Harvest Church Arroyo Grande

Youth Sunday

0 (11s): Good morning guys. Hi. Hello, Mike. Hello? Hello? Hello. Hi guys. Welcome to church today. If you don't already know, today is a new Sunday. They call it like the youth takeover, I guess, but yeah, so I'm Levi. This is one of our youth bands for a Wednesday. Yeah, let's let's stand in worship. 0 (14m 5s): Lord. Thank you for this day. God, thank you for your presence in this building. God, I pray that your word would flow through Jeremy and Tyler today. God, that you would speak through them to us. God, that your Holy spirit would be full in this place. God, Jesus name. Amen. And so I guess now is the time you guys are supposed to talk to each other. 1 (14m 40s): Hello 0 (14m 41s): And welcome to harvest church. I am not wrong. She is not wrong and she's definitely not wrong. I am Brecker. Wait, I'm a junior at ADHS. 1 (14m 52s): I'm Olivia Hunsicker and I'm a seventh grader at Paulding middle school. And I am Emma Irie. I am a sophomore at HHS, 3 (15m 5s): These gentlemen, and my often forgotten, but not my me crazy people. Welcome to harvest church. We are so glad you're here. Whether online or in-person we're just so happy you're here. If you want information about upcoming events, we have our info center up the Hill. If you are new here, we also have a gift for you. Also at that info center up the Hill. 1 (15m 27s): Today is family Sunday. Every fourth, Sunday of the month is family. Sunday students first grade and up will be in services with their families. We serve donuts in celebration of family Sunday, each month. We'll be sure to grab one after service. In addition to family, Sunday today's youth takeover day. Students are helping out in various places, greeting or shift team kids, ministry, serving donuts, and even bringing the announcements. We are looking for a few morning. People who are willing to get here bright and early to brew coffee for our church services. 1 (16m 8s): If this is you sign up at the info center today, 3 (16m 14s): Our man, and if you are in junior higher, older, we have the men's breakfast coming up May 1st at 8:00 AM. We will be having breakfast. It's free. You don't even have to sign up. You just show up and you get a free breakfast right here. 8:00 AM May 1st 1 (16m 32s): Spring and summer life groups session kicks off in may. Week. Groups are a great way to build relationships and grow in your faith. In Jesus. We have home groups, men or women's Bible studies, young adults, or young professional groups, a golfing group, yarn club, and even seminary classes. Grab a flyer available at the info center or at the welcoming tables in each venue and plug get plugged up into a grip on April 30th. We have a lettuce worship night at 6:30 PM on the end of grand Avenue. It is a SOC Shaun flight worship event. And we'd love to have you there. And now I welcome pastor Ron, up to the stage for our baby dedications. 3 (17m 19s): Good morning. My name is Ron. I'm a senior at a rug high school, and this is youth takeover day. I qualify. I would like to invite up front. We've got three families that are going to be dedicating a child to the Lord today. So I'd like to invite the Wade family up. If you guys could kind of take a spot right over here, the Wade family, and then the sailors get to be kind of right here in the middle. And then over on this side, we're going to have the Sutherland family. So go ahead and find your spot. I always find that baby dedications is one of my favorite, favorite things to do. 3 (18m 1s): And I'll explain why in just a minute. All right, good to see you guys. Okay. I've got a dedication certificate already for you. So I'm gonna go ahead and hand that to you. And this one goes to you and there you go, Maggie. Okay. So what I want to do first is introduce these families to you. So over in this side, we've got Tom and Kelly Wade and their little one is Lyford grant Wade. They go by leave. He goes by leaf and leaf was born September 20th, 2020 in San Louis Obispo, handsome young man. 3 (18m 41s): And here we've got Tom and Kelly Wade and their little one is 2 (18m 49s): Over here. We've got Tom and Kelly Wade. How'd they get up here twice over, 3 (19m 2s): Over here. We've got Cody and Emily's sailors and their little, little one is Judah. Dellbot. They say that right. Dealt with Delbert sailors. And he was born November 23rd, 2020 in San Luis Obispo. Okay. See if I get the third one right over here, Jeremy and Maggie Sutherland. And of course we've got Elsie and Posey and their little one is Winnie Mae Sutherland and she was born February 17th, 2020 in San Luis Obispo. All right. 3 (19m 42s): So dedicating our children to the Lord is really about parents dedicated dedicating themselves to the Lord. First, in fact, Jeremy's going to talk a lot about that in his message this morning. And it's making a commitment to raise our children in what the Bible describes as the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Another translation, the new living puts it this way to raising our children in the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord. And so these families have chosen to be up here today and because you are their church family. And so child dedication is really about making a commitment to us. But of course, to the Lord that we're going to, we as families, as those of us who have the honor and privilege of raising children are going to do it to the best of our ability as God gives us the ability to do so. 3 (20m 33s): There's an interesting verse in Psalm one 27. Let me get back over here in the middle Psalm one 27 beginning with verse three, it says children are a gift from the Lord and they are a reward from him. So we recognize that that children are actually a gift from God and, and a reward. And so therefore all the kids that we have, however many, one or a dozen are all meant to be a gift and a reward from the Lord. And so as parents, how is this done? So raising children is certainly an uncertain thing for sure, but God gives us some instruction. 3 (21m 13s): So from Deuteronomy chapter six, beginning in verse five, God gave some instruction to the people of Israel and we can glean from it as well. It goes like this to parents. He says, you must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I'm giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you're at home, when you're on the road, when you're going to bed and when you're getting up. So the idea is parents, first and foremost, as I mentioned earlier, is our responsibilities have a relationship with God. And he's the one that helps us so that when we communicate to our kids about him and about the things that God has for them in their life, they're, they're getting a real life example from mom and dad and I've found, and Jeremy is going to talk about this again, too. 3 (22m 6s): If, if they're not seeing the reality of our relationship with God in us, first chances are they won't follow that instruct. They want emulated. So it needs to be first and foremost seen in mom and dad. So again, Proverbs 22, direct your children onto the right path. And when they're older, they will not leave it. All right. So I'm going to ask a series of questions to the families here. And if you would just respond as I ask you the question, just say we will. And I think, I think there's seven questions. I'm not really sure 4 (22m 39s): We will. Yes. 3 (22m 42s): However many I asked. All right. So this is to moms and dads. Will you commit to raise your children in an atmosphere of love and discipline, knowing that the best hope for a healthy childhood is one of unconditional love and clear biblical standards. Okay. Second question. Will you communicate? Sorry. Will you commit to communicate to your children? The necessity of placing their faith in Jesus Christ when they're at an age of understanding their personal need and the significance of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. 4 (23m 21s): Okay. 3 (23m 24s): Will you commit to pray often for your children asking the Lord to accomplish his plan and purpose through your children for the glory of God? This is probably the toughest question of all. To be honest, when your child is at an appropriate age, will you commit to release them to follow God's and purpose for their life? Yeah. And finally, last question. Will you commit to humbly place your trust in God, cooperating with him as he accomplishes his plans and purposes in your family? 3 (24m 4s): All right. So I have a couple of verses here. So the first one is going to be for four leaf. The verse I have for him is Jeremiah 29 beginning with verse 11. This is what it says for, I know the thoughts that I think towards you leaf says the Lord, the thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and hope. I have a verse for Judah, Judah, you paying attention. Okay. You can, you can, you can watch the archive online. Okay. And this is Philippians one six. He who has begun a good work in you. Judah will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. 3 (24m 49s): And then Winnie, I call her Winifred. That's not actually true. Am I the only one that does that? Okay. All right. You and me Winifred winning, sorry. Philippians two 13. This verse says for it is God who works in you Winnie both to will and to do his good pleasure. All right. So what we're going to do as a group right now, and whether you're here in the sanctuary or in the loft or in the shop area or online, we're going to pray for these families. Okay. All right, Lord, we lift up leaf to you and Judah to you and Winnie to you. 3 (25m 33s): Lord, we pray that out of, at an early age, they would come to know you as their Lord and savior that at an early age, that we would just have this profound awareness that you are, that you are God, that you are the one who's leading and guiding, directing their family and mom and dad, and, and Lord that just at a very young age, that would make that decision and that they would walk with you from the beginning until the end. And so Lord, also, we pray for these families or that you would give them wisdom as parents to parent well, to lead their families. Well, and Lord, we know that it's, it's an imperfect process of being a parent and raising children. But Lord, I trust we trust. 3 (26m 13s): We pray that you would give them each wisdom, knowledge, discernment along the journey. So it, as a pour into their kids, the result would be awesome. Solar. We commit these families to you. We just thank you, Lord, that you are with them guiding and directing to every step along the way in Jesus name. God's people said, amen, amen. You guys can all sit down now and, and I'm going to turn things over to Jeremy over here. God bless you guys. Thank you so much. 5 (27m 9s): Good morning. Isn't this sweet time. Family is amazing today. We, we, we do that today. We celebrate and we honor the fact that it's all about the family. My hope this morning, as we, as we just peruse through scripture, we'll just be barely skimming the top, the surface. But I want to, I want to show you from, from big time, beginning, from time to time end, it's all about the family of God. So today we celebrate families and first grade and up are in. And I know sometimes it gets a little loud. It gets a little, you got to settle them down. You've got to give him something else to do some distract with that is okay, because in the end, these, these young minds and these young hearts are going to see the way that their parents and their grandparents to worship God. 5 (28m 2s): And that's going to stick in their mind. Maybe even more than anything I'm going to say, or the preacher says, they're going to see the way that their parents sit under the word of God and hear the preaching. And it's, that's going to be such an impression. So I pray today brings just refreshment to your soul, a wind to your sales and oxygen to your lungs. Let me, let me pray this morning. As we jump in Lord, we thank you for this precious gift. This thing called the family. And it was from you, Lord. You are the designer, the creator of families, of marriage, of parenting Lord. And so we look to your word right now to, to, to instruct us, to give us instruction, to show us how to live and how to do these things that you've called us to do Lord. 5 (28m 51s): So pray to the Lord that you would just fill us with your spirit this morning, show us from the word of God, open it up to us in Jesus name. We pray. 2 (28m 57s): Yeah, 5 (29m 1s): Hopefully you aren't getting tired of backpacking analogies. I know that's been the theme of these past few weeks. It's excited to see yesterday. I took, well, two days ago, I took my daughters backpacking for the first time. My other one, not my, not my youngest daughter, right? But my six year old, my eight year old took them backpacking for their first overnight. Or we went about a mile in and it was just a great time. And, and along the way we had to kind of, I had to encourage them just a little bit. And that's kind of the way we start out these trips. Right? Years ago, I saw on the internet, a picture of this rock cliff. And it was what the author described as an old Chumash camp. 5 (29m 43s): And he was very vague in his, in his directions of how to get there. In fact, he was stayed away from telling people where it was because he didn't want people going there and defacing anything, ruined anything. He wanted to kind of keep it a very hidden spot. Buddy, 4 (29m 55s): Show these pictures of this hidden to mash camp. 5 (29m 59s): When he went there, there was this rock cliff, and there was a waterfall that was spilling down in this little lush, little, little, almost garden in the mix of these rocks. And I thought, I want to find out where this is. I want to go there. So for about, and this is, this is 10 years though. So for the last eight, 10 years, I've been tracking down trying to find out where this place is. I know it's in our local back country. I know it's out there. So I've been wanting to 4 (30m 24s): Find it well. About three 5 (30m 26s): Years ago, a friend of mine, I started asking him some questions. I found out he was a backpacker and said, Hey, do you know where this camp is? I started to show him some pictures. He's like, Oh, I know where that's at. Let me show you on the map. So you put a P you put a little dot on my map, where it was. And so in the back of my mind, I'm like, I gotta get that one to find this place. This place looks incredible. And so I had this map, I looked at, I know the store, I know that the, what did the trail involves as far as well, elevation climbs and its rivers and all this stuff's going on. I had a very good picture of what it could be like, but I hadn't put my feet on the trail. I hadn't taken those steps. 4 (31m 2s): So we 5 (31m 4s): Started hiking up that way with the youth that, that went from our team or from our 4 (31m 9s): Took 17 students 5 (31m 12s): Leaders and just had a phenomenal time in the back country. Some of them were first-time backpackers. Some of them had a little bit experience, but all, everyone just joined on the trail. And we, we took a, we went up about 6.8 miles 4 (31m 25s): Up the Hill. And 5 (31m 29s): Even with all the vision and all the like, Hey, this is all the hype of where we were going. It's still in the middle. You can start to see the students' eyes start to get lost. You can start to see I'm like, what am I doing this for everyone? It started out with those great intentions. We're going to power through this. We're going to make it there and no time. And then you kind of get in the middle and you realize, Oh man, there's Hills and there's rocks. And there's rattlesnakes in the bushes, literally rattlesnakes in the bushes, 4 (31m 59s): The tree 5 (32m 0s): Dusty. I didn't, I didn't know. It'd be such a hard climb. My Paxter is starting to weigh me down. And you start to see this look on the student's eyes, halfway in where they're like, well, I can't go back out. And I'm like, there's only one. Oh, like, what do I do? 4 (32m 15s): I tried 5 (32m 16s): To bring a little vision, try to bring a little encouragement. All right, students, this is what we're gonna do. You're gonna, you're gonna stand up in the back. 4 (32m 21s): Okay. I know it. I know that weights kind of crashing your shoulders, but let's just stand up in the pack, 5 (32m 27s): Allows your lungs to get the air that you need looking up. Instead of just looking at the trail below, you allows you to, to see more around you. So just focus on the trail and the hardships there. It's like, Oh, look where we are. Look at the vastness 4 (32m 40s): That's around us. And they push on every single student, made it up 6.8. 5 (32m 47s): Wow. It was a tough track, but we made it. And I think that's what family has been like. That's my analogy. As a family has been like that through this year. You know, our family, we had Winnie right before COVID hit. And my wife, knowing that we're going to have a baby soon decide. It's probably a good time to put our kids in charter school. So she's not only homeschool. And so let's put both kids in charter school, the older kids in charter school. So I get a little reprieve. My wife gets a little reprieve throughout the days. So we put them in charter school two months in and then boom COVID hits. And now my wife has a brand new baby. She's trying to keep live. That has a bunch of food, intolerances and stuff. So there's a hardship. There's now she's homeschooling. 5 (33m 28s): Now we're trying to do all this. And it was just a year that just felt like that pack was just starting to weigh us down. And I think a lot of families felt that this, 4 (33m 37s): And it's 5 (33m 38s): We look up and we see, okay, God has a purpose for the family. Let's, let's see what this vision that God has for purpose. Let's fill up our lungs with this, this, this vision, what the Lord has for us. And let's go from there. Let's 4 (33m 51s): Push on. God 5 (33m 54s): Has a special purpose of, of his plan of redemption through the family. Family is used 301 times in the Bible, old Testament and new Testament family is used 301 times. And I thought that's not fair. That's a lot, 301 times in the whole of all scripture. But then you start adding into that. All the other aspects of family, father, mother, children, sons, daughters, adoption, all these, these things. And you start there. There's a multitude of plethora verses out there in the Bible that would deal with family. So today we're only going to scratch the surface, but fathers and mothers are not replaceable. Never will be, God has set them in place. So we start in this morning in the family and the garden family in the garden from Genesis chapter one, and God gives a design and pattern for his first family for this beginnings 4 (34m 49s): And 5 (34m 49s): In his own image and likeness, he's going to create them. We as humans are imagers of God, we bear God's image. And it's one of the reasons why 4 (35m 1s): This year has 5 (35m 2s): Been so hard for me. I like to see faces. I like to see the image that God has given to each and every one of you. And when those things are covered up, it's like, Oh, we're missing out on something. We're missing that. We are imagers 4 (35m 13s): God. As one 26, 5 (35m 17s): 27, it gets the ball rolling. God says, let there be, let us make man in our own image, according to 4 (35m 25s): Our likeness, 5 (35m 28s): Let them have dominion over the fish of the CEO of the birds, of the air and over the cattle and over every UN over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him, male and female. 4 (35m 45s): He created them. 5 (35m 47s): Now my daughters found a bunch of little creeping things along the trail. I found a lot of fat, a couple of snakes found some lizards that they want to take home with them, but weren't quite able to catch. We found a toad in the Creek and they want to take that home too. But we decided it might be best to keep that little critter there in the, in the car 4 (36m 5s): Creek, because 5 (36m 9s): All those animals are amazing and wonderfully made. But yet there's none like, like God who 4 (36m 14s): Us in our, in his own image, you know that 5 (36m 21s): A lot of people who doubt Genesis narrative as they put it as it's something that well, it's, it's a nice story. 4 (36m 34s): Let me tell you what I believe. And I still, 5 (36m 38s): And a little different sometime. I didn't mention this first service, but I believe in a young earth creation, I believe that the Bible is the infallible and errand authoritative and sufficient word of God for us, that these are just stories that these are histories And that when God takes Adam and Eve, he didn't take something else that was already there. You know, he took Adam from the dusty earth and he created this man in his own 4 (37m 3s): Image and then a woman. 5 (37m 7s): And I realized that sometimes that thought that thinking seven sets myself away from other youth, even other Christians, even others, 4 (37m 16s): Christian universities or higher critics. 5 (37m 21s): I think that I, and I go back and I said, okay, well, this is what I believe, but is that true? Is this, does this true? Is this true? 4 (37m 28s): And what do I 5 (37m 29s): Really believe? And what do I think about the Bible? The Bible has a lot to say about itself, but what is, what is Jesus as the 4 (37m 37s): Author, 5 (37m 40s): The fulfillment of all the old Testament scriptures, what did he think about the Bible? 4 (37m 47s): And Jesus 5 (37m 48s): Accepted the old Testament Canon as, as it, as it exists today, without any modifications and claim to fulfill it. That's in Matthew chapter five, Jesus looked at the old Testament, said, this is the word of God. I came to fulfill it. He didn't change anything. He didn't say, well, this is just a story. That's just a nice pattern to follow. No, he said, this is the word of God. And he filled fulfilled 4 (38m 10s): It. Jesus 5 (38m 12s): Treated the old Testament narratives at straightforward. 4 (38m 17s): That means, 5 (38m 18s): And this is one and two, which he refers to in Matthew chapter 19 and Mark chapter 10. He treats those things as straightforward facts, the creation of man or woman, the creation of family, the garden, 4 (38m 30s): The serpent Jesus treats, Abel Noah, Adam, or Abraham all is living people sorry. 5 (38m 43s): And Gomorrah. He references in Matthew chapter 10, 11, and then Luke 10. He'll talk about lot in Luke chapter 11 or sorry, 17 Isaac and Jacob. He talks about the man in the wilderness and not me as some story, but actual manna bread that came 4 (38m 60s): From the heavens. 5 (39m 3s): He talks about the wilderness serpent, Jesus and Moses as the law-giver 4 (39m 9s): Jesus 5 (39m 9s): Even accepts Jonah as in three days and three nights in the belly of a whale in Matthew, chapter 12, all these things are so 4 (39m 18s): Criticized 5 (39m 22s): And yet Jesus accepted them as straightforward facts and street for narratives, 4 (39m 28s): Jesus 5 (39m 28s): Even accepted the old Testament authors as the ones that are actually wrote it in Mark in Mark chapter seven, Jesus says Moses was the writer of the first five. It 4 (39m 39s): Looks that Isaiah wrote Isaiah 5 (39m 44s): In Matthew chapter 13 and Mark seven that David wrote the Psalms in Mark chapter 12. And that Daniel wrote the book of Matthew in some higher critic. They criticize it. Well, Daniel prophesied so extremely accurate that there wasn't just one Daniel. It must've been written later in attributed to you now. But Jesus said that Daniel wrote the book, 4 (40m 5s): Good Daniel. And I'll get to families in a second, just say, but this is what 5 (40m 13s): Jesus had to say. And so when I come up here and I speak about the FEMA, I want to, I want to stand on the word of God. That's has to be our starting place for his design and intent. And that's what we'll talk about next is the intent and scope 4 (40m 26s): Of that. This God's 5 (40m 28s): Purpose to extend the garden of Eden ind out into the world. And it says, Genesis chapter one, verse 28, then God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air. And over every living thing that moves on the earth, there was supposed to be a stewardship taken care of, of not consuming, not destroying, but to, to watch over these things, You talked about the families that are to come when God gives a God, gives a command nature to says, Oh, I don't want to do this 4 (41m 13s): Man. So many. 5 (41m 16s): He will hear the law, the 10 commandments. How much better would the world be if everyone wanted to follow the 10 committee? 4 (41m 26s): Yeah, 5 (41m 26s): If God's commandment, the first commandment he gives to humankind to mankind was there in one six, when God said, sorry, one 28, let them be fruitful and multiply fruitful, multiply the husband and wife knows what it means to be fruitful and multiply. That is a great commandment to do. There's a great blessing to do, to be fruitful and multiply. And he says, go. And so that's what Adam and Eve do. It says the book of the genealogy of Adam in Genesis chapter five. It says in the day that God created, man, he made them in his likeness. He made them in the likeness of God. 5 (42m 8s): He created them male and female, and he blessed them and called them mankind in the day that they were created. And it goes on to list the sons. And it goes on to say that he had many other sons and daughters. You see it's God who sets the solitary and families Psalm 66. He brings out those who are bound into prosperity, but the rebellious dwell and the dry land, 4 (42m 32s): If that was 5 (42m 32s): God's original intent for these families to go out and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, take care of it. 4 (42m 41s): We know that that trouble comes soon in the garden. There's trouble in the family. 5 (42m 47s): It didn't take long for there to be drama in the family. Genesis chapter three, we see the husband and wife there's drama. Now in the husband and wife, we see a reversal of the God-given roles that instead of Adam being the protector, the head we see now, Eve talking to the serpent and being deceived. And as she eats the fruit, and then she says, she gives the fruit to Adam who was with her. Adam was right there. He should have been watching out for his, his bride. He should have been watching out for his lady and he wasn't. And it quickly becomes the blame game after that. How quickly, how quickly do we jump into that crazy 4 (43m 28s): Cycle? As the book love and respect talks about 5 (43m 33s): Start blaming things. And ultimately the blame didn't fall on Adam and Eve. The they're ultimately blaming God because he was the one who gave everything. And yet God said, this is all very good. And yet they're blaming God for their problems 4 (43m 53s): That doesn't 5 (43m 53s): Stay with Adam and Eve. Then it goes on to their children. You have children in Brazil 4 (43m 59s): And just 5 (44m 2s): Four, six and seven says, so the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door and is desirous for you, but you shall rule over it. Or you should rule, right? 4 (44m 21s): There's trouble 5 (44m 21s): In the family. That all of a sudden now there's the, their kids are now at war with each other. And God appears in a, in a, in a act of grace and mercy, God goes and says, Kane, 4 (44m 35s): Don't do this. Why are you angry? He warns him. And yet 5 (44m 42s): We see the first murder in the first family in the first chapters of the Bible. 4 (44m 49s): I love how honest 5 (44m 51s): Bible is about those who are in it. Doesn't make them out to be seen. So this shows their sin and brokenness right 4 (44m 56s): From the start right away, we have 5 (44m 60s): Murdered there. And then we have the first exile, as Kane is sent out from his family record in Genesis four, it says, and he said, what have you done the voice of your brother? Brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your blood brothers blood. From your hand, when you, till the ground, you shall no longer leave a yield at strength and a fugitive and a vagabond. You shall be on the earth. So Cain is now sent out from his family. If that trouble that started in the first family, it there's now trouble until now 4 (45m 40s): Trouble 5 (45m 40s): Till now. You know, we, we see many families in the old Testament, broken 4 (45m 45s): In missing 5 (45m 49s): God's plan, missing God's original design and intent for family, 4 (45m 57s): But yet it's God who uses a 5 (45m 60s): Family to save the whole world. 4 (46m 3s): God puts husband 5 (46m 5s): Wife. There are three kids, there's three sons and their son and their daughter-in-law into an Ark to preserve and protect the whole world. God uses families. 4 (46m 22s): So where are we at in our cultural world? I wasn't 5 (46m 26s): Planning on sharing any quotes or any, any stats until yesterday was the one book I did bring on my backpacking trip with my daughters. It was fun as, as we spent one out night out in the back country, just a mile in, and as, as we were heading back out, back to the car, back to the trail, head 4 (46m 49s): Stop 5 (46m 49s): To take some pictures of my daughters. I wish I'd, I wish I would have thought of it earlier. And she had them up on the screen, but taking pictures of my daughter and I hear a familiar voice down the trail. And it's pastor Steve and Steven and Curtis, and they're coming up the trail and they're all energized and ready for the whole hike. Well, my daughters are just kind of fading, just trying to make it back to the car. 4 (47m 11s): And they were just, 5 (47m 12s): It was this exciting moment. And I look at Steve with his two sons and there I am with my two daughters and different ages, different sizes. 4 (47m 19s): And yet it was just this cool moment out there. So 5 (47m 25s): Out there, up on the mountain, right now, they're out probably camping by a river manzana, narrows, where we took the youth a few weeks ago, getting his time with some, with some kids I'm stoked to that. He's out there doing So I wasn't planning on PR on giving these quotes and tell this one from a book I just picked up. The book is called raising passionate Jesus followers by Phil and Diane Komer. And he's he quotes a 2000, 2009 study that concluded that 90% of youth active in high school church programs drop out of church. By the time they're sophomores in college with only 34% ever returning as a youth, pastor, 2 (48m 12s): Someone 5 (48m 12s): Who has kids in my own eyes, that's terrifies me 90% 2 (48m 20s): It's sobering, 5 (48m 25s): But there is hope because in 2010, there was another, another study that showed that there was a remnant of homes where faith stood strong in the way, all the way into adulthood Have to end with 90% walking away. There was this remnant of home where we're faith and, and a relationship in a way, in a way, religion was taught and pushed onto them onto your, your children. And it's in those homes where there was an active involvement in the lives of their, of their kids. That, that, that 90% didn't apply. 5 (49m 8s): It says in students who stayed in the church throughout college said, the first thing they do when they have doubts or questions is to talk to their parents and read their Bibles. The students who remained in the faith, the first thing they would do, if they had problems that arose, they'd talk to their parents and read their Bibles. And so that is the model we need to, we need to be doing that. And I'm so stoked that a youth group, what we do is this on a Wednesday night with the youth, it's really not that different. We have some fun, we have some games, we do a little ice breaker, so the students can get to know each other. And then we go straight into the same worship team. Student led worship, 2 (49m 50s): Someone 5 (49m 50s): Who come up and give their testimony of what God has done. And then when they open up the word of God and we have Bibles, and I hear this like page turning, and it's incredible to hear 50, you know, Bibles turning at the same time to, to this text or that text and this it's phenomenal. And I think those are the things that are going to break that 90% is when youth group isn't so foreign to what's in here. And it's one of the reasons that drum drew my family and I to this church is that families are emphasized. We want to do worship together. I want to worship next to my daughters on a Sunday morning. I want, I want them to see me worshiping and I want to see them worshiping. 5 (50m 31s): I want to raise my hand and I want to see my daughter mimic me and raise their hand as well. 4 (50m 38s): It's like that 5 (50m 38s): Father's heart is like beating on my chest, Say a lot about where our culture is at today that I do know this, that Jesus didn't come to change the culture, but he came to change individual, heart, individual hearts. But when a hardest change, then it begins to change culture around it. I think there's no more important job in this world and parents raising godly children. 4 (51m 12s): And even 5 (51m 12s): As I stand up here, I, I know of my own inadequacies on the way I'm doing my best to raise my girls and my, my flaws and my mess up. So pray the Lord's grace over them. 4 (51m 25s): The parents raising godly children, 5 (51m 29s): February 12th, 2004, then mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsome redefined marriage for the first time I believe in the world is no longer be between a male and a female. He ordered city hall to issue different marriage license licenses. There was a marriage being redefining within our lifetime. 4 (51m 54s): In 5 (51m 54s): Our lifetime. We've seen gender being redefined as well. It's no longer male and female. The way that pattern in the image of God, that is being changed. Now I heard of a friend who has a, a larger youth group, not in this area, But on that issue of gender identity, over 50% of them said they didn't fit into in a youth group, didn't fit into male or female. We have to hold the truth. We have to teach and train 4 (52m 32s): The word of God. 5 (52m 36s): All of children is even being redefined in a very subtle crafty way. I've I see, as I look out and watch movies and media, all of a sudden realizing, wow, this is, this is not new. This is, this has been around for a while. And this, this whole thought that parents don't know best children know best 4 (52m 58s): Medium 5 (52m 59s): Portraying parents as being just simple minded and not knowing and not up on the, you know, all the fashion, the culture, all these things are just, just don't listen to your parents, do your thing. It's no longer parents know best it's children know best. And I'm going to throw a Disney movie under the bus right now. It was from, I was 10 years old. When this movie came out, the little mermaid, right? That's a great little movie. What are you saying? Jeremy Disney. And I've let my girls watch it. And I've obviously seen it. I've had to fast forward some sections from my girls, but think about the little mermaid and what it, and what it teaches. 5 (53m 40s): And, and these, these, these minds that a 16 year old are 4 (53m 45s): Teenage girl knows better than what her father, 5 (53m 51s): You know, right. She, she, she wants to go be a human. 4 (53m 55s): She wants to 5 (53m 55s): Collect human things and he finds out and he says, no, no, you can't do this. This isn't good. This isn't healthy. And so he, he, 4 (54m 1s): You know, destroys 5 (54m 3s): All our things and she's left to go out on her own to make this thing happen. And so she pursues the path of becoming a human and, and doing it her way. And then she gets into trouble. And then her father has to rescue her. And then in the end, Oh, he realizes that you're right, honey, you should be a human. You should do this thing. But if you see the crafty lies that become the in-between that you realize that what is telling the Watchers that hate your parents don't know best. It's actually you who knows best. You need to do your own thing. You need to not listen to your parents. That is, 4 (54m 36s): Is dangerous. So how does God want to use your family? 5 (54m 53s): First off marriage and family is a mystery. Is it not? Because it's a picture of something greater, something that will fully be revealed when, when Jesus Christ comes back, I would encourage you this week to read through Ephesians in the light of family, as in a church family, but your own family, read Ephesians, and just see what things begin to pop out to you. As you read the book of Ephesians in light of family, church, family, and your own family. And, and if you think grandparents, I want you to keep the course because you're not done raising your own children and you're, and you're, and you're, and you're there in the lives of your grandkids and young people. 5 (55m 35s): If you think, Oh man, that he's, Jeremy's talk about marriage and family just know that if the Lord tarries someday, you will have her own family. And these seeds, the seeds of the word of God will someday sprout. And I want to see you have a godly marriage and a godly family. 4 (55m 47s): Oh, really? 5 (55m 51s): Joel Kim said this. He said, family is one of the central means by which the Lord deepens and expands our faith. 4 (55m 60s): And it's often 5 (56m 1s): As a model of our heavenly father 4 (56m 4s): Quoting from 5 (56m 5s): The old Testament. Paul Paul Paul goes to second Corinthians. He's writing his letter to the Corinthians. And he says this, that God will be a father. I will be a father to you. And you shall be my sons and daughters says the Lord almighty. And so with all these attacks in the culture to our family, we have to know that it's not just, these are flesh and blood things. These aren't just people's ideas. These are straight lies from the pit of hell. This attack on family, isn't flesh and blood. Paul would say in Ephesians six, finally, my brother, and be strong in the Lord in the power of his might put on the whole armor of God that she may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. 5 (56m 47s): We need to know what the Wiles of the devil are to be able to stand against them for, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities against powers against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. Having done all to stand the rebellion against family and marriages and children is, is a direct act of rebellion against the very nature of the Godhead and parents are so needed. Parents can never be replaced. The parents are needed. There is a Holy dependence upon parents. 5 (57m 27s): And often that is comes in the form of wisdom and direction into, in speaking into the lives of their kids. When I was in high school, I wanted to go watch a high school football game. It's in the fall of central Valley. It gets a little cool at nights. My mom was like, you need to take your jacket. Nah, I don't need my jacket. Now you need to take a jacket. You'll get you'll. You'll get chilly. You'll get chilled. And then you'll get a cold. Nah, I won't. I will. I'll be fine. Ran around that whole evening. Came home, had a sniffle. Next day, I had a cold. My mom knew me better than I knew myself In second Chronicles, chapter one, God appears to Solomon in a dream. 5 (58m 19s): And he asks him basically, Hey Solomon you're you're you're, you're the King. You're the man. What do you want? What do you want? Do you want your enemies? Go on whatever you want. You just ask for it. And Solomon asks for wisdom and knowledge. 2 (58m 36s): Why does 5 (58m 36s): Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge? I mean, it seems pretty straightforward, right? He's going to be the new King. He's got all these people. He's got to lead. Why he asked for wisdom and knowledge open up to Proverbs four. If you have your Bible, 2 (58m 54s): Proverbs chapter four. 5 (59m 3s): And in Proverbs chapter four, Proverbs is a book written by Solomon. This struck out this, this stuck with me a few years ago. 2 (59m 16s): Yeah. 5 (59m 19s): The first part of Proverbs, most the provers is written to his kids to Solomon's kids. Chapter four verse one says here, my children, the instruction of a father and give attention to, to know understanding for, I give you good doctrine. Do not forsake my law. When I was young, when I was my father's son tender in the only one in, in, in, in the sight of my mother, he also taught me and said to me, so let me ask you. Who wrote the book of Proverbs Solomon, who was Solomon's father? Who was Solomon's dad, David. 5 (1h 0m 0s): So this are the, these are the words he records. The words he received from his father in the book of Proverbs says, so now he's telling us, so in Proverbs, he says this, this is what he taught. This is what David taught Solomon. He said this in verse four, let your heart retain my words. Keep my commands and live, get wisdom, get understanding, do not forget or turn away from my words in my mouth for and do not forsake her for. She will preserve. You love her. And she will keep you wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom. And in all you're getting get understanding. I think there's a direct correlation to David St. 5 (1h 0m 41s): Son someday. I know your weaknesses. I know, I know you someday. You're going to be King and this is what you need to have. You need to have wisdom and you need to have understanding. So God appears to Solomon a dream. What do you want? Well, my dad said, I need wisdom. I need to do, I need to get wisdom. Parents are so needed for your input, but also that gives a responsibility for children. So I want to invite up Tyler to come up now to come up and give us a word as well. This morning, you just thought I was just going to be me. 5 (1h 1m 23s): And I got to, I got Tyler to come up to give a word. Come on, buddy. 6 (1h 1m 30s): All right, good afternoon. Yeah. It's it's afternoon already. So since it's you take over, I'm going to start off with kind of a traditional youth introduction. My name is Tyler . I'm 16. I've been attending harvest for about 12 years. Now my toothbrush color is white, green and pink. And because Gabe is probably watching this and he will get upset. If I don't my tooth press toothbrush, bristled density is his medium. Okay. Very important. So family, as Jeremy's been talking about as an important part of God's plan, children are obviously a part of that plan, but a really key aspect of children in God's plan is raising and becoming godly children. 6 (1h 2m 16s): Pastor Ron touched on this verse with the dedication Proverbs 22 six, he used a slightly different version. I'm using the King James, cause you can't really go wrong with that. It says, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. I really liked this version because of the words train up to prepare for battle. So when we leave these walls, it's a battle out there we're being okay. And how Jeremy said that 90% of Christian youth leave the church after high school. That's crazy. That's that's our fight. Okay? That's our parents can help us with that. But us as youth have to decide whether we want it or not. 6 (1h 2m 59s): That's our responsibility. Our responsibility is to listen to our parents, our elders, and learn how to use the weapons that they will teach us. And that God wants us to use. I was looking at another article, very similar to what Jeremy was talking about. And it gave some reasons for why youth leave the church. One of them was when kids go to college, all of a sudden they're surrounded by all these atheist ideas. These people who are super comfortable in their reasoning and they, they know what they're talking about. And they're going to convince you that this is, this is the real thing. Their belief is wrong. A lot of color kids, college, Christian youth don't know how to respond to that. 6 (1h 3m 45s): They don't know how to defend their faith. They instead of pressing in and learning how to defend their faith, they fall back and want to be comfortable. They don't want to push themselves out of their comfort zone. I wasn't going to share this, but it's Jeremy started off first service with two CS Lewis quotes. So I figured I kind of copy that. But CS Lewis was really famous for arguing against atheist, debating them publicly. And one day he was beaten. He'd never really been beaten before. 6 (1h 4m 25s): And the way he responded to that was by writing the Chronicles of Narnia, probably the most influential Christian children's book out there. And so my point is we will face attack. We will be defeated at some point, okay, it's inevitable. But the fact that we need to change is how we respond to that. Are we going to fall back and be afraid and give into the enemy? Or are we going to keep pressing forward? Are we going to keep taking one step at a time until we get to the end? Okay. Till we get to the goals and plans, God has set for us. 6 (1h 5m 5s): Fusions six one through three says children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right honor. Your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you. And that you may enjoy long life on the earth. The second reason that they said kids fall away from the church is because kids don't think the Bible has any significant meaning directly at them. When they're kids, it's for the old people, the old people can do what they want and I'll do my own thing and everyone's happy, but God wants us to be with him. Okay. He gives his first commandment with a promise to the children, not to the adults, not to the priests. He wants us to be with him. 6 (1h 5m 45s): He says, I know the road is going to be long and hard and painful. But if you keep following me, if you keep pressing into it, you'll get the reward at the end. One thing I'm super grateful for my parents is teaching me that pushing past the pain will get me to the best things in life. Keeping on that idea of backpacking that Jeremy did. My first backpacking trip. I went with a bunch of a couple of my buddies and they're done ads. And we could either backtrack the way we came. Nice. You know, seen it Creek route. There's some ups and downs. Okay. It's not a cakewalk. Or we could do a trail called hurricane deck. 6 (1h 6m 26s): Now at the time, hurricane deck sounded super awesome and it is, but we got up we're we're gonna, we're going to do it. We knew the elevation was going to be, you know, significant. And it's going to be like climbing. I don't know, like 2,600 feet. And so we get up and we get going and we're hiking and they're switchbacks and the trails in front of us and we're climbing and we start to see the top of the Hill. We're going up. And we're like, okay, we're almost there. This is great. You know, it's hard, but it's not that hard. And it's gets a little steeper. So we decided to take a break for like, you know, the last push-up and one of the dads pulls out, his GPS gives them a thing, looks at it and goes, we've climbed about 400 feet. 6 (1h 7m 15s): We still had over 2000 feet to go. So we get over this Hill and we, I look up and there's this like mountain range that we're going to have to climb. And there's no switchbacks. The trail fades into bushes. You go straight up this thing. And so we put our heads, heads down and we climbed and climbed. I don't think I've ever done a harder hike. That was hard. My toes hurt my calves burned at times I, I wanted to quit. It was, it was that bad. The trail was not the most well-maintained so, you know, there's branches all over. My legs are getting cut up. I'm getting slapped in the face with, with branches, but I kept telling myself, keep going, take one, one more step. 6 (1h 8m 0s): Just another step. Get to the top. And when we got to the top, you could see the entire Valley before you've got a river off to one side, you've got snow, captain mountains up top. It was probably greatest view I've ever seen in my life. And I've been to the grand Canyon. I've been to Zion national park cabin. I've been to all the really cool places that everyone says, you have to go. The reason why that is my favorite place as one, the view is by far the best. Okay. If you ever get the chance to do a hurricane deck and you can do it, be prepared. Okay. 6 (1h 8m 41s): But the reason it was, it was so great was because I had to work for it. I didn't get a pull up and park and be like, Oh, there's the view. Yay. I had to bust my butt off to get up there. Okay. And when I got back to the cars, it was like 10 miles of hiking. I was exhausted and it takes a good bit to exhaust me. So I would just want to encourage all of you to keep pressing on when it gets hard. When the road is tough, keep taking this as forward. Tell yourself one more step. If I take one more step, we'll get closer and keep taking those steps because in the end it'll be worth it. 6 (1h 9m 21s): Thank you for letting me do this. 5 (1h 9m 32s): Thanks Tyler. That's amazing. So we have now an invitation into God's family. It was God who in his, in his special purpose, took this husband and wife of, of, of, of fresh new family, Mary and Joseph, and had them bring his son to the world. God uses family. And there's two ways I see in the, in the text in the Bible that God invites us into his family. One is by adoption, Ephesians chapter one verses three through six, has blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be Holy and without blame before him having predestined deaths to the adoption of sons as his sons, by Jesus Christ himself. 5 (1h 10m 25s): According to the good pleasure of his will, God invites us into that adoption into his family. The other way I see is by marriage, by patrol, there are a covenant or a contract. She John 14, a one through five says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me for, in my father's house, there are many mansions. And if I were to not, if were not, so I would not have told you, but I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. He is inviting his bride, the church to join him in his head, in the father's house. 5 (1h 11m 7s): The insula that the place where a son, after his betrayal, the, to his bride, he would go and to his house and his father's house and begin building a room, begun, building a place for he and his family to then live. And Jesus is making those words is seeing the same thing. It's like, I'm going to go. And I'm going to prepare that place for you. And I love Thomas because he asked the question, Lord, we do not know where you're going. How can we know the way Jesus makes one way? He says, I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father, except through me. We are to be then a family for eternity, a family for eternity. 5 (1h 11m 52s): And the earth is a waiting. And as well as our bodies are just awaiting this new creation, the new heavens and the new earth, 4 (1h 12m 2s): Let's go 5 (1h 12m 3s): To Romans chapter eight, real fast, Romans chapter eight, 4 (1h 12m 16s): I'll start 5 (1h 12m 16s): 18. It says for, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory. That shall be revealed in us. And like Tyler is saying when, when he was climbing that mountain, the hurricane deck, there is sufferings. But once you get to the top and you can get that vision of everything that's going on there is there's this, this there's this, this glory sense. Like, ah, this is majesty. You look around and you see, what's what God has put out to set us before us 4 (1h 12m 48s): Verse 19 for the earnest expectation of the creation 5 (1h 12m 51s): Equally waits for the revealing of the sons of God, for the, for the creation was subjected to futile, futility, not willingly willingly, but because, 4 (1h 13m 3s): Because of him who subjected it to it in hope, because 5 (1h 13m 6s): Creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious Liberty of the children of God. For, we know that the whole creation, groans, and labors with birth pains until now, not only that, but we also have the first fruits of the spirit, even ourselves groan within ourselves are the earth is waiting for this new creation. Our bodies are awaiting as Jesus as the restore of the family of God. If you go to revelation 21, you'll see the vision that John was given. And it says, and he sees this vision of God on the throne. He says, in hue sound in the throne behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, write for these words are true and faithful. 5 (1h 13m 47s): And he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the Omega at the beginning. And the end, I will give of the fountain of water. I need water. Sorry. I will give it the fountain water of life freely to him who thirst. And he who overcomes shall inherit all things. I will be his God. And he will be my son, 4 (1h 14m 9s): 2004. I set out a couple of friends to 5 (1h 14m 12s): Conquer mountain shack 4 (1h 14m 13s): Faster. It was a January full of ice. We had to 5 (1h 14m 19s): Shoo up to high camp. And then from high camp, we woke up at four in the morning and began our ascent up the last remaining 6,000 feet. And it was, I mean, it was a grueling day Crampons on her feet, ice axes in her hand, just working our way at this, at this icy slope. And all day I kept looking up, okay, okay. There's the summit. I can, I can do the summit. I can, I can see it. It's right there. And just as we thought about, about, about 12 o'clock about noon, we reached that summit and I realized it was a false summit like 4 (1h 14m 54s): That. Wasn't it. And what I said, 5 (1h 14m 56s): She is it's called misery Hill. And I know the reason why it's now called misery Hill. 4 (1h 15m 3s): There's a little plateau. 5 (1h 15m 4s): And then you see misery hell and it's about, it's a 400 foot Hill on top of Mount Shasta. 4 (1h 15m 11s): And I 5 (1h 15m 11s): Just remember thinking how in the world am I going to do this? And as I approached misery Hill, I realized that it was solid, crunchy ice. And that there wasn't nice staircase. There was no trail. It was just, you go straight up this Hill. 4 (1h 15m 22s): And the way that the ice 5 (1h 15m 24s): Had formed and the wind had had, had its way with it, it was an 18 inch steps. So each step you have to like lift your foot up 18 inches to get up the next one. And I would take one step fire breath, one step five. It was just this painful. And then once you got to the top of the Hill, then he realized there's another thousand or a hundred feet to go a hundred yards to go. And then finally 4 (1h 15m 46s): The summit. And I later 5 (1h 15m 49s): Down after I got to the top of misery Hill and I thought, that's it, I'm done. And my friends who are 4 (1h 15m 52s): There, so Jeremy, you got it. We're not doing this alone. We're not leaving you here. Come on. 5 (1h 15m 59s): We made our way to the summit and it hadn't been those guys. I would not have made it. And that is what church that is what the family of God is for. We are here to support and encourage others onto the glory. That is yet to come 4 (1h 16m 12s): From time, pass 5 (1h 16m 13s): Time, attorney God is using his family. And so now as we take partake 4 (1h 16m 17s): Of communion, we have a few 5 (1h 16m 19s): Communion cups. If you didn't receive them on the way in, you can grab those in. Actually I need one. I forgot mine. Can I give him a breaker? If you didn't have to get, didn't get one. Thank you, sir. Raise your hand and we'll get, we'll get those to you. 4 (1h 16m 33s): But this is 5 (1h 16m 33s): Now the invitation and the remembrance of God's family. Communion is what we look on, what Jesus has done for us. It is remembering what he has done for us 4 (1h 16m 44s): Last. And we therefore need to examine ourselves to make sure 5 (1h 16m 49s): We're not doing, we're not adding anything to the cross of Christ. We're not trying to add to works or perfection or anything. Jesus Christ did it all at the cross. And so we are remembering his invitation into the 4 (1h 17m 2s): Family at a Galilean wedding. It was different than any other in Jerusalem. 5 (1h 17m 10s): And in any other wedding in Israel, in a Galilean wedding, as the groom, they S they read the contract at the gate. Both families were there every week. There was multiple witnesses. As they read the groom would then pour the cup and he would extend it to his bride or his potential bride. And then a Galilean wedding. The bride had the, was, had the ability to either accept or reject that cup of wine. And after receiving, if she chose to accept, she would take us. She would drink from it. And then the girl, the groom would say this, he would save, I will no longer drink of the fruit of this vine of this cup until the day of our wedding feast, As Jesus is passing out the cup that night, the night before his knife, as betrayal, the night of his death, he tells his disciples verily. 5 (1h 18m 3s): I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of this vine until the day that I drink it in the new kingdom, Jesus looks at his disciples and said, I want you to be in my kingdom. You will be my family. So if you have accepted his death, his burial, his resurrection as your own, if you have believed in confess, this community is we don't do this in remembrance. So it's the tin foil top. Did you kind of pull off, sorry. The bread 2 (1h 18m 33s): Is 5 (1h 18m 33s): Not easy. I know I'm struggling in front of everybody. 2 (1h 18m 43s): Read 5 (1h 18m 45s): Paul would say for, I receive from the Lord that, which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed, took the bread. And he, when he had given things, he broke it and he said, take this, eat my body, which is broken for you, do this. And remember in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper saying the cup. This is the cup of my new covenant in my blood. Do this. As often as you drink it in remembrance of it, 2 (1h 19m 37s): Let's pray and have the worship team come up. 5 (1h 19m 47s): We do this in remembrance of you making the way into 2 (1h 19m 53s): The only way into the family of God. We accept your death and 5 (1h 20m 3s): Resurrection as, as our own Lord. So we want to live in this new life. The do the new covenant board of what you've done for us. We want to be filled with your spirit as we go out. And we love on our families and love on the family of God as a whole remove division, Roos, strife, Lord mayor, families not be like the garden of Eden families. Those families are there that were there, the first families, Lord, but maybe we model the family that Jesus you came to to live in and to enjoy and to breathe and to, to give what, to pray that we would have been filled with your vision of what you want to do with his family fills to the spirit this morning in Jesus' name, we pray, amen. 5 (1h 20m 54s): We'll have a worship. We'll have the worship band plan out. And then if you have any prayer, any things you want to lift up for prayer, any blessings come up with the front and what we'd love to pray for. You let's stand together. 0 (1h 30m 56s): Lord, thank you for this day. God, I pray that as we go out, back into the world, God, back into this culture that we live in God, that would be a light for people to follow God that we would be able to carry what we've taken from the sermon today. God, and bring it to other people God, and build the, build your church. God. So I thank you for this time. God, I thank you for this time that we get to worship and fellowship in all of this in Jesus name. Amen guys. 0 (1h 31m 39s): Have a good day.

