Harvest Church Arroyo Grande

Knowing God as Your Father

0 (0s): Oh, dear Lord. We take this for granted so often that yet, Lord, this is something you call us to do as a, as, as your body of Christ to gather together, to worship you God, to lift you up and then to hear from you and your word Lord. So as we prepare for the time of the word, I pray that you just through these worship songs, just soften the soil of our hearts, that we might receive your, your word as seeds. And it may grow in, in our lives Lord. So Lord, may you be glorified lifted up in this time of worship in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Please stand with us. 2 (9m 4s): Ship you father. We thank you that we are your children and that we get to worship you this morning church. This morning, we're going to sing a new song and that chorus says, praise the father, praise the sun, praise the spirit three in one God of glory, majesty praise forever to the king of Kings. So this morning as we sing this new song encourages us to worship and praise the father. We love you. Jesus. We thank you that we are here and you're here to worship you. 3 (14m 1s): Got it. Pray for me. Pray for just a blessing upon our time together. Thank you for the time that we've had already fellowshipping. God's singing now praying as we hear the message today, Lord, we just pray God that it would just resonate with us. God, that it would set us free in Jesus name, God that she worked miraculously and supernaturally in our hearts and minds. Lord God, that she'd do surprisingly good things for us and in us and through us. Lord God. So Jesus father spirit come thank you for your presence here. We invite you not just here to our corporate gathering, but individually, Lord God, we just invite you into our hearts and minds. 3 (14m 46s): Lord God that you might speak to us. So be glorified God in the sanctuary, the loft, the patio, as people tune in online, we just pray blessing or God that the grace of God would just cover us all. We pray these things, Jesus in your name, amen. Amen. Turn and say hello to somebody. Meet somebody that you've never met before and we'll get back to it. 3 (16m 6s): Welcome. Welcome, welcome. So I just got back from Tulsa. Oklahoma was there for a few days influencers, which is a discipleship ministry that we're a part of at harvest church has a ministry for men and for women discipleship ministry. That we're a part of and have been a part of for a number of years. Now, a lot of our men and a lot of our women are going through this journey, put out buys it's curriculum, put out by Rocky Fleming. Who's the founder of influencers ministry. So they just had their 20 year summit, their 20 year anniversary. And so I was invited to go out with a group of guys from our church and I wasn't planning to go because I had other things on my schedule. 3 (16m 46s): And then my schedule changed. And then the Sunday before last I was invited and they said, Hey, we still have room. If you've got your, if your schedule is clear. And I said, well, this is the deal. My schedule is clear. If I can find a plane flight out last minute, then you know, I'll consider going. So talked to my wife and said, Hey, this is the deal. I, I want to go to this. I don't know if I'll get to be able to get a ticket, but she said, well, if we get a ticket, you go, if not, then you'll know. So we line and found a ticket. And so I went off to Tulsa with, like I said, there were about 126 guys gathered at this old salvation army camp outside of Tulsa. 3 (17m 28s): And that was just this delightful time. The opening night, Thursday nights, the founder, Rocky Fleming. So it was Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, come home Sunday. So I got home last Sunday at about six o'clock in the night's hand. And so Rocky Fleming opens things up after we have some worship and some prayer and he begins to talk about an orphan spirits. And I had heard of this concept over the course of time, over the course of my years in ministry. And just as a Christian and part of the journey curriculum is that you read a book called an orphan no more. 3 (18m 9s): And so I read that book probably twice and, and administered to me and resonated with me. And then, so, you know, moving on and Rocky's talking about an orphan spirit get on Thursday night. And so it really resonated with me. And so today I'm just going to kind of share my story in revelation 1211. It says they overcame him the accuser by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. I think there's power in obviously there's power in the blood of the lamb and there's obviously power in the word of our testimony. And so I'm going to just give word of testimony today. I'm just kind of sharing what the Lord did with me over these three days in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 3 (18m 57s): And I, I think it's, I think, I think the Lord's going to use it to minister, to our church and to the listener, wherever they may be. The accusers Satan, the enemy of our souls is always lying to us. He's accusing us. That's what one of his names is. He's the accuser of the brethren accuser of the saints. And so he's always trying to convince us of things that are not true. And it's so subtle that we don't even realize that we're being duped or tricked or that we're believing lies that the enemy has put before us. 3 (19m 40s): There lies depending on our circumstances in life that are pretty easy to believe. They're easy for us to buy. In fact, it's really difficult. It takes a great measure of faith for us to believe the truth that God speaks over us and speaks to us and speaks about us in the scripture. When we hear about the love of the father for us, sometimes it's hard for us to internalize that because we don't feel very lovely or we feel like we've done something to cause him not to love us. When we hear about the grace of God, we think, well, the grace of God is for everybody else, but nobody really knows how deep and dark my secrets are. 3 (20m 25s): And so that grace cannot be for me. When we talk about the mercy of God, we think it's mercy for others, or we think it's mercy for part of our lives, but not all of our lives. And so when we read through the scripture and we see God ministering through the old and the new Testament, we see his kindness, his love his grace and his mercy. And we see all of the, his provision. We see all of these things and yet the enemy will lie to us and tell us that in this circumstance or in this season of life, those things aren't true. 3 (21m 6s): And so we carry all kinds of fear, all kinds of anxiety, all kinds of doubt, all kinds of worry. We don't believe because we bought into the lies of the enemy. So I didn't realize that I was buying into some of these lies of the enemy, but as Rocky shared, kind of his little talk about the orphan spirit, I just felt like the holy spirit was telling me that this is who I am. And so I wrote down a few things and I'll just kind of unpack my weekend with you my Thursday, Friday, and my Saturday and my Sunday with you. 3 (21m 47s): I wrote, I have an orphan spirits. I have a root of bitterness because of unforgiveness. I need to forgive my dad. Now. I had thought that I had forgiven my dad, but when he died last month, it brought up all of this stuff. All of this baggage that I thought I had already dealt with, I thought that I had forgiven him for everything. I spent the last few years, calling him every week, visiting him number of a number of times, building that relationship, speaking life and truth into him. But when he passed away, like all of this junk, just surfaced and didn't realize it. 3 (22m 29s): But I was beginning to deal with anger again, regarding him, disappointment, frustration, all kinds of things. And what I didn't realize is that I was viewing my heavenly father, the way that I was viewing my earthly father. And we've all heard this stuff before, but this is what was going on with me. So I found it really easy to relate to the sun, to the spirits, but really had a hard time connecting to and relating to the father. And so when we sing songs like we were singing this morning about praise to the father, the son, and the spirit. 3 (23m 10s): It would be difficult for me to connect to that statement about the father. Really easy to connect to the son, my savior and the spirit, the one who guides directs corrects abides in me. So this is what I wrote. My orphan spirit is familiar. My orphan spirit is comfortable. My orphan spirit is cancer. I'm not sure I want intimacy with the father. I'm not sure I know how to relate to father. I'm not sure I know how to know the father. 3 (23m 50s): My orphan spirit is my friend. My orphan spirit is my companion. My orphan spirit is my safe place. I'm not sure I can trust the father. I'm not sure I can believe the father. I'm not sure I can love the father. So these were my brutally honest opinions about the father based on the pain, in my own experience with my earthly father. So as part of the weekend on Friday, so we got there Thursday. I had an session Thursday night, and then Friday, we were given two and a half hours to go out and just spend time with the Lord. 3 (24m 32s): And so in that two and a half hours, and some say about you would have hours long time, it goes quick. So the instruction was, listen to the Lord and write a letter to the father and then write a letter from the father to you. What do you think the father would speak to you? And so I had to listen to what I thought the father might speak to me and then write that down. And then I had to write a letter to the father as well. I'm trying to think which one should I write first? Let me read my letter to a father here. 3 (25m 12s): My letter to the father, father, if I'm honest, just using that word. Father sticks in my throat. I grimace and cringe at the thoughts. I relate better to the son and the spirit. I know you are one with the son and the spirit. I know that you are the same. I know there is one God, I'd rather you stay the silent partner. It would be easier to go along as I have. But I, I, I know that that is not true. I know you desire more. And so do I I've been missing out and I don't want that for my life. 3 (25m 57s): I don't understand the path forward, but I need it. It's strange to think that I've this big hole in my connection with you. I've been at this for decades. I, I lead and I don't understand. This is perplexing. You are beyond full comprehension. My understanding barely scratches. The surface teach me, show me, disciple me. Give me childlike faith, humility. To start again. Gratitude for the opportunity. 3 (26m 37s): Keep me from slipping into old patterns of thinking and lead me down the right path. Help me to see with fresh eyes and a tender hearts. I want to be free. I want to love, I want to feel your love. I want all of you yours in process, Steve, your son. So that was my letter to the father. This is what I felt like the father wrote to me. So this is the father's letter to me, my son. I am not like your earthly father. 3 (27m 19s): I am not abusive. I am not absent. I am not aloof. I am always present. I am always perfect. I'm always compassionate. I pursue you when you don't want to be pursued. I love you when you don't want to be loved. I forgive you when you don't deserve it. There is no catch. I don't love you because you work hard. I love you because of who you are. Mine. Forget all that you thought you knew about me. 3 (28m 2s): Remember all the times I have been faithful, choose truth. And let me heal your heart. Surrender to me. Trust me. Believe me. I am your eternal ABA. I am eternally yours. You are eternally mine. You love your kids better than you were loved. I am inconceivably better at fathering than you. My love for you is immeasurable. There is no end to it. Allow your heart to be healed. 3 (28m 45s): Stop trying to figure it out. Come to me with new expectations. Stop looking at yourself. Start seeing me and settle in. I have peace for you. You are forgiven no matter where you are. I am there. Your works good or bad. Don't affect my love for you. Your accomplishments or lack thereof. Don't change my mind about you. Your shortcomings. Can't alter my commitment to you. You don't disappoint me. 3 (29m 27s): You don't need to impress me. You don't take care of me. I take care of you. I sustain you. I love you unconditionally without withholding abundantly. So, so that was the truth. The father spoke to me. So during this three-day weekend, we had breakout sessions with groups of men as was an all men's group, all men's summits. And so I was in group nine with about eight or 10 other guys. And I shared because that was the intention of the group. 3 (30m 7s): So the reason for the gatherings is that we might share what the Lord spoke to us. And so I shared this information with this group. And one of the intercessors who is in the group, each group was assigned a facilitator and an intercessor and the intercessor and our group. I pulled me aside one time after dinner, he said, Hey, I'd like to share my story with you about my journey with my father, about my life with my father. And he shared a very dysfunctional, abusive experience that he had with his father and the fact that he had to ultimately forgive his father. And so after hearing his story, I felt like Laura was telling me, you need to forgive your father. 3 (30m 47s): So I wrote down a number of things that I choose. I choose to forgive my dad for. And again, I, I felt like I had done all of this before, but when he passed forgiveness, it's our lives are like layers of an onion. You know, it's like they, things peel back and things are exposed and you got to deal with them all for a fresh show. This is what I wrote about my dad. I said, I forgive my dad. I forgive his neglect. I forgive his selfishness. 3 (31m 29s): I forgive his anger. I forgive his expectations. I forgive his laziness. I forgive his cluelessness. I forgive his lack of love. I forgive his favoritism. I forgive his disfunction. I forgive his wasted life. I forgive him. And when I wrote all of that out, I didn't feel so much as a load lifted, but I felt like my soul had been scrubbed. 3 (32m 14s): Like God had taken the best of cleaner and just cleaned out my soul, you know, and just wash me a fresh, all of that. Ugliness, all of that darkness, all of that unforgiveness that I thought I had dealt with, but was revealed to me again, was just washed away. It was really just this incredible experience. And even as I read that list, things that I forgiven my father for, I realized there is no hint of anger. There's no hint of any kind of disdain. There's no hint of lingering feelings regarding all of this. 3 (32m 57s): I feel like if anything, the Lord has given me compassion for my father to share his story a bit. He was raised by a mom and a dad who were exceptionally dysfunctional himself. His dad was an alcoholic and was aloof and distant from him. His whole life, his mom, his mother, my grandmother never met her, was institutionalized when she was a young woman in her twenties or thirties, she was institutionalized because she went crazy and spent the rest of her life institutionalized in an insane asylum. 3 (33m 44s): So to say the very least, my dad grew up with a deep roots of dysfunction in his own life. And then he met my mom and as very, very young people, teenagers, they ended up having a family of their own. They were both completely unprepared for parenting my dad, especially, and after just a couple of years, they divorced. And then for the most of my growing up life, I never saw my dad again and talked to him a couple of times, but he was completely distant, unavailable, getting support didn't was just wasn't there. 3 (34m 34s): And so he was acting out of all of his pain and, and trying his very best. But without the spirit of the living God in his life without having known Jesus, his life was just perpetuating the mess that he had lived. So by God's grace, because he's good now because I'm good. I come to faith in Jesus Christ when I'm in high school or junior high school, and I try to start following Jesus. And then out of the course of that experience, God begins to work in my own life. 3 (35m 21s): And I'm by God's grace able to change the tide to redirect our family. That church trajectory that I should have been on was changed because of the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and I've was able to raise my family, raise my kids, stay married to my wife and serve the Lord. And so God has been Uber gracious, but I'm always surprised at what still needs to be done in our lives. After walking with Jesus for the last 40 years and being married for the last 31 years and raising four kids and being in full-time vocational ministry for the last 20 plus years, I'm never surprised. 3 (36m 14s): I'm always surprised. I should say, I'm always surprised at what God still needs to do in our lives as we move forward and get older. So I am sharing this story because I feel like it's the enemy's first priority to lie to us, to deceive us, to get us believing things that are not true about God. And so when we read the scripture or when we hear sermons, or when we hear testimony about the goodness of God and about the faithfulness of God and about the provision of God, we don't believe it's for us, but I just want to tell you, it is for you. 3 (36m 56s): It is for all of us. It's very much for all of us. Thank you for that. And so what I want to do is give us a chance today to just deal with some of those things that have been maybe hindering our relationship with God, hindering our ability to trust God, hindering our ability to believe God and hindering our ability to fully follow God. And so publicly or privately, you are invited to do some soul searching. 3 (37m 38s): I'd like to invite the worship team back up. I don't know if they're even around right now, but if you guys are hearing me, it's way early, but come on back and, and we're going to spend some time just praying and doing some business with the Lord. And so as the team comes back up, if you guys could just play some, play some music and just kind of be kind of create some, some music in the background, that'd be great. So I'm just going to pray and we'll let the Lord be Lord, I feel like it's been kind of like this revolutionary life-changing thought that God can be trusted and that crazy. 3 (38m 27s): It's interesting because splitting hairs, I know Jesus can be trusted. And I know the holy spirit is with me and fills me and convince me of standing and of righteousness and is always there. I know Jesus is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. I know that he's my savior, but I've always been disconnected to the heavenly father and I'm not anymore. And I'm grateful for that. And so I want, and God wants for you that same thing he wants, where, whatever disconnect, whatever lack of trust or hope or faith that you're dealing with, God wants to deal with that by revealing himself to you in profound ways. 3 (39m 10s): And so let's go and stand up and we'll just do some business with the Lord. We are here to take some time. We're here to pray And we ask Lord, we pray that you would show us what's lacking. What's missing. What's causing us to be faithless and not believe what's causing us to not trust you. 3 (39m 52s): Lord, what's causing us to walk in fear. What's causing us to be distant. Keep you at a distance Lord. What's causing that Lauren 1 (40m 35s): . Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. 3 (41m 18s): So just so that everybody on the patio and in the loft and online knows, we're just praying and we encourage you to do that yourself. We're just giving opportunity for people to pray. And so you feel led to pray out loud or for yourself, just, we're just going to take these next number of minutes and just let the Lord do some work in us. And so pray out loud, pray quietly. Let the Lord do what he wants to do. 6 (43m 21s): While we were worshiping, caught a vision Vision of a person, not in a good place, very dark place. Whenever I see that, I think of my own life, how the Lord delivered me out of a horrible pit out of the Myrie clay. And he set my feet upon a rock. You know, it's my choice to stay on that rock. Oftentimes we make bad choices and we step away from the Lord, but I've chosen to stay on that rock and build a relationship with my father, my heavenly father, And in my walk with Christ, I've gotten to know the father in many ways and had intimate conversation with the Lord. 6 (44m 22s): Oftentimes, the reason why he's building my relationship with him is so that I can minister to the body Christ. And what I'd like to say to you is that it's a good place to be on the rock. Not in that dark place. Believe me. When you step out of that dark place, the father is waiting with his arms open wide to greet you and bring you back into fellowship. 6 (45m 2s): I want to say that when you dabble in things, oftentimes they could hook you almost like a bear trap and you just can't get away. But fortunately, there's power in the name of Jesus. If you want to be set free from that thing. And I know it's there. I just love to pray for you because I've had many people pray for me to deliver me out of many things and where I'm at now. God, I don't want to budge. I just want to grow. 6 (45m 43s): And I have a wonderful pastor. I've been here over 15 years, growing in Christ and you can grow. And what does it take to grow? Sometimes it takes a step of faith to grow. Just to step out. You want to get away from something you want to be free from it. And then what's going to happen. God's going to use you to set people free. Why? Because the spirit of the Lord is upon you because he has anointed you to set the captives free. That's what we're to be doing. Setting captives free. So we as a body invite you to come forward so that we could pray for you so that you can grow in a relationship with the father, the son and the holy spirit. 3 (46m 35s): Thank you, Lord. Thanks. Unless you run personally, I was very resistant to allow God to do what he wanted to do in my life because I was fearful of it. I was more comfortable in my pain and dysfunction and willing until the Lord changed my heart to risk, to risk letting God in to do what he wants to do. 3 (47m 16s): And so if you're here today, I just want to testify that it's worth it. It's better. You will experience a purity of heart and soul that you didn't think was possible. Freedom in Jesus, that you've never experienced as just really good, which is really good. So do what the Lord is prompting you to do. 3 (48m 35s): Maybe you're here today. You've never actually given your life to Jesus because of well host of reasons. God has been patiently waiting lovingly patiently waiting, speaking to you, revealing himself to you. And today is the day to say yes to not be fearful any longer, to get rid of your pride and just to say yes to him. And so if you're here today and you need to accept the grace and the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ like to lead you in that. 3 (49m 17s): If you just say Jesus, I'm ready, Jesus, I'm ready to receive you ready to walk with you ready for new life. As you confess your readiness to him, he answers that with his presence, with his cleansing power, with his everlasting love mercy and grace, You confess your sins. He is faithful. And just to forgive you and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. So whatever's needing to be confessed, confess that to the Lord And then let him cleanse you and let him wash you as white as snow. 3 (50m 10s): Let him adopt you into his family. Today. Today is the day of salvation. Come to your father, 1 (50m 28s): Come to your father. He loves you. His grace is sufficient. I just hop up there. 7 (51m 1s): My parents and I Was faced with a ultimatum. Basically. They said, you choose God, you choose that man. You're out of this house. So I left my family and I went and I married my husband and I've never been welcomed into my family. So I know it's been tough. My husband stood by me all these years, but I've also watched the decay and the forgiveness destroyed my mom and dad and my family. 7 (51m 48s): It's been very difficult to be who I am in Christ. They've always judged me for that. Even the prayer this morning, just be strong and courageous and rise above. And yet I've always tried. And finally finding lane, I see a breakthrough and the breakthrough is the poison. That's been in my life, which is my stepmother. She just passed away, but we all see that she was pure poison and my family and she destroyed my family. And it's really difficult because my dad's always wanted to have a friendship with me, but she's never allowed it. 7 (52m 31s): And so now I'm ready to rebuild. His friendship with forgiveness has destroyed families. And the ways that you hold on to things that just aren't worth holding on to have grace have mercy, have forgiveness, let that bitterness get out of your spirit because it eats you up. It destroys you and allow it to be healed. Go to those who have not forgiven you. And just tell them in the name of Jesus, forgive me, whatever it is, confess that. You're sorry. Let the healing begin. Let the brokenness be, know how you feel broken in your spirit. Let it be known. Don't be afraid to cry out. 7 (53m 11s): Don't be afraid to have. Don't be afraid to say, I'm sorry. It hasn't been on your family. And I just thank you, Lord that you've given my dad back to me. 6 (53m 26s): We can rebuild that friendship and the healing can begin 3 (53m 30s): Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks Vanessa. We agree with that Lord. And we agree with that for Vanessa and her dad and for every relationship represented here in this room and on this campus for those listening in online, Lord God, we pray for healing, reconciliation, forgiveness, grace to flow. Lord God, other that root of bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, judgements, critical spirit Lord. All of that stuff would be dealt with and eradicated and put out of our lives by the power and the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, or we've been forgiven much help us to extend that grace to others, Lord and help us to receive that mercy from you, that grace from you help us to walk in the newness of that, that revelation, Lord God, that would be free, free to receive mercy and grace and goodness from you. 3 (54m 37s): Free to receive love and compassion and kindness from you. Lord God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord Jesus by 6 (55m 15s): No, I really, I really feel there's somebody that's shackled. You're at a place you don't want to be in. In other words, you really want to be effective with your gifts, with the power that God has placed in you, bro. I feel like there's something holding you back. I don't know what it is, but I've been there. I know what it is to be like who I am or I look at the color of my skin, my race or my education level. That that could be the thing that shackling you in. And when I, when I walk with Christ, I read the old Testament and I Lord Lord, I'm not even a Jew. 6 (55m 57s): I don't understand all of this. How can, how can I walk with you? And he makes it very plain and simple. I made you just the way I want you to be not a Jew. Not that person, not this person, but you are unique. And that's what you are right there. Standing there wherever you are, you are very unique. Be who God has made you to be and step out and use your gift. Don't be shackled by society, by economics, but whatever it is, I just want to say I've been there. But when you step out and you use your gift or praise God, you're going to see something happen that will impact your life forever. 6 (56m 46s): I've led people to Christ on an airplane in the workplace at musical events at family reunions. Why? Because I heard a small, still voice say, Dave, this person needs me. Will you minister to them? Now, now I have to make a choice. Am I shackled? Do I hold back? Or do I step out and minister that person? I led my sister-in-law to Christ. I led my father-in-law to Christ. Why? Because I heard the small still voice and there's timing and everything. 6 (57m 28s): It's time for you to step out of where you're at and be used of God, believe me. You're not going to regret it. 3 (57m 47s): Well, let's worship. And if you need prayer, people will be up here to pray for you, but let's just worship and see what the Lord does. 3 (1h 4m 6s): Are hesitant. It's like you're on the runway, but you're not ready to take off yet. I was on the plane on the way out to Tulsa and we were delayed. And so I wrote this poem that I just knew that delay, there was purpose of the delay. So I wrote this and I think it's it fits where we are. I titled this poem in flight, nearly sitting, shackled, waiting, wanting, looking ahead, longing. 3 (1h 4m 46s): Instead flight delayed feeling dismayed making progress. Moving ahead. Rolling. Bouncing roughs, stopping, sitting again, seeing nothing. Engine revs, eagerness mounts late takeoff, last plane. Ready now realizing somehow sin reduces selfishness. Confines Christ launches. Christianity loves flight possible. Motion. Inevitable. We decide whatever direction Jesus directs, joyous purpose. 3 (1h 5m 31s): God points. Grace extended moving now making progress in flights, internal delight abiding. Now aligning somehow peace, unexplainable path recognizable, fruitful, light, faithful life in flights, not nearly supernaturally. So Laura, I think there are some here who are ready to go. Maybe get going, stopping, fearing, doubting, getting ready to go again, but not sure how and Lord, I pray for those people who are in that precarious place. 3 (1h 6m 22s): Lord, I pray that you would give them confidence and trust in you that you can be trusted. We can lift off this runway and enjoy the life that the flights God that you have for us. So Lord help us not to be fearful anymore. Help us to trust you and have faith in you. And to believe you FSU today, I just want to pray for you. And so I pray for those who are just fearful, anxious, God, do a supernatural work. 3 (1h 7m 7s): God that frees people today. Yeah. That sets people free today. That gives people fresh grace today for fresh strength today. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Let's sing again and maybe see that last song again and just give the Lord a few more minutes here. 3 (1h 12m 9s): We thank you for what you've got today, Lord, and for what you will continue to do. And we ask this would just be the beginning and maybe it's not even the beginning for a lot of us. Maybe it's just a continuation of what you've been speaking and what you've been doing and the work that you've been accomplishing in us. And so we pray that, that we'd just continue. And so Lord be Lord over our thoughts, our hearts, our decisions, our minds, Lord, everything. Lord help us to abide with you and trust you fully. God, be glorified as we do. Thank you for this time, Lord and pray that as we get ready for service number two, Lord, that you would just work powerfully in that.

