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Scripture: Joshua 24
In Joshua’s final words to the people of Israel, he takes great care to remind them of the gracious work of God in their lives. Establishing the bedrock of God’s Grace, Joshua then calls them boldly to SERVE THE LORD. God’s grace is not an excuse for inaction but rather the foundation for a life of humble and faithful service to God. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are the recipients of a better grace and are called by God to humble and faithful service in our communities.
TranscriptSo we made it we made it to the end right it’s uh you know hopefully if you didn’t make everyone anybody here make every single one all right we got some uh we got some y y’all get uh you know you get a gold star if you made all but I’m sure if you didn’t make them all you’ve gone back and listened to them all so so you know exactly uh where we are and uh uh and so you understand the full context here uh but you know I’d say Joshua 24 next to Jericho and the bringing down of the walls this is the most well-known passage of Joshua right uh that that powerful verse you’ve probably got it on a pillow that’s uh you know as for me in my house we will serve the Lord uh it’s either on the pillow or it’s on a plaque or it’s somewhere in your house right I mean you you you can’t be a Christian and not have this in your house somewhere uh it’s not not even possible um I I I know we have them uh as well because it’s powerful it’s a powerful and it’s a moving and stirring moment of decision it’s it’s a stirring moment of of compelling uh the people of Israel into their service of the Lord and so I this also serves for us it serves for us us today as Christians how are we to live in faithful service to God as followers of Christ in our world in our community in our country here in uh in Jacksonville Beach and in this area of of North Florida that the Lord has planted us how are we to serve God in a faithful way that honors him that brings him glory because as we sang before his glory is for our good right and so this passage is speaking directly into these important issues in our life that we’re all struggling with to know how to live faithfully and serve the Lord Faithfully in our lives every day and so I want us to to look at it first in the context of uh of Joshua and what was happening here uh and then we’ll look at that same in application to how it applies to us today but as we began last week in in 23 Joshua has come to the end of his leadership the end of his Ministry and he’s gathered together all of the uh the tribes of Israel and all their their leaders uh to give them the farewell address right uh to give them these last parting words and his role is leadership and Leadership to them to encourage them and to uh to show them the way that they are to go uh as he steps down from leadership and so chapter 24: 1-13 really continue that that same farewell speak speech and in verses 1 to13 uh he spends that entire time doing one thing reminding them of all that God has done for their Redemption right all that God has done by his grace you notice over and over again all the things that I did for you he doesn’t go back and remember the things they did wrong he doesn’t call them he doesn’t call them to account in this p in this area at all in that area um uh but he’s saying all the things I’ve done for you I’ve done all of this uh verse 13 especially it goes I gave you a land on which you had not labored in cities that you had not built and and you now dwell in them you eat the fruit of Vineyards and Olive Orchards that you did not plant what did he wanted what what Joshua wanted the knows before what’s even going to come which is a a strong call to service is that it’s all based on God’s grace for for them their calling to serve is based on what God has so lovingly and graciously done for them that’s where it’s rooted that’s what they’re being called to take the next steps of Faith even then out of it God’s gracious act in their lives goes all the way back to Abraham right he called Abraham out not not because of anything that Abraham at that point had done but just that God in his gracious calling had called them out to make them a people for himself and he had been gracious to them and so after Now setting that that that framework that all of this is established in Grace now in verse 14 this is what Joshua calls them to he says now therefore fear the lord and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness now therefore fear the lord and serve him and sincerity and faithfulness now this is the beginning of the word serve is going to happen over and over and over and over again this is the important thrust Paul’s or uh uh Joshua is calling them to a life of service for the Lord you know receiving that Grace wasn’t just for their own benefit it wasn’t just for them to sit on it and enjoy being the chosen people it was intentionally given to move them to action to move them to serve him and the way that they’re called to serve here first off is in sincerity and faithfulness that word sincerity what it means is uh in in honesty meaning in humility an honest humility not putting on pretense not pretending but being completely honest with the Lord that’s how he’s calling them to service and an honest heartfelt sincere way before him and we’re going to see that’s already a challenge that’s already a challenge for them uh and then secondly in faithfulness meaning in truth in Trust of God that he is the truth he wants them to serve him not only uh in a spirit of humility of being honest with before God about who they are and the ways that they have fallen short but also he wants them to tr trust him to trust him with what’s ahead which is going to be a major challenge in their lives and we’re going to see why it’s going to be a challenge he said put away the gods that your fathers serve beyond the river in Egypt and serve the Lord so what this tells us is is that that Israel at this point was not a pure Nation they were still struggling with serving these Idols they still existed in their rank uh and that’s what Joshua is is calling them out on now he’s saying don’t pretend don’t pretend that all is Right own up to where you your own in in humility what’s really going on and serve the Lord in his truth and then in verse 15 and if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord choose this day whom you will serve whether the gods of your fathers that they served in the region Beyond the River or the gods of the amorites in whose the land you dwell but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord you know it’s really interesting there’s there’s really three options that Joshua gives to the people doesn’t he there’s three options to who they’ll choose to serve the first option is they can look to the past and they can serve the gods of their of their fathers before the one true God called them by his grace they can go back to that life they can choose that this day to worship those idols and to serve those Gods this the second option is they can choose uh the the present Idols that are surrounding them and that is the gods of the amorites those that that the present age the the idols of the of the age that they’re living in they can either look to the past and those gods or they can look to all those Nations around them and be enticed by them the spirit of the age or they can choose the Lord but they have to choose they can’t serve all of them you have to choose this day who you will serve well and as for me in my house he declares we’re going to serve the Lord as for me and my clan my group my people we’re going going to serve the Lord and to serve the Lord means to serve him in sincerity and to serve him in faithfulness to serve him in humility and to serve him by trusting him despite what the spirit of the age might be despite however much they may look back and think things are much better then or we really need to get back to that time get in touch with our roots and those uh where our people came from those are going to be their Temptations but you can’t have it both ways and then the people answered in verse 16 far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods for it is the Lord Our God who brought us and our forefathers up from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved Us in all the way that we went and among all the peoples through whom we passed and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples of the amorites who lived in the land therefore we will also serve the Lord for he is our God yes this is a great moment right they the Joshua called him choose this day and now they have chose there should be much rejoicing at least that’s what you’d expect but then Joshua goes in a totally different direction or at least it seems like it right in verse 19 but Joshua said to the people you are not able to serve the Lord for he is a holy God he is a jealous God he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins if you forsake the Lord and serve foreign Gods then he will turn and do you harm and consume you after having done you good and the people said to Joshua no but we will serve the Lord then Joshua said to the people you are witness against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord to serve him and they said we Are Witnesses and then he said then put away the foreign gods that are among you and incline your heart to the Lord the god of
Israel so what Joshua was telling them is you’re not being honest it’s not yes praise the Lord that you said you’re going to serve him that’s great but you’re not being honest you’re not coming in a s place of humility you didn’t come saying we want to serve the Lord Lord help us to do it now they’re saying we’re going to do it we can do this they’re not coming with a sense of needing the Lord’s help they’re coming from a sense of Pride and self-reliance and that’s why Joshua he’s not discouraging them from serving the lord they that that’s what they’re called they’re being called called to but he is discouraging them from doing it out of a sense of pride and arrogance and thinking they can do it in their own power because they can’t they can’t do it without the Lord’s help just as the Lord established them and rooted them in grace even in serving him they’re still dependent upon God’s grace and his work in their midst they can’t do it without him it’s not possible so what does this this have to do with us today I think it’s a a direct correlation right it’s direct and that just as Joshua was compelling them to to stay rooted and to be rooted and established in the grace of God so we are called to be rooted and established in the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ God’s undeserved favor that he has shown to us it’s Ephesians 2 8-10 right for by Grace you have been saved through faith and it’s not your own doing it’s the gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them so again in in the New Covenant in the light of the grace that we have received a far better Grace than God’s people in Joshua could have ever known for we’ve been given the savior of the world and the Redemption and the Forgiveness of our sins and be given new and everlasting life in Christ we too are called out of that Grace to serve we’re called to Good Works we’re called to serve the Lord in this world it’s how we live Faithfully the grace that we have received in Christ isn’t a Grace where that we’re called just to sit on our hands and enjoy our our special place with him but we’re called to serve in humility and in faithfulness all the work that God is calling us to do in this world and in our culture if you hear all the the places that God calls in the Old Testament to serve him uh to serve God in gratitude for his grace we’re told uh in Deuteronomy 10 and now Israel what does the Lord require of you but to fear the lord your God to walk in all of his ways to love him and to serve the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and to keep his Commandments and statutes statues of the Lord which I command you today for your good in Deuteronomy 28 serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart because of the abundance of all things things that he has given you Psalm 211 serve the Lord in reverence and rejoice with trembling Psalm 102 serve the Lord with gladness come into His presence with singing Psalm 1211 be fervent in spirit and in serving the lord meaning be passionate in your service to the Lord in this world but do it in humility and do it with faithfulness and do it with joy and gladness we’re not called to serve the Lord out of a spirit of fear we’re called as the people of Christ to serve into the world knowing the victory that’s already been won and so we’re free to serve boldly and to love boldly and to stand for the truth boldly in in a humble and joyful and hopeful way what what are some of those ways that we’re called I mean it’s endless right the way ways that we’re called to serve the Lord in this world is is is endless but let’s just start and I think the right order of of creation right we’re we’re to serve the Lord in the world first as a husband or a wife that’s the first order of things in God’s creation if you’re looking for where to where to start and Faithfully serving the lord in humility and with joy and with gladness and in faithfulness then start by being and serving the lord as your husband that you were called to be as the wife you were called to be that’s the beginning and then as we move out from there in God’s created order how about as a father or a mother or as a as a grandmother or grandfather move out to there and look how am I serving the lord how am I impacting this world for Christ how am I how am I serving my grandchildren and my children how am I serving them in humility and with joyfulness and with gladness and and proclaiming the truth of God how am I standing against as as the people were called to stand against the gods of the age right the gods of the amorites those Gods those Idols that were all around them how are we called to Stand Up Against The Gods and the idols of our age they are many they are many it’s hard even to name them all right here all at once I need to do a better job of calling them out uh as they come up in the scripture but you know I think Tim Keller did capture in in a in a way the spirit of the age that I think is helpful he says the spirit of the age is this that our identity comes through self-expression through discovering one’s most authentic desires and being free to be one’s authentic self that that’s maybe kind of kind of way out there right uh but it’s this idea of self-determinism is the spirit of the age and that who I am as a person I have to freely be able to express and if I can’t then I’m being judged and I’m being uh I’m being oppressed how are we speaking into those issues that are so contrary and so confusing because they’ve given birth to things confusion over uh human gender gender identity God has clearly called us male and female in his created order but yet because of the spirit of this age that identity comes through self-expression I have to be free to decide for myself and if I can’t then I’m being oppressed that’s the spirit of the age but how do we now as as parents as Grandparents with
humility but also with faithfulness speak into that truth of God into the lives of our children and our grandchildren it touches every area how do we as uh as human beings serve the Lord in faithfulness right Jesus said as you have done for the least of these you have done for me and the scriptures make very clear that the way that we serve the Lord in humility and in faithfulness is to care for and feed the poor to care for the homeless to protect the innocent to seek Justice for the vulnerable to love our neighbor as ourself we need to be volunteering we need to be serving in our communities we have no right as Christians to complain about our community and what’s happening if we aren’t in it if we’re not out there serving and volunteering First Coast Women’s Services would love your help Susan’s here tonight you can talk to her they would love you to come and to volunteer bees rescue and Recovery Mission we support they would love your help in serving the homeless or Mission House they need your help entering into the community serving those who are in need and feeding the hungry how about is citizens of the United States I know this is this is a great angst in our hearts isn’t it we see what’s happening in our country and our culture and and we’re broken what we cannot be is fearful because the gospel doesn’t call us to a spirit of fear but to a Spirit of Hope because we know the ultimate Victory is in our Lord Jesus Christ and out of that hope it’s to serve and you know what the the easiest thing vote
how can you not that your calling is a Christian it’s your right to vote and I know the saying is to vote according to your conscience right and I get what that means uh I get what that means that you have to decide how you’re going to V it’s between you and the Lord but I would say don’t vote according to your consciously I can’t vote just according to my conscience I have to vote if it is according to my conscience as my conscience is directed by the will of God and as it’s revealed in his truth you know there’s so many issues obviously I sent out if you didn’t get it an email about Amendment 4 it is it is evil it’s
deceitful and we’re going to Susan’s going to come in a couple weeks and help to show us some of those things that she’s learned about how just how deceitful it is and how it mischaracterizes uh what is really happening there because we but as followers of Christ are to serve God we serve him for Life the Dignity of every human
life there’s lots of issues you know as I look at the southern border you know the thing that breaks my heart is this is a humanitarian
disaster we can argue about how immigration should be done legally right but what’s happening now is abhorent to the in the eyes of God do you know that right now there are more than 32,000 children are unaccounted for 300 300 I missed a zero we don’t know where they are when they came through I think from what I read if I read it right they didn’t show up at whatever hearing was to happen and now we have no idea the human trafficking that’s happening because of the system system that is broken as it is
now we need to vote in such a way that it will be
fixed we have to get involved I urge you as Christians serve in public service somehow get involved in the culture don’t just we can’t just complain about it we have to get
involved but not only do we need to get action the grace that we’ve received to put it into action but how we do it matters as as Joshua called out to the people to serve the Lord in sincerity and to serve him in faithfulness we are called to serve in the culture in the world stand up for with a truth of what’s right and faithfulness but to do it in sincerity that means in humility a recognition that we’re no better than anyone else what we are is the recipients of God’s Amazing Grace in our lives and we’ve been given the freedom to have joy in serving him in the world around us friends Grace is
not an excuse for inaction Grace is a call to action it’s a call to get involved it’s a call to in Hope and joy and with humility to be in the culture and Shining as a light for Christ to a world that so desperately needs him let us take this message of Joshua this whole series and let’s put it in action let’s put the grace that we are rooted in an action in this world that we might make a difference for Christ by serving God faithfully and in humility amen
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 23
What final words would you want to give to your loved ones before you died? What words would impact them and help them live a better and fulfilled life? In Joshua 23, we have the beginnings of Joshua’s final words to God’s people. In his final words, he reminds them of the grace of God that has been at work in their lives, the promises that He has made to them, and the warning of what will happen if they do not live up to their end of God’s covenant. Joshua 23 points us to God’s better covenant with all who trust His Son, Jesus Christ. A better covenant. One that is filled with joy, rooted in grace, and inspires hope eternally, all through the faithful obedience of our Savior Jesus Christ.
TranscriptHave you ever thought of what you would like your farewell words to be probably not right what would your farewell the last words you knew that you had to be able to say to someone you know I often uh you know encourage uh folks who are in a situation where you know they they’ve gotten a diagnosis and and God’s given them some time and and they know it um and I you know it can be it can be a wonderful gift and it can also be a difficult uh suffering uh but one of the things I encourage those who who do get a diagnosis where they know that uh that the death is coming uh that they would begin to think about how the words that they would speak the blessings that they would offer to those that they love whether it be family members children Friends words that would would make their lives better words that would fulfill their life in some meaningful way that this is your chance this is your chance to offer that that blessing to those that you love to the Next Generation or those that that you’ll be leaving behind to leave you know your legacy it’s an important animportant thing a holy time uh for someone to be able to do but there’s lots of uh the farewell words are are important you can think about all the famous farewell addresses right probably the most famous Farewell Address was Lou garri 1939 you know as he stood there uh suffering with ALS knowing that that it was going to take him uh and he stood there at home plate uh in the New York Yankees Stadium and what did he say today I am the luck EST man on the face of the Earth you know those were powerful words that was a word of farewell a legacy that he wanted to to leave behind what what would you want to leave behind what words of of blessing uh what words of wisdom that would better the life of the person that you love and care for you know today in Joshua 23 hard to believe we we’re we’re almost at the end we’ve got two more chap Afters uh only one after today right so you’re even more than almost there um but it’s the beginning of Joshua’s farewell address to the people it continues on into Joshua 24 that we’ll look at together uh next week uh but Joshua has had has led well incredibly well he is Led Faithfully he wasn’t perfect but he has led F Faithfully he’s held the people together he’s followed the Lord’s command and really in the in the Book of Joshua other than Joshua chapter 7 he has done it without blemish but if you remember Joshua 7 uh Joshua listened after that first win in Jericho after the Lord had given them Victory but he got a little bit too cocky all the people sent some spies in and they thought hey this is easy you don’t even need to send everybody in uh just don’t don’t burden everybody else just send a few in and Conquer it right they didn’t they didn’t seek the Lord they didn’t follow where the Lord was leading they took it upon themselves and it was a disaster and but God even in the midst of of of Joshua’s own failure his imperfection God still used it for good he used that whole experience to expose the sin of a uh and to deal with it to root it out of of Israel so here we get this farewell address from this wonderful leader imperfect man but Wonder wonderful leader uh and this is what we’re told Joshua was old and well advanced in years and so I tried to look back and as best as we can figure what how old Joshua was at this time he was in his early 80s and so he was feeling like you know the time is coming I can’t I can’t do this anymore the time is coming to an end he knows his time of effective leadership at least the way he had been leading uh That season is coming to an end and it’s time for a transition in verse two Joshua summons in this knowledge all of Israel together uh we’re told that all of Israel the elders the uh the heads of the the CL the families the judges the officers uh it’s not clear here if that means just everybody or the representative of everybody that’s not exactly clear but it certainly uh means all of uh of Israel is gathered to hear these final words that Joshua has uh that he would want to leave with them to better their lives to give them a fulfilling life when he’s no longer able to lead them and so Joshua Begins by reminding them all of the wonderful things that the Lord has done for them right uh all that the Lord did to the Nations around them that were in The Promise Land for their sake or for your sake is what he said and then he also reminded them it’s the Lord Who has fought for you for you in both of these places this is a very personal farewell that he’s giving them about wants them to remember about about what God did God didn’t do these things for himself God did these things for you he did them for you he did them for you in this intimate way which leads us to the only conclusion he did it because he loved them he did it because he cared for them he did it because he was their God and that they were his people and that’s what he does for his people he did it for them he’s not some detached far away unapproachable God he is intimately connected in their lives he is personal in every way Joshua needs them to know this as his Farewell I’ve been trying to keep you all he’s he’s telling them I’ve been trying to keep you all in this and I’m not going to be here anymore you’ve got to remember you’ve got to remember all that God has done for you because he loves you so first he reminds them and other words of God’s grace that’s at work in their lives the things that he’s done on their behalf for them and then in verse four secondly he reminds them of the promise that God had made to them that God through Joshua has given uh their allotment of the promised land and those lands though as we’ve learned still pose Danger Don’t They there’s still work to be done there’s still still there’s still enemies in the land that need to be pushed out it’s not over they didn’t complete the conquest the way that God had commanded them to uh they’re still inhabitants to be driven out but God gives them the promise that Joshua wants them to know that they need to know because he’s not going to be there to remind them he says the Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight and you shall possess the land so first Joshua reminds them of God’s gracious and loving work for them secondly he reminds them of the promise that God had already made of what he’s going to do for them in verse six he says now now knowing that the grace of God has already been at work for them and that uh and that his promises of what he’s going to do therefore be strong to keep and do all that is written in the book of of Moses because of God’s gracious love for you and his provision and because of the promise of what’s to come be strong and keep and do all that is written in the book of Moses and secondly cling to the Lord your God meaning keep him close as close as he is to you stay close to the Lord that’s what he wants them to know he wants them to know be strong to keep and do all that is written in the book of the mo the book of Moses and cling cling to the Lord as he has kept close to you and he tells us how to do that and by in verse 11 be very careful to love the Lord your God so armed with God’s grace meaning all that God had already done for them and the promise of what he’s going to continue to do Joshua now urges them to be strong and do all that is uh that is required of them to do in the book of of Moses of the law and stay close to the Lord by loving him above all others and then verses 12- 16 he gives them a warning he gives them a warning of what’s going to happen if they don’t in verse 12 for if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them so that you associate with them and they with you then in verse 13 know for certain that the Lord will no longer drive out these nations before you but they shall be a snare and a trap for you until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you and then in verse 15- 16 the warning continues verse 16 if you transgress the the Covenant of the Lord your God which he commanded you and go and serve other gods and bow down to them then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and You Shall Perish quickly from off the good land that he has given
you Stark warning isn’t it this is what Joshua needs them to know this is his Farewell Address I’m not going to be here to lead you I’m not going to be here to remind you remember the grace of God that’s at work that’s at work for you remember the promises that God has made to you and be sure now to follow and cling to his law and to cling to him to love him above all other gods and to serve him so what of these conditions of this covenantal relationship that God made with his people uh so what we have are the conditions of a of a of a covenantal relationship that God made with his people concerning the land it’s a covenant relationship God has been gracious God promises to continue to be gracious and on condition that they remain faithful to him right this is the reaffirmation of uh of the Covenant that God had already made with Moses it’s the Mosaic Covenant it’s very clear it’s very straightforward if Israel obeys then God will bless them but if they disobey then God is going to punish them it’s a conditional Covenant it’s very very clear so what does this have to do with us what does this have to do with us now there’s a real Temptation here and I’ll get to why it’s a temptation but the Temptation is to try to apply uh this uh conditional Mosaic Covenant directly to us in our lives and to be honest with you I think most of us default to this we can’t help it because it just makes too much dagum sense is it okay that I said that if I did if it wasn’t the real word but it does it makes too much sense it’s straightforward it’s very black and white right you you do this this will happen if you don’t do this then this will happen you know it just makes too much sense uh but we have to be careful the Temptation is to to directly apply this to our lives to our personal lives that if we do and obey God and all that he has commanded us then everything will always go well for us and on the other side if we disobey then everything’s going to fall apart I can’t tell you how I default to this all the time especially you know and you’ll have it in your own ways but for me it’s especially when it comes to preaching like you know I I get ner I’m nervous about preaching like I I get butterflies every time and I stress out about it I can’t sleep on Saturday nights very well uh because I’m worried about it and thinking about it because it’s that that important but also this little thought keeps creeping up in my mind that if I dissipate God in any way leading up to this sermon that he will not bless it and that it will be a failure and that I will have failed him it just creeps in because that old Covenant way of thinking just has this way of of of speaking to my heart and capturing my heart can you can you relate to that do you think of that maybe it’s something that you want maybe it’s something you need in your life and you think that if I’m obedient enough and I do all of the things and I live according to all of God’s ways and I please therefore I’ll please him and therefore he’ll bless me and and I’ll get the things that that that I want and that I
need so I think we do it we we we apply it to our to our own lives just by default we just fall into it we also uh have to be careful that to applying it to our national life together because we can fall into this by default as well because it just makes too much sense that the Mosaic Covenant now applies to to any Sovereign Nation that it’s just Apples to
Apples but we have to read this in context and in light of the whole of the scripture and in light of the go gospel itself the Mosaic Covenant was made by God with Israel because as Exodus 196 tells us God’s promise was to make them and he wanted them to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation Israel was to be God’s light to the dark world around them they were to shine as a beacon of light they were to be special and separate from the nation so that everyone would know that they worshiped the one true God Yahweh the God who keeps his word the God who keeps his
covenants but yet if we look at the rest of the Old Testament how does this work
out it tells us about Israel couldn’t do it they couldn’t live in up to this Covenant next week we’re going to look how they all swear they’ll do it and Joshua is going to tell them do you guys have any idea what you’re saying you can’t do it and you’re not going to be able to do it but yet they all swore no no no no no we’re going to do it we’re going to stay faithful we’re going to be able to abide and obey by all of God’s
law it was failure and the rest of the rest of the Old Testament we see the unfolding of God’s warning coming true and God dispossessing them from the land to the point of even blessing foreign Nations to come who were Pagan nations in order to carry out his will right so if the Mosaic Covenant was for them specifically then what does this all have to do with
us Galatians 3 tells us what it has to do with us in Galatians 3:24 the Apostle Paul says so then the law was our School Master until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith well Paul was saying is that the law revealed the people’s sinfulness our sinfulness the law made it apparent it exposed us and it exposed our desperate need for a savior is our only hope our only salvation Jesus said that it was the Mosaic law that he came not to to abolish but to what
fulfill I came to fulfill the law and Jesus fulfilled the messic Covenant by his perfect obedience to God he lived it he did what only he could do Jesus did what no one else has been able to do or could ever do not Adam not Abraham not Moses not Joshua not David not any other king or Prophet that came after no one and thus Jesus alone fulfilled the Mosaic Covenant and the righteous requirements of the law and then declared to us Jesus in Luke 22 what we just heard in the institution of the Lord’s Supper this cup that is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood there’s a new covenant that we’re living under in Christ God has made a New Covenant with us according to Hebrews 8 Paul calls it a better Covenant a better Covenant Hebrews 8:6 but as it is Christ has obtained a Ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the Covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises it’s a better Covenant why is it better well Paul goes on to describe it even more in Hebrews 8 under the New Covenant and I’ll just summarize it but you can go back read all of Hebrew 8 it’s incredible it’s amazing this New Covenant that God has made with us but but but four of the main points of the New Covenant is this that God will put his laws into our minds and write them on our hearts in other words I’m going to put them in you they’re going to be in you number two God promises that he will be our God and that we will be his people and number three that that we will know him personally and intimately and number four that he will be merciful towards our iniquities and will remember our sins no more that’s the New Covenant that we’re living under that Christ has won for us Paul concluded in Hebrews 8 with these words in speaking of a New Covenant he makes the first one obsolete
and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away this New Covenant that we have in Christ it is conditional it is conditional but it’s not conditional Upon Our obedience it’s conditional upon The Obedience of Christ for
us Hebrews 9:15 therefore Jesus is the mediator of a New Covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised Eternal inheritance since his death redeems those from the transgressions committed under the first Covenant friends this is the good news of the Gospel this is why it is good news to us through faith in Christ we are a people of a new and a better Covenant that God has made for us a CO Covenant of Grace beyond our deserving a covenant of Freedom a covenant of true hope a covenant that is full of
joy it’s a better Covenant second Corinthians 3 I know I’ve given you a lot of scripture but it’s because it’s full of it 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 12-8 this is what what Paul wrote since we have such a hope we are very bold not like Moses hear that again since we have such a hope in this new covenant we are very bold not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end but their minds were hardened for to this day when they read the old Covenant that same Veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away yes to this day whenever Moses is read a veil Lies over their hearts but when one turns to the Lord the veil is
removed now the Lord is spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and we all with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of Glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the spirit spirit this is the better way this is the better Covenant this is the farewell address that Joshua wishes he could have offered us because this was what he offered was just a picture of the greater that was about to come when we turn to Jesus the veil is removed from our hearts and our minds the spirit of the Lord is within us and he’s a spirit of freedom and he is the one work in US transforming us into the image of the glory of the Lord from one degree to another do you see how this New Covenant is has transformed the old Covenant required us to be the one who had to do it the New Covenant God has declared I’m doing it in you put your trust in
me the warning then for us is this so not to turn from this New Covenant of freedom and hope and joy through the finished work of Jesus Christ and the shedding of his blood alone and to turn to a different gospel that’s the warning as Paul warned the Galatians in Galatians 1:6 I am astonished that you’re so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel he told him because that’s exactly what they were doing what I’m talking about here what all of us want to do in our have this default mode of turning back to the Mosaic law that’s what they were doing they were being tempted to turn back they were being influenced to turn back no no no you’re not good enough you haven’t obeyed enough you haven’t done all the right things so God will not bless you you’re not truly God’s unless you’ve done all of the right things he says not that there is another gospel but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ and that’s so true today there are so many that want to distort the gospel and want to turn it back to the Mosaic Covenant telling you that it rests on you that everything rests on your obedience your ability to be strong and to do all that God has commanded you that your Eternal Destiny is dependent upon on it so how do we desert Jesus Now by trusting in our own works by trusting in our own righteousness going back to the old Covenant and thinking that God will love me through my obedience and he’s going to punish me according to all of my Disobedience friends I want to I know there’s a lot of scripture again I’m coming to the end I promise but here these words from Paul’s last words has been addiction to them in Hebrews 13 now May the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ the great Shepherd of the Sheep by the blood of the new Eternal Covenant equip you with everything good that you may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever and ever he’s the one doing the work that’s the promise that’s the New Covenant that’s who we are that’s who we’ve been bought by Don’t Turn back
to an old Covenant to a different gospel there’s no hope there’s no life there’s no joy we’re a people of a new and a better Covenant a covenant that is full of joy a covenant that is rooted in Grace a covenant that inspires hope eternally through the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ amen heavenly father thank
you thank you that we are your children we are Heirs of a better promise a better
Covenant the only Covenant that can bring joy and
grace and hope Lord will you so transform our
hearts Lord don’t let us return and turn to a different
gospel transform our hearts Lord transform the hearts of all all those who are walking in darkness because we know that’s the only hope if you don’t re if you don’t remove the veil of the
hardness of the hearts of those who do not know you Lord they will not turn to you and see that you are the better
way it’s our only hope give us hearts that burn for others to know the joy and the grace and the hope that we have in
you Jesus we ask this in your mighty name amen
Eighteenth Sunday After PentecostSunday's livestream service begins in...Day(s)
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor Chuck Holiday
Scripture: Joshua 22
Jesus said the world will believe our message by the way we love one another. Gospel unity is so essential to our witness but so rare.
TranscriptIt’s great to see you all again tonight and U you know this is a just a very U profound passage of scripture as you know we’re getting near the end of Joshua and um trying to think of you know what’s our future going to be in our new church building and as we anticipate really quite a few new people being added to our group um you know I I personally know gosh I can think right off the top of my head at least three or four uh pastors that I know really well pastors who were under my Ministry in Orlando who went all very very talented uh Godly men and went on to Pastor churches and you know within the last three or four years their churches have split wide open and three of them are no longer in Ministry and because of the way God’s people treated each other it wasn’t the attacks from the IRS wasn’t the attacks from atheists it was a spirit of division that came in during that time of Co and all the wokeness that we’ve been living through in the last you know several years and and it’s it’s just and I I just kept as I talk to them I would feel for them I would sympathize and I would say well praise God you know our congregation has been pretty spare you know um and and mercifully you know that’s true you know now now I’d like to think that’s God being merciful to us and that is but the other side of it is we all agree about everything and and I’m not sure that’s so good um you know I hope as much fun to not fighting your brothers um sometimes I wonder are we okay because we agree about everything you know and U you know one of one of the most profound uh remembrances that I’ve become aware of was when when Tim Keller it was a a really profound PCA Pastor went to to New York and spent three or four decades there in maybe one of the hardest cities in the world to reach with the gospel and saw you know tens of thousands of people come to Christ and just built a significant church and one of the tributes and is’s a strong biblical Evangelical um uncompromising on his view of the word of God and one of his best friends and and man who wrote an amazing tribute to him when he died a year and a half ago was was the Archbishop of New York in the Catholic church and when Timothy Goldman heard that his good friend Tim Keller had died you know he he there a it’s longer but let me just read a couple excerpts because this is how I want to end my Ministry you know I I mean I I care about what you all would think about me but boy if if the people that disagree with me could think this way of me you know Keller often said gospel Unity is not that we all believe the same thing it’s how do we treat the people who disagree with us that’s what real gospel Unity is I want you to think this evening with us from this passage in Joshua about the difference between gospel unity and religious
um uniformity is that the right word there’s a religious uniformity that’s almost cult likee where we all have to be in lock step on every detail that’s not driven so much by the gospel but by something in our flesh and there’s a there’s a difference and it can be tricky but listen to some of these things that Cardinal Doan said about Timothy Keller what was his appeal he said my own Catholic young adults and others attracted to Tim affective preaching and writing would answer that that with explanations that usually ended up in one or three categories that he said my own people are getting saved in his church they’d go to visit and find Jesus and when they come back I’d ask them look what is it about this guy all our churches are shrinking and his is growing what is it and he said they they usually had three different categories of response the first Pastor Keller preached the gospel is true he would blush when I told him he was a genuine apologist but he deserved this cherished title as one who in a compelling credible and colorful way could present and defend the basic truths of God’s revelation no watering down no wavering just the truth which he would repeat as a name Jesus the second thing these young New Yorkers would report when I asked them why they were going to Tim Keller and not to Tim Dolan was that this preaching of Truth gave rise to this second magnetic attribute his Joy this quiet Serene sense of Happiness as David Brooks noted would Inspire Pastor Keller to preach cheer up you’re a worse sinner than you ever dared imagine and you’re more loved than you ever dared to hope that was his message one of my young Catholic my own Young Catholic adults observed if you cry at Redeemer it’s not because you’re bored to tears and they’re not tears of Gloom they’re tears of
joy and the third ingredient in Pastor Keller’s recipe of success is noted by his sheep not by the shepherd but by his sheep was that when he told them what they needed to hear and not what they are itching ears wanted to hear he preached with courage biblical truth without compromise but in a way that didn’t feel condescending talking down to people now this is from the Archbishop of New York he said and they kept coming he kept calling me wanting to buy our sadly shuddered churches why were his filled I wondered Again David Brooks speculates him replying hey you’re thirsty I happen to have a glass of water want a sip the Sip came not from him as was clear but from the one who came to bring us the Waters of life my friends can you imagine your religious enemy saying those things about you when you pass now you say you they weren’t enemies no they actually were very good friends but they believed very different things but somehow these two giant spiritual Giants in New York were able to see the gospel in a way that let them love each other as brothers they they would have been seen by the world as competitors people are leaving Nolan’s Church to join Keller’s church but there’s nothing but mutual
appreciation from them for one another now my friends this is this takes us to Joshua 22 I love this story now for those of you who are new of this tonight apologies you know you’re kind of getting in on the end of this story of Joshua but you know the Israelites have conquered the promised land now it’s been a long arduous Journey many lessons in the Book of Joshua but but finally there’s there’s peace there’s rest from war and two and a half of the of the 12 tribes had their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan but they uh were ordered to leave their families there but to come with your brothers to conquer the land and then you can go back so that’s what this is about they they’ve conquered the land and now Joshua says okay you guys have done your job you we’ve we’ve finish the job and go home to your families and bless them and um you know it’s it’s just a great there’s a it’s a great happy time that didn’t last long okay but but notice and I’m going to go through this quickly because of time but but it’s in it’s in your scriptures hey is there a light does anybody know if there’s a light back here because I I uh I have it memorized but you
know just in case I’m wrong there thank you David that’s great um I I want you to notice in verse four real quickly if you have it in front of you now that the Lord your God has given your brothers rest as he promised Return To Your Homes you know Unity thrives in Warfare and disunity seems to find its way into the times of comfort and rest any any of you find a friend in a
foxhole I mean that’s where friends are made in the foxholes of life when you’re in the battle when you’re in the struggle any of you have any best friends from the Cancer Ward you know from the waiting room in the doctor’s office it’s amazing how we can get along with people that we would otherwise not get along with how we can find a friend in our time of need uh you know look what happens to neighborhoods in hurricanes you know it’s probably the most neighborly time of the year right you know all of a sudden we need each other and we find each other and we’re not asking each other about political differences and religious differences you know we we tend to Unity tends to thrive in war you know but when things are come to to a time of peace and comfort now my friends it scares me a little bit for where our church is you know and because this is a sweet time for us and praise God let’s receive it now now the other side the last time I can remember our country feeling somewhat United was right after 911 maybe some of you can remember something since then but that’s about the last time I can remember where it felt like we were we had a chance at actually loving each other respecting each other listening to each other now now here’s here’s the thing for us to remember as Christians we’re always at War
we’re in a spiritual battle we’re in a spiritual warfare That Never Ends until Jesus comes back now that’s good news for Spiritual Unity if we remember we’re in a war whether you have cancer or whether you’re walking in great health whether you have a great job or whether you just lost your job we are in a spiritual war all the time Paul says but we have to remember who the enemy is is who is the enemy in Ephesians 6 for we wrestle not with flesh and blood with but with principalities and Powers There Are Spiritual dark spiritual forces demonic forces behind the arguments that break out in
churches the the friend that used to be your friend that now feels like your enemy that’s not the enemy oh there we’re in a war but that’s not the enemy the enemy is invisible the enemy is behind the conflict we need to remember that and my friends the thing that would would divide us can be the very thing that unites us if we remember we’re on the same team here we’re on the same side so Unity thrives in Warfare so the danger period is you know it’s the war’s over now for Israel go to your homes enjoy life and this is where this this I mean it is so sweet when Brothers dwell together in unity Psalm Psalm 133 says but it is so gut-wrenching when division happens you know you get that phone call you you get that difficult conversation with somebody that you thought you was was your friend or you find out they’re misbehaving or they’ve mistreated somebody and you know your whole you’re just your stomach does flipflops you’re just so sick at your stomach stom that you’re going to I don’t all that piece is blown up in a second like an atomic bomb it’s in your family it could be in your friend at church it can be your neighbor you know it’s horrible how did it happen how did this sweet peace and communion how did it blow up like this and it feels horrible okay now there’s some things we need to get out of this passage next thing I want you to see is there are some things that are worth fighting for the difference between peace and appeasement we have to know the difference getting along at all costs is not okay because there are some things that are worth fighting for now if these two and a half tribes had done what they other nine and a half tribes thought they did there would have to be a
war right there would have to be a war there are times when churches need to
split there are times when the gospel is forsaken the honor of the Lord
is rubbed in the dirt there are times when the Apostle Paul withdrew his disciples from the Jewish synagogue and started something new when they spoke evil of the way okay there are some things that are worth fighting for and uh you know our our some of our church friends have forgotten that and they feel like well that’s their truth they’re entitled to their truth and we have our truth but let’s just all get along in one big tent my friends there are some things that are worth fighting for okay and I’m not going to enumerate try to I mean that’s the problem we don’t agree on what those things are okay but but you know if Jesus is Lord if Father Son and Holy Spirit are one God if we are sinners if Jesus is our only way of of coming to the father through his atonement on the cross if Jesus really physically rose again from the dead those are things that that we we just might not be able to be in the same church with people who don’t believe those
things there are some things that are worth fighting for Matthew 10 Jesus said I’ve come not just to bring peace but to bring a sword father against son and mother Against Child and brother against brother and it’s a horrible reality so the question is how should we fight when when conflict comes how should we fight and I and I want you to look at how how these tribes went about about this now this was a terrible day there they had no doubt given their daughters to the sons of these tribes and vice versa you know they weren’t cleancut this tribe separate from the I mean they were all intermarried in in the nation of Israel they they loved each other they had good friends over in that tribe and and and this this was AI American Civil War would be the closest analogy we could come to a nation divided I mean it was a horrible Prospect but look at how they handled it verse 16 what’s the first thing they did well they they gathered an army they said we might we might have to go to war but then but then in verse 16 the whole assembly of the Lord says says to them they went to them and they asked them how could you break Faith with the god of Israel like this they they they they talked to them first now they suspected something really bad here they were terrified but before they went to war they said we need need to have a
conversation we need to find out what are they
thinking do you know how many times in our present culture we we have wars on the internet without any conversation everybody’s talking and nobody’s
listening instead of walking across the yard to talk to the neighbor we’d rather blast them on the Internet you know anonymously
they said look this looks bad but let’s go talk to them let’s make sure okay and so how do they treat it well they treat it with utmost seriousness this is not good they they prepared for war but said before we go to war we’re going to talk and we’re going to listen and they did listen and not only that but look at verse 19 this is really beautiful he said look is something wrong with your
land do you want to come back we’ll share our inheritance with you if you think you need your own Temple because you’re separated from us by the Jordan River then come on over here and we’ll take part of our inheritance and give it to you so that we can be one and so you don’t have to go into this idolatry I mean it was a sacrificial Overture not just you guys are bad and you better stop it no it was guys what’s going on here this is what it looks like are we missing something and and is there a way we can solve the problem at our own expense can we solve this problem okay and then I love this humble response by the by the people over on the east side of the Jordan what do you what who gives you the right to come in here and tell it no wasn’t that at all was it you see the humility on both sides the east side says guys are we missing something here they come with some curiosity I mean they’re pretty sure this is bad but they come to talk the people on the on the east side humbly receive it oh my goodness if we did what you think we’re doing yes swipe us out but that’s not what we were thinking and they can hear each other isn’t that beautiful they could hear each other it was the humble response it’s like no we agree with you we’re not offended that you came to us in fact thank you for caring enough about us to come to us thank you for caring and now this is the kicker this is how you know is Gospel Unity because when they found out that this this was not a sign of idolatry this was their attempt to make sure they never lost connection with the people of God so look at look at verse 30 when when they come when they come back what’s their response when Phineas the priest and the leaders of the community the heads of the clans of the Israelites heard what Ruben Gad and Manasseh had to say they were pleased and Phineas son of Eleazar the priest said to Ruben gadam Manassa today we know that the Lord is with us because you have not acted unfaithfully toward the Lord in this matter now you have rescued the Israelites from the Lord’s hand and then verse 33 they were glad to hear the report and praise God have you ever been in a conflict with somebody that you had the sense that if they actually knew that you didn’t do what they thought you did that that wouldn’t be make them
happy have you ever been in a fight like that with somebody thought you did something they accused you of something and if they found out that’s not what you did that would not be good news for
them because they were determined to be right that’s how we know this was gospel Unity because neither side was fighting to be right they were glad to find out they were on the same
team it usually doesn’t go that
way and families a terrible misunderstanding happens over an
inheritance you know and people just get completely on opposite sides of a thing and it doesn’t look good and you have a conversation and finally somebody says well that’s not what I meant at all well what’s the other person usually say well okay but it looks that way are you sure shouldn’t have communicated it that way there’s got to be some little rubbing it in right we can put this thing to bed as long as you’ll admit that you were wrong and I was right then we can move on that’s usually how it goes friends that’s almost always how it goes in church I can tell you in 50 years of doing church that’s almost always how it goes somebody has to be right and somebody has to be wrong and we can move on as long as you acknowledge that I was right and you were
wrong and God forbid if you argue with a pastor
I mean I mean I can just tell you David and I confess our sins to each other frequently and and the thing I love about him is it’s never about who’s right it’s about what’s
right and my friends I’m going to tell you that’s not real common in
church because we don’t understand and prize gospel Unity it’s the difference between gospel unity and religious
uniformity now when I say religious uniformity religion is us trying to be right for God the gospel is God being right for us if you’re driven by a need to be right so that God will be pleased with you then you’re going to have a hard time being at one with your neighbor because you’re going to be fighting for my right that I was
right once you’re fighting for your right there’s no hope of gospel Unity now most churches get completely sideways on this my friends our the history of Christianity is ugly the reformers watched their opposers burned at Stakes for things like infant
baptism look what happened in Ireland what the you know the who were the terrorists 50 years ago who were blowing up the car bombs 50 years ago was the Catholics and the Protestants in Ireland what wasn’t the Muslims and the Christians it was the Catholics and the Protestants blowing each other up in Ireland my friends this is so ugly and my friends we could be blowing each other up today politically in this
country now I happen to agree politically with almost all of you and I have enough conversations to know what you believe and you know what I believe
but there are a bunch of Christians out there that believe something different I mean real Christians real people who affirm all the Creeds of the church that we affirm believe in the deity of Christ believe that he’s our only hope for salvation believe that Christ is the only hope of the world and if you made a list of the 10 things that are most significant social issues in your mind and they made a list of their 10 there might not be any overlap at
all and it’s uncomfortable and it’s awkward but wouldn’t it be great if we could actually have open conversations with people that really disagree with
us and agree to love each other and to respectfully listen to each other it’s a lot to ask I know but but like wow what if we what if we could do that what if we had a church like Redeemer in New York City there are some really liberal people that you and I spit at every time we see them on TV who go to that
church they do and there are people all through my denomination who despise Tim Keller because he’s too conservative I mean he’s too liberal I mean the the conservatives think he’s too liberal and the Liberals think he’s too conservative but he was able to somehow by preaching the
gospel minister to all of them if you ever listen to Tim Keller preach I would say this was a secret he was an equal opportunity
offender whoever you were and whatever you believed by the end of the sermon it pinched you were more convicted about what it said to you than you were judging your neighbor and that’s what the gospel should do because we go not wanting to find out where we’re right we go because we want to find out where do I need Jesus to forgive me and that he’s my righteousness my friends it could be a beautiful thing now just in closing as we get ready to go to the Lord’s table there’s something that really sweet here the joy they had when they found out they didn’t have to go to war have you ever have you ever thought your one of your kids was in something really bad and you didn’t even want to have the conversation because you were you were so just sick in your stomach about what that would look like and and you finally had the conversation and they said oh no dad not at all or maybe it’s was on the other side in my case it’s usually the other way after the conversation I’m usually one that’s oh my goodness I was wrong and I couldn’t even see it but then the point is when you find out you don’t have to be at odds with somebody you love well that’s a little window into how God feels when he finds out that he doesn’t have to punish us because we just receed Jesus as our Lord and savior this is what happens in Zephaniah chapter 3 it’s a it’s God’s speaking over us and it says he says sing O Israel and be glad why because in I’m not going to look at it because we’re out of time in that passage because it says why does God tell us to sing he says because God is singing over you why is God singing over you because he doesn’t have to punish you not because he thought you were wrong and found out you weren’t but because he knew you were wrong but Jesus died for your sins
that’s why in Luke 15 it’s all about the joy in heaven the joy in heaven is over what finding good people that don’t need to be punished no it’s about finding us the joy is over one sinner who repents and comes to Jesus so my friends this joy that they felt that day this Joy of finding out okay we thought they were wrong they weren’t let’s have a party God feels that all the time when we repent he doesn’t have to punish his children not because we were weren’t wrong but because he punished his son Jesus in our place it’s a real it’s a real gospel Joy Based on what really um has transpired at the cross for us let’s pray together and then let’s worship at the Lord’s table God thank you for Jesus achiev Ching the unity that we could never hope to to um do on our own first of all a Unity between us and you because Jesus died for all our sins all our righteousness is given to us his righteousness is given to us so we don’t need to be right about anything because we are already right in your eyes because of Christ and Lord we just pray that that gospel Unity will continue to grow and permeate this Fellowship our church as we pray that many many lost people who who disagree with us on a lot of things will come here and find Jesus here and be our brothers and sisters and that we will be able to listen to them learn from them that they will listen to us and learn from us and together we can sit at your feet and grow and wanting to know what you think humbly repenting Lord thank you for for Jesus and thank you for the Lord’s table to remind us of all he did for us amen
At the recent Praise & Potluck @ the Park, Beachxsutawney Bill predicted 8 more weeks of construction. Which is right on schedule with our builder’s expectation of a Certificate of Occupancy around October 30.
In the meantime, progress is ramping up as many of the crews work to finish their specialty areas. The ‘Cover Up’ inspection (of everything above the ceiling) is complete, allowing the final sheet rock to be hung, the light package to be installed and the ceiling tiles to be placed. HVAC is running on the remodel side and the electricians are working with Beaches Energy to get full-power to the new construction side by mid-month (which will give the crews some much deserved AC). The AVL contractor is prepped for final install and life safety contractors are finishing the final requirements to satisfy the Fire Marshal. Flooring installation is underway, the painters are coloring the space and some doors are hung – all adding a new level of excitement to the project.
Outside, the existing walks merged with new walks to create a single (& obvious) entry to the building. Irrigation updates are planned and upgraded landscaping ‘wishes’ are hoped for. The necessary demo and prep for the revised parking areas are in process, making a mess that will soon clean up with new curbs, ramps, drainage and asphalt.
Our site supervisor Brian told us to be prepared to race from 20-80mph as the next few weeks bring so many plans to fruition – hold on tight, it’s been a long ride and is this last part will be more than worth it!
Get Our Building Expansion Updates Here
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 21
God is faithful and the fulfiller of all His promises. He promised to give his people a land for their own possession, rest from their afflictions, and victory over their enemies and in Joshua 21 those promises were fully realized. Joshua 21 is just a foreshadowing of the greater promises that God has made to all his people. Through Jesus Christ, God has given His people the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, Eternal rest for our souls, and the ultimate victory over sin, death and the devil. The God who was faithful in Joshua 21 continues to be faithful today and the fruit of His faithfulness in our lives is the fullness of Joy, the rootedness of grace, and the inspiration of hope that endures forever.
TranscriptWell for those uh who may be guests of ours today for the first time uh you’re you’re coming into uh really we’re getting close to the end which is hard to believe of the uh the the Book of Joshua we’ve gone on a very very long journey uh with them as they entered into the promised land uh to to conquer the land just a a bit of a a reminder because it’s probably easy to forget after all this time of why we began this uh and the reason we began this is because this this time of Joshua and of the Conquering of the promised land uh it just it wasn’t just about taking possession of land it was it was about what God was doing in the hearts of his people and who he was preparing them to be as occupiers of the land God was looking to to to mold for himself a people uh who would be a light to the Nations a people who would reflect him to the Nations around them and so he was teaching them lessons all along the line he he had promised to them that he was going to uh give them this land he had promised them that he was going to uh that he was going to uh all their enemies would be uh would be chased away before them he had made all those promises to them it was already a done deal but he wanted them to go through the process because he was using it to build their faith to transform them into the kind of people that he wanted them to be you know I think as Christians we we can often uh think of a life with Christ as being all about what does God want me to do and we can get a bit uh a bit obsessed with what God wants us to do what’s the next thing he wants us to do and then we worry did we do enough did we do the right thing should I have done something different and life can get awfully confusing uh disappointing even at times certainly dis disillusionment can overtake us cuz CU there’s not much confidence in that but but what the life with Christ is really about is is less about what we do and about who we are or in other words who he’s making us to be the people that he’s making us to be and that’s what he was doing with his people all throughout this journey and it’s my hope and prayer that that’s what he’s doing in us as he’s preparing us to go in and take possession of this new building that he so graciously has provided for us that’s coming before we know it because more importantly than what we do and we’re going to do stuff right we’re going to do stuff that’s what churches do they do stuff but more importantly than the stuff we do is who we are it’s who we are it’s the kind of hearts that that people are going to find when when they come into those doors are they going to find uh people who are uh who are full of pride are they going to find people that uh that aren’t very welcoming what kind of people are they going to find or are they going to find people who are filled with joy are they going to find a people who are who are rooted in grace are they going to find a people who are inspired by the hope of the Gospel that that’s been that God has given to us because that’s what’s going to transform our community that’s what’s going to transform uh our community for Christ that’s how people are going to know that we’re followers of Christ Jesus said it’s by the way that we have love uh for one another it’s the way that we witness to others who we are that’s going to make all the difference and so I I’m concerned in this in this process as we go through Joshua is who is the Lord molding us to be who is he molding you to be who is he molding me to be and today we come to a a in some ways a gracious end to the allotment um we have been slugging through the past uh the past few we well more than a few uh weeks looking at all the allotments as uh as the different tribes of Israel received their their inheritance and uh We’ve look we’ve talked about borders and we’ve talked about Refuge cities and we’ve gone through so much uh and today the the Levites were handed out you know what was what was theirs uh that was given to them we were already told that the Lord was the Levites uh inheritance these are the priests that God had set aside the tribe of uh of Levi that they would serve the Tabernacle and later they would serve the temple they would serve the Lord and and Lead services and the sacrifices uh but they still had families they still had lives that had to be uh that that they needed to be sustained in and so the Lord graciously out of what he had given to all the other tribes gave the the cities to the Levites so they could support themselves and their fam so they could dedicate their lives to uh the service of the Lord in his in his Temple uh but what I want to really focus on today is the very last part of this of this chapter verses 43 to the end thus the Lord G this is after all the allotments have been given this is after even the Levites have received what uh what God had promised to them this is what we’re told thus the lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers and they took possession of it and they settled there and the lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers not one of all their enemies had withstood them for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed all came to pass all came to pass I don’t know who said it I think I’ve read I’ve seen a bunch of different people said it so it’s just a I said it um it says you can give without loving but you cannot love without giving it’s it’s a powerful powerful thing if you think about it and in this this that little brief those last verses there the Lord has shown just how much he loves his people by what he gave by what he gave to them there’s there’s uh four well there’s three things that God gave were told specifically the first one he gave them the land for their possession in other words he gave them a home he gave them a place to belong he gave them a place that that was their own uh remember he called Abraham out of uh to leave his home and he made a people for himself and until now they have been wandering they’ve been Nomads they’ve been enslaved they haven’t had a home they’ve just been following in faith and God’s been been with them and directing them all along but now God had promised to their fathers that he would give them a home a pro the promised land and God has fulfilled it he’s given them a place to belong A Home of Their Own the second thing the lord gave we’re told is the lord gave them rest on every side he gave them rest on other side this word rest it means like a cessation from hostility he gave them rest from from their enemies that were all around them right they finally know rest they’ve know nothing but tribulation after tribulation since the time of slavery it’s been one thing after another another there has been no peace there has been no rest but now God has given them rest in the land on every side they finally know some peace in their lives the third thing the lord gave them he says the Lord gave their enemies into their hands in other words the Lord’s given them Victory he’s given them Victory he’s given them home he’s given them peace and he’s given them Victory and he did it all yes for his own Glory yes he did it because he wants them to to be a light to the Nations his witnesses to all those around that he is the one true God but he did it because he loves them because he loves them and he called them by Grace as he called Abraham to follow him and he’s proven it over and over and over again through their Disobedience he’s remained faithful yes he’s corrected them and at times he’s rebuked them uh at times he’s disciplined them but he’s always remained faithful to their promises until now we’re told here at the end of 21 not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed all came to pass so as I told you the Lord’s preparing them he’s building them up to be the kind of people he wants them to be and the kind of people he wants them to be is a people who trust him as the one who delivers on his promises the one that they can count on the one they can trust they’re the one they don’t have to doubt they can believe in him because he’s true to everything he said he’s proven it to them over and over again in this process of Conquering the land and so what does that have to do with us
you know the God God gives because he loves to love means to give God cannot not give God longs to give himself ultimately to us but just as God gave to the people of Israel the land for their own possession a home he gave them rest on every side his peace and he gave their enemies into their hands he gave them victory as we’ve talked about this is just a picture of the Gospel this is just a picture of what God was planning to do through his son Jesus Christ for us and so if we look at these the the correlation between what God gave think of it this way in the New Testament in the New Covenant that we have in Christ what have we been given we’ve been given the Kingdom of Heaven the Kingdom of Heaven Matthew 16 verse 19 Jesus said I will give you the keys to the kingdom how’s that for a promise not just not just a a home and and and with borders and in a small little area uh in the in the middle of it’s not nowhere but you know in in the middle of uh you know a small area there in the middle of the Middle East uh he goes I’m going to give you the keys to the kingdom I’m going to give you everything that’s what I promise you in my son Jesus Christ that you put your faith into him in him the kingdom is yours and Jesus told us the way to into that Kingdom and that is to repent and believe in him to turn from our sinful ways of our selfish ways and to turn towards him to trust in him alone for our Salvation to trust that Jesus Paid the full penalty alone alone for our sins and that we are made fully righteous in him alone not in our own works that’s how much God loves us he’s given us the keys to the kingdom through his son Jesus Christ the second thing in correlation to what he gave to his people in Joshua 21 uh he has given us a greater rest he gave them rest from their enemies he has given us must rest for our souls you know the passage well because we we read it almost every week in the course of our worship in Matthew 11: 28- 29 Jesus said come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls
now how is rest for our souls greater than than than rest from our enemies on every side because the rest of our soul for our souls means a rest from trying to earn our salvation and our place with God we cannot earn or work our way to righteousness it is a gift alone from a God who loves us and gave his own son that by faith we may be clothed in his righteousness the righteousness of the son the son who makes us hirs to the kingdom that’s the kind of rest that we’re given that’s an eternal rest that’s a rest that never ends that’s a rest that we never have to doubt we never have to fret we never have to worry because our Eternal rest has been guaranteed for us by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross which brings me to the final gift that correlates to Joshua 21 he gave them victory over their enemies he put their enemies into their hands friends he’s given us a better Victory a better Victory by far the Apostle Paul proclaimed it and uh in 1 Corinthians chap 15: 50 to 57 he says I tell you this Brothers flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit uh the per nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable behold I tell you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment and the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed for this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this Mortal body must put on immortality when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the Mortal puts on immortality then shall come to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in Victory oh death where is your Victory oh death where is your Sting the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to the God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ friends in Christ our enemies have been defeated they’ve been conquered once and for all sin has been conquered by Christ on the cross and The Sting of sin death has been conquered once and for all because Jesus rose from the grave and the evil one himself the strong man has been bound he has no power over us friends we have been given the ultimate Victory and we know even though sin continues to creep up and try to to pull us back we know it cannot win and we know where the final Victory lies yes L that when Jesus returns he will make all things new there will be no more mourning no more crying no more weeping no more pain no more sorrow but all things will be made new and we will know Joy Everlasting in him friends what is he trying to do with us what is God trying to do in us he’s trying to create and us a people who trust that he’s the one who fulfills his promises is that we can trust him that we can risk boldly with our lives and service for him because he’s got it we can’t outgive God can we it’s not even possible we can trust him with all that he has before us with our lives and when we when we begin to trust that he is the fulfiller of all promises and the true Giver of all good gifts friends that’s when the fruit in our own Hearts becomes true
Joy a rootedness of Grace in our
lives and a hope that inspires us to Contin continue to reach others with this good news that we have been given in Christ he’s the fulfiller of all promises how could we not want everyone else to
know friends this is the good news of Joshua 21 he’s the fulfiller of all promises in him in Christ through faith in him the keys to the kingdom are ours rest for our souls is eternal and his victory over death is once and for all Let Us Praise Him and give him thanks amen Heavenly Father you are good you are gracious and you are The Giver of all good things because you are love and love cannot do anything but give and you long to give us all good things Lord help us to fully receive and to embrace and own the promises that we have in our savior Christ that we have the keys to the kingdom they’re ours they’re in our possession that we do have rest that there is no doubt we are secure in you that Victory Is Ours that sin cannot over overcome us death cannot drag us down to the pit and Satan cannot rule Our Lives because Jesus you have bought and paid for us through your life on the cross will you fill us with joy will you fill us with Grace will you fill us with the hope that we have in you alone that we might be the kind of people that you want us to be that we might reach those who so desperate L need you with the love that you long to give to them Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 20
In Joshua 20, God people go about the work of establishing cities of refuge. These cities were commanded by God through Moses as places were people could run for safety and protection when they had done something wrong. The refuge cities were a picture of something greater that God had planned for us. God wants to be our refuge and warns us about the false places and people that we turn to in our lives for safety and protection.
TranscriptSo as we open up Joshua 20 before we get into the the word itself I have a question uh where do you run to when you’re afraid my b there you go where where do you run to when you’re in danger and where do you run to when you’ve done something wrong my
bed or when you’ve been unjustly accused of of of being something you’re not or doing something that you didn’t where do you run you know as a as a kid did you have a secret hiding place you know that place that where you could go where you could run maybe a closet maybe it was uh under a bed or if you were super lucky as a kid then you had a house that had you know the secret door where you could uh hide out nobody else knew about it and where you were or a secret passage away I had a cousins that had a house like that in Riverside uh This Old House that had all these like hidden passageways I’m guessing it was from the old like uh you know prohibition days or something something uh where things could be run in and hidden and stuff but I used to Envy them so much as they had these cool hidden passageways and hidden places where if they were scared they could go hide and they could be protected you know it’s a place where you can be find protection a place where you can find security a place where you can find some peace some Harmony and and maybe the justice that you’ve been so desperately needing uh there’s one word that describes such a place and that word is a refuge it’s a refuge a refuge is is a sanctuary a shelter it’s it’s a retreat it’s a it’s a safe haven an asylum a place that offers protection from danger a place that offers shelter from uh from storms a place that offers St safety when we’re we’re facing harm in our lives you know say ERS know all about refuges if you’re a uh if you’re a sailor shelters uh where you can pull into a bay or an inlet or on Harbor somewhere to to take shelter from the wind and the waves that are crashing I was talking with our with the staff about this passage a few weeks ago uh and and I was asking you know where are the places that that you run to uh for safety and for protection what are those refuges refuges in your life that you that you naturally go to and I and I just I knew that uh I knew that Chris had been a pilot and he probably spent some time on an aircraft carrier and so I said Chris where you know when you were on aircraft carriers where did you uh you know where did y’all find uh that kind of Safe Haven where did you find a refuge from from the storm and he said well you know what he goes aircraft carriers are so big that you rarely ever feel any effects of the wind or or the waves but he said every every once in a while every once in a while you’d be walking down the main Corridor and then things would move a little bit and he said then you knew that something bad was was going on outside with the with the weather uh so sometimes even these massive aircraft carriers aren’t enough they aren’t even those aren’t enough of of a refuge but where do you run for refuge in your life when you’re afraid when there’s danger looming all around you when you when you need Justice and deliverance in your life where do you naturally run to we all run to something and we all run to someone maybe it’s a spouse maybe it’s it’s a friend maybe it’s a parent who kind of have served as that that role in your life that you just naturally run to for Refuge they’ve been your rock they’ve been your shelter or or maybe it’s a place maybe you go to the movies or get lost in your phone playing a game or or just scrolling through social social media right or going on a vacation you know maybe it’s just a sense of
distraction maybe that’s become a refuge for you I know for me if I’m honest that idea of distraction uh or entertainment is definitely the place I run to and when I’m stressed when things are getting too much I just want to forget everything and get lost in something else and be distracted by it but there’s all kinds of people and places that that we run to for Refuge but there’s only one place where we can actually find it the Psalms are full of of of this imagery of of The Refuge in Psalm 2 verse 12 it says blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord Psalm 5:11 all who take refuge in the Lord rejoice in Psalm 28:8 the Lord is the strength of his people he is the saving refuge for his anointed in Psalm 34:22 the Lord redeems the life of his servants none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned and P Psalm 37:40 the Lord helps and delivers he delivers from the wicked and saves because they take refuge in him I could go on and on and on just from The Book of
Psalms the scriptures make it clear that only the Lord is the kind of Refuge where we can actually find the strength and the protection and the Salvation the Deliverance the freedom from condemnation approval deliver an joy and the blessing that our hearts are absolutely longing
for and in Isaiah 57:13 the Lord gives us a warning about all the false Idols of Refuge that we create for ourselves he says when you cry out let you let your collection of Idols deliver you the wind will carry them all off a mere breath will take them away all the places and the people we run to in our lives for Refuge they can’t give us the Refuge that we’re longing for that our hearts are craving they can’t protect us they can’t shelter us they cannot deliver us but God also in that same passage of Isaiah 57:13 God also issues an incredibly gracious invitation ation to all of us he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my Holy Mountain what a beautiful promise that when we do seek Him for Refuge when we take refuge in him that the promise of the land that the inheritance of Eternity of the Holy Mountain is ours in him that’s the promise of god of what he has to offer us under the shelter of his wings under his Refuge this evening and every day the Lord is inviting us to run to him for refuge and promises that when we do that we will possess the land and that his inheritance will be ours so the question is why do we run to other people and other things and places for our refuge when all this has been promised to us why do we run to all these other people and places and things the answer is it’s either we don’t believe or trust that God really can do it or we fear that the demand on our lives is going to be too high of a price to pay to actually seek his protection we struggle to to grasp what CS Lewis said that God doesn’t want something from us he simply wants
us so what does Joshua 20 have anything to do with this uh with the fact that God wants us and his inviting us and longing for us to run to him for Refuge well as I’ve said all of the Old Testament throughout this throughout this series on Joshua if you’re just stepping in now we’ve been walking through Joshua for quite a while now uh in fact more than 20 weeks um and uh all of what I’ve said over and over again is all of the Old Testament uh is about Jesus it’s about him and even in this rather strange and somewhat uh obscure and seemingly uh unrelatable at all issue of the Cities of Refuge even this is pointing us to the only place where we can truly find the ref Refuge that our hearts are longing for Joshua 20 is pointing us
there so let’s take a look at Joshua 20 for a few minutes together you can you can pull it out uh from your bulletin or open up your bibles if you like to Joshua 20 uh and where we’ve come so far is we the lots have been handed out uh The Inheritance have been handed out to all the tribes of Israel that issue has been settled now that the land has been uh has been mostly conquered uh there remains some things to do though there remain some things to do that God had commanded them to do way back in in the law uh in Exodus 21: 12-13 uh this is what God Said who whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death but if he did not lie and wait for him but God let him fall into his hand then I will appoint for you a place to which you may flee a place to where you may flee see the issue uh at hand that that God reveals in Exodus uh 21 is this issue of uh these instances of unintentional killings and God was concerned about those who accidentally or unintentionally killed someone that they would have a place to be able to flee and then in numbers 35:6 uh it gives further instruction about these Cities of Refuge it says the cities that you give to the Levites shall be six Cities of Refuge where you shall permit the manslayer to flee so these places are places where the unintentional killer could run and they’re called Refuge City cities Refuge cities numbers 35 goes on to give us even more explanation of this to describe them the sh the cities shall be for you a refuge from the Avenger that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment you know this is really what what Joshua 20 is just re uh reiterating what God has already said in these passages from numbers and from Exodus uh see this law this law is it’s pretty interesting it’s a little bit crazy um and you know but but but it’s pretty pretty amazing um but you got to pay attention to how this whole thing plays out first of all unintentional killing it must have been pretty common I guess uh to unintentionally kill someone this must have happened enough in order that God felt the need to make provision for it I mean can you imagine like unintentional killings just happening everywhere I don’t know I maybe in an agricultural Society it’s a little more common you know you’re swinging the sickle uh or you’re you’re you’re you’re throwing the hoe or the axe and oops you know I got somebody on the on the follow through uh you know this must have been big
enough that God needed to make a provision for it but when it did happen uh these victim the victim’s family or Clan became known as The Avengers of blood they are the Avenger of blood that’s mentioned here in Joshua 20 meaning that they sought Justice they were Seeking Justice making uh mainly the kind of Justice an eye for an eye right uh there needed to be retribution paid for my loved one or my clan member uh who was killed uh and and primarily through the death of the one who killed him that was what was sought that’s what the Avenger of blood is primarily looking for and the law of God uh though makes a distinction between the intentional killer and the unintentional killer and maybe I’m not I forgot to be a lawyer but maybe it’s akin to something like murder versus uh uh in it what is it uh involuntary manslaughter you know maybe it’s something akin to the the distinction between those two the intentional killer uh God’s law makes it very clear that the intentional killer is liable to the death penalty uh either by Society or by the Avenger of blood himself uh that that that they were liable for it the unintentional killer not was not liable to the death penalty but the Avenger of blood must seek compensation for the loss incurred by the death of someone from his family it’s a lot I had to I had to research a lot this week by the way believe it it or not this wasn’t like on the front of my mind when I was reading uh reading this about Refuge cities The Refuge cities that are set up in Joshua 10 20 therefore they provide a place where the unintentional killer could run and they could find protection and preent and thus prevent the shedding of innocent blood which was a grave concern because it would pollute the land of God so this was very important these Refuge cities existed uh but here’s how it practically worked right I know you’re riveted right now uh and how it practically worked is even more interesting uh so after The Accidental killing you know the oops uh happens uh then the uh the persued unintentional killer would run to the City of Refuge uh that’s what you did you drop the axe you run uh you run to the city the city of refuge and you stand at the entrance gate you stand at the entrance gate of of The Refuge City and upon uh and at that time the Elders of the city are called out uh and they they come out and they hear you as you state your case for what happened this unintentional killing that you at least claim right uh upon hearing the case the elders are then required by God’s law uh to admit the killer into the city uh and it was the city’s duty to guarantee the Killer’s safety until the time of trial which would happen in his home Village or I would guess in the place where the incident happened uh you’d go before your own the own the clan that was uh that was affected but even if acquitted in trial of of uh of intentionally killing the threat of the Avenger of blood it still remained that’s hard right therefore the killer must live in the City of Refuge even after being found innocent of intentionally killing and the City of Refuge must guarantee that this acquitted uh intentional Killers protection and safety were upheld if the person wandered away from the City of Refuge at any time then he may be killed by the Avenger of blood this is all in the law of God detailed it’s pretty wild isn’t it uh but if you’re not already glued to your seat with anticipation of what might happen next uh it gets even uh more interesting cuz according to Exodus 35:25 the acquitted intentional
killer but he’s a killer nonetheless can remain in the City of Refuge protected safe but he has to stay in the city until until the death of the levitical high priest until the death of the levitical high priest the death by the way I think that’s numbers 35 by the way not not not Exodus the death of the high priest symbolically therefore uh it uh terminated the guilt that was incur incurred by the Killer’s act the Avenger of of blood would accept the high priest’s death as a substitute for the death of the killer full atonement having been fulfilled and made no further action or debt required of that unintentional
killer so what a merciful act for God to make a provision to protect and save and give Justice to the unintentional
killer but as you I hope we asking yourself what does this have to do with us how does this impact my life uh in any way well my friends quite frankly it has everything to do with us everything in the old Covenant God in his Mercy provided these Cities of Refuge in his Mercy to protect to deliver to ensure Justice for that unintentional killer but in the New Covenant of Grace through our Savior Jesus Christ God has offered us an even better place of Refuge he’s offered himself as our perfect Refuge the place where we can run when we’re afraid the sanctuary that we can seek shelter in when we’re in danger the courtroom where we can receive Justice the justice that we so desperately need but God’s not just a ref refuge for the unintentional Killers he’s a refuge in the New Covenant for the guilty alike you see Jesus in Matthew 5 when he gave us the the right interpretation of the law said this you have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable the Judgment whoever insults his brother will be liable to counsel and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire Jesus Took the external interpretation of the law and he internalized it it’s not just about what you do and what you don’t do it’s about what’s coming out of here in Matthew 15: 19 Jesus said for out of the heart comes evil Vil thoughts murder adultery sexual immorality theft false witness slander and these are what makes a person unclean in other words what Jesus was saying is that we’re all guilty we’re all guilty we all are murderers we all are adulterers we all are sexually immoral we all are thieves we all are Slanders of others and we all bear false witness and I know you might be saying I haven’t done any of those things well yeah well if you can at least say you didn’t do them you did do them in here all of us have all of us if not outright then certainly in our own Hearts we desperately need a place of
Refuge all of us need a place of Refuge a place where we can find protection a place where we can find Deliverance a place where we can find find
Justice Joshua 20 is a picture of a greater promise of God that was to come Hebrews 2 ver1 17 therefore Jesus had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people that word prop prop propitiation sorry that’s a hard word to say uh propitiation it means to satisfy the wrath of God on sin the high priest death in the old covenant made atonement for the guilt of the unintentional killer in that Refuge City Jesus Christ Our great and perfect high priest through his willing death on the cross has made the full atonement for all of our sins God has accepted Jesus as our substitute so that when we receive him by faith trusting in his finished work on the cross for us we’re forgiven and we’re set [Music] free not by what we’ve done but by what Jesus has already done for us this is what it means to find refuge in in God this is what God is inviting us to run to him and to find our refuge in him to find in him protection Deliverance Justice not in our works but in Jesus’s work on our behalf in Jesus we have a refuge that is sure a refuge that is strong an acre that cannot be broken a hope that is forever secure as Hebrews 6 tells us
that we who have fled to Jesus for our refuge have the strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope that is set before us we have this as a sure steadfast anchor of the Soul a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf having become a high priest Forever After the order of MDC friends Jesus is inviting us to run to him to run to him and find our refuge in him alone not because he can do it but because he already has through his son Jesus
Christ run to him as your Refuge because he doesn’t want something from you he simply wants you whereas cus Lewis also said it’s not so much of our time and so much of our attention that God demands it’s not even all of our time and all of our attention it is
ourselves God wants to be your Refuge run to him and in him find the protection and the deliverance and the justice that your heart so desperately desires amen am [Music]
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor Chuck Holiday
Scripture: Joshua 19:49-51
Joshua is a godly example of a faithful leader and an OT picture of Jesus. Joshua drew his strength and spiritual vitality from being in the presence of God.
TranscriptGreat to see y’all again tonight and um I don’t know if it’s good news or bad news but we’re finally at the end of this distribution of the land in Joshua and uh actually this is um I I did my best to convince David to combine the last two chapters because they seemed almost identical you know but actually um I I told my wife the other day I said you know my biggest problem is I I got three sermons and I can only preach one there’s actually a ton of stuff here that is really cool that I never saw before but I want to I want to focus on just these last verses this is um such a beautiful picture of Joshua you know uh we don’t have a lot of biographical information about Joshua but um you know he was a really good dude he he was one of the faithful ones there’s so many of the leaders of Israel that just ended poorly you know they some of them had good starts and and just fell apart at the end you know and Joshua he started out as a as a young man as a servant of Moses he was a he he uh he was a nobody who just was a servant of of Moses and he served him well and and U lo and behold God anointed him to take over for Moses when Moses um was finished and and you know he just uh um he was faithful with Caleb when they went in to spy out the land when he was 40 and uh and then when Moses passed and he took over leadership I mean he just did all the hard things and he did them without complaining and he did them with courage and overwhelming odds against him and he just was a faithful leader he was he started out as a just a servant he became the general of the army and then uh became the Statesman the political leader of the of the nation and now we see how it how it finally the land is subdued I mean there’s lots of enemies lurking in the woods there and so forth and lots of cleanup operations to to be done but the land has been subdued and it’s time for Joshua to take his inheritance and um I just want you to there’s so much we can learn here you know Joshua you know we mentioned this before in our preaching but Joshua is the Old Testament Jesus I mean the the word is essentially identical Joshua Yeshua Joshua and the Old Testament Jesus in the New Testament and uh he’s a beautiful picture in so many ways of of Jesus Christ not he’s not Jesus Christ and um we we’re we have to remember that as great as a man may be he can never there’s only one man that can save us and that is the real Jesus but Jos Joshua is a is a picture of the real Jesus he was a noble leader he was faithful to his mission um he came to the the verse we read in Mark 10 he came to serve and not to be served I mean Joshua was a humble servant he served Moses uh and then as as as he took over the leadership of the nation we we see nothing uh in him that was about getting rich becoming famous uh he didn’t and all this comes together beautifully in The Inheritance you know Caleb and Joshua were both promised a special inheritance because they were the two faithful spies remember several weeks ago we saw how Caleb Caleb was the first to get his inheritance and Joshua was the last Joshua refused to take his until all the other tribes had been settled all the other questions had been settled you know he wasn’t about to get his his own personal um uh agenda in the way of taking care of the tribes it’s just really a beautiful example of servant leadership of putting the nation ahead of himself and um you know he he was the last to receive his inheritance and and and he actually even at the end doesn’t demand anything it says the Israelites came and said okay Joshua now let’s take care of you it’s a it’s a beautiful picture um in in the land he the the city he got Tim neth sah we I mean you can read a lot of commentaries on this and people have different ideas about exactly where it was we seem to kind of have a general idea but there’s really nothing um special about this place he got it’s it’s so not special that we really don’t know for sure exactly why this is the the Landy got or some say it was uh you you know it wasn’t the pick of the litter it was the opposite it was sort of like the leftover that nobody wanted but I I don’t think we can really know that for sure the point is it wasn’t special because we really never hear of it except for Joshua settled there and was buried there um it was rather obscure it was just a just a part of the land and um you know I think what really jumps out out Us in this section is what it doesn’t say about Joshua it doesn’t say now that he had the whole land in his hand and now that he had all the power he decided that he would be king and that he would build himself a palace it doesn’t say that does it and that he would make sure that his offspring were well taken care of for generations to come doesn’t say that he didn’t seem to use any of this position that he had even though he had been faithful even though no one would have probably um resisted him if he had suggested hey how about we anoint my son to be next there was none of that there was nothing of personal ambition in this it it was truly a a beautiful picture of of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who came not for what he could get out of the deal but for what he could give he came to serve he came to lay his life down that we might have life but my friends um Joshua was not Jesus a great man cannot save
us great leaders are not our Salvation we we want them we pray for them Lord knows as a nation we need them in many ways but our our human leaders our human Heroes will never Be Our Saviors they can never be Jesus for us for for a couple reasons one is even though we don’t know much about Joshua’s sin he was a sinner uh you know it’s there are there are a number of Heroes in the Bible that that God doesn’t tell us a lot about uh the the the hard parts and the nasty parts of their lives we think of Daniel and Nehemiah and Esther there are a number of other uh ones like Joshua that we just kind of get the good parts but but God goes to Great length in the in the big heroes you know the people like uh Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and and King David himself God goes to Great Lengths to let us know that these people were really messed up well into their well into their walk with God and in fact they never stop sinning and if you come to the New Testament you know look at the look what we what do we know about the disciples some of them look like pretty good guys because we don’t know much but look at look at the Apostle Peter what a mess up betrayed his Lord we see the Apostle Paul who you know the First Church Plant was really a church split wasn’t it Paul couldn’t get along with with his best friend so they had to have two missionary trips uh at the end of Paul’s life he the last book he wrote he said of all the Sinners I know I’m the worst one and he wasn’t he wasn’t being factious he really believed that about himself God goes to Great Lengths to let us know that no man can save us they can’t even save themselves let alone save somebody else but my friends they point us to Jesus who can save
us Joshua there there’s a better Joshua it’s the New Testament Joshua it’s Jesus Christ who who left heaven to lead his people and then to die for his people and died and rose again to and one day he will lead us eternally and my friends it’s a beautiful it’s a beautiful story it’s a beautiful picture but what I want to spend most of our time about this this evening is I want to ask you the question where did Joshua get his strength to to be faithful to his mission to lead with Integrity to finish
well where did he where did he draw his
strength there’s there’s a there’s a more than a hint there’s a I think there’s a there’s an indication here that I want you to to look a little more in depth with me about and it’s in verse 51 these are the territories that Eleazar the priest Joshua the son of nun and the heads of the tribal clans of Israel assigned by L at Shiloh now now this is a key phrase in the presence of the Lord uh the English Standard Version says before the
Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting that was the tabernacle before the Lord the the uh the ancient Latin translation of this verse is is uh the word Quorum have you heard the phrase Quorum Deo before the face of the Lord in the presence of the Lord Quorum Deo is a theological term some Churches have even named themselves Quorum Deo it means that everything we do we do in the presence of God we do before God we do openly before God God the Creator God the one who who who sees all and knows all before God who who loves us everything we do in private in public at work at home in church we do it all before God well that’s the phrase literally this the phrase the Latin translation of this would be Corum Corum Deo or but now it’s Lord Yahweh instead of God but it’s what does it mean for us to live Quorum Deo before God because Joshua understood that Joshua knew what that meant I read you a quote from Tim Keller he said the secret to freedom from enslaving patterns of sin is worship did you hear that the secret to freedom from enslaving patterns of sin is worship you need worship worship you need great worship you need weeping worship you need glorious worship you need to sense God’s greatness and to be moved by it moved to tears and moved to laughter moved by who God is and what he has done for you and this needs to be happening all the
time Joshua understood what it meant to be in the presence of God in a way that it it it was enveloping him it was a worship experience a Transcendent experience but an imminent experience before the holy God of the universe the Creator the sustainer the infinite Sovereign god of the universe but then to hear that God call his name and to come to him personally now now he had history with this when Moses was on the mountain back in Exodus chapter chapter 24 Moses took the elders and naab and and bayu and with him but then at a certain point Moses went further up and he only took Joshua and that’s where God met Moses on the mountain Joshua there observing there to take care of Moses if any you know if he didn’t make it out and that’s where God met Moses face to face later on when they set up the tent of meeting this was the precursor to the Tabernacle before they had built the Tabernacle they had what they called the tent of meeting inuh Exodus 33 God told him to build this tent outside the camp and God said now Moses that’s where I’m going to meet you that’s where I’m going to meet with you face to face in that tent and and when Moses would come out of the tent his face would be glowing with so brilliantly that he’d have to cover his face well in in Exodus 33 when God would meet with Moses in the tent of meeting it says Joshua was there with Moses at the tent of meeting when God would meet him see Joshua was wasn’t the primary conduit here but he was right there next to next to Moses was when this is going on he was being cultivated to understand what it meant to to to lead from being in the presence of Yahweh Korum Deo leading before
God it’s more than just as God is my witness it’s it’s God is face to face with me not only does he see all that I do but there’s something about that encounter that empowers Moses to lead empowers Joshua to lead there’s a source of strength in it there’s a Vitality in it there’s spiritual life in it so when when we get to chapter 19 verse 51 it’s not just a little incidental thing that that when J now think about the challenge of dividing up the
land I mean Joshua had a family that he cared about Joshua had kids and grandkids that he wanted to take care of Jos Joshua had his favorite part of the land that he probably would have cherished but he surrendered all that he waited till everybody was settled till everybody had theirs and then he trusts the Israelites to do what’s right by him see now where did he get the strength to do that to serve that way and that kind of humility I mean he was a great man and should have been greatly honored but he was willing to lay all that aside how did he get the strength to lead that way and to stay humble and to stay focused on the needs of others when when everything in him probably at least in his flesh would say okay now it’s my time now it’s my time and it’s time for my family cuz I’ve asked them to sacrifice a lot but he doesn’t go there does he and I think it’s because he knew what it was to be in the presence of God he had tasted something so sweet and so rich and so deep that he was fortified Against The Temptations of the enemy you know we see this in the life of Jesus don’t we remember in John 4 when uh Jesus left the he stayed at the well and and when when he sent his disciples into uh town to get some food and he stayed there and met the woman at the well remember the Samaritan woman and of course she had a wonderful experience that changed her life you know in the conversation they had but the disciples got back and said Jesus aren’t you tired I mean you you stayed here because you were too tired to go into town with us and and we we you want a little time to yourself and we come back and here you are talking to somebody else you know always giving yourself away and you remember what Jesus said he said I have food to eat that you don’t know
about he said I I I have food to eat that you don’t know about I have there’s a source of sustenance for my soul that you don’t understand yet guys my father and doing his will is what sustains me that’s why I live that’s what moves me and actually I was tired but I’m not tired now because this woman just found God and she’s right now back there telling all her friends and Neighbors about about me that that’s what sustains me that’s what moves me my friends Joshua knew something about that now he was he was doing this before God in the presence of God under the Gaze of God and where was it it was at the tent of meeting it was in the Tabernacle now there’s a lot that could be said about the Tabernacle but basically it’s God’s picture of uh heaven on Earth it’s it’s a it’s a it’s very figurative um the symbolism is you know just very explicit Hebrews goes into great detail about a lot of what the symbolism means but it’s this is where God meets man and and there’s significant things about the Tabernacle but you know to sum it up I mean there’s two big things about the Tabernacle it shows us how Transcendent he is that he’s the holy Sovereign God who’s the lord of the universe he’s high and lifted up he’s magnificent he’s he deserves to be worshiped because he’s greater than us and he’s higher than us and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and his ways are above our ways but it’s it’s also the imminence this is where God comes down and is with us this is where we meet God as a person meets a person this is where he forgives us all our sins so at the Tabernacle we’re reminded that he’s holy he’s above us we couldn’t possibly be in his presence without being consumed with his wrath but then there’s the mercy seat where the blood of the goats and the Bulls is is made for the atonement of the sins of the the people prefiguring Jesus going to the cross for us so it’s both it reminds us that we could never get to God but it reminds us that he came to us he met me there so if you were to be in the Tabernacle there are two things that would would absolutely happen to you if you were awake and alert and aware number one is you would feel So Unworthy so unqualified to be here but then when he spoke your name and he said you’re forgiven you your heart would explode with gratitude and joy it would be like really I’m still alive that’s is this is not only where you hear the the thunderous um voice of the law of God condemning you but this is now where you hear the Absolution of sin you are forgiven you are righteous you are mine this is where you see the and feel the smile SM of God and the warmth of his love it’s true
Joy it’s it’s so much bigger than happiness you know you can be happy when you see a a beautiful sunrise or the the full moon coming up over the ocean you know you can feel happy but but the the gospel joy that comes from knowing I was lost that I’ve been found I deserve nothing and I’ve been given everything the great God of the universe who created the planets Knows My Name that that brings a gospel Joy a deep meaning and purpose and a settl to your life that frankly friends can sustain you through
cancer losing very very important relationships through death or betrayal it can sustain you through uh loss of a job it can sustain you through poverty it can keep you level when you’re wealthy it can it can keep you in love with with the creator of the universe in a way that orients the other loves in your life and there’s nothing else that can do it it’s worship it’s worship
and it’s a beautiful thing brother Lawrence who who was a 17th century monk we really don’t know a lot about him except he wrote this book that you know is well remembered it’s called the practice of the presence of God and uh let let me read you one of the things he says in there he said I regard myself as the most wretched of all men stinking and covered with sores and as one who has committed all sorts of crimes against his King overcome by remorse I confess all my wickedness to him ask his pardon and abandon myself entirely to him to do with as he will but this King filled with goodness and mercy far from chastising me lovingly Embraces me makes me eat at his table serves me with his own hands gives me the keys of his treasures and treats me as his favorite
he talks with me and is delighted with me in a thousand and one ways he forgives me and relieves me of my principal bad habits without talking about them I beg him to make me more according to his heart and always the more weak and Despicable I see myself to be the more beloved I am of
God my friends that’s what happens when you’re in the presence of God I don’t mean when you’re in church I mean when you’re in the presence of God now hopefully that’s what happens in church most of the time for us but as Keller said this kind of worship needs to happen all the time not just once a week on Sundays it h we pray that it’ll happen Sundays when we come together like it did for Joshua at the tent of meeting but it also has to happen privately for us it’s really unlikely that you’re going to experience this kind of presence of God in church if you haven’t cultivated this practice on your own through the week it’s really rare that our public confession of sin you know that we that we recite every Sunday will will be deeply gripping to your soul if you haven’t come in already aware of fresh ways that you’ve broken the heart of God or hurt your neighbor or offended your children but if you come in with a fresh sense of oh my goodness I can’t believe I did
that and then you hear David pronounced God’s forgiveness over you it can be deeply moving right my friends it’s it’s a personal thing and it’s a and it’s a relational thing and it’s so real but it’s often taken so lightly
and frankly most of us lack I I’ll say for sure I do and I think probably you can say if you’re honest say yeah I wish I had more too you lack power to live the way you want to live lack power to forgive the way you want to forgive lack the joy you wish you had most of the
time my friends this is The Source this is The Well of Love This Is The Well of power and Mission and forgiveness it’s worship it’s being in the presence of
God Jonathan Edwards you know is another one who you Jonathan Edwards was an interesting guy he’s he’s one of the smartest Americans probably who ever lived he he was a philosopher a theologian and uh you know the first president of Princeton I believe um but he in his sermons he would read a manuscript for two hours one of them you all read in ninth grade probably sinners in the hands of an Angry God remember that one it’s a shame that you know he he preached like I think eight sermons like that in his life out of thousands and and of course that’s the one that everybody wants to know him by it’s actually a pretty good sermon uh and all of it true but most of what he preached about was the love of God most all his sermons were just about the immeasurable love of God and how it was beyond comprehension but you know he this this uh
scholarly preacher would get alone with God sometimes for hours he would just ride his horse out into the woods to be alone with God and listen to his his uh explanation of what happened one of those times he says once I rode out into the woods for my health in 1737 having gotten off my horse in a retired place as my manner commonly has been to walk in Divine contemplation and prayer I had a view that was extraordinary to me I saw the glory of the Son of God as mediator between God and man and his wonderful great full pure and sweet Grace and love and meek and gentle condescension this grace that appeared so calm and sweet appeared also great above the heavens the person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent and an excellent an Excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception which continued as near as I can judge about an hour this kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud I felt an ardy of soul to be what I know not otherwise how to explain then emptied and annihilated I wanted to lie in the dust and to be full of Christ Alone to to love him with a holy and pure love to trust in him to live upon him to serve and follow him and to be perfectly Sanctified and made pure with a Divine and Heavenly Purity my friends Joshua understood something about that that was that was the secret that’s what sustained him that’s what kept Him faithful that’s how he got up when he was discouraged and we didn’t want to lead anymore this was the source of strength my friends this is the source of all true godliness of every saint who has ever lived this is not I’m trying to be good so God will bless me that’s not what this is this is not I’m going to I’m going to be a better Christian so God will forgive me that’s not what this is this is a man who knows he deserves nothing and has been given everything he knows that God loves him not because he’s good but because God is good he knows that he’s righteous in God’s eyes because he has Christ
righteousness and it moves our hearts it changes us it it actually can free a man from his addiction it can Empower a woman to love somebody that she’s held a grudge against for whole life it can restore relationships between parents and
children and my friends it can win a lost
world when unbelievers come into a place of worship where the the the Christians are humbled and Yet full of
joy knowing they’re the the the least deserving of any of his favor and yet knowing they possess all his blessings it’s powerful it’s convicting it’s it’s the source and the secret of any true evangelism not pretending that everything works out great when you become a Christian and God’s going to bless you now with a new job and he’s going to heal all your your diseases that’s not what does it it’s Christians who have found the secret to worship
do you know worship is a personal thing my friends let me ask you has it become a personal thing for you it’s hard sometimes when you’ve grown up in church and you’ve been in church your whole life and you believe all the things we say every Sunday but has it ever become personal for you have you ever heard God speak your
name have you ever when David says the words you are forgiven have you ever heard that is God’s specific personal word to you about your sin and you know it was God speaking to you worship always it’s corporate but it’s personal and if it hasn’t become personal for you my friends then it probably isn’t real it’s probably some fake thing that you don’t know is fake George Whitfield and John Wesley preached to Ang all over England and all over America and they fell on their faces and got saved by the thousands because everything that they believed to be true objectively had never become true for them personally they knew Jesus died for the sins of the world but they never knew he died for me he knew my name when he went to the Cross he died for my sins so my friends don’t take it for
granted because real worship will move you I talked to somebody recently who’s you know when when he first when somebody first told him that if he kept sinning God was going to keep loving him anyway he said it was like somebody opened a door to sin in my life I just went crazy I just went
crazy now can that happen well actually it can if you don’t really know God but if the real God comes to you and it’s personal and he loves you in your sin it will change you and you and first John doesn’t say when when God meets you you shouldn’t sin anymore he says you
can’t now when we forget it we can but when we remember who he is we can’t we can’t sin it’s Unthinkable at that moment because all we want is to please the one who loves us we don’t want to do anything to lose that love there’s nothing there’s no other love in in life that that you are willing to trade for the love of God for you when it becomes personal and real and imminent he’s here and I’m his so my friends what will it look like for us as a church to grow into a this kind of worship experience we experience it sometimes I I I trust most of us do I’m not going to lie to you and say I experience this every day in my quiet time I don’t I’d be lying but I miss it when I don’t I long for it when I don’t you know I’m like you I don’t carve out enough time I’m too distracted I a million reasons sometimes I open my bible and it feels cold you know and just just like words on the page but my friends we need to press through that because there’s no other there’s no other answer there’s no other thing that’s that’s worth pursuing the way the worship of God is it’s this living all of life in his presence before the face of God and it always starts with worship private and corporate and when Joy breaks breaks out you find yourself able to do hard things that you never thought you could do you find that God begins to change things in you that you thought you would never
conquer and God will make us a light to the Nations because what we have will be real and they will know it’s not pretend so may God help us as we long together for for what Joshua found in the at the Tabernacle at the at the entrance to the tent of meeting to live in the presence of the Lord amen amen
Crews continue to (sheet) Rock & Roll (scaffolding) to bring the new the new construction side of the building to life! The four electrical panels are in place and seem to tie-off miles of wires to power mechanics, lights, plugs, AV, and data. The sanctuary beam & raised ceiling is placed and provides a first glimpse of how the ceiling, millwork and stained glass will coordinate to beautify the sanctuary. The elevator crew has been diligent to ensure we have easy passage from downstairs to upstairs offices and ministry space.