5 Steps to Getting Along with Others

0 (0s): Let's all stand and we're going to worship together. Lord, we just want to invite you in our hearts Lord, to be preeminent in our hearts. Lord, thank you. That it is your idea that we would gather together as believers. And we just simply want to enter into that amazing place, that wonderful place of worship. So Lord, we just invite them not only your presence, but that indwelling part of Horsham. So then as we sing these songs, it's not just songs we're singing, but we're literally lifting up our heart, our mind, our soul, all that we are to you, the living God. 0 (42s): So Lord, we just delight in you with thank you so much for the privilege of drawing near to you today, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Sing together. There was a moment was the dog . 0 (13m 7s): I need some miracles this morning. Maybe you have pain in your body. Your heart is broken in your fighting anxiety, whatever it is, do some miracles it's reaching out to you for a miracle is desperate all over this campus and everywhere every house you might even want to reach, reach out to you, your loving presence and your healing, your spirit on your sons and daughters. 0 (14m 19s): Remind us of your faithfulness and your goodness, your new for state . 1 (18m 47s): And I pray that we would be able to internalize that truth. God, that you will never let us down. You are good. You are faithful. We can put the full weight of our trust in you believing you wholeheartedly without reservation, without holding anything back. Lord God, we just want to believe that and know that that is true. So I pray God, God, for just a blessing upon those who are struggling with that revelation, God, that you would help them to reflect on their past when you have been so faithful Lord, it's hard to hard to believe sometime for the future, the press or excuse me, the president, or even the future, but we can reflect on the past and then we can look at the scripture, no of your faithfulness, Lord, you never let people down. 1 (19m 35s): So help us to internalize that truth. Today we pray be glorified as we do so in Jesus name, amen. Amen. You can be seated. And if you are in fifth grade or above, you are dismissed to your class fifth grade or above, you can go ahead and go to your class. You're what you're in fifth. You are. If you are a fifth grade through 12th grade, you can be dismissed. If you're above 12th grade, you have to stay in church. Should've made that more clear. 1 (20m 16s): I absolutely should have made that more clear we're in first Timothy chapter five today, or get through the whole chapter today. I was, as I was kind of thinking about the message this morning and praying about, you know, kind of wanting to get God's heart for the message. I decided to go out into the garden and just do some praying. We've we've got this garden in front of our house. It's kind of like the secret garden it's been in the making for decades now. And it's just really beautiful. And that's how I was walking around the secret garden and just the beauty, the flowers, and all of the hard work that my wife and mother-in-law put into it. I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I saw this little yellow thing in the garden and it was an Easter egg that was left behind from the Easter egg hunt in our family. 1 (21m 5s): The little kids get an Easter egg hunt and then the next generation of kids, which would be my kids. If you're, you know, the 20 to 30 year olds, they get an Easter egg hunt, but in their Easter egg hunt, there's money inside the eggs. And so it's, you know, it's a lot of incentive for our kids, our 20 and 30 year olds to go and find eggs. Well, it just so happened that they missed an egg, but I got to it and had already been opened up probably by my dog by by Jolene's dog. I'll say Jolene's dog is more a dog and my dog. And then the kid cat that was inside, that was all taken out as well. And the rapper I saw the rapper nearby. And so I'm trying to pray, but now I'm thinking Easter eggs, right? 1 (21m 46s): I'm thinking there's probably more Easter eggs where there's one, there's more. And I know that if it's, if I find something, I might find some money. So I look it around trying to, trying to pray, but distracted, right? So I find another Easter egg and I crack it open and it's got a $2 bill in it, some pretty good deal. So I keep looking, keep looking. I found another Easter egg, but this one had a $20 bill in it. Then I keep looking and I find another Easter egg. And it's also got a $20 bill in it. 1 (22m 26s): So now I'm $42 richer. And you know what I'll be doing after church looking for more Easter eggs, right? So in reality, this money does not belong to me because it really belongs to the kids who were supposed to find it. So Jolene, I want you to come and get this and then take it to Steven back there. Cause he's my son. And he's my, he's the one that probably should have found it. And so there you go see, even you get the 42 bucks. My first thought was this is going to buy me around a golf, you know, but then I, you know, decided to give it to my kid. 1 (23m 9s): So as I was looking at all the free for the Easter eggs and praying about it and thinking about the message I noticed, there's like hundreds of snails out there as well as early morning. And there's just snails everywhere. And I thought, I thought we were talking today about getting along with others out of first into the chapter five. And I thought, you know, if we look hard enough, we can find beauty in every person. We can find beauty and every person beauty that will help us to love people and get along with them Mo betta, or we can kind of keep our eyes on the snails. You were kind of eating things up in the garden 2 (23m 46s): And things that we don't like. We can get distracted by the snails. Maybe, maybe we say the wards that people have or the blemishes that people have or the problems that people have. But I think God wants us to focus on the positive things that God would have us to focus on within our relationships. And so we're going to actually ask, answer the question. What are the five steps to getting along with others? As we look at the scripture as we look and what I like about a text like this is because as we look at Jesus' life, Jesus got along with everybody except for the religious leaders who were leading people astray. He loved everybody, whether they were stuck in sin, dealing with all kinds of stuff or whatever, he attracted people who were broken, who were in desperate need any ministry to them. 2 (24m 34s): And he loved on them and he cared for them. And so he has asked us to do the same thing within the context of our relationships. If we took a poll, we could probably come up with all kinds of differences, whether it be religious differences, theological differences, political differences, whatever, but the Copely, the common denominator for us as Jesus. And hopefully the common denominator helps us to love people the way that Jesus loves people. So that's the challenge for us today. Steps to getting along with others first, Timothy chapter five. This is Paul speaking to Timothy, who pastors a church in the town of emphasis. 2 (25m 16s): And so Paul, a seasoned veteran in the ministry is speaking to Timothy, who is newer to the ministry. And he's telling him, Hey, this is how you deal with people. This is how you react and respond to people. This is how you love people as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He said in the verse, one never speak harshly to an older man. The word there is it's elder. But in this context, Paul is not speaking about the office of elder. He will be later on, but he's right now speaking about justice, older men never see speak harshly to an older man, but appealed to him respectfully, as you would to your own father, maybe you're here today. 2 (26m 0s): You've got to run relationship with your father. So this isn't helping you. I had a rough relationship with my father for years. My dad hit the road when I was about two years old and he never really looked back and never paid child support really never was involved in our lives much. And so I had as an adults to make the decision, to find the good in my father and rekindle that relationship. And we've done that. And now we speak on the phone about once or twice a week weekend. There's, there's something beautiful about the decision to find the good in the people that are hard to find the good and, and the more I talk with my dad and meet with, you know, him, the more I find that there's good in him got a rough start, but there's good in him. 2 (26m 49s): And that's the attitude that God wants us to have that Paul is speaking to Timothy about. He says, never speak harshly to an older man, but appeal to him respectfully as you would to your own father. Maybe. So maybe there's a couple of things going on here. Maybe God wants to do something in your heart regarding your relationship with your father, whether your father is still alive or passed, God can do a healing in your heart, restoring a health to your heart concerning your father. And then maybe you've got older people in your life. And you're having a hard time speaking to and dealing with respectfully just because they're difficult. People. Everything that God asks us to do in his scripture requires that we are filled with this power that we're filled with the grace face of God, the Holy spirit, the power of God, so that we can do what he's asked us to do. 2 (27m 38s): So everything that God asks us to do requires strength from God to accomplish. So I never speak harshly to an older man, but appealed to him respectfully, as you wish your own father, maybe you've got a difficult Persia and you're saying, man, I'm having a hard time. I'm speaking respectfully with this person, Lord, would you help me? And so you go into the conversation and you say, Lord, I'm going to speak to this person with grace and respect, and you're going to give me the grace to do it. And I'm grateful for that. And then you just move forward. The verse continues, talk to younger men as you would to your own brothers thought about my relationship with my full blood brother. I've got, I got a full-blooded brother. I got two stepbrothers and I got a half brother. So there's got a lot of brothers. 2 (28m 18s): And I think, you know, I've for 52 years, my brother and I've been connected and there's there, there's something that happens over 52 years. There's a connection, a depth of relationship, a respect, and a love that we share for one another. And this is kind of the example that Paul uses as he writes Timothy talk to younger men as you would your own brothers. And so talk to younger men there, we've got lots of young men around this church, right? I just went backpacking with a group of them a couple of weeks ago. And I tell you, there's a, it's a stellar group of young men that we have in this church. 2 (28m 58s): And Keegan's one of them. Keegan is a young guy, senior in high school. He's in the loft right now. I'm running the soundboard in there and then you'll often see them running cameras back there where my son Steven is. And then you'll often often see them up here on the platform playing music. He's just serving everywhere. He's just a stellar example of, of a young man. And so as I think about younger men and talking to them as you would to your own brother, it's easy to talk with a guy like Keegan or the stellar young men of our church with respect and with love. But then there's the young people in your life who aren't so stellar. And that's again difficult, right? Because there's, you know, as young men were often your heart stuff and struggles, and it's hard to, hard, to hard to relate 1 (29m 42s): To those 2 (29m 43s): Young men. But again, by God's grace, as 1 (29m 45s): We address the young people 2 (29m 48s): In our lives with respect, with love and with kindness, 1 (29m 52s): And at times with a challenge to change or to grow up, 2 (29m 56s): Then we can do it with the right heart. And with the right mind, that's all in verse one, verse two says, treat older women as you would your mother. My mom goes to church here. She's right here on the second row. And my mom, after my parents divorced, worked hard, very hard, very, very hard to make sure we had a roof over our head and clothes and food and all that sort of thing. And think about the history and the past and all the stuff that she went through. And as I think about other women, older women in the church, I think people have a story. And I, I just, I think what I wonder what that person's story is. 2 (30m 38s): And then I think about my mom and I think I, I'm going to honor that person and love that person to the best of my ability. And it says, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters. 1 (30m 49s): So palsy, young guy, or a palsy old guy talking to a young guy and a Timothy is at pastoring, this church. And he, so he's got this challenge to address the Gallus his age 2 (31m 3s): With 1 (31m 4s): All purity as he would his own sister. And what a, what a great model 2 (31m 9s): For a young people who are dating for guys in the way that they're supposed to treat women in their lives, it's supposed to treat them with all purity as you would your own sister. So with that perspective, purity is, is the utmost important to see in a relationship. And we have this responsibility as young people, young people have this responsibility to treat the women in their lives as their own sisters with purity and with dignity, five steps to getting along with others. Number one, treat all people with respect, treat all people with respect, fathers, brothers, mothers, and sisters, treat everybody with respect. 2 (31m 50s): Number one, number two, take 1 (31m 52s): Care of those truly in 2 (31m 55s): Need. I just thought about a joke as that was thinking about the Easter eggs. I thought about a joke. And so I thought I'd share a joke with you. How do you catch a unique bunny rabbit unique up on it? How do you catch a tame? One same way. I was supposed to say that earlier in the message, then I forgot about it. 1 (32m 25s): So I'm saying it now because it's kind of a heavy 2 (32m 28s): Message. And so I wanted to throw in a joke. There sounds good. 1 (32m 32s): Number two, take care of those in need. You really need to take care of 2 (32m 37s): Or honor. Any widow has no one else to take care of LSD care for her. 1 (32m 44s): But if she has children or grandchildren, their first responsibility is to show godliness at home and repay their parents by taking care of them. 2 (32m 51s): This is something that pleases God. So we actually have a spirit 1 (32m 56s): Well responsibility as people in the Lord, people of the Lord today 2 (33m 0s): Take care of our parents and grandparents. We, we are, 1 (33m 6s): We have a responsibility, especially with widows, but if she has children or grandchildren, their first response 2 (33m 11s): Abilities to show godliness at home and repay their parents by taking care of them. This is something that pleases the Lord, the fifth commandment, what's the fifth commandment honor, your father and your mother. And this is the only command with a promise that your life, that you may have many days in the land, the Lord is giving you the fifth commander honor, father and mother. So we have this profound responsibility and privilege to take care of those who have taken care of us. And it's really not just an option. It's actually a responsibility. So what's a true widow though. Verse five says, now it's true. 1 (33m 47s): Oh, a woman who is truly alone in this world has 2 (33m 50s): Placed her hope in God. She prays night and day asking God for his help. When I think about a true widow, I'm thinking about the prophetess Anna in Luke chapter two, when Jesus, I think it was when Jesus was being presented at the temple and this woman, Anna was there. And 1 (34m 8s): It says that she had been married to her husband 2 (34m 10s): For seven years. And I 1 (34m 12s): Even in the text, it says she was 84 years old. And she spent all of her time 2 (34m 16s): In the temple, praying and fasting and worshiping 1 (34m 21s): The Lord. She spent all of her time doing this. This is how she spent her widowed years. She spent all of her time working, 2 (34m 28s): Shipping, fasting, and praying night and day. I think about another widow who was a part of our church for a lot of years. Her name was freedom. Maroney she's passed. Now you guys remember freedom. We, we called her granny. We called her granny. And when granny was still alive, I'd go visit her and she'd see. Yeah. 1 (34m 47s): Ask the question. Why am I still here? Why won't the Lord take me home? I said, I don't know, granny. I don't have any idea, but I 2 (34m 54s): Know that you 1 (34m 57s): Have purpose as long as you're here in the earth. I said, so use this time to pray for your kids, for your grandkids, your great grandkids 2 (35m 4s): Kids. Cause she was, I think she had, she was close to a hundred. She had, she, she was very old and had a lot of grandkids. And so I said, use this time to pray for your kids and grandkids and see what the Lord will do. And so she would agree and I'd go back to visit her again. And she'd say, why am I still here 1 (35m 23s): As a grantee? Because you got some prayer work to do. So make sure that you're praying for your, 2 (35m 28s): Your kids and your grandkids. And so when we got the call that she had passed away, we weren't surprised at all. But we were able to rejoice that the Lord was glorified in life. A true widow, a woman who's truly alone in this world has placed her hope in God. She prays night and day asking God for his help. We got a bunch of widows in our church. What do they call the sunflower girls? Sunflower group. Yeah, wonderful. As a group of gals and they gather, and they spend time together and they enjoy fellowship together. And they're using their lives to honor and glorify the Lord verse six says, but the widow who lives only for pleasure spiritually dead, even while she lives, give these instructions to the church so that no one will be open to criticism. 2 (36m 16s): So saying a widow who's living only for pleasure is actually spiritually dead. 1 (36m 20s): And I would say anybody who lives only for pleasure 2 (36m 22s): Is actually spiritually dead. 1 (36m 24s): Because as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, we're actually called to purpose in this life. Now 2 (36m 30s): I encourage you to have a good time. We live here on the central coast of California and there's great hiking and surfing and biking and golf 1 (36m 37s): Everywhere. There's all kinds of stuff to enjoy. So enjoy 2 (36m 40s): It, enjoy it. In fact, I played golf on Friday, you got a call from a buddy of mine and he's like, Hey, do you want to golf this afternoon? Another pastor in the area. I'm like, what time? He said three. I said, how about three 30? And I was like, ready to go because I'd been up since four o'clock that morning working on stuff. And so I was ready for some reprieve. So I get out there and we play golf together and we had a great time played nine holes out of black Lake. And I, I beat him by 11 strokes. 1 (37m 8s): I got, I never beat anybody 2 (37m 9s): 30 by 11 strokes. I'm always the guy getting beat by 11 strokes, but I beat this guy by 11 strokes. So anyway, yeah. Brag on myself a little bit. Sorry about that, 1 (37m 19s): Jordan. You'll be me next time by 11 strokes, but that's all right. So enjoy life, but blended together with the purpose of God 2 (37m 29s): For your life. Enjoy what you do. I'm going to go backpacking with my two boys on, on Saturday next week, we're going to go backpacking and spend some time together, enjoy life, but don't forget the purpose that God has called you to anyone who's living only for pleasure of spiritually dead, even while she lives or he lives verse eight says, but those who won't care for their relatives, especially those in their own household have denied the true faith. 1 (37m 56s): Such people are worse than unbelievers. And so again, we've got this spiritual responsibility to care for our loved ones. And so if you've got young kids and people in your life, you've got a family, it's your spiritual responsibility to take 2 (38m 11s): Care of them. My dad was, and he watches the service every week. So Hey dad, 1 (38m 18s): But he never paid child support. 2 (38m 20s): And we'll talk about it. He'll say, Hey, I want your service did it. He probably didn't want me watching it today. Did you? But we've got an open relationship. But, and 1 (38m 28s): Then I know other people, younger people who just 2 (38m 31s): Refuse to support their family and it just strikes a chord to me because it's our spiritual 1 (38m 36s): First and foremost, this is how we disciple the next generation by being responsible people as fathers in his mothers. It's, it's how we disciple and point the way for the future. Next generations we explain. But then we live our lives in front of the next generation. So they might know how to follow Jesus and how to trust Jesus and how to live their lives in a way that honors him and his word. And so if we're saying that we're Christians, but we're not doing what the Bible says, there's a conflict in the, in the hearts and souls of our young people. And we don't want to create that 2 (39m 10s): Conflict. And so we have this responsibility, a spiritual responsibility to care for our loved ones. 1 (39m 17s): It says, if you don't do it, you're actually worse than an unbeliever. There's something there that we need to be paying attention to you and aligning our lives with verse nine, a widow who has put on the list for support must be a woman who's at least 60 years old. I appreciate it. It's very practical because it helps the church understand how we support widows in our midst and how to decide about how, and 2 (39m 40s): If we support a widow intermit. So 1 (39m 43s): A widow must be who wants to be put on the list, must be a woman who's at least 60 years old. And it was faithful to her husband. So we get to kind of examine and evaluate someone's life. And no, one's perfect, but there's some parameters here that we can use to help us 2 (39m 57s): Make wise choices. 60 years old, faithful to her husband, 1 (40m 2s): Verse 10, she must be well respected by everyone because of the 2 (40m 6s): Good she has done. Has she brought up her children? Well, has she been kind to strangers and served other believers humbly? Has she helped those who are 1 (40m 17s): In trouble? Has she always been ready to do good? And so you can examine that kind of lists and decide, does this person meet the qualifications for it 2 (40m 27s): Beyond the, the list of those that we help as, as widows. And then we make those decisions. 1 (40m 33s): And then he says, in verse 11, the younger widows should not be on the list. So anybody under 60 should not be on them. 2 (40m 41s): It's kind of nice that if you're under 60 or considered a younger widow, that's kind of a good deal, right? So if you're under, that's a positive thing. If you got no, all right, I think you're still young at 60, but whatever, here we go. Okay. 1 (40m 55s): The younger widow should not be on the list because their physical desires will overpower their devotion to Christ and they will want to remarry. Then they would be guilty of breaking their previous pledge. And so apparently the pledge was, Hey, if you're on the list receiving support from the church, then you're devoting yourself to the church, to the work of the church, to the Lord, to the work of the Lord, to what he would have you to do. And you're not going to remarry because you're on the list of receiving support. And so a younger widow might be tempted to remarry, might have the urge and the desire to 2 (41m 27s): Re Mary. And so that's why they're not supposed to be on the list. Their physical desires 1 (41m 31s): Overpower their devotion to Christ and they will want to remarry. Then they would be guilty of breaking their previous pledge. And if they are on the list, they will learn to be lazy, younger widows. They will learn to be lazy and will spend their time gossiping from house to house meddling in other people's business and talk. So that's true. Struck a chord with somebody Pedaling and other people's business and talking about things they shouldn't. So I advise these younger widows to marry again, have children and take care of their own homes. Then the enemy will not be able to say anything against them. So the wisdom from Paul to Timothy says, if you're a younger widow, get remarried, go, go, enjoy your life. 1 (42m 18s): Have a family take care of your, your, your, your, your family. Don't, don't try to get on the list of support from the church. You've got better things to do. Verse 15 says from afraid that some of them have already gone astray and now follow Satan. Isn't that? I'd say that's a strong statement. Some have gone astray, and now they follow Satan. So there's two, there's two paths in the earth. There's the narrow path that leads to life. And then there's the broad path that leads to death to destruction. So you're either on one or the other 2 (42m 52s): Path. 1 (42m 53s): There's not many paths. There's essentially two passes, only two paths. You've got the way to Jesus. Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the father except through me. And so if you're not following Jesus in his path, you're actually following Satan 2 (43m 9s): This path. Isn't that interesting. So there's no wiggle room there. Paul said 1 (43m 17s): Afraid that some of them have already gone astray and now follow Sagan. So they're, they're either following Jesus where we're either following Jesus in our lives or we've gone astray. And now we're following Satan. We're being influenced by the enemy. It's a strong statement and it should wake us up to the reality that in this life, we, we, we, we have a decision to make, who am I going to follow when all of this, all of the arenas of my life, 2 (43m 46s): If 1 (43m 47s): I'm following Jesus and all the, all of the arenas of my life, that I'm reflecting his word in my decisions and my words and my thoughts and my deeds, everything is lining up. And when I get out of the line, I'm quickly to confess quick, to confess, quick to repent, and I'm getting right back in line following Jesus, because he's my Lord and my leader. And so I want to follow my Lord and my leader. And apart from that, I'm on this different path where I'm just kind of going haywire and following whatever my flesh or the enemy compels me to follow. You can't have both verse 16. If a woman who is a believer has relatives who are widows, she must take care of them and not put the responsibility on the church. 1 (44m 29s): If a woman who is a believer has relatives who are widow, she must take care of them and not put the responsibility on the church. And then the church can care for the widows who are truly alone. So you've got this powerful responsibility to take care of those who are truly in need. Number two. And number three, we have this responsibility to honor our leaders. And it's easy for me to talk about this at harvest church, because you guys do that. I really feel like you honor us. And in the way that the scripture says, and honestly, it, it makes it fun to work here. It's fulfilling to work here for all of the leaders and all of the staff. It says here, elders should do their work. 1 (45m 9s): Well, elders press Buderus. Now we're Spock talking about the, those who carry the office of elder elders, who do their work well, should be respected and paid well. And thankfully from the beginning, I've been on staff here for 17 years going on 18 years. And from the beginning, this board has always taken care of my family with just decent pay, with good pay and with how many know this is an expensive place to live, right? And honestly, we don't want it. We don't want to call people to our team and pay them at a poverty level and expect them to serve with joy and serve with gratitude. And you know, when they've got mortgages, they've got, they've got kids in private school, they got all kinds of responsibilities. 1 (45m 55s): So we do our best by God's grace to pay people well, because that's what the scripture says we're supposed to do. Especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching for the scripture says, you must not muzzle at ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain and in another place, those who work deserve their pay. So essentially Paul is telling Timothy, take good care, financial care of your elders, especially those who labor in the word. So kudos to harvest church and to the elders of harvest church, the board of harvest church, thank you for what you do. We are honored as leaders and then 19, this is another way to honor our leaders. It says, do not listen to an accusation. 1 (46m 38s): So there's going to be times when you hear an accusation against an elder, dismiss it, unless you hear it two or three times, then there might be something to it. And then at that point, maybe you come to the elder or you come to the board and you talk about it. But you out of the gate, though, it says, do not listen to an accusation against an elder, unless it is confirmed by two or three witnesses. So it just kind of helps to honor the leadership when there's a bit, the benefit of the doubt, and that doesn't happen around here. That's never happened around here, but that's, that's just what the scripture says. Those who sin should be reprimanded in front of the whole church. This is kind of harsh, right? Cause we're all sinners. We've all fallen short of the fall, short of the glory of God. 1 (47m 19s): But I think probably talking about leaders here and honestly, thanks to social media and the world that we live in everybody's mistakes has put out on media and the worldwide 2 (47m 30s): Web. And so anything that a leader does that is, 1 (47m 35s): Or cause you know, we're a leader. 2 (47m 38s): Sure. And it's plastered all over, all over social media anyway. So we don't even need to bring it before the whole church necessarily because Oh, everybody knows about it already. And so we need to be careful the way that we live as leaders, those who sin should be reprimanded in front of the whole church. They will serve as a strong warning to others. And so maybe there's a time to bring up the leader who has failed. It's listen. When I hear about other leaders who have failed, it sends like ice water through my veins. It is a warning. It's a strong warning. To me, it's a strong warning to our team. And we talk about it. 2 (48m 19s): We say, man, we don't want to be in trouble like this. Person's in trouble. God bless them. We love him, but we don't want to be in that kind of trouble. So we need to live our lives above reproach to the best of our ability by God's grace, we need to live above reproach so that we don't get ourselves into trouble. And so we talk about it. It's a strong warning, just strong warning. Verse 21. I saw him the command you in the presence of God. I mean, this is a command. I command you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus and the highest 1 (48m 52s): Angels to obey these instructions without 2 (48m 55s): Taking sides or showing favoritism to anyone. Paul was giving clear, 1 (48m 59s): Clear command, a clear command to Timothy, Hey, this is how I'm asking you to lead. This is how I'm declaring that you must lead as a pastor within the church. That's why it says never be in a hurry about 2 (49m 13s): And appointing a church leader do not share on the sins of others, keep yourself pure. So when we, 1 (49m 18s): We are looking for church leadership, we have to be careful and take it slowly. 2 (49m 23s): Other other Bibles say, don't lay your hands quickly on somebody else. That means don't appoint a leader prematurely. And so we have to be careful. And sometimes that takes years before we have the chance to really feel confident. And it puts somebody in a place of leadership. You're not sharing the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Paul's telling 1 (49m 44s): Timothy man, your, your life is to be above 2 (49m 46s): Reproach. And the Lord 1 (49m 49s): That you have leading with you, their lives are to be above 2 (49m 52s): Reproach. I shared 1 (49m 54s): Last week that pastors, teachers of the Bible, we're going to cure a greater judgment from God. And so we actually have to think through our lives, what we teach and how we live. 2 (50m 4s): I live and thank God for his grace because none of us do it perfectly. But man, I, I don't wanna, I don't wanna be that. I don't wanna be that guy. I don't want to be a guy. So we're, we talk about it openly as a staff and as pastors and we hold each other accountable and I meet with other pastors and we do the same thing there. So hopefully we'll by God's, we'll get through to the end of our ministries without shadows hanging over without problems. And we'll hear when we stand before the Lord, well done. Good and faithful servant. That's what I want to hear. 2 (50m 45s): Number four, take care of yourself. Not about others now were bought. Paul's kind of focusing on Timothy here a little bit. And he said, take care of yourself. Don't drink only water. You ought to drink a little wine for the sake of your stomach because you're sick so often. So apparently Timothy was a frail physically. He had some stomach issues. And so Paul told him to drink a little wine for his stomach. So we look at wine in the scripture and we can say wine is good and bad or good or bad, or we can say all kinds of stuff. But wine obviously has an additional purposes. Wine has got, is used within worship. You know, people take communion with wine and bread. Jews definitely did some Protestant churches. 2 (51m 28s): Like here, we use grapes use because we don't want to sort of wine and cause somebody to stumble. So we use grapes use as a symbol there of the Lord's blood and, and Bible. And biblical times water was often scare. So wine became a necessity rather than a luxury is equated with life wine. Along with the grain and oil represents God's covenant blessings promised to Israel for obedience, and we also see God withholding those necessities for disobedience. And so wine can be given as a gift, as a blessing for obedience or withheld for disobedience. Additionally wine represents joy celebration and festivity expressing the abundant blessing given to us by God. We also know that Ephesians five says don't be drunk with wine. 2 (52m 13s): So if you're going to enjoy some wine, God bless you in that, but don't get drunk and don't cause somebody to stumble. And then you're within the parameters of scripture. Amen. Lots of really practical things here in first, Timothy chapter five, Paul told Timothy, he take care of yourself. Are you taking care of yourself? Are you taking care of yourself? Part of the way we take care of ourselves is we, we honor the Lord in his word. So we, we can, we take a day off every week. I know plenty of people who work seven days a week. They own their own companies and their own businesses. And they work seven days a week or people in the ministry. They work seven days a week and God's made it very clear that we're to observe the Sabbath day to take a day of rest. 2 (52m 55s): God, God modeled that in the creation account, he worked six days creating the heavens in the earth and then he arrested. Why? Because he was worn out from all of that work. No, God doesn't ever get worn out. But as a model to us creation, he said, take a day off, do something on that day. That's not connected to your regular work and just take a deep breath and relax and enjoy life a little bit, relax and enjoy life. I tell the guys who were working seven days a week. I said, dude, you will get so much more accomplished if you'll take a day off every week. Yeah. 1 (53m 28s): It's it's like tithing. It's like you give 10% and God takes the 90% and does way more with that 90% than you could ever do with the a hundred percent. It's just a principle that God says, honor me with the way that you live your life. And I will bless it. It's a, it's an act of worship to take a day off because we're saying, God, I trust you that everything's going to get done. 2 (53m 51s): As 1 (53m 51s): I re as I obey your commands, I trust you that you're going to take care of everything. Tithing is an act of worship. We're saying, God, I, I trust you with my income. And so I know that you will do more with 90% than I could ever do with a hundred percent. It's just there. There's, there's something that honors God. It's an act of worship. When we do what he asks 2 (54m 11s): Us to do, take care of yourself, where do you need to take care of yourself? What do you need to do? Maybe you need to do a little less. Maybe you need to refocus your priorities. Take care of yourself, have hobbies. I love to ride my mountain bike. Don't do it as often as I should. I love to run. I've started running again. Yeah, good and run. My knees were jacked up then I got prayer. I'm telling you God's done a work in my knees. I was able to run yesterday. Again, no problems. 2 (54m 52s): God's a healing. God, he's restoring God. He's a faithful God. So all of us just need to exercise and walk a little more faith with the Lord with the way that we're living our lives. We hold on to everything. Cause we don't have any faith that God will take care of us. We work every day, work every moment because we're afraid that God's not going to take care of us. Were we a threat fret and worry about every relationship and every decision because we don't believe that God's speaking to us or can speak to us or will speak to us and will direct us and real will guide us and help us and protect us. We're just off full of fret and worry anxiety. And we're thrash because of it. 2 (55m 33s): God's given us life that we might he's coming, that we might have life abundantly. Like, like it's, it's not a life of fear and fret. It's a life of joy. Somebody asked me earlier today, how are you doing? I said, I'm, I'm doing so good if I were doing any better, be illegal. Right. And it's all because of God's grace. Not because I'm some superstar, I'm just, I just love Jesus. And he loves me. And I figured out, man, that serving him with my whole heart, his words had that's it. Right? Right. It's just, it's just where it's at. And then when I mess up, cause my wife will tell me, he messes up from time to time, probably every day, multiple times throughout the day, multiple times throughout the hour, a minute, whatever. 2 (56m 16s): But there's grace for that as well. And just don't beat yourself up, but you'd be, be constantly consecrate. Your luck, hots, consecrate your life. Sanctify your life in Jesus will never have greater joy wrapping up. Number five, don't judge a book by its cover. Five steps to getting along with others. Don't judge a book by its cover says in verse 24, remember the sins of some people are obvious leading them to certain judgments, but there are others who sins will not be revealed until later some are obvious. They're like, Oh, he's a murderer or a thief. Whatever the case may be. And then there's others who sin is kind of hidden below the surface. 2 (56m 59s): And so we're not to judge a book by its cover. There are others who sins will not be revealed until later when we stand before the judgment seat of God and give an account for our lives in the same way, the good deeds of some people are obvious. And the good deeds done in secret will someday come to light. We've got a gal in our church who a secretly, her husband doesn't even know this. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Ah, whatever. Nobody knows who I'm talking about. This gal shops every week for our food bank, our food pantry, she goes out and finds really good deals every week. And she'll show up midweek when nobody's around. 2 (57m 40s): Occasionally I'll see her. Cause I'm here all the time feels like, but she'll bring in all these groceries. She'll bring all these groceries in and just drop them off. The good deeds done in secret will someday come to light. I'd never, I'd never tell you who she is because I don't want her blessing. I don't want her. I don't want to blow her cover, but she is one of those people you wouldn't suspect necessarily. She's a wonderful person, but no one knows what she's doing behind the scenes. Others seem all religious, but they're doing crazy stuff behind the scenes. Crazy bad stuff. 2 (58m 22s): Don't judge a book by its cover. We need discernment as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ to figure people out. We need to exercise discernment and be prayerful. Five steps to getting along with others, treat all people with respect, take care of those truly in need. Honor. Your leaders take care of yourself and don't judge a book by its cover. With that. I'd like to invite the prayer team up. We're going to worship some more and then I'm also want to invite the prayer team. So the worship team come forward. And then during worship, if you'd like to receive prayer for anything, the protein will be up here as well. I'm up here, my wife's up here. Others are up here available to pray for you. 2 (59m 4s): We talked about a lot today. God's first Timothy fives, full of stuff and good stuff. And so if you've been touched or convicted or challenged or encouraged and you want some prayer, come on forward with that. Let's go and stand up and learn. We'll be careful to give you praise and honor and glory for everything. Jesus, for the good in our lives, Lord God. We say thank you for the hard things. Lord, we say that you're faithful and, and we can trust you, Lord. Thank you for the challenges Lord, they, they, they always turn our attention to you. If our hearts in the right place, Lord, I pray that our challenges would always turn our hearts to you. Lord God, that we would always go running to you, our father, our friend, and the alpha and the Omega God that we would run to you with parts that are pure and desiring you or God, and that we would love you all the days of our lives and that we will allow you to love us all the days of our lives. 2 (59m 58s): Lord, God work a miracle in our lives today. Encourage us, build us up in our most Holy faith. Speak to us, continue to move powerfully. We pray. We love you. Jesus. Thank you for your abundant grace. Say thank you to the Lord about maybe speak that out, 0 (1h 0m 24s): Speak it 2 (1h 0m 24s): Out. I want to be able to hear you say it out loud. 0 (1h 0m 37s): What else? What do you think before healing? Yeah. Hey man. Hey man. Thank you for EEG and Lord. Thank you for that. Yes. Yes. 0 (1h 1m 24s): Thank you. Jesus. 2 (1h 1m 33s): We have so much to be thankful for. We love you, Lord. We thank you for your very kindness, 0 (1h 1m 40s): Patience, faithfulness. I'm thankful for my wife, thankful for my kids, my parents for my life. God help us to worship in spirit and in truth we pray. Thank you Lord. Amen. 0 (1h 2m 18s): thank you so much. 0 (1h 12m 15s): Got it. We don't have to walk with fear that we can stand firm and your love for us and the presence of our enemies and hardship and trials that you carry us through. And so we thank you for your presence here with us today. Thank you for all the work that you've done in our hearts. We pray that you would just see a lit upon our hearts. God, that we would walk into this week, different change because we've been in your presence. Thank you for this. Remember we love you. We give you all the glory, all the praise, all balloons, Jesus in your precious name. Amen.

What Does Godliness Look Like?