The Disciples Prayer: Practical

0 (0s): Good morning, harvest church. Welcome. We're so glad that you're here this morning. Let's pray as we go into worship, dear God, thank you that we get to gather here in your name and help us to focus on you as we worship and listen to Jeremy's message today, help us to take it throughout the week and not forget or lose sight of what you have for us. God, help us not get distracted by what's in the world. Just really help us to focus on what your plans for us are. Thank you. Amen. You guys can stand 4 (11m 51s): At this time we invite Jeremy up and have a sermon 5 (11m 60s): Much. Was that not powerful? I love youth led Sunday. It's awesome. It's awesome to see them stepping up and into things that there'll be taken over soon. Pastor Steve is in Oklahoma. He's at an influencer's national conference there, so you get, you get me for a second week in a row. If you weren't here last week, I, I started with maybe notice the Lord's prayer, the disciple's prayer, the model prayer found in Luke chapter 11 and Matthew chapter six and last week was very much the kind of ethereal portion where this week is going to be a little more practical. 5 (12m 46s): So I'm looking forward to that. But with that said, why don't we all just stand up and we'll, we're going to pray the prayer together and we'll go from there. I'll be from Luke chapter 11, our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom, come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our sins. As we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us, lead us, not in temptation temptation, but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Thank you may be seated. 5 (13m 29s): So last week was fun. I got to, to teach really on like this prayer that Jesus had his, you know, his disciples came to him and said, Hey Jesus, we see the most powerful thing that you do is this, this thing called prayer. This thing of talking to your father. So Lord teach us to pray as well, not teach us necessarily how to pray, but teach us to pray. They saw something important in the life of Jesus and they wanted that for themselves. And so the first part of that prayer, that Jesus then teaches them is really, if you're a CEO, if you, if you've ever started a business, you start with the mission statement and then you give a vision and then you give the core values like how the company does these things. So I see this, that in this prayer as well, see the mission is our father in heaven. 5 (14m 11s): How it'd be your name, that's what we want to do. We want to set God apart from any other. And that's the mission of, of, of Jesus and what he came to do. And then he gives us vision of your kingdom. Come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And now he's going to give really practical steps of the core values of how we practically do that in our day-to-day life. So that's why I'm excited to, to lead us into today. Last week we addressed, you know, when we come to God to pray, it's how we address God. We talked to him as the father. We talked to the father first about the father, and then we talk to the father about his kingdom. And then we talked to the father about his will for his kingdom, in a sense we want to let God be, God, let God be God. 5 (14m 58s): So that's the way we start the prayer. How do we continue that? How do we show that to others? How do we live this out? So we do that by one that we show others. We model others, that we have a heavenly who father, who cares about us and that we set apart our heavenly father, because we know he's, he's, he's, he's earned that he, oh, he has owned that. Then we do that by seeking out our lived out lives to bring his heavenly reign here to earth, by showing that by modeling that in our own lives. And then we live that out in our daily lives. A number of years ago, I got to go to Ethiopia to go visit some missionary friends that were, that were living there at the time. And part of the trip we've, you know, flew into ADIs. 5 (15m 39s): And that was like the main capital. And then we got, we got to go to the, do this trip of going out to these villages that were about a hundred miles from the Sudan border, like way out there. So like I think three days down a dirt road in a land cruiser, this is like my kind of adventure. So we're going down these dirt dusty roads, and we get to this, this kind of tribal region and think grass huts, Serengeti. It was just a phenomenal place to go visit. And there was a Canadian family that was living amongst these Ethiopian tribes and bringing them the gospel. And it was just funny to see the contrast of really these dark skinned Ethiopian people mixed with these white Canadian blonde haired kids and blonde hair parents running around. 5 (16m 28s): And they, and they were just doing an awesome job of bringing the gospel to these, these people. And in the midst of our stay, a few of the guys kind of emerged out of the Bush and there they were, they're carrying their bows narrows with him and he got to meet these four, these four guys. And, and those are bows that they'd handmade themselves. They'd taken spoons and made their own like tips for the arrows. I mean, they'd done everything and I don't know how it happened, but our tree contest popped up. And it was us as white boys against these, these, these guys. And, and of course they just annihilated us there. They hit the mark every time we, we, we tried, but that makes sense, right? 5 (17m 11s): Because their reality is that on the way to come visit us here at that missionary compound, they might see dinner running by and they might need to actually use those bows and arrows and get their food, their meal for their family on the way to, you know, on the way to visiting us or maybe on the way home that living out day by day, that hunting provide for their knees. And that's really been the story of most of humanity over the centuries. Most of humanity is relied on that day to day daily bread. That day-to-day needs. Sometimes when things like the Texas freeze happens, we realized just how susceptible our modern way of living. 5 (17m 52s): We haven't always had water in our, in our houses. We always haven't had a reliable source of electricity for our needs, but that day-to-day living it out. And the question, I guess, that we asked her that I asked scriptures, does God care about our physical frame or physical need? Does God care about that? And I believe from scripture, the resounding answer is yes, you see Jesus says in, in, in this prayer, he said, give us day by day, our daily bread. It's a request based on the character, the name of God, our father. And just prior to that, Jesus had said, Hey, if anybody among you lacks, if one, if one of your kids and you've been a father, they need some food. 5 (18m 38s): You don't give them a scorpion or you don't give them what they don't need. If they ask for food, you're going to give them food. Like that's requests based on the character of the father. And so we have a heavenly father who cares about us as well. Some have sought to like, just spiritualize this then saying, oh no, God doesn't care about our physical needs. He just cares about our spiritual needs. But I don't see that. I don't see that being the truth. God cares about our spiritual needs. And we'll get into that. But also God just cares about our day to day physical needs, da Carson wrote this. He said, it's a prayer for our daily bread, not a warehouse of bread. The prayers for our needs, not our agreed it's a one day at a time reflect, reflecting on the precarious lifestyle of many first century workers who were paid one day at a time. 5 (19m 27s): And for whom a few days, illness could spell tragedy, give us our daily bread. And do you notice how he says, Jesus, same, give us our daily bread. There's the us now that we're not solitary. We're not meant to be individuals. We're meant to be a community. Lived in community, lived as a big family, a big church family and a big family as, as under the, the having to heaven, the father and God knows that we have needs and often, and especially for me, and maybe it's something for us, men is that we see our needs as a weakness. I don't want to let other people know about our needs. We, we kind of try to shy away from that. We hate our needs because it communicates a weakness in them, in us. 5 (20m 10s): And we say, well, I don't want to let my needs hinder us from praying as though our weakness somehow stains that purity of prayer, do we bring our daily needs before our heavenly father? And what's amazing about scripture is that God knows our needs before we even asked them that didn't make sense. When you think of the sovereignty of God and all knowing God, he knows everything. But if we just saw our daily needs as something that God already knew about and he's going to provide for them, how do we walk? How do we walk that out and live in faith? Matthew six verse eight says, therefore, do not be like them as he's teaching his disciples to pray for your father knows the things that you have before you even ask of them for even ask him. 5 (20m 57s): He knows what we need. It was that way in the garden of Eden too, with Adam, you know, there he is. He's with God. He's, he's like, well, this is, this is pretty awesome. I I'm, I'm here with God. I've got a garden. This is awesome. But God knew that Adam was alone and he said, that's not good. And so God then gives Adam this job of naming the animals. And so the animals are paraded before Adam. He begins to name the animals. And at some point after the, I don't know how many Mr. Messes he named. He realizes, Hey, wait a second. Where's my misses. And that's where God allows him to put him, puts him to sleep and then creates his, that need for him. 5 (21m 37s): God knew Adam's need before he even knew it. And it speaks to our soul spiritual needs as well. In John chapter six, we find Jesus's first I am statement. John has six or seven. I am statements that he, that he, that he quotes of Jesus. And in the first I am statement was just that on the daily bread. And he read Jesus related back to the manner you see, what had just happened was the 5,000 people had just been fed that great multitude. God had multiple Jesus had multiplied the fish and the bread and he'd fed everybody. 5 (22m 19s): And now they're coming to Jesus saying, Hey, show us a sign. Jesus, show us a sign for just having fed them, show us a sign. And so he's he? He said, well, they said, sorry, Jesus, that Moses gave our fathers the bread in the wilderness. So what are you going to give to us? Give us a sign. And this is what Jesus said in John chapter six, verse 32. And Jesus said to them, most assured the, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but from my father who gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God, is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread. 5 (22m 58s): Always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. Are you eating of me? So the physical needs that we have very much speak to our spiritual needs and that's what Jesus is going to address next in his model, prayer, he says, and forgive us, our sins, forgive us. Our sins. Sin is what Adam did in the garden. And we've been really doing ever since the Greek word, sin is, is a translation from the Greek word and it's biblical usage throughout scripture is to miss the mark or a feeling to miss the target and to archery turn right. 5 (23m 44s): Or it's also being used to air or be mistaken to miss or wander from the path of her brightness and to honor and to do or go wrong. It's it's all a missing of the mark. And it's linked. Jesus has links this and forgive us our sins back to the, give us our day-to-day bread. It's a day to day our daily bread and forgive us our sins. So it's linked to that. That it's a request for our physical needs to be met every day, but also our spiritual needs and our, our need to, once again, confess our sins to our heavenly father, something over the years I've worked into my morning, devotions is I've, I've worked. 5 (24m 31s): First thing is to just my morning, confessions of art I've, as I can think clearly. And it's in the quietness of the day. I can think clearly about yesterday and the times that I air the times that I missed your mark. And I begin to work those into my daily confessions in the morning. And then that rolls into then eating of the bread, eating the word of God and, and, and my time in the scripture and the forgiven us our daily, since that this speaks of two things. One that we have sinned, Romans 3 23, says for all, have sinned and come short of the glory of God all have sinned. 5 (25m 17s): So we have to first recognize that we have sinned. And then we bring that to the need, to the Lord. And we say, Lord, forgive us our sins. And if we can ask, if Jesus said, ask us to be forgiving of sins. It means that our sins are forgiven. When we confess our sins, they are forgiven. That's amazing. Our greatest need, our greatest thing that separates from God a will be washed away, Romans 5, 28 or five verse eight says, but God demonstrated and own his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. I have a quote that, that it was not sure exactly who it's attributed to, but all I'll say the quote, and then I'll give you the name. 5 (26m 7s): It says this, it says, sin will take you farther than you want to go keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you wanted to pay. Lot. A lot of people will say that rabbi Zacharias, he quoted that if you know his story, you know, the tragedy that unfolded after his death, I'll say that once again, sin will take you farther than you wanted to go keep you longer than you wanted to stay and cost you more than you wanted to pay. I knew a gal at our old church in Santa who, who had been dating her high school boyfriend for seven or eight years. 5 (26m 49s): And this guy ended up passing away in a car accident. And upon that, all these details started to emerge from his life. The fact that he'd been having an affair since they started dating in high school with her best friend, some drug stuff came out, all this stuff that she had no idea of, of the guy that she was dating came out after he passed away. And she just, it just wrecked her. There's so much grief, grief, and trauma, and just anger. That was just like, where did this come from? It's those secret things that we begin to hide away that will cost us more than we wanted to pay As this week, as I was planning for the, the the message. 5 (27m 38s): And it was just realizing, man, is there any sin that I need to confess? And, and Lord like, yes. And then, and then new Lord's like, and then you need to do in front of everybody. You need to confess the sin. And, and that I had to of course confess it to my wife as well. But I, I, we have a joint account with my wife and I have my own personal credit card. And I began to use that personal credit card to buy a few purchases that I didn't let my wife know about. And this week I'd planned on purchasing a few hundred dollar thing that it was going to kind of sneak through and not let my wife know. And the Lord is like, you can't do that. That's stealing from your family, stealing from your wife. 5 (28m 21s): So first say, okay, you want me to do this in front of everybody, Lord. And you want to confess you on me. I'll confess it before you learned that was sin to plan to do this thing. And then I had to go to my wife and be like, honey, this is what I was planning on doing. Here's the credit card. I'm sorry. And confess that in front of her. I don't want upon my death for all this stuff to creep out, to find out that somebody that I was hiding, something that I wasn't living the life of integrity that I want to live when Billy Graham passed away or sorry. When Billy Graham was alive, he had this whole entourage of men that would go into every hotel room to make sure that there was nothing scandalous in there that nothing could distract him from the ministry. 5 (29m 3s): He never allowed himself to ride in a car with another woman alone. He had all these kind of gateways to protect himself and upon Billy Graham's death, guess what? There was no drama. There was no hidden sin. Same with Dwight moody. No, no, there was no drama. He said this. He says, the Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible on my death. I don't want any drama to come out. I don't want anything to be found under, under my mattress or hidden bookmarks on my computer. You see sin weighs us down and we can't effectively run with the, that God desires us to can't enjoy the course. 5 (29m 44s): Like our cross-country runner lays aside everything. That's going to ensnare them, everything that's going to like set them back and they want to run the race. They want to have the everything focused on running the race and running it. Well, this last, this a few months ago, I had a chance to go backpacking with some of our seniors in the youth group. And we took them up into the Sierras. It's an amazing time. It was just a small group of us. And, and one of them is a little bit of a jokester. Love him. And he started telling us about how his dad's a firefighter and how his dad would joke around with the other firefighters. And he would take these rocks and he'd get a Sharpie. 5 (30m 24s): And he'd write on the Sharky, sheriff on the rock with the Sharpie, thanks for the ride. And then he'd put these rocks in his fellow back back, firefighters backpacks. And I saw him and he put a few rocks on, on other backpacks of the other guys. And I thought that was pretty funny. They fell off. I was like, oh yeah, you're a prankster. That's hilarious. Well, at a certain point, the trail got really, really steep. And it was kind of like the last final push to get up and over. And then down into this like Alpine lake. And one of the students began to really struggle so much that like his legs were cramping up about every five steps. He could not carry the backpack up this hill. 5 (31m 5s): So I said, okay, look, we're going to get you over this hill. Let me just take your backpack. We'll put it on me. We'll get it. We'll get you up and over. Okay. And then everything's going to be good. So I took it backpack haired up and over, made it up. He almost killed my legs and we get into camp and like, oh, this is good. Okay. We made it. We're all good. And I began to unpack, we get to set up tents. And I realized, man, my, this is a really lightweight backpack, but it's really heavy. What? And I started taking things out and then I realized there's a rock. There's a rock. And I looked at this person might be in this room. He might've done announcements. And I began to Chuck the rocks at this person. 5 (31m 50s): How are we, how many rocks, how long have I carried these rocks from the Trailhead? I'd been carrying these extra rocks from the trail. And there was, yeah, there, there were some hindrance, but it's okay. I got rid of them. Throw them at him. Love him, love the jokes. But Hebrews 12 says this. It says, therefore, since we are so surrounded by so great, a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin, which so easily ensnares us, let us run with endurance. The race that is set before us looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 5 (32m 33s): So we need to do in our life, the daily confession, the daily of reminding God, I've sinned, I've messed up. Lord, forgive me, is that laying aside of the weights and the things that ensnare us and sin is first and foremost against God. When I was desiring to use that credit card for purchases to hide from my wife, that was first and foremost against God, but then also against others. And I think that's the, the hard part is that we have a tendency to, to judge our sin against other people. Well, I'm not as bad as that person. I'm not doing as bad as what they are. And we begin to point to others and comparing that. 5 (33m 17s): And I think that was one of my faults from growing up in the church. I began to look at my life and say, man, I got it all together. They don't have it all together. Wow. I'm doing so much better than others. And that is sin. And the Lord really confronted me on that. A number of years ago, see our church had gone to the year after hurricane Katrina happened, there was still a number of houses and churches that were still in disarray, still completely washed out by hurricane Katrina. And so our church sent a group, including myself and a few and a number of others. And we began to help rebuild houses and a few churches. And I was working there in a, in a church, sanctuary a small church down in Louisiana. 5 (33m 58s): And there's this guy that was working with me. His name was Mike Skiles and big guy like my height, maybe an inch taller than me, 70 pounds of muscle. More than me. He was had tattoos all over him. He was like, one of those guys that was just like, you would see him. And you're like, Ooh, I shouldn't be in this alleyway alone with him. And like, go the other way. Like you just had this. He was a, he lived life, a little rougher than I had. And I was just totally judging him by his outward appearance. And then he, I was like, Hey Mike, how'd you come to the Lord? What, what brought you to the Lord? He began to tell me his story. And his story was like, he'd been raised since seven or eight on the streets by himself. Both of his parents had been druggies. 5 (34m 39s): They both abandoned him. He'd he basically been raised by a biker gang, was jail in and out of jails in and out of prison, drugs, alcohol, you just name it? He'd he'd done it. I remember him tell me that. And in my head I'm like, Aw, man, he really needed Jesus. He, he really needed Jesus. And I was pointing the finger at him in my mind saying he really needed Jesus. And it was one of those times, the few times in my life where I felt like the Lord really spoke, speak to me in my head. And he's like, Jeremy, you as a little child needed me just as much as he needed. My sin is just as greatest as him and I at that moment, man, in my head, I just, Lord, I repent and dust Nash as I am sorry for those thoughts for judging my sin against him, because Jesus is going to leak. 5 (35m 33s): Now, forgive us, our sins with, for we also everyone who is indebted to us, it's a hard, right? It's a command. Forgive everyone who is indebted to us, but yet it's a command, but it's a call to action. It's how we effectively live out the gospel. If we're saying, if we're living out the gospel saying I've been forgiven of my sin, but I can't forgive you of your sin. Then that means the truth is not in us. The truth that we have been forgiven, Matthew 18 gives us an amazing parable. That constantly comes to my head. 5 (36m 13s): Peter asked Jesus. He said, Hey Jesus, how many times should I forgive my brother? How many times should I forget my brother? And, and now Peter says like seven times, right? Seven. That's pretty good. If I get my brother, forgive my brother seven times, that's good. Right? And Jesus is like, no, no, no. 70 times seven as in 490 times, like, I don't think Jesus meant exactly four nine, but just like you can't keep track, keep forgiving. And Jesus then gives a parable which speaks into that. He says Matthew 18 verse 23. It says, therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 5 (36m 53s): And the first servant came and, and he owed a debt. The king said, Hey, you need to come pay this debt. And it was a T a debt of 10,000 talents. And the man says, oh, please, please forgive me. I'll pay it back. Whatever I can do. The king said, you know what? I'm, I'm going to go ahead and forgive you that complete debt, 10,000 talents wiped off your record. And so that, that first serving then leaves the presence of the king having just been forgiven. And he goes out and he finds another servant, a certain, this servant owed him a hundred denari. And that man, that man said, the first servant says, Hey, you need to pay me. And the guy's like, I can't, I'll pay you back. Just give me time. Oh no, no, no. You're going to get thrown into prison. 5 (37m 34s): And he just throws him into prison. Well, the king finds out and this is what he says. When the king found out how the first servant had dealt with a second, he said, then his master, after he hit F he called him and said to him, you wicked servant you forgave. I sorry, you WCA, sir. I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have compassion on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you. Some of this is lost in translation because we don't understand what a talent is. We don't understand what a Dinara is. So let me break it down. 10,000 talents. One talent is equal to 6,000 deniera. 5 (38m 14s): That was about the rate of conversion. A Dinair. I was a day's labor. So what Jesus was saying was this in this parable is this, this first servant owed six 60 million days of labor, roughly 200,000 years worth of labor. You owe me. So on the conservative side at $15 an hour, 8, 8, 8 hours a day, that's $120 per day on the conservative side. That's $7.2 billion at the first servant had been, had been forgiven enough, $7.2 billion. I mean, what's he doing building towers in New York, some $0.2 billion. 5 (38m 58s): How did he even rack that? We don't know, but Jesus is speaking of this insurmountable debt that this first servant owes and what is the second servant O to the F to that first about $12,000 debt, but 7.2 billion compared with 12, not even close Jesus, isn't minimizing the debt that others do. When we, when we sin against others, he's not minimized, not he's not sweeping under the rug. He's just comparing it to the debt that we have been forgiven. Our sin against God is always greater and holding onto the sins of others against us and forgiven our debt that has been forgiven. 5 (39m 41s): It's the evidence of our faith of living out the gospel. When we forgive others, we're living out the gospel. We're saying, Jesus deal with me. As I have dealt with others and lead us, not into temptation, it's a stranger requests. You know, why, why ask Lord not lead us into temptation. God doesn't want us to sin. So why would we pray for protection from that? Well, maybe we could say it this way. Keep me from sin and its power. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness after 40 days. And he was 40 days of fasting. 5 (40m 22s): 40 days of not eating. And Satan came with him and said, Hey, turn this stone into bread. You can do that. You have the power, but yet Jesus responds with scripture. He said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, Psalm one 19 would say your word. I've hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against. You. See, God knows our frame that we're made of, but dust, he knows our weaknesses. Jesus, as the high priest was tempted in all things yet remained righteous. First Corinthians 10 verse 13 says this, no temptation has overtaken you, except that is common to man. 5 (41m 3s): But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you need be able to bear. It. There's a man who was watching TV and he lived in the south as well. And he was watching the TV. And you saw on the news that there was a hurricane approaching. It was kind of aimed right at him. And he sees this hurricane on the TVs like, Ooh, this is scary. He's like, okay, Lord, I'm going to pray, Lord, please save me from this hurricane. Well, here's honk outside of the door. And he opens the door and his friends and in his pickup and he said, Hey, there's a hurricane coming. Get in the truck. We're going to go, you know, go up north. And the guy's like, no, no, no. 5 (41m 44s): It's okay. G God's going to save me. Guy drives off. Later on. As the water begins to rise, his house is surrounded by water. The storms kind of come in through a guy that comes up in a boat motors in a little motorboat. He comes up to the guy's porch and said, Hey, get in, get in. I'll I'll save you. The guy's like, no, no, no, God, God's going to save me. It's okay. Find the water rose. So high that he's on top of the roof. And he's up there on top of the roof, just surrounded by water. And a helicopter comes, hovering by and the guy says, can we help you? Can we save you? He's like, no, no God's gonna save me. It's okay. 5 (42m 25s): Well, the guy dies, right? The water kept rising. The guy dies and he goes to heaven. He says, God, why didn't you save me? God's like, I sent you a pickup truck. I sent you a boat and a helicopter. God is in the business of rescue his kid. I love it. How often when we were attempted by sin, a thought, a call from your aunt Thelma that you haven't heard from in a years, an alert on your phone, a Bible verse that pops in your head. There's always these little things. He's a little out to the God provides to walk away from these temptations and to deliver us from the evil, but deliver us from the evil one. 5 (43m 6s): For, we have an enemy in the Bible as the power and God has the power to deliver us. First, Peter five says this, therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your cares upon him for, he cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that those same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. What it would have been like what the world would have been like if Adam and Eve had simply hearing the temptation of the serpent had just cried out to Lord, Lord help us. 5 (43m 49s): Is this true Lord? What, how different would the world be? Or now they hadn't eaten of that, that tree that they shouldn't have consequences of sin have rectal world. So deliver us from the evil one. Well, in a fusion six, we're told to put on the full armor of God. And these there's, there's a number of different things that we're told to put on. Don't just put on the partial arm of God, put on the full armor of God. And how do we do that? Well, we do that by walking those things out for the belt of truth, that's GERD around our waist. When we walk in truth, then the truth of the belt of truth is put on us. 5 (44m 31s): The full of God begins to put on us. Or what about going into the full promises of what God has for us? I liken it to this. There was as, as the nation of Israel was crossing over the Jordan and going to go into now, the promised land that God had been had had set aside for them. Moses had passed away. Josh was turned to lead the nation. Now over the Jordan and into the promised land, there was battles to be fought. There. There was things that were going to have to happen, but yet God was calling them into that. And there was two and a half tribes that decided to stay out the Reuben GAD in the half trapper tribe of Manasseh. They looked at the land on the east of the Jordan. 5 (45m 11s): They said, no, this is okay. This is a good place for us to lay. We there's a lot of good land for a cattle. We'll be okay. We don't need to cross over. And that was offensive to everyone else. I mean, they wanted to like wipe those tribes out in a minute instantly, but they said this, that this was what they decided, what they came up with. Okay. You guys can have that land on the east side of the Jordan. But what we need you to do is we need to send your, your, your soldiers across to fight the battles. We want you to continue coming to the feast once a year, because you're part of our tribe. You're part of the 12 tribes of Israel. This is the called nation. They did that. They kept their peace, but they stayed there on the, on the east side of the Jordan. And you know what? 5 (45m 52s): They were the first to fall into pagan worship. And they were eventually the first tribes of Israel to be captured by the Syrian army. They didn't enter into the fullness of what God had called them into. And they were picked off for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. See the kingdom, the power and the glory all belongs to the Lord, not to us. And I like this one when my old pastor said, Ricky Ryan said in the ministry, there's three things you don't touch. And he was talking to a few of us, pastors, three things, you don't touch, you don't touch the gold. You don't touch the gals and you don't touch the glory. 5 (46m 34s): Those don't belong to you in the ministry. And God is saying in my kingdom, we have to remember that this is God's kingdom. It's his power and his glory. We just get to join with him in our prayers, fewer to go win an R. If you were to go in an archery contest and you were to win that contest and you were to be one of the people to stand up on the podium and there would appraise you. It wouldn't be the bow and arrow that was on the, on the podium. It would be the Archer, the bow and arrow are the tools by which they won the contest. But the Archer is the one who did the work. And that's what I want to be. I want to be a tool in the hand of a living. 5 (47m 15s): God, I want him to bring about through me, his will and his purpose in his kingdom. So before we have our communion time, I'm going to have Tyler come up and give his, but nine times in these verses, it's our us in a, we it's the collective it's we as a body of Christ, we live and we grow in community and connection with the body of Christ. So Tyler's gonna come up and he's gonna talk about his time at youth group. 8 (47m 53s): Good morning. It's still morning. Okay. So I'm Tyler. , I've been coming to harvest since I was in like kindergarten and I'm a senior now. So been here a little bit, but I joined the youth group back in 2015. So I've been in youth group for like six years and it's changed my life dramatically. It's one of the most essential parts of, I'd say my spiritual growth and a big part of that is, is the fellowship. And I love that my friends will hold me accountable for things. One of my good friends came up after first service and he goes, you did great, good job. 8 (48m 33s): You said I'm 39 times. So I am going to try and say less. Don't know if that's going to be possible. Gregor's holding up. I've already said it twice. I had it again. But yeah, the, the community of, of our youth group is amazing. And throughout my youth group experience, I've had a lot of friends come in and unfortunately walk away from the faith because they didn't. Yes. Again, they didn't grow in that community. And they started hanging out with the wrong people who had the wrong influences and now looking at where they are in their lives. 8 (49m 16s): It's, it's really sad and hard for me to see the pain and the struggles that they're going through, just because they didn't bond with their friends. They didn't have that value for, for the community that our youth group has made. So fundamental. So with that, our youth group, now we meet every Wednesday. It's amazing people live paycheck to paycheck. I live Wednesday night to Wednesday night, like, okay, I just got to make it to Wednesday. If I can make it to Wednesday, I'm going to be good. And it's amazing. It's such a good spiritual recharge. It's you're seeing your friends. You're worshiping together. You're checking in on each other. 8 (49m 56s): The staff is amazing. The volunteers, they just, they love us so much. They care about us. They are always willing to pray for me with whatever I'm need prayer for. If things are going wrong, they're always willing to talk. It's amazing. It's really a helpful, if you are having just a rough day, I've called Jeremy multiple times with just random things. And he's always willing to talk. He's always there for me. And just knowing that I've got people to back me up as, as I walked through, this is amazing. So one of the things that kind of struggle with is pride. 8 (50m 40s): I've got a big ego and this, this fellowship as our youth group has grown and grown. We started with 15 and now some we've got, had like 70 plus kids a night. I've been praying like God helped me with my pride, helped me, you know, realize I'm not the best. What happens when you get 70 kids in a room that all have different skills is you're not the best at anything. Really. Nathan Thomas, one of my best buds, I used to be a cross country runner. I, there's no way I can run as fast as him. He can do a 5k in under 17 minutes and the worship team. I don't have any musical talents. 8 (51m 21s): I can't do what they do. And so there's all these little things that are just so humbling and so great for me to grow spiritually. Okay. How, how can I get better, Lord? What, what do you want, what are you calling me to do? I can't do what they wanted they'd can do. I kind of want to do that cause that's really cool. Can you help me to do that? Okay. That's not for me again. What do you want me to do? And just kind of finding who I am in him and walking with him the entire time is just, it's amazing. And the, like I said, the staff, the fellowship of the other, the other youth kids has just really blessed me and shaped me into who I am today. 8 (52m 4s): And I plan on staying on that path as long as I can till I die. Hopefully. But yeah. Thank you for letting me stand up here and talk about my experience with youth group. If you guys are looking for youth group or, you know, someone who needs to join youth group, send them to harvest. It's amazing. It'll it'll change their lives. It surely changed mine. So handing it back off to Jeremy. 5 (52m 37s): So, so within that living and growing and community, we're going to take our community. Now we'll take out our cuffs. We're what we're going to do yet. Before we open it fully is, is, is we're gonna actually have a time of worship. And during this time of worship, what I'm asking us to do is examine our hearts and our minds. It's a time where Jesus was examined before he died for his perfect atoning death. And, and it's time for us to look at before we take of communion to look at our own lives and look, look inward. So I'll read this from Corinthians and then the band will come up and do a worship song. 5 (53m 17s): First Corinthians 11 verse 27 says this, therefore, whoever eats of this bread and drinks of this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, but let a man examine himself. And so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup for you, eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body for this reason. Many are weak and sick among you and many sleep. Let's take time, Lord, this song to confess and maybe release forgiveness to others as well. I'll pray or thank you for this time. For this morning, Lord, I pray that we would be able to do business with you and maybe release the debt of others in our own hearts, Lord, that we might be free to just run the full res for the two you have set before us, Lord, we thank you for what you did on the cross you're sinless life for our sinful lives, or because you were died and rose again, we know that we can walk in that life as well. 5 (54m 24s): We can have victory over these things. Lord, thank you for this time. Lord, just help us to examine, bring anything to the surface that needs to be, be given up Lord in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. 4 (54m 43s): Thank you, Jenny. We're going to invite you guys to stand up with us and worship 5 (58m 29s): First received from the Lord. That which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus and the same night in which he was betrayed, he took the bread, which he had given. He gave thanks and he broke it. He said, take this. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's eat the bread together, The same manner. He also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this. As often as you drink in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat of the bread and drink of this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes partake together. 5 (59m 23s): You close with me with a prayer. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom, come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our sins. As we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us, lead us, not into temptation temptation, but deliver us from the evil for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Thank you. Service

