Harvest Church Arroyo Grande

Did We Choose God or Did God Choose Us? - Steve Henry

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

Harvest Church - 08-07-22

1 (2s): Good morning harvest church. Let's stand and worship our Lord and save your Jesus Christ this morning. When all I see you see, when is about you see, I, I, my knees with my hands lifted God, the belongs to you in your, against 0 (1m 42s): Me 1 (1m 49s): For Jesus. There's almighty fortress. 1 (2m 50s): You go before us, nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine. The shadows you win. Every battle. Nothing can stand against power. 0 (3m 54s): The 1 (4m 18s): I'll 0 (4m 19s): See you. This 2 (4m 57s): Is my, how that me now top joy, chaos. 2 (5m 50s): Got that makes no sense. So I won't. So my house was built on you. 2 (8m 27s): I'm with you was built on you, save 0 (8m 48s): With 2 (8m 49s): You 0 (8m 57s): And make built. 0 (10m 14s): He 3 (10m 38s): Thank you, Laura, real quick. Before we continue to sing a couple weeks ago, we were in worship and there was this pause in the worship time. And I didn't know what was going on in the platform. I just had my eyes closed and I was just trying to worship. And, but I thought, man, this is as, as I had my eyes closed out, this is very sweet moment right here. And as I looked up to find out why the pause, I realized somebody was trying to get their cap ball on their guitar and it was, but I thought this, this was a good experience. I think for us just to have a, a moment of pause you our worship time. And so from time to time, most, most Sundays, I would imagine we'll, we'll just take time where there's gonna be a bit of a pause and just kind of a Salah moment in our worship. 3 (11m 27s): And if you feel at that time, like you, the Lord has put something on your heart to pray for pray out loudly so that we can hear we've got some mics on the, on the crowd so that we can try to hear everything that's going on, but it's a good time. If you feel like the Lord's put a verse on your heart, or if you got a word of, of exoration or affirmation for the body of Christ, that's, that's your moment to do that. So just be sensitive to the holy spirit. And if you feel like the Lord's giving you something, go ahead, ahead and speak that out. And then we'll continue to worship as we kind of feel led to do that. So let's pray and then we're gonna continue to worship. And, and after I get done praying, I'm just gonna give it a pause and we're just gonna kind of practice here. 3 (12m 8s): So Lord, we just want to thank you for your presence. Thank you that you are here, Lord. And as we pause as an act of worship before you just kind of in holy adoration with a gratitude and appreciation with the heart of worship, God, we'll, we'll just take time To listen and respond. We thank you, Lord. Let's just take a moment. And if you feel led in this moment to pray out or whatever, just do that loudly from your seat. 3 (12m 55s): Darren will agree with you. 4 (13m 1s): As we are worshiping the Lord, put on my heart, that there are many in this room that have prodigals prodigals in our family, whether they be children or parents or grandchildren, and God wants us to know that as he was faithful to reach us in our lives, he will reach them. He is faithful through all generations and he will not fail. He goes after them as a, that shepherd leaves the 99 to find that one, the encouraged this morning that your God hears those prayers. 4 (13m 43s): As you cry out for your loved ones, 5 (13m 55s): Lord, we are to be still and know that you are God father. I'm reminded that it's big to rise up early and to stay up late, try to make work on, but you Lord the of our need. I think trust that some will trust jar, but 1 (15m 28s): You stood before creation. You stood before your shoulders. 1 (16m 14s): My what can I see? 1 (17m 42s): What could I see? What could and, 0 (19m 30s): And the to 6 (21m 29s): Stand in worship of the king, the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who's over everything who created everything, who is in us and living through us. And Lord, we just give our hearts, our souls, our minds to you. Jesus, you are the king of everything. Lord, we are so grateful for you, Lord, we thank you for moments of pause. We thank you for moments of being able to just reflect on your goodness, no matter what's happening in our lives and our worlds around us, Lord, we can reflect and be grateful for the goodness that, that you are Jesus for the greatness that you are Jesus. 6 (22m 10s): And we are just so grateful for you. We are eternally grateful for you. No matter what's happening in our worlds. Lord. You're so good. You're so good, Lord. Thank you that in a world that is so hurried and so desperate. And so, and just running around Lord that we can just rest in you. We can come and, and just cast our eyes on you. We can fix our eyes on you, the author and perfect of our faith. Jesus, you're so good. We look to you for our needs. We look to you for our, to fulfill us Lord in every aspect of our lives, where, where we're looking for fulfillment in other places, Lord, I just pray that each person would find fulfillment in you. 6 (22m 56s): Jesus alone. We love you so much, Lord. It's in your name. We pray. Amen. Amen. All well, you can go ahead and take your seats. My name's Curtis, and I'm excited to share announcements with you this morning. We've got a few things going on. We've got the beach bonfire baptism happening this afternoon, but I'm gonna have Jeremy come up and share about that in a minute. Cuz there's, it's pretty exciting. So I'm gonna let Jeremy take that one and then we've got another great thing coming up is the lifeline banquet. If you weren't here last week, I shared a bit about that, but they've got some exciting announcements going on at that banquet. 6 (23m 42s): They've also got Pam Tebow, which is Tim Tebow's mom. She's this guest speaker. She's gonna be sharing her story, which is pretty powerful. So that banquet's on the 20th. If you want more information about that, about purchasing a table or about giving to lifeline, you can get information about that at the info center at the back there, they'd be glad to help. Also M six is tomorrow evening. So join us for that great opportunity for men to get connected into community, to have some worship and testimony. It's a great time. Also, along with that, we just want to share a little bit about what's happening around the world. So our, our missionaries in AAI, Jean, which is a country between Russia and Iran are doing some incredible things. 6 (24m 30s): One guy in particular, our main missionary, his name's Igar, him and his family are doing some incredible things, traveling around Azerbaijan and also in some of the Eastern parts of Russia that are very Muslim oriented. So basically a hundred percent Muslim in that area. And so they're sharing the gospel. They're seeing some amazing fruit. So we've got a couple of pictures that I'm gonna show up on the screen. So this is Igar here on our left and this is them baptizing. I'll get outta the way here. They're baptized in this man. This is in a region of Azerbaijan this last week. And so doing some awesome stuff, we can show the next picture here. 6 (25m 16s): So this is the part of Azerbaijan where they're ministering this last week. And as you can see, you can kind of get an idea of where AAI Jean is on the map. Russia's right up here. And then if you show the next picture, one of the spots that they're ministering is called DESTAN. So you can pray for that specifically that area. So Russia as a whole has about 50, 57% Evangel evangelical Christian is about 57%. But in this region, it's 0.03, 3% Christian. So they've got their work cut out for them. 6 (25m 55s): And just in this region alone, if they're gonna reach this one region, it's estimated that they need about 87 full-time missionaries to reach the population there. So Igar is there, he's equipping other Christian leaders to be sent out from their church in Azerbaijan to reach this region and other parts of Azerbaijan. So they're doing amazing things. And so we just wanna share that with you so you can be praying so you can be partnering with them in prayer and yeah. Joining along with us. So with Adam, I'm gonna invite Jeremy up and he's gonna share a little bit about the baptism, 7 (26m 33s): Right? Well, good morning. The exciting thing about tonight is nothing is changing. Sharks are not changing anything. The beach access being closed. That's not gonna change anything. We are still having our beach baptism and bonfire tonight from five to seven, exciting we have over 13 people already signed up to be baptized. That's amazing. So I just, I just know that there's gonna be more people that are gonna show up that are gonna wanna be baptized there. That is okay. We don't require a baptism class, nothing like that. They just a clear understanding of the gospel, who Jesus is, what baptism is. And, and, and so we're, we'll be ready tonight to, to baptize more people. And it's gonna be exciting, just a, a couple updates parking wise. 7 (27m 17s): If, if amazing, we got a family that it's already, they're already set up on the beach, they're reserved our spot. So you're gonna drive down to the end of grand there's fins restaurant. You can park in that lot. You can park in all those different parking spots right there. End of grand. And then just simply walk onto beach between the toll booth and fins and 20 feet off, off the sea off the sidewalk is where we're gonna be set up. So we're gonna be right there. We'll have some flags up and then tide's gonna be high. So don't worry about sharks. We don't have to go that far out there to get baptized. Somebody showed me of a great white jumping at the end of here. Don't worry about that. No, no sharks. And if you do wanna drive on the beach, this will be right at the end of the, the section where you can drive. 7 (27m 58s): If you do wanna drive on the beach, we recommend that you go and get your parking passes right after church, they say about two o'clock. They, they fill up for the, they stop issuing the parking or the driving on the beach thing. So exciting hope to see you all there. We'll have some hot dogs and, and some s'mores. So see there five to seven at the end of grand. And now I just wanna release you to say hi to someone around you. We'll do a minute mingle, and then we'll gather back up 3 (30m 10s): Back. We have a lot, a lot, a lot to do today. So it's already been super, super busy. I'm gonna try to teach from first Peter today. Even if I do though, I'm getting through two verses. And so it's gonna be, it's gonna be a, there's a, there's a lot crammed into the day. So in preparation for communion at the end of the service, make sure you've got your elements. And then we'll at the end of the service. We'll take communion together. And so these are the elements, the COVID safe elements that we're still using. So I talked a couple weeks ago about how a couple people are getting ready to retire. 3 (30m 56s): Well, that has happened now. Ron D and Christie swor are the, those guys here. Come on up. If you guys are here, there's Ron D where's Christie SWO. Oh, there she is. Come on up. So Ron and Christie have both been with us for 14, 15 years. A long time. Has it been 15 years? 4, 12 0 12. It just seems like 15. It just seems like, it seems like you've always been here with us. That meant that was a good thing I meant to say. And so Ron's been with us for 14 going on 15 years as, as well. And so, but both of them are well, Ron's retiring. So Ron, why don't you tell 'em what you're doing? 3 (31m 37s): Sure, sure. 9 (31m 38s): Let me just take a few minutes to kind of give you my story. Yeah. Yeah. So I've been serving the Lord full-time ministry for 38 years started when I was two. So actually, cuz some people have asked me, you know, well how old are you? You're too young or whatever. So I'll be 64 in a couple of weeks. So DJ and I, so DJ's right back here. So she and I started a home Bible study in our home in 1984 and then the two of us and another couple we went on a planting, a church in ALA beach. Didn't know what we were doing, but we just felt that's what God would have us do. So we planted the church in Ava in 1985 and I served as assistant pastor there for eight years and then senior pastor there for 13 years. 9 (32m 25s): So 21 years in Avala Avala beach Christian fellowship. How many used raise your hand if you were part of Avala. Yeah, I know there's we had a bit of a reunion last Saturday because Cheryl Hancock went home to be with the Lord recently. She was a dear friend of ours that we sent out from our church in Avala. And so we had a Memorial service for her and it was just one of those wonderful reunions of, of folks that we served together with at Avala. So it was after about 21 years, I just felt the Lord stern my heart just saying, you know what, your time in AOUS coming to an end. And I had no idea what the next step was, but so deja and I would talk about it. And, and so I, I resigned my position there and then so for about three years, so for my me, my life it's always been a venture of faith. 9 (33m 11s): So it's like, I don't exactly know what, what is next. And so for about three years, I actually served with Amanda's dad. So Jim, Jim and I traveled the country and did ministry around the country. And then it was, I think it was about 2007 where our family began to attend here at harvest church. When, when you guys were meeting in the grass area behind the parsonage first time, you know, Julie spill was on the worship team. Yeah. So then pastor Steve asked me if I would begin to come on staff here. So in 2008, I took on the role of associate pastor here. So been serving here for 14 years. And so just within maybe the end of last year began this year. 9 (33m 54s): I just felt the Lord stirring my heart again, just saying, you know, your time here and that role is coming to an end. So to be sure, retirement for me is not riding off into the sunset golfing, fishing, hunting. I don't do any of those things. So what it means to me is another step in the adventure of ministry that, that God would have me to do. So I will still be here. I'm still serving on the elder team. I'll still be teaching occasionally. In fact, I'll be teaching on the 21st because Curtis is getting Mary Curtis and Clark. 9 (34m 34s): And then, and then basically that means the whole Henry family are off for about couple of months. I don't know. I, I think they're all going, going on your honeymoon together. Hope you're prepared for that. Right? So I will still be around harvest church is still our home. I will just be serving a little bit different role. So I don't, I wanna say this in, in conclusion, you know, how long it takes pastors to conclude something. It has been a phenomenal joy in my life, in our life, serving here at harvesting, the, the role we've had both with the staff team and, and, and the community believers here. I mean, it's just been truly wonderful. 9 (35m 15s): It's been a great privilege. So you will still be seeing us around until I die. 3 (35m 21s): Cool. Yeah, we're talking now. Christie is all together way too young to be retiring. So she's actually starting a, it's kind of a ministry. It's a, it's a business called AA, right? Is it a, is that, did I get, get that right? 10 (35m 38s): ACORS and arrows. 3 (35m 40s): Learnings and arrows 10 (35m 40s): Community. Yes. 3 (35m 41s): A I was close. Yeah. Anyway. So tell us what you're doing, how long you've been here, what's going on and how the words moving. 10 (35m 47s): Yeah. I echo so much of what Ron said, but prior to coming on staff here at harvest, I was a public school teacher for 14 years and then God shifted my path a bit and came on board here. And I started out working on with children's ministries for about nine years and then transitioned into some other roles. And like Ron said, it has been just an absolute joy to get to know. So many of you work with families and children and then into adult ministry and children and families has always been my passion if you know me well and, and especially young moms and working with moms. And so over the past couple years, God's been kind of stirring my heart a little bit into some other areas back toward education. 10 (36m 32s): And so I've been stepping out of things here a little bit slowly, and it's taken a little bit of time, but yeah, in the past few months God's opened the door for me to open my own business in the community and really continue our mission of harvest of impacting our community and our world with the life changing message of Jesus Christ. And so I'm going to be offering a homeschool support program for families who have chosen a homeschool, their children, as many of you know, our educational system is shifting a lot. Our culture has changed a lot and parents are feeling the tug to bring their, their children home and educate them at home. And so God's called me to really support families in doing that. 10 (37m 12s): And so we'll be offering a program where students come two days a week and they're with other homeschooled children. And we have classes for them. I provide support for the moms in how to homeschool and answering questions. So I'm really excited about it. It's very scary. I've never opened my own business before. So I'm learning a lot, but God just brought so many amazing people around me to do this. So I feel so blessed and like, Ron, we're not going anywhere. My, our family is here, we're harvest through and through. And so we're here, you'll see us serving and being involved. And it's just a joy to be a part of this church, the staff team's amazing. Pastors love them dearly. And so thank you so much. 3 (37m 53s): Gather around here. Let's get Gary and Jim up here as well. We're gonna pray over these guys. So Neil, one of our other elders is outta, outta state currently. So Jim and Gary, let's get you guys right here. We're gonna lay hands on you and pray for you. And so Gary, I'm gonna have you pray for Ron and Jim. I'm gonna have you pray for Christie. So here you go. You need to have that. And so it's all agree. It's power heads and prayer 11 (38m 24s): Father. We just come before you right now, Lord. And we thank you Lord for Ron. What a man of God, he is Lord, we thank you father for his service at this church and in Avala and everywhere that he served you Lord across this country. We thank you, God, that as your word says, Lord, a tree that's planted by the water will bring forth fruit in its season continually. And we know God that you have more ministries and just different works that you have for Ron to do. And for DJ and we pray God that you would just bless them, continually bless their family, bless all of their friends and, and relatives and help them Lord to continue being a shining light as they have been for so many years. 