0 (0s): So a big welcome to you. We have info center that's that has all the information that you'll need to find out about plugging into harvest church. And just in case, this is your first time here at harvest, and you want to find out more about us. We actually have a four week class starting today. It's called harvest growth track and that's opened the parsonage. So if you feel like I want to find out more about harvest today, you can go jet up there right now, Chris, he's about ready to start. That's that's that's today. A few other things we've got M six gathering tomorrow. That's men gathering at a thousand Hills ranch out in, I don't know where it's at. Actually. I haven't been yet. So a thousand Hills ranch, we have the men's gathering. 0 (43s): There's a free dinner worship and then testimonies. And you're asked to bring a friend. So if you've never been, maybe grab a friend, go out to the M six gathering. There's no RSVP needed to show up. And then lastly got one more announcement. That's the Kings, the kids spring keeps saying Kings. I don't know why. I'm sorry. The kids spring choir. And this is the last week to sign up. So if you have a child from second grade and up and you're, and they're interested in joining the choir performance at the end of may, email Leslie or head for the info center for more information on that in the rehearsals will be on Sundays from 10 20 to 10 50. So we've got those things going on and yeah. 0 (1m 23s): Good to see you guys all here and I'll let Tim take it over from here. 1 (1m 28s): Good morning, please stand. We're going to worship together this morning. I'll just a quick word of prayer, dear God. Thank you so much for the opportunity to have a building, to worship in, to have a sound system that works and all this stuff. God, that just, just, it just helps us facilitate Lord. And I just thank you for, for being our God this morning, first and foremost is asking to meet each and every one of us here in a new way this morning, we just want to get out of the way and just become aware of you guys. Just to make it less about us. More about you this morning. 1 (2m 11s): Jesus name 2 (5m 1s): Say worthy is the key and just seeing and declare how much we love you. 3 (16m 48s): Our hearts and minds and soul is drained. Every part of us, Lord, we love you. And we know that love is reciprocated. In fact, we know that we love you because you first loved us. You started this whole thing and we're so grateful. We're so grateful. Lord, You got to pray that you would touch every person in this room and on this campus whoever's watching online. I pray that every person who would be touched with the reality of your great love, And then that would trigger a response in every person, this kind of response that we've been singing this morning. 3 (17m 31s): God, that we love you. 2 (17m 35s): We love you, Lord. We love you. Lord, 3 (17m 39s): Refresh us in that love Lord, both ways, got to refresh our love for you and refresh God, our understanding of your love for us. Thank you, Lauren. It's good. Just to praise and sing and pray and to just be in your presence. Lord, we bless you God, as we open up your word this morning, and as we avail ourselves to your truth, I just, I know God that you're going to download something of power to us, not to believe that it's just good stuff in store for us today. 3 (18m 20s): That's true. Every time we open up your word and avail ourselves to your truth, Lord, that you've just gotten life, transformational, power change for us and challenge for us. And so I pray that we'd just be anxious and hungry for it. Lord, like, like we're anxious and hungry for a good meal. When we're really hungry, Lord that we would just be anxious and hungry for our time with you today. And then God that you would fill us to overflowing with abundance. So we leave this place filled up with you and, and we can spill it out on everybody else, Lord, and with love and grace and truth and hope kindness. 3 (19m 2s): Thank you Lord. We need you. We love you, Lord. Bless us. Now we pray. Continue to bless us. I should say, Lord, continue to bless us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. You can be seated. Thank you. Worship team. Then you worship team. 4 (19m 16s): Oh, it's just good to, yeah, it's good. Just to be in the presence of the Lord. I, since I was a young guy, I've just always appreciated worship and the time just that, that is set apart just to seem to the King and to give our hearts fully to him. And so I'm thankful for the opportunity this morning, thankful for Easter last week. So many people came out and spent days setting everything up. Mike Apadaca was out there with his tractor, grading, everything and our back area and dozens of people helping to set things up beginning like on Thursday and through Friday and Saturday and Sunday. And it was just really, really powerful. 4 (19m 60s): And then the cleanup, you know, happen in a couple hours, thanks to so many people who just, who stuck around and, and helped us out with that. It was just really, really good. After Easter. We had this crazy idea that we'd go backpacking. So we, my son and I, so the youth were planning this backpacking trip and they were planning to leave Tuesday to go back off of figure a mountain off of one 54. And it's about a 6.8 mile hike. And so Jeremy, our youth and family pastor said, Hey, why don't you guys leave a day early and make sure that there's actually camping spots available for another 25 people or so coming back. 4 (20m 40s): So, so Curtis and I got up after the long Easter weekend and we left about seven 38 in the morning and we began to hike and just had a wonderful, wonderful time as I was hiking. I thought there's so many parallels, so many parallels to the Christian life, the Christian walk and this hike we're on this backpacking trip that we're on. In fact, when we finally made it there, we, we didn't, we didn't share this thought with each other until we actually got to the, the, the destination we both said to each other, Curtis said, Hey dad, if you weren't with me, I probably wouldn't have made it all the way. 4 (21m 21s): I probably would have stopped and camped along the way, because there were, it was just a lot of uphill and that sort of thing. I said, Curtis, that's exactly what I was thinking. If you weren't here, I would have stopped like a mile back and just said, that's enough. But we both realized we would have totally missed the amazing destination that we experienced if we would have given up and so much like the Christian walk, the Christian life. If we don't have people spurring us on holding us accountable and challenging us to continue what we're going to settle for something far less than what God has for us. And so I was super grateful. Curtis was there and then we got there and there was plenty of spots. And so we called back to Jeremy and said, Hey, come on out, man. 4 (22m 4s): There's lots and lots of room. And so he came out and they all 25 of them, it was really, really powerful that the day that they were supposed to come out, it was getting about four o'clock and they had been on the trail for a while. So I was kind of getting anxious for them to be out there and I wanted to see them. And so I just started down the trail and I got about a mile back from the, the main campsite there and there they were, they were all settled there and kind of taken a break before they made the final descent. And it was yeah, really, really good. But one guy had pulled a muscle in his leg and he was really struggling carry his backpack. And so we got a chance to help him carry his backpack. The last mile that isn't, that just like the Christian life. 4 (22m 44s): Sometimes we get injured or we're discouraged. We don't know how we're going to press on. We don't know how we're going to finish and get to the destination, but others come along, come around us and help us to carry the burdens that we have to get us moving. And to our destination, I tell you, what is the best, most beautiful destination? There were two waterfalls. I should've brought a picture, a video right. Or something, but there were two waterfalls coming down and flowing into this big, big, like eight foot deep pool of water that you could swim in and refresh yourself. And it was so amazing, so much better than the campsite that was a mile earlier, or even the ones that were just along the way we would have totally missed it. 4 (23m 29s): I think that's kind of, God's message to us is that we will totally miss out on God's best if we give up and maybe you're here today and you're kind of wondering whether you want to press on in your faith as your, as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And you've got this big backpack on and you're just kind of feeling weary and just kind of feeling worn out. I just want to encourage you that God is with you and he will help you get there. He will help you get there, but maybe you got this pack on and, and there's, there's an art to packing a backpack, right? Like you don't want to pack too much. There are things that you need. Like, you need a tent, a sleeping bag, a sleeping pad. You need, you know, cookware and food and that sort of thing. 4 (24m 10s): But there are certain things that you don't need to carry in like big, heavy stuff that just kind of wear you out. So you gotta be careful not to have too much on your pack. Otherwise it's cumbersome and it's difficult to keep going forward. So some of us in our lives, we're carrying all of this extra unnecessary weight, this baggage, this burden burdensome stuff that the Lord just wants to lift off off of us. It's it's really a picture of God's. You know, Jesus said, my yoke is easy, so there's a yoke, but he said, my burden is light. So he wants to lift it off of you. So if you're carrying around just old baggage from past mistakes and failures, sins, whatever it is, just confess that to the Lord. 4 (24m 54s): If we confess our CNC is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So what he'll do is he'll lift that, that bag of that burden off of our bag. And then we'll be able to kind of March on through. I remember when I got to the campsite and took off the backpack, it was just like, Oh man, you feel like you're walking on air because all of that weight is off of you. I think that's kind of the experience that God wants us to have like something of a lighter load in our lives. So confess whatever you need before the Lord today, and just watch his grace and mercy wash over you and watch your, your law, your load kinda lighten up. It was just a powerful deal, but as kind of back, as long as we were walking and I'll just kind of share this story for a little bit and the, can we start the clock? 4 (25m 37s): Thank you. Because now I'm not, I'm not going to know how much time I have and it doesn't really matter cause I'm just going to go till I'm finished anyway, but now there we are, but it's helpful to know that I'm over, right? So it's just helpful to know. So as, as we were hiking, there was a lot of incline and my son would tell me, he kept, he kept telling me, Hey, dad look up. Cause I'm I got, you know, I'm just going, you know, it's just trying to get the job done. And he would tell me, look up Dan, look at, look at what we're hiking in. And, and he would just remind me of all of the beauty, the wonder of what God had created and is sustaining even now. And it was just like this refreshing experience. 4 (26m 18s): We're going to be talking about a biting with God today. We're actually going to be answering the question. What does godliness look like? What does godliness look like? And I, I couldn't help, but make a lot of para a lot of comparisons to that backpacking trip because I was reminded of so many wonderful things as I just chose to look up and abide with God and appreciate his presence 5 (26m 45s): And appreciate his beauty. I think sometimes we can just get busy, right? We've got our head, 4 (26m 49s): It's Dan, we got stuff to do. And we don't look up 5 (26m 53s): And just say, thank you Lord for life and for breath and for 4 (26m 57s): Family and for whatever it is that you want to thank the Lord for, we can get burdened down by maybe illness or disability or whatever it is. And we don't, if we don't look up, we're just kind of stuck with our heads down. And like my son told me, I'm telling you look up, look up, God's doing some really, really amazing things. If we'll just stop and pay attention. So what does godliness look like? We're going to kind of unpack that today. We're going to kind of discover that today because I think God wants us to experience something of newness in our walk with him, our relationship with him. He wants to breathe life into us in such a powerful way that we walk out of this place with new perspective. 4 (27m 42s): I remember just sitting around the campfire when we were there just before the kids got there. And even after the kids got there, just sitting around the campfire, just being so filled with gratitude for what the Lord has done. I mean, I just, I looked around at his creation and then that caused me to ponder about my, my own life and my family and the way that God has just blessed our church and taking care of us. And I just, I just was filled with this refreshing gratitude. It was so important and so necessary for, for my life as I just sat there and just thought about the Lord. There's something about abiding with him and allowing him to buy it to abide in us. That is just life-giving and powerful. And we get busy and distracted and we miss out on those things. 4 (28m 26s): So let's take a look at what Paul wrote to Timothy in first Timothy chapter four. And we'll get to that answer. What does godliness look like with that? Let's say as you guys turn to first Timothy four, I just want to pray, 5 (28m 37s): Lord Jesus. We just pray. And we thank you for your presence here. 4 (28m 42s): We were able to sing that last song and just talk about how much we love you with all of our hearts and minds and soul and strength or got God. I know you're blessed by that Lord. And I just want to declare that as a church, we love you Lord, and we want you to have your way with us today. 5 (28m 59s): We want you to speak to us where we need. 4 (29m 2s): I need you to speak to us, to challenge us where you need, where we need to be challenged, Lord God, that we would be 5 (29m 10s): Encouraged today and put back on the right path. Maybe it's been a tough journey and some of us are feeling the burden, the weight of it all. Lord, I just pray that you would bless us as we trust you in Jesus name. Thank you, Lord. Amen. 4 (29m 28s): The 41. Now the Holy spirit tells us clearly that in the last times, in the last days, some will turn away from the true faith and they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings come from demons. There's a temptation as the return of Christ draws near. And this has been going on for the last couple thousand years since its Ascension, there's this, there's this temptation to walk away from it. So walk away from the Lord and to pursue other things. But God has got us on this path and he doesn't want us to give up. Although there challenges and difficulties along the way, coming back out of the hike while going into the hike, I had been wearing these boots and they weren't, I guess they weren't broken in very well. 4 (30m 16s): So I was getting these hotspots and these blisters. And so I decided just to put on my sandals, he saw these, you know, strap on sandals and I hiked the rest of the way. And then I was hiking out and I realized I'm getting gnarly blisters on my feet. As I'm hiking out with these sandals, I would've wore socks with the sandals, but then I would've been, looked like an old guy. So I, I didn't want to look like an old guy. Although I do typically wear socks with sandals, but I decided I would just, just go for it. I thought, what choice do I have? Like I gotta get outta here. Like I five miles from the trail head. I gotta just keep going. I can't stop and wait here for three days until my blisters heal up. Right? Cause then I'm going to walk another mile and get some more blitzers I got to stop again. 4 (30m 59s): I think the challenge for us is that we've got to just continue to move forward two hours or destination. Although we do deal with troubling things, temptation and sickness and all kinds of challenges in our life. But what I noticed is that God gave me the grace just get to continue to walk out. I literally have silver dollar size blisters in between my toes, but I was like, I know they're there, but I'm not going to look at them. I'm just going to keep marching forward because I don't have a choice, right? I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to stand out there until, till they get cleared up. So what I noticed is that God gave me the grace and then I get home. I get to my destination. 4 (31m 39s): Wife makes this hot water with Epson salt, you know, Epsom salt. I don't know what it's called, but you put your feet in there and it just creates this nice soothing experience. I wouldn't have had that soothing experience if I were to quit on the trail, right? God's got such blessing for us. If we just don't give up, if we refuse to give up, but continue to March forward. Now the Holy spirit tells us clearly that, that in the last time, as the time of Christ return draws near some will turn away from the true faith and they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. Listen, there's only one true faith that leads to heaven. 4 (32m 19s): There are many faiths in the world, many counterfeit faith, but only one faith leads to the God who created and sustains the universe. There's one God that offers salvation by grace, through faith. And some are tempted to turn away. Some will turn away from faith in Jesus alone, and they 6 (32m 40s): Will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. So anything that is contrary to the scripture and what the scripture says about Jesus and who he is and what the scripture says about God and who he is is, is a contrary gospel. It's a counterfeit gospel perpetuated by demons by the fallen angels. That the enemies 5 (33m 3s): Of God, there's one God that offers salvation through grace, by grace, through faith. And the Holy spirit has revealed this 6 (33m 12s): Truth, that in the as time wears on, 5 (33m 15s): And this has been going on for the last couple thousand years, people will be tempted to walk away from the faith. 6 (33m 21s): Mark 1322 says for false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders. So as to deceive, if possible, even God's chosen ones, watch out. I have warned you about this ahead of time. So there's a warning of, for the church, for the believers of Christ that says, Hey, be careful not to get distracted or to be hindered from your faith in the Lord. Jesus Christ in acts 2029. Luke wrote, I know that false teachers like vicious wolves will come in among you. After I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and 5 (34m 1s): Start the truth. In order, in order to draw a following, 6 (34m 6s): What kind of people would do this? Like what kind of people would intentionally draw others away from the truth? Well, Paul tells us in first Timothy four, two, these people are hypocrites 5 (34m 16s): And liars and their conscience is, are dead. 6 (34m 21s): So these people are not who they claim to be. They are deceivers like their father, the devil himself, who is the father of lies. And they, they are without a functioning conscience. So their conscience and sear, they're dead, they're liars and deceivers. So these are the people. These are the entities that are trying to draw us away from our faith. And so don't, don't be surprised when you feel like giving up. It's it's an age old ploy of the enemy to get us distracted and hindered, getting us to refuse, to believe the truth of who Jesus is and what he wants to do 5 (34m 59s): In our lives. These people are not who they claim to be. 6 (35m 2s): They're deceivers without a functioning conscience, they will do what counterfeit religious leaders have always done. Counterfeit religious leaders have always heaped, heavy burdens and restrictions and expectations on 5 (35m 15s): Their followers. That's what we see throughout the throughout history and in the scripture of religious leaders, 6 (35m 23s): This is what verse three says. They will say it is wrong. These these religious leaders, they will say it's wrong to be married and wrong D certain foods, but God created those foods to be eaten with. Thanks by faithful people who, the truth, the Bible knowledge commentary States, the false teachers plaguing the Ephesians church were the forerunners of the Gnostics of the second century. The Gnostics believed that spirit is good and matter is evil. So anything that is got matter to it is evil, but spirit is good. So they believed all appetites relating to the body are therefore evil and should be rooted out, including normal desire for sex and food. 6 (36m 9s): And so they're saying don't get married, don't eat certain foods. It's all of these heavy duty restrictions that these religious leaders want to keep on us trying to get us to conform to their, their plan and purpose. So it's wrong to be married. Ron, what does God say about that? This is, this is what needs to be our response to anything that we hear that is sideways or seems different than the, than the word of the Lord. What does God think? Genesis two 18 in the new living translation, it says, then the Lord, God said it. It's not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him. And so God has created marriage to be a blessing to humanity. 6 (36m 49s): Now there are single people in the world who are called to it, or just in their circumstances. They're single right now. And God's blessing is upon them, but God has created marriage as a good thing for the world. The early deceivers also said that it's wrong to eat certain foods. What a bummer. I got a quick, quick joke. So this Catholic nun in this Catholic school was in the cafeteria with all of the Catholic kids. And there was this big bowl of apples in the line of the food. And so the Catholic nuns brought a little note that said only take one, Apple, God is watching. 6 (37m 31s): So, but at the other end of the line and the cafeteria was that big old platter of chocolate chip cookies. And so one of the students said, take all you want because Dodd is watching the app 7 (37m 44s): Bulls. 6 (37m 48s): I would prefer a chocolate chip cookie over an Apple any day. In fact, the only reason I eat healthy food like apples is so that I can have a chocolate chip cookie and enjoy the food that God has had called, called us to enjoy. But the early deceivers would say, it's wrong to eat certain foods. What does God say that? What does God think about that? And acts chapter 10, the apostle Peter fell into a trance and had a vision from the Lord acts 10, 11 through 16, says this. He saw the sky open and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners in the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. Then a voice said to him, get up Peter kill and eat them. 6 (38m 33s): And what does Peter say? No, no Lord was his response. Listen, it's never a good idea to say, no Lord, it's a contradictory term. Like it's an oxymoron. You can't have Jesus as Lord and leader and King of your life and say no to him. Because by saying no to him, it declares that he's no longer your King and Lord and leader. And so for Peter to say, no Lord, he was showing a bit of his old nature. Have you ever had that creep up in your life where your old nature pops up and you're like, no Lord. Like I was arguing with the Lord the other day about meeting with some guy for prayer. 6 (39m 13s): It's like, Lord, I don't have time. I don't want to meet with this guy. Although I felt like I was supposed to meet with the guy. As soon as I'm having this argument with the Lord, I get a text from the guy that I'm supposed to. Hey, are we still praying together? I'm like, of course we're still praying together. Get over here. So, but we have this tendency to resist the good stuff Lord wants to do in our lives. No Lord Peter declared. I've never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean, but the voice spoke again, do not call something unclean. If God has made it clean, the same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven. 6 (39m 55s): Verse four says since everything God created is good. This is back to first Timothy four. Since everything God created is good. We should not reject any of it, but receive it with things where we know it has made acceptable by the, by the word of God and prayer made acceptable by the word of God and prayer. So now we have, I have to think, okay, God has created all of these wonderful things in the world and they're all good. Can we just indulge in anything and everything that God this created. And so we think about this, you know, this, the, the, we have this idea when it comes to food and when it comes to this new legalized thing called marijuana, and we think, well, if it's legal, then it must be okay, but it's clear that we're not to take anything that altered our mind. 6 (40m 49s): The scripture's very clear about this. So these are the guidelines for how we're to enjoy what God has created. We follow the word of God and we enjoy what God has provided for us with prayer. And thanks giving. So can I have anything I desire without measure? Well, let's look at a couple of verses here. You Zeke, you'll see. 1649 says Sodom sins were pride, gluttony and laziness. Well, the poor and needy suffered outside the door. So we know that we're allowed to enjoy everything, everything that God has given to us in the area of food, as long as we're not doing it in excess gluttony, we have to exercise some self control. 6 (41m 30s): So I, I stand up here and I, my gut constantly sucked in because if I don't suck it in, then it shows my Ponch, right. But my Ponch is there because I refuse to exercise. Self-control regarding sweets in my life. And so yesterday my wife said, Hey, would you like a cinnamon roll? And I said, no, I'm not going to eat the cinnamon roll because I just had a snack. I'm not having another snack. So an hour later, she's outside in the garden and I decide it's time for another snack. So I had a cinnamon roll that she made for my birthday because my birthday was just last week. And she made these amazing homemade cinnamon rolls with all of this icing on top. 6 (42m 10s): And then my daughter had, had bought me some, this, these donuts that I enjoyed as well. And then Jolene also had made this Apple pie that was just calling me. So I had donuts and I had Apple pie and I as cinnamon roll. And there was no, no wonder why I wasn't hungry for dinner, but I found a way to get dinner in me as well. It was just this incredible experience. And so that's called the sin of gluttony and I did lose 10 pounds, but I need to lose about 10 more. I, I, I, I think if I lost 10 more, I'd get rid of that gut. I wouldn't have to suck it in everywhere. It's uncomfortable to have to suck in your stuff 4 (42m 48s): Like everywhere. But that's what I gotta do. Cause I'm bill gluttonous. One of the, 6 (42m 56s): The fruit of the spirit of self-control. And I've realized that when I'm like, self-control in one area of my life that tends to spill over into other areas of my life. And so we have to be careful, 4 (43m 5s): Well that we're exercising. Self-control in all areas of our life. Now I know some of you is like, shut up Henry about your gut, right? You're like, I can barely hear 6 (43m 14s): You. See it. Listen. If I took my shirt off, you'd really see it right. Took it off bare chesty to be like, whoop, all of a sudden, there it is. Right. I've never had a gun. So now that I got one, I'm like, 4 (43m 26s): I'm trying to, I'm trying to hide it. That's why I wore these flowery shirts. They kind of nevermind, whatever. 6 (43m 33s): What else does the Bible say about our appetite? Galatians five 19 through 21 says when you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear. Sexual immorality in purity, less skull pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I had before that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom 4 (44m 5s): Of God. So there's 6 (44m 7s): A word in verse 20 that mentioned, it's mentioned it's the word is sorcery. That word is also witchcraft. The Greek word. There is farming KPI, a pharma Kia, depending on how you pronounce it. And it means which 4 (44m 21s): I think what happens is, is when we avail ourselves to the, the unhealthy 6 (44m 33s): Use of drugs in our life, whether we're smoking dope, listen, 5 (44m 36s): The kid smoking dope is my favorite thing to do in the whole world. Why? Because it's a great escape, right? I would smoke. I would get high. I would go to sleep and I'd be out for a few hours. He was great. 6 (44m 48s): But then I realized that God has called us to live a life that we're not meant 5 (44m 54s): To escape from. And 6 (44m 56s): When I realized that over the course of my life, I realized I don't need to run 5 (44m 60s): Toward farming, farm 6 (45m 2s): Makiah. I don't need to run toward drugs. I can run to Jesus and find this stuff that I need. Often we're running to the wrong stuff, whether it be food 5 (45m 12s): Or drugs, 6 (45m 13s): And especially with legalized marijuana. Now I just got back from Colorado about a month or so ago. And 5 (45m 19s): There's, there's dispensaries 6 (45m 21s): All over. Like you can walk in anywhere and get marijuana. It's just a 5 (45m 26s): Early thing. It will wreck your life. I'm just going to tell you it will wreck your life. And just because it's legal in California, doesn't mean that you should be taking it. Anything that is going to alter your mind, whether it be drunkenness or any really any kind of addiction, some are addicted to sex or pornography. Some are addicted to wine. Alcohol, some are addicted to drugs. I know a guy who was addicted to drugs, painkillers for a year, 6 (45m 55s): And I've known this guy for years. And I, I I'm on the phone with him one day. I'm like, dude, are you loaded? Seriously? You sound like you're loaded. And I didn't know that he was loaded, but he was loaded. Right? And it was a wake up call 5 (46m 7s): To him. And he realized 6 (46m 10s): That he was hooked and he needed to get clean from his drugs. And so he's been clean for about the last year, 18 months or so. And you know, what's improved in his life, 5 (46m 19s): Everything right? His, his financial problems got cleared up. Why? Because he stopped spending so much money on drugs because it's black market drugs that he had to get because he couldn't get his doctor to prescribe anymore. His marriage got fixed. His family got fixed because he wasn't jacked up on drugs anymore. His spiritual life got squared away because he wasn't jacked up on drugs anymore. Listen, drugs, 6 (46m 43s): Addictions, all of these things will Jack 5 (46m 46s): You up. 6 (46m 48s): I didn't even realize how jacked up he was until he got off the drugs. When he got off the drugs and he realized, man, my, this is the life Jesus said, I've come that you might have life abundantly. This is you can't enjoy that. If you've 5 (47m 1s): Got an addiction in your life, you just 6 (47m 3s): Can't. You got to get all of the addictions out of your life and trust Jesus in every arena of your life. Addiction is just an escape, right? 5 (47m 14s): It's a way to get some, some help, kind of a counterfeit help and escape. When we're in trouble. God doesn't want that for you. He wants you to be free in Jesus name. And he just want you to be free. He makes the way to freedom possible because he's good. And he's faithful. Somebody told me this morning, I've turned that 12 step program into a two-step program. She said, I decided to quit drinking. And then I quit drinking. 6 (47m 46s): I said, what a great story? You know, we, we run to the wrong stuff. This is the wine capital of like, I mean, there's wine everywhere, right? So we have this temptation to run to all this alcohol and that 5 (47m 58s): Sort of thing. And listen, I'll say wine 6 (48m 0s): In the scripture tends to be spoken of in a positive light. It's a blessing, but drunk. 5 (48m 5s): And this has never spoken of in a POS in a positive light. It's Ephesians five says don't be drunk with wine. They will ruin your life instead. Be filled with the Holy spirit. So if you're drinking to excess, getting yourself drunk, you just need to stop. If you're running into pornography, trying to find fulfillment there by God's grace, she just need to stop. If you're running to drugs, trying to find something to numb your life, God, God, hasn't called us to live a life that we're trying to numb. 6 (48m 39s): He's trained. He's called us to live a life that 5 (48m 41s): We're trying to enjoy by his grace. We can do that. So run from all of those things that are deceptive and destroying your life. Drugs 6 (48m 50s): Bugs that alter our mind or alcohol that alters our minds is not for God's people. So there are some parameters 5 (48m 58s): For the stuff that God has created in 6 (49m 1s): World. Paul told Timothy, if you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ. Jesus. So Timothy's responsibility was to explain this truth to his people. He would be a worthy servant of Christ. Jesus, who, if he did this, who one, who would be one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teachings you have followed. So pastors and Bible teachers actually do. 5 (49m 31s): I don't have a choice, but to teach the whole counsel of 6 (49m 35s): God's word, it would be easier to talk about rainbows and butterflies, but that's not what you want to hear. And that's not what I want to talk about. I don't think you want to talk about rainbows and butterflies. I think we need to hear the word of God, that truth and allow that truth to be, to challenge our lives so that we properly align ourselves with him so that we can abide in him and have him abide in us. James three one says there's actually a stricter judgment for pastors and teachers for teachers of the word of God. We're actually going to stand before the Lord and give them 5 (50m 10s): Account for what we taught. I don't want to be in trouble. 6 (50m 16s): I don't want to be in trouble with God and I don't want to be in trouble with you. So I'm just going to teach God's word to the best of my ability, 5 (50m 23s): Where we need to get challenged and move forward. Amen. Verse 4 (50m 28s): Seven says do not waste time. Arguing over godless ideas and old wives tales. Instead, train yourself have to be godly. Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better promising benefits in this life and in the life to come. So what does godliness look like? Number one, God, Salinas is abiding in God, John 15. Jean says that if we abide in him and he abides in us that we will, we will produce spiritual fruit. Spiritual fruit is eternal. It doesn't have a shelf life. It's always credited to our account. So spiritual fruit is anything that, that impacts the kingdom of God for eternity. 4 (51m 10s): So when people get saved, when we're do a good deed for someone, when we pray for someone, when we love the unlovely, all of those things. When we're allowing the spirit of God and the word of God to come out of us and to bless those around us, we can, you can't actually accomplish anything of spiritual value. Apart from that abiding relationship with Christ, we can do a lot of busy stuff. We can volunteer for Sunday school for 10 hours a week. We can serve in all kinds of small groups. We can greet at the front door. We can write large checks to the church, but none of that stuff actually matters if we're not biting in Christ, right? 4 (51m 52s): Sometimes people write a big check to the church and that substitute that's kind of a substitute for their abiding and their service to Christ. But God has called us to serve him and love him wholeheartedly with all of our time, talent and treasure so that we honor him. And the way that we live our lives abiding in Christ gives us the grace to do all the things that he's called us to do. I was talking with this young couple and we're doing some counseling with them. They're about ready to get married. And, and they used to come to church here, but now they live in Nashville. And so I was doing stuff over zoom and doing some counseling and it got to, you know, we started talking about finances and I went on this rampage about tithing. 4 (52m 38s): I said, Hey, I'm going to talk to you was about tithing because it's really just gonna be foundational to your walk with Jesus. And so I did this whole teaching on tithing and I said, what do you guys think? And they said, Oh yeah, we already give 20%. It was like a total waste of my time and to talk to them about diving. But they're there something about, there's something about trusting God. And we're going to look at that in the next portion, but there's something about trusting God and believing him that comes out of that abiding relationship with him. What does godliness look like abiding with God, number one, number two. What has godliness like obedience to God abiding and obedience? 4 (53m 23s): Obedience is defined the general concept 6 (53m 28s): Of obedience, both in the old and the new Testament relates to hearing or hearkening to a higher authority. So hearing it or hearkening is not just 4 (53m 38s): Hearing, but it's actually hearing and doing it's obeying 6 (53m 42s): One of the Greek terms for obedience in the Bible conveys the idea of positioning oneself, 4 (53m 48s): There, someone by submitting to their authority and, 6 (53m 52s): And another Greek word for obey in the new Testament means to, this'll be surprising to us to trust another word in the new Testament for obey is actually it means to trust. We will never fully obey God. If we don't fully try. 4 (54m 10s): I asked him with our lives, our time talent and our treasure 6 (54m 15s): Measure, according to Holman's illustrated Bible dictionary, a succinct definition of biblical obedience is to hear God's word and act accordingly, to hear and act, to hear and respond, to listen and obey IRD men's Bible dictionary States, shew hearing, or obedience involves the physical hearing that inspires the hearer and a belief or trust that in turn motivates the hearer to act in accordance with the speaker's desire. Thus biblical obedience to God means to hear trust, submit, and surrender 4 (54m 53s): To God and his word. So 6 (54m 56s): Part of godliness has everything to do with obedience. Eight reasons why OBD 4 (55m 2s): Hands to God is important. Let's take a look at these really quick eight reasons. I don't know if they're up on the screen or not, but let's just go for it. 6 (55m 8s): Jesus calls us to obey is number one. What a great reason to obey simply because Jesus has called us to obey. I was talking to pastor Dave earlier. We were talking about baptism and he was having a conversation with the person where the guy about baptism. And he asked the guy, why should you get baptized? And he kept trying to come up with all these theological reasons why you should get baptized. And Dave said, Hey, why can't the answer be? Because Jesus told us to be baptized. I mean, if Jesus asks us to do something, we don't need to jump through all kinds of theological hoops to make our point. We just say, yeah, Jesus told me 4 (55m 42s): To do it. God told me to do it. So I'm going to do it. 6 (55m 44s): Jesus calls us to obey Jesus. John 14, 15 says, if you love 4 (55m 48s): Me, obey my commandments. 6 (55m 51s): Number one, Jesus calls us to obey. Number two. Obedience is an act of worship. Romans 12 tells us to give our whole lives. All of our bodies, everything is an act of worship to the Lord. Obedience is an act of worship, more so than singing and lifting up our hands along the same lines as worshiping. And when we come, come together gathered because what we do when we obey God is we declare that he is God and that he is worthy of our adoration. He is worthy our obedience. And so when we walk out obedience before the game of games were declaring worship before him and say, because you are God and I am not because you are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, I will be obedient to you. 6 (56m 37s): OBT obedience is an act of worship. Number three, God rewards obedience in Genesis 22. God told Abraham, listen, your descendants in the whole world will be blessed because of your obedience. To me, 5 (56m 54s): Obedience is rewarded by God. You'll see it in your life. As you decide, 6 (57m 0s): I'm going to be a person of obedience. Every time the Lord asks me to do something, I'm just going to do it and watch the blessings that the rewards that come your way as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ it's and it's so much, so much fun. It's more fun than just kind of wrestling with God all the time about everything that he asked you to do. If you just say yes, Lord, not, not Peter, no Lord, no Lord doesn't work. As, as a kingdom follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Yes, Lord works every time. Number four obedience to God proves our love. All you have to do is read first and second, John, and you see that there's a direct correlation, a connection between obedience and the love that we say. We have the book of first and second, John clearly explains that obedience to God demonstrates love for God, loving God implies following his command. 6 (57m 48s): So we can't say we love God. If we don't walk obediently in his presence. Number five obedience to God demonstrate 5 (57m 55s): Space. Interesting. Huh? When we open 6 (57m 59s): Bega, we show our trust and faith in 5 (58m 2s): God. It's an, it's a demonstration 6 (58m 6s): Of our faith. We're saying, Lord, I believe you. And so if you're asking me to do this, 5 (58m 11s): I'm going to trust you. I believe it. Lord. 6 (58m 13s): I'm going to, I'm going to demonstrate my faith by saying yes to you. And first John, two, three through six, it says we can be sure that we know him. If we obey his commandments, if someone claims, I know God, but doesn't obey. God's commandments. That person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 5 (58m 33s): But those who obey 6 (58m 35s): God's word surely show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives. As Jesus did obedience to God demonstrates faith. Number five, number six, obedience is better than sacrifice in the old system. The old covenant old Testament. If somebody said that they would offer a sin, offering an animal sacrifice, but that's not what God was after. That was God's grace extended in that time so that people might be forgiven. 5 (59m 15s): But the scripture 6 (59m 17s): Says obedience is, 5 (59m 19s): Is better than sacrifice. 6 (59m 25s): Obedience is better than the sacrifices 5 (59m 27s): That we offer. New Testament. We, we sin and we say, Lord, forgive me. And then that's a great model. Obviously. That's what God wants us to do. But how about if we just decide we're going to be obedient. Obedience is better than sacrifice. I mean, I don't want it 6 (59m 41s): Offer. I don't want to have to offer. I don't want to have to say forgive me 5 (59m 44s): Lord and said, I just want to walk purely before the King of Kings. Thank God for his mercy 6 (59m 50s): Sanctification means I I'm asking for forgiveness less and less in a sense I'm still sending, but it's not the same old gnarly sins that I used to sin in. Maybe it's sins that are representative of my, my growth in Jesus. We still have to guard against a moral failure. We still have to guard against the pride or the flesh and pride and all of those things. But, but sanctification, meaning that the longer we're walking with Jesus means that we're not doing those same gnarly sins that we used to do, but there's an obedience connected to our 5 (1h 0m 29s): Lives and obedience that honors the Lord and requires us less of us grovelling before the Lord and saying, God, I'm sorry, I've done this a thousand time. There's victory available for us in Jesus. Number seven, disobedience leads to sin and death. The disobedience of Adam brought sin and death into the world. This is the basis of the term original sin, but Christ perfect obedience restores fellowship with God, for everyone who believes in him, Romans five 19 says for as by the one man's disobedience, Adam, the many were made sinners. 5 (1h 1m 12s): So by the one man's obedience Christ, the many will be made righteous in first Corinthians five 22. It says for as Adam, for, as in Adam, all die. So also in Christ shall all be made alive. First Corinthians five 22, number eight through obedience. We experienced the blessing of Holy living. And that's what I'm talking about. There's a blessing connected to Holy living. That is the decision to be obedient. And listen, if you're, if you're jacked up with addiction, you're going to miss out on this blessing. You're going to miss out on his blessing. I don't want you to feel picked on today. I want you to feel like there's hope today. I want you to feel like man, there's hope on the other side of this addiction, whatever it may be. 5 (1h 1m 54s): There's hope maybe you're here today and you're struggling with porn online porn, pretty, pretty pervasive sin in our culture for men and for women. There's a there's art there's software that you can load onto your computer called covenant eyes. That will hold you accountable for what you're watching online. You get an accountability partner and you say, Hey, I want you. And that accountability partner will actually get a report of everything that you read. I looked at online and, and they'll flag things that are inappropriate so that you have one more opportunity to say no to that sin. 5 (1h 2m 43s): So maybe yeah, this online porn or some other kind of sex addiction, maybe it's just an addiction to wine, alcohol drugs. There are paths forward. We have a, an AA program that meets here on Thursday nights for people who are trying to overcome their addiction to drugs. There are Christian based recovery programs that are available in the community for people who want to get free from drugs and alcohol and other types of addiction. So there's steps that can be taken if we will just decide to take it by God's grace and move forward in freedom through obedience, we experienced the blood sings of a Holy life. 5 (1h 3m 26s): What does godliness look like? Number three, discipline disciplined under God, disciplined unto God. Godliness speaks of a disciplined life in word thought and deed, listen, we're all in this journey, carrying our backpacks, moving toward a destination, just to be on the journey requires discipline. You've got to pack your bag and take the stuff that you need to take. You need to put on the armor of God and do what God has called you to do so that you survive the experience and thrive in the experience. It's it's the, the root of the word disciple is discipline. And God has called us to go make disciples of all nations. 5 (1h 4m 8s): He's called us to be disciples and to go make disciples of all nations. And so that means that we must activate discipline in our lives and be disciplined unto God as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And with that activation of discipline in our lives comes victory comes the ability to be obedience comes just joy and speakable and full of glory. Some of us don't even realize what we're missing out on because we keep falling short of the destination. We keep missing what God has for us and we fall short. And so we keep, keep missing out on God's best discipline is what God has for us. If we will move forward in that we will experience godliness like never before. 5 (1h 4m 53s): Let me just wrap up these last few verses and then we'll call, call the worship team back in just a few minutes and we'll stand and worship here. It says, this is a trustworthy saying verse nine and everyone should expect apt it. This is why we work hard and continue to struggle for our hope is in the living God, who is the savior of all people. And particularly of all, believers teach 6 (1h 5m 18s): These things and insist that everyone learned them. Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say in the way you live in your love, your faith and in your purity. I think we have way too low of expectations for young people. That's why I love it. When we've got young people here on the worship team, people, young people greeting young people involved in leadership because obviously Paul had an expectation of this young leader named Timothy. He said, don't let anyone despise you because you're young. Sometimes we, we think, wow, I'm young. It's my time to mess around. 6 (1h 5m 59s): And then I'll get serious with the Lord later on. Don't waste your time falling into that trap. Sometimes though, we, we, when we get old, we fall into that same trap. We say, ah, I'm too old to be doing anything helpful for the kingdom. I'm just going to play golf or do whatever I do and don't get me wrong. I love golf, but not at the expense of the kingdom work that God has called us to do. There's kingdom work that God has called us to do so, whatever your hobbies are, make sure they're in alignment with God's plan for your life. And if you're young or old, make sure God is on the throne of your life. And if you're middle-aged and you're raising kids, you've got all this stuff going on. Make sure Jesus is at the throne is on the throne of your life. He'll make you a better parent and make you a better husband, make you be a better spouse wife to make you a better person in Jesus' name. 6 (1h 6m 44s): Don't let anyone think less of you because you're young. Be an example to all believers in what you say and the way you live and your love, your faith and your purity. Until I get there, focus on reading the scriptures to the church, encouraging to believers and teaching them do not neglect the spiritual gifts you received through the prophecy, spoken over you. When the elders of the church laid their hands on, you gave you your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress. Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation, Timothy and the salvation of those who hear you. 6 (1h 7m 24s): What does godliness look like? It looks like a biting obedience and discipline. How's your backpacking trip. How's your journey with that? Let's go ahead and stand up and we're going to invite the worship team forward and we're going to worship some more and just see what the Lord will do as we honor him with our time. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for this time. Be glorified. As we sing, be glorified. As we think about ponder and decide what we're going to do with this information, help us to decide to abide and to be obedient and to be disciplined in you in Jesus name 2 (1h 8m 52s): . 2 (1h 13m 27s): Jesus died for me. I see his wounds, his hands, his feet, him down to the edge by heavy stone. 2 (1h 14m 16s): robes, Y blazing shop yeah, blazing C sharp. 2 (1h 16m 28s): And 1 (1h 17m 56s): Just ask you to help us each one of us be obedient in that next step. Like what are you calling us to God? What are you calling us to to give that's that we're trying, maybe we're trying to escape from, from the life that you count on us to leak out. And I just, we should just convict each one of us. If something there's always something we can do to get closer to you. God, just ask really? If I just ask you for that Jesus name. Amen. If you guys, if of you guys want prayer, we always have staff and volunteers up here are willing to pray for you. So come on out, but otherwise, thanks for coming. We'll see you next week.

Without Fear | Easter 2021

0 (0s): Let's all stand. So getting everybody to stand up with me, please. All right, Lord. We are so thankful. So thankful for what you did for us. Some 2000 years ago, Lord, you provided the means for our salvation. We can only say we thank you. And we receive what you provided for us through the cross and through the empty tomb. We honor you today and worship you today. We just want to lift you up so that each one of us, every heart, every person would be touched profoundly touched by the living. God, we are so blessed. We are so thankful. 0 (40s): Thank you for the community of believers that we are today here. Not only at harvest church, but throughout the central coast, we bless you. We love you in Jesus name. And God's people said 2 (2m 58s): then came the morning. 2 (3m 50s): Hey man. 2 (10m 27s): And you're so worthy of our praise and our time. You're worthy of a heart. Thank you so much for this beautiful day to gather, to remember what you've done for us, how you set us free. I pray for every heart here this morning that they would know the love of Jesus. Today. We know that they're not alone. Now that you walk with us all the days of our lives. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your presence here with us. We thank you for your great love for us. We worship you for who you are. 2 (11m 2s): Jesus, Jesus. 2 (11m 39s): . 2 (17m 47s): I had this reoccurring fear that we're going to hold a service like this, 3 (17m 50s): And nobody's going to show up. So thanks her not making that fear a reality. So a quick joke, we go, before you sit down quick drug, before you sit down, sorry, Jewish rabbi confesses to his wife. He said, I sold the family burial too. He said, how could you sell the family burial to I plan to be buried there with you in the family. What are you doing? What are we going to do? He said, she said, how did, who did you sell that to him too? He said, well, this guy named Jesus, the good news. He only needs it for a few days. 3 (18m 27s): we prayed for good weather. And here it is. We're so grateful. Thanks Perry. We titled the whole events today without fear where we just believe that God would call us and would challenge us to live our lives. Without fear. You guys are proving that that is your goal as well as you are here today. God wants us to live. He wants the people to live without fear. So welcome. God bless you. It was early on Sunday morning as the new day was dawning Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb and the women had encountered, had an encounter with an angel and then shortly thereafter, the enemy encounter with the living God with Jesus, the Lord, both the angel of the Lord, both of them said the angel of the Lord and Jesus, the Lord. 3 (19m 30s): I said, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid is handled. Jesus has it under control. He's risen from the dead. Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, the resurrection. It means that Jesus is who he said he is who he said he was. He is God. He is the Messiah. He is the savior of the world. He's the only way to have it with that. Let's take a moment and we'll pray and we'll continue with the message. Lord Jesus. We are so grateful for your presence here. I pray. 3 (20m 10s): We pray together. God, that you would remind us of the reason that we're gathered, that we would be so built up encouraged with the truth of the resurrection. God that we would leave today with a better under it standing greater clarity around the resurrection. God, we invite you to speak to us personally and corporately to God that she would do what all you can do, minister to every soul that gathers not only here, but all over the central coast, wherever people are gathered. We prayed that she'd be ministering speaking and moving. So Lord, we thank you for your presence. We love you. 3 (20m 51s): Thank you that you're alive in Jesus name. Amen. Jesus is who he said he is who he said he was, he is faithful. He was dead. And now he is alive. So we celebrate the whole world celebrates. I remember after a baseball, when, when I was a little guy, we went down after baseball. When we'd all jump into the back of the truck. Remember those days, when you get pilots in the back of the coach's truck and head to foster freeze and get ice cream, that was the deal. We would celebrate the win by piling in going down the freeway. And everybody's just kind of blowing in the wind, but we would celebrate with some ice cream, right at the end of a good season in any sport, we would gather for food at a pizza place and we'd celebrate with awards and all kinds of fun to celebrate the end of a season. 3 (21m 42s): When my kids were growing up, we had some forged banquets that we gathered for hundreds of people gathered for spores, paved, wins, and celebrate the coaches and the teams. The players. There's always a celebration. And we remember all of the celebrations in our lives, but sometimes we forget the work and effort. It took to get to the celebration. There's a ton of work going into the celebration, the end result, which that allows us to celebrate. So today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but we will also reflect on a few other things. We will answer five questions today. Here are the questions. Number one. What did Jesus accomplish before the resurrection? 3 (22m 26s): Number two, why was Jesus put to death? Number three. Why was the resurrection necessary? Number four. Why is the resurrection celebrated? The number five? What do we do with this? Jesus? What do we do with Jesus? Number one, what did Jesus accomplished before the resurrection? Jesus offered himself as a sin offering for the whole world. Jesus was born. He lived and died to call people to God and to offer his life as a ransom. 3 (23m 8s): For many out of this happen, you might ask, well, there's a word that we use. It's called the incarnation. It literally incarnation means literally to put on flesh. And this is exactly what Jesus did. And the Lord Jesus who was fully God took on flesh and was born as a baby. We celebrate his birthday, Christmas. He was raised in a family with 4 (23m 31s): Parents and siblings and responsibilities and all of the normal challenges of life, except he was without sin. If you raise kids, you know that no kid is without fault without sin. Jesus was perfect. He never sinned. Maybe that word sinned is new to you, that word sin. What does that mean to you? Sin basically means to miss the Mark, to miss the Mark. So recently this last Thursday, I started well a couple of weeks ago, I started running again for the first time in probably the last year and a half. My knees were hurting. And so 5 (24m 9s): I stopped running for the last year and a half and 4 (24m 12s): Somebody prayed for my knees and I started running again. So there you have it that God is still a healer today. So I get running and my goal is to run a mile and a half. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but if you haven't been running for the last couple of years, it's a big deal. My lungs and legs and heart were screaming at me. And so I only made it about a mile out before I stopped. I'm going to build and I will get to the mile and a half Mark. But in this scenario on Thursday, I missed the Mark. I sinned as it were not in a spiritual sense, but to define the word sin, it means to miss the Mark. So my Mark was the mile and a half marker. 5 (24m 54s): I made it to a mile. 4 (24m 56s): So that is essentially what it means to miss the Mark to sin in that way, God has a Mark. Did you realize that God has a Mark? He has expectations for humanity. For instance, God said an exit is 2016. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. What does it mean to bear false witness? It means to lie, right? So God is essentially saying, thou shall not. You should never lie. So when we lie, even when it's a small white lie, when we lie, we have missed the Mark. And the Bible is full of expectations 5 (25m 32s): That God has for us. The 10 commandments, this is the ninth commandment, but there's nine others. And 4 (25m 39s): So a whole 66 books of the Bible where God has expectations for his people. So one of the marks is that we would be 5 (25m 48s): That we would never lie. Any anybody ever lie once in their life? Okay. I would say most of us are probably 4 (25m 55s): Fudge the truth. Just a little bit told a little white lie. So if that's you, then you have missed the Mark and you have sinned. As the Bible says, the wages of sin is death. The penalty, the payment for sin is death, but the free gift 5 (26m 8s): Of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. 4 (26m 12s): So imagine Jesus through all of his life, 5 (26m 16s): Including his adolescent years imagined that he never sinned. He never broke the laws of God. He was perfect. 4 (26m 24s): Peter tells us in first, Peter, two 22, speaking of Jesus, he said he never sinned nor ever deceived anyone for the rest of us. Romans three 23 says for everyone has sinned. We all fall short of God's glorious 5 (26m 42s): Standard. Every single one 4 (26m 44s): Of us, Romans five six says when we were utterly helpless, lost in our sin, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. So what did Jesus accomplish before the resurrection? Jesus offered himself as a sin offering whole world. He was born. He lived, lived and died to call people to God, into offers life as a ransom for many Romans six 23. Again for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus was born and his whole purpose in, in being born was to die, to die for the sins of man kind. 4 (27m 27s): Matthew 2028 says speaking of himself, Jesus said for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a writer. Awesome for Manny again, Jesus was, he lived and died to call people to God and to offer his life as a ransom for many number two, why was Jesus put to death? We've been touching on it. It's because of sin because of sin and the world. Jesus took the sins of the world upon himself. So that those who accept his sacrifice might be forgiven of their sins. The ancient prophet, Isaiah, yeah. Called the Shakespeare of Hebrew literature was a poet who understood the two sided nature of God's character. 4 (28m 15s): There is mercy, but then also judgments. There was grace, but also discipline justice, but also forgiveness, exile, and also salvation. Isaiah wrote prophetically 700 years before Christ was born. 700 years before Jesus was born, lived, died and resurrected from the dead. And he wrote 700 years in advance. What would happen to the Messiah? This is what Isaiah wrote about the savior of the world. Isaiah 53, speaking of Jesus, it says this who has believed our message to whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm. 4 (28m 58s): My servant grew up in the Lord's presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance. Nothing to attract us to him. He was wised and rejected. A man of sorrows acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised and we did not care yet. It was our weaknesses. He cares. It was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God at punishment for his own sins. But he was pierced for our rebellion. He was crushed for our sins. 4 (29m 40s): He was beaten. We could be made whole, he was whipped so we could be healed. All of us like sheep have straight away. We have left God's path to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him, the sins of us, all, he was oppressed and treated harshly yet. He never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep, as silent before 5 (30m 7s): The year is he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned. He was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants that his life was cut short and midstream, but he was struck down for the, for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong. He had never deceived anyone, but he was buried like a criminal. He was put in a rich man's grave, but it was the Lord's good plan to crush him and cause him grief yet. 4 (30m 38s): When his life has made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life. And the Lord's good plan will prosper in his hands. 5 (30m 50s): When he sees all that as accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant 4 (30m 56s): Will make it possible for many to be counted righteous 5 (30m 60s): For. He will bear all their sins. Verse 12. I will give him the honors of the victorious soldier because he exposed himself to death. 4 (31m 10s): He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins, 5 (31m 13s): Eddie and interceded for rebels. Why was Jesus put to death? Because the penalty for sin is death. Jesus took my sin. He took our sin upon himself. So that those who accept so that we might accept his sacrifice and be forgiven of our sins. Why was the resurrection necessary? Number three, why was the resurrection necessary? The resurrection demonstrates that 4 (31m 48s): Everything he said is true. He told his followers I will be killed. And then on the third day I will be resurrected. Jesus told his disciples that he would die, but on the third day he would rise again. The resurrection proves that Jesus is who he said he is and who he said he was Dr. Jamie David. Jeremiah wrote scripture tells us that we are 5 (32m 13s): Separated from God because he is Holy. He is Holy and we are not. 4 (32m 18s): We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We read about that. Romans three 23, we cannot measure up to his standard and we cannot go to heaven in our own imperfection, but all mighty God devised a plan, a plan of redemption. He would send his only son, Jesus Christ to this world to live a perfect life. And he would ultimately go to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. Some wonder, how could one man do that? And the answer is no mere man could, but this man was the son of God. He was God in the flesh. And only through him, can we come to God, 5 (32m 59s): Fully justified? 4 (33m 1s): Jesus Christ himself said, I am 5 (33m 3s): The way the truth and the life. 4 (33m 6s): And no man comes to the father except 5 (33m 8s): Through me. Dr. David David, Jeremiah continues only by placing our trust in him for the forgiveness of our sins. Can we go to 4 (33m 17s): Heaven? And because Jesus Christ came back from the grave, demonstrating the reality of his words and the truthfulness of his statements. 5 (33m 26s): No, that his words are true. Now we know why the resurrection of Jesus Christ was necessary. His whole reputation was, 4 (33m 39s): Was counting on this resurrection. If he did not resurrect from the dead, 5 (33m 44s): Everything that he said was a lie and not worth following, but he did. 4 (33m 49s): So with that number four, why is the resurrection celebrated? Why do we celebrate the resurrection? Well, the resurrection represents new life for each and every one of us who would welcome Jesus into our lives to have our sins forgiven and to be welcomed into the family of God. It represents new life, new hope, new purpose, new promise in Jesus. The resurrection proves that Jesus is who he claimed to be. So we celebrate the resurrection 2000 years later because people for 2000 5 (34m 26s): And years have been trusting that resurrection I've been trusting that name. They've been putting their trust in the living God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. 4 (34m 37s): They've been trusting Jesus for the salvation of their souls, broken people, people who desperately needed forgiveness of their sins, good people who also recognize 5 (34m 48s): Guys that they needed the grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ. 4 (34m 51s): Good. The bad, the ugly, everybody in between people who need Jesus, 5 (34m 56s): The Hammond find forgiveness there. 4 (35m 0s): Celebrate the resurrection because 2000 years ago, Jesus made the only way possible to heaven. And people have been trusting Jesus for their salvation. 5 (35m 9s): Ever since let's read the 4 (35m 10s): Biblical account in Matthew chapter 28 verses one through 10, it says early on Sunday morning 5 (35m 16s): As the new day was dawning 4 (35m 18s): Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord, came down from having imagined the scene, a large earthquake because an angel of the Lord came down from heaven. He rolled aside the stone and sat on it. His face shown 5 (35m 35s): Lightening and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him and they fell into a dead faint. Then the angel spoke to the women. Don't be afraid. He said, I know you're looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn't here. He has risen from the dead just as he said, what happened, come and see where his body was lying. And now go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you in the women ran quickly from the tomb. 5 (36m 17s): Imagine though they're their emotion, their, what they're experiencing. As they went to go visit the tomb and they realized that Jesus is resurrected. The women ran quickly from the tomb verse eight. They were very frightened, but also filled with great joy. And they rushed to give the disciples, the angels message. And as they went, Jesus met them. I love that statement because I've experienced that in my own life. Jesus meeting me in my desperate time of need being faithful to me when I'm not his faithfulness being good to me when I'm not worthy of his goodness, Jesus met them. 5 (37m 8s): He met them and greeted them. This is what Jesus wants to do with each. And every one of us, he wants to meet us and greet us and then give us a message. They ran to him, grasp his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee. And they will see me there. So the angel of the Lord spoke to the women. Don't be afraid. Jesus met them, greeted them and gave them the same message. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Jesus is alive. He's well, he's present with us. 5 (37m 48s): I'm declaring to you today that we are to be without fear in Jesus' name. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus made the way to heaven. Jesus 6 (38m 0s): Loves you. Jesus loves you. 5 (38m 6s): Jesus is faithful. 6 (38m 11s): So 5 (38m 12s): With all of the information that we've gathered this morning, what did we do with this Jesus? What did we do with Jesus? 6 (38m 24s): I heard Marie. Remember when I was in middle school, 5 (38m 28s): It was confronted with the gospel. The good news that for whatever reason, because he decided to not because I was good, but Jesus, he loves me. I was confronted with that revelation that Jesus loves me and that he wanted to forgive my sins, that he had a good plan for my life. That he wanted to be a part of my life. I remember being broken. It's just a young guy being broken by that revelation, that information, that truth that I knew, God was speaking 6 (38m 58s): To me. What do we do with Jesus? I want to encourage you. Don't be 5 (39m 5s): Afraid. Welcome him into your life. Jesus came that we might have life and life abundantly. He loves you. And no matter what you've done or on the other side of things, no matter how good you think you might be, you need Jesus. And by his grace, he welcomes you. Some are afraid. Some here are afraid to follow Jesus. Maybe you've tried and it hasn't worked out. I would just tell you, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to follow Jesus. Some are afraid of what others might think. 5 (39m 46s): If you started following Jesus, don't let the fear of man keep you from following Jesus. Some are afraid of what Jesus might expect. Trust me, whatever Jesus expects. The blessings on, on the other side of following Jesus is so out ways. The, the expectation that Jesus might have, Jesus said, my yoke is easy. My burden is light. 6 (40m 15s): What do we do with Jesus? 5 (40m 17s): Can I encourage you and invite you to give your life to Jesus? We're going to have a baptism. Baptism is a time when people who have decided to believe and follow Jesus, make a public declaration of their faith. They're saying to the world, to everybody who will witness to God into the world, I am a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. 6 (40m 42s): There's an opportunity 5 (40m 42s): To be baptized today. We've got a handful of people. Who've committed to be baptized ahead of time. But if you're here today and you have given your life to Jesus or want to give your life to Jesus and you want to get baptized, that I'm gonna encourage you. After we pray to go back to the tent behind me and we'll have a t-shirt and change of clothes for you, and you'll have the opportunity to be baptized with that. Let's go ahead and bow our heads in prayer and do some business with the Lord. Lord Jesus. We 6 (41m 17s): Are so 5 (41m 20s): Humbled by your presence. God, we're so humbled by your goodness. You gotta know that you've been speaking to people like you spoke to my heart so many years ago. And I thank you for that. Listen, if you're here today with everybody's eyes still closed, as we continue to pray, if you would like to receive Jesus as your Lord, you simply do this. You tell God you need him. You say, Lord, I need you. I need you to forgive my sins. I need you to come into my life. I need your love. I need your grace. 5 (42m 1s): I need your mercy. And as you humbly acknowledge your need to the living, God did Jesus. The Lord. He will come into your life and forgive your sins. He will adopt you into his family and make you his own. So Lord, I pray that as people make that decision today that it would stick and that those people would be bold to follow you all the days of their lives. Thank you for your amazing grace. We love you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. So if you'd like to get baptized, let's go ahead and stand up. We're going to worship some more as we stand up. If you'd like to be baptized, make your way to the baptism tent directly behind the platform and we will get you prepared for baptism. 5 (42m 48s): In the meantime, we will sing some songs, continue to worship the Lord. 0 (1h 1m 38s): What a celebration this morning. Thank you so much for joining us search. We're so glad that you were here with us this morning. We just want to take a moment and just pray as we close this service, would you bow your heads with me, Lord, we love you. Would you just seal upon our hearts, all that has been done here today? God, would you just draw hearts unto yourself? And would you cause us to be a reflection of your love to a dying hurting world around us that is so in need. And I pray that you would help us to walk without fear into this week ahead that we lean into you for strength, for guidance, for everything that we need, Lord, that you care for us so much, you know, the hairs on head and you know, every anxious thought. 0 (1h 2m 21s): And so we look to Jesus for all that. We have Nita. Thank you for coming. Thank you for living and dying and rising again that we could be free. So we celebrate you Jesus. This morning, we give you our hearts and all of our things in his precious and Holy name. Amen. Amen. Amen church. Well, that song that we close with, it's called walk without fear. And that's our special gift to you this morning. We have a recording of it available on iTunes on Spotify, and you can find the lyric video on YouTube. So I hope that you look that up. You can hop on our church website to find all those links, but it's just our gift to you that you could carry the stay with you forward and walk without fear. 0 (1h 3m 2s): So we're going to have that lyric video playing after service. But before we wrap up, we have some special announcements from our kids director. Leslie is going to tell us about the Easter egg hunt. So don't go far. If you've got, kids are gonna want to stick around for, this is my mind. We have our Easter egg hunts going on right now, right after service. They're going to begin in just a few minutes. So if you have kiddos between the ages of zero and 10 years old, we have a hunt for four to 10 year old in the first area. You'll see a balloon arch that's orange and yellow and white. You'll see that on the right side, down the driveway. So if you have a four to 10 year old, go ahead and go down there. If you have a birth to three-year-old, you're going to continue past that one. 0 (1h 3m 43s): You're going to see a second balloon arch on your right. And that's where you're going to go for those kiddos. So, all right. Happy Easter, everyone you're dismissed. 2 (1h 4m 1s): We didn't do food. 2 (1h 4m 18s): hi. 2 (1h 6m 38s): Oh me. Yeah. Now I see .

