Follow Me

Follow Me

Chet Phillips

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Well, good morning. We are in a series called Follow Me. We're in our third week. We're just taking some time to look in the Gospel of Mark and see what it looked like for the disciples to follow Jesus. Our first week, we basically just covered the idea that the Gospel is news. It is not advice.

It's not here's how you ought to live. It's a story. It's news about something that has happened. That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died in our place for our sin on a cross. He was laid in a tomb and then three days later he rose again fully alive and ascended into heaven as the king of the universe. That's what we believe as Christians.

And we believe that that news, that fact from history, changes everything for us. That we can be made right with God again. That we live our lives in light of that information. Then the next week, last week, we talked about that there are no unrepentant Christians. That part of the Christian life is to follow Jesus, seeing our sin and turning from it. And that is a continual, lifelong process.

That Christians see their sin and turn away from it to Jesus. That it's not repent and do good works. It's not turn away from your bad deeds and do good deeds. It's turn away from your sin to Jesus. And so we're kind of continuing along with that today as we talk about what it looks like for us now to follow Jesus. How does that show up in our lives now?

And I heard this illustration one time and I think it's helpful to kind of get us started today. If I showed up late today, so if I just came running up a second ago and ran upstairs and was out of breath and sweating because I had to run. You know, there's like four stairs there. So, of course, I'd be sweating. And I was like, oh, I'm so sorry that I'm running behind. It's good to see you all this morning.

I feel like because I'm running behind, I should explain myself. So on my way over here this morning, there was a lady who had a flat tire. So I got out to help her while I was helping with the tire. I lost my balance, fell into the road and an 18 wheeler ran over me. So but glad to get all that straightened out and to get here this morning.

Like immediately your response is no. No, it didn't. Either really my are your options at that point is I'm a liar. That did not happen. I just am not good at lying. So I pick something way too extravagant.

And you'd be like, that's not like you. You've done poorly. You know, you want enough details to sound like it's real, but not too many details to sound like it was rehearsed. And you want some credible things. Getting hit by an 18 wheeler is incredible. Either I'm a liar or I'm just crazy.

Like I actually believe I was hit by an 18 wheeler. But my brain just doesn't work right. Like I buy that is not true. Those are your two options. And here's what the point of that is. If if I was hit by an 18 wheeler, the reason you know that's not true is because that would have had visible, tangible, real life effect on me.

Like there are consequences to that. You can't get hit by a portly person on a bicycle and not like have that go poorly for you. There's going to be some scuffs. There's going to be some problems. There's going to be some dirt in my hair. Like it's not going to go well.

You can't get hit by an 18 wheeler and it not have an effect. And the thing is, Jesus is bigger than an 18 wheeler. When when you meet Jesus genuinely, realistically in life, he has a tangible effect on you. It shows up. So for someone to say, oh, I'm a Christian and there's no evidence whatsoever.

It's simply not true. And so that's what we're looking at as we walk through the series is to say that we believe news. We're not saying this is what you have to do to be a Christian. We're saying Jesus died for us. And because of that, it affects us. This event happened and it changes us.

And that actually shows up in our lives. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to jump back into Mark. We'll be in chapter one today. But let's pray real quick. God, we just ask that you and your faithfulness and your love for us would be at work in our hearts today. To help us see ourselves clearly and see you clearly as we continue to ask the question of what it means to follow you.

In Jesus name. Amen. We're going to be in Mark chapter one. We're going to pick up in verse 16 right where we left off last week. So last week, Jesus began preaching.

The kingdom of time is fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. So we just talked about that repentance is the way that you enter into the way you respond to the coming kingdom and the way you live in the kingdom. And immediately following that, we're going to see him begin to interact with people that will be his disciples, would be his followers. So it's on page 543.

If you have a blue and white Bible, if you don't own a Bible, take this one with you. It's our gift to you. Verse 16. Later in the series, we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at that. I will make you become fishers of men. But today we're really just looking at the follow me and kind of their response.

Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. And then immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets. And immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. Okay. So what we just saw is Jesus picks up four disciples, Simon, Andrew, James and John.

Simon and Andrew are brothers. Simon later becomes Peter. Jesus gives him a nickname. And James and John also get nicknames. They're called the Sons of Thunder. That doesn't have anything to do with what we're talking about today, but just while we're covering nicknames.

And so he gets four disciples today. And here's what happens. He walks up into the middle of them working. Simon and Andrew are throwing a net into the water. James and John are mending their nets in a boat. And he just walks up and says, hey, follow me.

And they do. They drop what they're doing and they begin to follow Jesus. And this moment in their lives redirects the course of their life. This moment here where they drop what they're doing and follow Jesus changes everything for them. So that all four of these men, three of them will die for their faith in Jesus.

They will die for having said yes to Jesus saying, follow me. And John dies not of being murdered, but he dies while being exiled on an island for his faith in Jesus. So he dies of old age on an island where he was exiled. He was boiled in oil before that. He just didn't die. But all four of these men, this moment in their lives where Jesus says, follow me, and they say yes, drastically alters their life.

And here's what I want us to see from the very beginning. Jesus is disruptive. Period. Period. He's disruptive. When Jesus comes into your life, things begin to change.

That's just how it works. He doesn't just slide in and everything works swimmingly and exactly the same from that point on. He's disruptive. He steps in and when he steps in and when he comes into your life, he messes things up. He changes up your schedule. He changes up your time.

He calls you away from what you're doing to do other things. Like Jesus automatically, when he comes into your life, is disruptive. Some of you, if you would sit in here today and say, I'm a Christian, but Jesus, he's not disruptive. He fits right in. Fits right into my schedule. He's fit right into my life.

He just slid right in and has just been helpful. He hadn't tried to change anything. Hadn't like, I would just put forth. That's not Jesus. You. It's not Jesus.

Because Jesus is disruptive. That's how he works. That's like saying, I want to get a tattoo, but I don't like needles and I don't want it to hurt. You don't want to get a tattoo. I want, I want a Lexus, but I want it to have the rolly kind of windows. You're not getting a Lexus.

That's not, they don't make those. That's not how that works. And if you say, no, no, Jesus is fit right in. Like he hadn't been disruptive at all. That's not Jesus. You don't meet that Jesus in scripture.

The Jesus that walks around in scripture is absolutely continuously, aggressively disruptive. When Jesus comes into your life, things change. Now I want to show us something. I want us to take a minute to look at something. I think Mark does very intentionally in this passage. So when we write books, so the way, the way Westerners write books.

And if you read books, I know a lot of people in America don't read another book after they graduate high school or college. But maybe you remember reading some while you were in high school or college. Maybe some of you are in high school or college and you're familiar with books there. It's like a television, but you have to, you have like, okay. Anyway, the way we write books is there's information about the scene and the setting and what it looks like. And a good author can really help you like picture it.

So they talk about the way things smelled or the way things looked or what the room was like. They give you some scenery. They paint it up a little bit. So J.K. Rowling or Rowling, I don't know how to say her last name. She wrote the Harry Potter series, you know, Harry Potter, Voldemort, all that stuff.

She wrote a bunch of books and they were all very well written and they're all thick. And they got thicker and thicker as she went. It's like she had more and more to say as she went along. And she does really well with like painting up the scene. But she recently wrote a play called The Cursed Child.

She wrote a play. She what? She co-wrote a play. That's actually not the important part here, guys. I wish you will see in a second. But thank you for keeping me honest.

I don't know enough about Harry Potter to be talking right now. Which now makes me want to say a bunch of bad things. But like, you know, in Harry Potter, Dumbledore Calrissian has to take the ring of power to Mordor. You're welcome. The difference between a book and a play. This is the point I was getting to, although I gave way more information than I needed to.

The difference between a book and a play is this. In a play, every bit of information matters. It's just dialogue. And if they give any other information, it has something to do with the story. If they give any other details, it has to do with the setting. It has to do with what the characters are doing.

It does not, in a play, when someone writes out a play, they don't write up a whole bunch of scenery for you. They don't explain the way people felt. They just give you the dialogue and they give you some key, essential information. The Gospels are written like that. If there's information in the Gospels, it was written down for a reason. It was not just because Mark was like, and it was a pretty day outside, and the breeze was blowing.

He doesn't do that. The information given is important. So we're going to walk back through and we're going to put a little bit of pressure on the way Mark writes this because I think he did it on purpose. I don't think he wrote it out this way by happenstance. I think he was led and through the leadership of the Holy Spirit wrote it out specifically the way he did. And so we're going to look at this.

Okay, go back to verse 16. So he tells us what they were. This is who they were. They were fishermen. That's how they understood their place in the world. That's how other people understood their place in the world.

That's how they knew who they were. They were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their what? They left their what? Yeah, this is participation time.

And I know like we don't usually do this. Nets. Yes, they left their nets. They were fishermen and they left their nets. Okay, let's keep going. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets.

Okay, how does he describe James and John? Does he tell us they're fishermen? No. What's he tell us about them? What's their identifying marker? Son of Zebedee.

So are they fishermen? I would assume so. They're in a boat working on nets. But he doesn't call them fishermen. He calls them son of Zebedee. And then he says this.

And immediately he called them and they left what? I got a lot of time, guys. I'm good. They left what? Yeah. They left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

So they left him in the boat. They left him with the other people who were fishing. They left him with the nets. But that's not what Mark says they left. What Mark says they left was their father Zebedee. So what he just did was he said, Simon and Andrew were fishermen.

That's their identifying marker. And when Jesus called them, they left their nets. And James and John were the son of Zebedee. That's their identifying marker. And when he called them, they left their father Zebedee. Jesus is not only disruptive.

He walks into your life. He takes whatever you use to identify yourself. Whatever is absolutely primary to you. And he says, I'm taking the place of this. You have to let go of this for me. That's how Jesus works.

The only position he accepts in your life is first place. That's why it was important for Mark to write down that the fishermen left their nets and the sons of Zebedee left their father. Because if you ask them, what was the hardest thing to give up that day? Simon and Andrew are going to say, we were fishermen. We had to give up fishing. We had to give up our nets.

We had to give up possessions. We had to give up our career to follow him. That was what was going through their mind. That was what they had to let go of. That's what they were looking at and thinking about when Jesus said, follow me. But if you ask James and John, what did you leave?

They say we left our father. Because that's how they understood their existence. That's how they understood their identity. Let me explain something to you. We were designed by God. We were created.

So we're creatures. We're designed because we're creatures to have something be primary for us. Something has to be foundational. Something has to be the most important. It's just the way we're made. And everyone in this room has something in that spot.

And whatever you use to find your identity, whatever you use to say, this is how I fit in the world. This is what makes me okay. This is what gives me purpose. This is what makes me want to wake up tomorrow. Whatever you put there is God functionally for you. Whatever is your purpose, your identity, how you would describe yourself, how you know you're you and that you matter.

Whatever you put there is God because that was the role he was designed to fill. When he created us, that was the spot that he's supposed to be in. What gives us life and purpose and worth and value is him. That's why when Jesus shows up, that's the spot he claims. It's the only spot he'll take. So when Jesus comes into your life, not only is he disruptive, he is aggressively disruptive because he wants to claim primary role in your heart, in your time, in your life.

So for a Christian, we talked last week about life being a life of repentance, continually turning away from sin. We honestly don't sin until we've put something else in that spot. Until we've looked at Jesus and said, I'd rather have this than you. That's what leads us into sin. Thinking that something else matters more than Jesus so it's worth pursuing more than he is. So that we'll say no to him to say yes to that.

When that happens, we've moved that to the spot of superiority. Does that make sense? Anything that goes in number one slot, everything else ultimately serves that or everything else ultimately can be bumped out of the way, out of life for that. So let me give you an example. On your budget. Let me go back real quick.

A budget is a thing that you use to know where your money goes. Some of y'all. Talk with our toast team. They will help you make a budget. They are helpful. Okay, on your budget, there are things at the top on your expenses that matter more than the things at the bottom.

Unless you like alphabetize it, but just you realize there's a rank system here. There are things you're paying for first before you pay for other things. So when you start to run out of money, there are things you say no to. You pay your rent before your Netflix bill. If you've got that backwards, our toast team will help you make a budget. This is how this works.

First, you're paying your electricity before you're going to Frankie's Fun Park. There are things that go to the top of the list that when things get tight, when money gets tight, you're choosing what are we paying and you're paying what's most important. And if anything gets above Jesus, ultimately he serves that or he'll get bumped out of the way for that. So if you said, my family, my children matter most to me. And Jesus, I love Jesus and I worship Jesus and I follow Jesus, but ultimately my children are at the top. And maybe you wouldn't say it that way, but your life says that.

Here's what happens. Jesus is a means to an end for you to have a good family, to have safe children. Oh, it is so wonderful to know that the God of the universe loves your children and you can ask him for things. And you can ask him to protect your children and watch over your children and help your children. It's so good to know that the God of the universe will help provide for your children. So you're using Jesus for the safety of your children.

Your children are well behaved if they actually follow what the Bible says. They don't cause problems. They treat their parents well. That's one of the ten, you guys. Honor your mother and father. That's in the Ten Commandments.

It actually has a promise. It'll go well with you if you do. Like, that's great. And so if you have children that are in Sunday school and they're reading their Bibles and stuff, it makes them happier. It makes them better. It keeps life good for them.

And Jesus serves your children. But if your family starts falling apart, if your children become rebellious, if their health fails, if God says, I want you to be a missionary, to Africa, suddenly it's a, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I got kids. Can't. I didn't sign on for this. I got to worry about their safety. I got to worry about, like, their primary.

I got to, I started following you because I thought you were going to help me have a good family. I started following you because I thought you were going to help me protect my kids. I started following you because you were, like, what? You see, Jesus is serving them the whole time. And this happens with all kinds of things. So I, I know in my own life, when I have, in my marriage, I've sinned.

I've sinned against God. I've sinned against Anna. And I found, that I know the Bible says you should repent and confess. You should tell your wife what you did. And my response to that is, no, thank you. Kind sir.

Like, this is, this has been a real thing in my life where I have had very big things I needed to talk to her about. Because I have found that when you tell your wife you sinned against her, she doesn't like it. That's something I picked up on. And so I wasn't really willing to talk about it. And here, here's, here's what I came to realize. I was saying no to Jesus.

No to our relationship being good. No to me following him. Because I really wanted to protect the relationship I have with my wife. I was defending that one because I was more afraid of her being upset with me. More afraid of her leaving. More afraid of her, the discomfort that that would cause.

And so what I was saying was, no, no, no, Jesus, you're great for a lot of things, but in my marriage, I'm going to let her kind of rank above you. And we can do this with anything. You can do this with success. You can do this with pleasure. You can do that. I mean, you name it.

So if, if pleasure is primary for you, then your time and your money go towards what brings me the most enjoyment. What makes me the happiest? What, what do I enjoy the most? Like that's, that's how I understand the good life is that I can do what I want. I can eat out when I want. I can go to, to movies.

I can go on vacations. I can, that's the good life. And then Jesus shows up and says, Hey, uh, your money isn't meant to terminate on you. You should actually start giving some away. And you go, Ooh, I really can't. My budget's really tight.

When, when Jesus says, follow me. And when pleasure says, follow me, you follow pleasure. Work. Get your time, your energy. You spend your money on things that help you work better, that make work better, that I need this clothes for work. I need this suit for work.

I need this equipment for work. And, and then when Jesus steps in and says, no, this is how your family life is supposed to work. This is how following me is supposed to work. You say, no, no, no, no. When work says, follow me, or Jesus says, follow me, you follow work. Because the, the one thing Jesus is going to call you to drop is the one thing you're using to give yourself an identity.

And he's going to call you to, to get rid of sin. And he's going to call you to turn away from a lot of things. And a lot of that may be hard. You may like it. The thing that, that you're going to have to wrestle with the most and the thing you're going to want to pick up the most. And the thing that in your story, you're going to say, I had to leave behind is the one thing that you were using.

To identify yourself, to give yourself value and worth. Whatever it was in your heart that was primary. So here, here's our goal today. If Mark was writing about you, what does he say? Jesus walked up to, blank, and he said, follow me. What, what does he say was your identity?

And what does he say you left behind? Now here, I want to point something out to us. James and John stay the son of Zebedee. Simon and Andrew do fish again. Fishing isn't bad. That's not the point of this passage.

Having Zebedee be your dad isn't bad. That's not the point of this passage. Honoring your father, understanding your life in relationship to your father isn't bad. That's not the point. Your children, your spouse, working heart, pleasure. Pleasure isn't bad, y'all.

It's actually really enjoyable. Have y'all noticed that? God made it that way on purpose. The Bible actually says that pleasures are at his right hand forever. Like, he's the one who made pleasure pleasurable. It's good.

All those things are good. Most everything that we would put as primary in our life is actually a really good thing. A gift from God. The issue Jesus has is they can't be number one. And you're going to have to say no to them to say yes to him. That's why he says stuff like, if you come to me and you don't hate your father and mother, your children and your wife, and it's like, whoa, hate?

What? How do you say that? Like, that's crazy. You said to love your enemies, to love those that hate you. How are you then going to tell me to hate my wife? That sounds like really bad marriage advice.

His point isn't to actively hate. His point is that he has to be so far above everything else that nothing else compares. That's why he says if you don't deny yourself and take up your cross, you can't follow me. That's why when people come to him and say, Jesus, I'm going to follow you. And he says, come on. And they say, well, let me go bury my dad.

And he says, no, let me go back and tell my family goodbye. No, it's crazy. What he asks of us, how disruptive he is, but what he steps into every single follower of his and says, this thing right here that you used to make your identity out of this thing right here that you used to say, this is what makes me. Okay. This is what gives me value. This is what gives me worth.

This is how I know life makes sense. That thing right there has to move. That's the place I get. And so for those of us who have said, I'm following Jesus. It's pretty, pretty simple. Not real hard.

I'm not sure he's shown up and done that for you yet. I'm not sure you've moved that out of the way for him yet. So what would, what would your story be? What is it that you sacrifice for? What is it that you give your time and energy and money for? What is it that you use to understand your existence and light up?

You don't have to have it. You can be really poor and it can be money. You just know that once you get money, you'll be happy. You can be single and it can be your future magical spouse that rides unicorns and comes down from rainbow, rainbow land. Like I, I don't know. You could have some future.

Once this happens, I'll be happy. Once this happens, I'll be good. This is what'll fix me. And I'll bend heaven and earth to get to it. And if following Jesus helps me get there, great. I'll let Jesus work for me.

Proverbs 14, 12 says this. We're gonna have it on the screen. I love this verse. It is so helpful to me. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. It's not a very uplifting verse, but it is very helpful.

Some of you maybe have been sitting here going, no, no, no. The thing I'm chasing after Jesus would be totally on board with. It's good. If I get that, it would be good. It's not a bad thing. That's true.

It probably isn't, but this is true. There's stuff that we look at and say, if I just got that, I'd be happy. If I could just do this, it'd be fine. If I could just reach this, achieve this, be this, have this title, have this amount of money in the bank, have this type of success or this type of family or live in this type of place. And what Proverbs says is there's a way that seems really right to you and ultimately leads to destruction. Won't fix you.

Won't save you. Won't save you. Leads to death. So when Jesus steps in and says, I want to be primary, he's actually offering us joy. He's actually pursuing our joy. So, Jesus, if he wanted your begrudging submission, could get it.

Are you aware of that? I don't know. A lot of people just understand Jesus as being really nice. He controls everything and is in charge of everything. He could show up and immediately be like, bow down and you would. Did y'all know that?

We know that? We good on that? He can do that. He can put you in a submission hold. He can do it. That doesn't bring him a lot of glory.

It brings him glory because he's ultimately in charge of everything. But that's not his desire for you. His desire is that you would enjoy him. That you would love him. That you would respond to him. You see, begrudging submission isn't his desire for you.

Enjoyment of him is desire for you. See what? The reason he comes in and says, I have to be primary is because he is primary. He's the best thing you could ever get. He's the best thing he could ever offer you. If Jesus showed up and said, Hey guys, just want to let you know you should all be chasing money.

Then money would be God. And Jesus should serve it. When Jesus shows up and says, you should all get rid of everything and love me. He's saying, this is the best way to happiness because I'm the best thing that exists. And it's actually in our enjoyment of him that he gets a lot of glory. Do you, if some of you are married, some of you are dating, some of you aren't dating yet, but maybe you want to date or want to get married or something.

Do you imagine that when you, before you were married, did you imagine, I can't wait till I meet a person who begrudgingly submits to marrying me. Oh, I can't wait for the day that we celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. And they look over at me and say, I did my duty. And every day was drudgery. Because you're the worst. But I stuck with it.

I can't, I just cry just thinking about it. Like, did you do that? Do you think about that? Is that your goal? Would that be enjoyable? Would you get a lot of pleasure out of that?

No, that, that what you want is someone who loves you for you, who appreciates you, who enjoys you, who wants to be around you because they enjoy you. They like it. 50 years in, they say it didn't feel like 50 years. Some of it, some of it did, but it felt, it was mostly good. We've been married for 50 years, 42 good ones. Like, whatever.

That's what you want. And that's Jesus when he says, I want to be primary. It's not, I want you to begrudgingly submit to you, submit to me. It's, I want you to understand that I'm the best that could ever be offered to you. And Isaiah 55, we'll have this on the screen as well. There's a prophet's writing and he says this, come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and he who has no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Um, this, this is reused, rephrased in the book of Revelation, talking about coming to God, coming to heaven, that that's, he freely gives good things that you don't have to have money to come get from him. That's grace that Jesus dies and freely gives us himself. And he says this, why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? You know, the, the two commodities you'll have in your life that everybody has, you have some money. That's one of them. That's one of the ways that we place value is money.

The other one's labor, your time and energy. And what the prophet's saying is why, why do you spend your money and your time and energy on something that ultimately will not satisfy you, that ultimately will not bring life, that ultimately cannot hold the weight of being the foundation of your life and your identity? Why do you do that? Why does your, why does your labor and your money go to something that will not fix you, will not make you okay, will not satisfy you? Listen diligently to me. Pay attention and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food.

Incline your ear and come to me. Hear that your soul may live. See, I love that. He says, eat what's good, eat rich food. The call of Jesus to us to come to him is not, Hey, I've got a worse offer. You like that good stuff.

How do you feel about terrible things? That's not what he says. He says, come to what's better. Come to what actually satisfies. Come to what actually fills you up. Come to what actually fixes you.

I will make with you an everlasting covenant. My steadfast, sure love for David. In the Old Testament, God came to David and said, I'm going to love you and I'm going to make a king out of you forever. This promise is fulfilled in Jesus. The prophet Isaiah is saying, come to Jesus. And he'll make the same promise with you that he'll welcome you and love you forever.

And he'll give you rich and good food, which is ultimately what your soul needs. You see, we all have something. We all have something that we're using to say, this is who I am. This is what makes me okay. This is what makes me good. This is why I get up in the morning.

There's a journalist named Malcolm Muggeridge. He's talking about political hopes and failures in his book. And he, he talks about that. They had this political guy that they just really wanted to get into office. And they said, we, he said, we got exactly what we asked for. And then he has this quote.

He says, the really terrible thing about life is not that our dreams are unrealized, but that they come true. So the worst thing about life is not that we don't get what we want, but that we do get what we want. And ultimately doesn't satisfy, doesn't fix us. The worst part about life is that all our little dreams come true and it wasn't good enough. Jim Carrey says this. In our culture, I got, I got quotes from a couple of different famous people because in our culture, we've really bought into the idea that if you were really rich, good looking, uh, and had like people knew you, then you, that would be great.

That would be the best. Like we, our culture's kind of just bought into that idea. I know that I've bought into that idea every time the lottery gets really big and I go buy a lottery ticket. And I'm filling out my little Numbers and bubbling them in. It's like the, you know, first time I've done a scantron since high school. And I, I think, wouldn't it be so great to get $43 billion or whatever it comes up to?

You know what I'm saying? Like it's, it's been crazy recently. You remember the one this past summer or whatever, when everybody was going crazy past spring? Like I think I'm running around thinking, oh, it would be so good. And really what I think in those moments is if I had a lot of money, I'd be fixed. I wouldn't want anything else.

I'd be happy. I'd be content. Everything would be good. I'd skip everywhere. I'd giggle. I'd just giggle.

And people would be like, why are you giggling? You're a grown man. I'd be like, I'm so rich. You don't even know. I giggle anytime I want to. Here's a thousand dollars.

Don't tell nobody. Like I could do whatever. Our culture, we really believe that. We really believe that if you had power, if you had fame, if you had money, you'd be happy. You'd be fixed. So I've got a couple of quotes from people.

Because really, celebrities should be the happiest people we've got, right? They should be so content and so happy and joyous and fun to be around, right? Okay. So here's Jim Carrey. I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed so they can see that it's not the answer. Jim Carrey says, I wish all your dreams could come true so that you could know that wasn't it.

Okay, but maybe you're like, well, Jim Carrey, really? Liar, liar? That's who we're talking about here? Here's Brad Pitt talking to the Rolling Stones, like the Rolling Stone magazine. Like, it doesn't get cooler than this, you guess. Brad Pitt, Rolling Stones, this is amazing.

So some of you, I know you've just thought, man, if I could just have Brad Pitt's money or if I could just have Brad Pitt's, maybe his wife or his face or his like abs, life would just be better if I just had a little bit of Brad Pitt. Like if I could just be kind of as cool as Brad Pitt in even his bad movies, life would be better. Here's Brad Pitt talking to Rolling Stones. What does it mean anyway? I had an idealistic thought of what fame is. I thought, yes, lovely, I'm going to be famous and everything will change, but it doesn't.

If you ask me, I say toss all this. We have to find something else. The emphasis now is on success and personal gain. I'm sitting in it and I'm telling you that that's not it. I'm the guy who has everything. I know.

And I'm telling you that once you have everything, then you are just left with yourself. It doesn't help you sleep any better and you don't wake up any better because of it. See, the problem with us is that we won't ever get everything. I'm not going to win the lottery, so I'll continue to believe that it'll fix me. See, these guys have it and they're going, guys, this isn't going to fix you. At best, once all your dreams are fulfilled, you're just stuck with you and there's got to be more to it.

I got one more from Tom Brady. He says this, why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey man, this is what it is. You know, I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, God, it's got to be more than this. I mean, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be.

I mean, I've done it. I'm 27. What else is there for me? When Jesus walked up to Andrew and John, when he walked up to Simon and James, and he said, follow me, his invitation was one of joy and life and hope, even though it ended in hardship and death for them. It was the best invitation they ever got. Because he said, even if this all works out for you, it ends in death.

It doesn't end in joy and satisfaction. It's not what will fill you up. Your only hope is me. And the only position I'll take is first. If you're a Christian, that's the position of Jesus in your life. That's why we continually repent, because we continually see that we put something else up there.

So our goal today, I've got a few questions to just try to help us identify. What do I have as primary right now? What, what's in that spot for me? What have I placed in that spot? So if you're a note taker, take some notes, write some stuff down, and then we're going to end a little bit differently today than, than we usually do.

But I think it'll be helpful. So I've just got some questions, some things to run through pretty quickly to try to help us find, if Mark was writing your story, what would he say? This is, this is her name, this is how she identifies herself, and this is what she's got to let go of for Jesus to be primary. What would he say? This is his name, this is his identity, and this is what he's got to let go of. Okay, what's Jesus not allowed to mess with?

It's pretty straightforward. What in your life can he not touch? What is it he reached for, reaches for, and you pop his hand? Say, no, no, no. I didn't invite you here for that. What's your, can I still go to heaven if?

You hear people ask that question, can I still, well, can you still go to heaven if blank? Sometimes it's a genuine question. Other times it's, hey, can I love this thing more than Jesus and still get there? What's the one thing you've been arguing in your head about? The whole time we've been talking. What's the thing that keeps popping up and you keep going, no, no, no, no, that's not that.

Jesus loves that. That would be great. That's not, that's, that's not it. What's the one thing you don't want me to bring up? What's the thing if I started talking about it right now, you'd be like, okay, this is the worst sermon I've ever heard. That's probably it.

That's the thing you're really afraid he'll come take from you. That's the thing you really have to have. You don't want him to mess with it. Okay. So these are a little less straightforward.

If you're having a hard time thinking about it, really trying to figure out is Jesus in that spot or is something else there? So this is just, is he there? Is he not? Are you reading your Bible? Do you have a prayer life? Is that something that takes up your time?

If we're trying to figure out are we following Jesus? Are you more discipled by Netflix? Or ESPN? Or YouTube? Or some other app I haven't heard about? Does he take up your time or is there something else?

Something else talking to you more, teaching you more about how life should work, about how you should understand your worth and your value? When you see your sin, how do you respond? Do you repent? Are you heartbroken over it? When you see that something else matters more to you than Jesus, what do you do? Do you care?

What's the easiest thing for you to spend your money on? See, there's some things when it comes to your money you have to think about. There are other things where it's like your wallet magically appears in your hand. What will you spend your money on? Where do you place value when it comes to your, when you look at your budget? Is it your own comfort?

Is it most of your money goes to savings because that's one of the best ways to control your future? Is it status symbols like clothes and cars and houses? Something that makes it look like you've arrived? The opposite side of that is where does Jesus fit into your money? Does some of your money go to his church, to his people, to people who don't have money or food? How much of your budget looks like Jesus was radically generous towards you?

So of course you're radically generous towards others. What's the thing you organize your schedule around? And what's the easiest thing for you to organize your schedule around? When there's scheduling conflicts or time conflicts, what wins? Do kids win? Does your own leisure time win?

Does work win? Does work win? What's easily put in the schedule? What gets easily bumped? What are you laboring for? Where's your time and energy go?

All right, let's look at your emotions for a second. What are you angriest about? What do you have the hardest time forgiving? You see, our emotions are usually tied to things we love. What are you most afraid of? What are you most afraid of losing?

Here's the last one, and this is a big one. When you and Jesus disagree, who wins? And is there a specific category where you always win? You see, there's some things Jesus is going to show up, you're going to read in the Bible you already kind of agree with, and so when he says you should do this, you just say, yeah, smart, sounds good. And there are other things he's going to say, you should do this or you shouldn't do that, and you're going to go, whoa, I'm going to need you to explain. I'm going to need you to win me over.

So maybe some of you, when he says, hey, you should be generous, you go, yeah, we should. We should be generous, and we should be giving to the poor, and we should be helping the homeless, and the people who aren't probably don't really follow Jesus. And when he says you shouldn't have sex if you're not married, you go, whoa, but we're in love. But we really, like, we care about each other, plus I'm also pretty sure that passage probably doesn't really mean what people say it means, and they didn't really, you know, it's translated from other, like, you know, and some of you are like, no, no sex.

That's right. We shouldn't have sex unless you're married. And then the Bible says you should have sex if you are married. But, like, those are the rules. But it's like you should give up some of your money, and you're like, well, some, how much, what's the percentage?

It's really tight. My money's tight right now. When you and Jesus disagree, who wins? And is there a category right now where you just win? Jesus died for you. Because he loves you.

When Jesus invited them to follow him, he was already on his way to give up everything for them. And when Jesus invited you to follow him, he had already given up everything for you. He'd laid it all down so that you could be related to him, so that he could bring you back to himself. He's ultimately trustworthy, and he is absolutely after your joy. And that's why he won't let you have the harmful things you want. And that's why he says, I have to be primary, because that's the only thing that leads to joy and life and satisfaction and hope.

And if anything else gets put there, it throws your life out of whack, it robs you of joy, and ultimately it ends in death. Jesus died on a cross so that you could be his, so that you could have ultimate joy and satisfaction and hope in him forever. He's trustworthy. He loves you. And him calling you to put something down is for your own good, for your own joy, even though it's going to be really hard. I think Simon and Andrew forever remembered the day they put their nets down.

And it wasn't just letting go of the nets, it was genuinely deciding, I'm going to follow him and I'm leaving this behind. And I think James and John forever know the day they looked at their father and said, I'm following Jesus. I think they remember it. And I think something happened in their heart that day that every time they saw their father again, they loved him, but he wasn't in the same spot anymore. It wasn't how they defined their life anymore. They were going to follow Jesus.

They were going to go for bust. No matter how that worked out, because they knew Jesus was worth it. And how much more for us on this side of the cross, knowing how much he's going to give up for us to welcome us and to make us his. Can we follow him and trust him? So here's, here's how we're going to end today.

We're not going to play any music. We're not going to make this any smoothier. Here's what I want us to do. If you've been sitting here today and genuinely the Holy Spirit has been pressing on you, this is what you got to put down. This is the thing you're holding on. This is the thing you won't let go of, and you've got to put it down.

You've got to walk away from it. You've got to follow me. If that's you, here's, here's what I want us to do. I just want you to take a minute. I want you to write it down. I want the cards in front of you.

And here's what we're going to do. And here's why we're going to do it. I want us to have the opportunity to walk down and lay the card up here. And here's why. When Jesus came to James and John, when he came to Simon and Andrew, they had the opportunity to make a movement. They had the opportunity to act immediately.

Now, they had to continually reinforce that from then on. It's going to be really hard to stand up and walk over here and lay something down, but it's going to get exponentially harder the moment you walk out of there. This will be the easiest time to lay it down. Because it's just a mental step for you to say, I'm trying to lay this down, Jesus. I want you to be primary. I'm trying to follow you and I'm trying to say no to this.

But every other moment, you actually have to do it. See, James and John and Simon and Andrew had the chance to move. They had the chance to let go of the nets and walk. They had the chance to look at their father and walk. And I want us to have the same opportunity to make a movement, to concretely put this in our brains. This is what I'm trying to do.

I know that Jesus saves me. I know that he died for my sin. I know that I'm free and I don't have to accomplish anything for him and I don't have to earn anything for him. But I know he's got to be primary and I've got to let go of this because it leads to death and it doesn't. It robs me of joy and my hope is found in him. So I want you to have the opportunity to move.

And I want it to not be smooth or easy. We're not cutting the lights off. We're not playing music. I think there was an awkward moment between Zebedee and his sons. And I think if Jesus has been working on you, you need to move. This will be the best time to do it.

And then you'll have to continually do it as you walk this out with church family, as you continually confess and repent this and continually try to set it down. Let's pray. God, we thank you. Thank you that you love our joy and our hope and our life more than we do, that you were willing to die for it, to rescue us, to make us yours. God, we thank you that with you is joy and pleasure and goodness and rich food. And I pray that you'd help us to quit trading it out for something smaller.

Quit chasing after something that won't satisfy us, that won't fill us up. And God, I pray that you'd help us to respond. I pray that you'd help us to respond now. But more than that, God, I pray that you'd help us to respond every day for the rest of our lives to continually follow you, to continue to set something down, to continue to say goodbye to something, and to continue to put you in the place of primacy in our lives. We thank you that you're good and that you're trustworthy and that we can follow you. And we love you in Jesus' name.

Amen. I'd encourage you to respond if the Holy Spirit's been working in you, to know that Jesus looked them in the face and said, follow me, and you have the same opportunity today to follow Jesus, to let something go, and to follow after him where there's joy and freedom and life and hope, ultimate satisfaction. And don't just do it because you feel like you're supposed to, because we're talking about it or because that would be the thing to do. Do it if you actually genuinely are saying, Jesus, I want to follow you and I want you to help me. I'm going to sit down. In a minute, the band's going to come back up and we're going to sing together and celebrate that Jesus is good.

Repent and Believe

Repent and Believe

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Well, hi, how we doing? Wow, not any better than earlier. I was taking a shot. I thought we had woken up a little bit. I'm sorry. We are in our second week of our Follow Me series, and I'm excited about this series.

Last week we got to celebrate baptism, and we got to just kind of intro this series, talk a little bit about what we're going to be doing in this series. And I'm excited because we're just taking some time to say, what does it look like for us in Columbia in 2016 to follow Jesus? Like, how does that show up? What does that look like in life to be a Christian? And I think it's going to be helpful for us because as a church we've got a lot of new believers, a lot of people who are like, okay, I believe this gospel. I believe that Jesus died for my sin.

Like, my faith is there. Now what? Like, what do I do now? And then we've got a lot of people who maybe you've been a Christian a while. You'd say, yeah, I'm a Christian, but it's like I'm just now trying to get into the swing of actually following, letting this kind of impact day-to-day life for me. And so I'm just excited about this series.

We get to just take a little time in the Gospel of Mark to look and see, okay, what did it look like for Jesus' followers? What does Jesus say? What is this supposed to – how is this going to show up for us? And particularly helpful because our culture is just kind of confused about Christianity. So if any Christians on any kind of media, any kind of TV show or anything, like we really have two types of representatives.

Just so you all know, like when somebody is writing a sitcom and they make a Christian character, like here are our options. Condescending, judgmental. Like we've got that character. A lot of times it doesn't have anything to do with actually how they behave. So like if you think of Angela from The Office, she's just condescending, but she doesn't behave any better.

Like she just looks down on everybody and then does the same stuff. And it's like, okay, so hypocritical and condescending. And then we just get kind of like goofy slash weird. So we've got Ned Flanders. Every once in a while in like really intense movies, we'll just have like a weird person on the street holding a sign. Like they're just a bit part where it's like repent, the end is nigh, and that's it.

And then like, you know, the robot kills them or whatever. And so like those are the characters we get. Even in the South where supposed to be the Bible Belt, supposed to be more Christians, we're just kind of confused about what it means to be a Christian, what it looks like to be a Christian. And so like I have conversations with people. I remember I was working with a guy and he found out I was a pastor. We were starting a church.

And he said, oh, cool, yeah, like you're a Christian? I was like, yeah. He said, yeah, me too. I used to go to a Lutheran church with my mom when I was little. And I was like, okay. But that was it.

He didn't have anything else to it. Like there was the, I went to this VBS. Maybe I prayed a prayer. I got baptized when I was young. My favorite one, I was talking with a guy I played football with in high school. And I said, are you a Christian?

He said, Chet, I'm black. So yeah, at the time I was white and I didn't know about the exemption. Like I didn't, I didn't understand. I just was kind of like, I don't know. But like that's kind of, I was born in the South.

My mom went to a Methodist church. My uncle was a deacon. Like we have all these answers for like, this is what makes me a Christian. And you don't find those in scripture. So what we're looking at is saying like, what does it look like to be a Christian?

How does this show up? Because if we actually believe something, it shows up. If we actually believe something, it shows up in how we act. It shows up in what we, like what we do. And that's what we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at. Like you ever met somebody who just believes in coffee?

Like they, they believe in it. I believe in coffee. I had someone tell me earlier that I needed to get a camelback with coffee in it. But like people who believe in coffee, they buy coffee. They get things to grind coffee. They, they have coffee with them when you see them.

Like they, you ever met a vegan that actually believed it? They told you. Ever met somebody who did CrossFit and they believed it? Like they, that's like, that's how they introduce themselves. It's like, hey, I'm Chet. Hi, I do CrossFit.

Well, okay, back up. Like, I don't know. Like if you, you know what I'm talking about? Like someone who's really drank the Kool-Aid for the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. Or libertarians, those people, they believe it. Like they will tell you.

Like if we believe something, it shows up in life. And if we're actually a part of something, that shows up also. So if I told you, and I haven't told many people this, but I am actually on the Dallas Cowboys football team. Like if I told you that, your immediate response is, no. No, you're not. And if I said why, you'd be like, well, how much time do you have?

You don't live in Dallas. No, you're not. You are unathletic. Like this isn't happening. Like do you want me to keep going because it's going to get offensive? Like there would be things.

I'd have to go to practice. I'd have to be there. I'd have to, like, what do you mean? Like you must be defining this differently. And so in our culture, there are a lot of people who say, I'm a Christian. And immediately it's like, you must be defining it differently than the Bible does.

And so as a church, what we want to do is say, like, what does the Bible say to be a Christian? What does the Bible say would show up? What does the Bible say life looks like for us as Christians? And so that's what we're spending the next four weeks just looking at some basic. This is a part of your life if you're a Christian. For every Christian in the room, for every Christian in any room, anywhere, this is a part of your life.

Let's pray and then we'll jump into Mark. God, we thank you that we do get to follow you and that we get to believe good news. I pray that you would, through your Holy Spirit, speak to us this morning and work on our behalf that we might grow in our understanding of what it means to follow you. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

So how do you know you're a Christian? What does that look like? What shows up? And so let's jump right into Mark chapter 1. We'll be in verses 14 and 15 today. We're going to look at the first words out of Jesus' mouth in Mark chapter 1.

If you have one of the blue and white Bibles on the row, it's going to be on page 543. If you do not own a Bible, take this one home with you. That's our gift to you. I want you to have a Bible. So 14 and 15, these are the first things Jesus says.

So it starts off this way. Now after John was arrested, that is John the Baptist. He had a big beard. He wore camels like hair, cloak thing, stood in the woods and yelled at people and ate bugs. So we don't get to hear much about him today, but there's a brief outline for you.

There you go. Eight bugs, lived in the woods, yelled at people. Some of you have an uncle like that. So after he was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God. So stop there for just a second.

We talked about this last week. We said that the gospel, that word there means good news. And that is the primary difference between Christianity and every other religion, philosophy, thought process. That we have news. We have news about an event that happened. See, what Christianity says is that Jesus died on a cross, was buried in a grave, and three days later he rose from the dead.

And that through his death on our behalf, we can be saved. That he can pay for our sin. He can pay our debt before God. And that's news. It happened. We share that.

Christianity is not primarily a bunch of advice. Here's what you need to do to be good. Here's how you ought to behave. Here's the things that you need to do to be a Christian. And so even in this series, what we're saying is here's what shows up if you are a Christian. So we believe the news that Jesus died for us.

And if you actually place faith in Jesus, here's what shows up. Not do these things and then you can be a Christian. If you miss that, you miss the whole thing. Does that make sense? Like if you are a Christian, you'll do these things. Not do these things and you can be a Christian.

So the difference is between a king and a president. So right now we got people running for president and they are trying to show you that they're presidential. Like I'm pretty sure that was actually a thing that Trump said. I'm going to be so presidential it's going to blow your mind. It's like that automatically didn't sound very presidential to me. But okay.

Like you're going to be like, whoa, how presidential is this guy? That's a terrible Trump impersonation, but just go with me. Like they have to prove they look presidential and then maybe we'll let them be the president. Does that make sense? But if you were a king, if you were a prince or a princess and you had parents who were king and queen, they would say things to you like, hey, that's not how a queen Acts.

Hey, that's not how a king Acts. You need to do these things to act like a king and what they would be saying to you is because you're royalty, this is how you live because you're going to be king because you're going to be queen because you're already this identity. This is what shows up in your life. Whereas presidents, it's act this way and you might get to be it. Does that make sense? So what we're saying is if you're a Christian, this shows up.

That's the whole point of this. If you believe the gospel that Jesus died for our sins, if you believe that news and it changes you. Here's what shows up. So here's what he says. We're going to look at Jesus's message. So this is what he began proclaiming the gospel of God.

So we're going to see what he proclaimed. What's the gospel of God? What's he saying? And then we're going to see how he tells us to respond. Okay. And then we'll take what Jesus said in about two, like one sentence, and we'll make that last about 40 minutes.

You're welcome. So Jesus says this, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.

So when he said this to his Jewish hearers, they knew what he was saying. When he says the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. What he's talking about is when God first made everything, it was the kingdom of God. He was in charge. He was the king. And humanity existed under God's rule.

Over creation, but under God. That's where humanity was placed. And everything was good while God was king. But Adam and Eve, our first parents, rebelled against God's kingship. They wanted to be king and queen. They wanted to be in charge.

They said, rather than having our lives orbit around you, we want everything to orbit around us. I want to be the center of the universe. That's what Adam and Eve said. And just so you know, every other human that has ever existed immediately lined up right behind Adam and Eve and said, that's the plan I'm going with as well. So your life has been you at the center trying to get everybody else to orbit around you.

Trying to get everybody else to think about you. Worry about you. Take care of you. Exist around you. That's been your goal your entire life. The way you walk through your day is, what do I like?

What do I want? How do I feel about that? What makes me happy? What makes me sad? That's how we process life. I have an 18-month-old.

That is the core of his little soul right now. My wife and I talk about this all the time. He is such an easy child to be a parent to when he is getting everything he wants. So easy. That's what makes me a great husband. Like, I'm a great husband when I get everything I want.

Like, that's how that works. And he's terrible when he realizes he doesn't get to be the center of the universe. And here's what he does. He throws things. Anything he's holding, or if he's not holding anything, he just throws a fit. He, like, yells and lays on the ground.

We've had to start grabbing him and saying, hey, you're not going to get to act like this. Nothing good happens here. Like, we've begun to train him that he doesn't get to be the center of the world. And here's the thing. I'm the same way. I just know that throwing fits doesn't work.

So I use flattery. Am I lying? I've learned. If you don't want to do what I want to do, my response shouldn't be, ah! And, like, hit you in the head. That's not going to work well.

I've moved beyond 18-month-old Chet, but I'm still doing the same thing. I just want you to care most about me. And that doesn't seem like so much to ask. The problem is, that's the same thing you want. That's why I went, we take a group picture. Whose face do you look at first?

Your face. I've actually taken a picture with just me and my wife. She showed it to me. And I looked and said, that's a good picture. And she has responded, my eyes are closed. And I was like, mental note.

Look at her face first. Before you talk. Because all I did was look at me and was like, I look great. Like, that's... Post that one to the Facebook. She's like, my eyes are closed.

It's like, well, we could crop you out. Nobody's going to care. Just put it on Facebook. But, like, that's... Our life has been, what do I like? What do I want?

And our goal has been to have... And nothing. Nothing makes you more miserable. Nothing makes you more unenjoyable to be around. Or sucks more joy out of your life. Than you having to be the center of everything.

And you worrying about, what do you like? What do you want? How am I feeling? How am I... Like, that sucks joy out of you. So what Jesus says is...

God was the king. And the Old Testament, when we rebelled, the Old Testament promised... After promise, after promise, after promise, after promise... I'm going to fix this. I'm going to right the ship. I'm going to be king again.

We're going to realign humanity and history back where it's supposed to be. And so Jesus steps on the scene and he says... The time is fulfilled. And every Jewish person understood immediately what he's talking about. The time is fulfilled. The promises are coming true.

What God has said repeatedly through Old Testament prophecy. Every time you've gotten together at the synagogue and read this. Every time you've had a festival or a feast. Every time you celebrated the Passover. What we were celebrating was that God's going to fix it. This is going to be the end.

And Jesus says the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Meaning God is on the march. He's on the move. His kingdom is approaching. It's at the door.

And he is going to reestablish his reign over the earth. And here's the thing. Everything works better when God's in charge. You ever been on a team that just had a great coach? And when that coach was there, everything just worked? Great school with a good principal.

Or a great job with a good boss. Or maybe it was your home life. Maybe some of you were blessed. You come from a healthy home life. And when your dad was there. Or when your mom was there.

Everything just worked. And then when they had to travel for business. Or when the boss wasn't there. Everything just started to fall apart. That's earth. God was in charge.

And when he's the king. Everything clicks. Everything works. You ever been around a household where the children are in charge? Functionally? Like they don't have a job.

They don't pay for stuff. They don't drive the car. But they're in charge. Have you ever seen that work well? Like y'all have seen this, right? You've been to Walmart.

Like you've seen like the meltdowns. Where the parents are just trying to appease the child. And like you shouldn't be paying attention anymore. But now you've stopped. And you're going. Just hit them.

Take them down. You're bigger than they are. You can do it. Like you start rooting for the parent. Hey, now would be the time for some discipline. Like I mean just something.

Go for it. Children's miserable. Household doesn't work. That's earth, y'all. We've taken over. And we're miserable.

And this system doesn't work. And Jesus says the time is fulfilled. The kingdom is coming. The king is returning. God's about to fix this. And throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are used interchangeably. So when he says the kingdom of God is at hand. That's also the kingdom of heaven. Meaning when God's in charge. It's heaven. When God's in charge.

Everything works the way it's supposed to. And that's actually what the church is supposed to look like. A little picture of heaven. The way we interact with each other. The way we relate to one another. The way we treat money and time and relationships and forgiveness and hurt feelings.

We're supposed to look like a little picture of heaven. So Jesus says kingdom's coming. Now he's going to tell us how to respond. So a king is on the march. And he's going to tell us here's your response. And here's how this works.

If you are not a Christian. This is how you respond immediately to the kingdom. This is your first immediate response to the kingdom of heaven. To the kingdom of God. And if you are a Christian. This is how you live continually.

It is your continual response to Jesus. So this is how we respond immediately and continually. So everybody needs to be paying attention because you're on one of those tracks. Alright so here's what he says. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.

That is the response. Repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. That's how you respond immediately and that's how you live continually. Okay now we've got to do a little bit of work here. Because we don't use that word a whole lot.

What we do here if you've been hanging out for a while. We use the word repent a good bit. But we don't in life. Like you don't use that word. You're not like late for dinner and go sorry. I turned the wrong way on 378.

So I had to repent and come back this way. Like you don't say that. It's not a word we use. Like you only hear that like maybe in your life. Like a sweaty preacher yelled it at you. Or your grandma said it to you.

Or it feels like some sort of Old Testament word. But it's the first thing out of Jesus's mouth when he starts his ministry. So it's massively important. The simplest. If you want to really shrivel it down. The simplest term is.

It means to change your mind. To change your mind. But it's used with so much weight. And so continually throughout scripture. It has massive implication. What it means is.

Stop the way you're thinking. Stop the way you're acting. And turn away from your sin. Agree with God about your behavior. Agree with God about your sin. What Jesus.

The first thing out of his mouth is. God's coming. And you need to change. God's coming. His kingdom is coming. And you're not going to fit in.

When he gets here. This behavior you've got going. Isn't going to cut it. The creator of the universe is coming. And you need to change. That's Jesus's first thing he says.

Now. I think. We would have wanted him. To say something different. And even culturally. We kind of act like Jesus said something different.

Like repent was like. Old Testament stuff. Maybe his. Bug eating cousin. John said that. They were cousins.

I didn't take out that earlier. But maybe John said that. Said repent. But Jesus. You know what? Jesus showed up.

Like Jesus showed up. And he kind of. He floated. Or at least sashayed. I don't know if he floats. He's got feet.

So maybe he sashays. And his little. His little train was doing like this. And then he said. Guys. Guys.

Guys. Get in here. I just. I came all this way. Because I just. I just want to hug you.

Like that's kind of how we act. Like I'm just here to just say. It's okay. It's okay. Everything's going to be fine. You.

You're special. You are. So are you. Like that's. That's what he came to do. Right?

To just like. Just warm hugs. Like he's Olaf. Jesus is Olaf. Hi. I'm Jesus.

And I love warm hugs. Like that's. And here's the thing. That's not what he says. But can I tell you something?

What he says. Is so much. Better. And so much more freeing. Than what we think. We want him to have said.

Let me explain. One reason why. If Jesus showed up. And said. I'm God. I'm the son of God.

And I just want to tell y'all. You're doing great. And everything's fine. I immediately have some massive problems with that. Because what he just said was. The kingdom of God is coming.

And when it gets here. It's going to look like this. What we already have. Because if we're fine. Then we fit perfectly into the kingdom of heaven.

And what he's saying is. This is heaven. And what Jesus just would have said was. I'm perfectly okay. With sex trafficking. And I'm perfectly okay.

With slave trade. And I'm perfectly okay. With systematic oppression. And injustice. If Jesus showed up and said that. We have massive problems.

That's okay. That's the kingdom of God. That's what heaven looks like. You're not mad about that. Nobody's going to take up the sword. Nobody's going to fight for the weak.

Nobody's going to stand up for the oppressed. Nobody's going to take up the cause of the poor. And the voiceless. Nobody. You're showing up and saying that's fine. That's a problem.

If Jesus showed up and said. Everything's great. Let me tell you something. We would have to take up the sword. We would have to. But no.

He shows up and says. This isn't okay. And so we get to follow after him. In a gracious way. To oppose injustice and oppression. We get to follow after him.

In joining him. In him saying. This isn't alright. And let me tell you why. It's also beautiful that he says this. If you're honest.

If you actually sit alone with yourself long enough. You know that what our culture is telling you. Is garbage. What our culture says is this. You're special. You're wonderful.

There's nothing wrong with you. And you just need to believe and believe. In your heart. In yourself. Just believe in yourself. And even if you have evidence to the contrary.

That you're not special and wonderful. Just negate it. And just repeat to yourself over and over again. No I am special. I am wonderful. That's why we can sit down with somebody.

And they can be consistently lying. Like have a pattern of this. And be like. Hey you're lying. And they say. Well look.

I'm not a liar. Based on what? I believe in my heart. I believe and believe. Like there's just this. This we're told culturally.

To just trust yourself. Believe in yourself. And here's the thing. That only works if we don't think about it. But I actually need Jesus to show up.

And say exactly what he just said to me. There's so much freedom in him showing up. And saying hey. You're not okay. There's things about you that need to change. You can't just say that's my personality.

No. Well your personality makes you a jerk. You should stop. You should fix that. Like there's things about you that are not alright. And you can't just say.

Well this is who I am. This is how. No. He shows up immediately and says. You need to change. Now.

He doesn't stop there. He says repent. And believe the gospel. And for me. I would have thought he said repent. Which means stop sinning.

Surrender. To what God says is correct. What God says is true. What God says is right. You would think he would say that. He would say repent.

And do good. Repent from your bad ways. And do good ways. Repent from your wrong ways. And do the right ways. Right.

Like that's what I would think would be the opposite of that. But what's he say. He says repent. And believe the gospel. What he says is. You need to turn away from your sin.

But I've actually got somewhere for you to take it. You see Jesus went to the cross. To die for our sin. So that our sin can actually be forgiven. That we get to bring him our sin. And he takes care of it.

He calls us to believe. What he's actually inviting you into. Is joy. And rest. And hope. That's the invitation of repentance.

So maybe. This is your first time hanging out. And you're like. Thank you so much. For this uplifting. Heartwarming message.

Of I'm a terrible person. So excited. First of all. If it's your first time. That's the first thing Jesus would have said to you. So you're welcome.

Secondly. It's an invitation. Into absolutely 100% what you need. I'm going to give you a small example. Just between my wife and I. Try to help you see this picture.

Of what Jesus is actually saying. Is so freeing to you. You see. I've been married for seven years. My wife and I dated for four or five. Before that.

She's not here. So I don't have to get that right. Four or five. And. Here's what I need from my wife. In our relationship.

I need her at times. When things are bad. And they aren't going well. I need her to like. Get next to me. Put her arm around me.

Kiss my cheek. Say hey boo. I believe in you. Like this is going to be okay. Like we're going to be fine. Like I need her to look at me sometimes.

And just say hey. Like this is going to work out. We're going to be okay. Like I need her to. To put wind in my sails. I need that.

Like I need her to hope in me. And in us. I need her to have that. For our relationship. Like if she just followed me around. Being like hey.

Just going to let you know you're terrible. Hey. On my way home from work. I made a list. Of how much you've disappointed me. Like if she did that.

It would be massively difficult. To be her husband. Like it would be. It would rip the soul out of me. But. If she wasn't aware.

That I'm a sinner. And if she wasn't aware. That I fail. And fall short. And that I'm weak. And all of her expectations of me.

Were just. I'm perfect. That would crush me. And the best relationship. We could have. Would be me.

Putting on a false front. A veneer. Wearing a mask. Hiding from her. Because I would never be able. To let her know.

That I failed. That I'm weak. That I'm. That I fall short. I got. I would have to pretend.

Around her. So if Jesus shows up. And just says. You're terrible. And stops there. Yeah.

That's crushing. And if Jesus shows up. And just says. Hey. I believe in you. You can be amazing.

What we would believe. Is that maybe other people can. But I can't. And I'm exempted. From that message. But what Jesus shows up.

And says. Is exactly. What we need to hear. Which is. You're broken. And weak.

And I'm going to make that okay. There's hope. And joy. And rest. For you. For all of you.

Who fall short. For all of you. Who can't get it together. For all of you. Who are not able. To always do.

What you're supposed to. For all of you. Who have. Taken your. Your past. And just.

Jacked it up. There's hope for you. You need to repent. You need to surrender. You need to turn from that. But you need to come to me.

Where there's joy. And hope to be found. That's why Acts 3. 19. Says it this way. He says.

Repent. Therefore. Turn back. That your sins. May be blotted. Out.

You see. We turn away from our sin. Because we actually have a place. To take them. To Jesus. We trust.

That he's able to. Pay for them. To cover them. For us. This is. The intro.

And. The lifelong. Process. Of being a Christian. It is a life. Of continually.

Repenting. Of sin. And believing. The truth. Of the gospel. That's.

Life. As a Christian. That we. Don't have to be perfect. That Jesus. Makes us perfect.

And that we can. Continually. Repent of sin. And trust him. And here's the issue. Here's the.

Here's the thing. The opposite. Of. Sin. Is not. Good behavior.

But it's. Belief. It's. Faith. The reason we sin. In the first place.

Is that we're not. Believing the gospel. We're not believing. That Jesus is who he says he is. And that he's accomplished. What he said he's accomplished.

And that joy. And hope. And life. Are ultimately found in him. The reason we're chasing. After these other things.

Is because we're not believing that. And that's why he says. Repent of your sin. And believe what's true. Because if you believe it. It automatically shows up.

You ever had. You ever told somebody. Hey. This is really good. And it looks funny. Like y'all are eating something.

And you're like. You should try this. And their immediate response is. You eat it. Maybe your friends trust you. I don't know.

If I tell somebody to eat something. They're like. You eat it. Like that's the response. Because what they're saying is. If you believe that it's good.

You'll have no problem with eating it right now. But if you don't believe that. I'm at least going to make you suffer with me. You'll have to fake through. And pretend like it's good. So sometimes it's worth it.

Like I'll be like. Like I was lying or whatever. And I'll eat it. And just like. You know. You have to try to fake it.

So that they'll eat some. And then you can be like. Ah. Now we're both idiots. But belief actually shows up.

Like it shows up in how we act. It shows up in what we do. So I can sit down with you. And ask you. What do you believe? And you can tell me everything.

In your little heart. That you believe that it's true. And a better way for me to find out. Would be to audit your time. And your bank account. Because if you actually believe.

That it shows up in how you spend your time. And how you spend your money. You see. The opposite of sin. Is belief. Because belief is what.

Changes our hearts. And changes how we act. And changes what we do. And ultimately invites us into joy. So it's an invitation.

Into joy. The Christian life is a life of repentance. Continually repenting. And continually believing the gospel. That when we sin. All we're saying is.

I don't really believe the gospel here. We're waving a flag. And saying. I don't believe that the gospel is true for me. So when you say.

This is my money. And nobody can have any. And I'm not supposed to be generous. What you're saying is. I don't believe the gospel is true. With my money.

When you're saying that. The best thing I can find in life. Is just to have sex. And to chase women. Or to get guys to like me. What you're saying is.

I don't really believe the gospel is true. That Jesus gives me my identity. And my hope. And my salvation. Like. Anytime we're sinning.

We have a belief issue. First and foremost. Because we don't realize. That the gospel has freed us up. From that. So it's not just to.

Modify our behavior. But to actually change what we believe. So that we can be set free. Okay. So let me tell you.

A couple of ways. That we kind of. Mess this up. There are some of you. In this room right now. You've been a Christian a while.

And you're like. I get the repentance thing. I realize that I'm supposed to see my sin and change. But the point of repentance. Is to lead us. Into the joy.

Of Jesus's salvation. So some of you. Are anxious. You're worn out. Because your whole life. Is trying to.

Fix your behavior. To modify yourself. To find all your sins. And get rid of them. But you've never gotten to the point.

That the point of repenting of sin. Is to believe. That the gospel is true. That you're free. That you're okay. You have three accountability partners.

And y'all get together. And talk about. How are you terrible. Here's how I'm terrible. And you never say. How is Jesus good.

How does the gospel set us free. How do we have. Freedom and hope. And joy in Jesus. Because the point of repenting. Is to believe.

If we're genuinely repenting. We'll grow in belief. And if we're genuinely believing. We'll be repenting. Some of you. May have bought into the.

Southern lie. That you can be a Christian. And that have no effect on your life. That you can say a prayer. I've. Been in church gatherings.

Before like this. Preacher talks about. Ten ways to be a better dad. Three ways you can find. Joy in marriage. And then at the end.

He says. If you want to be a Christian. Repeat after me. Hadn't explained the cross. Hadn't explained the cross. It just says.

Repeat these words. And I. Or. Every head out. Every head bowed. Every eyes closed.

No one looking around. If you want to be a Christian. Just look at me. Okay. Good. I see that.

I see that hand. I see those eyes. Whatever. Like. Just. Y'all been in this?

No? And then he'll say. Say this prayer. Raise your hand. If you just prayed that prayer. You're all Christians.

That's like a magic spell. That's not Christianity. Christianity is that you believe. And you repent. And that's a lifelong process. Of believing and repenting.

Now. If you actually believed. Jesus makes you his. And he'll keep you his. But one of the ways he keeps you his.

Is by continually leading you to repent. Continually changing your heart. Some of you would say you are a Christian. And you have not owned your sin. Acknowledged your sin. It's been years.

If ever. The last time you sat down with someone. And said. Here's how I was wrong. Here's how I sinned against you. Here's how I failed.

And here's how Jesus is good. You think that you can be a Christian. Without repenting. And that person does not exist in the Bible. One of the reasons why the Bible advocates. That at times you should.

Remove people from being a part of the church. Or treat them like they aren't Christians. Is because you address sin in them. And they don't listen. So you address sin in them again.

And they don't listen. So you get more people. And you address sin in them. And then at some point it says. Just know they're not a Christian. Because Christians repent.

Christians see their sin. Agree with God about their sin. Change their heart about sin. And follow Jesus. That is what Christians do. For a lifetime.

You will never outgrow your need for the gospel. But see repentance is a call to joy. And to freedom. In Jesus. It's exactly what we need to hear. You're not okay.

But I can make you okay. You're not fine on your own. And there's some things that aren't going to make it into the kingdom. But I will bring you into the kingdom. Because I'll pay for your sin. So let's say you became a Christian.

You became a Christian when you were in your. You were a teenager. Maybe you became a Christian when you were a teenager. Genuinely placed faith in Jesus. And then throughout your teen years. You really just kind of buy into the lie.

That the best way to have fun and enjoy life is through sex. Because our culture tells you that. Sex is where the good life is. Like if you've ever noticed the magazine racks. When you're in line at Target. What's it say?

What are like all the. Field and stream. All of them. Talk about. Here's how to have better sex. You'll notice.

None of them are saying. You should be having more sex. They've already got us to buy into that. They're just saying. Your sex should be better. Because more apparently didn't fix it.

So you buy into that lie when you're a teenager. That this is how life. This is where joy comes from. This is where hope comes from. And then because you're a Christian. Jesus leads you to repentance.

He goes to work on your heart. And he shows you that life and joy aren't found there. That ultimately they will not satisfy. And that your hope gets to be placed in him. And so you repent. You confess to the people around you.

Confess to your community group. And you turn away from it. Then in your 20s. You just start living your life. You're going for it. And you start realizing.

That you've now bought into the idea. That money and success. That things. That the goal. You hook, line and sink are the American dream. The goal of life is to have stuff.

And if I can fill my house with stuff. And if I can go on vacations. And if I can be comfortable. And if I can have a title. And if I can have. Like I'll have hope and joy in life.

But because you're a Christian. Jesus goes to work in your heart. And he shows you that that's bankrupt. That it's empty. And so you repent. And it's a 10 year long battle.

In your soul. To believe that the gospel is true. And that money won't satisfy you. And it won't fill you up. And it won't give you purpose and meaning. In your 30's.

You start trying to question. Like what. Where does my. Where does my worth come from. Where does my purpose come from. And maybe you answer it with.

It's by having wonderful kids. If I can just have a healthy little family. Then I'll know I'm okay. Maybe it's. It's if I can have a good career. That means something.

If I can wake up every day. And go do exactly what I want to do. Like that's. That's where I get hope from. Maybe you answer it that way. Maybe you answer it with kids.

Or perfect family. Or good Job. But you don't have either. You're not married. You don't have kids. You don't have a good job.

And so you've answered the question. This is what will fill me up. But you don't have it. So you're depressed. You're broken. But Jesus steps in and says.

You're broken. But I've got good news. I've got the gospel for you. Which is. These things won't fill you up. Won't fix you.

Won't give you worth. But I can. And so maybe in your 30's. The biggest thing that he leads you to repent of. Is where your hope and your joy and your worth are found. Maybe you spend your 30's walking through that with him.

Over and over and over and over again. This isn't going to make you okay. This isn't going to fix you. And he reminds you over and over again. That the gospel is true. That Jesus died for you.

To welcome you. To make you his. And to give you worth. In your 40's. Maybe you begin to. Start realizing that you.

You've. Kind of spent your life. On yourself. And you haven't cared at all. That your neighbors don't know Jesus. You haven't cared at all.

That nobody around you. Knows him. And you start realizing. You know. I haven't. I haven't shared the gospel.

I haven't spent any of my life. Towards something that. Eternally matters. And so you begin to. To repent. Jesus begins to work in your heart.

Maybe in your 50's. You start. Really struggling. With the fact. That you still have doubts. And fears.

And questions. And I should be further along. Than I am now. And Jesus shows up. And says. You're never going to outgrow.

The need for the gospel. You're going to need to. Continually repent. And continue to believe. And continually to follow after me. Maybe in your 60's.

All the things. That you've put your hope in. That make you. You. Are falling apart. Your body's falling apart.

Your kids are out of the house. You used to be the one person. That everybody called on for help. And now people are asking you. If you need help. You're going to have to retire.

From your job. Or you can't do it the way you used to. And you start in your 60's. Realizing. I don't have an identity anymore. And Jesus.

Breaks you over your sin. And says. You need to believe the gospel. That your identity. Always came from me. Maybe in your 70's.

You start questioning. What's your legacy. And how's my name going to continue. And he starts reminding you. That his legacy. And his name.

Matter most. And my hope. And prayer for us. As a church. Is that each of us. Would spend our life.

Year after year. Day after day. And decade after decade. Repenting. And being renewed. And called into.

The hope that is only found. In the gospel. Some of you are in here. And you say. I'm a Christian. But I just feel stagnant.

I feel empty. And my question to you would be. When was the last time you repented? When was the last time you sat down. With a blank sheet of paper. And said.

Jesus. Show me my sin. Because I can promise you. He loves to answer that one. Because when he shows you your sin. He calls you to himself.

Every single time. The goal of you seeing your sin. Is so that you would get more of him. When Jesus says. You need to repent. And believe the gospel.

You need to turn away from your sin. And run to me. That's the call. Christians. Repent. And if you say you're a Christian.

And that's not a normal pattern of life for you. The Bible says. To test yourself. To see whether or not you're in the faith. Which means. Hold your life up to scripture.

And see. Is this showing up? It says. To work out your salvation. With fear and trembling. And here's how.

Repentance ought to look. You ought to see your sin. And be broken over it. Your heart ought to break. Over the fact. That your sin.

Caused Jesus to die. I want to. Let's read. Second Corinthians seven. Real quick with each other. Paul says this.

As it is. I rejoice. Not because you were grieved. But because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief. So that you suffered no loss through us.

For godly grief. So your heart is broken. It's grief. You're grieved over your sin. You're mourning it. Godly grief produces a repentance.

That leads to salvation. Without regret. Without regret. That's like a Nike t-shirt. No regrets. Like that's what Christians get to have.

Is a repentance. That leads them to salvation. Where you're not condemned. You're not overwhelmed by your sin. You're free. Your shame and your guilt.

Are gone. Your brokenness is gone. Because Jesus was broken for you. That you are grieved over your sin. But then you're welcomed into joy.

It says worldly grief produces death. Some of you have worldly grief over your sin. It's killing you. Because you're not believing the gospel. It's crushing you. Because you're not turning it into joy.

Which is that Jesus died for it to set you free. Some of you are just condemning yourself. Just telling yourself you're terrible. You get the idea that you're broken. But you don't.

You realize that you don't deserve anything from God. You've fallen face first into the dirt. And you've said God I'm broken. But you need to realize that Jesus bends down. Picks you up out of the dirt. And says I love you.

See on the cross our sin is shown to be terrible. And God's love is shown to be great. Jesus died because our sin is heinous before him. And he died because he loves us so much. That he was willing to save us from it. You need to see your sin.

You need to agree with God about it. You need to be broken over your sin. Your heart should be wrenched inside of your chest. That you know that you don't deserve anything from him. And then you need to be welcomed into enjoying Jesus. As you confess openly to the people around you.

I'm a sinner. Because anytime as a Christian we confess. We're confessing our sin. And that Jesus is our savior. We confess two things. We make the confession of our sin.

And that I wouldn't be able to confess this if it weren't for him. Band's going to come back up here, Matt. Bianca are going to come. We're going to spend a little time this morning. They're going to sing a song here in a minute. We're not going to sing with them.

We're just going to take a minute to sit and ask God the question. Where do I need to repent? Where do you want to work in me? What do you want to cut out of me? What do you want to set me free from? What do you want to draw me closer to you in?

Because his goal is to give you more of himself. Set you free from sin. And welcome you to himself. If you would say you're a Christian. I have a couple questions for you. Do you see your sin?

Do you repent? When you're faced with that your life doesn't line up with scripture. What is your response? Do you run to God? Do you own it? When you're repenting, are you blame shifting?

Well, I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't have done this. And really, it's not sin. It's like I've got some weaknesses. You know, nobody's perfect. Do you actually own the fact that this won't fly in God's kingdom? But Jesus is good enough to work on it in me.

If you're a Christian, do you repent? Do you only repent when someone notices? Do you only repent when you get caught? Or do you own up to the stuff that nobody would know about? The stuff that I'm the only one who knows. And if I don't tell you, no one knows.

But I've got to tell you because Jesus sets me free from this. Some of you right now are saying, I can't do that. That's because you don't believe the gospel. Your value doesn't come from what you've done. Your value doesn't come from who people think you are. Your value comes from what Jesus has accomplished on your behalf and who he's made you.

As a Christian, I get to lay it all on the line and say, these are all the things that would have destroyed me, that would have owned me, that would have sent me straight to hell. But Jesus died for me so that I don't have to. I don't have to be crushed by it or owned by it. If you're a Christian and you say, you know, I repent, I see my sin. May I ask you this? Does your repentance lead you to joy?

Do you end up in belief? Do you end up in celebrating that God is gracious towards you? Ephesians says that he saved us for the praise of his glorious grace. You do not deserve salvation. You do not deserve grace. And in the moments when you see your sin the most, you get to praise his grace.

That he lavished love on you because he's good. And so when you feel like, I don't deserve this, I'm not worthy. Yeah, but Jesus is and he was worthy on your behalf and you are loved and cherished. Does your repentance lead you to joy? Does your repentance lead you to joy? So here's what we're going to do.

We don't repent unless the Holy Spirit helps us. We won't actually see our sin unless the Holy Spirit helps us. And even when we do see our sin, we won't care unless the Holy Spirit helps us. So for a minute, I just want us to pray that the Holy Spirit would go to work on our souls, that he would help us. He'd help us change, that he'd help us see our sin, that he'd help us hate it, and that he would impress upon us the love that he has for us. And then just right where you are, I want you to take a minute to ask God, where do I need to repent?

Where do I need to change? What in me do you want to cut out? Some people are going to need to get up and go talk to somebody. You're going to need to go confess to someone. And that's fine. Because we get to look like a little picture of heaven and Jesus' church confesses our sin and that Jesus is our Savior and that we're free.

We're going to act today like the gospel is true. We're going to believe that we're free from sin, that Jesus rose from the grave, that we're not conquered by our guilt and our shame and our debt. God, we ask that your Holy Spirit would move and work in this place. God, that you would lead your church to repent, that we would hate our sin, and that we would see the cross so clearly, to know that we're free, that we're loved. God, I ask you to work in us this morning.

Sept 18

The Gospel and Baptism

The Gospel and Baptism

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

We doing well this morning? Grab your Bibles, go to Mark chapter 1. We are doing a couple of exciting things today. We're having baptisms and we are starting a new series that we'll be walking through for the next five weeks. So we'll be in Mark chapter 1 today and we're going to spend a little bit of time for the next five weeks in Mark.

Just walking through what it looks like to follow Jesus. So we're going to be studying Jesus and his disciples. The Gospel of Mark was written by a close associate of the Apostle Peter, the disciple Peter. And so we are just looking at what Mark wrote and what it looked like to follow Jesus for them. And then we're trying to spend some time asking, what does that look like for us? Because I know when Jesus walked up to Peter and he said, follow me, and then he started walking, Peter could see Jesus.

So following him was pretty simple. It was like, I'm just going to walk behind him and then go from there, see what happens. For us, it's a little bit different. We've got to figure out what does it actually look like for us in Columbia in 2016 to follow Jesus. What does that mean with my job? What does that mean with school?

What does that mean with how I relate? And how does this work? And so that's what we're going to spend the next several weeks walking through and talking about. But we're kind of jumping that off today in Mark chapter 1. And we're going to look at one verse. But if we miss this, we'll misunderstand everything.

And so we're just going to study the beginning of the Gospel of Mark for just a few minutes this morning. And then we're going to celebrate in baptism. So I'm going to pray and we'll jump in. God, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your love towards us. And we pray that we would grow today in our ability to joyously celebrate your active work on earth.

And we pray that we would grow in our understanding of what it means to follow you. In Jesus' name, amen. Mark chapter 1, verse 1. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Okay, so Mark starts off and he's not playing around. Like he doesn't take his time.

It's the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So other Gospels, we have four of them. There's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew gives a genealogy of Jesus. He's kind of telling us his family history. Luke starts off telling us about how John the Baptist was born and how Jesus was born.

And that's where, if you've ever been to a Christmas play, we read the nativity stuff from Luke. That's the one they read in the Peanuts Christmas special. Charlie Brown's Christmas or whatever. That's Luke. Luke starts off with this big theological treatise on Jesus is the Word who becomes flesh and he lives among us. And it gets really kind of confusing.

He inserts John the Baptist in the middle of it for the heck of it. Like he just kind of takes his time. Mark is just, this is the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It's like you went on a first date with Mark. You sat down at the table. The waitress comes up to see what you want to eat or what you want to order to drink.

And he's like, hold on a second. Do you want to get married? And it's like, what? And he's like, well, that's the point of dating, isn't it? Let's do this thing.

Like he's like straight up at the very beginning is like, this is the point of my book. Jesus is the Son of God. Like this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And so what we're going to do is take just a second to understand that sentence. What the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God means. Because Gospel means something.

Christ means something. And him saying he's the Son of God means something. So I just want to, when he says Jesus Christ, Christ is not his last name. Christ is a title. It means Jesus, the promised Messiah. Jesus, the promised one of God.

Like he's the one that the Old Testament has been telling us. He's the one that the prophets have been telling us. He's the one we've been waiting for this whole time. Jesus is the promised one. And then he says he's the Son of God. So he starts off by saying, you know Jesus, you know that guy that everybody's heard about?

I want you to know that he's the Son of God. I want you to know that God came down. I want you to know that God joined us. That's how he starts off this Gospel. Okay. I don't know about y'all.

When I hear that, God came to earth. My immediate thought is, uh-oh. Like that doesn't sound great. Like I look around earth. I live here. I'm from here.

I look around earth and I think, we're not doing so hot. Like there's a lot that we have done poorly. And if God made earth, when he comes down, it seems like he's not coming down to give out high fives or participation awards. Or like just to congratulate us. Like it doesn't seem like he's going to show up and be like, hey guys, I just couldn't stay in heaven. I had to come talk to y'all.