11 (39m 20s): I thank you for my brother and my friend, and I pray that you would just really bless his latter days in Jesus' name. Amen. 3 (39m 29s): Amen. Amen. Thank you Gary. Mr. 12 (39m 35s): Ericsson, Lord. Thank you for today, Lord. It's what pleasure it is being in the house of the Lord. And thank you for giving us another day to worship you, to praise you and offer our praises and ourselves. Everything that we have to you. Lord, Lord, thank you for Christie and her service here at harvest and her passion for education. I share that passion as well. So Lord, we pray that as she's opening up her new business, Lord, pray that all that goes well and pray that families in the community will learn about Christie and her services. 12 (40m 19s): And we just pray that it will blossom and it'll spread the good news of Jesus Christ to maybe those that don't attend church, but yet will hear the word through what Christie's going to be doing. Lord, we thank you for her presence here. We thank you that her and her family are staying here at harvest to continue to serve our great God Lord. We thank you for everything. All the blessings that you give us every day, Lord in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. 3 (40m 55s): Amen. Hey, before you guys go, I just wanted to say that on Wednesday last week, our staff team gathered for lunch and we honored Ron and Christie. Oh, with gifts. So Ron doesn't hunt, but he does shoot trap. And so we got him a new trap gun and we're gonna might not know what trap, you know what? So you know, Paul boom. Yeah, there we go. Paul boom. Yeah. That pigeon yeah. Clay pigeons. Yeah. So, so that's we got him a gift there and we got Christy. Beautiful. Are you have it on? Oh, she has her necklace on, there we go. 3 (41m 35s): She own it off there. So anyway, just, we wanted to honor them with nice gifts saying thank you. We love you. The church is richer, better, more fruitful as a result of your input, your participation, the using of your gifts and talents. And so we're eternally grateful. The kingdom is eternally impacted because of your faithfulness. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the privilege that it's been for me to serve with both of you as a leader, you, you really pray that God would bring you a great team and I've been so, so incredibly blessed by you both. 3 (42m 20s): And I just wanna say, thank you. I love you both. And let's continue to March forward together. Amen, man. Let's give a hug here. Love you. Love you. Love you guys. Hey, the elders you guys can go and except for you, Christie can go the elder. So Ron's still an elder here. So yeah, stay up here. So as God raises up, we're actually gonna, well, I turned it off. You turned it. Okay, go ahead and have it is Joe Daon here. Where's Joe, is he here? Hey there's Joe, come on, Joe. There we go. So can I get the certificate right there as well? Left that there Joe got a fresh haircut. 3 (43m 2s): You're looking good. I got a fresh haircut too. Yeah, it looks good. Is you're staying on the top? Like my, yeah, yeah, right there. Yeah. Yeah. Try to keep that long. Do the comb over, but it's not a good, not a good look on me. Yeah. Yeah. Try and try and try and try. And so Joe and his family, Katie and their kid, they've been here for how many years have you guys been here? Joe going on 10 years. 10 years. Yeah. 13 (43m 24s): 10 years. Yeah. There we go. Going on 10 years, 3 (43m 26s): There we go. 10 years. And Joe has been volunteering at lifeline crisis pregnancy center for a number of years 13 (43m 34s): Now. Oh yeah. Yeah. Going about going on two years, 3 (43m 37s): On two years, on two years and working out of his passion and out of his experience to minister, to the dads who are unexpectedly dealing with pregnancy and that sort of thing. And so Joe had that experience and you wanna share a little bit about that? 13 (43m 55s): Yeah. So about 27 years ago, I was faced with me and my wife were faced at the time was boyfriend girlfriend faced with pregnancy. I was, we were 16. And so obviously at 16, you know, you want to cover up and you want hide it and you don't want anybody to know, especially mom and dad. And so we were going through the whole motion of trying to figure out what we were gonna do, what the next step was. And so we were thinking about abortion. And so we called my wife called down to an abortion clinic that was giving abortions up to six months. And so through that time, we had opened up to close friends and relatives, cousins. 13 (44m 41s): And one of my cousins in class was like, Hey, you should tell her to go down to lifeline pregnancy center and see what they can do at that point. We didn't know what lifeline was. You know, we didn't know what, what their services were or what we thought. Okay. Maybe it's a local abortion clinic and come to find out that the women there as she went, she decided to go and she didn't give no information, no nothing. They just kind of just brought her in with love and kindness and really just kind of minister to her. They, you know, officially gave her the announcement that she was pregnant. And at this time I want to say she was about three or four months. 13 (45m 24s): And so they just asked if they could pray to her and pray with her and pray for her and the baby. And right there, she just felt that the holy spirit was telling her that you're gonna keep the baby. And so she called me later that night and said, Hey, you know, I just wanna share with you that I am, you know, definitely pregnant. And if you want out, this is your time out, but I'm gonna keep the baby. And I said, no, I'm definitely there for the long haul and we're here and let's do this. So yeah, that's where it started. And you know, I think it was 25 years later. I found myself getting involved with lifeline as an advocate, as you know, and just came full circle. 13 (46m 9s): And now here we are, and going around speaking to young men and, and ladies at different youth ministries at different churches throughout the central coast, sharing about, you know, healthy choices and, you know, there's just options and you know, just the whole thing about relationship and what it should be under Christ and what it looks like. And so we're just there to love them, support them and know that they're not alone. And so that's what we do. And so we've been doing that for a couple years now and it's been great, it's growing and we're excited to see what happens. 3 (46m 47s): Yeah. We couldn't be more proud of what God is doing with you. I, I love that God uses the broken pieces of our lives to minister, to others out of that brokenness. We can relate to people. We can love people deeply under with understanding and compassion, right. And so Joe, Joe's been doing this with lifeline clients, but also at work Joe's been salt and light, you know, impacting his, his work with the, with the message of the, the gospel. And so he's been mentoring, young men and one guy in particular at works, he's getting ready to get married. And he said, Hey, Joe, you know, help me out. So Joe's been kind of counseling with that or helping him navigate that. 3 (47m 30s): And then the guy said, Hey, would you officiate my, my wedding? And so Joe's like, I don't know. I, I'm not. Yeah. 13 (47m 38s): I was like, okay, well let me check it out. And so yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I was gonna go online and do it. And then I ended up actually getting pointed into the direction of the church and they're like, Hey, no, go check out pastor Steve and see what they can do and see if, you know, that's something that, you know, you can move forward with. And so I just stepped out in faith, you know? Yeah. And didn't know what it was gonna do or lead into. And here I am and getting presented with this and it's just the goodness and faithfulness of God that he's showing throughout my life. And I don't want to miss that, you know, because he's pulled me out of the ashes and, and, you know, before Christ and to bring me up here and to be that confirmation through elders and, and my family members that've been there, you know, really, really is why I'm stepping out. 13 (48m 34s): And, and just like this young man asking me, you know, just sharing through, through my, through my testimony and just sharing the gospel like we're called to do, you know, being that light is just really just confirmed that this is the next chapter. And so I'm just stepping down and seeing what 3 (48m 51s): Happens. Yeah. So we're here to recognize what God is doing in Joe's life. He asked if there would be a possibility for us to honor him with a, a license, a minister's license, so he can do the service, the marriage. So he can officiate the service, the marriage ceremony. And, and so we gathered his elders and Neil was there as well. And we just spent some time interviewing Joe. And again, he's been here for 10 years, so we know Joe pretty well. And so we had the chance just to interview him and really ask him some hard questions about his faith, about his life and about his purpose in life. And so we've all got when, when we come to faith in Jesus, we're all given gifts and talents. 3 (49m 40s): And when those gifts and talents are affirmed by people in our lives, we know that God's really doing something. So sometimes we think, oh, I, I feel called to this, but if nobody's affirming it, then there may be some questions around that. But, but we affirm what God is doing with Joe. Joe's gonna continue his ministry at lifeline as a volunteer. He's not coming on staff with us at harvest church. He's going to be a lay lay minister though, that we recognize and honor. And so we've got a certificate of license here. It says certificate of license, this certifies that Joe Daon has completed all the requirements to become a licensed minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 3 (50m 20s): And is hereby awarded the certificate by harvest Bible fellowship. That's our formal name, 1 24 west branch street, Ray Grandy. So we signed it. And I wanna read from second Timothy chapter four to you and over you. And there's a challenge. And as kind of some marching orders for you as you move forward. Before I do that, though, we've talked about just maintaining a gratitude and a humility before the Lord a lowness, as you serve people, Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom. For many, he came as a lowly servant, he's the king of Kings, but he came to serve. 3 (51m 4s): And so as you serve men and women, as you serve people, it's never from a place of I've arrived or I've got it all figured out, or I've got all of the answers, but it's from a place of gratitude that the Lord has given you. Opportunity has placed you in a position to speak words of life and grace and truth so that others might be, be drawn to him, be ified in the most holy faith and continue to pursue him. And so I'll read to you what Paul wrote to Timothy about his ministry. And first second, Timothy chapter four says, I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead. 3 (51m 47s): When he appears to set up his kingdom, preach the word of God, be prepared whether the time is favorable or not patiently, correct rebuke and encourage your people with good teaching for a time is coming. When people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching, they will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths, but you, you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Keep a clear mind in every situation, don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord. 3 (52m 31s): Work at telling others the good news and fully carry out the ministry God has given to you. As for me, Paul writes, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight I have finished the race and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me, but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. So preach the word, be faithful, and just watch what God will do in your life as you surrender yourself to him. 3 (53m 16s): And so with that, as Ron is the outgoing pastor on our team, we're gonna let him pray. He's still a pastor here, but you know what I mean? So we're gonna have her on prey over you. 9 (53m 27s): All right. So Lord, we're just following the model that we see in scripture, that when it's obvious someone is called to ministry, Lord, that we agree with that. We agree with your calling upon Joe's life. We lay hands upon him, which is really a formal way of setting him apart for the work of the ministry that you've called him to do. So Lord, not only us up here, the elders, but all of us as a community believers, we, we recognize that that your hand is upon Joe and that you have lots of opportunity both now and into the future for him to minister to people. So we say, yes, Lord, to what you're doing in Joe's life. We pray for he and Katie, the whole family Lord, we, we expect that you're going to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think because of the fact that Joe is, is your servant. 9 (54m 17s): And you've filled him with your spirit. You've put a passion with it in his heart to speak your word faithfully. And so Lord, we, we lift him up to you. Thank you. That whom you call you also equip Lord. You've equipped Joe to accomplish the purposes for which he is pursuing. So Lord, thank you for our brother, Lord. We bless him. We love him and we wanna support him and encourage him and pray for him. And we, we just bless you. Thank you for the fruit that that will be coming about eternal lasting fruit because of the, the obedience Lord that he said yes to you and you've called him. And so Lord, we expect that you're going to just take him on this journey. 9 (54m 58s): It would be a, a, not a easy journey, but certainly a incredible journey as he walks this out with you, Lord, we pray and we all agree in Jesus' name. God's people said, 3 (55m 8s): Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you guys. Love you, Joe. Congratulations buddy. Love you. Love you. So, as we said, Joe is as a volunteer at lifeline and Curtis talked about the lifeline banquet that is coming up harvest church. We actually bought a table. How many sit at the table, Joe? Was it like eight or 10? 10, 10. So we've got, we've got space for 10, but listen, we're not letting just anybody sit at the table. So if you're coming just for a free meal, it's not for you, but if you want to come in preparation to give and to bless the ministry of lifeline with a financial gift, then we've got a place at the table for you. 3 (55m 53s): So it's easy to ask for money for somebody else. It's harder to ask for money for yourself. So for lifeline, if you want to go and be a part of that celebration at the banquet, let us know. We've got 10 spaces that are available for people who again, want to plan to show up and prayerfully support financially the work of the ministry there. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Hey, we're gonna be inviting Jean to nay up. Where's Jean. I told you we got a lot going on today. So, so Jean is yeah, take the microphone. Jean, come on up. Jean's been out sick, dealing with all kinds of stuff and the Lord's been blessing her and touching her and healing her. 3 (56m 34s): And so what's the latest on your cancer scare there, girl. All clear. All clear. All good. That's awesome. Yeah. Congratulations. Yeah. So Jean is a prolific poet and she writes poetry like nobody's business. And so when we started our study through the book of James, she wrote Jean, the Lord just kind of gave her the ability to write a kind of a synopsis of each chapter. And so my goal today was to get up and kind of teach and kind of close out the book of James. But then I reread her poem and I'm like, this does it. So Jean's gonna take five minutes and read her poem in her British accent, her English accent. 3 (57m 18s): So that it sounds like she wrote it. And then we'll jump into our next study here. 15 (57m 23s): So they don't like it when you read them. 3 (57m 25s): No, they don't. Yeah. I don't do them. Any justice gene. 15 (57m 28s): Well, we did James at our ladies Bible study recently Thursday mornings in the loft. And I always like to recap like Steve does and as I was going through the lessons, we're just turned into a poem. Yeah, no one was more amazed than me. So here we go. This is the book of James. And you know, we need to recap because we tend to what forget. And James is such an incredible book on how to live the life that we've signed up for. So here we go. Chapter one, the trials of life, perfect us. So we joyfully embrace hardships and difficulties looking to the master's face, requesting wisdom from above it's free and there for all though, don't be double minded or you'll get none at all, rich or poor. 15 (58m 17s): It makes no odds in God's economy. Death comes to all in trials, too. God tests your faith. You see every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord above. He birthed us by his word of truth. Enveloped us in love. Watch your tongue. It is a fire. Listen more than talk. Be doers of the word you hear. You need to walk the walk. Don't just sit and soak up. God, you need to help each other to truly be a child of God of this world. Be not a lover. Chapter two, God shows no partiality to man and neither friend should you all are equal in his sight. 