On the remodel side, some paint and cabinetry are installed, highlighting the new youth and kid’s ministry spaces and additional storage in the kitchen. The opening and framed wall pockets are in place to install the cascading pocket doors which will allow passage between the fellowship hall and sanctuary and allow overflow worship space when needed.
Outside, the exterior stucco, paint and front entry doors showcase this project. With the civil engineering (parking, walks & drainage), irrigation and landscape plans mostly finalized, crews will soon begin work outside to create a welcoming entry and preserve ‘back-door’ fellowship space.
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 18:1-10
In Joshua 18, God’s people were reluctant to claim the inheritance that had been given to them by God. Despite the riches of His blessing they had become quite content with their lives the way they were. Like God’s people in Joshua 18, we also fail to claim the fullness of our inheritance in Christ. We grow content with our lives the way they are. When the surpassing riches of our inheritance in Christ are just waiting to be claimed. Jesus is calling us to a new life of freedom as the heirs of His glorious Kingdom, and all we have to do is claim what has been given to us by God’s grace.
TranscriptCan you imagine not accepting an inheritance that was offered to you can you imagine that uh it does happen and sometimes purposefully uh Ironically in fact I heard of one just a few minutes ago AG go about a very good reason to not receive an inheritance because it could be passed on to the next person uh who would be the inheritor uh maybe it could be decided that you would deny an inheritance because you wanted to uh avoid the creditors who were going to come after you right and you wanted to protect it so you passed it on to the next person uh who would receive it or or maybe it was for some personal conviction that you might have had that uh you just weren’t about to accept this inheritance from this person because they were just that disgusting um but most often uh it doesn’t really you know it happens on purpose but but most often it probably happens actually by accident surprisingly billions of dollars worth of inheritance go unclaimed every year it’s kind of shocking isn’t it I know you lawyers and bankers out there probably have experienced that in some ways uh and you know what happens when the when that inh heritance goes unclaimed right Uncle Sam gets it right and we don’t want that so you need to do good estate planning uh to make sure that that that doesn’t happen you don’t need them managing uh your money do you know what the largest unclaimed inheritance in American history is I didn’t but I looked it up uh in 2016 a Chicago res presid by the the name Joseph stancak I think I’m pronouncing his name right passed away at the age of 87 uh and stancak uh despite living a a misery existence at least as described by his neighbors uh when he died he left an estate that was valued at 11
million1 million which is the largest according to this article Anyway by uh Katherine Hatter who’s a lawyer who was writing about this which is the largest unclaimed property amount in American history and uh when he died he died without a will and uh he never had any children and his six siblings died before he did and they didn’t have any children of their own can you imagine
all those riches and no one there to claim them now lawyers got involved and they desperately have tried to figure out the figure out who what descendants exist how far you have to go back it goes all the way back to uh uh to Eastern Europe that they’ve tried to find some people and since then some some random group has come in and said that there actually is a will that exists that suddenly appeared you know how that goes uh all that’s still happening it’s in Probate Court so you’ll have to be watching for what what eventually happens with all of that now if you were named the inheritor of his estate and all of his riches would you receive it sure right of course you would why why wouldn’t you uh and without hesitation I hope uh you You’ drop everything you’d run to Chicago to the courthouse as fast as you can and you’d lay down your claim for The Inheritance that was uh was given to you sure you would but that’s right and you’d give 10% at least to the Lord’s work at church of our
savior that’s right a bridge to the Future
amen but can you imagine being named the uh the to be named as the heir of that inheritance and thinking this you know what I think I’ll just wait a little bit before I decide to go and claim it I’ll just wait it out or maybe you know what I’ve got a lot going on in my life right now uh you know I I’ll maybe worry about that later or or thinking you know I I’ve got I’ve got it pretty good right now life’s fine you know I’ve got everything I’m content and that money maybe will just create bigger problems in my life and so I’ll just ignore it seems ridiculous right I know I know none of us would would do that and yet in Joshua 18 that seems to be exactly what God’s people were thinking in some way concerning their inheritance The Inheritance that God had so graciously given to them and as Joshua 18 is a foreshadowing of of the Gospel the good news of Jesus Christ it’s a picture of how we handle the inheritance that’s been so freely given to us by God through the finished work of his son Jesus Christ neglecting it and more often than not leaving it completely
unclaimed and the dire way that that affects not only our own lives but the lives o of the people around us is not insignificant ultimately Joshua 18 is for us a wakeup call it’s a wakeup call to us to claim daily The unsurpassing Riches of The Inheritance that God of God’s grace that’s been given to us and our Savior Jesus Christ and get there I want us to work together through at least the first three verses of Joshua 18 and so I invite you to open uh your bulletins or your Bibles to Joshua 18 really I’m only asking for three verses here so I think you we can handle it uh uh we are going to look at another book of the Bible too with it but uh but in verse one this is this is what we’re told for those who are visiting with us today we’ve been working through Joshua uh for a long time now so we uh uh I I don’t want to take for granted that you know what’s going on we’re we’re in the midst of the allotments that are being given to all the tribes of Israel it gets a bit monotonous uh but even these are pointing us to Jesus and and we’re finding out as we work through them and this is what verse one tells us then the whole Congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there the land lay subdued before them so some interesting things here that were told uh the tent of meeting that where the Tabernacle is where the Ark of the Covenant is held has found its new home for the next 369 years as best as we can tell uh historically and from the the biblical record uh this is the place where the Ark of the Covenant will be located now after wandering with God’s people through the the 40 Years of desert wandering it’s now found its home for the next 369 years this is the place the tent of meeting where God God meets with his people where God meets with his people and it’s going to remain in Shiloh until the days of Samuel uh when the people call for it to be brought uh to another town while they were battling God’s people were battling against the the Philistines and they hoped that by bringing the ark that it would give them a special blessing and give them Victory but they really were just treating God like some sort of magic Idol uh that they could invoke for their their own blessing uh and the Ark ended up being captured and carried carried off in into uh to the Philistines but in Joshua 18 the tent of meeting the Tabernacle and the Ark are all set up here for the first time in Shiloh and God meets with his people who have gathered together here as the allotment of the rest of the tribes is happening and then we’re told in verse two there remained among the people of Israel seven tribes whose inheritance had not yet been a portioned now we’ve been reading all about these allotments of the land for the tribes of Israel for the past uh well it feels like forever uh all but seven have been accounted for thus far uh but for the seven that remain this seems to be more than just an issue of them waiting patiently for the will to be read there seems to be more going on here than that so that they could then once the will was read they could then take possession of of that which God had so graciously given them for an inheritance there’s something more going on because in Joshua 18:3 Joshua says this to the remaining seven tribes how long will you put off going in to take possession of the land which the Lord the god of your fathers has given to you how long will you put it off what this tells us is the
allotment hasn’t take taken place because they haven’t yet done what they were supposed to do to com to claim what was theirs Joshua asked them how long will you put off going in to take possession of the land the word translated is put off it also means to relax or to wait or to even in extreme cases it can mean to abandon how long will you abandon taking possession of The Inheritance that God has so graciously given you you know this doesn’t paint a positive picture of why they haven’t taken possession of the land yet you know the King this is where it can be kind of helpful to look at some of the different translations and how they uh translated the same word to put off King James version says how long are ye slack to go to possess the land so basically King James version is calling them Slackers right they’re just a bunch of slackers they’re not doing it the new King James version says how long will you neglect to go and possess the land so basically uh the new King James version was calling them neglectful they were neglectful in their duties to do what they should have done the message by Eugene Peterson which I wouldn’t call a translation but it’s at least a a beautiful commentary uh on this uh on the Bible says how long are you going to sit around on your hands putting off taking possession of the land that the God lord your God has given you I love that image sitting on your hands right but here’s my favorite translation of it and this comes from the Wickliffe Bible uh and for those who are the history nerds uh the wickliff Bible is the first uh unauthorized English translation of the Bible right got wickliff in a lot of trouble uh but uh but he translated it now we uh Anglican snobs will also will claim that the first authorized translation of the English Bible that came through Thomas krer and Henry VII uh later in the great Bible but the wickliff Bible is good enough uh but this is what uh this is how Wickliffe translated this verse he said this how long fade ye or wallow through sloth and enter not to wield the land which the Lord hath given ye that’s beautiful isn’t it that’s beautiful so the question is why did they put it off why did they put it off in such a way as to Garner the the rebuke or encouragement maybe of of Joshua but it sounds pretty pretty harsh he’s you know he’s giving them a sharp rebuke here uh the Bible translators have described them as Slackers neglectful lazy at best
reluctant but there have to be some good reasons right I mean this doesn’t just uh this doesn’t just happen in a vacuum there’s reasons for why they would have responded this way because this is like being offered 11 million inheritance and just taking your sweet time to collect it unfortunately the text doesn’t tell us exactly it doesn’t tell us exactly why uh but we can make some I think contextual assumptions or at best look at the possibilities for why they might have been neglectful in doing this maybe that they’ve been afraid maybe they’ve been
afraid now we’re told that the the
laidback we’re told that the land laid now subdued for the the first time right the whole land was subdued but there’s been violent opposition up to this point maybe they were just afraid to take it maybe they were afraid to take what God had already promised for them maybe it was a sense of Doubt or or or skepticism was the reason why they didn’t do it will God really give this to us will he really is he really good can we really trust him because this is risky
or maybe there’s this sense of feeling of you know we really did this under our own strength anyway we we won by our own uh our own military prowess our own strength and if we did it ourselves then how do we know that we’re going to be able to possess it now maybe we don’t have the strength maybe we don’t have the resources to accomplish it now or maybe it was just laziness or maybe it was just a sense of laziness that comes with contentment you know think think about it that way you know uh that you know we’ve come a long way we’ve got it pretty good now we’ve certainly got it a lot better than we used to we were wandering in the desert and now we’ve got at least a bigger land like we’re here we’re comfortable it sounds like a lot of challenging work to take the next step to do what God’s told us to do and once we get it it’s not just like a free gift now we got to defend it now we got to maintain it no thanks we’ve got all that we can handle right now on our own thank you very much or or maybe they were just tired maybe they were just tired fatigue maybe they just said we’ve been through a lot and we just don’t have the ener ener to do this right now we just can’t or maybe they were discouraged in some way the truth is we don’t know exactly but most likely it was one of these reasons or uh probably a combination and I think uh we’ll get to what I think was really uh the driving reason uh in just a few minutes uh it it took the Gathering of God’s people around the presence of God himself in the tent of meeting and the encouragement and the sharp rebuke of their leader to get them to move to get them to move forward and to lay claim to what God had already
declared was theirs to begin with it was already theirs all they had to do was claim it so what does this have to do with us my friends we have been given a far greater inheritance than the people of God in Joshua 18 could have ever hoped for or possibly imagined an inheritance of unsurpassing wealth an eternal inheritance with Christ and yet most of us walk around every day as if uh we’re destitute and helpless and we fight with everyone for every little morsel of the thing that we can find left but we think in this idea of scarcity that it’s all that’s going to be left and we better get
ours you know CS Lewis described it this way and I’m sure I’ve read this quote many times but you probably forget or hopefully you do and so it seems new again uh and the and the weight of Glory CS Lewis wrote this we are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite Joy is offered to us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea we are far too easily pleased and in the end I think CS LS in that quote was nailed the reason why God’s people in Joshua 18 failed to claim their enhan and their inheritance and why we on a day-to-day level fail to Fully live into and claim our inheritance in Christ that’s been given to us as the free gift of God’s grace through the death and resurrection of his son Our Savior Jesus Christ we don’t have to live in
doubt we don’t have to live in doubt through the death and resurrection of our savior J Jesus Christ he’s proclaimed that he has chosen in us we don’t have to try harder to be righteous because we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus and now we’re free to Bear the fruit of that righteousness in our lives we don’t have to question who we are and trying to make a name for ourselves through ruthless ambition because we are sons of God meaning we’re kings and queens we have nothing more to prove to anyone we don’t have to prove our worth because we have been redeemed by the blood of our savior we are of infinite Worth to him who is willing to die for
us we don’t have to fear the past and all that the mistakes that we’ve made or carry the guilt and The Shame of the things that we’ve done and the things that we’ve left undone because in Christ we’ve been
forgiven 1 Peter 2 verse 24 he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you have been healed and in Christ we don’t have to do life on our
own for we’ve been given the helper the promised one the Holy Spirit spirit of God to dwell in us through faith in Jesus the Holy Spirit who is at work in US convicting us convincing us of Jesus every day these are the riches of our inheritance in Christ if you want a concise place that that that lists out the The Riches of our inheritance go to Ephesians 1 it write it lists all these out for us blessed be God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places even as he chose us in him before the foundations of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as Sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious Grace with which he has blessed us in the Beloved in him we have Redemption through his blood the Forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished Upon Us in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose for which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him things in heaven and on Earth in him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who worked all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who were the first to Hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory in him you also when you heard the word of Truth The Gospel of your salvation and believed in him we’re sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory that’s our inheritance that we have in Christ that is ours this is the riches The Riches of our inheritance in Christ and yet many days we fail to claim them don’t
we and we fall into doubt we fear we’re not good enough for God we think that we’re nothing more than orphans left in this world we think that we have to prove our Worth to everyone we meet letting everyone know how important we really are I don’t know about you but I find myself doing that all the time and it’s it’s not as overt like I I I know how to do it stealthily enough you know to steer the conversation back to me um you know to like chime in with my little story about myself oh I know it’s your saying is important but here’s how here here’s bring it back to me like how my situation you know I I I do that all the time I’m sure you
don’t we’re consumed by our own guilt and shame absolutely crippling in our lives why why do we struggle so much to claim our inheritance and to live into the freedom of what Christ has done once and for all for us I think it goes back to Joshua 18 and what CS Lewis described we’re we’re far too easily pleased by what this world has to offer we’re far too easily pleased far too content with the way things are and we cannot even fathom the full Riches of The Inheritance that’s being guarded for us in the Heavenly Realms and so we just don’t claim it maybe we think we don’t need it we can get along just fine everything is going all right but you know what not claiming your inheritance an here’s what it first of all does to us
ourselves you’ll never be good enough you’ll never be good enough you’ll receive every criticism that people have to offer you and it’s a lot it’s a lot and you’ll take it deeply to heart and eventually it’ll Crush you you’ll be crushed by everyone else’s expectations of you it’ll lead to insecurity a troubled Spirit a fearfulness in life that’s what failing to claim The Inheritance that has been won for us by Christ that’s the fruit it yields in our lives and you know what it not only treats the way we see it affects the way we see ourselves it affects the way that we treat other people around us in our
lives because the truth is in our mind they’ll never quite be good enough or they’ll never be exactly the way that we think they should be or the way that we want them to be and so the fruit that we bear of not claiming our inheritance is usually more of a spirit of
judgmentalism we condemn people we’re certainly
impatient and most likely angry at the people around us but let’s look at what a life of of claimed inheritance looks like you know what a life of claimed inheritance looks like it looks loving and peaceful and patient and kind and merciful and good and faithful and gentle and one with self-control I’m not just making this up that’s Galatians 5 that’s the fruit of the spirit that our inheritance in Christ that’s the fruit that dwells in us when we have claimed that our inheritance that is the fruit that is being born in us friends today as Joshua called out the seven tribes for their neglect of God ‘s gift and their contentment but just the way things were Jesus is calling us out Jesus is calling us out just consider those words from our Gospel reading in John 15 Jesus said you didn’t choose me but I chose you and I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide that fruit of the spirit claiming your inheritance claim cling who you are now in me what I have won for you these things I command you that you love one another that’s the ultimate outward sign of our claimed inheritance isn’t it that we have love for one
another friends the will has been read the promise of God’s inherit in Christ it’s been given to you will you trust God and all that he has given to you and claim it for your own today and every day amen
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 17
Joshua 17 tells us that the people of Manasseh “could not” drive out the Canaanites from the promised land. They reality is that they were not wrong. They couldn’t, but in the process of obsessing over their inabilities they forgot the prevailing promise and hopeful future that God had promised them. The truth is that we all fail to obey God’s call in our lives, but by the Grace of God through His Son Jesus Christ He has proved that we can trust him fully and hope in the beautiful future that He has secured for us. Armed with this Gospel of Grace we are free to risk what we “cannot do” in faithful obedience to the God who can and will do on our behalf.
TranscriptSo I’ll share with you uh the title of uh of this sermon I don’t often share the title until it gets sent out by uh you know by email and the weekly eblast are posted online uh but I but I thought this was good and would probably lighten your uh your spirits you can’t do it
it’s the probably the worst selling uh motivational speech right you can’t do it but my question uh it’s a rhetorical one uh but my question for you um is this has God ever called you to do something that you just couldn’t
do has God ever called you to do something that you just couldn’t do now if you can’t think of something because the answer should be uh yes right that yes there’s plenty of those things if you can’t think of something uh and you want to say no to that uh that you always do everything that God has ever told you to do uh either you’re not listening very well um or you’ve just been ignoring the times that uh the and you’ve just tune the Lord out when he has as asked you to do something uh you know what is that Lord I couldn’t quite hear you you know what what were you what were you asking me to do uh you know maybe it was something big like the Lord was calling you to the mission field but you just couldn’t do it but most likely it’s something far less dramatic than that right those are those are the big things and there are things like that in our lives but most likely it’s something less dramatic something that can seem a bit smaller uh like uh like God calling you to reach out maybe to a person in your life that you have had a falling out with where there’s a broken relationship and the Lord’s called you to to be an agent of reconciliation but you just can’t do
it last week we covered how all of us every single one of us falls short of the glory of God every single one of us
um we all fall short of God’s glory which which means all of us fail to be obedient 100% of the time uh and we talked about how partial obedience is actually Disobedience there is no partial obedience it’s just Disobedience to the Lord uh but this evening I want to talk about the other ways that we fail to obey God God’s calling in our lives ignoring the the call to to reconciliation ignoring the call to to share share our faith uh with others uh in our lives and around us how about ignoring the the call to forgive and to receive forgiveness for others and the human Mind Is Crafty we’re incredibly crafty we can justify uh almost every decision that we can make we can justify it right and in our minds we will come up with every reason possible why we were unable to obey God’s call in our lives and so after a while we just believe it how we just could not have possibly done what God was asking us to do you know we come up with physical reasons there’s physical reasons right I’m too old now I’m too old to do that I can’t do that Lord anymore or maybe it’s the other side of it maybe it’s I’m too young I’m too young to do that Lord or maybe it’s just too dangerous or maybe we just don’t have enough money to be able to take that kind of risk in our lives and that at this time if I were more stable uh then then then maybe I could take that kind of risk for what you’re calling me to Lord or maybe it’s not physical maybe it’s emotional or or psychological reasons that we come up with to justify uh why we we just can’t obey what the Lord’s calling us to do maybe it would just be too
painful or it would make us vulnerable if we did it or it would leave us weak and exposed or maybe you have that feeling of you know I’ve just faced way too much disappointment in my life I could not possibly take another let down I just couldn’t do it or maybe I’m just too angry I’m just too angry with with with that that person or with those people I couldn’t possibly go to them you know that’s that’s the story of Jonah right or how about my life is way too stressful I I’m way too anxiety ridden right now uh I couldn’t possibly follow where you’re lead where you’re calling me to go right now Lord I couldn’t do it but there’s also spiritual reasons uh I don’t really have any hope that doing what the Lord’s asking me to do is really going to make for a better future for me or I don’t think that I can trust God by taking this risk or I don’t think that if I obey it will bring me the real joy and purpose and meaning and contentment that my heart’s really longing for and those are just some of the excuses or the rationals that our minds conjure up for why we just can’t oy God obey God with what he’s calling us to do so we play it safe and we think that if we disobey God and we we just think and we disobey God by thinking that it’s going to be for our good that we’re going to be better off for it but the reality is that the disobedience is never for our good it’s always in the end destructive to our lives in the long run well the hope of the Gospel is that God to be bring us children of Disobedience to Glory he sent his perfectly obedient son into this world to Die the death that we deserve and to give us new and unending life through his resurrection from the dead that’s the hope of the gospel and the fruit of that gospel in our lives is a newfound life of trust in God who loves us that he would do enough that he would do that for us and a newfound hope for the future that we now know our future is all wrapped up and assured through Jesus’s victory over sin and death and the devil hope is always before us always and that kind of trust and that hope the fruit that the gospel brings into our hearts and lives it gives us a freedom and a newfound courage to dare to obey God’s call in our lives no matter how difficult or dangerous or scary it might seem to us in any given moment and that my friends is the gospel message that I believe is being born out of Joshua 17 the way that Joshua 17 is pointing us to the cross and it’s pointing us to the
Fulfillment of our Salvation in in Jesus Christ for you and for me so how do we get there from Joshua 17 uh well last week in in Joshua 16 for those who who weren’t here or might have missed or didn’t go back and listen uh Joshua had uh two sons uh and the people of Joshua of of mean the people of Joseph uh who uh who part of Ephraim and Manasseh have come to get their allotment to receive their inheritance after the uh the conquest of the land and last week we talked about the inheritance that was given to the people of Ephraim and how they did not drive out the Canaanites as God had commanded them to do instead they forced them into uh into uh indentured servitude we talked about the fact that they did not that’s what the text told us they did not drive them out and they didn’t do it because uh because they thought that there was a better way that’s why they decided not to obey and to fully carry out they they wanted they were partially obedient to the Lord uh but they weren’t wholly obedient and therefore they were
disobedient and the devastation that that
Disobedience would bring into their lives will last for Generations in devastating ways as read the whole book of judges in Joshua 17 we turn to the people of Joseph Joseph’s first son Manasseh and the people of Manasseh also failed to obey God but but they do it in a little bit different way a little bit different but the diff difference is subtle but it’s important in verses 12 to 13 we were told this yet the people of Manasseh could not take possession of those cities but the Canaanites persisted to dwell in the land now when the people of Israel grew strong they put the Canaanites to force labor but did not LLY drive them out so last week while the people of Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites as God had commanded them the people of Manasseh here in Joshua in Joshua 17 were told could not drive out the Canaanites from the cities as God had commanded them to do it’s a distinction right it maybe a small distinction but there’s definitely a distinction uh and however insignificant that distinction May seem uh for the people of Ephraim it was a matter of will that they did not obey the Lord and for the people of ma manasse it’s a it’s a matter of ability it’s a matter of ability at least according to to Joshua 17 they could not the people of Ephraim did not because it seemed more advantageous as we talked last week to not do it and to force them into uh indentured servitude it would work that they beli to their benefit in the long run but the people of Manasseh could not and the reason they could not at least uh what the word means itself is because they didn’t have the strength to do so that that’s what the the Greek word means that we translate as could not it means they were not able they did not have the power or the strength but the Greek word can also be translated like this that they could not end endure they could not endure and I like that that translation uh for for one reason that because it implies that it’s more than just a lack of physical strength there was more going on here than that they were just weak or they didn’t have the the right numbers or their strategies weren’t as uh as good as those of the Canaanites it tells that there’s there’s more going going on here it speaks to a lack of not only physical ability but emotional psychological ability and a lack of ultimately the spiritual ability to obey the Lord and to continue to to wipe to push out the Canaanites alt together the people of manasse could not do it it was too much for them it was too hard it was too grueling it was too painful perhaps it was too hopeless in their minds to even try and and I think we can understand that I think we can relate relate to that at least if we’re we’re honest with ourselves but while it said the people could not if we go all the way back to Joshua 1 where this whole thing began it seems like a long time ago now doesn’t it a long long time ago uh and Joshua 1 verse two when when God’s calling Joshua these were the words of promise that he spoke he said Moses my servant is dead now therefore arise go over this Jordan you and all the this people into the land that I am giving them to the people to the people of Israel you notice he didn’t say go into into the land that I am giving them except those cities of manasseh’s inheritance he didn’t give an exception did he no he said this is the land that that I’m I’m giving them these are the people that I’m going to drive out before you no all of the promised land God promised he God promised that he would give all of the promised land to his people as a gift it was a gift from him to his people so Joshua 17 tells us that the people of manasse could not that they didn’t have the ability which is TR actually
true they couldn’t they didn’t have the ability we have no reason to doubt uh what we’re being told here they didn’t have the physical they didn’t have the emotional the psychological or the spiritual strength to take possession of those cities and to cast out the Canaanites as God had commanded them to do that’s
true but what they had was something much greater what they had was something much greater than their own ability they had the promise of God all they had to do was to trust God’s promise and to risk it to risk it for the future hope that awaited them that God had laid out before them and had given them but they didn’t do
it because they let the little fact that they couldn’t do it get in the way of all that God could do and promis that he would do for
them friends how much have we missed out on because we just couldn’t do it
because we’re too old or because we’re too young we got some young ones in here they’re not listening to me but they’re here right
Eliza or too
weak or we’re just too poor we can’t do it or we’re just too scared I just can’t we can’t do it or we’re too stressed or we’re just too
angry or we’re just too busy that’s a big one isn’t it I’m just too busy right now there’s too many other things that I’ve got to do because the truth is all of those things are true they are true but the biggest obstacle of all to obediently following where God is is leading us and where he is calling us in our lives is that we just in our heart of hearts don’t believe that we can trust
him and we cannot see the Hope in following where he leads because if those two things were rooted in our hearts there’s nothing that would stop us there’s nothing we wouldn’t
risk I was watching an interview uh yesterday with with Jordan Peterson uh that he did with Elon Musk which is incredibly two very smart people talking to each other uh which uh if you can understand half of it it was uh it was incredibly interesting uh it was fascinating and they were talking about having children you know it’s a big big topic if you ever follow things that Elon mus talks about and he has 12 of them um if you follow some of the big topics and how culture sees children as a burden and not a blessing how our culture sees CH having children is a hardship and not a joy uh but in the midst of their their dialogue uh as they were kind of coming to agreement about this you know this issue uh Jordan Peterson said something that was really simple but at the same time I thought was incredibly profound uh he said the future is always a challenge and having children is a vote for the
future it was pretty simple but it was incredibly profound and it connects to this in a deep way because it got me thinking in a postchristian worldview a postbiblical worldview culture that that we live in uh which rejects God’s truth right which rejects God’s truth claims what God has revealed to be true uh and things like God’s called to us in creation to be fruitful and multiply that that’s part of God’s call to us or in Psalm 127 right children are a Heritage from the Lord the fruit of the womb a reward like arrows in the hand of the warrior are the children of our yous blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them that’s what God’s revealed about children right but instead in our culture we see children as a burden and a hardship so so what’s happened though if you look at what’s happened in the culture is two things one the obvious and that is a distrust and ultimately a rejection of God and his revealed truth right so a distrust of God and what God has said is good and what God has said is a blessing but the second of it is this a lack of hope for the future it’s a lack of Hope for the future when hope for the future is gone what happens is it’s replaced by fear it’s replaced by fear and out of
fear we cannot possibly do the things that God has called us to
do and the reasons are endless the people of manessa lost hope in the future God had promised they lost hope in a future the way that God had told them it would be and out of fear they allowed their own inabilities to be the justifying cause for their Disobedience or their partial obedience right which we talked about last week is really just Disobedience friends we do the same thing we look at the broken relationships in our lives and just despite God’s clear word that we are called to forgive and that through Christ we have been given the ministry of reconciliation that’s God’s word or Jesus’s word about coming to the Lord’s table that before we come first you better be reconciled with your brother right these These are commands these are God’s calls and yet we just can’t do it again this is just one example and we justify that we can’t do it because it’s too hard maybe it’s been too long maybe we’ve just been hurt too often or we’ve been taken advantage of just too much or it’s going to make us feel and look weak and vulnerable and guess what all of that is probably true
but the Lord who has called you to this work is the same God who sent his one and only son into this world to die for you to reconcile you to him and me to him and through his work of re reconciliation we have the ultimate hope for the future and we can trust the one who would not even spare his own son to reconcile us to him to bring about the reconciliation of our broken relationships friends when you put your trust in Jesus’s work of reconciliation your future is sure and it is
certain and under the protection of Jesus and the hope of the future that we have in him we’re free we’re free to both boldly risk for the work that God’s calling us to do no matter what that may be in your life right now whether it’s to go out onto the mission field uh maybe to France we need you in France we need you here too I’m not just judging France but after what we saw this week we need you in France the gospel needs to be proclaimed but maybe it’s not just being on going onto the mission field maybe it’s just to share your faith with your coworker that’s a scary thing it could be a risky thing but if God’s calling you to do it you’re free to trust him you’re free because your future in your hope of a future is secure we’re free to risk pursuing healing of reconciliation of those broken relationships in our lives we’re free need to admit to our children which is probably the hardest thing in the world to do right at least it is for me uh that we’re wrong and to hum humbly ask them for
forgiveness no matter what he is calling you to be obedient for and to do you can’t do it but he is mighty and he is able and he will Empower you to trust him who can and to give you the hope of future that you need to be freed to live into that calling you cannot do it but God can and will and has provided you with a hope and a future that nothing in this world can destroy praise God Amen
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 16
God’s Law demands complete and total obedience, yet we tend to believe that being mostly obedient to God will be enough. Joshua 16 teaches us that anything short of total obedience brings nothing but the anger and wrath of God in our lives. Joshua 16 points us to the hope of the Gospel because God sent His one and only Son into this world to save us from our lives of partial obedience.
TranscriptWell we’ve come to Joshua 16 for those who are uh just visiting with us for the first time uh this evening we have been marching through uh Joshua uh during this time that that we are kind of in the wilderness waiting for our our building to be completed and and we’re doing this because uh just as I believe the Lord Was preparing his people to be the kind of people that he wanted them to be uh to possess as their inheritance the promised land because what he was teaching them during this time of Conquest the kind of people he wanted them to be because it was incredibly missional he was calling them not just to to get this land to enjoy for themselves for all time uh he was calling them to be a light to the Nations and as a light to the Nations he was teaching them what it meant to uh to obey him to trust him to listen to him and so we’ve been learning a lot of these lessons as we’ve been walking through together uh the Book of Joshua uh but this evening we we continue with in this section which with these seemingly mundane detailed descriptions of the allotment that to the promised land that’s being given to the to the 12 tribes and uh admittedly this can be a painful time in the in the Book of Joshua uh but I promised not to shy away from it and so we’re not going to shy away from it uh you know especially if we’re aware of what uh what was told to us in Luke 24 after the resurrected Jesus appeared uh to the disciples on the road to Emmas in verse 27 27 it says and beginning with Moses and all the prophets Jesus taught to them in all of the scriptures the things concerning himself and so we know that even in the mundane uh of the allotments to uh to the people of Joseph uh this is about Jesus and this is proclaiming the gospel and pointing us to the gospel uh and so I’m excited to to be opening this uh this passage this uh this chapter together uh for us as we see how this is pointing us to its fulfillment and Jesus Christ the son of God how does it reveal the Deep need that we have for a savior how Jesus is our only hope in this world so where is it where is it in Joshua 16 where is Jesus where’s the good news and how does it have anything whatsoever to do with us especially as we’re just trying to to live our our daily lives right it can be hard to find you know I was talking with someone recently who doesn’t go to church here but they’re actually involved in the building uh of our of our new our new church that they’re working over there on the building and I was just over and we were visiting and he wanted me to know that you know he goes I’ve read the Bible all the way through right because that’s a badge of honor um he he’s done it uh but he said uh but he said you know some of those passages were kind of boring because they were kind of hard to get through right uh where they just listed a bunch of names and a bunch of places and uh you know that wasn’t a whole lot of fun and I could certainly sympathize with him just as I’m sure all of you can as we’ve been uh reading through uh Joshua in these last couple chapters um especially if they’re just words and just some narrative concerning a bunch of people a long time ago go what connection does it have to us uh but if it’s more than that if even the most mundane is pointing us to the Fulfillment of our deepest longing then Joshua 16 is a passage that’s actually full of life it’s a passage is full of life and hope and so how do we find that life and hope in Joshua 16 well to do that I think we’re got to skip down to to the very end of it to verse 10 and this is what we’re told in verse 10 however they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived and gazir so the Canaanites have lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day but have been made to do for labor that’s where the hope of the Gospel is you got it okay we got we got to do a little work to get there maybe uh but you know the the last few chapters have been full of of these kind of uh descriptions uh the accounts vary in their details but uh overall they’re the same and we’re going to hear this in in the next coming chapters as well God’s people received their inheritance their allotment uh of the land today it happens to be the people of Joshua and uh the first group uh of people uh Ephraim and Ephraim was one of the sons of Joseph who was born to him uh when after uh Joseph became ruler a ruler in Egypt second only to Pharaoh if you remember the story of Joseph and the name Ephraim means for God has made me fruitful in the land of my Affliction and so Ephraim was a was blessed a blessing from God for Joseph A Blessing of a son in the midst of all that he had experienced a reminder of God’s goodness to him even in that difficult and painful time where he was separated from his father and from his brothers and now Ephraim has become a people many many many generations later but what is so significant about verse 10 the significant thing about verse 10 is that the people of Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites they did not drive out the Canaanites but rather the Canaanites were made to do forced labor sounds really hopeful doesn’t it lots of Life there uh but the truth is this isn’t anything new if you’ve ever studied history you know that the to the conquerors go the the Victor right uh and so uh if you’ve studied history you know that conquering Nations often force uh the the native inhabitants who have been conquered that they forc them into slavery right but to understand why this is such a big deal we have to go back to Deuteronomy chapter 7 in Deuteronomy chapter 7 beginning in the first verse this is the law that God gave and Moses delivered to the people these are the words of God his command when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it and clears away many nations before you the Hittites the girgashites the amorites the Canaanites the perizzites the hivites and the jebusites Seven Nations who are more numerous and mightier than you and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them then you must devote them to complete destruction you shall not make a covenant with them and show no mercy to them now that whole thing we dealt with in the beginning of Joshua if you’re troubled by it I’m just going to have to tell you to go back online and you can listen to some of the earlier chapters as we talked about the purpose uh that God had and how this wasn’t a universal truth of of Christianity or of what God has done all throughout history this was a special moment for a special purpose that God called uh this the the inhabitants of the land uh the promised land to complete destruction so I encourage you to go back and listen to that but why did he call them to do this well he says it a little bit later in Deuteronomy 7 because they will be attempt ation to you to serve other gods that’s what’s going to happen if you don’t take care of them did the did the people of uh that was God’s command it was as clear as that God had told them Moses had declared it Joshua had renewed that that was the command to God’s people did the people of Ephraim obey the command no at least not according to what Joshua 16 is telling us uh but didn’t they at least somewhat obey God right they did somewhat they did partially uh in all their territory it was only in gazir that they failed that’s the only place we’re told that they failed to drive them out uh only it was in there that they forced the Canaanites into that hard labor so in that sense they were mostly obedient right they mostly did the right thing they mostly listened to the Lord and followed what he was calling them to do uh that that has to count for something
right well when it comes to God’s law the answer is no it doesn’t the truth is under God’s law partial obedience is Disobedience under God’s law partial obedience is Disobedience and in Deuteronomy 7:4 the disobedience and God’s called to commit the inhabitants of the land to destruction this is what he said it would result in then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you and he would destroy you quickly you know we hear in the in the book of of Judges it recounts what happens after this uh and so we get a picture uh in judges of uh of what’s going on and in Chapter 2 of Judges verses 1-5 this is is what we’re told now the angel of the Lord went up from gilgal to bokim and said I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers I said I will never break my Covenant with you and you shall make no Covenant with the inhabitants of this land you shall break down their altars but you have not obeyed my voice what is this that you have done so now I say I will not drive them out before you but they shall be become thorns in your sides and their God shall be a snare to you as soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel the people lifted up their voices and wept and they called the name of that place bokim and they sacrificed there to the Lord so the people when they were faced with the word of God they recognized right what they had done they faced the wrath of God they recognized their failure failure there was weeping and lamentation that’s why the place is called bokee it means to weep so the first way that Joshua 16 points us to the good news of the Gospel is this way it teaches us that a that partial obedience is actually Disobedience to God partial obedience is Disobedience to God uh there’s no such thing really as partial obedience there’s only obedience or Disobedience there’s no in between the Wrath and the anger of God is against all Disobedience why does this lesson point us to good news right because the truth is most of us I think live our lives as if partial obedience to God is enough
we mostly follow God’s laws we mess up from time to time but on uh on that Heavenly Ledger of righteousness The Obedience We Believe anyway far outweighs our Disobedience right and as long as we can keep it a little bit heavier on The Obedience side than the Disobedience then then we’re doing pretty good with God that’s the way we live our lives for the most part that God’s happy with us I’m happy all’s good but our way of thinking the way we practically think and the way that we live that way that’s not biblical at all that’s not living according to God’s word partial obedience is only Disobedience you know Paul argued this the same point uh to the Galatians in Galatians chapter 5 uh he was speaking to those uh Christ followers who had uh been influenced by the judaizers and had subjected themselves to the circumcision uh even though they were uh Gentiles and Paul had preached a gospel that was the free gift of God’s grace that required nothing more of them uh but they subjected themselves to the circumcision as a way of trying to make themselves right with God of trying to get that ledger more heavily weighed in their favor and so in Galatians 5: 2-3 uh this is what Paul wrote he says look I Paul say to you that if you accept circumcision Christ will be of no advantage to you I testify again to every man who accepts circum circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law to keep the whole law because partial obedience is no obedience at all Paul was just was making reference to the lesson that we’re learning in Joshua 16 I if if you’re relying on some kind of Ledger where your obedience will outweigh your disobedience in the end then you’re lost then you’re lost that’s the reality of God’s law it demands perfect and complete obedience otherwise we’re disobedient and under the anger and wrath of God the gospel cannot and it will not ever become come good news to you and to me to our souls if we can’t accept that we are disobedient that we don’t perfectly obey God all the time and God’s anger is against
us that our partial obedience is really just Disobedience to God so that’s the bad news but it’s understanding the bad news that makes for the good news of the Gospel that it arises Like a Phoenix out of the ashes so how else does Joshua 16 point us to the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ uh we need to consider for a moment why why did Ephraim failed to conquer completely the Canaanites why
you know most of the in their defense by the way most of the tribes of Israel follow suit uh they have the same issue uh but the the reasons vary a little bit uh what was it that led Ephraim to compromise on God’s command to them when it came to these Canaanites you know we can’t know 100% uh for sure but I do believe verse 10 gives us some some context Clues as to what the reasons were first of all in in verse uh verse 10 tells us they did not drive out the Canaanites there’s a clue there they did not drive out the Canaanites other tribes we’ll read about will tell us they could not drive out the Canaanites or jebusites or amorites or whatever it you want to put in there they could not do it but for the people of Ephraim it doesn’t appear that this was a question of ability it wasn’t a question of whether they could or they couldn’t whether they had the ability to do it it appears more a question of Desire or willingness they did
not because they didn’t want to or they felt there was a better reason not to why why wouldn’t they want to follow through on God’s command especially when God had told them what would happen if if they didn’t the reason is they saw what they believed could be a better way they saw what they believed could be a better way isn’t that what causes all of us to compromise on the law of God we see what we believe will be a better way we think it will and so we
compromise see because the truth is if they possessed the strength of forc in order to force the Canaanites into to forc labor into basic slavery or surf them or or however you want to kind of Define that if they had that kind of force to make them then they also had the force to do what God had told them to do they had the ability what made them willing to compromise compromise on God’s command was it a desire to be merciful I don’t think you can say forcing a people into slavery was a desire to be merciful no forc forced servitude is not a merciful option it’s it’s a brutal option in some ways you could say just destroy a people altogether is far more merciful than to subject them to that kind of Life what forced labor offered to the people of Ephraim was Free
Labor free labor and Free Labor equaled the financial and economic Prosperity or at least the potential for it also offered Comfort right to have slaves to do the work for you that’s a much better life you know we can live a little bit more of a life of leisure if they obeyed God compl completely then they they would have been on them and maybe they didn’t have the numbers maybe they feared that they didn’t have exactly the right amount of people in order to pull off a life that they’d be able to sustain and they’d be able to protect and they thought that the only way to really be able to do this is to have Force
slaver slave labor offered a better way to comfort and a better way to financial economic prosperity for them one that was too good for them to pass up one that they desired too much plus it was just one small Act of Disobedience right just one not to be outweighed by all the obedience they’ve shown already they’ve been part of the Conquering of the promised land they’ve been obedient and obedient and obedient their their Ledger is full of obedience this one thing it’ll be okay okay this this this will this will be
enough isn’t that what all of us do in our own lives we compromise the word of God for our own Comfort maybe it’s for our own financial prosperity in some way or another because we think that if we do it our way that we’ll get there we’ll get the things that we really want but if we do it God’s way uh then then we’re going to suffer it’s going to be hard there won’t be the blessing at the end of it there’ll just be a hardship that’s what our hearts are are betraying us and trying to to tell us you know one of the big ones is just I mean just I can throw out a million but let for lack of the time to do it uh one of the big ones is a 10% tithe right we believe that the Lord has called his people to make that 10% first fruits offering to the Lord but when it comes to deci in about how you’re going to give back to the Lord right are you going to live into that command or do we find ourselves thinking if I really do that if I really do that I’m not going to be able to to pay my bills and God doesn’t want me to do that and so we compromise right we compromise we give to the Lord what we think we can and we still maintain our so that we can maintain our our comfort level of the our lifestyle and our what we believe will be financial prosperity but let’s turn it around as well it’s not just the that let’s turn it around what if we give not out of a heart of joy and out of a Heart of Thanksgiving to the Lord because the lord loves a cheerful Giver as Paul proclaimed right in 2 Corinthians but what would we give out of a sense of self-righteous Duty
and in the process we just think that it makes us better than everyone else around us and it’s going to give us our our duty fulfillment is just going to give us more favor with God than everybody else either way shows how self centered our own Hearts really are when we Face the Commandment of God that it accuses
us either in whether we do it or not or at least how we feel about it and how we think about it and our thoughts and our the intentions of our
hearts only partial obedience is Disobedience to God you know this is something that that that phrase Chuck has said quite a bit and I think I know why now because I was uh I was reading a little bit about this and I came across a man named Ebenezer urkin uh and Ebenezer urkin was a Scottish uh uh Christian and Pastor uh in the late 17th century early 18th century and uh uh he later was part of the Reformed Presbyterian church and those who know Chuck know he’s a presbyterian um and so but but I read a quote that that he said about this which I thought captured it in a uh in a real powerful way he said so often we give God a partial obedience we do not dare to disobey but we do not care to obey fully so we compromise we do some of what we should thus removing the the stigma of Disobedience but we refrain from the most difficult or objectionable or uncomfortable part and thus try to get the best of both worlds that’s what we do that’s what we do in practicality we all compromise the Commandment of God for our own selfish interests and desires and Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God every one of us we’re all
compromisers because our hearts love com Comfort our hearts love prosperity and what our hearts love our Wills will choose and our minds will just justify it and we justify it by saying it’s just a little Disobedience it’s just a little friends this is what makes the gospel such incredibly good news this is why Joshua 16 is crying out to us for Jesus and our need for Jesus this is why Jesus is the Fulfillment of all of the scriptures and the realization of the deepest desires of the of the human heart he’s what we’re longing for because the law of God his righteous commands is as Martin Luther described it a ring of fire around us a ring of fire that there’s no way out it is burning with the anger of the Lord because we compromise it because we can’t fully obey it and we’re like as Martin Luther said caterpillars there’s no way out we can’t save ourselves we lack the ability to save ourselves we cannot obey all of God’s laws we all fall short of the glory of God our only hope is that someone from above will come to rescue us and that someone is Jesus Christ that’s the hope of the Gospel who came into this world to subject himself to the same law that we are subjected to and yet he was obedient always even to death itself and as 1 Peter 2:24 proclaims Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree meaning that Jesus in his perfect obedience willingly took on our Disobedience and died the death that we deserve so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by the wounds by his wounds Peter proclaimed you have been healed or as Paul proclaimed in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 for our sakes God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that him we might become the very righteousness of God God’s anger and wrath for our disobedience is
death Gerard for in his book where God meets man wrote this only the God who comes down to earth can really help us only the one who dies the death that we must die and yet is not conquered by it can actually save us anything else however Pious or however Orthodox it sounds is useless and vain friends this is the good news that Joshua 16 is pointing to us this is the gospel message for us the Fulfillment of the law in Jesus Christ the son of God our savior in him and through his resurrection we have been reborn into new and unending life we had been pulled by his grace alone from The Ring of
Fire it’s the message that we needed yesterday it’s the message we need today it’s the message we need tomorrow and every day thereafter
our righteousness is in Christ alone forever more amen
With metal and shingle roofing complete, the cross was placed atop the cupola by Lighthouse Roofing (who said it was honor to do so). Window installation is underway and the mechanical and electrical rough-in is almost finished. The final door frames are placed and the sheetrock crew is hanging, taping & mudding. It’s all hands on deck to finish and begin work on the ceiling grid, lights and AC diffusers in preparation for the next big inspection – ceiling & coverup. We’ve debated and decided on a details for HVAC, carpet, paint, the awesome pocket doors between the fellowship hall and sanctuary and (the dreaded) attic access. Pastor David continues work on the stained glass and millwork for the altar area. It’s been a LONG ride, but beauty and function are coming together as we planned and prayed — This is the HOME STRETCH!
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Scripture: Joshua 15:1-20,63
Who doesn’t love good gifts? The greatest gift of all is a fulfilled life. A life that is full of hope, joy, love, security, comfort, and peace. These are the things we all want most of all. Jesus teaches us that our Father in heaven wants to give those good gifts to those who ask him. Seems easy enough, but most often the hardest thing in the world is to find to humility to ask and the faith to believe that what God gives is the good that we so earnestly desire.
TranscriptSo when I first began this week reading uh Joshua 15 at least uh through verse 12 I thought surely this is a sermon about health healthy boundaries in our lives um but then I de said no I don’t think that really I don’t think that I don’t think that’s at all what the Lord was although healthy boundaries are important that’s a totally different thing I don’t think that has anything to do with uh with with what we’re looking at uh today because we’ve been going through Joshua because I I I sensed that as uh as God Was preparing his people through the conquest not just to to conquer uh the promised land as he had uh as he had called them to he was preparing them to be the kind of people that he wanted them to be as occupying the promised land because he was calling them to be a light to the the Nations he was calling them to be a reflection of him and his glory to the whole world that other nations might come to him this was God’s uh they were to be a lighthouse a light on a hill and so God Was preparing them to trust him that they might be that kind of reflection and that kind of witness to who he is and so I since going through Joshua this was a time when God Was preparing us while we’re here uh at Ocean Park B uh preparing to be back and take occupation of our our new building and the renovation that’s going on in our old building that this is the time the Lord’s preparing our hearts to be the kind of people that will be his Witnesses and we’ll reflect him to our community and to the world around us uh and so today what I what I sense the Lord’s doing is he’s trying to teach us this basic gospel truth that our heavenly father loves us and that he longs to give us good gifts all we have to do is ask our heavenly father loves us he longs to give us good gifts and all we have to do is asking but how did I get there well I I got there from uh after we get past all the boundaries of the uh of the the tribe of Judah and all that’s being given to to him uh we came back to a familiar uh character who we were talking about last week we really talked about him uh for for this is the third week and that’s Caleb uh we talk about Caleb because Caleb had gone and asked for his uh for his inheritance after we talked about he had waited so patiently and endured so much uh the Lord had given him that that ability because uh because he was able to he trusted the Lord uh that he knew that the Lord uh was was uh the Lord was with him and that uh the Lord would would blessed him and he was able to wait 45 years for the Lord to fulfill uh his promise well he had received it last week but now it’s his job as he takes his inheritance part of that job was to continue the the conquest to continue to to fight uh and to to follow the Lord’s lead and what he was calling them to uh in his the territory that he was given but so there was a particular place uh in his territory uh called curier uh that must have been a particularly difficult place to conquer uh I say that because uh he felt the need that he had to offer incentive right he he had to offer a little incentive in order for somebody to take on this this kind of challenge uh in a way that was uh compelling enough that they would do so and so uh and there’s also a reason for that not just that but Caleb also had to include this little uh incentive because this territory that he was promising the person uh who they uh if they conquered was in the neab now if those who who who know Israel know the neab is it’s a desert now it’s not as bad as some of the deserts I haven’t been to many but I have been to the neb uh and there there are little bits of life around it but when I when I went to to visit Israel the the plan that I we were following as a group uh it took us into the neb first off first thing we went into the negb we were there for like three days I was convinced that there was no water in Israel that’s what I thought I thought this must be what it all looks like uh but uh but so it is a dry Aid place and so there needed to be an incentive at least Caleb thought I I will give my daughter to whoever will go and Will Conquer this land uh the word uh negb it means uh it means dry to dry or to wipe dry it’s 4,650 square miles I don’t think all of it was going to uh the person who conquered there were some other areas of the neab but it was a big part of it uh roughly the the whole desert’s the twice the size of Delaware and as a place it’s a hard place to survive it’s a difficult place to survive now mostly ban tribes lived there and went through and not a lot made it their permanent uh permanent home they had but those who did had to learn how to survive and it was a hard hard life it was a hard life Psalm 126 verse4 says restore our fortunes oh Lord like streams and the Nega it gives you that picture of this dry place this dry unfortunate place that’s desperate for water that’s desperate for life and so uh o othneil uh Caleb’s brother’s son uh took on the challenge we’re told and he captured kiras saur and therefore he was given axaw as his wife now I’m not going to try to explain uh this this was a different time this is uh uh they were cousins obviously but this is one of those things we’ll have to leave there I don’t know that there’s a a grand explanation I don’t know that we can judge uh them for what our what our uh what is it social socially accessible now but once they once they became you know we don’t know if it was husband and wife yet but we didn’t know that she then urged othneil to ask her father for a field you know to ask him for something good in other words you know I think she realized we’ve gotten kind of a raw deal here uh this inheritance that we’re being given isn’t the best uh but you get this picture of this strong willed woman don’t you you get a real picture of this because before o oil even has a chance to get down and ask his father now his father-in-law and Uncle uh for you know for something good she hops off the donkey and she gets off the donkey and Caleb said to her what do you want what do you want and she said to him give me a blessing since you have given me the land of the negtive G give me also Springs of water it’s a bold move isn’t it you you get a real picture here that she she wasn’t uh this this pensive uh n girl she knew what they needed and she was bold and she went to her father and she asked but she asked boldly and she asked firmly for him to give her uh to to give her a blessing that word blessing it it it means to give her a present to give give her a gift give me a good gift that she’s saying that will give me life you’ve given me the the situation that looks pretty bad and so I’m now asking you to give me something that’ll actually give me life she doesn’t ask hey give give me more money she doesn’t ask give give us more land she doesn’t ask give us more possessions more influence in the world in other words she says give us life give us life give us a a source of life in this harsh and arid and inhospitable world that you have given us give us life Springs of water that’s what they are aren’t they Springs of water are the places where the Earth brings forth life where water comes from where the life grows Isaiah 4118 says God says I will open rivers on bare Heights and fountains in the midst of the valleys I will make a Wilderness a pool of water and the dry land Springs of water the Lord uses this imagery over and over again these Springs of water that bring life in the midst of the dryness and the aridness and the harshness of Life Isaiah 58:11 and the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in a Scorch in scorched places and make your bones strong and you shall be like a watered Garden like a spring of water whose Waters do not fail in John 4 Jesus says the water that I give him will become in him a spring of Living Water welling up to eternal life Jesus is saying he is the spring of water he is the life in the midst of death and struggle and pain and suffering in Revelation 7:17 it says this of Jesus for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd and he will guide them to Springs of Living Water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and then in Revelations
216 the Lord said it is done I am the Alpha and the Omega the beginning in the end to the Thirsty I will give from the string of spring of the Water of Life without payment it’s this beautiful image of Life springing forth from
Death axaw saw this what they had been given this inheritance this Aid place with death all around them the scorched land and she had the audacity to go and to ask her father for life to ask her father for life you know life is just in some ways yeah it’s literal here for oaw and for AO but it’s also a picture of what we’re all longing for what we’re all longing for in the depths of our hearts we live in a falling fall in world as if we needed a reminder after yesterday right where pain and suffering abound our hearts what our hearts are truly longing for are Springs of Living Water we’re longing for life itself and more than just eternal life that’s easy right we can all just say you know we’re longing for eternal life but when when the Springs of Living Water represents so much more than eternity they represent life right here and now a life that’s truly alive to the Lord meaning a heart and a life that truly prospers a life that’s full of safety and comfort and joy and peace and love and hope all those things that we long for that’s life that’s part of the Springs of Living Water that we’re longing for and God has given us that very Fountain of Life he’s given us his son Jesus Christ and he’s promised that when we thirst we can drink from him and that life that we’re so longing for he will give it to us and he’ll give it to us freely without payment the free gift of his grace and as we read in our in our Gospel reading this evening in Matthew 7 Jesus said if then you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your father who is in heaven give you give good things to those who ask
him God promises us just as Caleb promised to his daughter when she asked for Springs of water that he as he willingly gave to her God promises to give us the same spring of Living Water when we ask him what an Incredible Gift our heavenly father father loves us and he longs to give us the gift of life when we ask him but with such a
gift all we have to do is ask all we have to do is ask then why is it such a
struggle why is asking him for the life that we need such a struggle that Joy the hope the peace the Comfort the security and love all the things that are the the Springs of Living Water of Jesus give to us why do we struggle so much to ask him for them because there are ours for the asking this that’s what we’ve been told why do we struggle so much trying to find Joy desperately searching for something that we could possibly be hopeful for why do we experience so much Brokenness and turmoil danger and animosity with others and life Jesus said all we have to do is ask the
father axaw all she had to do was ask her father and he gave her the gift that she was longing for but there’s something in us that strugg that we struggle so much with the simple Act of asking such a simple act and it’s just so
hard there’s something in us because the truth is asking actually requires something of us it requires something of us what it requires of us is humility it it requires true humility in us we have to actually die to ourselves to ask our heavenly father for the good things that he longs to pour out into our lives and the truth is we either don’t ask our heavenly father for the gift of life or if we do ask most often we ask wrongly that’s the message that James preached in James CH 4: uh 1 through four he said you do not have because you do not ask those those are harsh words right you do not have because you do not ask why don’t we ask why don’t we ask one reason we do not ask is because we don’t think that God can or he will do what we desire we struggle with that we struggle to really believe we don’t think that God can or will really give us the life that we want that we’re longing for that we’re imagining that we’re dreaming about the way that we wanted to be and so what we do instead is we seek life on our own and we seek life in the world we seek Prosperity from things like the accumulation of wealth we seek Hope by making ourselves Stronger by trying to gain more power than the people around us we we seek for we seek Joy in all kinds of way maybe for you it’s traveling more taking vacations having more stuff in your life we seek Comfort by just uh we thinking you know if we just get enough quiet in our lives and peace then that that need for life that desire for for that kind of comfort and peace we’ll find it and so on and so on instead of asking God to give us those things what we tend to do is we tend to befriend the world and the result is an emptiness the result is even anger and fear here’s how it works in practicality and I can only point to myself but I don’t know how it works for you but I desire Comfort I long for Comfort right especially uh when it’s been a long day uh I’ve been uh dealing with with lots of ministry issues there’s been hospit hospital visits sermon preparation leading staff and vest I’m tired my I’m mentally just gone I’m checked out right I’m just poured myself out and I’m at the end of my rope and so I come home uh and all I want to do is just sit on the couch and uh read something or listen to something or watch something and have no one talk to me or bother me
anymore that’s not how life works does it inevitably there’s a need there’s an issue there’s something going on that uh for that person is probably an immediate need and when I’m thinking you know this is not something this isin’t my problem right now uh and all I want is Comfort all I want is to sit down I want to be left
alone and I didn’t get it now that’s not just the problem you know the problem is the problem is is that I usually lash out when that happens my my patience is gone I am angry I am short I am not kind uh Carter is looking at me from back there she uh she’s experienced this probably most recently I’m just can’t can’t deal with it because all I want is is comfort so what don’t I do in that moment I can tell you what I don’t do I don’t ask the father to give me a drink from the Fountain of
Life I don’t look to Jesus who alone can give me the comfort that I need and that I’m longing for I look to the world I look to the world to be the place where I’ll find it so of course when I don’t find it there I lash out at those that I even love and care about and hurt them we don’t ask because we don’t really believe believe we either most likely we don’t believe that he’s really going to give it to us or not in the way that we want or the way that we think that we need and we think that we can find it into the world which just leads to more and more pain and suffering or we don’t ask because maybe we haven’t gotten what we wanted for so so long and that we just give up on the idea altogether that our heavenly father is good and that he’s able and that he longs to give us good things but there’s a second problem with the asking James said as well in James 43 you ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly dis spended on your passions how can we ask wrongly we’re we’re welcome to ask but now we’re being told that there’s we can actually ask wrongly well the easy one here to ask wrongly right is that we ask for the big toys that that’s the easy thing right that we want the the the shiny new car or the uh the big boat the yacht or a new big house and those things will make us happy that’s obvious that’s the obvious asking wrongly but what’s not so obvious that’s the deeper desires within us that can even betray the good things that we’re asking for we may be asking for something good and be asking it for entirely the wrong reason and then our Heavenly father’s not going to give us the thing that’s just going to feed the sinful desire in our own Hearts you know let let’s think about it this way we pray for our children and our grandchildren don’t we and that’s a good thing that they’ll have health they’ll have be successful uh that they’ll grow to know the Lord those are good requests those are things we should be asking for uh that they grow up to be good and and healthy prod productive citizens in the world but for many of us maybe we’ve been praying that a long time and we haven’t experience and we have to ask ourselves the question what’s the true why are we really asking in the first place why are we asking the Lord for this is it truly for their good is it truly for God’s glory is that what we’re asking for because that pleases the Lord that pleases the Lord or in that ask does there exist any of our own pride and self-righteous needs that the successfulness and the the well adjusted and the the God-fearing children that we rear will actually be a reflection and a source of our own pride and self-righteousness in the world do we check ourselves about that do we ask about our own
motives because in that case even though we’re asking for a good thing we’re asking not out of humility and love but totally out of self-interest and again you know what normally happens that’s when we react in anger and rage when our kids misbehave when they do go the wrong direction when we get called by the principle and we act out in anger not that we shouldn’t discipline that’s not the point here and we tell them that this is a reflection on us that you are you are uh shaming your family that’s an asking out of our our own self-righteousness in James 46 and then in verse 10 says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble submit yourselves therefore to God resist the devil and he will flee from you and then in verse 10 humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you friends the hope of the Gospel the good news of Jesus Christ is that the spring of living water has been given to us freely without price and all we have to do is ask but in asking we have to come in humility dying to ourselves and admitting that we are desperately thirsty for only the water that Jesus can
give and the promise is that he’ll give it to us he will give us from the goodness of life in him and in him alone and we will find in him the deepest desires of our hearts the Comfort the peace the prosperity the hope the ch joy and the love friends your heavenly father loves you and he longs to give you the good gift from the spring of living water that is our Savior Jesus Christ thanks be to God Amen
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 14
Caleb was a man who patiently waited 45 years for the fulfillment of Gods promise. The central convictions that gave him the motivation to trust God was his knowledge that the Lord delighted in him and was always with him. Through faith in Jesus we can share the same convictions of Caleb and enjoy the delight of the Lord forever.
TranscriptYou know as I was saying earlier about you know that we’ve kind of reached that I think we’ve just crossed God willing the uh the Midway Point uh of our time here at Ocean Park Baptist I may have to eat those words uh later you know you can’t predict fully but we’re on track uh it also means that we’re uh We’ve we’ve come P just just over the the Midway threshold of uh the Book of Joshua uh and and obviously the tone of the book changes uh quite quite a bit from all the the Glorious Conquest to uh to now the the dividing of The Inheritance and a lot of names and and bless all of you who’ve been doing the readings um you’ve done a great job and the truth is nobody would know if you weren’t um and so uh but but thank you for for taking that on uh but so the so things change a little bit but what Remains the Same is that the gospel is still being proclaimed and revealed to us uh and and even in these latter chapters uh of Joshua which is certainly the case today you know I have a question what what motivates you and kind of gives you strength for life you know arguably I’m guessing for most people it works this way the greatest motivation is affirmation isn’t it you know for for most of us the affirmation is definitely the biggest motivator uh when people cheer you on doesn’t that help you know certainly uh for most of us it does uh it’s like you know when you’ve been when you’ve gone on the diet and you’ve put in all the hard work and people praise you and notice it doesn’t that make you feel great and it kind of encourages you to to keep on going uh no one said anything to me by the way um but that’s because I haven’t uh so it wouldn’t be uh it wouldn’t be quite true but you know Gracie she works out she uh she works but she she has to do it with the group because she wants that positive affirmation and that encouragement uh that and praise that with the groups all together and uh and she does CrossFit with the group uh for for that reason uh you know you see it uh as as a pastor a lot of opportunities for for counseling folks and I see it over and over and over again this uh this long in that that men especially have but women do as well for seeking approval and praise from others that so often can be traced back to that that unreceived praise and uh and uh and uh approval that they didn’t get from their parents you know you see it over and over and over again it has future uh implications in our lives because receiving approval and praise has an incredible impact on our on our motivation for life it gives us strength to face the things that we’re facing well last week as as Chuck preached on Joshua 13 uh just to remind you or if you weren’t here uh those first words in in verse uh in Chapter 13 was this now Joshua was old and advancing in years and the Lord said to him you are old and advanced in years and there remains yet very much land to possess Joshua was old and advanced in years and he had served for a long time Faithfully in where the Lord had called him he had served uh Moses and the Lord uh you know he served Moses when Moses called upon him uh and earlier and now directly and leading the conquest as God has called him uh he certainly had earned a retirement hadn’t he he had put in the work he had earned it but alas the Lord said there remains work to be
done and arguably it was the worst kind of work the worst kind of work because at least before uh he he was doing the things that I think that he really loved and he really cared about and I’ll talk about that in a minute but now he’s being called in this older age as things have changed and there’s a new challenge before him and probably new skills that he’s developed that the Lord wants to use he’s been called to administrative work hasn’t he that’s the worst kind divide the land for an inheritance right it’s awful this is I mean I I mean that I can relate to this like I want to be in the heat of the battle like I don’t want to be back in the the planning and the strategy stages that you know it’s necessary those things have to happen uh but but they can be just absolutely tedious but he’s being called to now div divide the land as an inheritance for the nine tribes remaining and the half tribe of Manasseh the text doesn’t directly tell us but you know like I said I doubt that this is the kind of work that Joshua loved I doubt that this is the thing that that really uh stirred his heart and really got him moving uh because he was a warrior he was a Warrior from the very early days the first mention that we even have of Joshua uh the first acknowledgment of him in the scriptures he was a young man uh coming out of Egypt with following Moses as all the people were coming out uh and he was called upon as a young man to lead the first offensive uh after coming out of Egypt against AMC Exodus 17 uh verse 9 so from the very beginning he obviously Moses saw in him this is a warrior this is a guy who can lead men and he had called them to lead uh this very beginnings of a a group of of folks when they were when they were having to face a fight coming out of Egypt and from there he went to many battles in the promised land that God had called him to Joshua was a warrior he was a man of strength and action but now advancing in years in his older age the Lord isn’t done with him not by a long shot but the calling has changed the calling has changed and to Joshua’s credit he accept accepted it he accepted the change and he geared up for this transition into this new calling with with many of us you know a church of our savior have you heard the Lord’s call to you in your in your advancing years has the call changed because I know this can be a real frustration I know there can be a real frustration of of you know I can’t do the things that I want to do or the things that I love to do or the things I used to do but have you been listening to the Lord’s voice has he changed the call cuz the call is still there to serve him in his mission field but has the has the way he’s calling you to serve changed have you been able to make that that transition for most I suspect either you haven’t heard the Lord’s call into a new ministry or a new way of of doing mission to which I encourage you to pray and to listen to the Lord um saying you know and just saying to the Lord here I am I’m available I may not be able to do what what I used to do but I can do whatever you want me to do and so here I am call me call me to how you want me to serve
you in your kingdom you know it’s like the old Toby Keef song right I’m not as good as I once was but I’m as good once as I ever was is that appropriate to say from the pull pit no so I I go ahead and ask your forgiveness I apologize I don’t need an email I don’t need uh a note written on the connect card I take it
back or maybe you’ve heard the the call in this transition but you’re struggling with it maybe it isn’t something that you really want to do but in the Lord’s service there is no such thing as Retirement there isn’t just a change in the calling an adjustment but still working in the for the mission so I want to encourage you to pray and ask the Lord and say Here I Am how do you want me to serve in the mission now how has it changed what what do you want me to do but today we turn to another hero of the faith that’s in his advancing years Chuck mentioned him last week uh but this was uh but this evening he really takes center stage and Joshua 14 Chuck was talking about it because uh because whereas Joshua there was you know talking about uh more being more advancing in years and maybe being a little more feeble uh that uh that here uh Caleb declares that he is strong I’m as strong now as I was back 45 years ago now read that a little different than Chuck did but maybe that’s our age difference uh I read that as him just you know you know he’s feisty he’s ready to go I don’t know that he really is as strong as he was 45 years ago but his heart’s in the right place uh but his heart’s definitely in the right place but tonight we’re talking about Caleb Caleb was 40 years old when Moses sent him along with Joshua and others into the promised land to spy it out he was one of the original spies and now it’s 45 years later Caleb’s now 85 years old and now after all this time after all this time 45 years Caleb is now come and he’s come to collect or at least to claim the promise that on behalf of God Moses had made to him 45 years ago can you imagine that waiting 45 years 45 years to receive what God had promised that’s a long I’m 47 I think yeah I’m 47 45 years is a long time to wait on the promise of the Lord and what the was promised to him is that uh the the God had said through Moses that all the land that you’ve set your foot on when you went to spy out the land uh on that ex Expedition is going to belong to you and to your descendants I’m going to give it to you one day and Joshua and Joshua now here in in uh in Joshua 14 gave it to him 45 years to wait on God’s promise but it was never a question of if it was just a question of when it was just a question of when now there’s lots to I think reflect upon when concerning Caleb when we really think about him his long faithfulness to the Lord uh being Chief among them and 45 years since God made that promise Caleb’s been through a lot Caleb has seen a lot he’s experienced a lot he’s inevitably suffered a
lot he’s seen it all The Good the Bad and the Ugly over those 45 years because Caleb lived through the faithlessness and the rebellion of God’s people when he was a young man the people who wouldn’t believe the good report and the faithful report and the the trusting report that he had made about the land when he originally spied it out they wouldn’t believe his report and so God punished them right that he didn’t directly punish Caleb but in an indirect way Caleb gets punished because they got punished and now he had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years waiting waiting on them to finally do what he knew they should have done in the very beginning can you imagine how frustrating that must have been for Caleb I mean gosh I would have complain so much I mean every time I would have said I’m you know you’re doing my work today because I I I did the right thing and you didn’t I think you owe this to me just imagine how frustrating it is he must have been Caleb was forced to wait it out he had to pay for the sins of others even though he in every in every uh indication from the word he was righteous he had done the right thing but he had to pay himself for the sins of others and waited out Caleb then live lived through the conquest and all the fighting and how difficult that must have been seeing the M God’s Mighty acts in in wonderful ways but at times even being part of and experienced the failure of God’s people not living Faithfully to what God had commanded them to Caleb’s been through a lot and so the question I think it presents to us because it tells us that that he was faithful he was faithful to the Lord all this time what do you think gave Caleb the strength and the resolve and the motivation to continue being faithful to endure so much to wait with patience until the Fulfillment of God of the Lord’s promise to him to live through all of the turmoil that he saw well I believe it’s the same thing that gives us strength and gives us resolve and gives us the motivation to endure so much suffering in this world and what we experience in our own lives to be to give us the resolve to be patient and to be gracious toward Wards others and their failures around us to wait with patience until that final promise of God is fulfilled you know when the consummation of all things will come when Jesus will return when he will destroy death once and for all forever creating a new Heaven and a new Earth where we’ll walk with God just as we were always meant
to there’ll be no more sorrow no more suffering No More Death no more te tears only joy Everlasting but until then we do we all face many challenges much suffering we Face sickness and death and Brokenness and relationships all around us what gave Caleb the resolve and the strength and the motivation to wait with patience all of that time what was it that can point us to that same patient resolve that we so desperately need today well to find it I think we got to go back we’ve got to go back back to the events that followed that first spy session that mission back to that point where Caleb said to God’s people told them all about what he had seen and experienced in the promised land the events of of numbers 13 and 14 because in no in numbers 13 verses 25- 29 we get the initial report from the spies and this is what we’re told at the end of 40 days they returned from spying out the land they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of pan and cadesh they brought back word from them with them and to all the congregation and showed him we came to the land to which you sent us it flows with milk and honey this is its fruit however the people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large and besides we saw the descendants of anak there the amalekites dwell in the land of the neb the Hittites the jebusites the amorites dwell in the Hill Country and the Canaanites dwell by the Sea and along the Jordan so basically the report was mixed right the report was uh that the land is good it’s flowing with milk and honey it’s everything God said it was going to be but the people are bad and they’re strong and this doesn’t look good for us that was basically what uh what what they were getting at but then Caleb was full of faith and optimism and strength and this is what he said but Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said let us go up at once and occupy it for we are well aable to overcome it can you see it he’s just he’s full of trust in the Lord It’s really admirable but then the other spies argue against him no sooner he got those words out of his mouth were told then the men who had gone up with him said we’re not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we are so they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out saying the land through which we have gone to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people that we saw in it are of Great Heights and there we saw the Nephilim sons of anac who come from the Nephilim and we see and we seem to ourselves like Grasshoppers and so we seem to them by the time the naysayers are done bad talking everything that that Caleb had just supported the people get all worked up to the point of their grumbling against God and then into full Rebellion against Moses and Aaron and then we get to 14 verses 6-9 Joshua and Caleb speak up together at this
time and this is what they said and Joshua the son of nun and Caleb the son son of jeffan who were among those who would spite out the land tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel the land which we pass through to spy out is an exceedingly good land if the Lord Delights in us he will bring us into the land and give it to us a land that flows with milk and honey only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land for they are bread for us their protection is removed from them the Lord is with us do not fear them when the tensions are high when tensions are high and someone is willing to speak up against the angry mod oh angry mob I think you can know at that point that they’re speaking what’s really truly their conviction what really truly they believe
here we can we can know that in risking their own lives against the rebellious and the angry mob Joshua and Caleb are speaking out of a true conviction what they really believe to be true what they base their convictions on and from verses 6-9 and numbers 14 there are two convictions that drove and motivated Joshua and Caleb number one that the Lord gives good things things to those he Delights in the Lord gives good things to those he Delights in and number two that when the Lord is with us there is no one and there is nothing that can possibly stand against us those were the two convictions that they had that’s what they were speaking out to this angry mob risking their own lives by the way uh and speaking up these were the two truths the Lord gives good things to those he Delights in and when the Lord is with them this there is no one or nothing that can actually stand against us that’s the message they were proclaiming those are those un those are the underlying convictions that motivated Caleb that’s what was in his heart and that’s what gave him the resolve and the patience to wait 45 long and tumultuous years for the Fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to him Caleb knew it was his conviction in his heart of hearts that the Lord delighted in him and that the Lord was with him that the Lord delighted in him and the Lord was with them that’s what motivated him that’s what gave him the ability to endure all those years waiting for the Lord’s promise that was it it’s not more complicated than that those two convictions gave him the incredible resolve and strength and motivation to endure so much while waiting patiently for the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise it allowed him to graciously en endure a rebellious people and the punishment that came from God for their sins it allowed him to to face bravely the forces of evil that stood against them in conquering in the promised land it gave him strength that even at such an advanced age that we just read about he was ready to take on the challenge of his of his inheritance and which taking on the taking on the anakim that still lived there it gave him strength because he knew those two convictions that the Lord delighted him and the Lord was with
him you know what’s happened to us when we lose sight and heart for the Gospel Mission that the Lord has called us to
it’s my contention that what’s really happened is that we’ve lost the conviction that the Lord Delights in us and that the Lord is with us and when those two things are gone when those convictions fade away and begin to demn that’s when we begin to cower in fear and inevitably we just wait around for the end to come we quit living on Mission all together but friends we’ve been given an incredible gospel calling we’re called to be on mission for the Lord to be reaching the lost feeding the hungry caring for the poor raising up the next generation of Christ followers and leaders for our King and as long as there’s breath in our long our lungs and the neurons firing in our brains our service to the mission of the Lord it never
ends whether we’re five or we’re 105 years old it doesn’t matter certainly the Lord will call us according to our level and and capability and strength but we’re always called to serve and continue the mission but without a conviction that the Lord Delights in you and that he is with you always the light of mission will grow dim and eventually it’ll go out altogether so tonight I want to and I’m prayerful that the Holy Spirit Will rekindle the flame and the con that conviction and Us number one that the Lord the Lord Delights in you do you know that do you believe that I mean none of us all the time do no way there’s times when we’re probably feeling like the Lord is not very happy with me right now but what is the what does the scripture mean by that what does it mean when the Lord Delights in you uh it means you actually give God pleasure seems kind of wild doesn’t it it means that he likes you he loves to be with you do you feel that way or do you mostly feel like he just tolerates you or you know that he loves you but he probably doesn’t really want to hang out Zephaniah 3:17 tells that the Lord rejoices over us with singing that’s how he feels about us why does God Delight in us because he doesn’t Delight in just everyone and everything it’s not just a a right of being born that God just Delights in you what makes us different what what makes the Lord Delight in us well uh Psalm 51 has a lot to say about the Lord ‘s Delight uh in Psalm 516 we’re told the Lord Delights in the truth in the inward being so the Lord Delights in what’s in Us in Psalm 51 again in verse 17 it says the Lord does not Delight in sacrifices but in a broken Spirit a broken and contrite heart that’s what the Lord Delights in and then in verse 19 the Lord Delights in righteousness it tells us in Psalm 147: 10-1 it said the Lord does not Delight in the strength of the horse or in the legs of a man but in those who fear Him and hope in h in his steadfast love and then in Ezekiel 18:23 it says the Lord’s pleasure is that the wicked turn from his ways and live that’s what gives the Lord delight and God’s ultimate Delight is in his own son Jesus Christ who he sent into this world to save us that’s why I chose that Gospel reading for us this morning in Mark 1 when when the when God broke the heavens open and sent the spirit down upon Jesus and said you are my beloved Son with you I am well pleased imagine that affirmation from the Lord to hear those words into your own ears and into your own life with you I am so well pleased friends what this means is that when we acknowledge the truth that’s in us that we are sinners in need of redemption and we receive Jesus as our Lord and savior we’re redeemed and we adopted as Sons and Daughters of God through Jesus and Galatians 4:6 says and because you are Sons God has sent his spirit the spirit of his son into our hearts crying ABA father what this means is that through faith in Jesus we are Sons and Daughters we’re Sons and Daughters who bring pleasure to our to our Heavenly Father through our savior who dwells in it by his spirit in us he Delights in us not by what we achieve not by what we’ve accumulated in this world and in this life but by his grace alone through his wellbeloved son do you know God’s Delight in you if you don’t or if you’ve lost it somewhere along the struggles of life I pray that you’ll receive God’s Delight For You Again by receiving the gift of his grace through his son Jesus Christ armed with the conviction of his Delight in you there’s nothing that you cannot do or endure for the sake of the Kingdom because God loves to give to those that he takes Delight in how much more Jesus said will your heavenly father give to you to his son and daughter but Caleb not only had the conviction of God’s Delight in him he also knew that God was always with him th through the those hard 45 years he was always armed with the presence of God friends when we are found in Christ we have the very promise of Jesus that he will never leave us or forsake us that he will be with us always to the very end of the age and that means through the cancer that means through the job loss that means through the the financial struggle that even means through the divorce through our own failures through it all in Christ Jesus Is With Us Always no exception and as Paul said uh in in Romans 8 verse 31-39
What then shall we say 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 the day long we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered no and all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I’m 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 in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
lord that’s what it
means that Christ is always with us when we’re in Christ there is nothing internal there’s nothing external there’s nothing from heaven or even from hell that can separate us from the love of God cuz he’s with us through it all friends God’s Delight is in you he longs to give you all good things and he is with you always and when he is with you no one and nothing can possibly stand against you let us today tonight renew our conviction and these true two truths these truths that gave Caleb the
motivation to to wait with Incredible patience and to endure so much waiting on the promise of God let us Embrace these two conviction that God Delights in us and that he’s with us always that we might be motivated to continue serving him patiently for his Gospel Mission in this world until that day when the Fulfillment of the promise comes and he returns and makes all things new amen
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April started with a bang! Demolition and metal framing quickly transformed the existing space into new areas for ministry and fellowship. A drain was dug for the new restroom (located in the old stairwell), the janitor closet was expanded into the former lift space and electrical was updated. In the new space, mason walls and tie beams were raised to full height, steel stairs were installed, and metal framing downstairs gave shape to the entry, sanctuary, and much needed worship storage areas. After waterproofing and few more loads of cement, a crane raised trusses from the grass field into place. What a sight of organized workmanship – with a crew on the field and on the walls, trusses were flying and finished in a half day.
Next, crews installed the interior steel framing, creating new spaces for worship, ministry, offices, and storage. HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and fire suppression were added, and window glass was confirmed. Stained glass was designed for the stairwell tower and sanctuary. Our cross from the former cupola was re-fitted to the pitch of the new metal roof. The audio, visual, and lighting needs and contractor were finalized to ensure the best possible experience in our new sanctuary. Cabinets, design millwork, attic accesses, flooring, downspouts, and gutters were finalized to ensure plans and materials would be ready as needed. The new stairwell tower was stuccoed and will be painted once it cures, plank siding installation continues, and the shingles are staged for roofing.
Get Our Building Expansion Updates Here###### So please mark your calendars and plan to come celebrate with COOS, we’ll have great food, welcoming fellowship, live music, and fun kid’s games and activities. All are welcome so bring the kids!