Genocide? Brilliant. Racism. You guys are crushing it. Like he's not, like I'm immediately hesitant when I hear that God came down. And I know for a lot of us, our response is, I would like for God to come down.

I'm going to give him a piece of my mind. I'd like to, I want to talk to him about some of this stuff. Like I'm upset with him. But let me tell you a little story and how I kind of don't think that's true. When I was little, we used to go stay at my grandparents' house. And I had like 13 cousins or 12 cousins.

I guess I was one of them. So there's like 13 of us. And the way my grandmother's house was, she had a big house. Everybody would stay there. All the families would stay there. And then there was a basement.

And the basement was just covered in little like mats and pallets and sleeping bags and stuff for all the kids to stay. And the kids were aged from like 4 to 15 or something. And so then they would come tell us, y'all need to go to bed. And then they would close the basement door. And they would leave us alone. And we didn't go to bed.

But we, like there was always shenanigans and nonsense. Like there was, we were making noises. We were messing with stuff. We were doing things they had explicitly told us not to do. We were doing things that they hadn't explicitly told us not to do. But we were pretty sure they would have had they thought of it.

Like we were down there. I mean it was chaos. And then here's what would happen. At some point, we don't know quite when they were going to sleep. You know, we were younger, we had to go to bed early. But at some point, the door to the basement would open.

And at my grandmother's house, there was, the basement door was hidden. And then there was like this half partial wall with some posts holding it up. And there were steps coming down. And so you always got to see the feet of whoever was coming down the stairs before you got to see the face. And so when the door opened, it was everybody immediately pretending like you sleep. Like we all, like you just tried to, you just dove somewhere.

Sometimes like three of y'all in the same sleeping bag. Like it's super weird looking, but like everybody just got to act like they were asleep. And then you would try to peek as best you could to see whose feet it was. And what, because like if I saw my uncle's feet, he can yell at me. He ain't hitting me though. Like I'm not getting beat by my uncle.

His kids are in trouble. Like he's going to beat them in front of us. We'll all be scared. But like the best time, but if I saw my dad's feet, it's like that's a one and third chance I'm getting beaten. And depending on how, you know, how much energy he had, it might just be all three of us just line us up or whatever. If you saw my granddad's feet, that's equal opportunity beatings.

Like he can hit whoever he wants. He made everybody. And so there was this moment when the door opened that immediately you were like, like, oh, them coming down here, this isn't good. They're not coming down here to tell us well done. And that's the same when I hear that God came to earth. My immediate thought is not, well, good.

My immediate thought is, oh, I've got sin. I've got brokenness. We're not doing well. And if he takes us to task, if he makes us give an account, this is a problem. But there's a word that Mark sticks at the very beginning of this that fixes that.

He says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. And that word gospel, maybe some of y'all are familiar with it. Maybe you've, you grew up around church and you just know, well, gospel, you know, that's talking about Jesus. Maybe some of you didn't. And you're thinking gospel in that like a type of music. Or like, don't people say like, this is the gospel truth.

Doesn't that mean just like the truth of your truth? Like, I don't really know. I'm not heard that word a lot. When Mark used that word, it actually was a word that they used culturally at that time. There's actually an inscription that says the beginning of the gospel of Tiberius Caesar. Like, this was a term they used for a very specific type of message.

What it meant was good news. The word gospel is actually two Greek words stuck together that just mean news and joyful. It's like, this is joyful news. And here's how they used it. It meant life-changing, history-altering. You're never going to be the same again news.

I've got a piece of information for you that is going to radically change everything. It's that type of news. That's what gospel meant. So the way they would use this sum is they would have after battles. So when an invading force was coming, the king would, or the leader, the military leaders, the generals would take the army and they would lead away from the city.

And there would be a certain amount of people left in the city to defend the city. But they would go out to fight against the enemy. And if they won or if they lost, either way, they were sending people back to the city. Either way, whether they won or lost, they were sending people back to the city. But they had very different jobs.

If they lost, they sent military advisors. They sent some people hightailing as best they could, retreating, to come to the city and say, If you do this, you might live. If you put the military here, if you garrison this way, here's what's coming. And if we do this, if we hold on well, we might make it. There's a lot of things we got to do and not do in order to maybe make it. But if they won, they sent a good newser.

They sent a gospeler who was just going to come proclaim, we won. It was actually in history, in this story, we're not sure if it's true at this point, but there's a guy named Pheidippides. And after the Battle of Marathon, he ran 26.2 miles to the city to tell them, Joy to you, these are his last words, joy to you, we've won. And then as the story goes, Pheidippides dies. And for some reason, we heard this story. Some guy heard this story and was like, Huh, he ran 26.2 miles and died.

Do y'all want to run 26.2 miles and call that a marathon? After the Battle of Marathon? And it's like, why? To see if we die? No. What happens if we don't die?

You can put a sticker on your Xterra. Like, I don't know what the point is, but I believe in safety first, so I'll never run a marathon. But the point, like, they sent good newsers to go proclaim, We've won. The battle is won. And all you have to do at this point is live in light of that. The battle's won.

Get out the finest meats and cheeses. Like, we're just going to celebrate. The victory's been won. We're okay. You don't have to do anything other than just know this news is to be celebrated. And that's what Mark says.

He says, the story of the promised one, Jesus, the Son of God coming to earth, is earth-shattering, history-changing news. And that is the fundamental difference between Christianity and every other religion and every other philosophy and every other thought process, is that we have news and everybody else has advice. Every other religion, every other philosophy is sending out, here's what you have to do and you might survive. Here's what you have to do and God will love you. Here's what you have to do to have the good life now. Here's what you have to do to enjoy earth to the fullest.

Here's what you have to do in order to reach nirvana. And Christianity is saying, here's what's already been done. Here's the good news of Jesus. You were sinful. You deserved wrath. You deserved punishment.

You were guilty. And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came and lived on earth perfectly on your behalf and died gruesomely on a cross. And he was buried. And three days later, he rose again from the grave. He conquered death. He conquered sin.

He conquered all the enemies that had surrounded you. I have joy to you. We've won. The victory has been won. Jesus has won. He is no longer in the grave.

And if you place your faith in Jesus, you can be forgiven. If you place your faith in Jesus, you can be free. That's the gospel. The church is not a gathering of perfect, cleaned up people. The church is a gathering of the first people in the room to raise their hand and say, I'm so messed up. If somebody else doesn't do something, I'm in trouble.

We celebrate baptism today. There's going to be people over and over again getting to tell you, I'm so messed up. If Jesus didn't do something, I'm in trouble. Here's how Jesus rescued me. Here's how he paid for my sin. The point of this is not, I'm going to go do my good church thing.

I'm going to get baptized because you're supposed to. And then God will love me. That's not the gospel. The gospel is that Jesus Christ died for our sins so that we could be free and that everything we've ever done to fall short has been wiped away because Jesus paid for it. And that's what we celebrate today. And that's what we'll be talking about for the next four weeks is how that news affects every aspect of our lives.

How it changes everything for us. So in just a minute, we're going to show some videos. People are going to get in here and be baptized to celebrate that Jesus Christ saves sinners and that we get to live our lives in light of some good news. Not trying to work really hard, to be really moral, to clean ourselves up, to make ourselves special. That Jesus was awesome on our behalf and we get to rest in the freedom that he's offered to us. Let's pray.

God, we thank you today that we get to gather to celebrate good news. God, that the entrance to being baptized is not, let me behave well, let me work hard, let me promise to do better. But the entrance is that you died, you were buried, you rose again, and you paid for our sin. And so as Christians, we get to be buried with you in baptism. We get to rise again out of the water, free from our sin because you paid for it. God, we thank you for the good news.

We love you. We praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.

When the Spirit Moves in Power

When the Spirit Moves in Power

Matt Freeman

Transcript

But happy, happy Labor Day weekend. If it's your first time hanging out with us, my name is Matt. I'm one of the pastors, and we're coming to the conclusion of a little two-week series that we've been doing. I was reading recently in a book, and the author shared a story that I want to share with you guys. In 1857, there was this young guy named Jeremiah Lanphier who had just been given a new job as a pastor on the south side of Manhattan. It was a really small church, and like anybody who's going into a new job, he was excited.

He was excited to get to know people, to start spending time with them. But it didn't take long for Jeremiah to become discouraged and frustrated, because it seemed like every person he met didn't have time to talk about God, wanted nothing to do with the church. It was like people just bypassed him in such a fast-paced city. And so not really knowing what else to do, he decided to pray. And as he was praying, an overwhelming sense of God's Spirit, God's presence came over top of him. It was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

And so what he decided was, okay, I'm going to just invite people to pray with me and ask for God to continue doing this. That was his new plan of attack. So he decided that one day every week, he would put a sign outside of the mission, inviting people to come in and pray with him during the lunch hour. So that was his new plan. So he put out the sign, the day came, he went inside and waited.

Five minutes. Ten minutes. Twenty minutes. A half hour went by and nobody. And again, defeated and discouraged, he went to close up shop when six people walked in the door. And he was excited because people had come to pray.

So he just, he prayed with those six people. And he was really excited about it. The next week he put the sign back out, 20 people showed up. The next week, 40 people showed up. And those 40 people decided, no, let's, let's, this is great. Let's do this every day.

So they started meeting every day at the lunch hour until after a couple of months, there were hundreds of people filling the auditorium of that church at the lunch hour every day praying. They outgrew that space and they started meeting in other places all around Manhattan. And in a couple of months time, reporters estimated that there were nearly 10,000 Christians crying out to God at the lunch hour in Manhattan. And in just nine months time, 50,000 people came to Christ in Manhattan at a time when New York's population did not exceed 800,000. That's amazing. That's amazing.

Like doesn't that like raise every hair on your arms? Just going, I want to see God do something like that. I want to see God move and work in Columbia. I want to see an outpouring of the spirit where there's thousands of people coming to Christ. In fact, the pages of Christian history are filled with stories like this. It's happening right now with the underground church in China.

I mean, there's just thousands of people coming to Christ. We see stories like Peter in the book of Acts. And every time I hear these stories, I just, I long for that. Like I want to see God doing a work like that, outpouring his spirit. And what we talked about last week is that as Christians, we understand that prayer and the Holy Spirit are vitally important to the life of a Christian. But sometimes we have a hard time wrapping our mind around like, how do I pray on a regular basis?

How do I see the Holy Spirit moving and working in my life in the day to day? And we made the connection that the reason that we pray in the first place is that we need God. So in the same way that a child is wholly dependent upon its parent to get the things that it needs to take care of it, we relate to God in the same way. And God's answer to everything that we need is to send the Holy Spirit. So we get to be needy children with a good father.

And the good gift that our father wants to give us is the Holy Spirit. And so when we're praying, we're praying about everything and we're asking for God to send the Holy Spirit to be active and at work. I was talking with one of our group leaders this week and he was telling me, he said, you know, I've been a Christian for a while and I pray. But just in this last week have begun to pray. Instead of God help me have a good day at work, I've begun to pray. Holy Spirit, help me do what I need to do at work today.

Help me reach the people that I need to. Help me interact with these people. And he just said it made all the difference in the world because he was asking for God to be at work in his life. That's what the point of prayer is. And so what we're looking at today is a specific prayer in the Bible where the guy is praying about God bringing about restoration, bringing about redemption. And as we look at this passage, we're not going to see specifically the Holy Spirit talked about here.

So as he's praying for restoration, he's not asking for the Holy Spirit. But we know on this side of the cross and in light of what we looked at last week is Jesus teaches us to pray. When we're asking for God to redeem, when we're asking for him to restore, what we're actually wanting, what we need to be asking for is the Holy Spirit. And so the question we're trying to answer this morning is if that's the case, if we should be praying for the Holy Spirit and God desires to work and he's going to use the Holy Spirit to do it, how does that show up? Like what exactly is that going to look like in our lives?

So before we hop into the text, let's pray and ask God to open his word to us. God, we don't have the ability to comprehend your word outside of you moving and working through your Holy Spirit. So God, I pray that these would not be my own words, that they would be yours. God, I pray that there would be encouragement this morning as we understand the point of prayer and what we're actually asking for and how you desire to send the Holy Spirit to be everything that we need. In Jesus' name, amen. Grab a Bible, turn to Psalm 126.

So if you grabbed one of those blue and white Bibles in the chairs, you're going to be turning to page 333. We're going to be looking at Psalm 126 today. And if you haven't spent a lot of time in the Psalms, I would encourage you to. They're amazing. It's basically a collection of songs and poetry that kind of span the range of human emotion from love to anger to despair to worship. And the majority of the Psalms are actually written as prayers.

So they're prayers to God. In the Psalm that we're looking at today, the author is yearning for the same type of outpouring of the Spirit from the story that we just saw in Manhattan. It's the same kind of thing. He wants to see God move and work. And before we start reading, if you look, look just above the text. So if you grab a Bible, you may see it says, Song of Ascents.

Okay, all that means is this is one of the songs that the Israelites would sing, they would recite, they would pray as they were going up to Jerusalem to worship. And it was almost as if they were setting their minds on who it was they were going to worship, why they were going to worship. And so it kind of in light of that, I want us to be reading it. This is the people reminding themselves of who God is and how they ought to be relating to him. So Psalm 126 is just six verses, but there's a lot here.

Verse one. So the writer of this Psalm is recalling a time when God came to the rescue of his people. So he says, God, when you restored the fortunes of Zion and that word Zion, it's just used throughout the Bible to either refer to the people of God or the place where the people of God were. He said, you came and you restored the fortunes of Zion. And it must have been amazing. And while we can't see it, we can get a picture of how they're describing it.

He says, we were like those who dream. It's one of those like you're wiping your eyes trying to figure out what's it's that type of moment. We were like those who dream. Our mouth was filled with laughter. Our tongues with shouts of joy. We celebrated as a church family last week the return of college football.

Hallelujah. And so some of you hopefully have enjoyed that all week long. It has been a great weekend of college football. There's even college football tonight and tomorrow night. It's a glorious Labor Day weekend, guys. And most of you were probably glued to your televisions on Thursday night watching the Gamecocks play.

Okay. There was not a whole lot of expectation with the Gamecocks going into this season. Everyone was kind of wondering what the must champ era was going to look like. And according to the first half, it wasn't going to look very good. Because the Gamecocks went in to halftime down 10-0. But then they came out in the second half.

Perry Orth started completing some passes. Some of those wide receivers started making some catches. And Carolina found themselves deep into the fourth quarter tied 10-10 with Vanderbilt. And so they're way out from the end zone. It becomes fourth down. And the field goal unit comes onto the field.

And the smallest guy on the team, which I can't help but point out, guys, his last name's Fry. So a small Fry comes out onto the field at about 130 pounds. And that joker kicked that ball. And it would have been good for another six to seven yards. He crushed it. And the Carolina fans that were in that stadium went nuts.

They were losing their mind and high-fiving. And I'm looking at the screen going, it's just Vanderbilt, guys. Calm down. And all across our city and all across our state, people, like, you may not have even known the person. Like, the people in the stadium, they might not have even known them. But they're high-fiving.

They're excited. That's the type of unbridled joy that the psalmist is describing. We couldn't believe it. We were like those who dreamed. This is unbelievable. It was so unbelievable that even the surrounding nations were looking at it going, the Lord has done great things for them.

Not a God. The God. The Lord. The Lord has done great things for them. And so the guy who wrote this Psalm is remembering what God has done in the past. And in verse 4, he begins praying.

So in light of what God has done in the past, he then brings his request to God. So this is verse 4. He says this. Restore our fortunes, O Lord. Okay, so he started praying now. He's using the exact same language that he used up in verse 1 to remember what God had done in the past.

So restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. Maybe your Bible says Negev with a V. Maybe it's Negev with a B. There's an exclamation point. So he's getting hype right now.

He's really excited about what he's praying and asking God to do. He says, restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. So the writer of this Psalm turns out of thanksgiving for what God had done in the past into a request. He says, okay, God, what you did, what you did in our past, how you rescued, how you redeemed, we want you to do that again. We need you to bring rescue and salvation and mercy.

God, come. Come to our rescue. And it's not hard to get the gist of what he's saying here. God redeemed in the past and there's a situation now where they need him again. And this is not, this is very akin to what we looked at last week when Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray. The whole point was they were needy and they needed God's active work in their lives.

Like they needed the Holy Spirit to be moving and working. And they're in the same situation right now saying, God, bring about restoration. So it's not hard to understand what they're saying, but they are using terms that we wouldn't use on a regular basis. And I think if we'll take some time to just kind of unpack what they're saying, to talk about what's going on in their culture, it'll help us have a better understanding of how we ought to be praying. So you guys know this.

Israel is located in the Middle East, which is one of the like harshest climates in the world. It is mostly desert. So like picture the cartoon version of the coyote, Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner and like the tumbleweeds rolling. And like it's that type of dry. It's arid.

It's hot. It's windy. Rains are sporadic. And the culture at this time was based off of farming. Oh, boy. It's like, could you imagine trying to plant crops in this kind of an environment?

And some of you, some of you have green thumbs like you. Maybe you've got some tomato plants or maybe you've got a garden. I know one of our group leader actually has a garden on her balcony of their second floor apartment. And you walk outside and it's kind of like you're in a jungle. And there's some spices over here and some tomato plants. It's actually pretty cool.

I'm impressed that it hasn't been scorched by the Columbia sun. But we don't talk about things in terms of farming in 21st century America because we don't interact with it on a regular basis. And so the language he's using, I want you to imagine that you've got to plant a garden. So you're thinking about the seeds that you're planting and the water and the sunlight. And the place that you had to do it is, oh, I don't know, the top of the Grand Canyon. And you've got a pretty good picture.

You've got an idea of what they were up against. And what the psalmist is praying is for God to restore. And the language that he's using is that of farming, that of bringing about growth, bringing about a harvest. And he's giving us two ways that God does that. So there's an Old Testament scholar named Derek Kidner.

He says that this Psalm is basically showing us two ways that God works in the hearts of people. And so one of the ways we say that, so look back at verse 5. Look at verse 5 again. It says this, Those who sow, so sow just means plant, Those who sow in tears shall reap, that means gather, with shouts of joy. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. Those who sow in tears.

That sounds terrible. Like the psalmist is imagining land so dry that individual seeds had to be planted and like watered with tears. Like you know you're in bad shape if to get your tomato plant to grow, you've got to like cry over top of it. You know you're in really bad shape. And that's what he's imagining. But the psalmist understands that even though that may require exhausting patience and excruciating labor, the growth would come.

That's the way the verse ends. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. And what he's saying here is that part of God's response to our prayer, part of his answer for his presence and for him to be working, is to actually send to the Holy Spirit to help us labor and sweat and work and toil on the grind to see growth come about. Jesus talks about this in the Psalms. Not in the Psalms, in the Gospels. He tells a story about a guy sowing seeds and he says, some of it fell on the road and some of it fell among rocks and some of it fell among thorns, but some of it fell among good soil.

And that produced a crop of 30, 60, 100 fold. Like even in Jesus' story, he's talking about how hard it is to sow seeds and to be planting. And the truth is, we often see God work like this through us. So we talk about planting the seeds of the Gospel, spreading the Gospel in the lives of people that God has placed us around. So maybe for you, that's the place that you work.

Maybe that's with your neighbors. Some of you, that's with your family. So like with your kids or your spouse. And it's painstaking. Your investment in their lives is just hard. It's difficult.

There are sleepless nights and tireless days. And you're shedding tears because it's just difficult. You can all think about those relationships right now where you've been investing for so long and you're just not seeing any kind of result. You're not seeing God at work. So maybe it's a co-worker.

It's someone that you work with and you've been talking to this girl about her relationship with her boyfriend. And you've been sharing the Gospel with her and you tell her that her worth and value doesn't have to come from that guy who sounds like a jerk based off of the stories. It can actually come from Jesus and she's actually, she's receptive to that. And you run into her the next week at work and she's really excited to tell you that she has since moved in with her boyfriend and wants to go on a double date with you and your husband. What the heck? Right?

You hear that and you're like, oh, what happened? What happened to the good conversation? Or maybe there's a guy that you work with that you've been inviting him to go get wings with the guys in your group. He came to your poker night. He's kind of a skeptical type person so he asks a lot of questions. But he's starting to see how Jesus is the answer to those questions.

And he comes by you in the warehouse. Hey, dude, I got that job in Philly. And like while his hand's in there, you just want to like get one of those jabs in. Dude, I didn't know you were looking for a job. Ah, yeah, man, I've been trying to get out of this dump for a long time. What about the countless hours that I've spent like pouring into what happens to this guy now?

Some of you have been like investing in the lives of your children. So like you're trying to teach them how to obey and like why obeying is good and should be motivated by the gospel. And they just got the third note sent home this week. And school's only been in session for two weeks and you're running out of patience. Your investment in their life is difficult. Some of you, you've been working in your marriage to really have the gospel come to bear.

You're trying to learn how to communicate. But they said that comment again. They brought that thing up again and you exploded and now you're in other rooms. You're having a hard time seeing it. It's hard. Planting seeds, sowing seeds is difficult and painstaking.

Some of you, maybe you've got some neighbors. You've been building with them. You've been investing in their lives. Like you've been watching their kids so they can go on date nights. You've been helping them do some yard work. And then in a discussion late one night, you point out an area of their life where there's some sin.

And they automatically become flaky. Not answering their phone. Not wanting to come to the door. They've just checked out. Sowing seeds is difficult. And it's even more difficult to see the results.

But what we're seeing in this Psalm is that some gospel work is just like that. It's long and laborious and costly. But that's not the only way. That's part of it. We get another picture of how God wants to bring about restoration. Go back to verse 4.

So we kind of skipped over this. We're going back to now. This is the beginning of the prayer. He says, Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev. Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev. Okay, so now the Negev, I already told you Israel is kind of a desert climate.

The Negev was like the desertiest part of the desert. Like it was the hottest of the hot. It was the, you see just the bones laying around everywhere. It's a rough patch in Israel. But every once in a while, torrential rains would come through that area.

And the small stream beds that kind of wiggle through the land would fill up, would overflow, and would flood the land. The flat land would be covered in water. And the land was so dry that it would soak up all of that water. And almost in a 24-hour period, it would go from looking like a desert to a green field. The landscape would be transformed in an instant. Like it was just sitting there waiting for it.

And the psalmist, as he's writing that, he's praying and asking, God, do that. Do the miraculous. Take desert and turn it into living land. Take it and make it green. Bring life. That's the miraculous.

So when you look at sowing seeds, and God bringing about this type of flood, the streams in the Negev, it's unbelievable. And that's what he's praying for. And that's what the story from Manhattan is. It's God sending his Holy Spirit and working in a big way. 50,000 people coming to Christ in just a nine-month period. I referenced the underground church in China.

Within the last century, the missionaries who had been serving in China got kicked out. And Christianity as a whole began to be persecuted. So the church had to go underground. So they just had to basically be the church in hiding. And so the handful of Christians, and it was still a pretty decent number, in the last century, the best estimates they can give is that the church in China is currently 60 million plus in the face of persecution, where they cannot openly be Christians and share the gospel. It's the same thing that we see.

If you read the book of Acts, that's all about the big movement of the Holy Spirit. So Jesus dies on the cross, rises from the grave, and ascends into heaven. And when he ascends into heaven, there's basically 120 believers. And he tells them to wait, wait to do anything until the Holy Spirit comes. And the Holy Spirit shows up at Pentecost. Peter stands up and preaches.

And 3,000 people get saved that day alone. The gospel begins to spread from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. And within the century, they estimated that there were one million Christians. That's a huge move of the Holy Spirit. And every time I hear stories like that, I just want that. God was doing stuff that people laboring could not accomplish.

It was miraculous. And let's be real. If we're looking for God to bring about restoration, to bring about healing, to bring about salvation, and our two options are for us to sow seeds with tears, so to be empowered by the Spirit to do that, or for God to send the Spirit like streams in the Negev, like a flood, I don't know about you, this is the one I want. For lots of reasons. I want as many people to come to know Jesus as possible. I want them to know the hope and the life and the joy found in Him.

The other part is, I know what this is like. This is what life is like for a lot of us. Where we're sowing seeds and we're working hard. And if I can just have the flood, I'll take that because I know what I'm struggling with and what I'm working through right now. That even though the verse ends with, we'll reap with songs of joy, it still makes it difficult. And the truth is, if our only option was that we, like for restoration, was that we would sow seeds with tears and that's how the restoration came about, I think it would almost be easier than if we didn't know about the flood part.

But sometimes God works through us sowing seeds and tears and sometimes it comes through the flood. There's a story from South Korea in 1907. Christians had been there for a while. They had been sharing the gospel and there was a, it hadn't really gained traction, but there were some believers at this time. And so they decided that they would try to get all the believers together and hold a conference. And so the night came for the conference to begin.

And a man by the name of Mr. King walked up to the podium, visibly shaken. And in a trembled voice said, I must confess before God and before you that for the last several weeks I have harbored an intense hatred for Mr. Lee. And I repent before God and before you. And the room fell silent.

Because Mr. King had just admitted to hating the person who was hosting the conference. So all the eyes turned to Mr. Lee and Mr. Lee was visibly taken aback, but gathered himself and said, Mr. King, I forgive you.

And what happened next is indescribable. One reporter tried to describe it and here's what he said. What happened next was a poignant sense of mental anguish due to the conviction of sin. After Mr. King publicly repented before God and to Mr. Lee, Christians all across the room began to repent of their sin.

They began to cry out to God and to confess their sins. And they were going around the room, going to their brothers and sisters and repenting of sin. And they were shedding tears because they were broken over it. What began in the early evening continued on to 5 a.m. the next day. And the Christians gathered the next night and the next night and the next night. And by the end of the week, the missionaries didn't know what was going to happen because the presence of God's spirit was so strong in that place they couldn't contain it.

And so all of those Christians went back to their homes. And they sought out people that they worked with and that they lived near, people that they had harmed, people that they had sinned against, and they started repenting to them. And as they repented to them of their sin, the people began to understand the good news of the gospel and those people started becoming Christians. Within a couple of weeks, there were hundreds of new Christians in South Korea. This eventually spread to a local college campus. And by the end of the semester, 90% of the students at that college had become Christians.

Christians, the people who were in the city started traveling out into the rural areas. And then people from the rural areas were walking upwards of 200 miles to get to a city to hear what God was doing. In a year's time, 50,000 people came to Christ. Thousands of churches were planted. And the gospel began to spread to all the neighboring Asian countries. And it hasn't stopped.

If you know a South Korean Christian, you know what's up because they're not playing around. I want that. I want to see that. I want to see God do that. Within a five-mile radius of this place right here, which includes parts of downtown, there are over 60,000 people outside of a relationship with Christ. There are estimates of about 600,000 people in Lexington and Richland counties.

And if you apply those same statistics across the board, you're looking at 100, 150, possibly 200,000 people who don't know Jesus. You work with some of those people. And they don't know Jesus. You frequent the restaurants where they work and they don't know Jesus. They don't know the hope and the life and the joy found in Him. And as a church, we're not okay with that.

We want to see as many people come to Christ as possible. So when I hear stories of the Holy Spirit being poured out, I want that. I want to see streams in the Negev. I want to see God pour His Spirit out. And here's what's even harder to grasp. God wants to send those streams.

He wants to. It's all throughout the Bible. Psalm 2.8 says this, Ask me and I will make the nations your inheritance. Matthew 9.38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field. Acts 1.8 You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Matthew 28 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.

The Bible is filled with the language of God wanting to send the flood, wanting to send the streams. How do we know? Because the streams of God's mercy flow from the cross of Christ. It's the sacrifice of Jesus that actually makes true restoration possible. That every bit of sweat and labor and work that as you invest in the lives of people that God's placed you around is only a shadow of the sacrifice that Jesus made on your behalf. The song that we just sang is an old hymn.

There is a fountain. It says this, There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And you hear that and you're like, that's kind of weird language, weird imagery, but it's not. So the blood comes from Emmanuel's veins. Emmanuel means God with us. That's Jesus.

What about the blood? Sinners, that's you and I, plunged beneath the flood, lose all their guilty stains. The flood of God's mercy and salvation and rescue come from the cross of Jesus. God desires to send it incomprehensibly more than you do. Even more than you want it. So much so that he was willing to allow Jesus to go to the cross to make it possible.

So how do you reconcile those two? How do you reconcile those two ways that God moves, that God brings about restoration? When it feels, when you're praying for streams in the Negev, when you're praying for the flood, and all it feels like is you're just sowing seeds in tears. Look at verse 6. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, shall return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. The harvest happens.

You see that? They come back with sheaves and with shouts of joy. And some of you this morning are tired. You're frustrated. You're emotionally burnt out. There are people in your life that you've just been investing in.

You've been sacrificing for. You've been pouring yourself out for it. And you're just not seeing the results. And I want you to see what this Psalm is saying. See the promise. Those who go out weeping shall return with songs of joy, carrying the results of the harvest with them.

Don't give up. Don't give up. Don't stop. Don't quit. God promises it. Don't stop.

The harvest is made possible because of Jesus. Not because of your ability to hold it together. Not because of your ability to be strong, but because of His. Keep fighting. The harvest comes. Jesus makes the harvest possible.

And here's the deal. Wanting to see God send streams in the Negev, wanting to see Him flood, doesn't stop us from continuing to sow seeds. So how do you reconcile these two? How do you reconcile them together? We keep sowing and we keep praying. We keep sowing and we keep praying.

These aren't mutually exclusive. It's not either or. It's both and. We keep sowing seeds and praying for God to send the Holy Spirit. And He's going to bring about the harvest. He promises to do it.

And sometimes it's going to be through sowing seeds. And other times it's going to be through a flood of His Spirit moving and working. Sometimes people talk about a big move of the Spirit and they use the word revival. There's a pastor in New York City. His name's Tim Keller. He's a really smart dude.

And so we're going to see what he has to say about this. I've got a quote. I want to put it on the screen. He says that revival is the intensification of the normal operations of the Holy Spirit through the ordinary means of grace. Okay, now English. Let's do English this time.

The big move of God's Spirit. So that's the intensification. Okay. Of the normal operations of the Holy Spirit. Okay, so it's the intensification. It's getting bigger.

It's a bigger move of God's Spirit in His normal operations. So what does the Holy Spirit do? We talk about this stuff all the time. The Holy Spirit leads us. He convicts us of sin. He leads us to repentance.

He helps us understand the Word. He is God's response to everything in our lives. He's what leads us in the day to day. He's what helps us have courage and boldness as we invest in the lives of people around us. So revival is the intensification of the normal operations of the Holy Spirit through the ordinary means of grace.

Okay, what's that? The ordinary means of grace are just the ordinary ways that God continuously works in our lives. So if you're using that farming metaphor, it's the tilling soil. It's planting seeds. It's watering them. It's the sunlight.

It's those types of things in the life of a Christian. It's the things that we know that bring about growth in us and growth in the lives of people around us. It's preaching the gospel. It's reading the Bible. It's praying. It's repenting of sin.

It's actually being invested in church community. It's going out and serving and being on mission. Like revival is not so much the Holy Spirit doing a new thing as it is pouring great power on the things that normal Christians are already doing. And so our response this morning, some of us, what we need to hear is, is keep sowing. Keep sowing seeds. Keep pursuing the ordinary means of grace.

Keep doing the ordinary while you're praying for God to do the extraordinary. And there's a ton of ways this shows up, but I've got four. I just want to show us this morning. Preach the gospel. Preach the gospel to yourself and to others. The gospel is the life-changing good news.

It is not just good news that it's salvation. It is good news for all of life, which means that as Christians, we're thinking about how does the gospel impact me at work? How does the gospel impact me as I'm a dad or as a husband? Like, how does the gospel impact that? It means that we're actually opening our Bibles and asking God to show us and to help us be obedient. It means we're looking at the people that we work with and listening to their stories and what's going on in their lives.

And we're asking, how is the gospel good news here? How can I share the gospel with this person? That's the ordinary stuff of Christians. And we're praying for God to do the extraordinary, which is to actually cause belief, which is to actually bring about salvation. Some of us need to be praying for our entire floor at work to be saved. Some of us need to pray for our entire school to be saved because God can do that.

And so we do the ordinary while praying for the extraordinary. The other thing is this, we repent of sin. The Bible is clear that there is nothing that grieves the Holy Spirit more than unconfessed sin. Some of you may be sitting there this morning and you know, you know what God is doing in you right now. You know the sin that you're pursuing and you're not repenting of it and you're going, where's God's presence? Where am I?

I'm not seeing him move. I'm not seeing him work. Part of the way the Holy Spirit moves and works is through the repentance of sin. That's what happened in the story from Korea. That's what we're fighting for in our community groups through openness and honesty. It's the ordinary stuff.

And we're praying for God to do the extraordinary. In a culture where the mantra is you do you, do whatever feels best, we're praying for people to be convicted of sin and to follow what the Bible says. We're praying for the extraordinary while we do the ordinary. We persist in prayer. This is really what we spent most of our time talking about last week, is that we understand that we're needy. That's the story of the guy going to his house at midnight.

That's asking, seeking, knocking, persistently asking for God to be at work and to send his Holy Spirit. And we pray about everything. Work, family, relationships. There's nothing that we can't ask for the Holy Spirit to be involved in. And the fourth thing is that we're the church. Be the church.

Be invested in God's means to save the world. That's what the book of Acts is. That's what the New Testament is. It's Jesus continuing to work. So we do the ordinary while praying for the extraordinary.

This church began as seven people in a house. It is no longer. There have been people who have met Jesus and have been baptized. And there are disciples who are making disciples. And there is one group that became two groups that became four groups that is now six groups. It's the extraordinary.

We keep sowing seeds and praying for the flood. In South Korea before that conference, just a few months, just a few months before that conference, the missionaries got together. And they had been there for 23 years and they were tired. They were ready to give up. They had all but decided to pack their bags and go home. They had spent 23 years preaching the gospel and repenting of sin and praying and being the church with very little results.

And what God did through the ordinary means of grace was intensified the move of the Holy Spirit. The move of the Holy Spirit came through the ordinary means of grace. It started by repenting of sin and took the country and surrounding Asian nations by storm. So we keep sowing seeds, praying for God to send the flood. And so in this two-week series, what we've seen is that we're needy. We need God.

We need His active work. We need His presence. And so God wants us to pray, asking for the Holy Spirit. And as we do that, we pursue the ordinary means of grace, asking for God to move and work. So what does that look like for us?

For us as a church, that means we're a gospel-centered community on mission. It means everything. It means we preach the gospel. It means we read the Bible. It means we're pursuing Jesus. It means we're preaching the gospel on Sundays.

It means we're sharing the gospel where we go. And we're existing in community, in biblical community with each other, where we bear one another's burdens and we love one another and we fight alongside one another. And we're on mission to see more people meet Jesus in our city. It's the ordinary. And we're asking God to do the extraordinary. The way our church continues to grow is through the multiplication of healthy groups.

Josh said that earlier. Most of you are here because you got invited into a community group. Someone that was in a group invited you. And so you want to know the flood that we're praying for? And I want you to grab a card in front of you. Grab a card and grab a pen.

They're in the seats right there in front of you. Grab a card, grab a pen. You want to know what we're praying for? Remember, we're praying for 24 healthy community groups in 2019. Do the math. Yeah, we're six now.

That means it's got to double and become 12. And it's got to double again and become 24. We're praying for God to bring about 24 community groups by 2019. By the end of 2019. Because if we've done that, that means disciples are being made. People are meeting Jesus.

Leaders are being trained. Our city is being impacted by the gospel. God is doing work. And it happens through us doing the normal things that Christians are to do. And so we're going to spend some time praying. The band's not going to come up quite yet.

We're actually going to spend some time praying over these things. Like I said, some of you are tired this morning. Some of you are having a hard time seeing God active and at work. And you're struggling. And you want to. Like you need to see Him at work.

And so I want you to write those four things down. Preach the gospel. I want you to write that down. Repent of sin. Persist in prayer. Be the church.

Write those down. And here's what we're going to do. We're going to have some music playing in the room. We're just going to spend some time praying. So I'm going to kind of call these things out.

And I want you to start praying. I want you to start praying and asking God to be active and at work in you. For God to send the Holy Spirit to be working and moving. So that you can sow seeds. So you can not faint or grow weary.

Because it's hard. But Jesus promises that the harvest comes. He does work in it. So all across the room, I want you to bow your head. I want you to pray that God would help you grow in your own understanding of the gospel. That God would help you grow in your own understanding of the gospel.

That God would help you grow to love Jesus. To love his word and to want to follow. So all across the room, if you can let him know, what to say, God would help you grow in your own understanding of the gospel. Thanks for warning, 떨어�ctive, for the gospel.

God's Glory and Our Neediness

God's Glory and Our Neediness

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Good morning. We're starting a new series today on prayer and the Holy Spirit. I have some very big, important news. Football is back. That means a whole, whole lot. It's a very, very special time of the year.

But I remember when I was in high school, I played football, and I was pretty good in high school. I was one of the bigger guys, one of the faster guys, one of the stronger guys on the team. We actually had a pretty good team. We won our region my junior and senior year, and we won state my senior year. And I got to go play football in college. And I remember getting to college and being at camp, and suddenly was not one of the stronger guys or faster guys or bigger guys and was completely in over my head.

Like I remember, like I thought I knew things about football. Would have told you, yeah, like I understand this game. And then I just remember showing up, and it was like at times, like they weren't even close to speaking English. Like I'm sitting in meetings, and I have no clue what they're talking about. Our coach would be drawn on a whiteboard, or he would actually have us out on the field, and he's moving people around, and he would say stuff like, all right, now if they come out in 10 personnel, and they got trips to the field, back to the field, we're going to be in 4-3 base. We're going to have two 2-I's, two 9-I's.

Will, if they come out in this, we're going to be in automatic bear blitz. Mike, you're going to have to have hook curl. We're going to have show two, roll 30 on the snap. We're going to have cover three to the right, and you're going to be backside corner. You're going to be man up. Now, if they shift the back to the weak side, Will, you've got to know you've got blitz peel.

If they send the slot into motion, which they'll do if they're inside the 40, or if they're over into the hash, then we're going to have to go banjo on both sides. We'll show three. You're going to check off the blitz, and Mike, you'll have a spot. And I remember, and he would do this. He would just over and over and over again, would shift around and move a guy and say, all right, now this is what happens. All right, this is what happens.

And I remember at one point looking at all the older guys and thinking, do they actually know what he's talking about? Or if they just learned to nod, and that's the best way to get through this. And I also remember thinking, I am so glad that I am not good enough to be on the field because I would mess this all up. Like, as soon as the ball snapped, I'd be like, a two-eye. I don't even know what that is. And would have just been in some serious trouble.

And honestly, I think it can be that way sometimes when we start hanging out with the church or we first become a Christian. As a church, we're a young church. Not only did we get planted just a couple years ago, but we have a lot of new Christians. And there's something about when you first start hanging out with Christians that you can at times feel like, I'm in over my head. Like, I don't understand what's going on. And I think this especially shows up in prayer.

Because I can remember being around and hearing prayers. And even here. So I'm going to walk you through a prayer that's perfectly legitimate. This is an acceptable prayer. I'm not making fun of this prayer. I just want you to hear it with the ears of someone who's just been around.

Just showed up. Just believe that Jesus dies for sin and that you can be saved. Like, just got that. And then we're like, alright, let's pray. And we bow our heads. You don't have to.

Because we're not actually praying. But this could be a prayer. And you bow your heads and it's like, God, Father God, we pray that you would humble our hearts. That you would circumcise our hearts, God. That we might approach you loving you. God, we ask you to open the eyes of our hearts.

That we might be a repentant people. God, we pray that you would crush our idols. That we wouldn't spend our lives drinking out of broken cisterns. That you would help us to be witnesses of your glory. And that we might be changed from one degree of glory to the next. As we behold the risen Christ.

Who has washed us in his blood. We pray, God, that you would sanctify us and purify us with your fire. Seven times. Amen. Now, that was scripture and perfectly okay things to pray. But if you just showed up, it's like.

And then here's what we do. Here, Christians. Just so you know. This is what you do. You pray that. And then you look at someone who just became a Christian and go, Do you want to pray?

Nope. I'd be like if the coach looked at me and said, Hey, Phillips, come here. You do the next one. Do the next one? I'd have been like, All right. They're going to have 11 guys.

One in the middle that they hand the ball to. That's the quarterback. Phillips, sit down. Yes, sir. Good call, coach. Like, I mean, that's about as good as I could do.

And we look at people and we're like, You want to pray? And it's like, No. Because what would you be like? God, help us do the good stuff. Help us not do the bad stuff. I'm sorry.

Amen. I didn't know how to insert circumcision. I broke down. I'm like, That's like, It's really, There's a lot when we first get around that it's like, And I think even as we continue to grow And as we continue to be around the church, We may pick up the word. Some of you grew up in churches. You've heard, you know, Traveling mercies and hedge of protection And upbuilding the kingdom.

And as we even, We learn these phrases. We know what they mean. We can use them in a sentence, Correctly in a prayer. I think we still have a lot of questions. When it comes to prayer, I have a lot of questions about, Why do we pray? How do we pray?

How should I pray? I think we all feel a little bit like, I should be praying more. Like, I know I should be, This should be, Like, I see that Jesus prayed. I see that Moses prayed. And David prayed. And the Psalms are a bunch of prayers.

But I just, I know I should be doing this. I don't really know how. And I kind of feel like I mess it up. And I kind of feel like I'm not good at it. And I'd like to get good at it. But I don't know how to get good at it.

I think we have that when it comes to prayer. And I think with the Holy Spirit, Like, you, You may be, You're just trying to get your mind around That the God of the universe exists as a trinity. Which means that He is three and one. And He's not more one than He is three. And He's not more three than He is one. He is God the Father, God the Son, And God the Holy Spirit.

And maybe you got that. Like, you got that on paper. You could put that on your Sunday school quiz. You don't really know what it means or how it works. But you could answer that correctly.

And if I were to ask, What's the Father do? You'd be like, Oh, well, the Father's like this. And God the Father does this. And He, you know, He's this. And it's like, What's Jesus do? Oh, I got this one.

He does this and does this and does this and does this. What's the Holy Spirit do? Well, He hangs out with God the Father and Jesus. I think the word regeneration is a word that He does. I don't know what that means. He does it.

Like, I think there's a little bit of like, When it comes to the Holy Spirit, We still maybe have some hesitation. And so what we're going to do, We're just taking two weeks. I hope you don't have a lot of questions Because they're not all going to get answered. We're taking two weeks. We're just trying to grow a little bit In our understanding practically Of how to pray And how prayer and the Holy Spirit Actually work together. How the Holy Spirit works through prayer.

And today specifically, We want to see one thing very clearly When it comes to prayer and the Holy Spirit. So I'm going to pray. We're going to ask the Holy Spirit to help us. And we're going to jump into scripture. God, we thank You That You're good to us. We pray, Lord, that You would, Through Your Holy Spirit, Give us wisdom.

Help us to understand Your word. And that we would grow today In our understanding of prayer. Our appreciation of prayer. And our understanding of the Holy Spirit. And to grow to appreciate. And love the Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Grab your Bibles. Go to Luke chapter 11. It's going to be on page 564. If you're in a blue and white Bible.

If you don't have a Bible at home, Take this one with you. It's our gift to you. If you have five of these Bibles at your house, Bring one back. No, I'm just kidding. But, uh, Um, So, uh, We're going to be in Luke chapter 11. Um, And we're going to look at what Jesus has to say.

Some of the stuff that Jesus has to say about prayer. And I think it's going to be helpful to us. Really practically in knowing How to think about prayer. And how we ought to approach prayer. Uh, Luke chapter 11 verse 1. Now Jesus was praying in a certain place.

And when he finished, One of his disciples said to him, Lord, Teach us to pray. As John taught his disciples. So, uh, This is recorded in Luke. It's recorded in Matthew chapter 6. The disciples come to him and say, Lord, teach us how to pray. Uh, Now, It seems like they would have, What they've seen is that prayer is important.

Jesus prays, We ought to learn how to do this. You would feel like maybe they would have asked him other things. Like, Teach us how to do miracles. Do that thing you do where you make food last forever. Like, I almost feel like at times they'd be like, Jesus, I bet you can't multiply this sandwich. Like, Like, You would feel like they would come talk to him about other things, But they come and they say specifically, Teach us how to pray.

Help us pray. And so Jesus says, When you pray, Say. So he's just saying, Hear the words to prayer. Now, Raz walked us through this the other day. Uh, A couple Sundays ago. We're going to walk back through it, Talk really quickly about what he's saying to say.

Because he's then going to get into more of why we pray, Or how we ought to think about prayer. He says, When you pray, Say this. Father, Hallowed be your name. We don't use the word hallowed. Um, It really just means, May your name be honored. May you be, Uh, Honored above everything else.

And so really, When you begin praying, You're doing two things. One is, You're worshiping. So you ought to remember how good God is, And what he's done. And you also are asking him to mean more to you than anything else. Help me to love you more than I love anything else. Father, Hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come. Meaning that, May the world look more like your kingdom. May, May earth look a little more like heaven. May more people meet you. May more people come to know you. Repent of their sin.

May your kingdom expand. Give us each day our daily bread. So, Supply our needs. Take care of us. Pray about practical things here. Forgive us our sins.

So it's a normal way for us to pray, To consistently repent of sins. To notice where we're wrong. To repent. For we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. So he's saying, Uh, You need to realize that part of the way you are forgiven, Is you forgive other people.

To help you remember that. To keep that going. And to pray specifically about forgiveness. Forgiving others. And lead us not into temptation. So Jesus spends a good bit here just saying, You need to be aware of sin.

Run from sin. Ask God to protect you from sin. Repent of sin. And help forgive other people who have sinned against you. Um, Which, That's, That's important because if you've been around people long, Or if you've been a person long, Sin's been a big issue for you. So Jesus says you should pray about it a good bit.

Um, He says this, He said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go? So, He immediately jumps right in. They ask him how to pray. He says, Say these words. And then he jumps right into talking about, Uh, How to think about prayer. So he does this a lot.

Uh, If you'll notice in, In the, In the Bibles. He doesn't just say, Hey, Quote this prayer. Quote this prayer. Quote this prayer. He's going to say, Okay, When you pray, Here are things you ought to pray about. But then he's going to spend way more time saying, Here's how you ought to think about prayer.

Because if we understand how to think about prayer, If we understand what the point of prayer is, The purpose of prayer, Like why we're praying, Then what we're saying will just come naturally. So he's saying, Here's how you ought to think about it. And so we're going to look, Walk through this passage, And begin to see, What he says about how we ought to think about prayer. He said to them, Which of you, Who has a friend, Will go to him at midnight, And say to him, Friend, Lend me three loaves. Okay, Three loaves, Somebody said that that could feed a family of six for a week. So it wasn't like, Hey, Can I have a glass of water?

It was like, Can I have everything in your pantry? He knocks on the door at midnight. The guy's like, What? And he says, Hey, You got a couple loaves of bread, And some deli meat, And I'm going to need some mayonnaise, Dukes preferably, And are you writing this down? It's going to be long. I'm going to need, Like, He's asking for a lot of food here at midnight.

Knocks on his friend's door. They're not friends anymore. But he knocks on his friend's door. All right. Friend, Lend me three loaves, For a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, And I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within.

Do not bother me. The door is now shut. My children are with me in bed, And I cannot get up and give you anything. So they would have been just basically, Most houses were one room. Everybody slept in the same room. And so the guy doesn't even get out of bed.

He just yells from bed. Because of the ridiculousness of the situation. This guy's banging on his door at midnight, And is like, Hey, I need a lot of food. And his response is, From bed. No! My kids are asleep.

Which, Not anymore. Shouty. But, That's how he responds. And then Jesus says this, I tell you, Though he will not get up, And give him anything, Because he is his friend, Yet because of his impudence, He will rise, And give him, Whatever he needs. Impudence means, Shameless, Audacity, Bold, Craziness, Like he, He, He just, Presumes upon his friend, Aggressively. Like, No warning, Ridiculous request, At a terrible time of day.

He's assuming a lot, About his friend. And what Jesus says, He's not going to get up, Because he's his friend, He's actually going to give him this, Because of how big, The request was. How crazy, The request was. There's this moment where, In life, You see these moments, Where it's like, Everybody just freezes, And watches someone, And is like, Is this really happening? This person chose to do this right now? You're going to talk to your mom like that, At the Walmart?

Like that's what we're doing, Right now? Like, Like this is this, This kind of like, Are you seriously? This is as shameless, As we're going to get, And this is what his friend's doing, And Jesus says, He's not going to give it to him, Because he's his friend, He's going to give it to him, Because of how bold he is. Here, So then he says this, This is such a beautiful concept, For prayer. I tell you, So now he's, The disciples might have been confused, At this point. They said, How do you pray?

He says, Here's how you pray. And then he just jumps into a story, And says, Which of you will go knock on your friend's door? It's almost like he's like, Tomorrow I'm going to need one of y'all, To go knock on your friend's door, At midnight, And get us three loaves of bread. But he's, He's turned it into a parable, He's telling a story, And then he's going to, Explain what he's saying. So he says, Which of you, Will do this?

And then in verse nine he says this, I tell you, Ask, And it will be given to you. Seek, And you will find. Knock, And it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, Receives. And the one who seeks, Finds. And to the one who knocks, It will be opened.

Can we pause for a second? How beautiful of a promise is that When it comes to prayer? Ask, And you will receive. Seek, And you will find. Knock, And it will be opened. That's what he says about prayer.

Some of you right now have been praying for something, And you're wanting to stop. And what Jesus says about prayer is, Don't stop. The verbs there in the Greek are actually like, Asking. They're continual. So keep asking.

Keep seeking. Keep knocking. And the promise is, You'll receive. You'll find. It'll be opened. Because here's what he's saying.

We ought to think about how we ought to approach prayer. There's a story about Alexander the Great. He was a Greek king, Who took over this giant patch of land, Like just conquered people. And at one of his chief army people, One of his generals came to him and asked, Will you pay for my daughter's wedding? So he came to Alexander the Great, And said, Will you pay for my daughter's wedding?

Alexander the Great had a guy, Because Alexander the Great was king and general, Had a guy who handled his money. He said, Go ask him. Tell him how much you need. Go ask him what you need to pay for your daughter's wedding. So the guy says, Thank you.

Leaves. The guy who handles Alexander the Great's money, Comes back to him shortly after and says, So the general who said, You might want to pay for his daughter's wedding. Can I show you how much money he just asked for? And he shows him the sum, And it was outrageous. Like it was way more money than Alexander the Great Had ever given to anybody. And it was just for a wedding.

And so the guy who handles Alexander the Great's money, Comes over to him and is like, I didn't know what to say to him, Because, Look at this. And Alexander the Great looks at the sum, And he looks at the guy who handles his money, And he says, Give it to him. And the guy says, Why? And he says, Because he does me great honor. He thinks I'm both rich and generous. And what Jesus is saying, Is when we come to God, We should presume, We should assume, Boldly, audaciously assume, That he's rich and generous.

That he will answer if we knock. Because if you come bang on my door in the middle of the night, And ask for a ridiculous amount of things, Part of me is going to think you are crazy, And part of me is going to think, You think way more highly of me than you ought to. Because something in your brain made you think, This was going to work out. That I wouldn't open my door and physically assault you. Surprise! I'm going to open a can, But it's not going to happen.

I'm sorry. Alright. Like, But there would be part of you that would be like, Man, This person thinks I'm all, Alright, I guess I am. Like, That's what he's saying. It's like, We get to presume upon God that he's very generous, And very gracious, And that if we keep asking, And if we keep seeking, And if we keep knocking, He'll answer, Because he's that big, And he's that good, And he's that loving, And he's that generous. That's an amazing promise for prayer.

Because praying is hard sometimes. And continually praying over the same thing is absolutely difficult. But what he says is, Go to God with audacious requests, Because that honors him. Go to him with things that are God sized, Because that honors him. That he gets to look at us and go, Yeah, That's audacious. That's a crazy request.

And I'm big enough to handle it. Let's keep going. So Jesus is teaching about prayer. How we ought to think about it. Verse 11. What father among you, So think about, If you're a father, If you think about your father, Or think about a father you know, What father among you, If his son asks for a fish, Will instead of a fish, Give him a serpent?

Or if he asks for an egg, Will give him a scorpion? What father do you know that will do that? The answer to Jesus' question is, No father would do that. Because that's ridiculous. Not even close. That's the point of his question.

How many fathers you know, Think it's hilarious to give, Poisonous dangerous animals, To their little kids. Isn't that funny? No, It's not funny. Nobody does that. I've got a son, He doesn't speak English very well. He did learn cookie.

He knows ball, Cookie, Thank you, And daddy. And he's getting around life pretty well with those four right now. If he wants food, He'll say ball twice deeply. Like he uses ball for like 15 different things. And then one day, Someone gave him a cookie, And he thought, I need to memorize this word, Because I want this specifically at times. There's food, Which is ball, Ball, And then I, Cookie.

Like I need that one. And at no point has he been like, Cookie, And I've been like, It's going to be so funny, But I'm going to give him rusty nails. Like that's never happened. Like I want to, I want to give him a cookie. Like if he says cookie to me, He gets a cookie. I don't care what his mom says, He's getting a cookie, He said cookie.

That's just how it's working right now. That won't last forever, But it works right now. What Jesus just said was, The two ways that he's right now, Giving us to think about prayer, Is presume upon God audaciously, That he's bigger and better, Than you could imagine. And know that he's a good father, Who gives good gifts to his children. 13, If you then, Who are evil, Know how to give good gifts to your children. That seems like a mean turn for Jesus to take.

He says you're evil. But that's true. We're messed up. We're sinful. We're selfish. But we still do really good things for our kids.

Watch a mafia movie. Those guys will go from like, Having a guy's head in a vice, And then they'll go give their daughter a pony. Like that's, That's what he's saying. It's like we're evil, But we give good gifts to our children. And he says, If you're like that, How much more? How much more?

Will your father in heaven? And here's what he says. This is his big ending. If you then, 13, Who are evil, Know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Boom.

That's Jesus' big ending to this section. How much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Now, If you're like me, When he said Holy Spirit, You got confused. It feels like, By the time he makes this big conclusion, Like he sticks the landing. Holy Spirit. That was the point of this whole thing.

How much more will he give you the Holy Spirit? There's an exclamation Mark. It was like he got super excited at the end. And immediately I'm like, Did I miss something? Did we take a turn? I don't see how that's the, Earlier, When he said, If you ask, You'll receive.

If you seek, You'll find. If you knock, It'll be opened. I was thinking about a lot of things. The Holy Spirit wasn't one of them. Like I was thinking about things I'm asking for, Or seeking, Or knocking. You know.

But I wasn't thinking about the Holy Spirit. Maybe y'all are just like way more spiritual than I am. I was thinking about other stuff. And so he gets to the end and says, How much more will he give you the Holy Spirit? And I'm suddenly like, What? And here's really most of the time how I've treated this passage.

Okay. And just kept reading. And didn't think about it. But here's what it means. If we get to this point in the passage, And Jesus says Holy Spirit. And we're confused.

It means that Jesus knows something about the Holy Spirit. That I don't. If he thinks the Holy Spirit is the good gift, And I was thinking about a lot of other things, He knows something about the Holy Spirit that I don't. He knows something about prayer and the Holy Spirit that I don't. Because he says, We ought to approach God audaciously, Knowing that he's our Father. And I've got really good news for you.

He'll give you the Holy Spirit. And we're supposed to be very excited. But part of me is like, I don't understand how that works. Or why I should be that excited. Y'all with me on that? Okay.

He does this another time in John. We're going to just show this on the screen. Where he talks about the Holy Spirit. And he says something that just feels like, I have a hard time knowing that that's true. You've got to think about it a little bit. So John chapter 16 verse 7 says this.

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. Jesus is talking to his disciples. He says, It's better for you that I, Jesus, go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper, that's the Holy Spirit, that's why it's capitalized, will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

So later in this passage, he explains definitively that's the Holy Spirit. So here's what he just said. You're better off if I leave. Because if I leave, I'll send you the Holy Spirit. Now, if we got to take a vote, and Jesus could be our pastor, let's do it. Let's do it.

Let's install him as our pastor right now. That would be great. And Jesus says, No. You're better off if you have the Holy Spirit, and I'm not here. You're better off if I go away, and you're filled with the Holy Spirit, than if I'm here, and you don't have the Spirit. Now, part of me is like, I'm not sure that's true.

Which means I don't know what Jesus knows about the Spirit. So here's what we see in Scripture. Jesus was filled with, and led by, and worked through, the Holy Spirit. So in Luke, and Matthew, and Mark, when he's baptized, it says the Holy Spirit, came upon him, and then the Holy Spirit, led him. And over and over again, we see in Luke, that Jesus is working through the Holy Spirit. And then, when the church is birthed, and in Acts, we see that they're led by, and worked, worked through, the Holy Spirit works through, them.

That the Holy Spirit, is actually how healing happens. The Holy Spirit, is actually who, reconciles people, who changes people's hearts. It's the Holy Spirit that actually, leads us to repentance, and convicts us of sin. It's the Holy Spirit, that's actively at work, in life, for our good. At work in us, for our good. At work in our situations, for our good.

It's the Holy Spirit, that empowers all of that. And what Jesus is saying, is, while I'm here, you can't have the Holy Spirit, because your sin, hasn't been taken care of. And while I'm here, I'll be the only one, fully controlled by, led by, the Holy Spirit, working through, the Holy Spirit, and the world is worse off, and you're worse off. But if I go to the cross, and pay for your sin, then I'll send the helper, who will fill you, and lead you, for your good, for your salvation, and for the world, to be changed. See, Jesus has to go to the cross, has to die for us, in order for the Holy Spirit, to lead us, and fill us, and use us.

And here's why this is, huge. Here's really what we need, to understand from this passage. Three really simple points. You get to be, a needy child. Not you have to be, you get to be. In your approach to God, you get to be, a child, presuming upon, his generosity, and his goodness, towards you.

You just get to assume, he loves you, and is good to you, and at work for you. My son right now, the younger he is, the more of me he gets. The older he gets, the less of me he gets. Now he'll get different aspects of me, when we can start conversing, and those kind of things. But right now, he gets a whole lot of me, because he can't do anything.

Hardly. One of the things he does, on a regular basis, is this. This just means, pick me up. Let's do this thing. When I pick him up, he then does this. Like you think, maybe he wanted a hug.

He didn't. He wants to be carried somewhere. Like your legs are longer, and you're taller, and he'll do this. So we just walk, wherever he's pointing. And then we usually, like get to the counter, or something, and he does this. Well he doesn't talk, so I have to try to figure out, what it is he wants.

And here's what's beautiful. Because he's needy, he gets to be close to me, and I work on his behalf, and God says, we get to do the same thing with him. We get to say, God you're bigger than me, you're stronger than me, you're better than me, and I trust that you're good, and you're for my good, and I can just run to you, and rest in you, and trust in you, and hope in you, and you'll go to work, because you're big enough to do it. You can handle it, and here's what's great, he doesn't talk, my son doesn't talk, and he'll do this, and I'll hold a thing up, and he'll go, and I'll go, okay no, this, alright, this, I have not once, and he'll just go, ah, there's the noises he makes.

I've never once looked at him, and said, let me explain something to you. Until you get perfect diction, you will get nothing from me. Learn your words, child. Hadn't done that. I have told him, it'll be easy, when he learns how to talk, but I haven't, I haven't not gotten stuff for him. Some of us, we're afraid to pray, because we don't know what to say, but that's because you're assuming, God's not a big, good father, who doesn't care.

You don't have to have the right words. You don't have to have perfect, you're going to impress him? He's waiting for you, open to you, responds to you, loves you, wants to enjoy you, that's, that's what, that's what a good father does. So, you see, we get to be needy, and God is a good father. You get to go to him with everything. And the third thing, that's massively important for us, is the Holy Spirit is the good gift.

The best thing, God can give you, is himself. And he does that, through the person, and the work, of the Holy Spirit. That's how we get, God. You could not have God, outside of the cross. You couldn't be, connected with him, you couldn't be, redeemed by him, rescued by him, he couldn't come, and take you, and make you his, outside of him, paying for your sin. You see, us, getting the Holy Spirit, is what Jesus died for.

When Jesus said, how much more will God, go to any length, to give you the Holy Spirit, how much more, would this good Father, give you the Holy Spirit? He had in mind the cross. That's how far, God was willing to go, to give us himself. The best thing, he can ever give us, is himself. To be actively, at work in us, changing us, leading us. I mean, Jesus didn't have to die, for you to get a promotion.

He didn't have to die, for you to be, in that relationship, you want so badly. He didn't have to die, for you to have a nice house. He didn't have to die, for us to have, wealth or health. He didn't have to die, for any of that. That was all happening, long before the cross. Jesus had to die, so that we could have him.

It is the best gift, we can ever get, is the Holy Spirit. And, it's the point of prayer. Let me explain this to you, because I just want us to see, why Jesus says, when we pray, what we're asking for, is the Holy Spirit. My wife and I, we get in arguments, from time to time. We've been married for seven years, we're not pros at this yet. We're good at arguing, we're not pros at being married.

So here's what will happen sometimes, we'll get in an argument, and we'll be in different rooms, and that's how you know, argument's not going well. At least that's how it works, at my house. Like if I'm in this room angry, and she's in that room angry, conversation wasn't good. It didn't work well. One of us, left, angrily. And we're doing that thing, like, I don't know, some of y'all in relationships, you're doing that thing, where you're making as much noise as possible, because you're angry.

So it's like, I'm going to get a spoon, bam! Eating cereal, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Like, you just, you need the other person, they're not in the room with you, but you need them to know, I'm eating cereal, but I'm still mad at you. Chewing loudly, like you get the crunchiest cereal you got. Ha-da-da-da-da. Like, you know what I'm saying?

Like, okay, so this means the, like, it's not gone well, we're in different rooms, we're both angry, and here's what's going on in my heart. I'm walking around, and I'm thinking, okay, I'm not eating cereal, because I don't do that when I'm angry. I'm sitting here going, okay, I, I, I married a crazy person, and her brain doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't work good. Like, there's something wrong with her, and she's so, she's so wrong, and sinful, and I, I told her that so clearly, and she just refused to see it. And this is, like, I'm just walking around, and here's what I need in that moment. I need the Holy Spirit in me, and in her, or this doesn't go well.

Here's the prayer I need to be praying. Not, God, you gave me a crazy wife. God, God, I need you right now, through your Holy Spirit, to lead me, because I cannot see my own sin, I can only see hers. And if I'm actually going to see my sin, I need you to show up and talk to me, because I realize, if we're in different rooms, and we've been arguing, I'm not completely right here. I need you to see my sin. I need you to help her see her sin.

I need you to help me, if I see my sin, to actually repent. God, I need you, to be at work in me right now, so that I can pursue her, like Christ pursued the church, so that I can actually go to her, because what I want to do, is sit down, and make a power move, where she has to come to me. I want her to have to come back to me, feeling sorry, and being sad. I want to tell her to sit down, and we're going to handle this, because I want to be the biggest, baddest person in the room right now, but I need you, God, to be the biggest, baddest person in the room right now, and I need you to change my heart, and I need you to help me see my sin, and if I see my sin, and you help me do that, I need you to help me say that out loud.

Baddest person in the room right now, but I need you, God, to be the biggest, baddest person in the room right now, and I need you to change my heart, and I need you to help me see my sin, and if I see my sin, and you help me do that, I need you to help me say that out loud. I need to be able to talk about my sin, without pointing at hers, and God, if I go in and confess sin, and her response to me is, you're right, you did do that, I'm going to need you to help me, not lose it. But God, I need you to be at work in her too, and I need you to help us both know we're sinners, and I need through the power of your Holy Spirit, for us to actually be reconciled,

And God, if our marriage is ever going to be good, it's going to be because you go to work on us, and the best thing God can give me is himself, and the best thing he can give her is himself, and if he gives her himself, and he gives me himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit, then we can actually have something good, but even if we can't, but I get more of Jesus, I'm going to be okay. See, Jesus died to give me himself, for the Holy Spirit to be able to enjoy me, and lead me, and help me, and that's the best thing I'll ever receive from him. Your boss calls you into his office, immediately, if you don't jump onto the worry track, of oh my goodness, I'm about to lose my job, it's going to be the worst thing I've ever had,

Like if you don't do that, if you actually can pray, then yeah, you can pray, God, help us to be good, help him to just want to give me a high five, or a promotion, or something, but we need to begin to pray, that the Holy Spirit would be at work, like the prayer needs to be, God help me, through your Holy Spirit, that if I walk into that office, and it actually is a promotion, or a raise, I need your Holy Spirit to be at work in me, so that I won't begin to immediately believe, that money is the greatest thing, that has ever existed on the planet earth, I need you to be at work in me, so that I won't immediately believe, that power of prominence,

Or a new office, or a new title, is actually what makes me whole, and complete, and God, on the other side of it, if I walk in that office, and this is the last day I ever stepped foot in this building, I need you at work in me, because I'm going to, I'm going to want to believe, that my self-worth, that my value, walked out the door, and I need you, to help me to respond graciously, I need you to be at work in me, I need the Holy Spirit, some of you in college, you just met your roommates, or you're just getting back around your roommates, and it takes, I don't know, a week,

Two weeks, to realize you dislike them, so, welcome back, you may, you may actually get along with them pretty well, but here's the problem, is that they're a sinner, and so are you, and so there's going to be some issues, there'll be some loud cereal eating, and there'll be moments, where you need to be praying, God, they use up all my ink, and they eat all my food, and they act like that's okay, and I want to, hit their computer with a bat, or something, but I need you to help me, be gracious to them, I need you to help me, to be forgiving,

I need you to help me, to know, that I only take from you, I need your Holy Spirit, to be at work in me, so that I can actually love them, like you love them, because I don't love them, if they got expelled, I would laugh, for a long time, I might even dance, God, I need you to help me care about them, because I don't, I need you to be at work in me, to give me peace and joy, in the midst of the situation, regardless of how it works out, some of you have lost a job, you've lost a loved one, and we need to begin to pray, God, I don't see,

I don't see you, I don't see how this will ever be good again, I don't see how life is worth living anymore, I don't see how, how any of this turns out okay, and I need you God, to comfort me, to lead me, to give me peace, in the midst of a situation, that would never have it, God, I need your Holy Spirit, and what he says is, he's a good father, who wants to answer that prayer, who wants to lead us, who wants to change us, who wants to give himself to us, so much so that he died, to do that, he loves you, you get to be needy, he is a good father,

And the Holy Spirit is the good gift, the situations right now, the things you began to think about, when it said that you could ask, that you could seek, that you could knock, the answer to that prayer, the best answer you'll ever get, is that God gives you more of himself, to give you rest, to give you peace, to give you joy, in the midst of any circumstance, there was a missionary named John Patton, who went to the New Hebrides, it's an island that had cannibals on it, and his story is really interesting, but he lost his wife, and he lost his children, and at one point, he was being chased by the cannibals, like they were having a, like a tribal war, but nobody liked him,

So if anybody found him, he was going to die, and he was being chased, and he climbed a tree, and he was in a tree, for like 24 hours, and he wrote later, that the best time he ever had, he said, he said, he said, was in that tree, he said, when all he had, was Jesus, and he said, how many times, I wouldn't give, to just be back in that tree, where I knew a peace, and a joy, and a love, that I didn't know, and had all this other going on,

That the best time I ever had, was when he just gave me, a whole lot of himself, and the promise is, he wants to answer that prayer, so much so that he died, for us to have that privilege, and that joy, and we get to pray, for the Holy Spirit, so here's what we're going to do, because we need the Holy Spirit, because in the midst of our anxiety, and our depression, what we need, is the Holy Spirit, to come help us, to free us, to give us joy, in the midst of trying to see people, meet Jesus, there's 60,000 people, in like this little area, of West Columbia,

Who don't know Jesus, how many people are in this room, our goal is to see, those people meet Jesus, but we're not doing that, like that doesn't happen, with just us, we're trying to multiply, community groups, we want to multiply, healthy community groups, to be gospel centered, communities on mission, in this area, to see more people meet Jesus, but that doesn't happen, outside of the Holy Spirit, leading us to sacrifice, leading us to find joy, in his mission, leading other people, to see their sin, and to repent, we're about to have baptisms,

In a couple of weeks, that happens, because the Holy Spirit, has been at work, to help people see their sin, to help people, want to know him, that he's been rescuing, redeeming people, there's so much, that we have to pray for, that we need, the Holy Spirit, to be active in, there will be times, there will be times, and maybe you've got them, going on right now, in your life, when you have, absolutely, no clue, what needs to happen, life is such a train wreck,

It's in, there's a relationship, in such a knot, that you have no clue, even how to approach it, but here's what we're promised, you get to walk up to God, and pray, send your Holy Spirit, because if your Holy Spirit, takes over, they'll repent, and I'll repent, and there'll be grace, and there'll be joy, and there'll be reconciliation, like if your Holy Spirit, gets this situation, it turns out well, I don't know what needs to happen, I don't know what decision, needs to be made, but I know that if you show up, it'll be okay,

So here's what we're going to do, if you're a note taker, a writer, I just want you to grab, there's pens, and sheets in front of you, we're going to spend, a little bit of time praying, actively asking our good Father, to give us the Holy Spirit,

The Covenants Fulfilled

The Covenant Fulfilled

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Good morning. We're in the last week of our Covenant series. We've spent the summer walking through the promises that God made in the Old Testament about what He was going to do and how He was going to redeem His people. There's an old Greek epic called The Odyssey. It was by Homer. And in that story, Odysseus, who's the main character, he goes with the Greeks to attack the Trojans.

They eventually beat the Trojans through the Trojan horse. They defeat Troy. And then he gets stuck for ten years. So his wife's back home. He's stuck. And the whole odyssey is him traveling to try to get back to his wife.

And while he's gone, people just assume he's dead. And all these guys show up and start hitting on his wife. Like they're suitors. They're trying to get her to marry them. And so they just kind of encamp around his house. They're all, you know, talking, you know, mad game and trying to get her to fall in love.

And she's holding out as best she can and kind of remaining faithful. And Odysseus is trying to get back to her. And eventually he goes in disguise and actually wins his wife back. She holds a tournament and he wins his wife back and actually reclaims what was his all along. Because of his love for her, he pursues her and makes her his again. And as we have looked through history into scripture and seen God's big story of history, we actually see a very similar story where God through sin loses his people.

That we actually took part in the rebellion and he loses us and he promises, I'm going to get you back. And so we've looked at all the covenants as he's followed through pursuing to redeem and to reclaim his people. The biggest difference in this story though is that where Odysseus' wife was faithfully waiting for him, humanity and Israel were not faithful to God. We weren't waiting patiently for him to redeem us. We loved every single suitor that came along and hit on us. We listened to every little sweet word they whispered and thoroughly appreciated it and enjoyed it.

That's why the Bible repeatedly refers to Israel as God's wife. Like he says, I'm your husband. But he also says that Israel is a whore because they ran after every single other God that came along. But God is faithful to pursue. And so what we've been doing is walking through, looking at these promises, looking at these covenants and looking at how God has actively pursued his people to redeem them and bring them back to himself. And so we've been following along with this slide.

We've used this the whole time. We drew it up on a whiteboard when we first got started. What we said was we lost everything in the fall. We were in Eden and it was perfect and it was wonderful. And our relationship with God was great. We were his people in his presence, in his place.

And then we rebelled and we fell in sin and death, entered the world. And that God consistently made these promises and these covenants to work us back to the new earth, back to his place as his people in his presence, back to redeem the picture of what was lost in the fall. We said at the very beginning that all of this would help us understand the Old Testament a little better and help us see Jesus more clearly. That as we saw these promises, we would begin to understand more clearly who Jesus is and what he's accomplished for us. And so we lost everything in the fall. And the original covenant with Adam was that he and Eve would be fruitful and multiply.

They'd fill the earth. They'd have dominion over it. And they would worship God. But they don't do that. They rebel. And so then God makes a promise to the serpent that led them astray.

He says, sin's not going to win. Eventually there's going to be a, he says that I will put enmity between you and Eve, between your offspring, her offspring and you. She will bear a son and he will, you'll bruise his heel, but he'll bruise your head or he'll crush your head. So Jesus comes as that promised offspring to Eve. He was born of a virgin. All in the Bible.

When it gives genealogies, it says this guy had this guy, had this guy, had this guy. It's man to man to man to man. Every once in a while, they'll tell you this was the name of their sister. Every once in a while, they'll say, and this was his wife. If they somehow showed up in the story, but mostly they're just going to write down men's names. But at the very beginning, God says there's going to be a woman who's going to have a son.

And he's pointing to the virgin birth of Christ. So Jesus shows up as the fulfillment of that promise. He promises that sin won't win. And then we move forward a little bit. Noah's here and everybody is terrible. So God has wrath towards sin.

And the question we run into is what's God going to do with our sinfulness? And he's going to punish it. But he tells Noah, I'm going to redeem y'all. I'm going to save you. And then when Noah gets off the ark, he makes a covenant with him that he's not going to do this again. That he's still going to have wrath for sin, but he's not going to take it out on earth again.

He's not going to just pour it out on earth. He's actually, what we find out later, is he's going to pour it out on himself. That Jesus is going to take God's wrath towards sin on the cross. It comes to Abraham. He says, I'm going to give you offspring. And through your offspring, all of the world will be blessed.

Jesus is that promised offspring. He makes a blood covenant with Abraham. And he says, I will destroy you if you disobey me. That's what the blood covenant should have said. But what God makes the covenant with him, he says, I'll destroy me if you disobey me.

And Jesus fulfills that by being the sacrifice to pay for Abraham and Abraham's lineage's guilt. He comes to Moses, gives him the law, brings him into the promised land. And ultimately we find out that Jesus is the high priest and the sacrifice. The high priest that stands in between us and God and the sacrifice that pays for our sin. Jesus continually fulfills all these promises. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law on our behalf.

He comes to David and says, I promise that there will be a king that comes from your lineage that will sit on the throne forever. Some of y'all, you became a Christian or you're like, all right, I'm finally, maybe you weren't a Christian, you're going to check this out. I'm going to read the Bible. I'm going to sit down. I'm going to start reading in the New Testament. You're like, I'm going to do this for real this time.

You open the New Testament and it was like, this guy had this son who had this son who had this son who had this son who had this son. And you were like, oh my goodness, why does it start like this? And the reason is because Jesus came as the promised son of Abraham and the promised son of David. And the New Testament begins because it was writing to a people who knew these promises. And it's saying, I want to show you something. When Jesus shows up on the scene, he didn't come out of nowhere.

He's a child of these promises. And Jesus ultimately becomes the king who rules and reigns forever. And one of the things you hear about Jesus all the time is that Jesus died for our sin. And what we've said is that Jesus fulfilled these promises. The reason Jesus isn't just a point, but he's two points there, is that Jesus dies on the cross to pay for our sin. And then ultimately he returns to bring his church to himself to exist with him in eternity.

And we're kind of in that middle zone. But here's the question. How? How? Like, I see that he fulfilled some of those promises, but how does he do that? Like, what?

I know he died, but how does his death accomplish anything? Like, how does it fix the problem? Like, I see that he comes in line with these promises. I see that he's going to be the king. I see that he's going to fulfill the law. I see that.

But how does his death actually accomplish this? Let's go to Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31. This is in the midst of where we left off last week. Because where we left off last week, the people of Israel had had it all together. They had finally gotten it.

They were God's people back in his place, in his presence. And then they just derail. It is off the tracks. It's not even close anymore. They're held captive in another nation. There is no Israel.

There is no temple. There is no king. We read that Psalm where he says, you threw the crown and the throne in the dirt. Like, you have rejected and cast us off. And so Jeremiah is writing. He's prophesying in the midst of that.

