Harvest Church Arroyo Grande

God‘s Rest is Available to You - Part 2

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

God‘s Rest is Available to You

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

What Do We Do with Jesus?

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

A Warning against Drifting Away

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

Harvest Church 11-21-21

Don‘t Give Up - Jesus can be Trusted Part 2

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

International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians and Orphan Sunday

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

Don‘t Give Up - Jesus can be Trusted Part 1

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

Harvest Church 10-31-21

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

Forgiveness is Possible

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

All Who Trust in God should Do What Is Good

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