Palm Sunday | Harvest Church 03-28-2021

0 (1s): Morning, everybody go ahead 1 (4s): And make your way to your seat. If you wouldn't mind. My name is Ron. I want to welcome everybody. Who's in the sanctuary and in the loft and the patio, and also online and for tuning in, we want to welcome you as well. We're doing things a little different today. We're making a change in that. We're having announcements at the beginning of the service rather than in the middle, but because we all love change so much. It's like, yeah, this is, this is good. Right? Human nature. We love change. So you're ready for the announcements. It's always the best part of the service. Remember that? So, all right, we have Easter coming up. So next Sunday, Easter is going to be here on campus. 1 (46s): So what we're going to be doing is we're going to set up in the upper parking lot, which is up the, up the road this direction. And we're going to have a stage built, live worship. We're going to stream it as well. We're going to set up 600 chairs. We would encourage you please invite family, invite friends, neighbors, anybody you can think of. In fact, we have these Easter invite cards that have been made up, print it up and you'll find them distributed in different places around the, the campus. And so go ahead and grab some of those. That's a good way just to hand it and invite somebody to come to the Easter fellowship. And so it's at 10. O'clock just remember that we've got one service. It's going to be at 10 o'clock and it's going to be a family service. 1 (1m 27s): So we will have children's packets available for the little ones, but it's one hour long. They're, you know, they're going to sit with mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, and it's going to be a really fun, fun Easter celebration. We do need some help. We're going to be doing setup actually on Saturday. We're going to set up at nine o'clock on Saturday. If you'd like to be a part of that, just sign up at the info center or on our website. And we will contact you just to confirm that you're on the roster to help set up again. That's going to be Saturday, this coming Saturday at nine o'clock and then clean up, you can either sign up to clean up, or you can just hang out a little bit right after service and you can help us put away chairs and do all that good stuff. 1 (2m 7s): So if you want to be a part of that, that would be super helpful. All right. One of the things that we do at harvest church, we do this about three or four times a year is we offer a program. We call it growth track. So what it is is for those who are new to harvest church, and it helps you get connected to the believers here, the community here at harvest church. And so that growth track is going to be starting up. It's going to start up April 11th and there's actually, it's going to involve four Sundays, Sunday morning. So it's going to start April 11th at, at 11 o'clock. It's going to be in the parsonage up the driveway. And again, it's going to be four sessions and you're going to get to know some other people it's going to be super fun. 1 (2m 48s): But what you're going to learn about there is you're going to learn about a little bit of the history of harvest church. So like what makes us unique from other churches in our community? You're gonna learn about our beliefs, mission, ministries, history, all that kind of stuff. And it's going to also help you to discover your spiritual gifts and find out, you know, where God would have you get plugged in with whether it be here at church or in your community, but it's going to be super fun. So be a part of that, you'll sign up at the info center or online or church app, whatever you want to use. Love to have you be a part of that. We have coming up. It is a youth and kids choir. Okay. So the ages would be second grade through high school. 1 (3m 29s): All right. So we've got a broad age group there. This is a youth and kids choir. So if you are in that age, demographic, we'd love to have you join this group. They're going to start their rehearsals. Let's see. Well, what I have here is the performance of the youth and kids group is going to choir is going to be the end of may. So there's going to be some rehearsals leading up to the end of may. And if you want to be a part of that, or maybe you've got kids that you'd like to be a part of that, just contact Leslie she's our children's ministry director. And you can either go online and send an email to her, or if you know her, just talk to her here on campus. And that would be great as well. Okay. I'm now I'm rereading my notes. 1 (4m 11s): Rehearsals will be on Sundays 10, 20 to 10 50, starting on April 18th. All right. So there you go. Love to have you be a part of that. So one last thing you ready last announcement of the day. I'm sorry about that. So the fifth and sixth graders, they're doing a Passover Seder dinner or it's for the fifth and sixth graders. So if you're a, if you're a student fifth and sixth grader, or maybe you have a child that is, you don't want to miss this. So it's going to be done Sunday, April 11th. It's going to be from three till 6:00 PM in the loft. And it's going to be $5 to pay for all the good stuff. So I'd love to have you sign up fifth and sixth graders, Passover, Seder. If you don't know what a Seder is, Google it. 1 (4m 54s): And then you can figure out what is it? I would encourage it. If you've never been to a Passover Seder, we encourage you to do that. 2 (5m 1s): All right. So here 1 (5m 2s): At harvest church, we support missionaries locally and internationally. And it's a big priority of our church to be involved in sharing the gospel here and abroad. So one of the couples I'm going to invite them up in just a moment, Mike and Sharon, Dutra the name of their ministries be transformed. So what they've done is they created books that go into the prison system, into the jails. So it's predominantly to those who are inmates, those who are incarcerated here and in other countries as well. So I'd like to invite Mike and Sharon to go ahead and come on up. This is Mike and Sharon right here. Let's go. 2 (5m 37s): I'm a warm welcome. All right. So 1 (5m 45s): Love these guys. So we've been, we've been involved in their ministry supporting them for probably 10 years or so a long time, less than that. Okay. But what we still love you even, even though spend less than that. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. 3 (5m 58s): Here we go. 4 (6m 9s): so most, 5 (6m 17s): Wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no. That's the wrong language. That's that's next. 4 (6m 21s): That's good by me. 5 (6m 24s): Forgive my beautiful Irish German senior re Senora. I don't want to see senior Rita that's she's not married, but she is. Yeah. And I don't speak Spanish. He does. Thankfully, let's start out with our ministry update and get back on track. We are entering our 10th year as be transformed ministry. And it's only because of God's amazing grace and spirit that he has allowed us to do what we're doing and open the doors for all this to happen to date. We have sent out over 20,000 free books. Last year, we sent out just over 6,000, which is we keeps accelerating every year. 5 (7m 6s): We sent books to prisons, jails, rehabs, and other countries. Our books are now in over 100 us institutions. It's not about the numbers of books, but all about the souls brought closer to Jesus that matters the most to us. And it also matters the most to him. 4 (7m 26s): For example, here's a letter from Matthew, a New Mexico inmate. Hello Sharon. I was recently transferred to a new facility, but in the Santa Fe prison, I just came from the 60 men Bible study where they are still using all three of your books. In fact, they use your new beginnings book as curriculum and their armor of God study. I have been using your books now for a few years to teach from, and I just love everything about them. And so does everyone else, the guys always tell me how easy your books are to understand and how well they explain how to apply the word to our daily lives in the new facility I'm in. 4 (8m 7s): We have a, not a lot of new believers, probably the largest in any facility. I would like to be able to introduce your books to the congregation here after the outcome of the Santa Fe facility. I know in my heart that the guys would be blessed to have the opportunity to share your books. Every facility I end up going to, I feel that God has placed me there to be a Fisher of men. And in order for me to do so, I share your book and teach God's word with it. And from it, you have been a blessing to so many of my brothers here. God bless you, Matthew. 5 (8m 46s): Next week we are going on our first ever be transformed ministry, mission trip to Mexico. Whew. We will be speaking at yeah. I was like, Whoa, we will be, we will see, we will be speaking at three rehabilitation centers, a church. And we will be meeting with three new ministries. One of them was really large and giving them many more books to distribute throughout Mexico. We already have over 1100 Spanish books in Mexico and we are taking more than 200 books with us in our poor Prius. The books are already being used in Tiawana Rosarita beach, Mexico city. And they are being used in the Southern most state of Chiapas. 5 (9m 29s): And more cases of our books will soon be sent there. Chiapas only has a 3% population of Christians and it's a restricted area region. According to the voice of the martyrs, there is a strong MARCE, Marxists and atheist presence there. So pray for the state of Chiapas. 4 (9m 49s): Tijuana is pronounced the Wynonna, Oh, we have 400 books being used in Nigeria. 500 of our books. And 250 Bibles were shipped to Ghana. 60 books are being in used in Uganda and also South Africa has been using our books for over two and a half years. And we just shipped 70 more books to them. This is a note from one of many, from one of the pastors in South Africa named pastor Nizza Monday. He says, I have pastored in these valleys for many years, and it's hard to uproot the Zulu tribes from their cultural beliefs to try to explain the subject of faith or one, God only is close to impossible. 4 (10m 38s): The new beginnings book has simplified some basic Christian trues that I teach with these now and confidence because I also understand it better. I appreciate the book and will teach and teach until the Lord is glorified in my village. 5 (10m 54s): Amen. He didn't say that. 4 (10m 58s): I always forget this part. Remember that in prisons and foreign countries, books will often be shared many, many times. So if you think about it, how impactful can one book be? 5 (11m 12s): Yeah. Our books have been used in a lot of churches. It started out as tying of us, sending them to prisons, but now it's expanded into many, many different churches too. We are now partnering exciting news. This is just last week. We're partnering with a new life ministries in Japan. They are going to print and store 2000 of our books in the next couple of weeks. And we'll distribute our Japanese new beginnings books for free to prisoners. And they are also going to advertise our book. So Christians and churches can purchase them in Japan. Japan again is less than 1% Christian they're totally unreached pretty much. And by God's mighty grace, our books are now being used in eight countries and have been translated into four different languages. 4 (11m 60s): So if you'd like more information about our Facebook page, our web address and ways to give the, we have a table just outside of the loft at the end of the service. 6 (12m 12s): Oh no, no. Mike local Condesa. 4 (12m 22s): We've also had over 20,000 downloads of our new beginnings, eBooks into Iran via the farce. I know, right? That is actually one of the fastest growing underground churches in the world right now. And they get all of their feed from satellite because they're not allowed to have physical material there or else they can be tortured or killed or other things. So anyway, back to the story, Oh, so if you can't, if you don't do Facebook, we've got some ministry update sheets on the 5 (12m 58s): She's blown. At this time, we would not have been able to do any of this work without your continued prayers and support. Hey, she's blonde. Give her a break. 6 (13m 10s): I didn't say that. 5 (13m 13s): Please consider partnering with us to continue this growing ministry, to share the gospel message. We received so much feedback, feedback letters, emails about changed lives. We don't receive any pay from the ministry and we are under a five Oh one C3 for your tax deductible donations. Will you consider helping us continue to reach more people for Christ? Now you're in, 4 (13m 39s): You're going to have a table by the loft. He's right. I missed all of that. So there are a lot of additional stories and pictures on our Facebook page. For those of you who don't do Facebook, we've got a ministry update sheet on the table and we've also got a sign up sheet. If you'd like to receive a quarterly newsletter. And we also have some outreach brochures. If you'd like to take some, you can leave them as tips. You can leave them on a bench anywhere to reach people for Jesus. We really want to thank you so much for your love and your support and your prayers. We appreciate you more than, you know, thank you. God bless you. 6 (14m 18s): 5 (14m 21s): So Mikey, come on back up here. I'm going to pray for you guys. So they actually get along quite well norm normally, so go ahead and stand up here, Mike please. 6 (14m 31s): Yeah. Yeah. 5 (14m 33s): And like Sharon mentioned, they do have a table set up. If you want to meet them, look at their material, support them anyway, feel free to do so. Let's pray for them. Okay. Well we just lift up Mike and Sharon to you, Lord, thank you that they they've just committed themselves to help lead others to you and, and to disciple believers and 1 (14m 52s): Especially those who are incarcerated, who are in positions, where they might not have a lot of purpose or future in their mind. But Lord, thank you that you give them hope. So, Lord, we pray that you'd open many, many more doors for Mike and Sharon's material material. Thank you that you've given them the ability to, to basically write this, these books and, and disciple people and, and have your word go forth through their, through the documents they've created. So Lord bless these two. Bless their marriage. Lord lead them to a good marriage counselor. We pray. Well, we love them. We, we, we just love them or thank you for them in Jesus name. Amen. 1 (15m 33s): That, that, that I'm hi. That last part was a joke. Hey, one thing I forgot to mention earlier, I'm going to add another announcement. Today's family Sunday, which basically means kids are in with, with parents. If your kids are below first grade, we've got some room up them up there for them. We're going to have Passover house over where Steve helped me. We're we're going to have communion. Thank you. We're going to have communion this morning, but best of all, we have donuts today. All right. So if you didn't get your doughnut yet, they're up in the near the info center I saw I got for you here. 1 (16m 17s): Go Jim. 6 (16m 17s): Let's stand and worship. Yeah. crowd with his crowd with the two with, so Jews watched in vain was borrowed for three days. 6 (20m 35s): His body . God has a Rob gray. 7 (22m 25s): Scott. You do lift us up. Thank you for resurrecting us, our hearts for saving us. Thank you. Amazing grace. Thank you. Yeah, let's just give him some things this morning. If you even want to speak it out or just in your heart either way, unless it's so some things from our hearts to him this morning. Thank you for your goodness, Lord. Thank you for your mercy. 7 (23m 39s): sing amazing grace. 7 (27m 15s): One more time. how's the sound I see. 7 (27m 58s): How was the see you more clearly today? You want to know, you want to know the depths of your heart. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear today. I want to see you. I'm like, yeah, let's just wait on his presence. Just open your hearts to him. If you even want to open your hands to just kind of receive anything he wants to pour down this morning and just put yourself in that mode of receiving just from him, your spirit on your sons and daughters today, we stand in need of you Thanksgiving. 7 (29m 28s): yes, my maze. I am confident for me. Yeah. 7 (30m 4s): 8 (35m 11s): You are doing today for the, the celebration for the opportunity to gather as friends, as brothers and sisters in the Lord, we pray God that you would continue to move powerfully in our midst, Lord God, that we would be surprised at what you do. And maybe we're already surprised at what you've done, Lord God, I pray that for every person here all over the campus, watching online and wherever, Lord God, we just pray that you administer powerfully in Jesus name. That lives would be changed 9 (35m 38s): And transformed. Thank you for this for your grace. And for this time in Jesus name, amen. You can be seated. Amen. Amen. I was at a wedding yesterday and manna was at this amazing celebration of this couple. They've been dating for eight years now since high school and Ronin and Brie are now happily married. 8 (35m 57s): They're married. Anyway. I assume they're happily married and 9 (35m 60s): It's only been less than 24 hours. So I bet it's my belief. And I told him this. I said, it actually can get better and better. Marriage can get better and 8 (36m 10s): Better and better as you go along. And so we talked a lot about that. So we're 9 (36m 15s): Celebrating Palm Sunday today, 8 (36m 18s): And it was much like the celebration of the wedding yesterday. It was just so much excitement, anticipation so much going on. 9 (36m 26s): And as Jesus gets ready to enter Jerusalem 8 (36m 29s): For the final time he is met with adoration. 9 (36m 33s): People are laying out their garments 8 (36m 35s): On the road, putting Palm branches down, hence the term Palm Sunday. And this is his triumphant entry where he's coming into Jerusalem for the final time. It's Sunday, but Friday's coming good Friday is when Jesus would go to the cross, he would die for our sins. And it's called good. Because apart from that good work of Christ on the cross, we have no hope. We have absolutely no hope so because God is good. We have hope in Jesus. And so this is kind of how things unfolded. I'll read it, but as he comes in, Jesus immediately begins to take care of business, driving out the money changers, confronting the religious leaders, speaking parables, directing people. 9 (37m 20s): This is why, this is what I know about Jesus. You encounter him and either you're 10 (37m 24s): Off by him or you're kind of 8 (37m 29s): Don't care kind of neutral, or you decide to fall in love with him as really 9 (37m 34s): The three responses. And we see that in represented 8 (37m 38s): In Jesus' life and ministry. As Jesus sent his disciples approached Jerusalem, Matthew 21 verses one through 11, says this. They came to the town of Beth village 9 (37m 47s): Out of olives and Jesus sent two of them on a head go into the village over there. He said, as soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there with its cult beside it, untied them and bring them to me. She, Jesus knew exactly what he was walking into. He knew the plan of the father and he was willingly ready to walk into it. And so he knew what to expect and he knew what to prepare his followers for. He said, if anyone asks what you are doing, just say the Lord needs them and he will immediately 8 (38m 18s): Let you take them. This took place to fulfill the prophecy that said, 9 (38m 24s): Tell the people of Jerusalem, look, your King is coming to you. He is humble writing 8 (38m 29s): Donkey, riding on a donkey's Colt. The two disciples did as Jesus commanded. That's always a good idea by the way, do 9 (38m 36s): What Jesus asked you to do. And things will work out. They brought the donkey and the Colt to him and threw their garments over the Colt. And he sat on it. Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. This is the right response to Jesus. By the way, this is the life giving response to Jesus. Like Lord, I will give you everything, including my garments. I will lay them at your feet. I will bow down before you. I will celebrate you and who you are. This is what they were doing. Jesus was in the center of the procession verse nine says, and the people all around him were shouting. They're shouting praise God now. 9 (39m 17s): But just in a moment, in a short amount of time, they're gonna be shouting, crucify him, crucify him. But right now they're saying praise God for the son of David blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord, praise God in highest heaven. I wonder if we do the same thing in one breath, we're praising him in the next work, conflicted and more confused by him and even angry at him. Jesus knew the condition of man's heart going into this while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He knew that it moments of our life were doubtful and angry and without faith. But then other moments when we're believing him and trusting him, we're saying, praise God for the son of David blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord, praise God in highest heaven. 9 (40m 5s): We can get to a place in our life as followers of Jesus Christ, where our faith level is so high. That we're always saying this, that we no longer say Lord, why or God I'm angry or God, I don't understand. We can say those things, but, but with this faith is confidence saying, Lord, I don't understand, but I know you do Lord. I don't know why this is happening, but I know that you do. I don't, I can't figure this one out Lord, but I know that you've got to figure it out to the entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. As he entered, 11 (40m 34s): Who is this? They asked, who is this? 9 (40m 37s): Yes. They asked. And the crowds replied. It is Jesus. The prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. 11 (40m 43s): He's the reason that we gather. He's the one, 9 (40m 45s): The reason that the whole world gathers for Easter next week on April 4th, these are the reason. And maybe if you're not in the church or never heard of this person, Jesus, the curiosity of the world is who is this? Jesus. And why are we celebrating him? Why do people gather to celebrate his resurrection? Why do people gather to celebrate his birth? Why did people gather to celebrate him at all? It's our job as believers, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, to give them the answer. And when Jesus radically changes our lives, we're happy to do so. We're happy to do so. I've titled the message today. Faith in Jesus changes everything. Faith in Jesus changes everything. 9 (41m 27s): Unless of course your faith in Jesus hasn't changed anything. Where are you 8 (41m 34s): Today? Where's your faith today? Your walk with Jesus today. Do you know him? Do you follow him? Do you trust him? Because as we can see from the scripture and from hopefully from our own experience, our faith in Jesus has meant to radically shape us and change everything about the way who, the way we are, the way we function, the way we talk, the way we react, the way we live. Paul Paul 9 (42m 2s): Wrote in first Timothy one five, and we've been studying through the book of first Timothy. This letter that Paul wrote to this young pastor in emphasis. Paul writes this letter, this, this information, this anointed revelation to this young man so that the people of God in that church might know how to live their lives. Paul wrote in first Timothy one five. 8 (42m 25s): The purpose of my instruction is that all believers and all ad everywhere that all believers everywhere would be filled with love. That comes from a pure hearts, a clear conscience and genuine faith. 9 (42m 42s): These are things that are reachable they're within our reach by God's grace, because he's good. Not because we are good. He's writing to give instruction so that all believers will be filled with love. I don't know about you, but I, I love so much better now that I know Jesus than I did before, before Jesus, I was pent up and pretty frustrated and pretty angry. And I found fault with just about everybody that I came in contact with. But since meeting Jesus, he has changed my heart. He has changed my life and I still wrestle with those old ideas and thoughts and old man ways. But Jesus has filled my heart with such love that. It's, it's hard to imagine how life was before. 9 (43m 24s): This is, this is God's designed that he would fill us with his love that we would experience his love is unconditional love. And then out of that overflow out of that abundance of revelation that we would share that same love with everybody in our path. This is the design of the gospel's design is that we'd be filled with the love of God and then overflow and share 8 (43m 44s): That love with others. That would be filled with the love that comes from a pure heart who purifies our heart, who purifies our heart. Jesus purifies our heart. We were 9 (43m 54s): Lost and broken and full of sin and Jesus. He washes over us. He went to the cross. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And so Jesus went to the cross to purify 8 (44m 14s): Our fickleness, 9 (44m 17s): To purify us from our sin, 8 (44m 20s): Make us pure of hearts. He said the believers will be filled with love. That comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience and genuine faith. How do, how do we have a clear conscience? We let me just say this. We, 9 (44m 33s): We can have a clear conscience. It's actually possible for us to have a clear conscience. Some of us live our lives with guilty conscience, 24 seven. We don't know how to live in such a way that we get rid of that. First of all, the enemy is a liar and he's going to want to heap, guilt and condemnation upon your life 24 seven. So you've got to recognize, what am I feeling? Is this from the enemy or is this really guilt from the sin in my life? If it's guilt from the sin in your life, if you confess your sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, that's the gospel. He loves you and wants to forgive your sin so that your conscience is clear. So then you just get up every morning and you just live for the glorious purposes of God. You live for God's glory. 9 (45m 13s): And then your conscience is clear when you sin. When you misstep, you just bring it to the Lord and say, God, I've sinned there. I don't want to send there. I've missed step. I don't want to miss step there. Would you forgive me? And your conscience can be clear in Jesus' name. Your conscience can be clear and then genuine faith. How's your genuine faith. Sometimes we wrestle with the love with a pure heart, with a clear conscious, because our faith is not genuine. It's not, it hasn't touched every area of our life. We kind of keep it in a box and we say, my faith is for Sunday morning or my faith is for the Bible study or my faith is for whatever it may be. But my faith isn't for my time with my buddies. That's not, that's not where my faith comes in. My faith. Isn't in my activities, my hobbies, my sports, that's my work, my school. 9 (45m 56s): That's not where my faith comes into play. And so we don't have a faith that saturates our whole life. And so we struggle with all these 8 (46m 4s): Things with love, pure hearts and a clear conscience. It's when we have a genuine faith, 9 (46m 11s): I think it's the only kind of real faith that we can have in Jesus, because we either respond to him by deciding we're going to fall in love with him, or we're just kind of irritated by him, or we're just kind of neutral about him. And I just want to encourage you today to decide 8 (46m 26s): To fall in love with him. 9 (46m 28s): That will fix everything. Your, your, your love will be overflowing. You'll have a pure heart, a clear conscience, and then your faith will be genuine. Paul writes in first Timothy chapter three, verses four through 14, through 16. As we wrap up this chapter, getting ready in preparation for Easter, for resurrection Sunday, how many are going to be here for Easter next week? It's going to be really good. As we said, it's going to be up the driveway. We're putting out hundreds of chairs and it's just going to be really, 8 (46m 55s): Really fun. 9 (46m 57s): First Timothy, three 14 through 16. Paul said, I'm writing these things to you now, even though I hope to be with you 8 (47m 4s): Soon 9 (47m 6s): So that if I'm delayed, you will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God. This is 8 (47m 13s): Sure church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth. So what he says carries weight, because this is the church of the living. God, you are the church of the living. God, not this building, 9 (47m 30s): But you personally and us corporately. We're the church of the living. God, we are God's workmanship, his masterpieces, his idea. He is the architect and it is his plan that gathers us so that we might fellowship together so that we might worship together so that we might grow in grace together. It's his idea. It's his plan that we come together. He says that this is the church of the living. God. So we don't gather for just any reason to celebrate just any idea or plan or to, to teach about just anything we're gathered to teach about the living, God, to worship the living, God, to celebrate 8 (48m 9s): The living God. In any case, 9 (48m 13s): Paul wasn't able to be there in person. Paul loved the church. Paul loved to be with the church. He loved planting churches and ministering. So in case Paul wasn't able to be there in person. He wrote this letter to Timothy so that God's people would understand how 8 (48m 27s): To live and function after all, this is the church, 9 (48m 31s): The living God. And so God has given us the Bible. He's given us instruction in the scripture so that we might understand how to live individually because individually we're the church and corporately where the church. And so he's given us instruction, how do we live out our lives? What do we do? How do we make wise choices? How do we make wise decisions in this life? Will Paul through the junction, the anointing of the Holy spirit has given us instruction. He said, this is the church 8 (48m 58s): Of the living. God, 9 (49m 2s): This is God's church. And so things must be done. God's way. This is why we do our best to teach through the scriptures so that we approach every topic and have understanding of everything that God asks us to do. Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy spirit under God's spirit giving instruction. So the church would know how to properly express and represent the person of the love, loving and living God he's he's given us instruction. If you ever wondering, how do I please, God just opened up the scripture and just begin to do what the scripture says. Just begin to pray into the scripture. Say, as you read it, just say, Lord, I don't know how to do this stuff. A lot of it, I don't even understand, but God, I want to, when your heart's right and open and available to the Lord, he will show you what you must do. 8 (49m 46s): Paul spells it out for us. He spells it out. You wrote under the inspiration of the Holy spirit. 9 (49m 51s): These are the things. This is, this is the instruction 8 (49m 55s): For the church. 9 (49m 56s): This is God's church. And so our aim is to honor 8 (49m 58s): God in the way we function in the way that we worship and the way that we live, the way that we teach and the way that we lead. He is the architect. He's designed it. If you ever looked at a set of plans, every detail is covered, right? All of the details are in the plans in the blueprints, the architect has made that happen. This is his design, 9 (50m 24s): Always perplexed. I'm always perplexed. When people say that, I, when they say I love God, but I don't like his church. 3 (50m 34s): This is like saying, 9 (50m 35s): I love God. I just don't love God's people. 3 (50m 39s): I just, I love God. I just don't love God's plan. 9 (50m 42s): It's perplexing to me because the church is God's plan filled with God's people, people that he loves and people that we're supposed to love. And so I know that church can be hard sometimes, and we have different difficulties in church, in disagreements with people in church. And it's hard to get along sometimes, but this is still God's design. The church gathered together for corporate worship to build friendships and have fellowship and have community to come together and love each other. And to challenge one another and to encourage one another. This is God's designed. We're not meant to do life alone. I know a gal who for the last, since COVID started for over a year, she's never wants to come in contact with another person she's been holed up in her home and never had a physical contact with anybody for the whole last 12 or 14 months. 9 (51m 35s): It's insanity. It's not how we are designed to live. This is why I sent out a video. I think it came out yesterday, just inviting people to come back to church. Did anybody see that video yet? Just inviting people to come back to church saying, Hey, it's time. It's time to get back to church. We need to, without fear gather, and without fear Jews to beats together as the body of Christ. And so it's my hope that the people of God, not just at harvest church, but on the central coast and not just on the central coast, but in this state and in this country and in this world would begin to gather to shake off that fear and get back to church it's God's idea. 9 (52m 17s): After all, some people are threatened. If I come back to church and I'm so used to being in my pajamas, I made you show up in my pajamas. I said, if you want to show up in your pajamas, just show up in your pajamas, just make sure it's appropriate pajamas. So we may see people show up on Easter Sunday at 10 o'clock next week in their pajamas. Just be okay with it. It's okay. 3 (52m 43s): Okay. 9 (52m 43s): This is the church, which is the pillar. The verse goes on and says in verse 16, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth. Why is the church, the pillar and the foundation of the truth? Because we teach the truth. That's God's designed for the church that we would teach the church, essentially becoming the pillar and the foundation we teach God's word, which is the truth. And because we preach the truth where the pillar and the foundation of that truth, we have this responsibility to teach the word of God that people might understand the Bible and understand that the Bible is truth. And so the church declares and communicates and affirms the Bible's truth. So we teach and we champion this book, the Bible, because it is properly the pillar and foundation it the truth. 9 (53m 26s): And 8 (53m 26s): We as the church, as we declare it, 9 (53m 29s): Not just corporately, but individually, as well as we believe it in champion the Bible and believe the Bible and live the Bible and proclaim the Bible. We are becoming the pillar and the foundation of the truth. If we cease, if we cease to teach the whole counsel of God's word, we cease to be the pillar and the foundation of the truth. If we stop teaching the Bible, we cease to be the pillar and foundation of truth, because the truth is the Bible. And so we teach the Bible. We have to understand as individuals and corporately that the Bible is God's truth. So we have to be careful to call sin sin and truth, truth. 9 (54m 12s): I didn't get saved because somebody danced around the topic of sin. Somebody told me that I'm a C, they said, you're a sinner and you need Jesus. I said, I am. I didn't know. But as I began to understand what sin is, I began to understand, yes, indeed, I am a sinner and I need Jesus. And it was because somebody spoke that message pur with profound clarity, that I was awakened to my desk, 8 (54m 40s): Brittany, for Jesus, I had a desperate need for Jesus and everyone who's ever come to faith in him with a genuine faith has realized the same thing. The wages of sin is death, spiritual deaths. It's, it's a death sentence. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. So we have to, in our efforts to be the pillar and the foundation of the truth, we have to proclaim the truth of the word of God, calling sin, sin, and truth, truth. I got saved because I realized he needed a savior. I was desperate for Jesus Jesus. 8 (55m 22s): While I was yet, a sinner died for me and came into my life so that I might know him. And then transformation began to take place. And I'm still in the process. It's a lifelong process of transformations. It's called sanctification. 9 (55m 39s): How can people be confronted with their sin? If we don't talk about 3 (55m 42s): Then verse 16 says, without question, this is the great mystery of our faith. 8 (55m 51s): Well, that question, this is the great mystery of our faith. What's the mystery of our faith. 9 (55m 56s): It's it's, it's curious the whole gospel thing, isn't it. It's interesting and curious and perplexing to think about the gospel. The mystery of faith is the divinely revealed truth about grace redemption and 8 (56m 12s): Goodness in Christ. 9 (56m 15s): It's the divinely revealed truth about grace 8 (56m 18s): Option and forgiveness. Grace is given to us, grace redeems 9 (56m 25s): Us, and we're forgiven in Christ. There's one way to the father and that's through Jesus. There's no other way to receive salvation other than to receive Jesus and to receive his sacrifice. The great mystery is that God loved the world and gave his son to be the savior. The savior of all, who would profess profess that Jesus is Lord. He died for the whole world for God. So loved the world, the whole wide world, every one of us that who so ever nobody's left out of there who's so whoever believes will not perish, but have eternal life. 9 (57m 7s): That's the gospel. And this is the message that we carry as believers. We believe in ourselves initially. And then we share it. We become followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And as followers we do what he did. He declared Surewest proclaimed truth about the gospel, about his grace verse 16. Again, without question, this is the great mystery of our faith. Christ was revealed in a human body. This is mind blowing stuff here. 8 (57m 33s): Jesus, 9 (57m 35s): The second member of the Trinity, God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy spirit, 8 (57m 40s): Fully God. He gave up and put on 9 (57m 49s): Being fully God and fully man. He took on the human condition without sin, not the sin condition, but took on the human body and limitations of a human body of Galatians four, four, and five says. But when the right time came, God sent his son born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own children. When the time was right in the history of mankind, Jesus put on flesh and was born 8 (58m 29s): To a young, poor couple born in a barn. The manger in the lowliest of fashion, the humblest of fashion, he was born flipping 9 (58m 50s): Two, five through eight says you must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had though. He was God. He did not think of equality with God as something to clean to. Instead he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave. He was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross. The reason he was born is so that he could die. He was born to die for and for you, 3 (59m 26s): The 9 (59m 26s): Reason that you were born as such, you might know him and help others to know him. That's the reason you were born. If you ever wondered why you were born, you were born to know him and that you might help others to know him. That's boiled down. That's essentially what we're here to do as believers in Jesus Christ. So everything else is secondary and tertiary. Everything else is, is second to that. To that reality, that we're, we're born to know Jesus and to help others know Jesus, 3 (59m 52s): Jesus 9 (59m 53s): Was born to die so that we might know him and help others to know him. Verse 16 continues. He was vindicated by the spirits. Jesus. He was vindicated by the spirit. The spirit rested upon Jesus at his baptism. Remember in Luke three 21 through 22, it says one day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. Jesus got baptized as a modeling baptism for us. And then he said, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son and the Holy spirit. So if you haven't been baptized and you know, Jesus, it's time to get baptized. We've got a baptism happening on Easter. So if you haven't been baptized and you know, Jesus, there is no excuse for not being baptized. 9 (1h 0m 34s): You say, well, it's gonna mess up my hair. For those of us who have hair, right? It's going to mess up my clothes. I don't want to get wet in front of everybody. Jesus humbled himself. 3 (1h 0m 49s): He 9 (1h 0m 50s): Model baptism for us. And then he was baptized. Baptism is a public declaration of I'm a follower of Jesus. It's like the marriage yesterday. They declared Ronin and Bree declared in front of family and friends, front of the whole world in front of God. We love each other. We're committed to one another. We're going to be married together till death do us part. That's what baptism is. We're saying I'm a follower of Jesus. I love Jesus. I want to serve him all the days of my life. And this is my public declaration. If you haven't been baptized, you need to get baptized. It's time. One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened and the Holy spirit imagined the scene. 9 (1h 1m 31s): The Holy spirit and bodily form descended on him like a dove and a voice from heaven said, you are my dearly loved son. 3 (1h 1m 37s): You bring me great joy. The spirit 9 (1h 1m 41s): Rested upon him at his baptism. And then the spirit raised him from the dead. We read about that. Romans eight 11. It says the spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead 3 (1h 1m 51s): Lives in you. 9 (1h 1m 53s): And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same spirit living within you. The spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you. So you've got power in you. God's power in you. Listen. If there was any doubt about who Jesus was and I promise you, there was doubt swirling about Jesus, where, who is this guy? That's coming into Jerusalem? Who is he? Why the celebration, who is this guy? If there was any, 8 (1h 2m 20s): The Holy spirit vindicated him and demonstrated his divinity. If you get God got a chance, he will demonstrate to you his divinity, the realness of who he is. If you just open up a little bit and God will show himself faithful, he can verse 16, continue to see, was seen by angels. Angels have always participated in God's redemptive plan. From the beginning 9 (1h 2m 51s): After his resurrection angels were present to roll away the stone and to give instruction to his followers. Angels are with us. There are angels in our presence. Even now the Bible talks about guardian angel angels that walk with us and protect us. 8 (1h 3m 8s): There are angels in our midst spiritual beings who are there to serve us and to help us serve God and to serve God's needs. And so we see angels throughout the Bible, old and new Testament. Angels are still real today. It was early on Sunday morning, Matthew 28, one through six as the new day was daunting. 9 (1h 3m 28s): Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord, came down from heaven, rolled aside 8 (1h 3m 38s): And sat on it. His face shown like lightning and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him and they fell into a dead faint. I can't even imagine just the glory, 9 (1h 3m 54s): But imagine if that's the glory of the angelic. 8 (1h 3m 57s): The imagine with me, the glory of Jesus. Imagine with me the glory of the living King of Kings, we will see him and we will know him. Verse five. Then the angel spoke to the woman. Don't be afraid. He said, I, I know you're looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn't here. 9 (1h 4m 19s): He is risen from the dead, just as he 8 (1h 4m 21s): Said would happen. Remember his triumphal entry, go into Jerusalem, do this, this and this. They did this, this and this. 9 (1h 4m 29s): Jesus knew. Jesus knew they, the angelic hosts, God knows ahead of time. What's going to happen. 8 (1h 4m 39s): You're looking for Jesus. He was crucified. He isn't here. He's risen from the dead, just as he said, what happened comes see where his body was lying. And now go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you? So angelic hosts were presence 3 (1h 5m 2s): We're told 8 (1h 5m 2s): In Philippians two, that Jesus, his name is going to be elevated. And he's given this highest honor. It says, therefore, God elevated him Jesus to the place of highest honor 9 (1h 5m 14s): And gave him the name above every above. All other names that at the name of Jesus, every they should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. The father, see, this is our, this is our purpose that we might know Jesus and declare, declare that he is Jesus Christ, the Lord to glory, to the glory of God. The father, every knee will bow. I wonder if there's an area in our life right now that we need to bow our knee to Jesus. Like I maybe there's you bowed to him in every other area, but there's this, this one area. This one area we'll call it of sin of maybe disagreement with God, an area where you just flat don't want to bow your knee. 9 (1h 6m 2s): I just want to say that if you will, and now your knee in that area, God will meet you in that place. And he will minister to you in that place. Often we don't do it because 3 (1h 6m 13s): We're fearful. We're fearful 9 (1h 6m 16s): Of what God may ask or require of us. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of sound mind. There shouldn't be anything in our lives as followers of Jesus. We're followers of Jesus. There shouldn't be any area of our life where we're not, we're not willing to say yes, Lord, we bow our knee to you. Yes, Lord. 3 (1h 6m 38s): Yeah. 9 (1h 6m 39s): Says that. In verse 16, he was announced to the nations that Jesus was announced to the nations in Colossians one 23, Paul declared the good news. And I'll add about the good news has been preached all over the world. And I, Paul, I've been appointed by God to proclaim it. And since then, since the first century, the gospel has been proclaimed all over the world. Just this morning, we heard about Mike and Sharon Dutcher who are they're ministering through their, their, their ministry tools to eight different nations right now, eight different countries. And people have, have worked to see the whole wide world Angela's and that's why we send missionaries out. 9 (1h 7m 20s): And that's why we're participating in the great commission, because we want to see the whole world, come to know Jesus, Paul Paul got it. He said the good news has been preached all over the world. And I I've been appointed by God to proclaim at verse 16. You see what's believed in throughout the whole world, throughout the world and taken to heaven in glory. So this message of Jesus Christ 3 (1h 7m 44s): Has 9 (1h 7m 45s): Been spread to the whole world. And now it's at our feet. Now it's in our hands. Now it's our responsibility for this generation. For this nation. It is our responsibility to proclaim the truth. Listen, you don't want to go to your grave. Having never led anybody to Jesus. You just don't want to do that. In fact, you want to go to your grave. Having led dozens of people to Jesus, because those, the people will hopefully lead dozens of people, of people to Jesus. You want to make it your life goal to lead 8 (1h 8m 16s): People to Jesus. The message of Christ has been spreading rapidly all over the globe since his life, death, resurrection and Ascension. And he will return you guys ready for that. Are you really though? He is he's he's going to return, ready to judge the living and the dead. He's coming back to judge our actions and the way that we lived our life. Are you ready for that? Because faith in Jesus has meant to change everything. So if there's areas of your life, where your faith in Jesus, hasn't changed you and hasn't changed your priorities in your perspective, then it's time to revisit your faith and say, God, I want my faith to be genuine through and through like every part of my life, reflecting who you are and what you've called me to do nothing held back. 8 (1h 9m 5s): No fear, no worries, no doubts. Just I'm all in with you. We once a month on the fourth, Sunday family, Sunday, we celebrate communion. The Lord's table, where we celebrate what Jesus did on the cross for us was 2000 years ago. And people to this day are still celebrating all over the globe. The church of God is celebrating first Corinthians 1123. Did everybody get elements? By the way, if you did not get elements, then raise your hand. And we have people who will get you elements. So there we go, Jim, in the middle here you got, there we go. We'll give it a moment. 3 (1h 9m 48s): Worship team. Come on out 8 (1h 9m 55s): On the patio. Also, if you had, if you didn't get your elements, raise your hand and somebody will get those to you in the lofts. Also there. So 3 (1h 10m 8s): If you're at home 8 (1h 10m 10s): On the fourth, Sunday of every month, as I said, we take communion. So family Sunday. So if it's the fourth, Sunday of the month and you're watching from home, just show up, prepared to take communion, get away for some juice and be ready to take communion with us. And God will be glorified. It says in first Corinthians 1123 through 26 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 gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which has given for you 3 (1h 10m 46s): Do this 8 (1h 10m 47s): In remembrance of me. Let's go ahead and take the wafer a little tricky to get to that for 3 (1h 10m 55s): There it is. Thank you, Jesus. And then if you've had it 8 (1h 11m 4s): As you've had the wafer, go ahead and peel open the next level and we'll get to the juice here. This is COVID communion right here. Oh, fit. There we go. In the same way. He took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this 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. Let's take the juice. Thank you, Lord. 8 (1h 11m 45s): We're so grateful. We're so humbled Lord, by your kindness, God, your, your birth, your triumphant entry, your triumphal entry, Lord God. We're so thankful for good Friday where you died in for a Sunday, Easter Sunday, where you resurrected from the dead Lord. We're so thankful. We love you. Jesus. I pray that if there somebody here who needs you, that they would reach out to you. Bible says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. So believe in who he is. Welcome him into your life. Say, Jesus, I need, you need you in my life. 8 (1h 12m 25s): I need you to forgive me. I need you to love me as you with your whole heart, declare that truth. God comes into your life and he loves you for gives you and adopts you into his family. So don't wait to do that, to make that decision. Lord, thank you for what you're doing. As we get ready to worship some more prayer that we worship in spirit and in truth, be glorified. And we ask in Jesus name, amen. Let's go and stand up and worship some more. 7 (1h 12m 58s): where are these? Where are these? 7 (1h 13m 20s): worthy? 7 (1h 14m 40s): yes, you are a hope. 7 (1h 20m 27s): You're our foundation. You're the rock that we stand upon. Lord. We thingy that we can rest in you. We can trust in you. We put our hope in you when everything else is shifting around us, God, you are steadfast and secure. So thank you for the hope that we have in you. Jesus. I pray that you would be with us this week. You would strengthen our hearts. Scott, look forward to celebrating Easter together next week, but you just keep everyone healthy and just prepare our hearts for just an awesome celebration. Next week. We love you, Lord. We give you this day in Jesus name. 7 (1h 21m 8s): Amen. Amen church. So glad you're doing this today. If there's anyone who would like some prayer this morning, we always have folks available. So just head on down toward the front, we would love to pray with you this morning. Otherwise have a wonderful day and pass the peace and love of Jesus around to each other. And we will see you on Easter. Sunday, 10:00 AM up at the top of the Hill, right here. Have a great day.