The Disciples Prayer

0 (0s): oh, 1 (8m 32s): To Jesus. We worship you this morning. We are your children. We are here to see 2 (9m 16s): Where it used to be. I will never be There is no other name, but the name that is 0 (12m 11s): He, 2 (12m 11s): Who was and still is and will be through it Monday in the space between all the things I've seen and the striking. He, I know I will never be. 0 (12m 31s): I 2 (12m 32s): Know 0 (12m 36s): let's pray. 3 (14m 2s): Thank you for this time, Lord, as we spent time worshiping you and your name now, as we open up your word, Lord, that you would speak to us again, meet us here now in this place, Lord, in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. All right. You may be seated youth group. You guys are staying here the Sunday. So glad to be here once again. It's it's, it's a, it's a message that I've been kind of laboring and working through and really just been on my heart. It's it was fun for service to kind of bring it to the light Allister. 3 (14m 44s): Beg would say it was it's the closest he's ever felt to being pregnant and giving birth is, is you, you hope that's not offending, but it's this thing that for me, it's, it's just it Wells up and it's growing. And then it's, it's, it's amazing to see how it comes out. So I pray just, today's just a blessing. My, my brother and I growing up, and I know I've told a story in the past that wasn't true about the poison. If you're here for that one, this is it. This is actually a true story. So let me tell you about this. My, my brother, we had a lot of hobbies. We were always interested in trying to, we were always inquisitive about different things. So we would, hobbies would pop up, we'd see something on TV or in a book. 3 (15m 28s): And we're like, wow, we want to know more about this. So my mom, she would always, she would just take us to the library and we'd go look up whatever we wanted to. And it was fun to be able to research these things. And our tree was one of those things. I don't know where we inherited it from, but we found this red fiberglass, recurve bow, and my brother and I wanted to know everything about archery and we wanted to find out more. So that's what we did. We went to the library, he got all the books and began reading, studying, okay, how this is how you do it. Well, we also made a range in our backyard and we found, I don't know why we had it, just a random closet door, those kind of hollow core doors. And we set it up in our backyard as a target. 3 (16m 9s): And of course, boys, what do you want to do? You want to shoot at something real? So we set up, we drew an outline of a person like this on that door, and that was our target. And then after a while that just that stagnant target, we decided that we'll, let's, let's make this a little more realistic because when you shoot something that needs to die. So we tried to like prop up the door in a way that, you know, a little stick or something would hold it. Then when you, when it gets shot with the arrow would fall over, be a little more realistic. Well, that didn't work out too well. So we decided, well, the best thing is probably just to hold the door up and you can't stand behind the door. Cause every once in a while, the arrow will go straight through the door, you know? And so my brother, we just held it at arms length. 3 (16m 52s): We'll be okay. And we were my brother and I were really, we were good. We were good. We were good shots. You know, we'd a lot of practice. Once in a while, our friend Mike, he would come over and he'd he'd practice with us too, but he wasn't, he just hadn't been practicing as long. So it wasn't as good. Well, it was the nineties and Robin hood, prince of thieves came out and we we've loved that show. We love that movie, especially cause there was archery in it. And there was one scene where Robin hood, he draws his arrow and he flips around any shoots. And I think it was like through the trees or something, it was like this really cool movie shot and hits his target. So my brother and I are like, yes, we can do this. 3 (17m 33s): So in the backyard practicing and we started working on our Robin hood shot, you know, he turned around real fast, let the arrow go. It hits his target. Cause my brother and I were, we were decent. We were good. We were practicing. Well, Mike, he came over that day and he's like, wow, I want to try this too. I've seen this in the movies. I can do this too. Well, my brother was, it was his turn to hold the door, the target. And so he's kind of holding it at arms length like this. And Mikey turns around, flips round releases the arrow and it Nicks the edge of the door and goes in my brother's arm. So I have this image of my brother going as the arrows flopping around his arm. 3 (18m 15s): And we're like, Brian, you can't tell mom and dad. And he's like, my brother who has like the highest pain tolerance. He he's like, no, it hurts going to tell him I'm down. And I know, you know, we'll get into so big trouble because we had really, really wanted to get to the broad heads. Those like arrows with the razors on it. We thought that would be really cool to have those. My mom had said no, so I'm really glad she said no. So I was like, okay, I'm the oldest here. I will be the one to deliver the news to my parents. So I run around our backyard slide, open the sliding glass door. And my dad's there sitting on the couch, reading his newspaper and I'm my Brian's been shot. And my dad looks up the newspaper and he's like, is the BB still in him? 3 (18m 57s): I'm like, no, it was the arrow. And he lost his color for a split. Second only to jump up straight army through the door. I was standing at the door, just waiting for his response. He's straight arms me runs around the backyard, picks up my brother, lifts them up and then carries him into the house. So these are these images that are just stuck in my head. Well, fast forward to a few months. And I decided that I think I've matured a little bit that I won't, that I know my targets now. And so I've decided to, I got, I got up. I was able to buy a compound bow. All right. That was pretty exciting. I've been talking about it for a number of years. In fact, my middle daughter, her name is Posey Archer. So you can calculate her age and how many, how long I've wanted to get back into archery. 3 (19m 42s): So I got this compound bow and the guys at central coast archery have just become like my best friends. I've been down there. I taught a lot. They're like, teach me, okay, this is your target. Don't you know, all this safety, all that stuff, but I've been learning a lot. And so I have a little bit of background as a kid in our tree, but I realized I need to relearn a lot. And that's what I wanted to do with this morning. You see growing up in the church, I think there's a, there's a familiar, it's wonderful. It has way more advantages the disadvantages. But I think one of the disadvantages for growing up in the church, as you begin to be really familiar with the Bible and it becomes something that you just know. 3 (20m 24s): I remember in high school thinking, well, I know everything about the Bible I know about Noah. I just, it just became like I know about it. But for those who have been able to walk with this in their, in their new life of faith and their new trust of Jesus, having come from a, not a biblical background, I've seen this awe and wonder and just a refreshing like, whoa, what is the Bible teaching? What is it? And so that's why I want to approach this morning. Scripture of Luke chapter 11. It's a prayer that I know we've all maybe memorized that we've all looked at it, but let's this morning. Look at it with two staff, fresh sense of vision this morning. 3 (21m 5s): So Luke chapter 11, we'll be in verses one and two this morning. Sometimes it's it's, it's, it's been titled the Lord's prayers. I don't agree with that because of later on, but we'll call it the model prayer, the disciple's prayer, the believers prayer, but Luke 11, there's some Bibles in the back. If you want one of those, I love my youth group will say, I know I love hearing the Bible's turn. It's my favorite sound. So Luke chapter 11 verse one says now it came to pass. As he was praying in a certain place. When he ceased speaking about Jesus. And he's praying that one of his disciples said to him, Lord teach us to pray. 3 (21m 48s): As John also taught his disciples for the Jew, living in that culture, in that context, prayer was just a central part of what you did throughout the day. It was what you did. First thing, when you woke up, it was what you did right before you went to bed. It was just throughout the day, you just had these prayers and you just, it was just central in the life. But yet the disciples, they realize they witnessed something different in Jesus. When he prayed and they waited for him to stop. And then they approach him with a request. They said, Lord, teach us to pray. And I find it interesting that they didn't say Lord, didn't say, Lord, teach us to preach because Jesus was powerful. 3 (22m 36s): Preacher. He preached with authority. They didn't say, Lord, teach us to heal like you do. It's wow. These things that you're doing, it's amazing. They didn't say they didn't ask the question. Lord, teach us how to pray. They just said, Lord, teach us to pray. There was something remarkably different about the way that Jesus prayed and the disciples noticed that. And you see that. We often ask the best of what someone has to offer. We asked the best of what someone has to offer. If I want to know about golf and I go ask, you'd want to seek out a professional golf player. 3 (23m 20s): Archery has become one of my new hobbies. One of my new interests. I'm at central coast archery probably way more than I should be. Scott. Joel, what about this? What about that? Hey, can you look at my bow? Is it tuned? Right? Is everything okay? And they are their world-class archers. They're best of the best. Scott's been a worldwide Archer he's they have a gal that I think just graduated high school. That's shot for the women's team. They're like, they know what they're doing. They are a world-class. So we want to ask the best of what someone has to offer. And the disciples witnessed in Jesus that his vibrant prayer life was something special. It was the best of what he had to offer. 3 (24m 0s): And so they ask him. Now this prayer that we find in Luke chapter 11 is also found in the beatitudes in Matthew chapter six and Matthew chapter six. That was part of his sermon as he preached on this prayer. And that prayer was given before Jesus's disciples were all there. At that time, there was only about four disciples with him. It was Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and now Jesus is going to reteach it to all of his disciples. And so he says to them, when you pray, say this, he's not going to define prayer. Prayer was already defined in the life of the Jew. We would define it as talking to God, just like in the garden of Eden, Jesus walked. 3 (24m 46s): They heard the sound of Lord God, walking in the garden of Eden. When you walk with somebody, when that relationship is there, you walk and you talk and you share life and talking with God. Prayer is just that same thing in Matthew chapter six, Jesus would give warnings about prayers. Shouldn't be like, cause there was a lot of bad examples out there. So this is what prayers shouldn't be like in Matthew chapter six. He says, when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathens do for, they think that with, for, they think that they will be heard for their many words. It's not about how many words we use Jesus doesn't then teach them on the posture of prayer. 3 (25m 28s): You know, being in the church and the Sunday school you're taught. Okay. When you pray, you gotta put your hands together, close your eyes and bow your head. That's what you have to do. And I love that prayer because it keeps kids from being distracted, right? And sometimes me and that's what I need. That's the prayer posture that I need. I need to bow my head, close my eyes and put my hands together. But that doesn't always work because the Bible also says in first Thessalonians five, pray without ceasing. So if I'm supposed to only pray this way and pray without ceasing, the joke is we get in my car to drive, you know, go visit the cousins. And I said, all right, girls, we're going to pray before we go. Let's all bow our heads and close your eyes. 3 (26m 9s): And you know, as we're driving down the street and they're like, dad, don't close your eyes, don't do it. You know, you trick them. And I guess that would only work. If you had a Tesla, then you could actually bow your head, close your eyes and trust in the machinery. So scripture gives us many different ways. Sometimes we are called to bow the head. Sometimes we're called to look up into the sky, as Jesus would do up to the heavens. There's definitely many different postures. Sometimes you go into prayer closet. There's many, many ways of the external posture of prayer. But what the most important posture of prayer is that, which the hearts, posture of prayer. Can you agree with that? Our hearts, posture, prayer and Jesus teaches just that in this prayer, in that prayer that he, that the disciples were watching him do. 3 (26m 58s): And it doesn't seem that the prayer was recorded. Doesn't say if it was a short prayer, doesn't save. It was a long prayer. It doesn't seem how simple or elaborate it. Just that prayer that the disciples watch, the Jesus did made an impact on his disciples. And they knew that it was making a kingdom impact. Sometimes it's the simplest of prayers. George Miller, have you have you all heard of George Mueller? Great, great man of faith, great rate, man of God. And this story was related by another well-known evangelist named Charles Ingles on the prayer life of George Mueller. 3 (27m 40s): So Charles Ingle angles is he was crossing over to America and he was recounting this story of how he met this captain of a steamer. And he was saying, wow, this man, this captain is just, he's a man of faith. There's something different this man. And he, so he began to ask us this captain of the steamer. What, what marks, what, what marks the life of your faith? W what, what, what is this about you that's so different. He said, well, this is what happened five weeks ago. Let me share a story from you. About five weeks ago, he said it was the most incredible thing. He was saying that the captain said that I have, he was there, sorry, let me collect my thoughts. 3 (28m 21s): He was there at the helm, this captain of the steamer, they were crossing over from the Atlantic, by the Newfoundland coast. There had been 22 hours of fog, unrelentless, thick, thick fog. So much fog that he hadn't left the bridge in 22 hours. And all of a sudden he feels a tap on his shoulder and he turns around kind of frightened. And there is George Mueller and George Mueller simply says this. He said, captain, I've come to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon. And it was Wednesday on that day. The captain says, that's impossible. George Mueller replies very well. If your ship can't take me, God will find some other means of locomotion to take me. I have never broken an engagement in 57 years, George Mueller said, let's go down to the chart room and pray. 3 (29m 8s): The captain said, captain said, I looked at this man. And I thought to myself, what lunatic asylum could this man have come from? I've never heard of such a thing. Leave the bridge, go down to the chart room to pray like that. Prayer is going to make anything different. The captain said, Mr. Mueller, do you not know how dense this fog is? Mr. Mueller replied with George. Mueller said, no. My eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls every circumstance in my life, the captain said, well, he went down to his knees and he prayed one of the most simplest of prayers. 3 (29m 48s): He said, I thought to myself, that would suit a child's class where the children were not more than eight or nine years old. His prayer was basically saying, oh Lord, if it is consistent with your will, please remove this fog in five minutes. You know, the engagement you made for me in Quebec is this Saturday. And I believe it is your will. That was his prayer. The captain said when we had finished, I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. He said, sir, first, you do not believe that God will do it. And second, I believe he's already done it. There's no need for you to pray about it. I looked at him and George Mueller said this captain. I have known my Lord for 57 years. 3 (30m 30s): And there's never been a single day with which I have not gained his audience. Captain, get up, open the door and you'll find the fog is gone. The captain got up, the fog was gone and George Mueller made it to his appointment. What a, what? A mark of faith to have a simple prayer of faith, the simple believing faith in the God who did that, prayer changes us. And it changes around us. Jesus, didn't see the preparation for the prayer. As the preparation for the battle. Jesus saw prayer as the battle, as Jesus was in the garden of right? 3 (31m 15s): Leading up to his betrayal. He bled great drops of blood recorded in Luke 22. And he prayed and he said, Lord, take this cup from me, but nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. He didn't pray. He didn't bleed in pilot's court as he's being tried, but he bled in the garden in prayer. Jesus, didn't see that prayer was a preparation for a battle. Jesus saw prayer as the battle. So Jesus, after teaching us to pray, he tells us how we address God when we pray to him. And this is what he says to his disciples. He says our father in heaven. 3 (31m 56s): That's how he starts his prayer. Our father in heaven. Let me say father, that brings up a lot of thoughts about our own earthly fathers, but yet Jesus tells us that father is the most important way. The most important thing when approaching God and that word, father has a lot of connotation in the old Testament. It's only used seven times about God. It was a very old, old Testament. They saw where a witness God in a very different aspect, but you're now Jesus is telling his disciples. When you pray, say father 275 times, actually in the new Testament, see God uses many names in the scripture. 3 (32m 41s): But father I think is one of the most intimate of names that we can call our heavenly father. We can call God, there's a picture on my desk. And it was a good reminder of this week is some studying and prayed and working through this is my it's me. Six days old, just on the, on the, on my, my dad, my, my dad's chest. Just that simple. Like I am in need of everything. I can't control anything. And there's my father with me on his bosom. So often our view of God is shaped by our earthly fathers. Just like my dad picking up my brother after he'd been injured by that arrow carried him to safety. 3 (33m 27s): He carried him into the house and my mom wants to always treat everything with the bag of ice, right? Isn't that the way moms treat best the wounds she put on his, she put on his arm, a bag of ice and hope that would help it. You know, he just had a little hole in the skin. It didn't go all the way through. And a couple weeks later, my mom grabbed my brother and you know, Hey, come do this, come do that. And he flinched and he was like, ouch. My mom's like, oh no, is it still hurt? He's like, yeah, it still really hurts. So she took him to the house, took him to the, her doctor, his doctor and the doctor's like, Ooh, well let's, let's look at the x-ray. 3 (34m 8s): Let's check out the x-rays. So they get the x-rays of course my mom was so embarrassed to have to take my brother to the hospital. Cause he shot by an arrow that was like, just did not, she was avoiding him. It probably because of that. And as she takes him to the Haas or it takes him to the doctor and sure enough, the x-ray reveals there's a hole right there in the middle of his, his bone with little fractures going out. And my mom thought that was the worst knew she could not believe she was so ashamed. And the doctor's like that is, this is the coolest x-ray I've ever seen. This is like the cowboy and Indian days, he was all fired up. My mom was, oh, embarrassed. My dad carried my brother to safety on, on that aspect of asking others what's the best they have to offer CS Lewis, who I think we would all agree is one of the best authors out there. 3 (34m 59s): He looked and he spoke about his favorite author, another George and a guy named George McDonald, the Scottish writer. And he said this in his like opening to his book about George MacDonald, CS Lewis said this. We said, we have learned from Freud and others about the distortions and characters and errors of thoughts, which result from man's early conflicts were from his father. Freud has a lot to say about fatherhood and how that shapes and mold us. He said far off. The most important thing we can know about George McDonald is that his whole life illustrates the opposite process. He said an almost perfect relationship with his father was the earthly root of all of his wisdom from his own father. 3 (35m 44s): He said, he first learned that fatherhood must be at the core of the universe. He was thus prepared in an, in an unusual way to teach the religion in which the relation of the father and the son was the most central, something about the father that shapes our view of God. And then when he says, when Jesus says, we must say our father in heaven, he says our father, as in not just my father, not just father, but our father and that's the unifying call for the body of Christ to be United. When we pray, when we lift up our prayer requests, it's not just me. It's just as I it's, we as a whole, some of the greatest prayers in the Bible, I'm thinking like in, especially in Daniel, where Daniel includes himself in the nation's rebellion and he says, forgive us, our sins, forgive us, our trespasses. 3 (36m 37s): And there's not one marked sin recorded for Daniel, but yet he still includes himself in that it's that our father, Jesus is one of Jesus's last prayers in John chapter 17. He prays that there may be unity among the believers. He prays first for himself. He prays for his 12 disciples. And then he prays for all believers. We need to have unity in the church. And then he says, our father in heaven and heaven is that theoral place. Isn't it is that place where we're only a few have been able to just witness and how to had a key, whole image of, we see Isaiah has a throne room experience. 3 (37m 24s): ZQ Daniel. And then John later on in revelation, on the island of Patmos, they have this throne room vision of who God is. It's our father in heaven. So if we were to address him, if Jesus saying we are to address our heavenly, God is our heavenly father. He said to first start out by talking to the father about the father. That's how we pray. We talked to the father about the father. So how does he do that? He says, hallowed, be your name, how it is like a strange word. I had to look it up and Dixie dictionary to make sure it was there. And I have this dictionary, which is it's huge. 3 (38m 4s): It's like 1907. And this is his definition of Howard. It says to devote to holy or religious uses to consecrate, to reverence is sacred or to set apart. I know there's there's you have dishes in your house that are hallowed or set apart, right? So those dishes that your grandma gave to you at your wedding and you put them up in the cabinet with the glass counters and you only pull out for Thanksgiving for special meals for Christmas dinners. Those are the Hollywood plates. So those are the set apart only for specific uses. 3 (38m 44s): That is how Jesus that's how God's name is to be. We already keep his name as holy. His name is holy. The Jewish scribes had a way of doing that practically. As they copied the texts, they didn't have coffee machines, so they didn't have to copy out the texts. Every time they came to the hallowed name of God, Yahweh God, they would have to go cleanse the pen and they'd have to go take a bath every time they were to copy that scripture. So there they are. That was their way of keeping his name's holy to keep it set apart and names carry importance, right? Whenever I see a Jeremy on TV, I'm like, you better represent the Jeremy's cause I'm a Jeremy. You're a Jeremy. And we represent that. 3 (39m 24s): There's something special in a name, especially in the old Testament times. There's something special. Now there's something I want all the Jeremys to represent a good character, integrity. All those things. Names are important. They're linked to our character. Jacob was born, Jacob, his name meant he'll snatcher. God says no longer. We would call you Cobe, but I'm going to call you Israel governed by God. God would change Abrams named Abraham. He would change Sarah, his name to Sarah. He would change Saul to Paul. And then later on Simon to Peter, because God was speaking something into their character and he was changing their name in our heaven. 3 (40m 11s): In revelation. It talks about this new names that we will get it says, and we will give and revelation two 17 and we will get sorry. And I will give him a white stone. And on that stone, a new name written, which no one knows except him. Her receives it. God has a name that aligns with your character and who you are. The name character of you always to be set apart from any other God. Any other spiritual being his name is lifted up. Your name that your name quote in the old Testament is used over 119 times. Let me give you a few examples in his second Samuel seven, we have says, so let your name be magnified forever saying the Lord of hosts is the God over Israel and let the house of your servant. 3 (40m 58s): David be established before you second, Samuel 22 says, therefore, I will give thanks to you. Oh Lord. Among the Gentiles and sing praises to your name. Psalm 22 says I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly, I will praise you. Psalm 54 to the chief musician was stringed instruments. Contemplation of David. He says, is David not hiding among us? Save me, oh God, by your name and vindicate me by your strength. Psalm 63. I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name, David, and through the Psalms he's linking name to character. 3 (41m 44s): We don't worship a name. We worship God's character and who he is. And later on in the new Testament, Jesus, wouldn't give a blink blink check to us. When he says this in John 14, most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me the works that I do, he will do also and greater works than these will he do because I go to my father and whatever you ask in my name that you will do in the father will be glorified in the son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. There wasn't a blank check. That was, if you call upon the, will you call upon God to do something, he will do it within his character. If we ask something in the character of God, he will do it. 3 (42m 26s): The father son relationship is modeled just after that prayer. Look at me with me to Luke chapter 11, verses nine through 13, he's going to speak on the importance of a father, son relationship, a father, child relationship verse nine says who I say to you and I will be given to you. Sorry. I say ask. It will be given to you seek and you will find knock and will be opened them to you for everyone who asks receive. And he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone free, asked for a fish? Will you also give him a serpent instead of a fish? 3 (43m 7s): Or if he asks for an egg, will you, will you offer him a scorpion? If you then speaking of the earthly fathers, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children? How much more will your heavenly father give you the holy spirit? When you ask? I was asking in the character of God. So we talk then to the father about his kingdom. After talking to him about him, we then talked to the father about his kingdom and he says, this, Jesus said your kingdom come your kingdom come. And that's where this message has kind of been brewing on my heart. And maybe it's just something. Maybe it's just something I needed to hear. 3 (43m 47s): Maybe I need to preach to myself these last few weeks months they've been tough. There's been a number of situations in my life that just led me to just drop to my knees in prayer or teach me to pray. So I'm looking around, Lord teach me to pray prayed for the recall vote that didn't, that didn't go through, begin to feel anxious and concerned and worried for the future about what would happen if that wasn't, if welfare outcome is what it is now, begin to look around to the kingdom of now the kingdom around us. 3 (44m 31s): And it's, it's frightening, honestly, a year ago, I would have been thought that it'd be a conspiracy theory because I've thought that someday there'd be vaccine passports and mandates. I thought that's coming down the line a year ago, but here we are. And that's slowly becoming reality. They're talking about now a digital currency in the next two years, that will no longer have paper that everyone will have a digital concurrency. That lines right up with what we read in the book of revelation. So I love the lessons that God has been teaching me through archery and he'd can. And he does. 3 (45m 11s): So I got a little proud. I got a little boastful. My first couple of weeks of archery. You see, I went from a grouping at 20 yards of about a dinner plate and I got them down to about an inch and a half and a groupings. When you shoot multiple arrows at a target and they start getting closer, that means that you're getting accurate. You're like, you're working your skills. Well, I was getting really good. I started sending pictures to my friends like, look, look, look how good I'm doing. Look at it. This is awesome. They're like, oh yeah, good job. Wow. You're really, you're really getting this. And then one night they're in practice in the backyard and I got lined up. I'm looking at my, through my scope and it's so compound bows, have they have a little peep site that's on the string. 3 (45m 51s): And then, and then next you have the scope or the, the scope with the little target pins. All right. And you want to get your peep and you want to aim it at the target pins onto the target. Yeah. So that's kind of how, the way it lines up. And I lined up for the shot. I had it right over the target and all of a sudden I was like, this isn't my body just did this, like this like jitters. I was like, what was that? And my arrow actually went off and miss the target into the wall. I was like, what was that? Where did that come from? I've been really accurate. That was weird. So a few more shots. And it's like, my body is preparing for this arrow to be released. And it, and it just tightens up. 3 (46m 33s): I was like, what? In the world's happening? Like I've got, I've got my S my pin on my target. And all of a sudden, my body as is movement. I was like, I can't control. I'm like, what in the world is going on? So I went down to central coast, archery, and Scott was in there and I walk in the door and no one else is in the shop. And Scott and another worker were there and I'm like, Scott, I got target panic. He's like, oh no, you got target panic. He got target. Everybody gets the target. Hey, everybody knows about this target panic thing. Like, I'm like, well, I didn't know about it. Tell me about this. Like, oh yeah. It's like, when your body kind of is reacting to the shot before it happens and you start to get messed up and everybody deals with everybody. I was like, okay, well, you got to help me overcome this because I don't want to have target practice, target anxiety. 3 (47m 18s): This is not okay. So one of the things that Scott recommended was this. He said, what's your probably focusing on, we can only, our eyes can only focus on one thing. Okay. He says, one of the things that you want to work on is not focusing on the pins that are right in front of you. You want to focus on the target and see the target through those pins that are right next to you right there. And he talked about how he worked through his target anxiety. He was coached through it, and he was working on a target at 50 yards. And he said, this guy was like, just, just, just concentrate the target. You'll get it. And sure enough, Scott said he at 50 yards, he Robin hood in a Robin, Robin hood had eggs or egg Robinhood, an arrow. 3 (48m 3s): So he'd shot one arrow into the back of the other arrow. That's 50 yards. Cause he was focused on that target. It's kind of like mountain biking or biking. Anything. If you see a rock in the middle of the path and you start focusing on that rock, you're going to hit the rock. This is what happens. I don't know why it works that way, but that is. And so we need, and Jesus is reminding us your kingdom come. We need to focus on the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. But how do we do that? Because Jesus preached a lot about the kingdom that had arrived. And it was different than what his disciples or Jews are waiting for. At that time, you see the keynote, he, Jesus would say, the kingdom has come near to you. 3 (48m 44s): The kingdom has come upon you, but it doesn't let you look around. You're like that doesn't seem to be totally the way it is. I don't understand. And that's where we live in. We live in this tension of the already and not yet the already and not yet. It's a theological tension. It says by faith in Christ, all of these spiritual blessings are ours already. But the full enjoyment of these blessings is not yet ours. This is the life of faith. The assurance of things hoped for in the future and the convictions of things. Not yet seen in the present from Hebrews 11, this is life between the times. 3 (49m 24s): So if Satan tempted Jesus, all the kingdoms of the earth, when Jesus was being tempted out in the wilderness, how could Satan say all these kingdoms I'll give to you? If you fall down and worship me, Jesus, didn't say that's not theologically true. Actually, Jesus just outright rejected that. And he said away from me, I will worship the Lord. God alone. You see Satan has a kingdom. There are kingdoms in this world. There's the kingdom of now, but yet God has the kingdom of already. And not yet. Yes. Illustrate that with Daniel chapter five bell Schanzer was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, never could answer. 3 (50m 5s): He was the one that had this great image that he couldn't explain. That Daniel came later and explained the head of the head of gold, the arms and the chest of silver and bronze. And then clay mixed with iron all. He had that vision. And so Nebuchadnezzar kind of took that and ran, right? He made that big golden statue that everyone was to worship. And then the three other guys didn't want to worship that. Well, that was Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar's Keana was headed down to his son and his grandson. They, they were co regions and God had already weighed that kingdom in the balance. God already knew. So there was a feast that bell Shazard was going to throw that was in the kingdom of Babylon. 3 (50m 46s): Babylon was a Magnificant city. The walls surrounding Babylon were 17 miles long. The walls surrounding Babylon were 22 feet thick. You could re race for chariots on these walls. The walls of Babylon were 90 feet tall with towers that went another a hundred feet on top of that Babylon was so magnificent. Babylon had storage of food that could outlast there's people, years and years, they had the river Euphrates that flowed right through the center of Babylon. They gave them endless supply of water. They were good. So as they are being surrounded by the Medo-Persian empire, Belshazzar is like, we're going to have a feast. 3 (51m 33s): We're going to outlive this. We're good. Our kingdoms forever. We're good. And so what he did, what does he do? He calls for the golden instruments from the temple to come and be used it as feast. And it was then that up on the wall, the hand of God came in a wrote on the wall, wrote something that he didn't understand, wrote something that made his knees knocking. And he liked his lost strength. He couldn't do anything. This is bell Shazard and he couldn't do anything. So he began to call for all the magicians, the soothsayers. They couldn't say anything until Daniel was brought forth. And Daniel said, this is what it says many, many tekel who Farson, you've been weighed in the balance you've been found, wanting your kingdom has been weighed and has been found wanting why do I bring that up? 3 (52m 21s): Because I was one kingdom that was on the verge of collapse. You see, they didn't know that that very night, the Euphrates river had been diverted into a marsh and that the Mito Persian empire had entered into where the Euphrates river float. And they captured that city that night as he's feasting and think he's all good. That's the city was sacked and he, and he was killed that the king. And I bring that up because in Luke chapter 11, we find this interesting story that's linked and an interesting story because it's not, we don't understand the con the context to it. Totally. So let's check it out. Luke chapter 11 verses 14 through 23, it says, and he was casting out a demon and it was a mute. 3 (53m 4s): So it was when the demon got gone out that the mute spoke and the multitudes marveled note that note that the multitudes Marvel, but some of them said, he cast out, ruined demons by bells, above the ruler of the demons. Others tested him, sought him for a sign from heaven. But he knowing their thoughts said to him, every kingdom divided itself against itself is brought into desolation and a house divided against itself false. And if Satan is divided gets himself, how will this kingdom stand? Because you say, I cast out demons by bells above. And if I cast out demons by bells above to whom do your sons cast them out, speaking of the Jewish excersice verse 20. 3 (53m 47s): But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Jesus has relating this to the kingdom of Babylon. That was with the finger of God. The writing was on the wall. This is what we don't understand. This is what I've learned this last few weeks about the context around this, every time in the Bible, when Jesus casts out a mute spirit, the crowds Marvel, why do the crowds Marvel so much of this? There were other demons that were exercised. There are Jewish exorcists at the time that would cast out demons and their way of doing it was they had to find out the name of this, of this, of this spirit being, living inside this person. 3 (54m 29s): They would use that name in the incantations in different SANEs and using Proverbs or Psalms to cast this demon out, turn away, wrestle it out. Now Jesus comes on the scene and he is able to cast out the mute spirits. Why is that different? Because no one else could do that. Jesus, didn't say you have to find out the name to then call it out. Jesus has simply simply said, get out. The writing was on the wall that their kingdom, the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of now is being judged with the finger of God. Jesus said, I cast these demons out. So we're living in this already, but not yet. 3 (55m 9s): Jesus has done that, but it's not fully lived out. So then later we see that Jesus talks about, he said, we talked to the father about the will for his kingdom. Your will be done just like it. Isn't heaven. He says, you're a, will he wills in heaven? And it's done in our prayers. We must join with the character of what he wills to do. Even Jesus wrestle with that in the garden. He said, if it is your will take away this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours. Jesus says not your will, but your, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, the visible and the invisible realms, the kingdoms of this earth, the kingdom of heaven. 3 (55m 52s): These are where God reigns is there. It's a perfect harmony of what happens in heaven to what God wills in heaven. And that's what he's calling us to ask for. For prayer. You see, the more I focus in on those pins in the site, when I'm trying to shoot my archery, the more I focus on those things that are right there, the less I'll hit my target. But when my aim becomes my target and I just look through those things at that lens of the scope, I'll hit my target. We can only focus on one thing. So where is our focus this morning? 3 (56m 33s): Is it on the kingdoms of now? There's the kingdom of heaven, Daniel chapter seven. This is my last and I'm sorry, I'm over time. Dander chapter seven. It says this, this is Daniel's vision. He said, I was watching the night visions one and behold one like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him. Then he said to him then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all the peoples nations and languages should serve him. 3 (57m 15s): And his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. And his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed. That's why Jesus called himself the son of man in fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy. If I could summarize this first section of the R of this prayer, I would say this, let, let the Lord be the Lord. Let God be God in our prayers and our, in our will for what happens in around us, let God be, God let's pray. 3 (57m 57s): Laura, the kingdoms of the earth he knows of now are saying themselves against you. Lord. I'm thankful to have your word in front of us. That tells us the beginning from the end. It tells us, tells us that these nations have been judged by the finger of God. And someday you will come down with your full power, not just the finger of God. You will come down with might Lord. And the kingdoms of this earth will crumble and you will set up an everlasting kingdom. Lord, help us to keep our sites, our vision set on that future kingdom of God, Jesus name we pray. Amen. 0 (58m 42s): Please stand with us. what a beautiful name. 0 (59m 30s): 5 (1h 4m 30s): Thank you, Lord, For just the power of the name of Jesus. Thank you for just, just keep us focused on, on the kingdom of heaven. Lord, as we leave here today, I just ask you to just keep the kingdom of heaven in the forefront of our thoughts and our minds, and just the hope that we're aiming for that target Lord. And so I'm just thank you Jesus, for this day. 5 (1h 5m 14s): Thank you for, for what you're doing in our church, in our midst, in our hearts. Lord, I just think right now we should. I think it's, we should recite the Lord's prayer together. I think that's a good way to end the service this morning. So you could actually want to look it up. Ha ha. Cause everybody's got like a different, you know, I feel like growing up Christian, like I ha I, I like meld tons of different translations together. When I say the Lord's prayer. 5 (1h 5m 55s): Anyways, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us. Our sins forgiven you just not into temptation is the kingdom and the glory forever. Amen. Amen. 5 (1h 6m 35s): Thank you church. Thank you all for being here. Please come forward for prayer. Our prayer teams are waiting in discreet locations to pray for your, every need that you want to bring before the father today. So, but we'll see you guys next week. If you have any, if you're new here, don't forget to stop by the info center on your way out and get plugged in and see what's going on here.

People Get Ready - Jesus is Coming

1 (5m 14s): Way. When was the clues? When I look at the space between what I used to be and this record, I know I'm never be standing next to me. There was another in holding back the scene and shoot, I need reading of how I've been set free. There is a cross that bears the bird died for me. 0 (5m 60s): my dad left no, the name, the name that he who was and still is, and be may in the space between all I know would be, I know I'm closed all stuffing us. 0 (11m 49s): 2 (19m 28s): Yes, Lord. That is our aim today. That is our goal, as we gathered together, or thank you that you are Dan from the beginning, that Christians would gather for the purpose of worship. Lord, we worship you today for the purpose of being a witness to the world. How awesome, how mighty, how wonderful you are. Thank you. That you've put us here also to do good works and to be about your business. As we just desire every day, just to be filled by you, to love you, to serve you. And so Lord week, we give you our lives, a fresh thank you for meeting us here today. 2 (20m 11s): We are gathered together in your name. Your word tells us that you are here, you are with us in our midst, and we welcome you. We look to you for everything we submit to you, and we bless you in Jesus name God's people said, amen. Amen. Amen. So go ahead and have a seat. That would be wonderful. So just a little bit of background information, pastor Steve and his family, they, they try to take an annual trip to bass lake. And so they are gone for about a week. So pray Steve Henry and his, his clan. They couldn't go last year. 2 (20m 51s): Can you imagine why they couldn't go last year? Reason? None of us could go anywhere last year. So anyway, my name's Ron, I get to share with you today. So I want to welcome all of you in the sanctuary and also in the loss and in the patio and online, it's an amazing thing that we can really touch the world with the message of the gospel through technology, you know, and it's kind of an amazing thing. So as we begin this morning, as you know, yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the events of nine 11, the terror attacks of nine 11 being on the west coast, not on the east coast square at all took place. 2 (21m 33s): It's easy to be kind of disconnected, but just know this 2,977 people lost their lives on that day, 20 years ago on nine 11. What I've done this past week, just as a way of, I love history, but I want to know, I want to know what happened more fully be reminded about what happened 20 years ago on nine 11. And so I watched the documentary, it was done by national geographic and it's I think six episodes where they take you through day one. So it's just prior to, you know, the first Northern tower getting hit by, by the airline and then, and then it all unfolded from there. 2 (22m 21s): It, I think it's important to, to approach our lives and our world through a good sense of, of history of who we are, and not only 20 years ago, but certainly prior to that. And when we experienced something like that, it's becomes part of our lives. It's etched in our, our mind. Can you remember where you were on nine 11, 2001? Probably almost all of us can remember where we were, but out of that documentary, that documentary that I watched national geographic, it gave me such a overwhelming sense of appreciation for first responders, especially firefighters, and mainly because as everyone is pouring out of the buildings, they're rushing into the buildings to rescue people, to bring people to safety and not only the fireman, but also the medics and the police, you know, anyone that is a first responder. 2 (23m 24s): And it was so amazing to me to see their commitment to rescue people's lives in them, even in the midst of the potential of their own loss of life, but the, the comradery between them, between the firefighters. I, I've never known that the only I can even compare it to, and maybe, maybe the camaraderie that we share as believers in Christ in a moment of crisis. And so I'll tell you very quickly where I was on that day 20 years ago, DJ and I were actually, as it turned out, we'd spent a few months preparing for a fundraising event for lifeline crisis pregnancy center. 2 (24m 8s): And it was a fundraising event that we did for many years. It was a golf marathon. And so we were putting on this event and it landed on nine 11. And so we're all there at dairy Creek golf course up by quest college on highway one. And we got there really early, about five 30 in the morning because we had to get things set. And when you have maybe 30, 40, 50 people there golfers and, you know, raising money for lifeline and all the volunteers. And so we're in the cafe area, getting all the tables set up and the TV was on in this cafe area and a little after 6:00 AM, we heard some commotion and we walked in there and we see the Northern tower on fire. 2 (24m 48s): And of course, nobody really knew what was happening at that moment. And so we're sort of in awe, a shock and I guess, of, of what was going on. And then shortly after we see the plane going into south tower, and now this sense of soberness come, came upon us. And so, as we're thinking about what to do that day, do we cancel our event? Do we do, how do you do business as usual, knowing that on the east coast, 3000 miles away is this trauma, this tragedy that's unfolding that we, you know, we cannot comprehend. 2 (25m 30s): We weren't there. I wasn't there. And so what we decided to do, we gathered together for breakfast and to pray. So we prayed and we decided we're going to, we're going to go ahead and, and have our event. And we felt that in light of what was going on that raising money, raising funds to help save babies alive was important. But the strange thing about that day, there was roughly again, 30 or 40 golfers. So we go out on the golf course, we're all on a different, we all start in a different hole. We pair up, but it was this surreal feeling of we're playing golf, beautiful sunny day at dairy Creek, knowing the suffering that was happening in New York city and also at the Pentagon and also with flight 93. 2 (26m 24s): And, and one of the people in this documentary pointed out, you know, the, the terror attack was to bring about two things. It was to bring about an undermining of our freedom in America. And secondly, it was to establish a sense of fear among the people of America to undermine our freedom and to bring a sense of fear, to have us live in fear. So fast forward 20 years, I think we're still dealing with that feeling like we've lost some of our freedoms. Literally we have, and many people, not only from that tragedy, that terror event, but also what we're experiencing now. 2 (27m 11s): And so what I want to talk about this morning in a moment let's pray, Lord, we cannot fully understand the events that take place in human history. We can't fully understand what the people there experienced, what the first responders experienced and that they carried that with them after nine 11 and how it impacted them. And then with the events in Iraq and Afghanistan and in Florida, it's, it's almost too much for our us to handle, but Lord, we look to you. You're the one that makes sense out of things that don't make sense. 2 (27m 54s): You're the one that brings a sense of peace where otherwise there would be no peace. And so Lord, as we think about, even now, the people that are 20 years later are still suffering Lord, that you would give them peace, give them rest, Lord and father bless our first responders today. Lord, thank you that there are men and women, even in our midst that they're trained to go towards the danger to protect lives and save people. Lord bless them. We thank you for them in Jesus name. Amen. So what I want to look at today is we're going to be continuing where pastor Steve left off. 2 (28m 35s): So what we typically do at harvest church, as we go through books of the Bible and we finished one week, you know, go into the next one. So we've been going through the book of Titus. So if you want to turn to the book of Titus, we are in Titus chapter three, beginning with verse one. Now the way this typically works. So I knew that I was going to be speaking today about a month ago. And I, I wasn't sure where Steve was going to end off, but a few weeks ago he was his plan was to go through chapter two in one Sunday, but that didn't happen. And so he finished it last week. And so I'm looking ahead, I'm thinking, well, I'm going to be in five Lehman, which is the book right after Titus. So I realized, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to be in Titus chapter three. 2 (29m 16s): And I read verse one and I call Steve, Hey Steve, get your Bible out. Have you read Titus chapter three, verse one. So he reads it like, that's not fair, big. And I'll, I'll, I'll tell you why it's not fair and just a minute. Okay. And, but that's just the way it goes. And the beauty of teaching through books of the Bible is you have to hit everything. You can't, you can't say, well, I'm not, I'm uncomfortable with that. Or I don't understand that or be best to, you know, that's gonna make people upset or whatever you can, you can't do that. And it's a blessing. It's God's word. It's all. It's all good for us. So in the letter, this is a letter that Paul wrote to Titus. 2 (29m 59s): So Paul was a apostle. We know that everywhere he went, he's planting churches. So you spend some time on this island of Crete. It's a very big island. There's lots of cities, they're major cities. And so he's ready to leave. And he has left at this point and he appointed some people to be in charge of the churches that he planted. Well, one of them is this young man named Titus. So he's telling Titus, I need you. I need you to do a few things there to establish these churches, to help them grow, to become vibrant communities of believers. And so just by way of review, I'm looking at Titus chapter one, verse five, the scriptures will be up for you as well. So he says this to Titus. 2 (30m 40s): He says, for this reason, this is why I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking. So there's still some things that need to be done there. And I want you to appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. So church leadership is super important overseeing the work that God was doing. And so Titus was responsible to help establish leadership in these churches that were planted. And then, and then he continues in this letter. He says to Titus, Titus chapter two, verse one, he says, but as for you, so now he's speaking directly to Titus speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. 2 (31m 21s): Titus. I want you to focus on doctrine, teaching establishing a solid firm foundation for these believers. He's talking about teaching the Bible. Now they didn't have the new Testament in that day. So it was, it was the new Testament. I, sorry, they didn't have the new Testament in that day. They did have, they had the old Testament scriptures. They get that right. Second time. Okay. So they had the old, old Testament books of the Bible. And that was sufficient because the holy spirit was speaking life into the words from the old Testament and illuminating them to show how they transition and fit and establish what would become the new Testament and sound. 2 (32m 3s): Teaching sound doctrine is super important. And then it continues in chapter two, verse 11. He says for the grace of God. So now he's going to talk about a bigger picture thing for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust. We should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. So now he's talking really, I think to the, to, to the believers there through Titus believers, followers of Jesus, he says you've received salvation through the grace, but it teaches us something. 2 (32m 43s): And it taught them something specific 2000 years ago, roughly. And is speaking the same, the same thing to us today. What did he say? It teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly less. We are to live soberly. That is, we are to be, clear-minded clear thinking. We, we understand who we are in Christ. We are educated in the word of God in the scriptures. We are wise, we are discerning. We understand what's going on in their world. They understood what was going on. And in our world, we understand what's going on. 2 (33m 25s): And he also said, I want you to live righteously and godly in the present age. So we're going to fast forward because now we're, we're taking that. What Paul wrote to Titus is saying, this applies today, believers, we need to be thinking about this and applying this in our life as well. Living soberly, righteously, the righteousness of God and Christ, not our righteousness of course, and godly in our, in our present age. And then he sort of concludes that again, this is all just for intro chapter two, verses 13 and 14, w you know, why should we be doing all these things? Well, he tells us here looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ. 2 (34m 13s): Sometimes we get caught up in the muddle of, of just life and, you know, Christian life and day-to-day life. And, and yet he, he wants us to keep in focus, something that is promised to us that will happen. And he says, what is it? It's the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us, set us free from every lawless deed and purify for himself, his own special people who are zealous for good works. So again, one of the things I want us to take away from this this morning is that we have purpose in the world in which we live today. 2 (34m 58s): I like in, in a king James version of that same verse, you know, new king, James says a special people. King James says a peculiar people, and I can test you a peculiar bunch of people. Okay. But if you think about it, we don't fit in. You know, we don't w we kind of go against the flow of the world against the stream. We resist some of the worldly things that are being indoctrinated into the world system today. And, and part of the teaching is we don't have to accept all the things that the world is, is, is telling us. We have to comply to these things were we're set apart. 2 (35m 39s): We're special, we're peculiar. But one of the things that we all were all zealous for his good works, we're going to talk about that. You may remember there was a song. I think it was done by crystal Lewis. It was either the eighties or nineties, but the sermon title for today is, is the title of her song. The song title is people get ready. Jesus is coming. People get ready. Jesus is coming. It's inevitable. It is a fact is a prophecy that will be fulfilled perhaps in our lifetime. We don't know. So now we're jumping into Titus chapter three. So there's four words that we're going to look at this morning. 2 (36m 18s): The first two are things that, that, that we're being encouraged to do. And the last two are things we're encouraged to be, to be aware of. So the first one is remind, we need to be reminded of some things and, and also affirm the other, another word is affirm, affirms some things in our Christian life. And then the other words are avoid certain things we need to avoid. And other things we need to reject. Now, if things are consistent in second services, they were with first service. I'm probably not going to get to the things that you need to resist and avoid. So you're probably going to ask steady that on the, on your own. Sorry about that. All right. So look at me now, Titus chapter three, verse one, Paul is talking to Timothy to Titus, sorry, Paul talking to Titus. 2 (37m 6s): He says, remind them, remind the believers to be subject to rulers and authorities, and to obey and to be ready for every good work. Alright. So part of the reason that Paul wanted Titus to be reminded or to remind the believers about these things is because Crete, the people of Crete, they had a long standing reputation of being very corrupt. It was a corrupt society, a corrupt culture, corrupt leadership, even it was part of their culture, but their culture needed to change. You see wherever the gospel goes, we're not looking to westernize people. 2 (37m 47s): We're not looking to bring democracy to people. We're looking to transform their life and their culture, which is going to set them free. And so Paul is reminding Titus. This is what it's all about. They were corrupt society that needed to be transformed. So once again, he says, remind believers to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey and to be ready for every good work. So Paul talked about the same thing in other letters that he wrote, which I want to unpack just a little bit. The scriptures will be up on the screen for you. Romans chapter 13, beginning with verse one, it says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 (38m 40s): It's kind of a sober thought. Isn't it? Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God. And those who resist will be bring judgment on themselves for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. So here we have a little bit of a breakdown now of what leadership is supposed to look like. Even civil leadership. We're not even talking about godly leadership, civil leaders in a civil society. It says here, rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good? And you'll have praise for the same four. 2 (39m 20s): He's talking about whoever's in authority for he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid for, he does not bear the sword in vain for he is God's minister and Avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake for, because of this, you also pay taxes for their God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. So what thing are they continually this very thing attending, attending to what thing are they attending to continually? 2 (40m 7s): And again, it's for his God's minister to you for good render, therefore to all their due tax, their due taxes to whom taxes are due customed to whom customs and fear to whom fear honor to whom honor. So the premise here is that leadership is intended to give a foundation for a civil society and it rewards good people, and it has consequences for evil. All right? And he brings in there. He says, and also, I want you to do this for conscience sake. You see I've found in my life. When I violate the laws, pick a law. 2 (40m 49s): When I violate a law, my conscience says red light alarm. What are you doing? Stop? Because I say, we have this intuitive understanding that, okay, this is the law. And as a, as a good citizen, or we would say, as a godly Christian person, we obey the law. We want to do. What's good. Peter also talked about this in first, Peter chapter two, beginning with verse 13, he says this submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king, as Supreme or to governors as to those who are sent by him by the king for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. 2 (41m 44s): We see the same thing Peter's talking about encouraging good behavior and punishing evil doers for this is the will of God. That by doing good, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free yet not using Liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bond servants of God. And then he concludes with this honor, all people love the brotherhood, fear, God, and honor the king. So there's a bit of a hierarchy there. And both Paul and Peter talked about, Hey, the authorities that exist, God ordained these authorities for a certain purpose, but then he says, you know, honor, people love the brotherhood. 2 (42m 30s): I think he's talking about the community of believers, fear God, and honor the king. So what is our, what is our priorities in all this? And again, I'm kind of unpacking this to answer that question of Titus chapter three, and look at it, maybe in a more relevant way that you and I are facing right now. So remember Jesus, he was confronted by a religious ruler and you know, the religious Lew said, Hey, what, you know, what's the most important commandment of all, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses. So Jesus replied, you must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. 2 (43m 11s): The second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself, the entire law and all the demands of the profits are based on these two commandments. So Jesus is affirming that same thing. Number one, love the Lord, your God. Everything flows from that with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It is impossible to love our neighbors as ourselves, without first loving God and honoring him. So back to what Peter said, honor, people love the brotherhood, fear, God, and honor the king. And so if we want to prioritize all those things, fearing God is on the top. 2 (43m 51s): Loving the Lord with all our heart. Soul mind. Strength is on the top. Everything flows from that. So based on that verse, I read a moment ago, first Timothy three, remind them to be subject to sorry, Titus chapter three, verse one, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey, to be ready for every good work. First question of the day. Is it ever appropriate to disobey those who are in positions of authority? Is it ever appropriate to disobey those who are in positions of authority? So the answer is yes. 2 (44m 31s): Okay. When is it appropriate to disobey? When by submitting to and obeying those who are in authority, we're actually disobeying God. The Bible has a number of examples for us of this very thing. I'm not going to have the scriptures up. I'm just going to read them to you. And the first one is in the book of Exodus, chapter one, you guys know the story. So Pharaoh's the king of Egypt. He's like the dictator of all. He gave this order to the Hebrew midwives and it names, the midwives Shipra and poor. This is what he said. When you help the Hebrew women, as they give birth watch, as they deliver, if the baby is a boy, kill him. 2 (45m 19s): If it is a girl, let her live. So again, the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh has made this decree to these midwives, but because the midwives feared God, they refuse to obey the King's order. They allowed the boys to live too. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. Why have you done this? He come, he demanded. Why have you allowed the boys to live? The Hebrew women are not, this is their response. The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. The midwives replied they're are more vigorous and have their babies so quickly. The, we cannot get there in time. 2 (46m 1s): So not only did they defy Pharaoh's decree to kill the boys, they actually lied about it to what was the response. So God was good to the midwives and the Israelites continued to multiply growing more and more. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. He blessed them as a result of the fact that they refused to obey the command of Pharaoh. Another example, you guys know this one. Well, this is in the book of Daniel chapter three. And it's when Nebuchadnezzar had made this golden statue that I think was about 90 feet tall. And the command was given that everybody needs to worship this statue. 2 (46m 44s): He had created all the officials came and stood before the statue that came that never set up. And then a Herald shouted out people of all races and nations and languages listened to the King's command. When you hear the sound of the horn flute, zither Lear harp pipes and other musical instruments, bow to the ground to worship king Nebuchadnezzar, his gold statue, and anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. You know the story, there were three Hebrew, young men who, who basically said, we're, we're not doing that. 2 (47m 26s): Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied, oh, Nebuchadnezzar. So they're speaking to the utmost authority in the land of Babylon. At the time they said, we do not need to defend ourselves before you, if we're thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, your majesty, but even if he doesn't, we want to make it clear to you, your majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue that you've set up. 2 (48m 6s): You know, the rest of the story, similar situation. Now we're in, in the book of acts where the disciples, the apostles, they're going all over predominantly in Jerusalem at the time. And they're declaring what had occurred. That Jesus had been crucified that he'd been put in a tomb. And then he had risen from the dead. And they also blamed the religious authorities that they were the ones that actually put Jesus to death. So they brought the, the religious leaders, brought the apostle before the high council where the high priest confronted them. Didn't we tell you never again, to teach in this man's name. 2 (48m 49s): He demanded, instead you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death, but Peter and the apostles replied, we must obey God rather than man, or rather than any human authority on to say that again, Peter says, we must obey God, rather than any human authority. The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. And every day in the temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message. 2 (49m 29s): Jesus is the Messiah question. Once again, is it ever appropriate to disobey those who are in authority? The answer is yes. When is it appropriate? When by submitting to an obeying, those who were in authority were actually disobeying God, and why is this well? Because we ought to obey God rather than any human authority. All right. Remember the verse I read earlier, it was Titus chapter two. It says that we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age. So let's fast forward. 2 (50m 9s): Now. Now we're talking about real life. We're talking about the things that you and I face decisions. We make things that we're being told to do restrictions that are being placed upon us mandates that are being put upon us. And we have to make a decision. And I want to say, I'm not going to tell you today what your decision should be. I only know what my decision is and what I have discovered in my life, personally, something about my personality, my character, which I didn't really fully understand before. Is it the more I'm being told? What I must do? 2 (50m 50s): You must comply to this. You must, this is a mandate upon you. I find what I do is I just dig my heels in all the more, and I'm not trying to be obstinate about it or rebellious about it. But in my spirit, in my conscience, I'm sensing God does not want me to do this. And at some point I think it is our responsibility to push back. Maybe not about everything. And I'm going to talk about that in just a minute, but what I have here in my hand right now, it's a document and it's titled order. Number six of the county health officer requiring face coverings in all public indoor settings, attributable to the rise in SARS, cov two Delta variant. 2 (51m 35s): So this was put in place September 1st, what what's today? The 12th. So 12 days ago. So I'm going to read one paragraph. This order directs that face coverings shall be worn regardless of vaccination status over the mouth and nose in all indoor public settings, venues, gatherings, and workplaces, such as, but not limited to offices, retail stores, restaurants, and bars, fitness centers, theaters, museums, personal care services, family entertainment centers, conference centers, and government offices serving the public. 2 (52m 17s): So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to give you two things. I'm going to give you my personal opinion on some things. And I'm going to give you also the position that harvest church, the leaders of harvest church have taken concerning some of these things. And so I'm going to give you, first of all, my personal opinion, let me backtrack. So at harvest church, what we typically do is the elders gathered together. The elders of harvest church are Steve Henry, Jim Erickson, Nilo Hagen, Gary Tucker and myself. We take these things very, very seriously. So we, not just this, but we, we gathered together. 2 (52m 59s): There's a decision that needs to be made, something that needs to it's impacting our church and we pray. And we, we, we communicated about it and we, we attempt to always be unanimous in our decisions about what's best for harvest church. And just please know that whatever decision we come up with, it's something that we feel that God is having us do a direction to take a decision that's made for the benefit of the church. Now things may happen. And I'm sure in any church, things happen where we might not understand, or we might not agree, or why are they doing that? And I don't think they should do that and whatever, and that's totally fine. If you ever have a question about anything that we decision we make, but feel free to come and come and talk to us about it. 2 (53m 43s): But more importantly, please be in prayer for, for the elders of harvest church, because it's a, we have a big responsibility. We're responsible for God's people. And, and we want our church to have a solid foundation and we want all of us to grow and, and just be confident that as a, as a body of believers, we're, we're on the right track. So personally, back to the mask mandate, all right, personally, I don't have a problem wearing a mask. If a business establishment requires me to wear a mask, I will gladly wear a mask. I don't have a problem with that at harvest church. 2 (54m 26s): So now we're talking about our church in particular, we've chosen to leave the decision up to you. So the decision is up to you, whatever you feel is best for you. So I want to go backtrack this a little bit. Remember it was, I believe April and may of 2020, where we were told. In fact, I think all businesses, all churches, we are were told, you must shut down and everything came to a screeching halt. You guys remember that? And we complied. We stopped having church. We did everything online. We didn't gather our, our space was utterly empty. 2 (55m 5s): And so w w for a couple of months, we agreed to do that. But, but then we began to sense that God was wanting us to do something different. And so he began to meet again. Now we, we removed a bunch of chairs. We set up a big outdoor venue. We encourage people to sit outside, you know, wear a mask. If you want to have some distance between you. So back to if you'd like to wear a mask in any of our venues, we encourage you to do so. And that is perfectly fine. 2 (55m 46s): In fact, backtrack just a little bit when we were doing church outside exclusively, I think we did it for like about three months, four months. I remember I thought it was super fun, mainly because we lived on the central coast of California, where you can pretty much have our outdoor church all the time. You know? So I have fond memories of that. But at harvest church, our leaders have chosen not to mandate the wearing of masks and our worship venues. We leave that decision up to you see all along, our default has been. How about if we let individual people, individual families decide what they're comfortable with, what is safe for you, safe for your family and those around you. 2 (56m 28s): So in that regard, we are pro choice. We're pro choice. It's up to you, we're supporting a Christian's right to choose. So now back to my opinion, in my opinion, it's really not about the mask mandate. That concerns me. Perhaps you heard our president last Thursday, he is putting in place. I'm just reading from my notes here. He's putting in place vaccine mandates, not only for all federal workers and contractors, but also for all businesses with 100 or more employees. And again, to be clear, in my opinion, I don't necessarily have a problem with the vaccines. 2 (57m 12s): I do have a problem with our government potentially forcing us to get them. And by the way, by definition, they're not actually a vaccine. They are in fact gene therapy, which is a new technology, never been used before. A new technology that has no long-term data to determine its safety. In fact, a person who is fully recovered after having COVID has a superior immunity against the virus and all the variants compared to those who have been fully vaccinated. 2 (57m 59s): Again, that was my opinion. So ultimately what I personally have a hard time with is the sense that we are being manipulated. We are being lied to about many things. I have the feeling that we're being set up. And in my opinion, our leaders seem to be sewing and fueling division and discord within our country. I don't know if you guys are aware of this. There's the thing is called the Nuremberg code. The Nuremberg code was established prior at the end of world war two, when they were holding those accountable for the atrocities of the, the Nazis, the Germans, and one of the things that was being done during world war two is the Nazis were doing experiments, medical experience, experiments on Jewish people and, and others without their consent. 2 (58m 55s): So the Nuremberg code, which was established and voted on by the international community, this is international treaty in the Nuremberg code. It is said that you cannot, no nation can coerce or force its citizens to take medical procedures that they, that they do not want to receive. So it's international law and it's in violation of our laws as well. So it seems to me that our leaders are sewing and feeling division and discord within our country. Do you remember what Jesus said about this in Luke chapter 11? 2 (59m 38s): He said this every kingdom, every nation divided against itself is brought to desolation. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. Do you remember the, the two things that the terrorists, those who committed the terrorist attacks on nine 11, they, what they wanted to do is they wanted to undermine our freedom and they wanted to keep us in fear. I see that same thing, continuing, and, and maybe even being more impactful now in our day now, to be clear, I'm not ignorant of the seriousness of COVID. 2 (1h 0m 26s): In fact, about two weeks ago, one of our dear friends died from COVID and he's 58 years old, relatively healthy guy. So I'm not in any way saying that this isn't a serious health issue that we need to be dealing with and, and praying about and ask God how we should approach it. But again, the census that we're being manipulated and lied to my opinion, is that as much as we would all like things to get back to normal, things are never going to get back to normal. 2 (1h 1m 16s): Things are quickly moving in the direction of what the prophets foretold in the Bible. One world leader, one world government, a cashless global economy that is controlled in such a way so that a person cannot buy or sell without receiving a special mark on their right hand or on their forehead, back to Titus three, one, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey. But here's the thing I really want to focus on this morning to be ready for every good work, to be ready for every good work. 2 (1h 2m 1s): So as Christian men and women, we are all about being a godly and a good influence in our community and in the world. We're all about being ready for every good work I trust. God will give us the wisdom, the discernment, the ability to make these decisions as we need to make them. But we're all called in whatever area of life you live, whatever sphere of impact you have to be ready for every good work. In fact, actually, I would say this, you were born for this Ephesians chapter two verse 10 for we are God's workmanship. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. 2 (1h 2m 44s): You're born for this, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Perhaps we are here today for such a time as this, when I would pray, we would pray that people's hearts could begin to be opened up to the gospel message. Maybe such as never has happened before. Jesus talked about, you know, the fields there they're ready for the harvest. He said, but you need to pray for laborers to go out into the harvest and to bring them in. Jesus is returning that that is the first certain thing. We don't know when, but until he comes back again, I think our priorities should be bringing the gospel, taking the gospel to as many people as possible in our world and bringing them to Jesus who will give them that sense of living a life without fear, living in the freedom and the Liberty, where in crisis set us free. 2 (1h 3m 47s): Finally, this is the last scripture want to present to us today. And this is from Matthew chapter five, verse 16. Jesus said, this, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your fathers and head that isn't heaven. Lord, I pray father that you would instill in us. Lord a sense, not a fear, but a sense of victory. Lord, I pray that as there is this, I don't know if I'd call it a conspiracy, but this movement to undermine our freedom in America, undermine our liberties. Lord, I pray that you would help us understand that if any man is in Christ, that we are free, our freedom comes from you and Lord. 2 (1h 4m 36s): I also pray that as we are confronted with all the decisions, the mandates, the challenges, the forcings upon us, that comes our way. Lord help us to make the decision that is obedience to you, where we need to comply, help us to comply, where we need to disobeyed, help us to do that with humility and Lord, I know many of us in our workplaces, we're being mandated to do these things. And it's a difficult decision about either complying or, or losing our job. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to come to the conclusion that obedience to you is far superior than a job that you will provide for us, no matter what happens, no matter what threats might come our way or because we belong to you. 2 (1h 5m 26s): So Lord, we just look to you for everything. Build us up in our most holy faith, give us in this day, discernment like no other. And we bless you. We thank you in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand. We're going to continue to worship this morning. 1 (1h 10m 45s): I'd like to invite the prayer team up. I think now's a good time. And then if anybody would like to respond and just receive some prayer, what we're going to have, we're just going to have them up here during the last song. 0 (1h 10m 57s): Good morning. 1 (1h 14m 3s): Thank you, Lord, for setting us free. Thank you. That like true freedom from, from sin and death only comes through Jesus and we have it right here, Lord, I just thank you for the access we get through through Jesus.