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Sixth Sunday After PentecostSunday's livestream service begins in...Day(s)
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor Jim McCaslin
Scripture: Joshua 12
God miraculously enabled Joshua to lead the Israelites into Canaan, the Promised Land, through their faithful obedience, but they lapsed into sinful behavior and therefore enjoyed a time of rest from warfare for only a short while. Joshua obeyed the voice of God, which can often be difficult to discern, despite overwhelming odds and thereby defeated the many kings that controlled the land of Cannan. God continues to offer eternal rest to those who truly come to Jesus, who gained our salvation by his sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary for his burden is easy and whose burden is light.
Transcript[Music]
When Pastor David invited me to preach on Joshua
12 here’s what I texted back to
him to be honest at first glance I have no idea what I would preach about all those kings
I will say this to you we are fortunate to have had Veronica today read our
lesson an obvious expert in ancient HEB ancient Hebrew so I thank you for for getting that through
us we will now learn more about all of the people’s of the land of the Hittites the amorites the Canaanites the perizzites hivites and the jebusites who were these Kings now a king here does not have the sense it typically has in the west today of a ruler of a recognizable Nation more probably these kings were Chiefs in their own towns though there was most likely a hierarchy of kings so that uh some of these such as the kings of Jerusalem or hazor reigned over lesser Kings uh and the list in Joshua 12 as I’m sure you noted is divided into two parts first in verses 1- six we have a listing of the territory captured under Moses east of the Jordan now this is the land occupied by the tribes east of that Jordan River who had left the land behind to join in the campaign you may remember way back in the 32nd chapter of the book of numbers that we got a lengthy descrition description of how the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the Hal tribe of Manasseh who was Joseph’s son stayed on the east side of the Jordan because these tribes had a great number of livestock so they came to Moses and the other tribal Chiefs and asked permission to stay there and not take the westward crossing over the Jordan but Moses said in effect now wait a minute do you expect your brothers and the other tribes to cross over to fight for the promised land while you stay on the Eastern side out of the battle well the issue was resolved when the Eastern tribes promised to leave their wives and their children and their livestock behind on the Eastern side while their men would go over the Jordan and join the fight until the land of Canaan was subdued now second in verses 7 to 24 we have the list of the Kings defeated by Joshua here he is once again affirmed as Moses successor again linking this chapter with the opening chapter of Joshua chapter 1 where we read the Lord said to Joshua the son of nun Moses assistant Moses my servant is dead now therefore arise go over this Jordan you and all this people into the land that I am going to give them to the people of Israel every place that the soul of your feet will tread upon I have given to you just as I promised to Moses well as I first did when I read Joshua 12 you might wonder about the value of a text like this it’s just a listing of all these Kings but it is a roll call of God’s faithfulness as we read in the last chapter of Joshua 11 so Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according according to their tribal allotments and the land had rest from war now the remaining chapters that are still in front of us the remaining chapters of Joshua will focus primarily on the distribution of the land to the various tribes but for now we see that the land had rest because Yahweh won the battle he won the battle because of the OB Obedience of the people and this Victory clearly shows that the Canaanite Kings had no place in God’s purposes and that God Alone was indeed the one true king for Israel God’s purpose was to give them their promised inheritance for Canaan God’s purpose was to bring the long delayed judgment against their sinfulness the Canaanites were known to practice child sacrifice divination sorcery and necromancy which was communication with the dead and Witchcraft which God could not tolerate in the midst of the people he had chosen to be a blessing to the world this week in Joshua 12 despite what seemed like a rather dull listing of these places and kings that Joshua defeated we see the importance of Obed obedience and we see how God’s amazing and miraculous faithfulness to Joshua and the nation of Israel enable these longsuffering people to move into the promised land and to enter into a time of rest all the tribes including those from the east of the Jordan had to commit themselves to God’s purposes for them and only as they obeyed were they allowed to find rest for a time even though the territory east of the Jordan River was not part of God’s initial promise it now became part of the land so that a United people who obeyed God could live in the blessing of his peaceful rest it would not stay that way but it is a sign to us of what a people who are obedient to the faith God can experience God does indeed work through the miraculous but this list is one more pointer that God works more often Through The Obedience of his people it seemed best to Pastor David and our leadership team that we should move to Ocean Park Baptist Church while our building was under renovation we were faced with a question would we follow and be obedient to our senior pastor and our leadership just as the people of Israel were obedient to Joshua I admit I wasn’t wild about driving a bit further for a 5:00 pm worship
service and yet as a wonderful old hymn says there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and Obey what he said we will do where he sends we will go never fear only trust and obey God has never let our savior down as we’ve obeyed his will for us and I have no doubt that his faithfulness to us will always continue just as was the case when Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho our battles even today are clearly against spiritual
forces when I preached back in in April I mentioned that God talks to his people we heard the Lord say talking to Abram all the way back in Genesis 12 I emphasize that God is always talking to his people in our Joshua readings we read over and over again the Lord said to Joshua you know it’s difficult at times to know when it’s the voice of God we’re hearing and it also can be difficult to obey the voice his voice when the circumstances seem to argue against obedience can you imagine what the Israelites were thinking when Joshua told them that they were going into battle against all those kings many of them had to be saying you’ve got to be
kidding have you ever heard a voice you thought you should obey thinking that it might be the voice of God and you just trusted and obeyed despite the circumstances remember Noah back in the six sixth chapter of Genesis God saw that the Earth was corrupt just as there was widespread and long-standing corruption in Joshua’s day with the Canaanite Kings so God said to Noah make an ark of gopherwood for your family and all the animals because I’m going to destroy the Earth with a flood and Noah did all that the Lord commanded him even though his neighbors must have thought he was just plain
crazy now many of you know how I love a good movie that we can learn from even if it’s not a specifically Christian movie well today I want to remind you of such a movie that gives us examples o of obedience when all logic dictates not to listen to The Voice John lson mentions this movie in his wonderful book movies or prayers even today this voice has become perhaps popular Cinema’s most familiar command if you build it he will come now raise your hands if you know what movie that’s from uhuh ahuh I see most of you if you build it he will come yes it’s from one of those Kevin Cosner baseball movies Field of Dreams now even if you don’t care a bit for Baseball Field of Dreams makes you feel what one of its characters describes as the thrill of the grass Kevin Cosner plays Ray Kella who is standing in his Iowa cornfield when he hears that whisper if you build it he will come if you build it he will come the movie in which Iowa stands in for heaven Des depicts one man’s spiritual journey of prayerful obedience given a vision of a baseball diamond Ry decides to BU to build a fullscale field on his farm complete with bleachers and lights doing so is a considerable sacrifice considering that corn could be planted and grown there for a profit and yet Reay obeys I have just created something totally illogical he says Sur surveying the perfectly manufactured grass and straight white lines with a grin his neighbors aren’t as amused and their disdain is a reminder that Christian obedience often doesn’t make sense to an outside world that operates on a different set of rules remember Noah and his ark remember Joshua and the Canaanite Kings obeying God’s voice certainly didn’t seem to make sense for them either if you build it he will come now in case you haven’t seen the movie I won’t bu be a spoiler and tell you who eventually does come to raise Heavenly Ballfield but what about us here at our savior if you build it they will come we’re building a newly renovated building so that they our neighbors will come and join in worshiping the Living God we want to have more room so we can continue to obey God’s mission of proclaiming his is saving good news of Grace to a lost and hurting World later in the movie Ray receives other voice commands ease his pain Go the Distance ease his pain go the distance and following each one of these commands leads to a certain peace for others but as raised bills build up and the potential Farmland remains unused he begins to wonder if he should have left well enough alone if it was worth putting his his farm and his family at risk do we have some doubts when we trust and obey the voice of God when we move to 5:00 worship away from our home Rey finally becomes so frustrated that he says in exasperation I’ve done everything I’ve been asked to but what’s in it for me obedience to to God however doesn’t necessarily come with immediate rewards God moves in his time and in accordance with his purposes we remember his faithfulness to us and we rejoice in His blessings keeping the big picture perspective that by our Godly living more and more of our neighbors may be worn over to Christ now I think I need a water break
and so in Joshua 12 we’ve seen the overwhelming importance of obedience for the people of God now I’d like to turn back to what we read in the last chapter of verse 11 so Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments and the land had rest from war the land had rest from war and I want to look for a few minutes as the rest God gives that flows from our faithful obedience in the first chapter of Joshua he reminded the reubenites the gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh to remember the word that Moses commanded them saying the Lord your God Is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land but all the men of valor among you must take arms and help them to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them only then would the Lord give them rest centuries later the weeping prophet Jeremiah foretold of divine judgment an imminent disaster for the city of Jerusalem for warning of the nation’s idolatry social injustices and moral Decay he prophesied The Siege of Jerusalem as consequences for Disobedience and Jeremiah emphasized the urgency of repentance and the restoration of a covenant relationship with God in one of my favorite Old Testament passages Jeremiah said thus says the Lord stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient pass where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls but they said we will not walk in it it always reminds me that I can find rest for my soul when I return to God’s ancient ways and walk in them the people’s judgment was for their straying from from the ways of the Patriarchs into the ways of idolatry J Jeremiah pictures Travelers who have lost their way and when they arrive at a Crossroads the moment calls for Clear decision to go one way can mean death to go another life the ancient paths and the good way are the same way they are the way of repentance reconciliation and the rest and love of God they are the ways of the Mosaic tradition the result of walking in the way of obedience was peace and rest for the soul but God’s people all too often refuse to walk in the ancient Godly paths in the New Testament Jesus himself speaks of rest for our souls and so we heard today the same gospel as last week in his Great Commission from m Matthew 11: 28-30 Jesus said come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light as Pastor David said last week don’t we yearn for God’s rest for our souls I want to close my thoughts on entering God’s Rest by looking briefly at the highly provocative and somewhat complicated fourth chapter of the book of Hebrews first however I need to back up to the end of Hebrews 3 where we learn that those who rebelled against God were those who left Egypt led by Moses they were not allowed to enter God’s rest because of of their Disobedience now as we move on to Hebrews 4 we see that its theme is God’s rest and the need for faithful diligence in reaching it the chapter speaks directly to Israel’s entry into the land of Canaan and Canaan was intended to be a land of rest for the children of Israel most of them however never entered the promised land and those who did enter canaa with Joshua failed to find the ongoing rest that God intended for them they had rest from war for a time but they did not enjoy the final rest which God has prepared for those who love him because there would continue to be conflict sin sorrow suffering and death in Canaan the Israelites had good news preached to them the good news of Rest In the Land of Canaan but they did not benefit from God’s Gospel of rest because of their unbelief and their Disobedience if they had fully entered into God’s promise of rest then he would not have offered it again some 400 years later in the time of David nor would Jesus had have promised us rest for our souls as we come to him and take on his easy yoke Kaa is used here the promised land as a typ or picture of God’s final Eternal rest and we can’t ever think that the promise of rest is no longer B valid because as we continue to study the Book of Joshua and the story of God’s people throughout history we will see that God’s offering of rest has never had a complete and final fulfillment even until this present day therefore the offer of rest for our souls is still in effect we have had the good news preached to us the good news of eternal life through faith in Christ and we are called here to be Faithfully diligent to strive to enter God’s Eternal rest but we must not be confused here our faithful diligence and our striving in no way means that we must work hard to earn our entry into heaven for as Jesus said on the cross of Calvary it is finished he completed the work of salvation for us by his sacrificial death and glorious Resurrection he paid the full price of our sin debt so that we may enter his final Eternal rest
as we are assured in Ephesians 2: 8-10 It Is by God’s grace that we have been saved by faith it is not of our own doing rather it is the gift of God and not the result of our works so that none of us can boast for we are God’s Works workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand for us to walk in and close cling I return once again to the wonderful old hymn there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and Obey what he says we will do where he sends we will go never fear only trust and Obey and as we trust and Obey with the powerful help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in every believer we are certain of entering God’s Eternal rest and so I say once again thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ amen
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 11
God promises us rest and peace in faithful obedience to His Word. The challenge of the human heart is trust in those promises. We tend to think that we can find rest and fulfilment by doing the things we want to do and fear following God will bring us heartache and disappointment. How can we come to a place of trusting in the promises of God? Only through the goodness of God in the perfect obedience of His Son Jesus Christ.
Transcript[Music]
Yeah how does this passage point us to Jesus right this was uh again another uh brutal uh brutal account from from Joshua uh for those who maybe are our guests for the first time or haven’t been with us uh we’re going through the Book of Joshua uh as we as the Lord Was preparing uh a people for himself his people to be his representatives to for them to be his people in The Chosen land uh to be a blessing to the Nations through this whole time of Conquest he was preparing them he was preparing them to be the people uh that he wanted them to be a people that would listen to his voice a people that would follow him a people that would be a reflection of who he was to to the rest of the Nations to the rest of the world and I believe as we’ve been using we’ve been preaching through and reading this uh this book of Joshua because I believe the Lord’s preparing us to be the kind of people that he wants us to be as he prepares us for the promised land of our our new building uh that is being uh worked on right now uh in this time of waiting he he’s working on our hearts he’s showing us just as he was showing his people who he wants us to be that we might be a blessing to the Nations that we might be a blessing to our communities that we might be uh a blessing and a reflection of the Lord and of his gospel to a people who don’t know him and so last week in Joshua 10 uh we we look closely at these group of gibian ites who are mentioned uh here uh this evening in in Joshua 11 as well of how these these gibian ites who who were the recipients of a very undeserved Grace from God uh they were the only ones who had uh who had come over to the Lord and who had s sought a covenant with uh with God’s people as we heard in that reading no one else did uh but if you’ll remember they did it in a very dubious way in fact in an underhanded way they tricked God’s people uh they told them that they were a people from a far off land but they had heard about all the things that God was doing and so they wanted to come and they wanted to throw their lot in with uh with Israel they tricked them and so uh Israel did make a covenant with them uh only to find out that they had been tricked uh but God didn’t uh didn’t destroy them in fact uh God’s people upheld that agreement uh and lived by it and then in in Joshua 10 specifically when the five Kings of the amorites had heard uh what what these giban ites had done that they had thrown their lot in with Israel they ra the king of Jerusalem uh raised up all the five Kings of the amorites and they came up against the
gianitsos uh but they were full of fear they struggled uh with being able to have a sense of security uh probably because they had been so dubious and how they had uh they had gained the uh the Covenant and the the treaty with Israel itself but how did God respond to these uh to these deceiving giban ites he sent Joshua and the people of Israel they came in a hurry uh as giban ites cried out for help and for Mercy uh that God answered it and God brought Joshua and they rushed to to Israel rushed to the rescue and defeated uh those uh th those five Kings who were attacking and so we learned in the process that to be to be a people who trust in the grace of God that when you have received the grace of God that he is with us and that he helps us and he will rescue us even in the darkest and hardest times of Our Lives that God is worthy of our trust and this week as we turn to Joshua 11 what would I believe Joshua 11 is teaching us and what the Lord is teaching us is that we are to be a people of obedience he’s teaching us that we are to be a people who are obedient to his word but a heart of obedience doesn’t come from just trying harder it doesn’t come from just uh hearing the harsh words of your father on Father’s Day right uh and listening to his word being more doesn’t come being obedient doesn’t come from just being more determined to do what’s right true obedience the kind of obedience that is pleasing to the Lord the kind of obedience that the Lord is looking for from us is birthed by the inworking of the goodness of God in our lives and we see that happening in Joshua 11 and consquently in the way the gospel is revealed to us in Joshua 11 and so I want to to look at this passage a little more closely together this evening uh no one apparently noticed that last week I omitted uh verse chapter 10 verses 29 to 43 43 uh and I was expecting someone to call me on it uh because I had boldly made a claim a few weeks ago that we were going to go through every single word of the Book of Joshua and that I was determined uh well I had to give in it was really long and there was not enough time so uh so I hope you went back and you you read about the the rest of the conquest of Southern Canaan uh because that’s what those verses were about uh and since you didn’t complain you either didn’t notice uh or you’re just so full of grace and compassion and love for me that uh uh which I’m sure is the case that uh that you didn’t care to mention it uh but today we turn to Joshua 11 and here as we ended that chapter the previous chapter ended with the conquest of Southern Canaan uh today is the conquest of Northern Canaan and in truth it’s much the same it’s much the same as what was revealed in southern Canaan uh when the northern Nations and their kings heard about the southern Conquest uh they they rose up together they gathered their troops and unified as one Army uh it was a little different the five Kings they all in the in the South and the amorites they gathered but they weren’t really unified under one leader uh they were a little bit scattered with the five Kings Still uh leading their respective armies but here they came together and they fight against the Israel as one and we’re told in verse four that they were a great horde a number like the sand that is on the seashore with very many horses and chariots so it’s it’s a formidable force that is uh that is standing before Joshua in Israel but in verse six the Lord said this to Joshua do not be afraid of them for tomorrow at this time I will give over all of them slain to Israel does this sound familiar it should if you’ve been with us during this series this is a repeated pattern over and over and over again it started in Joshua chapter 1 and since I know our memories are not so great uh I’m going to go back to to remind you this is what uh in calling and commissioning Joshua this is what God Said to Joshua no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life just as I was with Moses so I will be with you I will not leave you or forsake you be strong and courageous for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them only be strong and very courageous being careful to do according to the law that which Moses my servant commanded you do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may have good success wherever you go this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success have I not commanded you be strong and courageous do not be frightened and do not be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go and then in Joshua CH 3: 7 and 8 the Lord said to Joshua today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all of Israel that they may know that as I was with Moses so I will be with you and as you command the priest to Bear the Ark of the Covenant again God pro makes a promise and he gives Direction in Joshua CH 4 verses 1 through3 the Lord says when when all the nations had finished passing over the Jordan the Lord said to Joshua take 12 men from the people from each tribe a man and command them saying take 12 Stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan from The Very place where the priest Fe feet stood firmly and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you where you lodge tonight again the command to Joshua and Joshua listened and the people followed Joshua to five God commanded Joshua to circumcise the sons of Israel and they obey Joshua then follows where the Lord LED and Joshua six in the fall of Jericho verses 2 and three this is what we’re told and the Lord said to Joshua see I have given Jericho into your hands and its king and the Mighty Men of Valor you shall March around the city all the men of War going around the city once remember and then the big display of the Anglican procession that happened around uh around Jericho but then we get to Joshua 7 and there was a break there was a break and Joshua 7 God did not command and yet the people took it on themselves to go and scout out Ai and they took uh and then their own human judgment they sent just a few to conquer the city and they were routed and defeated but then after repentance and returning to the Lord in Joshua 8 verses 1 and two and the Lord said to Joshua do not fear and do not be dismayed take all the fighting men with you and arise go to AI see I have given into your hand the king of AI and his people his City and his land and then Joshua 10 and defend being called to defend gibian and the Lord said to Joshua do not fear them for I have given them into your hand it’s a pattern that go over and repeats itself over and over and over again and God makes a promise and a command at the same time calling them to action and then we see again and again Joshua obeys by faith and directs Israel into following where the Lord’s leading and by obedience and following the Lord and where he’s leading they’re Victorious they succeed they’re prosperous just as God had had promised to Joshua when he commanded when he uh consecrated him and called him to take command of Israel the pattern this pattern goes all the way up back even further it goes for we see it in Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and in Moses god commands by way of Promise he calls to faithful obedience and through faithful obedience there’s success and blessing and victory and here in Joshua it continues God gives Joshua the promise and with that promise a command and Joshua obeys by faith and God gives them the victory over the northern
kingdoms it’s a beautiful site it’s one that makes sense right but there’s a flips side to this as well back in back back to Joshua’s call from God in the beginning in Joshua 1 he said only be strong and courageous being careful to do according to all the law that Moses the servant my servant commanded you do not turn from it to the right or to the left that you may have good success wherever you go God’s promise is dependent upon their obedience for its success but what and what success would that be well uh Joshua 1 says that they will prosper so the other side of it is depart from God’s command and you will face defeat and failure it’s what happened at AI that we saw in Joshua 7 Joshua 11 gives us another picture though of what faithful obedience to God’s command ultimately gives us in our lives at the very end of 11 in verse 23 that very last sentence almost kind of seems like a throwaway sentence right we’re told this and the land had rest from War and the land had rest from war after all the conflict after all the battles after all the the Bloodshed all the the cleansing of what had been happening in Israel under under these nations that have been occupying the promised land that God had had an abundance of patience for but now had brought his judgment upon now through faithful obedience to the command of God there’s finally rest there’s finally rest well what does that mean that there’s finally rest well the word the Hebrew word it means to be quiet or to be undisturbed it’s also translated as peace there was finally peace in the land faithful obedience to the command of God brings peace in the land peace between nations and peace with God and this is what we’re really longing for isn’t it aren’t we all longing for that peace isn’t there just a sense of of relief especially having been been reading Joshua all this time uh and it’s been harsh it’s been difficult I mean to make a movie of Joshua it’s getting an our rating uh unless you really dumb it down it’s getting an R rating there’s there’s no there’s no other way but there’s this longing we have in the human heart for peace what a relief that finally rest has come and I think we all every one of us want that kind of Peace we want that kind of rest on this Father’s Day don’t we just us fathers don’t you just want a little rest don’t ask me anything don’t tell me to do anything today I just want peace but we want peace in our lives we want peace in our country we want peace in our world and God has given us and Joshua 11’s pointing us to the path of peace that he is offering to us it’s through faithful obedience to his command that’s where peace comes from there’s no other way the only way to peace is righteousness with God to be in a right relationship with him and so if you want peace be obedient that’s the right just requirement of the law no problem right so go home resolve your will be obedient tomorrow you’ll have
peace this is actually a big problem it’s a big problem and it’s a problem that’s more than we ourselves can bear because no matter how righteous we think that we are and I know we all think that we are Romans 3:10 Paul who’s referencing Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 he wrote this no one is righteous not one no one understand understands no one seeks after
God this peace that we long for this rest with God and man it requires it’s demanded perfect obedience to God’s law all the time not just in in in fleeting moments it requires perfect obedience without exception and we can’t make it through one morning without seeking after our own good and our own desires and our own wants above Gods Joshua 11 reveals the righteous requirement of God and the blessing of the obedience through the leadership of one man Joshua and Israel under his leadership is now enjoying peace as he has directed them to act Faithfully in obedience to God’s promise and command but that peace that came through The Obedience of God’s command this rest that’s now upon the land it’s going to be shortlived
in the coming chapters things are going to turn and it’s going to be a constant up and down up and
down in the coming chapters this peace this rest is going to turn to a curse the curse of Disobedience to God the curse of conflict of Brokenness and ultimately The Curse Of Death itself so so what is the good news here how does this point us to the gospel all of the Gospel all of the Old Testament all the prophets all of the law it all is pointing us to Jesus he’s the Fulfillment of it so how is this pointing us to him how is this good news for us is there any good news in this for us is there a hope for rest is there a hope a possibility for the peace that we’re l longing for when Faithful righteous obedience is the only way and none of us is righteous not one of
us well there is there is hope in fact there’s our only hope because God wants us to know peace God wants us to know Eternal rest Everlasting rest in our lives it’s what he Longs for us he created us for rest he created us for peace and it’s only our own sin our own Disobedience that keeps us in a state of conflict in a constant state of strife with one another and God began to reveal his plan for our peace even in the Old Testament even through his prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 32: 14 to1 18 I I’ll paraphrase it for us here but God declares the spirit will be poured out from on high and righteousness will abide and the effects of righteousness will be peace a quietness and a trust forever my people will abide in peaceful habitation in Secure dwellings and in quiet resting places that’s beautiful that’s the kind of place I want and the reason what this reveals is the reason why we struggle so much to obey the reason we struggle is because we don’t in our heart of hearts believe that God’s promises are reliable that’s what’s really going on here that’s why obedience just we can’t muster it not in any kind of a sustainable way we just don’t believe that God way is good and that if we deprive ourselves of what we want and what we think is good in this life that what God’s will is is better and it’s good and that we will actually prosper and that we will actually find rest there and
fulfillment that me think about it the with the implications of this of all of God’s commands right that if we abstain from sex outside of marriage that we’re actually going to be happy and that we’ll actually experience love and that we’ll find fulfillment we don’t believe it and so we don’t obey or that that if uh we love God more than money that we’ll actually find the security that our hearts are longing for we’ll find that rest that peace that wholeness and and so on and so on of all of God’s commands we struggled to obey because we struggled to believe and to trust that God’s
good that’s where the break is the struggle today that so many are having with sexual identity Underneath It All is a disbelief that God’s good and that his plan for our identity how he made us that it was was best for us and that it was good and it was best for all of creation we don’t believe it people don’t believe it how could that be better than the way I want to identify myself because that’s going to bring me fulfillment that’s going to bring me the peace and the rest if I can finally get to that transition to where I want to be at the end of it I’m going to find the rest and peace that I’m so desperately longing
for so what’s God’s answer how does God answer our doubt how does he how does he answer this disbelief in our own lives to prove to us without a doubt how good he actually is and how much he actually loves us and that he wants what’s best for us God’s answer is this that he sent his one and only son into the world to save us friends there’s there’s a reason why Jesus said in in Our Gospel reading this morning or this afternoon sorry or evening it’s getting later and later there’s a reason why Jesus said come to me all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest I will give you rest he’s talking about that same word the rest that we all desire the peace that we’re all longing for that it can in fact be found that it’s available to us the Fulfillment but it’s only found and fulfilled in Jesus because Jesus alone heard the command and the promise of God Faithfully abeed all the way to his own death on the cross and through his obedience he gained our ultimate victory over sin and death and the devil friends that’s the gospel that’s the good news that is our only hope that God in his goodness has according to Titus 3:5 saved us not because of our works of righteousness but according to his own Mercy by the working of the Regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit through our Lord Jesus Christ and then Peter said in 1 Peter 3:18 for Jesus also suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous that we that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but being made alive in the spirit friends our hope is not in our own ability to be obedient that’s not our hope but in the faithful Obedience of Christ unto death and that’s where the Assurance of faith comes from because it’s it is the work of a good and loving God for our
Salvation it’s God’s Act of loving kindness his compassion as a father shows compassion to his children so God shows compassion to those who fear Him it’s through his loving kindness and his goodness that gives birth in our hearts through the work of his holy spirit a new life a newfound desire and a freedom to believe him and to be obedient and to follow where he’s leading because now through the experience of God’s loving grace in our lives we can trust once and for all that he’s good amen let us pray heavenly father thank you that you are good and that we can believe you and we can trust you that you are
compassionate but Lord there’s only one way to obedience and that’s through experiencing your goodness in our lives being given the new birth of the Holy Spirit a new heart that knows we can trust you that your way is best and that if we follow things may not go the way that we want them to but they will go in a way that is good and right and pleasing better than anything we ever could have done done for ourselves will you teach our hearts to obey as we experience your goodness in our own lives through the power of your gospel we pray this Jesus in your mighty name amen
Fourth Sunday After PentecostSunday's livestream service begins in...Day(s)
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 10
No matter how much we like to think differently, we are insecure people. We are always worried about being forgotten or abandoned. This is true of all our relationships including God. We worry that God will not show up to help us and save us in our times of need. Joshua 10 tells us of a grace filled God who helps and saves even the most unworthy sinners just like us.
Transcript[Music]
Well for those uh who have not been been with us maybe visiting today or if uh you haven’t been here for a while just a reminder of we’re going through the uh the Book of Joshua and we’re doing this for a reason because while we’re here uh at uh Ocean Park Baptist I believe the Lord’s preparing us for uh the promised land of the of the building that that he has uh provided for us that we’re in the midst of building and and in Joshua’s time uh God Was preparing his people uh that they would be uh his light to the Nations and he was preparing them not just to conquer the land he was preparing them to trust him and to be the kind of people uh that he wanted them to be that he they might truly be a reflection uh of him to the Nations around them a blessing to the Nations as God had called uh Abraham long before to be and so that’s what’s happening in the Book of Joshua God is preparing them as a people to occupy the land uh and and I believe he’s preparing us in this time as we uh as we wander here at Ocean Park Baptist for a time he’s preparing us to be the people he wants us to be to be a light for the gospel in the new land that he’s calling us to that we get to go watch uh we get to go uh see what’s the uh the update of what’s been going on firsthand uh today which which is exciting now for those who may just be stepping into Joshua uh as it was reminded to me and hearing it out loud it’s a little more striking this is a violent book it is a violent book If you ever wanted to know where does Jr tolking get uh the imagery for many of the battles that that he wrote about uh and Lord of the Rings and and the selan and his Works uh it comes from Joshua a lot of that imagery comes from Joshua of course tolken was also uh fought in World War I and was in the trenches and so we saw things firsthand but it it is a violent book and it can be it can be hard to kind of reconcile can it uh and so I’ll remind you I mentioned it weeks ago when we were uh really getting into the Battle of Jericho uh we have to understand that what’s going on here isn’t a universal principle that God has called uh his people to wipe out uh all those who are are opposed to uh to the one true God this this this isn’t that at all this is a specific instruction a specific time it’s a time of judgment that God has placed upon uh the the Canaanites the amorites uh all those ites that were living in the land of Canaan uh God had waited 700 years 700 years he had waited uh for them and hopes that they would turn and turn to him and uh but the time of judgment has come and this isn’t just a a judgment uh a physical judgment this is a spiritual judgment God is going to war with the false gods of the Canaanite people and he is showing them to be superior that they uh that that they cannot overcome him and so it does seem violent uh and it is we can’t right we’re we’re not not can’t just uh explain it away we have to accept it uh for what it is and how serious God is about demonstrating his righteousness and who he is and using his people uh as his holy Army to bring the this cleansing that he has called them to but but the book is also full of grace it’s full of grace and sometimes in some unexpected places and we see that in particular I Believe In this passage in Joshua 10 this morning last week we were introduced to the gibit uh Chuck preached a sermon on on Joshua N but do you remember the giban ites came to uh they had seen what had happened at Jericho uh they had seen what had happened at AI uh they knew that that that this massive army of the Lord was coming uh and so they decided and they were fearful of it uh and they recognized that there was something that was going on here that God was with them and was they were having great success and so their idea of out of this fear a right fear by the way uh their idea how they should act out of the sphar was to deceive the people of Israel and Joshua and so they came to them and they told them that they were they were from a far off land but they had heard what God had done and they wanted to make a covenant with the people of Israel a treaty and uh and so the people of Israel uh questioned them a bit but then made that agreement with them that they would uh that they would be uh that they would be partners in this or that they would not destroy them only then to find out that these were the gibeonites these were people of the land of Canaan uh they had tricked them and so when they found out they went and they they they faced them but they what what what did they deserve the giban ites they deserved to have the treaty ripped up uh and to uh and for to have the full Judgment of God upon them but that’s not what happened actually the opposite happened they said no we made a treaty with you and we will honor that if we if we don’t honor that then God’s Wrath will be upon us only you will will be you will serve the Lord and his altar by being wood cutters and serving the table uh that’s what what you will be with in our midst and so uh that’s how the gianitsos
Tua 10 we we run into the these gibit again uh and we run into a testing of what this treaty is really going to do for them and so we we learn in chapter 10 that the five Kings of the of the of the region uh of the Hill Country have come out to fight against the gianitsos
[Music] sit by and let this happen and so they raised up all the the major Kings of the Hill Country and they assembled together these five Kings assembled their armies together and made war against the gianitsos
going to be afraid but there’s a less obvious reason for why they would be afraid as well and I think the the fear that they’re feeling is a fear that Israel is going to abandon them there’s a fear that Israel and by by connection God himself who they’ve seen do all these Mighty works is going to abandon them that God and Israel are going to relax act their hand why why would they have that fear well I think there’s a number of reasons but because they had deceived in the first place right they had deceived and so they knew in their own hearts that they had tricked them into making that Covenant uh and out of that you know that uh out of fear about what God would do to them of what he had seen happen in Jericho uh but they when they found out they didn’t break the treaty the people of Israel as I said before the Covenant stood but now that Calamity is upon them and the mighty these Mighty Warriors which we were told the people of gibian are Mighty Warriors they’re afraid they’re afraid that Joshua and and Israel and by extension then God himself is going to abandon them all they had to count on was the grace of God that’s all they had to go on because they certainly didn’t do anything to earn the right did they they did quite the opposite they deceived they had earned the right to be uh they out of their own uh deviousness to be destroyed they had earned the right to be neglected in this moment of their greatest need and there and then their heart of hearts they knew it they knew it now all they could rely upon was the good graces of Joshua and Israel and God himself so they cried out for help come up they said come up quickly and save us and help us that’s all they could do in this place of need this place of complete fear was to cry out to God help us save us so what did Joshua and Israel and God do with these devious Sinners who had tricked the people of Israel and God himself what would God do with them well the first thing we’re told is that Joshua went went quickly he responded he responded quickly making uh making marching throughout the night which was not an easy thing to do and especially if you knew cut the next when you got there you were going straight to battle marching through the night uh was something that was dangerous if anyone who studied history uh you if you in the Roman EMP Empire if you’ve ever studied uh I was I’ve been listening to the short history of podcast I highly recommend it if you have’t listen to it uh it’s really really helpful but uh when you listen to the the great uh slave revolt and Sparticus and the historical The Narrative of it what what got Spartacus in the end in all of their great Army was that they were surprised because pompy’s Army marched through the night his Legion and they weren’t expecting it when it got there and they were defeated the same thing happens here they marched through the night to get to them they came quickly they risked it all they pushed harder to come and help to save these devious sinful people who would trick them and when they got there they took the Amorite King by surprise secondly we see that God was with them and we see that in a number of ways number one God gave his Assurance in verse eight the Lord said to Joshua do not fear them for I have given them into your hands so God by supporting Joshua in all this is supporting the gibit these sinful devious tricksters secondly in verse 10 we see that the Lord uh threw them through the the five Kings and their armies into an absolute Panic before isra Israel so God is reaching God is helping God is answering their cry for help even though they didn’t deserve it and then in verse 11 the Lord threw down large hail stone Stones upon the amorites killing more than the Israelites did with their swords God was involved God was supporting the gianitsos
has right verses 12 to 14 the sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day there has been no day like it before were told or since when the Lord heeded the voice of a man Joshua for the Lord fought for Israel God was in this why would God go to such an extent to make the sun set still in the sky because again he’s making it clear this is a spiritual battle he’s defeating these false gods these demons that they’re being worshiped in the land of Canaan and he is defeating them he is there he doesn’t want anyone to mistake it that this is just a bunch of just an army coming in who’s mightier who’s going to get the glory he’s making it very clear that it’s him that he’s the one and so finally the five Kings were defeated as they were hiding in those caves and we read about
that so Joshua Israel and God did all of this for a bunch of undeserving
deceivers yeah it’s true that this battle served a greater purpose right of of continuing the purpose of the conquest of the land it certainly did but there could have been better more advantageous ways for for Israel have entered into battle with these
Kings but what an incredible picture even in the midst of all the violence in the midst of all the Judgment what an incredible picture of God’s grace at work for the gianitsos
Sha 10 we are the giban ites we’re the undeserving recipients of the grace of God I know we want to be the Mighty Warriors uh I know that’s who we we want to be we want to be Joshua we want to identify with all them but in this in this account we’re the gibeonites Romans 58 but God showed his love for us in this while we were still sinners Christ died for us while we were still sinners Sinners while we were just like the
gianitsos so that when the face of of a great Army was in front of them they were fulled of
fear it’s hard for us to trust because of the grace we’ve received that he’s with us in our greatest time of need it’s hard to trust that he’s going to actually Deliver us it’s hard for us to trust that that he’ll provide for what we need when we need it not what we want when we want it now if we had done something to earn our Salvation if we had been done something that we could cling on to and we could we could call God on then we could demand God to act on our behalf well I did my part of the bargain now you’ve got to do your part of the
bargain but instead God has called us to trust him alone to trust his grace alone and that my friends is the hardest thing of all
we’re all Afraid on some level that God is going to relax his hand just as the gibeonites were afraid we’re afraid that God’s going not going to come through in other words that that word relax what another way of translating it is to abandon there’s this part of us and every single one of us there’s there’s a fear that God’s going to abandon us and and it’s that fear of Abandonment from God that makes us do some really unhealthy things it’s that heart that that that fears that abandonment that makes us act out of it uh one of those things is we build up walls in our relationships with God and we build up our walls with relationships with others we’re probably we we can become afraid of being vulnerable with people because being vulnerable means that we’re we’re we’re just opening ourselves up to being
hurt because we think that we can’t trust God that he’s really going to be with us that if we are vulnerable that he’ll always be there to save us and that he’ll never leave us or forsake us another way is that uh in our fear we have this tendency to quickly attach ourselves to people and things other than God to look to them for our help to Pride to them for uh for salvation we can’t trust that God’s going to be the one to help us because we have this fear of Abandonment so we had better get obsessed about our financial portfolio right we better pay attention every day to the state of the market because those are the things that are going to save us because God will abandon us we may not say it outright but we’re think deep in our hearts we’re thinking it and it’s coming out or maybe it’s this we had better be overly controlling of our children’s lives and not give them freedom to make their own mistakes you know the whole helicopter Mom and Dad
thing it’s a great Temptation because it’s hard because we think God’s not going to be there to help them I’ve got to do it I’ve got to be the one to to save them I’ve got to be the one to protect them from every bad thing that could ever happen to them why because we have a fear that God will abandon and that he won’t act to help and to save another is that in our fear of Abandonment we can have this tendency to run away from relationships from growing closer to God because again we’re afraid that he’s going to leave us or from running from other people because we have this fear that they’re going to let us down as well or how finally this one a fear in our out of our fear of Abandonment it causes us to become emotionally
unavailable even to the people that we love most in our
lives even to
God maybe you prefer in worship that uh that becomes dry and root because you’re you’re we’re because become afraid that if we really give ourselves fully over to the Lord because what if he doesn’t show up what if he doesn’t show up what if he isn’t there what if he doesn’t come to meet me in my time of need how about in our marriages or our closest relationships and friendships we can become afraid out of this fear of Abandonment to be emotionally available because what if our spouse or our friend our loved one what if they don’t reciprocate it so we just become unavailable to protect ourselves all of this stems from our spiritual insecurity we’re fragile because in the depths of our heart we are incredibly insecure we do not believe that God is going to help us we do not believe that God is going to save us we don’t believe that God is going to be there when we really need him just like the gibeonites but the hope of the Gospel is this that just as God fought for those deceiving giban ites by his grace alone God always comes to help us he always comes to save us when we cry out to him the God who sent his son into the world to die for us while we were still sinners while we were still
deceivers he promises us that same God never to leave us and never to forsake us every struggle we Face may not be as o overwhelming or as obvious as Joshua 10 and the five Kings of the ammonites standing uh and making war against us but we know even in what we’re facing that as Paul proclaimed in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 57 God has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ things may not always work out the way that we want them to but we know that we have been given the ultimate Victory and Jesus’s victory over sin and death itself and his resurrection from the grave and because of that we’re free we’re free to let God and others into our lives we’re free from the need to rely on the stock
market and ourselves as our children’s saviors and protectors we’re free to stay in relationships even the really difficult ones and the risky ones because God is with us always even to the End of the Age we’re free to make ourselves emotionally available to God and to people in our lives because he’s here and he is reigning
Victorious all
because we are fully secure in our relationship with God because of the finished work of Our Savior Jesus Christ do you know that kind of Freedom have you found yourself emotionally unavailable to the people you love or maybe even hiding away from God out of
fear have you found yourself facing these fears of Abandonment of God maybe you’ve given up hoping for things or expecting God to show up because you’ve been hurt so many times because things haven’t worked out the way that you want them to but what we’re learning in Joshua 10 and what God wants to prepare in us as a heart for a people who are going to be a light to the Nations is that we be a people of great expectation that he is with us that we’ve been given the Victory and that he will never leave us or forsake us even if he doesn’t show up the way that we may want him to in the moment he shows up the way that we need him to every
time friends our relationship with God is ruled by
Grace not by law let us re choice and let us find Freedom in the victory that we’ve been given amen [Music]
Third Sunday After PentecostSunday's livestream service begins in...Day(s)
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor Chuck Holiday
Scripture: Joshua 9
When we remember that we are sons and daughters of our gracious Heavenly Father we are freed from the temptation to try to negotiate deals with him for our forgiveness or blessing.
Transcript[Music]
Great to see you all again and uhu um hope you’re having a good weekend so far and you know it’s a still hard to get used to this time in Sunday afternoon isn’t it does it feel like Sunday to anybody today it’s just it’s it’s it’s messes with me a little bit but uh it is nice to gather on Sunday evening ings any of remember when used to go to church Sunday morning and Sunday evening yeah um but this you know this is a um I feel like when David kind of picked the sermons he wanted me to preach in this book I got the I got the pick of the litter you know he he really gave me a couple of wonderful passages that uh are just so full of the Gospel um and this one is particularly interesting the story the gibeonites you know because they believed God they
lied they they uh they believed that God was Yahweh was God they believed that he was going to do what he said he was going to do and that they were in trouble and so what did they do they said we better make a deal we better make a deal with God uh they they acted out of Faith but it wasn’t a very good it wasn’t a very rich Faith was it but you know what struck me when I was reading this uh preparing for this it’s like wow that sounds a lot like me how many times do I settle for trying to make a deal with God as if I’m a slave or a servant rather than believing that I’m a son and that I already have everything I would try to deal with to get and and particularly what hit me was the contrast with Rahab you know there’s so much similarity between rahab’s story which I got to preach on uh earlier in the book and this story The gites you know if you read both Joshua 2 and Joshua 9 I mean both of these were were two individuals coming from very Pagan cultures uh lives that were not aligned at all with God’s revealed will they were but they when they heard about Yahweh and they heard what Yahweh had done in Egypt and when they heard what Yahweh had done in the the pilgrimage you know to the promised land they believed that they were in trouble they absolutely believe that Yahweh is with Israel and we don’t have a chance we’re in
trouble they they both ended up in Israel
as as part of God’s redeemed Community now that’s what’s similar between Rahab and the gibeonites but but there is a one Stark
difference Rahab appealed to the mercy of God if you go back and read chapter 2 the story of Rahab which we won’t do again tonight but she her appeal was may the Lord show his kindness has said his his unmar favor may God be merciful to me and my
family the gibian ites went a different route they didn’t they they their faith didn’t take them that far so they settled for a lie they and you know we could easily have a whole sermon on you know why you shouldn’t uh lie and and why as Christians we should be you know be more careful to consult with the Lord before we go into treaties and make deals and all that’s valid moral teaching from the law and we need the law of God but but you know I don’t I don’t want us to settle for a sermon that a Jew or a Mormon could preach you know we need to find the gospel every time we preach and so we’re not going to we’re not going to spend too much time thinking about what the Israelites should have done or shouldn’t have done I want you to focus on uh the difference between Rahab and the gibit because I think at least for me when I when I get into this I find myself here in this story sometimes I act like Rahab with a lot of faith that I can just appeal to the goodness and gracious character of God no matter where I’ve been and what I’ve done knowing it’s all mercy and it’s all Grace and there are other times I act like the gibeonites I got to make a deal I’m in trouble unless I can come up with some kind of deal to get off the hook it’s not it’s not that I’m one or the other I’m both sometimes I act in full faith in the character of God and the and I can live out of the Gospel other times I act like a slave you know Arch Bishop sec who was uh the Archbishop of canbury back in the 1850s um he’s got this great line he said God has three kinds of servants he has slaves that serve him out of fear he has hirelings that serve for their wages and then he has sons that serve because they love him now Archbishop Seer was an interesting guy I don’t know a lot about him but um you know he he lived lived in a day when people were leaving the Anglican Church in in in great flocks to the Methodist to the Methodist John and Charles Wesley had started quite a Revival and methodism was was taking over much of the Anglican world people were beginning to say well we don’t need all this fancy stuff and you know we need to get a more personal relationship with God and we need to and and to his to his credit he didn’t he didn’t give up his his role as the leader of the Anglican world but he said guys let’s be humble enough to listen to them and he encouraged his priests instead of instead of chastising your people when they go out to the fields for these these tent meetings why don’t you talk to them about what’s drawing them there why don’t you talk to them about how we can Pastor their souls better and he really had it showed a lot of humility and a lot of maturity and um because somewhere along the line it dawned on him that we can be so locked into the church World in our customs even our customs of doing good things that we begin to feel like we’re serving out of fear for what God will do to us if we don’t go to church or we’ll serve as hirelings thinking he’s going to bless me because I did go to church and we forget that we’re sons and daughters and we go because we love him and we serve him because he’s good and gracious and we don’t have to twist his arm to get him to bless us I want you to think about that with me this evening a little bit U you know one of the again I I don’t I don’t my message is not are you a slave are you a hireling or are you a son that’s not it CU I honestly I think most of us really do know Jesus and the Bible says if you’ve received Jesus as your savior put your trust completely in him you are a son or a daughter you that’s what you are but the truth is we don’t always act like it do we sometimes we act more like slaves don’t don’t you find yourself still sometimes fearful as a Christian or don’t you find sometimes that you think you’re you’re going to get a better blessing because you’re work harder for Jesus now now think about here here’s one of the clearest marks you can ever see in your heart about when you’re not acting like a son or a daughter when you feel in the instinctive need to make a deal with God because friends Sons and Daughters don’t need to make a deal debie I’m so glad you picked that that song for us good and gracious King because man it it just says it all doesn’t it you know do you believe that our father is a good and gracious King you don’t have to twist his arm to bless you you don’t have to to do something heroic to get him to forgive you Jesus did it Jesus did your work he died on the cross to pay for all your sins and he earned all the blessings that a person could ever earn and he gives them to you you because when you are Christian you are in Christ he he lived in your place and he died in your place and what you do is receive your status as a son or a daughter and you’re free Jesus said to the Jews in John John 8 the passage Jim wrote you say you’re sons of Abraham but you’re slaves and I came to give you freedom
now my friends we’re we’re sons and daughters but so often we act like slaves don’t we fearful anxious and you and the way you’ll know it one of the ways you’ll know it is when you find yourself making deals with God how do we make deals ever start a new business and dedicate it to the Lord in the back of your mind that thought if if I promise him you know a tithe of my prophets or if I if I promise him that I’ll never cut any Corners if I promise him that I’m going to try to hire you know people who were just getting out of release from prison I’m going to do something good with my business then surely God will bless my
business now those are all good things but but in the back of your mind your thought is but and now I know God’s going to bless my business you’re making a deal as if you have to promise God this and this and this in order for him to bless your business right um so often young people get married making a deal they they pledge themselves to a course of virginity until their marriage date they they pledge themselves to to being a Godly husband a Godly wife and it feels like the guarantee that now God owes me a wonderful marriage because I did it right because I did the courtship right because I I was loyal and faithful in my marriage now God owes me a blessed a blessed marriage well it can be quite a shock to to give yourselves as fully and as you know how to give yourselves to obedience and your sexual Purity and your married marital faithfulness and and wake up one day and find out you’ve been cheated
on it’s like how do you process that because in the back of your in in and in when you find bitterness when you find resentment when you find like well wait a minute God what does that reveal you were working on a deal you didn’t say it may maybe you didn’t even say it to yourself but the implicit feeling you had was if I do it God’s way then God owes me this uh certainly it hits us as parents when our kids go astray like God we we gave them to you we baptized them we dedicated them we raised them in the church we taught them right and wrong how can this happen
right if it feels like God didn’t hold up his part of the bargain which just means you thought you had a
deal you thought you had a deal now the sad thing is that you think you had to make a deal because God is a good and gracious King there’s not one good thing we can do to add to the blessing that Christ has has already earned for us not one
thing and there’s not one sin you can commit that is going to take you out of the favor of your heavenly
father you can’t believe that unless you believe the gospel but my friends that’s the difference between Rahab and the gibit
want some more examples how about when your health starts to go south you know you get that terrible diagnosis do you do you find yourself on your knees promising God that you’re going to get back to church on a more regular
basis how about when you’re in financial distress do you find yourself saying okay God I will tithe I you’ve been you you’ve been pricking my conscience about this I I’ve been getting these letters from the church for years and years and years okay I’m going to start
tithing because maybe that’s the only way out of this financial stress I’m under my friends there’s so many ways we try to make deals with God and frankly it’s offensive to him he said don’t you believe that I’m your
father you don’t have to do anything to get me me to love you you don’t have to do anything to try to twist the blessings out of my hands now a great New Testament example is Jesus story in in Luke 15 you remember the the older brother and the younger brother again I’m not for time sake I’m not going to I’m not going to read it but
um the older brother stayed home and kept the rules remember he was an obedient son the younger brother said I’m going to make a deal you know I’m I I this is boring staying home and obeying the rules is boring and I and I can’t wait for my inheritance so he makes a deal with his father Dad how about how about you give me my inheritance now the father says okay and you know he goes off and he’s wanders at all prostitutes and drinking and just riotous living and just makes a mess out of his life and you know the story when he’s finally at the end of his rope he’s feeding Pigs and the pigs are eating better than he is and he and he says what am I doing my my father has all these servants who are eating better than I am I’m going to go home and beg for mercy so he so he comes home and he says father I I’ve been a bad son will you make me like one of your higher hands just let me be a servant and what does the father say oh you can come home but not as a
servant he takes the family robe and the family ring and he puts the ring on his finger and the robe around him and he kisses them and he and and it says he profusely kissed him he wouldn’t stop kissing him he says oh you’re home but you’re not a servant you’re my son right now what does the older brother do wait a minute wait a minute dad sure he can come
home but are you saying we’re
equal and and the older brother actually uses these words he said all these years I’ve been here slaving for you which just tells us he too is working on a deal it just was never explicitly stated but in his mind it was no different he was keeping the rules for the same reason the younger brother was breaking the rules they’re working on a deal it’s like I’ve got to get the blessings of life for myself because I don’t really believe that I father is a good and gracious King I don’t really really believe
it it’s powerful isn’t it how many times do we get through our day forgetting that we’re sons and daughters that all our righteousness is in Christ all of it you can’t do one good deed that’s going to add to the Merit that you have to present to God not one thing that doesn’t mean he’s not pleased with your your good deeds of course he he’s delighted in them say well what’s my reward then when you ask that question you prove you’re not acting like a
son if there’s a reward it’s the reward of being able to please him it’s the reward of being able to be like him to bless somebody
when you start thinking I’m going to get more because of what I give and what I do you’re not a you’re not thinking like a son and a daughter
anymore you’ve forgotten that you’re a son you’re starting to act like a slave or a hirling God’s going to give me more because I give more my friends there’s no freedom in that there’s only jealousy because you can’t when you’re thinking that way you can’t help but compare compare yourself to to your other fellow Christians well am I getting more than him that’s you know it’s like when Jesus tells you know Peter what’s going to happen to him the other disciples say well what about us Lord you know it’s like it’s a hireling that’s a that’s way a slave think it’s not the way a son or a daughter thinks you know of of um there’s only one original Son of God right we’re all adopted in Jesus is the Eternal son right he’s the he’s the only son that deserved to be a son the rest of us are adopted in and one of the Jesus is the true older brother in the in the Luke 15 passage you know Tim Keller reminds us that Jesus is the true older brother who doesn’t who doesn’t bemoan the fact that the younger brother is going to still get an inheritance he rejoices in it Jesus is the true older brother who’s not ashamed to call us as
brothers and one of the most remarkable passages I think in the New Testament and it’s so common that we we we don’t think about it the day they said Jesus would you teach us to
pray and what did he say when you pray say our
father not your father who’s in heaven Jesus said when you pray and you address God in heaven the good and gracious King I am inviting you to call my father your
father he’s our
father now Jesus had to die on a cross to be able to say
that he had to actually go to hell to be able to say to you and to me you can pray to our father and you can believe when you pray that our father has no condemnation for you has nothing but love for you nothing but
blessing because he’s our father he’s your father as much as he’s my father now he’s always been my father but I’m inviting you now to come and let him be your father my friends why do you need another
deal what deal can you can you manufacture that will add to Jesus invitation for you and me to call his father our
father and on the basis of Jesus Merit to expect him to bless you when you don’t deserve it at
all when everything in you says I need to do Penance I need to make it up I need to do some good thing to get him to forgive me forget it number one you can’t and number two he already died for that sin receive his grace because he’s a good and gracious King Jesus already died for your
sins it’s the hardest thing in the world to believe he’s going to bless you when you know you deserve to be
cursed so don’t end up like gibian gibian ites you know uh Rahab and the gibeonites both ended up in Israel but but Rahab received her position as a honored mother in Israel in the line of Jesus the giban ites they were there their lives were spared but they were slaves now it was still good for them you know and as time went by one one of the gibeonites ended up being one of David’s uh leaders of his 30 30 honored men you know I mean they they they worked themselves into being I mean some of them absolutely believed and became true believers but but the story is a contrast you know do you want to be in the house of God as a slave or as a son Jesus said I I came not so you could be slaves in the house of God I Came To Give You freedom I came so you could be Sons and Daughters my friends let’s let’s receive our inheritance right let’s live in the joy of sons and daughters let’s live in the confidence that we can ask anything in Jesus name and he hears us let’s pray God in heaven thank you thank you that you don’t just make room for us to come in and sit on the back row but every single one who puts their faith in you is an honored member of the family in Jesus not only are we brothers and sisters with each other but you have called us your brothers your sisters you’re not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters and we don’t understand that because we know we don’t deserve it but you literally have said there’s no blessing that you have that you it’s not ours you’ve always been the Eternal son the Eternal favored one the obedient son who’s never ever ever had a moment of disconnection with your father in Heaven except for the day he had to turn his back on you on the cross thank you for going there for us and Lord as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper in a little bit may it remind us of what you did for us and what you’ve given to us in Your Name Lord Jesus we pray amen
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Scripture: Joshua 8
In the wake of the sin and faithfulness of Joshua 7, Israel was in danger of falling into the crippling affects of fear and shame. God in His grace called them to courage and confidence which fueled them to victory over Ai. Through the Gospel of Grace through our Lord Jesus Christ, God has given us courage and confidence through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Through Christ we are free from condemnation and free to obey the commands of God as we continue to live on mission as lights for the Gospel in a dark world.
TranscriptOnce again uh good evening it’s so so good to be with you for those uh who uh have not been with us maybe a guest of ours uh this evening we’re in the middle of a series on on Joshua and yes the chapters are long but I’m insistent and maybe this is wrong but I’ve just too legalistic about it but I’ve insisted that every word of Joshua has to be read out loud during the series um and maybe that’s rational irrational I don’t know but uh you know but but we’re going to do it because we we’ve come this far now I’m just stubborn um but what we’re we’re looking at this series because in in the conquest of the land of the promised land uh God wasn’t just uh wasn’t just building up an army that’s certainly part of it uh to to reckon his judgment upon uh the inhabitants of the promised land to fulfill the Covenant that he had made with uh with Abram uh that to fulfill that promise that’s certainly part of it but God in this process is also molding the people of Israel into the people that he wants them to be not just as conquerors but the people he wants to be them to be as the inhabitants of the land he’s giving them this land and he’s called them to be his own people for a greater purpose than just for their own enjoyment that they might just uh just enjoy this beautiful land filled with milk and and honey uh and and it’s but it’s about more than that he’s chosen them to be a blessing to the Nations he he’s giving them this land that they might be a shining light for the gospel to the Nations to the world and so in this process as as they’re coming into and they’re they’re Conquering the land he’s teaching them he’s molding them and how to be a people that he’s calling them to be to Faithfully follow where he’s leading that they might be an example that he’s the one true God and so he’s teaching them through all of these encounters uh that they have and uh last week in Joshua chapter 7 we we dealt with the hidden sin of Ain uh that a Ain had kept for himself some of the devoted things uh that the Lord had said that you shall not keep because they’ve been devoted to me and he had warned them uh that if they were to keep those that they would they would suffer the same fate and that sin of Ain it permeated throughout all of Israel uh to the point where Israel rushed into battle against AI without faith which is what God had been teaching teaching them all along that he’s the one who goes before them to not get out ahead before uh the ark of the covenant to follow his grace and where he’s leading but when it came to Ai and uh and the sin that permeated from aen and into the community they just went flying off the handle trusting in their own might after Jericho they were they were so emboldened Jericho hadn’t actually grown their faith and trust in God and what God had done for them it had actually made them
cocky it built their own self-confidence and built their own self-reliance and so when it came to AI they said hey this place is easy we don’t even need everybody let’s not bother taking everybody just take a few and we’ll take this thing but the result was that they were routed and they ran away for their lives and were told worst of all their hearts melted within them like water that’s what the people of the land were supposed to do it’s seeing the mighty works of God and giving God the glory but here are God’s Own people who had gone off in their own strength and their own power and their own wisdom and had failed to follow in faith where the Lord was leading now their hearts are melting that’s not the way it was supposed to be but then later in that cha chapter ain’s hidden sin was called out Joshua said give glory to God and confess and God’s judgment he did and God’s judgment was rendered and aen received the same punishment that the people of Jericho had received and Joshua 7 ended with these words from the Lord then the Lord turned from his Burning Anger then the Lord turned from his Burning Anger but now what now what how will God deal with these people who have acted so faithlessly running off to AI cocky and overly self-confident without any mention or or concern for God at all uh they didn’t need him at least they thought but how’s God going to deal with them now ain’s been dealt with we we we hear that the anger of the The Burning Anger of the Lord uh has turned but how’s God going to deal with them remember God’s doing more than just trying to win a war because the truth is he didn’t need Israel at all he didn’t need Israel to destroy the the people in the promised land but God chose to use a people he chose to use a people because he’s building a people who will be his witnesses to the the nation because somehow in God’s great wisdom he sees this as the best way of reaching others who are
lost it’s using a people for himself to be his witnesses to the world these people to be a blessing to the Nations to the world a people who will be as witnesses witnesses that follow him the one true God and demonstrate to everyone around that his way is better than all the false gods and the fallen angels and the demons and the spiritual forces of Darkness that they’ve been following but these people kept failing God’s people couldn’t live up to it but he’s teaching them over and over again so what’s he going to do with them well what does God do with
us when we Act without faith when we act out of rebellion when when we take action in our own wisdom and our own strength when we fail to love him and love others the great commandment right to love the Lord your God with all of your heart mind and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself what does he do with us when we hurt the people around us with our our own selfish Ambitions our own ideas maybe out of our own woundedness even we react and we hurt them what does God do with us because we all do it because we’ve all sinned we all fall short of the glory of God uh even after we’ve received
Jesus we’re not sinless we continue to fall short so how does God our heavenly father father deal with us with crippling guilt and
shame that’s how most of us I think deal with our own failures right at least that’s how I feel but Joshua 8 paints a different picture Al together it P it paints one of incredible hope one that generates actually courage and confidence the kind of courage and confidence that lovingly urges us on
that gives us a spirit to continue the mission that Jesus has given us not the guilt and the shame that so cripples us and leaves us in total despair Joshua 8 is pointing us to the gospel of grace through our Lord Jesus Christ and the courage and the confidence it gives us to continue living on mission for Christ and so I invite you to open uh Joshua 8 uh we’re going to start with the first verse and actually I’m going to surprise you this week and that uh last week I tried to do the whole chapter this week I’m going to do completely the opposite I’m going to do one verse just to keep you well it’ll be a little more than one verse but it it’s close enough um uh just to keep you on your toes you never know what’s going to happen here doesn’t mean it’s going to be shorter it just means one verse so after all of the failure and all of the faithlessness and verse one we’re told the Lord said to Joshua do not fear and do not be dismayed do not fear and do not be dismayed I know about you but this is not what I would expect to hear God say at this moment do do not fear and do not be dismayed uh what I would think in my head that that God would say in the wake of uh completely faithless children uh that have been rebelling and acting out all around them would be something like be very upset and be very frustrated I would expect God would want them to feel the full weight of what they have done because as a father that’s what I do
I can’t let them off the hook right what kind of father would I would would I be I got to make them feel the burden I got to make them feel the weight of what they’ve done I got to make them feel the guilt because the next time they’ll learned a lesson at least that’s what I think anyway right they they’ll remember the pain they’ll remember guilt they’ll remember the shame of what they had done and what they had experienced the last time and next time they’re going to act right next time they’re going to act right that’s how I think and that’s what goes through my heart because that’s the way I think that’s what goes through my own heart when I sin against God and I think about what his attitude is towards me but God doesn’t say that God says to them do not fear and do not be dismayed God seems to so quickly to show his people grace even after their faithlessness to him now don’t get me wrong uh he he was angry in Joshua 7 and we saw his anger burn and we saw the punishment for sin but once the sin of aen was paid for God quickly turned from his Burning Anger and he offered them words of incredible Grace do not fear and do not be dismayed are those the words you hear in your own heart after you’ve fallen into
sin do you hear God saying those words to you well what does God mean by these words what does he mean by them let’s start with do not be afraid do not be afraid 39 times God says do not be afraid uh in the scriptures mainly in the Old Testament uh and it really falls into into four categories when God sayso not be afraid I’m sure you can think of most of these just offand uh God says do not be afraid when he’s reassuring his people uh who are in in times of Terror and usually the terror they’re in is because they’ve encountered God in some way one of his Messengers an Angel um or him you know some some sort of uh encounter with the Living God and they’re in fear and he sayso not be afraid well we also see uh that he uh he says this as his encouragement when his people are called to venture into unknown lands he says Don’t Be Afraid do not be afraid think of Abraham when when Abram was called do not be afraid this is the land that I’m giving you uh number three it’s when he commands his people into battle he sayso not be afraid and then the fourth gives his people the Divine assurance that he’s with them that he’s with them he sayso not be afraid in Deuteronomy 31:6 do not fear for it is the Lord your God who goes with you God doesn’t want his be his people to be afraid I want my kids to be afraid when they’ve done wrong I want I want to fill them with you know healthy amount of fear I’m not talking about you know overbear doing overdoing it but I want him to feel a little bit of fear but God doesn’t want his children to be afraid but let’s think about this what would they have been afraid of why did God need to say this to him do not be afraid what would they have been afraid of at this time well I can think of a few things maybe it’s God’s judgment in their lives right that God has now removed his promise and his uh and his his favor from them because of their faithlessness because of they the way they acted or another they might be afraid physically of the a military defeat like the one they just experienced with with
AI or maybe they’re afraid of just an un unknown future they can’t predict what’s going to happen so they do take total occupation of the land then what how are they going to manage how are they they going to govern how are they going to be able to hold this land against all the people who are going to come against them
inevitably so what’s the danger of the fear what is the danger of the fear in the hearts of his people why is God so concerned that they would feel fear and I think likely why in the same time why is he not want us to to experience the fear because I believe that it’s the fear that will make them quit fear makes cowards of us all doesn’t it fear makes us afraid to even try especially when we get hurt and out of fear it’s easier just not to risk it right I’ve been hurt before I just can’t possibly try again fear threatens to to undermine the hearts of his people that they’ll quit the mission that they’re called to here in Joshua they’ll just quit this mission that God’s got them on of Conquering the land how about us what threat does fear play in our lives because the truth is we aren’t any different we’re on a mission same as God’s people were on a mission in Joshua we’re not called to conquer the promised land we’re not called to take up Military Arms against anyone our mission is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our friends with our families with our neighbors with our co-workers and our greatest threat to living into that mission it’s fear isn’t it it’s fear maybe it’s a a fear of offending
people maybe it’s a fear of being rejected maybe it’s a fear that that will um that somehow will’ll mess it up you know if I actually share my faith with someone I’m gonna say the wrong
thing or maybe it’s
uh maybe we out of we have a fear that if we do share the gospel with our friend or our family member our coworker our neighbor it’s going to jeopardize our reputation and our relationship with them they’re going to think we’re that those weird Jesus
Freaks these are the fears that we feel and when we feel those fears guess what we don’t do we don’t share the gospel we don’t share our relationship with Christ with anyone and so God saying to us every bit as much as he was saying to his people in Joshua 8 do not fear he’s assuring us that he’s with us that he has called us to this Mission and those that he calls he also equips for the task that he is calling them to so God says do not fear the fear will make you quit but then secondly God said don’t be dismayed the word dismayed it can also mean uh translated as to be shattered or to be broken God used these words when his people were facing seemingly impossible tasks in other places in the scriptures David said it to Solomon when when he was in instructing Solomon to build this Temple it was a mighty task that seemed impossible but he saido not be dismayed son in 2 Chronicles 20 the Lord said to King Jehosaphat and to the people when they were facing a threat of an outside force he saido not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde for the battle is not yours but the Lord’s and again a few verses later do not be afraid and do not be dismayed tomorrow go out against them and the Lord will be with you why would the people in Joshua 8 be dismayed why would they be shattered why would they be broken because they feared that God was no longer with them because of their sin and their un their faithlessness they felt the guilt and the shame of it have you have you ever felt that
way I think if you care at all then you have you had to have I know my heart feels that way you know there’s times where I’m like how can I possibly be a pastor today I lost my temper today I was quick fused I barked at somebody I hurt him
you know and I usually justify it well they deserved it because they did this to me that God can’t possibly be with me because I don’t deserve it have you ever felt the weight that that kind of of shattered heart
causes but in in 81 God wants Joshua and the people to know that despite their sin despite their faithlessness that he is faithful that he is with them that the battle that is before them it isn’t theirs it’s his and that’s exactly what happens God delivers AI into their hands he was with them he led them and they followed his Direction and AI Was Defeated you you heard it you can go back and read the those verses yourself how does that relate to us friends we’re called on Mission and God is speaking the same words to you and to me today do not be afraid do not be dismayed only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ has he given us any reason to really believe
him the sin of achen was dealt with by the life of achen and his family God in his great love for us has dealt with our sin through the punishment of his own son Jesus took our sin upon him he died the death that we deserve that’s what sacrificial love is all about and that’s the kind of love that casts fear out of our Lives 1 John 4:18 there’s no fear and love but perfect love cast out fear for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love when we’ve been perfected in Love by the sacrificial love of God for us in Jesus we have nothing to fear because by faith in Jesus God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who’s been given to us that means that God is with us always and in every situation Even in our own failure Even in our own faithlessness the spirit of Jesus never leaves us or forsakes US he is with us because in Jesus’s perfect love we are all free of condemnation it’s what Paul said in Romans 81 there there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus the the gospel of grace it gives us the freedom from all condemnation even our own failures we are free to repent and to find renewal and newness of Life In Christ always but not only are we free from condemnation meaning we have nothing to fear we’re also free to obey God not out of obligation or Duty or some even selfish ambition in order to do it to gain favor with God a tit fortat but out of true heartfelt gratitude for the grace that we’ve received in Jesus because that’s what pleases the Lord Romans 82 then goes on to say for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death the holy Spirit of life is alive in us showing us the goodness of God’s commands and the desire giving us the desire to live our lives according to them and Joshua 8 it ends with the renewal of the Covenant a renewal of a commitment to God and to his command God’s grace towards them and continuing to be with them even in the midst of Their Own faithlessness It gave birth Earth to a renewal of obedience to God’s commands God’s grace towards us through his son Jesus K Christ gives birth to freedom freedom from condemn condemnation freedom to obey God’s
commands God through Joshua 8 is calling us to be a people of grace-filled freedom as he’s preparing us to to be a light of the Gospel to our community to our neighbors to our friends as that building gets prepared the promised land as I’ve been calling it in this series it’s just a building but he’s preparing us to be a people a Grace filled people that we might shine brightly as his gospel lights in this Dark World without fear and without dismay but full of the confidence and the courage that comes only in the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ may he come by the power of the Holy Spirit and make us that kind of gospel filled Grace filled people of Freedom who find the freedom of all condemnation and the freedom to live our lives in obedience to his command amen
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Scripture: Joshua 7
Joshua 7 tells us about the hidden sin of Achan and the devastation it brought upon God’s people. What we learn through this chapter is that God is just and fair and will not tolerate sin in the world. While God may be more patient than we can understand, His judgement is clear concerning sin and unrighteousness. This passage also exposes that everyone of us have hidden sin in our lives, and we desperately need God’s saving help.
Transcript[Music]
So I decided just now to skip over Joshua 7 um and go on to Joshua 8 every that was a joke I’m not doing that um that went over poorly no but I want to after uh hearing it out loud uh cuz tonight in Joshua 7 we’re dealing with uh a really big topic uh and that topic is hidden sin it’s hidden sin specifically we find it revealed in obviously this passage of the Hidden sin of aen after the the battle in Jericho how God deals with the the hidden sin in Joshua 7 and if you were paying any attention at all to the reading and you didn’t zone out uh he deals with it quite harshly right especially for our 21st century Western ears I think that was a it’s hard to hear uh and immediately we went to kind of backpedal and try to figure out some way of explaining all this away and surely this was just symbolic in some sort of way or just a metaphor it couldn’t have been something that that God would really do we want to do that but we can’t but even harder than that is the implication that this has on each of us every one of us here today but before I think we can jump into this we need to establish a a basic gospel understanding when we begin to look at aen and Joshua 7 uh that and I hope we can agree to this uh that Jesus is the only perfect person can we agree to this yes right uh so when it comes to us as whether it’s parents or whether it’s as a friend to someone else or whether it’s some someone’s children or a neighbor or a coworker or a brother or
sister Jesus is the only one who is without sin therefore Jesus is the only perfect sinless parent Jesus is the only perfect sinless friend Jesus is the only perfect sinless neighbor he’s the only perfect sinless coworker he’s the standard Jesus is the standard standard by which we judge ourselves because he’s the very image of God and God’s righteousness and so we therefore can agree that the rest of us are sinners right and we fall we fall short of of who Jesus is and God and all of his goodness and righteousness and I guess if you disagree with me you can not stop listening um you know because I don’t know that the rest is going to make that much uh sense to you but because Joshua seven uh and its connection to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is absolutely dependent that we understand this that we’re all Sinners Romans 3:23 uh we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God it’s what Paul told us uh it was an archery term that Paul chose meaning to miss the mark uh to miss the bullseye uh and he’s saying Jesus is the bullseye and none of us can hit it none of us can come close we miss it none of us can we’re none of us are perfect all of us miss that Bullseye so no matter how much we think that we are model parents no matter how much we think that we’re the most obedient children and well- behaved or the the best most loyal friend a person could ever ask for or the most thoughtful neighbor or maybe the most supportive coworker anyone could possibly ask for we not we’re not that’s not what God’s word reveals because only Jesus possibly could be he’s the only one who can hit the bullseye and our failure to be perfect is not because of external factors in our lives I know that’s the Temptation right all of us want to say you know I would have been a better parent at that moment if my kid hadn’t done this right it happen I mean I do this all the time uh I would not have lost my temper had they not done so and so it’s their fault no it’s not that is not the issue uh that is not the issue but uh the Temptation in US is to certainly uh uh is to to blame other people or other factors for why uh we do but the truth is it’s our own Hearts as much as we we may try to hide it or as much as we may try to fight it our hearts are by Nature
self-centered and self-oriented which means that that our our motives even our best motives are always out of whack they’re not truly always for the other person there’s always something self-centered even within it about how it makes us feel about ourselves or or maybe what we think other people are going to view us as if we do this good thing for this person uh you know or if if even if it makes us feel like we are the model parent because I did all this well guess what now you’re prideful so you missed the
Mark I think we have to establish this as the Baseline because the Temptation I think is when we look at Joshua 7 and ain’s hidden sin is to think well you know well he was just a selfish wretch he was a selfish wretch and and I’m so glad that I’m not like aen right that’s the temptation but the truth is every one of us is just like aen every one of us we all have hidden sin it’s either sin that we uh that we know about and that we’re hiding from everyone else around us and maybe we’re really good at it or maybe it’s a a sin that uh that we don’t even know maybe it’s just so deep or or we’ve been doing it for so long we don’t even notice maybe it’s that kind of of hidden sin within us and our great fear and our great reluctance is to admit that this is actually true about us especially when when we learn the fate of aen right but to receive this truth and to accept it and to in turn cry out to God for Mercy means that we find at the bottom of it all the gospel of grace itself that through the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ Alone we’ve been saved so if you dare to take your an honest look into your own heart and and you’re hungry for some good news this evening join me as we we take a a deeper dive into to Joshua 7 because this is heavy and it’s uh but at the same time I think it points us in a beautiful way to Jesus and the cross of our Salvation so Joshua 7 for those who weren’t with us uh last week I encourage you to go back and listen to Joshua 6 so you can understand the the full context of what’s going on here but God has just delivered the city of Jericho into his people’s hands um with all of its Kings and its might warriors uh and they and all of it has been delivered into the hands of his people after seven days of the Glorious Anglican procession as I talked about last week uh around Jericho the Lord brought those walls down the Lord brought the walls down and he delivered Jericho into their hands but there was one command that God had given and that was the command that we talked about last week that was called the ban and Jo God gave it through Joseph to uh his people and this the ban is is it’s the devoted things and so in Joshua 6:17 I I will read it again for us because it is important as we’re looking at Joshua 7 that we understand what’s going on he said and the city and all that is within it this is before they conquered the city this was the instruction that that God gave to his people through Joshua and the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for Destruction only Rahab The Prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid The Messengers whom we sent but you keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for Destruction and bring trouble upon it so to understand that remember going back a couple of weeks even this was God’s judgment against the incredibly prevailing sin of Jericho this wasn’t just a snap judgment by God uh this is the grotesque grotesque perversion of God’s word and all the things that God has declared to be good uh we talked about this a number of weeks ago uh this was also a spiritual battle by the way the worst of which the perversion of God’s word uh was that we know in that area was the the sacrifice of children was was happening uh some of the cultic uh practices were a perversion of the first fruits offering that God had asked his people to give them of the Harvest uh and these uh cultic uh you know uh Idols would demand uh these false gods would demand that they sacrifice their firstborn child so that they would be uh successful and they would have a uh fertile family and that they would be there would be many blessings by doing this and that was so detest able to God that he was rendering judgment upon him that was just one of the the massive ones but we also have talked about this was a bigger spiritual battle that was happening here that the these are against the spiritual forces of darkness in the Heavenly Realms because what they were really worshiping wasn’t just some False Image that didn’t have any significance at all to it what they’re worshiping are actually Fallen Angels demons those who are opposed to the will of God and God is rendering judgment because they are bowing down and worshiping uh the these false gods who were perverting God’s word on purpose to lead God’s people astray God is rendering his judgment and but God had been patient with them we talked last week about it was 700 years since he had first mentioned Abram this is the land I’m going to give you uh of the inhabitants of the amorites and the Canaanites but their sin has not yet reached the the place where it’s so bad that I’m going to have to to use you to render judgment against them it was 700 years later that God finally got around and decided it’s too much it’s got to be dealt with
now because I think I believe because God was longing and wanting and hoping that they would come to a place of repentance at least that’s what 2 Peter 3:9 tells us it says this the Lord is is not slow to fulfill his promisees some count slowness but is patient towards you not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance God was willing to wait 700 years for a change of heart that didn’t come and so what this tells us is that God is incredibly serious about Sin and its destructiveness to the goodness of his creation and what he intends for us he’s serious about it and so this is what we learned in 71 but the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things for aen the son of Ki Son Of Z zdi and Son of Zarah of the tribe of Judah took some of the devoted things and the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel so achen did what God had warned not to do that I just read a minute ago uh a can undermined God’s plan his purpose his judgment by keeping some of those things that have been devoted to the Lord for Destruction he decided that it would be better that he devoted them to himself and so he took some of those things for himself and we’re going to come back to why uh because that gets revealed later but notice that in the verse it said this but the people God said were told the people of Israel broke faith it was the people of Israel who broke Faith this doesn’t seem right does it no it was aen who broke Faith with God but that’s not what God says he said it’s the people of Israel who broke Faith so God is holding the people as faithless or guilty for the sin of one man do you ever have a teacher who did that maybe you are a teacher does that um or maybe a coach who did that one person messes up the whole team man my football coach you know one you know that ball hit the ground ever the whole offense was running not just the people who did it uh I hated it I hated it so much it never really seemed fair right but there was there was something about it that was try the coach’s idea was I’m teaching you all that you’re part of this thing together and that when one person fails it affects all of you God’s teaching them this has a greater infection into the whole body sin does that sin so god holds all of the people guilty for the sin of one man aen which then flows into uh verse two Joshua then sent men from Jericho to AI which is near bethaven east of bethl and said to them go up and spy out the land and the men went up and spied out Ai and they returned to Joshua and said to him do not have all the people go up but let let about two or 3,000 men go up and attack AI do not make the whole people go up there for they are few so about 3,000 men went up from the people we’ll come back to that in just a moment so now that Jericho’s been defeated it’s on to the next city right on to the next uh fulfillment of the conquest that God’s called them to and so Joshua chooses AI is the next strategic spot now for you military folks this is for for good good reason so they uh they’ve already conquered Jericho but Jericho uh exists in the lowlands it’s in uh it’s in the valley and so Joshua knew I got to get us out of here uh we can’t just sit here now this whole the walls were gone right there’s no more they can’t just take over the defenses we need a strategic Place we’ve got to go to The High Ground we got to get The High Ground we got to get to a place where the Chariots where the time was the most uh the most uh destructive War force that was out there we got to get out of it we got to get away from it get to the highlands where they can’t reach and so that’s exactly where they went that’s where AI was it was in a strategic place in the High Country uh and it was also part of along a very important trading route that kind of would lead its way into more important areas uh and this is the place the area at least where later Saul when he becomes king of Israel where he’s going to establish his capital in that same area so Joshua sends out the spies to do some Recon work this sounds a little bit familiar for those who who’ve been listening to the series uh there’s two other times that spies have been sent ahead to go check out the area uh in numbers 13 Moses sent the spies out uh and then got a report back that one didn’t go so well uh we’ll talk about that in a minute and then in Joshua 2 they sent again Joshua sent spies out to to check out Jericho and they came back with a much better report uh but this report and this little spy episode it’s got disaster written all over it it’s got disaster written all over the report that’s given uh follow is given in a recommendation it makes no mention whatsoever of any Divine Purpose only human observation and evaluation is made to try to predict a likelihood of victory
the spies were concerned about the weary Israelites which is strange right since it was God who brought the walls down but they’re worried that that they’re going to exhaust the the Israelites too much but the whole operation from what we just read about it lacked any faith whatsoever all of the mighty works of God had done at Jericho it didn’t build their faith
it only actually grew their pride and their
self-reliance in other words they got cocky they got cocky they began to see themselves as Invincible uh number in numbers 13 that I mentioned earlier Moses sent the spies out into the promised land then right do you remember what their report was their report is don’t go in there there’s Giants in there you couldn’t possibly overcome them even though God had already promised this is the land that I’m giving you so there they were being told it can’t be done and so they were faithless but now it’s the opposite here in Joshua 7 it’s gone completely the other direction it it now the lack of faith is that the uh the opposing arm is too small they’re too small we can do this on our own in other words we don’t need God for this we got the Army we’re well trained we’ve just brought down Jericho this this place doesn’t stand a chance and the result disaster they were defeated and they run away for their lives and worst of all in verse five and their the hearts of the people melted and became like water remember this is what was happening to all the people in the land when they were seeing God do these Mighty works in the Israelites and as they saw this 2 and a half million people crossing the Jordan and coming into their land and God Bringing Down the Walls which where we’ve been being told that the people have seen Rahab reported our hearts are melting away because of what the Lord is doing among you well now the opposite has happened what this tells us is Success didn’t Grant or didn’t generate more faith or trust in God that’s kind of counter to the way we think doesn’t it God just give me success and I will trust you all the more
but actually the opposite happened the success that God had helped that had brought about uh and what he was calling them to it actually generated pride and
self-reliance I know I I experienced this too in my own life I don’t I don’t know about you and it comes with you know specifically I can think about it when it comes to preaching uh because obviously preaching takes up a lot of energy and worry and and and anxiety and and study and a lot of the the things I think about during the week uh and and the things that I have to rely on the Lord for but a Sunday where I preached and I was like that was a really good
sermon the next week I’m like I got this now it’s the weeks where I’m like that was terrible people did not get anything that you were saying you know you didn’t put things together you didn’t connect any of the dots it was really bad uh those are the weeks I go back that that week I am on my knees because I realize I can’t do it do you do you experience that in your own life when things are successful at leads to to just a pride and
self-reliance our hearts are desperately sick and we need help verses 6 to9 Joshua laments and he actually out on this defeat and he actually argues with God and he calls on God to act specifically in verse nine he says what are you going to do for Your Great Name basically what he’s saying is that your glory god is at stake here your glory is being questioned these other people and all their gods are are having it over you right now because we were defeated what are you going to do God For Your Glory it’s not a bad argument actually for Joshua a make well in verses 10 to 26 God answers Joshua and he shows them what he’s going to do for the glory of his great name and so let’s begin looking ver 10 we’re told this the Lord said to Joshua get up why have you fallen on your face Israel has sinned they may have they they have transgressed my Covenant that I commanded them they taken some of the devoted things they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies
become
devoted unless you destroy the devoted things from among you again God says the people of transgression transgressed my Covenant meaning they they’ve broken the agreement God was punishing the whole for the sin of the one he was teaching them this lesson we might not like it but who are we to question God and what he purposes for his own glory and then verses 13 through 14 uh we’re told about the the instructions for the systematic search for the devoted things that are among them by tribe by tribe Clan by Clan household by household and then man to man what we get is the whole social structure of the people of Israel here the whole social structure is to be gone through and then in verse 15 and he who is taken with the devoted things shall be burned with fire he and all that he has because he has transgressed the Covenant of the Lord and because he has done an outrageous thing in Israel this seems a little harsh doesn’t it it gets worse uh first of all the fate of the one who took the devoted things that were set apart for Destruction God’s saying they’re going to meet the same fate the the same fate and number two God was telling his people you’re no different than the people of Jericho why should he then uh why should he then treat them any differently that wouldn’t really be fair would it why should he treat them differently God isn’t playing favorites what is good for the goose is good for the gander in other words what what made Israel special was the Covenant relationship that they had with God that God had made with them that God had made with Abram by Grace by Grace he chose
Abram and Abram followed by faith we’re told so when they sin and when they when they break the Covenant they’re they’re no different and should be treated shouldn’t be treated with any kind of favoritism at all it’s an example right here of a fair and just God
verses 16 and 18 the search commenced and in the end aen was identified and this is what we’re told in verses 19 to 21 then Joshua said to aan my son give glory to the Lord God of Israel and give praise to him and tell me now what you have done do not hide it from me and aan answered Joshua truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel Isel and this is what I did when I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from shanar and 20 shekele 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels then I coveted them and took them and see they are hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath did you hear what Joshua said my son give glory to the Lord God of Israel and give him praise and tell me now what you have done do not hide it from me here we see something really important about sin because what sin is and not only missing The Mark with God and what he has called us to uh but sin is to take the glory that is due to God alone and it’s trying to take it for ourselves you know this word Glory it means to have weight weightiness which means to have value and so God’s glory means he is of infinite value he is of the most value what he says goes it’s G and what this is telling us is giving glory to ourselves over God is what sin is seeking our own glory in this world but then confession is Joshua invites aen to confess that act of of owning up to what we’ve done to those things we’ve left undone you know that thing I botched really bad at the beginning of the service it’s a part of worship confession is a part of worship it’s how uh it’s how we give GL glory to God it’s part of how we give glory to God it’s why confession is such an important part of our worship and in the Anglican tradition it’s the way we give God the glory
back now listen to how Ain describes his sin when I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from shanar and a two the 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels then I coveted them and took them Adam’s confession immediately takes us all the way back to the very first sin takes us all the way back to the Garden of Eden itself in Genesis 36 so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate Eve saw that it was good and she delighted and saw that it was to be desired and she ate achen saw that it was beautiful coveted it and took
it they both desired what they had no right from God to possess they took God’s glory for themselves and they did what God had commanded them not to do and the consequences were dire they were dire for Adam and Eve weren’t they and consequently for all of us a the spiritual relationship with God broken the physical death for the consequence of sin coming into the world for aen it was again broken relationship with God he broke the Covenant relationship and the death that would become would come because of his transgression and the punishment it’s tough for us to take just as as he wiped out the inhabitants of Jericho the whole families all of their possessions that was hard to take but it was it was a righteous Judgment of God for that perversion of his word but in the same way Ain and his whole
family and all of their possessions destroyed but now contrast that with Rahab that we’re given that contrasting picture the who looked to God for her salvation by protecting God’s Messengers her and her whole family were
saved the temptation to try to is to try to defend God here right like CS Lewis wrote The God in the dock uh to try to get God put God on the the stand here and and have God defend himself on why he would make these decisions and uh do things the way he he has as if we have the right to put God on the dock and to make him defend himself uh what it does tell us here at the very least is that God is serious about Sin and its Devastation that it brings into our lives so serious that God chose to enter into our sin to save us that’s how serious God is about
Sin whereas all of God people were punished for the sin of one man Ain God sent his one and only son Jesus Christ to be punished to suffer death on the cross for the guilt of all of us Jesus on the cross bore the full weight of our sins so that when we put our faith in him we are granted forgiveness of our sins we’re clothed in the righteousness of Christ himself and he’s given us the gift of confession not some superstitious act which we’re trying to kind cover all our bases that’s not why we confess our sins in church in case I did just didn’t think of everything because we never think of everything right that’s not what it’s about it’s the opportunity confession it’s the opportunity to give God glory and praise by honestly recognizing that Jesus right ly died because of our continued rebellion and wickedness or self-centeredness okay let’s say that sounds a little nicer confession is God’s invitation to us to Humble ourselves and to quietly ask the Holy Spirit to stir up our conscience to give us eyes that we may see those hidden sins within
us that we may have the eyes to see therefore repent and find the freedom that’s been offered us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ God has given us confession as a gift and as John uh 1 John 1:9 tells us if any of us say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us but if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness
this gift of confession it gives us freedom it gives us freedom to do something that we would never have the strength to do or the courage to do and you know what that is to ask those around us how we might be hurting them our sin is incredibly relational and it’s affecting the people around us in our lives even that hidden stuff that we don’t recognize for us as parents we may think that we’re the perfect parents right but there are no perfect parents and so the truth is either we’re too distant or we’re overbearing we’re one or the other we’re we’re either absent from them or you detach from them because we just can’t deal or we just hover over them all the time and try to dictate all the time what’s going on in their lives either one is missing the mark that’s just one example
but the truth is if we stop and we ask if we if we could have the boldness and the freedom and the courage to ask other people see it other people can recognize how we’re hurting
them and because of the gift of confession and the promise that we confess our sins Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us we’re free to ask we’re free to ask other people because Jesus has paid the full price for our sin in him we’ve been cleansed from all unrighteousness we’re free to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the sins that we cannot see ourselves today as we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower us and his people for the mission of the Gospel in our in our reading from The Gospel reading Jesus calls him the helper the spirit of Truth and in John 16 a little bit after that reading in verses 8 to 11 Jesus said when he comes the helper he will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment the holy we’re free to invite the Holy Spirit to come and convince us to show us to open our eyes to see where are those places that are not yet captured by the gospel of grace because it matters Prince of follow the Holy Spirit as he’s leading us and molding us into the people of humility that the gospel demands that we be the only faithless Act
is to try to deceive ourselves to try to deny the work of the Holy Spirit In Our Lives concerning our own sin and to think you know I’ve got
this as the people of Israel did as God is preparing us as a people for the promised land that he’s called us to this new building but more than that to be a people who will truly bless the Nations to bless our community with the hope of the Gospel he’s calling us to be a confessional people a people of humility who accept our sinfulness who repent and walk in the newness of life through the Forgiveness of sins through our Lord Jesus Christ amen amen
Building the Walls
*April – Mid May 2024*: April started with a bang! Demolition and metal framing quickly transformed the existing space into new areas for ministry and fellowship. A drain was dug for the new restroom (located in the old stairwell), the janitor closet was expanded into the former lift space and electrical was updated. In the new space, mason walls and tie beams were raised to full height, steel stairs were installed, and metal framing downstairs gave shape to the entry, sanctuary, and much needed worship storage areas. After waterproofing and few more loads of cement, a crane raised trusses from the grass field into place. What a sight of organized workmanship – with a crew on the field and on the walls, trusses were flying and finished in a half day. Window glass was confirmed, the opportunity to include stained glass in the sanctuary is being explored and the cross from the former cupola is getting a re-do to fit the pitch on the new roof.