The Role of Women in the Church

0 (1s): Good morning, 1 (3s): Sorry. We're like we have people tuning in all over the world, you know? So we have to, I have to start at the right time when the, you know, when the camera goes, it's like, I feel like I'm on, I mean, like a, like a news studio or something, you know, they're like, they're like, you're on good morning. Welcome to harvest church. Thank you for joining us. Whether you're on campus in the sanctuary on the loft. I mean, in the lawn outside, we're just glad you're here tuning in on the live stream. We're going to, I'm going to open with a word of prayer for the service this morning, dear God. Thank you so much for just every blessing you've blessed us with. Thank you for being so faithful to show up. When we, when we invite you, when we become aware of you. And so this morning, I just declare that we're just going to stop and become aware of you more in this space this morning. 1 (49s): We're going to, I'm going to, like, I just asked to help us lay down what we have maybe burdens or just things we're thinking about, worried about are things of life and just lay them at the, at the foot of the cross this morning. And just, we're just going to exalt your name God. So I just ask you to move in us this morning and, and just show us something of something more of you this morning in Jesus name, please stand. We're going to sing a little bit of maybe a new song to the, to the church this morning. It's if you're not quite awake yet, you might be more by the finish of the song. 0 (1m 35s): I was shame who could carry that weight? It was, I was breathing, but not too high. 0 (2m 17s): It was fine. 0 (2m 21s): 2 (4m 12s): I needed rescue. My siblings had shades spray Catherine way to your hours. And you call me 0 (4m 29s): . 0 (5m 56s): He brought me no way I don't always get to see. 0 (13m 7s): I won't believe it feel like we all have kind of just be with God kind of reflect. 0 (18m 51s): 2 (19m 33s): Good. 0 (19m 34s): 2 (20m 17s): Smell. You make giants fall. You use balls. I went in to speak to my feed. I will preach your mind. You will face full that you will be faithful that 0 (21m 16s): I just want to speak right now too. Like, I just feel like some, even I question it sometimes like, Oh my gosh, it just feels like God's letting me down. It's like you say, he's faithful. You say that like, he's good, but I can't see it. And it's like, that's valid sometimes, but I just pray right now that God would just remind you if you're feeling that this morning that he is there and he understands what's going on because he's good all the time. 0 (22m 18s): So to encourage you guys now to it's a good time to turn around and encourage someone, let the overflow just like smiles and hug someone. If you're comfortable with that, maybe give high fives, fist bumps, introduce yourself to someone. 3 (22m 38s): So my wife threw a birthday, a surprise birthday for me a few years ago and, and she just completely pulled off. It was a complete surprise. So what she did is she sent me away to some friends for the weekend and we went out to Owens Valley and did some fly fishing, some adventuring, some just getting out in the country. It was a great time. And as I came back in, she sent me a text and such, she said, Hey, meet me at Manning park, up above Carpentaria. We were living in, in Santa Barbara at the time. And so I said, okay, I'm sorry. So Paul I'm pulling into meaning park. If you've ever been there, it's just this gorgeous park. It's surrounded by some Hills with Oak beautiful Oak trees. And as you pull into the park, there's this big grass field. And I just remember seeing kids playing out there and there's a jungle gym and there's families with around the barbecues. 3 (23m 22s): And as I pulled up to the site where my wife had said to meet her, I realized that like 30 to 40 of my friends were there. And it was just, you know, as I was walking up, I was just, it was, it was a super emotional moment because it just had that feeling of like, this is what heaven's going to be. Like. Some people hadn't seen in years, some, some, just some of my best friends in life, my wife, my kids, it was just an time. And I wonder if that's not what heaven's going to be like when we walk into the Gates and just, wow. Look at all the friends and family. And I hope that's what church is like for you. You know, like when I get just a taste of heaven each morning, I get to see each of your faces and just, we just gather up together. I hope you have that, that, that feeling of, of just companionship and friendship here at harvest. 3 (24m 5s): So we just want to say welcome. And if you, I haven't connected with us yet, feel free to go over to the info center and find out what's going on, how you can get plugged in, just do the things that are going on with that said, we've got a big thing going on and that's April 4th for celebrating Easter service. So we've got handouts here, some flyers that you can take to your friends and family and pass out and invite people to our service. It's going to be April 4th, it's one services, 10:00 AM. And it's going to be in our upper parking lot. So there's plenty of ways to get to, to help out with that. There's going to be plenty of stuff set up and clean up afterwards. So please feel free to say, sign up for that. 3 (24m 45s): Volunteer your time. Also, if you'd like to be baptized during this service, we'll be having the baptisms. It's gonna be a sweat special time. And a there's gonna be a class next week at 9:00 AM during, during this first service. So we'll have a baptism class, just go through the basics of what is baptism. Why do we do it? And so that's next week, but, but we definitely need some filled eggs. And I want to emphasize the filled eggs, right? Put some where they say wrap some can wrap candy stickers, small toys inside the eggs. It was by March 28th. So filled eggs. Feel free to drop those off for the church office or the info center. 3 (25m 25s): Oh man, we got some exciting things this week. We've got, starting up tomorrow night and that is men six or men Mondays at six. Okay. And then on men, on men, on Mondays eating meat at six. Okay. So that is tomorrow night at 6:00 PM at thousand Hills ranch. And it's a free dinner worship testimonies. And they say to bring a friend, there's no sign of necessarily just show up. And also this week is exciting that we're starting our journey groups or men's journey groups. So there's a couple this week that you can join in, find out what's going on. Those will be at six 30 Wednesday in the morning, 6:30 PM. 3 (26m 5s): And then Friday is 6:00 AM. And so you can find out more about the, about those at the info center, but this one kind of just, there's no commitment this week. It's come find out what journey groups all about and how, and what do we like to plug in and make that commitment. So that's this week, lastly, we have the college and young professionals scavenger hunt that is this Saturday, March 20th. It'll be from four to six 30. And that the cost is $12. And the age range they said is from 18 to 40. And yes, they will be checking IDs at the door. So 18 to 40, 41. I don't, I can't, I won't make, take it in. So head to the events page and to find out more 4 (26m 44s): About that and to fill, get the information. That's all I got. Thank you. 5 (26m 51s): Match today. Ooh. Yeah. Same glasses, same basic frame. 4 (27m 2s): He's wearing his trucks today though. And I didn't wear my chucks. How many, know what? Chucks are? A few of us don't okay, good. Good, good. How many have chucks? How many again? How many objects? So there's five of us that are cool, right 5 (27m 17s): On brain. Right? 4 (27m 19s): Just kidding. You're cool to you in your own little way, in your own special little way. How many, remember the time change? Yeah, no. I stayed up all night waiting for the sun to come up with the new time change and everything. And then finally it dawned on me. Finally, it dawned on me that it was a joke. Did you guys catch the joke? So I was up all night waiting for the sun to come up and then finally it dawned on me. Wasn't any funny or the second time As an Andy funnier the second time, I'm trying to get my, my sermon to come up here. So I'm telling bad jokes. There it is. 4 (27m 59s): There we go. So we're, we're in a second Timothy chapter two, the first Timothy chapter two, let's go out and stand up. I'm going to, we're going to pray cause we really need to pray because this is the topic of the message today. The role of women in the church. Isn't that just isn't that like warm and fuzzy. Just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Not me either. I love the topic, but it's, it's so polarizing. It's so, so interesting. It's kind of like talking about Calvinism versus Arminianism pre-trip post-trip mid trip, pantry ribs stuff, whether it gives, have a C since the first century or whether gifts are still for today, all of these topics. 4 (28m 42s): So what w what I find is that the church before we pray real quick, little pre-storm and sermon at here, I find is the church that we battle inward internally about all these kinds of silly things. And I think when we get to heaven, we're going to laugh about the things that we battled over here in the earth. And so, so some of you are going to agree with me today. Some are going to disagree. It's okay. It's okay. You can be wrong. And that was, that was an attempt at a joke as well. So instead of jokes, I'm just going to pray, and then I'm going to teach the Bible. How's that? I'll stick with 5 (29m 21s): That. Thank 4 (29m 23s): You, Lord. As we stand, we stand to honor you Lord, and we, we really want to hear from you today. So I pray that you would speak through me and through your word and through the power of your Holy spirit, doing what you do best instructing us, informing us and helping us to know what your will is. So bless us as we do. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So I don't know if it was this topic or just the time change, but I, last night I was, I set my clock and I'm in the bedroom and then went to bed and I woke up and I, the clock said 6:00 AM, but I went into the living room to get coffee and the coffee hadn't brewed yet. 4 (30m 5s): So I'm like, something's up. And so I look at the other clocks and they say 5:00 AM. So I dunno if I set my clock and then it set itself again, you know, some locks are smart clocks and they can set themselves well, this is a new clock. So it might be a smart clock. I wake up at 5:00 AM and then I realize, or I re I think it's six, but it's five. So then I crawl on the sofa with my pillow and I'd go back to sleep for about 45 minutes, and then I'd get up and I drank coffee and I've worked on my sermon a little bit more. And then about seven 30 or so, like, it's almost time to leave for church, but I told Jolene, I said, I'm going to lie back down for another 30 minutes. So I was cold. So I got my blanket and I got on the bed and I went back to sleep for about 30, 30 minutes. 4 (30m 45s): And then finally we're here. So it's been kind of a full day, already, lots of naps and lots of all kinds of stuff. So it's good. And then I'm going to go home and watch the players championship after this. So it should be really good. Hey, we're in first Timothy chapter two, verses eight through 15, the role of women in the church, verse eight in every place of worship. I want men and that word in the Greek is a Nair and it actually means men. And so we're going to see a difference between men and women in this texts. This first portion is speaking to men. Men were called to lead spiritually, and it says, I want men to pray with Holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy. 4 (31m 28s): So it's a challenge from the apostle for men to come into a place of worship. And we can do this as we gather corporately, or quite honestly, it's, it's just effective. You have to do it when you, when you're all by yourself, just taking the time to lift it Holy hands. And it says, lift up Holy hands, because it's like when we're told to come and worship with, with, with what's the words worship in spirit and in truth, not my notes. So I'm trying to pull it out here, worship the Lord in spirit. And in truth, the Lord wants something of honesty from his worshipers. And so when we come and lift up, Holy hands, it's a time to do an inventory and say, Lord, what is going on internally with me? 4 (32m 11s): Is there anything of anger and controversy? Another translation says wrath or doubting. Is there anything happening internally that I need to deal with? It's kind of like what we talk about when we do communion, I always invite people to take a personal inventory of your lives. And before we take the bread and the cup, we take that inventory so that we can confess our sins so that we can be refreshed in the spirit of God and the grace God, and the love of God. And it powerful things happen as a result of that. So Paul's saying, I want men to lift up Holy hands. And then women following that example, lifting up Holy hands, without anger, free from anger and controversy. 4 (32m 55s): Sometimes we show up and we've got anger. We've got an angst in our soul, and God is giving us this opportunity, this invitation to just let all that stuff go, just to let it go and say, Lord, I don't want to be angry. And maybe you're thinking about somebody right now, and you're having the opportunity to in your soul. Say, Lord, I don't want to be angry with this person. I don't want to be mixed up in controversy. I don't want wrath and doubting in my soul Lord. I want to just be free in Jesus name to worship. And so that's what Paul is talking to us about. Paul Ron talked in the first part of this chapter about prayer. And so we just kind of continue with that theme. And every place I want men to pray with, Holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy. 4 (33m 37s): And I want women that word is speaking about women. That Greek word is G Y N E. And Paul is speaking to women and he gives some specific direction here. He says, I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves, by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes for women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do. You're thinking myself, well, maybe you're a woman here. And you say, I've got gold pearls and expensive clothes on. 4 (34m 17s): I just want to let you off the hook there. A lot of what we're going to be reading about in this text is cultural, but the truth is the same. And it's true for men as well. We need to be careful that we're not spending so much time on the externals that we're neglecting the internal. So we bought this house next door, this old 1865 house that is now the church office. And when we bought the house without doing a lot of investigative work, we, we thought, man, we can probably just slap a coat of paint on this place and do some cosmetic stuff than it would be awesome through and through, you know, and then we get working on the place and we realize that as we're stripping wallpaper, as we're working on floors, as we're doing cabinets and all this stuff, we're trying to clean things up and put a, it was kind, kinda like trying to put lipstick on a pig. 4 (35m 4s): It was this ugly building that we're trying to just kind of clean up with a little bit of cosmetics. And we realized that there were so much more wrong with the house that if we didn't deal with it, the place was going to be falling around us, falling down around us over time. So we ended up putting in new floors, new interior doors, new windows, a new dry wall, new insulation, new heating, air conditioning, electrical plumbing roof. We pretty much check it all the way down to the studs, pretty much everywhere and re every dentist. And now when you walk in, man, it's beautiful through and through. It's got the paint, but it's also got all of the new stuff inside. 4 (35m 48s): I think God challenges us to do the same thing in our own lives. Sometimes we can show up to church or show up in our life and we look good on the outward, but man, there's just stuff going on inside. And God is giving us an opportunity again, to just look at those things and do some business with him because he can heal us. He can minister to us, he can set us free. He can do what only he can do in our lives, making us beautiful through and through. So this is what, this is what Paul's talking about. When he writes about the church, we have this opportunity to look internally, to think internally and to worship out of that and to present to the Lord. 4 (36m 32s): Something that is beautiful through and through now, as we get to verses 11 to 12, we get to look at the hard portions of this text. It's the most popular portion of scripture in the Bible. It says this women should learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them, or you serve their authority. Let them listen quietly so we can stop and, you know, ask ourselves some questions about this text. And Paul actually says something very similar in first Corinthians chapter 14, in that he says, if a woman has questions, she should ask her husband when she gets home. 4 (37m 18s): And so in, in the first century, when this was written and when this was first proclaimed, women were for the most part uneducated, they couldn't read, they couldn't write. They were essentially the property of their fathers. And then they became the property of their husbands. In fact, unmarried women needed to ask permission before they could, even from their fathers before they could even leave the house and married women needed to ask permission of their husbands to leave the house. They were normally restricted to roles of little or no authority. They could not testify in court. 4 (37m 60s): They could not appear in public venues. They were not allowed to talk to strangers and they had to be doubly veiled. When they left their houses, women should learn quietly and said, mischievously, I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. There's a reason that Paul communicated what he communicated in that culture. The culture has changed. And now we can probably dismiss a lot of the Bible by saying that was cultural, but the way he differentiate the two is you say, okay, is this truth that we're reading? Is it portrayed throughout all of scripture in the old and new Testament? Is this something that we see consistently throughout the scripture? 4 (38m 42s): Or is this a specific instance or one of a couple specific instances? And then you do your due diligence with X's Jesus there and decided by God's grace through the rest of the scripture, as you allow scripture to interpret scripture, then you decide what is cultural and what is timeless first 13 we'll look, we'll read verses 13, 14, 15 comment on those quickly. And then we'll jump back to our favorite verses number of verses 11 and 12, and just kind of unpack those for the rest of the service. And again, so this is a primarily a teaching today. It's not a, so I'm going to be reading a lot, reading a lot of verses, a lot of commentary. 4 (39m 24s): And so it's not my typical style of maybe more preaching than teaching. I'd try to do a blend, but today is mostly just teaching. It's mostly just teaching what I feel like the Lord has given us to understand today for Adam verse 13 says for Adam, for God made Adam first and afterward, he made Eve and it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived and sin was the results, but we see in Romans five, 12, Paul wrote something else. We can read the scripture real quick. We can read the scripture and see and conclude that Paul was a chauvinist, a male chauvinist pig, right? Based on what he wrote here and what he wrote in first Corinthians chapter 14, we can say Paul was a chauvinist. 4 (40m 10s): But the reality is, is that Paul recognized the value of women. As you read Romans 16, you see that Paul declares just the help that women gave to him and th the help that they were to his life in ministry. And then we're going to read through the old and the new Testament, see how God specifically worked through women in powerful and important ways. Romans five 12 says when Adam sinned sin entered the world, Adam's sin brought death. So death spread to everyone for everyone sinned. And so there's this, you know, topic of deception. 4 (40m 50s): And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived and sin was the result. The truth is if Adam was doing his job, there wouldn't have been that problem. If Adam was doing his job as a spiritual leader of his home, there wouldn't have been that problem. And so in Romans five, Paul actually makes Adam responsible for the sin that entered into the world. And then we get to verse 15. It's a difficult verse. One that I have still, somebody tried to give me their perspective on this verse this morning. And it still doesn't make any sense to me, but it says this, but women will be saved through childbearing, assuming they continue to live in faith, holiness, and modesty. 4 (41m 35s): So it's a difficult verse. What does that even mean? Women will be saved through childbearing. Well, first of all, we need to understand theologically that nobody has saved through any works, especially childbearing nobody's saved through childbearing. And so what is the apostle Paul mean? Somebody told me this morning that they think that Paul was affirming the position of women or the role of women in the family, because they weren't able to go on missionary journeys with Paul. So he was affirming them in their role as women who brought forth children and, and that important role that women still have today. So maybe that's possible. Maybe this verse is pointing prophetically toward or historically toward the price child who was born to bear the sins of the world. 4 (42m 28s): Maybe, maybe it's not about salvation at all, verse 15, but the woman, but women will be saved. Maybe there's talking about physically, they're going to be saved through childbearing. It was a dangerous thing like it is now, but it was dangerous, especially back then for women to give birth. And often there would be complications and the woman would lose her life. So maybe it's a promise to women. Women will be saved physically through childbearing, assuming they continue to live in faith, love, holiness and modesty. We're not really sure. And it's one of those things that God will make clear to us when we get to heaven. So let's move forward back to our favorite verses. 4 (43m 9s): First Timothy chapter two, verses 11 and 12 women should learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. You think this is a forever expectation. I don't think it is. I believe it's purely cultural for the time. And I, I believe the scripture spells that out and kind of back set up when Christ came, a part of his ministry was the liberation and the elevation of women in the world, but also in the church under his leadership, things began to change. 4 (43m 51s): And we're going to kind of look at a couple of those things. In fact, we see, as we read the gospels, that women were constantly part of the ministry of Christ and they were constantly a part of the way, the ministry of the apostle Paul. It was women who first declared that Jesus just had resurrected from the dead. It was women that Jesus trusted that revelation. Now that bedrock truth, that bedrock truth or faith, it was women who first proclaimed that to the others and Matthew 28, 10. Then Jesus said to them, to Mary Magdalene and to the other Mary don't be afraid. Go tell brothers to leave for Galilee. 4 (44m 34s): And they will see me there. In other words, I'm alive. I've resurrected from the dead. I, I am who I say I am. I've done what I said, what happened? He said that he would die on the third day. He would resurrect from the dead and he's telling the Mary's to go and declare that that is actually happened. It was the women who demonstrated faith and faithfulness to Jesus, even when he was dying on the cross. A lot of his disciples, a lot of disciples of God, of Jesus scattered. When he got arrested, Peter denied that he knew him a lot, scattered all four gospels record that record the women who followed Jesus. 4 (45m 16s): They watched the crucifixion from a distance and it was the women who were ready after the Sabbath to anoint Jesus' body for burial. So it was the women who remain faithful, even though they probably didn't understand what was going on, even though Jesus declared it to be. So it was a confusing time for Jesus' followers because they, they believe that he was the Messiah and that he would be the King who would deliver Israel and, and establish his kingdom here in the earth. And so when he got arrested and then crucified and then buried, there were some confusion there, but these women stayed true to their faith in Jesus, Matthew 15, 40 and 41. It says some women were there watching from a distance, including Mary Magdalen at his crucifixion, Mary, the mother of James, the younger and a Joseph and Solomon. 4 (46m 5s): They had been followers of Jesus and had cared for him while he was in Galilee. Many other women who had come with him to Jerusalem were also there. And in Matthew 16 one, it says Saturday evening, when the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Sala may went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus' body. So they were faithful to him even to death. And so imagine their joy when he was resurrected from the dead. So from the scripture, from the scripture, how do we see women being used while we see women teaching men in acts chapter 18 with Priscilla and Aquilla instructing Apollo. 4 (46m 51s): So I'll read that in acts 1824 through 26, it says now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man came to emphasis and he was mighty in the scriptures. This man had been, this man had been instructed in the way of the Lord and being forgiven in spirit. He was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John. And he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquilla heard him, husband and wife, when they heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God, more accurately. 4 (47m 36s): So in this case, we see a husband and wife, fave, and Priscilla is named first Priscilla. And Aquilla heard him. They took him aside and explained to him the way of God, more accurately. See? So we see women teaching men. We see women participating in the ministry with the apostle Paul. I mentioned Romans 16, verses one. And two says this. I commend to you, our sister, Phoebe, who is a deacon in the church of Saint Korea. Welcome her. And the Lord is one who is worthy of honor among God's people help her in whatever she needs for. She has been helpful to many and especially to me. 4 (48m 18s): So that word deacon means minister. It means servant. We're going to see that it actually, according to Strongs, it means teacher or pasture as well. And we'll look at that here in just a moment. So Romans 16 one, I commend to you, our sister, Phoebe, a servant of church of the church in St. Korea. So again, that word deacon means it can mean servant or it can be minister. And we see both in the next couple of verses first Corinthians three, five says this, what then is Apollos? What is Paul y'all can us servants? 4 (49m 1s): That's the word through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each? So in that verse, Paul and Apollos are called servants. It's the same word. it? Just to be it just translated servants there in Colossians one 23. It says, if indeed you continue in the faith stable and said fast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven. And of which I, Paul became a Deaconess. That's the Greek word, but it's translated minister there. So that same word can be translated. Minister can be translated servant. 4 (49m 43s): And we see we're going to actually look at the qualifications of deacons here next week or in the next couple of weeks. And we'll go from there. Strong's Greek lexicon defines for us this word, deacon, Deaconess. I thought we were going to have the slide up there, but it's not up there. So I'll just read it to you a little hard to follow me, reading it to you. But this is what it says, probably from an obsolete docto to run on errands and attendant I E genitive case a waiter table, a waiter at a table or in other menial duties. 4 (50m 24s): So that's, you know, speaking of servant, but then it says specially a Christian teacher and pastor technically a deacon or Deaconess. And so it says, it means deacon minister servant, but also teacher, pastor. And so that's pretty interesting as we look at that. So deacon means minister servant, and according to strongest Christian teacher or pastor, we only see the word pastor once in the whole Bible, we, the, the word is poor main, and we see it translated once in the scripture pasture, wherever else it's used in the new Testament, it's translated shepherd. 4 (51m 6s): And so we only see the word pastor using Ephesians four 11. So I'll read Ephesians four, 11 and 12. It says this. Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers, their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. And so we see that word, pastor being used here, and it's in the context of gifts that Christ gave the church. Now, these are the gifts that Christ gave the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers. And so if we look at these gifts, these, these five things as spiritual gifts, like we would look at the gift of hospitality, the gift of leadership, other gifts that are mentioned in Romans chapter 12 and in first Corinthians chapter 12, there are no, there are actually no qualifications for this gift of pastor. 4 (52m 3s): Now we use pastor in the Western church, maybe in the, in the world, pretty loosely. And it, we think that pastor is kind of interchangeable with elder or overseer, but there are actually all different words in the Greek. And so there are definitely qualifications for elders and overseers and deacons. And we're going to get to that as we read first, Timothy chapter three and following, and as we get into Titus, and as we get into first, Peter, there are qualifications and expectations, but there don't seem to be qualifications and expectations for this, this gift of pastor. And so this girl, Phoebe is based on the word could possibly have been some kind of a minister where it's a bit of a guessing game, but, but it's not too much of a stretch to think that she could have been some kind of a administer. 4 (53m 1s): And we're all called to be ministers within the body of Christ. I'm called to minister to you. You're called to minister to me, we're called to minister to one to another. So we have this responsibility to serve one another. And there's no hierarchy within the body of Christ, meaning that we never graduate out of this place of being a minister where we're serving. Jesus said I didn't come to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many. So we're all in this role, in this room, having this responsibility to serve and minister to one another. So we see women teaching men, we see women deacons, which based on what I've said and what we studied so far has imply maybe far farther reaching implications than what we may have thought prior to this. 4 (53m 48s): And we see women profits, we see women profits in the old Testament and we see women profits in the new Testament. So we're going to answer the question, what is a prophet and how many women prophets prophesied in the Bible. And so we're going to kind of look at some things. So what does a profit profits where God's authorized, spoke persons, both women and men communicated God's direct revelation to designated peoples. So we see that in old Testament, new Testament, and he instructed his people to listen to the profits he raised up. And we see that in Deuteronomy chapter 18, verses 15 verse 15. I'm going to mention some verses that aren't going to be on the screen because we don't have enough time to go over all the verses. 4 (54m 30s): But if you want to go back and re-listen to the message@aguharvest.org and check the verses out, please do so sometimes times profits preface their message with this. Well, the Lord says, or thus sayeth the Lord. So they were a voice speaking for the Lord at times, singing and musical instrumentation accompanied the minutes history of prophecy. We see that in first Chronicles, 25 verses one through seven, some profits were called to deliver specific messages and other instances of profit, deliberate, Avery Buke for disobedience and encouragement. Okay. 4 (55m 9s): Prediction as a reminder of God's covenant with his people or specific instruction for caring the message from God, how does God communicate with profits in a very, very, very different ways. God communicated to his profits through right. Various methods. Moses was unique in that he had the privilege of speaking God to God face to face, but that wasn't common, but we read about it. Numbers chapter 12, verses six through eight. It says, listen, to my words, there is a prophet among you. I, the Lord reveal myself to them. Yeah, envisions. I speak to them in dreams, but this is not true of my servant. 4 (55m 49s): Moses. He is faithful in all my house with him. I speak faith to face clearly and not in riddles. He sees the form of the Lord. So that was a specific instance with Moses. But most often profits receive God's message by less direct means. They received messages in the form of visions and dreams and vivid imagery and audible voices and inaudible internal voices by the supernatural opening of their eyes to see unseen things. We read about that in the scripture, through an angelic messenger or through symbolic actions. 4 (56m 29s): So did women prophesied? Yes. Men delivered the majority of scriptural prophecies. Yet God also called women to receive and proclaim his message throughout the Bible are instances where women prophets prophesied in the Bible. They spoke the word of the Lord to others on the day of Pentecost, the Holy spirit was poured out on both women and men at that time, Peter, one of the 12 disciples echoed this prophecy of Joel two 18. I will pour out my spirit on all people, your sons and daughters will prophesy. And your young men will dream see dreams. And that sort of thing acts chapter two, verses 17 and 18 and ancient Neary scholar notes. 4 (57m 16s): The fact that certain biblical texts presuppose that there were women profits. There can be no debate. There were women profits in ancient Israel and an early Christianity. And the term that is used in Hebrew and in Greek for women profits is the same as the term used for men profits. With the, the only difference being the marker of gender, that is the linguistic component of these ancient languages, Dr. Christopher Rolston wrote. So who are the, some of the named women profits in the old Testament? Well, there's Miriam. You see that in Micah chapter six, verse four, exit is 15, 20 and 21, Deborah judges, four and five. 4 (57m 59s): And Holda second Kings 22, 14 through 20. There are also women profits in the new Testament. There was Anna Anna, Luke, two 36 through 38, a prophet in the temple court worshiped a night and day fasting and praying. She was a widow after Simeon spoke and a prophesied over the baby Jesus, to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. Other new Testament references to prophesizing women, including include actually Mary, the mother of Jesus. She sang a song of praise and a response to her relative Elisabeth's spirit-filled declaration of blessings. Mary's prophetic song of praise is often called the Magnificant, the Magnificant. 4 (58m 44s): And so we see that song that she sang. It was, it was a prophetic song that the Lord had given to her. Peter quoted Joel and your sons and your daughters will prophesy acts two 17. I just mentioned that Luke's reference to your, to the four unmarried daughters who prophesied they were the daughters of Philip the evangelist. And so there's plenty of examples in the scripture that identifies women who were prophets Paul's letter to the church at Corinth, in what you described, any woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, he's identifying women who were praying or prophesying correcting their uncovered heads. He didn't correct them and say, you shouldn't pray or prophesy. 4 (59m 26s): And this was in a public gathering. He said, if you're going to do it culturally, they sh their heads should be covered. So we asked the question is prophecy also teaching will, prophecy is a gift from the Holy spirit. Paul wrote fall in the way of love and eagerly desire, gifts of the spirit, especially prophecy first Corinthians 14 one. So again, did, did those who prophesied also teach? I think they did. Paul clearly described teachers as distinct from profits, but I think there was an element of teaching and the prophetic gift. He described tangible ways. People spiritually grow through prophetic words, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening and encouraging and comfort. 4 (1h 0m 9s): First Corinthians 14 three, and the one who prophesies edifies the church first Corinthians 14, four. Also Paul encouraged prophecy in an orderly manner so that everyone may be instructed and encourage first Corinthians 1431. So it truly seems that the prophetic message included elements of teaching. And so we see God using women in the, in the Bible, the new Testament within his kingdom work to do profound and wonderful things. We're seeing God do amazing things. And so I just want to want to dip, put that out there for a couple of reasons. 4 (1h 0m 50s): Number one, I think we've been vague as a church about our position with women in the ministry. We've been a little bit vague. And, and so I wanted to be, I wanted to kind of remove the veil from that. We're going to be talking more about church leadership. As we look at chapter three, as we look at elders and overseers and deacons and that sort of thing, we'll unpack that some more there's actually qualifications for those offices. Things that we consider offices that aren't spiritual gifts, necessarily the people working in those offices have been given spiritual gifts to work in those offices. But when we're talking about the spiritual gifts that God gives to his church, we're talking about things that God gives without consideration of gender or anything else. 4 (1h 1m 37s): God just gives gifts to his church. So we're seeing God work mightily. And so I want to encourage women in the church to believe that God has gifted you, that he's given you spiritual gifts to be used within the body of Christ. Use them with all of the grace and strength that God has given you to use those spiritual gifts. You've got plenty of women in the church who are teachers. They teach biblical truth. We've got plenty of female teachers who teach Bible studies and Sunday school and, and all kinds of stuff. So we still believe that there's an, an order of things within the family. 4 (1h 2m 21s): I think God's clearly, and we can talk about this as the weeks go on. But clearly men he's placed men as the authority in the home, the spiritual authority of the home. And I think he's placed men as the spiritual authority in the church as well, but it's all to be, not to be lorded over anybody, but just as a means of structure and organizing things. And so I'm a little hesitant about opening things up for questions, but I feel like maybe it's a good idea to open things up for questions. I don't normally do this and maybe I'm going to get myself into trouble, but I want to give you a chance to, to ask questions. And so I'm going to use Tim's Mike, and as we do this, I'm going to invite the worship team to come forward. 4 (1h 3m 6s): But if you have questions, I want to get it on, on the mic so that everybody can hear you who are meeting outsider in the loft. So anybody disagree with me that would like to ask questions, anybody wholeheartedly agree with me that would like to comment anything in between. I'm open really? All right. I'm not going to labor it. Good. You can ask me questions afterward as well. Let's go ahead and stand up and you do have questions. Oh, Gina. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Lord. 4 (1h 3m 46s): Thank you for the opportunity to gather and to open up your word. I pray that you would just continue to lead us in all truth with all grace. We love you. Lord. Be glorified in our lives. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 0 (1h 4m 45s): No, the way, when was a close look at the space between where you used to be. I know I'm never be, you know, standing next to me, 2 (1h 5m 21s): Man said there is a cross 0 (1h 5m 25s): 2 (1h 5m 54s): 0 (1h 6m 1s): Yeah. 2 (1h 6m 1s): The space between and the spending 0 (1h 6m 14s): 2 (1h 7m 55s): Snow, but the name that is he who was and still is and be through it. 0 (1h 8m 8s): Okay. 2 (1h 8m 10s): And the space between all the things that see, and this record, the no, 0 (1h 8m 17s): Never be no, I want them to be feed bad. 0 (1h 9m 59s): No, that's the joy she's asked, blah, blah . 0 (1h 13m 18s): And before we say 2 (1h 15m 6s): Thank you God. So much for meeting us here this morning, gracing us with the presence that we actually are going to carry with us as we leave Lord. So I just pray that you just be alive in us more as we leave than when we came even Jesus name. Amen. Thank you guys. See you next week.

Living Together in Community

0 (1s): Good morning. Welcome to the 11 o'clock service at harvest church. Thank you all for joining us wherever you're joining us from whether it's online or here on campus, somewhere in the sanctuary in the loft outside. We're just glad you're here and invite you to join us in worship. Please stand, dear God, we invite you here this morning. We laid down whatever we brought in God. We just become aware of you place our lives for the cross this morning. And we just lift you up as Lord of our lives. 1 (1m 7s): My enemy, the unbelief way with clues. 1 (6m 37s): You have the space between where I used to be. I would never be next to me. 1 (6m 54s): between B thank you that you stand with us in the hardest of times, 2 (11m 56s): Midst of the fire. You don't leave us. You stand right beside us. I love how you showed us in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Bendigo. Having the, you were sent into the fire. You protected them. You covered them. It says not a single hair was singed. Not only that. When others looked into the fire, they saw fourth one standing with them, the King of glory. Thank you. That that's the example. You give us that you're that kind of savior, who, who doesn't shout from the outside of the furnace, but it's right next to us within it. And so I just pray for anyone this morning that feels in the midst of that furnace in the midst of dark, scary times, Lord, that you would remind them if you're nearby. 2 (12m 41s): Yes, you are. As close as our breath. We have nothing to fear the Lord on our side, cover us. You shield us. We were under the protection of the shadow of your wings. You would just bring your protections morning. It's your angels and camp around us strengthened that you've given us to push back the darkness, your light, your love, your truth. 2 (13m 29s): We thank you for your presence here in this place. In our hearts, in our church, in our city, in our 1 (15m 5s): 2 (21m 6s): Anyone this morning, this morning, that's choking back. It's just hard. Sometimes she would remind us that your yoke is easy and your burden is you carry us always. When the enemy tries to slap on all this stuff that we have to carry, that's just not the truth. 2 (21m 47s): So would you free us just to walk in the joy of our salvation today and just the freedom that comes in knowing you and following your word and trusting in your promises. You're only stateful we can depend on. You just encourage you to maybe take a deep breath, just strength, freedom, and key. So the Lord this morning, the enemy tries so hard to spring, heaviness and worry and doubt and anxiety and stress at every corner. 2 (22m 29s): Lord just wants to say, I've got you, son and daughter. I see you. You're never out of my sight. I see you. I see how hard you're trying. I see everything you're walking through. I've heard every prayer in the night. I've heard every deep pride in your heart. You haven't even spoken. I know your, every thought you know is so intimately. You know us better than we know ourselves. 2 (23m 10s): I pray Lord that you would help us to see ourselves through your eyes as sons and daughters that are completely Holy without sailing that were covered by a loving father. We take a deep breath. Thank you for the breath in our lungs and for the praise on our lips. And even for the tears Lord, even for the brokenness, because it reminds us how much we need you. We can't walk through this life on a real person for another hour, whereas presence is just so this morning, we're just going to keep soaking. 2 (24m 8s): As we dive into his word this morning, as we hear from me, digest more of his character as he makes us more and more like him as we spend time in his presence. Amen. Well, let's just spread some of that worship love around to one another. Just past the peace of the Lord to someone around you. You say hello to a neighbor. We're going to come back in just a few minutes with some announcements around here for pastor Ron today. 2 (24m 34s): all right. Good morning. Harvest church. Good morning. 3 (24m 58s): Hey, so good to see. Y'all so glad to see you here. So glad to see some faces I haven't seen in a while. That's amazing. Hey, welcome. If you're joining us online, glad to have you join by tuning in and Hey, happy Sunday after Sunday. Hello. My name is Jeremy. I F sometimes I forget to put that out. My name's Jeremy, I'm the youth and family pastor here, and I'm bringing the announcements this morning. Hey, we've got a few announcements. The top priority is Easter is coming. You decided about Easter. Awesome. What, what a flop of Easter last year. So this Easter, it's going to be awesome. 3 (25m 38s): April 4th, we are having one service and that's in the upper parking lot. We're going to be setting up a stage up there. We've got speakers. We've got the full, the full shebang is happening up in the upper parking lot. So at 10:00 AM, it's going to be a family style service. And that means the there's no kids programs, separate it's kids are in the service. There's gonna be a time of worship, baptism a message that afterwards there's going to be Easter egg hunt. So what we need is everybody to bring Easter eggs that are, have already been pre-filled. Don't bring any Easter eggs that are empty. We need pre-filled Easter eggs so that we can hide those out the property. And it's just a fun event for the kids afterwards. 3 (26m 19s): And Hey, because we're doing baptisms. If you want to be baptized, sign up for that in the, in the, either in the info station, online on that, on our app, but we're going to have having a baptism during the worship service, there's going to be a class two weeks from now. There'll be on the 21st, the first service. So there'll be a class for the back of those who are getting baptized. It's gonna be, it's gonna be a sweet time. Next. We have the good yarn club for all the yarders out there. Do we have any yarders in the, in the room? We got a yard. Okay. Whew. We've got a yard in another room, so there's good. You are in club. They meet once a month. And this month gathering is Saturday, March 13th, from five to 7:00 PM. 3 (27m 3s): And that's in room five. Sign up on the connect link to get connected with them. Next is the men's community gathering. That is, I believe this is the first time in almost a year, right? It's been awhile. So that is the men from all over the central coast. We join each other for this powerful monthly event. It's March 15th at 6:00 PM at the thousand Hills ranch, free dinner, worship testimonies. And they are asking to bring a friend, no signup necessary, just come as you are. Correct. Okay. And last announcement is the college and young professionals scavenger hunt. That will be Saturday, March 20th, from four to 7:00 PM. 3 (27m 44s): And I was told it's a fun night complete with street tacos and not friendly. I was still the friendliest on my sheet. They told me it crossed that it's not friendly. It's a gnarly, brutal competition. So come prepared for a gnarly, brutal competition. No, it will be fun. Street tacos. That's between the ages of eight, 18 and 40. And the cost is $10 and sign up ahead of time. So they know how many to expect. And with that, that's all I got. So pastor Ron, come bring us the word. 4 (28m 21s): No, my fan club for first service was much larger than that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All three of you. So Steven Jolene are away. It's their anniversary. So they took some time off. So, you know, it's always a good thing as a married couple to get away and enjoy one another. Right? Keep the love alive. You can talk to them about it when they get back. Right. So before I begin, when I pray for someone, so many of, you know, Danny and Lena Solomon, they've been attending here for a number of years. Danny had a heart attack yesterday morning and very serious. 4 (29m 5s): So he was at French hospital this morning. And then, so I was speaking with Lena about what's going on with Danny. So he's been transported to Stanford and he's having open heart surgery. Maybe right now he's got a heart attack, caused some damage to his heart. They're having to go in and make some repairs. It was, it was really questionable whether he was going to even make it through the night. So he's, he's, he's there now. So let's pray for Ganni. Well, we just want to lift up Danny to you, our brother in Christ, Lord. We love him. We desire. And we ask, we pray that he would have many more days, more months, many more years upon this earth. 4 (29m 45s): Lord, we pray life. We pray life for Danny Lowe. We pray that you would give the surgeons great skill as they work on him. And just that amazing ability that you've given them to, to care for someone in Danny's situation and to, and to be able to repair his heart. And so Lord, we pray that that the surgery would be successful. We pray that Danny would quickly recover that even while he's going through all this. And he's sedated that he would just sense your presence in his mind, as hard as spirit, his soul, that he would be at such peace and, and comforted by you and for Lena as well. I know she's very worried about her husband that you'd comfort her. As in addition to Danny Lord. 4 (30m 27s): Ultimately, we thank you that Danny is, he is yours. He's hidden in Christ. He belongs to you, his body's a temple of your spirit. And so Lord have your way with him. We pray. We just lift him up to you as his friends and family of God in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Some of you may recognize the name Dietrich Bonhoeffer. So I'm a little bit about him. He lived in, he was pastoring a church in Germany in the thirties during the time that Adolph Hitler came to power. And the third Reich began to gain momentum and in Germany and later in greater part of Europe. So he was pastoring a church, as I said in Germany. 4 (31m 8s): And what, what Hitler did initially is he gathered the pastors together because he knew they had influence over people in the country of Germany. And he, he tried to convince the pastors of Germany to come on board with him. That what he was trying to accomplish was essentially God was leading him to do this. So Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one who did not buy into Hitler's plans for Germany and for Europe. So he essentially became an enemy of the state. He was imprisoned at one point, in fact, so I want to a quote from him a little bit. And the reason I want to quote from him is when you take somebody who's really been in adversity and experienced the life of the church in a very difficult time, it brings out certain things that oftentimes we don't experience because life's pretty easy for us. 4 (32m 4s): I mean, there's things we go through all that was kind of difficult or, you know, feeling maybe a little persecuted here and there, but for the most part, you know, for the church in America, life's pretty easy. So the book that I want to quote from it's called life together together, meaning the family of God, life together, a discussion of Christian fellowship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. So I want to quote, it says in the gray Dawn of an April day in 1945 in the concentration camp at floss Lindbergh shortly before, it was liberated by the allied forces, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by special order of Heinrich Himmler. 4 (32m 44s): So because of the time in which he lived did, you're gone off. Her has a unique perspective about the life of the church, the community of believers that he was leading. And so he's written some things for us to, to learn from hopefully. So just a few excerpts from his book. There's a chapter in it is called community. And that's what we do when we gather together, we are Christian community that meet here at harvest church. But honestly we meet all over the central coast. We meet all over the world. We have brothers and sisters in Christ, all over planet earth, which is a wonderful thing. He says this, it is by the grace of God, that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God's word and sacrament the physical presence of other Christians as a source of income, parable, joy, and strength to the believer. 4 (33m 39s): This is easily disregarded and trodden underfoot by those who have the gift every day. It is by grace, nothing but grace that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren. Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ only in Jesus Christ. Are we one only through him, are we bound together? So we live in an interesting time in the church in America, in that I think we're experiencing some division in the Christian community. Like I've never seen before in my lifetime. 4 (34m 21s): And a lot of that division is due to opinions about, you know, politics, politics, and candidates, and how to deal with COVID and kind of peripheral things. So what we're going to look at this morning is Paul is going to be speaking to Timothy. So Timothy, we're going to learn here. He's a young man. He is put in a position of leadership at a church that Paul planted, which we're going to talk about in a minute. So he's helping Timothy to, to navigate some of the things that they were experiencing in Paul's day. And I believe it would speak to us as well, how to navigate what's going on in the body of Christ right now and how we can be instruments of unity rather than of division. 4 (35m 7s): So if you want to title for today's message, the title is this living together in community. So I'm going to be looking at first Timothy chapter two. So pastor Steve has begun having us go through this letter. So when we talk about, you know, various books of the Bible, when we talk about the book of first Timothy, sometimes it's called an epistle, but basically what it is, it's a letter. So Paul wrote this letter, he penned it himself and he sent it to Timothy because Timothy was, was needing some leading this particular church. So a little bit of background, Paul planted this church, it's the church in the city of Ephesus. And he spent about three and a half years, years. 4 (35m 48s): They're planting the church, helping it grow appointing leadership at the church. So he was there in this particular church at Ephesus, just about, I think, longer than any other church that he planted. But after this period of time, time, he's ready to move on. So he's moved on now and he's left this young man behind to lead the church in Ephesus, young Timothy. And so he's now responsible to lead this gathering of believers. However, there's, there's a few problems that Timothy is having to deal with. Number one is he was a young, Oh man. So his youth apparently was a bit of a hindrance. Also. He was inexperienced and he needs, he needs help, which is why Paul wrote this letter to him to give him some help in leading this community of believers. 4 (36m 36s): So in this letter, Paul he's, he's going to give Timothy some guidance on, on how to lead the church on a few different levels. One is on a personal level. In other words, Timothy, this is the way you lead in your personal life and how it affects the church community. He's also going to talk about how to select other leaders to help him lead this church in Ephesus. And then he's also going to talk about the worship gathering. So this is when, when believers come together, we have church and he's talking to Timothy A. Little bit about how to, how to do that, how to do church. So first of all, Timothy, he says to him, you really to lead by example, what does he mean by that? 4 (37m 17s): So if you go to the end of first Timothy, and I've got all the scriptures that we're going to be looking at, they're going to be up on the screen. You can turn there if you want to. But the first one, I'm going to look at us in first Timothy chapter four, verse 12. And he says this to Timothy. He says, first of all, Timothy, don't let anyone think less. Yes, have you, because you're young instead be an example, be an example to all believers in what you say and the way you live in your love in your faith and in your purity. And until I get there, focus on reading the scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers and teaching them. So Timothy's personal life is very important. 4 (37m 59s): As far as his leadership in Ephesus with the believers there. Anyways, I can identify with Timothy mainly because, well, let me give you a little bit of background. First of all, DJ and I, we met and got married in 1980. And so after we got married, it was the years, 1981. And so we did not come from a Christian background, Christian family, any of that. And yet we both, both EG and I came to know the Lord and accept Christ as our savior in 1981 together, which has been an amazing journey because we got, we've got to grow together, figure out this Christian life together couple. 4 (38m 43s): So at the, at this point in time, so fast forward it's, it's, we're living in Avalon beach and we have a business there and you know, I mean kids yet. And the year now it's 1983. So we've been a believers for a couple of years, met a guy who was really good Bible teacher. And so we decided, well, let's have a home fellowship. You know, let's have a Bible study in our house. So we began to do that there in Avalon. And it, it just kind of began to grow and grow until we needed a bigger place to meet. And so in 1984, we moved to the community center and Avalon began to have people show up and sort of by, I think God's design. It was made available. That space was made available to meet beginning, meet on Sunday mornings. 4 (39m 24s): So mind you, we had no idea what we're doing. I think oftentimes God used are being a little naive or even a little ignorant sometimes to his advantage, which is a good thing. Cause as, as we look back sometimes to go, I never would've done that. If I knew what I was getting into, you ever been there. So 1984, we actually planted this church in Avalon and just sort of by default, the fellow, it was leading. The Bible study became the pastor and from my position has helped or I became the assistant pastor and I, and again, we're just kind of learning as we go. So back to, you know, I can really relate to Timothy because if fast forward now the year is 1992 and the pastor at the time he left suddenly. 4 (40m 10s): And because I was sort of like next in line, they, the leaders in congregations as well. Why don't you, why don't you pass through the church? I'm like, I have no desire to pastor church. I've got I'm on a completely different career track. And, and so, but I left a little window open and I said, Lord, if you want to change my heart and change desire, I'm, I'm willing. And so, so over the course of many months, and then in one sleepless night, I really feel God changed my heart and gave me the desire to begin to lead this congregation in Avalon. And I'm like, Timothy, I don't know anything about anything. You know, I'm fairly new to the Bible and, and I'm in this position. 4 (40m 52s): So I would deeply glean from Paul's letters to Timothy. And I w I, you know, because I'm trying to navigate this. And so we were, we were there at that church in Alberta one years. And, and honestly, I know some of you are here today. Part of that gathering back then it was very sweet time. I is just great fond, fond memories of those years together at that church in album beach. And so my, my Bible school training came at the business department at Cal poly. I mean, that's, in other words, I had none, but God was so faithful. You know, when we, when we need something and we ask God for, it might be he's faithful to give us the wisdom to accomplish whatever ever it is. 4 (41m 38s): He's, he's accomplishing in our life. So always be assured of that. So back to our scripture now in, in first Timothy chapter two, it's instructions here about worship gatherings, but he's got to focus in on. The main thing is going to focus on here is prayer and how essential prayer is to the life of the church. And so look at me with me at first Timothy chapter two, verse one, it says, I exhort, first of all, that supplications prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men that died is all people. It's not gender specific there. So he says, first of all, Timothy, this is super important. He says, I want to exhort you in this. 4 (42m 20s): I want to, this is urgent. What you, what I'm telling you, hear it. And in a moment, he's going to tell us why it's so important. So what he brings out here is there's actually four areas or nuances about prayer. He mentioned supplication, prayer, intercession, and giving. Thanks. I mentioned this because they're actually different. If you look at the Greek words they're used there each one's just a little but different. And I want to see why. So that word supplication, first of all, we talk about prayer. All we're talking about is conversation and with God, that's all it is. I'm sure those of you that have been around the church for awhile. There's, there's no right or wrong way to pray. 4 (43m 3s): You don't have to pray in King James. You know, you don't have to pray new living translation. You don't, you, you just converse with God. And what we realized, what we come to realize here, we have this open, direct dialogue with the creator of the heavens and the earth, God almighty. And he wants to hear from you. He wants to hear from him. So he says, you know, I exhort, first of all, and he named supplication prayer in her session giving and thanks. So supplication, what does that mean? It is literally it's asking for something specifically directly to God. I'm asking God specifically for this. It also means seeking after God about something very specific. 4 (43m 46s): So there's a seeking aspect. There's an asking aspect of it, which reminds me of this verse. So this is Jesus is, is talking in Luke chapter 11, seven, verse nine. Is this what he says? He's talking about prayer. So I say to you ask, and it will be given to you seek. And you're going to find, you says, knock, knock, knock on the father's door. And it's going to be open to you for everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks, finds him who knocks it will be opened. So that supplication is it's this asking this, seeking this knocking. But then he uses Paul uses the other word prayer. 4 (44m 28s): And this literally prayers that are, that are addressed directly to God. And it also has a different little nuance to it. It means a place it's talking about a place case that set apart for, for prayer. Now in the Jewish tradition, the Jewish community in a certain city, if they had at least 10 Jewish men, they would typically have a synagogue in that community. But when they would lack 10 Jewish men, they would lack a synagogue. They were tradition was they would go and they would gather by the river. So that river would be a place that was set apart for prayer. So we see this in acts chapter 16, Paul is in the city of Philippi. 4 (45m 8s): He just got there in acts chapter 16, verse 13. It says on the Sabbath day, we went out of the city to the Riverside where prayer was customarily made. And we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. So this was a women's prayer group. Where did they gather by the river? And so we see, this is the kind of prayer Paul is talking about it. Literally. It's not only prayer. That's addressed directly to God, but often in fact, we think about gathering at church. We're talking about specific place space for prayer. The church gathering is a place set apart for prayer among other things as well. 4 (45m 53s): So the, the third word, Paul mentions intercession, which is literally, it's a petition that we're making. It's a petition that we're asking God specifically for petitions made directly to God. So again, intercession, one of the great examples of this is you remember when Moses was leading the people of Israel into the promised land and, and he sends 12 spies into Canaan to come back and, you know, let them know how, how well it's going to go for them. Now, if you know the story, 10 men came back and said, you know what? This is not possible. The people that live in Canaan, they're too big, too strong too. 4 (46m 33s): Over-powering it's not going to happen. And of course to said, yeah, we can do it. Okay. So God got super angry with the Israelites because those 10 bad reports affected the whole, the whole group of Israelites, the Jewish people they're like, forget it. Let's go back to Egypt. We can't do this. And so what happens? Well, God basically tells Moses, get out of the way I'm gonna, I'm going take these people out. So what does Moses do? He intercedes see, he petitions God for them. So that the cool story numbers chapter. Yeah, this is, this is the prayer of Moses. Pardon? The iniquity of this people. I pray according to the greatness of your mercy, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt, even until now. 4 (47m 21s): So here's how God responds to the petition. The intercession of Moses, God says this, okay. I'll pardon them. According your word. In other words, God's basically responding to Moses intercession for them. He's saying, okay, I heard you all right. I won't, I won't do what I intend to do. I will spare them. So I just appointed the, the, the impact, the authority that we have with God, as we supplications towards him, prayer towards him, intercession towards him. And the last thing I want to look at just real quickly is the word. Thanks. Paul mentions that here. It's just this gratefulness, this, the gratitude, this attitude of gratefulness to God. 4 (48m 3s): Now, when we pray, be sure of this. Things may not change for us. Our circumstances may not look any different, but we, we petition God, we seek him. We, we ask of him specific things. And then we're just have an attitude of being thankful, just thankfulness, because God's on the move. God is working all things together for good to those who love him. So, so it's, it's gonna bring about positive, powerful results as we pray to God. So with that, Paul said to the believers at Philippi said this in Philippians four, six, he said, so don't be anxious for anything, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication. 4 (48m 47s): And then he uses this word with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. So I want to put all those words together, just quickly ask God directly, address God directly, petition God directly, thank God directly and be specific as we pray. And he's going to show us what it means to be specific, because as he gets into this with Timothy, he's going to say, by the way, I want you to pray for these people. And I want you to pray for them for this reason. So this idea of going to God directly is, is super important because why? Well, because in Paul's day there was this idea that you needed to go through another person to get to God, maybe through a man, maybe through a priest, but God's saying, no, you can go directly to God. 4 (49m 41s): So also, so in our day there is this idea that we should pray God through someone else. Again, maybe through an old Testament Saint, or I dare even say, even through the Virgin, Mary, I know it might be shocking. You don't need to pray through the Virgin Mary or anybody else. For that matter. You can pray directly to God as a believer in Jesus Christ. You can do that. And he, he will grant you access gladly and listen to your prayer gladly. So verse two, we're going to jump into first time of the two. I'm going to kind of bring both those verses together. Again, I exhort, first of all, that supplications prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks. 4 (50m 23s): Be made for men, for Kings and for who are in authority. And here's why, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. So now he's getting specific, okay. Here's who I want you to pray for him. What does he mention? He mentioned Kings and all who are in authority. And so what's the result of that going to be? Well, he says so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. I like that. I mean, what do you guys think? Does that mean we're going to have a life of no problems, no trials. It's you know, we're just, we're just going to have a quiet 5 (51m 1s): Peaceable life. Maybe not. 4 (51m 5s): We're going to look at this. It does sound great though. Doesn't it? It sounds awesome. Who doesn't want to lead a quiet and peaceable life? So I think we all know that the apostle Paul, he was a man of prayer. So he practiced the same things that is encouraging Timothy to do here. So I have a question for you this morning was Paul's life peaceful, 5 (51m 27s): Quiet. No it wasn't. 4 (51m 33s): But, but so on the outside Paul's life wasn't peaceful and it wasn't quiet, but on the inside, yes, Paul discovered this secret place of rage. 5 (51m 46s): I asked when he was in the midst of trials, 4 (51m 50s): The truth is Paul spent much of his ministry years inside the local jail of the town that he was, 5 (51m 56s): Was planning a church in or in a Roman prison. He was in a Roman prison on more than one occasion. 4 (52m 3s): And yet this is what he said about the things that he went through. So Paul's talking about his own experiences now. And in Philippians chapter four, beginning with verse 11, he says, he says, I've learned, I've learned in whatever 5 (52m 17s): I am to be content. I know how to be a based, and I know how to abound everywhere. 4 (52m 26s): And in all things, I have learned 5 (52m 29s): Both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. He says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 4 (52m 40s): It doesn't. So the circumstances don't matter. 5 (52m 44s): God 4 (52m 44s): Desires to bring into our lives. A measure of contentment and peace and quiet on the interior. The no matter what our circumstances are 5 (52m 53s): Outside, it it's fine. 4 (52m 57s): So Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, by the way, the year he wrote this letter to Timothy, it was 64, a D. So who do you suppose was a Roman emperor at the time that Paul was encouraging Timothy to pray this way? Well, his name was emperor Nero. So Nero ruled the Roman empire from 54, 82 68, 5 (53m 20s): A D so general persecution of Christians in the Roman empire began under emperor Nero's leadership. So even while Paul is encouraging Timothy to pray for the, for Kings and those in authority to have a peaceful and quiet life Niro is he's stirring things up against the Christians. One commentary says this after the great fire of Rome in 80 64 rumors swirled that the emperor himself was responsible. Instead Nero blamed the Christians, according to the Roman historian, Tacitus Nero had the Christians covered in wild beast skins and torn to death by dogs. 5 (54m 6s): So why is it so important to pray for Kings and for those in authority? Well, again, Paul tells us so that we can lead peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity, dignity. So, so we pray we're called to pray for our leaders. And then we trust God for the results. We trust the results to God answer our prayer in his timing. So it took a long time, but eventually Christianity was embraced in the entire Roman empire. So we're called to, to pray. As we gather, as we commune as believers, we pray directly to God, but then we just leave the results to him. 5 (54m 49s): Our circumstances may not look any different. In fact, they may get worse, but we keep praying. So we pray. And then we trust the results to God to answer our prayer and his timing. We pray. And then we leave the results to him. So in the meantime, what's happening as we pray, God is growing us up. God is, is he's maturing us on the inside. So that in all things, no matter what happens on the outside, like Paul, we are content and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Do you believe that I know many of you have experienced that where literally the world can look like it's falling apart around us. 5 (55m 29s): And we have this, this inexplicable sense of God's peace. So that like Paul said, you know, be anxious for nothing. It's like, why am I not stressed about this? Why am I not overwhelmed by this circumstance that I'm in? Because God has given you his peace to be content in the midst of that storm of life. So Paul continues in this letter to Timothy first Timothy chapter two, verse three, he says concerning prayer for leaders. Those in authority, he says for this is good. And it's acceptable in the sight of God, our savior. Why? 5 (56m 9s): Because he desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. You see, that's the end game. Why do we pray for leaders and those in authority because God desires that they would be saved, that they would come to know the truth. So the reason this pleases God, again, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God. The reason this pleases God, the reason we pray for rulers and those in authority in this way is because God's desire is that everyone that we're praying for will be saved and will eventually come to know the truth about God and all that he has done for them through his son, Jesus Christ. 5 (56m 52s): So the insight, the insight is this, the end game is this. Our prayers for these people are very effective. Don't don't ever dismiss that our prayers for people in this case, Kings and those in authority are very effective. What did they do? They help to open the door to their heart so that God can reach them. So he's saying, here's what I want you to specifically pray for them, that they might have their heart open to accept and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. Some years ago, I read a book it's called revolution in world missions that is written by KPO Hannan. 5 (57m 33s): So KPI Hannah grew up in India and he came to know Christ as his Lord and savior. And he had moved to America and was married and living here, but he founded a ministry. The ministry is called gospel for Asia. He just had this great burden for his people, the people of India to come to know Jesus as their Lord and savior. So he planted this ministry gospel for Asia and what it was, it was in various parts of the country. There were Bible training centers established. There were churches that were planted and evangelists were literally going out into the various places in India. And so there's, these were men and women that were be being trained to take the gospel into the nation of India. 5 (58m 19s): Some years ago, I had a privilege of going with gospel Asia, a gospel for Asia to India. And I got to teach at a few of these training centers there. And it was just an amazing thing at that time. The Christian population in India was about 2% maybe, but God was doing some amazing things through the lives of these men and women who are coming out of these training centers and going and taking the gospel into, into the villages there. And by the way, that that region of the world is commonly called the 10 40 window, because it was one of the most unreached areas with the gospel in the entire world. So I mentioned this because back to the, the, the, the power of prayer. 5 (59m 1s): So KP heard about this woman here in America, who was a prayer warrior. And he, he wanted to talk to her because she was specifically praying for the ministry of gospel at, for Asia and India. So he visits this woman here in America. He comes and find out that she's an elder gala. She's bedridden, can't even get out of bed. She has to have people come and care for her, 6 (59m 25s): But on her wall in her room 5 (59m 28s): Is a world map. And God was just impressing her. I want you to pray. I want you to pray for these people. I want you to pray for this community. I want you to lift up this nation. And what she would have people do is they would take map pens and they would put them on the map in the areas where she felt God was, was asking her to pray for these people. So KP is talking to her and, and, and getting to know her, but what he came to realize, as he looked at this at this world map is when he looked at the nation of India and the cluster of map pins on that map, where God was impressing her to pray for. He realized that they were having the greatest measure of success evangelizing and sharing the gospel in those communities where this woman was praying for. 5 (1h 0m 14s): So here she is, she's bedridden. He has to have other people come and help her. And yet her prayers are so effective that they're impacting for eternity, the lives of the people in India. On the other side of the world. Here's what James says about prayer. He says in James five 16, the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. I want to read that again. The earnest prayer of a righteous person. Now you may be thinking well, I'm, I'm not a righteous person. Yes you are. 5 (1h 0m 55s): When you place your faith and trust in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, his shed blood made you righteous. You are the righteousness of God in Christ. So the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. We have a direct, direct access to the creator of the heavens and the earth. He desires it with people would come to know and accept and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior because God is all about saving people. He wants heaven to be full of crazy people like us. 5 (1h 1m 37s): Paul is exhorting us to pray specifically for again, our King. So what does that have to do with us? Who's our King. Well, I guess you'd say maybe our president pray for our president. Pray for our national leaders, pray for our state government, our local government, those who are in positions of authority over us. He's saying pray for them specifically by name, asking God to open up their heart to him, pray specifically that they might come to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior. Now, as I mentioned earlier, there's a great division in the church right now. And again, it's usually over politics and candidates and all of that. 5 (1h 2m 17s): I w I would exhort us to do this. Don't be critical of any of our leaders, whether you agree with them politically or not pray for them specifically by name asking God that there would be an openness in their heart, to the gospel. That's going to bring about unity in the church and the body of Christ. So I get, I get me. I get super excited when I see something very specific in the Bible that pleases God, God. So this is, this is, Paul says, this is pleasing to God. I know we all, we all want to, to please him praying like this is for these people in this way. It pleases God, and God is pleased with us. 5 (1h 2m 58s): When we do this, I have a question for you this morning. If we pray in the way Paul tells us to pray. And if we pray for the people that Paul tells us to pray for again, back to the question, does that mean we will always have a peaceful and quiet life? The answer is no things may get completely crazy, but we continue to pray. So we're not, we're not praying. God give us a great government. We're not praying. God may, you know, make life easy for us. We're saying, Lord, I know these people need to know you. They need your salvation. I want the kingdom of heaven filled with people like this. 5 (1h 3m 40s): I may despise their politics, but Lord, I want you to fill heaven with people blank. This. So Paul, again, did he have a peaceful and quiet life? The answer is no. He spent a lot of time in jail. I spent a lot of time in, in, you know, Roman prisons. Was he effective in his ministry? Absolutely. In fact, when he was talking about his ministry, part of the effectiveness he's talking about is when he was in prison. So in Philippians chapter one, this is what he says beginning with verse 12. He says, he says, I want you to know something. I want you to know my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here in prison has actually helped to spread the good news for everyone here, including the whole palace guard knows that I'm in chains because of Christ. 5 (1h 4m 27s): And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God's message without fear. So th the irony is Paul's in prison. Oh, that's a bad thing, but the believers are more bold than ever. So may we be more bold than ever as we experience the trials that are before us? And again, Paul talks about this a little more in Philippians chapter four, verse 22, he says, all the saints greet you. So he's closing out this letter now, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. In other words, emperor Nero's household, there's one commentary, but written by a guy named Clark. 5 (1h 5m 11s): It says this special greeting is evidence that Paul was still used by God during his Roman imprisonment. When the gospel extended, even into the household of Nero, Nero was at this time, emperor of Rome, a more worthless, cruel, and diabolic wretch, never disgraced the name or form of man yet in his family, there were Christians. But whether this relates to the members of the Imperial family, or to guards or core TA's or to servants, we cannot tell God's on the move, even in the prison, even when you know, rulers are not great rulers. 5 (1h 5m 56s): So remember I told you a moment ago, Paul is encouraging us to go, go to directly, to, to God. You have access to the father, go directly to him in prayer and not pray through another person. But then Paul adds something here. It's a little bit of a twist, and it's in first Timothy chapter two, five through seven. He says, he says, this for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am speaking the truth in Christ, not lying. 5 (1h 6m 36s): A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. So Paul is saying, we pray directly to God, the father, but we have a mediator. We have to have a mediator. Now, what does a mediator? A mediator is, is simply one who intervenes in order to restore peace and friendship. So mediator comes to my mind. We've got two parties that are, that are against each other. They have no agreement. A mediator brings them together to restore peace and friendship. A mediator is one who steps in to ratify an agreement, a covenant. 5 (1h 7m 18s): We need a mediator. So, so again, now we begin to see how the gospel comes to play in all of this, because we were born into this world with a sinful nature. You have a DNA that's literally been corrupted. And we were born in this world under a curse, and we've inherited this. We are by nature. Get this. We are by nature, actually, enemies of God without Christ. But God's desire is that we would be reconciled to him. It's God's desire to have relationship with his people. How, how does he arrange that? 5 (1h 7m 58s): Which is why God sent his only son into the world to save us, to save sinners, to mediate, to bring together two parties that were at odds. So I want to unpack this just a little bit in a moment. So back to this first, when it comes to praying directly to God, as it turns out, we actually do need a mediator, but not a man. Not any man. We need someone to intercede for us to intercede on our behalf. And the Bible teaches us. There's only one person, one man who can intercede half. His name is Jesus. Romans chapter eight, verse 34. It is Christ who died. And furthermore has also risen who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 5 (1h 8m 47s): So here's, here's how it works. We pray directly to God, the father through the son in the Holy spirit. So that's where we kind of see that father, son and Holy spirit coming together. We pray directly to the father, through the son in the Holy spirit. So on one occasion, Jesus sort of bring this to us in John chapter 16, verse 23, he says this, he says in prayer, he says, whatever you ask the father in my name, he will give you what a privilege, whatever we ask the father through the son, he says, he's gonna, he's gonna give that to you. 5 (1h 9m 34s): So I want to try to summarize this, bring it to a conclusion. So God's desire is that all people would be saved and all people would come to the knowledge of the truth. So in this case, the specialty's talking about those who are in positions of authority are part, our responsibility is to pray for them. So can we covenant together as a community of believers, you know, to, to pray for our national leaders, the president and Congress, and then of course, governors and all the leaders by name with an attitude of love for them asking God to open up their heart. 5 (1h 10m 18s): So they might come to know and accept Jesus as their Lord and savior. So someone I've been listening to recently online, somebody introduced me to him recently, his name is JD for ag. So JD for ag, it's a Palestinian believers. He pastors a church in Kaneohe, Hawaii. And you know, so I've been watching him recently. So he's very deliberate. And every time he's ending a message, he wants the gospel to be made super clear. And so he closes with, I want to put a graphic up there right now. So it's the ABC graphic. So ABC, I borrowed this from J for ag. 5 (1h 10m 58s): And as, as we look at this, I want to just say, listen, if you're a Christian already, and you've heard the gospel, maybe so many times don't tune me out. But what I want you to do is I want you to pray right now for those who don't know, the Lord may be here at harvest church or those who are listening online, because oftentimes what I've found it is people. Maybe they just never really come, come to understand the gospel, or they've heard bits and pieces of it, but they'd never actually responded to the clear message of the gospel. So what is the gospel that which gives each one, a life to a person? Well, a admit that you're a sinner be believe Jesus died for your sins and see call upon the name of the Lord. So I'm going to look at a few verses as we close. 5 (1h 11m 40s): So believers just beginning, pray that God would bring salvation right now to those whose hearts are open towards him. So Hey, admitted your center from the Bible's perspective, guests, how many righteous people are born? Planet earth zero, zero. Okay. In fact, Paul says in Romans three 10 is as it re there there's none righteous. No, not one. You're going to see an old Testament, new Testament backwards. Nobody's righteous, righteous, meaning nobody can approach God on their own behalf. Romans three 23. 5 (1h 12m 21s): In fact, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The believe Jesus died for your sins, Romans five, five, eight, but God demonstrates his own love towards us. And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's why it's called good news. The gospel good news. Romans six 23, three for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ. Jesus. Our Lord, the gospel is a message about a gift. You don't work for a gift. You just receive a gift. 5 (1h 13m 1s): If something God has done for us provided for us through his son. And lastly, call upon the name of the Lord, Ephesians two, eight and nine for by grace. You've been saved through faith that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God is not of works. Lest anyone should boast. So there's this tendency in the human heart to want to work, to be good enough to be acceptable to God. The scripture is clear. You can't work for this. You have to just receive it and thank God for it. And finally, Romans 10, nine, and 13, if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus. And if you believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be. 5 (1h 13m 50s): So that confession part, it's something that each person needs to do individually. I can't do it for you. You can't, you know, belong to a club or a group of spiritual people to have it done for you. You have to come to God on your, on, on his terms and you confess. Yes, I believe I know. I know that I'm a sinner and I know that I need forgiveness. So I believe you sent your son To die in my place. 5 (1h 14m 39s): So I confess God that Jesus is my Lord. I desire that he would be my savior. So I invite you to give me rent to me the gift of life that you've provided. I remember when I gave my life to Christ and something supernatural happens when we do that, you can't explain it. It can't be intellectually figured out. God sent his son to die for you and for me. And if you will make that confession of faith, I promise you that God will hear that prayer and something supernatural will happen. 5 (1h 15m 26s): God will show you. He will prove to you that he is alive and that now he's living in you and that your body has now become the temple of the Holy spirit that you were spiritually dead. And now you're a made spiritually alive in Christ. So to those gathered here online, as we worship, as we close in worship, let's all stand. If you have not yet done that and prayed and invited Jesus and confessed him to be your Lord and savior. Now, now is your opportunity to pray while we're worshiping, just pray and invite him into your life to be your Lord and savior. 2 (1h 16m 19s): , 1 (1h 17m 25s): 2 (1h 21m 39s): Bring it all the stores around me let Bray day, because seed is the rage means every way. 1 (1h 22m 5s): Geez, she's she is the cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese. 1 (1h 23m 34s): geez, geez, that the shadows kids 0 (1h 26m 4s): Thank you God for thank you for gracing us with your presence this morning. I just ask you to just work inside of each one of us this morning as we leave. And just as we're, as we're contemplating the gospel, just, just maybe re revisiting your truths and just, just taking a greater hold on those things and making them sit in our hearts. God, and just thank you so much, father for your grace and your love. 0 (1h 26m 48s): If you're here this morning and you need someone to pray with, we have people up front and you can just, just come on down, don't be shy and someone will be here to pray. Pray with you. Thank you for joining us, everybody. And we'll see you next week. 2 (1h 27m 12s): .

