our midst and what, and what you'd have us do Lord. And we just ask that you keep us accountable to serving you and living our lives for you. As we go in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. And like Steve was saying, if you guys, if anyone, if you're feeling a tug on your heart from the Lord, like, please don't be shy to come forward. We have people, prayer teams ready do it. We'll see you next time.

0 (0s): Good morning. Welcome to church. Will you stand as we begin to worship and good morning to everyone who's in our other locations and visiting us online or with the sunlight. 0 (8s): thank you. 0 (4m 34s): Jesus. We praise you. Worship your name this morning. 0 (4m 41s): Jesus. 0 (13m 41s): We thank you so much this morning. We lift your name. Amen. Thank you so much. 1 (13m 58s): Good morning. And you go ahead and have a seat. That would be great. My name is Ron and I will be your host today. Whatever that means. I just made that up by the way I needed up here. Thanks Dave. Hey, what we decided to do this year 2021 is on family Sunday. So today's family Sunday, the fourth, Sunday of each month, which we designate for a couple of things. One is we have communion together on family Sunday. So we're going to be enjoying convenient together today. In fact, if you didn't get the communion cup, when you came in, like to ask the greeters in each venue, sanctuary loft, and also in the patio to get and grab the, grab the tray and walk around and make sure everybody's got a communion cup. 1 (14m 45s): Cause we're going to be, as I said, having communion today as a, as a group, and then also what we do on communion Sunday, family Sunday is we encourage families to worship together. So we don't have our normal classes for first grade and up. We do have class available for those under first grade. So if you've got some kids that for whatever reason, you want to have them in class, you can take them there and that'd be fine. Or if you want to keep them with you, that'd be great. One of the things that, that we feel is sort of a, a symptom of a, a vibrant growing church is a sound of kids could be crying. Kids could be fussy kids. We love kids. 1 (15m 26s): And so, yeah, as long as they're not, you know, distracting me, that's fine. We love them. Also, what we've done this year is the mission. The missionaries that we support and we support about a dozen is we designate each, each family Sundays. We want to introduce you to a missionary that we are involved with. That could be financial, certainly prayerfully, and the couple of money to introduce you to in just a moment. We've actually been involved with them for a long, long time. And so I'll let them tell you their stories. I'd like to go ahead and invite chef Cheryl and land up to the front. So Sherrilyn Lynn, come on up. 1 (16m 7s): And Dave, where did you put your mic? It's oh, here it is. There it is. Okay, so let's give a warm welcome when you is this one. Here you go then. All right. Is that good height? Do you want it lowered? You good? All right. Okay. All right. 2 (16m 32s): I don't want it to fall over. Well, good morning, everybody. It's really a blessing for us to be here. I mean, you know, we're in Israel. Most of the time we have been, except for when this COVID hit. And I was in Israel when the COVID hit and I had to come back to the states when I was in Texas, I was in Israel and I had to first extend my stay in Israel. And then there were no flights. So I was waiting and waiting for a flight, but I didn't want to end up in one of those quarantines and New York and New Jersey where they fly you into. So I was just praying because I thought if I ended up in the hospital, I'll never get out. They'll find something wrong. So anyway, I had this window of time. 2 (17m 14s): I got the flight and June 18th of last year and I got back and lympic me up in Dallas. I didn't have to quarantine. Few days later, they started the quarantine again in New York, New Jersey. So God is good. Yeah. What's good about doing mission field or doing any ministry. And a lot of you're involved in ministry. You get to see the Lord working through you and working around you. You know, it's like watching them. I'm sure the apostles disciples were when they were following them. They'd probably wake them go, oh, I wonder what he's going to do today. And that's how we feel is like, what is he going to do today? And so many different surprises happen, you know, from attacks to people getting saved. The last two days were ministry days for us and they were long and we needed more sleep than we got. 2 (17m 58s): But you know, it was good. It was really good. We got to pray with our brothers and all kinds of good stuff happened. Okay. I'll stop talking. What I'd like to do is tell you that the ministry that we're involved in, that we do is called love without borders. And it started with a smiley who was a Muslim, became a Christian. And we worked together to go to these different Muslims, especially and tell them about the Lord. And they were coming in the kingdom like that. It was fun. You know, they would walk up to me and goes, I wonder to be baptized, you know, like, whoa, okay. You know, you go down, they believe you. They go down as a Muslim. They come up as a Christian. Not that that's their theology or whatever you want to call it. 2 (18m 39s): But they have to do that first after wash all that off and come up. And when they come up out of the water, they're just shining like crazy, you know, it's wonderful. So that's, you know, Jesus said, you know, not what food I have. You know, like when he was at the whale, when some area I have food over there and then knows this, you just get so invigorated, you forget about eating. You forget about sleeping and you just go and do the ministry. So anyways, a little bit, our borders doesn't just go to Muslims or go to arrows. But it also goes to the Jewish people. So we have a mixture. We were doing more Muslims and Jews. And now it's like mix secular Jews, ultra Orthodox Jews, regular Orthodox Jews, and just you name it all kinds. 2 (19m 21s): So it's a fun ministry. And the Lord just kind of puts us in their path. We don't go looking for them. They just come in our path and then we minister to them. So Len is going to share a little bit and while I rest. And so he's just got something to say to you, and then I will finish 3 (19m 38s): Up. Thank you. Okay, good morning. I'm going to start with something just a little off the ball. Since we moved to Texas from Israel by way of California. And when, when we first moved to Texas, I would hear people say y'all and I thought it meant y'all. But what y'all means in Texas is y'all one person y'all. So if I were to address everyone here, it's all y'all. And that was my reaction. 3 (20m 20s): So that gets me to relax a little bit. Thank you. So, as Cheryl said, it's and it's whoever the Lord brings in front of us, that's who we minister to. And, and so that's what we have to be open to wherever we're at in the United States, England, but in Israel. So I want to focus on the Jewish people in Israel now and the Jewish community. So what the Lord revealed to me a couple of years ago, a few years ago, was that the Jewish community ultra Orthodox, Orthodox Jews read scripture pretty obvious. 3 (21m 6s): But what was interesting to me is that they read portions of scripture every week around the world, the same portions. And so the Lord revealed to me in my little brain, why don't you read the same portions for a couple of reasons? One, I was blessed, but two, it gave me an opportunity to open a small door, to start speaking to the ultra Orthodox and Orthodox Jews, which in general, you feel like there's a little bit of a wall there. It broke open the wall. 3 (21m 47s): All I had to do was ask a question. What do you think of? And man, when you ask that question, the it's like a flood gate and they love to talk about scripture and argue. So, but yeah, it also gave us an opportunity to share the Lord. It's somewhat of a struggle. We do this a lot, but it's there. And it opens up that opportunity. And it just turns out that yesterday was the beginning of the next portion. I'll call it biblical portion. 3 (22m 26s): And they started reading Deuteronomy 3 23 through seven 11, and every Orthodox and ultra Orthodox Jews in the world is right now reading and studying with their families. The same scripture, the same. Yeah. All of them. Thank you. The same scripture. So that's what I started doing. And yesterday we started studying that scripture and buried in the scripture, not buried obvious to him, to me in the scripture is Jesus. 3 (23m 10s): So our prayer is that God uses his word to reveal Jesus to all of the Jewish people. That, especially those that are reading his word. Yeah. So if I were to ask everyone to, to pray for Israel, that's what I would first ask, pray into the word that God will reveal himself to the Jewish people. Thank you. Thank you. Wow. Okay. That turned out really good 2 (23m 45s): Reinforcement. I need, we use each other a lot. It has been a real blessing. We got married in 2014 and well, I mean the relationship grows all the time. And I found out about his sense of humor when I was in Israel stuck and I got back and he's joking with all the neighbors and I'm just watching this going, oh my gosh, she's funny. And now we get to have a funny time. So it's great. Love it. Okay. So what we just want to say is that tour portion or the biblical portion that he's referring to, we have an update. We put out every month and in that update, we put the portions. So if anybody wants to follow along, they know what the Jews are reading that week around the world. 2 (24m 29s): And if you run across a Jew, even on an airplane or something, you can just sit down and go, Hey, what about that in book? You know, what do you think about that? And you're right there with them on the same scripture. And it does open those doors. So we're going to have a table out in the middle, somewhere up there and we'll have the, we'll have the, no, we won't have the Torah portions out there now. Okay. So we have stuff on the table. Things you can take and cards and you know, information. So just please do that. If you can't, oh, by the way, we do have a sign up sheet. So if you want those tour portions, we call them Torah portions in Israel. So it's what I'm used to. But anyways, our biblical Bible portions, if you want that, we put that in our update. 2 (25m 12s): You can come and sign your email address there, and you will get that every month now in the update is not just that, but it's about what God's doing, what guys doing in our lives, maybe a little personal section. And then I put paragraphs of news because our cover in Israel is we're journalists. You can't be a missionary in Israel. As a matter of fact, I talked to this massaged agent and I had no idea that he was in my computer because I was babysitting his kid two kids. And anyway, she went in my computer to see who I was, you know, and do a background check on me. And he told me in 2018 in front of land, what happened? We checked me out in 2005 or six, whatever it was. And he kept seeing the word mission and mission this and mesh it. 2 (25m 55s): And he said in Israel, that means operation. And so he thought we were doing an operation tourist operation. So don't write mission to me, don't get me in trouble. But anyways, it's really fun to be over there. And we have this cover as a journalist, but we really have to do the work. So I'm on the government press office list. I get all the emails, all the Presley releases that come out in a day. I get all the press releases that come out in from the white house every day also. So I get all this news what's really happening before it goes into the paper. And some of it doesn't even make the paper. It's amazing. What does not make the paper? So that's our cover. And we tell all the people we go to minister to, they say, what are you doing here? 2 (26m 35s): We can't say missionary. So we say, we're doing journalism. We have to turn in our work at the ministry of interior. So they can see that we're actually doing journalism. We have our credentials, our press credentials in both America and in Israel. So that's pretty cool to have that. And the Lord opened the doors so that we could get journalists fuses. We're not on journalists abuses now because when you go in and you get an automatic three months in Israel, we bought a house as Len said in Texas, because we couldn't afford one here. And I miss it here. Oh my gosh, I miss it. I love California. I was born in California, but we needed a place we can come to. And God knew that the COVID was going to hit because in 2019, we bought the house, went back to Israel and the COVID hit. 2 (27m 20s): And we would have had to stay in hotels or with friends or family here in America, because we didn't have anything before this. So now we have a home where we have all our things out of the storage units. What timing God is good. I see it all the time. So yeah, so we write articles. We do television, we do radio and we're traveling around well, this time we're traveling up and down California, but we speak in England and Canada and Australia, wherever we're invited. We go to these places and speak about Israel. What's happening there. Current affairs, biblical prophecies, and how the current affairs match what's in the Bible and you're going to go, oh my gosh, I get, we'll leave. They're getting so close. And wow. Yeah, there's a lot to tell you guys what's going on. 2 (28m 1s): And it takes longer than what we can do up here. So what we're going to do on Friday, the 30th is we're going to be in the loft in the evening. We're going to start at five 30. We're going to have snacks. People can come and do it like a meet and greet thing. And then at six o'clock, we're going to have music. One gentlemen is going to come and he's going to be singing in Hebrew. He's going to sing the national Anthem in Hebrew, the Israeli national Anthem. And he's got the words he's going to hand out. So you can see in English and in Hebrew, what it is. And then he's going to do Psalm 23 and Hebrew. And it's beautiful. It's beautiful. And then DJ will be coming and she's going to lead worship. And she's going to do Hebrew and English songs among some others. 2 (28m 42s): I think. So maybe Gary is going to join her. I don't know. She said something about Gary will be playing with her. So then we'll talk, we'll do a PowerPoint presentation so people can see pictures. What's going on. We're going to cover current affairs. And then we're going to do a question time and discussion because people want to know what's going on. How does America match with peers or what's going on? Since both, we have two new administrations, one in Israel, one here, and there's a lot going on and a lot festering up right now. And we're going to let you know what all those things are. So Friday you can go up. You're welcome to come. Anybody's welcome to come on that table. We have flyers. So you can come up and get a flyer. It has all the details, but I just gave them to you. 2 (29m 25s): It'll be a little off. We start at five 30 program starts at six. Please come. If you're interested in what's going on in Israel, you're more than welcome. And I think that's about it. I think I covered everything right. 3 (29m 37s): I think so. Okay. 2 (29m 38s): So yeah. So we're going to go ahead and sit down and enjoy the service ourselves for a change. And hopefully we'll see you on Friday, but we'll be out there at the table if you want to talk to us. Okay. Thank you. 1 (29m 55s): Thank you, Lynn. Thank you, Cheryl. Today is really sweet sweet day for, for me in particular. And here's why, so Amanda, who is leading worship this morning, I've known her parents, Jim and Kim Coles before she was born. She is their first born of seven. And so I've got to see Amanda since day one girl up and now she's, you know, loving the Lord, serving the Lord, leading us in worship, and that's really special for sure. And then, so Cheryl began attending a church that I was a part of pastoring and Avalon beach, the Applebee's Christian fellowship. She started, she gave her life to the Lord in 1989 and began coming to the church novela back then. 1 (30m 39s): And so we have a lot of history. We helped get her on the mission field. She came to me one day and said, you know, I really believe the Lord is asking me, calling me to move to Israel. And so we talked about that and what I encouraged her to do is just go on a, going a tourist trip, go to Israel and spend some time there and, and see if God, you know, confirms that. And I think she went maybe twice as, as a tourist. And then she sold everything and moved full time to Israel. And again, that was in the we, that was in the early nineties when she did that. And so it's really special for me to be a part of seeing what God is doing in, in the lives of, of, of people that are friends of mine. 1 (31m 26s): And, and so what I want to do this morning, again, a little background, oh, by the way, did everybody get a communion cup? Is there anybody that did not get one? Okay. If you didn't get one, raise your hand and Kay, Amanda, could you grab the communion tray right there and kind of wander around and, and in the other venues, if you need to get one, there is communion tray there as well. Because as I mentioned, we are going to be having communion this morning. So Cheryl gave you a little bit of her background. I came to know Len later because they got married a little bit later. And so we have a lot of history. Cheryl used to work at Diablo canyon and she's from California. She mentioned that both Lennon and Charlotte, both from California. 1 (32m 7s): And so th you know, this is their life. This is what they know, their, their history, their background. So here, here's my question. I'm going to be asking a few questions this morning. The first question is this, why would Cheryl and LAN leave the central coast of California to move to Israel? Okay. Many of you know, Daniel and Solvay kinda, so Daniel is from here. He was born and raised in Santa Maria. Central coast grew up here. Solvay actually is from Denmark. She was born in the Faroe islands, just off the coast of Denmark. So think about Daniel for a minute. 1 (32m 48s): So he, you know, again had good career here in California, and yet God put a call upon his life. Now his original call, if he was up for telling you was actually to go to Uganda and now why would God send Daniel? This is pre pre-sold by days. He sent Daniel to Uganda. And so Daniel spent about seven years in Uganda doing mission work there, and guess who he met in Uganda. He met Sylvia from Denmark and Uganda. So they got married there and then got a bigger work, a bigger calling for them. So the two of them together moved to green. And in fact, I have a few pictures. I want to show you just to kind of refresh your memory of Daniel and Solvay. 1 (33m 32s): So what do we have here? So this is Daniel. So VI, this is their home in the village of Casa yang wit I can say it, I cannot spell it. And then the next picture is this is the village that they live in, in Greenland, Casa yang wit, and jumped to the next one, where is Greenland. And so the lower circle is where we are California. And you go all the way, you see Canada above us, and then to the east, that's where Greenland is. And I circled the area where they live and then jump to the next slide. Okay. I talked to take that one down just for a moment. So on Friday, this last Friday, Daniel had told me that they were going to be taking a trip. 1 (34m 17s): You know, they own a boat together. Daniel, the self I do, and the purpose of the boat is to be able to get to the villages in Greenland to minister there. And so he, he told me that he had a couple of young men, that he was going to be baptizing. And then he was going to be taking a trip. He and Sova and two crew to another village to show the gospel there. And so a Friday. So just a few days ago, I was at home and I get a phone call and I see that Daniels. So I take the phone call. Now this is sort of just a side note. So here I am in California, erode grand Grandy, and he's seven miles off the coast in Greenland. In fact, go back to that map. He's he's on his journey on his boat going along the coast of Greenland. 1 (35m 0s): And here we are talking, it was though he was sitting like in the same room. Isn't that amazing? Truly amazing. So what he did first, so this is the journey in the Southern or the lower portion that sort of that's the V the village they live in cosying with, through that little inlet there, and they're going to a village up on the top, but for, they did that, show me the next picture. As I said, they did some baptizing. This is Ian. So that's Daniel baptizing, Ian in a lake near where they live. And then the next one is Ian coming up out of the water, new creation in Christ. Isn't that awesome. All right. Jump back now. Okay. That's the boat. The, yeah, jumped back to the boat. 1 (35m 41s): That'd be good. The common leak. So that means the light. All right. So here's, here's my question. You can take the picture down now. So why would Daniel and Daniel particular move from central California? Sell everything, pack up, move to Greenland. We're going to look at that question. Yeah. And answer that question this morning. Many of you met maybe for the first time, or you got to see Shane Coke come up front. Steve invited him up front. He's been fellowshipping here for a number of years. So the Lord has called him on a five month missions trip to Zimbabwe, whereas Zimbabwe. 1 (36m 27s): Okay. Here's a map of Africa and I circled Zimbabwe for you. So you could get, get an idea of where it is. Okay. So Shane he's from here, he's from the central coast of California. So for the next five months, he's going to be in some Bob way, Africa sharing the gospel there with Mike and Cindy, Madam, some of you know, Mike and Cindy. All right. So the answer to this question actually is found in the title of this morning's message. So why would someone Lennon Cheryl, Daniel and Solvay Shane move from where they were settled, where their roots, where their foundation and move to a distant, distant country. So the answer is actually the title of the messages live your life on mission. 1 (37m 13s): Now that's, that's actually the answer live your life on mission, but we want to unpack that just a little bit for you this morning and to do that, we need to look at a few scriptures. So before we get into the scripture, let's pray for a moment. Lord, we just look to you. Holy spirit. We're thankful that you are the teacher. And so as I speak, and as we look through the script, sure, Lord, we want our heart to be impacted by you. We want to be touched by you. We want to hear your voice and, and the calling that you have on us. Lord, there's a calling on you. Each of us, Lord, help us to discover that calling and help us to respond to that calling. And so Lord, our time together this morning to you in Jesus' name, we pray. 1 (37m 55s): Amen. So you remember this story in mark chapter one, beginning with verse 16, Jesus walked by the sea of Galilee. So this is in the Northern part of Israel. And he saw Simon, Andrew, his brother casting a net into the sea for, they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, follow me. And I will make you become fishers of men. So they immediately left their nets and followed him. So we see Simon and Andrew Simon, Peter. So we're talking about Peter here. Another verse in Matthew chapter nine, verse nine, Jesus was walking along and he saw a man named Matthew, sitting at his tax collector's booth. 1 (38m 39s): And he said, follow me and be my disciple. Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him, Simon, Peter, and Andrew. They were fishermen by trade fact, the story it shows that they were actually with, with their dad. I mean, it's a family business. Well-rooted in the Galilee area, fishermen by trade. And Matthew was a tax collector. When Jesus called them, they left their occupation. They left their situation and they followed him. Cheryl had a career. As I mentioned earlier, working at Diablo canyon. She had a pretty awesome position there if I have it right, Cheryl, I think I do. 1 (39m 22s): She was insecurity at Diablo canyon for many years. In fact, she actually got to carry a weapon. I mean, how cool is that? Right? Blonde, a blonde girl, like her carrying a weapon out of Debola canyon, Supreme, scary Daniel. On the other hand, he was in the aerospace industry doing very, very well here. Then something happened to them. Jesus calls them. And they said, yes. And then he gave them a new direction. He gave them a new purpose in life, a different, a different calling in their life. 1 (40m 3s): So Jesus was, he was with his disciples. You guys, you know the story it's just before his Ascension. So he had already been to the cross. He had been put in a tomb and he had been raised from the dead. And we're in that interim time before his Ascension into heaven. And so this is what he said to the disciples, as they were gathered together, be being assembled together, acts chapter one, verse four, Jesus commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait two, wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you have heard from me for John, truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the holy spirit, not many days from now. 1 (40m 49s): So he was looking ahead to the day of Pentecost when they would be gathered together in that upper room. And the holy spirit would be given. Now, this was a very unique experience because prior to this time of the giving of the holy spirit at Pentecost, the holy spirit would come upon people. But from the day of Pentecost forward, he would dwell, he would indwell and live within believers. So Jesus continues that conversation in verse eight, he said, you shall receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea Samaria and to the end of the earth. 1 (41m 37s): So back to my original question, why would a person leave the comfort? It's comfortable here, central coast to California, it's comfortable. Why would a person leave their comfort in their current life and make that radical change and take a completely new direction in life. A new mission, a new mission in life. So there's really only one answer to that question. And here's, here's the answer. When a person makes the decision to believe in and to follow Jesus Christ as savior and Lord, the holy spirit begins a supernatural work in the life of that person. 1 (42m 25s): And it affects everything. Every area of life is touched by the work of the holy spirit. God gives us. Now I'm talking about us. Those of us who are followers and believers, Jesus Christ is our savior. And Lord God gives us a far greater purpose in life and eternal purpose. And as a result of that, that's a radical change. We tend to look at at life differently, but maybe more importantly, we see people differently. 1 (43m 5s): You see what happens when the holy spirit is in us. We now see people through God's eyes, the way God sees people. We discover we have a mission. We live our lives on mission. We discover our mission in life, beyond our occupation, beyond our current situation. If you are a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, you are on mission that there's, there's no, no question in that. You may or may not have realized it yet. 1 (43m 47s): Today's your day. You are in fact a missionary. Now, when we think of missionaries, we think of like the apostle Paul type of people that, you know, went on these fast campaigns and, and that may occur. It has occurred in Lennon. Cheryl's life, Daniel's life, Shane's life. Your, your mission field may be entirely different. So to be clear, you may not be called to move to a foreign country. And I know many of us, it's like one of the first things we think about as we become a Christian, like, oh Lord, don't call me to Africa. No, don't call me there. 1 (44m 34s): You may not be called to a foreign misfit mission field like Len and Cheryl and Daniels Solvay and, and Shane. But wherever you are are is your mission field, wherever you are, by the way, you don't, you, you may not have to leave your current job, your current situation to be on the mission field because you're on the mission field. So that the key is serve him right where you are. I love what Cheryl said about how God just brings people to her and Len, and then he, he opens those doors to speak about eternal things. I've found that's often what God will do. 1 (45m 15s): So the fear factor is alone. I, you know, I got, I can't talk to people and all that. And yeah, what God will do is he'll bring people to you, you know, open a door, a conversation. So you're just, you're just speaking into their lives words. Yeah. Of eternal life. So your current situation may not change. You serve them right where you are. What does that mean? So being on missions really means this, that you are an evangelist. What does an evangelist do? And evangelists, proclaims declares the things God has said about himself and about, about people. We share truth with people. 1 (45m 57s): So we're on mission, right? Where we are. We live on mission. So what does that mean? Well, it means evangelize your kids. It means evangelize your coworkers person. You're a student in elementary, junior, senior college evangelize your fellow students, your neighbors evangelize your parents. If they don't know the Lord evangelize your, your friends and, and your siblings, maybe your siblings don't don't know him, your extended family. So, and I want to say this as a word of encouragement, don't ever limit what God can do through you. 1 (46m 39s): God, God is an expert at using weak and broken people to accomplish his purposes. If there is a secret in all this, I think, I think the secret is this. When God calls you and he will call you, I promise you that he may lead you. The answer is always the same name. Yes, Lord. That's the answer. Now God knows human nature. We may struggle. We may resist him. We may fight him. I'm a bit, let him win. 1 (47m 19s): Let him win it. It's no, no greater life, no greater joy in life than to be on mission for the Lord, Jesus Christ. And to be able impact people for now and for eternity. You know, of course, there's a transformation that occurs when we see a person come to Christ and it's like, there's this amazing change that occurs, but they also get to go to heaven. And we've, we've played a part in that and how awesome that is. So one of the verses that I read a moment ago, it was act chapter one, verse eight, where Jesus, again is speaking. You shall receive power. When the holy spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea and Sumeria to the end of the earth. 1 (48m 4s): He was speaking to a crowd that lived there that was home base. Pentecost was in Jerusalem things saying, Hey, start local. I'm going to call many of you to be local, but I'm going to call some of you broader. So Jerusalem would be for us, maybe the five cities local Judea could be, I don't know, St. Louis county and beyond a bigger part of California. Samira could be all of California, maybe even, maybe even the entire west coast. And the ends of the earth is the ends of the earth. I mentioned that because we have to think in terms of what is God's heart, what is the desire of God's heart, his, his overall plan, and it's this to get as many people into his kingdom as possible before the end of the church hates. 1 (49m 3s): That's what we live. We live in a church, H there's gonna come a time where the church age is going to end. And depending on how you look at eschatology, it could be at the time of the rapture of the church. It's when the tribulation period begins. There's that seven year tribulation period. And then after that is the millennial kingdom, but we're, we live here. We're in the church age, God wants to use us to reach as many people as possible with a gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ, so that we can take as many people as possible into his eternal kingdom. So wherever life takes you, wherever God leads. You just like the disciples you were born. You've been born for greater purpose than just, you know, the mundane status quo more than just working more than just surviving, more than just living for yourself. 1 (49m 58s): I know that's, that's a human dilemma. We're pretty selfish creatures. It's more than just living for ourselves. You may never leave the central coast as I mentioned, but don't, don't be close to the possibility that God might call you out. And wherever he calls you, it's going to be amazing. It's going to be great. It's for sure. Going to be an adventure of the lifetime, perhaps God is calling you to go. We don't know. I don't know. God will show you. God will speak you. I promise you that God has given each and every one of us, a mission field. And, and it's, it's it's here. It starts here. It's right before us, right where we are right now. 1 (50m 40s): So why, why would God call people like us imperfect, broken, messed up people. We're all the same. Really? Why does, why would God call people like us to be his evangelists, to be his missionaries going forth, to answer that question, we'll look at a scripture. It's in second Corinthians. Chapter five begins with verse 17. Here's what it says. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have passed away and behold, all things have become new. Now, all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 1 (51m 31s): And that is that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. What does that mean? Now? Then we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteous righteousness of God in him. 1 (52m 15s): So God calls his people on mission because people are dying without knowing him. And he's given us a word for them, a message for them before they die. God calls us on mission because people are dying without knowing him. People are dying without knowing what God has provided for them through Jesus Christ. Maybe they've never heard the gospel. Maybe you're the perfect person. You've got that relationship, that open door to share the gospel with them. They may not listen to anybody else, but they'll listen to you, which is why he's given each of us a ministry emission. 1 (52m 60s): So it's, it's it's what is the ministry? I mean, if you could define it it's it's this what I just read? It's the ministry of reconciliation. What does that even mean? Well, it really that, that ministry of reconciliation, it really, in essence, it is, it is the gospel here at harvest church. We try to talk a lot about the gospel, but more, we need to know what the gospel is. It's super important that if we are given the ministry of reconciliation and we are that we're able to, to both know the gospel and articulate it to another person, to communicate it to another person. 1 (53m 40s): I want to give you a homework assignment that is to use whatever resource you need to, or just go to the scripture and try to try to discover what the gospel is. And there's some key verses that really seemed to summarize it super well. And I'm going to leave you on your own, define what those scriptures are, but I think it's a really good idea to memorize those scriptures. Just make them part of, part of your mind, part of your heart so that when you have opportunity and you may not have your Bible with you, you can't, well, let me, let me, let me look that up, but it's, it's coming out of you and you can communicate the gospel, you know, at, at, at the drop of a hat, anytime, anywhere I can tell and what the gospel is. 1 (54m 26s): So that's your homework assignment, but I am going to give you a little bit of the gospel. Okay. There's more about them to give you some of, well, by definition, the gospel is good news, but that, that just seems so minor. Okay. Good news. All right. Well, what, what does that mean? Well, it's, it's, here's what it is. And it's back to the verse. I read a moment ago. It's second Corinthians 5 21. Again, this is just one place you can find. And the gospel for he, that he, there that's God, the father for he made him that him that's Jesus, the Messiah for the father, God, the father made Jesus. 1 (55m 6s): The son who knew no sin. So Jesus was a spotless sinless person. The lamb of God, God, the father made Jesus. The son who knew no sin to be sin for us. What does that even mean? We think about it on the cross. Jesus, some of the, the things that occurred on the cross when Jesus was nailed to the cross, it says that the sins of the world were placed upon him in effect. They were, they were nailed to him. Our sins were put upon him. 1 (55m 47s): And in effect, he became sin. He that knew no sin sin. Our sin was placed upon him on the cross. Why did he do that? Why did God do that to his son? Well, again, it tells us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him, in Jesus Christ. This is a, this is a wonderful, amazing thing. And yeah, as you unpack it, as you understand the gospel to a greater degree, you're going to realize not only this good news, I mean, this is the best news. The, yeah, that ever could be that literally the picture is this, that we were lost in sin and death. 1 (56m 35s): We had a curse, a death sentence upon us, no relationship with God, no place in his kingdom. And then Jesus came and he died on the cross for us. He was buried Nina rose again and that as we place our faith and hope and trust in him, that my sin was put upon him on the cross. The supernatural thing that happens is that we're now made spiritually alive. The curse has gone. It's been lifted. And now we have a place reserved in heaven by the power of God. That's undefiled that cannot be taken away. So the gospel is really all about this from God's perspective. 1 (57m 17s): I think it's all about this. It's it's the restoring of a broken relationship. God loves you so much. He loves people so much. He sent his son. It's not that he just allowed his son to go to the cross. He sent his son to the cross. That's why Jesus came to restore a broken relationship. Our relationship with God was broken because as of sin in Christ based and through Christ, our relationship with God has been restored. We're we're back with him. We're one with him. We're reconciled. That's what that word means. The ministry of reconciliation, the word of reconciliation. 1 (57m 60s): We're reconciled to God, the father through Jesus, the son by the work of the holy spirit, it in us. So I mentioned earlier that we're going to be having communion. So in a moment, we're going to have community together. So we often call it communion or the Lord's supper. And I'm gonna read a verse about that. Then we're going to in a moment, have communion together. So Matthew chapter, sorry, in mark chapter 14, beginning with verse 22, as they were eating. So they're gathered together. This would be like the last supper before Jesus was going to be taken into custody and tortured, and then ultimately put on the cross as they were eating. 1 (58m 46s): So they're having to go Passover together. Jesus took bread and he blessed it and he broke it and he gave it to them and said, take eat. This is my body. And then he took the cup. And when he'd given thanks, he gave it to them and they all drank from it. And he said to them, this is my blood, the new covenant, which is shed for many assuredly. I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. So communion, if we think about it, it's really meant to be an illustration. It's a picture. It's a picture of what God has provided for us through, through his son, Perry. 1 (59m 32s): I don't have a communion cup. Could you go grab one for me, please? Thank you very much. So it's a picture of what God has. Thank you. Perry has provided for us through, through Jesus Christ, his son. So I'm going to go ahead and take out the wafer. It's kind of tough to get to and be careful. Don't once you get the wafer out, don't spill the juice on your lap. Not good, no bueno, go ahead and open up the juice so that we're ready to go. 1 (1h 0m 18s): I long for the good old days, when we used to just pass the cumin and trays, right? We didn't have to do this. Maybe we'll go back to that someday. So the bread, that's what we have right now. The bread, it's a picture of Christ body. And the fact that his body was broken, what does that mean? Well, when he was taken captive in the garden of guests Semini he was beaten. He was, well, he has beard plucked out. He had a crown of thorns put upon his head. 1 (1h 1m 0s): He was whipped. He was scorched. They put a robe on him after they scourged him and mocked him. As you know, you call yourself the king of the Jews and look at you and then they rip the robo off. So he, his body was, the Bible, says his, his visage, his appearance was marred more than any man. He suffered deeply on the cross. And that's what this represents what he went through to purchase for us, our salvation. Why? Thank you. Thank you. As we, you know, we can't fully, fully comprehend what you did for us, but we know that you, you gladly went to the cross for the joy that was set before him. 1 (1h 1m 50s): He endured the cross. The solar was so thankful that you did that for us. So Lord, we, as we partake of what represents your body, your broken body, Lord help us to comprehend in a deeper way, understanding a deeper way, all that you did for us and purchasing for us, our salvation. We'll go ahead and take the away. So the juice represents shut the Passover feast. There were four cups of wine. When Jesus picked up the cup that he shared at communion, it was called the cup of redemption. 1 (1h 2m 35s): He was in the process of redeeming us, buying us back, literally from slavery, from bondage. The wine is a picture of the blood that he shed. So I'm sure, you know, not only the crown of thorns was a put upon his head, but as he was nailed to the cross, his side was pierced the sword. And it says that blood and water came out. So this picture is the blood that he shed for us. It's a picture of the sacrifice that he made as a spotless lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 1 (1h 3m 15s): Lord, thank you that you were faithful unto death, even the death of the cross. Lord, help us to understand more fully, all that you did and provided for us by purchasing for us. Our salvation. Thank you Lord. So Jesus held up that cup. I'm going to just talk about it a little bit more. He said, this is my blood of the new covenant. So it's interesting. He brings up a term that many of us might not fully understand very well. This is my blood of the new covenant. What is a covenant? 1 (1h 3m 56s): A covenant covenant is a pledge. It is a promise that has been made. The covenant is a promise that God made. So if we go back and we look at some of the covenants that God made, there's a covenant that God made to Noah. And the promise that the pledge that he gave us this, I won't destroy the earth with a flood ever again. That was a covenant he made with Noah. God made a covenant with Abraham, and here's the promise he made to Ammar Abraham through your seed, Abraham, through your seed, your kids, all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed. 1 (1h 4m 37s): He's still in the process of fulfilling that God made a covenant with Moses that through Moses God gave the nation of Israel, the law, which was in effect that conditions that were necessary so that the people could approach him. So the covenant with Moses gave the people a way to have relationship with God, the father, but Jesus here, he says, I'm going, I'm, I'm fulfilling something profound, the new covenant and new, it's not new in the sense that it's, it's never been seen before done before. It's new in the fact that it's, it's the completion. 1 (1h 5m 17s): It's a completion of all the covenant that God has made. And when he went to the cross and shed his blood and died for us, the covenant was complete. It's been fully ratified and fulfilled. The promise has been complete. So all these covenants that I mentioned a moment ago, all these promises really were given directly to the people of Israel, not to people that aren't Jewish by birth. So what about us? What about us? Those of us that are not Jews by birth, as it turns out there is another covenant or maybe an addition to the covenant. 1 (1h 5m 58s): Another promise given in scripture, I want to, I want to share this one with when I found this one, it was like, my eyes just kind of opened my understanding Isaiah chapter 42, verse six, that God speaking. And here again, it's it's God the father speaking to Jesus, the son, he says, I, the Lord have called you. I got the father. The Lord have called you my son in righteousness. And I will hold your hand and I will keep you. And I will give you, he's talking about the cross. I will give you as a covenant to the people, not just the Jewish people. 1 (1h 6m 42s): It goes on as a light to the Gentiles, the Gentiles, or all the other people, non Jews. I'm going to give you Jesus, my son, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison. And those who sit in darkness from the prison house. It's like, I've come. The covenant is fulfilled. When Jesus held up that cup and said, this is the blood of the new covenant. This is what he was talking about. I've come to set the captive free and to open the prison doors to those who are bound up. 1 (1h 7m 22s): So this is why this is why Jesus came into the world. Not only for the Jewish people, but for everyone to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners, to deliver those who are in darkness to fulfill the covenant. The promise that God had previously given. Now, how did Jesus, the Messiah accomplished this? The fulfillment? So there's a few key verses in Isaiah chapter 53. I'm going to look at, we're going to be closing out just a couple of minutes, Isaiah chapter 53, verse five. When it says he he's talking about Jesus, the son, the Messiah, he was wounded for our transgressions. 1 (1h 8m 4s): He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed talking about the whipping, the beating, the scorching, the torture by his stripes, by what he endured, we are healed. You know, I think a bit from God's perspective, why would God, the father asked his son to do this? You know, Jesus didn't have to go to the cross. He was obedient to go to the cross on our behalf. Why did God allow his son to endure such suffering while we're told why? 1 (1h 8m 46s): And Isaiah chapter 53, verse 10, it says it pleased the Lord to bruise him. It pleased God to Bruce, his son. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul and offering for sin, he shall see his seed. I think he was talking about us. He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. God, the father shall see the labor of his son. 1 (1h 9m 28s): He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. And by his knowledge, my righteous servant, Jesus shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. You see God sent his son into the world for the purpose of setting us free and restoring that broken relationship. So back to the verse in Matthew 14, for a moment, Jesus said to them, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many as surely I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day. He's talking about a specific day until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God, I think, I think he's talking about the marriage, supper of the lamb. 1 (1h 10m 17s): We shall see. But when I say what I want to say to you this morning, I want to say this was absolute certainty. Jesus is coming back again to bring us home, to take us to heaven, to assure you and I into his eternal kingdom. And this could happen at any time. It might happen at the day of your death because to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We don't know when we're going to die. We may be feeling great today this morning. And we just don't know what a day is going to bring forth. 1 (1h 10m 60s): Could happen anytime at our day of our death, perhaps, or this could happen at the time of the rapture of the church. The point is this, are you ready? Are you ready to meet God? Are you ready to meet him face to face? Because we're going to stand before God saved and unsaved alike. We're going to stand before God. And we're going to give an account. The account that we give as believers in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Why should I let you into my kingdom? Because Jesus paid for my sin on the card. Cross of Calvary. That's the only reason why. So Jesus in John chapter one, it says he came to his own. 1 (1h 11m 42s): He came to the Jewish people, his own people in his own people didn't receive him. Some did, but most did not. But as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name. I want to urge you this morning. If you've never believed in Jesus before, believe in him today, as many as received him. So then he gave the privilege the right to become children of God. Even to those who believe in his name, Romans chapter 10. This is one of those places where the gospel is quite clear. 1 (1h 12m 26s): Romans 10 verse nine. If you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is the Lord. And if you believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved for it as well. I believing in your heart that you're made right with God. And it's by confessing with your mouth that you are saved in Romans 10, 13. You guys know it. Well, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So there's believing and there's confessing. Believing is like an internal thing. I don't fully understand. We never will, but I believe Jesus, that you did go to the cross. And I believe that my sin was placed upon you on the cross. 1 (1h 13m 6s): So I, I believe it with everything that I can muster it. I understand by faith, I believe this to be true. And then the confession is part is it's weak. First confessed to God, Lord, I, I need you. I ask you to come into my life to be my Lord and savior. We're confessing our belief to God. And then I think, I believe we confess it to others. It's a powerful thing. When we tell another person I gave my life to Jesus Christ and he is my Lord and savior. It's like, it's feels it seals. It seals the deal. And then the transformation begins and it's awesome. 1 (1h 13m 47s): It's great. You'll never regret it. I promise you that. So Jeremy mentioned earlier, invite the worship team to go ahead and come on up. Now that we have a baptism planned today and we've got some folks are going to be baptized right after this service, we're going to baptize some folks. And then at right after a second service, we're going to baptize some folks as well. Why am I mentioning this? So in the book of acts, the book of acts, it was common. The common thing was for those who made a decision to believe in and to follow Jesus Christ, they were baptized immediately. It wasn't like months later years later decades later, it was I believe, and I want to get baptized. 1 (1h 14m 30s): So baptism is really, it's a, it's a, it's a declaration. Maybe that's the confession part. I'm going to go in the water road represents I'm, I'm dead. I've died with Christ. And even as Christ raised from the dead, I'm, I'm rising again out of the water to new life. So if you've made this decision today to follow Jesus as your Lord and savior, and you've never been baptized, I would encourage you to do that today. Go up to the patio area. We're going to, we've got towels for you, shorts for you, shirt for you and a place to change all for you. Before you do that, though, you got to give your life to Jesus Christ. 1 (1h 15m 10s): And it's actually super simple. And I kind of modeled it a moment ago. Lord, I need you. I don't understand, but I know that Jesus went to the cross for me. And so I invite you into my life to give me new direction, to set me free in Jesus name. Amen Lord. Thank you. Thank you for all that. You did what? I pray for those here in the sanctuary, the loft and the patio and those online Lord, that many will call upon your name for the first time. 1 (1h 15m 52s): Many will be saved and the Lord we are on mission. Our life is on mission. Lord, confirm that calling in us, show 0 (1h 15m 59s): Us open, open up for us 1 (1h 16m 3s): And understanding of what our mission is and the mission field that is before us. Lord, thank you so much so we can impact lives both now and for eternity in Jesus name, we pray God's people said 0 (1h 16m 28s): thank you. 0 (1h 23m 11s): That you have made the way through Jesus by the blood of the cross, by his body. Given that and lunch today, Lord Jesus. Fill us with your spirit. Let us be on mission for you just for your glory. Bless you in Jesus name. Amen. And today, if you have made that decision to follow Christ, God has been speaking into your heart and you need to come to faith in Jesus. 0 (1h 23m 54s): We're going to have prayer teams up here. Ready for you. If you have other needs, maybe God's calling you to the mission field. Maybe there's something on your heart that God is working in you, and you want to respond to that. Do you want to, you want to let somebody know. Today is the day you come forward. You need healing. You need a touch from God, any reason at all that you have for healing, please come. If you don't need prayer right now, go up and celebrate the baptisms. I know there's at least three after this service. I don't know what about second service, but have a great time. And Lord bless you and we'll see you all next week. 0 (1h 24m 43s): .

0 (0s): Father God, I thank you for this morning. I think you, that we are here to worship you and here to praise you. And so we just bless your name. God, we take this time and we just, we want to sing to you. Jesus. Amen. 1 (20s): he can move by God. 1 (3m 24s): He is mighty to save. He is Jesus . 2 (13m 42s): Oh, thank you, Lord. Thank you for the privilege that you've given us that new and living way. So we can enter in to the holy of Holies by the blood of our savior and Lord Jesus Christ. Or thank you that as we gather in your name, as we come near you and draw near to you, Lord, you've given us the promise that you are with us, that you are in our midst. And so we welcome you Lord. And as you are here, you've come to heal. You've come to set us free. You've come to bring salvation. You've come to deliver us from all the things in this life that would hold us down and hold us in bondage. The solar. We welcome you to bring that deliverance to our lives, Lord, to open up our hearts, to see you as you truly are lo we, we often come to you with sort of veiled, veiled, vision, not really seeing the glory and the power and the authority that you are. 2 (14m 35s): The Lord open our eyes to you today. Open our, understanding our hearts, our minds, our will, our emotion to who you are today. Lord give us that, that desire for more. We want more of you, Lord. We're not satisfied with just where we are. The status quo Lord. We desire the power of your holy spirit, working in us from glory to glory, transforming us into your image and allowing us to walk in the victory that you have provided for us. But we want to abide in Christ or that's that secret place of the most high that you referred to. And Lord, that's where we want to be today. We bless you. We thank you in Jesus name. We pray God's people said, amen. 2 (15m 17s): Amen. Go ahead and have a seat please. All right. So what I want to do this morning, I want to go ahead and welcome someone up to the podium this morning. He is, I guess you'd call him our guest speaker, although he's not a guest is he's one of us. So Stacy and Tanya Harman have been fellowship with us for, I'm going to guess maybe five years, four years, four or five years, something like that. And so what we want to do today is I'm going to invite Stacy to come on up and he's going to be sharing the word with us today. So let's give a warm welcome to Stacey Harmon. 2 (15m 57s): Okay? All right, 3 (16m 5s): Everybody it's pleasure to be here. I'm good to see you all. And I just had lunch with Steve a couple of months ago and said I wanted to preach someday. And he said, how about July 18th? And I said, okay, well that's that's real date. That's the time I got to make some efforts to get this together. And I thought about, you know, how he usually tells a joke when he gets up here. And I thought there's no way I could ever approach the quality of his jokes. So I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna tell you a joke. I would like you to turn with me. If you would, to two familiar passages in your Bibles or on your devices, John 14 six is where we're going to start. 3 (16m 50s): And we're also going to talk about Matthew 18 or it's 5 28, 18 through 20. And John 14, six is very familiar passage to us, but there's really an outrageous claim made there by Jesus. If you think about it, this is where he's talking to his disciples. He's telling them that he's going to go away. He was trying to encourage them that he's going to go prepare a mansion's for them. And they don't understand what he's talking about, where he's going. And he says, and they ask him, where's this way. What, what are you talking about this way? He says, I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father, but through me and that's before the cross, obviously before they scatter, of course, after his crucifixion. 3 (17m 33s): And if you go to Matthew 28, 18 through 20, he says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit teaching to deserve all that I commanded you. And lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So that's after the cross. Right? But those are really outrageous claims. If you think about it, he's saying he's the way. And he's also saying that all authority on heaven and earth has been given to him. So I would like to drill down a little bit on this idea about the way and the followers of the way, which are disciples and what they look like. 3 (18m 15s): But first let me ask you a question. I'll step over here. She'd get a good look at me. Do I look like an architect? Well, I'm glad that's like, you're like, what kind of question is that? Right? That's a ridiculous question. What's an architect look like it's kind of a running joke between Tonya and I. She was describing a woman's husband to me and she said, well, it looks like an architect. And I'm like, huh? I don't really know. I don't have a reference for that. I don't really know what that means. I'm not sure I could pick them out of a crowd if he looks like an architect. But what about a doctor? What's a doctor looked like actually happened to be a doctor. 3 (18m 56s): I'm an ER doctor, but maybe gray hair and old guy. Yeah, that's a doctor. But the point I'm making is you have a reference for that. You don't have a reference for an architect. You have a reference for a doctor, right? If I had a long white coat on, you might say, oh, that's a doctor. Or you could say it's a butcher, I guess, or a scientist or, or maybe it's maybe it's their cousin, someone that the cosmetic counter Macy's right with a long white coat. But if I put a stethoscope around my neck, then you're like, okay, that's looking more like a doctor. Or if I had an ID badge on that said, you know my name and I was affiliated with a hospital then, okay. That might be a doctor. And, and what about if I, as the setting that I'm in, if I've in scrubs, right? 3 (19m 38s): You come into the ER, I'm wearing scrubs, like, okay, that must be the doctor, but you don't really ask me for my credentials. Right? You don't say, let me see your diploma. Let me see your board certification. What about your license? Do you have a license? You have a framework that you understand what a doctor kind of looks like. And once you sort of figured that out, you're pretty comfortable that that's, that's the doctor so much so that you would literally trust your life with me after meeting me like two minutes within two minutes, right? If you come to the emergency department, I would have the authority, right? And I am the way I have the authority to take, to admit you to the hospital, to decide what's going to be done with you. 3 (20m 22s): And I'm the way that you get to the hospital, get the medicines you need or get what you need. Right. That's and you've decided just based on a little bit of information that that's the authority and that's who I am as a doctor. And then you have to also deal with what your impressions of doctors are. Right? You, you might think of Dr. Dr. McDreamy, right. But, or, or you might think, oh, I love my doctor was great to my kids or he delivered my babies or, or she helped my mom when, when she was in really bad straights when she was older, or you might think doctors are arrogant and condescending. And I really hate doctors. In fact, I've walked into rooms and that's the first thing someone says to me, I hate doctors. 3 (21m 5s): And I usually say, well, so do I. So let's, let's get busy, but what can I do for you so that it does it, but, but literally I have the authority and I'm the way in the ER. Right? So let's talk about spiritual thing. Let's switch to spiritual thing. So the question I have too, is what's a Christian look like, or a disciple or a Messiah, right? What's a Messiah look like, clearly it wasn't what Jesus looked like. Right? Because they said, ah, that's Joseph's son, right? Can't be a Messiah. Or he's just a carpenter, right? How about nothing good can come from Nazareth. Right? 3 (21m 45s): That was their image of a Messiah. Their idea didn't match what they were seeing with Jesus. And then he, he goes on to do miracles, right? Healed. Well, he healed on the Sabbath. He healed somebody on Saturday. That's against the law. He can't be the Messiah. Let's just forget about the miracle part. Right. But it's not fitting my little mold about what he is. He, he did work on Saturday. He can't be the Messiah. Even though he did a miracle, I'm dismissing the miracle from my fixed idea about what a Messiah represents. He was teaching with authority. He had knowledge of the scriptures. He did miracles of healings. He healed epileptics. Paralytics he raised Lazarus from the dead folks. 3 (22m 28s): Right. And they still didn't buy it. They still, still didn't work. It had such a strong bias against what it, or what it should look like. And it just didn't match. They still crucified him. Right. He didn't look like a Messiah. And they said, we want a sign. He said, well, you're going to get the sign of Jonah. And what's the sign of Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of the fish. Well, whatever you want to call it for three days, right. Jesus is saying, the sign of Jonah is all you're going to get, I'm going to be in the grave for three days. And the resurrection is what you're going to get as a sign. So that's the ultimate credential, right? 3 (23m 8s): So he says, he says, he says that he is, has all authority. And he's the way, well, what is his credentials? It's the resurrection, right? The resurrection card is the ultimate credential. Correct. Now he says, I am the way the truth. The life, no one comes to the father. Through me. All authority has been given to me on heaven on earth. So it's the, it's the, it's the way to enter heaven through him and the way to live on earth, the way to enter and the way to live all authority is his, because of his resurrection credential. 3 (23m 48s): Right? So the way back to God is through Jesus right first. So you have to ask yourself, well, what am I here for? What's the meaning of life? Why am I here? Where am I going? What's life mean? And then are these credentials good enough for you? Good enough for you to follow the way his credentials and plenty of flavor weighed in on this subject about what life's about. Right? If you ask Sigmund Freud, he'd say, life's about pleasure. If you have Carl Young, he'd say it's about power. If you have Victor Frankl who survived a concentration camp, he'd say it's about meaning. 3 (24m 29s): And you know what? Those actually, it's funny that all these experts have come up with all these ideas about what life's all about, but those are actually biblical principles. And how do I know that if you look in Genesis 1 27, God said to Adam and Eve, you subdue the earth. Awesome. Thank you very much. SI. I'm used to nurses pushing me around. Thank you. Looking out for me, actually appreciate it. So they said to subdue and rule the earth and be fruitful and multiply, right? 3 (25m 11s): That's power and pleasure. Right now, the meaning part is based on our relationship with God, they walked hand in hand with God in the garden. That was a meaning. That was meaning. That was the relationship they had. So if you think about it yet, you still can pursue power, pleasure and meaning in their life. But the, but the power and the pleasure have to be with a clear conscience, right? You can't do things that are, that are going to violate your conscience. And you have to have to realize what God has definitions of those things are there's power in weakness, right? There's pleasure in service, right? And there's meaning in relationship with God, right? 3 (25m 54s): So that leads us back to this idea of the way, the way to enter heaven, the way to live and the way back to God. Because remember, remember this in Genesis 3 24, what did God do? When he threw Adam and Eve out of the garden, he blocked away. He put cherubim at the garden so they couldn't get back in the way was blocked. Sin had separated them from God, kicked us out of the garden. The way was blocked for that meaningful relationship with God is now gone. That, that idea that we have a, we can walk with God is gone. So the way was blocked by sin. The way back is Jesus. And the way to live is through Jesus. 3 (26m 36s): This idea of the way is what is, is how the early Christians are. The disciples ran their lives. That that was how they followed Jesus. In fact, if you looked in acts nine Paul, before he was converted, it was basically a Hitman for the Sanhedrin, right? He was going out, he got permission to go out, bring Christians shackled back to face charges, basically for following the way. And he says, it says he persecuted those belonging to the way. So who are those following the way they're, they're called disciples, right? 3 (27m 17s): And here's my microphone. And if I can't drop this mic, but who's fired, they weren't Christians. This is what I mean. Wait a second. That term wasn't even used yet. Jesus never heard the term Christian Christians in acts 1126. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. That's 30 years later, 30 years. They were disciples following the way before they were ever called Christians. And some scholars even believed that that term might've been even been derogatory. Oh, that's those Christians. Right? 3 (27m 57s): Right. So there were disciples following the way, all that time. But they were first called Christians at Antioch. I had a friend of mine, a colleague of mine, call me a Chrysler one time. Are you one of those Chryslers? And I went, Hmm, well, yes I am. But I don't think I like the way you mean it. You know, I, he called me a Chrysler, which is like maybe what they were calling them Christians, right? The point I'm making is that they were disciples along the way. And then they were labeled Christians at some point in time. And what I'm, what I'm getting at is that calling yourself a Christian means something to people, just like a doctor or the Messiah. 3 (28m 38s): Right? So if you're a Christian, you might know what that means. And you have an idea of what that means, but somebody else might think, oh, you're a Catholic. Or maybe you're a Jehovah's witness or you're a TV evangelist, or a Mormon or a health and wealth gospel, or you're a boss at work who goes to church on Sundays and then acts inappropriate the whole week. That's a big umbrella to be under, as Christian. And we just have, is nothing wrong with calling yourself a Christian don't get me wrong, but we just have to understand that what it means to us, what we think it means and what, what someone else interprets that as me could be two very different things. 3 (29m 20s): So perhaps sort of getting back to our roots and calling ourselves disciples, or at least thinking like that might be helpful when we try to figure out who we are and how we should live as well as communicate to others and try to bring them to Christ. Right. And discipleship is kind of a lifelong process, correct? It's not like it's something you do your whole life. It's kind of like, like martial arts when you have a white belt and then you go progress to black belt and you can just gradually make your way through all these different stages and things become, you become better and better at this. But what's funny about martial arts is the people that are the most skilled are usually the most humble, right? 3 (30m 5s): You, you learn so much as you go along that you're actually more humble and more grounded and more rooted and, and a better person towards the end than you are in the beginning. Right? And that's a whole nother topic discipleship. We could spend hours on that. But what I like to do is get back to this idea about the way and what a few characteristics of a disciple living out the way. So the first one is under the disciples, understand worship and certainly worship involves what we're doing today is corporate worship, where we get together. And we think songs and we sing hymns and songs and spiritual songs where he preaching and teaching and prayer. And we take the Lord's supper. 3 (30m 46s): And you know, this corporate idea of worship is certainly part of what we do and who we are. But what I'd like to look at is acts 2 42 through 43. So this is after Peter is spoken on in Pentecost and there's 3000 people have been baptized. And they, it says they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread. And to prayer, everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 3 (31m 27s): The part I would like to emphasis is this idea of a sense of awe. I think we need to recapture that, right? I think that this idea that we worship is something we do instead of something that comes out of us is what we have to sort of undo. As we think of ourselves, as Christians as disciples, the sense of awe is, is what motivated all that other stuff, all the other worship that came out of that. So it's easy. I mean, I get bogged down. It's easy to check boxes in your life, right? I prayed today. I contributed to that. I went to church, whatever it is, the box that you check, it's easy to do that, but I think we have to start changing our attitude about worship is something is something about who we are and not what we do. 3 (32m 17s): And if you look in Romans 12, one through 12, it says, if I went to two, rather hired you, therefore brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship and do not be conformed the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is. That which is good and perfect or acceptable and perfect. So it's, do you realize that when you're walking around your day-to-day life and you're trying to be a non-conformist to the world and that you are presenting your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice, you're, that's an act of worship every day, while you're walking around what you're doing, when you're trying to control what your thoughts and your actions and that's that's because you have who you are. 3 (33m 12s): You're a disciple who you're following the way. You're the path you're on Matthew 12, seven says I desire compassion and not sacrifice. That's where Jesus condemned the Pharisees for being so hung up on the law, that they forgot the meaning behind it, that it was there more, they were more concerned about religion and people are religion and ritual than they were the people he says in Matthew 5 23. If you were at the author to present your offering and you realize your brother has something against you, go make that right first, then come back. So what are the, what's the two, the two commandments that are sum up everything. 3 (33m 56s): Love. God, love your neighbor. So if you have something that's not right with your neighbor and you come to the house of God, you gotta make that right first, before you come to stand before God, he wants you to love him and love your neighbor. The relationship is more important than the ritual or the theology, the relationship with him, the, with his children and the relationship with mankind in general, that's, that's what we do as disciples James, 1 27 says this is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and father to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. 3 (34m 39s): So to be in the world, but not of the world and to take care of other people and their needs, right? That's part of the way of the disciple. Next is disciples have integrity. And this is, if you, if you looked up that word in Webster, it would say adherence to a code and soundness. And if you look at Matthew five and we're not going to go on, but that's a 5, 6, 7 is the sermon on the Mount. And this is where Jesus is talking to them in the beatitudes. Initially telling them, you know, things are rough, but they're going to be a better. But then he gets into Matthew five. 3 (35m 24s): And this that's the part where you hear the, but I say, right, but I say, you've heard it said you shouldn't commit murder, but I say, don't even be angry. You've heard it said, don't commit adultery, but I don't even lust. Right? You've heard it said, don't make false vows, but I say, make no vowel at all. In other words, let your word be your word. And I for, and I versus turn the other cheek, love they neighbor and hate your enemies. But I say, love your enemies. This is all the kind of integrity or the kind of person that we're striving to become. Now it's impossible to do that without God and grace and you it's, it's always, you're always falling in and out of keeping that together. 3 (36m 9s): But the point is we have integrity. It's who we are in out there in the real world, working on your heart is what we're talking about. And then he talks about in Matthew six righteousness is between you and God. This is because he's, he's condemning the, the Pharisees for, for wanting to get all this attention, right? Wearing all these brightly colored outfits and, and calling attention to themselves. He says, you should give in secret. If you will give your arms in secret, no fanfare that's integrity, right? Pray in private, not to be seen. 3 (36m 49s): Don't pray with meaningless repetition, but with intimacy, with God, fast, with a smile on your face, store up treasure in heaven and live today without anxiety. That's all in that chapter. I've heard it said, if you consider the worst case scenario and then it happens, you've lived it twice. So that's the problem with anxiety. And the other thing I've found out in my own life is 90% of the things we worry about never happen anyway. So you've just wasted all this energy and an angst on, on this emotion, this anxiety. 3 (37m 31s): And then he goes on into Matthew seven, a one through five. And this is where disciples make judgments, but they're not judgmental. There's a subtle difference there, correct? I mean, you make a judgment. Every time you come up to a red light, you can make an, a judgment as to whether you're going to stop or not. Whether it's a good idea to weighing everything and making a judgment. But in Matthew seven one through five, Jesus says, do not judge less. You be judged for in the way you judge, you will be judged. And by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your, in your eye. 3 (38m 11s): How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye. And behold, the log is in your own eye. You hypocrite first, take the log out of your own eye. And then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Take the log out before the spec. He's not saying you don't make a judgment. It's taking work on yourself first, get the log out first, before you start looking other places. And he also said, he's also saying that you're not the standard. It's, you're not the standards. When you make a judgment based on righteous judgment. Cause he goes on to say, be aware of false teachers, right? You'll judge them by their fruits. So wait a minute. That's confusing. Wait, you told me not to be judgmental. Then you told me to judge them by their fruits. 3 (38m 53s): Well, it's not confusing if you think about it, it's you, it's not your standard. You're judging by God's standard. And, and it's not you saying, Hey, you know, you, you, you know, get that log out of your IRA, speck out of your eye. It's not you, it's not your own standard. I like the way that this, what does he, Dr. Phil, he'll say to somebody how's that working out for you. That's a good way to approach somebody, right? When you take the log out of your eye and you see a speck, how's that working out for you, maybe there's a better way versus, you know, you're an idiot, right? That's just not the way to do it. 3 (39m 38s): And disciples, the next point is disciples have bigger fish to fry. And what do I mean by that? I mean that, that they're not going to get bogged down on a lot of details and things to take them away from their mission. And so I want you to consider something considered this original crew that Jesus picked in Matthew ten two through four, but the 12 originals. Right? Think of these people in a room together, Peter and his brother, Andrew, we didn't know much about Andrew, right? Peter. We know a lot about from later on, but he's pretty, pretty impulsive guy. Yeah. Matthew was a tax collector. 3 (40m 19s): Now tax cokers were, were really viewed as horrible people. There, there are Jews working for the Roman government and they're skimming off the top and explain their own people. In other words, the Roman comes says, Hey, we want to 8% tax. And they sit. And so they charged 10 and get their own cut. And then they're there and they're skimming off the top to, for their own benefit. So they were hated by their own people. And then you have Simon, the zealot in the same room. Now the zealots were Jews who advocated overthrowing the Roman government by military force. So Simon, the zealot and Matthew whose work, I mean the tax collector working for the Roman government. 3 (41m 5s): He wants to kill that guy and throw overthrow the government that he's talking about. So those are two people in the same room. Then you got Judas, who's a thief, right? We know how here you have Thomas. Who's a skeptic. You have James and his brother, John, the one Jesus loved. Now, I don't know where that sort of was figured out the one that and how that he was loved more. But I'm just wondering how that would, the other guys would feel about that. Right? You got Phillip Bartholomew, James, the son of Alpheus Thaddeus. And then what about later on you have John. I mean, you think about other people like John, the Baptist, John, the Baptist wore animal skins and was a wild man eating locusts and honey. 3 (41m 51s): And then you have Paul later on, who's a persecutor of the church. And then he converts and becomes an, an impossible basically. How does that work out with the people that are, I mean, I don't get me wrong, but I think I would be a little bit like, Hmm, I'm going to sit over here. And that Paul Guy can sit over there. And then what about just Gentiles in general? Ultimately there's these, the Christianity, you start off with Jews, right? And then ultimately incorporated the whole Gentiles, which are dogs. They're viewed as dogs by the Jews. So the got this whole group together now. Right? But what happens is they put aside their differences to achieve a common goal. 3 (42m 35s): We live in a culture that thrives on just the opposite of that, that everybody that's on, it's thrives on divisiveness and conflict and individualism and hate. Our culture is just the opposite of putting aside your differences to achieve a common goal. That's how Matthew, the tax collector could be in the same room as Simon, the zealot, because they had bigger fish to fry there. They were trying to spread the gospel, right? Mark nine 40. Jesus is telling his apostles because they said, Hey, we found some people over here. They're doing some stuff in your name. Do you want us to make him stop? And he said, no. 3 (43m 16s): For he, who is not against us is for us. That's a pretty faffed call, right? If it's not against you, he's for you. There's at least some common ground there. I'm not saying we don't have standards or we should overlook sin to be inclusive. That's not what I'm saying, but I am saying that we need to have bigger fish to fry because some of the things we get upset about, or we get under our skin or cause division are really not worth sacrificing. The bigger picture, the bigger goal we have to agree on the ones. What I mean by that is in Ephesians four, four says there is one body and one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and one father, God, and father. 3 (44m 3s): We have to agree on those ones. But after that, I think we can just get a little more flexible and not so rigid and, and also, and be more committed to the ultimate goal versus our own little agendas. Right? And besides you have to have a relationship with somebody to influence them. You can't say, you know what, until you X, Y, or Z, or until you this, this or that, I'm not gonna have anything to do with you. If you don't have a relationship with somebody, there's no way you're going to influence them. So we do have bigger fish to fry. 3 (44m 44s): My next one is, oh, is that we have the disciples stay in the game. And here's what I want you think about. Think about Judas and Peter, right? So Judas betrayed Jesus for money and Peter betrayed Jesus out of fear, right? Just for him mentally. I didn't know the guy three times, do you just felt guilt and remorse. Peter felt guilt and remorse. So what's Juice's solution. He kills himself. Peter solution. He repented resolve to do better, came back and then went on to be Peter. 3 (45m 28s): Who's the rock that his confession was the rock that the church was built on two guys at the same juncture in life. Right? So no matter what you face, you have to decide whether you're going to be a Peter or a Judas. What if Judas had repented? You know, it'd be a whole different story, but do you think the Lord would have welcomed him back? Like he did Peter, you have to say yes, right? His solution was to kill himself. And so many of us do that spiritually is we just get too discouraged and we just fall away or we just stop doing what we know we should be doing. 3 (46m 9s): And, and then versus Peter, who said, you know what? I, I, I really did mess up and I feel bad, but I'm going to get back in the game. So they stay in the game, disciple, stay in the game, resolve to stay in the game and they stay in the boat. And this is a, this is the scripture acts 27, 14 through 40, where this is where Paul is being transported to Rome on a ship. And he's shackled basically to a Roman guard who is, and some of you might already know this, but if you're a Roman guard transporting a prisoner, if the prisoner escapes, then you kill yourself, right. 3 (46m 55s): You and your basically your life for that life. So Paul is on a ship. You've got a Roman guard with him there. They're sailing to Rome and there's like 200 people on the, on the boat. And they come into this storm. And this storm is like two weeks long storm. And the experts on the boat, the conventional wisdom is, wow, we got to lighten the load. We got to throw off our food. We got to throw off the, eventually they throw off the tackle and the rigging of the boat. Eventually they say lowering the lifeboats. We got our abandoned ship. We've got to get off this shit. That's, that's the experts. That's the conventional wisdom of the day. 3 (47m 35s): That's the seasoned sailors telling them what to do. And Paul says in verse 31, unless these men remain on the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved. He had been a hit. God has spoken to him, said, no, I want everybody to stay on the ship, stay in the boat. What's the first thing people do or you do, or I do either emotionally or sometimes physically when things in life aren't going so good. Well, you know, I really don't feel like going to church or man, I, I know those people they're, they're better than me. I, I shouldn't go. Or people fall away. 3 (48m 17s): They jump ship, right? You leave the stay in the boat. Don't jump ship. Because what happened is eventually this a boat runs the ground. They get off everybody's survives, but it was completely against all their thinking process, all their wisdom, all their decisions to what you do. When, when, when you're in a storm like this, you get rid of all this stuff. And this is how, this is how we do it. So stay in the boat, disciples, stay in the game and they stay in the boat. This is the boat right here. We're in the boat. We're all in the same boat, trying to work things through, go get through life together. Disciples, bear, each other's burdens, but you got to stay in the boat. 3 (48m 59s): It's so much easier for you or us to help each other. If we're in the boat versus trying to get you out of the water. The next point I would like to make is that disciples believe in miracles, but they don't rely on them. Here's what I mean. Second Corinthians 12 verses eight and nine. This is Paul speaking. He's talking about his thorn in the flesh, which is some condition. We don't really know what it is, but it's some physical ailment. He says, concerning this. I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he has said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For power is perfected in weakness. Paul couldn't heal himself. 3 (49m 42s): Right? He could heal other people miraculously, but he couldn't heal himself. God said his gracious, sufficient. And Paul goes on to say, I'm content with my weakness. If so, because God decides how, when, where and why the holy spirit is distributed. Here's what God guarantees us. He guarantees this Providence, but not miracles. Providence means that he's going to take care of us. He's going to make everything work out. Okay. He always will be with us. But if you're holding out for, or you require a miraculous event or a sign or a gift before you're faithful, then you're going to be disappointed. 3 (50m 26s): And maybe even bitter that might happen. But disciples believe in miracles, but they don't rely on them. Right? Romans 8 28. We've heard this scripture a lot. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to his purpose. He doesn't say all things will be good, but if you're called to his purpose, he says, all things were turn out for the good, right? His Providence is guaranteed. 3 (51m 6s): Finally disciples are baptized member, go back to Matthew 28. It says by definition, that's what a disciple is. I don't want you to get hung up on this comma because in the Greek, there's actually no commas. But some people say, well, no, you have to be discipled before you're baptized now because they know you, you become a disciple when you're baptized. It doesn't really matter. The doctrine of it. The theology of it, the point of it is it's what Jesus commanded disciples are baptized. Just like Nike, just do it, right? Just do it. Every believer in the book of acts is baptized. And you can make a commitment that he was talking about reading a chapter day, read the book of acts. 3 (51m 50s): And some people were baptized more than once. Acts 2 38, 3000 people were baptized because they realized that they had been part of the crew that had crucified Jesus. And now he was in heaven because that miracle of them hearing Peter preach in their own language, right? You had different people from different cultures and different languages. They're on Pentecost. And it's like, if I was speaking to you and you only spoke Spanish right now, you'd hear Spanish and you heard English or you're here to French or whatever that was like, wait a minute. We're hearing them in our own language, hearing him in our language, how's that possible? And Peter says, well, he said that he was going to go away. 3 (52m 32s): And when he went away, he was going to send a helper and the helpers here. So that means he's where he said he was in heaven to help us here. He's in heaven. That's confirmed. And then they said, well, what should we do? And he said, repent, and be baptized. Some were baptized more than once. If they're baptized into John, they got rebaptized. Some people had received the holy spirit had not received the holy spirit and then got baptized into Jesus and received the holy spirit. Others Gentiles that were presumably left out of the whole program had received the holy spirit and the apostles go well, wait a minute. They had the holy spirit. So they must be concluded. 3 (53m 14s): Then we shouldn't withhold baptism. So they got baptized as well. The Ethiopian unique in the chariot says there's water. What hinders me from being baptized? That's what I would ask you. If you haven't been baptized, what's hindering you. What hinders you from becoming a disciple? First, Peter 3 21 says in corresponding to that, meaning Noah's Ark or the water saved people. Baptism now saves you not the removal of dirt from the flesh. It's not, it's not a bath, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 3 (53m 54s): Who is that? The right hand of God, having gone to heaven after angels and authorities and powers have been subjected to him. There's that all authority again, right? He has all authority. He has to the he's the way to become a disciple. The way to clear conscience, Galatians 3 27, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. So what does this disciple look like? The disciple looks like you and me trying to live in this crazy world, clothed in Christ, holding onto the way, trying to stay in the game, staying in the boat. 3 (54m 42s): And then so maybe you've never decided to follow Jesus. Maybe you've jumped out of the boat. Maybe you have a doubt. I challenge you to go back to Matthew 28 and look at verse 17. This is right before. If you're, if you have a Bible, we'll go hook your device. Go ahead and open up that verse. This is right before Jesus says, gives the great commission. It says. And when they saw him and when they saw him means he's risen from the dead there. He's with them again. It says. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, which is appropriate, right? 3 (55m 24s): Wouldn't you do that if you just saw the risen Lord, but some were doubtful is what it says. Some there's only 11 of them, right? Some is more than one. So more than one of the 11 were doubtful. These are the guys that walked with him, thought his death, burial, and resurrection, and now see him alive. It says some were doubtful. So what I'm saying to you is doubt is normal. We all have doubt. There always be there. You cannot have faith without doubt, just like you can't have courage without fear. 3 (56m 8s): Courage is what you do when you overcome fear. Faith is what you do when you overcome doubt. So it's really okay to doubt and be insecure. The question is, what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do? Jesus says in that chapter, in that, in that passage we started with at the end of it, Jesus says, lo I am with you always. So do you believe that? Is he with you always, no matter what you face, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how much doubt you have, whether your faith is weak or do you need courage? So lesson is yours. I'd like you to just please make your needs known. We're here to, I guess I should have invited the worship team back up, right? 3 (56m 51s): Come back. Sorry. Rookie mistake. But I would like you to, to make your needs known. We're here to pray for you. Study with you. You can be baptized. You can put on, be Christ, put on Christ. If you can, you can become a disciple today. Let's stand and worship. 1 (57m 57s): beautiful. 1 (1h 4m 21s): you didn't want . 0 (1h 7m 31s): If you father, we praise you today. God, we thank you that we get to be in your house today. God, we thank you for the word, Lord, Jesus. And I pray that as we leave this place today, Lord, that we would just take something away. And when that we would hold onto it this week, Lord God. And we would find ourselves in your word. And so we thank you and we praise you and it's in your most precious name. We pray. Amen. Have a wonderful day. If you need prayer, we have a prayer team up front. So feel free to make your way forward.

0 (0s): So would you use this time as we center our hearts and our attention on you to transform us from the inside out, it would be more like Jesus that you have reflection your heart, your love your mercy to the world around us in Jesus name. 0 (22s): stop. 0 (7m 40s): Stop, stop. Stop. you bet. 0 (10m 31s): You're the God of miracles. God of wonders and the God of the impossible. you are. You parked the waters. You split the sea, you car pathways through the desert. let's pray for anyone this morning. God, it just needs to know that you're near who needs to feel your presence, who needs healing, who needs provision, who needs encouragement? God, would you lift your eyes to where our help comes from this morning, help comes from you. 0 (11m 13s): The maker, heavens and the earth. We look to you this morning. We don't look to our circumstance. You're the rock we stand upon when everything else is shifting stirring and chaotic. Thank you that we can depend on your faith. God . 1 (16m 10s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you that the weak are made strong in the Savior's love. Thank you, Lord, and pray that you strengthen this today. Even as we talk about being strong God today and strong in the power of your mind and the strength that you make available to us providing to us. Lord, we just want to walk in it today. So strengthen each of us, Lord, spiritually guys strengthen us, physically strengthen us in every way that we need strength today. Lord, we pray for those who need encouragement for those who need friendship, companionship, Lord God, we just pray that you would meet and minister each person. 1 (16m 55s): Lord God prayed. There'd be real connection today. Lord, not just with you, although we desperately need that connection with you, but also just a connection with one to another Lord, God. So we pray for both a deep and abiding connection with you and just a wonderful connection. One to another Lord. So for those who are just needing to connect today for prayer, for encouragement, I pray that that would happen for those who have a word of encouragement who have the ability to, to pray and minister, Lord pray that every person would be doing that using their gifts and talents to bless the body of Christ, to build up the church, to Edify the church Lord. 1 (17m 35s): So thank you for this time. As we get into your word today, pray that you would be glorified. Thank you for this time in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. God bless you guys. How are you? We're good. Thank you. Worship team. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, where's Shane Shane. Is he here? Shane there. Shane come on out and Shane is going to Zimbabwe 2 (17m 59s): Leaving in 10 days and let's 1 (18m 2s): Get Shane and Mike, can we steal this microphone here? Thank you. So Shane, tell us what you're going to do in Zimbabwe and when you leave and when you're coming 3 (18m 10s): Back, I'm going for about five months. I'm going to Zimbabwe and go and stay with some indigenous natives out there that have established ministry through bold faith. We're going to be sharing the gospel, preaching and ministries and yeah, I just want to thank, thank the church I've been coming here for about two years and the Lord has really done so much in my life. I was, yeah, I'm grateful. And don't think you have to go on a mission to serve God. You can be, your mission can be wherever you are. Yeah. And to whoever and I'm just grateful. Awesome. 1 (18m 48s): Do you still need financial support for your trip? I'm sure. Yeah. If you'd like to support Shane just right. It's making sure check out the harvest church, put Shane in the, in the memo there and we'll make sure he gets that before he leaves in 10 days. How's that? Can we pray for you? Yes, please. Lord. We pray for our brother. We thank you for who he is and for what you've called him to do in Jesus name. We pray that you would give him safe passage to Zimbabwe as he is there. And then coming back Lord and we pray for great fruitfulness, God that as he speaks, that there would just be power upon his words, power from the holy spirit. And as he speaks the eternal word of truth from the Bible Lord that there would just be power as people hear it and the people would be saved and healed and added to the kingdom Lord. 1 (19m 36s): So bless him, bless his team. Those who he will be ministering with Lord, we pray that this would be an amazing and fruitful time for the kingdom and that it would just be a time where Shane is encouraged and ex and further excited about his faith and that it would just be a time of real growth in him and in and real fruitfulness for him as well. So blessed our friend, our brother, we pray Lord in Jesus name. 3 (20m 2s): Amen. Amen. Yeah. Thank you. And, and any, any continued prayers would be much appreciated. 1 (20m 8s): Yeah. So yeah. You're gonna be gone for five months. So pray, put them on your calendar and pray for him over the next five months. That'd be awesome. We'll try to get updates as well over these five months to see, just to kind of communicate. What's what God's been doing through Shane. So it should be really good. 4 (20m 32s): So this guy was, yeah, I didn't even tell the joke and you guys were laughing. I liked it. He was, he was pushing this 1 (20m 43s): Line in this witch into a wardrobe. Somebody asked him, what are you? He said, none of your business, none of your business, Narnia your business, whatever. Yeah. When you have to give the punchline three times, it's not, not good. Good. Someone us got it. Hey, we're in second Timothy chapter two verses one through 14 today. And we're going to be just getting through half, half of the text, half of the chapter today, last week we talked about God's expectations of his people. 1 (21m 23s): He said, God expects bold faith, a holy life and faithfulness this week we continue. What does God expect from your faith in Christ part two, number one, God expects strength, God expects strength. And we see that in the text as Paul encourages Timothy, this is kind of Paul's Swan song, his final letter to Timothy soon, he'll be executed and he's in prison in Rome for the second time. So he's about to lose his life for the sake of the gospel. And he's just got a little bit of time left to communicate truth to the church. 1 (22m 8s): As he writes this letter to Timothy who pastors the church at Ephesus. And, and as we study today, Timothy second Timothy Paul's second letter to Timothy. We were going to sense the urgency within Paul's hearts and his mind to, as he communicates this message. I think about what you might communicate. If you were close to death, if you just had a few weeks or a few months to live, what would you communicate and think about the urgency of that communication. You wouldn't waste your time with small talk, most likely, but you in your conversations with people would go deep. 1 (22m 48s): You would say the things that you meant to say all along that are hard to say. Maybe you would tell some, tell somebody how much you love them. You would give words of advice to the people in your life. Things that you've learned and gleaned from the Lord. There would be a sense of excitement and urgency connected to what you're communicating because you know, your time is wrapping up. Often we put things off because we think, well, I'll say that next time I see that person. Or next time we gather and Paul said, Hey, there's not going to be a next time. And so 2 (23m 25s): He's communicating truth to Timothy Timothy. My dear son, he said in verse one first Timothy chapter two, verse one, Timothy, my dear son be Strang through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus. Be straight through the grace that God gives you in Christ. Jesus, Paul speaking, as a man with experience, he has had to be strong through the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And now he is able with passion and with credibility, with power, passion, and credibility is able to say, Timothy, my dear son be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus, Paul warns, Timothy of the difficulties of the ministry. 2 (24m 9s): I mean, it's difficult in the ministry, especially in the first century, Paul's in jail because of his ministry in Christ Jesus. So Paul warns, Timothy of the difficulties of the ministry and urges him to be strong in contrast to those who have defected. We read about those who have defected from the faith last year, weak. Where does that strength come from? Paul saying, Hey, be strong. He says, and then he says, this is where it comes from. Be, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ. Jesus. What does that mean? That grace, how do we define that word? Grace? It's the word Charisse, which is means a number of different things means with the support of God's unmerited favor, not reliance on our natural ability work to be strong. 2 (25m 3s): So we're strong in the reality and the knowledge that God's grace is sufficient for our lives. That in itself will give us strength and confidence because we know that God's grace is sufficient to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, no matter what our past has been, no matter what our mistakes have been, God's grace is sufficient, but then beyond that, there's a grace upon our lives as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, race that is available to us in him to stand strong. And we're going to unpack that a little bit. As we move, move forward, Ephesians six, 10 says this, a final word, be strong in the Lord. 2 (25m 47s): And in his mighty power, his mighty power is a grace gift that God has given to us. There's power available to us in Christ. And that power is a grace gift that is extended to us because of Christ. His mighty power is a grace gift in Luke chapter two, verse 40. Speaking of Jesus, it says as the child grew and waxed strong in the spirit filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him. Now that's not grace that forgives sin because Jesus was without sin. 2 (26m 29s): So there was no grace needed to be extended to Jesus. So the grace that is talked about is the grace that we're talking about this morning, that grace, that gives strength and that hope and clarity and peace, all of those things. So this isn't a grace that forgives it was a grace that extended, how are they gave us power to do what God would have us to do in Luke chapter one, verse 30 speaking to Mary, the mother of Jesus and the angel said unto her fear, not Mary for thou has found favor with God. That word favor is that word , which is the word grace. And so the angel is telling her, you found favor, you found grace with the Lord with God. 2 (27m 15s): And so Mary found favor with the Lord. She found grace in that what we need in our lives, we need the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. I pray that all the time over our church, whether it's, you know, we're talking about a new project or just our impact in the community, or as we like Shane goes out on the mission field, we pray for favor and grace, we just ask the Lord's protection and covering for that person or for a price object. And this is what strengthens us. This gives us the ability to remain strong, even when we're up against difficulty. And especially when we're up against difficulty. Sometimes we're trying to muster strength, but what God expects he provides when God expects us to be strong. 2 (28m 1s): It is through the grace that we have in the Lord. Jesus Christ. First one again, Timothy, my dear son be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus. So we find our strength to stand firm in Christ, by standing firm in Christ. Let me read that again. So we find our strength to stand firm in Christ, by standing firm in Christ, by his grace. Strength comes by his grace power comes by his grace favor comes by his grace. Don't forget. Also forgiveness comes by his grace life in Christ is live from Starbucks to finish because of his grace, grace for salvation grace for godly living th that we would have the strength to live godly in Christ Jesus, that strength and that desire comes from God. 2 (29m 1s): It comes from the Godhead. We receive that from God and then we're able to live it out. God gives what he expects. He gives us what he expects from us. All we have to do is agree with him and say, God, I, I want this. I want it to be strong in the power of your mind, through the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And as we agree with God, we are able to walk in it. Strength comes by his grace power comes by his grace favor comes by his grace, grace for salvation, for godly living grace restraints. If, when we need it, number one, God expects strength from us, but it's not just this unattainable strength is strength. 2 (29m 46s): That's out of reach. God actually gives what he expects. What kind of strength do you need for your season of life and what kind of grace do you need right now for the relationships that you're in for your financial needs, for the things that you're facing in life? What kind of strength do you need? There's grace for it? I find that the grace that God extends is usually practical. Grace realized through just the practical walking out of our faith as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, doing what he's asked us to do, getting involved in small groups, getting involved with the body of Christ. 2 (30m 29s): That's why, as we prayed open opening the service, we prayed that God would connect people. That people would be connected because often the strength that we need comes from that connection that we have one with another. So what kind of strength do you need when I'm lacking strength? I'll talk to my wife or I'll talk to a staff member or I'll talk to a pastor in the area and I'll, I'll find the strength that I need through that fellowship, connecting one to another. So what does that practical step that you need to take to connect with others so that you find the strength that you need to do, what you need to do in Christ? Jesus, we all kinds of small groups available at the church designed to strengthen people in their faith, small groups designed to help people against temptation against addiction. 2 (31m 19s): I've got men's group Bible study, men's groups, Bible, study groups, journey groups, pure desire groups, all kinds of groups designed to strengthen men in their faith so that they're able to stand strong because that is what God is expecting of us. But he provides the way to that, that, that path of strength we've got women's groups, Bible, study groups, journey groups. We've got youth groups for junior high and high school meeting weekly. We've got kids groups from fifth to, from fifth and sixth graders. We've got, we hosted in a group on Thursday nights up in the shop. And dozens of people show up for the NAA group every week. 2 (31m 60s): And dozens of people show up for the peer desire groups and dozens of people show up for the journey groups and the Bible study groups. All of these groups are grace groups designed to give us strength. It's, it's a very practical way, very easy way to receive the strength that is needed. We just have to be willing to step into it and to begin to be a part of the God expects strength, but he gives us the grace to do and to live what he expects of you. We're struggling in an area of your life. Needing strength just happened to the Lord, say, God, what is the next practical step that I take? 2 (32m 40s): Who do I need to talk to? What group do I need to join? What, what do I need to be a part of so that I can get strength for the journey ahead of me? We're not, we're never meant to be in this alone. Paul communicates truth, encouraging Timothy to be strong because Timothy probably needed that word of encouragement from Paul. And it's interesting that Paul who is in prison is the one encouraging Timothy, who was not. So maybe you're in a precarious position yourself, but God wants to use you to speak into the life of someone else. And you think, well, who am I to speak that life to someone else I'd got this past, or I'm in this circumstance where I'm up against this challenge? 2 (33m 23s): Well, forget about all that. Just do what God has asked you to do. And then out of that, obedience, you'll find strength. As you encourage others, you find strength as you allow yourself to be encouraged by others, you will find strength back to for a second. Timothy chapter two verse two says, you may, you have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these trues to others, to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others. Number one, God expects strength, but also number two, God expects us to teach others that interesting Jesus said, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. How did he make disciples? 2 (34m 3s): Who was he? Who was God spot speaking to? And who was Jesus speaking to anyway, speaking to the 12, right? Speaking to the disciples. But who else? He's speaking to the church. He's speaking to all of us, all of us have this responsibility, this expectation to go make disciples. How do you make a disciple? A disciple maker is just someone who goes and teaches truth to others so that they understand truth about who God is. And so God has this expectation. Paul's communicating this expectation. He says, you have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach now we see the discipleship process here. Now teach these trues to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others. 2 (34m 48s): So we're not mad to just be a bucket, collecting all of this truth. We're meant to be a stream where the, the truth comes into us, flows into our lives and bubbles out and flows into other people's lives. All of us. So we're just holding onto this truth. Like we were carrying around a five gallon pail of all this truth and we never spill it out in anybody else's lives. God expects us to teach others. Remember God gives what he expects. If you are new in the faith, you can still teach others. You can say, God has forgiven my sins. 2 (35m 30s): And let me tell you about my experience. And when you tell somebody else about your experience, how God is forgiving, your sins are teaching someone about the goodness and the compassion and the kindness of God. Last week, during second service, I challenged the church to go tell someone about Jesus. I said, sometime in the next month and the next week, sometime soon, go and tell somebody about Jesus. And so I said, Hey, I'm going to jump into this challenge as well. And so sometime this week, I'm going to share the gospel with someone outside of harvest church. It's easy to share the gospel with people who are in the camp already, right? 2 (36m 14s): It's not really what God intended my job to preach and do, do we equip the church, the saints to do the work of the ministry, Ephesians four 11. So I said, I will go find somebody to share the gospel with. Who's not easy to share the gospel with. Right? And so I did. And so this week I kind of forgot about it the first couple of days. And I remembered, oh man, I gotta step up to this challenge. And so I began to pray for God to open up an opportunity to kind of pave the way and Jolene and I were down in Southern California for a few days this week, just kind of getting a little break. And, and while we were in a mall down in thousand Oaks, I said, okay, Jolene was at a store and I'm just kinda hanging around. 2 (36m 56s): And I realized, Hey, my phone needs a new, new cover on it. So it's all cracked and it just needs a new, you know, clear cover. So I was just looking around and I felt like the Lord said, go get your phone fixed and then share the gospel with that guy at that kiosk. So I said, okay, God, but you've got to pave the way. Right? So God makes a way for what he wants us to do. So I said, all right, Laura. So I had been reading my Bible while I was waiting for Jolene. So I had him, my screensaver on my phone, a passage from John. And so I thought, I'm just going to leave this open, what I pass over my phone to this guy. And it talks about how to get saved, you know? 2 (37m 37s): So I give him that and he could tell, he read it for a minute and then he's turned it off because he didn't want to read it. And then he re repaired my phone. And I just simply said, Hey, I want you to know that Jesus loves you and that he died for your sins. He's like, well, that's very kind. Thank you. I said, no, really like, Jesus really, really loves. You cares about you and he died for your sins. He said, well, that's very kind. Thank you. And so that's as far as it went, but what did I do? I planted seeds. And now what am I doing? I told Jolene what I had done. And, and, and I said, I told her, I said, now I'm praying for not only him, but for his whole family. 2 (38m 19s): And for his whole influence that everybody that he comes in contact with once he gives his life to the Lord would be saved also. And this is what I'm expecting. This is what I'm expecting. Big picture. I'm expecting you to get to heaven and have this guy come up to me and say, Hey, member at that thousand Oaks, small, when you, the gospel with me, look at all these people who also got saved as a result of that seed that you planted. That's my expectation. Why? Because we're meant to have kingdom expectations because God is doing kingdom sized things within our lives. And so sometimes we can get burdened down and say, ah, I don't want to do this. But man, think about the fruitfulness that is possible in Christ Jesus, when we're simply willing to extend truth and communicate truth to people willing to do what God expects. 2 (39m 5s): You think that God expects, she did teach the answer's yes. Not a trick question. Go make disciples. How do you make disciples? You communicate truth. You teach truth. So you go make disciples of all nations, Zimbabwe included and teaching them to obey everything that teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded. That's that's the expectation for, for believers. The expectation for believers is that we would teach others and make disciples of other people. When you tell people about Jesus, you are essentially teaching again. I'm about Jesus. 2 (39m 46s): So have you told anybody about Jesus recently to the difficult people like, you know, your gardener or the person at the shopping center or your doctor or your attorney? Have you shared the gospel with those people in your life? If you haven't know, encourage you to do so. I challenged second service last week to do it by the next week. So I'm encouraging you guys to do the same thing and I'll get into second service and encourage them for those who didn't do it. You forgot about it. Cause I forgot about it for the first couple of days, but I would encourage each of you to do the same thing to share the gospel just, and it doesn't need to be a weird thing. 2 (40m 29s): In fact, it shouldn't be a weird thing. It should be just a natural thing. You may, you may feel a little weird because you haven't done it before, but just begin to do it. And like anything else it's like riding a bike. Once you figure it out, she just kind of, it becomes easy. You just say, Jesus loves you. And you say it was sincerity. Do you know that Jesus died for your sins? He just loves you and it, and if they take it, if they want to talk more about it, then you can do that. And you can just say, yeah, you know, 20 years ago, when I gave my life to Jesus, I was a mess and God just rescued me. It's been an incredible journey. Or man, last year or two years ago, I got saved and God's been working in my life and doing great stuff. 2 (41m 10s): He's showing me his genuine care for me is abundant grace for me that he loves me unconditionally. You just share your story and watch what God will do. So how many times for accountability, how many this week? And I'll throw my hat in the ring again this week. How many we'll share the gospel this week? Go and raise your hand. Yeah. Can raise it high. Like, cause you want to be like convicted about it, right? Like I man, I'm going to do this. Cool. How many need prayer for boldness that you'll share the gospel this week. 2 (41m 52s): All right, sounds good. I'm going to pray right now in Jesus' name, Lord for the, those who need boldness, everybody raising their hand, watching online. I don't care, Lord. It doesn't matter if this person is watching and 10 years from now and an archive online, I pray that that person would raise their hand and say, yes, I'm going to share the gospel. So I pray for boldness God you've, you've given us this directive, this, this clearly communicated expectation that we will share the gospel that we will teach others. And so I pray that you give us boldness and then words to speak in Jesus name. Thank you, Lord. Amen. So I'm going to check in with you next week. Not next week. I'll check in with you in the next couple of weeks and let you know or talk about whether, whether or not you did what you said you were going to do. 2 (42m 38s): So how many again are going to do it? All right. Sounds good. I appreciate that. People who keep their hands down, honestly, just because I'm thinking they just need more encouragement. They're not ready to do it. And that's okay. Let's see. Where are we here? God expects us to teach others. God gives us the grace to do what he expects. Number three, God expects us to endure suffering. Yeah, I know. Right? Endure suffering. So Paul speaking with authority about this area of suffering. 2 (43m 20s): So he's not just, you know, in an ivory tower somewhere communicating his truth. He's been suffering into our suffering. Along with me, Paul wrote as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. So Paul uses a soldier. As his example, soldiers enter the military with the expectation that suffering or danger or harm may come their way. It's the nature of the life chosen. So the life of a follower of Jesus Christ is similar to that of a life of a soldier. We're enlisting have been enlisted, have been called into the army of God. 2 (44m 5s): And the expectation I know as, as, as boring as it may sound, the expectation is that we would endure suffering. Soldiers are on a mission. What do they do? They're there to fight the enemy to defend the country. They're there to do what is expected civilians on the other hand are consumed with civilian life civilians forgets. There is an army civilians are thinking about their own lives. Civilians, do what they want to do. So do you align yourself more after that description, that little brief description, do you align yourself more? 2 (44m 46s): Do you see yourself more as a soldier or as a civilian? Paul is saying, Hey, you are called as a believer as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. You are a soldier in God's army. Don't get distracted by civilian life. So stand strong against the enemy and, and endure the suffering that is before you followers of Jesus or like soldiers stand strong against the enemy. That's what you're called to do. We wrestle not against flesh and blood enemies, but against principalities of darkness, right? So we need to stand strong against the enemy. The Bible says that the enemy walks about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. 2 (45m 27s): So he's out there. He's looking to destroy you to devour you, to discourage you, to hinder you. So stand strong. It's helpful to remember that we're in this battle. So when we experience suffering or persecution or temptation or whatever it may be, it's helpful to remember. This is just par for the course, it goes with the territory. Followers of Jesus are to live like soldiers. So stand strong against the enemy, teach others about the kingdom of God and do what it is expected by God's grace. Part of what is expected is that we didn't do our suffering in Romans five, three and four in the NIV. 2 (46m 10s): It says not only. So we also glory in our sufferings. We glory in our sufferings. Often we're not glory in our sufferings. We're like complaining in our suffering. There's like, Lord deliver me from my sufferings. And here they're glorying in their suffering. Having been counted were the, to suffer for the gospel. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, character, hope, personally, perseverance character, and hope all derive from our suffering experiences. 2 (46m 52s): So need perseverance. If you need character, if you need hope, don't be sorry. Surprised if you get a little suffering to kind of buffet your flesh and to prepare you for what God has for you. First five, second, Timothy two says and athletes. So we've talked about soldiers. Now we're talking about athletes and athletes cannot win the prize unless they follow the rules. And so on Sunday morning, we talk about the rules, the four engagement. What does God expect? What does God require of us so that we might win the prize. First Corinthians 9, 24 through 27, says this, do you not know in a race? All the runners run, but only one gets the prize. 2 (47m 34s): And so we're actually in a race not to get a participation ribbon. Okay? I don't know anybody who joins her race to get a participation ribbon, right? Everybody runs the race to win, right? You don't. I used to run races. I would never run to even get second place. I did not want, I didn't want it. I was okay if I got it, but I didn't run for second. I ran to win. I wanted to, to win. There was this gal during this strawberry stampede every year she would, for two years, she would catch me and pass me in the race. Finally, the third year it occurred to me that this gal was probably going to try to do the same thing again this year. 2 (48m 20s): And so the third year, about the last half a mile, I look back and sure enough, Kristin is on my tail again. And I told her, I said, not this year here, Christian. And I just pushed it and left her in my, in my dusts. And I, I needed that encouragement to win the race, right. Even if my win was only over Christian, right? So cannot let her win. Beat me again. Come on. Do you not know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one gets the prize run in such a way as to get the prize. 2 (48m 60s): Yeah. If you get second place, celebrate it. But man, don't run. Like you're just trying to get run to win. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly. And that's part of the reason I challenge us to run with intentionality. So what's the intention this week, we're going to share the gospel with someone, right? Jesus loves you. You get your coffee. I was helping a guy load refrigerator yesterday and I was praying. I said, Lord, help us to get this. 2 (49m 40s): I said, I said, Jesus, help us. You know, I'm just any way I can get the word of the Lord out. And you know, the gal gal kind of just smirked and she thought it was probably a little crazy, but I seriously, I needed Jesus up to get that refrigerator up on that truck. So find an opportunity to tell people about Jesus and see what God will do. It will become life-giving for you. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly. I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. Now I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I've preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the price. So you're in it to win it. 2 (50m 19s): Competition is inherent in sports. You play to win. So think about your faith this way. Like, Hey, I'm in it to win the crown. I want to finish. Well, like Paul talks about second to me, the two six and hard-working farmers. So we talked about soldiers and athletes. Now we're going to be talking about farmers second, Timothy two, six, and hardworking farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labor. So hardworking farmers are the ones who are to enjoy the, the, the fruit of their labor. If you don't put your effort into it, there's going to be little fruit to enjoy. But there for the hard working person, the farmer there's fruit to be enjoyed. So you can have this expectation that God will bless you with the fruits of your labor. 2 (51m 4s): And you will enjoy that fruit here in this life and in the life to come. So in other words, it's not all hard work. There is reward. What's the fruit of your efforts. Well, some people are going to get saved. Some people are going to get healed because you're going to say, Hey, you know what? To someone who's okay, injured or sick. Hey, you know what I believe Jesus is a healer. The God that I serve is a healer. So I'd like to pray for you and just maybe God will heal you. And so you take the opportunity to share the gospel that way. And you're teaching someone that way. You're teaching something about Jesus. He's a healer. He's the great physician. 2 (51m 45s): He loves you. And so, and just set up saying, Hey, I'll pray for you or something like that. Say, Hey, I'm praying in Jesus' name because God's a healer and just be bold about your faith. So there's going to be all kinds of all kinds of fruit, salvation, people healed, but also internal strength. There's just something about a strength that Wells up within us and a boldness that Wells up within us when we're doing what God has called us to do, working hard as a soldier, an athlete, a farmer, great pictures of, of hardworking people. So you'll find strength boldness for Christ. 2 (52m 26s): You'll, you'll find yourself steadfast in the faith. Like you won't struggle nearly as much and you won't wander off course nearly as much when you're playing by God's rules, competing by the rules, doing what God has asked us to do. And then you'll have this fearlessness. You'll have the spear. Lessness. I remember when first sharing the gospel I was in living in Louisiana, we would go down to new Orleans and we'd pack lunches for the homeless and we'd share the gospel with them. It was terrifying. It was terrified before that actually we would pack lunches and go to San Louis and share the gospel with homeless people in San Louis. And it was terrifying. 2 (53m 6s): One day, one day, they wanted me to do some open air preaching. You know what open air preaching is like in front of everybody at the park, he just started preaching. I was scared third to death. And so fortunately they didn't make me do it. Cause it would have been a train wreck. Right. But we did share the gospel. I just wasn't about to do some open air preaching at that season of my life. I might do it now. I'd probably do it now because the fearlessness of God is I've grown in my boldness because I've just been doing it for a long time. So it's just like anything you don't, you're not afraid to get on the bike. If you've been riding your bike your whole life, because you just, you know how to ride a bike. You're not bragging about it. You just know how to ride a bike. So you get on your right. You're not bragging. 2 (53m 46s): Oh, let me ride my bike. It's just natural. Right? You just, you just get up there and do it. So you begin to share the gospel and you're not bragging about your ability. You just say I do this all the time. So of course it's going to be a little easier for me. You'll see an increased faith and faithfulness you'll experience. Peace, a close walk with Jesus. All of this is the fruit that you'll experience as you, as you do these things that we're talking about as we get ready to ride up here. Second Timothy two verse seven says, Paul says, think about what well I'm saying the Lord will help you understand all these things. So maybe in your own mind you say, Lord, what do you want me to pull from this? What is it that you expect me to do as a result of this message? First eight, always remember that Jesus Christ a descendant of king David. 2 (54m 29s): It was raised from the dead. This is the good news that I preach. So just to be clear, this is what Paul is saying. This is the gospel that I preach. And because I preach this good news, I'm suffering and have been changed again, like a criminal, but the word of God cannot be changed. Be clear about what you're preaching. I was at 1 0 2, the new worship center this week. And a guy came in and nice guy. And he's like, oh, I'm so excited that your church is going to be here. I said, oh, thanks man. Come by any time. And he said, you know what? I believe I said, no, what do you believe? He said, I believe that the 12 apostles went out to buy two and two became Mormons. Two became Jehovah's witnesses. 2 (55m 9s): Two became bow. And he just, you know, I I'm thinking to myself, this is not the gospel that we preach. We preach that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world. That you can only come to faith in Jesus Christ. No man comes to the father except through him. So it's not a convoluted, confusing faith. We preach Jesus Christ and him crucified in him, resurrected from the dead and him returning in Jesus' name. This is what we preach. So let's figure out who we are in Christ and then preach that gospel truth. Otherwise it's confusing. And it doesn't lead people anywhere, but to a path of destruction. 2 (55m 52s): And because I preach this good news, Paul says, I'm suffering. You won't suffer. You say two of the apostles were Mormons too, or Muslims too, or Jehovah's witnesses. You want to suffer anything because nobody gives a what's the word I should use here. Nobody cares. Nobody cares that you're preaching. That kind of gospel. It doesn't bum anybody out. It doesn't confront anybody with truth. What confronts people with the truth is the fact that Jesus died for their sins. And apart from him, they are, they're heading to this one place called hell and in Christ, we have eternal life. That's what gets people's attention. 2 (56m 33s): So Paul was preaching some, you know, some confused gospel. He wouldn't be in jail. They wouldn't care. So I'm willing to endure anything. If it will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has chosen. This is a trustworthy saying, if we die with him, we will also live with him. If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. I love this part. If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful for, he cannot deny who he is. Remind everyone about these things and command them in God's presence to stop fighting. Over words, such arguments are useless and they can ruin those who hear them. 2 (57m 14s): What does God expect from your faith in Christ? Jesus part two, number one, God expects strength. He expects you to teach others and he expects you to endure suffering with that. That's my divorce, your team back. We're going to stand and we're going to sing some more songs. And so B write down in your, in your calendar. This is how I get things on. I write it, my calendar. So what I'll write my calendar is share the gospel with somebody this week. Someone who's not easy to share the gospel with, write it down and then pray over your day and ask the Lord for clarity about that. So let's go and stand up. Thank you, Lord, for what you're doing for her, what you're speaking and for what you've called us to you. 2 (57m 55s): Thank you that you've put expectations on our life Lord, but with the expectation, the power to do what you've asked us to do the ability by your grace to do those things. So help us. We pray Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship 0 (58m 16s): When Jesus . I see , your presence here with us this day. 0 (1h 6m 59s): Thank you for filling our tape that we received this morning and be a vessel to those around us who are lost and hurting. We want to be good clay in the hands of a good Potter and make us instruments of your peace, salt, and light. Jesus. Amen. Amen. We're 5 (1h 7m 32s): Going to have an opportunity now for you to come forward for prayer. If you're, if you're interested, if you have any needs this morning, but just as Steve was preaching, I was really struck with verse seven that says, think over what I say for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. What Steve shared with us this morning, the call of the gospel, the call to share the truth, the call to walk in righteousness and holiness the call as we've been over these past few weeks. And I just feel like there's some of you who really you think about it. Now, you don't think about what I say. Think about what was preached. Think about what God spoke to you. And then we walk out the door and we get busy with life. 5 (1h 8m 16s): If you really want to think about it, if you really want to, to move forward in obedience to what God has said this morning, if you want reassurance and reminder, I encourage you to come and get prayer. If you have a need for healing, if you have a need for God's intervention in your life, this is the time to come. We've been, I've been getting praise reports back on, on things that we've been praying for. Whether it's here or in the, on the prayer chain, God's working. He answers prayer. If you're hurting, if you need anything, I encourage you to come forward. Prayer teams will be up here and ready to pray with you. If you don't need prayer, go out, have a great day, go up to the baptisms and then buzz down and take a look at 1 0 2. 5 (1h 9m 1s): It's going to be a great day. Great day in the Lord. Hallelujah.

0 (2s): Thank you look forward to what you want to do in our hearts this morning. Would you give us ears to hear and eyes to see? We want to know you. We want to come close to you. We want to experience your power and your presence, your mercy and forgiveness this morning. Even as we celebrate at the Lord's table today, God, you just cleanse us from all the things that kind of get in the way of our relationship with you. G purify our hearts and draw us into yourself. So kind of be in our MIS as we sing the songs would you would have our praises. 0 (42s): We love you, Jesus. And your precious name. Amen. 0 (59s): break the chains that have hi, our living hope. 0 (18m 1s): Thank you. That's out of the grave. There is victory in Jesus name. Thank you for the victory. God, we just pray for continued communications to our hearts and souls and minds today. Lord God, that there's victory in Jesus, God, that we would hear it. We would believe the gospels for us, that we would internalize it, that we do live it. Lord, in Jesus name 1 (18m 37s): God, where, where we're struggling to believe that the gospel is for us. 0 (18m 41s): I pray God that you would remind us and affirm to us. Speak to us in your loving and gracious way. Lord, it's your kindness that calls people causes people to pretend some more God. So speak to us. Lord, we pray minister to us. We pray Lord in Jesus name Jesus. Amen. You may be seated. You may be seated. 1 (19m 11s): Good morning, everyone. How is everyone? You know, it's interesting as we were singing this last song, I was, I don't even know why I'm going to share this with you, but I'm going to, but I had this dream last night and I felt compelled to share it. I don't even know why, but maybe in the sharing, it'll kind of become clear, have this dream that I'm walking around without any pants on last night and DMI. I know I realize that, but I'm walking around and it's strange to me that I'm walking around this way, but it's not, doesn't seem to be strange to anyone else. 1 (19m 59s): And so I, at one point in the dream, I asked my son, I said, Curtis, can you get me a pair of shorts? And he said, dad, you've already got shorts on. I looked down and I had shorts on. I felt lost. Interesting. I wonder what, what that was all about. And another part of the dream, I had been loading up my truck with some stuff I'm just giving you bits and pieces of the dream 2 (20m 22s): Bits and pieces of the dream. 1 (20m 23s): I, I see this truck began to roll without anybody in the, in the driver's seat. And I thought it was my truck. So I started running after the truck. And then I realized as I'm running after the truck, it's not my truck. It's another truck. It's, it's a different truck. It's a bigger truck. And it's running out of control and it crashes into another truck. And I thought, well, that's weird. I thought that was my truck, but my truck was just fine full of all the junk that I needed to throw away, but there was all kinds, but the truck was fine. And, and so then I thought, well, what, what does this dream mean? What does, what does it mean anything? Or did I just eat a bad burrito or something? What we, we did have, we did have some takeout last night. So maybe that was the deal. 1 (21m 4s): It was the broccoli. There we go. And, but I was feeling heavy about the dream. And then as we're singing this song, like the burden just kind of lifted off of me. It was like, I realized that the gospel stuff that's us free in the, the world in all kinds of different ways, tries to weigh us down and wear us out. And so maybe through the dream, I was, you know, the enemy or whatever it was, was attempting to kind of wear me down and wear me out. But the reality is, is that 2 (21m 36s): That I had my shorts on 1 (21m 38s): And my truck was just fine. I think that maybe the truth that God wants to speak to us, we have this perception about ourselves or this idea that maybe somebody has put upon us to weigh us down and to wear us out. 2 (21m 54s): But as we look down, 1 (21m 56s): All is good. We've got our shorts on or truck's fine. So maybe, maybe you've been wrestling with something that's wearing you out and wearing you down. And it's lot from the enemy that God wants to lift off of you. And so I'm just going to pray for us that the Lord would lift that off of us. And so Lord, we pray for that Lord all over the campus. Whoever's listening Lord that you would lift the burdens in Jesus name. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So there's not meant be any burden of heaviness. There's the conviction of the holy spirit, but we're, we, we understand the difference. And so Lord, I pray that if there's something that we need to confess and repent of that we would do that. But then as we do that, as we sincerely confess and repent Lord that that burden would be lifted. 1 (22m 39s): And if there's something that's of the world, the flesh or the devil Lord, we pray that that would be lifted off of us as well, Lord. So we're going to be looking at some things today. God's promises to us through faith in Christ. And I pray that as we do that, we're just be a revelation of joy, a revelation of peace that we would renew our experience and the grace and mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And that if there are those here today who have never experienced the grace and mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that that would be experienced and new life would be given and salvation would be added and adoption would take place Lord. And that great things would what happened as that person moves forward. 1 (23m 22s): So Lord, I pray that you would eliminate anything of the world, the flesh of the devil that might try to hinder what you want to speak to us today, whether it be through false, accurate the, the, the enemy is the accuser of the, of the flash of the brethren. He's a, he's constantly accusing lying to us. His native tongue is that he just speaks lies constantly. So Lord pray that we wouldn't be believing lies and that we wouldn't be sucked into his accusations, Lord God. But that we would know that we have been adopted. If we are in Christ, we are in his family. Our sins are forgiven. His grace is sufficient. 1 (24m 3s): His mercy is plentiful. And our salvation is, is sure because Jesus is sure. So thank you, Lord, do what you need to do in each of us. Lord, we pray. We just want to be available. Speak to us. We ask Lord in Jesus name. Amen, amen. What do you call a man with no body and no nose? Nobody knows. Speaking of noses, you know, you're getting old. When the barber spends more time on your nose than on your head. If you don't own, I'm talking about, then you will know. 1 (24m 43s): Eventually you will know eventually, Hey, we're in second Timothy chapter one verses one through seven, and we're going to be jumping into second Timothy and answering the question. What has God promised through faith in Christ? What has God promised through faith in Christ? Do you believe that God has made some promises to us? For those of us, you are in Christ. He's made, he's made promises to us. And we're an unpack five of those promises today. And maybe there'll be a part two next week, but we're going to leak look at least five promises today. As we just kind of look at Paul's greeting to his, his son in the faith, Timothy, who was a young pastor, the church of emphasis, there's this greeting and it's, it's filled with connection. 2 (25m 34s): It's 1 (25m 34s): Not some, some just quick little greeting. That's lacking connection and love. And it's this greeting that's just filled with connection. It's some greeting cards 2 (25m 54s): Are 1 (25m 56s): General greeting cards. You know, the kind that you get for people who are distant from you, but you feel obligated to get a greeting card for, so you get them one that may be, it was just kind of general. But then there are those greeting cards that really speak to your hearts. My wife got me a father's day card last week. And man, it was just rich with encouragement and, and goodness. And so there's, there's a difference in the type of green. Paul is rich with love for Timothy. As he reaches out to him and writes this letter, what does God promise through faith in Christ? 1 (26m 37s): Let's find out verse one second. Timothy chapter one verse one says this letter is from Paul, chosen the will of God to be an apostle of Christ. Jesus. I have been sent out to tell others about the life here. It is the life he has promised through faith in Christ Jesus, the life he has promised. So Paul's telling others about the life that he has promised that God has promised through faith in Jesus Christ. He says, I'm writing to Timothy. My dear son. Number one in your notes, he's promised a new kind of spiritual family. Not exciting. Some of us are come from broken families and distant families, hard families. 1 (27m 20s): The truth of the matter is, is that God has given us in Christ, a new kind of spiritual family. Timothy is Paul's spiritual son. Paul is Timothy's spiritual father. So Paul probably didn't lead Timothy to the Lord. And we're we'll know that he probably got his faith from his mother and his grandmother, but there was a, there was a leadership that Paul had intimidate his life, where he probably discipled him where he trained him to be a leader in the church and taught him out of what it really meant to follow Jesus. So Timothy is Paul's spiritual son. 1 (28m 0s): Paul is Timothy's spiritual father. Each of us should have one of those by the way. Or we should all have a spiritual mother or father. We should all have someone who's speaking into our lives ministering to us downloading truth QS. We all need someone like that in our lives. And then we all need someone that we're pouring into as well. Someone that we're speaking into communicating truth to life and, and counsel to. And so this is kind of what is modeled here in this new kind of spiritual family. We've got this responsibility and this honor to connect one another. I, I met my pastor in Colorado at my stepmother's Moore Memorial service. 1 (28m 43s): And immediately there was a kinship, 2 (28m 46s): Right? Because immediately 1 (28m 48s): We know that we're both followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we never met. Personally, we had talked on the phone a couple of times leading up to the service as soon as we see each other and MBB beyond that, as soon as we talked on the phone with, there was just this, this kinship, this connection because we're brothers in the Lord, meaning we are believers. We believe on the name on the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And we will spend eternity together with each other, with the Lord. And there's just this 2 (29m 16s): Connection 1 (29m 19s): That takes the relationship a deeper than just meeting someone that you aren't connected to in any other way. It's it takes your blood relatives, blood relationships, different and deeper as well. My natural daughters, I've got two daughters who are also my sisters 2 (29m 40s): In the Lord. 1 (29m 42s): And so we can relate as father daughter, but we can also relate as brothers and sisters in the Lord. There's this, there's the connection. I total stranger who believes in the Lord is my spiritual. Relative is your spiritual relative. And honestly, sometimes we feel closer to our spiritual family than we do to our natural family. We belong to each other. God has created something of a family connection in the body of Christ. We belong to each other, a spiritual family, and we belong to God who is our heavenly father. It's interesting that dynamic, that relationship, depending on your relationship with your earthly father, you connect to your spiritual father really well or not. 1 (30m 30s): So well, it just depends on how you connected with your earthly father. Romans eight, 14 through 16, says this for all, who are led by the spirit of God are children of God. 2 (30m 45s): So you've not received 1 (30m 46s): A spirit that makes you fearful slaves. So it's not a servant master relationship. Although we are bond servants of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We are choosing to serve him and give our lives to him. But Jesus calls us friends. The father calls us sons and daughters. You've not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves and said, you received God's spirit. When he adopted you as his, his own children. Now we call him Abba father, which just means daddy. 2 (31m 18s): So there's this intimate 1 (31m 19s): Connection that we can have that we're designed to have. I have with God, the father in this spiritual family that God has designed and has given to us. He is our Bubba father for his spirit, joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. We need to kind of that resonate with us a little bit. The reality that we are God's children. I was talking to a guy last week and he was talking about doing something that was questionable. And I said, well, I said, I, I would have I'm doing that. He said, well, I'm not worried about it. Cause when I get to heaven, God's got a lie. He's going to straighten me out on a lot of different things. 1 (32m 1s): It's like that perspective that says, as soon as I see God, he's going to give me a little spanking, right? He's going to give me a time out. He's going to discipline me for something because I know that I've messed up somewhere along the line, but I don't know about you, but when there's a healthy dynamic, elder relationship between kids and parents, kids, father, and child, that's not, you know, I'm not waiting to come down on my kids. I'm waiting to give him a hug. Right? I'm waiting to see them so I can, you know, they don't like a lot of kisses, but I like to kiss my kids, you know, and my grandkids and they're kinda like grandpa knock it off. But that's, I mean, the heart of a is to love on his kids and grandkids. 1 (32m 42s): And so sometimes our perspective is that boy, as soon as I get to heaven and God's going to kind of, you know, discipline me, he's going to come after me. Jesus took all of that. You took all of that on the cross. And so we belong to God because of what Jesus has made possible. And we belong to one another. Isn't that sweet. That's why church is so amazing. We come together and we can love on one another and pray for one another, laugh together. Just be together, give each other a hard time when necessary and just kind of beats together as a big family, we belong to God and we belong to one another. So maybe you're feeling like you're disconnected from your earthly family. 1 (33m 26s): You don't have to be disconnected from your spiritual family. Be a part of what's going on. That's why I'm so glad that we're all back in church. It's hard to connect through zoom or through FaceTime. It's hard to connect, right? There's there's a, there's something missing. There's something missing. We belong to God. We belong to one. Another. Number one, he has promised a new kind of spiritual family. Number two, he's promised grace mercy and peace. Let's unpack those a little bit. First two continues. May God, the father and Christ Jesus. Our Lord gave you grace, mercy and peace. This is Paul's greeting to Timothy. What a greeting. 1 (34m 7s): It's a reminder of the foundations of our faith, faith, grace, mercy, and peace. Grace is God's unmerited here that we hear it a lot, but we need to hear it again. Grace is God's unmerited, unmerited favor. It means we do not deserve it. If we deserve it, it wouldn't be grace, 2 (34m 29s): Right? We 1 (34m 31s): Go along. Sometimes we think, ah, we shift somewhere and we go from great. I used to work. We feel like if we don't do certain things, we're not, we're not in good standing with the Lord. But grace is given to us as God's unmerited favor, Ephesians two eight says, God saved you by his grace 2 (34m 52s): When you believed and you 1 (34m 55s): Can't take credit for it now, wherever you can't take credit for it, it is a gift from God. So we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. It's just an amazing theological truth that we need to constantly revisit. Maybe you've had a bad day and you need to revisit, is it the doctrine of grace And be refreshed in the truth of God's grace? That it's sufficient. If we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, his grace is sufficient. Then there's the mercy of God. 1 (35m 35s): Robert Robinson has had been saved out of a life of sin through George Whitfield's ministry in England. Shortly after that, at the age of 23, Robinson wrote the ham come thou fount of every blessing, streams of mercy, never ceasing sad. Lee Robinson wandered far from those streams and like the prodigal son journey journeyed into a life of carnality. And one day he was traveling by stagecoach and sitting beside a young woman and grossed in her book. She ran across a verse. She thought was beautiful and asked him what he thought of it. This is the quote prone to wander Lord. 1 (36m 18s): I feel it 2 (36m 20s): Prone to leave the God. I love 1 (36m 24s): Bursting into tears. Robinson said ma'am ma'am, I'm the poor unhappy man who wrote that him many years ago. And I would give a thousand worlds. If I could enjoy that feeling I had then although greatly surprised she reassured him that the streams of mercy mentioned in the, his songs still flowed. Mr. Robinson was deeply touched turning his wandering heart to the Lord. He was restored to full fellowship. Yeah. Anybody need a little mercy today. 1 (37m 6s): Streams of mercy still flow and they flow for you. They do. They flow for you. Streams of mercy flow for you. This God's good streams of mercy are available. 2 (37m 22s): Just 1 (37m 24s): Soak that up a little bit. Maybe you've had a rough season and you need to refresh yourself in that truth. Grace and mercy are abundant in God's kingdom and grace and mercy lead to the peace of God, grace and mercy and peace. Peace is what is experienced when we abide in Christ and he abides in us. There's peace that is experiencing Christ, but it requires that we abide in him that we, we make an intentional effort to abide in him. 2 (38m 2s): We're making 1 (38m 3s): Him our highest priority. Let's see, we're allowing him to be our highest priority. John 14, 27, Jesus said, peace. I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world, not as the world gives. Do I give to you? Let not your hearts be troubled. Neither let them be afraid. So the opposite of peace would be troubled 2 (38m 35s): And fear, feeling troubled and fearful. The Messiah's peace is based on his grace and his mercy. 1 (38m 47s): So let that grace and mercy leads you to the peace of God. Peace. I leave with you. My peace I 2 (38m 56s): Give to you, not 1 (38m 59s): As the word world gives the world gives it's. It's very conditional piece. If everything's going good, or as I expect, then I'm 2 (39m 9s): At peace. 1 (39m 11s): If I have what I think I need, then I have peace. If I have the relationships that I think I need, then I am at peace. It's very conditional. 2 (39m 20s): It's very conditional. 1 (39m 22s): The peace of God is based on his grace and mercy. And we experienced that as we abide in him, but we can drift from him, right? We drift maybe like the writer of this ham. We drift and maybe go a long time without experiencing his grace and mercy. And so there's no peace. Maybe you're even going to church and seemingly doing all of the right things, but you're lacking a peace in your life. Maybe there's a lack of abiding. There's plenty of doing, but there's a lack of abiding in him. Abiding just simply means, Lord, I'm going to wake up every day and just be with you, be in close proximity with you. So Lord, I want my life to just stay cozied right up to your life. 1 (40m 7s): And so that means I want to invite you into everything and, and Lord, I want your wisdom for, for my decisions. I want your guidance through your word and through your spirits. Peace. I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives, do I give to you, let not your hearts be troubled. How's your heart today. Are your hearts troubled? Afraid. I think that's what that dream was meant to do is meant to stir up fear in me, anxiety 2 (40m 34s): In me. But what happened 1 (40m 36s): Is, as soon as I got in the presence of the Lord, especially singing that final song, it's like peace was restored. Peace was restored. Let God do what he wants to do in your life. It'll you, you will be surprised at the peace that that comes to you. The Messiah's peace is based on his grace and mercy. Here's a solid definition of peace. It's the tranquil state, eight 2 (40m 59s): Of a soul assured 1 (41m 1s): Of its salvation through Christ. 2 (41m 5s): And so 1 (41m 5s): Fearing hear this. And so fearing nothing from God. Not that we don't have a healthy respect and fear and all of God, but fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly. Lot of whatsoever sword. That is that's 2 (41m 22s): The peace of God says that I'm okay, 1 (41m 27s): Good with God because of his grace and mercy. I'm in the family of God because of his grace and mercy. He's adopted me in my sins are forgiven because of his grace and mercy. I have a new life in Christ because of his grace and mercy. And because of all of that is true. I have peace, 2 (41m 45s): Peace in Jesus. 1 (41m 47s): He's promised us grace, mercy and peace. And number three, he's promised us to clear conscience. 2 (41m 52s): And then interesting. Paul talks about a clear conscience. I clear conscious. 1 (41m 59s): He said, Timothy, I think God for you for God that the God I serve Timothy. I thank God for you. The God I serve with a clear conscience just as my ancestors did night and day. I constantly excuse me. I didn't day. I constantly remember you in my prayers. I longed to see you again for, I remember your tears as we parted and I will be filled with joy when we are together. Again, that's that family relationship that we're talking about. But before that, we got to that. 2 (42m 31s): Paul talks about his clear conscience. 1 (42m 35s): I mean, outcome Paul have a clear conscience after all. I mean, before Christ, he was a persecutor of the church. He was going after believers in the way followers of the way he was going after Christians persecuting and killing Christians. I mean, how can a guy like that to have a clear conscience? 2 (42m 57s): I mean, 1 (42m 57s): Shouldn't, shouldn't he carry that burden all the days of his life. Shouldn't be, I mean, he was a horrible man and abusive man, a terrible person. You fought against Christ. So shouldn't you carry that burden all the days of his life and Christ of course not in Christ. Of course not in Christ. That's 2 (43m 22s): Never the expectation. Remember grace, mercy and peace. Remember 1 (43m 28s): Your before Christ days? I remember my BC days. What about after becoming a believer? Did Paul do everything perfectly? I mean, how can he have a clear conscience after all? Was he a perfect man again, 2 (43m 45s): Of course, knots. 1 (43m 47s): Did he ever make a mistake or commit a sin? Of course he did. Let's read about, Paul's struggle with sin in Romans seven 14 through 25. 2 (43m 58s): I'm always perplexed by this passage, by the way, 3 (44m 1s): Maybe you are as well, or maybe you've got a better handle on it than I do. That's very possible. 1 (44m 5s): Romans seven, 14 through 25 says, so the trouble is not with a law for it is spiritual and good. That trouble is with me for I'm all to humanist slave to sin. I don't really understand myself. I'm saying that in the text is saying that I don't really understand myself where I want to do what is right, but I don't do it instead. I do. I hate, but if I know that what I am doing is wrong, shows that I agree that the law is good. Good. 1 (44m 47s): I am not the one doing wrong. It's sin living in me that does it. I don't think Paul's not taking responsibility. Just saying there's there are, there's a war within a war within that causes me to do the things that I don't want to do. I want to do what's right. But I can't, 2 (45m 12s): I'm battling constant, certainly the corruption within 1 (45m 19s): The one doing wrong. It's it, doesn't it feel like a separate entity within you? Like when you're feeling tempted and you just, can't not sin, you just feel like there's something internally that's dragging you against your own will. 2 (45m 35s): There's that 1 (45m 36s): Spiritual battle within us, that Paul is describing here. 2 (45m 42s): It's sin 1 (45m 44s): Living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me that apart from the spirit of God, that is in my sinful nature, 2 (45m 53s): I want to do what is right. But I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't, 1 (46m 1s): I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. I'm really grateful for this taxed. It, it makes the gospel 2 (46m 18s): Attainable. Doesn't make it so out of reach because we, 1 (46m 26s): In a daily bat, we are in a daily battle against sin, the world, the flesh and the devils bombarding us. I want to do what is good, but I don't, I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if, if I do, I don't want to do, I'm not really the one doing it, doing wrong. It is sin living in me. Yeah, it does. It. We'll have to ask Paul to expand on this. Read, read a couple of commentaries that were not helpful. I don't know that anybody knows what to do with this text. 2 (47m 1s): Paul will explain it. When we get there. One day, I have discovered 1 (47m 5s): This principle of life that when I want to do what is right, 2 (47m 9s): I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my hearts. Most 1 (47m 14s): Of us would say the same thing. I love God. I love his law with all my heart. Somehow I keep doing the wrong thing, but there's another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that still within 2 (47m 30s): Me. Oh, what a miserable person I am, 1 (47m 37s): Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin. And thank God we haven't answers Christ. Jesus, thank God. The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is in my mind. I really want to obey God's law. But because of my sinful nature, I'm a slave to sin. Thank God for his grace 2 (47m 59s): And his mercy. 1 (48m 1s): It's through this grace and mercy that we can have peace and a clear conscience with God. 2 (48m 8s): We beat ourselves 1 (48m 9s): Up. And maybe to some point, we need to pay attention to what we're doing and not give ourselves permission to send, not using the grace of God as an excuse to sin. But at the same time, recognizing that we've got this battle within us and some days we're just gonna Dumble and allow the grace of God, the mercy of God to get. We were talking about this in our journey group. Friday morning at 6:00 AM were just talking about sin and temptation. And someone reminded me. I think it was Jim Pennington reminded me. He said, God knew all of that stuff was gonna happen before it happened, right? Because he's not he's outside of time. Right? So it's like he sees the parade of life from the beginning 2 (48m 53s): To the end. He sees everything that happens in between the lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world. Meaning it was the plan because we would need it. 1 (49m 8s): God's grace and mercy through Jesus Christ gave Pauly clear conscience and 2 (49m 13s): Peace. So if you're wrestling with condemnation, a muddled conscience, relax, repents, give it to Jesus and rest in that grace and mercy and experiences. Peace. You can have a clear 1 (49m 31s): Conscience. You can have a clear conscience. 2 (49m 35s): You be say, well, you 1 (49m 37s): Don't know what I've done. Paul called himself the chief of sinners because he had done some pretty gnarly 2 (49m 45s): Stuff. 1 (49m 47s): God's grace is sufficient. So just let it go. 2 (49m 50s): Let it go. Let it go. And 1 (49m 53s): When the enemy reminds you of it again, 2 (49m 56s): Let it go say it's under the grace and mercy of the Lord. Jesus Christ 1 (50m 4s): Take every thought captive until the obedience of Christ. So our thoughts are going to bombard us. Wow. What 2 (50m 10s): About that? Or you shouldn't have done that. I use it's all his stuff he's promised at clear conscience. 1 (50m 19s): And then he's verse number four. He's promised a life of faith. I remember your genuine faith. Paul writes verse five for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother, Lois, and your mother Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. So it appears that Paul is commending his salvation, that he acquired by faith, but also his life that he lives by faith is trusting in God. Paul is recognizing that Timothy saved by Grayson is or saved by faith in the finished work of Christ, but it was also living out a faith life. 1 (50m 59s): So again, as Christians, we're saved by grace through faith, and then we live out our lives by faith. That that is the only way that God has called us to live our lives. As followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We receive the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So it's the gateway into life with Christ, his faith in the finished work of Christ. That's the gateway. And then we don't just stop there and stop exercising. Our faith. It's actually introductory it's faith. One-on-one that gets us in by God's grace. And then we live our lives by faith 2 (51m 37s): For the rest of our lives, Hebrews 1 (51m 40s): 11 one. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. So faith is the substance. It's the raw material. It's the ingredients, right? That's what faith is. It's the raw material. The ingredients of things, hope for the evidence of things not seen. So were it wouldn't be faith. If we could see it, right? It wouldn't be faith. If we could see it, we can't actually see it. Oh God, we, we he's invisible. And so we have faith in him. Faith is the raw material. It's the evidence faith, because what is required to be follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, Hebrews 11, six says, but without faith, it's impossible to please him. 1 (52m 25s): God, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, that he exists. And that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So we're saved as we put our faith in Christ and that saving faith begins a new life of faith in Jesus Christ. So what we're talking about is not just fire insurance. Like you get, you know, like life insurance, you pay for it, and then you, you have it. It's no, you it's a life that God is ushering us into where we're actually called to live differently as a result of our new faith life. And so with that, how has your life changed as a result of your faith experience in faith, walk with God, 2 (53m 8s): How has your life changed? 1 (53m 9s): Does that change? Does your faith change the way you think is it changed the way you live? Does it change the way you believe? Does it change the way you speak and think and all of those things, which change that? And I think it needs to be tangible. I think we need to be able to say this changed. I actually live my life differently in this arena because of my faith. If I heard a quote this week, bye, a guy that I'm surprised. And, and I even questioned whether it actually came from him, but mark, Walberg made this quote. He said, God never gives you a dream that matches your budget. 1 (53m 54s): He's not checking your bank account. He's checking your faith 2 (53m 59s): And then interesting. Okay. God 1 (54m 1s): Never gives you a dream. Whether he wrote it or not. 2 (54m 3s): It's true. Whether he said it or not, it's true. God 1 (54m 7s): Never gives us a dream that matches our budget. He's not checking your bank account. 2 (54m 12s): He's checking your faith. God 1 (54m 16s): Is always going to be calling us into a life of faith. He just always just the way he works. So he's going to be putting us into circumstances and situations where we are above our capacity, where the job required is required, requires more of us than we actually naturally have. He's going to put us in certain circumstances where we have to give in ways that we never thought imagined recently this week, somebody gave me a letter written by Rick or Rick Warren. I don't know what you think about Rick Warren, but doesn't matter. He, this is what, this is his story. Rick Warren, pastor Saddleback church, down in Southern California and years ago, years ago, when they were getting ready to build their new building, he was praying. 1 (55m 2s): He said, he's basically said what? I always say, praying, be obedient. Do what you Lord's asking you to do. So he prayed and he felt like the Lord was asking him to give a hundred thousand dollars over a three-year period. 2 (55m 17s): Well, it 1 (55m 17s): Was an impossible ask from the Lord. He didn't have that kind of money in that season of his life. But the Lord asked him to give a hundred thousand dollars over a three-year period. And he felt compelled to tell the church. He said, I don't know how, 2 (55m 35s): But 1 (55m 36s): This is what I'm going to commit to by faith. The very next week, he gets a call from, I think the publisher was Zondervan and they said, Hey, we'd like you to write the book, purpose driven life. And we're going to give you $150,000 advance to write the book. And so he came to church the following week and said, you remember what I said last week? I said, I don't have the money. I just got this book deal. And now I'm going to be able to do it. This is, this is how God operates. So he, he didn't have the resource before he committed to giving what the Lord had asked him to give. But he knew by faith that the Lord was asking him to give, where is it in your life that the Lord is asking you to do something that you don't have the resource for or the talent for, or ability for, or the time for what is God asking you to do that? 1 (56m 28s): You're saying no to, because in the natural, you don't see where the resources coming from. Time, talent, treasure. I don't have enough time to do that. Lord. I don't have enough wisdom to do that. Lord. I don't have the training to do that. The education to do that, Lord, what, how is this possible? But the Lord has planted a dream in your life. He's planted something within you that requires faith. And if you don't step into it, you'll never realize the fulfillment of that dream. The people of Israel coming out of Egypt, we've talked about these stories all the time, what they had to get Pharaoh in the chicken, his chariot and soldiers there, they're pursuing 2 (57m 15s): Israel. And they're up against the what? The red sea, right? And 1 (57m 20s): Said, God, what do we do? What did God say? He said, get moving. Right? You got to step into the red sea and see what I will do. But if you don't step into the red sea, you'll never see what I can do. So after they get through the red sea and they're in their wilderness, they're in there for 40 years because of their lack of faith, a whole generation had to die off. Now they got to go into the promised land and where do they have to cross there? Right? So what is happening in the Jordan? They need to pass through the Jordan to get to the promised land, but nothing would happen until they stepped into the Jordan. 1 (58m 3s): And then when the Jew, they stepped into it, the water began to back up and they pass through on dry ground again, 2 (58m 10s): Where what's 1 (58m 11s): Your red sea? What's your Jordan river? What do you need to step into? In order we experience the supernatural plan that God has for you. This is just the way this is the faith life. It's just, if you want to do anything for God, it's going to be done by faith. Faith requires commitment. Faith requires commitment before the miracle is do with that. What you will do with that, what you will back to Timothy. Second Timothy, one six. Do with that. What you will, is that really what I want 2 (58m 50s): To say there? Yeah, I'll leave it there 1 (58m 55s): Back to second Timothy, one six. This is why I remind you to fan into flames. The spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. So essentially saying the same thing. You've been received something by faith. Now, fan that into flames, fan it. And what does it, have you ever been camping? We've all been camping. Well, Moses has been camping, right? And your, your fire goes down and it's just a little of cold, just like a little bit of hot coals, right? What do you got to do to breathe that, breathe life back into that fire. You gotta get down there and breathe on it. 2 (59m 32s): Nicole's began to get red and there's some smoke that begins and then boom, a little flame pops up. 1 (59m 40s): And then what do you do after you fan that flame? Now you start feeding it, right? And then as soon you've got this big blazing fire, but the blazing fire is not going to last forever. You got to keep feeding it. And when it dies down and you gotta breathe into it, breathe life back into it. So Paul is telling Timothy to do it reminds you to fan into flames, your spiritual gift. God gave you. When I laid my hands on you forgot has not given us a spirit, fear and timidity, but of power love. And self-discipline number five. What has God promised? He has promised power over fear. 1 (1h 0m 22s): Timothy was, yeah. Obviously deer dealing with some kind of fear or else Paul wouldn't have written about fear 2 (1h 0m 29s): Forgot. It's not 1 (1h 0m 30s): Given us a spirit of fear and timidity, Timothy, but of power love. And self-discipline 2 (1h 0m 38s): Where do we get 1 (1h 0m 38s): The power to overcome fear? I mean, if this is promised to us, if God has promised power over fear, where do we get 2 (1h 0m 45s): It? Well, we get 1 (1h 0m 48s): This power over fear by believing in who we are in Christ. Paul saying fan into the flame, into flame, the spiritual gift. You have been gifted Timothy, but it's not going to just happen. You've gotta, you gotta fan it. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta step into it. You gotta live it. 2 (1h 1m 11s): Believe who you 1 (1h 1m 12s): Are in Christ. You've been blessed with spiritual gifts to be used. Every believer in the scripture, it says, has been given a spiritual gift to be used for the building up of the body of Christ, the edification of the body of Christ. So what's your spiritual gift that you need to flame our fan into flames. Maybe it's hospitality, 2 (1h 1m 32s): Maybe it's generosity. Maybe it's teaching. Maybe it's shepherding you name it. There's a whole host of them. 1 (1h 1m 44s): This God wanting you to fan in to flames. You're you're fearful. Well, maybe about doing it. Well, we're all fearful about stepping into God's supernatural plans. 2 (1h 1m 54s): It's just natural to be fearful, but 1 (1h 1m 58s): Natural doesn't mean it's right to stop and never step into it. Then fear is natural fears. 2 (1h 2m 8s): Fear is just natural. It's it's, it's just, 1 (1h 2m 13s): You know, we get into this new building next door, we signed a five-year lease. 2 (1h 2m 18s): And then I, 1 (1h 2m 18s): The way I up the next day, I'm like, what do we just do? I know we're supposed to do that, but now what do we do? 2 (1h 2m 27s): You know, we plant a church and 1 (1h 2m 29s): Nobody shows up and what do we do? 2 (1h 2m 32s): Very few people show up. You know, we, we 1 (1h 2m 35s): Hire staff and the money's not there. Everything that God has asked us to do in the course of these 18 years, as a church plant has been a faith journey because we didn't have the people, money, resources, gift talent. I had never done it before. I never preached weekly on a Sunday morning. I, I just, I'd been an associate pastor. I've been at church chaplain jail chaplain. That was the extent of my, but God said, go plant the church. 2 (1h 3m 3s): I said, okay, we'll go plant a church. What, what 1 (1h 3m 7s): Are you doing? Planting a church. You have no idea how to plant a church. I don't know what I'm doing, but God told me to go plant a church. I still don't know what I'm doing, but we're still moving forward. I've been blessed with spiritual gifts to be used. If you don't use them, they will never develop and produce the kind of fruit God intended them to produce. Use fanning. The flames means don't let the fire go out. 2 (1h 3m 39s): Don't let your fire burn out. Believe 1 (1h 3m 42s): What God has done in you and go for it for God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power love. And self-discipline. This is what I wrote. You will have power. You will have power over fear when you choose to believe God's plan and purpose and gifting for your life and walk in it. In spite of opposites, 2 (1h 4m 5s): Power over fear, power over fear. Believe, 1 (1h 4m 9s): Believe God's plan, purpose, and gifting in your life 2 (1h 4m 14s): And walk in it. In spite of opposition, there's always going to be opposition. There's always 1 (1h 4m 21s): Going to be opposition. People told me 2 (1h 4m 24s): When we planted the church, we don't need any more churches. Please don't plant another church. All right. 1 (1h 4m 33s): People told me you don't have the stamina. You will never make it as, as a pastor of a church. You just don't have it. So you it's not in you. All right. Opposition is natural because the enemy knows. He's got a pretty good sense about what God wants to 3 (1h 4m 56s): Do with us. And so he's going to do everything he can to throw away on that. 1 (1h 5m 0s): Where's he throwing water. And where are you letting him throw water on? You're on God's plan for your life. 2 (1h 5m 8s): If you're, we are 1 (1h 5m 10s): Full and timid about what God has called you to do, 2 (1h 5m 14s): Just stop and decide to move forward and watch what God will do. 1 (1h 5m 24s): What has God promised through faith in Christ? He's promised a new kind of spiritual family. So you're not in, you're not in it alone. You're in it together. We're all in this together. He's promised grace, mercy and 2 (1h 5m 35s): Peace. 1 (1h 5m 37s): He has promised a clear conscience life, a life of faith and tower over fear with that. We're going to take communion. I mean, by the worship team to come forward, hopefully you received your communion elements. If you did not raise your hand and we will get you communion elements. 2 (1h 5m 57s): And yeah, 1 (1h 6m 2s): Communion is just an opportunity to remember what Jesus has done for us. Extending grace and mercy and peace to us. And maybe today as you take communion, as we take communion, maybe today is the day where you say God I'm to, I'm not going to be fearful or timid any longer. I'm going to do what you've asked me to do by faith. And I'm going to conquer my fear with the power of God. Okay? Everybody knows how to open these things. Two layers of cellophane, the first layer on wraps, the, 3 (1h 6m 44s): The wafer we, we like to call it styrofoam. It's pretty accurate. But if you get, if you work up some saliva first, before you put it in, then 2 (1h 6m 56s): It'll help. It'll help. Just a little 1 (1h 7m 1s): Experience there for I pass on to you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it to then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. 3 (1h 7m 17s): Let's go ahead and take the wafer. Oh, we're so thankful, Lord. We're so thankful that you allowed your body to be crucified pierced on that cross for my sin Lord for our sin. We're so, so eternally grateful, so forever grateful. And so Lord, on this family, Sunday, as we do every family, Sunday, we stop Lord. And we say, thank you. We refresh our minds in the truth of what it costs for our salvation. 3 (1h 7m 60s): And we say with great gratitude, thank you so much. Jesus. Thank you so much, Jesus. 1 (1h 8m 8s): In the same way, he took the cup of wine. After supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes 3 (1h 8m 29s): Again. Let's take the Jews. Thank you, Lord. We, we, we announced your death. Lord. We announced your victory over sin and death. We announced the gospel that it is 1 (1h 8m 55s): True and rights and we believe it today. Like we've 3 (1h 8m 58s): Always believed at Lord and I pray that you would convince people of the gospel in Jesus name, God, that you would convince people of the truth of the gospel and that each of us would believe that the truth of the gospel is for us. The grace, mercy and peace is for us eternal life and salvation is for us. We thank you, Lord. That'd be glorified as we continue to worship in song. Thank you for this time. We love you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 0 (1h 9m 30s): father. 0 (1h 13m 32s): We love you and praise you. We are your children. We are your Kindle. We thank you for the honor is that we get to be in your presence. When we get to worship you, we love you. Maybe go out with a stay with heads, held high and the smiles on our faces because you are so good in your most precious name. We pray. Amen.

0 (1s): Would you stand with us? Why don't we pray as we begin, Lord, we just look to you this morning to the author and perfecter of our faith. God, we just pray that you would meet us in this space. As we've gathered here to worship you this morning, that you would just dwell in each heart, that you would comfort every soul that you would heal every body in need of healing and Lord that you would rescue, redeem and restore. Would you lead us beside those still waters? 0 (41s): Again today we all stand just an equal footing in need of a savior today. So we thank you for your great love for us. Thank you that we don't have to be afraid in this chaotic world that we can be at peace in your presence this morning. So we walk without fear. Lord, we look to you this morning for everything that we need in Jesus name. Amen. In June my head like, gosh, you . 0 (10m 48s): He is Jesus Tonga. 0 (11m 6s): my God. 0 (15m 12s): Jesus. Jesus. Thank you, Lord. 1 (15m 49s): Thank you that you have conquered the grave. You've given us new life, new hope, peace and joy, new confidence in you. Lord, you have done so many things and continue to do so many things and we're so grateful. We're grateful God that you're a good father, that you are liable. Your, your love for us is unconditional. You were faithful. 1 (16m 29s): You're kind and good. God. Did you have healthy expectations for us? Thank you that you call us your sons and your daughters. You have adopted a sincere family. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. I pray that you would just bless every father gathered today and thank you for the work of fathers in our families and our culture and our church. 1 (17m 12s): Thank you God, for the way that they faithfully lead their families, Lord, and thank you for the role of fathers within the church, within the family Lord, you've given us profound opportunity and profound responsibility, and then you give us the grace to do what you ask us to do. And you strengthen us for the good work ahead, Lord. We're so thankful, Lord God, we honor dads today. I thank you for my dad. Bless each dad. And for those who have lost their fathers, Lord, we just pray for comforting peace upon each person today, for those who have a difficult relationship with their fathers, Lord, that you would minister God where there needs to be grace extended and forgiveness, extended Lord, where there needs to be reconciliation. 1 (18m 9s): Pray that that would happen. Also, Lord God, that you would work to bring reconciliation and restored relationship. Jesus, thank you God that you're always at work and it's never too late. You're you're available to do the good work that is needed in our lives. Reconciliation. We're bringing reconciliation and hope and joy and peace and Lord, as we've gathered for church today, we thank you Lord, that we've had the opportunity to sing and that we're praying and that we've got the opportunity to open up the word and, and that we're going to laugh some today. Lord, there's just a lot going on Lord. We're so thankful Lord. And so as we have gathered this father's day be glorified. 1 (18m 53s): As we saying, as we've been singing Lord, as we open up your word, be glorified. We pray in Jesus' name. Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. You can be seated 2 (19m 3s): Happy father's day. 3 (19m 5s): How many dads are in the room? How many dads were in the room? Raise your hand. Right? How many dads? Four or five. There's gotta be more than one. Ray. Real real. There we go. There we go. Good. Good. Good. Thanks for all you guys do. Thank you for being dads in this critical culture that we live in. Thanks for being good dads. We have it. Typically I opened, opened my sermon with some kind of a joke and I say some kind of a joke because sometimes they're funny. Sometimes they're not so funny, but today we have, we have dad jokes for you. So let's go ahead and roll the video here. Pay attention. That's going to be, I think it's going to be funny. So let's see what let's let's find out here, 4 (19m 49s): Curtis. Yeah. What do you call a fake noodle? Good. Tell you it in pasta. You got to say that with that Boston accent pass. Tim, do I enjoy making courthouse? Punts guilty? Do you ever get cold? Just stand in the corner. 4 (20m 29s): They're usually 90 degrees. Wow. What did the drummer call his twin daughters. Did you hear about the kidnapping at school? It's fine. You woke up that one could have gotten dark fast. I ordered a chicken and an egg online. 4 (21m 9s): I'll let you know what came first. The chicken, which one comes in first. I'll let you I'll let you know. Okay, good. No one came a little late average, average joke. I don't know. I once wrote a song about a tortilla, but it's more of a wrap. Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. Why can't you ever run through a campsite? 4 (21m 56s): You can only ran. It's always pest ticks. Did you hear about the restaurant on the moon? No. Great food. No atmosphere. Dad jokes. Number one. What do sprinters eat before a race? Nada. Nothing. They fast? Alright. I thought about going on an all almond diet, but that's just nuts. 4 (22m 43s): Why are balloons so expensive? Inflation? What does the noisy pepper do? It gets jalapeno business. The older crowd. They're like, yeah. I used to run a dating service for chickens, but I was struggling to make ends meet spring is here. 4 (23m 37s): Is that the joke? 0 (23m 55s): I got so excited to wet my pants. 4 (24m 10s): I got so excited. It wasn't pants. All right, here we go. You're American. When you go into a bathroom and when you come out book, what are you while you're in the bathroom? You're being 3 (24m 43s): So that's enough jokes to last the rest of the year. 2 (24m 46s): So I have got to get a job. 3 (24m 53s): This is my job. This isn't this great. Isn't this great. Oh, we should pray after that Lord, as we know, as we get into the word, Lord, your will be done. Speak to us. Thank you so much for the ability to laugh. Laughter is good medicine. As we get into first Timothy chapter six today, as we wrap up first, Timothy chapter six, you just pray that you would speak to us. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Amen. How is everyone? Good. Good, good. Hey, we've just a quick update on 1 0 2. We're going to refer to our new worship center 1 0 2 until we actually get in there maybe, but our new worship center building 1 0 2 west branches coming along. 3 (25m 35s): And what I failed to do last week is show this, these pictures, both services. So let's go ahead and show the pictures up so everybody can see what, so that's the exterior of 1 0 2. It's just a minutes. Walk, not even a minute. It's on the sidewalk here. It's about 45 seconds walk and, and that's kind of what it's going to look like, except for that we're changing the exterior colors, but we took off those canopies over those other windows and the exterior color is going to be basically whites with black trim and it's going to really, really look good. So Dan Hennessy put these pictures together for us. Let's look at the next shot here. This is the inside. 3 (26m 15s): This is what it's going to look like. And so far we've got the stage, the stage being worked on the, the sound booth, framed the couple one partition wall framed. We're making progress a few weeks. We're going to have air conditioning done. We've got plans for plumbing, electrical, all kinds of stuff going on there. So I just want to thank Dan for putting that together. So many people have already been a part of the project beginning with our Workday. You guys remember the work day where we had like 40 or 50 show up to do the demo. We took out, I think eight dump trailers full of stuff on that day. That was about three weeks ago or so. And then this last week we took out two more dump trailers, full of junk out of that place. 3 (26m 55s): There's just so much stuff. So many people have been involved. Jerry Shaw, it has helped with design as well for the, for the building inside and out, been very helpful. MW architects, Wayne and Derek. They're donating a lot of their time and a lot of their effort to get our, our plans drawn that we've got lands that are just about completed, just about ready to be submitted to the city. And then the city will be taking about two weeks to get our building permits. But in the meantime they said, you can keep working and just leave things open so that we can inspect everything. So de Bedford's been in there framing up everything and yeah, Perry's been doing all kinds of stuff. 3 (27m 36s): My brother Larry's been working on painting for us. He did the painting on the parsonage up the, up the driveway, just this last week, Jim Owens in charge of the electrical work he's been doing that Aaron looters is in charge of the technical side of things. We've got a guy Sean D blue, who comes around to do cleanup, anytime that we need him to do cleanup. And it's just been, it's been really, really good to see just the body of Christ come together. And, and so I sent out a letter this week just to kind of let everybody know kind of where we are. So if you didn't get a letter, get, make sure you get your email to address to us through a communication card. You can do that online or through paper communication cards. And we will get that letter to you just say this, give us your email address and then say, Hey, I'd like to have the letter that pastor Steve sent out. 3 (28m 21s): So then we'll get that letter to you. So anyway, that's the update we're hoping to be in sometime fall. My wife said, don't give a hard date and I know that's wise, but so I'm going to say fall in September, October, hopefully around there, we'll be in there. 2 (28m 37s): Step up. 3 (28m 38s): I know we're Jeremy thinks we'll be in, I think September 19. So he's, he's the man of faith in our staff. So we're going to say September 19th, let's hold Jeremy to that. All right. September 19th. Okay. So we're in first Timothy chapter six, this week, sermon title guard, what God has entrusted to you. This was actually what Paul told Timothy in this letter. As he wraps up these six chapters, Paul told Timothy guard what God has entrusted to you. So that is the title of our message today. That's what we're going to be challenged with today to literally guard what God has entrusted to us. So what does that mean? If you're in Christ, then God has given you a new beginning. He's given you new life and purpose and understanding and hope all of these new things are yours in Christ Jesus, but they've got to be held onto you. 3 (29m 29s): Guarded protected. He's given us Grace Love kindness and mercy and these things we need to in our culture, especially in down throughout, not just our culture, not just the Western culture and the 21st century, but down throughout history. I mean, beginning of the first century here where people were challenged to guard this incredible gift, this incredible revelation, this incredible truth that God has given to us. And so these amazing gifts that God has given, they, they need to be guarded. Otherwise we can tend to forget what God has done for us. 3 (30m 10s): Maybe we've been in the faith for many decades and we can continue. We can, you know, forget, we can kind of forget what God has done. We can forget the mercy that he is given to us, the grace that was so desperately needed. And we can forget that he just loves us every day, that he's kind to us every day. He's merciful to us every single day. So we need to guard our perspective about those things and then guard our faith around those things. They need to be guarded and guard what God has entrusted to you. How do we do this? Number one. And we're going to pull these seven points right from the text this morning, the first point. And we talked a little about a little bit about this last week, but don't let money distract you. 3 (30m 53s): Number one, don't let money distract you, guarding what God has entrusted to you. That a lot of the pitfalls around the brown faith is money. It sets it's finance. And so number one, Paul's very clear. It's a Timothy about money. And he said, and he basically saying, Hey, don't let money distract you, Timothy. And as you lead others, challenge them not to let money distract them. So again, we covered these first few verses last week, but for the sake of context, we're going to read them again. So first Timothy chapter six verse six says yet true, true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world and we can't take anything with us when we leave it. 3 (31m 37s): So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be intense. Find contentment to be one of the biggest gifts, the greatest gifts that God gives us the capacity to walk in. When we figure out how to be content with whatever it is that God has given to us. There's just a great deal of joy that follows that we eliminate the striving. We eliminate the anxiety. We eliminate the, the, the temptation to overwork and to try to make more and get more. 3 (32m 18s): There's something that happens in our souls, in our lives. And I think it happens. There's a, there's a resting in our minds as a resting in our hearts. There's a resting in our lives and we by God's grace make the decision to be consents. Lord help us to be consented. I think we live in a culture where we're always going after more. We're always trying to get, trying to move forward. And, and there's something to be said for just resting in the Lord last week, we said, we must honor God with our ability to be content taking things a step further this week. I believe this verse is telling us that great wealth, real wealth is defined by godliness and contentment. 3 (33m 0s): Meaning we can have everything in the world, all the stuff in the world and still be feeling empty real world in the kingdom of God and in the world is godliness with contentment. If we try to stuff, anything else in that whole called godliness and contentment, and we try to stuff, anything else in that it's going to leave us lacking and lead it, leave us wanting more. It's not a bad thing to have some resources, but it's how we think about those resources that can get us into trouble. So it's okay to have some resource. 3 (33m 41s): I encourage you to have some resource, but how we think about those resources, we'll, we'll kind of direct the course of our life. Sometimes we think a little bit more and I will be okay if I just have a little bit more, I will be okay. Or sometimes we have this perspective that says I'm secure because I have enough. Our security can never be okay. And the stuff that we have as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, our security needs to be in the person and the finished work of Jesus Christ. If our focus is on resource, then we have a fear around losing those resources and that fear around resources about keeping those resources keeps us from being generous. 3 (34m 30s): We want to hold on to it because after all we've worked so hard to acquire and accumulate resource. Now we have to be careful and we're fearful about losing them. And so we, we fail to be generous when the Lord asks us to be generous, fear around resources makes those resources a person's God, right? Proverbs 23. There's no slide for this, but Proverbs 23, 4 and five says, don't wear yourself out, trying to get rich. Be wise enough to know when to quit and that good wisdom in the blink of an eye wealth disappears for it will sprout wings and fly away like an Eagle off the top of my head. 3 (35m 12s): I can think of two people, two friends of mine who have lost a great deal, a great deal of resource in their life. One guy through a bad investment, through one bad investment, lost his whole life savings, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in one bad move in with an investment. He lost everything that he had acquired. And he had acquired quite a bit at that stage in his life. He was only in his forties, but he had lost hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. But because he chose not to be not to be worn out by that, I mean, it was hard and it was difficult and that sort of thing, but he, the guy turned his eyes on the Lord and say, okay, God, where do we go from here? 3 (35m 60s): How do we move forward from here? And over the last 20 years, he's been able to rebuild. And, and in my perspective, my I've known this guy for decades, probably for decades. In my perspective, this guy is more grounded and more godly and has a better perspective on wealth. And he's ever had is when you lose it all and have to rebuild it reestablishes. Hopefully if you're your faith in God and his ability to, to sustain you, it changes your perspective about those things, because you know how quickly wealth can disappear. It just changes everything about your perspective. Another guy, a friend of a friend of mine lost literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, upwards of a million dollars in one bad business transaction. 3 (36m 49s): So the first guy lost his money to a bad investment. The second guy lost his money in a bad business deal. And I'm like the first guy, the second guy chose to just focus on the Lord and just believe that God was going to is going to take care of them. And that's exactly what happened. It's interesting when bad things happen to good people, because at times, bad things happen to good people. What we do with that experience tells something about us. These two men decided not to give up on God, not to give up on, on their dreams and ambitions, but to just move forward with a different perspective. 3 (37m 34s): And they, they both have grown tremendously in their ability to trust the Lord through their experiences. They both recovered just fine because their confidence was in Fry's back to first Timothy chapter six, but people who long to be rich, fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. People long to be rich, fall into all kinds of traps. Workaholism is a temptation for people in the Western culture. If we just work a little bit more, a little bit harder. If I work on the Sabbath, if I work on Sunday, if I just work, keep working, then I will be able to acquire what I need to acquire. 3 (38m 20s): So workaholism is one temptation when people long for wealth materialism is, is, is the result of workaholism and the desire to be rich. We live in a culture where workaholism and is rampant. And so we just have to fight against it. We just have to fight against it. Verse 10 says for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. So not money itself, but the love of money, right? The love of money. And some people craving money have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows, the, of Nam and the got of money as a harsh task master. 3 (39m 4s): If we're living our lives for money for ma'am and the Bible says, you can't serve God and money, you can't serve God and mammon. If we're living our lives for money, doing everything we can to acquire money, we're going to realize eventually that mammon money is a harsh taskmaster with very little reward and it doesn't doesn't last and it doesn't bring any kind of real peace or joy. We'll have a lot. They're fearful. They're going to lose it when they have little they're fearful, fearful. They're not going to have enough, but when God is the focus, when we do what the scripture says, seek first, the kingdom of God and his rights is this. 3 (39m 46s): Everything else will be added unto us. When we trust God and believe him, we can relax. And just trust that God's got our best interest in mind. So God, what God has entrusted to you. Number one, don't let money distract you. Number two, remember who you are in a crazy world that we live in. It's it's easy to forget who we are. Who are you? Paul told Timothy, but you Timothy are a man of God. How many of us would say, I'm a woman of God. I'm a man of God. How many would I identify themselves that way? Right, right. We can, we can say, I'm a man of God. I'm a woman of God. But are we really living, believing that that's our identity. 3 (40m 26s): I living like Paul told Timothy to live live like LIS lived this way because you Timothy are a man of God. Sometimes we need to be reminded that we are men and women of God. That means if we're in Christ, our sins have been forgiven. We've been adopted into his family. We actually belong to the living God. So we need to remember who we are. And then also remember whose we are. If you're in Christ, you're a man or woman of God. You belong to God. Remember who you are and then live out of that identity. It's easy. You're to say on Sunday morning, Hey, I'm a man of God. I'm a woman of God. But you live out of that identity and allow that identity to dictate how you live your life. 3 (41m 11s): That's a wholly different wholly, totally different scenario. In story, we need to allow the ID, our identity as men and women of God to shape our life and our decisions. So Paul was reminding Timothy of his identity so that he would avoid the pitfalls of life. If we ID our debt, if we are identifying ourselves as people of the world that going to live like people of the world. But if we identify ourselves as people of God, that we're going to live, like God would direct us to live. So allow that identity as a matter of woman of God, to shape your life and decisions. If you're here today, and you're saying, I'm not a man of God, or I'm not a woman of God, maybe to one of two things needs to happen. Number one, maybe you don't know Jesus at all. 3 (41m 53s): Maybe you haven't had your sins forgiven. Maybe you haven't been adopted into the family of God. If you want to be considered a man or a woman of God, if you want to be God's kid God's child, then just simply invite the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ into your life and say, Lord, I need you. I want you. I want that to be my identity. I want you to be a man of God. I wants to be a woman of God or maybe you're saved, but you're just not identifying. You're not thinking of yourself in the right terms, in the right context. You're not thinking I am a man of God. I am a woman of God. And so that actually changes the way that I speak. It changes the way that I think it changes the way that I make decisions and the way that I live my life. 3 (42m 36s): Why? Because it's not an arrogant thing to say, I'm a man of God. You're just stating the obvious. If you are in Christ, then you are a man. You are a woman of God. So don't think that that's an arrogant statement. You're just saying, Hey, it's like saying, it's like me saying, Hey, I'm, I'm the, I'm the son of my father. I mean, it just stating the obvious. So I'm my dad's kid. You know, I'm stating the obvious. So if you're in Christ, you're just stating the obvious. It's not an arrogant thing. And it never should be an arrogant thing because we're saved by grace because he's good. Not because we're good. Paul is reminding Timothy of his, of his identity so that he would avoid the pitfalls of this life, greediness and worldly things so that he might pursue righteousness. 3 (43m 18s): What does it mean to pursue righteousness guard? What God has entrusted to you? Number three, run from evil. By pursuing righteousness, run from evil, by pursuing righteousness. Righteousness is simply things that are right in God's sight, things that are right according to the word of God and things that are right according to the spirit of God and God never contradicts himself. So if we open up the word of God and live our lives, according to the word of God, then we're pursuing righteousness. Because those things that we're pursuing our rights in God's sight. I wonder if in our lives, we're pursuing the wrong things. 3 (44m 2s): And we don't even realize that we're pursuing the wrong things because we haven't opened up the word and allowed the word of God, the Bible to shape our perspective. Verse 11 continues so run from all these evil things, Timothy pursue righteousness and a godly life along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. So righteousness is a pursuit. It's something that we have to be intentional about. We don't just wake up and pursue. We wake up with the wrong perspective some days and we're we're grumpy or we've had a bad dream or whatever. We have to set our mind, fix our thoughts on the right stuff and begin to pursue rights as this out of the gate every morning. 3 (44m 47s): So run for all these evil things. How many know that we have to run? Paul said, fleet youthful, lusts. We, we have we're in a culture. That's bombarding us with temptations. You know, the world, the flesh and the devil is pumped bombarded with temptation. So we have to run from these evil things, pursuing righteousness. So we have a responsibility and action to take pursue righteousness in a godly life. Along with faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. Remember first Timothy one 19 through 20. There's no slide for this, but it says, as we back up in first Timothy one, he says clean to your faith in Christ and keep your conscience clear for some people have deliberately violated. 3 (45m 29s): Their conscience is as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked. And then Paul gives a couple of examples. and Alexander are two examples. I threw them out. Paul said, I threw them out and handed them over to Satan. So they might learn not to bless FIM God. So from the first century to the 21st century, we have this responsibility to run from evil and pursue righteousness. And it will be like that until Jesus returns. We're going to have to have this perspective. Maybe, you know, someone who has shipwrecked their faith. If you just look at the decisions that were made along the way, you can see how it was easy for that person to shipwreck their faith, because they weren't pursuing a righteousness. 3 (46m 13s): They were wrapped up and enveloped in the world. Maybe you've been there. Maybe you're there. Now you feel like man, I've shipwrecked my faith by my decisions. You know, the good thing about the gospel is that the Bible says that his mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. If we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, we can come back into a right relationship with God. All right, faith with God. Re-establish our walk with the Lord by simply confessing our sins and the deciding to do these things, deciding to run from evil, by pursuing righteousness. What evil do you need to run from? 3 (46m 57s): What righteousness do you need to pursue? What area of in your life do you need to run from evil and pursue righteousness? Usually it's not your whole life, right? It's like a lot of good going on, but then there's those gnarly things as dark things in your life that just need to be obliterated. They need do you need to run from those things by pursuing a righteousness guard, what God has entrusted to you? Number four, fight the good fight of faith. That's what verse 12 says, fight the good fight for the true faith. So fight that requires intentional living, fighting the good fight of faith, like being all in. 3 (47m 38s): And I imagine showing up for a fight because you're in a fight, whether you like it or not, whether you realize or not imagined showing up for a fight unprepared, you're going to get pummeled. And you're going to get obliterated by that by your opponent. And so be prepared for the battle that says we don't wrestle against flesh and blood enemies, but against the principalities of darkness or the enemy Satan and his minions are fighting against us. And so we have to realize that we're in this battle, this fight. And so we have to fight the good fight of faith, of the true faith. We have to fight to hold on to our faith, right? If we don't fight to hold onto our faith, it just kind of slips away, right? How do we fight holding on to hold onto our fate? 3 (48m 19s): We, we, we fight by thinking about the right things by choosing the right things, by keeping our eyes on the Lord. If we don't fight the culture and resist the culture, we'll be swept up in the culture. It's just the way it is. If you don't fight it, we get swept up in it. If we don't fight the flesh, if we don't fight temptation, if we don't fight these things that are trying to draw us away, then we'll get swept away in it. So how do we fight? Well, the simple answer is just do what the Bible says. We're to abide in Christ. We're to be with Christ and have him be in us. So abiding Christ and, and in that relationship, you'll bear much spiritual fruit. 3 (49m 0s): So you just simply abiding Christ. He wake up every morning and say, God, I'm all yours today. And throughout the course of the day, you're saying I'm all yours today. Lord, what do you want to do? What do you want to do? Sometimes we go into autopilot and we're not thinking about God. We're just kind of living our lives. But then circumstances come up where we need God. And we're calling back out to him. Why not just abiding Christ all day long. Number one, abiding Christ. How do we fight? We abide in Christ. Number two, pray without ceasing. That's what the scripture says. Pray without ceasing. How do you do that? We just do it all day long. Lord, I feeling tempted right now. I need your help. God. I'm feeling grateful right now. 3 (49m 41s): Thank you, God. I am so happy that I, I, where I'm at my season of life. Lord. Thank you, God. Thank you for the hard work that you've given me to do, Lord, thank you so much. And it's just about constantly just turning our attention to the Lord. Thank you Lord. For that, that, that, that transaction that just went through. Thank you for the ability to think wisely about this business deal that, I mean, thank you, Lord, that you're, you've made my marriage better Lord. That you've made my, my relationship with my kids better than just an attitude of prayerfulness and thankfulness. Pray without ceasing. And then read your Bible daily. Just kind of getting back to the basics. How do we find you got to read your Bible. You get up, you get up and you, you feel off throughout the day. 3 (50m 24s): You gotta open up the word of God. I can't. I stress that enough to us. We got to open up the word of God and read two or three chapters of God's Bible of the word. Don't just read a verse. A verse is good, but if a verses good, two or three chapters is even better, right? I mean, we will see then hours listening to radio or podcasts or watching television or whatever it is that we will do or reading anything else, but the Bible, but we won't spend 20 minutes reading two or three chapters. Cause that's really all it takes. It's not meant to be a heavy thing. It's just a reality check. We don't spend enough time reading the Bible. 3 (51m 4s): And so we're distracted by all these things because we're not allowing our mind to be shaped by the scripture, by the truth of who God is. If you're feeling discouraged and you take the time to read the Bible with an open mind and an open heart, you will be encouraged, right? If you're feeling tempted and you open up the Bible and you with an open heart and an open mind, read the Bible, the temptation will dissipate. If you're in need of any kind and you open up that scripture and just read a couple of chapters, two or three chapters with an open mind and open heart, God will give you the answers that you need. You'll restore peace to you, confidence to you, joy to you. You'll walk away thing saying thank you, Jesus. 3 (51m 46s): I'm grateful Lord for your word. Now I know every more, more than never that I needed your word. And you do that every single day. And God will show up for you every single day. Biting Christ, pray without ceasing. Read your Bible daily. Be continually filled with the holy spirits. We must lead because Ephesians five says that we must be continually filled with those guys. What else is the answer? I mean, we leak, right? We're like we, we need to be constantly filled with the holy spirit and then number five, stay humble and teachable. That's how you fight. That's how you fight abiding Christ. Pray without ceasing. Read your Bible daily. 3 (52m 28s): Be continually filled with the holy spirit and stay humble and teachable. Number five, hold tightly to your new life. First 12 continues. It says hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses. How do you hold tightly? All of the things that we just talked about, those five things that we hope that we just talked about. That's how you, that's how you hold tightly. That's how you hold tightly. You remember that God has given you a new life. Hold tightly to that. The temptation is to be excited about it for a month and then forget about it. When trials come, we're forget about it. 3 (53m 8s): When a seemingly better offer comes along in the form of a temptation that is meant to destroy your life. Remember that God has given you a new life. Remember you're not your own. You've been bought with a price, hold tightly to your new life in Christ. Make God your priority in every decision. This is how you hold tightly. You hold, you make God your priority in every decision. And then you re resist temptation. You keep your eyes on Jesus. These are, this is, this is how you hold tightly to your new life in Jesus. If you don't hold tightly, you will slip away. Not because the gospel's fragile, but because you're fragile, the gospel is powerful. 3 (53m 51s): But in our humanists, we are fragile in our own strength. We are fragile, but in Christ we can do all things. And so we in Christ, we hold on and we keep our focus on him and we make our decisions all about him. We keep our, with our eyes on Jesus, number six lives so that no one can find fault in you. Verse 13, Paul told Timothy and I charge you before God. He wasn't saying, Hey Timothy, this is just a good idea, right? I charge you before God who gives us life to all. And before Christ Jesus who gave a good testimony before Pontius pilot, that you obey this command without wavering, then no one can find fault with you from now on from now until our Lord, Jesus Christ comes again. 3 (54m 44s): Remember Jesus before Pontius, pilot, Pontius, pilot could not find anything wrong with Jesus. And so he washed his hands, turned him over to those who wanted to kill him. And they killed Jesus. Jesus declared before Pontius pilot. I am the Messiah. I am the Lord. Jesus was our prime example. He lived a life above reproach, fully God and fully man. He lived a life beyond reproach, resisting temptation, the temptation to be disgruntled with people. 3 (55m 24s): He, he would heal people. He would heal 10 lepers and nine of the 10 would just go away and forget all about him. One would come back. This was his, this was the deal. Jesus said, didn't I heal 10 of you. Why is there only one that came back? But that's what he dealt with constantly. He worked miracles in front of people and they refuse to believe that he was the Messiah. So the temptation was probably too hard in his heart toward people because that's the temptation to harden our hearts toward people. But Jesus resisted that temptation. He lived above reproach, chose to love people unconditionally, and he gave his life as a ransom for all. 3 (56m 5s): So how do you live? So no one can find fault in you have a genuine faith. That's where it all begins. It's, it's a faith that is genuine. That is not for show. It is like, this is who I am like from the, my toes to the top of my head inside out. This is who I am in Jesus. I mean, this needs to be our perspective. Like every part of me, a hundred percent of me is in Christ. At genuine. Faith will keep you from living above reproach, keeping your, your life above reproach so that no one can find fault in you. And then out of that, you'll have integrity, have integrity. 3 (56m 50s): What does that mean? It means to be honest, the men and women of integrity be, be honest with every transaction and every conversation be honest, I had was here at the office on Friday and I was studying, prepping for some, for Sunday for this message. And this guy, this homeless guy, he started kept knocking at the door and I'm like, Lord, I don't have time to talk to this homeless guy right now. I've got a sermon to write, right? And so I ignored him, knocked the first time I ignored him knocked the second time. I'm like, okay, I'll get up. And I thought to myself, if he asks me why didn't answer the door the first time, I'm just going to be honest with him. 3 (57m 33s): I'm going to say, dude, I am busy right now. I don't have time to talk every time that you knock on the door. I love the guy, but I can't stop every time. So I had this wrestling match. I could say, well, I didn't hear, but that would lack integrity. The honest thing is I just didn't have time. So he never asked me why I didn't answer the door the first time, because we finally chatted and that sort of thing, but it was all good. And we got things handled, but I thought, you know, the temptation is to be dishonest. Oh, I was, I must've been in the bathroom or Hey, I must've been outside or Hey, I must've been upstairs. I didn't hear you knock. But the truth is God's worthy of our very best. And when it, just to be honest about things, have a genuine faith, not for show, have integrity, be honest. 3 (58m 15s): I remember a number of years ago, we had some taxes down. I shared this story before and there was a big, big fat tax mistake made on our taxes. And so the following year I had to pay an additional $7,000. I'm like, well, I'm the only one who knows about this tax mistake. I could just forget about it, but I'm not the only one who knows about his tax mistake. My God knows about this tax mistake. So I have to be honest about the stacks mistakes. So I ended up volunteering that information to my CPA and I paid the additional 7,000 bucks. 3 (58m 56s): I would rather pay $7,000 and have a clear conscience than hold onto that 7,000 bucks and have a JD conscience. I just don't want, I don't want to think about that 10 years later or 15 years later or five minutes later and have regrets. So be honest, tell the truth. Be the same person in every situation. I'm not saying I've got this nailed. I don't have this nailed. All you gotta do is ask who are close to me. I am trying to get this nailed. And that's all God's asking us to. He said, just work toward this. Be people of integrity, be people of integrity. And when you mess up own it and walk forward with integrity guard, what God has entrusted to you. 3 (59m 37s): Number seven, live anticipating Jesus return. I think sometimes we're only living for this life. We're only living for this life for these 67, the 80 90 years that we have a hundred years that we have we're okay. Only living for this life. We can guard effectively what God has entrusted to us by having this anticipation that Jesus will return and then help others do the same for adjust the right time. Verse 15 says it just the right time. Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed only almighty God, the king of all Kings and the Lord of all Lords. This is how it all wraps up. Like Jesus will return. 3 (1h 0m 18s): He is coming back. He alone can never die. Speaking of God and he lives in light store, brilliance became God that no human can approach him. No human eyes ever seen him nor ever will all honor and power to him forever and ever. Amen. One commentator wrote such a Lord deserves. It was an awesome reverence combined with complete humility. We, the return of price for some of us is so far in the back of our minds that we're not even thinking about it. And so it doesn't impact the way that we live our lives. We hold on to our, our faith. When we realize that Jesus could return at any moments, he alone, I'll read verse 15 again for just the right time. 3 (1h 1m 0s): Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only almighty God. The king of all Kings and the Lord of all Lords is surely assuredly. As he came, he will come again. Are we ready for him? Are we living our lives every day? So we're ready. No matter what happens, we're ready to, to meet him. Verse 17 says, trust those who are rich or teach those who are rich in this world, not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Isn't that interesting. He richly gives us all we need for our necessities. 3 (1h 1m 43s): Is that what it says? I mean, it's true, but is that all it says? He says he originally gives us all we need for our enjoyment and that interesting. I think we think sometimes that God is only going to give me the bare minimum and I've have to be happy with that. Well, we need to learn to be content with the bare minimum, but I I've watched God over the course of my life. Richly bless our family and take care of not just our necessities, but our desires. We're going to North Carolina this, this summer or in the fall to go to our niece's wedding. 3 (1h 2m 28s): And so I told Julia in North Carolina, that's the east coast. I said, we'd never been to New York. We got to go. We got to drive the six hours. We got to go up to New York and see New York. We've never been up there. We're going to see Niagara falls and, you know, see, we want this part of the country. We've never been to before. We've never seen before. And so we were talking about it and I, you know, she's, we're wrestling about, you know, talking through how we're going to do it. Now we're going to pay for it. So God will, God will do it. He will do it. I just know he will. I just, there's something about just trusting, not in a irresponsible way, but when you feel like the Lord's in something that you would just do it by God's grace. 3 (1h 3m 11s): I remember a number of years ago, I wanted to take my whole clan to Hawaii and it was going to be a really expensive trip, but I just knew that it was the right thing to do. My kids were getting older. That, that one point we had one grandkid little Levi's. So he traveled with us and I just knew it was the right thing to do. So I said, Hey guys, we're going to take you to Hawaii. All of you, we're going to go and spend some time in Hawaii. And so we did that and God provided for the trip. He took care of the trip. We had amazing sushi in that, remember that restaurant. And it was just amazing sushi and great experiences together. 3 (1h 3m 51s): And the Lord just handle it all through creative financing ways. He just gave us all we needed for that trip. And it was one of the best shifts our family has ever taken. So we have that, that memory, that experience together, there's just, there's something about trusting God with your whole life. And when he calls you to do something, whether it's whatever ministry related or just to bless your family, we can have confidence that he will give us those things. Now we don't want to be irresponsible about it and just flippantly. But when we sense a peace from the Lord, we go for it. We go for it. 3 (1h 4m 31s): Why? Because we walk by faith. We live by faith. We serve God and he can be trusted. So when we're talking about this new building over here, 1 0 2, I believe that that's going to be a beautiful worship center for us. Somebody said recently, I don't want to worship in a warehouse because they look at it. Now it looks like a warehouse. Trust me, I don't want to worship in a warehouse either. It's going to be beautiful over there. Why? Because I just know that God's going to give us what we need to beautify that place to make it a place of worship. So when people come in, they're like, wow, God is here. It's beautiful in here. And it's just going to be a great place to worship. We're going to be able to get a bunch of people in there that can worship together. It's just going to be really fun. 3 (1h 5m 13s): So I'm not, I'm not telling everybody, Hey, cut. Every nickel, watch every dime. Be careful. Don't spend that. I'm just not doing that. I'm saying let's do what is best for the, for God's house. Let's do it with wisdom, but let's do it with excellence. And then we'll see what God does. I think God is worthy of our very best. And so we're, we're not going to be chincy about it. We're going to put in good equipment. We're going to put in really nice lighting, really nice flooring, really nice decorations. It's going to be really, really great all because we believe that God wants to do it that way. 3 (1h 5m 57s): We have people come onto our property all the time. They say, man, you guys maintain this place really well. You know, why do we maintain this place really well? Because it represents who we are in Christ. I don't want people walking onto our property and say, man, this place is run down. Needs, paint, needs paving. I don't want that. I don't want that for my house. And I don't want it for the church. You wouldn't want it for your own house. I'll run down and you didn't needing to be repaired everywhere. I want this place to reflect the beauty of God, the glory of God, not overdone, not opulent, but right, right. The right balance. And so that's what we're all about. So when we, when we fix up buildings, we do it well, when we support missions works, we do, we do well. 3 (1h 6m 40s): When we do ministry by God's grace, we try to do it really well because God's worthy of our very best. Their trust should be in God who originally gives us all we need for our enjoyment, tell them to use their money to do good. Verse. 18 says they should be rich in good works and generous to those in need. Always being ready to share with others, by doing this, they will be storing up their treasures as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life Timothy guard. What God has entrusted to you, avoid godless foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so-called knowledge. Some people have wandered from the faith by following such foolishness. 3 (1h 7m 21s): May God's grace be with you all? That's the end of first Timothy, and we'll be in second Timothy next week with that, I want to pray with that. I want to have a stand. And with that, I'm gonna invite the worship team forward and we're gonna sing some more. And it's my desire that we would give God our very best in our worship that we would worship in spirit and in truth. And that we would expect the very best from him because he is the giver of the very best. And so Lord, I pray that we would change that we would allow the 1 (1h 7m 55s): Scripture sure. To change our minds about you. Lord personally, I have great expectations, great expectations because I serve a great God. It would be foolish and ridiculous to have low expectations of the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords. It would just be ridiculous. It doesn't make any sense. It's not rational, Lord. It's not anything. It just doesn't make any sense. It's a lie of the enemy is what that is. It's a lie of the enemy. So Lord, I pray that you would confront the lies that we've been believing. The fear that we've been feeling in God, that we would move forward as bold servants of the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords that we'd hold tightly to our faith in Jesus name, God, that we would do the hard work to hold tightly, to be faithful, to be sincere, to do the right stuff. 1 (1h 8m 47s): Lord God, to honor you with our every business decision, with every transaction, with every dollar, with every thought you got with everything that we want to honor you Lord God. And by doing so, holding tightly Lord holding tightly, guarding what you have entrusted to us. Lord. We love you. Lord make us men and women of faith, men and women of God. Maybe you're here today. And you just need to confess an area of fear in your life. And, and I'm not going to have you come up to do it. 1 (1h 9m 28s): I'll just have you just, just give a one or two word answer and then I'll repeat it. So everybody, everybody can hear it. What is an area that you're just saying, God, I need to submit this and surrender this to you. What area of fear? We'll just focus on fear. What's your fear. And then just speak it out. And we're going to pray over everybody's who's got fear and anxiety around the Lord. Go ahead. Fear of losing a loved one through bad health. Yes. Yeah. 1 (1h 10m 13s): Fear the future in general. Fear of not having enough fear. Fear of feeling in school. Yeah. Real stuff. You're fearless. You're not being the man of God that he's called you to be yeah. Good, good. 1 (1h 10m 58s): I was praying this morning and I just, I realized about 10 minutes into my prayer walk that I was praying all of these anxious prayers. And it's like the holy spirit just stopped. Say, why, why are you anxious? Prayers, anxious prayers are fear. Prayers. They're worry prayers. They're there. They're not faith prayers. And, and I felt like the Lord, well, the scripture says don't be anxious about anything, but pray about everything. And so I just began to pray differently and maybe that's what the Lord is wanting us to do. Just begin to pray differently and just say, Lord, thank you that as I work hard, I'm going to, I'm going to do well in school. 1 (1h 11m 46s): Thank you Lord. As I keep my eyes on you, I'm going to be the man of God that you want me to be Lord. As I trust you, Lord, I'm going to trust you with the future and with my provision Lord, as I keep my eyes on you and, and believe you got, I'm going to believe that it's a pointed. Every person has a certain span of life appointed by you Lord. And I'm going to trust you that when this person's time is up, it will be REITs. And you're going to give peace and grace for that season. But I'm also going to trust you, Lord God that you're a healer and that you have the capacity and the grace to heal. And so I'm going to ask you to heal as well. Lord God, God, that you will bless my future. 1 (1h 12m 27s): So Lord, thank you that you've got a plan to bless my future. Thank you God, that as I turn my eyes on you and do what you've asked me to do, God, I don't know. I've got nothing to fear. You have nothing to be anxious about your faithful Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God that you're the God of the impossible. When we're up against impossible things, God, that's where you shine. And so Lord help us to keep our eyes on you, Lord, for relationships and for finances and for spiritual health and mental health and physical health. Lord God, thank you, Lord God build us up in our most holy faith. Like never before we pray, Jesus build us up, Lord God, get us focused on you. 1 (1h 13m 9s): We pray Jesus, thank you. As we sing, we're going to be singing words of truth and words of praise, words that have the power to transform our thinking. And so let's sing with faithful hearts, believing hearts, excited hearts, help us to seem that way Boulevard. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship. 0 (1h 13m 47s): smooth. singing new songs of the Lord bubbling up in our souls. 0 (1h 21m 14s): Thank you Lord. yes. He didn't want heaven without us. 0 (1h 21m 50s): .