15 (59m 2s): The rich and homeless too. Love your neighbor. As yourself. Favoritism is a sin. God chose the poor for richest faith. Their honor is in him. Break one item of the law and you're guilty of it. All show no mercy. You'll get none. God judges one and all look around to meet and need work out. What's been worked in the fruit of faith is what you do to hoard. It is a sin. Ape was proved a righteous man by all the things he did, faith and action trusting. God made him a friend of God. Rayhab the Harlet trusted too. 15 (59m 44s): Became an ancestor of the Lord. Saved from distraction by her faith. Her actions saved her life. Chapter three. If you decide to teach the folk, be careful. What you say for all of us can give offense imperfect. As we are a tongue, a deadly weapon, lifting up or tearing down like a spark. It sets a blaze, a world of hurt and pain with our mouth. We bless the Lord and then run someone down a fountains, either good or bad. No compromise should be found. Are any here intelligent, full of wisdom. 15 (1h 0m 24s): Good and true. Then live an upright noble life. Humbly helping others too. Jealousy and contention comes from Satan and his crew. But wisdom comes from God. Above is pure and peaceful, loving, true wholehearted and straightforward, no doubts or wavering here. Fill your life with righteousness, creating peace for all who hear chapter four, discord and contention come from our earthly war soul. We want the things we do not have. We feel they'll make us whole ask of God. The things you need with a heart that's pure and true. 15 (1h 1m 6s): Not with selfish motives though. He'll give you all. That's good for you. You cannot be the world's friend. When you belong to God, he loves you with a jealous love. He'll give you grace to choose the things that truly please in most though, the holy through the holy Spirit's power resist that wily Satan, and he will run for cover humble your heart and drawing close to Papa almighty God he'll hold you tight and keep you near forgive your wandering heart. He'll lift you up, exalt you high he'll glorify your life. When in remorse you seek his face. 15 (1h 1m 48s): He will make all things right. There is one judge, one law giver, and it definitely isn't us. So mind your own business and leave the judging to the boss. Pray before you make your plans to visit here and there. Pray God's will upon your life and let him lead you there. Gold, silver will chapter five, gold and silver will rush through be careful what you store. Don't cheat workers of their wages. Their cry comes before the Lord be patient till you see the day the coming of the Lord do not kill the innocent or in soft living. 15 (1h 2m 29s): Put your store before too long, the Lord will come as a farmer, awaiting reign, be patient knowing it will come be strong until that time be steadfast and enduring. As the prophets were before remember job and all he lost. And then God gave him more. If you are sad, then pray to God. If happy, sing his praise. If sick have people pray for you and knocked with oil and pray with faith, confess your faults, your slips, and pray forgiveness for your sins. Prayer is a very powerful tool that changes many things. 15 (1h 3m 11s): Elijah was a man like you, and he prayed. It would not rain for three and a half years. That drought came on until he prayed again. And you are like Elijah. So if you see a sister or brother fall, lovingly restore with prayer for God loves you. So that's all. 3 (1h 3m 40s): Thank you, Jean. You know, Jean's been writing poems forever and then years ago, just real quick story. She read Bible stories and put that I'm on tapes and CDs. And so a lot of our young people that are now adults around here grew up listening to Jean's Bible stories and that's how they learned the books or the different Bible stories and things like that. So a lot of people have really been blessed and ministered to by our friend, Jean. So thank you. I'm so glad you're clear and good. Your cancer's gone. And so we'll celebrate that with you. So good stuff. Good stuff. First Peter, chapter one, go ahead and open up first Peter chapter one, you know, as we attempt to understand what the scripture tells us and helps us to, as we attempt to understand what the verses mean, there's a process called exegesis and there's a principle in exegesis called the synthesis principle. 3 (1h 4m 38s): And so I want to explain kind of the synthesis principle for us because I, I think it helps us understand how to read the Bible and how to understand the Bible. God's got a message for us in the word of God. So as we think through the scripture that we're reading, as we come across something, we need to consider the context, what is the immediate context of this, this verse? And so as you look at a verse and you are considering the context, there's the immediate context, the verses prior, and after the verse that you're reading, you want to understand what is being communicated and there's nothing better to interpret scripture than scripture itself. 3 (1h 5m 21s): And so there's the immediate context. What is written just prior and just after the verse that you're trying to understand, and then there's the wider context. And so we're gonna be in first Peter. And so if you come across a verse in first, Peter, that you're not fully grasping, so you look at the immediate context, but then you look at the wider context. What is the writer of Peter trying to communicate? What's the message of first Peter. And so as you read through that difficult passage, you can begin to consider not just the immediate, but the wider context and begin to get some better understanding of that verse. And then as you are still maybe still struggling and you wanna make sure that the way you understand the verse is actually the way God intended for us to understand the verse. 3 (1h 6m 9s): Then we need to look at the complete context of the word of God, the old and the new Testament. So this synthesis process or, or, or program will help us to understand the scripture. And so, as we read the scripture and as we decide what it is that we believe about the scripture, we need to make sure that our theology, because we've all got a theology about God theology is the study of the nature of God. And so we all have a theology about God. We all believe something about God. So we need to make sure that our theology, what we're believing our doctrine is communicated in the scriptures of the old and the new Testament, the, the scriptures and the old and the new Testament, all speak a message. 3 (1h 6m 53s): And that message points us to Jesus and there's understandings throughout the old and the new Testament that will help us serve Jesus. And so that's why, when we talked about the different types of laws a few weeks ago, we talked about the ceremonial laws. We talked about the civil laws and we talked about the moral laws. And so we, in an effort to understand what our obligation is as believers, we really applied that synthesis model. And we just, we know from that model, from that type of ex, at least that portion of, of exegesis, we know that the ceremonial laws for a were for a time, but when Christ came, all of that ended, we know that the civil laws were for the people in Palestine and the, the people of Israel, they were there. 3 (1h 7m 41s): A lot of them are transferable today and they kind of share space with moral laws. And so we see some of the civil laws and we covered those a couple weeks ago, actually are moral laws as well. And so we looked at the moral laws and we know that those moral laws are seen in the old, the new testaments and that Jesus affirms them. The, the apostles affirmed them, the writers of the new Jess reform them in the scripture. And so as we kind of study the word of God, I'll share more kind of tidbits about exegesis and about how to study the Bible as we move forward. Because I, I think it's just gonna help us to continue to grow in our understanding. I think we all desire to understand the Bible, to grow in our ability, to read, understand, and apply the truth. 3 (1h 8m 26s): And so it'll be my effort to try to share different tidbits like that from time to time, just to kind of give us a little more information as we open up the scripture. So again, we must examine a passage in relation to its immediate context. What was the next one wider context? And then beyond that it's complete context, right? So immediate, wider, and complete context. We need to understand that the Bible does not contradict itself. Sometimes we read the scripture and it appears that the Bible is contradicting itself, but we know that the Bible does not contradict itself. 3 (1h 9m 7s): And so we need to be faithful to understand those difficult passages in light of those of the context of the word of God. And as we do that, we will have greater confidence in the Bible, greater confidence in who we are as Christians, as believers. And we will be able to trust God moving forward. So let's look at the first couple verses in first Peter chapter one, and then we're just gonna unpack things from there. And I'm, I look like I've got about 30 minutes left. Is that 30 or three? I think I might have three minutes left. So I'm not sure actually how far we will get today. Cuz we actually have another service that we gotta get to. 3 (1h 9m 47s): But maybe I'll just tell you what I'm gonna tell you. And then next week I'll tell you what I'm gonna tell you. How's that sounds good. So first Peter one, one and two, this is greetings from Peter. So what do we know about Peter? Peter was kind of reckless, right? He was kind of this gruff and tough guy. He was always speaking up when he probably should have been quiet. He was always just a little bit rambunctious and headstrong, but God uses people who are rambunctious and headstrong for his kingdom purposes. And he also uses people who are more timid and quiet and soft spoken. 3 (1h 10m 27s): He uses all of us with our personalities as he gives us gifts and talents to Edify, to build up the body of Christ. And so that we might be salt and light. So I love Peter because he steps all over his own tongue and he gets himself in trouble. But Peter learns, he learns from his mistakes and don't, we all need to have that perspective. Like man, I misstep there or I misspoke there. I need to back up a little bit, reconsider my life, my motivations, my words, and then think clearly about what God would have me to do. 3 (1h 11m 7s): So Peter he's all over the place. But in acts, we read that as Peter preached, how many people came to faith in Jesus, the thousands, right? Thousands come to faith in Jesus Christ because of Peter's newfound clarity and unction. He's filled with the holy spirit and he's speaking the truth with passion and clarity and people are responding. This letter is from Peter in apostle of Jesus Christ. So he was one of the ones where Jesus said, Peter, come follow me and I will make you a Fisher of men. So Jesus identified Peter as a man that he wanted in his inner circle because he had purpose for him. 3 (1h 11m 47s): And so Peter lives the rest of his life, serving, honoring and giving himself to Jesus. Ultimately Peter's crucified upside down. He has martyred like most of the other apostles and he gives his life all the way through and through for the gospel I'm writing to God's chosen people. He writes and we see it kind of a similar greeting in, in James chapter one, as James writes to his listener, Peter writes to his listener, this letters from Peter and apostle of Jesus Christ. I'm writing to God's chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pius Galatia, captia Asia and Bethia. 3 (1h 12m 31s): These are all Roman provinces that are now located in a place called Turkey. So Turkey, we just heard about Igar in Azure by Jean. And if you look on the map, like we just had up there, you'll see that Azure by John's just east of Turkey. And so this letter is written to people in this part of the world. And so I'm so excited that we get to support the work of the gospel in Azure, by John. So to reinforce that we need to be praying for Igar. As Curtis said, we need like 87 full-time missionaries for that one area, that one region to be saturated with the gospel. 3 (1h 13m 12s): And so for 2000 years, the gospel has been communicated to this region gospel. God's been trying to reach the people of this region. And to this day, we're still trying to reach the people of that region. Verse two God. The father knew you and shows you long ago and his spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ made God, give you more and more grace and peace. So again, who is Peter writing to verse one, I am writing to God's chosen people. 3 (1h 13m 56s): That's the new living translation of that verse. The NIV, the new international version says I'm writing to God's elect. The SV says to those who are elect, what does it mean to be elect? So when you, you go to a, a polling station and it's midterms or whatever the election season is, and you're casting your vote, you are hoping to elect the next person in the office. So the elect are those who are chosen. They are pit. They are chosen by God for a purpose and for salvation. 3 (1h 14m 39s): So Christ has elected. God has elected those who will be saved. And so now we get into all kinds of murky water and I'm down to 49 seconds. Now who put it back up now I had 8 51. You guys are so confusing me. Did I? Negative eight? Is that a negative? My eyes are so bad. Here we go. I am overdue. Okay. So this is what we're gonna talk about next week. Next week, we're gonna answer the question. Did we choose God or did God choose us? 3 (1h 15m 21s): And we're gonna be looking at the difference between Calvinism and our manism, John Calvin coined, what we, or what's the word kind of described what he believes about God and his sovereignty and about his foreknowledge. And, and then his student, Jacob Armenian, who was a Calvinist because of his tutelage under John Calvin, he, after getting into the ministry, he decided to think differently and began to read the scripture and think differently about God and his sovereignty and his foreknowledge. 3 (1h 16m 5s): And so we're gonna unpack it. I, I, I'm so anxious to get to this right now. And I was really hoping we could get to it today, but there's just so much going on. So next week I'm gonna tell you, we're gonna get into this Calvinism versus our manism and we're gonna unpack this thing. And hopefully by the end of the week, next week into the service next week, we'll have some clarity about who God is about his four knowledge about election, about what God is doing in the world. Amen. Amen. Let's with that, go ahead and stand up. We're gonna invite the worship team back and sorry to tease you with that, but we're going to have to pick it up next week. And so Lord, as we continue to worship God, we, we thank you Lord. 3 (1h 16m 50s): And, and we're grateful Lord for your word that it teaches us Lord and that so many amazing things happened, and we're just grateful for who you are. And so Lord, as we get ready to take communion, we just want to reflect on what happened on that cross 2000 years ago, Lord, we want to remember God who you are and what you're all about. And so God, we, we, once a month, Lord, we stop. We pause and we reflect on that sacrifice that you made when Calvary 2000 years ago. 3 (1h 17m 33s): And we read from first Corinthians chapter 11, where it says for, I pass on to you. What I received from the Lord himself, Paul writes 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. 3 (1h 18m 21s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank you Lord, for your body. That was crucified, pierced whipped S scourge beaten for me in my place. The wages of sin is death, But the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus of the Lord. And so thank you for paying the penalty for my sin, for our sin individually, collectively corporately God you've died for our sins. And we believe that we honor you for that sacrifice today. We love you Lord in Jesus name in the same way, verse 25, he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. 3 (1h 19m 8s): Do this to remember me, as often as you drink, if 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 this use Lord, thank you for the opportunity to be refreshed by the juice as it represents your blood. And your blood is what cleanses us. 3 (1h 19m 48s): There's no remission of sins without the shedding, your blood Lord. There's no forgiveness without the shedding. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ our Lord. So you gave your body and your blood and we praise you for that. We thank you for that. We thank you, Lord for your grace and God. As we, we worship you with these, with this last set of worship, this last song, we pray that you would be glorified as we, as we align our lives with you. As we confess our sin, as we allow you to be Lord and leader of our lives, Lord God today, and every day, Lord be glorified. If you're here today and you've never given your life to Jesus, Jesus died for you. 3 (1h 20m 29s): He loves you. Bible calls us all sinners. We've all sinned and fall short of God's glorious standard. And that wage of sin, the penalty for that sin is death. And so Jesus came to die for us paying the penalty, taking the sins of humanity upon himself so that we might be forgiven and walk in newness of life called being born again. And so Lord, we thank you for that gift. Pray that whoever's here today, who has never made that decision to make you Lord and leader of their lives to receive your grace and your mercy and your love. God, I pray. They do that now. Thank you, Lord God. We love you. As we worship, help us to just continue to worship and spirit and the truth. Be glorified. We pray in Jesus name. 3 (1h 21m 10s): Amen. Amen. Let's worship 2 (1h 21m 27s): One with God time hitting what? A beautiful, what a beautiful, the name. What a, what a beautiful name. 2 (1h 22m 10s): It's so she was great. You love was great. Wonderful name, nothing. 0 (1h 24m 9s): The 18 (1h 26m 45s): Thank you Jesus for your powerful name. Thank you for your presence. Thank you for this morning in church. And for the time we took to take communion and the time we took to honor people, God, we thank you for your presence. We thank you for your love. We thank you for your truth. We just give you the rest of our days, the rest of our weeks and your precious new praying. Amen.