Beware of the Poison

0 (2s): Well, good morning harvest family. How's everybody doing today? Lots of good smile and hello to everyone watching on campus and at home online. We're so glad as always to come together and worship. So why don't you find some worshiping space and stand up? And you're able, I'd love to just get our bodies, our minds, our soul, everything. Just focus on those this morning. 1 (31s): Why don't we pray 0 (35s): His presence here today? Lord, thank you that we're two or three or more are gathered in your name that you promised to be in our midst. And so we know that you are here today. I just pray that your presence would stretch out all over this County, all over the world, wherever anyone might be tuning in and watching, we are one body connected Lord by your spirit. And I just thank you for what you're doing in our midst. I pray that you would continue just to meet us as we draw near to you, would you draw near to us? How would you lift our weariness? 1 (1m 16s): How would you 0 (1m 16s): Just put your yoke upon us? That is easy and light 1 (1m 20s): Today. 0 (1m 22s): Thank you that you carry our burdens. You lift our sorrows. 1 (1m 30s): You give us 0 (1m 32s): Joy instead of mourning and laughter instead of tears. 1 (1m 37s): Yes. 0 (1m 41s): So God come and be here in our midst or get our hearts. 1 (1m 53s): too deep or too dark. 1 (7m 52s): Thank you for your presence here today. Thank you for the price that you paid. You laid down your life for us in the midst of all of our faults and our scars. There's nothing that we could do to be good. We all fall short and that we all are in need of a savior. 1 (9m 33s): 0 (16m 43s): Know. Sometimes you put a new song in our hearts, so thank you, Jesus. Just for the wind in our sail this morning. Yeah. Sprayer read hearts this morning that are weary, are achy. Any bodies that are bruised and broken any healing. So you continue to come and move by your spirit and power. Set our feet upon a rock, a new song in our hearts. May we need walking, living testimonies of your faithfulness and of your power. 0 (17m 30s): When people see us, you're like, Oh man, what was different about this person? It's just joy radiating from their soul. There's a piece that's beyond my comprehension. They go through all they walk through and still have joy and peace in the mess because we have a savior. And if he's for us, who could be against us, I continue to just put those the deep in our heart, your amazing grace available to us each and every moment of every day Just like gets spread. 1 (18m 22s): 0 (19m 7s): Right. 1 (19m 13s): 0 (23m 12s): It was eyes to see years, 1 (23m 17s): No more. 0 (23m 26s): Would you open our hearts to receive all that you have for us this day? 1 (23m 34s): Okay. 0 (23m 34s): Heart's desire to be more like you got to be a reflection of your love in this world. So would you continue that good work in our hearts today? And we ask all of this in a name. Jesus. Oh, so sweet, such a sweet spirit in the house the day. Well, we're going to spread some of that sweet spirit to spread his peace this morning to one another. Would you greet someone around you and say, hello, let some announcements. And just a few moments. 1 (24m 4s): 2 (26m 48s): Find a seat. That'd be great. Thank you so much. Hey, I want to welcome everyone. Who's 3 (26m 55s): Sanctuary. And those of you who are in the loft and the patio area, and those who are tuning in online, thank you for being with us. My name is Ron. I'm one of the pastors here and this is a highlight of the service, the announcements, right? Yes. So today's a special day for many reasons. One is it's family Sunday. So family Sunday, we do every fourth, Sunday of the month. And the purpose is to kind of get families together, worship together. So kids that are first grade and up will be with mom and dad sitting in with, with them in the service. And if you have children younger than that, we do have classes available for them. 3 (27m 37s): And then in addition, another highlight of today is the fact that it is communion Sunday. And so when you came in to all the different venues, there were some community communion elements there, and you may have grabbed one already. If you didn't. One of the ushers will come around. When we get to communion part of the service and you can grab one then, and we're going to have communion together as well. But the other reason today is, is amazing is because it's donut Sunday. So if, if you head up the driveway to the info center area, you're going to find a whole bunch of donuts. So help yourself. And because we all need healthy food in our lives, don't we? Yes, we do. 3 (28m 19s): By the way, everything I'm mentioning right now this morning, you're going to find on our, on our website, on our harvest app and also at the info center, if you want to talk to somebody face to face about anything, that's going on, feel free to go up to the info center and there'll be there to help you out. Easter is coming up. So Easter is one of those things that happens every year. So unlike Christmas, Christmas is always on December. What does it? December 25th. That's right. So Easter changes. The date just kind of moves around. And so I'm never really sure what month or day or all, but it's this year. It, what is it? April 4th. Thank you. So April 4th, this year is Easter. So what we're doing a little different because of COVID things we're actually having Easter right here on the premises. 3 (29m 3s): It's going to be one service. It's going to be at 10 o'clock and we're going to be outside. Everybody's going to be outside up at the upper parking lot area. We're going to be setting a big, a big stage, can have live bound band out there. We're going to be doing baptisms. And so if there's somebody that if you want to get baptized or someone that you know, then let us know, you can either send us an email stop by the info table. You can sign up and you'll you, we will contact you and meet with you about, about, about getting baptized. And then in addition, we're going to be setting up about 600 chairs up there. All right. So with that, we're going to be needing help. You'll be hearing about this, going to be needing help to do set up and clean up and just different things, greeting and things for the service. 3 (29m 43s): So Easter is one of those annual times of year where it's a great time to invite people that don't normally come to church. And you know how some people, when you invite them to church, they're like worried that the, the roof is going to cave in on them. So this is an outdoor service. So they're not to worry about that. Although there are some eucalyptus trees kind of close by. So that might be a concern, but, but invite friends, family, those who, who, you know, really would benefit from an Easter service. So there's some other things going on. I'll just make mention of a few of them. There's a golfing group. That's going to be gathering at Cypress Ridge next Sunday at one o'clock stop by info center. They'll let you know about that. 3 (30m 24s): There's a good yarn club, so that they're going to be gathering March 13th at five o'clock. And there's a men's event coming up. It's the M six evening gathering. It's kinda been put on hold through COVID but now it's starting up again. So the date on that is, is March 15th. And it's going to be out at thousand Hills ranch where it's always been in the past. So guys, I would encourage you to take the opportunity to get involved in that. All right. So the last thing I want to make mention of this morning is so throughout this year, on the fourth, Sunday of every month, family Sunday, we're having a, another, a new missionary come. So these are missionaries that we support we've supported. 3 (31m 5s): So this morning, in fact, Darren, go ahead and make your way up. Let's welcome, Darren. This is Darren Johnson. So Darren Johnson is from child evangelism fellowship. And he's my baby brother in Christ. Yes. Yes. So we've been supporting harvest church has been supporting financially and prayerfully CEF for many, many years. So you might be familiar with the good news clubs. So they're, they're under the umbrella of child evangelism fellowship. So Darren's here with us this morning. Gonna share a little bit about the ministry. He's got a table set up outside. If you want more info, go talk to him and Darren, really happy to have you with us today. 4 (31m 47s): Okay. Thank you so much proof once more, that good things come in, small packages. 1 (31m 52s): 4 (31m 55s): We're close enough where I can teach you. Right. Okay. Good. All right. So we just want to thank you guys so much. You've been such a blessing to this ministry and all the kids that reaches. And a lot of, you know, we were in over two thirds of the elementary schools before this whole COVID thing came down the pike and we are just pivoting and scrambling to, to do our very best to reach kids, right where they're at. So right now we, we have 20 clubs going, 11 of them are online and nine are in person and we're just setting up in parks, church, parking lots, wherever we can to, to, to reach these kids. But I, one thing I just want to mention know, this is a hard time, especially for kids, it's our time for everybody, you know, no matter where you're at and how things should be handled, we all know that, you know, it's rattled a lot of people and there's a lot of fear going on in the world right now, a lot of confusion. 4 (32m 44s): And if you think about what that looks like from a child's perspective, you know, they're looking at the people that normally have it all together for them, their security, even though we know we're supposed to get our security from God, you know, kids do draw that from their parents and adults and, and, and they're looking at their parents and they're seeing them nervous and confused, and that just kind of feeds into their lives in a pretty big way. So, you know, I was kind of reminded of this. I've got a little five-year-old daughter, you know, and she just asked me point blank, one day, she goes, dad, are you scared of COVID? I thought, Oh, Whoa. Like I never told her that. But you know, she could pick up on things because her life is very different. Now, you know, kids are being told you can't go to the park. You can't go to school. 4 (33m 26s): You can't go to the water park or the play structure, or all these things are normally used to doing. And for a child, like my daughter is five. And you think about what a percentage of that life, this whole Corona confusion has been over her, right? She's five. I mean, this has been going on for like a year and a half and probably about two years back as far as she can really remember. So this is pretty much her normal at this point. So there's kids that just are growing up with this and we have this huge need and opportunity to, to anchor them to what really matters, right? God, his truth, eternal things that their hope. I mean, once our hope is in this world, we're in big trouble. Aren't we, our hope has to be in Jesus Christ. 4 (34m 9s): There's nothing else that we'll be able to, to get us into heaven or to give us a hope in this world. There's nothing else that can really make us secure. So that's our mission is to take that message of hope to the kids. We're so thankful for your partnership in that. And we just appreciate all you guys do. A lot of you have gotten involved over the years and we'd love to, to keep that going and just please feel free to come by and talk with me. If you have any questions, I've got a great little tool. I'd love to hand out to you guys. I wished I'd. I realized after my daughter said that I should sit down with her and go over this because it's just a little, you know, a little booklet to go on a child's level to take them through, Hey, you know, why is the world confusing? 4 (34m 51s): Where does our hope really lie? Help them know they don't have to be alone, right? God will go through everything with us. And he'll, he loves you. He'll, he'll help you through whatever challenge you're facing. So thank you guys for your support and partnership. And please keep us in prayer. We we've, we are excited about what God has opened the door to us to do even admits these challenging times, but we're never satisfied, right? We want to keep reaching every child and make sure the gospel is going out to all of them. So thank you so much. 5 (35m 31s): Thanks Darren. Appreciate coming in Sharon for us. Hey, my name is Jeremy. I'm the youth 6 (35m 38s): And family pastor here at harvest church. And pastor Steve is headed back from his step-mom's Memorial service in Colorado. So he's not with us this morning. So he asked me to step up. And so I get to open up the word of God. A few will be in acts chapter 14 today, but man, I really appreciate what Darren is doing in the schools and what that ministry is doing. You know, a number of years ago, I, when my family and I were living in Santa Santa Barbara, I interviewed for the director position of CF down there and actually came up and met Darren and shouted him for a day. And it's just amazing. The door that the Lord has opened in the schools, even, even during COVID I know things have changed, but he's really, they shifted to adjust for those things. 6 (36m 26s): But God has an amazing thing happening in the life of our students. And I may have shared this with you before you may have heard this, but I think it's worth repeating, you know, DL moody came back from a, a revival and they asked him, well, how did it go? You know, how many people were saved? And he, his response was two and 5 (36m 46s): A half. And that was met with 6 (36m 49s): Kind of a blank stare. What do you mean two and a half? You mean two adults and a child. 5 (36m 52s): He said, no, two children and an adult. And he said, when you, 6 (36m 58s): You save a child, you save a life a whole life. And that's why I believe in student ministry is like the utmost important. Whether you're in schools, whether here at church, it is so important. 5 (37m 11s): And you know, these, 6 (37m 14s): Those pouring into the life of the youth are making a change to a life a whole life. And it's not an insult to those who are older when they come to Christ. But God, because God is calling you to walk with him, no matter how long you have walked in your own path, he's calling you to join him in his path. So the encouragement is parents, grandparents keep the course, keep loving on these students, keep teaching them the truth. And that is what we're going to discuss today is the truth in our culture. And really to be aware of that 5 (37m 45s): Isn't as was 6 (37m 48s): Pairing this week. And, you know, I got asked on Wednesdays, Steve asked if I was able to, to share today. And he said, Hey, it'd be really cool to get some testimonies of some youth students to come up. And so I approached a few, used a few students on Wednesday and said, Hey, would you be willing to come and give your testimony on Sunday? And it was met with like this deer in the headlight look like, Oh, this is only a few days away. I don't know if I can do that. And off, and to the response that I got was, I don't really have a testimony. I don't have a, I don't have a car. I don't have this kind of crazy story. And I think often our minds, a testimony is when God's turned us away from crazy gnarly stuff, and then we've walked with him. But what about the testimony of a simple walk of obedience to God and his word? 5 (38m 31s): What about that testimony? And these, these students, as you give your life 6 (38m 36s): To the Lord and you walk with him, I look at the adults out here, think of the pain and the suffering and the struggle that you'll be saved from. If you just simply 5 (38m 47s): Walk with the Lord, that's right. That's 6 (38m 50s): An amazing testimony to simply walk with the Lord. Can I get an amen on that one? 5 (38m 54s): All right, let me pray. And then I'm gonna jump in Lord. You are on the move Lord and display 6 (39m 10s): Right with our culture. Despite what are the things that around us sort of, we trust in you. We trust 5 (39m 14s): The truth of your word, or do you speak to us this morning? Will you reveal our condition, Lord? And will you show us who you are, Lord and what you came to do in Jesus name? We pray. Amen. So let me tell you a little bit about my youth. 6 (39m 34s): Now, had you told me I would have a, a job in public speaking 5 (39m 38s): When I was in grade 6 (39m 40s): School, I would have ran away from my life. Like public speaking was never on my radar. It was the worst thing. It was the last thing in the world I wanted to do because I was pretty, I was pretty much a nerd. Okay. Our family genetics, we had bad eyesight. Okay. So you can imagine Jeremy with glasses. And in fact, my brother's eyesight was a little bad. I'm going to throw him under the bus. He was getting really bad grades at school. So the teacher said, well, maybe Brian needs to sit in the front of school. And so he sat in the front of class and that helped. And then the teacher saw, man, he's still struggling. He's this bright, smart kid, what what's going on? So she said, Hey, she talked to my parents, you should have his eyes checked out. So sure enough, he goes to the eye doctor and his eyes would bad. 6 (40m 22s): So he gets a pair of glasses and he goes into the classroom and he looks up and he's like, Oh, I never knew this. The flag had stars on it, poor kid. Right? That's the eyesight that I haven't. And at one point in my youth, I was actually given bifocals to where like, they like not the hidden bifocals, but the ones with the lions, you know? And so you can only imagine how much 5 (40m 48s): Flack I got from, from other students. 6 (40m 51s): So I was that kid. I was never the cool kid. I was, I was that kid. And I grew up in a really loving, awesome family. And, you know, we, we had a pet dog, but being the first born being one to have responsibility, I thought, man, I want to have my own animals are my own things to take care of. And I looked around different animals, like turtles, whatever. And I narrowed the search down to ants. I wanted one of those. And from you remember those and farms, how cool are those little and farms? You know, like you get to observe the aunts and what they're doing underground and those tunnels and how strong they are. They can lift up heavy things and move things around. And, and it was pretty easy to care for. So ants made the perfect thing and I would take a little droplets and add drops 5 (41m 35s): Of water and I would add their food as necessary. But you just got to observe these things. Well, one day I returned after being out of the house and I looked and I said, huh, there's what is that little thing in my aunt farm? I don't recognize that. And I could see that the answer very attractive 6 (41m 54s): Into it. And they were starting to bite off little pieces and take it down into their tunnels. 5 (41m 60s): And they were dying. I was like, that was weird. So I got tweezers pulled that thing out of there. And I started asking around and sure enough, my brother had snuck in and put ant poison into my ant farm. 6 (42m 17s): Am I answering or dying? So how do I stop this? Like, do I yell at them a little and from stop eating the poison, stopping the poison. Don't do it. It's going to hurt you. It tastes good. I know, but don't do it. I, as a human, I can't yell down to my aunt. So what do I do? I want to become an aunt so I can tell my aunts don't eat the 5 (42m 39s): Now, before you really get mad at me and my brother for poison my ass. That's actually just a story. Okay. I made the story up, 6 (42m 47s): Never had an ant farm. My brother never poisoned them, but it speaks to something true. There speaks to this poison. That's in, been inserted 5 (42m 55s): For our lives. And what do we do with it? 6 (43m 1s): Poison can come in many different 5 (43m 4s): Ways, many different attractive 6 (43m 5s): Packaging. Some poison makes us feel good. Some poison looks fun. Some poison, everyone else has taken. 5 (43m 13s): Why don't we, some poison makes us feel better about ourselves 6 (43m 20s): Came to this passage of scripture in acts chapter 14. And this is actually where we were on Wednesday night. How to do with that story, that, okay. All right. I repeated the story. They heard it on a Wednesday such. So acts chapter 14, let's check it out. 5 (43m 37s): It's 6 (43m 38s): Paul and Barnabas Barnabas, his first missionary 5 (43m 40s): Trip, the first mystery 6 (43m 42s): Journey. And they come to this town of Iconia. Now it says in acts chapter 14, verse one, 5 (43m 49s): It happened 6 (43m 50s): In, I conium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews. And so spoke that a great multitude, both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed verse two, but the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds 5 (44m 3s): Leans against the brethren. 6 (44m 6s): The work was happening. Paul and Barnabas were having amazing ministry that it was stirring up the whole town. And so then the gent, the Jews, the unbelieving Jews then snuck in and began to poison the minds of the Gentiles. They began to insert something other than 5 (44m 21s): Truth, other than the word of God. So what was that poison for them 6 (44m 27s): Specifically say, but I believe it's this workspace, religion, Judaism. They wanted Judaism to flow back into the church 5 (44m 35s): And they 6 (44m 36s): Were against what Paul and his message. 5 (44m 40s): There is a workspace based religion. Wasn't the gospel, 6 (44m 44s): Wasn't the gospel based on grace by 5 (44m 46s): Faith. 6 (44m 48s): And so if that was their poison, what is the poison that we can take in as well? 5 (44m 55s): What is the poison that we can take in as well? 6 (44m 59s): Same, right? That, that, that, that poisonous meshes is still around. That that we can add to what Jesus did in the cross. That when Jesus said to tell us it is finished on the cross, that it wasn't actually done. I have to be a good person to earn my way I have to do this 5 (45m 14s): Or that. That is still some 6 (45m 16s): Of the poison that flows in our culture. One of the things I hear a lot about now is my truth. Have you heard the claim? My truth, 5 (45m 28s): That 6 (45m 28s): The truth no longer, there's not a truth. There's not one truth. There's multiple truths. And you can come to a conversation. Well, that conflicts with my true, see my truth says this. Oh, but, but my truth, no, there's no, there's this, this battle for truth in our culture 5 (45m 45s): World. One of the things, 6 (45m 50s): The things I think plaguing the youth to his age is go try everything first and see if you like it. See if it sticks, good, try everything first as if it won't harm you there 5 (45m 60s): Your life. 6 (46m 4s): What about being young and dumb? That's like one of the things going around, 5 (46m 9s): It's a poison they'll hurt 6 (46m 12s): The rest of your life. Cause choices that you make now can affect you the rest 5 (46m 15s): Of your life. What about our 6 (46m 18s): Culture? Where socialism and communism is becoming praised in our culture. It's being taught in our schools of critical theory and cultural Marxism, or where companies, big tech companies have the ability to, to monitor what we and I read and how we get our news and all these things of just the censorship 5 (46m 40s): And the truth 6 (46m 40s): I feel is getting harder and harder to find big pharmaceutical companies are making millions, if not billions, on telling us how our health 5 (46m 50s): Need to do 6 (46m 53s): One of the lies, our cultures, there's more than two genders. God said, let there be male and female man, and woman that, 5 (47m 2s): That God that wasn't it. We have to have more genders now. 6 (47m 7s): Jesus, isn't returning and so much more. There's so much that's being attacked in our culture. And I often ask the question, how much poison is too much. 5 (47m 19s): And what do we do 6 (47m 21s): When we find this poison, that's kind of come into our, our thoughts in our heads, in our, in our culture. What do we do? This is what, this is what Paul and did verse three. It says, therefore, they stayed there a long time. Speaking boldly in the Lord who was bearing witness to the word of his grace granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. What was the antidote in their day? 5 (47m 47s): It was the truth. The word of God, the word of his grace, that was 6 (47m 52s): The serum, the antivenom. It was the word of God or the logos, 5 (47m 58s): The truth, you know, 6 (48m 0s): As we continue, you know, we've always been marching towards the end 5 (48m 4s): Times, 2000 years. 6 (48m 6s): We've always been more, but you start to read Jesus's words about end time deception. You start to look at the book of revelation. You realize that deception is only going to get harder and harder. So it makes truth all the more important, 5 (48m 22s): Yeah. 6 (48m 22s): Verse four says, but the multitude of the city was divided part sided with the Jews and part with the apostle. And that's the truth. That truth divides. And it's a hard message. These 5 (48m 33s): Culture trues divides, the gospel brings division. 6 (48m 39s): I only read about Matt in Matthew chapter 10, how Jesus talks about even that division can come into homes. 5 (48m 44s): The families between loved ones, 6 (48m 50s): Favorite statements in the Bible, favorite words in the Bible. 5 (48m 53s): But God, because 6 (48m 57s): The what's happening around us, we look at the culture. We look at the situations we are, Oh my what, what is happening? What is going on? What can be done and yet reread, but 5 (49m 8s): God Romans 6 (49m 10s): Five eight, but God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, it really looked really, really dark for us. But God, and I want to say that God is on the move in the life of our youth. And that's what I'm so excited to share with you this morning. 5 (49m 27s): You know, you think of 6 (49m 28s): Different use in the time of Bible. Think about the youth and time of when Daniel was 5 (49m 31s): Living. These young men were taken out of their Homeland and placed in a very dark idolatrous, poisonous culture in Babylon, in the thing 6 (49m 48s): That surrounded them and their friends and the pressures. And yet Daniel and his friends, even in their youth, were able to recognize the poison and abstain from those things. Daniel chapter one verse eight says, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the King's delicacies, nor with the wine, which, which he 5 (50m 9s): Drank. Therefore he requested 6 (50m 12s): Of the chief of the Unix that he might not defile himself 5 (50m 16s): Meet 6 (50m 16s): And drink that were offered to idols to fake gods. He said, he didn't ask the question. How much can I have and still be 5 (50m 23s): Okay if I just have a once a week, 6 (50m 28s): Twice a week, he didn't say that. He said, I don't want any of that thing. I don't want any of that. So impressive by Daniel. And I asked, I wonder if I would have what I would have been like, I think we all do. What if we wouldn't like, if we've been dropped in that culture, Daniel had the thought like he could have said, well, you know, God abandoned me. So I'm going to do what feels good to me. He could have said, well, there's no parents around. So I'll do what I want. He could've said new location. I'm going to live my best life ever. But he didn't. He said, no, I don't want any of it. Even if I had it even at a cost because he knew the truth in this poison or live comes so often in the form of idols as well. 6 (51m 18s): I do idols. I would define as things that we prop up to look at to save us, to look for help in our situations acts chapter 14, verse 15, Paul would say those things are useless things. I mean, we could think of a list of the different idols that we have in our culture. The adultery that goes on, we don't have those little things on our shelf any longer, but we have these icons or statuses around us, money, wealth, Hey, those things are going to save me. If everything goes South in our economy, those, the money that I got, my bank account, that's going to save me. 6 (51m 58s): We looked at different political parties to save us. We look for self, for health. We have often so often put comfort and safety as idol on our shelf. If you think about it, comfort and safety. What about status or appearance or success or business? Can we put others on that place? Can we lift them up maybe as a spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, maybe a prospective boyfriend or girlfriend. What about different public figures? Can we put them in a place in our lives to speak into us or to, or to idolize? 6 (52m 42s): What about sports actors? Musicians, you know, I hope I'm not taking this out of context, but Billie Eilish, right? That's how you may say her name. Okay. I got it wrong on Wednesday. Totally got wrong in a, in a commercial for her documentary that was coming out. She is at a concert of young fans who really idolized her, who put her in this place because of her, the words, her lyrics. And they put her in this place of like, Oh man, sh I, I just got to come and relate to her words. And she says this to her, her concert. She says, Hey, you guys need to be okay because you are the reason that I'm okay. 6 (53m 27s): Think about the young people that are going to listen to a concert and saying, okay, I relate to her songs. I relate to her music. I need, I feel good when I listened to her stuff makes me feel good about myself. And then they go to a concert and the, and the person who's singing these songs who wrote these words says, well, I'm going to be okay. But only if you're okay. So if you're not okay, that I'm not okay, it's dangerous. What we lift up in our culture. So if that is the poison, that's around us, what is the remedy to that poison? And what do we do? Well, it's the truth. Not a truth, not my truth. Right? 6 (54m 7s): Jesus says, I am the way the truth and the life. Steve has been asking the question all month and made me think about this morning. He says, the question was, do you want me, what do you want me to do today? What do you want me to do today? My encouragement was looking at a fusion six. What does the fusion six say? He says, put on the full armor of God. What is the first thing? What is the first bit of armor that God asks us to put on the belt of truth? It all starts with truth. 6 (54m 49s): What is truth? Because as we look around and we see all this craziness in our culture, Ephesians six, six verse 12 says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against these powers against these principalities, right? Tim Mackie would say that humanity's real problem is not merely another human. It's the spiritual powers that animate our cultural idols that inspire hatred, division and violence. Those are the things that we have to put on our armor for Were Adam and Eve wearing their armor in the garden. When the lies came against them. 6 (55m 31s): When the deceiver came up and began to speak these words about the truth, 1 (55m 35s): 6 (55m 41s): Genesis three verse four says, then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die for. God knows that in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like, God knowing good and evil. He brought the light to Adam and Eve in the garden. St. Well, God's actually withholding. God's actually not good. He's withholding something good from you. Even though man, and woman were created to be image bearers, right? Made in the image of God. Even though there are image bears, he said, nah, that God's still holding something back. And actually this, I can offer you what God's holding back. And that's the knowledge of good and evil. And you can actually elevate your status. 6 (56m 22s): You can actually become something than what God has called you to be by eating of this tree of the fruit. He said, you will be like, God. And that is the basis of the, of the, of the foundation of evolution that, that we were created to be something. And then we can somehow elevate ourselves beyond that. What did, what would humanity be like if, if we were not living out the effects of that choice in there in the garden, 5 (56m 55s): Jesus, in the wilderness, 6 (56m 59s): That same deceiver, that same, you surfer that same serpent came and spoke to Jesus out in the wilderness, tempting him as well that Jesus could have sustenance outside of God, that glory, without the crown of thorns, that there could be a kingdom without the cross draw, all the lies, all the poison that Satan brought before Jesus and Jesus, every time he used the word he used the truth. Matthew records, Jesus saying every time it is written, he always went back to that foundation of it is written. 6 (57m 43s): We have to go back to that foundation. You know, Luke chapter six talks about a man building a house who had to dig deep and go all the way to the foundation. He had to place that foundation on the rock. And that foundation is what was he had to build his house on. He had to build his life on and that when storms came, that house wouldn't move because it was on the rock. And that is hard work to dig down until you get to the rock. 5 (58m 15s): But we have to stand on that rock. 6 (58m 20s): I believe God is on the move. And let me see, see that even even stronger. I know God is on the move because I've seen it in our, in our youth. You know, it's crazy as you look around what the internet has done to the global youth community, all of a sudden all the youth around the world because of the internet are being influenced by the same musicians, the same social media influencers, by the same things in they're all coming together. And it's often not for good, but I can tell you what is happening here in our five cities area in our harvest youth group. Let me tell you quickly about that harvest Corps started a couple of weeks ago. 6 (59m 5s): And we started for those students who want to go a little bit deeper in their faith. And we started by taking a w Tozer knowledge of the Holy, a book that I read in college 20 years ago. And we started by taking that book and then becoming, going into these discussion. So the students go home, they have 5 (59m 23s): Their own book, they read 6 (59m 25s): A couple of chapters. And then every other week we discuss those chapters 5 (59m 30s): And 6 (59m 31s): The conversations, the discussions that we have in those, those rooms 5 (59m 36s): Are amazing. You know, I bought 6 (59m 38s): Twenty-five books thinking, okay, this is a step of faith. Thinking that 25 students are going to want to read AWS Tozer and discuss it. 5 (59m 46s): You know what? There's 25 students 6 (59m 51s): And there's more students I wanted to come. They just had sports and other activities. So it's amazing to see that these students are wanting to press in and pursue God. And it's been, it was phenomenal conversation. I'm looking forward that to go for continually, do you know, harvest gathering or Wednesday night youth groups we have between 50 and 60 students each week show up here. 5 (1h 0m 12s): Sometimes even a couple of weeks, we've even had over 70 students 6 (1h 0m 17s): That want to meet in person. They want to fellowship. They want to hang out with their friends. 5 (1h 0m 22s): They want to play 6 (1h 0m 23s): A few fun activities games. And then we have worship bands, student led, worship bands that come up and lead the other students in worship. And it is phenomenal. We have three worship bands. We have to rotate each 5 (1h 0m 35s): Week. These students 6 (1h 0m 38s): Are leading each other in worship. And then I get up and say, Hey, open up your Bibles. And we go verse by verse through a book of the Bible, we started out in the book of John and now we're going through our working our way through acts. And it is phenomenal because they listened to me for 20 to 25 5 (1h 0m 52s): Minutes. That's 6 (1h 0m 54s): Amazing. Right? And on a Wednesday night, and there's a hunger, I see this hunger for the 5 (1h 1m 2s): Truth, 6 (1h 1m 6s): Hunger for a truth in our generation. The other question that Steve's been asking, his second question was, what do you want me? What, what do you want to do through me today? What do you want to do through me today? 5 (1h 1m 20s): Fusions 6 (1h 1m 21s): Chapter four, verse 15 says, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things to him who is the head Christ and God has called us to speak the truth in love. 5 (1h 1m 38s): You know, I, I 6 (1h 1m 40s): Start out this conversation, this message about truth by lying to you, right by lying about my aunt farm. Somebody pointed out the irony of that between services. You start out a message about truth by line. I see how it is Jeremy, but like my pretend little and farm, you can't yell down on those poor sick little ants. God calls us to go down. I mean, Jesus ultimately was the one who came down to our condition. And if the bridge between us and ants is this much, the bridge between God and man is infinitely more. And he came to speak the truth and love to a hurting and lost world. 5 (1h 2m 20s): And as we transitioned now into this into a time of communion, I see this communion cups as the truth serum says, if you did not get a cup yet you can raise your hand into the ushers and greeters can pass out some cups. Let me pray. While we buy. Those are passed out heavenly father and a culture that is anti-God anti truth. 5 (1h 3m 1s): You pray that your truth would just flood us would just invade us. Lord, your love for us. You're coming to earth to die for us Lord. And that you pay the ultimate price with your body. So you can welcome us into your kingdom. Pray that the truth of speaking is just speak and sink down deep into our hearts. Lord Jesus name. We pray. Amen. This is verses actually after Paul gives the communion verses, he says this, he says, therefore, whoever eats of this bread or drinks of this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the blood, the body and the blood of the Lord, but let a man examine himself. 5 (1h 3m 50s): 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. So before we partake, let's take this next song to really dwell on what poison have we partaken of what poison have we allowed into our hearts and our minds? Are there any lies that we believe? Was it like I conium where morality and works have entered into us. We pray that the Holy spirit, I now would just reveal those things to you. And after the first song, we'll take of the drink in the cup. 0 (1h 4m 31s): You'll stand together as a worship. We're cheeses. 0 (1h 4m 44s): 6 (1h 6m 50s): So delivered to you. Does the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. So together let's take up the bread. And in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper saying, this is the cup of the new covenant of my blood. This do, as often as you drink it in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat of this bread and drink of the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. 1 (1h 7m 40s): Thank you, Lord 0 (1h 12m 55s): Thank you that we are your sons and daughters. We belong to you. There's a place for us. We belong. Just let that soak in for just a moment. Do you belong as a place for you? There's a place for you here. There's a place for you and God's kingdom and your father's house. Those who felt like outcasts all their lives. Like you never fit in, like, something's wrong with you? The Lord says you belong. I've chosen you. I've called you by name. 0 (1h 13m 36s): I just pray Lord that all this week that we would be reminded of these trues again and again, that we've heard today, that they would take root deep in our hearts and bear good fruit that we love people with your kind of love that we would be examples. Hope in a world. That's feeling pretty hopeless right now in so many ways, which you shine through us, make people know we're Christians by our love reflect. 1 (1h 14m 8s): Thank 0 (1h 14m 8s): You for your presence here with us. We love you. Jesus. Thank you so much for joining us today. If anyone would like prayer this morning, we would love to pray with you. If you want to head on towards the front, we'll have some volunteers and staff that would love to come alongside. You have a wonderful day, say hello to someone, grab a doughnut. If there's any laptops and more copy, and we'll see you again next Sunday, bye to everyone watching online. We'll see you real soon.