0 (0s): Thanks for joining us wherever you're at on campus here, outside in loft, the beautiful sanctuary. That's pretty packed for the nine o'clock. Thanks for coming guys. And, and if you're joining online, but regardless we're going to worship 1 (28s): and he . 1 (4m 35s): She says so with you and all that, she says, so , individually. 1 (7m 9s): That means you need to like sing out something. That's your own song. You just need to like sit there and just realize all of these things on a whole new level today, God, that you would speak to us in those areas of our lives, 2 (15m 29s): Where we are fearful, doubtful, faithless in need of just a assurance of your presence, of your power, your ability, Lord God, whether it be relationship or finances or work or other relationships, Lord God, whatever, whatever the case may be. We know God. And we want to know Lord God that you are faithful. And so show us, Lord help us. Lord. That has been so good to be in your presence and pray God that as we open up the word that it would just be a sweet time, sweet time, a time of celebration, time to revelation, Lord God, a time of exploration, Lord and God that you would just do great things. 2 (16m 19s): As we open up our hearts and our minds to your word. Thank you for this time in Jesus name, Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. Thanks guys. Thanks very much. 3 (16m 32s): We'll welcome her to a story recently by these two guys who went to Alaska, who's been to Alaska before few people have been to Alaska. These guys wanted to go to Alaska because they wanted to do some hunting and Alaska and something. They did most years. And so they go to Alaska and they hire a Bush pilot to take them deep into the wilderness so they can get their elk. And they only anticipated getting one elk, but they got two elk this year too. And the Bush pilot flies in to rescue these guys and pull them out. And he's like, Hey, there's no possible way that we can put two elk on this Bush plane and get you out of here. 3 (17m 18s): And the plane just isn't powerful enough. And the guys were like, no, no, no. This happened last year as well. This happened last year, we, we got to ALK last year unexpectedly and we had a smaller plane and he took us out of here. And so we're confident that you can do this. We're confident that you can get us out of here. So reluctantly, the Bush pilots said, all right, well, let's put the elk on there and climb in and see what happens. And so they're cheering him on and he's trying to get out of there trying to lift off the water and it's right. I mean, he's got all this weight. It's difficult, but they lift off in there where their head right toward a mountain. And he's getting cheered on is as they get and they're gaining altitude, they're getting higher and higher. 3 (18m 1s): And, and they, they they're about at the tip of the mountain and they, they almost made it, but they crash. And these two hunters, one talked to the other, said, Hey, 4 (18m 12s): His name was John. And he said, Hey, 3 (18m 14s): Hey John, how do we do? He said, well, you made it about 200 yards farther than we did last year. Terrible story. Right? So I've actually got a story of success. So last week, last week we invited everybody all over the congregation to be praying for our parking situation. You guys remember that how many were praying this week? Like we were praying this week, right? Well, the results of hundreds of people praying is that I, so the city had a meeting apart from me on Monday, they just gathered with their city managers and they had a meeting. And then I get this long email from the city stating that we're still short parking spaces and blah, blah, blah. 3 (18m 57s): So I'm like, ah, where what's going to happen. So they say, we want to get a meeting with you on Thursday this week. And so I went down for a meeting Thursday morning at nine 30. And at, after the Monday information, I, we sent out a reminder to everybody to keep praying and we'll just believe God for what he wants to do. And so sure enough, it was the craziest thing. I show up to the meeting on Thursday morning at nine 30 and it's with two city officials. And they, they said yes to everything. It was like this crazy thing that I was like, totally a appraise moment where they said, Hey, I, I said, Hey, you guys have miscounted. He deleted the number of parking spaces that we have. 3 (19m 37s): We, we actually have, according to the regulation, 10 extra parking spaces, then, then we are actually required to have. And they, they looked at the numbers again and said, yeah, you're right. You're right. Actually you're right. And so they gave us the green lights too, do the projects. They gave us the green light to start the framing and to continue the framing inside there. They said, just don't close it up. Cause we want to be able to, you know, inspect it all. And that sort of thing. They gave us the green light basically to start this week on painting. So I think we should start painting outside this week. I asked them, I said, because we've got a preliminary set of plans. This is another praise the Lord as well. The first architect that we went that we hired to do the project said, you know, I can't get to it for two months and it's going to take two or three months after that to get through the city and blah, blah, blah. 3 (20m 28s): And so we hired another architect and this architect got it done. And he got a preliminary set of plans done for us in about 10 days. And so we've got a preliminary set of plans and they're going out to the subcontractors. The process is a subcontractors have to draw an electrical and plumbing and, and fire sprinklers and all that sort of thing. And then hopefully next this coming week, we'll be able to submit those plans, worst case w w we'll be able to submit those plans. I asked them this guys at the city, I said, how long will it take for them plans to turn around? And so that you can issue a permit because initially the, the, our architect, our first architects said it would take two to three months for the city to turn those plans around. They said, it'll be two weeks, but we're going to try to get it done in 10 days. 3 (21m 10s): So we are months ahead of our original, our, our, our secondary kind of timeframe. And so really good news. Let's throw up some pictures there. We've got some mock-up, this is kind of what the inside of that building will look like shares there's. You can see kind of the back toward the bottom of the screen. You, you walk in that's where the front door you go in and you get their platform and the, the partition wall in the back there, let's go look at the front there next. So that's kind of what it will look like, except for we're changing the color scheme. And the color scheme will be pretty much an off-white on the building with the black trim. 3 (21m 51s): And, and so the reality is, is that we could, we could be in there if everything goes as planned the next like three to four months, as opposed to like six months or whatever it was going to be. So that's really good news on the good news front. We actually, we were able to refinance all of this property. We, we bought it a number of years ago and the rates were higher than they are now. So we were actually able to refinance and drop like two and a quarter points off of the, the, the interest that we were paying. And so with that transaction, we're actually going to be able to pay off the second mortgage that we you have, and yeah, really good news. 3 (22m 32s): And we're going to reduce our monthly by $2,000 a month. Our monthly mortgage will be less 2000, $2,000 less a month, and that second mortgage will get paid off. So, so really good news. So it frees us up to be able to really focus on this, that project to raise up the money that we need to get for that project. And so I did some calculations and I, as I said, last week, then the number initially was it's like 1 25. And then we met with a bunch of contractors and got some bids. And it was it it's going to be closer to 2 25, 220 $5,000 for that remodel, which if we didn't have people in the church volunteering to do a lot of the work that's being done in there, it'd probably be twice that it'd be twice that. 3 (23m 15s): So it's going to be about $225,000. There's roughly, we've raised about $27,000. So we have roughly another 200,000 or so there's always surprises. So we're not sure exactly the hard number, but it's roughly another 200,000. It needs to come in. So now instead of needing it to come in in the next six months, we needed in the next three months. And so this is the deal I, I cracked it down or did I know it's easier like to digest smaller numbers. It's easier for me anyway. And so I said, okay, what is the, if we've got 300 families in the church, what is the number? And the number's about $700 per family. If so, if everybody gave $700, every family gave 700 bucks, we'd be at that mark and be able to get the project paid, bought and paid for in the next few months. 3 (24m 3s): So I know a lot of you have already bought chairs and squares. I've already bought chairs and squares, but in light of this new information, our family is going to give at least that 700 and we're going to do everything we can. And so I'm just asking you to pray about doing the same thing, if you can great, some will be able to do more than that. And that will be great because some won't be able to do anything at all, just because of circumstances and that sort of thing. So again, just pray, say, Lord, do you want me to participate in this? And if so, how much is it? 700? Is it 1400 2100, some will be able to give more in the past, we've had people give $30,000 to projects like this $50,000 to projects like this. 3 (24m 43s): So whatever you want to do, I believe at the end of the three months or four months or so, we'll get that project done, bought and paid for without any debt. And that's going to be really important. So anyway, so I'm going to pray for that and pray for our tax. We're back in first, Timothy chapter six today, continuing our study in first Timothy. And so why don't we go and stand up and I know we've already prayed and that sort of thing, we're going to pray some more. In fact, if you would like to, if you feel compelled to come and pray over this whole project, I want to give us a minute or so to do that, but you have to come up to speaking to Vox one again. So we're not going to take a ton of time to do this, but I just want to give people an opportunity to pray over this and pray into it. 3 (25m 27s): And so if that's you, then I'll start and you come on up and speak into it. If not, no big deal. We'll just continue on with the message. But Lord, we just want to pray. We thank you God for open doors for answered prayer, Lord. It's amazing what happens when hundreds of people just decide to pray and to believe for your hand to move in difficult and, and really seemingly impossible situations. Lord God. So we say, thank you for that Lord. Thank you. It it's it's, it's, it's, it's amazing what you will do. Somebody said last week, it's a Jericho moment for our church. And as we prayed, and as we believed the, the walls came down and we were able to, we're able to get in and access and, and make progress with this new space that we have. 3 (26m 14s): Lord God. So we say, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. We believe God that you're in this. We believe that this will give us a greater opportunity to impact our community and our world with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. And so we say yes and amen to your plans. We thank you for your plan and we believe God you're in it. And that you're going to provide for us. So your will be done. We pray. Thank you, Jesus. Anybody else wanna be bold? Damn. This is so surprising. It's you're being bold. Here will be required. 0 (26m 52s): We're going to be required. Lord. As, as these people come into this new facility, Lord to love on them, to show them Jesus, Lord, help us to do that. Lord, the project's going to happen. The funds are going to come in, but there's one thing that we cannot buy. Lord, it's your presence. We need your anointing on this place. Lord, we need you to walk the aisles. Lord. We need you to put your hands on people, Lord, and set them free Lord and open their eyes that they might receive the word and be saved. Lord father. We just place it in your hands. Lord in Jesus name. Thank you, man. 0 (27m 32s): Thank you, Lord. Thanks Dave. Anybody else? 4 (27m 40s): All right, well thank you Lord. We're so grateful and we're, 3 (27m 43s): We're going to continue to pray and ask and seek and knock Lord God, and then do what you've asked us to do and just trust you for the outcome, Lord God. And so thank you for this time. God bless the word to our hearing. We prayed Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. First, Timothy chapter six, we actually took a break from our first Timothy study for a number of weeks to talk about faith and all kinds of stuff. And so faith will obviously be weaved into everything that we do because without faith, it's impossible to please God. And so he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And so we want to always honor him with our faith. So we've covered a lot so far in our study and I just kind of, to kind of recap here. 3 (28m 26s): Remember we spent two weeks asking God, two questions. What do you want me to do today? That was the first question. And then Lord, what do you want to do through me today? So there's similar questions, but what do you want me to do today? What do you want to do through me today were a couple of questions that we spent a couple of weeks talking about. Also we asked what does godliness look like? And you can go back and listen to the messages and get all of these, all of this information. But these are just kind of the highlights we declared faith in. Jesus changes everything. We talked about integrity. We warned against false teachers. We talked about the mercy of God. We received instruction about worship. 3 (29m 7s): We talked about leadership within the church. We received wisdom in dealing with widows and elders all from first Timothy and today as we wrap up, well, actually we'll take a couple of weeks to rock up first, Timothy chapter six. Today we'll learn how to respond to difficult situations. We will look at what promotes godly living and we'll see how to avoid snares concerning money. So the message is titled today, honoring God in the testing times, honoring God, the testing time, if you've ever been through a test before I talked with a guy yesterday who was going through a pretty legitimate test and after long, long conversation with him, he realized that he just needed to humble himself in the midst of the test, trusting that God is sovereign trusting that God sees him and has seen his progress in his life and that he could, he can trust God and not worry about what men think. 3 (30m 11s): And so at the end of the day with his test, he decided to keep his eyes on God, not get welled up sometimes in a test, if we're being falsely accused or whatever the case may be, we can kind of well up with pride or get angry or get frustrated or get disappointed. But the test I've found in my life. And as we see through scripture, the tests always reveal something about us and it's an opportunity for God to shape us, to, to refine us and to make us into the men and women that he desires for us to be so honoring God in the testing time. It's this is the most important time in our lives where we need to figure out how to honor the Lord. 3 (30m 55s): And so we're going to look at some circumstances here in first, Timothy chapter six, and try to figure some stuff out today. So number one, we must honor God. Especially when in a test, we must honor God, especially within a test. I've noticed that God doesn't always deliver us from the test he will deliver ultimately, but it's not until we learn the lesson that the test is designed to teach us. Have you noticed that? And if we get through the task without having learned the lesson that the test was designed to teach us, we just find ourselves in that same test over and over again until because God is good. 3 (31m 36s): He wants us to learn lessons. He'll just take us through the ringer one more time and help us out of his great love so that we might learn from the test. The thing that we need to learn from the test, why? Because the next test is going to require what we learned from the last test. And I was, as I was sharing with this guy yesterday and talking with this guy yesterday, actually my wife and I were both talking with him. We said, this is a unique test, meaning that this isn't something that you could foresee. And that often is the test. It's like, this is something that I couldn't foresee, something I really couldn't prepare for. But previous tests in this man's life were preparing him for this unique test. 3 (32m 18s): And I wonder what your unique test is. We must honor God. Especially when in a tests, God doesn't deliver us from the test. Usually just gives us the instructions about how to navigate the test. And he's teaching us something through the test. Israel was in Egypt for 400 years. It was a big long 400 year that God delivered them. Eventually he did. He delivered them eventually taking them through the wilderness. They were in the wilderness for 40 years because they couldn't figure out how to pass the test. And so God kept them in the test until, until they figured it out. And they, they were able to trust the Lord. 3 (32m 59s): And so Joshua was able to take them into the promised land. Last week, we talked about the testing of the early church, the apostles specifically how each of them suffered physically in their physical bodies for their faith. It was a test. Remember the test prior to the cross, when Jesus gets arrested, what happened? Everybody's scattered, right? It was a test. It was a test. What do you do when there's opposition? What do you do when things are unfolding differently than you expected, will you pass the test? And so many of them failed the test. It seems like the only ones who pass the test are the women around Jesus. They were painful to Jesus when he was arrested at the cross. 3 (33m 41s): And it seemed like everybody else, especially the man they scattered, but they learned something in that testing about sticktuitiveness about obedience, about faithfulness, about trust. And so after the crucifixion, after the resurrection, after the Ascension, when Jesus sent them out, they had a new boldness. They were filled with the holy spirit, right power was in them. And they had this new boldness so that when the test hit them again, when opposition hit them again, not with somebody else, but in their own physical bodies, they were able to endure. And most of them died, suffering persecution for their faith. 3 (34m 24s): All of them suffered persecution. And most of them actually ended up dying at the hand of their enemies. So we look at verse one in first, Timothy chapter six, we're talking about slaves for a moment here for a few, few minutes. And as I honestly was thinking about slavery and maybe your text says servants, first one says, all slaves, maybe your text says servants, same word should show full respect for their masters. They w so they will not bring shame on the name of God and his teachings. It was difficult for me. I spent four days thinking about this, this one verse wrestling with this idea of slavery and why isn't God speak differently about slavery? 3 (35m 10s): What's what's the backstory here? Why, why are people instructed to live honorably in this dishonorable relationship? And so I've discovered some things and worked through some things. And I figured some things out and was able to write a halfway, hopefully coherent message that speaks to us in this 21st century world, where we're not in this culture. In other cultures around the world, there is slavery. There is that type of oppression, but we don't necessarily see it. Although there are in the sex trade, their sex slaves in our culture, in our communities, in our country. 3 (35m 54s): And so there is that sort of thing, but it's kind of veil that's behind closed doors. We don't necessarily, we're not necessarily impacted or participating in it, but it's happening. So it's difficult to hae the instruction in a difficult situation. And so I just spent four days praying about it and thinking about it and I'm writing about it so that we might hopefully come away today with some understanding without glossing over anything. So slaves, the word slave into Greek is do loss. It's it means servant or slave do loss in the vines. 3 (36m 33s): Expository dictionary says this. It means bond man or bond made from the word de IO to bind a slave. Originally the lowest term in the scale of servitude came also to me. And one who gives him self up to the will of another. You can read about that first Corinthians seven or Roman six, and do a lot of became the most common and general word for the word servant in Matthew eight and nine nine. And it became a meaning of defining a servant, but without bondage, without, without the type of slavery con you know, things that we kind of conjure up in our head, you know, civil war, slavery type stuff. 3 (37m 15s): So it became, it started out, you know, slavery and kind of changed and morphed into this word servant. In fact, in calling himself a bond slave of Jesus, Paul recognized that he was a servant, a do loss, a bond slave of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He talks about that in Romans one, one. Then he had been formerly a bond slave of Satan, and that having been brought to a bought by Christ, he was now a willing bond slave to a new master. So do loss is a word for slave or servant one person owning another. As I broke it down, I thought this is one person owning, and this is difficult to, for us to digest and to understand why, why didn't the script, why don't the scriptures address it differently. 3 (38m 5s): And we're going to understand that here as we go forward. So do the last one person owning another one person controlling the life of another one person in charge of another so difficult situation, difficult place. If you're the slave to try to figure out how to honor the Lord in that relationship. But this is a, as I thought about it, I realized this is a clear picture of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Again, Paul declared Romans one and Peter declared this to be true. Second Peter, one, one Peter said this letter is from Simon, Peter, a slave that same word, do loss and apostle of Jesus Christ. So Peter, the one who abandoned Christ now identifies himself as a slave of Christ and an apostle of Christ. 3 (38m 52s): He realized that his life needed to be a hundred percent God's in order for him to be faithful to the calling that was upon his life and faithful to the sacrifice that Jesus made on his behalf. So Peter declared Paul declared, they declared this about themselves, that they are slaves of God, slaves of God. It said, we, we are owned as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We are owned by God. This is, this is what Christianity means. This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. We are owned by God, one person owning and other Jesus owns us. We've been bought with a price. So as I thought about slavery, it kind of put, it helped me to understand it from a different context. 3 (39m 35s): And I've talked through this before and I've wrestled with it before, and I've understood some things before, but it was just, I wrestled with it again in this go around, do loss. One person can owning another one person controlling the life of another. That's really what Jesus has called us into. He's called us into a life where we're filled with the spirit of God and controlled by the spirit of God. The Jesus actually is meant to have control of our lives through the power of the holy spirit. One person owning another controlling the life of another one person in charge of another, as Christians, we are to submit to the leadership of Jesus Christ, but then there's the institution of slavery. How are slaves and slave owners to relate to one another? 3 (40m 17s): And we read again, first I made the six one, all slaves should show full respect for their masters. So they will not bring shame on the name of God and his teaching that that's strong language flavor to show respect so that they don't bring shame. So God, so yeah, you're Paul instructs slaves to show full respect for their masters. John F Woolford wrote under normal circumstances, slaves and masters had no association outside the institution of slavery with the advent of the gospel, with the preaching of the gospel. However, these two groups found themselves thrown together in the congregation in, in new ways, creating problems. 3 (41m 1s): The apostles were forced to deal with repeatedly. So here Paul instructs slaves, how to show full respect for their masters. First Corinthians seven 20 and 22. Paul puts the Christian life into perspective. The slave life into perspective, whether slave or free we are slaves of God, let's read first Corinthians 7, 20, 22. You in the, again, Paul puts things into perspective here. He says, yes, each of you should remain. As you were, when God called you, are you a slave? Don't let that worry you. But if you get a chance to be free, take it and run. Amber. If you were a slave, when the Lord called you, you are now free in the Lord, right? 3 (41m 43s): It's it's, it's almost an oxymoron. We're free. We're free in the Lord in the sense that we're from underneath this type of slavery, but were instead choosing to be slaves of the Lord, Jesus Christ. But with that comes great freedom. It's, it's, it's, it's a difficult concept for us to understand. There's freedom. Someone say that there's freedom and we're able to do whatever it is that we want to do. But all that kind of life creates in us is bondage. We become slaves to the things that we obey. And so if we're, if we're saying I feel most free when I'm able to do whatever I want to do, we're believing a lie because the reality is all that that life does is entrap us and enslave us. 3 (42m 28s): W what we're told in the scripture is that if we're in Christ, where we find freedom and Liberty, because we serve a good master, whose first desire is to bless us and to save us and to forgive us and to redeem us and to set us free in it, to adopt us into his family. I remember if you were a slave, when the Lord called you, you are now free in the Lord. And if you were free, when the Lord called you, you are now a slave of Christ. Isn't that interesting? It's it changes the paradigm a little bit. It's a, it's a bit of a paradox. I mean, I know I wrestled with this question. Why didn't Paul just speak out against the institution of slavery? 3 (43m 8s): Why didn't he just speak out against it? I mean, it's obviously deplorable, but the truth, this slavery was so a part of the Roman culture and down throughout history, it was enshrined in Roman law. If Paul went after this institution of slavery, he would have had to devote his whole life to the overturning of this institution. But instead he realized that if he would just preach the gospel, if you would take the gospel to the region and to the area, then, then freedom would ultimately be the results. Paul spent all this time calling people to recognize Jesus leadership. 3 (43m 51s): So slave and, and master. He spent all of his time calling people to recognize Jesus leadership and Lordship so that they might come under his authority. Paul knew that the reign of king Jesus would resolve all injustices. And that's what we look forward to. But we've got to have a kingdom purpose, a kingdom perspective, believing that submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God, and to his reign and his rulership will well, we will begin to handle all injustices because when the heart of a person changes, whether it be a master or a slave, God begins to change the way that they their lives. 3 (44m 34s): But Paul didn't tell slaves again, first Corinthians 7 21. If you can get a chance to be free, take it like that. If you can get out of that desperate situation, get out of it. But in the meantime, Paul gives instruction. This is about the relationship of slaves to their master. This is good instruction for employees, as well as slaves. And so maybe this is where it kind of bridges over to our lives because most of us are employed somehow where we re we, we report to someone. So maybe we can read verse one, all slaves, servants, employees, et cetera, should show full respect for their masters. So they will not bring shame on the name of God. 3 (45m 16s): And his teachings words were to do everything is unto the Lord. Even if we've got a boss, a manager, an overseer who's unjust, who's not easy to work for. Who's not fun to be employed by. We have a biblical responsibility to honor that person, those people, that company, that respect, possibility that we have within the company. We have a responsibility to honor it, where to do everything that we do as onto the Lord. So this is a difficult thing. If you're a slave, if you're also, if you work for a difficult person, this is, this is hard to do. 3 (45m 58s): But if we can't honor the Lord in the testing times, there are, there's not, there's probably not much two hours faith, right? Especially if we keep going around the same band. And so maybe you're in a bad situation at work. And the Lord's trying to show you something, just sit, commit to his plan, submit to what he's trying to show you and watch the beauty beautiful work that he will accomplish in your life. So if you work at a job that you do not enjoy, if you work for a person, a difficult person that you don't enjoy, just ask the Lord, Lord, how do I honor you? And honor my employer in this situation showing full respect act means a number of things. 3 (46m 44s): I just wrote down a handful of them. What does it mean to show full respect? If we're, this is what God has called us to do. What does that look like? I wrote down. Number one, do you do the job you're paid for basics? Right? Sometimes though when we're disgruntled, we try to, we get in there and we do the very minimum, but we actually dishonor God when we do that, because he's told us that we're actually working for him. And where did you? Everything is under him and not as the men. So we actually have a holy calling as, as hours of the Lord, Jesus Christ, a holy calling to do to the job that we're paid for, with excellence, what work diligent D work diligently, all of the hours were paid for. 3 (47m 29s): So no lunches showing up late, no going home early, do the work that you're paid for. And then be on time. When we hire a new person at harvest, I sent him into Ron's office. I say, Ron, tell them how we operate around here. And so Ron gives them the rundown. He's like, you don't ever want to be late, right? Because I don't like it when somebody is late, they'll argue. What if you're late? Well, I'm not sure actually late cause the meeting doesn't start till I get there. Right? So, so I use my own justification cause I'm, I'm a late at times, but there are in every work culture. 3 (48m 14s): There's an expectation, right? Do the job you're paid for work diligently all the hours you're paid for beyond time, have a good attitude, go the extra mile. These are all things that every employer values and expects from their people. So maybe your boss is your test. I've had plenty of those in my work life. Your boss is your test. Maybe your job is your tests. Maybe your circumstances or your tests. What is, what is your task? What is God wanting to teach you so that you can graduate from that test? W we're in graduation season, and God wants you to graduate from that test so that he can take you into another test. But with the test, come maturity, depth strength with the tests there there's growth and there's progress. 3 (49m 11s): And we get unstuck. When we graduate from a test and we get promoted into other things, things test help us to see our blind spots, tests, strengthen our faith tests, I guess rely on God to remind us that we need him honoring God in the testing time. Number one, we must honor God. Especially when in a test re closely related to this one is the second point here. We must honor God. When dealing with people very much like I just talked about, but slightly different. It says if the masters are believers, that is no excuse for being disrespectful. 3 (49m 52s): Verse two, those slaves should work all the harder because they're, their efforts are helping other believers. You are well loved. So when the master and the slave share the same faith, sometimes there can be. And especially if they go to the same church, part of the same fellowship, you can sometimes as a worker, as a servant, as an employee, get a little slack, right? Because there's familiarity and friendship, right? So you can actually become a burden to the person that you're working for because you've gotten too close to them. And you've decided you've decided that just because they're there because they're your friends or brother or sister in Christ that you don't need to work as hard because they won't get rid of you. 3 (50m 43s): I fired, I fired plenty of people who were brothers in the Lord, sisters in the Lord when they weren't doing their job because there's no room for it in God's kingdom. There's just no room for it. We're called to work as unto the Lord. And when we don't work as unto the Lord, the result is that you lose your job. It's just the way it works in the, in the world. And that's how it works everywhere. And it's how it works around here. If the masters are believers, there's no excuse for being disrespectful. Disrespect would be, Hey, showing up late, not working your hours, leaving early, being lazy and not going the extra mile servants should work all the more diligently to bless the believer they work for, right? 3 (51m 36s): Whether the, your employer or boss is a believer or not, the servant should work as unto the Lord and not unto men. First time of the six to second part talks about false teachers and cheer riches says this, teach these things, Timothy, teach what things to me, the wall, all this stuff that he's been talking about in this book. And first Timothy, and up to this point and verse six, teach these things. Timothy, encourage everyone to obey them. Some people may contradict our teachings, but these are the wholesome teachings of the Lord. Jesus Christ. They, these teachings promote a godly life. 3 (52m 16s): So Paul's instruction to young Timothy as he pastored the church and emphasis is to help people to live a godly life. But there's other people with a different agenda with different motivation. So Paul's instructing Timothy as Paul is Timothy spiritual father and overseer. He's instructing them. He's instructing Timothy to teach these things that he wrote about in the first letter to Timothy his teachings promote a godly life. The verse says, and this is what's always the motivation of a good teacher promoting a godly life. This is the desire. This is the desire that is within a good Bible teacher. They want to promote godly living. 3 (52m 58s): They feel a call to promote godly living. So number three, in our notes, we must honor God with what we teach and believe most honored God with what we teach and believe. So perfect example of this is that how many have heard of any grand personality too? Yes. Few of us. Right. Well, so we, as a staff started investigating and, and, and kind of helping to understand personalities. We, we started researching Enneagrams and personality tests so that we might help. So we might be helped in understanding how to relate one to another, but this is the problem we just found out recently that it's it's origins is the new age of movement. 3 (53m 42s): We had no idea. And so we're done with any Agram. Yeah. It's not from the lowered and we didn't realize it. We just thought it's just a personality test while bot and somebody highlighted it to us. I said, Hey, have you looked into any grams deeper? And we said, no. And they said, well, here here's a podcast. And so we listened to it. And so we're no longer, we don't want to use anything. That's not from the word of God. And if we're, if we make a mistake and we, we, we realized that we're thinking about things differently. Or if I'm not a biblical perspective or believing something, that's not biblical than we than we are. We, we, we have to change our minds. 3 (54m 23s): And I wonder if maybe coming out of, you know, the world, we come into the church and we, we bring with us worldly things that aren't from God. And we try to merge them or marry them, or hold on to them as we try to follow Jesus. And as we realize that those things are from God, we have this responsibility in the scripture, people involved in the occult, they brought their books, their sorcery books, and they burned them to the tune of millions of dollars in sorcery. But they burned them because they knew that they weren't from the Lord and they needed to get rid of them. 3 (55m 5s): So maybe you've got some stuff in your life that you need to burn. Maybe it's pornography, maybe it's I was getting this wrong astrology. Is that astrology the signs. And is it astrology or is it astronomy? It's astrology, right? I never get that. Right. Maybe you're reading that every day in the paper. It's it's new age, it's cult type stuff that you shouldn't, you need to be looking to God's word, to direct your steps and to direct your life, not to the local, you know, the recent astrology stuff, is it that God is trying to strip out of your life because it's, it's not from him. It's something that you're holding onto. I don't know what it is. 3 (55m 46s): Only. You can know that only God only, but when you have the responsibility to do what we did, when we figured out we were on the wrong path regarding this, any grant thing we, we scrapped did immediately. Like we didn't have to have a conversation with God about it. We realized this is not from the Lord. So we got to scrap it for anyone who teaches something different is arrogant and lax understanding. Be careful for God, God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. If what you're doing is swelling you with arrogance, be careful, be careful, such a person has an unhealthy desire to quibble over the meaning of words. 3 (56m 30s): I've seen this happen over and over again. And it's divisive people within the church, quibbling over marginal doctrinal, things that cause division people in the greater church, the, of the church in the community, in the world, people squabbling over things that are unimportant, that is causing division within the church. It stirs up arguments ending in jealousy, division, slander, and evil suspicions. These people always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt and they have turned their backs on the truth to them. A show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy. 3 (57m 11s): I remember. Yeah. Sincere teacher of God's word. The desire of that man or woman is that they would help people grow in godliness. It's always about pointing people to Jesus. It's always about pointing people to the word it's always about by God's grace. Doing what God has asked us to do. Paul addressed the same issue in chapter one. It's like, he's come full circle. If you go back and read first Timothy chapter one, we've come full circle where Paul's addressing false teachers within the church. Paul's teachings are designed to promote a godly life. These others are causing people to divide within the church causing problems. 3 (57m 57s): Verse four. Again, such a person has an unhealthy desire to quibble over the meaning of words. The serves up arguments, ending it ending in jealousy, division, slander, and evil suspicions. These people always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt and they have turned their backs on the truth to them. And show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy. So a person's motivation and teaching should be to point people to Jesus, not for some kind of gain to make people aware of their need for his grace. To help people have a kingdom perspective, to encourage people, to share their faith, to challenge people, to live for Jesus, to do what we are doing today, encouraging people to honor God in everything. 3 (58m 40s): If a person's motivation is personal it's for, if it's for gain to be heard, their motivation is skewed and unhealthy and the result won't be good and godly. So number four, we must honor God with our ability to be content as we wrap up these last few verses. So we're, we've got this opportunity to honor God in all these areas of our lives. And the last area for today is our ability to be content correct. 10 men in a consumer-driven culture is very difficult like that. 3 (59m 20s): Every ad, every television commercial, everything that we read about or hear about is, is, is to create Discontentment in our lives. Like, Hey, you can have this new truck. I use that illustration because I'm always looking at new trucks, right? I don't need a new truck. Right. But I'm always admiring new trucks. You can have this new thing, this new shiny gadget. You can have one, you can have all of these things. Right. I saw David Apadaca his new Harley Davidson. I'm like, I get to have a new Harley Davidson, but I don't need a Harley. My wife doesn't want me to have early, so I'll probably never get early. So there you go. But it's another shiny thing. I'll ride yours. Thank you very much. 3 (59m 60s): I appreciate that. We just have to be careful that we're not always running to the next shiny thing because it gets us distracted from God's plan for his life. For our lives. I've noticed that being content leads to peace, being content leads to peace, being discontent, always kind of keeps you anxious. Right? Verse six says yet true godliness with contentment is itself. Great wealth. I don't think you can actually have contentment without true godliness because true godliness gives us that perspective that, Hey, I'm not living for this life. My life is not my own. I belong to the Lord. 3 (1h 0m 40s): My stuff belongs to the Lord. So yet true godliness with contentment is, is self great wealth. That's where we find the true wealth in life. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world and we can't take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. That's probably one of the hardest verses in scripture, right? We have enough food and clothing. Let us speak intent. Especially in our culture where we are consumers as a rule, it's hard to think about the basics of food and clothing and being content with those things. The only thing we take with us when we die, our, our good works. 3 (1h 1m 21s): That's it. That's it. You don't get to take your Harley with ya. I don't get to take my truck with me. I don't get to take my guns with me or whatever it is that I've got. The only thing I get to take is my good works. Everything else is wood, hay and stubble. Like the farmer had too many crops. He's like, Hey, build bigger barns, right? Bigger barns, bigger bank accounts, bigger houses, bigger cars, bigger, whatever. And the scripture says, you fool it tonight. You're very tonight that you're very, your life is, is required of you. 3 (1h 2m 2s): I don't know. I just continue. Mint brings a balance and a piece to life like nothing else, but people verse nine says, but people who long to be rich, fall into temptation are trapped many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people creating money have wandered from the true faith and prac pierced themselves with many sorrows. People do that with dads, you know, do it all kinds of different ways. You have to have something, you go get it. It just requires maintenance and work and debt and all kinds of stuff. 3 (1h 2m 47s): I talked with a buddy of mine a few years ago and I said, why don't you, why aren't, why aren't you in church? Why, what what's going on? You you've been out of church for so long. Why aren't you in church? And he said, you know, why not church? Because I don't want to let go of my money. I appreciated his honesty. I don't want to tie the said, I don't want to. If I go to church, I know they're going to talk to me about money buying. All right, we'll stay at a church. Then you can't serve God money. So you made your choice. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, honoring God in the testing times. Number one, we must honor God. 3 (1h 3m 27s): Especially when in a tests, when dealing with people with what we teach and believe and with our ability to be content. So how do we respond to difficult situations? We need to honor God, right? Let's invite the worship team out and we're going to sing some more songs. How do we deal with difficult situations? That's one of the questions that we said we talked about in the beginning. We just choose to honor God by putting him first, by doing what he asks us to do, what promotes godly living. That's one of the other questions that we said we'd highlight biblical and godly teaching is what ti what promotes godly living. So get under some good biblical and godly teaching and watch your life become more godly. 3 (1h 4m 8s): How do we avoid snares concerning money? Love God more than you love your money. That's just basically the bottom line. So with that, why don't we go and stand up? And we're going to worship some more and honor the Lord with our singing. Amen. Amen, Lord. Thank you for this time. Thank you God, for your word, for what it has taught us, pray that it would sink deep in our souls and continue to convict us and change us. Challenge us God that it would show us your great love for us in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship. 1 (1h 4m 54s): my eye to see that you're shaping my to trust what you say. 1 (1h 7m 28s): you say you're the inside. 1 (1h 9m 23s): If you Baila one final breath. 1 (1h 11m 31s): The son of God. we seeing her. 1 (1h 13m 41s): We see, we see, we see, we see, we see them. we see, we see, 0 (1h 16m 39s): We see, thank you God, for just faithfully meeting us whenever we never, we step in and we invite you. You show up God, thank you for, for just opening your word and giving us truth this morning. And I just bless this as we go Lord and keep us, keep, keep our gaze ever on you. As we, as we depart this morning and, and all that Jesus name. Amen.

0 (3s): Holy spirit. What'd you just come now and just calm our hearts and minds to help us to just take captive. Every anxious thought this morning, we welcome you to your way. Thank you. You promise to be in our midst when we gather, and when we worship you, as we lift our hearts and our voices, all of our cares and concerns to you, God, would you meet us with your presence? Power change. Set us free. 0 (44s): Want to draw near, see you this morning and experience your holiness and goodness, your grace and your mercy. 0 (1m 4s): might be hard to believe what we're singing. 0 (11m 33s): Do you believe he's good today? Do you believe he's never going to let you down? Maybe some of you do feel like God let you down, you know, and that's okay. I love that. Actually, the Bible gives us that example on the song, this David songs, if you read one song to the next there's one song where like you're a good God and the next one he's like, Lord, I am in the pit. My enemies are surrounding me. Where are you? Right. So I don't think God's afraid of our doubts. I think he encourages us to bring our doubts to him, to be honest with them, about where we're at and the crowd to him from the pit and invite his rescue. 0 (12m 18s): And to believe that he is faithful and he will pull us out. I just want you to know that I have moments even today, where I struggle with a battle is happening in my own mind of do I believe he's good this morning? I believe he's never gonna let me down. I just want you to know you're not alone. And if you're in that space today and there's there's room for that here for you to say, God, I'm hurting this morning, I do feel like I need breakthrough in an area I've been crying out and praying and asking him begging for change. And I haven't seen it yet. He welcomes us to call it what happened to him? Good hearts seasoned near to the broken hearted and the crushed in spirit. 0 (13m 1s): So if you're crushed in spirit this morning, that's why these mirror to you. So lean in to him this morning. I'm leaning in with you even as my own soul, sometimes as doubts and questions. I trust that he is God. I trust that he is faithful. 0 (13m 46s): Try that again. 0 (13m 58s): that you love us. 0 (18m 7s): Lord. 1 (18m 10s): Thank you that you are thinking about us this very moment. Your love is very real, very present. I pray that every person would experience that maybe some for the first time, experiencing your love and a real profound and obvious way. Lord God, for those who are hurting today, we pray God that you would just show yourself faithful. Thank you that you do that, Lord God, we are humbled by your presence. I love it, Lord, that when we feel the least deserving, you show up with your great love. 1 (18m 54s): I think we see that throughout the scripture. This thinking about that woman with the issue of blood, just sick, her whole life and unclean feeling just outside and unwelcome and unloved. But yet if she, she knew that if she just could push through, press through and touch the hem of your garment, that something might happen and something did happen. The power of God that went out from Jesus' body that flooded her life, changed her forever. 1 (19m 36s): She experienced love from Jesus, grace, from Jesus power from Jesus and, and she was no longer an outcast, no longer unclean, no longer sick, but she was brand new in Jesus name. I pray for each of us. Lord that we'd be brand new in Jesus name, be brand new in Jesus name, Lord God, whatever it is that we're up against have been up against, have dealt with, have failed in Lord God. We are in you now. And that's what matters, Lord God. So if you're here today and you, you, you need Jesus. Just call out to him. 1 (20m 18s): He's as near as your next breath, your next word, you call him the name of the Lord. Jesus Christ. You shall be saved, welcomed into his family and loved unconditionally and wonderfully. So let Jesus know that you need him and that you want him and then walk them into your life. Maybe you need to welcome him into your life. A fresh today because circumstantially you've been distant him or even Cheryl Lynn talked about, maybe disappointed, disgruntled, welcome him in welcoming, back into your life. 1 (20m 59s): He promises never to leave you nor forsake you. He loves you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We love you. Thank you for this time. Lord bless the word and we pray, blessed it to our spirits Lord and bless it to our minds and bless it to our lives. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. You can be seated. Thanks team. Appreciate that. Very much. Very powerful word. We're continuing our study on faith today. So title of the message is faith believes God is sovereign. And so in light of those things, I'm going to talk about a couple of things in light of the fact that we believe as believers, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that he is sovereign, that God is sovereign. 1 (21m 46s): That simply means he's the Supreme ruler over all things. That means nothing is outside of his control. Nothing is outside of his realm to influence to direct. And so we're asking God to do a couple things today. We're, we'll be talking to you about our new space at one oh two west branch, one minute walk from here. It's the old something different building before that it was the wardrobe building before that it was bank of America back to 1952 when it was built. And so more in the process of kind of navigating some stuff with the city right now. So this is what I want you to pray about specifically. Remember I've said, Hey, can we pray every day? Like every day for this process, because things just come up and we need to pray through the process. 1 (22m 30s): And so the hurdle that we're up against now is a hurdle that I thought we had squared away. It was the parking hurdle because the city needs to make sure there's enough parking for that new space over there. They're saying, Hey, you need to come up with 60 parking spaces. And so we thought we had remedied with parking the parking lot across the street. But now they're saying that shared parking on Sunday morning. So anyway, I have gone back and forth with the city no less than like 20 times. And I'm a bit exasperated at this point. I don't know if you've ever been there. So I wrote an email to the city. 1 (23m 10s): I prayed about it first. I said, Lord, what do I do? Right? Like, what's next? Right? So I praying, I'm saying Lord, so this is me typing an email. So I said, Patrick, he's our planner, good guy, by the way, very good guy. This parking situation is getting ridiculous period. The truth is, I said, I'm still typing my email. I said, the truth is our people who will be attending Sunday morning services will be parking where they have been parking parking for the last 16 years at our spot at one 24 west branch, which is place here and at the village center village center has given us parking on Sunday mornings for free for the last 16 years. 1 (23m 52s): So I said, the truth is that's where our people will be parking. So there's not actually a real need for additional parking. So I'm asking that you guys would reconsider and think through your position because with a simple decision from the city, we can move past this and get moving with our project. So I said, sincerely, Steve. And so a few hours go by and I don't, I don't hear from Patrick. And then so like maybe I overstepped, but I prayed. So I'm thinking I'm okay. So, and I was gracious. I wasn't angry in the email. I wasn't, I was gracious. 1 (24m 32s): I was gracious. So he responds back, Steve, I totally understand you're there. You're frustrated with this situation. He said, I'm going to call a meeting with the city managers on Monday that's tomorrow, so that we can try to navigate this with you, for you so that you can, so we can move past this. And so with that, I want us to pray together today that God would open the door for that. One of our partner ministries ministry that we partner is coastal Christian school. They're also up against a situation with their facility and they're asking that people sign a petition. So this petition is actually available out there at the welcome center. It's a petition to approve an expansion of their conditional use permit, which allows them to put an, a gym on their property and multipurpose buildings and that sort of thing. 1 (25m 22s): So we're gonna pray for them. And I'm going to ask you to go out and sign there. They're looking for a thousand signatures from churches across the central coast, which I don't think it'll be a problem at all, but if you can sign the petition and then pray for them as well, that would be great. So with that, let's go ahead and stand up is what I'm going to ask of you. I'm going to ask that you would pray for CCS and pray for the parking meeting tomorrow for harvest shirt and, and ask that you would come up here and do it. So come up to Vox one 21. This is box one, by the way, box ones. 1 (26m 3s): There it is. So if you're in the campus somewhere else, like at the loft or in the, on the patio and you'd like to come pray, I'd like people to come and pray into the microphone, into the screen so that people at the rest of the campus can see what we're doing and see online and know what we're feeling know what's going on. Otherwise 2 (26m 22s): It's just kind of a dead noise and people can't hear what's going on. So I'm going to pray. And then I'm going to invite you guys to come up and fray into the microphone on the platform and nothing to be worried about 1 (26m 34s): The world wide 2 (26m 36s): Web, we'll be recording everything that you say, 1 (26m 39s): And everybody who's watching online 2 (26m 41s): Will be ridiculing and criticized or your prayers. Now I'm just kidding. 1 (26m 45s): They will be praying with you in agreement 2 (26m 48s): With your prayer. So as I pray, I want to invite you guys to come up forward, come forward and do the same thing. We're just going to take a few minutes to pray and just trust the Lord here. So Lord, we pray right now in Jesus name for his coastal Christian school, we pray that they would get their thousands of signatures on their petition and beyond that, that they would get their approval for their conditional use permit to add to their campus so that they can have the space that they need and be able to expand as their, their capacity. The number of students that they have, I think has doubled in the last year. And so they're in desperate need of more space. And so we pray that you'd bless 1 (27m 23s): Them with more space, with resources 2 (27m 26s): To build on their current property and blessings from the city and the county, Lord God. So take care of them. We pray Lord. And we pray for this meeting tomorrow with the city managers, whoever they may be. I, I don't know who is all going to be involved in the meeting, but for this me, this parking meeting tomorrow, we pray the God that you would remedy that for us in Jesus name, we pray that you would give us favor that you would go before us God, that you would open the doors and, and just, just pave the way for us to move forward with our project. Lord God. And as we have a new architect on the, on the project, Lord, we pray that you would bless him, that his company would be able to turn the plans around quickly. 2 (28m 6s): Lord, that would be able to get, get those into the city and that the city would give us our building permits. And we built be able to move forward with the plan, with the idea, the hope to be opened by Christmas Eve, Lord. So we just pray for your wisdom. We thank you for it, Lord. Thank you. Who else be bold? Come on up here. Don't make me wait. Just get up here. There we go. Gary Tucker. So here you got to stand right here up on the platform. Father. We just thank you, Lord, that your word tells us there is nothing too hard for you and you will do exceeding, abundantly above all that we could ask or imagine Lord, you are God almighty. As we sung this morning and we pray, you'd move the hearts of everybody involved Lord in this decision. 2 (28m 52s): And we trust God, you're going to allow us to move forward. Or parking is nothing for you. You own the whole world Lord. So we just pray father that you would work it out and have them agree that we're going to be able to still park where we haven't been parking more. And we're trusting you for the rest in Jesus name. 1 (29m 13s): Thanks Gary. Who else? Who else? Who else get up here? Don't make Berio come on up. You got a word for us too, David. All right. Speaking to that. 2 (29m 26s): Awesome. Cool. So Lord, we just cleaned to your word right now. God, because we know that your promises are true. And so in John 14, 11 through 14, God, you say, believe me, when I say I am in the father and the father's in me or at themselves, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I've been doing. And they will do even greater works than these because I'm going to the father and I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the father may be glorified in the son. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. Father. We know that you say ask and you shall receive God seeking. You will find knock and the door will be open. God. We know that if we ask for a stone, you won't give us a serpent. God. So father right now is your children. 2 (30m 6s): God, we just petition have him saying, Lord, we know that you want to partner with us. God, we know you want to partner with us in the expansion of what you're doing here. God, because you know, this is kingdom business. God. So father, we just commit this project to you. We already know it's in your hands Lord that you are the God of the impossible Jesus father. We know that we've seen time and time again, where things seemed impossible that you came through, like after the destruction of Solomon's temple, Godwin was unable to be built again, Lord, with the few workers and the few materials you were the one who rebuilt it. God. So Jesus, we trust this with you. God, we say this is nothing like the last guy. This is nothing for you, father. We don't even break a sweat because we trust our father. 2 (30m 48s): So God we thank you for the grace and the meeting tomorrow. God, we thank you that you would just move their hearts with your holy spirit Jesus in Jesus name. Amen. 1 (30m 58s): Hey man. Thanks brother. Appreciate it. Who's next? Who's next? Come on. Up here. Right, Diego. Right there. There we go, 2 (31m 13s): Father. I just want to thank you for harvest campus. I want to thank you for coastal Christian and the work that you've already done at each campus. Lord and father, father expansion is coming. It's your expansion, Lord father. I thank you again for the work that you've done and father, I thank you ahead of time that this expansion will come. I think you ahead of time that your kingdom is coming, that your kingdom is expanding father. 2 (31m 56s): Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Come on up. Stand up here. 3 (32m 12s): Thank you father. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My heart is bubbling and full of joy because the city knows we're going to grow and they're worried about where are they going to put us? Praise you, father praise you, father, that you are letting this town know that you are on the move or God, I just praise you. I praise you. I praise you. I can't wait to see. I can't wait to see all the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. You're going to bring both here and to coastal Christian academy, praise your name, father 1 (32m 45s): More. Anybody else? Linda, come on. What'd you stand right up here. Here we go, 3 (33m 3s): Father, God, I am just so excited because maybe the world sees us as a problem. But this is an answer to prayer because we have been praying that the work of harvest would go forth through the city and it airs and it has, and we keep growing and growing because of your grace, Lord God. And so we're not looking at this as a trial, even Lord, because this is part of the joy that we are experiencing because of your growth. And we know that you have answered our prayer and desires to continue to let us grow Lord. And so we know that you're going to provide a way for us to expand. And so far this event, Lord. So we just stand in agreement together, everyone right now, who is praying, we stand in agreement against anything the enemy would try to do to prevent this from happening. 3 (33m 53s): Lord, we stand together and you have told us where two or more are gathered. There you are in our midst Lord and where we got a lot more than two or morally here, Lord. So we stand together. We praise you. We honor you. And we say, Lord, bring the blessings. We receive it in your name. 1 (34m 10s): Amen. Joy. Come on up. Thanks Sheila or Linda. Sheila's the other one. 3 (34m 20s): God, you're awesome. You're a mighty God. Your control. We praise your name and we thank you. We thank you for this opportunity. It's who cut to worship you and to grow our faith. God would you, would you deepen our faith and brute us in your love that our church would grow and be on fire for you? God that this, this is so this is so little as it, as it's been mentioned before it God, this is so nothing is just a drop in the bucket, but God, this is a way to grow our faith. And I pray that you would, you would grow us as a church. You would encourage us through this, that you would strengthen our pastors and our elders and deacons through this there, this trial, God that you you're in control God, you are unstoppable. 3 (35m 11s): This whole nuts top here where your word. So we praise your name now. 1 (35m 16s): Amen. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Let's give the Lord anybody, anybody. All right. So my, my, my belief is that I'll come back next Sunday with a good report. So be seriously being praying all week long, but especially today and tomorrow, I'm not sure what time the meeting is, but be praying and the Lord do what he's going to do. Amen. And then yeah, you can be seated. There we go. You can be seated. God bless you guys. So as I mentioned in the prayer, we've got a new architect. The original architect was great. Christian loves Jesus, but so busy. So she said, Hey, I'm a couple of months out before I can even get to it. 1 (35m 57s): So then I met another architect last Saturday, just by accident, kind of happenstance, if there's any such thing. And he said, Hey, I can turn this project around quickly. And so he had a meeting with him and talked with the other architect and she said, yeah, if he can do it quicker, let him let him do it. And so he took it over and it's in the works now. So now we're hoping to get some plans here in the next couple of weeks versus a couple of months. And then those plans go to the city for plan approval and for permit issuing. And so we're hoping that doesn't take three months, like they're saying it could possibly take three months, but ultimately our plan is to be in the new kind of thought. 1 (36m 37s): It would be like Christmas Eve would be a great opportunity entity to have Christmas Eve service in there. So that's like six months away. It's already six months into this year. So time goes so incredibly fast. So in, in the beginning I was a little frustrated, but six months is quick. It's going to get there before we know it. So be praying for God's timing, but then also God's provision. So all along, we've just said, if you feel like you want to be a part of it, then here, here from the Lord and just be obedient. The price actually is, has gone up significantly. I don't know about you guys, but every time we do a remodel, the price goes from one number to another number we Jolene and I, we remodeled our house a couple of years ago, price doubled in the time of the remodel. 1 (37m 22s): When we remodeled this sanctuary 16 years ago, the price started out at like 35,000 and went up to like $85,000. So we're looking probably closer to $225,000 for that remodel. Originally it was like 125. Now it's probably closer to two 25 cost of materials. Everything is high right now. If you've done any kind of building right now, you know, everything is very, very expensive. Yeah. So, so, but we believe that God is faithful. Just like he was when we did this project, 16 years ago, we had 60 people on the jury 16 years ago and we did the project. Debt-free now we've got more than 10 times that, and we're believing for God to do the same thing. So if you'd like to join us and be a part of that, just, you know, be a part of what God is doing. 1 (38m 8s): God has been so faithful. I don't know if you guys realize God's faithfulness through your obedience. The church, when we planted the church, our budget, literally our budget every month was $1,500. Cause we rented a little school and I was working full time and we had a worship leader that we gave a stipend to, but it was really like 1500 bucks a whole month. Like it took him and we were like some months wondering if that was going happen, right? This, this year, we're watching God as he's been doing it every year for the last 16 years just increase what he provides for us this year. On average, we brought in $95,000 a month. 1 (38m 51s): So was like, you know, our old budget or original budget was 1500 for the month. Now it's bringing more than $3,000 every single day of the month. And so it's kind of interesting to see God's faithfulness. This last month was our, I think our biggest month ever, we brought in like $128,000. So, so God has response. I share that to say that God is responding to the need and there's a big need. So if you'd like to be a part of that, that then jump in, be a part of what, what God will do and watch what, how he blesses it. And anyway, with that, let's jump into Hebrews and continue to talk about faith. They amen. This'll be, we'll be wrapping up our faith study of Hebrews, be weaving it into the messages going forward. 1 (39m 31s): But Hebrews chapter 11 verses 35 through 40, as part of the examples of faith that we've been studying. We see one more story of God's faithfulness to his people of faith. So we pick it up in verse 35 and then we go into 36, 37, 38, 39 40 in those closing verses of chapter 11 are pretty difficult. In fact, I didn't want to preach this message today because like I said, Lord, I want to encourage the people with faith. And I don't want you to discourage them with the last part of Hebrews 11, but there's, there's a purpose in us communicating the whole counsel of God's word. 1 (40m 12s): And so we communicate the whole counsel of God's word because God uses the whole counsel of his word to instruct us and to grow us up in our most holy faith. And so as we get to the end of Hebrews 11, we're going to see examples of God's faithfulness to his people of faith that looks different than we might imagine. Like we so far we've been studying about God's profound impact in the world because people of faith have stepped up. We're going to actually see the people of God go under severe persecution for their faith. Many of them giving their lives for their faith. And in the midst of that, we see the faithfulness of God because we don't carry just a temporal earthly perspective. 1 (40m 56s): We carry this eternal perspective where we believe that this life in the earth is important, but also what we do for eternity matters. And so we're living not just for this life, but for the life eternal as well. And so when we have that kind of perspective, it changes things. So the long game is that we don't live for this life alone, but for the one to come also even more so, but we'll get there in a few minutes. Let's look at Hebrews 1135 as we wrap up this study of faith and God's faithfulness. So, so far we've talked about all kinds of people, right? We've talked about Abel Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses parents. 1 (41m 37s): We've talked about Moses. We've talked about the people of Israel, Ray Hab, Daniel Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We've talked about Gideon and we've talked about all of these people of faith. And now we'll spend some time on the story of this nameless widow in verse 35. Oh and Elijah. We'll talk about Elijah. In fact, we're going to talk a lot about Elijah as we get into this text. So Hebrews 1135 says, and again, this is after all of those other stories of faith, he says women received their loved ones back again from death. So let's take, take a look at one of those stories relating to this, this verse first Kings chapter 17. It says this now Elijah, who is from Tisha and Gilly ad told king Ahab. 1 (42m 23s): As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, the God I serve, listen to his competence, right? This was a man of faith. He understood that he heard from God and he was committed to obeying God. So he said, listen. As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, the God I serve, there will be no Dew or rain the next few years until I give the word, no, do no rain for the next few years until I give the word. So we declares this to the king and stands firm. Why? Because he's heard, I heard from the Lord, number one, God directs the elements. 1 (43m 10s): We, we have to believe that God is sovereignly in charge of everything, or he's not sovereignly in charge of anything, right? We believe that God directs the elements he told. He told the prophet, it's not going to do. There's not going to be any Dew or rain for the next few years until you the word we, we, we have to expand our capacity to believe God for things that maybe we wouldn't have believed God for in the past, God directs the element. Remember Jesus calmed the storm, right? Because he directs the album. Remember when Jesus walked on the water because he controls the elements. 1 (43m 51s): So he's in charge of everything. He controls everything. Then the Lord said to Elijah, go to the east and hide by Karath Brook near where it enters the Jordan river, drink from the Brook and eat Raven, eat what you want the Ravens bring you for. I have commanded them to bring you food. That verse tells me that God directs the wildlife. He doesn't just direct the elements, but he directs the wildlife. So he's Elijah. Here's some, the Lord and God tells me to go by this body of water, this Brook and eat what the Ravens give you, because God's gonna provide for you through the Ravens and through this water. 1 (44m 35s): And so God directs the wildlife. How do we know this is true. Look at Noah's Ark. You ever wonder how all those animals got into the arc? I mean, how much work would it have had been if Noah had to go around and gather up all of the animals, right? But this is what it says in Genesis six 20 God told Noah pairs of every kind of bird and every kind of animal and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, we'll come to you. We'll come to you to be kept alive. God directs the elements and he directs wildlife. He can direct every aspect and element of your life. If you just let him, if you just trust him, he can direct and provide and take care of all of your needs. 1 (45m 16s): Back to first Kings verse five, five says, so we lied. Yah did, as the Lord told him it can't beside Kira Brook, Easton. Jordan. What happened you suppose is brought him bread and meat each morning and evening. So I think about the people of Israel wandering through the wilderness for how long, 40 years and every day they wake up and there's fresh manna on the ground. Why? Because God is faithful to do what he says. He's going to do. He's he's providing for this prophet through the Raven to bring bread and meat every day. And he drank from the Brook. But after a while, the Brook dried up, why did the Brook dry up? 1 (45m 59s): Because there was no more do and no more rain because God stopped the do. And he stopped the rain and it wasn't going to come back until Eliza spoke the word. And so everything that God says in his word is unfolding before our very eyes. And this is true. Whether we see it in our own personal lives or not, we can see the faithfulness of God unfold as we trust him and believe him doing what he asks us to do. But after a while, the Brook dried up for there was no rainfall call anywhere in the land. Number three, we're seeing how God is speaking to Elijah. Number three, in your notes, God directs people he's speaks to people. 1 (46m 43s): Then the Lord said to Elijah, verse eight, then the Lord said to Elijah, what has God been saying to you lately? What has he been speaking to you lately? What has he been communicating for your soul lately? I think God wants to speak to us. I think he wants to speak to you. Then the Lord said to Elijah, go and live in the village of Zerephath near the city of side-on. I have instructed a widow there to feed you. So now no longer is the bird of the Raven going to feed him. But this widow is going to feed him and it, and it doesn't even make sense that this widow would meet him because the winter doesn't have a resource to feed him. But this is what happened. So he went to zero path and see arrived at the gates of the village. 1 (47m 25s): He saw a widow because God was speaking to him. And so it wasn't coincidence that he saw a widow, God spoken, directed that widow to do what she was doing so that when the prophet showed up, Elijah sees the widow. See, he arrived at the gates of the, of the village. He saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, would you please bring me a little water in a cup? And she was going to, as she was going to get it, he called to her, bring me a bite of bread. But she said first, well, I swear by the Lord, your God that I don't have a single piece of bread in the house. 1 (48m 9s): Okay. Why would God direct Elijah to this widow who didn't have any bread? If she was the one responsible to feed him while he was there, he's unfolding his plan. He's unfolding his plan. It's like the, the, the offerings of the, of the widow. She, she gave all that. She had, she, she provided the Lord everything that she had as an act of worship. And now this widow, woman's going to have the opportunity. We need to do the same thing. I swear by the Lord, your God, that I don't have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking wheel in the bottom of the jug. 1 (48m 53s): I was just gathering if you six to cook the last meal and then my son and I will die. But Elijah said to her, don't be afraid. You're you're out your external circumstances, your outward circumstances. Don't have to dictate how you deal with life. We need to who in those desperate moments, reach it, cry out to the Lord and say, okay, God, I'm in this desperate place, much like Carolyn was talking about I'm in this desperate place. What are you going to do now? And then just watch what the Lord will do and obey, listen and obey. Don't be afraid. Go ahead and do just what you said, but make a little bread for me first. 1 (49m 35s): How selfish is Elijah? Right? I know you're going to die. I know you only got a little bit, but make me a little bread, right? Do you think that was a lie, led you to being selfish? This was Alijah being used by the Lord to test her faith all throughout scripture in the old and the new Testament, we're called to give God our very best. The very first fruit of our offering. We're called to do what he's asked us to do with obedience and faith. Believing that he's going to come through in a supernatural way. He said, then use, what's left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. 1 (50m 17s): There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again, there will always be all of oil and flour for how long, as long as the Lord wills. It said it wasn't gonna rain for a few years. And so God was going to take this meager bit of loyal and flour and multiply it because this is what he always does. And we always see that he's in charge of number four. God has power over in animate objects, lifeless objects. 1 (50m 59s): God has power. Even over those things. We see it. When he feeds the multitudes, he feeds the multitudes twice. One time, he feeds 5,000 plus women and children. The next time he feeds 4,000 plus women and children. Each time they gathered up baskets of leftovers. Yeah. Beers that they actually gathered up more at the end than they had in the beginning, because God has power over in adamant. Yes, we need to believe that he will provide supernaturally. When he asks us to do something, our tendency is like, Lord, I'm I'm down to the end of it. 1 (51m 39s): Like, this is all I've got. Whether it be money or time or whatever it is, Lord, I don't have the ability to give. And it's probably in that moment that he asks you to give. In fact, I love it. I'll just say, Lord, I don't want to be tested in this, but I do love when sometimes I say stuff and I get tested on it, like immediately. And so I'm putting a disclaimer, Lord, I don't want to be tested in this area, but I love it. Like when we're at the end of our resource, either as a church search or in our family and the Lord says, give what you have leftover, give it away and watch what I will do. 1 (52m 19s): So, number of years ago, we were trying to buy this property and we tried to raise money and we couldn't raise any money. I've shared this story before, but I'll share it again because it's fun. So we had worked hard. We tried to raise money. This is like two, $2 million property or whatever. And we're trying to raise money. We need at least 15 or 20% down or whatever. So that all of our money, we raised $15,000. Boy, they all of our money. That's all we get raised, right? Hardly anything. It doesn't put a dent in things, but CCS is also raising money for their facility. So we said, let's take our $15,000 and give it to CCS. Clearly we don't have enough money to do anything, but maybe it will help them. 1 (53m 3s): So we go down the road a little bit longer and, and this place, we were raising money for this place when it did come available, but it still wasn't available to us. But the house next door became available and we needed to raise, I don't know, a hundred thousand dollars or something like that to, to buy that house next door. Cause it was like $470,000 or whatever. So we needed to raise like, I dunno like 8,000, whatever the number was. It does. It doesn't matter. God provided that money. Like immediately. It's like there was no effort needed at all. We, we had, after we gave that money to CCS, we just started raising money again. And all of a sudden we had a hundred thousand dollars. We're like 98,000 bucks or something like that. So when we needed money, my coffee, when we needed money for that place, God provided it for us because we, we took our measly $15,000 that we had, which wasn't a much DAS, but it blessed them. 1 (53m 56s): And we gave it away and God provided and, and took care of the need for that. And then when a couple of years later, when this place became available, we needed it. We had remodeled that place and the value went up like, I don't know, 150 or $200,000. And so the value of increase, they're putting these properties together. We hardly had to raise any money at all. We raised a little bit of money that we did need to raise so that we could put the down payment on this property. So God love it, leverage that property. So we get out, buy this property. Now we owe, we own like $3 million in property in the beginning. Remember our budget was $1,500 every month, right? 1 (54m 37s): And, and then I'm going to camp out on this for a bit here. We, we wanted to rent this facility. It wasn't for sale. Yet. We wanted to rent this space and it was $3,000 a month, 3000 that's twice what our budget was 3000 bucks. And we were still renting the school because we needed a place to meet while we were renovating this place. So now we're at 4,500 bucks. About the same time we started renting other space. And at the same time that board said, Hey, we need you on full time to, to run the projects we're remodeling and building and painting and doing all that kind of stuff. So I came on full-time when the church has 60 people in it and the church was able to pay me plus pay this plus pay for everything else that we were doing. 1 (55m 24s): And we've never looked back. That was 16 years ago that we made the decisions to move here. And we've been able to renovate space and build space and all kinds of stuff. So God's been faithful because this is what God had done as period is faithful period. And he will call us to do unreasonable things so that he might do supernatural things. Let's go back to first Kings. I'm totally out of time here. It says a matter. And we're going to keep going. Let's order some pizza in, and then I'll just keep preaching until like three years, verse 15. 1 (56m 5s): So she did, as Elijah said, she, this is where it starts. Like, what is the Lord saying? This widow who was on her last meal, preparing to die. She did, as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days. There was always enough flour and all of oil left in the containers. Just as the Lord had promised through Elijah, sometime later, the woman's son became sick. He grew worse and worse. And finally he died. Then she said to Elijah, oh man of God, what have you done to me? Have you come here to point out my sins and kill my son. But Elijah replied, give me your son. 1 (56m 45s): Then he took the child's body from her arms, carried him up the stairs to the room where he was staying and laid the body on his bed. Then Elijah cried out to the Lord, oh Lord, my God. Why have you brought tragedy to this widow who has opened her home to me causing her son to die. And he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the Lord, oh Lord my God. Please let this child's life return to him. What happened? The Lord heard Elijah's prayer, right? The Lord heard Elijah's prayer and the life of the child returned. And he revived. Then Elijah brought him down from the upper room and gave him to his mother. 1 (57m 24s): Look. He said, your son is alive. Have you ever been in the room when somebody died? And when somebody has expired, it's not awesome. The person is dead lifeless. The warmth of their body is leaving them. And they're becoming this cold lifeless shell. It's not fun. This is what happened to this woman, her son, she's a widow. She's already lost her home. He's dead. And then God shows up and got it. 1 (58m 5s): The stores him saying, man, it brings the back to him. And he said, look, your son is alive. I share that because God has the power over life and death. And I want to say physically, but also spiritually. And some of us need to hear that spiritually. He's got power over life and desk because some of you are feeling dead spiritually, and God wants to resurrect your, your spiritual life. God wants to resurrect your spiritual life so that you're feeling alive again. But this is how it's going to happen. It's going to happen as you step out in faith, in obedience to do whatever it is that God has asked you to do. So what I'm, I'm not even talking about the building. I don't care about the building. 1 (58m 45s): I know that God's going to take care of the building. What I'm saying is whatever God has asked you to do. The last thing he's asked you to do to go back to that thing and then watch as you will be gently do what he's asked you to do. Watch the spiritual life in you. Refresh. I talked with a guy yesterday, Friday, talked to the guy Friday and heard from a guy Friday. He was sharing kind of a story. And he had gone through a terrible divorce. His wife left him, took his sons, moved out of state. He had no custody. He had no ability to see his kids. And, and it went on like this for, for a decade. I think it was a decade. He was driving in his truck one day and he felt like the Lord said, you need to call your wife's husband and apologize to him for the way that you have treated him during this, this time. 1 (59m 33s): And oh, by the way, you need to apologize to your wife as well. And he's like, you have got to be kidding me. And he decided to do it. So he calls the son to get a stepdad's his son stepdad's phone number. And he said, Hey, God's done a work in my life. And I just want to call and apologize to you for the way that I've acted and the way that I've lived before you. And if it's all right with you, I'd like to call your wife, my ex-wife and apologize to her as well. And he did. And the Lord completely reconciled that family. You didn't get remarried to his wife, none of that. But they, they had a relationship. 1 (1h 0m 15s): He was able to be at his son's high school graduation, sitting at the family table. There was his son was able to forgive him. His son had been angry with him for a decade, I think is what he said for a decade, for the way that his father had been acting in God, through that obedience reconciled the whole family. What is God asking you to do? That seems impossible. That doesn't seem like it's going to bear any fruit. And it seems like something that you're not even interested in doing. If God is asking you to do it, go back to that. You might be feeling spiritually separated from God. Spiel is spiritually dry because you're just flat refusing to be obedience. God cannot bless disobedience. He will not bless disobedience. 1 (1h 0m 56s): God can resurrect your spiritual life. He's got power over life and death physically, spiritually Jesus raised gyrus daughter from the dead mark five raised a widow's son from the dead in Luke chapter seven, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and John chapter 11, Jesus himself was raised from the dead. And we see Elijah raising this widow woman's son from the dead. Then the woman told Elijah, I know for sure that you are a man of God and that the Lord surely speaks through you. So we've heard a lot of amazing stories of God's faithfulness, but the reality is number six, in your notes God's plan. Doesn't always unfold. As we expect God's plan. 1 (1h 1m 37s): Doesn't always unfold as we expect. So let's take a look at how, how his plan, and I'll say his plan unfolded in the, in the lives of these people. So now I'm not saying that God had caused what happened with he allowed it and he's been glorified through it. Others who didn't experience the victory, like we've been talking about others, tortured refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They place their hope and a better life. After the resurrection, somewhere jeered at and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons, some died by stonings and were sawed in half and others were killed with the somewhat about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute, and oppressed and mistreated. 1 (1h 2m 25s): They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground around just as a for instance, this is how the 12 apostles died. And I'm going to give you kind of the rundown here real quickly though. I hear so often I want a first century Christ experience like people like I want to do you really want a first century Christ experience because what you will get is what they got. Some of our hardest decisions as Christians is, do I go to the nine o'clock service or do I go to the 11 o'clock service? Right? Do I go to, you know, out to her Mexican food after order? 1 (1h 3m 7s): Or do I get pizza afterward? You know, what, what sporting event do I watch on the television afterward? You know, where, where do I, my wife and I go out to dinner. I mean, those are, these are the things that we wrestle with. This is not first century Christianity. This is first century Christianity. This is how the 12 apostles died. Ad. This is from the, the voice of the martyrs or excuse me, Fox's book of martyrs to book. Andrew was crucified, but he wasn't just, he was crucified in an X shaped cross and he wasn't nailed to the X shape cross. He was actually tied to the cross to, to extend the time that it would take for him to actually die because you're, you're hanging and it's causing you to suffocate and you have to push up to get a breath. 1 (1h 3m 58s): And then you're useless. He just suffocate. So while he was dying and it took days for him to die, what was he doing? He was preaching to passers by people who would go by watch and mock him. He was preaching the gospel. Andrew was crucified, Bartholomew beaten, then crucified, James son of Alphaeus was stoned to death. Others think that James son of Alphaeus was actually crucified in lower Egypt and then sod in pieces. So it wasn't good enough that they crucified him. They cut him in pieces. You really want to first century Christianity, this is what you're going to get here. 1 (1h 4m 42s): James son of Zebedee was beheaded, just like the apostle. Paul says Paul John exile for his faith died of an old age, but they did try to kill him. They put them in a VAT of oil, boiling oil, trying to kill him, but like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, nothing happened to him. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fiery furnaces. They didn't even smell like a barbecue, but they'd been in the furnace, right? John, the apostle John Kent comes out of the boiling oil. He's got no, no injuries. He will not die while he's in the Calder. And his historian said that while he was there, he was actually preaching the gospel. 1 (1h 5m 22s): They're like, get him out of there. Exile him to the island of Patmos, where he can't have anybody preach to you. So while he's there though, God's got a purpose for them. Jesus reveals that revelation to him. He writes revelation, the book of revelation and the rest is history out of an old age. But after living his whole life for Jesus Judas, not a scary. He was stoned to death. Matthew was speared to death. Peter crucified upside down, Phillip was crucified. Simon crucified, Thomas, a spirits of death and Matthias was stoned to death. So that's kind of, that's what happens. All these people earned a good reputation. 1 (1h 6m 2s): The scripture says verse 30 and all these people are in a good reputation because of their faith. Yet none of them received all that God had promised forgot. It's something better in mind for us so that they would not reach perfection without us remember back in Hebrews chapter 11, verses 13 through 16. I think we covered this week too, in our studies in Hebrew and Hebrews, it says, all these people died. Still believing what God is. I promised them they did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on the earth. And that that's the perspective of the first century church and needs to be our perspective of the 21st century church that we are. 1 (1h 6m 44s): This is not our home. We are foreigners and nomads were passing through with the sole purpose of glorifying God in our lives waves for the life to come for all eternity. They were foreigners and nomads here on the earth. Obviously, people who say such things are looking forward to a country. They called their own. If they had long for the country, they came from, they could have gone back, but they were looking for a better place, a heavenly Homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God for. He has repaired a city for them. So number six, God's planned. Isn't always what we expect it to be. Let me get there again. God's plan is not always, does not always unfold as we expect, but number seven in your notes, as we wrap this thing up, God's plan can always be trusted. 1 (1h 7m 34s): God's plan can always be trusted. So if you're at a crossroads in your life and you're just perplexed by God and what he has done or what he has allowed, go back to your big picture, long game plan and perspective and say, okay, God, clearly things are unfolding for me the way I think that they should unfold. What is your long game? I've been praying for the Methodist camp for 16 years. You guys have been praying with me for the Methodist camp that God would give us that Methodist. It's 29 acres back there for 16 years. And God hasn't seen fit to give it to us yet. Right? Things don't always unfold. The way that we hope that they would unfold difficult, have hit our family, things that we didn't expect or wouldn't welcome in, in a million years, but things have happened. 1 (1h 8m 22s): And we got to believe that God is in control. He is unfolding things. So don't lose heart before you see the answer. Don't lose heart. Before you see the answer. Did I read Hebrews 11, 13 through 16? Did I finish that? I didn't. Okay. They were looking for a better place at heavenly Homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God for. He has prepared a city for them. God is what has got up to in your life. I know what he's up to you. I think in the church and I'm trying to figure out what he's up to in my life as well. What does he have to in your life two weeks ago? 1 (1h 9m 4s): I said by faith, we will, by faith, I will. We asked you and challenge you to fill in the blank. And then we had people come up and talk about my faith. They will. What is it that by faith, God is taking you through and you will do, will you choose to be obedient? We choose to love him. We, she used to be faithful to him. Will you choose to do what he's asked you to do? Whatever that ask may be. I promise you this. If you do that, your spirit, your spirit spiritually, you will come alive again, where you've been struggling spiritually. You will, you will begin to come alive. Like you've never been alive before. Just simply confess your sin and say, Lord, I I've not done. What you asked me to do. 1 (1h 9m 45s): I'm going back to what you asked me to do. And I'm going to do that thing. And then moving forward, I'm going to do what you asked me to do was with that. Let's go and stand up because really that's what Christianity is all about. We follow Jesus. He says something. We obey it. That's Christianity. There's if it's, if your Christianity is something other than that, it's not Christianity. It's just not Christianity. So what is it that God is asking you to do? Speak it out? Anybody? What is it that God is asking you to do? Serve him. Good. Yeah. Specifically? What does that look like? Anything specifically? 1 (1h 10m 28s): Yeah. All right. Good. How about perfect. Perfect. Who else? There you go. All right. What else? Serving children. Good. Who else? Serving marriages. How long are you going to do that? Until I die? He says, what else? Healing. The sick. Awesome. What else? Preach the gospel. So real quick. David's the one that prayed for my knee. I'm running. I've been running ever since. So it's a win brother. Good for you. Good for God. 1 (1h 11m 8s): What else? Teaching Bible says, is there anything new that you like Lord's put on your heart? Anything new? Okay. All right. All right. Giving, giving more each week to what God is doing in the church. I repeat so that people online can hear and see people at other places. What else? All right. Awesome. Awesome. Just make yourself available for media skills, mediation. 1 (1h 11m 49s): Okay. Now. Okay. Good mediation. Well, thank you very much. What's your name? Donna. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. What else? Anybody else? It's gotta be something burning in you right now that you're afraid to say. You're afraid to say it, that's it? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. A cattle helping people helping to be a catalyst that people might share the gospel downtown. Very good. Something else is burning in your soul that, you know, if you don't say it, you're not going to be obedient to it, helping with the coffee. 1 (1h 12m 32s): So that's wonderful. We need more of that by the way more, more coffee. Elbers anybody else on the platform? Anybody come on, there's gotta be one more like big thing that the Lord has said. One more, one more. Who is it? Great. Good, wonderful, good stuff, Laura. Thank you for what you're speaking to us. We want to say by faith, we're going to do that for eating those things that lie behind straining forward. The things that lie I had, Lord God. So we just pray Jesus, that you would help us by faith to step into those supernatural plans. 1 (1h 13m 15s): Lord use us mightily. We pray, help us smiley. We pray. Thank you for your grace in Jesus name amen. Hey man, let's worship. 1 (1h 13m 22s): 0 (1h 14m 25s): . 0 (1h 17m 45s): helping you this morning to lead us this week. 0 (1h 22m 10s): Take those steps towards those things are challenging us to be brave, to be bold, to make a difference, to be salt and light in the earth, to extend your love to those around us. We thank you for this time to reset her off hurts on you to be ready to ground it in your word. Spend time in your presence and with one another to each other's burdens and reminding each other the truth. So would you seal these things upon our heart? We love you. Thank you for this time when your precious.

0 (11s): Okay. I sing praises to your praises to your name that so much. Hi. Oh, . 0 (9m 38s): Thank you for your presence here this morning. Thank you for the joy in our hearts is welcoming you to come into move, to speak. This, make a life to refresh our souls latest beside those still waters. Thank you for mercies that are new today, your grace follows us coming out of your way in our hearts and our lives. 0 (10m 25s): We welcome you. We were all one Sloss, but now we're all found. And so we thank you, Lord reskilling, your amazing, amazing grace. We sing amazing grace together. Amazing how soon we see end first. 0 (14m 57s): One more time. 1 (15m 42s): Lord God, we come before you. Now we thank you for that amazing grace for it. Wasn't for your grace Lord, we would not be here. We would be nothing but the objects of your wrath. God, you pour out your grace abundantly upon us to bring us to faith in you and to sustain us from day to day, you pour out your grace in general, Lord God, over the whole world, you rain on the just, and the unjust we come our way. Thank you for that. Amazing, amazing grace. The penalty paid by Jesus that we might walk in freedom. 1 (16m 26s): Our chains gone and being, being set free. Thank you God that we can enter into your presence. We can boldly approach the throne of grace. We can come before you, Lord God, as your dearly, dearly beloved children. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Amen. And amen. Take two minutes. Steve gave you a five. I only get to preach once in a while. So you get the whole load today. 1 (17m 7s): So you only get two minutes to greet each other. So All right. 1 (18m 42s): Let's let's bring it back in. We're glad you're here this morning. If you're with us here in the sanctuary on the patio and the loft, or if you're watching us online, we, we really appreciate that you're with us today. I am Dave . I'm associate pastor here and pastor Steve and Jolene are taking some well-deserved time off. And so just kicking back and enjoying on this holiday weekend. Can you believe it's Memorial day boy, it comes around in a hurry, comes around in a hurry this morning, I'm going to be continuing with the theme of faith that Steve has been on. 1 (19m 26s): He's been preaching through Hebrews 11. I'm jumping back into the old Testament this morning and the prophet had guy and we're going to be looking at what God is speaking to the people of Israel. And I think it's a word for us for today. It's so easy folks to, to look at some of the things that have happened in the past. As you read scripture, as you are going through the word and, and you, you look at it as simply as a historical event, but you know, God is still speaking to us through those historical events and those words are still applicable to us today. 1 (20m 8s): So we want to look at what the prophet has to say here. Hey guy was a prophet during the time of the return to the promised land after the Babylonian captivity. And he and the Zechariah were the ones who were prophesying when the people had come back into the land and they're starting to get settled. And, and so here we're, we're picking up in our, in our story here about where the people are back there, settled in. They, they came and they, they kinda got things cleared a little bit, but they also got established. You know, we got to got to get there and you gotta start your farm, or you got to take over and get that vineyard cleaned out. 1 (20m 52s): So you can start producing again, those orchards, whatever it is that you're doing, we've got to get our sheep together, figure out what all this stuff clears some areas. So they've got placed to graze. It's not just, you know, living among the rubble and that sort of thing. And, and we got to have a place to live. And so we got to hear them, got to build their houses, and we've got to do all this kind of thing. And that this is what's been going on now for years and God sends the prophet to them. And he says, you know, you need to, if you notice how, when you, when you, you go, you scatter your seed. And when it comes harvest, you're expecting a lot. And there's only a little and you notice how there's blight and mildew and how your, your crops get knocked down by the weather. 1 (21m 40s): How you go to gather up the wine and there's not near as much as what you thought there was going to be. Yeah, you need to get busy about the business of God. You need to get busy about the, the kingdom of God and not just living your life, not just, not just go on around your day-to-day routine and everything and forgetting to build what I've called you to build. So he does that. The people obey and they start the process and then God comes back and he speaks to them a second time. 1 (22m 21s): And so we're going to pick up there in chapter two of hat guy, the first nine verses, here's the word of the Lord in the seventh month on the 21st day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the prophet speak now to Zerubbabel son of Sheltie, Al governor of Judah and to Joshua son of Jozadak the high priest and to all the remnant of the people and say, who is left among you? Who saw this house in its former glory? They're starting to rebuild the temple. How do you see it now? Is it as nothing in your eyes yet? Now be strong as the rebel declares, the Lord be strong, oh, Josh have a Joshua son of Jehovah deck. 1 (23m 5s): The high priest be strong. All you people of the land declares, the Lord work for, I am with you declares the Lord of hosts. According to the covenant that I made with you. When you came out of Egypt, my spirit remains in your midst. Fear, not for thus says the Lord of hosts yet once more in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine. And the gold is mine declares. The Lord of hosts. 1 (23m 45s): The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former says the Lord of hosts. And in this place, I will give peace declares. The Lord of hosts. God, we thank you for your word. Pray God that you would anoint it to our hearts, that you would speak down deep into us. Lord, even into me as I deliver this, I pray God that you would speak through me, that you would speak to the hearts of these who are are here right now. Lord, I know sometimes you speak words that I don't say and that's okay, but speak Lord, because we need to feast upon your word. 1 (24m 36s): We need to be nourished by you. Send us forth, Lord God, full of your word, full of your spirit, full of your truth, full of your love that we might see this world transformed and let us walk in faith to the praise of your glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So God, here we see God's call and then God's promise. We're going to be looking at those two aspects of, of this today. And God's calling to his people here. There's a threefold. All right, we've already talked about they're back there. 1 (25m 18s): Now there they've been back for a long time. God's on them and said, Hey, let's get about the business that you're supposed to be doing here. And they get started building the temple. And so he gives them a three-fold call as encouragement to get started. Be strong, do the work fear not, or as I like to put it from looking at it from the other direction, have faith be strong, fear not have faith. So the first part of this calling he gives is to be strong. He gives them the word that they can do this because he has enabled them. God has given them all that they need to, to do the work that's ahead of them. 1 (26m 3s): He's giving them, given them the abilities he's given them. The, the, the strength that is there for them. That's why he says be strong. It's there already be strong walk in it. Walk in the strength that I have given you be strong as a rebel declares, the Lord be strong. Oh, Joshua son of Jozadak the high priest be strong. All you people of the land declares. The Lord notice here. God is calling every level of Hebrew society. He's calling Zerubbabel Zerubbabel's Bellm. My secretary at my old church, grew up the church and said, when she was little, the pastor who was there was whenever you come to those, those names, you can't pronounce just say tea, kettle. 1 (26m 50s): And so what teakettle son of teakettle well, no, it was the Ruby bell was, was there. He was direct descendant in the line of David through David's son. Nathan, you read it. He's he's in the genealogy of Joseph. He is, if there had been no captivity, he is one who is eligible to be sitting on the throne of David. He is there and, and that was known. And that's why when Cyrus sent them back to the land, told them they could go back and rebuild the temple. He was made governor because he was really in line to be king. 1 (27m 33s): And then Joshua, he says, be strong. Oh, Joshua Joshua was the high priest directly from errands line. He was next in line at if the Solomon's temple was still there, he would have been the high priest. So he was given that authority. First thing they did when they got back as built the altar. So they could start the sacrificial system again, even before they had the temple in place, but they had this system that, and now they're working and he's saying be strong. And we see Zerubbabel as, as the governor, as, as the king figure, you know, in our, in our church, say we can compare that to our elders, Steve and Ron and Neil and Jim and Gary, they carry the mantle of the leadership in the church today. 1 (28m 27s): They carry the mantle of, of having to discern the will of God for our body. And it's, it's a mantle that God has given them, but it's also a great responsibility and it's easy to be overwhelmed when you're in that position. I know I've been there and it's it's really, as you, you are trying to discern the mind of Christ. That's it? That's it huge. Wait. So we say, it's not a burden it's, but it is a weight. And, and as you, you carry that weight, you need to be strong. 1 (29m 8s): So God is calling Zerubbabel to be strong as the governance in the land, Josh, the high priest, I kind of likened him to the rest of the staff at church work Joshua's that he ministered before God and, and to the people, you know, he's the, the man in between going to God, going to the people and the, and as they do this, that's the function of a priest to do that, to stand, be the intermarriage intermediary between God and man, while the, the elders kind of give direction. And we mediate that to the people. And then, you know, sometimes we hear stuff and we bring it to the elders and bring back and we tattle on you, we test, but we take good things. 1 (29m 56s): We say, Hey, this is what we're hearing. I don't know if you're hearing this, but just, we need to be in communication one with another. And we've, as we carry out the ministry, as we do all the functions of the things that are going on in the church, and then there's the call for all the people of the land. You to be strong, walk in the strength and the enablement that God has given you, as we move forward. As we, we, we carry out the business of the kingdom of God, as we work towards the goals that our God has given us, this is what we're called to do. 1 (30m 41s): See Israel had been living just a fairly routine life, not unlike us today. We got back and this includes, I mean, the high priest was going about his business. was the governor he's going about his administrative business. People are going about their business farming store, owners, market, all this stuff. There probably weren't any computer specialists then, but other than that, there was, you know, all the normal day-to-day stuff of life, it was going on. And as they're doing this, they're pursuing their business. 1 (31m 23s): They're taking care of their own things. They're watching over their own houses. They're putting themselves and their needs before anything else. And unintentionally, as a result before God, we don't ever mean to put stuff before God, as followers of Jesus, we, we know what it is to be removed from, from the carrying the burden of sin. We have the weight of the responsibility of a follower of Jesus. But, but we understand that God is on the throne. God is Lord of all, God has made a way, but yet we're still dealing with this. 1 (32m 3s): And it's so easy to get caught up in the routine. And God kind of gets shoved to the side. We put him in his God box, we get them out each morning. When we open up our Bibles and spend a few, few minutes in prayer and in the word, we get them out again and let them stay out longer on Sundays. But other than that, he goes back in the God box and we get busy with life. see it's such typical behavior because our flesh wants to rise up. We get ourselves the rhythm of the world and we go with the flow of life and we follow the path of limited, if not least resistance, because there's a lot of resistance out there. 1 (32m 55s): And we do what Israel said over in chapter one that God spoke to them and said, yeah, you've got people here who were saying, it's just not time. Yet. At that time to build yet the church I served in South Carolina, every time the subject of expansion or building or anything came up, he always got out his book when it's time not to build. And it just senior pastor told me, he said, you know, Kenneth is going to get out his book again at our meeting this week, because we're talking about expansion. We're talking about what we need to do to grow, because we say it's just not quite time yet. Just let me finish the project they've got. 1 (33m 36s): And then we'll start with kingdom work. Just let me take care of this or let me make sure that I can build up some funds so I can afford it. And then I can help out with kingdom work. Yeah. Oh, it says just the opposite. He says, seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all these things will be added to you. You see, we were upside down. We speak about the kingdom as being upside down, but we're the ones who are upside down when Paul was there in, in Ephesus and the craftsman, all of a sudden this guy who's turning the world upside down is here. 1 (34m 22s): No, it's turning the world right side up. And so it doesn't make sense to say, okay, we're going to put God first. We're going to take care of all this first. I'm going to go neglect my business. I'm going to neglect and we're not really neglecting it. But we automatically, our flesh takes us to the opposite end and we start digging our heels in because it's not just seek me first out, take care of everything else. I will see to it. That things are taken care of. You will see the blessing of God. If you put me first, if you make me an afterthought, well, I won't kill you, huh? 1 (35m 8s): But she'll just scrape by. Why not walk in the abundance I have for you? If you put me first, rather than you walking in my afterthoughts, God never calls you to a task without supplying what you need to complete. It. That's so hard for us to grasp sometimes, you know, and here again, this is where we talk about the be strong what's going on. They they've been at it for about three and a half weeks. The first prophecy that hat guy brought, the people were convicted. 1 (35m 52s): They went to work. It took three and a half weeks to get started. But we're talking, we're not talking about, you know, rapid communication here. They had to get the word out to everyone who back in Israel and say, Hey, we're starting on the temple three and a half weeks. They're at it. Now it's been another three and a half weeks. They'd been working. And you know, when you've got a big project and you get about three and a half weeks in and it looks like nothing has happened. Yes. Yeah, yeah. A little dirt moved around. We've got some of these rocks and some of this rebel pulled out of the way and we can kind of see where things are, are starting. 1 (36m 33s): And we see the outline of what's going on. But boy, this is overwhelming. Will this ever get done? And so God brings this word once again, be strong. Those, the rebel be strong. Oh, Joshua, be strong. All the people of the land declares the Lord, see the people needed the encouragement to continue. I needed to move forward. Clearing rebel by hand takes time. And you know, these big projects take mind. Numbing amounts of time. You think about the cathedrals in Europe, those, those big old Gothic cathedrals hundred and 50 years, 200 years to build. 1 (37m 20s): That's a lot of work that continues and continues and continues and continues and it's will it ever end? So he says, be strong. When we built in, when I was in Kansas, we built it a church building and we had to bring a soils engineer out and he had to, to look at the ground and, and, you know, study the compaction of it and everything. You were brown ground penetrating radar and out and figured out, oh well we're 88% compaction. So, oh, wow. That's great. It needs to be 95. 1 (38m 2s): And so they had to come and they, they had to dig out for the foundation. Fortunately we're farmers, everybody has heavy equipment and yeah, hallelujah. So you dig out that where the church was going to be that where the building was gonna gonna stand. And then we had a young teenager who was more than happy to come in and just, they had a sheep's foot, what they call a sheep's foot, which has compacts the soil. And they had one on the farm. So he brought it in and he spent two days driving back and forth through the whole ad in a little, put a little dirt back in driving back and forth through the hole, but a little dirt back in two days. 1 (38m 48s): And it's like one, I don't know how he stood just being in there, just driving back and forth on that same half a block. And I talk about mind numbing, but it feels like nothing's happening, but it's what makes everything ready. All the prep work. All the doing people needed to be strong in order to continue to persevere. They were enabled. God says, walk into your enablement. Second part of God's calling to us is to do the work. 1 (39m 29s): He has empowered us. He's given us the strength that we need. He's given us the abilities that we need. He's given us all that we need to do. We just need to do it. He says, work. This is in verses four B and start in the middle of the middle of verse four. Work for, I am with you declares the Lord of hosts. According to the covenant that I made with you. When I, when you came out of Egypt is not only is there an aspect of calling. There's a promise with it. There's encouragement with it. Yes. Do this. But know that I am with you. Work. I am alongside you when God calls us he not only supplies what's needed to complete the work he works with us. 1 (40m 15s): God is our yoke fellow. God, as a matter of fact is the master builder to our common laborer. God does the majority of the work. He gives us the privilege of working alongside him. See if we try to do that in our own strength. If we tried to do it on our own, it's not going to work. What is someone 27 first verse, unless the Lord builds the house. Those who build it labor in vain, unless the Lord watches over the city, the Watchman stays awake in vain. 1 (41m 1s): It's all gone. Okay. This is not to say that we sit back and watch God do the work. God specifically says to work. And at the same time he blesses us abundantly. He, God magnifies the work of your hands. As you, as you're leaning on him, as you are, are working in his strength, we're called to be strong. As we're in his power, doing the work he somehow or another in God's economy, he manages, well, it doesn't manage. 1 (41m 43s): He just declares. It manages. Sounds like he's got, has to figure out a plan. He's already knows what it is. God takes what we do and makes it more, don't know how he does it, but he does it. The third aspect of our calling is to fear not, or from looking at it from the other direction, have faith. See the opposite. Opposite of faith is an unbelief. The opposite of faith is fear. 1 (42m 24s): When you, when you get afraid, it's because you are looking forward into life, looking at the scenario without the benefit of the presence of God. In that scenario, this is what is called you. Look ahead and your mind starts thinking what's going to happen if this, if this, if this is, this is if this, and if we don't put God into the mix, income, be good. But when we know that God is with us, that God has empowered us, that God has enabled us. And that God is doing the work alongside of us. We can be encouraged and move forward. 1 (43m 10s): And then we don't have to walk in fear. He says, my spirit remains in your midst. Fear, not isn't it. The greatest encouragement of all that God is with us. That God remains in our myths. And not only in our midst, but in us, Jesus promised his disciples and thereby us. When he's speaking to his disciples, he's talking to us. He says, the holy spirit is with you, but would be, can you, the holy spirit is in you. 1 (43m 50s): You are a follower of Jesus Christ. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, the spirit of the living, God lives in you. And the spirit is given without measure. You have all that God has for you in the holy spirit, living in you right now. Why should we be afraid? Psalm 27. It's not on the screen, but the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. I've home. Shall I be afraid? We have no need to fear because God is with us. We can walk in faith. 1 (44m 33s): So you haven't. So, or we have so infinitely better than what Israel did you think about Israel in the wilderness? They had the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. And we think wouldn't that be so cool? Wouldn't it be so cool to stand at the foot of Sinai and just be kind of afraid because God's up there talking to Moses and there's thunder and lightening and fire and smoke and all of this stuff. And, and, and we, we crave and experience in our flesh. We have better than an experience in our flesh. We have the spirit of God in us. And so we can walk forward in faith. 1 (45m 20s): See we have the witness of the indwelling spirit of the living God in our hearts, Romans six 16 tells us the spirit himself, bears witness with our spirits, that we are children of God. Okay? And our heavenly father is attentive and caring and kind and loving and compassionate towards his children. He calls you to be strong and he will strengthen you. He calls you to work. He will empower you. And he calls you to have faith in him. 1 (45m 60s): And he promises. He will never leave us or forsake us be strong. Do the work have faith. So where is that taking us harvest church? Let's take a look at God's promise. God's promise to his people is that he would be with them just that he has always been. So God asks this question through Pega, to the people who is left among you, who saw this house in its former glory. 1 (46m 42s): How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? They looked at the foundations that was there and, and those who were older and they saw where the new foundation was starting to be laid. And these older ones who had seen it before the exile to Babylon were grieved in their hearts. It was going to be different. It was going to be less glorious, but at the same time, the younger ones were overjoyed and they were shouting for joy. And this second temple was just nothing like Solomon's temple. 1 (47m 22s): It was plain. Where's the gold and the silver and the bronze. Where's all the, the car of decoration. Where is all this other ornamented beauty that just reminded us of who God was and what he had done for us. And that he was the creator of all that. He brought us out of Egypt, that all of this was happening. And now we do well it's stone . But then again, the young ones had never seen the temple and they were, it was amazing for them. You go back to the book of Ezra. You read about this as a chapter three, starting at the 10th verse. 1 (48m 2s): It says in when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets and the Levi sites, the sons of ASF with cymbals to praise the Lord, according to the direction of David King of Israel. In other words, we've looked back at the scriptures. This is what we're supposed to do. And they sang responsively, praising and giving. Thanks to God for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever towards Israel and all the people shouted with a great shout and they praise the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, but many of the priests and Levites, and the heads of fathers houses, old men who had seen the first house wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid though many shouted aloud for joy so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of peoples weeping for the people shouted with a great shout and the sound was heard far away. 1 (49m 3s): So often the case, younger ones, rejoice at something new and different and fresh. And we who have, so we say more years behind us than ahead of us. I don't expect to live to 128, but we grieve when there's change. We grieve when something is different seems when you're young and your life is spread out ahead of you, everything is fresh and new and exciting and interesting. And then when we become a little more mature, we embrace the past and the familiar and the safe and the secure you see, this is why God not only calls us to do things he provides for it. 1 (49m 60s): And he makes a promise with the calling, that word of encouragement, that word of strengthening that word of hope, that word, that doesn't make any difference where we are. I am with you. God not only reminds the people in our passage that he will continue to be faithful to his covenant promise that he made. When they left Egypt, go back to Exodus 27 and says this, I will dwell among the people of Israel and I will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord, their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord, their God. 1 (50m 42s): That's the promise that he made as they were coming out of Egypt. He further promises that what seems different and new and uncomfortable will be truly more glorious than what was familiar and stable and safe. Okay. Nine, the glory of this house shall be greater than the former. The glory of this house shall be greater than the former says the Lord of hosts. And in this place, I will give peace declares. The Lord of hosts. You know, he also promises them. 1 (51m 23s): Not only that their space would be more glorious than the old space. He promises them. Look, once again, in just a little while, I'm going to shake the heavens and the earth and the seas and the dry lands and all nations and all the treasure of the nations will come to you. The silver is mine. The gold is mine. I will take care of it. If you're obedient, then just do what I've called you to do. You don't have to worry about it. I love worshiping in this space. You know, this is part of what drew us here when we came, because it's it's well, well, yeah, reminded me of myself. 1 (52m 13s): It's old, but it's, it's cozy and it's comfortable. And there's a spirit of love here. A spirit of worship here, not just a spirit of worship that gets it's gets us around the temple and, and, you know, having a good time in Jesus. But we entered into the holy of Holies where we can fall on our face before God, that just really, really drew us. That was part of, of why we came. We looked at other places after I retired from my old church and we found places that were good and the word was being preached. But in worship, we kind of felt like we never really quite entered in. 1 (52m 53s): And, and we felt that here, and we felt the love of the people here. We felt like this is a place we can fit. And, and our space had a lot to do with it. I think I shared with you before. I used to think that was the loft terminology, but God has seen fit to cause us to outgrow this space holiday weekend. So we've got some empty chairs right now, but, but God has been blessing and blessing and blessing to the point where we we've outgrown it. 1 (53m 38s): The truth is that on Sunday mornings, especially in second service, over half of our congregation is in the other venues. We don't realize that here in the sanctuary, because we come in there, get here early enough. So we get a seat and it feels like this is us and it's full and it feels so good. And, but we don't realize that over half of our congregation is out there between our two services. There's 80 or 160 to 190 people that meet here in the sanctuary and two services. But there's 220 to 250 in the other space. 1 (54m 19s): Okay. I meet new people every Sunday. I see new faces every Sunday. People I have never seen before here. And some of them have been coming here far longer than I have, but I don't get to see them because they're in different places. I asked many people, oh, is this your first Sunday here? No, I've been here for seven years. I was having a tough enough time learning all of your names. And now we've got all these new people. Praise, God, see, I got white hair. I don't have to remember everybody's names, but God is doing great things here. 1 (55m 9s): No, from a nuts and bolts of ministry standpoint, just from a state of practicality, we don't have room here to do the ministry that God is calling us to. Jeremy mentioned in the, in the announcements this morning about our prayer ministry. You know, you can be on our prayer chain, 52 email addresses on our prayer chain that when we get requests that I send out, we have a, the prayer group that meets on Thursday morning. Small. I'd love to see many more of you be a part of that eight o'clock. Some people say eight o'clock is too early. I get there. And that's a, that's a big deal, but it's, and then we have people who are ready to pray with you every Sunday. 1 (56m 2s): At the end of the service, we like to invite people to come forward. If they have a need of prayer, if they need to respond to the word that was given, or if there's some other special need, we have people assigned to pray when the elders or most of them come to second service, but they're here. We're ready to pray. And very rarely do people come because when they do come there, isn't room and people are walking by and it's gets interrupted and whatnot. We need more space. You already have heard that we're having to turn kids away from Sunday school. 1 (56m 46s): So we need to expand. God has bigger things in store for us, bigger things in congregational growth. And it's not just about being bigger. We talk about this all the time in staff. We've had a lot of folks transfer in from other churches, and we're so glad to have you glad you're here, but God's kingdom. Isn't about moving sheep from one pasture to another. We need to go out and find the lost sheep and bring them in. Jesus says, I have sheep, not of this fold. 1 (57m 28s): And they need to be found and brought back and brought in. And so, as we're limited in space here, we need more rooms so we can grow. We can do bigger things in ministry and prayer and training and evangelism. We can do much bigger things in missions, both at home and abroad. We can do much better things in ministering to our community. And all these things will be easier and more practically facilitated. If we have that space over there at one oh two west branch, and you know, we have a five-year lease there. And what I've been praying is, oh Lord, when that five years is up, I pray that that's not enough space. 1 (58m 12s): I pray. We have to move again. I think I've shared with some of you before a friend of mine told me, he says, you know, Dave, you'd be hard pressed to find it in scripture, but I'm sure there will be moving in hell. We have lived in our married life. We have lived in 10 different places, done a lot of moving in our ministry years. We have been involved in three church building projects and one church moving project. You get into those new spaces and it's uncomfortable for a little while to kind of feel like, oh yeah, it's kind of exciting to be here, but I'm not even sure exactly where which cupboard to put the canned goods in, in the kitchen. 1 (59m 0s): How, how are we going to arrange the closets? How are we going to do this? What's what about that in the new churches as well? Yeah, we kind of think this is the way Sunday school is going to be laid out in those new classrooms, but chances are we're going to have to rearrange and do other things. And it's, it feels a little bumpy for a little while, but soon home, it doesn't take long because home isn't about the space. Home is about the people who are gathered there. The people that fill the space, that's what home is about. 1 (59m 40s): We've. And so what will be with us, God never changes. Remember Hebrews 13, eight, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever, but he is an agent of change in our lives. He constantly is working in us to change, to, to, to transform us, to grow us, to renew us, to change us, as it says in second Corinthians, from one degree of glory to another. And until that one day when he will glorify us, when we cross over and then at the resurrection, get our glorified bodies and we'll be like, Jesus, have a body like Jesus. 1 (1h 0m 24s): Like he could, you know, walk through a door or walk through walls was great, showed up in the, with the apostles in the upper room and the night of his resurrection. And when all the doors were bolted and locked, he was just there. That'd be kind of cool. Just squat, walk out this way. And this upcoming move that we're making as part of that process of being transformed and grown and renewed and changed for the advancement of the kingdom of God, be strong, do the work be full of faith. 1 (1h 1m 10s): Let's pray. And I want you to make a note of this, to pray this week and continue while we're in the process. Building projects take notoriously longer than what the time budgeted it is. Thanks worship team. When we built in Kansas, after all that driving back and forth with the sheep's foot, they promise that we started in August and they promised us we'd be in at the end of the year, the end of March, I finally told the contractor, says we are dedication is scheduled for next week. We will be in and they finished. So be patient. 1 (1h 1m 52s): This is where it can get discouraging. When things take longer than what we think they're going to take, oh, I would love to say, we're going to be in the next month. I doubt it, but know that God can do it and work around all the hoops that have to be jumped through and get the work done. So be strong. Do the work, have faith and have willing hearts to follow after what God is doing. Let's pray, God, we come to you now and we pray for strength. You said, be strong. So Lord, we know as we come to you and pray for strength, you will strengthen us because it's your will for us. 1 (1h 2m 33s): It's your word to us that we would do so thank you, Lord goddess that to help us to persevere in the tasks, because you have enabled us to do all that you're calling us to do help us Lord Jesus, to do the work, the work that needs to be done, whether it's on the building or whether it's in the ministry or whether it's in reaching out and doing the work of the kingdom, just loving our neighbors. As we love ourselves and loving you with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, Lord God, you have empowered us by your spirit to do that. So we will do the work, help us and Lord help us to be full of faith, to not walk in fear that we might overcome any intimidation and any opposition that we might face. 1 (1h 3m 34s): Thank you, God, that, that promise of your spirit, the guarantee that you put in our hearts, that your spirit bearing witness with our spirit, that gives us the encouragement to stand in the face of opposition. And finally, Lord give us willing hearts, willing hearts that we might follow after your leading and that we would trust you that we would not look ahead and worry that we would not look back in grief, but that we would look forward to all you're doing and what you have done and take the history of what you've done and that you will embolden us to live up to this calling that you've given us because of the promise that you have made to us. 1 (1h 4m 34s): Pray. If there are any here who don't know what it is to be filled with your spirit, don't know what it is to be born. Again, made new in Jesus Christ to be a new creature in Christ, new creation in Christ Jesus, because they're still bound in sin because they have never responded to the truth of the gospel. I just pray that your spirit would speak to them this morning and draw them to yourself because you are God and you loved them and you want them to be your children. Thank you, Jesus. We pray all this in your holy name. 1 (1h 5m 16s): Amen. And amen. Let's worship. And then if, if you need prayer for anything, there will be people up here after, after we worship this morning. So let's go to the Lord. 0 (1h 5m 34s): the song. I am yes. 0 (1h 11m 19s): but I might bring you in to the kingdom of God that will strengthen your and thinking that'll bring you forward. 0 (1h 12m 6s): It's through. 0 (1h 12m 53s): There was a moment when the lights went out oh, geez. 0 (1h 17m 37s): Oh geez. Oh, geez. oh, geez. Oh, geez. 1 (1h 18m 20s): It's feel there's somebody here on campus today. I don't know if you're here in the sanctuary or if you're in the loft or on the patio, but you need to be set free that we've been singing about breaking bonds and breaking chains and being set free. And you just feel like I'm not free. Do you know you've been trapped in darkness. You've been trapped in a place of where you feel as if you thought you were free, but you're, you've been in a dungeon. So reminded of Charles Wesley's old him where one of the verses says I was in the darkness of night trapped in nature's night bound in chains. 1 (1h 19m 12s): I can't remember the words now, but you came and you set us free. Lord, God, you set us free. And for you, if you're out there and you feel bondage, if you feel something is holding you back, if you sense the weight of your sin, and even if you feel like, oh, what I have done is far beyond God could never forgive me. Don't let the enemy live to you like that. He's saying that to you because he doesn't want to lose you out of his kingdom, into the kingdom of God. You can never be too. God God's arm is not too short. If you need to know Jesus today, just, just come to him in your heart. 1 (1h 19m 56s): You just speak from your heart. You can even speak without moving your mouth. If you need to, but just say, Lord Jesus, I need you. I'm a sinner. And I know I'm lost. I know I don't deserve forgiveness, but would you come in and forgive me anyway? And he will, and he'll make you new. And if you've done that today, I want you to tell somebody, look for a staff member. If you're here in the sanctuary, you come tell me if you're in the patio or the loft. 1 (1h 20m 38s): Look for one of the staff members, tell them, you know, today, I just feel like I need to be set free and they'll talk to you and just give you more information to help you get started. Thank you God, for your grace. Once again, an amazing, amazing grace man.

Happy mother's day while we're taking a break from our first Timothy study. So we're going to be in Hebrews chapter 11. We're talking about faith this week. Last week, we talked about miracles in light of, especially this new building that we're, we've leased over one Oh two West branch. And today we're talking about faith and how it activates everything. God's kingdom, faith activates everything in God's kingdom. That's the title of our message. And it's the focus of our message. And it's really the reality of our faith as followers of the Lord. 3 (15m 3s): Jesus Christ. I mean think about it. We were saved by 4 (15m 8s): God 3 (15m 9s): Because we put our faith in him in his ability to save us, to forgive us, to cleanse us and to adopt us into his family. So by faith, we are experienced salvation and new life in him. And then by faith, we pray to this. God that's invisible. We can't see him. We can sense him. And we know that he's real. And we know that his word is real. So we can sense something in our spirit that God is real, but he's invisible. And so by faith, we pray. And then by faith, we have great expectations of a great God. And I would say, we need to have great expectations because we serve a great and powerful and all sufficient God. 3 (15m 55s): And so everything is activated in Christianity, in God's kingdom, by faith, without faith. We're going to read here in just a little bit or talk about without faith. It's impossible to please God. And we need to believe that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So we're going to talk about how faith activates everything in God's kingdom. And we're going to answer the question. What does biblical faith, what does that look like? And hopefully at the end of the message, we're going to have some clarity about faith and what that means for our lives, because it's not something that just a select few experience or are expected to operate in. 3 (16m 37s): It's actually for the church, every one of us, young, young and old everybody's expected to operate by faith. And we see that in the old Testament, as we look at he heroes of faith and his word, continuing to teach, we're going to see God's example through these heroes of faith and where we can actually read about them and then mimic and copy their behavior and become the people that God has called us to be. So what is biblical faith? Hebrews 11 one says this faith shows, faith shows the reality of what we hope for. It is the evidence of things we cannot see hope for cannot see both invisible. 3 (17m 22s): Faith is the reality of those things. Faith shows us the reality of what we hope for. It is the evidence of things we can not see. The living Bible paraphrase says this in Hebrews 11 one, it says, what is faith? It is the confident assurance. And this is the kind of attitude that we should have before the living God, this confident assurance as we walk this life of faith, that God is up to something and he's going to do something in us and with us and through us, it is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. So if you've ever been in the place, I know you have, if you have been walking with the Lord for even a day or a week or a month or 10 years or 50 years, God puts something, a vision within us that requires faith. 3 (18m 12s): Maybe, maybe you're praying for relationship. Maybe you're praying for a family member. Maybe you're praying for resources. Maybe you're praying for a job, whatever it is. God has placed something in us that allows us to operate in this place of faith. We're saying, God, I don't know how this is going to happen. I think about the people of Israel coming out of Egypt after slavery, and there was no path before them. They come up against the sea and they're so God, the scripture says, made a way where there was 5 (18m 40s): No way. There 3 (18m 43s): Is no path forward until God opens up the sea and gives us the path forward. What is faith is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is a certain, it is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us. Even though we cannot see it up ahead. Someone said a weak faith, a weak faith is weakened by predicament and catastrophes. Where is a strong faith is strengthened by them. So where's your faith. Today? Is your faith strengthened by difficulty, by challenges in your life? 3 (19m 25s): Or is it weekend? I would say that God wants to strengthen your faith on every level. Now, like most of us, we have faith in some areas of our life, but not so much in other areas of our lives. Some areas we have just like either no faith or just a very little bit of faith. If we even have a mustard seed of faith, we can do amazing things. We moved mountains. The scripture says, so God will use the tiniest bit of faith in our lives. When we step into it and out of obedience and trusting God, exercise that faith and do what he's asked us to do wonderful and supernatural things will happen, but we've got to step into it. 3 (20m 5s): The people of Israel needed to step into the water. They needed to move forward before the water actually opened up and they were able to pass through on dry land. And that's what we see. We see God requiring us to take a step of faith. Before, before we actually see the answers, see the provision before we actually receive what he has for us. He's actually calling us into a place of faith. A weak faith is weakened by predicament and catastrophes. Whereas a strong faith is strengthened by them through their faith. Verse two, Hebrews 11, two through their faith that people in days of old earned a good reputation. 3 (20m 48s): There's something about the kingdom of God. When we see people within the kingdom of God, exercising, faith, they earned a good reputation. Why? Because they're, they're doing stuff for God. They believe God. And they're actually stepping into the, his supernatural plans for their life. And so we honor, and we esteem those who have faith because it's those people who have faith, who are doing the things that God has called them to do. But listen, it's not for special people. It's for all of us, God has called all of us to be people of faith so that we might step into those supernatural plans that he's called us to. So whatever it is that stirring within your life, within your soul begin to step into it. 3 (21m 31s): Even if you've only got a little bit of confidence. 2 (21m 36s): We, as we thought about 3 (21m 37s): One Oh two, we've been thinking about for months. When I, when I say one Oh two, that's the new worship space over there. So just for ease of saying that we were going to call it one Oh two for now, but it's the new worship space. When we started thinking months ago, 2 (21m 52s): Probably more than months ago, 3 (21m 55s): Maybe over a year ago, we started thinking about what, where do we grow from here? What do we do from here? What's next for us? And so we started looking at spaces. We looked at a few spaces, there's a space over here. It's just too small for us. And then this space at one Oh two 2 (22m 8s): Available. And we thought, well, this is, this is kind of impossible. 3 (22m 16s): We, we can't afford it. It's going to take a ton of money for renovations. It's really, it's not doable butts, but we begin to exercise just a little bit of faith. And so I made a phone call and I called doc John, hi Ashley. I said, John, I said, we'd like to look at your space. We're a church. We'd like to make it a worship center. What do you think? He said, yeah, come on down. We'll take a look at it. He said, he said, it's no problem. The city is going to let you in there. And I said, okay, well, we'll see what happens when I call the city. And the city said, Nope, the city said, we're not allowing any new churches in the downtown village Corps. I said, is that legal? And they said, I think so. I said, well, it's actually illegal because I had a letter in my possession from an attorney from Pacific justice Institute who wrote me a five page letter, citing law and other cases where the courts overturned a decision to prohibit churches from being in downtown village, core area type areas. 3 (23m 16s): And so I said, Hey Patrick, this is one of the planters down in the village or in the city. I said, Hey, can I send you this letter that I have for my attorney? He said, yes, send it over. This was a Friday. He said, send it over. I said, and we'll have our city attorney tech, you know, take a look at it. So I sent it over to him on Friday afternoon, Monday morning, I get a letter back from the Villa, the city of Aurora grantee. And they said, Hey, your attorney's with PJI Pacific justice Institute are accurate in their assessment. This space, we are ready to move forward. All you need is a, just a use permit and we can accommodate your needs in the village. So what seemed impossible God, through a five-page letter from an attorney turned around and made possible for us, but then we're thinking, can we afford it? 6 (24m 5s): Can we move 3 (24m 7s): Forward? But by God's grace, we've just began to take steps in that direction. And so when I said that, God never really shows you the picture until you step into it. The God has begin to show us the picture. So I was, I got a bid for, we have to put fire sprinklers in that building over there and the, the underground. So you have to tie into the city's water main. It's a big deal. You have to cut into the streets and sidewalks and all that sort of thing. So it was a big deal. A friend of mine gave me a price of $30,000 for that job. And this is a friend of mine. So he was like, Hey, this is the good guy price. It's $30,000. So I'm like kind of limiting the price and wondering where that money is going to come from. 3 (24m 48s): And then I'm talking in a circle of friends after church last Sunday, and a guy who I know does underground work said, Hey, I do that kind of work. I said, you, you do that kind of work. I know you do underground stuff. I didn't realize you do that kind of work. And he said, yeah, that's actually what we do. Most of the time we do that kind of work, we tie into the city's water main. And we, we put in check valves and that sort of thing, he said, I'll just do it. I'll just take care of it for you. So I called him up a couple of days later and I said, 6 (25m 17s): Hey, what did you mean 3 (25m 20s): When you said, I'll just do it. I said, how much is this going to cost us? He said, well, have I ever charged you for anything in the past? And the answer is no, he's never charged us for anything in the past. So we'll probably have to buy some materials and that sort of thing, but that went away. I needed, we need a ton of electrical work done in the space. And so I'm at the space at one Oh two on Friday. And I decided to walk over to village, grill for a sandwich. I get a big old burger with greasy, all kinds of goodness on it. So while I'm over there, I run into a guy and his family from the church and he said, Hey, do you need any electrical work done at the new building? I said, yeah, but it's big commercial stuff. 3 (26m 2s): It's going to require a ton of work. Are you up for that kind of work? He said, we do it all the time. It's no big deal. He said, well, I'll just me. And my son will go in there and we'll just do it. We'll just do it. So the electrical is taken care of. I got a painter who's taking care of the painting. It may cost us a little bit for the paint, but electrical. We're getting a good deal on the underground. We've got a great deal on the fire sprinklers on the inside of the building, great deal on HVAC. I'm missing something. There was something else that I was going to throw in there. But God, what we're seeing is we stepped out and said, okay, Lord, this is what we want to do is what we feel called to do. And we prayed about it. So don't just ready. Fire aim. Think about what you're doing and get some confirmation from the Holy spirit. 3 (26m 43s): Think through what you're doing. You know, don't be reckless. God will show you, but then he'll, he'll bring confirmation to an affirmation to you about things that you feel called to do. And maybe, maybe it takes weeks or months or years before things come to fruition, but God will, will show you what to do. So I had talked about it with my staff and elders and we prayed about it and thought about it and all that sort of thing. And finally, that's when we decided to move forward. So it wasn't like ready fire aim. It was like, man, is this what the Lord has for us? And that's what we felt like together unified that we feel like the Lord has got this for us. So through their faith that people have old in days of old and earned a good reputation by, by faith back to Hebrews 11, three by faith, we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command. 3 (27m 36s): The entire universe was formed at God's command. That what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. So often what we do is we hear in our spirit, right? So don't, don't allow your head to get in the way of what God is saying in your spirit. Now God has given us a brain and we think through everything, we budget for stuff. We figure stuff out, but don't let your head get in the way of what God is speaking to you in your spirit, because this is what we don't happen to your head. I talked about this last week, I think in your head, you argue with God in your head, you are fearful, anxious, nervous. You can't see it in your head. You're disobedient to God, but in your spirit, when you know when your soul, like in your guts, that God has called you to do something and you step into it. 3 (28m 22s): That's where the victory comes. That's where the provision comes. That's where God shows up amazing miracles. When we just with that mustard seed of faith, step into it, let's see if he can speak the universe into existence by the word, by just speaking. It's often what we'll do is we'll look at the raw material of our lives, our ability, our resources, what we can do in the natural. And we dismiss everything that God wants to do. We're like, I know God, you probably want to do this, but I don't got the money. I don't got the time. I don't got the ability. I it's, I don't have any that you, so what if I'm calling you to it? Okay. What if I've got plans for you and purpose for you? 3 (29m 4s): He speaks to the universe into existence. By his words, I think he can take our rough raw materials or our absence, raw materials and do something wonderful with it. He wants to do that with our lives personally and our families. And with our by faith, we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command. That what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. Verse four. It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to then Cain did Abel's offering, gave evidence that he was a righteous man and God showed his approval of his gifts. 3 (29m 52s): Although Abel is although able is long dead. He still speaks to us by his example of faith. He's long dead, but we're still talking about Abel and his faith. Let's look at the story about Cain and Abel in Genesis chapter four, some of the slides are messed up. We're going to go into Genesis now, but then we're going to go back to Hebrews. I think some of them say Genesis, when they should say Hebrews, I'll try to keep you up to speed on that. Here we go. Genesis chapter four verses one through five. Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife Eve and she became pregnant. And when she gave birth to Cain, she said with the Lord's help, I have produced a man later. She gave birth to his brother and named him Abel, when they grew up, Abel became a shepherd while cane cultivated the ground. 3 (30m 36s): When it was time for the harvest cane presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. The ESV says in verse three, in the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruits of the ground. So it seems like from the context of what we're reading about, because Hebrews 11 is all about faith. People's exercise of faith in the scripture. And so in that context, through that lens, we need to interpret what is happening here with Cain and Abel, I think, and it seems from the texts that came, brought an offering, but he brought it in his own timing and he brought, it seems whatever is left over from his crops. 3 (31m 31s): So he brought his offering, but it was in his own timing and whatever was left over from his crops since he brought some of his crops able on the other hand, brought the best portion of the firstborn lambs from his flock. So Abel brought the first and the best. It appears that Cain brought whenever he felt like it, whatever was left over Genesis four, four says Abel also brought a gift. The best portion of the first born lambs from his flock, the Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept cane and his gift. 3 (32m 17s): This made Cain very angry and he looked dejected. Abel brought his first and best Cain brought whenever it was convenient for him, whatever was left over. That's the difference. And that's why God received Abel's offering. And he did not receive canes offering. We either bring God the best and the first, or we bring God our leftovers. There's no middle ground there. We either bring God the best in first. Or we bring him our leftovers and we see how it worked out for Cain and Abel. This story is highlighted in the hall of faith because it's a story about faith. 3 (33m 2s): It was Abel's faith that allowed him to bring his first and his best. He wanted to honor God by faith with his first and his best. He wanted to make sure God was honored and worshiped with his giving before he did anything else. It seems like Cain's offering was given once everything else was kind of taken care of whenever he felt like it, he gave his offering. Whatever it was that was left over Abel's offering was given in faith. Cain's gift was given as the leftover God accepted Abel's offering and rejected. Cain's essentially Abel's offering was given by faith. 3 (33m 45s): Keynes was not. So when we ask you to give toward a project like this or whatever we want it to be done out of faith, in fact, the Bible says he desires a joyful giver. So hold onto your resources until you're ready to give it joyfully and then give whatever you want to give. As the Lord leads, I believe 10% is the beginning. 7 (34m 12s): Some would argue 3 (34m 13s): That's an old Testament principle. I think it's a through and through principle. So give whatever the Lord would ask you to give or sell and chairs and squares, not really selling them, but that's that didn't sound right where we got chairs and squares available for this new space. So a chair is a chair and a square is a square square footage of flooring. So that's kinda what we're, we're giving people an opportunity to enter into this program or this, this process, this faith process by buying a chair in a square. So we have this gal in our church who said, I want to buy, not only for me, but I want to buy for my kids and my grandkids who attend the church. So I think there's six of them. So she bought six chairs and six squares. 3 (34m 53s): So I thought what a great idea. I've got a clan of 12 here. So maybe I'll buy 12 squares and 12 chairs for my clan. And I had this idea and then I share it with Jolene. And I haven't gotten your read on that yet. We'll we'll, we'll talk, we'll talk. That's just an idea. 7 (35m 9s): We'll talk. The idea 3 (35m 11s): Is to create opportunity for all of us to enjoy what God has called us into. This is the beauty of God in his kingdom is he actually invites us people into his kingdom work so that we can be blessed through the process and grow in our faith through the process. And somebody said, you know, if we buy a chair, do we get our name on it? 7 (35m 32s): And no, unless 3 (35m 34s): You want to Mark it with a marker underneath the chair, that would be fine, but no names on the chairs most likely. And so we're just going to move forward. Believing that guy will provide for 2 (35m 43s): Thing. Number one, 3 (35m 48s): Faith gives the best. And 2 (35m 50s): First of everything, number two, 3 (35m 54s): Faith changes the way we live 2 (35m 58s): Back to Hebrews 3 (35m 59s): Chapter 11, verse five, it says it was by faith. That Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying. He disappeared because God took him for before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. And it is impossible to please God, without faith. So we know that Enoch was a man of faith because it says that he please God, and it is impossible actually to please God, unless we're operating with faith. And so we know that Enoch was a man of faith and it says anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists. That's a faith belief and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. 3 (36m 43s): So we believe that he exists and he is a rewarder of those who sincerely seek him. Faith changes the way that we live, Equinox, faith, please, God, and God, God was pleased with him because of his faith. And you not believe God existed. And he knocked, sincerely sought after God. And then God just took him. Let's take a look. Genesis five 21 through 24. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters thus, all the days of Enoch were 365 years. He knocked walk with God and he was not for God took him. 3 (37m 27s): Isn't that great? What a cool thing to be so close in age intimate with the Lord that he decides one day, I'm going to take you up. You don't have to go through the dying process because that's kind of a bummer. You don't have to die at all. You just get taken up, right? You just get taken up. And all of a sudden you're in the presence of the Lord. Faith changed the way that Enoch lived his life. He lived as a man of faith. We know very little about ENR, except that he was a guy who pleased the Lord and we can deduce from that. But he was a man of faith. He's in the hall of faith after all Hebrews chapter 11. So we know he was a man of faith. We know that he pleased God because he pleased God and walked with God. 3 (38m 9s): He took him up. He watched me God for 300 years. 2 (38m 12s): That's a long time, 3 (38m 13s): Right? That's a long time. That's not like a flash in the pan. Like I'm going to walk with God for a few weeks or a few months or a few years. And he walked with God for 300 2 (38m 26s): Years 3 (38m 27s): And God took him. That's faithful. And this that speaks to us that we have the capacity to faithfully walk with God and faithfully the Lord for hundreds and hundreds of years should the Lord tarry. Although we're not going to be given that many years, but for all the days 2 (38m 43s): Of your life, faith gives the best. And first 3 (38m 48s): Everything faith changes the way we live in. Number three, faith moves people to action. Faith moves people to action. Why? Because faith without works is dead. Right? Faith apart from works is not faith at all. Faith always leaves people to action to works because that's how God works in the universe. Hebrews 11 seven. It was my faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God who warned them about things that had never happened before. 3 (39m 29s): He obeyed God about things that had never happened before. It had never flooded in the earth before it had never rained in the earth before. But God warns Noah that a flood is coming. A flood is coming by his faith. Noah condemned the rest of the world. And he received the righteousness that comes by faith. So the length of the boat, the arc was 300 cubits. A cubit is 18 inches. So the boat was 450 feet long. So it wasn't just this little dinghy, this little raft that he was hoping to navigate the storm with. He built this monstrosity, this, this big old 450 foot boats that was 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. 3 (40m 17s): So about the dimension, the dimensions of this property from that wall out there to that wall on the outside of the exterior walls, all the way up is about 450 2 (40m 27s): By 75 feet. Not interesting. 70 measured it out long time ago, and we're just going with it. 3 (40m 34s): 450 feet long, 70 feet wide. It took him roughly a hundred years. Someone say one 20 someone says he was 80 by 100 years 2 (40m 44s): For argument's sake, but 3 (40m 45s): A hundred years. So sometimes we're like obedient to the Lord for a week. And we're like, Lord, where are you? I need you to come through, right? Or we're we're obedience Lord for a month or a year. And Noah was obedient to the Lord for a hundred years doing something that people were ridiculing him for because he was in a wicked land. He was the only righteous man. He was in a wicked land, building a boats where there was no water. How do you get a 450 foot boats to the water? They didn't have cranes. It was ridiculous, right? It was totally ridiculous. But he did it. Philip Yancey wrote faith means trusting in advance. 3 (41m 28s): What will only make sense in reverse? So we read this story where like, he builds the boats, the rains come, he survives right. New life for no one, his family. Right? So it's easy to ex you know, we can read through the whole story in a few minutes, but what about the a hundred years of building and with expectation, believing that God's going to come through that there's really going to be a rainstorm that there's really going to be a flood that really everybody's going to die. Who's not on the boats. Like he had to believe. Long-term, that's how it is. A lot of times, as we raise kids, we're raising kids with a long view in mind. We're like, man, I got 1825 years with these kids. 3 (42m 8s): I got a plug to them. Maybe they're struggling. But man, I got faith for my kids. Right? I got faith that they're going to come through that they're going to continue to serve Jesus. And we do it. Long-term maybe you're in a long-term marriage. And you're like, man, I need faith for my marriage right now. So you just hang in there and you just keep praying and just keep loving your spouse. You keep serving your spouse. And in the long run, we'll be, we'll see the beauty of what God wants to accomplish in those relationships. But we got to exercise. Some faith. Faith means stressing in advance. What will only make sense in reverse, right? We don't get the benefit of the reverse. Number four. Faith causes people to trust God with the unknown. 3 (42m 50s): Let's talk about Abraham. It was my faith that Abraham obeyed, when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. So he's leaving his home as a 75 year old dude with a 65 year old wife going somewhere that the Lord would show him. But he would live there as a man of faith. And even when he reached the land, God promised him. He lived there by faith, where he was like a foreigner living in tense. And so did Isaac and Jacob who inherited the same promise. 3 (43m 34s): Faith causes people to trust God with the unknown Elisabeth. Elliot said, Shrew, faith goes into operation. When there are no answers, have any unknowns in your life. We've all got unknown. It's like, Lord, am I going to wake up in the morning? We believe by faith that we're gonna wake up in the morning. Right? Unknown. No, my going to get, am I going to get my next breath by so much of life is about faith in the unknown. Oh, there it is. Good. Okay. Came. Oh, there it is again. Okay, good. Good. We're not guaranteed that next breath. 3 (44m 14s): God gives us the next breath where he doesn't. But by faith we believe, and by faith we move forward. And when he's ready to give us our last breath and we by faith move forward and into eternal life with him and God's good. And God's faithful. True. Faith goes into operation. There are no answers. Hebrews 11, 10 says Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. Number, number five, faith keeps people focused on heaven. Faith keeps people focused on heaven, Abraham. He didn't care where God called him because that's not his end game. God's anger and game for Abraham was eternity was with Abraham would spend eternity with the Lord. 3 (44m 58s): So tell me where, tell me to go wherever it doesn't matter. I'm here on this earth for a short time. And then I'm with you. So tell me to go wherever it doesn't matter, right? Because the end game is eternity. His focus was eternity. His focus was on what God had for him. Faith keeps people focused on heaven. Abraham's focus was heaven. His faith in God, freed him to live for God in the earth because his main focus was not earthly, but heavenly when our main focus is earth and earthly things, earthly relationships, possessions. When our main focus is the earth, we can't be freed up to do the eternal things. 3 (45m 42s): They haven't the things that God has called us into. So God is always trying to pry our hands off of temporal things, right? He's always trying to pry our hands loose of things that we can't control. Anyway, we can't control most of our life. And so God's trying in his wisdom to get us, to loosen our grip and to trust him so that we can be freed up to do what God has asked us to do. Some are so focused, maybe only focused on earthly things that they are bound up, bound up and afraid to trust God and live with an eternal perspective. If you're bound up and afraid, you're living with a temporal perspective, that's just the reality. 3 (46m 27s): If you're bound up and afraid, you need to shift your focus, allow God to tell you whatever he wants to tell you to move you wherever he wants to move you to direct wherever he wants to direct you because you're living for the King. And ultimately this is just a, this is just a blink 2 (46m 44s): In eternity this time. 3 (46m 46s): It's just a it's it's over in a blink over. We were looking at pictures last night, we were celebrating my son's 29th birthday. And we were looking at pictures and we said, what were we doing? 2 (46m 57s): 29 years ago? And now here we are. 29 years later, all of those kids that we were having are all grown up. It's just been a blink 31 years of marriage, just life just we're in May, 2021. We in 2021, 22 in may, 3 (47m 26s): We could be in 20, 22 already by now. I don't know. It just goes so quick. Verse 11. It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child though. She was barren and was too 2 (47m 37s): Old. Again, 3 (47m 40s): We take a personal inventory of our lives and say, I have barren God. I've never had kids. I'm too old 2 (47m 46s): Barren and too old. 3 (47m 49s): She was, Sarah was 90 years old when she had her first kid 2 (47m 52s): 90, got the promise at 60, 65 years old, 25 years, 3 (47m 58s): She has her first. I think I got the math right on that. Sarah was 90 and Abraham, Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born, she believed that God would keep his promise. She believed that God would keep his promise. And so a whole nation came from this one, man, who was as good as dead And nation was so many people that like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count 2 (48m 26s): Them. Number six, 3 (48m 28s): Faith allows people to believe for the impossible. What has God asked you to believe for what's the impossible that God has asked you to 2 (48m 36s): Believe for? Is he giving 3 (48m 38s): You as he burdened you with a dream for your life, for your family? What has God asked you to believe for the impossible that God has asked you to believe for, for years, decades, over a decade, I've wanted to have a training location, a seminary location here between LA and the Bay. Because if you want to go into seminary, you have to go to LA or the Bay. And that's really your only options inside the state of California. So I've always wanted for more than a decade. Now I've wanted to have a place on the central coast for people to be trained for the ministry. So we've attempted to do things over the years, just kind of dipping our foot and our toes in the water. 3 (49m 20s): So we've had know Bible school on wheels, which is a certificate program where I think you go through 10 classes and you get a certificate. We're still operating those classes. They're great classes. We also just now are launching, it's called a certificate and life development course certificate program through Western seminary. And so it's a four class seminary level without all the homework. I mean, there's still a little bit of homework, but it's not for credit. So it's not all of the extra, you know, book reading and writing papers and that sort of thing. So, but it's a, it's a four class certificate program. But my long-term goal is to offer a full-blown seminary experience here on the central coast. 3 (50m 2s): So my plan is in the fall, God willing, I'm going to start a, another master's program, do a master's in applied biblical leadership with Western seminary, with the end goal of either getting a doctorate in ministry or a PhD so that we can offer Western seminary courses or some kind of seminary courses here for credit. So that I would allow people to get trained, equipped, and released into 2 (50m 28s): The ministry. I haven't shared that with very many people, but that's what I am just 3 (50m 35s): Praying for. And I feel in my soul that God wants to do here on the central coast. You know, I, you know, it's been, he won't leave 2 (50m 42s): Me. It's is 3 (50m 44s): Stuck with me for more than a decade. So I I'm just believing that God's going to open the door for that. What is, what is God speaking to you? And what is guys speaking to 2 (50m 56s): You? Faith 3 (50m 58s): Allows people to believe for the impossible verse 13, as we wrap up here, all these people died, still believing what God had promised them. 2 (51m 9s): They did not receive. What was it 3 (51m 11s): Promise, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. There may be some things that you you've got that got us put within you, that you're a partner with, but you won't see in your lifetime, but future generations will. Future generations will we'll see. And, and, and, and realize those dreams. But you're all in because of your kingdom perspective, they agree that they were foreigners and nomads here on the earth. Obviously, people who say such things are looking forward to a country. They call their own. If they had longed for the country, they came from, they could have gone back, but they were looking for a better place, a heavenly Homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God for. 3 (51m 53s): He has prepared a city for them. Number seven. So we wrap up faith keeps us believing that God is for us. You believe that God has for you. It says here, that is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, because there are people of faith. Faith keeps us believing that God is for us. And that he has a plan for our existence in the earth. What is God's plan for your existence in the earth? 2 (52m 17s): You're 3 (52m 17s): Not just here by accident. Do you believe God has a plan for you? Listen, if you hear this message, you're all of a sudden accountable, you're accountable for your life and how you're going to live your life before God. Your, your, this is truth from God's word that he has a plan for you. So now it's your job. Maybe it's the first time you're hearing this. Now it's your job to figure that out and joyfully and faithfully, walk that out. 2 (52m 46s): God has a plan 3 (52m 47s): For you here in the earth. 2 (52m 49s): Faith gives the best. And first of everything, faith changes the way we live. Faith moves people to action, faith. 3 (53m 2s): There's people to trust God with the unknown faith keeps us focused on having faith allows people to believe for the impossible 2 (53m 13s): And faith keeps 3 (53m 15s): Us believing that God is for us. And that he has a plan for our existence here in the earth. We'll pick it up and Hebrews 11, 17 next week, just to be clear, we're moving our worship center over there, but we're going to be utilizing all of this space. It's a one minute walk from here to there. So we'll still be parking where we park. There's still, there's additional parking over there, but we'll mostly be parking where we park. We'll be dropping off our kids where they get dropped off. Although we'll have a couple of classrooms over there for nursery and for a mother's room and that sort of thing, but mostly it'll be just normal drop off your kids here. You'll walk them in and over there. And we have church and you walk them in and back. 3 (53m 55s): And that's where it goes. I think we're probably going to give this sanctuary to the youth ministry. Someone said, they're going to destroy ours. Our sanctuary, 0 (54m 3s): Well, 3 (54m 5s): We're not here. Big for buildings, right? We're not here for buildings. We're here for kingdom stuff for souls. And if we can add young people soul to the, to the kingdom and get them saved and sanctified and filled with the Holy spirit, then that's what we want to do. So we've got to change that carpenter chairs. I don't care. I just want our people on the central coast or young people reach for the kingdom. So it'll look a little bit different when you come on campus, but mostly we're going to video feed still to the loft on Sunday morning. So if you want to drop your kids off and still be in the loft venue, for those of you who are in the loft, you don't have to go anywhere. You can just stay there, but we encourage you to go check out the space. 3 (54m 47s): So literally it's a one minute walk from here. You just go down to one or two down in the corner. You know, the village grill is right before that, the building was before this something different, that something different sign is still up there. So go check it out. We spent all day along yesterday, demoing the building, taking out walls and all kinds of stuff. And we took seven dump trucks or seven dump trailers full of stuff out of there yesterday. So it's really coming together. So with that, let's go and stand up with that. Let's go invite the worship team. We're going to worship. And then if you're a part of the prayer team and you want to pray for people, make sure it makes sure you're you're available for that as well. And, and then when it's all said and done, just take the time to walk over and see that new space. 3 (55m 31s): It's going to be really worthwhile. Thank you Lord, for what you're doing for who you are. We love you pray that we be people of faith in every area and arena of our lives. We love you and Jesus Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 0 (56m 7s): take our feelings. 0 (57m 46s): you said 1 (1h 5m 24s): Thank you, God. We love you. Jesus. We give you our hearts this morning. Would you bless us throughout this week and remind us that you are faithful Lord, that you are always with us every step of the way. And so we look to you, Jesus, for those leaps of faith, God, would you remind us that you are carrying us, that you cover us under the shadow of your wing. You provide for our needs. God, you give us those mercies that are new for each day. And so thank you for meeting us here this morning. 0 (1h 5m 55s): In this hour, we love 1 (1h 5m 57s): You. Give you a hearts in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Well, happy mother's day. Hope you enjoy the rest of your day. If anyone would like some prayer this morning, we have prayer team. I'd love to pray with you. So feel free to head on forward. Some folks will meet you here. Otherwise say hello to somebody and have a beautiful day. We'll see you next week.

0 (11s): Good morning guys. Hi. Hello, Mike. Hello? Hello? Hello. Hi guys. Welcome to church today. If you don't already know, today is a new Sunday. They call it like the youth takeover, I guess, but yeah, so I'm Levi. This is one of our youth bands for a Wednesday. Yeah, let's let's stand in worship. 0 (14m 5s): Lord. Thank you for this day. God, thank you for your presence in this building. God, I pray that your word would flow through Jeremy and Tyler today. God, that you would speak through them to us. God, that your Holy spirit would be full in this place. God, Jesus name. Amen. And so I guess now is the time you guys are supposed to talk to each other. 1 (14m 40s): Hello 0 (14m 41s): And welcome to harvest church. I am not wrong. She is not wrong and she's definitely not wrong. I am Brecker. Wait, I'm a junior at ADHS. 1 (14m 52s): I'm Olivia Hunsicker and I'm a seventh grader at Paulding middle school. And I am Emma Irie. I am a sophomore at HHS, 3 (15m 5s): These gentlemen, and my often forgotten, but not my me crazy people. Welcome to harvest church. We are so glad you're here. Whether online or in-person we're just so happy you're here. If you want information about upcoming events, we have our info center up the Hill. If you are new here, we also have a gift for you. Also at that info center up the Hill. 1 (15m 27s): Today is family Sunday. Every fourth, Sunday of the month is family. Sunday students first grade and up will be in services with their families. We serve donuts in celebration of family Sunday, each month. We'll be sure to grab one after service. In addition to family, Sunday today's youth takeover day. Students are helping out in various places, greeting or shift team kids, ministry, serving donuts, and even bringing the announcements. We are looking for a few morning. People who are willing to get here bright and early to brew coffee for our church services. 1 (16m 8s): If this is you sign up at the info center today, 3 (16m 14s): Our man, and if you are in junior higher, older, we have the men's breakfast coming up May 1st at 8:00 AM. We will be having breakfast. It's free. You don't even have to sign up. You just show up and you get a free breakfast right here. 8:00 AM May 1st 1 (16m 32s): Spring and summer life groups session kicks off in may. Week. Groups are a great way to build relationships and grow in your faith. In Jesus. We have home groups, men or women's Bible studies, young adults, or young professional groups, a golfing group, yarn club, and even seminary classes. Grab a flyer available at the info center or at the welcoming tables in each venue and plug get plugged up into a grip on April 30th. We have a lettuce worship night at 6:30 PM on the end of grand Avenue. It is a SOC Shaun flight worship event. And we'd love to have you there. And now I welcome pastor Ron, up to the stage for our baby dedications. 3 (17m 19s): Good morning. My name is Ron. I'm a senior at a rug high school, and this is youth takeover day. I qualify. I would like to invite up front. We've got three families that are going to be dedicating a child to the Lord today. So I'd like to invite the Wade family up. If you guys could kind of take a spot right over here, the Wade family, and then the sailors get to be kind of right here in the middle. And then over on this side, we're going to have the Sutherland family. So go ahead and find your spot. I always find that baby dedications is one of my favorite, favorite things to do. 3 (18m 1s): And I'll explain why in just a minute. All right, good to see you guys. Okay. I've got a dedication certificate already for you. So I'm gonna go ahead and hand that to you. And this one goes to you and there you go, Maggie. Okay. So what I want to do first is introduce these families to you. So over in this side, we've got Tom and Kelly Wade and their little one is Lyford grant Wade. They go by leave. He goes by leaf and leaf was born September 20th, 2020 in San Louis Obispo, handsome young man. 3 (18m 41s): And here we've got Tom and Kelly Wade and their little one is 2 (18m 49s): Over here. We've got Tom and Kelly Wade. How'd they get up here twice over, 3 (19m 2s): Over here. We've got Cody and Emily's sailors and their little, little one is Judah. Dellbot. They say that right. Dealt with Delbert sailors. And he was born November 23rd, 2020 in San Luis Obispo. Okay. See if I get the third one right over here, Jeremy and Maggie Sutherland. And of course we've got Elsie and Posey and their little one is Winnie Mae Sutherland and she was born February 17th, 2020 in San Luis Obispo. All right. 3 (19m 42s): So dedicating our children to the Lord is really about parents dedicated dedicating themselves to the Lord. First, in fact, Jeremy's going to talk a lot about that in his message this morning. And it's making a commitment to raise our children in what the Bible describes as the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Another translation, the new living puts it this way to raising our children in the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord. And so these families have chosen to be up here today and because you are their church family. And so child dedication is really about making a commitment to us. But of course, to the Lord that we're going to, we as families, as those of us who have the honor and privilege of raising children are going to do it to the best of our ability as God gives us the ability to do so. 3 (20m 33s): There's an interesting verse in Psalm one 27. Let me get back over here in the middle Psalm one 27 beginning with verse three, it says children are a gift from the Lord and they are a reward from him. So we recognize that that children are actually a gift from God and, and a reward. And so therefore all the kids that we have, however many, one or a dozen are all meant to be a gift and a reward from the Lord. And so as parents, how is this done? So raising children is certainly an uncertain thing for sure, but God gives us some instruction. 3 (21m 13s): So from Deuteronomy chapter six, beginning in verse five, God gave some instruction to the people of Israel and we can glean from it as well. It goes like this to parents. He says, you must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I'm giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you're at home, when you're on the road, when you're going to bed and when you're getting up. So the idea is parents, first and foremost, as I mentioned earlier, is our responsibilities have a relationship with God. And he's the one that helps us so that when we communicate to our kids about him and about the things that God has for them in their life, they're, they're getting a real life example from mom and dad and I've found, and Jeremy is going to talk about this again, too. 3 (22m 6s): If, if they're not seeing the reality of our relationship with God in us, first chances are they won't follow that instruct. They want emulated. So it needs to be first and foremost seen in mom and dad. So again, Proverbs 22, direct your children onto the right path. And when they're older, they will not leave it. All right. So I'm going to ask a series of questions to the families here. And if you would just respond as I ask you the question, just say we will. And I think, I think there's seven questions. I'm not really sure 4 (22m 39s): We will. Yes. 3 (22m 42s): However many I asked. All right. So this is to moms and dads. Will you commit to raise your children in an atmosphere of love and discipline, knowing that the best hope for a healthy childhood is one of unconditional love and clear biblical standards. Okay. Second question. Will you communicate? Sorry. Will you commit to communicate to your children? The necessity of placing their faith in Jesus Christ when they're at an age of understanding their personal need and the significance of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. 4 (23m 21s): Okay. 3 (23m 24s): Will you commit to pray often for your children asking the Lord to accomplish his plan and purpose through your children for the glory of God? This is probably the toughest question of all. To be honest, when your child is at an appropriate age, will you commit to release them to follow God's and purpose for their life? Yeah. And finally, last question. Will you commit to humbly place your trust in God, cooperating with him as he accomplishes his plans and purposes in your family? 3 (24m 4s): All right. So I have a couple of verses here. So the first one is going to be for four leaf. The verse I have for him is Jeremiah 29 beginning with verse 11. This is what it says for, I know the thoughts that I think towards you leaf says the Lord, the thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and hope. I have a verse for Judah, Judah, you paying attention. Okay. You can, you can, you can watch the archive online. Okay. And this is Philippians one six. He who has begun a good work in you. Judah will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. 3 (24m 49s): And then Winnie, I call her Winifred. That's not actually true. Am I the only one that does that? Okay. All right. You and me Winifred winning, sorry. Philippians two 13. This verse says for it is God who works in you Winnie both to will and to do his good pleasure. All right. So what we're going to do as a group right now, and whether you're here in the sanctuary or in the loft or in the shop area or online, we're going to pray for these families. Okay. All right, Lord, we lift up leaf to you and Judah to you and Winnie to you. 3 (25m 33s): Lord, we pray that out of, at an early age, they would come to know you as their Lord and savior that at an early age, that we would just have this profound awareness that you are, that you are God, that you are the one who's leading and guiding, directing their family and mom and dad, and, and Lord that just at a very young age, that would make that decision and that they would walk with you from the beginning until the end. And so Lord, also, we pray for these families or that you would give them wisdom as parents to parent well, to lead their families. Well, and Lord, we know that it's, it's an imperfect process of being a parent and raising children. But Lord, I trust we trust. 3 (26m 13s): We pray that you would give them each wisdom, knowledge, discernment along the journey. So it, as a pour into their kids, the result would be awesome. Solar. We commit these families to you. We just thank you, Lord, that you are with them guiding and directing to every step along the way in Jesus name. God's people said, amen, amen. You guys can all sit down now and, and I'm going to turn things over to Jeremy over here. God bless you guys. Thank you so much. 5 (27m 9s): Good morning. Isn't this sweet time. Family is amazing today. We, we, we do that today. We celebrate and we honor the fact that it's all about the family. My hope this morning, as we, as we just peruse through scripture, we'll just be barely skimming the top, the surface. But I want to, I want to show you from, from big time, beginning, from time to time end, it's all about the family of God. So today we celebrate families and first grade and up are in. And I know sometimes it gets a little loud. It gets a little, you got to settle them down. You've got to give him something else to do some distract with that is okay, because in the end, these, these young minds and these young hearts are going to see the way that their parents and their grandparents to worship God. 5 (28m 2s): And that's going to stick in their mind. Maybe even more than anything I'm going to say, or the preacher says, they're going to see the way that their parents sit under the word of God and hear the preaching. And it's, that's going to be such an impression. So I pray today brings just refreshment to your soul, a wind to your sales and oxygen to your lungs. Let me, let me pray this morning. As we jump in Lord, we thank you for this precious gift. This thing called the family. And it was from you, Lord. You are the designer, the creator of families, of marriage, of parenting Lord. And so we look to your word right now to, to, to instruct us, to give us instruction, to show us how to live and how to do these things that you've called us to do Lord. 5 (28m 51s): So pray to the Lord that you would just fill us with your spirit this morning, show us from the word of God, open it up to us in Jesus name. We pray. 2 (28m 57s): Yeah, 5 (29m 1s): Hopefully you aren't getting tired of backpacking analogies. I know that's been the theme of these past few weeks. It's excited to see yesterday. I took, well, two days ago, I took my daughters backpacking for the first time. My other one, not my, not my youngest daughter, right? But my six year old, my eight year old took them backpacking for their first overnight. Or we went about a mile in and it was just a great time. And, and along the way we had to kind of, I had to encourage them just a little bit. And that's kind of the way we start out these trips. Right? Years ago, I saw on the internet, a picture of this rock cliff. And it was what the author described as an old Chumash camp. 5 (29m 43s): And he was very vague in his, in his directions of how to get there. In fact, he was stayed away from telling people where it was because he didn't want people going there and defacing anything, ruined anything. He wanted to kind of keep it a very hidden spot. Buddy, 4 (29m 55s): Show these pictures of this hidden to mash camp. 5 (29m 59s): When he went there, there was this rock cliff, and there was a waterfall that was spilling down in this little lush, little, little, almost garden in the mix of these rocks. And I thought, I want to find out where this is. I want to go there. So for about, and this is, this is 10 years though. So for the last eight, 10 years, I've been tracking down trying to find out where this place is. I know it's in our local back country. I know it's out there. So I've been wanting to 4 (30m 24s): Find it well. About three 5 (30m 26s): Years ago, a friend of mine, I started asking him some questions. I found out he was a backpacker and said, Hey, do you know where this camp is? I started to show him some pictures. He's like, Oh, I know where that's at. Let me show you on the map. So you put a P you put a little dot on my map, where it was. And so in the back of my mind, I'm like, I gotta get that one to find this place. This place looks incredible. And so I had this map, I looked at, I know the store, I know that the, what did the trail involves as far as well, elevation climbs and its rivers and all this stuff's going on. I had a very good picture of what it could be like, but I hadn't put my feet on the trail. I hadn't taken those steps. 4 (31m 2s): So we 5 (31m 4s): Started hiking up that way with the youth that, that went from our team or from our 4 (31m 9s): Took 17 students 5 (31m 12s): Leaders and just had a phenomenal time in the back country. Some of them were first-time backpackers. Some of them had a little bit experience, but all, everyone just joined on the trail. And we, we took a, we went up about 6.8 miles 4 (31m 25s): Up the Hill. And 5 (31m 29s): Even with all the vision and all the like, Hey, this is all the hype of where we were going. It's still in the middle. You can start to see the students' eyes start to get lost. You can start to see I'm like, what am I doing this for everyone? It started out with those great intentions. We're going to power through this. We're going to make it there and no time. And then you kind of get in the middle and you realize, Oh man, there's Hills and there's rocks. And there's rattlesnakes in the bushes, literally rattlesnakes in the bushes, 4 (31m 59s): The tree 5 (32m 0s): Dusty. I didn't, I didn't know. It'd be such a hard climb. My Paxter is starting to weigh me down. And you start to see this look on the student's eyes, halfway in where they're like, well, I can't go back out. And I'm like, there's only one. Oh, like, what do I do? 4 (32m 15s): I tried 5 (32m 16s): To bring a little vision, try to bring a little encouragement. All right, students, this is what we're gonna do. You're gonna, you're gonna stand up in the back. 4 (32m 21s): Okay. I know it. I know that weights kind of crashing your shoulders, but let's just stand up in the pack, 5 (32m 27s): Allows your lungs to get the air that you need looking up. Instead of just looking at the trail below, you allows you to, to see more around you. So just focus on the trail and the hardships there. It's like, Oh, look where we are. Look at the vastness 4 (32m 40s): That's around us. And they push on every single student, made it up 6.8. 5 (32m 47s): Wow. It was a tough track, but we made it. And I think that's what family has been like. That's my analogy. As a family has been like that through this year. You know, our family, we had Winnie right before COVID hit. And my wife, knowing that we're going to have a baby soon decide. It's probably a good time to put our kids in charter school. So she's not only homeschool. And so let's put both kids in charter school, the older kids in charter school. So I get a little reprieve. My wife gets a little reprieve throughout the days. So we put them in charter school two months in and then boom COVID hits. And now my wife has a brand new baby. She's trying to keep live. That has a bunch of food, intolerances and stuff. So there's a hardship. There's now she's homeschooling. 5 (33m 28s): Now we're trying to do all this. And it was just a year that just felt like that pack was just starting to weigh us down. And I think a lot of families felt that this, 4 (33m 37s): And it's 5 (33m 38s): We look up and we see, okay, God has a purpose for the family. Let's, let's see what this vision that God has for purpose. Let's fill up our lungs with this, this, this vision, what the Lord has for us. And let's go from there. Let's 4 (33m 51s): Push on. God 5 (33m 54s): Has a special purpose of, of his plan of redemption through the family. Family is used 301 times in the Bible, old Testament and new Testament family is used 301 times. And I thought that's not fair. That's a lot, 301 times in the whole of all scripture. But then you start adding into that. All the other aspects of family, father, mother, children, sons, daughters, adoption, all these, these things. And you start there. There's a multitude of plethora verses out there in the Bible that would deal with family. So today we're only going to scratch the surface, but fathers and mothers are not replaceable. Never will be, God has set them in place. So we start in this morning in the family and the garden family in the garden from Genesis chapter one, and God gives a design and pattern for his first family for this beginnings 4 (34m 49s): And 5 (34m 49s): In his own image and likeness, he's going to create them. We as humans are imagers of God, we bear God's image. And it's one of the reasons why 4 (35m 1s): This year has 5 (35m 2s): Been so hard for me. I like to see faces. I like to see the image that God has given to each and every one of you. And when those things are covered up, it's like, Oh, we're missing out on something. We're missing that. We are imagers 4 (35m 13s): God. As one 26, 5 (35m 17s): 27, it gets the ball rolling. God says, let there be, let us make man in our own image, according to 4 (35m 25s): Our likeness, 5 (35m 28s): Let them have dominion over the fish of the CEO of the birds, of the air and over the cattle and over every UN over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him, male and female. 4 (35m 45s): He created them. 5 (35m 47s): Now my daughters found a bunch of little creeping things along the trail. I found a lot of fat, a couple of snakes found some lizards that they want to take home with them, but weren't quite able to catch. We found a toad in the Creek and they want to take that home too. But we decided it might be best to keep that little critter there in the, in the car 4 (36m 5s): Creek, because 5 (36m 9s): All those animals are amazing and wonderfully made. But yet there's none like, like God who 4 (36m 14s): Us in our, in his own image, you know that 5 (36m 21s): A lot of people who doubt Genesis narrative as they put it as it's something that well, it's, it's a nice story. 4 (36m 34s): Let me tell you what I believe. And I still, 5 (36m 38s): And a little different sometime. I didn't mention this first service, but I believe in a young earth creation, I believe that the Bible is the infallible and errand authoritative and sufficient word of God for us, that these are just stories that these are histories And that when God takes Adam and Eve, he didn't take something else that was already there. You know, he took Adam from the dusty earth and he created this man in his own 4 (37m 3s): Image and then a woman. 5 (37m 7s): And I realized that sometimes that thought that thinking seven sets myself away from other youth, even other Christians, even others, 4 (37m 16s): Christian universities or higher critics. 5 (37m 21s): I think that I, and I go back and I said, okay, well, this is what I believe, but is that true? Is this, does this true? Is this true? 4 (37m 28s): And what do I 5 (37m 29s): Really believe? And what do I think about the Bible? The Bible has a lot to say about itself, but what is, what is Jesus as the 4 (37m 37s): Author, 5 (37m 40s): The fulfillment of all the old Testament scriptures, what did he think about the Bible? 4 (37m 47s): And Jesus 5 (37m 48s): Accepted the old Testament Canon as, as it, as it exists today, without any modifications and claim to fulfill it. That's in Matthew chapter five, Jesus looked at the old Testament, said, this is the word of God. I came to fulfill it. He didn't change anything. He didn't say, well, this is just a story. That's just a nice pattern to follow. No, he said, this is the word of God. And he filled fulfilled 4 (38m 10s): It. Jesus 5 (38m 12s): Treated the old Testament narratives at straightforward. 4 (38m 17s): That means, 5 (38m 18s): And this is one and two, which he refers to in Matthew chapter 19 and Mark chapter 10. He treats those things as straightforward facts, the creation of man or woman, the creation of family, the garden, 4 (38m 30s): The serpent Jesus treats, Abel Noah, Adam, or Abraham all is living people sorry. 5 (38m 43s): And Gomorrah. He references in Matthew chapter 10, 11, and then Luke 10. He'll talk about lot in Luke chapter 11 or sorry, 17 Isaac and Jacob. He talks about the man in the wilderness and not me as some story, but actual manna bread that came 4 (38m 60s): From the heavens. 5 (39m 3s): He talks about the wilderness serpent, Jesus and Moses as the law-giver 4 (39m 9s): Jesus 5 (39m 9s): Even accepts Jonah as in three days and three nights in the belly of a whale in Matthew, chapter 12, all these things are so 4 (39m 18s): Criticized 5 (39m 22s): And yet Jesus accepted them as straightforward facts and street for narratives, 4 (39m 28s): Jesus 5 (39m 28s): Even accepted the old Testament authors as the ones that are actually wrote it in Mark in Mark chapter seven, Jesus says Moses was the writer of the first five. It 4 (39m 39s): Looks that Isaiah wrote Isaiah 5 (39m 44s): In Matthew chapter 13 and Mark seven that David wrote the Psalms in Mark chapter 12. And that Daniel wrote the book of Matthew in some higher critic. They criticize it. Well, Daniel prophesied so extremely accurate that there wasn't just one Daniel. It must've been written later in attributed to you now. But Jesus said that Daniel wrote the book, 4 (40m 5s): Good Daniel. And I'll get to families in a second, just say, but this is what 5 (40m 13s): Jesus had to say. And so when I come up here and I speak about the FEMA, I want to, I want to stand on the word of God. That's has to be our starting place for his design and intent. And that's what we'll talk about next is the intent and scope 4 (40m 26s): Of that. This God's 5 (40m 28s): Purpose to extend the garden of Eden ind out into the world. And it says, Genesis chapter one, verse 28, then God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air. And over every living thing that moves on the earth, there was supposed to be a stewardship taken care of, of not consuming, not destroying, but to, to watch over these things, You talked about the families that are to come when God gives a God, gives a command nature to says, Oh, I don't want to do this 4 (41m 13s): Man. So many. 5 (41m 16s): He will hear the law, the 10 commandments. How much better would the world be if everyone wanted to follow the 10 committee? 4 (41m 26s): Yeah, 5 (41m 26s): If God's commandment, the first commandment he gives to humankind to mankind was there in one six, when God said, sorry, one 28, let them be fruitful and multiply fruitful, multiply the husband and wife knows what it means to be fruitful and multiply. That is a great commandment to do. There's a great blessing to do, to be fruitful and multiply. And he says, go. And so that's what Adam and Eve do. It says the book of the genealogy of Adam in Genesis chapter five. It says in the day that God created, man, he made them in his likeness. He made them in the likeness of God. 5 (42m 8s): He created them male and female, and he blessed them and called them mankind in the day that they were created. And it goes on to list the sons. And it goes on to say that he had many other sons and daughters. You see it's God who sets the solitary and families Psalm 66. He brings out those who are bound into prosperity, but the rebellious dwell and the dry land, 4 (42m 32s): If that was 5 (42m 32s): God's original intent for these families to go out and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, take care of it. 4 (42m 41s): We know that that trouble comes soon in the garden. There's trouble in the family. 5 (42m 47s): It didn't take long for there to be drama in the family. Genesis chapter three, we see the husband and wife there's drama. Now in the husband and wife, we see a reversal of the God-given roles that instead of Adam being the protector, the head we see now, Eve talking to the serpent and being deceived. And as she eats the fruit, and then she says, she gives the fruit to Adam who was with her. Adam was right there. He should have been watching out for his, his bride. He should have been watching out for his lady and he wasn't. And it quickly becomes the blame game after that. How quickly, how quickly do we jump into that crazy 4 (43m 28s): Cycle? As the book love and respect talks about 5 (43m 33s): Start blaming things. And ultimately the blame didn't fall on Adam and Eve. The they're ultimately blaming God because he was the one who gave everything. And yet God said, this is all very good. And yet they're blaming God for their problems 4 (43m 53s): That doesn't 5 (43m 53s): Stay with Adam and Eve. Then it goes on to their children. You have children in Brazil 4 (43m 59s): And just 5 (44m 2s): Four, six and seven says, so the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door and is desirous for you, but you shall rule over it. Or you should rule, right? 4 (44m 21s): There's trouble 5 (44m 21s): In the family. That all of a sudden now there's the, their kids are now at war with each other. And God appears in a, in a, in a act of grace and mercy, God goes and says, Kane, 4 (44m 35s): Don't do this. Why are you angry? He warns him. And yet 5 (44m 42s): We see the first murder in the first family in the first chapters of the Bible. 4 (44m 49s): I love how honest 5 (44m 51s): Bible is about those who are in it. Doesn't make them out to be seen. So this shows their sin and brokenness right 4 (44m 56s): From the start right away, we have 5 (44m 60s): Murdered there. And then we have the first exile, as Kane is sent out from his family record in Genesis four, it says, and he said, what have you done the voice of your brother? Brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your blood brothers blood. From your hand, when you, till the ground, you shall no longer leave a yield at strength and a fugitive and a vagabond. You shall be on the earth. So Cain is now sent out from his family. If that trouble that started in the first family, it there's now trouble until now 4 (45m 40s): Trouble 5 (45m 40s): Till now. You know, we, we see many families in the old Testament, broken 4 (45m 45s): In missing 5 (45m 49s): God's plan, missing God's original design and intent for family, 4 (45m 57s): But yet it's God who uses a 5 (45m 60s): Family to save the whole world. 4 (46m 3s): God puts husband 5 (46m 5s): Wife. There are three kids, there's three sons and their son and their daughter-in-law into an Ark to preserve and protect the whole world. God uses families. 4 (46m 22s): So where are we at in our cultural world? I wasn't 5 (46m 26s): Planning on sharing any quotes or any, any stats until yesterday was the one book I did bring on my backpacking trip with my daughters. It was fun as, as we spent one out night out in the back country, just a mile in, and as, as we were heading back out, back to the car, back to the trail, head 4 (46m 49s): Stop 5 (46m 49s): To take some pictures of my daughters. I wish I'd, I wish I would have thought of it earlier. And she had them up on the screen, but taking pictures of my daughter and I hear a familiar voice down the trail. And it's pastor Steve and Steven and Curtis, and they're coming up the trail and they're all energized and ready for the whole hike. Well, my daughters are just kind of fading, just trying to make it back to the car. 4 (47m 11s): And they were just, 5 (47m 12s): It was this exciting moment. And I look at Steve with his two sons and there I am with my two daughters and different ages, different sizes. 4 (47m 19s): And yet it was just this cool moment out there. So 5 (47m 25s): Out there, up on the mountain, right now, they're out probably camping by a river manzana, narrows, where we took the youth a few weeks ago, getting his time with some, with some kids I'm stoked to that. He's out there doing So I wasn't planning on PR on giving these quotes and tell this one from a book I just picked up. The book is called raising passionate Jesus followers by Phil and Diane Komer. And he's he quotes a 2000, 2009 study that concluded that 90% of youth active in high school church programs drop out of church. By the time they're sophomores in college with only 34% ever returning as a youth, pastor, 2 (48m 12s): Someone 5 (48m 12s): Who has kids in my own eyes, that's terrifies me 90% 2 (48m 20s): It's sobering, 5 (48m 25s): But there is hope because in 2010, there was another, another study that showed that there was a remnant of homes where faith stood strong in the way, all the way into adulthood Have to end with 90% walking away. There was this remnant of home where we're faith and, and a relationship in a way, in a way, religion was taught and pushed onto them onto your, your children. And it's in those homes where there was an active involvement in the lives of their, of their kids. That, that, that 90% didn't apply. 5 (49m 8s): It says in students who stayed in the church throughout college said, the first thing they do when they have doubts or questions is to talk to their parents and read their Bibles. The students who remained in the faith, the first thing they would do, if they had problems that arose, they'd talk to their parents and read their Bibles. And so that is the model we need to, we need to be doing that. And I'm so stoked that a youth group, what we do is this on a Wednesday night with the youth, it's really not that different. We have some fun, we have some games, we do a little ice breaker, so the students can get to know each other. And then we go straight into the same worship team. Student led worship, 2 (49m 50s): Someone 5 (49m 50s): Who come up and give their testimony of what God has done. And then when they open up the word of God and we have Bibles, and I hear this like page turning, and it's incredible to hear 50, you know, Bibles turning at the same time to, to this text or that text and this it's phenomenal. And I think those are the things that are going to break that 90% is when youth group isn't so foreign to what's in here. And it's one of the reasons that drum drew my family and I to this church is that families are emphasized. We want to do worship together. I want to worship next to my daughters on a Sunday morning. I want, I want them to see me worshiping and I want to see them worshiping. 5 (50m 31s): I want to raise my hand and I want to see my daughter mimic me and raise their hand as well. 4 (50m 38s): It's like that 5 (50m 38s): Father's heart is like beating on my chest, Say a lot about where our culture is at today that I do know this, that Jesus didn't come to change the culture, but he came to change individual, heart, individual hearts. But when a hardest change, then it begins to change culture around it. I think there's no more important job in this world and parents raising godly children. 4 (51m 12s): And even 5 (51m 12s): As I stand up here, I, I know of my own inadequacies on the way I'm doing my best to raise my girls and my, my flaws and my mess up. So pray the Lord's grace over them. 4 (51m 25s): The parents raising godly children, 5 (51m 29s): February 12th, 2004, then mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsome redefined marriage for the first time I believe in the world is no longer be between a male and a female. He ordered city hall to issue different marriage license licenses. There was a marriage being redefining within our lifetime. 4 (51m 54s): In 5 (51m 54s): Our lifetime. We've seen gender being redefined as well. It's no longer male and female. The way that pattern in the image of God, that is being changed. Now I heard of a friend who has a, a larger youth group, not in this area, But on that issue of gender identity, over 50% of them said they didn't fit into in a youth group, didn't fit into male or female. We have to hold the truth. We have to teach and train 4 (52m 32s): The word of God. 5 (52m 36s): All of children is even being redefined in a very subtle crafty way. I've I see, as I look out and watch movies and media, all of a sudden realizing, wow, this is, this is not new. This is, this has been around for a while. And this, this whole thought that parents don't know best children know best 4 (52m 58s): Medium 5 (52m 59s): Portraying parents as being just simple minded and not knowing and not up on the, you know, all the fashion, the culture, all these things are just, just don't listen to your parents, do your thing. It's no longer parents know best it's children know best. And I'm going to throw a Disney movie under the bus right now. It was from, I was 10 years old. When this movie came out, the little mermaid, right? That's a great little movie. What are you saying? Jeremy Disney. And I've let my girls watch it. And I've obviously seen it. I've had to fast forward some sections from my girls, but think about the little mermaid and what it, and what it teaches. 5 (53m 40s): And, and these, these, these minds that a 16 year old are 4 (53m 45s): Teenage girl knows better than what her father, 5 (53m 51s): You know, right. She, she, she wants to go be a human. 4 (53m 55s): She wants to 5 (53m 55s): Collect human things and he finds out and he says, no, no, you can't do this. This isn't good. This isn't healthy. And so he, he, 4 (54m 1s): You know, destroys 5 (54m 3s): All our things and she's left to go out on her own to make this thing happen. And so she pursues the path of becoming a human and, and doing it her way. And then she gets into trouble. And then her father has to rescue her. And then in the end, Oh, he realizes that you're right, honey, you should be a human. You should do this thing. But if you see the crafty lies that become the in-between that you realize that what is telling the Watchers that hate your parents don't know best. It's actually you who knows best. You need to do your own thing. You need to not listen to your parents. That is, 4 (54m 36s): Is dangerous. So how does God want to use your family? 5 (54m 53s): First off marriage and family is a mystery. Is it not? Because it's a picture of something greater, something that will fully be revealed when, when Jesus Christ comes back, I would encourage you this week to read through Ephesians in the light of family, as in a church family, but your own family, read Ephesians, and just see what things begin to pop out to you. As you read the book of Ephesians in light of family, church, family, and your own family. And, and if you think grandparents, I want you to keep the course because you're not done raising your own children and you're, and you're, and you're, and you're there in the lives of your grandkids and young people. 5 (55m 35s): If you think, Oh man, that he's, Jeremy's talk about marriage and family just know that if the Lord tarries someday, you will have her own family. And these seeds, the seeds of the word of God will someday sprout. And I want to see you have a godly marriage and a godly family. 4 (55m 47s): Oh, really? 5 (55m 51s): Joel Kim said this. He said, family is one of the central means by which the Lord deepens and expands our faith. 4 (55m 60s): And it's often 5 (56m 1s): As a model of our heavenly father 4 (56m 4s): Quoting from 5 (56m 5s): The old Testament. Paul Paul Paul goes to second Corinthians. He's writing his letter to the Corinthians. And he says this, that God will be a father. I will be a father to you. And you shall be my sons and daughters says the Lord almighty. And so with all these attacks in the culture to our family, we have to know that it's not just, these are flesh and blood things. These aren't just people's ideas. These are straight lies from the pit of hell. This attack on family, isn't flesh and blood. Paul would say in Ephesians six, finally, my brother, and be strong in the Lord in the power of his might put on the whole armor of God that she may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. 5 (56m 47s): We need to know what the Wiles of the devil are to be able to stand against them for, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities against powers against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. Having done all to stand the rebellion against family and marriages and children is, is a direct act of rebellion against the very nature of the Godhead and parents are so needed. Parents can never be replaced. The parents are needed. There is a Holy dependence upon parents. 5 (57m 27s): And often that is comes in the form of wisdom and direction into, in speaking into the lives of their kids. When I was in high school, I wanted to go watch a high school football game. It's in the fall of central Valley. It gets a little cool at nights. My mom was like, you need to take your jacket. Nah, I don't need my jacket. Now you need to take a jacket. You'll get you'll. You'll get chilly. You'll get chilled. And then you'll get a cold. Nah, I won't. I will. I'll be fine. Ran around that whole evening. Came home, had a sniffle. Next day, I had a cold. My mom knew me better than I knew myself In second Chronicles, chapter one, God appears to Solomon in a dream. 5 (58m 19s): And he asks him basically, Hey Solomon you're you're you're, you're the King. You're the man. What do you want? What do you want? Do you want your enemies? Go on whatever you want. You just ask for it. And Solomon asks for wisdom and knowledge. 2 (58m 36s): Why does 5 (58m 36s): Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge? I mean, it seems pretty straightforward, right? He's going to be the new King. He's got all these people. He's got to lead. Why he asked for wisdom and knowledge open up to Proverbs four. If you have your Bible, 2 (58m 54s): Proverbs chapter four. 5 (59m 3s): And in Proverbs chapter four, Proverbs is a book written by Solomon. This struck out this, this stuck with me a few years ago. 2 (59m 16s): Yeah. 5 (59m 19s): The first part of Proverbs, most the provers is written to his kids to Solomon's kids. Chapter four verse one says here, my children, the instruction of a father and give attention to, to know understanding for, I give you good doctrine. Do not forsake my law. When I was young, when I was my father's son tender in the only one in, in, in, in the sight of my mother, he also taught me and said to me, so let me ask you. Who wrote the book of Proverbs Solomon, who was Solomon's father? Who was Solomon's dad, David. 5 (1h 0m 0s): So this are the, these are the words he records. The words he received from his father in the book of Proverbs says, so now he's telling us, so in Proverbs, he says this, this is what he taught. This is what David taught Solomon. He said this in verse four, let your heart retain my words. Keep my commands and live, get wisdom, get understanding, do not forget or turn away from my words in my mouth for and do not forsake her for. She will preserve. You love her. And she will keep you wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom. And in all you're getting get understanding. I think there's a direct correlation to David St. 5 (1h 0m 41s): Son someday. I know your weaknesses. I know, I know you someday. You're going to be King and this is what you need to have. You need to have wisdom and you need to have understanding. So God appears to Solomon a dream. What do you want? Well, my dad said, I need wisdom. I need to do, I need to get wisdom. Parents are so needed for your input, but also that gives a responsibility for children. So I want to invite up Tyler to come up now to come up and give us a word as well. This morning, you just thought I was just going to be me. 5 (1h 1m 23s): And I got to, I got Tyler to come up to give a word. Come on, buddy. 6 (1h 1m 30s): All right, good afternoon. Yeah. It's it's afternoon already. So since it's you take over, I'm going to start off with kind of a traditional youth introduction. My name is Tyler . I'm 16. I've been attending harvest for about 12 years. Now my toothbrush color is white, green and pink. And because Gabe is probably watching this and he will get upset. If I don't my tooth press toothbrush, bristled density is his medium. Okay. Very important. So family, as Jeremy's been talking about as an important part of God's plan, children are obviously a part of that plan, but a really key aspect of children in God's plan is raising and becoming godly children. 6 (1h 2m 16s): Pastor Ron touched on this verse with the dedication Proverbs 22 six, he used a slightly different version. I'm using the King James, cause you can't really go wrong with that. It says, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. I really liked this version because of the words train up to prepare for battle. So when we leave these walls, it's a battle out there we're being okay. And how Jeremy said that 90% of Christian youth leave the church after high school. That's crazy. That's that's our fight. Okay? That's our parents can help us with that. But us as youth have to decide whether we want it or not. 6 (1h 2m 59s): That's our responsibility. Our responsibility is to listen to our parents, our elders, and learn how to use the weapons that they will teach us. And that God wants us to use. I was looking at another article, very similar to what Jeremy was talking about. And it gave some reasons for why youth leave the church. One of them was when kids go to college, all of a sudden they're surrounded by all these atheist ideas. These people who are super comfortable in their reasoning and they, they know what they're talking about. And they're going to convince you that this is, this is the real thing. Their belief is wrong. A lot of color kids, college, Christian youth don't know how to respond to that. 6 (1h 3m 45s): They don't know how to defend their faith. They instead of pressing in and learning how to defend their faith, they fall back and want to be comfortable. They don't want to push themselves out of their comfort zone. I wasn't going to share this, but it's Jeremy started off first service with two CS Lewis quotes. So I figured I kind of copy that. But CS Lewis was really famous for arguing against atheist, debating them publicly. And one day he was beaten. He'd never really been beaten before. 6 (1h 4m 25s): And the way he responded to that was by writing the Chronicles of Narnia, probably the most influential Christian children's book out there. And so my point is we will face attack. We will be defeated at some point, okay, it's inevitable. But the fact that we need to change is how we respond to that. Are we going to fall back and be afraid and give into the enemy? Or are we going to keep pressing forward? Are we going to keep taking one step at a time until we get to the end? Okay. Till we get to the goals and plans, God has set for us. 6 (1h 5m 5s): Fusions six one through three says children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right honor. Your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you. And that you may enjoy long life on the earth. The second reason that they said kids fall away from the church is because kids don't think the Bible has any significant meaning directly at them. When they're kids, it's for the old people, the old people can do what they want and I'll do my own thing and everyone's happy, but God wants us to be with him. Okay. He gives his first commandment with a promise to the children, not to the adults, not to the priests. He wants us to be with him. 6 (1h 5m 45s): He says, I know the road is going to be long and hard and painful. But if you keep following me, if you keep pressing into it, you'll get the reward at the end. One thing I'm super grateful for my parents is teaching me that pushing past the pain will get me to the best things in life. Keeping on that idea of backpacking that Jeremy did. My first backpacking trip. I went with a bunch of a couple of my buddies and they're done ads. And we could either backtrack the way we came. Nice. You know, seen it Creek route. There's some ups and downs. Okay. It's not a cakewalk. Or we could do a trail called hurricane deck. 6 (1h 6m 26s): Now at the time, hurricane deck sounded super awesome and it is, but we got up we're we're gonna, we're going to do it. We knew the elevation was going to be, you know, significant. And it's going to be like climbing. I don't know, like 2,600 feet. And so we get up and we get going and we're hiking and they're switchbacks and the trails in front of us and we're climbing and we start to see the top of the Hill. We're going up. And we're like, okay, we're almost there. This is great. You know, it's hard, but it's not that hard. And it's gets a little steeper. So we decided to take a break for like, you know, the last push-up and one of the dads pulls out, his GPS gives them a thing, looks at it and goes, we've climbed about 400 feet. 6 (1h 7m 15s): We still had over 2000 feet to go. So we get over this Hill and we, I look up and there's this like mountain range that we're going to have to climb. And there's no switchbacks. The trail fades into bushes. You go straight up this thing. And so we put our heads, heads down and we climbed and climbed. I don't think I've ever done a harder hike. That was hard. My toes hurt my calves burned at times I, I wanted to quit. It was, it was that bad. The trail was not the most well-maintained so, you know, there's branches all over. My legs are getting cut up. I'm getting slapped in the face with, with branches, but I kept telling myself, keep going, take one, one more step. 6 (1h 8m 0s): Just another step. Get to the top. And when we got to the top, you could see the entire Valley before you've got a river off to one side, you've got snow, captain mountains up top. It was probably greatest view I've ever seen in my life. And I've been to the grand Canyon. I've been to Zion national park cabin. I've been to all the really cool places that everyone says, you have to go. The reason why that is my favorite place as one, the view is by far the best. Okay. If you ever get the chance to do a hurricane deck and you can do it, be prepared. Okay. 6 (1h 8m 41s): But the reason it was, it was so great was because I had to work for it. I didn't get a pull up and park and be like, Oh, there's the view. Yay. I had to bust my butt off to get up there. Okay. And when I got back to the cars, it was like 10 miles of hiking. I was exhausted and it takes a good bit to exhaust me. So I would just want to encourage all of you to keep pressing on when it gets hard. When the road is tough, keep taking this as forward. Tell yourself one more step. If I take one more step, we'll get closer and keep taking those steps because in the end it'll be worth it. 6 (1h 9m 21s): Thank you for letting me do this. 5 (1h 9m 32s): Thanks Tyler. That's amazing. So we have now an invitation into God's family. It was God who in his, in his special purpose, took this husband and wife of, of, of, of fresh new family, Mary and Joseph, and had them bring his son to the world. God uses family. And there's two ways I see in the, in the text in the Bible that God invites us into his family. One is by adoption, Ephesians chapter one verses three through six, has blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be Holy and without blame before him having predestined deaths to the adoption of sons as his sons, by Jesus Christ himself. 5 (1h 10m 25s): According to the good pleasure of his will, God invites us into that adoption into his family. The other way I see is by marriage, by patrol, there are a covenant or a contract. She John 14, a one through five says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me for, in my father's house, there are many mansions. And if I were to not, if were not, so I would not have told you, but I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. He is inviting his bride, the church to join him in his head, in the father's house. 5 (1h 11m 7s): The insula that the place where a son, after his betrayal, the, to his bride, he would go and to his house and his father's house and begin building a room, begun, building a place for he and his family to then live. And Jesus is making those words is seeing the same thing. It's like, I'm going to go. And I'm going to prepare that place for you. And I love Thomas because he asked the question, Lord, we do not know where you're going. How can we know the way Jesus makes one way? He says, I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father, except through me. We are to be then a family for eternity, a family for eternity. 5 (1h 11m 52s): And the earth is a waiting. And as well as our bodies are just awaiting this new creation, the new heavens and the new earth, 4 (1h 12m 2s): Let's go 5 (1h 12m 3s): To Romans chapter eight, real fast, Romans chapter eight, 4 (1h 12m 16s): I'll start 5 (1h 12m 16s): 18. It says for, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory. That shall be revealed in us. And like Tyler is saying when, when he was climbing that mountain, the hurricane deck, there is sufferings. But once you get to the top and you can get that vision of everything that's going on there is there's this, this there's this, this glory sense. Like, ah, this is majesty. You look around and you see, what's what God has put out to set us before us 4 (1h 12m 48s): Verse 19 for the earnest expectation of the creation 5 (1h 12m 51s): Equally waits for the revealing of the sons of God, for the, for the creation was subjected to futile, futility, not willingly willingly, but because, 4 (1h 13m 3s): Because of him who subjected it to it in hope, because 5 (1h 13m 6s): Creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious Liberty of the children of God. For, we know that the whole creation, groans, and labors with birth pains until now, not only that, but we also have the first fruits of the spirit, even ourselves groan within ourselves are the earth is waiting for this new creation. Our bodies are awaiting as Jesus as the restore of the family of God. If you go to revelation 21, you'll see the vision that John was given. And it says, and he sees this vision of God on the throne. He says, in hue sound in the throne behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, write for these words are true and faithful. 5 (1h 13m 47s): And he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the Omega at the beginning. And the end, I will give of the fountain of water. I need water. Sorry. I will give it the fountain water of life freely to him who thirst. And he who overcomes shall inherit all things. I will be his God. And he will be my son, 4 (1h 14m 9s): 2004. I set out a couple of friends to 5 (1h 14m 12s): Conquer mountain shack 4 (1h 14m 13s): Faster. It was a January full of ice. We had to 5 (1h 14m 19s): Shoo up to high camp. And then from high camp, we woke up at four in the morning and began our ascent up the last remaining 6,000 feet. And it was, I mean, it was a grueling day Crampons on her feet, ice axes in her hand, just working our way at this, at this icy slope. And all day I kept looking up, okay, okay. There's the summit. I can, I can do the summit. I can, I can see it. It's right there. And just as we thought about, about, about 12 o'clock about noon, we reached that summit and I realized it was a false summit like 4 (1h 14m 54s): That. Wasn't it. And what I said, 5 (1h 14m 56s): She is it's called misery Hill. And I know the reason why it's now called misery Hill. 4 (1h 15m 3s): There's a little plateau. 5 (1h 15m 4s): And then you see misery hell and it's about, it's a 400 foot Hill on top of Mount Shasta. 4 (1h 15m 11s): And I 5 (1h 15m 11s): Just remember thinking how in the world am I going to do this? And as I approached misery Hill, I realized that it was solid, crunchy ice. And that there wasn't nice staircase. There was no trail. It was just, you go straight up this Hill. 4 (1h 15m 22s): And the way that the ice 5 (1h 15m 24s): Had formed and the wind had had, had its way with it, it was an 18 inch steps. So each step you have to like lift your foot up 18 inches to get up the next one. And I would take one step fire breath, one step five. It was just this painful. And then once you got to the top of the Hill, then he realized there's another thousand or a hundred feet to go a hundred yards to go. And then finally 4 (1h 15m 46s): The summit. And I later 5 (1h 15m 49s): Down after I got to the top of misery Hill and I thought, that's it, I'm done. And my friends who are 4 (1h 15m 52s): There, so Jeremy, you got it. We're not doing this alone. We're not leaving you here. Come on. 5 (1h 15m 59s): We made our way to the summit and it hadn't been those guys. I would not have made it. And that is what church that is what the family of God is for. We are here to support and encourage others onto the glory. That is yet to come 4 (1h 16m 12s): From time, pass 5 (1h 16m 13s): Time, attorney God is using his family. And so now as we take partake 4 (1h 16m 17s): Of communion, we have a few 5 (1h 16m 19s): Communion cups. If you didn't receive them on the way in, you can grab those in. Actually I need one. I forgot mine. Can I give him a breaker? If you didn't have to get, didn't get one. Thank you, sir. Raise your hand and we'll get, we'll get those to you. 4 (1h 16m 33s): But this is 5 (1h 16m 33s): Now the invitation and the remembrance of God's family. Communion is what we look on, what Jesus has done for us. It is remembering what he has done for us 4 (1h 16m 44s): Last. And we therefore need to examine ourselves to make sure 5 (1h 16m 49s): We're not doing, we're not adding anything to the cross of Christ. We're not trying to add to works or perfection or anything. Jesus Christ did it all at the cross. And so we are remembering his invitation into the 4 (1h 17m 2s): Family at a Galilean wedding. It was different than any other in Jerusalem. 5 (1h 17m 10s): And in any other wedding in Israel, in a Galilean wedding, as the groom, they S they read the contract at the gate. Both families were there every week. There was multiple witnesses. As they read the groom would then pour the cup and he would extend it to his bride or his potential bride. And then a Galilean wedding. The bride had the, was, had the ability to either accept or reject that cup of wine. And after receiving, if she chose to accept, she would take us. She would drink from it. And then the girl, the groom would say this, he would save, I will no longer drink of the fruit of this vine of this cup until the day of our wedding feast, As Jesus is passing out the cup that night, the night before his knife, as betrayal, the night of his death, he tells his disciples verily. 5 (1h 18m 3s): I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of this vine until the day that I drink it in the new kingdom, Jesus looks at his disciples and said, I want you to be in my kingdom. You will be my family. So if you have accepted his death, his burial, his resurrection as your own, if you have believed in confess, this community is we don't do this in remembrance. So it's the tin foil top. Did you kind of pull off, sorry. The bread 2 (1h 18m 33s): Is 5 (1h 18m 33s): Not easy. I know I'm struggling in front of everybody. 2 (1h 18m 43s): Read 5 (1h 18m 45s): Paul would say for, I receive from the Lord that, which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed, took the bread. And he, when he had given things, he broke it and he said, take this, eat my body, which is broken for you, do this. And remember in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper saying the cup. This is the cup of my new covenant in my blood. Do this. As often as you drink it in remembrance of it, 2 (1h 19m 37s): Let's pray and have the worship team come up. 5 (1h 19m 47s): We do this in remembrance of you making the way into 2 (1h 19m 53s): The only way into the family of God. We accept your death and 5 (1h 20m 3s): Resurrection as, as our own Lord. So we want to live in this new life. The do the new covenant board of what you've done for us. We want to be filled with your spirit as we go out. And we love on our families and love on the family of God as a whole remove division, Roos, strife, Lord mayor, families not be like the garden of Eden families. Those families are there that were there, the first families, Lord, but maybe we model the family that Jesus you came to to live in and to enjoy and to breathe and to, to give what, to pray that we would have been filled with your vision of what you want to do with his family fills to the spirit this morning in Jesus' name, we pray, amen. 5 (1h 20m 54s): We'll have a worship. We'll have the worship band plan out. And then if you have any prayer, any things you want to lift up for prayer, any blessings come up with the front and what we'd love to pray for. You let's stand together. 0 (1h 30m 56s): Lord, thank you for this day. God, I pray that as we go out, back into the world, God, back into this culture that we live in God, that would be a light for people to follow God that we would be able to carry what we've taken from the sermon today. God, and bring it to other people God, and build the, build your church. God. So I thank you for this time. God, I thank you for this time that we get to worship and fellowship in all of this in Jesus name. Amen guys. 0 (1h 31m 39s): Have a good day.