Get Our Building Expansion Updates Here###### So please mark your calendars and plan to come celebrate with COOS, we’ll have great food, welcoming fellowship, live music, and fun kid’s games and activities. All are welcome so bring the kids!
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 6
While Joshua 6 tells the literal event of Israel’s conquest of the city of Jericho in the Promised Land, it also represents a metaphor for all followers of Jesus Christ. As followers of Jesus Christ we all face shut off people who are often hostile to receiving the Gospel. But Joshua 6 reminds us that even in the midst of shut doors, God always opens windows of opportunities for us to share with others the hope we have in Jesus. Where might those window’s of opportunity be? Come and listen as we invite the Holy Spirit to open our hearts to see them.
TranscriptSo today we have uh one of those special days where uh where all these major themes converge obviously today’s uh Mother’s Day as i’ I’ve mentioned already uh but to those Anglo uh files Among Us uh then you would know that this is also so the Feast of the Ascension uh a major Feast Day in the Anglican Church uh but it’s uh you know so there is there’s a lot going on because on top of all that we’re also in Joshua 6 so which way do I go here I I I don’t I don’t really know well I do know and I’m uh you know mothers I I I’ve kind of given you the front end of uh of celebrating you and thanking you at the beginning so we’re going to move on to Joshua 6 and I’m even going to uh I’m even going to uh to harmonize it with the Ascension somehow uh and so uh pray for me as we as we go on um well we’re continuing in our series as we walk through uh the Book of Joshua and preparing for the promised land as the Lord prepares our hearts as he’s uh preparing his people to occupy the land that they would be a blessing to the Nations and and he’s in this process of preparing them for that time well they will fully take possession that they would trust him uh and Obey him and follow him uh and what he wants for them last week in Joshua 5 we looked at the the spiritual battle the reality of it that was taking place and that uh the depth the the perversion of God’s word that we saw uh at work uh in Jericho and what we know that was going on there and the temple prostitution and the infant sacrifice and the Demonic forces of evil that were even being worshiped there among the people of Jericho that this was a deeply spiritual battle uh that was at work here uh God had been patient with these people with the amorites and the Canaanites we’re told in Genesis 15 as God told Abram there uh he told him this is the land I’m going to give to you and to your I mean to your descendants they will occupy this land but then he said 700 years this was 700 years prior to uh to what he’s what’s going to what’s happening now in Jericho because he said then in Genesis 15 that the iniquity of the amorites is not yet complete so there was still time in other words you know God God was waiting his judgment was not yet to be rendered uh but now 700 years later we’ve got what’s going on here in Joshua 6 and his judgment will come through his holy Army Army accompanied by the commander of the Lord’s army that we we heard last week and his hosts of heavenly Angels last week we talked about how uh God prepared his people for this spiritual battle uh in two specific ways he he he prepared them by renewing the outward sign of the Covenant that he had made with Abraham and calling this new generation to be circumcised uh that the that they would would now have the mark of the Covenant they’d be marked as his own people as they went into this spiritual battle and they they celebrated to prepare for the spiritual battle they celebrated the joy uh of in the Passover land for the first time in the promised land so how God prepares us for the spiritual battle is with his grace and with the celebration of the joy that we have in our Salvation how we’re marked as Christ’s own through faith in him and through baptism we’re prepared for the spiritual battle that’s before us and so today we step fully into the battle itself the physical and the spiritual battle we know that’s going on behind the physical battle and it all begins with shut doors it all begins with shut doors hear these words in uh as we begin in verse one says now Jericho was shut up up inside and outside because of the people of Israel none went out and none came in so Jericho’s shut up the gates are shut they’re shut both inside and outside and so what this is telling us is this isn’t just a physical shutting of the the doors of the gate certainly that’s happening uh but this is something much deeper there’s a full and complete rejection rejection of uh of the people of Jericho to receive the god of the Israelites they’re completely shut off to that being a possibility uh that act of shutting it forms that physical barrier uh that Israel has to the movement that that God has called them to the mission to take possession of the land so there’s a physical barrier that exists there but there’s also it represents the spiritual barrier the spirit spiritual barrier between God and the people of Jericho they’ve shut themselves down they’ve shut their hearts to receiving him because that’s what God ultimately wants what God ultimately wants is for them to to turn return to him and to repent and to receive forgiveness but they have closed their hearts the city is shut up both inside and out this presents a problem to the mission these closed do doors physically and spiritually because it’s closed hearts that the citizens of Jericho have to the Lord so this OB obstacle stands in the way of of the mission and so what is what’s going to happen to resolve this incredible obstacle that is before them in verse two we’re told this and the Lord said to Joshua see I have given Jericho into your hands with its king and Mighty Men of Valor what God’s telling to telling Joshua here before it all even begins is that the victory over Jericho is already been given it’s the gift of God God’s giving the gift to them over the Kings and the Mighty Warriors of Jericho I have delivered it’s that uh that perfect form of the verb meaning the victory’s already been won before you even go in I’m telling you you don’t need to worry victory has been achieved it’s been assured for you over the Kings and the Warriors there’s only one obstacle that remains left it’s the walls the walls are the thing that remains what about these pesky walls how are they going to be overcome and verse three to five we’re told how that will happen he said you’re going to March around the city all the men of War going around the city once thus shall you do for Six Days Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams horns before the Ark on the seventh day you shall March around the city seven times and the priest shall blow the trumpets and when they make a long blast with the Ram’s Horn when you hear the sound of the trumpet then all the people shall Shout with a great shout and the walls of the city will fall flat and the people shall go up everyone straight before him so how is the wall going to be overcome this final barrier between the people being able to fulfill the mission that God’s called them to well it’s going to be a ceremony a ceremony is going to overcome that last obstacle the walls of Jericho you know this passage it convinces me that God was an Anglican he loves ceremony he loves processions uh and this is the procession of all processions right uh God God was an Anglican uh the the procession though was made up of Warriors and Priests and the Ark of the Covenant himself meaning God and His Mercy Seat ruling over the people all going around the walls God’s leadership for military action we see the Rams horns that are used to prepare the people for war and for this sacred possession they’re about to take on and the shout used to to Proclaim Victory and it’s used throughout the the old Old Testament and then they March around the city why March around the city well we we see in Psalm 48 verse 12 and also in 2 Kings 6:14 that marching around the the walls of the city of Jerusalem uh and they marched around to observe uh and to inspect and admire the walls of of Jerusalem the those that would come to visit the city those that would uh uh come on pilgrimage and so in Joshua 6 this March around is is God’s way of making this ceremonial inspection of the cities of the defenses of Jericho it’s a dramatic statement also that the the Hostile uh intentions that the Israelites have over Jericho and then we’re given the SE sday period it’s very strange isn’t it it’s all so so SYM what what in the world does that mean well I think it corresponds to the the Feast of unleavened bread because it was during that seven-day Feast that no leevan was to be eaten by God’s people for seven days as a a sign of Israel’s consecration to the Lord and it remembered the season of Israel uh when they set forth from Egypt and they witnessed the defeat of the Lord’s army so remember they celebrated the Passover in the L promised land just the last thing we read and now they’re to March around over these seven days corresponding with that Feast of unleavened bread of God reminding them just as I delivered you your your ancestors from from Egypt and defeated their army so I’m going to defeat Jericho on on your behalf so the ceremony of the Ark it creates this sacred procession into the promised land this beautiful Anglican procession um and even though the people participate they’re called to participate in it this is God’s Divine work that’s going to remove that last obstacle from the people from their movement into the inheritance that God has promised them God’s going to provide it he’s going to provide the way God’s Divine will will continue to guide and to direct them and to provide for them and what they need and then verses 6 to 15 and verse 20 we’re told all the uh the activity that God had told us about we can uh you know came to be and the blowing of the trumpets and the marching around the spectacular I mean just imagine the sight and the sounds that would have been heard in this incredible ceremony that happened over these seven days and then in verses 16 to 19th we get to that seventh day and into verse 21 and here we do need to spend a moment because I don’t think it would be right just to P pass over it because Joshua introduces uh a controversial and maybe troubling to to many of us idea and a concept and that’s the concept of what’s known as the ban B an and the ban is a devotion of something to the Lord a devotion of something to the Lord for his exclusive use meanings for him alone uh and it appears in Deuteronomy chapter 20 verses uh 16 to 18 uh and this is what Deuteronomy says 16 to 18 but in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance you shall save alive nothing that breathes but you shall devote them to complete destruction the Hittites the amorites the Canaanites the perizzites the hivites and the jebusites as the Lord your God has commanded that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods and so you sin against the Lord your God and so Joshua in uh in in being true to God’s word and what God had revealed in Deuteronomy uh he he that’s the order that he gives and the reason is so that the inhabitants of the land will not teach the people of Israel their practices they’re detestable practices abominable we heard the word practices that we talked about last week I encourage you to go back and listen to that to understand so this is a time that that everything is being devoted to the Lord everything in Jericho is devoted devoted to the Lord and this is important that we talk about it because we can’t shy away from it we can’t just say that this well this was just a metaphor in some way uh this really happened and God did it and so how can a good god do something like this it’s troubling Joshua placed all of Jericho under the ban in according in accordance with Deuteronomy 20 for the living creatures they were devoted to death for the valuable possessions they were devoted to the house of God and for the rest the buildings and everything else destruction by
fire it’s it’s hard isn’t it it’s hard it’s hard to to handle although the the ban meant total Destruction for Jericho it it does not mean that there could not have that God could not turn and have mercy nor is it something that’s Universal this is important this isn’t a universal decree by God that all peoples all Heathen nations are to be destroyed this is a very specific call that God makes against these people that he had spent 700 years waiting on and I believe in hopes of them turning and repenting and returning to the Lord but these these sins that were so egregious and the spiritual demonic forces that were so prevalent and perverting the truth of God they had to be dealt with once and for all but the ban is only one of God’s plans for the nation it’s not all of them it’s not Universal elsewhere it’s clear that the Nations have a choice even when their wickedness had reached a point go back to what I said earlier about Genesis 15 right it’s 700 years God gave them time he was hoping for their repentance waiting on it and we see in other places in scriptures where other nations can repent and they can find forgiveness and mercy from God look at Jonah 4 and Nineveh right Jonah doesn’t want to go Jonah says who these people don’t deserve your forgiveness but God declares that he he is going to have forgiveness on them they’re going to hear his word and they’re going to turn so what’s happening Happening Here we can’t take in some Universal way that God deals with with unbelievers with Sinners with foreign Nations it’s very specific this isn’t death to all infidels this is a specific Judgment of God that he has upon this region for a specific reason that we have to trust him about but there’s one exception isn’t there to all of this there’s one exception in verses 22 to 23 in verse 22 and 23 we’re told this but to the two men who had spied out the land Joshua said go into the prostitute’s house and bring out from there a woman the woman and all who belonged to her as you swore to her so the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her and they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel so the the exception to the ban and to God’s judgment into Deuteronomy 20 is Rahab and her family now was this in
violation of of
Deuteronomy no I don’t think so at all I don’t think it’s a violation I think what this means is that those who ceased to be Canaanite and devoted themselves to the god of Israel they’re already devoted to God so the ban meaning the things devoted to God they’ve already been devoted to God they’ve been devoted to God for salvation not for Destruction because all in the end are either devoted to God in Salvation or they’re devoted to God in
destruction and then in verse 24 the rescue of Rahab it was ad important by the way it was as important to the writer of Joshua as was the destruction of Jericho if you look at the amount of words that were used to describe both they’re almost uh identical uh so the rescue is equally as important as the destruction of Jericho itself itself but those who tend to critique Joshua 6 and take exception with a God who would uh who would bring such judgment don’t tend to look at the mercy at all do they and that’s certainly the the work of the devil and the spiritual forces of evil who who always want us to look at did God really say they want us to look at the prohibition and not God’s incredible permission they want us to look at at all of the the judgment and not as an incredible Act of mercy of God that was displayed and rescu in this prostitute and then finally in verse 26- 27 we have the curse the totality of God’s judgment against Jericho that uh devoted to God by complete destruction and the city was to remain that way forever forever God is serious about this judgment against Jericho it was that bad in fact in First Kings 1634 those words of that curse came true as uh hell of bethl uh loses his sons when he rebuilds Jericho in the 9th century eventually we see God’s judgment even against his own people in the destruction of Jerusalem is a punishment for his people worshiping other gods and betraying him and prostituting themselves out to the the gods the
Demons of the Canaanite people people so what what are the the applications for this for for us how can we how can we draw this into our own lives as God is preparing us for the promised land what does this what does this mean for us well I think there’s a three things in particular and the first one is this this concept that we see at work in in Jericho about shut up Hearts shut up hearts and in two ways shut up hearts are an obstacle to the Gospel Mission that we been called to to be proclaiming Jesus the gospel to a desperately lost world that needs him first of all the Israelites in Jericho as we saw were shut up inside and out they were shut up physically but Also spiritually they were shut up from receiving the god of the Israelites they saw the mighty works of God and what he had done but they couldn’t receive him and they wouldn’t receive him and so they shut themselves up spiritually you always we look at the lost people around
us how many of them have shut up their hearts to receiving the Lord in their lives not open to hearing about Jesus sometimes even being hostile towards us when we try to share it can be disheartening it can be discouraging especially when it’s our own f family you know I know many of us have children grandchildren maybe parents who’ve shut themselves up at this time to being able to hear or receive the Gospel and it’s heartbreaking and there’s lots of reasons for it some of them are rational maybe they they experienced abuse in their lives maybe they’ve seen just all the the the abuse in the church es and the the greed and they’ve said forget it but some of it’s totally
irrational maybe some people like the people of Jericho have seen the mighty works of God but they still won’t or just cannot believe in Jesus because remember and we have to remember this it’s a spiritual battle that we’re fighting it’s not against flesh and bl blood so what does that tell us it tells us that we need need to be praying we need to be giving this to the Lord because God is far more
patient than we are he waited 700 years to render his judgment those people that right now in your lives that you’re heartbroken over who have seemingly shut their hearts up to receiving Jesus Don’t stop believing that the Lord can break down those walls in their lives that he is merciful slow to anger abounding and steadfast love and that the Holy Spirit can break those walls down in their lives but the second obstacle is
this and it’s a great danger that we face in the church and that is that we can shut our own Hearts to the lost that we can find ourselves shutting up our own gates for those people who were lost riding them off as maybe being too far gone or being uh good only for the Judgment of God maybe they’re just too woke maybe they’re just too Progressive maybe they’re just too liberal maybe they’re just too
selfish when we close ourself off to lost people when we Harden our hearts against them no matter how no matter how far lost they may be in any given moment it means that we’ve closed ourselves off to the grace of
God we’ve closed ourselves off to Jesus the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 and searching for the one we forgotten that we too were lost but found only by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit who opened our eyes who broke down the walls of our own hearts that we might received the grace of God and his son Jesus Christ and the real danger is this in Romans 2:5 Paul says but because of your heart and in and impenitent heart you are stirring up wrath for yourself on the day of Wrath when God’s judgment will be revealed there is a grave danger for us when we close shut down our own Hearts to lost people the gates were shut the people inside and out were shut up against God but God provided One open window of opportunity in that wall he opened one window of opportunity that ball that window was the window of a prostitute named Rahab if you’ll remember when we read when when Chuck preached on Rahab a couple couple of weeks ago do you remember where her uh her home was it was in the wall and she had a window and what was she what did she do she opened that window up to let the spies out to protect them that window was a window up of opportunity and she was the only one in all of Jericho who was willing to receive the god of Israel she was the only one who was open to the rescue that was available to her she saw the mighty works of God that’s what she told the spies we’ve all heard about what God’s done for you as people and we’re and we’re and we’re shaking in our boots as what what they what she said but she’s the only one who knew her own need and was willing to receive the Salvation that was offered to her and by our standards she was far too gone she was far too gone she was promiscuous she was sinful she was absolutely detestable to the truth of God none of us would have would invite her to dinner would we none of us but it was Rahab who was saved Rahab who became the the mother of Boaz Rahab who part of Jesus’s genealogical line and in Hebrews 11: 30-31 we’re told by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days and by Faith Rahab The Prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies Rahab had the faith to believe that God could save her the one who seemed too far gone where are the windows where are the windows that God is opening for his gospel in our lives the people where are the people who who know their own Brokenness the Sinners who are longing and craving the grace and the Forgiveness of God in their lives we need to stop bemoaning our culture and people and the younger generation and all the things that we like to complain about and start looking for the open windows for the gospel that are before us we need to pray that God would open our hearts and our eyes that we may see those open windows and we might welcome those people in and share with them the gospel the second application is this that Jesus Reigns as Victor I told you I was going to work in the Ascension God has already given his people Victory we were told that right he’s already given them the gift of Victory even before the battle began we face shut walls we Face obstacles they’re all around us whether it’s people events situations people maybe who are hostile to us tragic events in our lives maybe it’s unwanted illnesses maybe it’s family Brokenness maybe it’s work or or financial struggles but through it all we know through the gospel that Jesus Reigns as Victor overall because he has ascended to the right hand of the father and according to Peter in Acts 2 and that great Pentecost sermon that Peter gave he said this Jesus God raised up and that we all are witnesses being therefore exalted at the right hand of God he’s ascended to the right hand of God and is seated at the right hand of God Paul wrote in 8 and in Romans 8:34 that he is interceding there for us and then Paul wrote to the Ephesians uh in chapter 1 ver 21 that he is seated there far above all Rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the age to come so no matter what that means is that no matter what obstacle you’re facing the commander of the Lord’s army Jesus is with you he is with you from the mighty seat of all power and all authority how is that for the ascensions because he ascended he is seated there and he is with us we’ve already been been given the gift of victory over every obstacle through the finished work of our ascended Savior Jesus and finally the third application is this just like the Conquering of Jericho took a sacred Anglican procession reaching lost people for Christ that is a sacred procession
meaning Jesus is the one who is leading the way we get to participate and in that mystical place somewhere between the will and purposes of God and the and the will of man but it’s God who goes before us in Jesus it’s the Holy Spirit who breaks down the walls and all obstacles to Faith and the people that we called to reach and to proclaim the gospel to all we have to do is to follow Jesus by faith that’s all he called us to do friends Jesus faced one obstacle after another one closed heart after another hostile Authority after hostile Authority but through them allall Jesus was always looking for the open window and where did did he find those open Windows he found them with the Sinners he found them with the prostitutes and he found them with the tax
collectors it was there that Jesus found Open Hearts ready to receive him it’s there that Jesus found you and
me not among the saints he found us among the Sinners and rescued us
friends let us rejoice Jesus is victorious in his death and his resurrection and in his Ascension and where he reigns over everything and everyone every power and authority and Dominion in heaven and on Earth and if he is for us who or what can possibly stand against us thanks be to God Amen
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Scripture: Joshua 3:1-17
In Joshua 3, God goes to great lengths to teach his people to trust him, obey his voice, and to always follow where he was leading. All of this was to help prepare them for the promised land that He was giving them. He was molding them into the people he wanted them to be as a blessing to the nations. Jesus our Good Shepherd, through Joshua 3 is teaching His church likewise, to trust His goodness, to listen to His voice, and to always follow His grace wherever we go. All to the ends that we might be lights for His gospel in the darkness of this world.
TranscriptWell for the rest of us we continuing our our Series in uh the Book of Joshua chapter 3 uh if you look at the back of your bulletin I am not Judy Stein um but uh are we’re having a mic problem over here so I’m going to read the Joshua passage for us uh this morning a reading from Joshua chapter 3 then Joshua Rose early in the morning and they set out from shaim and they came to the Jordan he and all the peoples of Israel and lodged there before they passed over at the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people as soon as you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the itical priest then you shall set out from your place and follow it and there shall be a distance between you and it about 2,000 cubits in length do not come near it in order that you may know the way you shall go for you have not passed this way before then Joshua said to the people consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you and Joshua said to the priest take take up the Ark of the Covenant and pass on before the people so they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people the Lord said to Joshua today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all of Israel that they may know that as I was with Moses so I will be with you and as for you command the priests to Bear the Ark of the Covenant when you come to the brink of the Waters of the Jordan you shall stand still in the Jordan and Joshua said to the people of Israel come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God and Joshua said here is how you shall know that the Living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the hivites and the perizzites and the girgashites and the amorites and the jebusites behold the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the Earth is passing over before you into the Jordan now therefore take 12 men from the tribes of Israel from each tribe a man and when the souls of the feet of the priest bearing the Ark of the Lord the Lord of all the Earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan the Waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing and the waters coming down from above shall stand up in one Heap so when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of the Harvest the waters coming down from above stood and Rose up in a heap very far away at Adam the city that is beside zar and those flowing down toward the sea the arabah the salt sea were completely cut off and the people passed over opposite Jericho now the priest bearing the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan This Is The Word Of The Lord thanks be to God Our Gospel reading comes from John 10 veres 1 through six Jesus said truly truly I say to you he who does not enter the Sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way that man is a thief and a robber but he who enters by the door is The Shepherd of the sheep to him the gatekeeper opens the sheep hear his voice and he calls calls his own Sheep by name and leads them out and when he has brought out all of his own he goes before them and the Sheep follow him for they know his voice a stranger they will not follow but they will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers this figure of speech Jesus used with them but they did not understand what he was saying to them this is the word of the Lord Heavenly Father we thank you for your word holy spirit will you come and fill our hearts and Minds will you lead us to the throne of grace that we might find help and mercy in this our time of need plant your word deep in our hearts that it might grow and bear fruit we pray this in Jesus mighty name amen well it’s uh it’s fun that we are in this series on Joshua and just as a a reminder especially for those who haven’t been with us since we’ve made the the transition over here to Ocean Park Baptist uh we’re we’re in the midst of of of Joshua because uh in many ways the Book of Joshua is a process of God preparing his people for the occupation of the promised land we’re about to enter into a major time of Conquest in in the life of Israel uh but God right now is preparing them uh not just for the conquest that they’re facing uh but he’s preparing them for a life of following him he’s molding them into the people that he wants them to be the people that he’s calling them to be that’s what God’s doing with Israel he’s preparing them for the land the land that he had promised to them that he had promised to Abraham and to Isaac and Jacob and again had reiterated that promise to Moses and now through Joshua he’s molding them into the people that he wants them to be in this new land and what he wants them to be is a light to the Nations that’s what he’s preparing them for that’s what all of this has been about in Genesis 1818 God had said to abrahamabraham will become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed in him and later God says it again to Abraham and in your Offspring all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed so God’s preparing his people to be a blessing to the Nations and what they need to learn along the way in order to be able to accomplish that and live into that and there’s a lot they have to learn well the reason I chose this book is because I believe that it’s really uh mirrors what the Lord’s doing with us and in our lives together individually of course all the time but uh specifically for us as a church family what God is doing in us and preparing us he’s molding us he’s preparing us for the promised land and for us obviously the promised land is the uh the building project that we are in the midst of uh that caused us to have to be over here uh for now in this time he’s preparing us for the time when we’re to return and to occupy that and what he wants for us in that and so during this time I I believe with all of my heart that he’s molding us and he’s forming us he’s molding us into the people that he wants us to be and what the people he wants us to be what he’s making us into as a people who will be shining Lights of the gospel and the Darkness that is the sin in this world and in our community he’s teaching us just as he was is teaching the Israelites as they were taking occupation of the land how they were to live in it what they were to be who they were to be and over it all his grace Reign sufficient because God’s people don’t get it right and we’re going to see that uh throughout as we go through this but there’s three things that God was teaching uh his people specifically in Joshua 3 as they’ve come to the the Jordan and as they’ve come to this time of crossing over uh and quite simply the three things are these to trust God to obey his word and to follow after him alone he’s teaching them to trust him he’s teaching them to obey his word and to follow after him alone that’s what he’s teaching them and I think he’s teaching us the same thing through through this in slightly a bit of a different way but I want to work through this passage together for just a few minutes you can uh open up your uh your bibles if you brought them to Joshua 3 you can open up your bulletin and follow along as we work through these uh these verses together this evening this is what we were told again in verse one then Joshua Rose early in the morning and they set out from shaim and they came to the Jordan he and all the peoples of Israel and lodged there before they passed over or crossed over uh the Jordan chatim is a was located just Northeast of of the Dead Sea or the salt sea uh and uh we were told that all of the peoples had been gathered there and camped there I think it’s kind of helpful now is and getting a feel for where things are and what what things look like uh because I think we can easily lose perspective of of what’s going going on here how many people who are all these people uh at this point point well if we go back to Numbers chapter 26 God called uh he called them to count and to take a census of the whole new generation uh that now he was preparing uh to launch into Conquest into the promised land uh God said take a census of all the congregations of the people of Israel from 20 years old and upward who are to go to war and so the people that were being counted in this number then were just those uh those men who were the ages of 20 and above who were still able to fight he was G God was counting his army uh who he was going to have available uh so in numbers 2651 as they did that census and reported the final numbers we’re told that there were
6,730 men who were over the age of 20 and able to go to war it’s a lot of people isn’t it there’s a lot of people here who are just camping out in Chaim uh and uh you know if you add then our our best guests women and children who are under 20 uh and then probably the elderly who weren’t able to to go to war as well I’d say that uh at a very conservative number we’d say there was one and a half million people here now it could be more than that that’s being conserv ative it could be somewhere around 2 and a half million actually who are all just camped out can you imagine the logistics I know we’ve got some Logistics folks here the logistics of worrying about feeding and moving uh and organizing and governing all of that group of folks we can’t even govern Jacksonville how are we going to govern that right you know do just to give you a perspective Duvall County’s uh population is 1, 144,000 St count St John’s count is about 300,000 Nassau County 100,000 Clay County 230,000 so basically put them all together put them all together and that’s the amount of people that we’re talking about here that have to be mobilized uh have to be organized uh and have to uh be able to follow uh Joshua’s orders and the Lord’s commands I think it’s helpful to get that kind of perspective this wasn’t an easy job uh not easy to keep that many people in line I mean it was hard enough keeping us all in line as we made this transition uh I can’t even begin to imagine and they didn’t have email um we’re told this though at the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people as soon as you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the levitical priests then you shall set out from your place and follow it yet there shall be a distance between you and it about 2,000 cubits in length do not come near it in order that you may know the way that you shall go for you have not passed this way before so uh they were Comm the officers were commanded as soon as you see the Arc of the officers commanded the people as soon as you see the Ark of the Covenant of your God being carried by the levitical priest then you shall set set out from your place and follow it this these are pretty specific uh instructions right uh it’s very specific and rather odd to be honest with you that they’re to follow an arc they’re to follow an arc that’s going to be the thing that guides them uh on this incredible journey this incredible logistical nightmare of getting two and a half million people uh across the Jordan River uh and the Ark is going to be the thing that that guides them well what what’s that all about well if we go back to Exodus 25 uh through the passage I’m not going to read all the verses 10 through 22 uh we get a description of what the ark was all about and and what it looked like uh if you’ve seen Indiana Jones you’ve got a little bit of a picture of it right uh don’t open it right don’t open it uh but it’s an incredibly ornate box it’s an ornate box or on laid with h with gold on top of it there is The Mercy Seat God uh commanded them to put there with cherubim on either side and so what the the ark is is it’s the Throne of God it’s the Throne of God it’s the place where God meets with his people and it’s The Mercy Seat God calls it he doesn’t call it the seat of uh of damnation uh he calls it The Mercy Seat it doesn’t mean it’s not a seed of judgment uh because there even for there to be Mercy there has to be there has to be a judgment from God but it’s from The Mercy Seat that God uh that God meets with his people it’s where he rules over them and within it we’re told that it contained uh the testimony of the Lord the Covenant of the Lord meaning the Ten Commandments are in there the Commandments that God had given to Moses that this is this is my pledge to you all this is who I am this is our agreement between us that I’m going to be your God you’re going to be my people and here’s what what you need how you need to obey and what you need to follow in order to be my people for all to go well with you in the land in essence basically what we’re being told the reason why there to wait for the art to go before them uh is because it’s God who goes before them they’re to wait and they’re to follow God and where he’s leading the second command they’re given is this yet there shall be a distance between you and it of 2,000 cubits in length now how many projects did you do this uh this weekend in cubits none of you right uh so 2,000 uh or one cubit equals 18 in I didn’t know either I had to look it up uh 18 in uh 2,000 cubits there therefore is 36,000 in or 3,000 ft uh and so to give you a better perspective of even what 3,000 ft looks like it’s about uh uh you know football fields 100 yards which is 300 feet so it’s 10 football fields so they’re not to get any closer than 10 football fields away from this Throne of God as he leads them across the Jordan River why is such a distance why is it why is this so important to God well this is what he said in verse four do not come near it in order that you may know the way that you shall go for you have not passed this way before now if you’ve seen Indiana Jones you know that the Lord’s holy and you can’t open it or touch it right or you’ll be Zapped or vaporized um but here he’s saying don’t even come close to it but there’s a different reason in this case uh in this case it has to do with them being able to see where to go if they get too close they won’t be able to navigate where God’s leading them God’s making it very clear don’t get ahead of me stay behind me where I lead you know how tempting is it when uh when we’re trying to follow the lord and the things that we believe the Lord’s called us to in our lives how easy is it to get out before him you know to to just go for it you know I know I made I’ve made that mistake plenty of times uh where I where I think I’ve heard and I just charge uh and I don’t wait to see what the Lord’s doing I don’t keep enough distance and remain patient enough uh and it doesn’t mean God’s Grace isn’t sufficient and that he he can’t make all things new and renew us uh but there’s a lot of mistakes that get made you know I’ve been listening to uh the a great podcast the Explorers podcast I don’t know if anyone’s uh listened to it I’m I’m obsessed with it right now uh it’s all the greatest explorers and uh Explorations in the that have happened in the history of the world it’s great I I highly recommended it’s clean it’s uh it’s just really really really interesting uh but one thing you you get very clear from here is that uh the the navigation is incredibly important right navigation matters and what God’s saying is is if you get too close and even worse if you get out ahead of me you’re not going to have any idea where to go because you may think you’ve been here before but you haven’t been here before but I know where you should need to go I know how to lead you wait on me wait on the Lord how often does the scripture tell us to to wait on the Lord to wait on him and that’s what he’s teaching his people he’s teaching them don’t get out ahead of me that’s your temp that’s going to be the Temptation your Temptation even as you get into this land even further uh and and there’s more stress uh there’s more worry and there’s more anxiety the the Temptation is going to be to get out ahead of me and to take action for yourself don’t do it wait on me follow where I am leading you stay enough behind me that you can see the right way to go too close and you’re not going to be able to tell too close things get confusing
for us situations we need to give enough space and time to see what God’s really doing see what he’s really doing spend time and prayer and discernment about where he’s leading before just taking the charge even though it’s tempting it’s tempting to jump to conclusions to try to solve problems on our owns immediately but God may be leading in a way different way than you think you have to give him the time and the space Cas to lead you in the right direction and then verses five and six we told this then Joshua said to the people consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you and Joshua said to the priests take up the Ark of the Covenant and pass on before the people so they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people so this is the third command that the people have received from Joshua right about what they’re uh what they’re supposed to do the third command was this consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you consecrate yourselves what what does that mean consecrate yourselves well we’re not told exactly Joshua doesn’t tell them how they’re to consecrate themselves which which leads us then to conclude that it’s going back to the the uh the law of God that God had given to Moses and so they to purify themselves they’re to wash there to prepare because of this incredible holy moment that’s coming there to be holy before a holy God as he leads them into this amazing work of parting of of stopping up the Jordan River so that his people can cross over Exodus 3113 though tells us this because there’s a Temptation when we think about consecrating yourselves that it’s by the act of us doing that we’re purified but listen to what God Said in Exodus 31:13 when he was giving Moses these laws and here it’s at the end where he’s talking about the Sabbath specifically he says above all you shall keep my sabbaths for this is a sign between you between me and you throughout your Generations that you may know that I the Lord sanctify you it’s the same word to purify to consecrate to sanctify it’s the Lord who does the sanctifying work in their lives but they’re to wait on him and to receive his sanctification and he gave them ways the things they were to do in order to to make that a holy moment in their lives but it’s his work to sanctify them to make them worthy of the incredible moment of God’s miraculous work that he’s about to do in their lives this wonder which means that it’s a A surpassing or extraordinary it’s more than the natural order of things in other words a surpassing of the ordinary and so people who try to explain this as a moment where uh they’ll say maybe you know it’s true that the Jordan River exists on a fault line and there have been times in history where there’s been earthquakes and in those earthquakes the water has stopped it’s happened but nowhere in the scripture does it God tell us that he did it that way uh what he tells us is this was a super natural moment it was beyond the natural that he was doing this he wanted to make it very clear to his people that this is my work in your life don’t confuse it even if it was an earthquake God could still say it was his uh but he doesn’t want them to even be mistaken in any way he wants them to know that this is his work in their lives and for it they’re to be pure and holy and that only he can make them pure and holy for this work and so you can see how painstakingly God is teaching them to trust him in this seemingly impossible task of moving two and a half million people across a river he’s teaching them just to trust him you can trust me I’m worthy of your trust I’m going to take care of you he’s teaching them to obey his word word even when it probably doesn’t make much sense right it wouldn’t have made much sense to to any of us if God had said hey two and a half million people go and I’m going to stop up I’m going to stop up the uh the river and you’re going to be able to pass right through
it this is going to come in handy especially for them as they come into the land and they’re hearing lots of other voices they’re hearing voices of the culture around them of those Nations that we read about and what their gods say and what their God’s promise and they’re going to be tempted to listen to those words because God’s words doesn’t seem to make much sense but he’s teaching them now to obey his word that you can trust me follow it and finally to follow after him to not get out ahead of him not to get too close so that they can’t see where he’s leading but to follow him alone friends that’s exactly what the Lord is teaching us but in a little bit of a different way you know today in the in the the calendar of of the church uh and church history uh it is uh today is uh the Good Shepherd Sunday which is incredibly appropriate as we’re looking at Joshua 3 because I believe uh that what God is telling us and what Jesus is teaching us as a people uh and as a church is to trust him as our Good Shepherd to trust that he’s good to obey his voice alone in our lives and to follow after his grace always so to trust Jesus as our Good Shepherd that’s the trick isn’t it to trust that you know we can believe that uh Jesus is a Shepherd but do we really believe that he’s the Good Shepherd that what he has for us is good that what he’s planning for us is something that’s better for us than anything that we could have ever hoped or imagined because the evidence around us doesn’t always lead to that conclusion does
it and the truth is talk is
cheap how how many of us have had folks in our lives that have talked a good game made lots of promises only not to deliver to leave us
disappointed I’m sure we’ve all experienced that so how can we trust Jesus as the Good Shepherd what makes him any different what makes him different in a major way is that we can trust Jesus as the Good Shepherd because he’s the only Shepherd who will will L laid his life down for the Sheep we can trust him because he bought our trust with his life he willingly gave himself sacrificed himself for the Forgiveness of our sins that we may live eternally with him that we may be forgiven and washed clean and made pure Sanctified because we’re clothed in the righteousness of Christ we can trust him because he’s good because he has proven it once and for all on the cross and friends we can trust him we can trust him even when it when it looks like it’s impossible even when it looks like there’s no possible way to uh that we can get this church moved over to a new location for a time and then go back again uh worship at a different time we’re just going to lose everybody believe me I had to tell myself that God was good the whole time and I didn’t always believe him but he proved it once and for all on the cross that he’s good friends whatever you’re facing whatever whatever Jordan River lies daunting in front of you maybe it’s a relationship maybe it’s a relationship that you think just can’t be mended that you feel is broken Beyond
repair Jesus is the Good Shepherd you can trust him with it you can trust him to lead you Faithfully in it that reconciliation is possible the waters can be parted healing can be had Brokenness can be healed that’s the work of the Gospel that’s the work of our Good Shepherd in our lives he’s also teaching us to obey his voice alone in our
lives you know the temptation just like the the Israelites fa the temptation of hearing all the voices of all the other claims of truth that were all around them hearing all the claims about uh about what their gods could do for them we’re going to read a lot about that in the future the fertility Cults uh that if you just can manipulate this God in just the right way by doing stuff that you probably really want to be doing anyway um then you can manipulate this God to do what you what you want them to do well we hear voices in our culture all the time all kinds of competing truth claims don’t we I mean I can’t even begin to number them now because constantly we’re barraged with other voices in our lives that aren’t the word of the Good Shepherd it’s not his voice in our ears so what is he doing you know think think about something as as simple as uh as as premarital sex now and living with someone and this isn’t this isn’t judgment uh God redeems all things his grace is sufficient for all of us but I can’t tell you how many people I talk to and what the norm is now uh is that it’s better it’s wiser for us to live together for us to have sex first uh as a couple because then we’ll kind of be able able to figure out if we’re we’re a good match and a good fit uh and then things will be we’ll have a more successful marriage that’s the normal thinking now speaking otherwise I is sounds crazy to people but that’s not the voice of our Good Shepherd and God’s told us that that’s not what’s good for us that’s not what’s best for us that he’s called us together uh in in a faithful marriage that then comes with the enjoyment of that relationship and sex again that’s not judgment that that’s not that God doesn’t redeem us and that we don’t make mistakes we’re not pure on our own but we can’t listen to the voices of the culture around us and receive them as the norm we have to learn to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd what’s he calling us to do in this time is to learn to listen to his voice maybe to stop talking so much and listen Maybe it’s to stop watching the news so much and to listen to his voice maybe it’s to stop reading the social media post as much and to listen to his voice to be formed by his voice and not by what’s going on in the culture around us that’s what he’s given us this time for to be formed by his voice that we may learn it and when he calls that we would be quick to listen and follow where he’s leading and finally he’s calling us to follow after his grace alone friends we’ve been given something much better than the Ark of the testimony and even The Mercy Seat of God we’ve been given the testimony himself Jesus is the fulfillment of what God was trying to present to his people the seat of Mercy resides in Jesus and he’s saying never get out in front of me I’m the one who consecrates you I’m the one who purifies you I am the one who who makes you
pure never get out ahead of my grace may it always be the thing that’s guiding you and in front of you always that you might be a great Grace filled people that you might receive the other Sinners around you with the same Grace that you yourself has received that’s the kind of people he wants us to be not a people of self-righteous Judgment of the world around us yes a people who walk in truth but a people who walk in that truth in love and grace and mercy for those who are around us friends this is what the Lord is teaching us just as he was teaching his people he’s teaching us to trust that he is our Good Shepherd and that he can be trusted because he laid down his life for us he’s teaching us to obey his voice alone and to recognize it and he’s teaching us to follow his grace always never getting in front of it that we may be ready for the people that he’s calling us to reach when we make it back to that building and even now by his grace thanks be to God Amen
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor Chuck Holiday
Scripture: Joshua 2
Not only was Israel a gift to Rahab and her family but Rahab the prostitute was a gift to Israel. She became an honored mother of Israel and mother in law to Ruth and great grandmother to David. When the church fails to reach the tax collectors and prostitutes we are in danger of falling into self righteousness and blind to our own hurtful ways and self reliance.
TranscriptThis is fun haven’t had a Pulpit for gosh 35
years um this is a lot like the uh the room I left in Chicago in
1994 but anyway it is cool hey um I’m impressed by how many of you here either you’re not golf fans or you’re extremely dedicated to uh the worship of the Lord I won’t if you if you you’re checking your phones I won’t uh won’t notice but uh this is a this is a really exciting passage in in Joshua in fact I you know um I think if I had to pick a Which chapter in this book I would most want to preach that would be this one because Rahab is a uh unique and wonderful and important figure in the in the history of uh Israel and such a lesson here for us as a church as we prepare for God’s mission for us uh before we get to that can you imagine what a Deja Vu moment this was for Joshua you know 40 years ago he was one of the spies you know appointed to go into the land with the 12 and he learned a few things didn’t he how many how many did he he send two because out of the 12 that Moses sent only Joshua and Caleb were faithful and and able to believe God’s message and come back with a good report the 10 talked them out of going in so Joshua said I’m not going to do that again we’re tired of committees you know I’m going to appoint the two people that I know will trust God and and uh have the faith to hear from God on this and he knew we needed spies but he he uh knew that sometimes s uh more is not better but anyway um we don’t know anything else about the spies except that they had courage and they they came back with the information they needed but but they’re really minor players in this story because it’s really about it’s about Rahab and God’s uh really it’s about what does God think about
prostitutes and boy isn’t that the question question we have to ask ourselves as a church because I look around and maybe some of you are fooling me but you know I don’t think we have any prostitutes here this night and and you know what that’s too bad that’s really too bad because we are not going to do well if we don’t figure out how to reach the prostitutes and the tax gatherers what what did Jesus
say to the church leaders to the faithful obedient moral people of Israel he said you might get in but if you do it’ll be way behind the tax gatherers and the
prostitutes now you know I’ve preached this a number of times over the years and the message is usually and you can look online at sermons on Joshua and Rahab and the punchline is usually God even saves
prostitutes well you know I don’t think that’s it that is it but it’s more than that God is saying can you find The Prostitute inside of your
heart the message is not that God even would save a prostitute the message is we’re all prostitutes
we all struggle none of us get Sanctified in this life and sin is ugly all of
it some sins are more socially acceptable than others but they’re all evil God calls idolatry adultery throughout the whole old test T he says my people when they are idolators are Unfaithful wives I’m your husband and when you sin you’re you’re cheating on
me I mean it’s it’s kind of shocking really so the message here you know is really um it’s twofold he said we’re all probably worse than we think we are but then the bigger message is what does God do with Rahab he doesn’t just Tucker away in a corner of Israel as we as we see what happens here to what happens to Rahab well she ends up being spared her family is spared they’re brought into Israel and she becomes an honored mother of Israel rahab’s got married to a Godly Israelite they had a boy named Boaz who was the mother I mean Rahab was the mother of Boaz who who married and rescued Ruth another Foreigner a moabitas someone who would be rejected by the people of God and and the story is how does God keep his Godly obedient moral people
kind well he uses people like Rahab who have been on the other side of the street to become the mother of people like Boaz who has an open heart to a foreigner like Ruth without without people like Rahab coming into our church my friends we’ll lose our compassion we’ll lose our sense of humility our Brokenness
it’s not just that Rahab needs the church the church needs Rahab God rescues his people by bringing in the foreigners the broken where would where would think about this of Jesus disciples you know he picked the tax
gatherer right Matthew was
I mean he was on a level with Rahab the tax gatherers and the prostitutes Jesus always mentions them in the same breath because they were the rejected ones they were the despised ones they were the ones that people had no hope for and and so who does Jesus have in his his group of close followers is Mary Magdalene probably a prostitute and and Matthew the tax gatherer where would the church be without John Newton the notorious slave trader yeah we need the John Wesley you know and the Charles Wesley and the you know the the George whitfield’s the The Godly men who were raised in the church but we need the John Newton who were the slave Traders because Grace must always be amazing or or we lose it so my friends this is a important story it’s such an encouraging story God God’s message here is not that there’s there’s even room for Rahab the message is he doesn’t just Tucker away in a corner of Israel he makes her a mother of Israel honored in Israel so you know how does God feel about Rahab how does God feel about prostitutes well he loves them he wants them he includes them he’s not afraid of them
he’s not afraid of what you know one One Bad Apple spoils the whole Barrel God doesn’t think that way now we do if we’re parents and it’s our youth group we’re looking at we don’t want any immoral women in our son’s youth group what would happen to my son my friends God doesn’t think that way God says raise your sons to be mighty Warriors who can who can witness to prostitutes who can show them the love of Christ we we think of keeping ourselves safe keeping ourselves pure by Walling out evil my friends God doesn’t want us to tolerate sin but the way to overcome sin is to not wall it out it’s to it’s to reach toward it to love the world not the not the things of the world but the people of the world I I really do hope that you know this is God has got a big thing for us the the building is a means to what he has for us he has a mission for us like he had a mission for Joshua and the Israelites you know God’s purpose for Israel was never just to keep them pure and separate from the world his promise to Abraham was that in in Abraham all the nations would be blessed that was promised Abraham in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed and this is the first beginning um promis fulfilled it’s Rahab bringing in one of the from the Lost Nations she she and and using Rahab through her son Boaz to welcome Ruth who becomes the grandmother of David the the king of Israel who represents Jesus the Messiah what a beautiful story of God using his people to reach the ends of the Earth how much more so for us when when Jesus the the raised Jesus puts his hands out and says now
go to all the world what a beautiful beautiful story it is so um look look at a couple things you know Rahab is worse she represents the fact that we’re probably worse than we really would like to think we are but she also represents the fact that God has a higher um calling for us than we can dare imagine he loves us more than we dare to think you know there are two things that are true about all of us according to the Bible one is our dignity how wonderfully we’re made in God’s image and how de deeply loved the other is our depravity our dignity and our depravity our depravity is we’re worse than we dare imagine we we can’t even fathom the depths of selfishness in our hearts they’re both true now it’s easy to believe one or the other you know um and and probably all of us here struggle more with one than the other some some really have a hard time believing that I’m as bad as right now they have uh it’s probably more of a struggle for most of us to believe that we’re as dearly loved as God says we are it’s like I can feel like God loves me if I don’t look at my sin but if I look at my sin I can’t believe he loves me God says no they’re both true you’re worse than you you could you’ve ever imagined but you’re more dearly loved than you dare to believe because of Jesus because of our righteousness in
Jesus now my friends who killed
Jesus not the prostitutes the prostitutes didn’t kill Jesus the tax collectors didn’t kill Jesus the religious leaders killed Jesus the moral the moral ones killed Jesus I mean the people who dedicated every every moment of every day trying to keep the law
they’re the ones that killed
Jesus because Jesus loved
prostitutes he didn’t honor them for their obedience he talked to them about their Disobedience he said look you you spend so much time trying to be moral and righteous and holy but you don’t know how to be merciful and
kind and you’re Hypocrites you’re blind you tell people to do things that you can’t do
yourself so what’s the greater danger to the
church my friends we need we need
rhabs you know self righteousness is is like bad breath we can’t smell our own we need we we need rhabs because they can smell
it you know none of us feel judged when we come in here you know we feel loved we feel welcome I mean it’s a sweet group I I was awesome over in the fellowship hall and here I mean Debbie and I love being part of this group you know we all get along great but my friends do you do you believe me when I tell you that there are thousands and thousands of people in Jack’s Beach who are afraid to come in here they they’re afraid to come in
here now there may be a
false notion they have because they’ve never been in here but they have been in churches where they felt unwanted now some of it is they don’t know what clothes to wear they don’t know when to stand up when to sit down they don’t know the you know the words of some of the the prayers but it’s but it’s so much deeper than that they they’re afraid of the stairs they’ll get they’re afraid of U being looked down on and so they don’t come because they’re afraid of what would happen if they came in fact we probably most of us probably have some member of our family that would be afraid to come in with with us because of how they might be
treated that they’ll they’ll be a stand out in a bad way
um wouldn’t it be great if God changed that you know wouldn’t it be great if if people knew Church of our savior is a church where anybody can
go anybody can go there and I love
you because they all know their Sinners too you know um I think God’s doing that I I think I think we’re a church that wants to be that kind of church you know I I sense that from from you all you know yeah we we we don’t want people to be afraid of coming here to worship with us we want people to to feel wanted respected valued no matter what their level of intellect no matter how they dress um you know it’s an interesting thing I mean when we were in Orlando we we we were in a we had reached a lot of people that weren’t used to going to church and sometimes you know the only way a lady knew to dress up was to put on her cocktail dress you know the clubbing dress she thought that was dressing up because that was the only nice cloth she had and and uh you know wasn’t always appropriate for church but um but people understood well she’s trying you know she’s trying she doesn’t mean that is disrespectful she’s she’s think she’s doing the best she thinks she knows how to do you know and and it can you know eventually people figure it out they don’t they don’t need a lecture they don’t need a you know heads up they they figure it out after a while oh I guess they don’t wear these kind of clothes here you know and and some people uh come late because they don’t know that everybody gets there early or whatever um some some kids the kids don’t necessarily know how to behave in the children’s program and there’s there’s lots of awkwardness to to um being a church that’s reaching really lost people but but there’s a sweetness that comes with it you know there’s a um worship explodes I mean the praise and worship that comes from from the lips of a somebody who who was a prostitute who found out Jesus loves her I mean it’s pretty cool you know when when people who know they’re broken find out that Jesus loves them it’s contagious you know and it helps the rest of us realize well I wonder where I’m broken I wonder if I wonder uh if maybe there are things in me that I’m not aware of and and you know it just kind of begins to to blend to where the separation between the the people who live Godly and the people who who who didn’t get the message yet you know the distinction gets to be a little more blurred because we begin to realize well we all struggle somewhere in our lives and and and God God loves us and our our righteousness is in Christ and it it could become a wonderful but the only thing that really really uh becomes powerful is the worship and the praise that Jesus gets every Sunday when when everybody knows they’re lost but everybody also knows that but Jesus is my righteousness he did it all now what happens to people like Rahab when they come into church Larry Krab got a great little quote he said he said God loves to welcome people like Rahab to his family dinner table and then he really enjoys watching her change as she eats good
food you know uh what what happens to people like Rahab they they get better you know they realize that prostitution isn’t really what I wanted to do now no little girl when she’s seven or eight years old and and deciding what she wants to do when she grows up thinks well I want to be a prostitute that’s just not how that
works I mean you’re usually born into it frankly very very few very very few people in this industry get there without having been severely harmed early in life it’s not what they want it’s it’s it’s just how they survive like the rest of us we we do what we do to survive you know some of it’s more socially acceptable you know you can be kind of a hard-headed businessman and and get a pass because it’s more socially acceptable but it can be just the same drivenness I just have to do this to survive and take care of my family family okay but at the root at the
core you know we’re all the same aren’t we we we forget that God loves us we forget that our father in Heaven has provided everything for us and we feel like we’re on our own and we got to find some way to survive and then we find Jesus did it all in the Holiness we strive for he said I already I already did the work it’s your gift you’re covered in my in my righteousness my robe of righteousness receive the gift walk in Freedom now you’re free to love people you don’t have to be judgmental you’re free to love people the way I love them may God help us amen
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 1
The book of Joshua marks a significant transition in the life of Gods people. Transitions are always difficult with dangers lurking around every corner. In Joshua 1 we are reminded that victory has already been assured through Jesus and in him we can be strong and courageous no matter what challenges await us.
TranscriptSo how was your morning weird yeah weird right you know uh H having extra time in the morning is a is a blessing and in many ways a curse uh you know it’s hard to figure out kind of what to do with uh with your time like how to how to best use it for a for a preacher just give you more time just means more time to procrastinate uh and so more time on Sunday morning means more time to to work on a sermon right uh but since that we’re in a Baptist Church I feel like it’s only appropriate to uh to take on our more Bap Baptist tradition of I get at least 45 minutes in this
Pulpit I’m sure that’s what Chris takes and I’m going to take it too I’m I’m just kidding I we’re we’re not we’re not ready for that uh quite yet you know we’re we’re beginning here now as we as we come to uh to Ocean Park and begin this this time of transition for us as a church we’re uh we’re also going to be begin this new series on the Book of Joshua um we’re going to walk through it uh all the way uh through the summer it’ll take us into into September and God willing into right in the uh into our our new building will be be ready for us uh and the the reason why uh we’re choosing or I chose to to go through the Book of Joshua during this time is because uh Joshua in many ways uh was a time of preparing God’s people uh you know the desert wandering was a time to prepare God’s people for the conquest and what was before them uh but the time of the conquest itself in Joshua I believe was a time that God was teaching and preparing the hearts of his people for what would be the possession of the land he was teaching them all that they needed to know about him and about themselves and what he was calling them to as they would take possession of this promised land and so for us I’m calling this time in Joshua in this series preparing for the promised land as we’re preparing uh to take possession of God’s gracious provision of a new building uh it’s exciting but there’s lots that that the Lord wants to teach just in it Joshua uh really it’s a book of transition in many ways uh we see transition of leadership from Moses to to Joshua uh we see a transition of God’s people from being Nomads to possessors of the the the promised land uh we see God’s people going from a Wandering people to a holy Army we also see God’s people going from a place of in some sense victims meaning as they were enslaved in Egypt and transitioning into Victorious conquerors so there’s a lot of transition and and and I couldn’t help but see uh the connections between us and where we are uh right now and that we’re in a time of transition from uh 2092 Beach bulvard to 16th Avenue South you know from church of our savior to Ocean Park Baptist uh and and that’s and transitions are a tough time they’re a challenging time uh but I think that the Lord has a lot to teach us about what he wants us to learn uh about who we are and to prepare us for what he is so graciously provided for us in a new building uh when the time comes for us to return and so we’re going to learn uh quite a bit uh because Joshua uh whereas the the desert wandering as I said was a time of preparing God’s people for the task that was before them uh and then Joshua in in the conquest of the promised land Was preparing them to be faithful stewards of that promised land where the people list learned how to listen to God they they learned how to trust him they they learned to obey him and to Magnify Him in the world around them reaching the Nations for the one true God I believe that that this time of transition position that we’re in it’s exactly what the Lord’s preparing us for and so I’m excited about what God’s going to uh going to teach us and do in US during this time of transition and in our time of uh of working through the the Book of Joshua uh together but some background about the Book of Joshua we really uh have to to spend a little bit of time this morning to really set the stage uh and so the book is all about the conquest it’s the gift of God’s to that God gave to his people that he had promised for a long time that he had promised the gift of of this grace of his of this promised land that went all the way back to his promise to to Abraham uh parents would use the Book of Joshua to tell their children about the mighty works of God priests and teachers in the Old Testament used it to explain to God’s people that God God is the ultimate power that’s at work in this world he’s the protector of the weak he’s the one who breaks the the chains of bondage he’s the one who gives his people Victory and this is a major transition in the Bible itself a transition from the Torah the books of the law to uh making its way into the the prophecy and the prophetic Works uh it’s a trans transition from leadership as I said just a moment ago from Moses to Joshua from Wilderness Wilderness wandering as a punishment from God to a land of Conquest as reward from a covenant curse from the worship of that golden calf that we’ll come back to in a few minutes to Covenant obedience and Renewal by God Joshua the man uh the name itself Joshua uh it’s made up of of two words the first is the name of God it means the Lord uh and then the second is salvation and so the the name itself means the Lord is salvation in first Joshua first appears in Exodus chap 17 uh verse 8 I am going to read some Old Testament passages here to set the stage for who who Joshua uh was so that we can understand it as we as we dive into more of of his life and really what Joshua is in many ways is a biography of the man and so uh this is what we’re told in 17: 8 and9 then amalik came and fought with Israel at rfim so Moses said to Joshua choose for us men and go out and fight with amalik tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand so Joshua did as Moses told him and fought with with amalik while Moses Aaron and her went up to the top of the hill whenever Moses held up his hand Israel prevailed and whenever he lowered his hand amalik prevailed but Moses hands grew weary so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it while Aaron and her held up his hands one on one side and the other on the other side so that his hands were steady until the going down of the Sun and Joshua over overwhelmed amik and his people with the sword that’s the first mention we we have in the scriptures about Joshua uh and at this time we’re not told where he comes from or or much about him he just appears here but what we learn from this is that uh is that this was the first battle that God’s people had to face when they had come out of the Exodus and in that time for this battle Moses chose Joshua as the leader he chose them to lead the Army into battle and so in this way we with picture we get of who Joshua is is that he’s a general he’s a general of the army given Authority by Moses over this Army for the nation of Israel the second time uh we see uh we have word of um of Joshua is in Exodus 24:3 we’re told Moses rose with his assistant Joshua and Moses went up into the Mountain of God so when when Moses went to ascend to to hear from God and to receive the Ten Commandments uh Joshua went up with him and so we’re told here specifically that he was an assistant to Moses which is a very important role which we’ll come back to in just a moment and then in Exodus 3217 it was Joshua who was the first one to hear the noise uh of the people people down in the camp of God’s people when they were descending from the mountain uh and what uh what we’re told he said to he he heard and he said to Moses there is uh there’s noise of war in the camp well Joshua what he wasn’t hearing was was war but he was hearing the ring and the uh the debauchery that was happening in the camp as they were worshiping the golden uh the golden calf uh but what it tells us as well is that Joseph was not there Joseph was not with the folks who were uh who were turning to the idol of the calf the third mention or really the fourth mention of uh of of Joshua comes in Exodus 33:1 and we learned that Joshua had a place at the tent of meeting the tent of meeting was the place that that Moses would set up the tent outside of of the camp the Israelites camp and that’s where they would commune with God where they would meet with him and and that Joshua had a place there he was invited into that special uh relationship we also learned that Joshua was a young man in that passage he was the son here for the first time we’re told he was the son of nun he was a young man which can also be uh translated as Squire meaning that he was being groomed he was being trained as a leader he was being trained by Moses as a leader and then in numbers 11:24 to 29 it tells us that Joshua uh was still young and he was still learning and in this process he made mistakes uh it was here that uh we’re told that a group of of folks that weren’t in the tent of meeting began prophesying God’s word in the camp and word had come back to to Moses that had been reported to him uh and Joshua was irate how dare anyone prophesy about God without Moses giving them the authority to do so and Moses had to talk him down and say praise God that God’s spirit would fall on all people and that his word would be proclaimed so he was young he was still learning at this time and then in numbers 13 and 14 Joshua was one of the spies that was sent into the Promised Land by by Moses to scout it out to see what was there and we’re told in that story that only Joshua and Caleb provided the positive evaluation of Israel’s ability to conquer Canan that God had promised them and when God’s people rebelled Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes and said this the land which we pass through to spy and to spy out is an exceedingly good land if the Lord Delights in us he will bring us into the land and give it to us the Lord is with us they proclaimed and so Joshua and Caleb therefore were the only ones who were Allowed by God to enter into the promised land because of their their faithfulness and their trust in the Lord and in his word finally in numbers 27
18-23 God chose Joshua to lead his people God chose him to lead his people through through his servant Moses and so with the picture we get here uh if we look through all that it took place before this moment in Joshua where he actually takes on the mantle and takes leadership over from Moses we get some really practical uh practical stuff about what leadership is really all about especially being a leader of God in the church Joshua has the first thing we learned is that Joshua has undertaken specific tasks and he’s been successful in them demonstrating his loyalty to God’s word even when it meant standing apart from the crowd the second thing we learn is that Joshua demonstrated that he could act with independent judgment but yet in loyalty to God he was able to make decisions he wasn’t indecisive he could make decisions when they needed to be made the third thing we learn as a leader he was a leader who could make mistakes but learn from them
the fourth thing we learned he was a leader who was recognized by the people they accepted him they received him he was he was brought along in the process and the people had received him as a leader and fifth he was a leader that God had clearly chosen as God shows throughout the Book of Joshua Joshua Joshua could really be used just as a leadership book uh and it is used as a leadership book but for us I believe it’s how God is preparing us to take possession of what he has provided for us in this new building his gracious provision like who does he want us to be as a people a people who listen to him a people who trust him a people who obey his voice a people who Proclaim him as Lord and savior of all to a culture into a community that so desperately need him so that’s what I believe God’s going to be doing in our hearts and in our midst as as we walk through this and so I invite you to uh to open up either your bulletins or your Bibles to Joshua uh chapter 1 and since I have 45 minutes I can do the whole thing um which will be great um but in actuality we’re just going to look at the first nine verses uh this evening together uh just verses 1-9 because verses 1-9 really set up I think what God doing in the whole book of Joshua and so it’s a summary really of what is to come in more detail later but this is what we’re told in verse one after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord the Lord said to Joshua the son of nun Moses’s assistant so we’re the stage is set the stage is set Moses has died he was buried in Moab this moment has been a long time in the making this wasn’t just some spur of the- moment thing uh Mo Joshua’s development has happened over time uh it’s uh he’s gained the trust of the people he had learned under Moses he had learned to trust the Lord he’s been tested he’s been tried it’s what we’ve all been talking about just uh this morning uh as much as anyone can be prepared for the Lord’s instructions in their lives Joshua has been instructed and here’s what the Lord had to say to Joshua now that the moment has finally come in verses 2 through five Moses my servant is dead now therefore arise go over this Jordan you and all this people into the land that I am giving to them to the people of Israel every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon I have given to you just as I promised to Moses from the Wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the Great River the river of Euphrates all the land of the Hittites to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life just as I was with Moses so I will be with you I will not leave you or forsake you these verses outline the ENT entire what the entire book of of Joshua is about verse two talks about the Monumental task that’s in front of them the first step and that’s crossing the Jordan River which we’ll get into very quickly uh in in this series together verse three talks about the conquest of the land that God has promised that land that’s been promised for so long to Abraham and Isaac and to Jacob and reaffirmed with Moses and now with Joshua verse four speaks of the important part of organizing all right now that you’ve got it how are you going to split it you ever tried to split inheritance I know many of you have right uh it’s difficult this is a big task that’s going to be in front of them Distributing the land between the tribes of Israel it’s going to be a really trying time and finally verse 5 all the days of your life it says which is how the book itself ends all the days of Joshua’s life taking us all the way to his death but verse five answers an incredibly important question maybe the most important question uh this is seemingly an impossible task that’s before them it seems that way anyway How can any one man as prepared and gifted as Joshua may be how in the world can he pull this off how can he pull P this off this is this is a hostile takeover that he’s facing you know this is uh Nelson pelts trying to win the proxy war with Disney those who were in The no that just that was just to show you like how up to dat I am with h with the news he lost by the way the first round anyway they’ll be more and the short answer that how God answers is is the Lord will do it it’s the Lord who will do it no man shall be able to stand before you says the Lord all the days of your life because I will be with you I will not leave you or forsake you is the promise that God made to Joshua Joshua and his people have the promise of God on their
side friends how do we know that we will be victorious in life how do we know that this transition from church of our savior to Ocean Park and and eventually back again to where we’re finally in in the in the promised uh provision that God has for us how do we know it’s going to be successful how do you know when you’re facing something daunting in your own life something so challenging that’s more than you can possibly handle on your own how do you know that you’ll not only just survive it but that you can
Thrive because prom God’s promise of Victory to Joshua that was just a foraste friends it was just a foretaste a precursor to the ultimate victory that God had planned for you and for me amen Joshua had the promise of God that he would never leave him or forsake Him which was amazing we have the promise of Jesus yes that he’s with us always to the very end of the age we heard it in Our Gospel reading this morning and when Christ is with us there’s no one who can stand against us because Jesus is our Victory he was forsaken by God on the cross when he carried the full penalty for our sin and because he was forsaken friends we’re forgiven but death could not defeat him on the third day he rose Victorious and as Paul proclaimed to the Corinthians death is swallowed up in Victory oh death where is your Victory oh death where is your Sting the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ yes how do I know that we’ll be victorious how do I know that you are victorious because we already are through our Savior Jesus Christ that’s the amazing love of God for us in Jesus as the praise song says and we’re going to sing it uh together in just a few minutes and just a little while I’m forgiven because you were forsaken I’m accepted you were condemned I’m alive and well your spirit is within me because you died and rose again that’s what we have in Jesus that’s who we are we are victorious because he has defeated sin and death forever but now going back to Joshua they’re heading into this incredible task with the promise ahead of time of Victory the victory is theirs God’s already told them Joshua is heading into this incredible task of leading God’s people with the promise already that Victory will be theirs which makes verses 6-9 make a lot more sense if we look at them within this context now want I’ll read these verses for us for just a moment he said God said be strong and courageous for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them only be strong and very courageous being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you do not turn from it to the right to your right hand or the left that you may have good success wherever you go this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success have I not commanded you be strong strong and courageous do not be frightened and do not be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go three times God says it doesn’t he three times and you’ve probably got it embroidered on something in your house be strong and courageous three times but God wasn’t asking them to just manage to find courage and strength on their own he wasn’t telling them to try to muster up something from from deep inside to try to work harder to be to be courageous and to find strength he was asking them to live out of the assurance and of the promise of what he had already made to them that victory was theirs that’s where the strength and the courage was to come to verse six be strong and courageous because you shall inherit the land that I sore to your fathers to give you don’t be he’s not saying be strong and courageous because you might if everything happens to go just right and the ball happens to bounce your way a few times no he says be strong and be be courageous because I have already given it to you it’s already yours it’s already your inheritance that I have claimed for you and I am giving to you and then verse 7 again says be strong and courageous but this time he says by number one doing everything according to God’s law number two do not turn from it so that all may go well for you and number three meditate on it day and night so that you will do all that is written in it and make your way prosperous and have good success hold on a minute that sounds a little different doesn’t it you know God’s promis Victory and success minute ago but now it’s it’s sounding a little more conditional isn’t it like all of it now depends on them God was saying I’m going to give this to you I’m going to do this victory is yours but now I need you to do these things and if that’s true if that’s what God really is telling them that it’s conditional then the answer the assurance and the confidence in God’s Victory now is in some serious doubt isn’t it
but we have one more be strong and courageous left that I believe puts this in its right perspective in its right order verse 9 says have I not commanded you meaning God is saying this is my plan this is my will this is what I have decided what I have put together for you uh to call Joshua and his people to this task there’s no doubt in that it’s my plan therefore God says be strong and courageous for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go so what God was telling Joshua and the people is they will not be alone in their striving to be obedient to God’s law and God’s command over their lives it’s not just up to them in their own strength to be good enough neither Joshua nor God’s people will succeed because of their obedience to God’s law and command that’s not going to be why they succeed they will succeed because God will be with them and enable them to be Victorious and will start working in them to bring them to a place of obedience to him and to his word friends this is the lesson we have to learn and receive as God prepares our hearts for the promised land of his gracious provision of our new building it’s not our obedience to God God that ensures our success if that were true if it were left up to us we would be bitter
failures through God’s Amazing Grace it’s by faith in God alone through his son Jesus Christ who gives us the victory over sin and death that’s what Joshua is telling us and that in that Victory he’s changing our hearts and reworking us and changing our desires to give us a will that longs for God because he is the one who is with us forever he is the one who never leaves us or forsake us giving us a desire to be with him forever and to follow his will because it’s good and it’s gracious and it’s loving so we can be strong we can be strong because he is strong 1 Corinthians 1:25 Paul said even the weakness of God is stronger than man and we can be courageous we can be courageous because God loves us and proved it through the death of his beloved Son and it’s his perfect love that casts out all fear that gives us the courage to face what he’s calling us to and so we can March onward in this time of transition we can March forward and whatever challenge is facing us in our lives with the promise of God’s ultimate Victory through Christ full of the courage and the strength that comes with putting our faith and the one who is with us for all always who will never leave us or forsake us and trusting him that he has won the victory for us. Amen
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Mark 16:1-8
The world offers us empty promises for where we can find hope, joy, love, and peace. Easter Sunday offers us an empty tomb where we can find the abundant life full of the promises of God. The tomb was empty, Jesus conquered sin and death forever, come let us give praise to the risen King.
TranscriptWell as I said the the Easter Sundays are becoming more I’m aware more and more the older I get just how precious and special these days are especially because everything else that we hope in everything we believe in all the joy that we have is all dep dependant upon the resurrection from the dead as Paul proclaimed just a a few verses before our reading from this morning starting in the 17th verse he said if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile and you are still in your sins then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished if in Christ we have hope in this life only we are a people to be most pied the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the the grave is the foundation of everything we believe it’s the foundation of every reason why we’re here in the hope that we have everything else depends upon it this why I think it’s important to to talk a little bit about uh the historic evidence for the resurrection because that’s one of the biggest arguments you hear from people right people don’t rise from the dead uh how in the world could this be true this is some myth that that Christians just uh just like to to believe but if we really subject the gospel narrative to uh even to the scrutiny of of historic evidence it it passes with flying colors and there fact there’s four there are four evidences or proofs of the Resurrection uh if we look at this from a historical uh academic standpoint and the first proof is this that the the tomb was empty the tomb was empty when those first women that we just read about came to the tomb that Jesus had been buried in just three days before it was empty no one ever argues against that fact some say the disciples must have have snuck in and and stolen the body have you heard that one before you know that that could have happened uh but the gospels tell a different story don’t they they tell us a story of a disciples who were incredibly cowardly and afraid scared for their lives it it’s not reasonable to believe that they were so so brave uh that they would have been so bold to have attacked the the Roman guards who were uh who were guarding uh the Tomb in order to steal Jesus’s body away some say it was just a big conspiracy right derived from the disciples just to perpetuate the idea that Jesus actually Rose from the grave I don’t know if you you ever read any of of Chuck coulson’s uh writings on his experiences from uh being a chief orchestrator of the Watergate uh scandals uh but he writes about how it is absolutely impossible to have that many people involved in a conspiracy and for someone not to blab the truth at some point Coulson knew from experience there’s also a reality that if the tomb really was not empty and this was just some trick uh on the the disciples part uh then the Jewish and Roman authorities though if that had been true they would have just produced the body right they would have just produced the body they would have quelled all of the the rumors and speculations and everything that was going around that this Jesus the tomb was empty and that he had risen from the grave the second evidence we have of Jesus’s resurrection uh from the grave is those first Witnesses those first Witnesses the gospel accounts uh all agree they all agreed that it was women who were the first Witnesses of the empty tomb in Mark’s gospel we just read it was Mary Magdalene it was Mary the mother of James and it was uh salomi in the first century women’s testimony was considered invalid why in the world would the gospel writers have made women to be the first Witnesses of Jesus’s resurrection if that unless of course that was the way it actually happened they wouldn’t have risked it they would have thought of a more plausible way at least in their culture of having witnesses that could stand up in court and could uh could be considered valid the third proof of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the disciples Newfound courage they Newfound courage just think about it because the gospels make it perfectly clear if you were here on uh on if you were here for Monday Thursday or on Good Friday or if you’ve been reading hopefully this week the word of the Lord and the gospel account of uh Jesus’s
betrayal and abandonment the gospel accounts make it all very clear the disciples were terrified they were terrified they all abandoned Jesus for fear of the Jews and of the Roman authorities they locked themselves up in the upper room right because were told because of the fear that they had so something changed something changed in in a mighty way for them and what that what changed for them was their encounter with the empty tomb and the Risen Christ it emboldened them to actually break out of their shelter of fear to begin to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ uh to the people around them they proclaimed the
resurrection where did this new found courage come except for they believed it because they saw him they saw the Risen Christ and it changed them forever the fourth proof is the disciples died for their faith in Jesus they gave their lives because of their faith and conviction this had indeed been been some kind of big lie that had just been drummed up by the disciples to perpetuate this myth that they had created that Jesus had risen from the G grave great but they never would have been willing to die for it they didn’t get rich they didn’t didn’t Prosper not in a worldly sense they died nearly all of them were martyred because of their belief in Jesus Christ’s Resurrection from the dead what greater evidence is there than the blood of the martyrs for Jesus’s resurrection from the dead the resurrection is absolutely foundational and essential to our Faith it’s the lens through which we see everything else around us not only is it the foundation of our faith it’s how we see the world it’s how we see ourselves as CS Lewis said I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else the resurrection changes the way that we see life as followers of Jesus Jesus Christ we see life through this Resurrection it helps us make sense of the world it’s what gives us hope even when all hope seems lost it’s the reality that brings joy and peace into our lives even when
circumstances would dictate quite the opposite it’s the truth that chases the fears and the worries of the world away when they inevitably begin to creep in and it gives us the courage and the strength to face even the dangers that are around us just as it did for those first disciples who witnessed firsthand Jesus’s resurrection from the dead so the hysteric the evidence it’s important don’t let anyone tell you that it’s not true or it doesn’t pass the evidence test because it does but of course it’s more than that right so much more than just being factually historically true that’s where we have to begin but it goes on from there you know the idea of emptiness isn’t very popular uh no one likes being empty right uh none of us like it what are the kind of things we usually uh associate with emptiness uh empty gas tanks that’s not good uh empty houses empty
wallets empty hearts
and then there’s the worst empty of them all and that’s empty promises maybe there’s nothing worse than empty promises uh in this world you know when someone promises you something that they they cannot or they they will not follow through on those kinds of promises they’re worthless they’re meaningless and the worst part about them is they leave us they leave us devastated defeated they can suck the life right out of us you know Ken Burns and his uh I don’t know if any anybody saw his baseball documentary uh it was a good one he does really good documentaries but uh one of the one of the lines was baseball is full of empty promises baseball’s full of empty promises good thing K’s not in here now and all our little baseball players you know so many players want to make the big leagues right that’s every that’s every kid’s dream that was uh if you played baseball that was your dream as a kid you were going to play in the big leagues but only 10% of players who even get drafted by a major league baseball team will ever actually make the majors that’s one out of 10 who just get who even get drafted who made it that far that means that nine players never have their dreams fulfilled for them baseball’s full of empty
promises now if baseball’s not your thing how about the Antique Road Show anybody anybody like the antique red show I love watching the antique red show I don’t watch it all the time but you know if it’s on I’ll stop you know it’s great it’s great drama um people come you know with their old stuff and uh the antique experts bring them in they you examine it and they bring them in and talks about that particular piece and what it means and where it came from and uh the buildup keeps going you know and you’re watching you’re like oh yeah this is going to be great uh until finally that payoff moment comes comes and you find out really what we all want to know what’s it worth right what what’s it really worth uh I love when someone comes and they they found that that item in their attic you know or they were going through a parent or a grandparents house or some barn out in the middle of uh Rocky Mount North Carolina and uh and they find this item that no one uh you know that’s been lost forever uh maybe it was an old wooden Bowl seems worthless only to find out it’s actually worth over $100,000 you know these are great uh one woman brought I watched a Chinese jade collection that her father had had acquired when he was stationed in China uh and and she had done nothing to get it she hadn’t earned it right uh she had simply just kept it in a box in the Attic but when she uh brought it uh she found out that it was worth over a million dollars yeah but as much as I love those stories right those are the good ones the ones that really keep me going and this says more about me than it does the show probably I love it even more more when that person who comes in just knowing that what they’ve got is worth something incredible right this is the this is the nest egg that’s going to uh going to pay for the rest of rest of their lives only they find out that it’s fake and worthless like the Irishman who came in with the 19th century uh portable toilet uh and he he bought it in an auction for around $2,000 cuz he just knew that that was going to be worth a fortune I mean who doesn’t want a portable toilet only to find out by the appraiser that it was worth maybe you know a hundred bucks you know I love those are the ones that those are the ones that keep me watching uh but that was empty empty promises right empty promises something that that poor old man thought was worth something was worth nothing ended up being worth worthless and you can see how in that when you watch the show how his whole face was just overcome with bitter disappointment all his hopes dashed that’s what happens when we deal with empty promises in this world and the world that we live in makes a lot of promises makes a lot of promises promises about how we can become Healthy and Wealthy and and wise and happy and fulfilled find success and and power Promises of of peace and and contentment love joy hope the world makes all kinds of promises is about how we can find it and they’ll all be ours if we can just get them work harder and longer than everyone else around us save more make smarter Investments and you’ll get there but at the end of the day the promises that the world makes they’re full of emptiness they’re full of emptiness they’re empty promises they can’t deliver what they say they can they’re meaningless and worthless money will never make is happy success will never fulfill us human Ingenuity and science can never guarantee our health and and Longevity the way that we were longing for it to we can’t find contentment and joy in anything we do on our own because we’re always left wanting more longing for more because the world always promises that one more thing is what you need that one more thing that one more thing if you can just find that one more thing or accomplish that one more thing then you’ll reach it but there’s always that one more thing there’s always that one more thing the truth is working longer and harder and only looking out for ourselves most often at best ends in a stomach alter and at worst ends in a heart attack long before we ever enjoy the fruits of anything and when we buy into those empty promises in the end we’re left with a piece of junk that we can never take with us when our time on Earth is done and even worse we often find ourselves full of bitterness disappointment at all the things that we never got that we thought we deserved discouraged defeated you know as is my uh custom uh to quote great 80s songs that make make the point for me uh this morning comes from Naked Eyes uh and all you children of the 80s know this one or you may know their their their their bigger hit of course is uh Always Something There to Remind me you know that one uh but this one’s promises promises he said they say never had a doubt in the beginning never a doubt trusted you true in the beginning I loved you right through you made me promises promises knowing I’d believe promises promises you knew you’d never keep you can’t finish what you start if this is love it breaks my heart deep deep and Brilliant there’s nothing deeper than a good 80s song I’m telling you I’m telling you but it’s the empty promises of This World In the End they’ll break our hearts and they do break our hearts Hearts because the world offers promises that are full of emptiness so that word empty it really is a negative thing nothing good ever comes from being empty or does it there’s one kind of emptiness that can actually bring hope and meaning and joy and peace and love into our lives there’s an emptiness that can actually bring life an emptiness that brings healing and restoration in all the ways that we need most it’s the emptiness of Easter hold with me on that for a minute while the world offers promises that that are full of emptiness Easter offers us an emptiness that’s full of Promise sounds kind of silly doesn’t it how can this be but you see my friends The Emptiness of Easter means that the cross that Jesus hung from is empty the tomb where they lay made his lifeless body it’s empty yet it’s an emptiness that offers us the promise of Life a promise full of Hope and meaning and joy and love and peace life is far from meaningless because of the empty tomb life is far from hopeless there’s so much more in that empty tomb than we ever could have hoped for or desired and it’s all because that that e on that Easter morning the tomb was empty an emptiness that was full of more life than we could ever desire or hope for and certainly more than we
deserve that’s exactly what the women found that first Easter morning when Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and salomi went seeking Jesus’s body they were going to prepare his his body the way that it was right the way they were supposed
to they were empty inside when they went full of grief and fear they went fully expecting to find Jesus’s lifeless body there otherwise why get the uh get all the spices and get the things that were needed to prepare his body but what they did find was emptiness but it was an emptiness greater than their hearts could have ever imagined they found the empty tomb that was full of life when they got to the tomb that morning they found that the stone had been rolled away for them and a messenger of God appeared to them and when they saw this messenger who was wearing a white robe they were full of fear but listen to what the messenger again said to them you seek Jesus of Nazareth who is crucified he is risen he’s not here I love the Luke’s account of this also adds one beginning part to that and that is this why are you looking for the living among the Dead why are you looking for the living among the dead isn’t that what we do we follow the empty promises of this world looking for life when all it can give us is death with the emptiness of Easter though being filled with promise it’s filled with a new promise an eternal promise all those empty promises the world gives us about where we can find life and life to the full they’re all empty but the empty tomb offers us the promise of of Life of everlasting life a life that’s truly alive A Life That’s full and abundant and complete because the empty T tomb means that Jesus rose from the dead he conquered death death forever while we all face death in our lives death can no longer hold us captive it doesn’t have the last word because in conquering death death on a cross when we put our faith in Jesus his resurrection becomes our Resurrection to New Life see Jesus died on the cross for us he did it because he loves us he did it because he wants us to live with him forever but not just eternally he wants us to live with him now to know him personally as our Lord and savior he wants us to know the life that’s full of Promise here in the present full of Hope and and meaning full of forgiveness and restoration a life where we can find the Fulfillment that our hearts so desperately long for that can only be found in a personal relationship with God through his son Jesus
Christ all a place he wants us to find where all the bitterness the depression that the empty promises of this life have given us
he wants us to know that promise of the empty tomb where all of it can be washed away and we can be filled with the love of God for us and because Jesus died on the cross and then Rose from the grave when we put our faith in him his death becomes our death and his Everlasting Resurrection life brings us to New Life With God forever as the Apostle Paul said it uh in this way in his letter to the Galatians it’s no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me it’s new life that we’re given in Christ meaning we’re truly made alive to God and that means all those those things that the world promises those empty promises of meaning and hope and joy and contentment and love when we’re alive to God the very source of Hope and joy and love that our lives get filled up filled up to over overflowing as Jesus said it in John 10:10 I have come that they might have life and they might have it abundantly or they might have it to the fulls another way of saying it Jesus is telling us where we can find that kind of Life lives filled with the promise of the resurrection and Abundant Life is only possible because of the emptiness of Easter so today on this Easter Sunday the day of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and every day to come remember the world is full of empty promises but the empty tomb of Easter is full of the promise of Life everlasting life that’s for every one of us when we put our faith in Jesus Christ as the Risen Lord Allelujah Christ is risen Lord hallelujah and because he has risen our lives are full of the promise of God today and for all eternity amen amen
amen
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Luke 19:29-40
As Jesus rode into Jerusalem he came peacefully, willingly, and faithfully. This is the same way that Jesus comes into our lives as we receive Him as our Savior and King. Come listen to the incredible gospel revelation of Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem as we enter together into Holy Week.