James’ Final Words to Sinners and Saints - Jeremy Sutherland

1 (3s): Good morning. Thank you all for coming to church today. We're gonna worship let's stand together. 2 (12s): Let's 0 (12s): Stand 1 (14s): Lord. Thank you for your grace, your mercy toward us. Thank you for just the protection you give each one of us. We ask that you would, that you would be praised and honored here this morning. We ask you to fill this with your spirit. Lord. We just dedicate this time to worship you. 0 (43s): Amen 2 (1m 8s): Breaks. So this is amazing. Grace, 0 (2m 5s): You lay 2 (2m 6s): Down sassy. All that you've done for brings our king king with 0 (3m 18s): That. 2 (3m 39s): Oh, Jesus SA for all that you done for worthy, a king who conquer worthy, worthy a king who Wey the king, who conquer Ayyy, that all that you've done for me for all that you've done for, I see praises to your praises, to, to your name, to your that's so much be lifted. 2 (6m 32s): Lifted, be lifted is to so be yeah. 2 (8m 19s): Be your name is life. 2 (8m 60s): Your name is inside me. Your name is love. That always finds me. Always finds me. 2 (10m 42s): Be lifted up. Be lifted, lifted the, oh, carry the way of the past. 2 (11m 50s): That won't 0 (13m 54s): You 2 (14m 38s): I'll be still that you'll 3 (14m 56s): You love. 3 (16m 20s): I know that you I'm calling God Moses, who I need you now to do the same thing for me, for me, for me, God. Oh God. Oh God, my God. I need you now. 3 (17m 2s): How I need you now? Rock I'm calling on the bottom. 3 (17m 43s): David who made a shepherd boy, courages. I may not face a lion, but I've got my owns, oh 0 (18m 1s): God, my God, you, oh God, my 3 (18m 9s): I, you heard your children. Then you hear your children. Now you are the same God, you are the same. God, you answered prayers back then. 3 (18m 50s): And you will answer. Now you are the same God, you are the same God you are providing that. You are providing, you are the same God, 0 (19m 10s): You 3 (19m 10s): Are the God, you than 0 (19m 17s): God in 3 (19m 19s): Now. 0 (19m 20s): You're the God you, the, you are 3 (19m 32s): Now. 0 (19m 33s): You're God, you, God, you, God, 3 (20m 9s): I'm standing. I 0 (20m 49s): Jesus, 4 (20m 50s): We thank you that we can stand on your faithfulness, Lord. That that is the strongest. You are the you're the rock of the ages. Lord. You're the thing that we can depend on no matter what's happening around us, no matter what's going on in our world, no matter what's happening in our lives, Jesus, you, the rock of the ages, Lord, the one that people have been trusting in for thousands of years, Lord, you are the one that we trust in today. You're the one that makes this church happen. Jesus, you are the one that's always faithful Lord. So I just pray that faith would rise up in our church this morning that we would not be people who are taken by the emotions of our lives, but Lord, that we would stand on the faithfulness of generations, Lord. 4 (21m 38s): And we just ask that no matter what situations are happening in people's lives today, Lord that you would show yourselves yourself, faithful. Now Lord. And we trust that you will. We trust that you will. Jesus. Amen. Amen. All right. Well welcome. Welcome to church. You can sit down if you'd like, thank you all for being here. It's great to have you here. If you are new here, we just want to welcome you and let you know that we've got an info center at the back. They'd be happy to answer any questions that you ha that you have. We've got bathrooms behind us, water there as well and coffee and tea out on the courtyard there. 4 (22m 22s): So feel free to do any of those things. We also coming up, we've got a beach baptism next Sunday. It's gonna be awesome. Are you guys are excited about that? I hope. Yes. It's so good. So I shared this a couple weeks ago, but last time we had a beach baptism, we had a couple hundred people out there. We baptized a bunch of people. We baptized someone who was just walking by. It was a really powerful experience. So please join us for that. We're gonna be at the end of grand it's it's at five o'clock. It's gonna be awesome. It's great time. Such a good time with just fellowship. We're gonna have hot dogs out there, food, all the good stuff. 4 (23m 2s): So join us. And this year we're gonna have mustard. It's pretty exciting. Yeah. Yeah. Last year we ran out of all the mustard really early. And so all we had was mayonnaise left. So if you're a big mayonnaise person on your hot dog, we probably will still have mayonnaise, but it'll, you know, we've got mustard. So I'm a big mustard person. Anyway. That's gonna be really awesome. The highlights baptisms though, Mustard's kind of down here, but anyway. Yeah. So also we've got lifeline pregnancy center banquet going on. It's it's gonna be a great opportunity to bless lifeline. So if you want to be a part of this, they're selling tables to be at the banquet. 4 (23m 47s): So they're tables of 10. And the goal for this is that you'll buy a table, come bring 10 friends that are up for donating towards what Lifeline's doing. They're doing amazing things in our community. They've got some really exciting updates that they're gonna announce at the banquet. And they've got a special guest speaker who's coming in. It's actually Tim Tebow's mom. She's gonna be sharing her some of her story. And she just it's very powerful. So you wanna be there for that? I would go back to the info center and Terry Bruner will be there to answer any of your questions. And then just as a reminder, if you weren't here last week, we just announced a staff update. 4 (24m 32s): That's going on, Ron and Christie are both retiring. So we're gonna be sending them out and blessing them next week and praying over them. So we're excited to do that. Also, if you have youth, they're gonna be in service today because Jeremy, our youth and family pastors preaching this morning, it's gonna be awesome. So with that, get up and meet somebody you've never met before. And yeah, we'll be back in a minute. 5 (25m 24s): And when you prayer and to be 0 (25m 30s): Puring 5 (25m 31s): Heart in your, your 0 (26m 32s): I 6 (27m 18s): All right, good morning, everyone. I just get ignored. It's okay. Ooh, it got quiet in the new, in this new sanctuary. I I've done a few announcements, but I haven't preached in this new sanctuary man. It's it's a lot more eyeballs. It's a little more nerve-wracking. I told you as a kid, if I knew that public speaking was gonna be my career, I would've probably ran away from my life. I, I still get anxious and nervous and timid. So let's pray right now. Pray for God's spirit. Pray for God to use my voice as, as we open up the book of James. 6 (28m 1s): So heavenly father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the opportunity that you've given me, but Lord, more, more than that. I want to glorify you with these words, Lord, as we open up James and expound on these things that he, he speaks of, Lord, will you bring your understanding your wisdom to us this morning? Your, your wisdom that comes from above Lord, not the earthly central wisdom, but the wisdom that is from above Lord. Thank you Lord for this morning in Jesus. Name me pray. Amen. Well, good morning. My name's Jeremy. I am the I'm the youth and family pastor here at harvest church. So good to be with you. We're gonna be opening up James five today. We're gonna be studying James final words to sinners and saints, to sinners and saints, to get a little context of James. 6 (28m 47s): I just want to remind us of when the book of James was written. James was written actually was the first of the new Testament books to be written. It was written in approximately 45 ad. And so James now is writing to a very Jewish audience. He, he addresses that in James one, he's writing to the brethren that are the 12 tribes that are scattered throughout. You see the Jews Fromm council wasn't for another three years in, in, in which they decided what to do with these Gentiles that are converting to, to Christianity that are coming under the Jewish Messiah. And so it's very much written in a Jewish style that the Jews would understand. It addresses the culture that's around them. 6 (29m 29s): I get to brag a little about our youth group. I, I, I love our youth group. I, I, I have a number of students that want to dig even deeper than what we do on a Wednesday or a Sunday morning. And so we call this group the core group. So every other week we meet with his core group and we study different books. We've gotten, we've gone through toaster's knowledge of the holy, where he takes different attributes of God's and just expands those into who God is. And it's, it was an incredible book and it was incredible to, to see this students discuss this book. They have to come prepared to discuss, they've read the chapters ahead of time. And they come to discuss these different characters and attributes of God. Then we went through a book called a shepherd, looks at Psalm 23, and it was an amazing book. 6 (30m 10s): It was just looking and breaking up what Psalm 23 it is and how that applies to our, our life. It was just an amazing time. Well, currently we're going through a book called the forgotten Jesus it's by Robbie ality. And before that sounds, you know, before you think that I'm a heretic about forgotten Jesus, it's actually how Western Christians should view or follow in Eastern rabbi. And it's bringing out all these things about the he, the Hebrew Bible and how Jews think. And, and, and, and it's making the Bible just open up. There's so many things as Western Christians, that Jesus says that just go way above our head. 6 (30m 51s): But as a, as a Jewish person, would've understood exactly what Jesus was saying. And I'm gonna talk about that as we go through the book of James, but then exciting. I, I, I I'm, I'm wearing a t-shirt, I don't know some churches, you know, you have to wear a very suit and all that stuff. Some shirt are very, the pastor wear, but I'm wearing a t-shirt day because we're, we had announced this week that our youth group is being rebranded. We're calling ourselves the young heirs and I'm pumps. Alright, we have a good friend, a good person. Our church who's helped us rebrand. He listened to Carson, I and our all about our youth group. And he came up with this branding of young heirs and young, because young, but not dumb young, but not reckless young because we, the youth need to know that they have an inheritance youth. 6 (31m 42s): The youth need to know that the, that the better, the best is yet to come. And so we, as, as Romans eight, 17 says, we are children of God. That means we're heir of God. We are co-heirs with Christ. And that is an inheritance that we will get. And if Christ suffered then the, this Romans eight 17, that we must also suffer ourselves. And so I, I, I'm glad that these students are being called up into something because we're not trying to push them down. We're calling them into something greater. We're putting the cookies on the top shelf, making 'em reach from 'em. All right. So young heirs, it's, it's been exciting journey to be a part of the youth group here. As, as, as we watched it grow. 6 (32m 24s): Now let's get into James five. And if you have your Bible open up there, please we're gonna address the sinners and the fat of heart. That's who James addresses first in this section, the sinners and the fatten of heart. Now, once again, I wanna look at, at the context of James as a whole 15 times, James uses the word brethren in this section. He's not gonna use brethren. As we look at verse one, let's read verses one through six, and then we'll break it down. James says, come now rich weep, and how for your miseries that are common upon you, your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth Eden. Your golden, your silver are corroded and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. 6 (33m 9s): You have heaped up treasure in the last days, indeed. The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which kept back, which you kept back by fraud. They cry out in the cries of the Reaper. Reapers have the, have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabbath. You have lived on the earth in a pleasure and luxury. You have fated your hearts. As in a day of slaughter, you have condemned, you have murdered the jest. He does not resist you. Now I wanna say that I don't believe this section applies directly to us, but I'm gonna show you how indirectly it, it, it might see. Now James is addressing, he doesn't use the word brethren in this passage. 6 (33m 52s): And the reason why I prefer the new king James version is because sometimes words are added to help us understand the original language. So in that section, that first verse, it says, come now you rich weep and how the original text does not include the word you, he says, come now rich weep and how. And so I believe west James is writing this. He's not addressing somebody in his church. He's addressing the broader context, those around those rich people that are now oppressing the people in John James congregation, who James is, is writing this letter to. So come now rich weep and Hal for your misery that are coming upon you. 6 (34m 34s): He's gonna talk about their wealth. Their wealth is being stored up, but yet there's misery that's coming upon them. If we look at the context of James and we go back to verse verse three 15, he's talking about this wisdom. He's talking about the different wisdoms, the wisdom that comes from above and the wisdom that comes from below, and this wisdom that comes from below. It says, it's earthly. It's sensual. It's demonic. It's it's, it's, it's its it's bitter envy. And it's, self-seeking that the wisdom that comes from below and that's the wealthy people. They're, they're seeking to fulfill their own pleasures and their own wealth and store it up. So he says, come now you rich weep, and how for misery that are, come upon you, your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth. 6 (35m 17s): Eaten. Wealth was always used with how much wealth you have stored up as well as the clothes that you had. Garments were an important thing. You can think of Joseph and the, the, his coat of many colors. That was in a way showing that this young boy, brother was gonna get a double portion. He was gonna get a larger inheritance than over his, his brothers. He was being put as, almost as if he was the firstborn son and that that coat that he wore was showed to his brothers, that his father valued him more than the others. In verse two, it says your riches are corrupted. And that word, if you dig down into the Greek, that word could also be translated, petrified. 6 (35m 59s): It stinks. So I went to U C S B and every year at U C S B. You always want to seek to live in a better house in a better place. You start out by living in the dorms first year, then you get a, a house, you know, somewhere else. And, and, and you wanna finally end up on, on Delly. That's like the beach party street, and there's a, there's a party side. And then there's like a surfer side. All right. And each year you try to move up in your status. Well, my senior year I had the opportunity to live on Delly and it was at the surf side. It was down by dev, but down by sands beach loved that place. 6 (36m 41s): And in this house, it was, it was a house that had six rooms and there was nine Christian guys that lived in it. And I loved that was one of my best places. I've lived nine Christian guys. We, we were all surfers. We wake up some mornings, look at the surf, outside our window. Do we wanna surf? We wanna go to class. It was always difficult choice, but having nine guys in a house, you don't just use one refrigerator. So we had three refrigerators. And let me tell you the amount of times I found science experiments growing in the back, there was refrigerators. The food was petrifying was not edible because it was not eaten because you took your dinner, your leftovers, you put 'em in the, in one of the fridges, and then you forgot what fridge you put it in. 6 (37m 22s): And then five months later, you open up and you're like, wow, there's a really fuzzy thing in the back of the fridge. And we also only had one trash can, but it was one of those big outdoor trash cans. And the rule was that the last person to put something on it, where it fell off, had to take out the trash. So the trash can, would get full. And then you'd begin to do this, like origami where like, you're not gonna be the guy. So it's you got this big old pile and oh, no, it fell off. So you had to be the guy that took out. But by the time it reached the top, the food at the bottom was stinked. It was petrifying. It was, it had a smell. And that's the riches that these wealthy people had. It was corrupted. It was rotten. And their garments, the sign of their wealth was being Mo eaten. 6 (38m 5s): Verse three says the gold and silver are corroded and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your fleshed. Like fire. That's strange because gold and silver don't rust, they don't corrode. So what is James saying is James inaccurate? No, he's, he's saying that the, the, the gold silver that you've stored up have began to Corro your own heart. You begin to trust in those things and not trust in God in their corrosion or other words, their poison will be a witness against you. It's it's, it's, it's holding up so much wealth that you're hurting others, and you're just sitting on it. 6 (38m 46s): You're just sitting on it as begin to rotten petrify. And it says you have heaped up treasures in the last days. Remember Jesus said where your treasure is there. Your heart will be in Matthew chapter six. And so these wealth, these wealthy, rich people had done these things, but how have they done it? It says, this is how they've done it. They did it by opposing what Jesus had taught. Verse four says, indeed, the wages of the laborers who mode your fields, which you kept back by fraud. They cry out. And the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of harvest. The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields. You kept back by fraud. 6 (39m 28s): So you didn't give. And once again, James is speaking of these rich people, they are accumulating wealth by defrauding and hurting, hurting others. In high school, I had the opportunity for about six months to live in the Philippines with my family. And we had, we rented a house from a woman named CCI and CCI was our landlord and, and CCI paid to have the, the, the, the landscape, you know, kept up. And I remember one day she said, Hey, the, the, the they're gonna come and mow the front grass. I'm like, okay, somebody's gonna bring a push mower. And the grass is pretty small. It was about 10 by 15 feet at little front yard. 6 (40m 10s): And the, the landscaper came and he brought scissors like utility scissors. GCI had filled the house with really nice things. She was so proud of her beautiful cabinets that she had shipped from United States. She, she could tell you all the things and, and that, that she had in the house, but then how she paid her people showed where her heart was. This guy showed up with utility, like what we might cut paper with. And he was out there for hours in the sun. And his wages were very, very low. He was defrauded of what he was earned. And he, I remember just watching, going, like heartbreaking what this guy will never be able to climb any ladder. 6 (40m 52s): I mean, how could you, how could you provide for your family using scissors to cut the grass, to mow the fields? And it says these things, how, which you've kept back by fraud. They cry out. Remember the first time that something's cried out was the blood of able, when he was murdered by his brother, Kane, they cry out in the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabbath. That's important to know because God cares about justice. He cares about those who have been defrauded over and over again in the Bible. You see, don't move the ancient landmark. 6 (41m 32s): Don't defraud others by taking away land, watch out for the widows, watch out for the orphans. You've you've, you've don't harm them because God are heavenly fathers watching, and there will be justice. He says, you're these cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabbath. It says you have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury. And you have fated your hearts. As in the day of slaughter, that's where I got the, their fattening of the hearts. They only cared about how they were doing and not how others, as in the day of slaughter, you have condemned, you have murdered the jest. 6 (42m 14s): He does not resist you. Now we could from a, from a reading of this and, and James two chapter, sorry, chapter two, verse five. We could, we could easily make the assumption that rich means bad. And that poor is good, right? We can, we can kind of see that maybe James is saying that rich is bad, but poor means good, but you need to step back and look at the Bible. And what the Bible, as a whole says about wealth. God uses the wealthy Abraham. Isaac. Jacob were, were the wealthiest in the region. The book of Joe was says that Joe was richer than anyone around him. We have men like Joe of Aramathea who had, who had money and power. And he was able to go and go directly into pilot. 6 (42m 55s): He didn't have to wait in line to visit pilot. He went straight in and asked for the body of Jesus. And then he had a brand new tomb that was hu outta rock with which they, where they laid the body of Jesus. He was a wealthy man. So God uses wealth, but it's the misuse of money that is bad. First, Timothy six, 10 makes it. He says that the love of money is the root of all evil. It's the love of money, not money. Isn't the root of all. It's the love of money. That's the root of all evil. Now it's easy to read this and say, well, richer, everyone else. 6 (43m 36s): We're the, you know, I'm the poorer person. But if you looked at the world's riches and, and where the money goes, Monaco somehow is at number one. And the average salary in Monaco is $186,000 a year. And down at the bottom number 58 is Afghanistan where they make $500 a year. Could you imagine trying to survive on $500 a year? Well, us and that list is about number seven. So there's 60, or there's 51 countries that are under us. As far as the wealth of the world, we have to be careful about the, how we use our money, although we don't. 6 (44m 20s): And this is how I believe this passage applies indirectly to us. We have to be careful with how we use our money. So I don't have People mowing my field, but how am I defrauding others? Well, I don't make my own clothes. So who makes my clothes? Who do I pay to make my clothes? And it's one of those things I begin to look at is where, where do my, where are my money going? Where, what is it supporting? And I look at things like the fast fashion industry, where like companies like H and M have 24 different styles a year that they put out and all that comes at a cost, cheap clothes comes at a, at, at a cost for someone. 