The Path to Godly Character in a Fallen World | Part 2

The Path to Godly Character in a Fallen World | Part 1

0 (10s): . 0 (11m 48s): Bye God. 0 (11m 52s): you never stop. 0 (13m 49s): You never stop. Never stop. stop. Stop. Stop. 0 (14m 7s): stop. 0 (16m 13s): Stop, stop, stop, stop. Stop. 0 (16m 28s): promise in the thought that is a true story, Lord. 0 (17m 47s): That is who you are. You are always working in us 1 (17m 53s): With us and through us. And that we're so humbled by that heard a song this week that said, when everybody's running away, God is running towards you. Through failures, mistakes, dumb things that we say when people are moving away from us, God, you're moving toward us because you're working and your grace is sufficient kindness. 1 (18m 34s): Everlasting, your love unconditional hard to fathom. Thank you for it. Lord, God continue to move toward us in this service Lord and help us to move toward you as well. Lord, as we worship you, as we open up your word and receive instruction, Lord, we want to hear what you have to say to us, not just today, but every day, Lord God. Today's just the time that we gather corporately and we hear together what you want to say to the body of Christ, but Lord, every day, Lord, help us to remain in you, to abide in you, to be connected to you, to be filled with you. 1 (19m 16s): Lord God, I don't know about the rest of the group, the Lord. I can't do it without you. I don't want to do it without you. So thank you Lord, for your kindness to ride out the storms of life with us to be faithful when things are good. And when things are hard, you're faithful. God minister all over the central coast is people are struggling with illness and issues. Lord God, I just pray God that she bring healing all over the central coast. 1 (19m 58s): God, that people would know that you're alive and well because of the good work that you're doing. God, thank you more. Be ministering all over the world and places like Afghanistan, where they're just hard and horrific things happening, Lord God, we just pray for your grace, your sovereign power and presence all over the globe. Lord God that you be protecting people and rescuing people and responding to the hard cries of people meeting the physical needs and the spiritual needs of people all over the globe or God, God would just invite you to do wonderful and supernatural things locally and globally. 1 (20m 42s): God help us to be mindful to be prayerful and to be faithful. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Hey man, 2 (20m 49s): You can be seated. God bless you. God bless you. Thank you. Worship team. We've titled the message today. The PA the path to godly character in a fallen world and had a chance to be tested in this arena on, in, in a golf match that I was in this week, the path to godly character in a fallen world. One guy said I've given up cussing, unless I'm on the golf course. I didn't say that somebody else said that, but I might as well have said that. So the path to godly character in a fallen world. 2 (21m 30s): So money, money, where we were playing golf this week and, and we're excited, we're gonna go out and play 18 holes of golf. And, and we get out there and we get behind this, excuse me, but we get behind this geriatric couple, this very old couple and which is fine, but they were very slow as well. And I'm very, 3 (21m 51s): Very thoughtful about every shot and, and it just went on 1 (22m 1s): And on and on and on. And 2 (22m 3s): So finally, at one point we decided if we're going to just jump over this couple and go to the next hole. And then we ran into the same thing, another old couple who bless their hearts. They were very, just thoughtful about every shots. And, and so we get through the front nine and then we decided let's just go have lunch. Hopefully all of the slow people get, get ahead of us and move and get moving. And then we'll be able to get out and play. But the truth is we were playing such terrible golf, both of us from the first strike of the ball to the very last strike of the ball that we were completely discouraged with our golf game. 2 (22m 46s): And then we were, so it was just, we sat at lunch and we said, this was, this has been a, a lesson in patience today, the path to godly character in a fallen world and imperfect world. And so we were tested that day. We were so discouraged after nine holes and after lunch, then we get to lunch and we're at the counter for lunch. And then we get behind this other, I think it was one of the same couples that we were behind on the golf horse. And they were very thoughtful about every decision that they were making at the cafeteria there, the, the restaurant in and the service was really, really slow. 2 (23m 30s): So every moment we had opportunity to be, to find the path, to godly character in a fallen world, because you want to lash out you're right. You're like, w we, we wanted to say speed it, Alice, right? You want to just kind of yell it out there and get anxious. But, but we decided not to do that. And we just crumbled amongst ourselves instead, which is, you know, the high road, I guess in that situation, we shouldn't have grumbled at all, but we did. And so we just quit. We quit after nine holes and went home. We decided it was over. I was reading in Proverbs chapter three. It's not going to be up on the screen. But I was reading this yesterday in light of the message that I wrote this week. 2 (24m 14s): Proverbs three 15 through 17 says wisdom is more precious than rubies. Nothing you desire can compare with her. She offers you long life in her right hand and riches and honor in her left, she will guide you down delightful paths. She will guide you down delightful paths. All her ways are satisfying. And so I thought it was interesting that that word path was used in my devotional reading. After I'd written the message, there's an expectation that God has upon us. It's put upon us. And it is to be expected actually as believers and followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 (24m 59s): Why? Because we're filled with actually, we're filled with his presence. When we come to faith in Jesus, we're told that his spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the person of the holy spirit actually comes in, takes up residency lives in us. And so we're to live our lives as believers, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, reflecting that life that is within us. And we're told in John 15 to abide in Christ that he will abide in us and we will produce much fruit. And so out of that life of a biting remaining in Christ and being filled with the holy spirit, there's actually, there's actually a change of life that is obvious or should be obvious in us and with us, we're in Titus chapter two, but at the end of Titus chapter one, Paul wrote about the corrupt and unbelieving. 2 (25m 51s): He said, this is why they were corrupt and unbelieving. He said, they claim to know God, but they deny him by the way they live their lives. Isn't that interesting? So he said, they claim to know God, but they deny him by the way that they're living their lives. In other words, Paul could look at their lives and know that they're not, that they don't actually know God they're there. Their lives were actually in congruence. What they said, they believed didn't actually line up with the way that they live their lives. There there's a specific path, the path of godly wisdom that we must choose to develop godly character. 2 (26m 33s): And it's in doing so that our lives 3 (26m 36s): Arguing group, once we 2 (26m 39s): Live not perfectly, we can all raise our hands and talk about the struggles that we have followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, things that get us into trouble and things that that causes problems. So we're not talking about perfection, but we are talking about consistency. And, and we're talking about on an honest pursuit of God, God, and his plans and purposes for our lives and honest pursuit of the path of righteousness that God is calling us to live on. So there's a specific path. It's the path of godly wisdom that we must choose news. And it's something that I find I got to choose all the time. 2 (27m 19s): I got to change. I got to choose it like on the golf course, I got to choose it. What I'm doing just about everything. I've got to choose this godly path or else by default, I'm off, off the path and do thinking and saying, and acting like I shouldn't be acting. So if I don't choose the path that I'm off the path all together. So that of wisdom keeps us congruent in the way that we live our lives. So we, we, we actually begin to live in the way that God has called us to live. So Paul wrote to Titus this clear instruction regarding life and lifestyle and how to live. 2 (28m 2s): He said in verse one, Titus two, one is for you, Titus promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching. So he, Paul saying it matters. And we see it throughout the whole Bible old and the new Testament, whether Paul's writing about it or somebody else, we're seeing that it matters how we live our lives. As for you, Titus Titus, you're leading the people of God on the island of Crete, eat this godless place, this worldly place. I want you to promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching, make sure your living and your teaching line up. 2 (28m 44s): And this is a challenge for anybody like myself, who has a teaching role and responsibility, but it's not just about pastors and people upfront. It's about small group Bible study leaders. It's about youth leaders and Sunday school leaders and good news clubs, leaders it's about anybody who wants to proclaim with their lips, with their mouth, that they profess Jesus. We need to make sure that our living and our teeth Ching lineup Titus must live in such a way that his life models wholesome T teaching the teaching you received from Paul and the teaching. He gives day to day. 2 (29m 25s): So all of our lives should be, they should reflect the wholesome teaching we are receiving. So I get up on Sunday morning and I preach and teach and lead. And it's our job myself. First and foremost to take in what I say this all the time, I'm preaching to myself mostly. And if you get something out of it, then God bless you, but I'm mostly teaching to myself, you know, and all of us. And we need to make sure w what we're hearing as we listen to the teaching. And then as we open it of the scripture, because we need to be opening up the scripture to learn, to sell feed and, and, and teach and be taught by the holy spirit and, and be, and be learning all the time. 2 (30m 6s): As we look at them, the word of God, like a mirror held up to our lives. We say, oh, I'm actually not doing this. Yes, very well. And so Lord, forgive me for not doing this very well. I need to make sure that I'm doing this. So by your spirit and in your power, Lord helped me to do that. So we all need to reflect the wholesome teaching we're receiving. So that's a responsibility, right? It's a responsibility, the teacher, but also on the student, I need to be teaching and then making sure that my life is like coming up with what I'm teaching. And then the student must listen 3 (30m 41s): And then make sure their 2 (30m 43s): Lives are lining up with what is being taught. So the pupil and the teacher both have this responsibility that our lives accurately reflect the wholesome teaching of the scripture. So what does wholesome teaching look like? Your Bible might use the words like sound 3 (31m 2s): Doctrine. 2 (31m 3s): Your translation might say sound right. Doctrine sound doctrine is basically healthy doctrine. Healthy doctrine leads to a healthy, spiritual life. This contrasts with the disease. Remember we learned last week that the religious leaders, this church leaders in this, on this island of Crete were actually misleading. The people there were actually not godly people. They said that they knew God, but they denied him by the way they live their lives. So this contrast, this healthy doctrine, it contrasts with the diseased teaching of the religious leaders on the island in Titus one nine. It says that the elders are to encourage others with wholesome teaching or with sound doctrine, sound doctrine are the truths that we believe. 2 (31m 53s): They're the trues that we teach as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It's our Christian statements of faith. It's this doctrine that we hold, dear. It's the chews we teach and preach. We already are Christian believers. Titus must teach these truths to do a couple different things to combat godless teaching, right? Because we're always hearing godless things, things that are not godly and things that are not truth. And so the truth of God's word combats, that, and he helps us to think properly about it, but it also equips the believers for good works in Christ. When we have a proper understanding of biblical doctrine, godly doctrine, then we live out of that. 2 (32m 38s): We live out of our, if the information that we believe we live out of that, that, and then hopefully we're making wise choices and we're staying on the path that God would have us to stay on. So Titus my teach these truths, the most combat godless teaching and do equip the believers for good works in Christ. Verse two, he says, teach the older men to exercise self-control to be worthy of respect and to live wisely. They must have sound faith and be filled with love and patience. So the path to godly character and a fallen world, number one, step one, exercise self-control. So this is for the older men, but as we will see these characteristics for the men, the older men, the older women, the younger man, the younger women for slaves, all of the above, they apply to all of us. 2 (33m 31s): They apply to all of us. And so we're actually, we actually won't become older, godly people. If we don't begin the process now, 3 (33m 44s): Well, there's, we, you know, they're there, 2 (33m 47s): There are exceptions to that. Obviously people come to faith in Christ, late in life. I remember Jolene's grandpa came to faith late in life, and he was completely transformed. He was completely transformed by the grace message of the Lord, Jesus Christ, as he was filled with the holy spirit. And he became, as we reflect in, as we remember, cause he passed about 10 years ago or so maybe a little bit longer, but we reflect on his life. He was totally transformed, getting saved at about, I don't know, in probably 80 years old or so. 3 (34m 21s): So 2 (34m 22s): There, there are exceptions, but the best way to gain this, that kind of stuff has to begin when we're young and to live a lifetime exercising self-control. So the older men are to 3 (34m 35s): Understand and grow in this 2 (34m 36s): Area of self-control and then model it to everyone. But this truth is for every one self-control well, let's unpack that a bit. Self-control it's fruit or evidence of the holy spirit control in our lives. Self-control I think I'll be wrestling with this area of self-control for the rest of my life. So it's good that I start now or hopefully started awhile ago because it'll be something that will be a burden to me for the rest of my life. Self-control but it was really the fruit or evidence of the holy Spirit's control. 2 (35m 18s): It's evidence that the holy spirit is in us when we have self-control regarding our words, thoughts and deeds. It's not just about our deeds. It's just not about our words, but it's about our thoughts as well. That secret place where we can get out of control with a lack of self-control. And so God's concerned about all three, right? Because Jesus said, if you sin in your heart, you it's just like you've done it naturally or outward. So self-control all fruit or evidence of the holy spirit. So if you're lacking, self-control just ask the holy spirit, 3 (35m 59s): God, I need 2 (35m 60s): Self-control regarding my anger toward this person or regarding my attitude toward this person or regarding my responsibility in this circumstance. God give me self, okay. Control where they have respect. That's the next one self-control goes a long way in helping someone be worthy of respect. Think about the people that you respect in your life. Those people probably have self-control troll figured out. They've figured out how to control themselves and word thought indeed. And because they figured out how to control themselves and word that need, they are worthy of respect. You usually we respect people who are making wise choices. 2 (36m 43s): We respect people who are living their life, maybe the way that we hope to live our lives. And so we hold somebody in esteem saying, I respect that person because I respect the way that they're living their lives. Dave's who is respect again, people who make wise choices. And so I think about our, our, my life as a follower of Jesus Christ is my life worthy of respect. I do somewhat, some would say yes, some, some would say no way. Yeah, I, 3 (37m 12s): But my 2 (37m 14s): Audience is God, what does God think is my life worthy of respect? And thank God for his mercy. Amen. Who is worthy of respect. People who make wise choices. So it's a, it's a lifetime of, of, of kind of attaining this respect. It's a lifetime where throughout the course of a life, you look at somebody's life and you say, man, there's been consistency, but also we've known, we've all known people. Who've made mistakes who have repented of those mistakes. And they've lived consistently or people who are humble in the midst of their mistakes. And they're there. What is God working in your life? What has God want to get changed in your life so that you can become a person who is worthy of respect. 2 (37m 55s): Maybe you just need to speak differently to people. Maybe you need to think differently about your life. Maybe you need to act differently in relationship to your circumstances in life. None of us have a perfect life with perfect circumstances. So we have to figure out how to live as a person worthy of respect, no matter what we're going through. Difficult marriages, difficult kids, a difficult financial situation, difficult physical stuff. Are we living in a way that we're worthy of respect? This is the call that God has put upon older men, but it's something that all of us need to attain to. And it's only attainable through the power of the holy spirit when we yield God. 2 (38m 36s): And when we walk with God 3 (38m 40s): Being 2 (38m 41s): Filled with his presence and remaining in him the last couple of days, probably because of our journey group, we were talking about abiding in God. And that's kind of the whole abiding in Christ. That's pretty much the theme or the underlying theme of everything that we do in journey. So I've been thinking about a lot lately. So I I've been getting up in the morning and say, Lord, help me to abide in you. I don't think I've prayed that prayer much in my life I have, but not that much. And so lately, especially this week, I've said, Lord, help me to abide in you. Meaning I want my words, thoughts and deeds it's to reflect who you are. So if I'm up against a difficult situation, I want to make sure my words 3 (39m 22s): Reflect 2 (39m 23s): Who you are. I want to abide in you. And then hopefully out of that, there's there's wise choices and respect. Jesus said, yes, I'm the vine. You are the branches. Those who remain in me and I then will produce much fruit for apart from me. You can do nothing. 3 (39m 40s): John 15 there. So 2 (39m 42s): People who remain abiding Christ make wise choices. What else? The old men are supposed to have sound faith. The older men must have sound. Faith sound. Faith comes from sound. Faith sound. Faith comes from, how do you get sound faith while your faith will be tested to prove whether it's sound or not. There's just no other way around it. It will be tested. It's like building a boat. You've eventually got to put that boat in the water to see if it will float. If the float, if the boat doesn't float, it's not a sound boat, right? A boat is designed to float and to carry passengers and cargo. 2 (40m 25s): So if it doesn't do that, then it's not sound. And so what happens? The boat comes back out of the water and they go back to work on the boat, right? It's tested, right? So maybe you're pulled, been pulled out of the water so that your faith can be tested. And you're about to be put back in the water to see if your boat floats be okay, either way, be okay with it work because the work is done by the, the boat builder. In this case, the spirit of God, the person of God who wants to make you see worthy, you see worthy so that you can be effective doing the things that he's called you to do and living the way that you've called. 2 (41m 7s): He's called you to live so older. Men must have sound faith. And that again is developed over the course of life. Maybe you don't have sound faith right now, but you're saying, God, I want you to, I'm sinking in the water. And it take me out, put me on the rack and fix 3 (41m 24s): Me. All right? 2 (41m 27s): And you're saying, God, what does it need? What do I need to be fixed? Then you go back and maybe you're, you're looking at all these attributes that we're talking about today and tie this to you. And you're saying, I 1 (41m 35s): Need that. And I need that. And I need that. You're making a little 2 (41m 38s): Shopping list and let's let the holy spirit make that shopping list for you. He might say, yeah, you're doing great there, but you need this. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Self-control worthy of respect, sound faith. And the older man must also be filled with love and 3 (41m 55s): Patience, love and patience. I think 2 (42m 2s): Sometimes as we get older, we get a little less loving and a little less patient. That's the temptation, right? Little less loving. Cause we get a little more cynical. Right? Right. Cause we know things where we think we do. We've got opinions about things. And so we get a little less loving, a little less patience. So I think it's interesting that that Paul said to the older men be filled with love and patience. Jesus said in John 1334 and 35, it's up on the screen. So now I'm giving 3 (42m 33s): You a new commandment, love each other, love each other. How just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another 2 (42m 45s): Will prove to the world that you are my disciples. 3 (42m 48s): When we're loving each 2 (42m 50s): Other, like Jesus loves us. We're demonstrating that we belong to him, that we belong to Jesus because our love looks just like Jesus's love 3 (43m 0s): For the world. A new commandment 2 (43m 3s): Love each other just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. So that's the doctrine of love or to love, not just in 3 (43m 16s): Word. I love you. We should say that. We should say it often to the people that we love, but our 2 (43m 27s): Actions should reflect that statements. Just like our actions should, should support the statement of our faith. It's just support our love. So are we doing loving things 3 (43m 39s): Where we're just getting crotchety as we get old, 2 (43m 46s): The doctrine of love, this is what Jesus taught us about. Love and impatience. 3 (43m 52s): I think 2 (43m 52s): We should, as we get older, we should be the most patient people 3 (43m 54s): In the world. But what happens? 2 (43m 57s): We start aching everywhere. We start, you know, start feeling all the pains of life. And, and then we get impatient and we kind of justify our inpatients. Where's the, ah, I'm an old guy. Everybody, everybody should be patient with me. Right. And, and, but that's not what the Bible says. That's not what Paul is telling us. He said, be patient. The, the younger people in our lives should witness our patients and then desire that it's something that's is very difficult in this day and age. 2 (44m 39s): But it's a work of the holy spirits 3 (44m 42s): That makes 2 (44m 43s): Us patients. So be patient, the older men must be patient. It's a lifetime process. Right? So number one, exercise. Self-control number two. Choose to honor. God says in verse three, similarly. Yeah. That's always a hard word for me to say, similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God 3 (45m 8s): Teach the older women 2 (45m 9s): To live in a way that honors God. Paul's addressing the issues of the people on this Greek island called Crete. And he's fashioning a list of areas for men and women, old men, old women, young women, young men, slaves, he's fashioning a list of areas that need attention. So Paul was writing a letter to you. What might that look like? What might that list be? Mate, maybe you can kind of take a little bit from each and every area and say, yeah, this is kind of my, yes, this is kind of my lists teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. 2 (45m 52s): And then he just kind of unpacks that. He said, they must not slander others. The king James version says don't be a false accuser. In other words, your words should be seasoned with 3 (46m 10s): Grace. So 2 (46m 13s): Maybe you check with your self or check with the holy spirit. That's a better idea. So I got, should I say this? I think we should be filled so filled with the holy spirit that God has full access to our lives. So that when we're about to say something, because he knows that we're going to say, he knows what we're going to say before we say it. He knows what we're going to do before we do that. We give him full access so that we actually are so sensitive to the holy spirit that we hear him say, sheesh, like stop. Like don't, don't say that. All right. And then what w we say, yes, Lord. 2 (46m 53s): Right? We say, yes, Lord. Like I know what I was going to say. And you know what I was going to say, but I'm, I'm, I'm not going to say it. Or if we're about to do something and word thought or deed, and he says, stop, 3 (47m 13s): We have 2 (47m 15s): A sensitivity to the holy spirit. And so we, I think that's what God's desire for us and sending the holy spirit to do, empower us to live the kind of life that he's called us to live, to do the works that he's called us to do. But he's got to have close access to our hearts and minds that just with the still a smallest voice, he's got her attention and we do what he says to do. So maybe the next time we're tempted to, and again, this is not just for older women, but this is for all of us. All of this list is, but specifically there must've been an issue with the older women, slandering, falsely accusing. 2 (47m 56s): And so he's addressing yet. So maybe, maybe this is your issue. Maybe it's not your issue, but maybe the next time you're tempted to slander and we're all tempted to slander. Maybe you just say, God, 3 (48m 8s): I, I want to make sure 2 (48m 10s): That my words are seasoned with grace. I want to listen and then watch your behavior. And your words change as the holy spirit says, stop, don't be falsely accused or your words should be seasoned with grace. Speaking the truth in love. We're we're really good at speaking the truth. We're really good at that. Right? But speaking the truth in love so that our words are seasoned with grace, what does it mean to speak the truth in love? It means we want the very best for the person that we're speaking the truth to. We're not looking to be right. We're not looking to accuse. 2 (48m 52s): We're just speaking the truth in love and that we want to see that person built up in their faith and their understanding. We want to see that per person restored. We make sure that person is loved. And sometimes we say hard things, but it's done in love. 3 (49m 12s): We've done our part. We must 2 (49m 14s): Us to speak the truth, but we must speak the truth and love again, this is not just for older women, but all of us also it says, or be a heavy drinker. So older women must not be heavy drinkers and slaves to much wine. It says we live in wine country. So we have to guard against this. It doesn't say don't drink wine. It says don't be enslaved to much wine or be heavy drinker. So just be careful, be careful that you're not drinking 3 (49m 50s): Too much. 2 (49m 52s): Bible says, yeah, the fees is five. Don't be drunk with wine. It will ruin your life instead. Be filled with the holy spirit. So be careful. Some of us have Liberty to drink. Some of us don't have Liberty to drink. Some of us can drink a little in moderation and we're fine. Some of us can't drink at all because we won't be fine. So pay attention to what you're doing and make sure that you're fine. Make sure that you're good with the Lord. Maybe it's the holy spirit again, saying stop to that extra bit or two at all. Don't be heavy drinkers. Why? Because drunkenness leads to foolishness and foolishness is the antithesis of what we're trying to accomplish as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 (50m 39s): We want to be on a path, the path to godly character in a fallen world. Instead, the older women should teach others. What is good in word? And indeed so older women are to teach 3 (50m 55s): In word 2 (50m 55s): And indeed. So it actually doesn't do a lot of good just to speak. If there's not action, following the speaking, 3 (51m 7s): It actually 2 (51m 8s): Is pretty pointless to try to and give instruction when there's not 3 (51m 13s): Evidence that you're following 2 (51m 16s): That instruction yourself. So instead of the older women should teach others, what 3 (51m 21s): Is good? So not drinking to excess drunkenness, not slandering others, living in a way that honors God that's, God's call for our older women. I'm gonna stop 2 (51m 44s): There for this week because there's a lot more than I need to cover for this chapter. And we're just kind of getting out of time. So we will pick up the balance of this next week. Steps three, four, and five step three for next week, just to wet your appetite own the next generation. That's what we'll be talking about. Step four for next week. Being an example by doing good works will impact this next week. And step five, do all things as unto the Lord 3 (52m 21s): Lord. As we consider these things, imprint upon our hearts and minds, the truth that we need to hear and to give us the grace to be obedient. We pray 2 (52m 38s): In Jesus name. Amen. Hey, as the worship team comes up and kind of gets ready to go, I'm going to go over to the list of home groups that are available. Ron talked about all kinds of stuff that's going on, but there is so much going on. Christy covered it last week. But I asked Christie to give me a outline of everything that's happening so quickly. I'm going to go through the, I think 17 different opportunities that are before us to be involved. I think that's the number don't count because I could be wrong about that. Here we go. Home groups. This is under home groups. Brett's and Ann Harvey are hosting a group for families focused on those who have adopted children or foster care families, but all families are welcome. 2 (53m 19s): They will meet twice a month on Sundays at 5:00 PM. So that's a home group at the Harvey's. I believe they're in Nipomo. And so that if, Hm, no, it is an age. Okay, good. So all of this information is on our website. Also Jim and ginger Raman host a home group on Wednesdays at seven o'clock in a row Grandy Kurt and Andy Saltzman will be hosting a home group for parents of teens. They will meet on Wednesdays at the same time as youth group. So that's happening. Scott and Amy Goodman hosts a home group on Thursdays at 6:00 PM and a Pomo. They are currently setting through the book of Luke, Carol, Gary and Carol when hosts a home group on Thursdays at 6:30 PM in AIG, Matt and Stephanie list, we'll be hosting a group for families meeting twice a month on Sundays from four to seven for worship potluck, dinner, fellowship, and sermon discussion. 2 (54m 9s): Josh and Christine Erdmann will be hosting a group setting the Bible Bible school on wheels classes. So the, the stuff that we've been teaching through midweek for the last few years, they will meet on Tuesdays at six 30 for discussion study and fellowship. And they're in a Pomo. Seth and Carrie McMillan will be leading financial peace university. Ron already talked about that biblical money principles that teach you how to save for emergencies, pay off debt, spend wisely and save for your future. 3 (54m 42s): They meet in the Pomo. Our 2 (54m 44s): Foundations class. This session will be the survey. The Bible taught by Bruce Wilkinson. That will be Sunday mornings at nine o'clock. And then we have a weekly prayer group that meets Thursday mornings at eight o'clock in the loft. So that's home groups and the prayer prayer group. And then there's also men's groups. Jim Erickson leads a early morning men's Bible study, which meets Thursday mornings at six 15 currently studying the book of Philippians. So that's happening Thursday, six 15, Dave Workman leads a men's Bible study and prayer group. They meet on Tuesdays at 6:00 PM here at the church. The pure desire groups for men who are seeking sexual purity. 2 (55m 28s): They meet on Mondays at 6:30 PM, really all over this campus on Mondays age specific, the young professional groups, they call themselves the GoPros, the unprofessional group for ages 22 to 39 meets twice a month on Mondays at 7:00 PM. And we'll be setting through a book of the Bible. The college group meets on Friday evenings at 6:00 PM in various homes in the five cities area. So that's college and yo pros. And then you've got women's groups. Our morning, ladies Bible study has led by Jean and Nate. They meet on Thursday mornings at 10:00 AM and we'll be setting the book of second Peter. And they meet, I believe in the loft. 2 (56m 8s): Jen Hayden leads a young women's Bible study for those, between the ages of 25 and 40. The group meets on Tuesdays at 6:45 PM. And then the good yarn club meets for fellowship and yarn crafting on the second Saturday of each month, 5:00 PM also there's clubs, five, six for fifth and sixth graders. I think there were like 28 or so fifth and sixth graders this week. There's junior high and high school. There's all kinds of stuff going on. There's journey groups that are already happening. So they're not really open for newcomers at this point, but there's journey groups for men and for women that are also happening. And you'll be up to speed on those. When those restart soon, there's just so many opportunities. 2 (56m 49s): I'm guessing, I'm guessing. Did anybody count? I told you not to count. Good job. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. I was close 3 (57m 8s): 18. 2 (57m 10s): Plus the groups that are already going puts us probably close to 20 to 23 groups happening during the week. So plenty of opportunity for people of all ages, male and female, you guys are welcome to, to check those things out there on our website. Also, you can send them to be a part there's a kind of a little signup, fair outside. You can send it to be a part of ministries within the church. How many, how many I'm going to have you guys stand? How many are work have are working with kids in the church. If you're working with kids, go and stand up all over the campus. If you're working with kids. So that would be, that would be nursery through high school. 2 (57m 52s): All right. Nurses, your high school. What about the college and young adults? How many are working with colleges? Young adults. If you're doing that, go ahead and stand up. What about women's groups? If you're working with women's groups, go ahead and stand up. No, stay standing, stay standing. There we go. There we go. Sorry. I didn't make that clear also. Okay. What if you're working with men groups, go ahead and stand up. Jim. That would include you. Go ahead and stand up. 3 (58m 18s): There we go. There we go. 2 (58m 22s): Men's women's kids. Prayer. How many are involved in prayer? The ministry of the church. Go ahead and stand up. 3 (58m 30s): What about 2 (58m 32s): Para church ministry? Whether you're involved in a ministry outside of the church where you're involved in like jail or convalescent home, or you're involved in some kind of street ministry where you're involved in doing some kind of ministry throughout 3 (58m 47s): The week. What 2 (58m 49s): If you, there we go. Go ahead. Yeah. What if you take in little tiny babies and nurture them and love on them? If that's you go ahead and stand up. Cause that's a killer ministry. What if you're going to stand up? If you've got a foster your care ministry, there are so many things. What have I missed cleaning? What if you're a part of the cleaning team? Go, go ahead and stand up. Jolene cleaning. I knew I was, I should've made a list. If you're a part of the cleaning team, go ahead and stand up. If you're a part of the music ministry, go in and stand up music, meeting tech. So that'd be a tech team. You guys can stand up. If you're a part of the maintenance team here at harvest shirts, go ahead and stand up all over the campus. 2 (59m 35s): What else? Safety team. If you're part of the safety team, all of it, we make me list for a second service. Also, if you're a part of the coffee ministry of harvest yards, go ahead and stand up. Emmy. You should be standing up for women's stuff. There we go. Don't make me call you out. If you're a part of men's ministry, that would be you guys because you're, you're helping with men's breakfast stuff. Greeters. If you're a greeter, go ahead and stand up. If you're an usher, go and stand up. Info center. Sunday setup team 3 (1h 0m 13s): Jolene is my helpmate. She's better 2 (1h 0m 16s): Than I am smarter than I am. We're capable. She writes my sermons, just get it. She had to do that, all that to say there's a ton of people doing a ton of things all over. It takes literally a couple of hundred volunteers. Let's go ahead. Now, everybody stand up now. Thanks for standing. It takes literally like 200 to 250 volunteers. They do everything it needs to be done around the church. So even with all of these people signed up and serving, we still have more people in needed to serve. And so if you want to be a part of any of those things that we talked about, you can go out to the sign up, fair out there and be a part of that. So shall we worship some more? This is why I cut my message off a little early. 2 (1h 0m 57s): Cause I knew I'd be doing all of this. So Lord, as we worship be glorified, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Let's sing. 4 (1h 1m 4s): Now if you breathe, if you can breathe in here, please stand up. If you can breathe. 0 (1h 1m 42s): That is Jesus, God, we worship you in this place. 0 (1h 10m 12s): Lord, we thank you for the service this morning. God, I pray that as we go outward that we would find moments to honor you God, that we would find moments to pause in our day and just ask you, ask him, call on the holy spirit. Lord, we worship you. We praise you in your most precious name. We pray. Amen. If you need prayer, make your way forward. We have an amazing team of friends. Have a wonderful day.