And here's what he says. We're going to start in verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. So he's referring to the law.

When he rescued the people from Egypt, he made a covenant with them. He said, if you'll just be good, if you'll just obey me, if you'll just follow these laws, then everything will be great and you'll stay in the land. It'll be wonderful if you'll just keep it together. But he says it's a new covenant. It's not going to be like that one. Which is good because that one didn't work out.

He says, not like the covenant that I gave them when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. So he says, I brought them to myself like a husband takes a wife. And I said, you're going to love me and I'm going to love you and this is going to work out. And they broke that covenant. They did not stay faithful to God.

33. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.

So the two main components of the new covenant that he's going to make with Israel is this. He's going to put the law on their heart. I mean, he's actually going to go inside and change their heart. He's going to change their love, their desire, their motivation. And he's going to forgive them their sin because that's the main issue that we have. That's the biggest problem with the old covenant.

The one that he says he's replacing was that God was fine. The people weren't so great. Like he held up his end. It was Israel that had the problem. Like we were the problem. Like is us, humanity that couldn't keep it together.

And so what he says is I'm going to step in and I'm going to fix the issue. You see, the sin was the issue. And so if Jesus is going to save us, redeem us and fix us, he's got to take care of sin. And there's two primary issues when it comes to sin. Our guilt. We've actually broken the covenant.

We've rebelled. We stand before God guilty. Those of you who are familiar with the Ten Commandments, like we can't even keep those together. And then Jesus shows up and he says it's not just adultery but lust. It's not just murder but hate. Like he even says it's worse than you think.

Your hearts are broken. We're guilty. We don't stand before God innocent. None of you can walk in in front of God, strut into his throne room and be like, Hey, just wanted to let you know I deserve to be here. And I was thinking maybe, not your throne, like I understand you're God, but maybe a little one where I could just sit next to you. And he'd be like, cool, hop on up here.

You're right. Everybody else is terrible but you. I was just actually writing in my diary about you today about how special you are. Like that's not going to happen. We're all guilty. It's not going to go well.

And we're going to continue to mess that up. So like let's say, let's say your fairy godmother shows up. If you don't have a fairy godmother, you should get one. I've watched Disney movies a lot with my son recently and they seem pretty awesome. Fairy godmother shows up right when you're finishing middle school. And about to go into high school.

And here's what she says. I've shown up and I've got a present for you. I've completely fixed your record and your transcript. You remember the chicken nugget incident from second grade? It's off your record. You're like, yeah, remember, I'm going to need counseling.

It's like it's off your record. It doesn't show up anymore. You remember the teacher you made cry in fifth grade? You remember the fist fight you got in in seventh grade? Gone. As far as your record shows, you've never even been to the principal's office except for twice to receive a commendation and a high five.

Like that's it. Like you, as far as your record shows, you're great. And I changed your transcript. Always. Always. You know how you actually are terrible at math?

Not anymore. When you get to high school, everyone's going to think you're a model student and you're really smart. Now, first of all, thanks. That sounds great. I really appreciate that. Secondly, that's actually not going to help me that much.

Because when I get to high school, I'm not going to magically be good at math. So my teacher might think I'm really smart. She'll just be more disappointed. She may even have a conversation with me where she thinks something's happened in my home life where she's like, you used to be really good at math. And now you're terrible. And I'll have to just be like, uh-huh.

And she'll be like, has something happened? And I'll be like, I can't tell the fairy godmother story because she's going to think I'm crazy. So I'm really just going to have to act like I got some other problems going on. Like immediately the issue is, okay, you can get rid of that, but that's not going to help me in the future. So Jesus has to take care of both.

He's got to handle both sides of our sin. He's got to handle our guilt and our rebellion. He's got to handle our future sin. He's got to be at work in future things that are going to happen. Because if Jesus just shows up and gives me a clean slate, that's really nice. For how long?

Day? Week? How long are we keeping that together? How long do we get to go before we can no longer enter into the throne room again? He's got to do both. Jesus has to step in and handle both sides of sin in order for this new covenant to be accomplished.

And here's what happens. This new covenant, God promises he's going to accomplish both sides. So if we fast forward in history, Ezra and Nehemiah and a couple other people come with them. They eventually rebuild the temple. They rebuild the wall. They eventually kind of have their own little kingdom again.

But it's not as strong as it ever was. And at some point, Rome takes over. Greece takes over. And then Rome takes over. And so when we pick up in the New Testament, the time of Jesus' birth, we have a king in Israel. But he's kind of a puppet king.

Like he doesn't have a whole lot of authority because Caesar is king over him. And there's also a Roman governor there. So they don't have the perfect system set up. And Jesus is born fulfilling massive amounts of prophecy. And the night before he's going to go to the cross, here's what he says to his disciples. And this is in Matthew chapter 26.

We'll have it on the screen. He... He... They're celebrating the Passover, which was Jewish people would celebrate the Passover every year. And it was a celebration of when the Israelites were brought out of Egypt. So they were brought out of slavery.

And they had... Right the night before they were about to be brought out, the last plague was coming on Egypt. And the angel of death was going to travel through Egypt and kill the firstborn son of every household unless you took a very pretty, perfect little lamb and killed it and painted your doorpost with its blood. You had to have a perfect lamb die to cover your doorpost. And this is similar to all the covenants God inaugurates with his people where something innocent has to die. If we've gone through this covenant series, if you've been here throughout this whole summer, a whole lot of animals have died.

Maybe it's been traumatizing for you. Like you should not have gotten emotionally attached to any animal that showed up in any of these stories. Oh, there's a goat there. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's not going to be there very long. That's how it's worked.

Every time there's going to be one of these covenants, there's blood that has to be shed. And that's the same with Passover. And that's what they're celebrating. But Jesus breaks from the script in the middle of them celebrating this. And here's what he says. Now, as they were eating, Jesus took the bread.

And after blessing it, he broke it and he gave it to his disciples and said, take, eat. This is my body. So this is completely different now. He's not celebrating the Passover correctly anymore. And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink of it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant.

Which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Luke chapter 22 says that Jesus says this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. So as they're celebrating the Passover, Jesus says, we're celebrating a new Passover. We're celebrating a new covenant. That when God brought the Israelites out of slavery, he's about to bring a whole new group of people out of slavery. And it's not slavery from Egypt.

It's slavery from sin. I'm about to be the perfect Passover lamb that rescues and redeems. To fulfill the new covenant. And when he talks about the new covenant, he's talking about what we just read in Jeremiah chapter 31. Jesus steps in and accomplishes both sides of this promise. So what the biggest issue was that all the people were still sinful.

They couldn't hold it together. It wasn't just that they needed more information. It wasn't just that they needed God's rules or his laws. Recently, I've been watching the Olympics. Matt, our other pastor, said that his wife asked him if he could take three years off and just focus on one event and try to compete in the next Summer Olympics when it showed up, what event would he pick? And he was smarter than me because as soon as he said that, I tried to think about what I would pick.

And then he said he would pick golf just so he could play golf for three years. He probably wouldn't make it to the Olympics. Golf was a good choice. I had chosen badminton in my head because I tried to think, what do I have a shot at possibly winning? And badminton seems like it's the closest one up there. Because here's the thing.

I've been watching the Olympics. I could have the best coach in the world. Like the Mr. Miyagi of diving or track and field. It ain't happening. Like I've been watching diving.

I was watching that the other day. Like they fold completely in half. They spin like 13 times and then they land perfectly in the water. Not happening. I don't care how much you coach me. Like I don't even think they sell Speedos in the size I'd have to put on.

Like these guys are like 115 pounds or something. But like it ain't happening. I'm watching track and field. You could coach me up all you want. Like it's not happening. I saw a tweet that said, I wish they would put an ordinary person in all the events just for reference.

That would be me. Like I'll catch up with you guys at the end. Like it just wouldn't. And that was it. Like it wasn't just that the people of Israel needed more information. It wasn't just that they needed to know what God's laws were.

It's not just that you need rules. We don't show up on Sunday to tell you the rules. Because let me tell you something. The rules aren't going to fix you. You can have the best coaches you want. You can have the most people around you that every time you step out of line would hit you with a stick.

Let me tell you something. You're not going to stop sinning. It's not going to fix the problem. It wasn't just that they needed to be away from the bad people. Because he brings them into the promised land. And he says we're going to kick everybody out and this is going to fix it.

But it doesn't. Some of you, maybe you've homeschooled your children and you figured that out. Keeping them away from the bad people didn't fix them. And maybe you haven't figured that out. And I'm sorry you had to find out just now. Didn't fix them.

They're still sinners. Maybe they had to be more creative or sneakier. But they're still sinners. Like it didn't fix the problem. We needed someone to step in and take care of our guilt and our rebellion. And they needed to take care of both or we were in trouble.

And Jesus steps in and in the new covenant accomplishes both. He fulfills all the old covenant promises. And he brings in the new covenant. Which is better than the old covenant. Because he takes care of the issue which is sin. Let's talk about how he takes care of our guilt.

He actually pays our debt and removes our guilt. So that God remembers your sin no more. If you've placed faith in Jesus, you've been brought into the new covenant. You've been welcomed into his new covenant people. And your sin does not exist anymore. Every so often when there's political campaigns, they kick around the idea of getting rid of all college tuition debt.

All student debt. All student loan debt. Those of you with student loans, just think about that for a second. I've lost you. You're going to think about that for a long time. Isn't that magical?

Like they throw this idea out. And if that happened, somebody gets into office. They sign a little piece of paper. And your debt is gone. If you had student loan debt, it's magic out of existence. Like it's not there anymore.

You'd pick up the phone. You would call and ask, hey, I wanted to find out about my student loan debt. And they'd be like, hold on one second. And they'd be like, click, click. I'm showing that you have a zero balance. You no longer have debt.

I don't know why this call center still exists. If it was completely wiped out, but just go with me here. You'd call once a week just to hear them say that. It's me again. Look it up. Tell me about that zero one more time.

Like that's what he does with our sin. If you are a Christian, when God goes to look up your sin, he doesn't find it. Because Jesus paid for it. It's gone. Now, immediately, whenever anybody brings up paying off college tuition, like forgiving all student loan debt. Because they use that word, we're going to forgive it.

There's someone in the room who goes, um, you can't just get rid of student loan debt. Someone paid for it. Just so you know how money works. Like, you know this person? Maybe you're sitting next to him. Don't look at him.

But just like, you know what I'm talking about. Like you were on your, I'm not going to have any student loan debt. Hi, like you're bouncing around in clouds. And they jumped up and tackled you. And we're like, let me explain to you about taxes. Like, that's what they jumped in to say.

Like, someone's got to pay for it because the school got paid. The government paid them. But then if the government just says, like the money doesn't just disappear. Somebody paid for that. And they're going to argue that taxes pay for that. Like, that's what they're going to tell you.

Some of you are going, okay, hold on a second. Jesus, like God just does some, some financial maneuvering. And suddenly I've got a zero balance on my sin. No. Jesus says, this is the covenant in my blood. The payment for our sin was death.

Some of you are in here and you're going, there's no way I can be forgiven for the stuff I've done. No way I stand before the God of the universe and I'm made okay. Because no way. Like some of you may even think the only way out of this is death. And I will tell you, your instincts are correct. You are right.

But Jesus died on our behalf. And the payment of the blood of the Son of God covers us. So it wasn't just some fancy footwork. The debt was paid. And we're no longer guilty anymore. Now that's enough to take a praise lap over and be excited about.

But if he doesn't take care of the other half, we're in trouble. Because if he just pays for what I've done so far, that's great. But I've met me and that's not going to last very long. If I need a cosigner, I'll get my wife up here. It's not going to last very long. So we need him to take care of our rebellion as well.

And that's what he promises. He says, I'm going to write my law on their heart. It's not going to be out there that you're going to have to follow. It's going to be in here. He's going to write it on our heart. He's actually going to help us follow.

He continually pays for our guilt once and for all. And helps change us so that we can actually follow. So if you love something, you don't need a rule. Like if you stepped in right now and said, I'm going to be your life coach. And I'm going to give you a couple of rules you have to follow. This fall, you're going to need to enjoy that it's cooler than it was in the summer.

And when it feels nice outside, you're going to need to go outside. I'd be like, I don't need a rule for that. Like I got that. Like I have a fire pit. I already have wood in it. It may at some point just spontaneously combust from the sun.

But if it doesn't, as soon as the first cool day exists, I'm setting that thing on fire and sitting out in my backyard for like hours. Just celebrating the fact that I'm not sweating unless I get too close to the fire. Like this is going to be magical. I don't need a rule to tell me to enjoy cool weather. I don't need you to say I've got to watch football this fall. I'm going to.

Don't need a rule. I may need you to help me with like grief counseling because I'm not so sure the Gamecock is going to be that great. But I don't need a rule. You don't have to tell me to eat meat. I understand that little cute animals should die for me to exist. I'm okay with that.

You don't have to give me a rule. I love it. I'm going to use two different types of animals and wrap one in the other one. Like I'm going to do that. I'm okay. I don't need a rule.

I love it. The reason Jesus steps in and begins to change our hearts is because when he starts changing our hearts and he changes what we love, we don't need the rules. The God's laws aren't burdensome to us anymore because they're in our heart. They're not overwhelming or crushing anymore because he's changing us from the inside out. We have one of our group leaders. He was telling me the other day.

He was like, you know, I used to just kind of hate people. I was like, that's fair. People are the worst. Which was funny to me though because they've got people in their house all the time. I mean, they've got like their houses open to the public basically. And he said, I used to just, I didn't.

He said, but I don't know. It's different now. Like I enjoy being around people. I like it. And I feel like that makes me weird. But that's okay.

Like God's changing my heart here. We've got a guy in our church family who got into business and was promoted. He's kind of overseas. He's a manager overseas, multiple people. And he was talking to one of our group leaders and he was just saying that he was like, when I first got into business, I got in it for a couple of things. I wanted to be a manager because you make more money.

Money was like a huge goal for me because it gave me prominence. It let people look up to me. He said, also when I was being a manager, I wanted to be a really good manager. But just because I wanted to be a really good manager, like I wanted it to be about me. So I was really good to my employees, but that was because that would make me a good manager and they would like me more.

I wanted to have the status and I wanted to have the finances and I wanted, he said, and it's just changed. He says, it's not about the money anymore. And I actually care about my employees. I don't just fake it so that they'll think I'm a good manager. Like I actually care about them and it doesn't have anything to do with whether or not they think I'm a good manager. And he's like, God's just changing my heart here.

And that's what happens. Jesus begins to change us from the inside out and it's slow and it's messy, but he goes to work on making us more like him so that he pays for our guilt and steps in and begins to work in our rebellion. And that's what we needed. Go to Hebrews chapter eight. See, Jesus died and rose again to redeem us, to make us his, and to invite us into the new covenant. It's on page 650, if your Bible looks like this.

Hebrews chapter eight. We're going to start in verse six, read through the end of the chapter. But as it is, Christ, that's Jesus, has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old. As the covenant he mediates is better. She's saying the new covenant is better than the old covenant. As the covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises.

Can we just pause for a second? The first covenant, what was the promise? Follow these rules and everything will be good. Is that a good promise? It seems like a good promise. We go into those kind of deals on a regular basis.

You make those. You hold up your end of the bargain. I'll hold up my end of the bargain and it'll be good. That sounds fair. Okay. That's the old covenant.

Here's the new covenant. I'm going to pay for your sin and I'm going to help you follow me. And at the end of the day, you'll be okay because I died for you. That's a better promise. Hands down. That's a better promise because it actually fixes us and takes care of our biggest issue, which is our inability to hold up the other side.

Since it is enacted on better promises. For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says, and now he's going to quote in the book of Hebrews, Jeremiah chapter 31, what we just read. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant.

So I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. The new covenant makes us into a new covenant people. And they shall not teach each other, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful towards their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.

And speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. So if we believe that, if we've been brought in as a new covenant people through faith in Jesus, there's a couple of things that change about us, that go to work on us. One is we love and trust Jesus. There's a reason why we gather together on Sundays and we sing songs to Jesus. We talk about Jesus.

We point to Jesus. We pray in the name of Jesus because Jesus is the mediator of our covenant. He's the one who's rescued us and redeemed us and paid for us by his blood. We love Jesus. I love it whenever I get to see you. You read these news articles every once in a while.

And there was a couple of shows every once in a while show this. But it'll be like an EMT or a police officer. Sometimes it's an organ donor and they meet with a person they've rescued. Organ donor they've given their organs for or the EMT rescued somebody or a fireman rescued somebody. And they just, they build a friendship based off of the fact that they were, saved them. They showed up and rescued this kid or they showed up.

And so this cop will show up to birthdays every year because they rescued this kid. They saved them from something. And that's the church's relationship to Jesus. We've been redeemed. We've been rescued. We've been invited into his family.

And we love him and trust him. And in the midst of trial, we trust him because we know ultimately he's for our good. He's gone to work on our behalf. He's paid for our sin. Secondly, as Christians, as those who've been invited in this new covenant, we confess sin. Because it's Jesus that makes us okay.

So I can talk openly about what's broken about me because it highlights how Jesus has redeemed and forgiven and gone to work. I realize that when I confess sin, it's not because I need God to, I need to get on God's good side. But I realize that the reason I'm sinning is because I've begun to love something more than Jesus. So that I'm willing to run from him for it. I'm willing to sin to get it. I'm willing to avoid him to chase after it.

And I begin to confess because I need more Jesus. I need to remember the covenant. And I can tell anybody anything. Some of you have been hiding in your community groups because you're going, I can't tell people this. They can't know this about me. It'll change everything.

They'll treat me differently. Not if they're new covenant people. They won't. Because new covenant people realize the only thing that makes me okay is Jesus and his work on my behalf. Not my behavior. My behavior because of Jesus doesn't show up in front of him.

And that's a really good thing. My sin is remembered no more. I'm free. You've been hiding. You don't have to. Some of you, maybe you've been treating people differently because of something they confessed.

Something you know about them. And the reason you're doing that is because you don't believe this. You don't believe the new covenant. You've begun to think that somehow something you did stands in front of the cross. And it doesn't. Jesus has made you okay and that's it.

And that's why we have freedom to gather together as a bunch of sinful people. And we're okay because Jesus is good. Not because we are. Third thing we do is we fight sin. We go to war because we believe that Jesus is at work in our hearts changing us to help us obey. So if I see you sinning, I'm going to talk to you about it.

Not because I need to bring the hammer down or I've got to fix you or I'm better than you. But I'm going to come talk to you about it because I believe Jesus is at work in your heart. And one of the things he's doing is leading you away from sin. So we're going to walk away from sin together. We're going to change together. I'm going to fight sin in myself because I believe that Jesus is at work.

He's on my team so I actually can win. And ultimately, we've walked through this series so that we can see how the old covenants point us to a new and better covenant. That Jesus on our behalf has rescued us, redeemed us, and paid for our guilt. And he's at work in us to make us different. And for every person in this room and for every person on earth, the new covenant is offered to you. That Jesus would pay for your sin and that he would come in and begin to work in you to make you different.

It's offered to all of us. We can covenant with God based on the new covenant offered to us through the blood of Jesus. And if you've never done that, you can today. You can place your faith in Jesus that he paid for your sin and that he'll come in and begin to work in you to help you in the future. Because for most of us, if you've been hanging around for a while and you're kind of on the edge, it's one of those two issues that's holding you back. God can't forgive me for this.

Yes, he can. Because you sin like a person and he saves like a God. And some of you are saying, okay, okay, okay. I get that he can forgive me for that stuff, but I'm just going to mess it up. But the new covenant is that he's going to go to work on your heart so that no, you won't.

Because he, throughout history, has been aggressively chasing after his people to make them his. And he's not going to lose you. He's died for you to redeem you so that he can come to work in your heart and he's going to keep you. That's how it works. That's the hope we have today. Matt and Bianca are going to come back up here.

We're going to sing together as a church family. And as a church family, if you're a Christian, we take communion to celebrate this new covenant. We do what the disciples did, what we read in Matthew chapter 26, where Jesus broke the bread and said, this is my body. Where he took the cup and he said, this is my blood in a new covenant. And we, as a church, gather together and remind ourselves of this new covenant that's paid for our sin. And goes to work in our hearts to make us different.

And if you're in here and you have some sin you need to confess, maybe you need to grab somebody from your community group. Maybe you need to spend some time talking to Jesus that you've ceased to believe the new covenant. That you've begun to live as if it weren't true. But you need him at work in you. And if you've never placed your faith in Jesus, this covenant is offered to you. You can place your faith in Jesus.

You can take communion today, reminding yourself that it was his body broken for you. It was his blood shed out for you to cover your sin. And in a couple weeks, you can get baptized as a new covenant member of the family. There's nothing standing in the way of you becoming a Christian because Jesus has already paid for all of it. Your sin can't hold you back. Your future failure can't hold you back.

Because Jesus has gone to work on the two major issues we had. Our guilt and our rebellion. He redeems us from both. Let's pray. God, we thank you that you make such good promises. God, we thank you that we were born in this time of history where we get the new covenant promises.

God, we thank you that you died for us. That your sin covers us. That you remember our sin no more. For all those who place faith in you. God, we ask that through your Holy Spirit you would draw people to yourself today. That you would bring more people into your covenant.

Into your love. Into your redemption. Into your family. God, we pray that as a church family we would always live fully walking as if the new covenant is true. That our sin is paid for. That we're free and redeemed.

That you're good. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Aug 21

Conditional or Unconditional

Conditional or Unconditional

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

How we doing? I'm Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. This September 11th, we are having baptism, so we're going to have a baptism party. I wanted to remind you of that so you can go ahead and be inviting your friends. We're going to celebrate that Jesus is alive, that he saves people by dunking people in water to represent the fact that Jesus died for them, that they're dead with him, that they're covered.

He died for their sin, and then we're going to pull them out of the water because Jesus rose from the grave and they have new life in him. And if you are getting baptized or want to get baptized or are not sure whether or not you should get baptized, our baptism class is next Sunday. So immediately following what we do next Sunday, we'll have our baptism class. So we'll be walking through what baptism is, why we practice it, why you should be baptized. And so if you're interested in being baptized, if you've signed up to be baptized, you need to be there. And if you just have some questions, show up and we'll talk about it.

We're in our 10th week of our covenant series. We spent the whole summer walking through the Old Testament covenants and kind of how that helps us understand the Old Testament, how it helps us understand kind of where we are in God's story, and how it helps us understand Jesus, where he came from, what he was doing, why he had to die, why he had to die on a cross, how he was fulfilling these promises to us that God had made. That's what we've been spending our time doing. So grab your Bibles, go to 2 Kings chapter 17, and here's where we are today. We've been walking through the covenants and we've taken our time to really kind of dive into some of the pictures that have been given to us.

We've taken our time to kind of unpack for us to understand more clearly what the covenants were about and why they existed and what God was saying when he talked to Moses and Abraham and Noah and David. And so we're kind of, here's where we are in the story. God made everything and he made it good. The reason why that we react so negatively to all the bad stuff going on in the world, the reason why we scream out, this isn't right, this is injustice, this shouldn't happen. The reason that happens to us, the reason that our hearts break over this stuff is because we were designed for things to be good.

There's something in us that screams out whenever it's bad, whenever there's injustice, whenever there's racism, whenever there's genocide, whenever there's just natural disaster, there's something in us that says, this isn't how it was supposed to be. And that's because it's not how it was supposed to be. God made it good. It was beautiful. It was like a honeymoon period where nothing was bad. Everything was magical.

And there was just giggling and unicorns. And it was amazing. There weren't actually unicorns, but there was like, it was beautiful. In the garden, God had his people in his presence, in his place, in the garden. Like, we existed in a good relationship with him. And then our enemy, Satan, comes along and lies to us.

And humanity believes his lies. And we rebel against God. And it's, God's children are torn from him. The relationship is broken. The world is never the same again. There's been multiple movies that have had some high quality people in them, like Steven Seagal, Mel Gibson, Denzel Washington, and Liam Neeson.

About people's children being taken away from them. And then the parents' response is, I'm going to get them back no matter what. You see, we rebelled against God. The relationship was broken. His children were ripped from him. And God has the same response.

I'm going to get you back no matter the cost to myself. That's the first kind of promise we looked at when the fall happens. And we've got a slide we've been kind of following along this entire time. When the fall happens, when we rebel, God promises the serpent, you're not going to win. I'm going to get my children back. It's the phone call from Taken where he says, I have a very specific set of skills.

Like that's what he looks at Satan and says, like this isn't going to work out well for you. You picked a bad battle to fight. Like I'm going to get my children back. And then in Noah, we see that sin isn't ultimately going to win. And God makes this promise. He rescues Noah from a flood.

And he makes this promise that I'm not going to destroy the earth again. I'm going to come up with a different way to keep sin from ruling and reigning here. Then he promises Abraham, I'm going to make you into a people. I'm going to bring you to myself. I'm going to bring you to my place. You're going to be in my relationship with me.

You'll be my people in my place in my presence. Like he's going to get them back to where they were in Eden, where everything was magical. Then with Moses, he says, okay, here, let's do this. Let's go. I'm going to bring you out. I'm going to take you to the land.

He says, I'm going to give you the law. And if you'll just remember the covenant, if you'll just follow this, if you'll just believe and remember and worship just me, everything will be great. And over and over again, he says that in Exodus 19, right before he gives the law, he says, I'm the only God. Just follow me. He says it in Leviticus. He says it in Deuteronomy.

He says it in Joshua. He over and over again is just follow me. You'll just trust the covenant, believe the covenant, but remember, it'll work out well for you. They get into the land and throughout the Judges, they kind of go through the same cycle where they forget. They don't worship just God and they get pummeled. And then they repent.

They're like, oh yeah, we should just worship you. And then God rescues them again. And that happens over and over again in Judges. It's kind of like a sitcom. Everything's good. Everything gets bad.

Everything gets good again in a cycle. Like the end of the sitcom, everything's magic again. Like that's how it works. And then we get to the end of Judges and it does a to be continued, where it's like they needed a king. It's really bad. And you're like, what?

And then we get into 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel and they get a king. And then God comes to David and he says, I'm going to give you a king forever. To sit on the throne and reign forever and keep this together. Because the job of the king was to protect the covenants and lead his people in covenant faithfulness. So this is where we've gotten so far in our series.

So today should be happily ever after. That's what today should be. Today should be us just being like, Israel crushed it. God sent the king who was going to last forever. He's still there doing his thing. It's great.

It's beautiful. They're still there. Everything's been magic ever since. I don't want to be the one to have to break this to you. That is not how that happens. Over and over again, they're told, just remember the promises.

Just stay faithful. And they don't. Not even close. He says, I'm going to give you a king and he's going to keep you faithful. He's going to lead in this. He's going to keep the covenants together.

There. Second Kings chapter 17. Let's pick up there. Let's read. So what we've got is all the covenants have been given.

All the promises have been given. God's made all the covenants. And now he's got his people in his place, in his presence. They've got kings. So where we're picking up in second Kings, here's what's happened.

Saul was the first king and he was, he was okay for a little while. And then he was unfaithful. And so God says, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to anoint David. David becomes king. God tells David, I'm going to give you a son to reign in your place. He's going to be a son to me.

He's going to be a king forever before me. You will never lack a man on the throne forever. Forever, ever. For real. That's what he says. Something like that.

It was a paraphrase. But he says, it's going to be a king on the throne forever. So David has a son named Solomon. By the end of Solomon's reign, Solomon has the rules for kings, which were don't get a lot of horses, don't get a lot of money and don't get a lot of wives. Solomon, I don't know if it says specifically about the horses, but he got a lot of money and a lot of wives. And the wives led him to worship other gods.

So by the end of Solomon's reign, he is not faithful to God alone. The one thing he's supposed to do. And so God says, okay, not under your reign, but under your sons, I'm tearing the kingdom in half. But because of David, I'm going to keep somebody in Judah. And Judah is the place now where he's saying, I'm going to keep the promise. And there's two kingdoms, Israel and Judah.

That's where we pick up in 2 Kings. Look at verse 6. In the ninth year of Hosea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria. That's the capital of Israel. And he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah and on the harbor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. So Israel's just been captured by Assyria.

So God had said, I'm going to bring you here. I'm going to defend you. You're going to be my people in my place. And then the kingdom's broken in half. And the Israelites are taken. 7.

And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. So the one thing they were supposed to do, remember the covenant, keep it the covenant. Remember that I'm the only God. They don't do. They begin to do secretly things they ought not do.

They think that God won't notice. And then it gets not so secret. They built for themselves high places in all their towns from watchtower to fortified city. They set up for themselves pillars and ashram on every high hill and under every green tree. And there they made offerings on all the high places as the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things provoking the Lord to anger.

And they served idols of which the Lord had said to them, you shall not do this. Okay, so they're supposed to have one temple. That's the presence of the Lord. They're supposed to go to that temple whenever they had to have sacrifices. But what they start doing is they start building totem poles and ashram poles and high places and sacrifice places in every town they have and on every hill and under every green tree.

They're not even close to being faithful to God alone. It's not even close. They got side gods all over the place. It's bad. It's bad. And I love that what it says was they had idols and of this God told them, you shall not do this.

That was the rule. Pretty straightforward. What's the rule on idols? Don't do it. Simple. Like, I feel like it's the conversation you have with a three-year-old.

What did I say about that? You said not to do it. Yeah. What was confusing? I don't know. I did it.

Like, they had one rule. Don't do this. 13. 13. Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes in accordance with the law that I commanded your fathers that I sent to you by my servants, the prophets. But they would not listen, but were stubborn as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them. And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves metal images of two calves. And they made an Asherah, and they worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served Baal. And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divinations and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

Therefore, the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only. They don't keep it together. They don't remain faithful to the covenant. The king who was supposed to keep him faithful, he's not here in Israel. And God removes him from his sight.

But what we know is that he left Judah. Only Judah was left. So we got Judah. So God can keep his promise. Verse 19. Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced.

And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers until he had cast them out of his sight. That's kind of a summary statement for the rest of the book of 2 Kings. It ends with Judah being hauled off into captivity as well. At one point in the coming story, a priest in the temple finds the book of the law. He finds it. They had lost it.

They had a book that was due to what this book says and they lost. Like you misplaced the book? Like that's the one thing y'all were supposed to do was like consistently read this book. The king was supposed to have a copy of the book that he read every day. The priest, what is he doing if he's not following the book? Is he just in there winging it?

They're like cleaning stuff out in the closet. They find the book. And the priest was like, oh, let me read this. This is interesting. He reads it. He takes it to the king and he's like, you might want to read this.

The king reads it and he's like, we're in trouble because we're not even close. We're not doing any of this. And he actually leads in some reforms that last basically while he's alive. And then it falls all apart again. And eventually there's no Israel. There's no Judah.

There's no temple. There's no wall. There's no king. There's no throne. There's no people. There's no place.

There's no presence. Here's what happens on our timeline. Now, fall is terrible. God's not going to let it win. Noah, he says, I'm going to make you into a family. And you're going to begin to do what you're supposed to.

Like I'm going to save you out of, and I'm not going to destroy everything again. And Noah doesn't really do that as well. So eventually he comes to Abraham and says, I'm going to make you into a family. I'm going to make you my people, my presence. You're going to worship me. He goes to Moses and says, I'm going to bring you into the land.

I'm going to teach you what it's like to follow me. If you'll just remember my covenant. Finally, he comes to David and says, you're here. You're here and it's going well. And I'm going to give you a king that will last forever. And then they just derail.

Like we had been taking steps. We had been getting closer. And it just, we just, it just, it just falls apart. They're in captivity. The 10 northern tribes of Israel, like they knew they were Israelites. They lost all the tribe heritage.

And here's what, what's the worst. They should have known better. They should have known. That was, that's who they were. That was their story. That was their history.

We're the people that God loves. We're the people of the covenant. We're the people of the promise. They should have known better. My dad is a, is an intense guy. He's a good dad.

He's an intense guy though. So I think that part of what made him a good dad. So like I've been practicing being super intense so I can raise sons. Cause I got a boy. So everyone's, I just look at him.

Like I'm just trying to, he's working on it. Um, but there've been a couple of times in my life where I would just have done something that was, um, the opposite of intelligent. Uh, so I'll give you a couple of those stories and kind of how this worked with my dad. Uh, we were playing one time in our, in our upstairs room. We had a room that we had, uh, I think we slept on sleeping bags on the floor at this point. Maybe we, we kind of had some different setups in that room, but this, at this point, the room was just open.

And, uh, older brother Logan, we were playing like a, uh, Nerf gun game or whatever. And he would run and there was these little doors cause it was like one of those above a garage attic rooms or whatever. So there was like those short doors or whatever. And he would run and kick off of them and roll. And we try to shoot at him. It was really cool.

So I tried to do this and I ran and kicked off of the drywall. So those of you who know things about, yeah, I'm in the future also, you know, things about drywall. So, uh, my foot just went straight into the closet, like just through the drywall. Cause it couldn't handle me. Um, and so, uh, so, so I had to, we had to go talk to my dad. There was another time when, uh, uh, when I was helping, uh, we were moving and I was helping pack all this, the stuff up.

And, uh, I packed up all of our furniture in a truck and then we drove it over to our house and we rolled the thing up and my dad hadn't been there for the packing process and we roll it open and he looks and we had just stuck all this furniture in there all up against each other and all up against the walls and we hadn't used any blankets. Cause furniture gets cold when it travels. It needs blankets. No, it needs blankets so that it doesn't rub up against stuff and look terrible. It had rubbed up against stuff and looked terrible. So I had to talk to my dad about that.

Um, and then when I was in college, I came home and I made, uh, a, a homemade fuse bomb out of safety fuse. So it's just supposed to make things safer, but not if you make a bomb out of it and lit it and threw it into a field that was broom straw and it blew up and I caught an entire field on fire. There's the second broom straw field I'd caught on fire, uh, and had to have a conversation with my dad about it. And in all of these moments, there would be this, there's, there's come this time where my dad would be looking at me. And he'd be looking at a hole in drywall or he'd be looking at what used to be his pretty dresser that I'm sure his great grandmother gave him.

And he'd be looking at a field that was charred as smoke was rising. And he would go, you don't know any better than to kick off of a wall. You, you don't have any better sense than that. What'd you think was going to happen when you stuck two dressers next to each other and rode down the road? He would look at me and go, what, what, what, what, what happens with fire and broom straw and wind? And he'd look at me and go, don't you, you don't know any better.

And every time I so badly wanted to say, yeah, I do. Because when you're looking at the hole in the drywall and, and you're, you're looking at the furniture and you're looking at the, you're thinking I should, I should have known, I should have known that this wouldn't hold my weight. I should have known that that was what that was going to happen. If I didn't put blankets there, I should have known about fire. Like I'm in college. I should have picked this up by now.

I've run a fire. I've worked in a fire store since I was like 13. Should kind of know how fire works. And every time I wanted so badly to say, yeah, I knew better, or I should have known better, but there was a hole in the drywall and there was, there was messed up furniture and there was a giant field that was no longer broom straw. Every time it's like, I should have known better, but I don't know. I don't, I don't know.

I don't know what happened. And the reason I think it matters so much for us right now to see what happens with these covenants and what happens when this, that Israel derails this is because I have these moments where I feel like I'm standing in front of God. He's going, you don't know any better? And I want so badly to say, yeah, I know better. Yeah, yeah, I shouldn't. But it's like, I don't know.

I don't know why I did this. I don't know why I believed that this would make me happy. I don't know why I chased after this thing. I don't know why I ran headlong into sin and stuff that you've shown me so clearly isn't your will and doesn't glorify you. I don't, I don't know. All I can see at this point is that it's derailed.

All I can see now is my wife crying. All I can see now is the people I've heard. All I can see now is, is like, I don't, I don't know how I got here. I feel like I should have known better. All I know now is that consequences are coming. All I know now is that.

Turn to Psalm 89. See, the question becomes, in the midst of God's stubborn, unrepentant, rebellious people who should have known better. What happens to the covenants? What happens to God's promises? What happens to God's faithfulness when it meets humanity's unfaithfulness? What happens to God's promises when it meets our rebellion?

What happens to his strength when it meets our weakness? What happens to his holiness when it meets our sin? That's the question. We're going to, we're going to read this Psalm where Ezra, not Ezra, Ethan, the Ezra height is asking this question of God. He's in the middle of this moment in history where we just read in second Kings. And he's coming before God in this Psalm and he's talking to him about what's going on here.

We're going to skip some of it because it's a long Psalm. We're going to stop and sum it up every once in a while, but I just want us to, to dive in a little bit to the emotions of Ethan as he's looking at God in the middle of this and saying, what, what's going to win? What happens to your covenants? Verse one, I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever. With my mouth, I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, steadfast love will be built up forever.

In the heavens, you will establish your faithfulness. You have said, he's talking to God. You said this. I have made a covenant with my chosen one. I have sworn to David, my servant. I will establish your offspring forever and build your throne for all generations.

Starting in verse five and going through 18, he just begins to say, okay, he reminds him of this promise and then he says, okay, here's how big you are. Here's how strong you are. Here's how good you are. Here's how massive you are, God. He just reminds him of how big he is. And then pick up in verse 19.

For of old, you spoke in a vision to your godly one and said, I have granted help to one who is mighty. I have exalted one chosen from my people. I have found David, my servant. With my holy oil, I have anointed him so that my hand shall be established with him. My arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not outwit him.

The wicked shall not humble him. I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him. My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him. And in my name shall his horn be exalted. He's reminding him of the covenant to David. He's saying, we had it.

We had, we were, we were there. We had your people in your place in your presence. We had, we had the promises and you told him there was going to be a king forever. I'm reminding you of this covenant you made to David. 25. This is still God talking about David.

I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. He shall cry to me. You are my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My steadfast love I will keep for him forever. And my covenant will stand firm for him.

I will establish his offspring forever. And his throne as the days of the heavens. If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules. If they violate my statues and do not keep my covenants. Then I will punish their transgressions with the rod.

And their iniquity with stripes. But I will not remove from him my steadfast love. Or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant. Or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness.

I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever. His throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever. A faithful witness in the sky. So he's saying, God, this was your promise to David.

If his children rebelled. You'd punish them. But you wouldn't forget your covenant. You'd punish them. But you wouldn't remove your love.

You might punish them. But you wouldn't lie to David. Verse 38. But now you have cast off and rejected. You are full of wrath against your anointed. You have renounced the covenant with your servant.

You have defiled his crown in the dust. You've breached all his walls. You've laid his strongholds in ruins. All who pass by plunder him. He has become the scorn of his neighbors. You've exalted the right hand of his foes.

You've made all his enemies rejoice. You have also turned back the edge of his sword. And you have not made him stand in battle. You've made his splendor to cease. And cast his throne to the ground. You've cut short the days of his youth.

You've covered him with shame. How long, oh Lord, will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is. For what vanity you've created all the children of man. What man can live and never see death?

Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Lord, where is your steadfast love of old? Which by your faithfulness you swore to David. So, he's looking at God and he's saying, You've rejected your covenant. The crown that was supposed to be on his head forever is in the dust. The throne he was supposed to sit on forever has been thrown to the ground.

And you've rejected your covenant. How long, God? Do you see how small I am? Do you see how weak I am? I don't know if he's mad. I don't know if he's just sad.

I don't know his tone here. But he's looking at God and he's saying, You said you weren't going to do this. You promised you weren't going to lie to David. And you've reneged. You've pulled all this back. You've cast your covenant out.

And here's the question as we get to this point in the Old Testament. Were God's promises conditional or unconditional? The promises he made, were they conditional or unconditional? Is he going to be faithful no matter what? Or can we make him take that back? And here's why this matters for us.

When all we've done is run it into the wall. When we've sinned again. When we don't want to pray. When we don't want to read. When we don't want to talk to God. When we don't even want to get out of bed.

When we feel like there's no way he can love us. Because of the circumstances of our life. Because the diagnosis came back and it's cancer. Because the person that we can't live without. We're going to have to figure out how to. When we're in this moment when we can't see him.

And it seems as if there's no way he cares. And when we've messed it up. When it's our sin that's ruining our marriage. When it's our sin that's driving our children away. When it's our sin that makes us feel like we can't go home and talk to our parents. Can't even pick up the phone when they call.

When it's our sin that makes us want to hide every time we hang out with our community group. When it's our sin that makes us not want to show up on a Sunday. And if we do we just hope nobody talks to us. Does our sin win? Is his covenant conditional? Or is it unconditional?

What happens when my weakness is matched up against his strength? What happens when my smallness, my frailty is matched up against his bigness? What's God's answer? What happens when his faithfulness has to face up and match up with my unfaithfulness? That's the question the psalmist asks. Is it done?

Did you really cast it off? Is it over? You want to know God's answer to this question? It's the same answer for us. 1 John says that God took on flesh and lived among us. That God became a man.

Is the covenant unconditional or is it conditional? God's answer is yes. Is it conditional or unconditional? Yes. You see, what God does is he becomes human so that he can keep his faithfulness and make up for our unfaithfulness. God becomes human so that he's fully God and fully man when he goes to the cross so that he's making up for God's faithfulness.

He's keeping his promise. You see, when God looked at the serpent and said, you won't win, there's going to be someone born of a woman who's going to crush your head. That was Jesus. When God looked at Noah and said, I won't again take out my wrath on humanity. He took it out on Jesus on the cross. When God looked at Abraham and they cut up the animals and they walked through the middle in the blood.

And God didn't let Abraham walk through the middle because he signed both sides of the covenant and said, if I don't hold up my end of the bargain, you can kill me. And if you don't hold up your end of the bargain, I'll kill me. Jesus fulfills that promise. When God looked at Moses and said, you're going to sin and you're going to need to follow me. But if you can't, I'm going to make a way for sacrifice.

That's Jesus. When he looked and said, there's going to be a king on the throne forever. That's Jesus. And when he looked and said, you're going to need to follow and you're going to need to obey. And we couldn't. God became a man so that we could.

So that we had a representative on humanity's side. To hold up the conditions of the conditional covenant. That's God's answer to this song. He says, don't you know how weak I am? Don't you know how short my days are? And he says, I'm going to.

If you want to see God's strength matched up with our weakness, you'll see Jesus. You'll see his bigness matched up with our smallness. You'll see Jesus. If you want to see God's power and glory and his holiness matched up with our sin. Sinfulness. You'll see Jesus on a cross.

That's God's answer. To are the covenants conditional or unconditional? The answer is yes. And I'm going to keep the conditions for you in Christ. So when we're plagued by our sin and all we feel like we've done is earned the right for God to revoke all of his love from us.

Earned the right for God to revoke all of his blessings from us. When we should have known better and all we've done is run it into the wall. The response for us is the same response that Ethan could have had when he wrote this Psalm. Which is look to Jesus. Because he's the one who's going to keep it together for you. He's the one who's going to be strong for you.

He's going to want to hold up your end of the bargain for you. Hebrews chapter 12 says, Let's throw off every weight and every sin that entangles us. And let's fix our eyes on Jesus. Let's run the race marked out for us. Let's fix our eyes on Jesus.

The founder and the finisher of our faith. Jesus started it. And Jesus keeps it together at the end. Our hope is in Jesus alone. When you don't want to pray, you need to pray. When you don't want to read your Bible, you need to set some time.

You need to get up. You need to force your eyes onto the text. And you need to go line by line reading the Bible. When you don't want to hang out with your group, you need to hang out with your group. And you need to tell them what's going on. When you don't want to be here on Sunday, you need to be here on Sunday.

Because, not because it earns anything from God or it makes Him love you. But because you need to fix your eyes on Jesus, some of you need to begin journaling. Some of you need to begin getting an MP3 player that has Christian music. That reminds you to worship. That reminds you of what Jesus has done. Because you've got to remember that Jesus is the one who holds up your end of the bargain.

Fix your eyes on Jesus. He's the founder and the finisher. When you've derailed it, Jesus died for that. He loves you. He suffered alongside of you so that suffering one day can end. He wept alongside of us so that one day He could wipe away all our tears.

He died so that one day death won't have a hold on us. We've got to look at Jesus. And remember that He's the covenant keeper for us. Matt's going to come back up here. Some of you have been chasing after sin. Some of you have just gotten to where you don't feel like you know Jesus anymore.

You can't see Him anymore. You don't know how He loves you anymore. You don't know how He's at work anymore. Some of you right now, it was all you could do to get out of bed this morning. Put on some clothes. Brush your teeth.

And make it here. I want you to know that Jesus is strong and big and mighty. And you get to be weak and small and frail. Because He's the one who keeps it together. He's the one who fulfills both God's faithfulness and our unfaithfulness. He dies for our unfaithfulness and makes us faithful.

You get to fix your eyes on Jesus. I got an 18-month-old. He's a year and a half. I was cutting his hair yesterday. And the clippers. And he was in the bathtub.

And I turned the shower head on. And then I cut it off real quick. And he lost it. I scared him to death. He was stark naked. Screaming his head off.

I picked him up. And he's just clutching onto the back of my shirt. With all he has. Because all he knows is if I'm holding him, he's going to be okay. Whatever it was that was terrifying, he's going to be okay if I'm holding on to him. And when Jesus says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest.

He's saying it the same way. I would say that to him, which is just come here. Just come here. All we have to do is hold on to Jesus for dear life in the midst of, we can't see anything else. We can't fix this. We don't know how we're going to take one more step.

Jesus doesn't need you to be strong. Jesus doesn't need you to be smart or to be powerful or to know the next move. You just need him. You just need to fix your eyes on him. So here's what we're going to do.

For the next little while, if you're in that moment today, where you really just, it's all you can do, put one foot in front of the other, it's all you can do to breathe in and breathe out. If you're in that moment today, I just want you to know that Jesus is big and he's capable and he loves you more than you could ever imagine. When God, at the beginning of time, looked at the serpent and said, you will not win. And for those who are in Christ, he had you in mind and he has bent heaven and earth and time and space to die for you, to bring you back to himself. Not so that you could be strong, not so that you could be good, not so that you could be powerful, not so that you could know what to do, but so that you could run to him and rest in him and fix your eyes on him and he could be the king and the rescuer and the promised one forever.

He is the promise of the covenant and God keeps it in Jesus. If you're in that moment today, I just want to encourage you to fix your eyes on Jesus. He's big and good and capable and loves you. That's going to play and I just want you to pray that Jesus will help you see him so clearly and he would give you more of himself. If you're not in that moment today, you're doing okay. You're doing pretty good.

I want you to do two things. I want you to take a minute to go before the king on behalf of those in this room and in our church family. We need so much to see Jesus right now. And I want you to just ask. God, I'm asking on their behalf. We show up.

We help them fix their eyes on you. We help them remember your promises. We help them remember your cross. We help them remember that you rose from the grave and that you are good. And then I want you to take a minute to pray for yourself. For the day that you don't know how to put one foot in the ground.

God, I want you to continue to see Jesus. Continue to fix your eyes on him. And remember that he's the founder and the finisher of your faith. I'm asking to play. I'm going to pray. After you've prayed for your brothers and sisters and after you've prayed for yourself, why don't you stand?

We'll sing. God, we thank you. God, we thank you that you saved those who are weak and you saved those who are small and you saved those who have really only run it into the wall and derailed it. We have nothing to present before you. Maybe we should have known better. Maybe we shouldn't have chosen what we chose.

But God, we're standing at you at this point and all we have is bustedness. All we have is broken. We have nothing to present to you that would make us lovable. We have nothing to give to you that would make us be redeemable. And God, you became a human to represent humanity. You can swap out with us.

God, you became a human because you are faithful and you did not lie to David. You will keep your covenant. But you had to pay for our rebellion and our weakness. God, we thank you that you're strong on our behalf. And I pray, God, that you help us to see you today. That you would help us to grab on with everything we have to your word.

Grab on with everything we have in prayer. Grab on with everything we have with our last ounce of strength just to see you. Just to remember your sacrifice. And that you keep the promise. You keep the covenant. You make good on your word.

You are faithful so that our faithlessness is overwhelmed. That you're holy such that our sin is overwhelmed. That you're strong such that our weakness only highlights your strength. God, that you're good. And we can trust you in the midst of everything. Because you've already given up everything just to make us yours.

That you did come to rescue and to redeem and to keep your promises. God, we ask that your Holy Spirit would work so that our hearts can see you so clearly. That you would speak, God, to those of us who are hurting and weak and small. And we would know that you hurt alongside of us. And that your strength is ours. And that your life is ours.

We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. My heart is heavy. My soul is weak.

It seems I can't traverse the trail before me. I survey your glory. I survey your glory. Of your agony. And I find the will to fight for what's before me. Because you ran the race, enduring for your glory.

I fix my eyes on you. I fix my eyes on you. I fix my eyes on you. The founder and the finisher of our faith. I fix my eyes on you. And you train me to delight in all that's holy.

You're my broken body. You're my crooked stride. You're my crooked stride. Throw off every wave and sin that gleams. So closely.

You're my crooked stride. You're my crooked stride. You're my crooked stride. And you train me to delight in all that's holy. You're my broken body. Kill my crooked strife.

Throw off every wave and sin that gleams so closely. I will run the race enduring for your glory. I fix my eyes on you. The founder and the finisher of our faith. I fix my eyes on you. The solace in your suffering is my strength.

The solace in your suffering is my strength. You help me breathe. You're the only life I need. You died for me. You're the only life I need. You help me breathe.

You're the only life I need. You died for me. You're the only life I need. You died for me. You're the only life I need. You died for me.

You're the only life I need. You died for me. You're the only life I need. You help me breathe. You're the only life I need. You died for me.

You're the only life I need. You died for me. The solace in your suffering is my strength. The solace in your suffering is my strength.

King Forever

King Forever

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Good morning. So this presidential run has been very contentious. I don't know if y'all have picked up on that. But both conventions seem like they might would go into contested conventions. People showed up at the Democratic National Convention with Bernie supporters showed up and protested at the Republican one. Ted Cruz got booed off stage because he wouldn't endorse Trump.

People started chanting and yelling at him and booing. And it's just been it's been heated. And there's been a lot of angst over this this election. And I think it's going to get worse. I don't know if y'all picked up on that. I think it's going to get worse as we get closer to time.

Here's what happens to me every time there's a there's a presidential election. And every time this goes on, like it reveals something in my heart. I want so badly. I really, really want to believe the stuff they say. Like I want to believe that someone knows what the problem is and is actually going to come fix it. I want to believe that one of the candidates is a is a hero.

One of the candidates is going to come along and and actually accomplish like they're going to go into the White House and make things good or keep things good and defend us. And like I want so badly to believe all the promises that are made every time. Like I really want to believe it. Like I have to I find myself really longing for this stuff to be true. I think that's why people get so bitter, so frustrated. It's not that they don't think they don't think anybody can fix it.

They just start believing that these candidates can't somebody could have, but they're not here to do it. These can't. That's why people immediately start talking about Trump and Clinton. You're going to you're going to raise hopes and blood pressure like that. That's what happens. Like on either side, there's this desire and there's something in us that desires to have a good leader like we're supposed to.

And it's in anything like we're we're we're desire. We long for a good leader, someone to come along and help and to lead and to to to make good decisions on our behalf. Like we we long for this and it it doesn't matter. It could be at work. Having a good boss or having a bad boss makes a big difference. On its team, having a good coach or a bad coach makes a big difference.

Good teacher, bad teacher. Like it makes a difference. Just take a second. I think as I watch the presidential election stuff, I start realizing this isn't just in me. It's not just in me that wants this to be true. It's not just in me that somehow believes that there is a person who could show up and fix things.

Like I think we all kind of there's a there's a belief that somebody could. But take a second. And I just want you to think about somebody who's been a good leader in your life. Could be a parent. Could be a coach. Could be a teacher.

Could be a grandparent. Somebody who made a difference in leading well on your behalf that you just got to kind of follow. You just got to submit to. You just got to follow their leadership and you could trust them. When they made a call, it was it was for your good. When they made a decision, it was for your good.

You knew they were on. They were leading on your behalf. Maybe it was a boss. It was just easy to work for. See, as we're talking through our covenant series, as we're looking at the promises God makes, basically where he bends over and and makes a promise to humanity. He's he kneels and stoops to to promise something to people saying, holding himself accountable to I'm going to fulfill this.

He's given us his own Job description. One of the promises he makes is about a king. He makes a promise about a leader who's going to lead on behalf of others. And so that's what we're looking at today. We're looking at the promise made the covenant made. To David.

Of a king. So let's go to second Samuel chapter seven. Second Samuel chapter seven. And we're going to look at what this promise is. And then we're going to spend a little bit of time today just asking, talking about if this is true, if this promise is fulfilled, if this is real and we actually believe this, how does that intersect with our lives? Like, how does that affect us personally?

So we're going to look at the promise. We're going to talk a little bit about it and what it means. And then we're going to talk about how does that actually affect me when I leave? I go to work when I go to school. How does that affect me? Let's pray.

Let's pray real quick. God, we thank you that you're good. That we can trust you. We thank you, God, that as we all long for good leaders, as we celebrate good leaders, God, I'm just thankful that one of your promises is of a leader, that you promise to step into that void and you hold yourself accountable to keep your promise. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Okay, so here's what we've been looking at all along. We've been talking about everything was good in the Garden of Eden, but humanity rebelled. The fall happened. Sin happened. And so there was this big gap between us and God.

The relationship wasn't good anymore. We couldn't be in Eden anymore. We couldn't be in God's presence anymore. And it was a disaster of cosmic proportions. God in the garden promises the serpent that he will not win. He basically tells the serpent, this isn't going to be the end of the story.

You're not going to win. There's going to be someone who comes along and crushes you. Then God promises Noah, I won't destroy the earth with a flood again. He didn't say anything about other methods. He just says, not a flood. And he promises not just Noah, but everything.

So that promise is made to like all of creation. So the trees and the bullfrogs, they all get that promise as well. Then he comes and talks to Abraham and he says, I'm going to make you into a people and I'm going to give you a place and you're going to be in my presence. And then through Moses, he continues that promise and accomplishes it. So Moses and Joshua get to the promised land.

Moses gets right to the edge of it. Joshua gets to go in. And so God now has his people in his presence, in his place. That's kind of where we left off this past week. He's rebuilding us back up to what we had in Eden, but we saw that we're kind of still far away from that. And here's what happens.

The people eventually ask for a king. And in Deuteronomy 17, prior to them having a king, it says when you get in the land, you're going to want a king. And here are the rules for kings. So he knew they were going to get a king. He knew they were going to ask for a king. It actually says you're going to look around and say that everybody else has a king and you're going to want one.

Well, the other nations have a king. I know you're going to want one. You're going to ask for one as soon as you see that everybody else has a king and you don't. You can have one. Here are the rules. I get to pick who it is.

That's Deuteronomy 17. I get to pick who the king is. And then there were a handful of rules for kings. First three were this. The king cannot have too many horses. All right.

Second rule. Cannot have too many wives. Can't have a bunch of wives. Third rule. Can't pile up too much silver and gold. Okay.

Those seem like kind of odd rules. Like when kings get together and they talk about why they became a king. I think these are like some of the reasons. It's like when there's a king convention. It's like, man, what do you like best about being a king? The women.

What do you like best? The money. Third king's like, I like horses. Good. No, but here's the reason those three rules exist. Here's what he was attacking in that.

When he was putting guardrails around. The point of being a king. Like if you became a king. The reason you liked being a king was. Horses just meant power. It meant the ability to have chariots.

It meant the ability to have cavalry. Like it's when they listed out battles. They would talk about how many chariots they had. How many horses they had. Because that made a big difference in your ability to have power. To move quickly.

To send troops around. And so when he says, you can't have too many horses. What he's saying is the point of you being king is not power. It's not war. It's not your own greatness. You can't have too many wives.

The point of you being king is not your own comfort. Your own prestige. You can't have too much money. The point of you being king is not to gather wealth. To live a life of luxury. So he says those three rules are the rules for kings.

And the fourth one is this. They're going to make a handwritten copy. Which was the only type of copy they could have back then. Just so you know. They're supposed to make their own copy of the law. The king is.

He's going to sit down. He's going to copy the law. And he's going to have a priest basically say, yes, this is an acceptable copy of the law. And he's supposed to read it all the days of his life. So the king can't chase after power, pleasure, wealth.

He's supposed to know the covenant. Know the law inside and out. Because the purpose of the king was to lead his people in faithfulness to the covenant. That's the purpose of the king. And that's how it, if you read through 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. What you see is the king was the front runner for are we doing okay or are we not doing okay as a nation?

That's what the king did. He was, everything rose and fell on the king. Like if he was a good king, it was a good time. If he was a bad king, it was a bad time. They would all start off with this. This person died and this person became king.

And he was a good king because, it wouldn't say because he was really wealthy or because he warred well. What it would say was because he followed after God. Or it would say this person was a bad king because he did not follow after God. And the kings would either lead the people to worshiping idols, to chasing after sin. Or they would lead the people to faithfulness to the covenant. That's important because when God promises a king, what he's promising is a leader who leads in covenant faithfulness.

We've got to understand what a king did, what the role of a king was, so we can understand what this promise was. So, if it was a good king, things went well. If it was a bad king, things went poorly because they make decisions on behalf of the people. So, like when your boss is, I don't know, an idiot. And they make terrible decisions. They make decisions on behalf of all their employees.

When your dad made a bad decision. When you're, when, one of the reasons we freak out about the president is because they get to make decisions that affect us. So, we care. Preferably, the president wouldn't be a moron. Like, if I got to vote, that's what my vote would be. Like, not a moron.

It's like one of the first things. Because they make decisions on our behalf. And so, the king makes decisions, leads on behalf of the people, and sets the tone for what this is going to be like. Alright. You understand what a king does? 2 Samuel chapter 7.

Now, when the king, that's David. So, there's been two kings. Sorry. Saul, they asked for a king. They got Saul. Saul was a pretty good king for a little while.

Then he kind of got off. Like, he wasn't following God the way he was supposed to. So, God anoints David to be king. And eventually, David is king. And we're picking up with David, the king. Who's like the high water Mark for all the kings.

If you got a king action figure in the nation of Israel, you wanted the king David. Like, he was the best trading card, whatever. Alright. Now, when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. Okay.

So, David built a castle, a house. And he looks and realizes that the ark of the covenant that has the tablets, has some of the other Aaron staff, some other things, in the ark of the covenant that represented the presence of God, it's still in the tabernacle. It's in a tent that moves around. And so he says, I'm in a house. God's in a tent. Now, he would have understood that God didn't, like, wasn't just limited by the tent, but he's basically saying, like, it feels weird for my stuff to be nicer than God's stuff.

Like, I feel uncomfortable now. Like, my house is nice, but we need to do something about this, but God can't just be in a tent. So he's basically saying, I want to build a house for God. Like, I want to make, we're in a place now. We're not moving all around. We have a capital.

Let's build a house for God. And Nathan says, Nathan's the prophet. Nathan says, go for it, man. So it's going pretty well so far? Four. But, okay, that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan.

Go and tell my servant David. Thus says the Lord. Would you build me a house to dwell in? Okay, so if you're Nathan, this dream vision didn't start off super well. I don't know what happened. Nathan's a prophet, so he speaks on behalf of God.

David asks him, like, says, hey, I want to build a house for God. Nathan's response is, go for it. And then Nathan goes to sleep, and God's like, what? So I don't know if Nathan didn't ask, if he just, I don't know how that works. Like, I know this happens to me, but I would have just thought it didn't happen to Nathan. Like, people ask me stuff, and I'll just be like, here's an answer.

And then later I'll, like, think, and pray, and read the Bible, and then have to come back and be like, remember what I said? I want to redact it. I want to say something helpful. I do this on a semi-regular basis. I don't know if Nathan had to, but he did this time. So God basically steps in and says, no, Nathan, and Nathan's like, got it, I'll tell him what you say.

All right, go and tell David. This is verse 5. Go and tell David, my servant. Go and tell my servant David. Thus says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling.

In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the Judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all of your enemies from before you, and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more.

And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly. From the time that I appointed Judges over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. Okay, let's see the promises he's made so far. He says, you're going to build me a house? I'm going to make a great name for you, and I'm going to plant my people in a place where nobody bothers them.

I'm going to have my people in my place safe. So he's reminding him some of the promises he's already made. He's making them again, and then he's saying this. Verse 11. From the time that I appointed Judges over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the son of men. But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.

And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. So God says, you're going to build me a house? You're going to build a place for me? And then he says, no, I'm going to build you a house.

And when he says that, what he means is, I'm going to build you a name, a lineage, a people out of you. And then he says, I'm going to have a king that stands before me forever. He'll be to me a son, and I'll be to him a father. And so this promise is fulfilled in two ways. It's fulfilled in Solomon, David's son, who builds the temple, and is the king before God, who God treats. He says, he'll be a son to me, I'll be a father to him.

That just means I'm going to treat him well. And when he sins, I'm not going to get rid of him like I did Saul. That promise is fulfilled in Solomon. And they would have understood that this was fulfilled in Solomon. But he says a few things in there that make it seem like, okay, it can't just be fulfilled in Solomon.

The biggest issue that can't just be fulfilled by Solomon is that he says the word forever three times. So, if he's going to put a king who will rule forever, either that's just hyperbole. Like he's just, he means a really long time. Or, he means that this lineage will continue forever. That will never be broken up. They'll always be one of these kings.

But he Acts like it's a singular person. He will be to me a son, I will be to him a father, and he will reign forever. So, literally, it seems like the promise is there's going to come a king who will actually reign forever. So, here's what happens. Solomon comes. He builds the temple.

He does not stay faithful. He gets a lot of horses, wives, and money. Three of the things he wasn't supposed to do. I think the least problematic was the horses. The wives and money seem to mess him up. Starts worshiping other gods.

God eventually tells him, look, this isn't going to work out for you. Like, you'll get to die safely. But, I'm going to tear this apart, the kingdom apart. He eventually tears the kingdom in half. One, he keeps Solomon's son because it's like, I'm going to keep some of the tribe of David together. But, eventually, both Israel and Judah, that's how it splits, cease to be nations, cease to have kings, cease to have a throne.

But, the promise here is that your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. So, that's not happening. But, the prophets keep promising this promise. So, Ezekiel says this. But, I will save them from all the backslidings of which they have sinned and will cleanse them.

And they shall be my people and I will be their God. My servant David shall be king over them and they shall have one shepherd. Jeremiah says this in the midst of all of this going on. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch. That's in like a family tree. And he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called, the Lord is our righteousness. I think Isaiah saw it most clearly. He says this. For to us a child is born. To us a son is given.

And the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. So the prophets keep coming along and saying God's going to fulfill this promise.

There's going to be someone who comes in the line of David and he's going to rule forever. And Isaiah says, and we're going to call him God, Mighty God, Everlasting Father. So there's coming a promised king. And so God promises, I'm going to send a king. And here's why this matters so much and is so absolutely helpful. And I think it's one of my favorite promises and all the promises God gives and all the covenants he gives.

Here's why. God tells Abraham, I'm going to give you a people. I'm going to give you some land. You're going to be in my presence. Tells Moses the same thing and then gives him the law and says, if y'all follow this, you'll be okay. If you don't, this won't go well.

Then he tells David, I'm going to send a king. And he's going to last forever. And when you know that a king's role is to lead in faithfulness, what he's saying is, I'm going to send a person to guard these promises. He's going to keep them for you. I'm going to send someone to lead in keeping these promises safe, helping you keep the covenant. That's great.

Because I don't know about y'all. Every time something's been nice in my life, I've thought, man, I wish it could stay like this. Do you know why? Because I know it won't. Like every time something's been good, it's like, man, I wish I could just pause and keep this like this. Like I wish it could just stay like this.

This is great. I wish this boss could stay my boss. I wish this coach could stay my coach. I wish this relationship could stay like this. I wish this president could just stay the president forever. Because they're the best one we've ever had.

Whatever. Like, I don't know. Like you just, there's these moments in life where you're just like, I wish this could just stick. Sometimes I think, I wish I wasn't in charge of whether or not this stayed good. You ever have that thought? I wish someone else who was smarter and better would come and just keep this together.

Because if I'm in charge, I have a good idea. I might mess this up. There's these moments. And so when God says, hey, you know all those promises I've made? I'm going to send a person to lead in keeping them together. It's like, oh, that's the best one.

This is the best promise. I'm so glad this one came. I'm so glad you said someone's going to come and keep it together and lead in faithfulness. And so they kept saying, this king is coming. This king is coming. Someone's going to come.

And they believed that it was going to be a political leader. Somebody was going to come and defend Judah and defend Israel and lead and set up a kingdom. The problem was it seems like they missed out on the forever thing. So I guess they thought we'll just have a kingdom and it'll last forever. And here's what happened. The angel Gabriel comes to Mary, who is a young girl who is not married, tells her she's going to have a baby.

And here's what he says in Luke chapter one. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. And you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high. So God in this promise to David says he'll be to me a son.

He'll be called the son of the most high. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end. The keeper of this promise, the coming king who will last forever is Jesus. How surprised are we right now?

It's Jesus. He's the one who comes and keeps his promise. He's the one who comes and fulfills it. He's the king in the line of David. That's why several of the gospels start off with genealogies. Because they're going to show you Jesus comes in the line of David.

He's the promised king. And his kingdom doesn't look like we thought it was going to look. He doesn't overthrow the government. He goes to a throne by way of a cross. His first crown is a crown of thorns. Jesus suffers and dies on behalf of his people.

He does exactly what a good king should do. He lives his life on behalf of his people. Serving them and leading them in faithfulness to the covenant. Here's what happens for those who believe in Jesus. He upholds the covenant for you. He defends the covenant for you.

He keeps you faithful. Like a good king should. You trust Jesus? I don't have to keep the covenant together. I don't have to keep behaving to keep it right. I don't have to stand before God and show him how great I am.

I get to follow after my king who leads in that. Jesus dies on our behalf to keep covenant faithfulness for us forever. Forever. Forever. Forever. Maybe I am the only one.

Maybe I am the only one who when I am following Jesus well thinks. I hope I keep this together. Maybe I am the only one who at times says God I hope I make it to the end. Help me remain faithful to you. Help me to say no to sin. Help me to before I take my last breath.

Help me to still love and follow you. But if I am not the only one. And if there are some of you all in here who feel the same thing. I just want to be there at the end. Take rest and comfort in the fact that you have a king who leads in faithfulness on your behalf. And he keeps it together for you.

And if you have trusted in Jesus he leads you in faithfulness to God. So here is what I want to do. I just spent some time this past week thinking about if Jesus is really an eternal king. And he is really my eternal king. And if I am a Christian. If you place your faith in Jesus.

Jesus is your eternal king. Just wanted to give us some ways that intersects with our life. Some ways that that affects us now. I think there is probably a thousand more. I think there is probably if you wanted to spend an hour this week. An hour every day this week.

Thinking about what it means for Jesus to be your king. I think you could come up with a lot of these. And I think that would be well spent time. But I have got four for us today. Four ways that if Jesus is an eternal king. And you are a Christian.

That this should affect you. Okay. Way number one. Joy, peace, and gratitude. And rest are eternally yours. Joy, peace, gratitude, and rest are eternally yours.

The benefits of having a good king are yours forever. There is just something about knowing that someone who is smart and good is in charge. That lets you calm down a little bit. There is joy in that. There is rest in that. There is hope in that.

There is freedom in that. Knowing that Jesus is a good king. Like there is moments when you just absolutely trust that our government is doing what it is supposed to. There is moments when your parents had to make a decision. But you absolutely trusted they were going to do it well.

The times that the coach had to make a tough call. But you absolutely trusted they would do it well. There is just some freedom in that. I got two quick stories about my dad that I think help illustrate this. Help at least help me remember and picture this. And hopefully it will help you.

When you are little you are afraid of the dark. Maybe you weren't. And that is cool. A lot of people are weird. Most everybody is little is afraid of the dark. And there would be times where you would like have a nightmare.

You would wake up and you would go get my dad. And you would be like hey. I hate to bother you. There is a monster under my bed. I hate to bother you. But there is like a giant creepy something in the closet.

I am pretty sure it is in there. I did not see it. I felt like I could hear it breathing. Like whatever. Like it was just moments. And so my dad would come in.

And he would like turn on lights. And he would open the door. And he would look under the bed. And he would be like look. He would have you look with him. He would be like there is nothing in here.

Nothing in here. Nothing you need to be afraid of. And he would say okay. Okay. Go back to sleep. As soon as he left.

That thing came back. I don't know how it got there. You go back out. And you tell him again. It is back. I hate to bother you.

It is going to eat me. And so he would come back. He would do it again. Sometimes he would do this. He would go okay. See there is nothing in there.

See there is nothing in the bed. Nothing going on. Nothing scary. He would say yes. He would turn the light off. And he would go see.

There is nothing to. Oh no you are right. Oh no. It has got claws and tentacles. And it is seeping ooze. And it is going to eat you.

Oh my goodness. And he would like yell. And then he would cut on the light. And go oh no. This is our imagination. There is actually nothing here.

By about the third or the fourth time. You came and got him. Here is what he would do. He would look at you and say. There is nothing. In your closet.

Or under your bed. I. Am the scariest thing in this house. And you need to be more afraid. Of coming and waking me up. One more time.

And telling me that there is something dangerous in here. I am the scariest thing. And go to sleep. And there was something so freeing. About knowing your dad was the scariest thing in the house. It really was.

Like that was imprinted on me at a young age. And the rest of my life. It was like. If anybody breaks in here. If something bad happens. It is an unfortunate day for them.

Because I live with the scariest thing. Like he is just here. There is something about having a king. That is the scariest thing in the universe. That is just so. Joy filling.

Comforting. And freeing. In the midst of trouble. And pain. That Jesus is the scariest thing. At the end of the Bible.

He kills death. I have said this before. I don't make the rules. I just. I just help explain them. If you kill death.

You win. You are the scariest. He is our king. Who died for us. He is good. He loves us.

He is on our team. He wants joy for us. And we get to rest in him eternally. There was another time I had a coach. A baseball coach. And he was yelling at me.

And I was little. And I was not used to having full grown men yell. He was just one of these coaches that shouted. Like some coaches. You know. Coach.

This one yelled. And. I remember being afraid of him. And I told my dad. I was like. He just keeps yelling at me.

And like I am afraid. He is going to like. Come at me. Like I don't know what is going to happen. But it seems aggressive.

And I think this is going to go bad. I have to fight him. And my dad was like. Look. He is just yelling. He is not going to touch you.

You are going to be fine. He said. But I will make you a deal. I said. What? He said.

As long as he is just yelling. You will be okay. You will be fine. If he touches you. I will break every bone in his body. And I thought.

Deal. Sounds good. So then when my coach yelled at me. I was like. Come at me bro. I know how this ends.

Touch me. It made being coached by him way easier. Because I knew how it ended. And there is something about having Jesus as the eternally forever reigning king of the universe. On behalf of those who place faith in him. That brings so much joy.

And rest. And gratitude. Like we are free. Because he is good. And he has already gone to war on our behalf. And he reigns on the throne eternally.

There will be a day when all of this is gone. And we will stand before him. Free. And loved. And all of that is ours now. All of that joy.

All of that gratitude. All of that freedom. Is ours now. That is why Paul can say things like. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us. An eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

As we look not to the things that are seen. But the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient. But the things that are unseen are eternal. He says light and momentary affliction. The stuff you are going through right now.

It is going to pass away. And there is going to be an eternal king. And an eternity in his presence. And his joy and his freedom and his grace. He says in Romans 8. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time.

Are not worth comparing. With the glory that is to be revealed to us. They are not even in the same ballpark. All the joy. All the gratitude. All the rest.

Are ours already. Because we have an eternal king. Second way. I think this affects us. Intersects with our lives right now. Is you cannot set your heart.

On the promise. Of any lesser king. Can't set your heart on the promise of any lesser king. Here is what that means. You can care about the election. But you can't care so much.

That you lose your mind. Like you. You can't set your heart on. If this person. Is here. We are okay.

And if this person. Isn't. We are doomed. If this person is here. We will be fine. Everything will be magical.

But if it is this person. We are going to. We are going to crash and burn. And you can't allow your heart. To be set. On that.

You can't allow your heart. To believe all the promises. That money gives. Any lesser king. You can't let your heart. Believe.

All the promises. That a relationship gives. All the promises. That popularity. And prominence give. All the promises.

That power gives. All the prominence. That promises. That a job promotion. Gives. You can't let your heart.

Go there. Because you realize. That there is an eternal king. And all of these lesser kings. Will fade away. And will not matter.

And ultimately. History. Is already held together. By the one who went before us. To a cross. Three.

Submission. Is your appropriate response. If Jesus. Is your king. Submission. Is the appropriate response.

So we are used to. Democracy. Where you get to vote. And you can call your senator. And you know. This different stuff.

Kings. You don't get to do that. Kings get to do what they want. And so. It is actually. Very freeing.

To know that submission. Is the way I ought to relate to Jesus. Here is what I mean. If Jesus were a bad king. Submitting to him. Would be terrible.

It would be arbitrary. It would be ridiculous. He would make you jump through hoops. For his own good. When he said. This was bad.

And this was good. You wouldn't really be able to trust him. You might just be doing it. For his own pleasure. For his own joy. For his own.

Whatever. But see. We have a king. Who went to a cross first. So that we could even just be his people.

He loves us. He is for our joy. And our good. All of his rules. Are for our good. One of the things I love from the Old Testament.

Is it says that your law. Your precepts. Your teaching. Make. Wise. The simple.

That God is teaching. His rules. Make. Dumb people. Smart. Smart.

I love that. You ever. You ever. You ever. You ever. You ever.

You ever. In a class. And the teacher. Gave you the test. Before the test. Or gave you the test.

With the answers. Before the test. Do you. Do you know. Who did not. Immediately look.

Really excited. When that happened. The four smart people. They don't want the answers. To the test. They don't want to see the test.

They're going to do fine. On their own. And that's how they get to show. That they're better than everybody. Like the kid. That started crying.

When they handed out the test. Was the kid. Who had no chance. Of ever doing anything. He got the test. There were answers on it.

And he was like. I'm going to tell my mama. Right now. I'm passing this one. I'll wait until after. I take it.

Just in case. But. But I'm. I'm going to pass this one. And there was one kid. Who was like.

This whole class is stupid. That's because they were. Going to be fine anyway. One of the beautiful things. About having a good king. Who teaches us.

What life should look like. Is that if you aren't very bright. Things get to work out okay for you. Just by following what he says. If you've been in life long enough. To know that you don't always make the best decisions.

And that sometimes you chase after things. That end up being really stupid. And that often. If you follow your heart. Like Disney told you to. You're going to train wreck some things.

You're going to do it. Like if you ever see Jiminy Cricket. In real life. You're just going to punch him. Then that promise.

And that submission to a good king. Is how we respond to God. Is beautiful. And freeing. When you just get to follow someone. Who's good.

Who's wise. Who knows how it ends. And they say. This is how sex should work. Outside of marriage. And this is how sex should work.

Inside of marriage. This is what you should do. With your finances. This is how you ought to approach. Work and rest. This is how you ought to approach.

Parenting. In our house. We try to look at the Bible. And we'll go say. I'll go say okay. It's like my job.

To leave my family. I don't know if y'all know that. It's my job to do that. Anna has personal responsibility. But I will stand before God.

On how I led my family. For the whole household. So we all have personal responsibility. But I have responsibility. For our household as well. I love it.

I love it. When the Bible is really clear. On something I'm trying to figure out. Because I get to just say. Okay God. This is what you said.

I don't have to know why. I don't have to. I don't have to sit. And think about this anymore. I get to take it to Anna. And say Anna.