0 (0s): Let's all stand and we're going to worship together. Lord, we just want to invite you in our hearts Lord, to be preeminent in our hearts. Lord, thank you. That it is your idea that we would gather together as believers. And we just simply want to enter into that amazing place, that wonderful place of worship. So Lord, we just invite them not only your presence, but that indwelling part of Horsham. So then as we sing these songs, it's not just songs we're singing, but we're literally lifting up our heart, our mind, our soul, all that we are to you, the living God. 0 (42s): So Lord, we just delight in you with thank you so much for the privilege of drawing near to you today, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Sing together. There was a moment was the dog . 0 (13m 7s): I need some miracles this morning. Maybe you have pain in your body. Your heart is broken in your fighting anxiety, whatever it is, do some miracles it's reaching out to you for a miracle is desperate all over this campus and everywhere every house you might even want to reach, reach out to you, your loving presence and your healing, your spirit on your sons and daughters. 0 (14m 19s): Remind us of your faithfulness and your goodness, your new for state . 1 (18m 47s): And I pray that we would be able to internalize that truth. God, that you will never let us down. You are good. You are faithful. We can put the full weight of our trust in you believing you wholeheartedly without reservation, without holding anything back. Lord God, we just want to believe that and know that that is true. So I pray God, God, for just a blessing upon those who are struggling with that revelation, God, that you would help them to reflect on their past when you have been so faithful Lord, it's hard to hard to believe sometime for the future, the press or excuse me, the president, or even the future, but we can reflect on the past and then we can look at the scripture, no of your faithfulness, Lord, you never let people down. 1 (19m 35s): So help us to internalize that truth. Today we pray be glorified as we do so in Jesus name, amen. Amen. You can be seated. And if you are in fifth grade or above, you are dismissed to your class fifth grade or above, you can go ahead and go to your class. You're what you're in fifth. You are. If you are a fifth grade through 12th grade, you can be dismissed. If you're above 12th grade, you have to stay in church. Should've made that more clear. 1 (20m 16s): I absolutely should have made that more clear we're in first Timothy chapter five today, or get through the whole chapter today. I was, as I was kind of thinking about the message this morning and praying about, you know, kind of wanting to get God's heart for the message. I decided to go out into the garden and just do some praying. We've we've got this garden in front of our house. It's kind of like the secret garden it's been in the making for decades now. And it's just really beautiful. And that's how I was walking around the secret garden and just the beauty, the flowers, and all of the hard work that my wife and mother-in-law put into it. I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I saw this little yellow thing in the garden and it was an Easter egg that was left behind from the Easter egg hunt in our family. 1 (21m 5s): The little kids get an Easter egg hunt and then the next generation of kids, which would be my kids. If you're, you know, the 20 to 30 year olds, they get an Easter egg hunt, but in their Easter egg hunt, there's money inside the eggs. And so it's, you know, it's a lot of incentive for our kids, our 20 and 30 year olds to go and find eggs. Well, it just so happened that they missed an egg, but I got to it and had already been opened up probably by my dog by by Jolene's dog. I'll say Jolene's dog is more a dog and my dog. And then the kid cat that was inside, that was all taken out as well. And the rapper I saw the rapper nearby. And so I'm trying to pray, but now I'm thinking Easter eggs, right? 1 (21m 46s): I'm thinking there's probably more Easter eggs where there's one, there's more. And I know that if it's, if I find something, I might find some money. So I look it around trying to, trying to pray, but distracted, right? So I find another Easter egg and I crack it open and it's got a $2 bill in it, some pretty good deal. So I keep looking, keep looking. I found another Easter egg, but this one had a $20 bill in it. Then I keep looking and I find another Easter egg. And it's also got a $20 bill in it. 1 (22m 26s): So now I'm $42 richer. And you know what I'll be doing after church looking for more Easter eggs, right? So in reality, this money does not belong to me because it really belongs to the kids who were supposed to find it. So Jolene, I want you to come and get this and then take it to Steven back there. Cause he's my son. And he's my, he's the one that probably should have found it. And so there you go see, even you get the 42 bucks. My first thought was this is going to buy me around a golf, you know, but then I, you know, decided to give it to my kid. 1 (23m 9s): So as I was looking at all the free for the Easter eggs and praying about it and thinking about the message I noticed, there's like hundreds of snails out there as well as early morning. And there's just snails everywhere. And I thought, I thought we were talking today about getting along with others out of first into the chapter five. And I thought, you know, if we look hard enough, we can find beauty in every person. We can find beauty and every person beauty that will help us to love people and get along with them Mo betta, or we can kind of keep our eyes on the snails. You were kind of eating things up in the garden 2 (23m 46s): And things that we don't like. We can get distracted by the snails. Maybe, maybe we say the wards that people have or the blemishes that people have or the problems that people have. But I think God wants us to focus on the positive things that God would have us to focus on within our relationships. And so we're going to actually ask, answer the question. What are the five steps to getting along with others? As we look at the scripture as we look and what I like about a text like this is because as we look at Jesus' life, Jesus got along with everybody except for the religious leaders who were leading people astray. He loved everybody, whether they were stuck in sin, dealing with all kinds of stuff or whatever, he attracted people who were broken, who were in desperate need any ministry to them. 2 (24m 34s): And he loved on them and he cared for them. And so he has asked us to do the same thing within the context of our relationships. If we took a poll, we could probably come up with all kinds of differences, whether it be religious differences, theological differences, political differences, whatever, but the Copely, the common denominator for us as Jesus. And hopefully the common denominator helps us to love people the way that Jesus loves people. So that's the challenge for us today. Steps to getting along with others first, Timothy chapter five. This is Paul speaking to Timothy, who pastors a church in the town of emphasis. 2 (25m 16s): And so Paul, a seasoned veteran in the ministry is speaking to Timothy, who is newer to the ministry. And he's telling him, Hey, this is how you deal with people. This is how you react and respond to people. This is how you love people as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He said in the verse, one never speak harshly to an older man. The word there is it's elder. But in this context, Paul is not speaking about the office of elder. He will be later on, but he's right now speaking about justice, older men never see speak harshly to an older man, but appealed to him respectfully, as you would to your own father, maybe you're here today. 2 (26m 0s): You've got to run relationship with your father. So this isn't helping you. I had a rough relationship with my father for years. My dad hit the road when I was about two years old and he never really looked back and never paid child support really never was involved in our lives much. And so I had as an adults to make the decision, to find the good in my father and rekindle that relationship. And we've done that. And now we speak on the phone about once or twice a week weekend. There's, there's something beautiful about the decision to find the good in the people that are hard to find the good and, and the more I talk with my dad and meet with, you know, him, the more I find that there's good in him got a rough start, but there's good in him. 2 (26m 49s): And that's the attitude that God wants us to have that Paul is speaking to Timothy about. He says, never speak harshly to an older man, but appeal to him respectfully as you would to your own father. Maybe. So maybe there's a couple of things going on here. Maybe God wants to do something in your heart regarding your relationship with your father, whether your father is still alive or passed, God can do a healing in your heart, restoring a health to your heart concerning your father. And then maybe you've got older people in your life. And you're having a hard time speaking to and dealing with respectfully just because they're difficult. People. Everything that God asks us to do in his scripture requires that we are filled with this power that we're filled with the grace face of God, the Holy spirit, the power of God, so that we can do what he's asked us to do. 2 (27m 38s): So everything that God asks us to do requires strength from God to accomplish. So I never speak harshly to an older man, but appealed to him respectfully, as you wish your own father, maybe you've got a difficult Persia and you're saying, man, I'm having a hard time. I'm speaking respectfully with this person, Lord, would you help me? And so you go into the conversation and you say, Lord, I'm going to speak to this person with grace and respect, and you're going to give me the grace to do it. And I'm grateful for that. And then you just move forward. The verse continues, talk to younger men as you would to your own brothers thought about my relationship with my full blood brother. I've got, I got a full-blooded brother. I got two stepbrothers and I got a half brother. So there's got a lot of brothers. 2 (28m 18s): And I think, you know, I've for 52 years, my brother and I've been connected and there's there, there's something that happens over 52 years. There's a connection, a depth of relationship, a respect, and a love that we share for one another. And this is kind of the example that Paul uses as he writes Timothy talk to younger men as you would your own brothers. And so talk to younger men there, we've got lots of young men around this church, right? I just went backpacking with a group of them a couple of weeks ago. And I tell you, there's a, it's a stellar group of young men that we have in this church. 2 (28m 58s): And Keegan's one of them. Keegan is a young guy, senior in high school. He's in the loft right now. I'm running the soundboard in there and then you'll often see them running cameras back there where my son Steven is. And then you'll often often see them up here on the platform playing music. He's just serving everywhere. He's just a stellar example of, of a young man. And so as I think about younger men and talking to them as you would to your own brother, it's easy to talk with a guy like Keegan or the stellar young men of our church with respect and with love. But then there's the young people in your life who aren't so stellar. And that's again difficult, right? Because there's, you know, as young men were often your heart stuff and struggles, and it's hard to, hard, to hard to relate 1 (29m 42s): To those 2 (29m 43s): Young men. But again, by God's grace, as 1 (29m 45s): We address the young people 2 (29m 48s): In our lives with respect, with love and with kindness, 1 (29m 52s): And at times with a challenge to change or to grow up, 2 (29m 56s): Then we can do it with the right heart. And with the right mind, that's all in verse one, verse two says, treat older women as you would your mother. My mom goes to church here. She's right here on the second row. And my mom, after my parents divorced, worked hard, very hard, very, very hard to make sure we had a roof over our head and clothes and food and all that sort of thing. And think about the history and the past and all the stuff that she went through. And as I think about other women, older women in the church, I think people have a story. And I, I just, I think what I wonder what that person's story is. 2 (30m 38s): And then I think about my mom and I think I, I'm going to honor that person and love that person to the best of my ability. And it says, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters. 1 (30m 49s): So palsy, young guy, or a palsy old guy talking to a young guy and a Timothy is at pastoring, this church. And he, so he's got this challenge to address the Gallus his age 2 (31m 3s): With 1 (31m 4s): All purity as he would his own sister. And what a, what a great model 2 (31m 9s): For a young people who are dating for guys in the way that they're supposed to treat women in their lives, it's supposed to treat them with all purity as you would your own sister. So with that perspective, purity is, is the utmost important to see in a relationship. And we have this responsibility as young people, young people have this responsibility to treat the women in their lives as their own sisters with purity and with dignity, five steps to getting along with others. Number one, treat all people with respect, treat all people with respect, fathers, brothers, mothers, and sisters, treat everybody with respect. 2 (31m 50s): Number one, number two, take 1 (31m 52s): Care of those truly in 2 (31m 55s): Need. I just thought about a joke as that was thinking about the Easter eggs. I thought about a joke. And so I thought I'd share a joke with you. How do you catch a unique bunny rabbit unique up on it? How do you catch a tame? One same way. I was supposed to say that earlier in the message, then I forgot about it. 1 (32m 25s): So I'm saying it now because it's kind of a heavy 2 (32m 28s): Message. And so I wanted to throw in a joke. There sounds good. 1 (32m 32s): Number two, take care of those in need. You really need to take care of 2 (32m 37s): Or honor. Any widow has no one else to take care of LSD care for her. 1 (32m 44s): But if she has children or grandchildren, their first responsibility is to show godliness at home and repay their parents by taking care of them. 2 (32m 51s): This is something that pleases God. So we actually have a spirit 1 (32m 56s): Well responsibility as people in the Lord, people of the Lord today 2 (33m 0s): Take care of our parents and grandparents. We, we are, 1 (33m 6s): We have a responsibility, especially with widows, but if she has children or grandchildren, their first response 2 (33m 11s): Abilities to show godliness at home and repay their parents by taking care of them. This is something that pleases the Lord, the fifth commandment, what's the fifth commandment honor, your father and your mother. And this is the only command with a promise that your life, that you may have many days in the land, the Lord is giving you the fifth commander honor, father and mother. So we have this profound responsibility and privilege to take care of those who have taken care of us. And it's really not just an option. It's actually a responsibility. So what's a true widow though. Verse five says, now it's true. 1 (33m 47s): Oh, a woman who is truly alone in this world has 2 (33m 50s): Placed her hope in God. She prays night and day asking God for his help. When I think about a true widow, I'm thinking about the prophetess Anna in Luke chapter two, when Jesus, I think it was when Jesus was being presented at the temple and this woman, Anna was there. And 1 (34m 8s): It says that she had been married to her husband 2 (34m 10s): For seven years. And I 1 (34m 12s): Even in the text, it says she was 84 years old. And she spent all of her time 2 (34m 16s): In the temple, praying and fasting and worshiping 1 (34m 21s): The Lord. She spent all of her time doing this. This is how she spent her widowed years. She spent all of her time working, 2 (34m 28s): Shipping, fasting, and praying night and day. I think about another widow who was a part of our church for a lot of years. Her name was freedom. Maroney she's passed. Now you guys remember freedom. We, we called her granny. We called her granny. And when granny was still alive, I'd go visit her and she'd see. Yeah. 1 (34m 47s): Ask the question. Why am I still here? Why won't the Lord take me home? I said, I don't know, granny. I don't have any idea, but I 2 (34m 54s): Know that you 1 (34m 57s): Have purpose as long as you're here in the earth. I said, so use this time to pray for your kids, for your grandkids, your great grandkids 2 (35m 4s): Kids. Cause she was, I think she had, she was close to a hundred. She had, she, she was very old and had a lot of grandkids. And so I said, use this time to pray for your kids and grandkids and see what the Lord will do. And so she would agree and I'd go back to visit her again. And she'd say, why am I still here 1 (35m 23s): As a grantee? Because you got some prayer work to do. So make sure that you're praying for your, 2 (35m 28s): Your kids and your grandkids. And so when we got the call that she had passed away, we weren't surprised at all. But we were able to rejoice that the Lord was glorified in life. A true widow, a woman who's truly alone in this world has placed her hope in God. She prays night and day asking God for his help. We got a bunch of widows in our church. What do they call the sunflower girls? Sunflower group. Yeah, wonderful. As a group of gals and they gather, and they spend time together and they enjoy fellowship together. And they're using their lives to honor and glorify the Lord verse six says, but the widow who lives only for pleasure spiritually dead, even while she lives, give these instructions to the church so that no one will be open to criticism. 2 (36m 16s): So saying a widow who's living only for pleasure is actually spiritually dead. 1 (36m 20s): And I would say anybody who lives only for pleasure 2 (36m 22s): Is actually spiritually dead. 1 (36m 24s): Because as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, we're actually called to purpose in this life. Now 2 (36m 30s): I encourage you to have a good time. We live here on the central coast of California and there's great hiking and surfing and biking and golf 1 (36m 37s): Everywhere. There's all kinds of stuff to enjoy. So enjoy 2 (36m 40s): It, enjoy it. In fact, I played golf on Friday, you got a call from a buddy of mine and he's like, Hey, do you want to golf this afternoon? Another pastor in the area. I'm like, what time? He said three. I said, how about three 30? And I was like, ready to go because I'd been up since four o'clock that morning working on stuff. And so I was ready for some reprieve. So I get out there and we play golf together and we had a great time played nine holes out of black Lake. And I, I beat him by 11 strokes. 1 (37m 8s): I got, I never beat anybody 2 (37m 9s): 30 by 11 strokes. I'm always the guy getting beat by 11 strokes, but I beat this guy by 11 strokes. So anyway, yeah. Brag on myself a little bit. Sorry about that, 1 (37m 19s): Jordan. You'll be me next time by 11 strokes, but that's all right. So enjoy life, but blended together with the purpose of God 2 (37m 29s): For your life. Enjoy what you do. I'm going to go backpacking with my two boys on, on Saturday next week, we're going to go backpacking and spend some time together, enjoy life, but don't forget the purpose that God has called you to anyone who's living only for pleasure of spiritually dead, even while she lives or he lives verse eight says, but those who won't care for their relatives, especially those in their own household have denied the true faith. 1 (37m 56s): Such people are worse than unbelievers. And so again, we've got this spiritual responsibility to care for our loved ones. And so if you've got young kids and people in your life, you've got a family, it's your spiritual responsibility to take 2 (38m 11s): Care of them. My dad was, and he watches the service every week. So Hey dad, 1 (38m 18s): But he never paid child support. 2 (38m 20s): And we'll talk about it. He'll say, Hey, I want your service did it. He probably didn't want me watching it today. Did you? But we've got an open relationship. But, and 1 (38m 28s): Then I know other people, younger people who just 2 (38m 31s): Refuse to support their family and it just strikes a chord to me because it's our spiritual 1 (38m 36s): First and foremost, this is how we disciple the next generation by being responsible people as fathers in his mothers. It's, it's how we disciple and point the way for the future. Next generations we explain. But then we live our lives in front of the next generation. So they might know how to follow Jesus and how to trust Jesus and how to live their lives in a way that honors him and his word. And so if we're saying that we're Christians, but we're not doing what the Bible says, there's a conflict in the, in the hearts and souls of our young people. And we don't want to create that 2 (39m 10s): Conflict. And so we have this responsibility, a spiritual responsibility to care for our loved ones. 1 (39m 17s): It says, if you don't do it, you're actually worse than an unbeliever. There's something there that we need to be paying attention to you and aligning our lives with verse nine, a widow who has put on the list for support must be a woman who's at least 60 years old. I appreciate it. It's very practical because it helps the church understand how we support widows in our midst and how to decide about how, and 2 (39m 40s): If we support a widow intermit. So 1 (39m 43s): A widow must be who wants to be put on the list, must be a woman who's at least 60 years old. And it was faithful to her husband. So we get to kind of examine and evaluate someone's life. And no, one's perfect, but there's some parameters here that we can use to help us 2 (39m 57s): Make wise choices. 60 years old, faithful to her husband, 1 (40m 2s): Verse 10, she must be well respected by everyone because of the 2 (40m 6s): Good she has done. Has she brought up her children? Well, has she been kind to strangers and served other believers humbly? Has she helped those who are 1 (40m 17s): In trouble? Has she always been ready to do good? And so you can examine that kind of lists and decide, does this person meet the qualifications for it 2 (40m 27s): Beyond the, the list of those that we help as, as widows. And then we make those decisions. 1 (40m 33s): And then he says, in verse 11, the younger widows should not be on the list. So anybody under 60 should not be on them. 2 (40m 41s): It's kind of nice that if you're under 60 or considered a younger widow, that's kind of a good deal, right? So if you're under, that's a positive thing. If you got no, all right, I think you're still young at 60, but whatever, here we go. Okay. 1 (40m 55s): The younger widow should not be on the list because their physical desires will overpower their devotion to Christ and they will want to remarry. Then they would be guilty of breaking their previous pledge. And so apparently the pledge was, Hey, if you're on the list receiving support from the church, then you're devoting yourself to the church, to the work of the church, to the Lord, to the work of the Lord, to what he would have you to do. And you're not going to remarry because you're on the list of receiving support. And so a younger widow might be tempted to remarry, might have the urge and the desire to 2 (41m 27s): Re Mary. And so that's why they're not supposed to be on the list. Their physical desires 1 (41m 31s): Overpower their devotion to Christ and they will want to remarry. Then they would be guilty of breaking their previous pledge. And if they are on the list, they will learn to be lazy, younger widows. They will learn to be lazy and will spend their time gossiping from house to house meddling in other people's business and talk. So that's true. Struck a chord with somebody Pedaling and other people's business and talking about things they shouldn't. So I advise these younger widows to marry again, have children and take care of their own homes. Then the enemy will not be able to say anything against them. So the wisdom from Paul to Timothy says, if you're a younger widow, get remarried, go, go, enjoy your life. 1 (42m 18s): Have a family take care of your, your, your, your, your family. Don't, don't try to get on the list of support from the church. You've got better things to do. Verse 15 says from afraid that some of them have already gone astray and now follow Satan. Isn't that? I'd say that's a strong statement. Some have gone astray, and now they follow Satan. So there's two, there's two paths in the earth. There's the narrow path that leads to life. And then there's the broad path that leads to death to destruction. So you're either on one or the other 2 (42m 52s): Path. 1 (42m 53s): There's not many paths. There's essentially two passes, only two paths. You've got the way to Jesus. Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the father except through me. And so if you're not following Jesus in his path, you're actually following Satan 2 (43m 9s): This path. Isn't that interesting. So there's no wiggle room there. Paul said 1 (43m 17s): Afraid that some of them have already gone astray and now follow Sagan. So they're, they're either following Jesus where we're either following Jesus in our lives or we've gone astray. And now we're following Satan. We're being influenced by the enemy. It's a strong statement and it should wake us up to the reality that in this life, we, we, we, we have a decision to make, who am I going to follow when all of this, all of the arenas of my life, 2 (43m 46s): If 1 (43m 47s): I'm following Jesus and all the, all of the arenas of my life, that I'm reflecting his word in my decisions and my words and my thoughts and my deeds, everything is lining up. And when I get out of the line, I'm quickly to confess quick, to confess, quick to repent, and I'm getting right back in line following Jesus, because he's my Lord and my leader. And so I want to follow my Lord and my leader. And apart from that, I'm on this different path where I'm just kind of going haywire and following whatever my flesh or the enemy compels me to follow. You can't have both verse 16. If a woman who is a believer has relatives who are widows, she must take care of them and not put the responsibility on the church. 1 (44m 29s): If a woman who is a believer has relatives who are widow, she must take care of them and not put the responsibility on the church. And then the church can care for the widows who are truly alone. So you've got this powerful responsibility to take care of those who are truly in need. Number two. And number three, we have this responsibility to honor our leaders. And it's easy for me to talk about this at harvest church, because you guys do that. I really feel like you honor us. And in the way that the scripture says, and honestly, it, it makes it fun to work here. It's fulfilling to work here for all of the leaders and all of the staff. It says here, elders should do their work. 1 (45m 9s): Well, elders press Buderus. Now we're Spock talking about the, those who carry the office of elder elders, who do their work well, should be respected and paid well. And thankfully from the beginning, I've been on staff here for 17 years going on 18 years. And from the beginning, this board has always taken care of my family with just decent pay, with good pay and with how many know this is an expensive place to live, right? And honestly, we don't want it. We don't want to call people to our team and pay them at a poverty level and expect them to serve with joy and serve with gratitude. And you know, when they've got mortgages, they've got, they've got kids in private school, they got all kinds of responsibilities. 1 (45m 55s): So we do our best by God's grace to pay people well, because that's what the scripture says we're supposed to do. Especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching for the scripture says, you must not muzzle at ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain and in another place, those who work deserve their pay. So essentially Paul is telling Timothy, take good care, financial care of your elders, especially those who labor in the word. So kudos to harvest church and to the elders of harvest church, the board of harvest church, thank you for what you do. We are honored as leaders and then 19, this is another way to honor our leaders. It says, do not listen to an accusation. 1 (46m 38s): So there's going to be times when you hear an accusation against an elder, dismiss it, unless you hear it two or three times, then there might be something to it. And then at that point, maybe you come to the elder or you come to the board and you talk about it. But you out of the gate, though, it says, do not listen to an accusation against an elder, unless it is confirmed by two or three witnesses. So it just kind of helps to honor the leadership when there's a bit, the benefit of the doubt, and that doesn't happen around here. That's never happened around here, but that's, that's just what the scripture says. Those who sin should be reprimanded in front of the whole church. This is kind of harsh, right? Cause we're all sinners. We've all fallen short of the fall, short of the glory of God. 1 (47m 19s): But I think probably talking about leaders here and honestly, thanks to social media and the world that we live in everybody's mistakes has put out on media and the worldwide 2 (47m 30s): Web. And so anything that a leader does that is, 1 (47m 35s): Or cause you know, we're a leader. 2 (47m 38s): Sure. And it's plastered all over, all over social media anyway. So we don't even need to bring it before the whole church necessarily because Oh, everybody knows about it already. And so we need to be careful the way that we live as leaders, those who sin should be reprimanded in front of the whole church. They will serve as a strong warning to others. And so maybe there's a time to bring up the leader who has failed. It's listen. When I hear about other leaders who have failed, it sends like ice water through my veins. It is a warning. It's a strong warning. To me, it's a strong warning to our team. And we talk about it. 2 (48m 19s): We say, man, we don't want to be in trouble like this. Person's in trouble. God bless them. We love him, but we don't want to be in that kind of trouble. So we need to live our lives above reproach to the best of our ability by God's grace, we need to live above reproach so that we don't get ourselves into trouble. And so we talk about it. It's a strong warning, just strong warning. Verse 21. I saw him the command you in the presence of God. I mean, this is a command. I command you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus and the highest 1 (48m 52s): Angels to obey these instructions without 2 (48m 55s): Taking sides or showing favoritism to anyone. Paul was giving clear, 1 (48m 59s): Clear command, a clear command to Timothy, Hey, this is how I'm asking you to lead. This is how I'm declaring that you must lead as a pastor within the church. That's why it says never be in a hurry about 2 (49m 13s): And appointing a church leader do not share on the sins of others, keep yourself pure. So when we, 1 (49m 18s): We are looking for church leadership, we have to be careful and take it slowly. 2 (49m 23s): Other other Bibles say, don't lay your hands quickly on somebody else. That means don't appoint a leader prematurely. And so we have to be careful. And sometimes that takes years before we have the chance to really feel confident. And it puts somebody in a place of leadership. You're not sharing the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Paul's telling 1 (49m 44s): Timothy man, your, your life is to be above 2 (49m 46s): Reproach. And the Lord 1 (49m 49s): That you have leading with you, their lives are to be above 2 (49m 52s): Reproach. I shared 1 (49m 54s): Last week that pastors, teachers of the Bible, we're going to cure a greater judgment from God. And so we actually have to think through our lives, what we teach and how we live. 2 (50m 4s): I live and thank God for his grace because none of us do it perfectly. But man, I, I don't wanna, I don't wanna be that. I don't wanna be that guy. I don't want to be a guy. So we're, we talk about it openly as a staff and as pastors and we hold each other accountable and I meet with other pastors and we do the same thing there. So hopefully we'll by God's, we'll get through to the end of our ministries without shadows hanging over without problems. And we'll hear when we stand before the Lord, well done. Good and faithful servant. That's what I want to hear. 2 (50m 45s): Number four, take care of yourself. Not about others now were bought. Paul's kind of focusing on Timothy here a little bit. And he said, take care of yourself. Don't drink only water. You ought to drink a little wine for the sake of your stomach because you're sick so often. So apparently Timothy was a frail physically. He had some stomach issues. And so Paul told him to drink a little wine for his stomach. So we look at wine in the scripture and we can say wine is good and bad or good or bad, or we can say all kinds of stuff. But wine obviously has an additional purposes. Wine has got, is used within worship. You know, people take communion with wine and bread. Jews definitely did some Protestant churches. 2 (51m 28s): Like here, we use grapes use because we don't want to sort of wine and cause somebody to stumble. So we use grapes use as a symbol there of the Lord's blood and, and Bible. And biblical times water was often scare. So wine became a necessity rather than a luxury is equated with life wine. Along with the grain and oil represents God's covenant blessings promised to Israel for obedience, and we also see God withholding those necessities for disobedience. And so wine can be given as a gift, as a blessing for obedience or withheld for disobedience. Additionally wine represents joy celebration and festivity expressing the abundant blessing given to us by God. We also know that Ephesians five says don't be drunk with wine. 2 (52m 13s): So if you're going to enjoy some wine, God bless you in that, but don't get drunk and don't cause somebody to stumble. And then you're within the parameters of scripture. Amen. Lots of really practical things here in first, Timothy chapter five, Paul told Timothy, he take care of yourself. Are you taking care of yourself? Are you taking care of yourself? Part of the way we take care of ourselves is we, we honor the Lord in his word. So we, we can, we take a day off every week. I know plenty of people who work seven days a week. They own their own companies and their own businesses. And they work seven days a week or people in the ministry. They work seven days a week and God's made it very clear that we're to observe the Sabbath day to take a day of rest. 2 (52m 55s): God, God modeled that in the creation account, he worked six days creating the heavens in the earth and then he arrested. Why? Because he was worn out from all of that work. No, God doesn't ever get worn out. But as a model to us creation, he said, take a day off, do something on that day. That's not connected to your regular work and just take a deep breath and relax and enjoy life a little bit, relax and enjoy life. I tell the guys who were working seven days a week. I said, dude, you will get so much more accomplished if you'll take a day off every week. Yeah. 1 (53m 28s): It's it's like tithing. It's like you give 10% and God takes the 90% and does way more with that 90% than you could ever do with the a hundred percent. It's just a principle that God says, honor me with the way that you live your life. And I will bless it. It's a, it's an act of worship to take a day off because we're saying, God, I trust you that everything's going to get done. 2 (53m 51s): As 1 (53m 51s): I re as I obey your commands, I trust you that you're going to take care of everything. Tithing is an act of worship. We're saying, God, I, I trust you with my income. And so I know that you will do more with 90% than I could ever do with a hundred percent. It's just there. There's, there's something that honors God. It's an act of worship. When we do what he asks 2 (54m 11s): Us to do, take care of yourself, where do you need to take care of yourself? What do you need to do? Maybe you need to do a little less. Maybe you need to refocus your priorities. Take care of yourself, have hobbies. I love to ride my mountain bike. Don't do it as often as I should. I love to run. I've started running again. Yeah, good and run. My knees were jacked up then I got prayer. I'm telling you God's done a work in my knees. I was able to run yesterday. Again, no problems. 2 (54m 52s): God's a healing. God, he's restoring God. He's a faithful God. So all of us just need to exercise and walk a little more faith with the Lord with the way that we're living our lives. We hold on to everything. Cause we don't have any faith that God will take care of us. We work every day, work every moment because we're afraid that God's not going to take care of us. Were we a threat fret and worry about every relationship and every decision because we don't believe that God's speaking to us or can speak to us or will speak to us and will direct us and real will guide us and help us and protect us. We're just off full of fret and worry anxiety. And we're thrash because of it. 2 (55m 33s): God's given us life that we might he's coming, that we might have life abundantly. Like, like it's, it's not a life of fear and fret. It's a life of joy. Somebody asked me earlier today, how are you doing? I said, I'm, I'm doing so good if I were doing any better, be illegal. Right. And it's all because of God's grace. Not because I'm some superstar, I'm just, I just love Jesus. And he loves me. And I figured out, man, that serving him with my whole heart, his words had that's it. Right? Right. It's just, it's just where it's at. And then when I mess up, cause my wife will tell me, he messes up from time to time, probably every day, multiple times throughout the day, multiple times throughout the hour, a minute, whatever. 2 (56m 16s): But there's grace for that as well. And just don't beat yourself up, but you'd be, be constantly consecrate. Your luck, hots, consecrate your life. Sanctify your life in Jesus will never have greater joy wrapping up. Number five, don't judge a book by its cover. Five steps to getting along with others. Don't judge a book by its cover says in verse 24, remember the sins of some people are obvious leading them to certain judgments, but there are others who sins will not be revealed until later some are obvious. They're like, Oh, he's a murderer or a thief. Whatever the case may be. And then there's others who sin is kind of hidden below the surface. 2 (56m 59s): And so we're not to judge a book by its cover. There are others who sins will not be revealed until later when we stand before the judgment seat of God and give an account for our lives in the same way, the good deeds of some people are obvious. And the good deeds done in secret will someday come to light. We've got a gal in our church who a secretly, her husband doesn't even know this. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Ah, whatever. Nobody knows who I'm talking about. This gal shops every week for our food bank, our food pantry, she goes out and finds really good deals every week. And she'll show up midweek when nobody's around. 2 (57m 40s): Occasionally I'll see her. Cause I'm here all the time feels like, but she'll bring in all these groceries. She'll bring all these groceries in and just drop them off. The good deeds done in secret will someday come to light. I'd never, I'd never tell you who she is because I don't want her blessing. I don't want her. I don't want to blow her cover, but she is one of those people you wouldn't suspect necessarily. She's a wonderful person, but no one knows what she's doing behind the scenes. Others seem all religious, but they're doing crazy stuff behind the scenes. Crazy bad stuff. 2 (58m 22s): Don't judge a book by its cover. We need discernment as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ to figure people out. We need to exercise discernment and be prayerful. Five steps to getting along with others, treat all people with respect, take care of those truly in need. Honor. Your leaders take care of yourself and don't judge a book by its cover. With that. I'd like to invite the prayer team up. We're going to worship some more and then I'm also want to invite the prayer team. So the worship team come forward. And then during worship, if you'd like to receive prayer for anything, the protein will be up here as well. I'm up here, my wife's up here. Others are up here available to pray for you. 2 (59m 4s): We talked about a lot today. God's first Timothy fives, full of stuff and good stuff. And so if you've been touched or convicted or challenged or encouraged and you want some prayer, come on forward with that. Let's go and stand up and learn. We'll be careful to give you praise and honor and glory for everything. Jesus, for the good in our lives, Lord God. We say thank you for the hard things. Lord, we say that you're faithful and, and we can trust you, Lord. Thank you for the challenges Lord, they, they, they always turn our attention to you. If our hearts in the right place, Lord, I pray that our challenges would always turn our hearts to you. Lord God, that we would always go running to you, our father, our friend, and the alpha and the Omega God that we would run to you with parts that are pure and desiring you or God, and that we would love you all the days of our lives and that we will allow you to love us all the days of our lives. 2 (59m 58s): Lord, God work a miracle in our lives today. Encourage us, build us up in our most Holy faith. Speak to us, continue to move powerfully. We pray. We love you. Jesus. Thank you for your abundant grace. Say thank you to the Lord about maybe speak that out, 0 (1h 0m 24s): Speak it 2 (1h 0m 24s): Out. I want to be able to hear you say it out loud. 0 (1h 0m 37s): What else? What do you think before healing? Yeah. Hey man. Hey man. Thank you for EEG and Lord. Thank you for that. Yes. Yes. 0 (1h 1m 24s): Thank you. Jesus. 2 (1h 1m 33s): We have so much to be thankful for. We love you, Lord. We thank you for your very kindness, 0 (1h 1m 40s): Patience, faithfulness. I'm thankful for my wife, thankful for my kids, my parents for my life. God help us to worship in spirit and in truth we pray. Thank you Lord. Amen. 0 (1h 2m 18s): thank you so much. 0 (1h 12m 15s): Got it. We don't have to walk with fear that we can stand firm and your love for us and the presence of our enemies and hardship and trials that you carry us through. And so we thank you for your presence here with us today. Thank you for all the work that you've done in our hearts. We pray that you would just see a lit upon our hearts. God, that we would walk into this week, different change because we've been in your presence. Thank you for this. Remember we love you. We give you all the glory, all the praise, all balloons, Jesus in your precious name. Amen.

0 (0s): So a big welcome to you. We have info center that's that has all the information that you'll need to find out about plugging into harvest church. And just in case, this is your first time here at harvest, and you want to find out more about us. We actually have a four week class starting today. It's called harvest growth track and that's opened the parsonage. So if you feel like I want to find out more about harvest today, you can go jet up there right now, Chris, he's about ready to start. That's that's that's today. A few other things we've got M six gathering tomorrow. That's men gathering at a thousand Hills ranch out in, I don't know where it's at. Actually. I haven't been yet. So a thousand Hills ranch, we have the men's gathering. 0 (43s): There's a free dinner worship and then testimonies. And you're asked to bring a friend. So if you've never been, maybe grab a friend, go out to the M six gathering. There's no RSVP needed to show up. And then lastly got one more announcement. That's the Kings, the kids spring keeps saying Kings. I don't know why. I'm sorry. The kids spring choir. And this is the last week to sign up. So if you have a child from second grade and up and you're, and they're interested in joining the choir performance at the end of may, email Leslie or head for the info center for more information on that in the rehearsals will be on Sundays from 10 20 to 10 50. So we've got those things going on and yeah. 0 (1m 23s): Good to see you guys all here and I'll let Tim take it over from here. 1 (1m 28s): Good morning, please stand. We're going to worship together this morning. I'll just a quick word of prayer, dear God. Thank you so much for the opportunity to have a building, to worship in, to have a sound system that works and all this stuff. God, that just, just, it just helps us facilitate Lord. And I just thank you for, for being our God this morning, first and foremost is asking to meet each and every one of us here in a new way this morning, we just want to get out of the way and just become aware of you guys. Just to make it less about us. More about you this morning. 1 (2m 11s): Jesus name 2 (5m 1s): Say worthy is the key and just seeing and declare how much we love you. 3 (16m 48s): Our hearts and minds and soul is drained. Every part of us, Lord, we love you. And we know that love is reciprocated. In fact, we know that we love you because you first loved us. You started this whole thing and we're so grateful. We're so grateful. Lord, You got to pray that you would touch every person in this room and on this campus whoever's watching online. I pray that every person who would be touched with the reality of your great love, And then that would trigger a response in every person, this kind of response that we've been singing this morning. 3 (17m 31s): God, that we love you. 2 (17m 35s): We love you, Lord. We love you. Lord, 3 (17m 39s): Refresh us in that love Lord, both ways, got to refresh our love for you and refresh God, our understanding of your love for us. Thank you, Lauren. It's good. Just to praise and sing and pray and to just be in your presence. Lord, we bless you God, as we open up your word this morning, and as we avail ourselves to your truth, I just, I know God that you're going to download something of power to us, not to believe that it's just good stuff in store for us today. 3 (18m 20s): That's true. Every time we open up your word and avail ourselves to your truth, Lord, that you've just gotten life, transformational, power change for us and challenge for us. And so I pray that we'd just be anxious and hungry for it. Lord, like, like we're anxious and hungry for a good meal. When we're really hungry, Lord that we would just be anxious and hungry for our time with you today. And then God that you would fill us to overflowing with abundance. So we leave this place filled up with you and, and we can spill it out on everybody else, Lord, and with love and grace and truth and hope kindness. 3 (19m 2s): Thank you Lord. We need you. We love you, Lord. Bless us. Now we pray. Continue to bless us. I should say, Lord, continue to bless us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. You can be seated. Thank you. Worship team. Then you worship team. 4 (19m 16s): Oh, it's just good to, yeah, it's good. Just to be in the presence of the Lord. I, since I was a young guy, I've just always appreciated worship and the time just that, that is set apart just to seem to the King and to give our hearts fully to him. And so I'm thankful for the opportunity this morning, thankful for Easter last week. So many people came out and spent days setting everything up. Mike Apadaca was out there with his tractor, grading, everything and our back area and dozens of people helping to set things up beginning like on Thursday and through Friday and Saturday and Sunday. And it was just really, really powerful. 4 (19m 60s): And then the cleanup, you know, happen in a couple hours, thanks to so many people who just, who stuck around and, and helped us out with that. It was just really, really good. After Easter. We had this crazy idea that we'd go backpacking. So we, my son and I, so the youth were planning this backpacking trip and they were planning to leave Tuesday to go back off of figure a mountain off of one 54. And it's about a 6.8 mile hike. And so Jeremy, our youth and family pastor said, Hey, why don't you guys leave a day early and make sure that there's actually camping spots available for another 25 people or so coming back. 4 (20m 40s): So, so Curtis and I got up after the long Easter weekend and we left about seven 38 in the morning and we began to hike and just had a wonderful, wonderful time as I was hiking. I thought there's so many parallels, so many parallels to the Christian life, the Christian walk and this hike we're on this backpacking trip that we're on. In fact, when we finally made it there, we, we didn't, we didn't share this thought with each other until we actually got to the, the, the destination we both said to each other, Curtis said, Hey dad, if you weren't with me, I probably wouldn't have made it all the way. 4 (21m 21s): I probably would have stopped and camped along the way, because there were, it was just a lot of uphill and that sort of thing. I said, Curtis, that's exactly what I was thinking. If you weren't here, I would have stopped like a mile back and just said, that's enough. But we both realized we would have totally missed the amazing destination that we experienced if we would have given up and so much like the Christian walk, the Christian life. If we don't have people spurring us on holding us accountable and challenging us to continue what we're going to settle for something far less than what God has for us. And so I was super grateful. Curtis was there and then we got there and there was plenty of spots. And so we called back to Jeremy and said, Hey, come on out, man. 4 (22m 4s): There's lots and lots of room. And so he came out and they all 25 of them, it was really, really powerful that the day that they were supposed to come out, it was getting about four o'clock and they had been on the trail for a while. So I was kind of getting anxious for them to be out there and I wanted to see them. And so I just started down the trail and I got about a mile back from the, the main campsite there and there they were, they were all settled there and kind of taken a break before they made the final descent. And it was yeah, really, really good. But one guy had pulled a muscle in his leg and he was really struggling carry his backpack. And so we got a chance to help him carry his backpack. The last mile that isn't, that just like the Christian life. 4 (22m 44s): Sometimes we get injured or we're discouraged. We don't know how we're going to press on. We don't know how we're going to finish and get to the destination, but others come along, come around us and help us to carry the burdens that we have to get us moving. And to our destination, I tell you, what is the best, most beautiful destination? There were two waterfalls. I should've brought a picture, a video right. Or something, but there were two waterfalls coming down and flowing into this big, big, like eight foot deep pool of water that you could swim in and refresh yourself. And it was so amazing, so much better than the campsite that was a mile earlier, or even the ones that were just along the way we would have totally missed it. 4 (23m 29s): I think that's kind of, God's message to us is that we will totally miss out on God's best if we give up and maybe you're here today and you're kind of wondering whether you want to press on in your faith as your, as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And you've got this big backpack on and you're just kind of feeling weary and just kind of feeling worn out. I just want to encourage you that God is with you and he will help you get there. He will help you get there, but maybe you got this pack on and, and there's, there's an art to packing a backpack, right? Like you don't want to pack too much. There are things that you need. Like, you need a tent, a sleeping bag, a sleeping pad. You need, you know, cookware and food and that sort of thing. 4 (24m 10s): But there are certain things that you don't need to carry in like big, heavy stuff that just kind of wear you out. So you gotta be careful not to have too much on your pack. Otherwise it's cumbersome and it's difficult to keep going forward. So some of us in our lives, we're carrying all of this extra unnecessary weight, this baggage, this burden burdensome stuff that the Lord just wants to lift off off of us. It's it's really a picture of God's. You know, Jesus said, my yoke is easy, so there's a yoke, but he said, my burden is light. So he wants to lift it off of you. So if you're carrying around just old baggage from past mistakes and failures, sins, whatever it is, just confess that to the Lord. 4 (24m 54s): If we confess our CNC is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So what he'll do is he'll lift that, that bag of that burden off of our bag. And then we'll be able to kind of March on through. I remember when I got to the campsite and took off the backpack, it was just like, Oh man, you feel like you're walking on air because all of that weight is off of you. I think that's kind of the experience that God wants us to have like something of a lighter load in our lives. So confess whatever you need before the Lord today, and just watch his grace and mercy wash over you and watch your, your law, your load kinda lighten up. It was just a powerful deal, but as kind of back, as long as we were walking and I'll just kind of share this story for a little bit and the, can we start the clock? 4 (25m 37s): Thank you. Because now I'm not, I'm not going to know how much time I have and it doesn't really matter cause I'm just going to go till I'm finished anyway, but now there we are, but it's helpful to know that I'm over, right? So it's just helpful to know. So as, as we were hiking, there was a lot of incline and my son would tell me, he kept, he kept telling me, Hey, dad look up. Cause I'm I got, you know, I'm just going, you know, it's just trying to get the job done. And he would tell me, look up Dan, look at, look at what we're hiking in. And, and he would just remind me of all of the beauty, the wonder of what God had created and is sustaining even now. And it was just like this refreshing experience. 4 (26m 18s): We're going to be talking about a biting with God today. We're actually going to be answering the question. What does godliness look like? What does godliness look like? And I, I couldn't help, but make a lot of para a lot of comparisons to that backpacking trip because I was reminded of so many wonderful things as I just chose to look up and abide with God and appreciate his presence 5 (26m 45s): And appreciate his beauty. I think sometimes we can just get busy, right? We've got our head, 4 (26m 49s): It's Dan, we got stuff to do. And we don't look up 5 (26m 53s): And just say, thank you Lord for life and for breath and for 4 (26m 57s): Family and for whatever it is that you want to thank the Lord for, we can get burdened down by maybe illness or disability or whatever it is. And we don't, if we don't look up, we're just kind of stuck with our heads down. And like my son told me, I'm telling you look up, look up, God's doing some really, really amazing things. If we'll just stop and pay attention. So what does godliness look like? We're going to kind of unpack that today. We're going to kind of discover that today because I think God wants us to experience something of newness in our walk with him, our relationship with him. He wants to breathe life into us in such a powerful way that we walk out of this place with new perspective. 4 (27m 42s): I remember just sitting around the campfire when we were there just before the kids got there. And even after the kids got there, just sitting around the campfire, just being so filled with gratitude for what the Lord has done. I mean, I just, I looked around at his creation and then that caused me to ponder about my, my own life and my family and the way that God has just blessed our church and taking care of us. And I just, I just was filled with this refreshing gratitude. It was so important and so necessary for, for my life as I just sat there and just thought about the Lord. There's something about abiding with him and allowing him to buy it to abide in us. That is just life-giving and powerful. And we get busy and distracted and we miss out on those things. 4 (28m 26s): So let's take a look at what Paul wrote to Timothy in first Timothy chapter four. And we'll get to that answer. What does godliness look like with that? Let's say as you guys turn to first Timothy four, I just want to pray, 5 (28m 37s): Lord Jesus. We just pray. And we thank you for your presence here. 4 (28m 42s): We were able to sing that last song and just talk about how much we love you with all of our hearts and minds and soul and strength or got God. I know you're blessed by that Lord. And I just want to declare that as a church, we love you Lord, and we want you to have your way with us today. 5 (28m 59s): We want you to speak to us where we need. 4 (29m 2s): I need you to speak to us, to challenge us where you need, where we need to be challenged, Lord God, that we would be 5 (29m 10s): Encouraged today and put back on the right path. Maybe it's been a tough journey and some of us are feeling the burden, the weight of it all. Lord, I just pray that you would bless us as we trust you in Jesus name. Thank you, Lord. Amen. 4 (29m 28s): The 41. Now the Holy spirit tells us clearly that in the last times, in the last days, some will turn away from the true faith and they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings come from demons. There's a temptation as the return of Christ draws near. And this has been going on for the last couple thousand years since its Ascension, there's this, there's this temptation to walk away from it. So walk away from the Lord and to pursue other things. But God has got us on this path and he doesn't want us to give up. Although there challenges and difficulties along the way, coming back out of the hike while going into the hike, I had been wearing these boots and they weren't, I guess they weren't broken in very well. 4 (30m 16s): So I was getting these hotspots and these blisters. And so I decided just to put on my sandals, he saw these, you know, strap on sandals and I hiked the rest of the way. And then I was hiking out and I realized I'm getting gnarly blisters on my feet. As I'm hiking out with these sandals, I would've wore socks with the sandals, but then I would've been, looked like an old guy. So I, I didn't want to look like an old guy. Although I do typically wear socks with sandals, but I decided I would just, just go for it. I thought, what choice do I have? Like I gotta get outta here. Like I five miles from the trail head. I gotta just keep going. I can't stop and wait here for three days until my blisters heal up. Right? Cause then I'm going to walk another mile and get some more blitzers I got to stop again. 4 (30m 59s): I think the challenge for us is that we've got to just continue to move forward two hours or destination. Although we do deal with troubling things, temptation and sickness and all kinds of challenges in our life. But what I noticed is that God gave me the grace just get to continue to walk out. I literally have silver dollar size blisters in between my toes, but I was like, I know they're there, but I'm not going to look at them. I'm just going to keep marching forward because I don't have a choice, right? I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to stand out there until, till they get cleared up. So what I noticed is that God gave me the grace and then I get home. I get to my destination. 4 (31m 39s): Wife makes this hot water with Epson salt, you know, Epsom salt. I don't know what it's called, but you put your feet in there and it just creates this nice soothing experience. I wouldn't have had that soothing experience if I were to quit on the trail, right? God's got such blessing for us. If we just don't give up, if we refuse to give up, but continue to March forward. Now the Holy spirit tells us clearly that, that in the last time, as the time of Christ return draws near some will turn away from the true faith and they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. Listen, there's only one true faith that leads to heaven. 4 (32m 19s): There are many faiths in the world, many counterfeit faith, but only one faith leads to the God who created and sustains the universe. There's one God that offers salvation by grace, through faith. And some are tempted to turn away. Some will turn away from faith in Jesus alone, and they 6 (32m 40s): Will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. So anything that is contrary to the scripture and what the scripture says about Jesus and who he is and what the scripture says about God and who he is is, is a contrary gospel. It's a counterfeit gospel perpetuated by demons by the fallen angels. That the enemies 5 (33m 3s): Of God, there's one God that offers salvation through grace, by grace, through faith. And the Holy spirit has revealed this 6 (33m 12s): Truth, that in the as time wears on, 5 (33m 15s): And this has been going on for the last couple thousand years, people will be tempted to walk away from the faith. 6 (33m 21s): Mark 1322 says for false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders. So as to deceive, if possible, even God's chosen ones, watch out. I have warned you about this ahead of time. So there's a warning of, for the church, for the believers of Christ that says, Hey, be careful not to get distracted or to be hindered from your faith in the Lord. Jesus Christ in acts 2029. Luke wrote, I know that false teachers like vicious wolves will come in among you. After I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and 5 (34m 1s): Start the truth. In order, in order to draw a following, 6 (34m 6s): What kind of people would do this? Like what kind of people would intentionally draw others away from the truth? Well, Paul tells us in first Timothy four, two, these people are hypocrites 5 (34m 16s): And liars and their conscience is, are dead. 6 (34m 21s): So these people are not who they claim to be. They are deceivers like their father, the devil himself, who is the father of lies. And they, they are without a functioning conscience. So their conscience and sear, they're dead, they're liars and deceivers. So these are the people. These are the entities that are trying to draw us away from our faith. And so don't, don't be surprised when you feel like giving up. It's it's an age old ploy of the enemy to get us distracted and hindered, getting us to refuse, to believe the truth of who Jesus is and what he wants to do 5 (34m 59s): In our lives. These people are not who they claim to be. 6 (35m 2s): They're deceivers without a functioning conscience, they will do what counterfeit religious leaders have always done. Counterfeit religious leaders have always heaped, heavy burdens and restrictions and expectations on 5 (35m 15s): Their followers. That's what we see throughout the throughout history and in the scripture of religious leaders, 6 (35m 23s): This is what verse three says. They will say it is wrong. These these religious leaders, they will say it's wrong to be married and wrong D certain foods, but God created those foods to be eaten with. Thanks by faithful people who, the truth, the Bible knowledge commentary States, the false teachers plaguing the Ephesians church were the forerunners of the Gnostics of the second century. The Gnostics believed that spirit is good and matter is evil. So anything that is got matter to it is evil, but spirit is good. So they believed all appetites relating to the body are therefore evil and should be rooted out, including normal desire for sex and food. 6 (36m 9s): And so they're saying don't get married, don't eat certain foods. It's all of these heavy duty restrictions that these religious leaders want to keep on us trying to get us to conform to their, their plan and purpose. So it's wrong to be married. Ron, what does God say about that? This is, this is what needs to be our response to anything that we hear that is sideways or seems different than the, than the word of the Lord. What does God think? Genesis two 18 in the new living translation, it says, then the Lord, God said it. It's not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him. And so God has created marriage to be a blessing to humanity. 6 (36m 49s): Now there are single people in the world who are called to it, or just in their circumstances. They're single right now. And God's blessing is upon them, but God has created marriage as a good thing for the world. The early deceivers also said that it's wrong to eat certain foods. What a bummer. I got a quick, quick joke. So this Catholic nun in this Catholic school was in the cafeteria with all of the Catholic kids. And there was this big bowl of apples in the line of the food. And so the Catholic nuns brought a little note that said only take one, Apple, God is watching. 6 (37m 31s): So, but at the other end of the line and the cafeteria was that big old platter of chocolate chip cookies. And so one of the students said, take all you want because Dodd is watching the app 7 (37m 44s): Bulls. 6 (37m 48s): I would prefer a chocolate chip cookie over an Apple any day. In fact, the only reason I eat healthy food like apples is so that I can have a chocolate chip cookie and enjoy the food that God has had called, called us to enjoy. But the early deceivers would say, it's wrong to eat certain foods. What does God say that? What does God think about that? And acts chapter 10, the apostle Peter fell into a trance and had a vision from the Lord acts 10, 11 through 16, says this. He saw the sky open and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners in the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. Then a voice said to him, get up Peter kill and eat them. 6 (38m 33s): And what does Peter say? No, no Lord was his response. Listen, it's never a good idea to say, no Lord, it's a contradictory term. Like it's an oxymoron. You can't have Jesus as Lord and leader and King of your life and say no to him. Because by saying no to him, it declares that he's no longer your King and Lord and leader. And so for Peter to say, no Lord, he was showing a bit of his old nature. Have you ever had that creep up in your life where your old nature pops up and you're like, no Lord. Like I was arguing with the Lord the other day about meeting with some guy for prayer. 6 (39m 13s): It's like, Lord, I don't have time. I don't want to meet with this guy. Although I felt like I was supposed to meet with the guy. As soon as I'm having this argument with the Lord, I get a text from the guy that I'm supposed to. Hey, are we still praying together? I'm like, of course we're still praying together. Get over here. So, but we have this tendency to resist the good stuff Lord wants to do in our lives. No Lord Peter declared. I've never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean, but the voice spoke again, do not call something unclean. If God has made it clean, the same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven. 6 (39m 55s): Verse four says since everything God created is good. This is back to first Timothy four. Since everything God created is good. We should not reject any of it, but receive it with things where we know it has made acceptable by the, by the word of God and prayer made acceptable by the word of God and prayer. So now we have, I have to think, okay, God has created all of these wonderful things in the world and they're all good. Can we just indulge in anything and everything that God this created. And so we think about this, you know, this, the, the, we have this idea when it comes to food and when it comes to this new legalized thing called marijuana, and we think, well, if it's legal, then it must be okay, but it's clear that we're not to take anything that altered our mind. 6 (40m 49s): The scripture's very clear about this. So these are the guidelines for how we're to enjoy what God has created. We follow the word of God and we enjoy what God has provided for us with prayer. And thanks giving. So can I have anything I desire without measure? Well, let's look at a couple of verses here. You Zeke, you'll see. 1649 says Sodom sins were pride, gluttony and laziness. Well, the poor and needy suffered outside the door. So we know that we're allowed to enjoy everything, everything that God has given to us in the area of food, as long as we're not doing it in excess gluttony, we have to exercise some self control. 6 (41m 30s): So I, I stand up here and I, my gut constantly sucked in because if I don't suck it in, then it shows my Ponch, right. But my Ponch is there because I refuse to exercise. Self-control regarding sweets in my life. And so yesterday my wife said, Hey, would you like a cinnamon roll? And I said, no, I'm not going to eat the cinnamon roll because I just had a snack. I'm not having another snack. So an hour later, she's outside in the garden and I decide it's time for another snack. So I had a cinnamon roll that she made for my birthday because my birthday was just last week. And she made these amazing homemade cinnamon rolls with all of this icing on top. 6 (42m 10s): And then my daughter had, had bought me some, this, these donuts that I enjoyed as well. And then Jolene also had made this Apple pie that was just calling me. So I had donuts and I had Apple pie and I as cinnamon roll. And there was no, no wonder why I wasn't hungry for dinner, but I found a way to get dinner in me as well. It was just this incredible experience. And so that's called the sin of gluttony and I did lose 10 pounds, but I need to lose about 10 more. I, I, I, I think if I lost 10 more, I'd get rid of that gut. I wouldn't have to suck it in everywhere. It's uncomfortable to have to suck in your stuff 4 (42m 48s): Like everywhere. But that's what I gotta do. Cause I'm bill gluttonous. One of the, 6 (42m 56s): The fruit of the spirit of self-control. And I've realized that when I'm like, self-control in one area of my life that tends to spill over into other areas of my life. And so we have to be careful, 4 (43m 5s): Well that we're exercising. Self-control in all areas of our life. Now I know some of you is like, shut up Henry about your gut, right? You're like, I can barely hear 6 (43m 14s): You. See it. Listen. If I took my shirt off, you'd really see it right. Took it off bare chesty to be like, whoop, all of a sudden, there it is. Right. I've never had a gun. So now that I got one, I'm like, 4 (43m 26s): I'm trying to, I'm trying to hide it. That's why I wore these flowery shirts. They kind of nevermind, whatever. 6 (43m 33s): What else does the Bible say about our appetite? Galatians five 19 through 21 says when you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear. Sexual immorality in purity, less skull pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I had before that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom 4 (44m 5s): Of God. So there's 6 (44m 7s): A word in verse 20 that mentioned, it's mentioned it's the word is sorcery. That word is also witchcraft. The Greek word. There is farming KPI, a pharma Kia, depending on how you pronounce it. And it means which 4 (44m 21s): I think what happens is, is when we avail ourselves to the, the unhealthy 6 (44m 33s): Use of drugs in our life, whether we're smoking dope, listen, 5 (44m 36s): The kid smoking dope is my favorite thing to do in the whole world. Why? Because it's a great escape, right? I would smoke. I would get high. I would go to sleep and I'd be out for a few hours. He was great. 6 (44m 48s): But then I realized that God has called us to live a life that we're not meant 5 (44m 54s): To escape from. And 6 (44m 56s): When I realized that over the course of my life, I realized I don't need to run 5 (44m 60s): Toward farming, farm 6 (45m 2s): Makiah. I don't need to run toward drugs. I can run to Jesus and find this stuff that I need. Often we're running to the wrong stuff, whether it be food 5 (45m 12s): Or drugs, 6 (45m 13s): And especially with legalized marijuana. Now I just got back from Colorado about a month or so ago. And 5 (45m 19s): There's, there's dispensaries 6 (45m 21s): All over. Like you can walk in anywhere and get marijuana. It's just a 5 (45m 26s): Early thing. It will wreck your life. I'm just going to tell you it will wreck your life. And just because it's legal in California, doesn't mean that you should be taking it. Anything that is going to alter your mind, whether it be drunkenness or any really any kind of addiction, some are addicted to sex or pornography. Some are addicted to wine. Alcohol, some are addicted to drugs. I know a guy who was addicted to drugs, painkillers for a year, 6 (45m 55s): And I've known this guy for years. And I, I I'm on the phone with him one day. I'm like, dude, are you loaded? Seriously? You sound like you're loaded. And I didn't know that he was loaded, but he was loaded. Right? And it was a wake up call 5 (46m 7s): To him. And he realized 6 (46m 10s): That he was hooked and he needed to get clean from his drugs. And so he's been clean for about the last year, 18 months or so. And you know, what's improved in his life, 5 (46m 19s): Everything right? His, his financial problems got cleared up. Why? Because he stopped spending so much money on drugs because it's black market drugs that he had to get because he couldn't get his doctor to prescribe anymore. His marriage got fixed. His family got fixed because he wasn't jacked up on drugs anymore. His spiritual life got squared away because he wasn't jacked up on drugs anymore. Listen, drugs, 6 (46m 43s): Addictions, all of these things will Jack 5 (46m 46s): You up. 6 (46m 48s): I didn't even realize how jacked up he was until he got off the drugs. When he got off the drugs and he realized, man, my, this is the life Jesus said, I've come that you might have life abundantly. This is you can't enjoy that. If you've 5 (47m 1s): Got an addiction in your life, you just 6 (47m 3s): Can't. You got to get all of the addictions out of your life and trust Jesus in every arena of your life. Addiction is just an escape, right? 5 (47m 14s): It's a way to get some, some help, kind of a counterfeit help and escape. When we're in trouble. God doesn't want that for you. He wants you to be free in Jesus name. And he just want you to be free. He makes the way to freedom possible because he's good. And he's faithful. Somebody told me this morning, I've turned that 12 step program into a two-step program. She said, I decided to quit drinking. And then I quit drinking. 6 (47m 46s): I said, what a great story? You know, we, we run to the wrong stuff. This is the wine capital of like, I mean, there's wine everywhere, right? So we have this temptation to run to all this alcohol and that 5 (47m 58s): Sort of thing. And listen, I'll say wine 6 (48m 0s): In the scripture tends to be spoken of in a positive light. It's a blessing, but drunk. 5 (48m 5s): And this has never spoken of in a POS in a positive light. It's Ephesians five says don't be drunk with wine. They will ruin your life instead. Be filled with the Holy spirit. So if you're drinking to excess, getting yourself drunk, you just need to stop. If you're running into pornography, trying to find fulfillment there by God's grace, she just need to stop. If you're running to drugs, trying to find something to numb your life, God, God, hasn't called us to live a life that we're trying to numb. 6 (48m 39s): He's trained. He's called us to live a life that 5 (48m 41s): We're trying to enjoy by his grace. We can do that. So run from all of those things that are deceptive and destroying your life. Drugs 6 (48m 50s): Bugs that alter our mind or alcohol that alters our minds is not for God's people. So there are some parameters 5 (48m 58s): For the stuff that God has created in 6 (49m 1s): World. Paul told Timothy, if you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ. Jesus. So Timothy's responsibility was to explain this truth to his people. He would be a worthy servant of Christ. Jesus, who, if he did this, who one, who would be one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teachings you have followed. So pastors and Bible teachers actually do. 5 (49m 31s): I don't have a choice, but to teach the whole counsel of 6 (49m 35s): God's word, it would be easier to talk about rainbows and butterflies, but that's not what you want to hear. And that's not what I want to talk about. I don't think you want to talk about rainbows and butterflies. I think we need to hear the word of God, that truth and allow that truth to be, to challenge our lives so that we properly align ourselves with him so that we can abide in him and have him abide in us. James three one says there's actually a stricter judgment for pastors and teachers for teachers of the word of God. We're actually going to stand before the Lord and give them 5 (50m 10s): Account for what we taught. I don't want to be in trouble. 6 (50m 16s): I don't want to be in trouble with God and I don't want to be in trouble with you. So I'm just going to teach God's word to the best of my ability, 5 (50m 23s): Where we need to get challenged and move forward. Amen. Verse 4 (50m 28s): Seven says do not waste time. Arguing over godless ideas and old wives tales. Instead, train yourself have to be godly. Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better promising benefits in this life and in the life to come. So what does godliness look like? Number one, God, Salinas is abiding in God, John 15. Jean says that if we abide in him and he abides in us that we will, we will produce spiritual fruit. Spiritual fruit is eternal. It doesn't have a shelf life. It's always credited to our account. So spiritual fruit is anything that, that impacts the kingdom of God for eternity. 4 (51m 10s): So when people get saved, when we're do a good deed for someone, when we pray for someone, when we love the unlovely, all of those things. When we're allowing the spirit of God and the word of God to come out of us and to bless those around us, we can, you can't actually accomplish anything of spiritual value. Apart from that abiding relationship with Christ, we can do a lot of busy stuff. We can volunteer for Sunday school for 10 hours a week. We can serve in all kinds of small groups. We can greet at the front door. We can write large checks to the church, but none of that stuff actually matters if we're not biting in Christ, right? 4 (51m 52s): Sometimes people write a big check to the church and that substitute that's kind of a substitute for their abiding and their service to Christ. But God has called us to serve him and love him wholeheartedly with all of our time, talent and treasure so that we honor him. And the way that we live our lives abiding in Christ gives us the grace to do all the things that he's called us to do. I was talking with this young couple and we're doing some counseling with them. They're about ready to get married. And, and they used to come to church here, but now they live in Nashville. And so I was doing stuff over zoom and doing some counseling and it got to, you know, we started talking about finances and I went on this rampage about tithing. 4 (52m 38s): I said, Hey, I'm going to talk to you was about tithing because it's really just gonna be foundational to your walk with Jesus. And so I did this whole teaching on tithing and I said, what do you guys think? And they said, Oh yeah, we already give 20%. It was like a total waste of my time and to talk to them about diving. But they're there something about, there's something about trusting God. And we're going to look at that in the next portion, but there's something about trusting God and believing him that comes out of that abiding relationship with him. What does godliness look like abiding with God, number one, number two. What has godliness like obedience to God abiding and obedience? 4 (53m 23s): Obedience is defined the general concept 6 (53m 28s): Of obedience, both in the old and the new Testament relates to hearing or hearkening to a higher authority. So hearing it or hearkening is not just 4 (53m 38s): Hearing, but it's actually hearing and doing it's obeying 6 (53m 42s): One of the Greek terms for obedience in the Bible conveys the idea of positioning oneself, 4 (53m 48s): There, someone by submitting to their authority and, 6 (53m 52s): And another Greek word for obey in the new Testament means to, this'll be surprising to us to trust another word in the new Testament for obey is actually it means to trust. We will never fully obey God. If we don't fully try. 4 (54m 10s): I asked him with our lives, our time talent and our treasure 6 (54m 15s): Measure, according to Holman's illustrated Bible dictionary, a succinct definition of biblical obedience is to hear God's word and act accordingly, to hear and act, to hear and respond, to listen and obey IRD men's Bible dictionary States, shew hearing, or obedience involves the physical hearing that inspires the hearer and a belief or trust that in turn motivates the hearer to act in accordance with the speaker's desire. Thus biblical obedience to God means to hear trust, submit, and surrender 4 (54m 53s): To God and his word. So 6 (54m 56s): Part of godliness has everything to do with obedience. Eight reasons why OBD 4 (55m 2s): Hands to God is important. Let's take a look at these really quick eight reasons. I don't know if they're up on the screen or not, but let's just go for it. 6 (55m 8s): Jesus calls us to obey is number one. What a great reason to obey simply because Jesus has called us to obey. I was talking to pastor Dave earlier. We were talking about baptism and he was having a conversation with the person where the guy about baptism. And he asked the guy, why should you get baptized? And he kept trying to come up with all these theological reasons why you should get baptized. And Dave said, Hey, why can't the answer be? Because Jesus told us to be baptized. I mean, if Jesus asks us to do something, we don't need to jump through all kinds of theological hoops to make our point. We just say, yeah, Jesus told me 4 (55m 42s): To do it. God told me to do it. So I'm going to do it. 6 (55m 44s): Jesus calls us to obey Jesus. John 14, 15 says, if you love 4 (55m 48s): Me, obey my commandments. 6 (55m 51s): Number one, Jesus calls us to obey. Number two. Obedience is an act of worship. Romans 12 tells us to give our whole lives. All of our bodies, everything is an act of worship to the Lord. Obedience is an act of worship, more so than singing and lifting up our hands along the same lines as worshiping. And when we come, come together gathered because what we do when we obey God is we declare that he is God and that he is worthy of our adoration. He is worthy our obedience. And so when we walk out obedience before the game of games were declaring worship before him and say, because you are God and I am not because you are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, I will be obedient to you. 6 (56m 37s): OBT obedience is an act of worship. Number three, God rewards obedience in Genesis 22. God told Abraham, listen, your descendants in the whole world will be blessed because of your obedience. To me, 5 (56m 54s): Obedience is rewarded by God. You'll see it in your life. As you decide, 6 (57m 0s): I'm going to be a person of obedience. Every time the Lord asks me to do something, I'm just going to do it and watch the blessings that the rewards that come your way as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ it's and it's so much, so much fun. It's more fun than just kind of wrestling with God all the time about everything that he asked you to do. If you just say yes, Lord, not, not Peter, no Lord, no Lord doesn't work. As, as a kingdom follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Yes, Lord works every time. Number four obedience to God proves our love. All you have to do is read first and second, John, and you see that there's a direct correlation, a connection between obedience and the love that we say. We have the book of first and second, John clearly explains that obedience to God demonstrates love for God, loving God implies following his command. 6 (57m 48s): So we can't say we love God. If we don't walk obediently in his presence. Number five obedience to God demonstrate 5 (57m 55s): Space. Interesting. Huh? When we open 6 (57m 59s): Bega, we show our trust and faith in 5 (58m 2s): God. It's an, it's a demonstration 6 (58m 6s): Of our faith. We're saying, Lord, I believe you. And so if you're asking me to do this, 5 (58m 11s): I'm going to trust you. I believe it. Lord. 6 (58m 13s): I'm going to, I'm going to demonstrate my faith by saying yes to you. And first John, two, three through six, it says we can be sure that we know him. If we obey his commandments, if someone claims, I know God, but doesn't obey. God's commandments. That person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 5 (58m 33s): But those who obey 6 (58m 35s): God's word surely show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives. As Jesus did obedience to God demonstrates faith. Number five, number six, obedience is better than sacrifice in the old system. The old covenant old Testament. If somebody said that they would offer a sin, offering an animal sacrifice, but that's not what God was after. That was God's grace extended in that time so that people might be forgiven. 5 (59m 15s): But the scripture 6 (59m 17s): Says obedience is, 5 (59m 19s): Is better than sacrifice. 6 (59m 25s): Obedience is better than the sacrifices 5 (59m 27s): That we offer. New Testament. We, we sin and we say, Lord, forgive me. And then that's a great model. Obviously. That's what God wants us to do. But how about if we just decide we're going to be obedient. Obedience is better than sacrifice. I mean, I don't want it 6 (59m 41s): Offer. I don't want to have to offer. I don't want to have to say forgive me 5 (59m 44s): Lord and said, I just want to walk purely before the King of Kings. Thank God for his mercy 6 (59m 50s): Sanctification means I I'm asking for forgiveness less and less in a sense I'm still sending, but it's not the same old gnarly sins that I used to sin in. Maybe it's sins that are representative of my, my growth in Jesus. We still have to guard against a moral failure. We still have to guard against the pride or the flesh and pride and all of those things. But, but sanctification, meaning that the longer we're walking with Jesus means that we're not doing those same gnarly sins that we used to do, but there's an obedience connected to our 5 (1h 0m 29s): Lives and obedience that honors the Lord and requires us less of us grovelling before the Lord and saying, God, I'm sorry, I've done this a thousand time. There's victory available for us in Jesus. Number seven, disobedience leads to sin and death. The disobedience of Adam brought sin and death into the world. This is the basis of the term original sin, but Christ perfect obedience restores fellowship with God, for everyone who believes in him, Romans five 19 says for as by the one man's disobedience, Adam, the many were made sinners. 5 (1h 1m 12s): So by the one man's obedience Christ, the many will be made righteous in first Corinthians five 22. It says for as Adam, for, as in Adam, all die. So also in Christ shall all be made alive. First Corinthians five 22, number eight through obedience. We experienced the blessing of Holy living. And that's what I'm talking about. There's a blessing connected to Holy living. That is the decision to be obedient. And listen, if you're, if you're jacked up with addiction, you're going to miss out on this blessing. You're going to miss out on his blessing. I don't want you to feel picked on today. I want you to feel like there's hope today. I want you to feel like man, there's hope on the other side of this addiction, whatever it may be. 5 (1h 1m 54s): There's hope maybe you're here today and you're struggling with porn online porn, pretty, pretty pervasive sin in our culture for men and for women. There's a there's art there's software that you can load onto your computer called covenant eyes. That will hold you accountable for what you're watching online. You get an accountability partner and you say, Hey, I want you. And that accountability partner will actually get a report of everything that you read. I looked at online and, and they'll flag things that are inappropriate so that you have one more opportunity to say no to that sin. 5 (1h 2m 43s): So maybe yeah, this online porn or some other kind of sex addiction, maybe it's just an addiction to wine, alcohol drugs. There are paths forward. We have a, an AA program that meets here on Thursday nights for people who are trying to overcome their addiction to drugs. There are Christian based recovery programs that are available in the community for people who want to get free from drugs and alcohol and other types of addiction. So there's steps that can be taken if we will just decide to take it by God's grace and move forward in freedom through obedience, we experienced the blood sings of a Holy life. 5 (1h 3m 26s): What does godliness look like? Number three, discipline disciplined under God, disciplined unto God. Godliness speaks of a disciplined life in word thought and deed, listen, we're all in this journey, carrying our backpacks, moving toward a destination, just to be on the journey requires discipline. You've got to pack your bag and take the stuff that you need to take. You need to put on the armor of God and do what God has called you to do so that you survive the experience and thrive in the experience. It's it's the, the root of the word disciple is discipline. And God has called us to go make disciples of all nations. 5 (1h 4m 8s): He's called us to be disciples and to go make disciples of all nations. And so that means that we must activate discipline in our lives and be disciplined unto God as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And with that activation of discipline in our lives comes victory comes the ability to be obedience comes just joy and speakable and full of glory. Some of us don't even realize what we're missing out on because we keep falling short of the destination. We keep missing what God has for us and we fall short. And so we keep, keep missing out on God's best discipline is what God has for us. If we will move forward in that we will experience godliness like never before. 5 (1h 4m 53s): Let me just wrap up these last few verses and then we'll call, call the worship team back in just a few minutes and we'll stand and worship here. It says, this is a trustworthy saying verse nine and everyone should expect apt it. This is why we work hard and continue to struggle for our hope is in the living God, who is the savior of all people. And particularly of all, believers teach 6 (1h 5m 18s): These things and insist that everyone learned them. Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say in the way you live in your love, your faith and in your purity. I think we have way too low of expectations for young people. That's why I love it. When we've got young people here on the worship team, people, young people greeting young people involved in leadership because obviously Paul had an expectation of this young leader named Timothy. He said, don't let anyone despise you because you're young. Sometimes we, we think, wow, I'm young. It's my time to mess around. 6 (1h 5m 59s): And then I'll get serious with the Lord later on. Don't waste your time falling into that trap. Sometimes though, we, we, when we get old, we fall into that same trap. We say, ah, I'm too old to be doing anything helpful for the kingdom. I'm just going to play golf or do whatever I do and don't get me wrong. I love golf, but not at the expense of the kingdom work that God has called us to do. There's kingdom work that God has called us to do so, whatever your hobbies are, make sure they're in alignment with God's plan for your life. And if you're young or old, make sure God is on the throne of your life. And if you're middle-aged and you're raising kids, you've got all this stuff going on. Make sure Jesus is at the throne is on the throne of your life. He'll make you a better parent and make you a better husband, make you be a better spouse wife to make you a better person in Jesus' name. 6 (1h 6m 44s): Don't let anyone think less of you because you're young. Be an example to all believers in what you say and the way you live and your love, your faith and your purity. Until I get there, focus on reading the scriptures to the church, encouraging to believers and teaching them do not neglect the spiritual gifts you received through the prophecy, spoken over you. When the elders of the church laid their hands on, you gave you your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress. Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation, Timothy and the salvation of those who hear you. 6 (1h 7m 24s): What does godliness look like? It looks like a biting obedience and discipline. How's your backpacking trip. How's your journey with that? Let's go ahead and stand up and we're going to invite the worship team forward and we're going to worship some more and just see what the Lord will do as we honor him with our time. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for this time. Be glorified. As we sing, be glorified. As we think about ponder and decide what we're going to do with this information, help us to decide to abide and to be obedient and to be disciplined in you in Jesus name 2 (1h 8m 52s): . 2 (1h 13m 27s): Jesus died for me. I see his wounds, his hands, his feet, him down to the edge by heavy stone. 2 (1h 14m 16s): robes, Y blazing shop yeah, blazing C sharp. 2 (1h 16m 28s): And 1 (1h 17m 56s): Just ask you to help us each one of us be obedient in that next step. Like what are you calling us to God? What are you calling us to to give that's that we're trying, maybe we're trying to escape from, from the life that you count on us to leak out. And I just, we should just convict each one of us. If something there's always something we can do to get closer to you. God, just ask really? If I just ask you for that Jesus name. Amen. If you guys, if of you guys want prayer, we always have staff and volunteers up here are willing to pray for you. So come on out, but otherwise, thanks for coming. We'll see you next week.

0 (0s): Let's all stand. So getting everybody to stand up with me, please. All right, Lord. We are so thankful. So thankful for what you did for us. Some 2000 years ago, Lord, you provided the means for our salvation. We can only say we thank you. And we receive what you provided for us through the cross and through the empty tomb. We honor you today and worship you today. We just want to lift you up so that each one of us, every heart, every person would be touched profoundly touched by the living. God, we are so blessed. We are so thankful. 0 (40s): Thank you for the community of believers that we are today here. Not only at harvest church, but throughout the central coast, we bless you. We love you in Jesus name. And God's people said 2 (2m 58s): then came the morning. 2 (3m 50s): Hey man. 2 (10m 27s): And you're so worthy of our praise and our time. You're worthy of a heart. Thank you so much for this beautiful day to gather, to remember what you've done for us, how you set us free. I pray for every heart here this morning that they would know the love of Jesus. Today. We know that they're not alone. Now that you walk with us all the days of our lives. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your presence here with us. We thank you for your great love for us. We worship you for who you are. 2 (11m 2s): Jesus, Jesus. 2 (11m 39s): . 2 (17m 47s): I had this reoccurring fear that we're going to hold a service like this, 3 (17m 50s): And nobody's going to show up. So thanks her not making that fear a reality. So a quick joke, we go, before you sit down quick drug, before you sit down, sorry, Jewish rabbi confesses to his wife. He said, I sold the family burial too. He said, how could you sell the family burial to I plan to be buried there with you in the family. What are you doing? What are we going to do? He said, she said, how did, who did you sell that to him too? He said, well, this guy named Jesus, the good news. He only needs it for a few days. 3 (18m 27s): we prayed for good weather. And here it is. We're so grateful. Thanks Perry. We titled the whole events today without fear where we just believe that God would call us and would challenge us to live our lives. Without fear. You guys are proving that that is your goal as well as you are here today. God wants us to live. He wants the people to live without fear. So welcome. God bless you. It was early on Sunday morning as the new day was dawning Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb and the women had encountered, had an encounter with an angel and then shortly thereafter, the enemy encounter with the living God with Jesus, the Lord, both the angel of the Lord, both of them said the angel of the Lord and Jesus, the Lord. 3 (19m 30s): I said, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid is handled. Jesus has it under control. He's risen from the dead. Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, the resurrection. It means that Jesus is who he said he is who he said he was. He is God. He is the Messiah. He is the savior of the world. He's the only way to have it with that. Let's take a moment and we'll pray and we'll continue with the message. Lord Jesus. We are so grateful for your presence here. I pray. 3 (20m 10s): We pray together. God, that you would remind us of the reason that we're gathered, that we would be so built up encouraged with the truth of the resurrection. God that we would leave today with a better under it standing greater clarity around the resurrection. God, we invite you to speak to us personally and corporately to God that she would do what all you can do, minister to every soul that gathers not only here, but all over the central coast, wherever people are gathered. We prayed that she'd be ministering speaking and moving. So Lord, we thank you for your presence. We love you. 3 (20m 51s): Thank you that you're alive in Jesus name. Amen. Jesus is who he said he is who he said he was, he is faithful. He was dead. And now he is alive. So we celebrate the whole world celebrates. I remember after a baseball, when, when I was a little guy, we went down after baseball. When we'd all jump into the back of the truck. Remember those days, when you get pilots in the back of the coach's truck and head to foster freeze and get ice cream, that was the deal. We would celebrate the win by piling in going down the freeway. And everybody's just kind of blowing in the wind, but we would celebrate with some ice cream, right at the end of a good season in any sport, we would gather for food at a pizza place and we'd celebrate with awards and all kinds of fun to celebrate the end of a season. 3 (21m 42s): When my kids were growing up, we had some forged banquets that we gathered for hundreds of people gathered for spores, paved, wins, and celebrate the coaches and the teams. The players. There's always a celebration. And we remember all of the celebrations in our lives, but sometimes we forget the work and effort. It took to get to the celebration. There's a ton of work going into the celebration, the end result, which that allows us to celebrate. So today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but we will also reflect on a few other things. We will answer five questions today. Here are the questions. Number one. What did Jesus accomplish before the resurrection? 3 (22m 26s): Number two, why was Jesus put to death? Number three. Why was the resurrection necessary? Number four. Why is the resurrection celebrated? The number five? What do we do with this? Jesus? What do we do with Jesus? Number one, what did Jesus accomplished before the resurrection? Jesus offered himself as a sin offering for the whole world. Jesus was born. He lived and died to call people to God and to offer his life as a ransom. 3 (23m 8s): For many out of this happen, you might ask, well, there's a word that we use. It's called the incarnation. It literally incarnation means literally to put on flesh. And this is exactly what Jesus did. And the Lord Jesus who was fully God took on flesh and was born as a baby. We celebrate his birthday, Christmas. He was raised in a family with 4 (23m 31s): Parents and siblings and responsibilities and all of the normal challenges of life, except he was without sin. If you raise kids, you know that no kid is without fault without sin. Jesus was perfect. He never sinned. Maybe that word sinned is new to you, that word sin. What does that mean to you? Sin basically means to miss the Mark, to miss the Mark. So recently this last Thursday, I started well a couple of weeks ago, I started running again for the first time in probably the last year and a half. My knees were hurting. And so 5 (24m 9s): I stopped running for the last year and a half and 4 (24m 12s): Somebody prayed for my knees and I started running again. So there you have it that God is still a healer today. So I get running and my goal is to run a mile and a half. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but if you haven't been running for the last couple of years, it's a big deal. My lungs and legs and heart were screaming at me. And so I only made it about a mile out before I stopped. I'm going to build and I will get to the mile and a half Mark. But in this scenario on Thursday, I missed the Mark. I sinned as it were not in a spiritual sense, but to define the word sin, it means to miss the Mark. So my Mark was the mile and a half marker. 5 (24m 54s): I made it to a mile. 4 (24m 56s): So that is essentially what it means to miss the Mark to sin in that way, God has a Mark. Did you realize that God has a Mark? He has expectations for humanity. For instance, God said an exit is 2016. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. What does it mean to bear false witness? It means to lie, right? So God is essentially saying, thou shall not. You should never lie. So when we lie, even when it's a small white lie, when we lie, we have missed the Mark. And the Bible is full of expectations 5 (25m 32s): That God has for us. The 10 commandments, this is the ninth commandment, but there's nine others. And 4 (25m 39s): So a whole 66 books of the Bible where God has expectations for his people. So one of the marks is that we would be 5 (25m 48s): That we would never lie. Any anybody ever lie once in their life? Okay. I would say most of us are probably 4 (25m 55s): Fudge the truth. Just a little bit told a little white lie. So if that's you, then you have missed the Mark and you have sinned. As the Bible says, the wages of sin is death. The penalty, the payment for sin is death, but the free gift 5 (26m 8s): Of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. 4 (26m 12s): So imagine Jesus through all of his life, 5 (26m 16s): Including his adolescent years imagined that he never sinned. He never broke the laws of God. He was perfect. 4 (26m 24s): Peter tells us in first, Peter, two 22, speaking of Jesus, he said he never sinned nor ever deceived anyone for the rest of us. Romans three 23 says for everyone has sinned. We all fall short of God's glorious 5 (26m 42s): Standard. Every single one 4 (26m 44s): Of us, Romans five six says when we were utterly helpless, lost in our sin, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. So what did Jesus accomplish before the resurrection? Jesus offered himself as a sin offering whole world. He was born. He lived, lived and died to call people to God, into offers life as a ransom for many Romans six 23. Again for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus was born and his whole purpose in, in being born was to die, to die for the sins of man kind. 4 (27m 27s): Matthew 2028 says speaking of himself, Jesus said for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a writer. Awesome for Manny again, Jesus was, he lived and died to call people to God and to offer his life as a ransom for many number two, why was Jesus put to death? We've been touching on it. It's because of sin because of sin and the world. Jesus took the sins of the world upon himself. So that those who accept his sacrifice might be forgiven of their sins. The ancient prophet, Isaiah, yeah. Called the Shakespeare of Hebrew literature was a poet who understood the two sided nature of God's character. 4 (28m 15s): There is mercy, but then also judgments. There was grace, but also discipline justice, but also forgiveness, exile, and also salvation. Isaiah wrote prophetically 700 years before Christ was born. 700 years before Jesus was born, lived, died and resurrected from the dead. And he wrote 700 years in advance. What would happen to the Messiah? This is what Isaiah wrote about the savior of the world. Isaiah 53, speaking of Jesus, it says this who has believed our message to whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm. 4 (28m 58s): My servant grew up in the Lord's presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance. Nothing to attract us to him. He was wised and rejected. A man of sorrows acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised and we did not care yet. It was our weaknesses. He cares. It was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God at punishment for his own sins. But he was pierced for our rebellion. He was crushed for our sins. 4 (29m 40s): He was beaten. We could be made whole, he was whipped so we could be healed. All of us like sheep have straight away. We have left God's path to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him, the sins of us, all, he was oppressed and treated harshly yet. He never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep, as silent before 5 (30m 7s): The year is he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned. He was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants that his life was cut short and midstream, but he was struck down for the, for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong. He had never deceived anyone, but he was buried like a criminal. He was put in a rich man's grave, but it was the Lord's good plan to crush him and cause him grief yet. 4 (30m 38s): When his life has made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life. And the Lord's good plan will prosper in his hands. 5 (30m 50s): When he sees all that as accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant 4 (30m 56s): Will make it possible for many to be counted righteous 5 (30m 60s): For. He will bear all their sins. Verse 12. I will give him the honors of the victorious soldier because he exposed himself to death. 4 (31m 10s): He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins, 5 (31m 13s): Eddie and interceded for rebels. Why was Jesus put to death? Because the penalty for sin is death. Jesus took my sin. He took our sin upon himself. So that those who accept so that we might accept his sacrifice and be forgiven of our sins. Why was the resurrection necessary? Number three, why was the resurrection necessary? The resurrection demonstrates that 4 (31m 48s): Everything he said is true. He told his followers I will be killed. And then on the third day I will be resurrected. Jesus told his disciples that he would die, but on the third day he would rise again. The resurrection proves that Jesus is who he said he is and who he said he was Dr. Jamie David. Jeremiah wrote scripture tells us that we are 5 (32m 13s): Separated from God because he is Holy. He is Holy and we are not. 4 (32m 18s): We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We read about that. Romans three 23, we cannot measure up to his standard and we cannot go to heaven in our own imperfection, but all mighty God devised a plan, a plan of redemption. He would send his only son, Jesus Christ to this world to live a perfect life. And he would ultimately go to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. Some wonder, how could one man do that? And the answer is no mere man could, but this man was the son of God. He was God in the flesh. And only through him, can we come to God, 5 (32m 59s): Fully justified? 4 (33m 1s): Jesus Christ himself said, I am 5 (33m 3s): The way the truth and the life. 4 (33m 6s): And no man comes to the father except 5 (33m 8s): Through me. Dr. David David, Jeremiah continues only by placing our trust in him for the forgiveness of our sins. Can we go to 4 (33m 17s): Heaven? And because Jesus Christ came back from the grave, demonstrating the reality of his words and the truthfulness of his statements. 5 (33m 26s): No, that his words are true. Now we know why the resurrection of Jesus Christ was necessary. His whole reputation was, 4 (33m 39s): Was counting on this resurrection. If he did not resurrect from the dead, 5 (33m 44s): Everything that he said was a lie and not worth following, but he did. 4 (33m 49s): So with that number four, why is the resurrection celebrated? Why do we celebrate the resurrection? Well, the resurrection represents new life for each and every one of us who would welcome Jesus into our lives to have our sins forgiven and to be welcomed into the family of God. It represents new life, new hope, new purpose, new promise in Jesus. The resurrection proves that Jesus is who he claimed to be. So we celebrate the resurrection 2000 years later because people for 2000 5 (34m 26s): And years have been trusting that resurrection I've been trusting that name. They've been putting their trust in the living God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. 4 (34m 37s): They've been trusting Jesus for the salvation of their souls, broken people, people who desperately needed forgiveness of their sins, good people who also recognize 5 (34m 48s): Guys that they needed the grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ. 4 (34m 51s): Good. The bad, the ugly, everybody in between people who need Jesus, 5 (34m 56s): The Hammond find forgiveness there. 4 (35m 0s): Celebrate the resurrection because 2000 years ago, Jesus made the only way possible to heaven. And people have been trusting Jesus for their salvation. 5 (35m 9s): Ever since let's read the 4 (35m 10s): Biblical account in Matthew chapter 28 verses one through 10, it says early on Sunday morning 5 (35m 16s): As the new day was dawning 4 (35m 18s): Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord, came down from having imagined the scene, a large earthquake because an angel of the Lord came down from heaven. He rolled aside the stone and sat on it. His face shown 5 (35m 35s): Lightening and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him and they fell into a dead faint. Then the angel spoke to the women. Don't be afraid. He said, I know you're looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn't here. He has risen from the dead just as he said, what happened, come and see where his body was lying. And now go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you in the women ran quickly from the tomb. 5 (36m 17s): Imagine though they're their emotion, their, what they're experiencing. As they went to go visit the tomb and they realized that Jesus is resurrected. The women ran quickly from the tomb verse eight. They were very frightened, but also filled with great joy. And they rushed to give the disciples, the angels message. And as they went, Jesus met them. I love that statement because I've experienced that in my own life. Jesus meeting me in my desperate time of need being faithful to me when I'm not his faithfulness being good to me when I'm not worthy of his goodness, Jesus met them. 5 (37m 8s): He met them and greeted them. This is what Jesus wants to do with each. And every one of us, he wants to meet us and greet us and then give us a message. They ran to him, grasp his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee. And they will see me there. So the angel of the Lord spoke to the women. Don't be afraid. Jesus met them, greeted them and gave them the same message. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Jesus is alive. He's well, he's present with us. 5 (37m 48s): I'm declaring to you today that we are to be without fear in Jesus' name. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus made the way to heaven. Jesus 6 (38m 0s): Loves you. Jesus loves you. 5 (38m 6s): Jesus is faithful. 6 (38m 11s): So 5 (38m 12s): With all of the information that we've gathered this morning, what did we do with this Jesus? What did we do with Jesus? 6 (38m 24s): I heard Marie. Remember when I was in middle school, 5 (38m 28s): It was confronted with the gospel. The good news that for whatever reason, because he decided to not because I was good, but Jesus, he loves me. I was confronted with that revelation that Jesus loves me and that he wanted to forgive my sins, that he had a good plan for my life. That he wanted to be a part of my life. I remember being broken. It's just a young guy being broken by that revelation, that information, that truth that I knew, God was speaking 6 (38m 58s): To me. What do we do with Jesus? I want to encourage you. Don't be 5 (39m 5s): Afraid. Welcome him into your life. Jesus came that we might have life and life abundantly. He loves you. And no matter what you've done or on the other side of things, no matter how good you think you might be, you need Jesus. And by his grace, he welcomes you. Some are afraid. Some here are afraid to follow Jesus. Maybe you've tried and it hasn't worked out. I would just tell you, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to follow Jesus. Some are afraid of what others might think. 5 (39m 46s): If you started following Jesus, don't let the fear of man keep you from following Jesus. Some are afraid of what Jesus might expect. Trust me, whatever Jesus expects. The blessings on, on the other side of following Jesus is so out ways. The, the expectation that Jesus might have, Jesus said, my yoke is easy. My burden is light. 6 (40m 15s): What do we do with Jesus? 5 (40m 17s): Can I encourage you and invite you to give your life to Jesus? We're going to have a baptism. Baptism is a time when people who have decided to believe and follow Jesus, make a public declaration of their faith. They're saying to the world, to everybody who will witness to God into the world, I am a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. 6 (40m 42s): There's an opportunity 5 (40m 42s): To be baptized today. We've got a handful of people. Who've committed to be baptized ahead of time. But if you're here today and you have given your life to Jesus or want to give your life to Jesus and you want to get baptized, that I'm gonna encourage you. After we pray to go back to the tent behind me and we'll have a t-shirt and change of clothes for you, and you'll have the opportunity to be baptized with that. Let's go ahead and bow our heads in prayer and do some business with the Lord. Lord Jesus. We 6 (41m 17s): Are so 5 (41m 20s): Humbled by your presence. God, we're so humbled by your goodness. You gotta know that you've been speaking to people like you spoke to my heart so many years ago. And I thank you for that. Listen, if you're here today with everybody's eyes still closed, as we continue to pray, if you would like to receive Jesus as your Lord, you simply do this. You tell God you need him. You say, Lord, I need you. I need you to forgive my sins. I need you to come into my life. I need your love. I need your grace. 5 (42m 1s): I need your mercy. And as you humbly acknowledge your need to the living, God did Jesus. The Lord. He will come into your life and forgive your sins. He will adopt you into his family and make you his own. So Lord, I pray that as people make that decision today that it would stick and that those people would be bold to follow you all the days of their lives. Thank you for your amazing grace. We love you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. So if you'd like to get baptized, let's go ahead and stand up. We're going to worship some more as we stand up. If you'd like to be baptized, make your way to the baptism tent directly behind the platform and we will get you prepared for baptism. 5 (42m 48s): In the meantime, we will sing some songs, continue to worship the Lord. 0 (1h 1m 38s): What a celebration this morning. Thank you so much for joining us search. We're so glad that you were here with us this morning. We just want to take a moment and just pray as we close this service, would you bow your heads with me, Lord, we love you. Would you just seal upon our hearts, all that has been done here today? God, would you just draw hearts unto yourself? And would you cause us to be a reflection of your love to a dying hurting world around us that is so in need. And I pray that you would help us to walk without fear into this week ahead that we lean into you for strength, for guidance, for everything that we need, Lord, that you care for us so much, you know, the hairs on head and you know, every anxious thought. 0 (1h 2m 21s): And so we look to Jesus for all that. We have Nita. Thank you for coming. Thank you for living and dying and rising again that we could be free. So we celebrate you Jesus. This morning, we give you our hearts and all of our things in his precious and Holy name. Amen. Amen. Amen church. Well, that song that we close with, it's called walk without fear. And that's our special gift to you this morning. We have a recording of it available on iTunes on Spotify, and you can find the lyric video on YouTube. So I hope that you look that up. You can hop on our church website to find all those links, but it's just our gift to you that you could carry the stay with you forward and walk without fear. 0 (1h 3m 2s): So we're going to have that lyric video playing after service. But before we wrap up, we have some special announcements from our kids director. Leslie is going to tell us about the Easter egg hunt. So don't go far. If you've got, kids are gonna want to stick around for, this is my mind. We have our Easter egg hunts going on right now, right after service. They're going to begin in just a few minutes. So if you have kiddos between the ages of zero and 10 years old, we have a hunt for four to 10 year old in the first area. You'll see a balloon arch that's orange and yellow and white. You'll see that on the right side, down the driveway. So if you have a four to 10 year old, go ahead and go down there. If you have a birth to three-year-old, you're going to continue past that one. 0 (1h 3m 43s): You're going to see a second balloon arch on your right. And that's where you're going to go for those kiddos. So, all right. Happy Easter, everyone you're dismissed. 2 (1h 4m 1s): We didn't do food. 2 (1h 4m 18s): hi. 2 (1h 6m 38s): Oh me. Yeah. Now I see .

0 (1s): Morning, everybody go ahead 1 (4s): And make your way to your seat. If you wouldn't mind. My name is Ron. I want to welcome everybody. Who's in the sanctuary and in the loft and the patio, and also online and for tuning in, we want to welcome you as well. We're doing things a little different today. We're making a change in that. We're having announcements at the beginning of the service rather than in the middle, but because we all love change so much. It's like, yeah, this is, this is good. Right? Human nature. We love change. So you're ready for the announcements. It's always the best part of the service. Remember that? So, all right, we have Easter coming up. So next Sunday, Easter is going to be here on campus. 1 (46s): So what we're going to be doing is we're going to set up in the upper parking lot, which is up the, up the road this direction. And we're going to have a stage built, live worship. We're going to stream it as well. We're going to set up 600 chairs. We would encourage you please invite family, invite friends, neighbors, anybody you can think of. In fact, we have these Easter invite cards that have been made up, print it up and you'll find them distributed in different places around the, the campus. And so go ahead and grab some of those. That's a good way just to hand it and invite somebody to come to the Easter fellowship. And so it's at 10. O'clock just remember that we've got one service. It's going to be at 10 o'clock and it's going to be a family service. 1 (1m 27s): So we will have children's packets available for the little ones, but it's one hour long. They're, you know, they're going to sit with mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, and it's going to be a really fun, fun Easter celebration. We do need some help. We're going to be doing setup actually on Saturday. We're going to set up at nine o'clock on Saturday. If you'd like to be a part of that, just sign up at the info center or on our website. And we will contact you just to confirm that you're on the roster to help set up again. That's going to be Saturday, this coming Saturday at nine o'clock and then clean up, you can either sign up to clean up, or you can just hang out a little bit right after service and you can help us put away chairs and do all that good stuff. 1 (2m 7s): So if you want to be a part of that, that would be super helpful. All right. One of the things that we do at harvest church, we do this about three or four times a year is we offer a program. We call it growth track. So what it is is for those who are new to harvest church, and it helps you get connected to the believers here, the community here at harvest church. And so that growth track is going to be starting up. It's going to start up April 11th and there's actually, it's going to involve four Sundays, Sunday morning. So it's going to start April 11th at, at 11 o'clock. It's going to be in the parsonage up the driveway. And again, it's going to be four sessions and you're going to get to know some other people it's going to be super fun. 1 (2m 48s): But what you're going to learn about there is you're going to learn about a little bit of the history of harvest church. So like what makes us unique from other churches in our community? You're gonna learn about our beliefs, mission, ministries, history, all that kind of stuff. And it's going to also help you to discover your spiritual gifts and find out, you know, where God would have you get plugged in with whether it be here at church or in your community, but it's going to be super fun. So be a part of that, you'll sign up at the info center or online or church app, whatever you want to use. Love to have you be a part of that. We have coming up. It is a youth and kids choir. Okay. So the ages would be second grade through high school. 1 (3m 29s): All right. So we've got a broad age group there. This is a youth and kids choir. So if you are in that age, demographic, we'd love to have you join this group. They're going to start their rehearsals. Let's see. Well, what I have here is the performance of the youth and kids group is going to choir is going to be the end of may. So there's going to be some rehearsals leading up to the end of may. And if you want to be a part of that, or maybe you've got kids that you'd like to be a part of that, just contact Leslie she's our children's ministry director. And you can either go online and send an email to her, or if you know her, just talk to her here on campus. And that would be great as well. Okay. I'm now I'm rereading my notes. 1 (4m 11s): Rehearsals will be on Sundays 10, 20 to 10 50, starting on April 18th. All right. So there you go. Love to have you be a part of that. So one last thing you ready last announcement of the day. I'm sorry about that. So the fifth and sixth graders, they're doing a Passover Seder dinner or it's for the fifth and sixth graders. So if you're a, if you're a student fifth and sixth grader, or maybe you have a child that is, you don't want to miss this. So it's going to be done Sunday, April 11th. It's going to be from three till 6:00 PM in the loft. And it's going to be $5 to pay for all the good stuff. So I'd love to have you sign up fifth and sixth graders, Passover, Seder. If you don't know what a Seder is, Google it. 1 (4m 54s): And then you can figure out what is it? I would encourage it. If you've never been to a Passover Seder, we encourage you to do that. 2 (5m 1s): All right. So here 1 (5m 2s): At harvest church, we support missionaries locally and internationally. And it's a big priority of our church to be involved in sharing the gospel here and abroad. So one of the couples I'm going to invite them up in just a moment, Mike and Sharon, Dutra the name of their ministries be transformed. So what they've done is they created books that go into the prison system, into the jails. So it's predominantly to those who are inmates, those who are incarcerated here and in other countries as well. So I'd like to invite Mike and Sharon to go ahead and come on up. This is Mike and Sharon right here. Let's go. 2 (5m 37s): I'm a warm welcome. All right. So 1 (5m 45s): Love these guys. So we've been, we've been involved in their ministry supporting them for probably 10 years or so a long time, less than that. Okay. But what we still love you even, even though spend less than that. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. 3 (5m 58s): Here we go. 4 (6m 9s): so most, 5 (6m 17s): Wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no. That's the wrong language. That's that's next. 4 (6m 21s): That's good by me. 5 (6m 24s): Forgive my beautiful Irish German senior re Senora. I don't want to see senior Rita that's she's not married, but she is. Yeah. And I don't speak Spanish. He does. Thankfully, let's start out with our ministry update and get back on track. We are entering our 10th year as be transformed ministry. And it's only because of God's amazing grace and spirit that he has allowed us to do what we're doing and open the doors for all this to happen to date. We have sent out over 20,000 free books. Last year, we sent out just over 6,000, which is we keeps accelerating every year. 5 (7m 6s): We sent books to prisons, jails, rehabs, and other countries. Our books are now in over 100 us institutions. It's not about the numbers of books, but all about the souls brought closer to Jesus that matters the most to us. And it also matters the most to him. 4 (7m 26s): For example, here's a letter from Matthew, a New Mexico inmate. Hello Sharon. I was recently transferred to a new facility, but in the Santa Fe prison, I just came from the 60 men Bible study where they are still using all three of your books. In fact, they use your new beginnings book as curriculum and their armor of God study. I have been using your books now for a few years to teach from, and I just love everything about them. And so does everyone else, the guys always tell me how easy your books are to understand and how well they explain how to apply the word to our daily lives in the new facility I'm in. 4 (8m 7s): We have a, not a lot of new believers, probably the largest in any facility. I would like to be able to introduce your books to the congregation here after the outcome of the Santa Fe facility. I know in my heart that the guys would be blessed to have the opportunity to share your books. Every facility I end up going to, I feel that God has placed me there to be a Fisher of men. And in order for me to do so, I share your book and teach God's word with it. And from it, you have been a blessing to so many of my brothers here. God bless you, Matthew. 5 (8m 46s): Next week we are going on our first ever be transformed ministry, mission trip to Mexico. Whew. We will be speaking at yeah. I was like, Whoa, we will be, we will see, we will be speaking at three rehabilitation centers, a church. And we will be meeting with three new ministries. One of them was really large and giving them many more books to distribute throughout Mexico. We already have over 1100 Spanish books in Mexico and we are taking more than 200 books with us in our poor Prius. The books are already being used in Tiawana Rosarita beach, Mexico city. And they are being used in the Southern most state of Chiapas. 5 (9m 29s): And more cases of our books will soon be sent there. Chiapas only has a 3% population of Christians and it's a restricted area region. According to the voice of the martyrs, there is a strong MARCE, Marxists and atheist presence there. So pray for the state of Chiapas. 4 (9m 49s): Tijuana is pronounced the Wynonna, Oh, we have 400 books being used in Nigeria. 500 of our books. And 250 Bibles were shipped to Ghana. 60 books are being in used in Uganda and also South Africa has been using our books for over two and a half years. And we just shipped 70 more books to them. This is a note from one of many, from one of the pastors in South Africa named pastor Nizza Monday. He says, I have pastored in these valleys for many years, and it's hard to uproot the Zulu tribes from their cultural beliefs to try to explain the subject of faith or one, God only is close to impossible. 4 (10m 38s): The new beginnings book has simplified some basic Christian trues that I teach with these now and confidence because I also understand it better. I appreciate the book and will teach and teach until the Lord is glorified in my village. 5 (10m 54s): Amen. He didn't say that. 4 (10m 58s): I always forget this part. Remember that in prisons and foreign countries, books will often be shared many, many times. So if you think about it, how impactful can one book be? 5 (11m 12s): Yeah. Our books have been used in a lot of churches. It started out as tying of us, sending them to prisons, but now it's expanded into many, many different churches too. We are now partnering exciting news. This is just last week. We're partnering with a new life ministries in Japan. They are going to print and store 2000 of our books in the next couple of weeks. And we'll distribute our Japanese new beginnings books for free to prisoners. And they are also going to advertise our book. So Christians and churches can purchase them in Japan. Japan again is less than 1% Christian they're totally unreached pretty much. And by God's mighty grace, our books are now being used in eight countries and have been translated into four different languages. 4 (11m 60s): So if you'd like more information about our Facebook page, our web address and ways to give the, we have a table just outside of the loft at the end of the service. 6 (12m 12s): Oh no, no. Mike local Condesa. 4 (12m 22s): We've also had over 20,000 downloads of our new beginnings, eBooks into Iran via the farce. I know, right? That is actually one of the fastest growing underground churches in the world right now. And they get all of their feed from satellite because they're not allowed to have physical material there or else they can be tortured or killed or other things. So anyway, back to the story, Oh, so if you can't, if you don't do Facebook, we've got some ministry update sheets on the 5 (12m 58s): She's blown. At this time, we would not have been able to do any of this work without your continued prayers and support. Hey, she's blonde. Give her a break. 6 (13m 10s): I didn't say that. 5 (13m 13s): Please consider partnering with us to continue this growing ministry, to share the gospel message. We received so much feedback, feedback letters, emails about changed lives. We don't receive any pay from the ministry and we are under a five Oh one C3 for your tax deductible donations. Will you consider helping us continue to reach more people for Christ? Now you're in, 4 (13m 39s): You're going to have a table by the loft. He's right. I missed all of that. So there are a lot of additional stories and pictures on our Facebook page. For those of you who don't do Facebook, we've got a ministry update sheet on the table and we've also got a sign up sheet. If you'd like to receive a quarterly newsletter. And we also have some outreach brochures. If you'd like to take some, you can leave them as tips. You can leave them on a bench anywhere to reach people for Jesus. We really want to thank you so much for your love and your support and your prayers. We appreciate you more than, you know, thank you. God bless you. 6 (14m 18s): 5 (14m 21s): So Mikey, come on back up here. I'm going to pray for you guys. So they actually get along quite well norm normally, so go ahead and stand up here, Mike please. 6 (14m 31s): Yeah. Yeah. 5 (14m 33s): And like Sharon mentioned, they do have a table set up. If you want to meet them, look at their material, support them anyway, feel free to do so. Let's pray for them. Okay. Well we just lift up Mike and Sharon to you, Lord, thank you that they they've just committed themselves to help lead others to you and, and to disciple believers and 1 (14m 52s): Especially those who are incarcerated, who are in positions, where they might not have a lot of purpose or future in their mind. But Lord, thank you that you give them hope. So, Lord, we pray that you'd open many, many more doors for Mike and Sharon's material material. Thank you that you've given them the ability to, to basically write this, these books and, and disciple people and, and have your word go forth through their, through the documents they've created. So Lord bless these two. Bless their marriage. Lord lead them to a good marriage counselor. We pray. Well, we love them. We, we, we just love them or thank you for them in Jesus name. Amen. 1 (15m 33s): That, that, that I'm hi. That last part was a joke. Hey, one thing I forgot to mention earlier, I'm going to add another announcement. Today's family Sunday, which basically means kids are in with, with parents. If your kids are below first grade, we've got some room up them up there for them. We're going to have Passover house over where Steve helped me. We're we're going to have communion. Thank you. We're going to have communion this morning, but best of all, we have donuts today. All right. So if you didn't get your doughnut yet, they're up in the near the info center I saw I got for you here. 1 (16m 17s): Go Jim. 6 (16m 17s): Let's stand and worship. Yeah. crowd with his crowd with the two with, so Jews watched in vain was borrowed for three days. 6 (20m 35s): His body . God has a Rob gray. 7 (22m 25s): Scott. You do lift us up. Thank you for resurrecting us, our hearts for saving us. Thank you. Amazing grace. Thank you. Yeah, let's just give him some things this morning. If you even want to speak it out or just in your heart either way, unless it's so some things from our hearts to him this morning. Thank you for your goodness, Lord. Thank you for your mercy. 7 (23m 39s): sing amazing grace. 7 (27m 15s): One more time. how's the sound I see. 7 (27m 58s): How was the see you more clearly today? You want to know, you want to know the depths of your heart. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear today. I want to see you. I'm like, yeah, let's just wait on his presence. Just open your hearts to him. If you even want to open your hands to just kind of receive anything he wants to pour down this morning and just put yourself in that mode of receiving just from him, your spirit on your sons and daughters today, we stand in need of you Thanksgiving. 7 (29m 28s): yes, my maze. I am confident for me. Yeah. 7 (30m 4s): 8 (35m 11s): You are doing today for the, the celebration for the opportunity to gather as friends, as brothers and sisters in the Lord, we pray God that you would continue to move powerfully in our midst, Lord God, that we would be surprised at what you do. And maybe we're already surprised at what you've done, Lord God, I pray that for every person here all over the campus, watching online and wherever, Lord God, we just pray that you administer powerfully in Jesus name. That lives would be changed 9 (35m 38s): And transformed. Thank you for this for your grace. And for this time in Jesus name, amen. You can be seated. Amen. Amen. I was at a wedding yesterday and manna was at this amazing celebration of this couple. They've been dating for eight years now since high school and Ronin and Brie are now happily married. 8 (35m 57s): They're married. Anyway. I assume they're happily married and 9 (35m 60s): It's only been less than 24 hours. So I bet it's my belief. And I told him this. I said, it actually can get better and better. Marriage can get better and 8 (36m 10s): Better and better as you go along. And so we talked a lot about that. So we're 9 (36m 15s): Celebrating Palm Sunday today, 8 (36m 18s): And it was much like the celebration of the wedding yesterday. It was just so much excitement, anticipation so much going on. 9 (36m 26s): And as Jesus gets ready to enter Jerusalem 8 (36m 29s): For the final time he is met with adoration. 9 (36m 33s): People are laying out their garments 8 (36m 35s): On the road, putting Palm branches down, hence the term Palm Sunday. And this is his triumphant entry where he's coming into Jerusalem for the final time. It's Sunday, but Friday's coming good Friday is when Jesus would go to the cross, he would die for our sins. And it's called good. Because apart from that good work of Christ on the cross, we have no hope. We have absolutely no hope so because God is good. We have hope in Jesus. And so this is kind of how things unfolded. I'll read it, but as he comes in, Jesus immediately begins to take care of business, driving out the money changers, confronting the religious leaders, speaking parables, directing people. 9 (37m 20s): This is why, this is what I know about Jesus. You encounter him and either you're 10 (37m 24s): Off by him or you're kind of 8 (37m 29s): Don't care kind of neutral, or you decide to fall in love with him as really 9 (37m 34s): The three responses. And we see that in represented 8 (37m 38s): In Jesus' life and ministry. As Jesus sent his disciples approached Jerusalem, Matthew 21 verses one through 11, says this. They came to the town of Beth village 9 (37m 47s): Out of olives and Jesus sent two of them on a head go into the village over there. He said, as soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there with its cult beside it, untied them and bring them to me. She, Jesus knew exactly what he was walking into. He knew the plan of the father and he was willingly ready to walk into it. And so he knew what to expect and he knew what to prepare his followers for. He said, if anyone asks what you are doing, just say the Lord needs them and he will immediately 8 (38m 18s): Let you take them. This took place to fulfill the prophecy that said, 9 (38m 24s): Tell the people of Jerusalem, look, your King is coming to you. He is humble writing 8 (38m 29s): Donkey, riding on a donkey's Colt. The two disciples did as Jesus commanded. That's always a good idea by the way, do 9 (38m 36s): What Jesus asked you to do. And things will work out. They brought the donkey and the Colt to him and threw their garments over the Colt. And he sat on it. Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. This is the right response to Jesus. By the way, this is the life giving response to Jesus. Like Lord, I will give you everything, including my garments. I will lay them at your feet. I will bow down before you. I will celebrate you and who you are. This is what they were doing. Jesus was in the center of the procession verse nine says, and the people all around him were shouting. They're shouting praise God now. 9 (39m 17s): But just in a moment, in a short amount of time, they're gonna be shouting, crucify him, crucify him. But right now they're saying praise God for the son of David blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord, praise God in highest heaven. I wonder if we do the same thing in one breath, we're praising him in the next work, conflicted and more confused by him and even angry at him. Jesus knew the condition of man's heart going into this while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He knew that it moments of our life were doubtful and angry and without faith. But then other moments when we're believing him and trusting him, we're saying, praise God for the son of David blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord, praise God in highest heaven. 9 (40m 5s): We can get to a place in our life as followers of Jesus Christ, where our faith level is so high. That we're always saying this, that we no longer say Lord, why or God I'm angry or God, I don't understand. We can say those things, but, but with this faith is confidence saying, Lord, I don't understand, but I know you do Lord. I don't know why this is happening, but I know that you do. I don't, I can't figure this one out Lord, but I know that you've got to figure it out to the entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. As he entered, 11 (40m 34s): Who is this? They asked, who is this? 9 (40m 37s): Yes. They asked. And the crowds replied. It is Jesus. The prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. 11 (40m 43s): He's the reason that we gather. He's the one, 9 (40m 45s): The reason that the whole world gathers for Easter next week on April 4th, these are the reason. And maybe if you're not in the church or never heard of this person, Jesus, the curiosity of the world is who is this? Jesus. And why are we celebrating him? Why do people gather to celebrate his resurrection? Why do people gather to celebrate his birth? Why did people gather to celebrate him at all? It's our job as believers, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, to give them the answer. And when Jesus radically changes our lives, we're happy to do so. We're happy to do so. I've titled the message today. Faith in Jesus changes everything. Faith in Jesus changes everything. 9 (41m 27s): Unless of course your faith in Jesus hasn't changed anything. Where are you 8 (41m 34s): Today? Where's your faith today? Your walk with Jesus today. Do you know him? Do you follow him? Do you trust him? Because as we can see from the scripture and from hopefully from our own experience, our faith in Jesus has meant to radically shape us and change everything about the way who, the way we are, the way we function, the way we talk, the way we react, the way we live. Paul Paul 9 (42m 2s): Wrote in first Timothy one five, and we've been studying through the book of first Timothy. This letter that Paul wrote to this young pastor in emphasis. Paul writes this letter, this, this information, this anointed revelation to this young man so that the people of God in that church might know how to live their lives. Paul wrote in first Timothy one five. 8 (42m 25s): The purpose of my instruction is that all believers and all ad everywhere that all believers everywhere would be filled with love. That comes from a pure hearts, a clear conscience and genuine faith. 9 (42m 42s): These are things that are reachable they're within our reach by God's grace, because he's good. Not because we are good. He's writing to give instruction so that all believers will be filled with love. I don't know about you, but I, I love so much better now that I know Jesus than I did before, before Jesus, I was pent up and pretty frustrated and pretty angry. And I found fault with just about everybody that I came in contact with. But since meeting Jesus, he has changed my heart. He has changed my life and I still wrestle with those old ideas and thoughts and old man ways. But Jesus has filled my heart with such love that. It's, it's hard to imagine how life was before. 9 (43m 24s): This is, this is God's designed that he would fill us with his love that we would experience his love is unconditional love. And then out of that overflow out of that abundance of revelation that we would share that same love with everybody in our path. This is the design of the gospel's design is that we'd be filled with the love of God and then overflow and share 8 (43m 44s): That love with others. That would be filled with the love that comes from a pure heart who purifies our heart, who purifies our heart. Jesus purifies our heart. We were 9 (43m 54s): Lost and broken and full of sin and Jesus. He washes over us. He went to the cross. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And so Jesus went to the cross to purify 8 (44m 14s): Our fickleness, 9 (44m 17s): To purify us from our sin, 8 (44m 20s): Make us pure of hearts. He said the believers will be filled with love. That comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience and genuine faith. How do, how do we have a clear conscience? We let me just say this. We, 9 (44m 33s): We can have a clear conscience. It's actually possible for us to have a clear conscience. Some of us live our lives with guilty conscience, 24 seven. We don't know how to live in such a way that we get rid of that. First of all, the enemy is a liar and he's going to want to heap, guilt and condemnation upon your life 24 seven. So you've got to recognize, what am I feeling? Is this from the enemy or is this really guilt from the sin in my life? If it's guilt from the sin in your life, if you confess your sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, that's the gospel. He loves you and wants to forgive your sin so that your conscience is clear. So then you just get up every morning and you just live for the glorious purposes of God. You live for God's glory. 9 (45m 13s): And then your conscience is clear when you sin. When you misstep, you just bring it to the Lord and say, God, I've sinned there. I don't want to send there. I've missed step. I don't want to miss step there. Would you forgive me? And your conscience can be clear in Jesus' name. Your conscience can be clear and then genuine faith. How's your genuine faith. Sometimes we wrestle with the love with a pure heart, with a clear conscious, because our faith is not genuine. It's not, it hasn't touched every area of our life. We kind of keep it in a box and we say, my faith is for Sunday morning or my faith is for the Bible study or my faith is for whatever it may be. But my faith isn't for my time with my buddies. That's not, that's not where my faith comes in. My faith. Isn't in my activities, my hobbies, my sports, that's my work, my school. 9 (45m 56s): That's not where my faith comes into play. And so we don't have a faith that saturates our whole life. And so we struggle with all these 8 (46m 4s): Things with love, pure hearts and a clear conscience. It's when we have a genuine faith, 9 (46m 11s): I think it's the only kind of real faith that we can have in Jesus, because we either respond to him by deciding we're going to fall in love with him, or we're just kind of irritated by him, or we're just kind of neutral about him. And I just want to encourage you today to decide 8 (46m 26s): To fall in love with him. 9 (46m 28s): That will fix everything. Your, your, your love will be overflowing. You'll have a pure heart, a clear conscience, and then your faith will be genuine. Paul writes in first Timothy chapter three, verses four through 14, through 16. As we wrap up this chapter, getting ready in preparation for Easter, for resurrection Sunday, how many are going to be here for Easter next week? It's going to be really good. As we said, it's going to be up the driveway. We're putting out hundreds of chairs and it's just going to be really, 8 (46m 55s): Really fun. 9 (46m 57s): First Timothy, three 14 through 16. Paul said, I'm writing these things to you now, even though I hope to be with you 8 (47m 4s): Soon 9 (47m 6s): So that if I'm delayed, you will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God. This is 8 (47m 13s): Sure church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth. So what he says carries weight, because this is the church of the living. God, you are the church of the living. God, not this building, 9 (47m 30s): But you personally and us corporately. We're the church of the living. God, we are God's workmanship, his masterpieces, his idea. He is the architect and it is his plan that gathers us so that we might fellowship together so that we might worship together so that we might grow in grace together. It's his idea. It's his plan that we come together. He says that this is the church of the living. God. So we don't gather for just any reason to celebrate just any idea or plan or to, to teach about just anything we're gathered to teach about the living, God, to worship the living, God, to celebrate 8 (48m 9s): The living God. In any case, 9 (48m 13s): Paul wasn't able to be there in person. Paul loved the church. Paul loved to be with the church. He loved planting churches and ministering. So in case Paul wasn't able to be there in person. He wrote this letter to Timothy so that God's people would understand how 8 (48m 27s): To live and function after all, this is the church, 9 (48m 31s): The living God. And so God has given us the Bible. He's given us instruction in the scripture so that we might understand how to live individually because individually we're the church and corporately where the church. And so he's given us instruction, how do we live out our lives? What do we do? How do we make wise choices? How do we make wise decisions in this life? Will Paul through the junction, the anointing of the Holy spirit has given us instruction. He said, this is the church 8 (48m 58s): Of the living. God, 9 (49m 2s): This is God's church. And so things must be done. God's way. This is why we do our best to teach through the scriptures so that we approach every topic and have understanding of everything that God asks us to do. Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy spirit under God's spirit giving instruction. So the church would know how to properly express and represent the person of the love, loving and living God he's he's given us instruction. If you ever wondering, how do I please, God just opened up the scripture and just begin to do what the scripture says. Just begin to pray into the scripture. Say, as you read it, just say, Lord, I don't know how to do this stuff. A lot of it, I don't even understand, but God, I want to, when your heart's right and open and available to the Lord, he will show you what you must do. 8 (49m 46s): Paul spells it out for us. He spells it out. You wrote under the inspiration of the Holy spirit. 9 (49m 51s): These are the things. This is, this is the instruction 8 (49m 55s): For the church. 9 (49m 56s): This is God's church. And so our aim is to honor 8 (49m 58s): God in the way we function in the way that we worship and the way that we live, the way that we teach and the way that we lead. He is the architect. He's designed it. If you ever looked at a set of plans, every detail is covered, right? All of the details are in the plans in the blueprints, the architect has made that happen. This is his design, 9 (50m 24s): Always perplexed. I'm always perplexed. When people say that, I, when they say I love God, but I don't like his church. 3 (50m 34s): This is like saying, 9 (50m 35s): I love God. I just don't love God's people. 3 (50m 39s): I just, I love God. I just don't love God's plan. 9 (50m 42s): It's perplexing to me because the church is God's plan filled with God's people, people that he loves and people that we're supposed to love. And so I know that church can be hard sometimes, and we have different difficulties in church, in disagreements with people in church. And it's hard to get along sometimes, but this is still God's design. The church gathered together for corporate worship to build friendships and have fellowship and have community to come together and love each other. And to challenge one another and to encourage one another. This is God's designed. We're not meant to do life alone. I know a gal who for the last, since COVID started for over a year, she's never wants to come in contact with another person she's been holed up in her home and never had a physical contact with anybody for the whole last 12 or 14 months. 9 (51m 35s): It's insanity. It's not how we are designed to live. This is why I sent out a video. I think it came out yesterday, just inviting people to come back to church. Did anybody see that video yet? Just inviting people to come back to church saying, Hey, it's time. It's time to get back to church. We need to, without fear gather, and without fear Jews to beats together as the body of Christ. And so it's my hope that the people of God, not just at harvest church, but on the central coast and not just on the central coast, but in this state and in this country and in this world would begin to gather to shake off that fear and get back to church it's God's idea. 9 (52m 17s): After all, some people are threatened. If I come back to church and I'm so used to being in my pajamas, I made you show up in my pajamas. I said, if you want to show up in your pajamas, just show up in your pajamas, just make sure it's appropriate pajamas. So we may see people show up on Easter Sunday at 10 o'clock next week in their pajamas. Just be okay with it. It's okay. 3 (52m 43s): Okay. 9 (52m 43s): This is the church, which is the pillar. The verse goes on and says in verse 16, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth. Why is the church, the pillar and the foundation of the truth? Because we teach the truth. That's God's designed for the church that we would teach the church, essentially becoming the pillar and the foundation we teach God's word, which is the truth. And because we preach the truth where the pillar and the foundation of that truth, we have this responsibility to teach the word of God that people might understand the Bible and understand that the Bible is truth. And so the church declares and communicates and affirms the Bible's truth. So we teach and we champion this book, the Bible, because it is properly the pillar and foundation it the truth. 9 (53m 26s): And 8 (53m 26s): We as the church, as we declare it, 9 (53m 29s): Not just corporately, but individually, as well as we believe it in champion the Bible and believe the Bible and live the Bible and proclaim the Bible. We are becoming the pillar and the foundation of the truth. If we cease, if we cease to teach the whole counsel of God's word, we cease to be the pillar and the foundation of the truth. If we stop teaching the Bible, we cease to be the pillar and foundation of truth, because the truth is the Bible. And so we teach the Bible. We have to understand as individuals and corporately that the Bible is God's truth. So we have to be careful to call sin sin and truth, truth. 9 (54m 12s): I didn't get saved because somebody danced around the topic of sin. Somebody told me that I'm a C, they said, you're a sinner and you need Jesus. I said, I am. I didn't know. But as I began to understand what sin is, I began to understand, yes, indeed, I am a sinner and I need Jesus. And it was because somebody spoke that message pur with profound clarity, that I was awakened to my desk, 8 (54m 40s): Brittany, for Jesus, I had a desperate need for Jesus and everyone who's ever come to faith in him with a genuine faith has realized the same thing. The wages of sin is death, spiritual deaths. It's, it's a death sentence. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. So we have to, in our efforts to be the pillar and the foundation of the truth, we have to proclaim the truth of the word of God, calling sin, sin, and truth, truth. I got saved because I realized he needed a savior. I was desperate for Jesus Jesus. 8 (55m 22s): While I was yet, a sinner died for me and came into my life so that I might know him. And then transformation began to take place. And I'm still in the process. It's a lifelong process of transformations. It's called sanctification. 9 (55m 39s): How can people be confronted with their sin? If we don't talk about 3 (55m 42s): Then verse 16 says, without question, this is the great mystery of our faith. 8 (55m 51s): Well, that question, this is the great mystery of our faith. What's the mystery of our faith. 9 (55m 56s): It's it's, it's curious the whole gospel thing, isn't it. It's interesting and curious and perplexing to think about the gospel. The mystery of faith is the divinely revealed truth about grace redemption and 8 (56m 12s): Goodness in Christ. 9 (56m 15s): It's the divinely revealed truth about grace 8 (56m 18s): Option and forgiveness. Grace is given to us, grace redeems 9 (56m 25s): Us, and we're forgiven in Christ. There's one way to the father and that's through Jesus. There's no other way to receive salvation other than to receive Jesus and to receive his sacrifice. The great mystery is that God loved the world and gave his son to be the savior. The savior of all, who would profess profess that Jesus is Lord. He died for the whole world for God. So loved the world, the whole wide world, every one of us that who so ever nobody's left out of there who's so whoever believes will not perish, but have eternal life. 9 (57m 7s): That's the gospel. And this is the message that we carry as believers. We believe in ourselves initially. And then we share it. We become followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And as followers we do what he did. He declared Surewest proclaimed truth about the gospel, about his grace verse 16. Again, without question, this is the great mystery of our faith. Christ was revealed in a human body. This is mind blowing stuff here. 8 (57m 33s): Jesus, 9 (57m 35s): The second member of the Trinity, God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy spirit, 8 (57m 40s): Fully God. He gave up and put on 9 (57m 49s): Being fully God and fully man. He took on the human condition without sin, not the sin condition, but took on the human body and limitations of a human body of Galatians four, four, and five says. But when the right time came, God sent his son born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own children. When the time was right in the history of mankind, Jesus put on flesh and was born 8 (58m 29s): To a young, poor couple born in a barn. The manger in the lowliest of fashion, the humblest of fashion, he was born flipping 9 (58m 50s): Two, five through eight says you must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had though. He was God. He did not think of equality with God as something to clean to. Instead he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave. He was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross. The reason he was born is so that he could die. He was born to die for and for you, 3 (59m 26s): The 9 (59m 26s): Reason that you were born as such, you might know him and help others to know him. That's the reason you were born. If you ever wondered why you were born, you were born to know him and that you might help others to know him. That's boiled down. That's essentially what we're here to do as believers in Jesus Christ. So everything else is secondary and tertiary. Everything else is, is second to that. To that reality, that we're, we're born to know Jesus and to help others know Jesus, 3 (59m 52s): Jesus 9 (59m 53s): Was born to die so that we might know him and help others to know him. Verse 16 continues. He was vindicated by the spirits. Jesus. He was vindicated by the spirit. The spirit rested upon Jesus at his baptism. Remember in Luke three 21 through 22, it says one day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. Jesus got baptized as a modeling baptism for us. And then he said, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son and the Holy spirit. So if you haven't been baptized and you know, Jesus, it's time to get baptized. We've got a baptism happening on Easter. So if you haven't been baptized and you know, Jesus, there is no excuse for not being baptized. 9 (1h 0m 34s): You say, well, it's gonna mess up my hair. For those of us who have hair, right? It's going to mess up my clothes. I don't want to get wet in front of everybody. Jesus humbled himself. 3 (1h 0m 49s): He 9 (1h 0m 50s): Model baptism for us. And then he was baptized. Baptism is a public declaration of I'm a follower of Jesus. It's like the marriage yesterday. They declared Ronin and Bree declared in front of family and friends, front of the whole world in front of God. We love each other. We're committed to one another. We're going to be married together till death do us part. That's what baptism is. We're saying I'm a follower of Jesus. I love Jesus. I want to serve him all the days of my life. And this is my public declaration. If you haven't been baptized, you need to get baptized. It's time. One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened and the Holy spirit imagined the scene. 9 (1h 1m 31s): The Holy spirit and bodily form descended on him like a dove and a voice from heaven said, you are my dearly loved son. 3 (1h 1m 37s): You bring me great joy. The spirit 9 (1h 1m 41s): Rested upon him at his baptism. And then the spirit raised him from the dead. We read about that. Romans eight 11. It says the spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead 3 (1h 1m 51s): Lives in you. 9 (1h 1m 53s): And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same spirit living within you. The spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you. So you've got power in you. God's power in you. Listen. If there was any doubt about who Jesus was and I promise you, there was doubt swirling about Jesus, where, who is this guy? That's coming into Jerusalem? Who is he? Why the celebration, who is this guy? If there was any, 8 (1h 2m 20s): The Holy spirit vindicated him and demonstrated his divinity. If you get God got a chance, he will demonstrate to you his divinity, the realness of who he is. If you just open up a little bit and God will show himself faithful, he can verse 16, continue to see, was seen by angels. Angels have always participated in God's redemptive plan. From the beginning 9 (1h 2m 51s): After his resurrection angels were present to roll away the stone and to give instruction to his followers. Angels are with us. There are angels in our presence. Even now the Bible talks about guardian angel angels that walk with us and protect us. 8 (1h 3m 8s): There are angels in our midst spiritual beings who are there to serve us and to help us serve God and to serve God's needs. And so we see angels throughout the Bible, old and new Testament. Angels are still real today. It was early on Sunday morning, Matthew 28, one through six as the new day was daunting. 9 (1h 3m 28s): Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord, came down from heaven, rolled aside 8 (1h 3m 38s): And sat on it. His face shown like lightning and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him and they fell into a dead faint. I can't even imagine just the glory, 9 (1h 3m 54s): But imagine if that's the glory of the angelic. 8 (1h 3m 57s): The imagine with me, the glory of Jesus. Imagine with me the glory of the living King of Kings, we will see him and we will know him. Verse five. Then the angel spoke to the woman. Don't be afraid. He said, I, I know you're looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn't here. 9 (1h 4m 19s): He is risen from the dead, just as he 8 (1h 4m 21s): Said would happen. Remember his triumphal entry, go into Jerusalem, do this, this and this. They did this, this and this. 9 (1h 4m 29s): Jesus knew. Jesus knew they, the angelic hosts, God knows ahead of time. What's going to happen. 8 (1h 4m 39s): You're looking for Jesus. He was crucified. He isn't here. He's risen from the dead, just as he said, what happened comes see where his body was lying. And now go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you? So angelic hosts were presence 3 (1h 5m 2s): We're told 8 (1h 5m 2s): In Philippians two, that Jesus, his name is going to be elevated. And he's given this highest honor. It says, therefore, God elevated him Jesus to the place of highest honor 9 (1h 5m 14s): And gave him the name above every above. All other names that at the name of Jesus, every they should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. The father, see, this is our, this is our purpose that we might know Jesus and declare, declare that he is Jesus Christ, the Lord to glory, to the glory of God. The father, every knee will bow. I wonder if there's an area in our life right now that we need to bow our knee to Jesus. Like I maybe there's you bowed to him in every other area, but there's this, this one area. This one area we'll call it of sin of maybe disagreement with God, an area where you just flat don't want to bow your knee. 9 (1h 6m 2s): I just want to say that if you will, and now your knee in that area, God will meet you in that place. And he will minister to you in that place. Often we don't do it because 3 (1h 6m 13s): We're fearful. We're fearful 9 (1h 6m 16s): Of what God may ask or require of us. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of sound mind. There shouldn't be anything in our lives as followers of Jesus. We're followers of Jesus. There shouldn't be any area of our life where we're not, we're not willing to say yes, Lord, we bow our knee to you. Yes, Lord. 3 (1h 6m 38s): Yeah. 9 (1h 6m 39s): Says that. In verse 16, he was announced to the nations that Jesus was announced to the nations in Colossians one 23, Paul declared the good news. And I'll add about the good news has been preached all over the world. And I, Paul, I've been appointed by God to proclaim it. And since then, since the first century, the gospel has been proclaimed all over the world. Just this morning, we heard about Mike and Sharon Dutcher who are they're ministering through their, their, their ministry tools to eight different nations right now, eight different countries. And people have, have worked to see the whole wide world Angela's and that's why we send missionaries out. 9 (1h 7m 20s): And that's why we're participating in the great commission, because we want to see the whole world, come to know Jesus, Paul Paul got it. He said the good news has been preached all over the world. And I I've been appointed by God to proclaim at verse 16. You see what's believed in throughout the whole world, throughout the world and taken to heaven in glory. So this message of Jesus Christ 3 (1h 7m 44s): Has 9 (1h 7m 45s): Been spread to the whole world. And now it's at our feet. Now it's in our hands. Now it's our responsibility for this generation. For this nation. It is our responsibility to proclaim the truth. Listen, you don't want to go to your grave. Having never led anybody to Jesus. You just don't want to do that. In fact, you want to go to your grave. Having led dozens of people to Jesus, because those, the people will hopefully lead dozens of people, of people to Jesus. You want to make it your life goal to lead 8 (1h 8m 16s): People to Jesus. The message of Christ has been spreading rapidly all over the globe since his life, death, resurrection and Ascension. And he will return you guys ready for that. Are you really though? He is he's he's going to return, ready to judge the living and the dead. He's coming back to judge our actions and the way that we lived our life. Are you ready for that? Because faith in Jesus has meant to change everything. So if there's areas of your life, where your faith in Jesus, hasn't changed you and hasn't changed your priorities in your perspective, then it's time to revisit your faith and say, God, I want my faith to be genuine through and through like every part of my life, reflecting who you are and what you've called me to do nothing held back. 8 (1h 9m 5s): No fear, no worries, no doubts. Just I'm all in with you. We once a month on the fourth, Sunday family, Sunday, we celebrate communion. The Lord's table, where we celebrate what Jesus did on the cross for us was 2000 years ago. And people to this day are still celebrating all over the globe. The church of God is celebrating first Corinthians 1123. Did everybody get elements? By the way, if you did not get elements, then raise your hand. And we have people who will get you elements. So there we go, Jim, in the middle here you got, there we go. We'll give it a moment. 3 (1h 9m 48s): Worship team. Come on out 8 (1h 9m 55s): On the patio. Also, if you had, if you didn't get your elements, raise your hand and somebody will get those to you in the lofts. Also there. So 3 (1h 10m 8s): If you're at home 8 (1h 10m 10s): On the fourth, Sunday of every month, as I said, we take communion. So family Sunday. So if it's the fourth, Sunday of the month and you're watching from home, just show up, prepared to take communion, get away for some juice and be ready to take communion with us. And God will be glorified. It says in first Corinthians 1123 through 26 for I pass on to you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night when he was betrayed, the Lord, Jesus took some bread gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which has given for you 3 (1h 10m 46s): Do this 8 (1h 10m 47s): In remembrance of me. Let's go ahead and take the wafer a little tricky to get to that for 3 (1h 10m 55s): There it is. Thank you, Jesus. And then if you've had it 8 (1h 11m 4s): As you've had the wafer, go ahead and peel open the next level and we'll get to the juice here. This is COVID communion right here. Oh, fit. There we go. In the same way. He took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Let's take the juice. Thank you, Lord. 8 (1h 11m 45s): We're so grateful. We're so humbled Lord, by your kindness, God, your, your birth, your triumphant entry, your triumphal entry, Lord God. We're so thankful for good Friday where you died in for a Sunday, Easter Sunday, where you resurrected from the dead Lord. We're so thankful. We love you. Jesus. I pray that if there somebody here who needs you, that they would reach out to you. Bible says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. So believe in who he is. Welcome him into your life. Say, Jesus, I need, you need you in my life. 8 (1h 12m 25s): I need you to forgive me. I need you to love me as you with your whole heart, declare that truth. God comes into your life and he loves you for gives you and adopts you into his family. So don't wait to do that, to make that decision. Lord, thank you for what you're doing. As we get ready to worship some more prayer that we worship in spirit and in truth, be glorified. And we ask in Jesus name, amen. Let's go and stand up and worship some more. 7 (1h 12m 58s): where are these? Where are these? 7 (1h 13m 20s): worthy? 7 (1h 14m 40s): yes, you are a hope. 7 (1h 20m 27s): You're our foundation. You're the rock that we stand upon. Lord. We thingy that we can rest in you. We can trust in you. We put our hope in you when everything else is shifting around us, God, you are steadfast and secure. So thank you for the hope that we have in you. Jesus. I pray that you would be with us this week. You would strengthen our hearts. Scott, look forward to celebrating Easter together next week, but you just keep everyone healthy and just prepare our hearts for just an awesome celebration. Next week. We love you, Lord. We give you this day in Jesus name. 7 (1h 21m 8s): Amen. Amen church. So glad you're doing this today. If there's anyone who would like some prayer this morning, we always have folks available. So just head on down toward the front, we would love to pray with you this morning. Otherwise have a wonderful day and pass the peace and love of Jesus around to each other. And we will see you on Easter. Sunday, 10:00 AM up at the top of the Hill, right here. Have a great day.

0 (1s): Good morning, 1 (3s): Sorry. We're like we have people tuning in all over the world, you know? So we have to, I have to start at the right time when the, you know, when the camera goes, it's like, I feel like I'm on, I mean, like a, like a news studio or something, you know, they're like, they're like, you're on good morning. Welcome to harvest church. Thank you for joining us. Whether you're on campus in the sanctuary on the loft. I mean, in the lawn outside, we're just glad you're here tuning in on the live stream. We're going to, I'm going to open with a word of prayer for the service this morning, dear God. Thank you so much for just every blessing you've blessed us with. Thank you for being so faithful to show up. When we, when we invite you, when we become aware of you. And so this morning, I just declare that we're just going to stop and become aware of you more in this space this morning. 1 (49s): We're going to, I'm going to, like, I just asked to help us lay down what we have maybe burdens or just things we're thinking about, worried about are things of life and just lay them at the, at the foot of the cross this morning. And just, we're just going to exalt your name God. So I just ask you to move in us this morning and, and just show us something of something more of you this morning in Jesus name, please stand. We're going to sing a little bit of maybe a new song to the, to the church this morning. It's if you're not quite awake yet, you might be more by the finish of the song. 0 (1m 35s): I was shame who could carry that weight? It was, I was breathing, but not too high. 0 (2m 17s): It was fine. 0 (2m 21s): 2 (4m 12s): I needed rescue. My siblings had shades spray Catherine way to your hours. And you call me 0 (4m 29s): . 0 (5m 56s): He brought me no way I don't always get to see. 0 (13m 7s): I won't believe it feel like we all have kind of just be with God kind of reflect. 0 (18m 51s): 2 (19m 33s): Good. 0 (19m 34s): 2 (20m 17s): Smell. You make giants fall. You use balls. I went in to speak to my feed. I will preach your mind. You will face full that you will be faithful that 0 (21m 16s): I just want to speak right now too. Like, I just feel like some, even I question it sometimes like, Oh my gosh, it just feels like God's letting me down. It's like you say, he's faithful. You say that like, he's good, but I can't see it. And it's like, that's valid sometimes, but I just pray right now that God would just remind you if you're feeling that this morning that he is there and he understands what's going on because he's good all the time. 0 (22m 18s): So to encourage you guys now to it's a good time to turn around and encourage someone, let the overflow just like smiles and hug someone. If you're comfortable with that, maybe give high fives, fist bumps, introduce yourself to someone. 3 (22m 38s): So my wife threw a birthday, a surprise birthday for me a few years ago and, and she just completely pulled off. It was a complete surprise. So what she did is she sent me away to some friends for the weekend and we went out to Owens Valley and did some fly fishing, some adventuring, some just getting out in the country. It was a great time. And as I came back in, she sent me a text and such, she said, Hey, meet me at Manning park, up above Carpentaria. We were living in, in Santa Barbara at the time. And so I said, okay, I'm sorry. So Paul I'm pulling into meaning park. If you've ever been there, it's just this gorgeous park. It's surrounded by some Hills with Oak beautiful Oak trees. And as you pull into the park, there's this big grass field. And I just remember seeing kids playing out there and there's a jungle gym and there's families with around the barbecues. 3 (23m 22s): And as I pulled up to the site where my wife had said to meet her, I realized that like 30 to 40 of my friends were there. And it was just, you know, as I was walking up, I was just, it was, it was a super emotional moment because it just had that feeling of like, this is what heaven's going to be. Like. Some people hadn't seen in years, some, some, just some of my best friends in life, my wife, my kids, it was just an time. And I wonder if that's not what heaven's going to be like when we walk into the Gates and just, wow. Look at all the friends and family. And I hope that's what church is like for you. You know, like when I get just a taste of heaven each morning, I get to see each of your faces and just, we just gather up together. I hope you have that, that, that feeling of, of just companionship and friendship here at harvest. 3 (24m 5s): So we just want to say welcome. And if you, I haven't connected with us yet, feel free to go over to the info center and find out what's going on, how you can get plugged in, just do the things that are going on with that said, we've got a big thing going on and that's April 4th for celebrating Easter service. So we've got handouts here, some flyers that you can take to your friends and family and pass out and invite people to our service. It's going to be April 4th, it's one services, 10:00 AM. And it's going to be in our upper parking lot. So there's plenty of ways to get to, to help out with that. There's going to be plenty of stuff set up and clean up afterwards. So please feel free to say, sign up for that. 3 (24m 45s): Volunteer your time. Also, if you'd like to be baptized during this service, we'll be having the baptisms. It's gonna be a sweat special time. And a there's gonna be a class next week at 9:00 AM during, during this first service. So we'll have a baptism class, just go through the basics of what is baptism. Why do we do it? And so that's next week, but, but we definitely need some filled eggs. And I want to emphasize the filled eggs, right? Put some where they say wrap some can wrap candy stickers, small toys inside the eggs. It was by March 28th. So filled eggs. Feel free to drop those off for the church office or the info center. 3 (25m 25s): Oh man, we got some exciting things this week. We've got, starting up tomorrow night and that is men six or men Mondays at six. Okay. And then on men, on men, on Mondays eating meat at six. Okay. So that is tomorrow night at 6:00 PM at thousand Hills ranch. And it's a free dinner worship testimonies. And they say to bring a friend, there's no sign of necessarily just show up. And also this week is exciting that we're starting our journey groups or men's journey groups. So there's a couple this week that you can join in, find out what's going on. Those will be at six 30 Wednesday in the morning, 6:30 PM. 3 (26m 5s): And then Friday is 6:00 AM. And so you can find out more about the, about those at the info center, but this one kind of just, there's no commitment this week. It's come find out what journey groups all about and how, and what do we like to plug in and make that commitment. So that's this week, lastly, we have the college and young professionals scavenger hunt that is this Saturday, March 20th. It'll be from four to six 30. And that the cost is $12. And the age range they said is from 18 to 40. And yes, they will be checking IDs at the door. So 18 to 40, 41. I don't, I can't, I won't make, take it in. So head to the events page and to find out more 4 (26m 44s): About that and to fill, get the information. That's all I got. Thank you. 5 (26m 51s): Match today. Ooh. Yeah. Same glasses, same basic frame. 4 (27m 2s): He's wearing his trucks today though. And I didn't wear my chucks. How many, know what? Chucks are? A few of us don't okay, good. Good, good. How many have chucks? How many again? How many objects? So there's five of us that are cool, right 5 (27m 17s): On brain. Right? 4 (27m 19s): Just kidding. You're cool to you in your own little way, in your own special little way. How many, remember the time change? Yeah, no. I stayed up all night waiting for the sun to come up with the new time change and everything. And then finally it dawned on me. Finally, it dawned on me that it was a joke. Did you guys catch the joke? So I was up all night waiting for the sun to come up and then finally it dawned on me. Wasn't any funny or the second time As an Andy funnier the second time, I'm trying to get my, my sermon to come up here. So I'm telling bad jokes. There it is. 4 (27m 59s): There we go. So we're, we're in a second Timothy chapter two, the first Timothy chapter two, let's go out and stand up. I'm going to, we're going to pray cause we really need to pray because this is the topic of the message today. The role of women in the church. Isn't that just isn't that like warm and fuzzy. Just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Not me either. I love the topic, but it's, it's so polarizing. It's so, so interesting. It's kind of like talking about Calvinism versus Arminianism pre-trip post-trip mid trip, pantry ribs stuff, whether it gives, have a C since the first century or whether gifts are still for today, all of these topics. 4 (28m 42s): So what w what I find is that the church before we pray real quick, little pre-storm and sermon at here, I find is the church that we battle inward internally about all these kinds of silly things. And I think when we get to heaven, we're going to laugh about the things that we battled over here in the earth. And so, so some of you are going to agree with me today. Some are going to disagree. It's okay. It's okay. You can be wrong. And that was, that was an attempt at a joke as well. So instead of jokes, I'm just going to pray, and then I'm going to teach the Bible. How's that? I'll stick with 5 (29m 21s): That. Thank 4 (29m 23s): You, Lord. As we stand, we stand to honor you Lord, and we, we really want to hear from you today. So I pray that you would speak through me and through your word and through the power of your Holy spirit, doing what you do best instructing us, informing us and helping us to know what your will is. So bless us as we do. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So I don't know if it was this topic or just the time change, but I, last night I was, I set my clock and I'm in the bedroom and then went to bed and I woke up and I, the clock said 6:00 AM, but I went into the living room to get coffee and the coffee hadn't brewed yet. 4 (30m 5s): So I'm like, something's up. And so I look at the other clocks and they say 5:00 AM. So I dunno if I set my clock and then it set itself again, you know, some locks are smart clocks and they can set themselves well, this is a new clock. So it might be a smart clock. I wake up at 5:00 AM and then I realize, or I re I think it's six, but it's five. So then I crawl on the sofa with my pillow and I'd go back to sleep for about 45 minutes, and then I'd get up and I drank coffee and I've worked on my sermon a little bit more. And then about seven 30 or so, like, it's almost time to leave for church, but I told Jolene, I said, I'm going to lie back down for another 30 minutes. So I was cold. So I got my blanket and I got on the bed and I went back to sleep for about 30, 30 minutes. 4 (30m 45s): And then finally we're here. So it's been kind of a full day, already, lots of naps and lots of all kinds of stuff. So it's good. And then I'm going to go home and watch the players championship after this. So it should be really good. Hey, we're in first Timothy chapter two, verses eight through 15, the role of women in the church, verse eight in every place of worship. I want men and that word in the Greek is a Nair and it actually means men. And so we're going to see a difference between men and women in this texts. This first portion is speaking to men. Men were called to lead spiritually, and it says, I want men to pray with Holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy. 4 (31m 28s): So it's a challenge from the apostle for men to come into a place of worship. And we can do this as we gather corporately, or quite honestly, it's, it's just effective. You have to do it when you, when you're all by yourself, just taking the time to lift it Holy hands. And it says, lift up Holy hands, because it's like when we're told to come and worship with, with, with what's the words worship in spirit and in truth, not my notes. So I'm trying to pull it out here, worship the Lord in spirit. And in truth, the Lord wants something of honesty from his worshipers. And so when we come and lift up, Holy hands, it's a time to do an inventory and say, Lord, what is going on internally with me? 4 (32m 11s): Is there anything of anger and controversy? Another translation says wrath or doubting. Is there anything happening internally that I need to deal with? It's kind of like what we talk about when we do communion, I always invite people to take a personal inventory of your lives. And before we take the bread and the cup, we take that inventory so that we can confess our sins so that we can be refreshed in the spirit of God and the grace God, and the love of God. And it powerful things happen as a result of that. So Paul's saying, I want men to lift up Holy hands. And then women following that example, lifting up Holy hands, without anger, free from anger and controversy. 4 (32m 55s): Sometimes we show up and we've got anger. We've got an angst in our soul, and God is giving us this opportunity, this invitation to just let all that stuff go, just to let it go and say, Lord, I don't want to be angry. And maybe you're thinking about somebody right now, and you're having the opportunity to in your soul. Say, Lord, I don't want to be angry with this person. I don't want to be mixed up in controversy. I don't want wrath and doubting in my soul Lord. I want to just be free in Jesus name to worship. And so that's what Paul is talking to us about. Paul Ron talked in the first part of this chapter about prayer. And so we just kind of continue with that theme. And every place I want men to pray with, Holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy. 4 (33m 37s): And I want women that word is speaking about women. That Greek word is G Y N E. And Paul is speaking to women and he gives some specific direction here. He says, I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves, by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes for women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do. You're thinking myself, well, maybe you're a woman here. And you say, I've got gold pearls and expensive clothes on. 4 (34m 17s): I just want to let you off the hook there. A lot of what we're going to be reading about in this text is cultural, but the truth is the same. And it's true for men as well. We need to be careful that we're not spending so much time on the externals that we're neglecting the internal. So we bought this house next door, this old 1865 house that is now the church office. And when we bought the house without doing a lot of investigative work, we, we thought, man, we can probably just slap a coat of paint on this place and do some cosmetic stuff than it would be awesome through and through, you know, and then we get working on the place and we realize that as we're stripping wallpaper, as we're working on floors, as we're doing cabinets and all this stuff, we're trying to clean things up and put a, it was kind, kinda like trying to put lipstick on a pig. 4 (35m 4s): It was this ugly building that we're trying to just kind of clean up with a little bit of cosmetics. And we realized that there were so much more wrong with the house that if we didn't deal with it, the place was going to be falling around us, falling down around us over time. So we ended up putting in new floors, new interior doors, new windows, a new dry wall, new insulation, new heating, air conditioning, electrical plumbing roof. We pretty much check it all the way down to the studs, pretty much everywhere and re every dentist. And now when you walk in, man, it's beautiful through and through. It's got the paint, but it's also got all of the new stuff inside. 4 (35m 48s): I think God challenges us to do the same thing in our own lives. Sometimes we can show up to church or show up in our life and we look good on the outward, but man, there's just stuff going on inside. And God is giving us an opportunity again, to just look at those things and do some business with him because he can heal us. He can minister to us, he can set us free. He can do what only he can do in our lives, making us beautiful through and through. So this is what, this is what Paul's talking about. When he writes about the church, we have this opportunity to look internally, to think internally and to worship out of that and to present to the Lord. 4 (36m 32s): Something that is beautiful through and through now, as we get to verses 11 to 12, we get to look at the hard portions of this text. It's the most popular portion of scripture in the Bible. It says this women should learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them, or you serve their authority. Let them listen quietly so we can stop and, you know, ask ourselves some questions about this text. And Paul actually says something very similar in first Corinthians chapter 14, in that he says, if a woman has questions, she should ask her husband when she gets home. 4 (37m 18s): And so in, in the first century, when this was written and when this was first proclaimed, women were for the most part uneducated, they couldn't read, they couldn't write. They were essentially the property of their fathers. And then they became the property of their husbands. In fact, unmarried women needed to ask permission before they could, even from their fathers before they could even leave the house and married women needed to ask permission of their husbands to leave the house. They were normally restricted to roles of little or no authority. They could not testify in court. 4 (37m 60s): They could not appear in public venues. They were not allowed to talk to strangers and they had to be doubly veiled. When they left their houses, women should learn quietly and said, mischievously, I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. There's a reason that Paul communicated what he communicated in that culture. The culture has changed. And now we can probably dismiss a lot of the Bible by saying that was cultural, but the way he differentiate the two is you say, okay, is this truth that we're reading? Is it portrayed throughout all of scripture in the old and new Testament? Is this something that we see consistently throughout the scripture? 4 (38m 42s): Or is this a specific instance or one of a couple specific instances? And then you do your due diligence with X's Jesus there and decided by God's grace through the rest of the scripture, as you allow scripture to interpret scripture, then you decide what is cultural and what is timeless first 13 we'll look, we'll read verses 13, 14, 15 comment on those quickly. And then we'll jump back to our favorite verses number of verses 11 and 12, and just kind of unpack those for the rest of the service. And again, so this is a primarily a teaching today. It's not a, so I'm going to be reading a lot, reading a lot of verses, a lot of commentary. 4 (39m 24s): And so it's not my typical style of maybe more preaching than teaching. I'd try to do a blend, but today is mostly just teaching. It's mostly just teaching what I feel like the Lord has given us to understand today for Adam verse 13 says for Adam, for God made Adam first and afterward, he made Eve and it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived and sin was the results, but we see in Romans five, 12, Paul wrote something else. We can read the scripture real quick. We can read the scripture and see and conclude that Paul was a chauvinist, a male chauvinist pig, right? Based on what he wrote here and what he wrote in first Corinthians chapter 14, we can say Paul was a chauvinist. 4 (40m 10s): But the reality is, is that Paul recognized the value of women. As you read Romans 16, you see that Paul declares just the help that women gave to him and th the help that they were to his life in ministry. And then we're going to read through the old and the new Testament, see how God specifically worked through women in powerful and important ways. Romans five 12 says when Adam sinned sin entered the world, Adam's sin brought death. So death spread to everyone for everyone sinned. And so there's this, you know, topic of deception. 4 (40m 50s): And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived and sin was the result. The truth is if Adam was doing his job, there wouldn't have been that problem. If Adam was doing his job as a spiritual leader of his home, there wouldn't have been that problem. And so in Romans five, Paul actually makes Adam responsible for the sin that entered into the world. And then we get to verse 15. It's a difficult verse. One that I have still, somebody tried to give me their perspective on this verse this morning. And it still doesn't make any sense to me, but it says this, but women will be saved through childbearing, assuming they continue to live in faith, holiness, and modesty. 4 (41m 35s): So it's a difficult verse. What does that even mean? Women will be saved through childbearing. Well, first of all, we need to understand theologically that nobody has saved through any works, especially childbearing nobody's saved through childbearing. And so what is the apostle Paul mean? Somebody told me this morning that they think that Paul was affirming the position of women or the role of women in the family, because they weren't able to go on missionary journeys with Paul. So he was affirming them in their role as women who brought forth children and, and that important role that women still have today. So maybe that's possible. Maybe this verse is pointing prophetically toward or historically toward the price child who was born to bear the sins of the world. 4 (42m 28s): Maybe, maybe it's not about salvation at all, verse 15, but the woman, but women will be saved. Maybe there's talking about physically, they're going to be saved through childbearing. It was a dangerous thing like it is now, but it was dangerous, especially back then for women to give birth. And often there would be complications and the woman would lose her life. So maybe it's a promise to women. Women will be saved physically through childbearing, assuming they continue to live in faith, love, holiness and modesty. We're not really sure. And it's one of those things that God will make clear to us when we get to heaven. So let's move forward back to our favorite verses. 4 (43m 9s): First Timothy chapter two, verses 11 and 12 women should learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. You think this is a forever expectation. I don't think it is. I believe it's purely cultural for the time. And I, I believe the scripture spells that out and kind of back set up when Christ came, a part of his ministry was the liberation and the elevation of women in the world, but also in the church under his leadership, things began to change. 4 (43m 51s): And we're going to kind of look at a couple of those things. In fact, we see, as we read the gospels, that women were constantly part of the ministry of Christ and they were constantly a part of the way, the ministry of the apostle Paul. It was women who first declared that Jesus just had resurrected from the dead. It was women that Jesus trusted that revelation. Now that bedrock truth, that bedrock truth or faith, it was women who first proclaimed that to the others and Matthew 28, 10. Then Jesus said to them, to Mary Magdalene and to the other Mary don't be afraid. Go tell brothers to leave for Galilee. 4 (44m 34s): And they will see me there. In other words, I'm alive. I've resurrected from the dead. I, I am who I say I am. I've done what I said, what happened? He said that he would die on the third day. He would resurrect from the dead and he's telling the Mary's to go and declare that that is actually happened. It was the women who demonstrated faith and faithfulness to Jesus, even when he was dying on the cross. A lot of his disciples, a lot of disciples of God, of Jesus scattered. When he got arrested, Peter denied that he knew him a lot, scattered all four gospels record that record the women who followed Jesus. 4 (45m 16s): They watched the crucifixion from a distance and it was the women who were ready after the Sabbath to anoint Jesus' body for burial. So it was the women who remain faithful, even though they probably didn't understand what was going on, even though Jesus declared it to be. So it was a confusing time for Jesus' followers because they, they believe that he was the Messiah and that he would be the King who would deliver Israel and, and establish his kingdom here in the earth. And so when he got arrested and then crucified and then buried, there were some confusion there, but these women stayed true to their faith in Jesus, Matthew 15, 40 and 41. It says some women were there watching from a distance, including Mary Magdalen at his crucifixion, Mary, the mother of James, the younger and a Joseph and Solomon. 4 (46m 5s): They had been followers of Jesus and had cared for him while he was in Galilee. Many other women who had come with him to Jerusalem were also there. And in Matthew 16 one, it says Saturday evening, when the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Sala may went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus' body. So they were faithful to him even to death. And so imagine their joy when he was resurrected from the dead. So from the scripture, from the scripture, how do we see women being used while we see women teaching men in acts chapter 18 with Priscilla and Aquilla instructing Apollo. 4 (46m 51s): So I'll read that in acts 1824 through 26, it says now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man came to emphasis and he was mighty in the scriptures. This man had been, this man had been instructed in the way of the Lord and being forgiven in spirit. He was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John. And he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquilla heard him, husband and wife, when they heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God, more accurately. 4 (47m 36s): So in this case, we see a husband and wife, fave, and Priscilla is named first Priscilla. And Aquilla heard him. They took him aside and explained to him the way of God, more accurately. See? So we see women teaching men. We see women participating in the ministry with the apostle Paul. I mentioned Romans 16, verses one. And two says this. I commend to you, our sister, Phoebe, who is a deacon in the church of Saint Korea. Welcome her. And the Lord is one who is worthy of honor among God's people help her in whatever she needs for. She has been helpful to many and especially to me. 4 (48m 18s): So that word deacon means minister. It means servant. We're going to see that it actually, according to Strongs, it means teacher or pasture as well. And we'll look at that here in just a moment. So Romans 16 one, I commend to you, our sister, Phoebe, a servant of church of the church in St. Korea. So again, that word deacon means it can mean servant or it can be minister. And we see both in the next couple of verses first Corinthians three, five says this, what then is Apollos? What is Paul y'all can us servants? 4 (49m 1s): That's the word through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each? So in that verse, Paul and Apollos are called servants. It's the same word. it? Just to be it just translated servants there in Colossians one 23. It says, if indeed you continue in the faith stable and said fast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven. And of which I, Paul became a Deaconess. That's the Greek word, but it's translated minister there. So that same word can be translated. Minister can be translated servant. 4 (49m 43s): And we see we're going to actually look at the qualifications of deacons here next week or in the next couple of weeks. And we'll go from there. Strong's Greek lexicon defines for us this word, deacon, Deaconess. I thought we were going to have the slide up there, but it's not up there. So I'll just read it to you a little hard to follow me, reading it to you. But this is what it says, probably from an obsolete docto to run on errands and attendant I E genitive case a waiter table, a waiter at a table or in other menial duties. 4 (50m 24s): So that's, you know, speaking of servant, but then it says specially a Christian teacher and pastor technically a deacon or Deaconess. And so it says, it means deacon minister servant, but also teacher, pastor. And so that's pretty interesting as we look at that. So deacon means minister servant, and according to strongest Christian teacher or pastor, we only see the word pastor once in the whole Bible, we, the, the word is poor main, and we see it translated once in the scripture pasture, wherever else it's used in the new Testament, it's translated shepherd. 4 (51m 6s): And so we only see the word pastor using Ephesians four 11. So I'll read Ephesians four, 11 and 12. It says this. Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers, their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. And so we see that word, pastor being used here, and it's in the context of gifts that Christ gave the church. Now, these are the gifts that Christ gave the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers. And so if we look at these gifts, these, these five things as spiritual gifts, like we would look at the gift of hospitality, the gift of leadership, other gifts that are mentioned in Romans chapter 12 and in first Corinthians chapter 12, there are no, there are actually no qualifications for this gift of pastor. 4 (52m 3s): Now we use pastor in the Western church, maybe in the, in the world, pretty loosely. And it, we think that pastor is kind of interchangeable with elder or overseer, but there are actually all different words in the Greek. And so there are definitely qualifications for elders and overseers and deacons. And we're going to get to that as we read first, Timothy chapter three and following, and as we get into Titus, and as we get into first, Peter, there are qualifications and expectations, but there don't seem to be qualifications and expectations for this, this gift of pastor. And so this girl, Phoebe is based on the word could possibly have been some kind of a minister where it's a bit of a guessing game, but, but it's not too much of a stretch to think that she could have been some kind of a administer. 4 (53m 1s): And we're all called to be ministers within the body of Christ. I'm called to minister to you. You're called to minister to me, we're called to minister to one to another. So we have this responsibility to serve one another. And there's no hierarchy within the body of Christ, meaning that we never graduate out of this place of being a minister where we're serving. Jesus said I didn't come to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many. So we're all in this role, in this room, having this responsibility to serve and minister to one another. So we see women teaching men, we see women deacons, which based on what I've said and what we studied so far has imply maybe far farther reaching implications than what we may have thought prior to this. 4 (53m 48s): And we see women profits, we see women profits in the old Testament and we see women profits in the new Testament. So we're going to answer the question, what is a prophet and how many women prophets prophesied in the Bible. And so we're going to kind of look at some things. So what does a profit profits where God's authorized, spoke persons, both women and men communicated God's direct revelation to designated peoples. So we see that in old Testament, new Testament, and he instructed his people to listen to the profits he raised up. And we see that in Deuteronomy chapter 18, verses 15 verse 15. I'm going to mention some verses that aren't going to be on the screen because we don't have enough time to go over all the verses. 4 (54m 30s): But if you want to go back and re-listen to the message@aguharvest.org and check the verses out, please do so sometimes times profits preface their message with this. Well, the Lord says, or thus sayeth the Lord. So they were a voice speaking for the Lord at times, singing and musical instrumentation accompanied the minutes history of prophecy. We see that in first Chronicles, 25 verses one through seven, some profits were called to deliver specific messages and other instances of profit, deliberate, Avery Buke for disobedience and encouragement. Okay. 4 (55m 9s): Prediction as a reminder of God's covenant with his people or specific instruction for caring the message from God, how does God communicate with profits in a very, very, very different ways. God communicated to his profits through right. Various methods. Moses was unique in that he had the privilege of speaking God to God face to face, but that wasn't common, but we read about it. Numbers chapter 12, verses six through eight. It says, listen, to my words, there is a prophet among you. I, the Lord reveal myself to them. Yeah, envisions. I speak to them in dreams, but this is not true of my servant. 4 (55m 49s): Moses. He is faithful in all my house with him. I speak faith to face clearly and not in riddles. He sees the form of the Lord. So that was a specific instance with Moses. But most often profits receive God's message by less direct means. They received messages in the form of visions and dreams and vivid imagery and audible voices and inaudible internal voices by the supernatural opening of their eyes to see unseen things. We read about that in the scripture, through an angelic messenger or through symbolic actions. 4 (56m 29s): So did women prophesied? Yes. Men delivered the majority of scriptural prophecies. Yet God also called women to receive and proclaim his message throughout the Bible are instances where women prophets prophesied in the Bible. They spoke the word of the Lord to others on the day of Pentecost, the Holy spirit was poured out on both women and men at that time, Peter, one of the 12 disciples echoed this prophecy of Joel two 18. I will pour out my spirit on all people, your sons and daughters will prophesy. And your young men will dream see dreams. And that sort of thing acts chapter two, verses 17 and 18 and ancient Neary scholar notes. 4 (57m 16s): The fact that certain biblical texts presuppose that there were women profits. There can be no debate. There were women profits in ancient Israel and an early Christianity. And the term that is used in Hebrew and in Greek for women profits is the same as the term used for men profits. With the, the only difference being the marker of gender, that is the linguistic component of these ancient languages, Dr. Christopher Rolston wrote. So who are the, some of the named women profits in the old Testament? Well, there's Miriam. You see that in Micah chapter six, verse four, exit is 15, 20 and 21, Deborah judges, four and five. 4 (57m 59s): And Holda second Kings 22, 14 through 20. There are also women profits in the new Testament. There was Anna Anna, Luke, two 36 through 38, a prophet in the temple court worshiped a night and day fasting and praying. She was a widow after Simeon spoke and a prophesied over the baby Jesus, to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. Other new Testament references to prophesizing women, including include actually Mary, the mother of Jesus. She sang a song of praise and a response to her relative Elisabeth's spirit-filled declaration of blessings. Mary's prophetic song of praise is often called the Magnificant, the Magnificant. 4 (58m 44s): And so we see that song that she sang. It was, it was a prophetic song that the Lord had given to her. Peter quoted Joel and your sons and your daughters will prophesy acts two 17. I just mentioned that Luke's reference to your, to the four unmarried daughters who prophesied they were the daughters of Philip the evangelist. And so there's plenty of examples in the scripture that identifies women who were prophets Paul's letter to the church at Corinth, in what you described, any woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, he's identifying women who were praying or prophesying correcting their uncovered heads. He didn't correct them and say, you shouldn't pray or prophesy. 4 (59m 26s): And this was in a public gathering. He said, if you're going to do it culturally, they sh their heads should be covered. So we asked the question is prophecy also teaching will, prophecy is a gift from the Holy spirit. Paul wrote fall in the way of love and eagerly desire, gifts of the spirit, especially prophecy first Corinthians 14 one. So again, did, did those who prophesied also teach? I think they did. Paul clearly described teachers as distinct from profits, but I think there was an element of teaching and the prophetic gift. He described tangible ways. People spiritually grow through prophetic words, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening and encouraging and comfort. 4 (1h 0m 9s): First Corinthians 14 three, and the one who prophesies edifies the church first Corinthians 14, four. Also Paul encouraged prophecy in an orderly manner so that everyone may be instructed and encourage first Corinthians 1431. So it truly seems that the prophetic message included elements of teaching. And so we see God using women in the, in the Bible, the new Testament within his kingdom work to do profound and wonderful things. We're seeing God do amazing things. And so I just want to want to dip, put that out there for a couple of reasons. 4 (1h 0m 50s): Number one, I think we've been vague as a church about our position with women in the ministry. We've been a little bit vague. And, and so I wanted to be, I wanted to kind of remove the veil from that. We're going to be talking more about church leadership. As we look at chapter three, as we look at elders and overseers and deacons and that sort of thing, we'll unpack that some more there's actually qualifications for those offices. Things that we consider offices that aren't spiritual gifts, necessarily the people working in those offices have been given spiritual gifts to work in those offices. But when we're talking about the spiritual gifts that God gives to his church, we're talking about things that God gives without consideration of gender or anything else. 4 (1h 1m 37s): God just gives gifts to his church. So we're seeing God work mightily. And so I want to encourage women in the church to believe that God has gifted you, that he's given you spiritual gifts to be used within the body of Christ. Use them with all of the grace and strength that God has given you to use those spiritual gifts. You've got plenty of women in the church who are teachers. They teach biblical truth. We've got plenty of female teachers who teach Bible studies and Sunday school and, and all kinds of stuff. So we still believe that there's an, an order of things within the family. 4 (1h 2m 21s): I think God's clearly, and we can talk about this as the weeks go on. But clearly men he's placed men as the authority in the home, the spiritual authority of the home. And I think he's placed men as the spiritual authority in the church as well, but it's all to be, not to be lorded over anybody, but just as a means of structure and organizing things. And so I'm a little hesitant about opening things up for questions, but I feel like maybe it's a good idea to open things up for questions. I don't normally do this and maybe I'm going to get myself into trouble, but I want to give you a chance to, to ask questions. And so I'm going to use Tim's Mike, and as we do this, I'm going to invite the worship team to come forward. 4 (1h 3m 6s): But if you have questions, I want to get it on, on the mic so that everybody can hear you who are meeting outsider in the loft. So anybody disagree with me that would like to ask questions, anybody wholeheartedly agree with me that would like to comment anything in between. I'm open really? All right. I'm not going to labor it. Good. You can ask me questions afterward as well. Let's go ahead and stand up and you do have questions. Oh, Gina. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Lord. 4 (1h 3m 46s): Thank you for the opportunity to gather and to open up your word. I pray that you would just continue to lead us in all truth with all grace. We love you. Lord. Be glorified in our lives. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 0 (1h 4m 45s): No, the way, when was a close look at the space between where you used to be. I know I'm never be, you know, standing next to me, 2 (1h 5m 21s): Man said there is a cross 0 (1h 5m 25s): 2 (1h 5m 54s): 0 (1h 6m 1s): Yeah. 2 (1h 6m 1s): The space between and the spending 0 (1h 6m 14s): 2 (1h 7m 55s): Snow, but the name that is he who was and still is and be through it. 0 (1h 8m 8s): Okay. 2 (1h 8m 10s): And the space between all the things that see, and this record, the no, 0 (1h 8m 17s): Never be no, I want them to be feed bad. 0 (1h 9m 59s): No, that's the joy she's asked, blah, blah . 0 (1h 13m 18s): And before we say 2 (1h 15m 6s): Thank you God. So much for meeting us here this morning, gracing us with the presence that we actually are going to carry with us as we leave Lord. So I just pray that you just be alive in us more as we leave than when we came even Jesus name. Amen. Thank you guys. See you next week.