TranscriptHappy Palm Sunday to you all you know Palm Sunday is uh it’s a a beautiful celebration as we begin Holy Week um and and it’s it’s appropriate that we begin Holy Week with the the Liturgy of the Palms although in the Luke reading we just had it doesn’t say anything about palms so that’s always a little bit confusing you know why aren’t we waving cloaks in the air and throwing them on the ground uh but in John chapter chapter 12 verses 12 to 14 and John’s account of the triumphal entry we’re told this the next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem so they took branches of palm trees palm trees and went out to meet him crying out Hosanna blessed he who comes in the name of the Lord even the king of Israel and Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it so we see why with with Palms we wave them it’s a tradition that that goes all the way back to the early Church in fact it was a a tradition that they continued when even when Christian Martyrs uh when they were killed uh they would their procession and their their funerals were were accompanied with waves of Palms at the Triumph of Christ uh over sin and death but also we have another imagery another image the scriptures paint for us of the Palms themselves in Revelation 7 verses 9 and 10 and this is what we’re told as the uh of the picture of when God will gather uh all of the of the Nations to himself says after this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages standing Before the Throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice salvation Belongs To Our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb so not only is this a reminder of what has come in Jesus triumphal entry it’s a picture of what is to come for all of us when we know the full salvation of Jesus in the new Heaven and a new Earth so it’s a beautiful and fitting uh way to begin our Holy Week uh together uh but just in a few minutes we’re going to go from this dramatic celebration of uh the Liturgy of the palms and the hosana to God in the highest and this joyous celebration we’re going to be reading the the passion narrative after I finished talking and so from shouts of Salvation we’re going to turn to shouts of crucify him crucify him it’s a it’s an emotionally heavy heavy Sunday Palm Sunday is uh as dramatic and in a personal way as we are reliving and stepping into to that moment uh placing ourselves though in the passion narrative we’ll be placing ourselves as well in the place of the crowd of the disciples dealing with on how on one side of our mouths we Proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior and king of our lives and with the other we betray him we betray him that’s what we do every time we fall into sin we’re denying Christ we’re betraying him but for now I want us to focus on the triumphal entry before we get into the the passion narrative in just a few moments because in many ways the the triumphal entry is a picture of Jesus into Jerusalem as a picture of the way that Jesus enters into every one of our lives and our hearts when we receive him as Lord and Savior and King Of Our Lives but to I think get a little background of Jesus coming into Jerusalem uh itself we we can see from uh in in Luke 13 a a picture before Jesus even gets there he has something to say uh about Jerusalem uh in verses 31-35 of of Luke 13 He said to that very hour some Pharisees came and said to Jesus get away from here for Herod wants to kill you and he said to them go and tell that fox behold I cast out demons and perform curses today and tomorrow and the third day I finish my course nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem oh Jerusalem Jerusalem the city that kills the prophets and Stones those who are sent to it how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing behold your house is Forsaken and I tell you you will not see me until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord so that’s kind of the background Jesus’s lament over Jerusalem for those who’ve been with us through the the season of uh of Lent we’ve been we’ve preached through and read through the whole uh book of Lamentations and so it’s incredibly appropriate but from there Jesus continued after in Luke 13 he continued his journey toward WS Jerusalem knowing what he said knowing full well that his own perishing must take place in Jerusalem and so as we look at uh as we look at the triumphal entury in our Luke reading this morning there’s three incredible gospel Revelations about Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem that that so uh so impact our lives today with the gospel number one he came peacefully number two he came willingly and number three he came faithfully and because he did our lives are forever impacted so I want to look at each of these for just a few moments together that first one uh that we looked at when Jesus came in the triumphal entry in our into jerus M he came peacefully now make no mistake Jesus came to conquer he came to conquer but he came to conquer in peace seems like an oxymoron doesn’t it he came to conquer in peace well how do we get that picture how can we draw that conclusion that Jesus was coming in this triumphal entry uh in peace in a peaceful way well because of the Donkey because of the donkey uh you know it’s really interesting is is you know Luke makes a very uh you know particular uh issue of the fact of how the whole Donkey thing came down right that he told some of his disciples that they were to go to the next town uh and that they would find a donkey there and if anyone asked uh they were to tell him the Lord has need of it and they went and of course that’s how they found it and they brought the donkey back uh back back for Jesus as he made his triumphal entry but you know as I was thinking about this this week how often in the gospels as Jesus said he had need of
anything you know it may allude to some things or some things we could you know we could conclude you know he certainly asked uh his disciples to come with him as he went away to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane it gives you a feeling that he really felt a heartfelt need for them to be there uh with him but never so strongly as he said I need it I got to have it I got to have this donkey and this is how you’re going to get it why why did he need it why was the donkey so important to him well because that donkey was the Fulfillment of God’s word through Zachariah chapter 9 verse 9 Rejoice greatly Daughter of Zion shout daughter of Jerusalem see your king comes to you righteous and Victorious is lowly and riding on a donkey on a Colt the full of a donkey it had to be this way Jesus had to ride in on a donkey uh because it had to be the Fulfillment of God’s word just as Jesus had said but donkeys are are there’s even more to donkeys in in the Old Testament itself donkeys are a symbol of peace they’re a symbol of peace the horse that’s a beast of War that’s a beast for battle but the donkey is is a beast of Peace we see it in King David uh when King David was ready in his old age to uh for Solomon to follow him and to take his throne and to to fulfill God’s promise that the scepter would never depart from from his throne uh he had Solomon set up on his donkey and he Mar had him marched into Jerusalem as a symbol of peace that God’s promise remains that God’s peace through his the line of David would continue Jesus riding in on a donkey was incredibly uh purposeful because it’s a sign of David’s line is being fulfilled God’s promise is being fulfilled in David or to David in Jesus that there’s going to be peace although it wasn’t the kind of peace they were expecting they were looking for more of the warhorse kind of Peace but the peace that Jesus was coming was a piece to conquer the spiritual forces of Darkness of sin and death and the devil friends as Jesus makes his triumphal entry into our hearts when we receive him as king he comes in peace but it’s a conquering peace it’s a con conquering peace that Reigns triumphant over sin and death and the devil our sins have been forgiven have been washed clean by the blood of Christ and his perfect sacrifice on the cross death has been destroyed and his resurrection from the dead and the devil has been defeated has been defeated that’s what the triumphal entry is symbolizing and is all about for us but secondly not only did he come uh in peace perhaps the most incredible revelation gospel revelation of the triumphal entry is that Jesus came into Jerusalem
willingly willingly consider he knew he had already said it right he had already he said it when I when I read to you earlier in Luke 13 he had already he knew that suffering and death and his own perishing was coming in
Jerusalem he had every chance to run he had every chance to to raise up an army they would have he had every chance to take every precaution to protect himself and he did none of it despite the danger despite knowing that his own death was coming Jesus willingly marched into Jerusalem but secondly there I think there’s another aspect to this willingness of Jesus uh to March into Jerusalem not just that his own death was was waiting waiting there think of the kind of people that were
there the people that were awaiting him the people that he was going to have to deal with he knew that the high priest was there that Herod was there pilate the leaders of the Pharisees the leaders of the Sadducees and the whole Sanhedrin those people who would been fighting him all along those people who were unwilling to receive him unwilling and defiant but not just them it’d be nice if it was just them wouldn’t it but even his own disciples he knew that what awaited him there was his own betrayer the one who walked with him the one he loved he knew the cowardice of his own disciples who were shouting hosan in the highest in this moment but in a few
moments betraying him denying him running away to save their own lives he knew the political corruption that awaited him in Jerusalem he knew the religious hypocrisy that he was going to face he knew the greed he knew the lust for power and control he knew all the people who didn’t deserve
him not one of them not his opponents not even his beloved
disciples but despite it all Jesus
willingly came into Jerusalem to conquer in peace the forces of Darkness that bind all of us sin and death and the devil friends Jesus knows that we’re not worthy Jesus knows that we don’t deserve
him but Jesus willingly comes and longs to come into our Our Lives by his grace and
mercy to Reign triumphant over our sin to give us new life to destroy the devil’s work not because we deserve it but because he loves us and he is
willing finally Jesus came into Jerusalem Faithfully he came Faithfully you know Jesus came peacefully to conquer he came willingly to those who did not deserve him and finally he came Faithfully to an Unfaithful
people from our father Adam and from his First Act of unfaithfulness we’ve all been unfaithful to God we are all unfaithful to God every one of us every one of us has sinned every one of us as Isaiah said all of us have gone astray each of us have turned to our own way and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all the scriptures are full of God’s faithfulness over and over and over again God’s faithfulness and over and over and over again people’s
unfaithfulness but now God has sent us a new and a better Adam we like Adam want to be like God that’s why the whole thing started right wanting to be like God to have his knowledge to have H his power to have his immortality to have his control that’s what all of us want that’s what’s at the root of all of sin we want to be like God and yet God sent his own son fully man and fully God who though he possessed all knowledge and all power and all immortality and all control he gave them all up we want them and we want to seize them for ourselves yet the Son of God gave it all up to Faithfully submit himself to his father’s will to rescue to reverse the curse of Adam by being obedient to his father all the way to his own death his death on our cross as Paul wrote in to the Philippians in chapter 2 verse 8 and being found in human form Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a
cross see death came as the consequence for Adam’s
sin but but new faithful life with God it comes by the sacrifice of our new Adam our obedient and faithful Savior Jesus Christ friends when Jesus comes into our lives the way he came and Triumph into Jerusalem when he comes he comes bearing his faith his faithfulness his obedience is enough for us his faithfulness covers the depth of our unfaithfulness and we are
rescued friends in the triumphal entry Jesus came peacefully he came to conquer sin and death and the devil for us and he came willingly despite our unwillingness to receive him and he came Faithfully that he that we might be reborn born to a New Life by his faith alone Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem becomes our triumphal entry into the kingdom of God when we lay down our lives before him receive him as Lord and savior of all and to cry out to him salvation Belongs To Our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb who was slain for us all.
amen
Trinity SundayInformation about this week’s service:Readings
- Acts 16:16-40
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Matthew 28:16-20 Worship Songs:
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A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
- Good and Gracious King
- Thank You Lord
- In Remembrance
- Amazing Grace (9am only)
- Alleluia No. 1 (Alleluia Alleluia Give Thanks) Join this Sunday's livestream service here in...Day(s)
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Watch & listen to every sermon on your favorite podcast software:Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 16:6-15
The Book of Acts could be called “The Acts of the Holy Spirit” because it is clear that the Holy Spirit was active and in control of the early church. The Holy Spirit continue to guide our lives today. Come listen to how the Holy Spirit led Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke through Prohibition, Permission, Perception and Persuasion and how he continues to do so for us now. The Holy Spirit is always helping us and leading our hearts to Jesus.
TranscriptHeavenly Father we thank you for these ancient words come now by the power of your Holy Spirit you open our hearts that we might hear that we might understand
that you might draw us to your throne of grace and Jesus we ask this in your mighty name amen you may be seated well happy Pentecost Sunday to everyone as we celebrate the uh the amazing acts today where God opened up the heavens and poured his holy spirit upon his people and in the midst of uh doing an act series that that we’ve been in for quite a while now it’s a little bit anticlimactic to have a Pentecost Sunday right because I feel like every Sunday has been Pentecost Sunday for uh since September when we began all of this in fact you know acts can be referred to as Acts of the Apostles but there’s many people that refer to it as acts of the Holy Spirit because it’s very clear throughout the Book of Acts who’s in charge that the holy spirit is at work guiding the hearts and minds of the disciples and the apostles and what’s going on in the early Church in fact so far as we’ve been looking through uh acts together up to this point we’ve seen the Holy Spirit working to to empower for the witness of the Gospel to others we’ve seen the Holy Spirit speaking through the scriptures we’ve seen fillings of the holy spirit for the work of evangelism we’ve seen the the Holy Spirit filling and anointing people to speak in in foreign tongues in such a way that those who were gathered from different nations could all hear the gospel proclaimed we’ve seen the Holy Spirit poured out to fill the hearts of the Believers with boldness for the for the witness and for the mission they’re on we’ve seen the Holy Spirit filling uh the disciples with prophetic words
we’ve seen the Holy Spirit directing Philip’s steps on where he was to go we’ve seen the Holy Spirit comforting the church speaking to the elders at Antioch through their prayers telling them to send out Paul and Barnabas on Mission and speaking through the Jerusalem Council when they met together we’ve seen the Holy Spirit at work through everything there’s nothing that’s happened that we’ve read that the Holy Spirit hasn’t been directing uh and guiding acts is a book of the work of the Holy Spirit and today the work of the Holy Spirit we’re looking at in particular is the work of the holy spirit in guiding our lives and guiding Our Lives that’s where we are in our passage in Acts 16 this morning how does the spirit guide Our Lives how do we see it at work here in this particular passage and there’s four ways that we’re going to talk about just at work in this passage alone that there’s more but uh and they’re through four P’s I’ve been wanting to do four point alliteration forever it never seems to work out and I will admit I may have stretched it just a little bit but I’ll get there I’ll explain it uh the four P’s of the holy spirit’s guidance are these prohibition permission perception and persuasion yeah very impressive right uh one of them you’ll see I kind of took a little bit of Liberties but I’m gonna explain it we’re gonna get there as we uh work through these uh four P’s of the holy spirit’s guidance in our lives as we see it at work and and act 16. so let’s start in uh in verse six together and just read the first two verses uh and I want to talk about them for just a moment we’re told and they went through the region of phrygia and galatia having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia and when they had come to mycia they attempted to go into bithynia but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them this is a first so far in the book of Acts that we’ve read what the holy spirit’s doing we have not seen this prohibition before but two things happened they’re told that they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to go into Asia and they would the Holy Spirit did not allow them didn’t allow them to go where they had planned to go first time this prohibition is mentioned so how did this exactly work this uh this forbidding and this not allowing you know I don’t know if you ever think about it you ever stopped to just wonder because we’re not told we’re not told how exactly the forbidding or the prohibition worked here and you know if you’re like me my mind goes to some kind of Hollywood scene right of uh them kind of walking up to the uh up to uh the road where the sign says this way to Asia and there’s just an invisible wall and they can’t get through it right something spectacular has happened something incredibly Supernatural but that’s not really the picture that we’re getting here in fact if it were something that were that Supernatural we got to believe that Luke would have told us about it he would have wanted us to know about something that was so amazing that would give glory to God in some special way but he doesn’t which leads us to conclude that this wasn’t some sort of Supernatural obvious awe-inspiring event but rather this prevention was through just kind of normal everyday kind of circumstances ones that could easily be confused if this wasn’t the holy spirit’s working this was just circumstance you know imagine it being something like maybe someone got sick and they couldn’t they couldn’t make the journey uh maybe it was something like a natural disaster a flood that happened and the the road got washed out they just weren’t able to to get there it’s something that’s like you know not quite as a Hollywood spectacular you know but but nevertheless ways that the Lord works and prohibiting us to go in a direction that he doesn’t want us to go and another thing that Luke doesn’t tell us and by the way this is the first time in in uh in Acts where we go Luke goes from telling us about them they’re telling us about we this is where Luke joins with Paul and Silas and Timothy on this journey with them and so he’s now a first-hand reporter of what’s going on in their lives but you know he also doesn’t tell us you know it had to be incredibly frustrating you know to not be able to go they had a plan they had a plan this is what they were doing and they felt this is what the Lord this was the mission he had called them on and they were being faithful and they were going where he was leading but they were forbidden to go into Asia and that they were not allowed to go on uh into into galatia as well you know it’s uh it had to have been frustrating for them or sorry they weren’t allowed to go into bithynia but it had to be frustrating it had to be disappointing what’s going on here Lord just trying to do your will I’m just trying to please you I’m just trying to live into the mission and you and and everything’s working against me here what’s going on with this have you ever felt that way before wherever the circumstances just keep stacking up doors keep closing and you’re just trying to do the right thing and you’re trying to honor God and you’re trying to uh to live into what he’s called you to but it can be it can be frustrating and discouraging and and at the same time yeah I know I’ve had that experience in fact uh when I first was was searching the Lord’s call when leaving the Episcopal church and coming into the Anglican Mission and the Americas at the time uh and uh there was a bishop who took me under Gracie and I under his wing and uh and he asked us you know well what what would you do like what kind of ministry do you foresee and I said I think the Lord’s calling us to plant churches I think we have to be about this work and he said okay well if he’s calling you to where do you think he’s calling it to and I said I think it’s in the in the Jacksonville area it’s my heart is there I grew up there I know the people and I think that’s what he said okay great he goes go down there for a week pray meet people and see what happens and so that’s what I did he was willing to pay for it too by the way um and so he sent me down and I prayed and I met and conversation led me to conversation and conversation and eventually the the through the work of what I believe the Holy Spirit it was obvious I met a group of folks out at the beach who had left various churches and and they were getting stuck getting something started and had a passion to see a faithful Anglican expression at the beach and I met with them and I thought this is what the Lord’s doing I wrote a report uh for the for the bishop and I was all excited that this is what the Lord’s doing well as we took the next couple steps through it the Lord closed the door at that time and I was I was pretty upset about it I was like I don’t understand why at this time but the Lord then directed us somewhere else and we were there for for a couple years uh when I’m through someone else that I met the Holy Spirit was working and said hey you know that group at the beach that that you met with I said yeah he goes I think it’s time I think it’s the right the timings right now I said whoa I thought that was done I thought that door had been closed but the Holy Spirit opened it up it opened it up again and into the you know what who could have known two years later that he’d open it up and and we’d be called to come down and to join this wonderful group and to what’s grown now here uh 16 years later from then to what we where we are now at church of our savior praise the Lord but you I couldn’t see it in in that first prohibition and it’s often hard when we when we see that first prohibition and experience experience it uh that there’s some greater permission that’s coming that we just can’t maybe see it in the moment but we have to be patient and wait on the Lord to work because he has something in mind which brings us to verse 8. and verse 8 we’re told uh we’re told this
so passing by myself they went down to Trouse and a vision appeared to Paul in the night a man of Macedonia was standing there urging him and saying come over to Macedonia and help us the Holy Spirit here after forbidding them and not allowing them prohibiting them from going where they thought they wanted to go is now giving an amazing new permission to go in a Direction they had not imagined a place they had not planned on going a new Direction into Macedonia one that’s going to prove to be incredibly fruitful for the for the Gospel Mission that they’re on the closed door of prohibition the spirit often uses that to guide us then to a new and better plan for the mission and purposes that he has for us
you know I think this works practically in our lives as well doesn’t it uh where the prohibition leads to actually something better that we never could have imagined uh and even if when I say better I don’t mean that we’re happier uh but I mean that there’s something more meaningful more purposeful there’s there’s something that we can see the hand of God is on this that I never could have seen before you know the truth is and Hayes I probably should have told you I was going to share this this isn’t about you don’t worry um but you know two times before I met Gracie I thought that I had met the woman that I was going to marry a few times before I’m sure you’ve had this experience before right uh and two times the Lord the Holy Spirit prohibited it and it at the time I didn’t get it I didn’t understand it and it it was frustrating it was painful but then when I met Gracie the Holy Spirit grant us permission and it’s been amazing it’s not easy it’s not easy but it’s uh but it’s amazing and it’s beautiful that what he’s God’s doing for his purposes for the gospel because you know what that’s what marriage is for marriage is yes for for our procreation and further Mutual enjoyment and edification and building each other up but marriage is also about God choosing to bring two Sinners together and the fact that they could ever get along and actually be married is the greatest example of his grace that you could ever possibly imagine to the rest of the world and I never could have possibly imagined at the time when the Holy Spirit prohibited to what he actually had in store for me later on with Gracie for the joy and for the work of his kingdom so at times there’s there’s prohibition but the prohibition leads to a beautiful and Powerful permission for the work that God has for us in store and then the Holy Spirit guides us through perception okay this is the point where I think I might have pushed it a little bit on the peas um so after after prohibition and permission uh through through New Vision verse 10 tells us this
and when Paul had seen the vision immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them all right so this perception uh that I’m using it really is discernment but the deed it didn’t sound as good with the peas um uh it’s discernment is the way that God guides us the holy spirit’s guide guided uh Paul through a vision right a vision that he had I had this dream of this man from Macedonia saying come on over and help us and God the Holy Spirit used this Vision this and often prophetic words that uh to help us and to encourage us and to help guide us but those kind of things the visions and the dreams and the prophetic words uh they all can be incredibly powerful but they have to be discerned they have to be discerned and they have to be discerned together with other people it’s not just your if you receive the vision if you receive the perfect prophetic word it needs to be affirmed and discerned by others so that you know this just wasn’t your idea this wasn’t just your grand idea we’re all called we’re not called to check our brains at the door that’s not what the Holy Spirit wants for us where I was called just to follow a person who claims to have been given a vision by God they may have the Holy Spirit does work that way acts shows us but we have to discern it together to know if this is good and right and what the Lord is doing
because we’re told here that they concluded They concluded the word means assuredly together to infer something together from a variety of data and so Paul shared with them the the dream that he had of what was happening and they sat down together and they discerned it they perceived it they perceived what was going on and what the Holy Spirit might be doing in there they then could look back and see the prohibition and now they’re hearing this Vision like well this must be what the holy spirit is doing we can affirm This Together We believe it you know we’re sinful people we’re sinful people and so sometimes our prophetic word our vision isn’t from God sometimes it’s just our own idea we have to be able to admit that if we’re going to welcome and embrace the fullness of the guidance of the Holy Spirit and and prophetic word and at times visions and all the beautiful things we see happening in Acts we all have to be able to accept that we might be wrong it’s when you think that you can discern it all by yourself and you can declare it to be true and that you could never possibly be wrong it’s no longer the guidance of the Holy Spirit at all it’s now just a sinful desire to manipulate others and to be right yourself
we have to discern you know it’s the same thing with this sermon and every sermon that you ever hear your job isn’t just to take it and to assume well you know he’s the voice of God you know you know you know it might be but you know but you should never accept that you have to together discern it you have to discern it is this the word of God is this true to what God is saying or is it not I’m not asking you to check your brain at the door and we shouldn’t either in the Holy Spirit doesn’t want us to the Holy Spirit wants us to discern together what he’s doing to be encouraged to hear that prophetic word when it’s given and be able to affirm this is true and this is good and this is right and this is what the holy spirit is doing it’s a beautiful thing when we can uh we’re Guided by the Holy Spirit and discern that together and receive that with joy and encouragement and then finally the Holy Spirit guides us through permission permission and we see that I’m not going to read the whole section but in that next section of Paul now them living into the call to Macedonia having been prohibited having then uh been uh been you know given the the permission to go the permission to go they received that uh having now mutually discerned that together now they are there the holy spirit is guiding them through persuasion I may have said permission before but for the fifth is uh the fourth is persuasion and then we see that happening in Lydia as they go and they Minister and they proclaim the gospel uh to this by the way probably very prominent woman she was a dealer uh a dealer of uh of purple and uh therefore she was someone who would have been someone who was important she would have been someone who had a real place and means in her community but but listen to what to what we’re told uh and versus uh about in verses 14. and verse 14 we’re told one who one who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of theatra a seller of purple Goods who was a worshiper of God the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul did you hear that part the Lord opened her heart to be able to hear the words the gospel that Paul proclaimed it was the Holy Spirit the Lord who did that work and her life so she could even receive it well what does that mean well we we heard about it in Our Gospel reading didn’t we uh in John 16 verses 8 to 10. if you can’t remember I’ll read it for you again and when he comes the Holy Spirit he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin because they do not believe in me concerning righteousness because I go to the father and you will see me no longer concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged that word convict it also means to convince to persuade and so so what we’re being told here is the holy spirit’s the one who’s actually at work persuading Hearts to hear the gospel to receive it meaning to recognize themselves that they’re sinners in need of God’s Saving Grace but then but then hearing and being convinced of the righteousness of Jesus and that he’s gone to be with the father and that our righteousness is in him alone and not in ourselves and finally concerning judgment that the ruler of this world has been judged that the final judgment has been rendered that we have been saved to the victory of Jesus Christ through the cross the Holy Spirit does that work of persuasion of convincing what good news that is for us that all our job is to do is to Proclaim Proclaim in word indeed the gospel to others it’s not our job whether we can convince him or not we can’t convince them all we can do is present it in a loving way in a compassionate way speaking the truth and love which sometimes is tough love but more often is with Grace and compassion and it’s the holy spirit’s work to guide them and to open their hearts that they might receive the gospel in their own hearts and receive Jesus the spirit of Jesus is at work guiding our lives right now just as the Holy Spirit was at work guiding the early church and In this passage and with Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke as they’re on mission for him through prohibition and permission and perception and persuasion he’s doing that in us and for us and always leading us to Jesus
the father has given all things to Jesus and the Holy Spirit is working to always Proclaim that truth and to drive us back to him Jesus said it’s to your advantage that I go away you know that’s one of the most perplexed under P that’s one of the most perplexing thing passages in all of scripture that I can imagine how is it better how is it to our advantage that Jesus goes away how can it be to our advantage that the Son of God our Messiah wouldn’t still be here with us after the resurrection of course but Jesus said it’s to your advantage that I go for if I don’t go the helper won’t come to you but if I go I will send him I will send him to you and friends we all need the helper we need the help we need times of being prohibited for making decisions that that aren’t good for us and aren’t in accordance with God’s good and perfect and pleasing plan for our lives we need those moments of beautiful permission to take that next step and to experience the joy of what God has in store for us we need the the perception we need one another to mutually discern what the holy spirit is doing in our lives so that we can trust it that this isn’t just an idea of man that this is the work of God in our lives and trust it and move forward and finally we need his work of persuasion in our own hearts making us aware of our own sin making us aware of our righteousness which is secure in Christ when we put our faith in him and that his victory is assured for us but also we need the persuasion that it’s not our job to convict the hearts of others but that he’s at work drawing people as as Jesus said that uh
God’s the one who’s drawing people to himself he can trust the Holy Spirit he’s at work in our lives he is guiding us as we so desperately need amen
Day of PentecostInformation about this week’s service:Readings
- Acts 16:6-15
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John 16:5-15 Worship Songs:
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Holy Holy Holy
- What Love My God
- Spirit of the Living God
- Holy Spirit
- Hymn of the Savior(9am)
- Lord Dismiss Us With Your Blessing Join this Sunday's livestream service here in...Day(s)
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Hour(s)
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Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:Worship Bulletin
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 15:36-16:5
The Jerusalem Council settled the issue of salvation by grace alone through faith in Christ Jesus. No longer is salvation a matter of earning God’s favor through our best efforts, but rather is the free gift of His grace that can only be received by faith. Acts 15:36-16:5 begins to paint a picture of what life looks like under the new covenant of God’s grace. How does God’s grace affect our daily lives and attitudes and most importantly our ability to love God and to love our neighbor? Come and drink from the streams of living water that flow from the grace of God and find out for yourself.
TranscriptWell welcome especially to our guests this morning I know who are here for this uh special event and uh as much as I’d like to believe that the sermon is the main event this morning uh I’m I’m wise enough to know that that is not the case uh and what a great joy we have to uh to baptize Charlotte uh this morning and what we’re going to be doing actually fits you know this wasn’t planned where we’ve been preaching through the book of Acts now for for quite a long time and we will be for for a while longer uh and uh this uh the decision to do the baptism today didn’t have to do with actually where we were in the acts reading but of course in God’s Providence I believe it uh it fits really well because uh what we’re doing today is we’re baptizing Charlotte and commending her into the hands of God’s grace commending her into the hands of God’s grace we’re recognizing that this is the beginning of God’s work that he’s doing in her and it corresponds incredibly well with what’s happening uh in the book of Acts we’ve just come through uh the uh acts 15 Jerusalem Council and the big decision on what does it mean to be saved what’s required of us to be saved uh and in the end the com the council came to the conclusion that uh that all of us are saved by grace through faith alone that nothing else is required of us it was how they uh came to understand how the Gentiles who weren’t part of of the Jewish family of God would come into uh into the family of God was it going to be required for them to distill to do the law but the council recognized that the Holy Spirit had been moving even before they got there uh and opening people’s hearts to understand and receive Jesus and to receive the Gospel and they were turning to him and who were they to and then they opened up the scriptures themselves from Amos chapter 9 and saw that that God had proclaimed through Amos that he would return there was the three I will statements we looked at I will return to you I will rebuild you and I will restore you and that he was going to bring the Gentiles back to himself it was God’s work and their life that’s what we’re celebrating and doing today for Charlotte this is the beginning of God’s work by his Holy Spirit by his grace in her life it’s a beautiful beautiful moment but there’s also as we move into these next two uh portions of Acts 15 the last part of Acts 15 and the beginning of Acts 16. we see how this new life of Grace this New Covenant of Grace that they’re living in what kind of impact does it have in our lives and what kind of impact did it have in the early church and we get two separate instances of how this Grace actually works its way out into the life of the church and I think it was we can apply it into the life of a Believer and so I want to to work through these passages this passage together the end of 15 and the beginning of 16. welcome you to open your bulletins or if you brought your Bibles you can open them up beginning with acts 15 verse 36. this is what we’re told this is after the council and after the the letter has been been written uh and it’s been delivered to the churches uh in Antioch to those uh and that and as the Gentiles heard the letter that the council sent that uh that nothing more is required of you but faith in Christ they asked them to abstain from some things uh but that wasn’t out of Duty that was out of Brotherly Love for their for their Jewish brothers that they they wouldn’t offend them and so that they could live together in in community uh and remain in unity for the gospel’s sake uh they read that letter to to the Gentile Believers in the church and they were encouraged they were overjoyed and so after that happened we’re told after some days Paul said to Barnabas Let Us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaim the word of the Lord and see how they are so they’re going to return the whole first missionary journey they’re going to plan to go back to encourage those churches probably to bring the letter along with them so that they can continue to share it with all of those that maybe haven’t heard the the decision by the the Jerusalem Council yet but then we’re told this now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark but Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them and pamphilia and had not gone with them to the word and there arose a sharp disagreement so that they separated from each other
it’s a little bit of an understatement to say that they had a sharp disagreement you know it sounds very civil but the word means that they had an angry time between them they were in disagreement and it was an angry one this wasn’t something that was civil uh between them it was a big issue and the issue had all to do with this Mark John character well what we know about Mark John at least from what what Paul tells us here and what we go back and we did read about a few chapters ago in Acts 13 is that when they had gotten through Cyprus and gone to pamphilia it was there that Mark John decided to leave them he departed from them but the picture we get here from what Paul is telling us is this wasn’t just a situation where he might have been homesick and he wanted to go home or he was just you know the need had some business other elsewhere that he needed to do and that everybody agreed to it this is a case of abandonment you know that Mark abandoned them there at least how Paul felt about it uh he felt that they were abandoned uh he left them now there’s been some sort of and he went you know he went to Jerusalem we’re told uh and that now Barnabas wants Mark to be back part of the company again and Paul doesn’t think this is a good idea he doesn’t think this is a good idea and they have a real argument about it other things we know about Mark is that he was a cousin uh of Barnabas so that might tell you a little bit why Barnabas had interest in bringing him back in he’s family give him another shot you know he’s you know don’t don’t strike him out yet you know bring him back he’s you know three strikes and you’re out we’ll give him some Grace like see what can happen here um we otherwise we don’t know exactly what was going on in Paul’s thought about why he didn’t want Mark there there’s some thought that it could be that because he had gone back to Jerusalem that he was uh he was more in favor of the opposite side of the uh the Pharisee party that was in Jerusalem and so Paul didn’t really think it was a good idea that they bring him with them to go back to the churches to tell him about this new understanding of of God’s grace and the freedom for the Gentile Believers that’s possible we do know that that Mark was the uh the son of Mary not Jesus Mary or Mary Magdalene but the Mary who where do you remember when Peter was arrested all the Believers were gathered at Mary’s home and they were praying well that was Mark that was Mark’s mother uh and so they had gathered there he had been around Peter he had been around those Believers from an early time but something had happened enough relationally that Paul couldn’t deal with him didn’t think it was a good idea that he’d be going on and it was so bad in fact that he was willing to separate now this wasn’t a doctrinal issue uh this wasn’t an issue of of an unrepented sin that needed to be dealt with uh this was just a disagreement in how they thought it best to keep about the mission that they had been called to and they couldn’t come to resolution they couldn’t come to resolution on it
and so what are we told that happened there arose a sharp disagreement so that they separated from each other Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus but Paul chose Silas and departed having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord and he went through Syria and cilicia strengthening the churches there so they separate and they go their own way Barnabas taking Mark Paul chooses Silas and they go their separate ways you know I don’t think this passage we’re supposed to use this as a model of conflict resolution um that’s not what’s going on here I mean there’s there’s a real Brokenness in in relationship here but it doesn’t appear that this was an issue of sin uh there certainly wasn’t an issue of doctrine that needed to be dealt with and that someone needed to be held accountable to this was a difference of opinion about how to implement the mission that they were going on the strategy for it what they were how they were going to do it and so what the brothers there do is they commend them to the grace of the Lord and send them on their way they commend them to the grace of the Lord they were at a place where they couldn’t come to resolution they couldn’t deal with it so what does it mean they committed unto the grace of the Lord it means they commended him to God’s will go your separate ways go your separate ways we know that God’s grace is at work and all of you and we will trust him in what he’s going to do in your lives as far as reconciliation and restoring each them to one another in relationship and to the Lord we’re going to commend you to the grace of the Lord and send you off you know it’s interesting to note in Paul’s letters later after this event it is evident that there was reconciliation because because Paul writes to other churches telling that calling Mark someone that has been very helpful to him and another church telling them to receive Mark when he comes to them to receive them uh because of uh because of how helpful he is and also with Barnabas he mentions Barnabas later in his letters as well so there was some restoration work there’s also it’s at least the tradition of the church there’s some argument about this though but that that this is the Mark the Evangelist who later becomes a bishop and also is the writer of Mark’s gospel who had spent much time close with Peter and so uh we see at work God’s reconciling Grace happening but not in the moment but in time it happened I hope that gives you hope and living our lives and the grace of the Lord commending Our Lives to him we may not find resolution in the moment or restoration there may be some Brokenness that can’t be mended in the moment and those that aren’t dealing with a particular sin that needs to be repented of or a doctrine that needs to be someone needs to be held accountable for but just a Brokenness and a relationship difference of opinion that can’t be reconciled at the moment sometimes we can commend those things to the grace of the Lord and move on and trust him to do his work of Grace in each of our lives in his own time that’s what it means to commend Our Lives into the hands of God’s grace but then there’s another situation another situation that’s equally as troubling is to uh brothers and Christ disagreeing these pillars of the early Christian Church they’re supposed to always get along and and do everything right but then we’re going to start in verse 16. Paul came also to Derby into lystra a disciple was there named Timothy the son of a Jewish woman who was a Believer but his father was Greek he was well spoken of by the brothers at lystra and Iconium Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him and he took him and circumcised him before because of the Jews who were in those places for they all knew that his father was a Greek well I thought we already dealt with this didn’t we we just went through all this trouble Paul’s been fighting with these people all this time about what’s actually required for salvation and here the first thing after the council decides and he’s won he gives it up he gives it up he puts up no fight at all poor you know poor Timothy you know Timothy’s just got to be subject to circumcision here as an adult what’s going on with this is Paul suddenly just turned weak you know is he lost his nerve no that’s not what’s going on at all here what Paul’s doing he’s living out a life that is in the hands of God’s grace this wasn’t a time to fight this wasn’t a time to be right well this was a time for was the continuation of the Proclamation of the Gospel that’s the real prize that’s what Paul was was striving for the issue had been settled they had freedom in Christ nothing more could be required there was no more Duty that would be put on their shoulders but he also knew that in order to win these folks for Christ for them to be able to hear of the grace of God in their lives that that Timothy not being circumcised was going to be such a hindrance to them being able to receive Christ that it was better to go ahead and do it
that’s a huge implication about living life under the gracious hand of God we have freedom but we don’t use our freedom if it’s going to be a hindrance to others receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ for themselves I mean think about this just in your relationships I mean how I mean I know this is true of me I won’t confess everything but uh but I mean I say 95 of the arguments I have with my wife 95 at least of those are are all have to do with me just needing to be right
that’s right the sinful nature as we start having these are just like suddenly like I forget any rational thought and just like now what what can I do no matter what to position myself to where at the end of this I win
forgetting that winning in a marriage doesn’t matter it ain’t gonna get you anywhere but it’s also for getting the grace of God you know that this need to be right we don’t need to be right because we have freedom in Christ it’s been settled we’ve been saved by grace through faith not through works we can’t make ourselves right with God we can’t make ourselves right with anyone else we don’t have to be we can leave that in the hands of God’s grace we can can commend these situations to the grace of God and let him be ultimately right and you know what we’re freed to do then we’re free just to to love we’re called to love God to love our neighbors aren’t we but it’s when we’re really living in the hands of God’s grace that we’re freed because we don’t have to be right that we truly can love others because we don’t have to win the victory has been won Jesus won the ultimate battle for us on the cross it is finished the work has been done we have been handed into the grace of God a new covenant a covenant that we we welcome Charlotte into this morning if anyone’s calling the kids to come down this would be a good time to uh to bring them down they are watching the simulcast upstairs but uh you know but you may want to go tell them as well but that’s what we’re doing this morning we’re we’re bringing her into this New Covenant relationship of Grace We’re entrusting her that God’s the one who’s at work now and to bring it to her to full Restoration in him and his time we can’t control it Jessica and Paul you’re called to to love her to raise her up in the knowledge of the Lord but she ultimately she ultimately belongs to him and he will call her to himself in his time by the power of His Holy Spirit so we together as a congregation will join you you’re not raising Charlotte alone we are doing it with you uh every time we see her doing something wrong we will wag our fingers and tell her to say no that’s not what we’ll do we will love her and we will remind her of God’s love for her that his grace is sufficient for her and we will always always Point her back to her loving father.
Sunday After the AscensionInformation about this week’s service:Readings
- Acts 15:36-16:5
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John 8:31-38 Worship Songs:
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Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee
- He Will Hold Me Fast
- As the Deer
- Be Still And Know
- Speak O Lord
- Lift High The Cross Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:Worship Bulletin
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Watch & listen to every sermon on your favorite podcast software:
Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts15:22-35
The early church faced a challenge between faith in Christ and duty to the customs of the Old Testament Law. At stake was the freedom of the Gospel. Life is a constant struggle between faith and duty to Jesus Christ, but our message today makes it clear that duty that does not spring forth from faith is of no value at all. At the end of the day the only duty that will count is the faithfulness and obedience of Jesus Christ on our behalf.
TranscriptWell this morning’s uh reading is in a large way a recap of last week’s reading uh it’s just the Fulfillment of what had already been decided uh in our reading from last week in the and since I am probably certain that you don’t even remember uh last week’s sermon at all uh and that’s by the way not a uh that’s not a a jab at you we get into like meetings on Tuesday and uh and something comes up about the sermon from uh last you know from Sunday and I can’t remember I’m on to the next thing I I’ve forgotten I’ve moved on I’m worried about what’s in front of me and I forget what it was even about uh so just a reminder of what happened last week it was the a big controversy had entered into the church over a fundamental question of the most importance and that is how is one to be saved and and what’s required of them for the first time uh the church was experiencing Gentile believers before it had been all Jewish Believers and so they were already part of the Jewish faith they were following the Jewish law they had done all the customs and the duties but now Gentiles are coming to faith in Christ for the first time and what do you do how are they supposed to handle this and they weren’t sure and there was disagreement and so Paul was facing some of these folks from what was called the the Pharisee party that even existed within the Church of Christ at the time this early church and they were coming behind Paul and Barnabas and they’re proclaiming the gospel to the Gentiles and telling them no no no you’re not saved just by grace through faith there’s more that’s required of you you actually have to become circumcised and follow the law of Moses and then you can be one of us and you can be part of the church and then you can you can be saved and obviously Paul and Barnabas were enraged and this was a major a major problem and it was a uh it was a problem that was put before these Gentiles a hurdle that they saw from what God was doing should not be placed upon them and so they went to Jerusalem they went to Jerusalem and a council was called of all the the apostles and the elders meaning and you know kind of the Bishops and Priests of the time were called together to to talk about this issue and to make a decision and if you’ll recall the the decision the way it went about coming to a conclusion and a decision was Paul and Barnabas and Peter told them about their experience they told them about what had happened in the field what was happening as these Gentile Believers were receiving Christ they were they were coming to Faith uh and it was a powerful thing they recounted the stories but then Peter testified that this was a work of the holy spirit this wasn’t just a man it wasn’t just of of experience the Holy Spirit was affirming it Peter recalled the time when he went to cornelius’s house right and the Holy Spirit descended uh on that day of Gentile Pentecost there and cornelius’s home uh and they were in the Holy Spirit came before they had even been baptized so the holy spirit is doing something God’s moving not just through experience but he’s manifest in doing something in their midst but then to solidify it all James responded and in his response he affirmed what Peter had said but he also cited from the prophet Amos chapter 9. and he saw in God’s word that this was always God’s plan he was always going to redeem his people but he was also going to open salvation up to the Gentiles and if you remember last week and looking at that Amos 9 quote or the quote that uh the James cited God said I will return to my people I will rebuild them and I will restore them he’s saying this is going to be my work I’m going to do it I’m going to accomplish this and that’s what the gospel is all about it’s God’s work in our lives for our salvation we get that all mixed up we get it all mixed up but the decision was and we’re going to come back to that uh the decision was uh that that James affirmed what Peter had said that that you know Peter said what we’ve learned through all this is that we’re going to be saved by grace we as Jews just as much as uh as they will we’re going to be saved by grace through faith in Jesus alone not by our Jewish Heritage not by all the the following all the customs and all the rules it’s going to be by grace through faith in Jesus’s work for us because it’s what God has done for our Salvation not what we have done to try to earn it and so James affirmed that but he also uh came up with a little bit of a compromise a little bit of a compromise and we read it last week he said we should not trouble this is what James declared in the final you know verdict we should not trouble these Gentiles anymore but we should write to them and ask them to abstain from uh four things uh things polluted by Idols from sexual immorality from what has been strangled and from blood now that seems a little bit odd right like well they were just told that there’s freedom in Christ it’s God’s work uh so what why is James now asking something more of them well this is not a matter of Duty uh this is something that he’s asking them to do in love for their fellow Jewish brothers and sisters who are still struggling to to understand all this they’ve lived all their lives under this old Covenant and yet here there’s this New Covenant of a freedom in Christ and they’re still struggling to come along with that and to understand it fully and so uh and so um James is asking them to hey you don’t have to this isn’t a duty this isn’t this isn’t a matter of Salvation your salvation has been one for you in Christ by grace through faith in him alone but we’re asking you to abstain from these things so that we can maintain Fellowship uh and peace with with one another John Stott in his uh in his commentary on acts said that this isn’t what was presented to them an essential duty but it’s a it’s a concession to the conscience of others that’s not an easy thing to determine is it I know we all want to stand for the truth and we’re not going to make any concessions and we’re going to fight each other over it more often than not that’s the history of the church um you know I mean think about just things we’ve been through not long ago through through the time of covid right I mean I cannot tell you how many churches uh don’t exist today that existed before kovid because of the non-essential things that they fought about you know there are some that thought that we should everyone should have to wear masks there were those who thought they’ll be asked to wear a mask was to betray my uh my faithfulness to freedom and God and all the things that all my rights and I won’t do it well that’s one of those that’s one of those examples here of is it an essential thing is it uh is this something that’s worth a concession to the conscience of others for the sake of unity you know there’s the old uh the old Latin and I say this just because as preachers are supposed to say Latin things and Greek things um I never took Latin so uh so I’ll probably botch it so don’t don’t judge me for it but it’s uh in this serious Unitas indubitus libertas and I’m Omnibus Caritas I think I got it right close enough uh but you know what it what it means is this in in Necessary Things Unity and those things that are doubtful freedom and in all things love and charity and this some people trace this all the way back to Augustine of Hippo the bishop there uh some people say this was more of a during the Reformation uh this this is this came out but in any way it makes sense right but they’re still debate about well what are the necessary things yeah what what are the necessary things that that are important that we do uh that we do need to to to argue about that we do need to stand for because that’s certainly the truth in our church uh we’ve been talking about this and I’ve shared with you I went to Rwanda we uh made a decision that we needed to break from the Archbishop of Canterbury because uh because we believed there was something that was necessary something that was essential that was being uh that was being denied uh and that one thing that was essential is is the nature of sin it’s calling something that is sin nonsense not you know they’re calling it not sin we don’t have that we don’t have that right we don’t have that that option and in fact by affirming that uh by saying in the realm of human sexuality in this case to say that the church should bless it uh we believe that not only is that wrong uh we’re actually hindering other people’s Eternal salvation because we’re not giving them the opportunity uh to to repent and to turn to the Lord because we’re calling something that God has declared sin nonsense so it’s a no longer no longer an issue and so we’re putting souls in Jeopardy in that case and so it is something that is absolutely essential but the most important issue here uh and and the council in Jerusalem is that they decided that nothing more needs to be added or no other burden needs to be placed upon the shoulders of the Gentiles for salvation they are saved by grace through faith that that that’s the gospel that’s the freedom that’s the joy of the gospel and in fact that’s what we hear in our reading this morning that they went and they read the letter the council wrote the letter and they went to uh they went to the Believers the Gentiles and they read this this letter to them and so we’ve told in verse 30 so when they were sent off they went down to Antioch and having gathered the congregations together they delivered the letter there uh so the count the council in Jerusalem sent some Representatives down and they went to support Paul and Barnabas and the ministry they were doing because these uh these members of the the Pharisees party had come down and uh had been confusing them and so they brought Representatives just to make sure that everyone knew this wasn’t just Paul and barnabas’s idea uh this was the council’s decision and so they brought the letter and when they had read it they rejoiced because of its encouragement when they heard that we have freedom in Christ that it’s been hit God’s work in our lives not our own for salvation not our own Works God has returned to us in his son Jesus Christ he has rebuilt us he has restored us and one day we’ll know the fullness of Glory not because of our own work and our own Duty but because of Christ’s finished work and love for us alone and so they rejoiced they rejoiced in it can you remember experiencing that in your own life you know you know whether maybe you when you came to Christ for the first time maybe you were old enough to remember it but to remember the joy that you received that God loves you he loves you he sent his son for your salvation and you received him by faith and there was freedom and love and joy in that
maybe it was you maybe you were raised in the in the church maybe you were raised by parents God willing who who always raised you in the faith but there were still probably that moment where you came to understand Grace and God’s God’s love for you for the first time can you remember
I hope you can but what inevitably happens is somewhere along the line that joy that we experience that salvation by grace through faith alone little by little gets chipped away little by little and at first it starts slowly but then it Gramps up and up to where Duty overtakes freedom and joy that we have in Christ alone it’s subtle but it grows and it grows and the more Duty overtakes Grace in our lives the deader and debtor we become in our own Hearts towards God towards the gospel and towards our passion for serving Christ in this world you know this uh there’s a little bit of a debate about the timing of when the the Jerusalem Council happened uh and when Paul wrote to the church in galatia uh the traditional view is that uh Paul was writing to the church in galatia after uh the Jerusalem Council that had been the the opinion forever there’s some who would say no it looks you know there’s reasons to believe that maybe uh the events in galatia were happening before the Jerusalem Council uh but you know either way you can make an argument for but I tend to take the traditional view on that and hear what happened to the Galatians they had heard the gospel Paul had proclaimed it to him that this uh that you are saved by uh by grace through faith in Christ alone and nothing else is required of you and they were filled with joy and they received it and they were baptized in the name of the father Son and the Holy Spirit but then Paul in writing to them says in chapter one of Galatians verse 6 I’m astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel
see this is even after this Jerusalem the decision there was there were there were still those that wouldn’t relent there were still those who said no salvation from by Grace isn’t enough you’ve got to do something to earn it you’ve got to make yourself worthy of God you’ve got to do the things that are required and the law of Moses or you can’t be part of the club they had come and they were telling them this and this appealed to our own to their own sinful nature within us and so they were now beginning to Desert this gospel of grace they had received and beginning to now think they needed to do more and Paul calls it not only wrong he calls it a different gospel altogether a different gospel but then Paul says not that there is another but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ but even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached you let him be accursed again this goes back to the prophetic word from Amos God said I will return I will rebuild you I will restore but to return to some idea that it’s Duty that saves us it’s Duty that secures our place with God and his love for us is to deny the gospel of grace all together it’s to deny the God who has come to save us and to say no we can do it ourselves we can return to God we can rebuild ourselves we can restore all things just to the way that they were always meant to be we can do it
that’s to deny the gospel of grace and then in Galatians 3 Paul continued o foolish Galatians who has Bewitched you it was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified let me ask you only this did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by the hearing with faith are you so foolish haven’t begun by the spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh meaning by your own works did you suffer so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness but We All Fall Down inevitably into that trap that duty is what matters most do all the right things be the right people make the right decisions and if you don’t well you may need to doubt your own salvation here now that doesn’t mean that that that works are not important James tells us himself right faith without works is dead but there’s a reason why Martin Luther wanted James taken out of the Bible uh not because it’s not important and it is and I think it should be in the Bible by the way uh but he’s because people read it and get confused and they they take that completely the opposite way but James wasn’t saying then that uh that you could uh he wasn’t saying the opposite either right and so what role does duty play with faith where does it come from how are we to live into this Christian Duty in a way that’s still in the freedom and the love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ well the way it always works is that Duty has to flow from Grace it has to it has to flow from the love that God has for us that it’s a response that we have to God for this Freedom that we’ve been given for this this love that he has that he has given us that is unearned and that flows out of our lives and and doing the things that are in love for God and love for our neighbor that fulfill the whole law but it can’t work the other way around it never goes from Duty to love of God we can’t work our way backwards or else it’s a different gospel altogether it’s us who are the ones who are saving ourselves and not God who is saving us by his work alone in the Fulfillment of Amos 9. so how do we how do we protect ourselves how do we live in that balance of uh of Faith Grace save being saved by grace through faith and and still finding a right context for Duty in our lives that doesn’t become just some sort of judgmental pharisaic legalism answer to this is the gospel I think that we have to first reconcile the fact that the only duty that truly counts in the end is the faithful work of obedience of Our Savior Jesus Christ to receive it to know it in your heart that you’re called the good works of course you are but you’re called out of from a loving God who once what is good and right for you and for the his church and for the world only duty that counts is the faithful Obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ friends we have a chance to respond to this good news this morning by coming to the Lord coming to his table we’re invited by God to come to him not not by our own Duty not because it’s the right thing to do we come because he loves us and has welcomed us to himself to receive him by faith to trust him alone for our salvation that he has done the work that is necessary for us to be with him for all eternity I pray that this is a joy to you today I pray that it will be a joy always and then it will bear the fruit of good works in your life amen
in Jesus name amen
The Sixth Sunday of Easter Information about this week’s service:Readings
- Acts 15:22-35
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 15:1-21
The Apostle James quotes from the prophet Amos to settle the dispute that arose in the Early Church concerning the Gospel of God’s grace to the Gentiles. James site three promises that God made to his people, “I will return”, “I will rebuild”, and “I will restore”. The Gospel of Grace is that we have a God who returns to sinners to rebuild their lives on the firm foundation of His grace and restore them to eternal life with Him through the glory of His Son Jesus Christ.
TranscriptHeavenly Father thank you for these ancient words Lord it is our prayer that that is true that our hearts are open that we come with Open Hearts Lord but we know we we can’t do that on our own Holy Spirit we need your help I need you to help open our hearts to that we may receive your word for us this day so will you come to Holy Spirit lead us to the throne of grace that we might find help and mercy in our time of need and Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen you may be seated
this is the Super Bowl Sunday of the church right this is the Resurrection Sunday it’s the celebration of the Resurrection which everything else depends upon if Jesus Christ wasn’t raised from the dead then our hope is in vain because we’re still dead in our trespasses Romans 6 tells us that the wages of sin is death if Jesus did not rise from the dead then we are all still dead in our trespasses in our own sin but today we celebrate that the the that is not the truth that’s not the end of the story that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead for our salvation on that first uh Easter morning over 2 000 years ago as uh as we were told in our uh reading this morning as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb to try to go see Jesus’s body where he had been laid as she got they got there there was an earthquake and there was an angel of the Lord sitting on the stone which he’d rolled away and what they found when they got there was that tomb was empty it was an empty tomb but it was a tomb although it was empty it was a tomb that was full of Hope an empty tomb full of Hope and it is still an empty tomb that is full of hope for us today and the Easter message it isn’t complicated uh in fact the Easter message is exactly what the angel proclaimed to the Mary’s that first morning this this is what this is what they what he said do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified he is not here for He Is Risen as he said now come see the place where he lay then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold he is going before you to Galilee there’s four words really that is the main thrust of the of the Easter resurrection message come see go and tell come and see go and tell first of all he says come and see for yourselves come and see for yourselves that he’s not here the tomb is empty and then having seen it for yourself now go and tell the rest of the disciples go and tell there’s a sense of of urgency and I want to look at each of those for just a moment with you uh this morning that first word come it is a wonderful beautiful word of invitation have you ever received an invitation that you were just so excited about that you got that invitation maybe it was a wedding maybe it was a birthday party or a cocktail party or whatever it might have been uh but you were so excited it was something you had just been hoping for and you really wanted to go and and it made you feel special it made you feel like loved and cared for and kind of a part of something like you were significant because you know the opposite can happen too right and uh you’ve probably had this experience I know I have and that is when you didn’t get the invitation doesn’t make you feel very good does it you don’t feel very welcome you don’t feel included in fact it makes you feel more like an outcast you know I have a uh or a hat a great aunt uh a name is Aunt great aunt sis uh and great aunt sis was married a man from Birmingham England uh and then moved over there for most of the years to to live with him uh but they would return uh every once in a while they kept a house here in Jacksonville and they’d returned and I remember as a little kid going over to her house you know but it’s one of those houses that was just like packed with antiques everywhere and pictures on every table and uh and one of the pictures that was in that room uh in the living room was a picture of her having tea with the Queen of England um and and next to it was the invitation that she had received to have this tea it wasn’t just like one-on-one you know they it was like there’s special events where they invite a whole bunch of people if you’ve done you know if you’ve done a lot of charitable work I think you get included in the invitation but nonetheless she had a picture of her and the queen and the invitation right there and boy would she tell you about that invitation and that tea uh when you’d go and sit down with her she felt so honored she felt felt like it was just so special to be included we’re receiving an invitation from the god of the universe the God of all creation to come to come to the empty tomb he’s welcoming us that’s how much he thinks of us that’s how significant we are to him to come and see come and see for yourself what’s here come and see what you’ll find when you enter into this empty tomb that I have provided for you so what would you see he said he said to them come and see what exactly will they see well for them they saw literally right the empty tomb they saw literally where where Jesus’s body once had laid they could see it for their own eyes well we don’t have that same experience today do we we can’t go into the tomb I’ve been to Israel I’ve been I’ve been to the places where they think might have been the tomb you know you can at least go and see an example of what kind of one of those caves that have been hewn out of the rock might look like but we don’t know which one it actually was so we can’t duplicate it but you know C.S Lewis uh has a powerful quote in fact if you’ve ever actually read the but you probably haven’t uh the front cover the back cover of the uh of the bulletin I have it printed right here it’s been here every week for I think the last like 10 years um and uh and now I have a chance to say something about it uh this is what what C.S Lewis wrote he says I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen no only because I see it but because by it I see everything else you know this morning it was actually quite perfect maybe the Lord was doing this for me and so I feel sorry for everyone who didn’t get to see a sunrise this morning um but you know this morning it kind of played into that perfectly you know we didn’t get to see the sun actually Rising this morning but we saw its light it was dark and even through the clouds even through the overcast even through the that darkness and the Mist that was and kind of still is you can see light the light shines through it C.S Lewis understood that even though we can’t see physically with with our eyes the resurrection and the empty tomb we know it’s true because by everything else we see it’s light everywhere and that means you know if we go back to what I told you before in Romans 6 for the wages of sin is death Paul said but the free gift of God is eternal life in his son Jesus Christ he’s saying we see that that life all around us because the tomb was empty we have hope we have joy because death doesn’t have doesn’t have the last word death has been conquered Jesus is the firstborn from the dead and when we put our faith in him we too share in his resurrection life but this is where we kind of get get sideways sometimes we think this is just a Preferred Future you know this is just something that awaits us until we die then then it’ll then it’ll happen but that’s not what Resurrection Life is that’s not what Paul was saying when the wages are sin or death but the gift of God is life and his son Jesus Christ that eternal life that Resurrection Life Begins right now it’s a life that is alive to God and that means because sin has been conquered because death has been conquered because the devil has been conquered we always have hope the the Light of Christ is shining into every darkness that exists in our lives the fear the bitterness the hate the disappointments that we have in light and life those clouds that are gathering they cannot block out the son of the Resurrection if it’s true they can’t you know there’s often been debate about that you know what do you see you know what what what what what’s the whole deal now today about the resurrection and that empty tomb and Scholars have been debating this forever I was a religion major at the University of North Carolina and Chapel Hill very Progressive place they they don’t believe the the gospel to be uh to be truly the word word of God um and for the most part that’s a little unfair to throw that over everybody but I was there so most of most of the time um and and you know and there was always debate about what happened here it must have been some sort of great conspiracy you know they must have all conspired together to make this event uh just just say that Jesus they went in and they took Jesus’s body and they they stashed it somewhere just to begin perpetuate this whole myth well that even falls apart the whole conspiracy there you can’t have that many people that are all part of the same uh the same uh you know conspiracy and not ever have a conflicting report uh not they when they got tortured and died for it later but you know what was the message that they always proclaimed it was the resurrection that is what meant everything they were eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that’s the message that they were sharing you know but going back to the academic world uh there’s at least three things there’s all kinds of debates and but there’s at least three things that I found at least for my time there and in the academic world that all Scholars could at least agree upon they disagreed on other parts of it but they did agree upon this that the Tomb in which Jesus was buried was discovered empty by a group of women on the Sunday following the crucifixion they’ve said okay that that we can agree on a tree that that’s the historical testimony here that we would that we believe uh number two that Jesus disciples had real experiences with the one that they believed to be the this risen Jesus that that that we have those accounts and that’s historically reliable if we’re going to rely upon any history from Antiquity at all then then we believe that the testimony is sound you know that they believed that they had encounters with the Risen Jesus and as a result of the preaching and and of these disciples about Jesus’s resurrection one at many and most often at their own peril uh this message of the Resurrection it exploded it exploded to the point of overtaking the whole Roman Empire
and I think if you take all those three together and you’re willing to be to be honest I believe that there’s only really one plausible and reasonable explanation and that is that Jesus did in fact rise from the grave that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead that it really did happen but you know even that isn’t enough
just to believe rationally and the truth of the resurrection and that the tomb was actually empty uh that’s great you know good for you uh but that’s not enough that’s not enough to experience for ourselves the Resurrection Life you see when that angel invited them to come and see to see doesn’t just mean to to be able to witness it with our own eyes and to have that empirical evidence right there before us it’s undeniable that’s not what it’s saying it’s saying that word to see it means to experience it means to come and encounter it for yourself and so what we’re being invited into is not just to to argue about the plausibility and to believe that it could have happened is to enter in come to the empty tomb encounter it for yourself experience the hope and the joy of the Resurrection from the dead that there’s a God who loves you so much that he was willing to Die For You on the cross that he was raised again conquering death for all time that we might be with him for all eternity where he’s always long for us to be that’s the hope of the Resurrection to come and encounter it and experience it for ourselves and friends when we do when we do just as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came and encountered and experienced that empty tomb and were filled with joy we’re told they left and they ran with fear and joy that fear of this this awe and wonder of the Majesty of God and what’s happened here but but also they were filled with joy we’re told the power of the empty tomb and the resurrection of Jesus bore hope and joy in their hearts and they were told go and tell so not only were invited to come and see and experience Jesus when we have and when we know the joy and the hope and the Peace of his resurrection in our own lives the messages go and tell this is urgent they ran they left the gospel accounts are pretty much are all the same in that they they went with urgency to tell everybody and it didn’t end there did it they told them they went and told others and the message kept being told and kept being told and kept being told because that is always the message for us who have encountered and experienced the joy and the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ for our own lives that we are alive with God forever through him it’s we’ve got to go tell other people you know when I was in a Falls Church Virginia which is just on the other side of the Potomac from from DC and it’s only a couple miles from uh from the Pentagon I was there on 9 11 working at a church there uh and we were all huddled there and and the senior pastor’s office just as many I’m sure all you were watching on this little TV that he happened to have uh we were all just huddled around watching this Darkness probably one of the darkest moments in our country’s history we’re just watching this moment just this Darkness this fear
this utter disappointment and Devastation before us but something was different that happened once we kind of gathered ourselves in solid what would happen we weren’t filled with Dread or that we needed to all run home turn on the TV and just bury ourselves somewhere we were filled with this different notion one is that wait a minute we’re a people of the Resurrection we’re a people of Life we’ve been given New Life In Christ that means in the midst of even this Darkness There’s Hope and there’s joy and there’s there’s purpose in their meaning and other you know our first thought was people need to know this and so we ran all over town posting signs we’re holding a service come on back to the church let’s come together to pray and to worship come together to encounter once again the empty tomb that death has been conquered that sin Reigns no more that we have been resurrected with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ friends the message of Easter the message today for you and me is to come and see experience the joy and the hope of the Resurrection by putting your faith and trust in Jesus when you’ve experienced it for yourself to go and tell others it’s urgent the time is now others need to hear it others need just behind the Light of Christ in the midst of the darkness of this world and of their own lives let us come and see and let us go and tell amen foreign
in Jesus name amen
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 14:1-28
We have been called to proclaim the living God to a dying world, but often our fear of opposition, misunderstanding, and suffering prevent us from living into our calling. Come find the courage of a living God to break through the fears and boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who are lost in darkness.
TranscriptHeavenly Father thank you for these ancient words Lord it is our prayer that that is true that our hearts are open that we come with Open Hearts Lord but we know we we can’t do that on our own Holy Spirit we need your help I need you to help open our hearts to that we may receive your word for us this day so will you come to Holy Spirit lead us to the throne of grace that we might find help and mercy in our time of need and Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen you may be seated
this is the Super Bowl Sunday of the church right this is the Resurrection Sunday it’s the celebration of the Resurrection which everything else depends upon if Jesus Christ wasn’t raised from the dead then our hope is in vain because we’re still dead in our trespasses Romans 6 tells us that the wages of sin is death if Jesus did not rise from the dead then we are all still dead in our trespasses in our own sin but today we celebrate that the the that is not the truth that’s not the end of the story that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead for our salvation on that first uh Easter morning over 2 000 years ago as uh as we were told in our uh reading this morning as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb to try to go see Jesus’s body where he had been laid as she got they got there there was an earthquake and there was an angel of the Lord sitting on the stone which he’d rolled away and what they found when they got there was that tomb was empty it was an empty tomb but it was a tomb although it was empty it was a tomb that was full of Hope an empty tomb full of Hope and it is still an empty tomb that is full of hope for us today and the Easter message it isn’t complicated uh in fact the Easter message is exactly what the angel proclaimed to the Mary’s that first morning this this is what this is what they what he said do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified he is not here for He Is Risen as he said now come see the place where he lay then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold he is going before you to Galilee there’s four words really that is the main thrust of the of the Easter resurrection message come see go and tell come and see go and tell first of all he says come and see for yourselves come and see for yourselves that he’s not here the tomb is empty and then having seen it for yourself now go and tell the rest of the disciples go and tell there’s a sense of of urgency and I want to look at each of those for just a moment with you uh this morning that first word come it is a wonderful beautiful word of invitation have you ever received an invitation that you were just so excited about that you got that invitation maybe it was a wedding maybe it was a birthday party or a cocktail party or whatever it might have been uh but you were so excited it was something you had just been hoping for and you really wanted to go and and it made you feel special it made you feel like loved and cared for and kind of a part of something like you were significant because you know the opposite can happen too right and uh you’ve probably had this experience I know I have and that is when you didn’t get the invitation doesn’t make you feel very good does it you don’t feel very welcome you don’t feel included in fact it makes you feel more like an outcast you know I have a uh or a hat a great aunt uh a name is Aunt great aunt sis uh and great aunt sis was married a man from Birmingham England uh and then moved over there for most of the years to to live with him uh but they would return uh every once in a while they kept a house here in Jacksonville and they’d returned and I remember as a little kid going over to her house you know but it’s one of those houses that was just like packed with antiques everywhere and pictures on every table and uh and one of the pictures that was in that room uh in the living room was a picture of her having tea with the Queen of England um and and next to it was the invitation that she had received to have this tea it wasn’t just like one-on-one you know they it was like there’s special events where they invite a whole bunch of people if you’ve done you know if you’ve done a lot of charitable work I think you get included in the invitation but nonetheless she had a picture of her and the queen and the invitation right there and boy would she tell you about that invitation and that tea uh when you’d go and sit down with her she felt so honored she felt felt like it was just so special to be included we’re receiving an invitation from the god of the universe the God of all creation to come to come to the empty tomb he’s welcoming us that’s how much he thinks of us that’s how significant we are to him to come and see come and see for yourself what’s here come and see what you’ll find when you enter into this empty tomb that I have provided for you so what would you see he said he said to them come and see what exactly will they see well for them they saw literally right the empty tomb they saw literally where where Jesus’s body once had laid they could see it for their own eyes well we don’t have that same experience today do we we can’t go into the tomb I’ve been to Israel I’ve been I’ve been to the places where they think might have been the tomb you know you can at least go and see an example of what kind of one of those caves that have been hewn out of the rock might look like but we don’t know which one it actually was so we can’t duplicate it but you know C.S Lewis uh has a powerful quote in fact if you’ve ever actually read the but you probably haven’t uh the front cover the back cover of the uh of the bulletin I have it printed right here it’s been here every week for I think the last like 10 years um and uh and now I have a chance to say something about it uh this is what what C.S Lewis wrote he says I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen no only because I see it but because by it I see everything else you know this morning it was actually quite perfect maybe the Lord was doing this for me and so I feel sorry for everyone who didn’t get to see a sunrise this morning um but you know this morning it kind of played into that perfectly you know we didn’t get to see the sun actually Rising this morning but we saw its light it was dark and even through the clouds even through the overcast even through the that darkness and the Mist that was and kind of still is you can see light the light shines through it C.S Lewis understood that even though we can’t see physically with with our eyes the resurrection and the empty tomb we know it’s true because by everything else we see it’s light everywhere and that means you know if we go back to what I told you before in Romans 6 for the wages of sin is death Paul said but the free gift of God is eternal life in his son Jesus Christ he’s saying we see that that life all around us because the tomb was empty we have hope we have joy because death doesn’t have doesn’t have the last word death has been conquered Jesus is the firstborn from the dead and when we put our faith in him we too share in his resurrection life but this is where we kind of get get sideways sometimes we think this is just a Preferred Future you know this is just something that awaits us until we die then then it’ll then it’ll happen but that’s not what Resurrection Life is that’s not what Paul was saying when the wages are sin or death but the gift of God is life and his son Jesus Christ that eternal life that Resurrection Life Begins right now it’s a life that is alive to God and that means because sin has been conquered because death has been conquered because the devil has been conquered we always have hope the the Light of Christ is shining into every darkness that exists in our lives the fear the bitterness the hate the disappointments that we have in light and life those clouds that are gathering they cannot block out the son of the Resurrection if it’s true they can’t you know there’s often been debate about that you know what do you see you know what what what what what’s the whole deal now today about the resurrection and that empty tomb and Scholars have been debating this forever I was a religion major at the University of North Carolina and Chapel Hill very Progressive place they they don’t believe the the gospel to be uh to be truly the word word of God um and for the most part that’s a little unfair to throw that over everybody but I was there so most of most of the time um and and you know and there was always debate about what happened here it must have been some sort of great conspiracy you know they must have all conspired together to make this event uh just just say that Jesus they went in and they took Jesus’s body and they they stashed it somewhere just to begin perpetuate this whole myth well that even falls apart the whole conspiracy there you can’t have that many people that are all part of the same uh the same uh you know conspiracy and not ever have a conflicting report uh not they when they got tortured and died for it later but you know what was the message that they always proclaimed it was the resurrection that is what meant everything they were eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that’s the message that they were sharing you know but going back to the academic world uh there’s at least three things there’s all kinds of debates and but there’s at least three things that I found at least for my time there and in the academic world that all Scholars could at least agree upon they disagreed on other parts of it but they did agree upon this that the Tomb in which Jesus was buried was discovered empty by a group of women on the Sunday following the crucifixion they’ve said okay that that we can agree on a tree that that’s the historical testimony here that we would that we believe uh number two that Jesus disciples had real experiences with the one that they believed to be the this risen Jesus that that that we have those accounts and that’s historically reliable if we’re going to rely upon any history from Antiquity at all then then we believe that the testimony is sound you know that they believed that they had encounters with the Risen Jesus and as a result of the preaching and and of these disciples about Jesus’s resurrection one at many and most often at their own peril uh this message of the Resurrection it exploded it exploded to the point of overtaking the whole Roman Empire
and I think if you take all those three together and you’re willing to be to be honest I believe that there’s only really one plausible and reasonable explanation and that is that Jesus did in fact rise from the grave that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead that it really did happen but you know even that isn’t enough
just to believe rationally and the truth of the resurrection and that the tomb was actually empty uh that’s great you know good for you uh but that’s not enough that’s not enough to experience for ourselves the Resurrection Life you see when that angel invited them to come and see to see doesn’t just mean to to be able to witness it with our own eyes and to have that empirical evidence right there before us it’s undeniable that’s not what it’s saying it’s saying that word to see it means to experience it means to come and encounter it for yourself and so what we’re being invited into is not just to to argue about the plausibility and to believe that it could have happened is to enter in come to the empty tomb encounter it for yourself experience the hope and the joy of the Resurrection from the dead that there’s a God who loves you so much that he was willing to Die For You on the cross that he was raised again conquering death for all time that we might be with him for all eternity where he’s always long for us to be that’s the hope of the Resurrection to come and encounter it and experience it for ourselves and friends when we do when we do just as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came and encountered and experienced that empty tomb and were filled with joy we’re told they left and they ran with fear and joy that fear of this this awe and wonder of the Majesty of God and what’s happened here but but also they were filled with joy we’re told the power of the empty tomb and the resurrection of Jesus bore hope and joy in their hearts and they were told go and tell so not only were invited to come and see and experience Jesus when we have and when we know the joy and the hope and the Peace of his resurrection in our own lives the messages go and tell this is urgent they ran they left the gospel accounts are pretty much are all the same in that they they went with urgency to tell everybody and it didn’t end there did it they told them they went and told others and the message kept being told and kept being told and kept being told because that is always the message for us who have encountered and experienced the joy and the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ for our own lives that we are alive with God forever through him it’s we’ve got to go tell other people you know when I was in a Falls Church Virginia which is just on the other side of the Potomac from from DC and it’s only a couple miles from uh from the Pentagon I was there on 9 11 working at a church there uh and we were all huddled there and and the senior pastor’s office just as many I’m sure all you were watching on this little TV that he happened to have uh we were all just huddled around watching this Darkness probably one of the darkest moments in our country’s history we’re just watching this moment just this Darkness this fear
this utter disappointment and Devastation before us but something was different that happened once we kind of gathered ourselves in solid what would happen we weren’t filled with Dread or that we needed to all run home turn on the TV and just bury ourselves somewhere we were filled with this different notion one is that wait a minute we’re a people of the Resurrection we’re a people of Life we’ve been given New Life In Christ that means in the midst of even this Darkness There’s Hope and there’s joy and there’s there’s purpose in their meaning and other you know our first thought was people need to know this and so we ran all over town posting signs we’re holding a service come on back to the church let’s come together to pray and to worship come together to encounter once again the empty tomb that death has been conquered that sin Reigns no more that we have been resurrected with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ friends the message of Easter the message today for you and me is to come and see experience the joy and the hope of the Resurrection by putting your faith and trust in Jesus when you’ve experienced it for yourself to go and tell others it’s urgent the time is now others need to hear it others need just behind the Light of Christ in the midst of the darkness of this world and of their own lives let us come and see and let us go and tell amen foreign
in Jesus name amen
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor Chuck Holiday
Scripture: Acts 13:13-52
Because Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead every one who puts their trust in Him is forgiven all their sins.
TranscriptAmen it’s great to see all the boys nice full church it’s getting uh hard to find a seat in here isn’t it that’s great that’s great we’re looking forward to Easter and adding a third service for Easter it’s gonna be fun you know The Gospel reading this morning can you imagine actually praying you know at church side by side with another believer or at least a worshiper saying God I I thank you that I’m not like this man
there’s something in our hearts that says that uh in our hearts and it’s Relentless and it’s hard to overcome and it’s deadly you know the beautiful thing about the gospel is there’s only one man who’s ever lived who had a right to say father I thank you that I’m not like these other men there’s only one and he never said that in fact what he said was father I would be willing to become just like them so that they can become like us so that we can become one it’s amazing I mean the gospel is incredible you know we spend our whole lives trying to say God I thank you that I’m not like them and the god of the universe who is completely separate from us in every way said I’m going to send my son to become just like them even to the point of becoming sin on a cross so that we can all be one to restore that which is lost to heal that which is broken to bring back the children who have wandered my friends this is such a beautiful story and now this is the third week on this story essentially why you have to ask yourself why did Luke devote so much attention to this one story he tells it and he retells it and in Acts 15 he retells it again yeah so so you know a few questions that come to my mind why is it so important and and the second question is why is it so hard and the third question is and what will help us why is it why is it so important uh you know I think intuitively we know this is important but um you know Jesus said it very specifically in in John chapter 7 when he was praying for his for his disciples and for us he said I’m also praying for those who will believe in me through my disciples which is us and he says I’m praying that they may be brought to complete Unity so that the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me
you know when Gandhi who was had this deep burden for his people in India because of the caste system if any of you some of you probably been to India I haven’t but you know they say the caste system there is just horrendous I mean people who were born in the in The Untouchables class have no hope there’s there’s no access to ever getting out of your cast you just you’re there you’re doomed no no amount of hard work no amount of bettering yourself through education they’re not you can’t move to a better neighborhood there is literally nothing you can do to get yourself out of that Untouchable class and Gandhi came to America hoping there was a way and he actually reading the words of Jesus hope that Christianity was going to be the way for India until he visited American churches
and he realized there’s there’s racial segregation in the churches in America that tell us about Jesus Jesus must not be the answer
you wonder
the Eternal difference it might have made for the continent of Asia and particularly India if Gandhi had seen the unity of the Cry of the body of Christ instead of the division why is it so important
Jack I’ve been reading it re-reading a little book called outgrowing The ingrown Church by Jack Miller I’ve reread it many many times because it’s so basic and so hard to to uh to master this but he quotes um another man’s book Kirby Mavis who says um he said the visionless church is often characterized by a sense of superiority to others what they do is build an attitude of superiority over others by elevating a positive feature in their own church life or tradition and then comparing that feature with groups which lack this quality does that make sense to you you know most every church has something they’re good at something that they’re they’re doing well in and and then church groups we tend to to take that thing and make it the thing we elevate it and it’s so that we can judge other groups by that particular quality in my own background you know in Presbyterian uh churches you know there tends to be a very very high emphasis on education maybe even more so than in the Anglican World Anglican World tends to to emphasize liturgy more than Presbyterians um you know if some of you come from churches where the power of the Holy Spirit seemed to be the thing or exuberant praise and worship in contemporary songs or you know we all have things that probably were better at than other churches but what becomes awful is when we make when we Elevate anything that we do well to a to a place that isolates us and discriminates and puts us in a position of superiority and creates an attitude within us that we’re better than and my friends it happens instinctively and and by the way it doesn’t just happen in churches does I mean I I’ve been in prisons have you ever any of you visited prisons prisoners have the same in there’s in some deep deep thing inside of us that needs to make distinction that needs to elevate ourselves above the other prisoners well at least I’m not like
whatever whatever that is but it kills our it kills our ministry to the world it absolutely destroys our mission in in that same book Jack Miller talks about his interview with Dr mcgavron Who is a sociologist at Fuller Seminary and basically Jack Miller came from a small Presbyterian denomination that was known for its High theological Integrity commitment to the scriptures and their lack of evangelism and so he’s asking Dr mcgavron you know what what’s wrong with us and uh he said with a twinkle in his eye he basically said if we divide the people culturally into the washed and the unwashed he said Jack Miller saying my group usually went after the washed the problem with that is he said the vast majority of the people in the world are the unwashed now you think of the Washington the unwashed in terms of
education cleanliness
manners civility you know whatever washed and unwashed means to you you know but I’ll just tell you I can look out here and say we’re a wash group we are a very washed group of people this is not the ordinary slice of society that we live in even in Jacksonville let alone the world we are the washed my friends and he gives an example he says if I give you he said I’ll give you a missionary example if a pastor in a congregation in another in another part of the world has 65 people in his congregation and four of them are professional people the pastor will aim pretty much his whole sermon at those four
it’s just it’s natural to us we we we’re always uh aiming at the the higher part of the society because those are the people that are we feel like are if they like my sermon for that missionary Pastor who’s got 65 people who haven’t even you know been to elementary school and he’s got four college graduates and is he’s going to naturally talk to those four because those are the four whose opinion matters to him it’s intuitive it’s instinctive and it’s so wrong it’s just another way of saying God I thank you that I’m not like other men
my friends it it kills our witness to the world it absolutely is devastating why is it so important because we have a mission to bring the gospel to the world and that’s what God is doing for Peter here he is he is saying Peter there is no distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles there’s none in all his life Peter has heard but you are the chosen people you were the chosen ones and they were but God did not choose them because they were great he chose them to do something great okay if you belong to Jesus Christ you are elect you have been chosen God did not choose us because we’re great he chose us though to do something great which is to bring the knowledge of God in Jesus’s son to the world we’re his ambassadors why is it so important that we get this lesson our mission depends on it that the world may know
that God loves the world that he loves us he said the world will believe it when they see that we’re one
the other thing that makes it so important why is this important for well it because it destroys our mission if we don’t get this but the second thing is it actually destroys our message you know one of the one and David’s alluded to this um in his two prior sermons but Peter actually messes up again on this same issue so don’t beat yourself up if it’s hard for you it was hard for Peter after Peter went through this Vision this clear teaching from God that there is no distinction you know it doesn’t matter anymore what you eat whether there’s the defiled the common we’re all the same now we’re in Christ but when Peter went to visit Antioch Paul says in Galatians 2 he said I had to confront Peter to his face this is an amazing story but when Peter came to Antioch Galatians 2 verse 11 Paul writes I opposed him to his face because he was clearly in the wrong because certain men came from James that is from Jerusalem and he used to eat with Gentiles but when they arrived he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belong to the circumcision group
the other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray and Paul said when I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel I said to Peter in front of them all you’re a Jew yet you live like a gentile and not like a Jew how is it then that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs he said look Peter before these guys from Jerusalem came you were you were eating a ham sandwich with the other guys
as soon as they showed up
you put you put your ham and pork sandwich behind you as if you would never touch that Peter what are you doing now here’s the point I want you to get why how does Paul who’s an apostle but came late to the party how does he get the courage to publicly rebuke Peter who’s the first pope of the church
he said because he was not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel
Peter said this is important because people will lose the me the very meaning of the Gospel if we let this pass
so not only do we lose our mission we lose our message if we don’t get this right
there is no distinction between the washed and the unwashed the educated and the uneducated
those who know how to set the table and those who don’t even know where the napkins are
in God’s eyes there’s no difference
Okay so that’s why it’s important my friends the challenge for us and David and I’ve been I’ve been learning you know I’m I’m only been in Anglican for a couple years now so I got a lot to learn and so Dave and I have lots of great conversations where you know but you know why do we have a book of common prayer it’s to unite the Christian world that’s what Kramer’s mind was all about he wanted to unite all the Believers in England that’s why we call it the book of common prayer now wouldn’t it be a sad thing if our book of common prayer divided Christians instead of United Christians if it became something that we took more pride in then our very salvation worship can divide us liturgy can divide us dress can divide us there are so many things that don’t need to divide us that are meant to unite us so the question for us you know in our in our fellowship groups this week it’d be great to ask this question how can we make anglicanism our friend in reaching people who aren’t here not get rid of it it’s precious it’s our heritage and it’s rich my wife and I were drawn the first time we came to visit wow this is Rich this is awesome how can we take what’s precious and Rich but not let it become a dividing thing but a uniting thing you say I don’t know the answer but I think that’s the right question that God would have us ask as a church because he’s clearly called us to reach those who don’t know him okay now why is it so hard okay that’s why it’s important but why is it so hard I think we we have the you know an indication here in in chapter 11 verse 3. and you know I think this this resonates with me when I when I read it when when the apostles and brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God they they went and when Peter went up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers criticized them they criticized him
you know Peter didn’t despise these Gentiles but there was something in Peter’s heart that knew that if he joined with them he would be despised
have you ever been in an environment where somebody told a joke and you knew if you didn’t laugh you would be laughed at
I mean that’s that’s how kids get bullied in school there’s usually one you know one guy that’s really the leader and then the rest of the group doesn’t want to be bullied so they join in with a bully right isn’t that how it usually goes down
and that’s what was going down in
they critic what did what Peter was criticized the pope of the church now I say Pope I mean if you’re Catholic you believe that I believe he was the first appointed leader of the church I think we all believe that he was important he was a big deal he had Authority but there the rest of the group was criticizing Peter because Peter wasn’t criticizing the Gentiles the word is judged the literal Greek word is judged to make a distinction
no we’re not like them yeah they may be saved but we’re not like them
and when Peter refused to say we’re different he was judged now there’s two things that make this so so hard one is that we will run from being judged and criticized we will avoid it it’s the shame we will do almost anything to avoid shame the other side of it is the honor we get when we’re part of a special Club you know honor and shame are just two sides of the same coin we’re running from shame and we’re chasing the honor and Peter had lived his life as a Jew that that he felt tremendous honor from being a Jew now he’s faced with a shame of saying it doesn’t matter
and it was a powerful thing now this I I never really saw this before but this word translated criticized the word just literally in Greek means judged it’s the same word in the back in chapter 10 verse 20.
a couple weeks ago in our sermon where where God says to Peter go go so get down get up and go downstairs and he said go with them without judgment
go with them to cornelius’s house without judgment okay
this is the word in 11 chapter 11 verse 3. the circumcised Believers judged him
and in verse 12 of chapter 11 Peter says again the spirit told me to go with them without judgment so to go for Peter to go to Cornelius without judgment meant he was going to be judged
and isn’t that the way it is again you you know somebody’s being picked on at school
do you defend them
then you’re going to be the next victim
right my friends that’s why this is hard that’s why it’s really hard and and the same word again is used in in Acts 15 Luke uses the same word and each time he describes this scenario and in Acts chapter 15 when this issue comes up again in verse 9 where again um Peter is is or Paul now is uh in Jerusalem and they’ve got this Council and Peter’s there and Peter and Peter again recounts the same story and again he says in verse 9 and chapter 15 just as he did to us he gave them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us and he he made no judgment between us and Them
he said they got the Holy Spirit the same way we got the Holy Spirit there was no first class and second-class Christians Peter saying there was no distinction no judgment God made it so clear so why is it so hard because if you don’t judge you will be judged it’s interesting Jesus said judge not lest you be judged but on a human level it’s you better judge or you will be judged
and yes that’s true even in church
it’s the same of rejection I can remember a guy in my Church in Chicago tell him he worked for a pretty big computer company way back in the early days of computers but he he was a new Christian and he he said I remember walking down the street after work with these guys and the the boss and he’s a new guy in the in the company he’s you know first big trip with the with the big guys and his and his boss says Harry get us some women for tonight
and he said I didn’t know what to do
and I didn’t have the courage to say anything so he said you know what I did the next corner they went straight and I went right I just disappeared
because I didn’t know what to do
well have you felt that haven’t you in junior high your first day in the office I felt it in a steel mill let me tell you when I was 18. growing up in a pastor’s home you know you felt it it’s the shame of rejection that keeps us from sticking up for the person who’s being oppressed it keeps us from welcoming those that are not feeling welcome but if the other side of that is the honor we feel when we’re special there are two sides of the same corny you know what does it feel like to feel special I can remember ninth grade Latin and my Latin teacher saying we are not the hoi polloi they take Spanish in French
we take Latin we are the truly educated ones their language was derived from Latin but it’s harder you’ll have to work harder
oh my soul fed on that
I prayed every day since I can I I don’t remember when I started probably about third grade God I pray that someday I can make Straight A’s and I prayed that prayer multiple times every day of my life
because I you know and I was never chastised for bad grades I was always honored for trying hard but I knew something in my heart knew that this would make me more special I went to prayer meeting when I was a teenager with 15 other old people in a in a big church because well I you know I believe in God and I believed in prayer but looking back on it it made me feel special
you know what moves our hearts we will do anything to find the place of honor and we will do anything to avoid the place of Shame well how does that affect the way we treat each other how does that affect the way we treat each other you know last week we had a bunch of friends from Chicago with us to church and you know we were three minutes late Debbie I apologize I it’s not that I’m trying to avoid the first time we are just terrible at being on time and we’re pulling in a parking lot three minutes late and I said well we’re just trying to do our part to lower the bar around here
yeah yeah I wish it was that pure we’re just late but my friends um we need to be asking ourselves this question all the time how are we doing we we won’t know by asking each other because we all are here because we do feel comfortable to some extent okay but how are we going to reach the multitudes with our beautiful we have the gospel here and we have we have a beautiful liturgy and a beautiful tradition and we have Rich gifts but how are we going to reach the those around us who who aren’t being reached now I just want to close what can help us what’s what’s going to help us this this is throughout the New Testament Hebrews James Ephesians this topic comes up over and over and over again because it’s not easy and the church is constantly failing so what can help us well my friends again let me remind you that the only man who ever lived who had a right to say father I thank you that I’m not like other men never said that in fact he said the opposite he said father send me
father let me become just like them so that I can die Acro and a cross for their sins
even to the point of becoming sin never sinned but became sin on a cross so that we can be one not just with each other but with him and one of the most amazing verses in the whole Bible is in Hebrews where where the writer says and Jesus was not ashamed to call us Brothers
not servants but Brothers one of the most amazing things he ever taught his disciples he said when you pray say our father not your father in Heaven Our Father he’s my father and he’s your father Jesus said to his disciples so my friends we can’t help but make comparisons I don’t think we can stop it but here’s what a good comparison can correct a bad one
who are you going to compare yourself to there’s only one safe person to compare yourself to compare yourself to him
and if he calls me brother than any other comparison in my in my mind is irrelevant it just doesn’t matter we’re his children but with the blood of Jesus and and the most precious thing we do is to come now right there’s absolutely nothing that qualifies you to come to this table except for the fact that Jesus is your righteousness
we can all unite every Sunday there amen amen amen
The Third Sunday of Easter Information about this week’s service:Readings:
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Jesus Shall Reign
- The Goodness of Jesus
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Jesus Shall Reign
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Matthew 28:1-10
God is inviting us to come to the empty tomb and experience the hope, joy, and peace of the Risen Lord! Alleluia Christ is Risen!!!