The Faith that Saves and Sanctifies

1 (11m 53s): Us. Thank you. That your love is totally dependable. Lord. It's unconditional. So we can know, we can know of your love no matter what, Lord, it's hard for our, our human minds are finite minds to get ahold of the love of an infinite God. It's beyond our ability. Lord, all we can do is say, thank you. And we love you too, Lord God, thank you for just your goodness to me and to each and every one of us, we need your grace and your mercy and we just, we just need you all the time or so refresh us today where we need to be refreshed. 1 (12m 47s): I know so many people are struggling today with sicknesses and I've got people in hospitals and nursing homes and all kinds of stuff going on, Lord God. So many difficult challenges and yeah, it's on the other side of things. So many amazing things, so many good things, Lord God. And so I pray that you administer grace to those who are struggling and suffering today and encouragement to those and health to those Lord and, and God that you would also just bless those who are just so grateful today. We're grateful that you are faithful. Lord, thank you for who you are because we know all too well who we are and we need you. 1 (13m 33s): Jesus. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. This while everybody is still standing, I want to mix things up a little bit today. Why don't we take communion at the beginning of service instead of the end of service. So hopefully everybody's got elements that if not raise your hand and we will get those elements to you. I want us to stay standing. Just, this is a way to honor the Lord worship team. You guys can be dismissed. So as people grab their, okay, I've got elements. Thank you. 1 (14m 17s): So communion here at harvest church once a month, the family Sunday, fourth, Sunday of every month. And it's just a reminder of God's goodness, this, the sacrifice that he made for us, he reminds us through the scripture and we are reminded as we take communion that before the foundation of the world, God had a plan to bring salvation to us. We're going to be reading passages of scripture that communicate that truth to us. And so it's a bit tricky, but if you can peel off that top layer of cellophane on, there we go. Mine came off very easy that time. So I'm going to read and we're going to take communion. 1 (15m 1s): And I just want to encourage you if you're here today and you need to get yourself right with the Lord before you take communion, you simply do that by confessing your sins to him, acknowledging your need for Jesus, opening your heart to his love and to his life. And as you do that, the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ washes over you. The kindness of God is re is renewed in your heart and mind. And there's just beauty that follows. And so Lord, we thank you that your mercies are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. 1 (15m 42s): We thank you that your word we're thankful that your word speaks to us life and grace and truth. So Lord, as we read your word, as we take communion, as we pray, Lord, we just avail ourselves to you. We give ourselves to you. We say yes to you. Paul wrote 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 in remembrance of me. So let's go ahead and take the wafer. 1 (16m 29s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, that you willingly went to the cross, allowed yourself to be nailed to a cross. Not because you were bad, but because I was mad now because you are a sinner, but because I, I am a sinner. So thank you for taking that, making that substitutionary sacrifice on our behalf, Lord, the same way. Verse 25, he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. 1 (17m 12s): Do this in remembrance of 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. So with that, let's go ahead and take the juice. Thank you, Lord. Thank you Lord. That when we're washed in the blood of the lamb, we are made white as snow. All of our impurities are gone in Jesus name. 1 (17m 54s): All of our failures have been forgiven. All of our sins are washed away in Jesus name. Thank you, Lord. That is such a refreshing truth. Lord God. As we talked about salvation and sanctification today, we're so excited for who we are in you and for the possibility of salvation coming to everybody that we know and sanctification coming to everybody that we know. And so Lord, we pray that you would make us excited about salvation and sanctification. Lord make us excited that we carry this message and that we've got something of life to offer people. 1 (18m 37s): So Lord help us to humbly do so excitedly do so. Bring that message to those in our world. We love you, Lord. We bless you Lord in Jesus name, amen. You can be seated. You can be seated. We're a brand new study today. We are in the book of Titus. We finished up Timothy and now we are in Titus and much like Paul's letters to Timothy. Paul has written a letter to this young man named Titus. He's a Greek believer in the Lord. Jesus Christ. Most likely the apostle Paul through his life in ministry led Titus to faith in Jesus Christ. 1 (19m 23s): And I want us to get this connection. I want us to make this connection to see that a life can be radically changed. And then through a process of salvation and sanctification can be used mightily by the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And so we see that Paul was instrumental in Titus's salvation, but then also instrumental in his discipleship process, equipping him to take the gospel message and to teach others the gospel well message. Titus traveled extensively with the apostle. Paul was involved extensively in his ministry. 1 (20m 3s): We read in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians that he, he lists Titus's name nine times over and over again. Titus is right there with the apostle Paul ministering, the administered together on the island of Crete, which is where Titus is assigned to minister to churches that have sprung up all over the island. And now we're seeing that the apostle Paul is passing the Baton. This is something that is part of the Christian faith. The Baton gets passed to us. Jesus passed the Baton. I shared this last week when he said, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit this week. 1 (20m 51s): Well, last Friday we baptized 14 people at the beach. And then I think it was a couple of days after that there was this mom and her adult son. They took a mutual friend of theirs down to the beach at nine o'clock at night because he needed to get that ties. And there's no better time than the presence. And so they took him down at nine o'clock at night and the sons videotaping the baptismal and the mom is taking this man down into the waters of baptism in Pismo beach about the same place that we baptized all those people the Friday before. And they baptize him. 1 (21m 33s): Isn't that cool? The Baton has been passed to us. Jesus said, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. So we're seeing people get baptized, get discipled in the faith, get saved first and then get baptized and discipled in the faith. And we're so excited to have that Baton passed to us. And so as we study Titus, we're going to see that Paul gave very specific instruction to Titus this young pastor who is going to help strengthen the body of believers that have sprung up in this Greek island to here. And so what I've done is I've downloaded this Bible project video. 1 (22m 17s): That's about eight minutes long, and this is something that we do from time to time when we're launching a new book of the Bible study, we'll take a moment and watch the video because the Bible project people put together an amazing video that just helps us to understand the purpose of the book of Titus, the chapters, the overall message, that conclusion and all of that. So before I preach through the rest of chapter one, before we, before I preach through the chat chapter one, we're going to take eight minutes and watch this video. So let's go and throw that up here. 2 (22m 53s): Can I sit here? Paul's letter to Titus. Titus was a Greek follower of Jesus who was for years, a trusted coworker and traveling companion of Paul's. He had helped Paul in a number of crisis situations in the past. And in this letter, we discover that Paul had assigned him the task of going to Crete, a large island off the coast of Greece to restore order to a network of house churches. Now creating culture was notorious in the ancient world. One of the Greek words for being a liar was created. So to be a cretin, these people were infamous for treachery and greed. Most of the men on the island had served as mercenary soldiers to the highest bidder and the island cities were known as being unsafe, plagued by violence and sexual corruption. 2 (23m 36s): However, the island of Crete had many strategic harbors and they serve as cities all over the ancient Mediterranean sea. And so from Paul's point of view, Crete was the perfect place to start a network of churches. Now we don't know the details, but somehow these churches came under the influence of corrupt cretin leaders. They said they were Christians, but they were ruining the churches. And so Paul assigned Titus with the task of going there to set things straight. And this letter provided the instructions. It has a pretty straightforward design. After a brief introduction, Paul gives Titus clear instructions about his tasks in the church. He then offers guidance about the new kind of household and then about the new kind of humanity that the gospel could create in these cretin communities. 2 (24m 20s): Paul then closes the letter with some final greetings. So Paul opens the whole thing by reminding Titus that his message as an apostle is about the hope of eternal life. That is the life of the new creation that is available starting now through Jesus, the Messiah and this hope was promised long ago by the God who does not lie. Now this little opening comment introduces an important theme underlying the whole letter. One of the problems in the cretin churches was that they had assimilated their ideas about Jesus, the Christian God, to their ideas about the Greek gods that they grew up with specifically Zeus, their chief, God cretin. People claimed that Zeus was actually born on their island and they love to tell stories and mythologies about Zeus's underhanded character. 2 (25m 7s): He would seduce women and lie to get his way. And Paul wants to be really clear. The God revealed through Jesus is totally different than zoos. His basic character traits are faithfulness and truth, which means the Christian way of life will be about truth also, which will be a real change for these cretins. So Paul then addresses Titus with a two-fold task. He says the first one is to appoint new leaders for each church community, a team of what he calls elders, mature husbands or fathers, whose way of life is totally different from cretin culture. They're to be known for integrity, total devotion to Jesus, for self-control and generosity, both in their families and in the community at large. 2 (25m 49s): And these new leaders are to teach the good news about Jesus and replace the corrupt leaders who need to be confronted that's Titus a second task. Paul identifies the teachers as those of the circumcision. In other words, they were ethnically Jewish cretins who said that they followed Jesus, but similar to the problems in glacier, these people demanded that non-Jewish Christians be circumcised and follow the laws of the Torah. If they really wanted to become followers of the Jewish Messiah. Paul says that they're obsessed with Jewish myths and human commands. And to top it off, they're just in the church leadership business to make money. And so Paul, in a brilliant move, he pulls a quote from an ancient cretin poet at the amenities who was very Frank and honest about the character of his own people. 2 (26m 35s): He said, Cretans are always liars, vicious beasts, and lazy gluttons. They blur the lines between true and false between good and evil and they're just in it for the money. And so while these leaders claim to know God, they're cretin way of life denies him, they have to be dealt with. And this leads Paul into the next section because of these corrupt leaders, many Christians in these churches now have homes and personal lives that are a total wreck and three different times. Paul highlights the result of all of this, the message about Jesus is discredited. Their non-Christian neighbors now have good cause to make evil accusations. And all of this makes the teaching about God, our savior totally unattractive, not compelling to anybody. 2 (27m 18s): So Paul paints a picture sure of the ideal cretin household that is devoted to Jesus. It would be elderly men and women who are full of integrity and self control. So they can become models of care, character to the young people. And the young women shouldn't be sleeping around and avoiding marriage as was fashionable and Crete at the time. But rather they should be looking for faithful partners so they can raise stable, healthy families. And the young men are to do the same they're to be known as productive, healthy citizens, Christian slaves on create we're in a unique position because we know that because of the gospel, they were treated as equals in Paul's church communities. However, there was a danger that they would use that equality as licensed to disrespect their masters and then become associated with slave rebellions, which would further discredit the Christian message. 2 (28m 6s): You can see Paul negotiating a fine line here. He believes that the gospel about Jesus needs to prove its redemptive power in the public square. If it's really going to transform, create and culture, and that's not going to happen through social upheaval or by Christians, cloistering away from urban life. The Christian message will be compelling to cretins when Christians fully participate in public life, when their lives and homes look similar on the surface, because after it closer look, their neighbors will discover that Christians live by a totally different value system out of devotion to a totally different God. And that's the difference that Paul beautifully summarizes at the end of chapter two, he says the value system driving the Christian way of life is God's generous. 2 (28m 52s): Grace, which appeared in the person of Jesus and will appear again at his return. This grace was demonstrated when Jesus gave up his life honor to die a shameful death on behalf of his enemies so that he could rescue and redeem them. And it's that same grace that calls God's people to say no to corrupt ways of life that are inconsistent with the generous love of God. Paul then zooms out from the Christian household to a vision of Christians living like new humans and credence society of all people. Christian should be known as the ideal citizens, peaceable, generous obedient to authorities. Yeah. Known for pursuing the common good, but this is really different from how cretins grew up. 2 (29m 35s): How are Christians it's supposed to sustain this counter-cultural way of life? And Paul believes the power source is the love of the three in one God announced in the gospel. And he explores this with a really beautiful pawn. He says, God's kindness and love are what saved us despite ourselves. So that through the holy spirit, God washed and rebirth and renewed people and through Jesus has provided a way for people to be declared right before him. And all of this opens up eternal life. That is a new future in the new creation. This living story is so powerful. It can produce new kinds of people. 2 (30m 15s): Paul convinced that spirit empowered faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus will declare God's grace all over the island of Crete and all over the world. Paul concludes by promising to send back up for Titus, either Artemis or tickets. And then he says hello to their common friends. And so the letter ends, the letter of Titus shows us Paul's missionary strategy for churches to become agents of transformation within their communities. It won't happen by waging a culture war or by assimilating to the Korean way of life. Rather, he calls these Christians to wisely participate in creating culture. They need to reject what's corrupt, but also embrace. What's good there. 2 (30m 55s): If they can learn to live peaceably and devote themselves to Jesus and to the common good Christians will, in his words, show the beauty of the message about our saving God. And that's what the letter to Titus is all about. 1 (31m 12s): Good stuff, good stuff. You can watch. Any of those videos, a video, I believe for every book of the Bible, how's that you think after all of these years, I would have that microphone figured out. Thank you, pastor Ron. Hey, we're looking at a, the title of the message today. The faith, the faith that saves and sanctifies that's really what Paul was talking about is, is what he's talking about in the letter to Titus. And that's really what we were just understood is that God is in the business of saving people from dark and destructive cultures. 1 (31m 60s): And then it's not just saving us out of our culture and out of our sin, but then sanctifying us as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so we're not just meant for fire insurance, where we just get saved and move on with our lives, but we're actually saved for the purpose of serving God and becoming more and more sanctified as we follow him throughout the course of our life. Now sanctification is a lifelong process. Salvation happens immediately when we trust Jesus for our salvation, but sanctification takes to the rest of our lives. And we have to be patient with that process patient with ourselves and then patient with one another, because every one of us are in a different place on that sanctification process. 1 (32m 44s): So let's take a look at Titus chapter one, verse one, we'll get through all of Titus chapter one today. It says this, this letter is from Paul. A slave of God ended up possible of Jesus Christ. So Paul out of the gate reminds everyone. Now he doesn't need to remind Titus who he is. He doesn't need to speak to Titus and communicate who he is. He's writing this for the benefit of everybody who will read this book after, or this letter after it's been dispersed to Titus into the churches. Or so even to this day, we're reading this letter, understanding who the author is and what the purpose of it is all about Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. 1 (33m 30s): He's a bond servant of God and an apostle taking the message of Jesus, the message of the gospel to those that he is called to take it to you. I've been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to change them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives. So there we have it in the first verse, we see the purpose of this letter. I had been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows, shows them how to live godly lives. So in this opening verse, we see the purpose of this letter. 1 (34m 13s): Faith brings us salvation and sanctification. Faith brings salvation and sanctification. Paul said, I have been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives. Number one, in your notes, faith in Jesus first and foremost saves simplistic, right? But we are here as followers of the Lord. Jesus, because our faith in the risen savior has saved us. Or we're here sitting in church this morning with the opportunity before us to receive this salvation that is made available to us because of what Jesus has accomplished. 1 (34m 57s): We, we can't jump over this point. We can't forget about this point. This is why we take communion on a regular basis because it reminds us constantly of our desperate need for the salvation that is available through our faith in Jesus, this expression, those God has chosen that he said I've been sent to proclaim faith to those. God has chosen this expression embodies. It embodies the true balance of the gospel that says God initiated salvation and then respond. There's a divine initiation where before the foundation of the world, God saw our for him before you ever knew you needed God before you were even ever born before the foundation of the earth. 1 (35m 47s): God saw you and saw that you needed salvation. And so he made a way through Jesus, this to offer you salvation, there's this balance. And so this, this divine work of God, God, coupled with our need to respond. And so we have this information, this revelation, this gospel message communicated to us. And then we get to choose what to do with maybe you're here today and you've heard the gospel over and over and over and over and over and over again. But you've never truly embraced the gospel message. 1 (36m 26s): You've never truly accepted that race message of the Lord. Jesus Christ. That message is before you again, today that Jesus loves you and he died for your sins. And he's welcoming you with open arms, into his family, wanting to, to forgive you, to save you and to say defy you. And you simply accept that grace gift by saying yes to Jesus. Some of us have said no to that grace gift because we don't feel like our lives are in order or because we don't feel like we can follow through on our commitment to follow Jesus. 1 (37m 6s): Some of us have a dozen different excuses for not saying yes to Jesus. Maybe we just don't want to surrender our lives to him. Maybe we just don't want to allow someone else to be in charge of our lives. Jesus, grace is there for you. What will you do with them? The 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 will be saved the Bible. Doesn't say, get your whole life in order. Get all of your biblical questions, answered, figure out every dilemma in your life and then come to faith in Jesus. 1 (37m 49s): He said, 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. There's this divine initiative and the human response that is before us. And I would just encourage you to accept the grace and the mercy of the Lord. Jesus Christ. I can't tell you how my life has been radically transformed since coming to faith in Jesus. My BC days are nothing like my AAD days, my, my after Christ days. And I'm so grateful for that. Verse two says this truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life. 1 (38m 30s): So Paul it's writing truth to those who have decided to follow Jesus. And this truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God who does not lie, promise them before the world began. So we're told in scripture that we're saved by grace through faith. And we see that throughout the old and the new Testament. And we can believe that we're saved by grace through faith because God does not lie. It's actually impossible for God to lie. So if God says that we're saved by grace through faith, and we have accepted that grace gift of his, then we are indeed saved by grace through faith. Some of us have a hard time believing that we're actually saved. 1 (39m 13s): And so we maybe confess our sins over and over again, come to, you know, make that prayer of declaration over and over again. And I think there's something great about confessing our sins to the Lord. If we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so I think we need to be regular confessors of our sin, but it's not for the sake of salvation over and over and over again. Once we come to faith in Christ, it's a finished work of the Lord, Jesus Christ. God can not lie. And if we can not believe God about our salvation, we're going to have a whole lot harder time believing God about everything else in our lives. We're going to have a hard time believing that God loves us. 1 (39m 54s): We're gonna have a hard time believing that God is a provider for us. That he's a healer for us. That he's a Redeemer for us. That he's good. And we're going to have a hard time believing all of these things that we sing and read about in the scriptures. Hebrews six 18 says this. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore he or we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. So in creating culture, Paul's communicating this message with Titus they're ministering on the island. 1 (40m 38s): They leave. And then Titus gets sent back to minister in this culture where Zeus has been there, prominent God, and he's a liar and a womanizer. And so they've got to go into this culture, explaining something about this new God who never lies and who is always good and who is always faithful. There, there, there needs to be a differentiation in their hearts and minds about that. True living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the three in one God, the God that God, the father, the son, and the holy spirit, they need to see the difference. And this is part of the reason that God saves us out of a culture and sanctifies us so that people can see the difference in the lives of believers, of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 1 (41m 25s): But it's also what causes people to hunger for something that they haven't experienced before that they are used to following Zeus and his role model as a liar and a womanizer. That's all, they know, people are hungry for something of choice, true religion, true faith in the living. God people know that this can not be a proper representation of who God is. And so the gospel comes in and as the gospel goes throughout the island of Crete house, churches are popping up all over the place because people are hearing of this real gospel. 1 (42m 5s): Good news message. And they're believing it. And they're beginning to walk in it. And they're beginning to abandon Zeus abandoned this small G God, who's not a God at all. Who's a counterfeit. Who's there just to distract and to hinder people from following their real Lord and savior Jesus Christ. And so people begin to see the reality of the truth of who God is. And they begin to follow that. Some of us have done though, what the Christians have done. And we've kind of married Christianity with, with pagan culture. We've blended the two in such a way that people are confused by the way that we live our lives. 1 (42m 47s): They see us calling ourselves Christians, but we, we engage in pagan, cultural type things that cause confusion and hinder our ability, our sanctity education as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so we're dealing in our culture, what the cretins we're dealing with in their culture. This temptation to bring our old life into this new life with Jesus and try to marry those things we've been saved by God's grace, so that we might be redeemed and delivered out of that old life and sanctified by his grace because he's good. Not because we're good. So our God is real. And God's plan of salvation was determined before the foundation of the world. 1 (43m 31s): So you think about zoos, he's a liar, he's a womanizer. He's all about Zeus, right? God, on the other hand, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the try, you and God, father, the son and the holy spirit. They're all about you and me. So before the foundation of the world, imagine the Godhead, they have this plan to create mankind, but they know because they know everything. He knows everything. I'll say he knows everything. When I say they I'm talking about Trinity is there it's, it's, it's a really, really difficult concept to, to fully internalize, but they, God had his, they speak among themselves being one God in three persons, father, son, and the holy spirit. 1 (44m 14s): They're thinking about how things will unfold. And they're saying, Hey mankind, we'll see. And God said, let's make a way of salvation for them so that we might know them and have relationship with them and bring them into fellowship with us. This is what it says in second Timothy, one nine for God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time and that interesting. So before you would ever sinned, before you would ever born, they made a plan. God made a plan for you to know him. And it happened before the beginning of the time to show us his grace through Christ Jesus, all right, Titus one, three. 1 (44m 56s): And now it just the right time. He has revealed this message through the Bible, which we announced to everyone. It is by the command of God, our savior that I have been entrusted with this work for him. What's the work that Paul's talking about. The writing of the inspired word of God, the proclamation of the gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ, right? Like on the road to Damascus, the apostle gets the Baton handed to him and he gets saved on the road and that the Baton is passed to him. And then he begins to take the message of the Lord, Jesus Christ, everywhere he goes. And then God uses him to write two thirds of the new Testament. 1 (45m 36s): And we're talking about the apostle Paul again, who, who persecuted the church and who was a hater of God and his people. And yet God redeemed him by his salvation. I am writing to Titus my true son in the faith that we share, may God, the father and Christ Jesus, our savior give you grace and peace. Paul's entails about what he's writing to Titus. This grace and peace that he's writing about is contrary to what the experience is of the church or the people who live or living in Crete. It's, they're not experiencing grace and peace because they're following false God. 1 (46m 16s): A false ideology. May God, the father and Christ Jesus, our savior give you grace and peace. So Titus working, create a title. So again, the faith that saves and sanctifies, number one, faith in Jesus saves. And the second point, the last point, faith in Jesus sanctifies, what does it mean to be sanctified? It means to be made holy or to be set apart, to be used for God's purposes, to be consecrated, to be dedicated to God. So Titus was set aside for his work on the island of Crete. I wonder what you are sanctified, set apart to do what work are you sanctified and set apart to do here in the earth? 1 (47m 4s): Because I always say this, I believe this is true. Then if you've got a pulse, you've got a purpose. If you're here in the earth, you've got work to do. And so the question is what is the work that God is calling you to do? Christie Suiza will be sharing a ways to get involved at harvest church here in just a few minutes. When I invite her up after I preach, she will talk about small groups that you can be involved in. And in those small groups, you can learn what salvation is all about, what sanctification is all about. And you can help lead small groups. You can be involved in the work and ministry of harvest church. As we get ready to move into 1 0 2 here in the next few months, we're going to need more people. 1 (47m 44s): It's another venue we're holding on to all of this venue, all of this, these buildings and location. And so we're going to need more people to be involved. Many of you are involved in para church ministries and organizations where you're ministering in the community, doing the things that God has called you to do, even as Titus was set aside for the work of God on the island of creed. I want us to figure out what we are set aside to do what sorry, serving opportunities are before you. How is it? The Lord has equipped you to do the work that God it has called you to do. So just be thinking of about that and be praying about that. 1 (48m 24s): And maybe as you hear Christi present today, all of the opportunities, maybe the thing will peak your interest and you'll say, Hey, I'd like to be a part of that. Or I'd like to be a part of that. And then just jump in with both feet and watch what we'll do Titus in verse five, I left you on the island of Crete. So you could complete our work there and appoint elders in each town. As I instructed you, I liked that. He said complete our work there because it means that Titus isn't in it by himself. Paul started the work. Titus has carry on carrying on the work, but others will be there with him supporting him along the way. 1 (49m 7s): You are not in this life. As a follower of Jesus Christ alone, others have gone before you, there are people who will support you in your journey, and then you will pass the Baton at some point in your life. I left you on the island of Crete. So you could complete our work there and appoint elders in each town. As I instructed you, an elder must live a blameless life. And now we're going to kind of get a snapshot of what sanctification looks like. And these are actually qualifications for those who want to serve as elders within the church of the living, God, there it's a high bar. This list of expectations and qualifications, for those who want to start as elders, it's actually very difficult, but by the grace of God, nobody would be able to manage this list and live up to it. 1 (50m 4s): So an elder must be a blame. A leader live a blameless life. Maybe your Bible says to you live above reproach. That means that somebody, because as if your lifestyle is not even able to actually use you, it's not that you get accused and acquitted it's that your life is so far above reproach that can even accuse you of doing wrong. That's the standard. Isn't that crazy? That's the, that's the standard. But this is by God's grace. What is capable for us as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. When we allow the sanctification process that God wants to accomplish in our lives. 1 (50m 45s): So an elder must live a blameless life. We see it here in verse six, and we'll hear the same qualification repeated in verse seven. Let's continue verse six. He must be faithful to his wife. That just means a one woman, man, someone who's married to one woman at a time and his children must be believers who don't have a reputation for being wild or rebellious. That's going to disqualify most of us, right? That's a tough one. She's children must be believers who don't have a reputation for being wild or rebellious. So part of the, the, the what's to be understood about that text is that we actually, as parents, as people who follow Jesus, have that responsibility to pass the Baton to our kids. 1 (51m 37s): And so it's not actually the church's responsibility, the Sunday school or the youth department. It's not our responsibility to make sure that your kids are saved. It's actually your responsibility. And we as Sunday school teachers or youth leaders come alongside what you are already doing, helping your kids to know Jesus. So that's part of that process. Salvation comes as your kids, see you model godliness in your life. And this will only happen if we allow the sanctification process happen in our lives. If we allow that sanctification process in our lives, then our, our kids will see something in us that they desire. 1 (52m 19s): They won't see perfection, but they will see on an honest pursuit of who God is and honored pursuit of God. And out of that, we get saved and sanctified, and our kids see something that is genuine. It's something that they want a child, a church leader and oversee, or a Bishop is a manager of God's household. So he must live there. It is again, he must live a blameless life. He must not be arrogant or quick tempered often when we're arrogant, it's because we're comparing ourselves to someone else. And we estimate that our lives are in better shape than somebody else's life. And so we become arrogant a few weeks ago, Dr. 1 (53m 0s): Stacey Harmon, when he was teaching and preaching here from the pulpit, he said the, he said, we need to remember that we are not the standard. Remember when he said that you said we are not the standard, meaning that my life is not the standard. Your life is not the standard God. And his word is the standard. And so we need to make sure that we're when we're comparing ourselves, we're comparing ourselves to God and his word and trust. All arrogance will go out the window. You want to have any room in your life for arrogance. If you're looking at the word of God on a regular basis and comparing your life to the word, you will eliminate all arrogance from your life. So you must not be arrogant or quick tempered. 1 (53m 42s): It must not be a heavy drinker, violent or dishonest with money. I think Paul's writing this list in light of the culture, in the island of Crete. He's writing this because he understands the culture that he's up against. And so he's writing about living a blameless life, not being arrogant or quick tempered, or a heavy drinker or violent or dishonest with money because he's seeing all of these things happen on the, in the creed and culture on the island of he's seeing the people do all of these things. He said rather, and then he gives a whole list of things that we should be doing. 1 (54m 26s): And again, these are things that we do as we allow the sanctification process of God in our lives. We can't do it in our own strength with our own willpower. Yeah. Make these things happen. We can do some of these things okay. For a while. But if we want to do all of these things well for the long-term, we have to be filled with the holy spirit, the power of God that gives us the ability to do what God has asked us to do. So we can't not do the things. And we can't do the things apart from the work of the holy spirit, sanctifying our lives, rather Mercede he must enjoy having guests in his home, speaking of elders and, and what they should be doing. 1 (55m 9s): He must have enjoyed having guests in his home. Why? Because that's where fellowship and relationship and connection takes place. That's where people are getting, getting a discipled in their faith and growing as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He must love what is good. He must live wisely and be just, or fair again, thinking about what's going on in the culture in that day and thinking about what's going on in the culture of our day, this is the list. This is the standard that by God's grace, we are able to accomplish. As we just allow that sanctification process in our lives, we must live a devout and discipline life. 1 (55m 56s): You must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught. So not a new believer, but someone who understands and believes wholeheartedly the message of the gospel and what the scripture teaches. Then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it, where they are wrong. So wholesome teaching is teaching that confronts. This is what essentially Paul doing. He's offering wholesome teaching that is confronting the culture of the day. Wholesome teaching confronts the unbiblical teachings of those who are confused about God's plan of salvation and sanctification. 1 (56m 41s): Okay. First Sandy goes on for, there are many rebellious people who engage in useless talk and deceive others. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. So he's saying, Hey, if anybody's saying it's Jesus plus anything else, and that's the gospel, they're wrong. They're confused about what the gospel is all about. So if we say it's Jesus plus tithing, that equals salvation. That's wrong. If we say it's Jesus plus serving we're wrong because it's Jesus plus nothing else that equals salvation. 1 (57m 22s): Now sanctification is the process whereby we come, we become more and more like Jesus and less and less like our old self, our old man, our old woman. So there's a sanctification process that begins to change the way that we live our lives, the way that we spend our time, talent and treasure. So they were Judaizers in the island there and they were saying, well, if you really want, like, we are here on the video. If you really want to be a follower of the Messiah, then you, you have to be circumcised. And the disciples had already put that dispel, that myth and said that that wasn't accurate. It's Jesus blessed, nothing else. 1 (58m 4s): That equals salvation. First of all, 11, they must be silenced because they are turning whole families away from the truth, from the truth, by their false teachings. And they do it only for money. So they were spiritual leaders within the church who were operating only for financial gain. So they were being dishonest, not doing the true work that God called them to do. And so we have to be careful that we're not being conformed to the culture in which we live, but that the Bible is shaping us and be, and we're becoming more like Jesus and the culture of Christian, true Christianity, even one of their own men, a prophet from Crete. 1 (58m 51s): He said about them. The people of Crete are all liars, cruel animals and lazy gluttons. You know, that's the culture that they were in. I wonder what could be said of our culture. What would be their little pithy statement that would be said about our culture? I don't know. No, I haven't taken the time to write it out, but, but there are challenging and desperate and sinful things about our culture that are trying to influence us and draw us away from the things of God. People of Crete are liars, cruel animals and lazy gluttons. 1 (59m 31s): This is the culture. Titus is ministering. Yeah. And it's helpful for us to know the culture that we're in. Let's just play a game real quickly. I'm out of time already. Anyway. So let's just play a game and you just go with that. What would you use as a word to describe our 21st century culture? Sure. In Western and the Western part of the world here in California on the central good G get, get specific to like to the central coast. What would you use as a word? What is it unfocused? Interesting. Very good word on the word is unfocused. What else could we do you use to describe the culture of the central coast, worldly, unfocused, and worldly. 1 (1h 0m 15s): So we're, we're, we're kind of getting close to this year. Where, what else? Unfocused and worldly, let's do one more. Oops. That was a bunch of them. Who, what was it? Fearful, depraved, fearful and depraved. So it's helpful for us to understand our culture so that we, number one, don't become like our culture, but number two, so that we understand what we're trying to, what we're trying to do to help what we can do to help people who are stuck in that culture. So think about the culture of your family. Think about the culture of your work. Think about the culture of your neighborhood, and then ask the Lord, Lord, how do I operate within that culture? 1 (1h 0m 57s): So that I might bring salvation to those who need salvation so that God, you might work too, brings sanctification to their lives. Here we go. Let's finish this up. This is true. So reprimand them sternly to make them strong in their faith. They must stop listening to Jewish myths and the commands that people who have turned away from the truth. So Jewish myths are Jewish laws and traditions that NOLA Phi and contradict the holy scripture. So anything that we're believing that either no Ify replace or contradict the scripture is something that we need to be, be wary of circumcision. 1 (1h 1m 38s): Hand-washing these, these are examples, extreme rules around the Sabbath. I, I D these are all things that were happening in the day. And these are things that not even Jews even knew how to honor and obey. Let's get to these last couple weeks. Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure, but nothing is pure to those who are corrupted and believing because their minds in common, the agencies are corrupted to the right. Everything is pure. Have you noticed that in your life, like when you're in a really good place with the Lord, like everything is pure. Somebody can tell you a story. And all you do is see the episode about the story. But when your mind is corrupt to the perverse, everything is, somebody might tell you the same exact story, but you can come up with this perverse conclusion about, about the story. 1 (1h 2m 28s): Maybe you're seeing someone of the opposite sex walking down the street, a man, or a woman. And you're attracted to that man, or that woman, someone who is pure, what might say that is a handsome person, right there. Someone who is perverted would say, let's take that a step further. And it's not just a handsome person. That's someone that they want to get with. And because their perversion is in their mind, everything that they think about ends in perversion, but to the pure, everything is pure. So you've got this culture where there's perversion everywhere. And then the culture is they're trying to shift the culture by bringing purity into the culture. 1 (1h 3m 11s): And this is what they're up against. They're trying to communicate truth and trying to live differently. And there's perversion in the culture. There's corruption in the culture, verse 16. So people claim, they know God, but they such people claim. They know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient worthless for doing anything good. So you see the value of sanctification sanctification actually helps us to be qualified. We're qualified by God's grace and through the process of sanctification to do the works that God has called us to do. And so there's a process there, the faith that saves and sanctifies, faith, faith, faith in Jesus saves and faith in Jesus sanctifies. 1 (1h 3m 52s): And we can't, we don't want one without the other. We don't, we can't be sanctified without salvation, and we don't want to be saved without sanctification. We need both. We need both. And that's God's plan for both for, for all of us in Jesus name. Well, we've already taken communion. That's the end of my message. I'm wondering if it's Christie Suiza here. There she is. Christie's going to talk to us today about opportunities to get involved, to get plugged in. And so this is Christie . Christie has been on our staff team for the last dozen years or so. Something like that long time, she's only 20, but she's been with us for a very long time. 1 (1h 4m 33s): Christie, your full attention. 3 (1h 4m 35s): Good morning, everybody. Don't worry. I'm not going to sing. Yeah. I'm the director of discipleship here at harvest, and I have some exciting ways you can get connected and get plugged in. I know many of you are newer to our church and looking for ways to build those relationships, grow deeper in your faith and have that community of connection outside in our driveway. On the right-hand side, you'll find a couple of tables today. One of them has a list of all of our life groups that are going to be launching here in September. We have a lot of different groups, something for everybody just to highlight a few things. We have quite a few home groups that meet in a Royal Grande date. We have some home groups this time focused on parents of teenagers, and that are focusing on family groups. 3 (1h 5m 19s): We have a couple that meet in the Nipomo area. We also have a young professionals group as well as a college group. So those are great ways to get plugged in with others, your age in the community. Here we have men's groups and women's groups, both daytime and evening for men. We have a morning, one for women and one for young women. And then we have a new financial peace university class that's starting up as well. So if you're interested in learning about budgeting and how to honor God with your finances, stop by the table, and we'll be able to answer questions for you there on those. So stop by pick up a flyer and ask whatever questions you have. We'll also be out there next week as well, taking signups and getting as many people plugged in as possible. 3 (1h 6m 4s): Our second table is for getting involved in an area of ministry here at harvest church. And ed is such a blessing to serve and be involved and connected with the heartbeat of what we do here at harvest. So if you're not plugged in to a ministry team, I really encourage you to pray about where God wants to connect you. We have so many ways you can connect children's ministry. Don't worry, not everyone is teaching. And children's. We have people that help people that serve behind the scenes, people that greet children. So there's lots of ways to connect there. We have a women's ministry team. We have folks that serve and our coffee bar ministry that make the coffee and keep that area refilled throughout our Sunday morning services. 3 (1h 6m 46s): Believe it or not. We actually have people that clean this place too during the week. And we love our cleaning team members. So if you have free time during the week and would love to help clean, there's a big need. There, we have folks who serve on our tech team, behind our camera's up here on our worship team and our prayer ministry as well. So we have so many ways you can get connected here at harvest. So pray about it. Stop by the table, ask questions, and we'd love to help you find a spot or the Lord can use you here in our body. So thank you. Please stand with us. We're going to sing one more song bursty inside. 3 (1h 7m 47s): Yes, we can surely see 4 (1h 11m 9s): Thank you for salvation, for who you are, Lord, and for just this place, you have us in our community. And I just, I just pray that our Holly ladies would be multiplied in, would just stretch out across our region and across our, our, our communities and our families. Lord, when people just be pointed straight to Jesus, because of it, because of the, the worship that we give to you. And thank you for today. And I see blessed. It says, we go, let us never be the same.