0 (1s): Good morning. Welcome to the 11 o'clock service at harvest church. Thank you all for joining us wherever you're joining us from whether it's online or here on campus, somewhere in the sanctuary in the loft outside. We're just glad you're here and invite you to join us in worship. Please stand, dear God, we invite you here this morning. We laid down whatever we brought in God. We just become aware of you place our lives for the cross this morning. And we just lift you up as Lord of our lives. 1 (1m 7s): My enemy, the unbelief way with clues. 1 (6m 37s): You have the space between where I used to be. I would never be next to me. 1 (6m 54s): between B thank you that you stand with us in the hardest of times, 2 (11m 56s): Midst of the fire. You don't leave us. You stand right beside us. I love how you showed us in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Bendigo. Having the, you were sent into the fire. You protected them. You covered them. It says not a single hair was singed. Not only that. When others looked into the fire, they saw fourth one standing with them, the King of glory. Thank you. That that's the example. You give us that you're that kind of savior, who, who doesn't shout from the outside of the furnace, but it's right next to us within it. And so I just pray for anyone this morning that feels in the midst of that furnace in the midst of dark, scary times, Lord, that you would remind them if you're nearby. 2 (12m 41s): Yes, you are. As close as our breath. We have nothing to fear the Lord on our side, cover us. You shield us. We were under the protection of the shadow of your wings. You would just bring your protections morning. It's your angels and camp around us strengthened that you've given us to push back the darkness, your light, your love, your truth. 2 (13m 29s): We thank you for your presence here in this place. In our hearts, in our church, in our city, in our 1 (15m 5s): 2 (21m 6s): Anyone this morning, this morning, that's choking back. It's just hard. Sometimes she would remind us that your yoke is easy and your burden is you carry us always. When the enemy tries to slap on all this stuff that we have to carry, that's just not the truth. 2 (21m 47s): So would you free us just to walk in the joy of our salvation today and just the freedom that comes in knowing you and following your word and trusting in your promises. You're only stateful we can depend on. You just encourage you to maybe take a deep breath, just strength, freedom, and key. So the Lord this morning, the enemy tries so hard to spring, heaviness and worry and doubt and anxiety and stress at every corner. 2 (22m 29s): Lord just wants to say, I've got you, son and daughter. I see you. You're never out of my sight. I see you. I see how hard you're trying. I see everything you're walking through. I've heard every prayer in the night. I've heard every deep pride in your heart. You haven't even spoken. I know your, every thought you know is so intimately. You know us better than we know ourselves. 2 (23m 10s): I pray Lord that you would help us to see ourselves through your eyes as sons and daughters that are completely Holy without sailing that were covered by a loving father. We take a deep breath. Thank you for the breath in our lungs and for the praise on our lips. And even for the tears Lord, even for the brokenness, because it reminds us how much we need you. We can't walk through this life on a real person for another hour, whereas presence is just so this morning, we're just going to keep soaking. 2 (24m 8s): As we dive into his word this morning, as we hear from me, digest more of his character as he makes us more and more like him as we spend time in his presence. Amen. Well, let's just spread some of that worship love around to one another. Just past the peace of the Lord to someone around you. You say hello to a neighbor. We're going to come back in just a few minutes with some announcements around here for pastor Ron today. 2 (24m 34s): all right. Good morning. Harvest church. Good morning. 3 (24m 58s): Hey, so good to see. Y'all so glad to see you here. So glad to see some faces I haven't seen in a while. That's amazing. Hey, welcome. If you're joining us online, glad to have you join by tuning in and Hey, happy Sunday after Sunday. Hello. My name is Jeremy. I F sometimes I forget to put that out. My name's Jeremy, I'm the youth and family pastor here, and I'm bringing the announcements this morning. Hey, we've got a few announcements. The top priority is Easter is coming. You decided about Easter. Awesome. What, what a flop of Easter last year. So this Easter, it's going to be awesome. 3 (25m 38s): April 4th, we are having one service and that's in the upper parking lot. We're going to be setting up a stage up there. We've got speakers. We've got the full, the full shebang is happening up in the upper parking lot. So at 10:00 AM, it's going to be a family style service. And that means the there's no kids programs, separate it's kids are in the service. There's gonna be a time of worship, baptism a message that afterwards there's going to be Easter egg hunt. So what we need is everybody to bring Easter eggs that are, have already been pre-filled. Don't bring any Easter eggs that are empty. We need pre-filled Easter eggs so that we can hide those out the property. And it's just a fun event for the kids afterwards. 3 (26m 19s): And Hey, because we're doing baptisms. If you want to be baptized, sign up for that in the, in the, either in the info station, online on that, on our app, but we're going to have having a baptism during the worship service, there's going to be a class two weeks from now. There'll be on the 21st, the first service. So there'll be a class for the back of those who are getting baptized. It's gonna be, it's gonna be a sweet time. Next. We have the good yarn club for all the yarders out there. Do we have any yarders in the, in the room? We got a yard. Okay. Whew. We've got a yard in another room, so there's good. You are in club. They meet once a month. And this month gathering is Saturday, March 13th, from five to 7:00 PM. 3 (27m 3s): And that's in room five. Sign up on the connect link to get connected with them. Next is the men's community gathering. That is, I believe this is the first time in almost a year, right? It's been awhile. So that is the men from all over the central coast. We join each other for this powerful monthly event. It's March 15th at 6:00 PM at the thousand Hills ranch, free dinner, worship testimonies. And they are asking to bring a friend, no signup necessary, just come as you are. Correct. Okay. And last announcement is the college and young professionals scavenger hunt. That will be Saturday, March 20th, from four to 7:00 PM. 3 (27m 44s): And I was told it's a fun night complete with street tacos and not friendly. I was still the friendliest on my sheet. They told me it crossed that it's not friendly. It's a gnarly, brutal competition. So come prepared for a gnarly, brutal competition. No, it will be fun. Street tacos. That's between the ages of eight, 18 and 40. And the cost is $10 and sign up ahead of time. So they know how many to expect. And with that, that's all I got. So pastor Ron, come bring us the word. 4 (28m 21s): No, my fan club for first service was much larger than that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All three of you. So Steven Jolene are away. It's their anniversary. So they took some time off. So, you know, it's always a good thing as a married couple to get away and enjoy one another. Right? Keep the love alive. You can talk to them about it when they get back. Right. So before I begin, when I pray for someone, so many of, you know, Danny and Lena Solomon, they've been attending here for a number of years. Danny had a heart attack yesterday morning and very serious. 4 (29m 5s): So he was at French hospital this morning. And then, so I was speaking with Lena about what's going on with Danny. So he's been transported to Stanford and he's having open heart surgery. Maybe right now he's got a heart attack, caused some damage to his heart. They're having to go in and make some repairs. It was, it was really questionable whether he was going to even make it through the night. So he's, he's, he's there now. So let's pray for Ganni. Well, we just want to lift up Danny to you, our brother in Christ, Lord. We love him. We desire. And we ask, we pray that he would have many more days, more months, many more years upon this earth. 4 (29m 45s): Lord, we pray life. We pray life for Danny Lowe. We pray that you would give the surgeons great skill as they work on him. And just that amazing ability that you've given them to, to care for someone in Danny's situation and to, and to be able to repair his heart. And so Lord, we pray that that the surgery would be successful. We pray that Danny would quickly recover that even while he's going through all this. And he's sedated that he would just sense your presence in his mind, as hard as spirit, his soul, that he would be at such peace and, and comforted by you and for Lena as well. I know she's very worried about her husband that you'd comfort her. As in addition to Danny Lord. 4 (30m 27s): Ultimately, we thank you that Danny is, he is yours. He's hidden in Christ. He belongs to you, his body's a temple of your spirit. And so Lord have your way with him. We pray. We just lift him up to you as his friends and family of God in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Some of you may recognize the name Dietrich Bonhoeffer. So I'm a little bit about him. He lived in, he was pastoring a church in Germany in the thirties during the time that Adolph Hitler came to power. And the third Reich began to gain momentum and in Germany and later in greater part of Europe. So he was pastoring a church, as I said in Germany. 4 (31m 8s): And what, what Hitler did initially is he gathered the pastors together because he knew they had influence over people in the country of Germany. And he, he tried to convince the pastors of Germany to come on board with him. That what he was trying to accomplish was essentially God was leading him to do this. So Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one who did not buy into Hitler's plans for Germany and for Europe. So he essentially became an enemy of the state. He was imprisoned at one point, in fact, so I want to a quote from him a little bit. And the reason I want to quote from him is when you take somebody who's really been in adversity and experienced the life of the church in a very difficult time, it brings out certain things that oftentimes we don't experience because life's pretty easy for us. 4 (32m 4s): I mean, there's things we go through all that was kind of difficult or, you know, feeling maybe a little persecuted here and there, but for the most part, you know, for the church in America, life's pretty easy. So the book that I want to quote from it's called life together together, meaning the family of God, life together, a discussion of Christian fellowship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. So I want to quote, it says in the gray Dawn of an April day in 1945 in the concentration camp at floss Lindbergh shortly before, it was liberated by the allied forces, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by special order of Heinrich Himmler. 4 (32m 44s): So because of the time in which he lived did, you're gone off. Her has a unique perspective about the life of the church, the community of believers that he was leading. And so he's written some things for us to, to learn from hopefully. So just a few excerpts from his book. There's a chapter in it is called community. And that's what we do when we gather together, we are Christian community that meet here at harvest church. But honestly we meet all over the central coast. We meet all over the world. We have brothers and sisters in Christ, all over planet earth, which is a wonderful thing. He says this, it is by the grace of God, that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God's word and sacrament the physical presence of other Christians as a source of income, parable, joy, and strength to the believer. 4 (33m 39s): This is easily disregarded and trodden underfoot by those who have the gift every day. It is by grace, nothing but grace that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren. Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ only in Jesus Christ. Are we one only through him, are we bound together? So we live in an interesting time in the church in America, in that I think we're experiencing some division in the Christian community. Like I've never seen before in my lifetime. 4 (34m 21s): And a lot of that division is due to opinions about, you know, politics, politics, and candidates, and how to deal with COVID and kind of peripheral things. So what we're going to look at this morning is Paul is going to be speaking to Timothy. So Timothy, we're going to learn here. He's a young man. He is put in a position of leadership at a church that Paul planted, which we're going to talk about in a minute. So he's helping Timothy to, to navigate some of the things that they were experiencing in Paul's day. And I believe it would speak to us as well, how to navigate what's going on in the body of Christ right now and how we can be instruments of unity rather than of division. 4 (35m 7s): So if you want to title for today's message, the title is this living together in community. So I'm going to be looking at first Timothy chapter two. So pastor Steve has begun having us go through this letter. So when we talk about, you know, various books of the Bible, when we talk about the book of first Timothy, sometimes it's called an epistle, but basically what it is, it's a letter. So Paul wrote this letter, he penned it himself and he sent it to Timothy because Timothy was, was needing some leading this particular church. So a little bit of background, Paul planted this church, it's the church in the city of Ephesus. And he spent about three and a half years, years. 4 (35m 48s): They're planting the church, helping it grow appointing leadership at the church. So he was there in this particular church at Ephesus, just about, I think, longer than any other church that he planted. But after this period of time, time, he's ready to move on. So he's moved on now and he's left this young man behind to lead the church in Ephesus, young Timothy. And so he's now responsible to lead this gathering of believers. However, there's, there's a few problems that Timothy is having to deal with. Number one is he was a young, Oh man. So his youth apparently was a bit of a hindrance. Also. He was inexperienced and he needs, he needs help, which is why Paul wrote this letter to him to give him some help in leading this community of believers. 4 (36m 36s): So in this letter, Paul he's, he's going to give Timothy some guidance on, on how to lead the church on a few different levels. One is on a personal level. In other words, Timothy, this is the way you lead in your personal life and how it affects the church community. He's also going to talk about how to select other leaders to help him lead this church in Ephesus. And then he's also going to talk about the worship gathering. So this is when, when believers come together, we have church and he's talking to Timothy A. Little bit about how to, how to do that, how to do church. So first of all, Timothy, he says to him, you really to lead by example, what does he mean by that? 4 (37m 17s): So if you go to the end of first Timothy, and I've got all the scriptures that we're going to be looking at, they're going to be up on the screen. You can turn there if you want to. But the first one, I'm going to look at us in first Timothy chapter four, verse 12. And he says this to Timothy. He says, first of all, Timothy, don't let anyone think less. Yes, have you, because you're young instead be an example, be an example to all believers in what you say and the way you live in your love in your faith and in your purity. And until I get there, focus on reading the scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers and teaching them. So Timothy's personal life is very important. 4 (37m 59s): As far as his leadership in Ephesus with the believers there. Anyways, I can identify with Timothy mainly because, well, let me give you a little bit of background. First of all, DJ and I, we met and got married in 1980. And so after we got married, it was the years, 1981. And so we did not come from a Christian background, Christian family, any of that. And yet we both, both EG and I came to know the Lord and accept Christ as our savior in 1981 together, which has been an amazing journey because we got, we've got to grow together, figure out this Christian life together couple. 4 (38m 43s): So at the, at this point in time, so fast forward it's, it's, we're living in Avalon beach and we have a business there and you know, I mean kids yet. And the year now it's 1983. So we've been a believers for a couple of years, met a guy who was really good Bible teacher. And so we decided, well, let's have a home fellowship. You know, let's have a Bible study in our house. So we began to do that there in Avalon. And it, it just kind of began to grow and grow until we needed a bigger place to meet. And so in 1984, we moved to the community center and Avalon began to have people show up and sort of by, I think God's design. It was made available. That space was made available to meet beginning, meet on Sunday mornings. 4 (39m 24s): So mind you, we had no idea what we're doing. I think oftentimes God used are being a little naive or even a little ignorant sometimes to his advantage, which is a good thing. Cause as, as we look back sometimes to go, I never would've done that. If I knew what I was getting into, you ever been there. So 1984, we actually planted this church in Avalon and just sort of by default, the fellow, it was leading. The Bible study became the pastor and from my position has helped or I became the assistant pastor and I, and again, we're just kind of learning as we go. So back to, you know, I can really relate to Timothy because if fast forward now the year is 1992 and the pastor at the time he left suddenly. 4 (40m 10s): And because I was sort of like next in line, they, the leaders in congregations as well. Why don't you, why don't you pass through the church? I'm like, I have no desire to pastor church. I've got I'm on a completely different career track. And, and so, but I left a little window open and I said, Lord, if you want to change my heart and change desire, I'm, I'm willing. And so, so over the course of many months, and then in one sleepless night, I really feel God changed my heart and gave me the desire to begin to lead this congregation in Avalon. And I'm like, Timothy, I don't know anything about anything. You know, I'm fairly new to the Bible and, and I'm in this position. 4 (40m 52s): So I would deeply glean from Paul's letters to Timothy. And I w I, you know, because I'm trying to navigate this. And so we were, we were there at that church in Alberta one years. And, and honestly, I know some of you are here today. Part of that gathering back then it was very sweet time. I is just great fond, fond memories of those years together at that church in album beach. And so my, my Bible school training came at the business department at Cal poly. I mean, that's, in other words, I had none, but God was so faithful. You know, when we, when we need something and we ask God for, it might be he's faithful to give us the wisdom to accomplish whatever ever it is. 4 (41m 38s): He's, he's accomplishing in our life. So always be assured of that. So back to our scripture now in, in first Timothy chapter two, it's instructions here about worship gatherings, but he's got to focus in on. The main thing is going to focus on here is prayer and how essential prayer is to the life of the church. And so look at me with me at first Timothy chapter two, verse one, it says, I exhort, first of all, that supplications prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men that died is all people. It's not gender specific there. So he says, first of all, Timothy, this is super important. He says, I want to exhort you in this. 4 (42m 20s): I want to, this is urgent. What you, what I'm telling you, hear it. And in a moment, he's going to tell us why it's so important. So what he brings out here is there's actually four areas or nuances about prayer. He mentioned supplication, prayer, intercession, and giving. Thanks. I mentioned this because they're actually different. If you look at the Greek words they're used there each one's just a little but different. And I want to see why. So that word supplication, first of all, we talk about prayer. All we're talking about is conversation and with God, that's all it is. I'm sure those of you that have been around the church for awhile. There's, there's no right or wrong way to pray. 4 (43m 3s): You don't have to pray in King James. You know, you don't have to pray new living translation. You don't, you, you just converse with God. And what we realized, what we come to realize here, we have this open, direct dialogue with the creator of the heavens and the earth, God almighty. And he wants to hear from you. He wants to hear from him. So he says, you know, I exhort, first of all, and he named supplication prayer in her session giving and thanks. So supplication, what does that mean? It is literally it's asking for something specifically directly to God. I'm asking God specifically for this. It also means seeking after God about something very specific. 4 (43m 46s): So there's a seeking aspect. There's an asking aspect of it, which reminds me of this verse. So this is Jesus is, is talking in Luke chapter 11, seven, verse nine. Is this what he says? He's talking about prayer. So I say to you ask, and it will be given to you seek. And you're going to find, you says, knock, knock, knock on the father's door. And it's going to be open to you for everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks, finds him who knocks it will be opened. So that supplication is it's this asking this, seeking this knocking. But then he uses Paul uses the other word prayer. 4 (44m 28s): And this literally prayers that are, that are addressed directly to God. And it also has a different little nuance to it. It means a place it's talking about a place case that set apart for, for prayer. Now in the Jewish tradition, the Jewish community in a certain city, if they had at least 10 Jewish men, they would typically have a synagogue in that community. But when they would lack 10 Jewish men, they would lack a synagogue. They were tradition was they would go and they would gather by the river. So that river would be a place that was set apart for prayer. So we see this in acts chapter 16, Paul is in the city of Philippi. 4 (45m 8s): He just got there in acts chapter 16, verse 13. It says on the Sabbath day, we went out of the city to the Riverside where prayer was customarily made. And we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. So this was a women's prayer group. Where did they gather by the river? And so we see, this is the kind of prayer Paul is talking about it. Literally. It's not only prayer. That's addressed directly to God, but often in fact, we think about gathering at church. We're talking about specific place space for prayer. The church gathering is a place set apart for prayer among other things as well. 4 (45m 53s): So the, the third word, Paul mentions intercession, which is literally, it's a petition that we're making. It's a petition that we're asking God specifically for petitions made directly to God. So again, intercession, one of the great examples of this is you remember when Moses was leading the people of Israel into the promised land and, and he sends 12 spies into Canaan to come back and, you know, let them know how, how well it's going to go for them. Now, if you know the story, 10 men came back and said, you know what? This is not possible. The people that live in Canaan, they're too big, too strong too. 4 (46m 33s): Over-powering it's not going to happen. And of course to said, yeah, we can do it. Okay. So God got super angry with the Israelites because those 10 bad reports affected the whole, the whole group of Israelites, the Jewish people they're like, forget it. Let's go back to Egypt. We can't do this. And so what happens? Well, God basically tells Moses, get out of the way I'm gonna, I'm going take these people out. So what does Moses do? He intercedes see, he petitions God for them. So that the cool story numbers chapter. Yeah, this is, this is the prayer of Moses. Pardon? The iniquity of this people. I pray according to the greatness of your mercy, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt, even until now. 4 (47m 21s): So here's how God responds to the petition. The intercession of Moses, God says this, okay. I'll pardon them. According your word. In other words, God's basically responding to Moses intercession for them. He's saying, okay, I heard you all right. I won't, I won't do what I intend to do. I will spare them. So I just appointed the, the, the impact, the authority that we have with God, as we supplications towards him, prayer towards him, intercession towards him. And the last thing I want to look at just real quickly is the word. Thanks. Paul mentions that here. It's just this gratefulness, this, the gratitude, this attitude of gratefulness to God. 4 (48m 3s): Now, when we pray, be sure of this. Things may not change for us. Our circumstances may not look any different, but we, we petition God, we seek him. We, we ask of him specific things. And then we're just have an attitude of being thankful, just thankfulness, because God's on the move. God is working all things together for good to those who love him. So, so it's, it's gonna bring about positive, powerful results as we pray to God. So with that, Paul said to the believers at Philippi said this in Philippians four, six, he said, so don't be anxious for anything, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication. 4 (48m 47s): And then he uses this word with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. So I want to put all those words together, just quickly ask God directly, address God directly, petition God directly, thank God directly and be specific as we pray. And he's going to show us what it means to be specific, because as he gets into this with Timothy, he's going to say, by the way, I want you to pray for these people. And I want you to pray for them for this reason. So this idea of going to God directly is, is super important because why? Well, because in Paul's day there was this idea that you needed to go through another person to get to God, maybe through a man, maybe through a priest, but God's saying, no, you can go directly to God. 4 (49m 41s): So also, so in our day there is this idea that we should pray God through someone else. Again, maybe through an old Testament Saint, or I dare even say, even through the Virgin, Mary, I know it might be shocking. You don't need to pray through the Virgin Mary or anybody else. For that matter. You can pray directly to God as a believer in Jesus Christ. You can do that. And he, he will grant you access gladly and listen to your prayer gladly. So verse two, we're going to jump into first time of the two. I'm going to kind of bring both those verses together. Again, I exhort, first of all, that supplications prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks. 4 (50m 23s): Be made for men, for Kings and for who are in authority. And here's why, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. So now he's getting specific, okay. Here's who I want you to pray for him. What does he mention? He mentioned Kings and all who are in authority. And so what's the result of that going to be? Well, he says so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. I like that. I mean, what do you guys think? Does that mean we're going to have a life of no problems, no trials. It's you know, we're just, we're just going to have a quiet 5 (51m 1s): Peaceable life. Maybe not. 4 (51m 5s): We're going to look at this. It does sound great though. Doesn't it? It sounds awesome. Who doesn't want to lead a quiet and peaceable life? So I think we all know that the apostle Paul, he was a man of prayer. So he practiced the same things that is encouraging Timothy to do here. So I have a question for you this morning was Paul's life peaceful, 5 (51m 27s): Quiet. No it wasn't. 4 (51m 33s): But, but so on the outside Paul's life wasn't peaceful and it wasn't quiet, but on the inside, yes, Paul discovered this secret place of rage. 5 (51m 46s): I asked when he was in the midst of trials, 4 (51m 50s): The truth is Paul spent much of his ministry years inside the local jail of the town that he was, 5 (51m 56s): Was planning a church in or in a Roman prison. He was in a Roman prison on more than one occasion. 4 (52m 3s): And yet this is what he said about the things that he went through. So Paul's talking about his own experiences now. And in Philippians chapter four, beginning with verse 11, he says, he says, I've learned, I've learned in whatever 5 (52m 17s): I am to be content. I know how to be a based, and I know how to abound everywhere. 4 (52m 26s): And in all things, I have learned 5 (52m 29s): Both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. He says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 4 (52m 40s): It doesn't. So the circumstances don't matter. 5 (52m 44s): God 4 (52m 44s): Desires to bring into our lives. A measure of contentment and peace and quiet on the interior. The no matter what our circumstances are 5 (52m 53s): Outside, it it's fine. 4 (52m 57s): So Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, by the way, the year he wrote this letter to Timothy, it was 64, a D. So who do you suppose was a Roman emperor at the time that Paul was encouraging Timothy to pray this way? Well, his name was emperor Nero. So Nero ruled the Roman empire from 54, 82 68, 5 (53m 20s): A D so general persecution of Christians in the Roman empire began under emperor Nero's leadership. So even while Paul is encouraging Timothy to pray for the, for Kings and those in authority to have a peaceful and quiet life Niro is he's stirring things up against the Christians. One commentary says this after the great fire of Rome in 80 64 rumors swirled that the emperor himself was responsible. Instead Nero blamed the Christians, according to the Roman historian, Tacitus Nero had the Christians covered in wild beast skins and torn to death by dogs. 5 (54m 6s): So why is it so important to pray for Kings and for those in authority? Well, again, Paul tells us so that we can lead peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity, dignity. So, so we pray we're called to pray for our leaders. And then we trust God for the results. We trust the results to God answer our prayer in his timing. So it took a long time, but eventually Christianity was embraced in the entire Roman empire. So we're called to, to pray. As we gather, as we commune as believers, we pray directly to God, but then we just leave the results to him. 5 (54m 49s): Our circumstances may not look any different. In fact, they may get worse, but we keep praying. So we pray. And then we trust the results to God to answer our prayer and his timing. We pray. And then we leave the results to him. So in the meantime, what's happening as we pray, God is growing us up. God is, is he's maturing us on the inside. So that in all things, no matter what happens on the outside, like Paul, we are content and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Do you believe that I know many of you have experienced that where literally the world can look like it's falling apart around us. 5 (55m 29s): And we have this, this inexplicable sense of God's peace. So that like Paul said, you know, be anxious for nothing. It's like, why am I not stressed about this? Why am I not overwhelmed by this circumstance that I'm in? Because God has given you his peace to be content in the midst of that storm of life. So Paul continues in this letter to Timothy first Timothy chapter two, verse three, he says concerning prayer for leaders. Those in authority, he says for this is good. And it's acceptable in the sight of God, our savior. Why? 5 (56m 9s): Because he desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. You see, that's the end game. Why do we pray for leaders and those in authority because God desires that they would be saved, that they would come to know the truth. So the reason this pleases God, again, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God. The reason this pleases God, the reason we pray for rulers and those in authority in this way is because God's desire is that everyone that we're praying for will be saved and will eventually come to know the truth about God and all that he has done for them through his son, Jesus Christ. 5 (56m 52s): So the insight, the insight is this, the end game is this. Our prayers for these people are very effective. Don't don't ever dismiss that our prayers for people in this case, Kings and those in authority are very effective. What did they do? They help to open the door to their heart so that God can reach them. So he's saying, here's what I want you to specifically pray for them, that they might have their heart open to accept and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. Some years ago, I read a book it's called revolution in world missions that is written by KPO Hannan. 5 (57m 33s): So KPI Hannah grew up in India and he came to know Christ as his Lord and savior. And he had moved to America and was married and living here, but he founded a ministry. The ministry is called gospel for Asia. He just had this great burden for his people, the people of India to come to know Jesus as their Lord and savior. So he planted this ministry gospel for Asia and what it was, it was in various parts of the country. There were Bible training centers established. There were churches that were planted and evangelists were literally going out into the various places in India. And so there's, these were men and women that were be being trained to take the gospel into the nation of India. 5 (58m 19s): Some years ago, I had a privilege of going with gospel Asia, a gospel for Asia to India. And I got to teach at a few of these training centers there. And it was just an amazing thing at that time. The Christian population in India was about 2% maybe, but God was doing some amazing things through the lives of these men and women who are coming out of these training centers and going and taking the gospel into, into the villages there. And by the way, that that region of the world is commonly called the 10 40 window, because it was one of the most unreached areas with the gospel in the entire world. So I mentioned this because back to the, the, the, the power of prayer. 5 (59m 1s): So KP heard about this woman here in America, who was a prayer warrior. And he, he wanted to talk to her because she was specifically praying for the ministry of gospel at, for Asia and India. So he visits this woman here in America. He comes and find out that she's an elder gala. She's bedridden, can't even get out of bed. She has to have people come and care for her, 6 (59m 25s): But on her wall in her room 5 (59m 28s): Is a world map. And God was just impressing her. I want you to pray. I want you to pray for these people. I want you to pray for this community. I want you to lift up this nation. And what she would have people do is they would take map pens and they would put them on the map in the areas where she felt God was, was asking her to pray for these people. So KP is talking to her and, and, and getting to know her, but what he came to realize, as he looked at this at this world map is when he looked at the nation of India and the cluster of map pins on that map, where God was impressing her to pray for. He realized that they were having the greatest measure of success evangelizing and sharing the gospel in those communities where this woman was praying for. 5 (1h 0m 14s): So here she is, she's bedridden. He has to have other people come and help her. And yet her prayers are so effective that they're impacting for eternity, the lives of the people in India. On the other side of the world. Here's what James says about prayer. He says in James five 16, the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. I want to read that again. The earnest prayer of a righteous person. Now you may be thinking well, I'm, I'm not a righteous person. Yes you are. 5 (1h 0m 55s): When you place your faith and trust in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, his shed blood made you righteous. You are the righteousness of God in Christ. So the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. We have a direct, direct access to the creator of the heavens and the earth. He desires it with people would come to know and accept and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior because God is all about saving people. He wants heaven to be full of crazy people like us. 5 (1h 1m 37s): Paul is exhorting us to pray specifically for again, our King. So what does that have to do with us? Who's our King. Well, I guess you'd say maybe our president pray for our president. Pray for our national leaders, pray for our state government, our local government, those who are in positions of authority over us. He's saying pray for them specifically by name, asking God to open up their heart to him, pray specifically that they might come to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior. Now, as I mentioned earlier, there's a great division in the church right now. And again, it's usually over politics and candidates and all of that. 5 (1h 2m 17s): I w I would exhort us to do this. Don't be critical of any of our leaders, whether you agree with them politically or not pray for them specifically by name asking God that there would be an openness in their heart, to the gospel. That's going to bring about unity in the church and the body of Christ. So I get, I get me. I get super excited when I see something very specific in the Bible that pleases God, God. So this is, this is, Paul says, this is pleasing to God. I know we all, we all want to, to please him praying like this is for these people in this way. It pleases God, and God is pleased with us. 5 (1h 2m 58s): When we do this, I have a question for you this morning. If we pray in the way Paul tells us to pray. And if we pray for the people that Paul tells us to pray for again, back to the question, does that mean we will always have a peaceful and quiet life? The answer is no things may get completely crazy, but we continue to pray. So we're not, we're not praying. God give us a great government. We're not praying. God may, you know, make life easy for us. We're saying, Lord, I know these people need to know you. They need your salvation. I want the kingdom of heaven filled with people like this. 5 (1h 3m 40s): I may despise their politics, but Lord, I want you to fill heaven with people blank. This. So Paul, again, did he have a peaceful and quiet life? The answer is no. He spent a lot of time in jail. I spent a lot of time in, in, you know, Roman prisons. Was he effective in his ministry? Absolutely. In fact, when he was talking about his ministry, part of the effectiveness he's talking about is when he was in prison. So in Philippians chapter one, this is what he says beginning with verse 12. He says, he says, I want you to know something. I want you to know my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here in prison has actually helped to spread the good news for everyone here, including the whole palace guard knows that I'm in chains because of Christ. 5 (1h 4m 27s): And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God's message without fear. So th the irony is Paul's in prison. Oh, that's a bad thing, but the believers are more bold than ever. So may we be more bold than ever as we experience the trials that are before us? And again, Paul talks about this a little more in Philippians chapter four, verse 22, he says, all the saints greet you. So he's closing out this letter now, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. In other words, emperor Nero's household, there's one commentary, but written by a guy named Clark. 5 (1h 5m 11s): It says this special greeting is evidence that Paul was still used by God during his Roman imprisonment. When the gospel extended, even into the household of Nero, Nero was at this time, emperor of Rome, a more worthless, cruel, and diabolic wretch, never disgraced the name or form of man yet in his family, there were Christians. But whether this relates to the members of the Imperial family, or to guards or core TA's or to servants, we cannot tell God's on the move, even in the prison, even when you know, rulers are not great rulers. 5 (1h 5m 56s): So remember I told you a moment ago, Paul is encouraging us to go, go to directly, to, to God. You have access to the father, go directly to him in prayer and not pray through another person. But then Paul adds something here. It's a little bit of a twist, and it's in first Timothy chapter two, five through seven. He says, he says, this for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am speaking the truth in Christ, not lying. 5 (1h 6m 36s): A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. So Paul is saying, we pray directly to God, the father, but we have a mediator. We have to have a mediator. Now, what does a mediator? A mediator is, is simply one who intervenes in order to restore peace and friendship. So mediator comes to my mind. We've got two parties that are, that are against each other. They have no agreement. A mediator brings them together to restore peace and friendship. A mediator is one who steps in to ratify an agreement, a covenant. 5 (1h 7m 18s): We need a mediator. So, so again, now we begin to see how the gospel comes to play in all of this, because we were born into this world with a sinful nature. You have a DNA that's literally been corrupted. And we were born in this world under a curse, and we've inherited this. We are by nature. Get this. We are by nature, actually, enemies of God without Christ. But God's desire is that we would be reconciled to him. It's God's desire to have relationship with his people. How, how does he arrange that? 5 (1h 7m 58s): Which is why God sent his only son into the world to save us, to save sinners, to mediate, to bring together two parties that were at odds. So I want to unpack this just a little bit in a moment. So back to this first, when it comes to praying directly to God, as it turns out, we actually do need a mediator, but not a man. Not any man. We need someone to intercede for us to intercede on our behalf. And the Bible teaches us. There's only one person, one man who can intercede half. His name is Jesus. Romans chapter eight, verse 34. It is Christ who died. And furthermore has also risen who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 5 (1h 8m 47s): So here's, here's how it works. We pray directly to God, the father through the son in the Holy spirit. So that's where we kind of see that father, son and Holy spirit coming together. We pray directly to the father, through the son in the Holy spirit. So on one occasion, Jesus sort of bring this to us in John chapter 16, verse 23, he says this, he says in prayer, he says, whatever you ask the father in my name, he will give you what a privilege, whatever we ask the father through the son, he says, he's gonna, he's gonna give that to you. 5 (1h 9m 34s): So I want to try to summarize this, bring it to a conclusion. So God's desire is that all people would be saved and all people would come to the knowledge of the truth. So in this case, the specialty's talking about those who are in positions of authority are part, our responsibility is to pray for them. So can we covenant together as a community of believers, you know, to, to pray for our national leaders, the president and Congress, and then of course, governors and all the leaders by name with an attitude of love for them asking God to open up their heart. 5 (1h 10m 18s): So they might come to know and accept Jesus as their Lord and savior. So someone I've been listening to recently online, somebody introduced me to him recently, his name is JD for ag. So JD for ag, it's a Palestinian believers. He pastors a church in Kaneohe, Hawaii. And you know, so I've been watching him recently. So he's very deliberate. And every time he's ending a message, he wants the gospel to be made super clear. And so he closes with, I want to put a graphic up there right now. So it's the ABC graphic. So ABC, I borrowed this from J for ag. 5 (1h 10m 58s): And as, as we look at this, I want to just say, listen, if you're a Christian already, and you've heard the gospel, maybe so many times don't tune me out. But what I want you to do is I want you to pray right now for those who don't know, the Lord may be here at harvest church or those who are listening online, because oftentimes what I've found it is people. Maybe they just never really come, come to understand the gospel, or they've heard bits and pieces of it, but they'd never actually responded to the clear message of the gospel. So what is the gospel that which gives each one, a life to a person? Well, a admit that you're a sinner be believe Jesus died for your sins and see call upon the name of the Lord. So I'm going to look at a few verses as we close. 5 (1h 11m 40s): So believers just beginning, pray that God would bring salvation right now to those whose hearts are open towards him. So Hey, admitted your center from the Bible's perspective, guests, how many righteous people are born? Planet earth zero, zero. Okay. In fact, Paul says in Romans three 10 is as it re there there's none righteous. No, not one. You're going to see an old Testament, new Testament backwards. Nobody's righteous, righteous, meaning nobody can approach God on their own behalf. Romans three 23. 5 (1h 12m 21s): In fact, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The believe Jesus died for your sins, Romans five, five, eight, but God demonstrates his own love towards us. And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's why it's called good news. The gospel good news. Romans six 23, three for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ. Jesus. Our Lord, the gospel is a message about a gift. You don't work for a gift. You just receive a gift. 5 (1h 13m 1s): If something God has done for us provided for us through his son. And lastly, call upon the name of the Lord, Ephesians two, eight and nine for by grace. You've been saved through faith that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God is not of works. Lest anyone should boast. So there's this tendency in the human heart to want to work, to be good enough to be acceptable to God. The scripture is clear. You can't work for this. You have to just receive it and thank God for it. And finally, Romans 10, nine, and 13, if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus. And if you believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be. 5 (1h 13m 50s): So that confession part, it's something that each person needs to do individually. I can't do it for you. You can't, you know, belong to a club or a group of spiritual people to have it done for you. You have to come to God on your, on, on his terms and you confess. Yes, I believe I know. I know that I'm a sinner and I know that I need forgiveness. So I believe you sent your son To die in my place. 5 (1h 14m 39s): So I confess God that Jesus is my Lord. I desire that he would be my savior. So I invite you to give me rent to me the gift of life that you've provided. I remember when I gave my life to Christ and something supernatural happens when we do that, you can't explain it. It can't be intellectually figured out. God sent his son to die for you and for me. And if you will make that confession of faith, I promise you that God will hear that prayer and something supernatural will happen. 5 (1h 15m 26s): God will show you. He will prove to you that he is alive and that now he's living in you and that your body has now become the temple of the Holy spirit that you were spiritually dead. And now you're a made spiritually alive in Christ. So to those gathered here online, as we worship, as we close in worship, let's all stand. If you have not yet done that and prayed and invited Jesus and confessed him to be your Lord and savior. Now, now is your opportunity to pray while we're worshiping, just pray and invite him into your life to be your Lord and savior. 2 (1h 16m 19s): , 1 (1h 17m 25s): 2 (1h 21m 39s): Bring it all the stores around me let Bray day, because seed is the rage means every way. 1 (1h 22m 5s): Geez, she's she is the cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese. 1 (1h 23m 34s): geez, geez, that the shadows kids 0 (1h 26m 4s): Thank you God for thank you for gracing us with your presence this morning. I just ask you to just work inside of each one of us this morning as we leave. And just as we're, as we're contemplating the gospel, just, just maybe re revisiting your truths and just, just taking a greater hold on those things and making them sit in our hearts. God, and just thank you so much, father for your grace and your love. 0 (1h 26m 48s): If you're here this morning and you need someone to pray with, we have people up front and you can just, just come on down, don't be shy and someone will be here to pray. Pray with you. Thank you for joining us, everybody. And we'll see you next week. 2 (1h 27m 12s): .

0 (2s): Well, good morning harvest family. How's everybody doing today? Lots of good smile and hello to everyone watching on campus and at home online. We're so glad as always to come together and worship. So why don't you find some worshiping space and stand up? And you're able, I'd love to just get our bodies, our minds, our soul, everything. Just focus on those this morning. 1 (31s): Why don't we pray 0 (35s): His presence here today? Lord, thank you that we're two or three or more are gathered in your name that you promised to be in our midst. And so we know that you are here today. I just pray that your presence would stretch out all over this County, all over the world, wherever anyone might be tuning in and watching, we are one body connected Lord by your spirit. And I just thank you for what you're doing in our midst. I pray that you would continue just to meet us as we draw near to you, would you draw near to us? How would you lift our weariness? 1 (1m 16s): How would you 0 (1m 16s): Just put your yoke upon us? That is easy and light 1 (1m 20s): Today. 0 (1m 22s): Thank you that you carry our burdens. You lift our sorrows. 1 (1m 30s): You give us 0 (1m 32s): Joy instead of mourning and laughter instead of tears. 1 (1m 37s): Yes. 0 (1m 41s): So God come and be here in our midst or get our hearts. 1 (1m 53s): too deep or too dark. 1 (7m 52s): Thank you for your presence here today. Thank you for the price that you paid. You laid down your life for us in the midst of all of our faults and our scars. There's nothing that we could do to be good. We all fall short and that we all are in need of a savior. 1 (9m 33s): 0 (16m 43s): Know. Sometimes you put a new song in our hearts, so thank you, Jesus. Just for the wind in our sail this morning. Yeah. Sprayer read hearts this morning that are weary, are achy. Any bodies that are bruised and broken any healing. So you continue to come and move by your spirit and power. Set our feet upon a rock, a new song in our hearts. May we need walking, living testimonies of your faithfulness and of your power. 0 (17m 30s): When people see us, you're like, Oh man, what was different about this person? It's just joy radiating from their soul. There's a piece that's beyond my comprehension. They go through all they walk through and still have joy and peace in the mess because we have a savior. And if he's for us, who could be against us, I continue to just put those the deep in our heart, your amazing grace available to us each and every moment of every day Just like gets spread. 1 (18m 22s): 0 (19m 7s): Right. 1 (19m 13s): 0 (23m 12s): It was eyes to see years, 1 (23m 17s): No more. 0 (23m 26s): Would you open our hearts to receive all that you have for us this day? 1 (23m 34s): Okay. 0 (23m 34s): Heart's desire to be more like you got to be a reflection of your love in this world. So would you continue that good work in our hearts today? And we ask all of this in a name. Jesus. Oh, so sweet, such a sweet spirit in the house the day. Well, we're going to spread some of that sweet spirit to spread his peace this morning to one another. Would you greet someone around you and say, hello, let some announcements. And just a few moments. 1 (24m 4s): 2 (26m 48s): Find a seat. That'd be great. Thank you so much. Hey, I want to welcome everyone. Who's 3 (26m 55s): Sanctuary. And those of you who are in the loft and the patio area, and those who are tuning in online, thank you for being with us. My name is Ron. I'm one of the pastors here and this is a highlight of the service, the announcements, right? Yes. So today's a special day for many reasons. One is it's family Sunday. So family Sunday, we do every fourth, Sunday of the month. And the purpose is to kind of get families together, worship together. So kids that are first grade and up will be with mom and dad sitting in with, with them in the service. And if you have children younger than that, we do have classes available for them. 3 (27m 37s): And then in addition, another highlight of today is the fact that it is communion Sunday. And so when you came in to all the different venues, there were some community communion elements there, and you may have grabbed one already. If you didn't. One of the ushers will come around. When we get to communion part of the service and you can grab one then, and we're going to have communion together as well. But the other reason today is, is amazing is because it's donut Sunday. So if, if you head up the driveway to the info center area, you're going to find a whole bunch of donuts. So help yourself. And because we all need healthy food in our lives, don't we? Yes, we do. 3 (28m 19s): By the way, everything I'm mentioning right now this morning, you're going to find on our, on our website, on our harvest app and also at the info center, if you want to talk to somebody face to face about anything, that's going on, feel free to go up to the info center and there'll be there to help you out. Easter is coming up. So Easter is one of those things that happens every year. So unlike Christmas, Christmas is always on December. What does it? December 25th. That's right. So Easter changes. The date just kind of moves around. And so I'm never really sure what month or day or all, but it's this year. It, what is it? April 4th. Thank you. So April 4th, this year is Easter. So what we're doing a little different because of COVID things we're actually having Easter right here on the premises. 3 (29m 3s): It's going to be one service. It's going to be at 10 o'clock and we're going to be outside. Everybody's going to be outside up at the upper parking lot area. We're going to be setting a big, a big stage, can have live bound band out there. We're going to be doing baptisms. And so if there's somebody that if you want to get baptized or someone that you know, then let us know, you can either send us an email stop by the info table. You can sign up and you'll you, we will contact you and meet with you about, about, about getting baptized. And then in addition, we're going to be setting up about 600 chairs up there. All right. So with that, we're going to be needing help. You'll be hearing about this, going to be needing help to do set up and clean up and just different things, greeting and things for the service. 3 (29m 43s): So Easter is one of those annual times of year where it's a great time to invite people that don't normally come to church. And you know how some people, when you invite them to church, they're like worried that the, the roof is going to cave in on them. So this is an outdoor service. So they're not to worry about that. Although there are some eucalyptus trees kind of close by. So that might be a concern, but, but invite friends, family, those who, who, you know, really would benefit from an Easter service. So there's some other things going on. I'll just make mention of a few of them. There's a golfing group. That's going to be gathering at Cypress Ridge next Sunday at one o'clock stop by info center. They'll let you know about that. 3 (30m 24s): There's a good yarn club, so that they're going to be gathering March 13th at five o'clock. And there's a men's event coming up. It's the M six evening gathering. It's kinda been put on hold through COVID but now it's starting up again. So the date on that is, is March 15th. And it's going to be out at thousand Hills ranch where it's always been in the past. So guys, I would encourage you to take the opportunity to get involved in that. All right. So the last thing I want to make mention of this morning is so throughout this year, on the fourth, Sunday of every month, family Sunday, we're having a, another, a new missionary come. So these are missionaries that we support we've supported. 3 (31m 5s): So this morning, in fact, Darren, go ahead and make your way up. Let's welcome, Darren. This is Darren Johnson. So Darren Johnson is from child evangelism fellowship. And he's my baby brother in Christ. Yes. Yes. So we've been supporting harvest church has been supporting financially and prayerfully CEF for many, many years. So you might be familiar with the good news clubs. So they're, they're under the umbrella of child evangelism fellowship. So Darren's here with us this morning. Gonna share a little bit about the ministry. He's got a table set up outside. If you want more info, go talk to him and Darren, really happy to have you with us today. 4 (31m 47s): Okay. Thank you so much proof once more, that good things come in, small packages. 1 (31m 52s): 4 (31m 55s): We're close enough where I can teach you. Right. Okay. Good. All right. So we just want to thank you guys so much. You've been such a blessing to this ministry and all the kids that reaches. And a lot of, you know, we were in over two thirds of the elementary schools before this whole COVID thing came down the pike and we are just pivoting and scrambling to, to do our very best to reach kids, right where they're at. So right now we, we have 20 clubs going, 11 of them are online and nine are in person and we're just setting up in parks, church, parking lots, wherever we can to, to, to reach these kids. But I, one thing I just want to mention know, this is a hard time, especially for kids, it's our time for everybody, you know, no matter where you're at and how things should be handled, we all know that, you know, it's rattled a lot of people and there's a lot of fear going on in the world right now, a lot of confusion. 4 (32m 44s): And if you think about what that looks like from a child's perspective, you know, they're looking at the people that normally have it all together for them, their security, even though we know we're supposed to get our security from God, you know, kids do draw that from their parents and adults and, and, and they're looking at their parents and they're seeing them nervous and confused, and that just kind of feeds into their lives in a pretty big way. So, you know, I was kind of reminded of this. I've got a little five-year-old daughter, you know, and she just asked me point blank, one day, she goes, dad, are you scared of COVID? I thought, Oh, Whoa. Like I never told her that. But you know, she could pick up on things because her life is very different. Now, you know, kids are being told you can't go to the park. You can't go to school. 4 (33m 26s): You can't go to the water park or the play structure, or all these things are normally used to doing. And for a child, like my daughter is five. And you think about what a percentage of that life, this whole Corona confusion has been over her, right? She's five. I mean, this has been going on for like a year and a half and probably about two years back as far as she can really remember. So this is pretty much her normal at this point. So there's kids that just are growing up with this and we have this huge need and opportunity to, to anchor them to what really matters, right? God, his truth, eternal things that their hope. I mean, once our hope is in this world, we're in big trouble. Aren't we, our hope has to be in Jesus Christ. 4 (34m 9s): There's nothing else that we'll be able to, to get us into heaven or to give us a hope in this world. There's nothing else that can really make us secure. So that's our mission is to take that message of hope to the kids. We're so thankful for your partnership in that. And we just appreciate all you guys do. A lot of you have gotten involved over the years and we'd love to, to keep that going and just please feel free to come by and talk with me. If you have any questions, I've got a great little tool. I'd love to hand out to you guys. I wished I'd. I realized after my daughter said that I should sit down with her and go over this because it's just a little, you know, a little booklet to go on a child's level to take them through, Hey, you know, why is the world confusing? 4 (34m 51s): Where does our hope really lie? Help them know they don't have to be alone, right? God will go through everything with us. And he'll, he loves you. He'll, he'll help you through whatever challenge you're facing. So thank you guys for your support and partnership. And please keep us in prayer. We we've, we are excited about what God has opened the door to us to do even admits these challenging times, but we're never satisfied, right? We want to keep reaching every child and make sure the gospel is going out to all of them. So thank you so much. 5 (35m 31s): Thanks Darren. Appreciate coming in Sharon for us. Hey, my name is Jeremy. I'm the youth 6 (35m 38s): And family pastor here at harvest church. And pastor Steve is headed back from his step-mom's Memorial service in Colorado. So he's not with us this morning. So he asked me to step up. And so I get to open up the word of God. A few will be in acts chapter 14 today, but man, I really appreciate what Darren is doing in the schools and what that ministry is doing. You know, a number of years ago, I, when my family and I were living in Santa Santa Barbara, I interviewed for the director position of CF down there and actually came up and met Darren and shouted him for a day. And it's just amazing. The door that the Lord has opened in the schools, even, even during COVID I know things have changed, but he's really, they shifted to adjust for those things. 6 (36m 26s): But God has an amazing thing happening in the life of our students. And I may have shared this with you before you may have heard this, but I think it's worth repeating, you know, DL moody came back from a, a revival and they asked him, well, how did it go? You know, how many people were saved? And he, his response was two and 5 (36m 46s): A half. And that was met with 6 (36m 49s): Kind of a blank stare. What do you mean two and a half? You mean two adults and a child. 5 (36m 52s): He said, no, two children and an adult. And he said, when you, 6 (36m 58s): You save a child, you save a life a whole life. And that's why I believe in student ministry is like the utmost important. Whether you're in schools, whether here at church, it is so important. 5 (37m 11s): And you know, these, 6 (37m 14s): Those pouring into the life of the youth are making a change to a life a whole life. And it's not an insult to those who are older when they come to Christ. But God, because God is calling you to walk with him, no matter how long you have walked in your own path, he's calling you to join him in his path. So the encouragement is parents, grandparents keep the course, keep loving on these students, keep teaching them the truth. And that is what we're going to discuss today is the truth in our culture. And really to be aware of that 5 (37m 45s): Isn't as was 6 (37m 48s): Pairing this week. And, you know, I got asked on Wednesdays, Steve asked if I was able to, to share today. And he said, Hey, it'd be really cool to get some testimonies of some youth students to come up. And so I approached a few, used a few students on Wednesday and said, Hey, would you be willing to come and give your testimony on Sunday? And it was met with like this deer in the headlight look like, Oh, this is only a few days away. I don't know if I can do that. And off, and to the response that I got was, I don't really have a testimony. I don't have a, I don't have a car. I don't have this kind of crazy story. And I think often our minds, a testimony is when God's turned us away from crazy gnarly stuff, and then we've walked with him. But what about the testimony of a simple walk of obedience to God and his word? 5 (38m 31s): What about that testimony? And these, these students, as you give your life 6 (38m 36s): To the Lord and you walk with him, I look at the adults out here, think of the pain and the suffering and the struggle that you'll be saved from. If you just simply 5 (38m 47s): Walk with the Lord, that's right. That's 6 (38m 50s): An amazing testimony to simply walk with the Lord. Can I get an amen on that one? 5 (38m 54s): All right, let me pray. And then I'm gonna jump in Lord. You are on the move Lord and display 6 (39m 10s): Right with our culture. Despite what are the things that around us sort of, we trust in you. We trust 5 (39m 14s): The truth of your word, or do you speak to us this morning? Will you reveal our condition, Lord? And will you show us who you are, Lord and what you came to do in Jesus name? We pray. Amen. So let me tell you a little bit about my youth. 6 (39m 34s): Now, had you told me I would have a, a job in public speaking 5 (39m 38s): When I was in grade 6 (39m 40s): School, I would have ran away from my life. Like public speaking was never on my radar. It was the worst thing. It was the last thing in the world I wanted to do because I was pretty, I was pretty much a nerd. Okay. Our family genetics, we had bad eyesight. Okay. So you can imagine Jeremy with glasses. And in fact, my brother's eyesight was a little bad. I'm going to throw him under the bus. He was getting really bad grades at school. So the teacher said, well, maybe Brian needs to sit in the front of school. And so he sat in the front of class and that helped. And then the teacher saw, man, he's still struggling. He's this bright, smart kid, what what's going on? So she said, Hey, she talked to my parents, you should have his eyes checked out. So sure enough, he goes to the eye doctor and his eyes would bad. 6 (40m 22s): So he gets a pair of glasses and he goes into the classroom and he looks up and he's like, Oh, I never knew this. The flag had stars on it, poor kid. Right? That's the eyesight that I haven't. And at one point in my youth, I was actually given bifocals to where like, they like not the hidden bifocals, but the ones with the lions, you know? And so you can only imagine how much 5 (40m 48s): Flack I got from, from other students. 6 (40m 51s): So I was that kid. I was never the cool kid. I was, I was that kid. And I grew up in a really loving, awesome family. And, you know, we, we had a pet dog, but being the first born being one to have responsibility, I thought, man, I want to have my own animals are my own things to take care of. And I looked around different animals, like turtles, whatever. And I narrowed the search down to ants. I wanted one of those. And from you remember those and farms, how cool are those little and farms? You know, like you get to observe the aunts and what they're doing underground and those tunnels and how strong they are. They can lift up heavy things and move things around. And, and it was pretty easy to care for. So ants made the perfect thing and I would take a little droplets and add drops 5 (41m 35s): Of water and I would add their food as necessary. But you just got to observe these things. Well, one day I returned after being out of the house and I looked and I said, huh, there's what is that little thing in my aunt farm? I don't recognize that. And I could see that the answer very attractive 6 (41m 54s): Into it. And they were starting to bite off little pieces and take it down into their tunnels. 5 (41m 60s): And they were dying. I was like, that was weird. So I got tweezers pulled that thing out of there. And I started asking around and sure enough, my brother had snuck in and put ant poison into my ant farm. 6 (42m 17s): Am I answering or dying? So how do I stop this? Like, do I yell at them a little and from stop eating the poison, stopping the poison. Don't do it. It's going to hurt you. It tastes good. I know, but don't do it. I, as a human, I can't yell down to my aunt. So what do I do? I want to become an aunt so I can tell my aunts don't eat the 5 (42m 39s): Now, before you really get mad at me and my brother for poison my ass. That's actually just a story. Okay. I made the story up, 6 (42m 47s): Never had an ant farm. My brother never poisoned them, but it speaks to something true. There speaks to this poison. That's in, been inserted 5 (42m 55s): For our lives. And what do we do with it? 6 (43m 1s): Poison can come in many different 5 (43m 4s): Ways, many different attractive 6 (43m 5s): Packaging. Some poison makes us feel good. Some poison looks fun. Some poison, everyone else has taken. 5 (43m 13s): Why don't we, some poison makes us feel better about ourselves 6 (43m 20s): Came to this passage of scripture in acts chapter 14. And this is actually where we were on Wednesday night. How to do with that story, that, okay. All right. I repeated the story. They heard it on a Wednesday such. So acts chapter 14, let's check it out. 5 (43m 37s): It's 6 (43m 38s): Paul and Barnabas Barnabas, his first missionary 5 (43m 40s): Trip, the first mystery 6 (43m 42s): Journey. And they come to this town of Iconia. Now it says in acts chapter 14, verse one, 5 (43m 49s): It happened 6 (43m 50s): In, I conium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews. And so spoke that a great multitude, both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed verse two, but the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds 5 (44m 3s): Leans against the brethren. 6 (44m 6s): The work was happening. Paul and Barnabas were having amazing ministry that it was stirring up the whole town. And so then the gent, the Jews, the unbelieving Jews then snuck in and began to poison the minds of the Gentiles. They began to insert something other than 5 (44m 21s): Truth, other than the word of God. So what was that poison for them 6 (44m 27s): Specifically say, but I believe it's this workspace, religion, Judaism. They wanted Judaism to flow back into the church 5 (44m 35s): And they 6 (44m 36s): Were against what Paul and his message. 5 (44m 40s): There is a workspace based religion. Wasn't the gospel, 6 (44m 44s): Wasn't the gospel based on grace by 5 (44m 46s): Faith. 6 (44m 48s): And so if that was their poison, what is the poison that we can take in as well? 5 (44m 55s): What is the poison that we can take in as well? 6 (44m 59s): Same, right? That, that, that, that poisonous meshes is still around. That that we can add to what Jesus did in the cross. That when Jesus said to tell us it is finished on the cross, that it wasn't actually done. I have to be a good person to earn my way I have to do this 5 (45m 14s): Or that. That is still some 6 (45m 16s): Of the poison that flows in our culture. One of the things I hear a lot about now is my truth. Have you heard the claim? My truth, 5 (45m 28s): That 6 (45m 28s): The truth no longer, there's not a truth. There's not one truth. There's multiple truths. And you can come to a conversation. Well, that conflicts with my true, see my truth says this. Oh, but, but my truth, no, there's no, there's this, this battle for truth in our culture 5 (45m 45s): World. One of the things, 6 (45m 50s): The things I think plaguing the youth to his age is go try everything first and see if you like it. See if it sticks, good, try everything first as if it won't harm you there 5 (45m 60s): Your life. 6 (46m 4s): What about being young and dumb? That's like one of the things going around, 5 (46m 9s): It's a poison they'll hurt 6 (46m 12s): The rest of your life. Cause choices that you make now can affect you the rest 5 (46m 15s): Of your life. What about our 6 (46m 18s): Culture? Where socialism and communism is becoming praised in our culture. It's being taught in our schools of critical theory and cultural Marxism, or where companies, big tech companies have the ability to, to monitor what we and I read and how we get our news and all these things of just the censorship 5 (46m 40s): And the truth 6 (46m 40s): I feel is getting harder and harder to find big pharmaceutical companies are making millions, if not billions, on telling us how our health 5 (46m 50s): Need to do 6 (46m 53s): One of the lies, our cultures, there's more than two genders. God said, let there be male and female man, and woman that, 5 (47m 2s): That God that wasn't it. We have to have more genders now. 6 (47m 7s): Jesus, isn't returning and so much more. There's so much that's being attacked in our culture. And I often ask the question, how much poison is too much. 5 (47m 19s): And what do we do 6 (47m 21s): When we find this poison, that's kind of come into our, our thoughts in our heads, in our, in our culture. What do we do? This is what, this is what Paul and did verse three. It says, therefore, they stayed there a long time. Speaking boldly in the Lord who was bearing witness to the word of his grace granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. What was the antidote in their day? 5 (47m 47s): It was the truth. The word of God, the word of his grace, that was 6 (47m 52s): The serum, the antivenom. It was the word of God or the logos, 5 (47m 58s): The truth, you know, 6 (48m 0s): As we continue, you know, we've always been marching towards the end 5 (48m 4s): Times, 2000 years. 6 (48m 6s): We've always been more, but you start to read Jesus's words about end time deception. You start to look at the book of revelation. You realize that deception is only going to get harder and harder. So it makes truth all the more important, 5 (48m 22s): Yeah. 6 (48m 22s): Verse four says, but the multitude of the city was divided part sided with the Jews and part with the apostle. And that's the truth. That truth divides. And it's a hard message. These 5 (48m 33s): Culture trues divides, the gospel brings division. 6 (48m 39s): I only read about Matt in Matthew chapter 10, how Jesus talks about even that division can come into homes. 5 (48m 44s): The families between loved ones, 6 (48m 50s): Favorite statements in the Bible, favorite words in the Bible. 5 (48m 53s): But God, because 6 (48m 57s): The what's happening around us, we look at the culture. We look at the situations we are, Oh my what, what is happening? What is going on? What can be done and yet reread, but 5 (49m 8s): God Romans 6 (49m 10s): Five eight, but God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, it really looked really, really dark for us. But God, and I want to say that God is on the move in the life of our youth. And that's what I'm so excited to share with you this morning. 5 (49m 27s): You know, you think of 6 (49m 28s): Different use in the time of Bible. Think about the youth and time of when Daniel was 5 (49m 31s): Living. These young men were taken out of their Homeland and placed in a very dark idolatrous, poisonous culture in Babylon, in the thing 6 (49m 48s): That surrounded them and their friends and the pressures. And yet Daniel and his friends, even in their youth, were able to recognize the poison and abstain from those things. Daniel chapter one verse eight says, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the King's delicacies, nor with the wine, which, which he 5 (50m 9s): Drank. Therefore he requested 6 (50m 12s): Of the chief of the Unix that he might not defile himself 5 (50m 16s): Meet 6 (50m 16s): And drink that were offered to idols to fake gods. He said, he didn't ask the question. How much can I have and still be 5 (50m 23s): Okay if I just have a once a week, 6 (50m 28s): Twice a week, he didn't say that. He said, I don't want any of that thing. I don't want any of that. So impressive by Daniel. And I asked, I wonder if I would have what I would have been like, I think we all do. What if we wouldn't like, if we've been dropped in that culture, Daniel had the thought like he could have said, well, you know, God abandoned me. So I'm going to do what feels good to me. He could have said, well, there's no parents around. So I'll do what I want. He could've said new location. I'm going to live my best life ever. But he didn't. He said, no, I don't want any of it. Even if I had it even at a cost because he knew the truth in this poison or live comes so often in the form of idols as well. 6 (51m 18s): I do idols. I would define as things that we prop up to look at to save us, to look for help in our situations acts chapter 14, verse 15, Paul would say those things are useless things. I mean, we could think of a list of the different idols that we have in our culture. The adultery that goes on, we don't have those little things on our shelf any longer, but we have these icons or statuses around us, money, wealth, Hey, those things are going to save me. If everything goes South in our economy, those, the money that I got, my bank account, that's going to save me. 6 (51m 58s): We looked at different political parties to save us. We look for self, for health. We have often so often put comfort and safety as idol on our shelf. If you think about it, comfort and safety. What about status or appearance or success or business? Can we put others on that place? Can we lift them up maybe as a spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, maybe a prospective boyfriend or girlfriend. What about different public figures? Can we put them in a place in our lives to speak into us or to, or to idolize? 6 (52m 42s): What about sports actors? Musicians, you know, I hope I'm not taking this out of context, but Billie Eilish, right? That's how you may say her name. Okay. I got it wrong on Wednesday. Totally got wrong in a, in a commercial for her documentary that was coming out. She is at a concert of young fans who really idolized her, who put her in this place because of her, the words, her lyrics. And they put her in this place of like, Oh man, sh I, I just got to come and relate to her words. And she says this to her, her concert. She says, Hey, you guys need to be okay because you are the reason that I'm okay. 6 (53m 27s): Think about the young people that are going to listen to a concert and saying, okay, I relate to her songs. I relate to her music. I need, I feel good when I listened to her stuff makes me feel good about myself. And then they go to a concert and the, and the person who's singing these songs who wrote these words says, well, I'm going to be okay. But only if you're okay. So if you're not okay, that I'm not okay, it's dangerous. What we lift up in our culture. So if that is the poison, that's around us, what is the remedy to that poison? And what do we do? Well, it's the truth. Not a truth, not my truth. Right? 6 (54m 7s): Jesus says, I am the way the truth and the life. Steve has been asking the question all month and made me think about this morning. He says, the question was, do you want me, what do you want me to do today? What do you want me to do today? My encouragement was looking at a fusion six. What does the fusion six say? He says, put on the full armor of God. What is the first thing? What is the first bit of armor that God asks us to put on the belt of truth? It all starts with truth. 6 (54m 49s): What is truth? Because as we look around and we see all this craziness in our culture, Ephesians six, six verse 12 says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against these powers against these principalities, right? Tim Mackie would say that humanity's real problem is not merely another human. It's the spiritual powers that animate our cultural idols that inspire hatred, division and violence. Those are the things that we have to put on our armor for Were Adam and Eve wearing their armor in the garden. When the lies came against them. 6 (55m 31s): When the deceiver came up and began to speak these words about the truth, 1 (55m 35s): 6 (55m 41s): Genesis three verse four says, then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die for. God knows that in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like, God knowing good and evil. He brought the light to Adam and Eve in the garden. St. Well, God's actually withholding. God's actually not good. He's withholding something good from you. Even though man, and woman were created to be image bearers, right? Made in the image of God. Even though there are image bears, he said, nah, that God's still holding something back. And actually this, I can offer you what God's holding back. And that's the knowledge of good and evil. And you can actually elevate your status. 6 (56m 22s): You can actually become something than what God has called you to be by eating of this tree of the fruit. He said, you will be like, God. And that is the basis of the, of the, of the foundation of evolution that, that we were created to be something. And then we can somehow elevate ourselves beyond that. What did, what would humanity be like if, if we were not living out the effects of that choice in there in the garden, 5 (56m 55s): Jesus, in the wilderness, 6 (56m 59s): That same deceiver, that same, you surfer that same serpent came and spoke to Jesus out in the wilderness, tempting him as well that Jesus could have sustenance outside of God, that glory, without the crown of thorns, that there could be a kingdom without the cross draw, all the lies, all the poison that Satan brought before Jesus and Jesus, every time he used the word he used the truth. Matthew records, Jesus saying every time it is written, he always went back to that foundation of it is written. 6 (57m 43s): We have to go back to that foundation. You know, Luke chapter six talks about a man building a house who had to dig deep and go all the way to the foundation. He had to place that foundation on the rock. And that foundation is what was he had to build his house on. He had to build his life on and that when storms came, that house wouldn't move because it was on the rock. And that is hard work to dig down until you get to the rock. 5 (58m 15s): But we have to stand on that rock. 6 (58m 20s): I believe God is on the move. And let me see, see that even even stronger. I know God is on the move because I've seen it in our, in our youth. You know, it's crazy as you look around what the internet has done to the global youth community, all of a sudden all the youth around the world because of the internet are being influenced by the same musicians, the same social media influencers, by the same things in they're all coming together. And it's often not for good, but I can tell you what is happening here in our five cities area in our harvest youth group. Let me tell you quickly about that harvest Corps started a couple of weeks ago. 6 (59m 5s): And we started for those students who want to go a little bit deeper in their faith. And we started by taking a w Tozer knowledge of the Holy, a book that I read in college 20 years ago. And we started by taking that book and then becoming, going into these discussion. So the students go home, they have 5 (59m 23s): Their own book, they read 6 (59m 25s): A couple of chapters. And then every other week we discuss those chapters 5 (59m 30s): And 6 (59m 31s): The conversations, the discussions that we have in those, those rooms 5 (59m 36s): Are amazing. You know, I bought 6 (59m 38s): Twenty-five books thinking, okay, this is a step of faith. Thinking that 25 students are going to want to read AWS Tozer and discuss it. 5 (59m 46s): You know what? There's 25 students 6 (59m 51s): And there's more students I wanted to come. They just had sports and other activities. So it's amazing to see that these students are wanting to press in and pursue God. And it's been, it was phenomenal conversation. I'm looking forward that to go for continually, do you know, harvest gathering or Wednesday night youth groups we have between 50 and 60 students each week show up here. 5 (1h 0m 12s): Sometimes even a couple of weeks, we've even had over 70 students 6 (1h 0m 17s): That want to meet in person. They want to fellowship. They want to hang out with their friends. 5 (1h 0m 22s): They want to play 6 (1h 0m 23s): A few fun activities games. And then we have worship bands, student led, worship bands that come up and lead the other students in worship. And it is phenomenal. We have three worship bands. We have to rotate each 5 (1h 0m 35s): Week. These students 6 (1h 0m 38s): Are leading each other in worship. And then I get up and say, Hey, open up your Bibles. And we go verse by verse through a book of the Bible, we started out in the book of John and now we're going through our working our way through acts. And it is phenomenal because they listened to me for 20 to 25 5 (1h 0m 52s): Minutes. That's 6 (1h 0m 54s): Amazing. Right? And on a Wednesday night, and there's a hunger, I see this hunger for the 5 (1h 1m 2s): Truth, 6 (1h 1m 6s): Hunger for a truth in our generation. The other question that Steve's been asking, his second question was, what do you want me? What, what do you want to do through me today? What do you want to do through me today? 5 (1h 1m 20s): Fusions 6 (1h 1m 21s): Chapter four, verse 15 says, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things to him who is the head Christ and God has called us to speak the truth in love. 5 (1h 1m 38s): You know, I, I 6 (1h 1m 40s): Start out this conversation, this message about truth by lying to you, right by lying about my aunt farm. Somebody pointed out the irony of that between services. You start out a message about truth by line. I see how it is Jeremy, but like my pretend little and farm, you can't yell down on those poor sick little ants. God calls us to go down. I mean, Jesus ultimately was the one who came down to our condition. And if the bridge between us and ants is this much, the bridge between God and man is infinitely more. And he came to speak the truth and love to a hurting and lost world. 5 (1h 2m 20s): And as we transitioned now into this into a time of communion, I see this communion cups as the truth serum says, if you did not get a cup yet you can raise your hand into the ushers and greeters can pass out some cups. Let me pray. While we buy. Those are passed out heavenly father and a culture that is anti-God anti truth. 5 (1h 3m 1s): You pray that your truth would just flood us would just invade us. Lord, your love for us. You're coming to earth to die for us Lord. And that you pay the ultimate price with your body. So you can welcome us into your kingdom. Pray that the truth of speaking is just speak and sink down deep into our hearts. Lord Jesus name. We pray. Amen. This is verses actually after Paul gives the communion verses, he says this, he says, therefore, whoever eats of this bread or drinks of this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the blood, the body and the blood of the Lord, but let a man examine himself. 5 (1h 3m 50s): And so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup for you, eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. So before we partake, let's take this next song to really dwell on what poison have we partaken of what poison have we allowed into our hearts and our minds? Are there any lies that we believe? Was it like I conium where morality and works have entered into us. We pray that the Holy spirit, I now would just reveal those things to you. And after the first song, we'll take of the drink in the cup. 0 (1h 4m 31s): You'll stand together as a worship. We're cheeses. 0 (1h 4m 44s): 6 (1h 6m 50s): So delivered to you. Does the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. So together let's take up the bread. And in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper saying, this is the cup of the new covenant of my blood. This do, as often as you drink it in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat of this bread and drink of the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. 1 (1h 7m 40s): Thank you, Lord 0 (1h 12m 55s): Thank you that we are your sons and daughters. We belong to you. There's a place for us. We belong. Just let that soak in for just a moment. Do you belong as a place for you? There's a place for you here. There's a place for you and God's kingdom and your father's house. Those who felt like outcasts all their lives. Like you never fit in, like, something's wrong with you? The Lord says you belong. I've chosen you. I've called you by name. 0 (1h 13m 36s): I just pray Lord that all this week that we would be reminded of these trues again and again, that we've heard today, that they would take root deep in our hearts and bear good fruit that we love people with your kind of love that we would be examples. Hope in a world. That's feeling pretty hopeless right now in so many ways, which you shine through us, make people know we're Christians by our love reflect. 1 (1h 14m 8s): Thank 0 (1h 14m 8s): You for your presence here with us. We love you. Jesus. Thank you so much for joining us today. If anyone would like prayer this morning, we would love to pray with you. If you want to head on towards the front, we'll have some volunteers and staff that would love to come alongside. You have a wonderful day, say hello to someone, grab a doughnut. If there's any laptops and more copy, and we'll see you again next Sunday, bye to everyone watching online. We'll see you real soon.

0 (0s): Good morning, everybody online, everybody all over the campus here. Thank you for coming to church this morning and worshiping with us. Let's all stand together. Worship our Lord 1 (15s): 0 (14m 10s): Lord, we praise you this morning. We thank you that you make it abundantly clear your creation screams. The love you have for us. Lord, we dedicate this time to you, Lord, we pray Holy spirit, that you would lead us, that you give us ears to hear your word and to understand it. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. If you ever watched those movies where like in the backroom, the mafia's counting a whole bunch of change. 0 (14m 50s): All this money. They got the green hats 2 (14m 52s): On all that stuff. 3 (14m 54s): Well, that didn't happen 2 (14m 56s): At the lifeline pregnancy center, but they did have to bring extra volunteers to count all of the cash that we brought in. 3 (15m 2s): So harvest church, you all were saying, 2 (15m 5s): So, so generous. So thank you so much. Yeah, it was, it was, they were just blown away by the amount of cash that they had to count. And so thank you. Hey, we are still looking for a few more volunteers. Let's see, we've got a few more things. It takes a village to run a church, right? Right. So we're still looking for one, the greeting team serving one Sunday, a month. One service safety team is still looking for a few extra folks. I know a few few people came up and talked to me last week about helping out with that. If you talk to me on Sunday, my mind has just gone. So go check it at the info center. Put your name, your email, all that email address. And Phil let us know w where you can serve there. 2 (15m 48s): As well as worship and tech team were helping need help with slides, cameras, instruments, all that. So you can either do it on online or go to the info center to check in. And then 3 (15m 59s): Lastly, big announcement. We've got Easter coming up Easter. So we, 2 (16m 3s): Our Easter is April 4th and we're going to be having one service here at the church. And we're going to have to be having in the upper parking lot, where we purchased a stage. We got all the sound equipment for it. It's going to be awesome. We're excited. Announced that it's going to be there in the upper campus. Hey, there will be baptisms this year. I can't promise that the 3 (16m 23s): Pool will be warm or hot, but 2 (16m 25s): At least there'll be warm. We'll make sure it's warm and then there'll be plenty of opportunities to serve as well. So just put Easter on your calendar. We're doing Easter, we're doing it in our upper parking lot. 3 (16m 35s): So that's all I got. That's it? That's it. Valentine's day go. Well, 4 (16m 45s): No, come on up here. What was it? So you've been married for how many years? Almost 10. Almost 10 years. So Valentine's day, was it a success or 3 (16m 57s): Yes, we do. We do. I'm trying to remember. Oh, yes, yes. That was the last Sunday. It was last Sunday. That's why I'm talking about it. Yeah. Our daughter is in the middle of teething reflux, not sleeping. So, so plans had to adjust, but we had, we had fun. We got a little dinner at California, fresh Pismo with everyone else and watch the sunset. All right, good. It was good. It was good day. Yeah. How was yours? You should ask my wife and shit. 4 (17m 27s): Yeah, it was good. It was, it was good. It was good. Yeah. We're going to be, we're going to make it another year. I think it's good. It's good. 3 (17m 36s): That's fine. Maybe I should Pat. Jolina her on the back. 4 (17m 42s): Welcome. We are in first Timothy chapter one today. We're actually going to get through the whole chapter today. I believe up to this point. We've through about three verses. I know you'll believe it when you see it, but I that's the plan. Anyway. That is the plan. Hey, crazy story. I don't know if you guys heard about this, but there was this guy in his neighborhood and he's watching his neighbor kicking down his own door. It was the craziest thing. The guy watching the neighbor kicked down his door. He knew that this guy was a criminal, but he didn't think that he was like insane. So he's like, he's like, dude, you know, this guy had been put in prison for breaking entering and all kinds of robberies and all kinds of things. 4 (18m 25s): And, and so the neighbor who's watching his neighbor kicked down his own door. He's like, you know, kind of cautiously say, Hey, Hey dude, what are you doing in the criminal set? I'm working from home. 3 (18m 43s): That's halfway, halfway decent. 4 (18m 50s): W what's the best time to go to the dentist? 3 (18m 55s): Why? Why two 30, two 30? Yeah. Somebody's tooth two 30, but enough of the jokes, 4 (19m 4s): Two questions. Part three. We're in first Timothy chapter one, we're looking at two questions again this week. God, what do you want me to do today? Number one and God, what do you want to do through me today? So we're just kind of asking those questions throughout the month of February two questions, throw them up there one more time. What do you want to do through with me today? What do you want me to do today? God. And what do you want to do through me today? We're just kind of asking God these questions kind of helping to align our lives with his plan. And when I talked about his planet, it really literally puts a smile on my face because his plan is really good. And I know sometimes we're worried about asking God to fulfill his plan innocent with us and through us because we're nervous about his plan, but if we can get past all of that and realize that his plans for us are really, really good. 4 (19m 57s): And when we ask God these questions, we can get excited about what he will do. Now. He's probably not going to download information and answers to us like out of the gate in the morning, but throughout the course of the day, he will show us what we're supposed to be doing and what he wants to do through us. He'll just make that clear in the course of our conversations, interactions with people, whether we're in business or in school or working from home or in our neighborhoods, whatever the case may be, God will show us with that. Let's go ahead and stand up. And we're going to continue to drill down on this. As we get through first Timothy chapter one, Lord, we love you. And we, we, we want to know what you want us to do. 4 (20m 38s): So we're camped out on this this month. And, and so I pray that it would become more clear to us. I know if we've never asked these questions before, if, if we've never had this expectation, have you before God, it's, it's it's new territory. And so I, I, I pray God that with this new territory that you'd show us Lord and that we would have eyes to see ears to hear, and then just a willingness to do, do it. Lord, a willingness to obey, to listen and obey. So Lord God, I, I pray that as we do that, that we would hit a new level in our faith walk with you. It would just become new and exciting for us, our faith journey. And some of us have been walking with the Lord for a long time. 4 (21m 20s): Some of us are brand new in the Lord. I pray that every person represented here all over this campus would just find a new excitement following you and trusting you through all the seasons and journeys of life. So Lord, as we open up your word and as we see what Paul was speaking about to Timothy, and as we look at other passages of scripture in Romans and Galatians and in Luke, I pray God that, that we would have fresh vision for our lives, fresh obedience, doing the things that you called us to do. We love you. And we trust you Lord in Jesus name, amen. You can be seated. You can be seated. What do you want me to do today? And what do you want to do through me today? 4 (22m 1s): We're going to, we've already kind of gone over the first three verses of first Timothy chapter one, but I'm going to read them just because it's just takes a second to read through them. And then we'll kind of pick things up in verse four. And like I said, we're going to try to get through all of it today by God's grace, without going too all the way to lunchtime. So that's the plan here. Here we go. First Timothy chapter one, all the verses will be up on the screen here. This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ. Jesus appointed by the command of God, our savior in Christ. Jesus who gives us hope powerful truth right there. I'm writing to Timothy. My true son in the faith. 4 (22m 41s): May God, the father and Christ Jesus, our Lord give you grace mercy and peace. Hope grace, mercy, peace. These are the things that the Lord wants us to experience in him. So we've got nothing to fear. Can we say that? Let's say that together. We've got nothing to fear. We got nothing to fear. Hope grace, mercy, peace verse three. When I left for Macedonia, I urge you to stay there in emphasis and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. Verse four, Paul said, don't let them waste their time in endless discussions of myths and spiritual pedigrees. 4 (23m 24s): These things only lead to meaningless speculations and don't help people live a life of faith in God. And so the goal of the teaching of scripture is that we might live a life of faith in God. This is the goal of the scripture from the old Testament, all the way through the new Testament that we might a life of 5 (23m 46s): Faith in God. So these endless this discussions, it seems James is based, based on verse eight, might have been about the laws of God. So there's meaningless speculations in debate about the laws of God is most likely what's going on. The law. The commandments were never meant to be the focus. What we see is that these things tend to become the focus that 10 commandments, the laws of God. They tend to be our focus. It's what we're trying to do, trying to follow, trying to accomplish. But the laws of God, the commandments were never meant to be the focus. The law was dizzy signed to demonstrate our desperate need for a savior. 5 (24m 32s): The law was to help us understand. We look at what God's expectations are in our abilities. We can never accomplish what God's expectations are. So we cry out for the mercy and the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We say, save me, Lord. The Pharisees, a Jewish shacks were known for their strict adherence to the law is if the, that might earn them some kind of favor with God and salvation. Pastor Joseph stole from moody Bible Institute in Chicago said this, he wrote in contrast to the two commands of Christ, what are the two commands of Christ? Love God and love others, right? 5 (25m 12s): So in contrast to these two commands that encompass all of the law of God. The Pharisees had developed a system of 613 laws, 613 laws. Like if you've got 613 laws to pay attention to like, you're never thinking about anything, but those 613 laws, because if I mess up, I've dishonored God. According to their thinking, there were 365 negative commands in 242 positive laws by the chime Christ. He continues by the time Christ came in, it had produced a heartless by the time Christ arrives on the scene, the 613 laws had produced a heartless cold and arrogant brand of righteousness, heartless cold and arrogant brand of righteousness as such. 5 (26m 6s): It contained at least 10 tragic flaws. And we're just going to go through these 10 tragic flaws really quick. So this is what Joseph stole said are the 10 tragic flaws of the 613 laws that the Pharisees had developed. Number one, new laws continually need to be invented for new situations. So what does it mean to honor the Sabbath day? How far can I walk and still honor the Sabbath? How, how much work can I do? And still honor the Sabbath. So new laws needed to be created constantly. Accountability to God is revealed, replaced by accountability to men. So instead of living in a relationship with God, where by I'm accountable to him for the way that I live my life now, all my accountability is with men. 5 (26m 51s): It's with people and now I'm comparing myself to them and measuring myself by their success or by their failures. It, it creates a disconnect between people and God and it makes, keeps it all external. Number three, it reduces a person's ability to 6 (27m 7s): Personally discern 5 (27m 10s): God has called us into a relationship whereby weep have the power, the ability to personally discern what he would have us to do. We've got the laws of God, love God and love others. But within that, we have a bazillion decisions to make throughout the course of the day. Lord is this the right decision? It calls us to account with God, to intimacy with God whereby we're asking him all of the time. Lord is this the right decision? Lord is this the right plan for my life? We're we're the law of Christ calls us into account to Jesus and calls us into a relationship with him. All of these 613 laws keep everything external. 5 (27m 50s): Number four, it creates a judgmental spirit. 6 (27m 53s): It creates 5 (27m 54s): A judgmental spirit. Number five, the Pharisees confused personal preference with divine law. Number six, it produces inconsistencies. Number seven. It created a false standard of righteousness. Number eight, it became a burden to the Jews. We'll talk more about that in just a little bit. Number nine, it was strict 6 (28m 15s): CLI external and 5 (28m 18s): Finally, number 10, it was rejected by Christ. It was rejected by Christ theologian. John F Wolverine wrote exactly what these endless discussions, these crazy myths, fables and genealogies spiritual pedigrees involved as not known. So we don't know exactly what they were arguing about. We have a feeling that it had something to do with the law, but we're not sure exactly they may. He, she continues. They may have had a Gnostic flavor, but we're more likely of Jewish origin. Paul wrote to Titus in Titus one 14, he said they must stop listening to Jewish myths and the commands that people who have turned away from the truth. There's going to be all kinds of distractions in the world and within the church, if we're not careful that will take our attention off of Jesus. 5 (29m 6s): It will move our attention and cause us to focus on something else. 6 (29m 9s): Calls, Wolf, ward continues, whatever their nature, they were 5 (29m 15s): Empty of any spiritual value. And that only to further speculations questions and arguing. 6 (29m 23s): There's so much 5 (29m 25s): Speculations, so much argument with and questions within the body of Christ. I find that we tend to battle amongst ourselves as the body of Christ when we should be unified around the person and the work of the Lord, Jesus Christ. I was with a couple 4 (29m 42s): From our church and this 6 (29m 43s): Couple, they write Bible 4 (29m 46s): Study curriculum that goes into jails and prisons and facilities all over the, all over the country and really all over the world. The 6 (29m 54s): Dutra is well, they were down 4 (29m 56s): In Southern California and with the jail system and they were trying to get their more books into the LA County jail system. And so the, the chaplain read through all of their curriculum and found two sentences that he disagreed with. And so, because he found two sentences in the whole curriculum that he disagreed with, he wanted to keep 6 (30m 19s): Her books, their books out 4 (30m 21s): Of the jail system, even though 99.9% of their curriculum was in, in, on par with what he believed, because he found a couple little things in 6 (30m 31s): There that were really 4 (30m 33s): Unimportant things in most people's minds, he decided I'm going to keep, keep her books out. So these effective books that have been ministering to people all over the globe are now going to be kept out because we can't figure out how to get along over unimportant 6 (30m 48s): Issues, 4 (30m 51s): Speculations questions and arguments, such speculations were to be avoided because they did not further God's plan, which has grasped and implemented, not by human imaginings, 6 (31m 1s): But by faith, he can 4 (31m 4s): Continues by contrast human speculations tend to lead off, down endless blind tunnels, which serve only to confuse and obscure God's truth. 6 (31m 14s): So whatever 4 (31m 14s): The church in emphasis was dabbling in and in discussions of myths and spiritual pedigrees, these things only led to meaningless speculations, which don't help people live a life of faith in God. And that, and that's the goal. According to verse four, the goal is that we would live a life of faith in God, man. We need to stop arguing amongst ourselves within our denominational structures about things that are so unimportant that hinder our ability to evangelize and to grow people in their most Holy faith. So what is the purpose of Paul's instruction back to first Timothy chapter one, verse five. The purpose of my instruction Paul says is that all believers would be filled, 6 (31m 58s): Would love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience and genuine faith. Remember 4 (32m 8s): The letter written to the church in Ephesus in revelation, chapter two, he said, you've got all this stuff going for you, but I have this one thing against you. You've forgotten your first love. You don't love God and you don't love others like you did at first, the first thing that the enemy wants to attack, but the world system wants to attack is our love one for another, because the Bible says that the world will know that we're God's disciples. That we're, that we're the followers of Jesus because of our love, one for another. And so we're going 5 (32m 40s): To be attacked in that area of love. And so we're going to find a Fe fight, make it easy. We're going to find a fence with people. It'll be easy to find a fence with people and not love them. It'll be easy to find a fence with God and not love God. The, our love for God and love for one another is under attack. And instead of loving God and loving you, loving others, we can become mechanical in our faith. We can make it all about religious activity, all about the law, all about external things and be distant from God in our heart. And with our love. The purpose of my instruction is that believers will be filled with love. 5 (33m 20s): Paul understood. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He, he understood the law better than most, and he understood that it lacked desperately. These things that he's talking about. Now, God got a hold of him with his great, with God's great love and set him on a new path. The purpose is love. That comes from a pure, 6 (33m 41s): Our hearts are clear conscience and genuine faith. How's your walk with Jesus in light of that verse, right there. How's 5 (33m 53s): Your connection with Jesus in light of that? 6 (33m 56s): How your love what's the condition of your heart and your conscience is your faith genuine. As 5 (34m 4s): We look at these passages of scripture, and as we look at the word of God, verse six says, but some people have missed this whole point. They missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions. And they want to be known as teachers of the law of Moses, but they don't know what they're talking about. Even though they speak 6 (34m 24s): Confidently. 5 (34m 27s): Commentator wrote certainly for the Christian. The goal of all exhortations in practical affairs is 6 (34m 33s): Love, which was in all probability conspicuously lacking in these speculative speculative reasoners 5 (34m 41s): Whose main purpose was their own 6 (34m 44s): Intellectual satisfaction, 5 (34m 48s): Where we're supposed to grow in our knowledge of God. We're supposed to grow in our knowledge of the word of God, but that growth should only cause us to love more fully and more effectively. It should cause us to serve Dow with a pure heart and a clear conscience with a genuine faith. The knowledge of God should draw us closer to him and not cause a distance, a separation. So we need to be careful that the knowledge that we're trying to accumulate does what it's meant to do. That's meant to cause us to have a genuine faith, a pure heart, a clear conscience it's it's meant to cause us to love more deeply. 5 (35m 28s): We should love people more deeply, more passionately. When we walk away from our time in the word, it should be teaching us these things about character of God and the plans of God for our life. So we talked about this last week, God, what do you want to do with me today? When he, what do you want to do through me today? Most likely it's around the topic of love. God wants to do something with you and through you in the area of love, like how can we love people more effectively better. We can do that by walking with people through the difficult seasons of their lives. Sometimes when we're, when people are going through difficulties in their life, we kind of give them their space. But I think maybe God wants us to walk with people more effectively, better by praying for them and just meeting their, their, their tangible needs. 5 (36m 15s): As people walk through difficulty because everybody walks through challenging seasons in 3 (36m 19s): Life, verse eight, 5 (36m 22s): We know that the law is good when it's used correctly. So we're not saying the law is bad. Jesus came, he fulfilled the requirements of the law. They're good. When they're used correctly. W what does that supposed to look like? Galatians three, 19 through 26 says this, then why then was the law given? He was given alongside the promise Jesus to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child, the 3 (36m 53s): Christ child, who was 5 (36m 55s): Promise God gave his law through angels to Moses. He was the mediator between God and the people. Now a mediator is helpful. If more than one party must reach an agreement, but God who is one did not use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham, 3 (37m 12s): Is there a conflict 5 (37m 13s): Then between God's law and God's promise his promises? Absolutely not. If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying. 3 (37m 24s): It's not the case. 5 (37m 26s): The scriptures declare verse 22, that we are all prisoners of sin. So we received God's promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus. 3 (37m 38s): So we don't receive 5 (37m 40s): The promise of freedom. By trying harder, we received the promise of freedom by drawing close to Jesus and allowing ourselves to be filled with the Holy spirit by constantly like constantly drawing closer to Jesus. The, the human condition always wants to keep an eye on the law. And so we're constantly focused on the things we should not be doing. Jesus has called us into an intimate relationship, a connection with him so that we're, we're, we're focused on him and filled with his presence so that we're living our lives out of that abundance out of that fulfillment out of that life, we're living out of that power. 5 (38m 21s): And the freedom just comes as a by-product just naturally comes as we keep our eyes on him. And as we keep ourselves filled with his, 3 (38m 31s): The spirits, if the law could give us new life, we 4 (38m 37s): Could be made right with God by obeying it. But the scripture is clear that we are all prisoners of sin. Verse 23 has jumped down to 23 before, 5 (38m 45s): Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us. We were placed under guard 3 (38m 50s): By the law. We were kept in 5 (38m 52s): Protective custody. So to speak until the way of faith was revealed, let me put it in another way. Verse 24, the law was our guardian until Christ came. It protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. Our hang up is that we want to be constantly made right with God, through our good actions. We want to constantly try to measure up. We can never measure up. And when we're focused on that, we're going to continue to stumble because our focus is on the wrong thing. It's like having our focus on the law, the list of do's and don'ts instead, when we're transformed by the power of God, when we're filled with the presence of the Holy spirit, and when we've got our focus on him, then freedom is a byproduct. 5 (39m 38s): We just 4 (39m 39s): Literally begin to walk in freedom, new life in Jesus Christ, 3 (39m 44s): Nice 4 (39m 47s): Verse 25. And now that the way of faith has come. We no longer need the law as our guardian for. We are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ and Christ. Jesus. Back to first of the chapter, one verse nine 3 (40m 3s): For 5 (40m 3s): Law was not intended for people who do what is right. 4 (40m 9s): It is for people who are lawless and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who considered nothing sacred and to file. What is Holy who killed their father or mother, or commit other murders, murders. The laws for people who are sexually immoral or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, 3 (40m 31s): There's liars promise breakers, or do, or who do 4 (40m 34s): Anything else that contradicts the whole teaching that comes from the glorious good news entrusted to me, by our blessed God, 5 (40m 43s): The law was designed to make people realize their sin. So it's designed to help us recognize that apart from Christ, we can't, we, we w we, we don't measure up. I can't do what God requires. I can't do it because it's beyond my capacity to do it. 3 (41m 3s): The law 5 (41m 3s): Is not the good news. We talking about the gospel, Jesus Christ is their focus, and he is the good news. And so we need to get our focus on him. And as we do that, 4 (41m 16s): We'll experience Liberty and new life in Jesus. 5 (41m 20s): Jesus rebuked the law, abiding Pharisees over and over again for their lack of true godliness. So they were constantly the law by these law, abiding Pharisees were constantly about the laws, 613 laws. It's like they did. They couldn't write enough laws to try to keep their lives in order, but Jesus rebuked them because of their lack of godliness, their lack of intimacy with him, their lack of real salvation faith in him and Luke 1137 to 46. I was reading this in my devotional, my devotion time this week. And I just wanted to share it today because it's, it's, it's really it challenged. 5 (42m 1s): Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and we're not fair. He he's, but he's, we have a Ferris ankle side of us. We can tend toward the law and tend to try to measure up by doing acts of doing the works of the law. As Jesus was speaking, one of the Pharisees invited him home for a meal. So he went in and took his place at the table. His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first performing the washing ceremony. Another law required by Jewish customs. Then the Lord said to him, you Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are filthy full of greed and wickedness. 5 (42m 46s): And then that isn't not the trap. Like we can focus so much on the outside of the cup, our ex eternal life that we neglect. What's going on internally. We can look so good on the outside. And yet internally be a mess. It's not God's design inside. You're filthy full of greed and awakeness fools. Didn't God make the inside as well as the outside. Jesus said, so clean the inside by making gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over. Just take a message. I'll get back to them. 6 (43m 27s): Thanks, Juanita. No, 5 (43m 31s): That's fine. First 42. What sorrow awaits you Pharisees for you are careful to tie the, even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. He said you should tie. Yes, but do not neglect. The more important things. So tithing is a external thing that we can do. It's often tied to our, you know, tied to our heart. We want to honor the Lord with our resources. And so we give, and then we check that box, potentially. I'm not, not never case, but potentially we check that box. 5 (44m 14s): And then we go about our business. When God wants to do more than just that bit 6 (44m 22s): In your life. 5 (44m 26s): Juanita is leaving the church. Now they don't go for a long come back. You're careful to tie the, even the tiniest part from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God, you should tie the yes, but do not neglect. The more important things he continues. What sorrow awaits you, Pharisees for you love to sit in the seat 4 (44m 46s): Seats of honor in the synagogues and receive respectful greetings. As you walk in the bar 5 (44m 51s): Marketplace. Yes. What sorrow awaits you for? You are like hidden 4 (44m 56s): Graves in a field. People walk over them without knowing the corruption they are stepping on. According to the law, walking over the grave was would cause defilement. 5 (45m 10s): So what Jesus is saying is that you are defiling people because you are spiritually dead. You're so spiritually dead. That when people encounter you, you are literally 4 (45m 21s): Defiling them. 5 (45m 23s): You're misleading them and misdirecting them. You're causing them to be unclean. They don't know you're dead. 4 (45m 31s): They don't know you're dead, but you are dead and you to file them. Nonetheless 3 (45m 37s): Teacher 4 (45m 39s): Said an experts in religious law. You have insulted us too. And what you just said, yes, said, Jesus, I know what sorrow also awaits. You experts in religious law for you, crush people with your unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden. 3 (46m 3s): People who are 4 (46m 3s): Or focused on the law, the Pharisees and people in our own midst, within the faith of Christiandom, we can be so focused on all of these external things and out of that word, judgmental of others who don't see things, the way that we see things we're critical, we're unloving, we're ungrateful. We're focused on the wrong thing. The law was never meant to be our focus. 3 (46m 31s): Good works in Christ were meant to be the focus faith in Jesus. We're meant to be. The focus. Love 4 (46m 37s): Is meant to be the focus of pure hearts is meant to be the focus, a clear conscience. 3 (46m 44s): All of these 5 (46m 45s): Things flow out of that connection that we have 4 (46m 48s): With, with God when we're intimate with him. 5 (46m 53s): When we abide with him, when we walk with him, when we allow him to direct our steps, when we ask God, what is it that you want to do with me? God, what is it that you want to do through me? What is your plan, Lord, because I want to be about your plan today and this week, God, I want to be about your plan, God, this month, I want to be about your plan and not just for the month of February, but God, for all of 2021 in moving forward, I want to be about your plan 4 (47m 22s): And God, because it's like a good plan. And it's a plan that will fill us to overflowing with just the beauty of God. The law was never meant to be our focus. So we need to get our eyes off of the law and get our eyes on Jesus. It was meant to just kind of keep us in check until the Christ child came. The law will never get us focused on what we were supposed to be doing. The grace of God will keep us focused. The grace of God will compel us to work or to ask these two questions. What do you want me to do today? Lord, how's that going? Anyway? I wonder, how's it going? I, I, I get up every morning and I'm like, okay, Lord, it's a new day. 4 (48m 3s): What do you want to do today? What do you want me to do today? What do you want to do through me today? And then, and then throughout the course of the day, I'm just listening. I'm just trying to listen, trying to pay attention and trying to do what he says to do. And it's like, it's like a new adventure every day. What is, what is God's doing? What does he want to do? 1 (48m 22s): I really appreciate the fact that you put that forward because for me it's been wonderful. All your senses. And you know, when you're in a word, the word is, it's not even like, you're just reading words, just like you can actually see it in motion and feel yourself. It's just so much more alive emotions, everything. 1 (49m 3s): And show me when I want to say it immediately. 4 (49m 10s): Okay. So those of you who are in a different venue and you can't hear what's going on, Maryland is talking about her experience. She's grateful that we have the opportunity to ponder these questions, thinking about these questions. And she said, it's just made everything come to life. The word of God, her walk with the Lord, everything is just is different and new. Is that accurate? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. There's something it taps into the re our relationship with God and just at a whole new level, it brings it front and center and, and it's really, it's really a life-giving experience. Thanks for your testimony about that. I wish I had you up here on a microphone, two more verses about the law, and then we'll leave the law alone. 4 (49m 51s): Obviously Romans three, 19 and 20. Obviously the law applies to those, to whom it was given for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world is guilty before God for no one can ever be made right with God, by doing it to the law commands by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. Paul understood God's grace in his mercy on that Damascus road experience that Paul had an act chapter nine. He understood the grace and mercy of God. He was actually persecuting the people of God as a Pharisee because he thought he was doing the will of God and misunderstood the will of 5 (50m 28s): God. When anytime you're focused on the law of God, you misunderstand the will of God. And we're focused on all of the wrong stuff. Paul said this in verse 12, I think Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. And so when we're asking God to work through us, God, what do you want to do with me today? What do you want to do through me today? We're we're asking God to, to work through us with his strength, with his wisdom, with his understanding, with his capacity, we don't understand what people are going through, but God does. And so when he asks us to do something, we're operating based on his understanding and out of faith in his strength, I think Christ our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work, he considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him. 5 (51m 10s): Even though I used to blast him the name of Christ. So maybe you're here today and you're like, I'm too bad of a person. Like I've made too many mistakes. You were never as bad as Paul . He's going to go on and tell us that he's the chief of sinners. Like you'll no matter what you've done. You've never been that bad. And yet God, because of his mercy and grace, Grace's 6 (51m 33s): Getting what we don't deserve. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. Paul got both. We all get both mercy, 5 (51m 39s): Not getting what we deserve. Grace, 6 (51m 41s): Getting what we don't deserve. Forgiveness. 5 (51m 44s): I used to blaspheme the name of Christ in my insolence. I persecuted his people, but God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. Oh, how generous and gracious 6 (51m 59s): Lord was. He filled me with the faith and love that comes from Christ. Jesus. Paul was a Pharisee. He became a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Right? What was your was, and what is your now w what is your was, and what is your now, whatever your was, was your now can be, I'm a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, because of his grace and mercy. That's the gospel, whatever your was was it's unimportant. Grace and mercy can touch your life and set you on a new path. 5 (52m 37s): Verse 15, this is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it. Christ Jesus came into the world to save center 6 (52m 44s): And I am the worst of them all. So Paul takes the prize. He's worse than all of us, worse than all y'all, but God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they too can believe in him and receive eternal life. All honor, catch this all honor and glory to God forever, because we're saved by grace through faith right now, because of our good works. 6 (53m 27s): Paul wasn't saved 4 (53m 29s): Because of all of his good works. He was saved because of the grace and mercy of God. 6 (53m 33s): God. So anytime 4 (53m 36s): We have a success in our walk with Jesus, 6 (53m 38s): All honor, and glory to God, when we, 4 (53m 43s): He experienced his mercy and his grace a new, because we've stumbled because we've tripped because we 6 (53m 49s): All in all honor and glory to God, he gets all of the honor and the glory all honor and glory, 4 (53m 58s): Paul understood that all honoring glory to God forever and ever, he is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies. He alone is God. Amen. 6 (54m 6s): And, and then the final, 4 (54m 9s): Final couple of verses here, Timothy's responsibility, Timothy. My son here are my instructions for you. Based on the prophetic words, spoken about you earlier, may they help you fight with, 6 (54m 21s): Well, in the Lord's battle, we're all called to a spiritual battle. May God's grace and mercy equip you for that battle. Has you 4 (54m 36s): Honor him with those two questions? God, what is it that you want to do with me? And what do you want to do through 6 (54m 40s): Me? We enter this battle 4 (54m 43s): And that's, this is why it's difficult for us to ask those questions. And this is why it's difficult for us to do though, do what God has asked us to do because we're in the spiritual battle where the enemy of our souls is fighting against us and trying to keep us distant from the Lord and distant from his plans. So he said clean to your faith in Christ and keep your conscience 6 (55m 3s): Clear. For some people 4 (55m 5s): Have deliberately violated their conscience. As a result, their faith has been shipped 6 (55m 10s): Brecht verse 20. Hi, 4 (55m 17s): Ennis and Alexander are two examples. People who have shipwrecked their faith, I threw them out and handed them over to Satan. So they might learn not to bless FIM God. He threw them out. So they might encounter 6 (55m 32s): The 4 (55m 33s): Enemy of their soul. So they might get so tired of blaspheming, God and rebelling against God and resisting God that they might turn and serve him. Maybe you're here today. And you've been maybe not blaspheming God, but you've been working against God. You've not been allowing God to work in your life. You've not been willing to ask those questions. God, what do you want to do with me? And what do you want to do through me? Not, you've not being willing to ask those questions because you're really living a life contrary to God outside. You look great. Externally, the cup is clean, but internally there's just junk going on. And God wants to address that. Maybe you've been trying to address the junk, but your focus has been on the junk. 4 (56m 14s): And God says, Hey, get your focus off the junk and get your focus on me and get filled with me. When you do that, deliverance will come. Freedom. Liberty will come. Victory over. Sin will come. Victory over. Addiction will come. That the right stuff will come. When we get focused on Jesus, what will you do this week? Maybe you forgot all about these questions. Maybe you're hearing these questions for the first time. What will you do this day? And this week, as you ask all those questions, will you out of the gate, like Maryland said, obey, obey, obey, will you be committed to it? 4 (56m 56s): No matter what he asks you to do, some are like, there's no way I need to hear what he's telling me, because we're afraid of what he's going to tell us to do, because we don't at the heart of the matter. Trust him. We don't believe that he's good. And we don't trust that. What he's going to tell us to do is good. We feel like it's going to be embarrassing to us. We feel like it's going to be whatever. So we don't even ask the question. Can I challenge that premise, that lack of faith, that fear can I challenge that and just say that we serve a good and faithful God, and it will be fun. 4 (57m 37s): I I'm going to make a promise to you that it will be fun. It will be stretching for us, but it will be fun at the same time. It'll be exhilarating too. For the first time. Maybe walk in that freedom. It says, you know, we've got, I'm just going to ask the question and do it no matter what the answer is without let's go ahead and stand up and bite the worship team forward. Lord, we want, we want to be resp responsive to you. Fill with you, attentive to you, led by you excited about you Lord. And so I pray that that would be the case for each of us. 4 (58m 17s): God use our time, our talent and our treasure for your glorious purposes, we submit to you, Lord God. And I pray that the result will be a renewed excitement or renewed joy about our faith Lord, a renewed, renewed vigor, or just excitement and, and strength and power in you. Jesus renewed faith for you. Confidence. God renewed, whatever it is that needs to be renewed in us. Do that. We pray help us. We ask Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship. 1 (59m 5s): . 0 (1h 10m 36s): Thank you, Lord, for saving us. Thank you for your grace and mercy toward us. Thank you Lord, for your protection over us, Lord, we pray that you'd be with us this week. You'd empower us. It fills with your Holy spirit. It helps us to walk with you. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you guys for joining the class as well. 1 (1h 11m 11s): Great week. 7 (1h 12m 2s): I don't want to be 8 (1h 31m 21s): 7 (1h 32m 7s): never gave up on me. 7 (1h 34m 4s): Never gave up on me. 7 (1h 34m 11s): 1 (1h 39m 25s): 7 (1h 40m 13s): when I'm broke and then I can be no take care necessary. 7 (1h 42m 46s): 1 (1h 56m 19s): Good morning. Welcome to harvest. Let's all stand together. 1 (1h 56m 32s): 0 (2h 10m 14s): Lord, we thank you for great mercy and forgiveness. You offer us Lord. We thank you Lord, for this gorgeous day for the protection of a place to worship. We thank you for meeting us here. We thank you for the power of the Holy spirit. Lord, we just honored you. We confess that you are the one true. Holy God. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. 0 (2h 10m 54s): Amen. What do you say? We all make friends 7 (2h 11m 11s): all right. 7 (2h 14m 18s): Good morning. Harvest church. Good morning. 2 (2h 14m 22s): Hey, my name is Jeremy. I'm one of the pastors here. I am joined by my daughter Posey. Yeah, one of these days she's going to give the announcements. Hey, we're so glad that you're here. Thanks for joining us. And I know I've seen some new faces today, so thanks for joining us here in person. And we want to just let you know that if you're new here, joining us for the first time visiting, go check in at the info center, we have a free gift for you. And we just like to be able to connect and find out how you can connect with harvest church. With that said, have you ever seen those mafia movies where there's a back room and there's people in the backroom, they got those little green hats and they're, they're counting all this change behind the scenes. 2 (2h 15m 5s): Well, I've never been to one of those rooms. Hopefully you haven't either. But that's why I referenced it is is a few weeks ago we had our lifeline baby bottle drive and we and harvest church donated so much cash that they actually had to pull extra volunteers into count all this change. So great job harvest church. Your generosity is amazing. So we're so thankful for, for the, for your y'all's generosity. Hey, we, we are still looking for a few more volunteers in a few areas. Once again, Sundays, the greeting team, once a month, one service, one service. Why do I always mix it up? 7 (2h 15m 42s): Okay. Yeah. That's that 2 (2h 15m 45s): Service one time a month. That's what we're looking for. We're also looking for folks to jump, join at the safety team and that's that they keep feet, keeping folks safe on campus and that'll include first aid training as well. We're looking for some more people to help out with the worship team and tech team. So slides, musical instruments, cameras, all that fun stuff. And so you can connect with us that way and go to the info center. Put your name down on a little email address. We'll get, we'll get back to you. Or you can go on the website. There's a whole plethora of ways to get connected. So grateful for that. So last announcement, and this is exciting. One Easter is coming RI Easter's coming April 4th. 2 (2h 16m 25s): We are going to be having our Easter service here on a campus at 10:00 AM, one service, and we're going to be taken over to the upper parking lot. We have a new stage, we've got a big TV wall going in. There's it's going to be an awesome, awesome Sunday. And yes, we are going to be doing baptisms as well. I can't guarantee the pool will be hot. It won't be cold. So maybe lukewarm somewhere in between, somewhere between. So we're so excited to be planning for that Lee, be listening for some opportunities to serve that way as well. So that's I think 4 (2h 16m 56s): Yep. Easy for helping with the announcements today. You get my five I five. Good job. Good job. Thanks guys. Welcome. How is everyone? Good. Good, good. We're in first Timothy chapter one today, I'm going to put this over here and we'll just do it the old fashioned way. First Timothy chapter one, we're going to get through all the first Timothy today. So far in three weeks, we've gone through three verses. And so we're actually going to get through all of it today. That is the plan all of first Timothy. 4 (2h 17m 37s): Welcome. But you guys did you, did you guys hear this, this story? There was this guy who was neighbors with this felon and this guy was known for, you know, breaking and entering and robbing people's houses and that sort of thing. And so his neighbor, this neighbor, this felons neighbor notices that this guy's kicking down his own door. Like the felon is kicking down his own door, not somebody else's door. And, and the neighbor said why? I knew this guy was an ex-con of a felon for breaking and entering and that sort of thing. 4 (2h 18m 17s): But I didn't know. He's kind of crazy as well. He was just kind of wondering what was going on. And so kind of cautiously. He said, Hey, Hey, what are you doing? And the guy said, I'm working from home. Pretty good. I mean, it's, it's, it's not terrible. Right? One more time. What's what's the best time of the day to go to the dentist, whatever, two 30 to two 30, two 30. I owe Jean five bucks for that second joke. It may be only worth about two 50, but I'm going to give her the five bucks anyway, anyway, so, Hey, we're continuing our conversation about these two questions. 4 (2h 19m 6s): So this is like two questions. Part three guys. Remember the questions, God, what do you want to do with me today? And God, what do you want to do through me today? Those questions are up on the screen. What do you do want to do with me? And what do you want to do through me today? I love these questions because they, they, they, when I wake up in the morning and I think about these questions, it kind of gets me focused right on Jesus. And it gives me focus on what his plans and purposes are for my day. Now, some of us may be a little fearful about asking these questions. Number one, where maybe we're not sure what God will ask us to do. So we're not going to ask the question, right? I just want to, I just want to make this promise to you that if you ask God this question, and if you do what God asks you to do, it will be fun. 4 (2h 19m 48s): It will, it will be fun. And it will be a bit exhilarating because you're going to do stuff that you wouldn't normally do. It's stuff that's outside of your comfort zone. And so it's going to be kind of a new experience for you. And this may have to do with your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends, your spouse, your family, whoever, maybe, but God will do something. And usually, usually I've found that it surround the area of just loving someone. So whether you're loving someone through a word of affirmation where you're just saying something honest and kind to someone in your world, maybe as someone that you don't even know, but it's someone that the Lord has kind of tapped you on the shoulder and said, Hey, just say something kind to this person. 4 (2h 20m 35s): Maybe it's someone in your life. Maybe it's someone you don't know, but it's going to be either a word where it's going to be an action. It's going to be something that communicates love in some way, either your love for that person or God's love for that person. So let that kind of take the mystery out of the whole exercise, the whole experience, and just, just go with me for the rest of this month and just ask yourself or ask God that question every single morning, when you wake up and then throughout the course of the day. So when you wake up and you ask God that, that those questions is probably not, you're probably not going to get an answer right away. You just not probably not, but you will have clarity as you're interacting with people. 4 (2h 21m 19s): And as you keep thinking about those questions, you're going to say, what do you want me to do today? What do you want to do through me today? And does it include this person? Does it include this person who's in front of me right now? And they just see what the Lord will do. Just see. I bet. I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised. It's going to be fun and it'd be exhilarating. And, and it, it will do something else. It'll keep you focused on Jesus all day long. And that's really what Christianity is meant to be about. I don't know about you, but I spent most of my Christian life focusing on the to-do list, what I'm supposed to do and what I'm not supposed to do instead of focusing on Jesus. 4 (2h 22m 1s): And often that's what Christianity boils down for people. It boils down to what I am supposed to do and what I'm not supposed to do. And that's where our focus lies. Instead of having our focus, just be on Jesus and being filled with the Holy spirit. And then out of that experience out of that life with Jesus being filled with the Holy spirit living life, I have just greater victory in my life. Since I figured out that that was kind of the, the, the formula or God's design, greater freedom, greater joy, greater peace, greater relationships. There's just something about making Jesus. 4 (2h 22m 41s): Your focus is, and being filled with the Holy spirit all day long, there's just something about it. Everything goes better. Relationships are better. You love people better. Your relationship with, with God is more intimate. There's just, there's something about the intimacy that is developed when you're focused on Jesus and filled with the spirit all day long. Let's take a look at first Timothy, we're going to be looking at Galatians three, Romans three, Luke 11 and a. So I'm going to do something a little bit different today. I had nine pages of notes and I appreciate them for the first service on my iPad, but I felt this morning for second service. After first service, I thought, you know, I, to, I feel like the Lord is asking me to, so this is the kind of the deal you don't get the revelation or the answers from the Lord until you are in the midst of whatever it is that you're doing. 4 (2h 23m 29s): So I felt like the Lord said, just, just open up the word and just teach you, you know what you're going to teach. You've got the outline in your head and all that sort of thing. There's plenty of quotes that I'm going to miss, but there's something that God wants to do. We just open up the scripture and allow God to speak. So we're going to be looking at all the same texts, all the same passages, but we're just going to be kind of doing it a little bit differently. So here we go. This letter is Paul. We've already kind of gone through the first three verses over the last three weeks, two, three weeks, whatever it's been. So I'm just going to reread them just for context, text sake, and then we'll jump and start really unpacking things in verse four. Does that sound good? You guys with me? All right, so everything will be up on the screen. 4 (2h 24m 10s): All of the verses will be up on the screen. Now they may not be in the order. This is going to be interesting for you on the tech team. They may not be in the order exactly that that I present. It gave them to you. So anyway, just be patient with me back there on the board and on the computer. This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ. Jesus appointed by the command of God, our savior in Christ. Jesus who gives us hope. That should be an expectation as followers of Jesus Christ. There should be a hope expectation. Like I should have this expectation that there's a divine hope connected to knowing Jesus that gives life. 4 (2h 24m 57s): This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ. Jesus appointed by the command of God, our savior and Christ. Jesus who gives us hope. I'm writing to Timothy. My true son in the faith. May God, the father and Christ Jesus. Our Lord gave you grace, mercy and peace. So four things hope. Grace, mercy, and peace, all tied to an intimate knowledge and walk with the Lord. Jesus Christ. Paul understood it. Having been a fair sissy, having been a person who understood the laws of God, but didn't understand God. And I think that's where we have a disconnect. Sometimes as followers of Jesus, we understand the laws of God, but we don't understand God. 4 (2h 25m 41s): And we'll never fully understand the person of God through the laws of God, because the laws of God were simply designed to help us to recognize our need for God. Does that make sense? So we're not going to get a full understanding of who God is by simply understanding the law, the do's and the don'ts we'll get full understanding of God. When we allow ourselves to be filled with his presence on a regular basis, Ephesians five, it's not on the screen. Ephesians five says don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life. Instead. Be filled with the Holy spirit 6 (2h 26m 12s): Instead, be filled with the Holy spirits. 4 (2h 26m 15s): First three, when I left for Macedonia, I urged you to stay there and emphasis. And we talked a lot about emphasis in the last couple of weeks and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. Don't let them waste their time in endless discussions of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations, which don't help people live a life of faith in God. What is the author talking about there? When he talks about spiritual pedigrees myths, endless discussions about these things. We're not really sure it doesn't really tell us, but if we go to verse eight, it kind of helps us. The context helps us understand what this might be. It says in verse eight and we'll come back to the rest of the verses here shortly. 4 (2h 26m 57s): But it says, we know that the law is good when used correctly. So most likely there's a misunderstanding about the use of the law. Why did God give us the law? When I say the law I'm primarily mean the 10 commandments, why did God give us the law of God? Why, why were we given a lot? Well, let's, let's look at a few verses here. Let's go to see if I can flip around in my Bible here and go to Galatians. Actually, let's go to Romans chapter four, Romans chapter three. I think the tech team can find that on the screen. This is Romans chapter three, verse 19. If you can find that it'll go up on the screen. It's just obviously the law applies to those, to 6 (2h 27m 37s): Whom it was given 4 (2h 27m 40s): For its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. The Bible says in Romans three, that all have sinned and all fall short of God's glorious standard. So the law was given so that the whole world, the entire world might realize that they're guilty before God for no one in verse 20 says for no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. Isn't that interesting. Some of us are maybe hearing this for the first time for no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful simple we are. 4 (2h 28m 21s): So the law can't make 5 (2h 28m 22s): Us Holy. Why don't we spend so much time thinking about a lot. If a law can't make us Holy, if only our holiness can only be made available to us through Christ Jesus, as he imputes his righteousness to us, as he gives us righteousness, then why are we so focused on the law? We never find freedom in Jesus. As long as we're focused on the law, let's take a look at Galatians chapter three as well. 3 (2h 28m 49s): Galatians chapter three says why then was the law given it was 5 (2h 28m 59s): Give it alongside the promise to show people their sins. So again, the law is there. So it might recognize we have a desperate need for a savior, but the law was designed to last only the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who has promised, who is that? Speaking about Jesus, right? God gave his law through angels to Moses who was the mediator between God and the people. Now a mediator is helpful. If more than one party must reach an agreement, but God who is one did not use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham, is there a conflict then between God's law and God's promise absolutely not. If the law, if the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. 5 (2h 29m 46s): But the scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin. So we receive God's promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ. So we get back to first Timothy, we're going to get into a passage. We're where we're beginning, beginning to understand what all of the arguments in foolish disagreements were about. I wish I wish as the church that we could get over our foolish disagreements, they're often so petty and so small and so unimportant. And yet they hinder a few things. They hinder real fellowship within the body of Christ. 5 (2h 30m 29s): They, they hinder our ability to evangelize the loss because if the church is fighting amongst itself, how can we effectively show the world? Jesus love proved that we're his disciples and then point people to him. Quick story. We've got a couple of our church who write Bible study curriculum, Mike and Sharon do Trump. Well, they have their Bible study books and curriculum in County, jails and prisons all over the States and all over the nation. And in other parts of the world, they, their, their books have been translated into other languages. And it's gone out to nations around the world and it's helpful. 5 (2h 31m 11s): Bible study tools and information to help people follow Jesus. Well, they had a meeting with Southern California jail system, a chaplain down there, and the chaplain loved, loved 3 (2h 31m 28s): The books, but there were 5 (2h 31m 30s): Two sentences within the book that this chaplain didn't like. And so he said, your books will not be in the County jail system. Did that crazy. Why don't we have to fight amongst ourselves as the church. We're not talking about essential stuff, like things under salvation. We're talking about 3 (2h 31m 51s): Minor silly 5 (2h 31m 54s): Theological and doctrinal differences. That is not going to keep anybody out of heaven, but will keep the church from being unified. I love that dark pastors in our churches are the pastors of our churches in the area, get together once a month for lunch in prayer and fellowship. And, and so we get together the first Wednesday of every month, just for lunch and fellowship and prayer. And, and to break down those walls of division that so easily want to go up in our midst. 3 (2h 32m 25s): And so continue to 5 (2h 32m 27s): Pray because I believe as the pastors go, so the churches will go. So pray that as the pastors gather that we will continue to find unity and not get focused on 4 (2h 32m 37s): The unimportant things. 3 (2h 32m 42s): Oh, really 5 (2h 32m 42s): Reread verse three in verse Timothy one. When I left from Macedonia, I urged you to stay there at emphasis and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. Don't let them waste their time and endless discussions of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations, which don't help people live a life of faith in God. That is the goal that the teaching of scripture from the old and the new Testament is to help people to live a life of faith in God. And so when we read the scripture, that should be a major takeaway for us. It should, this scripture should build us up in our most Holy faith. The Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please God. 5 (2h 33m 24s): And so God is calling us into a place of faith. And so in the arenas of our life, we need to be operating as people of faith. And I wonder how often we're actually operating as people of faith doing, answering the, you know, asking God those questions, God, what is it that you want to do with me and God? What is it that you want to do 3 (2h 33m 43s): Through me believing that bye-bye 5 (2h 33m 45s): Faith, God will speak to us. He'll direct us. She'll give us an assignment and by faith in him, and as he gives us the power and the grace, we're able to walk it out and to see people's lives touched and see people ministered to in our sphere of influence. I just wonder how much we're actually living lives of faith in God. Paul said in verse five, the purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love. Go ahead and underline that love if you got your, with you, me, Phil would love that comes from a pure heart. I'm an underline that a clear conscience, I'm an underlying that and a genuine faith. 5 (2h 34m 28s): The purpose of my instruction Paul says is that all believers will be filled with love. That comes from a pure heart, that clear conscience and genuine faith, but some people have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions. They want to be known as teachers of the law of Moses, but they don't know what they're talking about. Even though they speak so confidently, this is God's the purpose of God speaking and, and inspiring the scripture so that we might listen to it and be taught about it and read it for ourselves that we would be well, let's just go from the top that we would give experience hope in verse one, grace, mercy, and peace in verse two, that's in verse five, we would see the love that comes from a pure heart at clear conscience, that genuine faith. 5 (2h 35m 29s): These are the purposes of the scripture. Now it's important that we, I just broke the pen. It's, it's important that we grow in knowledge and understanding of God, but not for the wrong reason so that we feel better about our understanding, about who God is. It's okay to feel like you're growing and like, things are good, but it should drive us somewhere. Knowledge of God, understanding of doctrine and theology. It should take us somewhere. And Paul's saying the purpose of my instruction, and this is true for not only Paul's writings, but all of the texts within the scripture. The purpose is that all believers will be filled with love. I talked about last week, the church in Ephesus in revelation chapter two, John on the Island wrote this letter to the seven churches in the first church that he wrote a letter to was to the church at emphasis. 5 (2h 36m 22s): Timothy is pastoring the church in emphasis. And so that's why we talk about emphasis. And so we're in first Timothy he's pastoring the church in Ephesus. The letter that was written to the church in emphasis was full of affirmation. But God said this, I have this one thing against you. You don't love each other. And you don't love me like you did at first, you've lost your first love. So he said, if you don't repent of losing your first love, I'm actually going to remove your lampstand from you. In other words, you won't be recognized as a church any longer. If you don't figure out how to love one another and figure out how to love me, that's what God is saying. Isn't that crazy? 5 (2h 37m 3s): It's a big deal. And so the, the emphasis of the scripture and the reason that we open up the scripture and the reason that we teach scriptures, we might have these things, this hope, this grace, mercy, and peace, but then ultimately this love that comes from a 3 (2h 37m 19s): Pure heart, a heart that just wants to honor the Lord. That just wants to give back 5 (2h 37m 29s): Laurie to God and do what he's asked us to do a pure heart with a clear conscience. 3 (2h 37m 34s): That means we're not messing 5 (2h 37m 35s): Around with our faith. We're not messing around with, in dabbling, in things of the world, cluttering our conscience, but we've got a clear conscience because though we're not perfect by God's grace, our effort and our desire is to honor him and to please him and so such that our conscience as clear, or maybe we've stumbled, but we've said, Lord, I've stumbled. And I clean. I keep a short account of my stumbling and I say, Lord, I've, I've stumbled. I've made this mistakes. I didn't want to think this. I didn't want to say that. I didn't want to do that. Whatever it is, we keep a short account with the Lord so that our conscience is clear, 3 (2h 38m 12s): Clear that there's 5 (2h 38m 15s): You and faith, genuine faith. But some people have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions. They want to be known as the teachers of law of Moses, but they don't know what they're talking about. Even though they speak so confidently per eight says, we know that the law is good. When used correctly for the law was not intended for people who do what is right. 3 (2h 38m 42s): It is for people who are lawless. Yeah. 5 (2h 38m 45s): And rebellious. Again, the law was given so that people would recognize their desperate need for the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Like Lord, I see the expectations that I'll never measure up. Lord. I want to honor you, but I'm never going to do it perfectly. So God, I need your grace and your mercy for law was not given intended for people who do what is right. And is for people who are lawless and rebellious or ungodly and sinful who consider nothing sacred and to file. What is Holy who killed their father and mother or commit other murders? The law is for people who are sexually immoral or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, 3 (2h 39m 22s): Liars promise 5 (2h 39m 24s): Breakers, or do who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teachings that come from the glorious good news and trusted to me 3 (2h 39m 33s): By our blessed God, who's 5 (2h 39m 37s): Supposed to be the focus of the good news. 3 (2h 39m 39s): Jesus, right? Jesus is the gospel. And yet 5 (2h 39m 44s): Spend so much of our time focused on the things that we're not supposed to be doing. Beating ourselves up over our constant failures, where we fall short, doing what God has asked us to do. I have never experienced victory in my life while I was focused on my failures. Never, just never. It never happened for years. I live like that for years. I was always trying to check the box, do my very best, do the next best thing, all of, sort of thing. But it wasn't until I just decided I'm just going to keep my eyes on Jesus. You know what? When I decided to put my eyes on Jesus, I didn't want us to do anything else, but honor him. I just, I, my focus change. 3 (2h 40m 26s): My flesh 5 (2h 40m 28s): Came under the control of the Holy spirit, not perfectly, but the level of victory and the level of freedom in Christ that has been experienced and that I've seen in others who do the same thing is unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Often we're spending all of our time just focused on, Oh, I know I shouldn't do this. 3 (2h 40m 48s): I, 5 (2h 40m 50s): So I ride mountain bikes from time to time. And anytime I'm on a, like a, a single track and there's a cliff like a drop off, 3 (2h 41m 4s): I have to 5 (2h 41m 4s): Keep my eye on the single track. Because as soon as I put my eye on the drop-off, that's where I'm going immediately. I immediately begin to flirt with danger. I'm not even thinking about it, but that's where my, my attention is. So that's where I'm going. The same is true with us. As we follow Jesus, as long as Jesus is our focus, we will keep moving in the right direction and we will be protected from those drop-offs those pitfalls that we so often fall into G make Jesus, the focus of your faith and not all of the do's. And don'ts make Jesus the focus of your faith and you will experience great victory. 5 (2h 41m 48s): Great joy, great peace, clear conscience, pure heart. Sure. True faith. All of these things will be the outcome. The result of it. 3 (2h 41m 58s): Paul 5 (2h 41m 59s): Stood having, coming, having come from the background that he came from, he understood the grace and mercy of God. He, he understood that in his own strength. He could not measure it, but I think Christ Jesus, our Lord verse 12 first Timothy chapter one verse 12 says I think Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. 3 (2h 42m 21s): Hmm. 5 (2h 42m 23s): I say this all the time. Everything that God asks us to do requires the supernatural strength at work 3 (2h 42m 27s): Within us. We can't do it without him. 5 (2h 42m 30s): Paul understood that he considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him. Even though I used to blast meme, the name of Christ in my insolence, I persecuted his people, but God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance. 3 (2h 42m 48s): Oh, how 5 (2h 42m 49s): Generous and gracious. Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was. He filled me with the faith and love that comes from Christ. Jesus. This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the worst of them all, but God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use 4 (2h 43m 12s): Me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they too can believe in him and receive eternal life, all honor, and glory to God forever and ever. He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies. He alone is God, a man. So in Paul's insolence and his anger and his, and his confusion, he persecuted the church of the living. God, the followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He was persecuting until one day. And on that day in acts chapter nine, God got ahold of him. 4 (2h 43m 54s): And so he used to be a persecutor of the church, a Pharisee focused on the law. And now he is a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ filled with the Holy spirit, empowered by God to do the things that God had called him to do. So maybe you look at your background, maybe you're looking at your background, thinking about your past mistakes, pay thinking about your past life. And you, you can say, I used to be, but now I am and you can declare light Paul and say, now I'm a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I'm filled with the Holy spirit. I'm a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So now my life will be different. I used to live this way and think this way, but now in Jesus, he has changed my life. 4 (2h 44m 39s): He has changed my identity and he's given me a new purpose. So now I can get up in the morning and say, Lord, what is it that you want to do with me? What is it that you want to do through me? Because my focus is all you, Jesus, I'm filled with your spirit and I'm focused on you because I know that you're, you've got the words of life. You're the path of life. You are the way of life. So Jesus, I want to do what you've called me to do. And so out of that, understanding and excitement about who Jesus is and out of the abundance of your faith, you're able to do the things that God has called you to do in his strength. Paul, the great apostle Paul, he wrote most of the new Testament. He understood that his strength to do what God had called him to do 9 (2h 45m 18s): Comes from God. So don't 4 (2h 45m 21s): Trying to do this stuff in your own strength. And don't try to 9 (2h 45m 26s): Get through so much. God's given us a brand to use, but often we'll will eliminate most of what God asks us to do, because it doesn't make sense to us. It just doesn't make sense. Or it's going to take us out of our comfort zone. I shared the story a few different times, but I'll share it again just because it it's it's fits shared last week. So my wife and I were coming back from vacation with our clan and we were stopped in Kettleman city to have to get some gas and have some lunch. So I'm at the gas station I'm filling up. And this is about year or two ago, year and a half ago. 9 (2h 46m 8s): Something like, and I see this black lady filling up in the Island next to me. And I feel like Lord says, go put your arm around her and tell her that God loves her. So I could have said, that's ridiculous. She's I, I'm not going to put my arm around a perfect stranger. It's re it's ridiculous. God, I'm not going to, I'm not going to do that. It's I'm just not going to do it so I could have done that. And that's often what we'll do. Like, Lord, I'm not going to do that. Right. But it said, I decided I was just gonna try it out. 9 (2h 46m 50s): And so I put my arm around her. I walked over to my arm Reiner and she's kinda like, 8 (2h 46m 54s): Okay, 9 (2h 46m 57s): I'm obviously a white guy putting my arm around a black female. And I just said, Hey, I just want you to know that God loves you and everything melted or counting has changed. 8 (2h 47m 12s): I don't, I 9 (2h 47m 13s): Don't know what that did for her or what it did for me in the moment. I doesn't even matter, but I know something happened. I know something happened. 8 (2h 47m 26s): What 9 (2h 47m 26s): Is it that God is trying to get you to do? That's going to get you out of your shell and get you focused on his plans and his purpose for your life. So don't talk yourself out of it. Just do it. Can I challenge you to do that? Just, just do it and let the chips fall where they may. It's okay to look a little foolish for God. And honestly, you probably won't even look foolish, but you just feel like you're going to look foolish, but it's okay. If we're going to be foolish for anyone, I'd rather be foolish for God and just let him get the glory and all the take all the credit for that. It's Timothy, my son, verse 18. 9 (2h 48m 11s): As we wrap up these, this chapter, here are my instructions for you. Based on the prophetic word, spoken about you earlier, may they help you fight well in the Lord's battle? So we're in a spiritual battle. The Bible says we don't wrestle against flesh and blood enemies, but we wrestle against the principalities of darkness. So we're in a spiritual battle. There's as we talked last week, I think it was last week about Ephesus. They got the temple of Artemis, which is a, of a goddess that they worshiped in the town, the people who heard the gospel repented of their, their sins and burned up their witchcraft books. 9 (2h 48m 55s): Speaking about the darkness in the world that we, in which we live. So there's this, there's the spirit, the principalities of darkness, and then the principalities of lights. And so we're in a spiritual battle. So if we don't believe we're in a spiritual battle, we'll never effectively serve Jesus because none of it, none of it will make sense to us. And we're just going to, it's just not going to sink in that we're followers of God and that were in this spiritual army are fighting the Lord's battles claim to your faith in Christ and keep your conscience clear. Paul told Timothy for some people have deliberately violated. Their conscience is as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked and he mentions a couple of guys, a couple people, how many us and Alexander are two examples. 9 (2h 49m 44s): I threw them out and handed them over to Satan so they might not learn. So they might learn not to blast FIM God. So Paul threw them out so that they might learn not to blaspheme God. He wanted them to grow in their faith, quit playing games with their faith, quit blaspheming God and turn and serve God wholeheartedly. The purpose of Paul's booting, this, this, these couple of guys out is that he wanted, he wanted them to be reconciled to God while they were still time. 9 (2h 50m 25s): Scott's desire that we reconciled it to him. Maybe you maybe you've been distant from the Lord. Maybe on the outside, everything looks good. Maybe on the outside, everything looks good. And Mark Luke chapter 11, let's just take a look at Luke chapter 11 because Jesus rebukes the Pharisees because everything looked good on the outside, but everything else on the inside was a mess. 8 (2h 50m 51s): Luke 9 (2h 50m 51s): Chapter 11, verse 37, as Jesus was speaking, one of the various seas invited him home for a meal. So he went in and took his place at the table. His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first performing his hand, washing ceremonies required by the Jewish customs. So the Pharisees had all kinds of laws that Jesus gave to. He said, love God and love others. Right? The Pharisees had 613 laws, 613 laws. One obviously had to do with hand-washing as part of their Jewish custom. 9 (2h 51m 35s): Then the Lord said to them, to him, you Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside your filthy, He doesn't make mince. A lot of words. He said inside you're filthy full of greed and wickedness fools. Didn't God make the inside as well as the outside. So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor and you will be clean all 8 (2h 51m 59s): Over 9 (2h 52m 2s): Verse 42. What sorrow awaits you Pharisees for are careful to tie even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore 3 (2h 52m 12s): Nor justice and the love of God. It sounds like that church had emphasis. Yes. So 9 (2h 52m 20s): Jesus rebukes them. He said, you should tie the ass, but do not neglect. The more important things. 3 (2h 52m 27s): What sorrow 9 (2h 52m 28s): Awaits you Pharisees for you love to sit in the seats of honor and the synagogues and receive respectful greetings. As you walk in the marketplaces. Yes. What sorrow awaits you for? You are like hidden graves in a field. People walk over them without knowing the corruption they are stepping on. And the law says that if you come in contact with a dead body or a defiled dead person, you are defiled. Jesus is saying you're so spiritually dead. That you're defiling. Everybody that you come into contact with you are spiritually dead. And so that defilement is touching everybody that you come in contact with and he's rebuking them for that teacher said an expert in religious law, you have insulted us to in what you, what you just said. 9 (2h 53m 10s): Yes, Jesus said, yes, said, Jesus, 3 (2h 53m 14s): What 9 (2h 53m 14s): Sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law. Jesus is not trying to rebuke them for the sake of rebuking them alone. He wants to get their attention. So they might come to faith in the person and work of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He's. He's wanting them to understand that he is the Messiah that he's come to bring life and life abundantly. And so he's rebuking their lifestyle. He's rebuking their belief system and the way that they go about their walk with God, their faith in God, what sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law for you, crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden 3 (2h 53m 52s): On 9 (2h 53m 54s): Terrible religious demands, 613, 613 laws. Listen, if there were 613 laws that we had to figure out and obey, that's all we would be focused 3 (2h 54m 5s): Based on that's all we be focused on. So like 9 (2h 54m 9s): I just mess up on 421. I mean, what's going on. Instead Jesus gives two and all the laws in the prophet, hang on. These two things. Love 3 (2h 54m 17s): God and love your neighbor. Isn't that awesome. So I, 9 (2h 54m 23s): I promise you that whatever God asks you to do, it has something to do with loving God or loving your neighbor. Whatever he's asking you to do, Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees because they're not only misled themselves, but they're misleading others. They're heaping these huge burdens and not lifting a finger to help 3 (2h 54m 40s): Them to help them serve Jesus. What is it that God wants you to do? What does he want to do through you? Don't like 9 (2h 54m 52s): Another week go by or even another day. Go by without resolving that question, getting that question asked and then walking it out day by day. I think he's going to give you something probably most days to do most days he'll give you, even if it's just a small thing, it'll give you something to do with that. Let's go ahead and stand up. Let's invite the worship team forward and we will pray and sing some more songs. Worship, Jesus, Lord. We stand in awe and I, and in honor of you, we thank you that your word is sharper than a two-edged sword. It pierces us and it speaks to us and it helps us. 9 (2h 55m 36s): And sometimes it rebukes us so that we might get on the right track. So Lord, whatever it is that you want to do with us, I pray that we would be allowing that and walking in that with great joy. So thank you for this time, Lord, we worship you as we sing these next few songs. Be glorified. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship. 1 (2h 56m 30s): 0 (3h 7m 38s): We thank you that you've given us hope. We thank you for the power of your Holy spirit in our lives. We praise you are together, or we pray for whatever's going on out there in the town. Three sirens go by and we have no idea, but we know that you know all about it. Lord, we pray for those people. We pray that you had that. You'd be with them. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

0 (1s): Hello. Good morning. I'm Tam. I'm one of the worship leaders here at Harvest Church. And I just want to invite you guys all to Harvest this morning. If you're here on campus or in the law for the parsonage outside or turning in online from anywhere, a welcome this morning, and we're just going to invite you to stand. We're going to worship the Lord this morning, and I was open with a word of prayer, dear God, we come to you this morning and we just stop and become aware of you wherever we're at in our world's going. We just, we just stopped right now and acknowledge that you are your God and we worship you. 0 (45s): And Lord, I just ask you to come and meet each and every person here as they, as they direct their gaze to you, God, would you just come in and just rush in and impact lives this morning through the word shift through the message. Lord, would this just be a huge just offering to you and for your glory in Jesus name? 1 (1m 36s): . 1 (13m 35s): You are so good. 0 (13m 37s): Thank you, Lord. Even when circumstances may not look good, you never changed. You know, 1 (13m 44s): You love us without feeling. 0 (13m 49s): I just feel like I'm supposed to share this little story of what happened yesterday. As we worship, I was driving home and one of my wheels, when it cracks off a car, I'm still a little shaky today. Honestly, it was a scary experience and I'm thankful to be okay. And the Lord was watching over me. And maybe some of you that's your life right now. Like you feel like the wheels are just falling off. Maybe it's hard for you to sing even this chorus. That he's good. Cause right now you're not seeing his goodness new and he's maybe there's bills to pay or a car to fix without the money in the bank account. 0 (14m 33s): And that could be your reality. And that's my reality today. He's still good. As soon as you have to preach to our own souls and we have to remind the devil that he's still good and he's always good and that he never lets us down. And if it's not good, it's not over yet. Amen. So we're going to sing this song in faith this morning. Let faith arise in your heart. No matter what you're facing today. Even if the wheels have literally come off of your leg, he is still good at and holds you steady. And he guards you and he protects you and he provides for you. So we're not going to fear. We're not going to live in that place. We're going to choose to trust and thank you, Lord. 1 (15m 14s): yeah, just lift up your praise and prayers can just be acquired. 1 (18m 47s): Thanks this morning. Whatever's in your heart. If you want to speak thank you for your presence here. Strengthening our hearts deep down with our souls, giving a strength to face the week ahead. 1 (19m 32s): Thank you for your presence here in this place. Here in this family, there would be no one who would leave today. Jesus and Mary, how much care for every circumstance we rested. Let's just share some of that love of encouragement with each other this morning. Would you say hello to some folks around you? And we'll be back in just a few minutes in a few moments with some announcements. 2 (20m 12s): All right. Good morning. Church good morning. Harvest Church Hey, my name's Jeremy. I'm one of the pastors here and I just want to say a big, welcome and happy Valentine's day. And no matter what relationship status you're in, you have a, whether you received a card this morning, whether you're hoping to receive a card or whether you're not expecting to receive a card, we hope that you feel welcomed and loved here at Harvest Church. And ultimately we hope you feel the love of God this morning. So happy Valentine's day. Hey, just a few quick announcements. Men get ready. Next month, we are kicking off the M six community gatherings. They are returning to thousand Hills, so that, so Mark your calendars for March 15th, there'll be six, 6:00 PM at a thousand Hills ranch. 2 (20m 58s): And once again for, if you haven't been there like myself, I've only heard of the good things. There's a free meal, a worship testimonies and all around great time for the men of God. So Mark your calendars, March 15th, and then we're still looking for a few more volunteers, a couple of the needs that we have are the greeting team. So serving one Sunday, a month during one service. So kind of a low entry point like once one Sunday, a month, one service. So that's what we're looking for. And as well as the safety team to serve one Sunday, a month to help out, keep, just keep folks safe on campus. We have AED machine, first date, all that stuff. 2 (21m 38s): That's all part of the safety team. So no, that those volunteer opportunities are there for you guys. And I think that's all I got. That's it. Totally easy peasy. 3 (21m 49s): Thank you very much. Did you do anything fun for your wife this morning? Or am I putting you on the spot? You got her car. What's your tradition though? What did you, what do you, what's your tradition for? Valentine's day. Get a date night tonight. Date night. Okay, good. She's a Florida. Oh, so how do you, what do you do with that? 2 (22m 10s): Well, so, so what I do with that, I, I, I buy her flowers at trader Joe's and then she gets to decorate 3 (22m 17s): As if I, if I start putting things, it just does. Okay. 2 (22m 20s): The future, my daughters are turning out to be, they have, they're just, 3 (22m 24s): They watch their moments. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe in the future, I'll have to start playing her book here. So what's her love language, you know, her love language is words. So words of affirmation, the card, the card 2 (22m 35s): Gifts. It just, it doesn't, it's not as much. 3 (22m 38s): Yeah. It doesn't hitters as much as words, words. And what's your love language gifts. So gifts are good for you. Yeah. Meets you. I'm a gifts guy as well. Yeah. Yeah. What's your tradition. Well, we typically will set a spending limit and so that she doesn't out by me or I don't out by her. And, but this year we decided to just go have dinner and, and forego the cards, forego everything. So we just, we went to dinner to Los Olivos on Friday night to what's it called? Flatbread. 2 (23m 13s): And what's it? Los Alamos. 3 (23m 16s): Los Alamos. Sorry. Yeah. So we had he beat the crowds, right? Yes we did. It was cold outside. We bundled up and yeah, it was very cold. So anyway, so we had, that was our tradition. So when we woke up this morning, we had zero expectation for cards or anything like that. So my wife did get me some, an ice cream sandwich, which was really amazing. Ate that Friday night. Okay. Yeah. I hate that. Right. So anyway, that's the tradition. Cool. Thanks for sharing. Yeah, that was a little impromptu there. 4 (23m 48s): Happy Valentine's day 5 (23m 51s): Forks disappointed at Valentine's day because they just wanted to spoon. 4 (24m 1s): Okay. 5 (24m 2s): Jolene said I'm getting known for my corny jokes. So I've got one more for 4 (24m 5s): You. 5 (24m 8s): Why did the, why did the skeleton break up with her boyfriend right before Valentine's day? Her heart just wasn't in it. 4 (24m 19s): Corny 5 (24m 19s): Jokes. Right. They just kind of get us laughing a little bit. I don't know what they're for, but 4 (24m 27s): Okay. 5 (24m 27s): Welcome sermon title. Two Questions Continued what are we going to stand up and pray as you stand up, we're going to be in first Timothy chapter one, we're going to be in acts chapter 18, 17, 18, 19, something like that. And then we're going to be in revelation chapter two. So we're going to be kind of bouncing around a little bit. So if you don't have a Bible, make sure you grab one. Most of the, the, most of the words will be up on the screen today. So it will be up there. So anyway, let's pray. And then we'll just see what the Lord does today. Lord, we just invite your presence. We invite your presence to minister, to us, to speak to us, to be, to be here with us. Lord, we want to be present with you and with one another, meaning that we want to listen to you, and we want to be aware of what's going on around us, Lord God. 5 (25m 10s): And we want to be involved in what the spirit wants to do today. So we just humble ourselves. We avail ourselves to you Lord and pray that you just, just fill us with the joy of the Lord and the peace of God and the grace of God that you would wash over us. And even a sh yeah, even as Sherilyn was talking about, you know, the wheels coming off of our lives at times, Lord, we know that you are faithful even in those moments, especially in those moments. And so we, we just want to say, thank you for your faithfulness. God, God was so overwhelming that all the billions of people on the planet, you, you care about the one, the individual, each of us Lord. We're so humbled by that. And so grateful for that Lord. 5 (25m 50s): And so I pray that each person would realize that they matter to you, that each of us would realize that in the, with all the people in the world, that we matter to you and the people of this church in this community, in this, everybody in the world, we matter to you Lord. So I pray that you would download it just truth to our hearts and minds speak something that we need to hear. We pray Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. You can be seated. Two Questions, Continued, there's actually three weeks ago that I challenged us with a couple of questions and it was kind of a spontaneous, I hadn't even planned on it, but there seems to be a theme kind of around it. 5 (26m 31s): And so the Two Questions number one, we'll throw them up on the board. Number one. What do you want to do? What do you want me to do today? Was that worded, right? What do you want me to do today? That's right. Okay. What do you want me to do today? So you wake up in the morning, I've been challenging. It asked this question and you're asking it to God, God, what do you want me to do today? And then the second question is, what do you want to do through me today? And so the hope is that as we think about these questions, that we fixed our mind on Christ, that we get our attention on him, that we begin to think about him out of the gate, so that whatever's going on, we can focus in and say, okay, Lord, what, what is it that you want to do with me today? And what do you want to do through me today? So in this job that I have, or at school where I attend in these relationships, in these challenging situations, even when the wheel comes off, Lord, what do you want? 5 (27m 23s): What's this all about, Lord. It kind of just reorients our mind and our hearts and our thinking toward God, Lord, what do you want to do? And I've been trying to do that and this whole week, and I've been, I'm trying really trying to do it. And I challenged us to do this this whole month, all, all of February. So make it kind of the theme of our whole month. God, what do you want to do? What do you want to do through me? And with me, what's, what's your plan for my life. 3 (27m 49s): We did a Memorial service yesterday for my, my sister-in-law's father. And it was, it was just a tough day, a tough day. And it was a tough day, but I, you know, w what was cool is I got to see all kinds of friends from like junior high school, really, really cool stuff. And so I, I see a buddy of mine, who's, we've known for 40 years, and haven't seen him since our ten-year high school reunion. So it's been like, I don't know, twenty-five years or so, what do you do? The math it's rough, rough 5 (28m 24s): Numbers. And his name 3 (28m 27s): Is Melvin. He's a black man. And, and I saw him in my, my whole, I just lit up. I just knew I had to go hug on that guy and just tell him I miss him. And I love him. And, and I saw him and he saw me coming. He's like Steve, 5 (28m 43s): And we got a chance just to talk and 3 (28m 46s): Connect. And I haven't, I literally haven't talked to him for probably 25 years or so. And it was just a sweet, sweet time and got to meet a couple of other people, or see a couple of other people that I haven't seen since high school. And it was just a sweet time to just love on people and with no, no agenda, but I just, I just knew my job. There was just a love on love on those guys and met a guy's wife, never met her before, and it was just really sweet. What does God want to do with us in those moments 5 (29m 21s): God wants to do through us in those moments? 3 (29m 24s): I have no idea. And I'll probably never know this side of having what kind of interrupt, what that interaction meant to those people. I know what I meant to me. I know that it filled me up in so many ways. I was recounting it with a friend of mine this morning, and I just, I got weepy. I, there were some, there's something powerful connecting with people that you love and haven't seen for a long time. There was just, it was, it was wonderful. It was wonderful. I, I just enjoyed it. I, 6 (29m 52s): I don't know what 3 (29m 53s): God's going to do with you, but I know he wants to do something with you and we can't put them in a box and say, well, it's going to be this. I know though that it'll have something to do with loving people. That's just what God's all about when he calls us to be engaged with people. And he calls for the it's for the purpose of loving them in a deep and profound ways. As I thought about that kind of topic of love recently, and I thought, 6 (30m 23s): How can I show love more authentically, more, just more powerfully to people. I thought 3 (30m 32s): I got this bit of revelation. I, I sense that if I just do the least selfish thing in that relationship, that that's going to be loving toward them, do the least selfish thing. So I was home a couple of days ago and I was tired. I didn't feel like doing anything, any of that. I didn't want to do any of the chores, but I knew if I didn't do them, my wife was going to come home and she was going to have to do them because it's just the way it is. You know, you've got animals to feed and you got things to clean up and that sort of thing. 6 (30m 58s): So, so I did all of this stuff that I do 3 (31m 2s): Want to do. And it was just, I just thought, this is, 6 (31m 8s): This is, this is, 3 (31m 10s): I mean, it was like fresh revelation. The rest of you were probably like, Dodd, Nope, no kidding. This is, don't do the unselfish thing and you're going to be demonstrating love, but it didn't occur to me how powerful that was and how important that was. And I thought, you know, in our relationships, if we would just do the least selfish thing in regards to whoever it is that we know and are connected to the love of that in that relationship, which is blossom. Part of my love language is gifts, but also acts of service. So I know that when, when my wife does something from me or when somebody else does something for me, it just really makes me feel loved. So I, I know there's, I say that to say there's a lot of ways to show a love. And so maybe the least selfish thing is just to speak a word of affirmation to the person that you're in relationship with. 3 (31m 55s): Just speak a word of affirmations. 6 (31m 57s): I, I appreciate you. 3 (31m 60s): Th th that's, that's a huge statement. I appreciate you. It's actually maybe more powerful than the words I love you because we hear that all the time. Like, you know, we love our steak and we love our dog and we love, you know, our wives and kids and that sort of thing. So, but when we go beyond that and, and articulate our articulate, why we love it, 6 (32m 20s): I appreciate you. 3 (32m 24s): What are some other words that we can say let's just be spontaneous? What would you, what might you say that communicates love to your 6 (32m 30s): Loved one spouse friend? I cherish you very much. Ah, thank you. I thank God for you. I'm what, I'm 3 (32m 40s): Glad you're around. That's good stuff. 6 (32m 42s): What else? A couple more. I appreciate what was the last one? I appreciate you. And then you inspire. Yeah. Yeah. Good 3 (32m 53s): Stuff. Good stuff. I think if we put into practice those, those things, when you use those words and then do the least selfish thing, I think what we'll see is we'll see relationships 6 (33m 5s): Blossom between friends, 3 (33m 8s): Siblings, people that we work with, spouses, whatever the relationship is. Man. I think the thing that God wants to do with us and innocent through us is I think he wants us to love people more effectively. So in the midst of all of the crazy, 6 (33m 30s): The vision that's going on in our world, I, I honestly didn't know 3 (33m 38s): How my friend Melvin would respond to 6 (33m 40s): Me. I just didn't know. I think that's why I'm emotional 3 (33m 45s): About it. He's a black man. I'm a white 6 (33m 47s): Man. And there was just something powerful. 3 (33m 56s): It reminded me of about a year ago, I was coming back from vacation. We were in Kellerman 6 (34m 2s): The city and it was a hot time 3 (34m 9s): Culture in our country with race issues and that sort of thing. And I remember I was filling up my gas tank and I saw this black woman filling up her gas tank and the next 6 (34m 19s): Island over aisle over. And 3 (34m 22s): It felt like the Lord said, just go give her a hug and tell her that you tell her that I love her. Tell her that God loves her 6 (34m 27s): And Mara. 3 (34m 30s): So I shared this story before, but I walked over and I just put my arm around her and that's kind of freakish, right? Who's this strange white man putting, putting his arm around me. And I just said, you know, I just, I just want you to know that God loves you. And man, it just melted all kinds of tension. It just melted it. It was just this beautiful exchange. And, and then I just walked away. And then when we drove away, she must've shared with her kids or the kids saw it or something like that. Cause we drove away. We were all waving. Everybody was, it was just like this beautiful, this beautiful thing And where that needs to happen in our lives with people that we're at odds with. 3 (35m 10s): It doesn't have to be a race thing, black, white, Brown, white, that doesn't have to be that it's w w where does that need to happen in our relationship? 6 (35m 20s): What does God might? What might God want to do as we just choose to love people in spite of differences, heard this story, or the sermon the other day, and the pastor, the preacher made this statement. He said, God loves homosexuals. Ah, that is so good. He loves people from every walk of life. 3 (35m 53s): And we forget, we thank God, just mad at people because of their, 6 (35m 57s): But he loves people. He loves people. 3 (36m 1s): And if we can figure out how to love people in spite of their weaknesses, failures, whatever, cause we all have them. 6 (36m 8s): If, if we can do that, it's powerful. It's powerful. I sold building materials for a number of years before I got into the ministry. And 3 (36m 25s): One of my primary, a couple of my primary builders were homosexual, man. And, and I just love those guys. Yeah, Yeah. Just build relationship with them and loved on them and told them about Jesus. And they didn't like that part sometimes, but sometimes they did. It was just, it was an interesting mixed bag. 6 (36m 45s): And this one, 3 (36m 48s): One guy because of my position now and because of who I am, and I'm a Christian and, and pastor. And so he doesn't know what to do with me, but every time I see him, I saw him driving in the village the other day, I would just wave at him. I just go out of my way to 6 (37m 4s): Okay. 3 (37m 4s): Ran into him at a restaurant a couple of years ago. And I did the same thing and he's like perplexed by me because he doesn't know what I'm after, but I'll all. I just want him to know that I love him 6 (37m 16s): And that Jesus loves him and God will deal with the rest. That'll sort out the rest. What do you want me to do today, Lord? And what do you want to do through me today? 3 (37m 30s): So we get into first Timothy, we're just going to get into a few verses today. And like I said, then we're going to jump into acts and it will be in revelation. It's going to take us a long time at this pace to get through first Timothy, but eventually we'll get there and it's, we're not in a hurry. So we'll just do what we can do. 6 (37m 46s): First Timothy chapter one. This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ. Jesus appointed 3 (37m 52s): The command of God, our savior and Christ. Jesus who gives us hope. 6 (37m 59s): Yeah. 3 (37m 59s): I'm writing to Timothy. My true son in the faith. May God, the father and Christ Jesus, our Lord give you grace mercy and peace. 6 (38m 10s): Any Paul challenges, Timothy, to 3 (38m 14s): Be careful of false teachers. 6 (38m 18s): He said, when I left 3 (38m 18s): From Macedonia, I urge you to stay there and emphasis and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. 6 (38m 28s): So Timothy 3 (38m 28s): Is in emphasis, the city called Ephesus. And as I'm thinking about his ministry there, I, what do we know about 5 (38m 36s): This city, this town called Ephesus. What do we know about this place? And so I'm just going to jump in, jump over to acts 18. And, and we're just going to kind of read through some, some passages. So if you want to turn to acts and just kind of read with me, we're going to be, and it's actually going to be up on the screen as well, acts 1824 through 28. And then we'll jump into acts chapter 19. And it'll just kind of help us understand what's kind of going on. Meanwhile, that you named as you named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the scriptures well had arrived in emphasis. 5 (39m 16s): That's the city from Alexandria in Egypt. He had been taught the way of the Lord and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John's 4 (39m 29s): Chisholm John's 5 (39m 32s): Baptism John's message was repent and be baptized, repent and be baptized. This was John's message. And so this is what Apollos heard. He said he got the message repent and be baptized. And John was the 4runner. He was there before Christ. He was GI Christ's cousin there as the, the 4runner to kind of prepare the way for the ministry of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so he's saying repent and be baptized. And so Apollos gets a hold of this message. He gets a hold of this message and he's proclaiming it when Priscilla and Aquilla heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God. 5 (40m 13s): Even more 4 (40m 13s): Accurately 5 (40m 18s): Apollos had been thinking about going to a Acadia and the brothers and sisters and emphasis encouraged him to go. They wrote to the believers in the CA asking them to welcome him. And when he arrived there, he proved to be a great benefit to those who by God's grace had believed he refuted the Jews with powerful arguments in public debate using the scriptures. He explained to them that Jesus was the Messiah. So now he had a fuller revelation of who Jesus was. He had a fuller revelation, but notice that Apollos with his limited revelation and understanding was powerfully proclaiming that truth. 5 (40m 59s): He didn't have a complete revelation of who God was, but he was bold in his proclamation. I think sometimes that we think that I don't know enough to share the gospel with somebody, but the reality is that God has given you truth. He's giving you revelation. And with that, he wants you to share it. And trust me, you will grow. You will have greater understanding as you continue to trust the Lord and follow him and do what he's asked you to do. But he's asked you to be bold as a, of his, to proclaim the truth, the revelation that you have, maybe it's just your story. Maybe it's just your story about how Jesus got ahold of your life and trans transformed your life. 5 (41m 45s): Maybe it's just that I don't know much, except for, I know what Jesus has done 6 (41m 51s): In my life. We can argue 5 (41m 53s): Theology all day long, but we can't argue my experience. My experience is that my life has been radically changed because of Jesus. I'm not the same man that I used to be. So these friends of mine, who've known me since junior high school and then into high school, I didn't get serious about my faith until my junior year of high school. And so prior to that, I was not the Christian that you might see today. And so we just, there was, 6 (42m 26s): But 5 (42m 26s): Lives transform over time. As we let Jesus do what he wants to do in our lives. And, and so we need to be bold and just proclaim that and maybe the best way to proclaim it is just through our love at first, our love. But then at somewhere, somewhere along the line, we've got to, we've got to actually put words to that as well. Acts chapter 19 while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached emphasis on the coast. So that's what so, so we know that God was doing some good stuff in emphasis that Timothy was ministering in this town that was on the coast. 5 (43m 7s): So it it's reminiscent of where we are. It was a town of about 250,000 people. And so it was a bustling, wealthy community that Timothy was ministering in and policy administer there. Paul had ministered there. Others had ministered there and so good things were happening in this community. So he reached emphasis on the coast where he found several believers. And so as he found these believers, he asked them this question, did you receive the Holy spirit when you believe he asked them, did you receive the Holy spirit? So like more believers, who've got partial revelation. They understand, and they're saved and they're they understand who Jesus is, 6 (43m 51s): But they've, haven't received the Holy spirit. And so, 5 (43m 56s): So they said, no, they, they replied, we haven't heard that there is a Holy spirit. I wonder what you might be able to reveal to people that you're ministering to, who don't know much about the gospel. And maybe it's just that, 6 (44m 9s): That God loves you. God, 5 (44m 15s): You might be surprised at that. Well, God can't love me. He I've made too many mistakes. God can't love me. He loves you. And he said, well, well then what baptism did you experience? He asked. And they replied that the baptism of John Paul said, John's baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus in Mark one eight. It's not on the screen. But John, the Baptist said, I, I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you, but Jesus will baptize you with the Holy spirit. And so they were missing something. First of all, Apollos was not understanding fully what, who Jesus was that he was the Messiah. 5 (44m 56s): When he got it, he began to proclaim that. And then these young believers in emphasis, they didn't understand about the baptism. They didn't hadn't received. They received John's baptism. They repented and they were baptized, but they weren't baptized with the Holy spirit. As soon as they heard this, they were baptized. So I, I just want to highlight their obedience. They, as soon as they realized that they needed to do something, they did it. I think God is honored by that. He's re he responds to that. I think as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, when we realized we need to do something, if we just immediately do it, there's blessing that follows that. What is God asking you to do? 5 (45m 37s): What is God wanting to do through? You don't make him wait, don't make him, you know, wait on your obedience, but just do it. Just do it. You say, well, I'm not sure. Well, that's so that's okay. Do it anyway. Do it. Anyway. As soon as they heard, they were baptized in the name of the Lord, Jesus, then. So some, some crazy things, depending on your background and your understanding, our background, and they're saying some crazy things began to happen is Paul laid. He laid his hands on them. They, when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy spirit came on them and they spoke in other tongues. Paul said, I, I speak in tongues more than all. 5 (46m 17s): Y'all like more than all you, but tongues is a, it's a, it's a prayer language. It's something that God gives to us so that we can, that that helps us to pray in the public setting. Sometimes somebody will speak in tongues and, and then there's an interpretation. And really in a public setting, we shouldn't speak out in tongues loudly for the congregation, unless we know unless we're confident or someone present to can interpret what we're saying. We pray in tongues, in our prayer as a, as part of our prayer language, as part of what our connection with the Lord, it's all throughout acts, especially. 5 (46m 58s): So they spoke in tongues and other tongues and they prophesied prophecy is a foretelling of things to come. So there was this stuff that was going on in the church. And these were brand new believers favors. They had been just baptized and these things were going on. They were speaking in tongues and powerfully doing wonderful things in Jesus. There were about 12 men at all. And then the next section here is Paul's ministry. And then Paul went to the synagogue and preach boldly for the next three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God, but some became stubborn rejecting his message. 5 (47m 41s): And publicly speaking against the way, the way is just the way of the gospel, the way of Jesus. So Paul left the synagogue and took the believers with him. Then he held daily discussions at the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for the next two years. So at first he's in the synagogue and he's preaching for three months. And then he leaves because they don't believe him. And so he goes to a different location and he preaches for for two years. When I, what I love about Paul is that he's in it for the long haul. He's like, he's committed in this town. He's there for a season while the Lord works out his plans and purposes through him. 5 (48m 21s): I think we get in a hurry with God and we want God to do what he's going to do quickly. Like Lord, I'm a been obedient. I want to see some fruits. Some, some, I want to see something happen immediately. When God says, maybe it's going to take some time and just be faithful as the Lord works things out. So this went on for the next two years, so that people throughout the province of Asia, both Jews and Greeks heard the word of the Lord 6 (48m 45s): Lord, and this is kind of an, I, I love this next portion here. 5 (48m 53s): God gave Paul the power to perform unusual miracles when handkerchiefs or aprons that had merely touched, his skin were placed on sick people. They were healed of their diseases and evil spirits were expelled. So I shared this story back a few years ago when I had meningitis, it's a brain infection. 6 (49m 16s): I had 5 (49m 16s): People praying for me and this gal and she didn't know what to do. She couldn't get to me because I was in the hospital or I was home recuperating. I can't remember which, and so she prayed over this, this cloth, this, this napkin, or this thing that she prayed over. And, and she sent it to me. I think it was like a wash rag or something. And so I didn't know what to do with it, but, but I, I knew that she prayed over it. So I, with childlike faith, I just put it over my head, 6 (49m 47s): Which I just said, 5 (49m 49s): If you're doing something, I mean, obviously it's, it's, it's been done before. 6 (49m 55s): I, I don't want to 5 (49m 57s): Scoff at what God does or has done. And so I just put 6 (50m 2s): On my head, I said, glory, just do whatever you want to do. And I, I, I, 5 (50m 13s): I think it did something in my brain. I think it, I think it, there was a release of healing power, and God did something. 6 (50m 24s): There's something about childlike faith. That is so important. So my, my buddy Mark is here today. And during worship he's, he's, he's laughing because he's just excited about Jesus. And I thought we don't often laugh when we're worshiping, right? But God, 5 (50m 52s): The Bible says the joy of the Lord 6 (50m 54s): Is our strength. And I don't 5 (50m 56s): Know about you, but when I meet old friends and meet, 6 (50m 59s): Get with people I've met with 5 (51m 1s): Buddy Melvin out there, all we did was laugh. We just laughed at recounting old stories. We just laughed. There's something, there's something powerful about just enjoying relationship with someone. I think in our lack of childlike, faith response or expression, 6 (51m 20s): We don't, we don't know how to worship. 5 (51m 22s): We don't know how to engage and ensure in. And we're even afraid to lift up our hands, 6 (51m 27s): Hands and lifting up. Holy hands is like surrendering to God saying, God, just talk yours. And it's like a picture of, you know, a baby, just, you know, a toddler wanting just to be picked up. So I've got grandkids. And when they come in and throw their arms up, it's just nothing better. There's nothing better. So when we just throw up our hands to our father and, and tell him that we just, we just want to be with him. 6 (52m 8s): We surrender, just pick me up, Lord. That's, there's something powerful 5 (52m 13s): Or full about that. There's nothing, nothing to be ashamed of 6 (52m 17s): Raising hands and just enjoying the presence of the Lord and 5 (52m 24s): A group of Jews. This is a funny story that happened in Ephesus. I love this story. Actually. It's pretty funny. A group of Jews were traveling from town to town, casting out evil spirits. They tried to use the name of the Lord G. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation saying, I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches to come out. Seven sons of Skiva. These seven dudes and elite leading priests were doing this. But one time they, when they tried it, the evil spirit replied. I know Jesus, like I'm acquainted with Jesus. I'm acquainted with Jesus. 5 (53m 4s): And I know Paul, I'm acquainted with Paul and I, but I, but who are you? And then the man with the evil spirit, leaped on them, overpowered them and attack them with such violence that they fled from the house naked and battered. 6 (53m 22s): That's a great story. And the name of Paul, 5 (53m 31s): All of these things happen. So this is the spiritual kind of landscape of what's going on in emphasis there's darkness, there's lights, there's all kinds of people there. We're going to read here in a moment about Artemis. There was a temple built for, for the goddess Artemis. And the temple was actually one of the seven wonders of the world in the ancient world and, and emphasis. So there's this big temple erected built for this, this goddess, this fate God. And So the story of what happened with the seven sons of Skiva spread quickly, all through emphasis for 17 to Jews and Greeks alike, a solemn fear to send it on the city. 5 (54m 22s): And the name of the Lord, Jesus was greatly honored. Many who became believers, confess their sin full practices. A number of them had been practicing sorcery, brought their incantation books and burned them in a public bond. Fire. The value of the books was several million dollars. So the message about the Lord spread widely and had a powerful effect. Sometimes we hold on to things from our past life, our BC life, our before Christ days. And we need to get those things out of our lives. What is it that you need to get rid of your, in your life? These guys burn their, their witchcraft books at the cost of millions of dollars. 5 (55m 8s): Is this cost them something? What, what is it that God is asking you to do that is going to cost you something. 4 (55m 16s): Okay. 5 (55m 19s): What God did was having a power of what God was doing in that city was having a powerful effect on people. And they were, they were giving up the occult practices and they were burning their books Because they just wanted to make sure everything in their life honor the Lord, everything, no holes, barred. It doesn't matter how much money it costs me. I don't want anything. That's going to hold me back from Jesus Afterward. Paul felt compelled by the spirit to go over to Macedonia and Acadia before going to Jerusalem. So Paul felt compelled by the spirit. This is just simply Paul hearing from God and doing what he feels led to do. 5 (56m 1s): That's all we're trying to do as followers today. We're saying, Lord, what do you want to do with me today? And what do you want to do through me today? We're just, we just want to be compelled by the spirit to do stuff. That's all we're asking. We're not, it's all scriptural. It's not anything weird. It's just what, what believers do we want to be compelled by the, but that means we have to be in tuned to the spirit. So that means we gotta be paying attention to what God is doing. I got up this morning and worked on my message a little bit and then just went out and prayed. I said, Lord, I, I just want to be connected to you. I, I need you to know that what I'm saying has some, some authority, some power because you're behind it. 5 (56m 42s): I, I, I don't want to just say, get up there and use empty words, words that don't, I needed it to be powerful for your sake, for the sake of your people. I don't need to be powerful, but God, I want God to be powerful through me. Paul felt compelled by the spirit. What was the last time he felt compelled to do something by the spirit. And when you felt compelled, you did it. And you're like, wow, this is crazy. Cause it's a little bit scary. It requires something of us. It's maybe something that we're not totally sure about it. Cause we're, we're called to walk by faith and not by sight. And so the things that God calls us to you requires a measure of faith without faith. 5 (57m 24s): It's impossible to please God. So everything that he asks us to do is going to require a level of faith and dependence on the Holy spirit. I say this all the time that everything that God asks of us requires of us means requires the power of the Holy spirit, 6 (57m 45s): Moving 5 (57m 45s): Us and, and, and prompting us and working through us. If what God has asked you to do, doesn't require the power of the Holy spirit. It's God didn't ask you to do. 6 (57m 55s): He didn't ask. He just didn't ask you to do it. 5 (57m 59s): Most likely. You'll just do that on your own. And that's not a bad thing, but I want you just to get to the place where we're saying, God, what did you, what are you asking me to do? Is that will re that will be a stretch. And that's a fun stretch. That is a fun 6 (58m 16s): Trach. It's the best kind of stuff. 5 (58m 24s): Paul felt compelled by the spirit to go to Macedonia and CA before going into Jerusalem. And after that, he said, I must go on to Rome. It's like he he's getting downloads from the Lord revelation from Lord clarity from the Lord about his path, about his missionary journey. This is Paul's third missionary journey. He's he's about the father's business, doing what God had asked him to do. So he knows he's got a plan. 6 (58m 48s): Often. 5 (58m 48s): We've got a plan for everything else in our lives, but we don't have a plan for ministry for impact, for kingdom impact. I can I ask you to make a plan and say, Lord, what do you want me to do with my life kingdom speaking? What, what, how do you want to use my, me and my life? I must go to Rome. He said why? Because he was compelled by the Holy spirit to go to Rome. He had work to do in Rome. He had work to do there. 6 (59m 18s): Hmm. You said it's Two Timothy. And Erastus 5 (59m 24s): The head to Macedonia while he stayed a while longer. The province We're. So out of time, did we set the clock? 4 (59m 34s): Right. Okay. Let's continue 5 (59m 45s): About that time. Serious trouble developed in an emphasis concerning the way it began with Demetrius, a silversmith who had a large business manufacturing, silver shrines of the Greek goddess Artemis. He kept many craftsmen busy called them together, along with others, employed in similar trades and address them as follows. So the gospel is so impacting this culture, this community, this city, that the business of shrine making idol making is going under. I want to see something like that happened in our community. Like were businesses honoring the devil are going out because, because they're such an impact. 5 (1h 0m 30s): So these guys are angry, angry with Paul. Let's jump over to revelation, chapter three, our chapter two. And then we'll wrap it up with just with this. As we get into revelation chapter two, what else do we know about this emphasis? The city of emphasis? Well, John Penn seven letters under the inspiration of the Holy spirit gospel. God is writing these seven letters to the seven churches in Asia revelation, chapter two, verse two. The first letter that John Penn was to this church in emphasis. And they had a lot, got a lot going for them. Can I have my tea? They had a lot going for them. 5 (1h 1m 11s): There's not much. Where are you drinking my tea? 4 (1h 1m 15s): You've made that tea for me. 5 (1h 1m 20s): Happy Valentine's day. I share my tea with you. 4 (1h 1m 25s): Thank you for the two drops that are left. Oh, that was good. Thank you. So this Church 5 (1h 1m 39s): Had so much going for it. 4 (1h 1m 46s): I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work 5 (1h 1m 51s): And your patient endurance. So this, there was a lot of hard work going on in the Church patient endurance. I know you don't tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles, but are not. You have discovered they're liars. Paul told Timothy in first, in first, him of the one, three to stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. It sounds like Tim Timothy took care of that issue within the church. He said, you have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles, but are not. You have discovered they're liars 4 (1h 2m 28s): Revelation 5 (1h 2m 28s): Two verse three. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. So lots of wonderful things, but I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first, you've lost your first 4 (1h 2m 44s): Love. Ouch. Verse five says, look, how far you've fallen. 5 (1h 2m 52s): Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don't repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches to remove the lampstand is to remove your, your position, your position, your authority, and your place as a Church, he's saying I'm going to snuff out your lamps and you will no longer be recognized as a Church. If you don't figure out a love, 4 (1h 3m 18s): Great, 5 (1h 3m 18s): His commandments is love God and love others. And he's saying that this Church with all of the good stuff that they were doing. They've forgotten about a couple of things. The biggest things. Yeah. Loving God and loving others. He said, if you don't repent, you actually can't be in my church. 4 (1h 3m 36s): So we don't. 5 (1h 3m 36s): It's a big deal. Sometimes to have hatred in our heart for people, God thinks it's a big deal. God thinks it's a big deal. We'll know that we're his disciples because of our loved one for another. I mean, this is how the world knows is our it's because of our love. And it's a supernatural thing. Isn't it? Like, how do you love someone? You don't like supernaturally when you're fighting with your spouse, how do you love them? Unconditionally supernaturally. When you're at odds with people in your life, how do you continue to love them? You do it supernaturally. You're under the power of the Holy spirit, doing what God has asked you to do. 5 (1h 4m 19s): So maybe the best thing that God is asking you to do right now is just he's. He's saying, Oh, you say the question is, what do you want to do with me today? What do you want me to do today? And what do you want to do through me today? Maybe God is just saying, I want you to love people. Just start there. It's it's it's the basics. But beyond that, it's the deepest it's it's it's entry level, but it's it's, it's where mature believers also land it's it's it's everything. It's everything. So maybe you're asking, well, how, how do I love this person? You've got somebody in mind, just do the least selfish thing. Go out of your way to be gracious with them. 5 (1h 5m 2s): Speak words of affirmation. We can always find something good about people that we dislike. 4 (1h 5m 9s): Always. 5 (1h 5m 11s): So maybe you're saying, Lord, I know that this is what you want me to do, but I don't know how to, I don't know what is good about them. I 6 (1h 5m 18s): Don't, I don't know. I can't think of anything. Good job. We'll think of something and he'll tell you, and then you can speak that. And that will be in to be a bridge. Why don't we go and stand up by the worship team? God, I, I don't want our laps, our lampstand to be removed. So God, where there maybe division among us. I pray that you would break that in Jesus name, where people are angry. I pray and I, I'm not even thinking about a circumstance or situation, but God, if there is something going on where there's anger, resentment, unforgiveness, 7 (1h 6m 8s): Hatred, 6 (1h 6m 8s): I pray that you would break that in Jesus' name, that you would break our hearts with joy 7 (1h 6m 12s): Truth, that you would break our hearts with truth and help us to love. I pray for marriages, people who are struggling in their marriage relationships. I pray that you'd heal them in Jesus name, God, that we would love each other forever relationship for every partake, for every pain, for every disappointment, for every sorrow, just pray that you would wash over our souls, our lives in Jesus name. We need you to do that. Lord. We want to love people and we want to love you God, where, where we're not loving you for. 7 (1h 6m 58s): I'm not even sure what that looks like for each and every person, Lord God. But I pray that we would figure out what that means. Got to love you. And I don't even know what that means for me. Sometimes the Lord, I, I know tangibly. It means obedience means just taking time with you for me. And I, I true for every one of us. Just taking time with you to listen to you, launching you, desiring you Lord, not just in my devotional, you know, slots of time, but throughout the day, Lord, just continuing to look to you and looking for you and believing you and God, I don't know what you want to do, but I know you want to do something or some do that work in us. 7 (1h 8m 7s): Lord. I think if we're just willing, Lord, you'll figure it, figure out the rest and fix the rest Lord. So make us willing. We pray, Lord God, as we worship you, thank you for this time. And thank you for what you're doing. Just ask that you would continue that good work in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship 1 (1h 8m 39s): thank you so much. 0 (1h 19m 8s): And even when we're unlovely you still love us, help us love like them. Thank you for meeting us where we're at. And I ask that you help us to go when you sing, go and may still, when you say be still, because we can trust you because you love us. Thank you for worshiping with us 1 (1h 19m 44s): Wonderful week .