TranscriptHeavenly Father thank you for these ancient words Lord it is our prayer that that is true that our hearts are open that we come with Open Hearts Lord but we know we we can’t do that on our own Holy Spirit we need your help I need you to help open our hearts to that we may receive your word for us this day so will you come to Holy Spirit lead us to the throne of grace that we might find help and mercy in our time of need and Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen you may be seated
this is the Super Bowl Sunday of the church right this is the Resurrection Sunday it’s the celebration of the Resurrection which everything else depends upon if Jesus Christ wasn’t raised from the dead then our hope is in vain because we’re still dead in our trespasses Romans 6 tells us that the wages of sin is death if Jesus did not rise from the dead then we are all still dead in our trespasses in our own sin but today we celebrate that the the that is not the truth that’s not the end of the story that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead for our salvation on that first uh Easter morning over 2 000 years ago as uh as we were told in our uh reading this morning as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb to try to go see Jesus’s body where he had been laid as she got they got there there was an earthquake and there was an angel of the Lord sitting on the stone which he’d rolled away and what they found when they got there was that tomb was empty it was an empty tomb but it was a tomb although it was empty it was a tomb that was full of Hope an empty tomb full of Hope and it is still an empty tomb that is full of hope for us today and the Easter message it isn’t complicated uh in fact the Easter message is exactly what the angel proclaimed to the Mary’s that first morning this this is what this is what they what he said do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified he is not here for He Is Risen as he said now come see the place where he lay then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold he is going before you to Galilee there’s four words really that is the main thrust of the of the Easter resurrection message come see go and tell come and see go and tell first of all he says come and see for yourselves come and see for yourselves that he’s not here the tomb is empty and then having seen it for yourself now go and tell the rest of the disciples go and tell there’s a sense of of urgency and I want to look at each of those for just a moment with you uh this morning that first word come it is a wonderful beautiful word of invitation have you ever received an invitation that you were just so excited about that you got that invitation maybe it was a wedding maybe it was a birthday party or a cocktail party or whatever it might have been uh but you were so excited it was something you had just been hoping for and you really wanted to go and and it made you feel special it made you feel like loved and cared for and kind of a part of something like you were significant because you know the opposite can happen too right and uh you’ve probably had this experience I know I have and that is when you didn’t get the invitation doesn’t make you feel very good does it you don’t feel very welcome you don’t feel included in fact it makes you feel more like an outcast you know I have a uh or a hat a great aunt uh a name is Aunt great aunt sis uh and great aunt sis was married a man from Birmingham England uh and then moved over there for most of the years to to live with him uh but they would return uh every once in a while they kept a house here in Jacksonville and they’d returned and I remember as a little kid going over to her house you know but it’s one of those houses that was just like packed with antiques everywhere and pictures on every table and uh and one of the pictures that was in that room uh in the living room was a picture of her having tea with the Queen of England um and and next to it was the invitation that she had received to have this tea it wasn’t just like one-on-one you know they it was like there’s special events where they invite a whole bunch of people if you’ve done you know if you’ve done a lot of charitable work I think you get included in the invitation but nonetheless she had a picture of her and the queen and the invitation right there and boy would she tell you about that invitation and that tea uh when you’d go and sit down with her she felt so honored she felt felt like it was just so special to be included we’re receiving an invitation from the god of the universe the God of all creation to come to come to the empty tomb he’s welcoming us that’s how much he thinks of us that’s how significant we are to him to come and see come and see for yourself what’s here come and see what you’ll find when you enter into this empty tomb that I have provided for you so what would you see he said he said to them come and see what exactly will they see well for them they saw literally right the empty tomb they saw literally where where Jesus’s body once had laid they could see it for their own eyes well we don’t have that same experience today do we we can’t go into the tomb I’ve been to Israel I’ve been I’ve been to the places where they think might have been the tomb you know you can at least go and see an example of what kind of one of those caves that have been hewn out of the rock might look like but we don’t know which one it actually was so we can’t duplicate it but you know C.S Lewis uh has a powerful quote in fact if you’ve ever actually read the but you probably haven’t uh the front cover the back cover of the uh of the bulletin I have it printed right here it’s been here every week for I think the last like 10 years um and uh and now I have a chance to say something about it uh this is what what C.S Lewis wrote he says I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen no only because I see it but because by it I see everything else you know this morning it was actually quite perfect maybe the Lord was doing this for me and so I feel sorry for everyone who didn’t get to see a sunrise this morning um but you know this morning it kind of played into that perfectly you know we didn’t get to see the sun actually Rising this morning but we saw its light it was dark and even through the clouds even through the overcast even through the that darkness and the Mist that was and kind of still is you can see light the light shines through it C.S Lewis understood that even though we can’t see physically with with our eyes the resurrection and the empty tomb we know it’s true because by everything else we see it’s light everywhere and that means you know if we go back to what I told you before in Romans 6 for the wages of sin is death Paul said but the free gift of God is eternal life in his son Jesus Christ he’s saying we see that that life all around us because the tomb was empty we have hope we have joy because death doesn’t have doesn’t have the last word death has been conquered Jesus is the firstborn from the dead and when we put our faith in him we too share in his resurrection life but this is where we kind of get get sideways sometimes we think this is just a Preferred Future you know this is just something that awaits us until we die then then it’ll then it’ll happen but that’s not what Resurrection Life is that’s not what Paul was saying when the wages are sin or death but the gift of God is life and his son Jesus Christ that eternal life that Resurrection Life Begins right now it’s a life that is alive to God and that means because sin has been conquered because death has been conquered because the devil has been conquered we always have hope the the Light of Christ is shining into every darkness that exists in our lives the fear the bitterness the hate the disappointments that we have in light and life those clouds that are gathering they cannot block out the son of the Resurrection if it’s true they can’t you know there’s often been debate about that you know what do you see you know what what what what what’s the whole deal now today about the resurrection and that empty tomb and Scholars have been debating this forever I was a religion major at the University of North Carolina and Chapel Hill very Progressive place they they don’t believe the the gospel to be uh to be truly the word word of God um and for the most part that’s a little unfair to throw that over everybody but I was there so most of most of the time um and and you know and there was always debate about what happened here it must have been some sort of great conspiracy you know they must have all conspired together to make this event uh just just say that Jesus they went in and they took Jesus’s body and they they stashed it somewhere just to begin perpetuate this whole myth well that even falls apart the whole conspiracy there you can’t have that many people that are all part of the same uh the same uh you know conspiracy and not ever have a conflicting report uh not they when they got tortured and died for it later but you know what was the message that they always proclaimed it was the resurrection that is what meant everything they were eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that’s the message that they were sharing you know but going back to the academic world uh there’s at least three things there’s all kinds of debates and but there’s at least three things that I found at least for my time there and in the academic world that all Scholars could at least agree upon they disagreed on other parts of it but they did agree upon this that the Tomb in which Jesus was buried was discovered empty by a group of women on the Sunday following the crucifixion they’ve said okay that that we can agree on a tree that that’s the historical testimony here that we would that we believe uh number two that Jesus disciples had real experiences with the one that they believed to be the this risen Jesus that that that we have those accounts and that’s historically reliable if we’re going to rely upon any history from Antiquity at all then then we believe that the testimony is sound you know that they believed that they had encounters with the Risen Jesus and as a result of the preaching and and of these disciples about Jesus’s resurrection one at many and most often at their own peril uh this message of the Resurrection it exploded it exploded to the point of overtaking the whole Roman Empire
and I think if you take all those three together and you’re willing to be to be honest I believe that there’s only really one plausible and reasonable explanation and that is that Jesus did in fact rise from the grave that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead that it really did happen but you know even that isn’t enough
just to believe rationally and the truth of the resurrection and that the tomb was actually empty uh that’s great you know good for you uh but that’s not enough that’s not enough to experience for ourselves the Resurrection Life you see when that angel invited them to come and see to see doesn’t just mean to to be able to witness it with our own eyes and to have that empirical evidence right there before us it’s undeniable that’s not what it’s saying it’s saying that word to see it means to experience it means to come and encounter it for yourself and so what we’re being invited into is not just to to argue about the plausibility and to believe that it could have happened is to enter in come to the empty tomb encounter it for yourself experience the hope and the joy of the Resurrection from the dead that there’s a God who loves you so much that he was willing to Die For You on the cross that he was raised again conquering death for all time that we might be with him for all eternity where he’s always long for us to be that’s the hope of the Resurrection to come and encounter it and experience it for ourselves and friends when we do when we do just as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came and encountered and experienced that empty tomb and were filled with joy we’re told they left and they ran with fear and joy that fear of this this awe and wonder of the Majesty of God and what’s happened here but but also they were filled with joy we’re told the power of the empty tomb and the resurrection of Jesus bore hope and joy in their hearts and they were told go and tell so not only were invited to come and see and experience Jesus when we have and when we know the joy and the hope and the Peace of his resurrection in our own lives the messages go and tell this is urgent they ran they left the gospel accounts are pretty much are all the same in that they they went with urgency to tell everybody and it didn’t end there did it they told them they went and told others and the message kept being told and kept being told and kept being told because that is always the message for us who have encountered and experienced the joy and the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ for our own lives that we are alive with God forever through him it’s we’ve got to go tell other people you know when I was in a Falls Church Virginia which is just on the other side of the Potomac from from DC and it’s only a couple miles from uh from the Pentagon I was there on 9 11 working at a church there uh and we were all huddled there and and the senior pastor’s office just as many I’m sure all you were watching on this little TV that he happened to have uh we were all just huddled around watching this Darkness probably one of the darkest moments in our country’s history we’re just watching this moment just this Darkness this fear
this utter disappointment and Devastation before us but something was different that happened once we kind of gathered ourselves in solid what would happen we weren’t filled with Dread or that we needed to all run home turn on the TV and just bury ourselves somewhere we were filled with this different notion one is that wait a minute we’re a people of the Resurrection we’re a people of Life we’ve been given New Life In Christ that means in the midst of even this Darkness There’s Hope and there’s joy and there’s there’s purpose in their meaning and other you know our first thought was people need to know this and so we ran all over town posting signs we’re holding a service come on back to the church let’s come together to pray and to worship come together to encounter once again the empty tomb that death has been conquered that sin Reigns no more that we have been resurrected with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ friends the message of Easter the message today for you and me is to come and see experience the joy and the hope of the Resurrection by putting your faith and trust in Jesus when you’ve experienced it for yourself to go and tell others it’s urgent the time is now others need to hear it others need just behind the Light of Christ in the midst of the darkness of this world and of their own lives let us come and see and let us go and tell amen foreign
in Jesus name amen
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Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
- Christ Our Hope In Life and Death
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- Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Luke 19:29-40 and Mark 14:32-15:39
Palm Sunday is the day we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Just like the great Kings of Israel, Jesus rode into Jerusalem in humility on a donkey. But unlike the great kings of old, Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords made his entry knowing that nothing but suffering, abandonment, and death awaiting Him there. Jesus is not just any King. He is the Son of God who willingly entered into suffering and death to win for us eternal life.
TranscriptWhat an amazing passage from from acts this morning uh I mean just reading that uh that this portion of of Acts 12 uh it has all the makings for a Hollywood Blockbuster all the all the drama all the suspense the the daring uh rescue or the miraculous rescue it’s got Heroes it’s got villains uh it’s got great uh that’s a great story but stripped down of all of that drama and all of the spin suspense this passage is primarily about prayer it’s primarily about prayer God’s people the church they prayed and God moved in a powerful powerful way you know some of us have a special gift for prayer it comes just naturally to us but some of us struggle with prayer for you know for various reasons maybe we just don’t think that we know how um maybe it’s just we just struggle to grasp but difference it really can make in the world maybe we’ve been disappointed many times by God our prayers haven’t been answered the way that we wanted them to to be answered or for the most theologically studious among us maybe you’ve come to think that God and his sovereignty has all things planned so there’s nothing that we can say or nothing we can do that’s really going to make any difference at all so so why pray at all no matter where you fall on that Spectrum we all have I think one thing in common you know God’s desire for us to commune with him in prayer to draw near to him as our Heavenly loving father to ask him for what we need to tell him how we’re feeling and doing in life to ask him to act in the world all of it gets wrapped up though in our need for control our need for control we all uh we all tend to see prayer as a place where we can assert our own power and authority to move the will of God in our own Direction in our own favor and so when our prayers are answered the way we want all is right in the world and we’re happy right but when our prayers are not answered in the way that we want we get discouraged we can get disillusioned but yet prayer is at the very heart of what it means to be an Anglican maybe uh and more ways than than other churches all churches pray I’m not saying that the the Anglican Church is any better but uh but one of our founding fathers Thomas kramner who at the time was the Archbishop of Canterbury during the the English Reformation he believed so strongly in the power of prayer uh that he believed If he if the whole he could get all of England praying together in biblical and historic ways that it would lead to the absolute conversion of all English people to Christ that was his conviction this is why he put together and developed the book of common prayer that we use a Liturgy of prayers that are that are biblically faithful and are consistent with the early church and how they prayed its ultimate said that anglicans believe what they pray that we believe what we pray because the idea is that that prayer book is so faithful to biblical truth and to Historic Christianity uh that that that it it says what we believe if you if you read the the prayers themselves and in his day it was it was so powerful because For the First Time people were able went to church whether they could even read or not uh they could actually pray or understand what was being prayed in their own language they could hear it they could understand it they could engage in it they could understand what the minister was saying or because it was a liturgy they could memorize the prayers on hearing them and they could enter in themselves into prayer before this the priest prayed in Latin no one understood what they were saying or at least the majority didn’t have any idea what they were saying and so prayer was something that was believed to be just for the special people you know those who were especially anointed by God who had that right not for everybody in the English Reformation in the book of of common prayer helped to change all of that but now here in the 21st century I think we have a different challenge as as anglicans when it comes to to prayer you know the Liturgy the book of common prayer uh it can become wrote and it can become lifeless can it one of the reasons why we tried periodically to change things up it’s why right now we’re using the Kenyan Eucharistic right because it changes it it makes us take the the words more seriously at understanding them but they can become just words that we say without any kind of personal reflection without any personal connection to them at all just some sort of Heartless piety that we offer to God out of some vain attempt to make God happy with us to please him but prayer is an Incredible Gift that God has given to us Jesus by his faithful obedience and by his death on the cross has assured us the right to call God our loving father we can cry out to him Abba Father we’re told we can come to him in the most intimate and personal way imaginable we can come to him in prayer and yet it’s a privilege and a right that we squander and often in our lives we find very little use for it but I believe that kramner was right the prayer is at the very heart of Revival and if we’re to be a people on mission for Jesus as we’ve been talking throughout this this series on on the book of Acts we must become a people of Prayer but not out of any sinful need for power and control or trying to dictate to God what must be done and what should be done but rather out of a heart to join God and His Sovereign will and plan for the Salvation of the world and that’s the kind of prayer that we see at work in Acts 12 verses 1 through 19 in our reading this morning prayer that was so aligned with God’s greater will for the Salvation of the world that when the prayer was answered God’s people couldn’t believe it was even true but before we jump into fully into acts 12 we need to recap just a a moment what came last week at the end of of acts 11. so if you’ll remember it was a beautiful moment of Revival that erupted an Antioch where Jews and Gentiles alike we’re hearing the gospel and we’re coming to Christ Barnabas was being filled with joy when he saw the grace of God that was at work and these people and these gentiles that God of is reaching yet back we’re told in Jerusalem now here in Acts 12 trouble was brewing you know the early church had already faced violent opposition from uh the religious authorities in Jerusalem and we read about that in the first few chapters of Acts they had been uh they had been dragged before the Sanhedrin that is the religious leaders and rulers in Jerusalem they had been arrested they had been beaten they had been persecuted they had in it all experienced uh they had also experienced God’s miraculous rescue through an angel who came and got them out of prison and told them to go right back out into the the courtyard and continue to share the gospel they’d experienced all that but now in Acts 12 their face they face trouble from a different Jewish power this time it’s the political power and the political Authority from King Herod that they face now this isn’t the same Herod from from Jesus’s birth this is his grandson uh and his grandson’s name was Herod Agrippa and Herod or gripper was not a popular King with the Jewish people he was appointed by the Roman Emperor he had been raised as a Roman fully and embraced all Roman life and he had part Edomite blood and so he wasn’t very popular with the people they didn’t really care for him that much and so it was at this time that this revival is happening uh in Antioch and the gospel is spreading now out to the Nations they’re hearing the gospel and they’re receiving Christ that Herod began violently attacking the church in Jerusalem you know I think we like to think of church growth as being some sort of consistent uh smooth and kind of calm Ascent to the top right uh but that’s not what the book of Acts shows us at all as soon as there’s Revival there’s persecution the church faces great opposition it’s difficult it’s hard and we’re told that Herod killed James the brother of John with the sword for those who can remember uh James and John were the sons of thunder that’s what Jesus nicknamed them the sons of thunder uh and and they were they were part of Jesus’s apostles his disciples at one time if you’ll remember in the gospels they desired that they would be uh that Jesus would hold them in the place of great honor and that they asked if one considered his left hand and one considered his right when he came into his kingdom but Jesus told them that they had no idea what they were really asking for they had no idea that that honor wasn’t his to Grant but he did assure them that they would drink from the same cup that he would drink and here we see the first part of that James was now killed for his faith and his service to Christ and and what Herod saw he saw in this that it pleased the Jews the people were pleased by what he had done with James and so we had Peter arrested also but since it was the Feast of unleavened bread and it was the time of Passover he threw Peter in prison I mean he wanted to wait to win the when Passover was over he could bring Peter out hold a kangaroo court find him guilty and then have him also executed in front of everybody
that was this was a dire and seemingly impossible situation that Peter was in because Herod didn’t just uh chain him to one guard in prison the way it normally would have done that was the normal way of doing things Herod put four squads of soldiers to guard him Peter was too important as a political asset to Herod for his own power and his own authority Heritage had probably heard about that little Escape that had happened to the Sanhedrin right and he wasn’t about to let that happen on his guard he has the power and authority of Rome behind him and so in this hopeless and Powerless situation what did the church do
we’re told in verse 5 that they made Earnest prayer for Peter they made Earnest prayer for Peter that’s it
in the face of the greatest power and authority of the Known World the Roman Empire all they did was pray I mean how about some uh some some plan here maybe some daring and brave rescue operation that they begin planning uh maybe an attempt to bribe the guards to offer them money right so that they’ll I’m sure they were corrupt enough uh give them enough money and I’m sure they would have let him go something some kind of plan anything that could be done do something but no all they did was offer Earnest prayer
well what exactly is earnest prayer
the word earnest it means zealous intense determined constant I remember as a kid uh when there was a dire situation that needed prayer I remember I can remember my mom getting on the phone and calling everybody that she knew who were prayers and getting them to pray and I also remember being a little skeptical kid that uh what I wondered what does that mean the more people praying the more likely that God’s gonna answer and so then I thought what so the more popular people who know the most people that those are the ones that God’s most likely going to act in their lives I was a punk
but you know many big TV evangelists they’ve lived off this idea they’ve built fortunes and mansions off this idea send your prayer request and send your offering as well and we’ll make sure our whole network Millions around the world will be praying for you because the more people who pray the more likely God’s gonna move and he’s going to act and he’s going to do what you want him to do
or maybe Earnest prayer doesn’t mean maybe it means quality of your prayer maybe it’s not the quantity right maybe if it’s not quantity maybe it’s the quality of the prayer itself meaning if your prayers are good enough if you believe enough meaning if you have enough Faith or if you have the right kind of Faith then God’s going to answer your prayers then your prayers will be answered this is another falsity that the the church that many churches and leaders have propagated and mainly for their own benefit hype it’s called the hyper Faith movement you just have to believe enough that it’s going to come and it’ll come true and what it does is it just feeds a hard desire and our longing for control it appeals to the sinful nature in US we want to believe that we want to believe that if we can just do it right then the outcome will happen the way that we want it to happen so if Earnest prayer doesn’t have anything to do with quality or quantity what’s it all about well it’s all wrapped up in an attitude of the prayer and the one who’s praying and we’ll get back to that in just a moment but keeping through this narrative so the church was earnestly praying for Peter who was caught in this political power grab and game uh with with King Herod but on the night before we’re told uh that Herod planned on bringing Peter out of the the for the kangaroo court and the eventual inevitable execution uh we’re told in verse 6 that Peter was sleeping Between Two Soldiers bound with two chains and centuries before the door were guarding the prison did you catch that on the Night Before Peter was to be tried and executed he was sleeping
now Gracie will tell you that I can sleep through almost anything rarely do I have any problems falling asleep at night uh I can uh I can count on one hand the times in my 45 years of life that I had trouble uh sleeping because I was worried about something it’s just not my nature it doesn’t come naturally but I can promise you that if I was in Peter’s situation and I knew that that next day I was about to be taken out uh into this kangaroo court and I was inevitably going to be executed uh I would have had uh I would have been thinking over things over and over again in my mind how can I get out of this what can I do is there anything I can say I would have been racked with worry and fear begging God to rescue me but Peter wasn’t worried he wasn’t begging God to spare him at least not then Peter’s life had been so transformed by the hope that he had in Christ and in eternal life that he was absolutely defiant of even death itself it didn’t worry him at least not enough to not sleep it was just like Paul you said who came to understand through the gospel that to live is Christ and to die is game Peter seems to really have been able to to grasp that he knew that kind of Peace in his own life Peter was so deeply sleeping in fact that when the angel of the Lord came to him and Shone the light into his dark cell Peter still didn’t wake up angel had to actually strike Peter on his side to get him to wake up kind of like when Gracie strikes me when I’m snoring a bit too much right to roll over I think we can do with what that’s like but but even then Peter wasn’t sure even then Peter’s not really sure this is actually happening
he wasn’t sure until he was actually out of the prison and the angel had left him through the chains falling off addressing himself to to passing all of those guards along the way to opening uh of the Iron Gate of its own accord I love that right like the the gate opening of its own accord um what a fun idea uh he still didn’t recognize what was really going on here he still didn’t realize it he didn’t realize until he was outside and he said now I’m sure the Lord has sent his Angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all the Jewish people and what they were expecting Peter wasn’t praying Peter wasn’t begging the Lord for his own life and yet God rescued him but what about the people who had been praying earnestly for Peter well the servant girl Rhoda we’re told went uh went to the door when Peter came and knocked at it and he she recognized Peter’s voice and so she was so filled with joy that she ran back to tell the others without opening the door for Peter and this time the door didn’t open on its own accord so he didn’t have that power himself so he was left out there this fugitive right any moment they’re going to hear hear about it and gonna come looking for him and he’s stuck outside while Rhoden ran away because she was so filled with joy when she told the others that it was Peter number one they thought that she was out of her mind they thought she was out of her mind number two they even thought that it must have been an angel who was just appearing as Peter in other words they didn’t believe that it could be true they were praying but they were not actually expected that God was going to answer their prayers not in the way that he did we can’t link this to the the the causation of this to uh their prayers were full of faith and they expected and they believed and they had no doubt therefore Peter was saved and rescued
and here’s what we get an idea of what Earnest prayer is really all about they were praying for Peter but they weren’t praying in such a way that was according to their own desires or according to their own preferred outcome they weren’t dictating to God what should happen trying to control everything no they were praying that God’s will would be done on Earth as it is in heaven now I don’t know if that’s exactly how they were praying but but it’s what leads me to believe it if they were praying and they were still shocked that it actually happened and that that Peter was there they weren’t praying expectedly without doubt it’s clear from this passage that there was they were they were not so fixed on what the outcome should be that when uh
that when
when Peter showed up they were all expecting him their Earnest prayers were prayers of Faith though there were absolutely prayers of Faith prayers of humble submission to God’s Sovereign will prayers that ask God’s will for his kingdom to be done God didn’t spare James but he spared Peter why did he loved Peter more than he loved James no we know that’s not true was it because of the the quality or the quantity of the church’s prayers that were being offered or Peter’s prayers or James’s prayers no God allowed James to be killed and he rescued Peter and he did it according to his Sovereign will his plan for the Salvation of the world you know one of the most I think misused and most abused passages in the scripture is the Gospel reading that now we read from Matthew 21. where Jesus said and whatever you ask in prayer you will receive if you have faith this verse has been again used and abused by so many ministers to tell you that if you believe enough and you have enough faith enough if you don’t doubt at all then you’ll receive everything that you ask for in prayer but that’s not the context of this passage as Jesus was was telling it at all Jesus found that fig tree they found that it wasn’t bearing any fruit and so he said May no fruit come from you ever again and the disciples were so transfixed and and so consumed with how he had the power to do that that that kind of thing uh that but they missed what was really happened this real life Parable that it was work right in front of them Israel was called to bear fruit fruit that was in keeping with repentance fruit of the mission the fruit that they were to be a blessing to the Nations the fruit was was that were the Gentiles coming to know God as their loving Creator but they had stopped bearing fruit and were just now concerned about themselves and their own conservation and their own protection the faithful prayer that Jesus was calling them to the kind that will will always receive answers for is prayer that’s offered in faith but not our own faith it’s prayer that’s in Trust of God and his plan for the Salvation of the world it’s why Jesus when he taught them how to pray said pray like this our father who art in heaven Hallowed be your name meaning may your name be considered Holy by all the world May everyone consider you holy your kingdom come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven meaning this may we be at peace with your will may we be at peace with your plan for the Salvation of the world and only then does Jesus teach us to pray give us this day our daily bread give us the things that we really need we’re welcome to ask for them and to pray for them but not outside of God’s greater Sovereign will and plan for the Salvation of the world friends Earnest prayer the kind that we’re graciously invited to offer to God are prayers of faith and trust in God’s goodness and in his gracious will and trusting in that as C.S Lewis said about prayer I’m sure you’ve heard it before I pray not to change God but I pray that God would change me meaning that in prayer God it changes our hearts and prayer he brings our hearts in line with his he brings our hearts and Minds in line with his Sovereign will and that’s what brings peace that’s what brings Joy that we can accept Whatever May Come
as we continue to live in the mission of the Gospel as we’ve been looking at and acts may the Lord make us a people of earnest prayer not seeking to control God to direct him to act in our favor but to change us to give us his heart to let us ask him
for our daily bread but to trust that whatever he has in store be it death or life be it Revival or persecution he is good and his plan for our lives and the salvation of the world that it’s perfect you know I want to with every fiber in my being tell you to pray and believe that you will and you will receive anything that your heart desires because that sells I want to tell you to pray and believe and nothing bad is going to ever happen for to you
but that’s just an appeal to our own will to our own desire and lust for control I want to tell you to pray and you’ll be released from prison like Peter was released from prison and it’s true actually but the prison you’ll be be released from isn’t necessarily the prison
with bahar’s physical bars you will be released from the prison of your own lust for control and the fear and the worry that come with it it’ll be released to the joy and peace of God and the son Jesus Christ and knowing that no matter what happens
his plan is good that he is good whether it be death or life whether it be Revival or persecution whatever he has in store will be good and right for us and for his plan for the world let us pray
Heavenly Father thank you for this amazing gift that you’ve given us to pray that we can come to you because of our Savior Jesus Christ that we have the right to cry out to you I have a father that you love us because we’re your children we’re your sons and daughters
thank you for that amazing amazing invitation that we have
that we pray that you would free us from the bondage of needing to control
we’re trying to manipulate you treating yous like you’re some kind of magician the right incantation or the the right attitude of our own Hearts will will guarantee the outcome that we want
or teach us to pray and to trust and pray for your will to be done on Earth as it is in heaven to trust you Lord as that becomes our prayer may you pour out your peace and your joy and our hearts may we experience life like Peter who who had no fear of death itself because he knew the Peace of trusting in your good and perfect will for his life and for this world
give us that kind of peace that kind of Prayer Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen
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The Fifth Sunday in Lent Information about this week’s service:Readings
- Acts 12:20 – 13:3
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 11: 19-30
Often in life we can become skeptical and doubtful and therefore hardened to experiencing the joy of seeing God’s grace at work in others. When we are unable to experience the joy of God’s grace at work in others it is an indication that we have lost the joy of God’s grace at work in our own lives. Act’s 11:19-30 is a call to rejoice in the grace of God first in our own lives and then in the lives of those around us.
TranscriptWell the mission continues to expand for those who are visiting with us for the first time this morning were in the midst of a series on the book of Acts and we have made our way to acts 11 verses 19 to 30. uh and as we’ve worked through acts together we’ve seen the expansion of the Gospel both geographically and culturally from Jerusalem to Judea to and Samaria from the Jews to the Hellenistic Jews to the Samaritans and then last week in the past few weeks we’ve been looking at uh the God-fearing Gentile Cornelius a Roman Centurion and his family the Gospel of Jesus Christ the good news that God sent his one and only son into this world to give us new and unending life in him this gospel is for all people and this morning the expansion of the Gospel it continues just as Jesus had commanded his followers remember we read it in the beginning of Acts in Acts chapter 1 he told them you will be my Witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth and so far in Acts we’ve been to Jerusalem we’ve heard about their witness there we’ve been to Samaria with Philip as he bore witness to what was the most hated people group to the Jews we’ve been through Judea we’ve heard about Cornelius and Peter’s witnessing the gospel to him and today we begin the journey to the ends of the Earth a journey that begins an Antioch and continues today with you and with me as we continue to live on Mission as Witnesses for Jesus in this world and we’re told this in Acts 11 verse 19. those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as phenicia and Cyprus and Antioch speaking the word to No One except the Jews and that makes perfect sense it makes perfect sense the Jewish Believers uh when they fled from Saul and this persecution uh in Jerusalem they went to communities that they were familiar with or at least where they would have a sense of familiarity with the people who were there it was natural it was more comfortable for them and they’d been through so much trauma and so much suffering who could who could blame them and this is what most of us do don’t we most of us go to the places that we’re familiar with to the people that we’re comfortable with and that’s not all together bad you know Gracie and I uh you know I think we’ve told you that we’re uh we’re going to be going to Kigali in April after Easter for uh big Anglican meeting the global Anglican Futures conference uh and so we were thinking gosh if we’re going so far you know we maybe we should stay over a day or two and wherever that we were originally thinking wherever the connection naturally happened and I was looking at it and the natural connections were could be in a lot of different places like Qatar um or uh it could be in uh maybe Brussels maybe Amsterdam and we were kind of looking at those as you know we could stay a couple days there you know get a different experience spend some time together because how often do we get away from all four kids you know um but then we started thinking about but we’re like and we’re like you know but you know maybe we can work with the travel agent and they can figure out how to connect us through London you know we’re more comfortable there we’re not going to be there long and it wouldn’t make us as nervous about how to get around and all that kind of stuff and so that’s what we chose to do so I totally get it right you want to go where you’re more comfortable you probably you know the language you know the culture a little bit better you can relate to it uh don’t most of us do that you know we probably most of us choose our our homes where you’re living because it was probably in a neighborhood you were comfortable with with people you were comfortable with you felt you had shared culture with them you know it’s probably why you chose the church that you choose other than the excellent Pastor um and the outstanding music of course but uh but you know is people that you’re comfortable with that you’re familiar with you share uh things you share values things that make you you feel comfortable right so those who were scattered they went to the places and they went to the people that they shared commonality with language culture religious practices and their their convictions and when they did go to those places they spoke the word of God to them which was awesome and that was important in fact it’s all it’s an important form of evangelism to First maybe go to the people that you can communicate with right that you you understand where they’re coming from uh then they reached out to them but verse 20 tells us that there were some of them men of Cyprus and Cyrene who aren’t coming to Antioch spoke to the hellenists also preaching the Lord Jesus now believe it or not there is a lot to unpack in that one uh little verse about what this means and what it means to the context about what’s about to happen next first of all we need to talk about Antioch Antioch was a huge City by ancient near Eastern standards of around 500 000 people and it was located north of Jerusalem almost in my all the way to the modern day turkey and it was founded by one of Alexander the Great generals and he named it after his father Antioch was a multi-cultural Center of Trade that reached uh to the no All the known world at the time and it had a large Jewish Community because Antioch had offered equal citizenship to Jews and so there was a large community there but it also had a large population of Asian people because it was strategic in doing its trading into India and even further to the east through its trade routes and ports so Antioch was huge it was it was known as being a beautiful city a beautiful city with lots of diverse people with very diverse beliefs and religions and so it’s not surprising that a few of the Jewish believers who would fledge Jerusalem found their way to Antioch because there was that large Jewish Community there and they I felt like it would be a good place to go but what is surprising is that they preach the Lord Jesus to the Hellenist they preached to the hellenists so who are these hellenists I’m sure you’re wondering right uh well to be honest we’re not exactly sure this is actually one of those things that have uh academics stumped or at least they know the the kind of the uh the a roundabout who they were but within that there’s some there’s some disagreement about it uh we know that back in Jerusalem there were Hellenistic Jews who had come to Christ remember when we read about the controversy that uh that happened in the in the church in Jerusalem over the distribution of of food to the widows uh that that little controversy that broke out was between the Jews and the Hellenistic Jews and so we know that they were there so one of the thoughts is that these hellenists were a group of Greek speaking and Greek culture Jewish uh Believers or Jews there uh but the word itself is fairly unique and it’s simply translated just means uh Greek or Gentile so it could be that these were totally purely Pagan gentile people uh that they were speaking of the Lord Jesus too it could also mean that they were like Cornelius remember he was a God-fearing uh Gentile and the New Testament uses this word to describe Greek speaking people and Greek cultured people which means that we’re going to have to use the context of the rest of this passage to really settle on on who these people were and we’ll get to that in just a moment but I think the most important fact is that we’re told the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number came to believe and they turned their lives over to Jesus this was conversion that happened on a large scale this was a large-scale Revival with con new converts to the faith you know imagine I know we’ve been probably all following the the Asbury Revival but imagine it a little different imagine that breaking out in a completely secular place you know like the University of North Carolina you know sorry I can say that because I went there uh but not at a Christian College where where it happened you know like imagine it really in a secular place like that it breaking out and people coming to the first time to hear the gospel and coming to the Lord it was such a big deal that word got back to the the church leaders back in Jerusalem to the apostles and there was some level of concern about what was going on uh that there so much so that they sent a representative to check it out to make sure that that everything was legit uh and to see obvious or if they see if there was anything they could do to help and to assist this new movement this revival that was happening in this place Antioch uh there was enough curiosity or concern or doubt that they needed to go and verify and see what was going on and it’s from this context that leads me to believe that these hellenists weren’t just Jewish Greek Believers uh I really believe that they or I don’t think that that Jerusalem would have been as concerned about it uh they already knew about Hellenistic Jews like that was a normal thing uh that wouldn’t be a level of concern uh this has got to be something new and especially when we take it in context of what we just read about uh Lucas just told us about Cornelius the Gentile coming to Faith an unclean person a common person coming to faith in Christ and that immediately follows up with that one convert follows up to what’s happening in Antioch on a on a large level these hellenists were most likely Greek Gentile pagans and the church in Jerusalem needed to provide some accountability and some verification about what was going on there so they said Barnabas they sent him off to Antioch to verify what was going on we know at this point this is the first time we’re introduced to Barnabas and so we don’t really know anything about them at this point except for we know that he’s not uh he’s not an apostle he’s not an apostle so they sent him though as a representative later he becomes known as the son of encouragement and we kind of get that idea from what we’ve read about him here we can see in verse 23 we’re told this when Barnabas came to Antioch and saw the grace of God he was glad and he exhorted them to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose that’s how our translation from the English Standard Version uh translated it but I think I like the way the the NIV uh translates it much better this is what it says when Barnabas arrived and Saul with the grace of God had done he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all of their hearts
or maybe even better Eugene Peterson gives his interpretation of this uh in the message he said as soon as Barnabas arrived in Antioch he saw that God was behind and in it all he threw himself in with them got behind them urging them to stay with it the rest of their lives you get that real sense of encouragement in that don’t you presumably Barnabas would have been in Jerusalem when when Peter reported all that God had done uh in and through Cornelius the the unclean the common Gentile and now Barnabas having heard the report from Peter in Antioch he’s now seeing it firsthand what’s going on here this work this major outpouring of God and the lives of and the conversions of of these Gentiles and so when he saw it with his own eyes and he recognized that this was God at word this was God’s gracious power at work in their lives bringing these Gentiles to Faith In Jesus and we’re told he was filled with joy that’s what that he was glad means somehow I think being full of joy sounds a little bit more accurate right than just being glad uh yeah that’s a good thing no no he’s rejoicing his heart is moved like this is this is powerful stuff seeing God at work in such a powerful way through his grace in their lives he wasn’t threatened by it he didn’t try to correct every irregularity that he might have seen he didn’t try to make them now become Jews so that they could get out of this commoner type of Life they were living and now become exceptional and and promised like the promised people the Jews uh he didn’t tell them to follow all the the Jewish laws he was simply filled with joy at what he saw I brought joy to his heart how do you feel when you see someone come to Faith in Jesus how do you feel are you filled with joy does it feel your heart with joy now I wish I could tell you that was always my first reaction I wish I could tell you I want it to always be my reaction but it’s not it used to be it used to always be my reaction when I first came to Christ I always felt that Joy when I saw others coming to know Jesus but I have to confess over the past 30 years my heart’s gotten hardened just a bit my first reaction is oftentimes now skepticism maybe even caution is this really real you know I’ve experienced too many who’ve said they’ve been born again but later just have walked away from the faith or too many who said they were born again but then later it just became obvious that they were using it as a way to manipulate people to abuse people in some way for their own selfish gain
why can I not allow myself to experience the joy all the time because I’ve been jaded and I’m for some weird reason I think I take it personally somehow someone’s salvation is dependent on me or or a reflection of me Lord knows I I need forgiveness in that I need a little bit of barnabas’s heart towards these new Believers can any of you relate to that have you gotten hardened at all maybe a little bit of skepticism a little bit of doubt enters your own mind is this real is this for real Barnabas had no problem experiencing the joy just as Jesus said there’s more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents in over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance has Your Heart Like Mine grown skeptical and jaded friends
we need the Lord to break into our hearts and give us a renewed joy for all lost people who turn and repent
and come to Jesus as Lord and savior of their life of their lives because it was out of that sense of joy the Barnabas encouraged them he was an encourager because of the joy that he experienced seeing the grace of God and work in other people’s lives not seeing all the bad things or the potential pitfalls or you know you didn’t get this all right now he experienced the joy and it turned him into an encourager for them you know the the ESV used the word exhort and I think that you know that word it’s a true word it’s a true word but too often it sounds like that he just then uh started to reason with them you know it makes it sound like he just used words to reason with them uh to tell them to be true now now keep on keep in line you know yeah you’ve received the grace but now you need to do this to stay close to Jesus but the word it means to encourage he encouraged them which means bar and encourage the word it means all these things it means Barnabas he affirmed them Barnabas came alongside of them he lived life with them he comforted them and he taught them the joy that Barnabas experienced for the grace of God that he saw at work in them it compelled them to throw himself in with them and get behind them in this new life that they have in Christ he didn’t just simply say all right now go do these things and you’ll be fine
entered life with them he entered into the messiness of life with them Barnabas was more concerned about their hearts than he was about their behavior or their religious practices it’s like what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in first Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 7 to 8. he wrote to him just as a nursing mother cares for children so we cared for you because we loved you so much we delighted not only to share the gospel with you but our lives as well because you had become so dear to us
friendship evangelism is all about loving people
staying and walking through life with them being an encourager in their lives Luke tells us that Barnabas was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith it’s the most encouraging thing to me about Barnabas is this is something we can all do something we can all relate to all of us can get behind this Barnabas wasn’t an apostle he didn’t have the authority like that
we’re not told that he uh that he did any Miracles or any healings he was simply an encourager willing to come alongside these new Believers to love them to care for them Comfort them affirm in them what God was already doing in their lives he recognized it he took joy in it and encouraged them to keep their hearts focused on Jesus as their lord and you know what the result was verse 24 and a great many people were added to the Lord Barnabas didn’t witnessed it in any great Display of Power that wowed people we aren’t even told that he preached by the way but rather by encouraging and throwing his life in with them he was witnessing to them the love and encouragement of God and his son Jesus Christ but it all started with the joy in his heart at seeing the grace of God that was in that was at work in the lives of others that’s where it started
Joy’s the most powerful motivator of all here’s the hard reality it’s been my experience that when we fail to experience the joy of the grace of God that’s at work in others it’s usually a symptom of the fact that we’ve stopped experiencing the joy of God’s grace that it’s worth that work in our own lives we’ve forgotten our first love we’ve forgotten that we once were lost utterly lost before the grace of God intervened in our lives and brought us to faith in Christ it’s become a distant memory uh faded into the background of our minds and our reductive history when we look back we’ve begun to think that maybe we came to Faith by our own Works maybe we just were smart enough to make that decision for Christ or we were wise enough to know that we needed Jesus or that we were good enough so God rewarded us and blessed us and loved us
well friends we need the Holy Spirit to give us a history lesson because none of us were good enough or smart enough or wise enough to follow Jesus amen in Ephesians 2
Paul reminds us no we were dead in our trespasses in which we once walked following the course of this world following the prince of the air the spirit that is now at work and the sons of Disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and we by Nature children of Wrath like the rest of mankind but God being rich in Mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive with Christ by Grace you’ve been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus can you see the grace of God at work in you
does it give you Joy we were lost but now we’ve been found Rejoice brothers and sisters again I say rejoice
you know what I think will wake us up from our doubt and the skepticism and reluctance to witness our faith in Christ with others more than anything else I think it’s Joy I think it’s Troy rejoicing finding joy in Christ every day as we wake up experiencing the joy of our Salvation anew Romans 15 13 Paul says may the god of Hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may have abound in Hope Joy produces hope which breaks through the the hardness of skepticism and doubt that we have towards others I pray for an outpouring of Joy from God for you and for me
here’s what I know about Joy
Joy is something that God can restore
if you’ve lost it you’ve become hardened Joy is something God can restore Psalm 51 David Cried Out restored to me the joy of your salvation O Lord I know the joys found in the presence of God Psalm 16 in your presence there is fullness of joy O Lord I know that Joy comes from trusting the Lord and what he’s done for you and what he’s done for me in Christ by his grace alone
Barnabas Ministry was effective because he found joy in God’s grace as it was at work and others and in his ministry of encouragement was so effective that he recognated kept growing and people kept coming to Christ through it that he recognized he needed help he couldn’t do this alone so Barnes was not only uh he was not only an encourager he was a humble man he didn’t make this about him he went and he found Saul and Tarsus and he brought him now why did he go after Saul well we would believe that he would have heard that from Saul’s own conversion what God had said to him God had said to Saul that he was his chosen instrument to carry his name before the Gentiles and at the end of the verse 26 we’re told that it was there in Antioch that these disciples were first called Christians why here why now well it’s because here in Antioch the church first looked like what the church was and is supposed to be it was not just made up of Jewish Believers now there’s Gentiles and Jews alike together under the lordship of Christ and so they needed a new name a new distinction so now they’re called Christians meaning simply they’re followers of Jesus Christ as their lord and savior men and women who knew the joy of their salvation and found joy in every person who came to know Jesus as their lord and savior have you lost your joy
has your life of following Jesus gotten full of skepticism and doubt does it feel like a burden to you to carry that more of a barrier to carry it than it does the free gift of God’s grace that’s at work in your life then this morning be renewed be renewed in the joy of your own salvation first that you might begin to take joy in seeing God’s grace at work and others remember your own story how the grace of God came into your life and how he drew you to Jesus
as you come to the table this morning to receive the bread and the wine the body and blood of Christ by faith remember that it’s a New Covenant of joy that God has made with us that Jesus died in our place making a full atonement for our sins and him by faith we’re accepted into God’s family and welcome to dine with him at his table now and forevermore
may the Lord restore the joy of our Salvation again and may we then have joy in recognizing God’s grace and work in others and become encouragers as we witness for Christ and the mission that he’s called us to amen
The Fourth Sunday in Lent Information about this week’s service:Readings
- Acts 12:1-19
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 11: 19-30
Often in life we can become skeptical and doubtful and therefore hardened to experiencing the joy of seeing God’s grace at work in others. When we are unable to experience the joy of God’s grace at work in others it is an indication that we have lost the joy of God’s grace at work in our own lives. Act’s 11:19-30 is a call to rejoice in the grace of God first in our own lives and then in the lives of those around us.
TranscriptLord, we thank you for these ancient words you come by the power of your Holy Spirit you impart them to our hearing you plant them deep in our hearts that they may grow and bear fruit in our lives and Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen you may be seated you know this this past week in our sonship course we discussed an idea about something that we call spiritual amnesia um and the danger that uh that it that it uh presents to a life of Walking With Jesus Christ as his disciple yeah I think we all know what amnesia is uh but you know for those who who may not it’s a condition in which a person is unable to remember things uh usually due to a head injury or some sort of shock or an illness or just some extreme fatigue it can even happen um and medically there are various levels and and uh degrees of Amnesia a person can forget people a person can forget uh even loved ones in their lives a person can forget past events that that happen to to take place uh now I’m not a doctor and uh unfortunately we do have some doctors here so I may get in trouble uh but even in the most extreme someone with uh someone with amnesia uh still doesn’t lose necessarily awareness of themselves uh they may not remember who they are or or what they’re doing or why they’re there but they don’t lose a total awareness of their own existence they still feel emotion fear anxiety confusion they’re still aware of their own basic needs even which makes Amnesia all the more painful for loved ones who are walking through this difficult time with them you know in our our sonship class we watched a clip uh this past week from The Notebook I know you probably remember that uh the Nicholas Sparks book that they they made into the movie um there’s a really powerful scene in that movie where the husband uh is Carrie has been caring for his wife who’s suffering with dementia and she goes and she goes in and she goes out of these states of remembering him and their great love story right if you’ve seen the movie or read the book uh and the scene we watched uh he sets up a romantic dinner for her and for a moment you know for a moment she remembers and it’s just a beautiful scene she remembers him and their story and it’s absolutely beautiful uh and then they they he puts on her favorite their song uh that you learned about earlier you know when you watch the movie uh and they dance to it but then all of a sudden in the midst of this beautiful love story and this dance together suddenly she forgets she forgets who she is she forgets their story but but she didn’t lose her whole sense of self completely and so she suddenly in that moment was confused and scared and got angry it was a really a powerful and just heartbreaking scene if you can remember it now sorry to all you husbands out there or boyfriends who are now going to have to go home and watch this movie again um but you know it really was a powerful illustration of uh of Amnesia and how painful and destructive it can be and the truth is all of us uh you know we all suffer from bouts of amnesia you know hopefully God willing it’s not of the the physical and mental kind but we suffer regularly with spiritual amnesia times where we forget our first love we forget who we are in him but we don’t lose our whole sense of self uh and because of that we become probably more self-focused more self-centered and in the process we get fearful we get confused angry even in the process spiritual Amnesia is that process and that that condition of forgetting about Jesus forgetting who he is in our lives forgetting what he has done for us forgetting his grace his Mercy his love and in the process forgetting who we really are in him physical Amnesia is a terrible terrible thing but spiritual Amnesia is actually far more dangerous because it causes us to act out of our sinful nature and which actually hurts the people around us it causes us to think life is all about us and so uh we want more than anything else to be right we want more than anything else to be Vindicated we want to be safe we want to be comfortable and anyone who stands in our way feels the wrath of our unmet desires the only antidote for Spiritual amnesia that I know of is the power of the Gospel the only thing that’s powerful enough to break through that that selfish self-centered condition is the work of the Holy Spirit reminding us once again Anew of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to remind us that our lives are in fact all about Jesus our lives are all about who he is what he’s done for us and who we are in him as a result you know this this week is I was studying our text this week from the book of Acts for those who maybe just uh visiting with us today uh we’re in the midst of a series uh going through the entire book of Acts uh and as I was reading the text for this morning I really struggled with this passage I knew that what the passage was all about and and how it fits into The Narrative of the book of Acts you know that’s easy enough but what I struggled with was why this mattered why did it matter to us this morning and the more I struggled with it uh the more I finally came to the conclusion it’s really quite simple this passage is all about Jesus
and that’s the message that’s why it’s important for us this morning and so as we open this passage together from acts 9 verses 31 to 43 together May the Holy Spirit break into our spiritual Amnesia this morning open our eyes once again that we may see that our lives are all about Jesus and with that I want to invite you to either open your Bibles or open your bulletins to acts 9 verses 31 to 43 as we work through this passage together for just a few minutes this morning yeah the the early church has been through some really difficult times in the past few chapters and acts Stephen was stoned to death for his faithful proclamation of the Gospel persecution broke out in Jerusalem which scattered the disciples all but the apostles that scattered them out into the countryside Saul’s been ravishing the church imprisoning uh men and women breaking up families even approving of their their execution but then Jesus reached into the life of his greatest enemy we talked about this last week of Saul and he brought him to Faith he brought him to Faith he opened his eyes he showed him that he was persecuting him and now in verse 31 we’re told that the church experienced a time of peace and was being built up in the process and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit we’re told that it multiplied and multiplied after all they’d been through after all the trials after all the struggles you would think when they finally got to experience a moment of peace that they would take some rest right take a break regroup I know that’s what that’s what I’d do but know that that this time of Peace we’re told was actually a time of of multiplication for the church which meant uh that they continued to living in Mission and on Mission with their lives they continued sharing the gospel with those around them because for those who had been transformed by the grace of God through Jesus there was no time to rest they wanted others to know the good news they wanted others to know about God’s love Jesus’s sacrifice for their sins they wanted others to know the joy of Salvation that they had found this is how on fire they were for Jesus this wasn’t time to to take a vacation they were on Mission and that mission wouldn’t be complete until Jesus returned and every knee would bow in every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord of all and they believe at that time that it was coming soon the time was of the essence this is deeply convicting
it’s completely contrary so I know the way I think most days and I think it’s completely contrary to our whole Western way of thinking vacations a time to get away from everything and everyone right arrest from all of our problems a restaurant from all of our burdens how many of us when we go on vacation are looking for people to share our faith with those first Christians believed that Jesus returned it was imminent that it was imminent therefore there was no time to waste people uh people’s Eternal salvation was at stake but you know something’s happened over the past two thousand years as we’ve become especially here in the west a culture that’s more and more at peace
and Jesus hasn’t returned yet and we’ve gotten comfortable in this time of peace we don’t see time as being all that urgent I think anymore and the process and the process we failed to share our faith in Christ with others thinking in the back of our minds there’s plenty of time for that or maybe it’s just someone else will do it we’ve been lulled into this state of Amnesia uh and we need the comforter the Holy Spirit to wake us all up to wake us up all up and to light a fire in our hearts for the gospel but then in verse 32 the narrative in Acts takes a turn it takes a big turn for the past few weeks we’ve been uh we everything has been about Saul everything’s a bit about his story uh his work against Jesus and the church his radical transformation and conversion by the amazing grace of God but for now and for the next few chapters that narrative it changes will come back to Saul uh but we turn away from Saul a bit and we turn our attention back to the Apostle Peter the next few chapters the next few weeks are going to be all about Peter in this time of Peace the church was enjoying Peter left Jerusalem I told you a minute ago if you’ll remember when persecution broke out all the disciples left Jerusalem fled scattered into the countryside but the apostles remained they stayed there during the persecution but now in this time of Peace Peter left Jerusalem
Peter left Jerusalem and began visiting the disciples in the regions outside of Jerusalem he he left to go visit the Believers in Christ and the new Believers that that had sprung up since all those disciples had begun sharing their faith with everywhere that they went and in his journeys Luke’s tells us about two events two events that took place two miraculous events healings that Peter did in these communities of Believers uh and here’s where my struggle really began this week we’ve already talked about the healings the apostles did we were told a lot about them at the beginning of of Acts we were told they did many more even Luke’s already said they’ve done they did these and they did many more healings as well so why did Luke feel the need to include these two healings as he began to tell this new account of what was happening in Peter’s life what was it about uh his life’s about to get really interesting by the way lot’s about to happen for him but what makes these two healings so important that we need to know about them specifically because there were many more there were healings happening the apostles were doing them it was happening all over and we’re told that but we apparently need to know these two
it’s because Luke wants us to focus and why does he want us to focus on these two miraculous healings that they should be part of our regular everyday lives is that the reason because we need to have these kind of healings in our lives every single day that that’s what our expectations should be that we should be able to do the same thing uh that Peter did I don’t think that’s it because in Acts these types of miraculous healings the and raising from the dead at this point in Acts they’ve been reserved for just the work of the Apostles themselves that’s the way that’s the way axes told us the disciples in these towns uh they did not they did not and could not perform them that’s why they called specifically for Peter to come for him to do them they needed Peter to come there’s got to be something more in these accounts that Luke is pointing us to more accurately there was someone more important than that that Luke was pointing us to more important than the Miracles more important than the miraculous raising of the dead because it was without question that these two healings do in fact point us to someone and that someone is not Peter it’s not the people who were healed and light up Peter healed a paralyzed man who had been bedridden for eight years we’re told and Joppa Peter raised a woman Dorcas from the for who a woman who had died both details of these immaculous events point us directly to Jesus they both point us directly to Jesus in healing the paralyzed man Peter said these words Aeneas Jesus heals you rise and make your bed
and Mark 2 we’re told about the healing of a paralytic man that Jesus did in Capernaum Jesus said to him I say to you rise pick up your bed and go home and Joppa Peter was summoned to the deathbed of Dorcas the disciple of Jesus who who had died there and when he got there we’re told that he put everyone out of the room so that it was uh just him and her dead body and the family uh or the yeah and then and then no not the family just him uh and then we’re told this he knelt down and prayed and turning to the body Peter said Tabitha arise Tabitha arise well if we go to mark five Jesus was called to the home of Jairus his daughter had gotten sick and had died when Jesus arrived he put everyone outside the room except the child’s father and mother and those who were with them he took the little girl by the hand and said to her in Aramaic talitha Kumi which means little girl I say to you arise and the little girl got up and she began walking and in Aramaic what Jesus said and what Peter would have said are only different by one letter by one letter and both healings Peter made it clear that the miraculous work was the work of Jesus this was Jesus’s work this was his authority and and telling us these accounts Luke was a specifically and intentionally pointing us to Jesus that’s why he’s telling it to us that Jesus isn’t dead that Jesus is very much alive and that he’s very much still at work and the healing and the restoration and the life of his people what Luke was telling us is and what he was telling them and what he’s telling us this morning is that it’s all about Jesus
and the Jesus who healed the lame and raised the dead is the same Jesus who continues now even after his death and his resurrection and his Ascension to heal the lame to give sight to the Blind and to raise the dead to new and Abundant Life in him you see in our spiritual amnesia we tend to forget our sinful nature continues to battle for control in our lives and to to get us to turn away from Jesus and to focus on ourselves our own wants and needs and desires is that Siri
God are you telling us something
no I don’t think so
all right let’s go back in our spiritual Amnesia we tend to forget if Syria doesn’t help us no our sinful nature it continues to battle for control of Our Lives to get us to turn away from Jesus to turn more inward to turn more to ourselves and our own self-reliance our own wants our own needs our own desires and in the process we forget about Jesus who he is what he did for us who we really are in him you know some of us suffer with spiritual amnesia for years I know there’s many of you who have sons or daughters children or grandchildren who who seemed to have forgotten the faith that they once were taught and have been walking away some months some weeks but all of us suffer with it daily from moment to moment from situation to situation uh something gets said maybe it’s by our spouse and suddenly we go into defense mode and then out of that into full attack mode and we say things that are anything but words of love and respect for one another we suddenly want to hurt those who’ve hurt us either by harsh words or maybe some other kind of passive aggressive behavior those are all moments of spiritual amnesia that’s what’s happening in those moments and the only antidote for our condition is to preach the gospel to ourselves once again that Jesus is the son of God who died for me a sinner and that in him I am a son or a daughter of God I am his beloved child through the gift of his holy spirit friends it really isn’t more complicated than that it’s all about Jesus we forget and we desperately need his help to remember
May the Holy Spirit give us the Blessed gift of remembrance so that we can walk in the fear of the Lord with Jesus and live our lives under his most gracious rule May the Gospel of Jesus free our hearts and our minds from the spiritual Amnesia that so afflicts us amen
The Third Sunday of Lent Information about this week’s service:Readings
- Acts 11:19-30
-
TBD Worship Songs:
-
Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing
- I Want To Know You
- Holy Spirit
- You Are My King (Amazing Love)
- Thank You Lord(9am only)
- Lord Dismiss Us With Your Blessing Join this Sunday's livestream service here in...Day(s)
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Second Sunday of Lent Information about this week’s service:Readings
- Acts 11:1-18
-
TBD Worship Songs:
-
Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee
- Good and Gracious King
- Nothing But the Blood
- Behold The Lamb
- Wonderful Merciful Savior (9am only)
- Blessed Assurance Join this Sunday's livestream service here in...Day(s)
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:
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 10:34-48
Every parent knows not to show favoritism to their children. Favorite children often become arrogant and act as though they are superior to others. In our Acts passage God makes it cleat that He is a Good and loving Father who does not show favoritism to anyone. The danger we face as Christians is thinking that we are God’s favorites and as a result acting like we are superior to others. The Gospel frees us from the bondage of superiority so that we can love the lost the same way God does, who sent His one and only Son into the world to save us.
TranscriptLord, we thank you for these ancient words you come by the power of your Holy Spirit you impart them to our hearing you plant them deep in our hearts that they may grow and bear fruit in our lives and Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen you may be seated you know this this past week in our sonship course we discussed an idea about something that we call spiritual amnesia um and the danger that uh that it that it uh presents to a life of Walking With Jesus Christ as his disciple yeah I think we all know what amnesia is uh but you know for those who who may not it’s a condition in which a person is unable to remember things uh usually due to a head injury or some sort of shock or an illness or just some extreme fatigue it can even happen um and medically there are various levels and and uh degrees of Amnesia a person can forget people a person can forget uh even loved ones in their lives a person can forget past events that that happen to to take place uh now I’m not a doctor and uh unfortunately we do have some doctors here so I may get in trouble uh but even in the most extreme someone with uh someone with amnesia uh still doesn’t lose necessarily awareness of themselves uh they may not remember who they are or or what they’re doing or why they’re there but they don’t lose a total awareness of their own existence they still feel emotion fear anxiety confusion they’re still aware of their own basic needs even which makes Amnesia all the more painful for loved ones who are walking through this difficult time with them you know in our our sonship class we watched a clip uh this past week from The Notebook I know you probably remember that uh the Nicholas Sparks book that they they made into the movie um there’s a really powerful scene in that movie where the husband uh is Carrie has been caring for his wife who’s suffering with dementia and she goes and she goes in and she goes out of these states of remembering him and their great love story right if you’ve seen the movie or read the book uh and the scene we watched uh he sets up a romantic dinner for her and for a moment you know for a moment she remembers and it’s just a beautiful scene she remembers him and their story and it’s absolutely beautiful uh and then they they he puts on her favorite their song uh that you learned about earlier you know when you watch the movie uh and they dance to it but then all of a sudden in the midst of this beautiful love story and this dance together suddenly she forgets she forgets who she is she forgets their story but but she didn’t lose her whole sense of self completely and so she suddenly in that moment was confused and scared and got angry it was a really a powerful and just heartbreaking scene if you can remember it now sorry to all you husbands out there or boyfriends who are now going to have to go home and watch this movie again um but you know it really was a powerful illustration of uh of Amnesia and how painful and destructive it can be and the truth is all of us uh you know we all suffer from bouts of amnesia you know hopefully God willing it’s not of the the physical and mental kind but we suffer regularly with spiritual amnesia times where we forget our first love we forget who we are in him but we don’t lose our whole sense of self uh and because of that we become probably more self-focused more self-centered and in the process we get fearful we get confused angry even in the process spiritual Amnesia is that process and that that condition of forgetting about Jesus forgetting who he is in our lives forgetting what he has done for us forgetting his grace his Mercy his love and in the process forgetting who we really are in him physical Amnesia is a terrible terrible thing but spiritual Amnesia is actually far more dangerous because it causes us to act out of our sinful nature and which actually hurts the people around us it causes us to think life is all about us and so uh we want more than anything else to be right we want more than anything else to be Vindicated we want to be safe we want to be comfortable and anyone who stands in our way feels the wrath of our unmet desires the only antidote for Spiritual amnesia that I know of is the power of the Gospel the only thing that’s powerful enough to break through that that selfish self-centered condition is the work of the Holy Spirit reminding us once again Anew of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to remind us that our lives are in fact all about Jesus our lives are all about who he is what he’s done for us and who we are in him as a result you know this this week is I was studying our text this week from the book of Acts for those who maybe just uh visiting with us today uh we’re in the midst of a series uh going through the entire book of Acts uh and as I was reading the text for this morning I really struggled with this passage I knew that what the passage was all about and and how it fits into The Narrative of the book of Acts you know that’s easy enough but what I struggled with was why this mattered why did it matter to us this morning and the more I struggled with it uh the more I finally came to the conclusion it’s really quite simple this passage is all about Jesus
and that’s the message that’s why it’s important for us this morning and so as we open this passage together from acts 9 verses 31 to 43 together May the Holy Spirit break into our spiritual Amnesia this morning open our eyes once again that we may see that our lives are all about Jesus and with that I want to invite you to either open your Bibles or open your bulletins to acts 9 verses 31 to 43 as we work through this passage together for just a few minutes this morning yeah the the early church has been through some really difficult times in the past few chapters and acts Stephen was stoned to death for his faithful proclamation of the Gospel persecution broke out in Jerusalem which scattered the disciples all but the apostles that scattered them out into the countryside Saul’s been ravishing the church imprisoning uh men and women breaking up families even approving of their their execution but then Jesus reached into the life of his greatest enemy we talked about this last week of Saul and he brought him to Faith he brought him to Faith he opened his eyes he showed him that he was persecuting him and now in verse 31 we’re told that the church experienced a time of peace and was being built up in the process and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit we’re told that it multiplied and multiplied after all they’d been through after all the trials after all the struggles you would think when they finally got to experience a moment of peace that they would take some rest right take a break regroup I know that’s what that’s what I’d do but know that that this time of Peace we’re told was actually a time of of multiplication for the church which meant uh that they continued to living in Mission and on Mission with their lives they continued sharing the gospel with those around them because for those who had been transformed by the grace of God through Jesus there was no time to rest they wanted others to know the good news they wanted others to know about God’s love Jesus’s sacrifice for their sins they wanted others to know the joy of Salvation that they had found this is how on fire they were for Jesus this wasn’t time to to take a vacation they were on Mission and that mission wouldn’t be complete until Jesus returned and every knee would bow in every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord of all and they believe at that time that it was coming soon the time was of the essence this is deeply convicting
it’s completely contrary so I know the way I think most days and I think it’s completely contrary to our whole Western way of thinking vacations a time to get away from everything and everyone right arrest from all of our problems a restaurant from all of our burdens how many of us when we go on vacation are looking for people to share our faith with those first Christians believed that Jesus returned it was imminent that it was imminent therefore there was no time to waste people uh people’s Eternal salvation was at stake but you know something’s happened over the past two thousand years as we’ve become especially here in the west a culture that’s more and more at peace
and Jesus hasn’t returned yet and we’ve gotten comfortable in this time of peace we don’t see time as being all that urgent I think anymore and the process and the process we failed to share our faith in Christ with others thinking in the back of our minds there’s plenty of time for that or maybe it’s just someone else will do it we’ve been lulled into this state of Amnesia uh and we need the comforter the Holy Spirit to wake us all up to wake us up all up and to light a fire in our hearts for the gospel but then in verse 32 the narrative in Acts takes a turn it takes a big turn for the past few weeks we’ve been uh we everything has been about Saul everything’s a bit about his story uh his work against Jesus and the church his radical transformation and conversion by the amazing grace of God but for now and for the next few chapters that narrative it changes will come back to Saul uh but we turn away from Saul a bit and we turn our attention back to the Apostle Peter the next few chapters the next few weeks are going to be all about Peter in this time of Peace the church was enjoying Peter left Jerusalem I told you a minute ago if you’ll remember when persecution broke out all the disciples left Jerusalem fled scattered into the countryside but the apostles remained they stayed there during the persecution but now in this time of Peace Peter left Jerusalem
Peter left Jerusalem and began visiting the disciples in the regions outside of Jerusalem he he left to go visit the Believers in Christ and the new Believers that that had sprung up since all those disciples had begun sharing their faith with everywhere that they went and in his journeys Luke’s tells us about two events two events that took place two miraculous events healings that Peter did in these communities of Believers uh and here’s where my struggle really began this week we’ve already talked about the healings the apostles did we were told a lot about them at the beginning of of Acts we were told they did many more even Luke’s already said they’ve done they did these and they did many more healings as well so why did Luke feel the need to include these two healings as he began to tell this new account of what was happening in Peter’s life what was it about uh his life’s about to get really interesting by the way lot’s about to happen for him but what makes these two healings so important that we need to know about them specifically because there were many more there were healings happening the apostles were doing them it was happening all over and we’re told that but we apparently need to know these two
it’s because Luke wants us to focus and why does he want us to focus on these two miraculous healings that they should be part of our regular everyday lives is that the reason because we need to have these kind of healings in our lives every single day that that’s what our expectations should be that we should be able to do the same thing uh that Peter did I don’t think that’s it because in Acts these types of miraculous healings the and raising from the dead at this point in Acts they’ve been reserved for just the work of the Apostles themselves that’s the way that’s the way axes told us the disciples in these towns uh they did not they did not and could not perform them that’s why they called specifically for Peter to come for him to do them they needed Peter to come there’s got to be something more in these accounts that Luke is pointing us to more accurately there was someone more important than that that Luke was pointing us to more important than the Miracles more important than the miraculous raising of the dead because it was without question that these two healings do in fact point us to someone and that someone is not Peter it’s not the people who were healed and light up Peter healed a paralyzed man who had been bedridden for eight years we’re told and Joppa Peter raised a woman Dorcas from the for who a woman who had died both details of these immaculous events point us directly to Jesus they both point us directly to Jesus in healing the paralyzed man Peter said these words Aeneas Jesus heals you rise and make your bed
and Mark 2 we’re told about the healing of a paralytic man that Jesus did in Capernaum Jesus said to him I say to you rise pick up your bed and go home and Joppa Peter was summoned to the deathbed of Dorcas the disciple of Jesus who who had died there and when he got there we’re told that he put everyone out of the room so that it was uh just him and her dead body and the family uh or the yeah and then and then no not the family just him uh and then we’re told this he knelt down and prayed and turning to the body Peter said Tabitha arise Tabitha arise well if we go to mark five Jesus was called to the home of Jairus his daughter had gotten sick and had died when Jesus arrived he put everyone outside the room except the child’s father and mother and those who were with them he took the little girl by the hand and said to her in Aramaic talitha Kumi which means little girl I say to you arise and the little girl got up and she began walking and in Aramaic what Jesus said and what Peter would have said are only different by one letter by one letter and both healings Peter made it clear that the miraculous work was the work of Jesus this was Jesus’s work this was his authority and and telling us these accounts Luke was a specifically and intentionally pointing us to Jesus that’s why he’s telling it to us that Jesus isn’t dead that Jesus is very much alive and that he’s very much still at work and the healing and the restoration and the life of his people what Luke was telling us is and what he was telling them and what he’s telling us this morning is that it’s all about Jesus
and the Jesus who healed the lame and raised the dead is the same Jesus who continues now even after his death and his resurrection and his Ascension to heal the lame to give sight to the Blind and to raise the dead to new and Abundant Life in him you see in our spiritual amnesia we tend to forget our sinful nature continues to battle for control in our lives and to to get us to turn away from Jesus and to focus on ourselves our own wants and needs and desires is that Siri
God are you telling us something
no I don’t think so
all right let’s go back in our spiritual Amnesia we tend to forget if Syria doesn’t help us no our sinful nature it continues to battle for control of Our Lives to get us to turn away from Jesus to turn more inward to turn more to ourselves and our own self-reliance our own wants our own needs our own desires and in the process we forget about Jesus who he is what he did for us who we really are in him you know some of us suffer with spiritual amnesia for years I know there’s many of you who have sons or daughters children or grandchildren who who seemed to have forgotten the faith that they once were taught and have been walking away some months some weeks but all of us suffer with it daily from moment to moment from situation to situation uh something gets said maybe it’s by our spouse and suddenly we go into defense mode and then out of that into full attack mode and we say things that are anything but words of love and respect for one another we suddenly want to hurt those who’ve hurt us either by harsh words or maybe some other kind of passive aggressive behavior those are all moments of spiritual amnesia that’s what’s happening in those moments and the only antidote for our condition is to preach the gospel to ourselves once again that Jesus is the son of God who died for me a sinner and that in him I am a son or a daughter of God I am his beloved child through the gift of his holy spirit friends it really isn’t more complicated than that it’s all about Jesus we forget and we desperately need his help to remember
May the Holy Spirit give us the Blessed gift of remembrance so that we can walk in the fear of the Lord with Jesus and live our lives under his most gracious rule May the Gospel of Jesus free our hearts and our minds from the spiritual Amnesia that so afflicts us amen
First Sunday of Lent Information about this week’s service:Readings
- Acts 10:34-48
-
Matthew 12:15-21 Worship Songs:
-
Be Thou My Vision
- Ancient of Days
- Jesus Paid It All
- Your Will Be Done
- Be Unto Your Name (9am only)
- All Hail The Power of Jesus Name Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:Worship Bulletin
Click Here to View the Sermon
Watch & listen to every sermon on your favorite podcast software:
Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 9:31-43
We all experience spiritual amnesia at times. The condition of forgetting Jesus, who he is, what he has done for us, and who we are in him. The only antidote for this condition is to hear the Gospel once again, allowing the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds so that we can receive Him once again.
TranscriptLord, we thank you for these ancient words you come by the power of your Holy Spirit you impart them to our hearing you plant them deep in our hearts that they may grow and bear fruit in our lives and Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen you may be seated you know this this past week in our sonship course we discussed an idea about something that we call spiritual amnesia um and the danger that uh that it that it uh presents to a life of Walking With Jesus Christ as his disciple yeah I think we all know what amnesia is uh but you know for those who who may not it’s a condition in which a person is unable to remember things uh usually due to a head injury or some sort of shock or an illness or just some extreme fatigue it can even happen um and medically there are various levels and and uh degrees of Amnesia a person can forget people a person can forget uh even loved ones in their lives a person can forget past events that that happen to to take place uh now I’m not a doctor and uh unfortunately we do have some doctors here so I may get in trouble uh but even in the most extreme someone with uh someone with amnesia uh still doesn’t lose necessarily awareness of themselves uh they may not remember who they are or or what they’re doing or why they’re there but they don’t lose a total awareness of their own existence they still feel emotion fear anxiety confusion they’re still aware of their own basic needs even which makes Amnesia all the more painful for loved ones who are walking through this difficult time with them you know in our our sonship class we watched a clip uh this past week from The Notebook I know you probably remember that uh the Nicholas Sparks book that they they made into the movie um there’s a really powerful scene in that movie where the husband uh is Carrie has been caring for his wife who’s suffering with dementia and she goes and she goes in and she goes out of these states of remembering him and their great love story right if you’ve seen the movie or read the book uh and the scene we watched uh he sets up a romantic dinner for her and for a moment you know for a moment she remembers and it’s just a beautiful scene she remembers him and their story and it’s absolutely beautiful uh and then they they he puts on her favorite their song uh that you learned about earlier you know when you watch the movie uh and they dance to it but then all of a sudden in the midst of this beautiful love story and this dance together suddenly she forgets she forgets who she is she forgets their story but but she didn’t lose her whole sense of self completely and so she suddenly in that moment was confused and scared and got angry it was a really a powerful and just heartbreaking scene if you can remember it now sorry to all you husbands out there or boyfriends who are now going to have to go home and watch this movie again um but you know it really was a powerful illustration of uh of Amnesia and how painful and destructive it can be and the truth is all of us uh you know we all suffer from bouts of amnesia you know hopefully God willing it’s not of the the physical and mental kind but we suffer regularly with spiritual amnesia times where we forget our first love we forget who we are in him but we don’t lose our whole sense of self uh and because of that we become probably more self-focused more self-centered and in the process we get fearful we get confused angry even in the process spiritual Amnesia is that process and that that condition of forgetting about Jesus forgetting who he is in our lives forgetting what he has done for us forgetting his grace his Mercy his love and in the process forgetting who we really are in him physical Amnesia is a terrible terrible thing but spiritual Amnesia is actually far more dangerous because it causes us to act out of our sinful nature and which actually hurts the people around us it causes us to think life is all about us and so uh we want more than anything else to be right we want more than anything else to be Vindicated we want to be safe we want to be comfortable and anyone who stands in our way feels the wrath of our unmet desires the only antidote for Spiritual amnesia that I know of is the power of the Gospel the only thing that’s powerful enough to break through that that selfish self-centered condition is the work of the Holy Spirit reminding us once again Anew of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to remind us that our lives are in fact all about Jesus our lives are all about who he is what he’s done for us and who we are in him as a result you know this this week is I was studying our text this week from the book of Acts for those who maybe just uh visiting with us today uh we’re in the midst of a series uh going through the entire book of Acts uh and as I was reading the text for this morning I really struggled with this passage I knew that what the passage was all about and and how it fits into The Narrative of the book of Acts you know that’s easy enough but what I struggled with was why this mattered why did it matter to us this morning and the more I struggled with it uh the more I finally came to the conclusion it’s really quite simple this passage is all about Jesus
and that’s the message that’s why it’s important for us this morning and so as we open this passage together from acts 9 verses 31 to 43 together May the Holy Spirit break into our spiritual Amnesia this morning open our eyes once again that we may see that our lives are all about Jesus and with that I want to invite you to either open your Bibles or open your bulletins to acts 9 verses 31 to 43 as we work through this passage together for just a few minutes this morning yeah the the early church has been through some really difficult times in the past few chapters and acts Stephen was stoned to death for his faithful proclamation of the Gospel persecution broke out in Jerusalem which scattered the disciples all but the apostles that scattered them out into the countryside Saul’s been ravishing the church imprisoning uh men and women breaking up families even approving of their their execution but then Jesus reached into the life of his greatest enemy we talked about this last week of Saul and he brought him to Faith he brought him to Faith he opened his eyes he showed him that he was persecuting him and now in verse 31 we’re told that the church experienced a time of peace and was being built up in the process and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit we’re told that it multiplied and multiplied after all they’d been through after all the trials after all the struggles you would think when they finally got to experience a moment of peace that they would take some rest right take a break regroup I know that’s what that’s what I’d do but know that that this time of Peace we’re told was actually a time of of multiplication for the church which meant uh that they continued to living in Mission and on Mission with their lives they continued sharing the gospel with those around them because for those who had been transformed by the grace of God through Jesus there was no time to rest they wanted others to know the good news they wanted others to know about God’s love Jesus’s sacrifice for their sins they wanted others to know the joy of Salvation that they had found this is how on fire they were for Jesus this wasn’t time to to take a vacation they were on Mission and that mission wouldn’t be complete until Jesus returned and every knee would bow in every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord of all and they believe at that time that it was coming soon the time was of the essence this is deeply convicting
it’s completely contrary so I know the way I think most days and I think it’s completely contrary to our whole Western way of thinking vacations a time to get away from everything and everyone right arrest from all of our problems a restaurant from all of our burdens how many of us when we go on vacation are looking for people to share our faith with those first Christians believed that Jesus returned it was imminent that it was imminent therefore there was no time to waste people uh people’s Eternal salvation was at stake but you know something’s happened over the past two thousand years as we’ve become especially here in the west a culture that’s more and more at peace
and Jesus hasn’t returned yet and we’ve gotten comfortable in this time of peace we don’t see time as being all that urgent I think anymore and the process and the process we failed to share our faith in Christ with others thinking in the back of our minds there’s plenty of time for that or maybe it’s just someone else will do it we’ve been lulled into this state of Amnesia uh and we need the comforter the Holy Spirit to wake us all up to wake us up all up and to light a fire in our hearts for the gospel but then in verse 32 the narrative in Acts takes a turn it takes a big turn for the past few weeks we’ve been uh we everything has been about Saul everything’s a bit about his story uh his work against Jesus and the church his radical transformation and conversion by the amazing grace of God but for now and for the next few chapters that narrative it changes will come back to Saul uh but we turn away from Saul a bit and we turn our attention back to the Apostle Peter the next few chapters the next few weeks are going to be all about Peter in this time of Peace the church was enjoying Peter left Jerusalem I told you a minute ago if you’ll remember when persecution broke out all the disciples left Jerusalem fled scattered into the countryside but the apostles remained they stayed there during the persecution but now in this time of Peace Peter left Jerusalem
Peter left Jerusalem and began visiting the disciples in the regions outside of Jerusalem he he left to go visit the Believers in Christ and the new Believers that that had sprung up since all those disciples had begun sharing their faith with everywhere that they went and in his journeys Luke’s tells us about two events two events that took place two miraculous events healings that Peter did in these communities of Believers uh and here’s where my struggle really began this week we’ve already talked about the healings the apostles did we were told a lot about them at the beginning of of Acts we were told they did many more even Luke’s already said they’ve done they did these and they did many more healings as well so why did Luke feel the need to include these two healings as he began to tell this new account of what was happening in Peter’s life what was it about uh his life’s about to get really interesting by the way lot’s about to happen for him but what makes these two healings so important that we need to know about them specifically because there were many more there were healings happening the apostles were doing them it was happening all over and we’re told that but we apparently need to know these two
it’s because Luke wants us to focus and why does he want us to focus on these two miraculous healings that they should be part of our regular everyday lives is that the reason because we need to have these kind of healings in our lives every single day that that’s what our expectations should be that we should be able to do the same thing uh that Peter did I don’t think that’s it because in Acts these types of miraculous healings the and raising from the dead at this point in Acts they’ve been reserved for just the work of the Apostles themselves that’s the way that’s the way axes told us the disciples in these towns uh they did not they did not and could not perform them that’s why they called specifically for Peter to come for him to do them they needed Peter to come there’s got to be something more in these accounts that Luke is pointing us to more accurately there was someone more important than that that Luke was pointing us to more important than the Miracles more important than the miraculous raising of the dead because it was without question that these two healings do in fact point us to someone and that someone is not Peter it’s not the people who were healed and light up Peter healed a paralyzed man who had been bedridden for eight years we’re told and Joppa Peter raised a woman Dorcas from the for who a woman who had died both details of these immaculous events point us directly to Jesus they both point us directly to Jesus in healing the paralyzed man Peter said these words Aeneas Jesus heals you rise and make your bed
and Mark 2 we’re told about the healing of a paralytic man that Jesus did in Capernaum Jesus said to him I say to you rise pick up your bed and go home and Joppa Peter was summoned to the deathbed of Dorcas the disciple of Jesus who who had died there and when he got there we’re told that he put everyone out of the room so that it was uh just him and her dead body and the family uh or the yeah and then and then no not the family just him uh and then we’re told this he knelt down and prayed and turning to the body Peter said Tabitha arise Tabitha arise well if we go to mark five Jesus was called to the home of Jairus his daughter had gotten sick and had died when Jesus arrived he put everyone outside the room except the child’s father and mother and those who were with them he took the little girl by the hand and said to her in Aramaic talitha Kumi which means little girl I say to you arise and the little girl got up and she began walking and in Aramaic what Jesus said and what Peter would have said are only different by one letter by one letter and both healings Peter made it clear that the miraculous work was the work of Jesus this was Jesus’s work this was his authority and and telling us these accounts Luke was a specifically and intentionally pointing us to Jesus that’s why he’s telling it to us that Jesus isn’t dead that Jesus is very much alive and that he’s very much still at work and the healing and the restoration and the life of his people what Luke was telling us is and what he was telling them and what he’s telling us this morning is that it’s all about Jesus
and the Jesus who healed the lame and raised the dead is the same Jesus who continues now even after his death and his resurrection and his Ascension to heal the lame to give sight to the Blind and to raise the dead to new and Abundant Life in him you see in our spiritual amnesia we tend to forget our sinful nature continues to battle for control in our lives and to to get us to turn away from Jesus and to focus on ourselves our own wants and needs and desires is that Siri
God are you telling us something
no I don’t think so
all right let’s go back in our spiritual Amnesia we tend to forget if Syria doesn’t help us no our sinful nature it continues to battle for control of Our Lives to get us to turn away from Jesus to turn more inward to turn more to ourselves and our own self-reliance our own wants our own needs our own desires and in the process we forget about Jesus who he is what he did for us who we really are in him you know some of us suffer with spiritual amnesia for years I know there’s many of you who have sons or daughters children or grandchildren who who seemed to have forgotten the faith that they once were taught and have been walking away some months some weeks but all of us suffer with it daily from moment to moment from situation to situation uh something gets said maybe it’s by our spouse and suddenly we go into defense mode and then out of that into full attack mode and we say things that are anything but words of love and respect for one another we suddenly want to hurt those who’ve hurt us either by harsh words or maybe some other kind of passive aggressive behavior those are all moments of spiritual amnesia that’s what’s happening in those moments and the only antidote for our condition is to preach the gospel to ourselves once again that Jesus is the son of God who died for me a sinner and that in him I am a son or a daughter of God I am his beloved child through the gift of his holy spirit friends it really isn’t more complicated than that it’s all about Jesus we forget and we desperately need his help to remember
May the Holy Spirit give us the Blessed gift of remembrance so that we can walk in the fear of the Lord with Jesus and live our lives under his most gracious rule May the Gospel of Jesus free our hearts and our minds from the spiritual Amnesia that so afflicts us amen
Last Sunday of Epiphany Information about this week’s service:Readings:
- Acts 10:1-33
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Matthew 12:15-21 Worship Songs:
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Praise To The Lord The Almighty
- In Christ Alone
- I Surrender All
- Praise The Father Praise The Son
- It Is Well With My Soul Join this Sunday's livestream service here in...Day(s)
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 9:31-43
We all experience spiritual amnesia at times. The condition of forgetting Jesus, who he is, what he has done for us, and who we are in him. The only antidote for this condition is to hear the Gospel once again, allowing the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds so that we can receive Him once again.