6 (45m 3s): And often it's the person who's face. You never see who's working in a factory, whether they want to or not. And it's adult or children that are putting out these things that are, that make it easier for us to go to a, a store and buy a shirt for $12. The cost comes somewhere. And I just wonder how God is hearing the cries of those kids stuck in the factory overseas that are serving us by the things that we purchase and we buy and it's. But it's, I mean, it's really hard. It's really hard to look and figure out like ethical ways to buy clothes and man, an ethical pair of pants that, that, you know, they were paid, right? 6 (45m 43s): There's a cost to it. But I think it's one of those things that we should consider are we defrauding others by how we live. We are a rich nation. And once again, it's not the love of money. That's the root of all yield. It's the misuse of money that de that's bad, that deprives others. It's a way to look at your rich is that hurts or robs others. Like Jesus said where your heart is, where your, where your money is. That's where your heart is, right? 6 (46m 23s): Wealth is a spiritual handicap reread of that. And Luke 18, if you real, if you have your Bible with you turn real quickly to REU 18. In Luke 18, we have Jesus counseling, the rich young ruler. He comes to Jesus and says, Hey Jesus, what do I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus then begins to have a conversation with him and points him back to the, the 10 commandments. And, and the man's like, I I've done all these since my youth. What, what else do I need to do? And Jesus said, well, he, when he heard these things, he said, you still lack one thing, sell all that you have and distribute to the poor. And you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me says when Jesus, when he heard this, he became very sorrowful because he was very rich. 6 (47m 11s): He wasn't willing to let his riches go. He trusted too much in his riches to then to trust in Jesus. And when Jesus saw verse 24, when Jesus saw that he had become very sorrowful, he said, how hard is it for those who have the riches to enter the kingdom of God for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Then for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And those who heard it said, who then can be saved. They hear these words of Jesus. They're like who who's saved. Then Jesus. He says the things which are impossible with men are possible with God. We have to be careful that we, as the new Testament church are very generous with our giving, that we don't, as we look into the things that are going around on around our world with inflation and cost of things, there's the tendency to hoard. 6 (47m 60s): There's a tendency to keep, keep, keep, well, I don't know what things I'm facing. And so we wanna hold onto it. We want to trust in those wealth. We want to trust in as Jesus put it. The Mamon, Mammon's a funny word, right? From Matthews chapter six. And it's literally, there's no word for it in the English it's Aramaic word that they just took from Aramaic and put straight into our English Bibles Mamon and the thought is wealth personified. It's that which is trusted in. So you trusting in your bank account, are you trusting in the things that you have, your, your gold and silver or we trusting in the living? 6 (48m 43s): God, there's so many things on the horizon that make me terrified. And I think, man, I wish I had a little bit more money in my counter. I wish I had this, or I wish I had that, but we have to realize that it's God who's promised to carry us through this. 8 (48m 59s): Amen. 6 (49m 0s): We trust in a living, God, let's go. The next few verses chapter starting verse seven, James is now gonna address the saints. Now he's gonna bring back the brethren. Now he's gonna address his people. His flock, his church verse seven says therefore, be patient brethren and the coming of the Lord. See he's addressing his audience in light of the oppression. That's happened around them. He's now gonna talk to his people. 6 (49m 41s): So therefore be patient brethren until the coming of the Lord. See how a farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it, for it until it receives the early and later reign he's he's now addressing them because of the oppression that's happened around the injustices. And he's gonna give examples of how to patiently wait, Cuz the patience is you gotta wait for the coming to the Lord. God will bring the justice. That is always the promise. The Bible it's God who, who, who will bring this justice. We look at the world and we think of how can all these injustices be made wrong? You know, Hitler got an easy way out for all the evil that he did in the world. 6 (50m 22s): He just took his life. And that, that ended everything. So where's the justice in, in, in his, for his life of the damage that he caused the hurt. Well, so the Bible says there, the justice will be found. He will have a judgment awaiting for him. So be patient brethren until the coming of Lord, see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until he receives the early and later rate. This farmer is amazing. Cuz the farmer simply takes a seed. And this was a time before, you know, drip, irrigation and sprinklers and all that stuff. And a farmer simply took his seed and he placed in the ground as an act of faith, burying that thing and hoping for an increase, hoping that the rains would come in the right time. 6 (51m 6s): The early was the fall rain. And the later rain was the spring rain waiting for the God to send the reign that his crop might grow. And that says Christians, we're supposed to do. We, we send our wealth Ford, right? Our treasures are supposed to be in heaven, not here on the earth. Our seed gets planted where we can't see it. He says, you also be patient establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord. As at hand, what I wanna do really, really quickly is, is to bring us to a little bit of understanding of the Jewish thought Jewish thought. 6 (51m 48s): It was very dynamic. We as westerns, we have a Western way of thinking and the Jews had a Eastern way of thinking. Our way of think is very abstract. Like I said, we read, we read the book of by toes are called knowledge of the holy, where it takes different attributes of God and it separates it. It divides it, it makes a list. And that makes sense to our, our heads. The Jewish way of thinking was it does it's very dynamic. It doesn't, it doesn't do that. An example would be if, if an abstract thinker and a dynamic thinker were, were brought into a room into a science room and they were said, and they were both given a frog and said, Hey, tell me about the frog, explain the frog. 6 (52m 30s): Well, the abstract thinker would, would take this frog and we might measure it and weigh it. And then it might take a scalpel to it. And well, the lungs are this big and this, and, and begin to break it down that way. We want to understand the frog. Well, let's take it apart. Let's figure it out where the dynamic thinker, the, the Jewish mind might look at this frog and say, and take a step back and say, well, what type of environment does this frog wanna live in? What is its mating habits? What does it do? What does it eat? And it begins to look at it in a very different way. What does this frog do? And that's why in the Jewish understanding, and that's why the old Testament, it it's, there's so many examples because the Jewish mind wants to less understand of what God is like. 6 (53m 19s): As far as the attributes, the Jewish mind wants to understand what does God do? And if we understand what God does, then we can example, we can model what God does by doing what he does. It's a very different way of thinking. So that's why James now is gonna give these four examples. He could give the farmer. He gives an example, the farmer of what that culture would know what's happened around him. They would've all seen seeds being planted in the field. They would've all known of the early and the later reins. And now he's gonna give the example of the prophets, Establish your heart For the coming of the Lord is at hand verse eight, verse nine says, do not grumble against one other brethren, unless you be condemned. 6 (54m 6s): And that is something that needs to mark the church that we're not grumbling against each other. Pastor Steve's addressed this very well in the past few weeks is if you have any issue, if there's something that's bothering you, going speak to that person, don't go and talk to everyone else. Go directly to that person. Do not grumble against one another brethren. He's addressing this church less. You be condemned behold. The judge is standing at the door, my brother, and take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. So now James is gonna use the, the Jewish dynamic thought of, of showing us an example of someone who, or people who did that example exactly who waited patiently for the Lord, who had had to establish hearts. 6 (54m 50s): There was the prophets, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Verse 11 says, indeed, we count them blessed who endured? You've heard of the perseverance of job and seen the intended by the Lord that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. It's interesting that the best old Testament commentary is found right here in the nude Testament. James is now giving a commentary on what he, his understanding of the book of job was it's very different than ours. 6 (55m 34s): The book, his understanding and the Jewish understanding of the book of job was that God, it says right here that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. If you know anything about the story of job, I don't, I don't read that. That's at least not the way I see it, but he was, God is very compassionate. Merciful. God didn't have to restore job. God didn't have to do all those things. We have outside appearance. Cuz we see, we see everything that happened. And we see the conversation between God and Satan. We see what happened behind the scenes. We see how Satan was allowed to take everything from job. Strange enough. He didn't take job's wife, cuz she told Joe later to, you know, curse God and die. 6 (56m 14s): I think Satan's like, well I don't need to take her out of the scene. She's she's on my side. But yet the end of the story job is restored. And the, the whole point of the story, according to James is that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. God, he didn't have to do that. And this is strange cuz verse 12, look at verse 12. This is, this is an awkward transition, a transition for me. And I've wrestled with this one all week. So he's talking about Joe, the intended by the Lord. And then he gets to verse 12 and he says, but above all my brethren do not swear either by heaven or earth or with any other oath, but let your yes. 6 (56m 57s): Be yes. And your no be no, unless you fall into judgment, like that's, that was a harsh transition for me. He goes from talking about, you know, the example, the farmer, then he talks about the profits. Then he talks about job and all of a sudden he goes, boom, let your yes be yes. And your no, no. Don't swear. So as I started studying, I started gripping with this first we start with the example of the farmer and that was a modern day example. That was what they would've understood. Then we get to the, he mentions the prophets. Then he mentions job. And now he's doing this well, I believe what James is doing is called a Kesher. 6 (57m 39s): It's called a Kesher it's a Hebrew word for connection. So what he's doing is he's providing a hyperlink. You know, hyperlink is when you're on a computer and you, and you see like something that's highlighted in blue, maybe underlined and you, you scroll your mouse over to it and it shows you another link. It shows you somewhere else that you can give you taken. It's a connection. A cashier in the Hebrew is a connection and it what it's doing, it's like it's reminding you of, of other things. So if I were to say towards the night before Christmas and all through the house, amazing, amazing. That's a, Kesier, that's a connection. I can say a few words. 6 (58m 20s): And then you all remember, and you're like, oh, Christmas, Christmas is coming way too soon. That's a, that's a connection. And so the hero mind and, and boys start and boys and girls both started studying the, the Torah from the time there were very, very little, so Jesus or James could say a few words and then their minds would remember all the things that that's connected to. That was very under understanding to them. So what I believe James is doing here is he's actually referencing Jesus reference back in Matthew five, turn there with me real fast. Matthew chapter five, no Bibles. 6 (59m 1s): I love Bible. I, I tell the youth group every, every Wednesday, I love to hear the Bibles. Turn love to hear the Bible's turn. Matthew chapter five versus 33. Jesus says again, you have heard that. It was said of those of old. You shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform your oath of the Lord. But I say to you do not, not swear at all, neither by heaven for his God's throne, nor the earth for his God's footstool, nor by Jerusalem for the, for that is the city of the great king, nor shall you swear by your head because you cannot make one hair white or black or make it grow, but less, but let your yes. Be yes. And your Nobi. 6 (59m 41s): No for whatever is more than these is from the evil word. Sorry for the evil one. So James is referencing Jesus right here. When he says, let your yes. B yes. And your Nobi. No. And Jesus is referencing the third commandment. The third commandment is from the book OFS, which is part of the law. So why am I saying that? Because this is the Jewish old Testament. I don't know why. And I haven't researched exactly why or, or how, but our, our old Testament is very much different than the Hebrew old Testament. The Hebrew old Testament is called The Torah, which is the law, the first five books, the Bible, it's the prophets, the net of him. 6 (1h 0m 29s): And then it's the writings or the KET of him. And so, yeah, they'll be, they'll be kind of scrolling up here. But so what James is doing in this passions as he's addresses this church is he's saying, therefore, be my brethren. I'm gonna give you an example of a farmer of what's happening around you. I'm gonna give you example from the prophets, the, the nevi I'm gonna give you an example from Joe, which is found in the writings and the Kevan. And then I'm gonna give you an abstract or a cashier that connects to the law, the law, the prophets, and the writings. They all point to this of, to how to patiently endure until the day of the Lord, how to live practically the law and the prophets that to knock James was Jewish. 6 (1h 1m 16s): And he addressing that Jewish audience. Does that make sense? All right, let's go to prayer and the needs of others. Verse 13, He says, if is anyone among you suffering? Once again, he's talking to his BN. Any among you, brethren suffering, let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing. Psalms, does anyone sick? Let him call to the elders of the church. And this has an Ecclesiastes feel, right? There's a time and a season for everything. There's some seasons in our life where we may be suffering. Well, God says, if you're suffering, then pray. Is anyone cheerful? Well, let, if he's cheerful, let him sing. Psalms. Maybe to encourage others. 6 (1h 1m 57s): Is anyone among you sick. We'll let him call for the elders of the church. There's seasons for everything. So my dad would always say, he says, as I am now, you will be. And as you are now, I once was, it was always a reminder that I would probably go bald someday when I made fun of his head and it's coming to true, it's coming true. Just season for everything. Is anyone among you? Sick? Let 'em call for the elders of the church. Plural. As in that, not one of the elders might be said to have been the one who prayed the healing, prayer, but elders as in a multitude elders of the church and let them pray over them, anointed them with oil and the name of the Lord And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up as if enough and his hand, if he has committed sins, he'll be forgiven says, confess your fault to your trespass, to one other. 6 (1h 2m 59s): Pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much that word Tove speaks of force of strength of power and who is righteous. Well, none is righteous, but the Lord, but we can be by Jesus in right standing before God, because of what Jesus did. And when we have that right standing before God, we can have effective inferent prayer. And once again, and James is now gonna give us an example of what that effective prayer does. 6 (1h 3m 45s): What does prayer do? Well, this is what it does. It says Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain in the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heavens gave rain and the earth produced its fruit. What does prayer do? Prayer can hold back the reign once again, this is a commentary in the old Testament, because it doesn't say in the old Testament, how long the prayer the drought was for it just simply said that Elijah God told Elijah to pray to stop the reign, Elijah prayed and stop the reign. And then He told him to go to Brook chair, where, where he hung out for a while. 6 (1h 4m 26s): Then he went to the widow's house and then he fought against the 400 of the prophets of the all where God sent down fire. And then at the end of that, then he, he was told to pray for prayer, but that was a three spirit period of three and a half years, which is interesting because there also says that in RO revelation 11, there's gonna be two mysterious witnesses that are gonna be given power over to stop the reign. And they'll be, have that power for three and a half years. It's interesting that two men showed up to Jesus on the Mount of trans configuration was Moses Elijah. But Elijah says was a man with a nature like ours. 6 (1h 5m 7s): What does that mean? It means he was just like us. And yet he was able to withhold the reign. He was able to hold drought. It's not the merit of a man, but the grace of God, prayer should always mark the life of believer. And finally, here we come to the, the place of what to do with those who haven't been patient or persevered, What do we do? What do we do? How do we help those? And this is what we do. Verse 19 brethren. If anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him let him know that he who turns a sinner back from air of the way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. 6 (1h 5m 49s): Jesus told the parable that the shepherd, the good shepherd that left the 99 to go and seek and save that one, recall to bring back the air don't don't gossip about them. Don't forget them. Keep them in your prayers. Keep reaching out the Lord. We'll save a soul from death. It takes endurance to do that. Takes endurance. To see someone who's fallen behind and to keep going after them and keep encouraging them. Years ago, I had the opportunity to, to climb Mount Shasta with, with a couple friends, Brenton Jayman and, and decided to climb it in January. 6 (1h 6m 39s): I don't know why in the middle of the winter got our ice ax, boots, crampons, all that stuff. We, we camped out at high camp. The first night at 10,000 feet woke up the next morning. Everything's all iced over. Put on our crampons ice ax. We began climbing Mount Shasta all morning. We're looking at what we thought was the summit Sun finally came up. I could start to feel my toes again. That was, that was a glorious feeling. And all morning we kept treking up about, about one o'clock in the afternoon after starting at 4:00 AM we, we, we reached what we thought was the summit came over the rise and only to be so disappointed because there stood before us misery hill and is exactly what it sounds like misery, Hill's only 400 feet in elevation, but somehow the what, what the, the wind had messed with the snow and ice and each step was about 18 inches. 6 (1h 7m 34s): And I was like, there's no way I can do this. But with the encouragement of my two friends, cuz I had just gone from Santa Barbara, which is, you know, elevation zero up to, you know, almost 14,000 feet and not my lungs were burning. I was like, I don't know how we do this. But step by step, we made it up misery hill and I was like, okay, misery, Hill's the top. That's it. We're we're good to go. We'll get up there. We'll be on the summit, take our pictures and come down. We get the top as misery hill and there's about 300 yards. And then another rise to the summit. And I looked at that and I was just gased I was spent, I, I just fell back in the snow and I laid there and Brent and Jamie were like, come on, alright, we gotta get this. We gotta do this. I'm like, no guys, you gotta leave me. 6 (1h 8m 16s): I, I can't do this. I cannot physically do this anymore. And lo and behold, they just kept, come on, Jeremy, you, you, you're gonna, you're gonna regret this. Come on, come on, come on. And they kept encouraged me until finally they pulled me up, stood up when we made the summit, but I would not have made it without the encouragement of those others. Not said, come on, you can do this. I would not made it. And so maybe it's just the endurance that some of us have that we're called in. Be that as encouragers to those around us. Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for your word. Lord. 6 (1h 8m 58s): Think that you're so gracious to give us direction on, on how to use wealth and what to do with what we, what you've entrusted us with. Lord, not to put our trust in the things of this world, Lord, but we put our trust toll in you. God establish our hearts. Lord establish our hearts with the what's what's on the horizon. Lord, what we don't know. But Lord you do. And so Lord, we look to you, Jesus and Lord, if there's some around us who have wandered Lord who have strayed, who've aired, Lord help us to know how to reach out to them. Encourage them. Lord, help us to know how to, to, to lift them up. Lord, look to you this morning, Jesus name we pray. 0 (1h 9m 41s): And 6 (1h 9m 42s): Then let's worship. 0 (1h 10m 23s): I see the stars. I wow. How great thou, how great thou was 3 (1h 11m 13s): Soul. 0 (1h 11m 16s): My 3 (1h 11m 35s): And when I, that God, his son not very sent him to died and sin how great the, how great the sings. 3 (1h 12m 50s): My so then I, how great sings, 9 (1h 15m 10s): How great you are, father, how much you love each one of us here right now, father, may we bless you today? May we bless someone else today? May we listen again in our minds? What we learned today? Wonderful words that Jeremy spoke. May we apply that to our lives and may we be a witness to others? Lord, please bless everyone as we leave. And we do have a prayer group up here for prayer. So everyone says, amen.