0 (0s): Good morning. Harvest Church good to see everybody this morning. I'm this beautiful, beautiful sunny day. And just to come and gather in the house of the Lord to love Jesus. I want to be great just to be able to spend time with him this morning. And we always say that we want church to be like a little taste of heaven and not because it feels like an eternity while you're here, but we're, but we're going to just love on Jesus here. Now we're going to take some time to worship. We're going to hear the word we're going to pray, and we're going to go forth from this place. Just excited about the fact that we get to be those who people can look at and say, if they took note to them that they have been with Jesus, let's open with prayer. 0 (49s): Shall we Lord our God, I thank you. And I praise you that you are God, and you are not just some distant God way out there, who set things into motion. And now you stand back and see how things play out. God, you are sovereign. You have declared the end from the beginning and everything that happens in between and that we can trust you because you are always working for us our best and for your glory. And that's why we're gathered here today is to bring glory to you, to lift up the name of Jesus. Two to walk in the power of the Holy spirit, come into us and we pray, God, that's what you would do here. 0 (1m 33s): Now that you would come into us, that, that Holy spirit, that you would fill us again and fill us more and fill us more. Let us be full of that. Living water, that overflows from our inner most being, because you have filled us so much, let your annointing be upon us. As we worship you. God, let us be that heavenly choir joining with the 10,000 times, 10,000 around your throne this day, fill us and use us for your glory. Speak to our hearts, Lord, you know, the needs of each one that are here today, whether it be a comfort or strength or encouragement or hope, or maybe it's people here in need of new life. 0 (2m 22s): I just pray that you would open their hearts to hear your word this day and respond to that gospel message that Jesus loves them, died for them and made a way for them to be right with God. Not by any strength of their own, but simply by trusting in you come Lord Jesus. Be glorified in our praises. Now in your name, we pray. Amen. 1 (3m 0s): never stop. 1 (6m 27s): Never stop. Never stop. and your grace that you hold us firmly. 1 (21m 53s): So we put our hope in you today. And every day you open our hearts to receive all the filler cups for the weekend, your work in Jesus. Why don't you take a moment to share God's love with someone around you say hello to someone new. And we'll be back in just a couple minutes with someone else's. 2 (22m 23s): Hey, my name's Jeremy on the youth and family pastor here at Harvest Church. And so I thought I would just drag my daughters up. This is Posey. She's going to be turning one here shortly. And then this is my other daughter Posey. And then this is Winnie, sorry. I mixed them up. When you have three girls, you start to mix them up. So we got Winnie Posey. So, so glad that you're joining us today. So glad to see so many faces, I'm seeing new faces and returning faces on the patio. So I'm just, it's. It's awesome to see you guys here. If you're joining us online, we want to welcome you as well, and just know that we want to make it as safe as possible for you to come and join us in person. If you, if you feel so inclined. 2 (23m 4s): So I've got two major announcements. One's sad and one's good. So which one do you want? First sad. All right. Sad. So sad news is the sister hood night of worship will be postponed till may. All right. We're pushing that back to may. So that is sad. So it was going to be February 19th, but we're pushing it back to me. So just stay tuned for that. As it gets closer, the good news is, is, Hey, if you have kids and you want to get out for that date night, we are hosting here a Valentine's day kids night. So if you have kids next Sunday, five to 8:00 PM, if you have kids from the ages of birth to sixth grade, you get to come and drop them off at here at Church and go out on a date, go out and get, get, get some time together as a couple. 2 (23m 53s): And I know she wants it. Registration is required ahead of time, just so we know how many students we're very prepared for. There's going to be a pizza games, movie, fun, all that stuff for only five bucks, a kid that's I mean, that's a steal. So contact Leslie or sign up on the events, link on our Church site website. Lastly, we're looking for some volunteers, a few ways to get connected or with the greeting team. And, and, and that's just a one-month to Sunday just, or sorry, one Sunday, a month. I should say joining the greeting team. There's the cleaning team. We were looking for someone to clean the loft once a month, as well as the safety team. 2 (24m 33s): So if you're interested in any of those reach out, I know she wants it. Hit the connect link on your app or on the website. And we'd love to have you, so thanks so much. 3 (24m 46s): Was he going to do this all by herself? That's what I want to know. That's what I wanted to know. He'd help pacifiers a nice touch. I like it. I like it. Yeah, no, I'm good. No, I'm good. I I've got my own. I've got my own. Just nobody knows about it. So don't tell anybody. Don't tell anybody welcome. How is everyone good? We're going to be in first Timothy, and then we're going to be an acts seven, eight, and nine. So in other words, we're going to be here a very long time today. Very, very long time. 3 (25m 27s): I Oh, there is a game today. That's right. This is why I'm going to go long. Test your test, your spirituality or something. I don't know who's playing anyway. I didn't even know he was playing the chiefs and who Buccaneers chiefs and the Buccaneers sounds like a wonderful game. I will watch it. I just don't. It's the only game I've watched all year. So we were just singing this song. I will make room for you to do whatever you want to. I will make room for you to do whatever you want to, easy to sing hard to do, right? Like hard to do last week. I challenged us with a couple of questions. And if we titled this message, there's no title for the message today. 3 (26m 9s): But if we did, in fact, I don't even have an outline for the message today. I just felt like Laura was doing something different this week. And so I'm doing something different this week. So if there was an outline and if there was a title for the message, you would be Two Questions, that would be the title of the message. Two Questions. So last week I asked you Two Questions. I said, when you get up in the morning, ask the Lord, what do you, what do you, what do you want me to do today? And what do you want to do through me today? Number of those Questions w what do you, what do you want me to do today? And what do you want to do through me today? And I just ask you to ask yourself that question. So what I'm going to do is continue to ask you to ask that question. Those two questions all month long, all through the month of February, and just see what the Lord might do before we get into it. 3 (26m 50s): I got a quick joke. You guys ready for a joke? Okay, good. It's kind of a Quip. It's kind of a joke kind of equip. So this young evangelist was invited to the small Midwestern town to do a series of meetings. And so while the young van, if young evangelists is there, he's doing a series of meetings and he decides to write a letter and send it home. But he's, can't find the post office. He's walking up and down the little town and on the main drag. And he's trying to find the post office, but he can't find the post office. So he finds this little guy and says, Hey, do you know where the post office is? He's like, yeah, it's easy. It's up two blocks turn. Right. And it'll be up another block. And that's where you'll find the post office. Well, the evangelist was excited that he had met this little guy and said, Hey, I'm in town as an evangelist doing a series of meetings. 3 (27m 37s): I'm telling people how to find Jesus. Would you like to come to the meeting? And the little guy said, absolutely not. Actually, you can't even find the post office or you can help me find Jesus true story. The evangelists was none other than Billy Graham. Yeah. And then interesting. So little Quip, a little funny, true story. And as I began to think about that little Quip and that little thing, and I thought, I wonder what I wonder what his story, what Billy Graham story is. I've never read his biography, yours. What is his story? Where did he get his beginning? Because you don't just all of a sudden and speak to millions of people in, in, in foreign countries and all around the world, have an audience with millions of people throughout the course of your life. 3 (28m 21s): It just doesn't just happen somewhere along the line. He decided he felt called to be an evangelists somewhere along the line, he felt like God was speaking to him to go do something that was probably outside of him. Now, I don't mean to say anything other than the obvious truth. When you listen to Billy Graham, he's very simple, right? Bless his heart. He's with the Lord. Now he was very simple message, but it was always a gospel message. And there was just something powerful about his message so that when people heard him, they got saved by the droves, by the millions people got saved when they listened to his very simple message. And so I thought, I wonder how he got his start. And then as I'm looking through first Timothy, we just finished up series. 3 (29m 2s): And now we're going to get into first Timothy and start a new series. I can't get past the first verse first Timothy chapter one. And as I am thinking about this message during the week, last week, I usually start writing my message on Thursday and wrap it up by Friday. And as I'm reading through Timothy the first day, I'm like, Lord, I, I know there's a lot I can say about this passage, but what is it that you want me to say about this passage? I don't want to just give a history lesson about first Timothy. I want to give something of manna, something of Rayma, something of food, nutrition, spiritual nutrition for our lives. And so I just wrestled with it on Thursday and then came back to it on Friday. 3 (29m 46s): And I remembered the Questions Lord, what do you want to do with me today? And what do you want to do through me today? And it re and I just was reminded of that challenge that I issued. And I decided to issue that challenge to myself. Again, Lord, I don't want to do anything that you don't want me to do, and I don't want to try to make something happen. I want you to speak through me. And so here we are. So I, you know, 4 (30m 10s): I've, I 3 (30m 12s): I'm capable of writing a sermon. I've been writing sermons for 30 years, but I didn't feel like that's what I was supposed to do today. Just to write a outline with three points. And you know that those are all good things and I'll do, I'll probably get back to that next week. But for now, we're just gonna look at the example of a few people in scripture, we talked and thought about Billy Graham a little bit. How did he get a start? What w how did he end up doing what he ended up doing? It doesn't just happen. Happenstance. This letter is from Paul first, Timothy chapter one, verse one. This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ. Jesus appointed by the command of God, our savior in Christ. 3 (30m 54s): Jesus who gives us hope, Paul, an apostle, how did that happen? It didn't just happen overnight. Number one, it didn't just happen because Paul wanted to be an apostle. God actually had a plan and somewhere along Paul's life, he had to agree with that plan. So let's go back to his conversion experience in acts chapter nine, and just see what happened as he was living his life, doing the things that he thought he should be doing acts chapter nine. We'll just pick it up in the beginning in verse one. It says, meanwhile, but Hey, before we do that, let's go ahead and stand up. We haven't prayed for the service yet. So Lord, we're gonna pray. And, and then we'll get into the message. 3 (31m 35s): So as we stand up all over the campus on the patio, in the loft, Lord, we thank you that you are here. Thank you that you are here. The same God that interrupted Saul's life. The apostle Paul's life, the same God who was there, speaking to him once is here and wants to speak to us. And so, Lord, I believe that is true. And we, as a church, we believe that is true. And so in our lives and in our circumstances and in the season that we S that we stand in our lives. We want you to speak to us, and we want you to speak to us as a church as well, collectively and corporately. We want you to speak to us. And so we say your will be done. God, speak your truth. 3 (32m 15s): And God, we commit out of the gate before we even hear what you tell us to do, we commit to do it. That's what we're going to commit to Lord. So if you're, if you, if you want to commit to that, just go and raise your hand. I'm not looking only, God's looking. Okay. Good. Put your hand down. Cause I'm not, I'm still not looking now. Maybe nobody raised their hand Lord, but maybe everybody raised their hand. But Lord, I pray that as you speak, that would have ears to hear, and they'd be ready to go in Jesus' name. So amen. You can be seated. So Paul previously saw all of Tarsus and acts chapter nine. This is his story. Meanwhile, Saul later becomes Paul. 3 (32m 58s): The apostle Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord's followers. So this is Paul. This is his Saul of Tarsus days. Let me just read it again, because maybe it didn't hit you. Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord's followers. So he went to the high priest and he requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the way he found there. So followers of the way, it's just another way of saying followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 3 (33m 39s): So Jesus had come as the Messiah. A lot of Jewish people didn't believe a lot of a lot did a lot. Didn't Paul didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah and he was persecuting. Those who were followers of the way he wanted to bring them both men and women back to Jerusalem in chains. This was his, his effort. This was his life mission. He was approaching Damascus on this mission. So we're real quick, we're on a mission before we know Jesus to do whatever it is that you know we're attempting to do. And then when we come to faith in Jesus, he puts us on a new mission, right? So Paul was not just an apostle, but he was a missionary. 3 (34m 21s): He was about the father's business, doing what God had asked him to do. So I wonder if your mission before your days in Christ or is different than your mission after your days as a follower of Jesus Christ, just a little challenge there. As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shown down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? So this is leading up to his Paul and Paul, an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ, by the will of God, who are you? Lord Saul ass. And the voice replied. I am Jesus. The one you are persecuting now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do that begins his journey. 3 (35m 11s): Do you remember when your journey began in Jesus? I can look back and remember specifically when that journey began for me. And I shared about it recently in that camp when I was in junior high school, that, that camp, when I just finally realized what Jesus was all about and what he was calling me to do, and it was powerful and profound. And life-changing 5 (35m 35s): Changed my mission, 6 (35m 38s): Honestly, as a young man, I didn't even know what my mission was other than just doing what felt good. If it feels good, do it. If it's gratifying, do it. If it's self satisfying, do it. And then something radically began to change. And God put me on a different path after that. What 3 (35m 58s): Is going on in your life? What is your vision? What has God called you to do 6 (36m 3s): As a follower of the Lord? Jesus Christ, because you have a purpose, 3 (36m 7s): Even as Jesus arrested Paul 6 (36m 9s): On the Damascus road and shown a light on him and challenged him and awakened him. God wants to do that with you. 3 (36m 16s): Let's take a look in acts chapter seven, and we'll look at a couple more examples here in acts chapter seven. Again, we're just kind of looking back at some examples of God, interrupting somebody's life and taking them on a mission so that they might follow his supernatural plan 6 (36m 31s): Because we sing this song. I will make room for you to do whatever you want to do. 3 (36m 39s): So it's a declaration and it's a prayer and it's a commitment. I will make 6 (36m 45s): A room for you to do whatever you want to. 3 (36m 49s): That is essentially the gospel. We're saying, I'm saying yes to the gospel. I'm saying yes to Jesus. And I'm committing my life for the rest of my life to follow Jesus. I will make room for you. So there's an intentionality there. It says I have to make room. That means I need to get rid of some stuff that's in my life so that Jesus can fit into my life. 6 (37m 11s): I will make room for you to do whatever you want. 3 (37m 13s): Two so, as we think about Stephen, this young, powerful follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, he was falsely accused, sound familiar. 6 (37m 22s): A lot of godly men in the Bible and women in the Bible were falsely accused 3 (37m 27s): And acts chapter six, verse 13 says the lying witnesses, the lying witnesses said this man is always speaking against the Holy temple and against the law of Moses. So Stephen is brought before the high council and just watch how he defends himself in Jesus name, acts chapter seven, verse one. Then the high priest asked Stephen are these accusations true? And he didn't try to defend himself. He just wanted to share the gospel and God's plan. As, as, as it was kind of rolled out throughout the history of the Hebrew people. This was Stevens, replied, brothers and fathers. Listen to me, our glorious God appeared to our ancestor, Abraham in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Harambe, God told him, leave your native land and your relatives and coming to the land that I will show you. 3 (38m 21s): So what did Abraham 6 (38m 22s): Do? 3 (38m 25s): He did what God asked him to do. Abraham made room for God to do whatever he wanted to do. So Abraham left the land of the Cal deans and lived in Horan until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live, but God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land. So you would think, and let's go back and just read Genesis 12 because Genesis 12 kind of 6 (38m 54s): Highlights the story with a little more information here and helps us understand what God was doing with Abraham. 3 (39m 2s): Because again, God had big plans for Abraham, but it required Abraham's cooperation. It required that he would make room for God to do whatever he wanted to do. So that was true in the old Testament. And it's true in the new Testament. It was true 2000 years ago. And it's true today. We need to make room so that God can do whatever it is that he wants to do in our lives. And so, as we look in Genesis chapter 12, verse one, it says the Lord had said to Abraham, he was Abraham before the Lord changed his name to Abraham because he was on one mission before God got ahold of his life. And now he's on a different mission. 3 (39m 42s): Now that God's got ahold of his life, the Lord said to him, leave your native country, your relatives and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great name. 6 (39m 58s): How old was he? Abraham was Abraham was 75 years old when he gets this message 75. So even back in Genesis, that was kind of getting up there. 3 (40m 9s): All right. So he's 75 years old 6 (40m 11s): And his wife is barren. She has no children and 3 (40m 16s): God calls him to leave his land that he is familiar with and leave his family and go to a nation or go to this new land. And that he's promised that I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous. 6 (40m 31s): Is, is Abraham famous? Yeah. Every, every major religion in the world follows would consider Abraham the father of their, their belief, including Christianity. 3 (40m 43s): I will believe you. I will bless you and make you famous. And you will be blessing a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on the earth will be blessed through you. So Abraham departed 6 (40m 56s): Lord had instructed and lot went with him. Abraham was 75 years old. When he left Heron, he took his wife, Sarah, his nephew lot, and all his wealth, his livestock, and all the people he had taken to his house household to Heron and headed for the land of Canaan. 3 (41m 14s): So at 75 years old, he's got no descendants 6 (41m 17s): Because his 3 (41m 18s): Wife is not able to have children 6 (41m 20s): And the Lord calls him 3 (41m 22s): And gives him a vision and gives him a new mission for his life. And so I would say that God is the same because 6 (41m 30s): I say this because the Bible says it, that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Jesus 3 (41m 34s): Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And so the way he functioned and operated then is the same way. He still functions and operates today. So what he wants to do is he wants to give us a new vision for our lives and a new mission for our lives. So when we ask the question, God, what do you want to do with me? And what do you want to do through me? He will communicate his new vision and his new mission to you. And you'll make those things very clear to you over time, but you have to be willing number as we were praying, I said, are you willing to do what God asks you to do before we even pray? And some of us raised our hands, some of us did, and some of us are like, I'll wait until I hear, because we're used to negotiating with God. When we hear what he wants us to do, we negotiate with him for a better terms or for, for a better plan. 3 (42m 21s): And we just, we think this somehow we can add something to what God has asked us to do. And we, we don't have any bartering power or any negotiating power with the Lord because salvation says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead. You shall be saved. That's the pathway to salvation that we recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I hark on this all the time because it's the truth. So Christianity is recognizing the Lordship of Jesus Christ. So something has to trigger in our lives where we say, yes, I trust you Lord. And yes don't want, no matter what you say, I'm going to agree with it and follow it and do what you ask, 6 (42m 57s): Ask me to do. So Abraham departs and does what the Lord asked him to do. It started there in Genesis 12 and 3 (43m 12s): Lasted throughout the course of his whole life, 6 (43m 15s): New vision, new mission. I will make room for you to do whatever you want to do. Abraham, did that 3 (43m 24s): Leave your native land back to acts chapter seven. God told them, leave your native land and your relatives and come into the land that I will show you. So Abraham left the land of the Cal deans and lived in Horan until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you, where you now live. But God gave him no inheritance here, not even a one square foot of land. 6 (43m 45s): We're awfully impatient with God's plans, right? Like, especially 3 (43m 50s): Like if we're doing something that requires a great deal of faith we want in 6 (43m 54s): Return and God doesn't always do what we expect him to do. God did. 3 (43m 59s): I promise however that eventually, eventually, and we have to be patient in the event, 6 (44m 4s): Truly part of life, right? We have to 3 (44m 8s): Be patient as we wait for God to eventually do what he's going to do. So I I've been 6 (44m 13s): Praying for this camp back here 3 (44m 15s): For 18 years. And you got a lot of, you know, that I'd been praying for this camp back here for 18 years. Cause there's 29 acres of property back 6 (44m 21s): There. And it used to be a Methodist camp connected. 3 (44m 25s): Two this old Methodist facility that we have now as, as Harvest Church. And I felt when we moved, okay, maybe it's not been 18 years. We planted the church 18 years ago. So I've been praying for it for 16 years. Cause we got here at about year two. So I've been praying for that camp that God would give us that camp for 16 years, asking the Lord to give it to us. Now I'm not always the most patient person. And so I'm often looking for a different way to accomplish what God wants to accomplish. And so a buddy of mine who is a pastor in the Pomo, he told me recently, as we were driving together in the truck, he said, Hey, there's a gal in a Royal Grande day who offered to give me some land to build a church. 3 (45m 8s): But I told her I'm not called to minister in a row. Grandam called to minister in Nepal most. So I turned her down. I said, Hey, I'll take the land. I'll take the land. If she's got land in a rig, Grande that I will take the land and we'll build a church and we'll do what she wants to do. So I let him live for a couple of days and I called him up and I said, Hey, would you be okay if I called this gal and asked her for that land? Even if we pay for it, I'll just ask her if we can talk about, he said, no. 7 (45m 38s): I said, 3 (45m 39s): Okay. He said, it just wouldn't be appropriate. I said, okay, I trust you. So then Friday, I'm meeting with a guy and I'm praying, I meet with a guy that about once a week or so. And we pray in the office on Fridays and we were praying and I began to pray again for the camp because my plan B and plan C and plan deed, you know, they never work out, but God's plan a always works out in 7 (46m 0s): God's timing. Eventually 3 (46m 5s): It will come to pass. And so I felt as though, as I was praying that the Lord said, you're closer than you think, as I said, that's good. That's like, we're closer to the rapture. Then you think like we were closer yesterday. Then we work today. There we're closer today than we were yesterday. So I know though that in my spirit, the Lord, I feel like in my spirit, the Lord said that. And so eventually when the timing is right, God will give us that land. So eventually the whole land will belong to, to Abraham and his descendants, even though he had no children, yet God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign land where he would be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. But I will punish that nation that enslaves them, God said, and in the end they will come out and worship me here in this place. 3 (46m 49s): God also gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. Think about the covenant of circumcision before Genesis 17, the covenant of circumcision, the idea of circumcision had never even been thought of as far as we can tell. And so God tells Abraham, Hey, I want you to circumcise cutoff the flesh of your Fort, that your son's for skin. And that's going to be a sign of the covenant that you are entering in with me. That's crazy. Right? I think it's, it seems a little crazy. I mean, if you think about it, it doesn't sound very comfortable. It sounds kind of like, you know, you're crossing the line a little bit. It's maybe if you didn't hear directly from the Lord, but God continue to show him wonderful and supernatural things and even things that were outside of his experience up to that point. 3 (47m 41s): And he continued to do what God had asked him to do all the days of his life. So Abraham became the father of Isaac miracle. Number one, right? Became the father of Isaac. He was not supposed to have kids as a a hundred year old man. He finally had a kid and had to wait about 25 years for that kid. He circumcised him on the eighth day. And the practice was continued when Isaac became the father of Jacob. And when Jacob became the father of the 12 patriarchs of the Israelite nation, verse nine says the patriarchs were jealous of their brother. Joseph. Remember the sons, remember Jacob's sons. Remember Joseph? He, he had this intimacy with the Lord. 3 (48m 22s): I don't know how he established it or developed it, but he had some intimacy with the Lord such that God would give him dreams about the future. And in his foolishness, I will say he shared those dreams with his brothers and his brothers didn't like him because of those dreams. Because in those dreams, his brothers are bowing down to him. And so they're irritated. They're they don't like that. And so what do they do? They sell him. First of all, they throw him in a pit, leaving him for dead. And then they decide, no, let's not do that. Let's sell him into slavery, to the Ishmaelite traders going by. And then the Ishmaelites sell him again. So we sold into slavery again, and then he's falsely accused. And so he gets thrown into jail and to prison. 3 (49m 3s): And he's in prison for a long time, waiting for God to do what eventually God will do because God had communicated in a dream to him, what his plan was for Joseph's life. And so is there an eventually in a Joseph's life? Yeah. Right. So Joseph had a new vision, a new mission for his life, but it took a long time for that. The eventually part of his life took a long time for him to finally get there in the eventually part of his life. He had to keep his heart tender before the Lord. So we know that while he's in jail as a prisoner, he was a, he was a, a wonderful prisoner. He was a great example and a great person within, within the prison system. 3 (49m 45s): And he was given responsibility and authority within the prison. Then ultimately, ultimately he was finally going to be released. Famine came upon the land verse 11 acts chapter seven, there was a great misery. And our ancestors ran out of food. Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt. So he went with the sons, our ancestors to buy some food. And that's where Jacob and, and his other sons ran into 6 (50m 10s): Joseph, who is now the governor of all of Egypt. So God had given him a new vision and a new mission for his life. And now his whole family is going to be blessed as a result. 3 (50m 24s): They keep his heart tender because he knew that he'd see his face or God knew he would see his family again and be part of the delivering process and redeeming process for his whole family. If he didn't keep his heart tender, maybe just, maybe the Lord wouldn't have been able to use him the way that he was used. Let's take a look at Moses. Remember the story of Moses first 20 acts chapter seven. And at that time, Moses was born a beautiful child in God's eyes. His parents cared for him at home for three months. And when they had to abandon him, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and raised him as her own son. 3 (51m 4s): Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians and he was powerful in both speech and action. One day when Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his relatives. The people of Israel, he saw an Egyptian mistreating, an Israelite. So Moses came to the man's defense and avenged him killing the Egyptian. Moses assumed verse 25. His fellow Israelites would realize that God sent him to rescue them, but they didn't. What do you do when people don't realize what God has called you to do? And they are naysayers in your life and they don't get behind what God has asked you to do. So when we planted this church 18 years ago, so many people told us not to plant the church. 3 (51m 46s): They said, there's a bunch of churches in a row Grande day. So you don't need to plant another church here in this community. They said you don't have the stamina to be a senior pastor of a church. So you shouldn't plant a church. You should just go be an associate pastor somewhere like I'd been doing for a number of years before that. But I just knew that God had called us to plant a church. We didn't have any money. We didn't have any people. We didn't have any backing. We didn't have any equipment, but I just knew that God had called us to plant a church. Have you ever been up against a situation like that where you're like, I know that God's asked me to do this, but I don't know how it's going to happen. 3 (52m 27s): If you have, then you're walking in the plans and purposes of God, because this is the, this is the way God works. It happened with Joseph. Like people, your brothers will be bowing down before you, your parents were bowing down before how Lord and I'm sure he must have rehearsed those dreams many times. When is this ever going to come to pass? In the meantime, God's doing stuff in his life to prepare him for what God wants to do with and through him, because I'm sure he got up in the morning and said, Lord, I will make room for you to do whatever you want to do. I, I dunno what you want to do with me today, Lord. But I'm going to make myself available. 3 (53m 7s): Do me, do with me what you want and work through me the way that you want. It's his conduct and his character in jail and prison were indications that he kept his heart right before the Lord. And then the Lord was able to use him when it was time. Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that had sent him to rescue them, but they didn't. The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting. He tried to be a peacemaker man. He said, you are brothers. Why are you fighting each other? But the man in the wrong push Moses aside, who made you a ruler and judge over us, he asked, are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday, when Moses heard that he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian there, his two sons were born. 6 (53m 57s): So Moses is now a fugitive, 3 (54m 3s): The backside of the desert, somewhere with his herds, just waiting for God to do what he felt like the Lord was going right 6 (54m 9s): To do. And then just casually casually. It says in verse 30, 28, excuse me, verse 30 casually. It says 40 years later, 40 years later, like it's no big deal, right? Like 40 years later, 3 (54m 30s): You're like, I have a hard time being patient with the Lord for like four days, 6 (54m 33s): Right? Four weeks, four months, 40 years, I for 40 years later 3 (54m 40s): Or in the desert near Mount Sinai and angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning Bush. When Moses saw he was amazed at the sight and he went to take a closer look and the voice of the Lord called out to him. I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses shook with terror and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, take off your sandals for you are standing on Holy ground. I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans and I've come down to rescue them. Now, go for, I am sending you back to Egypt. 6 (55m 18s): 40 years later, God is working in our lives. In-between the fulfillment, the giving of the 3 (55m 29s): And emission and the fulfillment of the vision and mission. He's doing great stuff all along the way, but he's working in our lives and I don't want us to miss out. And I personally don't want to miss out on the, on that preparation, those stages in between where God is about to bring about his great plans and purposes for my life and my ministry. 6 (55m 49s): But we have to be willing to say yes 3 (55m 52s): To God and do what God asks us to do the way he asks us to do it without negotiating, without trying to barter back and forth and make a plan that's different than God's plan. So a couple about three or four weeks ago, 6 (56m 8s): We had 3 (56m 9s): The baby bottles, the lifeline crisis pregnancy center, people here, 6 (56m 13s): And they were passing out baby bottles. 3 (56m 15s): And the idea was, it's a fundraiser for them. So you take your baby bottle home and you fill it up with change or money or whatever, and you bring it back in the next week or two. And, and, and so this family in our church, they had this vacation savings fund, this big water bottle that they were dropping their money into all the time, just to try to save money and raise money for a vacation. Well, when they heard about the baby bottle drive, they decided that they would bring in their jug of money and give it to the baby bottle drive for the fundraiser. And so we heard the story, it was shared through an announcement. And I, as I heard that story, I thought, Hey, I've got one of those water bottle things. 3 (56m 57s): I've got one of those things that I will throw money into just as a stash. And I'll just have some cash and coins in there. And whenever I feel like it, I just dump money into and I've been, it's been accumulating for years and I felt like the Lord said, Hey, you should do that. And so I shared it with somebody who, who was close to me and I said, Hey, I'm going to do what that family did. And that person said, well, why don't you just write a check? I said, well, that's not what God asked me. I don't feel like that's what God said to do. I thought about it since then, if I've read a check, I get credit for it. Right. I'm kind of getting credit for it now, but God only knows God only knows the amount, right. So I think it's not what God asked me to do. 3 (57m 40s): I read a check, I get credit for it. I don't want credit for it. I just want to drop off the money and go. So I decided in that moment that I would take the jar of money and just fill up bottles and give it and just let the Lord sort things out. I think often we hear what the Lord wants us to do, and we navigate a different way. We don't do exactly what he asked us to do, or we wait and we wait and we wait until maybe the moment that the Lord has prepared us for his past. And then we miss out on the blessing that God has for us. Can we get in the habits? Can we get in the habit of just saying yes, immediately to the Lord and just say, yes, Lord, and do immediately what God asks us to do. 3 (58m 20s): I think sometimes the Lord has to take into account our faithlessness and he asks us three months ahead of time. So we actually do it when he wants us to do it. Why does God have to take into account our faithlessness? Why can't he just assume that we're going to be obedient? So will he just knows that when he asks us the newsletter, we're going to do it. We just do it out of the gate, right? Because if we're indeed making room for God to do whatever he wants to do. And if we're indeed asking ourselves this question for this month of February, God, what do you want to do with me today? What do you want to do through me today? It means that we we're we're, we're, we're staying present with the Lord to be present with the Lord just means like being in a friendship, present with a friend in a friendship, like Lord I'm with you. 3 (59m 0s): I want to do what you asking me to do. And then I'm going to step into that. So let's be committed this month as I get ready to write. As I wrap up here, I want, who is with me now? I've got my eyes open this time. Not that I'm going to remember who raised their hand, but who's with me to, let me just tell you what you're raising your hand for, again, this, for this month 6 (59m 23s): On the patio and in the loft as the worship team comes forward. 1 (59m 26s): 6 (59m 29s): I want you to remember this song that we were singing. And I want you to tell the Lord, I will make room for you to do whatever you want to do. I will make room for you. And then when you get up in the morning, ask these questions. So Lord, what do you want to do with me? And what do you want to do through me? As I was talking to a couple of staff members before the first service today, I shared with them what I was going to be sharing with you guys today. And two different responses. One of the staff members got up this morning and having a hard time getting out of bed. And, and this person felt like the Lord said, follow me just the simple little thing, follow me. And that may be what you hear from the Lord. You may hear follow me. 6 (1h 0m 11s): And then throughout the course of your day and your week and your month, you're going to hear the Lord speak something to you, but you have to be close to the Lord to hear it intimate with the Lord, present with the Lord so that you might hear it so that she might do it. The second person said my goal this whole week is that I would end the day feeling closer to God than when I began the day. Isn't that a great idea? So like sometimes we get up in the morning, we have our devotions and we're close to it. We feel close to the Lord. And that just kind of wanes. It kind of wears off throughout the course of the day, right? His goal, this person's goal was to end up at the end of the day, feeling closer to the Lord. And so what that meant is that he had to be walking with the Lord, feeling close to the Lord, being obedient to the Lord, being faithful to the Lord all throughout the course of the day. 6 (1h 0m 53s): So at the end of the day, he felt closer to the Lord than at the beginning. So maybe the Lord will do something like that with you and speak something like that to you, whatever he does. If you're willing to go on this journey with me, because I'm going to go with you. So my hands up, and if anybody wants to join me, just go and raise your hand. Okay? That's awesome. Most of us are saying yes. So I'm going to is with our hands still up, all over the property. Lord, we just pray. God, you see, you see our hands. We want to make room for you to do whatever you want to do. Lauren. We were declaring that as truth. We, we want to, we want to make room Lord. So show us what that looks like. 6 (1h 1m 34s): So as you can do whatever you want to do, Lauren, God is we wake up in the morning as we look to you, no matter how we feel, no matter what's going on, we're going to ask these two questions. God, what do you want to do with me? And what do you want to do through 1 (1h 1m 53s): Me 6 (1h 1m 55s): And God as we make those declarations known and those those statements know, and Lord, we pray that you give us ears to hear, and that we'd be obedient to the smallest things and to the greatest things and everything in between. So thank you for what you will do as we make these commitments for this month of February, Lord. And I pray that it'd become a pattern for all the days of our lives in Jesus name, Jesus' name. Amen. Let's go and worship. 1 (1h 2m 28s): . 8 (1h 10m 56s): You are our foundation that we build our lives on. So we make room for you to do, as you want to do in our hearts and lives this week, in this year, open our eyes to see you in our years, to hear you want to follow your leading your words, your, your truth. There's none like you. Jesus, thank you for being here with us today. Thank you for the powerful word to our hearts. I pray that it would take root and bear fruit that we could shine for. You. Be a city on a Hill that draws people unto yourself onto your love onto your kingdom. 8 (1h 11m 37s): Thank you for this church family. Thank you for the opportunity to be together all around this campus, all around this County. How would you fill us for the week ahead? We love you, Lord. We don't take for granted when you come and meet with us. And so we're just so grateful just to give you our hearts and lives in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Well, if anyone would like some prayer this morning as always, we have staff or volunteers, I'd love to pray with you today. So don't hesitate to come on forward and, and meet someone up here. Make sure you say hello to someone. Feel free to grab some copy. Have a wonderful day. We look forward to seeing you again next Sunday, have a good one.

1 (4s): Good morning. Harvest Church family. How's everybody doing today? Yeah. Good to see your smiling faces here in the room and to everyone watching around campus and Work or wherever you're tuning in on the line. Welcome. We're so glad that you tuned in to join us and worship together. If you have some space while you stand, if you're able and join in preparing your hearts and your bodies for worship this morning, and to bring praise to his name today, let's take a moment and just invite his presence. Pray that you would fill our hearts with worship. 1 (44s): Thanks this morning that you would remind us of your faithfulness towards us, your goodness, and your mercies that follow us all the days of our lives has got. We know that when we catch a glimpse of you. And so we just bring you our hearts today and just bring a sacrifice of praise and lay it at the altar, ask you to meet us here in the mist. I love you, Lord and worship 0 (1m 22s): Jesus 1 (1m 31s): 0 (1m 36s): displace everything at the alter. 0 (9m 30s): This 1 (12m 23s): Yeah. There's anybody in this space here or anywhere on campus that feels like in the word of encouragement has to be a great time to just bring that. I know maybe you won't be able to hear it from different rooms, but let's just lift it at right where we're at. If a prayer or the Lord's put on your face. 0 (12m 37s): 1 (13m 46s): You know, you love to encourage us God to make us aware of your presence. 0 (13m 52s): 1 (14m 19s): Can you turn it? 0 (14m 23s): this morning. 1 (19m 60s): That's the experiencing of circumstances. It's difficult that you would meet them in how to show them more than when you work all things together for good. You help us to be patient. 0 (20m 12s): See the hand of the Lord in her life. You care for us. So deeply. 1 (20m 21s): The enemy would love us to believe that you've forgotten us, that you've abandoned us. And that's the furthest thing from the truth. Your word says that you never leave us. You never forsake us. And that your presence is always with us. And so we thank you for new mercies today. We just drink it. Every ounce that we need, fill our tank for this week, or we, you, we depend on you. We call upon you this morning for all that. We have need to come and heal every ache in our hearts and every pain in our body and every anxious thought, how would you wash it away? 1 (21m 4s): Bring peace to pass our understanding this morning. As we look to you, Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Thank you for your presence here with us. Would you continue to minister deeply to our hearts as we dive into your word this morning, as we continue in worship, love you. Pardon me? Thank you for these opportunities to come together as family to worship you and know you more. You love you give your more hearts in Jesus name. Amen. Well, this is the time that we love in the middle of service, where you get to meet somebody. If you haven't met somebody at, please say, hello, meet someone new. 1 (21m 48s): Those who are on campus. Take a moment and we'll be back in just a few minutes with them and how sense. 2 (21m 55s): So, and if you're joining us online, we're glad to have you as well. Looking forward to having back here in service and gathering through this way. Hey, we have, if you like to golf, got some exciting news for you. We have a golfing club starting up. It meets one Sunday per month, not during service after service. So the first gathering will be a Sunday, February 7th, and that we 1:00 PM at Cypress Ridge. And you can click on the connect link on the website or app to sign up for that. Just to give us a heads up on notice. If you're going to be coming, let's see we have midweek prayer. I want to remind you guys about that. So mid-week on Thursdays at 8:00 AM in the loft. 2 (22m 36s): We gather for prayer and it's a powerful time to join together and everyone is welcome. And then just a reminder that we're collecting lifeline bottles this week. So if you, if you filled up your bottle, a change or checks or cash or whatever, go, go drop those back off with them, bless them. And then also, Hey, just a great way to connect with our churches, the Harvest Church app, and that you can download it on your phone and that'll keep you posted on ways to connect with our church and the everything that's going on. So that's all I got. That's all I got was easy one this week. Yeah. So can you hear me now? 2 (23m 44s): Yeah, there we go. Hey, welcome. How 3 (23m 46s): Is everyone 4 (23m 49s): I'll start over. So, 3 (23m 51s): So we did have a Memorial service yesterday and it was, 4 (23m 54s): Was really, really, really good. 3 (23m 57s): Good. I'll tell you when you do a Memorial service or somebody who's given their whole life to Jesus, 4 (24m 2s): It's easy. It really is. 3 (24m 4s): It's, it's easy to talk about their lives. It's easy to talk about their impact because it was vast. This gal, Terry gainer died at 60 years old, but she so she's young, but she may have spent her whole life serving Jesus and impacting people for the kingdom. And so it was really a celebration of life. We got to talk about all of her impact and all of the stuff that she accomplished in her life. And it's it's, it should be an inspiration for all of us that man, we've got life to live for his kingdom, things to do for God. And, and he will use us when we allow him to use us. We're talking about Work today and I gotta be honest with you. When I started thinking about the topic of work in second Thessalonians, chapter three, I wasn't thrilled about it. 3 (24m 48s): I was like, Work what a boring topic, you know? W what am I going to say about work? And I thought, Hey, everybody is working. Everybody's got, everybody's got stuff going on. So before I get into that, I got a quick joke. You guys ready for a joke? What do you call it? Toothless 4 (25m 5s): Bear. A gummy bear. There we go. 3 (25m 9s): A gummy bear. Simon Hobbs gets five bucks for that one. Simon Hobbs also gave me this joke. 4 (25m 16s): Knock-knock interrupting bear, Bri interrupting, bear interrupted. 3 (25m 27s): Can you make sure Simon Hobbs gets this $10 here? Sam bull five bucks per joke, five bucks per joke. That was the deal. So if, if you give me a joke that I use on a Sunday morning, then I'll give you a five bucks. Is that a fair deal? Cause I I've read all kinds of joke books and some of them are really bad. The ones that I want to tell on Sunday morning are really good. Like the one that Simon just told me Simon's about eight or so. So he's, there you go. He always comes up with a good joke for me. So as I thought about Work, I thought, what can I talk about Work? So I've been in full-time vocational ministry for a couple of decades. And before that I was in sales and marketing and I thought, you know what? Those are some of my best years. 3 (26m 9s): I mean, I've loved being in full-time vocational ministry as well, but when I'm thinking about impact, I mean, I think I've had some impact in full-time vocational ministry as well, but most of us aren't in full-time vocational ministry and we have the opportunity in the world to have an impact. And so I started thinking about my life and work and ministry, and I just about every day of my life in secular work, I had an opportunity to minister, to somebody in some way, whether praying for them or telling them about Jesus somehow some way 4 (26m 40s): God used me 3 (26m 42s): To do that. I didn't know how, in fact, my sales trainer, when I was 23 years old, I had a sale outside sales job. And the guy training me was also a Christian. And he would walk away from a meeting and I'd be in a conversation with somebody and we'd be talking about Jesus when he came back and he'd be like, how in the world do you always steer the conversation toward Jesus? I said, it's really easy. I, they asked me about my life. I tell them I went to Bible college and that just opens the door wide open. So I, they asked me about Bible college and they asked me about, you know, all of this stuff. And then somehow we just have the conversation turned towards Jesus. But I think when Jesus is our focus, the conversation can easily be turned toward him. And so over that, I was just thinking about it over the course of my life. 3 (27m 23s): And this isn't a, this isn't a Pat myself on the back, but this is just what God can do through us when we just are yielded to him. And when we're thinking about him in the course of our day and throughout our lives. And so I was thinking, I I've been able to tell, tell people about Jesus, straight people, gay people, contractors, architects, prisoners, you name it. Cause I, I had sales, a sales territory where I visited like five or six prisons and sold to the prisons prison industries. And so I'd go in and talk to people in prison industries. And I would tell them about Jesus and sell product as well. But I always tell them about 5 (27m 58s): Jesus. And 3 (28m 0s): It was just an open door of opportunity, especially people in prison. You've got a captive audience they're just there and they got to listen to the captive audience. I was a chaplain as well. And so I use that joke a lot. It it's, I guess it's getting old. So I'll stop using that joke. But the point is I thought about working at Work is Awesome Work is, is a open, open opportunity. It's an opportunity for us to share the gospel with people, to pray for people. I remember I was at Work a years ago and this guy, he was, he came to work really sick and not feeling good. I said, can I pray for you? And so I just, he said, okay. And I just prayed for him a simple little prayer and then just left it in the Lord's hands. And then just over the course of time, I remember another guy he had just, just been searching for the Lord and he can, he confided in me that his girlfriend had an abortion and he was just grieved over it. 3 (28m 53s): He was just grieved over this decision that they had made. And so we had, I had a chance to just administer the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of grace of God, to him and, and really powerful things happen. And that guy is still in church to this day. Powerful things happen when we avail ourselves to the work of Christ and it doesn't have to be heavy handed and it's not meant to be heavy handed. It's just meant to be out of the, out of the course of our lives. We're just meant to share our lives with people and part of our lives, a big part of our lives. If we're Christians, is that we man, we follow Jesus and Jesus has got stuff to say about stuff. So sermon title today Work is Awesome. So I went from saying, man, I don't want to talk about Work at all to this title that says Work is Awesome. 3 (29m 38s): Why is Work Awesome well, we were created to work. We're going to get into second Thessalonians, three chapter six, chapter three, verses six through 18 here, just in a few minutes, but we're going to take a few minutes to get to that, that chapter and verse there. Why is Work Awesome we were created to Work God has purpose for our work. We forgot to pray. Let's go and stand up and pray Lord, as we talk about Work today, we just want to avail ourselves to you. I know some of us need to be changed challenged in our area of work. Some of us need to be encouraged and some of us need to be informed. 3 (30m 20s): And so Lord, I pray you would do all of the above in Jesus' name, that you would open up our hearts and minds. We, you would give us creative ways to minister in our work, but also give us a different perspective about work and just the value of Work got to remind us of truth in your word, what you say about work and what you expect from us about concerning our work. Lord God. So I pray Jesus that this wouldn't be just a conversation about work, but it would be a conversation about kingdom and work and how our work is meant to impact the kingdom. So I think everything is supposed to be about the kingdom. So your will be done in that regard. We pray in Jesus' name. 3 (31m 2s): Amen. Amen. You can be seated. So we were created to work. God has purpose for our work. And so we're talking about the practical benefits of Work, but God has more than practical things to say about Work. He's got more than practical things in mind and, you know, paying the mortgage, buying a car, raising kids, kids, all of those things are important. But when we think about what God might do with our resources, as we work our work time and we're in a job eight, 10, 12 hours a day, interacting with people eight and 12 hours a day, and that's opportunity to build relationships. I have relationships with men that I worked with going back to that guy who trained me in sales, going back to my sales manager over 20 years ago, I can, I can recount relationships with people that I'm still in contact with more than two decades later, because there was something besides just work that we had in common. 3 (32m 4s): We decided to share a life together. And one guy in particular is not a Christian, but we've shared life together. And I've shared the gospel with him over and over and over again. And I'm sure that before he passes one day, he is going to give his life to Jesus. That's my confidence. Why? I dunno, I just keep praying for him. I just keep believing for him. And I just keep talking with him and I keep loving on him, not with the motivation to see him save necessarily. But as a Christian, that's always part of the deal. We always want to see the people that we love come to faith in Jesus so that they can know Jesus, the way that we love Jesus, but we don't just love them for motivation. Otherwise, people see through that. So we've got to love people just because we love them. 3 (32m 44s): I have conversations with them with a sincere heart, not with a motivation to share the gospel, looking for an opening, but when the opening is there, we can lovingly do it and sincerely do it because God has opened the door. Does that make sense? Remember, sharing on job sites with, with contractors and, and builders and architects, and it didn't matter who it was. God, just, God, just, there was always an opportunity there that, you know, God used to, to, to give me the opportunity to share the gospel. People would ask for prayer. People would just ask all kinds of questions. 3 (33m 25s): And then out of that, see, we have to be willing to share the truth though. Like, like, you know, w we have to be willing to share our faith with people and not be afraid to do that because people are hungry for something of real truth. You know, I know that I was when I got saved and I'm still that way today. And here we go, God has purpose for our work. And we're going, we're going to be talking about the practical benefits, but also the spiritual side of work. Did you know that there was a spiritual side to Work? I just explained it. There's a spiritual side to work and it's Awesome God has little things in mind. If you attempt to talk to a dying man about sports or business, he is no longer interested. He now sees other things are more important. 3 (34m 9s): People who are dying recognize what we often forget that we are standing on the brink of another world. You know, you don't have to wait to die to have that perspective, to realize that we're standing on the brink of another world. You shouldn't have to be dying to have that perspective, right? You shouldn't be dying to, I mean, you can get it when you're dying, but you should get it now. Like when you're young and vibrant and can make, make something of your life. Often we think work is the result of the fall. Like, Hey, before the fall, there was, there was no Work. That was Work before the fall work is not the result. So the fall we were created for purpose, and part of that purpose is Work God modeled Work for us in the creation account, in his constant work, in the universe. 3 (34m 52s): So in the creation account, we see God worked 16 days. He created everything on the seventh day. He rested, but also in our day-to-day lives, we see the work of God in the universe. We see God sustaining the universe, God listening to our prayers, God working as he ministers to us in our lives in Genesis two, one and two in the English standard version, it says, thus, the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So there's a time or rest, but it's after the Work is done, right? 3 (35m 34s): We have work to do. And I would challenge you to be asking the Lord what it is that he's got you to do. I've got a buddy of mine, who he was here today and he hangs out down at, and he's all the time because he's looking for God to open doors for him to ministry. He's got a semi-retired, he's got a job and that sort of thing, but he's down at Andrew. And he's because he's realized that God's created opportunities. Andrade is just a coffee shop down the street here, but he's realized that as he sits there, God brings people to him. And he's got an opportunity to pray for people and minister to people and to share the gospel with people. So he makes that part of his daily routine. Lord, 4 (36m 8s): Where do you want to use me? I want to be 3 (36m 11s): Available, Lord. That should be our attitude. And our perspective, God wants to work through us. God works. And God created man to Work Genesis two 15, the Lord, God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. So that was before the fall. So before the fall, God created people to work. He's created us to work. And then after the fall more Work we see in Genesis three 23, therefore the Lord sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. So throughout biblical history, God has given Work for his creation to accomplish. Have you stopped and asked the Lord, what is it that I'm here 4 (36m 53s): To do? Besides what 3 (36m 55s): I do for a living in the midst of what I do for a living, how do you want to use me in the midst of that? And outside of that, what do you want to do with my life? Work is how things get done. In fact, nothing can actually happen unless 4 (37m 9s): Work is done on, on 3 (37m 14s): Friday, I was at the office working and I ended up talking to a guy, Jim Autry, Jim usually sits right around there about second service. And Jim was here with Joanne and they were working in as volunteers around the property. And I said, you know what? I so appreciate your work around here. And they, they go around and they, they knocked cobwebs down off the building and they dust buildings and they cleaned buildings and they just do whatever is needed around the property. And he said, you know what? It's the most fun thing in the world to be here, working for God and just keeping the facility up. There is something that we can be doing with our work that points people to Jesus and glorifies. God, why has Work Awesome number one, work is enjoyable. 3 (37m 56s): If you notice that now work is work and sometimes it's not enjoyable, but some of my best memories in life is around Work. Whether it's vocational stuff or just work around the property. 4 (38m 10s): There's something very gratifying about Work. 3 (38m 13s): I just built a greenhouse a few months ago in my backyard, and it's not perfect, but it's the work of my 4 (38m 18s): Hands, right? 3 (38m 21s): When the rain, the, the roof kind of sags when it rains a little bit, cause it's a corrugated stuff, but so you have to pick it up and put the water, but you know, it's my 4 (38m 30s): Roof 3 (38m 32s): And it's my greenhouse. And I got to build that thing from suffering my property. And, and there's something very gratifying about it. When the grass is freshly cut, my son comes and cuts our grass. And when it's freshly cut, it's just this amazing looking yard because it's freshly cut. There's something gratifying about work. Work is enjoyable. Genesis one 31. After the creation, God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good. We're like, God we've been created in his image. So we look at the things that we have done, the ways that we have worked in the ways that we haven't been productive and we can be very happy with those things. And there was evening and there was morning. 3 (39m 12s): And the sixth day, God saw that he had what he had made. It was very, very good. We were meant to step back and look at our own lives and say, man, that was very good. I am so glad that God used me in this arena in this way, because I've had impact so that when you get to the end of your life and you expire and you get translated to heaven, people are going to be able to say that person like we did with Terry gainer yesterday, that person worked for God's kingdom. She worked in the church, she worked with women's ministries. She worked in human trafficking. She worked in all of these areas and arenas so that people might know Jesus so that she might point people to Jesus. 3 (39m 58s): So at the end of her, life is just easy. We just tick off all the stuff that she did. It was easy. It was like, she did this and this and this. And we talked about this and this and this. And it was just like, it was a celebration of her life because it's, it's appointed once for man to die. Then the judgment she was able to stand before the Lord. And I said, I, I promise you. She got before the Lord, she heard well done, good and faithful servant well done. And that's our desire. We want to hear that. We want to hear well done. Good and faithful, servant, Jolene. And I worked together here at the office and we ride together a couple of days a week. And at the end of every day we get home. We S we talk about work. And because she's in one office, I'm in another office. And we talk about our day at the end of the day. 3 (40m 40s): And the most enjoyable days is when we get something accomplished, when we get something significant accomplished, there are days when we're just doing, you know, to do stuff and that sort of thing. But our best days is when we get something to accomplish, I would say set out every day to get something accomplished, ask the Lord two questions, asking number one, what am I going to do today? And in that, what do you want to do today? What am I going to do? And what do you want to do through me? Just ask the Lord those questions when you get up in the morning and just watch how the Lord will sear conversations, whether it be at the market or with friends or at work, ask the Lord to steer the conversation so that you might pray for somebody, encourage somebody. And do you, the work that God has called you to do work is work, but it is enjoyable when we've got God on the throne of our lives. 3 (41m 30s): And when he's directing us, do you believe that? Is that possible? You say, well, I hate my job. I've had seasons in life where I've hated my job as well. And sometimes you just have to endure it. And then in the midst of that, God does some good stuff. But if you're in a terrible scenario with Work, maybe you need to shift your, your job because nobody needs to be miserable, doing something that they don't love to do. But maybe the Lord just wants to change your perspective and give you a fresh vision for what you 4 (41m 57s): Do. Ecclesiastes. 3 (41m 59s): Five 12 says people who work hard sleep well, isn't that true? Like you've finished up a hard day. You're like crash. You hit the bed. And you're so grateful for the hard work, but grateful for the nice bed to fall into. Why is Work awesome. Work is enjoyable. Find a way to enjoy what God has called you to do. Number two Work is how resources are gathered. So just an obvious statement. Work is our resources are gathered. Proverbs 12, 11 says whoever works, his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits, lack sense. 4 (42m 40s): A guy told 3 (42m 41s): His friend you're so lucky. Everything goes your way. And his friend said, you know, it's funny thing is the harder I work. The luckier I get, you know, hard work is part of the deal we have to get up. And I'll just tell you this, too. If you're going to be, if you're going to try to be a witness for Christ on the job site, you better work 4 (43m 1s): Really, really well. Like 3 (43m 3s): You can't be a Slav and try to witness for Jesus, because nobody wants to hear about Jesus from a Slav. Amen. So don't show up late. Don't be a slob. Do what you're told to do. And don't be telling people by Jesus when you're supposed to be doing your job. All right. So work hard and wait for the Lord to open up doors of opportunity. Christians, people of faith should be people in the Christian face should be the best workers out there. We should be more diligent, more vigilant, more, better informed. We should be doing what God has called us to do with our very best effort, putting God at first and everything and making, making, making excellence. 3 (43m 43s): Our goal. 4 (43m 46s): I read 3 (43m 46s): This quote, your destiny is not a matter of chance. It's a matter of 4 (43m 52s): Choice. So 3 (43m 53s): You get to choose how you spend your life. Am I going to spend my life honoring Jesus? Or am I going to spend my life just pursuing my own? 4 (44m 3s): Your suits? Work is part of our, the fabric of who we are. 3 (44m 12s): I had a friend, his name was Dave Fletcher. Dave passed away earlier this year, Dave Fletcher, his last name was Fletcher, you know, to Fletch's Fletcher those little feathers on the arrow. The end of an arrow, you know, and a Fletcher is someone who puts those fletches on arrow shafts. And so some were in my friend, Dave Fletcher's lineage, they were Fletchers. And so his name became Dave Fletcher. I know of another guy. His name is Stephen J preacher. This guy is not a preacher, but somewhere in this guy's lineage, most likely he had a preacher in his family. 3 (44m 52s): I was doing after the Memorial service yesterday, there was some guy here that I didn't know when he yelled out across the parking lot. Hey preacher, good job. Like, Oh, thanks. But were identified by the things that we do, right? Preacher's got some negative connotations, I guess, but we're all called to preach the gospel. We're all called to proclaim the gospel. And so if somebody calls us preacher, a Bible Thumper, those were my nicknames. When I was in business, people say, Hey, there's the Bible Thumper. I'm like, whatever. That's what I am. I guess I'm free. Sure. Whatever. Didn't matter, they could call me something else. That would have been a little more derogatory, but they let me, they, they call me that. 3 (45m 34s): So that was fine. So what, what, what would a, if someone, if you were to get a new name today, what would your name be? 4 (45m 44s): What would it be? 3 (45m 47s): So my name, my name is Steven Henry. What would, what would they call me now? Where they call me Steve and preacher, or they call me Steven jerk? What would they call me? I dunno, but make your work be synonymous with who you are, but let your work be the part of the fabric of who you are and watch what God will do. The apostle Paul was a hardworking servant of God and took seriously the responsibility of hard work. And he talks about it in this letter in second Thessalonians, chapter three, he talked about it in first Thessalonians as well. The topic of idleness laziness. He addresses it in both letters because obviously there was something going on in that Church some idleness going on and Paul spends a good amount of time. 3 (46m 32s): In second Thessalonians, chapter three, dealing with idleness. It matters to God, how we spend our time and it reflects on our character, how we spend our time and how we spend our lives. Second Thessalonians, chapter three, we're finally there verses six and following. And now dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord. Jesus Christ. Stay away from all believers who live idol lives and don't follow the traditions they received from us. 4 (47m 6s): Wow. 3 (47m 8s): Which is pretty strong language from the apostle Paul, right? He's saying he issues this command and he can't give this command any stronger than he did. We issue this command in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So following that type of introduction in this verse, you think Paul's got something serious 4 (47m 31s): To say, 3 (47m 32s): Yeah, he does. He's got something serious to say the command is given about as strong as it can be in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. What's the command. Stay away from all believers, stay away from all believers who live idle lives and don't follow the tradition they received 4 (47m 49s): From us. 3 (47m 52s): So again, Paul addressed the same issue and in his first book to this Church, and now just a short time later, he's hearing that the problem still persists and by God's grace, he wants to challenge it again. Maybe you're hearing this about this topic of Work a couple of times in your life. Maybe the Lord is trying to speak something to you about your diligence at work. Where is your, your, your, your witness at work? Maybe God's trying to communicate something to you. He loves us enough to communicate things more than once. Stay away from believers who live idle lives and don't follow the traditions they receive from us in Paul's first letter to the church. 3 (48m 34s): First Thessalonians five 14, the church was directed to admonish the idol. So here he's saying, stay away from them. And we're going to hear more than he said in the first letter he said, but it Mohnish them. I bring correction to them. You think, well, it's not a big deal, right? If somebody is lazy, it's a big deal. Actually. Why? Because God's created us for purpose, for good works to be accomplished in the earth. And so when we're as Christians not busy doing what God has called us to do, it's a big deal because we're wasting our lives. We're wasting our influence. We're wasting our, our impact here in the, in the earth. And Paul knew all about that because he spent the first part of his life, persecuting God's followers, the church, and then God got ahold of his life and radically saved him. 3 (49m 20s): And now he's spending the rest of his life, making sure that people know Jesus and know the truth about it. 4 (49m 25s): God, 3 (49m 28s): This issue of idleness continues to be a problem because Paul spends a large portion of this is a pistol focused on it. And in fact, next to the second, coming in this epistle, Paul spends more time on this topic than anything else. Anything what's the big deal Paul, get over it. It's a big deal. Apparently the Holy spirit through the function of God, through this, through this inspiration of the Holy spirit of God, speaking something through Paul about idleness, there is something to be said here, that something to be listened to, what does it mean to be idle? Basically, we're going to see from the context of this and the text here, that it means those who refuse to work 4 (50m 12s): For 3 (50m 12s): Seven for you know, that you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. 4 (50m 20s): Paul 3 (50m 20s): Was not idle. When he was preaching the gospel, he was a tentmaker. He was busy earning an income. He was preaching the gospel, whatever idleness is, Paul wasn't it. Paul was a tent maker, a church planter, an evangelist, a missionary. He was busy doing what God had called him. 6 (50m 41s): Do you do 3 (50m 44s): There's eight. Paul said we never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night. So we would not be a burden to any of 6 (50m 53s): You. So he's communicating 3 (50m 56s): Something of the urgency to get busy, to be productive. If you pay your way, you're probably not being idle, but if you're a burden to someone else, you might be idle. And God is challenging that in your life, Paul said, we certainly have the right to ask you to feed us. But we wanted to give you an example to follow knowing that this Church struggle with idleness, that there are people within the church who struggle with idleness, with laziness, with, with the lack of desire to Work Paul and his companions decided to work, to set an example so that these believers, these Christians might know how to live their lives. 6 (51m 35s): Paul had every right to accept PayPal 3 (51m 38s): For his ministry. We know that because he wrote in first Timothy five, 17, and 18, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching for the scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain and the laborer deserves his wages. And then he wrote again in first Corinthians nine 14 in the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. So Paul put his rights aside so that he might be an example to those who are watching him, wonder where we might need to put our rights aside so that we might be an example to people around us. 3 (52m 20s): Maybe it's in the area of work where you're saying, man, I'm here to work. I'm going to compartmentalize my life. I can, I'm exercising my right just to work and not be, not shine. My light here in this place of my employment. 6 (52m 34s): You can 3 (52m 36s): Exercise that, right, I guess, but you're wasting your life. If you don't share the gospel while you're at work, you got eight, 10, 12 hours a day to work and do the things that you do to earn a living. And you're, you're, you're wasting those 20 or 30 or 40 years that you have on the workforce. If you're not being salt and light, the way that God would ask you to be salt and light. I know it's a direct statement to say, you're wasting your life because you're, 6 (53m 5s): We're not created as 3 (53m 6s): Christians. We're not, our design is not just a buy a house and secure retirement and to have nice vacations and nice stuff. That's not what we're here to do. Mess part of what, you know, we might experience, you know, and, and, and my gain as we live and work and that sort of thing. But ultimately all of those things, if they're not done for the kingdom, they're like wood, hay, and stubble. They're going to be burned up. And when we stand before the Lord and he says, what did you do for me? And you say, well, I bought a nice house. That's going to burn up. He doesn't care about that. Well, I took care of my family. Okay, well, that's got some merit to it. 3 (53m 47s): Did you make sure your family knew Jesus? Did you model Jesus to your family? Did you model Jesus to your employers, to your employees, to your friends in your life? And all of that stuff is what's going to survive the fires of judgments. When it's all said and done, we're all going to stand before the Lord and give an account for our lives. And so how are you spending your life? You don't want to, you don't want to waste your life. 4 (54m 11s): Paul 3 (54m 12s): And his comrades had the right to expect support from their ministry work, but they wanted to be an example to this church. So they work to cover their own 4 (54m 20s): Needs. Paul 3 (54m 22s): Did whatever he could to eliminate stumbling blocks to those who needed to hear the gospel. He did whatever he could to eliminate things that might trip people up so that they might hear the gospel and live their lives for the gospel. He said, even while we were with you, we gave you this command. Those unwilling to work will not get to eat. That's pretty straight forward. You don't work. You don't eat. Work us. Our resources are gathered and those unwilling to work will not get to eat. I don't want to step on any toes, probably too late for that. I don't want to step on any toes out there. 3 (55m 2s): And I don't want, I don't know everybody's circumstances, but if you are able to work, you should be working. 4 (55m 9s): God's 3 (55m 9s): Got stuff for you to do. If you're able to do it, get out there and do it. Why is Work Awesome Work keeps you out of trouble. Number three, people with too much idle time, get themselves into trouble. Idle hands are the devil's playground. Something like that. 4 (55m 31s): Seriously, man, we need to be busy doing work. 3 (55m 33s): God has called us to do living full lives in Jesus, doing what he's asked us to do. What has God asked you to do? Maybe you're retired and you're like, I don't really need to work. 4 (55m 44s): So what 3 (55m 44s): Do I do? Well, ask the Lord. What is, you know, what is, what does God want me to do? What does God wants you to do with your, with your season in life? 4 (55m 55s): Verse 11 yet 3 (55m 58s): We are, some of you are living idle lives. Number three, again, Work keeps you out of trouble. Yet. We hear some of your living idolized refusing to work and meddling and other people's business. 4 (56m 10s): The problem 3 (56m 11s): Was someone who refuses to Work is not just laziness. The problem is that they get into other people's business. 4 (56m 17s): Yes. And that's just a bad idea. There's a proverb. 26, 17 3 (56m 24s): Proverbs 26, 17, whoever metals in a quarrel, not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears. You know what happens when you take a passing dog by the ears you get growled at and barked at and bitten, right? 4 (56m 42s): God 3 (56m 42s): Has created us to be busy in his kingdom. There's a time for rest. That's what the Sabbath day is all about. I'm getting, I'm leaving this afternoon to go on a two-day prayer retreat. There is a time for that. But even that's, Work even that's Work because you go and you pray and you press into the Lord. And you're asking for wisdom and clarity. I do this every year, a couple of times a year, I say, Lord, what do you want to do for this year? What do you want to do in my life? You know what? What's in store for me, what's in store for my family. What's in store for Harvest Church. And, and sometimes I get great clarity. And other times I don't last year, I didn't get any clarity at all when I did this and then COVID hit. And I'm like, no wonder who could have foresaw that, you know? 3 (57m 24s): And, but I'm expecting God to say something because I'm, I'm carving out some time, Saint Lord, I just want to hear from you so that I spend this year 20, 21 doing the stuff that you've called me 4 (57m 37s): To do, you know, 3 (57m 39s): We could coast all of us could coast along. Church has got plenty of people, plenty of money. I could coast. 4 (57m 46s): And we could just keep doing this, the business of Church or we can press in and say, God, what, what is it that you want to do this year? Maybe you've got plenty of, 3 (58m 1s): Plenty of resource and plenty of time you're in. You can just coast you, you can just coast, 4 (58m 6s): But you're wasting your life. If you're not intentionally thinking about what God's called you to do. So I'm gonna to 3 (58m 12s): Get away. And I encourage you to do the same thing from time to time, just to get away. Even if it's for a day that you're just walking on the beach, you're going on a hike. And you're saying, Lord, my life is yours. What do you want to do with my life? I don't want to spend my life pursuing things. I'm going to be 52 in it, 4 (58m 27s): April. So I'm still a kid. I got time. I got time. And so I, 3 (58m 35s): I figured I got 25 good years left in me. You laugh, maybe it's 35 years. I don't know. I don't know, but I don't want to spend the next year or five or 10 years, 30 years wasting it. I want to be busy. I want to have fun. I think part of what God's called us to do is to have fun as well and enjoy life. But man, part of that is Work part of, I think in heaven, when we get to heaven, there is going to be a kingdom where we're working and enjoying God's God's blessing in a uncorrupted experience in existence. There's going to be work for us to do there as well. So work is not just part of the curse. Work is part of God's design forever, forever, forever. 3 (59m 17s): So God's got good stuff in store for us. Let's let's warm up to the idea of work. Not just try to get out of it by saying, Hey, I got to retire by the time I'm 60. If you want to retire by the time you're 60. Great for yourself up to go. Do kingdom work, maybe go on a mission strip or gets involved in Church or park yourself at Andrew Annie's and work with Mark and start leading people to Jesus, whatever it is, do something for God. 4 (59m 40s): Amen. All right, I'll start parking on that. I probably 3 (59m 44s): Won't actually, I'll be hard on that for the rest of my 4 (59m 46s): Life. 3 (59m 49s): It's been my, my heart's desire for my whole life 4 (59m 52s): Life to see people empowered, 3 (59m 56s): Powered, and equipped to do God's kingdom work. Since I don't know why, but God put that into me when I was young and I've been doing it ever since. I've been trying to help people understand their man. They've got kingdom 4 (1h 0m 6s): Value. There's stuff that you can do that I cannot do. There's people that you're exposed to, that I'm not exposed to. This is why God created the church so that we can impact the whole world, the whole world, your friends who are 3 (1h 0m 21s): Or angry that you're a Christian or angry that you're about your faith. They need Jesus. Pray 4 (1h 0m 27s): For them. People who don't even 3 (1h 0m 29s): Know that you're a Christian. You don't want to get you into your life and have people sit at your funeral and say, man, I didn't even know that guy was 4 (1h 0m 33s): Christian. What a tragedy? That would be all right, here we go. What should the idle do? What should the idol do? We can 3 (1h 0m 45s): And such people and urge them in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ to settle down and work, to earn their own living. And that's pretty straightforward. Settle down and work to earn their own living. As for the rest of you. Dear brothers and sisters never get tired of doing good. Take note of those who refuse to obey what we say in this letter, stay away from them. So they will be ashamed. Wow. Paul wants us to shame 4 (1h 1m 8s): People. That's not, that's not politically correct, is it? But it's not for the sake. 3 (1h 1m 16s): You're shaming people. It's out of brotherly love. We're saying, man, quit being lazy. Quit wasting your life. Do something for God work to earn your living, but also do stuff that God has called you to do. He said, don't think of them as enemies, but warn them as you would a brother. 4 (1h 1m 35s): Is there a sister? So it's not, what is it 3 (1h 1m 38s): Judgment in our hearts that we, that Paul asked us to do this, but we're, we're, we're pleading in Jesus' name, pleading in Jesus' name. Use your life, bring God. That's the plead. That's the heart of it. 4 (1h 1m 51s): Paul Paul is fine. 3 (1h 1m 54s): Animal greetings, verse 16. And then we're wrapped up with this verse 16 and 17. Then we're wrapped up in verse 18. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times. And in every situation you will have God's peace when you're doing it. 4 (1h 2m 8s): God's will. That just occurred to me, 3 (1h 2m 17s): Occurred to me in the past, but I didn't think about it when I was prepping this message you want to have God's peace do God's will you want to be grumpy and miserable? Don't do God's will. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times. And in every situation the Lord be with you all verse 17. Here is my greeting in my own handwriting. Paul, I do this in all my letters to prove they are from me. You remember this Church was believing information because they got a false letter from someone who claiming to be Paul about the second coming that they had missed it. So Paul saying, Hey, in my own handwriting, I write this letter, may the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ be with you all. So Paul says some hard things and I've said some hard things, but he wraps it up. 3 (1h 2m 60s): May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all that's God's desire is that we would experience his grace as we get challenged in our faith. Because if we're challenged without grace, then we're just beat up. But if we're challenged with grace, then we have the opportunity to step up and to do what God has called us to do. So my prayer for you is that she'd be graced in Jesus' name, that you'd be graced and that you'd step up in Jesus' name and do the things that God has called you to do. Amen. Amen. Worship team. Come on out. Let's go ahead and stand up. We're going to pray and seeing and worship. 3 (1h 3m 41s): Lord. This has been practical stuff and meddling stuff. It's been difficult to hear some of it, Lord God, but I pray that as we've listened God, that you've have spoken something to our souls, to our lives that bring about transformation and change. God help us to live with you on the throne with you as our focus. So we might do what you've called us to do. And at the end of it all, or we'd hear well done. Good and faithful servant. Thank you, Lord. That's what we want to hear. So bless us. We pray as we worship, we love you in Jesus name. Amen. 0 (1h 4m 21s): 1 (1h 15m 47s): Can we give you praise today? I pray that Julie would just go hearts our day as we go about our week and she would remind us the joy of our salvation and it ring true in our hearts and our lives to see you love you, Lord. Thank you for being with us this morning. We give you our hearts, give you every breath. Our very lives pray that you keep everyone safe and healthy until we gathered together again. And Jesus, you then, if there's anyone who could use someone to come alongside you and pray, please feel free to come on up. We'll have some folks that would love to pray with you this morning. 1 (1h 16m 28s): Make sure you say hello, Sharon need let's be the church. Be there for each other. Have a wonderful day, have a wonderful week. We'll see you next Sunday.

0 (1s): Well, good morning. Harvest Church family. How is everybody doing? Good to have some folks in the house this morning and hello to everyone who's watching around campus and at home this morning, if you're able to, why don't you stand with me as we begin this morning, if you're at home, find some worshiping space, Let's just invite the Lord. The Lord's presence this morning. Let's go before him in prayer. God, we just look to you as only as you are our source for the well that never runs dry. So we drink from the well this morning, 1 (45s): Deeply, 0 (47s): God, we pray that you would refreshes renew us, strengthen us, protect us, give us, give us provision Each day for those mercies that are needed. And so we just pray that you would pour out your spirit on your sons and daughters today, as we gather to worship on this campus and all around this County, 40 even others watching all over the world, that tune in it's amazing. We just are so grateful that we get to come and to worship you to spend time in your presence together. 0 (1m 29s): So would you put things giving in our hearts and a song on our lips today? Hang on. Are you in worship today in Jesus name? 1 (1m 38s): 0 (7m 40s): Let's just bring us some thanks and praise this morning and you just want to speak it out of a choir of res. Now we just thank you for your faith in your first . I want to teach you a new song this morning. It's being confident in God's faithfulness 1 (8m 14s): 0 (20m 15s): And you know, there's no pants so deep or dark that your love can't find us. Would you remind us more that we're never alone. You are always with us pray for anyone this morning, that is feeling that sense of loneliness. How would you just scoop them up just in your loving arms, your loving presence, just in such a tangible way that they would sense or how near that you are. You're aware of every circumstance, every care, every concern way on our heart and mind as you know, every pain in our bodies, you know, the very number of the hairs on our head. So what other details would you not know? So remind us again, again, we forget that you never forget us sick, grateful for your presence and how you need us. 0 (21m 9s): We honor you to Jesus, but Church said, Hey man, amen. What does it be a great time to greet your neighbor? If you feel safe doing so say hi to somebody, you can always do an elbow bump or away, but to stay safe, we'll be back in just a few moments with some announcements. 2 (21m 39s): All right, good morning. Church so glad to see you all. Hey, my name is Jeremy. I have to write that on my list. I forget to forget to say my name. My name is Jeremy. I'm the, I'm the youth and family pastor here. So glad you're here. If you're joining with us here in person, just glad to see you all. And if you're joined online so glad that you're, you're, you're taking part in that way. I have a quick story. Quick story. So years ago I used to work at a outdoor shop down in Santa Barbara, and I'm feeling out all the gear and checking out. I grew to really enjoy this, this company, Ark, Terex. I love their jackets. And one day I was working in the shop and, you know, testing out their jackets and I, and I was wearing one around the shop. 2 (22m 24s): I was like, Ooh, I really like the way this jacket feels. It's a good jacket. And a guy came in and he starts asking me, Hey, you looking for a jacket? I'm like, Oh, well these are great jackets. And I tell him why. And he's like, Oh yeah, yeah, I think I'm a large, I'm like, okay, let's go. Let's go to the rack. So we go to the rack and I look small, medium, extra large. And I realize I'm wearing the only large and the tags are stuff from the back. And I, and I, and I, and I was like, well, let me look in the back and see if we have a jacket back there. So I quickly go back there, pull off the large and bring it out to them. And, and I think I threw on an extra large just to make it look like I saw the CA jacket, but he bought the jacket. He loved the jacket. And I, and while I was working there as sales for Arc'teryx actually went up because a lot of customers came in and I convinced them to, you know, pay a little extra money for this jacket. 2 (23m 12s): This is a 15 year old jacket. So they last, and, and the reason I saying that is because I was able to like really to help you about this product, because I believed in it. I really believed in it. And so, because I believe in it, I kind of pass it on. Well, family Church, this is family Church. And I really believe in family. Church I, I love that students are in here with your parents. I grew up at a church where we go to Sunday school together, and then we'd go to our, our different scheduled classes. But we had a church. I grew up worshiping with my father, and it's so important for young kids to see their parents worshiped. So I really believe in that. 2 (23m 53s): So I'm so glad that we have this church that believes the family needs to be together and today's community and Sundays to get to partake in that together. And yes, kids, they can make a little more money, 3 (24m 3s): Boys, all that stuff. And that's okay. That's okay. So it's, 2 (24m 6s): It's all part of just that family we're here together. So I'm glad that you guys are joining us a family Sunday, and we have donuts. You have donuts the breezeway. So it's a good Sunday. Hey, we sent out the giving statements for 2020 this week. If you did not get yours, send us email info at EG Harvest dot org. And we'll make sure to get you the right giving statement for last year. And lastly, lifeline, baby bottle drive it. They're accepting their bottles back this Sunday. And I believe next Monday as well. So if you've been filling up your bottles with change or dollar bills or checks, whatever, they'll, they'll, they'll be here to grab them. 2 (24m 46s): So thanks so much. I'm glad to glad to partake 3 (24m 51s): Family. Send it with y'all. There we go. Grab my coffee. Do you guys get your communion elements already? It's communion. Sunday. We got elements. Yeah, it's good stuff. So there's a, we've got these little crazy little COVID safe communion elements. So make sure you grab that. If you haven't, if you haven't received it and you would like to receive a good and raise your hand and we'll make sure we get them to you, Ron, where you want to pass those things out. As we get ready to go, Hey, we're in second Thessalonians chapter three today, we're going to get through a whole five verses in second Thessalonians, chapter three, we're talking about prayer. Why should I pray. 3 (25m 32s): It's not Why should I pray. So that little girl was in the garden and she was trying to pray, but she didn't really know what to pray. So she just started in kind of this peripheral way, got to go in through her ABCs and her grandmother listed. And she's like, what are you doing? And she said, well, I want to pray, but I don't really know what to pray you ever been there. And so I decided I would just pray my ABCs and God knows me so well that he'll take the ABCs and just make them whatever prayer I need for my life. And so that was her prayer for the, for the day. Isn't that cute? 3 (26m 12s): I think, I think that childlike faith is something that God responds to. I think sometimes we feel like we've got to have all the right words and we've got to say all the right things in order for God to hear us. But the reality is this, that God already knows what we need before we ask. And as we just humbly come before him with broken and contrite hearts and with hearts, not just that are broken a contract, but hearts that are filled with gratitude, with appreciation. And we just come before the Lord and offer up a sacrifice of praise and prayer. 3 (26m 55s): God hears us and he responds. And so with that, let's go ahead and stand up and pray for this service. And, and We'll just, we'll just take a moment. I know that we're online and, and some things won't be heard as we pray in the crowd. So I'm going to just invite you guys to pray for a moment. And just for just a moment, just pray something that's on your heart and just preparation for this message. So whatever venue you're in, if you're at home or if you're in the loft, or if you're on the patio, wherever you might want to might find yourself, let's just, let's just take a moment. 3 (27m 37s): I know this is awkward for people at home who can't hear, but just trust that the Lord's doing something as we pray. So I'm going to pray and then I'm going to just open it up. And then as you feel led, just, just pray for the day, pray for the service, pray for whatever's on your heart. And we're not going to take a long time to do this, but we're just going to take some time. So Lord, we just want to pray. We, we give our hearts to you this morning and in our prayers, God, we declare that our time is yours this morning. And, and we want to be tender before you and available before you. So God help us to learn something today and be able to apply what we've learned in Jesus name. 3 (28m 20s): Thank you, Lord. 1 (28m 29s): I thank you that you bless us, that you keep us providing your love for us father. Even now God, I know the father of the lines in the sand had been drawn. Father. I just thank you, God, that we can come to you and that we can ask you in all things and that God is faithful to deliver us. God has already begun to answer affairs, God, that you are faithful students and God, I just thank you that God, most of all, that you love. 1 (29m 18s): And if you have a purpose for our lives and then our lives are to serve you in Jesus name. I thank you, Lord, Lord Jesus. I just want to ask him to teach us all to put our fears and our cares at the foot of the cross. Lord, let you worry about our situations. So frees us up are unsafe because we know that you love so much. 1 (31m 31s): 3 (33m 30s): Thank you Lord, for the opportunity to pray and offer up our hearts and minds and lives to you in this sweet way. Jesus, I pray that God would just childlike faith, that we would pray always all the days of our lives. Lord God, that we would at be expectant, expecting something as we pray because of the God of the universe is listening and we can actually have great expectations from a great God. 3 (34m 13s): And so Lord, we pray that you would raise, raise our expectations. As we pray to you, you have all resource, you have all power, have all authority. You are King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And so we can have great expectation because we serve a great God. So I pray God that in our dark moments, when we feel like we don't want to pray that we would pray anyway, God, when we don't feel like we've got anything to say that we would just say, what's in our hearts, Lord God, that we would rest in you, that you know, all things you know our needs before we declare them. 3 (34m 55s): And, and you are faithful. Lord. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We bless you all over this campus and wherever we're watching online, Lord, we just, we want to bless you Lord. And so I pray that you Lord God would touch each person gathered wherever they're gathered Lord, and you'd have your way and you're accomplish your will today in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. You can be seated. Why should I pray. Well, I think it's obvious why we should pray. 3 (35m 36s): I mean, as we just take a moment to pray, 4 (35m 42s): We hear the cry of people's hearts, the gratitude that people expressed, and it's a sweet thing. And if it's sweet to our ears as brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to our Christian family, praise it as if it sweet you our ears, how much more sweet to God's ears. God has never worn out by our prayers. He's just not, he he's got a heart that longs to hear from his kids and we have this great opportunity to, to communicate our hearts to him. Let's jump into second Thessalonians, chapter three and 3 (36m 21s): Paul, 4 (36m 22s): The first word in chapter one or chapter three verse one is finally Paul uses that, that terminology, that word, because the main issue of the letters already been dealt with the issue concerning the confusion regarding the second coming of Christ. So he says, finally, not that not 3 (36m 40s): Because he's done, but because 4 (36m 43s): The main issue that he wrote the letter for has been accomplished. We've been talking about last couple of weeks, the second coming of Christ. We've been talking about the rapture, the second coming. And so Paul saying finally, finally, because all of that's already been handled, your brothers and sisters verse one says, we ask you to pray for us. 3 (37m 3s): Okay? 4 (37m 3s): Many he's got some specific things that he wants the church to pray for him. And I think there are timeless things that we can always be praying for. Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us, pray that the Lord's message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes. That the message is literally the terminology means that the message was speed ahead, that it would move forward and that it would have the effect that it's meant to have. That the people who hear the message would hear it 3 (37m 34s): And believe it, they would hear it, receive it and believe it. And so that's what Paul's prayer. 4 (37m 40s): There is four. So maybe we've got, you got somebody in your life that you've been praying for for a long time. Diane prayed that our unsaved loved ones would come to know Jesus. I know she's been praying that prayer for a years, for people in her family for decades probably. 3 (37m 55s): And that's it that all 4 (37m 60s): And with the early Church, as people got a passion in their heart for the loss, those who don't know Jesus yet, when we say the loss, we mean those who don't know Jesus, 3 (38m 11s): Jesus 4 (38m 12s): Has put something in our hearts to pray, to participate in that salvation work by praying for them. So Paul says pray that the Lord's message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes just as when it came to you. So that can be your prayer. So this Church received the gospel message that Paul proclaimed, and now he's asking them to remember the message and pray that as it's proclaimed further, that it's believed the way it was believed when they believed it. You remember when you first believed the message, the gospel. I remember, I remember when it finally hit home with my soul. I mean, like I had heard it before. There's one thing to hear it, right? It's, there's another thing to hear it. 4 (38m 54s): Like when it is driven home to your soul and all of a sudden you just know that that message is true and, and you receive it. I, I remember just being 3 (39m 5s): Broken, crying with 4 (39m 10s): W a couple of things were, a lot of things were going on in my soul. I was a junior higher and we were at a camp. And I remember when I was broken with the gospel, I was broken with the reality that God loves me because I certainly didn't deserve it and don't deserve it, Thomas. So just so grateful, but also at the reality of, of my family and how much my family needed Jesus. And I wanted them to understand him the way that I was beginning to understand him as a, as a young person, I was beginning to understand that the gravity of his love and the gravity of a sacrifice for me, that I might come to faith in him. And that's what Paul Paul had this same experience. He had the same experience. He was a very devout religious person, but he hadn't heard the message. 4 (39m 51s): He had probably heard the message, but he didn't hear it. He didn't hear it until God revealed it to him and just this profound way. 3 (39m 59s): And then he heard it and then 4 (40m 1s): It wrecked his life for good. I mean, like all of his previous pursuits were done with, he was done pursuing the things that he had been pursuing. And then now he was pursuing Jesus. This is, this is the heart that we have the capacity. This is the way that we can pray for people in our lives. Paul Paul is addressing, I love Paul's tenderness with all of the stuff that he was exposed to and experienced as an apostle. It would have been easy for Paul to become either proud because of his great 3 (40m 37s): Backed or Harvest 4 (40m 43s): Partly because of all of his persecution, He could have become anything, but what he did become. And he became just this, this tender man, it seemed like the more that the difficulties in Paul's life, the more tender he became. 3 (41m 1s): And I, I think 4 (41m 4s): That can be the reality for our lives as well. We can become more tender as we experience persecution, difficulty challenge. And then out of that tenderness, we can learn to pray differently. And so we're not just praying out of our heads out of our understanding, but we're praying out of our souls from our hearts, praying that that God would work in a new and a profound way. So Paul is addressing the family of God with tenderness and gentleness, inviting them to pray for him. And then for the fruitfulness of the gospel, do you ever have a hard time praying? I do. At times I find like, I, I sometimes I just don't know what to say. 4 (41m 44s): There are times when it's difficult to pray, 3 (41m 48s): But 4 (41m 49s): In those moments, I feel like God's wanting to do something that is beyond our expectations. There's something profound that happens when we press through and pray. Even when we don't feel like it, we battle not against flesh and blood enemies, but we have this spiritual battle that we're a part of an Inn. And the enemy wants to keep us from praying. He wants to keep us from pressing in, but when we press in, when we press in and we'll be praying in spite of how we feel, God just begins to do something. First of all, our mind changes our attitudes change. Our heart changes. Everything begins to transform when we invite God into it, because that's essentially what we're doing. 4 (42m 30s): Prayer is just inviting God into our lives, into our circumstance. We're saying, God, I invite you. Please come into my life. I'm in my, into my temptation, into my fear, into my anxiety, my doubt, my relationship, whatever it may be, Lord, come into it. That's what prayer does. It invites God. And when we pray in any way, when we don't feel like praying, God does wonderful and profound things, supernatural things. I think that's the way he works in our lives. When we're in a bad season, a difficult season where you can be sure that God's just about to do something that will cause us to turn the corner. He's just about to bring something that will encourage us. If we'll just hang in. Often our faith is tested. 4 (43m 12s): Well, what we hang in when we don't feel like hanging in what we pray, when we don't feel like praying, I promise this, that God is faithful and he hears us. And if we'll just hang in there and pray, I remember praying for family members for decades, some family members I'm still praying for, for 3 (43m 31s): Decades like 30, 40 years, 4 (43m 37s): Praying for family members. And we're watching them one by one by one. Sometimes whole families come to faith 3 (43m 45s): And they're still 4 (43m 46s): Some on the outskirts that we're praying in the kingdom. We're praying them in the kingdom. But for a lot of my, my grandparents and aunts and uncles, before they died, they gave their life to Jesus. And we're believing the same thing 3 (44m 1s): For cousins and siblings and all of the above. There are times when it's difficult to pray, pray anyway, watch what the Lord will do. Watch what the Lord will do. There are times when you don't want to pray. I would just 4 (44m 20s): Ask you in those times to ask God for renewed, renewed desire to pray. And I find that when we pray anyway, when we don't feel like praying, God begins to stir us. And we remember the things that we need pray for. There are times 3 (44m 33s): When you feel you're all prayed out. Like Lord, I had been praying for this person for this situation, for this circumstance. I've been praying forever. There's there's a time when it's time just to rest in the Lord and believe that he's heard your prayers. I remember my mother-in-law's had been praying for her parents for years forever. And at one point, the Lord said, it's okay. You don't need to pray anymore. The work's done. And the truth was that both of them gave their lives to Jesus before they died. I'd been praying for them for years. And then the Lord said, it's, it's done. And so she was able to just rest and believe that he had heard her prayers and it was made obvious later on when he saved their lives and added them to the kingdom. 3 (45m 23s): Max Lucado said, our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble, but since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference. W we think it's all up to us sometimes. Like, I can't get the words, right? Lord, just pray your hearts and watch what the Lord he knows what's going on in your soul and in your lives and your circumstances. First, John, five, 14 and son on the slides. But it says this, and this is the confidence that we have toward him. That if we ask anything, according to his, will he hears, we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 3 (46m 4s): I prayed plenty of things. It didn't come to pass. And I just had to realize that it wasn't his timing, or it wasn't as well. And, and, and I have to be okay with that. And, and the reality is, is that when, when, when you want to please the Lord, you don't want anything. That's not his will anyway. You just don't want it because it's just going to Jack you up. It's going to confuse you or cause your heart to go in the wrong direction. It's going to it's it's, it's just not what God has for you. And when, when we are submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, that's okay. That w cause he knows all things. We, we don't understand the, the, the future and what he's got in store for us clearly. So when he says no, or he doesn't answer, we just have to rest in that and be okay with that. 3 (46m 49s): Why should I pray. Number one, our prayers are heard by God. Our prayers are heard by God amazing. He's the King of all Kings. He's the Lord of all Lord. He's the president of all presidents, right? He's above all things. He's before all things he's created all things. He sustains all things. He is, he is in all things. Our prayers are heard by the King of Kings. Our prayers are heard by God. So let's do this. I want you to say this, make it personal. Say my prayers are heard by God. Yeah. My prayers are heard by God, Psalm one 16 one, and two says this. 3 (47m 34s): I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy because he bends down to listen. I will pray as long as I have breath that just a beautiful picture. God bending down to listen. My daughter's praying. What is she saying? My son he's praying. What is, what is his need? He bends down. I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy because he bends down to listen. I will pray as long as I have breath. I think that's God's design is that we'd pray. 3 (48m 17s): As long as we have breath that we pray without ceasing, that we would never stop praying. And that as we pray, we have confidence knowing that God hears us, that he hears us. What's what's on your prayer list. It's new year new opportunity for making a prayer list. What, so what is on your prayer list and then who, who is on your prayer list and what should we, we pray about? What should we pray about? So we have a new president. We can pray for our new president. It's our responsibility to pray for a new president. 3 (48m 57s): Amen. I just had that realization a couple of days ago, and I been praying for our leaders for a long time. But as I was thinking about president byte and I thought I got to pray for that guy. I'm just going to pray for him. Pray for him. Amen. Pray for him. And then as a church we've got work to do as a church. So we can pray for our effectiveness. Like Paul said, Hey, pray for the gospel. That it would speed ahead that it would have impact in that it would be believed even as we have believed it, we have a divided nation. We need to be praying for unity in our nation. Only God knows what that looks like. You know, people who need Jesus, we need to pray for their salvation. 3 (49m 40s): You know, people who are sick, we need to be praying for them. There's never a shortage of things to be praying for the best kind of prayer, the best kind of prayer. The very best kind of prayer is when we're not asking for anything, it's adoration prayers. And we're just in the presence of the Lord. Not because we need anything, but because we adore him, it's a strange concept for some, but we're called to this relationship whereby we call God our ABA father. And so we are in this suite and this is tough to grasp for those of us who didn't have a great relationship with our earthly fathers. 3 (50m 23s): It takes some work for us to get there because we feel awkward about this ABA father. But yeah, 4 (50m 32s): And we begin to get the intimacy and understand the intimacy. And for some of us, that's difficult for us to understand the intimacy with God because we've been burned by relationships. We don't understand intimacy when it comes to God, it's been that terminology. You've been perverted, been perverted in our hearts and minds. And so we don't understand intimacy. We're uncomfortable with it. But if we understand that the relationship that Jesus had with his father, it's a relationship that we too can have with our father. He often would get away to be with the father and he would just be in connection with the father being infused with the power of the father and with the love of the father. He would just be with the father. 4 (51m 13s): And so the best kind of prayer, 3 (51m 15s): Not prayers for a things, but prayer 4 (51m 17s): That are filled with gratitude, love, prayers, prayers of adoration. 3 (51m 24s): It takes them some practice 4 (51m 28s): If you will, to pray like that because it's so contrary to our typical prayers, Lord, we typically pray, Lord, help me with this heal. This person, save this person. And we have a shopping list and the God's okay with all of that stuff. 3 (51m 46s): He's 4 (51m 46s): Okay with that shopping list. But he also longs for us 3 (51m 51s): To just have intimate connection with him. It's like just hanging out with your best friend and just kind of 4 (51m 59s): Having conversation. And you're not asking that person for anything, but you're just enjoying your laughing together. Just enjoying time together. It's just, there's, there's a connection that takes place. And it, it moves God off of the to-do list and into the enjoy less like I'm just going to enjoy some time with God. He's not, he's not just on my to-do list where I'm just checking a box, but I'm enjoying him for some reason. I, I I've got this new phone, right 3 (52m 23s): Appreciation. So why 4 (52m 29s): Should we pray? Well, God hears us. We 3 (52m 30s): Need to pray. We need to pray praise, prayers and thing, prayers, both praise, 4 (52m 37s): Adoration, thankfulness, but then also thing price as well. And Paul asked us to pray for a few things. Paul asked the church that they would pray for him 3 (52m 46s): Thing prayers for the 4 (52m 48s): Fruitfulness of the gospel message that the gospel message was spread rapidly and believed. And then what else did Paul asked for first to pray to that? We will be rescued from wicked and evil people for not everyone is a believer 3 (53m 2s): Pray 4 (53m 3s): Too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people for not everyone is a believer. So Paul saying, Hey, not everybody agrees with us. And so we need to pray for those people who might try to persecute us pray that we are rescued from wicked and evil people. Prayer works. Our prayers are heard by God. Number one, number two, our prayers invite God's protection. And as we opened the service this morning, at least in the sanctuary, we heard prayers of protection, inviting God's protection. We say, God protect us. Guide us, direct us, help us. Paul was rescued many times throughout his life, many, many times. 4 (53m 44s): And I think it's because of prayer because everywhere Paul went, Paul was asking for prayer. He was always asking people to pray in acts 27. He was shipwrecked. Remember that Paul was shipwrecked. And what did he do? He's swam to safety that the captain of the boats wanted to kill all the prisoners because Paul was a prisoner, but they instead just let him swim to shore. Paul swam to safety. And while he was there, he was cold on the shore there. And while he was cold, he decided to build a fire. So he's gathering sticks and a snake latches onto him. Remember that acts chapter 28 was the snake lashes onto him. It's a Viper, it's a deadly poisonous snake. And what does, what does Paul do? 4 (54m 25s): He shakes it off right shake. And everybody's waiting for him to swell up and die, right? And when he didn't swell up and die, what did they think then? Oh, he must be a God. Paul is a God. And so God used that to open up doors for him to minister to others. And then instead of dying, like you should have died when a snake bit, a hold of him got ahold of him instead of dying, God saved his life so that he could pray for healing and pray for, I pray for grace and mercy upon others, there was just this powerful, profound thing that God wanted to do in Paul's life. And so he kept him safe in prison for his faith in Rome, his enemies wanted him executed. 4 (55m 6s): They said, let's just kill him. But Paul lived to see another day. Why? Because God protected him. He lived to see many more days and he continued to preach the gospel. Paul always asked for prayer. What was the last time you asked her prayer? I think it's okay for us to ask for prayer. I think it's even, God's designed as part of the fellowship that we enjoy as, as brothers and sisters in Christ, that we would be available to one another. Pray. This is what Paul prayed and asked people to pray for. In Romans 1530, dear brothers and sisters. I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying, join in my struggle by praying to God for me do this because of your love for me given to you by the Holy spirit. 4 (55m 52s): So Paul is saying, Hey, I'm in the midst of a battle. I'm proclaiming the gospel. I'm spreading the gospel, the love of Christ to everywhere I go. Would you join in my struggle? You know, we often wonder what can we do for missionaries who are abroad and what can we do for people who are serving on the front lines of ministry? We can join in the struggle by praying for them. So we have missionaries really scattered all throughout the world. We've got opportunity to join in the struggle. Believe me, there's struggle is we have people ministry in the middle East and, and all over in Southern CA in, in, in Mexico. And in Greenland, we've got people ministering all over the place and we have an opportunity to join in the struggle. So Paul said, join, please join me in my struggle by praying for me, Ephesians six 19, he says, and pray for me to ask God to give me the right words, ask God to give me the right words. 4 (56m 43s): So I can boldly explain God's mysterious plan. That the good news is for the Jews and Gentiles alike. So as he was proclaiming, Paul writes United his need for the right words. And he knew that if people pray that God would give him the right words, do you think Paul believed in prayer? Absolutely. This is not some religious exercise for Paul. This is out of desperation that Paul is asking people to pray. He's saying, join me in my struggle. I pray that God gives me the right words. Ephesians six 20 says, I'm in chains now still preaching this message just God's ambassador. So pray that I will keep on speaking boldly. He's in chains. What's the temptation that he would with her, that he would just give up. 4 (57m 27s): You can't tell me that wasn't a temptation. He's being beaten, imprisoned. He's been shipwrecked. He's been snake bitten. He's been, he's kind of, you might be worn down at different times in his life. So he's praying, praying that he would continue to speak boldly. We can join in the struggle and pray for God to get people the right words and that that those people would continue to speak. And then, then we could pray for ourselves. God, would you give me the right words as I'm encountering people at work or people at school, would you give me the right word so that I might speak boldly for you? We can have all of the right eloquent words, but if, if God's not speaking through us, the right eloquent words won't have the impact, but simplistic words, simple words of love. 4 (58m 18s): And grace will communicate deeply to people's souls because we pray, Lord, I don't know what to say to this person, but you do. Would you help me? God will speak through us Philippians one 19 for, I know that you, that as you pray for me and the spirit of Jesus Christ helps me. This will lead to my deliverance. Pray as you pray for me. And the spirit of Jesus Christ helps me. This will lead to my deliverance. Paul was often asking people to pray for him. Oswald chambers said this. We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties that will raise our level of faith right there. 4 (59m 3s): If we just decide, I'm praying with my eyes on God, not on the difficulties. And we need to pray with a new level of faith, believing that God is abled capable, strong, our prayers invite God's protection. Have you asked 3 (59m 22s): People to pray for you lately? And have you been faithful to pray for others? Paul asked others to pray for him and he prayed for others. And this gave him confidence in the faithfulness of God. Number one, our prayers are heard by God. Number two, our prayers invite God's protection. And number three, our prayers give us confidence in God's faithfulness. Our prayers give us confidence in God's faithfulness. Paul wrote this in verse three, he said, but the Lord is faithful. He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. 4 (59m 57s): And the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. Paul saying this with confidence and the Lord is faithful. He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. You can't know that this is true without a prayer life. You can't have this. You can't speak this kind of statement with confidence, unless you have a prayer life. You can't know of the faithfulness of God without a prayer life. You just can't know of the faithfulness of God, unless you are praying and praying regularly 3 (1h 0m 24s): Early and making it part of your regular, your time with the Lord praying you can't know of the faithfulness of God without a prayer life. Paul was built up at a fight in his most Holy faith because of his prayer life that gave him faith in God's faithfulness. 4 (1h 0m 42s): And he was able to proclaim that truth 3 (1h 0m 44s): Because we don't live our Christianity in a bubble where we're meant to actually as iron sharpens iron. So one man sharpens another. So one woman sharpens another. So we have this responsibility to strengthen one another. 4 (1h 0m 55s): We can't speak with confidence and with faith encouragement about God's faithfulness, unless we have experienced it. And we need to be able to speak that to people's lives. 3 (1h 1m 7s): God is faithful. You can't have confidence that God will strengthen and guard you unless you are praying. 4 (1h 1m 15s): There's there's confidence that comes and it's not an arrogance. It's just a knowing. It's just a knowing God's God's faithful. He will strengthen, strengthen and guard us. God is faithful. 3 (1h 1m 29s): We'll take care of us. Verse four. And we are confident in the Lord that you are doing, and we'll continue to do the things we commanded you. So Paul spoke some commands to them, some things that they should be doing, and he had confidence that they were doing those things. And then verse five, our last verse this morning, he says, may the Lord leads your hearts into full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ? Not just a, a great prayer. I want that to be my prayer. Lord, may you lead me my heart into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ. 3 (1h 2m 25s): As we read verses like this, and we make them personal, they begin to speak to us. Let's do that together. May the Lord 1 (1h 2m 33s): Lead me? 3 (1h 2m 35s): Lord, may you lead me so that my heart is it's full of understanding God that I, that I might be the expression of the love of God with all patient endurance that comes from Christ 1 (1h 2m 56s): Why 3 (1h 2m 56s): Oh, I should we pray? I pray. We pray because it takes us to a new level spiritually. Some of us have been dry spiritually. And if you don't know how to pray, I would just encourage you to pray the scripture, just open up the scripture and just begin to pray the scripture, just like we did there. I'll read it again. May the Lord leads your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient Durance that comes from Christ is the verse. Let's put the verse up there. Let's just practice. And you guys all read that and see that. And it kind of in your own mind, in your own heart, just make that a personal prayer to the Lord. Pray that verse. I'm just going to do it out loud again. 3 (1h 3m 36s): No, you do it. Don't listen for me. I'm not going to do it out loud. Actually. I knew as soon as I said, I was going to do it out loud, you guys wouldn't listen, do it, do what you're supposed to do. Do you, do you do it? I'll do it quietly as well. That, that verse that we may just gloss over it just, we just got some roots to it in our soul right now. It's like personal. There's something person. When we pray the scripture, it takes on new life. 3 (1h 4m 17s): It's like, it just, it takes root in our lives. And now we get almost just without even looking at the verse, recite that prayer. We get almost make that our own prayer. Now, as we move forward throughout the balance of this day, there's something deep that takes place. When we do that, why should we pray? Our prayers are heard by God. Even in that little exercise, God heard that our prayers invite God's protection and our prayers give us confidence in God's faithfulness. 3 (1h 4m 60s): We're going to take communion now. And so, as we transition about our conversation about prayer, we're gonna, we're gonna take communion and remember why it is that we have access to God. 5 (1h 5m 18s): We have access to God because Jesus died on the cross. He took the penalty for, for my sins, my penalty. He took that upon himself and gave me access to God, Mark 1422 through 25. And this is the institution of the Lord's prayer. As they were eating, as they were eating, he took bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them and said, take, this is my body. Let's go ahead and take the bread. 5 (1h 6m 7s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you God. For the incarnation, you became man to pay the penalty for man's sin so that we might have forgiveness and eternal life in you. Thank you Lord. For the reality of that sacrifice on that cross calibrate 2000 years ago, thank you that you instituted the Lord's supper and then went to the cross, any took a cup. 5 (1h 6m 49s): And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and they drank and they all drank of it. And he said to them, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many truly. I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drank it, I knew the kingdom of God. Let's take the cup. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord God. I pray that we wouldn't be refreshed in our souls as we take communion. 5 (1h 7m 30s): And I pray that if there's any sin in us that needs to be confessed, that we would do that. Or I probably should have done that before communion, but we do it. Now we can do it. Now. I pray that the, the, the truth of your grace and your faithfulness, Lord would draw us close to you. For those of us who have been maybe feeling distant from you, or like we haven't been with you lately, Lord, I pray that you would restore our confidence. The fact that you love us and that your grace is sufficient. Thank you, Lord. Your grace is sufficient. Lord. 5 (1h 8m 11s): Thank you, Lord. Pray for those who are listening. Who've never accepted that. Grace. I pray that they would accept that grace Has given because the Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of God's glorious standard. The Bible says for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. 1 (1h 8m 37s): So Jesus died on our behalf and has given us life for those who are 5 (1h 8m 42s): We'll receive it. So Lord, we want to receive it a fresh today. And if you're here and you've never received it, you just simply say, Lord, I receive your sacrificial work on the cross. I receive your grace, your mercy, your love. I give my life to 1 (1h 8m 56s): You. Bible says, 5 (1h 8m 58s): If you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, and you believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead. You will be saved. So Lord, we, we believe we confess that we do believe Lord, and we want salvation. We need salvation and we need it by grace. Not because we're good, but because you're here, 1 (1h 9m 14s): Lord, thank you Lord for this time. Thank you for salvation. Thank you for renewed faith. Thank you that you hear our prayers. Lord, thank you that you heard our prayers. We love you Lord in Jesus name, amen. Let's stand and worship together. 1 (1h 9m 47s): 0 (1h 20m 4s): And I just really feel like there's so many who need to receive that message from your hearts this morning, where the enemy is trying to bring discouragements and Remind you of his promises that he works. All things Are morning at the DMC. Pray that those hearts that are hurting today, we just, just evidence of your goodness, this week, evidence of your mercy, following us through our day. Not that David just sense, Lord, that everything is under your control. There's nothing out of your sight. 0 (1h 20m 44s): So would you keep us safe until we gather here together again, one of the salt and light to all the earth, we share the love of Jesus with everyone 1 (1h 20m 53s): That we can make contact with this week, 0 (1h 20m 55s): They would know we're Christians by our love. 1 (1h 20m 57s): 0 (1h 22m 55s): So much for that word. There's anyone this morning, Alexa, if any of those things are just been stirring in your heart and you're like, Oh man, it's like the Lord's talking to me this morning. We to provide prayer 1 (1h 23m 6s): Service today. So don't hesitate to come on forward. 5 (1h 23m 30s): He was gay. It was first person. He was, he was, he was saying, come on to the Lord. And so, yeah, you don't want to go to Doug, but, but he isn't, it's an affirmation and encouragement to go before the Lord and not be afraid. Again, it's a little awkward because not everybody can hear us, but give an opportunity. One more. Anybody else have a word that, that they want to share expectation a prayer or anything. Before we wrap up one more. If we've got time, we've got it. 1 (1h 24m 2s): 5 (1h 24m 11s): So Lord, we love you. And we know that you're working in us, you're speaking to us and, and I pray God that we would be, we would be people with ears to hear Lord God that we wouldn't be afraid. Not given us a spirit. Thank you Lord. So God do what you're going to do in us and with us and through us, we pray. We submit to you 1 (1h 24m 36s): Jesus' name. Amen.

0 (0s): So glad to be able to worship together this morning. Hello to everyone here on campus. Thanks for coming today. Hello to everyone tuned in from home or wherever you're watching. Just pray that the Lord would meet us with his presence today. Fill our hearts with joy and Thanksgiving and praise. So if you're able, would you stand and prepare your hearts for worship and your body is by some worshiping space and let's pray together. As we begin this morning, Lord, we look to you for all that we have need of today. And God, we just pray that you would fill our hearts with praise this morning that we need to be reminded of your faithfulness towards us. 0 (40s): Your goodness, your mercy is that follow us all the days of our lives. Thank you for my pay for anyone this morning, whose heart is hurting, who has concerns weighing on their mind? Anxiety just bubbling up. God, would you bring peace like a river? Would you restore our souls? Would you encourage us today? But there's nothing happening in our lives and our world. That's out of your sight. So we thank you that we can rest in your unfailing love this morning. And so we choose to worship you tonight in spite of maybe how we feel in spite of things, maybe not working out exactly as we hoped whatever's going on, Lord, you are still in control. 0 (1m 26s): You are God, you are Lord. So we just submit our hearts. Our cares our concerns to you. Jesus we asked you in, meet us now as 1 (1m 39s): strengthen our hearts this morning, the trust is yours Jesus but as we worship in the heavenly places, legs, we thank you. 1 (5m 60s): We can rest power in your name. thank you that we can rest in there. 1 (12m 22s): Give us eyes to see what you're doing and 0 (16m 50s): Yeah, the song reminds was of how you should open those prison doors when they sang Lord God, that song of was our praise. That that breaks chains. It brings freedom. And so as we bring us a scoring, even over our city and over our world will be to speak or just your freedom, your light, your flaw, or that you would break chains, have people bound, lost, and alone and hurting. Would you come just with your love and your repentance? How would you heal hearts that are broken and the need of you this morning? So we just submit every care, every concern weighing upon us. 0 (17m 32s): We just lay it all at the cross. The feet of Jesus. We've come here, Lord, to worship you, to recenter our hearts on you. So we look to you, God, would you point us on the path or would you be that lamp to our feet and a light unto our path? So would you open our hearts to receive all that you have for us today in Jesus name? Amen. Amen. So good. Go ahead. So what a powerful morning to worship together and lift up our Lord. Those of you here on campus. If you want to say hello to someone around you, this would be a good time for that. 0 (18m 15s): Those of you at home, you can take a coffee break, restroom, break, whatever you need. We're going to be back here in just a couple of minutes of seminar since, so we'll see you soon. 2 (18m 27s): My name's Jeremy. I am the youth and family pastor here at Harvest Church. And before I jump into announcements, I just, I came across some news that just kind of blew my mind, made me trust in the word of God, even more. So what it was was back in November, there was kind of hidden kind of underground. There's a lot of other news that kind of covered up, but what scientists found as they sent out the new frontier space probe, it's now over 4 billion miles away and they're taking these pictures of the lights of the stars and the galaxies. And what they found is they found light that doesn't have a source. And there's so much light that there's actually just as much light that doesn't have a source as the known sources in the galaxy and sciences are there. 2 (19m 15s): These researchers are actually having to like figure out how do we, how do we explain this? And it's amazing because we look at our Bibles and God says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and God spoke the light, let there be light. And God spoke the light into existence. That was day one, day four was God's created the sun moon and the stars. So here science is pointing the, the, the first chapter, the first chapters of the Bible are true. We can trust God all the way through the Bibles. So I was just so encouraged by that this week, I had to share it with you. So welcome if you're joining with us this week, we're so glad to have you please feel free to, to jump over to the info center, sign in, check in with us. 2 (19m 60s): We'd love to give you a gift. If you are, have been coming to this church and you have, I want to give you a reason to go to the info center. We have bumper stickers and we would love to get a bumper sticker on your car. And I think what I would love to do is as you see these bumper stickers on, on others, other folks, cars pray for them. And I think that would be just a great way to unify our church. So come, go grab us a bumper sticker over at the info center. We've got plenty of them. Stick it on your car. Hey, if you are still curious about checking in with us and, and, and coming back to in-service, I just want to let you know what, what the options are. So we have the loft and parsonage, and those are indoor, and those are the mass are required in those, in those rooms. 2 (20m 43s): And just so you know, those have been empty the past few weeks. So feel free if you're just, if you're just curious about what's what's available, the Lofton parsonage, our indoor mass only the patio is outdoors, and we have our mask optional. Currently the sanctuary is closed, but we're, we're, we're looking at possibly open up in February. So we'll keep you posted on that one. If you are in fifth and sixth grade, and you're wondering when and where do I go after sir, after second service, after you you'll stay with your folks during worship service, and then you'll go off to your classrooms after announcements fifth and sixth grade, go up to the parsonage. And then currently youth is coming to the sanctuary for our youth group for lastly is given to 2020 giving state statements. 2 (21m 32s): And I want to say, Church, you were incredibly generous this year and you're giving, we were so blessed. We felt the love God is on the move and he's, he did some incredible things in 2020. So thank you so much for those of you gave, we want to make sure we give, send out the correct giving statements to you. So make sure that if you are unsure, if we have your correct email address, just send an email to info at Harvest ag Harvest dot org, and we'll make sure we'll get those skip giving statements out. Those will be going out in the next few weeks. And then lastly, I just want to bring up Terry Bruner. She's going to be coming and letting you know about the baby bottle drive and our local lifeline pregnancy center. 2 (22m 14s): Thank you so much, Terry, for joining us. 3 (22m 17s): Thank you Jeremy. Good morning, everyone. I would just want to take a second and introduce to you our brand new director at lifeline pregnancy center. She just joined us in October. This is Tracy bug Nuta. Yeah, so we have two tables outside. Tracy will be one of them. So please stop by and say hi to her to meet you. Thanks. Good to be here. Good to be with lifeline. Thanks Terry. Okay. As I mentioned, there's two tables outside. One is near the loft and one is near the patio. Lots of information there. 3 (22m 57s): So please stop by to say hi and learn more about the pregnancy center. January is our baby bottle fundraiser. So that's what we're here to do today is we just want to invite you to participate with this fundraiser. You're going to come by the table, grab a bottle, take this bottle home and fill it up with change cash, a check of any amount and bring it back with you to Church next week or soon after. And we'll start collecting them. And yeah, that's a easy, but very profitable fundraiser for us. 3 (23m 38s): We do ask that you definitely return your bottle. Even if you don't get it quite full, we do reuse them. And that helps keep our expenses down for online viewers. You can still participate in this fundraiser. We have our website lifeline pregnancy center.org, and you can go right on there and find the donate button. So please use that as your option. Okay? For those of you who are not quite familiar with lifeline pregnancy center and what services that we provide to our community, I had this all planned yesterday in one manner, but God changed it for me early this morning. 3 (24m 25s): He does that sometimes. So instead of rattling off a bunch of services that we offer, I'm going to share with you a personal story of what lifeline pregnancy center does for our community. 29 years ago, I found myself in a unplanned pregnancy. And so I had a friend who took me to a pregnancy center. I met with a client advocate. I was educated on all of my options. I chose life for my baby, that baby who is now almost 30, just became a father last night. 3 (25m 9s): My new granddaughter lifeline pregnancy center does that for women in our community. And so I just, I can't impress upon you anymore. How important this ministry is in our community. And we need to be supporting them now more than ever the yeah. Now more than ever. So I invite you to come to the table. We do have our specific services listed out. I'd love for you to get on our list for our quarterly newsletters. 3 (25m 49s): We do like sending those out online. So if we, we need your, your email addresses, we can save on postage and printing. If we can get these to you via email. So please stop by the tables and sign up for that and such exciting news. We finally have our permit for our construction on our new location that we've had for a while. The walls are going up and we are excited. We have a picture of the volunteers that are working and putting that together. So come by the table, see the pictures, sign up to help. 3 (26m 32s): If you have those skills, we have specific needs out there that you can learn about and sign up. If you'd like a tour of the new building, we're going start towards soon, even before it's done. So come on by and say, hi, thank you so much. 4 (26m 53s): Thank you very much. Awesome announcement on that. My, I was sharing earlier with Jerry, that my niece also had an, an expected pregnancy and she went to a crisis pregnancy center in her town and they helped to educate her about her options as well. And she decided to keep her baby and her baby is now a year old and the baby's name is grace. And so just a great picture of God's faithfulness in the midst of just brokenness and God can restore and just do amazing and wonderful and supernatural things. 4 (27m 35s): If we will just to let him allow him the space to do so. So God, God is faithful. God is faithful. Amen. Amen. Hey, are you guys ready? Okay. You're ready for Jesus. The Bible says that he's coming like a thief in the night. Speaking of a thief in the nights, 3 (27m 58s): I've got a joke. 4 (28m 1s): So this poor old lady wakes up in the middle of the nights to a burglar in her home. And she's so scared. She's so scared. She yells out the scripture verse acts two 38, hoping that the scripture verse will drive her out. And, and sure enough, sure enough, it was successful. The criminal fell to his knees and surrendered to the old lady and the old lady called the police and the police were sober. Blacks. What in the world, they asked the, the thief. What in the world froze you in your tracks and caused you to surrender? When that woman just simply said, acts two 38. She just, she yelled at him a scripture verse and the thieves said a scripture verse. 4 (28m 44s): I thought she said she had an ax and two 30 eights. You probably heard that before, but it fit the servant today. As we talk about Jesus coming as a thief in the night, we're in second Thessalonians, chapter two, we're going to be I'm in the new living translation and also the English standard version going back and forth between the two. These are events prior to the Lord's second coming. Let's take a moment, pray. Let's in fact, let's go ahead and stand up all over the campus. And if you're home, go ahead and stand up in honor of the word and in honor of the Lord, and we're going to pray for the service. So Lord, thank you for the opportunity to have Church in crazy ways. We're having Church we're online, we're in person on we're on the patio. 4 (29m 27s): We're all over the place, but we're having Church. And so we're thankful that even in this crazy season in our world, you are still giving us opportunity to gather it's different, but we're still gathered. And we're just so thankful that Lord. So I pray that as people are watching from their homes, that they're encouraged, I pray that they are able to gather with a couple of people in their homes and just be encouraged, able to worship, able to be edified and built up in their most Holy faith. And I pray the same thing, whether people are in the loft or in the parsonage or on the patio Lord here in the sanctuary, we've got like six people in the sanctuary Lord. So we're so thankful for 5 (30m 6s): What you're doing as we gather the best we can 4 (30m 8s): Lord. And so as we open up to second Thessalonians chapter two, and talk about the rapture and talk about the second coming of Christ, talking about all these exciting things, Lord, I pray that we would be encouraged and excited about our faith even more. 5 (30m 21s): And Lord, for those who don't know you, 4 (30m 23s): Maybe who are just kind of checking things out, maybe just kind of in a discovery process, I pray that you would reveal yourself and powerful and significant and legitimate ways Lord, so that people might come to know you and I pray that every heart listening would be tender, ready, and responsive to hear your, your message of truth. So thank you Lord, for bringing this truth to us, use me. I pray Lord in Jesus name. Amen. You can be seated. Second 5 (30m 50s): Indians chapter two verse one says now dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him. This verse is talking about the rapture and the rapture will be gathered to meet the Lord in the air. Whether the rapture happens before the tribulation, whether the rapture happens midway through the tribulation or whether the rapture happens after the tribulation, we need to be able to answer this question. Are you ready? Answer the question. Are you ready? Am I ready for the return of Christ? I'm going to speak some truth to you today and give you some points to consider. 5 (31m 33s): And hopefully as we get through this message into the end of the message, you will feel ready. And if you're not already, you will be taking some time 4 (31m 40s): Steps to get ready for the return of the Lord. Jesus Christ 5 (31m 45s): Person Christ will be gathered together to meet Jesus in the air. We see that in first Thessalonians chapter four verses 16 through 18, it says for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an Archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise. First, verse 17, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we will always be with the Lord. 4 (32m 19s): And then Paul is saying, therefore, encourage verse 18. Therefore encourage one another. With these words, 5 (32m 25s): I was in Santa Maria yesterday, Santa Maria, California, 4 (32m 28s): And I was driving around and it occurred to me that I hadn't been to the cemetery for awhile. We'd have family members who were buried in that cemetery. My wife's grandparents in particular. 5 (32m 38s): And as I drove around, I was trying, I hadn't been there for many 4 (32m 40s): Years and I was trying to find their, their, their gravestone. And so I'm driving around and I'm 5 (32m 46s): Thinking about where, where is their gravestone? And as I'm looking around, I saw some other, yeah, 4 (32m 52s): Gravestones, obviously there's thousands of them around and I'm 5 (32m 55s): On one particular gravestone. 4 (32m 57s): I saw this epitaph 5 (33m 0s): Epitaph. I have finished the work, which now gave me 4 (33m 3s): For me to do John 17 four. I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do. Now, this woman who had this epitaph on her headstone was born in 1897. And she passed away in 1960. And then right next to that grave stone was another grave stone with the same epitaph. And it was her daughter who also said, I have finished the work that gave us for me to do 5 (33m 33s): What did it, what a profound statement. I don't know, what else would we be better on, 4 (33m 38s): On a tombstone then that statement I have finished the work, which I gave us me to do. 5 (33m 45s): I thought about that verse. 4 (33m 47s): And I thought about the impact of that verse. So you've got mom who lived her life, apparently for Jesus has that epitaph. And then her daughter generationally, as we 5 (34m 0s): Jesus, we've got the opportunity to impact those who come after us. We will impact those who come after us one way or the other. What a, what a great option 4 (34m 11s): Trinity. We have to impact the next generation and generations that follow with the gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 5 (34m 18s): And then I was thinking about that verse and the dead in Christ will rise first. I thought, man, it's going to be a crazy, crazy moment. When that happens all over the earth, I thought about all of the dead in Christ, you were in that cemetery or in the ocean who are, you know, wherever they may be. 4 (34m 38s): And in a moment they're going to at the, at the appearance appearing of Christ in the air, he never touches down at the rapture, but he's, he appears in the clouds in the air. And I can, I can just imagine. And just a moment, 5 (34m 54s): The dead in Christ and then those who are still alive, well, we'll catch up. So if we're still alive during the rapture, we will be caught up as well. So it's like, I don't know how, how much time there's going to be in between, but it's gonna be like, it's like, you know, we're going to see the dead in Christ rise. And then, and then we get a chance to rise as well. It's going to be just amazing. Are you ready for that? Are You Ready for Jesus we don't talk about the second coming of Christ that often as a Church, but it's like, it's like waiting for Christmas. It's the best thing in the world. I mean, it's like we should be anticipating it. Ready for it. Excited about it. I mean, the rapture is going to wreak havoc in the earth. 5 (35m 36s): Imagine people in planes and automobiles, walking in homes all over the earth, being caught up believers in the Lord, Jesus Christ being caught up 4 (35m 48s): In the rapture. I want us to be Ready 5 (35m 52s): As a church. I want 4 (35m 54s): Us to be ready as a leader, a pastor, a shepherd. I want us to be ready in Jesus' name for what is coming. And it's not that difficult. God, hasn't made it complicated for us to be ready. It's a matter of us trusting in him, believing the gospel message that Jesus died for our sins, that he took the penalty for our sins upon himself. And that when our life is hidden in Christ, when we were adopted into his family, when our sins are forgiven, we are, we come into faith. We come by faith. We come into this relationship, the saving relationship salvation. We experienced salvation in Christ. It's just that simple. 4 (36m 34s): Are you ready? Are you ready for Jesus? Is this something that you did years ago, but then have allowed to go by the wayside. I want to encourage you to be ready today. And then everyday following. I want you to be ready for the return of Christ. Meaning getting your life in order, making Jesus, your first priority, focusing on him and your in your day to day life. Every moment, wanting to please him and honor him and serve him with everything that you have. Are you ready? Are you ready for Jesus? Number one in your notes. If you're not ready, get ready. 4 (37m 15s): If you're not ready, get ready. How do you get Ready? Well, we'll get there in a minute. I'll show you how to get ready. 5 (37m 22s): But verse two says don't be easy. Don't be so easily shaken. The second Thessalonians two, two says don't be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don't believe them. Even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation or a letter supposedly from us. 4 (37m 43s): So the day of the Lord, what is the day of the Lord? 5 (37m 46s): The day of the Lord is when God is coming with judgment to judge the unbeliever, The festival Indian Church was experiencing so much persecution. And then they were receiving these false letters from people who said that they were the apostle Paul, maybe hearing words like thus sayeth the Lord. They heard people with maybe a spiritual vision of revelation or a letter as the verse has a supposedly from us telling the Church 4 (38m 22s): Church that the day of the Lord had already happened. And so maybe in there 5 (38m 27s): Thinking with all of their persecution, maybe Jesus has already come. We missed it. And what we're experiencing is 4 (38m 35s): Is the tribulation period they'd received. Maybe people with vision revelation, a letter that they had miss Jesus verse three, it says don't be fooled by what they say for that day will not come until there's a great rebellion against God. So there are some things that must take place prior to the coming of the Lord. Jesus Christ. That great rebellion. The Greek word, there is a pasta CA. So where we get our word apostasy, it's a great falling away. People who once knew God will fall away from him. They will be a great rebellion, a great apostasy, a great falling away in the last days. 4 (39m 20s): This is what will happen. We see it in second, Timothy chapter three verses one through five. But understand this, 5 (39m 27s): Understand this, that in the last days they will come. Times of difficulty, four people will be lovers of self lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive disobedient to their parents. 4 (39m 41s): Navel unholy, heartless on a peaceable 5 (39m 45s): Slanderous without self-control 4 (39m 48s): Brutal, not loving 5 (39m 50s): Good treacherous, reckless swollen with conceits levers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God. Having the appearance of godliness. These people will look like 4 (40m 2s): They're godly. They will look pious, but denying its power, they will look godly, but lacking the power that belongs to the godly. They will 5 (40m 14s): Have the appearance of godliness, but be liking it's Powell. 4 (40m 17s): And Paul Paul told Timothy avoid such people. These pious people who are arrogant full of themselves, loving pleasure rather than God. And this is what will happen in the end days. And we think maybe we're seeing that now. And we do see that now. And we've probably seen it down throughout the Church age, beginning with the first Church the episodic Church. And throughout the church age, we've probably seen this, but with increasing 5 (40m 46s): W w increasingly, so we will see this title, 4 (40m 49s): But a pasta. See this walking away. Number one, if you're not ready to get ready, how do you get ready? I would just encourage you to become a student of the Bible, become a student of the Bible, often 5 (41m 4s): Reading all kinds of things, Christian books, Christian biographies, Christian stories, but we're not actually reading as 4 (41m 11s): Much the Bible. We can read it 5 (41m 14s): All about the Bible and all about what God does in the earth. But if we're not investing ourselves in the truth of God's word, we're going to be, we could possibly be deceived. And I just want us to 4 (41m 25s): Me aware that we could be, 5 (41m 29s): If we're not grounded in the word of God, understanding the truth of God from the old, all the way through 4 (41m 34s): The new Testament, become a student of the Bible. It's brand new year. Maybe you take this year for the first time and you read through the whole scripture, all the new Testament this year, it's not too late to jump into, do something like that. Maybe this year, you decide I'm going to really study this book of the Bible, because it really is perplexing. Maybe you're going to study the gospels or the epistles, or some, some prophecy books that you're going to study Genesis or revelation or the revelation. Maybe you're going to study a book of the Bible and get it, really get your mind around it and get your heart invested in it. I would just, if you're not ready and you're struggling to be ready for the return of price, maybe, maybe there's doubt or just unbelief, fear, anger, whatever. 4 (42m 17s): It may be, just become a student of the Bible and then be humble and teachable. We don't want to approach the word of God unless we're humble and teachable. But if we approach the word 5 (42m 26s): With humility and teachability, 4 (42m 30s): We're told that the Holy spirit will speak to us and we'll download truth to us. And then there's amazing Bible study tools out there, commentaries, Bible dictionaries, all kinds of online stuff and book stuff that that can help us to become students of the Bible to approach it with humility and teachability. And then 5 (42m 50s): I just encourage you to listen to the truth, listen to, to the truth. We hear all kinds of prophetic words, visions, people's dreams, all kinds of stuff. Listen, those things are fine 4 (43m 7s): That the gifts of God are for today, but they must be submitted to the word of God, to the truth of God. And if what we're hearing and visions and seeing, and dreams and all kinds of, if they're not, if they're not lining up with the word of God that we need to stick with the word of God, we need to stick with the word of God. First Timothy four, a chapter, a chapter four verses one through five, Paul instructed Timothy. He said, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus 5 (43m 36s): Jesus who is to judge the living in the 4 (43m 39s): Dead and by his appearing and his kingdom. 5 (43m 42s): He said, preach the word. So Paul told Timothy, he told his protege the most important thing you can do is to preach the word, teach the Bible, be ready in season and out of season. Part of preaching the word 4 (44m 5s): And teaching the word is what comes next, right? 5 (44m 8s): Groove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming. When people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. So people won't be satisfied with 4 (44m 29s): The truth of God's word. They want to hear what they want to hear, whatever that 5 (44m 34s): That is. They want to hear what they want to hear. And so they find teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. Listen, the Bible is full of stuff that we don't want to hear. There are, it's hard sayings, hard truths of God. And they're hard for us to listen to because it requires that we bring our lives into alignment with God. And with his word, it requires that we move, not that God moves, but that we move and that we align our lives with the message and the person and the truth of the word of God. 4 (45m 11s): So people will find it 5 (45m 12s): Teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, Timothy always be sober-minded endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist and fulfill your ministry. 4 (45m 31s): Part of 5 (45m 32s): With these ministry was that he would preach the word it's tempting, I guess, as a pastor, too, 4 (45m 38s): When you say less difficult things to say 5 (45m 44s): Things that are easier on people's ears, that's always going to be a temptation, 4 (45m 50s): But when we are face-to-face 5 (45m 54s): With God's word and with the reality that there's a judgment on what we say and how we communicate the truth we have to by God's grace, 4 (46m 5s): Speak the truth in love. 5 (46m 9s): In revelation, God spoke to the church in Laodicea and he had this complaint against the church. 4 (46m 17s): They were neither hot or cold. They were losing 5 (46m 21s): Warm. And Jesus said, because you are not hot or cold, you are lukewarm. I will literally spit you out of my mouth. He's called the church to be on fire 4 (46m 32s): For him, not lukewarm 5 (46m 34s): In revelation three 17. It continues for you say, I'm rich. I have prospered. I need nothing. Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and 4 (46m 45s): Naked. 5 (46m 48s): There are those who believe that those seven churches in the beginning of revelation, those seven churches represent the Church age, Church history. And so the first Church in there know the Church and emphasis represents the Church, the apostolic church. And then down throughout the history with those seven churches, those seven churches represent the Church age Church history. So the seventh church is the church of Laodicea that we just talked about. And so if indeed we are in the last days of the end time 4 (47m 26s): Times, I wonder if this to see in Church 5 (47m 30s): Represents the Church in the world today, 4 (47m 34s): Today, are we hot or cold? Or we Luke warm. I'm not sure 5 (47m 42s): You're not Harvest Church in particular, but I am talking about Harvest Church but I'm talking about the Church the Equis SIA, the capital C Church of the world that Church, that belongs to Jesus Christ. It is in the world. Do we look like the layer to see in Church or are we on fire for Jesus? 4 (48m 1s): We faced the same judgment that the lady to see in Church the same rebuke that the land lady to see in Church received. Are we ready for Jesus? Are we ready for Jesus? The temptation is to kind of keep Jesus in our back pockets for fire insurance, whatever that may look like in your life, but that's not discipleship. That's not what Jesus called his disciples to. That's not what he's called you. He's not called you to send me more. Christianity is called You to 24 seven Christianity discipleship. He's called you to be a follower of his, to abandon everything so that you might call him so that you might know him. If you're not 5 (48m 41s): Ready number one, get Ready number two, make sure you're only following. Jesus make sure you're only following Jesus what's the temptation or the temptation as we've already talked about or attempted to follow man, and believe what men say. We hear a prophecy. It's exciting to hear a prophecy. We're tempted to believe the prophecy without actually checking out the prophecy. When I say we need to make sure we're following Jesus, where we need to make sure we're following his word, where in his word we understand the person and the work and the character of Jesus. We understand who he is so that we can make sure we're only following him. 5 (49m 21s): We hear prophecy. We get excited about it. We need to check it out. Somebody shares a vision or a revelation. Someone writes a compelling letter. That's what was going on here with his Church. Someone had written a letter letting, letting the Church there and festival the festival. And I could, Church letting them know, telling them that the return of Christ had already happened. And they began to believe it. It was signed by Paul, a fictitious Paul, somebody who wasn't the apostle Paul. So the temptation is to believe something that isn't from God and we follow men. We're tempted to follow men. Second Thessalonians two, two, again, don't be so easily shaken or 4 (49m 59s): Lauren by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don't believe them. Even if they claim to have, 5 (50m 4s): I had a spiritual vision, a revelation or a letter, supposedly from us, 4 (50m 10s): Paul had told the Church and first Thessalonians one 10, that they would be delivered from the wrath to come. 5 (50m 19s): You heard true throughout the course of our lives, hopefully in Church as we studied the word of God. And as we've understood who God is, we've heard truth. But then we forget circumstantially our lives go through hard things and we forget, we go through difficulties and we want to hold onto something of comfort, even if it's not truth. And then sometimes we're holding onto the wrong thing that doesn't bring comfort to us at all lies from the enemy. So this Church was experiencing persecution because of their faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ. And that is something that we know we can expect as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 5 (51m 1s): We should expect persecution. But the persecution that they were experiencing was from men. It was from human beings who were persecuting them for their faith. We see that type of persecution throughout the old Testament and the new Testament. We will see it. We'll see it all the way till the very end. The wrath of the tribulation period is God's judgment on unbelieving people, the wrath and the tribulation period that seven year period comes from God. And it's on those who were unbelieving. 5 (51m 43s): God's wrath is for the unbeliever. It's not for the believer. Remember the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis chapter 18 and 19, God was about to destroy the cities and Abraham spoke up and he asked the Lord, he pleaded with the Lord Genesis 1823. The second part of the verse says, will you indeed sweep away? The righteous with the wicked Abraham continued in Genesis 1825. He said far, be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked so that the righteous fare as the wicked far be that from you shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just so Abraham challenged. 5 (52m 36s): What was going on? Challenge. God Abraham said, what if I find 50 righteous people? Will you destroy the land? If I find 50 righteous people, God said, if I find at Sodom 50 righteous in the city, I will spare the whole, whole place for their sake. What happened? Abraham couldn't find 50. So he said, Lord, we're about 45 for, for the sake of 45, a wallet. I will not destroy the city. What about 40, 30, 2010? I said, if you can find 10 righteous, I won't destroy the city. Abraham couldn't find 10 righteous people within the cities. 5 (53m 18s): And so God saved lot in his family and he destroyed the city. 6 (53m 27s): He destroyed it with sulfur and fire. 4 (53m 31s): The people of festival Annika can confuse, thought that God God's wrath was upon them. Listen, we can't handle God's 6 (53m 39s): Wrath. 4 (53m 42s): Most of the time, his wrath ends in death. Ultimately it always ends in death for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus died on the cross to take our penalty so that we wouldn't have to endure the wrath of God. Are you ready? Are you ready for Jesus? If you're not ready, 6 (54m 9s): Ready? Get ready. Get ready. Okay. 4 (54m 15s): Make sure that you're only following Jesus verse three. Again, don't be fooled. Don't be fooled by what they say for that day will not come until there's a great rebellion against God. The apostasy 6 (54m 29s): And the man of lawlessness, 4 (54m 31s): The man of sin. The antichrist is what that means. The man of lawlessness is revealed. So there's a great apostasy and the antichrist is revealed. So some things need to happen before the return of Christ. 6 (54m 49s): No ma'am 4 (54m 49s): Lawlessness is revealed. The one who brings destruction, he will exalt himself and defy everything that people call God and every object of worship, he will even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is 6 (55m 5s): Okay. 4 (55m 5s): So a couple of things need to happen. First. The great apostasy, right? Falling away 6 (55m 9s): Way. 4 (55m 13s): There are those who believe that the antichrist will be one who is a part of the apostate. Church one who at one point maybe knew God and abandoned God abandoned God's principles and God's plan. There are those who believe that the antichrist will be from the apostate Church. 6 (55m 36s): So 4 (55m 37s): I believe this'll be in scripture, bears this out. He will be an influential leader. It'll be easy to follow. He will make big promises. He will speak of peace. In fact, he will bring a temporary peace to the middle East. Something that the world will be odd by middle East has been at war for years. 6 (56m 2s): He 4 (56m 3s): Will even rebuild the temple in Jerusalem for the Jews, 6 (56m 8s): But 4 (56m 10s): Three and a half years into the tribulation. We will see verse four, take place, verse four. Again, he will exalt himself and defy everything that people call God and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God that he himself is God. People will worship him as God. People will worship him as Messiah, 5 (56m 32s): Verse five. Don't you remember that? I told you about all this when I was with you. And this is a, this is a brand new Church. This is a brand new Church Paul Paul 4 (56m 42s): Writes the first letter 5 (56m 47s): And there's some confusion about what he was about what he wrote. But prior to that, he was with them for a few weeks. And he, he taught them all of these things about the end times and about Jesus, about the gospel. He taught them all of these things. And so he's asking him, does she remember that? I told you about all this. When I was with you, he was with him for such a short amount of time. And then he laughed and he wrote a letter. And then within a month, or within one to 12 months, somewhere in there, a very short list for a short time later from Corinth, he writes the second letter, correcting their, their misunderstanding of what he had communicated to them. 5 (57m 29s): It's it's we need to understand this truth. Some of you are here and you're like, man, I'm a brand new Christian. I can understand this stuff. You can, you met your meant to understand this Paul's expectation of the early church. A young, early church was that 4 (57m 42s): We would understand it for six and you know, what is holding him back, the antichrist, where he can be revealed only when his time comes and that interesting. So God's not flustered by the times, things that are unfolding that will unfold. The Holy spirit is holding back the anti-Christ until his time comes. Why? Because God's in charge of all things. He's not flustered by the, in times he's not scared, but at the antichrist, he's not scared of Satan. He's not, he's not scared of anything. And you shouldn't be either. You should be wise. Why is the serpents? Harmless is, does. We should be wise. We should be humble, but we should be confident in the word and confident in our God that he is in charge. 4 (58m 29s): So, you know, what is holding it back? The Holy spirit is holding it back for you can be revealed only when his time comes for this. Lawlessness is already at work secretly and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way. Then the man of lawlessness will, will be revealed, but the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth. It's just that simple God's power. Isn't just a little bit more than the enemy. He's not just a touch, bigger, a touch, more powerful. 5 (59m 6s): It's not a, it's not a competition at all. It's not a competition 4 (59m 11s): At all. You'll be slick 5 (59m 14s): With the breadth of his mouth and destroy him by the splendor of his coming. Let's read. It's not on your screen. I just to read this this morning, revelation chapter 19, verses 11 through 21, I'm just going to read it. Not going to comment a lot on it, but it just gives us a picture of what's going to happen to this enemy who likes to wreak havoc in our life. And I saw heaven open and behold, a white horse. The one sitting on it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire. And on his head are many diadems many crowns. 5 (59m 56s): And he has the name written that no one knows, but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he is called the word of God, who are we talking about there? My Jesus right. He's the word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine, linen, white and pure were following him on white horses from his mouth comes a sharp sword. Or we just read about the breadth of his mouth ringing destruction, right from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the wine press of the fury, of the wrath of God, the almighty on his robe and on his thigh, he has the name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 5 (1h 0m 45s): Then I saw an angel standing in the sun with a loud voice. He called to all the birds that fly directly overhead. He said, come gather for the great supper of God to eat the flesh of Kings. The flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their writers, the flesh of all men, both free and slave both small and great. And I saw the beasts and the Kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. Then God is trembling. You think Jesus is scared. He's got nothing to fear. And the beast was captured. And with it, the false prophet who is in its presence, let me see it. 5 (1h 1m 30s): And the beast was captured. And with it, the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs of which he deceived those who had received the Mark of the beast. And those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the Lake of fire that burns with sulfur and the rest were slain by what, by the word that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse and all the birds were, were gorged with their flesh, big battle Kings of the earth gathered to battle the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And God goes Jesus And that's it. 5 (1h 2m 16s): The battle is over 4 (1h 2m 24s): As it is done. It's not a battle at all. It's a breath of his mouth that destroys and brings the splendor of his coming that communicates the splendor of his crumbing coming this man, verse nine seconds 5 (1h 2m 42s): Bessel. And in chapter two, verse nine, this man, the antichrist will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and 4 (1h 2m 49s): Eric goals. Some describe this antichrist is kind of like You, 5 (1h 2m 57s): You know, Jesus is the incarnation of God. This would be like, like Satan has given this person 4 (1h 3m 3s): And all of his power, all of his authority to deceive the nations, counterfeit power and signs and miracles reminds me of Exodus. Again, when Pharaoh's magicians imitated, Moses and imitated Moses miracles, it was, it was counterfeit signs and miracles. This antichrist will be able to do powerful things. 5 (1h 3m 42s): But I think about it, I think about going to a good magician show, you don't understand how the tricks are being 4 (1h 3m 47s): Performed, but when 5 (1h 3m 49s): You see behind the curtain and you begin to see how the tricks are being performed, they're not narrowly 4 (1h 3m 55s): Is impressive. You're like, Oh, well, that's not impressive. It's impressive when you don't know the tricks or what's happening behind the curtain. But we know that God knows what's going on behind the curtain. And he describes the worst of the antichrist is counterfeit power signs and miracles, counterfeits fake. 5 (1h 4m 17s): I use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction because they refuse to love and accept 4 (1h 4m 25s): The truth that would save them. 5 (1h 4m 29s): I refuse. These are unbelievers who refuse people who refuse to love and accept 4 (1h 4m 34s): The truth that would save them. I wonder if that's you today. I wonder if you've heard the gospel, you've heard the truth, but you're refusing to love it and accept it. And you're refusing to allow the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to save you. This is not something to be played with. It's not a game. Is that something that you wait to do? It's something that you do now. 5 (1h 4m 60s): Now in Jesus' name. You when you believe you receive, you don't wait. You don't say, well, I'm going to wait until I get through high school 4 (1h 5m 8s): And 5 (1h 5m 9s): Then give my life to Jesus, because I want to have some fun in high school. I'm going to wait until I get through college because I want to have some fun in college. And then after college, well, I want to wait until I'm more established in my career until I have a family. And then I will give my life to Jesus. Well, I want to wait until I'm retired. When I can really invest myself in Jesus and that's when I'll give myself to Jesus, I'm going, I'm going to wait until I'm close to death on my death bed. And then I will give my life to Jesus. 4 (1h 5m 46s): And then it's too late. You harden your hearts, your whole life, your heart. Won't all of a sudden be tender towards Jesus. When you're an old man, a woman, your heart will be harder than, than ever. Don't wait, don't wait. Are you ready? Are you ready for Jesus? If you're not ready to get ready, make 5 (1h 6m 16s): Sure you're only following Jesus. 4 (1h 6m 19s): And then number three, as we wrap this thing up, stand firm, you will need to 5 (1h 6m 25s): Learn how to stand firm 4 (1h 6m 28s): In Jesus. Yeah. 5 (1h 6m 31s): If you cannot stand firm in the days and times in which we live now, 4 (1h 6m 35s): Now your faith is weak. You will never endure when things really get difficult. If you can't 5 (1h 6m 45s): Not endure. Now, I'm going to tell you the truth. Your faith is 4 (1h 6m 49s): Weak. That's not a 5 (1h 6m 52s): Judgment statement. That's a statement of fact, 4 (1h 6m 56s): Dada, 5 (1h 6m 57s): Racist, sufficient, and that he will strengthen you for the day 4 (1h 6m 60s): CA beginning now. 5 (1h 7m 4s): And if you don't figure out how to stand firm, now you will never figure out how to stand firm 4 (1h 7m 9s): Later. 5 (1h 7m 12s): You need to figure out now how to stand firm. And Jesus 4 (1h 7m 15s): Jesus first third, 5 (1h 7m 18s): Jean believers is stand firm. As for us, we can't help, but thank God for you. Your brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We're always thankful that God shows you to be among the first to experience salvation salvation that comes through the spirit who makes you Holy and through your belief in the truth. He called you to salvation. When he told you the good news. Now you can share in the glory of our Lord, Jesus Christ, with all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters stand firm and keep a strong grip. 4 (1h 7m 53s): That means 5 (1h 7m 53s): It requires efforts on your part by God's grace. We stand firm and take a strong grip. Then decide once again that Jesus is Lord, and then I'm going to trust him no matter what, no matter what comes my way, I'm standing firm in him and I'm trusting him. I'm taking a renewed grip, a strong grip on the teachings we passed on to you in person. And by letter, 4 (1h 8m 16s): Paul wrote, you're holding onto the teachings of the Bible. You're understanding the, the, what was passed on by the apostle Paul. And for that matter throughout the whole scripture, the old and the new Testament, all 66 books of the Bible. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, our father who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope comfort to you and strengthen you and every good thing you do and say, and that's how Paul wraps up this chapter. Are you ready for Jesus? I've said some hard things today, but the things that we need to hear, things that we need to understand, things that we need to believe. 4 (1h 9m 6s): If you're not ready to get ready and make sure you're only following Jesus in his word and the truth of God and stand firm in Jesus name, stand firm in Jesus with that, I want to pray and we're gonna invite the worship team forward, and we're gonna sing some more. And then we're gonna just spend some time as we sing, just contemplating what has been said. So if you're here today and you need to stand firm as a follower of Lord, Jesus Christ. Choose to do that. If you're here today and you don't know, Jesus choose to give your life to him. I've given you the gospel today. Jesus died for your sins. The Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of standard of God. 4 (1h 9m 49s): The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Our Lord we're saved by grace through faith. So receive Jesus into your heart today. You receive him by simply saying, Lord Jesus, I receive you. I need you. I give you my life. I want you to be the Lord and the leader, the King of my life. You get to say what I do from now on you are Lord let's pray, Lord. Thank you for this time. Thank you for what you're doing. God continued to penetrate hearts and minds with your truth and be glorified with the response. We pray Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship 1 (1h 10m 43s): . 1 (1h 19m 18s): Thank you. 0 (1h 19m 36s): Giving us boldness and courage to all the earth around us and examples of your love to everyone 1 (1h 19m 44s): We're in contact with. So you 0 (1h 19m 46s): Keep us all safe. Keep us healthy until we're together. Again. 1 (1h 19m 50s): Love you, 0 (1h 19m 52s): Honor. And praise in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Church love. It's so awesome to worship our Lord for you, that you have a wonderful rest of your day. If you're here on campus, make sure you use this. Take some kind of fellowship and encourage one. Another. Those of you at home, just love on each other today. Be good to each other. If you're at home today, call a friend, call a family member, reach out to somebody. If you're feeling alone, there's chances are someone else's too. So let's be the church. Let's be family to one another and spread God's love this morning. So have a great day. We'll see you next Sunday.

0 (8s): Welcome to everyone around campus who is watching right now. Hello to everyone at home. We just send our love. When does welcoming God's presence this morning to be in our midst all over this County, wherever you're gathered. So let's go before the Lord together and prayer, as we begin today, heavenly father, we look to you. We don't look to the left. We don't look to the right to you. Would you set our hearts on your truth on your goodness, on your faithfulness towards us? 0 (51s): So we weighed upon your presence. Holy spirit, would you come we're in need of you today? Would you touch every heart that is hurting every mind that is racing with anxiety? Would you come and bring peace passes our understanding today? Would you restore our souls and lead us beside those still waters? Refresh us, renew us, strengthen us and the weekend. Thank you, Lord. 0 (1m 25s): . 0 (18m 45s): Thank you. Thank you that you always find us. There's no pit too deep or too dark that your love can't meet us there. So thank you, God, that we're never out of your sight. It's your love can always reach us with your hope can always find this. So we just welcome your presence in this season of our life. Would you come in and bring light and bring healing? We just open our hearts to receive all that you have for us to stay free, that you would help us to receive your word as it's preached this morning, that would just take root deep in our hearts. Those seeds that are planted. 0 (19m 27s): Welcome you Holy spirit to come and have your way in our hearts and in our, in our lives, in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Awesome. Well, this would be a great time to say hello to someone around you. If you're here on campus at home, this hug someone that's with you, or take a moment to just spend some time with the Lord if you're by yourself this morning, but just know that his love was in our hearts, that we share that with one another. So would you take a moment just to greet those around you went back in just a few minutes with some announcements. 1 (20m 5s): Hey, good morning. Harvest Church glad to see you all here. I'm glad for those of you who joining us in person. And then for those of us who are for those of you who are joining us online as well. We're so glad you're, you're, you're connecting with us and yeah, another Sunday. And if you are joining us for the first time in person, we'd love for you to stop by the info center. That way you can get a free gift and just find out ways to connect to Harvest Church. So please do that at the info center right next to the coffee station, just heads up. We have a few different in-person venue options this week. So in case you didn't know, we are back in person this week, but the, the changes are as follows. 1 (20m 48s): So we have the loft and parsonage, which are our mask only options. We have the patio outside, which we've expanded more seating out there. So we've got some, you know, that's, that's where I think the majority of folks are gathering in the outdoor patio. We've got those heaters. Hopefully those are keeping you guys warm. We have currently at this time, the sanctuary is close to in-person. We're hoping to open that up in the future. And then also kids and youth are resuming this week as well. So they will be open up a second service. We'll have the youth group. There's a few ways to give. You can give online at AGU Harvest dot org or there's some collection boxes throughout the campus. 1 (21m 28s): There's a one in the parsonage as well as one on the patio for you to give. And let's see, we got some great winter life groups coming up. That is the season we're kicking off right now. So we got S we have some home groups. We have a yarn crafting group men, and women's Bible studies, young adults and golfing. I didn't know there's a golfing group. I am not a golfer, but I think what I might have to do is start a rock climate adventure group. So we got a groups ticket for your, for you to join. You can find those. If you go to the info center, as well as online, you go to the website on the website, you go to the next steps and then there's a connect option. 1 (22m 10s): So click that connect. And that gives an email so you can send out and find out ways to connect to our church. And then lastly, next week is the sanctity of life, Sunday, sanctity of life Sunday. So the lifeline we're having a lifeline baby bottle drive, and that will be next Sunday. So just be prepared to come pick up a bottle, fill it with change or some cash. Cause I guess there's a chain CA change shortage going on. So maybe fill it up with some cash and then you'll bring it back the following Sunday. So come find out what lifeline is doing in our, within our community and amazing ministry. So find out more next week and then I want to welcome up pastor Steve. 1 (22m 55s): You're very good to be here. Welcome. Good morning. It is 2 (23m 0s): So good to be back in. Church good to be here. Last week, we had Brad Degas speaking from Pacific justice Institute and he did a great job. And then we had Brad come and speak to our pastor's group on Wednesday. So we had about 25 pastors gathering for lunch, and then Brad talked about his ministry to, and, and, and the ministry that supports religious liberties in our nation. And so anyway, good stuff. A lot of really wonderful things have been happening this year already. I'm really glad 2020s behind us. I'm looking forward to 2021. I've got some re five reflections on 2020 before we get into our texts. 2 (23m 41s): This morning, we'll be in second Thessalonians chapter one, but five reflections really quick. The dumbest thing I ever bought was a 2020 plan 3 (23m 49s): Planner in tonight do not 2019. 2 (23m 54s): We were to stay away from negative people and in 2020 we're to stay away from positive people. So a number three old folks are sneaking out of the house and their kids are yelling at them to stay 3 (24m 6s): And doors. And number four, 2 (24m 9s): This virus has done what no woman has been able to do. Cancel sports, shut down all bars and keep men at home. So that's been a good thing. And then number five, never in a million years that I ever think that I'd be going up to a bank teller with a mask on asking for money. So there we go, 20 things we learned in 20, 20, happy 20, 21. It's a new year. We've got a new president, but we've got the same God who is on the throne. And so with that, let's go ahead and stand up. We're going to pray as we jump into second Thessalonians. So Lord, we stand in honor of you. We pray, we thank you for this time. God, I pray that as the ministry of the word, it goes forth. 2 (24m 51s): God, that you'd speak to us. And I know that you've been speaking to me as I've prepared the message. I pray that you would just continue that good work and speak to everybody who might be listening online or in the loft, in the parsonage, on the patio, wherever we may be. Lord God. And whenever this message is listened to, I pray that you would encourage and not just with the message, but also with the worship. The worship was just so powerful this morning. And we pray that as we worship God, that we'd worship in spirit and in truth, God, that we would approach your throne of grace with such gratitude, with such excitement, with such appreciation God, that we would grow in our faith this year, that we'd grow in love this year that we grow in Endurant this year that we would grow in every area and arena of our lives. 2 (25m 41s): Lord God. So be glorified as we do, as we trust you, as we look to your word this morning, Lord in Jesus name, amen. Amen. You can be seated 3 (25m 52s): Jumping into second Thessalonians 2 (25m 54s): Today. This letter was written by the apostle Paul, like the letter of first Thessalonians. It was written from Corinth like the first letter was, and it was written very shortly after, shortly after the first letter, some would say as soon as a month after. So anywhere from 12 to one month to 12 months after the first letter was written, Paul wrote the second letter. He wrote it to clarify truth and to combat lies that the people in this church had begun to believe. So Paul communicated a letter about the second coming of Christ, and there were some misunderstanding about that. The people were experiencing great persecution during this time for their faith in Christ. 2 (26m 37s): And some were telling them that the day of the Lord had already happened and they missed it. And they began to believe that you might imagine the great persecution that they were under. They were discouraged. It's never fun going through hardship through persecution. And it actually leaves us a little vulnerable sometimes. And we're vulnerable to maybe the lies of the enemy. Maybe we begin to misunderstand what the scriptures said, and maybe we've missed God maybe we feel like we've missed God. And so Paul writes this second letter to address the issue of the second coming. We get to that. And chapter two, Paul talks in chapter two about the second coming and chapter three, Paul addresses the, 4 (27m 20s): He Challenges the People 2 (27m 23s): The followers of the Lord Jesus to continue to work, to support themselves and to work for the kingdom as they trust and obey the Lord. And so that's kind of chapters three and two chapters, two and three, and then we'll get into chapter one today, 4 (27m 34s): The sermon title God Encourages and Challenges His People okay. 2 (27m 40s): And I've found throughout the course of my life as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that he does 4 (27m 44s): Both he Encourages Andy Challenges, what do you need today? What do you need in your life? 2 (27m 52s): Do you need to be encouraged? Maybe you're doing some things really well and you just need to be reminded that God is pleased with you. Maybe you're struggling a bit and you need to be challenged in your faith and God will, God will do that for you as well. And I say for you, because 4 (28m 6s): He does it with your best 2 (28m 9s): And, and, and, and his heart and mind, he wants to bless you. And everything he does is for our good and for his glory. And so Paul, and as he's under the influence of the Holy spirit, writes this letter to the church 4 (28m 22s): To both encourage and to 2 (28m 25s): Challenge the people of God. So Paul Encourages the Thessalonians for their faith, their love, and for their adherence. 4 (28m 35s): And he Challenges they're wrong thinking he th th they needed to be challenged with 2 (28m 42s): They're wrong thinking, because if they're wrong, thinking were allowed to go on. Then the area of faith and love and endurance would begin to suffer, and they begin to waffle a bit in that area. 4 (28m 55s): They were doing well, but 2 (28m 57s): If they don't fix their stinking, thinking their faith love and endurance will be impacted. Maybe you're doing really well in some areas, but you've got some stinking thinking. You've got some under you just misunderstand what God is saying in the scripture. And you're beginning to believe some wise, I would just challenge you to always go back to the word of God. We understand best the word of God. When we just read the word of God, the word of God will speak to us. And God through the power of the Holy spirit will begin to enlighten and illuminate that truth to our understanding. And it will, it will fix errors in our thinking and our understanding. So again, if they continue to believe these lies that Jesus had already returned, they will begin to lose heart. So let's just talk about that kind of that the order of events before we get into second Thessalonians, let's kind of talk about the order of events, it's of an outline of the book of revelation. 2 (29m 45s): So revelation is 22 chapters, and we're not going to study revelation probably for a few months, but I think we'll probably get to it. And probably three or four or five months here sometime this year, I think, but just to help us understand. So first Thessalonians talks about the rapture in first Thessalonians, chapter four, and first Corinthians chapter 15, beginning of verse 51, we read about the rapture, and this is going to be a time when God comes from heaven and he doesn't actually land on the earth. But what he does is he comes in from the clouds and he raptures, he takes up so that in Christ will rise first. And then those who are alive will follow and we'll will be taken to heaven. 2 (30m 26s): This is what we believe. We believe that at the rapture, we, the believers in Christ and the dead in Christ will rise and we'll, we'll go to heaven. And then that will begin the tribulation period. The tribulation period is a time that begins in revelation, chapter four, all the way through revelation chapter 19 seven year tribulation period. It's, God's judgment on the earth for against those who refuse to obey and refuse to believe who he is and accept the mercy and grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so we see that revelation chapter four through revelation, chapter 19 and the seven-year tribulation period. And then at the end of that, we see the return of price and the battle of Armageddon. 2 (31m 9s): We see that in revelation chapter 19, verses 11 through 21. So the return of Christ. So you've got the rapture that's when God comes to get us Church. And then at the second coming the return of Christ Christ actually returns with the Church to reign and rule for a thousand years on the earth. So when Christ returns in revelation, chapter 19, verses 11 through 21, it's at the end of the seven year tribulation period. And then the millennial reign of Christ. Satan is bound for a thousand years, that's revelation 20, and then Satan will be released again to deceive the nations. And that's in revelation chapter 20, verse seven. 2 (31m 50s): And then after that revelation, 20 verse 11 is the great white throne judgment. That's when not believers, but unbelievers will be judged and, and, and sent to the bottomless pits to hell. And then in revelation 21 and 22, we see the new Jerusalem, the new heaven, the new earth eternity, and that's where we will spend believers in Christ will spend eternity with the Lord. And so that's kind of a breakdown of revelation. The first three chapters of the revelation, one, two, and three are letters to the Church. And after revelation, chapter three, we don't hear mention of the church on the earth. And so, anyway, that's kind of what we believe. 2 (32m 33s): And so when we read about the second coming and the, the rapture, they're two separate events. And so we just need to be aware of that. So first Thessalonians deals with the rapture second Thessalonians deals with the second coming of Christ. So let's just jump, jump into second Thessalonians chapter one, and we'll unpack it and see what the Lord has to speak to us. This letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy. We are writing to the Church and festival Anika to you who belong to God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul's writing to the Church to the Church at the festival and Church, but also to us in this 21st century church called Harvest Church, God's speaking to us and the 21st century church, capital C church globally, the global church, he's speaking to the church then. 2 (33m 23s): And he is speaking to the Church. Now may God, our father and the Lord, Jesus Christ, give you grace and peace, grace and peace, but it's something we constantly need. We need the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the Shalom of God, the peace of God, you're brothers and sisters. We can't help, but thank God for you because your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing. So in spite of persecution, in spite of very difficult, difficult circumstances in their life, a couple of things are happening. Their faith is flourishing and their love for one another is growing number one. And your notes is your, I just want to ask you this question is your faith. 2 (34m 6s): Flourishing is your faith flourishing. And we're saved by grace through faith. And so we're, we there's this powerful faith element involved in our salvation, but then our faith has the opportunity to grow and in endure through difficulties, and sometimes our faith waivers, meaning we're not believing God as much as we should. We're not trusting God as much as we should. We're not following God as much as we should. When Paul talks about their flourishing faith, he's talking about their ability to remain faithful in the face of difficulty, but what a great opportunity that it is for the church to grow in this area of faith. 2 (34m 48s): As we face difficulty, they haven't quit. These people of God haven't quit because things have gotten difficult. This letter is to us to encourage us not to quit when things get difficult, no matter how long you walk with the Lord, whether you're mature or brand new in the faith, you're going to face, difficulty in your faith will be tested. These people haven't stopped because God is allowing persecution. They haven't stopped believing because God is allowing persecution. They have declared till they are. They have decided to live as Christ and to die is gain. So whether they lived or died, they were going to live on to the Lord and die. 2 (35m 29s): Knowing that they'd be with the Lord in heaven, they realized that suffering is part of the call to follow Jesus. I think, especially in the Western church, In this 21st century world that we live in, we need to be reminded of some things in scripture about suffering. The apostle Peter wrote in first, Peter four 12 through 19, he talked to a lot about suffering and, and Peter suffered. He was martyred for his faith history tells us he was crucified upside down and 4 (35m 58s): Martyred for his faith. 2 (35m 60s): This is what he said. Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials. These are not just light little things that happen to us, but difficult, deep, deep difficulties in our lives. Don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through as if something strange were happening to you. And that the way we feel sometimes like Lord, what's going on. And we forget that this is part of the deal. We forget that trials and tribulation are part of the deal. We see it throughout the scripture. Well, the people of God suffered in the old Testament. People have got suffered in the new Testament instead. Be very glad, 4 (36m 38s): Interesting. Be very 2 (36m 40s): Glad for these trials, make you partners with Christ in his suffering so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed for the glorious spirit of God rests upon 4 (36m 59s): You. So if you're 2 (37m 1s): Suffering persecution, because of the name of Jesus, hang in there on this side of heaven 4 (37m 7s): Or the other God will, God will, God will bless you. And I think it's both. I think 2 (37m 14s): God will bless us and our spirits and in our lives, when we separate persecution, giving us the grace to endure it. And then obviously on the other side of heaven, there's going to be amazing blessing for those who endure. But verse 15, Peter says, if you suffer, however, it must not be for murder for stealing, for making trouble or prying into other people's affairs. So if you're suffering because you're doing dumb stuff, you're not going to, you're not going to be blessed. So don't be involved in, in bad behavior and expect that the Lord is going to bless you. There's a difference here. We sometimes suffer because we are meddling in other people's affairs, making trouble stealing murder. 2 (37m 55s): There's, there's all kinds of dumb things that we do that get us into hot water. So Peter saying, Hey, be careful. Make sure that you're living above reproach. And that the suffering that you're experiencing is really for standing up for the Lord. And not because you're just causing trouble for 16, but there's no shame. We're still in first, Peter. It's no shame to suffer for being a Christian praise God for the privilege of being called by his name for the time has come for judgment. And it must begin with God's household. 4 (38m 26s): Whew. 2 (38m 27s): And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits, those who have never obeyed God's good news. And also if the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to sinners? So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God keep on doing what is right and trust your lives to the God who created you for, he will never 4 (38m 45s): Fail you. 2 (38m 47s): Is your faith flourishing? Is it growing? Do you see a difference, an obvious difference in your faith from maybe a year ago or even six months ago, maybe even last week, you have the opportunity to, 4 (39m 1s): And endure and decide to believe and to allow your faith to flourish. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know, but God does. 2 (39m 16s): And as I said earlier, everything that God allows us for our good and for his glory. So if you can just rest and God and that truth and allow your faith to flourish, maybe just ask the Lord, Lord, I don't know how to make my faith flourish right now. I'm frustrated. I'm angry. I don't understand, but I want my faith to flourish. But what, what great opportunity that the Lord has in your life to just strengthen you, to teach you, to give you the grace that you need for your circumstance. So is your, is your faith flourishing? Are you growing and becoming more solid? Are you unshakeable? Are you fully in with God? If you've got a back door escape plan and your walk with God, then you're not fully in with God, but if you don't have that backdoor escape and you're saying, God, I'm all in unshakeable, I'm solid. 2 (40m 1s): I'm growing. I'm committed myself to you. Then, then, then your faith will we'll grow and flourish. And that's 4 (40m 10s): Really, it's really a lot of fun actually, when you're 2 (40m 14s): Coming out of something, reading in the midst of something. And you're, you're just saying, Lord, I'm, I'm, I'm hunkered down by your grace because you're good. I'm going to just stay with you. I, I want my faith to flourish. I think sometimes we, we, we get, we, we don't allow it to flourish. We waffle, we backslide and then we have to start all over again because God's not gonna relent. He's gonna take us down paths that mature us. And that grows up in our most Holy faith. So just go for it. Just allow God his good work in you grow to that next level in your faith and your next level of understanding and watch what God will do to bless you. That'd be great fruitfulness in your life. 2 (40m 54s): Number two is your love for one another growing. And that's what w that's what the church that Thessalonian church was, was praised for that their love for one another was growing. Hardships can either humble 4 (41m 7s): You or harden you hardships can either humble you or, 2 (41m 12s): Or hard. And you, I would just encourage you and ask you to allow hardships to happen. 4 (41m 20s): How, what does that mean? And I think it just means it, it, 2 (41m 23s): It takes you to a new level in your faith. You're saying, Lord, I don't, I don't like it. I don't understand it. I don't get it. But Lord, I, I trust your, your Lordship. I trust your leadership. I trust that you were the King of Kings and that, and you've, you're, you're taking care of me. And, and so I'm not gonna allow my heart to get hardened, but I'm gonna humble myself. If hardship is hardening you, you will find it more difficult to love people. If our chip is humbling, you, your love for people will grow. So a quick question, do you have a growing list of people you can't stand 4 (42m 6s): A growing list of people that you just can't stand, that you can't get along. 2 (42m 13s): You don't like. I think as we get older in our faith and get older just in our life, we, we either harden up or we humble ourselves. We harden up and just get more rigid. And like fewer and fewer people love fewer and fewer people distance ourselves from more and more people, or we just humble ourselves. And then out of that humbling, that decision to humble ourselves, our hearts grow our CA our capacity to love 4 (42m 43s): Expands. And we find the ability we find in us, 2 (42m 47s): The ability by God's grace, to love people that are just really challenging and hard. Of course, you know, that we can waffle and backslide at times, invited hard to love them, but that we, we, we, when we're humbling ourselves constantly, we find ourselves back in that place. We're saying, you know what? I don't necessarily agree with that person and this area or that area. I don't like the way they live their lives, but I, I just find a love for them. I, I find like I want to pray for them instead of judge them and that sort of thing, the Thessalonians through all of their hardship, we're choosing to love and growing in their love for one another. If you're having our time, loving people, invite God to love people through you. 2 (43m 30s): Love is, is part of the fruit of the spirit. So Galatians five tells us in 22, through 25, but the Holy spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. The first thing that he mentions is love the world will know that we're the followers of Jesus Christ, disciples of God, because of our love. One for another God wants to produce this stuff in our lives. Love. Let's go back to that verse, but the Holy spirit will produce this kind of fruit in our lives. Love 4 (44m 2s): Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 2 (44m 8s): Gentleness. And self-control, there's no law against these things. And there's no judgment coming from God against these things. This is, this is righteous stuff that God accomplishes in us. Those who belong to Christ Jesus verse 24 says those who belong to Christ. Jesus 4 (44m 24s): Nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. So 2 (44m 32s): Our desire to hate people or to be angry with people, but we we've nailed those things to the cross. 4 (44m 40s): And we take the 2 (44m 42s): Attitude of Christ for God. So loved the world that he gave. His only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We have this grace perspective toward People this love perspective towards People. Since we are living by the spirit verse 25, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part 4 (44m 59s): Of our lives. 2 (45m 3s): If you're struggling to love people, invite the power of God through his Holy spirit to teach you how to love. But if your faith is strong and your love is strong, be encouraged. It's okay to be encouraged. It really is good to be encouraged. If your faith is strong and your love is strong, be encouraged. God is doing a good work in you. So you can be grateful. Say, Lord, I'm thankful that I don't think it's arrogant to say I'm, I'm thankful that my faith has grown. I, I probably would have responded differently to this circumstance a year ago, but I, I just, for some reason, by God's grace, there's spending growth there. And I think it's okay to, to, to recognize that you're becoming more and more like, God, it's the same. 2 (45m 44s): It's the process of sanctification. And it's good to rejoice in that. Paul obviously pointed to this Church as examples of people, of faith and love. So it's okay. If you're finding that you're, it's easier to love people or this you're deciding to love people rejoice in that if your faith is strong and your love is strong, be encouraged. Let that put a smile on your face, enjoying 4 (46m 7s): Your heart. I think sometimes 2 (46m 9s): We're, we don't know what to do when we're doing well, where we don't want to be proud and we don't want to be proud, but, 4 (46m 15s): And we certainly can be joyful. We can be happy 2 (46m 20s): And excited and grateful. And anytime God's doing something good in my life, I know that it's by his grace because he's good. Not because I'm good. And so I just want to walk around with gratitude saying thank you, Lord. I, I dunno know why I've all of a sudden had growth in this area, but I I'm so glad that I, 4 (46m 39s): I have certainly don't want to, you know, not yeah. 2 (46m 43s): Be growing. And so let's rejoice when we're growing, not brag about it, but just say, yeah, thank you, Lord. God is good. If you're struggling, I just want to encourage you. God will help. 4 (46m 55s): He's 2 (46m 56s): So loves you. He just is so much he has for you. And he knows the area of your struggle and he just wants to help you. That's why he's given us his word. That's why he's given us Church so that we can come together as the body of Christ and as iron sharpens iron. So one person can sharpen another so we can encourage one another praying for one another, challenging one another and loving on one another. All of that from the first few verses, verse four, we proudly tell God's other churches about your and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships. You are suffering. 2 (47m 36s): Number three, how has your endurance and faithfulness as you deal with hardships, how is your endurance? We've kind of been talking about this thing. Your endurance during hardships proves that you belong to God that you're empowered and filled with the Holy spirit. The Holy spirits has come into your life. And this filled you, the fruit of the spirit is obvious. And the power of God is obvious 4 (48m 11s): In your life. And 2 (48m 13s): You know, we talked about all this time. Ephesians five says to be continually filled with the Holy spirit. We just constantly need the Holy spirit to strengthen us, to give us in Durance and faithfulness. As we deal with 4 (48m 25s): Hardship in our lives, 2 (48m 27s): Verse five says, and God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his kingdom, for which you are suffering. So the enduring Thessaloniki sons would be counted worthy of God's kingdom because of their suffering. According to the word of God, their faithful endurance doesn't save them. Their suffering doesn't save them. They and we are saved by grace, through faith, the suffering saints, that Thessalonian church and us, that we demonstrate our faith by our willingness to suffer and not to give up our faith is demonstrated. 2 (49m 10s): Faith without works is dead. And so we demonstrates that our faith is real when we decide to endure and remain faithful in S in, in, in, in, in, in spite of the difficulties and, and hard things that we are up against 4 (49m 31s): The suffering 2 (49m 32s): Saints demonstrate their faith by their willingness to suffer and not give up. If you can trust God, because he is faithful. And he is just, so what will ultimately happen to those persecuting God's people? 4 (49m 47s): Well, 2 (49m 48s): In his justice, God will judge them verse six in his justice. He will pay those who pay, pay those who persecute you. He will pay them back. They will be held accountable for their lives and for their decisions. God has just, and he will balance the scales in Romans 1219. And the new King James version says, vengeance is mine. I will repay says the Lord. And so we're not to take vengeance on people who are persecuting us. We just let the Lord handle that. 2 (50m 29s): We will see this, and we will, we will see that this judgment we'll see this judgment in verse eight, but let's look at verse seven. First. It says, and God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted. And also for us, when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven, the people of God will ultimately find rest and the coming of 4 (50m 48s): Christ, but let's 2 (50m 51s): Not forget that Christ has already come and go 4 (50m 54s): Two hour lives. And so we can have the rest of God, the peace of God in our life 2 (51m 2s): Lives in the midst of persecution. 4 (51m 6s): Rest means a relief. 2 (51m 8s): It's like a bowstring on a, on a bow it's when not in you. She released the string. Otherwise the most rain gets stretched out. And so that's kind of the picture. It's like the bowstring is taught. It's tight to be used for a purpose, but when not in use, you release the bowstring. So it doesn't get stretched out. So it can be used. So that release of pressure is what that word rest means. It means 4 (51m 35s): That the stress will be taken off 2 (51m 39s): It's it's a, it's a great picture. And it's, it's a wonderful promise from the Lord. It will happen in this life and in the next God will give us a 4 (51m 49s): Time of rest 2 (51m 51s): At his coming. Everything will be made, right? Again, first Thessalonians focuses on the rapture when the Church will be caught up and second Thessalonians deals with the second coming. 4 (52m 2s): And either way, when 2 (52m 4s): Rice returns there'll be arrest for the persecuted rest for the persecuted, but judgment for the unbeliever. I mean, now we're going to look into, in a verse seven, getting into verse eight, kind of what, what it will look like when Jesus returns, he will come with his mighty angels, verse eight in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don't know God. And on those who refuse to obey the good news of our life. 4 (52m 33s): Lord Jesus. So there's judgment. 2 (52m 38s): The punishment verse nine says with eternal destruction, it's a never ending hell experience that these people will be going through. It's for those who don't know God and those who refuse to acknowledge his Lordship, those who refuse to receive his grace message, 4 (52m 57s): They 2 (52m 57s): Will be punished with eternal destruction. Again, this is a never ending destruction that we're talking about here, eternal without and forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power. So essentially God is giving the unbeliever what they've wanted. They've wanted to live their lives apart from the goodness of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God. And so God is honoring their 4 (53m 24s): Wish and their request by allowing 2 (53m 26s): Them to live forever and ever apart from His 4 (53m 29s): Great, grace and mercy. And that is indeed what hell is going to be in jail? 2 (53m 38s): One 17. It says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. So everything that is good, that we experience in this life comes from 4 (53m 54s): God everything. And so when he turned a T and M 2 (53m 60s): This sense apart from God means that we don't get to enjoy the benefits 4 (54m 3s): It's of God and all of the gifts of God. 2 (54m 10s): I wrote down just a few names of God to help us kind of get a glimpse of what this will look like. Number one, he's called Jehovah Gyra. 4 (54m 20s): He is our 2 (54m 21s): Provider, right? So in hell, apart from God, there's no provision 4 (54m 27s): For our daily needs, 2 (54m 30s): The common grace over the earth that everybody's under common grace. It says God's prov, you know, providing we've got air to breathe. We've got food to eat. We've got a level of health apart from God. There's not going to be that grace of provision 4 (54m 48s): And for any person in hell. So none of your needs, none of your needs will be met. Not one of your needs will be met. 2 (54m 60s): You're thirsty. That need will not be met. You're lonely. That need will not be met. 4 (55m 7s): You're injured. Well, Jehovah Rafa Jesus is my healer. God is my healer. You will never be healed. You will never have health in hell because you 2 (55m 20s): Or forever separated from his presence. Jehovah Shalom, 4 (55m 24s): And God is my peace. You will be without peace in hell. Absolutely no peace will be present in hell. It will be peace less. Why? Because Jesus is the Prince of peace. And without Jesus, there is no peace. Jehovah Shalom without God. There is no peace Jehovah Shama. The Lord is there with his people. So the Lord will be absent. God will be absence and his gifts and blessings, his provision, his kindness, his mercy is absent there. 4 (56m 8s): Jehovah said, canoe. The Lord is my righteousness. We are, 2 (56m 14s): Hey, for those of us who know Jesus, we're saved because of his righteousness. We are, we are, we have righteousness imputed to us. And that's the only that we can stand in the presence of God. So there's an absence of righteousness in hell I could go on and on. There's lots of names for God. I think there's like a hundred different names for God and all of those attributes of God will be absent in hell Jehovah, Rohit. The Lord is my shepherd. Imagine Jesus, he's the good shepherd. He shepherds his people, keeping them from trouble, making sure they've got good resource food and water that they're protected from, from danger, no protection. 2 (57m 8s): God is honoring your choice to live your life without him and eternity. It's going to be hell for you. Literally firsthand. When he comes on that day, his second coming, he will receive glory from his Holy People praise from all who believe. And this includes you for you. Believed what we told you about him. As Church believed, they believe the gospel message that Paul preach. They believe the message of the gospel. And so they are saved. Now the second coming of Christ, 5 (57m 45s): They will offer praise to the Lord. So we keep on praying for you. Paul writes asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do? So you're here in the earth. You still got a pulse. What has God asked you to do? What has he asked you to do with your life? It's 2021, a brand new year. We have an opportunity to refresh our minds and make new goals and recommit our time, talents and treasure to the Lord. 5 (58m 26s): May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do? This is Paul's prayer for the church, the Fest Loney and Church. And this is Paul's prayer for us today that the Church down 2 (58m 42s): Throughout the ages would accomplish the good things. Our faith prompts us to do 5 (58m 46s): Verse 12. Then the name of our Lord, Jesus will be honored because of the way you live. I want to honor I as a church. I want us to honor the Lord and the way that we live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ God Encourages and Challenges His People what do you need today? And I feel like a little bit of both. I don't know about CA a little bit of encouragement and a little bit of challenge is your faith. Flourishing is your love for one another. How has your endurance and faithfulness as you deal with hardships, as I pray, I'm just going to invite the worship team to come forward. 5 (59m 30s): And I'm just going to pray for us as a Church and ask the Lord to help us, to encourage us and to challenge us in our faith. Lord, we love you. We bow our heads in prayer, and we thank you, God, that we have the ability to our His in prayer, that we, we have the privilege to talk to you Lord, and to be talk to you that you talked to us and thank you, Lord. I I'm encouraged in some areas and need some challenge and other areas, Lord, and I'm thankful for that Lord. I know that we are your church. Your people were working progress and, and you're going to be continuing that good work all the days of our lives, sanctifying us, changing us, challenging us, loving us to the next level. 5 (1h 0m 20s): God, I pray that every person will be encouraged where they need to be encouraged and, 6 (1h 0m 24s): And where they need to be challenged and worked on the end of the day. God each person will be growing, growing, and faith and endurance. We love you, Lord and Jesus. Amen. Amen. Let's worship. 6 (1h 0m 44s): yeah, everything we've heard today, everything we've sung today, which really take root in our hearts. 6 (1h 9m 54s): And could you remind us of your faithfulness towards us? Your promises never fail. I spray over every heart and every household, God be with us and keep us healthy feeling for your presence would go before us and behind us and your left hand. All right. And then she would cover us and protect us. We love you, Jesus. You for this time to gather together and you pay what you would keep a safe until we gather again and again in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Church thank you so much for worshiping with us today. We love you guys. We're praying for you and we look forward to worshiping again next week, have a wonderful day. 6 (1h 10m 40s): Enjoy the sunshine. We'll see you there.