This is what the Bible says. We're going for this one. And at the end of the day. Today. We'll get to stand before God. And I'll get to say.

It's what you said. And I was just shooting for that. I'll stand accountable. For how well I followed it. But I.

As best I can. I get to just cheat. Look at the answers. And say God. Let me follow you. So.

If Jesus is your king. When y'all disagree. You submit. Simple as that. When Jesus is your king. And you disagree.

You submit. Number four. You begin to look like a citizen. Of his kingdom. Jesus is your king. You'll begin to look like a citizen.

Of his kingdom. So. Philippians 3 says this. But our citizenship is in heaven. And from it. We await a savior.

The Lord Jesus Christ. Who will transform our lowly body. To be like his glorious body. By the power that enables him. Even to subject all things to himself. So he's the king.

With all things subjected to himself. And our citizenship is in heaven. Where we await him. To come be our savior. So we'll begin to look like.

Citizens of that kingdom. And all kingdoms. All nations. All cultures. Have a certain. Here's what our people are like.

We just do. That's how it works. So the ancient. Spartans used to tell a story. About a kid who stole. A fox.

I don't know why they had foxes. I don't know where he stole it. But he stole it. And he had it under his shirt. And as he was sneaking off. With the fox.

An adult came. And started talking. To him. So he's holding a fox. Under his shirt like this. This is the story.

They used to tell their children. So if you want to. Looking for a bedtime story. Go with this one. So he's holding the fox.

The adult's talking to him. While he's holding the fox. The fox starts eating his stomach. Chewing into his stomach. And the kid. Doesn't want him to know.

He stole the fox. So he holds the fox. He doesn't. Give it away. That he's stolen the fox. And he talks to this adult.

Until the fox kills him. That's how tough Spartans are. It wasn't a problem that he had stolen. The issue would have been. If he had like. Whined.

While he got eaten by a fox. Okay. So Spartans are weird. I don't want you to get caught up in that. Every culture. Has certain stories that they tell.

Has certain. This is who we are. When there was the. The tsunami in Japan. I remember seeing pictures. Of the Japanese people.

For. It was like a three mile long line. Single file. Japanese people. Waiting to get water. And I was.

Baffled. By this. Because I was like. He ain't getting Americans. To stand in a three mile long. Single file line.

It's going to be a cluster. There's going to be some punching. Some shooting. Like. There's not going to be a. We've got water.

Line up. And we all go. Okay. Okay. I hope this only takes 12 hours. Like we're not doing that.

It's not happening. We made wristbands at Disney World. So that you can just like. Swipe. You don't got to stand there. Like I don't.

I mean. We got the little things they give you. When you want to eat. It's like. If you go do something else. This will buzz.

Because we ain't waiting. There's a certain thing. That goes along with a culture. And a kingdom. And who your leaders are. And how your nation works.

And I want to tell you something. As Christians. We're supposed to have. A citizenship in heaven. And a culture that comes from our king. So we begin to look.

More like citizens of heaven. So let me help you out. If you're a Christian. You will spend eternity in heaven. Because your king will get you there. That is your home.

This is temporary. That's your home. That's your homeland. So I want to tell you a little bit. About your king. And your homeland.

So that you can begin to realize. What kind of citizen. You ought to be. How this ought to begin to show up in your life. We're citizens of a land. With a generous king.

Who gave up everything. On behalf of his people. Who left his throne. And his wealth. And his praise. To go to a cross.

To be stricken with poverty. And to be mocked. And murdered. So when someone in my group. Needs help paying a bill. When I find out my neighbor.

Needs help doing some work. I'm the citizen of a generous king. I open up my wallet. And my schedule. Because that's what my king's like. We're from a land.

With a sacrificial king. So when you're at school. And someone who's nerdy. Wants to be your friend. And the only way. To be their friend.

Is to lose some of your popularity. To take some of their nerdiness. Onto yourself. We've got a king. Who gave up his life. So that we could have life.

We've got a king. Who laid down everything. To sacrifice on our behalf. That nobody made it. To his kingdom. Outside of him.

Personally bringing them there. So yeah. We sacrifice. Because we're citizens. Of a different kingdom. When somebody who's.

In your group. Is consistently depressed. And they call you. They want to hang out. They want to get some lunch. And the only way.

They're going to be not depressed. Is if you. Leave that lunch. Being more depressed. You go to lunch. And you give them.

Some of your happiness. And you take some of their depression. We've got a sacrificial king. Who gave us. His goodness. And took our sin.

Of course. Because we're citizens. Of a different kingdom. In our homeland. Where we'll spend eternity. Sin has been destroyed.

And it's completely unacceptable. We have a king. Who hates sin. So much. That he would die for it. So of course.

We're people. Who fight against sin. We're of course. We're people. Who are open. And honest.

About our failure. Because we have a king. Who's already destroyed sin. On our behalf. And we're designed. To hate it.

In our new land. We'll live. There won't be sin. So we fight against it here. You show up to your group. And you tell them.

How crummy you've been. How petty you've been. How much you've lied to them. We're honest about sin. Because we hate it. We're designed.

To follow after him. In a kingdom. Where sin has been destroyed. We're from a kingdom. Of joy. And celebration.

And singing. So we have fun. Our king sings. Celebrates. In heaven. Every time someone becomes a Christian.

It says the angels celebrate. First of all. That's never gotten old to them. Because they understand what just happened. They understand that a new family member. Has just hopped in for eternity.

We come from a kingdom of happiness. So. We're free to be happy. And celebrate. And dance. Even without white gloves.

It doesn't have to be interpretive. It could just be straight up dancing. Alright. We come from a land of justice and peace. Where our king. Took on injustice.

So that we could have freedom. And justice and peace. So. We care about the marginalized. We care about the voiceless. We care about those who are.

Who are. Poverty stricken. Because that was all of us. We didn't have a voice. We didn't have. Any way to defend ourselves.

But Jesus rescued us. We come from a kingdom. Where death has been destroyed. So we get to be fearless. Because death loses. And it doesn't ultimately have sway over us.

We get to follow Jesus wherever he calls us. Even if that seems certain to go poorly. Because we know ultimately. It will be just fine. The band is going to come back up. If you're a Christian.

All the joy. And rest. And hope. Of having a good king. Is already yours. You can't believe the promises.

Of smaller kings. Submission is your appropriate response. To Jesus. And ultimately. We get to begin to look like citizens. Of a different country.

So we have a king. Who went to war. On our behalf. And his victory. Is ours now. Forever.

So he. He accomplished it forever. On our behalf. And so as Christians. We just get to follow our king. So the response.

For everybody in this room. Is the same. If you're not a Christian. It's to trust. Jesus. As your king.

To win on your behalf. To conquer sin. To set you free from it. And to bring you forever. Into faithfulness to God. To lead you in that.

And if you're a Christian. The response is the same. To continue to believe. That Jesus is your king. And follow him as your king. So that your life changes.

So that your heart changes. And so that you can forever rest. In the fact that he's won the victory. On your behalf. Let's pray.

God we thank you. That you're a good king. And that all the benefits. Of having a good king. Are ours. That we can trust you.

That we can follow you. That we can hold on. In the midst of. Heartache. And difficulty. That we can know.

The end. We can know that one day. We will be. In your kingdom. Where sin is no more. And death is no more.

And pain is no more. And crying is no more. Because you've conquered. All of those on our behalf. God I pray. That you would help us.

To live as citizens. Of your kingdom here. We would remember. What you're like. God that transitioning. From how we lived here.

To how we'll live. In eternity with you. Would not be a drastic jump. For us. Because we would begin. To be led by you.

Changed by you. Daily. God I pray. That you'd help us. To trust you. As our good king.

That came. And fulfilled. This covenant promise. Made to David. That you will reign. Forever.

You will stand. Before God. Forever. On our behalf. In Jesus name. Amen..

Aug 7

Fulfillment of the Law

Fulfillment of the Law

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

All right, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors. When I was a junior in college, I was going on a mission trip to Romania and had to fly from the Atlanta airport to London and then to Budapest. Budapest, and then we were going to ride a bus to the rest of the way. So I went to the Atlanta airport.

I had just taken my bag that I had at school and just pulled all my books out of it, put the stuff I wanted. I was going to use that as my carry-on, put the stuff I wanted in to take as a carry-on, and went through to the Atlanta airport, put your bag on all the stuff, take your shoes off, take your belt off. This was before they could just see you naked through the scanner thing, so you just kind of had to, I guess they just had to use their imagination or whatever. So you would go through, and they would take your stuff, so they run it through the scanner, and then the guy who's a large black man, he pulls it over to the side, and he goes, whose bag is this?

And you don't want them to ask you that question. Like, you want the people to leave you alone when you walk through at the airport. They're never like, whose bag is this? And you're like, mine. They're like, this is a really nice bag. Where'd you get it?

Like, they don't do that. So whose bag is this? I was like, that's my bag. He said, come here. So he has his little gloves on, and he unzips the thing.

He reaches into the little pocket on the back end and pulls out a butterfly knife. Now, a butterfly knife, if you're not familiar with a butterfly knife, it is a, so like you have like switch blades, and switch blades have like a little switch, and then the blade pops out of the top. That's where they got their name. And they're real fast. They're like, and they're basically just saying like, I'm going to stab you. Like, that's all.

You're going to get stabbed. Like, that's what they're doing. Butterfly knives are two pieces of metal, and then there's a blade in the middle. And they take longer, but it's the same kind of purpose. Like, you don't use them for fishing. You can flip it around and stuff.

Like, little, looks cute, and then you stab people. So like, they have more to say. They're like, hey, how you doing? Do you like magic tricks? You're going to get stabbed. Like, that's what they're doing.

So like, switch blades are more to the point. Butterfly knives aren't. So he pulled it out. He's like, that's what I thought this was. He laid it on the table. All my church friends are looking at me like, what the heck, dude?

Why are you bringing knives on the plane? I was like, that's a good question. Then he reached in and pulled out another one because I collected them and did not realize I had them in my bag, took them to every class I had during the year. So if anything had gone down, I wouldn't have even been able to use it because I didn't know it was there. But so he takes them.

He sets them down, and I'm looking at him. He's looking at me, and I was like, am I in trouble? And he said, no, you just can't take this on the plane. I was like, seems fair. So he gave me my bag back, and I got on the plane.

Went to London. Got off in London. They make you go back through all this kind of stuff because you're going through customs now. So they run my bag through in London. Lady, little white lady, pulls it over, sets it down. She goes, whose bag is this?

And again, even in London, you don't want them to ask you that question. She wasn't like, sporty bag, mate. Like, she didn't do that. She said, whose bag is this? I was like, mine. Everybody with me is like, are you kidding me right now?

Like, what are you doing? So I walk over there. She unzips it and pulls out a third butterfly knife. I had all of the butterfly knives I owned apparently in that one place in my bag. Quick tip. If you're going to sneak a weapon onto a plane, have so many that they'll catch a few and feel like they're done.

So I had a butterfly knife that I had taken on a plane with me to London. And she goes, these are illegal. You're going to need to have a seat in that chair right there. And I'm calling the police. I wanted her to say Bobby, but she didn't. She said police.

So I'm sitting in a chair next to a guard. And I'm thinking, I probably could take the guard. Like, I'm thinking through, you know, what's going to have to happen here. Everybody else is going to get on their plane. We didn't have much time. And the pastor, he's sitting next to me.

I'm like, sorry, dude. He's real nice. He's like, it's okay, brother. But he was, you know, he could tell. He's bothered a little bit that I brought three knives for no apparent reason whatsoever. So we'll finish that story later.

But here's the deal. Laws are important. They matter and they affect us. And we need to know the laws. Like, you need to know the laws when you're driving. You need to know the laws of the country you live in.

You need to know the laws that affect your taxes. You need to know the laws of airports and other countries. Like, you need to know laws. They affect us. They make a difference. And what we're going to look at today as we're finishing up our covenant series are the laws that God gives to his people.

When he makes a covenant with his people and gives them his law. And this matters. Because we need to know what God's law is. What he wants from us. What is expected of us. Like, we need to know that.

So we're going to start. We're going to be in Exodus. I want to show you a verse here. But we've got to catch up a little bit before we get here. So, last week we were talking about Abraham. We spent a couple weeks talking about Abraham.

Because God came to Abraham and said, I'm going to make a covenant with you. I'm going to promise to accomplish some things for you. He promised to give him land. He promised to work on his behalf. He actually did a covenant ceremony where they cut up some animals. And God, in that ceremony, basically promised, you're going to obey me.

But if you don't, I'll pay the penalty. So, why did Jesus have to die is a question people ask all the time. And one of the answers to that is because God promised he'd pay the penalty for disobedience. With death. Like, that's what the ceremony was. So, God promised that he would do that.

And he comes to Abraham and gives him the sign of the covenant, which is circumcision. And then, we're jumping ahead hundreds of years today. So, we're jumping ahead from Abraham and circumcision. Abraham has Isaac. God reiterates his promises to Isaac. Isaac has Jacob.

God reiterates his promises to Jacob. Jacob has 12 sons that end up being the whole 12 tribes of Israel. They end up in Egypt where they're enslaved for 400 years, which God kept putting in the promise. He kept being like, I'm going to give you this land. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to make you a people.

You're going to be enslaved for 400 years before that happens. He just would, like, tag it at the end. But he keeps that promise. They end up being enslaved for 400 years. They go to Egypt where they grow. They become big.

They're doing well in Egypt. And then, because they got so big, the Egyptians get uncomfortable with them and enslave them. So, as we're picking up, we're going to show this on screen. And then, we'll go to Exodus 19 here in a second. But during those many days, this is, let's go to Exodus 2, 23 through 25.

We'll have it on screen. Okay. There was a map. Show the map real quick, just so that we didn't, it wasn't up there for no reason. There's Egypt. Nailed it.

Okay. Go to the verse. Exodus 2, 23 through 25. During those many days, the king of Egypt died. And the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery. And they cried out for help.

Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel, and God knew. So, God hears them, and he remembers his covenant. He remembers that he promised them.

And so, God sends Moses. And he sends Moses. He says, go down, Moses, way down in Egypt's land. Tell old Pharaoh to let my people go. Like, he sends Moses to go do this. And so, Moses goes and says, let my people go so they can worship me.

And God uses plagues. And he finally gets them out. It's really interesting. We're not talking about any of that. So, he goes out. They get into the wilderness.

And they go to the mountain. And now, we're going to pick up where God gives them his law. Where he makes the next step in the series. What we're talking about. Where he gives them his covenant. And so, go to Exodus chapter 19.

It's on page 39. And you're, if you're in a blue and white Bible. And if you don't own a Bible, take this one with you. It's our gift to you. Exodus chapter 19. Starting in verse 1.

On the third new moon. After the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt. So, they've been slaves. They've been free now for three-ish months. It's the third new moon. On that day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

They set out from Rephidim. And came into the wilderness of Sinai. And they encamped in the wilderness. There, Israel encamped before the mountain. While Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain.

Saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob. And tell the people of Israel. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians. And how I bore you on eagle's wings. And brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice.

And keep my covenant. You shall be my treasured possession. Among all the peoples. For all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests. And a holy nation.

These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. So he calls Moses up. And he says, I'm going to give you the law. And if you'll obey me. If you'll keep this. This is my covenant with you.

And so this is where we get the law. And this is what a lot of times in the New Testament. They just refer to the entire Bible as the law. Because this encapsulates their understanding of who they were as a nation. They were the people of Abraham. But they were the people who were given the law.

So God gives them the law. And here's. This is a major step forward in the timeline we've been looking at. So what we've been talking about. Is in Eden. Everything was great.

God had his people. In his place. In his presence. And then Adam and Eve rebel against God. They basically reject God's rule. And there's the fall.

And since then. We've been marred. By the fall. Like we can't choose correctly. We don't make good decisions. We're rebelling against God.

And so God promises Adam. Well. He basically promises the serpent. That sin won't win. So then we looked and saw how.

When everything got terrible. And we're looking. And God wants to destroy the entire earth. He actually says basically. Sin won't beat my promise. So even though.

You don't deserve to be saved. He steps in. He rescues Noah and his family. Then we saw Abraham. How God says. You're going to be a people.

And you're going to show everyone what I'm like. And now. In Moses. And when they. They have the Exodus. And they end up making it into the promised land.

It's the first time. That these three things start coming back together. God has a people. He puts them in a place. And we'll talk about that next week. And he begins to have his presence.

Back around them. Through the tabernacle. And eventually the temple. Which we'll also talk about next week. But he says to them.

I'm going to show you. So he's. In the moment in history. Where they've come now. He's on the mountain. And he says.

I'm going to show you what it looks like. To follow me. I'm going to give you my rules. You're going to obey me. You'll know what you're supposed to do. Which.

All of us I think. Believe we don't like rules. But they're massively helpful. If I said. Hey let's play a game. One of your first questions is.

Okay. How do we play? Like what are the rules? And if I said there are no rules. And then I pushed you. And I was like 10 points for me.

You would hate this game. But I'm winning. That's probably why you're mad. Like we want rules. We need them. And if we're going to exist in God's world.

We need his rules. And so he says. You're going to be the people. Who know my rules. You're going to be the people. Who know my law.

And so. In. Exodus. Leviticus. Numbers. And Deuteronomy.

We get God's law. We get his rules. Now I will tell you. Numbers gets a really bad rap. And it is way easier to read than Leviticus. But it's where God tells us his law.

It's where we understand the law that he gave to this people. And so. He says. I'm going to give you my rules. I'm going to give you my law. And.

You're going to follow me. You're going to obey me. And so. I want to take a second. And just walk us through. Kind of how those laws look.

And this is a. Maybe a simplified way to think about it. But it's helpful. There were civil laws. And civil laws. Just.

We kind of categorize them as this. The Bible doesn't really categorize them. They're not like. Color coded. But I can tell you how to kind of.

Think about it. Civil laws affected. They were going to be a nation. So they had rules as a nation. They had laws that were for their nation. So that these rules are like.

If you own a cow. And it kills somebody else's cow. Here's what you do. If you dig a pit. And you don't cover it. And somebody's cow dies in that pit.

Here's what you do. One of the ways to tell it's a civil law. Is that. There are penalties. So to say things like.

If you murder a person. Here's the penalty. If you steal. Here's the penalty. Because they had. Penalties for the civil laws.

Just like we have laws. There's a law in the U.S. That you can't take. A knife on a plane. There's a law in London. That you can't own a butterfly knife.

Because those. I guess. They just realize. They're not used for anything. Really helpful. Other than what I was talking about earlier.

Which is trying to stab people. Or as in London. They say. Is giving someone a spot of bother. They don't say that. They say it.

But probably not about stabbing people. I don't know much about London. All right. So. I know that I wasn't supposed to have that knife there. So I'm sitting there.

And. Waiting for. Sitting next to this guy. Waiting for the Bobbies to show up. Which I'm assuming. They're coming pretty quick.

Because this is pretty. You know. International intrigue at this point. Probably coming to take the whole system down. And I'm sitting there thinking. You know.

I'm going to have to go Jason Bourne on these people. She's going to have to. And my pastor's going to have to watch. And maybe he'll help. We'll see how it goes. But.

He showed up. And I was thinking. For real. If you get in a fight with a Bobby. They just have a stick. So the worst thing that happened was.

I would get beaten with a stick. So I figured I could go for it. But he showed up. And he was real cool. And. Luckily for him.

He didn't try to arrest me. He just wrote me a ticket. And helped me get to my airplane. So I didn't get in trouble. That's the conclusion of that story. So.

Worked out well for everybody in the end. But. There are civil laws in the Bible. That are like that. That are just rules of how we're going to be as a nation. Then there are ceremonial laws.

And these are where we get most of the confusion. So I read an article the other day. That was like. Ten things. That the Bible prohibits. That we do every day.

And it probably said something along the lines of. You won't believe what number six is. Because that's what they do on those things. But. So. They tricked me.

And I clicked on it. And I read. The ten things. And most of them. Were from Leviticus. And were ceremonial law.

Most of them were clean and unclean laws. And these are the things. People have questions about it. That people will say. Oh you mean to tell me that's a sin. But you're going to eat shellfish.

And then they'll show you a verse in Leviticus. That says you can't have shellfish. And they're like. Boom. Don't even talk to me. You eating crab legs.

Like. Oh you're wearing polyester. The Bible says 100% cotton. Like. There's rules. These ceremonial rules.

In the Old Testament. That were. This is how you're going to be set apart. And this is what it takes for you to be clean. Before God. And basically.

In those rules. God was helping them see. You're dirty. You. You're not okay. Like you.

You need to be clean. And like. There's. There's things that you do. That make yourselves unclean. And there's this ceremonial.

Sacrificial system. And one of the ways you can tell. That it's the ceremonial law. Is it has. Steps you take. If this happens.

You're unclean. For this amount of time. And here's what you do. To get clean again. Here's how you wash. Here's how you clean.

They have some rules in there. That are just really helpful. One of them is. If you. Like. What do you do.

If you get a weird. Thing. Growing up on your skin. They have a process for that. Like if you get bumps. Or some kind of a white rash.

There's whole sections in there. That's like. How to tell. What the rash is. Which is helpful. It's helpful for everybody.

Because one. One of the first rules is. Get away from everyone. You are growing something weird on your skin. Like that's one of the first rules. Which is a great rule.

I hate it when I talk to someone. I see them. I say. Hey how you doing? We shake hands. And they go.

I'm alright. I've been sick for the past week. It's like. Why'd you just touch me? What is your problem? So one of the first rules.

With the skin thing. Is get away from people. And you're like. No. I want to hang out. And it's like.

Not until you figure out. What's on your arm. We're not friends till then. But then. Not only does it protect people. Who aren't sick.

There's also a system. For figuring out. Whether or not that's contagious. And then they get to come back. Which is great. Because.

We would probably. At some point. Just say. Look. If you got something weird. You can't ever hang out again.

Because you're making people sick. And we don't know how to tell. Well God gives them a system. For letting them come back. But there's ceremonial laws.

There's also. In the ceremonial law. The sacrificial law. Where they would have to. Kill certain. Animals.

To atone for sin. Intentional sins. It's unintentional sins. But there was the ceremonial law. And then there's the moral law. And the moral law.

Is basically where God says. This is wrong. And one of the ways. You can tell it's moral law. Is he doesn't give a. And if this happens.

Here's the civil penalty. Or here's how to get clean. He just says. Don't do this. Now again.

It's not color coded. And there's some. Where people debate. And there's some. Where there's overlaps. So like.

Moral law. Don't. Murder. And then there's civil law. Which is like. If you get in a fight.

And you murder someone. Here's the penalty. If you hide in a bush. And wait till they walk by. Obviously premeditating the murder. Here's the penalty.

So there's. Laws that affect. How they're going to be as a nation. And then rules that are just. God saying. This isn't okay.

All right. To help us out here. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to take a second. We're going to flip over one chapter. And we're going to look at.

The ten commandments. Which is the most. Well known section. Of the moral law. So God's come.

And he said. This is my covenant with you. And he begins to give them. These laws. That you're going to follow. You're going to obey.

And you'll be my people. But here's what we're going to do. We're just going to walk through them. As if God. Just gave them to us. So instead of just looking.

And saying. Oh I wonder how the Israelites. Would feel about that. We're just going to walk through. And talk about. If God had just shown up.

And said here. Here are my rules. Here's how you need to follow. And we're just going to walk through. And see how this would apply to us. So that we maybe can begin to understand.

What would have happened. As he took this group of people. Who were slaves. Who were used to being a part of. Worshipping a bunch of gods in Egypt. And begins to teach them.

What it's like to follow him. Exodus chapter 20. And God spoke all these words saying. I am the Lord your God. Who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Out of the house of slavery.

So he begins by reminding them who he is. And then he says this. You shall have no other gods before me. So for them that meant. You got to put away all the. They were used to having gods everywhere.

A God of the river. A God of the rain. A God of fertility. A God of parties. And God says no. It's just me.

So for us that would be. If he was doing this right now. He'd be saying. Everyone worships me. Everyone does. There are no other gods among you.

No other. No other people you worship. No other people you bow down to. No. Nothing. Just me.

You'll have no gods before me. I am it. I'm the God of everything. Four. You shall not make for yourselves. A carved image.

Or any likeness of anything. That is in heaven above. Or that is in the earth beneath. Or that is in the water. Under the earth. You shall not bow down to them.

Or serve them. For I the Lord your God. Am a jealous God. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers. On the children. To the third and fourth generation.

Of those who hate me. But showing steadfast love. To thousands of those who love me. And keep my commandments. So he says.

You're not going to make any carved images. But I just want to cover something. He says in the middle there. He says I'm a jealous God. And I've heard people get this confused before. So I just want to help us out here.

And God says he's a jealous God. He doesn't mean he's jealous of you. He means he's jealous over you. Explain how that works. I'm married. I find my wife.

Small and attractive. I find her small. She is small. I don't know. She's smaller than me. So I guess that works.

I think she's attractive. If I saw her. Talking with a guy. And let's say he was big and beefy. And had a chiseled jaw. And laughed like.

Ha ha ha ha. Like that. You know. Like he's obviously rich. I would. And if I saw this conversation happening.

I'm going to tell you a few things that would be going on. Like in my brain. And just kind of. As I was watching. I would be jealous. But I would be jealous over her.

Not of her. If I was jealous of her. I'd be thinking. I wish that guy would flirt with me. Why doesn't he think I'm interesting? That's not what would happen.

Like let's say she reached up. While she was laughing. And like touched his elbow. Or something. Like I wouldn't be thinking. I wish I could touch his elbow.

Like that wouldn't. Like. If I. I would be thinking maybe about. Like putting my hands on him. But it wouldn't be like.

He'd be like. Like whatever. That's jealous over. Like I would want to. Harm him. That's what jealous over means.

Like I want her to only like me. So when God says I'm a jealous God. What he's saying is. Just me. I want you. For just me.

I'm not sharing you. You belong to me. You're my people. And it's just me and you. And that's actually a type of love that we want. I want my wife to not want to share me.

I want her to want just me. And me to want just her. Like that's the way it's supposed to work. And that's what God's saying here. But he says this.

You're not going to take anything. So if God just stepped down and said this to us. And said you're not taking anything. And making an image that you're going to worship. Here's what that means for us. Yes.

We can't have a little statue we pray to. But when you look at the first two together. Where God says there will be no gods before me. And you won't take anything. Under the earth. Above the earth.

Anything. Any image of anything. And worship it. What it means is we can't look to anything. For our hope. For our joy.

For our satisfaction. We can't look to anything to save us. So let me tell you what God just told us. You know that stuff in your wallet. That stuff in your bank account. It's got a little face on it.

That means so much to you. That consistently tells you. I'm what will make you okay. I'm what will protect you. I'm what will make life good. You can't worship that.

You can't believe the lies that money tells you. Just me. He says you know the image of that perfect man. Or that perfect female. That either doesn't exist yet. Or that you've met someone.

And you've started to apply that image to them. That they're going to fulfill you. And they're going to complete you. And they're going to make you whole. Can't do that. Can't look to anything.

Before me. For satisfaction. And joy. And fulfillment. He says. Let me tell you a little something about donkeys and elephants.

You can't. Every four years. Lose your mind. And think. For one second. That one of those.

Is going to save everything. Or one of those is going to ruin everything. That if we. If we. We've got to. Just have this.

And if we don't. Have this one. Everything falls apart. And this is where our hope is set. And this is where joy is found. And if.

And if it's this person. Oh my goodness. Everything's going to crumble. But if it's this person. Holy magic. Shiny land.

It's going to be amazing. Says. No you can't do that. Nothing. On the earth. Or under the earth.

That walks around. That creeps. Can you look at. Build an image out of. And say. I'll find my fulfillment in you.

It's just me. Seven. This is the third one. You should not take the Lord. Take the name of the Lord. Your God in vain.

For the Lord will not hold him. Guiltless. Who takes his name. In vain. One of the ways that can be translated. Is not just take.

But carry. So. Take. We kind of hold the idea of like. Using God's name as a swear word. Or like Jesus Christ.

As some sort of expletive. Or something. And I think it means that. Like they would have understood it to mean that. But it also means.

You can't just slap God's name on things. And then do whatever you want. You can't. Put God's name on something. And carry it around. And then.

Dishonor him. So if you run a business. And you put a Jesus fish on your card. And you have Bible verses all around in your room. And then you. You cheat people.

So you didn't just cheat people in your name. You cheated them in his. If you. You declare that God told you to do something. And to start something. Or led you to do something.

And you just go doing your own thing. You're carrying his name with you. One of the biggest arguments against belief. Is that. So many terrible things have been done in the name of God.

And he says that's a problem. Eight. Remember the Sabbath day. To keep it holy. Six days you shall labor. And do all your work.

But the seventh day. Is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it. You shall not. Do. Any.

Work. You. Or your son. Or your daughter. Or your male servant. Or your female servant.

Put an employee there. Or your livestock. Or the sojourner. Who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth. The sea and all that is in them.

And rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord. Blessed the Sabbath day. And made it holy. I think as Americans. We've been like.

Oh I can do the. The first ones. This one. Is going to be really hard for us. Because it attacks two things. That we as Americans love.

One is. Productivity. Your value. Comes from your work. Some of you. Have not had a day off.

In a long time. And maybe you weren't at work. But you were working. Because you just got to get this done. This is the only time I have to accomplish this. Oh these.

This. I got to send this report. I got to. I got to check my email. I got to send in this thing. I got to go over and work on this.

I can't. There's no time to rest. You see when God said this. He said this to slaves. Slaves work seven days a week. And their value comes from how much they can accomplish.

And once they can't accomplish anything anymore. They have no value anymore. And God looks at them and says. You're going to rest. One day a week. You're going to stop.

And you're not going to accomplish anything. And for some of you. That's terrifying. You have to sit. Well can I. No.

You can't. But what if I just. No. I'm sorry. But if I don't do it today.

You can do it tomorrow. What God is saying is. He built everything in six days. And he can handle it for one. While you're sitting down. And for some of you.

What he just said was. Six days. You will labor. Because the two things that we love as Americans. And we hold them simultaneously. Is this.

I love working. And I want to be able to show. That I have value. And if I go to bed at night. And I haven't really accomplished anything. That eats away at me.

But I also. Want to find a job. That lets me work three days a week. And make enough money. To have four off. And do nothing.

And he says. No for six days. You need to work. It doesn't necessarily mean. You have to go to. Go to a job.

But it means you need to be productive. Now. He told them later. There were times. Where they were supposed to take. A whole week off.

They were supposed to. There's some vacation. But we're supposed to work. And we're supposed to rest. And you know. Which one you are.

As to how this would be offensive to you. If God just told you to do this. And some of you are both. And you're really messed up. In your little heart. Number 12.

Honor your father. And your mother. If I'm confusing you. 12 is the verse number. Because these are the 10 commandments. And I just said number 12.

And you're like. Dude. We should have been done two ago. So. Honor your father. And your mother.

That your days may be long. In the land. That the Lord your God. Is giving you. So your parents.

Maybe use that against you. Because it says. That your days may be long. And they're like. I will kill you. But what he's saying.

Is honor your father. And your mother. So what he just said was. For the children. In the room. For the.

Those staying. In your parents house. Honoring your parents. Means obedience. It means they said. Go to bed.

Go to bed. It means they said. You're not allowed. To use this. For a certain amount of time. Don't use it.

It means. They don't have to hide. A charger from you. If they told you. That you weren't allowed. To use your phone.

That's honoring your parents. It means not. Disrespecting them. Talking back to them. It means. Maybe if you're in college.

It means when you answer the phone. Sorry. It means you answer the phone. And then it means. You hold the phone. To your face.

You don't do this. You don't do this. You talk to them. You show them respect. You honor them. When you get older.

It means not that you answer the phone. It means you pick up the phone. You call them. You ask them how they're doing. You visit them. You take care of them.

You honor your father. And your mother. Because they're your father. And your mother. That's the only reason given. Some of us.

Had terrible parents. I know. It hurts. It's hard. And you got to try to figure out. How to do that.

But what he stepped in and said. Was honor your father and mother. Period. Verse 13. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.

That's having sex with someone. Who's married. Or being married. And having sex with someone else. You shall not steal. Nothing that you did not purchase.

Or that was not given to you. Should ever come into your. Hands. You shall not bear false witness. About your neighbor. You can't say something.

About someone. Unless you know. In fact. That it is true. Cuts out half. Of some people's activities.

You shall not covet. Your neighbor's house. You shall not covet. Your neighbor's wife. Or his male servant. Or his female servant.

Or his ox. Or his donkey. Or anything. That is your neighbor's. Our whole. Financial system.

Is basically. Based off of coveting. We call that. Buzz marketing. It's coveting. But we call it buzz marketing.

Which means that you have something. And I look at it. And say that's really nice. And what I'm thinking is. I want one of those. And then I say.

Where did you get it? And you tell me. And then I go get it. And then we both have an Apple watch. And now you're not better than me. Because you thought you were.

Like that's. That's what we do. Like coveting is. Like it just. Springs up in us. You ever been to someone's house.

Like you're perfectly fine at your house. Until you visit someone else's house. And you see their TV. And then you go back home. And you look at your TV. And you're like.

I don't even want to look at you right now. You make me sick. Like this was a real thing for me for a while. Do you remember the TVs that had like the curved front? Y'all. Young people.

You think they just made up the curved TV. They had that a long time ago. It just curved the other way. Remember that? And then you went and saw someone who had a flat TV. And you didn't even know why it was better.

But you were like. That's better. They're like. There's not a tube in there. And you're like. I hate tubes.

I'm so mad at my TV with its tube. Do you know what it does? I didn't know what it did. I didn't know how they made the flat one. But it just was like.

Yes. This is better. High definition. Like. I just saw a fly. Fly by.

While I was watching football. And then you watch football at your house. And you're like. I can't see flies at all. This is terrible. This is garbage.

How do I even know if there are bugs there? Like. You got a flat TV. And then someone got one that wasn't square. Do you remember that? Like.

I have DVDs. I used to buy DVDs that were full screen. Because I didn't want it to be letterboxed. And now if I put that in. I'm so annoyed. Because my TV is wide now.

And I'm like. This is so stupid. I need to buy all widescreen movies now. You don't even have to leave your house. Just watch HGTV. They will make something look so nice.

You will hate your house. Let me tell you something. Most of us. I'm just. I'll just talk about me. I never really thought about my bathroom.

Just used it. You watch HGTV. You go in your bathroom. You're like. I hate having to use the bathroom in here. This is terrible.

Look at this. What is this? Just a toilet. I need. Decorations. Like it just.

I don't know. Something happens to us. We're designed to covet. And God just stepped in and said. No. Be happy with what you have.

Period. Don't look at anything and say. I'd be happy if I had that. I'd be okay if I had that. If my wife could just be like that. If my husband could just be like that.

If I could just have a husband. If I could just have a wife. If I could just have that car. If I could just have that house. If I could just have that salary. If I could just have that.

He says no. This is the first ten. In the moral law. Hadn't even gotten into ceremonial. On how to be clean or unclean. Just this is right.

And this is wrong. That's it. First ten. And here's what happens. We think. Everyone for a second goes.

It's going to work. God's going to give the law to his people. And they're going to live in his city. And they're going to love each other. And it's going to end. And if you're smart.

You realize it doesn't. Because it's like way early in this thing. It doesn't end. Because all that happens. Is for a second we think. It's going to work.

He's going to give us the law. And it's going to work. I'll even show you in verse 24. Let me show you what they say. This is just. You look at this.

And maybe part of our heart thinks this is true. Chapter 24. We'll have it on the screen. Sorry. I'm pointing backwards. Because I have a screen there.

Moses came and told the people. All the words of the Lord. And all the rules. So that's all of them. Civil ceremonial. That's all of them.

Moral. And all the people answered with one voice. And said. All the words that the Lord has spoken. We will do. That's an optimistic crowd.

And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. And then in 7 and 8 it says this. Then he took the book of the covenant. And he read it. In the hearing of the people. And they said.

All that the Lord has spoken. We will do. And we will be obedient. And Moses took the blood. And they had sacrificed some animals. Which they do all the time when they're doing these.

Because it was showing you. This is what happens if we fail. We die. There's got to be blood for this. To show you what's going to happen. If we don't do this.

Behold. The blood of the covenant. That the Lord has made with you. Oh. Sorry. I jumped.

So. And Moses took the blood. And threw it on the people. So he took blood. He had a little brush. And he started slinging blood on people.

He said. Behold the blood of the covenant. So that blood would spatter on you. And spatter on your clothes. And you would remember. This is what happens if I don't follow these rules.

Behold the blood of the covenant. The Lord has made with you. In accordance with all these words. And what they said was. We'll do it. We'll obey.

We just read 10. And I've already failed. We just read 10. I've already not done those. And if I was to bet on my future ability to not do these. I would say not.

I'm not going to be able to do that. There's going to come a time where I'm going to lie. There's going to come a time when I'm going to covet. There's going to come a time when I'm going to look to money. And say. I trust you.

I believe in you. My hope's in you. You have to save me. So the question for us today. Because all that happened for them. Was that they realized.

What happens as we look at this in God's story. Is we see. They couldn't keep it together. It just shows how far away from God they were. It just shows how desperately broken. You think.

Finally we're going to do it. And they don't. They don't keep it together. They don't follow. They don't obey. It falls all apart.

And see God was teaching them. With the clean and unclean laws. He was showing them. You're not clean. You're not okay. You can't just walk in front of me.

You can't just come before me. Like you. You and I are separated from each other. There are things that make you dirty. And we intrinsically know this. We don't have clean and unclean laws.

Like this. That we're trying to follow. But we know this. This is why you bathed before you came here. This is why you put on different clothes. When you go out somewhere.

Legitimately. When I. Go on dates. I would. I mean you can only work with what you got. But then you.

You got to try to like cover stuff up. Like I would put on. I'd take a shower. I would try to do something with my hair. A lot of times it was just real short. I didn't have to worry about it.

And then I would like. But I would use shampoo. Put on deodorant. Put on like nicer clothes. That like. Help me look.

Nicer. Like I don't know. I've never graded that either. But there you go. And then I would put on like. Some.

Polo. Ralph Lauren. Like smell good stuff. And you want to know why I had to do a lot of that? This is real. If I didn't.

Like I did like five things. To keep me from stinking. You realize that? Like I just. Just stunk. Apparently.

And dude. Like I've got. Like I have to work. To not smell bad. Around other humans. Like I wanted.

If I went on a date. I wanted girls to think. This is what I smelled like. You smell that? That's me. That's what I smell like.

This is. This is why. Someone's coming over to your house. What do you do? Oh we got to clean. Oh we got to clean up.

Why? Because there's something inside of you. That says we're dirty. We got to clean. You ever. To my knock on your door.

You didn't know they were coming. You just stick your head out. What's up? They tell people later. I think they were just completely naked. I don't know.

That's because you didn't want them to see your house. If you had to go out somewhere. Go to Walmart. In the evening. Sometimes. Sometimes random.

Sometimes you were sick. Had to go to CVS. And then you see somebody you know. And you're wearing like. Your house shoes. And.

Anybody ever hid from somebody? You saw them and you were like. They didn't. Trying to wait until they leave. And then you can go up to the counter. Do you know why?

Because we're unclean. And God was just teaching them that. You can't just come before me. And even if they were clean. No matter what. They still had to have a sacrifice.

They still had to have an animal die on their behalf. Every year the whole nation had what they called the day of atonement. And they would bring two goats up. Don't get attached to the goats. They would bring two goats up. One of them.

They would put all their sin on the goat. They would lay their hands on these goats heads. One of them would die. To pay. For the sin. And one of them.

They would send off. Into the wilderness. To take the sin away. So that the sins they had committed. And the sins that had been committed against them. They tried everything they could to take them away.

And God had set up a system. Because they weren't going to be able to keep it together. He set up a system that was. No matter what. You. Are going to need a sacrifice.

To come close to me. So here's the question for us. What do we do with this? If this was what God stepped in and said. This is how it looks to follow me. This is what you have to do.

What do we do? Are we supposed to follow this? Am I supposed to memorize these laws? Am I supposed to work to be clean or unclean? Like are we supposed to apply this? When that article says.

That I need to. If I'm not wearing all cotton. And avoiding crab legs. I'm in trouble. Like is that true? Like didn't Jesus fix this?

Well let's see what Jesus said. Matthew 5. This is Jesus talking about this. Do not think. That I have come to abolish the law. Or the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them. But to fulfill them. For truly I say to you. Until heaven and earth pass away. Quick test. Has that happened yet?

Alright. I'm glad you're with me. Alright. Totally focused. Earth is still here. Not an iota.

Not a dot. Will pass from the law. Until all is accomplished. Until heaven and earth pass away. Not a dot. Is gone.

The law has not been abolished. It's not gone. The problems of being unclean. The problems of moral sin. The problems of following God. The way we're designed.

Are still problems. Has not been abolished. It has not disappeared. But what's he say? He didn't come to abolish. But to fulfill.

And they won't pass away. Until all is accomplished. The law is still in force. But it has been fulfilled. And it has been accomplished. Through Christ.

Jump to Hebrews chapter 10. It's going to be on page. 651. We're still held accountable. To the law. You are still supposed to be clean.

When you stand before God. You are still supposed to. Uphold all of his moral law. So a second ago. I just want you all to know. We should all be kind of scared.

A second ago. We read through the Ten Commandments. Maybe some of you skated out. Maybe some of you like. I nailed it. No you didn't.

You need friends. Who can point things out to you. All of us fail. We can't do this. And then Jesus says. It's not abolished.

This isn't gone. And so we need to figure out. What that means. How do we stand before God. Hebrews 10. For since the law.

Has but a shadow. Of the good things to come. Instead of the true form. Of these realities. He's talking about the law. And it's just a shadow.

It's just showing us what's real. Sometimes you're looking for a parking space. And if the sun's right. You can pull up. You don't have to see all the cars. You can just see the shadows.

And it's like shadow. Shadow. Shadow. Shadow. No shadow. And you're like.

I'm going for it. Because I think there's no car there. But it may be a moped. Anybody tracking with me. You know what I'm talking about. Looking for parking spaces.

The shadow shows you something real is there. So what he just said was. The shadow. Of the law. Is showing us that something real is coming. Something solid is coming.

Coming. That's weird. Shadow of the good things to come. Instead of the true form of these realities. It can never. By the same sacrifices.

That are continually offered. Every year. Remember the two goats. Make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise. Would they not have ceased to be offered.

Since the worshippers having once been cleansed. Would no longer have any consciousness of sins. So he's saying. If the sacrifices had worked. They wouldn't have to keep doing them. They had to do them every year.

But in these sacrifices. There is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible. For the blood of bulls and goats. To take away sins. Consequently.

When Christ came into the world. He said. Sacrifices and offerings. You have not desired. But a body.

Have you prepared for me. In burnt offerings. And sin offerings. You have taken no pleasure. Then I said.

Behold. I have come to do your will. Oh God. As it is written for me. In the scroll of the book. Then he said.

When he said above. You have neither desired. Nor taken pleasure. In sacrifices. And offerings. And burnt offerings.

And sin offerings. These are offered according to the law. Then he added. Behold. I have come to do your will. He does away with the first.

In order to establish the second. And by that will. We have been sanctified. Through the offering. Of the body of Jesus Christ. Once for all.

Sanctified. Sanctified means to be made clean. To be set apart as holy. So Jesus. Does not get rid. Of the law.

He fulfills it. He fulfills it. He makes us clean. We still believe. In the clean and unclean laws. We just believe.

Jesus fulfilled it. If you're a Christian. You have been made clean. Cleaned. So if someone says to you.

Oh you mean to tell me. You think you can eat shellfish. I would say yeah. Because I believe in Jesus. And if I kept. If I kept trying.

To not eat shellfish. If I kept trying to. Only not wear polyester. Or whatever. Mix them up. If I kept trying to follow.

These clean laws. Here's what I'd be saying. I'm trusting them. Not Jesus. But in Christ.

Because he went to the cross for us. And fulfilled the law for us. We have been cleaned. We've been sanctified. It's been accomplished for us. A buddy of mine in high school.

Peeled out. Like he. Caught a wheel in front of a. A cop or whatever. Spun out. You know what I'm talking about.

Like. Throwing smoking stuff. He did it in front of a cop. Cop pulled him over. The cop gave him. I think 10 hours of.

Community service. What did he not do. After he had completed his 10 hours. The answer to that really confusing question. Was he did not show back up. To community service.

Because he didn't have to anymore. It had been fulfilled. The law still was there. But it had been accomplished on his behalf. It had been accomplished. So.

We don't have to follow the dietary laws. And the clean and unclean laws. Because Jesus has already accomplished them for us. We don't have to show back up. We don't have to walk back through him. We believe that he's done it.

So. By faith in Christ. It keeps us. From doing these. Because Jesus fulfilled this on our behalf. But we have to have a sacrifice.

Even if you're clean. You had to have a sacrifice. And so. In Hebrews 9. It says this. For when every commandment of the law.

Had been declared by Moses. To all the people. We read this earlier. He took the blood of calves and goats. With water and scarlet wool and hyssop. That's the thing he had in his hand.

And sprinkled both the book itself. And all the people saying. This is the blood of the covenant. That God commanded for you. And in the same way. He sprinkled with the blood.

Both the tent. And all the vessels used in worship. Indeed. Under the law. Almost everything is purified. With blood.

And without the shedding of blood. There is no forgiveness of sins. There had to be a sacrifice. And as Christians. We don't need the sacrificial system anymore. Because the forgiveness of sins.

Came through the shed blood of Jesus. You have a sacrifice. And we continue. When we sin. When we fail. When we fail the moral law.

They would have to go. Have a sacrifice on their behalf. When I sin. When I covet. When I'm angry. Jesus later says.

That if you hate someone. You've already murdered them. When that happens. I just continue to trust. In the sacrifice. That's already been made for me.

In Christ. That's how that works. Okay. Two quick things. If you do not realize. That the law has not been abolished.

Let me tell you. What can happen to you. If you don't realize. That the law is still in effect. That you're still held accountable. To this law.

Let me tell you what happens. Or what can happen. First of all. You can completely miss the fact. That there is a God. Who will hold you accountable.

For yourself. That you are dirty. You are small. You do not get to just walk in. In front of him. And be okay.

If you forget. Or fail to realize. That the law has not been abolished. You will stand before God. Condemned. If you fail to realize this.

You also can spend your life. Trying to figure out. What it is God wants you to do. This is what's always funny to me. I'll give you an example. How this works.

Because we do. We'll spend. People spend time being like. I wonder what God wants from me. Well if he's real. He actually has actual qualifications.

Actual things that make you okay with him. They're building a new Costco. Down the road. If I want to work at Costco. How do I. How do I do that?

Well since Costco exists. I go to their website. Or I go to their location. And I ask them. What do you want from me. So that I can get a job here.

They have forms they want me to fill out. They have an application they want me to submit. Right. Because they exist. So I do what they want.

If God's real. And he has an actual standard. Then we do what he wants. We say. What do you. What does it look like for me to be okay with you?

I can't just say. Well if there is a Costco. Then they should be okay with. A picture of my grandmother. A lock of my hair. And my video application.

To the TV show Survivor. And if that's not what they want. Then I don't want to work with them. You know what you would say to me? That's good. Because you will not be working with them.

And you would think I was crazy. But some of us. Your understanding of God is. I guess I'll just. Do what I think is best. And if that's not what he wants.

Then I can't worship a God like that. It's like. Bro you just made yourself God. God. That's not how it works. If he's real.

He has an actual law. And so I want you to know today. If you didn't realize this. There is an actual law. And you are actually unclean. And actually sinful.

And you stand condemned before God. There is an actual standard. Because there is an actual God. But if you fail to realize. That Jesus fulfilled this on your behalf. I'll tell you what happens.

First of all. You won't place faith in Jesus. Once you realize. He's accomplished this. That's where our trust. And our joy.

And our hope. And everything we have. Goes to Jesus. Because we realize. That he did everything for us. But if you're a Christian in here.

And you keep. Not realizing. That all of the law. Has been fulfilled. On your behalf. That it's been accomplished.

Let me tell you what happens. You keep worrying. Am I doing enough? Have I done enough. To make myself okay? When you read an article.

That says. The Old Testament law. Says this. You go. I ate shellfish. Am I okay?

Did I really have to give up bacon? Every time you hear. Some new fad. Of like a. This is something. You need to start doing.

You need to start living this out. You need to like. You start worrying. Have I done enough? And here's the answer. To that question.

No you have not. But Jesus has. And in Christ. The law has been fulfilled. You stand before God. With the law accomplished.

On your behalf. If you have placed your faith in Jesus. You are clean. It has been fulfilled. And you can rest. The band is going to come back up.

We are going to sing. We are going to enjoy the fact. That because of Jesus. Exodus. Leviticus. Numbers.

And Deuteronomy. Have been accomplished. That we are. That we are. That we are. We are clean.

That we are. We are loved. That we are. We are free. And we don't have to sit around and worry. Have I done enough?

Am I good enough? Do I live up to the standard? You don't. But Jesus does. not a drop of ink written in the law is gone but Jesus dropped his blood on the ground spread his blood out just as they were covered in blood Jesus' blood has covered us the penalty has been paid, the law has been fulfilled and we're free so in the covenant God makes we realize how far short we fall but ultimately in Christ it's been fulfilled on our behalf let's pray God we thank you for your grace, we thank you for your love God I thank you that we believe that the law is true, that we hold it as true but we understand that it does not hold us any longer because Jesus has accomplished it on our behalf that while it hasn't been abolished, it has been fulfilled Jesus, we praise you that you have made us clean that you have made us right with you we love you Lord, in Jesus' name, amen

July 24

Sign of the Promise

Sign of the Promise

Raz Bradley

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Transcript

G'day everyone. My name's Raz. It's good to be with you here this morning. A show of hands real quick. Who here in the room has ever heard of the awkward turtle? The awkward turtle.

Okay, all of the millennials have heard of the awkward turtle. Excellent. The awkward turtle, I believe, was invented 10-ish years ago. It was kind of like just transitioned in right when I came out of high school. And I think this is what the internet tells me. I don't know if it's true or not.

The internet tells me that the awkward turtle was invented because people who were awkward in situations and conversations had this problem with their neck. Where they were speaking, something awkward would happen, and they would just kind of recede a little bit. So that their head tries to escape the situation and get inside their body. And that's kind of where the idea of a turtle comes along. But that was causing neck issues.

So, they invented this kind of hand gesture, which looks like this. Which is supposed to represent the turtle's body. Some people do it like that, but they're weird. It goes like this. And these are the little, what are they, they don't call them wings. They're like the flappers, whatever, of the turtle.

And whenever something really awkward happens in a conversation, you can kind of do the awkward turtle and just... Back yourself out of that conversation. And that's apparently... Look, when it came into existence, that was the thing that people did. Not saying it was good, not saying it was polite, but that's just kind of how it happened. For example, I'm not going to name names, protagonists in this story.

This is a true story. I won't tell you the person's name, but I'll give you a hint. He has a beard, and he was standing there about three minutes ago. This happened in this very room, and it was kind of just over there. And I was introducing my friend to my wife, Christina's mom. And in the...

Look, he's not very good with small talk. And we all know this. If you're friends with him, small talk is not one of his spiritual gifts. And so you kind of have to be prepared for situations like this. So I introduce him.

I say, this is Christina's mom. And this is what comes out of his mouth. He goes, oh, cool. Hi. So, how long have you been Christina's mom? And you can see in his eyes and in his brain, he's just processed the fact that he just said, how long have you been the mother of your daughter?

And his neck starts going like this. And then my neck started going like that. And Christina's mom's neck was like this. And everyone was like this. And that would have been the perfect time, permissible, to be awkward turtle. You can just back away from the creepy bearded guy.

That's how it's supposed to work. Now, I mention this. I mention this because this morning and for the next couple of minutes, we're going to have a good old-fashioned awkward fest. Between you guys and me, we're just going to get awkward real quick. Not because I like torturing people with awkward situations, although that's true. That's not the reason that this is happening.

We're going to have an old-fashioned awkward fest because we're in a section of God's story that sometimes churches in this world tend to breeze by. Not defining terminology, leaving people hanging in the dark a little bit. And so we're going to step through it. We're going to spend some time. And we're going to actually define terminology, make sure that everyone's on the same page, and get through it even though it's awkward. Okay.

Today we're going to spend pretty much our entire morning talking about circumcision. And I'm not talking about just like say the word and move on. I'm like, we're going to talk real quick about circumcision. And so for the people in the room who know, you know that the awkward total is about to come out. So I've prepared you well.

But for the people who don't know, and I don't want to call people out. I don't want to make you feel silly or whatever. But I just want to make sure that everyone knows exactly, clinically, what we're about to talk about so that, Lord forbid, nobody Googles anything this morning. That would be a travesty, and I've not done due diligence. So, without further ado, here is a very concise medical definition of the word circumcision. Circumcision.

I'm just going to put my hands here. Circumcision is the surgical removal of the foreskin covering the tip of the male genitalia. Now you know, right? Yes, I said that. Yes, I said that into a microphone on stage in a church gathering. It's going on the internet.

Internet. You're welcome, internet. You've been blessed this morning, internet. Now you're probably thinking, look, I would be thinking, if I'm where you were, what exactly does this have to do with covenant? Because we're talking about covenants, we're doing this whole series on covenants, and today we're just talking about foreskins and circumcision, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But in the passage we're about to read, God calls circumcision the sign of the covenant.

And for us to spend however many weeks talking about covenant and skip the sign of the covenant, just because it's awkward to talk about and no one wants to talk about circumcision, we would kind of be missing the point. So we're going to plow through today. We're going to try and understand what exactly was going on in Genesis when they talked about circumcision. And then we're going to say, we're going to try and work out what it means for us, and then work out where Jesus fits into the whole picture. Let me pray for us, and then we're going to open up God's word. God, I pray this morning that as we look into your scripture and talk about weird and awkward conversations, that you'll be opening our hearts and our minds to understand what it is you have for us today.

I pray that that will be true for us this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. If you've got a Bible, open up to Genesis 17. Genesis 17. Genesis 17, it'll be on page 8 if you've got one of these blue pew Bibles. Genesis 17.

What happens in Genesis 17 is about 15 years after what happens in Genesis 15, which is what we talked about last week. So last week we're in Genesis 15. About 15 years later than that, we find ourselves in Genesis 17. I'm just going to read the first chunk for us. Page 8, 17, verse 1. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty.

Walk before me and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly. Then Abram fell on his face and God said to him, Behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall you be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. Real quick pause. God changes people's names pretty frequently, especially throughout the Old Testament, but it happens a little bit in the New Testament as well. It really just signifies a change in direction in that person's life.

It's almost like a graduation or a promotion. And typically the name that he gives them has some important meaning. So for Abraham, the name Abraham actually means father of a great multitude. Let's keep reading. From verse 5. No longer shall you be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham.

For I have made you a father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make you into nations and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and I will be their God. Now, this is more or less a restatement of stuff we already know. If you've been with us for a few weeks, we've been talking about the covenant to Abraham for a while now.

And this is basically just a rehashing of the stuff we've already talked about. But you'll notice he's 99 years old. The guy's super old. And sometimes with old people, you just have to repeat yourself. Especially if it's been 15 years, right? So God repeats himself and says, this is the covenant that I'm making with you and your offspring.

And his covenant with them is that they will become a great nation, that they will inherit land and that God will bless them. Basically, that his people will be in his place and they will have his presence. That's kind of the theme that we've been drawing through all of the covenant series so far. So it starts off in Eden when God puts his people in his place and has his presence with them and in amongst them. And then the fall happens and everything goes wrong. And ever since then, we've been asking this question, how is God going to point us back to a new Eden, a new creation that will once again be God's people in God's place with his presence?

Now God kind of moves on and talks about some of Abraham's responsibilities. This is verse 9. God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people for he has broken my covenant. Whoa. Things just got real.

Now in order to understand this we're just going to quickly revisit some stuff that happened last week. Last week we're in Genesis 15 and in Genesis 15 if you're here you already know this but for the people who weren't here in Genesis 15 God and Abraham established their covenant and it takes the form of what we call a suzerain vassal treaty and in a suzerain vassal treaty this is not Bible words this is ancient history words this is just the way things happened in the old days. The suzerain was the powerful nation ruler or whatever. The vassal was a weaker nation that had been conquered by a superior nation and they make a treaty in which the weaker nation says I want you to look after me and in doing that I will serve you I will do what you tell me to do I'll pay the taxes and I'll come to your aid whenever you're leading wars.

And what they would do is they would have this little ceremony that would play out. And this happens in Genesis 15 between God and Abraham God being the superior power and Abraham being the weaker one. What happens is they get a bunch of animals birds and goats and that kind of thing and they split them in half and they create a lane like a pathway through the middle where there's animal carcasses on each side of the pathway and all of the blood flows into the middle to form like a walkway of blood. It's pretty gross. It's pretty grim. It's pretty gruesome.

And what would happen in the suzerain vassal treaty is the weaker party would walk through that pathway of blood. And what they're saying by doing that is that stronger nation if I break my promises to you you get to do this to me. If I break my promise to you you get to destroy me. And in Genesis 15 Abraham and God set up this kind of a ritual but the major difference that happens is that right when Abraham's about to walk through bam God puts him to sleep. Then instead of Abraham walking through God walks through and then walks back through.

God goes through twice. And what he's saying by doing that is that if Abraham if the weaker party let me start let me backtrack if God the stronger party breaks his end of the deal if the stronger party breaks his end of the deal the weaker party gets to split him in two. That's not normal. That's not typical. That's not how it usually happens in these ceremonies. But what he also said by walking through twice is that if Abraham breaks his side of the deal God will also be the one who's punished.

God will have the right to punish Abraham but instead will punish himself. Now we're here in Genesis 17 this is 15 years later and circumcision is now part of this picture and this picture is pretty gross. It's bloodthirsty. It's disgusting. It's got retribution. It's got punishment written all over it.

The whole picture is not particularly pretty. And I don't think it's meant to be very pretty. In verse 11 God says it it meaning circumcision it shall be a sign of the covenant of the bloodbath ceremony. It shall be a sign of that ceremony between me and you. In verse 13 he says so shall my covenant so shall this covenant be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant. He's saying very explicitly I want you to remember this bloodbath ceremony.

I want the weight of what happened in that ceremony in that agreement in that covenant I want the weight of that to bear down on you at all times. I want you to remember it. I want you to remember it so much that I'm going to make it a part of you. I'm going to cut it into your flesh so that you will remember it. Do not forget the covenant. That's what's going on here.

So the covenant was made when a bunch of animals were slaughtered as a symbol of what would happen if one of the parties broke their promise. And in that situation it is no wonder that when God decided this will be the sign of my covenant he made it something rather gruesome something a little bloodthirsty. The whole point is to remind them of the consequences of what would happen should someone break this covenant. And apparently at least it makes sense to me what better way to make people remember that than to threaten a man where men do not like being threatened. Now you may be wondering at this point in time how do women fit into this?

Is there a sign for the girls? Is only the male in the whole generation covered with the sign that kind of thing? My first response and this is look this is just my fallen brain being sarcastic and wanting to say this you did just hear what the sign for the guys was right? Are the ladies really wishing for their own sign at a time like this? Probably not. But a far more accurate you know biblically historically correct you know actual real reason for this that I probably should explain is that back then they had what they call a patriarchal society.

Right? Are the ladies really wishing for their own sign at a time like this? Probably not. But a far more accurate you know biblically historically correct you know actual real reason for this that I probably should explain is that back then they had what they call a patriarchal society. It's no better no worse than the way that we do things

In our culture it's just different it's thousands of years old and it's the way things worked back then and back then in a patriarchy there was a male who was the head of a household and he kind of held responsibility for that household and so for women living in that society they would be born into their father's household and their father would have responsibility for their household and when they get married they would move into their husband's household and then their husband

Would be the head of that household and he would hold responsibility for that household so when God makes a sign of the covenant with the males throughout the entire generation and for the rest of history when all of the males are circumcised they're covering their households with that sign of the covenant and so for women the sign of the covenant being made with men doesn't actually neglect women based on the way their society functioned entire households were being covered with the sign of this covenant

So look I guess you just get a free pass on this one and you get to be covered by the men's sign of the covenant let's continue pick up the story in verse 15 and God said to Abraham as for Sarah your wife you shall not call her name Sarah but Sarah shall be her name I will bless her and moreover I will give you a son by her I will bless her and she shall become nations kings of people

Shall come from her then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old shall Sarah who is ninety years old bear a child and Abraham said to God oh that Ishmael might live before you God said no but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him

As for Ishmael I have heard you behold I have blessed him and I will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly he shall father twelve princes and I will make him into a great nation but I will establish my covenant with Isaac whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year we're going to take we're going to pause for just a moment this is not a main point for this morning but it's important to cover because there's some names we just read that we need to explain

Not a main point this morning but in Genesis 16 which is the chapter of the Bible that we just skipped between last week Genesis 15 and this week Genesis 17 in Genesis 16 Abraham has a son he has a son and his name is Ishmael but that son is not born from his wife Sarah but from his wife's handmaiden Hagar now this is not entirely uncommon and it's not the wrong way for them to do things back then

Because they lived in that patriarchy and for a man who had responsibility over his household he would need to have an heir so that that heir could then in turn have responsibility for the household and so when Sarah is not able to have kids Abraham she actually convinced him to have a kid so they would at least have a son who could take over for the family and that son became Ishmael through Sarah's

Handmaiden Hagar that's kind of where Ishmael fits into it so when God so when Abraham says please let Ishmael stand before you God says no I'm going to establish my covenant through Isaac who is your son who you will have through your wife for the history buffs out there Ishmael this other son of Abraham's is where the Islamic religion draws their heritage from

We're not going to park here we're not going to make a big point of this but just because it's true the Islamic nation the Islamic people draw their heritage from Ishmael and that's why we get a lot of questions like don't Muslims and Christians and Jews all worship the same God it's because at some point in time they all point back towards Abraham

If you want to keep having that discussion we can talk about it later it's not a main point of this sermon because as it says God says no my covenant is not going to follow Ishmael it's going to follow Isaac and we're going to keep reading verse 22 actually let's go from verse 21 but I will establish my covenant

With Isaac whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year when he had finished talking to him God went up from Abraham then Abraham took Ishmael his son sorry then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born to his house or bought with his money every male among the men

Of Abraham's house and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day as God had said to him Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin and Ishmael his son was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin

That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised and all of the men of his house those born in his house and those bought with money from a foreigner were circumcised with him Abraham and his entire posse all of them were circumcised in one day now this is not a day that any of them were looking forward to

I'm sure if you're 99 years old and this happens this is a day that you're never going to forget but so it was God wanted his covenant people to be physically reminded for their entire lives to be constantly reminded that they were different people because the blood covenant applied to them now if you've been paying attention all series

You would know that this is actually the second covenant that comes paired along with a sign the first covenant that comes paired along with a sign is the covenant made to Noah what happens in Noah's story is he gets all the animals on his big boat big flood comes and at the end of that the animals

Come off and God makes a covenant with Noah and says I'm never going to destroy the earth again and as a sign to you I'm going to give you what a rainbow and that's beautiful right magic the colors and that when you see a rainbow I saw a rainbow yesterday it was perfect I said Christina look at the rainbow and she took a photo of the

Rainbow and so if I if I were in Abraham's shoes this is not what happened but if I were in Abraham's shoes I can imagine God saying I'm going to make a covenant with you I'm going to give you a sign and I'm thinking sweet I'm going to get the next rainbow I wonder what it's going to be right maybe it's a maybe it's a pretty butterfly a new butterfly one's not on my boat yet he's going to invent a butterfly and every

Time someone sees that they're going to remember the covenant that's what it's going to be it's going to be maybe because Abraham's smart at one point in time God said I'm going to number your family like the stars so maybe he's going to get the rainbow of the night sky right like the northern lights and every time you see the northern lights or whatever it's going to be you'll think ah the covenant this is how my brain works I'll be like yes this amazing

Sign is going to happen and God says here's what you're going to do surgically remove the foreskin and I'm like whoa whoa you what what happened to the rainbows man give me a rainbow but I'm not Abraham we don't know what Abraham thought we know what he did and what Abraham did was he and his entire family his whole household was circumcised that day now for the last couple weeks as we know from the last couple weeks God promised God's promises to Abraham are fulfilled in Jesus and gifted to the church by

The reconciling blood of what Jesus did on the cross the promise to to Abraham that God would bless all nations comes true in Jesus and then is given to the church to go out and tell the whole world so that when Jesus says go and make disciples of all nations that's the continuation of God's blessing to all nations through Abraham and we've been made a part of that family by the reconciling blood of Christ so what exactly does that mean for us when it comes to this sign of the covenant how does circumcision fit into all of this should we be

Throwing circumcision parties alongside of our baptism parties whenever we have them that was sarcasm people before we take a peek into the New Testament we're about to look into it it's important to note that the the not the definition of but the interpretation of circumcision kind of evolved over time a couple thousand years is years past between when Abraham this covenant with Abraham happens and Jesus comes into the world and the New Testament is written and in that time the Jews have continued to be circumcised eight days old but the meaning of that circumcision in their heads has kind of changed they they've

Forgotten the covenant side of it and it's become this way for them to symbolize in their flesh that they're a descendant of Abraham and they think in their minds that because they're a descendant of Abraham they're set aside they're God's people and they're just good what was meant to be a sign to remember that the covenant has become for them a sign of I'm a descendant of Abraham and therefore God loves me in a moment we're going to look at Romans in Romans Paul is writing to the Roman church and in the Roman church there's Jewish believers in Jesus and there's also non-Jewish believers in Jesus and they've kind of in some some debate about whether or not the

Non-Jewish believers have to become circumcised in order to become real God's real family so we're going to put this on the screen this is Romans 2 says for no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly nor is circumcision outward and physical but a Jew is one inwardly and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the spirit not by the letter his praise is not for man but from God see Paul reminds us that the point of circumcision is a matter of the heart it's a matter of faith it's a matter of commitment to God's promise that happened in Genesis 15 with the whole blood ceremony he's saying that if you think you're good if you think you're completely saved because you have a scar that was given to

You at eight days old that makes that identifies you as a descendant of Abraham you've missed the point a Paul says here that circumcision is a matter of the heart and it's your heart that shows your attitude and your disposition towards God the Jews misunderstood the sign of their covenant what God intended in Genesis 17 was that they would keep covenantal relationship with him but what they ended up believing was that they were the in crowd I'm a descendant of Abraham so I'm good right but they were wrong the sign was never about that the sign of the covenant was don't forget the blood ceremony which they'd forgotten Colossians 2 is going to come up it says in him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by

Putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ Christ's circumcision is made without hands it is not a physical circumcision the sign is not physical not an external sign it's internal it's a spiritual thing that's happening verse 12 says having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead we consistently explained baptism as an outward sign of an internal change that's exactly what's going on here Christ paid the penalty Christ has already paid the penalty he fulfilled the promise made to Abraham and when when Christ died on the cross when Christ died on the cross and his blood was spilled he fulfilled everything that happened everything that was bound to happen as a result of that ceremony in Genesis 15 when God said if

You screw up I'm going to punish me and he walked through that blood that happened when Jesus died on the cross that happened when Jesus paid the penalty for our sin we no longer need a physical sign of circumcision because Jesus has fulfilled the covenant that it points to so since Jesus the sign is taken on a new form it's no longer physical and external it's internal it's surgery of the heart and it's performed not by human hands but by the Holy Spirit the sign of the covenant then shows itself through your actions and the way that you respond as a result of who you've become in Christ now this next point is important this is a comparison of how it worked then and how it works now so it's going to come up on the screen for the avid note takers who are going to want me to repeat this 50 times God's covenant with Abraham God's covenant with Abraham was marked with physical blood from sacrificial animals and the physical surgery of his people God's covenant with us is marked with the

Physical blood the sacrificial Christ and it's marked with the spiritual surgery of our hearts I'm going to repeat that once more because it's crucial God's covenant with Abraham God's covenant with Abraham was made with physical blood of sacrificial animals and physical surgery of his people God's covenant with us is marked with the physical blood of the sacrificial Christ and the internal spiritual surgery of our hearts what was a physical external sign for Israel is now an internal spiritual sign for us it is embedded and convict and we are convicted in our heart and soul and it will be evident in how we choose to behave in this world for Israel the day-to-day reminder was embedded in their flesh for us it's embedded in our soul in our hearts and in our minds in such a way that Galatians 5 says for in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith only faith working through love it does not matter if you're circumcised or uncircumcised externally as long as you have faith and it works itself out in love

So what then does it mean for us today to have this circumcised heart internal heart change leads to external actions if you've been convicted in your heart and soul it will be evident in the way that you choose to behave now let me be clear when I say the word behave let me be clear what you choose to do the physical actions you take does not affect your salvation status what you do does not affect your salvation but what you do does reflect what you believe and what you believe does affect your salvation here's the problem that I think Christians often face here's a here's a problem that I think we often face if we've been around the church for a really long time if we've been in community groups if we've been reading the word we all know the different things that we ought to do we know the kind of things that we ought to do but we also have this separate category of things that we actually want to do and we distance them we know that we ought to think when we are gonna open our way big** we know the way we're supposed to think that we are supposed to think that we are supposed to be a light in this world we know that we're supposed to hate evil and love what is good we know that we're supposed to bear Each reordas burdens we know that we're supposed to preach the gospel to all nations we know a bunch of stuff that we ought to do do, but it's not always what we actually want to do. Tim Keller, he's a well-known pastor in New York. He says it like this. He says, a circumcised heart looks like this.

When what you ought to do and what you want to do are the same thing. That's what a circumcised heart looks like. When what you most ought to do and what you most want to do have become the same thing. Now that's all well and good, but it's kind of intangible. What exactly does that mean? Well, if you're a Christian, if you're a Christian, where do you see change in your life? In what ways has your heart taken a new direction so that you now want to do things that you ought to do rather than what you've always wanted to do? What thing, what thing did you think you would never give up? This whole Jesus thing, this whole church thing was never going to affect my desire to do this. And if that's changed, then that is an indication of a circumcised heart. So for example, you may, you may be, I don't know, just super lazy. And your idea of an ideal Saturday is a Totino's pizza, stick it in the fridge, not in the fridge, in the oven.

Putting it in the fridge isn't going to do anything. Put it in the oven, sit in front of Netflix all day and binge watch. Who even cares? Saturday, you do what you want, right? And someone calls you and says, hey, I really need help moving this table. Will you come and help me? And you lie. You say, sorry, I'm busy. I guess that's not a lie. You've got a plan. It's just a really bad plan. And so you're lying to your friend and you say, no, I'm not going to do it. And then you go about doing what you want to do rather than what you know you probably ought to do. And then over time, you start hanging out with a community group, start reading your Bible, you start coming along to Sunday gatherings and you start learning some stuff. You start getting to know the people and you start to love the people. And for some reason, something unexplainable is happening inside of you and you actually want to help these people. And so when someone calls you and says, hey, I'm moving house this Saturday, will you come help? That actually sounds more desirable to you now. The thing that you ought to do has kind of become the thing that you want to do.

Maybe you're completely different. Maybe that's not you. Maybe you've never understood the whole Jesus-y no sex before marriage thing. Maybe that's never really, you know what people say, but it just doesn't affect you. And so you've gone from girlfriend or boyfriend to girlfriend or boyfriend. You've lived with people. You've maybe even had kids with people. And so you're living in this situation. You've got a kid, that kind of thing. And you're basically, you've got to pretend marriage. You're basically married. You never actually got married. There's no paperwork. There was no ceremony. But look, it's more or less the same thing. You just don't like labels. You don't like commitment. And the whole Jesus thing isn't really going to affect that. And then you start hanging out with church family. You see what marriage looks like in other people. You see what Jesus-honoring marriage looks like in other people in the church. And you start to think, maybe they do have it right.

Maybe that's a pretty good option. And suddenly you desire that for yourself. And so you decide, maybe we should get married. Maybe commitment isn't that bad of a thing. Maybe I should just do it. And in the meantime, maybe we should live separately until we actually get married. And what you know you ought to do, and what you actually want to do, are slowly becoming the same thing. Maybe for you, money is a big deal. Money kind of is a two-sided coin, ironically. And there's the people who are savers. And there's the people who are spenders. And so for the savers, when it comes to money, there's a number in their bank account, where if their bank account is on or above that number, they're good. They're fine. They're safe. And they know that if anything happens, they don't need to rely on anyone. They don't need to take out loans. They just know they're good because I've saved up that many dollars. And I can protect myself. I'll be okay. I'll make it through.

I'll be good. And then they've got accounts set up for the Disney trip in 15 years, and the kid's first car, and the braces, and all that kind of stuff. They don't even have a girlfriend yet, but they've planned for all of that. Money is a big comfort thing for these people. Then there's the other side, which is the spenders. And the spenders think, new Xbox. Bam, got it. New sound system. Bam, got it. Curved TVs. Bam, I bought three. These people rack up debt. Maybe they won't rack up debt. Maybe they have tons of money, but they use that money so that they get the stuff that they want. Boats, cars, flashy lights. Ooh, everything. Anything that'll make them feel good in that moment. Because that's all the stuff that they want to do. For the other people, they want to save. They want to feel comfortable because money is a buffer zone. For these people, money is what they want to spend it on things because things gain them approval or power or whatever it is that they want comfort in their own lives. And so these people, whoever it is with this money issue going on, they start hanging out with church family. They start reading the Bible. They slowly get convicted of how money should actually be spent in this world. That I'm just a manager of the money that God has given me in this moment, in this time for me to have control over temporarily now. But they see that there's actually better uses for that money. And so when someone in their community group needs help financially, they help them out. They want to help them out. When they see that the church is trying to change West Columbia, they want to impact West Columbia with the gospel message. They give financially to the work that the church is doing what they ought to do and what they want to do are slowly becoming the same thing. That's what it looks like when a heart has been circumcised.

The problem that the Jews had in Jesus day is that they remembered their circumcision, but they distorted its meaning. They pointed to their outward signs and said, look, I'm worthy because I'm a descendant of Abraham. And because I'm a descendant of Abraham, I'm good. But it's never been about the outward sign. It's never been about that. The outward sign only ever existed to point people to covenantal faithfulness in what God had done in that covenant, covenant to the promises that God had made to humanity and to Abraham in that covenant fulfilled in Jesus. That was the point of circumcision and they'd missed it. As Matt makes his way back up here, I want to ask you all, are you changing? Can you look back? Can you look back and see change? And if so, is the change that you see a changed heart? Is it just, is it just outward signs or is it a changed heart? And if so, if it is a changed heart, praise God, praise God, because what you want and what you know you ought to do have slowly become the same thing.

And you get to live in God's grace, understanding it better and better every single day, because what you know you ought to do and what you want to do are both happening at the same time. If you're only concerned with yourself or your outward appearance, then your heart isn't changing. And what you actually need is internal spiritual surgery. The answer to your problem is not a simple external change. It's an internal spiritual surgery of your heart. You know, we started this morning awkwardly talking about circumcision. And when God instituted circumcision, it was intended to remind people consistently of the blood covenant. It was supposed to seal in their flesh an identity as a people made in God's image to serve him and to love him and to have faith in the promises that he had made to humanity. The sign is not the same for us anymore.