You Have Work to Do

0 (1s): There, God has just brought you into the space. We just laid down everything that's said of us and we just put our eyes on Jesus. But horizon view right now, the author and finisher of our faith, I just argued. Jesus is our S Jesus, your savior. You are, are, you are the one who made a way for us to come into the presence of God. And so I just, that's just what we're doing right now is Jesus made a way for us to just approach his throne, just approach God's throne. And so, so God is asking to do what only you can do this morning. 1 (37s): Jesus, 0 (40s): We're going to sing an Oli, but it Katie to start it. And I want, this is like, we need some, some clapping. So like in time, you know, if you got rid of them, great. If you don't look to the person the next year, they might have rhythm one, two 1 (59s): . 1 (9m 33s): beautiful. Beautiful. 1 (10m 16s): 2 (16m 20s): That's terrible. That is terrible. I thought I turned that thing on. Oh, well I did. 2 (17m 3s): Yeah. Oh, because, oh, because my mic was off. Was it? Yeah. That's what he said. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's all right. Hey, they get me. They get the Rami, no matter what. So it's all right. It's all right. Hey, Michael. 1 (17m 31s): we'll go. 2 (17m 37s): Steven Agee harvest. Yeah. Sounds good. Welcome. Come on back. We're in second Timothy chapter four second, Timothy chapter four. So before we get to the second Timothy chapter four, if you look around on your chairs around you, there are information cards, info cards. If you did not fill those out last week, we're going to take a moment now to give you an opportunity to just go ahead and fill those things out. It's just helping to update our database so that we can get everybody kind of there and know who we're serving and ministering with and praying for. So it's, it takes typically three weeks to get everybody insurance to do something. 2 (18m 17s): So we talked about it last week and we're talking about it this week and we will talk about it next week. So I'm just giving you an opportunity to be a part of our database. So you can be a part of the communication that we send out weekly and be a part of what we're doing here week to week. Amen. So sometime during the service, if you can fill that out and then put it in one of the offering boxes here, there's offering box in the sanctuary on both wall to walls, and then I'm in the loft. There's a box and on the patio, there's a box as well. So good stuff, Lord, as we get into your text today, speak to us, lead us because so many of us are already doing this stuff that we're talking about, Laura, but there's there. 2 (18m 59s): I believe there's more to do by your grace as you call us and empower us Lord. So help us to do the stuff that you're calling us to do to be about the stuff that you're calling us to be about. Lord God, be glorified innocent with us. And through us, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. I titled the message today you have work to do so. I thought that's off putting right work is like a four-letter word. It's like, we think it's a curse word, right? It's like when we talk about work that needs to get done, we got to get all nervous about it and anxious about it. But really this is what we're put in the earth to do, to accomplish stuff for the kingdom work. Isn't something to be avoided. 2 (19m 40s): Work is something to be in. It's often where we find our greatest sense of purpose. It's where we get our provision from it's where doors of opportunity are opened up to us. Grow those new experiences. Some of us need to think differently, reframe work and think about it differently because God does his best work through us. When we're humble and submitted and obedient to do what he's called us to do. One coach said this hard work, beats talent when talent doesn't work, work hard. So some people are just gifted with all kinds of abilities academically or whatever it may be. 2 (20m 24s): But this is the case, hard work, beats talent. It beats that out when talent doesn't work hard. So even if you've got talents, you need to work hard to develop your talent, to develop your gift set and to develop who you are. As a person, Colin Powell said this, there are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation. hard work and learning from failure. We're all going to fail in life. We're all going to fail at work and the things that we attempt, but that is just part of the process. And I think sometimes we're afraid to fail. So we're afraid to step into those things that got us calling us into someone else said hard work, spotlights, the character of people, some churn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses and some don't turn up at all. 2 (21m 11s): So, so we're going to be talking about work today and what God has called us to do. And so again, we've held the message you have work to do. We all have work to do. This is what Paul told Timothy in his letters to Timothy in this letter. And specifically in this chapter, Paul told Timothy, you have worked to do this is what Jesus told his disciples, especially before sending to the father, you have work to do this is what the Bible is telling us from. Start to finish the old Testament, new Testament. The Bible tells us we have work to do so. Let's take a look at a second. Timothy chapter four. These are the last anointed words that Paul penned before his execution. 2 (21m 57s): So this is what Paul wrote right before he was going to be executed. And he knew that his time was short. He knew that he would be executed. And so imagine the urgency in his heart to make sure that he's communicating the right message before he expires and goes to be with the Lord. It was important to him that he finish. Well, a good friend of ours. That's been at the church here for the last six or seven years. Don gainer passed away this Tuesday. I don't know if everybody heard that Don was 82 years old. And he, I remember talking to him in the weeks leading up to his passing. 2 (22m 37s): He said, man, I just want to finish. Well, I just want to make sure that I finished well. And to him that meant he wanted to see some things in his family happened. He wanted to experience some things, but mostly he wanted to make sure that his life represented Christ and that he died as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ taking his last breath and then going to be with the Lord. And that's what he did. He was an incredible man, 82 years old, worked until the end to doing the work of the ministry that God called him to. He was in the process of writing a book. Didn't get a chance to finish that. But he also founded a grandparenting mist ministry here on the central coast. And now we're going to be hosting a grandparenting seminar here on the central coast here in the next couple of months. 2 (23m 20s): And so it's an opportunity for grandparents to be encouraged in the work that they have to do with their grandkids, helping to disciple the next generation, helping to be an encouragement to the next generation. So this is some of the fruit of Don's life. Very little bit of the, the fruit from 82 years of pouring himself into life and ministry as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He understood the value of hard work and now he's receiving his reward. Amen. So what Paul wrote, I solemnly urge you in the presence of God's will Paul wrote to Timothy, I solemnly urge you hear the urgency, the importance of his statement. 2 (24m 1s): I saw calmly urge you the seriousness of it in the presence of God and Christ Jesus in front of God and everybody. This is what I'm communicating. This is what you need to do. I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead. When he comes to set up his kingdom, he said, in verse two, preach the word of God, preached the word of God in Bible college, we'd go around saying, preach the word because we're learning how to preach the word, you know, and we, so we quote second Timothy four, two preach the word of God. And that was just something we did. And, and it was preparation for something that we planned to do for the rest of our lives. It's it's God's plan for each of us to be preachers of the word of God in our sphere. 2 (24m 44s): In our context, in the, with the people that we come in contact with, it's our job to communicate the gospel, to preach the word of God, be prepared. Paul said whether the time is favorable or not, and this is what you're supposed to do. Patience, correct? Rebuke and encourage. That's what Paul means. When you, when he says patiently preached the word of God, do build patiently with correction, rebuke and encouragement. Why did he say patiently? Because people change slowly, right? So I thought about this over the last 18 years of being pastor here at this church. And I thought, man, it's just, it's a long haul assignment. 2 (25m 25s): Like I changed slowly. People change slowly. And it's just a process of being consistent, teaching God's word and watching what the holy spirit will do in somebody's life to bring that person along, convicting them of sin and of righteousness and making them more and more like Jesus and less and less like their old man. So Paul understood, Hey Shanley, correct. When necessary. Correct. Every time I opened up the word, I feel like the Lord's correcting me or, or even subtly rebuking me for something that's going on in my life. Whether it be a thoughts, a word, an action, some kind of deed. And there's this loving correction and rebuke and then follow it up with encouragement. 2 (26m 7s): So we're not meant to just kind of beat people up with the word and with the truth of God's word, because God's word is filled from start to finish with God's encouragement for his people. There's correction, there's rebuke, but there's encouragement. Everything he does is to build us up to Edify us in our most holy faith. So preach the word of God, be prepared, be prepared. So just be prepared. How do you get prepared? We just, there's something about the Bible that you don't understand, begin to understand it. Take the time to open up the word of God and get some good commentaries, your good counsel about what you're struggling with and watch God open up your mind to the things of God. And as he opens up your mind to the things of God, watch the confidence. 2 (26m 50s): That's, you know, we're not talking about arrogance. That's not helpful, but confidence is good confidence in your ability to communicate the truth so that people understand what you're saying. And so, you know, understand. So you understand what you're trying to communicate so patiently, correct? Rebuke and encourage your people with good teeth aging. 3 (27m 7s): So Paul Timmy, this is like, I'm about to perish. This is what I'm telling you. Jesus. 2 (27m 14s): After his earthly life and ministry, after his crucifixion, his burial, his resurrection, and before he goes to the father in Matthew 28, he said something very similar. Jesus came and told his disciples. I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, 3 (27m 36s): Baptizing 2 (27m 36s): Them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit, teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and be sure of this I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. And so as Jesus was getting ready to ascend, what does he say? Go make disciples, right? Baptizing them. It was been, it was so exciting on Friday night. I don't know. I can't remember if Jeremy told this story, but there was this family you showed up from Southern California. Maybe he told a story. I'll tell it again, came up from Southern California. And they were just hop. These happened to be at the beach, you know, like, you know, by accident, right. No such thing. So they happened to be at the beach and they're seeing this group of people. And then they realize that people are going to get baptized. 2 (28m 19s): We're praying, worshiping, and we're heading out to the waters of baptism to baptize people. And so they've got this, their son chase who's 10 years old and they've been trying to figure out a way to get chase baptize, but they haven't had the opportunity yet. So they're like, Hey, let's get chase baptized today. So chase went out there with the crowd and of course we didn't know who he was. And we said, Hey, what's your name? Chase. Have you given your life to Jesus? Yes. Would you like to get baptized? Yes. And so we got a chance to baptize him and get, get, got to meet his parents and give them a shirt, a harvest church shirt, and a harvest church towel that would give out to those get baptized and really got a chance to bless him. 2 (28m 60s): You know, it's that type of thing that God wants to do when we, when we say yes to him, you know, at the beginning of this church service. Yes, yes, yes. Lord, the Lord will do so much. If we just say yes to him, we were challenged about a year ago that we weren't doing making baptism kind of a big enough priority. And so we began to think about how can we make a baptism more of a priority at our church, because it was used to be like, we do baptisms at Easter or special events, you know, two or three times a year, which was great. But ever since we started making baptism available, like pretty much anytime anybody wants to get baptized, we'll fill up the tank and baptize people. We've baptized almost 40 people this year already. 2 (29m 41s): So more than we've ever baptized in a single year. And we're only in what month are we in? Like August or September? What month is this? Is this still August losing track? It's summer's over. So when we're intentional about being used by the Lord and doing what he's asked us to do, fruitfulness begins to follow. And it's just a beautiful, beautiful thing. So Jesus, okay. As the living word and Paul is the guy who spent his life writing the inspired word of God, and then their last instruction to us was to preach the word of God. So Jesus and Paul, and they're like, Hey, we're getting ready to go to the Lord, preach the word. 2 (30m 22s): Paul was ready to go long before this, like when I say ready to go, like he was ready to go. Like he had been stoned memory drug outside of the city left for dead people gathered the believers, gathered around him. He got up, went back to the city. Remember he was shipwrecked at one point, remember he got snake bitten at another point, like he was, he has been through it in the earth. Like he had been suffering persecution for his faith. And he said, Hey, it's, it's, I'm ready to go. And Philippians 1 23 and 24, I'm torn between two desires. I long to go be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sake, it's better that I continue to live. 2 (31m 7s): Why? So that he could continue the work. That four-letter word, that word that got to call them to that work that we so often try to avoid because it's uncomfortable. And it requires something of us before leaving Paul had worked to do. And now in this passage, she is passing the Baton to us. Now we have, or to do number one in your notes, do what you're called to do. Now do what you're called to do now. Why, why must we do this work now? Because verse three says for a time is coming. When people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching, 3 (31m 49s): They won't have an appetite for it. They won't want to listen to it. The 2 (31m 56s): Same and wholesome teaching that brings correction, rebuke and encouragement. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. This is going to be the attitude and the perspective of people in church and people in the world. They're not going to want to hear correction, review and encouragement. So while we have the opportunity, we have this responsibility to preach the word of God, to correct rebuke and encourage with all truth filled with the holy spirit. As God leads, they will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 2 (32m 38s): They will reject the and chase after myths. This is what is happening in our day and age. Now it's going to happen with increasing normalcy. It's just going to be the thing for the next two weeks. We're gonna be talking about work and we're going to be giving you an opportunity to work within the church. Beginning next week, Christie Suiza will be up here and she'll begin to present work opportunities for people within the body of Christ. And then, because it takes a while for people to kind of think about it and sign up. We're going to do it the following week as well. And there's going to be opportunity for everybody to sign up for a particular ministry, whatever you're gifted or called or whatever you feel like you're led to do. 2 (33m 24s): I talked with a gal after service and she said, how can I get involved? I said, what do you want to do? I said, how about teaching Sunday school? She said, that scares me to death. I said, well, maybe that's a good place for you. Then she said, well, what else do you have? I said, well, how about if you clean, you want to clean the church. She sat in London and cleaned the church. So I said, well, go talk to Jolene and she'll get you on the cleanup list. And so there's going to be opportunity for a platform ministry where you're playing an instrument or helping to lead worship behind the scenes ministry, where you're at the computers or the soundboard doing that sort of thing, or doing live feed in another space. All together, you can clean, you can work with youth. 2 (34m 5s): You can work with kids. You can work with young adults. You can work with college-age ministry. These are all areas, fifth and sixth graders there. These are all different ministry opportunities. You can be involved in men's leadership, women's leadership. There's all kinds of opportunities for people to get involved with. So next week and the following week, there's going to be up opportunities. And so be ready to get plugged in as the Lord leads into the area of work that God has called you to be involved in. So do, as you're called to do now, like we tend to put off these important things. Maybe you're kind of your new year's resolution for 2021 was to get busy doing the work that God's called you to do. 2 (34m 51s): But now here, we're halfway through over halfway through and you still haven't done that. Now. It's an opportunity for you to be involved. It's really going to be very, very good, especially if you're new to the church, because you're going to get a chance to meet all kinds of new people, people that you can work with and be encouraged by and encourage. And it's just going to be really good. So number one, do what you're called to do now. Number two, do, as you were called to do without fear, this is what Paul wrote for a second, Timothy four, five, but you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don't be afraid. 2 (35m 32s): Don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the good and fully carry out the ministry. God has given you. As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. And the time of my death is 3 (35m 50s): Near. So Paul 2 (35m 52s): Works and Paul suffered persecution, but he didn't allow the fear of persecution to hinder his work. He worked fearlessly as a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. You and I most likely will not suffer for serving the Lord. Although we prayed for Afghanistan because the underground church is suffering persecution. This very moment, Christians are being killed and heard the story that the Taliban are going into homes. And if you have a Western phone number in your phone, in your contacts list, they will kill you on the spot, any connection to the west, which would be the us and you are killed on the spot. 2 (36m 37s): This is real stuff that's happening like right now today. And so Paul understood persecution. We don't understand it yet, but I have a few failing. We will be understanding it soon. Not to fear, put fear into anybody, but just the reality of the situation. It's not going to get better. It's going to get worse for the church in the west has, for me, Paul said my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is 3 (37m 5s): So don't 2 (37m 6s): Be afraid of stuff from persecution for the most part. Now, unless you go to another country or somewhere else where the persecution is real right now, but I would say you should be afraid of being 3 (37m 18s): Inconvenience. 2 (37m 20s): You shouldn't be. I should say you shouldn't be afraid of being inconvenienced. That's really the biggest obstacle to our serving is that we don't want to be inconvenience, right? We live 3 (37m 31s): In a pretty posh part of the country where 2 (37m 36s): We can much do what we want to do. And a big part of our freedoms here is just the conveniences that we enjoy. And honestly, when you sign up for, to serve, you're going to be inconvenienced, 3 (37m 49s): Right? And that's a pretty small price to pay, to 2 (37m 54s): Be a part of what God is doing here in the earth. So I'd say don't be afraid of being inconvenienced. Don't be afraid of the work involved. You can handle the work he can handle it. Don't be afraid of commitment. That's another big thing by sign up to usher or greet on Sunday morning. That means I have to actually be there at church on Sunday morning. And what if I wake up on Sunday morning and I'd rather go to the beach or I'd rather go to breakfast or I'd rather do whatever it is. If I'm committed, that means I've got to go. And so don't be afraid of commitment, embrace commitment, and know that God will bless you for doing it. And don't be afraid of failure. Either often we were afraid to up or commit because we're afraid that we won't do a good job. 2 (38m 40s): Well, that's all right. If you don't do a good job, go back and try again, right? We're not talking about rocket science stuff you were saying, do you want to clean? Do you want to change a diaper? Do you want to, whatever it may be, you know, keep them rounds cleaned. They're their opportunity. And often the enemy will say, wow, can't do that. Cause you, you know, you're not skilled or you're not going to follow through or whatever. Don't let, don't be afraid of failure. Don't be afraid of responsibility. Be afraid of missing out fearful Mo FOMO, fear of missing out. Don't be afraid of that. If you're going to be afraid of anything, fear, that's right. Be afraid that you're going to miss out and be afraid of falling short of fulfilling your potential, right? 2 (39m 22s): Be, be afraid of that. Like if you've got potential in life, you need to realize, you need to realize that potential. If you're old and you still haven't realized your potential, you need to be out there realizing your potential is one thing to say to a little guy. He is full of potential or she is full of potential, but to be older and still have unrealized potential man, don't let your life in that way. Be afraid of falling short of fulfilling your potential. She'll be afraid of not being fruitful. Be afraid of slipping into selfishness. Be afraid of disobedience. Be afraid of standing before God, one day and giving an account for your life. Or how about, how about not living with fear at all? 2 (40m 6s): How about God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. How about if we out of obedience to God live without fear because we know we're doing everything that he's called us to do. Like there's nothing that we won't say yes to. How about living that life where we say, Lord, whatever it is that you call me to do, I am saying yes to you. And with that kind of life, there's no fear because God is on the throne of your life. And you know, you're doing what God has called you to do before full obedience. Keep your conscience clear by saying yes, Lord, before I even know what the ask is, Lord, the answer is yes. 2 (40m 47s): Why wouldn't it be Lord? You're the Lord of my life. You're the king of my life. You're in charge of my life. I'm submitted to you. We all have work to do that was talking to a guy before a second service started. And he's like, Hey, there's this guy. I want to go minister to him. Is it all right? If I go minister to him, I said, yes, the answer is yes, go minister. But he didn't want to. He didn't want to step out. He didn't want to be out of line. And I said, listen, from here on for a minister to anybody that you want to minister to pray for people, encourage people. You are released in Jesus' name to minister in Jesus' name. 2 (41m 28s): Now, if you start doing weird stuff, we'll call you on it. But pray for people. Love people, work with people, encourage people, do the work that God has called you to do and do it. Number three, 3 (41m 41s): Faithfully, faithfully. So it just means 2 (41m 45s): Laura. I think you're calling me to do this. 3 (41m 48s): I'm going to go do this. And if 2 (41m 51s): You're not called to it, got to make that clear heal. If you've misheard, God we'll make that clear, but you I'd rather go down swinging and miss the ball. Then not swinging at all. When I played little league baseball and I'd strike out, my buddies would be all excited. Hey, where do you go down and swinging? I'm like, I struck out. They're like, but you didn't go down without swinging. And it began to, I began to realize it matters. The effort that we put into it. If we go down swinging, at least we went down trying, even if we missed the Aw it's okay right now, if you are playing golf and you miss the ball, that's not celebrated. 2 (42m 32s): That's just like, you lifted your head and you didn't keep your eye on the ball and you didn't do good. So there's some things we don't celebrate, but so do, as you're called to do faithfully. So this, I fought the good fights. I finished the race and I have remained 3 (42m 53s): Faithful. You know, you remain faithful. Just keep saying yes to God. Just keep saying yes, Lord. Yes, Lord do it now. 2 (43m 5s): Deal without fear and do it faithfully say yes, Lord. And now Paul wrote, right? And now the prize awaits me the crown of righteousness. This is all what, this is what we're all headed for right here, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me, but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. And then we see Paul's final words. And in his final words, we begin to see what keeps us from doing the work we're supposed to be doing fall. Paul was faithful, but others around him struggled with faithfulness. 2 (43m 46s): This is what he writes. Timothy. Please come. As soon 3 (43m 50s): As you can, Demas 2 (43m 53s): Has deserted me because he loves the things of this life and has gone to a festival. Annika creations has gone to Glacia and Ty, this has gone to Dalmatia loving the things of this life will keep us from doing the work that we're supposed to do. So there are things, real life obstacles to our success in doing the things that God has called us to loving the things of this life is part of it. Now I think we're supposed to love this life. I think we're supposed to love what God is doing in our lives. Love the people in our lives. Love the relationships, love the work and hobbies and all that kind of stuff. But if the love of world, the love of this life is hindering our ability to love God, fully being fully obedient, to do what God has asked us to do. 2 (44m 41s): Then our love is misplaced. We need to seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything else will be added unto us. So we need to seek first God loved first God and trust him with everything else. Verse 11 says only Lucas with me, bring mark with you. When you come for, he will be helpful to me in my ministry. I sent tickets to Ephesus. And when you come be sure to bring the coats I left with carpus at shero as also bring my books and especially my 3 (45m 10s): Papers, my parchment 2 (45m 13s): Alexander, the coppersmith did me much harm, but the Lord will judge him for what he has done. Be careful of him for. He fought against everything. We said something else that keeps us from doing the will of God. And the work that God has called us to do is opposition Alexander. The coppersmith was opposing Paul's work. He recognized that it was an opposition. He recognized that he was a problem and that he was trouble. He warned others about Alexander, the coppersmith and Paul went about his business, doing what God had called him to do often we're derail because there's opposition. There's always going to be opposition. 2 (45m 54s): When we're trying to do what God has asked us to do, whether it be real human opposition, a guy like Alexander, the coppersmith, or it's other opposition, relational opposition, time, confinements and restrictions. We might need to re assess our lives and do some other things less so that we can invest ourselves more in the kingdom. My daughter was super, they've been super busy lately. And I told Jolene my wife. I said, why does Leslie always so busy? 3 (46m 31s): And she's just, and she said, because she takes after you. 2 (46m 35s): I said, ah, that got hurt. But the reality is that we can get so busy that we can miss the best that God has for us. So what is it that we need to eliminate from our lives? Seemingly good things, busy things that are keeping us from doing the very best that God has called us to do. The enemy is really good at keeping us busy, doing, you know, 3 (46m 56s): Things but missing 2 (46m 58s): The very most important things that God is calling us to Alexander. The coppersmith did me much harm Paul Rowe, but the Lord will judge him for what he has done. Be careful of him for. He fought against everything. We said the first time I was brought before the judge, no one came with me. Everybody abandoned me. May it not be counted against them? I love Paul's heart. 3 (47m 23s): He's like 2 (47m 24s): I was abandoned by these people, but may the Lord not hold it against them? As I was worshiping the first service, I really felt challenged in my spirit that I was holding something against someone in my heart and I couldn't worship for service. I was like, Lord, why can't I worship? And I felt like Lord said, because of this. And I said, oh, 3 (47m 44s): I said, Lord, forgive me. I repent. 2 (47m 47s): I forgive. I extend grace. And it was like a load had been lifted off. We can never minister effectively. If our heart is not in the right place. If we're not being humble and extending the same grace that has been extended to us, to others, we can never minister effectively. And with longevity, the way that God has called us to effectively and fruitfully, unless our hearts are in the right place. And so whenever the Lord challenges your heart, don't be offended. Be humble. Say Lord. Yes, you're right. You're right, Lord. I don't want to be angry with that person or hold a grudge against that person or be disappointed with that person any longer. I just want to let that go. So there's all kinds of things that will keep us from doing what God has called us to do the work that he's called us to do in quitting quitting. 2 (48m 36s): When things get difficult. As part of that, that's what by me, Paul said, everybody's abandoned 3 (48m 39s): Me w may 2 (48m 41s): Not be counted against them. First time I was brought before the judge, he said, I'm being brought before the judge. And everybody left me when things get difficult, the temptation is to quit that by God's grace weekend, stay in the fights by God's grace. We can keep going by God's grace. We can finish well, but it's only done by God's grace. And so we've got to stay home. So 3 (49m 5s): Teachable available 2 (49m 7s): Well to God. And we got to stay in the word. We've got to be filled with the holy spirit. We've got to allow God to do what he wants to do in our lives. And then, and only then it will be, will we be able to do the work that he's called us to with longevity and with faithfulness? What will keep us from doing work? The work we're supposed to be doing? This one is common too, that we forget that God is the one who calls and strengthens his people for the work they are called to do. And I kind of been dancing around that tiptoeing around that first 17 Paul wrote, but the Lord stood with me now, everybody else abandoned me, but the Lord stood with me. 2 (49m 47s): You, you have this confidence, you have this assurance, you have this promise from the Lord that he will never leave you nor forsake you. He didn't leave Paul in his desperate times, the Lord stood with me and gave me strength so that I might preach the good news in its entirety for all the Gentiles to hear. And he rescued me from certain death. Yes. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil attack and will bring me safely into his kingdom, his heavenly kingdom or glory to God forever and ever. Amen. Then verse 19, give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila. So there were people that stuck with him, a bunch of people left, but now he's recognizing who are faithful. 2 (50m 29s): Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila and those living in the household of Odessa for us arrest the state of current than I left trophy trophy, miss at a sick at Melissas. I gotta slow down. I'm trying to say too much, 3 (50m 42s): Do your best to get here before winter, 2 (50m 46s): You Melissa sends you greetings and SOTA, poutines, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers and sisters may the Lord be with your spirit 3 (50m 53s): And may his grace be with all of 2 (50m 56s): You. These are Paul's last inspired pen words. He said, you have work to do, do it. Now, do it without fear and do it faithfully without let's go and stand up. We're gonna invite the worship team forward. We're going to sing some more and then we will have some fellowship afterwards, and then we can go have lunch and do all that kind of fun stuff. So thank you Lord. For this time, we love you. Lord, continue just to establish your truth in our hearts and minds, Lord, and as you establish that truth in our hearts and minds, Lord God, that we would be obedient to it. We'd say yes to it. Lord with big old smile on our face, we say yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes. Yes, Lord. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Amen. 1 (51m 45s): need that. 1 (53m 54s): God .