How Do We Align Our Lives With God? - Steve Henry

1 (2s): Good morning, harvest church. We wanna invite you to come and come on in and take your seat and stand and worship with us. We worship the God who was, we worship the God who is we worship the God who ever more will be. 1 (43s): He opened the prison doors. He parted the rag agency. My God holds the big there's joy in the house of the Lord. There's joy in the house of the Lord today. And we won't. We shout out your praise. There's joy in Lord. We shout out your, we sing to the God who eats. 1 (1m 30s): We sing to the God who saves. We sing to the God who always made away. Does he hung up on that cross? That he rolls up from that grave? My God still rolling stones away. There's joy in the house of the Lord. There's joy in the house of the Lord today. And we won't be quiet. We shout out your there's joy in the house of the Lord. Our God is surely in this place and we won't be quiet. 1 (2m 11s): We shout out your prayer. We were the beggars. Now we are royalty. We were the prisoners. Now we're running free. We forgive and accepted, redeeming his praise. Let the house of the Lord were the, now the, the business. Now we're running free. 1 (2m 51s): We are forgive and accepted graves. The house of the Lord, praise. There's joy in the house of the Lord. There's joy in the house of the Lord today. And we won't be quiet. We shout out your praise. There's joy in the house of the Lord. Our God surely in this place, then we won't be quiet. We shout out your praise. There's joy in the house of the Lord. There's joy in the house of the Lord today. 1 (3m 32s): And we won't be quiet. We shout out your praise. There's joy in the house of the 0 (3m 38s): Lord, 2 (4m 24s): Worthy of every song we could ever see worthy of all the praise we could ever breathe worthy of every breath we could ever agree. And we live for you. 1 (4m 45s): Oh, 2 (4m 45s): We live for 0 (4m 46s): You. 1 (4m 51s): Jesus. 2 (4m 52s): The name above every other name. 1 (4m 58s): Jesus. 2 (4m 59s): The 1 (4m 59s): Only one 2 (5m 0s): Who could ever say of 1 (5m 6s): Every breath 2 (5m 7s): We could ever breathe. And we live 1 (5m 10s): For you. Holy, we 2 (5m 13s): Live for you. 0 (5m 17s): Holy. 1 (5m 19s): There is no one. You, there is not beside you up 0 (5m 28s): Eyes and 1 (5m 29s): Wonder and show 0 (5m 32s): Me who, 1 (5m 41s): Oh, Jesus, the name above every Jesus. The only one who could, could, could pray live 0 (6m 19s): You. 1 (6m 21s): We live for you. There is no one. There is of my eyes and I will build, 0 (7m 22s): Put 1 (7m 23s): My trust in. 0 (8m 4s): No, my 1 (9m 13s): Trust Christ is my firm foundation. I stand when everything around me, shaking, 0 (10m 0s): I've never 1 (10m 2s): Been more glad that 0 (10m 4s): I put my faith 1 (10m 6s): In Jesus. He's never let, so he won't, he won't. I've got these. That makes no sense. So 0 (10m 58s): He's never, 1 (11m 21s): He 0 (11m 22s): Won't, 1 (11m 26s): He won't, he won't, 0 (11m 45s): You won't 1 (11m 49s): Christ is my firm foundation. He won't, he won't. 1 (13m 12s): And with 0 (13m 23s): You 1 (13m 25s): I'm 0 (13m 42s): You 1 (13m 44s): I'm gonna save 0 (14m 0s): With you. 1 (14m 3s): I'm gonna I'm make it. I'm strong on get is rock. 0 (14m 41s): I've never 1 (14m 42s): Been more glad 0 (14m 44s): That Jesus 1 (14m 50s): Cause he's so he won't won't won't 0 (15m 14s): He won't, 1 (15m 19s): He won't, he won't. So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again. Cause all that I have is a it's for king on don't you get me lift up son. 1 (16m 24s): Cause you've got lion. Get up and praise the Lord on my well don't you get shy on me. Lift up your song. Cause you've got on, on my oh don't you get on me. Lift up your soul you've 0 (17m 8s): And 1 (17m 9s): The don't you get shy on me. Lift up your soul. You gotta lion inside of those. Get 0 (17m 26s): Up and praise the Lord 1 (17m 35s): And praise you. And again, it's all that I have is a 0 (17m 52s): I it's not, but I have nothing except for singing hall. 3 (18m 19s): Jesus, we, we, we thank you Lord that you are our rock. Our firm foundation, Lord that we look around the world. We have nothing. We, we find chaos and trouble all around us. Lord yet in you Jesus, we find a piece that just passes all understanding. We thank you, Lord. We think that we could, we can find a piece in you Lord. That just does not comfort anywhere else, Lord. So thank you for this morning to be able to gather with other believers, to, to lift up your name, to praise who you are and what you've done for us. Lord, we look to you this morning, Lord in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Good morning, everyone. 3 (18m 59s): Good morning. 0 (18m 60s): Welcome 4 (19m 0s): Harvest church. So today is family Sunday. And for those of you who don't know every fourth, Sunday of the month, we have the first graders and up stay in service with us and we have donuts and they're out in like the side area along with tea and coffee. So please help yourselves to that. 3 (19m 21s): Yeah. Hey my name's Jeremy. I'm the youth and family pastor. And this is Kylie. One of the high school students joining us, give an announcements today. That's what's fun about family Sundays. We wanna let you know that, Hey, we are devoted to prayer at harvest church. And one of the, the areas that we meet is 8:00 AM on Sunday mornings. And we meet in the vault, the old bank vault right behind this wall. And we gather up for prayer at 8:00 AM to pray for the service to pray for the day. So if you want to feel, if you wanna join us in that, in that war room to pray for the service, to pray over the message to pray for hearts, be touched by Lord. We would love to have you join us at eight o'clock. And if it fills up that vault room and we need to move it to another place, praise the Lord 4 (20m 0s): This week, we have a really exciting family movie night. It's gonna be on Friday the 29th from six to 9:00 PM and we're gonna have two movies. One of them starts at six and for it's for like the younger kids, it's gonna be a paws and tails. And those are super fun. I remember watching them when I was a kid. And then at seven we have like a big family movie. What was it? The blue blue miracle. Yes. That is what it is. And there's gonna be snacks available. It's gonna be in the worship center, which is here and we're gonna have a big screen this time, cuz we usually have it out in the patio patio. And that was really cold. But now we have, we have a big place for it to be. 3 (20m 41s): Yeah, sweet. So that's this Friday. And then coming up on August 7th, we're gonna be having our annual beach baptism bonfire. Wait, I've got those mixed up beach, baptism, barbecue and bonfire. Not in particular in that order, we're gonna be doing baptism down at the beach. So it's gonna be from five to seven it's a Sunday evening. And so if you have not been baptized yet, that's one of the things that Jesus asked of his followers to be baptized. So that's a great place to do that. You can sign up online or you know, through a website to, Hey, I wanna be baptized. We have four people already signed up, so there's gonna be people baptized. We're gonna have some worship. And then one of my favorite things too is we have some bonfires on the beach, give you some sticks, some skewers and you get to roast up your own hotdogs. 3 (21m 25s): And s'mores, it's really fun. So join us for that. That'll be August 7th, five to 7:00 PM. But lastly, before we have Steve come up, I wanted to bring up breaker Wade. And Kylie's up here already. So as you know, as you guys know, two weeks ago, you prayed us out. We went to summer camp first. The first week was high school week and then the second was a junior high week. So we've had some students come back and I just wanted to have 'em come up and share a little bit about what, what the Lord did up there. So if you guys could tell me a little bit about your time at, at camp challenge, it's you think about summer camps? You think about wild, crazy running around. Sometimes you think of Hume lake and like 2000 students going camp challenge is a little bit more smaller of a camp. 3 (22m 9s): It's a sweet place. This is my second year taking students there. So it was a great time. But tell me a little bit about your time Gregor. 5 (22m 17s): So it was just a great time just to spend a week with a bunch of people I knew. So I was in one of the guys cabins in the high school week. I was just friends. I've known for years. I've gotten to know over the years, this has been my second year. They've made it an amazing just second and last year as I am graduating. Now I, you just feel welcome when you go is always just an amazing experience just to connect with God and just hang out in fellowship with other believers, just like you and to learn and grow in him. 3 (22m 52s): Yeah. Thanks Kelly. Tell me about your time. 4 (22m 56s): What I like about it is it's very tight knit, super like you get to meet everyone. So you never, you never feel like you come back and you wish you met someone. You wish you grew closer, cuz like you don't really have a choice. And it, it feels a lot like youth group except for like an entire week. And I really like that and we had two amazing speakers. We had Dean der and we had Mr. Lib and we had them last year and so super great to hear them speak again. And they they're both very wise, not elderly. They are wise adults and it's, it's good to hear. 4 (23m 38s): It's good to hear people speak and like hear about their testimonies. And we got a lot of good stuff out of it. 3 (23m 44s): Yeah. What was, what was your, your favorite part? 4 (23m 46s): Oh, my favorite part. I feel like you have to say something Christiany no, you don't. That was one of them that one of them 3 (23m 54s): Water, balloon fight. Could've been one of them. 4 (23m 57s): My favorite part was definitely our night devotions because like we got to meet, we got to grow closer to a lot of our friends and like gotta hear about everything. We thought about what we talked about that day. And it was, it was a lot more intimate and it was really, yeah. I felt like I got a lot closer to everyone. 3 (24m 19s): Sweet break. You wanna tell me about yours? 5 (24m 22s): I gotta say it was cabin cleanup. 3 (24m 26s): A very Christianese 5 (24m 28s): No, that was a lot of fun. We had this whole story going along, but also I really enjoyed the night hike on the last night that we stayed there. We would all go up to the top of this, the hill and we would look out at the stars and we would kind of just share our experience. And that was really great. And on the way back down, I got to have a real big heart heart conversation with Jeremy and the owner of the camp. Mr. Stanley. So 3 (24m 58s): Yeah, 5 (24m 59s): Chris, that was really amazing. 3 (25m 1s): ER, I decided he's going off to college. He gonna Cal poly. So you're staying local. Yes, but we decided we're not gonna lose contact. 5 (25m 7s): You'll see. 3 (25m 8s): We're gonna stay friends. 5 (25m 8s): Yeah. You'll see me for another four years. At least. 3 (25m 10s): Yes. Okay. Good. All right. And then did God reveal anything to you? Did you, what would you learn? What was your kind of take home? 5 (25m 19s): He revealed to me that no matter how far I wander, he's always gonna be this beacon of hope that I can always turn and look to because I was looking out at the stars on the night hike and I saw the north star and it reminded me of like, if you get lost, you can always look up into the night sky. You can find the star Polaris. It's always gonna point north and you can always find your direction from there. And it just reminded me that if I ever wander, I will always, especially with the groundwork that Jeremy has laid in my life and just the, this church here, I will always be able to look and find Jesus and everything 4 (26m 4s): We watched at camp challenge. We watched this insane video about like this it's a whole star thing and you have to watch it. What is it? It's 3 (26m 12s): Louis GIGO. How great there are, I think. 4 (26m 13s): Yeah. Yeah. How great is our God or something? How that anyway, it was like, it was so crazy and it kind of put into perspective how like how huge God is and how powerful he is and that no matter what he can make and what he can do, he still cares for us. And he still wants like a personal relationship with all of us. Yeah. So I feel like that was really meaningful. 3 (26m 37s): That was, that was an awesome video. I don't think it's easy to be a youth in this, this generation this time. How can we as a church be praying for the youth group for, for y'all, 5 (26m 49s): Especially this year, we've got a lot of new graduates that are going to be going off to college. And the college, I, I just came back from the slow days. If you get days ago for Cal poly. And I was kind of like a few days just in the life of a Cal poly student and you just get bombarded with the world. It's like, they're trying to shove stuff down your throat and just pray for the strength of all of our students that are gonna go off to college and have to endure this. Just pray that God stays strong in their lives. 4 (27m 23s): I'm yeah. I would agree with you about all the college students leaving, cuz there's a lot of close friends of ours that are leaving for college and my brother, he's going across the country to go to college. Dunno why I did that. But I think, I think we just need prayer that cuz it's literally youth group is just a bunch of kids. And so I feel like we need to pray about being welcoming to people and just very open to new people coming in because kids, especially high schoolers can like foreign little groups and it can make people feel like unwelcome and that's not what, what we want our youth group. 4 (28m 3s): Yeah. 3 (28m 3s): Yeah. Well let's pray real fast for the youth group. For, for our youth heavenly father, we lift up the youth in this generation, this world that's just, just forcing, pressing their own worldview on them. Lord, keep our students strong in, in all that you're doing in their lives or keep them strong in, in, in, in your word and in a close abiding relationship with you. Lord Jesus, thank you for the, the summer camp experience this this a couple weeks ago and, and just pray that that would remain and they would go out and they would be lights and witnesses and missionaries to their fellow students. Lord just thank you so much, Lord and Jesus. Name me pray. Amen. Amen. 3 (28m 43s): Amen. A break. Just say meet and greet time. So get up and say hi to someone around you. 8 (29m 2s): You sent your son down, set me 0 (29m 4s): Free. Everything happens 8 (29m 7s): World will 0 (29m 27s): You, you are get cue up to up you 10 (31m 27s): A break of day and hoping rise. We speak your name, lift our rise to our hearts into your beat. 9 (31m 38s): Alrighty, good morning. 10 (31m 40s): They 9 (31m 41s): Come on back. Grab your chair. Glad you got to say hello to a neighbor. It's kind of a testimony weekend. You know, yesterday we had an amazing men's breakfast and Joe Deleon gave his testimony. And man, I I've heard Joe's story before, but when he spoke yesterday, man, it was, it was powerful. He held us all kind of captive for about 30 minutes as he shared his story in just the best possible way we were all just so blessed and encouraged to hear his story. I think, I think it's important for us to know each other's story. And so I love hearing the young people up here sharing what God is doing in their lives. 9 (32m 26s): And it reminds us to be praying for them. I mean, can we remember back when we were in high school, it was, it was a little bit different than it is now and just saw my brother back here. Larry Kabong he, we were in campus for Christ ministry. Larry was the leader when we were in high school and we've known each other for all of these years. And so it's just those formative years where God is doing good stuff, wonderful stuff, eternal stuff. And, and where the enemy's working overtime to try to get us distracted and hindered and all that kind of stuff. So we just need to be remembered to praying for those guys. If you miss the breakfast, man, catch it next time. We're gonna do another one in the fall. And everybody, we had just a great team. 9 (33m 8s): Rick, our coffee guy, Rick was there at five 30 this morning on Saturday morning brewing coffee. I got there at six thinking. I'd be the first guy there. And Rick always beats everybody there so he can get the coffee brewing. And my brother was there early and Ron D was there early and Brian Healy was there early and people were setting up and you know, cooking and all kinds of stuff. And some people got there at, you know, five 30 or six and stayed till about 11 o'clock until we were all wrapped up. It was just a glorious glorious day, had a really good time. And so if you missed it yesterday, we'll do another one in the fall. It's really, really worthwhile to come out for that. It was really well attended and just really, really fun. So it was good. 9 (33m 49s): Hey, real quick announcement, Ron D pastor Ron D where's Ron D is he in the house? There he is. Pastor Ron D is retiring. Can you believe right? Whoa. Yeah, he's been threatening to retire for years. So when he came to my office, I don't know, a few months ago or six months ago or whatever it was, I don't know. He is like, Hey, I think I'm finally gonna retire. I'm like, well, duh, you've been talking about it for years. So he, Ron is go going to be and DJ they'll still be here at the church. DJ was up here helping to lead worship this morning. In fact, Ron will still be an elder. 9 (34m 29s): He'll still be preaching from time to time. In fact, he preaches in August. He's gonna retire at the end of this month, but I've already got him scheduled to preach in August and just trying to make sure the hook is still in him, you know? And so he can't get away. And then, so he'll be just still be an elder, still be serving, just won't have office hours and that sort of thing, but he'll still be available for stuff. And so we'll get a chance to bless him on August 7th. So a couple weeks from now, we'll, we'll bring him up front and pray over him and bless him as he transitions. And also Christy SWO is transitioning. So Ron's been with us for 14 years on staff and Christie's been on staff probably about the same amount of time. 9 (35m 9s): I mean just a good long stretch. And so Christie SWOS done everything from children's ministry to small group stuff to you name it. And so she's actually started, started her own company. And so she's been slowly trying to kind of transition as well. Just feeling like, man, I, I want to stay connected to harvest, but I feel like this other stuff has kind of drawn me as well. So I wouldn't let her quit for months for year. I think it's been a couple years. I just said, no, you cannot leave. You cannot leave. And so she's been super gracious and patient with me as I've just said no. And then finally she's like, no, I really need to now. So I'm like, whatever. Okay. So she's wrapping up at the end of this month as well. 9 (35m 49s): And so we're gonna honor both of them on August 7th. So if you'd like to write letters or send them a note, we'd like to, you know, give them a little love on their way out. And again, the SWOS are staying, the DS are staying. No one's leaving. They're just not gonna be like on staff anymore. So we'll be blessing them as they head out and, and it'll be really, really good. Hey, just as a, a note, some people have asked, Hey, how do we pay for all this? Cuz we initially said it was gonna be, you know, a couple hundred thousand. And it swelled when I say this, this worship center, we took over a year renovating this space and we went into it kind of ignorantly about what it was gonna take. 9 (36m 30s): And if we do it again and we will do it again, we'll do another project down the road because I think we'll always be about projects, but we'll actually get some better information before we actually jump into it. And so you kinda learn things along the way. We've always been renovating buildings, you know, from the beginning. And so you kind of think, you know what to expect, but then you get into a, you know, a project like this that's and we were just, we had no idea what to expect. And, and so the, the price went from like a couple, two or 300,000 up to 700, we've got $750,000 into this place. And so a boatload of money. So along the way we raised like, I don't know, a few hundred thousand. And so we got an SBA alone to, to pay for the rest of it. So it's a two and three quarter percent SBA loan. 9 (37m 13s): That's paid back over 20 years and 30 years, something like that. And we get, you know, two years before we even start paying for it. So people have been asking, that's how we paid, made up the like $450,000 lack that was there. So, you know, we just, we did what we felt like we needed to do by God's grace. And we, we calculated the risk as elders. I gotta get rid of this mint, you know, it's, it's like making my throat grab, I'll put that in the back pocket. I'll save that for second service. If you need a mint, I got, I got in my throat's like grabbing, all right, get a comic relief there. 9 (37m 57s): Here we go. All right. Anyway. So as elders, you know, we don't make any decisions unless there's like agreements unanimous agreement with our elder team. And so if anybody on the team says, Hey, I just don't feel like that's a good decision. We just shelve it or table it or never come back to it or come back to it later. And so just so you know, that's kind of, that's how decisions are made, whether it's, you know, staff decisions or building decisions, any kind of financial decisions like that, as well as spiritual decisions. So that's kind of, what's been going on behind the scenes to get, get this project done. And so anyway, people have been wondering, and I just like to be completely candid about everything that's going on. 9 (38m 46s): So if you've got any questions about anything, you know, don't all come to me because I can't answer everybody's questions, but it's a, we really have an open door policy. Like if you have questions, ask an elder, ask a staff member, ask somebody to get your questions answered. I, some people have been kind of frustrated that we haven't come forward with that information, but nobody's been asking. And so maybe we should have just proactively just done that. But anyway, so yeah, now we're being, you know, if you've been here at any for any length of time, you know that we'll tell you whatever you want to know, and we try to be proactive about information everything's, you know, available to everybody. 