It may no longer be a physical surgery, but we are still marked as God's people. God's surgery is of our hearts. His circumcision of our hearts is what aligns us so that what we know we ought to do and what we want to do get to become the same thing. The circumcision of our heart is what helps us to love and desire what God loves and desires. Let's pray for that in our lives today. God, I pray, I pray that you will continue to show us what we ought to be doing and help us, help us to want to do that. I pray for those in the room who look to outward signs as a means of showing that they've earned salvation. And I pray that you will perform surgery on their hearts. God, I pray that, I pray that you will continually align our desires with your desires so that what we ought to do

And what we want to do become the same thing. Amen. We have communion set up in the back. And in communion, we remember Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross. The bread represents his body which was broken for us on our behalf. And the grape juice, it represents Christ's blood that was spilled to pay for our sins. This is a thing that Christians do. So if you're not a Christian, you might want to just stay where you are. But if you're a Christian in the room, as you take communion, thank God. Thank Him for the sacrifice that He made in Christ to pay the penalty of that blood covenant. And pray for yourself that what you know you ought to do and what you want to do

Can become the same thing.

When what you ought to do and what you want to do are the same thing. That's what a circumcised heart looks like. When what you most ought to do and what you most want to do have become the same thing. Now that's all well and good, but it's kind of intangible. What exactly does that mean? Well, if you're a Christian, if you're a Christian, where do you see change in your life?

In what ways has your heart taken a new direction so that you now want to do things that you ought to do rather than what you've always wanted to do? What thing, what thing did you think you would never give up? This whole Jesus thing, this whole church thing was never going to affect my desire to do this. And if that's changed, then that is an indication of a circumcised heart. So for example, you may, you may be, I don't know, just super lazy.

And your idea of an ideal Saturday is a Totino's pizza, stick it in the fridge, not in the fridge, in the oven. Putting it in the fridge isn't going to do anything. Put it in the oven, sit in front of Netflix all day and binge watch. Who even cares? Saturday, you do what you want, right? And someone calls you and says, hey, I really need help moving this table.

Will you come and help me? And you lie. You say, sorry, I'm busy. I guess that's not a lie. You've got a plan. It's just a really bad plan.

And so you're lying to your friend and you say, no, I'm not going to do it. And then you go about doing what you want to do rather than what you know you probably ought to do. And then over time, you start hanging out with a community group, start reading your Bible, you start coming along to Sunday gatherings and you start learning some stuff. You start getting to know the people and you start to love the people. And for some reason, something unexplainable is happening inside of you and you actually want to help these people. And so when someone calls you and says, hey, I'm moving house this Saturday, will you come help?

That actually sounds more desirable to you now. The thing that you ought to do has kind of become the thing that you want to do. Maybe you're completely different. Maybe that's not you. Maybe you've never understood the whole Jesus-y no sex before marriage thing. Maybe that's never really, you know what people say, but it just doesn't affect you.

And so you've gone from girlfriend or boyfriend to girlfriend or boyfriend. You've lived with people. You've maybe even had kids with people. And so you're living in this situation. You've got a kid, that kind of thing. And you're basically, you've got to pretend marriage.

You're basically married. You never actually got married. There's no paperwork. There was no ceremony. But look, it's more or less the same thing.

You just don't like labels. You don't like commitment. And the whole Jesus thing isn't really going to affect that. And then you start hanging out with church family. You see what marriage looks like in other people. You see what Jesus-honoring marriage looks like in other people in the church.

And you start to think, maybe they do have it right. Maybe that's a pretty good option. And suddenly you desire that for yourself. And so you decide, maybe we should get married. Maybe commitment isn't that bad of a thing. Maybe I should just do it.

And in the meantime, maybe we should live separately until we actually get married. And what you know you ought to do, and what you actually want to do, are slowly becoming the same thing. Maybe for you, money is a big deal. Money kind of is a two-sided coin, ironically. And there's the people who are savers. And there's the people who are spenders.

And so for the savers, when it comes to money, there's a number in their bank account, where if their bank account is on or above that number, they're good. They're fine. They're safe. And they know that if anything happens, they don't need to rely on anyone. They don't need to take out loans. They just know they're good because I've saved up that many dollars.

And I can protect myself. I'll be okay. I'll make it through. I'll be good. And then they've got accounts set up for the Disney trip in 15 years, and the kid's first car, and the braces, and all that kind of stuff. They don't even have a girlfriend yet, but they've planned for all of that.

Money is a big comfort thing for these people. Then there's the other side, which is the spenders. And the spenders think, new Xbox. Bam, got it. New sound system. Bam, got it.

Curved TVs. Bam, I bought three. These people rack up debt. Maybe they won't rack up debt. Maybe they have tons of money, but they use that money so that they get the stuff that they want. Boats, cars, flashy lights.

Ooh, everything. Anything that'll make them feel good in that moment. Because that's all the stuff that they want to do. For the other people, they want to save. They want to feel comfortable because money is a buffer zone. For these people, money is what they want to spend it on things because things gain them approval or power or whatever it is that they want comfort in their own lives.

And so these people, whoever it is with this money issue going on, they start hanging out with church family. They start reading the Bible. They slowly get convicted of how money should actually be spent in this world. That I'm just a manager of the money that God has given me in this moment, in this time for me to have control over temporarily now. But they see that there's actually better uses for that money.

And so when someone in their community group needs help financially, they help them out. They want to help them out. When they see that the church is trying to change West Columbia, they want to impact West Columbia with the gospel message. They give financially to the work that the church is doing what they ought to do and what they want to do are slowly becoming the same thing. That's what it looks like when a heart has been circumcised. The problem that the Jews had in Jesus day is that they remembered their circumcision, but they distorted its meaning.

They pointed to their outward signs and said, look, I'm worthy because I'm a descendant of Abraham. And because I'm a descendant of Abraham, I'm good. But it's never been about the outward sign. It's never been about that. The outward sign only ever existed to point people to covenantal faithfulness in what God had done in that covenant, covenant to the promises that God had made to humanity and to Abraham in that covenant fulfilled in Jesus. That was the point of circumcision and they'd missed it.

As Matt makes his way back up here, I want to ask you all, are you changing? Can you look back? Can you look back and see change? And if so, is the change that you see a changed heart? Is it just, is it just outward signs or is it a changed heart? And if so, if it is a changed heart, praise God, praise God, because what you want and what you know you ought to do have slowly become the same thing.

And you get to live in God's grace, understanding it better and better every single day, because what you know you ought to do and what you want to do are both happening at the same time. If you're only concerned with yourself or your outward appearance, then your heart isn't changing. And what you actually need is internal spiritual surgery. The answer to your problem is not a simple external change. It's an internal spiritual surgery of your heart. You know, we started this morning awkwardly talking about circumcision.

And when God instituted circumcision, it was intended to remind people consistently of the blood covenant. It was supposed to seal in their flesh an identity as a people made in God's image to serve him and to love him and to have faith in the promises that he had made to humanity. The sign is not the same for us anymore. It may no longer be a physical surgery, but we are still marked as God's people. God's surgery is of our hearts. His circumcision of our hearts is what aligns us so that what we know we ought to do and what we want to do get to become the same thing.

The circumcision of our heart is what helps us to love and desire what God loves and desires. Let's pray for that in our lives today. God, I pray, I pray that you will continue to show us what we ought to be doing and help us, help us to want to do that. I pray for those in the room who look to outward signs as a means of showing that they've earned salvation. And I pray that you will perform surgery on their hearts. God, I pray that, I pray that you will continually align our desires with your desires so that what we ought to do and what we want to do become the same thing.

Amen. We have communion set up in the back. And in communion, we remember Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross. The bread represents his body which was broken for us on our behalf. And the grape juice, it represents Christ's blood that was spilled to pay for our sins. This is a thing that Christians do.

So if you're not a Christian, you might want to just stay where you are. But if you're a Christian in the room, as you take communion, thank God. Thank Him for the sacrifice that He made in Christ to pay the penalty of that blood covenant. And pray for yourself that what you know you ought to do and what you want to do can become the same thing.

Blood Covenant

Blood Covenant

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Good morning. So we will spend, I believe, some more time talking about this and praying about this in the upcoming weeks. I know in the middle of this kind of stuff, I always feel the tension of I want to I want to learn how to pray about this past week, learn how to react less like a white guy from South Carolina who grew up here and more like I belong to Jesus. And so even in my own thoughts, in my own heart responses to things, I'm just trying to grow there. And I think we'll spend some time talking about that in the next couple of weeks at some point and praying about it, certainly. But today we're going to continue our covenant series.

So we're in week five of our covenant series. We're walking through the Old Testament covenants and seeing how they point us to Christ and how they're ultimately fulfilled in Christ and how we can, as we read through the Old Testament and see how God interacted with people, begin to learn and see where that puts us and kind of how history has moved forward through the covenants. And so we're going to learn some words this morning. Because we're going to be talking about a certain type of covenant that was very common then, but is not common to us now. And so we're going to talk about suzerain vassal covenants or a suzerain vassal treaty.

And that's how you spell it, because I know all of y'all wanted to know how to spell it and be able to use it later. Basically, here's how a suzerain vassal treaty worked. And this was very common throughout history and throughout how nations organized themselves. A suzerain was a more powerful nation. And a vassal was a less powerful nation. And they would set up a suzerain vassal covenant.

And the way this worked was the suzerain, they weren't the suzerain yet, so like a more powerful nation would roll up. Usually they'd be like, you know, murdering people and burning and pillaging and knocking out smaller towns on their way to like a capital. And they'd show up and they'd be like, hey, do you want us to kill all y'all or do you want to be friends? And a lot of time the smaller nation would be like, be friends? And they'd be like, yeah, that's great. All right, here's what we're going to do.

It's going to be a suzerain vassal treaty. And the way it worked was the larger nation became the suzerain and the smaller nation became the vassal. They became a vassal state of that nation. And they would work out this covenant where the vassal basically said, we will belong to you. So they differing levels of autonomy, but they basically said, we belong to you.

If y'all go to war, we'll go to war with you. If you tell us to do something, we'll do it. If you tell us not to do something, we won't do it. We'll send you some money and you'll be our only suzerain. We won't have any other suzerains. We won't have a side suzerain.

Like you're going to be bae. Like that's what they'd say. Like you, you are straight up our suzerain. That's it. No other suzerains. And the suzerain would say, I'll protect you.

If some other nation rolls along, like I'll defend you. I will allot you a certain amount of land. I will treat you as if you belong to me. And a lot of times they were called, the suzerain would be called Lord and the vassal would be called servant or the suzerain would be called father and the vassal would be called son. But this happened all the time.

The closest thing I think we have to it now that we could easily understand would maybe be the mafia. You know how like, not really in life, I don't know if any of y'all have ever interacted with the mafia for real, but like in movies, they walk in and they're like, hey, you're going to pay us some money and we'll protect you. And the person who runs the store is like, I don't need protection. We're good. And they're like, we're going to hurt everyone and burn this place down. And it's like, oh, then I'll give you money.

Yeah. And then we'll be friends. It's like, okay, I see how this works now. Like that's kind of the system was that the suzerain was the one that had power and they would exert their authority over vassals and vassals would become a smaller servant to the larger nation. So this happens all the time.

Let's go to Genesis chapter 15. We're in pay on page seven. If your Bible looks like this, if you don't own a Bible, this is our gift to you. You may have it. Genesis chapter 15. So we've been looking at Abraham and God's covenant promises to Abraham.

And so we're not really getting a new covenant today. We're actually seeing God basically ratify, confirm his covenant with Abraham. So we'll pick up in verse one. Um, it starts off with the phrase after these things it's referring to chapter 14. Uh, Abraham was the patriarch of, uh, his family, which meant he was the, the head guy in charge. He was the chief of this pack of nomads that were farmers and shepherds, not farmers, shepherds.

Uh, and they would travel around with their, their cattle, their livestock. And, uh, in the previous chapter, a couple of Kings from little cities around captured his nephew. And so Abraham took 318 men that he had trained. So apparently this is a large group that he's overseeing. And they had trained men who were going to fight. They went and beat up all the Kings and got a lot back and then gave some money to a guy named Achilles.

And that's what it says after these things. So after all that happened, where Abraham was protecting his family, like a good patriarch, this is where we pick up in chapter 15. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. That's Abraham. He gets his name changed later. Um, so there you go.

Uh, Abram in a vision. Fear not Abram. I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. But Abram said, Oh Lord God, what will you give me?

For I continue childless and the heir of my house is Eliazar of Damascus. Okay. So this was a big issue. Abram's the patriarch. His heir becomes the patriarch. So he would want that to be his son so that his name continued so that his son was overseeing the family.

What he's saying is, I don't have an heir. You've been telling me you're going to bless me and give me a nation and give me an heir. And you just said, Hey, I'm going to bless you again. And I just got a quick question. How you figure? Because right now I've got to hand over everything to this guy named Eliazar or Eliezer or whatever his name is.

The guy from Damascus. I've got to hand it over to him. And so that's Abraham's kind of response there. And so God is going to respond back to him. So Abraham's saying, Look, when I die, everything goes to him.

Like I've got to set up an heir. He's going to take over the family. So you said you were going to make me into a big nation. You were going to make me into a big family. Not if this guy gets the stuff. And Abraham said, Behold, you have given me no offspring and a member of my household will be my heir.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heirs. That's God reaffirming the promise. It was good news to Abraham. And he brought him outside and said, Look toward heaven and number the stars.

So God walks. He's apparently seeing this vision in the night in his tent. God walks him outside and says, Look at the sky. Look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.

So God walks him outside and says, Look up. And he's outside. This isn't Columbia night sky. This is middle of nowhere night sky. This is all the stars. Maybe you're out somewhere in the woods.

I don't know what you're doing there, but you're there. It's night. Maybe you're at the beach, but not near one of the crowded beaches. Not Myrtle Beach. But like one of the beaches that doesn't have people at it.

You know, like one of those maybe. Or maybe you just are somewhere. You grew up in the country or something. But you've looked at the sky. And there's way more stars. Because there's no city getting in the way.

There are no other lights getting in the way. There are pictures of this out in the desert in the United States. And he's staring up in the Middle East where there's no city. There's nothing. And it's just stars. Just an endless, uncountable amount of pinpricks of light.

And he's staring at it. God says, Look at the stars and number them if you can. And he's staring at it. He's overwhelmed by the number of stars. And then God says, That's how your offspring will be. And there's something in that moment that changes in the heart of Abraham.

Something in that moment when he's staring at the stars. And God's affirming this promise to him. And it says this. Verse 6. And he believed the Lord. And he counted it to him as righteousness.

So Abram believed the Lord. And the Lord counted it to Abram as righteousness. There's this moment of faith for Abram. Galatians tells us that this is actually when he was saved. This is when he was justified. This was when he was made right before God.

It was this moment of just believing God. He's staring at the stars and he believes him. He's thinking, This is how many children I'm going to have. Take that, Eliezer. Like he's staring at this in this moment. And he trusts him.

He believes. And God justifies him. Not based off what Abram does. Not based off of his own morality. Not based off of his own goodness. Just that he trusted God.

And God made him righteous. 7. And he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans. To give you this land to possess. But he said, O Lord, how am I to know that I shall possess it?

And he said to him, Bring me a heifer three years old. A female goat three years old. A ram three years old. A turtle dove. And a young pigeon. And he brought him all of these.

Cut them in half. And laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down to the carcasses. Abram drove them away. Okay.

That got weird. Abraham says, How am I going to know that you're going to fulfill this promise? And God says, Bring me some animals. And Abraham brings them. And then just chops them up. Seemingly out of nowhere.

Like you wouldn't want Abraham to pick up your dog from the vet. I'm going to get off work late. Go by and swing up and pick up mittens. You come home. Mittens? Like you wouldn't want this to happen.

Like Abraham, It seems this was like a terrible, He told you to bring you animals. It's a good thing Noah didn't have this plan. Go get all the animals, Noah. I know what you want. And Noah just starts making kebabs. And God's like, This was terrible.

No. He apparently, Apparently, Abraham knows something we don't know. Apparently, Something's going on here. That while you and I may be terrified. And like that was, He just said, Get animals. Why did you, What on earth were you doing?

I can't carry the way getting the animals. Like no, He knows something we don't. All contracts, All covenants, All agreements are socially based. Like the way we go about affirming an agreement. Have social, Cultural, Bounds to them. So, Imagine, Like one of the things we do is a handshake.

Let's say you didn't know anything about handshakes. So you're watching two guys negotiating. And it's getting intense. And they're going back and forth on price. And then finally, One of them juts his hand out at the other one's torso. While staring into his eyes.

His hand lingers there for a moment. While the other one stares back. And then his hand reaches back out. They clasp hands together. And then shake vigorously. And then stop talking.

That might be weird if you didn't know about handshakes. We're like, Yeah, It's a handshake. The reason Abram started cutting up these animals. Was that he knew something was going on that we don't know about. This was the normal way. That they would ratify.

That they would solidify a covenant. Similar maybe to a marriage ceremony for us. Where it's a normal way to do this. So when God says, Go get these animals. Immediately, Abram says, Ah, We're going to have a blood covenant. Ah, We're going to do a suzerain vassal treaty.

That's the covenant we're about to have. So when Abraham starts cutting these animals up. He knows why he's doing it. And here's why he was doing that. When you ratified. When you had a solidified an agreement.

When you had your ceremony. The reason they would cut up animals. Was because it signified the curse of the covenant. This is what would happen to you. If you broke the covenant. We actually have a decent amount of these still written down.

That we have copies of. From around this time period. One of the things says. That the vassal is to not turn his eyes to anyone else. So he's going to be a vassal.

And this other nation is going to be the suzerain. And the vassal is not to look to anyone else. But his eyes are going to be solely focused on him. And then when they begin talking about the ratification. We have a copy of some of the ceremony. And it says this.

It says a guy named Matti Elu. Is going to be the vassal. So if you're looking for baby names. Jot that one down. Matti Elu. He's going to be the vassal.

And here's what it says in there. They're a written down copy of this. It says. This head is not the head of a spring lamb. It is the head of Matti Elu. It is the head of his sons.

His magnates. And the people of his land. If Matti Elu should sin against this treaty. So may. Just as the head of this spring lamb. Be cut off.

The head of Matti Elu. Be cut off. And his sons. And his magnates. And it keeps going and naming other body parts. This shoulder is not the shoulder of a lamb.

This. It goes through. So when Abraham's chopping these parts up. He knows. That the reason he's cutting them up. Is because this is me.

This is me as the vassal. If I break this covenant. He's promising to obey God. He's promising. Saying. Whatever you tell me to do.

I'll do. Whatever. Tribute you tell me to bring. I'll bring. Whatever you tell me not to do. I won't do.

And he's promising. I'll be wholly devoted to you. And when he's cutting up these animals. He knows. He's thinking through. This is me.

Five animals had to die. He had to cut a goat. A heifer. And a ram. In half. He didn't have to cut the pigeons in half.

And the turtle dove. But five animals die. And the whole time. Abraham's thinking. This is me. If I break this covenant.

If I disobey God. Or if I look to someone else. As my God. As my suzerain. As my Lord. This is me.

It's a very intense moment. For Abraham. This is how they did this all the time. So what they would do. Is they would lay the parts. On one side or the other.

They'd let the blood mingle in the middle. And then they would walk through together. And as they were walking through. The suzerain was proclaiming. I will be your suzerain. I will protect you.

I will hold up my end of the bargain. And if I don't. You can make me like these animals. And the vassal was saying. I'll obey you. And I'll be devoted.

Only to you. And if I don't. You can make me like these animals. This blood is my blood. That body is my body. This life that was.

Shed. Is mine. This life. That died. Was mine. This life is my life.

That's what they were. That's the deal they were going to make. So when God says. Go get some animals. Abraham knows exactly what's happening. And I'll just say.

I think they broke covenants less often. Because of. How they did this. I just. I think that was the case. It was a little bit more intense.

When they made a deal with somebody. Than maybe a handshake. So if you go to Verizon Wireless. They're going to put you in on a two year contract. You know what I'm talking about? Like you go in.

And they're going to. Like this whole wall. Is just iPhones. And Samsung Galaxy. Things. And Motorola's.

And Nokia's. And all that stuff. This wall. And then you pick one out. And you go up there. And you're like.

I want to do a two year contract. And I want to get the rebate. And I want these many minutes. And I want the family plan. Or whatever. And then they go in the back.

And they start doing stuff on the computer. And they come out with a chicken. And they lay the chicken on the table. And they get a. It's kicking around and stuff. And they hold a big knife.

And they go. Are you sure? You want to do this deal? Two years. And you say. I'm sure.

And they go. This is you. If you break the covenant. Blood goes everywhere. And you're like. Deal.

And that way. When Sprint comes on. And they're like. We'll buy out your contract. You're like. No the heck you won't.

You better send somebody with me to Verizon. I saw what happened to that chicken. Wearing a Sprint t-shirt. Hey. He said he'd make good on this. I'm out.

That's what they were doing. So. He cuts up these animals. And Abraham is saying. Okay. God.

I'll make this deal with you. God says. Go get these animals. Abraham goes. And he cuts up all these animals. He sets them aside.

And he's standing over them. Having to protect them. From birds coming down to get them. Because he's making this covenant with God. That in his blood. In his life.

He's laying it on the line. And saying. I'll follow you. If you'll be my suzer. And I'll be your vassal. I'll obey you.

And I'll be devoted completely to you. Alright. Pick back up. Verse 12. As the sun was going down. I didn't notice this till this morning.

It's a different day. From when he made him go outside. And look at the stars. So. It took a while. To cut these animals up.

Maybe it's the next day. Maybe this is just later in time. But the sun's going down at this point. So he's. Been guarding these animals. A deep sleep.

Fell on Abram. And behold. A dreadful and great darkness. Fell upon him. So. This is the presence of the Lord.

Descending to where Abram is. So he's cut up these animals. He's standing there. The sun starts to set. And the presence of the Lord comes around him. And the reason I think he falls asleep.

And this is just a made up theory. But I'm going to share it with y'all. Because might as well put it in your brains. Because. Little infants. If you like.

Play rock music to them. It just shuts them down. It's like too much. Or you just lay them next to a vacuum cleaner. It's just. It's too loud.

It's too much. And they'll just fall asleep. I used to do this with our son. I think that's why he's terrified of the vacuum cleaner now. Because I used to. When he was little.

Just lay him next to it and turn it on. Watch three hours of TV. No. I think that's what happened to Abraham. I think the presence of God was just too much. God comes down.

And his presence just overwhelms Abraham. And that's why he says. A deep sleep fell on him. It's the presence of God comes among him. And it. It just wears him out.

Again. That's just a theory. All we know is he fell asleep. And the presence of God comes. 13. Then the Lord said to Abram.

Know for certain. That your offspring will be sojourners. In a land that is not theirs. And will be servants there. And they will be afflicted for 400 years. But I will bring judgment.

On the nation that they serve. And afterward they shall come out. With great possessions. As for you. You shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age.

And they shall come back here in the fourth generation. For the iniquities of the Amorites. Is not yet complete. When the sun had gone down. And it was dark. Behold.

A smoking fire pot. And a flaming torch. Passed between these pieces. On that day. The Lord made a covenant with Abram. Saying.

To your offspring. I give this land. From the river of Egypt. To the great river. The river Euphrates. The land of the Kenites.

The Kenizzites. The Kadmonites. The Hittites. The Perizzites. The Rephaim. The Amorites.

The Canaanites. The Girgashites. And the Jebusites. Jebusites. Okay. Go back before we read all those names.

And your brain was completely erased. Verse 17. When the sun had gone down. And it was dark. Behold. A smoking fire pot.

And a flaming torch. Passed. Between. These pieces. On that day. The Lord made a covenant.

With Abram. Okay. Maybe. Maybe y'all picked up on this. You would have. If you came from Abram's time.

Something really weird. Just happened. They did. The ceremony. Wrong. They did it wrong.

Abram didn't walk down the middle. They did the ceremony wrong. See. Abraham was cutting up all these pieces. He was laying it down. He and the suzerain were supposed to walk through.

If only one person walked through. It was supposed to just be the vassal. The suzerain could sit back. And the vassal would have to walk through. And just say. This is me.

If I fail. This is me. If I disobey. This is me. If I. If I look to someone else.

This is me. If I don't give you complete devotion. But. Abraham doesn't walk through the middle. And this immediately should stand out to us. It doesn't.

Because we're culturally distant from them. We're like. That sounded great. They did it. So again.

I said. One of our. One of our ceremonies that we do. That maybe we're more familiar with. Is a wedding. I get to perform weddings every once in a while.

I enjoy performing weddings. It's a little bit nerve wracking. I write down exactly what I'm going to say. Word for word. Some of y'all have been around long enough. To know what happens when I just start.

Winging it on jokes and stuff. Like it can get really weird. And people tend to remember their wedding. And not forgive you for stuff. I've found. So.

I write down. Word for word. What I'm going to say. I practice it a few times. Then what happens at the beginning of the wedding.

Is. Me and the groom. Go stand. Up front. We've done a couple here. We just stand.

Right there. Everybody's already here. Groom and I are standing. This is. I think. For a couple of reasons.

One. The bride. At this moment. Has her chance to leave. The groom does not get to leave. He is stuck.

He would have to run out. In front of everybody. And this helps keep him here. But the bride. She's got like. I mean.

I'm pretty sure. As soon as we come out here. Someone's like. All right. Where you want to go. Which way.

We can go this way. To the parking lot. We can go this way. Into the. Like there. There.

You know. Somebody's back there. Consulting her. Usually she does decide to come in. But we stand here.

He is wearing a suit. That matches all these other guys suits. He could pass out. We would just slide him out of the way. They would bump down. No one would even notice.

Like that. We're just standing here waiting. I usually at this point. Feel pretty good. Like I'm ready to go. This guy.

Sweating bullets. Looks like he's going to throw up. It's really enjoyable. I'm like smiling at people. He's trying to keep it together. Then.

Music starts. Whatever. And then like. The bridesmaids start coming in. And they're. They are wearing some oddly colored dresses.

They're not wearing normal colors. They're wearing. Turquoise. And periwinkle. And coral. And sea foam.

And ocean spray. And Sierra mist. Like they've got. All these different. Colors. That you've never heard of.

And they come walking down. And they line up over here. And then everything stops. Music stops for just a second. The doors close. They close them.

Just to reopen them. They're just like. Okay. And they open them back up. And then the music starts up. It's different music.

Music. And I won't try to do it. Because I always get that one. The death march. And the star wars thing confused. And I can never start the one I want.

But it's the one that's about the bride. Or whatever. And then she comes in. And everybody has to stand. And everybody has to look at her. And she walks down the aisle.

And somebody's holding her arm. And they just float down here. And everybody has to stare at them the whole time. And they turn. And then you're supposed to stare at her. For the rest of the time.

And that's how this is done. And then different things happen. They say different things. Sometimes they're communion. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they tie a knot in a rope.

Sometimes they pour sand all over the place. And they set something on fire. But like. That part happens. Pretty much everywhere that part happens. If you were at a wedding.

And when you walked in. The bride was standing up here in her dress. Your first thought would be. I'm really late. But then you would notice the groom wasn't there.

And the people were still sitting around talking. And you would think. Okay groom's not here. That cat must have left. She didn't seem stressed out. People were talking.

I'm just going to sit down. I'm going to ride this out. And see what happens. And then music starts playing. And groomsmen start walking in. And they're wearing.

Seafoam or whatever. And like they walk in. And then doors close. Music changes. Opens. And the groom just comes walking out.

He's just. You know. He's pointing at people. He's smiling. And he walks down the middle. You would think.

They did this wrong. This was super weird. And I wonder why they did it this way. Like they're making a statement. Yeah. A statement was made.

And you'd be like what? And you'd be like. I don't know. I don't know. Something though. It was weird.

That's what just happened. Abram doesn't walk down the middle. And immediately. Everybody went. Well that was weird. That is not how that should have happened.

They did this wrong. They're making a statement. God doesn't know how to do covenants apparently. Like that's what it looks like. So. Yes.

For most of us. I think. We approach God. The way Abram was about to. We approach him with this. There's certain promises you give.

You're going to bless me. You're going to protect. You're going to give me wisdom. You're going to help me through life. You're going to provide for me. Eventually you're going to let me go to heaven.

That's his side of the deal. And our side of the deal. Is what Abraham was cutting up those animals saying. I'll obey. I'll read this. I'll figure out the stuff you like.

And I'll try to do that. I'll figure out the stuff you don't like. And I'll try not to do that. Like I'll obey. I'll be good. And.

I'll worship only you. That's the deal. I'll be good. I'll worship you. You'll hold up your end. That's the deal.

And for a lot of us. That's how we approach it. We're like Abraham. We're like. Yeah. That's the deal.

That's what Abraham was cutting up the animals. He knew what he was getting into. But see like Abraham. I think we're. While we're doing that. Abraham wasn't thinking about God.

While he was cutting up the animals. I don't think. I think he already. He said he already believed in God. He already knew that God could hold up his end. I think if I was Abraham.

And I was having to cut up. And kill. Five animals. Before a covenant ceremony. I would be thinking about me. And every time.

I had to kill an animal. I would think. Can I hold up. My end. Of the deal. Can I hold up my end of the deal.

Can I obey. Can I actually do. What God tells me to do. Can I. Can I. Whatever that is.

Like now. We're Christians. So we're reading the Bible. We're saying. That's. That's love people.

That's sacrifice. That's be generous. Can I actually do that. Can I not do the other stuff. He says. Can I.

Be moral. And good. And then. Can I completely. Be devoted to him. I think that's what Abraham was thinking through.

And for a lot of us. That's what we think. The deal is. So. Some of you. Have avoided.

Becoming a Christian. Because you're looking at it going. I can't do that. I can't be good enough. I was in. Until I heard the thing about sex.

I'm not allowed to have sex with anybody. Unless I'm married. I was in. Until I heard the thing about money. I was in. Until like.

I can't do that. I can't. Be good enough. I can't. Live up to these rules. So I'm done.

I'm out. I'm not making that deal with God. Some of you. That's. That's where you stand. And others of you.

Are like. What I think Abraham was thinking. Which is. I can do this. And you think that's your relationship with God. You've walked down the middle with him.

And you've said. I'll obey. And I'll be devoted to you. And that's our deal. And you're trying really hard. To do that.

Obedience. Let's look at this for a second. Obedience is. I'll not do the stuff you tell me not to do. Was that clear. If you say not to do something.

I won't do it. So you're looking through the Bible. Trying to figure out what all the things it says don't do. And you're trying not to do them. And that's good. You're trying to obey.

I'm not going to talk like that. I'm not going to go to those places. I'm going to avoid this type of situation. I'm going to stay away from this. I'm going to try to control this. I'm not going to eat too much.

Or drink too much. I'm not going to. I'm not going to party. I'm going to avoid all these. Like I'm going to be moral. And then you try to read the stuff you're supposed to do.

I'm going to love my enemy. I'm going to love my neighbor like I love myself. I'm going to think of others more highly than myself. I'm going to put other people first. I'm going to be radically generous. I'm going to give up my time.

I'm going to give up my money. Like this is getting harder. And then I think we think the third one is the easiest. I'll be devoted just to God. And it's actually the hardest one. Because we think what it means is don't also worship other gods.

Like don't also worship Islamic gods. Don't also worship Hindu gods. But really what it means is don't look to anyone else or anything else for your protection. Your comfort. Don't look to anything else as what is going to make life good for you. And as soon as it turns into that we'll make a suzerain out of anything.

Money becomes that so quickly. It'll protect me. It'll make life good. A relationship becomes that so quickly. This will help me know I'm loved. This will help me know I'm okay.

If I can just have my kids turn out this way. If I can just have a spouse like this. And suddenly we realize we've run around everywhere trying to find something else to provide for us. To protect us and to make us okay. And so Abraham was cutting up these animals thinking. I'm going to walk down the middle and I'm going to make this deal with God.

But that's not what happened. The ceremony was different. Let me tell you what happened. See they would walk down the middle and here's what would happen. The suzerain would be saying. I'll do what I said.

I'll keep my promise. I'll provide for you. I'll protect you. I'll be your suzerain. And if I don't you can kill me. And the vassal would say.

I'm going to obey you. And I'm going to be devoted only to you. And if I don't you can kill me. But Abraham didn't get to walk down. A smoking fire pot and a torch did. It was just God that went down the middle.

And here's how the promise worked. God said. I'll provide for you. I'll fulfill my covenant. I'll fulfill my promises. And if I don't.

You can make me like these animals. This will be my blood. This will be my body. This will be my life. And you'll obey me. And you'll be devoted only to me.

And if you don't. You can make me like these animals. This will be my blood. This will be my body. This will be my life. God looked at Abraham.

And said. You're going to obey me. You're going to be devoted only to me. And if you don't. I'll kill me. This will be my blood.

This will be my body. This will be my life. And in Jesus. God made good on that promise. Because Abraham. Didn't keep it together.

And we. Didn't keep it together. We didn't obey. We weren't completely devoted. And in Jesus. God kept the covenant.

Isaiah says it this way. Talking about Jesus. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed. For our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement.

That brought us peace. And with his wounds. We are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone. To his own way.

All of us. Broke that covenant. All of us. Ran from God. All of us. Fell short.

And the Lord has laid on him. The iniquity. Of us all. God. Signed both ends of the covenant. And in Christ.

Kept the deal. So for us. As Christians. The invitation. The invitation. The invitation is not.

The gospel is not. Going to God and saying. I will obey. And I will be devoted to you. And if I can keep that together. You will save me.

I will obey. And I will be devoted to you. And if I can keep that together. You will love me. I will obey. And I will be devoted to you.

And if I can keep that together. You will not destroy me. But I will have a home. And I will have a family. You will be a father to me. I will be a son.

You will be a Lord. I will be a servant. It's not that. The gospel is this. I couldn't obey. I couldn't be wholly devoted to you.

But I, like Abraham, who had faith, trust, that that blood wasn't my blood, it's Jesus' blood. And that body wasn't my body, it's Jesus' body. And that life wasn't my life, it was Jesus' life. As a Christian, we get to walk down the middle of the aisle and say, Jesus' blood is covering me. Jesus' body laid slain for me. Jesus' life was given up for me.

Jesus took the curse of the covenant so that we can have the blessing of it. Jesus took the curse of us falling short so that we could have the freedom and the hope and the life that is offered through him. Jesus was slain on a cross. Jesus was laid in a tomb. It wasn't the head of Abraham. It wasn't the body of Abraham.

It wasn't the blood of Abraham. It was the body and blood of Jesus. That's why Abraham didn't get to walk down the middle. It was a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, as if the father and son walked down the middle. And Jesus said, I'll keep good on this promise. This will be my blood and this will be my body and this will be my life and I'll keep good on this promise.

They'll obey you and they'll be devoted to you. And if they don't, you can kill me. And that's the gospel. That's the hope we have. Not that we can be good enough, but that Jesus already was. Not that we can pay the debt, but that Jesus already has.

And let me tell you what happens when we forget that. When we misunderstand that. Some of you, it's already happening. You, you aren't, you're, you're staying away from Christianity because you think the opportunity to you, the call to you is come be good. Come be moral. Come be a Republican.

I don't know. You think it's some sort of a come, come do these things and God will love you. Come work really hard and God will love you. Come just focus on Jesus and God will love you. Come just focus on Jesus and God will love you. Come just focus on Jesus.

That's not it at all. So you've avoided Christianity. You maybe rightly saw, I can't do all that stuff, but the response isn't to run from Jesus, but to run to him. Other of us who say we're Christians, let me show you how this shows up when we fail to believe this, when we forget that this is how this works. When we sin, when we know we've disobeyed, when we know we've worshipped something else, when we realize that we've loved money more than God, when we realize that because we see that, that we can't be generous because we need money to protect us and to save us. And we realize, Oh, that's because I don't trust God.

When we look at our relationships and realize I was willing to run away from the church to be in this relationship. I was willing to, to sin, to have this amount of comfort. I was willing to sin, to chase out. We begin to realize I had another Susan. I had something else that I was looking to for hope and health and life and joy. Here's what happens.

We feel guilt and shame. And we run away from God. We feel terrible. You sin again, doing the same thing again. You don't want to pick arguments with your spouse, but you do. It's like you can't stop.

You don't want to look at porn again, but you do. You said last time you were going to study for the test and you weren't going to cheat because they let you take the test at home, but you do. You said you weren't going to swipe things from your roommate anymore. And this, this one's the last time. So you weren't going to lie again.

Next time I get caught, I'll just be honest. But you do. Here's what happens. We sit around and we think, am I even a Christian? How do I, how do I keep doing this? How do I keep struggling with the same thing?

We beat ourselves up for two, three days, feel terrible because we've forgotten that it wasn't our body and it wasn't our blood and it wasn't our life. We don't get to atone for our sin. We sit around and we bottom out because we've forgotten that we were never on the hook for it anyway. Jesus was willing to take it. When we placed our faith in Jesus, he atoned for our sin. He took the punishment.

If you are a Christian and you are sinning, you repent and you praise Jesus that your sin is not what makes you okay or not okay with God. Your behavior, your devotion was never part of the deal. The covenant made was that Jesus was going to hold up your end of the bargain. When you sin, when the enemy comes along and says, look at how terrible you are. How on earth do you think you can go hang out with your community group and try to pretend to be a Christian and you want to hide and you want to run from God and you want to not confess this to anybody? Your response gets to be, look at how good Jesus is.

Look at how much grace he has that my sin is covered in Christ fully. And then you actually, when you see other people's sin, you get to have grace for them. You get to forgive them because you realize what made you good wasn't you, it was Jesus. What made you okay with God wasn't you, it was Jesus. You're free. But when we oscillate between feeling great and bottoming out, we oscillate between pride and how good we're behaving and fear and torment and how much we're failing, we've forgotten that we never got to walk down the middle.

That it was Jesus' blood, Jesus' body, Jesus' life for ours. And we're free. The band's gonna come back up. We're gonna take communion together as a church today. That's where we remember that it was Jesus' blood and it was Jesus' broken body. It's where we reenact that Jesus signed our side of the covenant and kept good on the promise for us.

It's where we go back and we remember that we're free and that our sin doesn't own us. But Jesus' grace has made a way for us. If you're not a Christian, don't take communion. It's not offered to you. Communion is for those who have placed faith in Jesus. Now I would tell you, if you're not a Christian, you can place faith in Jesus and you can walk right back there and you can know that this is Jesus' blood on my behalf and this is Jesus' body on my behalf and it's not about my behavior.

And my ability to be good and my ability to keep it together, it's about Jesus. That's offered to you. And Christians, you get to repent of sin and you get to believe the gospel. That it's not about your behavior, but it's about Jesus on your behalf. That he went to a cross and that he died for your sin and that you have freedom and hope and life in him forever and that God kept this covenant. God, we pray that you would help us to remember this so that when we sin, we would look to you only.

We would turn our eyes to you only. God, we pray that we would remember this so that when we're tempted to think that something else will provide us happiness or joy or fulfillment or life, we would turn from it and look to you only. And God, we pray that we remember this so that every time we fail, it would be to the praise of your glorious grace that you save sinners. That the reason you signed both sides of this covenant was because we weren't ever going to keep it together. But you wanted to save us, you wanted to redeem us, you wanted to make us yours.

God, we praise you and we thank you that in Jesus we do have life and hope and freedom. That in Christ we are forgiven. We thank you, Lord, that you don't ask us to keep it together ourselves, but that you provided fully for us through the cross. In Jesus' name, Amen.

July 10

Blessed to Bless

Blessed to Bless

Matt Freeman

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Transcript

What's up, fam? How y'all doing this morning? It's good to see you guys. If it's your first time hanging out with us, my name's Matt. I'm one of the pastors here. I'm glad we clapped at the end of a song.

That was good. Yes! Yeah! All right! Praise God! I like when I get to preach because I get to listen to really good music and just sing along.

And that was really good stuff. We are in week four of our Covenant series. And here's what we're doing. We're basically walking through the big promises that God makes in the Old Testament to kind of see how do they fit in the grand, big scheme of things of God's ultimate big story. And there's a couple of things. There's a couple of things that we're trying to achieve through this series.

We're looking at it going, okay, how do all of these little stories fit into the big story? Like, what's the point? How does it all kind of work together? Also, for us as Christians, I think most of us are very comfortable reading in the New Testament and spending time studying and growing there. But sometimes when it comes to the Old Testament, we have questions about how should I actually be reading this?

What am I supposed to kind of glean from this? And so we're trying to do that in this series as well. And ultimately, we want to see how all of these promises are going to find their fulfillment in Jesus. How do these smaller stories, how these smaller promises or covenants actually fit into God's big story? So Chet started off our series a couple of weeks ago with a whiteboard on the stage.

And what Chet was trying to do was just illustrate what actually is the big storyline of the Bible. Okay, so we've actually got an image of it. But thankfully, this isn't the version that Chet drew, so you can actually read it. But this is the big storyline of the Bible, which was there is a creator God. There is a creator God who created humanity to live in perfect relationship with him. That was his intent from the very beginning, to have his people in his place, in his presence, existing forever.

That was God's design. And so he takes Adam and Eve and he puts them in a garden. And he says to them, I want you to be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth with a family that will love and will worship me. He says he wants this family to grow, this people to grow. But the problem is that Adam and Eve rebelled.

They didn't trust God. They didn't believe that God's promises to them were good. Were good enough for them. They sinned against God. And when sin entered the world, that's the fault. And it fractured that relationship forever.

The story had been changed forever. And with sin came death and sickness and shame. But God makes a promise there in the garden. He didn't make the promise to Adam and Eve. He actually makes it to the serpent. He goes, I'm going to fix this problem.

I'm going to work to restore humanity back to the place where they're my people, in my presence, in my place. And so that's the promise that God makes right there. And then you kind of trace on from Adam and Eve. You go a couple of thousand years after them. And then you end up at Noah. So you just continue down the line.

And now we're at Noah. And we looked at Noah last week. What we saw was in those thousand years, humanity just got worse and worse and worse. And to the point where God looked at humanity. And every intention of their heart was evil and wicked. But God comes and he says, Noah, I want you to build a boat.

I'm going to save you and your family. It wasn't based off of Noah being good or the most moral person. God came and promised this to Noah. And the Bible tells us that Noah was declared righteous by his faith. That God actually does have wrath for sin and for sinners. And so God wipes out humanity.

But he saves Noah. Noah and his family says, go be fruitful and multiply. When they leave the ark, it's the same thing. Go be my people in my place, in my presence. Fill the earth with a family of worshipers who will worship me. And so you continue on from Noah's line through his son Shem.

And you go a couple thousand years. And it doesn't fix the problem. And you end up at the guy that we're actually going to be looking at this morning. We're going to be talking about Abraham this morning. And not just this morning. We're actually going to spend three weeks talking about the promises that God makes to Abraham.

And here's what we're looking to do. How does the promise that God makes to Abraham today continue to move humanity forward? How does this promise get us back to the garden? How does it get us to a place where we're his people, in his place, in his presence? And we're going to look at how is this promise ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. We're going to be looking at the covenant that God makes with Abraham today.

So let me pray for us and we'll hop into the text. God, we're thankful this morning that you've given us your word. You've given us the Bible through which you reveal yourself. You tell us who we are and how we ought to live in relationship with you. And so, God, this morning, I just pray that you would make your word clear. As we look at the promise that you've given to Abraham, that it would be open to us in a fresh and a new way.

That we could ultimately see what you're doing to bring about the restoration of humanity. So, Holy Spirit, I pray that you would speak through me. I pray that you would open up your word so that we could understand it. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, grab a Bible.

You can grab one of the Bibles that are in the seats, the blue and white ones. We're just going to be on page 6. So grab it. Turn a couple of pages. We're going to be at the end of Genesis chapter 11 and the beginning of Genesis chapter 12. And right off the bat, we're kind of getting just introduced to this guy named Abraham.

So there's going to be a lot of details up front. We're not going to get bogged down in those. We just want to kind of pull out the things that are important so that we can keep moving. Okay, so Genesis chapter 11 will actually start in verse 26. Okay. Verse 26.

When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Okay. So at the beginning, we looked at the thing on the screen. That said Abraham. And then this says Abram. Okay.

It's the same guy. Later on in Genesis, God's actually going to take him and change his name and turn him into Abraham. And so I'm going to use both interchangeably today because I don't have the ability not to. So just give me some grace. I'm going to call him Abram. I'm going to call him Abraham.

Hopefully I won't call him anything else. But those two things. So this is our guy. Our guys entered the story. Verse 27. Now these are the generations of Terah.

Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran fathered Lot. Okay. So just showing some generations there. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred in Ur of the Chaldeans. Sweet name.

And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarah. And the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarah was barren. She had no child. Terah took Abram his son.

Excuse me. Terah took Abram his son and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson. And Sarah, his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. And they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

The days of Terah were 205 years. And Terah died in Haran. Okay. Tons of details. Tons of names. Let me just kind of break it down for us.

Before we do that, the last verse, verse 32, the days of Terah were 205 years. You immediately read that and you're like, wait, wait, what? Was like Terah the first superhuman? How in the world did he live that long? So we kind of have a little bit of pushback on his age.

But what we have early on in Genesis is that people lived for longer than they do now. Their lifespan was hundreds and hundreds of years. And Bible scholars give us just a couple of things to kind of help rectify this for us. The first is this. Adam and Eve had the perfect DNA. And so when they sinned, that's when sickness and disease entered into the world.

And so as they were fruitful and they were multiplying and generation after generation after generation, eventually that sickness and disease began to spread, possibly being one of the reasons why ages would start coming down. Also, the Bible is not the only ancient historical document that talks about humans living for longer periods of time. And you have in Genesis 6 this little small section where God alludes to the fact that he's actually going to begin limiting the lifespan of humans' lives. So don't get tripped up on that. These are real people in a real place. And the truth is, if you can get on board with a creator God who has existed for all of eternity, it's not unreasonable to think that he allowed humans at one time to live for longer periods of time.

But these are real people. This is a real story. This isn't fiction. We've been kind of showing a map on the screen just to kind of help us see where we're at. Okay, so it says that this family started out in Ur of the Chaldeans. It's the craziest name to me.

But that's this area of Babylonia over here. Okay, then it says that Terah, he wanted to move his family towards Canaan. So he basically would have kind of followed that track to get there. But it says they stopped in an area called Haran, which is basically just kind of up in that Syria area. So this is a real family in a real place.

And we don't really know why Terah decided that it was time to move his family, but he did. He left that area and moved kind of towards the area of Syria. And there's only two things that I want to pull out of this first little bit, this little introduction. The first one is this. Abraham existed. This family existed inside of a patriarchal society.

Okay, which means that everything was based around the family unit with the oldest living male kind of being the head. So he's the one that made decisions. So when it came time for them to move to Haran, they were going towards Canaan. It wasn't like, what about Billy? What about my friend Billy? What about my job?

It's like, no, Terah made the decisions for the family. Like if they were going to purchase land, Terah made that decision. If they were going to move to another area, Terah made that decision. And here's the thing. Abram is the next in line to be the patriarch. And they understood themselves inside of this kind of family identity.

So we have this family that is uprooted from one area and moved to another one under the leadership of Terah. And Abram is the next in line to be the patriarch, which makes the second detail all the more important. Look at verse 30 again. Look at it. Chapter 11, verse 30 says this. Now Sarah was barren.

She had no child. So Abram is the next in line to be the patriarch, to be the leader of this family. And he doesn't have the ability with his wife to continue the family line. Family was hugely important in this time. It's how the older people were taken care of. They were taken care of by their children.

It's how family was passed down from generation to generation. Like this was a big deal. There would have actually been some shame wrapped up in this for Abraham and Sarah not being able to have children because they couldn't continue the line. And so even in the beginning of this story, there's this tension created where Abram's the next in line to be the patriarch. And he doesn't have the ability to continue the line of the family moving forward. And that kind of gets us to chapter 12.

So let's go there. We've kind of gotten to know Abram a little bit. His story, his family. Chapter 12, verse 1. Now the Lord said to Abram.

Okay. Ears perk up. Stories just changed a little bit. Now the Lord said to Abram. Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation.

And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. This is a huge promise. And here's the thing.

So back to verse 1. Now the Lord said to Abram. We don't know up until this point if Abram has ever had any interaction with God before. This may be the first time that the Lord has ever actually spoken to him. It doesn't tell us how he did it either. Like was it an audible voice or did he kind of give him a vision?

We don't know any of that. But God shows up and he lays out this beautiful promise to Abram. He says, I'm going to take you and your family. You're going to leave here and you're going to go to a place. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to bless those who bless you.

I'm going to curse those who curse you. And I'm going to make you into a great nation. So much so that all the families of the earth will be blessed through you. I mean, it's this massive promise that Abram's hearing for the first time. And here's what might have made it difficult for Abram. See, we kind of gloss over this.

But Abram existed in a part of the world that most of the cultures had kind of like a polytheistic religious view. Which just meant that there were all types of gods. So there was the rain God and the sun God and the food God. That's probably not right. But some type of crop, farmer.

Anyways, you get the point. So like a polytheistic society, so for God to show up and say, I want you to follow me and I'm going to make you into this. That was different. That would have landed on Abram's ears a little bit different. It would be similar to if I showed up this morning and just said, hey guys, last week at Glen Forest, the gods spoke to me. They did.

They told me I'm going to uproot everything and we're all going to this new land. What do you mean the gods spoke to you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The rainbow God and the unicorn God and the butterfly God, they came to me and said, we're moving. We're out of here. We're going to a new place.

Where are we going, Matt? I don't know. They didn't tell me. We're just going. What are we going to do when we get there? I don't know.

I just know all the families of the earth are going to be blessed through us. And we're all going with you? Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, well, no, me and Katie and Emmy and you, but not you, not you, Carl. Definitely not you. Or the rest of the fam.

Just me. God's going to take my family and he's going to move us here. And at some point, y'all are looking at me going, Matt, have you had enough water today? Are you a little dehydrated? Are you feeling okay? But that's how it would have been heard.

So God comes to Abram and he says, no, no, no, you. I'm taking you and your family. This is my promise to you. I'm taking your family. I'm going to move you to this place and I'm going to bless those who bless you. And I'm going to curse those who curse you.

And out of your family, I'm going to bless all the families of the earth. And we kind of laugh about that part. But there are some serious implications at play for Abram. I mean, think about it. He says, go from your country and your kindred and your father's household. He says, leave it all.

Leave everything that you use to identify yourself. Leave everything for you that is your source of security. Leave everything that is your support system. Leave it all. And he says, go to the land that I'll show you. Not that I have shown you.

That I will show you. And Abram's got to be thinking about how hard it was just to follow his father, Terah, from Ur to Haran. And now God takes it a step further. And he says, no, no, no, no, no. Not you and your father's household. You.

I'm going to take you. And through your family, I'm going to bless all the families of the earth. See, God is again promising the same thing that he's been promising. He's trying to get us back to the place where he has his people in his place, in his presence, living in relationship with him. And this would have been so terribly difficult. But God's request to Abram wasn't based off of Abram's ability to follow or trust well.

It was based off of his own trustworthiness. And God lays out this promise before Abram. And something about God drew him to trust him and weigh the cost of the crazy risks that he was being called. And so, I mean, think about the responsibility that Abram would be leaving. He's next in line. But God says, no, no, no.

I've got big plans for you. I've got something else for you. I'm going to take your family and make you into a new family through which all the families of the earth would be blessed. So what happens? Verse 4. So Abram went.

Good. Good call, Abram. So Abram went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarah his wife and Lot his brother's son and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people they had acquired in Haran. And they set out to go to the land of Canaan.

Okay. So at some point, God reveals to him that the same place his father was trying to get to is actually where he's wanting to take Abram and do all this. End of verse 5. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak at Moreh. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring, I will give this land.

So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. So Abraham goes. He trusts God and he uproots his family and his livestock and his possessions. And he heads to the land that God's going to show him. And he reveals to him that it's Canaan. And then it says God appears to him.

And again, it doesn't tell us how that happens. It just says that it does. God appears to him and he says, To your offspring, I will give this land. Now, you could infer from what he said earlier that he's going to make his family into a great nation, that he was talking about his kids. But it wasn't explicit.

And so God comes to him right here and he says, No, no, no, Abram. Through your kids. Through your family. Abram. You and Sarah are going to have children. Could you imagine how terrifying and fantastic, all at the same time, this promise actually was.

That Abram and Sarah are actually going to get to have children. And God is going to, through his family, bless all the families of the earth. It is absolutely this beautiful promise. Verse 8. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent. With Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

So God brings this promise to Abram. And with all the risk and all that's involved, he follows. He goes. He follows what God wants him to do. And he goes to Canaan. And God says, It's going to be through your family.

And in response to that, it says that Abram worshiped God. He built an altar and he worshiped God. And so you leave these verses just kind of expectant. You're just kind of excited for Abram and his family. That they're actually going to have kids. And that all this is going to just work out well for them.

So you just kind of want to see when are they going to have children? When is this family going to start being this great blessing to kind of all the other families? And so for us in this series, we're also looking at this covenant going, okay, what is God doing here to move us forward in restoring his relationship to humanity? How is God getting us through this promise to Abraham? How is he getting us back to the garden? How is he returning us to being his people in his place, in his presence?

Because it's a beautiful promise. But how does it turn out? And here's the problem. We're going to spend two more weeks looking at the life of Abraham. Looking at some of the other promises that God makes to him. But if you kind of follow Abram's life, it's not all roses.

They're this small family in the land of Canaan where there are other people and other tribes that are way bigger, way stronger than them that could destroy them, could capture them. It's a long time before Abram and Sarah actually even have kids. And once they have a child, there's drama that ensues around that, whether that child even survives. And so you get to the end of Abram's life, and it's still just kind of this small band, this small family of believers in the Middle East. And you're looking at it going, was the promise just smaller than I thought it was? Was it maybe metaphorical?

Like what was God promising? Okay, well, you continue that on. So you look, okay, maybe it's through the rest of Abram's line. So you follow the rest of Abram's lineage, but Abraham's ancestors end up as slaves in Egypt, and then Moses leads the slaves out of Egypt back into the land of Canaan. And they kind of start becoming this thing. They start becoming kind of this nation thing, but they keep chasing after other gods, and they don't follow God well.

And so they basically get ping-ponged back and forth between empires for hundreds of years. And then you get to the end of the Old Testament, and you're like, where does it happen? When does God make this wonderful, this beautiful family? We're here. If we're looking at the timeline, this is where we're at. The promise has been made to Abraham, and we're looking down the line going, where?

How does it come true? It didn't come true right in Abraham's life. Where does it come true? And the New Testament's answer to that, surprise, surprise, is that it comes true in Jesus. The promise is made to Abraham, but it's fulfilled in Jesus. And so we're going to look at Galatians chapter 3 to kind of get a picture of this.

You can turn there. We're actually going to put it up on the screen. We'll read through it in just a second. But this is Paul. He's talking to the church at Galatia about, like, what is the nature of salvation? What does that even look like?

And here's part of how he explains this. I know it's kind of small. You can flip there if you want to. Here's what it says. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed. So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Okay, so verse 8 says that when God came to Abraham and he made this promise, he was actually preaching the gospel. So that changes our understanding. This isn't just a promise to Abraham. This is the promise. This is the promise of the gospel. This is what Chet said at the beginning.

This is everything that we celebrate. Well, how is that possible? It was supposed to come through Abraham. It does. Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, comes through the line of Abraham. So that when Jesus comes, fully God and fully man, Jesus lived the perfect, sinless life in relationship to the Father that Adam and Eve were created to live.

He does it perfectly on our behalf. And then he goes to the cross and he dies there on the cross. And at the cross, he takes the wrath that was poured out on humanity at the time of Noah. The wrath that we deserve so that salvation could come not just to Abraham's line, not just to the Jews, but it could come to everyone. It says that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. That's everybody else.

That the way God fulfills this promise is that he makes it to Abraham and it's fulfilled in Jesus. When Jesus dies on the cross, salvation is now open to all people. It can be received by faith. And it continues. Look at the way he ends the chapter. This is Galatians 3, verse 29.

It's going to be up on the screen. It says this. And if you are Christ's, okay, if you belong to Christ, if you have placed faith in Jesus, if you are a Christian, if you have repented of your sin and he is your Savior and your Lord and your King, okay, if you are in Christ's, if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring. So that family that God promised to Abraham actually comes true in the people that would place faith in Jesus. It's a family of faith, not a physical family. Then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

And so for all those that have placed faith in Jesus, we're the offspring. And if we're the offspring, that means we're the heirs. Heirs of what? The promise. The promise that God made to Abraham all the way back. Flip back.

Look at it again. Genesis chapter 12. This is what he says. We're going to read it again. Chapter 12, verse 1. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

And I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you. I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. God's next step for humanity through this covenant was to bring us back to the place where he had a people that could be in his presence.

The promise is made to Abraham and it's fulfilled in Jesus. And so when we're looking at this, and actually, if you look at the map again, that kind of timeline, we're going to pull it back up. The promise is made to Abraham. It's fulfilled in Jesus and then it's gifted to the church. All those that have placed faith in Jesus are now heirs of the blessing. They're heirs of the promise.

And what's the promise? It's the same promise that God gave to Abraham. It's the promise of the gospel. It's that Jesus actually gets to die for your sin in your place. That he gets to take the wrath that we deserve. That we could actually be saved through faith.

Not through family line. Not through lineage or anything like that. And that's the gospel. So if you're sitting here this morning and you're wondering, what does it mean? What is this gospel that you're talking about? What does it mean to actually follow Jesus?

What does it mean to be a Christian? It's this. It's this. That you can't be good enough to earn it. You can't live a good enough life. You can't be moral enough to earn your way into this family.

To earn your way into being an heir of this promise. And you can't be so bad that the promise doesn't land on you. That's the good news of the gospel. Is that you can repent of. That's what the Bible says. You can repent of your sin.

And place faith in Jesus. And become an heir of that promise. And so it's actually this. It's gifted to the church. But it's also carried out through the church.

God comes to Abraham and he says, Through you, I'm going to bless others. I'm going to bless you. So that you will become a blessing to others. And that's the church. We're the carriers of the good news. Like the good news of the gospel that's been given to us.

It's the same thing. God wants us to carry it out to all people. And that's what we want. We want for everyone to believe the gospel. To hear the gospel. To be changed by the gospel.

And so as we were kind of clicking into this story today. If you're familiar at all. With the story of Abraham. And you knew kind of about the blessing. You probably weren't surprised. When you saw it fulfilled in Jesus.

And it's not really a surprise. That for those that have the promise fulfilled in Jesus. That it's actually our gift. That we're the recipients of it. And if that's true. That we're the ones who are supposed to continue.

Carrying that promise. To the ends of the earth. But here's the deal. I want us to sit here for a second. I think you can know this promise conceptually. Without it ever affecting your heart and your life.

I think you can hear this promise. The fact that salvation comes through Jesus. It's been given to the church. And it's supposed to be extended to other people. Through the church. I think you can hear that.

And believe it conceptually. It's like yeah. Yeah. I know the promise. But never have it actually affect your life.

That you can hear us talk about the fact. That this is the promise of all promises. And it can just kind of become a promise. As Chet said in the beginning. It's the story. And it just becomes another story.

It goes from being the good news. To just some good news. And the truth is. That the gospel has been given to the church. To carry out. The church is actually the means.

That God is going to use. So that all the families of the earth will be blessed. It's the good news that the church cares. But here's what can happen. Here's what happens. If you don't actually believe that this is true.

Maybe you know it. But it hasn't affected your heart. It's not affecting your life. You'll let other smaller stories. Other smaller promises. Be the thing that controls your life.

Your life will be wrapped up in those things. In those stories. In that news. Because the truth is. We all love to talk about stuff. We love to be excited.

And to be passionate about things. And the truth is. If this isn't the promise. Other smaller promises. Will actually begin to get in the way. Of the good news.

That we get to exist in. And we get to share with others. And here's how that shows up. We love to talk to people about how. If they'll just put 5% of their money back into savings. That they'll be able to retire at 70.

We love to talk about our favorite college football team. We'll take the time to sit with someone. And say hey here's what I learned. At the last parenting seminar that I went to. Because apparently parents go to those. The last parenting seminar I went to.

And here's how you can get your kids to eat greens. And we can get wrapped up. And talking about the two candidates that we have. Our favorite places to eat. We'll tell people about all sorts of stuff. Without ever actually taking the time.

To tell them about the good news. To tell them about the promise. And we'll sell it for smaller stories. And the truth is. When we do that. When our lives aren't centered around the gospel.

And we're not actively sharing it with people. It's because we're not actually believing. That this is the good news that changes their lives. And the truth is. Maybe talking about college football. Or where you like to eat.

May make life more enjoyable. And better for just kind of a short little while. But it all ends up at the same place. And it's without Jesus. This promise has been gifted to the church. And it's supposed to be extended to others.

Through the church. Here's what happens if you don't believe that. Here's what happens if you don't believe that. This is the promise. The good news that can change people's lives. You'll see your job at work.

As only an 8 to 4. Or a 9 to 5. Or a 9 to 6. Only a means to pay the bills. You'll show up. Do your time.

And leave. And you won't think about the people. That God has specifically placed you around. You'll take your lunch. And you'll go sit in your car. Or you'll sit in your cubicle.

Or you'll go out to eat the lunch. Rather than going. And sitting in the break room. And intentionally taking the time. To build relationships with people. Because you're forgetting.

That it's the gospel. That it's extended through you. You'll talk to people about their vacation. And like how restful. And how good it was. Without ever talking to them.

About how true rest. And true comfort are found in Jesus. You'll go home. And we'll forget about them. Without actually hitting our knees for them. That's what happens when we forget.

When we're not actually believing the promise. When we're not believing the promise. That it is the good news. It's going to affect our relationship with our neighbors. Our neighbors are just kind of the semi-annoying people. Who live near us.

That we wish were a little bit further away. We won't wave to our neighbors. As we're rolling our trash can to the road. Because we don't want to have to get in a conversation with them. We'll talk about how high their grass is. Rather than just grabbing our lawn mower.

And walking across the street. And cutting it for them. To show them the love of Jesus. And serving them. And if you're not believing that promise. They'll never see the inside of your home.

That's what happens. That's what happens to our money too. We believe that our. If we're not understanding. That this is the promise. The good news.

That's supposed to be extended. Through us to others. It affects the way we think about our money. We'll fret. And be anxious. And worried.

With every bill that comes. Rather than realizing. That God's the one who provides. And we get to step out in faith. And be generous. It's the same thing with our time.

You'll start thinking about your time. As. As. As just for you. It's for your comfort. Your enjoyment.

Not to be leveraged for others. Give up my weekend. I. I don't think so. That's what happens when we're not believing this promise. We're not believing that this is the good news.

Your community group is. Is just a group of people that you hang out with. They're just a bunch of people that you love. And you love spending time with. And they kind of exist for your good. And your growth.

And that when you're spending time with them. It's good. Because it's good for you. Without ever thinking about it as a vehicle for mission. To see more people come to know Jesus. So you'll have somebody new show up to hang out with your community group.

And we won't go out of our way to make them feel welcome. Or get into a conversation with them. We won't stay after and help clean up. So that we can continue to have that conversation. Our group will just exist for us. If this isn't the promise that is supposed to be extended through us to others.

We'll look for reasons to miss out on the gathering. To miss out on our group meeting time. We'll hear of opportunities to serve and to be on mission. And we'll just expect that somebody else is going to go do that. That we don't actually have to go do that. You may be sitting there right now thinking of all the reasons that you may have.

For why you're not sharing the gospel. Why you're not being on mission. You can think of all the reasons of why you haven't shared the gospel with your co-workers. Or why you haven't met your neighbors. And the problem is that it is indicative of the fact that the gospel. That story is being trumped over by some other smaller story.

Some other smaller story is actually more beautiful. More compelling. It's actually better news. It's something that we're more passionate about. We care more about than the gospel. We'll talk to people about all kinds of stuff.

But the promise that's made to Abram. Fulfilled in Christ and gifted to the church. Is supposed to be extended to others through the church. And if any of that is hitting you in the chest this morning. The Bible says just repent. Repent and believe the truth of the gospel.

Which is salvation is given to you in Jesus. And is supposed to be extended through you to others. So my question for you this morning is. What story. What smaller story is actually getting in the way of the biggest story? What's the thing that you're more passionate about.

That you care more about. Than the ability to actually give people the only good news. That changes everything for them. Where do you need to personally repent this morning? Who are the people that God's like intentionally placed you around. Called you to reach out to.

And to share the gospel with this morning. Because here's what happens if you do believe that. If you do believe that the gospel is extended through you to others. It just means that your entire life. All that you are. All that you have.

All that you do. Belongs to Jesus. And gets to be a means. That he can use to reach into the lives of others. He just wants us to be open to that. So the question is.

Is that what you want? Do you want to be open to that? Because all of us are going to fall short. All of us are going to leave work. And just miss out on an opportunity. We're all going to see our neighbor.

And just do the head duck. And keep running. The cause to repent guys. That's why the gospel is good news in the first place. Because we're not going to be able to live up. We're not going to be able to meet this expectation.

We can shoot for it. And follow after Jesus. But I want you to believe the good news of the gospel this morning. Is that this promise actually can be extended through you. To others. Isaac and Raz are going to come back up.

And here's how I want us to respond this morning. If you're sitting in the room this morning. The way that this promise is true for you. The way that you can receive Jesus. The way that you can receive the good news of the gospel. Is through faith.

The Bible says that if you repent of your sin. And place your faith in Jesus. You will be saved. That's the way in. It's not through your good morals. It's not.

It's not through. Like you can't be bad enough. For it not to be extended to you. The Bible just says repent. And to turn from it. So if that's you this morning.

If that's you this morning. We want to open that up to you. We want you to place your faith. Like that's our desire for you. We want you to know the love of Jesus. And for the rest of us.

If you're a Christian in the room. What story. What story has overshadowed the gospel. Where are you not seeing the promise. That you can extend to others. What's actually getting in the way of that.

So like. Where do you need to personally repent this morning. Where do you need to. When you get together with your community group. What's the thing that you need to talk about. Who are the people.

That God has specifically called you. To reach. To share the gospel with. I want you guys just close your eyes. I want you to think. I want you to ask.

Ask. Like where. Where am I off here. Where am I not believing the good news of the gospel. Where do I have those opportunities. God.

I pray that all across the room. That right now. Through your Holy Spirit. That you're opening our eyes. To see. Where we have opportunities.

To share the gospel. God. I pray that. More than college football. More than education. More than anything.

That can grab our heart. And become more important. I pray God. That you would. Give us a heart. And a desire.

To share the gospel. To share the good news. God. That you'll show us. Where we actually have the ability. To do that at work.

And. And with our neighbors. And with our family. And our friends. God. Help us to see.

The gospel. As beautiful. And as captivating. So that. We can't help. But go out.

And share it. God. I pray that you would. Continue to work. In our hearts. As we respond to you.

In Jesus name. Amen. You guys stand. Let's sing together.

Jun 26

The Flood or the Rainbow

The Flood or the Rainbow

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in our third week of our covenant series. Grab your Bibles will be in Genesis chapter six. What we're looking at is how God kind of moves history along by making promises to his people.

If you're in one of the blue and white Bibles, you'll be on page three is where Genesis chapter six is. So here here's what's what we've been looking at is basically that God he promises people that he's going to accomplish things. He makes promises and then he keeps his promises. And much of the Old Testament is framed around these promises that God makes. And so we're trying to understand more of the Old Testament and more of how God works and more of how salvation works through studying these these covenants. And so just this chapter six, I'm going to pray and then we're going to jump in and start reading.

God, we thank you for your grace. We thank you that we get to gather today and celebrate you, celebrate what you've accomplished for us through your son. And so, God, we pray that you would give us wisdom, insight and clarity as we study your word today. We love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. We'll be in verse five.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. OK, that's that's a problem. The Lord saw this is verse five again, that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. OK, so God's looking out at humanity and he sees just wickedness, just brokenness, that every intention of the thoughts of the heart was evil continually. Now, part of I think part of us sometimes is like, I want God to just base his judgment on me, his evaluation of me off of my actions.

Some of us, that's you. Some of you are like, no, no, no, let's pick something different. Actions is a terrible one. Let's go with something like something different, something different than actions. But others of us are going to actions are good.

Like I can kind of be a moral person. I, I, for the most part, am able to keep myself behaving. I'm for the most part able to follow some rules. But here's what it says. It based it off the intentions of their heart. So what it's saying is that it wasn't even just actions.

He was looking and seeing that when they did good actions, it was still for personal gain. It was still for personal glory. They were maybe being generous, but it was just to get somebody to like them. Maybe they were being generous, but it was just to have some control over the situation. Maybe they were going out of their way to serve somebody, but it was just for personal gain that the intentions of their heart were only evil continually. And so here's the first problem that we have.

We drew this up the first week that we started this series. And we said that we started off in Eden, that God had designed it for there to be his people in his place, in his presence. That was his plan for humanity, that he started this off there and that Adam and Eve fell. They sinned, they rebelled, and death entered the world. But God made a promise to the serpent that sin would not win.

That at some point there would come someone who would reverse this, who would fix this problem. And so we get just a few chapters in. That happened in Genesis 3. We get just a few chapters in, and it says the entire earth was covered in wickedness continually. And we have a problem, which is how is God going to keep his promise? See, he said he was going to get us back.

He said he was going to accomplish this, and now it looks like sin's going to win. And so we've got to see how is God, the question that shows up immediately is how is God going to respond to this? Like what's he going to do? Well, let's keep reading and find out. 6. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

This is very interesting, because God promised he was going to accomplish this. God has already spoken the end from the beginning. He knows where history is going, but he's in the moment with humanity on earth, and his heart is broken. He's grieved to his heart. I think part of us wants God to be perfectly stoic, perfectly removed from the situation, that he could look down on earth and go, Hmm. The humans.

I find that they are misbehaving. But like not care. There's something about us that wants God to be unflappable, unscathable, like we can't hurt his feelings. But God hurts. It's not like when I look at an anthill and think, What are they doing? Don't care.

They shouldn't be in my yard. Orthomax. Walk away. Like, it's not that. God looks at humans and cares. It says it grieved him in his heart.

So God's first response to sin is personal pain and personal injury. Like that's his first response to sin. Let's read what his second is. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them. His second response to sin is wrath. God looks and sees that humanity is evil, and he responds with, I'm going to blot them out.

They have just made a shipwreck of this, and I'm going to destroy them. And there's some fairness in it, because he created them. He created men out of dirt, and then they rebelled against him, and they've harmed each other, and they've broken his heart, they've grieved him, and so his response to sin is wrath. And here's the other thing, when God responds with wrath, it means that sin is actually a big deal. He can't just sit up there and act like it's okay. So he responds with, I'll blot them out.

I will destroy them. Sin is actually a problem. Evil is actually a problem. And we want God to think evil is a problem. Correct? Like we would want a God who would say, no, evil is an issue.

I'm not okay with this. That's his second response. And there's part of us that knows this. Whenever someone sins against you, steals from you, harms your name, lies about you, breaks into your home, hurts someone in your family, what's your immediate response? We need justice. They need to be captured.

They need to be arrested. They need to make restitution. They need to pay for this. There's something when we're sinned against that immediately wells up and says, no, no, no, this isn't okay. And God's the same way. We got that from him.

This heart response and anger towards injustice, and there's some things we should be very angry about. And God is very angry, and he looks at humanity, and his heart is broken over it, but he says, I'm going to blot them out. And that makes sense. I'm tracking so far. Except for maybe killing the birds and the animals and stuff, but what are you going to do? Maybe they were mean too.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Okay, now this is interesting. God sees the earth. Everybody's evil. Hurts his feelings. Makes sense?

Okay. God says, I'm going to kill everybody. Also makes sense to me. They're all evil. You made them out of dirt. Go for it.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe some of y'all have a harder time with that. We'll talk more about it. Then it says, Noah found favor with God. Now, if we're auditioning for parts in this story, we have all lined up to audition. We're all reading for the part of Noah.

I want to be the person who you like. We're not reading for random evil person number 327. I don't know if y'all know about the story of Noah. Maybe you've seen a little boat, and there were some animals and stuff. The reason there was a boat was because there was a great flood. Nobody's like, I'm here to read for the part of Drownee, number 1002.

No, we want to read for the part of Noah. We want to understand, why did Noah find favor with God? And that's a big question for us. But before we get into that, let's just talk a little bit about Noah. So Noah comes in.

God's continuing this promise. We're going to show a map here. Noah was somewhere in, this is the Fertile Crescent. That's Egypt over there. Noah's somewhere probably in Mesopotamia. We know that at the end of the flood, his ship lands on Mount Ararat.

And trust me, I pronounced that perfectly. It's up there next to the Caspian Sea, so it's a little bit off the map. Mount Ararat. If the same Mount Ararat we have is the Mount Ararat that they had. But somewhere in here, we have a lot of cultures have flood stories.

Some even base their whole timeline, their whole history around pre-flood, post-flood. We've got China has flood stories. Sumer has flood stories. Babylonia has flood stories. The Gilgamesh epic has a flood story in it. And so I've actually heard people say, when they say, oh yeah, the Bible's, it's, you know, it's myth.

They'll say, and one of the ways we know that is everybody has a flood story. I'm just going to float this back. Maybe there was a flood. Maybe it was big. Maybe everybody came out of Noah's line and later was like, hey guys, there was a flood. Because that's how we base things.

Like you don't go to, you don't go to court and they say, we have 15 people that said you stabbed them. Obviously you made it up. Obviously it's all a big trick. You didn't stab anybody because so many people say it. No, you go into jail because you stabbed a guy. Like that's how it works.

You got that many people saying it. So there's all these cultures that talk about there was a big flood. And here's, I'm just going to float this out there. I'm not a historian. Maybe there's a big flood. So we have Noah in this area.

There's going to be a big flood. But here's our question. And we're done looking at the map. But here's our big question. Why did Noah find favor with God? That's what we want to find out.

Like that's, that's a good thing to know. And here are really our two options. Let's read the next verse. Verse nine. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.

Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Jephtheth. Okay. So it seems like our options really are Noah was good. So God liked him.

He found favor with God because he was righteous, because he walked with God. But the text says Noah found favor. And then it says he was righteous and blameless and walked with God. So really our two options are God looked out. Noah was a good guy. So God says, I'm going to save this one good guy.

Or God somehow gave favor to Noah. And because God gave favor to him, Noah then is counted as righteous and blameless. Like the favor comes first. Those are the two, really our two options. Either righteousness came first and then God says, I'm going to put my favor on him. Or God put his favor on him and then righteousness comes.

So we've got to try to figure that out. And the best way to do it is looking at other places in Scripture. So we're going to look at a few places in Scripture to help us understand, was Noah perfect? Was he the righteous guy? Was everybody else terrible, but Noah was great? Because it just said everybody was terrible.

But then is Noah okay? Is he good? So Romans 3 says this. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands.

No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. So Paul is quoting this when he writes this.

He's quoting it from the Old Testament. And he's saying, they said it then. I'm saying it now. This applies to humanity. Psalm 53 says it this way. God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

They have all fallen away. Together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good. Not even one. So Genesis starts off by saying, humanity is evil, but Noah finds favor with God.

And we're told throughout Scripture, not even one. There's not one person who perfectly follows God. Not one person who's considered righteous. Not one person who is blameless. Not one person who does this correctly. So the question becomes like, how is Noah?

There's a verse in Isaiah 53 that says, Isaiah might be 56. It's in there. It's in Isaiah somewhere in the 50s. You're welcome. Hold on a second. I wrote it down.

I'm not even close. It's 64-6. When we put this online, we'll edit it and make it sound like I'm smart. Isaiah 64-6. This says that all of our righteous deeds are like filthy wrecks. They're like a polluted garment.

So my wife and I recently had a son. He is like 15 months old. It's almost a year and a half for people who don't want to do math. He's precious. We got a picture of him here. This is when he was like, I don't know, three or four months old.