Helping Others Avoid the Dangers of the Last Days

0 (4s): cross says food. 0 (9m 19s): Crown, the cherish Jesus. walk beside me. 0 (10m 0s): Lord, we praise you this morning. 1 (14m 4s): We thank you that you've made a way for each one of us to walk with you and have power over sin and death. We praise you and we ask that you would teach us this morning. Give us ears to hear what you're saying to each one of us. Give us power to walk with you in Jesus name. Amen guys. Thanks very much guys and gals. So 2 (14m 44s): Welcome. Hey, when everybody walked in, they probably saw an info card on their desk or on their seat there. Everybody get that. Oops, 3 (14m 52s): Everybody see the info card. So this 2 (14m 55s): Is going to be one of those awkward moments in the service where we ask everybody to take a moment and to fill out a card. And maybe you, when you arrived, you already filled it out. But what we're trying to do is update our database. And so we're trying to get updated information from everybody. So we're going to take a minute in the service to do that, just to take care of some Sheriff's business, and then we will get to the rest of the service. So fellas your name, if, if there's anybody, any, if there's been any kind of email changes or address changes or whatever, just go ahead and fill that out. And we promise to keep all of this information in house and it'll be really, really helpful to our team. 2 (15m 40s): So yeah, we've got few people. I think first service, I was the only one who filled it out. That's what it felt like. Anyway, I looked up and nobody's filling it out. So thank you for taking the time to fill it out when you are done. Hold on to that. And at the end of the service, as you walk out, the greeters will collect your communication card. Sound good? I feel like we should pray again, Lord. Thank you. Thank you for this time. We just continue to invite your presence Lord. And as we teach through second Timothy chapter three, today, we pray God that you would, as Jim said, God, that you give us ears to hear Lord that we would hear that we'd be excited and responsive and challenged and ready to move forward in Jesus name. So thank you for what you're doing in our lives. 2 (16m 22s): We love you. We bless you Lord. And for those going through hard stuff this week, a lot of people have been sick, have had surgical procedures. We lost a member of our family, our church, family, Andrew and Lord. It's just been a challenging week on a lot of different levels. And so we pray God that you administer your mercy minister, your peace minister, your grace Lord God, where healing is needed for people's bodies. God, we pray that you would minister in Jesus name, where people are needing encouragement spiritually and emotionally. Lord God. I pray that you build people up, encourage people and help people to continue to trust you, to continue to believe you and continue to follow you all the days of their lives. 2 (17m 5s): No matter what life throws at us, Lord, you are faithful and you give us the grace to walk, walk through it, Lord. So thank you for this time. Thank you for your goodness in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. A quick update on my dad. I asked last week, everybody to pray because I was going to be flying out to Denver. So last Sunday night I flew out to Denver, spent a few days in Denver with my dad and we made the tough decision to put them on hospice. Very, very difficult decision as a young guy, 72 years old. And so to put somebody at 72 on hospice, it's just a hard decision, but he's got some dementia going on. And so mentally he's not where he needs to be to be on his own physically. 2 (17m 47s): He's really not in a good place. It's hard there. They've detected some heart issues and he's not physically fit to even get out of bed. So thanks for praying for him. It was really a good week to be there and a hard week to be there. So I guess the good news is that my siblings and I, we were all kind of collaborating to try to figure out what to do. He doesn't have a will. So if you haven't gotten your, your end of life stuff squared away, get it squared away, especially if you're 72 or above. So that'd be really helpful before we get into first Timothy or second Timothy chapter three. 2 (18m 30s): Why do you, why do you need to knock on the fridge before you opened the door? Why would you need to knock on the fridge before you open the door? Well, the salad is dressing, so 3 (18m 39s): You just want to be careful. 2 (18m 42s): Yeah. Second Timothy hay, some very good. Usually people just blew at my jokes, but today I got some applause. All that does is encourage me. It doesn't encourage me. I'm encouraged. Thanks very much helping others avoid the dangers of the last days that we're, that's what we're talking about today. The last days include the entire period between the first century and the return of Christ. So that's kind of what we're talking about. We say in time. So when Paul is talking about the times he's talking about what's going on in his day and age, but then so what's been going on for the last 2000 years. So helping others avoid the dangers of last days last week, we learned how to gain God's approval. 2 (19m 29s): And these things, these things that we learned this week will actually help us to help. Oh, there's if we're doing the things that God has called us to do, it will actually equip us and prepare us to help others who God has put in our path. You know, God has given us, they met in the earth to make a difference and to communicate the truth and to love people side of heaven. So we said last week, how do you gain God's approval? Number one, be a good worker. And basically what that means is do the work that God has called you to do. We wrote about Paul told Timothy, be a good worker, be faithful to the work that God has called you to do. We're not saying work as unto salvation, but we're saying the work we're saved by grace through faith. 2 (20m 12s): It has nothing to do with our works, but our assignments have everything to do with our work. And we're actually going to stand before the Lord and give an account to God for the things that we have done or have not done in the earth. So essentially the challenge and the encouragement is to be a good worker. Then number two, turn away from evil. That's obvious. And then number three, do life with like minded people. We need each other. We gathered church to be encouraged, to gather, to pray for one another, to hear the word to worship together. And hopefully from there, we go into small groups throughout the week where we can gather and do the same thing where we're praying together and loving on each other. I meet with a group, like I said last week on Friday mornings at 6:00 AM. 2 (20m 53s): And then I meet with other pastors throughout the week and just for the purpose of growing together and praying together and loving on each other together. And, and then out of that, we're able to be filled up. We're filled up and we're able to overflow and bless others in the world that we come in contact with. And so it kind of, that's what it's all about. It's be a good worker, turn away from evil, do life with like-minded people. So this week let's revisit the last two verses from second Timothy chapter two, because they set up the passage for second Timothy chapter three, and the focus of this week's message. Second Timothy chapter two verses 25 and 26 says this gently instruct those who oppose the truth. 2 (21m 38s): Perhaps God will change those people's hearts and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap for they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants. A number of years ago, I was, we had a neighbor, you know, where the church office is now. So that house used to belong to Mark Miller and Mark Miller was our neighbor. And for about five years before mark passed, we would share the gospel with him. And probably once every, you know, once or twice a month, we'd go over there and share the gospel with him, have a cup of coffee and just kind of talk about things of the Lord. And before he passed away, I had an opportunity to go over there and, and, and when the final conversation and he prayed the sinner's prayer. 2 (22m 23s): And, but it was through gentle instruction over the course of a long period of time that finally opened his heart part to the work of the Lord. So Paul is instructing Timothy to help others. And we as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, we have this responsibility 3 (22m 44s): To help 2 (22m 46s): Others with gentle instruction 3 (22m 49s): In doing so, perhaps God will change 2 (22m 52s): Their hearts and they will learn the truth. I was talking to a gal earlier today during first service, before first service. And she was talking about how her dad passed away at about 86, 87 years old. And he had been an atheist his whole life, but the last like weeks of his life, she had the opportunity to gently instruct him in the truth and to share the gospel with him. And before he died, he accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, being an atheist for like 86 years. So God is up to good all the days of our lives. And if we will never give up, but continue to ask and seek and knock and pray for our loved ones and continue to gently instruct them in the truth. 2 (23m 35s): God will do amazing and wonderful things. I can't tell you how many people I've prayed for over the years. Family members and friends who some took 30 3 (23m 44s): Years praying for talking to 2 (23m 50s): Encouraging them in truth. And then finally at the end of their lives gave their life to the Lord. But the beauty of the Lord is that he takes us at our last day or anywhere, you know, in our lives. But man, the beauty of the Lord is, is when we choose him early, is that we get to walk with him all the days of our lives. We get to experience his peace. And we talked about the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self, to all of those things. That's free to the Lord working in our lives for the holy spirit, working in us. And we can experience all of those things if we just choose to honor the Lord now, today. So maybe you're here today and you said, man, I I've been putting this off. 3 (24m 29s): I haven't trusted the Lord 2 (24m 31s): Or, or maybe you're here today and you've been distant from the Lord. Are you backslidden and, and your heart's been far from the Lord. I would just encourage you today to refresh yourself and the grace and mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ. If you confess your sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. So confess your sin to him, acknowledge your need for him and watch what God will do to wash over your life. I think about the prodigal who left his father and when he decided he came to a census and came back, the prodigal was received with open arms. A party was thrown form. A ring was put on his finger rope on his back, great celebration. That's what God will do when you choose to return. 2 (25m 13s): And that's what God does when any center turns and repents. And so 3 (25m 17s): Don't lose hope. Don't lose 2 (25m 19s): Heart, continue to ask and seek and knock, continue to pray and watch, watch what God will do. Pause instruction Timothy, to help others in doing so, perhaps God will change their hearts and they will learn the truth. So what can we do to help others avoid the dangers of the last day? And we're going to talk about what the last days look like as we get into chapter three, it just unfolds it for us. Yeah. Number one, gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. So I gave my life to the Lord in junior high school, but I kind of vacillated in my faith for all my, all of my, most of my high school years, junior high and high school years. I gave my life to the Lord, but didn't know what to do with my faith. And so I, we go to church on Sunday and was even helping out in Sunday school. 2 (26m 3s): But when I was outside of the church that I was doing the wrong stuff, I was doing stuff that I shouldn't be doing. And so the problem with that is I had a guilty conscience. So I would tell my youth pastor, every time I did something wrong and at one point he said, Hey, Steve, until you kind of get this stuff out until you decide what you want to do with your life, whether you're going to serve the church or serve the Lord or serve the world, you need to, you need to take a break from teaching Sunday school. I said, you can't do that. At first, I was kind of mad. You know, he said, well, I just did. But the reality of his discipline and his instruction was, was, was helpful to me. And as I thought about it considered it, it was really an opportunity for me to make, make a choice. 3 (26m 48s): Will I 2 (26m 50s): Serve the Lord wholeheartedly or will I continue to vacillate in my faith, the rest of my life? And so challenge the instruction, the gentle instruction that I received, actually put me on a proper path and gave me an opportunity forward as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So there was no condemnation. He wasn't judging me necessarily. He just said, Hey, based on what you've told me, you need to take a break from your work in the Sunday school department until you just kind of figure out what you want to do with your life. So he said you can't serve in this area for awhile. And so it just challenged me and awakened me. Yeah. And it allowed me to make a 3 (27m 30s): Choice without, with, with, so 2 (27m 32s): I've heard of so many people who've been injured by the church. And I talked with a couple, couple of weeks ago and I said, why aren't you insurers? They said, well, we've been injured by the church. I said, well, who hasn't been injured by the church, right? I mean, the church is full of people and the church is full of broken people. So if you come to church, chances are, you're going to get your stuff, your toe stub and somethings get somebody going to say something or do something and it's going to be hurtful. Or, and 3 (27m 60s): So, you know, I I've had poor 2 (28m 3s): Treatment by a doctor that doesn't mean I stopped going to a doctor, right. I just keep going forward. So, so we, we need to, by God's grace lovingly instruct people, giving them an opportunity to move forward, not condemning them and not giving them a way forward. And we need to instruct in such a way that people have room to repent and a path forward in the church. It has God's kindness that leads people to repentance according to Romans too. So when you're tempted to be harsh, when you're tempted to be unloving, when you're tempted to be critical or remember your own struggle with sin, and that will soften. If we get honest about our own struggle with sin, our own struggle with temptation. 2 (28m 47s): If we get honest about what God has done to deliver us in the extent to which God went to deliver us, it will soften us. When we're dealing with people who are stuck in sin themselves. We can remember I'm giving my testimony tomorrow night at M six. It's a men's group that gathers a few hundred people. And as I, as I've been thinking about my testimony, I thought this is how I always instruct people to give their testimony. What is, what was your life like BC, like your BC days before Christ and then what triggered your life change and brought you to the cross. And then what has God done since the cross? And so that's kind of how I'm going to break it up. Three-part message tomorrow night about my story. And it just began to get me thinking about my story again. 2 (29m 29s): And we need to think about our, our path, our story, because it refreshes us in the grace and the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Maybe God's done a bunch of a Mar marvelous things, wonderful things, but it's been 10 years or 20 years or 30 or 60 years. And you've forgotten how incredibly good God is. His mercy, his grace, his kindness, his love, his patience, all of those things. So be refreshed in your own story. And then you can instruct people with gentleness and watch the fruit of that. I was talking to a guy, I mean services. And he said, Hey, my grandpa, Fred, he's got stage four, colon cancer. I'm going to go pick him up. 2 (30m 9s): And I'm looking for an opportunity to share the gospel with them. How do I share the gospel with my grandpa Fred? I said, well, just be, just be prayerful. I said, this is how we do everything in the kingdom. We're prayerful first. We're praying for God's opportunity to open up and we're listening and we're in tuned to what God is doing in the person's life. And I said, it's just like, anything else you're excited about? I said, well, I'm excited about golf and I'm excited about God. So in the course of any conversation, I might talk about golf or God, depending on the situation. So just make sure it's natural. Don't force it. Don't S you know, do a sales pitch. But when there's an opportunity, just begin to talk about the Lord, see what he will do to be clear. I'm excited more about God 3 (30m 51s): Than golf. 2 (30m 53s): I don't want anybody to be confused about that. Golf didn't save me, but it is awfully fun on a Monday afternoon to go play some 3 (30m 60s): Golf. So, 2 (31m 2s): Yeah. So remember your own struggle with sin. Remember what God did to rescue you. Remember the mercy and grace that you received then extend that same mercy and grace to others. We were struggling with somebody's sin because maybe it reminds us of somebody else or reminds us of our own past and our own sin. And it makes us jaded. And it hinders our ability to minister effectively, but most likely, that's the person that God has placed in your life to minister to effectively. So I said, this, I say this all the time, whatever it is that God has asked us to do, it requires that we be humble and dependent on God and fill with the holy spirit, reflecting his life and his word in everything that we do. 2 (31m 42s): And then as we do those, just things we're able to do, fruitfully what God has asked us to do. So it doesn't mean that we don't speak the truth, but we speak the truth in love, right? So sometimes we dance around the issues with the woman at the well, Jesus is at the well, and he addresses is the woman's sin and go get your husband. And he said, she said, well, I'm not married. And he said, yeah, you're right. I've been, you've been married five times. And the guy that you're living with now is not your husband. And what did she do? She ran into the city and she said, come meet the guy who told me everything that I'd ever done. Right? So she'd been confronted lovingly by Jesus about her sin. 2 (32m 24s): And then she was convicted by the power of the holy spirit. And she was changed and the whole city heard the gospel. What can we do to help others avoid the dangers of the last day, gently instruct extreme, instruct those who oppose the truth. And then number two, the season and the times we need to understand this season and the times in which we live, what are the last days look like? Luke 1256 in the new living translation, speaking to the crowd. Jesus said, you fools, you know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky, but you don't know how to interpret the present times. So we can look at the sky and say, ah, it's going to be a nice day. I think I'll go to the beach or no, it looks like it's going to rain. 2 (33m 7s): I should have my umbrella today. We're able to look at the signs in the sky and determine what the weather's going to be like, but we can't determine the signs of the times that we're living in. And sometimes we're blinded to it. Sometimes we're not paying attention to it, but we can be aware and we should be aware of the signs of the times. If you'd like help keeping up with what is happening in the last days, especially in the middle east, if you need help understanding the prophecies that are unfolding, you can download the app called 3 (33m 37s): Telegram. Thank you 2 (33m 39s): And follow Amir. Sarfatti on that. So telegram is a great, I just found out about it recently. And so Amir is a guy from the middle east who just stays on top of a biblical prophecy. That's unfolding in our lifetime and you'll get daily updates on what's happening in the middle east. And it's a hotbed for prophecy, and it's a hotbed for what God is going to be doing in the, in times and what he's doing now. And so if you'd like to know more about it, check that out. A mirror has about to be clear. There's counterfeit, Amir websites, Sarfatti websites, and so, or Instagram telegram accounts. And so he's got 125,000 followers. 2 (34m 21s): So you want to be careful to make sure that you're following the right guy. So find the guy that's got over a hundred twenty-five thousand followers, and that's who you want to follow. So that's telegram a mirror. Also. He's got to be hold Israel app and website. So you can check that out as well. Behold, Israel, Amir Sarfatti anyway, check it out. It'll just help you. It'll just help you day to day. And I'm so grateful for the resource and been reading it every day. So let's get into second Timothy chapter three, verse one, it says, you should know this Timothy that in the last days, there will be very difficult times, very difficult times. And so we're talking about for the last 2000 years, the church has had very difficult times, but leading up to the return of Christ is going to get increasingly different. 2 (35m 8s): You should know this Timothy that in the last days, there will be very difficult times for people will love only themselves and their money. So now we're going to see what this will look like. People will love only themselves and their money. People will be self-centered and narcissistic. It's interesting because Lucifer said, I will be like the most high God. So he was self-centered and narcissistic. So it's not curious. It's not, it's not surprising that he would attempt people in the area that he was tempted. He said, I will be like, imagine standing before God and say, I will be like the most high God, you gotta be pretty delusional about who you are, but that's where he was. And for the rest of humanity's history, he's been tempting people the same way. 2 (35m 53s): Colossians verse continue. Verse two continues. They will be boastful and proud scoffing at God disobedient to their parents and ungrateful, they will consider nothing sacred. So boasting is just an indication that there's pride internally. And so we need to be careful because whatever's going on out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so if we've got pride in our hearts, we will be boasting. We need to be clear that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. But this is a sign of the in times people will become increasingly proud and boastful scoffing at God. The words literally blaspheming God disobedient to their parents and ungrateful, they will consider nothing sacred. 2 (36m 38s): And we've noticed that even just in the 21st century with our church here, we used to have lots of weddings here at harvest church. It's a cute little chapel spot for people to get married. And so people would use the classrooms to, you know, dress and that sort of thing. And we, so he would say, Hey, please don't drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes in our buildings, simple requests, right? Almost inevitably, almost every time we would show up and people would be smash. And this is not always, but sometimes church people as well, and they'd be smoking and drinking in our rooms. And so you'd wake up Sunday morning going into the classrooms and what it would, it would smell like a bar in there, right? Cigarettes and alcohol. So we had to stop basically for the most part, having weddings here, especially for the public, because they were just thrashing our facility and they had no, they consider nothing sacred. 2 (37m 30s): We've had to set up video cameras all over inside and outside of the property, because this is a thoroughfare, which is great. We love that people come through, we invite kids to come and play basketball and our basketball courts, and we just love it. But inevitably people will. We've had people break into our facilities, stealing from us, vandalizing our property, doing all kinds of crazy stuff. And so now we have to have doors locked back in the day. Remember you watched these old films and the church doors are always open, right? So people can come in and pray. If we did that, the whole place would be destroyed and looted. And there would be nothing left for Sunday morning. It's just a crazy world that we live in. And so nothing is considered sacred in this day 3 (38m 14s): And age. And so we just, just, we have to 2 (38m 18s): Be aware of the seasons and the times and adapt, but keeping our hearts tender because we don't want to be hard-hearted toward the world. Otherwise we're not doing what God has called us to do. So we're to love those. We talked about this last week, love those who are difficult. We can only do these things as we're filled with the holy spirit and his word and allowing God to be God through us. First three, they will be unloving and unforgiving. Again, this makes sense. The very thing that defines the gospel God's love and forgiveness is what the enemy tempts people to resist. 2 (38m 59s): I've noticed that when the person hasn't received the love and forgiveness of God, they have a hard time extending love and forgiveness to others. So maybe it's been a while since you've experienced the love 3 (39m 10s): And the forgiveness of God, 2 (39m 13s): Refresh yourself in that truth. Rehearse that truth that God's love is unconditional. Maybe you're feeling distant from the Lord because you made it some mistakes. And you're feeling if the Lord doesn't love you, God absolutely loves you. His love is on 3 (39m 30s): Conditional. And so 2 (39m 33s): Whatever mistakes you've made, no, that when you confess your sins, he is faithful. And just know that his forgive, this 3 (39m 39s): Is for you. I have 2 (39m 41s): To remind myself sometimes at the gospels for me, 3 (39m 44s): Right? 2 (39m 46s): If I stumble how the gospels for me, if I say something, I shouldn't say, ah, the gospel's for me, right? I need you to remember that the gospel is free. That refreshes me in the Lord. It keeps me humble and it keeps my heart in the right place so that I might minister effectively to people in the church and people outside of the church. A few weeks ago, I challenged everybody a couple of weeks in a row to be taking the gospel to the streets as it were to share the gospel. And so I just want to continue to encourage you to do that as part of your job, your responsibility, as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ 3 (40m 21s): Love people. The 2 (40m 24s): Passage in second Timothy, that we studied last week, told us to be kind to everyone. And again, this is impossible. If one has not experienced the kindness of God personally, so no this season, this is the last days. And it's our time to gently instruct people who oppose the truth, right? Sometimes you just get from 3 (40m 42s): Straight in by the world's falling apart. Wow. The world's going to go into a pot. It is, it is, 2 (40m 51s): But as the world gets darker or light gets brighter. And we have an opportunity before us. And so love people by the grace of God, difficult people and see what God will do. Second, Timothy three, three continues. They will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends. Be reckless, be puffed up with pride and love. Pleasure, rather than good. 3 (41m 15s): They will act religious, but they will reject the power 2 (41m 21s): That could make them godly. Stay away from people like that. What's the power that can make us godly the holy spirits and the holy Bible. Those two things make us 3 (41m 33s): Holy. Now the holiness of God 2 (41m 35s): Has been imputed to us, but our lives 3 (41m 38s): Are made holy by our actions. So we 2 (41m 41s): Are w w we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, but the holy spirit and the holy Bible help us to help us to walk in that godly life that he's called us to live. So the holy spirit is there to it's a person, second or third member of the Trinity. The holy spirit is meant to convict the world of sin and of righteousness. So when we're struggling, he convicts us. When we need challenge, he challenges us. He speaks to us, he's taken a residency in our lives, but we got to invite him. Also, we got to say, holy spirit, would you speak to me? Would you lead me? Would you guide me as part of the, the abiding with God that we talked about last week, allowing the holy spirit to do what he wants to do the holy Bible. 2 (42m 23s): The last couple of verses that we'll look out today is verses 16 and 17. And I'll just read those really quickly. It says, all scripture is inspired by God. So we're talking about the old and the new Testament, the Canada, God, okay, inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true. And to make us real, what is wrong in our lives? It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good. So you can't do what God has asked you to do in the earth. Not for long. Anyway, you might be able to muster up some spiritual energy or something and do what God has asked you to do for a moment, but you'll know, never be able to do it longterm and with great fruitfulness and that kind of fruitfulness that God desires to produce in your 3 (43m 6s): Life. So be a person who is filled with the holy spirit, 2 (43m 12s): Right? Ask the spirit of God to speak to you, to minister, to equip you for the work that God has called you to. And then open up the word of God every single day, every day. I know I beat that like a drum, but that is the reality of the situation. You got to open up the word every day, I'm in a seminary level class, and I love it because they take you back to the basics in this class. And they say, go back and reread Genesis through the song of Solomon and do it over the next two months. And at first I was like, ah, this is a lot of reading it's going to be kind of, or, but then I changed my mind and this is what we have to do. We have to change our mind about the scripture. 2 (43m 53s): We often think it's, oh, it's a bummer. It's just going to take up time. It's not worth my time. It is worth our time. And so, instead of thinking about this as an assignment for myself, I decided added to think of it differently and say, you know what? This is an opportunity for me just to 3 (44m 6s): Be deep in the word and see what the Lord will speak 2 (44m 9s): To me as well as, you know, get my assignments done and that sort of thing. So now I'm reading, I don't know, 10, 12 chapters a day, sometimes 15 chapters a day just to get through that text. And, but I'm reading through it just kind of thoughtfully. Sometimes we rush through our devotional time, but the Lord wants us to just, it doesn't take that much extra time to read through it thoughtfully and make it a time of devotion where you're, what you're doing is you're examining your own life in light of the scripture. You're saying, God, speak to 3 (44m 39s): Me through this scripture, the culture and the context may be difficult for me to 2 (44m 45s): Grasp, but I know that you've got something to speak to me. The word of God is it's a, double-edged short, it 3 (44m 51s): Cuts and divides and reveals and communicates. 2 (44m 56s): And there's just something powerful about it. But we need to change our minds 3 (44m 59s): About the word of God and begin to think 2 (45m 4s): About it differently and open it up every single day, verse five, again says they will act religious. So Paul, isn't just talking about people in the world. He's also talking about people in the church. People who act religious godless, men and women who claim to know God, but our wolves in sheep's clothing. This is what they do. Verse six, they are kind, they are the kind who worked their way into people's homes. And when the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by various desires, such women are forever following new teachings, but they are never able to understand the truth. And so Paul is addressing something that is happening currently in the church at emphasis, but he's also addressing what godless people do in the earth. 2 (45m 48s): Those people who are wolves in sheep's clothing, they are pretending or acting pious, but they lack the power that can make them godly. So Paul is addressing occurrence in that day situation, but he's also addressing what's going on here. So we, we need to be careful if we are pious religious, but lacking the word in the spirit. We're always going to be off. We're always going to be missing the mark. We're always going to be misunderstanding what God has called us to do much like these women that Paul is talking about. They're forever following new teachings, but they're never able to understand the truth. And so that's why we say, keep going back to the truth. 2 (46m 29s): Keep going back to the truth, get a good Bible, get a good study Bible. Keep going back to it. I'll ask a lot of the holy spirit to fill you and to direct you. We just prayed out a couple who are moving to Arkansas. And I don't know why anybody would want to move to Arkansas, but apparently people are moving to Arkansas and Idaho and Oregon and all, all kinds of places. So we prayed 3 (46m 52s): Them out and 2 (46m 55s): They said, Hey, we're, we're living. There's 21 churches to choose from. I said, you know what? Pray and watch the holy spirit direct you to the right shoe. 3 (47m 3s): Cause you gotta be careful. So they're praying. They're believing 2 (47m 7s): That the holy Spirit's going to direct them. And then they will find a church that is good and Bible teaching 3 (47m 12s): And, and aligns with their values as followers of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Do you believe that stuff or is it just kind of like whatever? I 2 (47m 25s): Mean, do we believe that the holy spirit of God dwells 3 (47m 28s): In us in two Wells, this was 2 (47m 30s): In us richly and that gives us the wisdom instruction for life. It's part of the abiding walk with Jesus. We have to believe this kind of stuff. It's not Hocus Pocus. It's not magic. It's the real person of God living in us directing us. I mean, it's real stuff like you don't have to ask Lord what pair of socks should I wear? He, I don't think he cares about that kind of stuff. But if you want to ask, go ahead. It's that kind of relationship. I don't care if you ask God, what kind of socks to wear, but you can ask, Lord is, you know, what do you want me to do with this resource, Lord? What do you want me to do with this day? I get up every morning and say, God, this day is yours. I just want to honor you with the day. 2 (48m 11s): And sometimes I get it. Sometimes I miss it. But, but that's the intention. I believe that God wants to speak to us and direct us. So as I go to work, Lord, what do you want me to do? Would you help me to encounter the right people? Help me not to be distracted by the wrong people. How many get the work done that I need to get done and help me not to be worried about the stuff that I don't need to be worried about. Just watch what God will do. First aid. These teachers oppose the truth just as Janice and jam bris opposed Moses. They have depraved minds and the counterfeit faith who were Janice and Jamaris, we don't really know from scripture, but from a tradition, Hebrew tradition, Jewish tradition, these were most likely the magicians in Pharaoh's court. 2 (48m 57s): So you go back to Exodus 7, 8, 9 in there. 3 (49m 3s): There were a couple 2 (49m 4s): Of magicians who would do basically mimic the, the miracles that God would perform. And we read about here next exit seven, verses eight through 13. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron Pharaoh will demand. 3 (49m 16s): Show me miracle 2 (49m 19s): If we need it miracle. So miracles were given in the first century and they're still given today to help people believe the truth. But if your day-to-day life requires a miracle from God before you trust him, your, your faith is shallow and you're not gonna, you're not gonna make it. You're not gonna make it long-term. And when things get difficult there, I went to Israel a couple years ago, year and a half ago or so. And our tour guide was Jewish, but he wasn't a Christian, but he knew about all the miracles that Jesus performed. And he talked about all the miracles that Jesus performed, but he still did not know Jesus, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus' day. 2 (49m 59s): They saw him raise the dead feed. The multitudes heal the sick, do all of these amazing things. And they still refuse to believe. Pharaoh will see the miracle and he will refuse to believe, show me a miracle when he does this say to Aaron, take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh. And it will become a serpent. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did what the Lord had commanded them. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials. And it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers. And these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic. They threw down their staffs and I don't know how that happened and they became serpents, but then Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs and Pharos part. 3 (50m 45s): However, it remained hard. His heart remained hard. 2 (50m 49s): He still refused to listen just as the Lord had predicted. So if you're walking around and expecting a miracle and you're throwing around down your staff, like, oh, I didn't turn into a snake. I'm going to throw it out another one. Oh, apparently God, God 3 (51m 2s): Is not real. 2 (51m 7s): Put out fleeces before the Lord all the time. Lord, give me a financial miracle or give me a relationship. Miracle, Lord, give me a healing miracle or give me all of this stuff. And that's the expectation some of us have. And because God doesn't do our wish lists, we kind of hold them at arms length. The miracle that we need to be thinking about is the miracle on the cross, 3 (51m 32s): Where he died, 2 (51m 33s): The substitutionary death 3 (51m 35s): In my place, imputing righteousness to me so that I might know him and know him for eternity and escape, hell and death. That's the miracle. Jesus has done everything that he needs to do. And if 2 (51m 54s): He graces us with a miracle, praise the Lord, but I'm not serving him for the miracles. I'm serving him 3 (51m 58s): Because he saved me and he's called me and he is worthy. And so we need to get 2 (52m 8s): Out of that deal, making perspective and plan with God because he won't play your game. He loves you. But playing that game will keep you shallow 3 (52m 23s): And weak in your faith. As a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, 2 (52m 29s): Timothy three nine, but they won't get away with this for long someday. Everyone will recognize what fools they are just 3 (52m 36s): As with you they were 2 (52m 39s): Free pools because they refuse to believe Moses, even when science had been given. Why? Because they have depraved minds in counterfeit, faith, how has your mind, and how has your faith? We need to be careful to guard our minds. And that's why last week I talked about protecting what we allow in. We do, we do that by protecting what we see through our eyes on the internet, on the television. So there are different software programs that can be used. Covenant eyes is one that you can download on your computer 3 (53m 13s): And, and that will help 2 (53m 15s): Filter the stuff that actually doesn't filter, but you've got an accountability partner. So whatever you watch on line that your accountability partner knows. So that's pretty awesome, right? And so you need to be careful what you're you're doing. We have a video angel. Yes. Heard of it. Angel. It's just kind of filters all of the trashy stuff on TV programs and movies and that sort of thing. 3 (53m 37s): So anyway, 2 (53m 40s): No, the seasons of the times, number one, gently instruct those who oppose the truth. This is how we help others. We gently instruct them. And then we know the seasons and the time so that we're not taken aback by them. And then number three, we remained faithful. 3 (53m 51s): So we're able to help others. If we're not remaining faithful, we don't even have a desire to help 2 (53m 57s): Others. We don't see the need to help others. But if we're remaining, if we're remaining faithful, like Paul talks about in verse 10, then we will. But you Timothy. Certainly no I teach 3 (54m 8s): And how I live and what my purpose in life is. So we talk 2 (54m 13s): A lot about purpose around here. What's your purpose? What has God called you to do? And will Paul knew what Timothy was up to or Timothy knew what Paul was up to, what he taught, how he lived and his purpose. You know, my faith, my patients, my love and my endurance. Why did Paul need faith? Patients' love and 3 (54m 27s): Endurance. Why did he need 2 (54m 30s): Faith? Patients' love and endurance. He needed faith. Patients' love and endurance because his life was hard. His life was hard. You know, how much persecution and suffering I have endured verse 11. You know, all about how I was persecuted in Antioch. I conium and Lister, but the Lord rescued me from all of it. In those places. Mobs were incited against Paul. Like people gathered in incited mobs. And at one point they stoned him. They thought to death, they drug him outside of town to leave him there because they thought he was dead. The believers gathered around him. And as they gathered around him, he came to and what did he do after he came to, he went back into the town. 2 (55m 10s): Why did he get he's? He's got work to do, right? He's got work to do. And even stoning, even Stony, I was not going to keep him from 3 (55m 19s): Doing what God had called them to do. 2 (55m 22s): Do you know all about what I personally all about how I was persecuted Antioch. I, Tony, Melissa, but the Lord, this is an interesting statement that Paul makes, but the Lord rescued me from all of it. Moms were incited against him and he was stoned almost to death, but the Lord rescued me from all of it. What does that mean? We think the Lord's going to rescue us and take us out of all of our trouble. And we won't have any tribulation troubles or problems in the earth if we just trust the Lord. And we think if, if we're experiencing tribulation or problems that we've obviously disappointed. God, okay. Paul was able to say the Lord rescue me from all of it because God resurrected him after his Stony. 2 (56m 6s): Not that he was dead, but he healed him, got him up. I mean, the guy was left for dead. God actually absolutely had to heal him. He getting pelted with stones in the head and you're getting knocked. God had to heal him so that he could get back up. Doesn't say he was dead. So he didn't get resurrected, but he was, he had to get healed. So what Paul's saying is, Hey, the Lord was faithful to the Lord, rescued me and that he got me back up on my feet. So I can go back and do what God had asked me to do. Right? When God was done with Paul, they cut his head off. That's a pretty good indication that God has done with you. So keep going, keep going. And all they do the same, right? Keep going. Your head's still attached. 2 (56m 46s): Oh good. I got work to do. Yes. And everyone who is, who wants, oh, this is interesting and encouraging. Yes. And everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ, Jesus will suffer persecution. So this happened in Paul's day and what happened as the end time events unfold and as demonic opposition to God's people. 3 (57m 5s): And God's plan on fold. 2 (57m 11s): I'm told from things that I read, that there's actually more persecution of the church today in the 21st century than the previous 20 centuries combined. 3 (57m 22s): That interesting, not in our town, you know, 2 (57m 28s): Not much anyway. I mean, I don't know of anybody that's been stone lately or mobs incited, or had their head cut off. But in other parts of the world, Israel is a war zone right now, just Friday. 3 (57m 40s): Hezbollah dropped 19 2 (57m 44s): Rockets, shot 19 rockets at Israel and Northern Israel. And, and they've been in a war zone where they're God's people. And so for almost since the inception, the beginning of Israel's history, they'd been in a battle somewhere. Cause the enemy hates God's people who are God's people. Well, it's the Jews. But then if you know, Jesus you've been grafted in. So you're part of God's people. And so you're going to be under, under, in a battle zone and you're going to be up against 3 (58m 14s): Obstacles and you can be sure that Satan is interested in 2 (58m 18s): Just discouraging you. If you want to find out why Israel or God's chosen people just go back and read the pendant to go back and read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, numbers, and Deuteronomy, and watch the story of God unfold. It's still 3 (58m 32s): Unfolding today. And 2 (58m 35s): It's just helpful for us to go back and have that understanding. Sometimes we avoid the old Testament, but it's actually a foundation 3 (58m 40s): For the new. It helps us to understand the whole Bible as a whole back 2 (58m 45s): To the description of what the last days will look like. Verse 13, but evil people and imposters will thrive. 3 (58m 51s): They will flourish. They will 2 (58m 53s): Deceive others and will themselves be deceived, but you must remain faithful. Verse 14 says you must remain faithful to the things that you've been taught. You know, they are true for, you know, you can trust those who touch you. You've been taught the holy scriptures from childhood and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus, all scriptures wired by God and is useful to teach us what is true. And to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. So 3 (59m 29s): How can we help others 2 (59m 31s): Avoid the dangers of the last days, gently instruct those who oppose the truth. 3 (59m 38s): Figure out a way to do that. Lovingly 2 (59m 41s): Graciously mercifully 3 (59m 44s): Instructed with the truth, 2 (59m 46s): Know the seasons and the times don't let it freak you out, but let it prepare you and remain faithful. So you're able to help others with that. Let's go ahead and stand up all of us and we'll invite the worship team out. And we will worship some more with a couple more songs and, and we will wrap up this service Lord, thank you for this time. Thank you that you have been here through the worship, through the fellowship, through the times of prayer, through the teaching of your word, Lord, we thank you that your presence is obvious. And so we pray God that you would continue to speak to us as we worship you. God revealing God reveal yourself to us in wonderful ways. Lord God got to refresh our hearts and minds, bring conviction where we need conviction and do the work that you do in our lives. 2 (1h 0m 31s): It's the work that only you can do Lord. So thank you. Thank you for what you're doing in our church. Bless the work at 1 0 2 down the road. Lord, that new facility blessed that we pray. Thank you for providing for it. God, you know the obstacles in front of us with the electrical stuff that's in front of us and the plumbing stuff and all of the, all of the challenges. Lord, we just give those to you and trust you Lord. So thank you for your goodness and faithfulness through every season and project of life. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship 1 (1h 9m 50s): Lord. We pray that our praise would be pleasing to you. We honor you this morning. We humble ourselves confess that you are the one true. Holy God. Worthy of all praise. We asked you to give us strength, walk with you this week.