0 (1s): Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning. Online it's a little different for me and the band and just like last week, we're going to go ahead and we're going to worship here. We're going to trust that you're going to worship with us at home. You know, we'll remember that it doesn't matter where we're at. God is everywhere. Omnipresent. We can praise him from the rooftops, from the empty rooms to the living rooms, to the bedrooms. He's worthy to be praised. So wherever you are, join us worship with us this morning and we'll get it going, Lord, please accept our worship this morning. 0 (45s): As pleasing we come to you, we humbly confess that we have nothing to offer. Lord. Everything we have is because of you. We praise you. We worship you in Jesus name. Amen. 1 (1m 6s): . 1 (6m 21s): Hi, 2 (11m 30s): 1 (11m 42s): 0 (15m 51s): Lord, we thank you this morning for your great gift of grace to each one of us. We thank you, Lord, that you've made it obvious to everywhere. We look at your creation, cries out of a creator. I pray this morning that you'd help us all to remove the scales from our eyes. Only you can remove Lord that we could see that every day we'd sent your presence. Remember who we serve and worship. Pray that you'd bless your word this morning. 0 (16m 32s): You anointed. You'd give us ears to hear what you want to say to us. We ask in Jesus name. Amen 3 (16m 42s): For let's see here flows of you standing there in the back. We've got a couple of seats right up, over here in front. And then I think we have a seat right back there in the back free. Now I'm just having fun with you anyway. It's great to be here. You guys, and let's let's, let's go ahead and pray and Lord God, we thank you father that you, that you do see all Lord God that you do know all. And just thank you father, that you have equipped us as believers with everything that we need to address and face the challenges that come before us. Even if we feel powerless, even if we feel like there's a we're out of control, like we don't have control or God, these are, these are the opportunities father for us to lean on you completely. 3 (17m 27s): And to see your power work in your grace abound father, we pray for your Holy spirit to move through this message this morning. And for those who don't know you father, we pray Lord God, that they will be receptive to your Holy Spirit's call to become a member of your family in Jesus name. We pray amen. What happens in when everything is going really smooth and there you are driving, and you're finally on cruise control and things are going really well. What happens in life? I'll tell you what happens. Suddenly a big cow gets in the middle of the road and you have to go left or right, or have lots of hamburger meat. 3 (18m 9s): And you know, that works much better in Texas, but anyway, but the reality is that's what life is about. We have, we, we never had a stay on cruise control forever. There's just things that happen. Even if you think you're doing everything correct. We live in a fallen world and things happen. I know I was challenged once I was a Western regional coordinator for an organization called Rutherford Institute, and that was coordinated litigation in 14 Western States out of our, out of the Sacramento office and everything was going really smooth. I had this network of attorneys developed and Aaron's going great coordinating over 40% of their active litigation. 3 (18m 50s): And what happens? The national office calls me and says, Brad, we're shutting down the last regional offices, including yours, but don't worry. We have a promotion for you. Why don't you hit up our public affairs office in Washington, DC you'll have a higher salary, larger staff, larger office. You'll be the face of the organization. You'll be literally the media and media rep for all television and radio throughout the country. For all of our litigation. Of course, I don't have to pray about that. You know, I mean, right. When something is just like, so obviously God was closing, wonder opening it elements. You don't have to pray about that. Yes. Yeah. And I had insomnia. 3 (19m 31s): I couldn't sleep. Couldn't sleep the next night couldn't sleep the next night. Why? Because I was wrestling with the Lord. I knew that if I prayed that God was going to probably challenge me to take the rough path and not the easy path. That's just what happens in my life. You know, when, when you pray, I usually very rarely feel led to go the easy way. It's this thing called faith that needs stretching going this way. And so I went ahead and prayed and that's what I should've done from the beginning. But I prayed. And when I did the Lord gave me this question, which is Brad what does Isaiah I put on your heart real pointed, really clear. 3 (20m 12s): And the answer was to make sure people got the help they needed here on the West coast. That was a passion on my heart. The next question was, what do I choose to follow the passions on my heart or something else? So with boldness and courage, I stepped up and I said, Lord, I will face the challenges I will boldly go. I will do exactly on several conditions. And isn't that what we are sometimes in life, we say yes to we're going to do it, but I'm scared. That's okay because God's stretching us. And when he stretches us, it's not supposed to just really be, you know, when you're, when you're lifting weights, I had some, maybe some guys here in the audience here, weightlifters, you know, we lifted the weights. 3 (20m 54s): You lift it with. So it's easy. No, you lift as hard and you're stretching those tit, those muscles and everything. Well, that's what God does with us spiritually. When we go through situations where we have to stretch our faith. And so I says, God, I've just, I got a few things here. One, I want to make sure that we have a free office space indefinitely donated free in Sacramento, a free computer system donated, you know, keep me on the radio stations for free. There were two, a rate, two radio stations. At the time we have to use the black Lord in just three months. And I'm never going to charge anyone at any time for any legal work I ever do. Ever. I thought it was very reasonable with my business model. 3 (21m 35s): And anyway, God, he knows where he knew I was at. He knew exactly where I was and he takes us right where we are in that great that God knows inside and out. He says, so he took care of everything. I get a call out of the blue. We're shutting down the other for the office. It's the last month I get a call. I didn't tell anyone about the free office space I was looking for. I thought I don't have to. I told God, God doesn't provide it fine done. It's not at him. And I'm getting on my boat and I'm leaving Nineveh. Okay. I'm just from head to Barcelona. I'm just, I was already, you know, it's anyway. Yeah. 3 (22m 15s): Biblical analogy there. Okay. Gotcha. So, so there, so, so what happens? I get a call answer. The phone guy says, yeah, I heard you needed office space to have office space for you. Free office space. Now did I say praise the Lord? Thank you. No, this was my ticket to avoid going to Nineveh. Okay. The office space. So instead I raised my voice and said, well, Hey, how'd, you know, I need office space. Well, my secretary who's my tone quickly comes in, says, put him on hold, put him on hold. She goes, yeah. I just, I Brad, you didn't know this, but I knew there before we knew they were shutting down our office, I knew our lease was going to expire here. 3 (22m 55s): So I thought I would surprise you. And so I called KYC radio and I asked him to put in an announcement that we're looking for free office space too, because yes, we need office space. But that's how God works in the computer. I told one person computer system, we needed. One person goes, Oh yeah, I've got a computer system for you. The boat is not leaving. It's going to stay in it. So it's how God works. Radio stations. They said, Oh, we'll keep you on. And now by God's grace, we have a half hour radio show and it's heard on over 500 stations and transmitters across the country for free the, the commentary. 3 (23m 40s): We have the legal EDS for that over. Well, I'll say over 790, plus at least radio stations Monday through Friday, it's for free. I mean, this is how God works. And we now have offices. Pacific justice. Now has offices went to theaters anyway. I've I don't know how many offices, but coast to coast, Miami New York, Dallas, Mississippi, Denver, Seattle, Salem, foreign, California, Reno, Nevada, all donated office space. It's it's what God does. It's when we let go, we let God, he goes beyond what we can think or imagine when you're facing things in life. 3 (24m 23s): Remember none of this takes God by surprise. If you feel out of control, it's obviously it's a great time for those spiritual muscles to be stretched called faith. And we could put our trust and hope in the Lord. Now, why is this a good introduction? It's a good intro because what we're going to talk today is about perilous times from God's word. If you turn, if you will, to second Timothy chapter three second, Timothy chapter three, verse one, are you don't bother turning there. Just trust. I mean, I'm a lawyer. So that was a joke. That's good. You guys laughed. Okay, good. 3 (25m 4s): Yeah. It starts off what I love about this. This is understood by many to be the last writings of the apostle Paul. So this is, this is the last two chapters. We're going to finish all chapter four for time, but this is the last two chapters of the last letter of the apostle Paul and Guest who he's writing it to. He's really addressing it to us, I believe. And here's why here's the first verse, but understand this, that in the last days there will come times of diff difficulty or perilous times. That's, that's not, I think, written to the early church. I think it's written to the last days. I think it's written to us. 3 (25m 46s): And yet we act as though some, some strange things happening and we see crazy things happening our world, right? And yet Paul makes it really clear of the word of God, makes it very clear that we're to face these things. Verse two also love it. That he doesn't leave it just obscure. Like what does he mean by perilous? Well, he actually says it real clearly here. Verse two for people who we lovers of self don't. We see that in our society, what's the most common picture for someone to take, what's it called? 4 (26m 16s): Selfie? It's not a 3 (26m 17s): UAE or they it's a selfie. Right? And lovers of self lovers of money. Don't we see that that's part of our culture materialism and, and it's very apparent. And we see it around the world and we see it around the world now arrogant, abusive disobedient to their parents. Now I used to say, you know, things that disobedient to parents, you know, I thought, well, this is the end of the world's happening. 3 (26m 58s): All these teenagers are just so rebellious. Well, that's part of growing up in a way you've becoming your own person. I get that. But what we're talking about here is rebelling, not just becoming their own person, but disobedient to the parents and the teachings of their parents pulling away from the faith of their parents. We see that statistically, like we've never seen it ever in us. History is greater now than it was even back in the late sixties. And they're the, the counter, the cultural revolution it's happening at a very fast clip in our society. The fastest growing religion in America today are nuns. Now I'm not talking about the ladies with the black, you know, thing and the okay. 3 (27m 40s): And the Catholic church. No, no. I mean, there are none there, nothing. They don't believe in anything you say, Oh, you're an atheist. No, you are you this? No, I'm just nothing. That's the fastest growing religion, turning away from the parent teaching of their family and their parents. Ungrateful ungrateful. It's interesting because I think the synonym for an ungrateful is entitlement. You don't need to be grateful for something. If you're entitled to it. If, if you're owed it, if you're dessert, if you deserve it, do we have that in our society? Is that a part of what's? Our children are learning and our government schools in particular and our universities, actually a lot of private quote, Christian universities. 3 (28m 27s): I know there's a number here in the state of California, frankly, that need to be called out because of this, this, this new thinking of, of entitlement, very progressive quote unquote philosophy that goes totally against the teachings of scripture and the word of God. So it's unholy. What's that? Holy being separate from God and what's righteous. And what's good. A turning from God heartless on a, on a peaceable slanderous without self-control. When I was a kid, self-control was a good thing. 3 (29m 8s): It's what we learned. Right? Self-control exercise. Self-control what do they teach you? What's our society embracing. Now I'll tell you right now, we're all indoctrinated. I'm going to say the first few words and you're going to repeat it. If it feels right. Good do it. We're programmed. And our society does that. What God's word says no, no. Self-control is a good thing. We're human beings. God has given us moral choice. And with that comes a responsibility and self control. And our society is just, if it's a log as someone, you know, wants to, or it feels like this is something they're there they desire to do, then that's who they are. 3 (29m 51s): They should do it. Well, no, no. That's called temptation. We should turn from temptation because temptation leads to sin and see it. Sin leads to destruction and death. And that's what the stats show the statistics lovers. I was always, sorry. We'll keep here without self-control brutal. No loving good. Instead of what's hip in our society is, is to love that, which is evil and it's evil to, and instead to, to hate that, which is good. We see it in our society today. When I was growing up, there are two kinds of people. Pretty much there were those who went to church and those who are knowing that they should be going to church. 3 (30m 33s): Right? That's what I grew up with. Yeah. I know we should give you one. Church I just our society today, not that Church saves us, but it's just, it's an indicator oftentimes of our desire to, to be close and to fellowship. Fellowship is a part of healthy, spiritual growth as Christians. And yet our society today are those who go to church and then you have, and they have those who despise churches and what they stand for and what they teach and a very large part of our culture society. And then those, even those who go to church, you have those. When I was a kid, I'm selling an old man, this is not good when I was a child. Let me tell you no, but it was always thinking like two groups of Christians, you got those, the sprinkle and those that dunk. 3 (31m 20s): And that's the big divider. That was my mind thinking I was a kid and I wasn't sure about the sprinklers. Okay, boy, have things changed. The real question today is, is your church one that believes that Jesus is the way the truth and the life that no one comes to the father, but to faith in Jesus, is your church, or is it, or is it more of a universal status that decides to dilute the word and believe just everything sort of gets there. We see main did not mainline denominations falling into this deception. We also see, you know, is your church one that believes that the Bible is the Holy word of God and you don't need to apologize for this, but it live by it because this is God's word. 3 (32m 3s): Or do you believe, are you part of a church that decides to dilute, cross out, tear out and modify what the word of God says? That's where we are in our society today. Unlike at any time in world history, do we have a tearing away among the churches from those who are followers of Jesus and the Holy word of God and those that follow something else. And then love is a good treacherous. Reckless this verse for swollen with conceit pride. Pride is basically saying that I know more than God. I know that I know the way and I'm, and I know what's best for me more than God. That's sort of the conceit. 3 (32m 44s): It's pride lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God. I'll never forget. When I, the Supreme court decision regarding same-sex marriage came out from the Supreme court. It was a five to four decision, very close, actually. And the majority of the decision wrote that not only was equal protection, the basis of it. And I thought that's probably how they're going to go with the equal protection clause. We'll get into the details of that. But instead, they went much farther than that. And they said they defined a sexual fulfillment as a fundamental right. Individuals' sexual fulfillment. I looked at this, I thought this makes bigamy, polygamy, BCL. 3 (33m 30s): I mean, my mind started going, going off the edge there, thinking this just opens up the flood gate for all kinds of just immoral activity and justifying it as a constitutional fundamental, right? What's the fundamental, right? By the way, it's something given to us by our creator. How can you ignore the laws of nature? And nature's God the source of our fundamental rights in claiming something that goes totally against those rights. It's, it's, it's crazy. It makes no sense. And yet that's what we see facing us today. And that's what the Supreme court ruled. It basically, it was like, they shook their fist at God and say, we'd rather be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of you. 3 (34m 22s): First five, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. I remember I was on an airplane. You know, those people that they talk and talk on the airplane and you're just like, I wish it'd be quiet so you can CA that's me. Okay. Right here. It just happened. So I'm sitting here talking with this guy and I said, somehow it comes up. I said, if you don't mind me asking, I said, what'd you do you have religious background? And he says, he goes, no, I'm not religious, but I am very spiritual. So we know it. We know the language, we know the lingo, right? Spiritual, it's very hip to be spiritual. So I said, well, what does it mean? What do you, what do you believe? 3 (35m 2s): Well, I just really feel that I'm at one and at peace with the universe. Okay. And where does that come from? What's 1 (35m 17s): That's it. 3 (35m 20s): Okay. So there's nothing to this cloud. It's just a cloud. It's a floating, it's a floating cloud. There's no nothing, no substance. And our society embraces sort of this spiritual ism as an alternative because it makes you feel good. Doesn't it? You feel like you're, you're somewhere, even though you really know where, but it makes you feel better. Right? And, and yet it's a deception. And yet it says, but denying its power, it has no power because, or does not come from our, our mind. It doesn't come from our, our own energy. Doesn't come from the universe. Power comes through Jesus Christ and the powerful working of our creator. 3 (36m 5s): One thing I love about being a Christian and I'm a lawyer too. I'm sorry. Okay. Let me just tell you something about lawyers. It's the 99% out there. They give us 1% of bad reputation. No one laughed at that one. That was a lawyer joke. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Some courtesy. Laughter. Appreciate it. Okay. But anyway, I keep talking about before I lost my place. This is not good. Okay. So beginning, back onto where I was. All right, here we go. But the thing is, is that God wants us to recognize that we need to understand that. 3 (36m 49s): Like I said, all power comes from him. I have a very logical mind. So as a Christian it's makes sense because we have a history. We have God, two thirds of the prophecy has already been fulfilled. We have 12 eye witnesses that gave their lives. The concept that Jesus has been not only risen from the dead, but they saw him risen from the dead, from an evidentiary perspective. It makes sense. Even the understanding of the, the origins of the universe and the development correlates with the science correlates, with what we've learned, it makes complete sense. And then we also have the witness and the power of the gospel transformation in our lives and what we've seen. 3 (37m 34s): And yet that's shunned by the world to follow something else. None of this takes God by surprise. And it shouldn't take us by surprise. And yet the word says in verse five, avoid such people. No, Whoa, wait a minute. We, as believers are not to avoid people who don't know the Lord, right? So we're talking about, we're talking about people that are invading the church. That's very different. Actual, these are people eating the Church with these attitudes and philosophies and ideas. And that's why the church has to be strong too, for extra rotation. We're going to see that in a moment. Now, if we were to stop right here, be terrible. Wouldn't it it'd be like this terrible cycle. 3 (38m 15s): Do you know the world's coming to an end? Now let's go out and have some coffee. What's really awesome. Is that starting in verse, verse 10, we have a whole blueprint of victory and miss these hard times. So let's continue. Let's go on right here. But you have followed my teaching, my conduct, my, my aim until in life, my faith, my patients, my love, my steadfastness. Now notice that word love is right there. I always say, then he has my persecutions and sufferings. Love is right there. Missed all these things have challenged. How can we love when we're going through persecution? Right? 3 (38m 55s): Instead, you know, long suffering stays is another word used for steadfastness. How can we love? We can't love in these situations. Can we not on our own, but through Jesus, we can. The more of a church is persecuted. The more we're trounced on the more we're attacked, the stronger our testimony, because the more resilient and more evident is the love of Christ. And it baffles the world. When we are able to love those that hate us, able to turn the other cheek. We're able to walk the extra mile. These, these are coming from from Jesus. And we can do that as followers of Jesus, verse 11, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch and a code them. 3 (39m 38s): And it lists what persecution is. I had toured yet from them all the Lord rescued me, wait a minute. How did Lord rescue them? You guys know what Paul went through, right? He had a shipwrecked stone poison, flogged near death or died. I mean, the guy, you really can't get much more persecution than what this guy went through. I mean, he didn't end his life even with a big mansion. I mean, he didn't have a nice ending. Yeah. You know, and his power from his testimony was all the more powerful because of all that he went through it. Wasn't about avoiding persecution. It didn't say the Lord prevented me from going through persecution as the Lord delivered me for what? We're a purpose to continue to share the good news of Jesus to share the gospel and the life changing opportunity to hope in Christ, verse 12. 3 (40m 26s): He see, he reveals that. He says, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ. Jesus will be persecuted. Isn't that a great promise. You're going to be persecuted. Now let me know if you're like, well, I don't want this promise. We don't live for this world. We live for a whole nother world. This is a train station. This is temporary. And, and we're going to be suffering persecution. Verse 13 while evil people and imposters will go from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived posters is he, there's going to be imposters in the Church right? Who are deceiving. I've seen him on television before for you continue in what you've learned and from an F and have firmly believed knowing from whom you've learned it. 3 (41m 15s): And now from childhood you've, you've been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ. Jesus. What are the sacred writings? Is it from some ancient something? No, it's the Bible God's word. And so we're supposed to, to, to clean to it. We're supposed to, to, to learn from it and, and, and, and to grow from it. Verse 15 and now, and how from childhood, you have been acquainted with the sacred rice, which we would like your wife to Christ for salvation through faith in Christ. Jesus. All scripture is breathed out by God profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training and righteousness. 3 (42m 3s): Would you say that the Bible is pretty, has it all together? I mean, this is the most important book. Good read. This is, this is it. And oftentimes we neglect the word don't we so much of our time. We, or we could be religious about it. I remember my life. It was a time I read one chapter a day. If I didn't have time, I read the chapter and the presence of many witnesses, trust, phase one managers or and quickly go through it and say, okay, what one thing did you get out of it? I don't know. I was too busy reading it. You ever been done that before? It's called religion and death. God doesn't want religion. He wants a relationship. It's better. I think to read one verse and to be open to the spirit of God than to go through this big rigid ritual. 3 (42m 48s): I got to read the whole Bible in one year. So I got to quickly do I didn't make time. Walk with God and let him speak to you in his word. He's talking to you in his word and is it has a trustworthy will verse 16. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training racist, that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work. Did she love these absolutes and God's word. We can put our hands, our trust completely. And when he teaches us and tells us in his word, it's proven itself, time and time again, and the testimonies and the evidence is overwhelming. 3 (43m 33s): If we'd only listen and hear what God has to tell us, we're going to face tough times. Verse four, chapter four, verse one. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ. Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom. Would you say what he's about to say is pretty important? I mean, I don't, I don't, there's not many times in scripture. I see this kind of an intro to an exhortation, to a command verse two. We see what that command is. Preach the word. Pretty awesome. Isn't it preach the word whenever you feel like it? 3 (44m 16s): No, no, no. Preach the word. Be ready. The in season and out of season. In other words, when you see the results and when you don't see the results, DePaul always see the great results. When they're about to just read acts chapter 22, you know, it was, he was preaching and they wanted a fling. Dustin, the air traffic cooks. They wanted the guy dead. He didn't base his ministry on results. His ministry was on faith in Jesus. God's the one who moves Gaza. Results person is a great that God doesn't count on us for results. What does he want from us? He wants to obedience and we can put our trust in him, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching. 3 (45m 7s): I'll never forget. There was one guy. I was getting my house in citrus Heights and it was a for sale by owner. And I was writing down the number. He says, Hey dude, you want to commit? Obviously, dude, he goes, Hey, you want to come in and see the house? And my uncle's not here, but he really needs it. So I go in and watch, look at it and everything. And, and, and I said, wow, this, this ad on here had this big add on with the slanted roof, but it's okay. The floor matched it. So it was fine. So it's all slanted. I said, well, you could, you could have a church service here. He goes, Oh, are you a Christian? I go, yeah. Are you? He goes, no, I go, well, what are you going? Well, you don't want to know. I said, well, yeah, I do. No. I thought I'm not gonna be able to get this house anyway. 3 (45m 48s): And by the way, I ended up getting the house. So it was like, like a total God thing, another story. So I sit down with him and he goes, cause I was, since I went to college, I learned some new ways of thinking, Oh, well there are no absolutes. Yeah. And how it may be right for you, but it may not be right for me. And he goes, yeah. And how everything is relative. Yeah. I said, well, let me tell you that's wrong. And I went through and I went through the apologetics and I gave him the, the bridge diagram, you know, man on one side, God, since separating, you know, and then I gave him more than a carpet. But the book later on, more than a carpenter and his eyes were just glassed over. And I thought, what a waste of my time. 3 (46m 31s): And that's what my attitude was. I'm going to be honest with you. It wasn't like a whole Lord just work in his life. No, I thought kids hopeless rebel. What a waste of my time. And I shared this story. A number of times with people saying, nonetheless, we still need to share the good word. Even if we know people have rejected it and they're not going to, well, you don't have it. About 17 years later, someone knocks on my door. I wasn't there. Someone else answered the door. He says, yeah, yeah. I'm here to see brags on here. Okay. Well, he shared with me gospel about 17 years ago here in this house. And I didn't accept it and made some bad decisions. I went to prison, but when I was in prison, I remember what he shared with me. 3 (47m 14s): And I gave my life to Christ. I'm now out of prison. I'm now in full-time ministry. I just wanted to come by and thank you for taking the time. And when I heard that, I was like, Chris, where are you going to be like happier praise the Lord. Well, you know what the Holy spirit did. First thing was brought to my mind exactly what I said and felt afterwards, which was what a waste of my time. I wish I hadn't bothered that. So reality is it's not a waste. So, and let the Lord do the reaping. Let God, let God move in his, through his Holy spirit. And maybe someone else down the road will, will lead them to cry. So the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. 3 (48m 5s): Do we see it? There's churches in this town probably that fits this criteria very well. We have denominations that have pledged to be followers of this and to do this verse four. And we'll turn away from listening to the truth. What is the truth? This the word of God and wander off into myths. As for you always be sober-minded enduring suffering. Do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Sometimes in life we say, well, that's, I don't really have a ministry to talk about pastor Steve, pastor Steve we're rooting for you, pastor Steve. 3 (48m 48s): No, no. They're talking about you. If you've given your life to Jesus, the way God wants to work in your life, how do you know if God has a ministry for you? Ask yourself two questions there. One, have I received Jesus, my Lord and savior. And number two is my heartbeat. Cause otherwise God to take you home, he's a gracious God heaven so much better than this place. He has a purpose. Even this one lady, I know she was going blind and she loved Jesus. She says, I can't even do anything. And I says, this is a prayer warrior. You can be a primary, like never before she goes, you're right. And she was a prayer warrior all the way up until the time she passed away, two months later, it's a living for Jesus and not ourselves. 3 (49m 31s): And, and also I, when I was 16 years old, I w too much time on this cause time. But I loved the Lord. I was in my little Opal GT driving motorcycle hits me head on, goes through my windshield smashes through this whole part of my head, I was going 55 on a, how fast he was going, rushed me to Parkland general hospital. I was in ICU. I had major brain damage. How many people can say I had major brain damage? Not many. My parents were told quote from the doctor. I was struggling to live critical condition. They said your son has had major brain damage. 3 (50m 11s): Even if he lives, he still could be a vegetable. You may still have to pull the cord and quote. And yet Californians. Our God is a great recycler. He loves to take that, which the world throws away, do something new. And that's what he did in my life and incredible healing buddy, by the act of God, do I still have the same brain? No. I think my kids will tell you. I'm a little weird. I got my idiosyncrasies, but, but the reality is it's not about us. It's what God wants to do with us. It's not about what gifts we have. It's not about, it's not about who we are. It's about whose we are. We realize it's about who we are in Christ and not about this other stuff. 3 (50m 53s): We have freedom. There's freedom in Christ because it's not about us. It's about who we are in Christ and what he wants to do with what he's given us at this time. And this day, by the way, I supposed to have serious problems with, with logic, reasoning, analytical skills and speech communications, the left frontal lobe. This whole thing was like was swelling. I've had to cut a large hole just for the swelling. You could see the swelling of the brain. Talk to a neurologist. I'll tell you that's not a minor head injury. I ended up getting my degree in finance at Texas a and M university. That's where I learned my manners. And that was a joke. You could say, you're not supposed to do that guys. I could just sit here. 3 (51m 33s): And I graduate with a finance degree, logic reasoning, 3.8, six in my major, put myself through school. Undergrad worked two years, went to one of the top 20 law schools in the country graduated the top half of my class by God's grace, because it's not about us. It's about him and what he wants to do through us and, and following his direction. It's exciting. Being a Christian. You want purpose in life, become a member of the family, of other living and powerful God that created life. Verse six for I'm already being poured out as a drink offering at the time of my departure has come. 3 (52m 16s): What's that mean? I'm about to die. People say really important things right before they're going to die. Here's what he says. I have fought the good fight I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. There is laid up for me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day. Wait a minute, Paul, you're the Zola bin Ladin of the early church. Your name needs to be saw. It used to persecute the Christians. You are the biggest loser. The righteous judge giving you a crown of righteous. Yes. You know why? Because it wasn't based on who he was or what he'd done based on who who's. He was that he'd received Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior. And he was washed clean by the blood of the lamb. 3 (52m 59s): What about the rest of us? Oh, he responds to that. But the rest of the verse, it says, and not only to me far as awarding the crown, but also to all who have loved his appearing. You, what I love about this is that he didn't say all people who've went to confession or went to church camp or goes to church all the time, or even set a certain prayer a certain time. It's loved his appearing. There's a relationship. And you may not have a relationship with the Lord. You may have gone through religion. You may be a religious person all your life. But if you knew that Jesus was coming back tomorrow at 2:30 PM and no one knows the day of the time I get that, this is hypothetical. 3 (53m 40s): Okay. If you knew that two 30 he's coming back, what would you be thinking and feeling? Would you be loving his appearing or would you be saying to yourself, Oh shoot. At three 30, I've got a big real estate deal. I've got a corporate merger. I've got this big data I'm going on or would it possibly also be, Oh shoot, he's not going to take me. He's not going to take me. I I've got this ugly closet, this dark ugly closet. W and by the way, just for the record, everyone has a dark ugly closet. Okay. But you see, but all, but this mine's really bad. I've got stuff here. So shameful. So disgraceful, I can't even forgive myself. How can God forgive me? 3 (54m 22s): You know what you're really doing? When you say that it's like walking up to Jesus on the cross. Let's just say, he's he's right here at lacrosse bleeding and dying in pain and agony for our sins, gasping in pain and agony to bear our sins on the cross, to pay for our death penalty for our sins on the cross that he's paying for. And we walk up to him and we say, nice try Jesus. But you see, for me, that's just not good enough. In other CROs, his response to that lie was revealed when he said it is finished. 3 (55m 5s): And all's we have to do in humility is to believe it and receive it. Receive his gift of payment for our sins on the cross and surrender our lives at the foot of the cross to be a follower of Jesus. And he will separate that ugly sin. As far as the East is from the West. He will wipe, you will wash you clean from, with his blood on the cross. He will wash you clean and pure in his eyes and receive you as a child of the living God for eternity. Awesome. Some of you may, what I just shared that may just felt convicted. There's a good chance. 3 (55m 45s): That's the Holy spirit. Speaking to you, giving you the call right now to receive Jesus. And we're going to give you that opportunity to do that right now. Let's please bow your heads, father. I thank you, Lord God that you are on the throne. Thank you, Lord God, that you are the way the truth and the life through Jesus Christ, your son, and that no one comes to the father. No one gets clean. No one gets redeemed, but through faith in Jesus Christ, Lord got to pray for the believers, hearing this father right now that we will be exhorted not to follow into the, the trappings of this world. Oh Lord God, where we're tempted. And we fall, Lord God, bill that put us back up, father, Lord. And, and to be followers you Lord God, not to give up, not to turn to the left or right, but to keep her eyes on you and to share your good news father, many people right now watching this broadcast or here, even here. 3 (56m 35s): And they say to themselves, I really felt convicted when he said about shame, about not having that personal relationship, playing religion, but never receiving Jesus in a personal way and surrender my life to him as my Lord and savior. If I would pray right now, father for your Holy spirit father, to speak to them in their hearts. And w and, and if you're one of those people out there right now, just pray this prayer with me, right? Where you are just say, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. You know, all the garbage in my life, all the shame. And right now in faith, I receive your full payment for my sin on the cross, through Jesus Christ. 3 (57m 21s): I thank you for forgiving me for covering all my sin through dying on the cross in my place. And I receive that forgiveness right now. Thank you for forgiving me and I surrender my life to you. I want to be a follower of Jesus from now on. Thank you for being my Lord and my savior from this day forward in Jesus name. Amen. Now, if you just prayed that parameter to tell you, Satan is really ticked off because he just lost his hand, a dominion in your life in a he's hoping you. So you're going to forget what just happened. So what I'm gonna exhort you to do is to, is to contact someone, maybe contact us. 3 (58m 1s): Church give them a call, talk to them, let them know that you just made that decision that you want to grow, because we need each other as we're going to grow as Christians and they'll help you. They'll give you some, some good counsel on how to grow as a Christian and be a follower of Jesus. As we move forward today, this is not the time to hesitate. This is not the time to fear. Fear is gripping our nation, but we have not received a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and discipline, or sound mind through faith in Christ, brothers and sisters. Let us live that faith as we move forward. Amen. 2 (59m 8s): 1 (59m 35s): stop. 1 (1h 7m 46s): . 0 (1h 10m 3s): And remember, there's not much else to say, but that you are worthy. The one true and Holy God, thank you for your word this morning. Thank you for speaking to us. We pray that you would be with us this week. Give us strength to walk hard after you let me pray in Jesus name. Amen. Everybody have a great week.

1 (3s): Good morning, everyone. So glad to be with you on this Sunday morning, after Christmas in a different situation than what we had anticipated, but we're glad to be with you to be, to be celebrating our Lord this morning. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas, but let's open with a word of prayer here now, and we'll worship together, even though we're not, not physically here, the spirit we are all together. So let's pray. Jesus. We thank you. And we praise you that we can have this marvelous season to celebrate you, help us Lord Jesus to get our, our minds and our hearts away from all of the creature comforts around us and the celebration and all the, the things that are are leftover from these past few days. 1 (58s): And just focus in on you today. The Lord, the cry of our heart is that you would be exalted, that you would be lifted up, that you would be worshiped above all things, and that you would be recognized as Lord of glory, the God who, who holds all things together. The one through whom creation came to be, and the one who will bring everything to a culmination at the end of the age. So we come to worship you. Now Jesus empower us by your spirit and be glorified in our hearts this day in Jesus name, we pray amen. 0 (1m 41s): , , all the choices, but our hope in Jesus this morning that is hurting today. 0 (12m 45s): God, that she would fill it with your joy and with hope where there's been discouragement and despair. Turn our mourning into dancing today. right. 0 (13m 10s): celebrates you this morning. 0 (16m 38s): So grateful that you are joy. Our hope, our peace, our reassurance, and shifting sands. God, you hold a steady and you are always with this. Thank you for your presence. That is Hebrew in our midst this morning. And every household watching merely know your love. Would you continue to speak to our hearts, help us to receive all the gifts that you have for us today. All the promises that you want to secure deep in our hearts this morning, let every heart repair you room this day and every day, 1 (17m 30s): Good to worship the Lord and that great when we can get together. And even if it's just in our hearts and spirit to come in to the presence of God, with other believers and rejoice in his presence, we're so glad to have all of you with joining us online today. It's just one of those times when we, we have to be flexible in our approach to, to worship in these days of COVID and the days of, of pandemic and holidays and people traveling and, and just insecurities and unsure. It is about life in this time of trial. 1 (18m 15s): But as we gathered together today, we still gather in the presence of all mighty God. We still gather to worship him. And we're so appreciative of your patience with our changes in the services this week, having last minute to cancel our, our Christmas Eve services and do those virtually to, to change this to a virtual service this morning, we just really thank you for your willingness to, to flex with us on this. We would typically have in-person Church, but with the increase of COVID we're having to back off and, and do this a little differently than we'd anticipated. 1 (18m 56s): So we're foregoing in-person gatherings for this week. The Church office is closed this week. It normally would have been, but even so we're, we're still trying to abide by what the guidelines are yet at the same time, while not allowing those guidelines to take us away from worshiping our Lord. We'll keep you posted in regard to next Sunday service, we'll have to kind of again, play it by ear, seeing where we are and how things are going. So watch our social media platforms the week weekly email update, you know, whether it's you go on to see our Facebook page or our website or our Harvest app, you'll find it. 1 (19m 40s): And if you're not currently receiving our equally, we mail a weekly equally we mails weekly emails. Please send your email address to info at AIG Harvest dot org. And we will get you included on those that weekly email blast that goes out next Sunday. We're planning on having a special speaker, the president of the Pacific justice Institute, Brad Degas will be speaking at Harvest. Now you say, why are we having a lawyer in the pulpit next week? And the thing is, this lawyer is an evangelist. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but it's true. 1 (20m 22s): This guy is he's a really effective in this communication of the gospel. And, and we're just looking forward to having him be with us next week. Putt, just Pacific justice Institute. PGI is a legal defense organization that works to support churches and church leaders and their members by providing crucial help and resources to preserve their mission and project protect our religious liberties. And it should be a really dynamic service. So definitely plan to join us next Sunday, January 3rd, hard to believe that next Sunday is 2021. 1 (21m 2s): Winter life groups are kicking off mid January. There's an awesome lineup of groups that you can look at the weekly email update that's coming out and, and see what's available and what you might like to be a part of and to sign up for a group, head to the connect link on the app or the website, and let us know, and we'll contact you with more details. And again, just a final reminder Church office will be closed until January 4th. So a week from tomorrow, the office will be back open again, and we'll be back to our normal schedule. So with that, I'm going to turn this time over to pastor Steve. 1 (21m 45s): He is going to be finishing out the book of first Thessalonians this morning. So if you have your Bible with you, I encourage you to keep it with you, encourage you to bring a with you when we're back in service so that when things go up on the screen, it's great to have the, the, the, the passage go up on the screen, but it's always good to have that Bible in hand. So you can highlight and Mark and take notes and, and put down those special things that are spoken that the Lord speaks to you. So with that, I'm turning it over to pastor Steve, pastor Steve, take it away. Thank you. 2 (22m 21s): I appreciate that very much. Yeah. We're we are in the final Sunday of the year, and it's been, you know, with all of the challenges that we've experienced this year, it's actually been a very good year. Just kinda recapping a few things. We've baptized bunch of people this year. It was just a wonderful year for just people committing their lives to the Lord and deciding to get baptized. We talked last week about our goal to hit, to pay off a third of our second mortgage while we hit that number. It said last Sunday that we needed an additional $34,000 to reach our $120,000 Mark. While we came in the week after that Sunday and asked if we hit our number. 2 (23m 2s): And they said, well, we brought in $34,141. So we brought in everything and just a touch, more that we needed to pay off that first part, that first installment of our second mortgage. So thank you so much for your faithfulness. You guys have been super, super generous this year. It was it's. I think it's our biggest giving year, just in, in terms of Thai gifts and other giving is been off the charts as well, but it's been just a great year for that. We had our biggest Easter outreach gathering ever. It was all virtual online, but we had more people participating watching the service this year from home than we've ever had people in person. 2 (23m 47s): So many wonderful things have happened. So many churches, not just Harvest Church, but so many churches have ramped up their online media presentations so that there were also much more effective in getting the word out. And so that's been one of the upsides, you know, things that maybe we wouldn't have focused on so much if 2020 didn't happen the way 2020 happened, but 2020 happened the way it did. And so we had to ramp up and improve equipment and processes and everything just was really, really good. So I, for all of the negative things that have come out of 2020 with COVID and everything else, there have been amazing, good things as well. 2 (24m 27s): So think about that. Think about what God has done in your life this year and, and be grateful for that. Why don't we pray before we get into first Thessalonians and get into our passage today and, and then we'll jump right in. So as we bow our heads, Lord, we just thank you for this time. Thank you for the opportunity to wrap up this book of the Bible first Thessalonians at the last Sunday of the year. And thank you that we get to go into second Thessalonians here coming in to the new year, and that we'll continue our study through the new Testament Lord, and, and just allow you to speak to us and to teach us. And so God, we commit this day to you and we commit all of 20, 21 to you. We say, Lord, your will be done in the year in that year, as well as we believe that your, your will has been accomplished in this year. 2 (25m 11s): As crazy as that all sounds, we know that your sovereign Lord, so we can trust you Lord. So we, we're going to continue to trust you in 2021 and a prayer that you would encourage people, speak life and grace and truth to each of us. And as we open up the word today, Lord, I pray that your message would be written on our hearts would be in our hearts and minds. And that we'd be, we'd be excited to hear the message and to glorify you in our listening. So thank you Lord. For this time, bless us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So it is almost new year's and I always look forward to the time, the times square show every year, you know, you get up and you're watching the show and I'm always expecting a great, great show in every year. 2 (25m 58s): They drop the ball. It's crazy. Every year they drop the ball. All right, one more joke. That was, that was a joke. By the way, if you didn't catch that, the punchline there, one more joke. Knock knock-knock who's there. How we, how are we going to stay up till new year's Eve? I'm so tired. That is terrible, right? It is terrible. So let's skip the jokes now. Forget the jokes and moving right into our texts. First Thessalonians, chapter five, the title of the message. Living Out Your Faith in the Community of the Saints Living Out Your Faith in the Community of the Saints. I say this often that we don't live our lives in a bubble, but everything that we do impacts people around us. 2 (26m 45s): And so what does that look like for us as believers, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. How are we to live our lives as followers of Christ, especially in the Community of the Saints. When I say the community of the Saints, I mean, within the Church Paul's writing in this letter to a church and he's writing to these Church and he's speaking something to us since he's got wisdom for us in our relationships, one to another. So I'm excited to help us understand hopefully, and for myself to get a better grasp on what that means. Living Out our Faith Living Out Your Faith in the Community of the Saints first Thessalonians chapter five verses 12 and 13 says this. 2 (27m 26s): We ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work be at peace among yourselves. This is a difficult passage for pastors to preach, right? I'm essentially preaching a message that says, Hey, respect me, respect me. Right? So it's kind of awkward, but really the truth here is that we are to respect those who are in authority over us in general, but in the church, this is true as well. So pastors, elders, deacons, we have this responsibility to respect leaders and I've learned good leaders. 2 (28m 11s): Don't need to demand, respect, good leaders get respect because they are good leaders. So if you're a leader and you're wondering why you're not getting the respect that you think you should I check yourself, check yourself in and ask the Lord, Lord, where am I not being a good leader? And, and that's the Lord's of direct you. And if you're struggling with your ability to respect your leaders as the Lord, what's going on, why am I struggling to respect this leader, this person in my life, Lord, I want to reflect your word in my attitudes, actions, words, thoughts, and deeds, but I'm having a hard time. So just ask the Lord. Number one, in your notes, respect, esteem, and love your leaders. 2 (28m 55s): That is what God has asked us to do in the scripture. Respect is steam and love Your leader. So this text gives clear instruction. It's not ambiguous at all. It's very clear. We have this responsibility to respect esteem and love our leaders, but this isn't new information throughout the scripture. We see that we're supposed to respect those who are in authority over us in Exodus chapter 18. It says to honor father and mother in Hebrews chapter 13, it says, obey your leaders and submit to them. And in first Corinthians 16, it says, be subject to and give recognition to spiritual leaders. 2 (29m 36s): We have this responsibility, we see it throughout the old Testament and the new Testament. We have this responsibility, respect. Those who are in authority over us. Now, positionally pastors and elders and deacons are not more important than others, but positionally pastors and elders and deacons will be held accountable to God for the way they lead. So we have this responsibility for those of us who are either pastors or elders or deacons. We have this responsibility as CA, especially pastors and elders. We have a responsibility to honor God in the way that we lead and we will be held accountable for the way that we lead. And so we need you guys to be praying for us. 2 (30m 16s): And Paul addresses that at the end of his letter saying, Hey, pray for us. We need people praying for us that we might lead effectively. We read first Peter five verses one through five. We see kind of a elder's responsibility. And it's a heavy responsibility in first Peter five verses one through five says, so I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder Peter saying, as an elder, I'm speaking to the elders as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed shepherd. The flock of God, that is among you shepherd. We have this responsibility to exercise oversight says exercising oversight, not under compulsion, not because you have to, but willingly as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock and verse four, having done this well, having done this well when the chief shepherd appears you will receive the unfading around of glory when the chief shepherd appears it. 2 (31m 28s): And that's true for all of us, actually, we're all going to be giving a, given an account for our lives and we'll be receiving gifts or not rewards or not based on how we've lived our lives. It says here, and when the chief shepherd appears speaking about the coming of Christ, the return of Christ, just as a side note in first Thessalonians in every chapter, mostly at the end of every chapter, there's, there's a verse or two that talks about the return of Christ. That's kind of the, the, the running theme throughout the whole book of first Thessalonians. You see it in after one verse 10, chapter two verse 19 chapter three, verse 13, chapter four, verses 16 through 18. 2 (32m 14s): And in this chapter, chapter five verses 23 and 24. So you see that theme of the return of Christ. Jeremy talked about that when he covered the last portion. And so we see this theme, Jesus is coming, he will return. And when he returned, we will give an account for our lives. What we'll have to stand before the Lord and give an account for the way that we've lived. Our lives. Let's continue. Verse five, likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Now, traditionally elders are older, older men, older people who have lived some life and have some spiritual depth and understanding. 2 (32m 56s): So we sing, likewise, you, you who are younger, be subject to the elders, clothe yourself, all of you with humility toward one another for God opposes the proud that we're to poses means to set himself against. We never want to live in such a way that God is against us, that he sets himself against us. We want him for us. So God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble that grace is his favor and his acceptance. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble elders. And pastors have a responsibility to lead with humility. And those who are under in this case, younger people, but all who are under the authority of an elder, a pastor had the responsibility to submit to, and to esteem those who are in authority over them, elders and pastors have responsibility to lead. 2 (33m 52s): And if a pastor, as the leader, doesn't lead, that person is not doing their job. Our job is to lead. And boy, what a difficult season to lead in right through this whole 2020 with COVID and all of the changes. It seems like every day, it's a little bit different than it was the day before every week, for sure, a little bit different than it was the week before. And so we've had to be very flexible. Kind of, of the statement that we use often around here is blessed are the flexible for, they will not be broken. We've had to be super flexible, paying attention to what's going on in the culture, but also listening to what God is telling us. And boy, every church leader. 2 (34m 33s): And I know a lot of them on the central coast, every one of us are doing their very best. I don't know anybody. Who's just taking this in stride. And he was just being flippant about their decisions. Every one of us is leading on our knees. We're prayerfully thinking about what we're doing and we're asking the Lord for wisdom. So it's our job to lead. And we've had a multitude of counsel around us. It's helping us to make those decisions. It's our job to, to lead and make difficult choices. There are difficult parts to leading. And part of that difficulty is sometimes we have to bring correction. 2 (35m 13s): It says, says in the verse that we're actually to admonish people who are in need of it, that sort of correction. According to our opening verses actually churches, leaders, church leaders, job to admonish to bring correction. We have to work to be humble and respect and esteem our leaders. When especially they're bringing correction to us, it's Def difficult to receive correction and admonishment. It's it's uncomfortable, uncomfortable, honestly, for me to even talk about it because it's, doesn't usually reap a good reward. It doesn't usually, it's not usually fruitful when a leader admonishes someone in their care. 2 (35m 58s): Honestly, often that person ends up leaving the church, misunderstanding the heart of a pastor there's misunderstandings when there's correction that is needed to be brought to people and, and they get their feelings hurt. And I think it's comes from just the lack of understanding about what the job of a pastor is. It's our job to lead and to teach and to lead by example and to humbly and love lovingly admonish, people who are in need of admonition. And so listen, if, if, if you're being admonished or corrected by somebody who's in authority over you, I would just encourage you to receive it with humility and know that boy again, I'll say this with the broad brush stroke, every pastor that I know is wanting to bring correction with just the greatest amount of compassion and love. 2 (36m 54s): Sometimes it doesn't come across that way because in our humanness, we just make mistakes, but it's never in my mind, a pastor's heart and desire to hurt somebody with admonition verse 14. And we urge you brothers admonish, the idol, encourage the faint-hearted help the weak be patient with them all. So it's not just a leader's job actually to admonish, but it's the church's job. Individual's job within the church to admonish one another verse 15 says, see that no one repays anyone for evil, evil for evil, but all we seek to do good to one another and to everyone. So Living, Out, Your, Faith in the Community of the Saints number one, respect esteem and love Your leaders. 3 (37m 39s): Number two, serve 2 (37m 41s): One another. How do we serve one another? Well, the text actually tells us how we are to serve one another. All Christians have a four part ongoing and continuous responsibility to one another. Number one, according to the scripture, it's our job to admonish the idol. We all have duties and responsibilities within the body of Christ. We have practical duties duties to our families and to our churches and to the people in our lives. We have spiritual duties. We have duties to the Lord and to the Church things that God has asked us to do things that God has called us to do. 2 (38m 23s): And so we're actually to admonish those who aren't doing, the things that God has called them to do. So maybe, maybe you're in the church and you're being idle, not doing the thing that God has asked you to do. So I want to admonish you with the heart of God right now, the church needs you. The church needs you operating in your gifts, using the gifts and talents that God has given you within the body of Christ. And if you're not doing your part than the church is missing out and not nearly as effective or fruitful because you're not doing your job. So don't minimize your role and your responsibility within the church, figure out what God has asked you to do and get busy, doing what God has asked you to do. 2 (39m 9s): It's the most fulfilling and gratifying thing that you'll ever find yourself doing in life, doing what God has asked you to do. So I'm lovingly admonishing you in the body of Christ. If you're sitting around and you haven't a figured out what you're supposed to do, figure it out and then get busy doing that. Or if you know what you're supposed to do, but you're just not doing it. Maybe because you're busy or your priorities are to where they should be, or you're just being lazy. Then just acknowledge that and just tell the Lord I've been busy or lazy or whatever. My priorities haven't been in the right place. And God, I'm going to get busy in 2021, doing what you've asked me to do. So that's just a, a subtle admonition to you to get busy because God has equipped you. 2 (39m 56s): He has given you gifts and talents to be used within the body of Christ and to be used within the world for his glorious purposes, for your good and for his glory. Amen. So first Thessalonians four 11 and 12 instruct Christians how to live. And we just looked at this verse. I think last week it says live quietly gives us kind of three things to do live quietly. It says that I think because idle people tend to stir up trouble. They have too much time on their hands. And so he says, the verse says, live quietly, mind your own affairs and work with your hands. As we instructed you, you have this responsibility to live quietly, mind your own affairs. 2 (40m 42s): That means don't metal in the end, the end of the line lives of others and work with your hands. As we instructed you, you have this crazy responsibility within the kingdom to do what God has asked you to do so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one that's first Thessalonians, four, 11 and 12. So all Christians have four ongoing and continuous responsibilities to one, another. Number one, admonish, the idol. Number two, encourage the fainthearted. Some are just easily discouraged and their Faith and it's our job to encourage one another, to pray with them and to help them. So in the body of Christ, we have this responsibility to get to know people so that we might know how they're doing that. 2 (41m 25s): We might speak into their lives and encourage them. This has been a discouraging year and probably more times this year than in any time up to this point, I've had to encourage the faint hearted and say, Hey, God's in control. He's sovereign. And we've been doing that with each other within the body of Christ, encouraging one another to stand firm, not to give up, encouraging people in their faith to stand firm and a trust the Lord. And then we're supposed to help the weak. According to the verse, help the weak, the weak in faith are usually those who have a hard time leaning on the Lord and they still lack strength. And so we have a responsibility to know what's going on in people's lives to help those who are weak with the goal, that that person would always be weak, but that person will, will grow in the Lord and become strong in the Lord and learn how to lean on the Lord and not necessarily need to reach out to somebody every time they're feeling weak. 2 (42m 27s): I've got a grandson who was born premature, and just this week, I think it was this week. He took his first steps. He's two years old and took his first steps. And, and we've been kind of waiting for this. He's been making progress slow because he was born 94 days early, but he's been making progress and we've been patient with his progress. And, and now that he's up and walking, we're so excited for him because we've been waiting for this moment because we know that while he was born 94 days early, and he's taking a little more time to develop, we knew that he would be walking eventually. And to see him walk has really been exciting. 2 (43m 8s): It's God's desire that you would walk as well. I think some of us crawl way too long in our faith. We, we depend on others way too long in our faith in God's designed is that we would stand up and that we would learn to walk on our own two feet and not be so dependent on others, but that we would lean on the Lord moving forward as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, finding great strength in him. So if you've been crawling for a long time and you feel like you're ready for the next stage in your life and your development, then just ask the Lord, Lord, I want to walk. Or maybe you've been walking for a while, but you want to run as the Lord say, Lord, I want to run. And then just begin to invest yourself in the things of God and watch your strength increase. 2 (43m 51s): You'll go from crawling to walking from running to, or from walking to running. And, and you'll become the strong person that you desire. Strength won't happen, unless you're about growing that those muscles in your life, you need to set that goal for yourself and become strong. Maybe 2021 is gonna be the year that you become stronger than you've ever become. And I want to encourage you in that because God has great stuff in store for you. There's nothing to be fearful about in your growing. Just continue to keep your eyes on him, stay humble and watch how the Lord will use you. As you grow in your 4 (44m 29s): Strength, your strength 2 (44m 32s): Will come as Your spend daily time with him as you trust him. Strength. I was thinking about this the other day, strength happens as we daily gather manner. Remember the kid that the children of Israel on the wilderness, they had to daily go out and gather Manoj, and they couldn't save it for the next day because it would go bad. It would turn to worms. And so every morning they had to go out and gather manna so that they would have their sustenance for the day. And I thought, why, why is it that every day I have to get up and read the Bible again? Why does it every day that I have to get up and re read and pray some more? 2 (45m 12s): Why doesn't it last longer? And I just had this revelation recently that this is God's design. I believe this is God's designed to keep us dependent on him. It's much like having a meal. You know, I can eat breakfast today, like I did, but by tomorrow, I'm ready for breakfast again. So there's natural, natural hunger and, and, and a filling. And then there's a spiritual hunger and a filling. And as we allow the Lord to do what he wants to do, we find ourselves getting filled. And as we find ourselves being filled spiritually, we find ourselves being strengthened in the power of his might, and then there's growth. But imagine if I had breakfast today and then waited to have breakfast again, till the next Sunday, I'd be pretty hungry, right? 2 (45m 58s): That'd be pretty, pretty hungry. It's because that's not the design that we would have one breakfast a week. It would start. That's the design that we'd have a breakfast every single day that we'd have meals every single day. So if you're feeling faint, hearted and weak, learn to trust the Lord turned to him to find strength, to open up your Bible and be filled with the power of the Holy spirit, make that your daily priority and watch your step 4 (46m 22s): Strength returned to you. Watch your strength returned to 2 (46m 26s): Sometimes I'll be a little lazy in the morning. And I won't get to my Bible readings till about 10 or 11 or noon. And I think on Christmas day, I didn't get to it till about two o'clock. And, and I just felt kind of like I was out of step with things until I took the time to read and kind of get nourished in my spirit. There's just good things that God wants to do as we nourish ourselves in him. And then the final thing that we have to do as believers is we have to be patient with everyone, be patient with them. I'll be patient with everyone. And really all of these four things require that we're patient, right? What's the opposite of patience. 4 (47m 0s): It's irritability, anger, arrogance judgment, 2 (47m 9s): W w the opposite of patience is all of the ugly stuff in life. Patients is a beautiful thing. And when we exercise patience with one another, when people exercise patients with us, demonstrate patients with us, man, it's just a beautiful thing. It gives us opportunity to grow. It gives us an opportunity to figure out who are in Christ and, and we're able to do the things that God has asked us to do. But the opposite of that is irritation, judgment, anger, arrogance, all of these ugly things. And so maybe God's working in you this year, the patients, and someone said, never asked for patients, because God will give you plenty of opportunities to, to exercise patience. 2 (47m 50s): And so you just know that patience is part of life and developing patients as part of developing your spiritual life and out of patients, you'll be able to administer more effectively, because when you're in inpatient with people, you can't minister to people you disagree with. When you're in patient with people, you can't minister to people that you don't really, that you're having a hard time loving God wants to develop within you patients so that you can minister to those around you and such. You become mature as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So find the grace. You need to serve people by keeping a tender heart, but at the same time, when it's, when it's right at Monesh, the idol do the hard things that God has asked you to do. We are to lovingly walk with one another and help each other grow. 2 (48m 32s): That's just what the scripture says here in first Thessalonians. Living, Out, Your, Faith in the Community of the Saints number one, respect esteem and love your leaders. Number two, serve one another. And number three, live as spirit filled. Yeah. Godly people. How do we do that? How do we live a spirit-filled godly people. We just ask God for it. Do you? I mean, that's just, and then we need to ask for all the time, multiple times throughout the day, Lord, I, I need to be filled with your spirit. And I think much like the manna for the day and being spiritually filled every day, we need to be asking the Lord constantly for his presence. We need God to come into our lives and help us to do the things that the scriptures told us to do. 2 (49m 14s): Well, what does that look like? Well, when we are filled with the spirit of God and we're godly people, our behavior will demonstrate that that's true. Our demo, our behavior will actually change. It will be transformed. I've watched the habit in my life. I've watched that happen in friends' lives. When a person is filled with the Holy spirit and they're living godly in Christ Jesus there, their actions actually reflect. And they begin to do with the verses in this, in this passage, talk about verse 16 says Joyce always, that's the verse. Rejoice always, man, for some. And for me, it's been hard to rejoice this year and I've had to be intentional. 2 (49m 59s): It had to be intentional about thinking about all of the good stuff that God has done. And that's why I opened the, the, the sermon this morning, the way that I did, because God has done some really good stuff. And so we don't rejoice in COVID, but we rejoice that God is faithful in the midst of a pandemic that he is loving in the midst of a pandemic. We can rejoice that he's never left us in the midst of this pandemic, but he's been faithful and good to us, even in spite of the pandemic. So we rejoice always. And so maybe you're in a really, really hard season of your life. Maybe you've lost someone due to COVID and maybe you've lost your job or your business. I don't know how you rejoice, but I know God knows how you rejoice in moments like that and seasons like that. 2 (50m 42s): And so ask the Lord, Lord, you said that I'm supposed to rejoice always. What does that look like in my season? I think the most effective thing that we can do, the most important thing that we can do when we're going through hard times is to keep an open heart and an open mind to the Lord. Sometimes we just shut down and we get angry at the Lord, ask him, Lord, how do I obey this verse? Rejoice. Always. What does that look like in my circumstance with my situation? Rejoice always emits the hard stuff. What God, what has God done in you this year? What good stuff has he done in you this year? Maybe start with that and just begin to make a list. 2 (51m 24s): Well, God, I've learned to trust you this year. Like, 4 (51m 27s): Like never before 2 (51m 30s): Lord. I I've learned to believe 4 (51m 32s): You, 2 (51m 34s): Lord. I've learned to lean on you instead of on others, because I haven't had others to lean on 4 (51m 39s): On 2 (51m 42s): Lord. I've watched you minister, like maybe I've never seen before as people have been desperate during this season. So thank you for that Lord. And just ask the Lord how you might rejoice in him and then do that rejoice always. And then verse 17 says, pray without ceasing, listen, none of this stuff can be done unless we're spirit filled, seeking to be godly. People seeking to be spirit filled, godly people, rejoicing always pray without ceasing. How do we do that? I think if we're not careful, we can go a day or few days or a week without ever praying without ever really inter engaging God in prayer. And I think God, I don't think that's God's design. 2 (52m 23s): In fact, I know it's not God's design because he tells us pray without 4 (52m 26s): Ceasing. So 2 (52m 28s): Spiritual health is, is prayer. Prayer is to spiritual health is breathing is to physical health. We have to pray on a regular basis. And so what do you pray about it? I don't think you have to pray about what socks you're going to wear. You can't, I suppose, but you don't have to pray about that kind of stuff necessarily, but there are important things throughout the course of your day that you do need to be praying about, pray about your attitude at work, your relationship with your spouse or with your kids or with your grandkids. Pray about your financial decisions, pray about all kinds of stuff. Pray when you're being tempted. Pray when you're angry, pray when things aren't going well, you just continue to come before the Lord and pray without ceasing. 2 (53m 11s): I think that's how the apostle Paul got through his life and ministry. I believe that he prayed without ceasing. He did what God asked him to do and what he recorded here in first Thessalonians prayed. He prayed without. So how's your prayer life. I was talking to a guy who just recently went through a really, really horrific sort of personal circumstance. And he said during that whole time, I never even considered praying. And I was surprised by that because this is a godly guy, but he had just in his words, he kind of fell asleep spiritually and he'd stopped praying. Like he knew that he should pray. And through the circumstance of his life, he realizes, he realized that he was asleep spiritually. 2 (53m 55s): He still knew the Lord and still was saved, but spiritually, he just was kind of, well, he was asleep. Maybe you're asleep spiritually. And God's trying to awaken you this year today. Maybe God's trying to awaken you, you will awake. And when you begin to bring God into the midst of every circumstance of your life, when you begin to pray and when you pray without ceasing. So it just simply means, I think, pray whenever there's a need, pray whenever there's a thought to pray, pray, whatever you're going, pray through whatever you're going through and just watch what the Lord will do with your life. And then it says in verse 18, give thanks. It's kind of like verse 16, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you give thanks in all circumstances. 2 (54m 41s): So back to, you know, you kind of figure that out as you figure out how to rejoice, always give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you, Lord. How do I give thanks. I don't want to give, thanks for this is a tough season. The tough circumstance. How do I give things and watch what the Lord will do with your soul, with your heart? When you choose to offer up a sacrifice of Thanksgiving, the sacrifice of praise give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. And the number 19 verse 19 says do not quench the spirit. How do you quench the spirit? 2 (55m 23s): Well, when you don't do with the spirit asks you to do you're quenching the spirit. So if God's asked you to do something, do what he's telling you to do. And don't quench the spirit. As I was at my house yesterday, I felt like Laura was trying to get my attention about something. And I felt like the Lord communicated something to me where maybe I quenched the spirit. Cause I wasn't paying attention to what he would have me to do in the certain area of my life. I said, Lord, I don't want to quench your spirit. I don't want to miss on what miss out on what you have for me. So Lord, would you help me next time to pay attention so that I do what she had me to do. It was kind of a, maybe a synable mission or just not paying attention. 2 (56m 6s): And we can quench the spirit by just not paying attention by just not listening to what the Lord's saying and not really caring about what he has to say. So we're told, do not quench the spirit. The spirit of God is the third person of the Trinity he's co-equal with the father and the son. And he deserves our honor, our worship and our obedience. So don't quench the spirit quenching the spirit will quench Your Faith punching the spirit will CA will quench Your your Christianity and it will make you, it will make you powerless in Jesus. It will make you powerless to do what God's asked you to do. So don't quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast to what is good. 2 (56m 47s): I can't tell you how many times somebody's word of prophecy to me has helped me. I'm talking about new Testament. The new Testament give to prophecy where a person gets a word from the Lord and speaks something to me. Often, a person with the gift of prophecy actually has the gift to interpret dreams as well. They just have this capacity to hear from the Lord, interpret dreams, speak prophetically over a person's life. And I can't tell you how many times the prophetic people in my life have, have been a blessing to me. Sometimes we despise prophecy because we don't understand. We don't understand the prophet, the person, and we don't understand their gift. 2 (57m 28s): And so we just don't want anything to do with them. I believe in we believe that prophecy continues. It's different than the old Testament use of prophecy, but it's, there's a new Testament use of prophecy that is very effective and fruitful for the church. And so don't despise prophecies. Even if you don't understand it, just ask the Lord, what is it, Lord that you're trying to help me to understand? What are you, what is it that you want me to understand about this gift, this spiritual gift, and then test everything. So you don't not to take a prophet's word in the new Testament sense of a prophetic word as directly as voice from the Lord necessarily. But usually it'll be a word that confirms what God has already said to you and communicates a edification to you as a follower of the Lord. 2 (58m 12s): Jesus Christ. I think we despise prophecies. I think when we despise prophecies, we quench the spirit. And then in verse 22, it says abstain from every form of evil. Well that's wide open. Isn't it abstain from every form of evil. Not, not a lot to say about that. Just figure out what's what God would have you to abstain from and abstain from every form of evil. And I bet there's probably something there that if we prayed, God would show us that we weren't really paying attention to before that Living Out, Your, Faith in the Community of the Saints number four, allow God to complete his work of sanctification in your life. There's a process of sanctification. 2 (58m 53s): So salvation comes when we believe on Christ and he comes and he forgives our sins and he adopts us into his family and he takes up residency in our life. But then there's a process called sanctification verse 23 says, now may the God of peace himself sanctify. You completely may. The God of peace himself sanctify you completely like through and through and may your whole body spirits and soul and body be kept blameless that the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ, he who calls you is, and he will surely do it. So God has the process of a, there's a process of sanctification. I think sometimes we, we compartmentalize our lives. We allow God in most areas of our life, but we've got our area, our life kind of compartmentalized, and God wants to break into every area of your life and bring sanctification. 2 (59m 42s): Sanctification means to be set apart, to make Holy. And so he wants to sanctify. You make set you apart and make you Holy in every arena of your life. And number five, consider others in everything you do. This is how we live in our faith community. With the, with the Community of the Saints consider others' in everything you do. And then Paul wraps up this book in this chapter with verse 25, where he says brothers, pray for us. Sometimes, you know, you think about Paul and all of the work that he did and all of the, you know, writing that he accomplished and the mission missionary journeys. 2 (1h 0m 23s): And you think, man, Paul should be praying for me, but man Paul saying, I want you to pray. He's saying to that, that first century church brothers pray for us, pray for our work. He understood that without the Saints praying that they'd be opening themselves up for danger. So he says, pray for us, consider others in everything you do. Who do you need to pray for? Do you, you need to pray for your spiritual leaders. I'm asking you to always to pray for me and to, for the elders and pastors of our church, but also pray for those in your life who needs salvation or who need a healing or who need a touch from the Lord and watch what God will do for others. 2 (1h 1m 4s): Pray, consider others and everything you do. Then verse 26 says greet all the brothers with a Holy kiss. We joke about that verse a lot, right? And COVID, we can't actually do that. People are afraid if you get within six weeks, eight of them. So we can't actually greet people with a Holy kiss, but there's implied. There's implied relationship and connectivity there where we're saying, Hey, we need one another within the body of Christ. This is why it's so important that we gather as the church. And so if during this time we're meeting online, you can gather some people around you when you're having Church within your home. Whether it's your family or people within your sphere of influence people that you're already around. 2 (1h 1m 47s): And if you can do it safely and gather with people, there's we there's an implied need. Here. We, we need one another. I need you. You need me, you need one another Sigrid, each other, greet all the brothers with a Holy kiss. And then he gives some pretty strong language in verse 27. He says, I put you under, under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. So this, this letter and all of the letters, Paul wrote are pretty important. And so he's saying, Hey, read these out. And then he says the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ be you. And that's how he wraps up first Thessalonians the book and then the chapter. 2 (1h 2m 27s): And so we've got so much to be grateful for this year. As we wrap up 2020, I would just encourage you to think about what you're grateful for. Be thankful, ask the Lord to give you a thankful heart and watch what he will do with that heart of gratitude. As you get into the new year with that, I'm going to pray and we're going to invite the worship team to come forward and we'll sing a few more songs and worship the Lord together. So Lord, we bow our heads in prayer. We thank you for this time. We thank you, God, that you are faithful. And Lord, we just invite you to continue to speak to us as we worship. And I pray that this message would go out on the worldwide web Lord and speak to those. 2 (1h 3m 8s): You designed it to speak to you and that people would listen and that people would be blessed as they have Lord. So thank you for this time in Jesus name. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Amen. Let's worship. 0 (1h 3m 20s): Hey man. So good. Well father, we do worship you this morning. We'll give you our hearts moving worse, worse, worse, worse, seen again. 0 (1h 4m 9s): 5 (1h 7m 2s): I don't see it's your work. He even went. I don't feel that you can never stop. Never stop, never stop, never stop. Or even when I don't see the work, he never stop. Never stop. 0 (1h 7m 28s): 5 (1h 10m 51s): Thank you for this time that we've had to gather together. Thank you for your presence that has been here in our MIS in this time. And I just pray as we enter into the new year this week, God, you would stir our hearts just with passion or for the things of your heart. God, that you would give us dreams and things to accomplish the year ahead to expand your kingdom, to extend your love to the world around us. And just as Steve is talking about living out that purpose, the reason that you made a sky, just pray that this would be at different County year for us ahead, God, that you would stir hope where there's just spent lots of discouragement this year. 5 (1h 11m 33s): How would you stir into stoke that fire of hope and passion in our hearts again? So we look forward to what you want to do in and through us individually, what you want to do in and through us as a church family. And so God, we just invite you to come into our MIS to give us all that we need to strengthen us deep on the inside. You are the well that never runs dry. So thank you that we can tap in to your spirit for all that we have need of in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Church show good to be with you virtually online. We love you guys. We miss seeing your faces here in person. 5 (1h 12m 13s): We send our left from this place. Pray that you have a wonderful, happy new year. Stay safe, stay healthy, and we'll see you again next Sunday. God bless. Yes.

0 (0s): Well, Merry Christmas, everyone. Hello from Harvest Church we sure wish we could all be together in person tonight. We know it's just much safer for us all to be apart, but we're still unified in hearts. And we have all come together to gather together all around this County from every corner to lift the love and light of Jesus. And so Lord, we just welcome your presence in every home. Every household watching just are inviting your love just to fill the space. So find a comfortable spot to join into worship with us. Maybe you want to grab a cup of hot cocoa or your favorite blankets, but just gather your family and friends around whoever you're able to be with today. 0 (41s): And let's get to that place where we're going to worship together. Would you pray with me as we begin our time? Thank you, Lord. Thank you. That you came, that you chose to enter this world citizen, a helpless baby, that you would understand what it's like to stub your toe and skin your knee. That's you're not just a far away God, but you came to walk among us to know sorrow and grief and pain and suffering. You understand us so intimately and intricately. We just pray that your presence would be felt by everyone who's tuned in either live in this moment or later watching the replay. 0 (1m 27s): That's your beyond space and time that you are everywhere Lord. And so we just welcome your presence just to come right now. Emmanuelle wonderful counselor, almighty God and Prince of peace. Would you reveal more of yourself to us this night, just as you came in that stable in that plan and you change the world forever. Thank you. So let joy bubble up in our hearts tonight. As we celebrate the birth of our King and we declare joy to the world tonight for the Lord is come . 0 (5m 47s): Amen. Thank you. Thank you that you came, what a gift we come to adore you tonight. Jesus, just to lay all of our burdens at your feet, Jesus, to say that we have need of you. So we bring our hearts. Every anxious thought, every care and concern. There's nothing that's ever out of your sight. Ooh, 1 (12m 42s): Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas. Hey, thank you so much for inviting us into your home. This Christmas Eve 2020, this is not how we intended to have Church today, but this is how we are having Church today in your homes live fed live-streamed and we're so grateful for this opportunity. And we're praying that as we have made this choice, that everybody around us stays healthier for the balance of this year. And S and beyond that, it has been our tradition. It has become our tradition to read a Christmas story, a children's Christmas story every every year. 1 (13m 25s): And so we have a great Christmas story this year, and then I will be sharing a 20 minute message or so also following that, and, and then we'll sing some more songs and then we will just to continue to enjoy the holiday season. So I want to take a moment and pray before we get into the reading. And then we'll read the story and hear a brief message. So shall we bow our heads in prayer? Lord, thank you so much for your amazing grace. Jesus. We are so thankful that you were born into this earth into this world so that we might know you so that we might be known by you. 1 (14m 7s): So God, I pray that every person would have an encounter with you and a personal encounter with you. That would be life altering God, that you would reveal yourself to people that you would work in people's lives and that you would change lives. That's our prayer. That's our desire for, from you today, Lord God. And so as we celebrate your birth, be glorified, thank you for this time in Jesus name a men to the story towards the evening of Christmas towards the evening of Christmas. When all through the town, every end was so crowded, no room could be found tired. 1 (14m 50s): Mary and who went door to door at last found a place on a small stable floor. Thank goodness said Mary who tiptoed inside the mice, saw the donkey and scurried to hide the rest of the creatures. All cuddled up tight in hopes that they might have a calm, peaceful night. The pigeons were nestled all snug in their beds while visions of breadcrumbs danced around in their heads. The cows closed their eyes and the oxen laid down the doves cued. So gently, the lambs made no sound. 1 (15m 33s): The moon through the trees was just starting to glow with a glimmer of light on the stable below. When quite by surprise came in newborn baby cry that woke all the animals sleeping nearby up, jumped the cows and the oxen and sheep up popped. The pigeons are roused from their sleep. They all came to gaze at the small baby boy as his mama and Papa hugged him with joy. Now, donkeys. Now cows now pigeons and sheep. Now oxen and mice in the manger did peep his eyes. How they twinkled his dimples so sweet as they nuzzled his fingers in cute little feet and out in the fields, taking care of their sheep. 1 (16m 25s): Some shepherds were just getting ready to sleep. When all of a sudden they had such a fright as a whole choir of angels lit up the nights. But the song of the angels, the words that they said soon, let them men know they had nothing to dread. Dear shepherds. It's wonderful news that we bring as savior is born. He is Jesus. The King. They ran to the stable and peek through the door and saw something never imagined before they're in a manger. A baby boy, lay no blankets, no pillow. 1 (17m 7s): His bed made of hay. And to that small stable came three splendid Kings with gifts for the baby, all beautiful things. They jumped from their camels and knelt at his feet with their frankincense golden murder that smelled sweets, the stable was filled with a wonderful light as stars above Bethlehem. Twinkled so bright and high in the heavens. God whispered my son. You'll bring hope to the world and love everyone. Then back to their slumbers. 1 (17m 48s): The animals curled amazed at this babe, who had entered their world as Mary and Joseph got ready for bed. They snuggled their baby and kissed his 2 (17m 58s): Sweet head is married late. 1 (18m 2s): He's asleep in the Hey. She, she thought about all that had happened that day. The mice heard her whisper as she tucked him in time. 2 (18m 11s): Night's Merry Christmas, my son, and to all a good nights. What a great story. It was the evening of Christmas. 1 (18m 26s): That's what we're celebrating. We're celebrating Christmas Eve, the birth of our Lord and savior Jesus, 2 (18m 30s): Jesus Christ. But before 1 (18m 33s): Or in keeping with tradition, a joke, a joke. It's Christmas Eve, it's Christmas Eve and Amanda's out shopping and he realizes he's going to be late. So he calls his wife and says, babe, I'm out shopping, doing some last minute shopping. So I'm going to be home a little late. And she out of curiosity asked the question, well, where are you shopping? And he said, well, you know, you remember that, that, that jewelry store where we saw those beautiful diamond stud earrings that you appreciated so much, she said, yes. I remember. I remember he said, well, I'll be at the hardware store. Next door, Silly Christmas jokes. But they are a part of the tradition around here. 1 (19m 14s): We've titled the message today. Fear not Jesus brings hope to the world that will be in Luke chapter two verses eight through 14 today. And this is what it says in Luke chapter two, verses eight and nine. It says, and in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And the angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were filled with great 2 (19m 42s): Fear. Imagine, I mean, this is a common reaction 1 (19m 48s): When an angel of the Lord appears to people. There's great fear. There's great. Awe there's great honor. For example, when them in the old Testament, when bail him saw the angel of the Lord, he bowed down and fell 2 (20m 2s): Fall on his face. Great fear. Great honor. Great. All 1 (20m 10s): Samson's mother was visited by the angel of the Lord and she described the angel as awesome. Now we use that word a lot and we don't always use it appropriately. We use it for all kinds of different stuff, but the word awesome means extremely impressive. Daunting. It means overwhelming, inspiring, great admiration, apprehension, 2 (20m 34s): Or fear. 1 (20m 36s): This is the proper and expected response. When someone encounters a heavenly being, I mean the glory of the Lord shone around them. You can imagine, you can imagine. I imagine a great lights, a sense that someone powerful is present this night was like no other night they had 2 (20m 56s): Since. So a great fear 1 (21m 0s): When Samson's mother had a second encounter with the angel of the Lord, she and her husband fell on their faces to the ground. There was even fear that they might die from their encounter. There was fear that they might die because they encountered the angel of the 2 (21m 15s): Lord. When Mary, 1 (21m 17s): The mother of Jesus encountered the angel Gabriel, she was greatly troubled. She was troubled by his message 2 (21m 25s): And fearful. The angel told her do not be afraid. Mary, for you have found favor with God, do not be afraid. Mary, for you have found favor with 1 (21m 39s): God. It's a lot to take in for a teenage girl. Who's just found out. We're about to find out 2 (21m 45s): She's going to give birth to a baby. 1 (21m 49s): Good news. No matter who you are today, you have found favor with God, no matter who you are 2 (21m 54s): Today, you, you have found favor with God. I mean, think about it. In what ways did Mary find favor with God? Well, God revealed himself to Mary 1 (22m 8s): And then God worked in Mary's life. And then God changed Mary's life for the wonderful, 2 (22m 14s): Good. Okay. 1 (22m 17s): For every one of us, all of us, God wants to reveal himself. He wants to reveal himself to us. He wants to reveal 2 (22m 27s): To you specifically, God wants to reveal himself to you. He wants to work in your life and he watched it change your life for the wonderful, good. This 1 (22m 40s): Was certainly the experience of the shepherds. 2 (22m 43s): Back to Luke chapter two, 1 (22m 45s): Verse 10, it says in the angel said to them, to the shepherds 2 (22m 50s): Fear, not for behold, I bring you good news of great joy. That will be for all the people. 1 (23m 0s): God revealed himself to the shepherds. Through the angel. God worked in their life and God changed their life for the wonderful, good. They got a front row seats, 2 (23m 12s): The birth of the Lord, Jesus Christ, who is new life here in the earth. This year, 1 (23m 17s): Birds experience something other worldly it 2 (23m 21s): Edge in there. They're all their fear. They didn't know what to expect when the angel appeared and the message of the angel was this fear, not fear, nots, whatever the Lord wants to do in your life. His message to you is the same fear. Not fear. Not God wants to do something in your life. He wants to reveal himself to you. 1 (23m 51s): He wants to work in your life and he wants to change your life for the wonderful, good. 2 (23m 57s): And he wants to 1 (23m 57s): Comfort you with the truth that you've got nothing. Absolutely 2 (24m 1s): Nothing to fear. These aims 1 (24m 5s): That we've been talking about, their messengers of God's speaking for him, 2 (24m 10s): Their message is God's message. Fear. Not maybe you've 1 (24m 17s): Got some fear in you when you think 2 (24m 20s): About God, maybe it just makes you uncomfortable to think about God. God's message 1 (24m 26s): Is the same to you as it was to 2 (24m 28s): Mary. And as it was to the shepherds fear, not fear, not God 1 (24m 36s): Send an angel to tell of his plan, to send Jesus into the world, to be the savior of the world. This is the good news. Verse 10. The second part says, I bring you good news of great joy. 2 (24m 47s): That will be for all the people. So 1 (24m 50s): What is this good news that the angel 2 (24m 53s): Was talking about? What might possibly 1 (24m 55s): Bring great joy to all 2 (24m 57s): People? Well, it's the news of a savior. 1 (25m 0s): The news of a savior is the good news for all people. Verse 11 says for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ 2 (25m 9s): Waste. The Lord fear, not Jesus brings hope to the world because he loves you because he loves everyone. It is 1 (25m 23s): Because of his great love for us, that he willingly became our savior. We read about his great love in John three 2 (25m 30s): Verses 16 through 18, where it says for God, so loved the world that he gave. His only son that whoever 1 (25m 39s): Believes in him should not perish, but have 2 (25m 41s): Eternal life. 1 (25m 44s): 17 for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. But in order that the world might be saved 2 (25m 52s): Through him. First 18, whoever believes 1 (25m 55s): He was in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son 2 (26m 2s): Of God. The angel 1 (26m 6s): Gabriel is telling the shepherds 2 (26m 9s): What has happened. The savior has been born. That's what Christmas is all about every year. It says 1 (26m 17s): Declaration that the savior has been 2 (26m 20s): Born. We declared that to you tonight, 1 (26m 23s): Today, as we have this Service and stream it into your home or into your office or wherever it is that you may be watching, the savior has been born. Luke chapter two, verse 12 says this, and this will be assigned for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling claws and lying in a manger and suddenly there with the angel. And, and suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth. Peace among those with whom he is pleased. I wonder how big a multitude is. Was it a hundred? Probably not. It wasn't a a thousand, probably not. 1 (27m 6s): It could have been tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions. We don't know, but there was a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth. Peace among those with whom he is pleased. This is a profound moment in history, a profound moment in time when God out of his great love since his son, Jesus Christ into the earth so that we might know him and experience his love. Fear, nots, 3 (27m 39s): Jesus 1 (27m 40s): Brings hope to the world because he loves everyone. And because he has the ability, he has the ability to give peace to everyone. Jesus has the ability to give peace to everyone in the Greek. That word means peace between individuals 3 (27m 57s): Walls. 1 (28m 1s): God wants to bring peace between you and him. He desires to bring peace in your relationship to him, to the father, to God in James three 18, it says in those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. And Jesus is the ultimate peace maker. He came into the world as the savior to make peace between God and man, the reason for his birth, the reason for Christmas Jesus came to bring peace. And one of his names is the Prince of peace. 1 (28m 41s): Jesus is the Prince 3 (28m 43s): Of peace. 1 (28m 45s): Jesus Christ is the only reason. And the only way we can surely live peacefully with God, Jesus Christ is called the Prince of peace because he restores our broken relationship with God and provides the assurance of eternal life. Every one of us needs the Prince of peace. We need peace in our relationship with God. We need God to establish that miraculous work in our lives, 3 (29m 16s): The bird, 1 (29m 17s): Life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ makes that piece possible. I found that real peace can only be experienced in Christ. It's not in stuff I've tried. I've tried finding peace by adding stuff to my life. All that stuff does is make me busy and feel responsible for all kinds of stuff. It's not in stuff. It's 2 (29m 42s): Not in romantic relationships. It's not in money, not in achievements, not in position or status. It's nothing external. It is found peace. Peace is found in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Real peace is found in Christ alone. Luke two 14 says glory to God in the highest and on earth. Peace among those with whom he is pleased. That's a question who is God pleased with? What does that even mean? Well, apart from Christ, it's not possible for us to be pleasing to God, but in Christ are we are pleasing fear. 2 (30m 27s): Not Jesus brings hope to the world because he loves everyone. And because he has the ability to give peace to everyone and number three, because he makes it possible for us to please, God, Jesus makes it possible for us to please God, have you ever wondered in your life? How do I please, God, well, Jesus has done that on your behalf. And as we find our lives hidden in Christ, as we accept the grace and mercy and the love of his, of, of Jesus Christ, we find ourselves hidden in Christ and acceptable and pleasing to God. There is peace among those with whom he is pleased. 2 (31m 10s): So how does Jesus make it possible for us to please God? And why don't we please God, in the first place? Well, there's a great quote. I mean, there's a great questions. Well, there's a little word with big implications that the Bible talks about from the old Testament to the new Testament. And this word is sin, sin, sin. What is sin? Sin is anything that is displeasing to God. So there, this thing called sin that is interrupted our communion, our relationship with God, as soon as anything that is displeasing to God. And the Bible says that all of us have sinned, Romans three 23 in the Bible. 2 (31m 51s): It says for all, have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, all the sin and fall short of the glory of God. The penalty for that sin is death. Romans six 23 says for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Our Lord, this penalty is the whole reason Jesus came and died on the cross. It's the reason he was born. He lived, he was crucified and then ultimately resurrected from the dead Jesus was born so that he might die for me. Jesus was born so that he might die for you so that we might know a relationship with God and be pleasing to him. 2 (32m 37s): So how does Jesus make possible for us to please God? Well, Jesus died in my place and yours to pay the penalty for our sin. Have you ever had someone paid a debt for you? You own maybe a big debt and you had somebody to come along as a gift to you and just pay that off. I have. It's a, it's a liberating feeling to have that debt finally lifted. Have you ever had someone forgive a debt? Just say, you know what? That thing that you owed me, that money that you owed me, don't worry about it. And what a, what a great relief that is because debt can be a heavy burden to us as human beings. 2 (33m 18s): But when somebody pays that debt for us or when somebody forgives that debt, it's, it's a, it's an incredibly liberating experience. It's this is precisely what Jesus has done for us. And he's the only one who could do it. Jesus, the God man, fully God and fully man came to cancel that debt to forgive that debt, to pay that debt for us, what a relief it is to have that debt forgiven paid and eliminated. This is what he did. He died so that our sin debt might be forgiven and he has made it possible for us to have peace with God through those actions. 2 (34m 5s): This is the gospel and this is why we have nothing to fear. Fear, not Jesus brings hope to the world. And I, I don't. I want to say it this way. Jesus can bring hope to your world. Maybe your world is feeling very small right now. Maybe you've been hunkered down, quarantined, staying close to home, fearful, anxious, nervous, worried. Jesus can bring hope to your world wherever you are, wherever you are. 2 (34m 46s): Jesus wants to reveal himself to you. He loves you. He has the ability to give peace to your life in your circumstance, whatever it is that you're going through. And he makes it possible for you to please God, it's an amazing gift. Jesus, the person and work of Jesus. It's an amazing and profound gift. And I just want to say, I hope you and I hope in a fresh way that I, that together we experience God and that he works in our life and that he changes our life for the wonderful, good, let's take a moment and pray. 2 (35m 33s): And then we're going to sing some more songs and wrap up the Service here in just a few moments. Let's bow our heads. Lord, we thank you for this time for the opportunity to be encouraged through a wonderful children's story, a book that communicates your birth in such a creative way. Lord God. And we're thankful for the word of God that is eternal and has the power to change lives. Lord God, we're thankful that we have the opportunity to gather and to stream this message so that people's lives might be touched and minister to God. I pray that this Christmas season wonderful, wonderful, and profound things would take place in the lives of every person on the central coast and throughout the world. 2 (36m 20s): As people tune in and hear, hear the message. Fear, not fear, not Jesus brings hope to the world. Bring that hope. We pray. Thank you for this time. Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's sing some songs. 0 (36m 40s): This would normally be the time where we would light a few candles. So maybe at home, if you have some candles, maybe find some candles and light them, maybe turn on your Christmas lights on the tree. But we do this as a symbol to remember that Jesus is the light of the world that he came into the darkness to be the light. And I love it. The whole world lights up at Christmas time. And so let's just celebrate him as we sing these songs together, the light of the world. 0 (37m 9s): one more time. 0 (46m 3s): Just start voices to celebrate the lanes. just rest in your peace. 0 (47m 19s): Thank you for being with us. I just pray that each family as they celebrate this year, that you would just be in our midst, that you would make a special year, even though it's a little different what'd you do surprise us with your presence, with your joy, your peace, your love, your hope in our hearts. We pray that your perfect love would just cast out all fear that we wouldn't have anything to be afraid of. So thank you for this time to worship together. May your love and light fill our hearts and homes this Christmas and always in Jesus name. Amen. 0 (47m 58s): Amen. Well, Merry Christmas, everyone. We hope you have a wonderful night and day tomorrow celebrating the birth of our King. We look forward to worshiping with you again soon on Sunday, have a wonderful night Merry Christmas.

0 (1s): Well, good morning. Merry Christmas, everyone. Welcome to Harvest. Church. My name is Sherrilyn. If we haven't met yet, her so glad that you joined us this morning. Hello to everyone who's watching online and all over campus today. We're all staying warm and safe and cozy this Christmas season. If you're able to be in the room with me, why don't you stand as we began to prepare our hearts for worship this morning. 1 (30s): Awesome. 0 (30s): What's just go before the Lord together in prayer, 1 (36s): Lord, we just welcome you. Holy 0 (41s): The spirit. Would you just come pray that you would touch every heart this morning? Just that we could be overwhelmed by your loving presence today, just as you came into the hat's stable in Bethlehem so many years ago, God, we just sense your presence here in this space with us. I pray that every family watching at home and just sense your presence and your peace just fall upon their whole family or whole household down in Jesus name. 1 (1m 12s): Need you want you and we welcome you. 1 (1m 24s): CA 0 (13m 11s): Here from him this morning, some fresh manna 1 (13m 14s): maybe there's some of you. 0 (13m 26s): I have a word of encouragement for all of us to be a great time to, to share that 1 (13m 29s): Jesus . 0 (18m 42s): As a reminder this morning, just how the Wiseman came very gifts to lay before the King has even thinking of a story of a little drummer boy and have a heat, brought his gift of music to the King. And even those who don't have anything to bring your heart. That's really what he's after is after our hearts this morning. So even if you feel like your checkbook is slim, and maybe you're like I had a stump, know that I have much to offer. God says, I just want your heart. Plus spring on our hearts this morning together, we're gonna sing this together. Our affection art emotion. 0 (19m 24s): We're gonna pour it out on the feet of Jesus. 1 (19m 31s): . 1 (21m 21s): We worship you with all of our hearts this morning. Just pray your presence. Just be so felt in the season. Remind us again and again that you are Emmanuel God with us. There's nowhere that we can go from your presence. God can be in the deepest of pits and your presence is still going to find us there. Thank you that nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus Christ. You make room in our hearts for you. This season make room in our hearts this day, we open our hearts wide to receive all that you have for us and the precious and beautiful name of Jesus. 1 (22m 7s): Amen. Amen. So a good church to be together this Christmas and to celebrate those of you who are in the room here with us or on campus and how some neighbors around you. Let's take this time to greet someone with the love for Jesus this morning. And we'll be back in just a few minutes with some more announcements. 2 (22m 29s): Welcome to those who are in the sanctuary, in the loft, in the parsonage and on the patio. It is good to have you welcome. So I've been gone for the last couple of weeks, so we've had a w C we had Dave preach and then we had Ron preach and today we're having Jeremy preach. And so we've got the whole lineup going here and then I'll be back on for Christmas Eve. I'm thinking about being here three, four, and five o'clock that's who wants to join me all three services? No, all three everybody's hands. As soon as I said three services, the hands went down. Okay, Ken, he's going to be here. 2 (23m 9s): So we do have three Christmas Eve services, and we're going to make the patio a kind of a cool, kind of a venue where with fire pits and all kinds of fun stuff. So that's going to be really, really fun. If you are new to the church, we encourage you to stop by the info center. You've got a free gift there and, and then fill out a communication card as well. You can do that on the Harvest Church app. I think you can even fill out the communication card on our website, but also we've got communication cards that you can fill out and you get those at the info center. We just like to hello to you and welcome you here. 2 (23m 50s): Hey, we have been collecting food like crazy. So Thanksgiving, we gave away all kinds of food baskets for those in need. And at Christmas for this holiday, we gate we collected and provided 25 baskets, Christmas dinners to 25 families in need. And then because of your generosity, we've been able to partner with grace. Church grace, grace Bible, and, and we served another 130 families, their foster families with, with a Christmas dinner. And so together combined, we served a 155 dinners this year. That's I think that's our biggest year ever. So thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you for your generosity. 2 (24m 31s): None of that happens unless you guys bring sides and hams and turkeys and all of that stuff. So thank you so much for your generosity into those who spearheaded that, where you're so, so grateful here, the Church office will be closed as it is every year between Christmas Eve. And it will be here Christmas Eve for the services at three, four. What time of the services? Again? Three, four or five. Thanks. So we're going to be, we'll be here, but then beginning the 25th until January 3rd, the office will be closed. We just like to give our staff extra time with their family. And, and Hey, I haven't talked about the second mortgage for probably almost a year, a year ago. I talked about the second mortgage because we've got this Need, we're trying to raise over the period of three years. 2 (25m 16s): We're trying to raise $360,000. So people have been giving faithfully every month, every week. People give faithfully. We are, we are at around $86,000 that has come in. So if you do the math, we've got $360,000 over three-year period. That's a $120,000 a year that we're trying to raise over and above our regular ties and offerings and that sort of thing. So you guys have been amazing and we had brought in 86,000. So that means if we're going to write a check at the end of the year for a $120,000, we need 34,000 more to come in. So that's the challenge, but we've already raised 86,000. So if you are here and you want to make a year-end gift to the second mortgage, you can just Mark right on your check, second mortgage, and we'll make sure that goes to that. 2 (26m 5s): And, and we'll just trust the Lord, do what we always do and just trust the Lord's provision for all of this stuff that, that we're trying to do and trying to get accomplished. So with that, Jeremy, come on up, Jeremy's preaching today. He'll be in first Thessalonians chapter four, and he'd be taking us through the first part of chapter five. And so we were kind of arm wrestling about who was going to preach this weekend and he, let me, have you, have you seen the guns on this guy? Yeah, so he actually did when our family was exposed to COVID and we weren't sure if we were going to get the test results back in time for me to prep and be ready and, you know, we could have both prepped to be ready, but then that's not necessary. 2 (26m 54s): So we said we just tagged Jeremy. So again, it was Ron or Dave and Ron now Jeremy, and then I'll be back up. And so I want to pray for you and just pray for us as a church. And so why don't we all stand up everywhere, all over the campus, outside, inside, let's stand up and extend our hand to Jeremy Lord. Thank you for Jeremy. Thank you for pastor Jeremy and his desire to teach and the gifts that you have given him. Lord, we're so grateful. Thank you that he's an amazing a pastor at our church. We love him. We just pray that as he brings forth the word, God, that we would hear what we need to hear, that we'd be challenged, encouraged, edified, and built up in our most Holy faith. So thank you for this time. Thank you for your living word. 2 (27m 34s): Use it to speak to us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. 3 (27m 39s): Thank you. Stoke to have my wife, my daughter Posey here in the service, and then my youth group is up here and kind of spread out. 4 (27m 49s): So 3 (27m 51s): Love you guys. You guys are awesome. I'm a fan. Yes. I have a fan club there. It's awesome. You guys are awesome. Hey, let's open up our Bibles to first Thessalonians chapter four. I'm going to be picking up where Ron left off. He did such a, an amazing job last week. So many just points to take home and to work on. And you know, just a summarize. He talked about this, Holy living that God's calling us to do, and the purity that God's calling us to have as we, as we prepare for what, what God has for us, and then not only purity, but then what does it look like for Holy loving and then Holy leading. 3 (28m 32s): And it was a, it was a, it was a great and timely message. And you know, I like second service. I kind of get to forget about the foibles or first service and learn some things. And so actually I want to, I wanna, I want to grab you with a wedding. Everybody loves a wedding just, just last week. We got to go down to Santa Barbara and see two of my former fifth and sixth grade students get married and they love the Lord. They have committed to each other. They've committed to God. They've, they've walked in purity. And, and it was amazing thing to see these two former fifth and sixth graders walk down the aisle and say, I do. 3 (29m 13s): It was, it was amazing. And the funny part is I can remember those two specifically on one of the days that I was like planting seeds, like, Hey, someday, some of you guys might get married and if you get married, this is what you look for. And I would play at Lucy's into look at this wedding and see it. And they really, they walked in that they walked in, in God's purity and his loving is leading. So I was really stoked. So I want to pull you into a wedding because I think this will help us understand the rest of the chapter and maybe understand some context. One of the things as we studied the Bible is the Bible was written in a different To a different people, grew up in a different culture. And so as we learn more about the culture that was during the times of Jesus, I think we can understand more about the Bible. 3 (30m 2s): And so let me take you through a wedding and not just a Jewish wedding, but a specifically a Galilean wedding. Okay. And there were some things that set a galleon wedding apart. And just in saying this it's important to note that Jesus was from Nazareth of Galilee. The disciples were all we're from Galilee and even Jesus. His first miracle was in kina of galley. So that's, that's important and understanding the context Jesus was doing. So let me jump in. So the bride and groom, they would gather at the city gate to come together for a covenant in a way, a contract. And they would gather their families. And this wedding covenant would have been red agreed upon by both parties, the bride and the groom. 3 (30m 48s): And then the, the, the, the father and the, and the groom would, would take a dowry. And that would be paid towards his, his bride. And it wasn't a purchase. It was closer to an insurance policy. If something were to happen to him in the time of their patrol, he pays this price. Then the young man after that's all read it, if that's all done, they'll give me a little, pour a cup of wine and he'll hold it out. And this is one of the things that separated a Jewish wedding is as the groom extended that cup of wine out to his possible bride. She and only at a Galilean wedding, the opportunity to either accept or deny it, Jewish weddings, often the parents sets each other out, like that's kind of a done deal, but here in a Galilean wedding, we're learning from, and this is all taken from archeological digs and we're learning all this stuff. 3 (31m 44s): And so the young, the groom would reach out his cup and he would, he would offer it to her and she had the opportunity to then drink it. And if she chose to drink it, that was her signal that she was entering into this patrol level. And she would then be called the one that was bought with a price. The one that was bought with a price, I'm giving you a little things. I'm hoping that you're feeling in your mind, how this fits in with the Church. Okay. So she was then the one bot with a price and the S the, the groom would then take that cup. And he would say this, he would say, I will not drink this cup until the time when we are together again, does that sound familiar? 3 (32m 27s): What Jesus did. And we took the communion cup with his disciples because We, I miss that. But in it, as Jesus is at that, that round the table with his disciples, the disciples are realizing, well, this is, this is like a proposal. This is like a though this is, they were realizing that this is what Jesus was doing. He was offering that I will not drink this cup until we are get together again. And there was another huge part of a Galilean wedding that sets it apart. 5 (32m 51s): You know, we, we, we, we get a, a, a N 3 (32m 54s): A letter in the mail that says, save the date for this day. This is when this couple is going to get married. A gal Leanne was what was different than a wedding was different because there was no date set. It was solely up to the father of the groom of when the time was right for his son to go get his bride. So no date was set. And sometimes that was a year. Sometimes it was two years. There was a period. Okay. So there's no date set. So from that point on, after the groom has taken the cutback, they would separate. And the groom would then as during that period of separation, the groom would begin to prepare a place for his bride in his father's house, in the insula. 3 (33m 35s): And it was a large courtyard surrounded by a lot of small houses, mult Wellings. And so the sun would go back like, yes, my patrol, we're going to get married and he'd go back. And he began building on to his father's house, preparing that place, and the bride would then go herself and begin to prepare herself. She began to, to assemble the fabrics needed for the wedding dress. She began to make preparations and pick her, her a bridesmaids, all those things. They're all she's preparing herself. And the groom is preparing a place in his father's house and the groom in a galleon where he would often send gifts periodically to remind his bride of his love. 3 (34m 15s): And the interesting, Hey, don't forget about me here. Here's a little love gift. Here's a little gift. Here's a gift to remember that. I love you. We think of the gifts of the Holy spirit. God, I love you 5 (34m 30s): Exactly. 3 (34m 30s): When would it be building in the community that as, as they saw the walls go up and the roof and begin to fill it with furniture, there was an excitement in the community. And those who had the wedding invitations, they'd be like, Oh, I'm invited to this, this feast. This is, this was the party of the year. This is what you wanted to be part of it as a Jewish wedding. And as it, excitement is building, the groom is getting ready, but the bride is also getting ready as well. In fact, she has done her own preparations. She picked out her bridesmaids. She's getting them prepared as the day draws closer the day that they don't know, but they just have to be in preparation. The father is still holding on the bride is with her bridesmaids. 3 (35m 11s): And there every night they go to sleep wearing their gowns for the wedding. They have to be ready at any time that they have to be ready. And the groom is with his groomsmen and they are ready for the father to tap the son and say, go for it, go get your bride. And it was the father's job. Only the father knew the time that was set for the groom to go get his. And the father often would say like a thief in the night son, go get your bride. Can you imagine the excitement I've been waiting for this for a year, two years? Like this is time to go. Any, any, he wakes up all his grooves and they would have woken up. 3 (35m 54s): They jumped out. There's probably some yelling, excitement, Oh, you got this guy. That's going to go. You ready? And the procession would begin. And it would begin with the sound of a trumpet. A shofar would be blown in the streets. And if you heard that show for you and say, okay, who's getting married and how do we join? Or we have our wedding invitations, we're ready to go. And so this precession would grow as they got closer and closer to the brides house, reach the house, the bride, having heard the show far, haven't heard the procession. She would come out of her house to be gathered with the wedding party. At that point that the groomsmen would lift her up on a litter or a, or a chair. They would gather her up, they'd throw on there. And then her feet would not touch the ground as they went. 3 (36m 36s): To the wedding festival, the wedding celebration. It was said that she flies to the wedding chamber. And as they came to the wedding chamber, the whole, the whole party, the whole celebration, they would enter into that courtyard. And then the Gates would be sealed. And that, what that did is it didn't allow it. No one else to join the wedding party. Maybe they're late. Maybe they slept through it. They weren't allowed, they didn't have their invitation. They weren't ready. And so they would be kept out. But those who are inside, they were there for the party for the duration. And sometimes these wedding parties last from three to seven days is you imagine that Jesus knew about that. 3 (37m 20s): That was where Jesus did his first miracle in Kayna and Qaeda is where he was in one of those courtyards with his mom and his family and Jesus and Mary comes to Jesus like, Hey, I ran out of wine. What are we going to do? And that's a problem, because like I said, no one could leave and no one could come in. The Gates was shut. There was a party and said, no one was allowed to come. So it was a scandal that they ran out of wine. So when Jesus turns the water into wine, all the problems are fixed because they had wine. They couldn't leave her go. And after that seven days, the bride and groom, they come out, they celebrate there's feasting. How cool is that? 3 (38m 1s): So those things away, as we, as we begin to enter into first Thessalonians four, because I believe this was very much on the mind of policies right in it. Obviously it was on Jesus and the disciples as they have their conversations. But first Thessalonians asked the questions, I believe. Why do we need to Live Holy Life Why Ron messaged Lee yesterday was how, but now we're living Why and I, I, my wife will attest you. I am not good at grammar. I'm horrible speller. I'm more of a math and science guy. That's what I like. But when it comes to grammar and the Bible, all of a sudden, I like my, I kind of perk up like, okay, this is there's reasons that these are in there. So I've been kind of like obsessing over the subject pronouns here in these verses. 3 (38m 45s): And those are I We you and they. And so Paul writes this letter and he says, this, he's going to answer the why, why do we need to live a Holy life? He says, I do not want you speaking of the church to be ignorant brethren concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. He's a reminded them. I don't want you to be ignorant. I want you to know this. I don't want you to be lacking. This is his reason for writing. Paul had only spent three Sabbath in a vessel Annika. So maybe a most four weeks there as the Church, then he had to, because of persecution, tribulation, he had to leave. 3 (39m 27s): He was a, he, he had a runaway escape. And so this question is on their mind. Well, what, what has happened to those who have died? What has happened to those who died? And this is what Jesus is going to, and this is what Paul is going to continue saying, verse 14. He says, for, if we believe that Jesus died and Rose again, even so God will bring him those who sleep in Jesus. Isn't this incredible. This is the gospel message summary summarized right here in this first for if we believe that Jesus died and Rose again, and to die and rise again, it means that Jesus had to come as a baby. He had to be born into this world. He had to have the ability to die. 3 (40m 9s): And that is what we celebrate in Christmas. The Virgin birth that the Messiah came to earth as a baby boy place in a feeding trough. And now Paul is reminding them that Jesus died. He Rose again. So those who sleep in Jesus will as well posting. Remember, Jesus's resurrection. The supernatural thing on misperception for this, we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede. Those who are asleep, this I believe was the concern of what has happened to those believers. Who've died before Jesus returns. 3 (40m 51s): Fess loan is actually the first L a pistol written. You know, that it was interesting to find that out, Luke, won't write his gospel. The first gospel isn't written until 63 80. This is written in approximately 50, 50, one 80, only 20 or 18, 19, 20 years after Jesus's resurrection. So, so as time has gone on, and remember the disciples were like waiting there as Jesus Rose up into the clouds, they're waiting and like, okay, what's, you know, what's going to happen. We Jesus said, he's going to come back or when's that going to happen? And the angel has a tap him on the shoulder and be like, no, okay, go do your thing. This is where you have to go, wait, he'll come back to the appropriate time when he said, 5 (41m 32s): And so this is 20 years later in believers 3 (41m 34s): Have begun passing away. And I remember the night my dad took his last breath on this world. My siblings and I all were all there. My mom was there and we watched him take his last breath. And he went to be absent from the body, but he went to be present with the Lord 5 (41m 53s): 3 (41m 57s): And I remember walking outside, we lived way out in the country and I just right or wrong. I went up and just yelled at Why Lord Why. And these Christians are asking Why this, these persecutions, these flesh, all these things are coming against as well. When is Jesus going to come? People are passing away. Lord. Well, don't you know about this. And so Paul says it in a very strong language, verse 15, the word of the Lord, I say to this, to you by the word of the Lord. And he says this, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede. Those who are asleep 5 (42m 32s): 3 (42m 35s): This is what happened in verse 16 for the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a shout, with a voice of an Archangel and with a trumpet of God, does it sound kind of like that procession from the groom's house, the bride's house, or it's like this shot, like the groomsmen are like, let's do this. The trumpet of God blows. And the procession begins. It says, and that dad in Christ will rise up first. This is, this is preposterous in some ways to believe that we believe in the supernatural God that raises people from the dead. But we, we look towards Jesus who died first and Rose. 3 (43m 16s): First, Those three things, a shout of voice and Archangel. It's interesting. The third, the trumpet of God, I've become more and more in love with Jewish history and finding out the culture and the context with, with Bibles written. And one of the things I've, I've kind of discovered this week, and as I've been studying along as the Jew, the seven Jewish feasts, okay. There's seven of them. I want to explain a real quick there's four spring feast and then three in the fall. 5 (43m 45s): 3 (43m 48s): And take this as you may, but Jesus was crucified at Passover at the first feast. He was buried on the feast of the unleavened bread. 5 (43m 59s): Third, 3 (43m 60s): He Rose from the dead on the feast of first fruits. And then the spirit, the Holy spirit was poured out on the first believers at Pentecost. And then there's this period in, in the, in the, in the celebrations of these, these feasts, there's a period of the summer. Harvest, there's a, there's a gap. It would seem. And the first thing that happens at the fall entering into the fall feasts is the feats of trumpets. It's where people were gathering out in the field, they're doing their there's beginning to glean and work out in the field. And as soon as the priest on that temple wall below blew his show far, 6 (44m 39s): His horn, his trumpet, 3 (44m 41s): No matter what you were doing, where you were, you stopped and you'd come to the temple. You'd, you'd be gathered by that trumpet. And after the feast of trumpets, the second feast in the fall would be the D of a tournament or young Cooper. And I believe this first shadows, the second coming of Christ. Then lastly, we have the feast of Tabernacles. And this believes for shadows, the millennial reign of Jesus. It was a, it was, it was a partial fulfillment in scripture when Jesus came for those 33 years. But the ultimate will be when he's here during the millennial reign and forevermore, and he Tabernacles with us, he dwells with us. 3 (45m 24s): So the dead in Christ will rise first and he's comforted them with these words, the dead and Christ over it. God has not forgotten those. Who've passed away. The den Christ Rose first, then verse 17. It says we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord. Is it interesting that Paul included himself in that Paul believed in this imminent return of Jesus Christ for the believers, for the Church. He believed in that. And he put himself in that, like, I'm ready for that at anytime. We shall always be with the Lord. And those who have died will rise up and they'll meet the Jesus in the clouds to meet them in the Lord in the air. 3 (46m 8s): We have to contrast that with a second coming of Christ, 6 (46m 13s): Zachariah 14 is a lot 3 (46m 18s): Amazing passage of I've referenced this and other, other sermons, but Zachariah 14 four says this in a way that day, his feet will stand in the Mount of olives. This is his second coming. And that day his feet will touch or stand on the Mount of olives, which faces Jerusalem on the East. And the Mount of olives shall be split into from East to West, making a very large Valley, half the mountain shall move toward the North and a half towards Geography. I love maps. I got to share this with a youth group on a Wednesday night, G as Jesus comes back to the earthly return, as he touches down on the earth, he's going to land on the Mount of olives. 3 (47m 5s): And this is a belief different from them, the rapture, the church, this is a different event. And so as he touches down, as his feet, stand on the Mount of olives, there's going to be this huge earthquake and there will be a split. And if you, if you know the geography and I should've put a map up thinking, now we have the temple, and then you have the Mount of olives here on the East. And the Mount of olives have three peaks. And what, and what they discovered in 1964 was a fault line from the West to the East that runs right through the middle of Mount of olives so much so that they were going to build the hotel of seven arches. And they had decided they had to move at 30 meters, I think, to the North so that they wouldn't put that hotel on the fault line so that when Jesus comes, he doesn't, Need, he doesn't meet a fault line to be there, to create an earthquake, create a huge Valley. 3 (47m 54s): We, we, we believe that Jesus has a power, but isn't it cool that there is a fault line, right? Where Zachariah prophesied 2,500 years ago. Unbelievable. 5 (48m 4s): . 3 (48m 8s): And so when Paul uses this language, he says they shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air he's using the Latin word is wrapped Turo, where we get our word rapture, the doctrine of the rapture and the Greek word that we find here is her Pozzo. I kind of like rapture better. It sounds, I don't know, like wrap him up to be caught. To plucked 5 (48m 33s): . 3 (48m 38s): And this is a comfort to those who were there, knowing that God knows exactly what's going to happen, and when it's going to happen. And we're waiting for that shout that trumpet at any moment that trumpet could blow the house has prepared. Jesus has been prepared a place for us in heaven. For those 2000 years, he'd been sending us gifts, reminding us of his love. So we are to comfort one another one another with these words and Why comfort because their current afflictions, their current tribulations, their current persecutions, for those who have died or been martyred during that time, that during that 20 year time, there, there was, there was a lot of hurt. 3 (49m 26s): There was pain. What happened to these people? And God is saying, I got it. We look around the world. We're like what's happening. And I think the U S has been so insulated from a lot of the persecution and trials and afflictions that the rest of the world has, has, has felt. And I think as time goes on and the Lord tarries, we will fill more of that heat. I don't think things are getting better. I think things in this world, the world system are only getting crazier and Why comfort because purity, because of Holy living, Paul referenced that in, in, earlier in the chapter, like, you know, and just as a kid, you don't want to be with your hand in the cookie jar. 3 (50m 10s): When your parents walk in the house, like, you know, they, they give you the instruction. Don't, don't eat the cookies. It was a save for later. And you're there. Your hand is in the cookie jar. Oh, there was a cause for purity, because we want to live a Holy and pure life. We want to be that bride. That's ready for her groom to come. And it's, it's, it's an and that way. And Paul puts on a, a break here, but he's still not done with his subjects to see the chapters and verses are men's invention. So let's carry on in first Thessalonians five, he says, but now concerning the times and the seasons brethren, you have no need that I should write for you. It's interesting. They knew the times and the seasons to look for that was not what they were lacking. 3 (50m 50s): They were lacking the reason why, but the times and the seasons they knew, and they knew this because Paul had already given him this doctrine. He says for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night, the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the knife. Paul is talking about this, a thief in the night, and it's much like a Jewish wedding, right? It happens in the middle of night. You never know when to expect and boom, there it is. Matthew 24 talks about this thief in the night as he's given us all of that discourse. 3 (51m 30s): Second, second, Peter, Peter writes in chapter three, verse 10, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise. The elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works will all be burned up. And that is that galleon who had this, this it's CA comes upon. You suddenly much suddenly like, like labor pains in verse three. And when they said peace and safety, then sudden destruction. Some destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape. Let's talk about this building. You should be knowing you should being aware of what's going on. And you know, as, as I've gotten to watch my wife carry three of my daughters, lovely daughters, you get, you know, you're getting, the time is coming. 3 (52m 16s): They know it's approaching. You don't know when. And I think all three of our daughters were late, like by almost a week and is, and is building expectations, building, building, building, because you can just realize that the belly's getting bigger and bigger and the baby ain't going to fit in there and a much longer 6 (52m 31s): 3 (52m 35s): And suddenly comes upon them. Labor pains as a pregnant woman, they shell out escape. It's interesting that when it says, when they say peace and safety, just on a whim, I went to the Google trends and I searched the word safe. Google trends shows you what words people are searching over time. And it's kind of starts. The catalog starts in 2004. And I found it interesting that people have that the word safe has increased in the search term by over 300% from March or started from 2004 to March of 2020, this year three, a hundred percent people want to know what's safe. 3 (53m 20s): What is safe. And then these, this idea of peace and safety, they will say peace. And then sudden destruction will come, reminds me of, of Noah's flood. And then Jesus said they were marrying and giving in marriage until right up until the time that the rain started and the flood came, they'd been warned. No had been warned that over and over again. There's an awareness of the approaching and then boom, it's, it's an upon it's upon you. And Paul's remind me, Hey, you don't have to be in darkness, verse four, but you brethren are not in darkness. So that this day shall overtake you like a thief us as believers. Well, this, this doesn't surprise us. This doesn't escape us. This does not come on a, like a thief. 3 (54m 0s): We are not of those darkness. We are in the light. 6 (54m 5s): And speaking of that day, there is a coming judgment for the sin. And God is, is, is 3 (54m 16s): I believe his anger in his wrath has grown and grown until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled until that last person accepts Christ believes in him. And then boom, that old Mark 6 (54m 27s): This day. But 3 (54m 29s): This day won't overtake us as a thief. It won't overtake us as a thief revelation. Six talks about that. It says for the great is the day of his wrath. It has come and who is able to stand when we are of the light, when we were following Jesus, Jesus says, I am the light of the world. And he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. Jesus said, sorry, Paul, in verse five, you are sons of a light and sons of the day nor we are. And we are not of night nor of the darkness reminded of Noah. As he was building that arc, It took him a a hundred, I believe a 120 years To as he continued to build that Ark in the face of people, mocking him in the face of people. 3 (55m 16s): What are you building an arc? It never rained. And so this thought that there's going to be rain and a worldwide flood was just 6 (55m 22s): Crazy. The people 3 (55m 24s): Thought he was crazy and they continued on. Life just, just like they did until the day it started raining. And it, by then, it was too late. The door had been sealed, 6 (55m 35s): But there's 3 (55m 35s): An interesting man. The Bible talks Genesis talks about Hebrews talks about later, his name was Enoch. Enoch walked with God, and then he was not for God, took him. 6 (55m 48s): And I looked at this 3 (55m 48s): Timeline. I put the timeline according to Genesis together. And if my calculus calculations are true, as well as others that day, or that year, that Enoch was taken was the year of the flood. He did not go through that flood. You knock was taken in the year of the flood and he walked with God and then he was not free. He was taking. 6 (56m 13s): So there's a call to us. Verse six, 3 (56m 15s): The call to not sleep. Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. And are we walking in the spirit of hope and awareness of what's going on around us or are we sticking our heads in the sand and trying to Berry died a hideaway, or we are we being aware of what's going on to watch and be sober. Our hope is not found in this world, society, this world system, the ones, the system that's working its way towards some kind of one world order, a sense of globalism power monopoly, all being pulled into into one system. And it's scary to read out and to find out the plans, the world, economic forum, as they talk about the great reset they've been talking more and more about this year. 6 (57m 3s): What I hope isn't found in this world, let us be watchful and sober. 3 (57m 10s): And we have times and seasons. We're not to know the times of seasons, but we can look around and see what's going on. The eminent return of Christ. You see, I believe in Daniel nine, he he's talking to the Jews and Daniel is an amazing book. And so amazing that even though a lot of liberal Christians will not believe that Daniel wrote the full book of Daniel. And that fascinates me because how do you argue with Jesus? When Jesus said, when Daniel, the prophet wrote in Matthew 24, Jesus believed Daniel wrote the book of Daniel and the prophecies are so incredibly accurate. That there's no way that they could be a man's thoughts. 3 (57m 56s): And Daniel nine verse 25 says this, and this is one of the keystones. I believe to the prophetic timeline. It says know therefore, and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem and tell Messiah the Prince there shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks in the street shall be built again in the wall. Even in troublesome times, Daniel has given a 70 sevens prophecy that he received from God. He, he talks about these different periods and there's two periods. One's broken up by the first six to nine weeks. And then there's a gap. And then there's the last seventh week that we find in revelation the year of the great tribulation. But Daniel was saying that from the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah Prince there shall be 69 weeks, 69 weeks come out, comes out to be 483 years. 3 (58m 49s): This man named sir Anthony Roberts wrote the book coming Prince. And in it, he does the math, the calculations to take from the Babylonian calendar 360 days a year to the Gregorian calendar of 365 and a quarter and all that stuff. And he does all the math and calculate leap years, all that stuff. And he decides it's one thousand seven hundred and thirty one thousand one hundred thousand one hundred and seventy three thousand eight hundred eighty days. And we know from history that that command to restore and build Jerusalem that is marked in Nehemiah, the profit that brings us to April six 30, two 80. And in his book, he makes the case. That was the day that Jesus marked marched into as during the trail for entry Palm Sunday, he, Jesus says this in Luke chapter 19, as he drew near, he saw the city and he wept over it. 3 (59m 42s): Why did Jesus weep over it this specific day? And he says, if you had help, if you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for peace, but now they're hidden from your eyes. That was the day that the Messiah was to be revealed to the world. And no one was there to meet him at the temple. There was the triumphal entry and thus, we began the times of the Gentiles. And so we need to be watchful. And so we're, we're living in what I believe the last days. And if Paul thought that 2000 years ago, even, even so more of us, he says, for those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night, they do these things under the cover of darkness. 3 (1h 0m 27s): And you think about the wedding guests waiting for that, 6 (1h 0m 32s): That wedding, they were ready. 3 (1h 0m 35s): You ready? They had to be sober. They had to be waiting for the hear that Trump had been called. They couldn't be drunk. They might sleep through it. And they missed the whole wedding party. They had to be ready for that day. 6 (1h 0m 50s): Let us who are of the day, be sober, 3 (1h 0m 53s): Putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. And this is what I rest on in verse nine 6 (1h 1m 4s): For God, did not appoint us to wrath 3 (1h 1m 7s): Pertain salvation through our Lord. Jesus Christ are destined. Not for that wrath, that wrath, that God pours out on an unbelieving Christ rejecting world. We are not appointed for that, but we are appointed to obtain salvation through Jesus. 6 (1h 1m 26s): Jesus 3 (1h 1m 26s): Talks about tribulations. We will have tribulations, but we will not have to endure the great tribulation revelation. Six 17 says for the great day of wrath has come and who is able to stand, who is able to stand in that day. 6 (1h 1m 42s): And it was Jesus 3 (1h 1m 43s): Who spoke into existence. This mystery of the church, the church is like this mystery in the Bible. It's only unfolded through the epistles and the gospels and this mystery, but it was Jesus who spoke that Church into existence in Matthew 16 And upon Peter's confession of Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, Jesus said, the Gates of hell shall not prevail. And he uses the word Church. I will build my church on that. And the Gates of hell shall not prevail, but then you're going to come to a revelation fast forward to revelation. It says it was granted to him, the antichrist to make war with the saints and to overcome and authority was given him, him over every tribe, tongue and tongue a nation. 3 (1h 2m 25s): How is they? Jesus said this, this church that I'm a building upon the confession of me as Lord and savior. The Gates of hell will not prevail. And then in revelations 13, it says it was a grant that makes war saints, make war with the saints and to overcome them. How can that be? That's because the church isn't here, the church isn't here. The last mentioned the church in the book of revelation. As far as a letter to them, he said in verse revelation, three 22, he has an ear. Let him hear what the spirit says to the churches in revelation forces. And after these things, we are not appointed to wrath where we face tribulations. 3 (1h 3m 9s): Yes. Jesus said we'll face tribulations. We'll fix face afflictions prosecutions. Yes, possibly even more suffering than, than we've known here in the States. And the others are going through. And that will, those things will continue to sanctify us. But God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord, Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or we sleep, we shall live together with him, therefore, comfort one another and Edify one another, just as you're also doing only the father knows that time. And that hour of when he gets to tell his son Jesus, to come for us, to come for his bride an amazing day, that's going to be, let me pray. 3 (1h 3m 55s): And then we'll bring up the worship band. Lord, may we be filled with the hope and excitement of your eminent return as our savior? Is there a groom is a kinsmen Redeemer. We, as a church being bought with a price Lord, you've set us apart. I look forward to that coming day. Lord, when you'll blow your trumpet and you'll gather us as, as your bride, continue to refine us, continue to purify us, continue to make us Holy Jesus name. We pray. 3 (1h 4m 36s): Amen. Thanks. Church 1 (1h 4m 41s): Let's stand as we were Jesus' name of Jesus. 1 (1h 5m 30s): each moment. 1 (1h 14m 58s): Thank you for this time. 0 (1h 14m 60s): Or it's all that you want to do in our hearts this day. 1 (1h 15m 5s): Give us eyes to see your name. Amen. Amen. 0 (1h 15m 11s): I have a wonderful Christmas. We hope to see you on Christmas Eve, bring your friends. It'll be a lovely time together. So have an amazing week and just know that Jesus is with you. And if there's anyone here this morning that you would dislike a little prayer before you leave today, we always have folks available that would love to come alongside and just slip up any concerns on your hearts. Have a wonderful day, and we'll see you.

0 (0s): Oh, sorry. Wait, welcome. Welcome to Harvest. Church we're glad you're here and let's start out with a word of prayer and then we'll jump right into the goodness. So heavenly father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for this chance to gather with fellow believers or to feel your spirit moving in our church in our midst, or just be here amongst your saints as, as we, as we have this time of worship and time in your word. Lord, thank you so much for this morning in Jesus name. We pray a man. Hey, thanks. And I'm gonna hand it over to these guys cause they know what to do. 1 (53s): 2 (9m 41s): You guys did a great job. Thank you. You can follow Ms. Care right off the stage. Oh, Hey, welcome once again. And this is a time to just do meet and greets. So say hi to somebody around you and take a couple of minutes 0 (13m 4s): About that, but it's. Yeah, so just stay tuned for that. With the men's retreat that's in January 8th, eighth, and ninth, and Tuesday was gonna be the last day of sign up, but we'll we'll we'll keep, keep, keep an eye on that one Christmas food donations are due today. You can drop those off from the info center. Thank you so much for your generosity. So far. I think we had like five or six hams get delivered this morning. So that is awesome. As blessing. So many families in our community, we have a Christmas Eve candlelight service and that will be at three, four and five. And once again, we'll have the sanctuary open. We'll have the loft as well as the parsonage for those who prefer to be a mass only. 0 (13m 46s): So that will be Christmas Eve. It's a family style service, pretty short services and kids will be in with us. And then lastly, we have the young, the new year's Eve young professionals, pajama party and game nights. So that is December 31st, six to 9:00 PM in the loft. And there's gonna be some catered street tacos and games. And Curt Curtis said, there'll be guaranteed funds. So if you fall into that young professional, then go check it out. Guaranteed fund cost is $10 and you have to set up on the app by the 27th of this month. So we got that going. And that's my last announcement and pastor Ron's come up and bring us. 2 (14m 29s): Thanks, Jeremy Lord. We're so, so thankful that we can gather and we can commune with you whether we're here in person or whether we're streaming at home, no matter where we are. Thank you that your spirit is everywhere. Your presence is everywhere, but most importantly, your Holy is working within 3 (14m 52s): Us within our, our temple, this temple, which you decided to live inside of by faith in Jesus Christ. And so Lord, we're looking to you to teach us today, help us to grow, help us to identify areas in our life where we need to be challenged and encouraged. And so Lord, we commit this time to you in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. So again, first Thessalonians chapter four, we're going to be covering verses one through 12, hopefully. And if you want a title for this message, the title is Simply Godly Living Simply Godly Living. 3 (15m 33s): So most of you know, that this book is actually a letter. It was a letter written by the apostle Paul. He loved the believers in this city and the city of Thessaloniki. He actually only spent about three and a half weeks there, but during that time that he spent there, a church was established and he set up elders and a Church community there. And then he had to leave. And far as we know, history records, he never actually physically made it back, but he sent Timothy. He sent others to check up on them and they were doing amazingly well. So his goal in writing this letter is of course, to encourage them and remind them of the things that he had talked about when he was with them, you know, face to face. 3 (16m 17s): Paul loved these people so much. So in this chapter, chapter four, he's going to be challenging them in their faith. He's going to remind them once again, God's will for their life. And he's going to tell them the truth. Now, as he's going to remind them God's will for their life, what he's actually doing. He's he's reminding us God's will for our life. So even though we speaking to them 2000 years ago, roughly he's speaking to us today as well. So he wanted them to know the truth. Some of the things you're going to talk about are kind of difficult to hear. There's this interesting sort of obscure verse in the book of Proverbs it's Proverbs 27, six. 3 (17m 2s): It says this faithful are the wounds of a friend might think, well, why would a friend, you know, want to wound me? And the idea is we love, we love this person so much that we're willing to tell them the truth about something that might be really difficult for them to hear Paul's doing that. Fateful are the wounds of a friend. I appreciate that when there's people around me, they're not so worried about offending me. They just want to challenge me about something that I need to hear that I have this blind spot and they're faithful a faithful friend to help me in that area. 3 (17m 41s): So here's a problem. Here's a problem that we all face God's will for our life is often radically different than what the world is telling us. The problem is God's will, for us is often radically different than what the world is telling us. It can be very hard to accept and to live out God's will, as it is revealed to us in the pages of scripture, the Bible, it can be challenging because we're we get so indoctrinated by the world we live in, you know, Jesus prayed that that way for us. 3 (18m 22s): I know there in the world, but I want you to keep them out of the world. W that's the life we live we're we're in this crazy world. Some things are crazy and they're often in direct conflict with God's word and God's will for our lives. That's a problem we all have to deal with. So which leads us to very important question. So I want to ask this question in a personal way to each one of you hear this, are you willing to accept God's will as a final authority on all things. In other words, let me re rephrase it. Are you willing to accept God's word as the final authority on all things or will you instead, except the world's view as the final authority, it's a very subtle thing that happens. 3 (19m 11s): We're reading the Bible and we see things laid out for us. And then we come across this other ideology, this other worldview, and we're like, well, I know the Bible says this, but know that this is where I stand on this. And we see there's this direct conflict. So here's the problem. When we refuse the authority of the Bible and we accept the authority of what the world is telling us, we in effect have said, I am the one who has final authority of the things I life. God does not. And so we really have to answer that question this morning. So now, as, as Paul opens up for us, again, we're in first Thessalonians, chapter four, beginning with verse one, he says this finally then brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord, Jesus, that you should abound more and more just as you received from us, how you ought to walk and to please God for, you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord. 3 (20m 12s): Jesus. So he begins by saying finally, then, in other words, these are his closing words. He's about to close out this letter in a few chapters. He says, I want you to understand this. You should have bound more and more literally he's saying, I want you to continue to grow. I want you to continue to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ. And as you do this, your aim should be to live in a way that is well pleasing to God. See, we're all answerable to God. I'm not answerable to you. I love you, but I'm not answerable to you. And you're not answerable to me. I'm at y'all answerable to God. 3 (20m 53s): And so Paul's challenges to grow more and more. The Christian life is meant to be this amazing journey. We come to faith in Christ. This transformation begins to happen. And now we're on this adventure that just gets better and better, better until the day we die. It should never get boring. It should never get old. Godly revealing, constantly revealing new things to us, keeping us excited in our Christian faith. What we're going to learn today though, is it's really up to you. Whether you embrace that journey, he says for, you know what commandments we gave you. 3 (21m 34s): So he's saying here, reminding them, these are not suggestions. These are not good ideas. These are not recommendations. I want to give to you. He's saying this is the will of God for you. These are commandments. Whenever the scripture talks about a commandment of God is like, it's non-negotiable, it's the truth. Now Paul is going to emphasize a Bible word here. So the word we're going to bring it out today and look at is the word sanctification. So Bible word, meaning you don't hear it a lot on the street, but it's in the Bible. So here look with me in verse three, he says for this is the will of God, your sanctification. 3 (22m 14s): We'll kind of pause there for just a moment. So there's three words. If we could sort of summarize the Christian life in three words, the Bible commonly uses these, create this sort of timeline, this progression of believers life. The three words are these justified, sanctified and glorified. All right. So what do they mean? Well, justified. It literally means this to make, to be made right before God justified to be made right with God. I want to say here, this is an amazing thing that we can be right with God. And literally we are, Clared justified by God. 3 (22m 58s): The moment that we believe the gospel. I want to say that again. You have been declared justified or right with God, the moment that you believe the gospel, we're going to talk about the gospel in a little bit today. And this is something that God does for us. In other words, it's a free gift. You can't earn it. You can't work for it. You can't achieve it. It's something God just gives to you and declares for you that you are justified. You are made right. You are right in the sight of God. That's an amazing thing. So the second word that I mentioned is sanctified or sanctification is kind of the bigger way. It is literally this to be dedicated or to be set apart to God, to be Holy. 3 (23m 43s): So that's what Paul is going to talk about right now. We get into this it's to be dedicated or set apart to God to be Holy. Now, if I took a poll, a survey, what have you said? How many of you here today believe that you're Holy. Probably nobody would raise their hand and be like, yeah, I know I'm not Holy. How about you? So we know we don't see ourselves as being Holy, but from God's perspective, you are being sanctified. You are being set apart and God looks upon you as Holy. This is a process, a lifelong process. So you've been justified. God did that. 3 (24m 23s): Now there's this process of sanctification and it begins the moment that you're born again, born from above. And it continues until the day that we die. It's this journey. Nobody's got it perfectly, right? You know, we can never say, you know, we've arrived. We're growing more and more in, in our understanding and our obedience and our walk with God through the Lord, Jesus Christ. So this is something that it's our responsibility. Paul's gonna help us to see that whether or not not, you want to grow, you want to be set apart from him God's purposes. We make the choice to lay down our life in order to be set apart for God's purposes. 3 (25m 6s): Now, as I said, this is a lifelong journey, but here's the amazing thing about that. Sorry, the Holy spirit joins us in this work. This is not human effort. This is not, I hope you, you know, been justified now, hope you do good hope you do fine. That the Holy spirit literally lives within us and is helping us to achieve and to walk in the way that God has given to us. So the last word again, justified, sanctified, glorified. What's that all about? So to be glorified literally is to be transformed or to be prepared for heaven. 3 (25m 48s): As a follower of Jesus Christ. When we die, we will be glorified. And then we will, we will be ushered into the kingdom of God God's presence. This is something that God does for us. It's a free gift. It's an amazing supernatural thing that will happen. Paul talks a little bit about this, this idea of being glorified or, or transformed in first Corinthians chapter 15, I'll just read a little bit of a tube. He says this, our physical bodies cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will all be transformed or glorified. 3 (26m 31s): Our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die. When our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die. This scripture will be fulfilled. Here's the scripture. Death is swallowed up in victory. Death is swallowed up in victory. God is preparing you for this justified, sanctified glorified. So Paul's going to place focus right now on that middle word, the word sanctification. And so this is where we all live. Again. I mentioned we're on this journey. It begins at salvation. 3 (27m 11s): We're justified. We're just walking with the Lord, learning, growing, having the Holy spirit, help us teach us. And then one day, of course, one day we're going to meet the Lord face to face. So this is where we live. This is where we make the day-to-day decisions of life. And I promise you every day, there's a new challenge put before us a new situation at work at home in life. What are you going to do? Who are you going to believe? Where do you get your final authority? So it's all about, I'm going to break it down into three parts. Godly Living, Godly loving and Godly leading Godly Living, Godly loving and Godly leading. 3 (27m 58s): So Paul, first of all, opens up this idea of Godly Living in chapter four, beginning with verse three, this is the will of God. As I mentioned your sanctification, what does that mean? That you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God. So in talking about sanctification, this walk, this journey of growing with God, he says, you should know how to possess your own vessel. 3 (28m 41s): And when he's talking about this, he's talking about it in the context of sexual immorality. So this takes us back to the people of Israel. This idea of possessing your own vessel. So the people of Israel has God was preparing them to enter the promised land. He's teaching them about this, the system of worship. These he's going to allude to the temple and there's going to be this temple. That's going to be built. It's going to be on this place that God's going to choose. Initially, there's going to be a tabernacle. Then that later is going to be a permanent temple for a dwelling place of God. And he says, they were to told us, take certain vessels. We're talking about vessels. So that would be cups and bowls and Lavers and tools and instruments that were used in the temple to worship God. 3 (29m 30s): And they were to be set apart. They were to be sanctified. These vessels were to be sanctified, to be used exclusively in temple worship. So the priests were told to take these vessels again, we're talking about cups and bowls and labors and just all the different things that were used there. And they were told the priests were told to sprinkle them with the blood of the sacrifice and by doing so, it made them God made them set apart for this purpose. Now, if you were to take a vessel that had been sanctified, the blood was spring, hold on, it it's ready to use. And you put it side by side to another sole identical vessel that had not been sanctified. 3 (30m 11s): You wouldn't be able to see any difference to us. They look exactly the same, but to God, one of them it's been accepted and set apart for God's purpose. All right. Now, what does that have to do with us now? Fast forward, you have been sanctified. In other words, you have been set apart by God, by virtue of the fact that you've made the decision and you've asked God to apply of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God upon your life. You are now now dedicated as a vessel of honor, prepared by God to use as he desires in a place of worship. 3 (30m 54s): In fact, in another place, Paul opens up this, this idea a little bit more, and this is in first Corinthians chapter six. This is what he says. He said, your body, your body is the temple of the Holy spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own. Why are you, why are you not your own? Because you've been set apart for God's purposes. And he goes on for you are bought at a price. What price is he talking about? He's talking about the price of the shed, blood of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who died on the cross for us, for you bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods. 3 (31m 38s): So you don't actually own yourself. God owns you, but it's up to you to render yourself as an instrument of worship to him. A vessel of honor. So as you stand side-by-side with another person, so you got, imagine you're standing you're, you're the believer. And you're standing next to an unbeliever. Someone who's never played your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Can you see a difference? I mean, this person is sanctified by God, this person isn't, they look from our perspective identical, but not to God, to God, you have been set apart. You've been called for his purpose. You should have. And so with that in mind, with that in mind, just what he says, he's gonna give us a little more detailed. 3 (32m 24s): He says, because of that, because you're a vessel of honor sanctified for me, you should abstain from sexual immorality and you should know how wow to possess your own facile. And again, he kind of puts it on you on me, on us, okay? This is your responsibility. I'm not going to do this for you. I'm going to give you the Holy spirit that will help you and strengthen you and guide you. But you should abstain from sexual immorality and you should know how to possess your own vessel. So I want to keep this family friendly this morning, but we're called to use that is we're called to use self-control in a world that is out of control in this area. 3 (33m 9s): Once again, the Bible is the final authority on all things on this subject. No matter what the world is telling us, the Bibles have final authority. So a few weeks ago, someone asked me this question. They asked me if it was okay, if, if they slept with their girlfriend, is it okay if I sleep with my girlfriend? And I said, no, it's no, it's not okay. If you sleep with your girlfriend, that's why God has, you know, this whole marriage thing. So what they responded to me, they said, well, that's old fashioned, okay? They said, times have changed. 3 (33m 51s): I said, well, I have to live by my convictions and you have to live by your convictions. But my convictions tell me that the Bible is the final authority on these things, By the way, this isn't my idea. This isn't even Paul's idea. This is God's will for your life. So talk about old. Old-fashioned there's this interesting verse it's found in Genesis chapter two, verse 24, it goes something like this. A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and then they shall become one flesh. 3 (34m 35s): So the idea is, you know, going back to the idea of creation, this is God's design God's will. Sexual intimacy is meant to be reserved. That marriage covenant, this was by the way, mentioned by Jesus, many times in the new Testament, this isn't something just found way back. When in the ancient books of history, God brings it forward. It applies to us today as well. So the city of Dallas Alona, CA the city that, that Paul loved the people that he loved. It was a Gentile city than the words they didn't. 3 (35m 17s): They were given over to idolatry and all kinds of sexual immorality. And so Paul is telling them, Hey, we know you've been, the Gentile has been given over to passion of last, but that's not, you you've been set apart. You've been sanctified. So Paul continues this idea in verse six, he says that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter because the Lord is the Avenger of all such as we also forewarned you and testified again. He's reminding them. He says, not only should you not be involved in sexual immorality, but you need to, he says, be careful not to take advantage of others. 3 (36m 2s): It's it's easy to take advantage of other people. We know that why? Because the Lord is, is the Avenger 2 (36m 13s): Of all such. 3 (36m 17s): So there's consequences for violating the commandments of God. Did you know that there are consequences for violating the commandments of God? In fact, Paul talks about this in Galatians chapter six, verse eight, he says those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will Harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the spirit, and that's what Paul's talking about here. Those who live to please, his spirit will harvest everlasting life from the spirit. By the way, you know where Paul says that God's the Avenger. 3 (36m 60s): God is always for you. He's never against you. It is always God's desire to bless your life because he loves you. But this is a warning. There are consequences associated with violating God's word God's commandments. So again, Paul continues here in verse seven and eight, he says, for God, did not call us to uncleanness God he's talking about sexual immorality. God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness, therefore he rejects. This does not reject man, but God who has also given us his Holy spirit. So what is uncleanness? 3 (37m 40s): Uncleanness is anything that is in conflict with sound Bible teaching concerning proper sexual morality. Once again, this is not man's idea. This is God's design for a life of blessing. God wants to bless you. What we find is we're on this journey is as we walk in obedience to the Lord, life just gets better and better. It's not free of trouble or trials or tribulations, never, but it's just, it's so amazing. It's so awesome. It's so good. He's God's God's blessing is upon our lives. God is with you, not against you. So that's, Godly Living we're talking about now. I want to talk about Godly loving. 3 (38m 20s): He brings this up in verses nine and 10. He says, but concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you for you. Yourselves are taught by God to love one another. And indeed you do so toward all the brethren who were in all Macedonia, but we urge you brethren that you increase more and more. So they were noted that the Thessaloniki and believers were noted for their love for one another and for the other churches and communities that surrounded them. But Paul's again, reminding them, encouraging them, increase, increase in your brotherly love. What's he talking about? He's like, that is the love that is shared within the community of believers, the Christian community, you know, the Christian community here on the central coast is not just, obviously Harvest, Church, it's every believer that lives, you know, in the five cities, but not only that, the Christian community is every believer that lives on planet earth and, and what we share together, this genuine loving Christian fellowship, that we're a part of it is a unique thing. 3 (39m 31s): It is not found anywhere else and is a powerful testimony to the world of the reality of Jesus Christ. I've had the opportunity to travel to many different countries on mission trips and things. And one of my favorite times was when I was in India and I'm gathered in this worship time and they're speaking Hindi and Malati a few other languages and, and they're just worshiping. And I had no idea what they were saying, but I knew exactly what they were doing. They were worshiping God. And I knew the songs that they were singing in English. And so it was this kind of crazy experience, but they were my brothers and sisters in Christ. 3 (40m 13s): And I had this connection to them, even though we couldn't communicate through language, we communicate through the fact that you are my brother. You are my sister in Christ. It's an amazing privilege that we get to experience. So Jesus talked about this as well in John chapter 15, he said, this, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life 5 (40m 42s): For his friends, 3 (40m 44s): These things I command you, that you love one another. Now, if you look at the new Testament, what you'll find is this is a common three theme through Jesus and all, all the disciples, they love one another level. It's like, okay, I get it. I mean, is it that hard to love one another? Well, yeah, it is. You know why? Because we have an enemy, we have an adversary who wants to bring division and judgmentalism and criticism and put roadblocks 5 (41m 14s): Between us. So we, this is, are 3 (41m 20s): Being challenged to love one another. And it's something we have to pursue and make a priority because again, our adversary, he wants to just divide and conquer. That's what he does that his mission to divide and conquer. So God's will for us is that we should increase more and more in our love for one another. The longer I am in church and the Christian community, I, the more exciting it is to know you can take two people that are so, so different in every way imaginable and bring them together in Christ. And they're like best friends, inseparable. 3 (42m 3s): They just genuinely love each other that wouldn't normally happen in other, you know, another context, but in Christ, it happens. I want to, by the way, I want to challenge us with this one thing. If there's, if there's a person that you can think of, they're really kind of great. You the wrong way. I'm talking about a brother or sister in Christ. You know, you're just, man, this person annoys me and I, I just don't like being around them. And here's my challenge. I want you to spend time with them. I want you to love them. I want you to get to know them. I want you to get to understand them because what we often find is when we learn their story, you know, it opens everything up. 5 (42m 49s): It takes effort. 3 (42m 51s): God wants us to love each other. Genuinely. This is God's will for us. So I'm going to close with this last area it's got, we've looked at God's loving God's Living, God's loving. God's leading. So look at me, verse 11 and 12, he says that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your own hands. As we commanded you, that you may walk properly towards those who are outside, that would be unbelievers and that you may lack nothing. So this is very practical, practical. Living practical, leading in life. Here's what he says. He says, I want you to lead a quiet life. 3 (43m 31s): I want you to mind your own business, everybody. Have you ever had anybody tell you that? Why don't you just mind your own business Work with your own hands? You know, if there's ever a place where there should not be a bunch of drama, it's the church of Jesus Christ. Okay? Lead a quiet life. I took that. Literally. I moved way out of town, about 30 miles out of town. I'm on 40 acres. If you can find me, you can come and visit me. If I want a quiet day, I know how to get it lead a quiet life. You know, be content. Just love people. Be satisfied, mind your own business. 3 (44m 14s): Again. There's no, no place for meddling, backbiting, bickering, drama, and work with your own hands. Be diligent, walk properly to those who are outside. So our lives literally are a living testimony to those who are outside the church community. And you can be sure people are watching us. People are watching you that don't know Jesus, you're a living testimony. So Simply do this. Live your life as a Godly representative of the Lord, Jesus Christ, wherever you go, live your life as a Godly representative of Jesus Christ, wherever you go, sounds easy. 3 (44m 58s): Doesn't it. It's not always easy. And he concludes with this thought that you may lack nothing. Now this again takes, it takes us back to the children of Israel. When they were being prepared to go into the promised land. And God gave him a bunch of commandments and promises and blessings. But one of the things he said to them, he says, you're going to be a lending nation. You're not going to be a detonation. I'm with you, my blessings upon you. You're going to have an abundant life and you're going to be a lending nation. You're not going to be a detonation. And so, you know, God's promises to take care of us as well. If you seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he says, I'm going to add everything to you. 3 (45m 41s): You're going to have everything you need. Did you seek after me? So God has intended in that same way that you may lack nothing, that we would be a generous, a generous people in every area. All right, back to the beginning, verse three for this is the will of God, your sanctification. So we looked at three words, justified, sanctified, and glorified. What is it to be justified? Well, you're right in God's sight, in God's presence. He did that for you. It's something that God does for you. 3 (46m 21s): It's a gift. So here's the question. Have you made the decision then to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ? And when I say that, what, you know, often I find it's a little bit confusing. What is the gospel or so I didn't crumb. I didn't come from a Christian home. I knew nothing about Christianity. When I came to the Lord, knew nothing about the Bible had to be explained to me. And so I want to explain just very briefly to us and to those who might be tuning in, okay, I have to believe the gospel will. What, what is it? What, what did God do for me? 3 (47m 1s): Well, the reality is this we've all been born into sin. We've been born under a curse that came from Adam we've, we've inherited this. So we're born in sin and we're spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. So what did God do for us? He sent his only son to die on our behalf to take our punishment, to take our judgment, that that curse would be lifted. And so when went to the cross as the sinless lamb of God, and when he said it is finished, what he was saying is the debt has been paid. 5 (47m 40s): The curse 3 (47m 41s): Has been vanquished. So what are we required to do? That's the gospel, what? This is what Jesus provided for us, so that it simply means how do we respond to that? Well, first of all, we acknowledge that, yes, I have sinned against God 5 (47m 58s): And I repent. 3 (47m 59s): I'm going to turn around and I'm going to invite Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death on that cross. I want that to apply to me. I want that blood to atone for my sins. And it's a decision. We all have to make it can't be done, you know, corporately. It has to be done individually. 5 (48m 20s): So have you done that? 3 (48m 21s): Have you prayed and asked God 5 (48m 25s): To 3 (48m 25s): Allow Jesus Christ to be your Lord and savior? And I want to say this, there's no one special prayer. There's no one right way to do this. My encouragement to you all. And to those who are, might be listening as we're ending this service with the closing worship, that that would be a perfect time to call upon the name of the Lord and invite him into your life to be your Lord and savior. And as you do that, the moment you do that, you're going to be justified before God you're going to be made right with him. And so then again, we talked about this idea of being sanctified or set apart. That is your responsibility. In other words, it's really up to you. 3 (49m 6s): It's up to you to constantly say yes to the work of the Holy spirit in your life. It's up to you to open up the pages of the Bible and to constantly say yes to the things that God is, is revealing to you. And as you are confronted with the world's view of things you confirm and declare that God is the final authority in all things that pertain to life and godliness in Christ Jesus. And finally, I want to go ahead and invite the worship team to come on backup, glorified, to be transformed and prepared for heaven. 3 (49m 46s): This is something that God, it's a gift that he is going to do for you. I want to close with this last question. I have some, well, first of all, make a statement. I have some startling news for you today. We're all gonna die one day. Okay? We hear about it all the time. Especially during the soul covet thing, we're gonna die. We are, we might not die of COVID, but we're gonna die of some, but we just don't know when we don't know where we don't know how, but we do know the reality is the truth is we're all gonna die one day. 5 (50m 25s): So here's the question are ready to die. 3 (50m 29s): Are you ready to die? I have been at the bedside of many, many people in the hospital and at home they're on the last breath of life. And I have to ask them that question in a loving, gentle, and appropriate way. Are you ready to die? And most of the time the response is, yes, I know I'm right with God. I've been walking with him. I'm ready to meet the Lord face to face. And that's, that's what God has for us. What's what this is all about. Death has been swallowed up in victory, the victory of the cross. Are you ready to see Jesus face to face? 3 (51m 12s): I hope you are. Let's pray, Lord God. We just, once again, we look to you. This is not something that we can do on our own. We've been given the Holy spirit to live within us. Our body is literally the temple of the living. God. So Lord, we just want to agree with you. We want to partner with you on this journey of sanctification. Lord, we want to be set apart for your purposes. We want to reap all the benefits and joys and blessings that come from a life that is set apart and committed to you. So Lord, we, we, we acknowledge and admit our shortcomings, but Lord, we also acknowledge how great you are. 3 (51m 53s): If God, before us, who can be against us solar, we just leave it at your feet. And we are so blessed. So thankful in Jesus name, we pray and God's people said, amen, let's stand. We're going to go ahead and continue to worship this morning. 6 (52m 14s): No, we're in a season of waiting for the Messiah to sing songs. We begin talks about waiting, worshiping in the midst of our waiting . 6 (58m 7s): Ooh, Ooh. going to take some joy and peace into the world. 6 (1h 4m 38s): good. 6 (1h 7m 59s): Thank you for your presence here with us. Thank you. That you are always with us, that you are Emmanuelle in our midst, this season and all wings. So I pray that you would just cover every heart just with your love this morning with your peace has our understanding that if we're curious through this in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Yes. Amen. If anyone would like prayer this morning, feel free to come on forward. We love to pray with you today, but have a wonderful day Merry Christmas, and we'll see you next Sunday. Have a great day.

0 (2s): Christmas every month. And if you're getting in the holiday spirit, welcome to Harvest Church my name is Cheryl and I'm so glad you're here. Yeah. Feel free to stand if you're able and during Us hello to everyone on campus and those watching at home, we're so glad that you are worshiping with us together this morning. Let's just take some time to go into his presence and prayer and just welcome him. And we do welcome you today. As we make room in our hearts and help us to sit still all of the noise in our hearts. 0 (42s): So we can hear your voice this morning. We want to hear from you. Jesus. We want to learn from you want to come in and do your prisons. There's a boldness in our hearts, Thanksgiving, the, this morning, you know that sometimes we think we have to like have ourselves all like cleaned up and perfect to come into God's presence. But I was reminded that he came as a baby into a stinky manger, surrounded by animals and a noisy chaotic barn. 0 (1m 22s): And that's our savior. He comes into the mess into the chaos and his presence is here. Love is available for you in the midst of whatever's going on in your heart and life right now. And so father, we just say, come and have your way in this place. We've come to adore you. Praise the Lord. 0 (1m 48s): 1 (11m 56s): . 1 (12m 43s): 2 (16m 52s): Praise you this morning. It gives us great joy to worship you by your Holy spirit. Thank you Lord, for giving us your gift, give to the Holy spirit. We pray that you would fill us, continue to lead us thankful for this place to gather place, to be safe. 2 (17m 34s): And in the shadow of your wings, worship you in jesus' name. Amen. 1 (17m 45s): Thank you 2 (17m 45s): Guys for singing coming this morning. Let's all take a little 3 (17m 50s): Time to love one another fellowship with one another. We'll you're back here with announcements, the pinnacle of the day, just momentarily. 4 (18m 3s): All right. Good morning. Go ahead and find a seat. That'd be great. All right. One a welcome, everyone. Those of you that are gathered in the sanctuary in the loft, in the patio, I want to welcome everyone. That's viewing online as well, and also want to let you know, we do have a new venue that we've just opened up recently, and it's a mask only venue, and it's in the parsonage. So if, if you, or you know, someone that's inclined to you, you still want to be around other people that are wearing masks and things. 4 (18m 43s): You can venture up to the parsonage. And that's what that is dedicated for up there. And so again, if, if it's your first time to Harvest, Church, we're really happy you're here today. Maybe you've been visiting a few times. If you make your way up to the information center, we have a gift for you. So go ahead and head up there, introduce yourself. And then also, if you would like you can fill out a communication card. We want to be really diligent about communicating with everyone, all the things that are going on, changes that are happening. We sent out a weekly email update to make sure that everybody knows exactly what's happening here at Harvest Church and I'm okay. I got a F did you hear what Jim folk had said a moment ago about the announcements being the pinnacle of the, of the service? 4 (19m 26s): Did you guys catch that? That's true. And one of the announcements that I have for you is there's a men's breakfast that's planned. So men would love to have you show up this next Saturday. So Saturday the 12th show up here at Church and eight o'clock. We're going to gather in the loft, which is the building right behind us here. We're going to have breakfast together. We're going to have just a fun time of fellowship there's you don't need to sign up. You don't need to bring any money. How good is that? Just show up and be hungry. And we're going to have a great time of fellowship with the men. So with that, there's a men's retreat. That's also planned. The men's retreat is scheduled for January 8th and ninth, and it's going to be held up at the granite Ridge camp. 4 (20m 9s): It's up in Creston. So just North of us a little bit, you need to get signed up though. So the deadline to sign up for the men's retreat is what is it? December 15th. Okay, there you got it. December 15th is the deadline. So guys would encourage you to get signed up for the men's retreat. You can sign up at the info center, or you can go on our Church app, go online, or you can go directly to granite Ridge camp ground, and you can sign up that way as well. So guys would love to have him be a part of that. So every year in the village, there's a parade and there's this whole big hoopla thing that happens Christmas. It's not happening tonight because of the shutdown and stuff. 4 (20m 52s): So one of the things that happens during, during the parade and, and those events typically is the tree. The tree in front of the sanctuary is the village Christmas tree. And so we're still going to have a little bit of a get together tonight, a ceremony, if you want to call it that, where we're going to, here's what we're going to do. We are going to have some caroling. We're going to have a nativity reading, and we're going to have the lighting of the Christmas tree right up front here. It's going to be at six o'clock tonight. Love to have you bring the whole family. It's going to be outside. So it's probably going to be cold. So dress warmly, guaranteed. Not to snow though. I will let you know about that. So come on out tonight, it would be really great to have the whole family gathered together. 4 (21m 32s): So for Christmas, we are collecting some donations for some food baskets that we're putting together through our pantry ministry. So if you would like to donate some items, you can go up to the info center and they'll let you know what items we're going to be collecting. Or if you get our weekly email, the list is in there as well. And you can bring the items and they're due. When are they do? They are due next Sunday, which is December 13th. So if you'd like be a part of that, you can bring them by the office as well. And we'll go ahead and collect those. We've been announcing that we're doing a coat drive. In addition, the coat drive actually has been canceled because of the event that they were going to do to hand, hand the coats out to the needy in our community. 4 (22m 16s): It's been canceled. So if you have some codes that you've been collecting, you could go ahead and take them to the thrift store. Just give them to somebody on your own. That'd be fine. So the last thing I want to share with you, probably the most important of all there is a new year's Eve young professionals, pajama party and game night. Okay. So I asked this question to one of the planners. What is the age group for a young professional? So they told me 20 to 40. All right. Pretty pretty broad age. This again, this is a 5 (22m 50s): New year's Eve. Yup. 4 (22m 52s): Professionals, pajama party, and game night, you guys need to get signed up and it's going to be from six to nine is can mean the loft it's going to have a taco truck is going to be catered with a taco truck. So there is a price involved it's 10 bucks. And if you want to sign up, you can do it on the app, go online and, and, and all that good stuff. But one last thing, I was cleaning out one of my closets in my house this week, and I found my son's dinosaur one Z say a head to toe one Z pajama suit. So I announced it at first service as well. So if you want the dinosaur one Z, you gotta let me know. It's it's, it's, it's a F it's free to the first person who wants the onesy, but okay. 4 (23m 36s): You're, you're older than 40. I'm sorry, sir. Okay. 5 (23m 42s): I will not 4 (23m 43s): Be wearing the dinosaur suit, but thank you for asking. All right. So with that, I'm going to invite Dave to come up and he's going to be in first Thessalonians chapter two. So if you want to go ahead and turn in your Bible to first Thessalonians chapter two, that'd be great. Let's welcome, Dave. 6 (23m 58s): 7 (24m 9s): There we go. You know, and at times like this, that we're facing now, it's, it's easy to feel afflicted, you know, it's with COVID and shutdowns and, and being told that we shouldn't be gathering together and, and that we shouldn't be connecting with each other and that, and it just, and the fact that it's been going on for nine months now just kind of feels oppressing. And, and, but yet this is nothing like what the Church and Tesla Annika felt that we're Paul is writing to hear. 7 (24m 49s): And, and this time I'm going to cover quite a bit of ground today, because most of what this is, is narrative. I'm starting with the chapter two verse 17, and I'm going to preach all the way through chapters three. And I hope to be done by three o'clock. But the, but the whole thing in here is looking at it being it's mostly narrative, but there's still some, some great stuff in here. Paul Paul is very personal in this letter, if you read it. And there is, there's just a ton of narrative. There's some teaching, but it's mostly, he S he's writing words of comfort. 7 (25m 30s): He's writing words of, of hope. He's writing words, just telling him how he's feeling and how he's hoping they're doing. Whereas Romans is very theological. And first Corinthians and Galatians are very much dealing with problems and the church. This is so personal. And we really see a lot in here about Paul and about the Thessaloniki. And Church Paul is he's got deep affection for the people there. And, and, and, and Paul's affection for them is, is just mirroring. God's love for them. And, but in the midst of this, what he's so concerned about, and this is what persecution is, what Afflictions, they might be enduring. 7 (26m 17s): The things that they're experiencing as a followers of Jesus in a very, very intolerant situation. A very, very matter of fact, antagonistic situation. If you remember, Paul was driven out of Fessel, Anika, they, they had, when they couldn't find him, they pulled somebody else who was in the Church out and they, they beat him up and they took him before the, and made them pay a huge bail to get out and all of this while they investigated. And, and the Church said, DePaul, better scoop need to get out. And so they left, but so we see Paul's affection. 7 (26m 59s): We see their affliction, which we all face. We face the same kinds of Afflictions today. And, but through that, we see God's Affirmation that we are loved. We are cared for even when things are hard. And We, we might ask the question, where is God, when we're going through this, and he's right there with you, and he loves you and nothing can separate you from his love. So I'm going to break this passage up into three parts. The first part is going to be starting with a, in chapter two. And I'm just reading the starting at verse 17 and reading through the end of the chapter, please stand let's let's pray before we get started with this. 7 (27m 48s): And we'll go from there, Laura, God, I thank you so much that you are God, that you are the Lord of all that you love, the creation that you have made, and you especially love mankind 6 (28m 8s): Because 7 (28m 8s): You made us in your image and likeness. You set us up to be the caretakers of what you have made the stewards of, of your kingdom, of your creation, the stewards of all that you have set apart that we might have dominion, and then we spit in your eye. So God today we come to you as broken. We come to you as those who don't deserve to receive your love, but nonetheless are loved through Jesus Christ. 7 (28m 52s): Come speak to our hearts today, Lord, come speak and, and, and we desire Lord God, to be transformed by your word at living and active word that is sharper than any two-edged sword to divide soul and spirit joints and marrow. And to reveal the intentions of our hearts 6 (29m 18s): Come 7 (29m 19s): Revealed the intentions of our hearts today, Lord, and shape us more into the image of Jesus. God use me as your vessel here to speak your truth. And I pray Jesus, that you would have your way with what is spoken here and with what received here. And I know from all the years, I've preached that there are so many who hear something that I didn't say because you were speaking. So say to our hearts, what it is that you know, We to here, fill us with your spirit and the joy that comes from knowing we are loved in your name. 7 (30m 7s): We pray. Amen. And amen. So today I'm calling this a CA I say, I always used to just give one word titles are very, you know, very brief phrase, but Steve does these long ones. So, so I got to come up with something has lots of words in it, but that really highlights what it is we're talking about here. And, and so today's sermon, I'm calling God's Affection Overcomes Our Afflictions and Gives Us Affirmation That we are His God's affection. Overcomes Our Afflictions and Gives Us Affirmation that we are His. So peer, we see this, this first piece, this Affection of that Paul has for the Thessaloniki sins that is mirroring God's love. 7 (30m 55s): So I'm going to read verses 17 through 20 here of chapter two. This is God's word. Since we were torn away from you brothers for a short time in person, not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you. I Paul, again and again, but Satan hindered us for what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus. It is coming. Is it not you for you are our glory and joy. 7 (31m 35s): It's talking to you folks. Paul is writing this, but the Holy spirit is speaking to you. You remember from acts 17. As I mentioned before, Paul was, was driven out of vessel, Anika by jealous and, and wicked men who were threatened by the message of the gospel and jealous of the following that Paul was getting, they were the, wanted to be the arbiters of the truth. They wanted to be the ones who determined what was right and what was wrong. And then those who were idolaters were just livid and, and trying to drive them away because they were cutting into their profits. 7 (32m 17s): But this is what he was referring to. And he said he was torn away from them. It was like a That in the Greek. It literally means T he was orphaned from them. Just like if a conquering force would come in and they would rip the children out of the parent's arms and cause those children to become orphans, because then the parents would just sense this great loss. And the children would be who was whose, where are my parents what's going on with them? Or they might even see them cut down in front of them. And so the children automatically become orphans than hauled off into slavery. This is what Paul was feeling. I feel as if I've been orphaned from you, I am so cut off. 7 (32m 58s): I'm so taken away from you. And he feels that this, this deep love that he has for them, this deep concern that he has for them is just tearing it as hard, because he's concerned about what they're facing. This is Paul, the Pharisee of farracies, as he says, in his pedigree and one of the other epistles. And, you know, as to the law, I was blameless. I was, I sat at the feet of Gamaliel. I was the one, he was the greatest teacher and to sit at his feet was to be the greatest pupil. This is Paul, he's the Hebrew of Hebrews and lover of everything, Hebrew and hater of everything Gentile until God got ahold of him and God transformed his heart, that he might show his love through Paul, to those that around him. 7 (33m 51s): And he had this special affection for the Fessel onions. There is Are next to His except the message of his gospel and God's demonstration of its power. Through Paul, they caused, they caused him to love them with a deep and abiding love through Paul came. He had come through Apollonia and Hierapolis I think is the town from Philippi had been run out of Philippi, went through two towns to get to festival. And nothing happened in those two towns. And it wasn't like he just was passing through. I'm sure everywhere, every place he went, Paul tried to share the gospel, but there was nothing there, nothing recorded about what, what happened in those cities. 7 (34m 37s): But when he got to Fessel and ICA, he went and he reasoned in the synagogue and he reasoned there and people were being transformed. People were coming to faith in Jesus. People were receiving the gospel with their whole heart, and it was started taking effect until the point that people got jealous, their religious folks got jealous. And so all of this stuff started going on and, and all this persecution and, and Paul so loved them that he said, you are my glory and my joy, because I'm going to present. You say, these are the ones you gave me. God, isn't a great, they stayed strong. 7 (35m 17s): Isn't it great. They loved you. Isn't it great. They just hold fast to Jesus. Isn't this super. And thank you that I got to be part of their coming to faith in you. That's Paul's love for them. And it's the same Affection God has for you as his dearly beloved child. See, when he removed you from the kingdom of darkness and adapted, you adapted you to be his own. He did. So because he loves you. If he does and says he chose you from before the foundation of the war, 6 (35m 59s): Isn't that amazing. 7 (36m 5s): And he does. So because he loves you and wants you to know that he loves you. You see the, the Affection here. We think about God's unconditional love. God's love. God's so loved the world and this overarching love. But sometimes that can feel kind of distant. Sometimes that can feel like we're really, God loves us, but he's kind of out there, but there's a real affection here. Something that that's so close and that love that you have for your children. You get that little baby and hold him in your arms for the first time. 7 (36m 44s): When, when, gosh, I remember that when our girls were born, kind of, cause I'm getting old, but I do remember much more recently when our grandsons were born. And when our first grandson was born, Cyrus is 13. And we met him when he was about 45 minutes old. And, and I held him and I just looked at this little one that I had not seen or ever met before anticipated is coming, but, but just had never seen him. And I had so much love for this little one that I just put my eyes on for the first time. 7 (37m 25s): And what was really great about that is I had none of the responsibility for him, but, but I had this little one that I just so deeply loved. And that's the way Paul felt about the Thessaloniki as they were his children in the Lord. And they, he loved them deeply and was so concerned about all that we're going through. See God took you out of that kingdom of darkness. He wants you to know that you are loved. And Paul writes in Romans, Romans eight, 15, he says for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry Abba father, he says, God is, is our loving father who loves to pick us up. 7 (38m 17s): And dandle, Us on his knees and, and hold us clothes. That's the affection that we're seeing here. And he says, you're not slave subject to God's whim. You're not those who are forced to do things outside of your will, but he loves you so that you want to love him back. You want to do what he wants. He wraps you in his arms of loving care and his passion for you is 8 (38m 44s): Deep. You know, even 7 (38m 47s): To Israel, the prophet, Jeremiah spoke and remember Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, Jeremiah didn't have a whole lot of good stuff to say about God's people other than what could be if they would repent. But he preached to them a lot about just how they are falling away, how they're neglecting, God how they are turning their backs on him and following after idols. But it's what does he say to them? God speaks to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31, three and says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you. 7 (39m 27s): See, he still loves us. Even when we mess up, he still is faithful to us, even when we are desperately in need of discipline. 8 (39m 37s): And he does 7 (39m 37s): Discipline us if he loved, because we are 8 (39m 40s): Loved. See, 7 (39m 42s): Paul reminds them that even though they're physically separated, his heart will never leave them 8 (39m 49s): Because he loves them. So his heart 7 (39m 52s): We'll never leave the Fest Slovenians and neither physical distance nor Satan's hindrances. He's remember, he says, Satan hindered me from coming to you can, they CA, nothing can keep Paul from loving them and desiring their good and their wellbeing. 8 (40m 9s): That's that's 7 (40m 10s): What Paul is so concerned about that they would, 8 (40m 13s): That they would find 7 (40m 16s): Good of life. They would find the best of life or not. And I'm not talking about stuff and, you know, comfort and that sort of thing. Talking about their relationship with Jesus, their relationship with knowing him and standing with him and knowing that we're going to spend eternity with him. 8 (40m 35s): Sorry. 7 (40m 35s): Note here about Satan's hindrances. This is a little excursus we're going to set over to this side. You can put it in your hip pocket. We could probably spend several weeks talking about Satan's hindrances, but just, I want you to know, and I want you to hold onto this. 8 (40m 51s): Satan 7 (40m 52s): Can only hinder us with God's permission. 8 (40m 57s): We tend 7 (40m 57s): To give him far more power than he deserves. It is not two equal forces fighting one another. This isn't yin and yang. This isn't, you know, one pit it against the other and hopes that the scales are gonna fall on God's side. 8 (41m 15s): Okay? No, 7 (41m 18s): God is in control and Satan can do nothing that is not allowed by God. 8 (41m 26s): And if he allows it, it's so 7 (41m 29s): Holy to accomplish his divine purpose and his divine plan in your life and in his kingdom. And it's as true today as it was in the first century and has been from the beginning, remember Jobe, Satan couldn't do anything to job that God didn't allow. And he said, you can go this far and no farther and Satan, didn't not because he's obedient, but because that's all he can do Is Martin Luther. The great reformer once said after all he is God's devil. And so Satan's hindrance of Paul here was allowed by God for the Thessaloniki and Christians ultimate good. 7 (42m 15s): And for Paul's good. And his hindrance is hindrances towards us is for our good, 6 (42m 25s): Remember 7 (42m 26s): All things work together for good, for those who love God and are called according to their purposes. That's why in everything you can give. Thanks because God is using everything for your advancement and just the same way he was doing for the Fessel Aloni church here. And Paul was busy being mother hen. I'm so worried about you. I don't want you to fail. I don't want you to fall. See Afflictions can't diminish. God's love for us. His his deep abiding affection. It cannot eliminate it. Can't delete it. Paul says this in again in Romans chapter eight, this, this passage is so familiar to all of us, but think about it in the context that when we face hardships, this is His, God what God does. 7 (43m 19s): What shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things who shall bring any charge against God's elect it's God who justifies, who is to condemn Christ. Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written for your sake, we are being killed all day long, were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered for God's sake because it's accomplishing his purpose. 7 (44m 9s): Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come nor powers nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord, hallelujah. Those Afflictions come to make us stronger. So the next thing we need to look at is the Afflictions of the Thessaloniki and Church as they pertain to our lives today. So let's look then, and now at chapter three, verse one, we're going to read the first five verses. 7 (44m 49s): Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind it, Athens alone. And we sent Timothy our brother and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ to establish and exhort you and your faith that no one be moved by these Afflictions for you yourself. Know that we're destined for this for when we were with you. We kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction just as it has come to pass and justice. You know, for this reason when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter attempted you and our labor would be in vain. Paul says, I know what you're going through because it's the same thing. 7 (45m 31s): I was going. 6 (45m 31s): 7 (45m 39s): Bullying violence, persecution of all kinds. And Paul wanted to make sure that none of these new believers were moved is the word he uses here and moved by these affections. And you know, when you can imagine moved to, you know, taken off of, off of base and knocked off a center, moved sideways, move backwards or forwards or up or down, but somehow or another, not standing firm. And this word moved really kind of has three levels to it in the Greek. And first, the first level is kind of be seduced to compromise, seduced, to compromise your beliefs. 7 (46m 19s): seduced to step away and may be not commit so much only commit this much instead of everything, Just to refer to it as having just enough, Jesus got just enough Jesus to be saved. That's all I need. That's all I'm going to worry about. And then I'm going to live, just live in my life. I think one way we really see that happening in the church today in America is we're seduced to think that, 6 (46m 59s): Well, 7 (46m 59s): We can go to church when we can get there. And I always joke about it and say, unless we get a better offer, but it's, it's not that as much as this world has us so busy and so concerned about other things and creature comforts and schedules and all that kind of thing that we kind of think that, well, you know, we can't make it this week, cause this has come up, but Church will always be there. It'll be there next week, this to the point where in our culture today and evangelical Christianity, the pillars of the faith make it the Church twice a month, 15 years ago, it was 60% of the time. 7 (47m 44s): It's down to less than 50% of the time now. And we're seduced into thinking, well, that's okay. The second level of that is where to be per perturbed or agitated into confusion. We start, you know, darts start coming in and saying, well, I was telling selling, did God really say, is this really true? Or can things like the, I CA, I can't remember his first name Dawkins. He's a famous atheist. Is it Richard Dawkins? I was thinking Richard Dawkins was, you know, a family feud, but state, well there's Stephen Hawking, but then there's somebody Richard Dawkins Are yeah. 7 (48m 33s): Well, whatever, whoever he is, this famous atheist who I can't remember, his name tries to yeah. Tries to tell us that faith is foolishness that trusting in God is believing in the fairytales. You know, and that's, that's a, that's a pretty good job. And then, you know, lays out all of what he calls evidence. And it gets to the point where we can kind of say, Oh, you know, and we get agitated. And it says, well, I know the scripture says this, but all the, the evidence here seems to be pointing towards that and what am I going to do with this? 7 (49m 15s): And it shakes us. And then the third level of this is literally, it means to be the way it was described in my lexicon is to be wrought upon, which means to be put in the fire and hammered on an Advil to reshape us into something different. And I think that's kind of what you see. You go to places like China and North Korea, where they send you to reeducation camps. If you become a Christian 8 (49m 40s): And shaped into something else. 7 (49m 44s): So you, because of Paul's affection for them, he was deeply concerned that the persecution they would face would be driving them away from their faith and that they would have walked away due to incessant opposition. You know, at time where you just say, I'm just not going to put up with this anymore. Heck with it and leave it behind. And I'm tired of this hard road Lynn and I will often say to each other, and boy, I just hate that. I have to take the high road all the time. And I just want to take the low road for once. You know? And, but no, you get tired of that. And it would be so easy to walk away, but Paul had warned them that they would be facing this kind of thing. 7 (50m 30s): Verse three of this passage, this is for you yourselves know that we are destined for this. It's going to happen. This is not the kind of verse that you have printed on a magnet and put on your refrigerator. This promise, no, it's, we're destined for this. When we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction just as it has come to pass. And just as you know, See persecution of the church is four told in the new Testament, Jesus himself, and in John chapter 15, you know, they're on their way to the, the garden of gets Semini. They've left the upper room. They're on the way to the gardener gets Semini where Jesus is going to pray and then be betrayed. 7 (51m 14s): And Jesus says to them, if the world hates, you know, that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. Therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you? A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute 6 (51m 39s): You 7 (51m 42s): Again. Another verse we don't put on the refrigerator at home, You know, we've been so blessed to live in a country where we're free to follow Jesus and public who publicly worship. That's a great blessing. Unfortunately, that blessing as becomes a means of weakening the resolve for orthodoxy among those who followed Jesus. Grace has become easy. Grace has become cheap. 6 (52m 19s): Okay? 7 (52m 19s): I wish I had taken up the time to look at the quote of the definition of cheap grace that Dietrich Bonhoeffer Bonhoeffer gave in one of his books where he talks about, you know, it's, it's the crown without a cross it's Jesus without repentance. It's, it's all of these things because, and we get at that and then we have no foundation and no strength to stand. I would say in modern day, American culture, we've been moved by That seductive pers persecution and affliction we faced. 7 (52m 59s): And we're starting to get some of those jabs coming in, but it's not, we're not being on the put on the Advil yet. And we might be, 6 (53m 12s): Yeah, 7 (53m 12s): We don't want that to happen. Folks. If we want to see our country turnaround, if we want to see people changed by God, we want to see revival come in. Then we have to go with what God spoke to Solomon. When he was dedicating the temple. If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. You know, we forget about the turning from our wicked ways part. We like to leave that one out, humble, humble myself. 7 (53m 53s): And while maybe I'll pray. How's that I'll pray and seek God's face. I just love being with Jesus. Don't tell me anything about sin. Don't tell me anything about repentance. Don't say anything about humbling myself, but God I'm praying. So fix it. No, it's it's it's it's that recognition that we don't deserve. God's love. We don't deserve God's ability to save, but acknowledging the love that he has 2 (54m 27s): For us, 7 (54m 29s): You might still face persecution. Even if we do this, even if we follow that admonition from God, but you'll receive an affirmation that you are 2 (54m 43s): Loved, 7 (54m 45s): That God will care for you, that God will sustain you. That God will uphold you. That God will give you the strength to face, whatever it is that comes your way, he will give you the grace that is necessary to face the trials and tribulations. Even to the point of martyrdom, he will give you the grace for that. If you have to face it, he will give you the strength. In the moment. God told Israel when they were coming through the desert desert as your day. So shall your strength be whatever it is you have to face. God will give you the strength for it. 7 (55m 26s): And remember that these Afflictions are actually beneficial to your faith because they help us to appreciate and comprehend the truth of God's word more fully. Ken Martin Luther said the devil and temptations also do give occasion unto us somewhat to learn and understand the scriptures by experience and practice without trials and temptations. We should never understand anything thereof. No, not. Although we diligently read and heard the same, because when you experience those difficulties, when you experience those hardships, when you experience persecution, when you experience sickness, when you experienced trials, when you experience the bad things that can come from the world at you, it opens the door to the scriptures to appreciate God's promises. 7 (56m 22s): It opens doors to the scriptures. So I can S I can look at that and say, Oh God, yes. Now I understand what this is, and I'm going to hold onto you. I'm going to hold fast to you. I'm going to stick with you and God. I know I can't do that in my own strength. Give me the power of your Holy spirit. Let that be enlivened. Inmate. Let it be quickened in my heart that I might stand with you, that I might hold fast to you. That I might remain unchanged and be faithful, no matter what it is that I face. See. So as we live our lives and the promise of God's affection, that he shows toward us and the certainty that we will face affliction in this life. 7 (57m 13s): And if, for no other reason that we live in a fallen and sinful world, It's hold fast to the Affirmation of God. That he's pleased with us when we hold fast to him and, and know that he, 8 (57m 34s): He keeps us as we stick with him. 7 (57m 41s): So let's look at this last section here 8 (57m 45s): Told you 7 (57m 45s): I'd be done by three. 8 (57m 49s): This is brief. Okay. 7 (57m 51s): But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us. As we long to see you for this reason brothers and all our distress and affliction, we have been comforted about you through your faith for now. We live, if you are standing fast and God Paul felt as if he was dying, because he wasn't sure about 8 (58m 21s): Awesome. 7 (58m 25s): What Thanksgiving can we return to God for you for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day, that we may see you face to face and supply. What is lacking in your faith. Now may Are God and father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound and love for one another. And for all, as we do for you so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before Are God and father at the coming of our Lord Jesus, with all his saints, Paul's almost giddy because they're standing firm. 7 (59m 8s): He felt like there was so much left for him to teach them when he, when he had to leave, but they're standing firm and the faith that they've had, and he had sent Timothy back and they had preached more to them and they saw great 8 (59m 24s): Results 7 (59m 25s): On the part of the festival Ionians to, to stand firm in their faith. And so Paul's joy, overflows, and even more love for them. He wants to go back and see them again. He wants that all the more to be with them and knowing that they could have come to hate him because of the message that they gave him and that he gave them, I should say. And the persecution that followed that transforming method message, they could have come to despise Paul, that look what he brought on Us but no, they love it 8 (59m 57s): Of Paul, because look what he gave to us 7 (1h 0m 2s): Brought the message of the gospel. He brought the message of hope in Christ Jesus, and they held fast to the gospel, just like the 12 disciples did in John six, when the rest of the crowds deserted him, remember in John six, Jesus is talking about, if you want to, any part in me, you have to eat my flesh. You have to drink my blood and to the Jews, that was an abomination. And they left. This is a hard saying, and they left and it says, starting in verse 66, after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well? 7 (1h 0m 44s): And Simon, Peter answered him Lord to whom 8 (1h 0m 47s): Shall we go? You have the word 7 (1h 0m 50s): Words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy one. 8 (1h 0m 56s): God 7 (1h 0m 59s): I see Paul bringing the message of the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ gave the Thessalonians the very words of eternal life. Every time you share the gospel with someone, you're giving them the very words of eternal life. And this is the joy that we bring to God. When we stand in the face of persecution, when we continually draw our strength for him to withstand Satan's on the slot, 8 (1h 1m 27s): Whether 7 (1h 1m 27s): It's subtle or an obvious jab or a full-out frontal assault, God affirms his deep love for us. 8 (1h 1m 35s): Always, always. Yeah. 7 (1h 1m 39s): Whether the conditions of our lives are smooth sailing or in the middle of a hurricane, 8 (1h 1m 46s): God is 7 (1h 1m 47s): Still with us affirming his love and his promise that he'll never leave us or forsake us stands most strongly when we're clinging to him in the midst of our Afflictions, 8 (1h 1m 60s): He even, 7 (1h 2m 0s): And pronounces a blessing on us in the midst of their trials. Look at the verses 11 through 13 here, once again, now my Are God and father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you one so that Paul can come in and share with them. And they, because he loves them and wants to see them face to face. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before Are God and father at the coming of our Lord Jesus, with all his saints, see God will cause us to be into increase and abound and love for him for Are brothers and sisters in the church for our community. 7 (1h 2m 43s): And even for the world that brings our Afflictions upon us. God will cause us to love him. And he'll establish our hearts blameless in a holiness before him keeping us steadfast to either the end of our lives or until Christ returns. Whichever happens first, You have the assurance that God has genuine affection towards you today. 8 (1h 3m 13s): Are you walking with Jesus? 7 (1h 3m 16s): If you Are, he does have genuine affection for you. He loves you and loves to be with you and loves to fellowship with you. If you don't know Jesus, 8 (1h 3m 31s): He's as close as the mention of his name. He's right here. 7 (1h 3m 37s): Say, Jesus. I want to know you. I don't know. I want to know what this assurance of your love is. I want to know that you have affection for me. And even when I go through difficult times and affliction, you give me an affirmation that I am yours. That's what's available to you in Christ. Jesus. You come to him and say, Lord, I know I'm a sinner. And, and I can't do this on my own. 8 (1h 3m 58s): I need you. That's what's set before you right now. 7 (1h 4m 5s): God does have affection toward you. And if you're facing difficulties and hardships and trials and persecution of any kind, even so he will never stop loving you. If you're saying right now, where is God? He's right there. Because if he wasn't with you right now, you think you're going through difficulty. Now, if God wasn't with you, I can't even begin to 8 (1h 4m 31s): Imagine 7 (1h 4m 36s): What are the Afflictions that you're facing at the moment? Is it That clever seduction? Did God really say, is it kind of an obvious jab? You're getting poked. Your faith is getting poked. Your faith is getting challenged. Are you on the Advil? Somebody trying to reshape you and take you away from being shaped like Jesus, 8 (1h 5m 5s): God still with you. Nonetheless 7 (1h 5m 8s): Affirming his love for you, affirming that you belong to him and that nothing can pluck you out of his hand. 8 (1h 5m 19s): Have you opened your eyes, 7 (1h 5m 20s): Heart to receive the blessing of that? Affirmation because sometimes we get to the point where we feel well, I'm not worthy. God well, you're right. We're not. But he says, I love you anyway. I love you anyway, because of Jesus. When I look at you, I see Jesus. When I look at you, I see the righteousness of God poured out all over you. I see you as if you had never even had a sin nature, let alone committed a sin. I see you as Adam and Eve in the garden before the fall. That's the way Jesus looks at. Are God. The father looks at you because of what Jesus did for you. 8 (1h 5m 60s): He loves you and he's offering it to you. You're the Apple of his eye. 7 (1h 6m 11s): And he has established you as a joint heir of his kingdom 8 (1h 6m 16s): And with our big brother, Jesus, let's pray 7 (1h 6m 25s): Lord our God. I thank you. I thank you for your love. I thank you for your care. That never stops. That even when we don't see you working, even when we can't feel your presence, even when it seems like you're a million miles away, you still love Us and you're still here in those times, help us to stand on there. The faith that you have given us that marvelous gift of saving faith in Jesus and God. I pray that when we face affliction, that we would cry out to you, knowing that you will hold us fast. That even if we face all the way up to martyrdom, you will give us the grace and the strength necessary to face whatever trials come before us and help us never to be so overcome by the world. 7 (1h 7m 17s): And so it feels so afflicted in that we get tired of it and say, forget it. I'm walking away. Keep us close, help us to keep our eyes on you and for any here today, Lord who need to know you just give them the assurance that they are loved as they turn to you and repentance that you indeed will make them your own to the praise of your glory in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 2 (1h 7m 54s): Stan. 0 (1h 11m 22s): 2 (1h 17m 48s): We can never deserve it. You never forsake us. It gives us peace. During these times to know that you are trustworthy, that your word will come to pass. And then we have no reason to fear. Pray that you'd be with each one of us, give everyone here strength that each one would have with the peace that only comes from knowing you being filled with your spirit. 2 (1h 18m 34s): Praise, the Lord Jesus name. Amen. 3 (1h 18m 43s): Yeah, guys, for coming to church, 2 (1h 18m 47s): It's an amazing thing. 3 (1h 18m 51s): Amen. And if anybody needs a prayer come forward, we'll have people up here that can pray with you. Have a great week.