TranscriptLord, we thank you for these ancient words you come by the power of your Holy Spirit you impart them to our hearing you plant them deep in our hearts that they may grow and bear fruit in our lives and Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen you may be seated you know this this past week in our sonship course we discussed an idea about something that we call spiritual amnesia um and the danger that uh that it that it uh presents to a life of Walking With Jesus Christ as his disciple yeah I think we all know what amnesia is uh but you know for those who who may not it’s a condition in which a person is unable to remember things uh usually due to a head injury or some sort of shock or an illness or just some extreme fatigue it can even happen um and medically there are various levels and and uh degrees of Amnesia a person can forget people a person can forget uh even loved ones in their lives a person can forget past events that that happen to to take place uh now I’m not a doctor and uh unfortunately we do have some doctors here so I may get in trouble uh but even in the most extreme someone with uh someone with amnesia uh still doesn’t lose necessarily awareness of themselves uh they may not remember who they are or or what they’re doing or why they’re there but they don’t lose a total awareness of their own existence they still feel emotion fear anxiety confusion they’re still aware of their own basic needs even which makes Amnesia all the more painful for loved ones who are walking through this difficult time with them you know in our our sonship class we watched a clip uh this past week from The Notebook I know you probably remember that uh the Nicholas Sparks book that they they made into the movie um there’s a really powerful scene in that movie where the husband uh is Carrie has been caring for his wife who’s suffering with dementia and she goes and she goes in and she goes out of these states of remembering him and their great love story right if you’ve seen the movie or read the book uh and the scene we watched uh he sets up a romantic dinner for her and for a moment you know for a moment she remembers and it’s just a beautiful scene she remembers him and their story and it’s absolutely beautiful uh and then they they he puts on her favorite their song uh that you learned about earlier you know when you watch the movie uh and they dance to it but then all of a sudden in the midst of this beautiful love story and this dance together suddenly she forgets she forgets who she is she forgets their story but but she didn’t lose her whole sense of self completely and so she suddenly in that moment was confused and scared and got angry it was a really a powerful and just heartbreaking scene if you can remember it now sorry to all you husbands out there or boyfriends who are now going to have to go home and watch this movie again um but you know it really was a powerful illustration of uh of Amnesia and how painful and destructive it can be and the truth is all of us uh you know we all suffer from bouts of amnesia you know hopefully God willing it’s not of the the physical and mental kind but we suffer regularly with spiritual amnesia times where we forget our first love we forget who we are in him but we don’t lose our whole sense of self uh and because of that we become probably more self-focused more self-centered and in the process we get fearful we get confused angry even in the process spiritual Amnesia is that process and that that condition of forgetting about Jesus forgetting who he is in our lives forgetting what he has done for us forgetting his grace his Mercy his love and in the process forgetting who we really are in him physical Amnesia is a terrible terrible thing but spiritual Amnesia is actually far more dangerous because it causes us to act out of our sinful nature and which actually hurts the people around us it causes us to think life is all about us and so uh we want more than anything else to be right we want more than anything else to be Vindicated we want to be safe we want to be comfortable and anyone who stands in our way feels the wrath of our unmet desires the only antidote for Spiritual amnesia that I know of is the power of the Gospel the only thing that’s powerful enough to break through that that selfish self-centered condition is the work of the Holy Spirit reminding us once again Anew of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to remind us that our lives are in fact all about Jesus our lives are all about who he is what he’s done for us and who we are in him as a result you know this this week is I was studying our text this week from the book of Acts for those who maybe just uh visiting with us today uh we’re in the midst of a series uh going through the entire book of Acts uh and as I was reading the text for this morning I really struggled with this passage I knew that what the passage was all about and and how it fits into The Narrative of the book of Acts you know that’s easy enough but what I struggled with was why this mattered why did it matter to us this morning and the more I struggled with it uh the more I finally came to the conclusion it’s really quite simple this passage is all about Jesus
and that’s the message that’s why it’s important for us this morning and so as we open this passage together from acts 9 verses 31 to 43 together May the Holy Spirit break into our spiritual Amnesia this morning open our eyes once again that we may see that our lives are all about Jesus and with that I want to invite you to either open your Bibles or open your bulletins to acts 9 verses 31 to 43 as we work through this passage together for just a few minutes this morning yeah the the early church has been through some really difficult times in the past few chapters and acts Stephen was stoned to death for his faithful proclamation of the Gospel persecution broke out in Jerusalem which scattered the disciples all but the apostles that scattered them out into the countryside Saul’s been ravishing the church imprisoning uh men and women breaking up families even approving of their their execution but then Jesus reached into the life of his greatest enemy we talked about this last week of Saul and he brought him to Faith he brought him to Faith he opened his eyes he showed him that he was persecuting him and now in verse 31 we’re told that the church experienced a time of peace and was being built up in the process and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit we’re told that it multiplied and multiplied after all they’d been through after all the trials after all the struggles you would think when they finally got to experience a moment of peace that they would take some rest right take a break regroup I know that’s what that’s what I’d do but know that that this time of Peace we’re told was actually a time of of multiplication for the church which meant uh that they continued to living in Mission and on Mission with their lives they continued sharing the gospel with those around them because for those who had been transformed by the grace of God through Jesus there was no time to rest they wanted others to know the good news they wanted others to know about God’s love Jesus’s sacrifice for their sins they wanted others to know the joy of Salvation that they had found this is how on fire they were for Jesus this wasn’t time to to take a vacation they were on Mission and that mission wouldn’t be complete until Jesus returned and every knee would bow in every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord of all and they believe at that time that it was coming soon the time was of the essence this is deeply convicting
it’s completely contrary so I know the way I think most days and I think it’s completely contrary to our whole Western way of thinking vacations a time to get away from everything and everyone right arrest from all of our problems a restaurant from all of our burdens how many of us when we go on vacation are looking for people to share our faith with those first Christians believed that Jesus returned it was imminent that it was imminent therefore there was no time to waste people uh people’s Eternal salvation was at stake but you know something’s happened over the past two thousand years as we’ve become especially here in the west a culture that’s more and more at peace
and Jesus hasn’t returned yet and we’ve gotten comfortable in this time of peace we don’t see time as being all that urgent I think anymore and the process and the process we failed to share our faith in Christ with others thinking in the back of our minds there’s plenty of time for that or maybe it’s just someone else will do it we’ve been lulled into this state of Amnesia uh and we need the comforter the Holy Spirit to wake us all up to wake us up all up and to light a fire in our hearts for the gospel but then in verse 32 the narrative in Acts takes a turn it takes a big turn for the past few weeks we’ve been uh we everything has been about Saul everything’s a bit about his story uh his work against Jesus and the church his radical transformation and conversion by the amazing grace of God but for now and for the next few chapters that narrative it changes will come back to Saul uh but we turn away from Saul a bit and we turn our attention back to the Apostle Peter the next few chapters the next few weeks are going to be all about Peter in this time of Peace the church was enjoying Peter left Jerusalem I told you a minute ago if you’ll remember when persecution broke out all the disciples left Jerusalem fled scattered into the countryside but the apostles remained they stayed there during the persecution but now in this time of Peace Peter left Jerusalem
Peter left Jerusalem and began visiting the disciples in the regions outside of Jerusalem he he left to go visit the Believers in Christ and the new Believers that that had sprung up since all those disciples had begun sharing their faith with everywhere that they went and in his journeys Luke’s tells us about two events two events that took place two miraculous events healings that Peter did in these communities of Believers uh and here’s where my struggle really began this week we’ve already talked about the healings the apostles did we were told a lot about them at the beginning of of Acts we were told they did many more even Luke’s already said they’ve done they did these and they did many more healings as well so why did Luke feel the need to include these two healings as he began to tell this new account of what was happening in Peter’s life what was it about uh his life’s about to get really interesting by the way lot’s about to happen for him but what makes these two healings so important that we need to know about them specifically because there were many more there were healings happening the apostles were doing them it was happening all over and we’re told that but we apparently need to know these two
it’s because Luke wants us to focus and why does he want us to focus on these two miraculous healings that they should be part of our regular everyday lives is that the reason because we need to have these kind of healings in our lives every single day that that’s what our expectations should be that we should be able to do the same thing uh that Peter did I don’t think that’s it because in Acts these types of miraculous healings the and raising from the dead at this point in Acts they’ve been reserved for just the work of the Apostles themselves that’s the way that’s the way axes told us the disciples in these towns uh they did not they did not and could not perform them that’s why they called specifically for Peter to come for him to do them they needed Peter to come there’s got to be something more in these accounts that Luke is pointing us to more accurately there was someone more important than that that Luke was pointing us to more important than the Miracles more important than the miraculous raising of the dead because it was without question that these two healings do in fact point us to someone and that someone is not Peter it’s not the people who were healed and light up Peter healed a paralyzed man who had been bedridden for eight years we’re told and Joppa Peter raised a woman Dorcas from the for who a woman who had died both details of these immaculous events point us directly to Jesus they both point us directly to Jesus in healing the paralyzed man Peter said these words Aeneas Jesus heals you rise and make your bed
and Mark 2 we’re told about the healing of a paralytic man that Jesus did in Capernaum Jesus said to him I say to you rise pick up your bed and go home and Joppa Peter was summoned to the deathbed of Dorcas the disciple of Jesus who who had died there and when he got there we’re told that he put everyone out of the room so that it was uh just him and her dead body and the family uh or the yeah and then and then no not the family just him uh and then we’re told this he knelt down and prayed and turning to the body Peter said Tabitha arise Tabitha arise well if we go to mark five Jesus was called to the home of Jairus his daughter had gotten sick and had died when Jesus arrived he put everyone outside the room except the child’s father and mother and those who were with them he took the little girl by the hand and said to her in Aramaic talitha Kumi which means little girl I say to you arise and the little girl got up and she began walking and in Aramaic what Jesus said and what Peter would have said are only different by one letter by one letter and both healings Peter made it clear that the miraculous work was the work of Jesus this was Jesus’s work this was his authority and and telling us these accounts Luke was a specifically and intentionally pointing us to Jesus that’s why he’s telling it to us that Jesus isn’t dead that Jesus is very much alive and that he’s very much still at work and the healing and the restoration and the life of his people what Luke was telling us is and what he was telling them and what he’s telling us this morning is that it’s all about Jesus
and the Jesus who healed the lame and raised the dead is the same Jesus who continues now even after his death and his resurrection and his Ascension to heal the lame to give sight to the Blind and to raise the dead to new and Abundant Life in him you see in our spiritual amnesia we tend to forget our sinful nature continues to battle for control in our lives and to to get us to turn away from Jesus and to focus on ourselves our own wants and needs and desires is that Siri
God are you telling us something
no I don’t think so
all right let’s go back in our spiritual Amnesia we tend to forget if Syria doesn’t help us no our sinful nature it continues to battle for control of Our Lives to get us to turn away from Jesus to turn more inward to turn more to ourselves and our own self-reliance our own wants our own needs our own desires and in the process we forget about Jesus who he is what he did for us who we really are in him you know some of us suffer with spiritual amnesia for years I know there’s many of you who have sons or daughters children or grandchildren who who seemed to have forgotten the faith that they once were taught and have been walking away some months some weeks but all of us suffer with it daily from moment to moment from situation to situation uh something gets said maybe it’s by our spouse and suddenly we go into defense mode and then out of that into full attack mode and we say things that are anything but words of love and respect for one another we suddenly want to hurt those who’ve hurt us either by harsh words or maybe some other kind of passive aggressive behavior those are all moments of spiritual amnesia that’s what’s happening in those moments and the only antidote for our condition is to preach the gospel to ourselves once again that Jesus is the son of God who died for me a sinner and that in him I am a son or a daughter of God I am his beloved child through the gift of his holy spirit friends it really isn’t more complicated than that it’s all about Jesus we forget and we desperately need his help to remember
May the Holy Spirit give us the Blessed gift of remembrance so that we can walk in the fear of the Lord with Jesus and live our lives under his most gracious rule May the Gospel of Jesus free our hearts and our minds from the spiritual Amnesia that so afflicts us amen
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Sixth Sunday of Epiphany Information about this week’s service:Readings:
- Acts 9:31-43
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John 11:17-27 Worship Songs:
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Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing
- I Will Trust My Saviour Jesus
- My Faith Looks Up To Thee
- Christ Our Hope In Life And Death
- Great Is Thy Faithfulness Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:Worship Bulletin
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor Chuck Holiday
Scripture: Acts 9:19-31
Paul’s witness was bold and compelling because his truth telling came with the love and humility of brokenness. He always saw himself as the biggest sinner in the room.
TranscriptIf you have a Bible you can open back up to Acts chapter 9. and it’s so good to see you all again this morning, I wonder what it means for the for the salt in our lives the we who are the salt of the of the earth I wonder what it means for us to lose our taste to lose the tastiness of the salt uh Jesus said that can happen when the salt loses its taste it’s worthless and I think I’m wondering about our witness for Christ I wonder what it would look like and I think immediately our our um you know our minds go to the immorality of the church and you know we we don’t look any different than the world you know we’re just engulfed in the same sins as our neighbors and you know that what Jesus says in mind is purifying his church so that we can be a better witness for Christ now what if it’s our humility that we’ve lost it’s an interesting thing because Jesus said when they see your good works who are they going to glorify your father in Heaven there’s a difference between living our lives in a righteous way that draws attention to how good we are and how Superior we are to those around us versus living our lives in a way of loving people that makes us attractive what would it look like for the church to become tasty to lost people I think it would require Brokenness and humility along with our loving acts of service this is you know the Apostle Paul was a Street Preacher he was Fearless he was bold this is all over the passage we’re reading today and it’s all over the rest of the book of Acts which is mostly about the Apostle Paul he was a bold Fearless courageous
Street Preacher
how do you like Street Preachers
if you’re like me you run from them you try to avoid eye contact because you know we’re brothers and we we should be somehow glad for what they’re doing and supportive but man I put my head down and I I go the other way right so here’s the question how could Paul be a bold courageous Street Preacher who had an audience
why did people stay to listen
instead of running like he had the plague what was attractive about his street preaching
you know it was this was instinctive for Paul it says he got converted on the road to Damascus he was going to put these people in prison and he met Jesus and it says at once he started preaching Jesus is the son of God
he was preaching out of his own amazement
it was two it was two things that made him attractive one was his his bold clear articulation of the Gospel he was a very knowledgeable learned Bible student who unders when he saw it he saw it you know and he couldn’t unsee it he went from thinking that Jesus was an imposter
some guy seeking the attention of the world a blasphemer to understanding oh my goodness he is the son of God and all of a sudden he saw Jesus everywhere in the pages of scripture and he he just couldn’t unsee it
you know some of you can remember your early days becoming Christians you know you you had that same I’ve got to tell people I I just have to tell people and and most of you I’ve talked to and I hear this story a lot didn’t go so well didn’t go so well um why
because Paul
never forgot that Christ found him when he was an enemy
Paul knew that God didn’t find him because they were friends because he had been such a good person and he had been so diligently seeking for God Paul says I was an enemy when God found me and he and he never forgot that he was a truth teller and yet many listened and they listened I think his listeners found these two things compelling one was his knowledge and his logic that he was able to prove that Jesus was the son of God from the scriptures I mean he he knew what he was talking about he was a very intelligent articulate knowledgeable guy and and that was compelling but but that alone doesn’t win the win win the war it was that combined with verse 21 his testimony they all knew who he was yesterday and he’s somebody different today and they couldn’t deny it they knew what this guy was
and there was a sense in which wow if God can save him he could save anybody he could save me
it wasn’t just his testimony now this is the trick it wasn’t just his testimony of what he was a day before he got converted but but because a lot of us start that way but how did he hold on to that that humility that Brokenness that that knowing who he really was how did he hold on to that as he become became a leader of the Christian the leader of the Christian church so we want to we want to look at that today because because Paul speaks with the humility of a broken man who knows how wrong he has been when you speak of Jesus do you speak with that energy
I think most of the time we find ourselves speaking with the energy of people who know more than the person we’re talking to the energy is one of superiority of of speaking from the higher place oh yeah I once thought like you but now I understand you know people can they’re not just hearing our words they’re they’re feeling the tone they’re feeling the energy of our hearts whether we’re speaking down to them or whether we’re speaking as fellow sinners traveling the same road of broken humility
Paul spoke with the humility of a broken man who who knows how wrong he has been not the arrogance the one who knows he’s right keenly aware of how much harm he had done he had put men and women innocent men and women in prison he had dragged them out of their homes in front of their children and put them in jail and when when the vote was cast whether we put them to death or not he voted for death
he had the blood of many innocent people on his hands Penny and he spoke as one who knew that about himself I am capable of doing that much harm that’s who I am and whether he said it or whether he just felt it people could feel the energy it was truth in love it was gospel boldness it wasn’t human boldness it wasn’t human courage it was gospel boldness and my friends that’s what we need right
you know I feel like we’re gonna it’s gonna get real real uncomfortable here for a few minutes so hang in there with me okay but you know we’ve been preaching on on the book of Acts for five months now the church on Mission David’s been doing a wonderful job leading his son Sunday by Sunday the church on Mission now my question is it’s just simple how are you doing it’s been five months now we’ve been talking about this every Sunday
God didn’t leave us here to do church he left the church here to do mission how are you doing I mean can we just have a reality check how are we doing you know it’s the most dangerous thing in the world to preach and hear sermons that don’t change us
if it doesn’t change us it hardens us
how is it changing us
well I’m going to tell you it hasn’t changed me much
I’ll be the first Lord help me and I’ve preached some of the sermons you think it’s convicting for you to to listen to a sermon and not change
try preaching the sermon and not changing
James says it’s not a good thing for a man who looks in the mirror and walks away and forgets what he saw
okay so I don’t I’m not gonna now we could go two ways right now right I could Beach up for the next 20 minutes make you feel worse than you already feel or we could ask the question what prevents us what keeps us from doing what we know we’re supposed to do and what we want to do what prevents us
can I just offer a few things you may have more to your list but I think it’s worth us pausing right now and just asking that question honestly what what prevents me from reaching out to my neighbor what prevents me from talking to the guy at work what prevents me what stops me well at the top of my list probably there’s two there’s two there’s two categories to this as I think this through for myself one of the sins of the Flesh and the other are the sins of spiritual Pride okay let’s talk about the sins of the flesh first the top of top of the list for me in my mind this week was fear okay afraid of what people think of me is that fit for anybody I don’t want to look like that Street Preacher okay fear of what people will think of us fear of being disliked or excluded you know I don’t want my neighbors to go inside when they see me walk out to water my lawn right that hurts if you’re of disappointment and failure I mean I I am really really resistant to doing things that might not work I mean I I can work hard if I feel like success is at the end of the path but boy I I really have a hard time sticking with something that I don’t think is going to go anywhere there’s not going to be a return and I can get overwhelmed with discouragement with trying to think that God’s actually going to use my witness to do something to make a difference and what’s worse than that is people who I think got saved to turn out to fall away and I was disillusioned I was I was tricked I was excited I had I had the wild party for my loss neighbors and and then you know a month later they don’t want to talk to me I was like well what happened I hate this appointment I’m afraid of disappointment uh I’ll tell you another one I’m afraid of doing it poorly
you know and I say that you know as one who spent you know most of my life learning how to do it I I probably know more than most of you do about the right way to do it the right things to say not because I’m smarter but I’ve I’ve just been my job and I still am afraid that I’m going to do it poorly you know you know a lot of times I say to husbands and if we’re talking about what it would look like for them to love their families better you know this is my favorite phrase I say look guys if it’s worth doing it’s worth doing poorly
you just gotta do it the best you can do and you know you can’t do it right but the worst thing you can do is to do nothing
my friends I’d say that’s true about our witness for Christ if it’s worth doing it is worth doing poorly just do what you can do and you’ll get better Dwight Moody who is a great evangelist back in the last century early part of the last century one time he was uh you know talking about his plan of evangelism and training people to do evangelism and a lady confronted him afterwards and said well you know I just don’t like your plan I you know I just feel like there’s a better way to do it and you know it feels too canned and you know and he said well I’m not crazy about my plan either what’s your plan I said well I don’t I don’t have a plan and he said I like my plan better than I like your plan
okay fear if okay fears at the top of my list of why why I don’t do it the second one is is a hard one it’s in indifference it’s the sin of indifference at the end of the day can you admit that the plight of the Lost just doesn’t really keep you awake at night the fact that there are lost souls in your life in isolation from God’s loving friendship they have no sense of his purpose for their lives they’re they’re isolated from from The Father’s Love and purpose and and I’m and I can just get about my day without it really overwhelming me
my indifference to people who are dying without hope
but here’s even more my indifference to God’s passion to save them the people that you and I are indifferent to God’s heart is breaking for them
and he’s asking us to say speak to them indifference indifference to God’s glory
you know John Piper says evangelism exists because worship doesn’t
can you can you envision the day when the knowledge of the Lord will cover the Earth like the waters cover the sea it’s Isaiah’s promise
well how indifferent can we be to the fact that the worship of of the Lord is not worldwide yet God’s glory is being diminished it’s it’s and and we’re okay with God’s glory being haphazard in the world partial when his desire is forth to cover the Earth that all men will know what a great God he is a good and gracious King that people will know he’s a good and gracious King we can be indifferent to that I’ll add you a third one okay fear indifference this was mayor harder for you to to find in your heart but I it might be there it is in mine bitterness bitterness you know I have neighbors that I just really am bitter toward I don’t like them
I just don’t like them they’re they’re offensive they’re rude they seem disinterested in me they’ve yelled at my grandkids you know bitterness
we don’t like the bitters that’s a harsh word but you know maybe you can find someplace in your heart where you do just kind of feel some sort of way towards some people in your life you really don’t care that much if they find Jesus but here’s here’s a harder one bitterness against God
what
are you aware of how God has disappointed you
where he hasn’t answered the prayers that you feel entitled for him to answer are you aware of that pardon your heart sometimes you have to dig deep to find that place of bitterness toward God but my friends the Bible says it’s true of all of us we are enemies of God
there is a place of entitlement in our hearts that feels that we didn’t get what we deserved and we got garbage to deal with that we did not deserve at all that somehow it found its way to our front door and we didn’t do anything to deserve this well wherever bitterness hides itself in our hearts bitterness towards God you know where it’s going to show up
in our refusal to do what he asks us to do
that’s that’s I’m not going to spend more time on that you might not be ready to hear that but the Bible says that’s the truth let me give you one more reason it’s I find I mean I can find it sometimes in my heart it’s that’s probably the hardest one to admit okay but let me give you the fourth one our addictions keep us from being about the father’s business our addictions they’ve captured us and they’ve numbed us drinking drugs pornography dining out sports and recreation I mean it can be bad things and good things but what are the things that have captivated you TV shopping I mean it can be lots of things uh how do you settle yourself before you get to bed at night how do you settle yourself
how do you deal with your anxieties how do you deal with your sense of of pain how do you numb yourself to the to the painful parts of your existence our addictions can creep in and they can just completely numb us from being and doing what we would want to do they take away our life and when they take away our life they take away our desire to tell people about Jesus we’ve become too numb that’s a that’s a tough list okay and you might find more it’s not exhaustive those are just the ones that came to me as I looked at my own heart this week but those aren’t even the tough ones okay if we stop there I I you know I could say a few more words and we could all go out here and be really bad I mean feel terrible about ourselves and ask God for mercy and resolve to go do better this week my friends that would be the worst thing I could do to you because some of you would do better this week
some of you would be more discouraged next week because you didn’t couldn’t do anything and some of you would go out and feel pretty darn good about yourselves because you changed and then you’re stuck with the worst sin of all the sin of spiritual Pride my friends the worst thing we could do as a church is resolve to be better Witnesses right now that would be a catastrophe
what are the sins of spiritual Pride that ruin our witness for Jesus
I mean it’s terrible that we don’t do it but what’s even worse is how we do it when we do it
when we do it from a place of spiritual Pride
spiritual Pride just means self-reliance and self-exaltation that comes along with spiritual Reliance First the first on my list is our obsession with Counting
when we need to know how are we doing that is the sin of spiritual Pride we count members in our churches we we count the money in our budget we count the number of churches we plant um accounting is a horrible sin now there’s a place to count but but um the worst sin David committed in the Old Testament wasn’t his murder and it wasn’t his adultery it was the sin of counting at the end of his life it was the sin of counting
our obsession with buildings and programs that make us feel better about how we’re doing and and I’m absolutely in favor of our building program you know I 100 percent believe it’s what God wants us to do but my friends it’s never going to be about the building it’s about what happens in the building it’s about what happens because we have a building because we have programs
and and you know the sin of spiritual pride is ultimately about our dedication to duty and obedience
if we if we if we if we deal with the conviction of the holy spirit for our lack of witnessing with a resolve to do better and we do it because God has asked us to do it and because he’s called us to do it
you know what we’re going to be
we’re going to be the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23. that Jesus spoke to and let me just read it to you because it’s pretty convicting at least you know this Pharisee finds it convicting woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees you Hypocrites you travel over land and sea to win a single convert and when he becomes one you make him twice as much a son of Hell As You Are
I said well that’s the Jews that’s not Christians my friends this is religious people
this is God’s word to religious people he said you people who don’t care about the Lost you’re not doing well but he said but let me talk to you who’ve given your life to winning the Lost and feel better about yourselves because you do
feel Superior because you do feel like now you’re a friend of God because you’re doing what he asked you to do let me talk to you for a minute he said you are infecting everybody you reach with the sin of spiritual Pride that is the sin that will keep them from heaven not the sin that will bring them in
so my friends you know JD Salinger this this is at the heart of why people won’t listen to us why won’t people listen to the Street Preacher when they listen to the Apostle Paul why JD Salinger in in Franny and Zoe says as a simple matter of logic there’s no difference at all that I can see between the man who’s greedy for material treasure or even intellectual treasure in the man who’s greedy for Spiritual treasure as you say Treasures treasure and it seems to me that 90 of all the world-hating saints in history were just as acquisitive and unattractive basically as the rest of us
do you get what he’s saying he’s saying Christians who are determined to be Godly
are unattractive people
who are trying to accumulate spiritual treasure
are very unattractive people because they’re not loving people what they’re loving is their own reputations their own view of themselves as being righteous good people
and it’s unattractive because it’s full of pride and a sense of superiority so my friends what are we to do what are we to do
pray
pray and our prayers need to start with confession you know we’re going to pray in a few minutes and one of the things we’re going to pray is we’re going to ask God to forgive us for the things that we’ve done that we ought not to have done and then we’re going to pray and ask God to forgive us for the things that we have not done that we ought to have done so for today can you think of anything that you ought to have done that you haven’t done you know let’s let the Holy Spirit hear our help us pray that prayer Lord we haven’t witnessed we haven’t cared we’ve been blocked by fear we’ve been blocked by indifference we’ve been blocked by our addictions
it starts with prayer not it doesn’t start with praying for the lost people around us it starts with praying confessions of Our Own Lord we are the enemies of Christ and then it’s praying for our neighbor praying we don’t you don’t know what to do I don’t know what to do but it starts with praying and it starts God give me a love for the people I don’t love
and then praying for ourselves in our church praying that God would restore to our hearts what’s amazing about Grace you know it’s interesting in in Acts chapter 7 when Peter Paul is there when they’re stoning Stephen in in Stephen gets his vision of Jesus standing from his throne you know Jesus is saying I’m going to do something Stephen I’m going to do something and and Saul’s there and then the next thing we say about Saul is God meets him on the road Jesus says Saul why are you persecuting me and Saul gets converted how does Jesus deal with his enemies
Saul was the most hated despised feared man in Palestine how does Jesus deal with his enemies he makes them his friends
you know when we when we see Jesus getting off his throne to do something we would expect him to wipe soft from the face of the Earth
Jesus said no I have another plan I’m going to save him I’m going to forgive him of all his sins
and I’m going to give him a new life now contrast how Jesus treats his enemies with how the disciples treated Saul when they found out he got saved in chapter 9 verse 26 when when Saul finally got to Jerusalem what did the disciples do they avoided him they were all afraid of him not believing that he really was a disciple
they they were afraid for good reason and they avoided him and they didn’t believe that God could save him they treated them the same way we treat our neighbors the ones we don’t like the ones who are despicable the ones who are mean and hateful
God says I I still love him
and I’m going to save him Paul never forgot that he was an enemy Romans 5 10 he says for when we were enemies Christ died for us Saul of Tarsus the most feared-hated man in Palestine became a friend of God it’s my friends as as we close who do you hate
because that might be the one that God has called you to who do you hate so I don’t hate anybody I’ve got nothing but love in my heart for the world okay let me ask it a different way who do you avoid
who who is it that if their kid ended up in jail something in your heart would kind of find a little bit of pleasure in that or if they won the lottery you’d be a little disappointed who’s that person you know when you’re walking your dog and you see him you know you go the other way who’s that person maybe that’s the one maybe that’s the one that God’s called you to so my friends will you will you um will you join me in just praying that God will forgive us and that God will help us and God will remind us that we were the enemies that God found and rescued and he’s asked us to help rescue others Lord help us amen
Fifth Sunday of EpiphanyInformation about this week’s service:Readings:
- Acts 9:23-31
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Matthew 5:13-16 Worship Songs:
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Holy Holy Holy
- Good and Gracious King
- Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
- This is Our Freedom
- Lift High the Cross Join this Sunday's livestream service here in...Day(s)
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Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:Worship Bulletin
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 9:1-22
The conversion of Saul was the product of the the inward working of the Holy Spirit long before his experience on the road to Damascus. Our journey to faith was the inward work of the Holy Spirit long before we ever made a decision for Christ. The conversion of Saul teaches us that there are no hopeless people in the world who cannot find redemption in Jesus Christ.
TranscriptSo I have to tell you uh here it says homily and I’m hoping most of you don’t even know what homily means um uh in Anglican tradition homily means usually just a shorter sermon uh but I make no claims to that this was a misprint um we’ll go on as the as the Lord leads yeah yeah today is an exciting day at our annual meeting of the church it’s always a fun and important time for the the church to gather together to hear about the past year to make important decisions about the leadership for our Vestry focus on what the Lord’s calling us to in 2023 it’s a time to celebrate What the Lord Has Done in and through his church and his time for us to put our faith in what he’s calling us to in the future and so I hope you’ll be able to stick around after this service of morning prayers we begin that meeting at 10 o’clock but before we even get to the annual meeting it’s important to ground ourselves and Jesus is Calling to his church we are the body of Christ in this world we’ve been called by Jesus to continue his mission to Proclaim that the kingdom of God is here that Jesus is King over all Heaven and Earth We’re called to invite people to repent and return to Jesus to a relationship with him by sharing how Jesus rules with grace and truth and how that has transformed our hearts and Minds filling us with a hope and a joy and a love in ways that we could never expect in miraculous ways we are a church on a mission and that’s what this series and the book of Acts has been all about that we began back in uh in the fall of 2022. we’ve learned so much about the mission we’re on as we’ve studied these first Believers of the church everyone who may be with us for the first time we’re in the midst of this series uh we’ve heard how Jesus after his resurrection for 40 days met with his disciples and he opened their hearts and their minds and they might understand the scriptures and how all the scriptures have been fulfilled by him we’ve heard about the outpouring of the power that Came Upon uh the disciples on Pentecost says the holy spirit filled them with a boldness and a courage to to share the good news of Jesus Christ with those who were gathered there in Jerusalem we’ve heard about the healing power of the Gospel that it’s been at work in people’s lives it’s accompanied the gospel Proclamation we’ve learned of the dangers of spiritual pride in the mission that we’re on that being a follower of Jesus doesn’t mean that we’re always going to be safe our spiritual forefathers and mothers experience persecution for their faith in Jesus even death as we’ve learned and read about our first martyr Stephen but at the same time we’ve learned that through it all that Jesus continues to Reign Over All the persecution and martyrdom didn’t snuff out the mission of the church at all it only served to actually spread the gospel further out into the world how Philip a man who was so transformed by the gospel that he went to Samaria he went to the most hated people group that the Jews could imagine and he preached the good news of Jesus Christ to them and we’re told they received it with joy then how God called him South we looked at last week to share the gospel of Hope with a desolate Ethiopian eunuch who was desperately searching for Hope and meaning and purpose in his life and through that encounter we learned that in Jesus Christ by faith than him alone there’s nothing that prevents us from coming to God and that message that began last week it continues this morning as we now focus our attention on a man who by every conceivable notion was the last person who would ever we’d ever believe should or could or would hear the Gospel of Jesus and actually receive it in his own life acts 9 verses 1 through 22 teach us that there are no lost causes there are no hopeless people in this world there is no one as one of our liturgical prayers that we’ll pray in this morning prayer service later that’s beyond the saving reach of our loving saviors embrace this morning we turn our attention to Saul you know we were first introduced to Saul a couple of weeks ago in Acts 7 during the stoning of Stephen we were told and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul and then we were told in Acts 8 how Saul approved of Stephen’s execution and the Soul was ravaging the church and entering house at their house he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison The Saul was not a good dude he was without a doubt an enemy to all Christians and he was an enemy to Jesus himself but who exactly was this guy uh what what do we know about him well we know from the book of Acts and from his letters uh quite a bit about him uh we know that he was born in the city of Tarsus he was educated the feed of Gamaliel in the city of Jerusalem Gamaliel was a well-respected uh Pharisee and a member of the Jewish Council in Jerusalem so he was kind of the best of the best and Saul’s uh and so Saul learned under him and studied under him Saul’s own account of his life to this point uh in Acts 9 he was a PR he told he was a persecutor of Christians he was an injurer of Christians he said he was a Hebrew of Hebrews a Pharisee who was exceeding all of his contemporaries according to Philippians 3 Paul said this about himself that he was circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of The Tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee as to Zeal a persecutor of the church as the righteousness under the law blameless so I was a proud man and he had good reason to be so he came from good stock he was a pure Hebrew he was well educated by the best uh he was fully sold out for the cause he was so dedicated to God and His law that he was willing to defend the truth and to defend the righteousness of God with the utmost Zeal and dedication by rooting out this heretical group of Jews who claimed this guy Jesus Christ as their Messiah you know I think it’s easy knowing uh what we know about Saul uh to lose sight or perspective uh on who he really was before but to be honest I think if we were Jews living in Jerusalem at the time we most likely would have admired this guy we would have respected where where he was coming from at least uh there would have been this part of us this part of us that wished that we were as sold out and as dedicated as he was now we might not have wanted to invite him to over for the dinner party uh because I’m pretty sure he was Captain no fun uh but but deep down we would have thought you know if I were just really just a little bit it’s more sold out as much as just a little bit of what this guy’s got his his just his his Zeal for God his righteousness and we were just had a little bit of that then man God would be really really happy with us that’s a little picture I think of who who Saul was uh there’s more there’s much more and we’re going to learn more about them as we work through uh the series on acts but for now let’s turn to the first two verses of Acts chapter nine and this is what we’re told but Saul’s still breathing threats and murder against the Disciples of the Lord went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if you found any belonging to the way men or women he might bring them bound to Jerusalem so Saul was breathing threats and murder against the Disciples of Jesus well what exactly does that mean what what is it uh well it does not mean that he was just merely speaking this way uh he wasn’t just speaking violence uh against them it means this idea of threatening and murdering Christians uh it was the thing that was giving him life he was Finding life in it uh means that he was uh it was the very Heir that he was breathing it was the oxygen uh that was feeding him and keeping him alive it was fueling him giving his life purpose and meaning and Hope now mind you uh it was the idea of murder that was giving him such purpose uh and hope murder the word that’s used here means exactly what you think it means it’s this intentional unjustified homicide never mind of the law of God says you shall not murder because Leviticus 24 to gives the provision that whoever blasts means the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death all the congregation shall Stone him and so Saul certainly would have believed that he was justified and only being zealous and more righteous than everybody else and what he was doing he was doing it for God’s sake and for his own righteous standing before God it wasn’t enough just to have dispelled the Christians from Jerusalem Saul was on a mission that he believed was uh was was the mission from God but this wasn’t uh The Blues Brothers kind of mission for God right uh Saul’s mission was to completely eradicate these Heretics and blasphemers from the face of the Earth you know I think it’s fair therefore to conclude that Saul was uh was in no way seeking Jesus in this moment and he was he was in no way open to hearing more about Jesus in his own life uh he was in fact an enemy of Jesus and saw Jesus and his followers is the evil that needed to be eradicated from the Earth which makes the verses that follow not only just remarkable absolutely miraculous verses three to six says now as Saul went on his way he approached Damascus and suddenly a light from Heaven Shone around him and falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him Saul Saul why are you persecuting me and he said who are you Lord and he said I am Jesus whom you are persecuting but rise and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do and pain there you have it the rest of the verses tell us about what happened next but but there’s no mention of an act the actual conversion moment at least not where Saul made his personal commitment and decision to follow Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior but from that moment on Saul went where Jesus told him to go and Saul did what Jesus told him to do Saul was perhaps the most unwilling convert the to Christ the world has ever known you know C.S Lewis referred to himself as the the most reluctant convert when he finally uh became a Christian the most reluctant convert in all of England uh but Saul has got him beat by a long shot here this was nothing short of a miraculous conversion the greatest enemy of Christ and what seems like an instant becomes a fully submitted follower of Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior so much so that he’s willing to immediately go into those synagogues where he was preparing to go drag them all out the prison that when he found Christians in there to actually arguing Christ and convincing them that Christ was it is Lord and savior of all you know Tim Keller wrote in his commentary on this conversion Saul’s conversion proves that everyone is equally unlikely to believe since really every conversion is a miracle and therefore everyone is equally likely to believe therefore there’s hope for everyone
but before you think that this was just a sudden and an instantaneous conversion of Saul to Faith in Jesus there was more going on here there was more going on here and I think it’s important for us to understand when it comes to conversions there’s always more going on than we understand or we can see more than just that moment of decision there’s often years sometimes even a lifetime of work the God and the Holy Spirit has been doing in that person’s life where they come to this moment of decision a decision to follow Jesus you see this isn’t the only time we’re given an account of of Saul’s conversion uh Saul tells other times he tells his own uh conversion story in Acts 26 uh which we’ll get to a long time from now uh Saul gives his uh his own account uh of what happened uh and he tells us what he heard from Jesus in a little bit more detail uh it’s not that this acts 9 is wrong it’s actually he just gives more detail about what he heard and this is what we’re told in Acts 26 verse 14 that he heard Saul Saul why are you persecuting me it is hard for you to kick against the goads it’s hard for us probably to get what in the world is that talking about right uh and what but what this is telling us is that God is telling him I’ve been working in your life for some time now Saul this wasn’t their first encounter this was for sure the most dramatic uh in the final straw that uh that broke Saul’s back of resistance uh but goes were just sharp sticks that were used by by farmers in order to to get the animals to obey and to do what they were supposed to do to poke them all into the right way and so what this tells us uh what Saul is telling us was that God had already been working on him God had already been at work in his heart the Holy Spirit have been actually preparing him for this dramatic Damascus Encounter With Jesus so much so that when the moment finally came Saul put up no resistance at all he didn’t fight back because all his strength of resistance had been worn away already he simply obeyed by faith he went where Jesus told him to go and he did what Jesus told him to do but but how had Jesus been poking him and preparing him because acts 9 doesn’t really tell us well in Romans 7 verses 7 through 8 Paul gives us an idea of the way that God had been working in his own life this is this is what Saul revealed uh that Jesus had been doing through the holy spirit in his own heart before this moment he wrote this yet if it had not been for the law I would not have known sin for I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said You shall not covet but sin seizing an opportunity through the Commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness covetedness I can never say it right covetousness whatever uh Saul uh Saul in this in this moment of honesty and is writing to the Romans and full vulnerability gave a glimpse into what was actually going on in his own heart before this Damascus moment salt was a Hebrew of Hebrews he was zealous for the righteousness of God he was obedient or at least trying in every way to be obedient to God’s law but he had a problem and he said it he the law says do not covet and he knew it he read it but as much as he didn’t want to he was just full of that word again covetedness is whatever which means that Saul’s desire in his longing uh he longed for and desired that which didn’t belong to him he longed for what others had and that he perceived he did not he lusted after other people and the things that they had and possessed which meant if he was longing for something more would other people’s hat people had it means that despite being the Hebrew of Hebrews despite having everything going for him being the head of his class in every way coming from the right families Saul knew that he was not at peace with God and it wrecked him he knew inside that there was no peace I don’t have enough he wasn’t content with what he had his obedience to God’s law it wasn’t getting him to where he longed to be as much as everyone on the outside probably looked at him as the beacon of all righteousness in the and the most wanted the word was the most committed to God Saul was Restless in his own heart he needed more he wanted what others had and thought that if he had it then it would finally be content that he would then find that peace with God and with himself he’d finally be at rest you know we’re not told this exactly but but it stands to reason that this was what fueled Saul to breathe threats and murder against Jesus’s disciples because if he could have just proven himself to God as being more bold being more committed to him than everyone else than maybe just maybe he would feel like he had earned enough finally of God’s approval and then finally there’d be peace there’d be peace with God see Saul before this moment ever came he was already becoming aware of his own failure
through this internal struggle and this Relentless insecurity that he had and then in the midst of that internal struggle and this insecurity that he had with God uh think about this he would have been there to hear Stephen’s speech about Jesus and the gospel while he’s quietly internally struggling with his own failure to be able to live up to the law and the expectations that it demanded where he heard Stephen Proclaim you stiff-neck people uncircumcised and hardened ears you always resist the Holy Spirit as your fault as your fathers did so do you you who received the laws delivered by angels and did not keep it
anger would have been a dagger to Saul’s heart to hear those words that he was already knowing in himself they must have caught him to the heart even if his only reaction at first was in anger and a lust for after murder he was reacting still and then even when that lust was satisfied and Stephen was dying with with his last breath Saul would have would have heard Stephen say behold I see the heavens open and I see the son of man standing at the right hand of God
can you imagine what a man who’s got no peace who can’t find it who’s Restless inside of him
who’s trying so hard to be good trying so hard to be righteous and he sees this man this blasphemer who even in debt has a piece about him that he can see the throne room of God
and then mag pattern is even worse the very last words that Stephen said Lord do not hold the sin against them words of forgiveness
this man who’s been killed who’s been killed for his blasphemy against the law this Blasphemous man he saw the throne room of God which meant that even death he had peace with God and he had love for those who had killed him something that Saul was was looking for but something that Saul couldn’t find all he was filled with and his failure to be able to live up to God to live up to God’s law all he was filled with was anger and wrath trying to destroy those people that he thought were blasphemers Friends by the time Saul met Jesus on the road to Damascus the Holy Spirit had done an incredible work and Saul’s heart and in his mind he had prepared Saul for this incredible miraculous moment he had broken down Saul’s will of resistance you know as I’m reading the story this week I can relate to Saul’s conversion on such a personal way I was I was born in the church I’d been taught about God and about Jesus my whole life I learned the Commandments I’d memorized the Nicene Creed I’d been baptized in it as an infant I have been confirmed even as a pre-teen but my heart wasn’t satisfied and I was not at peace with God I wanted more I lusted after more I thought I could find it and and success or popularity or just recognition of some kind but when I got to the place where I had found all the success and popularity and recognition that I thought that I wanted I found myself just as empty as I had ever been my heart and soul were restless Within Me but from that moment the Holy Spirit showed me this emptiness it would still be months it would still be months before someone actually shared with me the gospel that Jesus died on the cross for my sins that in him I was forgiven that I was clothed in his righteousness and him I was accepted and I was loved by God and when I heard it then in that moment all resistance was gone all I could do was surrender and accept Jesus is my Lord and Savior so what do we learn from Saul’s conversion about ourselves about the people around us what do we learn about God and our neighbor well first of all we learned that there are no such thing as hopeless people who are beyond the saving Embrace of Jesus we’re all equally as unlikely to receive Jesus as uh Tim Keller and said in that quote I read earlier but at the same time therefore we all are as equally as likely to receive him even those we perceive as being the greatest enemies to the faith secondly we learned that God is the one who is at work through the Holy Spirit and the hearts and minds of those that he is calling into a personal relationship with Jesus I think sometimes and and the quest to fulfill our call to be Witnesses for Christ uh we can lose sight of that and we can think that we’re the ones we have to share we’ve got to have the right words we have to bring them to that place we’ve got to have all the right arguments to counter all the doubts that they have
or else they’re not going to make a decision to receive Christ but that’s not what Saul’s conversion teaches us and Jesus said in John 6 44 no one can come to me unless the father draws him and Jesus said in John 15 16 you have not chosen me but I have chosen you and appointed you to go and bear fruit if you’ve come to Faith in Jesus take no pride in your own decision instead rejoice and give thanks for the work that God did in your life to bring you to that place of saving faith the way that he broke down your will of resistance to draw you to the Cross of Christ if you haven’t yet come to that place of decision in your own life know this God’s at work in you he is moving by his holy spirit he’s breaking down your resistance because he loves you and he wants you to be reconciled to him forever through his son friends on this annual meeting Sunday we are a church on a mission on the mission that Jesus began the mission to reach the lost sheep to Rejoice with him for every lost sheep that is found Jesus said some pretty convicting words to us in our Gospel reading from Luke 15 verse 7. he said just as I tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents that over 99 righteous persons who have no need of repentance we were all once Sauls in this world probably a little more subtle than Saul but in our sin we’re equally as guilty and equally we were in enemies with God but by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit he rescued us and reconciled Us by faith and his son Jesus Christ that’s the work that we’re called to the cheers of Heaven are not for how righteous we are and how we’re doing all the right stuff and standing up for the truth the cheers of Heaven are for those who were lost but have been found by the grace of God that’s the mission that we’re on that’s what God has called his church to the mission for the Lost and may God give us the outpouring of his holy spirit that we may truly become a people who are fueled and motivated for this mission amen
Fourth Sunday of EpiphanyInformation about this week’s service:Readings:
- Acts 9:1-22
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John 9:24-39 Worship Songs:
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 8:26-40
We all face times or seasons of our lives that seem and feel completely desolate. In these times all hope can feel lost and that we are all alone without purpose and meaning in life. Our reading today is a gospel message of hope and life, that the God of the universe entered into our desolation and has given us a hope and a future no matter what life might throw at us.
TranscriptFather we thank you for these ancient words thank you for the hope of the Gospel that you have given to us you come now by the power of your holy spirit will you open our hearts and Minds that we may receive your message for us today in Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen you may be seated thank you so when I call this out just a few minutes ago that wasn’t you that was for me as well because yes I stayed up and uh and watched the the game as well what a what an amazing game that was um but uh so if I start to lose my voice you’ll you’ll understand why this morning uh while I wasn’t able to to scream out loud in the house because everyone else had gone to sleep I was screaming in here um uh and I didn’t have a heart attack so I guess I’m okay for a while um you know this morning in Acts chapter 8 we find ourselves in a in a major transition in the early church Chuck preached the last two sermons in our acts series on uh the last part of Acts six and then Acts chapter seven all about Stephen uh one of those seven deacons who had been chosen uh by the apostles to oversee the distribution of food to the widows and to those who were in need in the church and the Jews as we learned over the past few weeks had accused Stephen of rejecting the law of God or at least not taking it seriously enough uh belittling the importance of the worship of the temple and not valuing religious Traditions their religious Traditions enough and Stephen then uh in Acts 7 preached a beautiful and convicting sermon proclaiming the truth of the of the gospel and the supremacy of Christ and ultimately Stephen was stoned to death for what they considered his blasphemy uh but then we got the amazing and the joyful vision of Jesus standing at the right side of God for Stephen assuring him that he was indeed in control of all things and that this was far from the end in fact it was just the beginning Jesus was about to take this this heartbreaking and this tragedy and do something so radical that would change the world forever
and the transition from acts 7 to Acts chapter 8 is all about this this major movement of God that was born out of the devastation that happened to Peter I mean to uh to happen to Stephen I don’t know about you but I have this tendency uh to get comfortable uh and set in my ways uh any of you get comfortable with how what you’re doing and how you’re doing it uh you know it’s like Christmas you know I know that after Christmas and New Year I need to get in better shape I need to start paying closer attention to my health but uh even though I know that I should uh it doesn’t necessarily motivate me to do it uh you know can any of you relate to that uh usually it usually it takes some kind of event right to kind of Jar you or to at least for me to jar me out of my comfortable and happy existence so that I will uh uh really take action and make some changes in my life you know maybe it’s uh stepping on the scale and being a bit horrified uh maybe it’s just feeling tired or sluggish and this you hit that moment where you’re like you know I’m tired of feeling that way or maybe it’s a visit to the doctor right and getting the uh the blood work back and realizing that uh oh uh something’s got to be done those events are are all while they’re all unwanted unwanted they have this ability to kind of shake us up and in the shaking us up they they motivate us to make changes and get on with the stuff that we know that we should be doing out of the comfort of what we know and like into the hard and difficult process of change that really needs to happen in our lives in a sense that’s exactly what happened in Acts chapter 8. God’s people had gotten comfortable they were experienced success from through the day of Pentecost and the preaching and the temple the church is growing and at a crazy rate uh the numbers of those who are being saved was increasing daily yes they had experienced some pushback from the Jewish authorities uh the Sanhedrin at the temple but God had delivered them God had spared their lives through that there was comfort in their surroundings there in Jerusalem Jerusalem they were they were ministering on their own home field that’s what was happening they had the home field advantage kind of like the Jags last night uh and and it matters they knew Jerusalem they knew it well uh they knew the religious system they were talking and preaching to their own people uh who looked like them who talked like them who who thought like them they understood them it was comfortable and they were having success there wasn’t any reason to to change anything there was no reason to step out of that comfort zone they they had a good thing going on never mind what Jesus had told them way back in Acts chapter 1. when we began this series you read it before his Ascension Jesus said to them you will be my Witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth things were good in Jerusalem though they were comfortable they were experiencing success there was no reason to step out of that comfort and risk their lives and all that they knew all that they were familiar with just because Jesus had told them that they were supposed to do it that was until now until now the stoning of Stephen changed everything Jesus used this tragic this heartbreaking event to push his followers out of their comfort zone out of the the confines of their successful and their familiar lives and their in ministries and that’s what we learn about in Acts chapter 8 today but before we get too far into that in verse 1 we’re told this and Saul approved of Stephen’s execution in Acts 7 we were introduced to Saul uh Chuck at least uh talked about that for just a moment how the witnesses of Stephen stoning had laid down their garments at the feet of the young man named Saul we were told and now Luke tells us about Saul again that he approved of Stephen’s execution Saul’s approval meant that he was in Hardy agreement with what was going on meaning he believed that Stephen’s execution was good and that it was right it was justified it was the righteous thing to do before God and in accordance and loyalty to the law of Moses and to the prophets this is what had to be done you know we don’t have time to go into more detail about that now but keep it in your minds because it’s incredibly important as we continue to move forward in the book of Acts uh and the the rest of Acts and the rally the rest of the New Testament what happens there and what we’re told about Saul uh it impacts it all but for day for today let’s move on into verse one this is where we’re told and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria except the apostles so that same day that same day that Stephen was killed that same day that he that he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God persecution broke out against the church in Mass the crowd of Jews weren’t just satisfied with Stephen’s death a fervor of violence against all the followers of Christ in Jerusalem it broke out just how great was the the persecution well we don’t know exactly but I think we get some some real indicators here of how great it was uh we do know that it was it was so great that it caused all of the Disciples of Jesus not just some or a good number it caused all except the twelve uh to flee from Jerusalem and into the regions of Judea and Samaria now keep in mind if we track the the number of followers of Jesus at this point the number of disciples we are around 8 000 people all scattering out of Jerusalem on the same day for some perspective uh you know the average population at that time of of Jerusalem in the time of Jesus was about 25 000 people can you imagine a fourth of the population of Jerusalem all fleeing out of the city at one time this means that this wasn’t just some evacuation uh this wasn’t something that happened in secret uh this was something that was very public that was very obvious to all who were there in Jerusalem uh you know this is a little bit speculation but I think it’s reasonable therefore to believe that they were told the disciples were probably told to leave or to face death or punishment of some kind uh because Saul was that day we are told in verse 3 ravaging the church and entering house after house he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison now Saul in all of his Zeal and his righteousness probably created if you think about it he probably created a real problem for the Jewish authorities and for the Romans as well by the way uh as much as he also uh came up with the solution right he came up with a solution to the sanhedrin’s issue and problem with these troublemakers uh how are you going to imprison 8 000 people they certainly didn’t have the system or the infrastructure to be able to to house that kind of a prison population so casting him out of the city would have really been the only option making them leave and the Jews of Jerusalem were content to see them go and you know that the Jewish authorities were thrilled to see them uh make their leave and their troubles go away and they probably thought in the process good riddance finally we can get back to normal and this will be the end of this virus that’s entered into our church but I think we all know that’s not the way it happened not by a long shot Jesus stand was standing for Steve and he was assuring him that he was in control and that his death would not be the end that it would be just the beginning God’s people Jesus’s disciples had gotten comfortable in their success but Jesus’s plan was for them to be his witness in Jerusalem but not just Jerusalem and the region of Samaria and Judea into the very ends of the Earth and they needed to get jolted out of their comfort zone and the death of Stephen was not the death blow to Christianity that Saul and the Jewish religious leaders hoped that it would be it was the beginning it was the beginning of the transformation of the world see Stephen’s death had caused persecution and that cause that persecution it caused all but the apostles to be scattered and as verse 4 tells us this dispersion or this scattering of all the Disciples of over 8 000 disciples into the regions of Judea and Samaria it caused the gospel to be preached everywhere they went
death led to persecution persecution led to scattering and the scattering led to an increased and fruitful Ministry for the gospel you know Tim Keller and his commentary on this road uh those who wanted to Stamp Out the church only served to spread it tremendously
I think if we think about this a little bit the most dangerous impediment to the spread of the Gospel is maybe not what we think I think we tend to think that the the mo the the most dangerous impediment to the spread of the Gospel is the opposition that we Face from the rest of the world but the greatest impediment that we face to the spread of the Gospel is the comfort and the success of Jesus disciples a lot of times criticism of the church uh not reaching the laws is placed on I think the pastors and the leaders of the church and that criticism is often Justified there’s far too often uh I think pastors and ministers or probably get way too consumed with the organization and running it well and all the things that needed to be happen and become completely blind and forget the real Gospel Mission of reaching the lost but notice how it was not the apostles who went out into the world proclaiming the gospel they stayed behind in Jerusalem it was the disciples it was all those lay people who had received the gospel who did the gospel proclamation in the world the apostles had their job they stayed behind they had their job and were told earlier their job was praying proclaiming and leading the church but the real evangelism that happened it happened by Regular People
people who’d been transformed men and women who had been trained so transformed by the power of the Gospel that they shared the hope that they had found in Jesus with all those that they encountered as they were scattered and there’s good reason that for that you know before I was ordained uh as a pastor as a priest in the Anglican Church uh my Evangelistic efforts were far more fruitful I had so many meaningful and impactful conversations and relationships with people where I could really talk about Jesus and and we could hear it and there was an honest Exchange but once I got ordained things began to change and it didn’t take very long for me to notice uh I’ve kept trying to have meaningful conversations with folks that I meet uh conversations with folks about Jesus uh but once they find out that I’m a pastor
they shut down and far more often almost all the time that they shut me out they don’t think that I can relate to them anymore there’s a disconnect they feel or maybe it’s because they’ve had just too many bad associations with abusive or greedy pastors or self-righteous Pastors in their past I don’t know but hear what we see in Acts is that it was it was regular unseminary educated lay people who had been transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ who spread the good news to the Roman world people who shared with lost people the way that Jesus had transformed their lives by his grace and they did this to the such an extent by the way that in 300 years enough people had been reached in the in the Roman Empire that the Roman Emperor himself became a follower of Christ and the whole empire was transformed you know it’s the multiplication principle that Jesus began Jesus called the twelve he led them he taught them he loved them and the twelve then began their Ministry and they reached over 8 000 and then the 8 000 got scattered by persecution and they began to reach tens and hundreds of thousands it’s the clergy’s call to preach the word and to lead the faithful and prayer and to equip the Saints and to support the Disciples of Christ to share the gospel in their lives with their friends and their families and all those that they encounter for those who are grieving over the state of our culture this is how real transformation happens this is the way that our culture will be won for Christ it’ll be done the same way that Jesus did it the same way the early church did it but it will not happen simply by complaining or bemoaning the state of our culture in the world it will only happen when the body of Believers Catch Fire of transformed Hearts from Jesus and begin sharing their own stories of transformation and hope with others Breaking Free of the comfort of our own successful lives but let me be clear about this yelling truth that people isn’t going to transform the world or any individual lives social media I think has proved that to be true uh very rarely uh almost never has anyone ever convinced of the error of their opinions or their beliefs by argument and debate and yelling at them the only way it happens and when when is when people have come to know that they are sinners and they’ve been saved by grace the free gift of God through his son Jesus Christ when they begin humbly and graciously sharing that same message with those around them not only sharing the message of the Gospel with words but accompanying those words with Deeds acts of service of loving kindness and generosity and I promise you this isn’t just my idea this is what we see happening in verses four through eight but before I think we can even look at these verses uh we have to understand the incredibly deep conflict that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans the Jews hated the Samaritans it went all the way back to the monarchy in Israel Civil War that had broken out after Solomon’s Reign and then it got worse as Assyria conquered the northern region of Israel and exiled the majority of those Jews they exiled them and the Assyrians then sent their own Gentiles into the region to try to populate it and those that they sent to try to populate it they intermarried with those Jews who were left
and this was an Abomination to the Jews who were in Jerusalem in Judea it was an Abomination Samaritans were considered therefore Mongols half-breeds unpure and to make matters even worse the Samaritans rejected Jerusalem as the temple as the intended place of worship by Moses shoot we just read about Stephen Stephen was stoned for that the Samaritans believed that mount gerizim in their region was a place that Moses had really intended for worship not Jerusalem the Samaritans believed that they were the true followers of Moses they rejected the writings of the prophets and they saw Moses as the only one true Prophet they were Always In conflict with the Jews going all the way back to even in Ezra and Nehemiah the Samaritans were actively working against the Jews who were trying to rebuild the Temple to the Jews the Samaritans were everything that was wrong with their country and with their area and with their uh with their pure religion they distorted and they mocked the truth of God the Jews hated the Samaritans more than they even hated the the Greeks and the Romans or any other pagans and that’s why it’s so shocking that Philip one of the seven deacons who had been selected along with Stephen uh when when he fled Jerusalem because of this persecution that he went to Samaria he went to Samaria and there he proclaimed with him the Gospel of Jesus Christ that was the last place that you would expect him to go Judea yes at least Judea was filled with with faithful and true and pure Jews they were his people but no Philip went to the Samaritans those people who were destroying their country those people who destroyed it distorted the truth of God when the people there heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ from Philip and they also saw the Deeds of healing that Philip did the casting out of evil spirits and the healing of those who were told who were paralyzed and lame the Samaritans were told were filled with joy which just means that they received the word they received the Gospel of Jesus their hearts were transformed the message of Jesus accompanied by the healing of the Gospel that transformed the people of Samaria Prince you know we we may or may not experience the healing work of the Gospel in the same way that Philip did God does that kind of work for his glory when he sees fit but we all can be a people to bring heal at the healing power of the Gospel into people’s lives by the way we care for the sick and those who are suffering having compassion on those who are alone or weak when that kind of compassion accompanies the message of the Gospel that we share it’s the most powerful force for transformation in the world especially when it’s with people that we vehemently disagree with about truth and politics and religion
but I want to close with this why would Philip have gone to the most hated group of people that he knew
why would he have cared enough for these half-breeds and Heretics to share with them the gospel and then have such compassion on them to bring the healing of the Gospel to them they were everything that was wrong with the world after all
I believe it was for the same reason why Paul who when he was stoned and lystra dragged out of the city left for dead when he came to he went right back in there to proclaim the gospel to them it’s the same thing that caused Army Corporal Jacob De Chaser to go to Japan as a missionary even though he had been a prisoner of war tortured abused during World War II see Philip went to them because the Gospel of Jesus Christ had so transformed his life and the way that he thought about the world that he no longer saw them as enemies and the scourge of humanity but rather he saw them as people who were lost he saw them as people who were in desperate need of the Gospel just as much as he was see because of the Gospel Philip no longer felt superior to the Samaritans or to anyone he no longer wanted them to see them destroyed so that Israel could be great again because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ Philip had come to understand four things about people number one everyone is hopeless apart from the gospel number two everyone is lost and evil apart from the gospel number three there therefore no one is any more lost or evil than anyone else and finally number four anyone can be saved and changed and incorporated into the family of God Phillips understanding the world was transformed because he was abundantly aware of his own Brokenness he knew that he was completely and totally lost without Jesus
Prince the gospel is deeply convicting in this way deeply convicting at least it is for me you know I get frustrated with people I get offended by the blasphemy that I see and the culture and the things I hear people say that I know are wrong and it makes me angry inside and it’s everything the the in me that just wants to write them off and just wants to label them is they’re the problem with this world they’re the problem
it won’t let me do that the gospel won’t let us do that as Jesus told us in Luke 5 The Gospel reading we heard just a moment ago I have come not to call the righteous but to call Sinners to repentance which means that the problem of the world it isn’t just those other people the problem of the world is me the problem in the world is us the only answer for you and for me and for everyone is the gracious love of God and his son Jesus Christ that God so loved the world that he came into this world to save us
May the Holy Spirit so convict our hearts and light a fire for the gospel that we too like Philip will reach those
who we see as enemies
let us pray
Heavenly Father
forgive us
forgive us for not seeing the world the way that you see it
forgive us for thinking that other people are the problem and that we aren’t
forgive us for our own self-righteous Pride
Jesus you didn’t come to save The Righteous you came to save sinners
to bring us to repentance
Holy Spirit Will you so move and break our hearts that we would see our own sin
that we would see our own failures now we failed to love you and to love our neighbor
we fall short of your glory will you help us to see it so that we can know the fullness of the power of the Gospel the hope that we have not in what we have done but then what you have done for us and the way that you love us and that you’ve called us to yourself by grace and not by works to break our hearts that our hearts should be broken for the world that we would not stand in judgment but would seek
with compassion and kindness the salvation of those who are so desperately lost around us and Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen
Third Sunday of EpiphanyInformation about this week’s service:Readings:
- John 16:12-15
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Acts 8:26-40 Worship Songs:
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All Creatures of Our God and King
- Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)
- Be Though My Vision
- Behold the Lamb
- Alleluia No. 1 (Alleluia Alleluia Give Thanks) Join this Sunday's livestream service here in...Day(s)
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Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:Worship Bulletin
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 8:1-25
It is easy to bemoan the state of the world and blame people for why things have gotten so bad. The Gospel of Jesus Christ does not allow us to treat “other” people as if they are the problem. Jesus came not to call the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance. This means that “they” are not the problem, “we” are the problem and the Gospel of God’s grace in His Son Jesus Christ is the only solution.
TranscriptFather we thank you for these ancient words thank you for the hope of the Gospel that you have given to us you come now by the power of your holy spirit will you open our hearts and Minds that we may receive your message for us today in Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen you may be seated thank you so when I call this out just a few minutes ago that wasn’t you that was for me as well because yes I stayed up and uh and watched the the game as well what a what an amazing game that was um but uh so if I start to lose my voice you’ll you’ll understand why this morning uh while I wasn’t able to to scream out loud in the house because everyone else had gone to sleep I was screaming in here um uh and I didn’t have a heart attack so I guess I’m okay for a while um you know this morning in Acts chapter 8 we find ourselves in a in a major transition in the early church Chuck preached the last two sermons in our acts series on uh the last part of Acts six and then Acts chapter seven all about Stephen uh one of those seven deacons who had been chosen uh by the apostles to oversee the distribution of food to the widows and to those who were in need in the church and the Jews as we learned over the past few weeks had accused Stephen of rejecting the law of God or at least not taking it seriously enough uh belittling the importance of the worship of the temple and not valuing religious Traditions their religious Traditions enough and Stephen then uh in Acts 7 preached a beautiful and convicting sermon proclaiming the truth of the of the gospel and the supremacy of Christ and ultimately Stephen was stoned to death for what they considered his blasphemy uh but then we got the amazing and the joyful vision of Jesus standing at the right side of God for Stephen assuring him that he was indeed in control of all things and that this was far from the end in fact it was just the beginning Jesus was about to take this this heartbreaking and this tragedy and do something so radical that would change the world forever
and the transition from acts 7 to Acts chapter 8 is all about this this major movement of God that was born out of the devastation that happened to Peter I mean to uh to happen to Stephen I don’t know about you but I have this tendency uh to get comfortable uh and set in my ways uh any of you get comfortable with how what you’re doing and how you’re doing it uh you know it’s like Christmas you know I know that after Christmas and New Year I need to get in better shape I need to start paying closer attention to my health but uh even though I know that I should uh it doesn’t necessarily motivate me to do it uh you know can any of you relate to that uh usually it usually it takes some kind of event right to kind of Jar you or to at least for me to jar me out of my comfortable and happy existence so that I will uh uh really take action and make some changes in my life you know maybe it’s uh stepping on the scale and being a bit horrified uh maybe it’s just feeling tired or sluggish and this you hit that moment where you’re like you know I’m tired of feeling that way or maybe it’s a visit to the doctor right and getting the uh the blood work back and realizing that uh oh uh something’s got to be done those events are are all while they’re all unwanted unwanted they have this ability to kind of shake us up and in the shaking us up they they motivate us to make changes and get on with the stuff that we know that we should be doing out of the comfort of what we know and like into the hard and difficult process of change that really needs to happen in our lives in a sense that’s exactly what happened in Acts chapter 8. God’s people had gotten comfortable they were experienced success from through the day of Pentecost and the preaching and the temple the church is growing and at a crazy rate uh the numbers of those who are being saved was increasing daily yes they had experienced some pushback from the Jewish authorities uh the Sanhedrin at the temple but God had delivered them God had spared their lives through that there was comfort in their surroundings there in Jerusalem Jerusalem they were they were ministering on their own home field that’s what was happening they had the home field advantage kind of like the Jags last night uh and and it matters they knew Jerusalem they knew it well uh they knew the religious system they were talking and preaching to their own people uh who looked like them who talked like them who who thought like them they understood them it was comfortable and they were having success there wasn’t any reason to to change anything there was no reason to step out of that comfort zone they they had a good thing going on never mind what Jesus had told them way back in Acts chapter 1. when we began this series you read it before his Ascension Jesus said to them you will be my Witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth things were good in Jerusalem though they were comfortable they were experiencing success there was no reason to step out of that comfort and risk their lives and all that they knew all that they were familiar with just because Jesus had told them that they were supposed to do it that was until now until now the stoning of Stephen changed everything Jesus used this tragic this heartbreaking event to push his followers out of their comfort zone out of the the confines of their successful and their familiar lives and their in ministries and that’s what we learn about in Acts chapter 8 today but before we get too far into that in verse 1 we’re told this and Saul approved of Stephen’s execution in Acts 7 we were introduced to Saul uh Chuck at least uh talked about that for just a moment how the witnesses of Stephen stoning had laid down their garments at the feet of the young man named Saul we were told and now Luke tells us about Saul again that he approved of Stephen’s execution Saul’s approval meant that he was in Hardy agreement with what was going on meaning he believed that Stephen’s execution was good and that it was right it was justified it was the righteous thing to do before God and in accordance and loyalty to the law of Moses and to the prophets this is what had to be done you know we don’t have time to go into more detail about that now but keep it in your minds because it’s incredibly important as we continue to move forward in the book of Acts uh and the the rest of Acts and the rally the rest of the New Testament what happens there and what we’re told about Saul uh it impacts it all but for day for today let’s move on into verse one this is where we’re told and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria except the apostles so that same day that same day that Stephen was killed that same day that he that he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God persecution broke out against the church in Mass the crowd of Jews weren’t just satisfied with Stephen’s death a fervor of violence against all the followers of Christ in Jerusalem it broke out just how great was the the persecution well we don’t know exactly but I think we get some some real indicators here of how great it was uh we do know that it was it was so great that it caused all of the Disciples of Jesus not just some or a good number it caused all except the twelve uh to flee from Jerusalem and into the regions of Judea and Samaria now keep in mind if we track the the number of followers of Jesus at this point the number of disciples we are around 8 000 people all scattering out of Jerusalem on the same day for some perspective uh you know the average population at that time of of Jerusalem in the time of Jesus was about 25 000 people can you imagine a fourth of the population of Jerusalem all fleeing out of the city at one time this means that this wasn’t just some evacuation uh this wasn’t something that happened in secret uh this was something that was very public that was very obvious to all who were there in Jerusalem uh you know this is a little bit speculation but I think it’s reasonable therefore to believe that they were told the disciples were probably told to leave or to face death or punishment of some kind uh because Saul was that day we are told in verse 3 ravaging the church and entering house after house he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison now Saul in all of his Zeal and his righteousness probably created if you think about it he probably created a real problem for the Jewish authorities and for the Romans as well by the way uh as much as he also uh came up with the solution right he came up with a solution to the sanhedrin’s issue and problem with these troublemakers uh how are you going to imprison 8 000 people they certainly didn’t have the system or the infrastructure to be able to to house that kind of a prison population so casting him out of the city would have really been the only option making them leave and the Jews of Jerusalem were content to see them go and you know that the Jewish authorities were thrilled to see them uh make their leave and their troubles go away and they probably thought in the process good riddance finally we can get back to normal and this will be the end of this virus that’s entered into our church but I think we all know that’s not the way it happened not by a long shot Jesus stand was standing for Steve and he was assuring him that he was in control and that his death would not be the end that it would be just the beginning God’s people Jesus’s disciples had gotten comfortable in their success but Jesus’s plan was for them to be his witness in Jerusalem but not just Jerusalem and the region of Samaria and Judea into the very ends of the Earth and they needed to get jolted out of their comfort zone and the death of Stephen was not the death blow to Christianity that Saul and the Jewish religious leaders hoped that it would be it was the beginning it was the beginning of the transformation of the world see Stephen’s death had caused persecution and that cause that persecution it caused all but the apostles to be scattered and as verse 4 tells us this dispersion or this scattering of all the Disciples of over 8 000 disciples into the regions of Judea and Samaria it caused the gospel to be preached everywhere they went
death led to persecution persecution led to scattering and the scattering led to an increased and fruitful Ministry for the gospel you know Tim Keller and his commentary on this road uh those who wanted to Stamp Out the church only served to spread it tremendously
I think if we think about this a little bit the most dangerous impediment to the spread of the Gospel is maybe not what we think I think we tend to think that the the mo the the most dangerous impediment to the spread of the Gospel is the opposition that we Face from the rest of the world but the greatest impediment that we face to the spread of the Gospel is the comfort and the success of Jesus disciples a lot of times criticism of the church uh not reaching the laws is placed on I think the pastors and the leaders of the church and that criticism is often Justified there’s far too often uh I think pastors and ministers or probably get way too consumed with the organization and running it well and all the things that needed to be happen and become completely blind and forget the real Gospel Mission of reaching the lost but notice how it was not the apostles who went out into the world proclaiming the gospel they stayed behind in Jerusalem it was the disciples it was all those lay people who had received the gospel who did the gospel proclamation in the world the apostles had their job they stayed behind they had their job and were told earlier their job was praying proclaiming and leading the church but the real evangelism that happened it happened by Regular People
people who’d been transformed men and women who had been trained so transformed by the power of the Gospel that they shared the hope that they had found in Jesus with all those that they encountered as they were scattered and there’s good reason that for that you know before I was ordained uh as a pastor as a priest in the Anglican Church uh my Evangelistic efforts were far more fruitful I had so many meaningful and impactful conversations and relationships with people where I could really talk about Jesus and and we could hear it and there was an honest Exchange but once I got ordained things began to change and it didn’t take very long for me to notice uh I’ve kept trying to have meaningful conversations with folks that I meet uh conversations with folks about Jesus uh but once they find out that I’m a pastor
they shut down and far more often almost all the time that they shut me out they don’t think that I can relate to them anymore there’s a disconnect they feel or maybe it’s because they’ve had just too many bad associations with abusive or greedy pastors or self-righteous Pastors in their past I don’t know but hear what we see in Acts is that it was it was regular unseminary educated lay people who had been transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ who spread the good news to the Roman world people who shared with lost people the way that Jesus had transformed their lives by his grace and they did this to the such an extent by the way that in 300 years enough people had been reached in the in the Roman Empire that the Roman Emperor himself became a follower of Christ and the whole empire was transformed you know it’s the multiplication principle that Jesus began Jesus called the twelve he led them he taught them he loved them and the twelve then began their Ministry and they reached over 8 000 and then the 8 000 got scattered by persecution and they began to reach tens and hundreds of thousands it’s the clergy’s call to preach the word and to lead the faithful and prayer and to equip the Saints and to support the Disciples of Christ to share the gospel in their lives with their friends and their families and all those that they encounter for those who are grieving over the state of our culture this is how real transformation happens this is the way that our culture will be won for Christ it’ll be done the same way that Jesus did it the same way the early church did it but it will not happen simply by complaining or bemoaning the state of our culture in the world it will only happen when the body of Believers Catch Fire of transformed Hearts from Jesus and begin sharing their own stories of transformation and hope with others Breaking Free of the comfort of our own successful lives but let me be clear about this yelling truth that people isn’t going to transform the world or any individual lives social media I think has proved that to be true uh very rarely uh almost never has anyone ever convinced of the error of their opinions or their beliefs by argument and debate and yelling at them the only way it happens and when when is when people have come to know that they are sinners and they’ve been saved by grace the free gift of God through his son Jesus Christ when they begin humbly and graciously sharing that same message with those around them not only sharing the message of the Gospel with words but accompanying those words with Deeds acts of service of loving kindness and generosity and I promise you this isn’t just my idea this is what we see happening in verses four through eight but before I think we can even look at these verses uh we have to understand the incredibly deep conflict that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans the Jews hated the Samaritans it went all the way back to the monarchy in Israel Civil War that had broken out after Solomon’s Reign and then it got worse as Assyria conquered the northern region of Israel and exiled the majority of those Jews they exiled them and the Assyrians then sent their own Gentiles into the region to try to populate it and those that they sent to try to populate it they intermarried with those Jews who were left
and this was an Abomination to the Jews who were in Jerusalem in Judea it was an Abomination Samaritans were considered therefore Mongols half-breeds unpure and to make matters even worse the Samaritans rejected Jerusalem as the temple as the intended place of worship by Moses shoot we just read about Stephen Stephen was stoned for that the Samaritans believed that mount gerizim in their region was a place that Moses had really intended for worship not Jerusalem the Samaritans believed that they were the true followers of Moses they rejected the writings of the prophets and they saw Moses as the only one true Prophet they were Always In conflict with the Jews going all the way back to even in Ezra and Nehemiah the Samaritans were actively working against the Jews who were trying to rebuild the Temple to the Jews the Samaritans were everything that was wrong with their country and with their area and with their uh with their pure religion they distorted and they mocked the truth of God the Jews hated the Samaritans more than they even hated the the Greeks and the Romans or any other pagans and that’s why it’s so shocking that Philip one of the seven deacons who had been selected along with Stephen uh when when he fled Jerusalem because of this persecution that he went to Samaria he went to Samaria and there he proclaimed with him the Gospel of Jesus Christ that was the last place that you would expect him to go Judea yes at least Judea was filled with with faithful and true and pure Jews they were his people but no Philip went to the Samaritans those people who were destroying their country those people who destroyed it distorted the truth of God when the people there heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ from Philip and they also saw the Deeds of healing that Philip did the casting out of evil spirits and the healing of those who were told who were paralyzed and lame the Samaritans were told were filled with joy which just means that they received the word they received the Gospel of Jesus their hearts were transformed the message of Jesus accompanied by the healing of the Gospel that transformed the people of Samaria Prince you know we we may or may not experience the healing work of the Gospel in the same way that Philip did God does that kind of work for his glory when he sees fit but we all can be a people to bring heal at the healing power of the Gospel into people’s lives by the way we care for the sick and those who are suffering having compassion on those who are alone or weak when that kind of compassion accompanies the message of the Gospel that we share it’s the most powerful force for transformation in the world especially when it’s with people that we vehemently disagree with about truth and politics and religion
but I want to close with this why would Philip have gone to the most hated group of people that he knew
why would he have cared enough for these half-breeds and Heretics to share with them the gospel and then have such compassion on them to bring the healing of the Gospel to them they were everything that was wrong with the world after all
I believe it was for the same reason why Paul who when he was stoned and lystra dragged out of the city left for dead when he came to he went right back in there to proclaim the gospel to them it’s the same thing that caused Army Corporal Jacob De Chaser to go to Japan as a missionary even though he had been a prisoner of war tortured abused during World War II see Philip went to them because the Gospel of Jesus Christ had so transformed his life and the way that he thought about the world that he no longer saw them as enemies and the scourge of humanity but rather he saw them as people who were lost he saw them as people who were in desperate need of the Gospel just as much as he was see because of the Gospel Philip no longer felt superior to the Samaritans or to anyone he no longer wanted them to see them destroyed so that Israel could be great again because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ Philip had come to understand four things about people number one everyone is hopeless apart from the gospel number two everyone is lost and evil apart from the gospel number three there therefore no one is any more lost or evil than anyone else and finally number four anyone can be saved and changed and incorporated into the family of God Phillips understanding the world was transformed because he was abundantly aware of his own Brokenness he knew that he was completely and totally lost without Jesus
Prince the gospel is deeply convicting in this way deeply convicting at least it is for me you know I get frustrated with people I get offended by the blasphemy that I see and the culture and the things I hear people say that I know are wrong and it makes me angry inside and it’s everything the the in me that just wants to write them off and just wants to label them is they’re the problem with this world they’re the problem
it won’t let me do that the gospel won’t let us do that as Jesus told us in Luke 5 The Gospel reading we heard just a moment ago I have come not to call the righteous but to call Sinners to repentance which means that the problem of the world it isn’t just those other people the problem of the world is me the problem in the world is us the only answer for you and for me and for everyone is the gracious love of God and his son Jesus Christ that God so loved the world that he came into this world to save us
May the Holy Spirit so convict our hearts and light a fire for the gospel that we too like Philip will reach those
who we see as enemies
let us pray
Heavenly Father
forgive us
forgive us for not seeing the world the way that you see it
forgive us for thinking that other people are the problem and that we aren’t
forgive us for our own self-righteous Pride
Jesus you didn’t come to save The Righteous you came to save sinners
to bring us to repentance
Holy Spirit Will you so move and break our hearts that we would see our own sin
that we would see our own failures now we failed to love you and to love our neighbor
we fall short of your glory will you help us to see it so that we can know the fullness of the power of the Gospel the hope that we have not in what we have done but then what you have done for us and the way that you love us and that you’ve called us to yourself by grace and not by works to break our hearts that our hearts should be broken for the world that we would not stand in judgment but would seek
with compassion and kindness the salvation of those who are so desperately lost around us and Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen
Second Sunday of EpiphanyInformation about this week’s service:Readings:
- Luke 6:4-25
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Acts 8:1-25 Worship Songs:
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All Hail The Power of Jesus’ Name
- 10,000 Reasons
- How Great Thou Art
- How Great is Our God
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor Chuck Holiday
Scripture: Acts 7
Stephen gets a vision of Jesus standing in heaven to honor and welcome him into his eternal inheritance. Seeing Jesus stand for him empowered Stephen to stand up for Jesus and love his enemies even as they stone him.
TranscriptGreat to see you all impressed with how many of you got up this morning and how many of you watched the game last night all right it was a great game now just feel just pray for my Steelers this afternoon I’d appreciate that I have two teams what would Jesus do I mean your kids or grandkids wear their little what would Jesus do bracelets you know it was more popular maybe a decade ago but a good question uh you know this the remarkable parallel between how Stephen faced his accusers and ended his life on Earth with what Jesus did I mean even some of the exact phraseology uh you know Jesus at the end committing his soul to to his father into your hands I commit my spirit Stephen echoing the same words but but speaking to Jesus himself now the Risen the Risen Savior who’s passed ahead of him into and from through death in the grave and into eternal life and then the the final prayer for father don’t hold this against them and Stephen Jesus don’t hold this against them I mean the parallels are amazing if you just kind of go through the two death scenes trials and and conviction and death of these two um what would Jesus do well Stephen somehow was able to do it the way Jesus did it um but you know my one of my granddaughters gave me a bracelet for Christmas that um uh says he he would love first hwlf he would love first and that is the answer to that question isn’t it what would Jesus do he would love first he would love before he was loved he would initiate he would initiate love with those who hate him um and and but the question I want to ask you today is not what would Jesus do or how would you do what Jesus would do but where did Stephen get the power where did he get the composure where did he get them I mean asking what would Jesus do is a good thing to ask but it’s never particularly helped me be able to do it you know uh just knowing what to do is is not enough where did Stephen get the power to do this so we’re going to get to that in a minute um I want you to see first just focus on Stephen’s response to this unfair unjustified uh it’s spiritual abuse it’s physical abuse it’s abuse on every level he’s being put to death by the by the church by the spiritual leaders and and for no wrong of his own well it’s he’s got a brilliant sermon here he’s got a brilliant defense and maybe you’ll go back later in your in you know when you have more time to just kind of go back and look at it again but he Stephen you know these charges that he doesn’t that he’s careless about God’s law that he doesn’t really hold it in high value well he goes back and rehearses God’s law in great detail from memory often quoting specific verses from obscure passages in the Old Testament uh to prove to them no I’m one of you I I love God’s law I believe every word of God’s law oh we’re we’re in this together Brothers I’m one of you and then he reminds them because remember their specific accusation was he takes lightly the temple worship I mean he talks about us you know destroying the temple or be the temple being destroyed and which is anathema to every Earnest Jew and uh he reminds them that we have always been pilgrims and our place of worship has always been transitory he reminds them that the first thing God told our Father Abraham was to leave his home and then he gave him no permanent place to to live and then his descendants were went to Egypt and then they came back and then they went to Babylon and now we’re in Palestine again he’s reminding them that the story God’s story has always been of God’s people looking for their Eternal home which is not here which is not con constrained to this physical place of worship the temple it’s not saying the temple is not important but he said the temple has always pointed us to an eternal Temple where God really makes his dwelling known with his people he’s he reminds them in his in his sermon that our people have always resisted the prophets we have always been idolaters we have always killed God’s Messengers we have always been disobedient and and while we value the customs and the traditions and we prize this this um uh circumcision this ordinance that God gave us he turns and says but you have uncircumcised ears and hearts you have the physical sign but you’ve missed the spiritual reality of what it all means
I mean he sets them up he draws them in and then he turns on them in kindness but in truth I would say this you could sum up his whole sermon speaking the truth and kindness because he traps them for their sake
wise as a serpent an innocent is a dove he draws him in and then he turns on them using God’s history using the law using the history of their people saying you are just like your fathers who have always rejected the prophets and not only have you rejected the prophets who told us about the coming righteous one you killed the righteous one
you did it he he cornered him he put him in a place where they had to do one or two things they had to repent or they had to kill him and this was an illegal killing by the way they they it with Jesus you know they went through Great Lengths to get permission from the Romans to to execute him here they bypassed that entirely they were so enraged they were so full of indignation and fury there was no let’s go find pilate and get permission and let’s no it’s like they just took him right out and stoned him we’ll fix this later with pilot but this guy has got to go
and he did it in kindness
his final prayer being father please don’t hold this against them his prayer was that they would repent that they would be saved he stands with such ferocious courage against the enemies of God but for their sake
this is not the this is not the the rhetoric we so often see from God’s people on Facebook you know this snarky post against our cultural enemies this is not that at all this is a man who is broken for the Lost Souls of the people who were stoning him he loved first the way Jesus loved first he loved his enemies so here’s here’s you know we’re I mean it’s amazing really if you the more you study this it’s is where did Stephen get his resources to to do this is resources to to maintain such mental Clarity such such Perfect Memory of the law of God is he is he goes through these 60 verses of rehearsing the story of Israel where did he get the courage you know the subtleness the composure and his own soul to stay so present so engaged so kind and so loving and um and I’m gonna I I think I think we have this the an indication here of where he got this the strength and the resource to do this it’s it says if if you look toward the end of this section uh specifically look at verse 54 we’re going to focus now on the rest the rest of this time together when he when they heard this they were Furious and gnashed their teeth at him but Stephen Full of the Holy Spirit looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God look he said I see Heaven open in the son of man standing at the hand of God
nowhere else in Scripture that I can find do we have a picture of Jesus standing
at the right hand of God
the The Gospel reading that that we heard earlier where with the almost identical scenario Jesus standing before this very same group a few years earlier quotes the Old Testament saying you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the father Hebrews 1 Psalm 110 starts in Psalm with someone with 10 is the first time in the Bible where we get this picture of David writing says my Lord you know my lord said to Jesus you will sit at my right hand and so my enemies are made of your footstool picked up and many times in the New Testament including like Hebrews chapter 1 13 where the same verses quoted again but it’s always Jesus seated at the right hand of the father having done his work having said it is finished you know at the cross uh now he’s seated in his place of rest but here Stephen gets a vision of Jesus standing so the question you have to ask yourself is why is Jesus standing right and and we don’t I mean the rest of this is a little conjecture I just want to say that there are no there are no verses to prove this but I think it’s probably the truth and it makes sense because you have to ask yourself why is Jesus standing in this vision and not sitting right it’s not it’s not usual why is Jesus standing okay now uh a couple reasons I’d like to suggest to you and see if this makes sense to you I think it’s biblical I’m sure it’s biblical I think it’s why it’s by standing what was the Cry of God’s people throughout the whole Old Testament when it seemed like they were desperate and he was sitting on his hands and wasn’t doing anything to rescue his people what was their cry well you can find it in many of the Psalms arise oh Lord arise O Lord do something I’ll just give you one because we we don’t have to have much time but in Psalm 110 um I’m sorry psalm 10. verse 12. arise O Lord lift up your hand oh God do not forget the helpless uh now haven’t you essentially afraid that prayer a hundred times in your life God do something God do you see what they’re saying do you see what’s going on did you hear what the doctor just said God do something arise I’m glad you’re seated I’m glad you’re you know you’re you’re contented a happy God I’m glad that you’re not worried but God please get up and do something
it’s our it’s our cry for Vindication when we’ve been wrongly accused it’s our it’s our cry for Rescue and we’re desperate and there’s nowhere else to go
Lord arise
and Stephen saw Jesus get up off his throne
I think he was he it was what was it communicating oh don’t worry Stephen I’m gonna do something
I’m gonna do something
and it’s really interesting this little this little footnote Luke slips in there about Saul of Tarsus was there
because we’re getting ready to spend the rest of the book of Acts talking about Saul of Tarsus becoming Paul the Apostle who explodes the gospel throughout the whole region
and this was the beginning now Saul was complicit with them at this point but but Luke slips that little hint in there Jesus is a is a is a risen not just from the grave but he has stepped off his throne he is standing now he is ruling he is reigning oh he’s doing something he’s doing something
you know the only antidote that I know for the shame and the powerlessness we feel when we’re being bullied at school or fired at work or tormented by a terminal illness
is to is to be able to see Jesus standing to do something now may not be now it may not be the way you think he should act but knowing that he’s not indifferent that he’s not asleep that he’s not powerless being able to see what Stephen saw now you may not see it in a vision the way Stephen got to see it but Stephen already knew this you know before God gave him this Vision at the end you know at the beginning of his sermon when he’s faced with these accusations it says they are already at the beginning at the end of chapter six it says they saw his face like the face of an Angel God had already given him a rested composure because he knew that God promised to arise and defend his enemies and at the end in the moment of greatest need that promise becomes so clear because he gets to see it he gets to see right through the Heavens to see Jesus get off his throne
you know um in 1415 a hundred years before Luther nailed his 95 Theses at the door of Wittenberg there was another reformer named John Huss that is not nearly as well known because he was burned at the stake before his ministry got going so far but he basically said the same things Luther said
it was the same rediscovery of the truth of the word of God the the you know the the gospel of grace against all the the abuse of the spiritual abuse of the church at the time and they burned him at the stake but you know God gave him a vision it was so cool he said he actually said this 100 years before Luther when they were burning him taking him to burn him at the stake he said today you will roast a lean goose but 100 years from now you will hear a swan sing whom you will leave unroasted and no trap or net will catch him for you
God gave him a vision he didn’t know who Martin Luther was but he knew that his being burned at the stake was not in vain it was not the end that this was a forerunner of another who would come and would not be burned at a stake but would start a fire that would consume the rebellious church and it would start a whole new thing of which we are the beneficiaries the gospel of grace would be rediscovered that beautiful a hundred years from now he says he says there another will appear a swan will sing I said he said I may be a lean Goose that you’re going to roast but a hundred years from now a swan will sing whom you will leave unroasted and no trap or snare will catch him for you my friends I don’t know what your life is like right now surely sometime in this coming year you’re going to feel desperate we all do it’s going to feel hopeless as you think of your grandchildren their Rebellion their struggle with school they’re being far from the Lord the relational struggles your kids and grandkids go through or that you may yourself be facing struggles at work your own health there’s going to be times where we’re desperate and it’s going to feel like God’s not hearing us and he’s doing nothing my friends Jesus stands to rescue his people and he stands to defend the work of the Gospel no matter how desperate and discouraging sometimes it may feel okay now now the other reason why why else would a King Stand you know I I told you last time I preached I mean I got to go see the Messiah this year first time in you know live you know and it’s so moving right but especially when you get to the Hallelujah Chorus and everybody just stands you know why do we stand well you you probably know the story but when King George II heard the the uh premiere of the of Handel’s Messiah in London when it came to the Hallelujah course he just stood and of course the king stands everybody else stands too you know that’s not customary to stand in the middle of a classical concert so what moved the king to stand
and All His glory as as Messiah is presented and handles wonderful work okay so what does it take for the king to stand he sees the king of kings he sees his King and he wants to give him all honor and Glory now here’s the question what does it take for the King of Kings to stand
for you
I mean isn’t this amazing this is only the gospel friends the King of Kings is standing for Stephen you think that’ll give you a little strength to survive a stoning you’d run through a wall for for Jesus when you could see him standing for you
you know it’s one of the Prophecies of Zephaniah 3 19. I will Jesus this is God and Jesus saying I will give them praise and honor in every land where they were put to shame at that time I will gather you at that time I will bring you home I will give you honor and praise
do we deserve it is it because we’ve been such good boys and girls all our lives and no it’s because we’re in Christ our Union with Christ he paid every sin that we deserve to suffer for and he gave to us his righteousness he imputed it to us it’s to our account he views us as holy and righteous because we are righteous in Christ and he gives us praise in America
because we’re his children we did nothing to get there we did nothing to earn it we did nothing to hold on to it
my friends that’s a resource to live the Christian Life when you lack power when you lack strength when you don’t have what it takes to love your enemies or even get through the day
if you can believe that God is not sitting on his hands that the son of man who died for you is getting up off his throne to defend you to rescue who to rescue you to to win the day for the gospel
and he’s standing well what else what do you do when somebody that you that you love and respect walks into a room you stand here’s Jesus the son of man who has died for Stephen’s sins who loves him who’s so proud of his son he’s getting ready to welcome him into his eternal room and he stands
to give him a mug I know I I can’t prove that I told you that but you tell me why did the son of man who was always pictured is seated at the throne why is he standing now
I think he’s saying Stephen don’t worry this is not the end of the Gospel
this is the beginning of a new day and some of these very people are going to be converted because of your testimony today including Saul
and Stephen I am so proud of you so proud of you
come on home let’s be together so my friends you know you know there’s two this is this is a great this is a great thought Steven’s on trial he’s being falsely accused he’s powerless there’s nobody there to defend him in this human Court but God shows him another Court he sees the Heavenly Court this could be another reason why Jesus is standing he’s standing as the defense attorney before the judge offering his own blood and righteousness on behalf of his brother Stephen
this is so biblical right he is in heaven today as our mediator pleading his own blood and righteousness on our behalf that we might be with him forever so my friends if you’re a Christian I hope this encourages you if you’re not a Christian this is why you need to be one because there’s no other way there’s no other way you can’t do it with your own good works you can’t you can’t you’ll never present yourself righteous before the father because there’s too much stuff you can’t fix unless you’re different than me I doubt you are no but we have a savior he died for us he lives for us the question is is not what did Jesus do that’s that’s important but the question that will Empower you now is what is he doing now he’s standing for you so let’s stand for him
First Sunday of EpiphanyInformation about this week’s service:Readings:
- Mark 14:61-64
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Acts 7:1-60 Worship Songs:
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A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
- Christ is Mine Forevermore
- We Three Kings (Kings of Orient)
- Hymn of the Saviour
- Crown Him With Many Crowns Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:Worship Bulletin
The Second Sunday of Christmas Information about this week’s service:Lessons and Carols is a Morning Prayer Service. Scripture readings will be followed by a Christmas Hymn/song. Service begins at 10am. There will be no children’s program offered but the nursery is open for children 4 and under.