Two Questions - Part 3

0 (0s): Good morning, everybody online, everybody all over the campus here. Thank you for coming to church this morning and worshiping with us. Let's all stand together. Worship our Lord 1 (15s): 0 (14m 10s): Lord, we praise you this morning. We thank you that you make it abundantly clear your creation screams. The love you have for us. Lord, we dedicate this time to you, Lord, we pray Holy spirit, that you would lead us, that you give us ears to hear your word and to understand it. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. If you ever watched those movies where like in the backroom, the mafia's counting a whole bunch of change. 0 (14m 50s): All this money. They got the green hats 2 (14m 52s): On all that stuff. 3 (14m 54s): Well, that didn't happen 2 (14m 56s): At the lifeline pregnancy center, but they did have to bring extra volunteers to count all of the cash that we brought in. 3 (15m 2s): So harvest church, you all were saying, 2 (15m 5s): So, so generous. So thank you so much. Yeah, it was, it was, they were just blown away by the amount of cash that they had to count. And so thank you. Hey, we are still looking for a few more volunteers. Let's see, we've got a few more things. It takes a village to run a church, right? Right. So we're still looking for one, the greeting team serving one Sunday, a month. One service safety team is still looking for a few extra folks. I know a few few people came up and talked to me last week about helping out with that. If you talk to me on Sunday, my mind has just gone. So go check it at the info center. Put your name, your email, all that email address. And Phil let us know w where you can serve there. 2 (15m 48s): As well as worship and tech team were helping need help with slides, cameras, instruments, all that. So you can either do it on online or go to the info center to check in. And then 3 (15m 59s): Lastly, big announcement. We've got Easter coming up Easter. So we, 2 (16m 3s): Our Easter is April 4th and we're going to be having one service here at the church. And we're going to have to be having in the upper parking lot, where we purchased a stage. We got all the sound equipment for it. It's going to be awesome. We're excited. Announced that it's going to be there in the upper campus. Hey, there will be baptisms this year. I can't promise that the 3 (16m 23s): Pool will be warm or hot, but 2 (16m 25s): At least there'll be warm. We'll make sure it's warm and then there'll be plenty of opportunities to serve as well. So just put Easter on your calendar. We're doing Easter, we're doing it in our upper parking lot. 3 (16m 35s): So that's all I got. That's it? That's it. Valentine's day go. Well, 4 (16m 45s): No, come on up here. What was it? So you've been married for how many years? Almost 10. Almost 10 years. So Valentine's day, was it a success or 3 (16m 57s): Yes, we do. We do. I'm trying to remember. Oh, yes, yes. That was the last Sunday. It was last Sunday. That's why I'm talking about it. Yeah. Our daughter is in the middle of teething reflux, not sleeping. So, so plans had to adjust, but we had, we had fun. We got a little dinner at California, fresh Pismo with everyone else and watch the sunset. All right, good. It was good. It was good day. Yeah. How was yours? You should ask my wife and shit. 4 (17m 27s): Yeah, it was good. It was, it was good. It was good. Yeah. We're going to be, we're going to make it another year. I think it's good. It's good. 3 (17m 36s): That's fine. Maybe I should Pat. Jolina her on the back. 4 (17m 42s): Welcome. We are in first Timothy chapter one today. We're actually going to get through the whole chapter today. I believe up to this point. We've through about three verses. I know you'll believe it when you see it, but I that's the plan. Anyway. That is the plan. Hey, crazy story. I don't know if you guys heard about this, but there was this guy in his neighborhood and he's watching his neighbor kicking down his own door. It was the craziest thing. The guy watching the neighbor kicked down his door. He knew that this guy was a criminal, but he didn't think that he was like insane. So he's like, he's like, dude, you know, this guy had been put in prison for breaking entering and all kinds of robberies and all kinds of things. 4 (18m 25s): And, and so the neighbor who's watching his neighbor kicked down his own door. He's like, you know, kind of cautiously say, Hey, Hey dude, what are you doing in the criminal set? I'm working from home. 3 (18m 43s): That's halfway, halfway decent. 4 (18m 50s): W what's the best time to go to the dentist? 3 (18m 55s): Why? Why two 30, two 30? Yeah. Somebody's tooth two 30, but enough of the jokes, 4 (19m 4s): Two questions. Part three. We're in first Timothy chapter one, we're looking at two questions again this week. God, what do you want me to do today? Number one and God, what do you want to do through me today? So we're just kind of asking those questions throughout the month of February two questions, throw them up there one more time. What do you want to do through with me today? What do you want me to do today? God. And what do you want to do through me today? We're just kind of asking God these questions kind of helping to align our lives with his plan. And when I talked about his planet, it really literally puts a smile on my face because his plan is really good. And I know sometimes we're worried about asking God to fulfill his plan innocent with us and through us because we're nervous about his plan, but if we can get past all of that and realize that his plans for us are really, really good. 4 (19m 57s): And when we ask God these questions, we can get excited about what he will do. Now. He's probably not going to download information and answers to us like out of the gate in the morning, but throughout the course of the day, he will show us what we're supposed to be doing and what he wants to do through us. He'll just make that clear in the course of our conversations, interactions with people, whether we're in business or in school or working from home or in our neighborhoods, whatever the case may be, God will show us with that. Let's go ahead and stand up. And we're going to continue to drill down on this. As we get through first Timothy chapter one, Lord, we love you. And we, we, we want to know what you want us to do. 4 (20m 38s): So we're camped out on this this month. And, and so I pray that it would become more clear to us. I know if we've never asked these questions before, if, if we've never had this expectation, have you before God, it's, it's it's new territory. And so I, I, I pray God that with this new territory that you'd show us Lord and that we would have eyes to see ears to hear, and then just a willingness to do, do it. Lord, a willingness to obey, to listen and obey. So Lord God, I, I pray that as we do that, that we would hit a new level in our faith walk with you. It would just become new and exciting for us, our faith journey. And some of us have been walking with the Lord for a long time. 4 (21m 20s): Some of us are brand new in the Lord. I pray that every person represented here all over this campus would just find a new excitement following you and trusting you through all the seasons and journeys of life. So Lord, as we open up your word and as we see what Paul was speaking about to Timothy, and as we look at other passages of scripture in Romans and Galatians and in Luke, I pray God that, that we would have fresh vision for our lives, fresh obedience, doing the things that you called us to do. We love you. And we trust you Lord in Jesus name, amen. You can be seated. You can be seated. What do you want me to do today? And what do you want to do through me today? 4 (22m 1s): We're going to, we've already kind of gone over the first three verses of first Timothy chapter one, but I'm going to read them just because it's just takes a second to read through them. And then we'll kind of pick things up in verse four. And like I said, we're going to try to get through all of it today by God's grace, without going too all the way to lunchtime. So that's the plan here. Here we go. First Timothy chapter one, all the verses will be up on the screen here. This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ. Jesus appointed by the command of God, our savior in Christ. Jesus who gives us hope powerful truth right there. I'm writing to Timothy. My true son in the faith. 4 (22m 41s): May God, the father and Christ Jesus, our Lord give you grace mercy and peace. Hope grace, mercy, peace. These are the things that the Lord wants us to experience in him. So we've got nothing to fear. Can we say that? Let's say that together. We've got nothing to fear. We got nothing to fear. Hope grace, mercy, peace verse three. When I left for Macedonia, I urge you to stay there in emphasis and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. Verse four, Paul said, don't let them waste their time in endless discussions of myths and spiritual pedigrees. 4 (23m 24s): These things only lead to meaningless speculations and don't help people live a life of faith in God. And so the goal of the teaching of scripture is that we might live a life of faith in God. This is the goal of the scripture from the old Testament, all the way through the new Testament that we might a life of 5 (23m 46s): Faith in God. So these endless this discussions, it seems James is based, based on verse eight, might have been about the laws of God. So there's meaningless speculations in debate about the laws of God is most likely what's going on. The law. The commandments were never meant to be the focus. What we see is that these things tend to become the focus that 10 commandments, the laws of God. They tend to be our focus. It's what we're trying to do, trying to follow, trying to accomplish. But the laws of God, the commandments were never meant to be the focus. The law was dizzy signed to demonstrate our desperate need for a savior. 5 (24m 32s): The law was to help us understand. We look at what God's expectations are in our abilities. We can never accomplish what God's expectations are. So we cry out for the mercy and the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We say, save me, Lord. The Pharisees, a Jewish shacks were known for their strict adherence to the law is if the, that might earn them some kind of favor with God and salvation. Pastor Joseph stole from moody Bible Institute in Chicago said this, he wrote in contrast to the two commands of Christ, what are the two commands of Christ? Love God and love others, right? 5 (25m 12s): So in contrast to these two commands that encompass all of the law of God. The Pharisees had developed a system of 613 laws, 613 laws. Like if you've got 613 laws to pay attention to like, you're never thinking about anything, but those 613 laws, because if I mess up, I've dishonored God. According to their thinking, there were 365 negative commands in 242 positive laws by the chime Christ. He continues by the time Christ came in, it had produced a heartless by the time Christ arrives on the scene, the 613 laws had produced a heartless cold and arrogant brand of righteousness, heartless cold and arrogant brand of righteousness as such. 5 (26m 6s): It contained at least 10 tragic flaws. And we're just going to go through these 10 tragic flaws really quick. So this is what Joseph stole said are the 10 tragic flaws of the 613 laws that the Pharisees had developed. Number one, new laws continually need to be invented for new situations. So what does it mean to honor the Sabbath day? How far can I walk and still honor the Sabbath? How, how much work can I do? And still honor the Sabbath. So new laws needed to be created constantly. Accountability to God is revealed, replaced by accountability to men. So instead of living in a relationship with God, where by I'm accountable to him for the way that I live my life now, all my accountability is with men. 5 (26m 51s): It's with people and now I'm comparing myself to them and measuring myself by their success or by their failures. It, it creates a disconnect between people and God and it makes, keeps it all external. Number three, it reduces a person's ability to 6 (27m 7s): Personally discern 5 (27m 10s): God has called us into a relationship whereby weep have the power, the ability to personally discern what he would have us to do. We've got the laws of God, love God and love others. But within that, we have a bazillion decisions to make throughout the course of the day. Lord is this the right decision? It calls us to account with God, to intimacy with God whereby we're asking him all of the time. Lord is this the right decision? Lord is this the right plan for my life? We're we're the law of Christ calls us into account to Jesus and calls us into a relationship with him. All of these 613 laws keep everything external. 5 (27m 50s): Number four, it creates a judgmental spirit. 6 (27m 53s): It creates 5 (27m 54s): A judgmental spirit. Number five, the Pharisees confused personal preference with divine law. Number six, it produces inconsistencies. Number seven. It created a false standard of righteousness. Number eight, it became a burden to the Jews. We'll talk more about that in just a little bit. Number nine, it was strict 6 (28m 15s): CLI external and 5 (28m 18s): Finally, number 10, it was rejected by Christ. It was rejected by Christ theologian. John F Wolverine wrote exactly what these endless discussions, these crazy myths, fables and genealogies spiritual pedigrees involved as not known. So we don't know exactly what they were arguing about. We have a feeling that it had something to do with the law, but we're not sure exactly they may. He, she continues. They may have had a Gnostic flavor, but we're more likely of Jewish origin. Paul wrote to Titus in Titus one 14, he said they must stop listening to Jewish myths and the commands that people who have turned away from the truth. There's going to be all kinds of distractions in the world and within the church, if we're not careful that will take our attention off of Jesus. 5 (29m 6s): It will move our attention and cause us to focus on something else. 6 (29m 9s): Calls, Wolf, ward continues, whatever their nature, they were 5 (29m 15s): Empty of any spiritual value. And that only to further speculations questions and arguing. 6 (29m 23s): There's so much 5 (29m 25s): Speculations, so much argument with and questions within the body of Christ. I find that we tend to battle amongst ourselves as the body of Christ when we should be unified around the person and the work of the Lord, Jesus Christ. I was with a couple 4 (29m 42s): From our church and this 6 (29m 43s): Couple, they write Bible 4 (29m 46s): Study curriculum that goes into jails and prisons and facilities all over the, all over the country and really all over the world. The 6 (29m 54s): Dutra is well, they were down 4 (29m 56s): In Southern California and with the jail system and they were trying to get their more books into the LA County jail system. And so the, the chaplain read through all of their curriculum and found two sentences that he disagreed with. And so, because he found two sentences in the whole curriculum that he disagreed with, he wanted to keep 6 (30m 19s): Her books, their books out 4 (30m 21s): Of the jail system, even though 99.9% of their curriculum was in, in, on par with what he believed, because he found a couple little things in 6 (30m 31s): There that were really 4 (30m 33s): Unimportant things in most people's minds, he decided I'm going to keep, keep her books out. So these effective books that have been ministering to people all over the globe are now going to be kept out because we can't figure out how to get along over unimportant 6 (30m 48s): Issues, 4 (30m 51s): Speculations questions and arguments, such speculations were to be avoided because they did not further God's plan, which has grasped and implemented, not by human imaginings, 6 (31m 1s): But by faith, he can 4 (31m 4s): Continues by contrast human speculations tend to lead off, down endless blind tunnels, which serve only to confuse and obscure God's truth. 6 (31m 14s): So whatever 4 (31m 14s): The church in emphasis was dabbling in and in discussions of myths and spiritual pedigrees, these things only led to meaningless speculations, which don't help people live a life of faith in God. And that, and that's the goal. According to verse four, the goal is that we would live a life of faith in God, man. We need to stop arguing amongst ourselves within our denominational structures about things that are so unimportant that hinder our ability to evangelize and to grow people in their most Holy faith. So what is the purpose of Paul's instruction back to first Timothy chapter one, verse five. The purpose of my instruction Paul says is that all believers would be filled, 6 (31m 58s): Would love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience and genuine faith. Remember 4 (32m 8s): The letter written to the church in Ephesus in revelation, chapter two, he said, you've got all this stuff going for you, but I have this one thing against you. You've forgotten your first love. You don't love God and you don't love others like you did at first, the first thing that the enemy wants to attack, but the world system wants to attack is our love one for another, because the Bible says that the world will know that we're God's disciples. That we're, that we're the followers of Jesus because of our love, one for another. And so we're going 5 (32m 40s): To be attacked in that area of love. And so we're going to find a Fe fight, make it easy. We're going to find a fence with people. It'll be easy to find a fence with people and not love them. It'll be easy to find a fence with God and not love God. The, our love for God and love for one another is under attack. And instead of loving God and loving you, loving others, we can become mechanical in our faith. We can make it all about religious activity, all about the law, all about external things and be distant from God in our heart. And with our love. The purpose of my instruction is that believers will be filled with love. 5 (33m 20s): Paul understood. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He, he understood the law better than most, and he understood that it lacked desperately. These things that he's talking about. Now, God got a hold of him with his great, with God's great love and set him on a new path. The purpose is love. That comes from a pure, 6 (33m 41s): Our hearts are clear conscience and genuine faith. How's your walk with Jesus in light of that verse, right there. How's 5 (33m 53s): Your connection with Jesus in light of that? 6 (33m 56s): How your love what's the condition of your heart and your conscience is your faith genuine. As 5 (34m 4s): We look at these passages of scripture, and as we look at the word of God, verse six says, but some people have missed this whole point. They missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions. And they want to be known as teachers of the law of Moses, but they don't know what they're talking about. Even though they speak 6 (34m 24s): Confidently. 5 (34m 27s): Commentator wrote certainly for the Christian. The goal of all exhortations in practical affairs is 6 (34m 33s): Love, which was in all probability conspicuously lacking in these speculative speculative reasoners 5 (34m 41s): Whose main purpose was their own 6 (34m 44s): Intellectual satisfaction, 5 (34m 48s): Where we're supposed to grow in our knowledge of God. We're supposed to grow in our knowledge of the word of God, but that growth should only cause us to love more fully and more effectively. It should cause us to serve Dow with a pure heart and a clear conscience with a genuine faith. The knowledge of God should draw us closer to him and not cause a distance, a separation. So we need to be careful that the knowledge that we're trying to accumulate does what it's meant to do. That's meant to cause us to have a genuine faith, a pure heart, a clear conscience it's it's meant to cause us to love more deeply. 5 (35m 28s): We should love people more deeply, more passionately. When we walk away from our time in the word, it should be teaching us these things about character of God and the plans of God for our life. So we talked about this last week, God, what do you want to do with me today? When he, what do you want to do through me today? Most likely it's around the topic of love. God wants to do something with you and through you in the area of love, like how can we love people more effectively better. We can do that by walking with people through the difficult seasons of their lives. Sometimes when we're, when people are going through difficulties in their life, we kind of give them their space. But I think maybe God wants us to walk with people more effectively, better by praying for them and just meeting their, their, their tangible needs. 5 (36m 15s): As people walk through difficulty because everybody walks through challenging seasons in 3 (36m 19s): Life, verse eight, 5 (36m 22s): We know that the law is good when it's used correctly. So we're not saying the law is bad. Jesus came, he fulfilled the requirements of the law. They're good. When they're used correctly. W what does that supposed to look like? Galatians three, 19 through 26 says this, then why then was the law given? He was given alongside the promise Jesus to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child, the 3 (36m 53s): Christ child, who was 5 (36m 55s): Promise God gave his law through angels to Moses. He was the mediator between God and the people. Now a mediator is helpful. If more than one party must reach an agreement, but God who is one did not use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham, 3 (37m 12s): Is there a conflict 5 (37m 13s): Then between God's law and God's promise his promises? Absolutely not. If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying. 3 (37m 24s): It's not the case. 5 (37m 26s): The scriptures declare verse 22, that we are all prisoners of sin. So we received God's promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus. 3 (37m 38s): So we don't receive 5 (37m 40s): The promise of freedom. By trying harder, we received the promise of freedom by drawing close to Jesus and allowing ourselves to be filled with the Holy spirit by constantly like constantly drawing closer to Jesus. The, the human condition always wants to keep an eye on the law. And so we're constantly focused on the things we should not be doing. Jesus has called us into an intimate relationship, a connection with him so that we're, we're, we're focused on him and filled with his presence so that we're living our lives out of that abundance out of that fulfillment out of that life, we're living out of that power. 5 (38m 21s): And the freedom just comes as a by-product just naturally comes as we keep our eyes on him. And as we keep ourselves filled with his, 3 (38m 31s): The spirits, if the law could give us new life, we 4 (38m 37s): Could be made right with God by obeying it. But the scripture is clear that we are all prisoners of sin. Verse 23 has jumped down to 23 before, 5 (38m 45s): Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us. We were placed under guard 3 (38m 50s): By the law. We were kept in 5 (38m 52s): Protective custody. So to speak until the way of faith was revealed, let me put it in another way. Verse 24, the law was our guardian until Christ came. It protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. Our hang up is that we want to be constantly made right with God, through our good actions. We want to constantly try to measure up. We can never measure up. And when we're focused on that, we're going to continue to stumble because our focus is on the wrong thing. It's like having our focus on the law, the list of do's and don'ts instead, when we're transformed by the power of God, when we're filled with the presence of the Holy spirit, and when we've got our focus on him, then freedom is a byproduct. 5 (39m 38s): We just 4 (39m 39s): Literally begin to walk in freedom, new life in Jesus Christ, 3 (39m 44s): Nice 4 (39m 47s): Verse 25. And now that the way of faith has come. We no longer need the law as our guardian for. We are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ and Christ. Jesus. Back to first of the chapter, one verse nine 3 (40m 3s): For 5 (40m 3s): Law was not intended for people who do what is right. 4 (40m 9s): It is for people who are lawless and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who considered nothing sacred and to file. What is Holy who killed their father or mother, or commit other murders, murders. The laws for people who are sexually immoral or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, 3 (40m 31s): There's liars promise breakers, or do, or who do 4 (40m 34s): Anything else that contradicts the whole teaching that comes from the glorious good news entrusted to me, by our blessed God, 5 (40m 43s): The law was designed to make people realize their sin. So it's designed to help us recognize that apart from Christ, we can't, we, we w we, we don't measure up. I can't do what God requires. I can't do it because it's beyond my capacity to do it. 3 (41m 3s): The law 5 (41m 3s): Is not the good news. We talking about the gospel, Jesus Christ is their focus, and he is the good news. And so we need to get our focus on him. And as we do that, 4 (41m 16s): We'll experience Liberty and new life in Jesus. 5 (41m 20s): Jesus rebuked the law, abiding Pharisees over and over again for their lack of true godliness. So they were constantly the law by these law, abiding Pharisees were constantly about the laws, 613 laws. It's like they did. They couldn't write enough laws to try to keep their lives in order, but Jesus rebuked them because of their lack of godliness, their lack of intimacy with him, their lack of real salvation faith in him and Luke 1137 to 46. I was reading this in my devotional, my devotion time this week. And I just wanted to share it today because it's, it's, it's really it challenged. 5 (42m 1s): Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and we're not fair. He he's, but he's, we have a Ferris ankle side of us. We can tend toward the law and tend to try to measure up by doing acts of doing the works of the law. As Jesus was speaking, one of the Pharisees invited him home for a meal. So he went in and took his place at the table. His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first performing the washing ceremony. Another law required by Jewish customs. Then the Lord said to him, you Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are filthy full of greed and wickedness. 5 (42m 46s): And then that isn't not the trap. Like we can focus so much on the outside of the cup, our ex eternal life that we neglect. What's going on internally. We can look so good on the outside. And yet internally be a mess. It's not God's design inside. You're filthy full of greed and awakeness fools. Didn't God make the inside as well as the outside. Jesus said, so clean the inside by making gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over. Just take a message. I'll get back to them. 6 (43m 27s): Thanks, Juanita. No, 5 (43m 31s): That's fine. First 42. What sorrow awaits you Pharisees for you are careful to tie the, even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. He said you should tie. Yes, but do not neglect. The more important things. So tithing is a external thing that we can do. It's often tied to our, you know, tied to our heart. We want to honor the Lord with our resources. And so we give, and then we check that box, potentially. I'm not, not never case, but potentially we check that box. 5 (44m 14s): And then we go about our business. When God wants to do more than just that bit 6 (44m 22s): In your life. 5 (44m 26s): Juanita is leaving the church. Now they don't go for a long come back. You're careful to tie the, even the tiniest part from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God, you should tie the yes, but do not neglect. The more important things he continues. What sorrow awaits you, Pharisees for you love to sit in the seat 4 (44m 46s): Seats of honor in the synagogues and receive respectful greetings. As you walk in the bar 5 (44m 51s): Marketplace. Yes. What sorrow awaits you for? You are like hidden 4 (44m 56s): Graves in a field. People walk over them without knowing the corruption they are stepping on. According to the law, walking over the grave was would cause defilement. 5 (45m 10s): So what Jesus is saying is that you are defiling people because you are spiritually dead. You're so spiritually dead. That when people encounter you, you are literally 4 (45m 21s): Defiling them. 5 (45m 23s): You're misleading them and misdirecting them. You're causing them to be unclean. They don't know you're dead. 4 (45m 31s): They don't know you're dead, but you are dead and you to file them. Nonetheless 3 (45m 37s): Teacher 4 (45m 39s): Said an experts in religious law. You have insulted us too. And what you just said, yes, said, Jesus, I know what sorrow also awaits. You experts in religious law for you, crush people with your unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden. 3 (46m 3s): People who are 4 (46m 3s): Or focused on the law, the Pharisees and people in our own midst, within the faith of Christiandom, we can be so focused on all of these external things and out of that word, judgmental of others who don't see things, the way that we see things we're critical, we're unloving, we're ungrateful. We're focused on the wrong thing. The law was never meant to be our focus. 3 (46m 31s): Good works in Christ were meant to be the focus faith in Jesus. We're meant to be. The focus. Love 4 (46m 37s): Is meant to be the focus of pure hearts is meant to be the focus, a clear conscience. 3 (46m 44s): All of these 5 (46m 45s): Things flow out of that connection that we have 4 (46m 48s): With, with God when we're intimate with him. 5 (46m 53s): When we abide with him, when we walk with him, when we allow him to direct our steps, when we ask God, what is it that you want to do with me? God, what is it that you want to do through me? What is your plan, Lord, because I want to be about your plan today and this week, God, I want to be about your plan, God, this month, I want to be about your plan and not just for the month of February, but God, for all of 2021 in moving forward, I want to be about your plan 4 (47m 22s): And God, because it's like a good plan. And it's a plan that will fill us to overflowing with just the beauty of God. The law was never meant to be our focus. So we need to get our eyes off of the law and get our eyes on Jesus. It was meant to just kind of keep us in check until the Christ child came. The law will never get us focused on what we were supposed to be doing. The grace of God will keep us focused. The grace of God will compel us to work or to ask these two questions. What do you want me to do today? Lord, how's that going? Anyway? I wonder, how's it going? I, I, I get up every morning and I'm like, okay, Lord, it's a new day. 4 (48m 3s): What do you want to do today? What do you want me to do today? What do you want to do through me today? And then, and then throughout the course of the day, I'm just listening. I'm just trying to listen, trying to pay attention and trying to do what he says to do. And it's like, it's like a new adventure every day. What is, what is God's doing? What does he want to do? 1 (48m 22s): I really appreciate the fact that you put that forward because for me it's been wonderful. All your senses. And you know, when you're in a word, the word is, it's not even like, you're just reading words, just like you can actually see it in motion and feel yourself. It's just so much more alive emotions, everything. 1 (49m 3s): And show me when I want to say it immediately. 4 (49m 10s): Okay. So those of you who are in a different venue and you can't hear what's going on, Maryland is talking about her experience. She's grateful that we have the opportunity to ponder these questions, thinking about these questions. And she said, it's just made everything come to life. The word of God, her walk with the Lord, everything is just is different and new. Is that accurate? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. There's something it taps into the re our relationship with God and just at a whole new level, it brings it front and center and, and it's really, it's really a life-giving experience. Thanks for your testimony about that. I wish I had you up here on a microphone, two more verses about the law, and then we'll leave the law alone. 4 (49m 51s): Obviously Romans three, 19 and 20. Obviously the law applies to those, to whom it was given for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world is guilty before God for no one can ever be made right with God, by doing it to the law commands by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. Paul understood God's grace in his mercy on that Damascus road experience that Paul had an act chapter nine. He understood the grace and mercy of God. He was actually persecuting the people of God as a Pharisee because he thought he was doing the will of God and misunderstood the will of 5 (50m 28s): God. When anytime you're focused on the law of God, you misunderstand the will of God. And we're focused on all of the wrong stuff. Paul said this in verse 12, I think Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. And so when we're asking God to work through us, God, what do you want to do with me today? What do you want to do through me today? We're we're asking God to, to work through us with his strength, with his wisdom, with his understanding, with his capacity, we don't understand what people are going through, but God does. And so when he asks us to do something, we're operating based on his understanding and out of faith in his strength, I think Christ our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work, he considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him. 5 (51m 10s): Even though I used to blast him the name of Christ. So maybe you're here today and you're like, I'm too bad of a person. Like I've made too many mistakes. You were never as bad as Paul . He's going to go on and tell us that he's the chief of sinners. Like you'll no matter what you've done. You've never been that bad. And yet God, because of his mercy and grace, Grace's 6 (51m 33s): Getting what we don't deserve. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. Paul got both. We all get both mercy, 5 (51m 39s): Not getting what we deserve. Grace, 6 (51m 41s): Getting what we don't deserve. Forgiveness. 5 (51m 44s): I used to blaspheme the name of Christ in my insolence. I persecuted his people, but God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. Oh, how generous and gracious 6 (51m 59s): Lord was. He filled me with the faith and love that comes from Christ. Jesus. Paul was a Pharisee. He became a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Right? What was your was, and what is your now w what is your was, and what is your now, whatever your was, was your now can be, I'm a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, because of his grace and mercy. That's the gospel, whatever your was was it's unimportant. Grace and mercy can touch your life and set you on a new path. 5 (52m 37s): Verse 15, this is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it. Christ Jesus came into the world to save center 6 (52m 44s): And I am the worst of them all. So Paul takes the prize. He's worse than all of us, worse than all y'all, but God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they too can believe in him and receive eternal life. All honor, catch this all honor and glory to God forever, because we're saved by grace through faith right now, because of our good works. 6 (53m 27s): Paul wasn't saved 4 (53m 29s): Because of all of his good works. He was saved because of the grace and mercy of God. 6 (53m 33s): God. So anytime 4 (53m 36s): We have a success in our walk with Jesus, 6 (53m 38s): All honor, and glory to God, when we, 4 (53m 43s): He experienced his mercy and his grace a new, because we've stumbled because we've tripped because we 6 (53m 49s): All in all honor and glory to God, he gets all of the honor and the glory all honor and glory, 4 (53m 58s): Paul understood that all honoring glory to God forever and ever, he is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies. He alone is God. Amen. 6 (54m 6s): And, and then the final, 4 (54m 9s): Final couple of verses here, Timothy's responsibility, Timothy. My son here are my instructions for you. Based on the prophetic words, spoken about you earlier, may they help you fight with, 6 (54m 21s): Well, in the Lord's battle, we're all called to a spiritual battle. May God's grace and mercy equip you for that battle. Has you 4 (54m 36s): Honor him with those two questions? God, what is it that you want to do with me? And what do you want to do through 6 (54m 40s): Me? We enter this battle 4 (54m 43s): And that's, this is why it's difficult for us to ask those questions. And this is why it's difficult for us to do though, do what God has asked us to do because we're in the spiritual battle where the enemy of our souls is fighting against us and trying to keep us distant from the Lord and distant from his plans. So he said clean to your faith in Christ and keep your conscience 6 (55m 3s): Clear. For some people 4 (55m 5s): Have deliberately violated their conscience. As a result, their faith has been shipped 6 (55m 10s): Brecht verse 20. Hi, 4 (55m 17s): Ennis and Alexander are two examples. People who have shipwrecked their faith, I threw them out and handed them over to Satan. So they might learn not to bless FIM God. He threw them out. So they might encounter 6 (55m 32s): The 4 (55m 33s): Enemy of their soul. So they might get so tired of blaspheming, God and rebelling against God and resisting God that they might turn and serve him. Maybe you're here today. And you've been maybe not blaspheming God, but you've been working against God. You've not been allowing God to work in your life. You've not been willing to ask those questions. God, what do you want to do with me? And what do you want to do through me? Not, you've not being willing to ask those questions because you're really living a life contrary to God outside. You look great. Externally, the cup is clean, but internally there's just junk going on. And God wants to address that. Maybe you've been trying to address the junk, but your focus has been on the junk. 4 (56m 14s): And God says, Hey, get your focus off the junk and get your focus on me and get filled with me. When you do that, deliverance will come. Freedom. Liberty will come. Victory over. Sin will come. Victory over. Addiction will come. That the right stuff will come. When we get focused on Jesus, what will you do this week? Maybe you forgot all about these questions. Maybe you're hearing these questions for the first time. What will you do this day? And this week, as you ask all those questions, will you out of the gate, like Maryland said, obey, obey, obey, will you be committed to it? 4 (56m 56s): No matter what he asks you to do, some are like, there's no way I need to hear what he's telling me, because we're afraid of what he's going to tell us to do, because we don't at the heart of the matter. Trust him. We don't believe that he's good. And we don't trust that. What he's going to tell us to do is good. We feel like it's going to be embarrassing to us. We feel like it's going to be whatever. So we don't even ask the question. Can I challenge that premise, that lack of faith, that fear can I challenge that and just say that we serve a good and faithful God, and it will be fun. 4 (57m 37s): I I'm going to make a promise to you that it will be fun. It will be stretching for us, but it will be fun at the same time. It'll be exhilarating too. For the first time. Maybe walk in that freedom. It says, you know, we've got, I'm just going to ask the question and do it no matter what the answer is without let's go ahead and stand up and bite the worship team forward. Lord, we want, we want to be resp responsive to you. Fill with you, attentive to you, led by you excited about you Lord. And so I pray that that would be the case for each of us. 4 (58m 17s): God use our time, our talent and our treasure for your glorious purposes, we submit to you, Lord God. And I pray that the result will be a renewed excitement or renewed joy about our faith Lord, a renewed, renewed vigor, or just excitement and, and strength and power in you. Jesus renewed faith for you. Confidence. God renewed, whatever it is that needs to be renewed in us. Do that. We pray help us. We ask Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship. 1 (59m 5s): . 0 (1h 10m 36s): Thank you, Lord, for saving us. Thank you for your grace and mercy toward us. Thank you Lord, for your protection over us, Lord, we pray that you'd be with us this week. You'd empower us. It fills with your Holy spirit. It helps us to walk with you. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you guys for joining the class as well. 1 (1h 11m 11s): Great week. 7 (1h 12m 2s): I don't want to be 8 (1h 31m 21s): 7 (1h 32m 7s): never gave up on me. 7 (1h 34m 4s): Never gave up on me. 7 (1h 34m 11s): 1 (1h 39m 25s): 7 (1h 40m 13s): when I'm broke and then I can be no take care necessary. 7 (1h 42m 46s): 1 (1h 56m 19s): Good morning. Welcome to harvest. Let's all stand together. 1 (1h 56m 32s): 0 (2h 10m 14s): Lord, we thank you for great mercy and forgiveness. You offer us Lord. We thank you Lord, for this gorgeous day for the protection of a place to worship. We thank you for meeting us here. We thank you for the power of the Holy spirit. Lord, we just honored you. We confess that you are the one true. Holy God. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. 0 (2h 10m 54s): Amen. What do you say? We all make friends 7 (2h 11m 11s): all right. 7 (2h 14m 18s): Good morning. Harvest church. Good morning. 2 (2h 14m 22s): Hey, my name is Jeremy. I'm one of the pastors here. I am joined by my daughter Posey. Yeah, one of these days she's going to give the announcements. Hey, we're so glad that you're here. Thanks for joining us. And I know I've seen some new faces today, so thanks for joining us here in person. And we want to just let you know that if you're new here, joining us for the first time visiting, go check in at the info center, we have a free gift for you. And we just like to be able to connect and find out how you can connect with harvest church. With that said, have you ever seen those mafia movies where there's a back room and there's people in the backroom, they got those little green hats and they're, they're counting all this change behind the scenes. 2 (2h 15m 5s): Well, I've never been to one of those rooms. Hopefully you haven't either. But that's why I referenced it is is a few weeks ago we had our lifeline baby bottle drive and we and harvest church donated so much cash that they actually had to pull extra volunteers into count all this change. So great job harvest church. Your generosity is amazing. So we're so thankful for, for the, for your y'all's generosity. Hey, we, we are still looking for a few more volunteers in a few areas. Once again, Sundays, the greeting team, once a month, one service, one service. Why do I always mix it up? 7 (2h 15m 42s): Okay. Yeah. That's that 2 (2h 15m 45s): Service one time a month. That's what we're looking for. We're also looking for folks to jump, join at the safety team and that's that they keep feet, keeping folks safe on campus and that'll include first aid training as well. We're looking for some more people to help out with the worship team and tech team. So slides, musical instruments, cameras, all that fun stuff. And so you can connect with us that way and go to the info center. Put your name down on a little email address. We'll get, we'll get back to you. Or you can go on the website. There's a whole plethora of ways to get connected. So grateful for that. So last announcement, and this is exciting. One Easter is coming RI Easter's coming April 4th. 2 (2h 16m 25s): We are going to be having our Easter service here on a campus at 10:00 AM, one service, and we're going to be taken over to the upper parking lot. We have a new stage, we've got a big TV wall going in. There's it's going to be an awesome, awesome Sunday. And yes, we are going to be doing baptisms as well. I can't guarantee the pool will be hot. It won't be cold. So maybe lukewarm somewhere in between, somewhere between. So we're so excited to be planning for that Lee, be listening for some opportunities to serve that way as well. So that's I think 4 (2h 16m 56s): Yep. Easy for helping with the announcements today. You get my five I five. Good job. Good job. Thanks guys. Welcome. How is everyone? Good. Good, good. We're in first Timothy chapter one today, I'm going to put this over here and we'll just do it the old fashioned way. First Timothy chapter one, we're going to get through all the first Timothy today. So far in three weeks, we've gone through three verses. And so we're actually going to get through all of it today. That is the plan all of first Timothy. 4 (2h 17m 37s): Welcome. But you guys did you, did you guys hear this, this story? There was this guy who was neighbors with this felon and this guy was known for, you know, breaking and entering and robbing people's houses and that sort of thing. And so his neighbor, this neighbor, this felons neighbor notices that this guy's kicking down his own door. Like the felon is kicking down his own door, not somebody else's door. And, and the neighbor said why? I knew this guy was an ex-con of a felon for breaking and entering and that sort of thing. 4 (2h 18m 17s): But I didn't know. He's kind of crazy as well. He was just kind of wondering what was going on. And so kind of cautiously. He said, Hey, Hey, what are you doing? And the guy said, I'm working from home. Pretty good. I mean, it's, it's, it's not terrible. Right? One more time. What's what's the best time of the day to go to the dentist, whatever, two 30 to two 30, two 30. I owe Jean five bucks for that second joke. It may be only worth about two 50, but I'm going to give her the five bucks anyway, anyway, so, Hey, we're continuing our conversation about these two questions. 4 (2h 19m 6s): So this is like two questions. Part three guys. Remember the questions, God, what do you want to do with me today? And God, what do you want to do through me today? Those questions are up on the screen. What do you do want to do with me? And what do you want to do through me today? I love these questions because they, they, they, when I wake up in the morning and I think about these questions, it kind of gets me focused right on Jesus. And it gives me focus on what his plans and purposes are for my day. Now, some of us may be a little fearful about asking these questions. Number one, where maybe we're not sure what God will ask us to do. So we're not going to ask the question, right? I just want to, I just want to make this promise to you that if you ask God this question, and if you do what God asks you to do, it will be fun. 4 (2h 19m 48s): It will, it will be fun. And it will be a bit exhilarating because you're going to do stuff that you wouldn't normally do. It's stuff that's outside of your comfort zone. And so it's going to be kind of a new experience for you. And this may have to do with your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends, your spouse, your family, whoever, maybe, but God will do something. And usually, usually I've found that it surround the area of just loving someone. So whether you're loving someone through a word of affirmation where you're just saying something honest and kind to someone in your world, maybe as someone that you don't even know, but it's someone that the Lord has kind of tapped you on the shoulder and said, Hey, just say something kind to this person. 4 (2h 20m 35s): Maybe it's someone in your life. Maybe it's someone you don't know, but it's going to be either a word where it's going to be an action. It's going to be something that communicates love in some way, either your love for that person or God's love for that person. So let that kind of take the mystery out of the whole exercise, the whole experience, and just, just go with me for the rest of this month and just ask yourself or ask God that question every single morning, when you wake up and then throughout the course of the day. So when you wake up and you ask God that, that those questions is probably not, you're probably not going to get an answer right away. You just not probably not, but you will have clarity as you're interacting with people. 4 (2h 21m 19s): And as you keep thinking about those questions, you're going to say, what do you want me to do today? What do you want to do through me today? And does it include this person? Does it include this person who's in front of me right now? And they just see what the Lord will do. Just see. I bet. I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised. It's going to be fun and it'd be exhilarating. And, and it, it will do something else. It'll keep you focused on Jesus all day long. And that's really what Christianity is meant to be about. I don't know about you, but I spent most of my Christian life focusing on the to-do list, what I'm supposed to do and what I'm not supposed to do instead of focusing on Jesus. 4 (2h 22m 1s): And often that's what Christianity boils down for people. It boils down to what I am supposed to do and what I'm not supposed to do. And that's where our focus lies. Instead of having our focus, just be on Jesus and being filled with the Holy spirit. And then out of that experience out of that life with Jesus being filled with the Holy spirit living life, I have just greater victory in my life. Since I figured out that that was kind of the, the, the formula or God's design, greater freedom, greater joy, greater peace, greater relationships. There's just something about making Jesus. 4 (2h 22m 41s): Your focus is, and being filled with the Holy spirit all day long, there's just something about it. Everything goes better. Relationships are better. You love people better. Your relationship with, with God is more intimate. There's just, there's something about the intimacy that is developed when you're focused on Jesus and filled with the spirit all day long. Let's take a look at first Timothy, we're going to be looking at Galatians three, Romans three, Luke 11 and a. So I'm going to do something a little bit different today. I had nine pages of notes and I appreciate them for the first service on my iPad, but I felt this morning for second service. After first service, I thought, you know, I, to, I feel like the Lord is asking me to, so this is the kind of the deal you don't get the revelation or the answers from the Lord until you are in the midst of whatever it is that you're doing. 4 (2h 23m 29s): So I felt like the Lord said, just, just open up the word and just teach you, you know what you're going to teach. You've got the outline in your head and all that sort of thing. There's plenty of quotes that I'm going to miss, but there's something that God wants to do. We just open up the scripture and allow God to speak. So we're going to be looking at all the same texts, all the same passages, but we're just going to be kind of doing it a little bit differently. So here we go. This letter is Paul. We've already kind of gone through the first three verses over the last three weeks, two, three weeks, whatever it's been. So I'm just going to reread them just for context, text sake, and then we'll jump and start really unpacking things in verse four. Does that sound good? You guys with me? All right, so everything will be up on the screen. 4 (2h 24m 10s): All of the verses will be up on the screen. Now they may not be in the order. This is going to be interesting for you on the tech team. They may not be in the order exactly that that I present. It gave them to you. So anyway, just be patient with me back there on the board and on the computer. This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ. Jesus appointed by the command of God, our savior in Christ. Jesus who gives us hope. That should be an expectation as followers of Jesus Christ. There should be a hope expectation. Like I should have this expectation that there's a divine hope connected to knowing Jesus that gives life. 4 (2h 24m 57s): This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ. Jesus appointed by the command of God, our savior and Christ. Jesus who gives us hope. I'm writing to Timothy. My true son in the faith. May God, the father and Christ Jesus. Our Lord gave you grace, mercy and peace. So four things hope. Grace, mercy, and peace, all tied to an intimate knowledge and walk with the Lord. Jesus Christ. Paul understood it. Having been a fair sissy, having been a person who understood the laws of God, but didn't understand God. And I think that's where we have a disconnect. Sometimes as followers of Jesus, we understand the laws of God, but we don't understand God. 4 (2h 25m 41s): And we'll never fully understand the person of God through the laws of God, because the laws of God were simply designed to help us to recognize our need for God. Does that make sense? So we're not going to get a full understanding of who God is by simply understanding the law, the do's and the don'ts we'll get full understanding of God. When we allow ourselves to be filled with his presence on a regular basis, Ephesians five, it's not on the screen. Ephesians five says don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life. Instead. Be filled with the Holy spirit 6 (2h 26m 12s): Instead, be filled with the Holy spirits. 4 (2h 26m 15s): First three, when I left for Macedonia, I urged you to stay there and emphasis. And we talked a lot about emphasis in the last couple of weeks and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. Don't let them waste their time in endless discussions of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations, which don't help people live a life of faith in God. What is the author talking about there? When he talks about spiritual pedigrees myths, endless discussions about these things. We're not really sure it doesn't really tell us, but if we go to verse eight, it kind of helps us. The context helps us understand what this might be. It says in verse eight and we'll come back to the rest of the verses here shortly. 4 (2h 26m 57s): But it says, we know that the law is good when used correctly. So most likely there's a misunderstanding about the use of the law. Why did God give us the law? When I say the law I'm primarily mean the 10 commandments, why did God give us the law of God? Why, why were we given a lot? Well, let's, let's look at a few verses here. Let's go to see if I can flip around in my Bible here and go to Galatians. Actually, let's go to Romans chapter four, Romans chapter three. I think the tech team can find that on the screen. This is Romans chapter three, verse 19. If you can find that it'll go up on the screen. It's just obviously the law applies to those, to 6 (2h 27m 37s): Whom it was given 4 (2h 27m 40s): For its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. The Bible says in Romans three, that all have sinned and all fall short of God's glorious standard. So the law was given so that the whole world, the entire world might realize that they're guilty before God for no one in verse 20 says for no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. Isn't that interesting. Some of us are maybe hearing this for the first time for no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful simple we are. 4 (2h 28m 21s): So the law can't make 5 (2h 28m 22s): Us Holy. Why don't we spend so much time thinking about a lot. If a law can't make us Holy, if only our holiness can only be made available to us through Christ Jesus, as he imputes his righteousness to us, as he gives us righteousness, then why are we so focused on the law? We never find freedom in Jesus. As long as we're focused on the law, let's take a look at Galatians chapter three as well. 3 (2h 28m 49s): Galatians chapter three says why then was the law given it was 5 (2h 28m 59s): Give it alongside the promise to show people their sins. So again, the law is there. So it might recognize we have a desperate need for a savior, but the law was designed to last only the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who has promised, who is that? Speaking about Jesus, right? God gave his law through angels to Moses who was the mediator between God and the people. Now a mediator is helpful. If more than one party must reach an agreement, but God who is one did not use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham, is there a conflict then between God's law and God's promise absolutely not. If the law, if the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. 5 (2h 29m 46s): But the scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin. So we receive God's promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ. So we get back to first Timothy, we're going to get into a passage. We're where we're beginning, beginning to understand what all of the arguments in foolish disagreements were about. I wish I wish as the church that we could get over our foolish disagreements, they're often so petty and so small and so unimportant. And yet they hinder a few things. They hinder real fellowship within the body of Christ. 5 (2h 30m 29s): They, they hinder our ability to evangelize the loss because if the church is fighting amongst itself, how can we effectively show the world? Jesus love proved that we're his disciples and then point people to him. Quick story. We've got a couple of our church who write Bible study curriculum, Mike and Sharon do Trump. Well, they have their Bible study books and curriculum in County, jails and prisons all over the States and all over the nation. And in other parts of the world, they, their, their books have been translated into other languages. And it's gone out to nations around the world and it's helpful. 5 (2h 31m 11s): Bible study tools and information to help people follow Jesus. Well, they had a meeting with Southern California jail system, a chaplain down there, and the chaplain loved, loved 3 (2h 31m 28s): The books, but there were 5 (2h 31m 30s): Two sentences within the book that this chaplain didn't like. And so he said, your books will not be in the County jail system. Did that crazy. Why don't we have to fight amongst ourselves as the church. We're not talking about essential stuff, like things under salvation. We're talking about 3 (2h 31m 51s): Minor silly 5 (2h 31m 54s): Theological and doctrinal differences. That is not going to keep anybody out of heaven, but will keep the church from being unified. I love that dark pastors in our churches are the pastors of our churches in the area, get together once a month for lunch in prayer and fellowship. And, and so we get together the first Wednesday of every month, just for lunch and fellowship and prayer. And, and to break down those walls of division that so easily want to go up in our midst. 3 (2h 32m 25s): And so continue to 5 (2h 32m 27s): Pray because I believe as the pastors go, so the churches will go. So pray that as the pastors gather that we will continue to find unity and not get focused on 4 (2h 32m 37s): The unimportant things. 3 (2h 32m 42s): Oh, really 5 (2h 32m 42s): Reread verse three in verse Timothy one. When I left from Macedonia, I urged you to stay there at emphasis and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. Don't let them waste their time and endless discussions of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations, which don't help people live a life of faith in God. That is the goal that the teaching of scripture from the old and the new Testament is to help people to live a life of faith in God. And so when we read the scripture, that should be a major takeaway for us. It should, this scripture should build us up in our most Holy faith. The Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please God. 5 (2h 33m 24s): And so God is calling us into a place of faith. And so in the arenas of our life, we need to be operating as people of faith. And I wonder how often we're actually operating as people of faith doing, answering the, you know, asking God those questions, God, what is it that you want to do with me and God? What is it that you want to do 3 (2h 33m 43s): Through me believing that bye-bye 5 (2h 33m 45s): Faith, God will speak to us. He'll direct us. She'll give us an assignment and by faith in him, and as he gives us the power and the grace, we're able to walk it out and to see people's lives touched and see people ministered to in our sphere of influence. I just wonder how much we're actually living lives of faith in God. Paul said in verse five, the purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love. Go ahead and underline that love if you got your, with you, me, Phil would love that comes from a pure heart. I'm an underline that a clear conscience, I'm an underlying that and a genuine faith. 5 (2h 34m 28s): The purpose of my instruction Paul says is that all believers will be filled with love. That comes from a pure heart, that clear conscience and genuine faith, but some people have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions. They want to be known as teachers of the law of Moses, but they don't know what they're talking about. Even though they speak so confidently, this is God's the purpose of God speaking and, and inspiring the scripture so that we might listen to it and be taught about it and read it for ourselves that we would be well, let's just go from the top that we would give experience hope in verse one, grace, mercy, and peace in verse two, that's in verse five, we would see the love that comes from a pure heart at clear conscience, that genuine faith. 5 (2h 35m 29s): These are the purposes of the scripture. Now it's important that we, I just broke the pen. It's, it's important that we grow in knowledge and understanding of God, but not for the wrong reason so that we feel better about our understanding, about who God is. It's okay to feel like you're growing and like, things are good, but it should drive us somewhere. Knowledge of God, understanding of doctrine and theology. It should take us somewhere. And Paul's saying the purpose of my instruction, and this is true for not only Paul's writings, but all of the texts within the scripture. The purpose is that all believers will be filled with love. I talked about last week, the church in Ephesus in revelation chapter two, John on the Island wrote this letter to the seven churches in the first church that he wrote a letter to was to the church at emphasis. 5 (2h 36m 22s): Timothy is pastoring the church in emphasis. And so that's why we talk about emphasis. And so we're in first Timothy he's pastoring the church in Ephesus. The letter that was written to the church in emphasis was full of affirmation. But God said this, I have this one thing against you. You don't love each other. And you don't love me like you did at first, you've lost your first love. So he said, if you don't repent of losing your first love, I'm actually going to remove your lampstand from you. In other words, you won't be recognized as a church any longer. If you don't figure out how to love one another and figure out how to love me, that's what God is saying. Isn't that crazy? 5 (2h 37m 3s): It's a big deal. And so the, the emphasis of the scripture and the reason that we open up the scripture and the reason that we teach scriptures, we might have these things, this hope, this grace, mercy, and peace, but then ultimately this love that comes from a 3 (2h 37m 19s): Pure heart, a heart that just wants to honor the Lord. That just wants to give back 5 (2h 37m 29s): Laurie to God and do what he's asked us to do a pure heart with a clear conscience. 3 (2h 37m 34s): That means we're not messing 5 (2h 37m 35s): Around with our faith. We're not messing around with, in dabbling, in things of the world, cluttering our conscience, but we've got a clear conscience because though we're not perfect by God's grace, our effort and our desire is to honor him and to please him and so such that our conscience as clear, or maybe we've stumbled, but we've said, Lord, I've stumbled. And I clean. I keep a short account of my stumbling and I say, Lord, I've, I've stumbled. I've made this mistakes. I didn't want to think this. I didn't want to say that. I didn't want to do that. Whatever it is, we keep a short account with the Lord so that our conscience is clear, 3 (2h 38m 12s): Clear that there's 5 (2h 38m 15s): You and faith, genuine faith. But some people have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions. They want to be known as the teachers of law of Moses, but they don't know what they're talking about. Even though they speak so confidently per eight says, we know that the law is good. When used correctly for the law was not intended for people who do what is right. 3 (2h 38m 42s): It is for people who are lawless. Yeah. 5 (2h 38m 45s): And rebellious. Again, the law was given so that people would recognize their desperate need for the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Like Lord, I see the expectations that I'll never measure up. Lord. I want to honor you, but I'm never going to do it perfectly. So God, I need your grace and your mercy for law was not given intended for people who do what is right. And is for people who are lawless and rebellious or ungodly and sinful who consider nothing sacred and to file. What is Holy who killed their father and mother or commit other murders? The law is for people who are sexually immoral or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, 3 (2h 39m 22s): Liars promise 5 (2h 39m 24s): Breakers, or do who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teachings that come from the glorious good news and trusted to me 3 (2h 39m 33s): By our blessed God, who's 5 (2h 39m 37s): Supposed to be the focus of the good news. 3 (2h 39m 39s): Jesus, right? Jesus is the gospel. And yet 5 (2h 39m 44s): Spend so much of our time focused on the things that we're not supposed to be doing. Beating ourselves up over our constant failures, where we fall short, doing what God has asked us to do. I have never experienced victory in my life while I was focused on my failures. Never, just never. It never happened for years. I live like that for years. I was always trying to check the box, do my very best, do the next best thing, all of, sort of thing. But it wasn't until I just decided I'm just going to keep my eyes on Jesus. You know what? When I decided to put my eyes on Jesus, I didn't want us to do anything else, but honor him. I just, I, my focus change. 3 (2h 40m 26s): My flesh 5 (2h 40m 28s): Came under the control of the Holy spirit, not perfectly, but the level of victory and the level of freedom in Christ that has been experienced and that I've seen in others who do the same thing is unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Often we're spending all of our time just focused on, Oh, I know I shouldn't do this. 3 (2h 40m 48s): I, 5 (2h 40m 50s): So I ride mountain bikes from time to time. And anytime I'm on a, like a, a single track and there's a cliff like a drop off, 3 (2h 41m 4s): I have to 5 (2h 41m 4s): Keep my eye on the single track. Because as soon as I put my eye on the drop-off, that's where I'm going immediately. I immediately begin to flirt with danger. I'm not even thinking about it, but that's where my, my attention is. So that's where I'm going. The same is true with us. As we follow Jesus, as long as Jesus is our focus, we will keep moving in the right direction and we will be protected from those drop-offs those pitfalls that we so often fall into G make Jesus, the focus of your faith and not all of the do's. And don'ts make Jesus the focus of your faith and you will experience great victory. 5 (2h 41m 48s): Great joy, great peace, clear conscience, pure heart. Sure. True faith. All of these things will be the outcome. The result of it. 3 (2h 41m 58s): Paul 5 (2h 41m 59s): Stood having, coming, having come from the background that he came from, he understood the grace and mercy of God. He, he understood that in his own strength. He could not measure it, but I think Christ Jesus, our Lord verse 12 first Timothy chapter one verse 12 says I think Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. 3 (2h 42m 21s): Hmm. 5 (2h 42m 23s): I say this all the time. Everything that God asks us to do requires the supernatural strength at work 3 (2h 42m 27s): Within us. We can't do it without him. 5 (2h 42m 30s): Paul understood that he considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him. Even though I used to blast meme, the name of Christ in my insolence, I persecuted his people, but God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance. 3 (2h 42m 48s): Oh, how 5 (2h 42m 49s): Generous and gracious. Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was. He filled me with the faith and love that comes from Christ. Jesus. This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the worst of them all, but God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use 4 (2h 43m 12s): Me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they too can believe in him and receive eternal life, all honor, and glory to God forever and ever. He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies. He alone is God, a man. So in Paul's insolence and his anger and his, and his confusion, he persecuted the church of the living. God, the followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He was persecuting until one day. And on that day in acts chapter nine, God got ahold of him. 4 (2h 43m 54s): And so he used to be a persecutor of the church, a Pharisee focused on the law. And now he is a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ filled with the Holy spirit, empowered by God to do the things that God had called him to do. So maybe you look at your background, maybe you're looking at your background, thinking about your past mistakes, pay thinking about your past life. And you, you can say, I used to be, but now I am and you can declare light Paul and say, now I'm a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I'm filled with the Holy spirit. I'm a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So now my life will be different. I used to live this way and think this way, but now in Jesus, he has changed my life. 4 (2h 44m 39s): He has changed my identity and he's given me a new purpose. So now I can get up in the morning and say, Lord, what is it that you want to do with me? What is it that you want to do through me? Because my focus is all you, Jesus, I'm filled with your spirit and I'm focused on you because I know that you're, you've got the words of life. You're the path of life. You are the way of life. So Jesus, I want to do what you've called me to do. And so out of that, understanding and excitement about who Jesus is and out of the abundance of your faith, you're able to do the things that God has called you to do in his strength. Paul, the great apostle Paul, he wrote most of the new Testament. He understood that his strength to do what God had called him to do 9 (2h 45m 18s): Comes from God. So don't 4 (2h 45m 21s): Trying to do this stuff in your own strength. And don't try to 9 (2h 45m 26s): Get through so much. God's given us a brand to use, but often we'll will eliminate most of what God asks us to do, because it doesn't make sense to us. It just doesn't make sense. Or it's going to take us out of our comfort zone. I shared the story a few different times, but I'll share it again just because it it's it's fits shared last week. So my wife and I were coming back from vacation with our clan and we were stopped in Kettleman city to have to get some gas and have some lunch. So I'm at the gas station I'm filling up. And this is about year or two ago, year and a half ago. 9 (2h 46m 8s): Something like, and I see this black lady filling up in the Island next to me. And I feel like Lord says, go put your arm around her and tell her that God loves her. So I could have said, that's ridiculous. She's I, I'm not going to put my arm around a perfect stranger. It's re it's ridiculous. God, I'm not going to, I'm not going to do that. It's I'm just not going to do it so I could have done that. And that's often what we'll do. Like, Lord, I'm not going to do that. Right. But it said, I decided I was just gonna try it out. 9 (2h 46m 50s): And so I put my arm around her. I walked over to my arm Reiner and she's kinda like, 8 (2h 46m 54s): Okay, 9 (2h 46m 57s): I'm obviously a white guy putting my arm around a black female. And I just said, Hey, I just want you to know that God loves you and everything melted or counting has changed. 8 (2h 47m 12s): I don't, I 9 (2h 47m 13s): Don't know what that did for her or what it did for me in the moment. I doesn't even matter, but I know something happened. I know something happened. 8 (2h 47m 26s): What 9 (2h 47m 26s): Is it that God is trying to get you to do? That's going to get you out of your shell and get you focused on his plans and his purpose for your life. So don't talk yourself out of it. Just do it. Can I challenge you to do that? Just, just do it and let the chips fall where they may. It's okay to look a little foolish for God. And honestly, you probably won't even look foolish, but you just feel like you're going to look foolish, but it's okay. If we're going to be foolish for anyone, I'd rather be foolish for God and just let him get the glory and all the take all the credit for that. It's Timothy, my son, verse 18. 9 (2h 48m 11s): As we wrap up these, this chapter, here are my instructions for you. Based on the prophetic word, spoken about you earlier, may they help you fight well in the Lord's battle? So we're in a spiritual battle. The Bible says we don't wrestle against flesh and blood enemies, but we wrestle against the principalities of darkness. So we're in a spiritual battle. There's as we talked last week, I think it was last week about Ephesus. They got the temple of Artemis, which is a, of a goddess that they worshiped in the town, the people who heard the gospel repented of their, their sins and burned up their witchcraft books. 9 (2h 48m 55s): Speaking about the darkness in the world that we, in which we live. So there's this, there's the spirit, the principalities of darkness, and then the principalities of lights. And so we're in a spiritual battle. So if we don't believe we're in a spiritual battle, we'll never effectively serve Jesus because none of it, none of it will make sense to us. And we're just going to, it's just not going to sink in that we're followers of God and that were in this spiritual army are fighting the Lord's battles claim to your faith in Christ and keep your conscience clear. Paul told Timothy for some people have deliberately violated. Their conscience is as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked and he mentions a couple of guys, a couple people, how many us and Alexander are two examples. 9 (2h 49m 44s): I threw them out and handed them over to Satan so they might not learn. So they might learn not to blast FIM God. So Paul threw them out so that they might learn not to blaspheme God. He wanted them to grow in their faith, quit playing games with their faith, quit blaspheming God and turn and serve God wholeheartedly. The purpose of Paul's booting, this, this, these couple of guys out is that he wanted, he wanted them to be reconciled to God while they were still time. 9 (2h 50m 25s): Scott's desire that we reconciled it to him. Maybe you maybe you've been distant from the Lord. Maybe on the outside, everything looks good. Maybe on the outside, everything looks good. And Mark Luke chapter 11, let's just take a look at Luke chapter 11 because Jesus rebukes the Pharisees because everything looked good on the outside, but everything else on the inside was a mess. 8 (2h 50m 51s): Luke 9 (2h 50m 51s): Chapter 11, verse 37, as Jesus was speaking, one of the various seas invited him home for a meal. So he went in and took his place at the table. His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first performing his hand, washing ceremonies required by the Jewish customs. So the Pharisees had all kinds of laws that Jesus gave to. He said, love God and love others. Right? The Pharisees had 613 laws, 613 laws. One obviously had to do with hand-washing as part of their Jewish custom. 9 (2h 51m 35s): Then the Lord said to them, to him, you Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside your filthy, He doesn't make mince. A lot of words. He said inside you're filthy full of greed and wickedness fools. Didn't God make the inside as well as the outside. So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor and you will be clean all 8 (2h 51m 59s): Over 9 (2h 52m 2s): Verse 42. What sorrow awaits you Pharisees for are careful to tie even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore 3 (2h 52m 12s): Nor justice and the love of God. It sounds like that church had emphasis. Yes. So 9 (2h 52m 20s): Jesus rebukes them. He said, you should tie the ass, but do not neglect. The more important things. 3 (2h 52m 27s): What sorrow 9 (2h 52m 28s): Awaits you Pharisees for you love to sit in the seats of honor and the synagogues and receive respectful greetings. As you walk in the marketplaces. Yes. What sorrow awaits you for? You are like hidden graves in a field. People walk over them without knowing the corruption they are stepping on. And the law says that if you come in contact with a dead body or a defiled dead person, you are defiled. Jesus is saying you're so spiritually dead. That you're defiling. Everybody that you come into contact with you are spiritually dead. And so that defilement is touching everybody that you come in contact with and he's rebuking them for that teacher said an expert in religious law, you have insulted us to in what you, what you just said. 9 (2h 53m 10s): Yes, Jesus said, yes, said, Jesus, 3 (2h 53m 14s): What 9 (2h 53m 14s): Sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law. Jesus is not trying to rebuke them for the sake of rebuking them alone. He wants to get their attention. So they might come to faith in the person and work of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He's. He's wanting them to understand that he is the Messiah that he's come to bring life and life abundantly. And so he's rebuking their lifestyle. He's rebuking their belief system and the way that they go about their walk with God, their faith in God, what sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law for you, crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden 3 (2h 53m 52s): On 9 (2h 53m 54s): Terrible religious demands, 613, 613 laws. Listen, if there were 613 laws that we had to figure out and obey, that's all we would be focused 3 (2h 54m 5s): Based on that's all we be focused on. So like 9 (2h 54m 9s): I just mess up on 421. I mean, what's going on. Instead Jesus gives two and all the laws in the prophet, hang on. These two things. Love 3 (2h 54m 17s): God and love your neighbor. Isn't that awesome. So I, 9 (2h 54m 23s): I promise you that whatever God asks you to do, it has something to do with loving God or loving your neighbor. Whatever he's asking you to do, Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees because they're not only misled themselves, but they're misleading others. They're heaping these huge burdens and not lifting a finger to help 3 (2h 54m 40s): Them to help them serve Jesus. What is it that God wants you to do? What does he want to do through you? Don't like 9 (2h 54m 52s): Another week go by or even another day. Go by without resolving that question, getting that question asked and then walking it out day by day. I think he's going to give you something probably most days to do most days he'll give you, even if it's just a small thing, it'll give you something to do with that. Let's go ahead and stand up. Let's invite the worship team forward and we will pray and sing some more songs. Worship, Jesus, Lord. We stand in awe and I, and in honor of you, we thank you that your word is sharper than a two-edged sword. It pierces us and it speaks to us and it helps us. 9 (2h 55m 36s): And sometimes it rebukes us so that we might get on the right track. So Lord, whatever it is that you want to do with us, I pray that we would be allowing that and walking in that with great joy. So thank you for this time, Lord, we worship you as we sing these next few songs. Be glorified. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship. 1 (2h 56m 30s): 0 (3h 7m 38s): We thank you that you've given us hope. We thank you for the power of your Holy spirit in our lives. We praise you are together, or we pray for whatever's going on out there in the town. Three sirens go by and we have no idea, but we know that you know all about it. Lord, we pray for those people. We pray that you had that. You'd be with them. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Two Questions - Part 2