0 (1s): Well, good morning, everyone. Happy Thanksgiving weekend. Hope you had a wonderful time celebrating. Thanks for joining us here today. 1 (11s): Whether you're here on campus or watching at home so glad to be together and worship, would you stand with me if you're able and we'll take a moment just to pray by it. The Lord's presence to me in our midst, as we worship the Lord, we just bring our hearts of banks this morning. Even as the season, we focus on the things that we're grateful for him. God, when our hearts just bubble over just with thanks and praise for who you are in all the things you've done for us and the blessings that you've given us. So God, I just pray for anyone this morning, maybe who's hurting or lonely or does just concerns weighing upon their hearts. 1 (58s): How would you need us in this place? In this moment, you would your spirit come and fill our hearts with all that we have need of this morning. Would you help us to praise you in good times and bad times? God, you're always worthy of our praise. There's always a reason to praise your name. So do you think you 0 (1m 28s): ? Yes. Well, sitting in my heart is happy. All my digs. Oh yes. 0 (1m 50s): the same guy. Who's never, the same guy. 0 (3m 29s): 1 (11m 20s): Would you help us? Do you receive your love this morning? All that you have for us? God, even at first service, I had this picture of just like us holding our hands, like little kids receiving a gift this morning. If you want to do that, just as a symbol to the Lord to say, I want to receive the love, the mercy, the grace that you have for me today, Lord, I'm just holding my hands open wide outstretched to receive on the heart. 0 (11m 52s): It's a gift for you today. yeah, the single praise. 0 (14m 55s): Your name forever. 0 (14m 58s): where do you praise your name today? 0 (16m 32s): Gather here to adore our King. The Lord. Thank you. That we know that we do get to praise your name forever around your throne for all eternity, with all the angels singing. Holy Holy Holy is the Lord. God almighty, who was in his, in his to come. We stand on Holy ground this morning. Once again, just as the hearts of gratitude. Thanks every eye and heart just focused on you. 0 (17m 17s): Jesus. You're the reason we're here and we love you with all our hearts in your name. Amen. Amen. Church so good. Well, we're just going to share that love of Jesus with each other, for a few moments. Do you want to say hello to someone around you? You just pass on that. Love this morning, pulled back with some announcements soon. 2 (17m 41s): Good morning. Harvest Church welcome. We're awfully glad to have you here. Good to see everybody morning. 3 (17m 51s): Hopefully you are over your trip to fan coma and are bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. Ready to ready to worship the Lord. I could hear you when I was outside and it just sounds fantastic to hear you all lifting up your voices. And that's just super, do you have a few announcements this morning? I'm pastor day, one of the, the pastors on staff here and glad to have you with us and whether you're here in the sanctuary or you're with us in the loft on the patio, we're glad you're here. Or if you're watching online, this is a great way, you know, I'm sorry. I'm not holding the mic in. I'm used to wearing Steve's daily, but the that's the technical term when you're my age, it is. 3 (18m 47s): I just going to say that, you know, Curtis just did our a report on how many views we're getting on our online for our, for those of you who are watching online, we have averaged last month, over 700 devices every week tuning in and watching our service, whether it's on Sunday morning or whether it's right now, if you're watching right now, or if you're watching this delayed either way, we had over 2,800 views last month. So that was really, and that's, I don't know how many people per device, they probably all gathered around their phones, you know, eight or 10 kids. And they've right. 3 (19m 28s): But if you are here with us for the first time, sorry, I'm taking Steve's time here, but if you're here, Where this for the first time this morning, we'd love to have you up at the stop up at the info center. What, what I call the Google of Harvest Church, that's where you find all things out and, and Curtis will help you out up there, but stop up there. They've got a special gift for you. They've got, as, as Ron said, last week, can't tell you what it is, but it looks a lot like a coffee mug and a, and there's some goodies and stuff in it too. And, and information about the Church. And so we'd love to have you stop up there and pick that up. 3 (20m 9s): Let's see. I gotta use, there we go. Okay, man, couple of things starting or on separately, timber on December 12th, we're having a men's breakfast. We realized that it had been quite a while since we'd had one with COVID, everything's been shut down and we really wanted to gather the men together. So two weeks from yesterday, the 12th of December at eight o'clock, we're gonna meet in the loft and enjoy men's breakfast together. And it's a good thing. 3 (20m 50s): You've been eating a lot. These past few days, stretch out your stomach because that's the amount of food you will be getting men. So keep stretching. Also, we have a retreat coming up on January 8th and ninth. We're calling it throttling back. It's all about slowing down. Being able to listen for God's voice, to being able to grow and be effective in your walk in Christ to be used of him, to not be tied down with so many of the things of this world that just hold you back. So encourage you to sign up for that. You sign up for that online. You go to either the website, AIG harvest.org or the Harvest app, which is a G Harvest. 3 (21m 32s): You just look that up at, in your app store and you'll be able to connect there, click on the information about the, the men's retreat. And that will take you directly to the camp website because that's where all of the registration is. So please, please do that. We want sign ups by the 15th of the, of next month. We're going to have a Christmas tree lighting ceremony here one week from today at six o'clock out on the front lawn, we're going to have carols out here, setup on the, on the front stoop of the church. And we're going to sing Christmas carols. 3 (22m 13s): We're going to like the Christmas tree. It's just going to be a great night to be together. And I know Steve was going to share more about that here in a little bit, so he can give you more details, but encourage you to come out for that. It's a great, great night. We'll be having Christmas food, basket donations starting anytime. You're ready to bring them in. Now I know we just finished up with Thanksgiving and you did so well bringing stuff in for Thanksgiving. We had so much food, got to bless a lot of people. We want to bless a lot of people for Christmas, where our goal is that we need 50 hams. And as I told them in the first service that doesn't include Steve and I. 3 (22m 57s): And so we just need to have plenty of food for Christmas and sign up up in the, at the info center or we're going to have a wagon out there every week with the food basket that you can fill in. Also one new thing starting this week on Thursday morning at eight o'clock we're resuming our midweek prayer eight o'clock in the loft on Thursday morning, the folks who were involved in that before just came to me and said, we can't not do this anymore. We shut it down for COVID and, but people are wanting to get back to the price. So we're coming in on Thursday mornings at eight o'clock in the loft. 3 (23m 37s): If you are available and would love to pray, come out and pray for an hour. And it's, it's amazing to me, how fast an hour when I'm there and one more and then Steve can come up. You know, he's chomping at the bit over there. He just seemed like in the starting gate, waiting for them to blow that bugle and open the gate. But Mark your calendars too, for Christmas Eve Thursday, December 24th, less than four weeks from now, we will be having three Christmas Eve services this year at three, four, and five, and encourage you to come out. And in the last year was our first year participating on Christmas Eve. 3 (24m 20s): And it's, it's such a sweet service come and sing Christmas carols. We have a Christmas story for the kids and, and Steve will be sharing the word. And it's just a wonderful evening to get centered in and focused on why it is that we celebrate Christmas. And it's not about trees in presence. So encourage you to come out for that. And with that, I will pass this on to Steve. 4 (24m 48s): Yeah. Sounds good. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dave. Good morning. Welcome. How many enjoy Thanksgiving? Was it good? Do you have a lots of food? Lots of good stuff. All right. With that, I've got some Thanksgiving jokes, Thanksgiving jokes. What kind of key will not open any door? A Turkey. Very, very good. Very, very good. A Turkey Turk knock, knock. 4 (25m 28s): I'm not sure if I can do this knock, knock. I can't remember. Let me see you. I'm going to get you there though. Here we go. Knock, knock. Arthur. Are there any leftovers? I know, I know. I know my family keeps telling me no more Thanksgiving jokes. I told them I, I just can't quit cold Turkey, and now we're done. The party is over. We're going to pray and be done. Just getting let's go and stand up and pray those. 4 (26m 10s): So you might hear those again next Thanksgiving holiday season, but you will, maybe you forgotten them by then. So we'll see what happens, Lord. We thank you for the opportunity to be studying your word today. Lord, we're going to be in first Thessalonians again, Lord. And so we just pray that you'd speak to us through your word. God, we invite your Holy spirit to fill this place and to fill us Lord. And whoever's got watching. I pray blessing upon them. Lord God, wherever they are on campus or online Lord, we just pray for your blessing upon each person. God encouragement would go out to them. Lord grace and peace and mercy 5 (26m 44s): Would go out to them in Jesus name, God that you would just do wonderful and profound things in this service. The balance of this service, we pray, Lord, it's in your name. We ask these things. Jesus. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. So first Thessalonians chapter two verses one through 16, where do you find courage in the face of trouble? That's the title of the message today? Where do you Find Courage in the face of Trouble. I think if we're going to find out the answer to this, it's good to go to a person who's experienced. Trouble like if nobody's ever experienced Trouble and they tried to help you to Find Courage in the face of trouble that person's got no credibility, but Paul, the apostle Paul, he's got some, the ability why? Because his life was riddled riddled with Trouble years ago, I talked to my father-in-law he's he's getting older. 5 (27m 32s): And I said, Hey Mark, do you have any regrets in life? Anything that you can pass on? And we had a great conversation out of that and to glean something from someone who'd been around a while, Paul Paul is speaking to us from this profound, the experience that he's had with the Lord, this profound experience that he's had as a minister of the gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so from Paul's experience and wealth of knowledge and understanding of God, we're going to answer that question. Where do you Find Courage in the face of Trouble quick, quick story though. I was just a little guy going back many years and I was living down in Southern California and was with a sitter, a babysitter, and my brother and I, and the babysitter. 5 (28m 16s): We were at the beach and we go out to the water and I go deeper and deeper into the water and get kind of pulled out into the ocean and I can't swim. And so I'm out there and I find my pet kind of get my way over to the piling on the pier and I hold on for dear life. And so as you can imagine the waters going up over my head and then down. And when it, when the water goes down, I do everything within me just to yell out, help, right? I mean, I'm dying out there. Literally I'm drowning under the water. And it was, it was a time in my life where I didn't know, God didn't know who he was. And so I was just calling out to whoever would listen, just calling out. 5 (29m 1s): And then I believe that God sent the lifeguard with the life preserver and he saved my life that day. But it was in a time of desperate trouble. When I was calling out to anybody maybe been there, you just, you're in a desperate place. You just calling out to anybody. I, I, I want to share with you a few things today that will help you to find the courage that you need for the circumstance that you face. Let's take a look at first Thessalonians, chapter two verses one through 16, Paul rate's you yourselves know, do your brothers and sisters that are visits. You was not a failure. He's declaring something to this Church and maybe to himself. 5 (29m 44s): Cause I know at times it feels like the ministry that God calls us to is ineffective. Sometimes we feel like what we're doing is not fruitful, not helpful. And I'm sure Paul and his human has wondered at times whether what he was doing was actually fruitful and helpful and had eternal, eternal fruitfulness attached to it. But we know from first Thessalonians chapter one, verse nine, that the Thessaloniki and Church these people in this church had turned away from their idols to serve the living. And only God, they had turned from idolatry and the culture of two or 300,000 people in their town where idolatry was part of the deal. 5 (30m 27s): It was just part of the culture. And so you can imagine how the culture was surprised when this group of people heard the gospel message, the message about this person, Jesus Christ. And they turned away from their idols to serve the living and true God you yourselves know, do your brothers and sisters that are visits you is not a failure. He's establishing that the gospel message went out and effectively produce fruit for the kingdom of God. Verse two, he says, you know how badly we had been treated in Philippi at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Remember we talked about the Philippian jailer last week in acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas are in prison for their stance on the gospel for preaching the gospel. 5 (31m 15s): And they were beaten with rods and they were imprisoned. And about midnight, the Bible says they were praying and singing to the Lord. And about that time, a big earthquake hit the prison, hit the jail and the doors were opened and the chains fell off of them. And they all stayed the jailer awakens from his stupor and realized that the doors are open. And he's just assumes that the prisoners are gone. So he goes to kill himself. And Paul says, stop. Don't kill yourself. We're all still here. God had a plan for that Philippian jailer. So we know that Paul had experienced difficulty before going to this place. He had been beaten with a rod and in prison, he said, you know how badly we've been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there yet. 5 (32m 0s): God yet our God gave us the Courage in our God gave us the courage to declare his good news to you boldly in spite of great opposition, the temptation would be, Hey, we got into trouble. The last city we were in, let's kind of settle down this time, right? Let's just kind of fly below the radar. Let's not draw attention to ourselves. It's not fun to get beat with rods and thrown in jail. So let's just kind of fly below the radar. But Dodd God had called them. He had equipped them. He had given them purpose. Yes. And therefore God gave them Courage to do what they were called to do to proclaim the yet our God gave us the courage to declare his good news to you boldly in spite of great opposition. 5 (32m 47s): Where do you find courage in the face of Trouble number one in your notes, God will give you Courage. 6 (32m 54s): Yeah, that's great news. I think that's incredible news that if we just call out to the Lord, I mean, I think about myself bobbing up and down, clinging onto that piling with no buddy to call out to except for the open air. Like Al I'm dying here. I'm struggling here. But the reality is, now that I know God, I've got someone to cry out to. Maybe you're here today and you don't know God, you can call out to the same God, you can call out to the true and living God. And he will respond to you. He will listen to you. He will, he will come to your aid. God will give you Courage. He and Paul and Silas were beaten and 5 (33m 31s): In prison at some point, no matter how brave 6 (33m 33s): You are, Courage begins to evaporate, right? I mean, you go up against difficulty at every turn in your Courage begins to 4 (33m 42s): Great, but God, but 6 (33m 46s): God, God is faithful. And we will simply even in a faint whisper call out to him, Lord. 4 (33m 53s): Well, he responds, you were saying 5 (33m 56s): Child after all you've been created in his image, 6 (33m 59s): She's adopted you into his family. He's died for you. He loves you. He cares about you. You read resurrect from the dead. So they might know you and have a relationship with you. So by God's grace, he in his goodness. And because he loves you, he responds. If you will just simply by faith, 4 (34m 17s): Whisper, cry 6 (34m 18s): It out, yell it out, whatever it is, Lord help me. I need your grace in this moment. 5 (34m 25s): God will give you the Courage. What do you do when you're up against a difficult troubling situation, I would just challenge you to go to God and ask for what you need 4 (34m 38s): And he will give it to you. Right? 5 (34m 41s): I was reading this this morning. It's a book called on this day in Christian history. It's a great book by Robert J. Morgan. And it just takes you through the year and tells you what happened in Christian history on that particular day, in a particular year. So I read for this last week, I'm going to read from it again this week because it's a great, there's a great story. Dated November 29th. So we're going to today's November 29th. So we're going to read this story. It says when James Gilmore sailed for China in 1870, he was young, strong and in need of a wife, for sure. Right? He 6 (35m 17s): Plunged into reopening the London missionary 5 (35m 19s): Societies work in Mongolia, but with no one to lean on quote companions, I can scarcely hope to meet. He wrote and the feeling of being alone comes over me as laborers increased. So did loneliness. He continues today. I felt a good deal like Elijah in the wilderness. He told his journal. He, he prayed that he might die. I felt drawn towards suicide. Two missionaries should always go together. Oh, the intense loneliness, the pain deep in when his proposal to a Scottish girl was rejected. 5 (36m 1s): I then put myself and the direction of this affair. I mean the finding of it, the wife into God's hands asking him to look me out. Good one too. He said in 1873, Gilmore visited friends in peaking and mr. And mrs. Meech seeing a picture of mrs. Mitch's sister, Emily pranks heard James asked about her as his hostess described. Emily James found himself falling in love. He gazed at her picture, saw some of her letters and asked more and more or questions early. The next year, James wrote to Emily proposing marriage in his first letter buy the same mail. 5 (36m 47s): He informed his parents in Scotland. I have written in a proposed to a girl in England. It is true. I've never seen her. And I know very little about her, but I have put the whole matter into the hands of him. God asking him if it'd be best to bring her, if it be not best to keep her away and he can manage the whole thing. Well, what a great perspective receiving Gilmore's letter. Emily took it at once to the throne of grace later, Gilmore re recall the first letter I wrote her was to propose. And the first letter she wrote to me was to accept by autumn. Emily was in China, arriving on this day, November 29th, 1874 a week later, they were married. 5 (37m 33s): Gilmore acquired both wife and colleague and they labored faithfully side-by-side for years reaching Northern China for Christ. This guy was in a dark place. You ever been there? You know, through this whole COVID experience, I read a medical journal yesterday. A statistic says that one in four young people are suicidal as a result of the lockdown, the shutdown, the, the, the reality that we can't be together. Like we watch you work together. It's a, it's a devastating impact of COVID on our culture around the world. What, what do you do? Where do you go? You find the Courage in the face of Trouble. 5 (38m 14s): I would just encourage you to Courage out to the Lord and watch what he will do. What do you need to Courage to overcome? Is it loneliness? Is it anxiety? Is it fear and uncertain future ask God for Courage and watch what he will do when we walk, when we with God and honor him, he gives us what we need every time. Every time first three says, so you can see, we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives 7 (38m 47s): Trickery. There 5 (38m 52s): from a pure motivation. Those outside of the church may have been questioning their motivation because they were drawing people away from idolatry into to serve this new living and true God as many turned from idols to serve the one and living true God, there may have been some jealousy, some confusion, or even anger from the townspeople. I remember I grew up in this town, so people know me. They know, they know what I was like before I knew Christ, and now they know what I'm like now. And so I, in junior high school, I gave my life to the Lord, but I didn't know what to do with my faith until I was about 17 years old, a junior in high school. And so about 17 years old as a junior in high school, I decided to give my whole life to the Lord, meaning that my life would reflect my decision to serve Jesus. 5 (39m 43s): I had made the decision to serve Jesus as a junior higher, but my life didn't reflect that decision. It took a few years. And so when I changed, people were perplexed about it because they would say is isn't that Steve, the guy that we used to smoke pot with, isn't that Steve, the guy that we used to ditch school with and go surfing with isn't that the same guy that we used to get into trouble with. Right? And now what happened to him? There's been, there's been a change. There's been, he's not the same guy that he used to be. Thank God for that. But there needs to be a change right? In our lives, in our beef before Christ days in our, after Christ days, there needs to be a transformation. And when that transformation happens, people question it they'll question the sincerity of it. 5 (40m 26s): They will question whether it's real and then they will stick around and wait to see if it lasts. So Paul, with the preaching of the gospel was upsetting the norm. He was causing people to be transformed by the message of the gospel. 7 (40m 43s): Okay. 5 (40m 44s): You know, people were probably perplexed when Paul was converted, CA was converted as well. And he, because one day he's persecuting the church and the next day he's a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. One day, he's killing people for following Jesus. The next day he's following Jesus in. And the church were, they were perplexed by the people in his circle. They were perplexed by it. So Paul's not unfamiliar with the reality that the gospel is going to upset the Apple card. It's going to change people and change and change people for the good. So he's, he's waiting for this to happen. And he's seeing this happen in cultures, as he's preaching the gospel, wherever he goes, people are questioning his motivation, questioning the method. 5 (41m 27s): The message are questioning everything, but Paul's motivation was pure. Verse four says for, we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the good news. Our purpose is to please God, 6 (41m 43s): Not people. He 5 (41m 44s): Alone examines the motives of our hearts. Where do you go? What do you find? Courage on the face of Trouble number one, 6 (41m 53s): God will give you Courage. But also number two, clear purpose produces Courage clear purpose produces. Courage do you have a clear purpose for your life? The purpose of our church is that we're going to impact our community and our world. What the life changing message of Jesus Christ. This is what we're here to do. Our, our visions. We want to impact our community and our world with the life changing message of Jesus Christ. That's what we're measuring everything against. And so when we hear the analytics that we've got, not only people from our church coming to church, but people outside of the community and around the world tuning in hundreds of week, hundreds of people a week tuning in where we were grateful that we're fulfilling what we feel called to fulfill. 6 (42m 41s): Where impacting our community and our world 5 (42m 43s): With the life changing message of 6 (42m 45s): Jesus Christ. What is your purpose statement? My personal purpose, 5 (42m 50s): Basically the same as our purpose statement for the Church 6 (42m 53s): Church I want to, I want to have an impact. I, I want to get to the end of my life and think about my life and one and, and realize I want to, I want to with great humility 5 (43m 5s): Say thank you, Lord, that 6 (43m 6s): There's been impact, right? I wanna, I wanna know that my life, I want to know, like Paul, I want to know 5 (43m 12s): That I finished. Well, then I ran the race and I finished the race, 6 (43m 16s): You know? And you can know that you can, you can do that. And what I want for you is I want you to know that, but you will never know that if you don't know what your purpose is, you'll never get to the end of your life and be able to hold on to that purpose and say, it is finished. I've done it by God's grace, right? Only by God's grace, because he is good. Not because we're good, but, but he works through us wonderfully in zebra. Now, supernaturally, he works through us. I want us to know when it's all said and done that God did something through us. Like there was something tangible and, and, and, and wonderful and supernatural. That happened as a result of the way that we lived our lives. And that's very possible. That's why we have purpose statements as a church. And that's why corporates, corporate businesses and others have mission statements because they want to know that what they're doing is, is actually accomplishing something. 6 (44m 3s): And there's a way to measure it. Are we impacting our community and our world of the life changing message of Jesus Christ. This is why church is open. Part of, part of my purpose statement is I want to create, I wrote it down. I'll just see if I can find it here. Part of my purpose is to create space for people to gather and worship corporately. So when Trouble comes and they want to shut us down, my courage comes from clarity about my purpose and our purpose. Our purpose, my purpose is to create a space 5 (44m 32s): Where people can gather, I believe were necessary, that were essential, that the church is essential. And so I want to create a place, a space for us to worship. And so that's why we're open. And that's what we're going to stay open by. God's grace, right? We're going to stay open by God's grace, clear purpose produces Courage where do you need courage in your life? If you attach purpose to that area of your life, all of a sudden you'll find Courage. If it's, if it's God's centered purpose, if God's planted something in your soul and is given you something to live for, then all of a sudden you're going to have Courage to accomplish those things. It will impact the way that, you know, 4 (45m 13s): You spend your time, your talent and your treasure will impact your whole life. It will in the best possible meaning of the word. It will wreck your life. You will make your life completely different than it's ever, ever been clear. Purpose produces. Courage what's your purpose. 5 (45m 33s): You could, because again, I want you to get to the end of your life, whether that's in a year from now or 20 years from now or 40 years from now, I want you to get to the end of it. And I want us as a church to be able to say this was this been my, my life, 4 (45m 45s): The purpose. And I realized it to the best, 5 (45m 49s): The best of my ability by God's grace, because he's good at that because I'm good. There was something wonderful and supernatural. 4 (45m 55s): It was accomplished in, in me and with me and through me. And then I just want to close my eyes and go be with Jesus. Amen. That's the best possible way to go, goodness. And all along the way. Cause you never know what's going to happen. Get step off the curb. And then you were with Jesus, right? And then what are you going to have to give an account for your life? Right? So you can't wait until you're, you know, out of high school to do this. You can't wait until you finish with college to do this. You can't wait until you're, you know, raise your kids to do this. 4 (46m 36s): Or until you have kids, you can't wait until you're, you know, retired to do this. You can't, you can't wait. You can't wait. What's your purpose. Now, 5 (46m 46s): Maybe as you grow and you get older, that purpose might change a little bit. Might get a little more defined 4 (46m 53s): Like you have kids. And then you're saying, man, my purpose is to make sure my kids serve the Lord 5 (46m 59s): That I live in such a way in relationship with them, that they fall in love with Jesus, like 4 (47m 3s): With Jesus, right? That becomes your purpose. You get married. 5 (47m 9s): You're like, man, I want my marriage to reflect the goodness of God. I want people to see in my marriage, the goodness of God, the love of God, the grace of God. I want people to 4 (47m 19s): See that in my life and marriage, 5 (47m 22s): Whatever season of life that you're in, God will give you purpose. 4 (47m 25s): This. That'll get you up in the morning. That will give you Courage tackle the things that God has called you to tackle. Paul was serious about his purpose and he understood it and he didn't play games with it. Never once. First five, 6 (47m 42s): Never once. Did we try to win you with flattery as you well know? And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends, just to get your money. As for human praise, we've never sought it from you or anyone else. Paul was living and serving for an audience of one. He was focused on God and he wanted to make sure that what he did properly reflected the person of God, the love of God, the grace of God, that the work of God, he wanted to make sure that it was like a mirror. Like you could look at his life and see the goodness of God through and through as apostles of Christ, verse seven says we certainly had a right to make some demands of you. 6 (48m 25s): But instead we were like children, that, that word means gentle like children. We were like children with you. We were gentle like children among you, or we like a mother feeding and caring for her own children. We loved you so much that we shared with you. Not only God's good news, but our own lives too. It wasn't, it wasn't this preaching thing. Wasn't a vocation for Paul. It wasn't like, this is what I do in my nine to five. And then I turned it off. I turned it on and turn it off. It wasn't, it just wasn't that, that it was his whole life. And he said, I'm giving you the gospel and I'm giving you my whole life, giving you the gospel. And I'm giving you my life. There's something powerful about Paul's connection to his purpose. 6 (49m 8s): He understood what he was here in the earth to do. He was connected to his purpose. What is your purpose? Are you connected to it? Do you know who you are? And do you know whose you are? Do you know where you belong and to whom you belong when you figure that kind of stuff out, 4 (49m 26s): It makes just, it makes life so much better. And it's just so much more fun. 6 (49m 32s): You wake up and you know, Hey, I know what I'm doing this week. I'm gonna impact my community, my world with a life changing the gospel message of Jesus Christ. I'm going to do something for Jesus this, this day, this week, I don't know what it is, but I know God's going to use me. And then you get to define things a little bit more clearly. And you, as you walk with the Lord, you say, I know that I'm called to this, this arena, this area of ministry, this arena, this area of service too, to the world with the gospel. I know that I'm called. And then you get, there you go. You get really good at it. You get it. You get the opportunity to practice and, and continue to drill down in that gift set and use your gifts for kingdom, 4 (50m 15s): The buses. So you're not going to start out very strong. Probably you just not remember. I was 18 years old and I was asked to preach a sermon going back before then I was about 17 years old and I was asked to do my grandfather's Memorial service to officiate my grandfather's Memorial service. That was a terrible idea. By the way, it was a terrible idea. I was grieving and trying to proclaim the gospel to my family as I'm trying to do as a Memorial, sir, it was, it was not a good idea, not a good idea, 6 (50m 58s): But it was the beginning. It was, it was what God, you know, 4 (51m 2s): You used to begin to shape me into, to teach me how to communicate. And then I got a chance to, like I said, when I was 18 to do a little sermon in front of the singles group of our church. And, and then over the years you got to do different things and, and, and there's just, God, God just kind of opened the doors. And I feel like, I feel like I'm still a rookie of that. As you know, I still feel like I'm just trying to figure things out. But I, I do have a confidence that God is doing something. God is doing something. And it's a confidence that God has had to teach me because we want to, there's a point to my sharing there. 4 (51m 45s): There's 6 (51m 45s): We, we, we want to diminish 4 (51m 48s): Our impact out of a false humility. And it's not God's design. If God's using us, we want to say, thank you God for using, thank you for using me. I, I don't want to say or do anything apart from your word or your will. So Lord just stick right with me as I'm doing what I'm doing, you know, you never want to be in your own steam. As I talked about last week, talking out of it in your own steam ministering in your own steam, a minister, doing the things that God has called you to do in your own steam. You always want to be prayerful and asking God for help. So now I can say that I've got confidence that when I get up to speak, God's going to do something. 4 (52m 32s): And I'm always surprised. I'm always surprised. I'm always surprised. Number one, when I can write a message and I tell this to Jolene almost weekly, I say, well, finished another one. I don't know how, but I wrote another sermon. And then I preach it. And after church, I say, well, there's another one of the can. And, and God did something good because people come up to me and say, how did you know, that's what I was going through? And I said, I don't know. I've no idea what you're going through other than what you maybe you've shared with me, but God knew. And so when people say great message, I say, isn't God good. 4 (53m 13s): Right? Isn't God good. Right? Or if it's a bad message, I say, yeah, I didn't get much sleep 6 (53m 18s): The last night, whatever it is. My point in sharing this up is don't your 5 (53m 26s): Impact on the world that you live, you are called to have an impact with your friends and your family. So don't say it. What was me? I can't do that. 7 (53m 36s): Yes, you can. By God's grace. 5 (53m 40s): Yes, you can. So that should be the answer. Yeah. I can do that Lord, because I know you're going to be with me and it's not an arrogant thing at all. It's but yeah, Laura, I can do that. Yeah. Yeah. You'll be with me. Yeah. And so God's getting all the credit, all the glory, and all we're doing is just kind of going along with his plan. Right. So it's not an arrogant thing to say, yeah, I can do this. I can, I can, I can go minister. I can, God's giving you an assignment. Say, yeah, I can go do that. Right? Teaching, teaching Bible college or Bible school classes, whatever it is, teach teaching in a small group, Bible study, praying with a neighbor, your neighbor comes to you and says, man, I I'm, I'm fearful. Well, can I pray for you? And just, and just pray. 5 (54m 21s): And then you say, Lord, help me to pray. And then you pray and you say, thank you, Lord, that you want me to pray. Right? You take it all back to the Lord. Right? And then he does something great. And you say, thank you, Lord, for what you're doing. Right? Cause that person comes back later and says, man, you won't believe how much that prayer impact in my life. And you say, well, God's faithful. Thank you, Lord. Right. That's just what it's all about. That's what Paul was doing. He was all about the kingdom. He's the smartest guy in town, but it's all about just giving God all the glory and all the credit, because that's what, in his own strength, he was not going to do anything for the Lord. Don't you remember? 5 (55m 1s): Verse nine, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among United in the day, we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preach. God's good news to you. You yourselves are our witnesses. And so is God that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you toward all of you believers. Where do you find courage in the face of Trouble will God will give it to you, but also clear purpose produces Courage and then number three, a clean conscience yields. Courage a clean conscience yields. Courage Paul clarify, clarified a few things in verse three. We won't go back and read the verse, but I'll just tell you what he clarified in. 5 (55m 43s): Verse three Said in verse three, his message was not deceptive, but true. Paul wasn't playing games, trying to deceive anybody. He was bringing the real gospel. Number two, his motivation was not in pure, but clean. His motivation was pure. He was all about Jesus. He wasn't trying to build anything. He wasn't trying to establish his reputation. He wasn't trying to do anything apart from what God had called him to do, his, his motivation was pure. His method was not to trick or to see, but to be straightforward, it wasn't trying to be impressive. Eloquent, smart. 4 (56m 26s): Wasn't trying to trick or look good or deceive. He was straightforward with the message and his conscience was clear. His conscience was clear, a solely conscience hinders Courage 7 (56m 41s): So deal with it. Deal with your solely conscience, deal with him. How do you deal with it? 4 (56m 48s): If you confess your sin, he is faithful. And just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, that's how you deal with it. Just confess it. Maybe, maybe there's areas of your life, where your conscience isn't so clean, A guilty conscience, clouds, our clarity in and robs us of any Courage to do the things that God has called us to do. So maybe you're here and you've been wrestling with something. That's something that the Lord is asking you to do and you haven't done it. So I say, Lord, I'm sorry for that. I haven't done that yet. I'm going to do it now. That's how you clear your conscience. Sorry that I haven't done it yet. Lord, I'm going to do it. Now. Part of repentance is changing your mind about something, right? You're you're saying I don't believe that anymore, or I don't want to be disobedient anymore. 4 (57m 33s): So, so sorry Lord, that I didn't do it. I'm going to do it now in your conscience. It will be clear when you do that, right? How's your conscience. Do you need to do something to clear your conscience? 7 (57m 50s): Okay. 4 (57m 50s): Do you need to pay back a debt? Do you need to repent of sin? 7 (57m 58s): And again, 4 (57m 58s): Sin. Repenting is not just saying, sorry about that. And then continuing in it, repenting is saying, sorry about that. I don't ever want to do it again. You actually change your mind about it and you turn and go the opposite direction. Do you need to have a tough conversation in order to clear your conscience? Do you need to say, sorry, 7 (58m 21s): Do you need 4 (58m 22s): To humble yourself? Do you need to admit around 7 (58m 24s): Long? 4 (58m 27s): God wants you to live with a clear conscience because you are empowered. And you're courageous. When you've had a clear conscience, you are empowered and courageous to do the things that God has called you to do. When your conscience is clear. When you know, by God's grace, you've done everything that he's asked you to do. And when you fall in short, you've quickly, you felt short accounts where the Lord and say, God, forgive me. I'm going to do it next time. And then when he asks you to do it again, you do it because you've repented of not doing it the first time. And by God's grace, you want to do it the next time. Because in our humanness, sometimes we get fearful and we are disobedient and we don't do what God has asked us to do. 4 (59m 7s): So he gives us a second chance. And then another chance we clear our conscience. When, when we say yes, you're right, Lord, I, I, I heard you and I disobeyed not making excuses. I heard you and I disobeyed, but I'm not to disobey anymore. I'm not going to do it. Paul lived in ministered with a clear conscience because this is true. We had the courage, he needed to face the Trouble that he faced, including false accusations and slander and beatings and imprisonment, verse 11. You know, and you know that we treated each of you as a father, treats his own children. 4 (59m 47s): Look at the depth of commitment and the relationship with the connection that he has with his people that he's serving. We pleaded with you, encouraged you and urge you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy, free, called you to share in his kingdom and glory at your part of your purpose, right there, he's called you to share in his kingdom and his glory. Therefore, we never stopped thanking God that when we received, when you received this his message from us, you didn't think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God, which of course it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe 7 (1h 0m 29s): . 4 (1h 0m 33s): So all we have to do is humbly obediently, open our mouth and do what God has asked us to do. And God will work through us, but we have to humbly and obediently open our mouth so that God can work through us. Like that's our parts. Yes, Lord. I'm going to be humble and obedient and I'm going to be available to speak whatever it is so that you can speak through me or simply conduit conduit. That's what I am. That's what you are. We're conduit for God. And then do your brothers and sisters. You suffered persecution from our own, from your own countrymen. And in this way, you imitated the believers in God's church, in Judea, who, because of their belief in Christ, Jesus suffered for, from their own people that you use. 4 (1h 1m 16s): So persecution will be part of the deal, but are we living for God? Are we living for the approval of man? That's what we got to decide. What is our purpose? Are we living for God? Are we living for the approval of man? Are we living before an audience of one says, God, your will be done. Not my will be done, or are we living to please the people around us? Because we're living to please the people around us, we will not please God sell them. Do they agree? 7 (1h 1m 45s): 4 (1h 1m 51s): For some of the Jews killed the prophets and some even killed the Lord. Jesus. Now they've persecuted us too. They failed to please God and work against all humanity. As they try to keep us from preaching. The good news of salvation to the Gentiles, by doing this, they continue to pile up their sins. But the anger of God has caught up with them at last 7 (1h 2m 14s): Kind 4 (1h 2m 14s): Of uncertain what Paul is referring to there. It could be referring to a lot of things, but John three 30, the writer there talks about the angry judgment against the unbeliever and the disobedient. So maybe there's just, this is just a general judgment that Paul is referring 8 (1h 2m 28s): To, 4 (1h 2m 31s): But the anger of God has caught up with them. At last, the people that were persecuting them, 6 (1h 2m 39s): They didn't believe, and they didn't want others to believe they weren't content. Just not to believe themselves. They didn't want others to believe like Paul self-righteous Pharisee, who didn't want to believe and didn't want others to believe. 4 (1h 2m 53s): And then the Lord got ahold of him and changed his life, changed his life forever and ever. Where do you find Courage on the face of Trouble Where Where did Paul Find Courage in the face of his Trouble. Well, God gave him Courage 6 (1h 3m 9s): His clear purpose produced Courage and then his clean conscience yielded Courage they all kind of worked together and it's a beautiful thing. And it's a powerful thing. And it's something that God wants to usher 4 (1h 3m 25s): You into and bring you into and make you 6 (1h 3m 27s): A part of. I'm grateful that when I'm in trouble, I've got a person, the living God, to cry out to you. I think about holding onto that piling and having that water go help water up, like what? I'm in trouble. Now I can call out to the living and true God and get an answer every time, every time, because he's, he's never gonna 4 (1h 3m 45s): Do you mean, or for sake, we just won't do it. The Bible says it's true and it's not been my experience. My experience is that he's only been faithful and that's what God says to him. He is not in his nature to be unfaithful. He's going to be faithful. So what, what is your purpose? You know, as we wrap up another year, we're coming up on December 1st, pretty quick. What is your purpose? I do talk about this every year. It's core to, to who I believe God has called me to understand purpose and to help people understand purpose. I, so I, what do you wake up in the morning on your mind to do what is his kingdom purpose attached to your daily routine? 4 (1h 4m 29s): And you're in the way that you spend your time, talent and treasure. Are you, are you intimately acquainted with the living God in such a way that he's got, he's got say over the way that you live your life, is he in charge? Is he, Lord, is he, is he the boss simple terms. You see the boss. If he's the boss, then he gets to tell you how to live your life. If you're the boss, then you get to, till you get to determine how you live your life. I've been the boss of my own life. I didn't do a very good job. Maybe you'll do a better job than me, 6 (1h 5m 5s): But I'm grateful 4 (1h 5m 6s): That I'm and what I'm in trouble. I've got the living God, the boss, who I can call out to you and he's faithful to meet me and to give me Courage with that, I'm gonna invite the worship team forward. So last couple of weeks, I asked you to come up with 12 things that you're thankful for this week. I'm asking you to write a statement, a purpose statement for your own life. What is, what is your purpose? Write that down in the margin of your Bible or on a sheet of paper or on your device and reference that from time to time on a regular basis, to see what God will say and how he might use you and how your life might change as a result. 4 (1h 5m 49s): So with that, let's go ahead and stand up. Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the opportunity to hear your message, hear your truth. I believe that you speak through it by, by your grace, the Lord, because you are good. And so thank you for what you've done. Continue that good work. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship. 0 (1h 6m 17s): Bring it all of the storms around me. 0 (1h 6m 27s): your name is 1 (1h 11m 34s): Amazing. Grace. 0 (1h 11m 36s): 1 (1h 14m 50s): The first verse together. One 0 (1h 14m 52s): More time. 1 (1h 15m 28s): Thank you that we see you a little more clearly this morning, having spent time in your presence and in your word, I had a spray that you would speak to each of us this week about the purpose and plan for our, each of our lives. God, thank you for this time to be together. I look forward to what you want to do in and through us this week ahead. So he laid out our lives. Give you our hearts today in Jesus name. Amen. Amen shirts. Well, we just want to say that we're always wanting time to pray with you. If there is something that we can pray with you this morning about come on forward. Love to do that. 1 (1h 16m 8s): Otherwise have a wonderful week, say hello to somebody on your way out and enjoy the beautiful sunshine day. We'll see you next Sunday. Take care.

0 (0s): Well, glad to have you here at Harvest this morning. I'm a pastor Dave. And if this is your first time with us, we're glad you're here. You'll hear more about that in a little bit. But this morning we're entering into God's presence. We've come here to worship often think of that, that som come and let us go into the mountain, into the house of our God. And this morning, as we start out, we're saying a lot about Jesus today. And I found something here a couple of months ago that I liked the quote so much that I, I printed it off and stuck it on the wall in my office. But I want to share it with you this morning. It says the name of Jesus is not only light, but also food. 0 (45s): It is also oil without which all food of the soul is dry. It is salt without whose seasoning, whatever is set before us is insipid. Finally, it is honey and the mouth melody in the ear, rejoicing in the heart. And at the same time medicine, every discourse in which his name is not spoken is without savor the name of Jesus. It transforms us, it shapes us. It is power. So let's get our hearts ready. We're going to pray now. 0 (1m 25s): And then we're going to get started worshiping the Lord, our Lord Jesus. Let's pray, Lord our God. I thank you. And I praise you this day that you are Lord of all that you are Holy, that you are a completely other, and yet at the same time, you love us. You know what it is to be a man. You know what it is, Lord Jesus, because you came and were tempted in every way, such as we are yet without sin, that you might pay the price that we owe and that we might bring glory and honor to you and power our hearts by your spirit this morning, Lord empower your hearts that we might worship you in spirit. 0 (2m 18s): And in truth that we might lift up that name of Jesus, that at your name, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. Our father. Thank you, Lord Jesus. In your name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Let's worship. 1 (2m 39s): We're going to sing a song about God's peace this morning. I teach you the chorus. Some of you might know this might be new to some of you. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Jeez, silence. Jesus. Geez. Geez, geez storms. 1 (3m 23s): cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese. 1 (4m 13s): Jesus. 1 (6m 14s): . 1 (8m 10s): We do call upon your names, the name above every other name that every knee will bow. Every tongue confess to you. You're the only one worthy of our praise. There's a whole lot of stuff in the world. Vies for our attention or affection or worthy. thoughts on you this morning, your faith in generations. 1 (9m 7s): where they have all the praise we do. 1 (15m 27s): You want to be more like you got your love BR from foundation that we build our life upon. We pray that people would see you in us, that we would reflect your love, your heart. To those that we can contact with thinking of that Christmas, Carol, that says let every heart prepare him room and how I just keep thinking how there's just so much in the world that tries to crowd out. 1 (16m 9s): Jesus. There's so much in our lives is constantly just crowding out space for him. Plus, let's be intentional this morning to make room for God in our lives to make room for Jesus in our hearts to make room for the spirit at work. In our midst, you prepare remarried hearts. As we head into this holiday season, even Lord that we wouldn't get so caught in all the busy-ness and all the plans that we forget why we're celebrating. So we surrender our will to yours and we say, come your . 1 (17m 4s): This is my Subaru. This is my it's your kingdom come and your will be done. 1 (22m 39s): We make room for you. We open our hearts to receive all that. You give us ears to hear, give us eyes to see Jesus name. Awesome. Church let's share some of that love of Jesus with each other this morning, by saying hello to someone around you. We'll be back and just a few moments this morning. 2 (23m 13s): All right. Good morning. Harvest Church good morning. Glad to see you all. Hey, my name is Jeremy. I'm the youth CA youth and family pastor here at Harvest and Hey, welcome. Glad to see you all. If you're joining us online, want to say welcome as well. Thanks for, thanks for tuning in Hey, today is family Sunday, and that means that we have donuts. The maple bars I'm told are all taken. I'm sorry. I'll have to change the order for that one, but a what family center is, is kids. First grade and up are here in, in the service with us. So if you are standing or sitting next to a student, tell them welcome because they're not just an instructor 3 (23m 55s): Part of the Church. They are a part of the Church. All right. Okay. 2 (23m 59s): So we're glad to have him in service with us. Hey, if you're you're new here with us, feel free to stop by the info center to get the find out ways to get plugged in, find out more about us. We also have a free gift for you, and you can also do that on the Harvest website, as well as on our app as well, man, exciting news. We are, the registration is open for our men's retreat in January, January 8th and ninth. And we're calling it throttling back, which is a interesting you normally I think men's retreats are like full bore or something, but throttling back this year is, is the theme. And I was thinking about this week and a few years ago, as some friends and I went from Apple Valley to Las Vegas on dirt bikes. 2 (24m 44s): And we took all dirt trails. We weave in our way through the desert. We came to this dry Lake bed, huge Lake bed. And I gave my friend my camera. I said, Hey, Jay, wait here and take a picture of me as I go by. So I went out about a mile or so, and CA came back and just ran to the gears, throw a full open throttle, flew by him at 93 miles an hour. And what am I, my vision do my vision went tunnel vision. I was just concentrating on right where I needed to go to buzz him, but not hit him. And as I pulled off the throttle, all of a sudden everything kind of comes into focus and every, you know, every everything comes alive and it's, and it's like that. I think with this retreat, I'm really excited about is our, our focus sometimes in life becomes so narrow that as we kind of throttle back, we get to see the big picture and the, and the big vision vision comes into paint. 2 (25m 33s): It gives us more Perspective so men you to sign up for that January 8th and ninth, and the signups are due by December 15th. Great job this year with Thanksgiving meal donations. Really? We did an, 3 (25m 48s): Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Breakfast in a while. So we are scheduling. 2 (25m 59s): We haven't had a men's breakfast in a while, so we're scheduling that for December 12th. Okay. So that keep, keep a look on your Bolton's for that email. So a Thanksgiving meal donations were awesome this year. We re we, we, the generosity this this year was above and beyond we've ever had. So thank you so much for, for showing up and giving to those families in need. Not surprisingly, it's been a different year. I think we all know that. So because of that, our Christmas ceremonies are going to look a little different. Our Christmas tree lighting ceremony is going to be Sunday, December 6th. Okay. Sunday, December six. 2 (26m 39s): And if you didn't know that the pine tree in front of our church is actually a donut or a designated the village Christmas tree. So we'll be lightened that, that guy up, seeing it some Christmas carols, Ron, we pulled the trigger and pulling the lights and doing the lights on. So join us for that. There'll be more information as a, as, as the time gets closer. And then one of the thing I forgot to mention before I show this a video clip is obviously we have the sanctuary open. We have a loft open, we have the patio, but we've made a new venue and that's in the parsonage and that's a mass only as designated zone. So if you only feel comfortable wearing a mask, the parsonage is for that in the lastly talks about the men's throttle back retreat. 2 (27m 24s): The sisterhood night of worship was incredible. My wife came back and my two older daughters came back was super-stoked. It was an amazing night. So we have a video to show that, and then pastor CA will come up. 1 (27m 37s): 2 (28m 60s): I never remember that. Here we go. Good joke. Here we go. You guys ready for a good solid joke? Yes. All right. Sweet. All right. So God told John come forth and receive eternal life. John came fifth, got a toaster. I tried, I knew it wasn't a good joke. I knew it was a bad joke in fact, but I tried to preface it with positiveness and it still fell flat. So whoever gave that joke to me, no five bucks for you. I did pay off a $5 debt that I have this morning. So I made this deal that if you give me a joke and I should actually qualify 4 (29m 43s): If I, if you give me a joke that I use and that people laugh at, not like a pathetic laugh, but like a real laugh, then you'll make five bucks. So there you go. Welcome. We're in first Thessalonians today. So we're starting a brand new series. And so as has been our kind of our has been typical for us with the last couple of studies that we've done. We've started out with the Bible project video, the Bible project videos kind of illustrate for us what the whole study is going to be about, kind of from start to finish. It kind of gives us the, the, the mile high view of the book that we are studying. So with that, let's take a few minutes and watch the Bible project video on first Thessalonians 5 (30m 28s): Paul's first letter to the festival. Ionians this is most likely the earliest letter that we have from Paul and the backstory for it is found in the book of acts. It's where Paul and his coworker, Silas went to the ancient Greek city of Thessaloniki. And after just one month of telling people the good news about Jesus, a large number of Jewish and Greek people gave their allegiance to Jesus. And they formed the first Church community there, but trouble was brewing Paul's announcement of the risen Jesus as the true Lord of the world, it led to a suspicion. So the Christians in Thessaloniki were eventually accused of defying Caesar, the Roman emperor, when they said that there is a, another King Jesus, and this led to a persecution that got so intense. 5 (31m 11s): Paul and Silas actually had to flee from the city, and this was painful for them because they love the people there so much. And so this letter is Paul's attempt to reconnect with the Christians in Thessaloniki. After he got a report from Timothy, that they were doing more than, okay, they were flourishing despite this intense persecution, he designed the letter to have two main movements. First is a celebration of their faithfulness to Jesus. And then he challenges them to keep growing as followers of Jesus. And then these two movements are surrounded by three prayers. The letter opens with the Thanksgiving prayer. The two movements are linked together by a transitional prayer. And then the whole thing is concluded with a final prayer. 5 (31m 51s): It's a beautiful design Paul opens by giving thanks and celebrating the Thessalonians, faith, their love for others and their hope in Jesus. Despite persecution, he goes on to retell the story of their conversion, how they used to be idolatrous polytheists. And they were living in a culture where all of life was permeated by institutions and practices that honored the Greek and Roman gods. And Paul talks about how they turned away from those idols to serve the living and true God. And that they're now waiting for the coming of God's son from heaven. So in a city like Thessalonica, transferring your allegiance to the creator, God of Israel, and to King Jesus. This came at a cost isolation from your neighbors, hostility from your family, but for the Thessaloniki ones, the overwhelming love of Jesus who died for, and the hope of his return, it made it all worth it. 5 (32m 43s): Paul then retells the story of his mission in Thessaloniki and of the dear friendships. He formed with the people he uses really intimate metaphors here. They treated him like their child, and he became like their mother and like their father. He says, we were happy to share with you not only the good news from God, but our very selves, because we came to dearly. Love you. Paul reminds us here that the essence of Christian leadership is not about power and having influence it's about healthy relationships and humble, loving service. He reminds them that he never asked for money. He simply came to love and serve them in the name of Jesus. And so Paul moves on to reflect on their common persecution, just like Jesus was rejected and killed by his own people. 5 (33m 29s): So now Paul is persecuted by his fellow Jews and the Thessalonians are facing hostility from their Greek neighbors. And Paul draws a strange comfort from knowing that together, their sufferings are a way of participating in the story of Jesus's own life and death. Paul then shares about the anguish he experienced when he heard of the hardships the Thessalonians had after he and Silas fled. So he sent Timothy to support them and see how they were doing. And to his joy, Timothy discovered that they were going strong. They were faithful to Jesus. They were full of love for God and their neighbors. And they long to see Paul as much as he longed to see them. And so Paul concludes with a prayer for endurance. 5 (34m 9s): And what's cool is that he introduces here the topics he's going to address in the letter. Second half, he prays that God will grow their capacity to love that he'll strengthen their commitment to holiness as they fix their hope on the return of King Jesus. So he opens the letter second movement by challenging them to a life that's consistent with the teachings of Jesus. So this means, first of all, a serious commitment to holiness and sexual purity in contrast to the promiscuous sexually destructive culture around with them, they are to follow. Jesus is teaching about experiencing the beauty and the power of sex within the Haven of a committed marriage, covenant relationship, God takes sexual misbehavior. 5 (34m 49s): Seriously. Paul says it dishonors and destroys people and their dignity following Jesus also means a commitment to loving and serving others. So Paul instructs them that Christian should be known in the city as a reliable people who work really hard, not just to make a money, but so that they can have resources to provide for themselves and to generously share with people who are in need after this Paul addresses a number of questions that Thessalonians had raised about the future hope of Jesus's return. So some Christians in the church had recently died, most likely killed as martyrs and their friends and family are wondering about their fate when Jesus returns. And so Paul makes it clear that despite their grief and loss, not even death can separate Christians from the love of Jesus. 5 (35m 36s): When he returns as King, he will call both the living and the dead to himself. And Paul uses a really cool image here. He uses language that would normally describe how a city subject to the Roman Caesar would send out a delegation to welcome or meet his arrival. Paul then applies this imagery to the arrival of King Jesus. He too will be greeted by a delegation of his people who will go to meet the Lord in the air as they welcome and escort him back to this world where he'll establish his kingdom of justice and peace. Paul then wants a testimonial to see how this hope should motivate faithfulness to Jesus. So he pokes fun at the famous Roman propaganda that it Cesar, who brings peace and security. 5 (36m 20s): Of course, Rome's peace came through violence through enslaving their enemies and military occupation. And Paul warns that Jesus will return as King one day and confront this kind of injustice followers of King Jesus should live in the present as if that future day is already here. Despite the nighttime of human evil around them, they should stay sober and awake as the light of God's kingdom dawns here on earth, as it is in heaven. Paul closes all of these exhortations. Like he began with a hopeful prayer that God would permeate their lives with his holiness, that he would set them apart to be completely devoted and blameless until the return of King. 5 (37m 1s): Jesus. First Thessalonians reminds us that from the very beginning, following Jesus, as King has produced a truly counter-cultural or Holy way of life, and this will sometimes generate suspicion and conflict among our neighbors. But the response of jesus' followers to such hostility should always be love meeting opposition with grace and generosity and this way of life. It's motivated by hope and the coming kingdom of Jesus that has already begun in his resurrection from the dead. And so holiness love and future hope. That's what first Thessalonians is all about 4 (37m 42s): Review for us. And if you're studying any book of the Bible, I'm pretty sure the Bible project people have videos for every book of the Bible. Most of them, if they don't have all of them by now, so you can always type in Bible project and then they a book of acts or Matthew or Galatians or whatever it is that you're studying, and you will get that type of an overview. And it just helpful for context, when you start reading the Bible, you kind of know what it's doing and what it's saying and where it's going. So, so this is one of Paul's earlier epistles. He wrote it pretty early on, but he had already experienced quite a bit of persecution in acts chapter 17. 4 (38m 25s): We read, we read about Paul's preaching to this church and planting a R P preaching to these people in the, in the town of festival. And I, I call it a festival and Annika, you can call it. I'm not sure the correct pronunciation. I've heard it both ways, but a Paul was there in a vessel Anika. And he was preaching there. And many people came to faith. And so they planted a church. But if you go back a chapter in acts chapter 16, we see that Paul and Silas were both imprisoned for their faith, for what were they doing? They were preaching the gospel. And so it tells us in acts chapter 16, that they were beaten with rods and that they were in prison. So it wasn't like a light duty persecution. It was heavy duty persecution. 4 (39m 6s): So we're not supposed to be having Church right now. I don't know if you knew that or purple. And so we humbly decided as an elder team to go ahead and have Church met with the team this week and went around each of the elders and asked, what do you guys want to do in light of this new closure for the church? And we all agreed one at a time that we would go ahead and have Church and continue to do what we've been doing since this whole thing started. Well, we, we kind of closed Church a little bit for a few, a couple of months during the beginning, then we realized we don't want to do that. So we're continuing on. So we might, you know, we're, we're kind of experiencing maybe a little bit a persecution when they say that retail stores can stay open, but churches have to close. 4 (39m 51s): There's something spiritual going on. So there might be some kind of persecution going on, but this is just a light persecution with more to come. It's a slippery slope when they start closing churches down and more persecution is likely to be coming down the road. So we we've yet to be beaten with rods, at least in this country and in prison. But in other countries that's commonplace for Christians. There's persecution, there's martyrdom, all kinds of stuff going on. So back to acts chapter 16, Paul had experienced some significant persecution while he's in prison. God does amazing things. We'll get to that. But, but I wondered as I was reading this and I've been, as I've been teaching through the epistles, I, I wondered how did Paul, Maintain a Godly Attitude and Perspective with all of the junk that he was going through. 4 (40m 42s): Th w that's the title of our message to you and the form of a question. How did Paul Maintain Godly Attitude and Perspective. And we see from this chapter, that's the first Thessalonians that he did about five different things really well, that kept him focused. That kept him maintaining his Godly Attitude and Perspective. And so we'll just get into first Thessalonians chapter one, and just kind of unpack it a little bit at a time. But before we do that, it's good. And stand up and pray. We're going to stand and ask the Lord's blessing as we open up the word. So Lord, we stand in honor of you, you and honor of your you Lord in a and an honor of your word, and we say, God, your will be done. I pray God that you would speak today to each of us. We need you to speak to us, Lord, and God, we're grateful that we can be here to have Church all over this campus and online, as well as people tune in and listen, I pray that wherever people are tuned in God, that you would speak God, that you'd move 6 (41m 34s): God that you would do what only you can do. God, thank you for this time. Thank you for your grace in Jesus name. Amen. You can be seated all over the place. You can be seated. 4 (41m 46s): First Thessalonians chapter one, greetings from Paul. This letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy. If you, if you read acts in the epistles, you see that guys like Paul and Timothy traveled with and ministered with Paul. These guys were active partners in his ministry. And so this letter is from Paul, Silas and Timothy. He said, we are writing to the church and festival and Nika to you who belong to God, the father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's identifying who his audience is. He speaking to those who belong to God, the father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. If you're here today and you belong to God and the Lord Jesus Christ, then God is speaking to you through Paul's letter as well. 4 (42m 26s): He said, may God give you grace and peace. Interesting. Paul says this in most of his letters, he says that this is kind of his typical greeting. May God give you grace and peace? This is Paul's Godly Perspective and Attitude. He wanted to extend grace and peace. This unmerited favor of God, which is grace and the Shalom of God, which is his peace. I find that those two carry the grace and the peace of God are actually able to extend that grace and peace to others. There's something that they carry, especially a guy like Paul, he'd been persecuted, he'd been in prison. He had been in all kinds of trouble as a diss, as an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ, as a preacher of the gospel, he had been in all kinds of trouble. 4 (43m 14s): And yet he's able to experience grace and peace in his own life. The unmerited, 6 (43m 20s): The favor of God and the Shalom, the peace of God, just saying that word Shalom. It has a calming effect. As I say it, it's like, Oh, praise the Lord. 4 (43m 31s): There's the peace of God that just kind of settles into your soul. So he's he had it. He experienced it supernaturally. So, and we're going to find out How but he had it, but he was also able to extend it. I thought this is a, this is a great heart check for me. Number one, do I have it? Do I have grace and peace? And if I do have it, am I able to extend it to others? It's easy to extend it to people who love me. It's more difficult to extend it to people who have, who are at odds with me. So I have this difficult conversation this week and I just been studying first Thessalonians. And so this whole idea of grace and peace was fresh in my heart and in my mind. 4 (44m 11s): And so, as I was having this difficult conversation, I remembered grace and peace. And so I, I actually communicated that to this person on the phone. I said, Hey, grace and peace to you. And then I prayed with them. And it was just, it was like a, it was like a bomb, a healing on my heart as I had this difficult conversation. And I didn't carry that difficult conversation with me after that conversation, I, we hung up the phone. I just felt that peace. I had what I extended. I had the grace and the peace of God, but it took some intentionality on my part. I had to say, I'm not sure I want to say this because I'm not sure that I want this for this person, but that's my flesh. 4 (44m 55s): I know that much, my spirit wants this for this person, my spirit, this thing that has been born again in Christ, this thing that has been filled with the Holy spirit, I, my spirit wants this for this person that I was talking to you and my spirit. I think like Paul wants this for every person that he comes in contact with. So it was a great, great challenge for me, a kind of a heart check. I love it. When I'm reading the scripture, maybe you do this too, but do you come across something? And you're like, Oh, that kinda like sticks in my, in my soul a little bit. It kind of grabs my heart. I'm like, Lord, what are you? What are you saying when that happens? What are you trying to communicate to me when that happens? And usually the Lord is trying to do a work, a heart work in me or some sort of work. 4 (45m 40s): And so I was able to say grace and peace and hang up the phone smile and had grace and peace. So I challenge you to be able to think about that too, to do that. I think sometimes we, we kind of gloss over statements in the scripture, especially opening statements. Paul says grace and peace, grace, mercy, and peace. He says these things a lot in his epistles. And so we can tend to gloss over them and miss what God wants to say. But I believe that every word of God is inspired and it's powerful and it's meant to communicate life and truth and grace to us. So it will slow down. I said, this last week, sometimes we just need to stop and just read one verse and just really allow the spirit of God to use that verse, to speak to us, to minister to us. 4 (46m 26s): So maybe this week, it's a, the grace and peace verse is yours, where you're just holding onto that and thinking about that and seeing what God will do. I think this communicates clearly where Paul's heart was as a minister of the gospel, as one who had been through very difficult, very difficult circumstances in his life in ministry. He was able throughout all of his epistles. Mostly I actually haven't checked all of them, but every one that I checked and said in some format in Timothy, he said, may grace, mercy and peace to Timothy my true child in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God, the father and Christ Jesus, our Lord first Timothy one, two, two Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from who? 7 (47m 17s): Where does it come from? God, 4 (47m 20s): It comes from God, the father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you're struggling this morning with grace, mercy and peace, go to the source of that, go the Lord, go to God and say, God, I, I need it for myself. And I need to extend it to others. And watch what will happen is you supernaturally receive that gift because this is the kind of thing that you, if you asked for the Lord, the Lord's gonna give it to you. And if, if you're struggling to receive it, he'll show you why you're struggling to receive it. Maybe there's a hardness of heart. Maybe there's unforgiveness. Maybe there's anger in your soul. And God wants to address that. But if we ask the giver of this good gift, we know in the Bible that it says every good gift comes down from the father of lights from God. 4 (48m 3s): And so this is a good gift that he wants to give 6 (48m 6s): Grace mercy and peace again. What a great filter is. I read that Lord, how's my soul or how's my heart. Is there anybody in my life that I don't want to extend that to? Is there anybody in my life that I don't want to say that too? And just do 4 (48m 27s): There's some personal inventory. And, and then if there is somebody that comes to mind and sometimes it'll just come, right? It's just come. And then other times it'll take some time and maybe you'll come across somebody. And you're like, Oh, that's the person, no way do I want grace and mercy a piece on that person? And then you get a chance to do some heart investigation and allow the Lord to do some heart 6 (48m 47s): Surgery. Can you say that to everyone? May God give you a grace and peace. How did Paul Maintain 4 (48m 54s): Godly Attitude and Perspective when people are picking at him, persecuting him, complaining about him, having a hard time with his ministry, misjudging him. 6 (49m 5s): Paul did five things. Number one, he remained thankful. 4 (49m 12s): First to first Thessalonians chapter one says, we all 6 (49m 15s): Thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly Paul remained thankful. He was 4 (49m 24s): Thankful. Not because his circumstances were awesome 6 (49m 27s): Because his hope was solid. He had a solid hope 4 (49m 33s): In the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And he believes solidly that the work that he was doing was kingdom work that had eternal value. And so he was willing to suffer as it were for a season. So that the message, the eternal message of the gospel might have an opportunity to go out. His hope was Christ and the eternal kingdom of God. There's a few things that hinder gratitude. There's a few things that hinder thankfulness, a critical spirit will hinder thankfulness. You ever experienced that like a critical spirit, like just critical spirit, is this you just kind of, you're critical of everybody and the critical of everything that will hinder a gratitude that will hinder thankfulness. 4 (50m 16s): But on the other hand, thankfulness and gratitude will cure a critical spirit. If we just determined, I'm going to have a good day, I'm going to be thankful for what I have in my life and for what is doing in my life. It over shadows, that critical spirit and all of a sudden we're able to enjoy life. We're able to have grace and peace and mercy in our own lives. And then all of a sudden, because we, we have it in us, we're able to extend grace and mercy and peace. So there's just something powerful that happens when we decide in jesus' name. I'm not saying we decided in our own strength, I'm saying in jesus' name, in the power of the Holy spirit, where determining to be thankful to have gratitude last week, I said, I, I said, we, we need to make a list of things that we can be grateful for a gratitude list. 4 (51m 5s): How many made their list? You don't have to write it down, but I just encourage you to think about it, right? What am I thankful for? And then just kinda make a mental note, or maybe you write it down. This is what I encourage you to do. Think about 12 things, because that really forces us to think about all the things that we're grateful for. Right? So we can come up with a few off the top of our heads, but when we really have to stop and think about 12 and come up with a list of 12, that really causes us to do some personal inventory and come up with some things that are really important to us, but maybe we have 6 (51m 37s): Taken for granted. We can take things for granted pretty easily, right? 4 (51m 41s): Like things that have always been kind of good. 6 (51m 43s): We kind of take it for granted, but if we can just stop, just say, thank you, Lord, for whatever it is. Like, I've never missed a meal in my life, right? But every meal we say, thanks, right? Thankfully I've never had to miss a meal, but every meal we say, thank you because we are genuinely thankful, Lord, thanks a few that we've not missed a meal that we don't have to miss a meal that we have provision. Thank you, Lord. We were praying on the way into church this morning. Thank you that we have a church to go to you and that we have a roof over our head that we've got cars to drive. You know, you could think about all kinds of things. W when you, when you're forced to come up with 12, you get past all of those kinds of easy things that come to mind and you really get down to the nitty gritty. 6 (52m 24s): And then, and then something beautiful begins to happen. And your soul, you become grateful in that critical spirit just begins to make its exits. So a critical spirits hinders gratitude, unforgiveness, jealousy, disappointments 4 (52m 42s): It's Thanksgiving week. Let's determine this week to be, 6 (52m 45s): Be grateful to have a thankful heart. We talked about gratitude last week. We're talking about it this week, make a list, make a list and see what the Lord will do in your hearts. Paul did five things to maintain a Godly Attitude and Perspective number one a year. 4 (53m 3s): Thankful. Number two, he prayed 6 (53m 6s): Constantly. We see that in verse two. Also, we all 4 (53m 9s): Thank God for all of you and pray for you. How often constantly, right? Prayer is the lifeblood. It's like I said, last week. And a lack of breath will cause us to die. Physically. A lack of prayer will cause us to die spiritually. We absolutely to pray. It's the lifeblood in everything that we do. And when we are praying, we have the capacity to go through any season of life, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And we maintain a level of trust. Sometimes we go through hard stuff and it shipwrecks our faith hard stuff is not meant to shipwreck our faith. Hard stuff has meant to solidify our faith. We're saying, Lord, I see your faithfulness in the midst of hard stuff. 4 (53m 52s): I believe you even more. I determined to trust you even more. So hard stuff is not meant to shipwreck us hard stuff is meant to solidify, to help us to find a way 6 (54m 3s): Feet on solid ground. Spiritually life is full of heart stuff. If we will pray constantly 4 (54m 12s): Without ceasing, like never stop praying. If we will pray, God will meet us. So we just pray. And I 6 (54m 22s): Said, I said this all the time, when I'm up here 4 (54m 24s): Preaching, I'm sometimes praying as I'm preaching. As I was praying a few minutes ago for the service, I was praying out loud and then praying to myself, kind of Lord, help me get this message out the way it needs to get out. Like I'm praying what you can hear. And I'm praying things that God can hear that, and God hears it all. So there's just something about that humble desperation where you're saying, God, I need you. I need you to show up in this relationship and this decision at work, I need you to show up in my personal life. I just need you to show up. When we do that, 6 (54m 59s): God will do wonderful and supernatural things. Giving us the ability to cope in the most devastating of circumstances. I have this book it's titled what happened this day in Christian history. So today's November 20 seconds. And in November, 1873, something happened. And I'd like to read that story. Just take a moment. 4 (55m 21s): In November, 1873, Chicago, lawyer Horatio. 6 (55m 25s): She Spafford took his wife and four daughters, Maggie to Netta Annie and Bessie to New York and boarded them on the luxurious French liner. SS Vila do a whore brain. I think that's how you say that 4 (55m 42s): The great Chicago fire had destroyed everything 6 (55m 45s): They owned and Spafford was sending his girls to an English Academy until the Chicago schools and his own life could be rebuilt. As he saw his family settled into their cabin and unease filled his mind and he moved them to a room closer to the bow of the ship. Then he said goodbye, promising to join them later in France, during the small hours of November 22nd, 1873, as the ship Godly glided over smooth seize, the passengers were suddenly thrown from their bunks in a jolt. The ship had collided with an iron sailing vessel. The low Shern water poured in like Niagara and the ship tilted, dangerously, screams, and prayers and Oh, submerged into a nightmare of unmeasured terror passengers losing their footing, clung to posts, rumbled through darkness and were drenched by powerful currents of IC in rushing. 6 (56m 44s): See loved ones fell from each other's grasps and vanished into foaming blackness. Within two hours, the mighty ship disappeared beneath the nocturnal waters. The 226 fatalities included Maggie to Netta, Annie and Bessie. Ms. Spafford was found nearly unconscious cleaning to a piece of the wreckage. Nine days later, when the survivors landed in Cardiff Wales, she cabled, her husband saved alone. He immediately booked passage to join his wife on the way over on the way over on a cold December night, the captain called him aside and said, I, I believe we are now passing over the place where the ship went down. 6 (57m 34s): Spafford went to his cabin, but found it hard to sleep. He said to himself, it is well, the will of God be done in later. He wrote this famous him based on his words when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot that was taught me to say it as well. It as well with my soul, Her ratio survived that experience because he knew God. We don't know for sure, but I would imagine that he was a man of prayer who developed trust in the face of the most difficult of life, circumstances and situations. 6 (58m 26s): He prayed constantly. We assume. And we know that he was faithful. When the worst of circumstances hit his life. I don't know how you can survive the worst of his circumstances that hit your life apart from a constant prayer life. Have you learned to pray and trust and with confidence in God, through all the seasons, it's easy to pray with trust and confidence in God and when the seasons are good. But what about the rest of the seasons? Paul prayed constantly in good times and in bad. And I wonder if we decided to do the same, have we decided to trust God in the same way? 6 (59m 12s): Praying constantly, no matter what we're up against. How did Paul? Maintain a Godly Attitude and Perspective number three. He focused on the good, 4 (59m 23s): We live in a culture that mostly focuses on the bad shit on the news. It's mostly bad news, mostly bad news. The news agencies would be out of business. If it weren't for a mad news, they report it constantly. Paul focused on the good. He loved the church. She loved the people of God. He called the Church, this this'll Thessalonians Church he called it his pride and joy chapter two verse 20. In fact, he wanted to visit again after he got rushed out of there and acts chapter 17, but it says in acts chapter two, or excuse me, in Thessaloniki and chapter, chapter two, verse 18, he wanted to return, but Satan prevented him. 4 (1h 0m 4s): Isn't that interesting. We have an adversary. The devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. You would think that with Paul's credentials, his work with the Lord, that nothing could keep him from doing that, what that, what he wanted to do and felt called to do. But certainly Satan was able to keep him. And so Paul did the next best thing and he wrote a letter. And thankfully he did, because we study that letter that epistle to this day Paul did what he could do. He wrote a letter focusing on their good works Paul needed to, we had to hold onto his optimism, his hopefulness for his own good. And for the good of those, he served, it wouldn't have done anybody, any good of Paul lost his, his optimism and his hopefulness, but he held onto it so that he might continue to minister most effectively. 4 (1h 0m 55s): God's God wants you to hold onto your hopefulness as well, because it's out of that place of hopefulness optimism, trusting God that you're able to minister most effectively. If you've lost all hope and lost all faith as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, you're not able to be salt and light in the earth. Paul decided to focus on the good, he focused on the good and he focused on the good things that they were doing. And this is what it says in verse three, as we pray to our God and father about you, we think about your faithful work. I wonder what faithful work he's talking about. Well, Paul, Paul's faithful work in acts. Chapter 17 is he went to the city in Thessalonica festival and ICA and he preached and people got saved and they planted a church. 4 (1h 1m 39s): So I would imagine that the faithful work that Paul is talking about is that this is a continuation of the good work that Paul started, that we read about knack or that we read about in acts chapter 17. They continued the very good work and that's really what God has called us to do. He said, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy spirit. We've got a responsibility to do what this Church did. As a church. We get to do faithful work that God has called us to do. So Paul focused on the faithful work and their loving deeds. Now this is a church that suffered persecution, and yet they were known for their loving deeds. This is not a supernatural, I think a supernatural. I don't think we can do that. 4 (1h 2m 20s): Apart from the supernatural power of God at work within us. Like, I can't love people that are mean to me unless the Holy spirit gives me grace to do so. Like I want to be mean to people who are mean to me, that's my natural human inclination, right? But that's not what God wants me to do. You asked me to have loving deeds, loving action, loving heart toward people who don't like me. We can't do that apart from God, right? We need to be empowered. We're going to talk about that next. We need to be empowered by the Holy spirit. As we're empowered by the Holy spirit, we can do those supernatural things that God asks us to do. And listen to everything that God asks us to do is supernatural. 4 (1h 3m 1s): It requires his power. We don't want to do it in our own strength. We do not want to do it in our own strength. Verse four says, we know dear your brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. So now through the difficulties that they're having, let me go back to a verse three. As we pray to our God and father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds and your enduring hope in the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. That is true about you. God absolutely loves you. And he's called you and has chosen you to be his own people. 3 (1h 3m 46s): Commercial break. There's no need to ignore the obvious. Got 4 (1h 3m 56s): It. Sweet. All right, let's continue. 3 (1h 4m 3s): Oh, thank God for technology. 4 (1h 4m 7s): Train of thought. Here we go. Trying to find it. Here we go. Yes. Yes. Yes. So Paul focused on the good things that this church was doing and he encouraged them with truth. Listen, when we have a Godly Perspective and Attitude, we can do the same thing. We can focus on the good that others are doing. And then we can speak life and encouragement to them. Jesus loves you. Jesus. He loves you. Jesus loves you. And you are his chosen people. He loves you and he's chosen you to be his own people. It's rather easy to focus on the good with people in circumstances that we like. 4 (1h 4m 48s): It's really difficult to focus on the good in circumstances that we don't like. And with people that we don't like, but maybe, maybe this is what God wants us to do. Paul had difficult circumstances, difficult people around him, but he was filled with the Holy spirits were in chains, but we can pray and sing. Like they can't take that away from us, 3 (1h 5m 16s): Right? We're up against 6 (1h 5m 18s): Difficulty. Paul 4 (1h 5m 20s): Silas in a prison, but we can pray and sing songs and hymns, 6 (1h 5m 28s): The jailer is maybe unfair as they're in prison. 4 (1h 5m 33s): But the truth is God loves that guy. 6 (1h 5m 37s): And 4 (1h 5m 37s): Paul had a vision possibly for this guy because the jailer ends up getting saved. So the story is Paul and Silas are in jail. It's a late night, there's singing and praying. And this major earthquake hits the jail and it rattles that the chains on them. So they come off and the doors swing open and the jailer, the Philippian jailer, he thinks that surely it's, everybody's gone, the doors are open. And so he's going to kill himself because all of his prisoners have escaped. But Paul cried out to him. Stop. Don't take your own life. We're all still here. And that opened the door for Paul to be able to preach the gospel. 4 (1h 6m 20s): He and his whole family got saved and baptized that night powerful stuff, right? Because Paul's, Perspective kind of Godly Perspective and Attitude. And so we had a expectation. He believed that God was going to do something. When we're filled with the Holy spirit, we have a God-sized expectation like this isn't a possible scenario, but I'm believing for impossible answers from God. God comes through in the impossible, because he's the God of the impossible. And we see this over and over again in the scripture, this situation seems unjust, but God is on the throne. I mean, Paul, he could have gone all kinds of different places. Lord, you know, we're doing all this good stuff for you. Why, why are we in jail? 4 (1h 7m 1s): Why are we being persecuted? Why, why, why? But he didn't knew that he said, you know what? I'm going to pray and I'm going to sing and just leave the rest to the Lord and watch. And God did that. God opened up the doors and there was a great Harvest of, of, of souls added to the kingdom that night. How did Paul Maintain Godly Attitude Attitude and Perspective number four. He was empowered by God. Hallelujah. Right? I mean like, this is the best part of being a Christian besides salvation. We've got the Holy spirit in us. We're empowered by the living. God who gives us wisdom and compassion and grace and clarity when we need it. 4 (1h 7m 43s): He is forever with us for when we brought you the good news. Paul wrote in verse five, he was not only with words, but also with power Paul didn't minister out of his own steam. Often we're trying to do stuff out of our own steam. We're trying to minister out of our own steam. We're trying to do life out of our own steam. Paul didn't preach at him, his own steam. He didn't write letters in his own steam. He didn't live his life out of his own steam. He lives as a man who was filled with the Holy spirit. The Bible says, if you're saved, if you're in Christ, you've got the gift of Holy spirit. The paraklete the helper, the one who is forever with you in your life, Paul was filled up. 4 (1h 8m 25s): Some of us need to get refilled up, right? Apparently we leak. I say that all the time, but it's true. We somehow leak and we need to be continually filled with the Holy spirit. Paul understood that he did it and get filled up with God and get the grace that you need for your life and for your circumstance, get the love that you need. It's it's a holiday season. So you're going to be seeing family that maybe you haven't seen since last holiday season, and it could be good or it can be very difficult, right? So get the grace that you need for the people that you will be seeing so that you are salt and light to them so that your grace and mercy and peace to them, you're experiencing it. 4 (1h 9m 10s): And you're able to give it by God's grace. If we brought you the good news, it was not only with words, but also with power for the Holy spirit gave you a full assurance. Listen, when the Holy spirit is in you, he's going to empower what he's doing and then he's going to give a shore. And so if you're sharing the gospel with somebody through the power of the Holy spirit, then God will cause the person that you're speaking to to be, to be ministered to, they will resonate. And they will begin to understand that truth. That may take a lot of conversations and a lot of prayer, but God will do the work with you. He is leading in the process for the Holy spirit gave you full assurance. That's what he did in this Church that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you. 4 (1h 9m 52s): So their lives reflected the gospel. There was consistency in the way that they lived among the believers are the believers and the non-believers there. And they did an amazing work. Again, Paul didn't speak in his own steam. He didn't live that way. He didn't write that way. The spirit of God filled him and affirmed his work. We can't do anything God asks us to do unless he's filled us with his spirit 9 (1h 10m 17s): And listen, we don't even want to try. Even when we 4 (1h 10m 20s): Figure something out, like sometimes we we've been doing something for a long time. We've like, figured it out. Look, okay. I know how to do this Lord. Aye. And we kind of lose sight of our desperate need for him. Like our desperate need for his power to speak through us because we need him. We need him, whether we're teaching Sunday school or whatever it is that we're teaching or whether we're praying with somebody, we don't even want to pray without the power of the Holy spirit, because we don't know how to pray without the power of the Holy spirit. We just pray out of our hand. We can, we don't pray out of our spirit when we're not filled with the Holy spirit. We're just praying Lord help this person. We're not, we're not getting a hold necessarily of what God wants to say. Maybe the Lord wants to speak something powerfully through you in your prayer time with a person. 4 (1h 11m 3s): And so you're saying, Lord, would you pray through me? Would you show me how to pray? Would you teach me? Would you show me something that I can, that will touch this person's life? So that it's just not words Paul, didn't come with empty words. He came with empowered words and that's why they've stood the test of time. It's it's the, it's the Bible. It's God's word for us. We, we can speak with a four T and Jesus, when we're filled with the Holy spirit, there's just something about it. So don't do anything. Even if you did think, you know how to do it, just say, Lord, I think I know how to do this, but I don't want to do it without you, whatever it is that you're doing. Like I've been married for 40 years, Lori, and I think I know how to do this, but I don't want to do it without you, Lord. 4 (1h 11m 44s): I I've been whatever I've been doing this job for 50 years. I, I think I don't want to do it without you Lord, whatever it may be. Just continue to get humbled before the Lord and get desperate before him and watch what he will do. It'll be wonderful and supernatural stuff that only he can do ask God for it. Ask God for it. Ask again and again and again, how to Paul Maintain a Godly Attitude and Perspective number five. As we get ready to wrap up, he celebrated the success of others. Paul wasn't all about himself. He was celebrating the success of others. There's something wonderful about that. There's something powerful about that. When we can celebrate the success of others, this is what he wrote in verse six. 4 (1h 12m 29s): So you received the message with joy from the Holy spirit, in spite of severe suffering, it brought you wow. They received it with joy. In spite of the severe suffering, they received it with joy in spite of the severe suffering. I'm not sure that we have in the Western church. We have the capacity for that yet, but we may have to develop the capacity for that to receive the message, to do what God has called us to do with great joy. In spite of the severe suffering in this way, you would limit you imitated both us and the Lord, listen to suffering and sacrifice as a part of the call, suffering and sacrifice as part of the call, suffering and sacrifice is part of the gall. 4 (1h 13m 15s): It's it's it's not so much in this nation yet, but it's common. It's common. And if we're not ready, we're not going to be ready, but we can get it ready and say, Lord, We need to declare before it even happens, Lord, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's coming down the pike, but I'm going to stand for you no matter what, no matter what the persecution, whatever that looks like I was, I was a bit nervous coming into this weekend. And I'll be honest with you. I was nervous. I, I dunno why I was more nervous this time than the last time we made the decision. I just, I just was feeling anxious about it. I was like, Lord, even though we had full support of the elder team, everybody was in unanimous agreement to go ahead and open up. 4 (1h 13m 56s): I just felt nervous. I talked to my brother last night and he said, Hey, I talked to a, we've got a mutual friend who is a local politician. And he said, I talked to, I talked to so-and-so, I'm going to leave this person anonymous. But he said, I, I talked to so-and-so and I asked, are you going to shut our Church 6 (1h 14m 12s): Down? And this person said, Nope, we're not going to follow the, the guidelines the governor set out. And when I heard that, I thought that's, I needed to hear that know, we were talking about this, this Shalom of God earlier, man. That was like the peace, the Shalom that I needed. I was like, ah, 4 (1h 14m 29s): I mean, I like, I'm not afraid of people, but I'm afraid of people, you know, that sort of thing. It's like, I am a humanist. I want to stand strong. But there's times when I'm afraid. Right? And I don't know how to stand strong sometimes. But when the Lord 6 (1h 14m 43s): Gave me that, I was like, okay, I can let this go. We're going to have Church and we're not alone there. Other churches in the community who are doing the same thing that we're doing, I've heard of a couple of others. 4 (1h 14m 53s): Church is. And there's probably more just people doing the same thing 6 (1h 14m 57s): That we're doing. Having Church a triangle 4 (1h 14m 60s): Trusted the Lord in the midst of it. Not in any way, are we trying to be arrogant about it? Got it. 6 (1h 15m 6s): But God's not impressed with that. We're just trying to be humbly doing what God has called us to do. We're not boasting about it to anybody. We're not being critical of others who aren't doing it. We're just saying, you know what, for us, for Harvest Church, we're going to have Church inside, outside, online, everywhere we can. We're going to have Church. They received the message. In spite of the severe suffering, they received it with joy. As a result, you have become an example to all the believers in Greece, throughout both Macedonia and a K. Yeah. This 4 (1h 15m 40s): Church exemplified true discipleship. 6 (1h 15m 43s): And the result was 4 (1h 15m 44s): First eight. And now the whole, the word of the Lord is, is ringing out from you to people everywhere. Even beyond 6 (1h 15m 52s): Macedonia in a yeah, for wherever 4 (1h 15m 55s): We go, we find people telling us about your faith in God. Like the faith of this church was, was resounding all over the region. We don't need to tell them about it for, they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. So that's a lot. I go, this is a big city, probably a couple, a hundred thousand people bigger than our area, a couple, a hundred thousand people. And so there was, there was a diversity, there all kinds of different idolatrous things, things that were were temptations to this church and they were sick of it. They were like over it. They knew that all of the things that the world had to offer was leaving that empty. 4 (1h 16m 37s): And so when Paul came and preached the gospel and told them about the Messiah, they were like, this is real. This is genuine. The person who preaches it is real and genuine. And this message is real and genuine. They keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. But they understood something about turning away from their idols to the living. God, they turned away from something so that they might turn to the living. We have to do the same thing. We have to decide to turn away from our idols in this culture. We've got all kinds of idols as well, all kinds of things that get our attention and keep our attention. 4 (1h 17m 20s): And I wonder if we're willing to turn away from things that are getting our attention, maybe it's money. Maybe it's just stuff that you've accumulated and liked to collect. Maybe it's a relationship or a hobby or a sport. 6 (1h 17m 35s): What is it? 4 (1h 17m 36s): If anything that the Lord is saying, Hey, you you're, you're spending way too much time and attention that you can't, you can't serve God. And anything else you can't serve God in any thing else, verse 10 says, and they speak of how you are looking forward to the coming of God's son from heaven. Jesus whom God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment. Jesus is coming again and there's a coming judgment. Are you, are you ready for that? Are you ready for that? There's going to be a judgment that leads to a, a, a, you know, a, a Jew for those who aren't saved, there's going to be the great white throne judgment where those who are judged there will go into eternal fire hell. 4 (1h 18m 22s): And then there's a judgment upon believers as well. That will determine the rewards that we receive in heaven. We're going to be, our lives will be judged. Did we live our lives according to God's plans and purposes? Or did we live them for ourselves? We might. Some of us might have fire insurance. Well, I'm not totally sure that that's a biblical thing because the requirements for salvation is that we trust Jesus as Lord, Lord, and savior. So he wants not 30% of our life, like, okay, what's what's one seventh of the week. He doesn't like what one seventh, right? He's not like wanting your Sunday. 4 (1h 19m 3s): He wants your Sunday, your Monday, your Tuesday or Wednesday, your Thursday or Friday. And yes, your Saturday, he wants your Saturday. He wants 24, seven Sunday through Saturday. Pretty sure he wants it all. He wants it all. He wants a 24 seven. He wants it all because that's what Lordship is. When some, when you're owned by somebody, they own you all, they own all of you. Right? Right. We are bond servants, servants by choice to God. So he owns us. We've been bought with a price Calvary. We're going to be taking communion here shortly. We, we need to live in such a way that we are owned by God, that we've been bought with a price that we've been adopted into his family, that he loves us. 4 (1h 19m 48s): And that he's wants to lead our every area and arena of our 6 (1h 19m 52s): Lives. Does that make sense? It's hard stuff though, right? Like not really though. Let's just be honest. It's not really that hard. 4 (1h 20m 3s): If you do these five things, it's not really a hard remain. Thankful, pray, constantly 6 (1h 20m 10s): Focus on the good, be empowered by God. Celebrate the success of others. It's just when, when we just get up and decide by God's grace and then repent quickly when we fall short, it's not that difficult. I don't mean to oversimplify it, but it's just not that what's makes it difficult is when we don't want to give up the things of the world, when I don't want to give up that thing, then it's difficult. Then it becomes this big wrestling match. But when I say, God, I give it to you and I want to continue to give it to you. And I know we've got addictions in our lives. We've got things. People have addiction and people have difficult things that are, that are nagging at them and lifelong stuff. 6 (1h 20m 50s): All of that stuff is navigate. Navigate. We can navigate it when we've got the power of the Holy spirit at work in our lives. I don't mean to make light of it. I know people go through hard stuff. I've been through hard stuff, but, but when we decide that we're all in, God gives us the grace to do what he's called us to do anyway, enough of that heaviness there and a half of that let's invite the worship team forward. And we're going to take communion. Can I get an element? Can I who's passing out elements today? Can I get one of those? Thanks very much. Thank you, pastor Ron. Okay. One, one. It is. So we get a chance to take communion on the fourth, Sunday of every month on family Sunday. 6 (1h 21m 34s): And it's just an opportunity to reflect on 0 (1h 21m 37s): What Jesus has done for us. And 6 (1h 21m 39s): So through COVID we've got these fancy little individual servings. So go ahead and get started by peeling off the very top layer of clear plastic. And that will give you 0 (1h 21m 50s): The wafer first Corinthians 1123 says for, I pass on to you. What I received from the Lord himself 6 (1h 22m 5s): On the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread 0 (1h 22m 8s): Ed and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke 6 (1h 22m 12s): Pieces and said, this is my body, which has given me 0 (1h 22m 15s): For you. Do this to remember me. It's take the for, thank you for the wafer that represents your body, your body, that was crucified, nailed to a cross and Pierce. Thank you that you did that for me. I did that for us. The wages of sin is death. Thank you that you died in my place in our place. The free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. 0 (1h 22m 56s): Our Lord. Thank you for that learning in the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Squinting the juice. Thank you so much, Lord, thank you for the juice that represents the blood that was spilled so that our sins might be forgiven. 0 (1h 23m 48s): I don't know how to understand it. Other than theologically that's God's design that his blood was spilled and it's got cleansing properties, cleansing power. The blood of Christ makes us as white, as snow clean, cleansing us from every sin. Every failure, every mistake. If you're here today and you've never received the grace and the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ. You can, you, whether you're watching online or on campus somewhere, you simply acknowledge your need for Jesus. And when you do, you say something like this Lord, I need you. 0 (1h 24m 31s): I, I need you. I need you to forgive me. I need you to cleanse me. There's some here that just feel dirty. And God wants to cleanse you from that experience. And you need to believe that when God covers your sin, he cleanses your sin. He forgives your sin. He races your sin. He eliminates your sin and he no longer holds it against you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you Lord. 0 (1h 25m 12s): For those who are receiving your grace gift for the first time, bless them, Lord, God bless them with new life. Fill them with your Holy spirits. God, for those who need to renew their faith commitment to you, Lord, I pray that that would be happening now as well. And some people who are renewing, they feel dirty Lord. And I pray God that that would be eliminated in Jesus name. The enemy is a liar. He's always trying to deceive us, making us feel bad about ourselves, lying to us all the time. If we confess our sin, he is faithful. And just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, that's what the Bible says. 0 (1h 25m 54s): That's the truth. Thank you for that truth. So confess your sin and watch what God will do. Lord. We love you. We thank you for your mercy, your grace. We thank you that you've saved us. That you've sanctified us. Lord. You're in the process of sanctifying us and making us more and more like you. We love you and we need it. Lord, thank you for this time. Bless us as we continue to worship, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Let's go ahead and stand and worship. 1 (1h 26m 39s): I see , your presence here with a brand that you would go with this all to where we just fill our hearts and we can reflect your love. 1 (1h 30m 50s): Everyone. It's a safe and healthy until we meet together again. And Jesus, thanks so much for joining us today. If anyone has needed a prayer this morning, please don't leave without getting some come on forward and we'll have some folks love to pray with you today. Otherwise I have a wonderful day to worship together. Again, next time. Take care.

0 (0s): Well, good morning, everyone. Welcome to Harvest. My name is Sherrilyn. If we haven't met yet, delighted to worship together with you all this morning, you may notice if you're in the house, we have an extra cameraman floating. We're just capturing some video. That can be part of a welcome video for folks to go to our website and are kind of looking for a picture of what it's like to worship here. So yeah, he'll be floating around, but do you just worship and you don't even have to mind him. We're just going to dive in this morning. Would you stand with me? And we'll pray. We'll dive in today. Solar. We're just so grateful just for the freedom. 0 (41s): We have to come into your house and worship. God, thank you so much for everyone who is here on campus and tuned in from home or wherever they're watching. We are one body we gathered together as sons and daughters to worship you this morning. As surely as the sun rises, God, you are faithful every morning. Great is your faithfulness towards us. So we worship you today. When we sit our hearts, our attention, our affection on Jesus this morning, we asked you to be in our midst that you would change us and she would make us more like you draws near to your heart today in Jesus name. 0 (1m 25s): Amen. 0 (1m 26s): we're not orphans anymore. 0 (12m 17s): Bod, with the prize rescue, you might know this old little chorus. Geez, geez. let's try that again. 0 (12m 59s): for your great lift for us. 0 (13m 45s): Amazing grace. 0 (13m 49s): missing that first together, still beautiful voice. 0 (17m 29s): Now we see clearly you see the receipt on Marcy's graceful. Give us the eyes to see what you're doing in and around us. I was to see what the father is doing and we can come alongside and joining you and bringing your kingdom on the earth. Just open our hearts to receive all that you have for us this morning. We welcome to your presence in Jesus name. 0 (18m 11s): Amen. It's good to see your faces. Why don't you say hello to someone around you and I'll have some announcements coming in just a few moments. 1 (18m 22s): Well, of course, those who are sitting here in the sanctuary and in the loft and behind the patio and those who tuned in online, it's amazing how, you know, we can reach out to the entire planet with live stream. And so, anyway, we want to welcome you. Hey, if it's your first time to Harvest Church or maybe you're new here, I would encourage you to go by the info center, which is just up the driveway right here and talk to the people there. They've got to give for you. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but it looks like a coffee cup, but she can put other things in it besides coffee that's up to you. Yeah. So go up to the info center. And while you're there, if you wouldn't mind filling out a communication card, we love to be able to communicate with everybody that that is, you know, Harvest is your Church home. 1 (19m 9s): And then if you, if you don't want to actually fill out a actual card, you can go online to our website. That is yeah. AIG Harvest app. And you can, you can fill it out that way as well. So the, the holidays are upon us. We've got Thanksgiving coming up real soon. We got Christmas right around the corner. So we are kind of in that, that zone of working to help out people in our community that are in need. So I've got a couple of opportunities for you. So the first one of course is Thanksgiving, which is coming up like a week and a half or something like that. So we've been putting the word out. I know many of you have contributed to our food pantry cause we're putting together a Thanksgiving baskets for families in need. 1 (19m 53s): If you remember to bring your stuff today, see today's the deadline. So if you're hearing this for the first time, you got to get up and get to the store and get back here quickly. If you forgot about it, or this is your first time hearing about it, you want to be a part of it. Go ahead and bring any items. If you, if you obviously can't get them here today, you can bring, bring them by the Church office tomorrow. And I will be there. Some of us others will be there and we can go ahead and, and have 'em collected that way. So if you want to come by the Church office, we're here between nine and four. That would be great as well. Okay. What else? Oh, back to that, if you did bring some items, drop them off at the info center, which is again, right up the driveway. 1 (20m 35s): So one of the other things we're participating in, in our community, it's called blessings to local foster adoptive families. And so we're partnering with other local churches to provide local foster and adoptive families with a meal and with gift cards for Thanksgiving. So you can check out our weekly email updates to get more information about how you can purchase a bait in that. But we love to be a blessing to foster adoptive families in our community. And then the last thing I want to make mention of, and this is sort of more looking towards Christmas is we are participating in operation Christmas child. It's a ministry under the umbrella of Samaritan's purse. Maybe you've heard about it. It's it's been going on for many years. 1 (21m 16s): So what they do is they put necessities and toys in a shoe box and then they're shipped all over the world. So with COVID the way they're doing it now is a little different than, than normal in the past. So what you would do is you would go to their website, operation Christmas child, and you can actually select the items on their website that you would like included in the box. And they've got a team of people in different places across the country. They put those boxes together on your behalf and ship them out to various people in need kids predominantly in need. And it's it's if you've ever seen the videos, in fact on their website, probably have some videos of these kids receiving these shoe boxes. You know, it's, it's, it's really stunning the impact we can have. 1 (21m 58s): And of course they include in those boxes, a presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So that's all I have for you today, Steve. Let's welcome. Steve, come on up here. 2 (22m 11s): Morning. Welcome. I'm approaching from a different side of the room today. Tricking you welcome where Colossians chapter four today, galoshes chapter four verses two through 18. How about a quick joke? I was ready for a quick joke. It's a good one. This time. Trust me. So this, these two lifelong friends, Archie and Jack, they had been arguing their whole life about the color of Jesus. Archie was convinced that Jesus is black and Jack is convinced that Jesus is white. So they're arguing about this their whole life. It just so happens. They die on the same day and they get up to the pearly Gates and they go on inside and they asked st. 2 (22m 55s): Peter, Peter, tell us, we've been arguing about this for our whole life. Is Jesus black or is Jesus white? And about that time, Jesus walked up and said, Buenos D'usse Jesus, isn't black or white he's act he's middle Eastern. He's a, he's like his swarthy dark skinned man. So if you look at Rolando Rojas, that's probably what Jesus looked like. There we go. Now it's going to be hard to Pray without thinking about Rolando. But anyway, we are talking about prayer today. It's going to be a good day. How to pray one Oh one we're in Colossians chapter four, verse two. 2 (23m 40s): How to Pray one Oh one. Let's go ahead and stand up and pray as we get ready to talk about praying and we'll have Church today. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to gather, to have church, to be in your presence. Lord God, we pray that you would speak to us God, that our hearts will be open and that we, we would be responsive and receptive and happy to receive your truth. The revelation that you reveal to us Lord. So thank you for the opportunity to gather. So Lord, on the patio, in the loft, in the sanctuary, on the worldwide web, we just pray God that your word would go out with power and with clarity. 2 (24m 20s): Thank you for this time, Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Just as you get seated, we've got people in Greenland, our missionaries, Daniel, and Solvay, they're actually watching online in Greenland. So we just want to say hello to them. We've got a big audience in India as well, for some reason, big audience in India. And we've got literally thousands of people who tune in every week and watch what we're doing to participate from around the globe. And so it's kind of fun to it kind of makes the world a little bit smaller. Doesn't it? That we can have an impact all over the globe by just what we're doing here on the central coast of California. It's really, really good. 3 (24m 58s): How to pray one Oh one. 2 (24m 60s): The definition that the very definition of one Oh one means basic. It means introduction. It's kind of the beginner's guide. And so we're going to be talking about prayer today. Prayer is where you start, but also prayer is what get things gets, things done spiritually. So we never get to mature spiritually to S so we stopped praying. We pray when we get saved. When we come to faith in Christ, we pray before we know Christ that we'd come to know Christ. We, we pray all the days of our lives. If we want to continue to grow and mature in our faith. So don't ever get away from the basics. I was playing golf yesterday, actually played golf three times this week. 2 (25m 41s): I never play golf three times in the same week, but it just like everything happened. I kept getting invited to go play golf. So I was at home yesterday and I had nothing to do all day, which was a delightful problem to have. And my son called me up and said, Hey, I want to go play nine holes of black Lake. Do you want to go? And I'm like, sure, let's go play golf. So we played and we got on one particular hole. 3 (25m 59s): I am hacking it. I'm absolutely hacking it on the third hole. And 2 (26m 5s): I walked away. I started to get mad, but then I walked away and I said, you know why? I love this game. I told my son, you know why I love this game because you can't just get up there and fake it. You have to eat, you got to be present. You got to pay attention to the bank. You got to keep your head down. Like every time I bought your shot, what did I do? I lifted my head. Right, right. I'm trying to see where the ball went before. I actually had a chance to hit the ball. So I hit the ground and the ball goes two feet. And I'm hitting three before I even know. So there's something about the basics, keeping our 3 (26m 36s): Eye on the ball. That is it 2 (26m 38s): Never, ever changes. Like I could play golf for another 20 years. And what do still have to do? I still have to keep my head down. If I want to hit the ball. If I lift my head, I'm going to say, I'm going to chunk the ball all every time. Every single time, prayer is spiritually seeking. Speaking about the most important thing that we can do as followers of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Prayer is the most basic thing, but it's also the most important thing. It is super, super important. Prayer keeps our eyes on Jesus. Chapter four, verse two, Paul said devote yourselves to prayer. 2 (27m 19s): Colossians four, two devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind, and a thankful hearts to devote means to persist in like never give up, continue to pray, to pray, devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray one Oh one number one. Pray with an alert mind. When I think about that, I thought, what does it mean to pray with an alert mind? Well, in my coach training, when I was training to be a coach, a life coach, they would talk about being present with people as you coach them, duh, right? The most basic thing in the world. 2 (27m 59s): Like you have to listen, you have to be paying attention to what somebody is telling you in order to effectively coach them. Well, that's true in any relationship. And it's obvious when somebody is to begin to drift in the relationship or in the conversation, right? So we're having a staff meeting this earlier this week and, and we're all talking about details of ministry and that sort of thing. And one of the staff members piped up with the question and we all kind of looked at him like, have you not been a part of this conversation? And then you realized, Oh man, I've been, I've been. So I've been drifting in my thoughts. And I miss part of the conversation. And that's kind of what happens if we're not present in a conversation where we start thinking about other things and we miss the important things that are being communicated in a message. 2 (28m 42s): And everybody knows when, when you are in a conversation with someone you begin to drift, you begin to look around, you begin to your mind and, and things get lost in the conversation. The same can happen and does happen in our prayer time with the Lord. We begin to drift. And so what I do, cause I know that I'm prone to drifting. I, I can drift with the best of them. And so when I know that I've got to go on a walk, I've got, I got to do something that will keep my mind focused on the Lord. So I'll just go out into our neighborhood. Or if I'm at the office here, I'll just walk around the village and just pray. I'm saying, Lord, I need to focus. So I just, I don't know why walking helps me to focus. 2 (29m 23s): Maybe that would be distracting to you, but for me, it helps me to focus. So whatever you need to do to not drift, but to be present in this conversation that you're having with the Lord to stay alert, then doing the world and the flesh and the devil is doing everything they can to get us distracted, to interrupt our alert mind. So do what you need to do to stay alert. God has got great things to communicate to us. And when we're alert, we can pay attention to those things. We can pay attention to that. Still small voice. I think sometimes we're so distracted. We're not giving God. 2 (30m 3s): We're just kind of going through our shopping lists with the Lord, right? Laura, I need this and I need this. And Lord, would you do this? And would you do that? And those things are bad, but he also wants to talk, right? It's a two way street. It's a conversation where we're saying, Lord, I need this in my life. Or I want this for someone else or Lord, I'm praying for the health of another person. And maybe just maybe the Lord will in that still small voice, download 4 (30m 27s): Comfort to us. Truth to us, 2 (30m 30s): Answers to us. If we'll just stop long enough to give him an opportunity and just listen and be present with what the Lord is saying, maybe you're up against a very difficult situation. And you're just kind of rambling at the Lord. Lord, I am so tired of this. This has been so difficult. I just need to get through this and you don't give the Lord a chance to speak. And so he isn't have the opportunity to bring 4 (30m 54s): Comfort to your soul 2 (30m 57s): Because it doesn't matter if a storm is raging. If the Lord has given you comfort, 4 (31m 1s): The storm can rage. There's comfort. Sometimes God will stop the storm. 2 (31m 5s): Most of the time, he's just going to give you a comfort in the midst of the storm, he is going to reassure you. He is going to, I love the song. Jesus loves me. 4 (31m 14s): I, that 2 (31m 16s): Is the basics, 4 (31m 18s): Right? And yet when 2 (31m 20s): We sing it, it's like, it's like food to our soul, like water to our spirits. I mean, it just refreshing 4 (31m 28s): Cash is us in such a powerful way, right? 2 (31m 31s): This same opportunity is with us. When we pray, Lord, I'm really struggling here. Lord, 4 (31m 37s): Would you do something? And then just wait. Instead of 2 (31m 40s): You're going to the next item on the list, just wait and see what the Lord will do. And then maybe take it to the next level and just journal Lord. This is what I think. 4 (31m 50s): I feel like you're doing. This is what I feel like you're saying. This is the sense I get when I'm praying about this situation. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for clarity. 2 (32m 4s): And all of a sudden we're getting answers or we're at least getting comfort to we're at least getting peace in the midst of whatever it is that we're going through. As we Pray with an alert mine, 4 (32m 19s): It's, it's difficult to focus when we're praying. It really is. And we were praying to somebody who's invisible. 2 (32m 26s): He's not like, like I can have a conversation 4 (32m 29s): With a person and it's easier, but God is invisible to us. And so we have to count on our other senses and pay attention to what the Lord will say to us, speak to us. 2 (32m 40s): And we have to be disciplined to do that and intentional about doing that. 4 (32m 46s): Stay alert, stay alert to how you're feeling as you Pray. If you're, if you're, if you're 2 (32m 53s): Feeling anxious, asked the Lord about that, say, God is I pray about this every time I do. I'm anxious. Lord, am I, am I lacking faith? Or am I lacking confidence in you? If I am Lord, I don't want to, I didn't want to pray from a place of anxiety. I want to pray from a place of faith and then God will give you the grace to do that. All something will happen in your spirit. God will meet that need. And all of a sudden you'll have a different perspective and you'll be able to pray from a different place. And instead of being anxious 4 (33m 23s): Or fearful, man, 2 (33m 26s): All of a sudden Lord nothing's changed in the circumstance, but I just have a different person 4 (33m 30s): Perspective. I can pray with faith, 2 (33m 34s): Faith that God is at work. Even though I don't necessarily see what he's doing. Faith, believing that even if he's not doing anything that I can see or perceive, now there's something coming because God loves me. God's caring about, he cares about my needs, right? He's never left me nor forsake me. So I can believe that if I've got a need, he is going to take care of it. Sometimes we pray for the same thing. For years before we see an answer, we pray for a loved one for years before we see an answer, we pray for a friend or a neighbor for years before we see an answer, we pray for somebody who's sick for months before we see an answer, God is doing something. 2 (34m 18s): So pay attention to what the Lord is doing. As you pray, pay attention to how you're feeling and what's going on. And then to address those things, maybe you're angry in your prayer, just maybe you're angry at the Lord. And that's kind of surfacing just feeling some anger because maybe the Lord hasn't done what you thought he should do. And so maybe in that anger, you just address it. Cause God knows. And you say, Lord, I I'm feeling angry about this. Like I expected something 4 (34m 47s): Else. Like why didn't why Lord, 2 (34m 52s): Just to say, Lord, I'm angry, but I don't want to be angry. I'm I'm angry, but I didn't want to live my life like this. And so you can say, Lord, forgive my anger. I confess my anger. I'm deciding to not be angry. Right? There's got to be, you got to come full circle with it. You gotta, you gotta acknowledge it and then get out of it. Like you got to acknowledge what's going on. And then just by faith, say, I'm not going to be angry anymore, or I'm not going to be unforgiving anymore, or I'm not going to be faithless anymore. And you declare that over your prayer time, over your circumstance and situation Pray with an alert mind and just watch what God will do as he kind of unpacks things and peels back layers of emotions and, and just all kinds of stuff in your life. 2 (35m 40s): Number one, Pray with an alert mind and then number two, pray with a thankful heart, all of this from birth to, 5 (35m 49s): I think it's important that, that I say to that because we're looking at 2 (35m 54s): One verse so far and God's already given us so much to consider and to ponder some, so many things, devote yourselves to prayer with an alert, mind, a thankful heart, just simple little verse B. There's so much richness there. It's true. When we pray as well in our simple 5 (36m 10s): Little quiet 2 (36m 13s): Prayer time with the Lord, there's just so much richness, so much for us to gather and to, to benefit from. And it's true with the word too. Sometimes we're just rushing through the scripture and it's better some days just to focus in on one verse 5 (36m 30s): And ask the Lord, God, what are you speaking to me 2 (36m 33s): In this one verse? I'll be honest. When I read through this text, I thought, man, I'm going to have a hard time writing a sermon out of this text because I was just kind of quickly going through it. I'm looking for something high points. And, and, and then I started talking with Jolene about the texts and she's like, man, I'm really excited about Colossians chapter four this week. I'm like, you are why. 5 (36m 53s): And so we just began to talk about it. And then 2 (36m 56s): I came back to it with a fresh perspective. I'm Molly, I'm a she's right. There's so much here. And so she wrote my sermon this week. Isn't that great. She's never written my sermons ever. So thanks. I know they, some weeks they come out so good. You think who somebody else must have wrote? It must be Jolene writing his sermon. 5 (37m 15s): We knew it all along 2 (37m 19s): First, Thessalonians five 16 in the ESV says region 5 (37m 23s): Joyce always rejoice. Always 2 (37m 30s): First Thessalonians five 17 in the ESV says Pray without 5 (37m 34s): Ceasing . 2 (37m 37s): These are easy verses to memorize by the way, five 16, rejoice always. That's the verse. Rejoice always verse 17, pray without ceasing first Thessalonians five 18. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you pray with a thankful heart. This is actually the will of God for you. You ever wonder what the will of God for you is this is part of the will of God for you give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus 5 (38m 10s): For you. If 2 (38m 12s): You're having our time with gratitude reasons to be thankful while you pray, 5 (38m 17s): Make a list. 2 (38m 19s): I met in met with an older couple this week. Haven't seen him for a few months. They used to come to the church, but they'd been home, home bound and sick in bed for well, the, the, the, the woman has, and the husband's declining as well with, with issues of his own. And so I sat with them and just in, in the bedroom there, we sat on the bed and just chatted. And I just asked how they were doing. And instead of complaining that they're stuck in bed, stuck at home, can't drive, can't get out like they used to. They said, and this is what they said. We're just thankful that we're alive. 2 (39m 1s): We're thankful that God has given us breath, right? Listen, no matter what you're going through in life, I would encourage you to make a list of all of the things that you're thankful for. I think we tend to lean toward the negative and think about all the things that we wish were different in our lives. 5 (39m 21s): If you're having a hard time, start with that. If you're having a hard time 2 (39m 27s): Being thankful, start with being thankful for your breath. I 5 (39m 31s): God, I thank you that I have breath. 2 (39m 35s): Thank you Lord that I have family. If you've got family thankful Lord for family, thank you for the roof over my head. If you've got a roof over your head, say thank you, Lord, thank you for that. Yeah. Thank you for my health. Even if you're sick, you can still thankful Lord for the health that you do have for employment. I talked with a guy on the golf course. This must have been a Friday cause I play three times this week. So, 5 (40m 4s): Okay. 2 (40m 5s): I had a great time this week playing golf. I didn't even play very well, but I had so much fun. 5 (40m 10s): Anyway, this guy had been, he's been lately 2 (40m 13s): Since about March and he's. So he's been unemployed since March and he's been struggling to try to find a job. So be thankful for your employment. If you've got a job and pray for others who don't have jobs To be thankful for your mind, if you can think and process. And remember just did a Memorial service for my friend, Dave Fletcher, who he just at the end of his life for the last four years, he just, he wasn't able with through dementia, just wasn't able to remember things. Wasn't able to remember people or recall events. He just, his mind just began to go over the last four years of his life. 2 (40m 53s): So if you, if your mind is sharp or even if it's not as sharp as it used to be, it's you still got to be thankful for that. Say thank you, Lord. If you have the ability to walk thankful, Lord, if you have the ability to see, thank the Lord, talked to the guy last week, he's here. And he's like I said, are you completely blind? And he said, well, there's this one spot in my eye. 5 (41m 18s): So if I look this way, I can see you. He's thankful for that. 2 (41m 24s): He's mostly blind, but he can see just a little bit. We can, we can find all kinds of things to be thankful for. 5 (41m 35s): So if you can tell, 2 (41m 36s): Talk, and play and work and eat and travel and smile. Yeah, 5 (41m 39s): They'll be thankful. Be thankful. 2 (41m 43s): The Psalmist wrote in Psalm one 11, verse one, praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. This almost understood. And this is not someone who never experienced trouble in his life, but at someone, someone who decided with my whole heart, I'm going to be thankful. I'm going to give thanks to the Lord. Psalm one 11 two in the ESB says great, are the works of the Lord. This is why he was thankful because great are the works of the Lord. I encourage you to go back and read Psalm all of one Psalm one 11 after Church street, all of Psalm one 11, especially if you're having a hard time with gratitude, you'll be filled with gratitude. After that, be thankful for God, for his faithful newness, for your salvation, for God's love, 5 (42m 32s): Thankful that you don't 2 (42m 33s): Get what you deserve. Jolene and I were talking about this, the mercy of God, 5 (42m 38s): Thankful that 2 (42m 38s): We don't get what we deserve thankful for his mercy and for his grace don't ever get away from the basics. Pray with an alert, mind, pray with a thankful heart. 5 (42m 49s): Why are, why are we to pray? God, God tells us to. 2 (42m 59s): It's a really good plan. It really it's a really, really good plan as how many times I, I just, I realize I I'm dry spiritually. If I just go Pray, there's the refreshing that comes. If I'm nervous about something and I pray about it, the nerves lift, Whatever the case may be. If I just go pray about it, all of a sudden I've got clarity. Maybe I don't have all the answers that I need, but I, I have clarity and usually confidence. It's budget time for the church. And so we're, CA hashing over numbers every year we get to budget time and I'm always nervous about budget time. 2 (43m 41s): But I told Julie, I said, no matter what the Lord has always been faithful. We've been here for going on 18 years. This is like our 18th budget, I guess. And every year we've watched the Lord be faithful in the budgeting process and in the provision that is needed for our budget. It's just been, it's profound and supernatural. And so when we're nervous about the budget, we just pray. When we're nervous about anything in life, we just pray. And then we watched the Lord just bring confidence or clarity or a change. He might say, well, do this or do that. And redirects, redirects our path. 5 (44m 20s): Okay. 2 (44m 21s): One person said prayer is as essential to our spiritual health as breathing is to our physical body. 5 (44m 29s): So if we stop breathing, we dying 2 (44m 32s): Physically, right? If we stop praying, we start dying spiritually. There's a direct correlation, a direct correlation. Pray prayer. Prayer is not optional. 5 (44m 51s): Okay? 2 (44m 51s): Prayer is essential to spiritual health and growth. Back to first Thessalonians five 17 in the new living translation. It says never stop praying, never stop praying. Another easy verse to memorize, never stop praying don't ever get away from the basics. Pray with an alert mind, pray with a thankful heart and number three, pray for other people. Pray for other people. Colossians four, three, Paul writes pray for us to, I love Paul's humility. And the fact that he recognized a couple of things, he recognized the power of prayer. 2 (45m 34s): Remember he's in chains, he's imprisoned right now, maybe going through some hard stuff in his life. So he says, pray, pray 5 (45m 46s): For us. Pray 2 (45m 48s): For us to that. God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning 5 (45m 52s): Christ he's 2 (45m 54s): In chains. And he wants more opportunity to speak about this mysterious plan. Mysterious plan about Christ is that he's the God of the Jews and the Gentiles. He's the guy, 5 (46m 3s): The whole wide world. And Paul's looking for 2 (46m 9s): Opportunity to Pray for opportunity while we're here. Pray for opportunity that we'll have the ability to speak the truth to preach the gospel. That's why I'm here in chains. He said, pray that I will proclaim the message. Verse four, as clearly as I should. 5 (46m 30s): Okay. 2 (46m 30s): Pray that I will proclaim the message as clearly as I should 5 (46m 35s): Pray for others. Pray for others, 2 (46m 40s): Especially in these toxic times that we're in Pray for those you disagree with and pray for those who disagree with you, man, it will soften your hearts. It will tend to raise you a little bit. It's hard to be mad at somebody that you're praying for. When I say Pray, I mean, pray for not Pray against brave for Pray for pray, for 5 (47m 5s): Pray for 2 (47m 7s): Especially those, with whom you disagree. And it's hard to be mad or at odds with people when we're praying for them, we just find a tenderness. 5 (47m 16s): Yes. And to love 2 (47m 19s): And the supernatural it's something that God does. I ran into a guy this week, who I used to have to be at odds with. And 5 (47m 30s): I was 2 (47m 30s): So grateful that the Lord had done a work in our relationship that both of us just, we saw each other and we, we hugged and we laughed and we talked like nothing ever happened. It was like the supernatural moment. I, I I'm I'm there. It was surreal in the moment. Cause I'm like, you know, not too long ago, we were kind of at odds with each other. We didn't really care for each other, but God did something. He did something in him and he did something in me. He did something in the relationship and we were able to hug on each other and talk like nothing had ever happened. Why? Because love keeps no record of wrong. I think I've read that somewhere. Love keeps no record of wrongs. 2 (48m 14s): So there was this, this refreshing move of God. As we talked, I walked away. I was like, Holy cow, that was a wonderful conversation. That's what heaven's going to be like. That's what heaven's going to be like. Just grace covered grace filled wonderful relationship and connection Beyond prayer. Paul gives instruction for daily living in verse five and following he said, this live wisely among those who are not believers and make the most of every opportunity live wisely. 2 (48m 54s): Make the most of every opportunity. 5 (48m 56s): Pray pray for pray for those in your life who are not yet believers. Pray for them. 2 (49m 8s): You might pray for them for a decade or two or five, but pray for them and watch what the Lord will do. And then love on them. Love on them. Be gracious to them. Live wisely among those who are not believers and make the most of every opportunity. Verse six, let your conversations be gracious and attractive. That that verse means seasoned with salt. 5 (49m 34s): Well, that's your 2 (49m 36s): Appreciation be gracious and attractive seasoned with salt so that you will have the right response for everyone seasoned with salt. We had some stew last night and we're eating the stew and it's it's okay. Julian says this needs some salt, man. Yeah. That's okay. We keep beating this dude. Like yeah, you're right. I need some salt. So he puts some salt on there, like, Oh, all of a sudden, this is pretty good stew. Right? Just need a little salt, little salt goes a long way. 5 (50m 7s): Okay. 2 (50m 7s): Your conversations to be seasoned with salt. I often pray. Lord, let my words be seasoned with salt lit, especially when going into a difficult conversation, because I can say the wrong thing, like stepping off this curb. I mean, it just doesn't take any effort at all. I can say the wrong thing. And so, but I pray and I make it my attention to speak words that are seasoned with salt, something, God just does something there. And when maybe when I want to react, I don't react. Or when I want to overreact, I don't. And then sometimes my words just plainly are not seasoned with salt. And God's grace is sufficient, but make it your intention. 2 (50m 49s): If we make it our intention, that our words, our conversation to seasoned with salt so that we have the right response for everyone. Lord, what is, how do I respond in this situation? We live in a toxic environment. How do we respond in these situations that are so difficult when people maybe disagree with us about, well, you name it, religious perspectives, beliefs, political perspectives. There's, there's a lot to disagree about. Or what is my response with this person right now? Maybe you have a healthy conversation about religion or politics. 2 (51m 31s): Maybe you don't, you just love the person. Maybe they are on a completely different track than you are, but you just love them. 5 (51m 40s): Because 2 (51m 41s): Cause being right is not the biggest deal. It's not, I mean, that's not the goal. I like to be bright. I don't have to be right when I have conversations. I, the most important thing that God has called us to do is to love people. So why don't we, why don't we have to fight? Why don't we just love on each other and let God worry about 5 (52m 4s): Our society is polarized. 2 (52m 8s): God has an assignment for us and I'll get specific. God has an assignment for you in this polarized society that we live a live wisely, live wisely among those who are not believers. That's your assignment as believers. This is your assignment to live wisely. It's going to be different for every scenario and every situation that you're in. But if it's your, if it's your heart and mind to live wisely, you just say, Lord, I, I don't know how, what would you show me a be make the most of every opportunity. 2 (52m 54s): God is going to bring people to your path. Lord make what's the best way to make the most out of this opportunity. I don't know what to do. Lord, if you ever been, I don't know what to say. I don't know how to have a connection, a conversation with this person, make those be prayerful. This is why prayer is so crucial to who we are as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. You can be having a conversation to be praying at the same time. I'm often up here praying as I'm preaching because I'm in desperate need of the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ to do what I do. So I'm praying. 5 (53m 28s): And then I'm preaching talking. And then 2 (53m 32s): I'm praying. I asking the Lord for his help to, to get this word clearly out, making the most of every opportunity. See, let your conversations be gracious and attractive against seasoned with salt so that you will have the right response for everyone. A, B and C a B, and C. All of these seemingly impossible things are possible. When our lives are filled with prayer and love, 5 (54m 2s): The more we Pray 2 (54m 3s): For people, the more we'll have the capacity to love them. Last week, we looked at 14 ways. Husbands can love their wives. That's a great list. 14 ways how'd you guys do this week. 5 (54m 22s): We'll talk later. 2 (54m 25s): This list is actually a great list to keep an eye on. When loving people in general, Prayer makes this 14, this list of 14 things doable, possible. 5 (54m 45s): How can 2 (54m 45s): And we live wisely making the most of every opportunity and have the right response for everyone. W we have to remember to pray for people and love people. Love is patient. We were running late this morning and I was in the car waiting. And Jolene was just running late and get in the car and later to go, I'm like you ready to go? She's like, Oh, I need to get something. I said, well, we're in no hurry just to get what you need. She said, thanks for being patient with me. And I said, well, love is patient, 5 (55m 17s): Right? 2 (55m 17s): Some days I really nail it. Other days I totally missed the Mark. I, my arrow goes Well. That was basically, but I knew I was going to be talking about it today. So I knew that I had to be on my best 5 (55m 33s): Love is patient love is kind. 2 (55m 38s): Love is not jealous. It's not boastful. 5 (55m 45s): Love is not proud, is not rude. 2 (55m 51s): Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable. Love keeps no record of being wronged does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices. When the truth, when the truth wins out, love never gives up. Love, never loses. Faith. Love is always hopeful. Love endures through every tall order, impossible in the natural impossible. Just if we're relying on our own natural strength, our own sinful man, but very possible. 2 (56m 35s): All of these things are very possible when we're prayerful and filled with the love of God, then we can love people. The way that God's asked us to love people, Because it's not boastful or proud or rude, it's just tender. And it can be direct at times, but it's not boastful or proud or rude keeps no record of being wronged. All of those things are key to healthy relationships between friends and neighbors, coworkers, spouses, siblings, you name it. 2 (57m 21s): So we wrap up here, let's look at Paul's final instruction and greetings verse seven, Paul mentions 10 people by name 10 people by name who were with him. People partnering with him, people who prayed for him and those Paul prayed for and people that he did life with. Paul did life with people. As far as we know, he's a single man during his ministry, but he was surrounded by people tickets for seven, writing to the church. , we'll give you a full report about how I'm getting along. He's a beloved brother and faithful helper who serves with me in the Lord's work. 2 (58m 5s): I have sent him to you for this purpose to let you know how we are doing and to encourage you. Paul's Paul's in chains and he's writing a letter to encourage the church. It's because it's all about life is all about perspective. It can be in chains and be thrashed, or we can be in chains and be filled with the Holy 5 (58m 25s): Spirit and not thrashed at all. 2 (58m 27s): Just so thankful. Got my breast still. I can still write letters. I can still pray. I can still do all of these things. That was Paul's perspective. It must have been there. Otherwise he wouldn't have the capacity to want to encourage others, but he did. He didn't care about the chains. He was there because he was preaching. The gospel counted worthy to suffer for the, for the King. 5 (58m 53s): It was wonderful. 2 (58m 57s): It's balls and change is he and he's encouraging them. And again, I believe this response is a result of purpleness and great love. Paul prayed for the church. He prayed for the church. He loved the church. He loved the people. Verse nine. I am sending also, I'm also sending a, Onesimus a faithful and beloved brother, one of your own people. He and will tell you everything that's happening here. So he's, he just wanted to do, to give a report. This is what's going on during the week, this last week, Daniel, and Solvay a video chatted in and got a chance. They got a chance to talk with their, their board Daniel. And Solvay kinda, they minister in Greenland. They're living in Greenland, taking the gospel to the top of the world. 2 (59m 40s): And they're yet connected to us. And they're watching on Sunday morning, the, the preaching and the service, and then they're encouraging people in their village to do the same thing. So we've got people on this Greenlandic village who are watching what we're doing here on Sunday morning. So we, we love you guys. We bless you. We love Daniel. And Solvay they called in to just give an update on what's going on. The people that they're praying for and their people that they're ministering to and the people that they're serving in their community. Why? Because we're called to do life in community. Even if we're in a Greenlandic village on the top of the world, there's connection there there's prayer exchanged. I'll often get messages from Daniel and Salva. 2 (1h 0m 21s): Hey, we're praying for you and I'll respond. I'm praying for you. God's doing good stuff all over the world. Aaron Stark is firsthand who was in prison with me. So Paul is not alone. Send you his greetings. And so does Mark Barnabas cousin, as you were instructed before, make Mark welcome. If he comes your way to Mark surface, March, the guy that Paul and Barnabas were traveling with on their missions acts chapter 13, John Mark, he went home, he went back to Jerusalem. He's like, I'm not going to continue on in the mission. And Paul was pretty tweaked by that. He's like Mark, can't travel with us any longer. And that's when Paul and Barnabas split up and went their separate way. 2 (1h 1m 5s): Something happened. Maybe like my friendship with a guy that I ran into there, there was a healing there. Why? Because, because of prayerfulness and love being extended and exchanged, remember the story. I mean, there was a, it's a big deal. It's often cited in acts. I think it's chapter 15 where they say, Hey, we're done. We're not traveling together. We're not ministering together. But here in this scenario, 4 (1h 1m 38s): Paul saying, Hey, take, take care of my brother, Mark. 2 (1h 1m 42s): We endure hardship better when we are in it with others. So we don't have time for petty disagreements. 4 (1h 1m 49s): We are brothers and sisters in the Lord. We are 2 (1h 1m 53s): Connected. We are friends. We need each other. And when we extend grace and love to one another, when we pray for one, another, man, things can happen and we can go sideways. But man, God God's, grace is sufficient. We can come back together. 4 (1h 2m 10s): We endure 2 (1h 2m 10s): Hardship better when we are in it with others. Let's talk about friendship for a minute. If you need a friend to do do these four things. If you need a friend, some of us are just lacking friendship where like, I don't have any friends in my life. Do you do four things? I started out with two. I added two more. So we have four forgive people. If you need a friend, just start forgiving, be friendly. Number two, number three, love people. Number four, pray for a friend. Paul had many friends as is evidence in this final instruction. Verse 11, Jesus. The one they call justice also sends his greetings. 2 (1h 2m 52s): These are the only Jewish believers among my coworkers. They are working with me here for the kingdom of God and what a comfort they have been. a member of your own fellowship, probably the guy who planted this church in Colossae and in Colossi at the first a member of your own fellowship and a servant of Christ. Jesus send you his greetings. He always prays earnestly for you. I love it. When people tell me that, Hey, I'm praying for your church. I'm praying earnestly for your church, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the will of God. God responds to prayer. Prayer will make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are doing the will of God. 2 (1h 3m 33s): The word perfect means to complete and mature. This is God's desire that we'd be complete and mature, confident that we're doing the will of God, that we know the will of God. As we pray for people are we're making them strong. As we pray for people, we're making them strong in Jesus name, perfect, fully confident that they are doing the will of God. Verse 13. I can assure you that he prays hard for you and also for the believers in Laodicea and higher opera. Hieropolis Luke, the beloved doctor sends his greetings. And so does Demas. Please give my greetings to our brothers and sisters at Laodicea and to Nympha and the church that meets in her house. 2 (1h 4m 17s): After you've read this letter, pass it on to the church at Laodicea so they can read it too. And you should read the letter I wrote to them. That's why we teach through these letters because they're meant to be read and understood and say to R-CHOP is to be sure to carry out the ministry. The Lord gave you a little bit of challenge there. Say to R-CHOP is to be sure to carry out the ministry of the Lord gave you. As I read that, I thought that's for somebody here 4 (1h 4m 39s): Today, 2 (1h 4m 42s): Maybe the Lord's given you a ministry to carry out. Okay? 4 (1h 4m 45s): And you've been unresponsive, unwilling, maybe even disobedient. I'll just say this. 2 (1h 4m 59s): Be sure to carry out the ministry. 4 (1h 5m 2s): The Lord gave you. 2 (1h 5m 6s): Here's my greeting in my own handwriting. Paul, remember my chains. May God's grace 4 (1h 5m 11s): Be with you 2 (1h 5m 14s): Don't ever get away from the basics. Pray with an alert mind with a thankful heart and pray for other people. And remember your assignments live wisely among those who are not believers, make the most of every opportunity and let your conversations be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone with that. Let's go ahead and Pray let's invite the worship team forward and we're going to continue with Church Lord. Thank you for Church. Thank you for the opportunity to gather, to sing, to pray, to hear a message, to open our hearts and to avail ourselves to you. Lord, we just need you to continue to speak to us as we worship, God, help us to worship in spirit, being present with you. 2 (1h 5m 58s): And in truth, being honest with you, with you and honest with you, help us to be with you and honest with you, Lord, thank you Jesus. For that. God, we love you. And we, we know that you're going to continue to minister. As we open up our hearts and saying, and give ourselves as we make an offer a sacrificial offering of our singing to you, or thank you. Thank you for taking care of Harvest Church we love you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Let's sing 0 (1h 6m 33s): To, to do it. here is where I lay it down is where lay it down. 0 (1h 7m 28s): Every burden, every crown. This is my silver and this is my . This is my servant. I'll make room. 0 (1h 7m 50s): crown. 0 (1h 8m 30s): This is my son. This is my son. He is where every lie and every doubt, this is my son. 0 (1h 8m 50s): I'm going to say shake up to the ground of our tradition. 0 (1h 9m 44s): Break down the laws of our religion. Here we go. 0 (1h 9m 46s): you want your will to be done in our lives. 0 (1h 11m 20s): Would you lead us? Would you guide us? 0 (1h 11m 47s): you are close. 0 (1h 13m 2s): I've known you as a all my life who have been, who have been. 0 (1h 15m 2s): So would you stir our hearts? 0 (1h 16m 12s): Help us to hear you speak as we need to guide us. Pray pray for others. Speak with hearts seasoned with salt. Thank you for being in our midst here today. We love you and we look forward to worshiping, speak to you in there again next week in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much for being with us both online and here on campus. We can't wait to see you next Sunday. Have a wonderful day. If anyone would like prayer, feel free to come forward. We would love to pray with you. There'll be some staff or others available to meet with you. Thanks so much.

0 (0s): Good morning. Welcome everybody. Let's all stand together, Lord. We thank you for this morning. We thank you for providing us reign. We pray that you'd be here with us, that our worship would be pleasing to you. 1 (31s): for all that you've done. 1 (3m 15s): gray. 1 (4m 5s): for all that you done for me? Jesus. 1 (4m 46s): For all that, you've done. Fool. Oh, razor razor, razor. 1 (5m 31s): me. humble ourselves worthy of 0 (14m 52s): Praise and honor, we worship you this morning. Pray in Jesus name. Amen. So like for the past eight weeks Charlene's been here and she's really polished at getting you guys to talk to one another, but I'm back. And so it's okay to be awkward. You just got to turn around and make friends, you know, it's a time to fellowship. Amen. 0 (15m 32s): Amen. All right. Good morning. Harvest Church good morning. It's a rowdy bunch this morning. 2 (15m 44s): It has it's. It's nice. It's a little chilly outside, but nice and warm in here. Hey, just want to say welcome. Glad you're here each and every one of you. Thanks for joining us online as well. Hey, if it's your first time joining us, I just wanted to let you know that we have a gift for you. If you go over to the info center right here in the breezeway between the lofts and sanctuary, we have a gift for you. We would love for you to fill out info cards. Find out more about you, just ways to plug in and just got a couple announcements. First one is the Thanksgiving baskets. Food baskets are being collected by next Sunday. Next Sunday is your last day to turn those in. So there's a list where we're just trying to love on the community of the families in our community that, you know, need a little extra help this Thanksgiving. 2 (16m 30s): So if, if, if, if you've got, if you're willing, there's a, there's a list of different food items that we're trying to collect, and that will be due by next Sunday, November 20, November 15th, next announcement. And we have this sisterhood night of worship, and that will be just Friday, November 13th at six 30 here in the sanctuary. And that is for women of all ages all the way from they said grade school to grandma's are invited to come for that. It's going to be worship sharing a fellowship and fun details can be found at AGU harvest.org/sisterhood. And it's, it's gonna be a great night. I'm excited for you. Gals. 2 (17m 11s): Next is just a few opportunities to plug in and we have some, we have a welcome team, cleaning team, kids, ministry, team safety team, and then, and then a group host or facilitator. There's all different ways to plug into Harvest Church and to get connected, you can, you can find out how to connect by going to our app or a website and plug it in that way. Dave gave me this little sheet. There is a volunteer for holiday wind ensemble as well. Dave has all the details on that. I just have a simple slip of paper. So talk to Dave, if you're interested or do you have the skills to play in the wind ensemble? I do not. So I should not talk to Dave about that. And then lastly, we Wednesday is the veteran's day. 2 (17m 53s): So we want to honor those who have served in our country. And so if you have served, we actually asked you at this time to stand up both in the loft and here in the sanctuary, just come on, keep standing up, standing, remain, standing, remain standing. We want to just take this time. We want to take this time to honor you and thank you for your service. And let's, let's just say a moment of prayer, all right, for them, Lord, we thank you for those who have served, who have put their lives at risk to protect the freedoms of those. They, they, they haven't even known Lord. 2 (18m 33s): We thank you for all those in, in this room, at home, in a line and, and throughout this country, Lord, and what do we do? We lift up this country to you at this time, Lord, with all the craziness in our, in our nation. Lord, we just ask for wisdom and direction. Lord God, thank you for those who have served in jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Thanks. You all. That's all. That's all I got. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. 3 (19m 2s): There are flannels all over the building today, all over the campus. It's a flannel Sunday. Isn't it? It's it's been kind of cold. Hey, you notice we got some of our plumbing back in place, so that's good, right? It's good to good to have plumbing in a developed nation. It's good to have money. So we have one of the think Mike Apadaca for coming in and making sure that the black top was all fixed for us so we could drive in and out and here. So thanks to Mike and thanks to rich Brown and his crew for getting the plumbing done. They're still working on it, but we have plumbing in this building and in the loft and in the U building, we do not have plumbing yet in the parsonage, but we're getting there. So be patient with us. We we're, we're just, it's just a slow process, but the water main is fixed and the sewage line is fixed. 3 (19m 48s): And so things are getting better. We'll get rid of the port-a-potties this week. So that'll be good. Porta-potties are great if you're at a fair, but they're not growing or a carnival or something. Hey, since we've had such a wonderful time with our plumbers recently, I've got a plumbers joke. You guys ready for a plumber's joke. So this guy hires a plumber. He's got a leak under a Sikh under his sink and the guy the plumber shows up and he's underneath the sink and comes out after about an hour. And he hands the guy that hired him, a bill for $400. And the guy said, man, I'm an attorney. And I don't make that kind of money. You've been here for less than an hour. The plumber said, yeah, when I was an attorney, I didn't make that kind of money either. 3 (20m 33s): Do you guys get that? It's it's bad. Right? Okay. Good. Somebody gave that to me. I did not pay them for that joke though. So that was, that was good. We had the title of the message today as we get into Colossians, chapter three is how do we 4 (20m 48s): Follow God's word? How do we, how do we follow God's word? That's the, that's the, the million dollar question as we open up, God's word, how do we follow it? How do we do that? So let's go ahead and stand up. But we're going to pray and ask the Lord for gifts to give us wisdom as we open up the scripture. And so Laura, we want to know, we want to know how do we follow your Word as we open it up on a regular basis and try to find instruction, therefore, our lives. So often, it's just hard to walk it out. Lord, easy to read about things, hard to live it out Lord. And so I know it's my desire, and I know that it's our desire as a church to want to be able to live it out. We want to know what it means to follow and how to do that. 4 (21m 30s): So Lord, I pray that there would be really practical tools given to us today, practical and helpful tools that will give us the ability that capacity, the understanding how to, how to actually follow your Word. So God as we open our hearts and minds to that, I pray that there would just be a download from heaven God that whatever blinders we have on would be, would be would, they would just fall off Lord like cataracts. They would just fall off our eyes, Lord, whatever hardness we have in our heart around the word. And just maybe our lack of understanding about how to walk it out or our frustration with it. Lord, I pray that that would just go away as well. 4 (22m 10s): That would just melt away in jesus' name. And our hearts will be tender and ready in our minds to be excited. And we'd be hungry Lord for the things for the word of God, for the things of God. And so help us, Lord, we pray. Thank you for your presence here today. God we've already felt it in worship, Holly. That was just so powerful and so good. And, and I am praying that the balance of the service has we open up your word would be, would be the same, would just be powerful and good. And then as we wrap up with more song God that it would just, it would just put a big old exclamation Mark on this day and give us the grace to follow you and to trust you wholeheartedly. So bless us. We pray, help us. We ask Lord in Jesus name, amen. 4 (22m 51s): You can be seated and you can be, 3 (22m 53s): How do we follow God's word, number one, we're going to get right to the first point. We have to understand what the word says. When I say the word it's capital w God's word. We have to understand what the Bible says. That's, that's kind of where we, we have to start. We have to understand what it says. We're going to get into some pretty tough texts today. If you've read ahead, you, you know that it's, it's difficult stuff that we're going to be talking about today, but it's not impossible stuff. It just requires that we understand what the word says so that we can do what the word says. So we're going to do our best to explain what the Bible says about these areas of submission 4 (23m 34s): And that this text is talking about today. Nobody likes submission really. I mean, it's difficult. I kind of grates against our flesh. When we have to submit to one another, whether it be to a boss or to an 3 (23m 46s): Elder or to a spouse, we don't really run toward the idea of submission, but it is God's 4 (23m 55s): Best plan for us. 3 (23m 57s): It is absolutely God's best plan for us when we understand what God means when he tells us to do certain things. So out of the gate, I'm just going to jump into Colossians chapter three, verse 18. We're going to take a few minutes to talk about 18 and then 19, and just, and just unpack the whole chapter all the way to chapter four, verse one. That's what we're going to end up today. It says this 4 (24m 21s): Wives, you know where I'm going, right? 3 (24m 25s): Submit to your 4 (24m 27s): Husbands. 3 (24m 31s): So no tomatoes. That was wonderful. Thank you for not throwing tomatoes at me. Cause I didn't write this. I'm just happened to be preaching it today. Wives submit to your husbands as is fitting for those who belong to 4 (24m 45s): The Lord. 3 (24m 47s): I'm just going to say, and I wrote out some things because I wanted to make sure that I say that I say them properly. This is the proper order. Two things. When it comes to husbands and wives, we can't apologize for that. And we don't actually have to apologize for it. When we do, when we do what God asks us to do the right way, he's actually got a plan. He didn't just throw this out there, spitballing some, some random idea about marriage relationship. He actually has a plan that he wants us to understand for our marriage relationships. So this is the proper order to things. When it comes to husbands and wives, we can't apologize for that because when done right, there is nothing to apologize for. 3 (25m 33s): So wives submits, she submits not as one who is inferior to him. So we're not talking about superiority versus inferiority. We're not taking, talking about position. We're just talking about order of things, the order of things. So she submits not as one who is inferior. So I want us to understand that that women are not inferior to men. 4 (25m 56s): And anyway, do you hear me? 3 (25m 59s): Women are not inferior to men in any way 4 (26m 3s): Way. 3 (26m 6s): So she submits that as one who is inferior to him, nor in violation of a Christian ethics, but honoring her husband's responsibility and authority as head of the household. So God has actually placed men in charge of the household. And so that's the order of things. And we're going to understand more about what that looks like as we unpack this text, the amplified Bible says, wives, be subject to your husbands out of respect for their position as protector and their accountability to God. So men are actually what will be held accountable for our relationship with our spouse in way that we lead our wives. So wives be subject to your husbands out of respect for their position as protector and their accountability, accountability to God as is proper and fitting in the Lord. 3 (26m 57s): So God has made the man head of his wife. We don't have a slide for this next verse, but it says this first Corinthians 11 three says, but I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ. So men have a head who is Christ. The head of why of a wife is her husband. And the head of Christ is God, is there is there is God superior to the son. No they're equal. They're equal in God, they're equal in the Godhead, but yet there's an order of things. There's a submission there where Christ is submitted to the father. And we see that throughout his whole earthly life in ministry, we see him constantly submitted. 3 (27m 40s): He said, I only do what the father tells me to do. I only say what the father tells me to say. He is completely submitted, even though there's total equality at the Godhead totally equality between the father, son and the Holy spirit. How do we follow God's word? We have to understand what the word says. This is the order of things so that there can be peace and leadership, proper leadership in the home. If there's no clear leadership, strife and unrest is the result. I've seen this over and over again where there's a weather where there's a lack of leadership. There is always strife in the home. There's strife and unrest in the home when there's a lack of proper leadership, but where there is godly, loving, humble leadership, there is peace. 3 (28m 30s): So when I think of healthy male leadership and marriage, I think of pastor Ron D I do. You guys have been married for 40 years. He's got a great marriage after 40 years of being married. And if you look at Ron's life, so I've been working with Ron for about 12 or 14 years, pretty full time here at the church. And so I have a, I've had a chance to watch his life for more than a decade. And I've been so impressed with his leadership. So while Ron is the head of his household, he is so incredibly gentle. He's gentle and strong at the same time, his gentleness and his strength makes it easy for his wife DJ to submit to him most of the time. 3 (29m 14s): I'm sure even DJ has a hard time submitting at times, but because Ron is gentle and strong at the same time, it makes it easier for his wife to submit to him. Ron is also gracious. He is humble, he's loving and he's fun. And Ron is the same person in the office that he isn't at his home. He's, he's just, he's just faithful through and through. He's a godly man full of grace. That means he extends grace. And so because all of these things are true, it makes it easier for his wife to submit to him. I would say that Ron is a great model for us as men, as husbands, man, we will do well to model our leadership after pastor Ron. 3 (30m 2s): I think it's just helpful to have a real life person that we can look to and model our leadership after our role, as leader of the home. 4 (30m 12s): All right. What does submission look like? 3 (30m 16s): And what does submission look like? Wives are to submit to their husbands as long as submission, as long as submission doesn't cause disobedience or compromise to God and his word. So women have a responsibility to submit to their husbands. As long as that submission doesn't violate their submission, their ultimate submission, 4 (30m 34s): Two God 3 (30m 38s): Wives are to submit to their husbands voluntarily. It should be done as, as an active obedience to the word of God, to the person of God. And I also want to say that even as wives submit volunteer voluntarily to their husbands, they're not to submit to men in general that that's not what the Bible says. It doesn't say that women are to submit to men in general. Now, if there's a leadership thing that requires a woman to submit to a man, that's fine. But there's also times when there's there's men who need to submit to the leadership of a woman. What the scripture is talking about here in Colassians. It's not saying, Hey, women are submitted to, or to be submitted to all men. 3 (31m 21s): It says that women are to be submitted to their husbands. That's what the scripture says. So the wife is to submit volunteer voluntarily to her husband, not to men in general. This is kind of what submission looks like. Submission is not to be abandoned when the husband makes a mistake. In other words, per perfection is not the make or break factor. When deciding to submit, sometimes women will submit as long as their husband is doing well or making wise choices, your husband is not going to be perfect. I'm a husband for the last 30 years. I can, I can tell you that we're not going to be perfect across the board, but even when in our imperfection, it's important that wives submit to their husbands, trusting that the Lord is leading the man. 3 (32m 3s): Even if he's making mistakes, there's ultimately God's plan we'll we'll we'll come to fruition or we can trust that God will will help. Even when our husbands are making mistakes, even when men are making misses. 4 (32m 16s): I hope I said that correctly. All right, husbands, you're next? You thought you were getting off the hook today, right? You were so on the hook today. So 3 (32m 28s): Even as I talked about the role of a godly husband and, and, and pointing to Ron, as an example, husbands verse 19 says you're to love your wives and never them harshly. What if you love your wife as Christ loved the church and never treat her harshly, she won't have much problem submitting 4 (32m 48s): To you. She just won't. 3 (32m 51s): She is won't most, most women want to submit to a godly man who loves them and treats them well. The amplified Bible says this in Colossians three 19, husbands love your wives with an affectionate sympathetic, selfless love. That always seeks the best for them, Then that good man, we have this huge responsibility as leaders of our home to make sure that we're leading the way that God would have us to leave and do not be in a lead in the way that God would have us to lead and do not be in bittered. The amplified continues do not be in bittered or resentful toward them towards your wife. 3 (33m 34s): Because of the responsibility 4 (33m 35s): Marriage, we have a huge responsibility is as husband. 3 (33m 42s): How do we follow God's word? We have to understand what the word says. Number one, number two, we have to approach the word with humility and teachability. As we rely on the power of the Holy spirit to give us the grace to follow. This is part of the deal. We will never effectively follow God's word. If we don't approach the word of God with humility, with teachability, relying on the power of the Holy spirit to give us the grace 4 (34m 8s): To follow. So husbands, if you're having a hard time, loving your wife, pray, pray, and then obey. 3 (34m 19s): I'm going to give you a 14 different ways that you can love your wife. 14 tangible ways that you can love your wife. So get out your pen. 4 (34m 29s): So I write this down and I, 3 (34m 35s): We should've put your name in the, in the place of love. So I put love is love is love is 14 times. And so I'm going to say for me, I'm going to put the, my name in there. So where it says love is patient. 4 (34m 49s): I'm going to say Steve is patient. Alright. Mike is patient. Rod is patient. Larry is patient. Love is patient. Love is patient love is patience. It requires a great deal of patience to express the kind of love that God would have us love our wives with we, we have to be patient. Yeah. 3 (35m 17s): With our spouses. They're different people than we are. They think differently. Not worse, not better, just different 4 (35m 24s): Love is patient. So put your name in there. I will be patient love is kind. Steve is kind, that's my, that's my directive, the Lord that I will be patient. And I will be kind. When you figure out how to be kind to your wife, the sky's the limit, your, your marriage will be amazing. Some men are just jerks to their wives. We don't treat our wives the way that they deserve to be treated. We must be kind to them. 4 (36m 6s): We must absolutely be kind to our wives. So Steve is kind, love is not jealous. Love is not boastful. Love is not proud. Love is not rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable as guys, sometimes we give ourselves permission to do all of these things. We've had a rough day, so I'm irritable. 4 (36m 47s): You don't have permission to be irritable. So when you're irritable, acknowledge the fact that you're irritable and get over yourself because God is bigger than your irritability. I'm telling you from experience. I used to be more irritable than I am now. I'm not perfect, but I'm not quietly. Quite as irritable as I used to be right, is I recognize that I can't be irritable to my wife and expect her to lovingly submit to me. And I can't be irritable to my wife and expect to have a good marriage. She's not, it's just may have an okay marriage. We may get by and not go through a divorce. 4 (37m 29s): But as that though, the high water Mark that we want is that we, we just want to not divorce. Holy cow, their marriage is meant to be delightful and wonderful and life giving your spouse is actually meant to be your very best friend, the person that you want to be with more than any other person. 0 (37m 57s): Yeah. 4 (37m 57s): And yet we're irritable and rude and proud at times. If you catch yourself in that place, catch yourself and don't give yourself permission to be in that place any longer. Maybe you need to take a longer path home, but drive home so that you can kind of get all of the junk from the Workday out of your system. Pray through, say, Lord, I'm going to, I'm getting ready to go home. And I don't want to be irritable. When I get home, I've had a terrible day. I don't want to carry this into my, my home life. So you pray on your way home, turn off the radio. When you pray or turn on Christian worship music and you worship, but out of your system, but you can't go home irritable 0 (38m 39s): Or rude and expect your marriage to be good. You want your, 4 (38m 44s): We should be good. Do you want your sex life to be good? Fix 0 (38m 46s): All that stuff. I'm telling you, 4 (38m 49s): Everything gets fixed. When you go home with the right attitude, 0 (38m 56s): It's not irritable. 4 (38m 57s): It keeps no record of being wronged. Keeping a ledger, mentally, emotionally in your hearts, 0 (39m 7s): Keeping 4 (39m 7s): A ledger of all the time did you've been wrong? Burned that thing. It is. It is like a cancer in your relationship. Love keeps no record of being wrong. Love does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices when the truth wins out. So love does not say I told you 0 (39m 28s): So 4 (39m 31s): There's no room for that kind of garbage in our relationship. That kind of ah, love rejoices. When the truth wins out, we're not trying to catch each other misstepping or making a mistake. We're not trying to catch each other, doing the wrong thing. We're trying to catch each other, doing the right thing and celebrate that leverage choices when the truth wins out. So when you see your spouse doing something, that's great. Thank them. And praise them for that. 0 (39m 59s): Spouse makes you breakfast. Say thank you, 4 (40m 6s): Your spouse, presses your underwear. Say thank you. Say thank you. Just be grateful, 0 (40m 19s): Right? Have 4 (40m 19s): An attitude of gratitude with everything in your relationship. Just say, just say, thank you. Thank you. Goes a long way. Hey, thanks babe. For making me a lunch. 0 (40m 29s): Right? Thanks 4 (40m 31s): For irony. My shirt. Thanks for keeping the house clean. I noticed you. You cleaned the house today. Thank you. Hey, thanks for taking such good care of our kids by really appreciate how you love our grandkids, 0 (40m 47s): How you invest 4 (40m 48s): In them. That just means so much to me. 0 (40m 49s): Thank you for that. Acknowledge out loud, 4 (40m 54s): The wonderful parts of your partner acknowledge out loud to them and let them know how much you value them and care for them. Love never gives up. You say I've tried all of this stuff and it just keeps backfiring. Keep going, keep going. Pray for a tender heart for your spouse and women wives. When you, when you begin to see your husband change and begin to adopt some of this truth, this revelation from the, from God's word, man, run to it. The ways that I'm asking men to love their wives, wives, I'm asking you to love your husbands the same way. So while I'm putting them in on the hook here, I'm also putting you on the hook. 4 (41m 37s): Your marriage will be amazing. It will be better than it's ever been. 0 (41m 44s): 4 (41m 50s): 30 years of marriage. I tell you, our marriage is better than it's ever been. 30 years. Sometimes we think it just kind of winds down till we die. Just kind of like, Hey, it started out good. It's this kind of white, white wine itself down. No, man, it can be ramping up. Never gives up. Never loses. Faith is always hopeful. Love endures through every circumstance. I wish I could say I made all these up, but they're right in first Corinthians 13, first Corinthians 13 helps us to understand what it means to love one another. 4 (42m 31s): This is the way that God loves us. And he said, I love you this way. Go and love others this way. How do we follow God's word? We have to understand what the word says. It means we have to crack it open. We have to get that Bible opened up every day and understand what it says. And even if you're only reading a little bit, get it in your heart, get it in your mind. We have to approach it. We have to open up God's word. We have to get into it with humility and teachability, not checking a box saying, Hey, I read my proverb of the day or my Psalm of the day. I check the box. What did it say? And what did it speak to your soul? 4 (43m 12s): What does it speak to your spirit? Approach it with humility and teachability is we rely on the power of the Holy spirit to give us the grace to follow. I say this all the time. Everything that God asks us to do in his word requires the supernatural power of the Holy spirit at work in us to get it done. I can't love my wife this way, this way, unless God's loving through me. And last I'm also experiencing the love of God this way and acknowledging and recognizing it that his, he is so patient with me. God, God has never been rude or irritable with me. 4 (43m 53s): He just isn't. He's just not that way. He challenges me through the Word and through the spirit, he'll convict my, my, my life of sin of bad judgment. He'll he'll challenge me, but I never feel beat up by the process. I'm always like Lord. Yes. Thank you. Right? That's that's we don't have to roll over with our spouses, but man, when we, when there's time to bring correction or challenge or a hard conversation, but it needs to be done with love. Don't be irritable. Won't serve your purposes. It won't won't help your marriage. Next first we're done with husbands and wives. 4 (44m 37s): Can we all breathe? There's enough there to last us for the rest for the next 30 years. Amen. Children obey your parents for this pleases, the Lord children obey, always obey your parents for this pleases, the Lord. And then the kids are like, God got it. I thought I was going to get out of this and not have to be held, held accountable here. What does obedience look like? As far as it pleases the Lord children always obey your parents as far as long as it pleases the Lord. If a parent is asking a child to do something immoral, illegal, the child has absolutely has absolutely has the responsibility to disobey, to not do what their parents are asking him to do to do this is God's design. 4 (45m 26s): This is what I think God's design is. God's design is that godly parents would lead well. Their children with integrity, humility, kindness, and good boundaries. And by the way, those 14 things, you can love your kids the same way you love your kids the same way. Let me read that again. God's design is that godly parents would lead well, their children with integrity, humility, kindness, and good boundaries so that children will grow up understanding godliness and the biblical difference between right and wrong parents. You want to lead in such a way that you parents, you want to lead in such a way that you would want your kids to grow up and treat and raise your grandchildren the same way. 4 (46m 12s): I've got five grandkids. And I want my kids to raise my grandkids really well. And they're doing a great job by the way. 0 (46m 20s): 4 (46m 27s): Parents in such a way that your kids though, they may disagree or not understand. Now we'll be able to one day see that you were right. So right now they don't have the capacity to, to see the reasons for the decisions that are made. They just don't. They don't, they don't see any more than, than we understand all of God's ways for, for the way that he parents us. We just don't understand. We don't have the capacity. So don't parent haphazardly. Don't love conditionally don't have favorites or show favoritism, be consistent, be humble, be loving, be gracious. 4 (47m 9s): Verse 21 says, fathers do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged. It's tough to parent. It's tough to figure out how to parent kids who are going through adolescents and going through hard stuff. It's tough to parent, little toddlers who were getting into everything. It's tough to parents, kids through all of their stages of life, but God's grace will give us the ability to do it in such a way that they won't be discouraged. They can get corrected, but not be discouraged. They can, they can have boundaries, but not be discouraged. They can understand, even as a, as a young child, they can understand. 4 (47m 53s): And through adolescents that they're being disciplined because they are loved. They're being raised in a, in a loving atmosphere, Ephesians six, four in the amplified, it says fathers do not provoke your children to anger. Do not exasperate them to the point of resentment with demands that are trivial or unreasonable or humiliating or abusive, nor by showing favoritism or indifference to any of them in difference, but bring them up tenderly with loving kindness in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. 0 (48m 28s): Okay, 4 (48m 28s): This is heavy stuff. Isn't it? It's like really strong directives for us in our relationships. It's not easy stuff, but it's what the Bible says. And if we give it an opportunity, we'll have great families. And maybe you're here today. And you say, man, I've already blown it. It's too late. Start doing all of this stuff now with your adult kids, with your, with your grown kids. And if it's too late and they just don't want to have anything to do, we do with you just let the grace of God wash over you. Just repent of it. We've all sinned and fall short of God's glorious standard. So just say, Lord, I, man, I wish I would have, I I've. I limit some of the things that I did as a young parent Lord. I wish I would have raised my kids differently. 4 (49m 8s): In some areas I do God's grace was sufficient and they turned out really well, but I'm wishing, I wish I would've done some things differently, but God's grace is sufficient and I've had to go back and apologize to my kids. For some things. My daughter brought it up recently a few years ago, we, we all sat our kids, my wife and I, we sat our kids down. I forgot we had done this, but she brought it up to me and we sat and they were all adults at that point. And we just apologize for any pressure that we, we might've put them put on them as, as pastors, kids, kids have enough pressures without having pressure from because of what their parents do. Holy cow. 4 (49m 49s): And so we, we weren't sure if we had put any undue pressure on them, but we want to make sure that we apologize in case we had. So we said, well, we don't, we don't know if we did a great job with you guys. Well, I'm sure we made some mistakes. And so we just want, we just want to say, sorry, will you forgive us? And, and there was grace extended there and, and health restored, maybe in areas where health needed to be restored. So maybe you've made mistakes. You have, if you're human, you made mistakes. You do, you have a pulse. Yeah, you do. You've made a mistake. So, so just be humble and apologize for that and watch what the Lord will do to restore relationships. 4 (50m 32s): Maybe you've got a broken relationship with adult kids that have been going on for, for decades. I grew up with an absentee father, absentee father, and he was just, he was gone my whole life, some, a couple of times growing up and, and he's, he's kind of in his own way. Apologize. It has been helpful. It's kind of acknowledged, you know, and he made some knucklehead moves along the way and, and in his own way, he's kind of apologized and that has to be good enough. Right. And he's listening in dads. So that's, Hey dad, that's good enough. He always listens to my sermons, talk about him. 4 (51m 16s): And he's like, Hey, you probably didn't want me listening in today. Did you? I said, no, I want you to listening in dad. So in his own ways, he apologized for his own past mistakes. And that's good enough. We need to extend grace because even some of the policy, some even sometimes we don't even know how to apologize. Well, but if we can just get to the heart of what's being tried, we have, what is being said is just extended grace, your relationships with your parents and your grandparents and your kids and your grandkids will just be better. Children will have a much easier time obeying if they're obeying good and godly parents, not perfect parents, but good and godly parents. And they'll know the difference. They may not understand it now, but as they get older, they will understand the difference. 4 (52m 1s): Children. Even if your parents aren't good and godly, you still need to obey them. 0 (52m 7s): I do 4 (52m 10s): Obey them with humility, with humility and trust as you obey God's direction for your life. No perfect parents. So trust the Lord as you do his will. All right, let's get off the family a little bit and talk about slaves. 0 (52m 29s): How much time we have, we got time. 4 (52m 32s): 22 Colossians three says slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything that you do, try to please them all the time. Not just when they are watching you serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. So slavery in our culture is not really a thing. Although in the, in the world, it's a thing. It's a, it's a very real thing. One commentator wrote while slavery is certainly undesirable. And I would S I would add slavery is not just undesirable. Slavery is it's it's deplorable. No person should own another person. The commentator wrote while slavery is certainly undesirable undesirable. 4 (53m 14s): Paul goes, Paul's goals did not include restructuring social institutions. So we often wonder why didn't Paul directly attack the institution of slavery. Well, God had other goals for him. This is what I wrote. 3 (53m 30s): God's goal. Isn't always to restructure social institutions. His goal is to make disciples who will through their godliness point, people to a better way of living. And in that call some to the work of restructuring social institutions. 4 (53m 44s): Well, my thoughts go to William Wilberforce, 3 (53m 49s): William Wilberforce, as a British politician, philanthropists, and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade and native of York Shire. He began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming an independent member of parliaments in 1785. He became an evangelical Christian, 4 (54m 9s): Which 3 (54m 9s): Resulted in major changes to his lifestyle and a lifelong concern 4 (54m 13s): For reform. Yes, 3 (54m 17s): God is first and foremost concerned for the reform of individually 4 (54m 23s): God 3 (54m 24s): God is concerned for the reform of individuals. And he knows that the reform of culture can follow. As individuals are reformed. Paul's major concern was not restructuring social institutions. His major concern was the discipleship of 4 (54m 38s): Men and women. And 3 (54m 40s): Out of that, out of that, God would call people to reform social 4 (54m 45s): S social issues. And so 3 (54m 51s): Some of you are called to reform social injustices, and some are called to other things. And I would just ask you to figure out what you're called to Paul understood what he was called to. And he kept that in his sights, 4 (55m 6s): Listen to what he wrote 3 (55m 7s): In first Corinthians seven, seven through 24, 4 (55m 11s): He said, 3 (55m 12s): Verse 17, excuse me. He said, each of you should continue to live in whatever situation the Lord has placed you and remain as you were when God first called you. This is my rule for all of them 4 (55m 24s): Churches, for instance, a man who was circumcised 3 (55m 27s): Before he became a believer, should not try to reverse it. And the man who was uncircumcised when he became a believer should not be circumcised 4 (55m 35s): Now 3 (55m 37s): For it makes no difference whether or not a man has been circumcised. The important thing is that he keeps God's commandments. Yes. Each of you should remain as you were, when God called you, 4 (55m 47s): Are you a slave? Don't let that worry you. But if you get a chance to be free, take it. 3 (55m 55s): And remember, if you were a slave, when the Lord called you, you are now free in the Lord. And if you are free, when the Lord called you, you are now a slave of Christ. God paid a high price for, you said, don't be enslaved by the world. Each of you, dear brothers and sisters should remain. As you were when God has called, when God first called, 4 (56m 14s): How do we follow God's word? We have 3 (56m 16s): To understand what the word says. We have to invest our heart and mind in the word, and we have to do it. We have to approach that Word word of God with humility and teachability is we rely on the power of the Holy spirit to give us the grace to follow it. Number three, we have to believe the Word that we have a master in heaven. Often. We don't believe that this is true. We're going to see this in the text. We have a master in heaven, and we have a Lord in heaven. We come to faith in Jesus. If we confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart, that God has raised him from the dead. We shall be saved. If we confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ, that's the first step of being saved. Confessing the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We have a master in heaven. Who's, who's telling us how to live our lives, and it's not negotiable. 3 (57m 2s): It's not a pick and choose scenario. We read the Bible, we understand it. We do what it tells us to do. That's just the way God designed the scripture for us sees everything. And he knows everything. And he's just in fare. And he's given us things to do hard things to do. These are, these are not these. This has not been an easy text to preach through. These are hard things that God asks us to do, and they require real heart change, real transformational change so that we can align our lives with his word back to Colossians. Paul wrote work willingly at whatever you do as though you were working for the Lord, rather than for people. 3 (57m 48s): And so we're not in a slavery economy of slavery situation in our culture, but we all have employers. Most of us are working and we have people that we work for. So we can overlay this verse in our risk, in our responsibility to our employers, work willingly at whatever you do as though you were working for the Lord often, we're like, I'm not, I'm not doing a good job because I don't like my boss as a Christian. That's not, that's not even an option as a Christian. That is not even an option. You have to work as though you're working for the Lord. Christians should be the best possible employees in a, in a workplace often. 3 (58m 33s): It's not the case though. Christians aren't having good erect. We don't have a good reputation in the workplace because sometimes we can be lazy or we, we excuse our behavior because we don't like our boss or the circumstances. Listen, we need to work as though we're working for the Lord, rather than for people remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward and that the master you are serving as Christ. So it's not just a Sunday morning. I submit to God scenario. It's a 24 seven. I submit to God scenario. It's 24 seven. Like I always submit to God, that's the goal like the Lord I'm going to submit to you no matter what. So whoever I'm working for, I'm going to submit to that person and work for them as though I'm working for you, Lord, because you're my, you're 0 (59m 22s): My master. First one, 4 (59m 25s): If I, but if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you've done for God has no favorites. And then our last verse, Colossians four, one masters, be just and fair to your slaves. Remember that you also have a master in heaven. So there's two sides to every coin wives. You gotta submit to your husbands husbands. You have to love your wives. Following those 14 things that I talked about in first Corinthians from first Corinthians 13, 0 (1h 0m 3s): 4 (1h 0m 7s): We have this powerful responsibility and powerful opportunity to align our relationships in such a way that God has honored in such a way that divorce isn't an option divorce isn't even on the table because we're so in love with each other, that it's not even something that we would consider. It's not always easy to follow God's word, 0 (1h 0m 33s): But 4 (1h 0m 33s): If you will try to understand it and approach it with humility and teachability, while relying on the power of the Holy spirit, to give you the grace to follow, we can trust that our master in heaven will take care of all of our needs. So some of us are married to hard people. 0 (1h 0m 55s): So this stuff isn't easy. 4 (1h 0m 58s): I don't pretend that it's easy. Everything that God asks us to do requires the power of the Holy spirit at work in our lives. It's doable when we've got the power of God at work in us and with us and through us, it's doable. It's doable. All of the impossible things or the seemingly impossible things that we read in scripture are doable. When the power of the Holy Spirit's at work in our lives, all of these things are possible. All of the things that God leads us to do in his word from Genesis to revelation are doable and possible. When we rely on the power of the Holy spirit, when we're approaching the word of God with humility and teachability filled with the Holy spirit. 4 (1h 1m 40s): So maybe you're here today and you just need a fresh infilling of the Holy spirit. I'm just going to pray that over us, that we'll be freshly filled Ephesians five talks about our need to be constantly filled with the Holy spirit. Somehow we leak, I guess we leak and we need to be refilled. So I'm going to pray that the Holy spirit will fill us to overflowing so that we can have the capacity to believe God for the things that he's instructed us in his word. Does that sound good? Go ahead and stand up. And if you're here and you need a new filling of the Holy spirit, just raise your hand. I'm not gonna make you come forward, but if you're here and you just say, Lord, I pray for those whose hands are up. God my hands are up. 4 (1h 2m 23s): God I, I feel like I need it like multiple times throughout the day. I just need to be refilled. Somebody cuts me off on the freeway and I'm angry and I need to be refilled. Lord, forgive me for that. Lord does have a bad thought, Lord, forgive me for that Lord. I'm up against a hard situation. I need to be refilled with the Holy spirit. God, do you know the scenario of everybody's life here? The relationships that they're in, the problems that they're face, the difficulties that they, that they're up against Lord. I just pray that each, each person would just feel in a real, tangible it, if possible, just physically and spiritually, that we would feel your presence. 4 (1h 3m 8s): Just filling us with grace and power to do what you've asked us to do. Lord and, and belief and confidence and faith Lord in the things that you've asked us to do, believing God that ultimately it will, it will, it will be good for us Lord. So God, each of us, we, we have our hands up and we just ask God that as we stand here, prayerful Lord, that you would fill us and that's, you would continue to fill us daily as often as we need it. Lord God for the task, for the responsibilities in front of us, God help us to be great husbands and great wives and great employees. 4 (1h 3m 53s): Great employers, Lord, help us to be just incredible Lord. And as we trust you with our lives, Lord God, as we worship, help us to worship Lord in spirit and in truth. And I there's just something powerful that happens when we worship, when there's just, there's just an anointing, a filling that happens, Lord, I just pray God that you would fill us and anoint us for your good works. The good works that you've called us to today. Pray that none of us would be overwhelmed, but we just have the strength to do it. We'd have the faith to do it. So help us, Lord. We pray. Thank you for this time. Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship 1 (1h 4m 36s): was ballroom God has the with the melody, with deliverance from me. 1 (1h 11m 13s): I'm no, Lord. 1 (1h 15m 19s): It's only by some crazy miracle. It's hard for us. We receive Steve Bray. We asked for your power to walk in your ways to live. As you want us to live to love people. As you want us to look, we asked for your power this morning. We thank you. We praise you Jesus name. Amen. 1 (1h 16m 0s): Thank you guys for coming to church today for tuning in online, have a great week.