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Christmas EveInformation about this week’s service:Readings:
- Isaiah 9:1-7
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Luke 2:1-20 Worship Songs:
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Oh Come All Ye Faithful
- The First Noel
- Hark The Herold Angels Sing
- O Little Town Of Bethlehem
- O Holy Night
- Let There Be Peace on Earth
- Silent Night Holy Night
- Joy To The World Join this Christmas Eve livestream service begins at 6pm in...Day(s)
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Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor Chuck Holiday
Scripture: Acts 6:8-15
When our traditions become idols we can love church and reject Jesus. Even good traditions can become idols. We can end up making the means of grace substitutes for grace and missing Jesus and terribly mistreating people.
TranscriptHeavenly Father we thank you for these ancient words Jesus you are the desire of the Nations we do pray that you would bind all peoples in one heart and mind with your gospel
teach us how to face suffering in our own persecution
Lord with joy just as we see your Apostles rejoicing that they were counted as Worthy of the name of Jesus open our hearts that we may receive your word for us this day and Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen you may be seated
jealousy harassment Civil Disobedience violence you know it sounds like uh all the the makings for a great Hollywood Blockbuster movie right uh or maybe the headlines from the 2020 election season uh but but no alas uh this is not uh just some drama that’s been drummed up for uh to sell papers or to sell movies it’s Acts chapter 5 verses 17 through 42. and this linked the passage is all about jealousy power position persecution Civil Disobedience and and violence uh it’s about deep loyalties and the consequences that they bring anyone who tells you that that being a Christian is boring uh then they obviously have not read the history of the early church and at the same time anyone who believes that being a Christian and following Jesus is just going to magically make your life easy and trouble free they haven’t taken the time to read the book of Acts and the account of the early church for Max 5 17-42 it’s very clear that the being a follower of Jesus Christ is difficult it’s controversial and it’s even painful at times it means coming into conflict with a con conflict with the spiritual Powers the authorities of this world and often uh in the process even experiencing persecution and and pain and suffering that comes with that persecution but acts 5 17-42 also tells us of something amazing that’s completely counter-intuitive and completely counter cultural that being a follower of Jesus Christ that means that even in the midst of persecution and suffering and pain there’s joy and perhaps even more astonishing as followers of Christ we have joy because of the persecution and suffering and the pain that it brings it doesn’t make sense from a worldly mindset at all but is a church on a mission as a Spirit-filled member of the body of Christ acts 5 17-42 is a lesson that we must learn and even Embrace if we’re to live and what’s becoming uh ever increasing post-christian culture you know I saw a an article uh this week that documented that in 2022 for the first time uh since such data has been collected that ing in England less than 50 percent of the population identifies themselves as Christian and you might just say well that’s England right we’re we’re Americans who cares what’s happening in England uh but most researchers will tell you that that Europe is a strong indicator of the trends that will soon develop in America most often they’re just ahead of where we will end up and we’re already seeing evidence of that according to Pew research in 2011 uh 75 percent of Americans identified themselves as Christians in 2021 that number shrunk to 63 percent in just a 10 years that’s a 12 decrease in 2011 roughly 18 percent of Americans were not affiliated with any religion identifying as either agnostic atheist or nothing in particular and 2021 10 years later that number grew to 29 percent the 11 increase we’re just talking in a 10 year period the slides happening and we had better begin learning what we need to learn from the early church both in terms of how we are to Faithfully live as witnesses to the resurrected Jesus and and what we can expect from an increasingly unchristian culture in the book of Acts has a lot to teach us on both fronts especially these verses that we’re looking at together this morning you know two weeks ago at the beginning of chapter 5 we saw the first great threat to the Gospel Mission and the church and that was an internal threat and it was that threat of spiritual pride and hypocrisy that we saw in ananias and Sapphira uh there was and this was such a great threat that Satan had put in their hearts that God struck them both dead and in the process he put the fear of the Lord in the hearts of his people this week we turn our attention from an internal threat to the Gospel Mission to an external threat and in reality it’s not the first sign of that external threat in Acts 4 a few weeks ago we saw how Peter and John were brought before the same Jewish Council of the Sadducees because they were proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus to the people who had gathered there after the healing of that lame man they were so astonished of what they were seeing they all knew him they all had seen him every day and here he was jumping around and rejoicing and they were proclaiming the resurrected Jesus Peter proclaimed the gospel to them seeing this healed lame man that that Council they really found there was nothing they could do and so they charged them not to speak or to teach at all in the name of Jesus to which Peter said to them whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than the God you must judge for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and what we have heard they were then released and they went back to the rest of the disciples who who promptly gathered together and prayed to the Lord for boldness they prayed for boldness that they would continue to be proclaiming the the resurrected Jesus to continue to proclaim the gospel even in the face of this external threat well once again God did we saw last week wondrous signs around the Temple of Solomon’s Portico through the apostles people were being healed demon possessed folks for being of demons were being cast out of folks uh and we’re told that last week that multitudes of men and women were added to the number of those who were being saved will no sooner that the gospel begun to bear fruit that the Sadducees got their noses out of joint about it again we’re told that the high priest and all the Sadducees they rose up they were filled with jealousy we’re told and out of their jealousy they had the apostles arrested they had them put in prison now notice that the Sadducees were not concerned about the spiritual well-being of their people at all that wasn’t their motivation they were jealous they didn’t like uh the the attention that the apostles were getting uh they were jealous of their position the high esteem that we were told last week that all the people held the apostles in and the apostles posed a threat a threat to the Sadducees own power and position and so they had them arrested and thrown in prison then in verse 19 we’re told that in the night the an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors brought them out and said to them go and stand in the temple and speak to the people the words of life and that’s exactly what they did and that’s exactly where they were found the next morning but before we move on to we need to to consider to stop and consider something I think important about this uh this was not some Rogue Angel who saw the apostles and had pity on them and took action when the scriptures speak of the Angel of the Lord uh it’s it’s not talking about some Rogue messenger uh this is God’s Own messenger they’re acting as the agent of God himself speaking his word doing what God has told them to do and so what this is telling us is that God himself therefore intervened on behalf of the Apostles he brought them out of bondage told them to continue proclaiming the gospel to continue proclaiming the words of life to the people this was nothing less than the will of God which will be important to remember as we get a little further on In this passage to summarize what happens next this is a long passage and I wish we could go verse by verse but I got to summarize it somehow here the next morning the high priest called together the council and the Senate of the people of Israel then he called they called for the apostles to be brought before the the council but they found that while the doors were closed and the guards were still standing guard outside the the doors the apostles were gone and everyone was perplexed until they got word that the apostles were right back in the temple teaching and preaching to the people about Jesus they had been rescued from the threat by God but in obedience to the word of God they put themselves Right Back In Harm’s Way this time the captain and the officers of the temple they went and they got them but not by force this time because we’re told they were worried about what the people would do to them they were worried about their own position they were worried they’d get stoned the fact the apostles were not taken by for force it also means that the apostles went with them willingly they went with them willingly they could have caused a riot they could have incited the people to rise up in their defense to fight for their freedom they could have in fact that’s what the the Sadducees were worried about but they didn’t they willingly they respectfully and they graciously and even submissively went with them when they were asked to go now when they arrived in front of the council the high priest began to to question them and his line of questioning was all about two things it was all about power and it was all about position and the two things the Sadducees those were the two things the Sadducees held dear the most he accused them of two things number one defying their order not to teach and preach in Jesus name and number two that they were intending to pin the blame for Jesus’s death on them that’s what they were accused of that’s what they were most worried about uh they had no interest in the truth or the falsehood of the claims that the apostles were making all they cared about was their own power their own authority their own position as long as their power and position were secure they could have cared less about the people but this moment gave Peter the opportunity to speak up in their defense and he said on behalf of all the apostles we must obey God rather than man they were under Authority but it was not ultimately the Jewish Authority that they were under they were respectful they were gracious they were even subservient to the Jewish authorities unless the Jewish authorities directly contradicted the authority of God unless it directly contradicted the word of God that had been given to them and here we have the very basis for Christian civil disobedience if our Civil Authorities call us to disobey the word of God our loyalty to our King Jesus then we’re called to disobey a civil our Civil Authorities and to remain faithful to God our savior and King Jesus now how does this work out practically right well I mean I think we can go back to the early days of the the pandemic and kind of see how this this played out remember we faced the shutdown uh and it was done it was it was enacted and the interest of Public Health well in that case we weren’t being singled out we weren’t being just shut down or silenced as Christians uh and it was not a permanent shutdown uh and in that case we were called to be obedient to our Civil Authorities now had we been singled out and churches had been told that we were dangerous to society and could no longer gather together could no longer teach and preach in the name of Jesus well then we would have been called to disobey our Civil Authorities and to be loyal to our ultimate Authority gee that’s what our country was founded upon right the Puritans they fled England because of persecution they were forbidden to gather and worship by the church of England by the way yes it’s one of those dirty little truths about our Anglican forefathers they weren’t always right
if we’re forbidden to gather if we’re for forbidden to to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ then we’re called to obey our number one Authority but to respectfully and graciously disobey our Civil Authorities and that’s exactly what the apostles did they continued to share the gospel graciously with the Jewish authorities who were presenting them who are persecuting them and who are threatening their lives friends they were they were not uh they were not just arguing for the truth of the Gospel this wasn’t just a debate that was happening on the council floor I know we can kind of sometimes look at it that way who’s going to win the debate who’s going to be right they were proclaiming the gospel for the Salvation of their fellow Jews even for those who were against them and they proclaimed three things Peter proclaimed on behalf of the Apostle Apostles that God raised Jesus from the grave that God exalted him as Savior of the world and therefore he has ultimate Authority and that God gave and still gives his holy spirit to all who obey by putting their faith in Jesus they were inviting their persecutors into a relationship with God through Jesus the savior of the world that they themselves had had it over to the Roman authorities to be killed they cared enough about them and wanted them to find Salvation in Christ you know it reminds me of uh dare I say this of a Seinfeld episode uh you know Elaine was uh was dating a man named putty I did mention this years ago but you don’t remember it anyway and they got into an argument about going to hell and Elaine discovered that putty thought that she was going to hell and she rightly gets mad at him about it not because he thinks that she’s going to hell but because he didn’t seem to care enough to uh to try to save her the apostles had Grace for their persecutors because of the grace that paid themselves had received from God They too had abandoned Jesus Peter had denied Jesus three times but Jesus so loved them that he reached back into their lives and saved them by his grace alone and they wanted their persecutors these Apostles wanted their persecutors to know that Jesus wants to forgive them as well well their gracious efforts were not received the council wanted to kill them uh after when they had heard the gospel that was when a Pharisee named gamaldio a well-respected rabbi spoke up and his advice was to let them go because as we’ve seen in the past and some of these movements if it’s of God it will succeed if it’s not they will be dispersed and it’ll come to nothing and even worse if it is of god then they’ll be guilty of having opposed what God was trying to do but before you give Gamaliel too much credit know that he wasn’t a friend to Christianity nor does his logic work out in all circumstances uh but he was not a friend to Christians in fact he was Paul’s rabbi he was the one who Paul uh then Saul studied under the same Paul who would become so driven by Zeal and hatred for the Christians that he would lead the charge of the persecutions that are to come uh more on that later as we will get further into the book of Acts but the council did take gamaliel’s advice so the council had the apostles beaten just as Jesus was beaten charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and then they just let them go but as the apostles left something really nothing short of miraculous happened they weren’t relieved just to have had their lives spared they were not just so frightened that they ran away and hid no we’re told that they were filled with joy the fact that they were counted as worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus see these guys their lives have been so transformed by the gospel that they were filled with joy even in the face of their own suffering and pain and persecution these same men who wants themselves had run away from Jesus and his greatest moment of Need for fear for their own safety and their own well-being these men had abandoned Jesus and filled with shame for their cowardice had been so transformed by the God who loves them and forgave them and restored them that they now found joy and their suffering for Christ
oh and did they stop proclaiming the gospel openly and publicly no they didn’t uh their loyalty to God and His grace was bigger than their the own threat of personal harm and persecution so so what can we in a in an increasingly post-christian culture take from from this passage and I believe there’s three important lessons that for us as we continue to live the mission of the Gospel is the church and the world today number one as followers of Jesus Christ we should expect persecution we should expect persecution you know just go back and consider this passage and the apostles God rescued them from prison right that was awesome God miraculously came and saved them from that bondage and then he called them right back into Harm’s Way God doesn’t protect us always from all persecution sometimes he calls us right into it for the sake of the Gospel you did not spare his own son sometimes calls us into suffering for Jesus name’s sake but at the same time I think we have to be careful what we call persecution we have to be very careful what we call persecution every suffering every every pain every Injustice that we think we experience it doesn’t mean that it’s persecution sometimes people may exclude us sometimes people may avoid us leave us out not want to be around us not because we’re followers of Christ because but because more often we’ve probably been ungracious rude insensitive maybe completely oblivious to the situation as it’s really going on in that moment sometimes we can use the gospel as a sword in people’s lives and not as the healing medicine that it is in people’s lives it is true that if we’re not experiencing opposition from Satan or from other people then we’re probably not really sharing the gospel in the world at all but at the same time we have to be wise we have to be understanding about how we’re sharing the gospel with others which brings us to the second point that I think lesson that we must learn from acts 5 17-42 and the second lesson is this that we’re called to be respectful and gracious in the face of persecution
Our concern is for the Salvation of souls it’s not in trying to always win the debate or the argument a rejection of the Gospel message that we share with others is not a rejection of us we are not to take it personally when the apostles were taken by the Jewish authorities they didn’t fight back they didn’t incite a riot they could have but they respected the Civil Authorities they followed them willingly in Romans 12 the Apostle Paul he said it this way he says bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse them and then a little bit later in the chapter he said beloved never avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord to the contrary if your enemy is hungry feed him if he’s thirsty give him something to drink for by so doing you will heat burning coals on his head do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good
the important lesson for us to learn as we continue to live into this increasing post-christian culture and then finally number three we learned this lesson when you’re persecuted for Jesus sake consider it joy that you who were once an enemy of God have been now by the grace of God have been counted as worthy to suffer for his name’s sake you know James 1 2 James says it this way count it all joy my brothers when you face when you meet Trials of various kinds friends we can expect persecution we can face it with Grace for our own persecutors and even Joy of being counted as worthy because of what Hebrews 12 tells us about Jesus our savior this is what it tells us that Jesus is the founder and the Perfecter of our faith for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throneka of the Throne of God and Friends he did it for you and for me he did it because he so loves the world because he loves the world and Longs for them to know know the joy Joy of his salvation let’s pray
Heavenly Father this passage is heavy
none of us want the face suffering and pain and persecution we don’t want to be alienated from people in our lives we don’t want to be thought of as the as the crazy cast out that no one wants around it hurts it’s painful
father will you help us as we seek this mission that you have called us on to continue proclaiming your gospel but to realize it’s not about us
that whether someone receives it or not is not an indictment on us personally
it’s the work that you Holy Spirit are doing in their lives holy spirit will you give us wisdom and discernment to be gracious to be gentle be kind to be Discerning in how we share the gospel with others that it would never be about us winning an argument
it would be about the salvation of the souls that we are communicating with
father we ask that when we do face persecution for your namesake that you would fill us with all joy remembering that once we were your enemies but now you have counted us as Worthy by the grace of God Alone to suffer for his namesake
and may your mission continue
through our lives as we live out our lives as your Witnesses in this world Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen
They receded so great to see you all this morning boy you look so festive and a lot so you got your plaid on I’m not sure what that means but it looks nice honored to be able to open God’s word again of course this morning if we get closer to Christmas and just anticipate the great coming of Our Lord. Let’s pray together God would you come and by your spirit now help us help me to see and speak clearly what you have for us your church today and may we all have ears and hearts to hear what you want to say to us and especially we pray that we would see Jesus again more glorious and beautiful than ever his name we pray amen you know I preached this section from acts quite a few times actually in the course of my Ministry and uh saw something new this time that I just never saw before and it’s like I don’t know how I missed it you know it’s one of those things it’s like wow not that the other sermons were inappropriate or false it’s just that there’s a like a key thing here that uh just never hit me before that’s in verse 13 and 14 and the question is like why did they get so mad at Stephen he was the first martyr at the church you know just uh steal the Thunder for a couple weeks from now when we get back to acts but um this didn’t go well for Stephen in the in the Earthly sense I mean they they got so mad at him for what he said to in the defense to the uh Jewish leaders that they killed him or smarter the church and um but but what was it that triggered them and it’s it’s pretty specific in verse 13 and 14 this fellow never stops speaking against this holy place that is the temple and against the law for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the Customs Moses handed down to us this is what triggered their rage the conversation was not specifically about the deity of Christ whether Christ is the Messiah or not that was all you know in in part of a lengthier uh thought process but the thing they couldn’t stand was the fact that
he’s going to change everything about what we love about church
and and you know from our reading in Mark and there are many other gospel readings where we see the same thing this is what they ultimately tried Jesus for this is the thing that tipped the scales in terms of we’ve got to destroy this guy why he was teaching New Traditions for the church
the implications of Jesus the Messiah coming the one who is going to fulfill all the Old Testament traditions was that we’re not going to get to do Church the way we like it anymore
now think about that
I mean it’s a really scary thing to think no no you know I know they were the Jews and we’re the Christians they were the Old Testament Church these were the people of God who had the word of God in the next chapter in in Stephen’s defense he actually refers to the Old Testament Jews in the wilderness as the church the Ecclesia in the wilderness this was the church that rejected Jesus
because of the implications it had from the way they could do Church
isn’t that a little sobering it’s it scared me when I thought about that it’s possible for us to love church and reject Jesus
you know uh Debbie I got to go to Messiah last night now I love them the sights the first time we ever actually got to go and see a live performance and it was just beyond uh anything we we could have comprehended the powerful words of scripture you know just the whole thing is just word for word out of the scripture with the most beautiful music probably ever composed I mean it was just it’s just a wonderful experience you know I thought that you know a lot of these people probably don’t know Jesus but but they go to the Messiah every every Christmas
right and and maybe a lot of these people like us will be in church on Sunday morning because it’s it’s just a wonderful tradition
now so let’s talk about our traditions for a minute okay because I think this is going to get real relevant for us and our just our personal lives hopefully why do we love our Traditions why are we so rooted in our customs and our Traditions well a lot of them are good A lot of them are god-given you know a lot of the the traditions we love are from God like the Lord’s Supper I mean that’s not something we figured out but we did have to figure out how to do it right and churches can fight and have wars and kill each other historically over the right way to do this I mean it’s a sad history but Christians killed other Christians because of a disagreement of how to celebrate the Lord’s Supper and I you know I’ve been in different Traditions I love the fact that we do it every Sunday a lot of churches don’t you know and Traditions are important uh they’re not meaningless they’re not they’re not um insignificant that is the furthest thing from the truth the reason that we struggle with this so much is because they are so important we love our Traditions rightly so
for a number of reasons one is we’re we’re sensual beings I mean God created us with bodies with ears that appreciate music and eyes that appreciate Beauty a sense of feeling loved you know there’s something about being together with people that you’ve done life with the connection you feel when you’re in a in a worshiping community of people that that you know and you’ve you know you’ve buried each other’s loved ones and you’ve baptized each other’s babies and there’s a there’s a sense of connection in those Traditions that’s God ordained it’s the way he made us to worship together not in isolation as a family of Believers our Traditions are are wonderful because they’re so powerful because we are made sensual beings now God took great pains in the Old Testament to make the temple a beautiful place
because God created us to appreciate Beauty and and to appreciate impact meaning you know so our liturgies and our music and our even the architecture is is not insignificant it’s it’s the way we’re made to know God into and to be drawn to him through our senses it’s through our traditions music and architecture and rituals are important
they ground us you know there’s there’s a world of psychology there’s a book that’s been become very very popular in the last decade it’s called our bodies keep the score and the basic premises your your physical body remembers what your mind forgets and uh for instance my wife still struggles to get uh she’s with venison it’s being cooked it reminds her of the first time she had venison when she was pregnant and throwing up all the time with every meal and so to this day if she gets the smell of venison cooking it can kind of give her a little queasy stomach you know now you have things like that don’t you sometimes people have seasonal affect disorder where at a particular time of year they just get depressed and they don’t know why or what happened but it was the time of year when things were hard or some tragic thing happened in their lives and you know our bodies remember uh painful traumatic things that are that our minds don’t even always recall but it works the positive way too our bodies remember the good the good things some of you will just have an immediate hopeful cheering wonderful feeling when you go back into a Christmas setting you know it’s it’s one of the reasons Christmas means so much to our society because most of us can access some Christmas memory you know if it just it was it was a moment of connection that we rarely got in our families the rest of the year you know it was a it’s just a time you know for gift giving yes but I mean it had special connection to deeper spiritual realities that just lift our Spirits again right I mean our Traditions are terribly important it’s why as a nation most of us will celebrate Christmas Christian or not
because of that the associations it brings with us okay so so you know Customs traditions they’re good many of them are god-given some of them we come up with on our own but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong it can be very helpful and and um you know one of the challenges of being a new mom you know is thinking okay what are our Christmas tradition is going to be and and uh you know because I mean one of the struggles you know in a marriage is she has her traditions and he has his traditions and what are we gonna do foreign sometimes they coincide beautifully but often they don’t you know um so but but my point is this is not about Traditions not meaning something this is the opposite Traditions are terribly important and in our church traditions and our family traditions are very important things like Advent you know what what do you do for Advent and how do you celebrate Christmas eve those are really good questions important questions but here’s the warning our Traditions can become idols
okay
think of the traditions and the Customs that God has actually given us like the Lord’s Supper like baptism I mean as a pastor over a year many years and David’s experiences at all times people call out of the blue who want their babies baptized and and have no interest in being part of the church or going to church or but they do want their baby baptized right uh it’s a good tradition it’s a god-given god ordained tradition but it can become an idol completely detached from the thing it’s supposed to point us to the Lord’s Supper I mean you know the church is assumed certain wings of the church parts of the church are consumed with being able to be at the Lord’s supper at the Lord’s table uh whether they heard a word or the sermon or not or any I mean just as long as they get to partake you know it can become an idol detached from the meaning of the thing and um that’s that’s what Jesus is referring to in the scripture the gospel we read and back in Mark 7 and there are actually many passages in Jesus ministry that are similar to this he was constantly bumping up against the Pharisees over seemingly really little things like did the disciples washed their hands correctly before they hate that was a big thing for these Jewish leaders very offensive to them and you know that’s the context here in in Jesus said you know they observed many other Traditions such as Washington cups and pitchers and so forth and and uh the question is why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with unclean hands and he replied Isaiah was right when he prophesied prophesied about two hypocrites he said these people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me they worship me in vain their teachings are about rules taught by men
you have let go of the commands of God and are holding to the traditions my friends even the god-ordained Traditions what would call the means of Grace
things like reading our Bibles in public in church and worship singing of hymns and songs spiritual songs which God commands and the Lord’s table even the things the Traditions that God commands the means of Grace can become substitutes for Grace
you’re right
reading the Bible daily can be my checklist of God loves me now and he’s going to bless me because I had my devotions I said my prayers I went to church
I recited the Creed the means of Grace can become substitutes for Grace God God’s Gonna bless me now because I did what I was supposed to do you see how harmful that can become to our spiritual connection to God the means of Grace can actually block us from the presence of his spirit an awareness of our of our need for a savior
and our when our Traditions become idolatrous they can become stumbling blocks to others they can they can actually disconnect us our hearts from God and they can create they can cause us to become really mean to each other
look how mean they were to Stephen because he was saying the Messiah has come in some of our Traditions are not necessary any longer
whoa now he has to die
our traditions of reverence when we come into God’s holy place which are valid good traditions but they can become so sadly off-putting to people who come from other traditions
some people come into the in you know there’s a site I used to have a sign on my over the doors of my church entering the sanctuary the Lord is in his holy place let all the Earth keep silent yeah we love to put a scripture verse you know with our with our Traditions right
when we planted our church in Orlando it was very different Traditions not right or wrong this is different people came in laughing and talking and it was so loud you could hardly start the service you had you had to crank the music way up before people even knew we were doing church and finally they’d settle down and we could now we could have a reverent moment you know just different ways of getting there you know but boy we can be mean to each other if if we don’t get it the way we’re used to now sometimes we’re super I think we look at this superficially just saying well I just want the way I want it I think it’s deeper than that I want it the way it’s been meaningful to me you know most of our our love for church is tied to a time in our lives when God met us in a specific context you know it was through specific song or a specific way of doing the Lord’s Supper you know it was it was it was in a specific context of worship that God met us and so it’s it’s deeply meaningful for us and very difficult to think of doing in another way right I mean this is not easy
I mean I’ll give you some obvious examples I think we can all agree with so we don’t I don’t want to throw a bomb in the middle of Christmas here um but think of you know for years those of you come from a Catholic tradition the mass had to be in Latin some of you old enough to remember when that changed well for those of you who knew the Latin mass that wasn’t necessarily a good day well now it’s just in English and everybody understands it and kind of lost some of the the richness no but obviously I think we can all say today yeah it’s a good thing that everybody can understand the words
you know Kathleen and I were talking because we ran into them at the Messiah last night and they had the words of the Messiah up on the screen you know number one they they really did a good job they put those words on the screen that did not look like a screen you know it didn’t destroy the beauty of the room at all it was amazing how they did that but I thought wow I’ve never heard the words of the Messiah like I heard them last night because I could see the words that was beautiful it was helpful but I imagine you know somewhere along the line they got some grief for putting the words on the wall when they you know I don’t know but but there are things um I’ll give you another one the King James version of the Bible I grew up on that you know I I understood it very few other people in our society who didn’t grow up with it understand what the words mean well you know it’s probably a good thing that we do the English Standard Version here on Sunday mornings right I think most of us would say yeah let’s not make our traditions an idol okay
but it’s hard
it’s hard you know when when um my family left we’re in a suburbs of Chicago for 19 years had all our babies there raised them in our at a Christian School in our church and they were all right there you know growing up with the kids they were baptized with and confirmed with and um you know it was a pretty
comfortable little safe place in a lot of ways and when we left there and went to Orlando to plant a church uh in 94. it was really different and and uh because we didn’t know anybody in the city not a person realtor helped me unpack the truck you know and uh
Christmas our first Christmas really really was tough I don’t think it hit us quite as hard as until then when we realized we don’t have any Christmas parties uh we we had Christmas children’s Christmas celebrations you know with so many kids it’s so well done and beautiful music and all the Christmas and we didn’t know where to go to church for Christmas Eve we didn’t have a church we had come to start a church but we didn’t have a church and so we finally found a sort of the equivalent of an 1122 in Orlando back in the 90s you know it was the up and coming and it did a really great job with their music program and we thought let’s go there and uh and we were going to do something really extravagant that we never did we were all going to go out to dinner afterwards you know as a family all six of us you know and splurs and uh we got to church probably 15 minutes early and they turned us away because they were full
we were all dressed up you know and nowhere to go
and I had been the pastor
you know my whole life I grew up my dad was a pastor now I’ve been a pastor for 20 years and and we couldn’t find a seat in church and I was like kids let’s go get some dinner and then we’ll come back for the next service well I never tried to eat dinner out on a restaurant on a Christmas Eve it wasn’t a restaurant anywhere in the city so we’re sitting at a 7-Eleven eating Sun Chips and drinking Slurpees
waiting for the next service and I said Merry Christmas kids
but we did get into the next service because we got there really early
and I think it hit me like it has never hit me before
what it must have been like for Jesus on Christmas
have you ever thought of what the traditions of Heaven might have been before he left
the music
the angel choir
that was his tradition
I can’t even imagine the beauty of music you know and God graciously gave him the echo a little echo of that at the at the stable you know he sent a choir just so Jesus could say hey it’s not all gone but oh my goodness goodness having to listen to that with human ears instead of God ears you know I can’t imagine uh imagine the the connection that he left the connection the custom of being face to face with the father and the spirit every moment of Eternity
and for the first time finding out what it feels like to be alone
to be hungry to be thirsty to be wet and can’t change his own diaper
but Jesus left everything familiar everything’s safe everything about him
he was the one the Angels were singing to
and now he’s just one of us
but he did it willingly on purpose to save us to redeem us to love us and to be loved by us my friends um so so when we think of our Christmas how can we do Christmas Eve what can we do with Christmas Eve that will be for others hold on to the traditions we love but what would it look like for us to invite others into
the real meaning of Christmas to prayerfully asked I don’t know what it looks like I had a lady putting up some lights yes a couple days ago and one of the neighbors you know we were talking and somehow Christmas Eve came up and she said well where do you guys go to church and I I told her you know um it might be somebody that God wants you to bring with on Christmas Eve Christmas day you know whether you come you know or you still wrapping presents in your family what would it look like for you to intentionally lead your family yeah it’s it’s it’s really a weird dilemma When Christmas comes on Sunday I think it’s it’s really a strange dilemma right because Lord knows we don’t want Jesus to interrupt Sunday uh Christmas I mean now what do you do I don’t know and and I’m not I’m not throwing shade on anybody who thinks we should stay home and celebrate the family I’m not saying that at all Christmas Eve you know Saturday night worship Jesus but but what would it look like to make sure that you know our family celebration or whatever it is there’s at least a moment to acknowledge who this is about you know it’s hey kids could I just read this Christmas story this morning before we destroy the paper wrapping paper and you know uh could could we pause for a minute to just think what what has Jesus done for us this you or or it might mean hey let’s unwrap The Presence at seven and eight and whenever as soon as the kids wake up and let’s go to church you know for an hour and let’s remember why we do this whatever it is to be intentional about it to not let the Traditions steal Christmas but let them draw us into Christmas and for ourselves for our own families but then what would it look like for us to reach others Christmas Eve may God help us because Jesus came a long way and gave up a lot of customs and traditions that he loved
to meet us and to redeem us to die on a cross for our sins and he invites us now to join him
to reach the world to examine our Traditions do they help us or do they hurt us in our mission to reach the lost world for Jesus
God we ask you to come Holy Spirit unify us not over what we like and don’t like but over what we have received from you
what we feel called to do to extend your Gospel Kingdom throughout this Earth Lord we pray for the day when
the visible reign of Jesus will be manifest in every every corner of this world
when you will become the king of kings and Lord of lords in the eyes of all God we look for that day we we ask you to give us patience as we wait for it but also Lord just show us how we can today be a part of your kingdom coming your will be done on Earth is in heaven
amen
Fourth Sunday In Advent Information about this week’s service:Readings:
- Mark 7:1-9
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Acts 6:8-15 Worship Songs:
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Come Though Long Expected Jesus (Hyfrydol)
- Hymn of the Savior
- There is a Redeemer
- What Wondrous Love is This (Wondrous Love)
- O Come All Ye Faithful Join this Sunday's livestream service here in...Day(s)
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Hour(s)
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Minute(s)
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Second(s)
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:Worship Bulletin
Click Here to View the Sermon
Watch & listen to every sermon on your favorite podcast software:
Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 5:17-42
As we live more and more in a post-Christian culture we must learn the lessons of the early church as they faced persecution for their faith in Jesus. Acts 5:17-42 tells us of the eternal threats and personal suffering that our spiritual forefathers faced for their witness of the Gospel. Come and find not only the knowledge and tools to face persecution, but the unexpected joy that God’s grace pours out to those who are persecuted.
TranscriptHeavenly Father we thank you for your word will you come now by the power of your Holy Spirit open our hearts in our minds that we have receive your words for us this morning lead us to your throne of grace that we might find help and mercy and this our time of need and Jesus we pray this in your mighty name amen you may be seated now I know we have some folks who were visiting with us uh for the first time this morning uh we’re in the middle of a uh well not even in the middle we’re still towards the beginning of a sermon series uh preaching through the whole book of Acts uh and so we have made it this morning up to Acts chapter six but uh but I do hope and pray that uh just because it’s part of a greater series I’m sure you’ll be able to to pull something from this even though you’ve uh missed the the rest of it um it’s one of the blessings and the curses to doing a whole uh series through a long book like this that uh when folks just step into it uh it can be a little bit harder to follow along but over the past few weeks we’ve been looking at uh in Acts the major threats to the the early church faced in in their mission of the Gospel is they continued the work uh that Jesus had begun in his Earthly Ministry Jesus came into this world ushering the kingdom of God and advent’s all about looking forward to when Jesus is going to come again and bring his kingdom into his fullness but as we’re living in the in between time that that in between time of Jesus’s first Advent his first coming uh and his second Advent some call that this time the already but the not yet uh in this in between time we’re called as followers of Christ to continue to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and to Proclaim it in word and to Proclaim it indeed because it’s God’s desire that none should perish but that all should reach repentance I think you’ve heard that passage before right that that God does not desire that any one should perish but uh that comes from second Peter chapter three but the very next verse that follows that also gives us a sobering reality but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a Roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed the time is now and that time is of the essence we’ve got work to do we have a mission that we’ve been called to to live into the good news to spread and it is truly a mission with life and death consequences the early church knew it and they were busy living it every day and we’ve been looking at that uh up through now and we will continue to look at it and because the mission of the Gospel is the hope of the world it should not be a surprise to any of us that that mission was under threat lives are at stake souls are hanging in the balance therefore Satan and his spiritual forces of evil who were opposed to God and his plan for the Salvation of the world have been hard at work threatening that mission to discourage the body of Christ to do all they can to to render it weak and useless in the world for that reason Satan put into the hearts we looked at a few weeks ago ananias and Sapphire a desire a desire to be important a desire to be respected a desire to be honored among the the disciples as members of the church while truthfully they were just lying to God and holding back proceeds of their own land for themselves and then last week we saw an external threat from the Jewish authorities or who persecuted the apostles uh had them beaten and ordered them to keep quiet about Jesus not to teach and to preach or to do any of these Miracles anymore in the name of Jesus well this morning in Acts chapter 6 1-7 yet another threat to the mission of the Gospel creeps up into the body of Christ and I know this is one that all of us can relate to in fact we might have experienced it uh in previous churches certainly not this one uh and that threat uh is a threat of division you know next to the hypocrisy that we saw in ananias and Sapphire division within the body of Christ has the potential of absolutely destroying the witness of the church you see the gospel it’s all about unity and Jesus came to heal the divisions of Our Lives that are the result of our own sin and Rebellion Jesus unites us with God he unites us to one another he unites us to the the creation itself and when the body of Christ is Rife with division the division undermines the grace of God and people especially unbelievers take notice and and don’t want anything to do with that the message that we Proclaim you know acts 6 1-7 tells us all about the cause of the division that’s found its way into the church and now the church handled that division in such a way that it allowed the word of God to continue to increase and the number of disciples to grow and the division it describes as something we can all relate to every one of us at the very heart of the division was a strong sense of self-righteousness entitlement
that reared its ugly head in the form of grumbling and complaining and make no mistake self-righteousness will destroy the mission of the church because self-righteousness undermines the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and so I want to work through these verses together uh this morning and the next few minutes so I invite you to either open your bulletins and turn to acts 6 1-7 or if you brought your Bibles you can open those up as we work through this together this is what we’re told in verse 1. now in these days when the disciples were increasing a number a complaint by the hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution you know before we dive into the division itself we learned something important about the Gospel Mission of the church here The Gospel Mission of the church is not uh just about sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in Word with people the proclamation of the Gospel is and it always has been in word and indeed the two go together hand in hand one without the other is not the gospel at all and here we see how the body of Christ was living out the mission by caring for those who were in need namely hear the widows those who were without means of support on their own the law of God made it very clear that widows were to be cared for by their families but there were those who had no families and those who needed help and support in the body of Christ used the money that had been given to the apostles to help make sure the widows had the food they needed to survive what a powerful witness to the rest of the the community around them about the love of God and his son Jesus Christ that God cares about it cares for us not only spiritually but he cares for us physically as well the gospel it truly is holistic it was such a powerful witness that it’s not surprising that Satan certainly took opportunity to spoil it now while this passage today doesn’t specifically tell us that uh Satan was involved uh uh I can tell you that there’s little doubt that Satan and his minions are at work in this because they use the tactics that they always use and that is that they simply appeal to our own sinful Natures to try to bring division into the church everything was going great in the Gospel Mission for this early church yes they had dealt with persecution we talked about it last week but the number of disciples it was increasing people were hearing the good news they were repenting of their sins and they’re finding forgiveness they’re finding new life in Christ you know history is proved it over and over again that the gospel it thrives under persecution external threats uh and persecution the church continues to grow it isn’t hindered but they’re in the midst of so much growth and success boom it happens a complaint is lodged now I know that you’re shocked right how could there ever be any complaining in church uh there isn’t no one ever complains everyone’s always happy and content right with the style of the music with the the hair length of the acolytes the uh the temperature and the sanctuary the color of the rugs everybody’s always happy and content nobody ever has an opinion uh you know there’s a reason we don’t have a suggestion box in the back of the sanctuary because it would always be full
yeah but the the truthfully the complaining that’s happening in Acts six was a bit more than just some sort of legitimate opinion or complaint uh the word that’s translated here literally means grumbling uh and what it means that there was a secret debate going on there was a secret debate going on a secret displeasure was being whispered behind other people’s backs uh and this was no joking matter in fact it was absolutely toxic it was toxic because it threatened the unity of the church and therefore it threatened the witness of the Gospel but what was it about complaining that made it so toxic and what’s it what is it about complaining now that makes it it’s so toxic in our lives and to the mission that we’re called to because the truth is we all do it we all complain either loudly for others to hear or we certainly complain in our own Hearts quietly you know in Philippians 2 4 tells us do all things without grumbling or disputing but we all do it so why is it so bad yeah why why is it so destructive to the gospel well the reason is because complaining actually reveals something about ourselves something that goes much deeper something that’s toxic about the human heart and completely undermines the gospel of grace you know I’ll give you an example pointing at myself of course you know I come home after a long day at the church dealing with problems making lots of difficult decisions having uh difficult conversations and when I get home what do I find the kids fighting and so I snap and I’m complaining to them about how I’ve had to deal with all this stuff all day long and now I come home and I have to deal with this now whether I actually say it out loud or not I’m definitely thinking it I’m thinking it in my head and in my heart and in the process in my heart of hearts uh what’s really happening is I want them to feel guilty about how they’ve bothered their old man uh and interrupted my peace and my comfort but you know that really actually reveals about me that in my heart of hearts I feel like I am too important to be bothered with their problems it reveals what I value most is peace and comfort more than in that moment I value them add it all to all together reveals my own self-righteousness you know because I really think I deserve peace and comfort you know I deserve more respect than I’m getting from them all the complaining did was just reveal the true state of my own heart my self-righteous heart I deserve better and I deserve better because I’m good I’m important and people should respect me friends self-righteousness is absolutely contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ it spits in the face of the god of Grace the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the reality that my righteousness it isn’t my own it’s the righteousness of Christ that’s been freely given to me by the grace of God through faith in Jesus’s finished work on my behalf when I complain and it really just exposes me in my own heart that I’m still acting like my righteousness before God is something that I’ve earned on my own and therefore it is something that I deserve I have a right to it and how dare anyone get in my way of what I deserve what a Wretched Man that I am when I really examine it to quote Romans and the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 to deny the grace of Christ and to try to claim it as my own and as Paul said who will deliver me from this body of death to this complaining actually is revealing about me that’s what’s happening in the church in Acts 6 they were secretly grumbling and complaining about an injustice that had been had revealed itself in the church you see the church at the time was made up of converts from primarily two different cultural groups of Jewish people they were the hellenists and the Hebrews both were Jewish but they came from different cultures the hellenists had come from Greek speaking towns and cities outside of Israel they were part of the diaspora they primarily spoke Greek and they were certain aspects of Greek culture that they had they had embraced and the Hebrews though they they came from Israel they were they primarily spoke Aramaic and each side of this the Hellenist and the Hebrews had a long history uh of looking down on each other and now in the church the hellenists complained that their widows were being neglected in the distribution of food you know they weren’t being served fairly out of the provisions that the apostles had provided and the money that had been given to them now we don’t know if this was a fair assessment of the situation or not uh what we do know is that it was a secret complaint that they had that was happening behind the backs of all those around including the apostles and for that reason we know that it was coming from a place of self-righteousness and a self-righteous indignation the hellenists were outraged at how they were being treated they thought they deserved better they could have very openly made their case before the apostles they could have pointed out what was happening that this wasn’t fair that this was unjust but that’s not how they handled it instead they complained they grumbled behind everyone else’s back stirring up discontent stirring up seeds of division and it was all fueled by the sense of of self-righteous indignation because they deserve better they should not have been treated this way and so in their own Hearts they felt completely Justified to complain this way that kind of self-righteousness in the church as I’ve said it divides it destroys the witness of the gospel because it undermines the gospel of grace God’s Gift of forgiveness and righteousness to undeserving sinners
this had to be addressed and address it the apostles did you know when the apostles got wind of this complaining uh that was secretly happening and was uh was sowing seeds of discontent and division they gathered all of the disciples together now think about it for a minute at this point that’s no small task where we are right now in Acts at this point uh the numbers of the disciples are in the thousands this Gathering was not uh just held and one of the Apostles backyards next to the pool I mean this was uh this was a major undertaking to gather all the disciples together we don’t know how they met we don’t know where they met but this Wildfire of self-righteousness that Satan had stoked in the hearts of the people was so destructive that it had to be dealt with and it had to be dealt with immediately and deal with it they did it prompted a new level of organization and delegation in the church the church had grown so much so quickly that now there was the need for some structure to make sure everybody was taken care of the apostles were called to prayer into the preaching uh the word of God and now also to oversee administrative needs it was just too much for them that they couldn’t handle it they said it wasn’t right so they instructed the disciples to choose seven men of good uh repute full of spirit and wisdom to oversee the the important proclamation of the Gospel indeed remember as I said earlier the gospel Proclamation is always in word and indeed and so the good works of caring for the the physical well-being of the people it was incredibly important in fact it was essential to the witness of the Gospel of the church uh it was too important to be neglected and so this structure that was inaugurated in Acts chapter 6 is the structure of the diaconate Ministry that we continue to recognize today in the church Deacon the Deacon’s primary role is the proclamation of the Gospel indeed caring for the physical needs of the community of God and this new structure in this new organization it was effective uh because we’re told in verse 7 that the word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith these same Folks by the way these priests who operated in the temple were part of the whole uh they were part of that whole um you know what the the Apostle or what the apostles faced last week uh that we looked at in the Sanhedrin but for us this morning the structure is great the structure is important we need to reference it when we understand the church and how we operate but it’s not the heart of the issue of this passage especially not for us this morning the real issue is the complaining and the grumbling the real issue is is the self-righteousness that that complaining and that grumbling exposes in Us and how that self-righteousness completely undermines the gospel of grace of Grace that has been given to us and yet we all do it We complain I complain either out loud or in our hearts and it exposes in us just how proud we really are we think that we deserve better to be treated with proper respect to get the things that we really deserve our complaining just shows that we have this victim mentality deep within us we think in our heart of hearts that we are just innocent victims all the time and everyone else is just taking advantage of us or mistreating Us in some way now make no mistake sometimes we are innocent victims of abuse then that abuse has to be dealt with and Justice does need to be served But ultimately are complaining it just exposes us and at the bottom of it all it exposes our own unbelief our own unbelief we struggle to really believe that God is our loving father and that he is actually in control of all things that he’s our protector and he’s the one who is our provider when we before when we complain it shows that we think that we know better than God and that if we were in control everything would certainly uh be better right we could do a much better job of it are complaining it exposes our own spiritual Pride that in our heart of hearts we think that we’re right and we think that everybody else is wrong and it’s the pride and self-righteousness of our own hearts that threatens the mission of the Gospel in this world much more than persecution ever could the church thrives under external threats persecution leads to unprecedented growth of those who are being saved but the internal threat of Pride and of self-righteousness that has to be rooted out it has to be dealt with for the gospel of grace to flourish and for the gospel of grace to grow and so how exactly does the gospel of grace root out our pride and our self-righteousness at least if you’re a complainer and I know you are
because what happens is the gospel reveals that we do not get what we deserve Jesus the son of God the King of Kings the Lord of lords he got what we deserve but we deserve for our pride and our self-righteousness is death the Apostle Paul he said it in Romans 6 23 for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ Our Lord friends the righteousness that we have is a righteousness that is received by faith it’s not a righteousness that any of us have earned Jesus died and rose again so that by faith in him we might receive the gift the free gift of his righteousness before God the kind of righteousness that never complained about personal Injustice Jesus suffered and Jesus died never grumbling about it no he only loved throughout it he willingly suffered and he died because he loves you and because he loves me
the only thing that has the power to root out the pride and the self-righteousness that our complaining just exposes on us as the undeserved and unconditional love of God for us and his son Jesus Christ friends in this Advent season this third Sunday as we prepare our hearts for Jesus’s return receive today is undeserved and his unconditional love for you by putting your faith in him know the free gift of his grace and his righteousness for you and may the Holy Spirit take our complaining hearts of prideful self-righteous indignation and give us hearts that truly love God and love one another amen
Third Sunday In Advent Information about this week’s service:Readings:
- Mark 10:42-45
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Acts 6:1-7 Worship Songs:
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Savior of the Nations Come
- Only a Holy God
- Holy Is His Name
- Hymn of the Saviour
- Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (Nettleton) Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:Worship Bulletin
Click Here to View the Sermon
Watch & listen to every sermon on your favorite podcast software:Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 5:17-42
As we live more and more in a post-Christian culture we must learn the lessons of the early church as they faced persecution for their faith in Jesus. Acts 5:17-42 tells us of the eternal threats and personal suffering that our spiritual forefathers faced for their witness of the Gospel. Come and find not only the knowledge and tools to face persecution, but the unexpected joy that God’s grace pours out to those who are persecuted.
Transcript
Second Sunday In Advent Information about this week’s service:Readings:
- Acts 5:17-42
-
John 17:13-19 Worship Songs:
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Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
- Ancient Of Days
- Emmanuel
- Hymn of Joy
- Rejoice The Lord Is King Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:Worship Bulletin
Click Here to View the Sermon
Watch & listen to every sermon on your favorite podcast software:Information about this sermon:Preacher: Pastor Jim McCaslin
Scripture: Acts 5:12-16
The signs and wonders performed by the Apostles and the miracles done by the disciples of Jesus down to this day are all intended to point to Jesus, his saving grace, and the power of the Holy Spirit who is God’s empowering presence with us.
TranscriptCome Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful disciples and Kindle in us the fire of Your Love renew us with your spirit God’s empowering presence within us so that lost souls may come into your kingdom in Jesus name amen amen please be seatedwell I am Jim McCaslin and it is great to see the nine o’clock crowd and the 11 o’clockers and our guests all gathered together this morning here at 10 o’clock and as David said this is one of those Sundays when we have a trifecta to celebrate first we have just had this year’s Thanksgiving weekend I pray that it was one of rejoicing for you with family and friends if on the other hand it was a difficult one for you I pray that you were able to rely on our god of Grace and all comfort to sustain you secondly today is the first Sunday in Advent and again in this season we await the coming of our Lord Jesus with great joy marked by our Advent blue as we are assured every Sunday when we celebrate Holy Communion Christ will come again and thirdly today we continue our journey through the book of Acts as we focus on the church on Mission our church on mission for Jesus Christ well today as you can see it’s my turn to preach and the text is acts 5 verses 12 to 16. I’ve known that it would be my privilege to preach on this lesson for quite a while now in fact it was back on August the 30th that I received an email from Pastor David assigning me this passage so I’ve had some three months to ponder and prey on it as you can see it’s a short Passage and the words that j p off the page from it are signs and wonders now the phrase signs and wonders is first found in Exodus chapter 7 verse 3. where the Lord says to Moses but I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and I will multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt so signs and wonders is a phrase that indicates the mighty works of God on behalf of his people we recall of course the great miracle of the Old Testament in Exodus 14 when God parted the Waters of the Red Sea so that Moses and the Israelites could cross safely as they were fleeing Pharaoh’s Army from captivity in Egypt on that day Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians so the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and his servant Moses just so in the book of Acts we see the people fearing the Lord because of his signs and wonders and believing in the Lord and his servants the apostles Holy scripture is full of Miracles and healings all done to attract people to God’s Saving Grace and power through the work of the Holy Spirit the book of Acts is also known as the acts of the of the Apostles and then formally even as the acts of the Holy Spirit scripture teaches us that we all receive the Holy Spirit at baptism when we come to believe in Jesus and trust him as our Lord and savior we’re called to be filled with this Holy Spirit for he is God’s agent here on Earth and as you’ll recall Jesus said it would be better for his disciples for him to ascend back into heaven after his resurrection so that he could send the Holy Spirit to all believers and live in each one of us to be our power for living the Christian Life as some of you know in the past I’ve LED workshops on the Holy Spirit and the various gifts of the Spirit that God distributes to every Christian as he sees fit it has therefore been fascinating and instructive to hear pastors David and Chuck preach on the spirit’s work thus far through the book of Acts I’ve done a good bit of research and preparing for today one work that I’ve looked at closely is titled signs and wonders healings Miracles and unusual events by the Reverend Dr Norman Geisler a conservative Evangelical Theologian and author I want to be clear that I do not agree with Dr Geisler on several points but his work does raise several questions regarding the work of the spirit in today’s world in the preface to his work he notes that there are two extremes regarding the subject of Miracles today on the one hand there are those who deny Miracles altogether on the other hand some consider almost any unusual event to be a miracle
Geisler opens chapter one by quoting from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland a work I’ve long treasured and just reread recently and as you’ll recall I’m sure Alice was sitting on the bank by her sister when suddenly a white rabbit ran by she doesn’t think much of it until the rabbit took out a watch out of his West Coast pocket and hurried along muttering that it was going to be late this of course made Alice curious and she ran after it just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit hole and then another moment she found herself t bling down after it never once considering how in the world she was going to get out of what seemed to be a very deep well soon she found a very small cake on a table with the words eat me on it and she ate a little wondering if it would make her grow larger or smaller and was quite surprised that she remained the same size well that’s generally what happens when you eat cake
but Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out of the way things to happen that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way so amazed was Alice with her Adventures in Wonderland that she said nothing sitting down with her head and her hands wondering if anything would ever happen in a natural way again well today’s Christians are a bit like Alice and what Geisler calls modern signs and wonders land as he writes these days many wonderful things healings and even raisings from the dead are being ascribed to the miraculous workings of God around the world but are they real are they hallucinations or outright fakes well today I’d like to invite you to go down a spiritual Rabbit Hole or on a rabbit trail with me to look further at modern miracles but first let’s look at today’s text from Acts 5. as we’ve already heard acts 5 begins with ananias and Sapphira who sold some property kept some of the proceeds for themselves and lied to Peter about it Peter said Satan had filled their hearts and led them to sin by lying to the Holy Spirit whereupon they fell down dead they just fell down dead amazing apparently miraculous deaths our passage today today picks up in verse 12. where we read that many signs and wonders were done by the apostles the phrase side signs and wonders is often found in scripture to describe goddess God’s Mighty acts on behalf of his people it is used seven times by Luke to convey the same notion linking it with Jesus and the apostles and such healings revealed their Heavenly nature and origin and Jesus as Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand right here on the Earth the accomplished the apostles accomplished every kind of healing with these Miracles validating their message and after the deaths of ananias and Sapphira the apostles continued to perform Miracles as the people gathered around them in Solomon’s Portico which is simply a porch or a covered walkway now verse 13 shows us that the sense of God’s presence and power was so vivid that men were reluctant to associate with them or say that they believed the deaths of ananias and Sapphira seemed to have scared off all but the totally committed in the presence of the Living God whether manifest through preaching are witnessing or Miracles is alarming to some and appealing to others in verse 14. we see that despite the understandable fear of such power being displayed new Believers came into the kingdom of God now more than ever the signs and wonders did lead many of the common people to be in awe of the Apostles and become Believers in the Lord Jesus signs and wonders clearly contributed to the Evangelistic mission of the church the healings continued in verse 15 as the people carry their sick out into the streets on beds and mattresses so that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as they pass by it’s interesting to note that the Greek for fall on are overshadowed is the same verb found in Luke 1 and 35 where the angel Gabriel says to Mary the holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you therefore the child to be born would be called holy Son of God the Holy Spirit God’s empowering presence as Theologian Gordon fee calls him moves in great power and it was clear for all to see here that there was real power in the lives of the Apostles and that they were channels through whom God was blessing others Professor fee wrote in his book God’s empowering presence that the Living God is a god of power and by the spirit the power of the Living God is present with us and for us fee continues the direct connection between God’s presence and his spirit is articulated especially in the psalter in his penitential prayer in Psalm 51 King David asked do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me the psalmist also asked where can I go from your spirit where can I flee from your presence and as we pray every Sunday in our colic for Purity our God is the one from whom no secrets are HID we cannot Escape God’s knowledge of our hearts or Better or For Worse these new converts expected continuing healings from the apostles Peter’s Shadow was as efficacious as a medi of healing power as The Fringe of his master’s cloak had been in Mark 5 and verse 56 where Jesus came into Villages cities or countrysides and the people laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even The Fringe of His Garment and as many touched it were made well the Holy Spirit was so powerfully manifest in and around Peter that he that even those who only came near him experienced the healing of the Holy Spirit the same was true when Jesus’s healing power flowed from His Garment at the touch of a woman who had been subject to bleeding as recorded in Mark 5 27 28 here God allows the shadow of Peter to affect a cure in a similar way has happened with the Apostle Paul later in Acts 19 11 and 12 where we read and God was doing extraordinary Miracles by the hand of Paul so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried to the sick and their diseases left them and evil spirits came out of them our passage concludes with verse 16. even from outlying towns and Villages of Judea people streamed into the capitol with their sick folk in Hope of profiting from the apostles Healing Ministry not only did they bring the sick they also brought those Afflicted with unclean spirits that is with demons no wonder that the common peoples sounded the apostles praises and the n ber of Believers increased the Apostle signs and wonders Ministry brought both increased attention to the work of the Apostles and Great Expectations on behalf of the people for more healings and yes more miracles Miracles like these were God’s method of bearing witness to the ministry of the Apostles as multitudes of both men and women were being added to the n ber of believers as we will continue our journey through the book of Acts we see clearly the the apostles continue to perform such miracles
these miracles did at least three things for the early church they attracted believers they confirmed the truth of the Apostles teaching and they demonstrated that the power of the crucified and risen Messiah had been bestowed upon his followers
I said earlier that I would like you to venture down a rabbit hole with me this morning
pregnant pause
normally I do not like rabbit holes in sermons I’ve known a few preachers whose entire sermon seemed like a rabbit hole wandering all over the map disjointed hard to follow and with little hope of sorting out the key points so I’m hesitant to go down rabbit trails and yet like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland I tend to agree with Reverend Geisler that when it comes to the Holy Spirit Christianity Today is a bit like Alice in modern signs and wonders land my rabbit hole is complicated and controversial with many questions left unanswered some of these things involve issues that are non-essential to the heart of the faith others are important enough that they have resulted in divisions in the body of Christ a sad situation for God’s one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church
let me start that’s saying that back in 1992 I was much taken by a book called New Millenni new church by Richard Q an Episcopal Bishop Roderick White remember that 1992 was much before we had the new Anglican Church in North America and many of us older folks were still episcopalians I believe that the book was ahead of its times and accurately identifying Trends already at play for reshaping the next generation of the church in these pages I first encountered what is now called the three streams of the church frame one is the anglo-catholic or high Church stream that appreciates the University universality of the church and insists that it’s that it treasure the Richer Riches of our sacramental life the deep roots of our spirituality and the benefits of the historic ordering of laity Bishops creeks and deacons the second stream is evangelical which urges the church and individual Believers to put every aspect of their lives under the authority of Holy Scripture dream three is the charismatic stream which puts greater emphasis on exercising a variety of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in your pews you’ll find our new red covered 2019 Anglican book of common prayer from which we draw the worship Services we use every Sunday and on other occasions the guiding force behind the creation of this book was our founding Archbishop Robert Duncan he chaired the liturgical task force which labored countless hours to prepare our new BCP at our College of Bishops agreed that we needed a BCP to unite the church’s three different streams this was a particular vision of the Reverend Dr J.I packer the highly esteemed Theologian emeritus of the acna an event Evangel Evangelical Pastor he wanted an authentic way to pray and worship that could be embraced by all anglicans whether they were Evangelical charismatic or anglo-catholic all three streams are indeed represented in our prayer book and I mentioned these because I want to point out the inherent dangers that arise when a parish over emphasizes one stream at the expense of the others for examples the anglo-catholic stream can put such a stress on a formal performance of the sacraments that true worship of the Living God can seem almost dead many parishes of the old Episcopal church had succ bed to such formalism that its members have been referred to as the Frozen chosen
when the passing of the peace was reintroduced into the Liturgy with a 1979 prayer book many Old-Timers found it hard to greet their neighbors with a handshake let alone a hug
with regard to the Evangelical stream I venture to say that it is the primary but certainly not the only stream here at our savior Evangelical is rooted in the Greek for good news which emphasizes the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ the love and grace of God as salvation by belief in the in His holy name the authority of Holy Scripture and in Sharing God God’s good news with a lost and hurting world one danger of an over emphasis on Evangel evangelicalism is a bible-th ping holier than thou attitude towards others with a minimal appreciation of the sacraments or any expression of charismatic gifts when I was still in the Army I was part of a weekly lunchtime Bible study and one of our members was a dear Baptist friend who said that his church knew a lot about God and Jesus but nothing about the Holy Spirit
before I leave our Evangelical stream I must say that some of our prominent Anglican leaders such as pastors John Stott John Yates David and Chuck and our Bishops Neil abar and Alex farmer are strong evangelicals
now I come to the charismatic stream which is perhaps the Rabbit Trail where I find the most Fascination and yet the biggest dangers for confusion Division and even emotion emotional and spiritual damage for the individuals touched by it the charismatic movement tends to have an emphasis on baptism with the Holy Spirit and the use of spiritual gifts
I want to share with you briefly my experience of the charismatic movement especially with the expectation of Miracles I say briefly because this is a subject where we could invest many hours of discussion I may be opening a pair of Pandora’s Box I’m sure that Pastor David can sort it out if necessary
very nervous
I want to explore this Rabbit Trail with you because it’s been a it’s been a very personal one for me my mom was very sick with cancer in 1973. we had been an army Chapel family of what you might call nominal Christians with no knowledge of Holy Spirit miracles my dad somehow st bled onto a broadcast of the charismatic televangelist Oral Roberts out of desperation for Mom’s healing I think he started sending in donations but mom died anyway dad was depressed for a while and kept playing the chorus to the sad song Delta Dawn and did I hear you say he was a meeting you here today to take you to his mansion in the sky thinking that somehow it meant mom was in heaven this was not a good introduction for me to the charismatic world a real Downer I encountered the upside in 1986 when I went on a Curcio renewal weekend now it wasn’t labeled charismatic per se but there was a lot of prayer for healing and I experienced a new sense of joy and I felt like I had been transformed from a nominal Christian and to a revitalized Christian with one of the cursillo songs stuck in my head I have decided to follow Jesus Jenny did say that I seemed more upbeat after that weekend was this the work of the Holy Spirit I think so I went on to serve on many cursillo weekends and saw similar transformations in the lives of those who participated our former Episcopal Bishop Steve gecko so valued Curcio that he required all priests serving in his diocese to attend Curcio I entered seminary in the early 1990s with an approach avoidance attitude to the more charismatic side of the church and now prior to Seminary I had read a book called nine o’clock in the morning by an Episcopal priest named Dennis Bennett who had attended a small group where members were speaking in tongues not foreign languages but unknown prayer languages which sounded like gibberish I was so intrigued that I wrote a term paper on it in seminary and I quote on Palm Sunday April the 3rd 1960 father Bennett director of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Van Nuys California put aside his prepared sermon and told his parishioners that he had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and had been speaking in tongues for some five months at the end of the second service one of his three assistants threw his vestments on the Altar and stormed out of the church and said I can no longer work with this man according to Bennett that blew the lid off one of his vestermen told him that he should resign and he did so at the third service walking away from an astonished and distressed congregation that he had served for seven years Bennett became known as the father of the charismatic renewal in the Episcopal Church a movement that spread to several other American denominations could this really be the work of the Holy Spirit as Paul wrote in Romans 8 and 26 the spirit himself interceding for us with groanings too deep for words such private prayer languages seem authentic to thousands and I suspect a few of you may have experienced this phenomena I tried it myself for a while but in truth it faded I know that the Holy Spirit surprises brings surprising tears has happened to me when I first knew in a powerful way that God would have me go to Seminary and at times when I’m preaching some Anglican churches have permitted tongues to be offered in worship services as long as an interpretation of the tongue is given as required by 1 Corinthians 14 and 27. Bennett said that he experienced two more in important things in Bible reading the word of God literally leaped out to meet me and in prayer I sensed immediately that there was a new openness between me and my Father in heaven as was the case with Dennis with Dennis Bennett those who have experienced have had such experiences are certain that they have been touched directly by God they often have a new sense of God’s love and peace a hunger to read the Bible a new sense of its applicability to their lives a call to discipleship a desire to tithe and eagerness and new energy for both inreach and Outreach work work and an overall joy of the Lord now it’s interesting to note the similarities in Bennett’s charismatic Spirit baptism experience and Evangelical conversion experiences Anglican priest and evangelist John Wesley for example referred to his heart as strangely warmed Anglican priest and evangelist George Whitfield known for his Great Awakening revivals said that he knew what it was to truly rejoice in God my savior and for some time could not avoiding singing Psalms wherever I went while such attributes have obvious positive value they often inadvertently contribute to an unintended divisiveness in their eagerness to share their Newfound Joy some charismatics tend to come on too strong and appear fanatical and indeed weird to those who have not been so touched well I’ve tried to point out some of the pros and cons of the charismatic stream one of the greatest weaknesses to of the extreme edges of the charismatic movement is its lack of sound Biblical teaching there seems to be an undue preoccupation with experience which is often placed above the word of God a tendency to exalt the blessings rather than the God who gives the blessings as a consequence the charismatic movement can be a fertile field for strange and unscriptural doctrines and practices
make no mistake we do believe in the Holy Spirit his gifts and his miracles our women’s Bible study deals with hearing the voice of God Anglican churches our own included host Alpha courses with an entire weekend devoted to the Holy Spirit we have prayer ministers in church some of our people have served in our local Christian healing Ministries indeed we read in James 5 verses 14 through 16. is any of you sick he should call the Elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well the Lord will raise him up if he has sinned he will be forgiven therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed some ascribe healings to good medicine and great doctors and nurses does God work through them some are believers and some aren’t the unbelieving Persian king Cyrus was used by God to issue the decree to end the Babylonian captivity of the Jews God is Sovereign and has his hand on rulers and politicians and doctors to work his miracles most of you know that my wife Jenny almost died from covid in January 2021 when she was in Baptist beaches Hospital on a ventilator for 11 days many of you prayed for her mightily and your prayers offered in faith made her well she is indeed a miracle girl
this God always Grant Earthly healings when we pray
most of you remember Joni Erickson tada the Evangelical Christian author who became a quadriplegic as a result of a swimming accident in spite of fervent prayers she Remains unhealed by all the faiths she could muster and Joni concludes God certainly can and sometimes does heal people in a miraculous way today but the Bible does not teach that he will always heal those who come to him in faith he sovereignly reserves the right to heal or not to heal as he sees fit do we believe in miracles C.S Lewis The Beloved author of The Chronicles of Narnia and lay Theologian asked if we admit God must we admit miracles indeed you have no security against it that is the bargain he said we have the miracle of the Incarnation God became flesh and dwelt among us we have the miracle of the Resurrection Jesus defeated death and the devil who controls authentic miracles God’s fingerprint is found in all his signs and wonders and miracles he has power over life over nature and over all kinds of diseases all his Works give confirmation of God’s Messengers and his saving good news and true Miracles are under God’s control done at God’s will grounded in Biblical teaching and glorify our loving creator
there is much we do not know but we know that the God who is all-knowing all-powerful and ever present we know him and we know from Isaiah 55 8-9 that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts neither are our ways his ways for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are God’s ways higher than our ways and his thoughts than our thoughts what must we do with any confusion or possible deception in our modern signs and wonders land we are told in first John 4 verse 1. beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God or many false prophets have gone out into the world false prophets are in the world under the influence of our sinful flesh and the devil’s Temptations and yes false prophets do arise in the church whether during Jesus ministry the ministry of the Apostles or when the church is on Mission today God’s power continues to accomplish amazing Miracles and healings as he Wills the manifestation of his holy spirit Power transforms lost souls into True Believers confirms the authority of his Messengers and the truth of his Biblical teaching and demonstrates The Sovereign power of the Risen Lord Jesus our church is on Mission and God gives us the power to be his witnesses to a lost and hurting world I close now with the Apostle Paul’s benediction from Ephesians 3 20. now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or imagine according to the power at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever
Our Bridge to The Future, “Building a Living Legacy” was launched at our Celebration Dinner this past Sunday evening. 106 congregants enjoyed fellowship and dinner at Casa Marina. Bishop Neil Nebhar spoke about Next Generation Ministry. Pastor David presented the ministry vision and purpose behind the campaign, architectural renderings of the building expansion, and a […]
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| Launched just ten days ago, Our Bridge to the Future Campaign is going strong! A majority of the congregation has met with Pastor David in either a Fellowship Group or during Q&A sessions. There are two more scheduled sessions, TODAY, Thursday, February 10 at 2:00pm, and Sunday, February 13 at 12:30pm. Contact the Church Office to let us know you are coming, or schedule another time! |
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| Campaign Website |
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| Sunday Worship Services |
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9:00am – Livestream, Kids Program & Nursery 11:00am – Nursery
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| Watch Previous Sunday Sermon |
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| This Sunday: Bulletin & Livestream Link |
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| Get to know two of the songs that for Sunday’s worship service. |
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| Preparation Hymn: Living Waters Communion Hymn: It was Finished Upon That Cross |
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| Fellowship Groups are where we really get to know one another. They are fun, meaningful opportunities to enjoy and care for others at Church of Our Savior. These groups are currently meeting! We want you to stop by this week and check one out! Get more info by contacting the Church Office. |
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| Tuesday | 6:30pm | Ponte Vedra Beach Group | Fannin Home Wednesday | 5:30pm | Neptune Beach Group | Conolly Home Wednesday | 7:00pm | Atlantic Beach Group | Brodeur Home |
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| Sunday | 10:15am | Fellowship Hall | Chuck Holliday, Host This group meets on Sundays between services! Enjoy the convenience of attending church and a small group at one location and day. Upstairs in the Fellowship Hall. Snacks provided.
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| Update from David Sandifer and family enjoying a cold and blessed winter at Tyndale. |
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2022 Iron Sharpens Iron – Men’s Equipping Conference Join the men of Church of Our Savior and gather to attend this powerful and empowering event. Seniors and students alike should attend. Contact Larry Wagner for details. 904-891-9163.
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| Men of the church, Larry Wagner will be set up to sharpen pocket knives this Sunday. Bring yours by his table during Snacks & Chats, and find out what Iron Sharplens Iron is all about! |
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Financial Fellowship & Education
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| Wednesdays, 6:00pm Crock-Pot Finance This casual group meets for a yummy Crock-Pot meal and financial fellowship. CPF is the practical application of the Financial Peace University lessons. Free program and dinner in the Fellowship Hall. |
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| Sundays, 12:30pm. Financial Peace University This life-changing course from Dave Ramsey is for everyone. Class has started, but don’t let that stop you! Free program and dinner in the Fellowship Hall. |
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| We want your Crock-Pots! If you have a Crock-pot you don’t use anymore, consider donating it. Many of our young adults do not have one of their own and we’d love to pass on this thrifty way to create homecooked meals. |
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| Events are held at COOS unless otherwise noted and are subject to change. Check with the office to confirm. Men’s Breakfast Bible Study: Tuesday, 7-8:30am, IHOP- Hodges BlvdWomen’s Bible Study: Friday, 9:30amYouth: Youth Group: TBD, 6-12th grade Trail Life USA Troop: Tuesday, 6:30pm, Boys K-12th grade American Heritage Girls: Tuesday, 6:30pm, Girls K-12th grade Crock-Pot Finance: Wednesday, 6:00pm. Financial fellowship with a meal.Mission House: Prepare & serve a meal to the homeless, 5th Friday in a monthAvante Nursing Home: Worship service for the residents, Monday, 2pm |
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| Diocese News: The Communiqué is a monthly email newsletter from the Gulf Atlantic Diocese. Sign up here. |
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| Church of Our Savior believes in the power of prayer. Send requests via Sunday Connect Cards, online, or email church@church-savior.org. |
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The First Sunday in Lent
Information about this week’s service:
Bible Readings:
Micah 6:6-8
Luke 13:22-35
Worship Songs:
- God Of Grace And God Of Glory
- Ancient Of Days
- Before The Throne Of God Above
- Revelation Song
- All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:
Worship Bulletin
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| Join us at 6:00pm in the Fellowship Hall for this fun tradition celebrating all things pancake — dinner, toppings & more facts than you will ever need to know! Enjoy pancakes, sausage, hash brown casserole & cutting the King Cake @ 6:30pm. Please sign up so there are pancakes for everyone! |
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| Sign up for Dinner! |
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| The season of Lent begins March 2nd. Join in a special Ash Wednesday Service at 6:00pm with the imposition of Ashes. |
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| CAMPAIGN UPDATE |
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| Thank you, Church of Our Savior…Campaign Commitment forms are coming in! As of Sunday, February 20th, the pledges totaled 1.14 Million! So why isn’t our young COOS member, Chess, smiling? He wants us to get to 100% participation! Bring your Commitment Card to service and drop it in the box in the back. |
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| Sunday Worship Services |
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9:00am – Livestream, Kids Program & Nursery 11:00am – Nursery
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| Watch Previous Sunday Sermon |
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| This Sunday: Bulletin & Livestream Link |
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Get to know one of the songs that for Sunday’s worship service.
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Ancient of Days – CityAlight
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| Fellowship Groups go on hiatus next week for Lent and resume after Easter. Get more info by contacting the Church Office. |
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| Tuesday | 6:30pm | Ponte Vedra Beach Group | Fannin Home Wednesday | 5:30pm | Neptune Beach Group | Conolly Home Wednesday | 7:00pm | Atlantic Beach Group | Brodeur Home |
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Financial Fellowship & Education
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| Wednesdays, 6:00pm – Crock-Pot Finance This young adult group meets for a yummy Crock-Pot meal and financial fellowship. CPF is the practical application of the Financial Peace University lessons. Free program and dinner in the Fellowship Hall. |
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| Sundays, 12:30pm – Financial Peace University
It’s Week 4 of Financial Peace University! We’ve stepped through baby steps 1-3: saving for emergencies and paying off debt! Now we will explore steps 4-7 and it’s all about investments, saving for college, paying off your house, and building wealth! Share your financial story in the Fellowship Hall at 12:30. Lunch provided.
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| We want your Crock-Pots! If you have a Crock-pot you don’t use anymore, consider donating it. Many of our young adults do not have one of their own and we’d love to pass on this thrifty way to create homecooked meals. |
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| Events are held at COOS unless otherwise noted and are subject to change. Check with the office to confirm. Men’s Breakfast Bible Study: Tuesday, 7-8:30am, IHOP- Hodges BlvdWomen’s Bible Study: Friday, 9:30amYouth: Youth Group: TBD, 6-12th grade Trail Life USA Troop: Tuesday, 6:30pm, Boys K-12th grade American Heritage Girls: Tuesday, 6:30pm, Girls K-12th grade Crock-Pot Finance, Young Adult: Wednesday, 6:00pm. Financial fellowship w/ a meal.Mission House: Prepare & serve a meal to the homeless, 5th Friday in a monthAvante Nursing Home: Worship service for the residents, Monday, 2pm |
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| Diocese News: The Communiqué is a monthly email newsletter from the Gulf Atlantic Diocese. Sign up here. |
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| Church of Our Savior believes in the power of prayer. Send requests via Sunday Connect Cards, online, or email church@church-savior.org. |
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The Last Sunday of Epiphany
Information about this week’s service:
Bible Readings:
Psalm 71
Matthew 19:13-15
Worship Songs:
- O Worship The King
- Ancient Of Days
- I Surrender All
- Jesus Strong And Kind
- It Is Well With My Soul
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:
Worship Bulletin
The Seventh Sunday of Epiphany
Information about this week’s service:
Bible Readings:
Psalm 37:8-17
Luke 6:27-38
Worship Songs:
- A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
- Blessed Be Your Name
- All Who Are Thirsty
- Mighty to Save
- Great is Thy Faithfulness
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:
Worship Bulletin
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| Join us at 6:00pm in the Fellowship Hall for this fun tradition celebrating all things pancake — dinner, toppings & more facts than you will ever need to know! Enjoy regular & GF pancakes, sausage, hash brown casserole & cutting of the King Cake @ 6:30p. |
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| Sign up for Dinner! |
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| Sunday Worship Services |
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9:00am – Livestream, Kids Program & Nursery 11:00am – Nursery
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| Watch Previous Sunday Sermon |
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| This Sunday: Bulletin & Livestream Link |
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Get to know two of the songs for Sunday’s worship service.
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| Matt Redman – Blessed Be Your Name ALL WHO ARE THIRSTY Vineyard Worship feat. Brenton Brown |
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| Fellowship Groups are where we get to know each other even better! Groups will go on hiatus for the season of Lent and resume after Easter. Get more info by contacting the Church Office. |
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| Tuesday | 6:30pm | Ponte Vedra Beach Group | Fannin Home Wednesday | 5:30pm | Neptune Beach Group | Conolly Home Wednesday | 7:00pm | Atlantic Beach Group | Brodeur Home |
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2022 Iron Sharpens Iron – Men’s Equipping Conference Join the men of Church of Our Savior and gather to attend this powerful and empowering event. Seniors and students alike should attend. Contact Larry Wagner for details. 904-891-9163. While you can register up to the day of the event, the early group discount goes away after this Saturday. Register this week for the 10-or-more rate and indicate you are with Church of Our Savior on the registration.
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Financial Fellowship & Education
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| Wednesdays, 6:00pm Crock-Pot Finance This young adult group meets for a yummy Crock-Pot meal and financial fellowship. CPF is the practical application of the Financial Peace University lessons. Free program and dinner in the Fellowship Hall. |
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| Sundays, 12:30pm. Financial Peace University
Week 3: Cash Flow Planning This life-changing course from Dave Ramsey is for everyone. Class has started, but don’t let that stop you! Free program and lunch in the Fellowship Hall. |
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| We want your Crock-Pots! If you have a Crock-pot you don’t use anymore, consider donating it. Many of our young adults do not have one of their own and we’d love to pass on this thrifty way to create homecooked meals. |
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| Events are held at COOS unless otherwise noted and are subject to change. Check with the office to confirm. Men’s Breakfast Bible Study: Tuesday, 7-8:30am, IHOP- Hodges BlvdWomen’s Bible Study: Friday, 9:30amYouth: Youth Group: TBD, 6-12th grade Trail Life USA Troop: Tuesday, 6:30pm, Boys K-12th grade American Heritage Girls: Tuesday, 6:30pm, Girls K-12th grade Crock-Pot Finance, Young Adult: Wednesday, 6:00pm. Financial fellowship w/ a meal.Mission House: Prepare & serve a meal to the homeless, 5th Friday in a monthAvante Nursing Home: Worship service for the residents, Monday, 2pm |
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| Diocese News: The Communiqué is a monthly email newsletter from the Gulf Atlantic Diocese. Sign up here. |
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| Church of Our Savior believes in the power of prayer. Send requests via Sunday Connect Cards, online, or email church@church-savior.org. |
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The Sixth Sunday of Epiphany
Information about this week’s service:
Bible Readings:
Jeremiah 17:5-10
Luke 6:17-26
Worship Songs:
- Rejoice the Lord Is King
- 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)
- Living Waters
- It was Finished Upon That Cross
- Blessed Assurance
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:
Worship Bulletin
The Fifth Sunday of Epiphany
Information about this week’s service:
Bible Readings:
Judges 6:11-24
Luke 5:1-11
Worship Songs:
- How Firm A Foundation
- I Will Trust My Saviour Jesus
- I Want To Know You
- Take My Life And Let It Be
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:
Worship Bulletin
The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
Information about this week’s service:
Bible Readings:
1 Corinthians 14:12-25
Luke 4:21-32
Worship Songs:
- O Worship The King
- Ancient of Days
- I Surrender All
- Jesus Strong and Kind
- It Is Well With My Soul
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:
Worship Bulletin
The Second Sunday of Epiphany
Information about this week’s service:
Bible Readings:
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11
Worship Songs:
- Be Thou My Vision
- Good and Gracious King
- I Want to Know You
- I Will Trust my Saviour Jesus
- All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:
Worship Bulletin
The Second Sunday of Epiphany
Information about this week’s service:
Bible Readings:
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11
Worship Songs:
- Be Thou My Vision
- Good and Gracious King
- I Want to Know You
- I Will Trust my Saviour Jesus
- All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:
Worship Bulletin
The First Sunday of Epiphany
Information about this week’s service:
Bible Readings:
Acts 10:34-38
Luke 3:15-22
Worship Songs:
- Holy Holy Holy
- What a Beautiful Name
- As the Deer
- Remembrance (The Communion Song)
- Christ Whose Glory Fills the Skies (Ratisbon)
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:
Worship Bulletin
The Second Sunday of Christmas
Information about this week’s service:
Bible Readings:
Jeremiah 31:7-14
Matthew 2:1-12
Worship Songs
- Angels From The Realms Of Glory (Regent Square)
- Of Come All Ye Faithful
- We Three Kings
- Hark The Herold Angels Sing (Mendelssohn)
- Go Tell It On The Mountains
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:
Worship Bulletin
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- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
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Church of Our Savior
2092 Beach Blvd
Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250
904-821-8558
info@church-savior.org
The First Sunday of Christmas
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:
Worship Bulletin
Christmas Eve
Information about this week’s service:
Bible Readings:
Isaiah 9:1-7
Luke 2:1-20
Worship Songs:
- O Come All Ye Faithful
- The First Noel
- Hark The Herald Angels Sings
- O Little Town Of Bethlehem
- O Holy Night
- Silent Night Holy Night
- Joy To The World
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:
Worship Bulletin
The Fourth Sunday in Advent
Information about this week’s service:
Bible Readings:
Hebrews 10:1-10
Luke 1:39-56
Worship Songs:
- Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (Hyfrydol)
- Ancient of Days
- O Come O Come Emmanuel
- Christ Is Mine Forevermore
- Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (Nettleton)
Follow the order of service and view announcements with this week’s bulletin:
Worship Bulletin