Yes, look at him. When he was first born, you notice he's wearing a bib and he's just like laying on the ground. Here's why. He spit up all the time. To the point that we thought it was normal. This is our first kid.

We're like, sure, he spits up. People with like multiple times in Kid City, people would give them back to us and say, he might be lactose intolerant or something. Because it was like, all he did was like drink and then just go, and it was just everywhere. Like he just, he did this all the time. I have a picture of one of my shirts while I was just holding him. This is my shirt.

He's a little tiny baby. I don't even know how he had that much in him. You're welcome. I hope that image is seared in your brain. I had it on me, so don't act like, you know. That's it.

I was holding him and he's like, and there's just everywhere. And it was like, how did you even, like you should be deflated. Like I don't know how you're the same size. He did this all the time. He would just make that noise and then it was like, you had to like spin him around real fast, get a rag, whatever. Like we had, this was all, it became such a problem.

And also sleep deprivation was a problem. I was at Bilo by myself, but I had been so trained by him. I'm walking, I'm putting up my cart and very sleep, very tired, very sleep deprived. And there was like a, you know, like a throat gurgle kind of noise happened. Like, like you, you may, would be going to burp later or something. Y'all know what I'm talking about.

You're humans. You have some of these things. So it's just a weird noise in my throat. And my first thought was, I'm about to spit up. Like I panicked for half a second. Like, this is going to be so embarrassing.

Like I had like four thoughts stacked on top of each other. Uh, and it was like, and then I was like, oh no, I don't, I don't do that. That's just my son that makes that noise and then spits up everywhere. That would be amazing if I did, but I don't. Um, when, when God says that our righteousness is like filthy rags, we had, we had, I understand this so well. We had so many little towels around him.

Eventually you would go to pick one up to like clean up more spit up and it would make your hand gross. Like you would touch it and go, ah, it's too much on that one. You had to find a new one. At some point, it becomes no longer good for helping. Like it's just covered so that it's making other things dirty. And Isaiah 64, six says that all of our righteous deeds are like that.

They look good. They are useless. And that's what, what it says that every intention of their heart was evil continually. It means even when they were doing something that seemed nice, it was evil. It was, it was useless. And so God looks at humanity.

We're told repeatedly that no one is special. And then he says, Noah, you're special. Hebrews 11 helps us out here. Hebrews 11 tells us this about Noah. By faith, Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen. So God tells him there's going to be a flood.

In reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. God, because there are no humans who are perfect, moral, good, God counts righteousness by trusting in him. He became an heir of the righteousness, meaning he received righteousness, a right standing by faith. God placed favor on Noah, calls Noah and says, I'm going to do this. Noah trusts God and God says, you're righteous and holy and blameless.

Which, at first, I want Noah to be a good guy. When I first read this, I think, ah, I hope Noah was a good guy because I want to hold on to this hope that there are good guys. That maybe we could try hard enough and be good enough, but this becomes way more beautiful, way more captivating, that God just says, I'll make you a good guy if you'll just trust me. You don't actually have to be perfect. You don't actually have to be blameless. Just trust me.

Just hope in me. And that's way better because I realize I'm not a good guy. So that's Noah. The story is set. God's going to kill everybody, but Noah found favor. Let's find out what's going to happen.

We'll start back up in 9. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. But what we're understanding there is that God counts righteousness not from Noah being a good guy, but from Noah trusting God.

Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Jephthah. How awesome is the name Ham? It's great. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh have corrupted their way on the earth.

And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh. For the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms, that's just type of wood. Make rooms in the ark, cover it inside and out with pitch.

This is how you are to make it. Length of the ark is 300 cubits. A cubit's about 18 inches, because they measured from the tip of their finger to their elbow. So if you're going to go home and try to make one of these, that's how long that is. 300 cubits, it's breadth 50 cubits. It's height 30 cubits.

Make a roof for the ark. Finish it to a cubit above, and set the door in the ark from its side. Make it with a lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark.

You, your sons, your wife, your sons, wives with you. So who found favor? Noah. Who gets to go on the ark? His wife, his sons, their wives. Just bonus people, because God showed favor to Noah.

They're blessed through him. A 19. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you. They should be male and female, of birds according to their kinds, and of animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing on the ground, according to its kind. Two of every sort shall come in to you, to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, store it up, it shall serve as food for you, and for them.

Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him. So that's Noah trusting God. So God looks at Noah, says the earth is filled with violence, and I'm going to destroy, I'm going to make an end of all flesh. And I think we're growing, because of technology, and our ability to see the earth, kind of the way God sees it. We're getting closer, because a couple hundred years ago, you knew about the bad stuff that happened around you, and that was it.

Maybe you heard, this is going on through some letters, or through some secondhand stories. You can go right now, get on CNN's website, Fox News website, the BBC, you can follow them on Twitter, and you're bombarded, with murders, shootings, tragedy, war, famine, rape, injustice. I mean, I think we're getting to start seeing a little bit the way God sees the earth, which is, he sees all of it. And there's this, something that rises up in us, and says, why doesn't God stop this? Why doesn't God just fix this? Why is all this evil going on, if God's not going to do anything about it?

Why, why is this still happening? And there's, we all kind of get together, and start saying, we've got to try to do something. I saw a tweet recently, that said, every time someone tells me, that God has more important things to take care of, I just always calmly remind them, yeah, he's not doing that stuff either. Point being, the world's messed up, and it doesn't seem like he's doing anything. Why, why is all this still happening? Why is God okay with wickedness and death?

Like, we have these discussions where people are saying, okay, here's what we've got to do. We're just going to go over to the Middle East, we're going to send in troops, we're just going to take over. The best thing we can do is just carpet bomb and take over. And other people are saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, we need to, we need to help them build infrastructure, we need to give them money, we need to come in and support them, we need to help them have democracy, because that'll fix it. And other people are going, that's not going to fix anything, we're just giving money so that they can buy bombs, we need to go take them out.

There are people who look and say, well, if we cut Israel in half, that'll make people give peace. And they say, no, no, no, we need to not cut Israel in half, we need to defend Israel, we need to help Israel take over the whole Middle East, they can have the whole thing. We have people say stuff like, we need to open our borders, and then we can be welcoming, we can be generous, and they would grow to love us. And other people are saying, no, no, no, no, we need to close our borders, and we need to build a fence, and there should be turrets and lasers, and like, sharks, like, I don't care, whatever we gotta do, they can't come in.

And we got people saying, we need more guns. That way, every time a crazy person pulls out a gun, everybody else pulls out two guns, and then there's like, 75 guns to one gun, and other people are going, we don't need any guns. Like, at some point, cops shouldn't even have guns, because they keep shooting people that they shouldn't be shooting. At some point, we should get like the UK, where nobody has a gun, and then when someone says something mean, cops run in and beat them with sticks. And the goal of all of that, is not, is there a problem? Nobody's standing up in Congress and going, I just wanted to say, that I think we should have a resolution to vote, that everything is great.

Just want to say, it's all working well. I vote we do nothing, take a year off, we're crushing it. Nobody's saying that. The argument is, how do we fix the problem? Because wickedness is rampant. I read recently, that the, that the, the crime scene investigators, because when there's a, when there's a murder, when there's anything that happens, they have to go in, they have to take evidence.

When there's something that happens, like it happened at the Pulse nightclub, this past week, they don't come in, and just clean everything up. They don't come in, and just take care of the people. They come in, and they have to investigate. There's 50, human, bodies laying around them, and they have to take in evidence. They have to try to, to get as much as they possibly can, from every single one of them. And I saw recently, that one of the hardest parts, from this last shooting, was the crime scene investigators, having to do their job, while every single cell phone, rang unendingly, as mothers, and fathers, and friends, and brothers, and sisters, and loved ones, frantically, called, and called, and called, and called, to try to see, are you okay?

And they knew, the answer was no. You're getting no information, and when you do, it's not going to be good. Nobody's answering that phone. And they had to work, while every single phone, in that place, rang, and rang, and rang, and rang, and rang, until its battery died. And the God of the universe, has always been, on both ends of that phone call. He's always been close, to the heart of those, who are getting redial, as fast as they can, who cannot sleep, and cannot find their loved ones.

He's always been there, and he's always been on the other end, where there is someone, who will never take another breath, because of the evil in the world. And our God, looked at the earth, and said, there's wickedness, and I'm going to do something about it. You see, the question we have often, is why doesn't God, stop this evil? And then we also turn around, and we look at the Old Testament, and we say, why is God so mean? Why does God kill people? And it's because God, does stop evil.

He hates it. But this story, gets more confusing. And I want us to keep reading, and I want us to see, why this is confusing. Because we have a bigger problem, we're about to run into, than why does God drown people? Go to chapter 7, verse 17. So God told Noah, to make a boat, Noah made a boat.

There was some time, where he did this, he goes and rounds up animals, God tells him to take more, of the clean animals. That has to do with, some sacrificial stuff. Not like, clean them up, and bring the nice ones. It's like, there are certain clean animals, and unclean animals. That's kind of where we are. Verse 17.

The flood continues. So Noah and his family get in, God closes the ark, rain starts. It says the ground opens up, and water starts coming out. The flood continued, 40 days on the earth. The waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed, and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated, on the face of the waters.

The waters prevailed, so mightily on the earth, that all the high mountains, under the whole heavens, were covered. The waters prevailed, above the mountains, covering them 15 cubits deep. Cubits about 18 inches, is over 20 something feet. You ever been in deep water, and you could touch your foot, and when your foot, touches the ground, you immediately think, I'll be okay. It goes, 20 something feet, above the tops of mountains. We had the flood here, in October.

Remember, some of you sat in your house, while water started coming in the door. You started grabbing as much, as you possibly could. Water rose six inches. Some of you, multiple feet. Some of you, your car was covered. Others of us sat and watched, and watched it on the news, as water kept rising.

It rained for two, three days. It rained for 40, and the water never stopped rising. Eventually, people had gathered, on the highest place they could find. The rain didn't stop. The water didn't stop. Eventually, people would have been, on top of their houses, but the rain didn't stop, and the water didn't stop.

This happened now, we'd be in, whoever could have gotten there, would be in the, the highest building in Columbia. They wouldn't have much of a view, but they'd have to keep moving levels up, as the water kept coming. And eventually, the water would go all the way up, and nobody, survived. But that's not the problem. 20. The waters prevailed, above the mountains, covering them 15 cubits deep, and all flesh died, that moved on the earth.

Birds, and livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures, that swam on the earth, and all mankind, everything on the dry land, and whose nostrils, was the breath of life, died. He blotted out, every living thing, that was on the face of the ground, man, and animals, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out, from the earth. Only Noah, was left, and those, who were with him, in the ark. The waters prevailed, on the earth, for 150 days, that's about five months. Here's the problem.

The problem, isn't that God, flooded the earth, and killed everybody. The problem, is that he didn't kill Noah. That's the issue. That's actually, what bothers me, about this text. And that's what, kind of bothers, Old Testament writers, as they go through. Not that God kills people, but that God lets some go.

That's the, that's the problem. Let's keep reading. It gets worse. We're going to go, to verse 820. So it just talks about, how Noah, begins to find out, that the water's running down, he gets stuck on the Mount Ararat.

They finally see, that the water has gone away, and they come out of the boat. Which had to be a good day. You've been in a boat, for five, six months, it's been raining, for a long time. Your boat quits rocking, that day was great. Eventually, you realize, the land is dry, and you get to leave the boat, which they were sat, on a mountain, for like a month. Just waiting, for God to say, you can come out of the boat now, to come out.

Then Noah built, an altar to the Lord, took some of every clean animal, and some of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings, on the altar. Which immediately, you're like, no don't do it, there's only two of each, you can't kill them. But he had more of them, we said that earlier, so Noah didn't mess up. Actually, there were some really cool animals, we'll never know about them, Noah killed them. Unicorns, dragons, I'm just kidding. Alright.

And when the Lord smelled, the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again, curse the ground, because of man. For the intentions of man's heart, is evil, from his youth, neither will I ever, strike down, every living creature, as I have done, while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. Chapter 9, and God blessed Noah, and his sons, and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, the fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives, shall be food for you, as I give the green plants, I give you everything.

And God blessed Noah, and his sons, and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, the fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives, shall be food for you, as I give the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh, with its life, that is its blood, and for your life blood, I will require a reckoning, from every beast, I will require it, and from every man,

From his fellow man, I will require a reckoning, for the life of man, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man, shall his blood be shed, for God has made man, in his own image. Okay, God originally made his covenant, with Adam and Eve, told them be fruitful, multiply, have dominion over the earth, he gave them all the plants, Adam and Eve were vegetarians, after the flood, God says, I'm making all the animals, afraid of you, so that it will be harder, to kill them, but now you can eat them, and then he says,

Be fruitful and multiply, he's making his covenant, with Noah again, he's making this, you're going to go do this now, you're taking over, but there's something, really weird and different, he adds in this whole section, about murder, here are the rules, on killing each other, why? Because every intention, of man's heart, is evil, the problem isn't fixed, Noah isn't perfect, Shem, him, and Jephtheth, and their sweet little wives, need to be told, don't murder each other,

Some of you are married, you're like, good advice, the problem isn't fixed, it gets worse, I mean actually, it's good news, but it's really hard to take, here we go, then God said to Noah, and his sons with him, behold I establish, my covenant with you, and your offspring, after you, and with every living creature, that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth, with you, as many as came out of the ark, it is for every beast of the earth, I establish my covenant with you,

That never again, shall all flesh, be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again, shall there be a flood, to destroy the earth, and God said, this is the sign of the covenant, that I make between me and you, and every living creature, that is with you, for all future generations, I have set my bow in the cloud, that's the rainbow, and it should be a sign, of the covenant between me, and the earth, when I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant, that is between me and you, every living creature of all flesh, and the water shall never again, become a flood,

To destroy all flesh, when the bow is in the clouds, I will see it, and remember the everlasting covenant, between God, and every living creature, of all flesh on the earth, God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant, that I have established, between me, and all flesh, that is on the earth, okay, first of all, side note, the rainbow, is not for us, to remember the covenant, because we have no control, over whether or not, it stops raining, the rainbow, is so that God,

Will remember the covenant, is what he said, I'll see the rainbow, and I'll remember, it's like a big post-it note, I'm not trying to be real sacrilegious, but it does say, he'll remember, I'll see the rainbow, I'll remember my covenant, so he's, it's raining, he sees the rainbow, he's like, oh yeah, I'm not going to drown, everybody anymore, here's the problem though, Noah, deserves the flood, and God, gives him a rainbow, no one is righteous, God has to tell them,

Don't murder each other, I have a very distinct problem, with that, is anybody else, am I the only one mad at Noah, like y'all are just okay, with this guy, like I, here's the thing, if God just came in, and said, everyone's evil, I'm going to drown everyone, I can get on board, with that, I actually would have, a little bit of a peace, about that, I'd be like, yeah, this seems fair, we haven't done a great job guys, there's some nice stuff going on, I mean we also get to see,

The nice things happening, I mean every time, anything cute happens, Ellen has them on their show, on her show or whatever, look at this kid, can play the violin, look at all these puppies, I mean half the internet, is just videos of cats, I get that, but it doesn't matter, because if God, was to come to earth right now, and say I'm going to get rid, of all the people, who would make earth not perfect, let's say he did that, let's say he just shows up, and says okay, everyone in prison, you're gone, I know some of you, maybe got incarcerated,

Incorrectly, wrongly, arrested, doesn't matter, you've broken the law, you're gone, all of you wiped out, maybe he says, okay now everybody, who's intentionally caused, physical harm to another person, you're gone, because you can't be trusted, so all those people are gone, then he says, everyone who's caused, intentional emotional harm, to another person, you're gone, if he kept going, he's not going to find, not even one, what Romans says, what Psalm says,

Not one, and you got to have two, to keep the population going, there's not even going to be, one really sad, nice lady, not one, yesterday, my 15 month old son, was playing with a water bottle, he wanted to take the top off, my wife would not let him, so he took the water bottle, and went, and smacked her in the face with it, he can't be trusted, he does not get to stay, that's true, 15 months old, not one, there's not one, that can be trusted, not one of us, would keep it together,

Not one of us, would be worthy, not one of us, can stand in front of God, and say I'm okay, I'm righteous, leave it to me, it'll be alright, I can handle it, I'll do well, not one, and then there's Noah, you see if God said, everyone's going to get flooded, sounds fair, if God stepped in, and said everybody gets a rainbow, if he turned Oprah, and was like you get a rainbow, and you get a rainbow, and you get a rainbow, like if he stepped in, and did that, I'd still have a problem with that,

Because I wouldn't believe, he was good, I would not be able, to believe he was good, because everybody, shouldn't get a rainbow, there's stuff that happens, people don't deserve rainbows, they don't, I wouldn't believe, you could not convince me, if everybody got a free pass, you could not convince me, God was loving, the reason, I would be willing, to harm someone the most, is to defend, what I love the most, and if God was able, to look out on earth, and see what's going on right now, and just go, everything's okay,

I don't know, what kind of God you are, but you don't love, you don't care, you're not on both sides, of that phone call, but here's the problem, God sends a flood, but no one makes it out, that's the issue, not why does God kill people, why does God save anybody, there are times, in the Old Testament, David, one of the greatest kings, everybody's like, King David's the greatest, David has one of his, goes and gets one of his, commander's wives pregnant, and then kills him, and then takes his wife, as his own,

And God killed David, this is terrible, and David feels sorry about it, and God's like, you're forgiven, you're a man after my own heart, and it's like, this is nonsense, there are times, where God basically looks, at people who are evil, and says, oh look at how sad they are, I forgive them, it's nonsense, why does Noah get out, let's go to Romans, chapter 3, we read a little bit of it earlier, it's going to page 611, so we're leaving Noah, he's off the boat, he made it out, God made his promises to him,

His covenant, I'm setting it up with you, I'm not going to do this again, and here's the question, it's like, okay, why do we get a rainbow, why is God not going to flood the earth again, how does this work, how does this fare, verse 21, it's on page 611, in blue and white Bible, I don't want to lose anybody, are we there, alright, but now the righteousness of God, that means his correctness, his rightness, his justice, has been manifested, shown up, apart from the law, okay,

The law is the rules, your ability to behave, Noah's ability to be good, in front of God, the righteousness has shown up, apart from that, although the law and the prophets, bear witness to it, the righteousness of God, through faith, in Jesus Christ, for all who believe, you see, Noah was made right by faith, and that same rightness, that same righteousness, is open to us, by faith in Jesus Christ, but the question is, how, and how is that fair, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned, and fall short,

Of the glory of God, if he came through, and got rid of all the evil people, he would get rid of everybody, the flood, should drown everybody, for all have sinned, and fall short, of the glory of God, and are justified, by his grace, as a gift, through the redemption, that is in Christ Jesus, so Jesus graciously, gives justification, which means, you're made right with God, through redemption, offered through him, how are we redeemed, through Jesus, whom God put forward, as a propitiation,

By his blood, to be received, by faith, propitiation, means that he absorbed, wrath, the only way, anybody gets a rainbow, is that Jesus, takes the flood, Jesus absorbed, wrath, we have wrath, coming towards us, and Jesus absorbs it, for us, and we can place, faith in him, propitiation by his blood, when he went to the cross, Jesus was taking, the wrath of God, on our behalf, for our sin,

To be received by faith, this was to show, God's righteousness, because if you're reading, the Old Testament, he's not righteous, because sinners go free, this was to show, his righteousness, because in his divine, forbearance, he had passed over, former sins, it was to show, his righteousness, at the present time, so that he might be just, meaning sin, is paid for, evil is evil, and justifier, of the one, who has faith, in Jesus,

Sin is paid for, wrath is poured out, the flood goes to everybody, except for, God in his divine, righteousness, passed over some sins, Noah's, David's, he passed over some sins, and he poured them out, on Jesus, all sin is paid for, but God, made a promise, that sin wouldn't win, okay, go back with me, elementary school, lunchroom, we show up, you got a Spiderman, lunchbox, some of you rocking,

A brown bag, some of you got, a Ziploc bag, some of you got, like a big cooler, some people like, yeah, you got a, my little pony, lunchbox, that's cool man, you're a brony, whatever, y'all can look that up, if you don't know what that is, or don't, it's not really worth your time, but there you go, alright, so we're sitting there, we all open our lunchbox, and every single one of us, has an apple, juice,

Juice box, ham and cheese, mayonnaise sandwich, with no crust, because we know what's up, bag of Fritos, oatmeal cream pie, and some of y'all are like, I want a ho-ho, we in South Carolina, we don't, get that host of stuff out of here, there's the little Debbie's, what are you talking about, you don't get a ho-ho, you got an oatmeal cream pie, sometimes you get a moon pie, but not today, you got an oatmeal cream pie, all of us, popping up in our lunchboxes, everybody has the exact same thing, who you trading with, who you trading with,

Some of y'all thought, I guess I can't trade with anybody, others of y'all thought, I could trade my Fritos, for another oatmeal cream pie, and you're correct, maybe you're like, I don't know, maybe my mom uses miracle whip, and that other kid doesn't know it, and his mom uses dukes, and I'll get his sandwich, here's the thing though, we can shuffle it around, we've all got the same stuff, it doesn't matter, if I've got more oatmeal cream pies, and you think sandwiches are better, and I tell you, oatmeal cream pies are better, we've all got the same stuff, the only way we actually get to trade, is if someone opens their lunchbox, and they got something different,

No one is righteous, not one of us, we all popped open our lunchboxes, and we all have the same stuff, the only way, we get out, the only way, we get to trade, is if someone showed up, and did what we couldn't do, Jesus, to follow our analogy, opened his lunchbox, and had something completely different, Jesus was perfect, on our behalf, so that he could actually swap places with us, because he didn't deserve wrath, he had something different, so that he could actually, exchange what he had for us, he could take our sin, he could take the wrath of God, that was deserved for our sin,

He could give us his righteousness, and then God could be just, because all sin is paid for, evil is evil, God does not sit back, and wink at it, the flood is coming, but, God is gracious, and offers a rainbow, offers grace, and love, to those who trust in Jesus, and the reason why, is because he promised in the garden, to the serpent, that sin wouldn't win, and when sin had taken over the earth, he said, I'm going to make a way, and his way, wasn't just Noah and a boat, but it was a cross, where former sin,

Could get passed over, and Jesus could pay our debt, the only way, you don't get a flood, the only way, you are not drowned, by God's wrath, for the evil intentions, of your heart, because not even one, stands before him, and is justified, is through faith in Jesus, just as Noah climbed in an ark, and said, I trust that this will take care, of the flood, we get to climb into Jesus, we get to place our faith in Jesus, and say, I trust that this will take care, of your wrath, Matt's going to come back up here, because we believe this,

Because we know, that faith, comes through the promises of God, that Jesus, makes a way for us, to have righteousness, we can respond to sin, the same way God does, it can hurt us, we can go sit next to the, our friends in the LGBT community, right now, and put our arm around them, and say, I'm sorry, I know you're scared, I know you're confused, I'm sorry, this is sick, this shouldn't have happened, I love you, we get to hurt, with those who hurt, and we get to fight injustice,

We get to hate sin, and we get to do all of that, from a place that knows, I'm no better, I'm not righteous before God, I'm not good, I'm not holy, I'm not the standard, I trust Jesus, to make me right, we get to actually, give good news, which is, all of us deserve a flood, but Jesus is willing, to take it on your behalf, we said last week, that all of us, had lined up behind Adam, all of us had chosen sin, truth is, all of us deserve, a flood, but God promised,

That sin wouldn't win, Jesus paid for it, so that we might have, faith and life, and hope, and if you're here, and you haven't placed, your faith in Jesus, I just want you to know, that's all it takes, you don't have to be good, you don't have to be right, you get to trust, God to make you right, through Jesus, to take away your sin, take away your wrath, through Christ, that's the hope we have today, God, we thank you, thank you for your grace, God we thank you, that when it seemed,

Like you were being unfair, when it seemed, like you were being unjust, to let sinners go, that you had a plan, and you had a promise, that you were going to, make sin be paid for, but that you were going to make a way, that we could go free, and God we thank you, for the cross, we thank you, that Jesus loved us enough, to take your wrath, on our behalf, as a propitiation, to take the flood, so that we could receive, grace, and favor, and righteousness, God that we could be, counted right,

As Noah is counted right, that we could stand before you, and be called blameless, because Jesus was blameless, on our behalf, and our blame has been shifted to him, and our debt has been paid by him, and we can go free, God I pray, there wouldn't be a person, in this room, that would ever have to face, the flood of your wrath, I pray God, that no one in this room, ever stands before you, on their own merit, on their own work, on their own two feet, I pray that every single one of us, hides behind the cross, I pray God, that your wrath, for our sin,

And our wickedness, and the evil intentions, of our heart, was poured out fully, and justly, on Jesus, and that every single one of us, can stand before you, welcomed, and loved, and spoken highly of, not because we're good, but because Jesus, swapped places with us, and God I pray, that more and more people, in this city, will come to know, the grace that is offered, through you and you alone, in Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Jun 19

The Serpent and the Savior

The Serpent and the Savior

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

The Old Testament is kind of framed up over these five major covenants, these major promises that God makes to different people and to kind of the nation of Israel and then just these promises He really kind of makes to humanity in some ways. And so we're going to be walking through looking at how those promises ultimately find their fulfillment in Christ how we can better understand the Old Testament and how we can ultimately better understand Jesus through studying these covenants. And so what we're going to be doing a good bit is reading stories from the Old Testament. And I think, and maybe this was just me, but it seems like you would kind of think the Bible was mostly rules.

Like it would be mostly God saying, here's how life should work. I mean, there's like a section on marriage and then there'd be a section on work and there'd be a section on, like it would just be kind of a framework, a guidebook for how things should run. But when you start reading the Bible, it's long stories. It's a lot of history. It's a lot of telling these interactions of people. And I think one of the reasons is because that's really how life works.

When you get to know people, so like maybe your grandmother, your great-grandmother was very frugal. She, when she used bar soap, when it got really small, she didn't throw it away. She put it in a jar and she'd put it with other bar soap. And then eventually she'd fill that up with water and use that as hand soap. Maybe you've met people who do things like this. And like maybe at this point in her life, you're like, you have, like I'm pretty sure you don't have money under your mattress.

Your mattress is made of money. Just throw it away. And her response isn't, I learned an adage when I was eight years old that you should never be wasteful. No, her response was, I've seen the Great Depression. I could see one again. I won't be wasting money.

Because it's her story. One of the things we do in our groups is we actually tell each other our story. Like tell us how you became you, how you got here. And the reason we do that, the reason we tell stories to each other is because that's kind of what makes us us. That's how we, that's how life works. Most of you are who you are based off of long periods of time.

Years where things played out in relationships with your parents. Or years where things played out in finances or in work or in, when you were overseas. Or when you were, like there's, it's your story. You don't have, oh, I learned this rule and this rule and this rule. And now I follow my life based off of these three rules. Like that's not usually how that goes.

Usually it plays out in this context of life was like this for me. And so that's why I treat alcohol this way. Life was like this for me. That's why I treat money that way. And then maybe we pick up some, some understandings of how things work and some rules along the way. But life plays out in the context of story.

And so we're going to spend a good bit of time reading some stories because that's how humanity works. That's how life works. We're going to be in Genesis chapter 2. It's on page 1. If your Bible looks like this, you just got to move just a few things out of your way. And then you're there.

So page 1 is like five pages deep. They didn't make page 1 the first page because they wanted you to have to, you know, pay attention and be focused and have your A game. But page 1 just says Genesis at the top. So we'll start there. We're going to be in Genesis chapter 2. Starting in verse 5.

And then we're going to read all the way through Genesis 3. And we're just going to kind of look at this story today of Adam and Eve and how this plays out with what theologians call the fall. So we sang that song earlier. It said, I was an orphan. Lost it. The fall.

Running away when I hear you called. That's this. That's this fall from what God had intended. God's original plan that he had worked out with humanity. And ultimately, his ultimate sovereign plan will be carried out. But we get this picture of, as he walks through history with humanity, us falling from a relationship with him.

So we're going to be in verse 5. And we're just going to read through and talk. And then we'll kind of see how we can, what we can learn from this today. So I'm going to pray. And then we'll start reading. God, we thank you that you do make promises, that you keep your promises.

We thank you, Lord, that you intersect with our stories, that you're interested in normal human life, and that much of your word is devoted to you intersecting with normal human life. So, God, we pray that as we look at the lives of the first humans, we would come to understand more about you, more about your promises, and more about your grace. In Jesus' name, amen. When no bush of the field was yet in the land. So what we got in Genesis 1 was this big overview of God creating, and now we've got kind of a zoomed-in version on it.

So when no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and watering the whole face of the ground. Okay, so, have you ever been in a field that's freshly turned up, that's just soil, maybe it's had some seed on it, maybe it's got some rows of things planted, but there's nothing there. It's just dirt. The earth looked like that. It was just dirt. Now, there may have been, over on our side of town, some clay, maybe there was some sandy spots, maybe there was some nice, rich, dark topsoil, but it's just dirt.

Everywhere. No bush, no small plant, dirt. It's lovely. Okay, seven. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Now, there are some places on earth with really nice, white, sandy beaches. There's not a lot of them, so I don't think the first man looked like me skin tone wise. I think he was darker, soil colored. Like, that's what he, God forms out of the ground a man and breathes life into him. And so this clump of dirt, we'll read that again. And then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. This is a beautiful garden. Every single tree that is pretty and that you can eat from was there. People pay money to go pick apples. Maybe you have done this.

If you go to the grocery store, you can pay less money for apples that someone else already picked. But maybe you paid money to walk around in a garden, in an apple orchard. Orchard? Maybe you went to an orchard and you got ripped off. I don't know. But you paid money to pick.

So God has planted all of the fruit trees, all of everything that he made, all the trees that are beautiful. Maybe you've never done this. There are times where I have just stared at a tree and thought, that is a pretty tree. Like, that's just a cool, that's a good-looking tree. All of the good-looking trees were there, and all the trees you could eat from were there. This is a good garden.

Lord God planted a garden in the east. We're at verse 8. In the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed, and out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There's not much explained to us about these two trees other than they are different and have some sort of spiritual something to them. It seems like there's something to them.

So the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first river is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and Onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon.

It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush, and the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates. Okay. We still know where the Tigris and Euphrates are. I'm going to show you a map. This is called the Fertile Crescent. A lot of human history has played out here.

Over here by the Nile River, you've got Egypt, and that's the top part of Africa. Right there, where the word says fertile, that's Palestine, Israel. Then it comes around, and so you'd have this Mesopotamia right here, and you see Euphrates and Tigris River. Somewhere on that spot of earth, God planted Eden. Somewhere around the Euphrates and the Tigris River, maybe up top there, where they're kind of splitting down, maybe over here near the Persian Gulf. We don't know.

Somewhere in there. But a lot of the oldest amounts of history we have, and writings and stuff we have, come from this area on the earth. And this is where history started, humanity started, somewhere in this zone. And we'll keep looking at that map over the next couple weeks, as we see where people migrate, and how the story plays out. But this happened on a real earth, in a real place.

God planted the garden, and put the real first man to tend it. Fifteen. The Lord God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden, to work it, and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Okay.

Every tree in the garden is open to Adam, and eventually Eve, but she's not here yet. Every tree in the garden is open to Adam, except for one. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life is open to him. No rules on that one. But the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he's not allowed to eat from.

And God says, In the day you eat of it, you'll surely die. Now, immediately, there's some questions that pop up. A little bit. I had someone ask me this past week, If God didn't want to mess him with that tree, why did he put it in the middle of the garden? And it's like, That sounds like a good question. I kind of, I don't know.

When I don't want Archer messing with stuff, I don't just set it with all his other things, and say, Don't touch it. I put it away from him. So, it's like, what's the, but I think kind of what surrounds this idea is, really, Adam is created, and we're told that he has one rule. Don't eat of this tree, of the knowledge of good and evil. And I think in that one rule, it sums up all of the nature of God's relationship to Adam. Which is, I control good and evil.

I'm in charge of what is right and wrong. You are not. And you will obey me and follow me because of who I am and because of who you are. God does not feel the need to explain himself to Adam. God does not have to explain himself to Adam. He just made him out of dirt.

He owes Adam nothing. Plants him in the garden and then says, here's the one rule, don't mess with this tree. And in that one rule, sums up the nature of humanity's relationship to God. God will be God. Humans will be humans. God will decide what is right and wrong.

Humans will not. God will be followed because he is God. There will be times in my relationship with my son Archer where I give him a rule and he will want an explanation and I don't have to give him an explanation. I'm his dad. I'll try to explain things to him, but there's going to be times where it's just like, you're going to follow me because I'm your dad. You're going to do what I said because I'm your dad.

And that's it. Like, I don't need an eight-year-old to agree with me. That's not how this works. I need you to follow me. I don't have to explain myself to an eight-year-old. Probably couldn't.

So God, same thing. This is how it's going to work. So not oppressive, though. The garden wasn't like, oh my gosh, this place is a prison. There's one rule. Leave that tree alone.

All the rest of them, they're great. Okay. Now, turns out Adam and Eve were kind of like us. You can have everything but that one. And we go, ooh, that one. So a little bit of foreshadowing there.

18. Then the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. Now, out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.

But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. That section is really interesting to me. So God says, it's not good that he's alone. We'll find a helper for him. And then God brings all of the animals to him. Adam names them.

And at the end of that section, it says, but no helper was found. It seems to imply that at least on Adam's level, he thought he was looking for a teammate in all of the animals. Animals, I'm willing to bet that got really depressing. Because animals are cool. They're great. But you shouldn't go speed dating at the zoo.

If your friend tries to pitch that idea to you, just like, if they're like, oh, you know a great place to meet women? The zoo. And you're like, okay, sure. You go to the zoo. You walk over to one of the little railings and he goes, what do you think? Your friend needs help.

And probably you need new friends. Join a community group. Those people will be forced to be your friend. Like, I go to the zoo. We have a zoo membership. And I have stood and stared at a lion.

And I've stood and stared at a tiger. And I've thought, man, these are massively beautiful animals. But I have never thought, how you doing? Like, it's just never. So at some point in all of this, Adam's seeing all these animals.

And no helper was found. No one was fit. There wasn't anything that showed up that he thought, yes, this is it. Like, this is the one. Nothing. He's like, these are great.

Really cool things you made here. Some really neat stuff. Wasn't a helper found for him. Okay. 21. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man.

And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. And then the man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. And he'd seen every animal on the face of the earth. God brings a woman to him.

And Adam goes, at last. Like, he resonated with him. He'd already seen everything. He said, this was correct. You did a good job. This is what was supposed to have been.

Like, this is it. God gives, brings Eve to Adam. And he says, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Basically saying, she's like me. Those other things weren't like me. She's like me.

She should be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. And they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Okay. That verse is there.

Not to say God had made them well. Like, they were well built. That's not the point. Or to say that they were prideful or anything. What it's saying is there's something fundamentally different about humanity at this point. Because that fact is going to show up later in the story.

That humans could be naked and not ashamed. And so, he says this was the case here. And then, let's go to chapter 3. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. Okay. So, Adam has seen the serpent.

Has named the serpent. We are told later. It may not have been this serpent. I don't know how that worked. I don't know if God just made a couple of each one. Or if he went ahead and populated everything and then just brought them in front of Adam.

We're not told that. But, um... We are told later in the Bible, though, that this is Satan. And so, we don't know if Satan was originally made as some sort of a serpent type thing. Or if Satan took on the form of a serpent. We're not really told that.

We're just told later. This is Satan. So, a serpent shows up. That's what we're told in the story. So, he said to the woman. So, the serpent is talking.

And immediately, people are like, I think I'd have been weirded out by a serpent talking. Yeah, but if no one's ever tricked you or lied to you and nothing bad has ever happened. And you're in a garden made by God and everything has been perfect. You're not suspicious. Just for the record. We're suspicious because bad things have happened a lot.

So, if a snake talks to you, probably don't talk back. But, maybe see what it wants. I don't know. Okay. He said to the woman. Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

So, the serpent comes in and just takes kind of what God said and twists it. Did he actually say? He goes over and goes, really? Like, he's in the garden with her and he says, really? God said you can't have any of this? That's what God told you?

You can't have any of this? This is all really nice. He told you you can't have any of it? He's already pressing into her heart this idea that God's holding out on them. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden. But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden.

Neither shall you touch it lest you die. Now, we just read that. God didn't say you shouldn't touch it. Maybe Adam told her that. Just don't even get near the tree and we'll be okay. Like, I don't know.

I don't know where that came from. Maybe she made it up. We do like to add rules to God's rules. Neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die.

For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So the serpent lies. You won't die. And then he lies again saying, God knows this. And he's this lie that God can't be trusted. That maybe God's holding out on us.

Creeps into Eve's heart. Maybe God, you know, I never really questioned him. Maybe he should be questioned. I've just always kind of did what he said. I just always kind of trusted him. But maybe, like, why have I never thought about that?

Why would I just trust him? Maybe he is holding out on me. Maybe you've got a good point. And so she begins to believe some of what the serpent is saying. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

So it seems as if they are not near that tree when this conversation starts. But then it says, when she saw that it was good. So at some point she travels over to the tree. Because she says the tree in the midst of the garden. So it seems as if she heads that way to look at it.

And it says, when she saw that the tree was pleasant to the sight and that it was good for food. So she's staring at this tree and thinking, you know, this is a really nice tree. I've never paid that much attention to it. She's looking at the fruit and thinking, that does look like good fruit. That does look like you could eat that. That is like all the other trees in the garden.

But then this one was desired to be, to make one wise. And she begins to think, she begins to tell herself, she begins to believe the lie of the serpent that this one, if I could just have this one, then I'd be special. If I could just have this one, then I'd be complete. This one's different. If I could just have this one, then I'd be made into something. If I could just have this one, then I'd be built up.

I'd be different than I am now. Now this one would provide for me something that the rest of them won't. This one will make me wise. She believes that by somehow taking this fruit, she's going to be promoted. It's going to make her into something that she isn't already. And she has a desire, I believe, to be like God.

This one offers me something that the rest of the trees don't. Verse 6. So when the woman saw the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. So Adam hadn't shown up until this point, but it turns out he was there.

He was just there the whole time going through the same process. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. Okay, so at the end of chapter 2, they were naked and unashamed. They tasted the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. They go and they basically break the one rule they've been given, fundamentally altering the relationship that they're going to have with God. They're saying, no, we don't believe that satisfaction will be found in you.

No, we don't believe that you are to be trusted. No, we don't believe that you're the one who's going to say what's right and wrong. We're going to have some control over that. We're going to decide what's good and evil. And let me tell you something. When they found out they were naked, that was not a fun experience.

I don't know if that's ever happened to you where you just suddenly realized you were naked. Maybe some of you sleepwalk. Maybe you've had that dream where you were doing a presentation at work, or you were standing up in front of class on show and tell day, and it turns out you were showing more than telling. Like you suddenly realize in your dream, like, I am naked. And never in your dream have you had that moment and you thought, I don't have any clothes on. And immediately went, all right, cool.

Like, no, it's overwhelming shame and guilt and fear and this immediate desire to hide. Let me tell you something. The moment they realized they were naked, the opposite of joy flooded the hearts of humanity. Guilt and shame and fear and this desire to protect yourself and to hide from others overwhelmed them. Biting into that fruit did not provide for them what they thought it would. That moment that they tasted that fruit, they were almost overwhelmed by a crushing sense of inadequacy where there used to be freedom.

Of shame where they had never felt that before. Guilt when they had never known wrong, it crushed them. Like, like a child who has done something wrong and does not have the ability to stand before their parents and handle the guilt. So they hide. So that they can't even speak.

So that when their parent begins to talk to them, they just flooded with tears because they can't handle the separation. That flooded into humanity and overwhelmed them. The eyes of both were opened. They knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

So God's presence used to be among them. He used to come walk among them. He used to come enjoy their company. He used to allow them to find enjoyment in his. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. They couldn't face him.

But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? And the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done?

The woman said, The serpent deceived me and I ate. She understands at this point, I was lied to. This did not provide for me what I thought it was going to provide for me. That serpent lied to me. This wasn't freedom. This wasn't a promotion.

This wasn't a level up. This wasn't, this didn't bring satisfaction. I was lied to. The Lord God said to the serpent, I love the fact that God, when we later find out this is Satan, that God addresses Satan first. That he, he addresses the main problem here, which is sin and Satan and death and destruction that's coming to the world. He addresses him first.

And he says, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock. He's talking to the serpent and above all beasts of the field. On your belly, on your belly, you shall go and dust. You shall eat all the days of your lives, of your, of your life. So apparently snakes didn't slither around on their stomach prior to this.

Go home and think about that one. Um, and, uh, I guess this is where he added in the, you're going to use your tongue to smell. So I'm pretty sure snakes have nostrils. If you look at them, they use their tongue to, to smell stuff. So he made it to where they have to like lick to figure out what's going on around them.

So that would be terrible. What color is this? Like that would be a, that would be a bad way to go through life. Okay. Um, uh, don't overthink that. Okay.

Um, and then he says this in verse 15, I will put enmity. I'll make you an enemy of, uh, enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. On the surface, this means humans won't really like snakes. And for the most part, that's true. Um, maybe you have a friend who really likes snakes.

And again, I would encourage you, you know, get in a community group, get new friends. Uh, sorry, personal preference, not a fan. Um, and it's biblical. So I'm just, I'm just saying I'm on, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. But theologians also believe that this is a promise made to the serpent.

This is the first gospel that is ever preached because here's what God says. He looks at the serpent, which we're told is Satan. And he says this, I'm going to put enmity between you and the woman, between her offspring and your offspring. Now, on the surface, that means all the people that are born. But, throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, genealogies are, are done through men. This guy was the father of this guy, who's the father of this guy, who's the father of this guy.

Every once in a while, they'll bring a woman in if she was like, you know her story or she was important or something. But, all the other ones are man to man to man to man to man to man to man. There was one human, born on earth, who did not have an earthly father. And his name was Jesus. He was conceived of a virgin by the Holy Spirit. And there's this picture here, where God's looking at the serpent and saying, there's going to come a day, where someone in the line of Adam, the line of Eve, is going to be born, and he's going to crush your head.

At harm to himself, you're going to bruise his heel, but he's going to bruise your head. You're going to harm him, but he's going to destroy you. And that promise is made to the serpent. And that's one of the first promises, that we can clutch onto, that the serpent won't have the final say. As we talk about the covenants that God makes, this one's a little bit different than the other ones, where he looks at a person and says, I'm going to make my covenant with you. But it's massively important for us to understand, that God had designed earth, where he was in a relationship, a covenant relationship with Adam and Eve, and Adam and Eve rejected his rule, and then he looks at the serpent and says, you don't have the final say.

This isn't how the story ends. There is one coming, who is going to set this right. Who's going to do what this Adam should have done, which was crush your head as soon as you began to tell lies. There's going to be a second Adam that shows up, and accomplishes what needs to be accomplished. Let's keep going.

We're going to come back. To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. Okay, so from what I understand, childbearing is painful. People have told me that. The other thing that happens here that plays out is, childbearing, like giving birth, was going to be a way that life was brought about.

And now there's, with humanity, with females, there's this anxiety and pain over having children, or not having children, or ability to have children. Throughout history, childbearing is one of the most dangerous things for females. In most third world countries, and throughout time, before we got modern medicine, it was one of the number one killers of females. Death during childbearing. So what was supposed to bring in life, was now bringing in death and pain.

Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. Okay, we don't have a whole lot of time for that. The only other time that sentence structure is used, your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you, is the next chapter over where he's talking to Cain, and he said, sin's desire is for you, but you shall rule over it. So this desire isn't like, oh, your desire will be for your husband, oh, like it's not that. But it is the way sin desires to rule and control.

And so what he's saying is that, wife, your desire will be to control your husband. And so I just, and then he says he will rule over you. I just want to ask wives, how's controlling your husband going? Pretty good? They're pretty obedient? They pretty well do what you ask them to?

Really smart? Have you found that your husband's just really smart, and just knocks it out of the park all the time, and every time you give him simple instructions, he just crushes it? Like, is that what we're finding? Because biblically, what he says is, you're going to really want to do this, and it's not going to be that easy or good. He's going to rule over you. The other thing I think happens with this, your desire will be for your husband.

One of the ways that I see this as a pastor, is I sit down with females who are not married, who are in terrible relationships, and should have already gotten out of this relationship, but for some reason believe that they can turn this guy into something, that they can somehow be his savior, that they can somehow, they have this desire for him when there should be no desire for him whatsoever. Maybe you've had friends who've stayed in really bad relationships for far too long. I think that's a result of the fall. I know the sin is. And Adam, he said, because you listen to the voice of your wife, I quote this to Anna all the time.

She'll tell me something, and I'll be like, don't you Genesis 3 me. I'm not listening to you. It works out really well. It goes back to the curse that she's under. I'm going to be hard to rule. Because you listen to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, basically saying you should have led your wife, you should have protected your wife, she was deceived.

We're told in scripture over and over again, she was deceived. She believed the serpent's lies. We're not told that Adam was deceived. Adam made a willful choice from what we understand. Adam rejected fully the rule of God. And he's saying, because you did not lead, because you did not protect, do not defend, and you have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat.

Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat of the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread. Till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. So, originally, the world just responded the way it was supposed to.

The plants were easy to tend. Crops grew all the time. The world bent to the dominion of humanity, that Adam and Eve were designed to co-rule the world. We're told in Genesis 1, when it gives us a summation, it says he made Adam and Eve, and he says, be fruitful and multiply, and have dominion over the world. Like, he told both of them, y'all are a team, do this. The teamwork is broken down, and the response of the world has broken down.

Work is now going to be very difficult. That phrase in there that says, by the sweat of your face, some scholars believe that's an idiom. It doesn't just mean it's going to be hard, and you're going to be outside, and you're going to sweat. But it also brings to mind anxiety. So an idiom is like a turn of phrase, or something like we might say, when pigs fly.

We don't actually, we don't mean it literally. We're using it as an example, like a snowball's chance, or whatever, like we say those kind of phrases. It means anxious. It means that you're going to always feel like, there's not enough time. You're going to always feel like, I'm not, am I actually going to be able to provide? You're going to always feel like, you're coming up short.

You're going to eat bread, but it will be an anxious toil, rather than a joyful work. Because Adam was supposed to work. He was supposed to tend the garden, but now it's going to fight him. The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam, and for his wife, garments of skins, and clothed them. That's another small picture of the gospel for us.

That something had to die to get skins. And God sacrifices that to cover their guilt and their shame. They're going to have to wear clothes now, because that freedom is gone. And so God makes a way for them. Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil.

Now lest he reach out his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever. So that would have been a surprise. The tree of life was in the garden, and I don't know if death wasn't ever going to happen, or if they were going to get old, and God was going to let them eat in the tree. Like, I don't know how that worked, but it was there, and it was magical and amazing, and he didn't say anything about it. He just planted it there. And one day they were going to eat it, and he was like, You found the tree of life.

How delicious was that? I don't know how he would have done that, but I just, it was there, and now they can't be there around it. Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man at the east of the garden of Eden. He placed the cherubim, that's a big scary angel, and a flaming sword, that is also scary, that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. So there was a rejection of God's rule, and God's response is gracious because he doesn't just immediately kill them.

Death does enter the world. He says, Okay, our relationship is not the same anymore, and you came from dust, and eventually you're going to turn to dust. You're going to deteriorate. Your death has begun. But he doesn't immediately destroy them for their rebellion.

And he sends them out and says, Okay, go for it. You know good and evil now? It's on you. See, Adam and Eve got what they wanted. They're in charge. They have autonomy that they did not used to have.

This is what's happened to humanity. We can trace all sin back to this moment where we fundamentally made a choice as humanity. See, Adam stood in our place and said a few things. One is, I don't believe God can be trusted. I think satisfaction will be found somewhere else. And ultimately, I want to be in charge of what's good and what's evil.

I want to be in charge of what's right and wrong. I want to be like God. I want to be in charge. All of us, unfortunately, Adam made that decision on our behalf. Like if, when you were young, your dad walks into the house or your mom walks into the house and says, Hey, pack your stuff. We're moving.

Just took a job halfway across the country. And you're like, I, what? We didn't, we didn't vote. We don't, I'm, I know I'm 12, but I feel like I should have a say. I got some friends. And your parents are like, you make new friends or you won't.

We're moving. Like, this is what Adam did. Hey guys, started this off. Just want to give you all a heads up. Death, sin, we're all kind of in charge. We're not good at it.

It was a good talk. That's it. It was Adam's choice. And here's the thing. We all lined up single file behind him and made the exact same choice. I want to be in charge of what's right and wrong.

I think joy will ultimately be found somewhere else other than God. And I'm pretty sure he can't be trusted. I don't think he really knows my situation. I don't think he really knows what I'm going through. I don't think he really knows what I'm like. I think he can't really be trusted.

And that ultimately I know what's best for me. And all of us single file have lined up behind Adam and said, yes, this is the system we want. Death enters the world. Death is as natural as anything else we have. It is as natural as sneezing. It is natural as sunrise.

Every person in this room will die. And there is something that every time there is a death, something inside of us screams that this is not how it ought to be. Every time you stood over a casket, every time you've walked through that little line, shaking hands of people who no longer have a family member that they had a few days ago, there's something inside of you that's rolled over and said, this is not how it was supposed to be. Because it's not how it was supposed to be. But Adam and Eve got what they want, what they wanted.

And every time we say, why doesn't God just stop this? Why doesn't God just step in and fix this? If there's such a great God, why hasn't he taken care of this by now? But here's the problem. All of us have stood in line behind Adam and all of us have said, I don't want God's rule. I want control.

I want my desires to be met. I want to choose for me what's best. And all of us deserve death. And so when we say things like, why wouldn't God just stop all this murder? Why wouldn't God just stop all this? The only way he can do it is by resetting it.

The only way he can do it is by crushing everyone. What you're really saying when we say that is, why doesn't God just end all of us now? Why don't we just meet the justice we deserve now? And the reason is, God is very gracious. And very merciful. And he wants a different end for us than the one that we find in Adam.

See, the reason why this is so messed up shouldn't be surprising to us. The reason why earth is so painful shouldn't be surprising to us. It's what we asked for, which is us in control. I was listening to the radio. They were doing an interview with some people from Europe who have set up a camp outside of Fallujah in Iraq. There's 50,000.

Fallujah is currently controlled by ISIS, unless something recently changed. And there's about 50,000 people who were in Fallujah that are now controlled by ISIS because ISIS has taken over. So there's 50,000 women, children, families that are in there that are under ISIS's control. And when they break free and escape, they've set up a camp kind of close that's like, here, come here, we'll give you some food. And this is, I got online and got the transcript. She's talking about the people in the camp.

She says around me, her last name's Koch, Elizabeth Koch, K-O-E-K, so that may not be how you pronounce that actually. But around me, I see mostly people who are relieved. I was in the camp and I had a six-year-old boy who was given our basic kit of food and he just burst into tears at the sight of bread. He hasn't seen bread in five or six months. People have been surviving on rotting rice or dates or a little bit of yogurt. The people have had access to any, have not had any access to any kind of safe or clean drinking water in months.

People were telling me about drinking water from agricultural wells where dead carcasses were floating about. Here's the situation. If you're drinking water out of an agricultural well that has dead, rotting carcasses in it, you're not surprised if some people get sick. You're surprised when some people don't. Racism, genocide, murder, countries just looking at other countries and saying, we want this piece of land is not surprising because we have humans ruling the earth deciding what's good and what's evil. it's surprising that there's some joy. It's surprising that there's still some life.

It's surprising that God does step in and answer prayers and set people free from ailments. It's surprising that we've accomplished so much in the midst of we're all drinking out of a poisoned well. What's surprising is the vast amount of grace that's still present for us. The vast amount of work God's still doing to redeem that. See, everyone is a victim of Adam's choice. So in order for God to step in and stop the corruption, he has to reset the whole system.

He'd have to crush everything. He'd have to unmake everything and remake everything. And so God, rather than doing that, has a different plan. He looks at the serpent and he says, I'm going to reverse this. Someday, you will be crushed. There's going to come someone who does what needs to be done.

See, when it comes to this big redemptive story, the real question is, what did Adam lose? When Adam rejected God, what did he lose? And what did this second Adam, the second person that's going to come, what did he buy back? Sandra Richter, in her book, Epic of Eden, puts it this way. I'm going to read a quote here. It says, In some, redemptive history is all about fixing what went wrong in the garden.

What went wrong in Eden is what must go right in redemption. What was done in the garden must be undone in Christ. In the garden, humanity made a choice for autonomy. The choice cast the cosmos in disarray. Moreover, that choice birthed in our race the power of sin which has passed down to every son of Adam and every daughter of Eve. Thus, you and I stand guilty on two fronts.

We are guilty because our forefather represented us in a sinful choice. And two, we're also guilty because we followed our forefather in that choice with our individual choices. Thus, we need to be delivered on two fronts as well. First, we need a representative who will stand in for us making a different choice and second, we ourselves need to make a different choice. We need somebody to go stand in for us and then we need to follow after them not after Adam. And God looked at the serpent and said there's going to come someone who reverses this.

Your victory will be short. There is going to be a day when someone is born who will crush your head. There is going to be a day when someone is born who will reverse this. There's going to be a second Adam who fixes this. First Corinthians says this when talking about Jesus. Let's talk about Adam first.

First Corinthians 15, 21 and 22. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. Jesus came and took our death. He stood in our place to take the death that we deserve for the rejection of God. He took the penalty we deserve for our sin.

He took the curse onto Himself and then He rose from the grave. And as people on earth, you are either lined up behind Adam or lined up behind Jesus. You're either in Adam or in Christ. in Christ there will be a resurrection. In Christ death won't have the final say. In Adam death rules and reigns. Jesus is the second Adam who came to fulfill the promise God made to the serpent so many years ago in a garden.

First Corinthians when he's wrapping this chapter up in verse 45 says this, Thus it is written the first man Adam became a living being. We read that when God breathed life into him. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. We need Jesus to come in and redeem us. We need through the Holy Spirit for Him to give us life. You see, the promise was made that the serpent would not rule forever, that the victory would be over at some point, that someone would come at some point and reverse this.

And that Jesus did. You needed somebody to stand in your place and make a better choice. Jesus did. Now, we all need to make a better choice ourselves. And the opportunity given to us is that we can repent of sin and follow after Jesus. That we can turn from our desire for autonomy, that we can turn from our desire to be in charge, that we can stop believing the lie that something else will give us satisfaction.

We have all walked to some tree, looked at it, and said, this is the one. This is the one that will fill me up. This is the thing that will make me happy. You can hang anything you want to from that tree. It can be a relationship. It can be money.

It can be a job. It can be sex. It can be anything you want to put up there. It can be approval or just having a nice, easygoing, comfortable life. But we've all looked at something and said, if I can just get that fruit down, I'll be complete.

I'll be full. This one is to be desired to level me up. Every single one of us has chosen our own autonomy. Every single one of us has chosen that we'll know what's best for us and we have the option to go to Christ and say, I need you to pay for my sin. I need you to set me free. I need to find my satisfaction in you.

You see, on the cross, God proved that he can be trusted. That lie that's crept into all of our hearts that maybe God's holding out on us was destroyed the moment he gave everything on the cross. He is holding nothing back. Paul says, if he would give us his own son, how much more would he not give us all things? Everything has been laid down for us that we might have freedom, that we might have joy, that the curse might not rule and reign over us forever, but that at some point we can have an eternity where we're in God's presence, in God's place, being God's people as he originally designed and as he has proven he was going to work out throughout the courses of time as he promised beforehand that he would save us in Christ.

If you're in this room, you're either in Adam or you're in Christ. You're either lined up saying, I want to be in charge and I'll take the death that comes or you're saying, I need Jesus to take my death and I need to surrender. Those are your two choices. In Adam, all die. In Christ, all will be made alive. Death does not have the final say over Christians because Jesus destroyed death on the cross on our behalf.

So we can turn from our sin and be set free. You see, God made a promise years and years ago that someone was going to fix it and Jesus did on the cross and we can have freedom and we can find satisfaction in him and we know that he can be trusted and all of the lies that have crept in our heart can be reversed as we faithfully follow after Jesus. The response for everyone in this room needs to be the same. Follow Christ. Repent of sin. If you say, yeah, I've already believed in Christ, continue to repent of sin.

Continue to turn away from all the parts of you that still want to follow Adam and follow after Jesus and if you've never done that, let me tell you something. You're either in Adam or you're in Christ and you will either face death or Jesus will face it for you and you have the opportunity to say, I trust Jesus to pay for my debt and to make me his and to find ultimate satisfaction in him. Let's pray. God, I pray that you'd help us see how we've followed after Adam. I pray, God, that you would help us see our sins so that we can repent and follow after you, that we can turn away from all the things that you say are evil, that we can believe what you say is good and what you say is evil is correct and quit choosing for ourselves.

God, I pray that you'd help us to run and follow after Christ. God, I pray that you would work in us now through your Holy Spirit to draw us to yourself. And God, we thank you for this promise that you made, this covenant that you kept, that Satan wouldn't win, that death wouldn't have the final say. We love you and we praise you, Jesus. Amen.

Intro to Covenant

Intro to Covenant

Chet Phillips

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The old testament can be intimidating ground for Christians it's a bit of a haze of stories and histories and it isn't always chronological you've probably heard of David slain Goliath joseph being sold by his brothers because of his awesome cool jacket daniel getting thrown into the lion's den noah building an ark and jonah getting swallowed by a giant fish but do you know in which order they happened if our old testament history is rusty we have a problem because in order to truly understand everything that.

Jesus does we have to understand what his people have been through and the history of the culture that he stepped into it's also essential for our understanding of the context of many old testament stories in this video we're going to walk through a zoomed out overview of the entire old testament so that when we pick up the Bible and turn to isaiah or Exodus or nehemiah you'll at least have a big picture understanding of where the story fits into the grand scheme of things we're going to tag all the major players along the road.

But we're going to be moving pretty fast it all begins with creation in the garden of eden with adam God creates adam and eve and places them into authority over all creation deceived by Satan adam and eve sin and they're kicked out of the garden they have a few sons most famously cain and abel over the next few generations great corruption fills the earth and we meet noah noah and his family build an ark and they along with the animals on board survive the great flood which destroys pretty much everything else somewhere during this time is.

When scholars believe that the story of job takes place now we aren't exactly sure about the timing but we do know that the lessons are universal and so the timing isn't really that important ten generations after noah Abraham turns up Abraham and his wife sarah promise they will have a great nation as descendants uh that they will receive land and that they will receive God's blessing Abraham and sarah have Isaac even though they're ridiculously old and then Isaac marries rebecca and they have Jacob and esau Jacob.

Well he has a crush on rachel but he gets tricked into marrying her sister leah he ends up marrying both of them anyway and then having a whole bunch of kids and somewhere in the midst of all this God renames him Israel and then in a simplified way his kids become what we know of as the 12 tribes of Israel joseph is the favorite of these children the other kids they weren't so fond of this favoritism and they sell joseph to slave traders in egypt.

Well eventually the whole family migrates to egypt to survive the great famine that's happening in palestine the Israelites begin to grow in number in egypt and becoming a threat to the Pharaoh he enslaves all of them that's when Moses turns up the ten plagues happen and the Israelites escape across the red sea now they head to mount sinai which is where they receive the law including the ten commandments but they sin against God and they end up wandering the desert for 40 years during this time comes the books of leviticus numbers and deuteronomy Moses dies and joshua picks up the reins and he leads the Israelites back into the promised land the land is divided.

Up according to the 12 tribes next comes the period known as the judges God appoints a series of leaders to help guide his people and lead them against the enemies that oppose them the most well-known judges are deborah gideon and samson but there were actually many others ruth also appears during this time but she wasn't a judge or even jewish the people of Israel see that all the other nations have a king and they plead with God to give them a king.

So that they can be like everyone else well God allows it and Saul becomes the first king of Israel Israel is pleased and seoul leads them reasonably well at least until they come up against the philistines and of course Goliath in comes David who slays Goliath and wins the war on Israel's behalf David ends up becoming the next king and he wrote many of the psalms David was followed by his son Solomon who wrote proverbs ecclesiastes and probably also the song of Solomon.

When Solomon dies things get complicated the kingdom splits in two and for the next few centuries there's two kingdoms that play a part of the story there's the northern kingdom known as Israel comprised of 10 of the original tribes which is led by jeroboam who was one of Solomon's commanders in the army then there's the southern kingdom known as judah comprised of two of the original tribes which is led by rehoboam who was Solomon's son i told you it was complicated this is the period of time.

When the books that we know of as the prophets begin during the divided kingdom era we have isaiah micah habakkuk zephaniah and nahim who prophesy to the southern kingdom of judah and then we have jonah hosea and amos who prophesied of the northern kingdom Israel the prophets are sent to guide God's people and deliver his messages to the people they give a whole lot of warnings promising imminent destruction unless the people repent and follow God well the people don't repent in 722 bc assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel all the way around the surrounding areas down to egypt leaving only judah they exiled all of the people of Israel and scattered them throughout the.

Entire kingdom replacing them with exiles from other areas of their expanding kingdom the ten northern tribes while they were completely wiped from history the southern kingdom of judah will they put up a good fight and they survived the assyrians but they failed to serve God fully the babylonians under king nebuchadnezzar rose up and wiped out the assyrian empire and over the course of about 20 years conquered and deported all of the jews from the southern kingdom of judah back to babylon the prophets daniel ezekiel jeremiah who also wrote the book of lamentations and probably also over daya they all prophesied around this time.

For about 50 years the jews stayed in babylon under babylonian exile then in came persia the persians conquered the babylonians and all of their land and in 538 bc king cyrus made a decree that all of the jews could go back home in three waves led by zerubbabel ezra and nehemiah respectively the jews went back into Israel and rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple haggai zechariah and probably joel prophesied during this time now we know that some of the jews didn't return home.

Because the story of esther takes place in persia after the three waves of returning exiles the last we hear about Israel in the old testament is from Malachi probably 450 years bc Malachi calls God's people to return to covenantal faithfulness and await for his present coming during the 450-ish years between the old and new testament power changes hands a number of times persia remains in power up until 3 30 bc when alexander the great also known as the greek empire takes over the whole known world in seven years.

Well he dies young and the empire crumbles in certain areas and while the greek influence remains strong the area of palestine is ruled intermittently by syria and egypt under the maccabees the jews established a wobbly independence in the land for about a century and in 63 bc Jerusalem fell to the roman empire which pretty much conquered everything Jesus was born during the rule of the roman empire and in comes the new testament so there you have it an overview of the entire old testament.

Now hopefully when you read through the old testament you'll have at least a decent handle on where you find yourself in the grand scheme of God's narrative.

This week we referred to a video and a white board on stage.  See below attachments for reference.

Around the Throne

Around the Throne

Chet Phillips

Transcript

How are we doing this morning? My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We're finishing up. Today is the last week of our Home Sweet Home series where we've been looking at the church and how the church ought to organize, how the church ought to act in some ways, what makes for a healthy church. And so we're going to be in the book of Revelation today.

And in the book of Revelation, we're getting a picture. It's where we're going to be reading. And in a lot of the book of Revelation, we're getting a picture of future events. We're getting a picture of some things that haven't happened yet that are going to happen. And I got to thinking about it as we were going to study this passage today. I got to thinking about that this is real.

Like this is our actual future for the church. This is a real picture of what's going to happen in the future. And I just got to thinking about how that ought to affect us. And so you ever watch a movie where it shows a clip of the ending at the beginning of the movie? So it's like the heroes walking out of a building.

It's blowing up behind them. They're smoking a cigarette. And it's like they're scuffed up, but they're still like good looking. Like I don't know how they did it, but it's like something dramatic has happened, but they're okay. And then it'll be like, it'll just change. And they'll be at an office at their desk at their computer wearing glasses.

They weren't wearing glasses a second ago. Somehow over the past couple of weeks, whatever, their eyesight got better or the future weeks, whatever. And it says like two weeks earlier. And it's like, so, you know, what I just saw was a picture of the end. And now what I'm looking at is pre-adventure version of this, this person. And so I got to thinking about like, what if in life you had a moment?

I don't know how it worked. I don't know how you got to see this, but you got to see three weeks from now. This is you. You're smoking the cigarette. You're walking out of the exploding building. Like, what have you got to see that?

And you knew this is how this ends up. And then when this adventure starts, like when this thing happens, when you get called by the CIA, they pick you up in a limo. And they're like, we need you to quit working at your desk and to come on a secret mission. Like you would think, okay, I saw the end of this. Like I know, like, and I got to think about how that would make you act, like how that would make me act. So my first thought was that would make me excessively, aggressively lazy.

Because I would think, I don't, I don't really have to do anything. The building blows up. I still have my cigarette. We're going to be okay. Like I know how this ends. Like I would think it doesn't really matter how all this plays out because I know how the end, like that was my first thought.

And then I got to thinking about it. And I really got to thinking about it. And I think actually, knowing that that's how the story ended, it would have the exact opposite effect on me. I would do the craziest stuff I could come up with. Because I knew two weeks from now, I'm still standing. I got, I got a two week window where all of the action hero stuff works.

That's what I would think. So when the CIA said, we need you on a mission, I would have said, because I'd just be so absolutely confident. Usually I'd be freaking out, but I'm so absolutely confident because I know the end, I'd be like, you came to the right guy. Like I would try to do, I would go buy sunglasses and cigarettes. I don't smoke, but I'd have to smoke for the next two weeks because I've got to have a cigarette at the end of the explosion. Like the biggest, baddest dude would come walking out.

Like he, he would look like the Russian that Rocky had to fight in Rocky four. And I'd be like, I got this. And the reason was I saw my face. It wasn't smashed in. I was still walking. I don't know how this is going to go down, but I know I'm going to walk away from it.

I'd be like, don't, don't even worry about it. And I'd just walk out and I'd be like, I don't know what's going to happen, but it's going to be great. I might would start the fight just by kicking his shin. Cause I can. I might say something derogatory about his family members on my way over there because I can. Like I know how this is going to work out.

There would be times where I probably would have just been, everyone would be hiding and I'll be like, I'll handle this. And they'd be like, do you need a gun? And I'll be like, no, just to freak them out. Cause I don't need a gun. Cause I know how it ends up. Like I get to walk out of the exploding building.

Like this is what I got to thinking about. And I spent way too much time thinking about it. As you can tell, I got really excited. That's the picture we're getting today of the church. We're getting this picture of where we end up. We're getting this picture of the church walking out of the exploding building, uh, still intact.

We're getting this picture in the book of Revelation of where we're headed. And it is a real reality in the future for us. And I think we're going to go through the same process, which is at first we're going to think, oh, this will make me excessively aggressively lazy. But I think it's meant to have the opposite effect that God gave us this picture to have the exact opposite effect on our hearts and our souls. It's to help us see this is where it's going to end up. So you can have the bravery, the courage, the energy to, to accept the call that Jesus has placed on his church.

So let's go to Revelation five. Now, uh, there, if you've been around the church for a while and you hear we're going to be in the book of Revelation, maybe you've read the Bible. So maybe, you know, very little about the Bible, but there's a little bit of like, oh, Revelation, like this is about to get interesting. There's going to be a lot of crazy things. And in some ways there are, there are some things in the book of Revelation that are hard to understand. The book of Revelation is the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

So you've had people walk through the book of Revelation and they want to talk about all the crazy imagery and the pictures we were met with in the book. Uh, but it's, it's the, the point of the book is to reveal Christ to point to Jesus. And so, uh, what we have in the book of Revelation is John, the apostle. So who followed Jesus around, he's been exiled to the isle of Patmos. He's worshiping God and Jesus shows up and basically is like, I'm going to show you some things. And then John writes them down through the leadership of the Holy spirit.

John pins the book of Revelation. And I think, uh, it's very helpful for us that this was funneled through John, that John has shown these images. And he writes them down as best he can, because John's going to explain them to us in a way we can kind of understand. There are places in the book of Revelation where John says things like, uh, he said this and his voice sounded like a waterfall. And it's because John was doing his best to describe. It's like if a waterfall could talk, that's what it sounded like.

There's times where he's like explaining these pictures and he's just writing down as best he can. This is what it was like. And, and instead of having all the right words for it, I think he has all the words that God designed to be right for us to be able to understand. So there are some parts in this passage that we're going to read where it's like, what does that mean? I don't know. But we're going to apply a pastor named John Piper.

He has a rule that he calls the law of least meaning, which means when you come to a text in the scriptures, there are times where you're not going to understand completely what it's saying. But if you can understand something that it's saying, then that was worth understanding. Like that was good. And so what we're going to do is there's some stuff that's really crystal clear in this passage. And there's some stuff that's really confusing. We're going to kind of just go past the confusing parts because we want to see the part that's crystal clear.

And that's the part we're going to, we're going to take out of this. And so as we get to look at this picture of future us, I just, I'm going to pray that God would reveal himself to us in it and that he would use it to embolden us as a church and as his people. So let's pray real quick. God, we thank you for the images that we have in the book of Revelation. We thank you for you giving us this glimpse into your presence, into eternity, into the future of your people. We pray, God, that you would use it to equip us and embolden us today to accept the mission you've called us on.

We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Revelation chapter 5 is on page 665 if your Bible looks like this. If you don't own a Bible, this is our gift to you. Take it home with you. Then I saw, so this is John, he's writing down this vision that he's seeing.

Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne, a scroll written within and on the back and sealed with seven seals. Okay. He's in heaven. He sees someone sitting on a throne. Kings sit on thrones. That's God.

So he sees God and in God's right hand, he's holding a scroll. It's rolled up parchment written all over it. So it's not just parchment that would be written in the middle part. It's written all over it and it's sealed with seven seals, meaning that this is a very important parchment. This is a very important scroll. We find out as we continue to read that this scroll contains the end of human history.

It contains how the earth plays out. It contains some of God's wrath and God's judgment on the earth as they begin to undo these seals. So what we see, we're met with this picture of God sitting on a throne, holding human history in his hand. That's what John is seeing and writes it down. Verse 2. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?

So this angel asks, who can ascend to the throne of God and take something from his hand? Who can come up here? Who has the audacity? Who has the worthiness? Who has the glory to walk up to the throne of God and remove something from his hand? Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?

And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look into it. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. This angel stands beside the throne of God where God holds human history in his hand. And he says, who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? And there is dead silence. No one in heaven.

No one on earth. No one under the earth. No one. No one. No one. No one.

No one. No one. Worthy. And the silence is broken by the loud weeping of John, whose heart and soul have just been crushed. As he stands before the throne of God and realizes no one's worthy. No one can ascend to God.

No one. No one can open the scroll. No one has the glory or the weight or the value. No one. You just made a cameo in the story. I'm going to read it to you again.

No one. No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look into it. I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look into it. You're going to be in one of those three places when this call rings out in eternity. You're going to be in heaven, on earth, or under it. You didn't pipe up.

No one's worthy. That's all of human history. No one's worthy. That's every king, every astronaut, every scientist. That's every loving, gracious, wonderful person you've ever met. No one gets to say, I can walk up to the throne.

No one gets to say, I can walk up to the throne. No one gets to say, I can walk up to the throne. And in this moment, John's heart breaks. Because we have nothing to offer. Humanity has no ability to approach God. And it's crushing.

And John, I love that John says it this way. And I began to weep loudly. John didn't write. And tears began to roll down my face. John said, I was a blubbery, snotty mess by the throne of God. Because I had no worthiness.

And no one else did. I couldn't catch my breath. I was doing the... Like, I made a scene in heaven. An angel, a mighty angel spoke. There's dead silence.

And then I went... Like crying, embarrassing, sobbing in front of the throne of God. Because nobody can approach Him. And one of the elders said to me... These are some men, elders that are around the throne. Weep no more.

Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals. That's reference to Old Testament prophecy. The lion of the tribe of Judah and the root of David are talking about the same person. And that's Jesus who came in the line of David the king. Who came out of the tribe of Judah. Who was the lion of the tribe of Judah.

And He has conquered. He is worthy to open the scroll. So an elder looks at John and says, you don't have to weep. You don't have to be heartbroken. You don't have to be crushed by this. I want you to hear that as declared to all of us who were found unworthy.

He says, you don't have to be crushed. There is someone who is worthy. There's someone who can go in our place to the throne. There's someone who can walk to God on our behalf. He doesn't just say, yeah, you should keep crying, but this guy is worthy. No, He says that His worthiness lets your weeping stop.

His worthiness unbreaks our heart. And between the throne and the four living creatures. Those are some big scary angels around God's throne. And among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain. John's told to look at the lion of the tribe of Judah. And he says, I looked for a lion and I saw a lamb.

I looked for the one who's conquered. And I saw someone who looked like they had been conquered. I looked for the one that has the glory and the worthiness. And I see a lamb who's been crushed. I see a lamb who's been slain. Jesus Christ went to the cross so that our unworthiness, so that our weeping can stop.

Jesus was slain. And in His death on the cross became ultimately worthy to ascend to the throne of God. In His sacrifice for His people, He bought our worthiness and represents us to the King. That's our hope that we have this morning. I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And He went and took the scroll from the right hand of Him who was seated on the throne.

I want you to see that. God of the universe holds the human history in His hand. And Jesus Christ walks up as a lamb who was slain, as the root of David, as the lion of the tribe of Judah. And on humans' behalf, on all of heaven and all of earth and everything under the earth, He walks up and He takes history from God's hand. Because He's worthy. Because He was slain.

And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God, from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. They said, By your blood you have ransomed. We don't use that word ransomed as much as they did in their culture.

We still use it. It still means the same thing. Recently ISIS captured a journalist, and they asked for $132 million in ransom. Ransom is a price paid to retrieve a hostage, or to retrieve a slave. And they say, Jesus is worthy because by his blood he's ransomed a people for God. The church was held hostage to sin.

The church was in slavery to our enemy, was in slavery to our sin, and Jesus, by his blood, bought us. By his blood he ransomed a people for God. And it says he ransomed them from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. When Jesus walked to the throne, and he grabbed history out of the hand of God, because he was worthy, he was worthy through his sacrifice on the cross, and he was worthy on behalf of all the people he's ransomed. He was worthy on behalf of the church.

That's why John can stop weeping. That's why you don't have to be crushed by your sin and your unworthiness. Because we have one who ascends the throne on our behalf. Flip over a page. I want us to see the picture of what he's accomplished for us. I want us to get to see this clearly.

So I just, we're going to spend some time here, and I want us to clearly see. We're in chapter 7 on page 666. We're going to look at verses 9 and 10. So some more things begin to unfold in this moment in heaven. The seals begin to be opened. There begins to be wrath and judgment poured out on the earth.

It begins to be the unfolding, the unraveling of human history. And then John says this. Verse 9. That's a celebration of purity. None of those people wear those outside of Jesus' sacrifice. They get to enter heaven dressed in white because Jesus entered heaven dressed in blood.

Clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. And crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Salvation doesn't belong to good work. Salvation doesn't belong to our effort. Salvation belongs to God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. So we're wrapping up our series on what the church is, on who the church is.

We started the series by saying the church is the people made the people of God by Jesus. That's the church. The people throughout all time and history, all space, all geography, all nations, all borders. It's the people made the people of God by Jesus. And then we walked through and said, okay, what happens to a person when Jesus makes you one of his people? What happens to you when he becomes king?

We said, what does a church look like? How do we organize? What are some practices we ought to have? Like we walked through this and now we're finishing up. Last week we said that Jesus told the church, go make disciples of all nations. Go make disciples of all ethnicities.