How Do We Gain God's Approval?

0 (0s): Each and every one of us as we enter your presence, Lord is you always, you always meet us there. So we just invite you. We become aware of you this morning in Jesus name. Amen. 1 (13s): clap. 1 (3m 8s): I hated rescue. My sin was heavy, but Shane spray, Catherine, raid of your clothes, I needed shelter. I was, you know, now you call me and says in her head, saving us worthy of every song. 1 (4m 43s): Seen Jesus. The name of Jesus, the only one who could we live Jesus, the name of Jesus. 1 (6m 44s): The only one you could ever say worthy of every breath, sing a song in your own words. 1 (8m 17s): Just it's just you and Jesus. Right now. It's just an opportunity to sit in his presence. Just tell him no worries. 1 (8m 55s): I read that's grease that has Google 2 (16m 51s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. For that song, it is our song. It's your song, the gospel, our testimony, what you've done and who we are and you are faithful Lord, and we are so thankful. So, so thankful Lord. I pray that for those who don't understand the amazing grace that we've been singing about, Lord, I pray that you would minister that truth to each person. Truth is we're saved from the penalty of our sin. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. 2 (17m 34s): And so the grace of God that has been extended to humanity is available to why wipe away every sin to cover every mistake and to welcome us into the kingdom of God. And so I pray that those who need to hear that message today, or to rehear that message today would be refreshed in that truth. And I pray that people will be added to the kingdom as a result of that gospel song that we were just singing Lord and God that people would respond with a yes to your grace and yes, to your love yes, to your, your, your plan for their lives. Lord God. So we just invite you to continue that good work that you're doing. God has people watch online and listen online and sit around this campus. 2 (18m 17s): Lord, we just pray your will be done. Thank you for your grace. We love you. We need you. We appreciate it. Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. You may be seated. Welcome. How is everyone 3 (18m 30s): Fabulous? Good to hear I'm back. I, I was gone for the last couple of weeks and I'm so glad to be back. I don't even know that I stepped foot in this sanctuary for the last two weeks. And so when I got here this morning, it was so refreshing to be back and just so good to be back in this place. I've been, I've been doing like a staycation, which has been great, been, you know, at, at the project a little bit, but not really at church much. And so it's been great to be. It's great to be back today as I was, as we were singing that last song, I couldn't help, but think about what's happening a week from Monday a week from tomorrow, a week from Monday week from tomorrow is , which is a group of gathering of bunch of men from all over the central coast to gather once a month to have great food worship together and then have a testimony. 3 (19m 17s): And a few months ago, I was asked to give my testimony a M six, this next time. So, or this in August. And so that is my plan. But for months I've been thinking, Lord, what is my testimony? What part of the test? My testimony do you want me to share? I just, I was, I've been kind of at a loss and what keeps coming back to me is that song amazing grace. And so it's really amazing that we were seeing that today. Cause I feel like the amazing grace of God, the truth is say he saved a wretch like me. I was lost and now I'm found I was blind. And now I see that our testimony, if we know Jesus, that is our testimony, right? 3 (20m 4s): And God is so faithful to meet us where we are to resurrect us and to give us new life in Jesus. And so I'm beyond that. I'm not sure what I'm going to share a week from tomorrow, but guys, if you want to come out and be a part of that, that'd be amazing. It's a thousand Hills ranch. It's going to be just a lot of fun. Hundreds of guys show up and great food is prepared and we just have a wonderful time. So how many I've been just praying every day for this one? Oh two. How many note 1 0 2 is 1 0 2 is our building, which is literally 45 seconds east of us. As, as we walk along the sidewalk there and 1 0 2 is a building that we have leased and we're praying about trying to buy and that sort of thing. 3 (20m 44s): But we're in this tenant improvement phase, which has been for two or three months now, three months I think. And we'll probably be going for three, four more months. And, but so far we've got most of the electrical roughed in. We've got most of the fire sprinklers in. We've got the HVAC system in. We are, we've done a lot of stucco repair. We're going to paint the exterior next week. We've picked out floors and colors and bought chairs and sound equipment and all kinds of stuff that's going in. So can I do, can I ask you what? I asked my staff to do the staff here at the church. I said, Hey, let's not forget to pray every single day for that project. 3 (21m 27s): It's a big undertaking for us as a church, but I know that as we gathered together and just make it a priority to pray every day for it, then God will give us the favor that we need with the city. And they've been amazing to us by the way, the city of ag has been really, really good to us, but prayed for continued favor there with our architect, with our contractors, with our suppliers, with everybody involved, pray for safety and provision at the beginning of the project, I challenged everybody. I said, if, if every family within the church, there's roughly 300 families. If every family gave $700 per family, not per person, but per, per family, then we could meet our budget over there. 3 (22m 9s): So, so far we've raised in excess of 170,000. And so God has been so, so faithful and you guys have been so amazing. So if you haven't had the opportunity to give yet, and you would like to give, just mark your check 1 0 2 and w w God told me this. I felt like the Lord said you will have the resources that you need as you move forward. And so far the money that we've needed has been there. Every bill that comes in gets paid right away and everything that's needed has been able to be purchased. And it's just been really, really good. So, so be continually praying. If you could just write it down somewhere where you see everyday, like maybe on your bathroom mirror, pray for 1 0 2 and just pray for those things that we've been talking about. 3 (22m 50s): That'd be amazing. Hey, we're in second Timothy, back to second Timothy chapter two today verses 15 through 26, I titled the message. How do we gain God's approval? How do we gain God's approval? Now we're not talking today about salvation. We are saved by grace through faith. It has nothing to do with our work, but we receive God's approval. We receive God's approval of our life and work by what we do. So there's a difference. And we're going to be talking about the difference today. Salvation by grace, through faith rewards, approval of God comes through the works that we do. 3 (23m 31s): So I child, if you've got kids or whatever, I, we raised our kids, but as they were growing up, we would discipline them out of our love for them. We love them enough to discipline them because at times their behavior wasn't acceptable. So we would discipline them so that they would learn what good behavior is. God says, the Bible says that God disciplines, those whom he loves. And the discipline actually demonstrates that we belong to God, that we are his adopted sons and daughters. And so we know that God has a standard and has given us each responsibility in the earth that I always say, if you've got a pulse, you've got purpose. 3 (24m 14s): And so do that real quick. 4 (24m 17s): My pulse is good. Pulse 3 (24m 20s): Equals purpose, right? So if you've got to pulse, that's good. Cause we don't have to call anybody to take you out, but you got purpose. So God has given each of us a spiritual gift to be used. And then at the end of time, at the end of our existence here in the earth, we're going to stand before the judgment seat of God and give an account for our lives. And so we will each stand before the Lord and receive rewards or not based on how we lived our lives here in the year. And so we're going to be talking about gaining God's approval steps to gaining God's approval so that when we stand before the judgment seat of God, Gary was talking about that we're at that judgment seat, we're going to receive crowns. But then after that, we just cast it before the Lord and worship worship to him. 3 (25m 3s): So as we look at this text in second Timothy today, we're going to just kind of unpack it a little bit or a lot of bit and find three points that will help us to gain God's approval. Number one, weed comes right from the text, be a good worker, be a good worker. A second. To me, the two 15 through 26 says this work hard. So you can present yourself to God and receive his approval, right? So it's kind of, if you've never thought about getting the approval of God, if you thought, well, not obviously approves of me, he saved me and I, it doesn't really matter how I live my life. 3 (25m 43s): That's not God's plan. And it actually matters how we live our life. He's actually placed us in the earth to accomplish the kingdom work that he's given us to accomplish. So Paul is telling Timothy, and he's telling the church at emphasis. There are 2000 years ago when he's telling us today here on the central coast in 2021, he said, work hard. So you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. So we have this responsibility to work in such a way. So point number one, be a good worker. Verse 15 continues, be a good worker. One who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth. So pretty specific communication there. 3 (26m 25s): What is Paul telling Timothy? How is Paul instructing Timothy to be a good worker? He's we need to know because he's instructing us to do the same thing. He said, be one who does not need to be ashamed. What does that mean? Well, we need to have a clear, we need to move forward as followers of the Lord, Jesus, having a clear conscience concerning the work that we do for God. We have been called to kingdom purpose, kingdom work, and we need to have a clear conscience that the work we're doing for God is what he has asked us to do. This week. I heard about a young lady who went to Cornell university, graduated from college, got a engineering degree, top 10 in her class. 3 (27m 11s): Amazing young lady started her engineering career doing great work, but she didn't enjoy it. It wasn't her passion. So she decided that she would quit her amazing engineering job that she got, that she had secured. And she decided I want to go back to school and get my teaching credential because I want to teach math. That's what she was passionate about. Right? So I think God gives us passion for our vocation, but then also for the work that he's called us to do in the earth. And it's that passion that gives us the ability to do the work that God has called us to longterm. When we're working out of the passion that God has put into us, then we're able to do for decades, what God has asked us to do so that at the end of our lives, we hear well done. 3 (27m 57s): Well done. Good and faithful 4 (27m 60s): Servant. So Paul is instructing 3 (28m 3s): Continuously to be a good worker by not being ashamed, have a clear conscience concerning the work you do for God, work with all your heart. As you do your work as unto the Lord, invest your life with passion into the work you are called to. So make sure that the life you're living as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ is not going to lead to your shame. Meaning sins of omission, where God has called you to do something, but you didn't do it. Or sins of commission where he just flat refuse to honor the Lord with your life. You're going to stand before the Lord and give an account. And you're going to have to give an account for every second minutes, hour, day, week, month, decade, your whole life, your whole life is being recorded. 3 (28m 54s): And you're going to have to give an account for your life. So Paul all told Timothy, be one who does not need to be ashamed. Also be one who correctly explains the word of truth or handles the word of truth. The Greek verb translated correctly. Handles really means cutting a straight road and suggests straightforward exit Jesus, exit Jesus. As the study of God's word, the understanding, gaining the understanding. It's a process to which you gain understanding and, and, and, and, and, and, and teach the word of God. In other words, don't read into the text. Something that isn't there, you need to understand how to XEG the texts. You need to understand how to open up the scripts. 3 (29m 35s): You know, basically what you do is you just let scripture interpret scripture. You open up the word of God and make sure that what's your about this passage is actually properly reflected in the rest of the scripture as well. There's a lot more to it, but you need to properly handle the word of God. So you know how to live it for yourself, but then also how to instruct it for others. You say, well, I'm not an instructor. I'm not a teacher. Every one of us teach teaches someone. Every one of us, I ran into this couple recently. And if you go back in their lives a few years ago, they were on fire for Jesus. They just loved Jesus. They started out their married life. 3 (30m 15s): That way they just love, love Jesus. And just over time, they've drifted and they have completely fallen away from the Lord. So I saw this couple recently and I said, they've had a couple of kids. And I saw one of their kids. And I said, you know what I said, do you know who loves you? And a little, little kid said, well, you do. And I said, why, no, I love you. And you know that, I love you, but do you know who, who else loves you? I said, Jesus loves you. And this little, little girl had no idea who Jesus was. She said, who is Jesus? I said, well, Jesus has God. And he loves you. 3 (30m 56s): She said, God's not real. That's not true. We're all teaching, instructing someone in our lives. Whether it be our kids, our grandkids, our neighbors, our coworkers, we're all instructing. And so we have to properly correctly handle the word of truth in order to effectively do the work that God has called us to do here in the earth. In other words, don't read into the text. Something that isn't there. I know a guy who was always giving me hypothetical's I, if you know me at all, you know, I don't like hypotheticals or whatever. I like just want the facts. Just like, give me the facts. I, if I'm in a meeting with my staff or my team, and they're wanting to give me all this information about, about what they're doing. 3 (31m 37s): I said, I don't, I it's not my place. I don't, that's not my job. We've got people in place for that. People, you know, tracking your goals and you know, all that kind of stuff. Just tell me what you need bottom line it for me, because you're going to lose me in about three seconds. If you don't bottom line for me. So I've got this guy who's always, and I've known many of these guys throughout my life. They're giving me all of these hypotheticals about God's word. Well, what if, why not? Could it be this type of hypothetical questioning to me yields only unhealthy speculation. And in my experience, now, this is just my experience. You can throw it out if you want. But in my experience, the fruit of that kind of conversation is a fruitless life. 3 (32m 22s): The people I've encountered over the years who talk like this and think like this don't ever grow up in their faith because their hypothetical questions are always getting in the way of them truly believing and being obedient to God's word that people have encountered over the years who like this, and think this like this, they don't ever grow, grow up. They remain childish and undisciplined, and un-involved insignificant kingdom work. They don't attend church on a regular basis, or they bounce from church to church. They don't get involved in long-term ministry. They don't give it. They don't give to kingdom work and they tend to cause problems in the church. So Paul is exhorting Timothy, and he's exhorting the rest of us. 3 (33m 6s): The one who does not need to be ashamed. In other words, don't make it excuses for not doing what God has asked you to do, do what God has asked you to do wholeheartedly with your whole life. Also be one who correctly explains the word of truth. What's the opposite of correctly explaining the word of truth. Well, back to our text, second, Timothy chapter two verse 16 says avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior. So these type of hypotheticals, these excuses that we make or come up with that hinder our obedience to God and our belief in God and our faith in God lead to godless behavior. 3 (33m 47s): It says this kind of talk spreads like cancer. That word literally in the Greek is gang green. So if you can get a good, a good picture of that, that's kind of disgusting growth thing to just a gross thing that kind of grows in your body when you're, when there's unhealth involved or when there's infection. And when it's unhealthy, this kind of talk spreads like cancer gangrene, as in the case of, and we get Hymenaeus and , they have left the path of truth, claiming that the resurrection of the dead has already occurred. I heard in this way, they have turned some people away, the faith. So how do we gain God's approval? Number one, be a good worker, not ashamed of the work you do rightly dividing the word of truth. 3 (34m 31s): Verse 19 says, but God's truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription. The Lord knows those who are his and all who belong to the Lord may turn, must turn away from evil. So what does that mean? What is the foundation stone? God's true. Stands like a firm foundation stone. What does that foundation stone? There's no slides actually for these next verses here. I put them in this morning. It says this in first Corinthians chapter three, verses 10 through 15. And Paul wrote first Corinthians as well. So he's speaking here because of God's grace, me Paul road. I have laid that foundation like an expert builder. So as an apostle, Paul would go around from town to town, preaching the gospel, laying a foundation of truth and understanding about who Jesus Christ is. 3 (35m 19s): And churches were born out of that work. And after he left that town, others would come in and build on the foundation that he put down. Now, other builders that can diverse continues in verse 10. Now others are building on it, but whoever's building on this foundation. It must be careful. No one can lay any foundation. Other than the one we already have Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials, gold, silver jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day at the judgment seat of Christ, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. 3 (36m 2s): The fire will show if a person's work has any value. If the work survives that builder will receive a reward, the crowns that we're talking about. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through walls of flames through a wall of flames. So I don't want to get into heaven that way, like barely like singed, like smoking, like barely in there. Like I want to get in there. Not because I'm good, but because God's good. But I want to know that my life has mattered and that my good works have not been burned up. 3 (36m 44s): That I haven't spent my life working in an unproductive way so that my good works are burned up. Second Corinthians five 10 says this for, we must for, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. So how do we gain God's approval? We gotta be a good worker. We have a responsibility. If you're here today and you don't know your responsibility, figure it out, ask God. Well, as I'm getting ready to leave to Denver afternoon to go visit my dad. He's in the hospital, been there for a couple of weeks and I've been vacillating all week about whether I should fly to Denver today to go see him, or if I should wait. 3 (37m 26s): And so finally late yesterday, my wife and I decided, yeah, it's going to be good for me to go. And I'm going to go and hopefully be an advocate for him as he's kind of not doing well. He's, he's got heart issues and dementia issues and all kinds of stuff going on. So, so as I was vacillating with it, I knew that the Lord would show me if I just continue to pray. If I just continue to think about the situation and pray about the situation, I knew that God would make it clear and he did make it clear yesterday. So we booked the flights and I'm heading out this afternoon at five 30. So, and all of that is to say that if, if you're really wanting to know what God wants to speak to you about your calling and your gift set and all that, he's got, she got for you here in the earth. 3 (38m 11s): If you just continue ask, ask, and seek and knock it, God will reveal his plan to you so that you can do the supernatural she'll work that God has called you to do gaining God's approval by being a good worker. Number one, number two, turn away from evil. How do we gain God's approval? We turn, turn away from evil. Second, Timothy chapter two verse 20 says any wealthy. Some utensils are made of gold and silver and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions and the cheap ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure verse 21, if you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. 3 (38m 58s): Your life will be clean and you'll be ready for the master to use you for every good work. Therefore 22 8 says run from anything that stimulates youthful loss instead pursue righteous, living faithfulness, love and peace. How do we turn away from evil? I'm going to share some good practices with you today. John 15 talks about abiding in Christ remaining in Christ. 4 (39m 33s): We, 3 (39m 35s): We away from evil. We turn away from evil by simply abiding with Christ remaining in Christ. If you go back and read John 15, you'll, you'll realize you'll see that. That's how fruitfulness happens. As we abide in him and he abides in us, we will have a fruitful life. In fact, Jesus said remain in me and I will remain in you. It goes with that verse. It says he'll never leave us nor forsake us. So as you remain in him, you will be able to turn away from evil and you will bear fruit. You will not be able to turn away from evil unless you're abiding in him. You might be able to white knuckle it for a little while and say no to the flesh, say no to the devil, say no to the world, but after you're done white knuckling, it you're going to give into it. 3 (40m 23s): But if you're abiding in Christ, walking daily with Jesus, you will have the strength and the ability to turn away from evil. This is the truth. You and I were. We'll never turn away from evil until we decide to abide in Christ. We will never bear fruit apart from a biding. Rocky Fleming from influencers, global ministries wrote this. Yes, it is actually Christ in us bearing fruit. It is his fruits and his characteristics that are at work without abiding in him. There is no fruit. However, bearing fruit is not our primary objective and that interesting. 3 (41m 4s): That's not our primary objective abiding in Christ is our primary objective. The fruit simply shows up when we are spiritually healthy. So how do we turn away from evil? We simply abide. And I say simply, it's not always simple, but it is the direction that God has given to us in the word. So if we abide in Christ and he and us, we will be able to turn away from evil, but we also need to do some other practical things that will us to do that. So protect yourself, protect yourself online. The internet is a wild wild west. First of all, kinds of information. Some of it's great. Some of it's not so great. 3 (41m 44s): So if you are having a struggle with the intranet, I would ask you to download on your computer. Something called covenant eyes, nice. Covenant eyes is a, the accountability process where you get somebody else to hold you accountable for the information that you're looking at and watching and reading on line, and that person will be communicated your con to the content of what you've been watching so they can help hold you accountable. So protect yourself on line it's way too easy to stumble by going on the internet. So protect yourself, protect your purity. In other ways, there's other ways to protect your purity. 3 (42m 25s): There's pure desire groups. We've got men's pure desire groups that meet here every Monday night here on the campus. There's dozens of guys who show up because they're trying to turn away from evil, doing the right thing. Also, you can grow in the knowledge and understanding of God through other Bible study groups that we have here on the central coast. In, in this, in this church. There's tons of opportunities for men and women and young people and young professionals and college, junior high and high school, fifth and sixth graders. There's all kinds of opportunities for people to grow in knowledge and understanding of God through the Bible study groups that we have available. Join a journey group, join a journey group. 3 (43m 7s): I'm a part of a 6:00 AM journey group on Friday mornings. It is a terrible time of the day to have a Bible study. I show up at six exam on Friday morning, the first time I'm like, what are you guys crazy? Who in the world has a Bible study at 6:00 AM? That means I got to get up at 4:15 AM so that I can be at the Bible study by 6:00 AM. It's a Riddick. It's the middle of the night. So for like four weeks in a row, I'm like, Hey guys, let's move it from six o'clock to say nine o'clock when God is awake. I'm not even sure God's awake at 6:00 AM. 3 (43m 48s): He is I'm kidding. But you know what? My point is, we're often to go do something or need to go do something that is inconvenient for us. Do it anyway. It has been such a blessing to be at that 6:00 AM group with those guys. I complained about it still, but it's the, the fellowship and the growth that we have experienced together has been nothing short of delightful. We're about halfway through our journey and you got another half way to go, but we're just really, really enjoying it. So it may be inconvenient a bad time, maybe somethings your kind of flesh resist, but do something to get involved in a small group so that you can to grow and believe and trust the Lord. 3 (44m 35s): So here we go. Here's some scriptural guidance for turning away from evil Galatians five 16 through 26. My Bible titles, this living by the Spirit's power. It says in verse 16, Galatians five. So I say, let the holy spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants. And the spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other. Have you ever experienced that? 3 (45m 15s): Yeah, me too. So you're not free to carry out your good intentions, but when you are directed by the spirit and that's, that's part of the abiding process, you're abiding with Christ. The spirit of God is in you and you're being directed by the spirit. As you abide with Jesus, the Lord and great things begin to happen. There's just there's transformation that begins to take place. There's great growth that begins to take place verse 18. But when you are directed by the holy spirit, you're not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear. 3 (45m 55s): Sexual immorality, impurity, less bill pleasure, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension division, I'll continue envy. First 21, envy drunkenness, wild parties and other sins like these like that. Wasn't conclusive other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God, but the holy spirit produces verse 22. 3 (46m 37s): This kind of fruit in our lives. Love 4 (46m 41s): Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, 3 (46m 52s): And self-control, I don't know about, she wouldn't want to read that first list of all the sin. I was getting anxious. I'm like all the gal is just such heavy. But when I started, when I started reading the, the, the fruit of the spirit, 4 (47m 3s): Peace, 3 (47m 5s): It's like everything settled down inside of me. Love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness. And self-control, this is the kind of stuff that God wants to accomplish and produce in our lives. We cannot experience this apart from a biting and allowing the holy spirit to direct our lives. First continues. There is no law against these things. Those who belong to Jesus verse 24, those who belong to Christ. Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. 3 (47m 46s): Since we are living by the spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. And so we abide with him. We simply remains true remain with him. So you're connected to Jesus. You're walking with Jesus. You're inviting Jesus into your path and your problems into your challenges. And you're asking for his wisdom and his grace and his strength. And so you're abiding with him and out of that, the spirit of God has access to your heart and mind and helps you to make wise choices and produce something of beautiful fruitfulness. And not just, God's a great plan that God has for us. I think it's a great plan. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to the cross and crucified them there. 3 (48m 28s): Since we are living by the spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Let us verse 26, let us not become conceited or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another. How do we gain God's approval? Number one, be a good worker. Make sure the work that you're doing is kingdom work, born out of a passion that God has given to you to do the work that he's called you to do a number two, turn away from evil. And then number three, do life do life with like-minded people kind of like what we're doing today gathered for church. The Bible says in our text, verse 22, enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts. 3 (49m 9s): That's part of Paul's instruction to Timothy, to enjoy the companionship of those who call him the Lord with a pure heart. Proverbs 27 17 says this as iron sharpens iron. So a friend sharpens another. So we have this opportunity and beyond the opportunity, we've got this responsibility and beyond the responsibility, we've got an obligation to sharpen one another in Christ. And so we're challenging one another. When we need to be challenged, we're loving each other through the difficult seasons of life. We're encouraging each other with truth. We're praying for each other. As we go through life. We're not just going to church together. 3 (49m 51s): We're not just hanging out with people who love Jesus, but we're living life in Christ to gather. It's not meant to be an external thing. Only like a facade. Like, Hey, everything's good. Sometimes you show up and like, Hey, everything's great. Sometimes we need to say that if, if there's no time to unpack it, but you can. It's okay to kind of get vulnerable with one another and say, Hey, you know, I'm really, I, I need prayer. Like you can pray for me this as I go up to Denver, please pray. I'm going to be talking with my dad. It's hard conversations. Talking with doctors, it's going to be difficult. It's going to be difficult. So pray for me. And so that's what we need to be doing with one another enjoying fellowship together as the church supporting one, another carrying one another's burdens, you know, Jesus, didn't have very fond things to say about those who thought they were religious, but who lacks real life change wrought by the spirit. 3 (50m 42s): He didn't have much good to say to the Pharisees. Those who were the religious teachers and leaders, but who hadn't experienced life change through Christ the Lord. This is what he said, Matthew 23, 27. What sorrow, what? Sorry. Sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees hypocrites for you are like whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside, but filled on the inside with dead people, bones and all sorts of impurity Christianity. And he was never about just, no, it was never meant to be just about kind of coming to church and even, even just reading the Bible or, or even just praying it's or even just kind of doing good deeds. 3 (51m 31s): It's it's, it's, it's all of it done out of a, a life that is abiding with Christ and filled with the holy spirit because as we abide with Christ and as we are filled with the holy spirit, we're able to do all of these things and thereby gain God's approval, living our lives in such a way that when we stand before the judge judgment seat of Christ, we hear well done. Good and faithful servant. And we received the crowns, the rewards that God has for us, knowing that we didn't spend our life in vain, but God is approving of our life. When it's all wrapped up. 3 (52m 12s): Just a second, Timothy chapter two, again, I say, don't get, don't get involved in foolish ignorant arguments that only start fights. This is interesting. A servant of the Lord who is a servant of the Lord. All right. If you're in Christ, you're a servant of the Lord, a servant of the Lord must not quarrel must be kind to everyone. How do you do that? How do you not coral? And how do you be kind to everyone? You do it simply by abiding, as you are abiding remaining in Christ. And he, and you, and the spirit of God fills you. You're able to do what the scripture asked you to do. We can only do what God asks us to do when we're filled with the holy spirit directed and led by the holy spirit. 3 (52m 58s): And when we're abiding in Christ, when we are doing those things, we're able to do these things. We're able to do not quarrel, be kind to everyone. And then it says be able to teach and be patient with difficult people, anybody. Yeah. Any difficult people in your life, like depending on the season, sometimes we do. Sometimes we don't, but God has got a plan for us when we're encountering difficult people. His plan for us is that we would walk through those seasons with those people, with grace and with love. Not that we don't have boundaries in our lives, but we have grace and love gently instruct those who oppose the truth. 3 (53m 38s): Verse 25, perhaps God will change those people's hearts and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap for they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants. Listen, if we're not abiding in Christ and fill with the holy spirit, we're easy. Pickings for the enemy were easy. Pray. The Bible says that Satan is like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He's prowling around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. So if we're not abiding in Christ and filled with the holy spirit, we're easy pickings. You'll be able to distract us, tempt us, get us down the wrong path. But God's plan is that we would produce that fruit of the spirit. 3 (54m 21s): Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control, all of those things that God wants to do, helping us to work as unto the Lord, as we abide in him. And as we're filled with him being good workers, turning away from evil, doing life with like-minded people so that we can help them be good workers so that we can help them turn away from evil so that we can do life together and get to heaven together and take as many people with us as possible. Amen. Amen. Let's go out and stand up. I wanna invite the worship team and we're going to worship. And if the Lord is doing a work in you and, and you feel like the Lord has got your attention about something, pay attention to what he's saying as we worship. 3 (55m 5s): And then after the worship, as we get ready to close up the service, we're going to have a prayer team up here to pray for you. So if you'd like to get prayer, that team will be up here after we worship. And so Lord, we just want to thank you for this time. Thank you for the worship team that leads us in song and in worship before your throne. Thank you for your word that instructs us. Thank you for your spirit. That guides us. Thank you for the opportunity to abide with you. As you walk with us, Lord, we love you. We thank you. We're so grateful in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship. 1 (56m 6s): amen. 1 (58m 43s): the same. God never fails will not fail me. Now you will fail me in the way the same guy is working. the same guy, never fails. 1 (1h 0m 1s): the same guy. God is working all things out. 1 (1h 0m 15s): I choose to 0 (1h 2m 19s): Thank Lord for a wonderful morning Lord, as we go, Lord, I just ask you to just keep in presence about us. I mean, your presence is with us Lord, but may keep us aware of, of what you're doing in our midst and what, and what you'd have us do Lord. And we just ask that you keep us accountable to serving you and living our lives for you. As we go in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. And like Steve was saying, if you guys, if anyone, if you're feeling a tug on your heart from the Lord, like, please don't be shy to come forward. We have people, prayer teams ready do it. We'll see you next time.