0 (1s): We got some worshipers ready in the room, man. I love it. Let's all stand together around campus. If you're able to hello to everyone who's watching from home, we welcome you. It's good to be together. Harvest Church and worship the Lord together this morning. So thanks for being with us wherever you're watching or tuning in. 1 (22s): Let's 0 (22s): Just take a moment and center our hearts on him this morning. Would you pray with me before? 1 (28s): Okay. 0 (31s): We just ask for your presence to be in our midst, or we know that when we gather in your name, you promise to come. And so we just make space for you this morning in our hearts and our homes in this place. So come and have your way. Holy spirit. 1 (49s): We welcome you. We want you need you. Let me choose to praise you this morning. Tap 0 (58s): Into the well that never runs dry. 1 (1m 2s): Meet us in 0 (1m 3s): This place this morning. We love you Lord in Jesus 1 (1m 5s): Name. Amen. 1 (1m 9s): yes. 1 (10m 19s): We just declare your praise this morning. Thank you for everything you've done for us. Thank you. That you're the guy who makes a way through the desert pathways through the sea. For us. You are here. You are here working in this place. 1 (10m 58s): you were here. 1 (11m 8s): 0 (11m 57s): I in the dark. Oh my God. 1 (12m 1s): 0 (13m 56s): I don't see it to work. And even when I don't feel it, you're working. You never stop and never stop work. And it never stopped. He never stopped. Or even when I don't see it Joburg even may not feel it again. You never stop. You never stop. You never stop in 1 (14m 23s): yes. 1 (16m 17s): That's our guy. Thank you. Jesus. Put our hope in you. God. When everything else is shifting sand, we know 0 (16m 28s): That we can depend on you. We can lean into 1 (16m 30s): You. You are our hope, our foundation. 0 (16m 40s): Thank you for your presence here. Just pray that there wouldn't be any heart. Leave this place without knowing your love, knowing your healing, knowing your reading 1 (16m 50s): Damn shit, your freedom, your mercy. Let it flow through our hearts. Today. We 0 (17m 0s): All stand in need of a savior this 1 (17m 3s): Morning. Thank you. And we 0 (17m 6s): Can receive the gift that you gave so freely. 1 (17m 11s): You don't have to jump through hoops. We just have to receive it. 0 (17m 17s): So the receive the love of the father today, 1 (17m 26s): Maybe 0 (17m 27s): Some of you this morning that just really need that word. Just receive the love of the father. 1 (17m 35s): he loves, he loves you completely 0 (17m 46s): Not because of what you've done. Just you're his sons and daughters, sons and daughters. Yes. So we do receive your lap this morning. Thank you for your presence here. We don't take it for granted. When you come and you meet with us, you speak to our hearts, that manna for today that our soul desperately needs. And we look forward to these times. We get to be together in your presence as brothers and sisters and be reminded of your faithfulness towards us. 0 (18m 31s): Amen. Amen. So good family to worship together. Let's take a few moments just to greet someone around you and say hello. We're going to be back here in just a few moments with some announcements that stick around. 2 (18m 48s): Hi. Good morning. Good morning. 0 (18m 56s): Good morning. Church 2 (18m 60s): All right. You guys are routing today. Y'all rowdy. All right. If you guys can take a seat. Hello. Church my name is Jeremy. I'm one of the pastors here and what I need is everybody to free up your hand. So two hands, give me two hands. All right. Two hands. This is, this is going to bring you back to Sunday school day. All right. Do you ans interlock your fingers like this? We go like this. Here's the church. Here's the steeple. Open the doors and you see all the people are right. So that's what we were taught, but is the, Church this, the building now the church is us. The people, this is the church. 2 (19m 41s): So I'm so glad to be joining with you guys here. Welcome if you're joining us for the first time. If you're joining us in person or sorry, online, we're glad to have you as well, but this is the Church. I'm gonna pull the scout. Oh, that's loud. Sorry. We we're just glad that you're joining us here. If you're joining us for the first time, we have a gift for you just to go swing by the info station and grab your gifts and yeah. Fill out info cards so we can learn more about you, find out your story and get connected in that way. Hope we're glad you're here and glad you joined us. So we have a, we have a website as well as a app for your phone. 2 (20m 21s): So those are just other ways to get connected and plugged in. We have a celebration of life for Dave Fletcher. Dave Fletcher passed away earlier this year. The COVID times have been really strange. So we're, we're going to finally have a celebration of life coming up here, November 7th at 1:00 PM. And that will be here at Church and all are welcome for that as well. There there'll be a reception to follow on the patio. So come celebrate Dave Fletcher and his Life. Another way to serve is, is our Thanksgiving food basket collection. We are gathering up Christmas or, sorry, not Christmas. Not yet. We're gonna have Thanksgiving dinners for those in our community that are in need. 2 (21m 4s): And so th we're collection items kind of a specific list. So that's sent out in the weekly email as well as you can get that information on at the info station, but there's some specific items that we're looking for. You can pick up that there and donations. We're trying to collect them by November 15th, so you can drop those off at the info center or at the Church office. And then, you know, Jesus talk a lot about leadership, but specifically servant leadership. The greatest way to lead was to be a servant leader. And so there's some awesome ways to plug in and to serve in the life of our church. A few of those are the welcome team, cleaning team, kids, ministry team, as well as safety team. So those are some ways to plug in, to get connected to our church, as well as we are going to be starting up some Life groups in January. 2 (21m 52s): And so if you're interested in hosting at your house, a Life group, it's a great way to serve others, go to the info station and sign up for that as well. With that, I want to invite up Sherrilyn she's going to come and announce the sisterhood night of worship. 0 (22m 8s): Thank you, Jeremy. Awesome. So I just have a special invite for all the ladies in the house. We're going to have a special gathering called the sisterhood night of worship, and we're going to be doing some sisterhood nights, hopefully quarterly coming up this fall and then through the new year. And we just like it to be all generations kind of gathering together. So we're inviting gals from grade school to grandma's and everything in between. And we just want to rub shoulders together as young women and older women. And when we can all learn from each other, come here in the sanctuary Friday night, November 13th at 6:30 PM. And we're going to gather and worship, hear a testimony, kind of get vision cast for the new year together as Harvest women. And then we're going to have an after party in the Life. 0 (22m 49s): There's going to be lots of fun. There's gonna be door prizes and all kinds of things. They're not gonna wanna miss it. So you can RSVP to just help us out, go to the website, AIG harvest.org/sisterhood. And you can find us there. Some of you might've got a card on the way in, if you didn't stop by the info center and you can get a little invite card or even grab extras to hand out to your friends, be sure to pass it on and invite all your neighbors and friends. Can't wait to see you there. 3 (23m 17s): Chapter three today, turn to Colossus chapter three. As you came in today, you probably notice that the property is torn up and have we got, we got plumbing issues galore. We had a person from the city come and talk to us about 10 days ago. And they said, Hey, you're blowing through thousands of gallons of water and we need to turn off your water. So we had the water turned off and we got a leak detection company out there. And they literally, they were able to detect the leak and draw a square on the black top about the size of this podium. And they said, that's where your leak is. And so we got a plumber out there and he cut into the black top and sure enough, our water main is busted as well as our sewage drain. 3 (24m 1s): So sewage main is busted as well. So we're the process of getting that fixed. And so hopefully we'll get that done and get the bathrooms reopened and get water back on. And we're at we're out of coffee because we had to have coffee made outside of the area outside of our church. And so we're running into all kinds of snags and they were having technical difficulties on top of that, but that's all right, we're going to get through the day by God's grace. And by next week, I think the bathrooms are going to be open. We're going to have plenty of coffee and the words to the, to the songs are going to be up on the screen. Does that sound good? Gotta deal. Okay. Sounds good. That'll be the plan before we turn into cautious chapter three, you've got a couple of jokes for you. You guys ready for a couple of jokes here? I've got a short one and another short one. 3 (24m 42s): Did you hear that the Energizer bunny got arrested? He was charged with battery. 4 (24m 51s): So that 3 (24m 51s): Came from Emily, a little young gal, about 10 or 12 years old and our Church. And so she gets five bucks. Cause I said last week that if you give me a joke that I use, that I actually use on Sunday morning, I'll give you five bucks. So somebody told me a pretty bad joke after first service that I will not be using. So that person will not be getting five bucks. So that five bucks is not guaranteed, but one more joke. And this also came from somebody in our church. Did you hear that Washington DC was so cold yesterday that we actually saw a politician with his hands in his own pockets. 4 (25m 25s): So I know it's, it's, it's the season. It's the season to vote. 3 (25m 34s): That actually came from my wife so that she gets five bucks. 4 (25m 39s): Yeah. So it is 3 (25m 42s): The time devotes. Probably a lot of us have already voted, but get out there and vote by Tuesday, November 3rd. And then we'll just trust the Lord for the outcome. It it's. We can trust the Lord. Amen. No matter what happens on Tuesday and following, we can trust the Lord Colossians chapter three, the title of the message today. New Life, Equals New Perspective how many could use a Perspective shift in the course of their life? Like, like we need a new set of lenses from time to time. I know when I started wearing glasses, I was so like I realized I couldn't see before and I get new glasses on and I'm like, wow, I can actually, I can actually see. And anytime I have to go back to the doctor and get new lenses, I'm always surprised at how bad my vision has gotten with those old set of glasses. 3 (26m 27s): We just need a new set of lenses from time to time to see things with crystal clarity, American pastor Rick Warren said he used to think that life was a series of battles. Life was a series of battles followed by times of blessings. That makes sense. But he's come to realize that Life is actually on two tracks. One track is blessing and the, the other is battle and they run concurrently blessings and battles run concurrently. We, we endure both. We put up with both by God's grace. And as we look at the scripture today, God's going to challenge us. 3 (27m 7s): And as we look at our lives today, God is going to challenge us. And the challenge is too find the blessing in the midst of the battle. I was just talking with somebody after first service and we've got a couple in our church. You've got a downs boy who they've who's about 25 now. And, and it is a 24 seven job. And as I thought about that, I thought, where do you find the blessing in that battle? Right? I mean, it's just a tough, tough life to be true on 24 seven caring for precious, a young man with down syndrome. But I know this couple well enough. If I were to ask them that question, they would say there's been blessings upon blessings upon blessings because of God's faithfulness over these last 25 years. 3 (27m 51s): And I think that's, that's true of all of us. We can all point to seasons of our lives, where things have been just really difficult, but God, but God has been faithful to show himself strong on our behalf. Yeah. Faithful to meet our needs in time of need. He's been faithful to you be there when we've absolutely desperately needed him to be there. Blessings and battles run concurrently. Your life can be filled with blessings, but the battles don't let up. We need a new Perspective. We need a new perspective. New life in Christ. Equals New Perspective it means this means that as, as a born again, person, you have the CA to see life through a new lens. 3 (28m 34s): And so I just really want you to do that today and begin to do that today. And then if you are having a hard time doing that, just ask the Lord, say, God, I need a new lens. I need a new perspective because Life right now is, is challenging. Some things have come up that have been unexpected things. Haven't worked out quite the way that I thought they would work out. I need a break. New Perspective the battles may come, but your life in Christ is born. Do you guys believe that? Do you believe that? If you're not, if you're not a Christian here today, I just want to make that promise to you that when the battles CA, when you're in Christ, your life is blessed. God will bless your life. He will take care of you, right? We may face battles, but God is with you with us. 3 (29m 16s): We may go through hard times, but God is faithful times may be lean financially, but I love what King David said. He said, I've been young and now I'm old now, but I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his descendants begging bread. He has seen the faithfulness of God. So you can have that same confidence that King David had thousands of years ago. He saw the faithfulness of God. Then we can see the faithfulness of God now because Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And so he's reliable forever and ever a man New Life Equals New Perspective Colossians chapter three, verse one says this since you have been raised to new life with Christ, how many of you that you've been raised to new life with Christ since you had been raised to new life with Christ sets your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. 3 (30m 9s): So we've been raised to new life. How have we been raised to new life in Christ? Well, we can go back to Colossus chapter two, verses 12 and 13. And it helps us to understand how we've been raised to new life in Christ. This is what Clausius chapter two verses 12 and 13 says for you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. So baptism is a picture of being buried with Christ and with him, you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature was not yet cut away. We talked last week about spiritual circumcision, the cutting away of our carnal nature. That's what we talked about last week and go back and listen to that message for you were buried with Christ when you were baptized and with him, you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised him from the dead. 3 (30m 57s): You were dead, spiritually, dead, separated from God. You were spiritually dead because of your sins because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ for he forgave all your sins that should in itself lift a burden off of us. The fact that our sins have been completely forgiven, that everything that we've ever done wrong has been eliminated from our record. He has expunged our record. He has forgiven all of our sins in Christ. You have been buried with him in baptism and raised to new life because you trusted him. God made you alive with Christ. When he forgave your sins, we read in Romans six, five through 10. 3 (31m 39s): It says this. Since we've been United with him in his death, you will also be raised to life as he is. We know that our old sinful cells were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. Some of us need to hear that we feel at times like we are slaves to the bad things that we do, but God has declared that if we're in Christ, we're no longer slaves to sin. That means we've had this spiritual circumcision. Our carnal nature has been cut out of us and that we, we have the power, like God, over God's power in us to overcome sin and to stand firm in him as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 3 (32m 21s): For when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure this because Christ was raised from the dead and he will never die. Again. Death, no longer has any power over him. Verse 10, when he died, died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus, same N your new life is actually hidden, encapsulated in Christ. When the father looks at you, he sees you the righteousness of God. 3 (33m 2s): He sees the purity of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He sees us that our sins are forgiven and that we've been adopted into the family of God. And that we're blameless before him because, because God is good. Not because we're good. Your new life is hidden in Christ. Your new identity is Christ. Some of us need to hear that. I needed to hear that this week is because I was kind of evaluating my life and thinking about things that I didn't get done or haven't gotten done yet. I thought, man, if I failed in these areas of my life, are there some things I want to see happen in my life in ministry? If I failed in these areas and I started to feel bad about these things, and I realized, well, I asked myself the question, why do I feel so bad about these areas, these things? 3 (33m 44s): And I thought, well, because my identity is wrapped up. My identity is wrapped up in these things and instead of Christ. So I realized that I needed to confess that repent of that and make sure that my identity is found in Christ so that it doesn't matter how big the church is or how small the church is. It doesn't matter what problems we come up against in a family and our family doesn't matter what our kids go through. It doesn't matter. What, what things look like on the outside. My identity is in Christ. And with that, I have great confidence. Amen. You know, all, all kinds of things can become our identity. Our past failures, past mistakes, past, past, it's usually things in the past, things that happened in our past, they become our identity. 3 (34m 27s): They begin to define us. If we're not careful, let the crucifixion of Christ define you, let the power of the resurrected savior. Define you. Let the reality that he is forgiven your sins, define you. That let the reality that you've been adopted into his family and that you are loved just the way you are. Let that define who you are as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And then when you do that, everything else just begins to fade. Oh way, your sins are forgiven because of price. And your new life is hidden in, in Christ. I want this new identity to penetrate your body, soul, and spirit. That means your total being Bible says that we're body, soul, and spirit. 3 (35m 7s): So this new identity needs to penetrate needs to, we need to be convinced on every level that this is our new identity. Colossians three, two says that that our thoughts should actually change as a result of this new life, this new identity, Colossians three, two says this. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. Think about the things that haven't not the things of earth. So the things of heaven are, are good. And they're eternal. You think about the joy that heaven's going to be the peace that heaven's going to be. Think about health in heaven. There's not going to be any sickness in heaven. 3 (35m 47s): So thinking about the eternal things in heaven, things on earth are temporal. Anxiety is temporal. War is temporal. Sickness is temporal. Think about w w when we think about, when we think only about this, Life, we're left with fear. But when we think about the reality of heaven, we have confidence. When I think about heaven in light of all of the challenges that we go through on, on, in this life, I think God is on the throne. God is on the throne. Matter what happens on Tuesday, who's still on the throne, got us all on the throne. So we, we, we vote our conscience, hopefully according to biblical our biblical awareness and instruction. 3 (36m 32s): But at the end of the day, we can believe that God is on the throne. We can believe that God has overcome, that he has defeated the enemy. Verse three, Colossians three says for you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God, your real life. Sometimes we can't get past this ex this current Life. We think this is the a real thing. Listen, this is a brief time. These 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, a hundred years that we get here in the earth, whatever they may be. They are a little line in the long line of eternity. Think about eternity. It never ends. And so this brief time that we have on the earth, the thing that we feel is so real is actually not as real as eternity. 3 (37m 17s): And so what we do in this life echoes into eternity. What we do in this life impacts eternity, and that people are saved or not based on how we've lived our lives. We receive rewards or not based on how we live our lives here on the earth. We're saved by grace, but God has given us responsibility, sees our gifts and our talents much like Jeremy was talking about using our gifts and talents for his kingdom purposes. For you died to this life in your real life. Your real life is hidden with Christ in God, maybe as you're going through difficult times, you can say, Lord, I, I feel like I'm way too caught up in this life, in this little slice that I'm living right now. 3 (37m 57s): Lord, give me a kingdom perspective and eternal perspective and help me to think about eternity and how, how my life right now can impact eternity can impact somebody else's eternity can impact somebody else's life. And Lord help me to live there in that place for you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God, where all your sins are forgiven, where you have eternal life. That again, this Life is only temporal, a better life, awaits you. One commentator wrote the word hidden that our life is hidden in Christ. The word hidden implies both concealment and safety, both in visibility and security. You're not glorified yet, but you're safe and secure in Christ. 3 (38m 39s): The Bible says we're going to be glorified with him. What, when, when will we be glorified? Well, when Christ appears after rapture, believers will appear with him and be glorified. We read about that in a first Thessalonians four chapter chapter four verses 16 through 18. It says this for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shouts. Isn't not going to be a good day with the voice of the Archangel and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up, caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. 3 (39m 19s): Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words. Listen, when that happens, everything that we've gone through here in the earth will pale. It's going to be like, that was no big deal. He is suffering difficulty. It all pales in comparison to what will happen when we are raptured and caught up with the Lord in the sky, black back to Colossians three, verse four, it says. And when Christ, who is your life is revealed 5 (39m 44s): The whole world you will share in all his glory. 3 (39m 48s): New Life, Equals, New Perspective 5 (39m 52s): Number one in our notes. Number one we need, 3 (39m 55s): Yeah. Think about the things of heaven. More than the things 5 (39m 59s): Of the earth easier said than done, right? 3 (40m 5s): We need to think about the things of heaven, more than the things of earth, not easy, but doable. What's most naturally consumes our thoughts in this life. What most naturally, like when we're just not like in a spiritual place, but we're just in this normal place that's maybe carnal or whatever. What, what most naturally consumes our thoughts in this Life I wrote down a few things, 5 (40m 26s): Fear, fear just naturally wants to creep in right at every turn 3 (40m 31s): There's fear that wants to creep in, and then there's anxiety. And then there's the future. That's my list. Those are the things that naturally want to creep in when I'm not on guard. How about, how about yours? What's what's your list, as you think about that, let's work off my list because I think it probably has a lot to do with your list. Most what most consumes my thoughts when I'm in a bad place, will fear, fear about what fear about money. Anybody have thoughts about that fear about the Church fear about family, and then there's anxiety over decisions, uncertainties the unknown. Then there's the future retirement finishing. Well, et cetera. We've got all of these fears and anxieties about the unknown and the future is a big part of that retirement finishing well, et cetera. 3 (41m 17s): I've realized that most of these things I can do very little about, I can do very little about most of these things when I'm in a good place spiritually, when I'm got my mind fixed on Christ. And I'm thinking more about heaven than I'm thinking about the earth, what most consumes my thoughts then? Well, what most consumes my thoughts when I'm in a good place is, Hey, I'm going to heaven. So everything else pales in comparison to that, I'm going to heaven. And I want to take as many people with me as possible. So that's why I do what I do. I want to go to heaven and take as many people with me as possible. But at the end of the day, when my head's in a good place and when my heart's in the right place with the Lord, I know that God will take care of all my needs. 3 (41m 58s): Right. I know that God loves me. And I know that God knows all things. We were, we got that cough or the visit from the city. And then we had the plumber come out and he said, the plumber said, you know, it can be 50 or $60,000 to fix this problem that you have, have I said, okay. And I just said, well, let's just, you know, kind of continue to explore and see if that's really the case. So I really, I, I was, I was in, I was surprised by my lack of anxiety around that, because what I've seen with the Lord over the, over these last 17 years at the church, almost 18 years of the church has been going in the last 40 years that I've been walking with the Lord in the last 30 years of marriage and raising family. 3 (42m 44s): I've always seen the faithfulness of the Lord. Not because I'm good, but because he's good, he's just faithful with his family, with his people. And so as we hear this, we're like, wow, that's a lot of money, but if that's what it's going to cost, and that's what it's going to cost, and we'll be able to take care of that. And that's just the B it'll be what it'll be. We'll just trust the Lord. Right? So we just, the plumbers, who's a Christian. He said, why don't you pray and ask the Lord to make this not so bad. And, and we'll just see what the Lord does tomorrow when we re-investigate this whole thing. So we came back to the next day and I get here and they've been working for about 30 minutes. By the time I get here. And he said, you know what? You must have been praying all that long because now it's not going to be 50 or $60,000. It's only gonna be about a $10,000 bill right now. 3 (43m 26s): If you were to hit me with $10,000 in the beginning, it would've been like, wow, that's a lot of money. But when you can, when you're thinking about comparing it to 50 or $60,000, it's not that big of a deal. Right. That's Robin probably why he did it. Yeah. And so now we're just like, okay, we're going to get a whole new water line. New new sewage. It's all going to be good for the next foreseeable future. And it's only going to cost us $10,000. Now we'll probably have a $10,000 water bill as well, because we were going through thousands and thousands and thousands of gallons of water, the water, we were wondering where the water was going, because nothing was bubbling up. Nothing was surfacing. We didn't have any wet spots or anything. So we realized that the water main was lost it right next to the sewer main bust. 3 (44m 9s): And so all of the water from the water main was going right into the sewer. Yeah. And then interesting. So we, we, could've had a lot more damage if water was coming up and causing flooding and buildings or wherever, but even in, in, in that we could see the hand of the Lord protecting us. It's not going to be 50 or $60,000. It's going to be about 10,000 plus maybe another 10,000 water bill. But, but God has been faithful. I told that to Ron. And he said, well, thank God. We've got some extra money right now. We can take care of that. And we just, we, we, when we've got an eternal heavens heavenly Perspective, we can trust God for whatever goes sideways in our lives. 3 (44m 50s): We, we can believe God for what he wants to do in our lives. So when my head's in the right place and when I'm trusting the Lord, I know that God will take care of all of my needs. I know that God loves me. Isn't that good news. God loves me. He need to say that because it's true of you as well. God loves me. God loves me. That's an important thing. And God knows the result. The first list, fear, anxiety, the unknown of the future brings heartburn. Right? When I think about those things, it just gives me heartburn. 3 (45m 32s): And the results of the second list brings peace. The Shalom of God. So we have to intentionally change our thinking. We have to intentionally change our perspective. The reality of the new life needs to impact our body, soul, and spirit. The reality of our new identity in Christ needs to impact our total being so that we were thinking differently about the problems that we face. The obstacles that are before us, our whole being should be different as a result of our new life, our new identity in Christ. So again, we have to intentionally change our thinking so that we are thinking more about heaven than this earth. What might change if we're thinking more about heaven than the earth? 3 (46m 13s): Well, again, peace instead of heartburn, I could use some of that. Amen. We could all use some of that. We'll probably spend our time differently. Maybe not work as much because we're not so anxious about the future anxious about resources. So maybe we don't work as much. And we spend more time in kingdom work, mission strips ministry in the church ministry to our neighbors, et cetera. Maybe we use our talents differently. We use our talents to instead of, to work and make money or to serve our own personal needs. We use our talents to serve God, to help others and to help and to help serve others. We'll probably use our resources differently as well, helping others giving to the work of the ministry and the church or missions or food pantries or the homeless, et cetera. 3 (46m 59s): We have a food pantry here. And I was just curious, what was going on during this whole pandemic? What are we doing? Are we still actively serving people? And we've had conversations about that. And just out of the blue, I ran into the people who are doing the food pantry at our church. And I asked him, I said, can you just give me a list? Because they were talking about some of the stuff they were doing. I say, can you just give me a list of all of the things that we're doing as a food pantry ministry? So I wanted to talk about this because in a time when we could be hunkered down and fearful and staying away from people, this is stretching outside their boundaries and actually serving a lot of people in their time of need. So this is what they wrote. 5 (47m 37s): I said, just bullet pointed. So bold 3 (47m 39s): Bullet point it for me so that I can know what we're doing. And so I can share it with the Church. So this is why they said we're picking up food and delivering it to over a hundred people, weekly, a hundred people, weekly families and elderly up from 15 in the last six weeks. So they've gone. CA maybe six weeks ago, they were doing this with 15 people. Now they're up to over a hundred people. They're providing food for a captive hearts ministries. When they have access, they're collecting canned goods and 25 turkeys to hand out to current families and households that we support weekly. We're partnering with the foster youth program to support foster families with food for Thanksgiving alongside. 3 (48m 20s): And I love this part alongside with grace Bible and the salvation army. So grace Bible and AIG Harvest Church and salvation army, or I'll call elaborating working together. Why? Because we're all one, Church no matter where we meet we're all the body of Christ. And so we're collaborating, working together to meet the needs of those in our community. We continue to feed Church members who call an advance or show up on Thursdays. And then they said, we will be collect. We will be collecting funds and handing out gift cards on November 21st at grace Bible to the foster families who sign up for the holiday program, the event will be advertised on KSB Y and the foster youth website. 3 (49m 0s): And thanks to our sponsors, including Harvest Church in the village. So we get to help sponsor all of that good work, because people are using their resources, their time, talent, and treasure to step outside of their fearful little bubbles, maybe that they're in and say, Hey, we want, we know that there's people in need, and we need to serve those people in need, blessings and battles, run concurrently. 5 (49m 23s): Instead 3 (49m 23s): Of hunkering down, there are people who are really working to serve the needs of the people around them. I wonder how that might be speaking to us as a church. I mean, we're part of that, but in our own sphere, in our own neighborhoods, I wonder if there are people that God would ask us to serve the COVID battle is real, but so was the opportunity to bless others during this time. New Life, Equals, New Perspective number one. We need you to think about the things of heaven, more than the things of the earth. What does God want from you during this time, during this COVID time, some of us are using it as an excuse to stay home from church and stay home from other important responsibilities. 3 (50m 4s): And, and God's wanting to kind of change our perspective. He's wanting to kind of change our lens and help us to see that there are things that we can be doing to be a blessing. Even during this time, I promise whatever God asks of you. It will be followed by blessings. Anytime we're obedient, obedient to the Lord, there's a blessing that follows, but we have to battle through some stuff to get to the blessing. So put to death, the sinful earthly things lurking within your, in verse five. So put to death, the sinful earthly things lurking within you. What are those sinful earthly things? Lurking. I just wrote down fear and faithlessness. Anything of the flesh. 3 (50m 44s): We need to put those things to death. And then verse five continues. Having nothing, have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don't be greedy for a greedy person is an idolater worshiping the things of this world. And I'll just say, if God doesn't have access to your money, then money might be your God and you can't serve God and money. So if you're hunkered down, holding onto all of your resources, because you're fearful, you can trust the Lord, give where the Lord asks you to give, give faithfully and watch what God will do to bless your life. There are people around you who will be blessed by your generosity. 3 (51m 25s): Amen. Amen. I don't get a lot of amens when I start talking about money, but I talk about it anyway. From time to time, verse six says because of the, he sends the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when you're lying. Life was still part of this world, but now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Wow, it's a pretty good list. Now is the time to get rid of anger. We live in a pretty angry culture. Don't we there's so much divisiveness, so much division, and we need to work against that, right? The culture of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, dirty language. 3 (52m 9s): We need to, we need to work against that by reflecting properly, the person and work of the Lord. Jesus Christ. If you're angry, don't, don't stay angry. Ask the Lord, why am I so angry? Especially in political times, like we're in, we can be so angry at people who disagree with us or people who are doing things that we don't understand. And all it does is take up, take up heart space and cause us to be hard-hearted and, and in a bad place spiritually. So if you're angry, ask the Lord to help you to forgive. Now is the time to get rid of it. Anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 3 (52m 51s): Don't lie to each other. Verse nine says for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. And so it says, put on your new nature and be renewed. As you learn to know your creator and become like him. You've got so like waking up in the morning, you're just, you're deciding to go to your closet. You say, I'm going to put on this pair of pants in, and I'm going to put on this shirt, I'm going to wear these socks and these shoes, and this is what I'm going to wear for the day. I would encourage you instead of doing that well, you got to do that because you know, you don't want to go out undressed. So figure out what you're going to wear, but also decide to put on the righteousness, God, put on that New nature that God would have you to put on, make it a conscious decision. 3 (53m 31s): Like you do the wardrobe that you wear for the day where the stuff that God would have you to wear, put on your new nature, have a fresh perspective and see what the Lord will do. Be renewed. As you learn to know your creator and become like him in this new life. It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or Gentile, circumcised, or uncircumcised, barbarian, uncivilized slave, or free Christ is all that matters. And he lives in all of us. I've often said the church is about the only place where people of diverse backgrounds, well, maybe the Church and a bar can people can come together in diverse from diverse backgrounds and find friendship and find a community. 3 (54m 15s): I've told the story about the ex-con and his friendship, where they retired prison warden, but I've never told this story. I don't think I had a friend decades back and his name was Danny Barabis. And some of you remember Danny Barabis from days gone by with Danny was on the FBI's top 10 wanted list. Did you know that he was a felon in deep trouble with the FBI? He was on the FBI's top 10 wanted lists, but something happened with, with Danny brevis and he gave his life to the Lord. And, and Danny's life was radically transformed, such that when you knew him in Church after his is conversion, you didn't never, yeah, it never was suspect that Danny was on the top 10 FBI wanted list. 3 (54m 59s): He was such a tender tender, man. He loved people. He loved serving people. He cared about people. You'd see him. And yeah, you always want to give you a big hug and he'd show up. And he was in his suit and all dressed up and ready for church. And he was just ready to encounter the living. God. He had been transformed by the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He had a new garment of praise, garment of praise, garment of beauty that he wore in his life. Danny was the most meek humble and kind man that she had meat. And when I went to his Memorial service and the place was packed, it was filled with people who were going to miss this man of God. 3 (55m 41s): Danny had been transformed. And this man who was once on the FBI's top 10 wants list was now good friends with law enforcement officers throughout the church and throughout the community. Why? Because new life brings new perspective. New life brings new purpose. And this was going on in his life. We need to think about the things of heaven, more than the things of the earth. Number two, we need to look like we belong to God. Danny brevis looked like he belonged to God. His life was completely changed and that's what God desires for each of us. And I see God doing that in a lot of our lives. Our lives are being transformed by the grace of God. First 12 sense, God verse 12 says, since God chose you to be the Holy people, he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted, mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 3 (56m 34s): We need to look like we belong to God, make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends. You remember the Lord forgave you. So you must forgive 5 (56m 45s): Others. There's a class going 3 (56m 47s): On right now. And the Church office has called 70 times seven. And it's all about forgiveness. And it's a very difficult class, right? Because it's like a time to mine, your heart, to investigate your heart and to see if there's any unforgiveness there so that God can restore you to a place where you're able to forgive the person or people that you have bitterness toward unforgiveness toward. It's a wonderful opportunity to learn, to be like God, to begin to look like God. When you're able to forgive those who have offended you, when you're able to forgive those who have hurt you intentionally or otherwise, it's a great opportunity to begin to look like God. 3 (57m 29s): When we choose to forgive those who have offended us, we need to look like we belong to God. Number two, number three, we need to live with a God-sized peace and gratitude. And that is 5 (57m 42s): Totally possible. Living 3 (57m 44s): With a God-sized peace and gratitude. Verse 15 says this and let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts for as members of one body, you are called to live in peace and always be thankful, peace and gratitude. Let the message about Christ in all its richness, fill your lives with peace and thankfulness, with peace and gratitude, teach and counsel each other. With all the wisdom he gives, seeing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. When we sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, our lives will be filled with peace. 3 (58m 27s): Our lives will be filled with thankfulness and gratitude and whatever you do or say, especially in the midst of the battle, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ giving. Thanks through him to God, the father and trust this, that blessings will flow. New Life Equals New Perspective God's word reveals that to us. And I want to pray that as we wrap this up, that our new life in Christ would be filled with God-sized peace and gratitude that we, as the body of Christ would begin to look more 5 (58m 58s): And more. We continue to look more and more 3 (59m 0s): Look like God, and that we would think about things of heaven, more than the things of the earth. And so with that, let's go ahead and pray and invite the worship team forward. 5 (59m 8s): Lord, thank you for your word. 3 (59m 10s): Thank you that your spirit speaks to us through your word and I pray and thank you God that you confront our humanness, our sinfulness, God, you confront our lives so that we might be redeemed and think differently and have a different perspective, a new perspective, a born again. Perspective Lord. I pray that each of us, God, we think differently. I pray that we would look more and more like you in our daily lives. God, I pray that we'd be filled with peace and gratitude. And then when we're struggling with peace and gratitude, God that we would start to sing. Psalms Lord hymns and spiritual songs for your glorious purposes. God that we might have our perspective shifted and changed. 3 (59m 51s): Lord. So thank you for what you're doing with us and innocent through us. We love you Lord. And as we sing, whether we've got words on the screen or not, God help us to sing with all of our hearts as much as possible, or we love you. And we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's go and stand up. 1 (1h 0m 48s): great. 1 (1h 5m 16s): Is your faith today, yesterday? 1 (1h 6m 46s): Yeah. Let's just still our hearts for just a moment. Maybe even close your eyes. If you need to, to just kind of tune out the noise and tune into his heart, his voice need to be reminded that he's the guy and he can move mountains for you. I mean, there's an area of your life. Are you trying out for breakthrough? You feel discouraged, man. I felt the Lord just wants to just stir you this morning. Just with hope. 1 (1h 7m 19s): smooth songs of praise do you shake? 1 (1h 7m 37s): good to see you, mate. 1 (1h 8m 29s): you made you songs to shape wrong. 1 (1h 10m 39s): 0 (1h 11m 31s): Love you. Thank you for your presence here with us today. Then as we head into this election week, may you be the rock we stand upon? And we put our hope in Jesus, God, we don't put our hope in the outcome of the election. We hope in Jesus. So just let that be our private suite. Let me look to you. We trust you. We lean into you. Just give us peace in the midst of the storm and certainty garbage. You are aware of every circumstance and you're always in control. We love you Jesus, and mean to you, pray for your will to be done and your kingdom in Jesus name. 0 (1h 12m 15s): Amen. Amen. Whew. Awesome guys. Well, we just want to make sure you always know there's someone here to pray with you. If you have any needs, please feel free to come forward and there'll be some folks to meet you. Other than that, have a wonderful Sunday, enjoy the beautiful day and we'll see you next week. Have a great one.

0 (2s): Well, good morning, everybody. Welcome. We're glad you're here with us. It's a little damp and gloomy out there, but I think it's going to clear up and be a pretty day. So I'm excited to lead with you guys again here. It's been a little while, so Sherilyn and doing everything. So it's fun to be back up here. If you guys could stand with this, maybe up on the patio, we welcome you and the loft online. We're going to get a chance to worship with you. And I'm excited about that. So let me pray for us. We'll get started. Oh Lord God. It is such a special time. When we gather as a church here on Sunday, Lord, we're just here together, Lord, for a purpose to receive from you, Lord. 0 (47s): And we're going to give you praise first Lord. We're going to usher you in this place. We're going to sing these songs Lord, with everything that we have. We just want your presence take over the whole campus. Lord, the children's classrooms everywhere. Just leave. No doubt that you're here with us today, Lord. So bless this time. It's in your name. We pray. Amen. 1 (1m 15s): present system thank you, Lord. 1 (16m 36s): That you are faithful. We put our hope in you this morning. God, we pray that you would just be here in our midst. Just touching every heart healing. Every body just calming every anxiety. Your perfect love. Just cast out for you this morning. Let me just center our hearts, our affection or attention on Jesus today to give us ears, to hear you and eyes, to see you hearts of wide enough to receive all that you have for us. We pray this in Jesus beautiful name. Amen you man. So good. 1 (17m 16s): Church to be together. We're going to continue just to worship by saying hello to each other. So high fives, handshakes, whatever you feel comfortable with. Say hello to someone way back in a few minutes with some announcements, 3 (17m 30s): Right? Good morning. Harvest Church Hey, nice shirt Perry. Thanks. Good morning. Harvest Church so glad to be here with y'all. Hey, I'm Jeremy. I'm one of the pastors here and I just got a few announcements for us two minutes. That's it. I'll try. 4 (17m 51s): All right, so, Hey, welcome. If you're, if you're new here, if you're joining us online, want to say a big welcome to you. We'd love for you to stop by the info center. Get plugged in, fill out a communication card. Just find out what's going on here at Church next. We have a exciting, so next week 9:00 AM service. We'll start our kids classes again from birth to kindergarten we'll resume. Next week 9:00 AM service as well as 11. O'clock our full youth program, fifth grade, sixth grade youth, junior high and high school. All that will be next week as well. And don't forget, next week is time change Sunday. 2 (18m 30s): Oh, 4 (18m 33s): You get an, Oh, you get an hour. So it's good. Okay. Okay. All right, so, so it's good. Next next week you might be early or late, depending on when you come. So there's a, another way, a new way to connect with us. If you have an iPhone or Android device, we have Harvest app and there's a new button on there, a new link and it's called connect and that's on our website as well. And that's just a way to connect with us, to give us some prayer requests, sign up for classes or events, volunteer, all that stuff. That's all found on the connect link. And then lastly, we have a Thanksgiving food basket collection that we're starting. The Wiki weekly email update gives a list of items that they're looking for, that they're hoping for. 4 (19m 15s): And you can pick that up at the info center or look for it on the updates and donations are needed by November 15th. So those will be available. Now we get to watch the baptism video from last week. So if you, if you missed it, here's a sweet recap, Kristen, amazing job editing it all, put it together. And I think you're gonna be blessed. It was a great, great day. So here we go. 2 (19m 42s): we, that shoes shoes. 6 (23m 53s): I've said this before. Some of the, some of the best ministry happens when I'm not in town. So I wasn't there. I didn't get a chance to be a part of it, but I'm watching it. So this is the first time I've seen. I got a chance to see what was going on. And we baptized, I think 15 people had a couple hundred people out to, to watch and participate in worship and really, really powerful stuff. So it's, it's hard to, hard to top that, but we're going to be in a Colossus chapter two today. So go ahead and turn there and welcome. I'm I'm back after being gone for a couple of weeks. It is great. It is really great to, to go on vacation, but then it's always just so wonderful to be back. And so I've missed you guys. I love you. 6 (24m 33s): And I'm really grateful to be back here at Harvest Church. Thank you, brother. Appreciate that very much. We're going to be in Colossus chapter two, verses 11 through 23 today. Quick joke. You guys ready for a joke. I kind of made this one up. I should have told you that after the fact, but I kind of made it up. So there's three, three guys stranded on a desert, a deserted Island kind of know where this is going, where these guys are out there for quite a while and they come upon this genie's lamp and they find this genie's lamp. And they're so excited because they're rubbing on this thing and this genie comes out and he's offering to give each of these men one wish. And they're, they're very excited. 6 (25m 13s): The first guy's a doctor, he's missing home. He has got patients who need his attention. He's been out there for a long time and he said, Hey, I've got, I got stuff to do. I got to get home. My, I wish that I would get off this Island and get back to my practice. Boom, he's gone next. Guy's a college professor. And he's like, Hey man, I've got we're mid mid-semester. I'm right in the middle of my duties. As a professor, I need to get back to my students. My wish is that I would get off of this Island and get back to the college campus. Boom, he's gone. The next guy's retired. And he's got enjoying his time on this deserted Island. 6 (25m 54s): And he realizes as his buddies go get, you know, get exported off the Island that he kinda misses them. And so he says, Hey, can you bring those guys back? That's pretty good. Huh? All right. Good, good, good. I'll go back to my other source for jokes. Hey, we've titled the passage today. Christianity one Oh one. It's funny. Cause I titled this message on Thursday, on my prep day. And then on Thursday afternoon, I'm listening to another message. And that guy titled his message. Christianity one Oh one. So we're onto something here. Something's going on. So totally different contexts, totally different points and totally different texts. But there's something important about going back to the basics of our faith. 6 (26m 39s): The basics are important in any, any field, whether it be sports or business. The basics are very, very important. I remember when I was training to run long distances, there were a few things that absolutely had to happen in order for me to effectively run a long race. I had to eat right the day before had to get plenty of sleep. I had to hydrate. And then I had to pace myself. Those things absolutely needed to happen. I remember one race. I was scheduled to run a marathon and it, the schedule of the marathon was I had something else come up and I was going to be traveling on that day of the marathon. So I said, I called my son, Curtis. I said, Hey, would you just pace me? I'm going to go out and run this mayor. 6 (27m 19s): I've been training. I, I need to go run this marathon. So I said, would you ride a bike and just pace me and make sure I've got, you know, hydration and that sort of thing. And, and so he did. And so I run, I get up to S from Oceana and get up to San Louis and I'm on my way back. And by all 18, I have to use the restroom. You know, it's a long you're drinking the whole time and you're trying to stay hydrated. So I stop in Avalon beach to use the restroom. And when I started to run again, I cramped up so bad. I couldn't run the rest of the race. So it was, it was a bit heartbreaking and I never went back and finished a full marathon, but I, I walked the rest of the way and finished it that way. 6 (28m 0s): But there was something broke down in my training. Something broke down in my preparation. I wasn't able to finish 7 (28m 7s): The race. We 6 (28m 9s): Talk about the, the essentials, the basics, getting back to the, the essentials and the basics because we want to finish, well, we want to finish this race. And some of us are just going to limp across the finish line. And that's, that's going to get you there. Others are going to run and run all the way through. I want us all to finish the race. So we're talking about Christianity one Oh one today so that we can finish the race. Colossians chapter two verses 11 through 23 says this verse 11 says, when you, when you came to Christ, you were circumcised, but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision, the cutting away of your sinful nature. 6 (28m 53s): If you're in Christ, if you're a Christian today, if you've been saved by the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, this has actually taken place in your life. You've, you've undergone a, you've undergone an operation as spiritual circumcision, where God has accomplished something in your heart, a cutting away of your sinful nature. He's done this for you so that you can run the race and finish the race. 7 (29m 17s): I 6 (29m 17s): Love Romans two 28 and three 29. It says this for you are not a true Jew because you were born of Jewish parents, or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision, Noah trued, you is one whose heart is right with God. That's what God does for us. A true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law. Rather. It is a change 4 (29m 43s): Of heart produced by the spirit capitalist spirit, the Holy spirit, and a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God. Not from people with that. Let's go ahead and stand up. And we're going to pray and ask the Lord's blessing upon the message today. Lord God, we stand in prayer and adoration of you because you are God. And because you are good. And because you are King your Lord, you are the savior. The one who has circumcised, our hearts cut away, cutting away our sinful nature, those desires of the flesh, Lord God. And I pray that as we come face to face with this truth, this revelation, this understanding, Lord God, that our lives would be transformed God, that it would set us on a different trajectory, a healthy trajectory, a godly God honoring trajectory for the rest of our lives. 4 (30m 32s): God, that we would just realize truth and live differently out of that truth. God that you would fill us with your Holy spirit. As we read your, as your, as we read your, your anointed word and God speak to us, everybody's coming from a different place today. Lord, some of them, some are excited to be here. Some are feeling just a little bit beat up by the world. Some are feeling just overwhelmed emotionally. And I just pray God, whatever the case may be, that you would speak to us. God that you administer to us and God that you would speak through me. You're humble vessel this morning. God, I I'm I'm. I want to be used to encourage, to Edify, to build up the saints in their most Holy faith. 4 (31m 15s): And I want to be built up Lord. I want to be built up in my most Holy faith. So do that good work. We pray in jesus' name. 6 (31m 21s): Amen. Hey man, you can be seated. 4 (31m 24s): I, I changed hearts. A circumcised heart no longer wants to please 6 (31m 32s): People. 4 (31m 34s): This is how, you know, if, if God's working in your heart and of God has done something, there's a, there's a, there's a change. There's a change in your soul and in your heart. Number one in your notes, a changed heart wants to please, God, that's just the reality. But when we've had an encounter with God, when we've welcomed him into our lives, when he's had the opportunity to perform that spiritual circumcision, our minds changed about the way that we live our lives. We no longer care about being people, pleasers our desires that we want to please, God, we are our desires to please the Lord. Some of us are having a hard time, kind of 6 (32m 11s): Getting there. We 4 (32m 13s): Have all of these great desires. We want to please the Lord. But we are caught up on in people pleasing. We want to please the people in our lives. And that is hindering us from pleasing the God in our lives. Like I want to read the Bible, but I keep getting interrupted by people like by emails, 6 (32m 34s): Like by text 4 (32m 35s): Messages and phone calls, et cetera, I want to do this right thing. I want to get and make God my priority. But I keep getting interrupted by all of these people demands in my life. I want to pray, but I keep getting interrupted by people. All of these people demands in my life. I want to go to church, but I keep getting interrupted by people. I want to serve God. I want to do all of these things, but I keep getting interrupted by people. Romans eight, two 29, again says in a person with a changed heart, seeks praise from God, not from people. So if we continue to get interrupted, we need to radically shake up the way that we're living our lives and radically change our priorities so that we're able to do the things that God is calling us to do. 4 (33m 22s): As followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, we're running a race. And if we don't prepare properly and if we don't get ourselves in spiritual shape, we're not going to finish the race. We're not going to do well. And we're not going to enjoy the journey. God wants us to finish. He wants us to enjoy the journey. He wants us to enjoy him. And so there's a time in our life. When we recognize that there's too many distractions and most of those distractions come in the form of people through internet distractions, through text messages, through emails, through phone calls, through all kinds of different things, where people are trying to they're vying for our attention. They don't realize it. And then there's no harm intended, but unless we keep those things in proper balance in our lives, we're never going to do the things that God has called us to do and live the way that God has called us to live. 4 (34m 17s): We can have a change tart, but lack, self control and focus, right? We can have a changed heart, meaning God has cut away that carnal nature, that sinful nature, but we lack focus. And self-control we lack those things that will help us to grow in our faith as followers of the Lord. Jesus. So I would just say this, ask God to help you to remove those distractions. Maybe turn off your phone. I just read a book. It's called ruthlessly. The, the ruthless elimination of hurry by John Mark Homer and our staff is actually reading it. It was recommended to me and I started to getting into it. And then I said, Hey, the team, we're going to read this thing and just kind of learn together the ruthless elimination of hurry. 4 (34m 58s): Cause our, our culinary culture, we're just hurried. We're rushing everywhere, where we're driving faster than the speed limit because we're in a hurry. Even if we're not going anywhere, we're in a hurry to get there, right? We don't even know why we're in a hurry, but we're constantly in or hurry in in that book. John Mark Homer recommends turning off your phone. He's he? They've got young kids at the house and some of us do some of us don't. He said that when my kids go to bed, I put my phone to bed and I don't wake my phone back up until after I've done my morning devotions, isn't that powerful. So he's keeping in check those devices that are so often distracting us and keeping us from doing the things that God have us to do. 4 (35m 38s): So turn 6 (35m 38s): Off our phones, turn off your phone, close your computer. Don't look at social media, stop playing your games. Give God your full attention. I hear this all the time, but I'd never hear from God. I never hear God speak what God can't speak to us unless he's got our full attention. So we need to power down the devices, focus on God 8 (35m 58s): And 6 (35m 59s): Exercise some self control in our relationship with God, with him, give God our full attention. So Christ performed a spiritual circumcision, the cutting away of your sinful nature. So your, your sinful nature is cut away. Meaning you no longer enjoy sin like you did at one time, who can identify with that? I remember before Christ, I could send them till the cows came home and it didn't really bother me. I mean, I I'd get maybe a ting of guilt in my conscience. I'd feel a little bad from time to time. But, but trust me, the, the, the, the sin, it didn't stop. I wasn't bothered to the point where I was actually stopped. 6 (36m 40s): I didn't actually have the power to stop sending. And so I enjoyed it. But what happened is when I gave my life to Jesus, everything changed that spiritual circumcision took place. And now I can no longer enjoy sin. Still stumbled from time to time and sin from time to time. But I couldn't enjoy it any longer. Why? Because there was a spiritual circumcision that took place. There was a cutting away of that flesh. 8 (37m 9s): You're new in Christ, 6 (37m 12s): New and Christ with your spiritual circumcision, but we can slip back into old patterns and old ways of doing things. We need to remember a changed heart wants to please God. And so if you're in a place where your heart is not wanting to please, God, I would just challenge you today. Challenge you today to return to your first love, to ask the Lord to again, change your hearts. A changed heart wants to please God, number one. But number two, temptation is always going to be present. Have you guys noticed that in your walk with the Lord, 8 (37m 50s): Is it just me? 6 (37m 51s): Anybody else noticed that temptation is going to be present? We stumble at times in sin because of the temptation to sin, but because God has changed our hearts, we don't want to sin. That's the difference. We've been spiritually circumcised, so we no longer want to sin. When we sin as Christians, we grieve and we regret the action of our sinful decision. Sin is followed by repentance. Proving. Maybe you're here today. And you're saying, man, I just don't feel like I'm even a Christian because I, I keep falling into the same pit. I keep falling into the same mistakes and making the same and causing the same problems in my life. Listen, if you're feeling regrets after those decisions of sinfulness, you it's proof 4 (38m 36s): That the Holy spirit has cut away. That Jesus has cut away. That, that carnal nature and you're, you're wrestling. You're in this wrestling match. The temptation is overwhelming, but I promise you, if you begin to train for the battle at hand and prepare yourself, you will begin to get victory over those things. How do you train for that? You can't just go out and run a marathon without preparation, and you can't just go out and try to serve Jesus in a fallen world without preparation, without the preparation, you're going to continue to fall into the same old bad habits and bad patterns of sin that you've always fallen into. 6 (39m 11s): But when you 4 (39m 11s): Strengthen yourself in God's word and strengthen yourself through the spirit of God, through the Holy spirit, then you've got the power and the grace to say no to those things 6 (39m 19s): Keep tripping you up. King David was a man after God's own heart and he got distracted, right? He got distracted and, 4 (39m 30s): And that's something that's been plaguing humanity since their creation distraction, he got distracted and he fell into sin with Bathsheba and had Uriah. The Hittite, her husband killed 6 (39m 43s): Because he wanted to kind of cover up his sin. But he was a man after God's own heart. And when he was confronted with his own sinfulness and that interesting, he was a man after God's own heart. And yet he committed adultery and murder. 4 (40m 4s): This is the difference when he was confronted with his sinfulness, he repented. So I'm 51 is all about 6 (40m 11s): Is repentance. This is what he said, have mercy on me. Oh God, wow. This is not 4 (40m 22s): Just lip service. Like Lord, forgive me. 6 (40m 24s): I messed up again. He said, have mercy on me. Oh God, 4 (40m 28s): Because of your unfailing love because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of 6 (40m 34s): My sins. He, 4 (40m 38s): The weight, the gravity, the IM the, the importance of repentance and doing it wholeheartedly. He certainly sinned wholeheartedly. He went into it head first, sin wholeheartedly. So now he needs to repent wholeheartedly with the same level of passion and commitment. He said, wash me clean from my guilt and purify me from my sin. I think we send way too flippantly. And there, there are acceptable sins within the church. There are acceptable sins within the Church meaning sins that we don't pay too much attention to. I was talking to summer, somebody earlier in the day in the morning this morning, and she talked about the sin of gluttony. 4 (41m 20s): There's a sin called gluttony. There's a white lies that we just kind of dismiss. 6 (41m 27s): There's pride 4 (41m 28s): That we tend to just dismiss these things that we don't take seriously 6 (41m 34s): In our walk with Jesus. David understood the weight and the gravity of the sin in his life. Wash me clean from my guilt, purify me for my sin for, I recognize my rebellion. It haunts me day and night against you and you alone. Have I sinned? I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say in your judgment against me as just meaning you're right. I'm wrong. And your judgment is just often when we sin, we were pants and then we don't want to reap any consequences for our actions. And often the change comes because of the consequences for our actions. 6 (42m 16s): We're forgiven, but there's consequences. David had a lifelong experience with those consequences for his sins. I was born a sinner. He said, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me, but you desire honesty from the womb. Teaching me wisdom. Even there purify me for my sins and I will be clean wash me and I will be whiter than snow. He recognizes the power of the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the power of the grace of God to wash over. He knew that if he confessed his sins, that he would be white as snow, that he would be forgiven. So he didn't wallow in it longer than he needed to. 6 (42m 56s): Sometimes we repent and we continue to repent for the same sin that we committed a year ago or five years ago or 10 years ago. So there's a balance that we need to strike here. We need to repent quickly hold short accounts with God repenting quickly for our sin, but then recognizing the power and the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ to wash us as white as snow. David understood the grace and the mercy of the Lord. Jesus Christ. 7 (43m 22s): Okay. 6 (43m 25s): David had a walk with the Lord, a relationship with the Lord so that when he sinned, it grieved him deeply. When he sinned, he knew he needed to repent, honestly. And sincerely. So Psalm 51. If you're in a place where you need to repent to repent is to recognize God, you are right. I am wrong. I have sinned against you and you Lord you alone. Lord, have I sinned against? And I need to change my mind to repent means to literally change your mind and to move in a different direction. Some of us are here today. We need to do that. Maybe because of the sins of lying, maybe it's the sin of pride. 6 (44m 5s): Maybe it's a sin of gluttony. You fill in the blank, whatever the sin may be and be careful about those socially acceptable sins as well read through Psalm 51 and model David's prayer of repentance in your own life. We see a profound change in somebody's life. Who's been circumcised. Who's experienced a spiritual circumcise. We see a profound change in 4 (44m 32s): Their lives. They just live differently. You guys are examples of that. I'm an example of that. My BC days might be Christ. Days are way different than my salvation days. If they weren't, there'd be a problem. If, if you're living the same way that you were living before you knew Christ, there's a problem. There there's a problem that needs to be addressed. And so the challenge is Lord, how is my life being transformed? How is my life becoming more? How am I becoming more and more like you, there needs to be a profound, a change. The old man sinned and kept sending no regrets, maybe a tinge of guilt, little conscience action going on there. But the new man stumbles into sin and then is broken 6 (45m 12s): Regrets. One commentator wrote what people were in Adam. The first Adam sinful fallen and corrupt was destroyed by Christ. The second Adam 4 (45m 25s): Now in Christ, a believer is a new creation read second Corinthians five 17, and having a new head capital H head new. The Bible says that Jesus is the head of his body. He's Christ. As the head of the church, having a new head, a new leader, a new person that we're responsible to having a new head of believer has a new authority for his life. Not the law of Moses, but the 6 (45m 48s): Law of Christ. 4 (45m 50s): So spiritual circumcision is heart proof of your life in Christ. It is proof of the internal stuff, the stuff that's happening, internal and the eternal change. The old life has gone. A new life has begun. Is that good news? That's what the gospel is all about. So if you think you are a Christian and you can send without regret either number one, you're not really a Christian. If you are a Christian and you think you can sin and you can send without regrets, number one, you're not really a Christian or a number two you've backslidden 6 (46m 22s): And hardened your heart to God. And you no longer experience the conviction of sin. If you're 4 (46m 29s): Christian and you stumble. And when you stumble there's conviction, there's deep regret. Then you know that 6 (46m 34s): Things are, are good with your heart. And you confess your sin like David did in Psalm 51. 4 (46m 41s): Spiritual circumcision is proof of a changed life. Baptism is further. 6 (46m 47s): I love when we get a chance to baptize people, we baptize people. And when we were having a service up at the camp a few months ago, and, and I was surprised to hear that there were 15 more people that needed 4 (46m 58s): That want it to be baptized and there's. And I think there's more people in the room that, that want to be baptized that needed to be baptized. Listen, if you're here and you're a believer in Christ, and you've never been baptized Jesus model for it, he commanded it. He asked his disciples to go into all the nations, baptizing people in the name of the father, the son, the Holy spirit. We actually it's part of our Christian experience. It's a, it's a demonstration of our faith in Jesus Christ. Baptism is further proof of a changed life. You're making a public declaration of your faith. First verse 12 says this for you are buried with when you were baptized and with him, you were raised to new life. And because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised Christ from the dead baptism is an external demonstration of your cha change life. 4 (47m 45s): The spiritual circumcision is internal. There's something that happens that that reflects in our external life. Externally, we get baptized to prove that we are followers of the Lord. Jesus Christ is our public declaration of, of our faith in 6 (47m 60s): Jesus. Again, 4 (48m 2s): Part of the great commission is to baptize people in the faith, Matthew 28, 19, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy spirit 6 (48m 13s): Spirits. Someone asked me recently, actually it wasn't recently, I guess it was a couple of years ago. They said, why 4 (48m 19s): Do you send out missionaries to other parts of the world when there's so much need in our own country? 6 (48m 24s): Why do you send out missionaries? Well, 4 (48m 26s): We do it because Jesus told us to, he said, go make disciples of all nations, 6 (48m 30s): Baptizing them in the name of the father, the son of the Holy spirit we baptized for the same reason. Jesus told us to 4 (48m 38s): This is how we live our lives as submitted followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We do what Jesus tells us to do. We baptize, we evangelize. We do all of these things because that is what Jesus asked us to do. 6 (48m 53s): Jesus came to give us life. That's 4 (48m 58s): Part of the spiritual circumcision. That's part of the demonstration 6 (49m 1s): Of our, our, our, our baptism. We we're we're. Yeah, 4 (49m 4s): We, we go down signifies our, our death, our old man dying. And we're resurrected into new life. We are baptized because as a picture of our old man dying and our new man resurrecting from the dead, we were literally spiritually dead. Apart from Christ, literally spiritually dead. Apart from Christ. Verse 13 says you were dead. That word means separated. Not annihilated. It means you were spiritually dead cut off from spiritual life. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away, then God made you alive with Christ. For he forgave all your sins. 4 (49m 46s): We can stop right there. That's really good news. He has forgiven all of our sins. So you were resurrected in Christ from spiritual death. Born again, made alive when Christ cut away your sinful nature. And when he forgave your sins born again, new life in Jesus Christ before Christ intervenes in a person's life, they are sinners, spiritually, dead, without hope, destined for judgment, destined for destruction. 6 (50m 14s): But God thank God for God, for his merciful plan of action that rescues us for God. So loved the world that he gave. His only begotten son that whoever, whoever believes 4 (50m 28s): In him should not perish, but have ever lasting life. Christianity one Oh one right there in John three 16. When we believe the gospel, when we believe the good news, there is forgiveness, we are accepted. We are adopted. We are welcomed into the family of God. We are literally born again. This is what happens. Verse 14. He says he canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. Some of us are walking around with old baggage, old sin that we're carrying over our shoulders. That's weighing us down and wearing us out because we don't believe what the scripture says. 4 (51m 9s): We don't believe that God can forgive our sins. We don't believe that. What is written here in this text is true about us. We may believe that it's true about everybody else, but we don't believe that it's true about us. I just want to say, if you're in Christ, if you're a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. If you've accepted his grace in his mercy, then this is true about you. He canceled the record of the charges against you and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 8 (51m 39s): He took it away 4 (51m 40s): In this way. He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. Listen. Bible says we don't wrestle against flesh and blood ruler of flesh and blood enemies, but we wrestle against the principalities of darkness. And so those principalities who are led by Satan, who is a liar and the father of lies is trying to heap guilt on you for sins that have already been forgiven. He's trying to remind you of past failures and mistakes. Things that have already been forgiven already under the blood of Christ already been nailed to the cross so that they can be forgiven. He is there. The enemy is trying to remind you of things. Don't let him have that head space or a heart space in your life. In this way. He disarmed Jesus disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. 4 (52m 21s): He shamed them by publicly shamed them publicly by his victory, over them on the cross. 8 (52m 28s): A changed 4 (52m 29s): Heart wants to please God, number one, but temptation is always going to be present, but number three, but God, God canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross, man. That's good news. We need to hear that and we need to hear it often. We need to believe it. Often we are saved by grace. We are saved through faith. We are not saved because we have done good. We are saved because Christ is good because God is good. So after we come to Christ as a temptation to sin, because temptation is always there, this side of heaven. Anyway, so there's a temptation to sin. You know, all of the things that we see as sin, but there's also a temptation to begin to earn our way, earn God's favor. 4 (53m 16s): There's a temptation to start doing good for the wrong motivation, trying to earn God's favor, temptation to earn our good standing with 6 (53m 26s): God, by keeping the law. I want to read Romans three 19 through 2019 through 22, because it helps us understand the gospel. Listen, if you're confused about what you believe, I just encourage you to open up the scripture because it makes it really crystal clear what we believe as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We think about the law and we think about God's expectations. And this is what, this is what Paul wrote in Romans chapter three, verses 19 and following, he said, obviously the law applies to those, to whom it was given for it's purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world is guilty before God the law was given so that the whole world would know that we are guilty before God, meaning we can't. 6 (54m 10s): We can never measure up by keeping the law. The Bible says, if you break one part of the law, you're actually guilty of breaking all of it. So even if you do great with 99.9% of it, you're guilty of breaking all of the law for no one can ever be made right with God, by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows how sinful we are. That's what the law is designed to do. It's helped us. It helps us to see how sinful we are so that we can see how desperately we need God. All right. So that's, that's it. And then verse 21 says, but now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago, we are made right with God verse 22. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. 7 (54m 54s): Some 6 (54m 55s): Of you have been really wrestling with your relationship with God, feeling unworthy all by yourself. You're unworthy. But what you need to realize, what we need to realize is that the blood of Christ covers us and that blood washes us, such that we are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We are the righteousness of God and Christ Jesus. 7 (55m 22s): So the burden can be lifted. 6 (55m 25s): Some of us are carrying baggage is about old, old mistakes, divorces relationships decisions. When we were young decisions, when we were old decisions that that just haunt us. 7 (55m 42s): Okay? 6 (55m 42s): Don't let those things where you out trust that the Bible is true for 16 says, so don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or if not celebrating certain Holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths for these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come and Christ himself is that reality Christ himself is that reality. I read this. A shadow is only an image cast by an object, which represents its form. Once you find once one, once one finds Christ, he no longer needs to follow the old shadow. Why? Because we have the form. We have the person. 6 (56m 23s): So the versus don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on self, on pious self, or a worship of angels saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful mindset made them proud, and they are not connected to Christ the head of the body for he holds the whole body together, which is joint with its joints and ligaments. And it grows as God nourishes it. 8 (56m 46s): You have died with Christ 6 (56m 49s): And he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as don't handle don't taste, don't touch such rules or a mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use 8 (57m 3s): Them. These 6 (57m 5s): Rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious, self denial, and severe bodily discipline, but they prove they provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires. 8 (57m 17s): Paul 6 (57m 17s): Said basically, essentially neglecting the body does not nourish the spirits. When I was in college, my freshman year of college in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I spent every Tuesday and Thursday fasting. And I don't remember why, why I fasted on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but, but what it did ultimately is it became a burden for me because I think in my youthful zeal, I was trying to please, God, I was trying to, in my, to the best of my ability, I think I was trying to honor the Lord, but it just wore me down physically. And it wore me down spiritually. And I, at some point realized that I, I needed to change the way that I was thinking about things. 6 (58m 1s): And so now some years later I need, I'm constantly evaluating my spiritual disciplines. Why am 8 (58m 8s): I doing these things? Am 6 (58m 11s): I doing these things? Because I feel guilty on some level and I'm trying to get rid of that guilt. I think sometimes we're doing our spiritual disciplines, praying, reading the Bible, fasting, you know, tithing, serving. We're doing all of these things because we feel some level of guilt and God wants to, wants to eliminate that from your life. He died on the cross to take away that guilt. So sometimes we're doing our spiritual disciplines because we feel guilty. Sometimes we're trying to earn God's favor. Like maybe God will, you know, it's like, you know, a genie lamp or something. If we, you know, handle the just right, you know, we'll get our wishes answered, but that's not how it works either. 6 (58m 54s): God wants us doing our spiritual disciplines because they help us draw close to him. They help us to understand what it means to walk with him and to love him and to trust him and to believe him. Because I think a lot of us are in relationship with him, but we don't, we don't trust him in that. We read the Bible and we think maybe it applies to others, but we don't think it applies to us. We don't believe him on some levels where else, where else our lives would be different. They'd be emptied of the guilt and the condemnation that we often sense in experience as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so now I still fail at times. 6 (59m 35s): Cause in my humanist, I still want to try to impress God, anybody else? There I go, Lord, I read all of this scripture. Aren't you impressed with me now. Not impressed, but when I'm reading the scripture or praying or devoting myself in some way so that I might know him that are deeper greater, then I'm not looking for an attaboy. I just, I I've automatically got this connection with the Lord. I've automatically got this relationship with the Lord. This the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ is just present in my life. And with that peace and with that confidence in who he is and not in who I am, Christianity one Oh one. 6 (1h 0m 20s): Isn't about works. It's about a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's about a relationship that requires our investments much like a, a marathon run. We need to be invested in order to finish the race. We need to take serious this life as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We need to take serious what God has called us to do. And what he's asked us to do, if at all, if at all amounts to just a list of duties, we've totally missed the Mark. We've totally missed what God has for us. I would just encourage us today to examine our lives. 6 (1h 1m 1s): Someone said an unexamined life is not worth living. So we need to always be examining our lives and say, Lord, why am I doing these things? And if you're like me from time to time, you realize that you were doing it with the wrong motivation. And then at that moment, say, Lord, I don't want to be motivated by the wrong stuff any longer. I want to be motivated purely by my relationship with you. I want to finish. Well, I want to run the race with confidence. I want to do what you've called me to do with humility and with integrity. And so God, I want to stay as close to you as humanly possible. Christianity Christianity one Oh to change. Chart wants to please God, but temptation is always going to be present. 6 (1h 1m 41s): So we have to be ready to battle that temptation, even though temptation is present, sometimes we sin God canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. We celebrate what Jesus nailed to the cross. We celebrate our salvation. The fact that Jesus died, shed his blood for us, was crucified for us. We celebrate communion the Lord's table on the fourth, Sunday of every month. And today's the fourth, Sunday of the month. And so we're going to be taking communion. Hopefully everybody received communion elements. When you came in, if you need communion elements, go ahead and raise your hand and we'll get you those elements there. Go, and Deb's going to work on that for you. 6 (1h 2m 22s): Can we get somebody else to help Deb? There, there we go. Thanks, Jim. Appreciate that. Yeah. Keep your, keep your hands up until everybody has the elements. And then when now, now once you've got the elements, go ahead and get prepared. Meaning trying to locate the clear plastic cellophane on top of the wafer. Try to find that there. And then when you do go ahead and peel that back and get ready and then get started with the next one as well. And just kind of peel that back a little bit and make sure you don't spill it on yourself or your neighbor. And, and then I'm going to read out a first Corinthians 11. 6 (1h 3m 6s): Now communion is a time to refresh ourselves in the Lord. Listen, God has done all of the heavy lifting. When he died on the cross, when God resurrected him from the dead, he did all of the heavy lifting. So if you come heavy to the throne of grace, offload that by simply repenting of your sin, say, Jesus, I, I I'm feeling this burden. And I just want to offload that. Thank you that your grace is sufficient. Maybe you're here today. You've never accepted the grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ. That grace is as close as the words that you speak. If you simply say Jesus, I need your grace. I need your forgiveness. 6 (1h 3m 46s): I need your life in mine. I need your new life. Would you come into my life? Would you forgive my sin as you do that? God is faithful to respond as you faithfully pray, and you are born again as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. When you make your profession of faith, first Corinthians 1123 says for, I pass onto you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which has given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's go ahead and take the wafer. 7 (1h 4m 33s): Thank you, Jesus. Thank you 6 (1h 4m 37s): That you submitted your body to be nailed to the cross 7 (1h 4m 41s): As the perfect sinless spotless lamb of God. You sacrificed your body and poured out your blood for us. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for that Lauren. 6 (1h 4m 57s): And the same way he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me, as often as you drink it's for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Let's go ahead and take the juice. 2 (1h 5m 27s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord God. We're grateful for 6 (1h 5m 38s): The opportunity to remember what you've done for us. And then to go back and look at the scripture in Colossians and Romans and Psalm 51 and, and learn what it means to honor you with our lives and to trust you with our lives, to understand doctrine and theology Lord, so that we can walk with a clear hearts and clear mind following after you. God, we love you. We thank you for this time. Lord it's in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Amen. Let's go ahead and stand up and Hey, as we get ready to worship, I just want to say that this is Jim and Judy's last Sunday with us. 6 (1h 6m 20s): And so Jim and Judy both have been man faithful. They've rescued us a number of times. Where's Judy, she around here somewhere here. Okay, good. There she is, have been faithful friends for the last six years, I guess on and yeah, and then you got to lead some songs, right? And we've got a gift over there for you and I'm going to give it to you a second service because if I gave it to you, I'd have to take it back to give it to you your second. So I guess I could do two and a. So we just want to express gratitude for you and Judy, Judy, CA come on up here. 6 (1h 7m 0s): I want to pray over you guys and just love on you. And we are so grateful. So Jim and Judy moved over North, North County and their families over there. And so they're going to be going to church in North County and, and using their gifts and talents over there. And so Lord, we lift them up to you and we pray God that you bless them in Jesus name. God that you'd watch over them in Jesus name, thank you for their gifts and talents, Lord God. And for who they are as human beings, our brothers and our brother and sister in the Lord. We love them. We're thankful for the relationship that we've enjoyed over these last six years. 6 (1h 7m 41s): And we know that that's going to go on for eternity because Christian relationships go on for eternity. And so this is not goodbye. This is just see you later or see us around town and see around bouts. And so we thank you for them. Lord bless them. They are jewels. They're wonderful. And we honor them for all of that. They do. And for who they are, we bless them Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Love you guys. Let me love you a here. 2 (1h 8m 15s): Now you get to try lead worship. 1 (1h 8m 24s): 0 (1h 13m 50s): It's it's been a special one. I think for us here, for me, it has been, but I got this feeling today that it says all the things that I want to say to you guys. It says, I feel loved. I feel safe. And I feel Jesus in this place. And you guys have always made me feel loved and safe and I've always felt Jesus here. I felt Jesus. I feel Jesus pleasure. Every time I'm up here now I'm shaking. And in the last lines I shall be released. I feel like it's just a new season. There's something out there for Judy and I in a new place, new adventures. 0 (1h 14m 36s): And I'm so grateful to finish. Well, I hope 1 (1h 14m 48s): . 9 (1h 19m 46s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your presence here in this place today. And God, we do just release Jim and we blessed him and GED into this next season. God, and just pray that they would just feel like a wave of love. Just wash over them. Even as they leave this place today, they would have sent just you going with them. You go before them, behind them. Thank you for what they've invested here. And God thank you for this church family. I thank you for every household represented, pray God that you would just fill us with your love that we would truly just kind of leak Jesus throughout the week to everyone that we come in contact with that they would just know that we've been in your presence. They would know we're Christians because we love. 9 (1h 20m 27s): So we just bless you. Thank you for your presence in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Awesome guy. Well we yeah, go for it and celebrate. Yeah. So good. Well, we don't. I want to go without saying that if you need prayer this morning, please come on forward. We'd love to have a moment to pray with you. If any needs to come on for Boston staff or volunteers, we'll be here to pray with you, but have a great morning. Make sure to give Jim and Judy lots of love on your way out today. And we'll see you next week. Have a great Sunday.

0 (1s): Well, good morning. Welcome everyone. Welcome to Harvest. My name is Cheryl Lynn, and we're just so excited that you guys are here to worship this morning and hello to everyone watching around campus and at home. I hope you're all doing well. If you're able to, why don't you stand with me as we begin, we'll take a moment. Pray and just invite the Lord's presence to be in our midst here this morning. 1 (33s): Let's go before him. 0 (35s): Thank you, Lord. We do just welcome your presence. Holy spirit. We want to meet with you this morning. I just want to come into your presence with boldness and courage, the springing to your hearts, to speed vulnerable before you to be real knowing we don't have to have it all put together or all figured out. We don't have to be perfectly polished to come into your presence. That's exactly why you died on the cross that you covered it all for us, Jesus, that we could come messy and Rogan and hurting and real before you. And so we just bring you our hearts this morning and worship you bring you our tears. 0 (1m 17s): We bring you our discouragement. We bring our doubts and our questions. Thank you, Lord that you meet us there 1 (1m 25s): As we just, 0 (1m 26s): Or auto Harts and praise. And thanks as we remember who you are and what you've done for us. 1 (1m 39s): where Jesus and died for me. I see independent on the cheek. 0 (13m 7s): Great. Is your faithfulness to us. Thank you, Laura. That we can truly depend on you. That's you're the one thing that never falters that never fails. Everything else in this world fills us breaks. Deserts, us abandons us, runs the dry, but you never do unless you're the weld. It never 1 (13m 36s): Thank you. 0 (13m 36s): And so we just happened to that. Well, this morning, the well, and your faithfulness, your goodness, your kindness and your mercy, we need it. God 1 (13m 47s): Thank you. 0 (13m 50s): And we actually want to teach you a new song this morning, all about God's faith. He talks about him. He's the God who could make mountains. If you know that story in the Bible, even when they're singing and the person, 1 (14m 4s): The reason and the doors come open as they worship 0 (14m 10s): And they marched around the walls of Jericho. And when they worshiped walls came tumbling down, I just feel like the Lord wants to remind us Church that there's power only worship. As we invite his presence. As we focus on him, there's the power. Let me praise. Sometimes we have to speak to our own fear and preach to our own souls reminders. 1 (14m 36s): God's goodness. And that's a lot. What the song is about this morning. 0 (14m 39s): I hope you'll join. And as you can, of course goes like this 1 (14m 54s): To shake and walls. I wouldn't speak to my fear. I will preach to you a favor. 1 (15m 7s): God you are the God who makes the mountains move. 1 (19m 4s): The God who heals, rescues, redeems. The sets are feet upon the rock. Remind us of your faithfulness and your goodness today. And mine is that there's never anything out of your sight. 0 (19m 23s): That's going on in our lives. You're you're not aware of you're a detail oriented. God you know everything about it. 1 (19m 34s): You made each of us uniquely site, the spray that you would need everyone who's here today or watching online and she would speak to their hearts. So that still small voice to bring encouragement, to bring hope, cast, vision, to give us purpose. We need you, or would you continue to just be in our midst today 0 (20m 8s): And our hearts to receive all that you have for us? It's your kingdom come 1 (20m 15s): Jesus' name. Amen. So good celebrates. I love it. 0 (20m 25s): Yeah. Never be afraid to praise and celebrate him. That's awesome. Well, let's take a moment to 1 (20m 29s): The new worshiping by saying hello to somebody just spreading some love 0 (20m 33s): Of some waves, fist bumps, elbow bumps, whatever you feel comfortable with. We'll gather back for some announcements. 1 (20m 42s): Good morning. My name is Ron. And what want to do first is 2 (20m 48s): Just welcome everyone here. So whether you're in the sanctuary or the law for the patio area, or maybe you tuning in online, we're super happy to have you here today. And by the way, if you happen to be new to Harvest Church, we do have a gift for you and you just head up to the info center and meet up with the people up there. And they'll be happy to hand off that gift to you. And while you're there, if you wouldn't mind, there's no strings attached, but if you want to fill out a communication card that just helps us to have you on the list where we can communicate to you, all the updates and things that are going on here at Harvest Church, that would be super helpful. And, and just as a friend for your information's ever since covert happened, we don't pass the bags anymore for communication cards or offering or anything like that. 2 (21m 36s): But we do have collection boxes here in the sanctuary and the loft in the patio area. So we want to make it easy for everybody. Hey, just want to say a couple of things just starting out today. Yesterday was a very special day for a couple reasons. One is yesterday morning, we were hearing the sanctuary. We had a Memorial service for a young man named Michael . So he died at 38, he had cancer. And so myself and another, another fellow kind of walked him through that journey. And, you know, he loved the Lord. And so it was kind of a family reunion yesterday. It's about a hundred people here. A lot of people came in from out of town and it, you know, it's a time of, of grieving for sure, but it's also time of celebration, you know, when a believer graduates and goes to heaven. 2 (22m 24s): And so we had the Memorial service here and then the reception in the patio area. So that was really uplifting actually. And then afterwards at four o'clock we had on the beach, we had a bonfire and baptism and I heard I didn't get to go, but I heard there was between 200 and 250 people there. Thankfully there were enough hot dogs to go around. So that was the big answer to prayer. Especially since I talked to a young man just a little bit ago, who will rename unnamed? His name is not Nathan, just in case. You're wondering, I said, how many hotdogs did you eat yesterday? He said, yes. 1 (23m 2s): Eight. 2 (23m 5s): I said, you can't fit eight hot dogs in there. You said, well, I didn't eat the buns. I told Nathan that does not count. Okay. But thankfully there were enough hotdogs to go around, but more importantly, we baptized 15 believers, 15 people yesterday. 1 (23m 22s): Yeah. Yeah. So 2 (23m 27s): Super wonderful time at the beach. So those of you that were part of that, it was, it was thanks for being there. One of the things we do a few times a year, we call growth track. And so that is where people that are newer to Harvest Church or maybe been here for awhile. You just want to learn more about who we are, meaning what, what makes us unique from the other churches, great churches in our community. So you're gonna learn a little bit about that, but more importantly, we're going to help you to, to discover your spiritual gifts and to give you opportunity and encourage you to get involved. Not only here at Harvest Church, but you know, our gifts are not only for Church ministry, but as for community ministry, we want to help you on that journey. 2 (24m 8s): And so the growth track we're offering, it's going to begin next Sunday. So Sunday, October 11th, it'd be 11 o'clock during the 11th clock service. And it's going to be in the office space, which is just up the road here, but we need to just sign up. Now here's the catch. It is four consecutive Sundays. So this is not sort of like a onetime thing. You can have opportunity to gather with other believers, four consecutive Sundays during the 11 o'clock service, you're going to get to know the other people in the group really well. And that's just a side benefit and a, but you need to sign up so you can sign up a couple of different ways. In fact, we want to make it really easy for you. We actually have 'em the Harvest Church app. So in fact, I got to jump ahead. 2 (24m 50s): So to AIG Harvest app, and then we added a new feature to our app. Recently we call it the connect link. So if you go to the connect link on our Harvest Church app, you can sign up that way four, the growth track, or you can just walk up the Hill to the info center it's right next to the coffee. So if you like coffee, boom, you're there. All right. So go ahead and sign up for the growth track, if you would like to participate in that. And as I mention, and we have this new connect way of communicating and, you know, in a, in a group of believers, it's really helpful to communicate things, right? In fact, I'm going to just read this to you because it's new to me as well. We have a new place on the AIG Harvest app for you to communicate anything and everything with our staff at Harvest simply click CA simply click on the connect link and fill out the form to let us know prayer requests, sign up for classes, events, volunteer for help, to help out or et cetera. 2 (25m 44s): So we'd love to hear from you. And that's true. We, we, we want to encourage you. If you have something to say, sign up for, be involved in, you know, we love to make that easy for everybody to do. And then as a last thing I want to mention this morning, our children's program has kind of been rebooting now that we're kind of getting a little bit further away from COVID. And so we've got the children's ministry going four, the 11 o'clock service, but we're going to start it up again for the nine o'clock walk as well. So the, the CA, the kids classes will resume for the nine o'clock service on November 1st. So just want to let you know about that. If you have kids and you prefer to go to the early, early service, that's going to be available to you and it's not too late to volunteer. 2 (26m 26s): So if you'd like to help out ministering to the young people of our church in my mind, that is one of the most important ministries that we can have pouring our lives into the young people. And so if you want to be a part of that, it's not too late. Go ahead and sign up at the info table. Or again, that connect link would be a good way to help 3 (26m 44s): Us out as well. All right. That's all I have to say. I'm going to invite Jeremy up. He's going to share the word to us this morning and thank you. Thank you. One last thing. Sorry. I have one more thing. Stay here. The, the youth are standing in today because Jeremy's their youth leader and Oh, there they are. Okay. Alright. I'm done. 3 (27m 38s): Check, check. Oh, there it is. There's the check. I apologize. My name is Jeremy. I'm the youth and family pastor. Hello youth. Yeah, so we baptized 13 youth yesterday. It was, it was amazing. And the weather was perfect. You know, it was a, it was really low tide. So it was, it was fun to, to actually have to get as deep as we had to go to actually dunk a person, half, half of the people there. It was just we're in the water and it was, it was a really special time. So we'll have some pictures and videos to show for those who didn't make it. Yeah, it was, it was, it was powerful if you're just joining us this week. 3 (28m 22s): This is my second part of the book of Ruth, the God of the Insignificant and Ordinary Part. And so we're gonna kind of jump into the middle of Ruth Ruth three and four is what we'll, we'll kind of try to finish off today. We ended it, we, we, we started with some big things last week, kind of whittled away from starting from looking at Ruth as it emphasized the whole as the whole of nation, the nation. And then we kind of looked at a family and then went down to a couple individuals. So we're going to start this week with those individuals and kind of work our way back out. But before I jump in, let me just start with the word of prayer. 3 (29m 9s): We were S we were so grateful Lord for what you are doing and the plan that you are unfolding. And we're, we're thankful that you are the almighty sovereign God Lord. And yet you, you know, and you care for the estate of, of your people. Lord, I pray that just today, we would learn to trust and to obey you the Lord to you, to, to even a further degree, Lord teach us from your word Lord, just using the simple narrative, this, the simple love story, comfort our hearts Lord in Jesus name, we pray. 3 (29m 51s): Amen. So there's a lot, the book of Ruth isn't ma it's one of my favorite books. It is humanity and four chapters. And so with only having two weeks to teach it, there's a lot that I've have to kind of kept under the table. I haven't, I've, haven't been able to bring up to the surface to bring up to the light. So just know that as we're, there's a lot of things I ha I have to, for sake of time floss over, you know, growing up in our garage, there was a band saw and a number of other woodworking tools. And, and funny enough, it wasn't my dad's band. It was my mom's band saw my mom was the woodworker of the family. 3 (30m 33s): And we grew up on the mission field when I was, I was born in the mission field. And then my parents worked for a missions organization back here and the States. And because of that, my dad did the bookkeeping and accounting, but we were always trying to fundraise and try to keep support for our family. And it was one of the ways that my mom kind of provided help, provide help, kind of subside our income is she would do these little woodworking. So our friend had a woodworking arts and craft shop, and she would widdle and she made little Noah's arcs with little characters and paint them. It was, it was really cool. So I grew up with her, you know, whittling away at would and doing stuff with wood. And, and sometimes every once in a while, she'd whittle all the way, a little bit too much and have to Chuck it. 3 (31m 17s): And I was driving in this morning. I'm like, Oh man, I hope I haven't whittled away too much to the book of Ruth. That was, that was my fear. But with that said, let's just, let's just dive in. I want to recap for those of you who weren't here last week, just, just to try to bring you up to quick speed, but you know, we, the book of Ruth starts out in a very dark place. It's it? It takes place in the book of, during the period of the judges and in the period of judges, it was like everyone did what was right in their own eyes because there was no King. And so we were introduced to there's a famine land of Israel, and it narrows down to this family of Elimelech and Elimelech had a wife, Naomi, and in two sons, one was named Mehan and the other was Chilean and their names mean CIC and pining away. 3 (32m 5s): So it kind of shows you what was happening in that day in time and, and impossibly to save his family. He, what he does is he ends up taking them to a land of Moab. He traveled six 70 miles over the mountains and, and, and to a place that where they weren't supposed to go, but yet he's trying to save his family. So he takes him to land a Moabite Moab, and the F Elimelech ends up dying in a far away place, away from family and way from friends and their, his, his sons are left with his, his widowed and, and they, over the course of time, his sons take Moabite wives. And in the course of time, both of those sons died. 3 (32m 45s): So now we're left in MOA with three widows Naomie, the mom, here's the thing that they're there, that there's bread back at home. And so she, she goes from Moab to start to leave, to return to her, her town of Bethlehem. And on the way Orpah decides to stay with her own people. One of her daughter laws remains, but Ruth clings to Naomi, and she makes this statement like mine, your God will be my God. Your people mind people. And, and we, we, we find them back in Bethlehem and, and we find them not staying idle. Ruth does not stay idle. So she leaves walks out her front door and simply looks North, South East and West and decides, well, I need to do something. 3 (33m 28s): I need to go glean. I need to provide some out. And so she finds herself in this field and the Bible says it just so happened that she ends up in Boaz field. And from there, we see that over the course of time that there's this budding relationship between Ruth and Boaz. And she was simply obedient to say, I need to do something. And she found herself in this field of Boaz. So one of the important things that we need to to understand, and as we're reading through the book of Ruth is that, that this was written to very different culture. And, and, and we have to understand a bit of the context with which the Bible was written. Our, our Western postmodern understanding doesn't often help us understand this very Jewish culture sometimes. 3 (34m 14s): And sometimes I think we forget that Jesus was this middle Eastern Jewish rabbi. And so, so many of the things that Jesus said and did while he was doing his ministry go right over our head. But it was like, if you were a Jewish, or if you understand the culture and the context, you're like, Whoa, this is, that's what he's saying. Kind of blows your mind. As you begin to understand the culture. And what that does is it opens up these different patterns of the Bible that begins to emerge from these narratives. That's why this narrative is the story of Ruth is in the Bible. Our understanding our Western understanding says that there's prophecy and fulfillment. The thing that's called out, and then it's fulfilled. 3 (34m 57s): But the Jewish understanding is that there's these pro there's a prophecy given. And then there's these partial fulfillment along the way, pointing the way to an ultimate complete fulfilling of that, of that prophecy. So we get these partial, we get these patterns or types that emerge from the word of God. And the part of that pattern, part of those types will emerge from Naomi, Ruth and Boaz and who they represent. So chapter three, Let's jump in. How about that chapter three, verse one, it says, then Naomi mother-in-law said to her, my daughter, shall I not seek security for you? 3 (35m 42s): That it may be well with you, Naomi, the mother-in-law. And she wants to seek security and rest, which she was, she knows God has designed to be found in marriage. And it's within that culture, that Naomi is actually sacrificed in her own, right? The law of the love, right? It was, it was Naomi's right. But, but so that her daughter law will succeed. Naomi, stepping back and saying, I want you to succeed. I want you to be provided for, I want, I care about you. And so she's going to start to work and as a good mother-in-law or a good mother, and she's going to set up her daughter for success, she wants to set them up. 3 (36m 26s): All right. My wife loves to set other gals up. She loves to create these marriage, create these love stories. And so Naomi is going to do that for her daughter in law, Ruth, she wants to seek security and rest. And it leads to a question. I love asking the Bible questions and often, and the, on the margins, all the right questions. Well, why this, or why that? And some things I know will not be answered and tell it, tell her an attorney, but some of the things I'm like, well, I'll say this question for labor are stored in a little file cabinet, wait for later. And one of those questions that I've asked for a long time is why is Boaz single Naomi's, it's going to set up Ruth. So that there's this, the love story gets completed with Boaz, but why was Ruth? 3 (37m 11s): Why was Boaz single? You know, in that culture to be a single older man is, is, was like a . And yet we find that he had a great reputation among his, his employees running the community. He was a man of great wealth. The Bible speaks. Why was he single? And there's a few different thoughts. You know, what was he married? And his wife had passed away is one of the prominent ones that come out that's, that's understandable. And it's yet after reading and studying and, and really looking at the full picture of scripture. This is my personal opinion. My personal opinion was that was that Boaz was untouchable. 3 (37m 58s): He was untouchable. He was in touch long, the way that his mother-in-law had, maybe his, sorry, his mother had put up maybe a scar on him. You see boys, his father was one of the men that marched around Jericho, and that blew the trumpets. And the walls came tumbling down except where Ray had the harlot was and her family and Boaz, his father had taken Rayhab the harlot as his wife, Matthew records that in the genealogy. So it's my personal, if you knew that, that, although Boaz was a great and amazing man that he was still, there was still some stigma in the community and said, well, I don't want my daughter to marry this man. 3 (38m 43s): Who's only half Jewish. And so somehow there was this divine protection that now that God would orchestrate another foreign woman to come into his life, It says in verse two, now, Boaz whose young woman or we're with you, is he not our relative in the army? He says, in fact, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor, the threshing floor was the saddle on the Hill where the grain and the shaft for separate owners would take their grain and they would, they would, they would kind of crush it and you'd throw it up in the air and allow the wind to kind of blow off the shelf. The shelf was the light stuff, the whole, and the, and the grain would fall in place. 3 (39m 24s): And so it was a great celebration. It was a great time of like, yes, look at my pile of grain, look at what God has provided. Look what he's done. And so what you do either, it'd be just a big celebration. There'd be feast, there'd be excitement. And you wanted to protect that. So the, so the men would gather around and they'd lay on these piles to protect it. So that some fee for bandit wouldn't come and steal from their, from their CA their take at night. And so, and so Naomi's like, I know what's going on. I know where he'll be. And so she gives these specific instructions to Ruth. She says, therefore, wash yourself and anoint yourself, put on your best garment and go down to the threshing floor. 3 (40m 5s): Do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. Then it shall be when he lies down that you shall notice the place where he lies and you shall go in and uncover his feet and lie down. And he will tell you what you should do, Remove taking her best garment and putting our best God wasn't as much as getting fancy as it was removing her clothes of her widowhood. She's now saying Ruth, you are on the market, go dress like it. 5 (40m 36s): And the fees 3 (40m 37s): And the parties that would have gone on, and the eating and drinking was not in a way of access. So you remember the men are there to protect their grain. So if they, if, if you want to read into this, that, Oh, the, that Boaz got drunk. That's, that's just simply not in the text. Bose is there he's feces. He's exciting. There's joy to be found, but then he's going to lay down to protect his grade. And had he been at completely inebriated, then he wouldn't be able to protect if somebody came in. So Boaz and I love the scene is being excessive in his moderation. When he came to drink, be excessive in your moderation, because when he's laying down, he wants to protect what's there. And now, as Naomi is like, Ruth, this is what I want to do. 3 (41m 17s): These are the steps to take, say, tell him, or when you, when he wakes up, he will tell you what to do. And this is putting the ball in Ruth and Boaz this court. And it's a vulnerable position to be put in, especially as a woman, it's a foreign woman in those days. And yet Ruth said all that you say to me, I will do. Now we've got to hold up there, especially cause of the youth you guys are in here. And you're maybe thinking about someday, you want to meet a guy or a gal, and I'm going to say that don't be spiritual or biblical and say, Oh, I'm going to be like Ruth and go find a guy after party. Who's had a little celebration go find and uncover his feet and see what happens. 3 (41m 60s): Like don't do that. Okay, don't do that. That is, that is not what is saying. Is there a little bit of scandal on this as possibly, there's a little bit of scandalous, but there's nothing sinful going on here. This is once again, the culture and the context, and these are two people who that night keep their Virtu and keep their character. It's important in their, in their seeking out of love and seeking out of this marriage. There's still character and virtue to be kept. So Ruth does all that. So her mother-in-law's asked and it says that after Boaz in verse seven had eaten and drunk that his heart was cheerful. 3 (42m 42s): He is he's excited. The Lord has provided the Lord has returned to his people and given them green. And he laid down at the end of the heap of grain and she came softly and he, and she uncovered his feet and he laid down. Now I'm thankful that Hollywood has not tried to remake this into some kind of movie because they would for sure bring some things that aren't biblical and bring some scandal into it. They would botch it for sure. You think of, of, of Boaz. He had been working all day sweating. You know, his feet are dirty, stinky, sweating. She, and she's now laying by them. There's nothing attractive about that. And yet there's something significant that she goes in, uncover his feet and had she gone and tapped him on the shoulder. 3 (43m 28s): He might've jumped up ready for battle, ready to take somebody out. And he's trying to come out his grain, but instead she just simply softly uncover his feet. And there's the significance. And that this has more to do with the hem of his garment than any kind of uncovering we might think. So somewhere back in my genealogy, you might find I'm from Scotland. My last name is from Scott and there's a little village up in Scotland that bears my name Sutherland and the Scots don't wear skirts. They were kilts. Okay. Men back then didn't wear dresses. They wore tunics. Okay. And on the bottom, on the hem of that, tunic was part of it. 3 (44m 8s): There was embroidered into it a lot. And it said it had to do with your genealogy, your, your inheritance, the hem of your garment was something that was showed your authority or your protection, your lineage. It's the reason David, when he was being chased by Saul, he went and hidden the cave with all of his men and saw needing a little reprieve from the sun and needed a little rest, goes into that cave. Not knowing that David is hidden behind and David's men are like there saw, you can take him out. He's been chasing you. You're that you're supposed to be the next King. You've been anointed King. You can take him out. 3 (44m 48s): Now this has God has done this. And David's like, no, no, no. I could never do that to the Lord. And I did. But he, then he went and what did he, what did he cut off at the hem of salts? The hem of his garment. And David still felt guilty about cutting the head of his garment because the hem of God, wasn't just simply a piece of cloth. It's it's stood for the authority that Saul had been given Jesus on his way to heal gyrus. His daughter 12 year old daughter is surrounded by a crowd and a woman with a flow of blood for 12 years reaches out. And what does she touch the hem of his garden garment. 3 (45m 33s): It was this authority in her and she was healed instantly. And Jesus knew that there's power that had left. Why? Because it's this Ruth asking Boaz to take me under your, under your covering under your protection under your provision, verse eight. Now it happened at midnight that the man startled and turned himself and there was a woman lying at his feet. And she S and he said to her, who are you? Remember? There's the dark. There's no streetlights. There's, there's, there's the little light from the is. And maybe there's a moon out. And he says, who are you? And she says, I am Ruth. Your maid servant, take your maid servant under your wing for you are a close relative. The, the Hebrew word is go El. 3 (46m 15s): Or we also are translated into the kinsman Redeemer. And the girl had three aspects to them. He had to be a relative. He had to be related. He had to be able to redeem, and he had to be willing as well to redeem. And she kind of goes off, off her mother-in-law script. You know, Ruth says, well, he'll tell you what to do, but she says, I am Ruth, your maid servant, take your mates over. And under her wing, she is proposing marriage. Ruth had proposing, take me under your covering she requests. 3 (46m 55s): And she's doing this, redeem the land and fulfill the law of the lever marriage. And he says, bless her to you. My Lord of the Lord, my daughter for you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning in that you did not go after young men, whether poor or rich, it seems like she had options. And now my daughter do not fear for all that. You, you requests for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman. Remember that night, they both kept their virtue. They're both kept their, their character. He says, now it's true. I am a close relative. However, there's a relative closer than I now hold up. 3 (47m 35s): Where did that come from? Right? The guy that's where there's drama suspense. There's a closer relative in the story. Boys was introduced way back in chapter two. And it was just kind of briefly mentioned. And now, now the author is choosing to reveal. It there's even close relative. What's this about? That's not supposed to happen. And so now Boaz begins to tell her what to do. Just like Naomi said, he says, stay the night in the morning. It shall be that if you will perform the duty of a close relative, do you good? Let him do it. But if he does not want to perform the duty for you, then I will perform the duty for you as the Lord lives, lie down until morning. 3 (48m 16s): So they both are laying there. I doubt either of them slept. Ruth is thinking there's a wedding tomorrow, but I don't know to who, but as this thinking, okay, how am I going to make this happen? There's someone closer, but I got, how can I, how can I do this? First 15 says, and also he said, bring the Shaw that is on you and hold it in which he held it. He measured six of barley and laid it on her. Then she went into this city and when she came in to her, her mother in law said, is it, that is that you my daughter? 3 (48m 57s): And she told her all that the man had done for. And he, and she said, these six of barley, he gave me, he gave me for, he said to me, do not go empty handed to your mother-in-law. He's sending a code. And there's two things that he's seen with this six measures of two important things. One is Naomi remember had, had, had allowed Ruth to go for, go for Boaz. She didn't claim her right to Boaz. Naomi was laying her sight aside her right to Redeemer by seeking security for both Ruth's wellbeing. But now both Boaz is showing that his concern and care that he will provide for Naomi as well. He's providing for her as well. 3 (49m 41s): He seen you could have come at me and demanded that I do the law of love, right with you. But instead he chose the same roof. And now I'm going to take care of you nail me. Don't worry. I'm going to take care of you, but she's also sending another message or he's sending another message through this verse. 18 says is still my daughter and tell you no how the matter will turn out for the man will not rest until you is concluded. The matter of this day, think about that. Here's six ethos of barley free mother, and I'll give her those to you. And the man will not rest. You think of something has to do is six and then rest God's creation, right? 3 (50m 27s): God created in six days. And then he chose to rest the seventh. That was his message. That was a secret code to Naomi, like Naomi, I got this, here's your six ethos, but now just know that you can rest and rest. And I, there was probably a lot of concern and warring going on back in that house. Like what's going to happen. Who's the wedding going to be too, but they were told to rest. And that just enters into my mind, all the, what ifs have you ever read those books? I grew up with these books that you read, you know, part of a chapter. And then it would say, well, if the character chooses to go into the jungle, or if the character chooses to go to the forest, choose which way they go. 3 (51m 7s): And you say, okay, you know, forest is page 10 and, and the jungles page 20. And it leads you into the story of all these little different what ifs. And so you kind of, you can lead your character through these books, into these, these innumerable different little ways, and finally the bookends. And then you say, well, I want to see what happened if he went the other way. And so you go back and you reread it and it's all these what ifs and the what ifs start to haunt the story, or make me think that the story, all the, what ifs, what if Elimelech had never left? What if he had kept his sons there? 3 (51m 47s): What if that, what if his sons hadn't chose to, to marry these Moabite woman? What if Ruth hadn't decided to return with her? Mother-in-law what if Ruth had stayed in the house and said, you know, I'm too tired for this long journey. I don't really feel like going out. I just hope somebody will bring us some food. What if she never went out to the field? What if she'd gone to a different field? What if Boaz was not a kind and generous and man of character? 3 (52m 28s): What if he was a cruel and didn't want to fulfill the law that God had said for the law of gleaning and allow his corners of his grain to be Glen gleaned. There's so many what ifs. And you think about God, who knows in his, all the sovereignty seems to know all these what ifs, but yet he's working. He's unfolding his perfect plans through our choices, through these freewill decisions that we're given we're given. And yet they don't get outside of his ultimate plan. Cause now we're going to see, as it continues on now, Boaz verse, chapter four, verse one. Now he goes up to the gate and all night he'd been doing the what ifs. What if I go to the gate? And nobody comes by what if I go to the gate? 3 (53m 10s): And he doesn't want to sit down and be, what are all these what F so now Boaz went to the gate and he sat down and behold, the close relative of whom Boaz had spoken, came by and Boaz said, come aside, my friend, sit down here. And so he came and he sat beside and sat down. And this enters into the scene. Now another person unnamed relative, right? This man will go down in the history. Books is unnamed, which is a protection during the time that this was first written, they would have known who this man was, but the author chose to keep him out of the pages, book, the book. 3 (53m 51s): And it says, and he took 10 men are the elders of the city. And he said, sit down here. And they sat down and it seems like Boaz has this way of commanding respect. Now Boaz is setting up the scene. He has all these people around and you can imagine to see his heart beating out of his chest. Okay? Okay. How's this going to go? What's going to happen. He said to the close relative, Naomi has come back from the country of Moab is sold the piece of land, which belonged to our brother a liberal check. And it wasn't as much of a selling as it was a loaning or releasing. It was like a lease on the land. The land belonged to the family, but you could lease out if you were poor, if you needed extra cash, you could lease out parts of your land. 3 (54m 35s): And that's what Elimelech had to do. He had to lease out his family land because he couldn't keep the crops. There was just something that happened. And so in, in those scripts of, of, as the land got transferred, there's also this, the right to be able to buy the land back. And so now Boaz in his strategy is saying, okay, this close relative here. I want to remind you that this piece has been sold, but it needs to be redeemed verse Fortnite. And I thought to inform you, save and buy it back. And the presence of the inhabitants and the elders of my people. If you redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, then tell me that I may know for there's none. There's no one like you to redeem it. 3 (55m 16s): And then I am after you. And so the man says all redeem it. That's not the plan. I will redeem it and Boaz. Okay. So he's been strategy. He's been thinking about all this night, all night, and he says this. He says, on the day that you buy the fuel from the land of Naomi, you must also buy it from Ruth. The Moabitess, the wife of the dead to perpetuate, or the name of the dead through his inheritance. It was a reminder that you're not just redeeming the land. It's not just about the physical land, but there's also the redeeming of the lineage and the inheritance, which was part of their culture. And the close relative says, I cannot redeem it for myself. 3 (55m 57s): Lest I ruin my own inheritance. You redeem my right of redemption for yourself. I cannot redeem it. So yes, he was a kinsmen and he was able, but he was not willing. It says, now this was the custom in former times and Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging. And you'd give a sandal off your foot. The close relative in verse eight said to Boaz, buy it for yourself. So he took off his sandal. It was the giving away have the right of the land. And, and this has the implication of, of Deuteronomy 1124 and Joshua one three that wherever the sole of your foot treads, that's where your land will be, that you have to actually walk into it and walk onto it. 3 (56m 41s): And that reminds us of, of this is a part of a pattern of our Christian life. There's so many abundant promises in the scripture and in the word of God, there's an abundance wealth out there, but we have to, as Christians, we have to step on it and we have to step into those things into those promises of God. We have to take those as ourself for ourself. We need to step in our sole of our foot. Our feet of faith need to like walk onto these promises of God. So the CA the sandal symbolize that. Now you can see in verse nine, that Boaz is probably holding up that sandal. And he says to elder the people, you are witnesses this day, I have bought all that was Elimelech's and all that was Chileans. 3 (57m 27s): And Mahons from the hand of Naomi, he is, he is redeeming the land from Leviticus 25. And he says, Gomorrah over the Ruth, the Moabitess the widow of may hon. I have acquired as my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brother. And, and from the position at the gate, you are witnesses of this at this day. So now he was taking the Deuteronomy 25 of redeeming his bride to the left right marriage. And it says all the people who are out the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. The Lord, make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel. 3 (58m 11s): And may you prosper and epitaph as well as, and be famous in Bethlehem. So they're going to give, they're going to give Boaz now two blessings, and they're kind of interesting blesses. You have to kind of read and the survey, you have to know what was going on in this first class. And they're going back to Rachel and Leah of the house of Israel. And they're reminding that God promised that a Messiah would come through his people. And so there's, there is simply saying like the Messiah will CA, this will be part of the lineage of the Messiah. Micah five, two talks about Bethlehem being that Citi. And it talks about how he will be famous and you will be famous. 3 (58m 59s): He'll be famous in that space. Then they give a second blessing, which is interesting. Especially if you know the culture, the context of it, it says, may your house be the house of Perez who Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring, which the Lord will give you from this young woman. So without going very deep into Genesis 38, this is an interesting blessing. You see, Judah had three sons and he sought a wife and he found a wife for his first son that son ended up passing away. And so he wanted his second son and marry that woman. Then the second, second son rejected that, and God rejected him. And so he also passed away. 3 (59m 40s): And then the third son, Judah was like, well, I don't want that same thing to happen to him. So he held him back and that left Tamar in a very vulnerable position as a widow unprotected in that culture. And Tamar does something that's super skinless. She puts on the clothes of a prostitute, gets pregnant and bears a son to her. Father-in-law, it's sad that this is even in the Bible, but it shows the human condition. And the fact that this is Jesus, his lineage even is even blows my mind even more. And so the son that Judah BOR Perez, who is a relative of Boaz is illegitimate and God, and in Deuteronomy 23 had laid out in the law that 10 generations will be disinherited from entering into the temple to worship. 3 (1h 0m 38s): And so they're saying, may your house be like Perez who Tamar boarded Judah. That sounds like the weirdest kind of blessing to give to this man Boaz. Who's about ready to get married. And I'll circle back on that at the end. So Boaz took Ruth and he became his, and she became his wife. And when they went in and he went into and the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son, the barren woman brings forth a sun. And the woman said to Naomi blessed, be the Lord who has not left you this day without a close relative. And may his name be famous and Israel, and it was famous. Do you notice that same fields that were Boaz Ruth, those same fields? There were some shepherds watching their sheep at night and the sky was opened up and the angels came down in their glory, singing about a Messiah that was born in Bethlehem. 3 (1h 1m 29s): Those are those fields it'll be fit. His name will be famous for 15, and maybe he be a restore of life and a nourisher of you and your old age for your daughter law, who loves you is better to you than seven sons. And they only took the child later on her was them and became a nurse to him. She became a caretaker. She, this, this little child, his little baby obeyed became her like adopted son and away. 3 (1h 2m 9s): And I have one of those women in my life. I, so I was born in Hong Kong and I was born in Hong Kong. My parents were missionaries in South China and in McCalla, South China and Macau was not known for the best hospitals. And so my parents were like, we want to, you know, we want, we want to have our baby in Hong Kong. And so my parents traveled to Hong Kong, which has across the Harbor. And they stayed with this missionary lady and her name was Hazel Kline top. I call her Tutu for grandma and Tutu was one of the ones who every birthday, she, you know, for my, for my second birthday, she sent me $2 bill. You know, for my 14th birthday, she'd sent me $14. She prayed for me your whole life. 3 (1h 2m 49s): I'm so grateful her she's the sweetest lady, but my parents were coming back and they bring you back from the hospital. And she just felt like the Lord had spoken to her while, while, while I was in the hospital, like, don't let him go and sleep back in the guestroom where my parents had been staying. So she had just had a little two room apartment there and in Hong Kong. And so my parents came back home. They bring me in there. They're like, Oh, you moved the beds around. And she's like, no, no, no. I want you to take the master bedroom. And she's sleeping with the baby. And I'm like, Oh no, the guest room was fine. It was comfortable. And she's like, she just insists. And the Lord made it clear. You are not duty that the first night I'm back from the hospital to, to sleep in the room. 3 (1h 3m 31s): And she gets like, here's this noise. And what had happened is these rats had come in through the window, big rats, big, big rats, urban overseas, you see these big rats had come into the window and she's like, they would have, who knows what would happen? There's like this, this protection and to do was that, that amazing woman of faith. And now Naomi is holding this baby and she's realizing, she thought she went out four and came back flat and empty. And now she's seen all the blessings come back through this little baby. And she, and, and the name obeyed. And now it gives the genealogy. We're going to finish for the book of genie, the genealogy. And this is important because it says, now this is the genealogy of Paris. 3 (1h 4m 13s): Remember that illegitimate son Perez we've got Hezron has, rhombi got Ram. Randy got Neisha. And he got Solomon, Solomon begot, Boaz, Boaz. We got Obad. OB got Jesse and Jesse, we got David lists, 10 generations. There's 10 generations that illegitimate sons generations were to be disinherited. Now it's closing the loop. And it's saying, this is my son. And David was going to be that, that, that one. So in closing, this is that Ruth leaves, no detail overlooked, No promise, unkept, no prophecy that will not go unfulfilled. 3 (1h 5m 0s): Jesus said not one jot or tittle will by no means pass away. Jesus will complete it all. And what started out as a big nation, focusing in the nation that everyone was doing and what was right in their own eyes and, and how that led to tragedy and death. And now closing, we focus on a few individuals who are chosen to trust and obey and honor the Lord, despite the conditions that surround them, that we see this joy and birth that come in and not just for them personally, but for the family. And then also ultimately for the nation into the world. 3 (1h 5m 40s): And so looking at these characters, Ruth Bo Boaz and Naomi, where did they put their trust? And my question is where do you put your trust? Will you trust in yourself? And, and the good things that you do, your bank account, your 401k, your career. Do we trust in someone that someone will carry us through the, the hard times that some thing, some activity, but I wanted to say that Ruth was putting her whole trust into the God of Israel forsaken her own tribe and Mo and the mobile site has God. 3 (1h 6m 20s): I mean, what if, what if Ruth had just decided on that journey back? Well, I'm forsaking my God. I'm going to go to this God of Israel, and maybe, maybe I should just be at play a little safe. And I'll just take one of my little idols with me. I'll just take a little God with me that way. If anything really bad starts to happen, I can just pull out my little God and pray to this. God, what if she had kept something back? But I don't see that in Ruth. She abandoned everything completely. Totally. It was all putting her trust in it, into God. She was completely forsaken everything back home. And do you obey God and honor him with your day to day decisions? What if Boaz had not obeyed and honored God with his crops and obeying God with the law of, of gleaning? 3 (1h 7m 5s): What if Boaz had said, well, there's been a famine. I need to keep all this. I need to keep it for myself. And he instructs his Gleaners to glean everything. Don't let anything, we left here and get the corners. Don't let don't let anything fall. Like, what if you'd been that guy who said, I need everything that I'm simply not gonna let anybody have anything. And he's been just so held onto it, but he doesn't. We see him being obedient to God and to be generous to others. See the Lord knows every detail because he is the God of the ordinary and Insignificant, and in that God chose over the scope of humanity to narrow into a Bethlehem farmer and a foreign widowed woman. 3 (1h 7m 54s): And he brings us the book of Ruth. I'm going to pray Psalm 20 for a closing prayer. Believe it's applicable very ahead and close your eyes with me. Psalm 20 may the Lord answer you. And the day of trouble may the name of God, of Jacob defend you may he send you help from the sanctuary and he strengthened you out of Zion. May he remember all your offerings and accept your bird sacrifice? May he grant you according to your heart's desire and fulfill all your purpose? 3 (1h 8m 37s): We will rejoice in your salvation and the name of our God. We will set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions? Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed. He will answer him from his Holy heaven, with the saving strength and his right hand, some trust in chariots and some trust in horses. But we will remember the name of the Lord, our God, they have bowed down and fallen, but we have risen in. We stand upright, save Lord, may the King and stress. When we call having the fire, that is our prayer. You're good. God Lord. For any of those that might be here, who are carrying those extra bear burdens who are holding onto something who are holding on the trust to something that they shouldn't be doing Lord and not putting it in you Lord, pray. 3 (1h 9m 26s): They'd lay those burdens down. Lord, find the complete hope and trust in you. Jesus name. 1 (1h 9m 32s): Hey man. Why don't we all stand together? As we worship in response to what we've heard. You hear moving worship, worship, worship, worship. 1 (1h 10m 14s): God and then I don't feel it. 1 (1h 13m 8s): You working, you never stop. You never stop. Never stop. We never stop. I don't see he even man, I don't feel it. Never stop. Never stop. Never stop and stop. 1 (1h 13m 29s): 0 (1h 19m 43s): You were so good. You said faith full. Thank you. God for all that you've done for us. And he's continued to do to work in our, Thank you for the word that you brought today. I pray that it would take root in our hearts and fruit. Would you fill our cup for the week ahead? And we would overflow Jesus and to everyone, we come in contact with, make us more like you God The students to be together worshiping with here on campus and at home, just bless every family represent 1 (1h 20m 17s): That's your kingdom. Come in our lives in Jesus name. Amen and amen. Awesome. Such a great morning. 0 (1h 20m 26s): And any of you would like prayer. We would love to pray with you. Come on forward. We have some volunteers and staff that would be glad to pray with you. Have any needs. Have a wonderful week. Take a moment to say hi to somebody on your way out, and we'll see you next Sunday. Have a great day.

0 (0s): Well, good morning. Welcome to Harvest. Church thanks for coming this morning. Hello to everyone. 1 (6s): And then the loft and up on the patio, it's everyone watching at home. 0 (10s): It's awesome to be together. All one big family. So welcome wherever you're watching from with those of you here with me on campus, I'd like to stand and we'll begin standing. If you're able and let's invite the Lord's presence and praise, we begin. Thank you, Lord, that when we gather in your name that you promise to be in our list. And so we welcome you. Holy spirit, just to come in this time is to minister to every heart. Let's pray, especially for anyone who's just hurting this morning. Maybe hurting physically, maybe hurting within the city. 1 (49s): How would you meet us? Right where we hurt, 0 (52s): Or how would you meet us in our and our need and our brokenness? God, I asked for healing and restoration just to wash over us. Just let your love just cast out all anxiety and fear this week And this how much you care for us. 1 (1m 13s): Thank you. 0 (1m 17s): And we're going to sing a new song this morning and the song talks a lot about how God makes away. And there seems to be no way. And he's the God who parts the seize for us. He's the God who moves mountains. Some of you might know this, and I hope she can. The chorus goes like this way, man. 1 (1m 39s): Promise keeper lied in the darkness by God. That is soon Tom is the guy in the dark and my God and when I feel it's work and can never stop, never stop. 1 (5m 41s): Never stop. Never stop. by God. 1 (8m 22s): Sometimes you just put a new song and you put words upon our lips. 0 (8m 27s): So God we just flipped our praises to you this morning. 1 (8m 35s): God in this crazy world. 1 (19m 4s): What? The world, the world needs more. You want more of you in our lives. We want to reflect you. Jesus. 0 (19m 16s): 1 (19m 31s): Yeah, just soak in his presence. Just a moment. If you want to shut your eyes and just welcome him renewed, just pray with Jesus. 1 (20m 15s): You continue to minister to our hearts is so easy to just grow weary. It's so easy to forget. So help us to remember your faithfulness. 0 (20m 38s): I just pray that you would open our hearts to receive your word this morning. Let's pray a blessing over Jeremy, as he brings the word today, and that you would flow mightily through him and God would you be in our fellowship as we lift each other up, you share each other's burdens. That's pretty the, you give us courage just to reach out to someone this morning, we're hurting and to ask for prayer where you give us courage to reach out to someone and say, can I pray for you, God, that you would be the body of Christ working together to see your kingdom come here in our city and on the earth we ask all of this beautiful negative. 0 (21m 28s): Amen. Good stuff. Church awesome. Yeah. And we're going to take time to greet some folks around you. So please take a minute to say hi to somebody and we'll be back in just a few minutes with some announcement. 2 (21m 44s): Hey everyone. Welcome. We're all having so much fun talking to each other. This is great. All right. I love how social everyone is. It's so fun. So fun to see a welcome, everyone. Welcome to all of you that are joining us online and joining us from the laughed from the patio, from the sanctuary. It's so fun to see all of your guys, the smiling faces. Okay. I have a lot of things to announce. So bear with me. Okay. If you are new or if you have a question or if you want to know about a group or need any sort of information about Harvest Church visit the info table. 2 (22m 29s): It is a, there's a big sign that says welcome across the front of it. There are big banners that show you where it is. It's halfway up the driveway, or if you're elsewhere, then halfway up from the sanctuary. Okay. Let's see. We would love to have you fill out a communication card. You can do that by filling out. There should be a card in front of you in a seat in front of you or at one of the tables by one of the venues, fill this out and turn it into a collection box or to the welcome booth table. And you will get weekly emails. People will reach out to you about a group. If you want to join a group, or if you want to volunteer for kid's ministry, I'm the kid's ministry director. 2 (23m 12s): I highly recommend it. I'm also a plug for that real fast. If you want to volunteer for kid's ministry, but you're like, I don't know enough about the Bible. I'm not smart. And whatever the case is, you don't have to know everything. Cause if you did, no one would be eligible. No one would be able to do it. And so if you go, if you're, if that's your concern or if you're worried about, if you're a man and you're like, I want to volunteer in kid's ministry. And you're like, but I can't because I'm a man, not the case. We have lots of guys, the volunteering kids ministry, my plug is over a visit the info booth. If you want to volunteer, okay. Murder, mystery night, the deadline for that is today. So if you haven't signed up for that yet, and then you have to do it today by the end of the day. 2 (23m 54s): Cause if you don't, then it's literally, it's cut off at the end of the day. So that's for ages 20 to 40. And it's going to be on October 30th in the loft from six to 9:00 PM. And it's $5 to be a part of that. So it's going to be a super fun, exciting night, baptism and bonfire. So the baptism and the bonfire are happening on the same night. It's a week from yesterday. So it's next Saturday, October 17th at 4:00 PM. At the end of Grande just on the beach, straight out from where Grande Avenue ends. They are doing a baptism class for that right now. So if you're interested in being baptized, they're meeting right now in the Church office, which is up the Hill. 2 (24m 34s): So if you guys, if any of you want to get baptized, just go ahead and run up the Hill right now. And you can be a part of that if you want to get baptized and you're decided tomorrow and the baptism classes over reach out to us and we will figure out a way to make it happen. Okay? Let's see. 3 (24m 52s): Oh, 2 (24m 52s): Baptism and bonfire. Sorry. One more thing. There will be hot dogs. There will be smores and there will be hot chocolate. So bring a beach chair, bring a blanket, bring beach toys, bring the whole family and come and enjoy. I'm so bad at this guys. I apologize. Okay. Growth track. Moving out. If you are new to Harvest Church or newer, and you've never been a part of the growth track, it is a great opportunity to learn about Harvest. Church learn about the history, learn what we're all about, learn about why we're non-genetic denominational, why we're Bible based. All of the things. It is a great thing to be a part of. It's a four week class. 2 (25m 33s): It meets on Sunday mornings during the 11:00 AM service starting on October 25th. So sign up for that at the info table. Okay. We are doing a celebration of life service for Mike on October 17th, this upcoming Saturday at 11:00 AM here at the Church we're in need of some, either strong men or strong women to help set up. We need, we need people who can lift chairs off of chair rocks, who can lift tables. If you're a man, you can do that. Great sign up, please. If you're a woman and you can do that. Awesome. Please sign up. We need help with that for the celebration of life specifically, it's at 11:00 AM this upcoming Saturday. 2 (26m 14s): So if you're sign up for that, you're only signing up for like an hour next Saturday and that's it so, really easy and it's fun. So yeah, sign up for that at the info table as well. Okay. We're done. All right. Thank you for bearing with me. All of you who actually did, and pastor Jeremy is going to be bringing us the word today. 3 (26m 37s): Thanks, Leslie. 5 (26m 45s): Awesome. Great, great announcements. Thank you. I heard it said past month or so that we need more precedent in times, right? We keep seeing all over the news that there's all these, this is unprecedented times and in our, with our health and economy and, and, and the presidential candidates and, and they keep saying, this is unprecedented. I think we need more precedent at times, right? Would you guys agree with me? 4 (27m 11s): And I'm so, cause I get to be a 5 (27m 15s): Getting do, bring the word these next two weeks, pastor Steve has been leading us through this, this COVID crisis. He has his, he's taking the brunt of a lot of, just a lot of things. And so we are just stoked that we were able to as a staff and, and just to be able to send them out and get some refreshment or encouragement vision. And so he's out there meeting with the Lord. And, and so we're, we're just going to, we're going to pray for him this morning and then we'll pray for the, the time and the word this morning. So pray with him please. Heavenly father. We thank you that, that pastor Steve has led from the front Lord. 5 (27m 55s): And during these times, Lord, we thank you for, for this church that the doors are open. That, that, that we are Church that we're meeting here, Lord, and, and that we're, we're meeting with each other, the fellowship that the lien hands on a prayer, all those things they'll worship Lord, that, that, that goes on Lord. We thank you for that Lord. And it's and it has what it has. It come at a cost for pastor Steve. So the Lord will you be with him, Lord, will you pour into him this next week or so? And just a refresh his spirit. We thank you, Lord, that he gets to go out Lord and, and, and do that Lord. So, but with us here, Lord, I believe that you just have a message. Lord, you just have a, you have a word for each of us this morning and, and, and next week as well or God. 5 (28m 37s): And when you speak to us, we speak to our hearts. We use just speaking to our condition, Jesus name, we pray. Amen. So we're going to be in the book of Ruth this next two weeks. I get two, I get two weeks and the book of Ruth, we're going to try to accomplish a Ruth chapters one and two this week. And, and we're gonna have three and four next week. And with that, Ruth is my, is one of my favorite books. The Bible we have Genesis, I think is like my, my, my ultimate favorite and Ruth would be a close second to that. You know, we, we, we see in the book of Ruth that it, I like to say it's Ruth is humanity. And four chapters, 85 verses just a little over, just a little under 2,700 words. 5 (29m 22s): Hebrew words is found the book of Ruth and each word is just skillfully crafted it's and it's not just a beautiful story, cause there's so much that's happening underneath the surface that you can just kind of floss over when you read through the book of Ruth in the matter of 15, 20 minutes. So I'm excited to kind of jump in. We're going to take a very distant approach and kind of just dive in a few spots, dive in where I think the Lord wants to reach us today. But what I would, I hope we will all walk out is that God is he's the God of the Insignificant and Ordinary he's the God of the and Insignificant Ordinary and why. And, and the current that we see under the book of Ruth is this Providence of God. 5 (30m 6s): God sovereignty mixes somehow matches with our freewill and God is working out things in our life and through our lives, you see just at face value, read it through the book of Ruth and the beautiful story that comes out. You have all these things that come up, you have grief, you have joy, you have sorrow friendship, family, betrayal, redemption, you have drama, you have loneliness, compassion, romance, scandal, bravery, faith, grace, love, you have weddings and you have death. That's just, it just all their humanity in four chapters. And so what I want to show is that there's no such thing as an insignificant detail to our Lord and our understanding of God is so framed by what we think of God is God just the God of the big things is God just the God of, of, of the important, the, the, the things that we might think, Oh, well, God only cares about those big, those important things or has God also so intimately acquainted our lives. 5 (31m 16s): There was a German theologian. He said this, tell me how lofty God is for you. And I will tell you how little he means to you. So often the bigger we think of God, Oh gosh, this is this big, he's this cosmic force, all the things, the less intimate, the less we think he has to do with us. Tell me how lofty God is for you. And I will tell you how little he means to you these two weeks. We're only going to scrape the surface and maybe, maybe you, Steve gave me the glimmer of hope. Maybe we can jump into some, some things later on down the road, go into depth, but let's jump into the book of Ruth chapter one. 5 (31m 57s): It answers one of the questions of this is in the darkest of times, how does a person live a life that makes a difference? And the darkest of times, how does one live a life that makes a difference? And, and Ruth is going to show us, and he's going to show us and the simple things and the way we treat others and our business dealings and preparing a meal for a family, for your family, washing dishes, doing the laundry. It's the simple day to day things Insignificant as the main thing to us aren't to God first one starts out. It says, now it came to pass. And the day's when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. And that's so that's, that's up the time period with which the book of Ruth was written. 5 (32m 37s): It was in the time of the judges and, and the book of judges ends with this verse. And it's it's it's right where we're at. It says in those days there was no King in Israel. Everyone did what was right in the eye, in his own eyes, there was no King and everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. I can relate to that. I think we can all relate to that. Remember the time when my parents left my brother and I home alone for the first time and ride, what no parents around this is awesome. What are we going to do? We're going to have a BB gun wore in the house. 3 (33m 13s): 5 (33m 16s): I don't, I don't, I don't suggest that I don't suggest cutting a Q-tip and half and putting it in your seven 60 pump master, and then pump it up a few times and shooting your brother and the leg. I don't, I don't remember that may or may not have happened may or may not have left a hole in my brother. And he may or may not have chased me around the house the next 20, 30 minutes. So the authority wasn't home. So we did what we wanted. And our times we, you know, we've taken God out of our government, out of our schools, out of the public spheres. And, and, and there's even the sense of trying to take God out of churches. And it feels, it's just, this is where we're at. And it's like, everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes. 5 (33m 57s): Yeah. I grew up with the sane. My friend said over and over in junior high and high school, it says, if it feels good, do it. If it feels good doing, and I watched my friends who listened to that and who went down that path of, Hey, if it feels good, they did it. I believe there's a famine. There's a drought in our land now, too. It was a famine of, of, of truth, of common sense of compassion, of love for calling men. Those, the things that seem to be lacking in our time and this time that they were in the time of judges, there was a famine and there was a drought. 5 (34m 40s): And that led to the lack of food for the nation of Israel. See God him. And Deuteronomy 11 had promised that as long as the, the Israelites were obedient, there would always be plenty. And so it seems like this is a dark, dark time. And even in the book of judges, that there was a famine in that, that there was this lack of, of just doing what was right as a nation. And so as the book of Ruth narrows it down, it goes from the nation is how the nation was doing as a whole. Now it's going to go to a family because God uses individuals. He uses families. So verse one and two is the name of the man was Elimelech. And the name of his wife was Naomi. And the names of their two sons were may Hahn and Chilean and their from Bethlehem. 5 (35m 25s): And they went to the country of Moab and they remained there. So they leave the land of Israel, the leave, the land of promise. And they go to, to journey to this land of Moab, because they were trying to find food and find the bed. Now, Bethlehem, interestingly enough means house of bread. That's what Bethlehem means. The house of red. And Elimelech his name means my God is King. So my God is King D decides to uproot his family out of the land. And they go and they travel to Moab and he takes with him, his wife and her name is pleasant or pleasant. One. That's what Naomi means. And the significance of those names. She was pleasant. And maybe this shows the, the, the names of they gave their son the show's the times and the difficulties and the struggles they were having their family cause a male, a Hawn or Mohan. 5 (36m 14s): His name means SIC. And his brother chili on his, his name actually means pining or wasting away. So we have Elimelech and his wife, Naomi, and their two sons pining and wasting away and show the condition, show the struggles that that family was going, going through. And so they think they come down two and they think the best thing to do is to leave the house of bread and to go Sojourn in another country. And that sojourning turned into the remaining and it turning into, into settling down. And so often I think people try to hit it. Elimelech why would you leave the land of promise? 5 (36m 54s): Why would you leave the house of bread? And yet, I think he's just a father trying to do what's best. As he's watching his two sons waste away and the drought and the family, and that's brought on and they go to the faraway land, Elimelech ends up dying and Naomi's husband died. And she was left with her two sons. That's a lot to happen in a far away land to lose a spouse, to lose the, the, the, the covering the head of the family. She was now widowed now. And we found herself in a place of, she was being witty. 5 (37m 35s): She was widowed in the foreign land, and they took two wives, or the other woman of Moab, the sons did. And the name of the first was Orpah. And the name of the other was Ruth. And they dwelt there about 10 years. So you have orphan and her name actually means neck or, or like gazelle. Something about her neck stood out and Ruth, her name means friend. And what I'll, what I'll dive into deeper next week is the picture that's going on here. You have the beautiful story, but there's a picture that God's weaving in. It was, it's actually prophetic because Naomi is a picture of the nation of Israel. And now we have Ruth and Ruth has a friend. 5 (38m 19s): Well, Jesus called us friends. He says, you are no longer slaves, but you're friends. And they, they, they, they went there dwelled there about 10 years. And so they're there for 10 years and they're in a foreign land. There's no father. So the two sons, and it says, and as it came to pass verse five, the both Mahan and chili on died. So the woman survived her two sons and her husband. I mean, just sit in that loss for a little bit. All of Naomi's hopes, all of her dreams, all of her protection have all now died. 5 (39m 2s): The hurt, the pain, no family there to support no, no, no comfort, no community of God to support her in this time. So we have left as a house with three widows in it. Naomi has no children left. They both passed away. And now we have two women who are bearing two women. Who've been married with their husbands for 10 years and, and not have had any offspring had any children to, to pass on that line of, of Elimelech. And not much has made her that, that Ruth is barren, but the end of the book, there's this glimmer. Cause, cause that's what the beauty of this narrative is that in the end, we're going to see Ruth. This is Barry woman in the beginning that we see Ruth as a, as a, as a barrier in the end, we're going to see that the Lord opens her womb and now it's going from the family. 5 (39m 52s): And now we're going to, we're going to even narrow it and close. And we're going to go from the family to the individuals. And so Naomi arises with her daughters in law that they might return from the country of Moab. And for she heard in the country of Moab, that the Lord had visited his people by giving them bread, bread had returned to the house of bread. So she arises a Rose from her losses. She realizing all the pain and all the while she still has to move on, she still has to do something, just the travel and of 70 miles over, over a mountain, across the river dangers. I mean all that stuff there because God y'all way God had visited his people and theirs. 5 (40m 34s): Therefore, she went out from the place where she was and her two daughters went with her and, and she, she looks at her two times and she's like, you don't need to follow me. I am nothing. And she, she talks about the, that the Lord's hand had gone against her. She says, go return each to her mother's house. And verse eight, the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with me, dealt with the dead. And with me, those years of pain and grief and loss route, and Naomi had been milled down, she had been crushed. She feels like if there's nothing left, like there's no hope why you girls don't need to come with me. 5 (41m 16s): But verse nine, she says that she, that the Lord may grant you rest, that you may find arrest each in the house of her husband. And that is one of the designs of marriage. That marriage be a place of rest that is God's design. And so she desires that for her, her, her two daughter and loss go find rest and the house of her husband. So she kissed them and lift up. So the, so she kissed them and they lifted up their voices and wept. And surely we return with you as these people, you know, to your people. And it was a nice sentiment, but they weren't both willing to go there. And often in our grief and our loss, people try to reach out and people try to help. 5 (41m 58s): But when I, when I lost my dad to cancer, I remember a specific conversation and I, I understand the heart, but, but she's like, Oh, you know, trying to, trying to find words. And she's like, well, I understand what you're going through. Cause I just lost my dog. And there was two, there was like, I want to say some things. And the other was like, I just, I realized, I realized you're trying to empathize. And, and I just, you just have to take for face value. But I, I like how job's friends handled it. When Joe went through all of his losses, at least for the S the first part of it job, his friends came and sat with him in silence, in the midst of all of his lost for seven days. 5 (42m 43s): For seven days, they just sat there with Jobe and the friends that have, have comforted me and walked through my losses in my life. They were there. Just the ones that, Hey, I'm here for you. I don't know what to say. I don't have the right words, but I'm just here for you. If you need anything, just let me know. So you, after seven days, that's when job's friends opened their mouth and that's when it just went downhill, right? This went downhill. So Naomi says the second 10, and turn back my daughters, why don't you go with me? But there's still sons in my womb that they may be your husbands. And she's, she's talking about the law of the love, right. Marriage. And we'll leave that for later. So she views and she understands that God has come against her. 5 (43m 24s): She says, the hand of the Lord has come up, has come against her. And if she only knew we have, we I've redone as, as getting to overlook the whole book of Ruth and having read it. And haven't understood the gospel message and all that stuff. We know that God has awesome and amazing plans for new home. And she doesn't in that moment of grief and loss and pain and hurt all that stuff. She just thinks that the Lord has come against her. If somebody could just whisper into her ear, Jeremiah 29 11 for, I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a hope and the future. Can you imagine that? 5 (44m 4s): And her daughter-in-laws, they lifted up their voice and they wept again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her or putt goes back off the pages of scripture and into, into oblivion. We never hear of her again. And they always seen an believe. She says to Ruth, now this is the third time she urges her. Go back, go back to your people. Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods return after your sister-in-law that's significant. You see back to she's saying, go back to your gods, go back to Chemosh. That was the God that the Moabites worshiped go back to the, the, the destroyer, the subdued. 5 (44m 47s): That's what, that's what she washed meant. She must was the God that accepted human sacrifice. She says, look, I have nothing left. And she washed, maybe Chemosh will be kinder than my God. Y'all the way the show's her, her, her just her hurt and her pain in Ruth hearing that will not turn back for. There's something that she's seen. And Naomi and Ruth said, and this is some of my fear versus the book of Ruth 16 and 17. 5 (45m 27s): But Ruth said, intrigued me not to leave you or to turn back from following you forever, where you go, I will go. And wherever you lodge, I will lodge your people shall be my people in my, and your God, my God, where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried. This is her statement of faith and that it, they, they, they have stay this and colleges. It's just a beautiful, beautiful literary work. And it has that Adam and Eve ring to it as well from Genesis two, where Adam says, this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. Ruth is like, I will not leave you. 5 (46m 7s): I have clung to Ruth. She, where does she get this faith? She was raised in a gentle idol worshiping country. And now she's ready to abandon everything that she knew. Her family, her friends, her community, all of that is to follow after Naomi and to have Naomi's God be her God. How could that be? When Naomi had nothing but loss and pain and hurt. And I believe that it's because as Naomi was being crushed, there was something sweet that was still coming out of her. The way you create fragrance or perfume is you actually take the herb or the plant and you crush it. You grind it up so that it gives its full aroma. 5 (46m 50s): Paul would say later in the second Corinthians for, we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved. And among those who are perishing to the one, we are a realm of death, Lena death, and to other, the aroma of life leading the life we can in our times of crushing, still be that aroma to Christ that, that lead other the other say, I don't know what it is about you. You're going through some tough stuff, but there is something in you. There's something I desire. And that's what Ruth was doing. She was, she was like, despite the crushing, she was still said, your people are my people, your God, my God. So when they only saw ruse determination, she just moved on. 5 (47m 34s): And it says, as they came to Bethlehem and verse 19, all the city was excited because then they see two figures, two women returning from Moab. And it had been many years has been at least 10 years. And they look and they're looking, they're excited. And they said, Oh, is this Naomi life has been hard on her. Is this Naomi? And she says, I don't call me. Naomi, call me, Mara. See Naomi means pleasant, but she's now she's saying, call me, Mara for Mara means better. We can see where she's at. She's in a place of bitterness. She said, I went out full of verse 21. 5 (48m 15s): It and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi? Why do you call me pleasant? Since the Lord has testified against me? And the almighty almighty has afflicted me and I I'm, I'm thankful for it. Cause she, she has a way of speaking her mind. She has a way of going, Oh yeah, I lost everything, but I'm okay. I'm good. She doesn't do that. She's like, she's in this place of bitterness and God will still meet her there. And the people will meet her there. How often do we get asked? How are you doing? And we say, Oh, I'm good. I'm smiling when we're hurting inside the church. And I think our, this community should be a place of just authentic community. And it's my personal belief. 5 (48m 56s): And this, this, this is my understanding. As I've read through the story and traders say, I think that Naomi had a lot to do with them leaving Israel and the first place. I think I, my it's my personal belief that Naomi was like, Elimelech look at our sons. Why are we staying in this godforsaken place of Bethlehem? Why we need to leave this place? Look at our sons. They're dying. If we don't do something there, they're going to waste away. And so sh maybe she was positive. My thought she was the one, the impetus of pushing them out into the land of Moab. We have to go find food for our kids. We have to do something. And so now she's come back and she feels like she's just completely empty is because she, maybe it's my thought that she was the one who's pushing for that. 5 (49m 42s): And she's like, board's gone against me. I was the one who wanted this. Now the Lord is coming against me. Just think back to those evening conversations when the boys were in their beds and the husband and wife, a little luck, and now we're just talking. So I think, I think it's way. And it's obviously weighing heavy on Naomi. So Naomi returned in the us and Ruth and mobilize her Don law, went with her and verse 22, you and who returned from the country MOBE. And now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. This is, this is the season ender. This is the last episode like, Oh wait, why, why? There's like something's changing. 5 (50m 22s): The barley harvest has mentioned, food has not been mentioned this whole time, other than the lack of food. And now we have the barley harvest. The barley harvest has mentioned this. Okay. There's, there's a glimmer of hope. There's something happening. And it doesn't, God always give us those little glimmers of hope in the, in the loss and the hurt and the pain. And there's those little glimmers of hope that just get us, get us by just sometimes day by day, sometimes hour by hour, minute by minute, the loss of my dad was just at times unbearable. He was 51. 5 (51m 2s): I was, I had just turned 24 and I didn't know how I was going to make it. So we grew up in the central Valley and up in the, up in this year as there, there was this mountain that for whatever reason, I was always drawn to look at. This is Sawtooth peak and it's this diamond shape peak that just kind of stands out in the mountains. And, and it was like whenever there was a clear day, I could just see Sawtooth peak, whether it was snow on it or whether it was the evening sun and the setting on it. It was, it was just, it was, I loved looking at Sawtooth peak and it was like one day I woke up in that mountain was just gone. My dad was no longer there. And the, that loss that just hurt and every like the Lord has carried us through Florida's Curtis through the, it was like the little acts like our Church would come and help us out with little projects. 5 (51m 57s): My mom w with my dad had had in his, in God, given him foresight had, had had a life insurance policy that allowed my mom to buy it, the house over the fixer upper of her dreams. And there's like this little, like these little shimmers of, of, of God just, just so I'm here, I'm here. I'm still working. I'm not done. And that'd be the end of chapter one. We have this little glimmer, but let's quickly get into route two. Now. I don't know why verse one. I do not know why this has mentioned, but it says there was a relative. So we just go from the darkness the, the hard times, and there a glimmer of hope of the bar of the Harvest and now it mentions in verse one. 5 (52m 39s): Now there's a relative of Naomi's husband, a man of great wealth of the family of Elimelech and his name was Boaz. Well, full stop. Why is that in there? Why do you, why, why does that get added right there at the beginning of chapter two, right? And the narrative. Why does that get plucked in there? And we there's so many questions we should ask Bo ass. Who is Bo ass? Why was he mentioned? Well, he's a family of Elimelech. So he's a kinsmen to the family. He's the man of great wealth Boaz. His name is means in him, his strength in him, his strength, Solomon as he's building his temple later on would have two pillars at the front of the temple. 5 (53m 20s): One of those tent, one of those pillars, he named Boaz. And if you're single and the reason this maybe is say, is he married? Why isn't he married? I don't know. We'll get him. Maybe we will talk about that next week. So you've got it now. Okay. So Boaz, this guy, this guy that was introduced into the narrative. Okay. Put that aside. Let's continue on with Ruth and Naomi. Cause that's where we're at. Right? So Ruth inverse to the Ruth, the Moabite has said, and only please let me go out to the fields and glean heads of grain after him in whom site I may find favor. And she said, go, my daughter Russi Ruth. Didn't want to remain static. She wasn't just going to stay there. 5 (54m 0s): She just knew that she had to go do something. There was no welfare system to take care of them. There was no one God who was going to bring food to the door. She had to go out and do something. And this is where God in his, in his sovereignty. And his foresight had had put in the law of gleaning and allowed the reapers as they gleaned the harvest fields to only make one passed through. And they had to leave the corners and the reapers also, whatever they spilled or left was left was there for the widow's and the destitute. So if your bag, if you're lifting up your bag and it spills out the bottom, you had to leave that whole pile there. You couldn't take, you couldn't take it with you In verse three. 5 (54m 44s): And then she left. So Ruth goes out, she looks North, she looks South. She looks East, she looks West. Where's she going to go? There's fields surrounding Bethlehem. Where is she going to go? First three. And she left and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And it says, and she just happened to come to the part of the field, belonging to Boaz, who was the family of Elimelech second mention. It says she happened. Or the King James says she just so happened. The Bible God's sovereignty. Things just don't just happen. But it also doesn't say anything about some light coming and shining on that field, like Ruth steps out. 5 (55m 28s): And it goes, where should I go? And there's like this spotlight from heaven, there was no, there was no like being pushed along by some unseen force. She just simply stepped out in faith and said, I need to, to say, I need to do something. And where do I go? And the sovereignty of God in the freewill of her to choose where she wanted to go. She just so happened that she ended up in this field and it was idleness that says, I can't just stay idle. I need to, I need to go out and provide, I need to do something. And then I mentioned Boaz and Boaz is brought into the story. He says, he comes to his Reaper's in the field and says the Lord be with you. And they said, in response, the Lord bless you. And that just shows Boaz his character, that he is the Lord of the harvest that he takes care of his workers. 5 (56m 14s): And his workers just love him in return. And Boaz said to his servant, who was in charge of the reapers whose young woman is this, this unnamed servant gives her, him the report that, Hey, yeah, that's, that's Ruth. She returned with the mobile. She's the mobile fetus she returned with Naomi. And that she asked, Hey, can I come glean in your field? After the reapers? She was plaintiff. She didn't just say, there's a law allows me to do this. She said, can I do this? So she's polite. She's hard working, not demanding. And also probably very tired from the 70 mile journey that she had just gone on. So Boaz goes and speak to her specifically. He says, Boaz. He says to Ruth in verse eight, you listen to my daughter. 5 (56m 57s): Will you not do not go glean in another field nor go from here, but stay close by my young women. Let your eyes beyond the field, which they reap and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And then if you're thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn. And so in response, Ruth falls on her face, first 10 bows down the ground and says, why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take? Notice of me since I am a foreigner, that Hebrew word for grace is Kaine. And it's a, it's a meany of grace or favor. See, grace is the basis by which she's given all these blessings, this unearned undeserved favor as a mobile just woman, the law would keep her out, but grace would bring her in the law, keeps out, but grace is brought, brought her in and Boaz, recounts, like it's been fully reported of all that you've done for your, for your mother-in-law, for your, for your, your, your deceased husband and, and how you've left everything to come here. 5 (58m 4s): Your, your reputation has preceded you. And he says, in verse 12, the Lord repay you and full reward. Be given by the Lord of the God of Israel under hoons wings, you shall come for refuge. She CA Ruth had left her father's protection. Ruth had left her husband, his protection. He had died. And after the loss of my dad, the loss of my mom, the Psalm 65 was my GoTo verse for a long time. And that says a father to the fatherless and a defender of the widow is God. And his Holy habitation. God is the protector. 5 (58m 44s): And Ruth, you have come under your way as God. And he will protect and provide for you. And she said, let me find favor in your sight. My Lord for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to me. And then at mealtime Boaz does something that was not in the law. You didn't have to invite people, the forerunner into your home to share a meal. And yet she does that at mealtime, at lunchtime, come here. He says, and eat the bread and dip your peace and joy and the tip of your piece of bread in the vinegar. And so she sat beside the reapers and he passed parched greens, her and she ate and was satisfied. One of those little details that we missed, that the Bible doesn't miss the Bible does the, there's no word he reword. 5 (59m 27s): That goes unspoken. That Hebrew word for vinegar is climates helmets. And that is a vinegar of wine. So here we have Boaz offering to Ruth, essentially wine and bread, the communion elements, amazing. And Ruth just takes, she, she, she accepts it and then she keeps them back thinking of her mother in law, back at home. So she Rose up to glean and, and it's like, you know, a 30 minute lunch break. 5 (1h 0m 8s): And she leaves a little bit early. She gets up to go to work and, and Boaz has the time to sit there at his, at the lunch break with his men in the, and the reapers. And he gives these, these commandments for her. And he says also, verse 16, let grains of the bundles fall purposely for her and leave it that she may glean and do not rebuke her. See, now grace has turned into gifts, letter, verse 15. I missed that. Let her even glean among the sheaves and do not reproach her. He is now just giving her gifts upon gifts. The new King, James ranch renders it handfuls on purpose or handfuls of purpose. 5 (1h 0m 48s): And I love this cause it w w what was Ruth thinking as she's began to glean out in the field and like, Oh, wow, they miss this whole stock. Oh, wow. There's a, there's a clump of, of, of a barley here. Wow. This is hardly. And those are good workers. Like, they're like, why are they leaving so much behind? This is amazing. And it seems like it just all goes right over her head. She's just picking what she has right there in front of her. Maybe she's a little ditzy, maybe not my sister. I love my sister. And I asked her for permission, but she took a, one of her classes in high school. There she was, and she walks into a classroom and she was like, mr. 5 (1h 1m 31s): Parker, the teacher, mr. Parker, that who's the teacher. And she's like, mr. Parker, I didn't realize there was a basement in this classroom. And he's like, Oh yeah. That's where we keep all the wine for school. And it's nice and cool down there. She's like, I didn't realize there's been a basement. So I've been coming to his classroom for a whole year. I didn't realize there's a basement. She sat down and like, everybody started chuckling. She's like what? It was a door that was just on the ground. She thought it was a she'd walked into class thinking it was a basement. It was just a door on the ground. And maybe Ruth was having them on those moments. Like, wow, I just don't understand all this grain on the screen. Well, Naomi's going to help her figure it out. Cause she what she ends up doing. She goes, she goes and beats it all out and takes all that. 5 (1h 2m 14s): She gleans, it. She has a whole barley and that was a good measure. And it says, then she took it up. What she, and she went into this city and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she brought out and gave it to her. What she'd kept back after she'd been satisfied. It was huge. This was not a gleaning you would normally get in one day. And her mother in law said to her, where have you gleaned today? And where did you work? Blessed to be the one who took notice of you. And so she took her mother-in-law. And so she told her mother-in-law who'd, she'd been working with that day. And she said the man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz in him. His strength is Boaz. See Ruth had been completely oblivious to what had happened all that day. 5 (1h 2m 55s): Naomi was not Naomi that knew that there was something going on the Lord. And then Naomi said in verse 20, the daughters in law blessed to be he of the Lord who has not forsaken his kindness to the living and the dead. And Naomi said to her, this man is a relation of ours. One of our close relatives. He is our Goel, our kinsmen Redeemer. And all of a sudden the woman who'd went out full and come back empty is all of a sudden realizing the plan that she's in the middle of. Oh my goodness, this is incredible. This man is showing you great favor. We left full, but we came back empty, but really she came back full this go, and this is a kinsman Redeemer. 5 (1h 3m 44s): And she encourages Ruth don't don't don't don't go anywhere else. Go to that field, go to that, go to Boaz field, stay by those workers. There's protection in that. And as she says, it is good. My daughter that you go out with this young woman and that people do not meet you in any, any other fool field. So verse 23. So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of barley Harvest and we'd Harvest. And she'd dwelt with her. Mother-in-law the barley harvest was the time of Passover. The weed harvest wen all the way through until the time of Pentecost. The first fruits of the wheat harvest were presented to God at CA the Pentecost. And now we begin to see the Providence of God unfolding, and we're not done. 5 (1h 4m 27s): This is just a glimmer of the hope. And now the thing is, things are in motion and things are gonna happen in the book of Ruth and what, what it goes to shows that being faithful to the very little things that God puts in front of, you got a reward that in those Insignificant details that we just floss over and think, Ugh, that's not much. No. See Jesus said, the very hairs on your head are numbered. That's incredible. That shows how intimate it's not, he's not some big, all powerful way out there got his intimate God that would know each and every hair on my head, each and every hair on your head. There's nothing missed. 5 (1h 5m 14s): I had a chance this a couple of couple weeks ago, and a couple came into the church for prayer and the, the guy that I was my friend that we were praying with for this couple, he he's just said, I believe the Lord has a few things that he wants to speak to you. And, and, and to, especially for her. And he began just speaking little things. I don't think you've told anybody about this, but, and he just started going into some really minutiae details. The God had revealed to my friend for her, and she just started bright. She broke down crying, and I've never told anyone this stuff. 5 (1h 5m 59s): She had come as a partner to help to help her, her, her guy, fiance, tail, her fiance. She come as like, Oh, I'm just, he's, he's here to help. But then God began revealing and speaking things into her life. And she just melted because all of a sudden she realized God knew every little thought and intended for heart. And how incredible is that? That God, there's no detail too small for our, for our God. Tell me how lofty God is for you. And I will tell you how little he means to you. How about tell me how, how much God knows how God knows the hairs on our head and how much he loves you. 5 (1h 6m 46s): I think when we simply obey the Lord and inner faithful to the task, bigger, small, that brought to pass before us, God will lead and guide our way. Even in these, even in these darkest of times, let me pray. 3 (1h 6m 59s): 5 (1h 7m 13s): Lord. As we sing in that first set, the shoe or the way maker that even when we don't see it, we know that you're still working. Lord God, I believe that's a song Ruth and Naomi might've been able to sing at this moment. The thought you turned your hand was against them. And yet your hand was not. Your hand was for them. You were going before them Lord. And how, how often are you going before us? And we just miss it. Lord, God help us to see Lord speak, speak words of life into us. Lord God, as the darkest of times, start to encroach around and give us that faith. Just to simply take it step by step. 5 (1h 7m 54s): This, this walk of faith that you've given us Lord to be obedient and the little things as well as the big, the big things Lord God or do you are working in our midst. Thank you, Lord Jesus name. We pray 3 (1h 8m 10s): 1 (1h 8m 41s): magnify and exalt your name, 0 (1h 18m 49s): Our affection, and our devotion. We bring to you very live 1 (1h 18m 54s): Because he laid down 0 (1h 18m 59s): And maybe be forever changed because we've been in your presence because words 17 deeply into our hearts, God, and took root. We pray that a bit. Bear good fruit this year, 1 (1h 19m 12s): Help us 0 (1h 19m 12s): The love of those. We come in contact with your kind of 1 (1h 19m 19s): Low from our hearts. 0 (1h 19m 23s): I thank you for our church family. We just lift up everyone who's watching right now. And who's here on this campus. How would you strengthen us? Would you give us wisdom and discernment to walk out this crazy time of life? There's so much going on in the world. And so many distractions. God, we look to you and we listen for your voice, your leading your team. 1 (1h 19m 48s): So we welcome you 0 (1h 19m 50s): To work in our lives all this week and pray the chief, keep us all safe and healthy until we gathered together again. The precious name of Jesus. Somebody say, amen. Amen. Oh, it's so good. Church yeah. 1 (1h 20m 6s): Awesome. 0 (1h 20m 8s): Well, if anyone would like some prayer this morning, there'll be staff and other volunteers. We'd love to pray for you. Come right on up. Otherwise, have a great week. We'll see you next Sunday.

0 (0s): When does it begin to see your smiling faces? Let's pray as we begin and just invite God's presence. You're so good to us. You're so faithful. God, we depend on you. All that we have need of this morning. 0 (30s): We pray that you would meet us. Let's pray that your love would wash over every hurting heart. Every anxious thoughts set our minds on Jesus today. There's a whole lot of stuff going on in the world around us, but we focus our hearts on Jesus. We seek your kingdom. 0 (56s): Jesus died for me. I see is 2 (5m 28s): 1 (5m 30s): . 0 (9m 20s): I just had this sense today that the Lord wants to remind us that he knows this each by name. It just seem that reminder that human tells us that he knows the number of hairs on our tears in a bottle. One of them is touched the ground. So do you think God does not know about you you're wrong? 0 (9m 50s): He knows your whole story. There's nothing that's been out of his sight. He's near to us now. 0 (9m 59s): 1 (14m 50s): 0 (15m 16s): Yeah, it's a choice. Choose him to love him to follow him. You decided to follow Jesus, Lord. There's no turning back. The hardware's going to follow you wherever you need us. We're going to praise your name through the good times in the bath, ms. Lord, we know that she loved us and you care for us carrying us through those hardest times. Thank you that we can depend on you. It's your faithful. She love us more than we could ever comprehend higher than the heavens wider than the sea. 0 (15m 55s): He gets his love for us. Just pray that you would help us just to experience your love and account of your presence all through this morning. And His we receive your word this morning is Steve brings a message that you would just open our hearts to receive all that you have for us. We ask this in Jesus name, amen, woof, rollover so much. You're here. Would you take a moment to just say hello to someone around you? And then we'll be back in just a few moments with some announcements. 3 (16m 29s): So if you're new here, there's a, this is the sanctuary where I'm, where I'm speaking. And then behind us is the loft in between that as the breezeway and there's, that's where the bathrooms are. There's sometimes there's a little confusion with that. There's bathrooms are in the breezeway. We have the loft and we also have a third outdoor service that's in the patio. So a few different ways. If you want to come and visit us in person, but not comfortable to be in, in a building it, so those are there for you upcoming. We have a growth track that's coming up. It's, it's our way of connecting you to the, to the body. 3 (17m 0s): It's it's a way to find out the history of Harvest Church, it's a way to figure out what's going on and how you can plug in. So that's the God growth track. It's a four weeks course, and it's, it's, it's just a small intimate group that you get together and find out what's happening at Harvest Church and how you can plug in. If you're interested, you can sign up for that at the info station as well. Or you can send email to kristy@aigharvest.org to sign up. Thirdly, we have the care team. So Hey, if your spiritual gift is either helps or serving, we would love for you to plug in and to be part of the body of Christ. 3 (17m 40s): Here, we have a number of Memorial services that are coming up, and it's just a great way to bless those families. Who've gone through a lot of loss and that's just, isn't sometimes the service just involves setting up tables, loving them, them, helping bring, you know, bring meals, all that stuff. So if, if service or gifts is one of your serving or helps is one of your spiritual gifts, let us know. Or, or if that's just like, Hey, I want to do that. Let us know you can, you can, you can sign up for that at info at AIG Harvest or go by the info booth. 3 (18m 10s): And lastly, just to reminder, next weekend will be the, or sorry, October 17th will be the beach bonfire and baptisms. And we're going to be down at the end of Grande having some worship music, having a, just a time of fellowship around a bonfire. It's going to be at the beach. So I mean, it doesn't get better than that, but we're also going to be having some baptisms. So next week, next Sunday, we'll be having a baptism class. If you have not yet been baptized. And God's putting that on your heart, we'd love to walk you through the steps, what it means to be baptized, why all that stuff. 3 (18m 42s): So that's also, you can sign up for that at the info station. So without further ado, come on up, Steve, 4 (18m 49s): Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Nice. You see that? She went, boom. She knows. She knows what's going on. Welcome one other announcement. So I, last week I announced that we needed a 30 more, where am I going to put this 30 more Sunday school teachers and we got five. So now we need 25. It takes 60 Sunday school volunteers to man the Sunday school department. So if you are still interested in being a part of that, but haven't signed up, please sign up and we will put you on the team. 4 (19m 23s): It's a easy one Sunday, a month. And that you got your part covered and Sunday school is covered. So that's, that's it. That's it. Hello? How's everyone. Yeah. Is it cool down out there a little bit? It has been hot. Goodness gracious. You guys ready for a joke? It seems like a very quiet group. Very, very quiet. Maybe I should just whisper. So there's this woman. No. So the joke is I'm going to try to bring everybody up a little bit. 4 (19m 53s): So this woman, this old woman, it goes to the grocery store and she doesn't realize, but she shops and she comes back out and her keys are locked in the car while she finds a coat hanger and she's working hard for about 15 or 20 minutes trying to get the car unlocked and she can't figure it out. So she prays Lord, please bring someone to help me get into my car, right about that time, this Haggard looking guy on a motorcycle pulls up, he's tatted up all over the place. He's got a skull cap on, he's looking pretty rough. 4 (20m 23s): And he's like, Hey, I can get you into your cars. So he helps her out. And within 15 seconds, she's in. And she's like, Oh, praise the Lord. She gives me a big hug. And she's so thankful that the Lord has brought this, this, this capable young man. And he said, or this good young man. And he said, Hey, I'm not good. In fact, I was just released from prison for auto. 5 (20m 48s): It seems like, Oh my goodness. And she gives the guy another big hug. And she's so thankful for you. 4 (20m 53s): You said, Lord, you even sent me a professional. 5 (20m 57s): There you go. 4 (21m 0s): Hey, listen. When you're optimistic, when you're, when your head's in the right place, you can be grateful for anything, right. Things happen. And we can find gratitude in the most crazy of circumstances. Hey, why don't we go in and stand up? We're going to be in Colossians chapter two verses one through 10 today. And I'm so I'm going to have you stand. I'm going to read through the 10 verses and then we'll pray. And then I'll unpack them one at a time. Does that sound good? Here we go. Cautious to listen. Along as I read verses one through 10, Paul writes, I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea and for the many other believers who have never met me personally, I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. 4 (21m 46s): I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ himself in him in Christ lie, hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge I'm telling you this. So no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments for though. I am far away from you. My heart is with you and I rejoice that you are living as you should. And that's your faith in Christ is strong, verse six. 4 (22m 18s): And now just as you accepted Christ Jesus, as your Lord, you must continue to follow him, let your roots grow down into him and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ for in Christ lives, all the fullness of God in a human body. 4 (22m 48s): So you also are complete through your, you, your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority, Clawson stew one through 10 Lord. We pray as we open up the word that you would speak to us. God I know that you've had a message for each of us and it will be slightly different for each of us, but you know what we need to hear and I'm praying and I'm believing God and asking God that you will speak that truth to us. Whether we need encouragement or strength for the journey, whether we need wisdom to fight temptation or whatever it may be, whether we just need more love in our hearts for difficult people. 4 (23m 27s): I pray God that you would accomplish those wonderful, miraculous and supernatural things that we need you to accomplish in our lives and in our circumstances. So bring our bring peace and wisdom to our lives in every arena we ask Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You can be What. Does God want for His Church that's the title of the message today What does God want for His Church do you believe God wants something for us? When I say Church, I mean, the people of God people that make up the, the corporate gathering of believers, I believe God's got something for his church. 4 (24m 6s): And so I'm just going to give you the answers out of the Gates. I'll give you the first, the three points that I'll be teaching out teaching from today. I'll give you those. And then I will go back and hit them one at a time. So what does God want for his Church number one, he wants the church to be encouraged. He wants the church to be encouraged. Number two, he wants the Church unified and number three, he wants the church confidence. God wants this for the church. He wants this for you and for me, and because God wants this, get this because God wants it. 4 (24m 41s): Paul wants it. Paul's writing under the inspiration of the Holy spirit, but his heart aligns with God. And because God wants something for the church, the apostle Paul also also wants this for the church. There's something powerful in that understanding. When we begin to understand what God wants, it's really, really wise to align our lives with the things that God wants. It's really, really wise. It's a good idea. That to get on board with God's plans for his church, do you want what God wants? 4 (25m 15s): I think we do. I think that's why we're here. I think we're at church every week because we want to know what God wants and we want to implement that in our lives. How do you know what God wants? Let's say in his word, these three points that we're looking at today and kind of dissecting today, all come from verse two, Colossians two, two, all three points come from Colossians two, two. So there's a lot crammed. There's a lot packed into one verse. And so as we read the scripture, sometimes we can gloss over certain areas because they seem like, well, I've read this before. 4 (25m 53s): I've studied this before. And God sometimes just wants us to slow down because I can't tell you how many times I've read Colossians chapter two, but it's been a lot over the course of my life. And every time I go to teach a familiar passage, I begin to say, Lord, show me what it is that you want me to see and understand from this revelation, from this truth that you've communicated to us, show me, and then show me what the church needs so that I can communicate what the church needs. I can stand up here all day and say all kinds of stuff. 4 (26m 23s): But if God is not speaking through me, then it's not going to be revelation. And man, it's not going to be what you need for your spiritual lives. And that's what I want. I want you to have. And I wa I want, I want to have that as well. I want what I need for my spiritual life. So we get to know what God wants through his word. And we get to know what he wants through prayer. And I'm not talking about, give me prayers, like, Hey, Lord gave me this and give me that. And I need that. And I need this, but it's the kind of prayers that touch the heart of God. If you prayed a sincere prayers, you're touching the heart of God, no matter what your request is, but there's something that God wants to do deeper within our spirits, deeper within our souls, deeper within our lives. 4 (27m 4s): He wants us to touch the heart of God and, and go to the father through the, through the purse of the Lord, Jesus Christ filled with the Holy spirit. He wants us to know, go to God wanting what God wants, and we will figure that out as we just go through the word. And as we spend time with the Lord in prayer, and often our prayers are busy, we're asking and we're, you know, thinking about a million things and we're distracted. And God sometimes just wants us to be with him. 4 (27m 36s): Not even saying a lot, but just doing our best to listen. I have a really hard time doing that, by the way. I'm so easily distracted. So what I have to do is I have to go on walks and go in nature because walks in nature helped me to focus on the attributes of God. The goodness of God helps me to understand who he is. And when I do that, I'm able to be grateful maple, to understand maybe what God is trying to communicate with me. He won't do it in a hurry. I mean, I'm usually, I mean, if you, if, if, if it needs to come in a hurry, he'll give it to you. 4 (28m 8s): But usually the answers that we're looking for come over time and maybe we prayed about it, but we don't get anything right at the moment. But over the next day or two days or week or month, the Lord will begin to show us what we needed. So we begin to figure out what God wants as we, as we pray, as we read the word. And then as we read the word and pray, we begin to trust him. It's, it's the best thing in the world to know that you can trust God, imagine you're going through the worst possible scenario. And your reaction is, but God, I trust you. 4 (28m 41s): There's just a load is lifted. All of a sudden, when you can say, when we can say, I trust you, something is lifted out of our souls. A heaviness that is on us is lifted off of our shoulders and we're able to rest in him and we can trust him. We learn to walk with him. That means we're inviting him and we're wanting to follow him. And everywhere we go, we're wanting God's presence there. So the word prayer trust, walking with him, all of these things help us to understand what God wants for his church, for his bride, for the body of Christ. 4 (29m 17s): But we have to check our mindset. So I'll ask you this question. What is your mind sets toward God? What is your mindset toward God? There's really only two mindsets in life. There is a fixed mindset and there is a growth mindset. A fixed mindset says, ah, I'm probably as smart as I'm ever going to be. I'm probably as good at golf as I'm ever going be. I'm probably as spiritual as I'm ever going to be. Probably not going to grow much more throughout the course of my life. 4 (29m 50s): It's this fixed mindset that says I'm probably not going to move beyond. There's a big, I can't attach to a fixed mindset. I can't go any further in life. A growth mindset is absolutely just the opposite, a growth mindset. 7 (30m 9s): It says that improvement is possible. 4 (30m 13s): A growth mindset says I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. There's this 7 (30m 20s): Math class in Alaska math class in Alaska, that was dead last 4 (30m 26s): In math scores in the whole state of Alaska, they were dead last. They probably had a fixed mindset that said, Hey, mom was bad at math. Dad was bad at math. I'm going to be bad at math. I'm always going to be bad at math, right? A fixed mindset that says I'm never going to be any good at math. But what happened is some, some well intentioned people went into that classroom and they begin to challenge that mindset. And it began to speak truth and begin to teach, 7 (30m 56s): Teach, and coach the students so that the beginning 4 (30m 59s): And understand little by little, they begin to understand math. Like they'd never understood math before. So before long. And when the program kind of wrapped up, they were not 7 (31m 11s): Dead. Last class in 4 (31m 13s): A math class, in the state, they were the first rated class, first ranked class in all of Alaska. Pretty cool stuff, right. That's possible for us. So when I was a little guy, my mom enrolled and signed me up for little league baseball. Well, I had never played baseball before. I'd never even really watched baseball before I was raised by my mom and she wasn't interested in baseball. And so I sign up and I'm out there and I have no idea what to do. I have no idea. Somehow I had a glove and I got a cap and they gave me my uniform. 4 (31m 46s): And I said, I don't even know how to put the socks on. You know, the special, a little baseball socks. I had no idea how to put those on. So I'm watching my buddy put his on. I'm like, Oh, put the white socks on first, then the socks. So I figured it out. Well, I was obviously the worst player on the team. I didn't know how to throw. I didn't know how to catch. I didn't know how to hit. I didn't know how to ground a ball. I didn't know how to do anything. It just was clueless. But one of the coaches would pull me aside. Every practice, the rest of the team would be at the baseball diamond and they were practicing and playing and actually played the game. 4 (32m 20s): Well, and I was off with the coach out in left field or right field, wherever we were. And he began to just coach me on the basics. This is how you throw the ball. This is how you catch the ball. This is how you hit the ball. This is how you feel the ground. Or this is how you catch a pop fly. This is how, and just little by little, so a couple of years of playing a little league baseball, I actually got chosen to be on the all star team. And it wasn't because I was special. I didn't know anything about the game, but somebody changed my mind. 4 (32m 53s): I went from a fixed mindset. Like I'm always going to be the knucklehead on the team, right? The worst guy on the team, my, my coach saw something that could be different in me. And I'm so grateful. So he taught me how to play baseball. And I played baseball for a long time. And I'm so, so grateful for that. There's the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. A growth mindset makes change possible and improvement possible. How's your mind today? How's your mindset in Christ? Are you thinking, man? 4 (33m 23s): I'm, I'm about a spiritual as I'm ever going to be. I mean, I've read the Bible. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. And so I'm not going to try to figure it out. I would say that if you're in that mindset, God wants to change your mind. He wants to flip the switch. He wants to help you understand that you can actually understand there's something powerful about God what God will do. The Holy spirit will actually begin to teach us when we're serious about learning what the Bible says. The Holy spirit will begin to teach us into this great Bible study tools that if we just we'll apply our selves, we can actually learn the Bible. 4 (33m 56s): When I was in junior high school, Randy or Gary Tucker was my, Randy was my high school pastor. Gary Tucker was my junior high youth pastor. And I would sit and in youth group and I'd look at his Bible and it was all marked up. Like he'd read that thing a thousand times. And I thought, man, I know nothing about the Bible. And just over time, God gave me the grace to have a hunger for it. And, and now for some reason, they've got me up here teaching it. I have no idea why, but this year I am. So I'm just saying that you don't start out in life having all of the answers. 4 (34m 29s): You know, you don't start out in life. Knowing what to do. Paul is wanting something for this. Church, he's writing something to this church because he desires something from them. Now they're, they're not even a bad Church. We read in the Bible about some of the churches that are bad. They've grown cold and they've lost their first love. Paul said in verse five, I rejoiced that you are living as you, 8 (34m 53s): You should. 4 (34m 56s): And that your faith in Christ is strong. So maybe you're here today and you're doing pretty well. I would just say if you're here today and you're doing pretty well, praise the Lord. Stay humble, stay teachable, right? That's probably the best advice I can give you in life. Stay humble, stay teachable. Maybe you're here struggling today. What's the answer there. Stay humble. Stay teachable. Depending on the day, depending on the day, we're all in both places, depending on the day, stay humble, stay teachable and watch what God will do. 4 (35m 27s): Paul wanted something for this church because God wanted, wanted something for this. Church what does God want for you individually? And then what does God want for our church? These are questions that we should always be asking ourselves and asking of the Lord, God, what is it that you want of me today? Or what is it that you want for me today? We're getting ready to wrap up this whole year. It's October already. I cannot believe we're in October, 2020. It was nothing like any of us expected, right? And so we're wrapping up 2020. 4 (35m 59s): And maybe we're just down to the last few months. Maybe we need to be asking the Lord, okay, Lord 2020 was nothing. Like I expected nothing that we expected. What is it that you want to do with us individually and corporately? What do you want to do with us? What do you want to show us? What do you want to teach us? What do you have for us Lord? And when, just with that openness, that perspective, that lens, God will begin to show you things. As you read the scripture, as you pray, as you trust him, as you walk with him, God will begin to show you those things. 4 (36m 30s): First one, Colossians two. I want you, 9 (36m 32s): You don't know how much I've agonized for, 4 (36m 34s): For you and for the church at Laodicea. Paul is agonizing. We assume in prayer for these churches, he's under house arrest. He can't do much more other than just agonize for this people and in prayer. So it's for this church and this collage and Church, but also for the Church that layer to see, which is about 10 miles away. So it's a neighboring city, a neighboring church. And Paul is agonizing for this group of people. He said, I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea. 4 (37m 5s): And for many other believers who have never met me personally. So he didn't plant this church. 9 (37m 12s): He didn't, he didn't know 4 (37m 15s): No, the people in the church. And yet, for some reason, he had agonized. He knew the guy who did found the Church and he agonized for these people. What did he want for these people? What was Paul agonizing over verse two tells us I want them to be encouraged. I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ himself in him lie all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 (37m 55s): So let's take these things one at a time. Number one, he wants the church to be encouraged. God wants the church to be encouraged. Sometimes we can. We can think about encouragement and think, well, I'm just, I'm surprised. Paul's not praying for something more spiritual than encouragement, but if we're discouraged as individuals, and if we're discouraged as the Church or very much hindered in our ability to trust God, we're very much hindered in our ability to believe God, to follow him. 4 (38m 26s): We're in a dark place, not really functioning the way that God would have us to function. So this is why Paul agonized for Church so that they would be encouraged. The Greek word for encouraged means to call to one's side, to call to what's a great picture, isn't it. So if Doug's discouraged, you're on the front row and I called Doug up and put my arm around him, or if I'm discouraged and Doug comes up and puts his arm around me and just loves on me a bit, then I'm encouraged often. 4 (38m 59s): It doesn't take much, right? Just a little bit of human touch, an inappropriate word spoken to at the right time. And then all of a sudden there's encouragement, flooding our lives to call to one's side. It's signifying such ideas as comfort, encouragement, and exhortation. So Paul's passion for the Church was, was that the people would be encouraged and it, and it went way beyond the people that he knew personally. And it, when I read that, it challenges me to remember, to pray for all of our missionaries who are out in foreign soil, sharing the gospel, taking the gospel to dangerous places. 4 (39m 41s): And I think, I don't know the people that they're ministering to, but man, I need to pray for them fervently and passionately agonizing for them in prayer like Paul does. He didn't know them personally. He never met these people, but he loved them intensely. Anyway, you can sense that in his writing, he loves them with an intensity. So as I think about our missionaries in Greenland, I think man, we need, I need to be praying more fervently for these missionaries and for the, the, the people that they're ministering to. 4 (40m 13s): We've got missionaries who are serving in Mexico and Israel and Azerbaijan. I just got an invitation to partner with a couple who are going to Papa new Guinea. They're going to go there for 15 years. That's their goal. We're going to go for 15 years. We're going to live among the people. We're going to learn their language. We're going to translate the Bible in their heart language. And we're going to stay with them until a church is planted. And until indigenous people can run the church and pastor the church and shepherd the people. This is their 15 year plan. 4 (40m 44s): It's powerful. Just, just their, their vision alone makes me want to get on board with them. I don't even know who they are. Somehow we got on their mailing list. They're from a, Church the pastorals Bible church. And in Pasa Robles in the North County don't know who they are, but I'm excited about maybe partnering with them. Not because I know who they are because I'm excited about their vision, about what God is doing. I think that's what Paul's doing here. He's showing us how to love people intensely. Even if we don't know them. I wonder when was the last time we prayed so fervently for total strangers. 4 (41m 16s): Sometimes we don't do that. And I think we're encouraged in the scripture. What does God want for us? He wants to be praying for, he wants us to be praying for people that we don't even know. And I, I'm kind of a knucklehead. Sometimes I'll be driving down the road and something will happen and somebody will catch my eye. And I'll just pray for their salvation. I say, Lord, I know who they are, but I think they need you. So would you just, would you help them maybe? Cause they cut me off on the road. I don't know about it, but I just pray for them. It's better than getting mad at them. Right? So I just begin to pray for them. Why do God's people need to be encouraged? 10 (41m 47s): Well, we're in a battle. We're in a battle. 4 (41m 50s): It's a spiritual battle. 2020 has been a crazy a year. People with differing differing ideas and plans. And it's just, it's just a hard thing. So we need to call people to our side and we need people to call us to their side for encouragement. We need people to come alongside us and we need to come alongside others and help them and encourage them to stay focused on the Lord. So life is full of disappointment. We need comfort. 4 (42m 22s): We don't always understand God's plans. We need encouragement. Sometimes we want to give up. We need people to exhort us to exhort, needs to appeal, to council, to speak truth, to appeal, to counsel, to speak truth. We sometimes I just need somebody to say, Hey dude, you're struggling. You need to knock it off or Hey, you need to get, you know, get over this because you know, it's time for the Lord to use you in a new way. We need to be exhorted. It's like somebody helping us to get our feet out of the Myrie clay and get us on a solid foundation against so that we can move forward. 4 (42m 54s): Sometimes we just need strong words, spoken to us in love so that we can do that. God wants you in courage. He wants you to enjoy your Christian experience. He wants you to enjoy your relationship with him. He wants you to experience a shift in your mindset, moving from a fixed, nothing will ever change mindset to a growth. All things are possible. Mindset. Philippians four 13 in the new King James version, it says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 4 (43m 25s): I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. If you've got a fixed mindset, you don't believe this. If you've got a growth mindset, all of a sudden you believe it, you read the scripture. And you're like, I believe that I believe it. Maybe I haven't been living it up to this point, but I got a growth mindset now and I believe it. And I'm going to start doing some things about it. He wants the church to be encouraged. Number one, number two, he wants the church unified again. We're seeing all of these in verse two, verse two. I want them to be encouraged. Number one and number two knit together by strong ties of love. 4 (43m 56s): We're just calling it unified. God wants his church unified knit together by strong ties of love. The message Bible says this. I want you woven into a tapestry of love. Isn't that a beautiful picture. Once you woven into a tapestry of love, if you look at a tapestry and you turn it around, it's just a mess, right? There's all kinds of thread and yarn going all these different directions. But then when you turn it around and you've got this beautiful picture of this piece of art, well, that's the body of Christ. 4 (44m 33s): All of us coming from different backgrounds and different places. And we're working together by the grace of God to accomplish as the purposes of the plans of God to create something beautiful. And that's what happens. We're all coming together from different places, wanting to honor the Lord and doing our best to, to, to affectively unified unified in a unified approach, attempt to make things beautiful in the world. God's love allows people from diverse backgrounds to unify under the banner of Christ. 4 (45m 5s): People from different socioeconomic backgrounds, people from different walks of life, people of different education levels. I know our retired prison warden. Who's very, very good friend is an ex-con that used to be in his prison. Why is, how is that possible? I mean, what is an ex con have to do? I mean, what kind of, what do they have in common with a retired prison ward and what, you know, what they have in common? Jesus. Yeah. They just have Jesus in common. 4 (45m 37s): And so now they're good friends and they actually tell their story together and testify to the goodness of Jesus, the goodness of God in a person's life. And so they share their story together and it doesn't matter their past because Jesus is in their lives now. And they're moved together with the Lord. He is their banner over them. When Christ is the common denominator, all people fit together and Jesus prayed that we would be one. He prayed that we would be United together even as he and the father are United. 4 (46m 9s): It says here in John, 17, 20 and 21, I am praying not only for these people, this is Jesus. I'm praying not only for these disciples, but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. So he's praying for the original 12, right? And he's praying for us because we've believed as a result of their message as their other proclamation of their message. I pray that they will be one. I pray that 11 (46m 34s): They will all be one just as you and 4 (46m 37s): Are one as you are in me, father and I, 11 (46m 41s): I am in you and may they be in us 4 (46m 44s): That the world will believe you sent me. So one God, three persons, right? The Trinity one, God, three persons, one Church many members. We are United. If we're in Christ, we belong to God. So even I, even if you've never met somebody, but they're in Christ, your brothers like their brotherhood or sisterhood there's family, there's a family connection there. I, wherever I travel in the world, whether you know, locally or abroad and I meet a believer, there's just this common ground that we share. 4 (47m 17s): And we can pray together. Even if we've never met together, we can give hugs and high fives. And there's just this connection. There's just this connection that takes place because we're all in Christ. So many people, Many different people carrying different responsibilities. I wrote this different roles, same goals. We have people doing different roles, playing different roles, but we all have the same goals. We want to honor God and glorify him. Different people, same purpose, different churches, same commitment. 4 (47m 48s): When I say churches, I mean small CA churches. We're all part of the big C church, different churches, same commitment monthly. You guys know this. I meet with pastors from all over the, all over the central coast once a month. And we're going to meet this Wednesday and it could be 25, 30, 40 guys that come together and we just come together to eat together and pray together and enjoy company together, encouraging one another. And there's just something beautiful about that unity, because it allows us to be more effectively salt and light here on the central coast. 4 (48m 19s): When we're getting along, he wants the church to be encouraged and he wants the church United number three, he wants the Church confident. He doesn't want the Church arrogant, but he wants to, Church confident. It's okay to have confidence. Jolene gave me some fish to cook up yesterday and I did a really good job. And she's like, Hey, the fish is really good. I said, well, I know how to barbecue. 12 (48m 46s): I said, 4 (48m 47s): I've been barbecuing for the last 30 years. I, so I, I know that you can probably give me any kind of meat and I'll actually do a good job with it. Right. Jolene does all the heavy lifting. She does all the seasoning and all of the work before and she gives it to me and I put it on the grill for 30 minutes, then it's good. Right. So if I'd been grilling for 30 years and didn't know how to barbecue, I'd probably need to give up the grill. Right? So I'm not saying it in an arrogant way at all. I'm just saying, of course, if I've been grilling for 30 years, my mom knows how to make great pies. Right? So it'd be silly for her to say, no, I don't know how to bake. 4 (49m 17s): She wins all the bake, the pie baking contest. Right? So it's not an arrogant position to say I understand something or I know how to do something. Maybe you've been doing the same job for the last 10 years, 15 years. You're like, I kind of got this down. It's okay to, yeah. I know how to paint. I know how to fix cars or whatever it may be. I know how to do these things. So the Lord wants us confident in Colossians four 12. Epaphras one of the guy who actually probably founded this church that says this in Colossians four, 12 Epaphras is a member of your own fellowship and servant of Christ. 4 (49m 52s): Jesus send you His greetings. He always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect. That we're perfect is the word mature, strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God, fully confident. There's nothing wrong with some confidence. Like if you've been walking with the Lord for five years, you should have some confidence that you've understood some things in those five years. If you're brand new to the faith, you should have this expectation. And then a year from now, you're going to have some greater confidence because you've spent that year. 4 (50m 25s): Reading the Bible you spent that year, you've spent that year investigating. If you've been a Christian for 10 or 15 or 20 years, you probably need to be leading some others in the faith, encouraging others and helping them to understand who they are, giving them confidence about who they are in Christ. Paul was passionate that the people of God will be confidence because with confidence, not arrogance, arrogance turns people off. God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. 4 (50m 55s): We're not talking about arrogance at all, but we're talking about saying, Hey, you know, having the attitude that says, Hey, if God calls me to this, I'm going to give it my best by his grace. I, every time I get up to preach, I say, God, I've done this a bunch, but I don't want to do anything apart from your will. It doesn't matter if I do this for 50 years, I never want to get up there and be disconnected from you. So it's that kind of thing. It says I can preach. I can get up there and speak and teach and do those things. But I never want to do it apart from God's God's in his presence, his power, all of those things. That's what I'm talking about. 4 (51m 25s): So God, I can do this, but I don't want to do it without you. I'm ready to move forward, but I don't want to do it without you. That's the kind of confidence that God is looking for. Verse four, I'm telling you this. So no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments when you're confident, because you've invested yourself and you understand some things, no one can deceive you with well-crafted arguments for though. I am far away from you. Paul writes, my heart is with you and I rejoice that you are living as you should. And that's your faith in Christ is strong. And now just as you accepted Christ Jesus, as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 4 (51m 57s): So there's this responsibility that we have. We come to faith in Christ. We give our lives to him and then we continue all the days of our lives throughout all eternity. We're following him till he takes us home and into eternity. We're following. He is our Lord. We submit to him. He is God. We continue to follow him. That means we have to be intentional. Sometimes we put it in autopilot and we think, Oh, I've been doing this a long time, but we can't ever put it in autopilot. I'm just telling you, as soon as we put it on autopilot, we begin to drift. 4 (52m 30s): We need to be intentional with the Lord. Meaning every day, getting up and reading the word, spending your time with the Lord and allowing him to speak. And when you miss a day, you get right back to it. You miss a week, you get right back to it because life gets busy sometimes, right? So don't beat yourself up. Just get right back to it. I used to, when I'd miss my daily reading, I used to try to go back and play, catch up. I don't do that anymore. If I miss a day, I just pick it up where I left off. And God's grace is sufficient and I'll catch it next time around. So listen, it takes intentionality though. 4 (53m 1s): It takes intentionality to be doing what God would have us to do. He said, lets your roots grow down deep into him and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught and you will overflow with thankfulness. The most grounded people in the faith, the most competent people in the faith I find are the most grateful people in the faith. We just, there's just an overwhelming gratitude. Yeah. 4 (53m 31s): Cause you know, apart from God you can do, you can do no good thing. And when God is with you, you can do wonderful things and powerful things. But there's just an attitude of gratitude when God is walking with his people. And when people are being used by the Lord to do great things, he said, don't let anyone capture you. Verse eight. Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ, everything that we understand about God should come from Christ through his word. 4 (54m 2s): We should have our, our revelation and our information from the Bible and through the power of the Holy spirit. So don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ for in Christ lives, all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. So these verses should give us confidence, confidence in Christ that we are complete in him. 4 (54m 35s): He's done all the heavy lifting and he continues to do all of the heavy lifting. That means he makes our lives fruitful. When we're walking with him, he's working through us and in us, he's encouraging us. He's he's unifying his body and he's giving us confidence to do what he's called us to do. Paul couldn't have written two thirds of the new Testament and unless he had a level of confidence that God was up to something, right? He couldn't have written two thirds of the new Testament to the first century church. If he didn't know that God was speaking through him, right? 4 (55m 5s): He wasn't waffling about what God was doing. He heard and recorded what the Lord wanted him to record so that we could be reading it 2000 years later. What is it that God wants to do with you and in you and through you? What kind of confidence are you supposed to have doing the work that God has called you to do? Don't be timid, trying to be humble, missing out on your calling. All right. Let me say that again. Don't be timid trying to be humble and miss out on your calling. 4 (55m 36s): Right? Sometimes in our timidity, in our effort to stay humble, we don't do what we know we're equipped to do and what we're passionate to do. And so we miss out on, on the calling of God upon our lives. Don't let that false humility or sense of humility. Keep you from doing what God has called you to do. At some point, you're gonna have to step up and lead, right? You will, you'll have to step up and lead. And that's what God has called you to do the longer you're with the Lord. The more equipped you should be to lead. So what's your mindset spiritually. 4 (56m 7s): Do you have a fixed mindset or do you have a growth mindset? I believe God wants us to have a growth mindset. How many are committed? This, the balance of this year to have a growth mindset? I mean pick an area. Hopefully it's spiritually spiritual. Hopefully it's maybe in the area of relationships, maybe in the area of finances, it may be, but a growth mindset What does God want for His Church he wants us to be encouraged. He wants us to be unified and he wants the Church confident with that. Let's invite the worship team forward and we're going to sing and worship with a few more songs and then we'll get out of here and enjoy the day, the rest of the day. 4 (56m 43s): So worship team come forward. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for what you're doing at Harvest Church Lord and not just Harvest Church but your church here on the central coast, locally and globally, Lord God, we're so thankful, thankful that we get to be a part of it. Thankful that you've called us to be a part of it. Thankful that we get to be used in the midst of it all. So God used us. We want to be doing what you would have us to do. Lord. We want, we know that you've got stuff for us and you want stuff for us. So help us to walk in that. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Let's go and stand up. 1 (57m 18s): Awesome. That's so great. Thanks Steve. We just love you. We pray that you would just meet us in this moment. Just pray that you would really minister to people's hearts. Just that everything they just heard would just really take root. That seeds that have been planted and would truly bear fruit in our lives this week. 1 (57m 50s): So come Holy spirit things have means the 0 (1h 8m 55s): Thank you for your goodness towards us. Your safeness, your mercies that are new for this week, pray that you would lead and guide us every step of the way. No, we would overflow with your love in the world around us. The people would say no we're Christians because of the way that we love. We have patience, kindness, goodness, all those things God reflect who you are. So thank you. What you've done here in our hearts today is as you would to seal it upon our hearts to keep us safe until we come together again, you ask this in jesus' name. 0 (1h 9m 35s): Amen man. Church woo. You can celebrate. So I saw a few of you go for the clap. Yeah, that's a great morning. Thanks for being here with us today. We'll see you guys next Sunday. If anyone would like prayer this morning, we'll have some volunteers we'll be up at the front or any staff. We'd love to pray with you. Have a great week.

Our new Associate Pastor of Worship, Sherilyn Keller shares her story with us.

For more information go to www.agharvest.org.