Harvest Church Arroyo Grande

Identity Series: Impacting Our Community and Our World With the Life-changing Message of Jesus Christ - Steve Henry

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

Identity Series: Called to Love All People - Steve Henry

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

Identity Series: Created to Serve God and Others - Steve Henry

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

Identity Series: Confident in the Word of God - Steve Henry

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

Identity Series: Committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ - Steve Henry

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

The Veil is Getting Thinner, Part 2 - Jeremy Sutherland

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

The Veil is Getting Thinner, Part 1 - Jeremy Sutherland

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

Growing Into a Full Experience of Salvation - Steve Henry

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

Let the Celebration Begin - Steve Henry

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

Our Living Hope - Ron Dee

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