It's ethne in the Greek. Go make disciples that aren't Jewish is what he was saying to them. That's one of the ways they would have heard it because he had been working and discipling Jewish men who had the Old Testament and understood these prophecies and these promises. And then he says, go make disciples that aren't Jewish. How many Jewish brothers and sisters do we have in this room right now? Thank you, Jesus.

That it wasn't to a certain type of people, that it wasn't to a certain type of language, that it was, that he fulfilled this promise that they listened to him and did what he said, which was to take the gospel to people who weren't Jewish. So I was, with this picture in mind of us getting to see what heaven looks like, I just want to point out a few things to us. I was hanging out with my cousin, Bumi. My grandparents were missionaries to Nigeria, West Africa. They adopted my uncle, Abel. He married my aunt, Abike.

I have three first-generation Nigerian-American cousins. My uncle's been in the family as long as my mom has. He is blood to me, even though not really. And I was hanging out with my cousin, Bumi. This is last year around 4th of July because he comes down a lot and helps us sell fireworks. That doesn't have anything to do other than that's why he was here.

I help run a firework store. So if y'all like to buy some fireworks, Aiken, South Carolina. I'm just kidding. So he was down helping us do that and he and I went. He loves local, good restaurants. I took him to Rivera's Food, which is a very good Mexican food place over here in West Columbia.

And I took him over there and we were eating. I was introducing him to some different things there that I really like there. While I was there, I ordered horchata, which is delicious. It is cinnamon rice milk. And I ordered one and I'm used to, like when you order like a milkshake, you get that one. So I'm sitting there, we're talking, hanging out.

The guy walks by with a pitcher and goes, more horchata? And like I just stared at him because fuses had blown in my brain because I did not realize I could just have them give me more. I drank like three giant glasses of horchata. Now, I'm going to advise you on something. Rice milk is different from milk milk. I found this out later in the day when I had like a sloshy bowling ball in my stomach.

I was like, I feel terrible. It was worth it. I can't move. I'm going to die. After we ate there, we went by, I was showing him another place I like, which is a Mexican bakery. And I won't try to say the word that's listed on the front, even though I really want to because I would butcher it and I might just say a different Spanish word.

But it's a Mexican bakery. They don't speak English. You have to, you just got to, you know, fumble through at the end. I walked in. I was looking stuff up on how to say things in Spanish and I was like, point at ones because, you know, they might have cream inside and I had to figure out how to say, con crema. And she'd say, you know, no, whatever.

And I'd say, okay, okay, like I want this one or whatever. So we order. I'm eating a churro. Then we walk over to the little, like Tienda place, like store there and got aloe drink. Did y'all know you can drink aloe? Like I only had ever rubbed it on my pasty skin after sun had assaulted me.

It's the only thing I'd ever used aloe for. I saw this thing and it was like aloe. It looked about the same. It was just a little more liquidy. And I thought, I'm not sure you can drink that. But you can.

It's apparently an edible thing. Maybe y'all knew that. I didn't know this. And so I was hanging out with my cousin and we were talking about stuff. And then it just dawned on me as I was eating this churro and drinking aloe drink, which again, should not have been chasing a gallon of horchata. But I went for it.

And I looked at him and I said, dude, my version of heaven has been really racist. And I didn't know it. Whenever I had pictured heaven, I had known that it would be this fulfillment of God's glory on earth. So I was just transferring a bunch of white things there. Like I know biscuits are in heaven. I know barbecue is in heaven.

Like I know they're there. I knew that. I was eating a churro. I had just drank horchata. I'm hanging out with my first generation Nigerian African-American cousin and I'm thinking, this stuff's there too. Horchata is there.

My aunt and uncle's achara is there. Like it's going to be there because look at this picture. John's looking in heaven and what does he see? A great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes. we don't become some sort of generic human form in heaven. He sees tribes, ethnicities, languages and peoples before the throne. He sees everybody makes it.

That declaration that the angel's saying in Revelation 5 which is he's ransomed by his blood people from every tribe and language and nation. John turns around and in two chapters says, I saw them and they still came from that tribe and they still had that language and they still had that nation and they all gathered before the throne of God to praise his name because God is the God of all humanity and he made all the peoples and in every culture there's stuff that lines up with what God designed it to be in every culture there's stuff that is absolutely sinful and broken and there is no right culture before God because all of the cultures belong to him. And I had inadvertently made America some form of heaven. There will be some stuff from the U.S. there.

I mentioned a few biscuits is one of them. but it's going to be so much more miraculously beautiful than that. There's going to be so much more depth and richness than that and I know in my limited human version God had to meet me on my love language which was food particularly that day things made out of cinnamon to tell me that he had much more in store not only for then but for now. I want us to see something here and I want us to talk about this. I got on Joshua Project the International Mission Board has some different statistics but both of them kind of reveal the same thing. Joshua Project studies people groups so does the IMB International Mission Board.

To tell me that he had much more in store not only for then but for now. I want us to see something here and I want us to talk about this. I got on Joshua Project the International Mission Board has some different statistics but both of them kind of reveal the same thing. Joshua Project studies people groups so does the IMB International Mission Board. Joshua Project though we're going to just look at their statistics Joshua Project

Says that there are 16,510 people groups so this is languages this is locations 16,510 different types of people groups unreached people groups meaning people from them there's no significant amount of Jesus followers among them sometimes it means nobody as far as we know has even made it to them no Bible has been translated no gospel has been preached in their language they may have never

Even heard the name of Jesus 6,672 people groups no gospel no followers of Jesus that means about 40% of the people groups on earth no gospel no Bible no proclamation of the hope that we have they don't have an elder looking at them and saying weep no more just sin just brokenness no hope

Let me do it by population because you might would say as I would say hearing that statistic yeah but I'm sure a lot of those people groups are really small there's about 7.29 billion people on earth according to the Joshua Project population of unreached people is 3.07 billion that puts about 42%

Of the humans on the globe no gospel no Bible no Jesus no hope no weep no more now I want us to with crystal clear vision see that the angels said Jesus had ransomed from every tribe from every

People from every language from every nation people for his own possession Jesus has bought them and I want us to see with crystal clear vision that John says they make it John

Says I saw before the throne people from every tribe and every language and every nation praising Jesus we know the cross happened we know that Jesus has purchased by his blood worthiness on behalf of his

People and we know that there's this moment in time where an angel stands up and says who is worthy and Jesus with audacity walks to the throne of God and we get to weep no longer and there's a time when we stand before

The throne of God among our brothers and sisters proclaiming that Jesus owns salvation and that it belongs to the God who sits on the throne and we're placed in the middle with a call that says proclaim the gospel how does

God count people groups how does God count languages and tribes and nations is it the same way that Joshua Project does I doubt it Joshua Project and IMB don't even do it the same Jesus

Hasn't come back yet the job is not finished so we don't have to get caught up in that I don't care if they're off by a miraculously high number and it's only two billion people the job isn't

Finished we're still sent I want to push us here for a second and this may feel like I just want us to see something in heaven your family includes people that don't look like you in the eternity

As a Christian that you will spend before the throne of God your brothers and sisters aren't going to have the same skin tone same language same background same social economic standing right now

And if statistically in the US I think it's 90 ish percent nine out of ten of your friendships for everybody are same race generally same look the same as you same background

Same race I just want to push us here a little bit if that is the case for you that all of your relationships friendships look exactly like you do I'm not saying you're wrong it may have to do with the job

You work the neighborhood you're in I'm saying you might be wrong because it may have to do with the fact that that's easier because you think about things the same your backgrounds the same you talk about

Things the same it's an easier connection I know that within 10 10 minute drive of this building there's 70,000 people you got in your car anywhere you could drive in 10 minutes some of

You are like I drove 20 to get here yes there's a lot more people in that circle 10 minutes 56% of them are white 31% of them are black 8% of them are Hispanic 4% of them are Asian and Pacific

Islander but for some people that means you live in an apartment complex I know one family in our church family lives in an apartment complex that about one third of them are from India just in their apartment complex

I know of an apartment complex that we try to do stuff on a regular basis that's 50% Hispanic even though they make up only 8% of that 70,000 and God's told the church go to everybody

I'm not I'm not fussing at us I don't mean that at all I think in a lot of ways our church is very open to everybody I am saying that going to everybody will take more intentionality than going to the

People it's easiest to talk to and I am saying that this is what the church has been tasked with and I am saying that one

Day it's realized and we get to participate in that now we get to make our church look and feel as much like heaven as Jesus will allow us right now that's one of the reasons

We repent of sin it's one of the reasons we do all the things we do it's why we gather and sing to Jesus we've only read two bits of chapters they sang a lot already we get to gather

Around his throne and make much of Jesus and we get to as intentionally as we can be as a church family go out of our way to build relationships with everybody in your neighborhood at your office at your Job where you work

In your school in your classes we know the crosses happen we know this moment in history happened and rather than looking at that and going oh they all make it I don't have to do anything I think the more

We see this moment the more it has the opposite effect on us which is they all make it we get to go for it there are unreached people groups part of the reason they're unreached is because they're very hard to get to and when

You get to them they don't like you that's one of the reasons they're unreached if you can't if you just hop on a plane walk over there and they were like oh Americans we love you those people

Are reached the reason a lot of these Numbers are so high is that when you show up they kill you but here's the promise that's been given to the church we can keep going and they can keep killing us somebody's coming out we can keep going

They can keep killing us and at some point somebody from that tribe from that language from that people group will stand next to you by the throne and proclaim as loud and as violently as they can

Salvation belongs to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb we can keep going because we're going to make it you can right now go home pick a people group off of the Joshua

Project look at heaven and tell Jesus I'll go to them if you want me to and I'll die if you want me to because I know for a rock solid certainty that one day somebody

From that unreached people group will be there and they'll be my brother or my sister because you've bought them and I don't know if it'll have anything to do with me but I know you've called us and I

Know they'll be there and if I get to get that started I'll go some of you that's what you're supposed to do you're supposed to have us bring you up on stage and say we're going to

Lay hands on this sister we're going to lay hands on this brother and we're not telling you where they're going because you can't know where they're going because the people they're going to can't know they're coming and we're

Going to pray for them we're going to ask God to use them and if they get to come back praise Jesus and if we don't ever see them again praise Jesus because at no point was that not worth

It and at some point we'll stand before a throne and as loud and as violently as we can declare we'll say salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb

Some of you you're supposed to go plant a church in a place that still speaks English you're supposed to go with a team we're going to take you to our

Pastor training process you're going to go to Atlanta you're going to New York where Chris Romalia says there's unreached people groups in New York

We're going to bring you up on stage we're going to pray for you we're going to stand and say a lot of you need

To leave and go with them they're moving to Atlanta you need to move to Atlanta and go with them they're moving to San

Diego you need to go with them some of you need to stay because staying is your version of going because God has already

Sent you you live in an apartment complex with an unreached people group some of you are going to stay in apartment complex in

South Carolina even though you want to get a house because 96% of the people in apartment complexes in South Carolina are not a

Part of a church 96% of people in an apartment complex in South Carolina are not a part of a church and God has

Already sent you you live there because God said I want my church here because I want that person around my throne some of

You are in the class you're in because Jesus has blood bought people in that class and he has infiltrated that class with you

Some of you picked the major you picked you prayed about it and you were like I guess just this one I don't know

Randomly some of you that was the worst interview I ever had they at the end they said we'll call you if we've decided

We're going to consider you for the Job and I responded I'll call you for the consideration of the and then I just trailed off

Because that sentence didn't make any sense and I walked out and I'm crying in my car and you got the Job because God

Has blood bought people at that Job and he sent you I don't know where you're supposed to go I don't know to whom

You're supposed to go I know you're supposed to go and I know I know that wherever God sends you your destination is with

Every tribe and language and people and nation around a glorious throne staring at a glorious king and as loud as we can proclaim

It salvation belongs to our God and to the lamb there's cards in front of you and there are cards on the seat beside you if

You're in the front row I want you to grab one and I think there are enough pins to go around if not I

Want you to share it's very heavenly and I just want you to for a second I want you to if you're a Christian

I want you to prayerfully ask where and who I want you to sit and listen who has God put you around already who

Has God let you not quit thinking about who has he just brought to your mind right now you've never even heard of I

Want you to ask where and I want you to ask who and I want you to sit for a second I want you

To sit and listen I want you to write down what you think and if you think something and you think no that's crazy

I want you to write it down I'm going to pray for us as we do this God we know that your son has purchased a people

You've ransomed them from sin some of them are still held hostage we know God that you've bought people from every tribe and language

And nation God I pray that right now through your Holy Spirit you would lead Christians to write down names to write down places

To write down businesses to write down schools to write down friends to write down neighbors and neighborhoods to write down nations and peoples

That you might begin something today with one of your followers that there might be more followers of you I ask for you to

Speak I want you to take very seriously whatever the Lord led you to write down band's going to come back up here we're going to spend

Some time singing as we will one day do as brothers and sisters around the throne of our king and I pray for us

That God will forever keep us situated fully between the cross and the throne so that we'll never forget what matters I pray that he will sear in our

Minds this image of us as his people with his people before his throne so that we will forever have the courage and the boldness to have awkward conversations to fight

Through friendships that shouldn't have been friendships but we wouldn't go away to to go to places that no one in their right mind should go to carry a message that no one in their right mind can believe

Outside of the gracious power and presence of the king through his holy spirit redeeming and calling people to himself I pray that among our

Church there will be more church plants there will be more missionaries there will be those who are found worthy to bleed and sweat

And cry and die for the king I pray that there would be so many people who live their life as if a cross

To a throne to gather as many people as they possibly can to one day stand beside and with everything we have to declare

Salvation belongs to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb let's pray God I pray that you would give us courage

And boldness to accept your call that as we see what the end looks like we would be able to say yes to the

Mission now that you would use this church to take very seriously sin and the gospel that this would be a group of people

Who believe and know for a certainty that we have no worthiness outside of the lamb that you've ransomed us by your blood and

That you're going to bring all your people there we love you and we praise you in Jesus name amen

The Great Commission

The Great Commission

Chet Phillips

Transcript

How are we doing this morning? This side's doing pretty good. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We've got two more weeks. This is the second to last week of our Home Sweet Home series.

We've been walking through and just asking, what is the church? How has God designed the church? What makes for a healthy church? How are we supposed to organize ourselves? What are we supposed to look like? Today is very important for us as we kind of talk through this.

If we kind of miss today, we miss a lot. Maybe even like the essence of what the church is supposed to be and to do. And so it's a big day for us as we kind of are wrapping up this series and trying to look at, okay, this is how we're supposed to organize. This is how we're supposed to be designed. These are things that go into us being a healthy church. And now we're kind of asking, like, what do we do?

Why does the church exist? And so we're kind of answering that question. But I want us to, we're going to kind of start big picture as we get into this this morning. And so God created the world. He designed it beautiful and made it glorious so that we even now can look and just be taken aback by how majestic there are, things are in the world. Like I've been watching this TV series called Africa on Netflix.

And it's just crazy. Like every, I'm just, there's this, they do such a good job of like sucking me in on, I watch two giraffes fight each other. And like by the end of it, I'm like, who's going to win? And like they just, like one giraffe knocked the other one over and it's this English guy. And he's like, will this be the end for the king of the giraffes? And it's like, I don't know what's going to happen to the king of giraffes.

And it's like, and there'll be times where they're just like panning over a flower that's in the middle of a jungle. And I'm just like, that's crazy looking or zooming in on ants or like it's, there's just God made this world beautiful and amazing. And he put humanity on it. And then because God put so much good into us and because he made us with intelligence and personhood, like we as humans could choose to respond to God appropriately, to worship him and to relate to him the way we were designed to, or we could choose to hold ourselves as supreme. I don't want to spoil it for you, but we chose the second one.

We chose all of us to believe that we are the most important, that our happiness and our joy and our life matters more than others. Like we chose to promote ourselves over worshiping God. And here's the thing, worshiping God is the only right way to relate to God. A buddy of mine recently was getting, he was getting mad at a friend of his because his friend was being disrespectful to his mom. To his own mom. And so my buddy said he got in his face and was like, don't talk to her like that.

That's your mama. Like that's your mama. You don't act like that towards your mama. Like his, his only argument was she's your mom. You can't talk to her like that. And I agreed with his argument.

His point was just because of who she is, just by the nature of y'all's relationship, she's to be treated a certain way. Period. The end. And that's our relationship to God. Just because God is God, just because God's the creator, we're actually designed to worship him. It's the only correct response for creatures to, to respond to their creator in worship, to hold him up as holy and honorable and to praise him.

And what we said was, no, we want to be supreme. So this is where selfishness and racism and all of our pride and envy and murder and war come from believing ourselves to be supreme. So God's got a massive problem. He created the world to be good. He put some creatures on it that were designed to relate appropriately to him. And he poured a lot of himself into them.

And they immediately turned around and said, no, we're going to be supreme. They started making much of themselves. And so now God really kind of has a choice. He can just be done with it. He can just start over or he can try to fix it. He can try to fix the problem.

This is what we're presented with right at the beginning of the Bible. Now you may be wanting to go, okay, time out real quick, real quick. Two questions. One, if God made people and they turned bad real quick, isn't that his fault? Like, shouldn't that be on him? Like, didn't he make them poorly?

My response to that is, first of all, I don't really know. It doesn't seem like it would be. But secondly, and this, I think, is a better response than my first one. I want to talk to you about goldfish. You ever had a pet goldfish? Let's say you own a pet goldfish.

Let's say your friend did. You go to his house and he says, I want to show you the most loving and righteous and good and glorious of all goldfish. Still be just kind of a goldfish, right? Like, if you have a goldfish that is pure evil and a goldfish that is pure goodness, can you tell the difference? Like, there's not going to make much of a difference. Now, let's move to hamsters.

You got a hamster that's like a great hamster and like a mean hamster. There's some difference there. Like, one of them is going to bite you. The other one might, I don't know, like watch TV with you. I don't know what hamsters do. A cat?

Hypothetically, let's say there was a good cat. I know. I know it's hard. It's hard to get your brains there. Work with me here. Hypothetically, there's a good cat.

Like, there's some difference between like an evil cat and a good cat. Like, there's some difference. A dog? More of a difference. An eight-year-old child. You ever met like a really cool, great eight-year-old?

Yeah. Okay. You met a terrible one? Uh-huh. Seen him at Walmart? Like, there's some difference there.

Like, a really bad child or a really good child, there's a bigger gap there. What about like a full-grown adult? Yeah, bigger gap. What if that adult's more intelligent or has more power, stronger, or has more money? Here's the thing. God poured so much good into us.

He put so much intelligence, so much ability for emotion, so much of himself into us that we actually have the ability to be very good. But when we turn that, it actually makes us far worse. See, it's God putting so much good into us that makes humanity capable of so much bad. So it's actually that God poured himself into us that we could turn that one way or the other. And so I don't think it's his fault. I think that he poured good things into us.

Now, you could say, well, couldn't he made it where we could never do anything bad? And it's like, yeah, but not with us still having some choice. And is goodness really goodness if you have no choice? I think it's because God put so much into us that there's so much potential for bad. The second thing you may say, okay, well, all right, all right, well, why can't he just forgive us? If these first humans rebelled against him, why couldn't he just say, well, no big deal?

I had a friend ask me that recently. He is a very tall, kind of aggressive guy I've been hanging out with. And so I asked him, I said, okay, if we're hanging out with you and your friends, and let's say I walk over to you and I slap you. When I asked him that, he went, like, leaned forward at me like, are you serious right now? Like, you slap me, are you serious? And it was like, I said, I didn't actually slap you, just hypothetically, calm down.

But what if I slap you? I was like, what are our options? Who's going to pay for you being slapped? He said, you are. I was like, okay, that's an option. I was like, you aggressively assault me for slapping you.

I could pay penance for me slapping you. What if you don't go with that option? What are your other options? Who pays? He's like, well, I do. He's like, yeah, you pay for being slapped.

You take the pain. You have no outlet for your aggression. Your friends think you're a punk or they make fun of you or there's some kind of shame going along with having me slap you. Like, immediately it made sense to him. Now, some of you maybe don't think about life in terms of being assaulted. Let's say I was at your house and I just accidentally knocked your TV over.

Let's say I maliciously knocked your TV over and broke it. You can make me pay for your TV. You can pay for your TV. Or you can have no TV. But once it's broken, there's no option of just forgiveness without somebody paying.

So once we slapped God in the face, once we broke his good creation, he can't just go, well, magic forgiveness, because there's actually an exchange that's happened. Someone has to pay. And so what I want to tell you the story of this morning as we get started is the story of how God said he was willing to pay. How he was willing to pay for our sin, our brokenness, our rebellion, how God was willing to step in and pay for it. The same as if you decided to take this lap and be okay with it or you decided to replace your television and not make me pay for it. God stepped in and said, okay, it's broken, but I'll fix it.

Here's what he did. He tells the first people who rebel, I'm going to make this right. Then he picks a guy named Abraham out of the middle of nowhere and says, I'm going to turn you into a family. And through your bloodline, you're going to show the world what it's like to run away from sin, what it's like to know me. You're going to show them who I am. So he picks Abraham and Abraham begins to have this family.

But here's what we see throughout the Old Testament. There was not going to be a bloodline that kept sin out. So Abraham's family, it's like your family, really messed up. Some of you have your families here with you. Just don't make eye contact. Keep straight ahead.

But Abraham's family had sin and problems and distress and brokenness. And so God then tells his family, he says, okay, I'm going to take and make you into, I'm going to give you my rules, my laws, my morals. And I'm going to make you into a kingdom of priests. I'm going to turn you into a whole group of people who worship me correctly. And you're going to show the world what it's like to worship me. And through you, they're going to come to know me.

But the problem was even in the priesthood, even in the morals, even in the law of the Old Testament, they couldn't do it. There wasn't going to be a moral set of standards that people could live up to that could keep sin out. So then he looks and says, all right, I'm going to give you a border. I'm going to give you a land. I'm going to make you into a kingdom. And through this kingdom, you're going to show the world what I'm like.

And through you, they're going to come to know me. But it turns out no amount of border patrol could keep sin out. And that kingdom doesn't last very long. And sin is consistently a terrible, rampant problem. And so God says, okay. And he comes in the form of Jesus, which was his plan all along.

He'd been taking people and making them into a group of people to proclaim to the world what he was like. And then he comes as Christ. Jesus steps out of eternity. The Son of God comes, lives perfectly on our behalf, and goes to the cross to pay for our sin. But Jesus does what we couldn't do, fulfills the law, lives the way he ought to have, doesn't rebel against God, puts God first, worships him, and then swaps places with us to pay for our sin.

You see, sin was the issue. Even in the family, even in the priesthood, even in the kingdom, sin was the problem. It kept coming in. And so Jesus pays for sin. And then he does what he's always done. He grabs a group of people, and he says, you're going to represent me to the world.

And through you, the world's going to come to know me. And that's the church. You see, that was God's plan all along. He kept grabbing people and saying, through you, I'm going to show the world what I'm like. Through you, the world's going to come to know me. But see, Jesus had to pay for sin, and then he takes the church and says, okay, sin has been dealt with, and now through you, I'm going to show the world what I'm like.

And that's the church. That's our mission. That's our goal, to be a group of people called by Jesus to show the world what he's like. So we're going to go to Matthew chapter 28. So all the stuff we've been talking about in this whole series, how we ought to look, how we ought to act, what we're supposed to do is for the purposes of this mission that we've been given, of God's plan to redeem and save the world, that God has decided and chosen to use people to represent him to the world.

That's his plan A, is to pay for sin through the cross and then take a group of people and say, you're going to represent me to the world. Let's pray, and then we'll start reading in Matthew chapter 28. God, we thank you for your grace. Thank you for your goodness. We pray, Lord, that you would equip us to be on your mission, that we would see it clearly in your word and that we would follow actively for your glory. We love you and praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Okay, so we're going to pick up in verse 16. So Jesus has died on the cross. He was buried and he rose again and he told his disciples, meet me at this specific place and he's going to tell them what he wants them to do. Now the 11 disciples, so that's all of the disciples except for Judas who betrayed Jesus.

So these are the guys who've been following Jesus around for the past three years, seeing him perform miracles, being taught by him, doing ministry with him. The 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Just so you all know, those are really the two options. Jesus walked around telling people he was God. They watched him brutally murdered and then he came back alive and started talking to him.

And those are really your two options. There's not really much of a middle ground. Either you realize this is Jesus and he's alive and so you worship him as God, the guy who's conquered death, or you just kind of doubt the whole thing. We're here. This is us. Like we're either kind of doubting or we're worshipping.

Those are really our options. And I love that this is the 11 disciples. So they're worshipping, but some of them who've fallen around are going, I don't know because of how dead he was really, really recently. And I'm having a hard time with this. If they were just trying to make up a story to convince us, I don't think they would have included that. But they were like, no, we need to be real about the fact that some of us were really having a hard time with this.

So they worshiped in some doubt. Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. So Jesus calls his disciples together.

He calls this group together that's been with him. And he says, go, it's your mission to represent me to the world. He's doing what he's been doing this whole time. Grabbing a group of people and saying, you're going to be my representatives. Through you, the world's going to come to know me. Peter, one of Jesus's disciples who's here in this moment.

Later, he's writing a letter to some churches and he explains it this way. We're going to have it on the screen. But he understood exactly what Jesus was saying. So how y'all been? Things going good? Boom.

Stay focused, guys. But you are a chosen race. So who's that? That's Abraham. That's the family. You're a royal priesthood.

Who's that? That's the people that God called together and gave him the law. You're a holy nation, a people for his own possession. So what Peter's saying is, we're the fulfillment of this now. God's plan all along was to grab a people, to make a priesthood, to make a nation, and he's saying, this is what he's done with us, with the church. We're the same thing.

We're the group of people who are going to represent God to the world. A people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. That's the church. The people of God who've been forgiven.

Who he's not held our sin against us because Jesus paid for it on the cross. And now he's called us together to be on mission to represent him to the world. That's our task. That's what we're doing. That's why what you're a part of the church is to worship and glorify Jesus and see more people worship and glorify Jesus, to proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. So we're just going to walk through and talk through this, what Jesus commands us to do, what he tells his disciples to do and how that applies to us and what that gets to look like and try to just understand what's going on here and what this looks like for us now.

That's our goal today. Some of you have been around the church for a while and you've heard this passage taught over and over and over and over again. Good. It's important. I heard Francis Chan put it this way one time and I thought it was very helpful. He's a pastor.

He said if he told his daughter, I need you to go upstairs and I need you to clean your room. She said, okay. And then later he went up to her room and it wasn't clean and he was like, what are you doing? And she's like, well, I've been thinking about what you said. I even memorized what you said. I can quote it back to you.

Go clean your room. He's like, yeah. She goes, I've written in my journal about what you said. I've even invited some of my friends over today and we're going to talk about what it would look like for me to clean my room. And he said she would have completely missed the whole point. She's supposed to just clean her room.

When I was in college, I had a guy I met with on a regular basis and at one point we had met, I don't know, for some weeks and he looked at me and said, hey man, I don't know if I want to keep doing this because every time we meet you tell me the same thing. I said, yeah, because you hadn't done it yet. I'm cool with us not meeting until you start doing this stuff. We're not moving to step two until step one's done. The reason we keep talking about this and I keep saying the same things is because you've never shown up. So our job, we're going to talk about this today, but our job is to do it.

To actually follow through with what he's commanded us to. All right, so let's see what he says. Some of you are new, you're new believers, you haven't been around the church too long. This may be new to you and that's great. This is why you're a Christian, because Jesus has used his church to do this. Jesus said to them, this is verse 18, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Okay, so this election cycle has been pretty crazy. Donald Trump doesn't have anything on that. He hadn't come close to saying anything like that. Could you imagine him starting one of his rallies like that? He plays a little music, he comes out. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

I'm huge. Like, could you imagine? Like, if this isn't true, this is like the most cocky statement you could possibly say. Jesus said he's in charge of everything. And he just rose from the grave, so I'm inclined to believe him. He says everything belongs to me.

All authority on heaven and earth, like all of it is mine. Go therefore. Bible study tip. If you see the word therefore, it's referring to something that's already come before it. So here it's pretty simple.

Why do we go? Because of all the authority given to him. Because all authority belongs to him. So go therefore, and make disciples of all nations. Okay. First thing we're supposed to do is go.

I think mostly that just means be intentional. Get up. Get after it. Make a plan. Go for it. It does mean go to the ends of the world.

Go to the people who don't know him. Go to the people who don't have a Bible translated in their language yet. Go to the people where you have to learn the language just to tell them about Jesus. But it also means go to work and go to class realizing that your job is to make disciples. Go to your neighborhood picnic. Throw a neighborhood picnic realizing that your job is to make disciples.

Have some intentionality behind what you're doing. Because we're all, as the church, called to this. Go therefore and make disciples. Okay. Now. You're a disciple.

Now. You're a disciple. Now. You're a disciple. Go make disciples. Immediately.

You're having like flashbacks. Because you know what he's talking about. So if you were in a math class. And the teacher got to the end and said. Would you come up? Called your name.

Told you to come stand in front of everybody. And said. Okay. Next semester. You're teaching this class. And then like handed you their stuff and walked out.

You would know how to teach math. Only because of what they had taught you. You would just reproduce what they did. So when he says go make disciples. He's talking to his disciples. So immediately they're going.

Okay. What did he just do? Like if you just. Somebody taught you how to run a forklift or a cash register. And then they said from now on you're going to train the new people. You're going to teach them what they just taught you.

So he says go make disciples. Well how did Jesus make disciples? Well. He called people out of normal life. Expected that he would be the most important thing to them from then on. Expected a lot out of them.

And built relationships with them. He was around them all the time. They walked around. If you read through the gospels. A lot of it is going to or from eating. Or to or from a party.

They hung out. They were around each other. In normal life. He had specific times where he taught them. He had specific times where he sent them off to do ministry. And then they kind of debrief it.

But he was around them. So when he says go make disciples. Yeah that means once a week at a coffee shop. It also means way more than that. Building relationships. Getting to know people in normal life.

Average everyday stuff. Intentional ministry. Like it. They immediately knew what he was talking about. Go and make disciples. Of all nations.

So the church is supposed to see people become followers of Jesus. And we're supposed to do this of all nations. Friends. When the gospel was first preached at Pentecost. Everybody heard it in their native language. Because God created everybody.

He speaks all languages fluently. In heaven. We're going to talk about this next week. John says he sees everyone from every language and tribe and people and nation. Do you know that when we get to heaven. You don't suddenly become less your ethnicity.

Because God designed them all. And they all belong to him. Muslims will be quick to tell you that God speaks Arabic. And if you want to hear the words of God. You've got to know and read Arabic. God speaks Arabic.

He also speaks Hebrew. And Spanish. And Yoruba. And English. All very very fluently. Because they all belong to him.

And there isn't one correct nationality or race that belongs to God. It's everybody from day one. Recently the United Methodists were getting together. And they're voting on some stuff. And there's been some increased kind of liberal tendencies in the church in the United States. And one of the things that we read.

That I read recently was that. One of the reasons that the United Methodists have stayed as conservative as they have. Is because 40% of the people that are a part of the United Methodists live in Africa. And Africa has been untouched by some of our cultural things going on in the United States. And I was so proud of our African brothers and sisters this past week showing up. And one of the things I read was they said.

I don't know why we're not reading the scriptures. And holding fast to them. And why we're allowing culture to affect us the way it is. And I was like thank you Jesus for being at work in the church in Africa. Even where you may need to be leading us to repent here in the United States. Like it's beautiful that the church does not just exist in one place.

But that it belongs to all of God's people all across all languages. All borders from the very beginning. And we're supposed to proclaim it to all nations. That's why a white church, a black church. They don't really exist. You can have a church that's primarily made up of white people.

A church that's primarily made up of black people. But the church is Jesus' church. And it's all nations all the time. Go make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to obey.

Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Okay. People should become Christians through the church. That's what baptizing them means. So teaching them to observe means training people how to follow Jesus.

Baptizing them means proclaiming the gospel and seeing them place faith in Jesus. The people who are baptized in scripture are the people who've placed faith in Jesus. So as a church, we should see people come to know Jesus. We should have baptisms all the time. Because that's a celebration of someone's place their faith in Jesus. So we should see people baptized.

And we should teach them. And I've noticed that some people kind of lean one way or the other. So it's either like I just proclaimed the gospel. And if they believe in Jesus, good. See you later. Best of luck to you.

And some people are like my job is just to teach people. And it's like no. The whole church is to do all of it. Christians don't really believe in this vague progressivism. People talk about like this person's a progressive or we're working towards progress. And it's just kind of this like vague all of the world just slowly moves towards betterness into the future.

Have you noticed this? Like in general, like our culture is like anything that happened in the past was probably pretty bad. Because we're all just riding the wave of progress. Okay. First of all, that doesn't motivate me to do anything. Because if I'm just going to progress naturally, leave me alone.

I'll get there when I get there. I'm on the wave of progress. Just because I'm a few waves back. Don't be judging me. Progress will get me there. Take it easy.

See Christians don't really believe that. We don't believe progress is a tide. That even though it looks like it's going backward and forward, it's slowly coming in or slowly going out. Christians believe in active, open rebellion and reformation. We believe that we are called to rebel against hell and sin openly and actively now. Led by Jesus who openly and actively rebelled against sin in the way of the world.

When he made sure that he was going to openly and actively rebel against that. To the point that he was hated so much that he went to the cross to pay for our sin and our debt. And we openly, actively rebel against sin by walking into our places of work. And walking into our neighborhoods. And walking into our schools. And proclaiming that people are sinners that need to repent.

And they need to know that Jesus died for their sin. That the gospel is real and is actually good news. That's what we're called to do. To actually tell people about Jesus. To actively, openly tell people about Jesus. We live currently in a society that says that all viewpoints are equally valid and true.

If you are a Christian, you do not believe that. Because it's nonsense. It's dumb. All positions aren't actively valid or true. You can have your position. I'm not mad at you.

But if I believe that... Let me... My wife and I. I have a jacket that is obviously gray. My wife for years has told me that it is green. We have never said, you know what?

You see green. And I see gray. And the jacket is gray to me and green to you. And that's both true. We've never done that. Do you know why?

Because that jacket actually exists and is an actual color. Gray. And I pray for my wife that her eyes will get better. But we have continually... And she tells me that I don't know how to see. But it's like we continually point back and say, no, it's one or the other.

I was reading a book recently. And the guy's preface to the book, he wrote it to a friend of his. And he said, to my dear friend, who I believe most everything you believe is ridiculous and bad. And he said, and this has been the basis of a very good friendship. And he said, there's something to a good manly disagreement that has been the basis of our friendship. And I hope it never goes away.

And honestly, we've lost some of that. We've lost the ability to say, this is true. This is where I stand. I'm not mad at you, but I do disagree. And we've been told, keep your opinions to yourself. Don't share your religion with anybody.

Don't... Look, nonsense. If you're a Christian, you believe that this epic story we just told a second ago, it's true that people are destined for hell, but have a Savior who's paid for their sin and their debt. And we're called to tell them. We're supposed to see people baptized. We're supposed to see people come to know Jesus.

And we're supposed to do that now. We're supposed to actively, openly rebel against hell now. One of the goals and missions of our community groups is to be people that represent God to the world and actively, openly rebel against sin, rebel against the evil that is in the world, and fight for good and fight for holiness and point people to Jesus. One of the things that I pray on a regular basis, for people that I know aren't Christians but I'm not around a lot, when I get around them, I'll pray, you know, God, use me, help me to have good conversations with them, whatever. One of the things I pray for them, especially if they live in another place, is I'll pray, God, use your church.

Make Christians move in as their neighbors. God, give that Christian the courage and the boldness to harass this person every time they see them. God, use your church. God, send them Christian co-workers who love them and won't quit talking to them and won't quit chasing after them and won't quit sharing the gospel. God, use your church. And you know what I hope?

I hope that there's a mama who's like 85. And I hope and pray that every day she gets on her face before Jesus, four states away, and she prays for my neighbors and she prays for me. I hope every day she lays on her face and says, Jesus, chase my son down. Jesus, chase my daughter down and use your church. And I hope God has placed me there specifically to use me for his glory and to answer that lady's prayers. I hope in your classroom there's someone sitting two seats in front of you whose mom and grandparents every day lay on their face before the throne of God and say, send your church.

Use your people to proclaim the gospel that my son and my daughter and my granddaughter might believe. You see, let me ask you a question. Your neighbor's been sharing the gospel with you? Your co-workers been sharing the gospel with you? Have your friends at school been sharing the gospel with you? Do you know why God put you there?

Because he's using his church to infiltrate this world because it's his plan to redeem the world. It's to grab a people and say, you're going to represent me to the world and I'm going to use you to proclaim this gospel. The gospel's already happened. Sin's already defeated. But people got to know, we as a church should see people baptized because we should be opening our mouths and telling people about Jesus, that they need to repent of sin, that they need to place their faith in Jesus, and that he's the only way to God.

That, as John says, that those who would believe in his name, he gave the right to be called children of God. We're not all children of God. Those who believe in Jesus are children of God. Everybody's created by God, but we're not all his children. And honestly, I hope this is offensive. And our culture says, well, that's offensive.

You shouldn't say that your viewpoint is better. It's like, I don't care. I believe it. And I hope it's offensive enough to lead people to repent. I hope it's shocking enough so that my neighbors will turn away from sin. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

Okay. I love that it says observe, and I love that he says that I commanded you. Do you know what you need to do to make disciples? Be a disciple. Teach them to observe all that I commanded you, which means bring them in with you. He said this to 11 guys.

They heard this individually, but they knew the mission wasn't individualistic because Jesus had them together all the time. They weren't supposed to each go out and conquer the world on their own. They were given a team. And he says, proclaim the gospel and then teach them to observe. Show them what it's like. Follow actively after me.

And he says, all that I've commanded you. What did he command them? Love God with all their heart. Love their neighbor as themselves. Love their enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.

Oh, love the... I just want to point this out to y'all. Jesus says to love your neighbor as yourself. Okay. To love your enemies. And to especially love the church.

Who's excluded? He tricked us. Love your neighbor and your enemy. Everybody else falls in the middle. And then he says, and also love the church more special. More double special love.

He's like, okay. Like we're called to show people what he's like through the way we love them, through the way we serve them. He also says, deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me. That everything belongs to Jesus. I love how unequivocal his call is throughout the gospels.

People are like, hey, I'll follow you, but let me go do this. And he's like, no. And it's like, whoa. Take it easy. Apparently you think you're something really special. Yes.

I think I'm God. Very special. Like that's, that's really like throughout the Bible. He just shows up to people's workplace. He's like, hey. Two second notice.

Give it to your boss. Let's go. That's, we're supposed to follow him with everything. That our wallets, that our time, that our efforts, that our energy, that our jobs, that our relationships belong to Jesus. Period. That's what a disciple looks like.

Period. These guys had jobs. They had things. But Jesus says, no, follow me. Now, for some of us, going means go to your job. Jesus put you there on purpose.

Some of it, it means quit your job and go to another country. Learn another language. Live your life pursuing the glory and the fame of Jesus because currently you're just pursuing the glory and the fame of you. You see that the undercurrent of our rebellion against God was that we were supreme. That's why Jesus comes in and says, deny yourself. Because he's reversing that.

We're not supreme. He is. So, that we would be disciples who make disciples. That's the call. Jesus says, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. This is it.

It's all about Jesus. This is the call to the church. And guess what? It's worked. Plan A has worked. These 11 guys see the most rapid growth in any kind of organized belief system ever.

And it's traveled through Europe. And it's traveled through Asia. And it's taking names in China right now. And it's traveled through Africa and South America and the United States. And Jesus' church has continued to expand and to grow. And here's the thing.

We've gotten really comfortable. But this is our call. This is why we're Christians. This is what he's called us to do. He saved us to proclaim his excellencies and to make us into a group of people that would follow after him, making sure everybody else comes to know Jesus. If you're a Christian, you believe this story.

That our major problem is that we've removed God from his position, mostly placed ourself there, and that all of us are destined for an eternity, either set free from sin or absolutely completely engulfed in it, engulfed in the wrath and the havoc that sin wreaks on our souls. And God has saved you to proclaim his excellencies to your friends, to your family, to your coworkers, to your neighbors. And honestly, if they don't like it, if they don't like you, love them enough to not care. This is our call. This is what we're supposed to do. Two questions.

Are you a disciple? You following after Jesus? Does he own your time? Does he own your wallet? Does he own your life goals? Have you signed a blank sheet of paper and slid it across the table?

Said you fill it out? I'm yours? Question two. You making disciples? That's what we're called to do. When was the last time you told somebody about Jesus?

One of the things I think we think a lot of times is like, well, I'm not good enough. I don't know enough. I'm not far along enough. If you were going to help me go up a mountain and you were at the top of the mountain and just yelled instructions at me, I would get eaten by a bear and it would be your fault. Part of the best way to lead me up a mountain is to be two steps ahead of me so that you can see the bear first. And take off running.

Like that's one of the ways we make disciples is I just know a little bit more. Like I just, I'm just fumbling through this with you, but I'm trying to follow Jesus in normal life too. You know what I love about this call that Jesus gives? He starts it off with, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Jesus gives this call after the cross.

Every time I read this, I feel terrible. Every time I read the Great Commission, I'm like, I'm such a horrible person. I don't love people enough. I don't believe this enough. I don't trust God enough. I don't have enough faith.

Jesus gives us this after the cross where he's already paid for all of our weakness and all of our doubt and all of our rebellion and all of our lack of faith. And he calls us in his authority and in his presence to just be a part of his mission. You don't need to feel guilty. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. You don't need to feel terrible or scared. Like all of his authority and all of his presence, you just get to go.

Well, that's the hope we have in Jesus. But that's the point of the church. It's one of the reasons we focus on groups so much because we think it's the best way to make disciples. If we come up with another one, we'll talk about groups. We'll talk about something else. If we realize our church isn't making disciples, if we go through stages where we're not baptizing believers, if we're not helping train up leaders, if we're not multiplying groups, I'll actively work to shut this down.

If we quit proclaiming the gospel, this is what we're called to do. This is our job. This is our goal. This is our hope. We believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, died in our place for our sins so that we don't have to be good. Do you know how good that news is?

Do you know how terrible we are? How little we deserve? And how much we take the little bit of piddly mess that we have and prance around with it in front of God and act like He owes us something? And Jesus took everything and paid for our sin to welcome us to Him, and we're free. And then He says, go share this. Go share this hope and this life and this joy and this, my glory and my holiness with everybody else because they're all running around trying to fix themselves.

They're all running around with no hope whatsoever trying to win a losing game. Do you know how good the gospel is to your soul? How freeing it is when you think about it, when you remember it, when you meditate on it? Why on earth would we not want to share that with our friends and our neighbors and our coworkers? If you believe the gospel is burdensome, you don't believe the gospel. Someone has told you something wrong.

I would love to talk to you afterwards and explain to you very clearly how ineffective you will be at saving yourself. I can say it now. Very unaffected. Ineffective. Unaffected isn't a word. Somebody help me out, y'all.

Band's going to come back up. We're going to sing. When we leave from Sundays, I think sometimes we say stuff like, you're dismissed. That's not really true. You're sent. You see, we exist as the church on mission.

That's our call. And I pray that we believe the gospel so much as a church family that we don't care if our culture thinks we're offensive because we believe that it's true. And I pray that we believe the gospel so much that Jesus so grabs our souls that we can't help but in his authority and with his presence help other people come to know Jesus. I want you to take a minute and think about the places God has placed you because you've been sent. You've been equipped by his Holy Spirit. You've been given the gospel information, the knowledge that you need and the faith and the hope of Jesus and you've been sent.

And I want you to think about the people around you who don't know Jesus. And if you're here today and you don't know Jesus, maybe you haven't picked this up yet. That's all we want for you. I want Jesus for you. I've had friends before at work and they're like, oh, you want me to become a Christian? It's like, yeah, that'd be great.

That's exactly what I want. That's kind of one of the reasons that I will harass you forever. That's what I want. I want you to become a Christian. I think it's great. We're unashamed of the fact that Jesus saves and that he redeems and that he makes us holy.

I stand before God, holy and blameless and above reproach, Colossians says. I didn't do that. I actively every day do things to undo that. But Jesus did it and it's done forever. And that's my hope and that's our hope and that we've been called, we've been commissioned. God's taken a group of people and he said, you're going to represent me to the world.

So let's do that. God, we pray that you would empower us for your mission, that you would use our groups for your glory, that people would come to know you. There would never be a significant amount of time before we have to rebuild that portable baptistry and baptize people in your name. And I pray that we would be active in calling people to observe everything that you've commanded, that we would be disciples and make disciples. That you would empower that in us, that we would accept the call that you gave to your original disciples as we continue in that line of people who've believed in your name, who've been called out of darkness and into your glorious light.

We would proclaim your excellencies as the people called to represent you on earth. God, I pray that you would help us to submit everything to you. Most of all, our own names, our own glory, our own fame, our own happiness, all the things that we seek to fill ourselves up, that we would know that hope and joy and fulfillment only come through you. God, I pray that you'd send us exactly where you want us to use your church to see more people come to know you. I pray that there's a large section of people in Columbia in heaven because this church exists. People in West Columbia that get to gather together and celebrate that you equipped and sent Mill City Church to be a part of this city, to see people come to know you.

We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

May 22

Discipline

Discipline

Chet Phillips

Transcript

How are we doing this morning? My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. My community group, the community group I'm part of, we, a couple weeks ago, were having a cookout. And so we were all hanging out, having a cookout. And we were grilling, and we had a fire pit, and we were just kind of celebrating that...

Oh, actually, we were celebrating a couple of people in our group got baptized. That's what we were celebrating. I was going to say we were celebrating that the weather was getting nicer, but that wasn't true at all. We were just enjoying the weather was getting nicer. We were celebrating that a couple of people in our group had gotten baptized, and so we were just cooking out and hanging out. And my wife came over to me.

I was standing at a table talking and just kind of eating and drinking. And she came over to me, and she goes, You're going to have to help me watch that boy. That boy is our son. He has a name, but I know who she was talking about. Because a lot of times when we go out places, I just walk off because I'm not great at this yet. And she tends to him, but he's about as big as she is now.

And he's a little over a year. But so she said that, and at that moment I was like, Okay, so I'm like, I've got to find him. And so she goes, You're going to have to help watch him. And I kind of look. And at this moment, I look behind her, and about 10 yards off, I think she just sat him down somewhere where he was safe, but then she walked away. And so he scanned the area and thought, What is the closest thing that could do me some serious physical harm?

Because that's how he goes through life. And he saw a fire pit and took off running as fast as he could towards it. And so I saw him. The fire pit was kind of down a hill, so he was going to get going as fast as he could go, and there was going to be no possible way he could stop. I saw him running towards the fire pit. It had a pretty good fire going in it.

And I took about two steps and realized there was absolutely no way I was going to make it there. And he was running about as quick as his little legs could take him towards a fire pit, and I was not going to make it. And Anna did not realize this was going on. So I took about two steps. It really felt like the ultimate dad challenge that she had just put me in. She was like, You watch him.

Best of luck. It's about to get serious. And so I see him running as fast as he can towards a fire pit. I can't get there in time. Maybe some other parents maybe know kind of that feeling. If you're maybe you don't have children or maybe you're a parent that kind of does that thing where you watch your children all the time, you know, one of those kind of parents.

Maybe you don't understand that feeling. Imagine someone swings a baseball bat at your face, and it takes four seconds to get there. But you just kind of have to watch it. Kind of like that's kind of this moment of just being like, This is going to be terrible, and I'm going to have to watch it. And we had a good run. I mean, he's a little over a year, so we did well so far.

But this is it. And it took about two steps, and I think some other people in our group noticed because they all help us watch Archer, which, thank you, Lord. And a lady named Edie, who also has a son who was born on the exact same day. Our group has three boys that were born. Two of them were born on the same day. One of them was born the day after.

And she has a son who was born on the exact same day. And she jumped up from where she was, and right as Archer was getting close to the fire pit, just scooped him up. And so he's looking back at the fire and crying and wondering why this lady is psychotic. And she hands him to me, and I was just like, Thank you very much. Like, it was just a moment of absolute relief. And I was so thankful for her and for her seeing that and jumping up and grabbing him before he ran headlong into absolute disaster.

Today, we are going to talk about church discipline. As we talk about what it looks like for us as Christians to be a healthy church, what it looks like for us together to follow Jesus together. We're talking about church discipline. And really what we're talking about, what church discipline is, is the process through which Christians address sin in each other. To pursue holiness and to avoid destruction. It's the process through which Christians address sin in each other.

To pursue holiness and avoid destruction. It is us as Christians, when one of us is running as fast as we possibly can, towards destruction. Towards pain and disaster. It's us as Christians being willing to do what Edie did, which was jump in and snatch each other up. Here's the reason why this is helpful for us to talk about. You're going to sin.

I'll let that sink in. No, that was heavy. You weren't ready for that. The question we have as a church is, how are we going to handle sin? How are we going to address sin? We're not going to not sin.

You are in a room full of messed up people and sinners. And the question for us is, how are we going to address it? How are we going to handle it? It feels a little bit like when I get to do premarital counseling with couples in our church. We talk about, basically, we're going to get together and talk about all the things y'all are going to fight about. And we're going to talk about how to fight.

So, honestly, in premarital counseling, I try to pick fights. I really do. Try to get a little bit annoyed with each other. Because here's the thing. You're going to fight. You get married your first year, you're going to think, why are we the only couple that yells at each other at 3 o'clock in the morning?

You're not. You are not the only couple that does that. You need to learn how to fight. And so, as Christians, for us, the question isn't, how are we going to be the perfect church? We're not going to be. How are we going to handle it when we aren't?

That's the question. What are we going to do when there's sin? What are we going to do when there's rebellion? What are we going to do when there's hurt feelings? What are we going to do when someone in your group has almost maliciously, aggressively begun to attack the group? What are you going to do when someone in your group just completely disappears?

What are you going to do when someone lies about you? What are you going to do when something turns up missing? Like, what are we going to do? How are we going to handle sin? That's massively important for us. It's vital for the health of a church.

And what we're going to talk about today I don't think is very popular. So I don't know. There may be a moment today where you think, this is so good. I don't think there's going to be one. I think mostly you're going to think, this all sounds terrible. I hope I never have to be involved in it.

And that is the hope. But surprise, you're going to be. So let's figure out how to do it well. Let's figure out how to love one another well, serve one another well, and be able to walk through this process well. Because we're a bunch of sinners who need grace and who need each other and who need Jesus at work on our behalf. So I'm going to pray.

And then we're going to hop in and try to figure out what it looks like for us to healthily, as we follow scripture, practice church discipline, which is how do we address sin in each other? God, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you save sinners. And we thank you that you then don't expect them to be perfect, but that we continue to have grace and we continue to have hope. We thank you that you give us to each other, that we belong to one another so that we might defend and protect one another. And we thank you, Lord, that in your word you give us wisdom and clarity on how we ought to approach one another in sin.

We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's go to Luke. We're going to move around a bit today. We've been doing this throughout this series. We've kind of bounced around as we try to ask questions of scripture.

A lot of times scripture doesn't just answer stuff in one place. And so we've got to kind of move around so we can get the full picture. I'm looking forward to when we get to walk verse by verse through some books again because of my attention abilities. I like being able to just stay in one place. But we don't get to do that today.

We're going to have to move around a little bit. So Luke chapter 7, if you have a blue and white Bible like this on the row, you'll be on page 569. Am I saying this wrong? Luke chapter 17. My bad, guys. You're on page 569.

We'll be in Luke chapter 17. Believe the screen. Sometimes I say things incorrectly. So Luke 17, 569. If you don't own a Bible, this is our gift to you. Take it with you.

Okay. And he said to his disciples. This is Jesus talking. Jesus is the he here. Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come. So you're going to be tempted.

There's going to be temptations for sin, but you don't want to be the person tempting people. Temptations of sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck. That's a giant heavy rock. That's a giant heavy rock. That's a giant heavy rock.

Were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea. That he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Little ones there being Christians. Followers of Jesus. And then he says this. Pay attention to yourselves.

So that is pay attention to your own life. Pay attention to your attitude, your current discipleship, you following Jesus. Pay attention to yourselves. And then he says if your brother sins. So that's also, that's not just you personally, but that's pay attention to the family.

Pay attention to your community group. Pay attention to the Christians around you. If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him. One of the first questions I think we need to ask is what is the heart behind church discipline?

Like why would we do it? Why would I address sin in you? Why would you address sin in me? Why would we have those uncomfortable conversations? Like why? What's our motivation when we go into that?

Are we supposed to be the sin police? Am I supposed to sit around and be like, let me see. Is everybody minding their manners? Out of line. Like should I get excited when I see a sinner? Does that make me feel better?

Jesus, look at how terrible that person is. Obviously you love me more now. Like is that our attitude? No. Not at all. What he says here, and I love this because it translates so well for me.

Verse 3. Pay attention to yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him. I love that he says brother. We talk about this all the time that when Jesus saved us, John 1 says that those who believed in him, he gave the right to be children of God. So we've been adopted into the family.

God is our father. We're brothers and sisters together. And they're your brother. They're your sister. And so you would address sin in them. And that worked so well for me because this is how I've worked my entire life.

I have two brothers. If I saw someone, let's say I saw you doing something. Maybe we went to school together. Maybe I just knew you. And you were doing something dumb. Here's what I did.

This was my approach to you being sinful, to you being dumb. I would think, that's dumb. And then I would say, not to you, but to the person next to me, look at how dumb they are. That was the extent of how I addressed that. If you continually did stupid things around me that I didn't like. And by stupid, I mean by my own categories of what I gauge as dumb.

I did a lot of dumb things, but they seemed smart to me. If you were stupid of a certain brand that I did not appreciate, I just would quit being your friend. Easy enough. I don't have to hang out with idiots. I'm not saying I'm right. I'm just saying this is what I did.

So, you don't need to be taking notes on this part. Nobody's like, alright, no idiots. Like, don't do that. You know, you're sitting next to one, so you're hiding it. Sorry. The people who laugh the hardest.

Sorry. Okay. Anyway. It's your brother. Brother. So, this is the way I work with my brothers.

When they did something stupid, I went to them and I said, Hey, sit down. What you're doing is dumb. I disagree with you. You are wrong. You should not do this. I'm going to stay your brother, but you're wrong.

This should not be your approach to things. You should not have this attitude. You should not be chasing after this. This is a bad decision. And here's why. I felt some ownership over them.

I felt like if I had noticed them doing something that was bad for them, that was wrong, that I didn't think headed them in the correct direction, and then five years later, I hadn't said anything, but they had completely derailed. They had completely shipwrecked. I was going to own that because they belonged to me. I was going to own the fact that I saw this coming and did not tell them. And so when Jesus says, If you're brother, what he's saying is Christians belong to each other. You're going to own this.

You don't get to say, Oh, well, that was just that other person. I didn't want to get in their business. That's not an option for you because we've been made brothers and sisters in the same family. And that helps me tremendously because I really feel this. And it's culturally induced, but I feel this. Ah, that's not in my business.

I don't really want to. But when it was my brother, it was always my business. Because you're my brother. And so that's the beginning of our heart behind our approach to sin, is that we're family. So of course we would address sin.

Jump to Matthew chapter 18. So Jesus is saying something very similar in Matthew 18, but he's going to give it a much more full treatment. And so what we'll read will sound very similar to what we just read. He says, Pay attention to yourself. If your brother sins, rebuke him, which means address it. Talk to him.

Point it out. Matthew 18 should be on page 534. It's to the left of Luke. A little bit earlier. We're going to start in verse 7. And again, it's going to sound similar to what Jesus was just saying.

Woe to the world for temptations to sin. For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes. And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands and two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Okay, so Jesus just said some things I think we've got to talk about. Feels like it. Jesus just said there's two directions. There's two tendencies. And this lines up with what the rest of Scripture says. So have you ever thought, man, this world we live in is just so beautiful.

Like you listen to Louis Armstrong sing, What a Wonderful World. Whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah. That song, you know what I'm talking about? Your little eyes tear up because these little kids are going to learn things that I'll never know. And you're like, that's true. My grandma didn't know about the internet.

Like whatever. You know what I'm saying? Like you have those moments where you just see a picture of something or you went and visited the Grand Canyon and you're just like, oh my goodness. You hold a baby and you just think, what on earth kind of place do we live in that this exists here? You have those moments. You listen to a song or something.

Like you're riding down the road, you just see something. Like for different people, it's different things. But there's these moments where you're like, this place is magical. It's the best way to describe it. Have those? Okay.

You ever have those moments where you think this is the absolute most shipwrecked, terrible place ever? Like earth is just wrong. This is just like, I don't know how it got this crooked. I don't know how it got this bent. I don't know how it got this bad. And there's a lot of philosophies and belief systems out there that are going to say, no, the world's good.

And there's going to be a bunch that say, no, the world's bad. Christianity says, yes. And yes. It's better than you could imagine. It's better than you could think. It was created by a holy God who designed it to be enjoyable and amazing and glorious and to point back to him.

And humanity completely shipwrecked this. And sin has completely wrought havoc on earth. And there are so many heinous, terrible things that happen that you are going to, that just going to obliterate your soul when you see them and when you partake in them and when they happen to you. Christianity says, yes and yes, more than you could imagine, more than you could imagine. Because we have a world created by a good and holy God that he put humanity on that has free will and humanity has rebelled and each one of us is off. Our hearts are wrong.

We're twisted and broken and this world is shipwrecked. And God is working to bring it back to what it was meant to be. And what Jesus says is, there's a place that you'll enter called life. Those who enter into life. What he originally meant this to be. And there's also a trajectory which is a hell of fire.

You see what it is, is it's the world as God meant it, completely maxed out, carried out into infinity, carried out into eternity. Or the world as we've turned it, the twisted broken sinfulness, carried out to maximum, carried out into eternity, into infinity. Those are the two trajectories. Those are the two destinations. And the Bible is very clear. Everyone on earth is on one of those trajectories.

And everyone on earth will extend into eternity, pursuing and being filled with life and joy and hope, what God originally designed, or extending into eternity where there's destruction and pain and death and suffering and hell because it's the ultimate expression of our brokenness. So what Jesus says, because he sees eternity. You see, there was a moment where Archer, it's my son, all he could see was the beauty of a glowing fire. He doesn't know what it is, he's just running towards it. Seems nice. The reason I panicked and he didn't was because I saw and knew where he was headed.

I knew how that ended up. I knew how that worked out. So Jesus steps out of eternity onto earth and he says, let me explain something to you. There's life and there is an eternal hell. And you would rather cut your feet off and make it into life. You would rather pluck your eyes out and make it into life than to be fully functional, active, healthy, so that you can sprint headlong into a flame.

That's Jesus' point here. Now, I've heard this read before and people say, well, it's hyperbole. He doesn't really want you to pluck your eyes out. He doesn't really want you to cut your feet off. He's just trying to show us the seriousness. I'm not sure that's true.

I'm going to give a caveat here in a second. Let's keep moving. We're not pulling out hacksaws yet. We're saving that to the end when the music's playing. Just kidding. Keep going.

Here's what he says. For if your eye causes you to sin, this is verse 9, tear it out, throw it away. It's better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. 10, see that you do not despise one of these little ones. Again, he's talking about Christians. He was given an example, so he brought a child there.

We read that at the beginning of chapter 18. But he's talking about Christians, followers of Jesus, the small ones that belong to him. And then he says something, we're about to read something that's confusing but does not have anything really to do with the point we're making today, so we don't have to spend a lot of time on it. But people don't really know what he meant here. There's a couple of different ones but we're not getting into it. So 10, see that you do not despise one of these little ones for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

If you're confused, that was confusing. 12, what do you think if a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, I truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the 99 that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. What Jesus just said is heart-poundingly glorious. Jesus said, there's a shepherd who has some sheep.

He's got 99 of them that are hanging around and acting like they got some sense. He's got one of them that gets lost. Doesn't he just leave the 99 and go get the one? Doesn't he just leave them there and go find the one? And the answer is yes, that's what shepherds do. They leave the 99 and they go get the one.

And he says, and once he gets the one, doesn't he celebrate? Isn't he more excited about the one he found than the one that just stayed? Yes. You see, Jesus says, there's a trajectory entering into life or entering into destruction. And Jesus says, if you're entering into destruction and your hand is causing you to sin or your foot is causing you to sin, cut it off. And we say, well, that's hyperbole.

Jesus went to a cross because of sin. Jesus was nailed to a cross because of sin. The Son of God left eternity to pay for our sin. Jesus does not believe that is hyperbole because when it came time for him to give up everything, he did. But the only reason why you don't have to cut your feet off is because Jesus' were nailed to a cross.

The only reason why I don't have to pluck my eyes out when they cause me to sin is that Jesus' eyes closed in death. The only reason you don't have to cut your hand off is because Jesus was pinned up and his heart exploded in his chest and he died of asphyxiation and he was laid in the tomb. The only reason why we don't have to crush sin in our bodies is because Jesus was crushed for our sin in his body because he believes this. If you're not sure whether or not Jesus believed in an eternal hell, look at him on the cross. He was chasing down the sheep that went astray when he went to the cross.

Here's the good news for you today. Everybody's on a trajectory either towards life or towards eternal destruction. But if you're headed towards eternal destruction, I want you to know that the shepherd has left the 99 and he's doing absolutely everything he can to chase you down. I want you to know that that shepherd left the 99 and swapped his life for the sheep. We need to know that so that we understand the heart, behind addressing sin in each other. You see, we've got to believe that we're family and we have to have a rock-solid belief in the gospel which says that we're all sinners bound, running headlong towards a real hell outside of the grace of Jesus on the cross that makes us into a family that loves one another, cares for one another, protects one another.

The heart behind church discipline is a rock-solid belief in the gospel that we're all sinners headed for a real hell outside of the grace of Jesus on the cross who makes us family that loves one another, cares for one another, and protects one another. That's the heart behind it. That's the reason why you address sin in someone else because you actually believe that what Jesus said is true, that there are two trajectories. that's why we risk conversations. That's why if someone in your group, let's say you've got a young lady in your group and she's following Jesus until she gets a boyfriend.

The reason why we're going to talk through this is because this happens. We have a lot of relationship idolatry in our culture where love conquers all and they're not talking about the verse from Corinthians but they're talking about if I love somebody everything works out and you can all shut up and if you stand in my way you're wrong and I get to do whatever I want. If you watch a romantic comedy or any kind of romantic movie the bad guy is the person who stands in the middle of this really jacked up relationship not the two people who are chasing after a really dumb relationship. Okay, I'll give you something to think about next time you watch one of those.

She gets a boyfriend, she's following Jesus, she gets a boyfriend and now she's following her boyfriend and her boyfriend is headed away from Jesus. Why would you have that conversation with her? Because you believe, you have a rock solid foundation that says she's your sister so you have some, she belongs to you, you have some ownership and she's on a trajectory either towards life or towards destruction and that's going to extend for eternity so you have an awkward conversation. Why when somebody offends you or hurts you or sins against you do you go talk to them rather than just writing them off because you believe that their soul matters more that they're on a trajectory?

Okay. If that's the heart behind it, if that's our motivation, what's the process? Like how do we actually do this? Does he lay that out for us? I'm glad you asked. Yes, he does.

Next verse, 15. If your brother sins against you, okay, so again, putting this inside the family relationship, this is Christian to Christian, this is those who belong to each other. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. That means the gathered belonging group of Christians following Jesus. We would say, tell them to your community group and then we'll take it to the whole everybody, all the groups got to know. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector, which man, really drives that home because we use those terms and know what that's talking about. Let's explain that in a second.

Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. That's taken out of context a lot. We're going to talk about that in a second too. Okay, so here's the outline.

Someone sins against you. You go talk to them by yourselves. They repent. They say, you're right. I did sin. I'm wrong.

I shouldn't have done that. You know what you say? Up top, we're good. I forgive you. We're good. Like that was the goal.

You wanted, like the repentance was, that's what you were aiming for, was them to acknowledge their sin. They don't repent. So let's take this scenario with the girlfriend thing. You, she's part of your community group. She's following Jesus. She gets a boyfriend.

She just starts kind of disappearing. So you call her up and say, hey, can we get coffee? Can we talk? She says, yeah. So you go sit down with her and you say, hey, this doesn't look good.

Like this isn't, this isn't a good trajectory for you. Like you were following Jesus and now you got a boyfriend and like, I'm, I'm pretty sure he's like leading you off. Like he's, he's taking you away from following Jesus. Doesn't seem like you're reading your Bible anymore. I think y'all are having sex. Like I think there's a lot of things going on here that aren't good for you as you try to follow Jesus.

Let's say she responds with, yeah, you're right. I didn't need to come back around. I'm sorry. I'm wrong. That's great. That was it.

That's all you had to do. That's, that's, if she, she repents, you want her back. But if she says, who are you to get in my business? We're not hurting anybody. You're just jealous. Okay.

Now you go talk to more people. This is why we say all the time. If you come tell me about a situation where this person did this against me, my immediate response should be, what did they say when you told them? Because I've got to assume we're on step two. I just got to assume, oh, you already told them and it went poorly. It's, it shouldn't be.

And maybe I'm wrong for this. It's my favorite when I say that to someone and they go, what was it? Oh, no, I hadn't, I didn't talk to them. It's like, oh, good. I especially like it if that person's there, I'll just go, hey. Hey.

Yo, Mike. Dave's mad at you. You got it, Dave. Take it from here. It's like, what the heck? I think this is the best.

Um, I tried to pick two random names so that there wouldn't be an actual Mike and an actual Dave that he walks up afterwards like, what the heck, Dave? So anyway, um, do you go tell somebody else? They come talk. If they won't listen to the two or three people, you go tell more people. It says, take it to the church. You go tell your whole group.

Hey, this is what's going on. We talked to them a couple of times. They're not listening. They're not repenting. They're not acknowledging this. Eventually you would bring it before the whole church and here's how this ends.

At some point they repent. That's option one. That's the one we're going for. Or at some point it says you treat them like a Gentile and a tax collector. Okay. First of all, that does not mean be mean to them.

Matthew, see that name at the top left corner of the Bible there? That guy was a tax collector. Okay. He wrote this down for us. What he means is you graciously pursue them as someone who doesn't know Jesus. You're going to assume that they are not a Christian.

You have to. And here's why. Christians repent. If you say you're a Christian and there's no pattern of repentance in your life, no you're not. Christians repent. Christians acknowledge sin.

That's how we got in. This is a group of people who said, I'm jacked up. You messed up? Yes. Ooh, this is me. Shh, shh.

He's talking to me. Yes. Jesus is not. That's how we get in. That's what, Jesus was not messed up so that we can be made righteous through him. But all of us are messed up.

So if you come tell me I've sinned, it's like, yes, probably. How? When? What did that do? We get to talk about it. Christians repent.

So if there's a pathway of non-repentance, at some point you have to go to your group and you say, I don't believe this person is a Christian and we have to start treating them like they're not a Christian. Which means, try to be around them. Try to love them. Try to point them to the gospel. Try to help them. But we're not holding them to the standards of Christians anymore because they're not a Christian.

They don't believe this. You would maybe need to tell them, hey, just wanted you to know I don't think you're a Christian. I love you. I'm going to keep loving you. But I don't want you thinking that you're following Jesus when you're not.

Because there's an actual trajectory towards life or towards destruction. And the worst thing we can do is in our community groups and in our church coddle and be really kind to a bunch of people headed to destruction and let them pretend that they're Christians and never have had a moment where we sat with them and said, hey, I don't think you get this. Okay. Okay. This ends in one of three ways. Oh, sorry.

Let me keep... He puts it on the church, not the leadership, on the gathered people of God. He says there's power in gathering. There's... Where two or more of y'all are gathered, I'm among you. So some of you think what the Holy Spirit tells me is more important than what He tells anybody else.

Jesus would say, nuh-uh. He speaks through the gathered church, through His people together. So if you're in your group and you're the only person who thinks what you think and your whole group that you've been with for a while and know loves Jesus and know they get together and study the Bible and have seen that they've had wisdom before and they're all looking at you and saying, hey, what you're doing is dumb and you think they just don't understand me? No. No, no. You should think, maybe I'm wrong.

I've had conversations with people before and they go, I don't want to talk to them. I know what they're going to say. It's like, good, don't talk to them. Go ahead and start doing it. I don't want to get with my group. I know what they're going to tell me.

Is it going to be something from the Bible? I love your group. I hope they show up at your house. Sorry. Anyway, that also does not mean we're two more gathered. There I am in the midst of them.

That doesn't mean when people say, so me and my buddy, we're a Christian. We can go get on a boat. That's our church. Okay, that has nothing to do with what he's talking about here. And I hope a few of your other buddies who are Christians come and talk to you alone. And if you listen, that'd be great.

But if they don't, I hope they bring more people. Okay. Let's go to 1 Corinthians because there's three ways this ends. Most of it ends with the first step, which was you go talk to them, they repent. You go talk to them, you point out their sin, they repent. Most of it does that.

Sometimes it ends with they will not repent and they are not a Christian and we just need to acknowledge that and keep loving them and keep wanting them around and keep chasing after them and keep inviting them to things and they're welcome to hang out with our group and they're welcome to be here on Sundays and they're welcome to do everything we do as a church. We just got to know they're not a Christian. That's option two. Option three is worse. It's the one we don't like as much. It's got the same goal and the same heart.

Okay. We in 1 Corinthians 5? We made it? This is Paul writing to a church. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and a kind that is not even tolerated among pagans. For a man has his father's wife and you are arrogant.

Ought you not rather to mourn? So what he says is, you've got people hanging out in your church that are actively pursuing this sin. Flagrantly, openly, actively pursuing this sin. And y'all's response was, look at how gracious we are. Look at how much we believe the gospel. Isn't this beautiful?

They're arrogant. And he says, no, you should be broken over this because Christians repent of sin. You should mourn if someone's actively, openly, flagrantly pursuing sin. You should mourn for them. You should hurt over this. Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

If that sounds harsh, it's because it is. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

He's writing to Jewish believers and here's what he's saying. When they celebrated the Passover, they celebrated with unleavened bread because leaven for them when they were doing this feast represented sin. So if you had leavened bread, you were representing that it was sin. And so they would have unleavened bread to represent it was sinlessness, that the Passover lamb was sinless. It's talking about Jesus. And he says, you've been made unleavened, meaning you've been covered by Jesus.

So when we celebrate the Passover, we're covered by Jesus. We're celebrating what he's accomplished for us. We don't have any sin. That's what he's saying. But don't you know, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

So here's why he says, put them out from among you. There's a sin of a certain type that is only going to cause harm to everybody else around. There's a sin of a certain nature. The Bible doesn't give us a list of these. We have to base it off of wisdom and what's going on in the particular case and the people and what's happening. That the best response for Christians is to say, you can't hang out with our group anymore.

You can't hang out with our church anymore until you repent. Thankfully, we haven't had to do that here. I've been a part of churches where that has had to happen or where they told somebody he was actively, aggressively, kind of predatorily approaching females. And so they told him, look, you can come to this gathering and that's it. Like, you can be here and you can be in this group. If we see you anywhere else, that's not okay.

When you show up, you have to tell a pastor you're here. When you leave, you have to tell a pastor you're leaving. If we see you outside of that window, that's not okay. Because they were protecting everybody else. They were going to be aggressive with this guy. And they said, if you show up to another gathering, not the one we told you you could be at, you're not going to be allowed to be around at all until there's repentance, until there's change.

Now, I don't want this to ever happen. This isn't the goal. The goal is repentance. But I'll tell you one thing. If you look and say, hold on a second. So the response was, this guy's a sinner.

Kick him out. That was the response. Put him out. Don't let him be around. When Archer was running towards that fire pit, if Edie had drop kicked him, I would have high-fived her. Like, if that was as close as she could get, it was just to do that.

I'd have been like, that was the most beautiful kick. You've got to teach me your form. Thank you. Thank you. What Paul's saying is, get rough with them if you have to. Don't let them pretend.

If someone is actively, openly, aggressively pursuing sin and will not repent, then do what you have to so that they can't go home and go, oh, no, people accept me. This is okay. This must be all right. If I get to be around. If everybody in the church looked at you and said, you cannot be here because you are actively, aggressively pursuing sin and this is not okay and you're going to harm people and we don't believe you're a Christian, until you decide to repent and change from this, you're not allowed to be around. And if we find out you've headed over to another church because there's a bunch of close ones, we're going to call them.

Hopefully, by God's grace, you would go home and go, I may need to think about this. But if we all just go, hey, buddy, there's a good chance you'll think it must be okay. Verse 6, your boasting is not good. Do you not know that little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. Meaning Jesus has already taken away your sin.

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven and the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. He gives clarification. Not at all. Meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters since you would need to go out of the world.

So what he says is, when I said don't associate with sexually immoral, I didn't mean non-Christians. That's what he means by of this world. Because what he says is, you'd have to move. Off the planet. You would need to quit your job. Go to the top of Mount Everest and die.

That's how you could escape. But you'd be next to another little frozen sinner that got up there and died. Like that's, that's all, like that's his, so don't take this to mean, oh I can't have sinner friends. All your friends are sinners. Look to your left on the row. Look to your right on the row.

Next time you're hanging out with your community group, be like, hi sinner friends. That's who's there. But what he's saying is, people who are actively pursuing this and are a part of the church need to be addressed. It needs to be talked with, with them. It can't be okay for this to linger. But I am writing to you, not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother.

Christians, those who belong to Christ. If he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or as an idolater or a reviler or a drunken or a swindler, not even to eat with such a one. So what he's saying is you address it with him, you talk to him about it, they repent. He's not negating what Jesus said. He's saying that if someone's actively pursuing this and won't repent, then at some point you have to say, hey, you can't be around. We're not going to keep acting like you're a Christian.

For what do I have to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God Judges the outside, purges the evil person from among you. Okay, meaning the Christian church should quit acting like the rest of the world should be Christians. Step one, quit judging the world outside. Point them to Jesus.

They're sinners. They need grace. Step one, quit acting like the rest of the world should be Christians. Step two, start acting like the Christians should be Christians. It's real easy to stand up and talk about all those bad people out there. Why don't you start talking to the bad people in your group?

Because I know them and that's uncomfortable. Yeah, it sure is. We got to start addressing sin in each other and start acting like, hey, if you're a Christian, this is what it looks like. Start calling each other towards holiness and away from destruction. When someone says, you can't judge me, 1 Corinthians 5, yes, I can. I am supposed to.

Paul says, aren't we supposed to judge the people inside the church? And by judge, it doesn't mean condescending, I'm better than you. What it means is, I'm a Christian, I see what you're doing and it's not lining up with what Jesus says. We need to talk about it. I can rightly see what you're doing and address it with them. So, the heart behind this is a rock solid belief in the gospel, a belief that we're all sinners bound for a real hell outside of the saving grace of Jesus through the cross that makes us into a family that loves, cares for, and protects one another.

That's the goal, the process we just talked through. That's the heart behind it, the process we just talked through. What's the goal? What's the aim? What's the point? Why are we doing this?

2 Corinthians. Go to the right, one book. Chapter 2. Why are we doing this? Verse 5. We're going to wait a second.

I want people to see this. Now, if anyone has caused pain, He has caused it not to me, but in some measure, not to put it too severely, to all of you. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough. So, that's the majority of the church. The people who belong to the church, the majority is enough. So, you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

So, I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for the sake, for your sake, in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs. Most scholars believe this is referring to the same person from 1 Corinthians. He came back.

He came back. And Paul says, forgive him. Reaffirm your love for him. That's why you did that in the first place. Paul says, to put him out from among you. And then he says, when he comes back, he says, bring him back.