9 (39m 34s): So anyway, so that's just kind of the deal. And so don't don't if you got any questions, just pull us aside and ask and I've heard some people say I'm not gonna tithe until I get those answers. And somebody says, well, have you asked the question? They say, Nope, I'm just not gonna, you know, that's just silly. Let's just, you know, so first of all, tithing is a or giving is an of worship to the Lord. So you're saying I'm not gonna give because I don't have the answers. Well then you're just saying, I'm not gonna honor the Lord with my resources. I'm choosing not to do that. Some people say I'm not gonna serve until I get answers. Well then, you know, with service is just an of worship to the Lord, you know? So God has given us gifts and talents and so use your gifts and talents. 9 (40m 17s): And if you get the answers that you're seeking and you don't like the answers, you know, you can do two of, one of two things. You can, you know, have conversation with us and we can agree to, to disagree, or you can just extend grace to us because boy, we, we need, we need grace or you can go to another imperfect church cuz there's imperfect churches everywhere. And we're at the front of that line of imperfect, imperfect churches. And so, but don't do that, just, you know, just extend grace where we needed grace. And that's just the kingdom thing that God's called us to do and love us. And we'll love you, you know, just that kind of thing. Don't, don't withhold your giving, not be, I mean, honestly, if you don't want to give, don't give, don't give cuz God wants a joyful cheerful giver. 9 (41m 8s): And so as the song we were singing says, you know, our hope is in Jesus, our, we, we never planted a church or anything based on, you know, how many dollars we can get in the offing box or anything like that. We just say, Hey, we feel like the Lord's leading us. And so we're gonna do this by faith and everything we do is, is by faith. And so if you want to give greats, if you don't want to give don't because God wants its cheerful giver. So don't give under compulsion, just give because you feel like your heart's full and you want to honor the Lord with your resources. And then if you don't wanna do that, hold on it, please just hold onto it. And cuz God's, God's in charge of this whole deal. 9 (41m 51s): You can't go 19 years. And of all the stuff that we've gone through without God being at the helm, you know? So, so we love you no matter what you do, because that's just what we do by God's grace. We try to love people and serve people. And so do whatever you want to do. As long as the Lord is leading you. And, and you know, that's kind of my little soap box there and we'll get into James chapter four and we'll just see what the Lord does as we get into James chapter four, happy family Sunday. So because it's family Sunday, as you know, we typically do a joke or something, but I've got some statements. So when asked some kids when asked, you know about stories in the old and the new Testament, kids offered these answers and these are unedited answers and statements. 9 (42m 44s): So the first one is Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. So that's the kids' perspective. Noah's wife was Joan of art, right? Noah built in arc and the animals came on in PS, PE a R S. They came, they pairs kids, you know, unedited the greatest miracle in the Bibles when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him, kids kinda get the stories, a little big stuff. David was a Hebrew king who was skilled at playing the liar. He fought the Finklestein, a race of people who lived in biblical times, right? 9 (43m 28s): Solomon, one of David's son had 300 wives and 700 porcupines. Yeah. Feels a uncomfortable. I dunno Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption, Saint John, the blacksmith dumped water on his head and Jesus, unsedated the golden rule which says to do unto others before they do one to you. He also explained to man death not live by sweat alone. So kid's perspective on the Bible, the old and the new Testament. 9 (44m 8s): It's good stuff. Funny stuff. Let's jump into Hebrew chapter or excuse me, James chapter four. We're asking the question. How do we align our lives with God? And it's important that we align our lives with God. When I think about alignment, I think about my truck. You know, if my truck is out of alignment, what happens? My tires begin to wear unevenly. I don't break as effectively. The steering can sometimes shake and get all wobbly. Everything just kind of begins to go south. When your alignment on your car is not right. What happens when your alignment in your life is not right? Well, it's a lot of the same things happen. Our life begins to get a little crazy unnecessary wear and tear on our lives from well from resisting God, because if we're choosing not to align our lives with God, with his word, then there's stress and unnecessary wear and tear. 9 (45m 6s): There's an inability for, for, in our lives, from not having a, a clear direction. There's an inability to make wise choices because we just don't have a lot of clarity about, well, about who we are about who we're trusting and the direction of life that we're taking. But when we're aligning our lives with God, we're saying, God, my life is all yours. All, all parts of it. Every part of it, my life is yours. When we're not aligned though, there's a constant movement to the right. And then to the left, due to a double-minded approach to life and decision making. So we're kind of all over the road. 9 (45m 47s): There's a general sense of IRRI irritability due to an internal conflict concerning life. So you just, you can't, there's just this wrestling match inside. When we haven't decided like I've talked about this the last couple weeks, we have to decide who we are and who we're going to serve. We have to make this decision. And when we haven't fully made the decision, there's this battle inside of us. And the result is just some kind of irritability because we're not fully committed to the Lord, but we're not fully committed to the world. And so we're just kind of tossed to and throw double minded unstable in all our ways. 9 (46m 27s): And James chapter four, I love James because he just kind of nails his points and speaks directly, which I really appreciate it. And James chapter four versus 11 through 17 and our opening verse this morning, James is addressing the way in which beliefs are speaking to and about one another. So he's addressing the tongue again. Remember James chapter three, we talked about this a few weeks ago. James was addressing the tongue, the power of the tongue, the impact of the way that we use the words and the way that we speak to people, let's say go James, four 11. He says, don't speak evil. 9 (47m 8s): Don't so he speaking of the, the tongue, he's addressing the tongue again. So there must have been an issue there as it is probably in this culture and in this century and in this community and in this church, there's probably just things that we need to get under control in the way that we address people. And the way that that we speak to people, James is saying, don't speak evil against each other. Dear brothers and sisters. What does that mean? Who is he speaking to? He's speaking to the church, right? Brothers and sisters and the Lord. So he's not speaking to the world. He's speaking to us, to believers. People who say, Hey, I'm a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 9 (47m 50s): I am, I am God's kid. And I'm following him. He's saying, Hey, dear brothers and sisters, don't, don't speak evil against each other. He says, if you criticize and judge each other, then you're criticizing and judging God's law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge, whether it applies to you. So this verse is actually speaking to any form of speaking against someone else. You say, well, that person deserves it. Well, this verse is actually addressing it. We there's plenty of things that we can complain about and critique people about and they deserve it and blah, blah. 9 (48m 31s): And, but James is challenging us to approach things differently in life that we might speak the truth and love everything that God has called us to do. And we, when we confront people so that they might be edified. So they might, they might be built up when Jesus was challenging, the religious leaders, it was to call them out of their darkness, into his glorious light. So it wasn't to condemn them, but to pull them out of darkness. And so when our, when we're complaining and grumbling about people, we're often we're doing it to the wrong person. We're not doing it directly to the person like we're supposed to. We're supposed to go directly. 9 (49m 10s): So Perry, if I have issue with you, what do I do? I go directly to you. I don't talk to David about her Mary about it, because that won't do any good. It just pollutes their perspective about Perry. So what do I do? I just go to Perry. Hey, Perry, let's talk. And as brothers in the Lord, we talk. And usually when there's issues, it's been just a big, old fat misunderstanding. And when we extend grace to one another and our heart is to reconcile and to be building our brother and sister up and the Lord, we can speak with a tender heart, with compassion, with grace, with kindness, with an expectation of good and not evil. 9 (49m 51s): So we've got a responsibility. It's a hard road because it's so much easier to talk to David about Perry than to talk about Perry with Perry. And I got no issues with Perry Perry's my brother has been for decades and we'll be forever and ever amen into eternity. Right? Right. We'll be celebrating forever and ever. So the idea is, Hey, let's just extend grace to one another. And if you need to talk to get things, some things cleared up, just go directly to that person. Don't come to me complaining about somebody else. Don't go to somebody else complaining about me, just come directly, directly and talk to us. Don't speak evil. 9 (50m 32s): Don't speak evil. When a person breaks this, we'll call it the law of love or any law for that matter. That person, places themselves above the law. When we disobey the laws of God, we're actually placing ourselves above that law. And we're actually judging that law as unimportant and unnecessary. What law, what might we be talking about? Well, Leviticus, 1918 in part says, love your neighbor as yourself. So we can't love our neighbor if we're speaking evil about our neighbor. And so I say this almost every week, everything that God requires of us expects of us, asks of us, requires his supernatural power and grace to get it done. 9 (51m 22s): So, man, when you're struggling with somebody, you just need to say, Lord, I, I either need to extend grace and just forgive this person, forgive this offense. Or I just need to go to them with grace and humility and try to work it out with the expectation that we're gonna work this thing out because it's clearly a misunderstanding, there's something going on. But when someone decides to speak evil of a brother or sister, that person has essentially judged that that law is irrelevant and declares that he or she is above the law, that kind of puts things in a whole different perspective. When we're disobedient, when we're rebelling against God's word, we're actually dis we're saying in our heart, Hey, this law, it's this way. 9 (52m 10s): It's irrelevant. And I'm actually above it. I can do kind of whatever I want to do. Theologians agree. The specific grammatical construction use here usually forbids the continuation of a practice already in progress. So James, his readers had fallen into the habit of criticizing one another. And so he says, stop speaking against one another there's these things are habitual. I mean, we can fall into this habit of just kind of grumbling and complaining about people and, and kind of speaking harshly about people, judging people. And, and this became kind of the pattern within the early church. 9 (52m 52s): And so James addresses, it says, stop, stop, stop speaking, evil against one another. Those who do so place themselves again, above the law and by their actions, declare that, that law to be a bad and unnecessary statute. So rather than submitting and keeping it, they pass judgements judgment on its validity and set it aside. Whoa, ah, I don't stick in your crawl because as we read the word, we sometimes read it and ignore it. We pass judgment on it. We say, it's not valid for me, valid for everybody else, but it's not valid for me. 9 (53m 33s): I'm not gonna do it. I, I'm not interested in doing it. Listen, our job is not to decide if we will obey the law, the laws of God, our job is plain and simple to obey the laws of God, the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. Now there are three different, at least three different types of law, especially in the old Testament. There is ceremonial law, civil law, and then there's moral law. And so the Bible's broken down and we see different types of law. And so we're gonna ask the question today. 9 (54m 13s): What laws in the Bible are we still required to follow? Are we still required to follow the ceremonial laws we're gonna find out? Are we still required to follow the civil laws? What we're gonna find out? What about the moral laws? Are we still required to follow the moral laws? Let's find out ceremonial civil moral. So the ceremonial laws con gov concerned gov Israel's worship of God. Ceremonial laws were ways in which God outlined a path forward. So that sinners, the Bible says that all have sin and fall short of God's glorious standard. 9 (54m 56s): So ceremonial laws were instituted so that the people of God could have their sins forgiven covered. So that's where the sacrificial came. Sacrificial system came into place. God said, well is told us though, wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Our Lord, we see in the old Testament and the new Testament that, that, that the wages of Senate's death, we see it in Genesis two 17. It says, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. 9 (55m 39s): Where are we talking? We're in the garden, right? The beginning, right? For in that day, you eat of it. You shall Shirley die, ultimate physical death, but spiritual death separation from God. That's the result of sin. Proverbs 11, 19 says whoever is steadfast in righteousness will live, but he pursues evil will die. The wages of sin is death. We see that in Romans 6 23 in the king James version for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. So the SAC sacrificial system was God's way of dealing with sin in the world. 9 (56m 22s): God allowed sacrifices to be made to atone for the sins of people. The atonement was sufficient for a season, but this system, these ceremonial laws ended when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, for all humanity, Jesus became the final sacrifice. He became the final sacrifice, making atonement for the sins of humanity, all the ceremonial and sacrificial laws pointed to and were fulfilled by Christ on the cross. How did we know? Because we, what we just talked about this in Hebrews nine, a little bit, Hebrews nine, 11 through 14 says, so Christ has now become the high priest over all the good things that have come. 9 (57m 11s): He has entered that greater, more perfect tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world with his own blood, with his own blood, not the blood of goats and calves. He entered the most holy place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. Under the old system, the blood of goats and bowls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people's bodies from ceremonial impurities. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deed so that we can worship the living God for, by the power of the eternal spirit. 9 (57m 53s): Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sin. So now when Jesus declared it is finished on the cross, it is finished. All the ceremonial laws were rendered null and void. So as we look at the old Testament and we read about ceremonial laws, null, and void, because of Jesus, he offered himself as the final sacrifice, the atonement for us, for the world, so that we might know the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So we don't follow the ceremonial laws because Jesus followed and fulfilled all of them for us. So anybody, anytime, any place can come to God through Jesus Christ. 9 (58m 37s): That's the beauty of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So ceremonial civil, the civil laws brought order to the nation of Israel. There were guidelines for the people of Israel to live in Palestine in that day, in that nation, the civil law deals mainly with relationships between individuals, the settling of disputes and the description of proper behavior. There is now there's value in the civil laws, but we're not obligated to obey the civil laws of God. There's value in really all of, all of the laws. And if we understand the deeper meanings of these laws, they typically point us to Jesus or cause us, or call us to a place of greater purity and sanctification that we might be set apart as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 9 (59m 32s): So there's, there's value in, in a lot of these laws, but we're not required or obligated to obey the civil laws of God. So here's couple examples of civil law. Deuteronomy 22, 1 through four says, if you see your neighbor's ox or sheep or goat wandering away, don't ignore your responsibility. Take it back to its owner. Who's got a ox, who's got a sheep. I've got, I've got goats. Who's got goats. A lot of us have goats, right? We can see how in this culture, a lot of this stuff doesn't make sense. If it's owner does not live nearby, or you don't know who the owner is, take it to your place and keep it until the owner comes looking for it. 9 (1h 0m 18s): Then you must return it. Do the same. If you find your neighbor's donkey, who's got a donkey. Somebody's gotta have a donkey, right? No donkeys represented in the whole. So, so do the same. If you find your neighbor's donkey or clothing or anything else, your neighbor loses. Don't ignore your responsibility. If you see that your neighbor's donkey or ox has collapsed on the road, do not look the other way, go and help your neighbor, get it back on its feet. So these are some of the civil laws that were spoken about in the old Testament. These are civil laws that might also be considered moral laws. There's some morality that we see in some of these laws. Like if your friend is kind of broken down on the side of the road, what do you do? 9 (1h 1m 1s): Or if anybody's broken down on the side of the road, what do you do? You stop? Like, it's a, it's the story of the good Samaritan, right? You stop, right? So may not be, you know, as animal that's broken down, but it's cars, bike or whatever. So there's a deeper sense of understanding when we really think about these laws, got us calling us to love one another and serve one another and be considerate of one another. So one more example, example of a civil law Leviticus, 1935 through 36, do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or volume. How are things sold based on their measurements, length, weight, or volume, your scales and weights must be accurate. 9 (1h 1m 47s): Your containers for measuring dry materials or liquids must be accurate. I'm I'm the Lord, your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. So God is declaring his Lordship and his leadership and their lives. And you saying, Hey, be fair with one another. So this is a civil law. That's got some morality behind it. Don't cheat one another, don't be a liar and cheat. So it's perfect for the civil laws for the people of God, but it's also so applicable. Now God wants us to, to love one another. We don't demonstrate love for one another when we're cheating one another, when we're being scoundrels and lying. 9 (1h 2m 29s): So there's ceremonial and civil, and then there's moral laws, the moral laws based on the character of God and extends from old, from the old and into the new Testament, therefore, as it was wrong to lie in the old Testament, is it still wrong to lie in the new Testament? Absolutely. Yeah, it's a no-brainer right. So if you see a law repeated in the new Testament, it's usually a moral law that we're required to walk in and to obey. So we've got these responsibilities recorded for us in scripture. And sometimes it's confusing because we look at the ceremonial laws or the civil laws, and we think, are we still, are we still obligated and responsible? 