0 (1s): Hello. Good morning. I'm Tam. I'm one of the worship leaders here at Harvest Church. And I just want to invite you guys all to Harvest this morning. If you're here on campus or in the law for the parsonage outside or turning in online from anywhere, a welcome this morning, and we're just going to invite you to stand. We're going to worship the Lord this morning, and I was open with a word of prayer, dear God, we come to you this morning and we just stop and become aware of you wherever we're at in our world's going. We just, we just stopped right now and acknowledge that you are your God and we worship you. 0 (45s): And Lord, I just ask you to come and meet each and every person here as they, as they direct their gaze to you, God, would you just come in and just rush in and impact lives this morning through the word shift through the message. Lord, would this just be a huge just offering to you and for your glory in Jesus name? 1 (1m 36s): . 1 (13m 35s): You are so good. 0 (13m 37s): Thank you, Lord. Even when circumstances may not look good, you never changed. You know, 1 (13m 44s): You love us without feeling. 0 (13m 49s): I just feel like I'm supposed to share this little story of what happened yesterday. As we worship, I was driving home and one of my wheels, when it cracks off a car, I'm still a little shaky today. Honestly, it was a scary experience and I'm thankful to be okay. And the Lord was watching over me. And maybe some of you that's your life right now. Like you feel like the wheels are just falling off. Maybe it's hard for you to sing even this chorus. That he's good. Cause right now you're not seeing his goodness new and he's maybe there's bills to pay or a car to fix without the money in the bank account. 0 (14m 33s): And that could be your reality. And that's my reality today. He's still good. As soon as you have to preach to our own souls and we have to remind the devil that he's still good and he's always good and that he never lets us down. And if it's not good, it's not over yet. Amen. So we're going to sing this song in faith this morning. Let faith arise in your heart. No matter what you're facing today. Even if the wheels have literally come off of your leg, he is still good at and holds you steady. And he guards you and he protects you and he provides for you. So we're not going to fear. We're not going to live in that place. We're going to choose to trust and thank you, Lord. 1 (15m 14s): yeah, just lift up your praise and prayers can just be acquired. 1 (18m 47s): Thanks this morning. Whatever's in your heart. If you want to speak thank you for your presence here. Strengthening our hearts deep down with our souls, giving a strength to face the week ahead. 1 (19m 32s): Thank you for your presence here in this place. Here in this family, there would be no one who would leave today. Jesus and Mary, how much care for every circumstance we rested. Let's just share some of that love of encouragement with each other this morning. Would you say hello to some folks around you? And we'll be back in just a few minutes in a few moments with some announcements. 2 (20m 12s): All right. Good morning. Church good morning. Harvest Church Hey, my name's Jeremy. I'm one of the pastors here and I just want to say a big, welcome and happy Valentine's day. And no matter what relationship status you're in, you have a, whether you received a card this morning, whether you're hoping to receive a card or whether you're not expecting to receive a card, we hope that you feel welcomed and loved here at Harvest Church. And ultimately we hope you feel the love of God this morning. So happy Valentine's day. Hey, just a few quick announcements. Men get ready. Next month, we are kicking off the M six community gatherings. They are returning to thousand Hills, so that, so Mark your calendars for March 15th, there'll be six, 6:00 PM at a thousand Hills ranch. 2 (20m 58s): And once again for, if you haven't been there like myself, I've only heard of the good things. There's a free meal, a worship testimonies and all around great time for the men of God. So Mark your calendars, March 15th, and then we're still looking for a few more volunteers, a couple of the needs that we have are the greeting team. So serving one Sunday, a month during one service. So kind of a low entry point like once one Sunday, a month, one service. So that's what we're looking for. And as well as the safety team to serve one Sunday, a month to help out, keep, just keep folks safe on campus. We have AED machine, first date, all that stuff. 2 (21m 38s): That's all part of the safety team. So no, that those volunteer opportunities are there for you guys. And I think that's all I got. That's it. Totally easy peasy. 3 (21m 49s): Thank you very much. Did you do anything fun for your wife this morning? Or am I putting you on the spot? You got her car. What's your tradition though? What did you, what do you, what's your tradition for? Valentine's day. Get a date night tonight. Date night. Okay, good. She's a Florida. Oh, so how do you, what do you do with that? 2 (22m 10s): Well, so, so what I do with that, I, I, I buy her flowers at trader Joe's and then she gets to decorate 3 (22m 17s): As if I, if I start putting things, it just does. Okay. 2 (22m 20s): The future, my daughters are turning out to be, they have, they're just, 3 (22m 24s): They watch their moments. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe in the future, I'll have to start playing her book here. So what's her love language, you know, her love language is words. So words of affirmation, the card, the card 2 (22m 35s): Gifts. It just, it doesn't, it's not as much. 3 (22m 38s): Yeah. It doesn't hitters as much as words, words. And what's your love language gifts. So gifts are good for you. Yeah. Meets you. I'm a gifts guy as well. Yeah. Yeah. What's your tradition. Well, we typically will set a spending limit and so that she doesn't out by me or I don't out by her. And, but this year we decided to just go have dinner and, and forego the cards, forego everything. So we just, we went to dinner to Los Olivos on Friday night to what's it called? Flatbread. 2 (23m 13s): And what's it? Los Alamos. 3 (23m 16s): Los Alamos. Sorry. Yeah. So we had he beat the crowds, right? Yes we did. It was cold outside. We bundled up and yeah, it was very cold. So anyway, so we had, that was our tradition. So when we woke up this morning, we had zero expectation for cards or anything like that. So my wife did get me some, an ice cream sandwich, which was really amazing. Ate that Friday night. Okay. Yeah. I hate that. Right. So anyway, that's the tradition. Cool. Thanks for sharing. Yeah, that was a little impromptu there. 4 (23m 48s): Happy Valentine's day 5 (23m 51s): Forks disappointed at Valentine's day because they just wanted to spoon. 4 (24m 1s): Okay. 5 (24m 2s): Jolene said I'm getting known for my corny jokes. So I've got one more for 4 (24m 5s): You. 5 (24m 8s): Why did the, why did the skeleton break up with her boyfriend right before Valentine's day? Her heart just wasn't in it. 4 (24m 19s): Corny 5 (24m 19s): Jokes. Right. They just kind of get us laughing a little bit. I don't know what they're for, but 4 (24m 27s): Okay. 5 (24m 27s): Welcome sermon title. Two Questions Continued what are we going to stand up and pray as you stand up, we're going to be in first Timothy chapter one, we're going to be in acts chapter 18, 17, 18, 19, something like that. And then we're going to be in revelation chapter two. So we're going to be kind of bouncing around a little bit. So if you don't have a Bible, make sure you grab one. Most of the, the, most of the words will be up on the screen today. So it will be up there. So anyway, let's pray. And then we'll just see what the Lord does today. Lord, we just invite your presence. We invite your presence to minister, to us, to speak to us, to be, to be here with us. Lord, we want to be present with you and with one another, meaning that we want to listen to you, and we want to be aware of what's going on around us, Lord God. 5 (25m 10s): And we want to be involved in what the spirit wants to do today. So we just humble ourselves. We avail ourselves to you Lord and pray that you just, just fill us with the joy of the Lord and the peace of God and the grace of God that you would wash over us. And even a sh yeah, even as Sherilyn was talking about, you know, the wheels coming off of our lives at times, Lord, we know that you are faithful even in those moments, especially in those moments. And so we, we just want to say, thank you for your faithfulness. God, God was so overwhelming that all the billions of people on the planet, you, you care about the one, the individual, each of us Lord. We're so humbled by that. And so grateful for that Lord. 5 (25m 50s): And so I pray that each person would realize that they matter to you, that each of us would realize that in the, with all the people in the world, that we matter to you and the people of this church in this community, in this, everybody in the world, we matter to you Lord. So I pray that you would download it just truth to our hearts and minds speak something that we need to hear. We pray Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. You can be seated. Two Questions, Continued, there's actually three weeks ago that I challenged us with a couple of questions and it was kind of a spontaneous, I hadn't even planned on it, but there seems to be a theme kind of around it. 5 (26m 31s): And so the Two Questions number one, we'll throw them up on the board. Number one. What do you want to do? What do you want me to do today? Was that worded, right? What do you want me to do today? That's right. Okay. What do you want me to do today? So you wake up in the morning, I've been challenging. It asked this question and you're asking it to God, God, what do you want me to do today? And then the second question is, what do you want to do through me today? And so the hope is that as we think about these questions, that we fixed our mind on Christ, that we get our attention on him, that we begin to think about him out of the gate, so that whatever's going on, we can focus in and say, okay, Lord, what, what is it that you want to do with me today? And what do you want to do through me today? So in this job that I have, or at school where I attend in these relationships, in these challenging situations, even when the wheel comes off, Lord, what do you want? 5 (27m 23s): What's this all about, Lord. It kind of just reorients our mind and our hearts and our thinking toward God, Lord, what do you want to do? And I've been trying to do that and this whole week, and I've been, I'm trying really trying to do it. And I challenged us to do this this whole month, all, all of February. So make it kind of the theme of our whole month. God, what do you want to do? What do you want to do through me? And with me, what's, what's your plan for my life. 3 (27m 49s): We did a Memorial service yesterday for my, my sister-in-law's father. And it was, it was just a tough day, a tough day. And it was a tough day, but I, you know, w what was cool is I got to see all kinds of friends from like junior high school, really, really cool stuff. And so I, I see a buddy of mine, who's, we've known for 40 years, and haven't seen him since our ten-year high school reunion. So it's been like, I don't know, twenty-five years or so, what do you do? The math it's rough, rough 5 (28m 24s): Numbers. And his name 3 (28m 27s): Is Melvin. He's a black man. And, and I saw him in my, my whole, I just lit up. I just knew I had to go hug on that guy and just tell him I miss him. And I love him. And, and I saw him and he saw me coming. He's like Steve, 5 (28m 43s): And we got a chance just to talk and 3 (28m 46s): Connect. And I haven't, I literally haven't talked to him for probably 25 years or so. And it was just a sweet, sweet time and got to meet a couple of other people, or see a couple of other people that I haven't seen since high school. And it was just a sweet time to just love on people and with no, no agenda, but I just, I just knew my job. There was just a love on love on those guys and met a guy's wife, never met her before, and it was just really sweet. What does God want to do with us in those moments 5 (29m 21s): God wants to do through us in those moments? 3 (29m 24s): I have no idea. And I'll probably never know this side of having what kind of interrupt, what that interaction meant to those people. I know what I meant to me. I know that it filled me up in so many ways. I was recounting it with a friend of mine this morning, and I just, I got weepy. I, there were some, there's something powerful connecting with people that you love and haven't seen for a long time. There was just, it was, it was wonderful. It was wonderful. I, I just enjoyed it. I, 6 (29m 52s): I don't know what 3 (29m 53s): God's going to do with you, but I know he wants to do something with you and we can't put them in a box and say, well, it's going to be this. I know though that it'll have something to do with loving people. That's just what God's all about when he calls us to be engaged with people. And he calls for the it's for the purpose of loving them in a deep and profound ways. As I thought about that kind of topic of love recently, and I thought, 6 (30m 23s): How can I show love more authentically, more, just more powerfully to people. I thought 3 (30m 32s): I got this bit of revelation. I, I sense that if I just do the least selfish thing in that relationship, that that's going to be loving toward them, do the least selfish thing. So I was home a couple of days ago and I was tired. I didn't feel like doing anything, any of that. I didn't want to do any of the chores, but I knew if I didn't do them, my wife was going to come home and she was going to have to do them because it's just the way it is. You know, you've got animals to feed and you got things to clean up and that sort of thing. 6 (30m 58s): So, so I did all of this stuff that I do 3 (31m 2s): Want to do. And it was just, I just thought, this is, 6 (31m 8s): This is, this is, 3 (31m 10s): I mean, it was like fresh revelation. The rest of you were probably like, Dodd, Nope, no kidding. This is, don't do the unselfish thing and you're going to be demonstrating love, but it didn't occur to me how powerful that was and how important that was. And I thought, you know, in our relationships, if we would just do the least selfish thing in regards to whoever it is that we know and are connected to the love of that in that relationship, which is blossom. Part of my love language is gifts, but also acts of service. So I know that when, when my wife does something from me or when somebody else does something for me, it just really makes me feel loved. So I, I know there's, I say that to say there's a lot of ways to show a love. And so maybe the least selfish thing is just to speak a word of affirmation to the person that you're in relationship with. 3 (31m 55s): Just speak a word of affirmations. 6 (31m 57s): I, I appreciate you. 3 (31m 60s): Th th that's, that's a huge statement. I appreciate you. It's actually maybe more powerful than the words I love you because we hear that all the time. Like, you know, we love our steak and we love our dog and we love, you know, our wives and kids and that sort of thing. So, but when we go beyond that and, and articulate our articulate, why we love it, 6 (32m 20s): I appreciate you. 3 (32m 24s): What are some other words that we can say let's just be spontaneous? What would you, what might you say that communicates love to your 6 (32m 30s): Loved one spouse friend? I cherish you very much. Ah, thank you. I thank God for you. I'm what, I'm 3 (32m 40s): Glad you're around. That's good stuff. 6 (32m 42s): What else? A couple more. I appreciate what was the last one? I appreciate you. And then you inspire. Yeah. Yeah. Good 3 (32m 53s): Stuff. Good stuff. I think if we put into practice those, those things, when you use those words and then do the least selfish thing, I think what we'll see is we'll see relationships 6 (33m 5s): Blossom between friends, 3 (33m 8s): Siblings, people that we work with, spouses, whatever the relationship is. Man. I think the thing that God wants to do with us and innocent through us is I think he wants us to love people more effectively. So in the midst of all of the crazy, 6 (33m 30s): The vision that's going on in our world, I, I honestly didn't know 3 (33m 38s): How my friend Melvin would respond to 6 (33m 40s): Me. I just didn't know. I think that's why I'm emotional 3 (33m 45s): About it. He's a black man. I'm a white 6 (33m 47s): Man. And there was just something powerful. 3 (33m 56s): It reminded me of about a year ago, I was coming back from vacation. We were in Kellerman 6 (34m 2s): The city and it was a hot time 3 (34m 9s): Culture in our country with race issues and that sort of thing. And I remember I was filling up my gas tank and I saw this black woman filling up her gas tank and the next 6 (34m 19s): Island over aisle over. And 3 (34m 22s): It felt like the Lord said, just go give her a hug and tell her that you tell her that I love her. Tell her that God loves her 6 (34m 27s): And Mara. 3 (34m 30s): So I shared this story before, but I walked over and I just put my arm around her and that's kind of freakish, right? Who's this strange white man putting, putting his arm around me. And I just said, you know, I just, I just want you to know that God loves you. And man, it just melted all kinds of tension. It just melted it. It was just this beautiful exchange. And, and then I just walked away. And then when we drove away, she must've shared with her kids or the kids saw it or something like that. Cause we drove away. We were all waving. Everybody was, it was just like this beautiful, this beautiful thing And where that needs to happen in our lives with people that we're at odds with. 3 (35m 10s): It doesn't have to be a race thing, black, white, Brown, white, that doesn't have to be that it's w w where does that need to happen in our relationship? 6 (35m 20s): What does God might? What might God want to do as we just choose to love people in spite of differences, heard this story, or the sermon the other day, and the pastor, the preacher made this statement. He said, God loves homosexuals. Ah, that is so good. He loves people from every walk of life. 3 (35m 53s): And we forget, we thank God, just mad at people because of their, 6 (35m 57s): But he loves people. He loves people. 3 (36m 1s): And if we can figure out how to love people in spite of their weaknesses, failures, whatever, cause we all have them. 6 (36m 8s): If, if we can do that, it's powerful. It's powerful. I sold building materials for a number of years before I got into the ministry. And 3 (36m 25s): One of my primary, a couple of my primary builders were homosexual, man. And, and I just love those guys. Yeah, Yeah. Just build relationship with them and loved on them and told them about Jesus. And they didn't like that part sometimes, but sometimes they did. It was just, it was an interesting mixed bag. 6 (36m 45s): And this one, 3 (36m 48s): One guy because of my position now and because of who I am, and I'm a Christian and, and pastor. And so he doesn't know what to do with me, but every time I see him, I saw him driving in the village the other day, I would just wave at him. I just go out of my way to 6 (37m 4s): Okay. 3 (37m 4s): Ran into him at a restaurant a couple of years ago. And I did the same thing and he's like perplexed by me because he doesn't know what I'm after, but I'll all. I just want him to know that I love him 6 (37m 16s): And that Jesus loves him and God will deal with the rest. That'll sort out the rest. What do you want me to do today, Lord? And what do you want to do through me today? 3 (37m 30s): So we get into first Timothy, we're just going to get into a few verses today. And like I said, then we're going to jump into acts and it will be in revelation. It's going to take us a long time at this pace to get through first Timothy, but eventually we'll get there and it's, we're not in a hurry. So we'll just do what we can do. 6 (37m 46s): First Timothy chapter one. This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ. Jesus appointed 3 (37m 52s): The command of God, our savior and Christ. Jesus who gives us hope. 6 (37m 59s): Yeah. 3 (37m 59s): I'm writing to Timothy. My true son in the faith. May God, the father and Christ Jesus, our Lord give you grace mercy and peace. 6 (38m 10s): Any Paul challenges, Timothy, to 3 (38m 14s): Be careful of false teachers. 6 (38m 18s): He said, when I left 3 (38m 18s): From Macedonia, I urge you to stay there and emphasis and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. 6 (38m 28s): So Timothy 3 (38m 28s): Is in emphasis, the city called Ephesus. And as I'm thinking about his ministry there, I, what do we know about 5 (38m 36s): This city, this town called Ephesus. What do we know about this place? And so I'm just going to jump in, jump over to acts 18. And, and we're just going to kind of read through some, some passages. So if you want to turn to acts and just kind of read with me, we're going to be, and it's actually going to be up on the screen as well, acts 1824 through 28. And then we'll jump into acts chapter 19. And it'll just kind of help us understand what's kind of going on. Meanwhile, that you named as you named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the scriptures well had arrived in emphasis. 5 (39m 16s): That's the city from Alexandria in Egypt. He had been taught the way of the Lord and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John's 4 (39m 29s): Chisholm John's 5 (39m 32s): Baptism John's message was repent and be baptized, repent and be baptized. This was John's message. And so this is what Apollos heard. He said he got the message repent and be baptized. And John was the 4runner. He was there before Christ. He was GI Christ's cousin there as the, the 4runner to kind of prepare the way for the ministry of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so he's saying repent and be baptized. And so Apollos gets a hold of this message. He gets a hold of this message and he's proclaiming it when Priscilla and Aquilla heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God. 5 (40m 13s): Even more 4 (40m 13s): Accurately 5 (40m 18s): Apollos had been thinking about going to a Acadia and the brothers and sisters and emphasis encouraged him to go. They wrote to the believers in the CA asking them to welcome him. And when he arrived there, he proved to be a great benefit to those who by God's grace had believed he refuted the Jews with powerful arguments in public debate using the scriptures. He explained to them that Jesus was the Messiah. So now he had a fuller revelation of who Jesus was. He had a fuller revelation, but notice that Apollos with his limited revelation and understanding was powerfully proclaiming that truth. 5 (40m 59s): He didn't have a complete revelation of who God was, but he was bold in his proclamation. I think sometimes that we think that I don't know enough to share the gospel with somebody, but the reality is that God has given you truth. He's giving you revelation. And with that, he wants you to share it. And trust me, you will grow. You will have greater understanding as you continue to trust the Lord and follow him and do what he's asked you to do. But he's asked you to be bold as a, of his, to proclaim the truth, the revelation that you have, maybe it's just your story. Maybe it's just your story about how Jesus got ahold of your life and trans transformed your life. 5 (41m 45s): Maybe it's just that I don't know much, except for, I know what Jesus has done 6 (41m 51s): In my life. We can argue 5 (41m 53s): Theology all day long, but we can't argue my experience. My experience is that my life has been radically changed because of Jesus. I'm not the same man that I used to be. So these friends of mine, who've known me since junior high school and then into high school, I didn't get serious about my faith until my junior year of high school. And so prior to that, I was not the Christian that you might see today. And so we just, there was, 6 (42m 26s): But 5 (42m 26s): Lives transform over time. As we let Jesus do what he wants to do in our lives. And, and so we need to be bold and just proclaim that and maybe the best way to proclaim it is just through our love at first, our love. But then at somewhere, somewhere along the line, we've got to, we've got to actually put words to that as well. Acts chapter 19 while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached emphasis on the coast. So that's what so, so we know that God was doing some good stuff in emphasis that Timothy was ministering in this town that was on the coast. 5 (43m 7s): So it it's reminiscent of where we are. It was a town of about 250,000 people. And so it was a bustling, wealthy community that Timothy was ministering in and policy administer there. Paul had ministered there. Others had ministered there and so good things were happening in this community. So he reached emphasis on the coast where he found several believers. And so as he found these believers, he asked them this question, did you receive the Holy spirit when you believe he asked them, did you receive the Holy spirit? So like more believers, who've got partial revelation. They understand, and they're saved and they're they understand who Jesus is, 6 (43m 51s): But they've, haven't received the Holy spirit. And so, 5 (43m 56s): So they said, no, they, they replied, we haven't heard that there is a Holy spirit. I wonder what you might be able to reveal to people that you're ministering to, who don't know much about the gospel. And maybe it's just that, 6 (44m 9s): That God loves you. God, 5 (44m 15s): You might be surprised at that. Well, God can't love me. He I've made too many mistakes. God can't love me. He loves you. And he said, well, well then what baptism did you experience? He asked. And they replied that the baptism of John Paul said, John's baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus in Mark one eight. It's not on the screen. But John, the Baptist said, I, I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you, but Jesus will baptize you with the Holy spirit. And so they were missing something. First of all, Apollos was not understanding fully what, who Jesus was that he was the Messiah. 5 (44m 56s): When he got it, he began to proclaim that. And then these young believers in emphasis, they didn't understand about the baptism. They didn't hadn't received. They received John's baptism. They repented and they were baptized, but they weren't baptized with the Holy spirit. As soon as they heard this, they were baptized. So I, I just want to highlight their obedience. They, as soon as they realized that they needed to do something, they did it. I think God is honored by that. He's re he responds to that. I think as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, when we realized we need to do something, if we just immediately do it, there's blessing that follows that. What is God asking you to do? 5 (45m 37s): What is God wanting to do through? You don't make him wait, don't make him, you know, wait on your obedience, but just do it. Just do it. You say, well, I'm not sure. Well, that's so that's okay. Do it anyway. Do it. Anyway. As soon as they heard, they were baptized in the name of the Lord, Jesus, then. So some, some crazy things, depending on your background and your understanding, our background, and they're saying some crazy things began to happen is Paul laid. He laid his hands on them. They, when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy spirit came on them and they spoke in other tongues. Paul said, I, I speak in tongues more than all. 5 (46m 17s): Y'all like more than all you, but tongues is a, it's a, it's a prayer language. It's something that God gives to us so that we can, that that helps us to pray in the public setting. Sometimes somebody will speak in tongues and, and then there's an interpretation. And really in a public setting, we shouldn't speak out in tongues loudly for the congregation, unless we know unless we're confident or someone present to can interpret what we're saying. We pray in tongues, in our prayer as a, as part of our prayer language, as part of what our connection with the Lord, it's all throughout acts, especially. 5 (46m 58s): So they spoke in tongues and other tongues and they prophesied prophecy is a foretelling of things to come. So there was this stuff that was going on in the church. And these were brand new believers favors. They had been just baptized and these things were going on. They were speaking in tongues and powerfully doing wonderful things in Jesus. There were about 12 men at all. And then the next section here is Paul's ministry. And then Paul went to the synagogue and preach boldly for the next three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God, but some became stubborn rejecting his message. 5 (47m 41s): And publicly speaking against the way, the way is just the way of the gospel, the way of Jesus. So Paul left the synagogue and took the believers with him. Then he held daily discussions at the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for the next two years. So at first he's in the synagogue and he's preaching for three months. And then he leaves because they don't believe him. And so he goes to a different location and he preaches for for two years. When I, what I love about Paul is that he's in it for the long haul. He's like, he's committed in this town. He's there for a season while the Lord works out his plans and purposes through him. 5 (48m 21s): I think we get in a hurry with God and we want God to do what he's going to do quickly. Like Lord, I'm a been obedient. I want to see some fruits. Some, some, I want to see something happen immediately. When God says, maybe it's going to take some time and just be faithful as the Lord works things out. So this went on for the next two years, so that people throughout the province of Asia, both Jews and Greeks heard the word of the Lord 6 (48m 45s): Lord, and this is kind of an, I, I love this next portion here. 5 (48m 53s): God gave Paul the power to perform unusual miracles when handkerchiefs or aprons that had merely touched, his skin were placed on sick people. They were healed of their diseases and evil spirits were expelled. So I shared this story back a few years ago when I had meningitis, it's a brain infection. 6 (49m 16s): I had 5 (49m 16s): People praying for me and this gal and she didn't know what to do. She couldn't get to me because I was in the hospital or I was home recuperating. I can't remember which, and so she prayed over this, this cloth, this, this napkin, or this thing that she prayed over. And, and she sent it to me. I think it was like a wash rag or something. And so I didn't know what to do with it, but, but I, I knew that she prayed over it. So I, with childlike faith, I just put it over my head, 6 (49m 47s): Which I just said, 5 (49m 49s): If you're doing something, I mean, obviously it's, it's, it's been done before. 6 (49m 55s): I, I don't want to 5 (49m 57s): Scoff at what God does or has done. And so I just put 6 (50m 2s): On my head, I said, glory, just do whatever you want to do. And I, I, I, 5 (50m 13s): I think it did something in my brain. I think it, I think it, there was a release of healing power, and God did something. 6 (50m 24s): There's something about childlike faith. That is so important. So my, my buddy Mark is here today. And during worship he's, he's, he's laughing because he's just excited about Jesus. And I thought we don't often laugh when we're worshiping, right? But God, 5 (50m 52s): The Bible says the joy of the Lord 6 (50m 54s): Is our strength. And I don't 5 (50m 56s): Know about you, but when I meet old friends and meet, 6 (50m 59s): Get with people I've met with 5 (51m 1s): Buddy Melvin out there, all we did was laugh. We just laughed at recounting old stories. We just laughed. There's something, there's something powerful about just enjoying relationship with someone. I think in our lack of childlike, faith response or expression, 6 (51m 20s): We don't, we don't know how to worship. 5 (51m 22s): We don't know how to engage and ensure in. And we're even afraid to lift up our hands, 6 (51m 27s): Hands and lifting up. Holy hands is like surrendering to God saying, God, just talk yours. And it's like a picture of, you know, a baby, just, you know, a toddler wanting just to be picked up. So I've got grandkids. And when they come in and throw their arms up, it's just nothing better. There's nothing better. So when we just throw up our hands to our father and, and tell him that we just, we just want to be with him. 6 (52m 8s): We surrender, just pick me up, Lord. That's, there's something powerful 5 (52m 13s): Or full about that. There's nothing, nothing to be ashamed of 6 (52m 17s): Raising hands and just enjoying the presence of the Lord and 5 (52m 24s): A group of Jews. This is a funny story that happened in Ephesus. I love this story. Actually. It's pretty funny. A group of Jews were traveling from town to town, casting out evil spirits. They tried to use the name of the Lord G. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation saying, I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches to come out. Seven sons of Skiva. These seven dudes and elite leading priests were doing this. But one time they, when they tried it, the evil spirit replied. I know Jesus, like I'm acquainted with Jesus. I'm acquainted with Jesus. 5 (53m 4s): And I know Paul, I'm acquainted with Paul and I, but I, but who are you? And then the man with the evil spirit, leaped on them, overpowered them and attack them with such violence that they fled from the house naked and battered. 6 (53m 22s): That's a great story. And the name of Paul, 5 (53m 31s): All of these things happen. So this is the spiritual kind of landscape of what's going on in emphasis there's darkness, there's lights, there's all kinds of people there. We're going to read here in a moment about Artemis. There was a temple built for, for the goddess Artemis. And the temple was actually one of the seven wonders of the world in the ancient world and, and emphasis. So there's this big temple erected built for this, this goddess, this fate God. And So the story of what happened with the seven sons of Skiva spread quickly, all through emphasis for 17 to Jews and Greeks alike, a solemn fear to send it on the city. 5 (54m 22s): And the name of the Lord, Jesus was greatly honored. Many who became believers, confess their sin full practices. A number of them had been practicing sorcery, brought their incantation books and burned them in a public bond. Fire. The value of the books was several million dollars. So the message about the Lord spread widely and had a powerful effect. Sometimes we hold on to things from our past life, our BC life, our before Christ days. And we need to get those things out of our lives. What is it that you need to get rid of your, in your life? These guys burn their, their witchcraft books at the cost of millions of dollars. 5 (55m 8s): Is this cost them something? What, what is it that God is asking you to do that is going to cost you something. 4 (55m 16s): Okay. 5 (55m 19s): What God did was having a power of what God was doing in that city was having a powerful effect on people. And they were, they were giving up the occult practices and they were burning their books Because they just wanted to make sure everything in their life honor the Lord, everything, no holes, barred. It doesn't matter how much money it costs me. I don't want anything. That's going to hold me back from Jesus Afterward. Paul felt compelled by the spirit to go over to Macedonia and Acadia before going to Jerusalem. So Paul felt compelled by the spirit. This is just simply Paul hearing from God and doing what he feels led to do. 5 (56m 1s): That's all we're trying to do as followers today. We're saying, Lord, what do you want to do with me today? And what do you want to do through me today? We're just, we just want to be compelled by the spirit to do stuff. That's all we're asking. We're not, it's all scriptural. It's not anything weird. It's just what, what believers do we want to be compelled by the, but that means we have to be in tuned to the spirit. So that means we gotta be paying attention to what God is doing. I got up this morning and worked on my message a little bit and then just went out and prayed. I said, Lord, I, I just want to be connected to you. I, I need you to know that what I'm saying has some, some authority, some power because you're behind it. 5 (56m 42s): I, I, I don't want to just say, get up there and use empty words, words that don't, I needed it to be powerful for your sake, for the sake of your people. I don't need to be powerful, but God, I want God to be powerful through me. Paul felt compelled by the spirit. What was the last time he felt compelled to do something by the spirit. And when you felt compelled, you did it. And you're like, wow, this is crazy. Cause it's a little bit scary. It requires something of us. It's maybe something that we're not totally sure about it. Cause we're, we're called to walk by faith and not by sight. And so the things that God calls us to you requires a measure of faith without faith. 5 (57m 24s): It's impossible to please God. So everything that he asks us to do is going to require a level of faith and dependence on the Holy spirit. I say this all the time that everything that God asks of us requires of us means requires the power of the Holy spirit, 6 (57m 45s): Moving 5 (57m 45s): Us and, and, and prompting us and working through us. If what God has asked you to do, doesn't require the power of the Holy spirit. It's God didn't ask you to do. 6 (57m 55s): He didn't ask. He just didn't ask you to do it. 5 (57m 59s): Most likely. You'll just do that on your own. And that's not a bad thing, but I want you just to get to the place where we're saying, God, what did you, what are you asking me to do? Is that will re that will be a stretch. And that's a fun stretch. That is a fun 6 (58m 16s): Trach. It's the best kind of stuff. 5 (58m 24s): Paul felt compelled by the spirit to go to Macedonia and CA before going into Jerusalem. And after that, he said, I must go on to Rome. It's like he he's getting downloads from the Lord revelation from Lord clarity from the Lord about his path, about his missionary journey. This is Paul's third missionary journey. He's he's about the father's business, doing what God had asked him to do. So he knows he's got a plan. 6 (58m 48s): Often. 5 (58m 48s): We've got a plan for everything else in our lives, but we don't have a plan for ministry for impact, for kingdom impact. I can I ask you to make a plan and say, Lord, what do you want me to do with my life kingdom speaking? What, what, how do you want to use my, me and my life? I must go to Rome. He said why? Because he was compelled by the Holy spirit to go to Rome. He had work to do in Rome. He had work to do there. 6 (59m 18s): Hmm. You said it's Two Timothy. And Erastus 5 (59m 24s): The head to Macedonia while he stayed a while longer. The province We're. So out of time, did we set the clock? 4 (59m 34s): Right. Okay. Let's continue 5 (59m 45s): About that time. Serious trouble developed in an emphasis concerning the way it began with Demetrius, a silversmith who had a large business manufacturing, silver shrines of the Greek goddess Artemis. He kept many craftsmen busy called them together, along with others, employed in similar trades and address them as follows. So the gospel is so impacting this culture, this community, this city, that the business of shrine making idol making is going under. I want to see something like that happened in our community. Like were businesses honoring the devil are going out because, because they're such an impact. 5 (1h 0m 30s): So these guys are angry, angry with Paul. Let's jump over to revelation, chapter three, our chapter two. And then we'll wrap it up with just with this. As we get into revelation chapter two, what else do we know about this emphasis? The city of emphasis? Well, John Penn seven letters under the inspiration of the Holy spirit gospel. God is writing these seven letters to the seven churches in Asia revelation, chapter two, verse two. The first letter that John Penn was to this church in emphasis. And they had a lot, got a lot going for them. Can I have my tea? They had a lot going for them. 5 (1h 1m 11s): There's not much. Where are you drinking my tea? 4 (1h 1m 15s): You've made that tea for me. 5 (1h 1m 20s): Happy Valentine's day. I share my tea with you. 4 (1h 1m 25s): Thank you for the two drops that are left. Oh, that was good. Thank you. So this Church 5 (1h 1m 39s): Had so much going for it. 4 (1h 1m 46s): I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work 5 (1h 1m 51s): And your patient endurance. So this, there was a lot of hard work going on in the Church patient endurance. I know you don't tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles, but are not. You have discovered they're liars. Paul told Timothy in first, in first, him of the one, three to stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. It sounds like Tim Timothy took care of that issue within the church. He said, you have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles, but are not. You have discovered they're liars 4 (1h 2m 28s): Revelation 5 (1h 2m 28s): Two verse three. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. So lots of wonderful things, but I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first, you've lost your first 4 (1h 2m 44s): Love. Ouch. Verse five says, look, how far you've fallen. 5 (1h 2m 52s): Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don't repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches to remove the lampstand is to remove your, your position, your position, your authority, and your place as a Church, he's saying I'm going to snuff out your lamps and you will no longer be recognized as a Church. If you don't figure out a love, 4 (1h 3m 18s): Great, 5 (1h 3m 18s): His commandments is love God and love others. And he's saying that this Church with all of the good stuff that they were doing. They've forgotten about a couple of things. The biggest things. Yeah. Loving God and loving others. He said, if you don't repent, you actually can't be in my church. 4 (1h 3m 36s): So we don't. 5 (1h 3m 36s): It's a big deal. Sometimes to have hatred in our heart for people, God thinks it's a big deal. God thinks it's a big deal. We'll know that we're his disciples because of our loved one for another. I mean, this is how the world knows is our it's because of our love. And it's a supernatural thing. Isn't it? Like, how do you love someone? You don't like supernaturally when you're fighting with your spouse, how do you love them? Unconditionally supernaturally. When you're at odds with people in your life, how do you continue to love them? You do it supernaturally. You're under the power of the Holy spirit, doing what God has asked you to do. 5 (1h 4m 19s): So maybe the best thing that God is asking you to do right now is just he's. He's saying, Oh, you say the question is, what do you want to do with me today? What do you want me to do today? And what do you want to do through me today? Maybe God is just saying, I want you to love people. Just start there. It's it's it's the basics. But beyond that, it's the deepest it's it's it's entry level, but it's it's, it's where mature believers also land it's it's it's everything. It's everything. So maybe you're asking, well, how, how do I love this person? You've got somebody in mind, just do the least selfish thing. Go out of your way to be gracious with them. 5 (1h 5m 2s): Speak words of affirmation. We can always find something good about people that we dislike. 4 (1h 5m 9s): Always. 5 (1h 5m 11s): So maybe you're saying, Lord, I know that this is what you want me to do, but I don't know how to, I don't know what is good about them. I 6 (1h 5m 18s): Don't, I don't know. I can't think of anything. Good job. We'll think of something and he'll tell you, and then you can speak that. And that will be in to be a bridge. Why don't we go and stand up by the worship team? God, I, I don't want our laps, our lampstand to be removed. So God, where there maybe division among us. I pray that you would break that in Jesus name, where people are angry. I pray and I, I'm not even thinking about a circumstance or situation, but God, if there is something going on where there's anger, resentment, unforgiveness, 7 (1h 6m 8s): Hatred, 6 (1h 6m 8s): I pray that you would break that in Jesus' name, that you would break our hearts with joy 7 (1h 6m 12s): Truth, that you would break our hearts with truth and help us to love. I pray for marriages, people who are struggling in their marriage relationships. I pray that you'd heal them in Jesus name, God, that we would love each other forever relationship for every partake, for every pain, for every disappointment, for every sorrow, just pray that you would wash over our souls, our lives in Jesus name. We need you to do that. Lord. We want to love people and we want to love you God, where, where we're not loving you for. 7 (1h 6m 58s): I'm not even sure what that looks like for each and every person, Lord God. But I pray that we would figure out what that means. Got to love you. And I don't even know what that means for me. Sometimes the Lord, I, I know tangibly. It means obedience means just taking time with you for me. And I, I true for every one of us. Just taking time with you to listen to you, launching you, desiring you Lord, not just in my devotional, you know, slots of time, but throughout the day, Lord, just continuing to look to you and looking for you and believing you and God, I don't know what you want to do, but I know you want to do something or some do that work in us. 7 (1h 8m 7s): Lord. I think if we're just willing, Lord, you'll figure it, figure out the rest and fix the rest Lord. So make us willing. We pray, Lord God, as we worship you, thank you for this time. And thank you for what you're doing. Just ask that you would continue that good work in Jesus name. Amen. Let's worship 1 (1h 8m 39s): thank you so much. 0 (1h 19m 8s): And even when we're unlovely you still love us, help us love like them. Thank you for meeting us where we're at. And I ask that you help us to go when you sing, go and may still, when you say be still, because we can trust you because you love us. Thank you for worshiping with us 1 (1h 19m 44s): Wonderful week .