Harvest Church Arroyo Grande

How Do We Persevere as Christians

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

What Is God’s Good and Perfect Will

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

Christ Has the Power to Cleanse Your Sin and your Conscience

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

Jesus Completed His Work and He Continues His Work

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

Jesus is Absolutely Enough

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

Never Give Up

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

Love God, Hate Evil

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

Choose for Yourself

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

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

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

Spiritual Maturity Is Not Optional if You Want Spiritual Victory

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