9 (1h 3m 14s): We're not. There's value in all of the word of God from Genesis to revel, there's value there, but we need to be careful in understanding what we are responsible to. OHEY like many of the 10 commandments prohibitions against stealing an adultery and coveting transcend time and space, right? Jesus fulfills the moral law by his perfect righteousness. Every he boy, he lives, sinlessly fulfilling the law of God. And then he was sacrificed for us crucified for us as the perfect lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 9 (1h 3m 56s): Jesus fulfilled the moral law by his perfect righteousness. Every commandment, he obeyed every requirement he met. He lived up to every standard. He lived perfectly there by satisfying the law of God. The law of God is written so that we might realize our desperate need for the grace of God sounds that we can work harder so that we can understand the character of God. And so that in understanding the character of God, we can see our own flawed lives and recognize that no matter how hard we try, because the Bible says, if you break one part of the law, you're guilty of breaking all of the law and we're all born into sin. 9 (1h 4m 39s): We're, we're sinners by nature and we're sinner by choice. And so we need the grace and the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Jesus was asked about the law and he made a very clear point when he answered Matthew 2236 through 40, he said, teacher says teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses religious leaders. Trying to find a loophole, trying to trick Jesus, trying to trip him up. And Jesus replied, you must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. Hmm. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself, the entire law, the entire law, and all the demands of the profits are based on these two commandments, the entire law and all of the requirements of the profits, the demands of the profit. 9 (1h 5m 30s): They hang here. If we do this, if we love each other and love Jesus will do great, will do great. Jesus declared that the two most important laws are clear. Love God and love others. This moral law transcends time. Doesn't matter if we're a hundred years from now, or if we go back in time, a thousand or 5,000 years, the law is the same. We are obligated to obey the moral laws of God. There's value again, some of the other laws, but the new Testament requires that we simply obey the law of Christ, which is love God and love others. 9 (1h 6m 12s): It's all encompassing love. God love others. Again, the entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments. So when James writes, don't speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters, is this a direct, is this directive consistent with what Jesus said are the two most important commandments? Is it consistent? Of course it is speaking evil of each other. Why? Because that's not the loving gracious way. Now we're called to speak the truth in love. Meaning again, that our heart in speaking the truth is for redemption redemptive purposes for reconciliation purposes, to build somebody up, to help them come along and come in their faith as followers of Lord Jesus, to, to express love and grace to them so that they might come out of their place of deception, evil. 9 (1h 7m 12s): What's evil. Let's just speak to speak against someone. So let's unpack that word incriminate or to charge with a crime to introduce or to criticize disparage or malign. None of these words describe a positive exchange, but only negative and hurtful. So James three, seven and 10, as a reminder, James had said this earlier, and he's kind of touching on it again. He said, people contain all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one contain the tongue. It's a restless and it's a restless and evil full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and father. And sometimes it curses. Those who have been made in the image of God. 9 (1h 7m 54s): And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely my brothers and sisters, this is not right. So he is nailing us about how we're speaking. It's an indication out of the abundance of the heart. The mouth speaks what's going on in our hearts begins to spill out of our mouths. And so we need to make sure that our hearts are set apart, consecrated pure. So that means we're just always making the choice to extend grace to one another, to expect the best from people to love people, to pray for people. When you wanna get angry about somebody, just begin to pray for them. 9 (1h 8m 36s): Just pray. God's grace and blessing and peace upon them. Somebody cut you off on the road. You say Jesus name. I bless that person. I ask that you would cover them and fill them with your goodness. And with your love when you're fighting with your spouse, Jesus bless them, right? When there's disagreement, Lord bless them. Everything that God calls us to do is direct its indirect contrast to the world. The world will tell you, go after 'em be angry. You got a right to be angry. They, they did you wrong. Who cares? Right? Jesus is being executed. 9 (1h 9m 21s): Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Lord help that person. They're obviously hurting. They're they're they're lashing out at me. They gotta be hurting inside. Lord help me to be gracious with them and be patient with them. I've done it Lord. And I, I feel like that's what's happening here. I just want to extend grace. Lord. I want to grow in my ability to love that person, Lord and, and serve that person and be humble with that person. Lord, show me what that looks like. God, I don't boy, anger just causes a cancer within our souls, man. It just tears us up from the inside out. 9 (1h 10m 2s): And we're just our accountant shows it. You know, my BA when my grand babies are born, they're they're helpless. Right? And so I love to take their little brow and push it down and it makes em look angry, right? And I say, why are you so angry? Little guy. I did it yesterday with Theo. I do with all the kids as they get older, you can't do it as much. You know, because they resist. I don't know why they resist, but so you play. But our accountants as Christian sometimes looks like somebody's going, you know, pushing our, our foreheads down. We look just all constipated or something. It's not good. It's not good, man. Relax in Jesus name, extend grace in Jesus name and watch what God will do to set your life free, to free up in your heart and your mind. 9 (1h 10m 51s): And man, you'll just all of a sudden have just this fresh unexplainable, joy and peace. It's contrary to what the world will tell you to do. Don't do what the world tells you to do. It'll lead you yesterday every time. Do what the Bible says to do, do what God's called you to do. James four 12 got alone who gave the law is the judge. He alone has the power to saver to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor? Everything that makes us angry is it's based in judgment, right? Like that person should be living differently. I don't like what that person is doing or how that person spends his time or her time. I don't like it. 9 (1h 11m 31s): So I'm judging right? Judging their lives. I, I, I have a hard enough time just get my own life. Right? When I start trying to judge and figure out somebody's somebody else's life. I mean, everybody's going through such hard stuff. So we don't know why they're doing what they're doing. People, people are getting diagnosed with sick cancer and sickness and all kinds of stuff. Chronic stuff is con people are people's. Marriages are struggling. People's relationships are tough. People with this economy, everybody's strap financially. There's just so many hard things going on. If we can just extend grace to one another, our job is not to judge our neighbor. 9 (1h 12m 15s): Now, sometimes we speak the truth in love. If we see a brother going off and say, man, I, I see that you're making this bad decision, but it's not a not meant to be condemning. It's meant, meant to be like, I'm throwing you a lifeline. I love you so much. I want you to come out of this mess that you're making of your life. It's it's, it's meant to be done in love. You will be able to love your neighbor. As you love God with all your heart, soul strength and mind. This is how you begin to love your neighbor. When you decide I'm gonna love God with everything, heart, soul, strength, mind when God becomes your priority and you make him your priority in every area of your life, you will figure out how to then love others effectively. 9 (1h 13m 0s): So how, how do we align our lives with God? Number one, we must love God. And we must love our neighbor. You want to align your life with God. You gotta start loving people. You have to, you gotta start loving God wholeheartedly with everything that is within you. How do we align our lives with God? Number one, we must love God. And we must love others. This is God's moral law for his follower. So you're wondering what laws to obey do this. And you're you're you're you're gonna be good, James, four 13. Let's continue. Look here. You who say today or tomorrow, we're going to a certain town and we'll stay there a year. 9 (1h 13m 40s): We will do business there and make a profit. How do you know? How do you know, how do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog. It's here a little while. And then it's gone. What you ought to say is if the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that. Otherwise you're boasting about your own pretentious plans and all such boasting is evil. How do we align our lives with God? We gotta, we gotta love God. We gotta love others. Number one, number two, we must submit all of our plans to God. We gotta submit all of our plans to God. 9 (1h 14m 21s): We are born again, followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And we're born into a new life with new priorities, new perspective, new Lordship, new leadership in our lives. And so that means everything is at the altar at the foot of the cross. And so we're saying, Lord, whatever you want to do with all my life, it's totally up to you. And so you just begin to be prayerful about everything, not about the color of socks that you wear. Cause I've got some really cool socks on today. These are Lexus socks. These are a gift for my son. Where is he? Right there. Gave me Lexus socks. Maybe I'll get a Lexus. Someday reminds me of my, my mother-in-law her husband Marv was asking for a Rolex. You know, he was like, I just want a Rolex. 9 (1h 15m 1s): And he's like, you know, 75 or 70 or whatever he was. And so she thinks it's funny. She gets in a Rolex box, wraps it up and there's no Rolex inside. So its this box and she thinks it's funny, but it's not funny for anybody. Right. It's funny for her, but there's an empty Rolex box, right? You're like all my dreams have go. No. So a few years later she bought 'em a Rolex and there we go. What does that have to do with, I don't know what that has to do. Oh, you don't have to pray about the color of your socks. Right. But man, you're praying about most everything about financial investments, about where do I put my money, Lord, what do I do? 9 (1h 15m 43s): I move? Do I buy this? Do I, how do I treat my, my wife? How do I live in relationship with my coworkers? And you know, the Bible says pray without ceasing. So you're just praying without ceasing. You're just always prayerful. And so even when up, up here preaching, I'm praying. I'm like, Lord, help me to get this across. Lord help me to be humble when I'm preaching, Lord help me to be clear in my preaching. So we're just praying all of the time when I'm in a counseling session, Lord, I have no idea what to say, but you do. So give me words, Lord. Like when we're in any given scenario or situation, we're just prayerful and asking for the Lord to direct us. And he'll direct us by the peace that we have as we open our hearts and avail our plans to him, which Lord lead me. 9 (1h 16m 27s): I, I need peace and wisdom about this direction. So about everything. You're just praying about it. You're just asking the Lord. You're just bringing him into the fat middle of your whole life. And there's nothing excluded your relationship. Should I date this person? Should I marry this person? You really need to be asking God about those things, right? You know, whatever the case is, God will speak grace and wisdom and truth into your life. Not because he's trying to keep something good from you, but he is trying to give you the best possible life that you can have in him. And so he wants to give you wise counsel, he wants to help you understand the right path. And so you open up the word and say, Lord, how do I apply this in this situation? It's very difficult. 9 (1h 17m 7s): Well, you won't be able to apply it unless you just allow the holy spirit to fill your life and to give you the wisdom that you need. We gotta submit all of our plans to God, all of them like everything. Again, not this God doesn't care about your socks. I don't think, but he cares about most everything else in your life. Like how many kids should we have? You know, you know, should we take this vacation or is this really a good time to do that? Should we spend the money? Is it wise? Is it gonna be good for our family? What's you know, just asking the Lord for wisdom, like, like having the faith of a little child, believing that when we ask God is actually listening and he's wanting to direct us. 9 (1h 17m 52s): And so we need to get childlike in our faith. Sometimes we, we feel all grown up and we, we can make our own decisions. Don't buy into that lie of the world. Man, don't buy into that. You need the grace of God. We all do. We need the, the wisdom of God, the word of God to direct our path. So if you want to align your life properly with God, you've gotta bring him into the fat middle of your life. We, we gotta submit all of our plans to God. And so that means we do what he asks us to do. James four 17, the last verse in our day, our study here today, James four 17 says, remember it is sin. Do you know what you ought to do? And then not do it. 9 (1h 18m 32s): It's sin to know what yacht to do and then not do it. So loving God, loving your neighbor, no law against that. No sin in that, just do that. Submitting our, all of our plans to the Lord, meanings, listening and obey, doing what he's asked you to do. It's a sin to know what you ought to do, and then don't do it. So that's a sin that's gonna contaminate your life. And so number three, we must repent of our disobedience. We must repent of our disobedience. Remember in second King's chapter 22, we talked about it a couple weeks ago with Josiah king Josiah. He's eight years old when he becomes king and he's rebuilding the temple, refurbishing the temple and they come upon the word of the Lord and the, the word of the Lord is read to him. 9 (1h 19m 22s): And he's distraught. Second King's 2211. When the king heard what was written in the book of the law, he tore his clothes in despair. He tore his clothes, despair. He responded with repentance second King's 2213. This is why he responded. We have not, this is what he said. We have not been doing everything. It says we must do. So he is looking at the law and saying, I'm not aligning my life as a leader. And as a nation, we're not aligning our lives with everything that God asked us to do. And so he's renting his clothes. He's ripping his clothes, a sign of brokenness and contrition. 9 (1h 20m 2s): But Joel, two 13, I was reading Joel this week and it says, don't tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead. Oh, like we're talking deep work of God in our lives needs to happen, right? No, just tear your clothes. You know, that's his first step, but man, let your heart break open. When you hear the, the word of the Lord and let him do what he wants to do. He don't tear your clothing and your grief, but tear your hearts instead return to the Lord. You're God, this is real repentance. Repentance means I'm. I was doing that, heading that direction. Now I'm heading the opposite direction. It's like, I've changed my mind. It's not like, I'm sorry, I'm gonna keep doing it. It's like, I'm sorry. I'm never doing that again. 9 (1h 20m 43s): That's repentance. It's not repentance. If it's like, ah, I got caught, busted. Forgive me, Lord. And the next day you keep going after it. That's not repentance return to the Lord. Your God for he is me merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfeeling love. He's eager to relent and not punish. Isn't that the goodness of God, man, it's fun to align your life with God because the grace and mercy and the, the adventure of doing that, trusting him. It's a faith journey. Everything we do in this life as believers is a faith journey showed up early yesterday morning. And Rick's like, how many guys are we gonna show up for breakfast? How many guys are showing up? I said, Rick, I, I have no idea. It's always a faith journey. 9 (1h 21m 24s): Whenever we do anything, we're just gonna get ready, put out a spread and bless whoever shows up. That's the deal. It's just all by faith. You know, let your life be marked by faith. Joy filled faith, obedience, the love of God for others and for the Lord, just keep short accounts to the Lord. Just keep repenting of anything that you're made aware of. You say something you shouldn't have said, Lord, I'm sorry. You said it's your spouse. Ah, I'm sorry, babe. Right? Whatever the case may be. Just keep short accounts, align your life with God. And then the unnecessary wear and tear in your life will just begin to dissipate. 9 (1h 22m 4s): There'll be peace. You know the shaking of the steering wheel from a bad alignment and that your life will just begin to smooth out, man. Not perfect. Not without issues, but man, there's peace and joy because you know, you've made, you made God the Lord, the leader of your life. And so with that, let's go ahead and stand up. We're gonna worship and bite the team up and, and then we'll get outta here. Lord. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. As the team comes up, who got something out of this message today? Good. Tell me what you got Jim. What'd you get outta the message. Speak it loud so everybody can hear you. 9 (1h 22m 44s): Oh, 11 (1h 22m 45s): Praise the Lord. Just 9 (1h 22m 47s): What I'm do. Okay. Okay. Who else? Who wants to who? Who's got something like a nugget, a nugget, a nugget. Go ahead, Marilyn. Forgive and move on. Forgive and move on. Marilyn. Say I'm I'm I'm forgiven and moving on. Get, move on. Shut your mouth about other people. All right. Forget. Move on. Shut your mouth about other people. What else? What else? That's good wisdom. I think that might yes. Yeah. Just the 12 (1h 23m 11s): Simplicity of 13 (1h 23m 13s): Love. God 9 (1h 23m 13s): And love others. Yeah. That's all. It's the simplicity of love God and love others. We want to complicate things and try to know everything. And under what else? 12 (1h 23m 24s): Guard 9 (1h 23m 25s): Your tongue. Right? What else? Brian? What'd you learn? Same thing. Same thing. Yeah. Chris, what'd you get 12 (1h 23m 35s): Two short 9 (1h 23m 36s): Accounts. Short accounts. There we go. Mike what'd you get 12 (1h 23m 39s): Two 9 (1h 23m 39s): Commandments. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's let's remember. Let's let's grab, hold of the truth. That is communicated on a Sunday morning. No matter who's doing it. And just maybe write it down in your Bible or your journal and say I'm doing this slogan. What'd you get? 12 (1h 23m 55s): I got the love like loving the, your neighbor and loving, loving the Lord. Like we know to do that. Yeah. And that we can't just go home and sit on the couch and not do that. 9 (1h 24m 8s): Right. Have to 12 (1h 24m 9s): Be proactively loving 9 (1h 24m 12s): Others. Yeah. Not 12 (1h 24m 13s): To 9 (1h 24m 14s): Do it. Yeah. Doug what'd you get 14 (1h 24m 18s): Listening to God and obey what he says. Like when you're angry, God will speak to you at that moment. And he just, you need to repent. Yeah. Turn around at 9 (1h 24m 30s): That time. Yeah. Listening to God in obey, repent, turn around. Do some business with the Lord Linda in the back. What'd you get? I knew. Well it's because you're my family and I'm gonna Linda's my sister's mother-in-law so there we go. Extended family. Go ahead. Linda, speak loud. So we can all hear you. 13 (1h 24m 51s): The secret to joy in the Lord is to follow that 9 (1h 24m 55s): Command. Yes. You 13 (1h 24m 57s): Can't have joy. 2 (1h 24m 58s): If you're holding onto other things, 12 (1h 25m 0s): You have 13 (1h 25m 1s): To move forward in 9 (1h 25m 2s): Business. The secret to joy in the Lord is honoring that command. You gotta love God. I love others. You got joy. That follows joys. That is part of that decision. Lord. Thank you. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for teaching us. We love you. Let's worship and spirit in truth. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. 2 (1h 25m 45s): I just want the name of Jesus. Oh, every heart and every mind. Cause I know there is peace within your presence. I speak Jesus. I just want to speak the name of Jesus to every dog. Addiction starts to pray. Declaring. There is hope and there is free. 2 (1h 26m 29s): I Jesus, 0 (1h 26m 35s): Your 2 (1h 26m 36s): Name 0 (1h 26m 36s): Is, 2 (1h 26m 39s): Is your 0 (1h 27m 3s): Just wanna 2 (1h 27m 4s): Speak the name of Jesus 0 (1h 27m 9s): Over anxiety. 2 (1h 27m 16s): Every soul, 0 (1h 27m 30s): Your name drive 2 (1h 27m 44s): Through 0 (1h 27m 44s): The break. Every strong 2 (1h 28m 10s): The Jesus from the S Jesus from the darkness over every enemy. Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name 0 (1h 28m 47s): From 2 (1h 28m 54s): Darkness. 0 (1h 29m 2s): Me name your name is, is your name is your name is 15 (1h 30m 6s): Thank you, Lord Jesus, father, God. I wanna thank you so much for the word today. It really administered to so many people. Lord help us to love you. Help us to love others. Thank you so much, father. We love you. I'm like may you bless everyone as they leave today and there's prayer upfront for those who would love prayer.

How Do We Live at Peace With Others - Steve Henry

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

How Do You Choose the Right Path? - Steve Henry

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

A Call for Wholehearted Commitment - Steve Henry

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

The Power of the Tongue

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

Healthy Church Life, Part 2 - Ron Dee

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

Healthy Church Life - Ron Dee

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