One of the reasons he said to put him out, and I don't know if we missed this, I don't remember reading this, but it said, turn him over to Satan so that he might, for the destruction of the flesh, so that he might be brought into life. That's the point. The goal is repentance. The goal is that they would return. The goal is that we would all remain a part of Jesus' family. The goal is that we would always stay in.

And this guy comes back. I hope that we never have to stand up at a family meeting and say, this person who was a part of our church family is no longer allowed around us. With tears in our eyes to say, we've talked to them, we've talked to them, we've talked to them, they haven't repented, and they're not going to be welcomed right now. Let's all pray for their soul. I hope to God we never have to do that. But if we do, I pray for the day we get to stand up and say they came back.

It worked. Jesus chased them down. They're here. They're repentant. Let's reaffirm our love for them.

Let's lay our hands on them. Pray for them. Let's all hug them. If they're not a hugger, they can get over it. They're back. We're going to have on screen Hebrews 3 as we wrap up.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort. That means encourage a special gospel Bible encouragement. It means point each other to Jesus. Exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Just leave that back half of that verse up there. He says, take care, be watchful, keep an eye on yourselves that there's not a deceitful, unbelieving heart that sin lies to you and leads you astray. I get excited and have been all week as we talk through this and here's why. I need this. I want this. One of the things we're excited about is we go to membership where we're going to do official kind of membership where we say this is what we believe as a church and our community groups are going to say this is what we're going for as a group is to give all of us the opportunity to say I'm in and what I mean by I'm in is if I ever try to get out I want you to chase me down because I need this because sin lies to me and I want right now while I'm in my right mind that I'm following Jesus I want to look at the rest of the people in my community group and say if I start running I want you to run faster than me and chase me down.

I want you to love me enough to grab me as I run headlong into destruction. I want you to believe the gospel enough to sit me down and say you're wrong here. You need to repent here. One of the ways that we know we're loved as Christians one of the ways we know we have brothers and sisters is when was the last time someone sat you down and told you you were wrong? That's one of the most loving things people can do. I know because that's what my wife does most of the time.

You're wrong here. You need to repent here. One of the ways that we know we're loved as Christians one of the ways we know we have brothers and sisters is when was the last time someone sat you down and told you you were wrong? That's one of the most loving things people can do. I know because that's what my wife does most of the time. That's how you know you're loved. Someone cares enough about you to risk your relationship

By telling you something you don't want to hear? So your group cares enough about you to call you up and say hey we haven't seen you in a while what's going on? They call you up and say we've got to get together let's talk hey you're not following you're not doing this right you're on a path you're on a trajectory and it's not towards Jesus it's not towards holiness it is not headed in the right way and let me explain something to you

If it's this relationship Jesus said cut your feet off I know he means break up if it's school if it's whatever that's leading you away from Jesus it's not worth it and I need somebody to sit me down and say that and you need somebody to sit you down and say that because you're not strong enough on your own you're not smart enough on your own and your heart lies to you

And the author of Hebrews says take care be watchful that this doesn't happen as long as it's today point each other towards Jesus as long as it's today chase one another down because the goal is that we'll be there at the end the goal is that all of us are there at the end Matt's going to come back up here we're going to sing here you see those commercials for traffic fatalities in South Carolina they're interviewing people and they're like

What's an acceptable number for traffic fatalities in the state of South Carolina people pick a number I don't know a hundred okay what's an acceptable number for traffic fatalities in your county four five what's an acceptable number for traffic fatalities in your family and immediately everybody goes zero and they go okay why don't we make that our goal for the state zero because it's always going to be somebody's family what's the acceptable

Number of Christians that we can lose along the way what's the acceptable number of the people in your group that can get their trajectory off and run headlong into destruction what's the acceptable number that we want to stand before Jesus and say yeah I didn't really want to get in their business it didn't feel like my place if that number's me if you're talking about me the acceptable number is zero I expect everyone

In my group to be like to the point of physical aggression with me dude this isn't okay you're confused you're lost your heart's lying to you you're chasing after stuff that's not going to fill you up you're believing lies because the goal is that we would all hold our confidence firm to the end that the gospel that we believe in now we would believe in on the day that everything melts away and we stand

Before our king because there is life to enter into and there is hell to enter into and they're eternal and that's the only thing that matters if you're not a Christian I want you to know that Jesus left the 99 he left heaven to chase after you that he loves you enough to die for you so that you don't have to pay the penalty of yourself and you can be saved and you can be taken up by Jesus and you can be made his and you can be brought

Into the family and if you're a Christian I want you to care about your brothers and sisters enough to talk to them I want us to have lives marked by repentance and I want us to love one another enough to address sin in each other Christians part of our church family we're about to celebrate communion that's where we take bread and we take grape juice and we remember that Jesus' body

Was broken for us so that yours didn't have to be that his blood was shed so that yours doesn't have to be that you can be set free if you have someone who sinned against you and you haven't talked to them you need to talk to them before you take communion I fully expect that people will get up and move around the room and we'll have some conversations where we pray

With one another where we address sin in each other where we say hey I've been noticing this I haven't brought it up to you you need to confess you need to repent we have lives marked by repentance you need to repent before you take communion if you're not a Christian you can repent of your sin and you can place your faith in Jesus that he paid your penalty so you don't have to be led to destruction

And you can take communion for the first time which is a celebration that Jesus went to the cross for you let's pray God I pray that we would be a church that has a rock solid belief in the gospel that you would not for one moment let us forget that there is an eternal life and that there is an eternal destruction and God that we would love one another

Enough to address sin I pray that we would be a church Lord that doesn't talk about people but that talks to people and God I pray that you would bless this church so that this process always works God I pray that through your Holy Spirit this would always work

That there would always somewhere down the line somewhere along the way there would be repentance there would be an acknowledgement of sin that people would turn back and that we would continue to love and forgive always that we would always forgive and reaffirm our love

For one another God we praise you we thank you in Jesus name mass going to continue to play when you feel ready go take communion if you need to talk to somebody get up go talk to them we're going to move around the room we're going

To repent of sin we're going to believe the gospel

Elders, Deacons, Members

Elders, Deacons, Members

Chet Phillips

Transcript

All right. How are we doing this morning? My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in our Home Sweet Home series and we're talking about the church. And that's why that video is just a bunch of people, because the church is the people of God, the people rescued and saved and distinctly loved by Jesus.

And so we've just been spending some time walking through and saying, what should the church look like? How should the church act when it comes to leadership? What comes to mind? Like when you think of a leader, who do you think about? What do you think about what makes a leader a leader? Is it is it power?

Is that is that like the baseline thing that makes a leader a leader so they they can enforce whatever they say? So does that there was Stalin a leader because he could do what he wanted? Does that make Patton a leader just because he it has some power over military? Is the U.S. government, do they get to be leaders just because they can take you out and nobody would know? I mean, I don't want to be like a conspiracy theorist, you know, saying they can take you out. Nobody would know, but they can take you out.

Nobody would know. Like what what makes a leader a leader? Like, is it is it vision? Is it they can see a preferred future and they can articulate it? Well, is that JFK saying we're going to we're going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade and bring him back safely? And I think I got that order, but he said something along those lines.

I wasn't there. But like, is that is it Martin Luther King Jr. And his I have a dream speech where he was able to articulate this is what this ought to look like. And he just has a vision for how this ought to be. And that's what makes him a leader. Is it is it authority?

Police officer, your bosses, are they just a leader because they have some authority over you? Is it influence that makes a leader a leader, that they have the ability to influence people, that they have the ability to to call more out of people? So maybe you had some coaches like this or a mentor, an uncle or even like a cousin that just kind of had influence over you and had the ability to to lead. Here's what I know about leadership. Culturally, we love and celebrate leadership. We try to define it a lot.

I think you can go to any bookstore and find racks of books about leadership and how to lead and the 10 things you need to do and the seven things you need to do and the 21 golden keys to it and the 15 magic nuggets of leadership. Like, I mean, you can go find any kind of book you want to find on leadership. We celebrate it. That's why there's been like seven Steve Jobs movies recently. There's another one coming out. Steve Jobs, The Untold Story.

Like there's just it's just we we know that we there's something special about leadership. We're also afraid of leaders and leadership. So we we have this celebration of it. And then we also have this kind of like reticence, this hesitancy. And I can prove that just by let's talk about Donald Trump for a minute. No, let's talk about Bernie Sanders.

We're going to talk about Bernie Sanders for a second. And the truth is, you can start talking about either one of those. You can start talking about Hillary and immediately you'll have some people who are just like, yes, if we could only have that person. Oh, my goodness, everything would be great. You have other people that as soon as you start talking about the other candidate, they get really terrified and they want to fight you. And they're like, they're going to ruin everything.

They're going to burn this down. It's going to be horrible. And it just depends on who you're having the conversation with, because the truth is we have some leadership is great. And at the exact same time, some. Oh, no, that would be terrible. And the reason why is this when leadership is good.

Like everything's actually like it's great. Good leadership is great. And when leadership is bad, it can be horrible. And so when it comes to us in our series, what we've been walking through, one of the things we're basically asking is what makes for a healthy church? What should a church look like? How should it be organized?

One of my goals, really, we have kind of a migratory church family in some ways. We've got college students that are here for a little while. And then they're going to be they always come tell me they're like, oh, I just got accepted to graduate school. And I'm like, in Columbia? And they're like, no, you know, like a like another city. And I'm like, have you thought about not going and just staying here?

Every every time this happens, Matt always comes to me. He's like, man, I don't know. I don't even know if they're supposed to. I think maybe they're supposed to stay here. And I have to ask Matt. I'm like, Matt, is there ever going to be one where you're like they're supposed to leave?

Like because it just seems like you like people and you always want them to stay. Kind of one of our goals in this series is that if you get your job transfers you or you move, that you would show up to a local church knowing what a local church ought to look like, that you would know how you ought to be the church in that city from the day your feet touches the feet. Your feet touch your touches the ground. I said it right. I just had to fix it. Feet touch the ground.

Boom. Boom. All right. That you would know what a church should look like and that we collectively would know what one looks like so that we could all be when we start drifting or start doing something stupid. Everyone here can go. I don't think that's what we're supposed to do.

And we could be like, good point. Thanks. And we could get back on track. Like that's one of our goals is for us to know what a church should look like. And so what we're going to look at today is that there should be leaders in the church. Leadership is good.

There's a lot of qualifications for it and kind of some guards around it because leadership can be bad. Dad. The Bible. And we're basically going to go through and just see what the Bible says. So one of the things that I appreciate church history and I appreciate I have some form of appreciation for denominations.

It's not a really great appreciation for denominations. I think they're good and they serve a purpose. But a lot of times when you get into discussions about how church is organized, you get into a lot of discussions about like, well, Methodists do this and Presbyterians do that and Baptists do this. And so here's our goal. Let's just see what the Bible says.

That's always been our goal in planning a church was to open this and say this we think falls in the bounds of what we're going for. Let's try to do that. What it basically says is that there are elders, deacons and members. And members is maybe not the way you're hearing that. And so we'll talk through that to maybe clarify that a little bit. But there are elders, deacons and members.

And we're going to walk through each of those and kind of quickly say what's the purpose and what are the characteristics and then how do we apply that here. So what's the purpose of this? What are the characteristics of that? And how do we apply that here? Hopefully it'll be helpful. So let's pray.

God, we pray that you would teach us from your word so that we might know what a healthy church looks like. We might understand what Christian leadership ought to look like. We have a good handle on what you have for us here and how we ought to organize as we try to be best suited for your mission in this city. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. In a minute we'll go to Ephesians 4.

But first I want to show us a verse in Acts chapter 20 to get started. In the Bible there are Greek words where we get our words for elder, bishop and pastor. And so maybe you've heard all of those. They're all Greek words. They basically are all always talking about the same role, same position in the church. Just kind of different what they're doing or what they're supposed to do.

And so we're going to refer to it as elders because that kind of is the office. We also call them pastors around here. I'm trying to get bishops started because that just sounds cool, but it's probably not going to work. But it's in the Bible. All right.

So here's one of the questions we have to ask is why. Why is there leadership in the church? What is it designed for? And this is Paul talking to the Ephesian elders and he calls them together and he's basically going to lay something out for him. But he says this so clearly here.

I think it's helpful for us as we start our time this morning. He says, pay careful attention to yourselves. So he's talking to the elders of the churches in Ephesus. That's who he's called together here in Acts chapter 20. Pay careful attention to yourselves. So that would be talking to the leaders of the church, the pastors of the churches.

He's saying, watch your heart, watch your own actions and watch each other. Pay careful attention to yourselves. And to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Overseer there, that's the word we get, I believe, bishop from. So what he says is when he talks about the flock, he's talking about the church, people of God.

So the Bible calls Jesus the great shepherd. It also calls him the good shepherd because he lays his life down for his sheep. His sheep are all the Christians who've been invited in based off of his work. And we talked about it when we were walking through 1 Peter, but it's actually really nice to be a sheep. Because when anything bad happens, you just get to look to the shepherd. Sheep aren't supposed to be good at stuff.

Sheep aren't really good at stuff. My grandparents are missionaries in Nigeria. They don't even get out of the way of cars. Like they need a shepherd. And so we get to be sheep. We get to be flock of God.

And what he says here when he's talking to these people who he's saying, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock. He says, in which, meaning you elders are sheep. You pastors are sheep. You're in it. Not over which, in. So leaders in the church are sheep first.

Should be followers of Jesus first. In which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God. Some versions are going to say to shepherd. That's the word we get pastor from. To care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. The reason there is leadership in the church is because Jesus loves the church.

Period. Period. The reason there are leaders in the church is because Jesus loves the church enough to purchase her with his own blood. And so he is designed to call through the Holy Spirit certain people to help shepherd, to help defend, because he loves the church. And he specifically multiple times in scripture says he's going to hold leaders in the church accountable for how they lead. Because he's specifically designed leaders to shepherd and care for his church.

One of the ways I know that God loves my son Archer is that he gave Archer parents. Like he specifically designed human babies are useless for a really, really long time. My dad asked me yesterday, he's like, is he talking yet? And it's like, no. And he doesn't even seem close. Like he's not even, he's not even barely accidentally saying words sometimes.

Like he's never been like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, piano, blah, blah, blah. Like it's never happened. He's bringing nothing to the table. God loves him. He gave him parents. One of the indications that God cares about his church is that he specifically designed for there to be some leadership.

I know that we've had some pushback. There's been really poorly handled leadership in the church with money. I mean, I've heard some stories that are pretty terrible. I heard of one pastor. They locked the doors and they said they were going to keep taking up offerings until they could buy his wife a car. And he'd say stuff like, it's not going to be some cheap car either.

It's going to be a good one. So if you'll, if you'll lock the doors real quick, I'm just kidding. There've been abuses. I've seen YouTube videos that just make me hurt inside as pastors have used the pulpit to bully people. And to, but so I know there's been some responses. And when I was going to plant a church, people would say, but yeah, like we're just, we're going to have a church, but there aren't going to be any leadership.

We're all going to just kind of be on the same level. We're all going to be just getting a circle. And it's like, no, no leadership's good. God bought the church with his blood and specifically has designed for some people to be held accountable for the leadership and the defense of the church. Okay. So Jesus loves the church.

Holy spirit has made some leaders in the church specifically for that purpose. But why, what are they supposed to do? And so we're going to go to Ephesians four. It'll be on page six 34. If you have a blue and white Bible, this is the primary responsibility of leaders in the church. And it doesn't say pastors here.

It just kind of covers giftings and leadership roles that are given to the church. And we're going to see what the primary role is. We're going to start in verse 11. And he gave, that's Jesus. So, and Jesus gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers. So he gave leadership, equipped these roles, these leaders to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

Okay. Just want to show you this real quick. Saints are all the people who've believed in Jesus. Every time you see the word saint in scripture, your little heart should go aflutter. Because you're a sinner. And you've been made a saint by Jesus.

That's worth celebrating. That's exciting. But what it's saying is that these leadership roles, these positions were given to equip saints, to equip the church, to equip all those who follow Jesus for the work of ministry. So you're a saint. You get to go marching in for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. That's all Christians.

That's seeing more people come to know Jesus. That's equipping and helping other Christians, building up the body of Christ. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of fullness of Christ. Leadership exists in the church to equip the church to do the work of ministry. So sometimes pastors have been called ministers.

Like we need to get a minister. Christians are ministers. All of us as Christians are supposed to do the work of ministry. Pastors, elders are supposed to equip. Which means that I'm a pastor here, which means I get to be Alfred and you get to be Batman. I heard someone explain it that way recently and I thought that's so helpful.

That's what it is. I'm Alfred. You get to be Batman. All the Christians get to be Batman. A team of Batmans running around. Like that's what it is.

Like you know how they say be yourself unless you can be Batman then be Batman? You get to be Batman. Like that's how that works. Leadership in the church exists to equip. To see more leaders equipped. More leaders raised up.

More people able to go share their faith. To go build relationships with their neighbors. I've seen churches before where the pastor would retire and then the church would kind of sit still for like two years waiting on a new pastor to come in. And it's like no. Like if that happens here we've failed. Because our job was to equip.

You should be ready. If I got hit by a bus. It better be a big bus. That's what I got to say. No I'm just. If I got.

We should just keep on moving next week. Somebody get up and say Chet has been hit by a bus. Open your Bibles to Paige. Like that would just be. And y'all be like yep. Let's do this.

Like because we're designed to equip. That's one of the reasons why if we have elders or pastors that we're training. We wouldn't pay somebody. Have an elder. Have anybody be an elder paid or not paid. To just do a task.

Because elders are supposed to equip. So primarily the church has been given elders to equip and to defend. Because Jesus loves the church. And he wants the church to be on mission. He wants the church to be equipped for the mission. So.

A couple of things. That we just need to know about what the Bible says about eldership. First of all. They're always plural. Unless it's talking about a specific leader. So we believe that every church should have multiple elders.

We think that's the healthiest way to go about it. Not one senior person and people underneath them. We believe it should be a group of multiple leaders. Multiple leaders. Sometimes we've had people say. Because we're planning a church.

Like doesn't that slow things down? Like y'all got to agree on everything? The answer to that is yes. It does slow things down. And yes. We do have to agree on everything.

But we believe that the Holy Spirit's in us. And can give us unity. So that we can get on the same page. And we think it's biblical. So if one of us absolutely disagrees.

And says there's no way we can do this. We probably should fight that out. And we do. Look. We believe if we don't yell at each other every once in a while. We must not care.

We care a lot. So okay. Real quick. I'm going to run through this list. Of just where the scripture says. Things that elders.

That pastors should do. Pray and study scripture. That's Acts 6. 4. Rule and lead in the church. That's 1 Timothy 5.17.

And Hebrews 13.17. Manage in the church. That's 1 Timothy 3.4.5. Care for God's people. That's 1 Peter 5.2-5. Live their lives as an example.

That's Hebrews 13.7. Rightly use the authority given to them. That's Acts 20.28. That's what we just read. Devote themselves to teaching and preaching the Bible correctly. Ephesians 4.11.

1 Timothy 3.2. 1 Timothy 4.11-16. 2 Timothy 3.16. 4-5. Says that one a lot. Because of how much weight is given to the scriptures.

Pray for the sick. That's James 5.13-15. Teach sound doctrine and refute false teaching. That's Titus 1.9. Work hard. 1 Thessalonians 5.12.

Rightly use money and power. 1 Peter 5.1-3. Protect the church from false teachers. Acts 20.17-31. That's the whole section. Equip the church.

Ephesians 4.11-16. 2 Timothy 2.1-2. Develop and appoint new leaders and elders. Titus 1.5. Acts 14.23. 1 Timothy 4.14.

And 5.22. God's given elders to the church. Leaders to the church. To defend and equip the church. That's the point. Now.

That's kind of the purpose. Are there qualifications? Are there characteristics? Go to 1 Timothy. And we'll spend the rest of our time in 1 Timothy. That's actually not true.

But I have the other stuff. We'll show it on screen. Because it's just going to be a couple other verses we'll reference. Spend most of the rest of the time in 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 3. It's on page 643.

If you have a blue and white Bible. That we put on the row. If your Bible just happens to be blue and white. I can't guarantee what page this will be on. The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer.

He desires a noble task. Some of you should want to be an elder. And that's good. If you want to be an elder. We have a pastor training process. I'd love to talk to you about that.

Some of you are being called to be elders. You should be. Therefore. An overseer. So what we're reading through.

Is he's going to give. What pastors should look like. What elders should look like. Characteristics. Qualifications. Therefore.

An overseer. Must be above reproach. The husband of one wife. That phrase in Greek means a one woman man. So you don't have to be married.

But you can't be chasing women. Multiple. All the time. Women. Pornography is an issue. Like.

That. That. If it was. Had to be married. That would exclude Paul. And Jesus.

Timothy. That would be a problem. So you don't have to be married. If you are married. One wife. Husband of one wife.

Or one woman man. Sober minded. Self controlled. Respectable. Hospitable. Able to teach.

We're going to come back to that one. Not a drunkard. Not violent. But gentle. Not quarrelsome. Not a lover of money.

He must manage his own household well. With all dignity. Keeping his children submissive. For someone does not know how to manage his own household. How will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert.

Or he may become puffed up with conceit. And fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover. He must be well thought of by outsiders. So that he may not fall into disgrace.

Into a snare of the devil. The only thing in that list. That was a skill. Was the ability to teach. Everything else was character. That's why our pastor and training process.

First of all. We believe that as a local church. We're supposed to equip the saints. So that we should be having more pastors. And church planters. And missionaries come out of our church.

We believe if that doesn't happen. We're not doing this correctly. Our pastor and training process. Is long. And we move slowly. One of the things we say.

Is that we want to move more slowly. Than we want to move. Like we want that to take longer. Than we'd like for it to take. Because it's character qualifications. That's why it bothers me.

With all the float your resume out. And go talk to some people. And give them a DVD of your preaching. And then you can go be their pastor. Creeps me out. That's scary.

Because I interview really well. Firm handshake. A lot of eye contact. Repeat people's names. I could be crazy. Some of you know.

I kind of am. Like there's. There's character. That's why we take very long time. When we first. One of the things we see in the church.

In the New Testament. Is that churches are started. And then later they have elders. When we first started. Matt and I were working together. To start this church plan.

But we were just leading. In community groups. We were not elders. We started in. March of 2013. Was our first group.

It was eight people. Together in my house. We did not officially say. Hey we. We want to put ourselves forward. As elders.

Until January. The following year. Raz Bradley. Many of y'all know him. He's been. Officially.

In pastor and training. Since January. Of 2015. And he's still not a pastor. Because we're taking it slow. Trying to get to know him.

It's just character qualifications. And here's the truth. If he was freaking out. About having to be a pastor. That would scare us. If he came to us.

And said. All right guys. Y'all need to give me. It's like. No. If he.

If he can't handle. Not being some kind of title. Or something. That's scary. So we just get to keep walking.

And every once in a while. We go and say. Hey man. Let's talk about this. He's like. Man.

I'm not in any hurry. At some point. You might just have to say. No. You're going to have to be a pastor now. Quit putting this off.

And being lazy. Like we may have to have that conversation. But we just take it slow. Because it's character qualifications. Which have to take time to see. You got to see people in different situations.

To learn that they're. A little bit crazy. Like you got to go to lunch with somebody. And see them. Have a terrible waitress. And see how they handle it.

Because we got to find out about character. You got to be around their family. You got to be around their kids. Okay. We believe that elders should be. There should be multiple elders.

That it's based way more off of character. Than ability. That's why we see so many pastors flame out. In the U.S. Is because we love ability. People's abilities outpace their character.

And that's a problem. We believe it's good. Healthy. Designed to defend. And equip the church. Okay.

Deacons. That word is another cognate. Kind of like the word baptism. It just means servant. So when we see it in scripture.

And it says deacon. Or if you see the word servant. That's the same word. So sometimes we don't know. If they're talking about. Like an official title.

Servant. Or just. A descriptive word. Servant. But in the church.

We have elders. Deacons. And members. Deacons. We don't know much about. But keep reading.

Because he's going to give some qualifications for them. Deacons likewise. Must be dignified. Not double tongued. Not addicted to much wine. Not greedy for dishonest gain.

They must hold the mystery of the faith. With a clear conscience. Let them also be tested first. Then let them serve as deacons. If they prove themselves blameless. Okay.

Beginning in verse 11. I want to explain this. And how we think about it. Their wives likewise. Must be dignified. And he begins to give qualifications.

For as our text reads. Their wives. The word in Greek. For woman. And for wife. Is the exact same word.

So whenever it's translated wife. Or it's translated woman. It's based only off of context. This has been traditionally translated as wife. But could just as easily.

And it fits in the sentence. Just as easily to be translated as women also. It makes sense to me. And as we have prayed over this. And looked at it. That that is actually referring to female deacons.

Not the wives of male deacons. And the reason being. Elder is. Talked about much more in scripture. And is a higher office in the church. And it does not give any qualifications.

For the wives of elders. So it seems odd. To have qualifications. For the wives of deacons. Even though it mentions wives. And families of elders.

And not give qualifications. For their wives. So what we believe. Is that deacons. Are lead servant roles in the church. That can be male or female.

We believe that elders. Is a male only office. We also firmly believe. That doesn't have anything to do. With intelligence or ability. We believe it has something to do.

With creation. And God's specific call. And design for masculinity. And for femininity. And we do believe. That elders should be males.

But even personal experience. Would say that doesn't. Not at all. Because we think men are smarter or better. Some of them. Some of them not so much.

And there have been a lot of churches. That have been led by females. That I think have done. A really good Job. So if you say.

Well I know a woman pastor. Who's great. I don't doubt it. I do believe. That it was designed. For that to be a male only role.

Just like you may know. A single mother. Who's crushing it. But biblically. They're designed. For there to be a father.

There in the home. Doing what fathers are supposed to do. So we believe that. Men are supposed to lead. In the church. And the family.

And we don't believe. That negates all leadership roles. For females. Everywhere else. But we do believe.

That deacons can be male or female. Because it's a lead servant role. The word just means servant. Ministry leaders. I'll tell you how that kind of works. Here in a second.

So their wives likewise. Must be dignified. We would read that as women. Likewise must be dignified. Not slanderers. But sober minded.

Faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband. Of one wife. So again. Males be one woman men. Manage their children.

And their households well. For those who serve well as deacons. Gain a good standing. For themselves. And also great confidence. In the faith.

That is in Christ Jesus. There is not a whole lot of instruction given for deacons. And really. It's people who lead in the church by serving. And they can kind of do anything. God is smart enough to give a lot of wiggle room there.

So we believe we can have a deacon who runs all of our social media. That they lead by serving there. And if that was in here. That would be weird. Later. There is going to be a thing called the internet.

And it is going to be helpful for sharing the gospel. And deacons can do that. Like this just doesn't spell everything out. And that is fine. We believe that elders have a specific role that hasn't changed. Defend and equip.

And that deacons can kind of do anything. Our group leaders are deacons. Our kid city leaders are deacons. Some of our worship leaders are deacons. We just hold them to those standards. Talk about it.

But we don't use that term a lot. I know that if you have grown up in some churches. That may really mess with your head. We can discuss that later. If you have not grown up in church. This is what the Bible says.

So let's rock on. For us. And for the church. Currently we have two elders. We have one pastor in training. We want to have more elders here.

I'm an elder. Matt's an elder. We have deacons who are group leaders. We have leaders in training. Who are training to be deacons. That's being tested first.

And then if they prove blameless. To get to keep doing it. We have deacons that lead in other aspects of our church. The rest of all of us. Every single person in this room. Should be a member.

Should belong to this church. And so I'm going to talk a little bit about what we mean by the word member. And how we're going to apply that here. So you can stay here. Or you can go to 1 Corinthians. We're only going to read two kind of basic passages on this.

And I'll have that on the screen. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. To just explain a little bit about how the church ought to work. So the church is all the people who belong to Jesus. All of us should be Christians. Should be Batman at different times.

Equipped to serve and do ministry. There are things I do just because I'm a Christian. Not because I'm a pastor. Things we all do because we're Christians. And then we all should belong to one another. And so here's kind of what I want us to see.

One of the I think misconceptions that people have is that in the New Testament church. They really didn't have any kind of formal who was in and who was out. Didn't know who was a part of their church and who wasn't. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. First of all throughout the New Testament. It says they added to their number.

It talks about putting people on rolls. I think we just assume because it was way back in the day. They didn't write stuff down. Talks about putting things on rolls. It talks about having a majority at one point when they do some church discipline. It talks about removing people from your number or removing people from your local congregation.

So it seems as if they knew who was in, who was around, who was a part of their church. And in their culture there was no benefit of being a part of a church unless you were a Christian. In our culture it's a little bit different. You want to run for office? You need to probably have been a part of a church. Some of that's changing which is good.

But culturally we're all kind of Christians around here even though people don't know what that word means. So here 1 Corinthians 12 verse 12. I just want to show us this. For just as the body is one. So physical body is what he's talking about.

And has many members. He's talking about all your body parts. And all the members of the body, though many, are one body. So it is with Christ. And then he goes into this long section about how that plays out. And we'll talk that through in just a second.

That applies to the whole earth-wide church. That we are one body in Christ. It specifically and particularly applies to our local church. So in hanging out with us this morning today is a missionary from Guatemala. His name is Mr. Rolando.

He's part of the body of Christ. Just getting to hang out with us today. He's a body of Christ with us in Guatemala. And I'm sorry if that made you uncomfortable. People might be looking for you now. So sorry about that.

He's part of the body of Christ. But in particular, Paul's writing this letter to a local church. And he's saying, you are one body together. And so here's what all of us ought to do. Every Christian everywhere ought to be a member. Just like you'd be a, your body is members of itself in a local church.

You should belong. It's the best way to put that. You should belong to a local church the same way that your hand belongs to your eye. Does that sound weird to say? That's what Paul says. He goes through this list and says, if a foot says, because I'm not a hand, I'm not a part of the body, that's not true.

If a hand says, because I'm not an eye, I'm not a part of the body, that's not true. And what he says is, no, everybody is a part of the body. Everybody belongs. And he ends it with this. Jump down to verse 27 and 26. 26 and 27 is how we'll read it because of how Numbers work.

If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. You are a body of Christ and individually members of it.

You should have a group of people, if you are a Christian, that you belong to and that belong to you. All Christians should be a part of a body so that if one member suffers, you suffer. And if one is honored, you rejoice. That's how that's supposed to work. Now, does that take commitment? Yes.

Does that mean you have to actually know real humans? Yes. Do Americans like this? I don't think so. One more question. Do I care?

Not really. I don't like this sometimes. I think it's biblical. So I think it's good. I think it's something we ought to do. And here's what I've seen in churches that I think is a major problem.

We belong to a church as long as there's honoring and rejoicing. As soon as the suffering comes along, because of a bunch of local churches around here, we just go to another one. As soon as the difficulty comes along, we pack up and move. I don't know your specific situation. I don't know how that's played out in the past. But I know that in this passage, it says that we should belong to a group of people so that when they suffer, we suffer.

And so they are honored, we rejoice. You should belong to a group of people that when they hurt, you hurt with them. And that takes energy and that takes effort and that takes sweat and pain. But it's what we're supposed to do. So every Christian should be equipped and doing the works of ministry.

Every Christian should belong to a group of people. I don't know if that has to be here, but it should be somewhere if you're a Christian. So when Christians say, it's just me and Jesus, it's like you haven't been talking to him lately because he disagrees with you. You should be a part of a local group where you belong to a body where you suffer alongside of them. That also means that if the church suffers globally, we should suffer with them. But it does mean locally as well.

All right, Hebrews 13, 17. One more thing that I think applies to all of us as we are Christians. And again, kind of addressing this. First of all, the New Testament is written to the church. So we covered a good bit of ground on what the Bible says about elders because it says a good bit about elders in different places.

The rest of the New Testament, though, is written to the church. It's written to Christians and how Christians ought to organize and act and be. And so I'm just covering a few things as it comes to the organization of belonging to a local church as we talk through this. But really, the whole New Testament is written to members, to saints, to Christians. Hebrews 13, verse 17. Verse 17.

Verse 17. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. A couple of quick observations from this. He starts off with obey your leaders. If you are a Christian, you should know who those are.

You should have leaders that belong to you. They're yours. That doesn't mean all Christian authors. It doesn't mean anybody you see on the TV that's holding a Bible. It means local leaders that you know. You should have local people that are your leaders, that you belong to and that belong to you.

That's healthy for a Christian. Okay, now he says some stuff though about them that I personally don't really like. I wish he had said it differently and I'll explain that in a second. Obey your leaders and submit to them. When I was not a pastor, I actually found that passage pretty nice. I thought it was pretty refreshing and I'll explain why.

When I was at Midtown Fellowship, I did a year-long residency in Midtown before we planted this church. Showed up. I thought I was going to pretty much disagree with most of what they did. Learned some things from them and then we would go plant. When I showed up, I thought everything they did was great for the most part. Like it was, they were trying to be the church and I loved it.

Love those guys. They're over in Columbia. If you get mad at us, go hop in with them. They're great. But you probably, never mind.

There's issues with what I just said, but whatever. If we get mad at you, we'll send you to them. After a while, I realized that there was nine pastors that they loved Jesus, that they loved his church, that they loved his word. And so what I decided was these are my leaders and I submit to them. And here's why. At some point, I was going to go to them and say, hey guys, I think I'm ready to plant.

Because they were doing training with me. I was going to say, hey, I think I'm ready to go. I think I'm ready. Matt and I are going to go. We're going to go start this church. And here's what I knew would happen if I hadn't predetermined in my brain that those were my leaders and I was submitting to them.

If they said, man, we think you're ready. We think you're ready. We co-sign on this. We think Jesus is at work here. We think you should go. My response would have been, man.

These guys love Jesus. And they're smart. And the gods at work in them. And they're great. And I trust them. And I submit to them.

And I follow them. And if they'd have looked at me and said, bro, you don't need to do this. You're not ready. This is a terrible idea. We're going to show up at y'all's first gatherings and tell people to go home. Don't do this.

My response would have been, what did these idiots know? They know nothing. I'm a genius. They are morons. I love Jesus. They do not.

I'm reading the Bibles correctly. They are not. Like, I would have had this immediate prideful response to them. But what I was able to do was beforehand just said, I trust these guys because I've seen Jesus at work in them. I've seen how they study the scriptures. I see how they care.

I see how there's a pattern of following Christ here. And I'm going to obey and submit to them. And what that set me free from my own sinful reaction. And it gave me the ability to win. If I stood before God and he said, hey, you were supposed to start this church here and you didn't, I would have said yes. But Hebrews 13, 17 says for me to obey my leaders.

And that's what I was doing. And then he would say, well done, Bible reader slash follower. And then he would go talk to them. That's how I think that would go down. Because I would just be saying, I was just trying to follow the Bible. I was trying to do what it said, which was I'm submitting to them.

Now I'm a pastor. And that verse is terrifying. Because he says, he gives a reason why you should follow your leadership. Obey your leaders, submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls. As those who will have to give an account. I don't know what that's going to look like.

I don't know if we're going to go group by group. I don't know if we're going to go year by year, name by name. I know that I will stand before the king of the universe and give an account for souls. And I wish now that that verse was framed a little differently. This is one of the reasons why we have multiple pastors here. Because on that day, I want to have a group of men standing beside me that say, we studied together.

We worked together. We tried together. We tried to figure out who was there. Who was under our leadership that you'd given us to shepherd and to care for. And we worked really hard. This is why I want a group of men who will stand toe to toe with me and shout me down.

Raz Bradley, who's in our pastor and training process, went to work. Left work. Came to an office. We argued for two and a half hours about membership for our church and what that should look like. And then he went to a kickball game because he's trying to build relationships with people who love Jesus, to help people love Jesus. And I texted him when I got home and I said, thank you so much for caring enough to come argue with me after work.

And he responded any day. Matt Freeman worked all day, went to Glen Forest to do golf practice, and then came over there because he knew we'd been arguing for two hours and wanted to come help us resolve that. He didn't help, but he showed up. Christians, you should have a place where you get to be equipped, where you belong to a group of people who belong to you so that when they're honored, you're honored. And you have something to celebrate. And when they suffer, you get right in and suffer with them.

And you should have leaders that you follow and that you challenge and that you love enough that when you think they're wrong, you don't leave. You tell them. You say, hey, I'm reading the scriptures. I've been talking to the other people in our group. You're going to be held accountable for this. And I think you're wrong.

That you care about enough that they're your leaders so that you come to them and talk to them. That doesn't have to be here. I know what goes on here. I believe this is a good place for it to be. But it's got to be somewhere.

All of us need to be doing the work of ministry as Batman. We need to belong to a group of people. And we need to belong to some leaders. We would be confused and have done this poorly if we didn't make it to Jesus. Matthew 20. He is the example of leadership for us.

He shows us what leadership in the church ought to look like. This is one of my favorite passages because I think it's just so clear. Matthew 20. If you want to go there in your Bibles, it's page 535. We'll have it on the screen. I love this because James and John have their mom come ask Jesus a question.

Happy Mother's Day. You knew it was going to show up. No, you didn't. But it's here. James and John go to their mom. And they're like, Mom, will you ask Jesus something for us?

So their mom comes and asks Jesus if they can be sitting at his right and left hand in his glory. They don't really know what they're asking for. I don't think she really knows what she's asking for. But they ask because they thought he was going to be a king. And they wanted to be right and left hand men. And I hope, the Bible doesn't say this, but I hope that the rest of the disciples never let them live that down.

So they'd be like, where'd Jesus go? And Peter would look at them and be like, I don't know why you have your mom asking. I just hope that happens every day. Like it was brought up just once a day. Not to be annoying, but once a day to remind them you had to have your mom come talk to Jesus for you. But they come ask Jesus, can we be in charge over everybody, basically.

And they have their mom do it because they figure he'll yell at us, but he won't yell at you. This is what Jesus says in response to them. He calls them all together because the other ten were mad, which makes sense. And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles, that's the rest of the people around them, not the Jews, but the Gentiles, the non-Jews.

Lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. The King of the universe left his throne to go to a cross.

To be a servant and a slave for his people. And that is the model for Christian leadership. One of the rules we have here is you don't get to lead anything unless you can take the trash out. If you can't help move chairs, if you can't do any Job at all, if you can't just do whatever anybody asks of you, you don't get to lead anything because you don't realize what Christian leadership is. It seems like you've risen up. You've actually gone further down.

You went from servant to slave and from slavery to death. There should only be a handful of elders in a local church because there should only be a handful of people who are serving in a way to equip and defend the church. And everybody else should be on mission as missionaries to their city and to their neighbors and to their co-workers. God has designed his church to do the work of the ministry, to do the work of reconciliation, to be on mission. And there should only be a handful of people that are working to serve and equip them and defend them. There should be a handful of deacons who are helping lead ministries and serve in those capacities because the whole church is supposed to be at work.

But all of us, all Christian leadership is service, slavery, and death because Jesus, the son of the living God, came and died on our behalf that we might be free and that we might have life and we might have hope. And any Christian leader who thinks, I'm rising up the ladder, I'm going to make a name for myself, I'm going to get some glory, has completely forgotten and lost what the gospel is about, which is that the king of glory became our shame and our guilt and was crushed on our behalf so that we could just have hope and life and joy and peace and be a family. The band is going to come back up. We're going to sing and make much of Jesus.

I would encourage you to find a church where you can belong, to a group of people that when they get a promotion, you feel like you got promoted. When something good happens in their life, you're excited. When they hurt, you hurt. When they lose sleep, you lose sleep. I'd encourage you to find a church where you can have leaders that you trust and submit to and follow. That you know, love and follow Jesus.

And I pray for our church that we would be filled with great Christians. Because Jesus says to be great among us is to be a servant and a slave to all. And I pray that this room is filled with great Christians. Who know that their role is to serve and to slave away on the behalf of others. Let's pray.

God, I pray that you'd help us to be a healthy church. A healthy group of your people on earth. That we would love one another. That we would be committed to one another. That we would belong to one another. As your people.

Help us to lead well by serving well. By being slaves to you and to one another. May we die to ourselves for your name and for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Bible

Bible

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning. I feel like I have so much room up here. Just run back and forth. We are in the fifth week of our Home Sweet Home series where we're looking at the church and we're trying to understand who the church is, how the church ought to act, how the church ought to practice, how the church ought to, to what we ought to do, what we ought to look like. And so we spent some time talking about that we're the church because of what Jesus has accomplished for us, that the church are the people distinctly loved and saved by Jesus. And that when that happens, we begin to love and we begin to pursue certain things.

We begin to change. We're made different by His work in us. That the church then relates to one another as family, that we are made into a new people of God. And we've just kind of been walking through. And last week we spent some time saying that the church practices baptism and communion for specific purposes, that God's gifted the church with that. And today we're going to talk about something that's actually very important for us to understand, for us to study.

So today we will be, we'll spend most of our time, when we're in Scripture, in 2 Timothy 3. It's going to take us a minute to get there. So I just wanted you to know, if you're like me, and 10, 15 minutes into this thing, you're going, bro, if you don't open the Bible, I'm going to fight you. Like, we're going to get there. We're going to 2 Timothy 3. If you want to turn there, you can.

But it's going to be a minute before you get to read anything out of it, because we're going to be picking up there in a minute. But here's what we're talking about today. Every week, we get together and we say, grab your Bibles, go to such and such a place. I don't know, hypothetically, 2 Timothy 3. It's on page 646 in your Bible, if your Bible looks like this. We'll say something along the lines of, if your Bible doesn't look like this, best of luck to you.

But the assumption is, you're going to somewhere in your Bible. We're going to take some time, and we're going to read this, and we're going to talk about what it means and how it applies to us. For 45 minutes to an hour, we're going to open this up and talk about it. Honestly, the way we structure our sermons is we want them short enough to be bearable and long enough to matter. But we're taking the Bible, and we're going to study it.

When we sit down and do counseling as a church family, we're going to open this up. As Christians, we're going to open this, read it, and then make decisions based off of what it says. What we're going to do with our lives, what we're going to do with our relationships, how we're going to handle something that's currently facing us. We trust Scripture. We go to Scripture. And here's the question.

Can we? When you read Scripture, do you know that it can be trusted? Because in our culture, and currently there's a lot of arguments against that, against the trustworthiness of Scripture, against the truthfulness of Scripture. And so today, we're going to take a minute to just try to say and explain clearly that we believe that Scripture is trustworthy, sufficient, authoritative, and powerful. That we believe Scripture is trustworthy, sufficient, authoritative, and powerful. And that is the church believes that about this text.

I'm going to pray, and then we're going to begin talking about this this morning. God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for Scripture that you've blessed the church with, that we can trust, that we can lean into, that we can make decisions based off of, that we can believe. God, I pray that you'd help us to see clearly some real reasons for that this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Some of y'all maybe have seen this meme. Maybe you haven't, but I'm just going to be on the screen. I'm going to read this quote. Maybe you've seen this on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, some of y'all on your MySpace page. Back when the Bible was written, then edited, then rewritten, then rewritten, then re-edited, then translated from dead languages, then re-translated, then edited, then re-written, then given to kings for them to take their favorite parts, then re-written, then re-re-written, then translated again, then given to the Pope for him to approve, then re-written, then edited again, then re-re-re-re-re-written.

Again, all based on stories that were told orally 30 to 90 years after they happened to people who didn't know how to write. So I guess what I'm saying is the Bible is literally the world's oldest game of telephone. That's a quote from David Cross in a stand-up routine that he did. Now I'm like you. I get a lot of my information from stand-up comments. Especially ones that's major role was playing a never-nude on Arrested Development.

And if you don't get that reference, probably not worth looking up. But it's not bad because he was never-nude. Alright, we're going to keep moving. If that's true, keep that up there for a second. If that's true, what we're doing right now is an utter waste of time. We should have all slept in.

It was raining. Some of you right now, even though you don't believe that, are like, I should have slept in. It's raining. It would have been wonderful. But if that's true, what are we doing?

Why would we study this? Why would we trust it? Why would we believe it? Why would we look at each other and say, no, you can't do that. Or you should make decisions based off of this. Or you should read this and pray about this and follow this.

Like, why would we do that if this is true? So here's what we're going to do for just a minute before we get into our passage that we're going to look at today in 2 Timothy because we've got to answer the question of when we're reading this, what are we reading? So before we get to 2 Timothy, we've got to do just a little bit of background information. And so we're going to do something that I don't think he messed with much. We're going to look at facts. All right, let's do that.

All right, so the first question is, how do we as humans, how do historians know history? How do we have the information that we have about things that we did not see happen? It's easier now. Well, my wife and I have been watching this documentary on the 60s and it's very interesting, but they're talking about that in the 60s is when people really started trusting and believing in their televisions. That there were, that was really the JFK assassination that people in America realized the best thing for me to do is to turn a television on. But it's easier now because people can show us pictures.

We're even starting to learn now that like even the pictures and the videos that you see aren't always exactly what they were portrayed to be. But how do we know things that nobody videoed? How do we know things that we can't see? How does history go about doing this? So here's what we want.

We want a document that was written down, that was well preserved. We want what they originally wrote. The best thing that we would want is actually, so if we're going to read what Plato said, we want the stuff that came off of his pen. We want the actual one that he wrote in his handwriting. That's known as an autograph. When it comes to the Bible, we don't have any autographs.

We don't have the stuff that came actually out of John's writing. We don't have the stuff that actually came out of Paul's handwriting. We don't have that. We don't have autographs on anything from this time period. So don't feel bad.

So if you don't have the original one, the original document, the thing that Matthew wrote down, what you want is one that was hand copied from that. That's called a manuscript. So you want someone who sat down with Matthew's document, hand copied it. Then we know that that gets passed out. Other people are going to hand copy from that one because they didn't have a printing press. So everything that was prior to the printing press is a manuscript.

If we can get them, then we want them to be dated, the copies that we have, the manuscripts that we have, as close to as possible as to when the first one was written. So, something about the Roman Empire. If we have a copy, a manuscript, of something that one of their historians wrote and we have it within 200 years, we have one copy within 200 years of when the first one was written, we got a pretty decent idea. This is probably fairly close to what was originally written, probably fairly well. I mean, nobody would take the time to write out a manuscript if they weren't trying to at least pass on what was originally written.

So we've got a pretty good idea. If we've got 12 of them, well now we can compare them to each other. We can say, all 12 say the same thing or six of them say this and six of them say that and then we can try to decide timeline on the documents that we have. If we have 100 of them, it makes it easier. When it comes to the New Testament, when it comes to the Old Testament, let's talk about the Old Testament in just a second. We'll spend more of our time on the New Testament.

Old Testament text was, let me go back one step further. When you were holding this, you're holding a book that is 66 books written by 40 authors over the time span of 1500 years in three continents and in three languages. Most of it written in Hebrew and Greek. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the New Testament was written in Greek, certain sections were written in Aramaic. But it's 66 books written by 40 authors over the course of 1500 years that tells one really big cohesive story.

And it is written as a redemptive history of God and humanity. That's the point. The Old Testament, the canon of the Old Testament just means the set amount of books that were going to be in it was closed, meaning they weren't adding anything to it by the time of Jesus. It had actually been closed for a couple hundred years. They said, the Jewish people, this is what's in the Old Testament and that's it. We've got some history books, we've got some books explaining the Old Testament, but these are the ones that we believe were written by God.

These are our scriptures. We have about 14,000 copies of the Hebrew Old Testament. 14,000 manuscripts, handwritten manuscripts of the Hebrew Old Testament. They were all relatively not close to when they were originally written because they were written hundreds of years B.C. In 1947, they found a place called Qumram, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and they realized, oh, the Bible's written on this. I remember I had a professor in a seminary, really old guy, and this was pivotal for him and he said, I remember when they said they found the scrolls and I told myself, I don't care what they say, I'm still going to believe the Bible.

And it was just like, yeah, it's good, but what if they said completely like the opposite stuff, like we would have some problems here. So they said, oh, we realize that this has got the Old Testament on it and it's dated way earlier than the manuscripts we have. These are much older and so there was this excitement of like, we're going to figure out what the Bible actually says because we're going to realize that people went in and edited and rewritten and rewrote and translated and did all this stuff and you know what they came out and said? It says the same as the other ones. What y'all's Bible says is right in the Old Testament.

So let's just talk about the New Testament. We have 5,760 Greek copies of the New Testament. 5,760 Greek handwritten manuscripts that we can compare to one another. Some of them and they're not full copies, some of them parchments that just have a certain section date to within 30 to 50 years of the original document. Some of these manuscripts were copied down while the people who wrote the original were still alive. But we have 5,760 in Greek.

We have 10,000 Latin Vulgates which was the first translation from the Greek into Latin. We have 10,000 handwritten copies of the Latin Vulgate. We have 9,300 in other languages mostly Comptic and Syriac. So here's what we get to do. He said it's a game of telephone. You ever play the game of telephone?

You have professors say this. They say, we know that the Bible. Ever played telephone? One person is told a sentence and then he whispers it into the ear of this other person. This isn't my same professor. This is a different professor.

They talk similar for some reason. And he whispers it into the ear of this person and the ear of this person and the ear of this person. And by the time we get to the end the sentence is nowhere near what was originally whispered. And if it's like Mail-in-Many School it's because that kid made up a whole new sentence in the middle just for the heck of it. He wanted to make it seem like the teacher said something offensive about Billy. He gets to the end and says, I heard Billy's an idiot.

And it's like, oh, the teacher said you're an idiot. Sorry. But we're told this. The only way that makes sense is if when they translated the ESVs which is what we hold on Sundays some of you have different versions. It's the one in the row there. If they went back to the New King James and if the New King James had gone back to the King James and if the King James had gone to the Geneva Bible and the Geneva Bible had gone back to the Latin Vulgate and the Latin Vulgate had gone to the Greek.

But the problem is when they translated this they looked at 5,760 Greek copies. They went to the original. So if the telephone game was everyone has the teacher whisper the thing in their ear sure it's not a fun game. It's called let the teacher tell you a sentence game. That's what we've got. And we can compare the 5,760 Greek copies to the 10,000 Latin copies what we can do is we can compare them to each other and say does this Greek copy say the same thing as this Greek copy?

Does this Latin copy say the same thing as all these other Latin copies? Do these Compton copies say all the same things as the other Compton copies? Do the Syriac copies say all the same things as the Syriac copies? When you translate them into different languages do they say the same thing? We get to do that with the New Testament. Now just to help you see how this compares to other documents from this time period.

The second most well-attested document in antiquity is Homer's Iliad. Some of y'all read that in middle school high school Homer's Iliad. We have less than 1,800 copies. We have 5,760 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. We have less than 1,800 of Homer's Iliad. The closest one to when Homer first wrote that down is 2,000 years.

We're within 30 to 50 years. Julius Caesar's the Gallic Wars which is what we know about Caesar. We have 10 manuscripts. The earliest one is within 1,000 years. So when they stood up and told you stuff about Julius Caesar 10 manuscripts within 1,000 years.

And they didn't start by saying now we know that this was probably written and rewritten and re-edited and is probably pure nonsense at this point but you'll be tested on it. Julius Caesar. They didn't do that. They said this is what's true about Julius Caesar. Pliny the Younger. Y'all love that guy.

He wrote Natural History which is we learn stuff about Rome. We have about 200 manuscripts within 750 years. Thucydides history which we learn a lot about Greece from. We have eight manuscripts within about 1,300 years. Herodotus history we have about eight manuscripts. That's where we learn a lot about Persia, Egypt, and Greece.

Eight manuscripts within about 1,000 years. Everything we have from Plato seven manuscripts within 1,300 years. Everything we know about Socrates we got nothing that Socrates wrote. We've got the seven manuscripts that Plato wrote and he taught us some things about Socrates. Aristotle's Poetics we got less than 10 within 1,400 years. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales we got about 80 copies.

Greek New Testament we've got 5,760 just in Greek 10,000 in Latin 9,000 in Syriac and Compton. Okay. Oh, one more. I love this stat. Livy wrote 142 books on Roman history. We have about 35 of those that survived in the form of 20 manuscripts.

We're pretty sure one of those 20 only survived because the book of Hebrews was written on the back of it. So you're welcome, Livy. The Bible saved one of your books. And we believe the Bible saves. Okay, sorry. Jesus saves through the Bible.

Anyway. All in all, we have about 25,000 manuscripts. Handwritten copies. Now, obviously, these have to be just written with they just say all different things, right? Like the Syriac, the Comptic, the Latin, the Greek. They're all all over the place.

They are not. 94% is the exact same. If we all got a piece of paper and a pen and had to copy down, I don't know, the New Testament and we got within 94% in the same room at the same time, that's a win. Let's go get ice cream. You copied well. You took minimal bathroom breaks.

You stayed focused the whole time. 94% word for word exact same. At least 6%. Okay, now we got to talk. 3% of that 6% is just like obvious errors. Like it's nonsense.

It's a misspelled word. Sometimes like where it would be verse 12 and then it would be verse 13. It goes verse 12 and then it starts back up at verse 9 and goes back through. So we just know, okay, this guy got confused. He picked up a word. He was like, oh no, I started this verse.

He's like, I'm just going to finish it and just make it seem like this is twice as important. That leaves 3% that are some words in different orders. Sometimes it's a whole different section just put in a different place. We have some that your Bible will say this verse is in a different spot. What we're able to do with that 3% is we start comparing timeline and we say, oh, it looks like somebody added this verse to help explain this section about 600 years later but all the ones back here don't have it. So we know this is more close to what was originally written.

It comes down to about one half of 1% that we're really not sure. One half of 1%. 99.5% of the Bible we're pretty sure is exactly the words they wrote when we look at the Greek. And the other 0.5% has nothing to do with a major point of doctrine. It's not sections where it's like, oh, maybe Jesus didn't rise. No, it's in some sections where if they took it out we'd have the exact same thing we have. when you look at this New Testament, this Old Testament, what you are holding is an English translation from the Greek and Hebrew words that they wrote down.

That's important. When we talk about the Bible's trustworthy, we're really asking two questions. Are we reading what they wrote? Then we have to ask, is what they wrote true? So are we reading what they wrote?

Is what they wrote true? The second thing that comes in here though, the second pushback that you'll hear often is yeah, okay, so you may say that y'all have the most well-attested to document in antiquity, which you do. And nobody's really disputing that at this point, except for David Cross. A handful of other people. You can look it up yourself. Would love for you to.

Nobody's really disputing that this is the most well-attested to document in antiquity. But people do say, okay, yeah, yeah, but they got together a couple hundred years later and they all just picked the books they wanted. And there's a whole bunch of other books that say other things that they just left out because they didn't like them. They took the books that said Jesus was God, they kept those, they edited some of them, which we know they didn't because we've got the older manuscripts, but then they took ones that didn't say Jesus was God and they left those out because they were against them.

They didn't want people to have that. Heard this argument? There's books left out? Okay. Just like the Da Vinci Code, some of those different ones talk about this. The Jesus Seminar, which they called it the Jesus Seminar and then they got together and denied the divinity of Jesus so your seminar didn't go well.

Here's the thing. The answer to that question or that rebuttal to the they left a bunch of books out is nope. They didn't really leave out any actual contenders to anything. By the time they got together at the Council of Nicaea, which was a couple hundred years later, they basically were saying, hey, some random spurious books, some random made-up books are starting to show up. We need to go ahead and just say, clearly, these are the ones that the church has always had. If anything, there was some debate over some of the books that are in here.

The Bible would have been less, not more. There were a couple of books that were written a little bit later, like the book of Revelation was written in the 90s. The first, second, third John were written kind of late. So there was some discussion about whether or not third John should be in there. There was some discussion about whether or not Hebrews should be in there because they don't know who wrote it. But they basically said, which are the ones that say what we've always said, have apostolic authority, we can go back and know who wrote them, which are the ones the church has been using.

We've got, there was a guy who wrote the Acts of Paul and 3 Corinthians in the second century. They, they, basically, the third Corinthians showed up and the Acts of Paul showed up. It was like people were, were passing off bootleg copies of the Bible. Hey, third Corinthians has been hidden but I found it. This is the real deal right here. It's like, why are you darting back and forth?

Just hint, like what is this? Like they, they started just passing these out. It'd be kind of like, it's a hundred years later, it'd be kind of like, um, if I came out now and said, I've got the real declaration of independence. It was Herbie Hancock, John Hancock's brother wrote the whole thing. They don't want you to know about it because of the government. Y'all would say, oh, okay, good.

Let's say I was able to get on the news. You know what would happen? They'd do some research and then they'd say, no. So books started showing up, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Bartholomew, third Corinthians, Acts of Paul. They basically, they found out that a guy really liked Paul so he wrote the Acts of Paul in third Corinthians. He was a pastor and they de-pastored him.

There's a letter with Tertullian's writing to someone else and he's like, we figured out who wrote that. He doesn't get to be a pastor anymore. It's poor pastoring. So if I get up here and I'm like, hey, I got fourth Timothy. Let's do this.

Y'all should de-pastor me. Um, okay, how do we know this? Uh, one of the ways that we know which books of the Bible should be in the books of the Bible and one of the ways that we know that the Bible is what was originally written is we can read the letters of the early church leaders. They quote the Bible 36,000 times. By year 150 AD, the only book of the Bible that was not quoted as a book of the Bible, was not quoted as Scripture and given authority in one of those letters from early church leaders is 3 John. By 150 AD, every other book of the Bible has been quoted.

By 300 AD, there's 36,000 quotes from the Bible. We could almost recreate the New Testament without any of the manuscripts just by looking at the letters of the first Christians. They wrote commentaries on Scripture. When you hold this, you hold what was originally written and you hold what was always understood to be Scripture. Now, best kept document in antiquity. it's trustworthy that you're reading what they wrote, which is good. The other half is, is what they wrote true?

So what we know is that Matthew sat down and he wrote that Jesus walked on water, that Jesus fed 5,000 people, that Jesus had people, made blind people see that Jesus died and rose from the grave. We know he wrote that. The question is, did Jesus? Is what he wrote true? Now, we could, there's a few questions we have to ask when we're asking that question. One is, have we disproven this?

Can we obviously see that the Bible just has some really fake stuff in it? It's got 23,000, we've done about 23,000 archaeological digs, none of which have disproven the Bible. Somebody, there's a quote of an archaeologist, he said, one of the best ways to base an archaeological dig is to base it off of Scripture because Scripture has accurately told us where places are who was where, who was in charge when. We've done 23,000. The reason, if they had disproven the Bible, you would know. They found something, they come out every once in a while and like, we found Jesus' body.

You've seen this on the news? And then at the end of the show, it's like when they're looking for the giant squid or whatever. They're like, we're going to find the giant squid. You watch it for an hour and at the end, they're like, the giant squid has eluded us once again. And it's like, why did I watch this for an hour? You watch that show about we found Jesus' body.

They get to the end and they're like, probably not. Not really. It's not him. But thanks for watching our show. We can say it doesn't contradict itself. We can say that what it says, it continues to say the same thing.

It gives the same testimony throughout. Other than that, when it comes to the truthfulness of Scripture, we can't really prove it. we can say what Scripture believes about itself, what the authors thought, what Jesus thought. So let me tell you a little bit about what Jesus thinks just from passages in Scripture. Jesus says Scripture cannot be broken. He says that heaven and earth will pass away but not a dot will pass away from the law. He's talking about the Old Testament.

He attributed a Psalm of David to being written in the Holy Spirit. So Jesus says that that Psalm of David was written by the authority, the power of God. He referred to what Moses wrote as God said. So at one point when Jesus was quoting Moses, he said, well, God said because he believes that what was written in the Old Testament is the Word of God. Jesus trusts the Scriptures enough and the transmission of Scripture enough to in an argument with the Sadducees, he goes to verb tense. He says that God says he is the father of Abraham.

I am the father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he says he is. He am. Therefore, they're alive. He didn't say I was. So what he's saying is that he trusts the Scripture enough to even look at verb tense and say, no, that's reliable.

Then Jesus looks at his disciples and he says, when he's gone, the Spirit of Truth will come and guide you into all truth. And the apostles believed him. They believed that they were being led by the Holy Scripture to write more Scripture, which is words of God. So Peter, Paul, and the apostles believed three things about the Scriptures. One, that they were eyewitnesses, which is how we get testimony now. They believed they were eyewitnesses.

They wrote as eyewitnesses. John says he's writing as an eyewitness. Luke says he's writing an orderly account from eyewitnesses. Paul writes during the time of eyewitnesses, mentions names of eyewitnesses, said there's 500 people, some of whom have died, but there's a lot left. Peter says these aren't cleverly devised myths. This is eyewitness testimony.

They also wrote as apostles, which means sent ones or emissaries or delegates. It's like when I was a little kid and my dad would tell me something and I had to go outside and tell my brother, my older brother Logan. I had no authority over him as proven by all the many fights we got into. I was capable of punching him. I was not capable of punching him enough to where I won. So I didn't have authority over him.

He had authority over me. But I would come outside and I'd say, hey, daddy said you gotta go inside. And Logan never looked at me and said, you tell daddy to come out here and tell me his self. You know what Logan said? Okay. And he went on inside.

I didn't have authority. I was just speaking on behalf of daddy and daddy had authority. When the apostles write as apostles and they say, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ, that's what they're doing. They're saying, God said, Jesus said, this is authoritative not through me but through Jesus. And they wrote as if they wrote authoritatively. They believed that.

Peter refers to Paul's writing as scripture meaning that he believes it has the weight and the authority of the Old Testament. Paul says, Paul at one point says, as it says in scripture and he gives two quotes. He quotes Deuteronomy and he quotes Luke. He gives a Greek verbatim quote of a part of Luke chapter 10. Paul says that you took my words as not from man but as they were the words of God. Paul believes he writes with the authority of God and he says at one point, he says, if anyone who says they're spiritual doesn't acknowledge what I write, then don't acknowledge them because they're not spiritual.

They're not following God because what I write comes from God. That's a pretty bold claim. They believed, they wrote as eyewitnesses, they believed, they wrote authoritatively scripture and they all believed what they wrote. I'm going to give you a quick rundown list of the authors of the New Testament and of all of the disciples of Jesus and how they were all brutally murdered for what they believed. James, the brother of John, was killed by the sword. That's what it says in Acts under Herod Agrippa.

Peter was crucified upside. A lot of this comes from church history, not from scripture, but what we're, has been passed down in letters and what we understand to be true about these guys after the time of scripture. Peter crucified upside down in Rome. Matthew is beheaded in Ethiopia. Mark dies in Egypt after horses drag him through the streets of Alexandria, which is a form of torture. Luke is hanged in Greece because of his preaching.

Andrew is crucified in Greece. Thomas is thrust through with spears, then tortured, then burned alive in India. Philip is tortured, then crucified in Phygeria. Nathanael, who's also called Bartholomew in scripture, is whipped, then crucified. James, Jesus' brother, who was the leader of the Jerusalem church, is thrown down from the top of the temple. He survives and then is beaten to death.

Simon the Zeal is crucified. Matthew, Matthias, the guy who replaced Judas, is stoned while hanging on a cross. Maybe he wouldn't shut up. I don't know. Paul is beheaded in Rome. John, the only disciple who was not martyred, is boiled alive in oil, does not die, and is exiled to Patmos, where he writes the book of Revelation.

The disciples believed they wrote as eyewitnesses, they believed they wrote authoritatively, and they believed what they wrote. Every single one of them believed that Jesus Christ was God, that they saw him after he had died, and that death no longer had a hold on them. And so when people came to him and said, you better shut up, and you better quit writing what you're writing, and you better quit preaching what you're preaching, and you better just deny what you're saying, they all said, kill me, it'll do nothing, because I believe in the God who rises from the dead. Now, all I have said is that we know we're reading what they wrote, and we know that the Bible says that it is from God.

But that is a circular argument. You can trust the Bible. Why? Because God wrote it. How do you know God wrote it? The Bible says.

Well, how can you believe the Bible? Because God wrote it. It just, it goes in a circle. The Bible's trustworthy because God wrote it, we know that God wrote it because the Bible says it, and we can trust the Bible because God wrote it and the Bible says it. You can have this discussion with people, it just would continue to be the same discussion. Be like, if I said, you can trust me because I don't lie.

And if I lied, you wouldn't be able to trust me, but I don't lie. I just told you that. And you can trust me when I say I don't lie because I don't lie. And you would say, you have said that way too many times and I'm never going to believe a word you say. Okay? Now, that logically, that God wrote the Bible and therefore it's trustworthy and we can trust that because it's written in the Bible, is a logical fallacy.

It's a circular argument. It makes logical sense though and here's why. If the Bible pointed to something else as authoritative, that thing would be more authoritative than the Bible. So if the Bible said you can trust that I'm written by God because that says I'm written by God, then we would say, okay, y'all are either equal or that thing has more authority than you. The reason why when you're talking to somebody, you say, I swear to God I didn't do it. Which you probably shouldn't say, but if you say that, the reason you say that, people say that, is because God has more authority than you do.

God in the Bible says I swear by myself because who else is he going to swear to? So when the Bible says I'm authoritative and you say, on what authority? And it says, mine. It's because it's not going to point to anything else as authoritative. The Bible is. Now, at this point, the third argument that I'm often faced with and that I have discussions with people about is that they say things like, yeah, okay, but we know the Bible isn't true though.

But we just know because of the stuff it says in it. I was watching a comedian the other day and he said, he's British, he said, do we have any Christians in the room? And some guy way in the back, there's this giant auditorium and there's a guy in the back, he's like, hey! And he's like, oh, you're a Christian, what's your name? And if I'm butchering this accent, I don't care, I'm going for it. And the guy says, his name was Paul or something, he goes, oh, Paul, welcome.

I've got a special offer just for you, Paul. Would you like to buy some magic beans? Because if there's one thing I know about you, Paul, it's your really gullible. And then he goes into this thing about the virgin birth and how if you were watching, what I can only, I don't understand, he's British, but I can only assume it's like their version of Jerry Springer. And the girl said that she was a virgin and that's why she was pregnant, that nobody would buy that. And so basically, the argument that we're faced with at some point when we get here is that someone just goes, yeah, but we know the Bible's not true because it says all these things in it that we know are not true.

That argument, though, is also a circular argument. If you came to me and said, my Uncle Ted said he saw a ghost in his attic. And I said to you, yeah, but you can't believe anything your Uncle Ted says. And you said, why? And I said, because your Uncle Ted said he saw a ghost in his attic. So you can't believe what he says because Uncle Ted says he sees ghosts.

That's all I'm doing is basing my argument off of my argument, which is the same thing people do when they come to Scripture. They say you can't believe it because it has miraculous things in it. And if I were to say, well, yeah, but there's a lot of testimony throughout human history of the miraculous happening. And they're responsible, yeah, but you can't believe that. Why? Because those people said that something miraculous happened.

And so all they're doing is it's a belief system that just says, I can't believe that miraculous things happened so I can never believe this book. And they'll say things like, but we all know. And what they mean by we all know is white Europeans for the past couple hundred years know. They don't mean human history and they don't mean the amount of people, like they're not including Asia and Africa and South America where there's a vast majority of humans on Earth that would say there's actually more to life than what we can see. There actually is something beyond just what we can touch and measure under a microscope.

I can't prove the Bible to you. I can show you that they believed what they wrote. As Christians, we know that what we're reading is what they wrote and we know that they believed it. At some point, you have to place faith in that what they actually wrote is true. And there is your personal experience, the testimony of others, and then at some point there's faith. But we do believe that if there is a God, it would be on Him to reveal Himself to us.

He'd have to show up. He'd have to give us something. We couldn't just find Him on our own. And we do believe that He has revealed Himself through Christ. Okay. I said we'd get there.

2 Timothy. So we believe the Bible is trustworthy in both senses, that what we're reading is what they wrote and that what they wrote is true. That's what Christians believe. I can show you verifiably that we're reading what they wrote. You're going to have to come to the conclusion on your own that what they wrote is true. But, assuming that, 2 Timothy, what they wrote is true.

That's what we believe. That's why we open this. That's why we study this. That's why we read this. We believe that the Bible is trustworthy. We believe the Bible is sufficient.

2 Timothy, chapter 3, starting in verse... 14. But as for you, he's writing to a pastor named Timothy. Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. When he talks about the sacred writings, he's talking about the Old Testament. And he says something that Christians don't always know, which is that the Old Testament is sufficient for faith in Christ.

We're going to spend our whole summer walking through the Old Testament and talking about how it points us to Jesus. That was just a shameless plug. It's going to be fun. But he says that they're sufficient. You know that they're... which are able to make you wise for salvation through Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

He says that the Bible tells us what we need to know about salvation and gives us enough to be equipped for everything. We believe that the Bible is sufficient. That it has in it what we need. That it's profitable for rebuke, which means showing you where you're wrong. That we can definitively look at someone and say, no, you are wrong here. The Bible says the opposite of what you were doing.

For reproof, which just means correction. Just kind of getting lined back up for teaching, which means you're ignorant and you get to study it and you get to learn. For training in righteousness, that we might know how to live, that we'd be equipped for everything and wise for salvation. The Bible was primarily written as a redemptive history of God pursuing people. So, when we say the Bible is sufficient, we mean that it has everything we need to know. Not everything that you can know and not everything that is true.

So what I don't mean is this. if you started showing some symptoms of some sickness, I would pray for you. I would encourage you to pray. I would encourage your community group to pray. I would not hand you a Bible and say, study this and you'll find out what's wrong with you. I wouldn't because the point of the Bible isn't to be a medical textbook. I would say, you probably should go see a doctor because they know things about like, maybe what's wrong with you and maybe they'll take a needle and stick it in your arm and then you get all better.

We're going to pray for you and we're going to pray that they know what's wrong with you. But we're not going to do this in a medical textbook. Matt left for Cleveland last night. He and Katie and Emmy to drive all night long with an infant. So that was a good decision.

I did not hand him a Bible and say, use this to find your way to Cleveland. That's not why it was written. This would not be helpful to find your way to Cleveland. It would be helpful to find your way to God to understand the redemptive history of humanity. It's sufficient for what we need to know about God. When it talks about things, it speaks truly about them.

So the Bible, when it refers to the earth, calls it a circle. It says that God hung it out there in nothing, which is some sort of an old school reference to gravity. But it doesn't tell us whether or not Pluto is actually a planet or a ball of ice that's been tricking us for years. Because we have what we need to know about God and redemption and who He is and what He's accomplished. We don't have everything we want to know. That's why whenever somebody comes out and says, I need to tell you about the secrets of the blood moons.

That's a pretty good Hagee impersonation. Y'all don't know who I'm talking about, but man, that was on point. And I need you to know about the blood moons and what the blood moons testify. And I need you to look at this chart and it has a dragon and it has timelines and it has all these other things that I drew up in my basement. Like, my response to that is, that's cute. Bible doesn't say it.

Bible doesn't make a big point of that so it can't be a big point. Somebody's like, you need to know about the secrets of the Shemitah, which is another book that came out and it's like, no I don't. Because the Bible is aggressively plain and aggressively clear that we are sinners in need of a Savior and that God loves us enough to die on a cross for us to rescue us and to make us His and that the secrets and the answers belong to Him and that we get to belong to Him through Christ. That's the point of Scripture. That we get to trust Jesus. So when someone comes out and says, I did the secret Bible math.

No, you didn't. Because there ain't any. And if you're including verses and chapters, which is real cute, but those were added later, so nonsense. Sorry. That annoys me. It's sufficient.

It has what we need. We're going to go to this when we talk about things. We're going to open this up. We're going to study this. Secondly, we believe it's authoritative. Starting in chapter 4.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by His appearing and by His kingdom preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, and do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. We believe that the Bible is authoritative.

When we get together, when we study, what we're studying is scripture, not our opinions. When we get together, when there's an issue, when there's a problem we're facing, we open this up, we pray, we read, we try to find out what God says, we try to lean into scripture, we try to, when we get together for counseling, we're going to open this up and we're going to say this is what it says. This is what we get to know about scripture. This is what we know about Christ. He's given us authority authority. And this word is authoritative over all of us.

It is the highest authority. It is not the only authority. Which means that if I'm at some point correcting Archer, and I say, dude, you got to, I don't know if I was about to call him bro and dude, but I don't think I'll do that with my son. I'll say boy. How about that? I ain't got to practice this much yet.

I'll say boy. It's 9.15, I told you to go to bed. And if he says something really smart to me like, the Bible doesn't say I have to go to bed. I'm going to say the Bible says to do what your daddy says. And it also says if I spare the rod, I'll spoil the child. So why don't you go get in that bed?

And he'll say, good point daddy. Feats don't fail me now. So the Bible is the highest authority. It gives us other authorities like our parents, like church leaders, like governmental authorities. But all of them have to submit to scripture.

Church leaders have to submit to scripture. That we as a church should be reading this and studying this and if any of our leaders get off or begin to do something weird, we correct with scripture because scripture is the authority. My dad watches the preaching channel. I don't know what it's called. There's always like people with like thrones and globes in the background and all that kind of stuff. And he said he was watching a guy that he was an alright preacher.

He was just watching some, you know, he's drinking coffee in the morning and stuff. And he said he got to watching him one day and he realized the preacher would always start off by saying, turn to page 552. And he said sometimes he'd say things like, turn to chapter 3. We'll be in chapter 3 today by page 221. And he said he got to watching him at one point he was walking around with the book and he realized that the book had the preacher's face on it. That he wasn't preaching from the Bible, he was preaching from a book he wrote.

And that was what he took up on stage and that was what was in the pews and everybody would get his book out and would read it and he was just walking around with his own book and teaching out of it like it was authority. I'm going to tell y'all, I'm going to invite y'all. If I walk up here someday and I have a book with my face on it, I'm going to need you to assault me. And I'm going to need you to punch me in the face that is not on the book but that is on the top of my head because that is nonsense. And I need you going to take the Bible and begin to teach authoritatively out of that because that's the authority and we as Christians submit to it.

We believe that the Bible is trustworthy, we believe that it is sufficient, we believe that it is authoritative, and finally we believe that the Bible is powerful. Jump back up to where we started in chapter 3 verse 14. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings. These are sacred, they're holy, they belong to God. which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, all scripture is breathed out by God. We believe that God at the very beginning of time and history spoke the world into existence and that he uses his word to accomplish his will and that throughout the history of the church the proclaimed word and the studied word and the written word have been capable of making people wise for salvation, have been powerful to lead to repentance, to see so clearly Jesus Christ on a cross dying for us to save us and that we can be changed through the word.

We believe that it's powerful, that it's capable of making us wise for salvation, it's capable of changing us, it's capable of leading us, that it's sufficient, powerful, authoritative, that we can trust it. And so we're going to get together every Sunday and we're going to open this up and we're going to talk about it. And every church everywhere is going to get together and open this up and study it and read it and go back to it and point to it and bend their own will to it and submit to it and follow it because it's sufficient, authoritative, and powerful and it's trustworthy. When you read this, you're reading what they wrote and what they wrote was true.

That's why we believe the Bible, why we follow it and in the pages of scripture we meet the ultimate Revelation of God which is Jesus Christ who loves us enough to die for us and to make us his. And if you're a Christian and you're not reading the Bible on a regular, normal, active part of your life, you're just missing out on all of the goodness that God has offered to you through his sacred writings that are capable of making you wise, capable of working in your life for your good, capable of leading you to repentance, capable of making you follow Jesus even in the face of opposition and death because of the truth found in these pages. we're going to pray and then we're going to sing together. God, I thank you for your word. Thank you for your word that is capable of leading us to salvation, your word that is capable of giving us hope, changing us.

God, we thank you for preserving it accurately for us, for giving us the document that is most well attested to in history. God, we thank you for that and I pray, Lord, that this would be a church that would trust your word, submit to your word, follow your word, and follow Jesus through it as your Holy Spirit works in us. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.